Witchouse 3: Demon Fire (2001) - Horror Witches

Witchouse 3: Demon Fire (2001) - The third in the series happened after Full Moon Pictures started a partnership with Tempe pictures, this one was done by the Tempe people. Shot in California there seems to be no connections to the first two in the series other than the character of the witch Lilith Le Fey. I was wondering after the finality of the ending in Witchouse II: Blood Coven how a third in the series was going to resurrect Lilith, and the answer is just make unconnected shit up. It has the same writer and director as Blood Coven but man this is not really a trilogy. They up the attractive quotient by bringing in the beautiful and talented Debbie Rochon (Stevie) as well as Tanya Dempsey (Annie) and Tina Krause (Rose) closing out the cast is Paul Darrigo as Burke and Brinke Stevens as Lilith.
This story begins with Burke hitting Annie while arguing. This bit of domestic violence sets Annie off to stay with her friends, Rose and Stevie who live on the coast. She arrives to see her friends engaged in filming some sort of witchcraft ritual. Really though they are just playing as Stevie is making a documentary about local witches groups. She explains all about her work while having drinks in the hot tub. Since Stevie has been into witchcraft and Goth stuff since her teen years it is only natural that she would get a job documenting people who really think they are witches. Once properly lubricated the three decide they should try a spell from a book Stevie owns. The spell attracts the spirit of Lilith LeFey.
Rose starts seeing her in the shadows but when she turns there is no one there, but the message left behind "Burn Witches Burn" must mean something scary since it shows up so the turn has something to turn on. Not limited to Rose both Stevie and Annie have encounters with LeFey. An incident in a parking garage, and the women are on edge. They don't know why this is happening but Stevie throws out this little bit of wisdom. Its perception vs reality, because they believed in what they were doing, that belief is what made it a reality. To balance the supernatural with more earthly reasons for the goings on we have boyfriend Burke who tackles a jogging Stevie on the beach. She struggles free being the tough nut she is and then he says he just wanted to talk. Really? Tackle wrestle, uh how about "Excuse me Stevie can we talk?" He explains about Annie being one crazy bitch and that he is not abusing her. Stevie doesn't really believe it and sends him away.
This is the setup, and from there you have to figure, either Burke is speaking the truth and Annie is nuts or Lilith is in control making it look that way. There is a definite twist in this story that shows you this movie is in no way connected to the first two stories in this series. In fact this film was disappointing just for that point alone. Granted the first two films are bad with the second at least making an effort, I was just hoping for a build on that. So in the end Soresport movies has taken the bullet for you and you never have to see any of these three. Unless of course you are a glutton for punishment.
Rating (3.3) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system I would say SKIP IT!

Witchouse II: Blood Coven (2000) Horror Evil Ghost

Witchouse II: Blood Coven (2000) - Change directors, and actors and move the shoot to Romania, add a cinematographer who creates real shots and you have a substantially better film than the first int the series. It is not great, but the 2.3 rated Witchouse was a target it can easily do better than. Adding director J. R. Bookwalter a veteran of low budget horror, certainly helps he seems to have a sense of how to make a film and use his crew. Gone are the obviously amateur glitches in story and execution that plagued the first film. Side note is one of his early works was the laughable Galaxy of the Dinosaurs, reviewed right here on Soresport Movies. This film is a fairly decent effort by him and he used Romanian cinematographer Gabriel Kosuth (Wolf Girl, Mirrors, The Glass House) who really created some fine looking shots on location.
Revamping the story from the first to the second film was done without slashing up the mythology of the first story. Instead of a spell to summon Lilith Le Fey from the other side this time we have DNA contamination. In the Blood Coven story we are at the same house. It is years after the events of the first film and the town wants to tear the old mansion down and build a mall on the location. Unfortunately construction workers found some unmarked graves and the project has to stop until the remains are identified and any anthropological significance is determined. The town brings in a team headed by Dr. Sparrow (Ariauna Albright who also plays Lilith) and her team of students and assistants, Stephanie (Elizabeth Hobgood) and Norman (Nicholas Lanier) who team up and go off doing the research that teaches the audience the story behind the unmarked graves. They have a very Blair Witch Project (1999) approach to the work they do. Running a camera in interviews with town folk the relay how the town feels about the myth of the house and the historical elements important to the plot. There was a lot of common video camera work between this film and the earlier mentioned BWP, it came out the year before and was a really big hit for an independent film. In fact Witchouse 2 starts with a couple exploring the house in a direct rip off to the BWP style of filming. The guy films while Dementia (Angela Womeldorf) narrates their exploration of the haunted place. We even get the panicked running cam as they attempt to flee danger and ultimately coming to a horrible end.
The rest of the research crew all possible Red Shirts are Angela (Kaycee Shank), Clark (Alexandru Dragoi), Jodi (Adriana Butoi), and Wilson (Claudiu Trandafir). The last major character is Sheriff Jake Harmon (Andrew Pine). Pine is a veteran actor who has been working in Hollywood since the late 50's. In both film and television I remember him most as Don Stober in the movie Grizzly (1976). In this film he is the sheriff who wants to see the research team leave as soon as possible because the mall will bring a lot of jobs into the community. He also has a dual role but I will forgo that reveal because I don't want to give too much of the plot away. He does have the best line in the three films, it is pertinent to anyone coming across and watching this series. "Sometimes the innocent suffer for the all." I am sure the viewers out there feel they have suffered enough to warn people away from these films.
What I can say is that when some bone dust gets into a cut on Dr. Sparrows finger, Lilith is back and like in the first film she is looking for revenge against the town. Soon she is turning researchers into acolytes and looking to get all those families that harmed her so many years before. What? Sounds like the same plot from Witchouse, well to an extent it is. Added though is a entire back story of Lilith's origin and those of the town. There are specific details telling why she wants revenge and why their are people charged with making sure she never rises from the grave. There is the expected badness in this film, with characters exploring alone. Low budget special effects and needless plot holes but over all and in comparison this is not totally horrible. While writing this review I am still not sure it is a recommend but this reviewer has seen many worse movies. Still in doing screen captures for this film I relived some really painful dialog. There was also a music montage of driving which is intolerable filler, and just corny screen writing so I have to take some of my earlier praise away.
It gets bonus points for the Scooby Doo reference. Plus there is a fair amount of tension in the later scenes as Westmore and the remaining two researchers try to destroy the bodies of the witches before Lilith can get them. The ending which seems very final left me thinking that they were really going to have to jump through hoops to bring Lilith back again in Witchouse 3: Demon Fire.
Rating (3.8) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Galaxy of the Dinosaurs (1992) Science Fiction

Galaxy of the Dinosaurs (1992) - This is an early film featuring James Black, the director of the also reviewed film The Vault. Here he is Captain Kronick, the leader of a group of astronauts from another planet who crash land on a planet full of dinosaurs. The group is up looking for some fast food on earth, McDonalds to be exact, when the navigator Graft (James L. Edwards) realizes they are no where near earth and in fact things are going bad on the ship. The crew already on the way to the surface in the shuttle can't do anything to help Graft with the ship, and it does not make it. Now the crew has to land on the strange planet without a ship to go back too.

Now explaining the plot here is pretty easy, but ultimately unfair. You readers may think this is a film you should check out but you would be wrong. The production values are incredibly poor in this mess. When the crew get to the surface most of the time I think they just used natural lighting. The plot is weak to comical, with most of the film the group reacting to public domain film clips from old claymation dinosaur sequences spliced into the story they are telling. Now the credit this film should get is that it was made for $2500 and actually has a plot that is more than just walking and running around the woods. The crew are wonderful cardboard, Kronick by James Black, Morda (Christine Morrison), Tom Hoover as Benj the repeated and annoying comic relief for the film, Prof Geting (Bill Morrison), Scott Emerman as Doctor Foreband, and Joseph A Daw as Bob the Caveman who appears only in manufactured clothes so caveman may not be the appropriate term for his character.

So back to not talking about the plot... Most of the film is dinosaur clips and reaction shots but at the end a long and complicated plot is laid out in a two and a half minute monologue by one of the characters, since nothing of any of this plot was ever included in the film it is utterly useless to us as an audience. Note also, a bit unrelated but we should never get to see a boom mic in the film as we did in this one. When all is said and done the writers Jon Killough and Todd Brown and the director J.R. Bookwalter should be ashamed. On the other hand this kind of low budget, make it on the fly movie is how many people break into the field. Certainly James Black has gone on to do some excellent work in TV. So if you are high and want to laugh your ass off or you are not and are into punishing yourself you can check out Galaxy of the Dinosaurs but you should probably just pass.

Rating (0.9) 5.0 and up are recommended