Strange Behavior (1981)
This was the second pleasant surprise so far during the horror fest (the first being Day of the Dead ). I have never heard of this movie before and only selected it because the description on Netflix sounded interesting. I was looking for an early 80's slasher film to make up for New Year's Evil being lackluster, so I gave it a shot.
There is actually some originality in this film that puts it above the rest of the cheap Halloween/Friday the 13th knockoffs from the same era. There are multiple killers and why they are performing the murders is a mystery that the film builds up nicely along the way. Also, with the multiple killers, the film makes each kill different - the first is only shown by the shadow of the act, which makes the killer appear to be a Michael Myers-type mask-wearing maniac, but then the camera pans back to show it is just a normal man; the second act is perpetrated by someone wearing a very creepy mask. Another nice feature of this movie is that the murder scenes all build tension really nicely without ruining it with "scary" music or fake scares.
The middle tends to drag a little, as the mystery of what is going on is being unravelled, but its still a fairly good low-budget scare that doesn't let its low-rent status hold it back. Definitely worth checking out.
Shock Waves (1977)
There were two words in the description of this film that jumped out at me and instantly made me want to watch it - "Nazis" and "Zombies". How could you pass up a film about Nazi zombies? Plus, it has Peter Cushing in it. That clinched it.
Other than wanting to see Nazi zombies, I didn't have very high expectations for this film, so I couldn't really be disappointed. However, I wish they would have done more with the Nazi zombies. The plot of the film sounds pretty interesting. Passengers on a boat somewhere on the ocean stumble across an island that seems deserted after they have a run in with another ship that damages their vessel. It turns out the mysterious ship is full of the remnants of a secret Nazi squad of soldiers that were turned into zombie-types that could survive underwater. The squad was thought destroyed at the end of the war, but they survived and come ashore on the island to menace the people from the first boat. The problem is that it takes forever to get to the part of the movie where the zombies come in. Once they start attacking, things pick up (the fact that they can just attack right out of the water is a nice twist), but the chase scenes weren't especially scary or exciting. Overall, not a bad movie, but it could have been more (there is another, more recent, Nazi zombie movie - Dead Snow - in my Netflix queue that I am going to check out to see what they do with the concept).
Mark of the Witch (1970)
This is a film that I enjoyed way more than I should have. However, it was more due to the circumstances under which I watched it than the actual film itself. It was unseasonably nice the other day, so, after work, I took my laptop out on the deck to watch this movie, smoke a cigar, drink a Great Lakes Nosferatu (is there a better named beer for watching horror films?) and enjoy the weather. Since the back of my house isn't in the sun, it was an almost dusk-like atmosphere. That, coupled with the fact that the version of this movie on Netflix Instant is terrible scratchy (the film even jumps and skips a few seconds here and there), created a very drive-in movie-like experience. That made me nostalgic for drive-ins, which added to my movie watching experience.
The movie itself is kind of a mess: a bunch of college students inadvertently summon the spirit of a 300 year old witch and she possesses one of the students. The witch sets about seeking revenge for her death and also the deaths of 3 members of her coven. There is way too much talking and too little going on in this film (plus the acting is terrible - this film is EXTREMELY low budget, and doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, usually a sign that it is bottom of the barrel) to recommend it, but my experience was enjoyable.
(There was no trailer available for this one...)
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