DVD Collectors Online

The Witches' Mountain, a review by Jimmy

Title : The Witches' Mountain (1972)

Overview
A newspaper photographer and his girlfriend are traveling through the mountains on an assignment to photograph a legendary haunted peak. Stopping at a castle near the mountain to rest for the evening, they discover that not all is as it seems. The castle is the home of a coven of witches that call the peak their own and wish to keep any strangers away from their activities.

My Impression
A little bit better than my previous one, but honestly this is not the harder goal to achieves. The problem with this movie is that its really really really slow... Nothing really happen in the first 70 minutes, if your movie had a length of 5 hours it's ok but if your running time is actually 85 minutes maybe it's a problem. The other thing is that those 15 minutes are really confusing (they were for me  ) : maybe those events happen maybe not, maybe the covent exist maybe not, maybe the covent is at the mountain maybe somewhere else,... The problem is that the print is too dark, it's really hard to see the night scenes and maybe some hints are given there.   

Rating :

Number of film watch : 43

(From My October Horror Marathon on October 26th, 2008)

Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge
Movie Count: 16
TV Ep Count: 3
Other Count: 0
Time Started: 9:45am
Plot:
One night, as high school sweethearts Eric Matthews ('Derek Rydall') and Melody Austin ('Kari Whitman') dance in Eric's bedroom to their special song, a raging inferno sweeps the house. Eric shoves Melody through a broken window, but he becomes trapped by a tumbling bookcase. As the fire engulfs Eric, someone douses Melody, who's now lying on the ground, with gasoline. All she can see is a St. Christopher's medal dangling from the arsonist's ear as he opens a book of matches, and she loses consciousness.

One year later, a shopping mall stands on the site of Eric's burned house. No one believed Melody's story, and the fire was forgotten as soon as the Matthews were buried. But the past isn't quite ready to let go of Melody. At the mall where she works with her friends Susie ('Kimer Sissons') and Buzz ('Pauly Shore'), haunting reminders of Eric appear inexplicably, and more ominous events unfold without her knowledge. A security guard vanishes, the mall manager's son has a fatal date with an escalator, and suddenly, a new security guard with a medal earring patrols the mall.

Then, one evening, Melody is attacked in the mall parking lot by a man in a black ski mask. Like an avenging angel, a shadowy figure wounds her assailant then disappears as Mayor Karen Wilton ('Morgan Fairchild') speeds her car across the garage to Melody, and the wounded man escapes.

Now Melody knows for sure that what happened a year ago isn't truly over: someone is trying to hurt her, a mysterious phantom is trying to help her, and it's all tied in to that terrible night...

My Thoughts:
Another Blind Buy that I picked up because it was cheap and sounded like it could be good. At the same time from the title alone you can easily expect a low-budget piece of trash. So I went into this one with low expectations. In this case I was pleasantly surprised... even though it is not the best movie I ever seen... this is an enjoyable movie. It has good characters and some interesting kills. It was definitely better then I was expecting. Unfortunately this dvd has no extras what so ever to go with the movie. But at least with this one I got a movie I can enjoy.



(From My Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon: 2008 on October 4th, 2008)

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Cordelia is invited to a fraternity party by senior college students and she accepts of course. Buffy is invited, too, but refuses until Cordelia convinces her. Since it seems to be a demon-free time, she agrees. Only a bracelet with small amounts of blood on it hints to new trouble in town.

My Opinion: I knew it all along! All rich people are in league with the Devil! Or a demon in this case. I liked this episode because it showed that Humans can be as evil as demons and that the former have no problem dealing with or using the latter to achieve their goals. And Buffy's bad luck streak with guys continues, although the pattern will emerge only later (nice guy who turns into a monster/asshole once he has what he wanted).

Synopsis: Halloween is coming up and that means Vampires will stay at home. Unfortunately Snyder isn't a Vampire and he makes Buffy, Willow and Xander "volunteers" to escort children around the blocks on Halloween. But something is wrong with the costumes: Everybody seem to turn into what they are wearing: soldier, vamp (not -ire!) ghost, 18th century lady and a whole lot of monsters. Spike is delighted! And the Slayer faints.

My Opinion: I love this episode. The introduction of Ethan Rayne as an old friend of Giles's/Ripper's was a great idea and I love the episodes he's in, because there will always be some weird side effect and Giles will behave unusually. I also liked that Xander was allowed to be the protector of the ladies and I loved how Buffy had no idea what who and what she was. My favourite line was when Willow said (in regard to Buffy): "Couldn't she dress up like Xena?".
I noticed though that there was an uninvited Vampire in Buffy's house. But they never explained how exactly this magic works and since Joyce seemed to be out of town and Buffy wasn't really Buffy, maybe the house was deemed "deserted" and thus unprotected.

Synopsis: An old friend of Buffy's, Ford, has moved to Sunnydale and she's excited about it. They went to school together for seven years and as it turns out he's found out that she's the Slayer. Neither Xander nor Angel are very thrilled about this development, but Buffy loves spending time with him and catching up on old stories. There's one catch though: Ford has joined a cult that reveres Vampires, calling them "the lonely ones". They have no idea about the true nature of these creatures and their knowledge is bade upon old Dracula movies. And they want to become Vampires themselves.

My Opinion: He committed suicide because he was afraid of death. But he deserved what he got. I would have understood it if he had made that choice only for himself even though he didn't really understand the consequences. But to sacrifice all these naive teenagers and even Buffy to get his wish granted, was over the line. But it was also one of the rare occurrences where Buffy has to dust a Vampire that she and we knew as Humans (e.g. Jesse in Welcome to the Hellmouth / The Harvest [OK, that was Xander]) and/or that she knew before he became a Vampire (Conversations with Dead People).

Synopsis: A man tries to get to Giles but gets killed by a female demon in school grounds. When the police informs him of that he can identify the man as an old friend of his. From there on Giles behaves unGilesish and he has to learn that more friends of his have died recently. As it turns out, Giles wasn't always the virtuous librarian. Many years ago a group including the dead people, him and Ethan Rayne have summoned a demon and now he's killing them all.

My Opinion: After Halloween this was the second time we see a glimpse of Giles's darker side and especially his past. In just two episodes they managed to break his facade and to make him into just an imperfect human being as everyone else. I also liked how Willow established herself as "third-in-command" when Giles and Buffy were gone. She's already developed a lot since the pilot. But it doesn't appear to be fully serious yet, more like giving orders with a .

(From "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Marathon on April 18th, 2009)