Category: Red Triangle

Silent Night Deadly Night (1984)

Well! We’ve done it again! another year has reached it’s end and with it, we have the final review of the year! I hope each and every one of you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I spent the day with the missus and my parents, we had a lovely dinner, played some board games till the evening and then had a small buffet that put us into a food coma well into Boxing day!

While I wish i’d had the time to relax and savour my time off (I had 19 days leave from work this year and it REALLY flew by) I’ve spent a lot of time working on next years season over Christmas and as of today (Jan 2nd) we’ll officially start cutting for the new series! Im hoping to have at least one rest day before I go back to work. but for now. im super grateful i’ve been able to get so far ahead! so do keep an eye out for the new season when it lands in February (At least…im hoping it’ll land in February)

I watched this movie for the first time this year, for the purpose of this review. I wrote the script some tim in late July/Early August and I was fortunate enough to pick up the lovely limited edition box set of this movie and it’s sequel from 101 films almost as soon as it was announced. they’ve done a genuinely lovely job in cleaning this movie up and it was a blast to actually watch it around christmas time, in the vibe, in the festive atmosphere. I think it’s probably one of the better christmas horror movies i’ve seen. While I’d probably hesitate to say it OG “Black Christmas” good. it’s definitely up there! and I hope you consider giving it a go some time!

Anyway! Im going to be hard at work editing Season 9 now for at least the rest of this month, there’ll be a few commentaries uploaded in the mean time while im away. and, as always, i’ll be in the comments on every review i’ve done to date. So if your new to the site. please feel free to reach out and say “Hi!”

I wish you all a very happy, healthy and fruitful 2021 and lets all just…HOPE. that it is only a shadow of the year we’ve come from!

LOVE this poster. Controversial? Absolutely…But it bloody works!

by tytdreviews

The Night Child (What the Peeper Saw) (1972)

There really isnt a massive amount to say about this one post release honestly. My thoughts on this one have rigidly remained in line with whats said in the review. This is a very VERY strange and uncomfortable movie to sit through. But then. thats kind of the point. is it disturbing in the same way “A Serbian film” or “Cannibal Holocaust” is? No. Its just a general feeling of unease and a constant vibe of “Should I be watching this?”

Thats the joy of the “2am movie” though. your brain and body are tired. if you’ve been drinking the alcohol has no doubt at this point in the night started to really kick in. and the air is thick, heavy and the darkness wraps around you like a thick and heady blanket. I find a lot of itallian Giallo, Zombie movies and…well stuff like this REALLY suit that specific time frame. they’re not so complex that you have to really solidly keep track of everything, theres enough gore and other good stuff to keep your monkey brain on side and theres usually a pretty killer soundtrack to help smooth everything over. You never truely LOVE a 2am movie. but when you need them they’re most definitely the only thing that’ll scratch that itch.

I usually try to post some helpful information here on updates, where you can find the film or if anythings shifted on this one’s release history front. but no…it’s still never had a UK release. it’s never been released on Bluray and a trimmed copy from Europe/the US thats out of print on DVD is about as good as it gets. And while I didnt absolutely love this one. I still think if you can find it. watch it.

The Posters a bloody mess…but then in fairness all the other posters for this movie really dont capture the vibe that this film has. this posters the closest. and it’s rubbish.
by tytdreviews

Creepshow (1982)

This ones been a LONG time coming. nearly 3 years in the making (I’ve wanted to do this since Season 3!) Collaboration is something I enjoy, while it’s nice to have the goals and dealines flexiable and fluid while working alone, theres something of a thrill of getting together with a person or two and hammering out something that feels like a more well rounded criticism. in the past I’ve worked with 1 or 2 people who have all been absolutely delightful. but I often wondered how far I could take working with groups of people. and Creepshow being a port mantau seemed like the perfect opportunity to try and set the high bar.

So I scoured the internet for a year or so and found 6 critics who I felt could really genuinely do this film justice. and they’ve all been absolute SAINTS in helping me pull this together, each and every one of them bought something new and interesting to the table and each and every one of them im very proud to have had the honour of working with them. while my own contributions pale in comparison to theirs, I thought it best to step back a bit to let the review really breath.

I initially wanted to make this review feel a bit like a “Special edition” comic book with different contributors all having different styles and bringing their own flavour to the party. I took their contributions and ran it through my usual editing structure and with some heavy inspirations from pop art and the 90’s CITV series “ZZZAP!” it all slowly came together.

Im not going to lie, while my written contributions were a little shorter than normal on this one. the amount of editing this took to bring to the screen was quite intense to say the least. in total the whole project took 4 and a half months to complete from initially pitching to the first contributor (The Crypt keeper) to final export and upload. This was one of the longest single edits I’ve ever had to work on with TONS of motion tracking to animate the Keeper alongside digital moves and other tricks of the trade to help animate some of the more static transitional scenes. it’s easily the edit that’s given me the most sleepless nights and it’s easily the longest single movie film review I’ve released to date!

So I’d once again just like to take the time to thank each and every one of the people who contributed to this special. I really REALLY hope you dig it:

Channel 83 (Fathers Day)

Raymond Smith (The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill)

Video Creep (Something to Tide you Over)

The Best Little Horror House in Philly (The Crate)

Ciara Selene (They’re Creeping up on you)

AND! The Crypt Keeper! played by Brent from the youtube channel Hero’s Horror’s and Cats!:

And if you wanna know how my Halloween went? Well; I was still in lockdown, I inadvertantly ended up with severe dehydration, I ate a sausage roll. drank 2 liters of water and 2 beers and spent the day working up the volition to eat ANY of the £15 worth of sweets I bought in prep for a massive marathon and I ended up eating non of it. The missus wasnt very well in the afternoon and bailed on the evening by 8pm and My playlist was as follows:

Garfields Halloween Adventure

Freaks

Young Frankenstein

I Drink your Blood

Happy Death Day

Scream

Paganini Horror

Halloween 3: Season of the Witch

I never much cared for this poster. I always personally preferred the comic book style version.
by tytdreviews

The Halloween That Almost Wasnt (The Night Dracula Saved the World) (1979)

So; there was a slight delay in getting this article up and written and the main reason for that is because I’ve spent the last two weeks in isolation. now the merciful thing is there was nothing wrong with me, but im currently staying with my mum and sister as my Dad is classed a vulnerable person (he has COPD) meaning if he caught anything during this pandemic he’d probably be dead. so he’s stopping at my place while I stay with my mum and sister, mainly because we’re all outgoing for elderly and vulnerable people and it makes sense for the people who are going out to stay together.

Anyway 2 weeks ago my sister tested positive for covid having had non of the symptoms associated with it (She had a headache, a blocked nose and a tiny sore throat) so me and mum went to get tested as a precaution and we found out we were negative for it. my partner (who’s not doing to great right now) decided to go and stop at her sisters for a few days to destress and get her life back in order and during the isolation period I asked if I could stay at her house knowing I was clean as I figured it was probably safer for me to do that than isolate in a house with someone who definitely DID have the virus. So! for the last 2 weeks apart from a playstation and my phone I’ve had no access to my setup to be able to write these or record/edit anything. it’s been nice to have a bit of a getaway but in honesty I’d rather not repeat it again as I spent most of the week living off tins and freeze dried food…which has probably not been the best for my health.

Anyway; this is my favourite movie I found during the writing of all of these halloween specials. if I had to choose 1 to watch at halloween it would definitley either be this or “Garfields Halloween Adventure” both are oozing with charm and charisma, both are very entertaining and both have tremendous rewatch value. im super glad I tuned into this one and im hoping the next time Halloween comes round, you do to.

This is a bit of a hodge podge poster, and I Think it’d probably look a lot better in colour.
But I’ll tell you this; I’d LOVE that art as a sticker for my laptop. I think it would look ace.
by tytdreviews

13 Ghosts (1960)

Im a total latecomer to the William Castle game. And im not *As* ashamed about that as I could be. the reality is theres a smattering of Castle movies that got released time and time again here in the UK (Im looking at you “House on Haunted Hill!”) but more often than not the bulk of his output would generally either be ignored or released in the absolute crappiest quality it was possible to release DVD’s in.

I’d wanted to watch “The Tingler” for example for absolute years; since my early teens at least, but due to rights, or companies thinking noone was interested in Castle films or whatever the hell reason they could come up with almost NON of Castles films really came out over here. that is until the wonderful people over at “Power House” released volumes 1 and 2 of “The William Castle Collection” and it must be said that, while I didnt go in for them right away (the price was juuuuuuuuuust too steep for me to take a gamble on it) during a recent sale where the price dropped to around £35 I honestly couldnt resist it any longer. As it stands; Volume 1 is one of my all time favourite Bluray releases at the time of writing and I highly recommend you pick it up, as I really do consider it “Essential horror” if your into the genre.

Volume 2 is pretty good fun, but it’s way more schlocky, way less focussed on horror and way more hit and miss for me. While im definitely still glad I own it, Im not nearly as enthused about it in the same way I am for volume 1.

13 Ghosts is arguably the second biggest highlight on the set, and just for the ability to watch all 3 different versions of this film I can definitely recommend checking this one out. it’s not really a lifechanging picture, and if your absolutely in love with the 2000’s remake of 13 ghosts this will probably make you cringe hard. But if you like good hokey 50s and 60s campy horror. this pretty much is a must own!

All of Castles posters from this time vaguely look the same in terms of layout and design. I cant personally say im a massive fan of the look. and it’s the only thing im not massively happy about with the castle set from powerhouse. some newly commissioned artwork probably would have really made these sets sing. As it stands they just have the poster slapped on the cover…which is okay…but it does rather leave me wanting.

by tytdreviews

The Worst Witch (1986)

So; Halloween 2020 is upon us and this year being an “Off” year we’re once again going for a grab bag of halloween goodies to help kick your month off with a bang! and while all of the movies chosen this year arnt really connected. I have decided to have a bit of a loose theme.

I wanted to try and do more “Family Friendly” movies this halloween. I know a lot of my viewers are parents and quite frequently they struggle to find good horror to show their kids without having to dip into their “adult” collection. So I thought i’d try to help out this year. All the movies featured will be movies that more or less the entire family can tune in to! I really wanted to make it a bit more all encompassing, after all Halloween is supposed to be a time for spooks and scares for all ages!

So here we have “The Worst Witch” the ORIGINAL Worst Witch. and arguably one of the most enjoyable adaptations. probably suitable for younger children (I’d say 5-9 year olds) but theres a TON of campness to help keep Adults on board. I really dug this one…and if certain events around a certain author who ALSO wrote a very popular series about witches and wizards have left you feeling a bit cold. then This series might just be what you need.

Unfortunately this film has never had a decent cover. The original VHS cover is about as good as it gets.

by tytdreviews

Decoder (1984)

This was one of those movies I’d litereally never heard of until it was right on top of me. I first heard about it around the time I was looking for a decent copy of “Liquid Sky” and when I finally did find it on Vinegar syndromes site this was sort of sat roughly next to it in the “Recommended” section looking all moody and totally my kind of jam…unfortunately that was at the time that I sank nearly $200 into VS sale items (With shipping it pushed it closer to $230) so I decided to leave it…but that didnt stop me picking it up at the very next sale! and im totally glad I did.

It’s a wonderfully weird film and one that i’ve never really experienced before. it’s super hard to explain, but it’s almost like a film that leads more with sound than it does vision. and the pair marry up in such a way that normal movies and TV programmes just…dont. I can only describe it as it feels like a “Whole” experience. like; if one of these elements was missing the film just would be incomprehensible.

So with the next Vinegar Syndrome sale on the horizon. I say; go and look up “Decoder” it’s probably not for everyone. but if you dig it…ohhhh boy you’ll REALLY dig it.

The Official Poster for this movie is a bit too garish for my taste (It’s basically a giant hypno toad) and given that while frogs are a quite important part of this film they arnt THE film. I instead opted to use Vinegar Syndromes newly commissioned art work…which I feel represents the film much more faithfully.
by tytdreviews

The Burning (1981)

So! during this crazy crazy summer we had I decided to wing one more episode out to kind of…wrap the whole season up. Indeed the idea to do a season of “Summercamp Slashers” had been on my mind since I first started making reviews. I liked the idea of seeing through the summer months by setting a tone of “Fun in the sun” style camping, canoeing and killing.

the original plan was to do Sleepaway Camp 1 and 2, The Burning, one of the Friday the 13th movies and maybe throw in a lil curve ball…something like meatballs maybe. But, as the idea grew and the years went by it became more and more apparent that there was more than enough material to just spend a summer at the various sleepaway camp films. But that then created a bit of an issue for “The Burning” now a somewhat orphaned summercamp movie as I’d also decided, if I was ever going to cover the friday the 13th movies, I’d want to do them as a group rather than toss one randomly in here.

So working closely with the most excellent host of the Survivors guilt youtube channel. I decided to loosely bundle it in as a way of capping Season 7 off with a Red Triangle episode, another notch on my “Video Nasties” retrospective and the chance to actually get to the meat and gravy of this one.

I had already briefly spoken about it as part of my “B-movie hall of fame” series not too long ago. but I dont think I really got into the nitty gritty…that series was more “Quick overview > What I thought of it > Next review” type fodder…and as you all should know by now I do like to get fairly bedded in with these reviews.

So! as a nice summer treat and a little bit of a one off. here’s “The Burning” Season 8 has just got underway and theres plenty of weird and wonderful movies to come! but for now I’ve gotta get back to the cutting room. And dont forget to check out Survivors guilt he’s really very good!

(Im really not much for the original poster, But this one commisssioned for the Arrow Video Bluray release is Gorgeous!)
by tytdreviews

Finishing the Complete Seventh Season (2020)

Season 7 was all in, arguably, one of the most entertaining and fun seasons to work on for me in a while. While Season 6 had the freshness of starting from the ground up to some extent given I’d been on a reletively short hiatus. This season to me, really felt like it had some momentum behind it. The wheels were spinning as early as late October 2019 in writing some of these episodes (My review of “The Warriors” being the first one that made it into the can) but work would continue right up until mid/late march to ensure that everything could be done in time!

For the most part, this season was pretty much decided right from the off…or at least 2/3rds of it were already pre-chosen. Originally “The Warriors” was going to open the season until I saw Cozzi’s “Hercules” about 10-11 episodes into writing for the season and I realised that that would be the PERFECT way to kick off this seasons run. the 4 part “Sleepaway Camp” summer special also came about pretty much at the last minute too, As I’d wanted to do a month on the Sleepaway camp movies pretty much since the 2nd season of theses reviews but could never quite fit them in amongst the other bits and pieces i’d got going on.

“Salo: The Musical” was another one that had been in the making for a year or two before I finally decided to pull the trigger. it’s easily one of the most time consuming videos I’ve ever made in relation to it’s length. it may only be a couple of minutes or so long. but I assure you it took damn near a month of solid writing, recording, performing and motion tracking (For reference; the average 15-20 minute review on here generally takes about a week to complete from watching to final upload)

My favourite review of this season? is probably either “The Perils of Gwendolyn in the land of the Yik Yak“, “Salo” or “Return to Sleepaway Camp” all three were total labours of love (And hate) and im So happy with how they turned out as an end result.

All in all, this was just a damn fun season to work on, and while the steam that made up the creative process may have just started to dry burn towards the very end (Try and show me a way to be enthusiastic about having to spend a week with “Return to Sleepaway Camp”) overall; this was a total blast! I met some super interesting people over the last few months including the team over at Mutantfam.com who’ve recently agreed to host my work in an affiliated capacity. The Guys over at “Survivors Guilt“,”Video Creep“, “The Channel 83 Podcast” (Who were a top bunch of lads and had me on there show!) “The Best Little Horror House in Philly” and GG over at the “Midnight Movie Monster” Blog! Not only have they helped keep this Schlock jock sane during the absolute “Deep Hurting” that these films can bring in, but they’ve even contributed to helping make my content better and are all great people you should definitely go and check out at the next convenience!

At the time of writing my office/entertainment room is under renovation. everything is in boxes packed away and it wont be until August before we’re ready to reopen the archive and get back on track with the edit schedule. However! that’s not to say that this season is necissarily “Completely”

EDIT!: ITS THE FUTURE! and im just popping back in to remove the “Coming soon!” mystery bumper that I ran at the end of this article during the summer to say…well; you guys. I did a sneaky and popped just one more review into the mix to round us up to a healthy 18. and it’s a doozy! a collab with another youtuber and a great way to see out the end of the summer! 1981’s “The Burning” revisited, rewritten, reviewed and re-packaged! So! if you saw this article before and thought it was only 17 times cooler than the average seaon…well; now it’s 18 times cooler than that!!!

by tytdreviews

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

So! It’s summertime and i’ve finally worked up the stones to pull the trigger on a series of films I’ve wanted to talk about LITERALLY FOR YEARS! Seriously I’d been planning on doing a series on the Sleepaway camp movies since season 2 at least! which is nearly 3 years ago! I love *Most* of these films and having done a few summer seasons now I thought it would be the perfect time to finally settle in and get these added to the vault.

The first “Sleepaway Camp” movie is notoriously hard to source in the UK…I believe it’s mainly down to licensing issues. But the long and short of it is; apart from the Pre-cert VHS release that came out in 1983/84 and a DVD release that was cut to shit and dumped on an overpriced boxset (Which is now EVEN MORE overpriced as it’s out of print) Short of importing; if your british. you aint seeing this movie. That astounded some of my American co-critics when I told them, as to them. This movies a pretty regular staple of TV broadcasting and is pretty easy to find via online streaming. the idea that it hasnt been released uncut over here yet made there jaws fall firmly to the floor.

It’s a real shame that thats the case honestly as I think the first film is a definite gold standard contender in the slasher genre. it’s a good solid summer camp slasher movie with twists and turns that are generally unexpected but become clearer on repeat watches and I love this film for that.

I had to import my bluray copy of this film from Spain where it’s known as “Campamento Sangriento” (Or literally translated “Bloody Camp”) my version has no extras, no commentaries, English and Spanish Languages only and English Subs only. The Picture quality is on par with the Scream factory release thats been out for years…but this is a totally barebones release. Nontheless; if the choice is spend £10 and own it in this format, Spend £200 on going Bluray multiregion and importing a copy, or not owning it…Well I think you can guess why I went the way I went.

Over the next 4 weeks I’ll be covering ALL of the other official Sleepaway Camp Movies as a big push to see the season out in style! so I hope you join us next week when we take a look at “Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers!”

(The poster for this movie is SO. FUCKING. GOOD. seriously; it says everything and nothing about this film in one iconic image. I’d LOVE to own an original theatre copy to hang in my house)
by tytdreviews