A place that will be reviewing the free films and shows at Hocus Focus Productions' free online cinema as well as indie movies you can watch on Streaming Services.
Please, use the comments to offer your own, well thought out and honest reviews.
This is the short season 2 premiere of "The Simplest Things". It should be the only episode still publicly searchable on YouTube and that is likely to change soon. Both full seasons are now available for viewing on Prime Video.
Get those fart jokes out of the way now so that we can discuss the movie.
A Product of it's time.
Charles Phillip Moore's 1990 monster movie, "Demon Wind" is a mash-up of the horror films that came before it. A lot of people compare it to "Evil Dead" and the inspiration is undeniable, but there are definitely elements of "Night of the Living Dead" in there too. And then the movie brings in a big helping of occult movies from the 70s, such as "The Devil's Rain". It's actually a nice divergence from the knife wielding, faceless stalkers that surrounded it at the time.
What's fun.
If you've read a few reviews here then you know that I love my monsters, enjoy retro F/X and enjoy a straight forward story with characters who act out of some kind of motivation. "Demon Wind" treats us to most of these elements.
The make-up F/X get a bit "sloppy" at times, but gooey, drippy, puss filled demons were the order of the day in the late 80s and early 90s. When these demons get attacked their whole body sneezes, spewing forth a yellowish green goop that will make the uninitiated viewer gag.
The human blood and gore are fairly well done too. It's your standard syrupy blood that sprays or drips depending on the circumstances. There's a fairly unconvincing severed head, but they found a way to make sure you knew whose head it was by accessorizing it. ( I did this in quite a few of my movies because nearly every severed I used was one of only two I had at the time. In "All Wrapped Up" we gave him a hat and sunglasses to match him to the actor.)
The creature f/x are a mixed bag. There's a scene in a barn that I won't discuss too much, but the effect is very well achieved and one that I've used several times in the "Alien Vengeance" movies. (That will probably give you a hint of what to expect.) Later in the movie when we finally see the main demon I felt like an opportunity was lost. Like the demons that came before him he's a bit of a deformed slime covered mess. That may be scarier to some, but for me, well, we've been looking at melting possessed people the whole movie. At this point I wanted a well sculpted horror from Hell. Oh well. His legs were cool and they did give him some nifty demonic powers.
Ah, the light effects. Lightning, "fire bolts", magic and whatever else you'd like to call it, we're treated to all of the pre-CG glowing f/x they could think of here and I loved it. Cheesy? Yes. Effective? Yes. Fun? You betchya! I specifically added a light effect to the closing of "Indiscretions" because it was a "stranded in a cabin with a monster" movie and they all need some glowing magic effect to be complete.
Our lead character has a believable, if not totally realistic, motivation. Cory ( Eric Larson ) is looking for answers at his ancestral home, where his grandparents died under mysterious circumstances six decades earlier. Some of his friends seem like genuine friends, but others are obviously just there as demon fodder and why they went along on this journey or stayed for any length of time after things got weird is never really explored. It doesn't need to be though. We're given a basic explanation and then the magic (evil magic, mostly) starts and that's enough.
The Performances.
Overall, we have a pretty strong cast here. No real weak links in the acting. A few over the top performances, but they're all called for and well placed. There are even a few very creepy kids if that's the kind of thing that scares you.
The Story gets lost a bit.
Towards the end the movie takes some odd turns and I think they may have been partially explained by the big demon, but his voice was so synthesized that his maniacal ramblings were a bit difficult to understand. In the end, I wasn't sure what had made Cory's family so central to the plot or what we were supposed to think was going on. We get an action packed, monster tossing heroes, fire spewing finale of a fight scene though, so I'll forgive it.
The Wrap up.
You can currently see "Demon Wind" included with a Prime membership. Last I checked it has a four star rating on Amazon with over 31 reviews, which is pretty high praise for a movie of this kind.
Check out the trailer and decide for yourself if this fun, demon filled, goopfest is for you.
I'm reviewing these movies together because they're both from writer/director Brett Piper, both involve a group of young people stumbling into a house with something monstrous and both utilize similar practical F/X. They're also both currently available on Amazon Prime. Drainiac! was originally released in 2000, but the credits suggest that some improvements were made to the movie since then. I'm not sure what those improvements are, but I really liked this movie, flaws and all. Haunted pipes might sound corny (and it should), but once you embrace the concept, it's great fun. The fun factor is mostly due to the retro approach to the F/X. Much like my own Lumber vs Jack and Alien Vengeance: Bad Morning movies, this movie makes use of miniatures and tentacles and slime. Piper, however, does a better job with the F/X than I ever did. Even the "car eating scene" is pretty amazing, if only by 80s standards. It takes awhile to get going and there are one or two weak performances, but overall the movie is either grossing you out, weirding you out or making you laugh. So, entertaining once the plot is established. Lots of monster action toward the end too, which is always a treat.
Bacterium uses the same premise of young adults in an abandoned space, but this one takes a more science fiction approach to the monsters. If you like movies like "X: The Unknown" or old episodes of the original series of "Doctor Who" you'll get a kick out of Bacterium. Some cool contamination suits, more practical F/X monsters, lots of ooey, gooey blobulous creatures and some very well placed jokes. Also, if you enjoy the tentacle whipping in the "Alien Vengeance" series of movies, you'll be blown away by the F/X here.
The IMDB trivia states that this was Alison Whitney's film debut. She did an excellent job of leading a pretty strong core cast through this sci-fi horror comedy. A few strong performances and none that stood out as truly weak.
The practical F/X don't let us down either. One reviewer complained that the monsters were shown plodding around for too long, but I spent that whole time trying to figure out how they gave those little slime balls life. Stunning retro F/X work. (I'm repeating myself.)
A.J. Khan makes a brief, but worthwhile appearance as her character adds some dry humor to a scene that's essentially a set up for a very odd action packed "finale".
There is a scene in the movie involving bikers and I think, as I did in "Stopped Dead", actual motorcyclists were used as opposed to actors. This is evident in one particular shot where a biker can be seen making "pow-pow" noises while pretending to fire a gun. Or maybe that was characterization and I need know to the biker's backstory for it to work.
In conclusion, if you have Amazon Prime and wish they still "made 'em like they used to", then these two retro inspired monster movies are for you. I would watch them in the order they were created as I feel like Bacterium is a slightly stronger movie. Of course, that might just be because I enjoy science fiction more than ghostly influences.
