Teenager Scott Howard has some growing pains. Living with single dad Harold and working part time in his hardware store; Scott is already fearing mediocrity and dreading it. He’s playing for the lousy school basketball team who haven’t won a game in years and pining for popular girl Pamela who won’t give him a second look. His lifelong friend Boof adores him but he doesn’t think of her in the same way. He just ain’t as popular or successful as he’d like to be.
From way back I remember seeing the phrase; “A portmanteau film”. It was associated with a film made by Amicus Productions that I had on DVD. It was a double feature release that had “Tales From the Crypt” (1972) and “Vault of Horror” (1973). For years that word, portmanteau, stuck with me without me knowing at all what it meant. Turns out it’s just a fancy alternative for Anthology film.
Amicus made seven portmanteau films in all and were active in the filmmaking business in the years 1962 to 1977. At it’s best the studio even rivalled the legendary Hammer Film Productions. I’m quite a fan of anthology films and decided to raid my collection and see what I had. Turns out I must have leant out my DVD of “Tales from the Crypt”/”Vault of Horror” because it was completely MIA but I do possess four quite good Blu-ray releases of Amicus films.
I remember when “I, Madman” was issued on Blu-ray in 2015 I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. It’s stylishly set up as the film’s villain is introduced in the fictional world of author Malcolm Brand’s pulpy horror novel that’s gotten hold of Virginia’s imagination. As the film progresses the villain, in a variety of icky incarnations, appears in both the real world Virigina inhabits and in the fictional world she’s smitten with.
A trio of students, Molly, Ben and Dylan, head to school after it closes for the holidays hoping to make a documentary of a horrific double murder that took place there a year before. They accidentally get locked inside and discover something sinister is lurking about.
In the town of Fairwater seemingly healthy citizens are dropping like flies due to mysterious and sudden heart conditions. Frank Bannister, a fake psychic investigator, discovers that an entity resembling the Grim Reaper is literally stopping the hearts of people and carving numbers in their foreheads detailing it’s amount of fatalities…
A nasty demon is awakened at Hull House, an abandoned mortuary, where a group of teenagers are partying on Halloween night. The demon possesses two of them and soon bloody carnage ensues as the pair kills, and then possesses, the rest of the group.
A few years later students are preparing for a celebration where a few of them decide to visit Hull House. This new group of teens catch Angela’s attention and some more demon mayhem is unleashed.
