Fraudzilla

While in this day and age every 2-Bit character in the realms of comics seems eligible for a movie, people can easily forget the strange world that was comic book adaptations in the 1990s. Bizarrely, original IPs like M. A. N. T. I. S and Darkman seemed to have more luck making their way to the screen than established characters.

There were infamous non-starters like Canon's Spider-Man and X-Men projects, Nicolas Cage spent pretty much the entire decade trying to get any and every comic character from Superman to Iron Man to screen and the infamous case of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four that was made with the intention of never being released, falling somewhere inbetween all of these there's Doctor Mordrid.

What is known is that Charles Band had intended to create an adaptation of Marvel Comics Doctor Strange. How far along this got is unclear, as is why it fell through, but regardless, Charles Band decided to soldier on with his own picture. Doctor Stranger if you will.

Our unusual GP is, in fact, Anton Mordrid (Jeffrey Combs) largely reclusive landlord of a New York high rise who only ventures out to teach seminars on the dark arts.

This is largely because he spends most of his time monitoring the World from supernatural threats. This has been running smoothly, until his world gets gatecrashed by his sultry neighbour Samantha (Yvette Nipar) who falls for him. She is a police advisor, which causes problems when she refers Lt Gaudino (Tony Gaudino) to him for help with a case.

The problem is that the police suspect him, mainly because the culprit is his brother Kabal (Brian Thompson) an evil sorcerer who has recently escaped from a century long spell in captivity and plans on bringing about the end of the World.

The plot of the movie is somehow simultaneously convoluted and too short, but reigns itself in well enough on the key points that it's a fairly enjoyable ride. It's not without faults, primarily how little action there is - Mordrid and Kabal's first showdown also happens to be their final one and we see precious little of their magical powers, but the enjoyable parts do offset this fairly well, particularly when the climatic battle involves stop-motion skeletons of prehistoric beasts.

One of the things I do enjoy is trying to work out what parts got added to the script after the Strange license got lost. Genuinely I doubt much. While it wouldn't exactly be a faithful representation of Strange lore...comic book adaptations didn't always (or, well, ever) pay much heed to their source material. See also: Superman's weird symbol weapon, The Joker killing Batman's parents, the semi-sympathetic, Italian, Red Skull and the entire plot of Steel.

Still, the transition from Marvel property to unique Full Moon IP does bring with it arguably the movie's biggest problem - it's tonally all over the place. 95% of is child friendly comic book fare, but then there's a few fairly nasty shootings and a 110% gratuitous female nudity scene, almost as if Full Moon felt their fanbase needed this to watch a movie.

It's got a small but pretty tight genre cast. Combs is pretty stiff but it fits the character, and it's nice to see him as a hero for once. Thompson is B-Movie villainy royalty, and while there's little nuance to his portrayal, this is far from his first rodeo and he knows how to play a villain. Nipar is better known, by me anyway, as a childhood crush from the Robocop series, and while she's a bit wide eyed and naive, I put that down to the script more.

The funny thing about the movie is that while it was clearly made on a budget, there's actually been a bit of work went into this - some nice sets, the aforementioned stop-motion sequence...yes it's clearly Direct-To-Video, but I'd say it looks pretty damn good for it.

Overall, this is a neat little oddity. I'd have loved it as a kid, and in all honesty change the names and title to Doctor Strange and it would be far from the worst 90s comic book movie.

As it stands, it's a pretty fun little adventure that you almost certainly won't watch twice, but can pass an afternoon with.

I'll admit, there aren't that many English language horror movies that made it to video in the 90s that I'm not at least aware of, but Night of the Scarecrow took me by surprise, I'll admit. It is possibly I had actually seen its title before, but in my head confused it with either Scarecrows, a 1988 movie, or any of those entirely disposable horror movies that came out post truth of the century that seemed to favour scarecrows as an antagonist.

Indeed, Scarecrows are a recurring menace in all walks of fiction, villains in both Marvel & DC comics, numerous movies, a Tales from the Crypt episode...there's even a Goosebumps book about one. Yet I can't think of any definitive turn for one as a villain, which does make me wonder why it's such a popular touchstone for horror writers, even though there's been limited success?

This didn't have any names I recognised, and upon looking up director Jeff Burr, the immediate standout on his CV is Witchouse 2, one of the worst movies I've ever seen, so hopes weren't high.

The movie follows Dillon (John Mese) a construction worker who has pulled up in a small American town in search of work. He quickly befriends Claire (Elizabeth Barondes) whom it turns out is daughter of town Mayor Frank Goodman (Stephen Root)

The Goodman's run this town in all faucets, with the Mayor, chief of police and priest all part of the deep rooted clan.

This are going fine until local town reprobates take a joyride on a tractor and wind up crashing into and destroying a mysterious stone crypt. This releases the spirit of an ancient warlock, who possesses a nearby scarecrow.

As he begins a rampage across the town, Dillon has to not only stay alive, but work out how to defeat the straw slayer while uncovering his motives, and why he has a vendetta against the Goodman clan.

So the plot isn't going to rock your world, but in all honesty, it's relatively engaging, and does at least have a bit more to it that the majority of slasher films of the era (the genre was about to receive a big facelift courtesy of Scream) and while it's not original, it is workable.

Where it does hold some real appeal for horror aficionados is the rather creative ways the scarecrow offs his victims. It starts with a simple pitchfork but his supernatural nature grants him a few more unique means to dispose of his victims. It's not that gory as such, with a few exceptions, but his use of straw is somewhat unsettling.

One thing I'm on the fence about, which based on the trivia here was a late change, is the nature of the Scarecrow's vocal capacity. I mean he talks. Apparently Burr stopped short of having him make wisecracks, but he is relatively vocal, which is a bizarre middle ground that I never really come to terms with. I think his few outbursts are meant to be creepy, but they fall a bit flat for me.

The effects work is generally quite decent to be fair. It's not pushing the boundaries or anything but more than acceptable for a movie of this ilk.

On that note, this is a strange beast. In terms of production values, this feels somewhere between a Straight-To-Video and a TV Movie in terms of budget. The effects and general quality of the film feels good, but the acting, while not awful, is a bit below par. I mean there's nothing off putting, but I feel like it's missing a character actor or two to steal the show.

Indeed, this is a strange one to try and rate. It's not a 'good' movie by any stretch, not even fun enough right be a cult classic, yet at the same time it's relatively engaging for fans of the genre, so if tit get the chance to stream it for free...it's a passable way to spend a night indoors. Don't set your hopes too high and you should be fine.

I'm going to confess, I didn't have much hope for Seedpeople when I stuck it on. It's one of those movies I've been loosely aware of for several years, but never really appealed to me, despite my love of B-Movies. Alien plant people sounded a little too on the nose 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' for me. Sticking this on was the result of a very bored Friday before payday. When the Full Moon logo greeted me, my heart sank.

The film is narrated, from his hospital bed, by Tom Baines (Sam Hennings) a meteorologist who had returned to his home town of Comet Valley to investigate a meteor that has crashed.

Here he has to link up with his former flame Heidi (Andrea Roth) and her teenage niece Kim (Holly Fields) whom she is now guardian of. The town has all of the classic small town tropes here, from Heidi's suspicious new boyfriend, the Sheriff Brad (Dane Witherspoon) and town nutjob Doc (Bernard Kates).

Kim has been raising eyebrows and causing Heidi stress by stating townspeople aren't who they say they are, something that also rings true of Doc. The more Tom investigates the 'meteorite' he realises it, and certain people, are not what it seems. With the town isolated due to bridge repairs, Tom realises the Doc might be right, and the pair might have to join forces to take on this alien threat.

I'm gonna come right out and say it, I was pleasantly surprised by this. It's silly, but in the most wonderful of ways. Despite being made in 1992, this looks, and feels, very much like it was made in 1985, and that's more a compliment than a criticism. It reminds me a bit of Critters, and while nowhere near as good, that's a good thing.

While this doesn't have an original bone in its body, it moves at a brisk pace, offers some fun characters, creative effects and entertaining set pieces. If Charles Band was capable of stuff like this, why did he persist with so many rubbish killer doll films?

The creatures themselves are fun. There are different types, with no real explanation, and while not exactly a masterclass in realism, the practical effects used to bring them to life are fun. The designs remind me of the little sidekick monster characters you'd get with some 80s action figures. The Ghostlings from Supernaturals meet Real Ghostbusters Companion Ghosts.

Acting is, well not great, but better than your average Full Moon feature. I mean all of the principle cast have acted to a decent standard since then.

When all is said and done, you can't honestly call this a good movie, but at the same time...it's largely some good, mostly clean, B-Movie Sci-Fi horror fun. It's not really scary or gruesome, so I can imagine I'd have enjoyed this as a kid.

If you like 80s B-Movies, there's a solid chance you'll get a kick out of this. It's not worth going out of your way to track down, but it'll pass a night in a fairly good fun manner.