Shudder Day: Vacation of Terror II

 A long-delayed follow-up, but for a good reason.

This 1991 Sequel is set on Halloween!

Let's dress up for it, shall we?

Remember the evil doll from the last one?

It somehow escaped- not ask me, they don't say- and is now on the loose again.

It ends up in the hands of a little girl who just happens to be the Daughter of a Film Director.

Our Hero sees this, but can't stop it.

He also fails to save this guy who was doing the same thing, but did get these MacGuffins to help him fight it. 

The little girl is also the Sister of this Pop Singer, who he immediately falls for.
She's played by Tatiana, who goes by one name like Prince, Madonna and Columbo.

Is it true love?

In a series of convenient events, the girl brings to the doll to her Halloween Birthday Party and accidentally cuts her finger on the knife for the cake.

It drips blood on a figurine (which NOBODY REMOVES!), so the doll pulls it down through the cake, licks the blood and transforms into an obvious claymation figure...

...before becoming a full-bodied creature that looks like one of the Witches from, well, The Witches after a serious chemical fire.

This all happens under the cake, by the way, which is a good 20 feet long.

The party ends when they find the dead P.A. under the cake.

That night, the girl is compelled to return because she forgot to grab the 7 Silver Coins her Dad gave her as a present.

The Sister comes along and now they're in peril, alongside our Hero (who stayed behind to prepare for this).

The Witch/Doll/Whatever-the-hell-this-is wreaks all sorts of havoc.

It kills a Guard.
It turns the young girl into a coin.

It drops the other Sister into the ground.

Can this creature be stopped?
Well, there's no Vacation of Terror 3, so....

A fun Film, even if it only has so many tricks.

The whole thing is an excuse for a bunch of weird moments and FX shots.  There's not much Plot here.

Pathos- be it Sister to Sister or Father to Daughter- is 80% of this Film.

That said, the craziness can be fun in small doses.  The FX look just cheap enough to be real, but funny.

All of the usual- Styrofoam blocks, pyro and lots of flying objects.
There's one shot- which has a room fill up with water with Pedro in it- that is just so laughably bad.
It's almost worth watching just for it.

Ultimately, the Film only has so many tricks.  
For instance, he brings like 6 of those molds with him and, so, many Scenes end with them being destroyed.  It happens so freaking much!

Is it good?  Not really.
Is it fun?  Yes.
Does this lady have '80s hair in 1991?  Yes!

Rene Cardona III delivers exactly what you expect.  If you want silly nonsense, you came to the right Movie!

Tubi Thursday: Doctor of Doom (1963)

 The Internet is abuzz with talk about this Film from ComicCon this year.

I might as well exploit it...

A mad Doctor is kidnapping women, taking their brains and trying to transplant them into a new body.

The brains keep proving not strong enough.

The Film spends about 10 minutes establishing this woman.

I guess Rene Cardona saw Psycho, because the lady is suddenly killed by the bad Doctor!

Her Sister is a Wrestler and she works with the Cops and the Scientist Friend.

Meanwhile, the Cops find out who the Doctor is.
They've questioned every Medical Doctor.  Well, they're out of ideas now!

The Doctor has a big staff, including a bunch of Henchmen, a mutated man AND he even made bulletproof armor for the guy.

Can he get what he wants?

He decides that he needs a stronger woman for the experiment.

Could he go for the lady Wrestlers maybe?

What an idea!

His plan pivots a bit when he's burned by random acid in his lab trying to kidnap her.

His Plan B involves taking a *different* lady Wrestler to make his creation- Vendetta.

Naturally, this all culminates in the 2nd prolonged Wrestling Match.
The End.

A bit of Movie queso.  It doesn't try to be a complex Film.

The Film is about a Doctor trying to steal brains from lady Wrestlers, but he also made an Ape Man.
This is not Citizen Kane.

This one was by Rene Cardona (the 1st)- part of a legacy trio of Directors of Genre Films.  The Tubi Version is also dubbed, which makes it extra cheesy.

Obviously, the strengths and weaknesses of these Lucha Films are present here.  The Wrestling filler is very dated.  If you like watching snapmares, you're in luck!

I'm not sure why anyone cast Robert Downey Jr as this guy all of a sudden, but oh well.
I look forward to the Film as long as the Poster is this great in 2026.

A fun Film for fans of the Genre.  There's not much variety here, but you can still have a good laugh.

Shudder Day: Vacation of Terror (1989)

 Let me end my Birthday Weekend with a bit of silly, imported Horror.

This comes to us from Rene Cardona III, the last (AFAIK) man in the line of Directors that gave us Films of various (but usually dubious) quality between 1930 and 2018.

That's a legacy!

A young guy uncovers an artifact at an old site and trades his portable tape player (this Film isn't dated at all!) for it.

What he doesn't know is that it came from a Woman who was burned at the stake as a Witch.

Around the same time, his Girlfriend's Uncle inherits an old home from his late Aunt.

He takes the whole family- himself, the Wife, 2 Sons, a Daughter and his Niece- to it to enjoy the Weekend.

The kids play around outside and the Daughter falls into what looks like a well.
She's not hurt- why do you ask?

She finds a doll.

This will shock you, so make sure that you're sitting down when you read this.

The doll turns the girl evil and begins to wreak havoc.

I mean, though, it's just an evil doll.

It's not like it could make the walls bleed, inflict internal trauma, throw knives around the room and, I don't know, control cars from a distance like some sort of vehicular voodoo doll.

There's no need to SPOIL this one- you know what is going to happen.

If you want to see it for yourself though, I encourage it.

It is silly.
It is melodramatic.
It is a pretty stock Plot and execution.

If you're new to Horror, everything will come as a nice surprise to you.
For everyone else, you can see all of the beats coming.

That said, I did enjoy this Film.  It treats everything straight- that's the best way to do something so silly.

This same Plot could be done- for instance- by a Comedy Group like Broken Lizard and people would eat it up as Satire.

For me, something this silly- a Witch's spirit inhabits a doll to kill people for no clear reason- is best when treated as sacred.

Also, worth nothing- Julio- the young Lead- is basically just Ash Williams here, just without the roguish charm and charisma.

The only downside for me here is the Actress playing Paulina is just screaming and cowering for 90% of the Third Act.  When she finally does something else, it feels a bit phony.
She doesn't 'gain courage' or 'suck it up'- she's just reached the point when she's supposed to do something.

However, I still enjoyed this one, so don't get burned up at my mild critique.

A silly Film that works for people who enjoy the accidentally funny Films.  It sure was nice of Cardona III to make this one a tribute to Cardona I.