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Tightwad Terror Tuesday – Free Movies for 4-26-2022

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Tightwad Terror Tuesday – Free Movies

Hey Tightwads!  It’s that time of the week again.  Tightwad Terror Tuesday is here with another bundle of free movies.  Let’s get it on.

 

Tightwad Terror Tuesday – Free Movies for 4-26-2022

Maniac Cop (1988), courtesy Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment.

Maniac Cop

Just as its name suggests, Maniac Cop is about a police officer who has gone crazy and roams the streets, killing anyone with whom he comes into contact, criminal or not.

This 1988 movie is a schlock classic, directed by William Lustig and written by Larry Cohen.  In addition to Robert Z’Dar in the lead role, Maniac Cop also stars a couple of other bona-fide horror legends: Tom Atkins and Bruce Campbell.  Watch Maniac Cop here at Vudu.

 

Tightwad Terror Tuesday – Free Movies for 4-26-2022

Vacancy (2007), courtesy Screen Gems.

Vacancy

Vacancy is about a young married couple that checks into a cheap motel, only to find that their room is rigged with a bunch of hidden cameras.  Unfortunately for them, voyeurism isn’t the reason behind the cameras; the hotel has been making owner snuff films of his guests.

This 2007 sleeper is part slasher, part exercise in torture porn, but doesn’t sway far enough to either side for it to become too generic.  It’s also got a pretty impressive cast, with Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson playing the principal protagonists.  Check into Vacancy right here at TubiTV.

 

Tightwad Terror Tuesday – Free Movies for 4-26-2022

Starman (1984), courtesy Columbia Pictures.

Starman

Starman is about an alien who comes to Earth and takes the form of a young widow’s dead husband so that he can convince her to drive him across the country.

More sci-fi with a twinge of romance than horror, Starman is the legendary John Carpenter’s 1984 attempt to break out of his spooky pigeonhole.  It’s an impressive movie with an impressive cast that includes Jeff Bridges as the Starman and Karen Allen as the young widow.  It’s obviously a departure for Carpenter, but it’s well worth watching, and you can watch it right here at Crackle.

 

Tightwad Terror Tuesday – Free Movies for 4-26-2022

The Call (2013), courtesy TriStar Pictures.

The Call

The Call is about a 911 operator who gets a call from a girl who has been abducted and is in the trunk of a moving car.  As she strives the help the girl figure out where she is so that she can send help, the operator notices strange parallels between the current call and a failed call from her past that has haunted her for her entire career.

This 2013 thriller is a tense and suspenseful ride through the streets of Los Angeles. Brad Anderson directs, and the cast includes Halle Berry as the operator and Abigail Breslin as the kidnapping victim.  Answer The Call here at TubiTV.

 

Let the Corpses Tan (2017), courtesy Kino Lorber.

Let the Corpses Tan

Let the Corpses Tan is about a group of thugs that heads to a secluded island resort with a cache of stolen gold to cool their heels for a while.  They find that the retreat is occupied by a writer, his girlfriend, and pair of policemen.  What starts out as a game of cat-and-mouse winds up as a battle for survival for all involved.

This 2017 sleeper is everything anyone could want from a French revisionist western – it’s clever, unpredictable, and violent.  Have a look at Let the Corpses Tan here at KinoCult.

 

Want more free movies?  Check out previous Tightwad Terror Tuesdays right here.

 

Feature image courtesy Chris Fischer.

 

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Thrills and Chills: Ranking ‘Radio Silence’ Films from Bloody Brilliant to Just Bloody

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Radio Silence Films

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are all filmmakers under the collective label called Radio Silence. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are the primary directors under that moniker while Villella produces.

They have gained popularity over the past 13 years and their films have become known as having a certain Radio Silence “signature.” They are bloody, usually contain monsters, and have breakneck action sequences. Their recent film Abigail exemplifies that signature and is perhaps their best film yet. They are currently working on a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

We thought we would go through the list of projects they have directed and rank them from high to low. None of the movies and shorts on this list are bad, they all have their merits. These rankings from top to bottom are just ones we felt showcased their talents the best.

We didn’t include movies they produced but didn’t direct.

#1. Abigail

An update to the second film on this list, Abagail is the natural progression of Radio Silence’s love of lockdown horror. It follows in pretty much the same footsteps of Ready or Not, but manages to go one better — make it about vampires.

Abigail

#2. Ready or Not

This film put Radio Silence on the map. While not as successful at the box office as some of their other films, Ready or Not proved that the team could step outside their limited anthology space and create a fun, thrilling, and bloody adventure-length film.

Ready or Not

#3. Scream (2022)

While Scream will always be a polarizing franchise, this prequel, sequel, reboot — however you want to label it showed just how much Radio Silence knew the source material. It wasn’t lazy or cash-grabby, just a good time with legendary characters we love and new ones who grew on us.

Scream (2022)

#4 Southbound (The Way Out)

Radio Silence tosses their found footage modus operandi for this anthology film. Responsible for the bookend stories, they create a terrifying world in their segment titled The Way Out, which involves strange floating beings and some sort of time loop. It’s kind of the first time we see their work without a shaky cam. If we were to rank this entire film, it would remain at this position on the list.

Southbound

#5. V/H/S (10/31/98)

The film that started it all for Radio Silence. Or should we say the segment that started it all. Even though this isn’t feature-length what they managed to do with the time they had was very good. Their chapter was titled 10/31/98, a found-footage short involving a group of friends who crash what they think is a staged exorcism only to learn not to assume things on Halloween night.

V/H/S

#6. Scream VI

Cranking up the action, moving to the big city and letting Ghostface use a shotgun, Scream VI turned the franchise on its head. Like their first one, this film played with canon and managed to win over a lot of fans in its direction, but alienated others for coloring too far outside the lines of Wes Craven’s beloved series. If any sequel was showing how the trope was going stale it was Scream VI, but it managed to squeeze some fresh blood out of this nearly three-decade mainstay.

Scream VI

#7. Devil’s Due

Fairly underrated, this, Radio Silence’s first feature-length film, is a sampler of things they took from V/H/S. It was filmed in an omnipresent found footage style, showcasing a form of possession, and features clueless men. Since this was their first bonafide major studio job it’s a wonderful touchstone to see how far they have come with their storytelling.

Devil’s Due

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The Original ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel Had an Interesting Location

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beetlejuice in Hawaii Movie

Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s sequels to hit movies weren’t as linear as they are today. It was more like “let’s re-do the situation but in a different location.” Remember Speed 2, or National Lampoon’s European Vacation? Even Aliens, as good as it is, follows a lot of the plot points of the original; people stuck on a ship, an android, a little girl in peril instead of a cat. So it makes sense that one of the most popular supernatural comedies of all time, Beetlejuice would follow the same pattern.

In 1991 Tim Burton was interested in doing a sequel to his 1988 original, it was called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian:

“The Deetz family moves to Hawaii to develop a resort. Construction begins, and it’s quickly discovered that the hotel will be sitting on top of an ancient burial ground. Beetlejuice comes in to save the day.”

Burton liked the script but wanted some re-writes so he asked then-hot screenwriter Daniel Waters who had just got done contributing to Heathers. He passed on the opportunity so producer David Geffen offered it to Troop Beverly Hills scribe Pamela Norris to no avail.

Eventually, Warner Bros. asked Kevin Smith to punch up Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, he scoffed at the idea, saying, “Didn’t we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?”

Nine years later the sequel was killed. The studio said Winona Ryder was now too old for the part and an entire re-cast needed to happen. But Burton never gave up, there were a lot of directions he wanted to take his characters, including a Disney crossover.

“We talked about lots of different things,” the director said in Entertainment Weekly. “That was early on when we were going, Beetlejuice and the Haunted MansionBeetlejuice Goes West, whatever. Lots of things came up.”

Fast-forward to 2011 when another script was pitched for a sequel. This time the writer of Burton’s Dark Shadows,  Seth Grahame-Smith was hired and he wanted to make sure the story wasn’t a cash-grabbing remake or reboot. Four years later, in 2015, a script was approved with both Ryder and Keaton saying they would return to their respective roles. In 2017 that script was revamped and then eventually shelved in 2019.

During the time the sequel script was being tossed around in Hollywood, in 2016 an artist named Alex Murillo posted what looked like one-sheets for a Beetlejuice sequel. Although they were fabricated and had no affiliation with Warner Bros. people thought they were real.

Perhaps the virality of the artwork sparked interest in a Beetlejuice sequel once again, and finally, it was confirmed in 2022 Beetlejuice 2 had a green light from a script written by Wednesday writers  Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. The star of that series Jenna Ortega signed on to the new movie with filming starting in 2023. It was also confirmed that Danny Elfman would return to do the score.

Burton and Keaton agreed that the new film titled Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice wouldn’t rely on CGI or other other forms of technology. They wanted the film to feel “handmade.” The film wrapped in November 2023.

It’s been over three decades to come up with a sequel to Beetlejuice. Hopefully, since they said aloha to Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian there has been enough time and creativity to ensure Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will not only honor the characters, but fans of the original.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will open theatrically on September 6.

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New ‘The Watchers’ Trailer Adds More to the Mystery

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Although the trailer is almost double its original, there is still nothing we can glean from The Watchers other than a harbinger parrot who loves to say, “Try not to die.” But what do you expect this is a Shyamalan project, Ishana Night Shyamalan to be exact.

She is the daughter of twist-ending prince director M. Night Shyamalan who also has a movie coming out this year. And just like her father, Ishana is keeping everything mysterious in her movie trailer.

“You can’t see them, but they see everything,” is the tagline for this movie.

They tell us in the synopsis: “The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.”

The Watchers opens theatrically on June 7.

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