The “Aztec Mummy” film series from Mexico.
The first film actually pretty good and has a genuinely creepy atmosphere. But, the sequels got progressively cheesy.
Interesting side note. The filmmakers had a poor grasp on Mesoamerican cultures. The Inca practiced mummification, not the Aztecs who practiced cremation. The film also makes reference to hieroglyphs. The Mayans were the only Mesoamerican culture to have such a writing system, not the Aztecs.
“Scalps” 1983
Rarely seen but excellent 1983 horror film from Fred Olen Ray. A group of archaeology students go to dig up a Native American burial ground and battlefield. An elderly Apache warns them that the land is cursed by the souls of those who died there and now rest in it. They ignore his warnings and strange things begin to happen that culminate when one of the group is possessed by an Indian spirit called Black Claw and begins to murder the others in very gruesome ways.
Although it may at first seem like one of the many films of the slasher cycle of the early 80s, it is more unique in that it also adds heavy elements of the supernatural to the slasher formula, in the vein of films like “The Evil Dead” and “Superstition”.
This film is loaded with creepy atmosphere as the students trek farther and farther into the California desert. The sense of isolation gives one the impression that they might as well be on the moon they are so isolated. Combined with an unsettling score by Drew Neumann ( who composed music for “Aeon Flux” and “Rugrats”), gruesome gore effects and tight direction by Fred Olen Ray you get a very scary movie that makes even the vast deserts of the south west seem claustrophobic.
One of the great tragedies of this film is that the original negative has been lost. Its not known if it has been destroyed, but hopefully it has been simply misplaced and awaiting rediscovery. When released on DVD, Ray describes in the commentary that he had to reconstruct the film from several different sources, including VHS sources. The film was censored in one way or another all over the world, so many film elements had to be used.
Hopefully the original negative will be rediscovered and the film can be restored to its original uncut and pristine picture as it played in theaters in 1983
“The sleep of reason gives birth to monsters!”
Motley Crue - Save Our Souls
from the album “Theater of Pain” and the soundtrack of the film “Demons”.
“The Slayer” (1982)
An almost forgotten horror classic from the early 80s. An abstract artist that receives her inspiration from dreams begins to have terrible nightmares of a shadowy creature. Her doctor husband, her brother and her sister-in-law decide to go on vacation to a secluded mansion on an island off the coast of Georgia. A sudden storm strands them there. Something else is there with them, killing them one by one. Is it some human killer?
Or is it the nightmare creature… The Slayer…
Hauntingly beautiful score by Robert Folk from the 1982 horror film “The Slayer”.
“It did terrible things! And the more I dreamed it, the more real it became! I’ve created it! And I’ll keep on doing it until it no longer needs me to give it life!”
*Fangirl scream*
TRICK ‘R TREAT 2?!
*SCREAMS*
NO.
I’M
SO
FUCKING
EXCITED
JFC
*FLIES INTO THE SUN*
If any movie ever deserved a sequel, it is this one!!!
This is the closest that you will ever get to see me in a photo. Ideally, my face is covered.
It makes me look a little dumpy but that is because it has some air in it.
This is me at Plan 9 Comics in Boone for their Halloween party.I was really too late to show up for the costume contest but they gave me 5th place anyway. I got a bag full of candy and some other stuff.
I didn’t get to stay too long but it was fun. Because of the mask no one recognized me and I kind of freaked everyone out by not talking. It was great. The real tragedy is that this is the only mask I can wear with my glasses. I had an actual Russian made gas mask but due to my bad eye sight and my HUGE head I could not wear it properly. One of the guys who comes to the shop was in the army and told me to be on the look out for wither a M24 gas mask or a M17 gas mask as they were made for people with eye issues.
Thanks to Jenny for snapping these for me!
