Masters Of Horror! (Robert Kurtzman)

Another makeup artist turned director, like Stan Winston, and Tom Savini.

And, the K in K.N.B. Effects.


Night Of The Creeps (1986)

The beloved alien invasion/zombie classic.

Leech things from a canister from an alien ship land on Earth, that can crawl into the brains of humans, and turn them into zombies.

Hi-jinks ensue.


Predator (1987)

See here.


Evil Dead II (1987) 

See here.


Phantasm II (1988) 

See here.


Halloween 5: 
The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

See here.

The little girl, Danielle Harris, grew up to become the star of Hatchet II, and Hatchet III.
And, she's awesome.


A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: 
The Dream Child (1989)

See here, and here.

Kurtzman supervised the Freddy head split from Alice effect.

You can see the puppet of that in the background at the beginning of "New Nightmare".


The Horror Show (1989)

Billed as House 3 (see House 1), in some markets.
They made a House 4, so, something has to be 3, so, I guess this is it.

Anyway, neither House 3 or 4 have anything to do with the first two.
Although, 4 has Billy Katt, but as a completely different character than Roger Cobb.
And, come to think of it, 2 doesn't have all that much to do with 1 either.
Okay, none of the House sequels connect in any way.


Deep Star Six (1989)

This, along with "Leviathan", was part of a glut of underwater monster movies.
1989 was the year of the sea monster.
I thought that got old, but man, found-footage ghost movies, and exorcism flicks have REALLY worn out their welcome.
I apologize, underwater horror, I didn't know how good I had it.


Bride of Re-Animator (1990) 

See here, and here.


Tremors (1990)

And there's the Kevin Bacon connection!

You know what this movie is?
The old childhood game of "don't step in the lava".

You could turn "don't step in the lava", into "the Tremors game", and it would be exactly the same.

But hey, that makes it an effective horror.
Death from below is instant tension.


Misery (1990)

See here, and the Dolores Claiborne review here, cuz, I think I did a better second pass there.


Tales From The Darkside The Movie (1990)

See here.


Leatherface: 
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) 

See here.

Yeah, Tom Savini scarfed up the good one. Whaddayagonnado?


The People Under The Stairs (1991) 

See here.


Dr. Giggles (1992)

Ah, poor Dr. Giggles, you never did enter the ranks of the Freddys and Jasons, and Michaels.

Because, your movie sucked.
Flat out.
But man, did Dark Horse ever pimp you like you were the next big thing.

I was excited as hell to see this.
What a letdown.
I bragged about wanting to see it to some girl I liked back then.
Didn't impress her.
Looking back, I was like "idiot!".
Looking back from even further out, knowing there are cool chicks that love horror, I have no shame at all.
See, now, going forward, that's deliberately my girlfriend test.
Love me, love horror.
I'd rather you cut my legs off than make me quit horror to protect your delicate sensibilities.
And if you're fucked up enough to cut my legs off, then you're into horror after all, and just don't know it.


Army of Darkness (1992) 

See here, and here.

And, see Kurtzman's t-shirt in the opening pic. ;-)


The Nutt House (1992) 

See here, and here.

Oh, no fuckin' way!
He did the makeup/effects on this?

He's my hero for this alone!


Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) 

See here.

Okay, I appreciate this one more now, but I'll get more into that in my upcoming re-review of the Friday series for the "Crystal Lake Memories", review.


Body Bags (1993)

See here.

Chock full of horror stars, this is what I'd call a "slasher mash".

Hmm...compiling slasher mashes would be a fun post...stay tuned.


Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993) 

See here.


Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

See here, here, and here.

And, that's how the puppet from "Dream Child", got in there.


Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1994)

See here, and here.

Another slasher mash.


The Demolitionist (1995) 

Kurtzman's directorial and screenwriting debut.

Female Robocop on a z-grade budget.

Schlock!!!!


Lord of Illusions (1995) 

See here.


In the Mouth of Madness (1995) 

See here.


Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)

See here.


Galaxis (1995)

Brigitte Nielsen, nuff said.


Scream (1996) 

See here.


From Dusk 'Till Dawn (1996)

See here, here, and here.

Co-producer, screenwriter, and makeup supervisor.


The Night Flier (1997)

See here.

Oh, THAT'S why the vampire has a dog face, he (Kurtzman) still had "Dusk", in his system.


Boogie Nights (1997) 

See here.

I wonder if he made the rubber dick....


Spawn (1997) 

See here.

I don't care what anyone says, those were terrible years for comics.
Some selfish fevered egos got rich, and the whole rest of the industry almost died.
I don't look back on it fondly at all.


Wishmaster (1997)

Executive produced by Wes Craven, and directed by Kurtzman, who also did makeuup.

About an evil genie who lives in a jewel.

This isn't just A slasher mash, it's THE slasher mash!

It's got Robert Englund (Freddy), Kane Hodder (Jason), Tony Todd (Candyman), Ted Raimi (ED2, AOD), Ricco Ross (Aliens), Joseph Pilato (Day Of The Dead), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm series), Angus Scrimm (ditto), George "Buck", Flower (various John Carpenter films), and Verne Troyer (Mini Me).

Followed by one decent sequel, and two wavey-hand ones.

Anyway, this one's pretty solid.
Maybe not a classic, but, nothing to bitch about either.

This is the flick that made me pick Kurtzman.


The Faculty (1998)

AICN hyped the shit out of this.
I just thought it was all right.

An alien parasite body snatcher deal, but with a twist.
Okay, it's old enough now, I'll spoil it.
Taking drugs protects you from the aliens.
It's the opposite-land after school special.

Yeah, I know, with that premise, you'd think I'd like it more.

Anyway, this introduced us to Frodo.
Who knew?


Vampires (1998) 

See here, and here.


House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Remake of the 1959 film.

Meh.


From Dusk Till Dawn 2: 
Texas Blood Money (1999)

Straight to video.
Well, at least it's got Robert Patrick, Danny Trejo, and Bruce Campbell.

That's somethin.


From Dusk till Dawn 3: 
The Hangman's Daughter (2000)

Ah, who cares?


Frank Herbert's Dune (2000)

Well, say what you will, but this finally got me to read the books.

This was my first self-purchased DVD.
*Hangs head*


Little Nicky (2000)

See here.


Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

Another William Castle remake, another "meh".


Ghosts of Mars (2001) 

See here.


Evolution (2001) 

See here.

Yeah, Rick Baker scarfed up the "Men In Black", franchise, the GOOD Ghostbusters knockoff.


Vampires: Los Muertos (2002)

Oh yeah, the one with Jon Bon Jovi.

My uncle used to call him "Jon Blow Jobby".

Triumph The Insult Comic Dog said to Bon Jovi "vampires, eh? Now it won't just be your acting that sucks!".

Great minds...


Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) 

See here.

Ah, he worked with Verne Troyer in "Wishmaster", then he actually did an Austin Powers.
Cool.


Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) 

See here, and here.


Cabin Fever (2002)

There, there's fuckin' "Cabin Fever".

Now when there's no Eli Roth entry, you can't cry I didn't work his movies in.

"Why no Eli Roth entry, Mike??".

*Shrug*
Don't think he's a master.
My list, deal with it.
*Crosses arms, closes eyes, sticks out tongue*

Anyway, this is actually pretty good, but another one with way too much hyper-hype from its fanboys.


Hulk (2003)

See here, and here.


Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)

Okay, so, about after the second one, it spun off into a show, and then the movies became a spinoff of the show, and Michael Gross was to the whole franchise what Bruce Campbell was to "Evil Dead".

This one was a western prequel with Gross as his own ancestor.

Well...at least the creature on the poster finally looks like the creatures in the films, unlike the first poster.


Hostel (2005)

See "Cabin Fever".


2001 Maniacs (2005)

See here.

Robert Englund, Lin Shaye, and Kane Hodder.

Guess this counts as another slasher mash.
Oh, all right, and there's an Eli Roth cameo that puts this in canon with "Cabin Fever".


The Devil's Rejects (2005)

Haven't seen it, but, I'm not a big Rob Zombie fan, so I'm not racing to rectify the situation.


The Rage (2007)

Producer, director, writer, cinematographer, visual effects producer, special makeup effects producer.
So...he did everything but play everybody.

Sounds like a cross between "Re-Animator", and "The Crazies".

Well, it gets a low star rating on IMDB, but fans of it liken it to "Re-Animator", and "From Beyond".
And it's got Reggie Bannister, and Andrew Divoff (the Djinn from "Wishmaster").

Might have to check it out....


Buried Alive (2007)

Director, and every fluffed up title that means makeup guy.

A Blockbuster exclusive, which makes me wonder if it exists anymore, now that the chain has imploded like the house in "Poltergeist".


So, there, that's Robert Kurtzman.

Well, if Kurtzman, Savini, Baker, and Winston show one thing, keeds, if you love movies, and wanna be in show business, and you're not a looker, and you can't act, and you hate the paparazzi, get into makeup!!

You're right there in the thick of it, what you make with your own two hands goes right onscreen, goes down in movie history, and sooner or later, you get to direct!
And, you meet everybody, and you've always got work.
I mean, look at those lists, two to three movies every single year.

It's a sweet deal!
...you've just got to be good at art.
Or you end up making movies for The Asylum.
Then, you may as well kill yourself.

So...I picked Kurtzman because of K.N.B. and his connection to so many of the slasher mashes, but I dearly would have loved to do all the high profile makeup geniuses.

But, there just aren't enough days in the month, and I've been doubling to quadrupling up as it is.

But, here's Wikipedia/IMDB links at least, to the rest I would have liked to have done...

Dick Smith, Michael Westmore, Mark Shostrom, John Carl Buechler, Rob Bottin, Greg Nicotero, Kevin Yagher, Screaming Mad George, and Cleve Hall.

Maybe some other time...

Tomorrow, Roger Corman.