Phantom Brother (1988)

Arriving at an isolated cabin, a group of friends runs afoul of a demented family of psychos living in the house as well as the only sane member of the group living with another family wanting an inheritance of his and must try to keep everything in order to keep the different sides peaceful.Although it has major flaws, this ended up being quite a decent enough slasher. One of the few fine parts of this one is the absolutely insane amount of cheesy antics on display throughout this one. The low- budget nature here gives this one a goofy start with the group playing around inside the house only to find the deranged group of psychopaths living inside which causes this one to launch into some rather fine low- budget material during the attack. Detailing the clean-up that takes place at the house afterward and their special relationship inside makes for some more goofy fun to occur here as the scenes of the group torturing their captive manage to provide some decent scenes. There's also some fun to be had with the family of psychos stalking those that come into the house, from the loner who breaks into the house to the assault on the film-crew that comes out of nowhere that adds to the cheesy overall charm on display. The finale is the big rush of action that manages to work in some decent attacks here, and based on the silly conclusion fits in with the rest of the film rather nicely as well as providing this with some nice purposeful laughs. While these manage to make the film enjoyable, there's still quite a lot of flaws on display. The main issue here which really hampers this one is the utterly incoherent and nonsensical storyline. This one manages to cram in way too many elements than what should be necessary, from the family of psychos still living in the house to the survivor living with the deceased father's best friend and his family to the film-shoot that shows up out of nowhere and the doctors arriving to reevaluate the released psychopath on the loose, among others also featured. Containing one or two of these story lines here would've made this one miles better with the streamlined focus here eliminating plenty of useless scenes that don't go anywhere. As well, that would've allowed time for the film to discuss some of the missing links in the story, as for how he managed to survive the actual incident to why she was there at the time and what the ghouls actually are based on the concept of the final twist that turns it all around. The most overwhelming flaw, though, is the utterly apparent low-budget look and quality to this one, from the location work to the costumes and just about everything here that makes this look so amateurish that very little can be done to overcome it. These hold it back so much.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and a sex scene.

I'd like to sit here and bash this film, but, for some reason, I am thoroughly unable. No matter how bad this film is, and it is bad (even for SOV), it never fails to draw me back in. There are days I find myself thinking about this film for absolutely no reason (like right now), more often then not I find myself re-watching it. It is this fact that keeps me from giving it a full on one star and probably part of the reason I just can't hate too much on it. Something that can make a lasting impression, whether good or bad, is a testament to the energy that went into it and makes me fully respect the people that worked on it, even if they did turn out a pile. I'd even recommend watching it, if you keep an open mind you might not not enjoy it as much as I did.

Two annoying long-haired teens who look like they belong on-stage with Warrant, and their two girlfriends (in stone washed jeans) are attacked when they travel to a "secluded" house out in the sticks. The place is home to a deranged, ghostly family (masked brother, giggling pale-faced Girl Scout sister and fat, twitching mother) that were killed in a car crash. A surviving human brother tends to the house, cleans up the bodies and blood and has an overacting, beer-guzzling, white trash adoptive family that want his inheritance to contend with. A movie crew shooting "Vampires on Valium on Valentine's Day" also become victims. There's some gore (electric saw, butcher knife...), a topless scene, lots of juvenile humor and voice-over narration in this silly, very dumb shot-on-video effort with better lighting, music and sound than most similar effort. It's a very rare tape and only worth searching for if you're an 80s horror completist.

People who eat gourmet all their lives would mostly likely be put off by junk food, just as people who watch nothing but Bruckheimer films will be unsure of what to make of this (because they're stupid). Yes, this is shot on video. My God, no. How dare people make a movie within their means. Blasphemy. This is all very shocking stuff to the A-movie layman, I'll bet, but as someone who has seen a lot of super low-budget features, I liked it a lot. Most won't appreciate it, but the cinematography is above-par, in comparison to a lot of the pieces of crap out there. The acting is good by any standards. And the plot is funny, clever, and compelling. No, it doesn't look like Scream 7, but as far as slasher parodies go, you could do much worse. If you actually happen upon this somewhere, please rent it/buy it/take it out of the free bin. It's worth the time.