51 - Poison Ivy (1985)

Connection To THE FRIGHTENERS - Michael J. Fox

So this is a first for the blog, a film with the same name of a film from a previous entry - you can't get the two films confused if you watched them, there's no teenage girl seducing the father of her friend here - this one's suitable for the family and set in a summer camp.

This TV movie in 1985 and released the same year as Teen Wolf and some film about time travelling, Michael J. Fox stars as camp counselor Dennis who works at a boys summer camp and falls in love with the camp nurse Rhonda (Nancy McKeon, who I keep wanting to call Jo) and spends the summer convincing her to leave her doctor fiancee for him. We also spend time with the boys including Jerry who's slick and one a overweight comedian and the shy one who wants to run away, there's  few others but I remembered them for their faces rather than character names. Also luckily, so we as audience are not conflicted that when we finally meet her fiancee, he's a bore who doesn't particularly seem to respect her.

Movies about summer camp makes me wish I could have gone to one in America, the British summers are 6ish weeks that was good for not been at school at all but hard to find things to fill the time, I ended up usually watching a lot of films I think.

Anyway like a lot of the summer camp films I've seen, all the kids are different but they all bond and have a really awesome summer - Adam Baldwin's in this as well, he plays another camp counselor who seems to hate kids/people and he is the antagonist most of the time, seriously he has no sense of humour at all, he is just there to be the designated villain.

Overall, sometimes when a film is not bad you keep wanting to go back to the same words because it's the easiest way to describe something. The way I would describe this movie is that it's exactly what I expected, make of that what you will.

50 - The Frighteners

Connection To TOMCATS - Jake Busey.

Whether you prefer Peter Jackson, the early New Zealand made film years or the Hollywood years, I think depends how much you love his Middle Earth stuff because that single handedly takes about two thirds of it, it was hard to distinguish then because everything Jackson does gets filmed in NZ. From his early stuff I love Bad Taste, Brain Dead and Heavenly Creatures and I like Meet The Feebles, but his Hollywood career as shown what a magnificent filmmaker he is, even if the results where spotty (notably for me The Lovely Bones which was a huge disappointment) but the Hollywood path started all here with The Frighteners, a film that was box-office disappointment, if the figures I've read to be true it made $600,000 short of it's $30 million budget, but that's not taking into account advertising or in the plus column - home video.

So I saw this for the first time in 1997, I by that point was 14/15 and was already familiar certainly with Bad Taste (I saw Brain Dead for the first time a year later) so I knew it was an American film from that Bad Taste guy and I do for something reason, want to revisit every few years or so.

Michael J. Fox (which is last live action lead role to date I think) plays Frank Bannister, who was an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see and communicate with ghosts after a car crash and his wife's murder. He then uses these abilities to work with various ghosts to cheat money out of customers for his ghost exorcism business. However a spirit is killing people and leaving numbers on the forehead as the Grim Reaper.

The film tonerly feels all over the place, it can't quite decide whether it's a horror-comedy or a horror with elements of comedy, this doesn't affect the enjoyment of the movie which I did enjoy very much it's just it's change in shift it sometimes a bit jarring. I think the films main killer was scary, I think that element would have still made a great film on it's own - the shooting of the hospital in the 50's, the Bonnie & Clyde element, the killer obsessed with numbering his victims. Michael J. Fox, I've always enjoyed him as a lead even in some of his less successful work (Greedy) and he carries the film well, he's got a cool backstory as well.

The supporting cast is pretty darn cool, Jeffrey Combs creepy insane performance as an FBI agent and the ghosts include John Astin as The Judge (who's falling apart) and R. Lee Ermey as a ghost drill sergeant (not a shocker really) among others.

Overall a good start for Jackson in the US, though some elements i.e the tone are sort of marks against it, but it really is a cool film at the end of the day.

49 - Tomcats

Connection To CURSED - Shannon Elizabeth.

Misogynistic might be the word to describe this movie, but maybe that word is a touch unfair but it's certainly a film made by men for men and I'm sure if your a man's man you'll find this movie just super...

The story is group of male friends who make a deal to invest in a fund, which would get paid to the last remaining bachelor of the group, cut to somewhere down the line where Jerry O'Connell attempts go get the other remaining bachelor Jake Busey married so he can pay off a gambling debt, he conveniences a policewoman (Shannon Elizabeth) who as some sexual history with Busey, pretty much as expected O'Connell falls for Elizabeth.

All this is just an excuse for a string of scenes involving random situations such as O'Connell getting himself into A BDSM fetish with a quiet librarian and her grandmother and an incident involving Busey's removed testicle (yes really) that ends with the Doctor - played by David Ogden Stiers accidentally biting into at the hospital cafeteria (I must have missed that M*A*S*H episode). Also at least this movie acknowledges that O'Connell and Elizabeth where going to fall for each other so at least the feelings are out there on the screen from the start.

The group of friends have a gay friend, but this didn't stop them having a bit of a homophobic edge also Horatio Sanz is married to Jaime Pressly whose clearly a lesbian and yes it does end in what would be a man's fantasy. Also Jake Busey getting a lot of women can only be because of the wealth his family have, I'd argue there's no reason,  I'm mean he looks like a Busey and he ain't exactly the most charming person in this.

On one last note, I think it's a shame Shannon Elizabeth's career fizzled out somewhere down the line, Hollywood had moved onto the next thing I guess, but she's got a decent enough screen presence in my opinion.

Overall, it's a film for men obsessed with pissing contests, for the sort of man I am everything and everything one in this just felt like a stereotype, but it's not really awful to be fair, it's more harmless and dumb.

48 - Cursed

Connection To HALLOWEEN H20 - writer Kevin Williamson who was a producer on H20.

The first time director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson where together we got... magic, a film that's reinvigorated a dying genre by making fun of it - of course I'm talking about Scream, and teaming up again for Scream 2 they almost recaptured the same magic, the third Scream movie which also as a credited for co-writing was a misstep with the pair (though the film had it's moments) and then came Cursed, a production that seemed well... cursed.

The film was postponed over a year due issues with the script and production, this mean't a number of cast members (some which had filmed scenes), had to be replaced including Skeet Ulrich, Mandy Moore, Heather Langenkamp, Robert Forster and Corey Feldman and it's fair to say the film limped out on release rather then with a bang.

The film's plot is basically a brother and sister (Jesse Eisenberg and Christina Ricci) gets attacked by a werewolf in the Hollywood Hills and it looks like they are becoming werewolves themselves too.

You know what for a film that was rewritten and re-shot it's not really bad, it's maybe because I heard about the negativity of this production that my exceptions where very low - the film is coherent you wouldn't necessary except with a film like this - it's maybe because it stars some people I really like including Ricci and Judy Greer (which reminds me with Portia de Rossi and Scott Baio there is three Arrested Development alumni in this), while I wouldn't go far as to say this film is ripe for rediscovery because it's a film I'm sure I'll forget about in the months to come fairly easily.

The main negative is common with a lot of horror films, it is always obvious who the next victim is going to be, so much they might as have a sign that reads "eat me" on the back

Overall, I'll say it's an average horror that SPOILER (SORT OF) at least gives us a fight between Ricci and Greer END OF SPOILER that works for what it is in spite of all that was against it.

47 - Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Connection To HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE - Josh Hartnett

Like Jason and Freddy, all the years of sequels of varying qualities it was sometimes hard to remember what made them so iconic in the first place, the Halloween films went from awesome, to a pretty good sequel, then Michael Myers-less, to my opinion, three films that are quite hard to distinguish from each other, I think Halloween H20 (which is not set underwater) was obviously mean't to the series farewell with original (and first sequel) star Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Laurie Strode.

One note that is not really related to my opinion, Total Film, a magazine here in the UK back in 1998 gave the film the full ***** that as stuck in my head (similar to Empire giving Die Hard With A Vengeance the same score), so I think when I first saw it in the same year I had high expectations I remember not disliking it but I know it's not a 5* film, I think it was an example for me at the time of how reviews in magazines you like can already send you prejudging it in hope or negativity.

H20 is set 20 years after the first 2 Halloween films hence the title, it pretty much ignores 4,5,6 (no reason to ignore the 3rd one since it's not related) except for noting that she faked her death which is probably to account from the 4th movie saying she was dead but I'm actually not sure if it was intentional to be honest because why would they ignore everything but that.

So yeah 20 years later, Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens, who appeared in the first two movies), Dr. Loomis' colleague, returns home to Illinois a few days before Halloween (in 1998) to see there's being a burglar, and she gets neighbour Jimmy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, then best known for being Tommy on 3rd Rock From The Sun - indie cred and film fame hadn't happened yet) searches the house but finds nothing, Mario discovers a medical file is missing the one of Laurie Strode (who remember because of the second movie is noted to be Michael Myers sister) and discovers in fact somebody is still in her house and rushes to Jimmy's where she finds him and a friend dead (Jimmy gets a ice hockey boot in the face) where Michael Myers attacks her and slices her throat.

On Halloween, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) as tried to get her life back together even faking death and moving to California and changing her name, she's now a headmistress at a boarding school and as a son John (Josh Hartnett) and boyfriend Will (Adam Arkin), the schools guidance counselor, she seems to have everything sorted but the events of 20 years ago still haunt her, and as you expect The Shape shows up again in her life.

Revisiting this movie made me realize the film at times is kind of well average, I mean it was cool there an Halloween sequel with Curtis but there just seemed way too many of that thing from the horror movie bag of tricks - the fake jump scare - after the opening death scenes, there seems to be about a 100 before it gets to Myers at the boarding school,

Curtis is strong in the lead role and it was cool seeing her share the screen with her movie Janet Leigh (obligatory Psycho reference goes here), I liked the idea of her character trying to rebuild her life but the past is just not that easy to escape mentally. Josh Hartnett, which I've noted as someone I'm not a fan particularly plays off well with Curtis, his love interest is placed by Michelle Williams, who like Gordon-Levitt at the time was best known for TV (Dawson's Creek for her) then the film career that would flourish in the years to come who doesn't really show (not pushed to I guess) the acting talent she proved she had, there 2 friends are played by Jodi Lynn O'Keefe and Little Man Tate and are really the only 4 teenagers in it for the films slasher time. There's also LL Cool J, who does a better job then the rapper-turned actor for the next Halloween movie Busta Rhymes mainly because there not a scene of LL doing kung fu on Michael Myers, he plays the schools security guard.

One thing I didn't remember his how short it was coming in at 85 minutes and it does zoom by to be fair - there's some good deaths and it's a step up from the the previous 3 Halloween films and miles in front of Resurrection. The ending was great just a shame it was literally undone in seconds by the film's sequel (the final in the series until Rob Zombie relaunched)

While Scream was indebted to the slasher genre the original Halloween helped launch, this is a Halloween film inspired by Scream's success (Scream's writer Kevin Williamson is a producer here) and it's too me better then Urban Legend and some others where the names completely escape me at the moment.

Overall, despite too many fake jump scares, it's film short running time means it doesn't wear and it's funny seeing Laurie and Michael go toe to toe one last true time. So I'm going with recommended but with faults.