Lifeforce (1985)

Although it may not be any where as popular or scary as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Poltergeist", Tobe Hopper's "Lifeforce" is still a great horror film that is still fun to watch since it's release in 1985. As one of my personal favorites, I was thrilled when I was able to see the film shown on a large screen when it was selected as a feature film for the H.P. Lovecraft film festival; an excellent choice considering how Lovecraft wrote about monsters and creatures coming from the depths of space, older than humanity itself. It's suiting that the screenplay was co-written by Dan O'Bannon ("Alien") and that it took full advantage of Haley's Comet passing by around the time the film was made. The concept of vampires from space is nicely explored and brought to film in this movie, taking liberties with the vampire mythos that would have otherwise raised eyebrows from traditionalists like myself; they can still hypnotize and seduce their prey but they can do so much more!

Interesting side note - Klaus Kinski, Billy Idol, and Anthony Hopkins were all considered for various roles in this film, with Hopkins actually being offered the role of Col. Colin Caine, but turned it down for his own reasons.


During an historic space shuttle mission to investigate Haley's Comet as it passes by earth, the joint US/UK team of astronauts discover a large, 150 mile long alien space craft caught in the comet's gravitational pull. Upon inspecting the supposedly derelict spacecraft, the crew finds hundreds of dried up bat-like creatures and three human like figures in suspended animation within glass like coffins. The crew take the humanoids, two male and one female, back to the space shuttle...and that's when everything goes astray! Mission control loses it's signal contact with the shuttle and an emergency rescue mission is sent up to see what's wrong. The rescue party finds the ship nearly destroyed by fire but the three humanoids and the glass containers are untouched; the rescue team returns to Earth with the three aliens.

Once on Earth, the Female alien wakes up and steals the "lifeforce" of those around her, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies that eventually come back to life and need to feed in the same fashion as she did, otherwise they end up exploding. The commander of the original shuttle mission is soon found in an escape pod, and he admits that he set the shuttle on fire to kill the aliens and keep Earth safe. It's soon discovered that he is psychically linked to the Female vampire. It's now up to him a few brave souls to enter London, which has become infested with the zombie vampires, to find the three Space Vampires and kill them before their "plague" can spread across the world.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

It's always a shame to see an obviously inferior sequel follow a ground breaking original film all for the sake of box office cash in. "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge" is such a film in which it changes the main concept of the first film about Freddy killing people in their dreams to making him want to kill people in the real world. Why? It's a nice detail that the main character has moved into the same house that Nancy Thompson had lived in, but with the lack of actual events taking place during dreams, the strange occurrences suggest that it;s more of a haunted house movie, with examples like the pet bird going crazy before it explodes or the unplugged toaster shooting out flames. While it's cool to see Freddy take over Jesse's body, it's not staying true with the mythology and ground work that was made in the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and is followed and expanded on in the other films in the series.


Jesse is new to town and has recently moved into the same house on Elm Street where Nancy Thompson lived five years earlier. It's not long before Jesse hears the stories about Nancy and how she went crazy after her seeing her boyfriend who lived across the street viciously murdered and her own mother committing suicide a short time after that. This makes Jesse connect the dots as to why he's having horrible nightmares every night and why weird things keep happening in his house; Freddy Krueger is possessing Jesse! Using Jesse's body, Freddy kills his gym coach and a high school friend before turning his attention to a neighborhood party full of lovely young teenage victims. Only Jesse's crush Lisa can save Jesse and stop Freddy from killing more innocent victims.

Demons (1985)

"Demons" is the perfect example of what a violent and demonically possessed crowd looks like after watching one of those films that should never have been screened! Directed by Lamberto Bava and produced by Dario Argento, this classic Italian horror film from the 80's has all of the traits known for this sub-genre; gore, more gore, horrible voice overs, a sound track by the band Goblin, and an inexplainable storyline. All you need to know about this classic is that free tickets are passed out to a single showing of a brand new movie. Everyone with a ticket goes, watches the movie within the movie, and one by one the audience members become possessed by the demonic spirits that are released within the film. Those who don't turn find themselves trapped in the theater without an exit, forced to fight and kill their former loved ones. 

Cat's Eye (1985)

“Cat’s Eye” is a collection of three stories that were written by Stephen King and includes a cat that’s eventually named General in the third act. General only makes brief appearances in the first two stories but when he is seen, there is usually a subtle reference to a previous Stephen King film; in one scene General is being chased by a St. Bernard and in another one he’s almost ran over by a car that is similar to Christine.

The first act is known as “Quitter’s Inc”, a company that resorts to unusual but effective methods of ensuring that their clients quit smoking. Starring James Woods as Dick, he becomes a client of the unique company. It’s only after he joins that he learns that his wife and daughter will be subjected to horrific punishments for his relapses.

The second act is known as “The Ledge”, Robert Hays plays Johnny, a professional tennis player who is sleeping with the wife of a mob boss. The boss finds out but instead of killing Johnny outright, he makes a bet with him. If Johnny can walk around the outside of the apartment, clinging to a narrow ledge, the crime boss will divorce his wife so the two can live happily together. If Johnny declines the bet, then the boss will have Johnny arrested and framed for possession of drugs, ruining his career. Leaving Johnny with very little choice, he begins to walk around the ledge….

The third and final act is called “General”, which about the cat who is taken in by Drew Barrymore who gives him his name. Her parents don’t like the cat but she convinces them to let her keep him. At night, a tiny troll sneaks into her room and tries to steal her breath. General stops him but is seen as the aggressor by her parents and thrown out. Without her protector, the troll tries again to kill the young girl. But General didn’t cross half the country to give up now…

 Smoking in not allowed!

The troll and his bloody knife!

Grrrr

Johnny and the mob boss

General attacking the troll

George A Romero's Day of the Dead (1985)

George A Romero’s “Day of the Dead” is a decent zombie but is my least favorite of his original trilogy. I have to admit that I enjoy the loose remake more than this version; this film is relatively slow and doesn’t have much action until the end of the third act. This movie has two main storylines, the first dealing with the growing tension between the civilian scientific team working in the makeshift research bunker and the other one dealing with the insane Dr. Logan and the zombie Bub who he is training to be human again. Tom Savini does another fine job with his make-up and special effects for the zombie genre, especially when the movie gets to the point where the victims are torn asunder by the zombie horde.

Dr. Sarah Bowman is the main character in this film that takes place a good deal of time after “Dawn of the Dead”. She is the voice of reason and one of the few people who are not succumbing to the stress of the situation although she is beginning to have dreadful nightmares. When she comes back from a recent deployment looking for survivors and supplies, she learns that the military CO has been killed has been replaced by the tyrannical Captain Rhodes. All he cares about is his men, who he treats more like possessions than as people, and is sick and tired of the antics of Dr. Logan. Captain Rhodes doesn’t think the scientists are doing anything productive and is threating to shut the operation down and take the helicopter and its pilot and leave. Dr. Logan has been busy at work but not with finding the cause or a cure, instead he has been feeding his zombie pets the dead soldiers and training them to behave as if they were alive. Eventually one of the soldiers is bit which sets of a chain reaction of events that causes the zombies to get what they want, fresh meat. Sarah and the two helicopter pilots, Bill and John, manage to escape and live to see another day.

Captain Rhodes is having a very bad day.

 Dr. Logan and his test subject, Zombie Bub.

Sarah having a nightmare.

Silver Bullet (1985)

I’m finally reviewing a second movie that’s associated with Stephen King. Don’t worry, there’ll many more to go over as the weeks go on. The film “Silver Bullet” is adapted from King’s novella called “The Cycle of the Werewolf”. It’s a good movie but not nearly as dark as some other werewolf movies from the 1980’s such as “An American Werewolf in London” or “The Howling”. “Silver Bullet” wasn’t as great as I remember when I first watched it in the late 1980’s and then rented it in the 90’s. It also has the distinct dialogue that most of King’s secondary characters tend to have; I’ve noticed that they all sound the same and if you are watching a film that he wrote the screenplay for, you can often tell it’s one of his stories by this trait. It stars Gary Busey and Corey Haim; two years later Haim would star in his best known film “The Lost Boys”.

The movie “Silver Bullet” is about Marty, a young boy who is paralyzed from the waist down, his favorite Uncle Red who makes motorized wheel chairs for him but isn’t the best role model due to his drinking, and his older sister Jane who he fights with but ends up becoming close to during the year when several people die in their small town. When four murders occur one after another, each in a very violent manner, a mob of locals form a vigilante group to go find the murder but some are killed during one night. The town’s Reverend Lowe had begged for them not to go and begins to have horrible dreams and it is revealed that he is the werewolf and responsible for the deaths in town. Marty discovers this as well when one night he shoots a bottle rocket into the beast’s eye and when Jane later sees Reverend Lowe with the same wound. They beg for help from their uncle who agrees to do what he can, first by sending their parents away on a romantic weekend and then staying with the kids until the Reverend Lowe comes to kill them all. There is a brutal showdown between the four but Marty is able to save his sister and uncle when he fires a single silver bullet to the werewolf’s good eye kills it.

Favorite moment – The nightmare sequence is probably the strongest horror moment in the film beside the ending itself.

Re-Animator (1985)

“Re-Animator” is perhaps the most famous Lovecraft film to grace the screen to date. Jeffrey Combs portrayal of Herbert West is one of the most entertaining and honest interpretations of a Lovecraft character in my opinion. He has the arrogance, stubbornness, and ambition of the Herbert West found with the original story. Mr. Combs and director Gordon Stuart are able to insert some dark humor into an otherwise grisly tale without ruining the atmosphere. While there are plenty of extra characters added and the overall narrative does not follow the short stories, enough of the theme from Lovecraft’s work is found within the movie; Herbert West is essentially a modern day Dr. Frankenstein who creates more than his fair share of monsters.

The movie begins when Herbert West transfers from The University of Zurich to Miskatonic University after learning all that he could. He quickly gets on the wrong side of Dr. Hill after accusing him of stealing the work of his professor in Zurich. West quickly convinces his roommate, Dan Cain, to assist him in his experiments in reanimating the dead. Dan’s girlfriend Megan doesn’t trust West and by the end of the movie she can pretty much blame everything that goes wrong on him. And Dr. Hill. As West and Cain perform more experiments, they have more monsters to explain and handle until the movie finally ends in a messy gory mess, all in a very 80’s, mid-range budget special effects style of course.

Favorite moment – The opening scene and when West declares “I gave him life!”; it does a wonderful job of preparing the viewer as to what kind of movie they are about to watch.