Movie Night at the Rec Hall -- ThanksKilling

Contributed by Luke Merrill:

ThanksKilling

With the close of the month and the annual gorging of animal flesh followed by the ritual sacrifice of your wallet which is demanded by the event know as Black Friday, we can finally finish off our November Camp-A-Thon. In the spirit of the holidays, we close off Camp-A-Thon by watching a holiday themed horror film. This is not such an easy task. There are numerous films celebrating Halloween, Christmas, and even Valentine's Day. Unfortunately the cornucopia of Thanksgiving horror films that are both celebratory of the holiday and comedic is sparse indeed. Fortunately, this was recognized some years ago and a low-budget masterpiece was created in order to capitalize the untapped potential of this holiday. This week at Horror Camp, we are watching one of the few thanksgiving horror films, ThanksKilling.

ThanksKilling is the tale of 5 college students returning home for Thanksgiving break, only to be hunted down and slaughtered by a possessed jive-talking turkey.  Apparently, as explained within the film a powerful Native American Shaman was shamed by the white man in the pilgrim days. Using his necromantic powers he made an immortal turkey, in which to kill every white man he encounters in a revenge that will reoccur every 505 years. The Turkey is like a killer version of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, just now nearly as funny and fairly repulsive looking in terms of animal hand puppets.

You have shamed me for the last time white man.
Image coutesy of some other dude named Luke on his blog.

As far as the Human cast of the film, we are introduced to some pretty cool college kids. Our 5 hapless students represent the wide social strata that are representative of college. You have Johnny the 2nd string quarterback fully equipped with cool guy Jeep, Overweight and constantly hungry hillbilly Billy, Sheriff's daughter and good-girl next door, Kristen, Easy as apple pie Ali the slut, and last but not least inappropriately horny but horribly unfortunate Darren the nerd.

The onslaught of corny Turkey one-liners, low-budget special effects, and in your face horror movie cliches make for an entertaining watchthru. Unfortunately this is not the holiday movie you gather around to watch with your family after a fulfilling Thanksgiving Dinner. Unless of course your family has completely passed out under the influence of a tryptophan coma, with the exception of yourself and your weird Uncle Jim. The film was exceptionally corny, falling in a close second place after Troll 2 in terms of corniest low-budget film of all time. Granted we haven't screened every corny flick at Horror Camp, we have seen our fair share to make the claim. 

 This Turkey wants a piece of you!
Image courtesy of hewhowalksdeath

We watch films like ThanksKilling over here at Horror Camp because there is nothing else in terms of turkey horror, and after this series of films are concluded there probably never will be another Thanksgiving horror film. That is unless they pick up my lesser known pitch for the Wrong Turn series, Wrong Turn 6: Home for the Holidays. I recommend watching this flick at least once, probably by yourself or with a close friend who understands you are about to watch a horrible movie and will never speak of it publicly. Clocking in at 66mins it is short enough you don't get bored with it. So Indulge yourself and check out ThanksKilling it is undoubtedly one of Thanksgiving's lesser known guilty pleasures.

Tags: Campy Horror, Creature, Horror Camp, Movie Night at the Rec Hall, Thanksgiving, ThanksKilling, Turkey, Fowl-Play, Holiday Horror Film

Movie Night at the Rec Hall -- Monster Squad

-Contributed by Luke Merrill

There was a feel good movie about a group of social misfits banding together to confront a threat that adults don’t understand while getting into adventures set to a rockin 80’s soundtrack. That movie was of course the goonies. But shortly after the goonies there was the monster squad. Released in ’87, The Monster Squad is the feel good adventure romp that squared a group of kids who preferred monster lore to studying their science books. These kids get mixed up in a plot for the undead legions of monsters to overthrow the balance of good and evil, led by the undead king of the night, Dracula himself.

Although Dracula and vampires are making quite a comeback, (and they’ve never been more sexy) with shows such as, Twilight, True Blood, and the new Dracula series, which places Dracula in a more stylized and seductive era. The Movie “Monster Squad” place Dracula at the height of his power, commanding dominion over all the lesser forms of the undead, and decked out in his very stylish Victorian era suit and black cape, red liner included. It’s very striking.

Dracula in an effort to tip the scales of good and evil plans to destroy an indestructible amulet, which is the epitome of total good, at its weakest moment which comes once every hundred years. That nosey adventurer Van Helsing has other plans and crashes the party to incite an ancient ritual that causes the amulet to tear a hole into the very fabric of time and space to create a portal to limbo which will banish all evil from our plane of existence. That was over a hundred years ago.

Cut to modern day, it is now 1987, Dracula is back and summons the creatures of the night, such as the wolfman, the mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, in an attempt to reacquire the amulet and destroy it, so his kind can take back the night and rule it unopposed for millennia to come. So who can stop such a star powered cadre of evil, the police, the army, the national guard? No way, only a group of junior high kids and their dog can recognize and handle this threat effectively. That’s right when monsters strike it’s time to call in the monster squad.

But not all is as hopeless as it seems, the monster squad is composed of some real heavy hitters. You have Sean, the no-nonsense leader of the group who is the first to recognize this threat for what it really is, his best friend Patrick who’s hot older sister  is constantly in a state of dress/undress  at the window across from the club’s tree fort, Fat Kid, aka My name is Horace, whose hunger and constant apprehensive whining comes in handy at the oddest intervals, and Rudy, quite unarguably the coolest kid in junior high, decked out in his leather jacket, fingerless gloves, and dark sunglasses. I know, I know why would a cool kid like Rudy be hanging out with these misfits, but just remember what I said about Patrick’s older sister constantly undressing next to their tree fort and it starts to make sense.

They pick up more members along the way like Creepy German Guy, who’s is really not as scary as everyone thinks,  Eugene, the best dressed 7yr old I’ve ever come across( those robotech PJ’s are awesome), and Phoebe, Sean’s supposedly annoying little sister, who’s friendship with Frankenstein and virginity are crucial to the movies finale. Phoebe is played awesomely by Ashley Bank, whose scream could rival that of the late Carrie Henn of the Aliens franchise.

Lou Romano's rendition of the Monster Squad

Suffice it to say this group deftly and comedicly outmaneuvers the machinations of Dracula and his cadre of evil in the Movie Monster Squad and has to be the feel-good kids action adventure romp of that time. You won’t find movies of this type out in theaters these days, which is why it is perfect to show at Horror Camp. Although suffering from some slight potty mouth, the flick is age-appropriate for junior high kids. The special effects and monster costumes are awesome, a modern (or so to say 1987 modern) tribute to the costumes utilized in the creature feature flicks that spawned these ghouls back in the 30’s and 40’s.

 Monster Squad is absolutely enjoyable, and I can think of no reasons not to watch it, so if you missed the screening at Horror Camp rent or stream a copy for yourself. I believe it is being feature on Comcast’s OnDemand for the remainder of the month.  Check it out and let us know how Monster Squad made you feel.

 The Movie Trailer

Tags: Monster Squad, Movie Night at the Rec Hall, Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein