Tubi Thursday: Night of the Demons (1988)

Is this a great Film to show at your Halloween Party?

Since I don't ever go to those, I'll help you find out...

It's Halloween.  What are you going to do?

Me- I'm going to watch Vincent Price Movies.
They, however, are going to a Halloween Party at an abandoned Funeral Home....as you do.

They get plenty of party favors, aided by Linea Quigley distracting the Clerks by bending over.

Quigley showing skin in a Horror Film?  Shocking!

Everyone enjoys drinks and dancing at the Party.

All goes well until they do a ritual to summon a spirit (or two).

Shockingly this- and the broken mirror- go poorly.

The Hostess is the first to be possessed and kills the guy who looks like Bulk from Power Rangers.

Quigley is also possessed and the killing begins.

The Cast is whittled down via methods like stabbing, eye gouging, neck snaps and more.

Shockingly, the Film's lone Black Guy is still alive (for now).

The survivors must find a way out or try to survive until sunrise.

Either way, it won't be easy.

They made 3 more of these (and a Remake), so clearly something went right.  
The End.

A fun little Horror Film, even if it does take a bit of time to get going.

In a way, it makes for a good Party Film.  Everyone can get settled in and maybe a little tipsy before the bodies pile up.

As a Dario Argento fan, I do wonder how much his (he produced and co-wrote it) Demons inspired this one.  It features people getting killed and turning into latex-faced monsters.

It's not the only Film to do it, mind you, but how many others also have Demons in the Title?

Putting that aside, the Film features your usual assortment of stereotypes like Horny Guy, Fat Guy, Goth Girl and Final Girl.
I could have probably done without Creepy Brother Who Talks About His Sister's Tits though.

Once it gets going, the Film has some creative kills, good visuals and a nice use of Chekhov's Gun.  It's not mind-blowing, but it might be worth a rewatch for me in the future.

Now, if she asks, her makeup looks perfect!

A somewhat overlooked- in spite of many Sequels and a Remake- Halloween Film.  Your love of '80s cheese will determine how much you love it though.

Fiction vs. Fiction Double Feature: For Your Eyes Only and Moontrap

Two Movies that I own in Comic Book form.
Two adaptations that don't change all that much.

It would be a stretch to cover either separately and I don't want to forget about these until November.

As such, let's cover the brief differences with both here.

Let's start with Bond...

***VS***

What's the Same?

It's the same Script, pretty much.  It all plays out as intended in both Versions.

I own it in this format, but my copy is not nearly this pristine.  Kids owned it, alright!

What's Different?

M is actually in this Comic.  Since the Script had him in it, they included the Character (whose Actor was really sick and couldn't shoot any Scenes) in here.

The other big thing is a little one, but a constant one.  I'll explain.
The Film doesn't have banter from the many Henchman and glorified Extras that make up the Cast.

This is likely since they were actually Foreign and thus didn't speak English.
The Comic has them all making quips/comments constantly.

In addition, the fake Margaret Thatcher is mentioned, but not shown. 
I want to think that Howard Chaykin refused to draw her, but it's likely just a likeness issues.

This might be an edit, but it looks semi-legit.

For the second feature, we jump ahead to 1989 and...

***VS***

What's the Same?

The Story- again- is based on the Script and it's a tight adaptation.

What's Different?

The Comic version is a pretty tight one at right around 25 pages.  As such, some little things get cut.

Lots of banter between Koenig and Campbell is cut out.  If you look at the first page posted above, you miss all of the Character Setup between them and jump right into the Action.

On top of that, a pair of Scenes are missing. 
A short bit with Koenig and his Son is cut and a bit where Koenig meets up with Campbell at a Strip Club (where he's getting drunk) is also cut.

In case you couldn't tell this was from the '80s.

Amusingly, this is not just to cut out the pointless T&A.
The Comic actually adds some to the romantic bit with Koenig and Mera.

In the Film, any nudity is pretty much just implied.  In this Comic, we see her naked- albeit from behind.

Oh and the Comic has NO time for Mera's Backstory about being an Ancient Astronaut!  Kind of key.
She's just discovered and ends up with Koenig as they save the day.

So, the obvious question for both...

Which is Better?

The Film (For Your Eyes Only)

The Film (Moontrap)

Neither comic is bad- at all.  Chaykin's art- while rushed by his own admission- is good in the Bond Comic.
Moontrap's Comic is just too truncated and lacks the pathos established in the Film.

With all that said, I've own the Bond Comic- in Book form- since I was a kid (and it shows).  I spent 99 cents on Moontrap and it got me to watch the Film (and likely the Sequel), so I'm still content.

'80s Fun: Moontrap (1989)

 What happens when Star Trek meets Evil Dead?  Well...

It's not this Movie- but that is a good tagline for a Poster.
This is Moontrap, a 1989 Sci-Fi Thriller that happens to Star Walter Koenig and Bruce Campbell.

To be fair, my comparison is slightly apt, since the Director- Robert Dyke- did work on Evil Dead 2- with Bruce.

What inspired me to pick this one?  I already bought the Comic Adaptation from a 99 cent bin.
Hopefully I get my money's worth.  You'll likely find out soon.

The Plot involves some strange tech being found near the Moon.  When it creates a killer robot, they realize that they must return to the Moon- remember that this is 1989- to find the source and stop it.

How well does that work out?
To find out, read on...

In the Intro, we see weird tech activating on the Moon.

After that, we meet a pair of Astronauts- Campbell and Koenig- who are flying around in the Shuttle.

They come across a big piece of debris...which turns out to be a Spaceship.

This was the same Decade that brought us the Naked Lady Space Vampire, so why not go inside?

They find a withered body and a red, egg-looking thing.
No Space Eggs- dammit!

It's actually not an egg, but an outer shell for some tech that scans its surroundings and makes a robot body.

Say- this is a great image to use for the Comic's Cover!

They manage to stop it from destroying the NASA Base when Koenig gets above it and blows it up.

You just had to shoot it there- so simple.

This- and some Western Jingoism- gets the duo a trip to the Moon.

Koenig finally lives out his dream- being in charge on a ship.
Also going to the Moon.

The duo are led to strange building and find a lady in some sort of coma.
They wake her up, but are then attacked by another robot!

They defeat the robot, but sadly Bruce's Character is killed.

It's not the last we see of his face though (for context, see the Stinger).

The woman is finally able to speak and explains that she is from another Planet!

She was sent to warn the Earth about the alien threat, but things didn't go well.

On the Moon, the aliens take the scrap from the lander- stranding the pair- and prepare to make an escape ship.

They capture the duo, but Koenig rigs the lander to blow up!

In the aftermath, Koenig is now living with the Alien Lady.

They tease a Sequel, which was planned in 1990...and then 2011...and then 2014...and finally happened in 2017.

The End (until I watch the Sequel on Tubi).

A fun, if not all that great Film.  

The Plot is nothing amazing.  Aliens are real and we have to stop them.

The hook here is the Body Horror aspect in which the Aliens merge dead flesh and machines to make the robots.  The Film doesn't *quite* nail the potential here.

The Budget is a notable thing here, as it uses lots and lots of miniatures- especially once they go to the Moon.
Guess what Mr. Dyke did for Evil Dead 2.

Is the Film worth watching to see Bruce Campbell?  Obviously, yes.

If that's not your thing, well, I don't want to know you.

The Film definitely fights to reach its potential and I'm curious to see if it was achieved in the Sequel.  Just no Bruce- oh well!

Next time, it's October, so let's see if I can dredge up some scares, spooks and gore.  Let's start with something from my digital collection.  Stay tuned...

Bail Bond: For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Roger Moore's Bond is back and he's not going to Space this time.  We promise!

This is For Your Eyes Only, the Sequel to Moonraker that dialed back the sci-fi elements to basically nothing.

The Story involves a missing MacGuffin, Bond joining forces with a lady on a mission and the usual Bond antics.  Back to basics!

In a way, this one is quite different because it is based (very loosely) on a short story (actually 2) and not a Novel by Ian Fleming. 
To fill in the gaps, we get Scenes taken from and/or inspired by other Stories, including Live and Let Die and Goldfinger.

There's a strong connection to a previous Bond Film WITHOUT Moore, but I'll get to that shortly.

Just know that this is the *serious* Bond Film and will only be like 30% over the top this time.
To see how that works, read on...

In the Cold Open, Bond is picked up by work via Helicopter.

However, the Pilot is killed and it is taken over by....Not Blofeld.
There was a dispute over ownership of the Character, so the Producers killed off his Shemp here.

A seemingly normal boat is actually hiding some advanced doohickey and gets blown up.  Now the object is in play.

Elsewhere, a woman visits her Parents on their boat, but they are killed by the Pilot while she's inside!

Temps de récupération!

Because the Actress is French.

Bond is called in to go looking for the thing.

Notably, this Film doesn't feature M as his Actor was really sick.

They didn't want to recast him, so he's 'on leave.'

You know, during this crisis.

Sadly, he died after this came out and was recast in the next Film.

As it turns out, the guy that Bond wants answers from is the same one that she wants to kill.

She gets her way, but they must then escape in a tiny, banged up car.

Supposedly, it was Moore's favorite one to drive.

Bond meets with the next guy in the line- played by Julian Glover.

He's a Greek Importer and he puts Bond on the trail of another guy who is a drug smuggler.

FYI Glover lost the role of Bond to Moore.

Bond seduces a woman working for him, but she's then killed by the bad guys.

She was played by Pierce Brosnan's then-wife and he visited the set.
Future Bond got to see Present Bond be implied to have slept with his Wife.

She died in 1991 and never saw Pierce take up the role.

The other smuggler is Topol, of Fiddler on the Roof or Flash Gordon fame.
It depends on whether you watch Musicals.

In any event, he's actually NOT the bad guy, but Glover is.

A bunch of shooting and other hijinks ensue.  There's too much stuff in 2 hours for me to cover in-depth.

In any event, they stop the Russians from getting the MacGuffin and our Heroine doesn't kill Glover...because Topol does it for her.

Bond and the woman don't answer his watch phone (which works better than a real phone today) and go skinny dipping instead.

As such, they don't get to talk to this Margaret Thatcher impersonator.
The End.

She was the real villain all along!

A fun, action packed Film with a pretty flimsy Plot.

As a composite Story, the basic idea- go and retrieve the thing- is the bulk of it.
This one fills the remainder with the usual Stunts, random gags and a B-Plot involving a fairly annoying Ice Skater.

She was the Lead in The Watcher in the Woods though.
We also get the final appearance of the 'Man with Wine Glass' from the last 2 Films (always surprised by Bond appearing).

If you can accept that the Plot is a pretty loose series of events, you can still really enjoy this one for the spectacle it is trying to be.
There's an attempt at a full romance with his Female Lead that may or may not work for you.

Apparently, there was thought that Moore might not come back, so they planned an opening with him visiting the Wife's grave (from On Her Majesty's Secret Service) and that showing the new guy.
Moore- obviously- returned, so we get a connection to Lazenby instead.

Many parts of the Plot feel out of that same Film, which is neat (if intentional).  This mention also gives us a trio of future Game of Thrones Actors represented (Glover, Rigg and Charles Dance as a Henchman!)...

Next up, let's jump to the '90s with a different kind of Spy Thriller.  Can one Agent stop a nameless Assassin?  Stay tuned...

Shudder Day: Intruder (1989)

 As I near the middle of a long week of work, how about a Slasher set in a Store?

I've somehow never seen this Cult Classic, so let's check out...

In a small California town, a Grocery Store is engrossed in drama as one of their Employees has an ex-boyfriend show up and he's violent.

He's forced to leave and surely the drama ends there. 

They find out that the Store is going to be sold at the end of the Month.

The Staff isn't happy.
The Co-Owner (middle) is also not on board, but he has no choice.

What happens for the next hour or so is that the Staff all split up to do their jobs (like marking down all of the items).

As someone who has done 2 Store Closings, I get this.

I like Ted Raimi's chances of survival here.

Meanwhile, the ex-boyfriend (Craig) lingers about and seems to make his way in.

Oh, so he's the Intruder (not this one, Joe Bob) then.

The body count finally starts to rise.

If you've found this Movie in any form of physical media, you'll see it listed as Starring Bruce Campbell (who plays a Cop in the last Scene) and Sam Raimi.

The latter is the Butcher, who does not much until getting hung up on his own petard...I mean, meat hook.

Can our Final Girl stop the crazed killer?
Will you find a version that doesn't SPOIL who that is?

Well, here's one.

To find out how it all goes down, stream it now.

An enjoyable Slasher Film that checks all of the boxes.

Technically, Joe Bob doesn't quite agree, but that's all good.

The Film doesn't feature a bunch of big names.  It doesn't break the mold plot-wise.
The Title is also generic, but that was by design from the Distributor.

Given the setting and tone, I'd have gone with 10 Kills or Less.  Just saying.

Intruder, however, hits all of the right beats and has its own little quirks.

At worst, it is a bit cliche.
At best, however, it gives you everything you'd want out of a Slasher Film that is not part of a Franchise.

That and weird ass shots like the POV of...a Phone Receiver?!?

A fun Slasher Film that takes a bit to get going.  If you go into it looking for all of the tropes and a good time, they are both here.

Forgotten Sequels: The Fly II

 A Film I covered in the very early days of the Site.  It was lost talked about in the FIRST Obama Administration, so it is due for a revisit.

This is the least forgotten, but most maligned of the Sequels to The Fly- The Fly II.

Made in 1989 and without Cronenberg's involvement, the Film is considered by many to be a cheap cash grab.  Is it though?

The Plot is in fact a direct Sequel and it involves the birth of Seth Brundle's spawn.  It grows up and is special...but is it also a monster.

There are some overlaps between this and Return of the Fly, but it's not a one-to-one situation.

To find out if this is as bad as everyone says or not, read on...

In a rehash from the last Film (since Geena Davis turned down a Cameo), we see the woman give birth to a strange insect baby.

She dies Padme-style, but the creature is soon revealed to be an infant (in a cocoon of some sort).

A few years later, the kid grows up really fast- like impossibly-so.

Martin's a Science Genius Boy and basically Young Sheldon, if he lived in a lab.
He can already outsmart most of the folks around him.

His 'childhood' is only marred by constant monitoring and seeing his pet dog turned into a monster in a failed Teleporter Test.

At Age 5, he's now Eric Stoltz.
Well, he was the original Marty McFly, so that tracks.

He doesn't sleep- due to his constant growth- and grows lonely.

He falls for Daphne Zuniga (cast by uncredited Producer Mel Brooks after she was in Spaceballs) and they work on the device some more.

He has a freakout when he learns that the dog was actually kept alive (in a matter of speaking) and he mercy-kills it.

Martin also hooks up with Zuniga...only for her to be moved away from him.
It is soon revealed- by Garry Chalk's Goresby- that they filmed it.

Eric does not take this well!

He's also beginning to mutate and soon learns that this was the plan all along.

The tests- a show.
The medicine- placebo.

Stoltz goes through a series of masks (fitting!) as his condition worsens.

We get a brief Cameo from John Getz, who was a co-worker of Goldblum's in the last Film who got maimed.

Him and his clearly fake beard help the duo keep away from the bad guys for a little bit.

Martin transforms so much that he can't escape and he cocoons up at the bad guys' lair.

He emerges as a monstrous Brundle Fly and starts killing people in his way.

This guy gets a face full of acid in an effect that only the '80s could give us.

Who wants cherry syrup?

He kills all of the bad guys, save for the guy who raised him to be an experiment.

Earlier, Martin learned that he can go in the Pod with someone and give them all of his bad genes (just go with it).

He does it to the boss, leaving him as a monster and Martin normal.
To be continued...in a 2015 Comic.

The End.

A better Film than it gets credit for.  That said, it is definitely a Film of two halves.

The first half is an interesting tale of innocence, deceit and corporate corruption.  Martin is led around and used for all that he can be.

The second half is when he becomes a full-on Monster and starts killing folks- bad ones, at least!  There's a bit of a disconnect- to say the least.

That said, they hired a guy (Chris Walas) who did Special Effects for Return of the Jedi, Piranha and Humanoids from the Deep.  Oh, and the original...Remake.
He'd only go on to Direct one other Film, an Episode of Tales from the Crypt and a Documentary...about himself.

Having said all that, I did enjoy the two disparate halves of the Film.  It scratches that gooey and gross Practical F/X itch for me.

Also, is that a young John Fitzgerald Byers from The X-Files?!?

Next up, my detour is over and my return to Bond is nigh.  I hope this one holds up as well as the last one did!  Stay tuned...