Watchin’ Stuff #54 Spookums’ gritty 2018 reboot

Well…I had to watch some more spookums on Halloween itself, didn’t I? Decided to continue with the 80’s theme. Shocking, I know. First up was Leviathan, which is basically a poor man’s The Thing, except underwater. It takes its time getting moving and doesn’t have as high quality or frequent monster effects as The Thing, but it does have Peter Weller and Ernie Hudson. It’s not top 20 material, but it is a solidly fun 80’s horror classic nonetheless.

Next was one of Wes Craven’s less remembered entries, Shocker. Shocker is about a serial killer who…makes a deal with some unexplained TV entity to become some kind of superpowered TV ghost? He can possess people, but also has electric powers, but can also travel through televisions and enter fictional TV worlds, and…can transform into a power recliner? I don’t know, none of it makes any real sense. It’s a horribly ridiculous and convoluted script and it all feels like a direct response to Freddy Krueger having become a comedy slasher a few years earlier, but it’s fun for what it is, if you can handle how painfully late 80’s/early 90’s it all feels.

Dead Heat is what happens when you mash a buddy cop action-comedy together with zombies for some reason. The result is a surprisingly fun movie that does a good job of being both a buddy cop and horror movie, though Joe Piscopo isn’t nearly as funny as he thinks he is (as usual).

The Gate is a movie that has to be watched every few years. As I just mentioned last time, this is just one of those ultimate horror classics that never gets old. Young Stephen Dorff and friend try to survive against an increasingly bizarre invasion of tricky elder demons in the most 80’s ways possible. There are so damn many memorable scenes and it very well might be the greatest PG-13 horror ever made.

And finally, Terrorvision, another movie about a deadly killer that travels through televisions, but this time it’s a disgusting killer mutant from outer space. This is definitely one of those “so bad it’s good” movies, one where the plot and characters are so incredibly terrible and moronic that it shouldn’t work at all, but the cast all play up their ridiculous roles and clearly have a lot of fun doing it, and the effects are actually decent too so it somehow ends up being a lot of fun.

Well, thus ends another Halloween. I might have gone a bit overboard with over a month of almost non-stop old horror movies and games, to the point where I might need to take a little break from horror. Except…doesn’t Suspiria come out tomorrow? Well…that didn’t last long…

4 comments on “Watchin’ Stuff #54 Spookums’ gritty 2018 reboot

  1. Peter Saturday says:

    Yeah every movie on this list is awesome!

  2. raistlin0903 says:

    Ooh, Shocker and Leviathan 😊 Both are classics that although very cheesy, are definitely a fun watch 😊 Too bad this series of posts is drawing to a close. As I said before, I really liked reading them 😊

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