Curse of the Blue Lights

I read numerous warnings about this movie being a totally worthless and inept piece of garbage, so I watched the crummy VHS (yes, I still watch movies on VHS in 2015…) with an absolute minimum of expectations. Great was my astonishment when "Curse of the Blue Lights" suddenly began with a terrific and powerfully atmospheric scene involving a scarecrow that comes to life and viciously pursues a petrified farmer! Good horror movies with scarecrows are, well, scarce and thus I even had a little bit of hope for a brief moment. Could it be that this isn't a dud at all, but a misunderstood and wrongfully ridiculed late '80s gem? No, of course not, the powerful scarecrow opening is just a fluke and the rest of the film is unendurable nonsense. "Curse of the Blue Lights" fits into a series of late '80s horror films that are child friendly – on the verge of childish, in fact – and feature wannabe comical screenplays, dim- witted lead characters, brainless dialogs and utterly cheesy make-up effects. Other, similar films like this one include "Spookies", "Cameron's Closet" and "The Monster Squad". I can't really say I liked any of these very much, but "Curse of the Blue Lights" is by far the worst. It's only been 2 days since I watched and already I can't remember much about it apart from the scarecrow intro and a handful of brief flashes involving fat, green-faced and inarticulate ghouls. I'll admit that – once again – the cool title and intriguing artwork on the cover lured me into watching something that should have been forgotten longtime.

The basic plot of "Curse of the Blue Lights" revolves around a decrepit group of ghouls living beneath a Colorado cemetery. Aside from consuming the dead, they are plotting to raise the petrified remains of a towering entity. Enter a group of teenagers who get involved caught up in their plot and must struggle to stop the ghouls and avoid a gruesome fate.

Apparently inspired to some extent by the works of writer H.P. Lovecraft, this low-budget offering has surprisingly sophisticated makeup effects, but little else. The acting is poor and some of the dialogue is bad to the point of pathetic. Some is evidently intended for humor, but the result appears rather childish. Strong points include sets and some of the shooting locations as well as the special makeup effects. Die hard fans of ghoul and zombie flicks might have some interest in this one, but most other viewers should steer clear.

It's been a long time since I've seen this but I remember being tempted by the cover and the title in our local video store for months before I took a gamble and rented it. Boy, what a disappointment! I've got a pretty good memory when it comes to movie plots and the fact that I can't remember much about this one except for the gruesome makeup isn't a good sign. Like the other review here says, the script was horrid and the acting was worse. I get the idea that it was made by some guys with good makeup and FX skills... but not a lot else.

Despite being pretty bad I'd actually like to see it again to refresh my memory and see if there might be something worthwhile I'd missed the first time. Sometimes even the worst movies have redeeming qualities or a gem of a (badly executed) idea.

I hoped for something like Return of the Living Dead but got instead some muppets-like "horror" show. Well, show is maybe a too favorable word to describe Curse of the Blue Lights - the movie somewhat does not know if it wants to be a serious horror movie or a horror comedy, in the end the director and writer achieved to conjure up a bad mix that provides not much really funny jokes nor some serious gore and feel for horror. Anyway, this one is not a total waste or failure, and in the case you are one of those rare lone wolfs still hunting for some unknown 80s horror cheese, this one may fill your belly. Verdict: meanders on the thin line of really bad and cheesy.

My review was written in April 1990 after watching the movie on Magnum video cassette.

Nice special effects highlight this regional horror pic, a one-man effort made in Colorado by John Henry Johnson three years ago and currently in video stores.

Title refers to a remote weekend hangout, reportedly haunted, on the outskirts of the small town of Dudley, where teens congregate. Unfortunately for Patrick Keller and his chums, three ghouls in a crypt led by Brent Ritter are conjuring up the dreaded Muldoon Man, a missing link of sorts, to take over Earth.

THe kids go to witch Bettina Julius for help. They ultimately defeat the baddies, including the Muldoon Man, who blows up real good at the cemetery climax.

Naive pic is fun to watch and could have been a sleeper success if Johnson had built his story around something less cliched than the old "teens on an outing" standby. The Acting is weak, but makeup effects are interesting. Johnson has done his homework, even coming up with a nice Jean Cocteau-invented mirror-to-another-dimension gimmick.