There are good bad movies, and then there’s Dolly Dearest—a horror flick so clumsy it makes you nostalgic for Child’s Play 3. Released in 1991, this supernatural stinker tried to ride the coattails of Chucky’s fame but instead ended up tripping over its own porcelain shoes. It’s the kind of movie that takes an ancient … Read More “Dolly Dearest (1991): The Killer Doll That Forgot to Be Scary” »
By 1991, Italian horror was already on life support, clinging to the last gasps of the glory days of Fulci and Argento. Enter Umberto Lenzi with Black Demons, or as some poor VHS buyers thought, Demoni 3. Spoiler: it has absolutely nothing to do with Bava’s Demons series, and that’s not just a technicality—it’s a … Read More “Black Demons (1991): The Wrong Kind of Resurrection” »
There are bad sequels, and then there are sequels in name only, where the studio just slaps a recognizable title onto something completely unrelated in a desperate attempt to trick video store renters in 1991. Curse III: Blood Sacrifice—originally titled Panga, which sounds more like a yoga studio than a horror film—lands squarely in the … Read More “Curse III: Blood Sacrifice (1991) – When the Real Curse Is Having to Watch It” »
There’s a certain joy in watching a film that doesn’t just dip its toes into absurdity but cannonballs into it, arms flailing, making sure everyone around gets soaked in the splash. Children of the Night is that kind of movie. Directed by Tony Randel (of Hellbound: Hellraiser II fame), this 1991 horror-comedy takes the well-trodden … Read More “Children of the Night (1991): A B-Movie Baptism in Blood and Laughter” »
If you thought a murderous doll was scary, wait until you see one try to survive a military school movie with the pacing of wet cement and the creativity of a homework assignment scribbled on the bus. Child’s Play 3 is the cinematic equivalent of watching your favorite horror icon slowly die of boredom while … Read More “Child’s Play 3 (1991): Chucky Goes to Boot Camp (And So Do We)” »
James Patterson’s 1980 novel Virgin wasn’t exactly screaming to be adapted into a television movie. But in 1991, someone at CBS decided that what America needed wasn’t The Exorcist with gravitas, but rather The Exorcist filtered through Hallmark. The result is Child of Darkness, Child of Light, a film so bland and confused it feels … Read More “Child of Darkness, Child of Light (1991): Proof That Not Every Novel Needs a Movie” »
There’s something inherently cozy about sitting around a campfire. The crackle of the wood, the smell of smoke, the nervous anticipation when someone begins with, “This is a true story, it happened to a friend of a friend…” It’s a primal tradition: scaring each other into believing the dark is full of monsters. Unfortunately, Campfire … Read More “Campfire Tales (1991) When the Fire Goes Out and the Stories Fall Flat” »
Somewhere in the seedy underbelly of early ’90s genre cinema, The Borrower squats like a mutant offshoot of science fiction and horror that nobody asked for but everyone accidentally rented once at Blockbuster. Directed by John McNaughton—the same man who gave the world the brilliant, disturbing Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer—this follow-up feels like … Read More “The Borrower (1991): When Bad Heads Happen to Good Movies” »
Some horror movies are hidden gems, overlooked by time and waiting to be rediscovered. The Boneyard is not one of them. It’s the sort of film that deserves to stay buried, preferably under a landfill, with a cement slab and a “Do Not Disturb” sign bolted on top. Released direct-to-video in 1991, it tries to … Read More “The Boneyard (1991): When Horror Dies of Embarrassment” »
Some movies exist to scare you. Others exist to entertain you. And then there are movies like Body Parts (1991), which exist purely to remind you never to sign medical consent forms under anesthesia. Directed by Eric Red, the guy who wrote Near Dark and The Hitcher, Body Parts is a Frankenstein story filtered through … Read More “Body Parts (1991): When Self-Improvement Goes Horribly, Hilariously Wrong” »