Award for the most interesting horror concept for this Halloween goes to The House Where Evil Dwells, taking a place in not just a haunted house, but a Japanese house haunted by Japanese samurai warriors who met the end of their day in a violent love triangle. The house and the Japanese landscapes have a great cinematic quality to them, and the whole premise of the family starting anew in an exotic location is interesting to say at least.

But, they made the wrong movie. Out of all the options I can think of, this story has the least amount of interest in it, and cheap looking superimposed ghosts aren’t really convincing at all. If they had to stick with ghosts option, it would’ve been a much more interesting option to see them try to communicate with the deceased, for example. Anything but with the movie ended up.

The House Where Evil Dwells is a missed opportunity that would have gained from going through a few more rounds of audience screenings, and rewrites.

80s-o-meter: 87%

Total: 42%

The Creature Wasn’t Nice is one of those movies that never should have been made. Trying to poke fun out of space monster movies, the whole show is amateurish to the maximum (partly by design, though), and pretty much 100% percent of all the humour misses its target.

It’s a well known fact that Leslie Nielsen had to skip Airplace II: The Sequel – a far superior early 80s space comedy – due to his commitment to the Police Squad, but one can’t but to wonder how he got involved in this turd of a movie.

Released at first under the titles The Creature Wasn’t Nice as well as Spaceship, the movie saw another home video release as Naked Space after the vast success of the Naked Gun movies –– naturally with Nielsen’s face promoted over other content in the various VHS covers.

80s-o-meter: 60%

Total: 3%

The playwrights and the creators of theatre were in a bubble in the early 80s where they thought their life was so extraordinary, it would impress the common people to no end.

Rich and Famous is yet another film about people of the entertainment industry who struggle between best sellers, live in their fancy mansions and wallow in their problems. They’re snappy to no end and even when they lower themselves to an arguement, it’s never a showcase of banality like with the common folk, but a that of mastery of the wit. And all this is super tiresome to watch.

The most interesting aspect of Rich and Famous is that it features young Meg Ryan in her feature film debut – but be aware that her screen time is restricted to just a few minutes.

80s-o-meter: 70%

Total: 17%

Movies about the indigenous peoples of the Americas of the past are often hard to watch for the way they are portrayed in them; even the movies that aren’t hostile but try to show affection towards their subjects rely very heavily on stereotypes and often view the Native Americans as spiritual beings capable of supernatural powers.

While some of that supernatural mumbo-jumbo is definitely present also in Windwalker, it’s luckily much more an vicious and pitiless action thriller following a family of a Cheyenne tribe on the run from Crow warriors, rather than some spiritual trip into the wildness.

To the credit of the team behind the movie, all the parts are being played by native speakers of both languages, and subtitled in English, which is something that is very rarely seen in major movie releases like this. The violence pictured in Windwalker is similarly realistic and harsh, with fights often over with a single swing of a club.

80s-o-meter: 8%

Total: 70%

A Mexican Corrido De Gregorio Cortez is sung in the memory of Gregorio Cortez, a Mexican vaquero and a father of four who was allegedly a victim of a miscarriage of justice the led into the biggest manhunt in the history in USA during 1901.

Being based on real life events – or rather, an interpretation of them – I did enjoy how The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez plays away from your typical western clichés both in its characters and storytelling.

80s-o-meter: 27%

Total: 69%

Similarly to Troma’s War, No Dead Heroes makes for an attempt for the biggest amount of bodies seen on the screen. But, without any humour aspect to it.

Everything about No Dead Heroes – like USA army officials being controller by microchips planted by KGB and jungle firefights with invincible heroes just walking and spraying enemies with bullets – sounds like tons of fun, but actually nothing here really is.

No Dead Heroes ends up plain ridiculous, implausible and far fetched, and could have saved the situation by taking all of its ridiculous aspects one step further, ending up outrageous instead of lukewarm and wishy-washy.

80s-o-meter: 90%

Total: 20%

Inspired by the action movies of the late 80s, Troma’s War makes an attempt for the biggest kill count ever on the silver screen – and likely pulls it off as well.

This is in many ways Troma Entertainment’s most well rounded cinema that despite the outrageous setup seems to make an attempt for wider audience and to me the movie is a complete mess, lacking the usual creative madness and underdog feeling that makes some of Troma’s films classics in their own niche.

The problem is that the late 80s action movies are already so over the top when it comes to kill counts and invincible heroes that the satire here lands very short. Endless scenes of the same extras falling down on the ground in various locations fail to entertain beyond the first few minutes of the film.

80s-o-meter: 82%

Total: 27%

The average murder thriller has unexpected charm to it! The Killing Time has absolutely nothing exceptional going for it, and the plot is frankly put quite implausible.

But the atmosphere, setting and the characters won me over, and I did enjoy The Killing Time all the way to the paint-by-numbers finale.

The Killing Time is totally disposable entertainment without any additional layers to it that would warrant a rewatch, but it’s certainly entertaining enough to gain my recommendation – especially if you are a fan of Kiefer Sutherland’s work.

80s-o-meter: 91%

Total: 84%

Shot in 1983 and released the same year and the following year in a limited release, and later in 1986 as the wide theatrical release, Mountaintop Motel Massacre is a slasher do doubt inspired by the genre classic Psycho.

In Mountaintop Motel Massacre we meet an old lady fresh out of asylum returning to her motel and starting to waste the guests by accessing the cabins using an underground tunnel. Known before as Mountaintop Motel and Horrors at Mountaintop Motel, the 1986 release of the movie saw the changing of its title as well as an updated poster with a deranged character that’s supposed to be the antagonist, but doesn’t really resemble anyone in the film.

While an above the average slasher, Mountaintop Motel Massacre is a fine example of how empty, soulless shells of movies slashers like these are when you get to compare them to an actual chilling and hair-raising horror masterpieces like Psycho.

80s-o-meter: 68%

Total: 49%