Film Review: SPOOKIES (1986)

I remember seeing the VHS box for the ‘80s film Spookies (1986) in my local video store and despite the box being very cool, I never picked up the film.  Over the years I’ve heard a lot about the film and tried to see the film thinking it was one of those great horror films that just passed me by.  Unfortunately, when I finally saw the film, it was one of those films better left forgotten and hasn’t aged well at all.

A group of people find themselves trapped in a house by a Sorcerer who wants to sacrifice them all in order to restore his wife to him.  The film has zombies and monsters of all types which is a great thing except its packaged in a film with brain dead characters and bad acting.

To be fair the makeup and FX are pretty good coming from Gabriel Bartalos, who has worked on everything from Darkman (1990) to Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) to The Cave (2005), and his associates, and I’m pretty sure that the only reason why the film is founding remembered is because of these monsters but it is all packaged in an overall mediocre film that is best for fans who originally saw the film when it came out and not by someone like me who cannot appreciate it having never grown up with it.

Director Genie Joseph directed only one other feature other than this (the following year’s Mind Benders) before becoming a producer and disappearing into obscurity but this film remains one of those elusive cult classics.

Film Review: DEADLY INSTINCTS (aka BREEDERS) (1997)

There’s nothing like an alien visitation when all the aliens want to do is procreate which is exactly what you get in Deadly Instincts (aka Breeders) (1997), which is a monster movie of the late ‘90s which is more fun to watch than it is smart.  Written and directed by Paul Matthews this film plays to the lowest common denominator but at least there are enough females barely clothed, monster killing people and action to keep you entertained from beginning to end. 

Todd Jensen is college professor Ashley who when not instructing the students in higher learning is sleeping with a student and has a strange crush on a woman whose been hanging around the campus since a meteor crashed.  With a little snooping around (and a couple murders…disappearances later) he discovers that the woman he keeps seeing is actual and alien who has been impregnated by another alien monster and that this alien monster wants to spread its seed to the other women of the campus of which his girlfriend is just one.  Now, Ashley has to figure out how to defeat the creature and save the women from becoming incubators for more alien creatures.

There is nothing new in this late ‘90s film that you haven’t seen before but the film is quite entertaining and fun in its simplicity and the performances may not be spectacular but they do carry the film without becoming too campy (which is the fun of this type of film anyways).  The monster is also quite interesting with makeup FX that is quite good for this type of film.  This film may not win any awards but it’s also not a complete waste of time either.