Skip to main content

TerrorVision (1986) - Ted Nicolaou



This unique horror-comedy had caught my eye but I hadn't ever seen it. I frequently had gotten this movie mixed up with Stay Tuned, which I had seen frequently as a child and thus never picked up TerrorVision. But after my first viewing, I had become a big fan. It's also a big product of the eighties. And it totally shows.

A family with a satellite dish is frustrated with their poor service. The father customizes the dish and accidentally opens up a gateway for a horribly dangerous alien to come through. The alien has a taste for human flesh and can transfer from place to place through the television. It's dangerous in a huge house with multiple tvs.

TerrorVision is actually a really good schlock picture. The comedy is just right and it appears to be much higher quality than other movies of its same recipe. The effects aren't meant to be amazing. But for a satire on the giant alien-monster movies, it's perfect. It's provided by our good friend John Carl Buechler who had previously worked on some special effects for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Troll and Friday the 13th: The New Blood. Safe to say these horrible effects are in the hands of a master.

Gerrit Graham ended up being my favorite character for some reason. I loved him in Phantom of the Paradise and he was really entertaining in this. The soundtrack is also phenomenal. The titular song, along with a few other songs, are provided by The Fibonaccis.

This isn't a masterpiece or anything. I found this movie highly entertaining and really fun. It has a slight amount of gore, but nothing that wouldn't be shown on television. It's full of camp from beginning to end and would make for a great midnight showing somewhere. The movie has that cult film quality for sure.

Director: Ted Nicolaou
Producers: Albert Band, Charles Band and Debra Dion
Writers: Charles Band and Ted Nicolaou
Starring: Diane Franklin, Gerrit Graham. Mary Woronov, Chad Allen and Jonathan Gries
Studio: Empire Pictures
Release dates: February 14, 1986
Country: USA




Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Humanoids From the Deep (1980) - Barbara Peeters and Jimmy T. Murakami

This is your standard old drive-in Creature Feature that has tons of gore and boobs. It's great if your in for a cheap thrill. This film goes right up along side any Roger Corman produced picture from the eighties. It's rumored that Joe Dante was approached to direct this movie but he turned it down. Humanoids from the Deep, also known as Monster, is a strange but forgettable piece of exploitation that failed to make it's notch in history. Don't let that detour you though. This is a really fun little film that doesn't fail to be entertaining.  A small sea town in California is terrorized by some mutated creatures from the deep. They look like some sort of mutated fish, merman-thing. They seem to have one goal in mind and that is raping and impregnating the females of the town. Also the town is being taken for a ride by a shifty businessman and his new corporate cannery. Could this evil cannery corporation be responsible for the Extreme Creatures of the B...
2 comments
Not scared yet? »

Escape From Tomorrow (2013) - Randy Moore

This review may contain spoilers. An American independent horror movie from filmmaker Randy Moore. It stars Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton, Annet Mahendru, and Alison Lees-Taylor. It premiered at the official selection of Roger Ebert, at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18th, 2013. Synopsis Jim is a depressed middle-aged man that despises his family life but wants to try to hold it together for a vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort. Jim receives a call before they leave and, unfortunately, Jim has lost his job as well. It proves too much to handle as this trip to the Magic Kingdom becomes a hellish nightmare. Jim’s mind cracks as we watch him deal with Disney’s seedy underbelly. Complete with elaborate corporate conspiracy, undercover sex workers, and demons. Oh and two very young French girls that Jim lusts over. It’s gross. Analysis The acting is amateurish. It’s nothing that’s going to win any awards or anything. The wri...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »