Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 10: Lucky (2020)

Lucky is an exceedingly frustrating film, but at least it's a short, exceedingly frustrating film.

Brea Grant, who also wrote the screenplay, stars as May, a self-help book writer who finds herself pursued daily by a masked man who enters her house and tries to kill her. Her live in boyfriend reacts to this scenario nonchalantly, and then disappears, leaving her to deal with the potential killer on her own. Which she does, day after day and night after night. The police are also unhelpful, reacting to her situation without much concern. The expectation seems to be that this is just a situation she'll have to continue to deal with on her own.

I kept waiting for the movie to mean more than what it so very obviously means, but it never does, down to its very heavy handed and on-the-nose ending. It is well directed by Natasha Kermani, and Brea Grant gives a good performance, but I think it's ultimately so disappointing because in the beginning it is genuinely intriguing. But it just never pays off.

Lucky is streaming on Shudder.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 9: The Shadow of the Cat (1961)

Seems I can't get enough of cat-centered horror. This time we have The Shadow of the Cat, a Hammer production about the murder of an elderly rich woman by her husband and two servants, and the cat who witnesses the murder and seeks revenge.

So it's not really a horror movie in the classic sense, and it's not really a murder mystery since there's no mystery about who committed the murder. What it is, is a delight, because every time Tabitha the cat gets her revenge on the bad guys - seen from her POV - it had me gleefully laughing.

Of course there's always a bit of apprehension watching older movies that feature animals in prominent roles because we know there was a lot less attention paid to the animals' safety and comfort back then. For instance, there's an uncomfortable moment when Tabitha is held by her neck scruff that I really did not enjoy watching.

I do think editing did a lot of the heavy lifting, but it's also true that the shoot utilized a lot of cats because so many would just bolt from the scene and never come back. The excellent blog Cinema Cats has a good article about the film shoot and its troubles. So I do recommend the movie, but with the caveat (catveat?) that perhaps the cats didn't have the best time making it.

The Shadow of the Cat is available to rent online. I watched it on a Blu-ray borrowed from my library. 

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 8: Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)

 

I've included films by French director Quentin Dupieux in this countdown three other times (Deerskin; Mandibles; Rubber), but it's been a few years since he's made the list. I figured he was due back for inclusion, so I watched Smoking Causes Coughing, which once again, like the other Dupieux films featured in this countdown, isn't strictly a horror movie, but definitely includes some pretty horrible moments weaved into his usual absurd and surreal humor.

Essentially, this is a Power Rangers parody meets Tales From the Crypt. The "Power Rangers" are "Tobacco Force," and when they cannot defeat their enemies using brute force, they use the combined toxic elements found in cigarettes to destroy them. Their leader, Chief Didier, a giant rat who is constantly drooling green sludge from his mouth ("It could be detergent. It could be acid. We don't know!"), is also a ladies' man who two of the Rangers are in love with. Oh, and he's played by a puppet.

Didier sends the Tobacco Force on a team-building retreat where they, and other people/things, end up spending most of their time telling each other scary stories, which are then depicted, horror movie anthology style, as stories within the story. If this all sounds exceedingly stupid, you're right. But it also made me laugh, a lot. In all, its combination of extreme gore and absurdity reminded me of both Monty Python and Sam Raimi, which is a pretty strong combination.

As of this writing, Smoking Causes Coughing is available to stream free on Kanopy and Hoopla.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 7: The Uncanny (1977)

At first glance you may assume, as I did, that the anthology horror film The Uncanny, starring Peter Cushing, is an Amicus production. But while it shares a producer with several of those films, it's actually a Canadian and British production from "The Rank Organisation," perhaps the worst name for a production company ever.

And to be sure, it's not as good as an Amicus production - it's got some terrible effects and egregious dubbing - but it makes up for this in having stories that are all centered on cats. And at times, it's pretty funny.

Cushing plays an author trying to get a book about the evils of cats published. He visits his publisher, played by Ray Milland, and regales him with three "true" stories about evil cats. In the first story, a rich woman intends to will everything to her many cats, and is murdered. In the second, an orphaned girl and her cat are tortured by the bratty cousin she is forced to live with. And in the final story, an actor (Donald Pleasance) and his mistress (Samantha Egger) murder his wife and then have to deal with the dead wife's spooky cat.

In all three, the people are much more evil than the cats, even if the cats do get their revenge. So it's a little odd that the Cushing character is so fixated on the cats and not, you know, the actual villains in these stories. But then again, I've always found people with cat phobias to be pretty irrational.

A good copy is currently streaming on Tubi.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 6: Until Dawn (2025)

I saw Until Dawn after seeing the new Resident Evil. Both films are based on video games, but Resident Evil has raised the video game movie bar so high, I couldn't help but make comparisons in my head as I was watching it. And Until Dawn just pales in comparison.

Resident Evil somehow managed to fit so many aspects of game play into the film without it feeling like you were watching a video game. Things like the character talking to himself as he explores new scenarios, or finding a gun in one room, but then having to figure out where the bullets are, or being dumb and tossing aside a tool that will definitely come in handy later.

But the main conceit of Until Dawn is straight up video game play. All of the characters keep dying over and over again until they can figure out how to make it through the night and kill the big bad. And sure, that concept doesn't immediately mean it's going to feel boring and repetitive. But it felt boring and repetitive. It didn't help that none of the characters is very interesting, so I was never invested in their survival.

There was one night in their long series of nights that I did find genuinely surprising and grossly hilarious, and another night that cleverly turns the movie into a found footage film, but the movie just did not have enough of that ingenuity for me to feel fully engaged.

Until Dawn is streaming in Netflix.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 5: Circus of Horrors (1960)

Circus of Horrors is another movie that I watched because it's on my shower curtain. (Previous shower curtain watches can be found here and here.) It's a lurid British film, somewhat along the lines of Peeping Tom, which came out the same year, thought it's not nearly as good as that one. 

Describing the plot makes it sound insane: A plastic surgeon botches a surgery and goes on the run, changing his name, but then he performs a successful facial surgery on the disfigured young daughter of the owner of a circus but when that owner is mauled to death by a bear, the surgeon takes over the circus, filling it with formerly disfigured women he is able to turn beautiful, but only if they agree to become performers in his circus, and when they eventually get tired of that life he kills them.

Like I said, pretty insane. 

While the film has some good visuals and costumes, I wish it was as entertaining as the plot makes it sound. Alas, I found it to be pretty boring, and it took me two days to finish it because I kept getting distracted by other things, like my phone. Or the sun setting. Or sleep.

I watched it on Tubi, which seems to have two versions, one is a really good print, and one is terrible. Choose wisely. Or choose differently, as it's probably not actually worth watching.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 4: Depraved (2019)

I haven't watched a lot of Larry Fessenden's movies - and to be sure, there are a lot of them - but my dad's a big fan, and recommended Depraved, Fessenden's modern take on the Frankenstein story, so figured I'd dive in for this countdown.

Dr. Frankenstein this time around is Henry (David Call) a war veteran with untreated PTSD who deals with his trauma by creating life in his Brooklyn loft-turned-laboratory. He names his creation Adam (Alex Breaux), and Adam is quick to learn the basics of bodily coordination, though mastering the subtleties of human interactions are harder to instill. 

There are a lot of parallels to the two classic Universal films, such as a version of the Pretorious character, called Polidori (played by Josh Leonard of The Blair Witch Project) and Adam's desperate yearning for a bride, which comes to equally disastrous ends. 

It's a low budget movie, so it gets creative with some of the special effects, including some groovy "monster vision," as we see though Adam's eyes at times, and it's a pretty psychedelic view.  

But the best thing about Depraved is probably Alex Breaux's performance as Adam. Like the best of Frankenstein's monsters, he is both pathetic and scary, and he carries the entire picture on his patched-together shoulders.

I watched Depraved on Shudder.  

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 3: Deadly Blessing (1981)

Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing is another one of those movies I thought I may have seen before, but also thought, maybe it was just that I remembered the poster, which, to be fair, is pretty memorable:

 

If I had seen it, I remembered nothing about it, including that fact that a young Sharon Stone has a supporting role, and is maybe the woman on the poster? But with darker hair than she has in the movie? 

There are a few things I liked about this movie. I liked that it has so many female characters, including the three leads, Maren Jensen (probably best known for the original Battlestar Galactica series); Susan Buckner (who only made three movies, but did a lot of TV); and the aforementioned Sharon Stone (in only her second movie role). 

I liked the weird, made up religious sect led by Ernest Borgnine, the "Hittites," who "make the Amish look like swingers," and how the movie sets them up as the bad guys, but also maybe they're victims too? But also maybe they have a point with all the warnings they keep passing out?

The movie is essentially a slasher, but with possible supernatural overtones, and again, keeps you guessing about what's really going on. But that leads me to what I did not like. The ending just goes off the rails, with two ridiculous revelations, one of which is pretty offensive, and the other that essentially negates the entire movie that preceded it and doesn't make a lot of sense.

This is a Wes Craven movie, so it does have some good scares, looks great, and features some actors and scenarios that he loved to use over and over in multiple movies. It's that ending though. So dumb.

Deadly Blessing is available to rent online, and is streaming free on Hoopla, although the print was pretty bad. So I watched a Blu-ray copy from my library instead.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 2: Little Monsters (2019)

When I started watching this movie I was convinced I had started to watch the wrong Little Monsters. No, it's not that I was intending to watch the 1989 Little Monsters starring Fred Savage (but perhaps I should?). I was set to watch a zombie movie starring Lupita N'Yongo as a kindergarten teacher protecting children from zombies. But the opening montage featured an Australian couple bickering with each other over increasingly stupid topics. So I double-checked to make sure I was indeed watching the 2019 movie Little Monsters and not some Australian sitcom.

And indeed I was. 

I did know going into it that it was a comedy, but I thought the whole film would center on Lupita N'Yongo's character. Instead, she shows up about 20 minutes into the movie, while the first part focuses on Dave (Alexander England), a deadbeat musician who has just broken up with his girlfriend and is living with his sister and nephew, Felix (played excellently by a kid with the best name ever: Diesel La Torraca ).

The duo eventually finds themselves on a field trip to a petting zoo with kindergarten teacher Miss Caroline (N'Yongo) and children's show host Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad). And this petting zoo is inconveniently located next to a U.S. military testing facility that has just had a breach...

I'll give the movie props for having the balls to turn kids into zombies, albeit not any kids we really care about, and also appreciate that it manages to keep the kids-in-peril-plot pretty low stress. But it doesn't do anything new with the zombie set-up, and just isn't really funny enough for me to fully recommend it. Much of the comedy relies on Josh Gad's character, and whether you enjoy that will have a lot to do with how much Josh Gad you can stand (my tolerance is pretty low). 

But I will say I really did enjoy Lupita N'Yongo's performance. She's a great combination of fierce and compassionate in the role, doing her best to protect her class and maintain calm.

Little Monsters is streaming on Hulu. 

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 1: Slaughterhouse Rock (1987)

It's been a few years since I launched this countdown with a San Francisco-set horror movie, so I thought I'd go back to that tradition for 2026. Too bad the movie I chose was Slaughterhouse Rock which just barely counts as a San Francisco movie (or, really, a movie at all).

About half of the movie is set on Alcatraz, though aside from a few establishing shots that include the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge, it is very clearly not actually Alcatraz. There's also not a lot of "rock" - in either sense of the term - happening in this slaughterhouse despite the story's initial set-up being the death of a heavy metal band as they were visiting Alcatraz.

Plot wise, it begins with a local college student having bad dreams related to that event, so he and seemingly everyone he knows decide the only way to stop the dreams is for all of them to venture to Alcatraz after dark together to break a curse. Or something.

It's there that they run into the only thing that makes this movie even slightly worth watching, and that's Toni Basil as a ghost who's stuck on the island, but knows how to set the other souls stuck there free. And yes, it involves a dance, a clip of which I will include below. She also has several great costume changes that are peak 80's does 1940's and 1950's retro that I'm pretty sure came out of her own closet. And she is also featured, along with Devo, on the soundtrack.

Other than that this movie manages to be a total snooze. Like, I literally fell asleep twice while watching it. You need only watch the film's opening scene, which goes on forever, to know that this is a movie that will streeetttch wherever it can to make its 90-minute running time.

Slaughterhouse Rock is streaming on several platforms. I watched it on Prime, to avoid commercials.

Clear the Cobwebs and Mothballs, It's Countdown Time!

I can hardly believe tomorrow is the first day of October. Where did September go? Where did this summer go? Where did this year go??

But I'm not complaining. October is the official start of my favorite time of year, and I am very excited to once again take part in the blog-based Countdown to Halloween. It's officially the 19th year the Maniacal Movie Countdown has been a part of the Countdown to Halloween! And as has been tradition for the past six years, I will be posting every day about a new-to-me horror movie, 31 (at least!) movies in all. 

I am selecting the movies to watch a little differently this year. I have a huge Letterboxd Watchlist, and a huge chunk of them are horror movies. So, for the most part, I am choosing my picks at random, while still trying to strike a balance between newer and older titles. No doubt this will lead to me sitting through some stinkers. But perhaps my doing so will save you from a similar, dreaded fate.

As always, I want to offer a huge thank you for joining me this year, and in years past. Please also be sure to check out some of the other blogs and social media profiles that are partaking in this year's Countdown! You can find a full list on right sidebar of the countdown's official site. 

So, please check in tomorrow for what will hopefully be a treat. If it isn't, I welcome any tricks you may want to offer. 

 

Happy Halloween!

It's officially Halloween night, and I'm getting this final post up right under the wire. I sure hope you had some fun tonight, even if it that just meant sitting at home watching something spooky.

This has been my eighteenth year partaking in the Countdown to Halloween, and I have every intention of keeping this up, so before you know it, it's gonna be the 20th anniversary! 

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by this month, I truly appreciate your taking the time to visit my little corner of the Internet. I hope you found some good things to watch, or some bad things to avoid, as the case may be. And if you're at all interested in what I have to say about movies outside of this countdown, be sure to check out my other blog, Mulling Movies, where I review new releases, and follow me on Letterboxd, where I basically have something to say about everything I watch.

Finally, here's a list of all the movies in this countdown, in chronological order, with links to their posts. And best wishes for the holiday season ahead, and a great 2026!

Curtains (1983)

The Rule of Jenny Penn (2025)

Silent Scream (1979)

Stopmotion (2023)

Dead & Buried (1981)

Oculus (2013)

The Legacy (1978)

My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To (2020)

Night of the Comet (1984)

Night of the Reaper (2025)

Shanks (1974)

The Ugly Stepsister (2024)

The Cat o’Nine Tails (1971)

The Ward (2010)

Dr. Terrors House of Horrors (1965)

Booger (2023)

Uninvited (1988)

Where the Devil Roams (2023)

It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955)

Unfriended (2014)

Student Bodies (1981)

The Vourdalak (2023)

Black Sabbath (1963)

Creep (2014)

Hollywood 90028 (1973)

Cobweb (2023)

Demons (1985)

I Blame Society (2020)

Lifeforce (1985)

The Gate (1987)

Together (2025)

 

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 31: Together (2025)

Happy Halloween, and welcome to the final movie in this year's countdown!

As in years past, I like to end this adventure with a movie that's pretty new, or at least newish. This time it's Together, which is not yet on a streaming service, but can be rented online. I was recently staying at a hotel that offered a free movie rental each night, so I was happy to take advantage of the opportunity to watch it that way, especially since the rental cost at that time was an insane $32!

Real life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco star as Millie and Tim, a dysfunctional couple who move to a new town together after a disastrous marriage proposal. When on a hike in the woods near their home, they literally stumble into a cave with some mysterious drawings and find themselves stuck inside during a storm. Because they are in a horror movie, Tim decides to go ahead and drink the water from the pool in the cave, because why not.

The next morning, they start to find their bodies sticking together whenever they touch, and thus begins the film's very obvious if still effective central metaphor.

I'll admit I was a little nervous going in, as body horror is probably the one sub-genre of horror that can most easily make me gag, but Together is not as gross as I feared it would be, and a lot of its more disturbing moments are implied more than graphically depicted, such as when Millie and Tim have sex and can't...disengage.

I've found after watching so many horror movies that it's the very rare film that has an ending that can truly live up to what has come before, although I suppose that can also be said of most films. Endings are hard! But for horror movies I tend to be a little more dissatisfied with the it all happened because of *waves hands vaguely* endings, especially when what has come before that is strong. I want it all to tie together perfectly. Together's ending did not tie together for me, and I almost would have preferred no explanation at all over the gobbledygook that's provided. Still! What comes before is entertaining enough, and definitely one of the more original depictions of dysfunction and co-dependence in a relationship I've ever seen.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 30: The Gate (1987)

It's been a month of adult horror so I wanted to wind down this countdown with a more family friendly flick. Most of the movies I looked up I had already seen, but two I had not seen were Monster Squad and The Gate, both from 1987. 

I started to watch Monster Squad, but there was just so much tossing around of the words "homo" and "faggot" - which, OK fine, it was 1987, a different time - and the kids were also so immediately unlikable, that I turned it off after about 15 minutes. Sorry, not sorry.

I think The Gate was definitely the better choice, although it's not without a tossed off f word as well. But at least this time it's uttered by a likable kid, Glen, played by tiny baby Stephen Dorff, who I had no idea was in this. (Also have to admit I had no idea he started as a child actor!) Glen and his friend Terry (Louis Tripp) unwittingly open a gate to hell in his backyard, and they, along with Glen's older sister Lori (Kelly Rowland), have to fight the army of monsters they've unleashed.

I imagine I passed this one by in the 1980s for the same reasons I didn't bother seeing The Goonies until I was in my forties: I was a teenager in the mid-80s and felt these movies were too childish for the likes of me. When it comes to The Goonies I really do think it's a film that you have to see as a kid to truly appreciate it. But The Gate charmed me, mainly because of its special effects, which combine stop motion with forced perspective to depict its army of tiny demons and the boss monster.

I watched The Gate on Kanopy. It's also streaming on Prime and Hoopla. 

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 29: Lifeforce (1985)

Lifeforce has been on both my proverbial and literal watch list for years, and I've never gotten around to it because I was never sure if it was good, bad, or so bad it's good. And I still don't feel like I have any real consensus on that! At various times while watching it, the movie hit all three of those opinions for me.

The good: I liked the opening sequence and how it jumps right in to the story of astronauts discovering a weird space ship inside the tail of Halley's Comet. The effects are definitely dated, especially when we see the astronauts navigating around in their space suits. But the alien ship is kinda cool, and what they discover is weird and fun. I also liked all the practical effects used to depict the results of encounters with the aliens. 

The bad: Some of the acting is cringe; Peter Firth as a leather-jacketed detective on the "Case of the Desiccated Bodies" is just a weird choice. Also, star Steve Railsback is not a...subtle actor. And I know Tobe Hooper took on the project (an adaptation of Colin Wilson's Space Vampires, a title he wanted to keep but was not able to after the studio rejected it) because he wanted to make his own version of a Hammer film, and he definitely gets the parts of Hammer movies that are boring down pat: lots of British guys in suits talking about what's going on, endlessly.

The so bad it's good: The main space vampire is a beautiful young woman who spends the majority of her screen time completely naked, just wandering around and sucking the "lifeforce" out of her victims. I guess there are a lot of people who would put that firmly in the "good" column, but for me it just reeked of exploitation. That said, Mathilda May, the actress who plays the space vampire, is stunningly beautiful, and she is almost a walking special effect unto herself. I was also pleased to hear, via some of the extras on the Blu-ray I watched, that her experience on set was, for the most part, a positive one.

The version I watched was the longer "international cut," and I really can't say if that's the version one needs to see. It's about fifteen minutes longer than the cut that was more widely released, and supposedly results in a more cohesive storyline, and likely more nudity. But the movie also feels really long, so, maybe the shorter version is more fun? The shorter one also seems to be the version that's more widely available widely online.

All that said, I'm glad I finally got around to watching it, because it really is just an all around nutso film, and I certainly did not expect the story to get as apocalyptic as it does. It's pretty audacious! 

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 28: I Blame Society (2020)

It's kind of ironic that after watching and pretty much hating Creep and its sequel, I went ahead and watched a movie that's been called the female version of Creep. And sure, they do share some similarities, but I ended up appreciating I Blame Society a bit more.

Well, at least a little bit. I Blame Society is a mockumentary about Gillian, a struggling filmmaker who decides to make a movie based on the one compliment she's ever received: that she'd be a great murderer. The fact that she would take a comment like that to actually be a compliment gives you some insight into her personality, and that's the basis of the film's comedy. She's kind of nuts, but she's also been driven crazy by an industry that says it wants to tell stories featuring "strong female leads," but only within the cliched boundaries they've defined.

A lot of it works, and writer/director/star Gillian Wallace Horvat is very funny. But a lot of it falls into the trap that these kinds of found footage films fall into. Multiple angles that don't make a practical sense; footage that could only have been shot if there was more than one person with a camera. It isn't quite strict enough with the conceits of the genre. But it was still more fun than Creep!

I Blame Society is currently streaming on Shudder, Kanopy, and Prime.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 27: Demons (1985)

Demons was produced by Dario Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava, son of Mario Bava, and it's another 1980's horror flick that just kind of passed me by for reasons I can't really pinpoint. And I kind of wonder if I would have appreciated it a bit more if I saw it back in 1985....

The basic plot is: a bunch of gullible people in Berlin accept free tickets to a movie at a renovated theater. I say gullible because the guy passing them out has a deformed face partially covered by a silver mask, and he doesn't speak. The horror movie they watch somehow releases a demon...virus? that turns some members of the audiences into demons, and the survivors have to fight their way out. Sure, it's called Demons, but really this a zombie movie.

I feel like what most people remember about the movie is the gore and the soundtrack. The gore is definitely goring. But I was under the impression the soundtrack was full of classic metal and new wave, but the only two truly famous songs are "White Wedding" by Billy Idol, and "Save Our Souls" by Mötley Crüe. (No shade to Rick Springfield, but "Walking On the Edge" is not the Rick Springfield song most people want to hear.) I did kind of dig the original soundtrack music by Claudio Simonetti though.

As this is an Italian production, all of the dialogue was dubbed in later, to varying degrees of success. (Whoever dubbed in the voice of the pimp Tony should be ashamed of himself.) The ending definitely sets itself up for a sequel, though it doesn't sound like it's a direct continuation of the story. Not sure I'll seek it out. Maybe next year...

I watched Demons on Shudder. 

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 26: Cobweb (2023)

For some reason, Cobweb completely missed my radar in 2023. Not entirely surprising as it was released the same weekend as Barbie and Oppenheimer, which of course was all anyone was interested in that summer.

Cobweb doesn't waste any time setting up its premise. Young Peter (Woody Norman) lives with his parents (Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr) a rundown house. At night, he begins to hear noises in his bedroom wall. His parents try to convince him it's just his imagination. At school, Peter is bullied by some of the other kids, and prefers to sit inside at recess with his sympathetic substitute teacher Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman).

The movie sucked me in right away, and I was instantly riveted. I appreciated how it gradually reveals that the parents aren't as sympathetic as you'd initially think, and just what it is in those walls isn't what you might expect. It also helps that everyone in the cast is excellent (I don't think I've ever not liked Lizzy Caplan) especially young Woody Norman, who is maybe best known now for his role in the Mike Mills movie C'mon C'mon.

But Cobweb also suffers from some bad continuity and plot holes, and an ending that doesn't live up to the rest of the film. I had really high hopes for it because of its strong start, but ultimately there's only half of a good movie in there.

 Cobweb is streaming on Netflix.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 25: Hollywood 90028 (1973)

Hollywood 90028 is an angsty drama about the Hollywood dream, the gentrification of Los Angeles, and how the desperation for fame can lead to tragedy. But it's all wrapped up in disguise. Surrounding those themes is a story about Mark (Christopher Augustine) a cameraman on porno movies who's also a serial killer.

It's an odd mix! Those appreciating what director Christina Hornisher is trying to say about Hollywood will probably be turned off by the porno shoot bits (have to admit, those bits made me a little uncomfortable), and those who are there for the porny bits and murder are going to be pretty bored by the rest of it.

There's a lot of dialogue in this, but there are two lengthy bits that are really memorable. One accompanies a section filmed in Bunker Hill, and discusses the decline of that neighborhood that was once full of families and beautiful Victorian homes. These sequence features some amazing shots of those decaying homes.

The other bit is a monologue by Michelle (Jeannette Dilger) an actress Mark meets on one of his film shoots. She talks about arriving from a small town in pursuit of Hollywood fame, and how a young actress can, bit bit by, find herself working in adult films.

There weren't a lot of women directing exploitation films in the 70's, and while the exploitative aspects of Hollywood 90028 are no different than something that may have been shot by a man - director Christina Hornisher is not hiding any of the expected nudity - there's definitely some commentary going on, from the monologue mentioned above, to the sweaty and lecherous director who watches his set from above with binoculars, to the murderous cameraman himself. (Definite shades of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom in him.)

Hornisher never made another feature, and studios really didn't know what to do with Hollywood 90028. Shot in 1973, it didn't get released until 1976. It was later re-cut and re-released under the title The Hollywood Strangler, and anyone expecting a slasher film would have come away disappointed. I'm even reluctant to include it in this countdown, because it barely counts as a horror film. But it's such a unique, odd, and beautiful film, and anyone who's a fan of Ti West's X trilogy is going to appreciate it. It also has one of the most astounding final shots I've ever seen, anywhere, let alone in a low budget exploitation film by a first time director...

I watched Hollywood 90028 on Mubi. It's also available on Hoopla.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 24: Creep (2014) and Creep 2 (2017)

I've long been aware of Creep and its sequel, Creep 2 mainly because I've long been aware of Mark Duplass and his extensive body of work...for better or worse. But I never bothered watching it. Not entirely sure why. When it comes to the career of Mark Duplass (as well as the work he's done with his brother Jay), I guess you could say I'm indifferent. Don't love him. Don't hate him. Just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But I can say I kind of hated Creep. It's a found footage horror film, which right there, enough already, centered on Aaron (Patrick Brice) who accepts a job offer to film some moments in the life of Josef (Mark Duplass) who has an inoperable brain tumor and wants to create a video for his unborn son. Of course this turns out to be a lie, and Josef is, in fact, a lunatic.

I'll give it this: at the halfway point it kind of veers into a direction I wasn't entirely expecting, but that is the only even halfway surprising thing about Creep. The sequel sets itself up with kind of the same scenario, though this time, the videographer is a YouTuber (Desiree Akhavan) who's desperate to find a subject that will actually get her some views. Enter Josef, who is now calling himself Aaron, and wants someone to document his retirement from serial killing.

I suppose there are some entertaining moments to be found in both films - they both have some funny scenes - and I probably liked the premise of the second more than the first. But ultimately I found both of them pretty boring, and will admit I fell asleep more than once. 

  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Both are currently streaming on Netflix.