A killer in the House, Psycho on Parole Shreds Babes

I know, they're skanks.  Still, this blog loves skanks. Woke-America loves Women's Studies majors, but this blog loves skanks.  Give us nubile blondes with big...smiles...any day over masculine females with crew cuts and purple hair. Unfortunately for skanks, psychos treat them viciously.  Today we look at a film with a huge cheese-factor, 2024's "A killer in the House," directed by Jared Cohn.

Misogynist, sex-criminal Leo (Phillip Andre Botello) is a 100% con man...100% woman-killer. He gets out on parole, invites an aspiring babe actress (Cait Moira) to his place, and strangles the life out of her. He believes any babe he sees belongs to him and if they show any sass, he murders them...and all her friends...and any babe within 5-miles of her. The vicious guy pretends he is a Hollywood producer and cons his way into the life of the very sultry Ava (Kathrine Gibson). Ava is desperate for a part and assumes Leo is who he represents himself as. Skank Ava has an equally sexy roomie, Brie (Shawn Holmes). She's total babe and totally in danger, as well. Men in Ava's life will die horribly. One of the guys she dates, Colby (Griffin Todd) will have a fork stuck in his jugular at an outdoor cafe.

The sultry Ava, always dressed...provocatively...bangs any man she dates. Leo watches, sometimes while in her bedroom. The sneaky psycho follows the men out of Ava's house and murders them.  Now poor Brie is in danger...as she lives with Ava.  You will see the horror Brie is subjected to. Leo gets more aggressive and Ava totally believes he is the path to starring in a film alongside Brad Pitt.  Leo gets more unhinged and murders anyone in his way and now makes a move to invade Ava and Brie's house. Alas, the two babes will not have a chance...or will they?

Forget about IMDB's rating of 2.5/10 of this film. The babe factor is through the roof, and Ms. Gibson and Ms. Holmes are captivating on the screen. Will both Brie and Ava die horribly for the crime of being... skanks? Is this film about sultry dames in trouble the beginning of an anti-woke movement in Indie filmmaking?  Do the nubile, non-diverse Brie and Ava, have what it takes to draw in a none-woke audience?  See "A Killer in the House," and enjoy a slasher film the way they were meant to be.  

Rat Scratch Fever, The Rats Take Over

CGI and AI be damned.  With special f/x right out of the 60s TV shows, I have an epic I'm sure you missed.  A true B movie with horrific alien planets and creatures, space-babes (most will die horribly), space-hunks (most will die horribly), soldier babes (most will die horribly), soldier hunks (most will die horribly), and a Dr. Phibes type mad scientist.  The death toll will be in the millions as you see toy and model military vehicles respond to a giant invasion from outer space.  Our feature today is 2011's "Rat Scratch Fever," directed by Jeff Leroy.

A mysterious planet enters our solar system and the Steele Space Corporation (SSC) sends a spaceship to investigate.  The astronauts and astronettes on the mission are eaten on the planet by rats the size of bears, except for Sonja (Tasha Tacosa). This space-babe gets the ship back to Earth but a small rat crawled up her pant leg and into her...her...well, let's just say it...#@&%. Now Sonja is infected and has a rat inside her, guiding all her actions.  Soldier babes and soldier hunks respond to her landing.  Sonja murders them, eats them, and steals their war vehicles.  In possession of guided missile vehicles, Sonja destroys the base of SSC.  Now Jake (Ford Austin), a poor man's Roddy "Rowdy" Piper, enters the scene. He's Sonja's BF and wants her back.  The SCC magnate, Steele (Randal Malone) knows that Sonja is no longer human and wants her dead.

As Steele and SCC try to find and exterminate Sonja, she keeps eating people. Rats, big ones, the size of bears, and regular sized ones, converge on L.A. They even eat babies. Yep, this film does have heartbreak. Now Jake finds Sonja but all she wants is his blood.  Most of L.A. gets wiped out but Jake and a handful of heroic soldiers, including the very pretty Jennifer (Phoebe Dollar) fight to the end.  Wait!  Steele arrives. The weird guy with phony skin and limbs has a solo war vehicle with a weird laser beam thing on it.  He's ready to exterminate.  Uh oh...the rats number in the millions.  What's worse, the rat that has taken over Sonja...well, enough.  You are going to want to see the fiery ending to this one.

Will Jake be able to enjoy pre-marital sex with Sonja as long as those body parts are still functioning?  As a rat entered into Sonja through her #@&%, is there a rape-crisis center she can come in contact with?  Was this film about the rat takeover of Earth a foreshadowing of the Biden Administration?  This is a wild one.  The f/x are nostalgic and edifying.  A lot of battles, explosions, gunfights, babes and hunks pulled apart by rats, and laser beams will keep you entertained for over 90 minutes.  For an uplifting film, the way films should be made, see "Rat Scratch Fever."

Blood and Chocolate, The Wolf Version of Romeo and Juliet

We don't talk about Agnes Bruckner enough. Of course, we don't talk about Warren Harding enough, either.  Ms. Bruckner is prettier, so we will talk about her today. Many people are under the false impression that 2008's "Vacancy 2" was her magnum opus. Nope. In actuality, 2007's "Blood and Chocolate" (directed by Katja von Garnier) is her magnum opus.  Our feature today is William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" with werewolves!  Hey, why not?  If our old bard friend had utilized werewolves and monsters more, this would be a Shakespeare blog!

A clan of werewolves rule Bucharest!  Kind of like our country. Gabriel (Olivier Martinez) is a hunk and king of the werewolves.  Pretty teenager Vivian (Bruckner) is chosen to be his new wife to breed with. See, every seven years, the king gets to select a new wife.  Nice!  Vivian does not want to be werewolf queen, not even for seven years.  Instead she falls in love with a handsome graphic novelist, Aiden (Hugh Dancy). He writes about...wolves! The two fall in love and her "people" find out. Now Gabriel needs to get rid of Aiden so he can have pretty Agnes as his queen.  The clan changes into wolves and hunt as a pack.  Usually they hunt drug pushers and assorted deviants.  

Now Gabriel fixes it so Aiden will be gotten rid of.  Surprise!  See, Aiden has a bit of Van Helsing in him and is uniquely qualified to kill werewolves...which he does.  Now Gabriel ratchets up the urgency to murder Vivian's love.  Soon, Vivian must choose between her people and the human.  Aiden is kind of cute so naturally she chooses him.  Of course, Gabriel and all the werewolf people cannot allow Vivian's decision to stand.  Like any woman told to change her mind by a male dominated society, she goes psycho and rebels.  What happens next is beautiful, if not corny.

With a bigger budget could the makers of this film have introduced vampires in the plot and ended the film with a nice catfight between Ms. Bruckner and Kate Beckinsale?  Does a creator of wolf graphic novels have the earning potential that he needs to keep a dame like Agnes Bruckner happy? Later in life, if Aiden were to interrupt Vivian while she is going on and on about nothing important, would she turn into a wolf and tear him apart?  This is a good one and Miss Bruckner is very pleasing to the camera.  For some hokey fun, see "Blood and Chocolate." 

Happy Birthday to Me, Great Slasher Film from the Year of the Slashers

1981 seems to be the year of the great slasher film. Today we look one of the best.  Hey!  Glenn Ford is in it. The same Glenn Ford that swapped spit with Rita Hayworth in "Gilda." Melissa Sue Anderson is in it. Yep, the babe from "Little House on the Prairie." They aren't just in it...they legitimately star in it. Oh, Lesleh Donaldson is the first gory kill. I saw this in 1981...then again today. Maybe the fact that it was mixed in with a thousand other slasher films with similar tropes kept its merit as a fine film from being recognized. In 2025...we can look at this one as a fine horror film. Shocking! Gory!  Gratuitous!  Today we look at "Happy Birthday to Me," directed by J. Lee Thompson.

In 2025, when watching this film, we see it without being jaded by a deluge of slasher films also debuting. I forgot this is also a science fiction film with a mad scientist trope, an inappropriate relationship between teen Virginia (Anderson) and her psychiatrist, Dave (Ford). Some taboo plot lines, too. Oh, this movie will also have you covering your eyes during the brain surgery scene. In short, Virginia is recovering from a really bad accident that took her mom's (Sharon Acker) life. Her brain is injured and a mad scientist, using highly experimental techniques and gadgets, puts it back together. She recovers...sort of. Now, at an exclusive prep school, Virginia is in a club with nine other elites.  One by one, starting with Bernadette (Donaldson), they are murdered horribly. The death scenes are elongated and gory.

Suspects abound, but Virginia is our number one suspect. Why?  Well we saw her do some of the murders.  Too easy?  Not so fast. Virginia's friends are hunks and babes.  Her bestie is Anne (Tracey E. Bergman). She's a doll and we hope she will be the final girl. Shish-kabob skewers, motorbike wheels, and razors are some of the neat weapons.  Slit throats, having a face filed off, and gutting are some of the ways the babes and hunks are killed. Virginia has episodes where she blacks out.  Glenn Ford, er David, is very supportive of her recovery and gets closer to her as the film goes on. More and more details about the accident emerge, and also more details about the surgery emerge.  Uh oh...is Virginia the killer?  

Usually when an A-list actor or actress has his or her name on a movie poster in a slasher film, they are mere cameo performances. This was the case for Rod Steiger ("American Gothic") and William Shatner ("Visiting Hours") in slasher films around the same time this one opened. Not here. Glenn Ford, who doesn't do horror, and Melissa Sue Anderson, who doesn't do horror, are indeed the stars of this film.  You would think Glenn Ford, after lip-locking Rita Hayworth, would keep his distance from Melissa Sue Anderson.  I'm not saying Melissa Sue Anderson is no Rita Hayworth, but...well, never mind. For a fascinating, surprise filled, gory slasher film...see "Happy Birthday to Me."   

The Bat People, A Stan Winston Spectacular

Okay, just because Stan Winston did the creature f/x does not mean this is a good movie. IMDB rated it a 2.8/10.  Still...I liked it. We have a heartwarming story of a marriage gone wrong.  Sure, we all change after we get married, but usually fangs and bat-like appendages are not part of that change.  Our feature today is 1974's "The Bat People," directed by Jerry Jameson.

John (Stewart Moss) is a scientist who studies...bats.  Nerd, I know.  He is married to Cathy (Marianne McAndrew), a nymphomaniac beauty.  She likes to have sex.  In fact, this is what starts the problem.  John, shortly after they are married, takes Cathy to see a cave.  She'd rather...have steamy sex.  Not to let an opportunity go through her fingers, Cathy decides they will have sex in the cave as bats watch. This doesn't go well...go figure. The passion goes out the window when John is bitten...by a bat. Cathy, being a good nympho...er, wife, makes John get checked out at the hospital. Dr. Kipling (Paul Carr), who does not try to have sex with Cathy, bandages John and gives him rabies shots...eek!  Now John begins having seizures.

You guessed it, John begins changing into a bat monster.  Pretty nurse in white (Jennifer Kulik), who is not a nymphomaniac, is ripped apart by John.  Cathy and Dr. Kipling are in denial, but John believes he is changing into a bat person...or a bat man!  More pretty nurses in white will be put in peril. Also in peril are some nubile young babes.  Unfortunately for many of these babes, they will die as the creature chews them up and drinks their blood.  A cop, Sgt. Wood (Michael Pataki) investigates and all his clues bring him back to John.  Oh yes, Wood does try to have sex with Cathy...she resists, though one may posit that she could have resisted harder...after all, she appears to be a nymphomaniac.  John's seizures come more often and more will die horribly.

With Cathy being a nymphomaniac, would she consider having steamy relations with a monster, or bat man?  Given John is a dweeb and has nerdy interests, would Cathy be better off having him as a fanged creature?  Why aren't nurses in movies clad in white and attractive anymore?  This is a good one.  Some may enjoy it in a MST3K type of view, but it is a terrific creature film, although the creature f/x are kind of lacking. See "The Bat People" and avoid most of those new "Batman" movies.

So Cold the River, Creepy Hotel Carnage

I have got to stay at the West Baden Springs Hotel in Indiana!  After watching this film, this is the takeaway I convey to you. This place looks really creepy, I am guessing ghosts appeared during filming of this movie. I wonder if they take IHG or Marriott Bonvoy points.  Anyone know? Ominous, dark, and eerie through the entire 95 minutes, 2022's "So Cold the River," directed by Paul Shoulberg, is our entry today.

Erica (Bethany Joy Lenz) is a babe.  A haunted babe.  A babe with tremendous guilt from a horrible episode years ago. She now has a "gift," or should I say "curse."  She goes around filming events, usually funerals, looks at the footage and sees things others can't see.  Dead people, past events, eerie horrors, you name it, none of it will be edifying. Now she is hired by a relative of the almost dead Campbell Bradford (Michael J. Rogers). He has to be over 100 years old and is in a coma. The relative wants his story, as Bradford is a bit of an enigma...an evil enigma. Erica sets up her camera and guess what!  Yep. The weird happens. You'll see, but it is creepy.  Now Erica feels compelled to document, in her videos, the story of Bradford and this hotel he owns.  Now she stays at this hotel and sets up shop.

Erica sees things.  Now she is seeing visions and maybe hallucinating. Bradford's past and that of the hotel is a bloody one.  A lot of gory death.  But why?  Did Bradford kill everyone?  Is he still killing everyone? The spooky setting of the hotel will make one think the building is cursed.  She'll find a descendant of Bradford (Andrew J. West).  He is a hunk.  She'll have passion with this descendant.  Then we find out this hunk is kind of psycho.  He likes to blow up things.  I know, who doesn't?  Where is this all leading?  I have to confess, experienced horror film buffs will see where this is going within the first ten minutes of the film.  Still, it is spookily atmospheric and ominous.

Will Erica be all consumed by Bradford and the hotel and not be able to leave?  Is Bradford really the evil being Erica is seeing in her visions?  If you screw a psycho, will you...wait, I withdraw the question.  Like this film or not, horror film fans will be googling this hotel and looking for weekend rates. Trust me.  See "So Cold the River" and finally see a hotel in the movies creepier than The Overlook.  

Trickle Down by B. Harrison Smith, Literature Review

Where did we go wrong? Perhaps we were mistaken.  The mistake was huge. World War 2 ended and our mistake was thinking we won.  President Eisenhower tried to warn us.  Then, maybe America was overthrown when President Kennedy was assassinated by...indeed, by who?  Arthur C. Clarke did an interview, and he was irate.  Mr. Clarke believed everything he wrote about in his book 2001: A Space Odyssey was entirely reachable by 2001...but our Space Shuttle program (under President Reagan) decided to deploy weapons systems instead of searching for new worlds. America's greatness could have solved so many problems in the world, including starvation...instead we have stupid wars, an entertainment industry that makes us stupid, and no ambition and altruism in our national consciousness.  Today we look at Trickle Down by B. Harrison Smith. 

This tome is about John Carpenter's film, 1988's "They Live."  I saw this movie when it came out at the theater.  Thought it was subpar.  That fight scene? Way too long.  Through the 90's, through the first Bush, then through Bill Clinton, then through the second Bush...then, I liked the movie a whole lot more. Eisenhower's warning and a complete view of the 80s economic and social policy cast more light in what Mr. Carpenter was trying to say.  Who better to tell this story than a student of the 80s and a terrific 1980s historian, B. Harrison Smith?  I saw "They Live" because it was made by the fella that made "Halloween."  I should have watched "They Live" because it was made by a man who was furious at America for not caring for the least of us. Jesus did say, "...what you to the least of us, you do to me" (paraphrase).  The least of us (homeless, AIDS patients, crack addicts, public school kids) were left fending for themselves, and the movie maker was incensed.

The military industrial complex (MIC) flourished under Reaganomics. It provided a lot of jobs and wealth for many.  My point...here in the 2020s, allegiance to the MIC has murdered over a million young people in The Ukraine. Leaders of The Ukraine and NATO refuse to talk to Putin. Perhaps diplomacy, real diplomacy, is not good for the MIC. The schools continued to falter, at an alarmingly greater rate as the 80s progressed...but, here it is...as we all believed all was fine and steaming speedily in the right direction.  The miserables in "They Live" suffered from this delusion and John Carpenter was on it. Elites flourish...real peeps suffer, thinking their new electronic devices are worth what ever they put up with. The rich save millions in tax cuts while the real peeps save a nickel. 

Metaphor, satire, and biting irony is delivered in a seemingly subpar movie.  Is this film "subpar," however?  Mr. Smith delves into John Carpenter's reasons for including a seemingly gratuitous fight scene and other plot devices.  Now we understand...as just like Roddy Piper in the film, we now have magic sunglasses on thanks to Mr. Smith.  Not defending President Johnson, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, or the other Bush, Mr. Smith applies what he implores us all to get more of.  Critical thinking!  In his critique of the Reagan Era and what has taken over America since, he understands what John Carpenter was trying to do with the budget he had.  Today, even Senator Lindsey Graham and Speaker of the House Johnson glorify spending money in The Ukraine and more bombings, reminding us U.S. jobs and even our economy will benefit from it.  Who cares if millions more die in bombings in Europe?

Left wing anti-Reagan dribble? There is plenty of that.  Not here.  Critical thinking and honest critique from a guy (Mr. Smith) who was trying to gather enough money to attend a state university back in the 80s.  If you have noticed the homeless creeping toward intersections not too far from your nice house, this book is for you.  Historical context is added, and I mean historical in the sense of who Mr. Smith and Mr. Carpenter are. The last chapter of the book, Mr. Smith gives us a charge...read the book, see the movie, and critically think.  Are the evils of post World War 2 ideology easily exorcised?  Do we really need a cold war mentality to address post cold war problems?  Do we really need to buy things we don't need, or obey people who don't care about us?  Do we need to like Taylor Swift music because Marriott and a whole bunch of companies will be able to hire a lot more Americans if we buy her records?  There's an easy answer to this.  That answer is sadly, "Yes we do." However, if you watch "They Live" for how John Carpenter wanted you to watch it, or if you do what B. Harrison Smith wants us to do, critically think, then maybe the answer is slightly more complicated.

"We're all in this together."  Gag me with a spoon. Yell "Not me!" and apply the Howard Beale philosophy, "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."  This won't be easy, but if you care about your kids and grandchildren...it is imperative.  The great science fiction novelist Robert A. Heinlein professed...you would be shocked how few people would have to do this until a worldwide movement is begun. Don't be a coward like me.  These problems are fixable.  John Carpenter's frustration is that he probably knew that.  We are so much better than we have displayed over the past several decades.  Thank you B. Harrison Smith for this book and forcing us to look at "They Live" with critical thinking" as our guide.  This book is available at Amazon, just click on this link TRICKLE DOWN .