Full Moon Friday Night # 3

Well, next week turned into a few weeks didn’t it. I was going to post last Friday, but do to a combo of being tired from work and not feeling well, that didn’t happen. Then I had a few reviews to write the next week. And then last Friday I was out of town. But it’s back this week with a follow up film to one I previously covered.

Witchouse II: Blood Coven (2000)

Director:  J.R. Bookwalter
Writer:  Douglas Snauffer
Staring:  Ariauna Albright, Elizabeth Hobgood, Nicholas Lanier, Andrew Prine

When four unmarked graves are unearthed at an old house marked for demolition  in Covington County. A universality professor and her students are called upon to identify the bodies in the graves. Too bad for them the bodies belong to Lilith LeFay and her Blood Coven. They begin interviewing local folks, Blair Witch style. Of course they warn the team off. During an experiment with Lilith's remains, her DNA gets into the prof’s blood. Oops! Bet you can guess what happens next. Yup, possession city. One by one, the students get taken over members of the coven. They plan on wreaking havoc on the town that killed them over 300 years ago. Can anybody remain unpossessed and stop them?

J.R. Bookwalter’s follow up to the first Witchouse is my favorite so far in the series. Still have to watch part three. So my opinion might change. It’s a fun mix of the usual “teens” in peril horror and a little dab of found footage horror. You can see Blair Witch’s influence all over this sucker. Before doing so was common place. The film opens with a cute Goth chick and her boyfriend getting killed while filming out in the woods. And there’s interview segments with the locals the feel very much like the ones from Blair Witch. Personally I wouldn’t have minded if they’d filmed the whole movie that way. I’m sure if it was made now it would have.

Overall a fun low budget horror outing. It’s nothing groundbreaking. But it's great for a Fall afternoon.

Full Moon Friday Night # 2

This week’s Full Moon offering has a surprising lack of puppets or little monsters. But it is the first in another series. Witchouse or Witch House or Which House? What ever floats your boat.

Witchouse (1999) 

Directed by David DeCoteau (as Jack Reed)

Written by Matthe Jason Walsh   

Starring Matt Raftery, Monica Serene Garnich, Ariauna Albright, Brooke Mueller, Ashley McKinney, Dave Oren Ward, Dane Northcutt

It’s May Day in the town of Dunwich, Romania. I mean Massachusetts! How could I have made that mistake. And we’re really going with May Day here as our horror movie holiday? We must be running out. Anyways, Goth babe Elizabeth invites a bunch of her “friends” to a special May Day party. The way her “buds” talk about her I can only assume they were the kind that picked on her endlessly. But considering why Liz has them there, it makes sense. Good old Liz is a descendant of a witch named Lilith who was burned at the stake on the day three hundred years ago. Elizabeth hopes to resurrect her dead evil ancestor by sacrificing her guests. Also, fun party games!  

Going in I didn’t know this was a David DeCoteau film. Sneaky disguising your name as Jack Reed sir. Or else I’d been expecting shirtless dudes in their underwear. Not surprisingly there’s a shirtless dude in his underwear, though not a whole ton as you’d expect. One of said dudes in this film would later be a Power Ranger! So, bonus points there.

The location they used for the house was cool looking. Very unique. At the same time it also screamed: Hey! We’re filming this in Romania! It’s not Massachusetts. Still as I said, it had a cool look. There’s a bit of stock footage thrown in for flashback scene. It looks to have been taken from Full Moon’s Dark Angel film.

The story is cliche as all hell. They did everything but have a cat jump out. BUT you know, I dug it. The film has a warm, comfortable feel too it. For a film with people getting killed by a demonic witch. But yeah, I enjoyed it. The acting and story aren’t going to win any awards, but the film was fun, funny at times and moved at a good pace. I was never bored. At times it felt like a Night of The Demons film. Not a bad thing if you ask me.

Next week...