TERRORVISION (1986)

 This is a very dumb 80s horror movie about an alien Jabba The Hut-like monster who pops out of T.V.s and eats people. I think what makes this one enjoyable, to me anyway, is the presence of Mary Woronov as the swingin' mom. I probably would rate it even higher if it had Paul Bartel in it. Sadly though he does not show up. What does show up is a heavy metal high-schooler named O.D.(Jon Gries), a valley girl, a swinging Greek fellow(Alejandro Rey), a grenade-tossing, machine gun-toting grandpa and a whole slew of similarly wacky characters. There's also a great theme song and some music by the band W.A.S.P.. Despite the gore being mostly just green blood and piles of slimy goop this one makes for a good drunken movie night viewing with some friends and is better than many things made by Empire Pictures at this time.

CHOPPING MALL (1986)

 Kelli Maroney, from NIGHT OF THE COMET, and a few of her friends spend the night in a mall with killer robots(or KILLBOTS as the original title called them). CHOPPING MALL sounds like the title of a slasher movie, which this basically is, except instead of a homicidal killer you get 3 out of control, laser-shooting robots who might rip your neck out, electrocute you or blow your head to smithereens(in the films big money-shot/show-stopper scene). The plot is about as basic as it gets but all the elements are there(blood, boobs & beasts(technically metal beasts in this case but same idea))for a good stupid horror flick. As a bonus the film is only around 70 minutes long so you get in and out nice and quick.
 The cast in this is pretty sweet with Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov showing up in the beginning as their characters from EATING RAOUL which makes me want to go re-watch that film again soon and Dick Miller as Walter Paisley which was his character from A BUCKET OF BLOOD as well as a bunch of other things.
 Julie Corman was the producer here and her husband Roger's b-movie classic ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS shows up playing on TV.

SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1972)

 I've owned this movie for years on a cheap-ass dollar DVD and just now managed to make it through the whole movie without falling asleep. I think maybe I should get a medal for this. If you haven't figured it out yet this movie is really slow going. On the surface it has a lot of things going for it. Some of the greatest horror and exploitation films ever came out of the the 70s and this one seems like it should fit into this category(for some reason though it was filmed in 1970 and not released until 1972?). Another positive is Mary Woronov who is in a ton of great Roger Corman flicks and is one of my personal favorite actresses. But even her greatness, along with John Carradine, who doesn't really do much here, don't really make this film worth seeking out. Also for a good half of the movie she seems to be reading her lines very stiffly for some reason. I will give the film credit for creating a really creepy atmospheric mood and if you watch it alone at 3am it does give you a bit of a spooky feeling thanks mostly to the whispering murderer here. There's also a couple of giallo-esque moments with a black-gloved killer who gets a couple of bloody kills in but it's all kind of spread out among a bunch of boring and confusing dialogue scenes.
 I've seen people give this movie credit for inspiring Bob Clark's BLACK CHRISTMAS which I guess is based on the phone calling killer's weirdness but it seems kind of stupid to say one was copied from the other since they both came out around the same time and even if this is true Clark made a way more entertaining film.  Check that one out for a real holiday slasher classic and only watch this if you're a cheap DVD buying gentleman like myself. AKA DEATH HOUSE