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"Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

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"Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Old 09-29-20, 11:38 PM
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"Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge



Spookies (1986)


Selected by T-bone22


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IMDB ENTRY

YOUTUBE

ALYXSTARR LINK

ALYXSTARR LINK - Feature-length documentary Twisted Tale: The Unmaking of Spookies (2019)
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These "October Horror Movie Challenge" threads are for the discussion of the films in the 31 FILM SUBSET list.

The plan is for everyone to watch this film on the October day in the thread title, and to start discussing it the morning of the following day.
You may start discussion early if you want, but the preferred plan is for this to be as much of a group exercise as possible, with all of us viewing it "together" and discussing after.

Of course, you are totally encouraged to participate in these threads even if you haven't watched the movie on the designated day.
Even if you haven't watched it in years, or are not participating in the Horror Challenge, please feel free to chime in.



Spoiler tags aren't always used in here, so if you have yet to see the film BEWARE OF POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

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2020 DISCUSSION | 2020 LISTS

Old 10-15-20, 08:38 AM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Yikes. I think I’d rather watch the directors cut of Boardinghouse before watching this again. I’m not sure who I wanted to shove down a mineshaft first. The Danzig guy, the schmuck with the puppet or that dumb kid. And what was the deal with the old timer with the super cute broad. Like a poor man’s Kevin Kline / Phoebe Cates.
theres no way these people would all be going anywhere together.
Old 10-15-20, 09:46 AM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

One of the first laserdiscs I bought, $6.88 at Camelot Music! This was actually 2 unfinished movies cut together.
Old 10-15-20, 10:18 AM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee
One of the first laserdiscs I bought, $6.88 at Camelot Music! This was actually 2 unfinished movies cut together.
When I looked it up halfway through and saw that, it made much more sense. I think it actually made me appreciate it more ( not that I want to watch it again). I would be interested in seeing cobbled together cuts of the two films separately.
Old 10-15-20, 02:17 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Overall I liked Spookies more than I expected. There is an admirable dedication ot 'spooky' 'Halloween' tropes above all with Spookies and I appreciate their dogged committment to horror elements even when the film is a dumpster fire of bad acting and inconsistencies. I thought the intro with the weird kid who was a ghoul kid or maybe not had a birthday was odd enough to seem interesting in a dumb comedy way, the alien/creature in the stairwell, the spider woman, mini-reaper... and some of the effects were gnarly, like under the surface is a cartoonish interesting horror comedy.

Fart sounding zombies? Hmm... just when you thought you'd seen everything - I think that proves they were not even trying for some of it.

The obvious differences in cut in material is an interesting exercise in editing; it's horrible but hypnotic and funny in a way that must have been intentionally bad. Sometimes I end up assuming bad films are being meta when they're not.
Originally Posted by Alan Smithee
One of the first laserdiscs I bought, $6.88 at Camelot Music! This was actually 2 unfinished movies cut together.
The Vinegar Syndrom disc has a feature length making of documentary, apparently the story behind Spookies is better than the film. Supposedly it was not 2 different movies but that the producer disliked the original cut so made someone else reshoot large amounts of extra material to 'fix it...' but since that makes no sense 2 different films might be more plausible.

Last edited by Undeadcow; 10-15-20 at 05:21 PM.
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Old 10-15-20, 02:17 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Been looking forward to watching this one.
Old 10-15-20, 06:03 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Originally Posted by Toddarino
Yikes. I think I’d rather watch the directors cut of Boardinghouse before watching this again. I’m not sure who I wanted to shove down a mineshaft first. The Danzig guy, the schmuck with the puppet or that dumb kid. And what was the deal with the old timer with the super cute broad. Like a poor man’s Kevin Kline / Phoebe Cates.
theres no way these people would all be going anywhere together.
I was thinking the same thing! What's with the one middle-aged guy hanging out with teens? And why are they driving around the middle of no where looking for a party? And then there's the blonde with the fake British accent and the OTT macho Italian guy. These characters are walking cliches.

This is not my flavor of 80's cheese, I guess. Also planning to watch Santa Sangre and Dead Zone today for the 80's theme.
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Old 10-15-20, 08:32 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

A crazy fun mash up of bad acting and fun special effects. I was surprised how good the make up was for such a bare bones production. Farting Mud Men? Whats not to like?
6/10
Old 10-16-20, 07:35 AM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Originally Posted by Toddarino
Yikes. I think I’d rather watch the directors cut of Boardinghouse before watching this again. I’m not sure who I wanted to shove down a mineshaft first. The Danzig guy, the schmuck with the puppet or that dumb kid. And what was the deal with the old timer with the super cute broad. Like a poor man’s Kevin Kline / Phoebe Cates.
theres no way these people would all be going anywhere together.
This is one of the greatest observations I've seen in a while! Bravo for taking a moment to think about things!

This was a real mess to watch. Unfortunately, I didn't have the observation above, so I was just adrift in the silliness of this movie. I have the VS disk, and was really looking forward to finally striking this off the list, for all I've heard through the years. Bill Olsen of Code Red always refused to talk about getting this film before VS released it. He always called it a 'kids movie', with a 'fart monster'. I don't really think of this as a kids movie, but it feels like someone made all these creatures, with effects, then decided to film it and try and make it fit with some narrative later. The VS has a packed 2nd disk, and I'm looking forward to checking this out when things settle down.

Old 10-16-20, 09:22 AM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

This is an absolute trainwreck of a movie, I find it fascinating. I wish I could watch the original cut of Tortured Souls, because the reshoots are the worst part of the film for me. The runaway boy, the cat monster, and the old man with his hostage-bride are the parts that drag the movie down. I also hate the ending: hostage-bride, who is so underdeveloped and basically a 3rd act addition to the movie, is running away from monsters in a series of very repetitive scenes. At this point all of the interesting characters are dead and I found it hard to be invested in her fate.

However the creatures are fantastic and really fun to watch. My favorite spookies are the green crawly things and the spider queen.

It's hilarious how the main group of characters all seem to hate each other.
Old 10-16-20, 10:22 AM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Originally Posted by DaveyJoe
This is an absolute trainwreck of a movie, I find it fascinating. I wish I could watch the original cut of Tortured Souls, because the reshoots are the worst part of the film for me. The runaway boy, the cat monster, and the old man with his hostage-bride are the parts that drag the movie down. I also hate the ending: hostage-bride, who is so underdeveloped and basically a 3rd act addition to the movie, is running away from monsters in a series of very repetitive scenes. At this point all of the interesting characters are dead and I found it hard to be invested in her fate.

However the creatures are fantastic and really fun to watch. My favorite spookies are the green crawly things and the spider queen.

It's hilarious how the main group of characters all seem to hate each other.
This is really interesting. Yes she got stripped down, hair teased for her final act. She really is underdeveloped, and it really seems that entire thread with the bride was just added to pad an anemic story.

The character names were really bugging me. You have Duke, who is the silky-topped tough guy, and the puppet is named Mook, or something very similar.

Last edited by WillieMLF; 10-16-20 at 10:27 AM.
Old 10-16-20, 06:22 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Not a good movie but a fun bad one. The difference in quality of the special effects was really noticeable from the original footage and what they filmed later on.
Old 10-16-20, 06:49 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Not horrible, fun in a campy and history lesson sort of way. Think I enjoyed the documentary more.
Old 10-16-20, 06:54 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Originally Posted by jholmes
And then there's the blonde with the fake British accent
Charlotte Alexandra is British but she may have affected her accent for the movie.

So much going on in this movie -- I am looking forward to watching the documentary at some point.



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Old 10-16-20, 10:21 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

The Twisted Tale documentary is a great watch, the VIPCO documentary on the other hand is a bore.
Old 10-16-20, 10:23 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Is it worth picking up the Vinegar Syndrome release for the doc?
Old 10-18-20, 01:40 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Such an odd mixture. At times, it really did feel like a kids movie and then would be much more adult. The special effects were also a mixed bag. Some were actually pretty good, and then other times it was just silly. All in all, I do think it acquitted itself as a good bad movie. I might check out the documentary. It sounds like it had an interesting production history.
Old 10-18-20, 01:51 PM
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Re: "Spookies" Reviews/Discussion - 2020 Horror Challenge

Originally Posted by Toddarino
Is it worth picking up the Vinegar Syndrome release for the doc?
Upgrade from VHS? Then yes. I am a someone disappointed about the lack of commentary on this release though.

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