This website is dedicated to horror movies (independent and mainstream), beer, Full Moon, Spookies, Graveyard Shift, Leprechaun sequels, massacre films and watching every god damn horror film ever made or die trying!
Its hilarious I post about this book as it was my ultimate goal of making a coffee table book as it’s only available through me at the Grossfest table at conventions! Available for $20 and can be found at our table at Living Dead Weekend at Monroeville Mall June 12th-14th, 2026. The book has found new life recently as the best way to describe it is imagine if “Stephen King lived in Pittsburgh and wrote the Night Shift Collection” . The book contains 47 short stories written over a four year period that has already inspired a movie adaption along with several other possible projects coming in the future with several other filmmakers (whether any of that happens, who in the bleep knows?) Point is for whatever reason people are discovering something I wrote a few years back and yes I am super proud of what I wrote.
This show should be huge horror fans… We won’t just have my Tales from the Gross Side books but of course our $5 movies as usual along with our 2 for $30 VHS sale , but we will have a special guest at the Grossfest table and that is Ed Demko! He is keeping a lid on what horror stuff he is bringing but you will wanna get there early and often to see what Mr. Demko will have at the Grossfest table. Plus you never know what the Gross Brothers have brought out of the magical basement… So Indie horror fans come visit us and all the other cool vendors that will be there to celebrate one last time one of the greatest locations for a horror movie to ever exist!
Tales from the Quadead Zone (DVD) – This was one of the most notorious VHS movies that horror fans seeked out for years as copies were going at cheap “$750” each as the film feel out of print quickly and became thing of legend among independent movie collectors. This project is a SOV anthology from Charles N. Turner who unleashed this project on the world in 1987. As it fell out of print it apparently made an imprint on Louis Justin of Massacre Video as a few years back he tracked the rights and Charles to give us a DVD we all could appreciate. Was supposedly going to be three stories with a wraparound but never worked out as Charles explains in an interview on the disc. It ended up just being two stories with a long wraparound. The two short stories are weird about hunger and revenge on a brother after death with the long wraparound being about a woman telling her dead ghost son Bobby stories from the book called “Tales from the Quadead Zone”. This is a very inventive wild anthology that has a certain charm that I can see why some collectors truly loved the movie. No matter what just glad this exists on some kind of physical media as I give it 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Subhuman: The Amityville Experiment (Fawesome) – Hello kids, we have entry #82 as I knew this project existed for a bit of time but was almost impossible to track down until recently when it finally hit streaming. This little project has a scientific experiment from someone’s basement escape into the world or town known as Amityville. Subject 19 is a flesh eating blob with one eye that is growing as it feeds outside of its cage! Its a hilarious creature feature that runs 45 minutes and claymation as I give this entry 2 out of 4 stars.
555 (Blu-ray) – Again Massacre Video does their best to dig up the obscure and this slasher/serial killer film that was no different from the likes of a ‘Tales from the Quadead Zone’ in its uniqueness as this title was sought after feverishly for years. A DVD appeared a few years back then Massacre Video up their game by releasing a special edition blu-ray with a newly mastered print that also included interviews with cast and crew. This almost unknown slasher from 1988 goes out of its way to be unique as the killer kills for five nights in a row as the killer will have five victims then disappears for five years to a different city. This time around two detectives are making it their life’s work to catch this sicko in this brutally wild and bloody SOV slasher! This is a great grab for physical media collectors as I give it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Screw Years Eve (Blu-ray) – This project from Gatorblade Films has Richard Tanner directing a Sean Donohue script that grabs for nostalgia from frame one and heads to present day day quickly. The duo drops a late 80s slasher formula into a present day independent horror project that is harder to pull off than you think… Over the years in this small town people die who celebrate New Years after the tragic death of a young man at a party. But a group of young people are going to go against the norm for nostalgia to celebrate the new years again! The story takes a bit of time to develop but it all makes sense once the killing starts. Lots of 80s references peppered in there, a pink gorilla, and the most crucial but small part belongs to Angel Bradford as Jamie the bartender. She is the right person for the right character to help pull together which I believe is a tough formula for present day horror. The cast is great through and through and I did hope for a different ending but this will satisfy the independent horror film community looking for another holiday horror as the project is something to behold as I give it 3 out of 4 stars.
Shrubs (YouTube) – A short film from a filmmaker in my neck of the woods in Pittsburgh who got a talented group of people together to make a 26 or so minute film about killer shrubs. Yes folks its Arbor Day weekend festival in this small modest town as they been celebrating Arbor Day for a hundred years. But tragedy strikes quick in Mount Evergreen when a young man smoking the devil’s lettuce then takes an ax to a tree! That is when the woods fights to the death to kill the community in this hilarious attempt in making the ultimate Arbor Day horror holiday film. This short has it all including a 70s TV movie ending intentionally or not all involved should be proud of this film. David Dietz and Ben Dietels are stand outs as usual as I give the short film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
The Barn III (Theater) – Justin Seaman returns once again to tell the story of a town where past sins of Halloween have been forgotten as the film picks up in 1998 with returning characters. The story then flashes forward to 2025 where Josh is now much older and a preacher who every Halloween is checking barns for the demons or his best friend Sam. Nothing happens and Josh’s sister Heather convinces him to take a year off but his nephew and best friend find the book Josh has been hiding and the harvest is on again. Without giving too much away the film goes big and over the top and rightfully so with the characters, the creatures, and the gore. I may always believe the first film is the best of the trilogy, this entry declares we will be seeing Justin in Hollywood soon as his vision has the chance to be the next big thing among horror movie collectors as I see this being Justin’s ‘Terrifer’??? Horror fans take that whatever way you want point is no matter what I think Justin Seaman may have just put the horror community on notice as I give this latest entry into the series 3 out of 4 stars.
Dr, Cyclops (DVD) – An older 40s flick I don’t remember ever seeing so I knew I should take a crack at reviewing it. We have a great biologist who isolates himself in the Amazon for unknown experiments for two years until he has a breakthrough. The good doctor is very secretive but sends for a highly regarded scientist to check his work? Dr. Cyclops is happy with what he hears and attempts to send them away shortly after they arrive. Refusing these other scientists meddle in the secretive doctors work to find out the hard way they get shrunk. For the time this film has some great set design and special effects worth seeking out to see how this idea has been done over dozens of times since the 40s as I give this film 2 out of 4 stars.
Recorded 2 (YouTube) – A found footage film independently shot in Bulgaria where a young woman from a film crew and her driver go missing! Friends attempt to investigate not understanding how she would disappear without a trace as they film their travels along with a superfan who is concerned. As friends find the car and believe they might have a clue about Georgina someone comes hacking and slashing away. Good solid concept for a found footage flick that doesn’t overstay its welcome in the running time department but have a feeling American audiences will not enjoy the simple but effective story telling with this feature as most mainstream found footage projects in the states will spoon feed the audience… Ever notice some of the worthy found footage projects come from outside the states as I give this project 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Plus you can always go to the greatest T-shirt place online or if you are in Texas visit the store of “Fast Custom Shirts” where T-shirt Joe is the only place you should purchase your horror T-shirts: Go to www.fastcustomshirts.com and support!
Amityville Descendants of Darkness (DVD) – Well kids welcome to entry #80 into this long running series as this time around Phil Herman and friends decide to go with the anthology route as the theme here is: some evils never die they evolve. The project opens up with a gooey adventure of three individuals looking to dig up a pile of cash that was buried under a shed after a robbery. With it being Amityville these three don’t have a chance. The second story goes international that involves a cursed rocking chair that is a gateway to ruining a couple’s loving partnership. Our third part of the anthology deals with a retired detective who never got passed his last case as it continues to haunt him. The last case just doesn’t disturb the retiree but consumes him as evil tends to do. Our final tale deals with a house that has trouble keeping its occupants according to the weird ass neighbors as the structure was built on the original foundation of the legendary haunted house. All in all this was a solid effort from beginning to end that didn’t rely on comedy but old school story telling as this anthology is set up it for each story ramping up the creep factor trying to surpass the last. Even though this is an entry into the Amityville series with a few slight dialogue changes this could have been a great standalone independent anthology with some talented people involved as for that I give this entertaining entry 3 out of 4 stars.
Amityville Rex (DVD) – So Mark Polonia has given us entry #81 and this feels like the old bar joke in some form of: a priest, a detective, a young lady with a bag full of cash, and T-rex walk into a bar as Mr. Polonia just ran with it. T-Rex bones have been recently discovered under the streets of Amityville and have recently been put up for display for the community to enjoy but a priest is getting terrible visions of it and what is to come next? Meanwhile a perfectly casted Tim Hatch with mustache (folks, this thing steals the movie) as the hard-nosed detective is trying to lean on a suspect as she has hidden a mob connected guy’s $300,000. A lot of garble and gab about a “dark one” somehow resurrecting a dinosaur gets all of our characters in a building where the building caretaker (Mark Polonia) meets a terrible end as “the dark one” brings to life, evil! The folks run for their lives but cannot escape the building unless they defeat this evil dinosaur as only in Amityville would this whole storyline would be acceptable. Is this entry into the series crazy, absurd, and feel like I said before a bar joke gone too far, of course but once again Mark Polonia figures out a way to entertain you with an Amityville entry as I give it 2 ½ out of 4 stars. There is a director’s commentary on the DVD but for some reason it refused to work on mine but hey at least I got to watch the film.
Plus you can always go to the greatest T-shirt place online or if you are in Texas visit the store of “Fast Custom Shirts” where T-shirt Joe is the only place you should purchase your horror T-shirts: Go to www.fastcustomshirts.com and support!
Isle of the Damned (DVD) – An independent spoof on the eye-talian cannibal movies or ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ to be exact from the talented film group Dire Wit Films who I just love their work as this 2008 effort is worthy to seek out people! Private Investigator Jack Steele is a man with principle as he tries to fight through the crew he is sailing with looking for the Marco Polo treasure and also trying to bang his young son Billy. This treasure is believed to be on the “Island of Cannibals” where no one goes. Once there Jack Steele encounters baby eating, horny dick munching savages where he must save potential victims of the cannibals there. Problem is with all that being said Steele meets a curious stranger in Alexis Kincaid who has lived on the island for years and knows the cannibals very well. In all this chaos of cannibals Kincaid refuses to leave with Jack and his son when they leave the island in this wild and super gross Indie spoof that proves Dire Wit Films shouldn’t be forgotten but celebrated in the independent community as I give this project 3 ½ out of 4 stars.
Destroyer (DVD) – This quickly out of print gem gets lost in the shuffle of Prison, Shocker, and The Horror Show from the late 80s and really didn’t have much of a presence on late night cable. This is what I wrote in 2015 about it: With this unknown 1988 flick (at least unknown to me anyway) I seen the box art late last year and knew I needed to see this horror flick. It is an 80s wet dream of a horror movie: Lyle Alzado as the killer or undead killer, Deborah Foreman as the cute stunt girl, Anthony Perkins as the director of the woman-in-prison flick, and Clayton Rohner who was the guy in “April Fool’s Day” that seem to be banging his girlfriend the whole film. Ivan Moser (Lyle Alzado) is on death row for murdering two dozen people and is going to be electrocuted. When it happens, power goes out, riot begins, and Moser’s body is never recovered. 18 months later a film production of a women’s prison movie is ongoing in the former prison that held Moser and people are starting to show up dead. All Moser wants is to be alone with Malone (Foreman’s character). Even though most deaths happen off screen there is one hell of a death scene with Moser killing someone with a jackhammer that is somewhat featured on the cover of the movie! When I talked about it on our Bloodbaths and Boomsticks podcast I gave it 3 stars but I got to amp it up a little and give it 3 ½ stars just because it has everything you look for in an 80s slasher flick. I do not remember anything about this flick even with “Shocker”, “The Horror Show”, and even “Prison” getting a lot of press at the time of this film. But glad I found it to enjoy its Lyle Alzado greatness! Now the reason I bring this feature up is the out of print DVD I found is from (Cheezy Films) which before Shout Factory acquired the rights and these are still floating out there by the way, but why did that supposedly HD transfer on Blu-ray from Shout Factory go out of print so quickly? And why hasn’t this title found a place to land other the Tubi streaming service? Most horror people who have seen it, love it so why hasn’t Terror Vision, VS, or Synapse got their paws on it…? Because the DVD I found was barely an upgrade.
Mutants (Blu-ray) – A film with a cool title and Michael Ironside above the title sounds fucking terrific but Mr. Ironside is only in it for a hot minute to clean up shit at the end. So saying that let’s get into this as a scientist experimenting with food additives somehow turn people or test subjects into mutants! Big food business is cool with the experiments as long as it gets the results besides having infected sugar leech into the drinking water. Government gets wind of it and decides to send Michael Ironside and his team in to wipe the area clean of the test subjects, mad scientist, and the infected sugar. I should have went with my Spidey-sense on this one when I seen the cover as I knew it was too good to be true as usual or ‘crap with a name’ as I give it 1 star.
51 (DVD) – This is a 2011 project that was part After Dark Original and part SyFy Channel presents which somehow I missed when first released. This of course deals with the government or more specific Air Force opening the doors of Area 51 to give reporters a tour to see there is nothing there mysterious or what not? Gain the trust of the public again. Things are going fine or just okay as reporters confront said Air Force colonel about things they are not seeing until “patient zero” who by the way is able to morph into anyone it touches decides to escape after 25 years of sitting still. But this alien is not alone as it unlocks the other cells of captured aliens to cause chaos in the top secret military location. Now it’s time for survival for military personal along with reporters as they must make their way above ground before they are slaughtered. This project has a couple of the usual SyFy Channel casting choices, some cool creatures/aliens that make for a fun cheapie monster film wroth rediscovering again as I give it 2 ½ stars.
Murder Rock (DVD) – So a Fulci film I have never seen and barely heard about is a hilarious 80s treat. The movie might be known to some as ‘Murder Rock Dancing Death’ and even some other fans would know it as ‘Slashdance’ but whatever you know this film by, get ready for a horror film about a cut throat dance class. At the “Arts of the Living Center” dancers just don’t go there to train but to be the best of the best. But it’s a little different in 1983 as a whole class of dancers have accidentally found out they are vying for three positions in a high profile show and none of them will stop at nothing to get an edge. While the dancers are occupied with what they could be… a lunatic has taken upon themselves to use a hairpin to pierce the heart of their naked victims to murder them. As the dancers die and the top detective gets frustrated and creepier with the pace of the film one thing that Fulci made sure was the viewer has many suspects to pick from in this murder mystery. Once you wade through all the dancing, early 80s music, and everyone blaming each other to be the killer, Fulci gives one of his more interesting endings to a film as I give this an entertaining 3 stars.
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (Blu-ray) – Thought it was time revisit this so-called “Best Worst Movie of all time.” Did yinz all forget about ‘Troll 2’? Or am I not supposed to bring that up? More on that later… Anyhow this special edition has two commentaries, deleted scenes, and a couple featurettes. If you haven’t caught on I am not a big fan either way but anyway this love story is about Rod and Nathalie who hit off quickly. After some choppy acting between the two, Rod explaining he has a Hybrid Mustang (dude, it didn’t exist), Nathalie talking it over with mum, 47 minutes in the two bump uglies at a random hotel and the fake birds begin to attack. The lovers try to plan their escape with a couple others at the hotel where they literally drive around a beat up Ford Aerostar shooting fake birds out of the windows! The big reveal is the bird flu has caused the chaos in the movie not on the internet. I give this project 1 ½ stars so let’s get back to this being “Best Worst Movie of all time”. Because shit if you wanna go old school what happened to ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes’ or was this just the majority of people online decided before there was the Tik Tok or a ‘Sharknado’ they wanted to declare this to be cool? And if I am even close on that idea sorry folks I got one word for you ‘SPOOKIES!’ Also there is at least a dozen titles I could name that deserve the “Best Worst Movie of all time” title. I believe this might have been the first independent film those internet kids watched if you want me to take a guess but whatever as I still say this was meh. It was meh when released it is still meh now.
Meat Market (DVD) – Talk about revisiting an old friend as I haven’t watched this since shortly after it was released as this title along with the sequel are long out of print especially since its quick Blu-ray release that no one knew about has me questioning why hasn’t this gotten the special treatment by a bigger company? In 2000 this independent Canadian zombie film made an impact in the Indy scene as it open the flood gates for everyone again to make a zombie film. This SOV zombie flick with lots of cheap gore effects is about two former security officers who are fighting the undead as hordes of zombies begin to feast on cities. The two believe their best chance of survival is trying to escape the city as along the way they team up with a trio of vamps, a Mexican wrestler, and all just hoping they can even find a survivor or two. They all must become scavengers in order to survive this bloody chaotic ordeal. The zombie film has its flaws and rough edges as they went for it all with locations, gore everything! Is it J.R. Bookwalter’s ‘The Dead Next Door’ or Todd Sheets’ ‘Zombie Bloodbath’ not really but just like those two independent films Brian Clement dreamt big and I believe sparked interest again in the early 2000s showing independent filmmakers a zombie film can be made with a little heart and passion behind it. If you are able to find one of these long out of print DVDs there is a commentary with Brian Clement which could be fun for the Indy zombie fanatic as I give this 3 out of 4 stars. Oh by the way kids pay attention as this was the year 2000 and this zombie film isn’t cause by contamination but Nano tech…! A very interesting premise for that time…?
Meat Market 2 (DVD) – The sequel picks up a year later as Brian Clement has learned from his first experience to make this film project a leaner, meaner, and much smoother viewing experience that the first film. There are only three survivors from the first story but they talk of meeting others in their travels. With the cities dead and food scarce it has become apparent the zombies are evolving because of the Nano technology that caused this extinction. The survivors get caught and placed in a military stronghold that is more of a cult organization that is hiding things from their members such as experiments and what they actually feed people. If you are considered desirable you are allowed to be a part of the cult if not you are mistreated and experimented on for hope of the new world order. Brian Clement and friends go for broke with even more gore, more disgusting weirdness, a lot of dick chomping, and if you really wanna get into the subtext or bored a little kink (but that is for a different conversation) as I give this project 3 ½ out of 4 stars. Again if able to find this out of print gem it does sport two commentaries on the DVD too.
The Slumber Party Massacre Collection (DVD) – After all three films were originally released to DVD for the first time and it was just great to have them even though they looked like VHS rips a decade or so passed and they released this upgraded transfer of the three films to this 2-disc set. What made this set so special is it had been 30 years or so since the release of the original and this sported an hour long documentary that covered all three films and their impact on the horror genre. Now I don’t if this documentary has popped up on any other releases since then but it does make this set worthy tracking down for the price and for that I give it 4 stars or 4 drills.
Plus you can always go to the greatest T-shirt place online or if you are in Texas visit the store of “Fast Custom Shirts” where T-shirt Joe is the only place you should purchase your horror T-shirts: Go to www.fastcustomshirts.com and support!
grossmoviereviews 
You must be logged in to post a comment.