Category: Streaming Alert!

There are many fine things in this world that are simply not built to obtain universal appeal. Maybe it's more important to concern ourselves not with how many people appreciate something, but the depth of the feeling of those who do. I can tell you with certainty that not everybody is going to get/enjoy THE ECLIPSE (2009) but I guarantee a few folks are going to think it's outstanding. If you are interested in the supernatural that should aid in your affection for it and if you've got some Irish in your blood, well that won't hurt either. Can you withstand a romantic drama that features adult characters? Do you have patience? Do you mind the quiet? Do you like to read? Yeses to these questions will come in handy. You might also be required to be the type of person who can live with not everything being identified, tagged and put away in the proper drawer. Most urgently though, I suspect you'd better believe in ghosts. Hopefully you've even encountered one or two.

The haunted looking CIARAN HINDS (THERE WILL BE BLOOD) plays a widower knee deep in grief whose job it is to chauffer authors about a small seaside town during a literary festival. Lately he's been seeing spooky apparitions and so he cozies up to a novelist (IBEN HJEJLE) whose writing suggests she'd be less skeptical than most. She's got some baggage too, most notably a lecherous, drunk hook up (AIDAN QUINN) that she can't seem to scrape off her shoe. Basically we've got a four-sided love triangle with one of those sides being already dead. I love this cast. CIABRAN breaks your heart and HJEJLE should be in so many more movies. I kept thinking that I knew her somehow and yes, I do; I met her in HIGH FIDELITY and MIFUNE years ago and then we totally lost touch. Do you know who has aged well? AIDAN QUINN. Here he's playing against type as a belligerent miscreant and he's surprisingly successful at being repellent!

Here's something else I should confess. There is a scare in this movie that knocked my unsuspecting boots off. I can't promise it'll have the same effect on you, but it really, truly got to me. Maybe I was taken off guard because the movie is so generally hushed and melancholic or maybe it was just really late at night. Perhaps I was somewhat hypnotized by HJEJLE's character reading out loud a finely tuned description of how the mind reacts when facing the dead. I don't want to spoil the shock for those who might be susceptible too, but a big heap of the credit falls on the way the music is handled. You are sort of surrounded by soaring angelic chanting that abruptly transforms into a horrific banshee shriek and it's like a marching band walking on your grave. I felt like somebody poured a tub of ice water down the back of my shirt and the sensation stuck around. I know, now I've got your expectations up and you'll watch it and be bored out of your skull. Sorry about that but even if your hair does not turn as white as mine did, you may still find this worthwhile. But again, only if you like ghosts stories and only if you can stand the quiet.

Today's Sunday Streaming pick is PENELOPE SPHEERIS' THE BOYS NEXT DOOR! How can you say no to both a psycho killing spree road movie and a sleazy L.A. circa 1985 flick all in one? This is a movie that I once caught on late night cable a zillion years ago and it left a permanent mark on my brain. I found it really compelling and impossible to turn off and yet I never wanted to watch it again because it disturbed me. I should lie and tell you that I was disturbed by the vicious misogynistic, racist, homophobic killings that pepper the film or even that I took offense to an old lady being conked on the head with a beer bottle but the sad truth is, I was rattled by the fact that a little dog is kidnapped and left on a beach far away from home!

The "boys" of the title are Roy (a post-GREASE 2 MAXWELL CAULFIELD) and Bo (a pre-PLATOON CHARLIE SHEEN). Rebels without a conscious, the two have just graduated high school and have only soulless factory work to look forward to. SHEEN is the ghost of his father in BADLANDS and CAUFIELD does his best American sociopath by dropping his accent and lumbering around like an inhabitant of THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU. Ignored by their parents and scorned by their peers, you can't blame these two for stealing a car and searching for greener pastures. Unfortunately for many, they are unable to outdrive the lit wick of the explosive rage they have against the world that's not their oyster. It's not long before innocent drunk cougars (PATTI D'ARBANVILLE) and optimistic gay dudes are being beaten to death for inviting the wolves in tight sheep clothing home.

THE BOYS NEXT DOOR is built to unnerve, it opens with news clippings reminding us how harmless appearing the most savage serial killers are. Like many films focusing on those who break against society the audience may find themselves torn between being mortified by their escalating deeds and oddly pulling for them not to get caught. SPHEERIS keeps things from getting too heavy by throwing in a cop that we can relate to (CAULFIELD's GREASE 2 co-star CHRISTOPHER McDONALD) and by drumming up energy with a lively soundtrack. Roy and Bo's actions aren't nearly as fascinating as their complicated relationship but how deep you want to dive into that psychological tar pit is up to you. I'm thinking for many seeing 1985 captured in a bottle complete with a MOON UNIT ZAPPA appearance should be enough.

UNK SEZ: Every winner is currently available on Netflix Streaming!

Actress In A Supporting Role: AUDRA LINDLEY, SPELLBINDER (1988)

Actor In A Supporting Role: JEFFREY COMBS, DARK HOUSE (2009)

Music (Original Score): STELVIO CIPRIANI, TENTACLES (1977)

Music (Original Song): ALICE COOPER "Identity Crisis" MONSTER DOG (1984)

Production Design: DOLLS (1987)

Visual Effects: POLTERGEIST III (1988)

Makeup: THE BEAST WITHIN (1982)

Costume Design: THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982)

Hair Styling: THE BABY (1973)

Achievement In Dentistry: LEVIATHAN (1989)

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): THE SENTINEL (1977)

Writing (Original Screenplay): KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988)

Cinematography: EATEN ALIVE (1977)

Foreign Language Film: TROLL HUNTER(2010)

Documentary: HER MASTER'S VOICE (2012)

Actress In A Leading Role: GLORIA GRAHAME, BLOOD AND LACE (1971)

Actor In A Leading Role: STEVE RAILSBACK, SCISSORS (1991)

Actress In A Chearleading Role: KELLI MARONEY, NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984)

Actor In A People Eating Role: JEREMY RENNER: DAHMER (2002)

Prom King And Queen: TOM SIZEMORE & LINDA HUNT, THE RELIC (1997)

Most Romantic Monkey: "Ella" aka BOO, MONKEY SHINES (1988)

Best This Thing: DOG A-PILLAR? HOUSE 2: THE SECOND STORY (1987)

Directing: JEFF LIEBERMAN, SQUIRM (1976)

Best Picture: HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980)

Can I recommend 75% of this movie and warn you about the remaining 25%? If you can appreciate a thoroughly eighties supernatural thriller complete with a shamelessly obtrusive soundtrack, grievous apparel and a near non-stop barrage of light shafts shooting through Venetian blinds then you, like me, will want to see this. The rub is that to experience these wonderful things you'll also have to endure PIERCE BROSNAN speaking with an excruciating French accent. It sounds easier than it is. My tip is to use your imagination and pretend that it is not happening, that's what I did. I just kept a straight face and willed myself into hearing something different than what I was. It's worth the effort because as mawkish as this movie can sometimes be, it also, occasionally, hits a profoundly eerie note especially if you watch it late at night when your brain is partially defenseless. There's a scene in this flick involving a nun that is straight out of THE SENTINEL. I'm not exactly sure what it meant or why it happened but it spooked me all the same. In fact, there's much creativity on display involving the mixing of perspectives and realities, even if every artsy stab doesn't successfully hit its mark. I'm even going to forgive the near nuclear level of soapy melodrama it secretes because I'm rationalizing that it adds to the dream like tone. But again, you must brace yourself for the accent.

You'd never know it but NOMADS is about a group of wandering evil spirits haunting L.A. in the guise of MTV-style hooligans. Once you become aware of them you're better off dead because they will not stop harassing you and they will even drive motorcycles into your house! There's a lot of delectable mumbo jumbo about these rascals being attracted to places where awful things have occurred and about Los Angeles being built on a desert that no one should call home. As far as my needs are concerned though, the most important thing to know about this demonic tribe is that they are portrayed by the likes of ADAM ANT, JOSIE COTTON and I shit you not, MARY WORONOV!!! Witnessing WORONOV dancing on the hood of a car is worth enduring a thousand phony baloney accents! Sorry, I don't mean to beat a dead horse, it's just that I'm convinced that BROSNAN's accent is solely responsible for this movie being marginalized and worse still, it's really so unnecessary to the story! (Seriously, if I was a producer who saw a rough cut I would have got on the horn and demanded the whole thing be re-dubbed.) Sans grueling accent, you may not have a blockbuster but at least you've got a stylish, super-quirky, mind-trippy, cult-oddity that ridiculous though it may be, leaves a uniquely haunting impression. Frankly I'm a little surprised that writer/ director JOHN McTIERNAN was ever allowed to work again, but I'm so glad he was because he later delivered the classics DIE HARD and PREDATOR! Tres bien!

JOE DANTE's THE HOWLING is one of the best werewolf movies ever made but the litter of disconnected sequels running around with its name on their collar are mostly runts. The possible lone exception is THE HOWLING 5: THE REBIRTH which has recently shown up on Netflix Streaming. I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to jump into the fifth installment of a notoriously lackluster series but this flick can stand alone and might be better thought of as a loose remake of THE BEAST MUST DIE!. The pacing can be sluggish and the acting can be woeful but you may find yourself happily looking past any and all faults in order to hang out in such a fantastic setting. THE HOWLING 5 takes place in a desolate castle in Budapest, full of secret passages and candle lit halls and best of all there is a impenetrable blizzard raging outside!

The set-up is akin to a classic whodunit mystery with a group of strangers receiving invitations to show up for an event only to be isolated and killed off one by one, in this case by a guest who happens to have fangs. Why, there's even a shady butler and creepy maid on board to fill out the suspect/victim list! On Netflix the movie is presented full screen and looks every inch a VHS rental or late night cable watch circa 1989. I should warn you in advance that there are no gooey transformation scenes and that our werewolf is only shown in the briefest of flashes. I know that's sad but it ultimately adds to the effect that you are watching something classier than you are. If it's any consolation, THE HOWLING 5 does sport a mean decapitation, it's not bloody but it's well staged and fiendishly cruel enough to get a thumbs up from me. Approach this one with an open mind, I have a feeling as soon as your ears catch the gloomy goth late-eighties score you'll want to save this puppy from the pound.

Hey it's Sunday Streaming time again! The movie I'm recommending today, FRAGILE (2005), certainly deserves a more in depth examination on this site but for now let me just say that if you are a fan of ghost stories, you'll want to see it. It's directed by the hugely talented JAUME BALAQUERO who delivered the horrifying adaptation of RAMSEY CAMPBELL's THE NAMELESS, the flawed but atmospheric DARKNESS and the instant classic [REC]. As is frequently the case with Netflix Streaming, you'll do yourself a favor by ignoring the advertising art supplied which consists of a floating, half space alien looking face and a sadly more meaningless by the minute FANGORIA FRIGHT FEST banner. Do not be worried that ubiquitous late nineties menace CALISTA (ALLIE MCBEAL) FLOCKHART stars, she's quite good in it and the more you think abut it, the more her brittle, twitchy presence makes sense.

FLOCKHART plays nurse Amy Nicholls who has recently started working the night shift at an unnervingly grim children's hospital that is in the midst of packing up and closing down. The children speak of a ghostly presence that lingers on the abandoned second floor named Charlotte who is creepily described as a "mechanical" girl. By all appearances this spirit seems to be raging against being left behind and has taken to smashing bones and throwing people out windows. Of course, nothing is as it seems, there is a mystery that must be solved and Amy must separate the hospital's woeful history from the guilty baggage she brought with her. FRAGILE goes to some seriously dank, dark and convincingly eerie, seriously scary places and like all the best ghost stories it has a tragic heart that plays with your sympathies as much as your fears. File this one right between HOUSE OF VOICES and THE ORPHANAGE. If it's not as well regarded as those two flicks it's only due to its willingness to dive further into unpleasantness.

First off, allow me to thank our pal Chuckles72 for guiding me towards this movie on Netflix Streaming. I would have never watched it on my own accord because the poster art representing the flick (at least on Netflix) stinks. I know that sex sells but it grinds my gears when a dumb image is used to sell a smart movie because what better way to repel the people who might actually enjoy the film while also disappointing those who fell for your mislead? Unlike the advertising art, THE DEVIL'S ROCK is not about a sexy Nazi lady and my apologies to the actress in the film who does an excellent job of not slipping into Velveeta only to be photo-shopped swimming in it later. I also have to admit that adding to my aversion is the fact that I'm a hard sell when it comes to war movies. The way some folks feel about horror (Why would anyone choose to watch that?) is how I generally feel about war movies (with the lone exception of FULL METAL JACKET because…KUBRICK). I tell you this only to underline that Chuckles had his work cut out for him in swaying me but being aware of his exceptional taste based on his IAHTKY, I knew I had to trust him!

And he was right. THE DEVIL'S ROCK is a well-acted and bewitching occult thriller and I'm all for a movie being compact and dialogue-driven while still having zero qualms about letting the heads roll. Turns out as much as I hate me some Nazis, my interest cannot resist getting piqued when they are making the foolish mistake of dabbling in the black arts. I forgot all about the "RAIDERS" rule which is, Nazis are great…when their faces are melting off! THE DEVIL'S ROCK tells a tale that takes place on D-Day when two kiwi soldiers attempt to take over an island isolated German bunker only to find that most of its inhabitants have already been ripped to shreds. There is a beautiful woman chained to a wall and quicker than you can say SATAN'S TRIANGLE we are given the gist that she is much more than she seems. Since we're talking about a streaming movie here, I'm loath to give much more away but comparisons never hurt do they? This movie reminded me a lot of THE KEEP in its themes and it also brought to my mind CLIVE BARKER's HELLRAISER in its theatric sparseness and fascination with how deep into the pit some may be willing to go when evil uses love as bait. The acting really is exceptional and if you desire atmosphere, you'll get a strong dose right from scene one. Check this one out and if you like it, remember, don't thank me, thank Chuckles72!

Look under your carpet! Chances are something worthwhile is swept under there. I would have passed this one right by if I had not found out it was directed by the great JOE DANTE (GREMLINS). Even with that information, I admit to being a little hesitant. Who wants to see a movie about a hole? I guess it's admirable to keep a sense of mystery afloat but talk about hiding your light under a bushel! Folks, if your movie features a diabolical harlequin doll, lead with that! The evil doll is always your selling point! You can't say, "Oh, this movie is about a hole in the ground" and leave it at that. That's crazy. So now, please allow me to rectify that slight and tell you first and foremost that THE HOLE has an evil doll in it and it looks like this…

…nuff said… but I'll say a little (spoiler-free) more. In truth, this semi-dark fantasy isn't any more about a doll than it is about a hole. It's about three young people facing their fears and childhood traumas. If you are a fan of DANTE's GREMLINS, his surreal, superior segment in THE TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE or his lovable penchant for DICK MILLER cameos, you'll want to jump into this pit. We're not talking new territory by a long shot but if you grew up delighting on the likes of THE GATE, POLTERGEIST, PAPERHOUSE or DREAMSCAPE , the familiar places THE HOLE takes you may produce a frothy nostalgic buzz more valuable than innovation. I certainly wish the climax was better played for more impact (our mostly likeable lead freezes up during scenes with the most emotional potential) but that's a small gripe considering the fun had throughout. Like DANTE's best work, it can be appreciated by folks of various ages and any remarks that it may be too dark for children I'll translate to mean it doesn't condescend. One thing is clear, THE HOLE deserves much more attention than it has garnered thus far and even though it sometimes feels like half the film it was meant to be, it's still worth a spin, if only to catch DANTE once again relishing how small things cast large shadows.

Hey, remember back in the good old days when every Sunday we'd spotlight films on Netflix Streaming and we called it STREAM WARRIORS? But then it stopped happening because I was half lazy and half hated the name STREAM WARRIORS. Well now here it comes again, except I'm calling it something else and instead of forcing myself to focus on three movies a week, I plan to just do one. One is enough. I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm doing on the Internet. I'm not a chatty person.

Hooray STAKE LAND is available on Netflix Streaming! This is a perfect flick to talk about because it's a movie I would never have taken a chance on unless someone told me to. The reason I would have probably stayed away is because who needs another vampire flick and who needs another apocalyptic road movie and who needs to see everybody running around trying to act cool? I don't. I'd usually much rather watch a movie about a talking doll or pissed off animals that have gone crazy. Meanwhile everything I prejudged about STAKE LAND based on its packaging and subject matter was way off. This movie creates an impressive, believable world and occupies it with people that you can't help grow to care about. It's a grounded in a way that movies rarely are anymore and it leaves you feeling like you've actually experienced something. Plus KELLY McGILLIS is in it. Aren't you in the mood to see her today? I'm telling you, it's perfect for a Sunday afternoon so believe me. There, I'm done. That wasn't so bad. See ya next Sunday! Also: Do let us know if you've caught any good fish in the Netflix sea yourself!