Body Bags 1993  R, 92 min.
Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror / Comedy
Director: John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper
Cast: John Carpenter, Robert Carradine, Alex Datcher, Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, Stacy Keach, David Warner, Deborah Harry, Mark Hamill, John Agar, Tom Arnold, Tobe Hooper, Peter Jason, Molly Cheek, David Naughton
John Carpenter is the coroner-host of this made-for-TV trio of horror/comedy stories. 1. A killer is on the loose, and the gas station attendant is worried about it as various odd-balls pass by. 2. A man is concerned over his hair loss and tries out a very strange clinic. 3. A baseball player is in a car accident, receives an eye transplant, and what he sees is bad indeed. Carpenter is a hilarious host with lots of cameos–including Roger Corman.
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Eaten Alive 1977  R, 92 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
aka: Starlight Slaughter
Legend of the Bayou
Horror Hotel
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Neville Brand, Mel Ferrer, Carolyn Jones, Marilyn Burns, William Finley, Stuart Whitman, Roberta Collins, Kyle Richards, Robert Englund, Crystin Sinclaire, Janus Blythe, Betty Cole, Sig Sakowicz, Ronals W. Davis, Christine Schneider
If you're a guest at redneck psychotic Judd's (Neville Brand) Starlight Hotel in the Louisiana swamps, don't upset him or you'll be fed to his pet crocodile that lives in the swamp next to Judd's hotel. Lots of slaughters in this flick by "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" director Tobe Hooper.
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The Funhouse 1981 R, 96 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, Largo Woodruff, Sylvia Miles, Kevin Conway, Shawn Carson, Jeanne Austin, Jack McDermott, David Carson, Sonia Zomina, Ralph Morino, Herb Robins, Wayne Doba, William Finley
Violence and gore are the order of the day in this film about four teenagers spending the night in a carnival funhouse where they witness a murder and suffer the consequences.
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Invaders from Mars 1986  PG, 100 min.
Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Karen Black, Hunter Carson, Timothy Bottoms, Laraine Newman, James Karen, Bud Cort, Louise Fletcher, Eric Pierpoint, Jimmy Hunt, Dale Dye
This remake of the 1953 film is a near disaster. The only interesting comment is that the boy in the earlier film is now the police chief (Jimmy Hunt). A boy (Black's real-life son) sees an alien landing in his back yard, and then sees the townsfolk get taken over. Watch the earlier version.
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Lifeforce 1985 R, 101 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller / Sci-Fi
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart, Michael Gothard, Nicholas Ball, Aubrey Morris, Nancy Paul, John Hallam, John Keegan, Chris Jagger, Bill Malin, Jerome Willis, Derek Benfield
Astronauts, headed by Col. Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback), bring dead bodies of aliens aboard their space ship. The bodies are vampires who kill all of the astronauts except Carlsen. After landing, one beautiful vampire (Mathilda May) leads the others as they begin to turn London into a wasteland. Now, Carlsen joins forces with SAS Col. Colin Caine (Peter Firth) to try to put an end to the destruction.
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The Mangler 1995  R, 105 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Robert Englund, Ted Levine, Daniel Matmor, Jeremy Crutchley, Vanessa Pike, Demetre Phillips, Lisa Morris, Vera Blacker, Ashley Hayden, Danny Keogh
As so often happens with Stephen King stories, especially short stories, this movie demonstrates the difficulty of capturing the same mood as the written work. The "Mangler" is a huge machine that presses and folds sheets at the Blue Ribbon Laundry owned by mean, old Bill Gartley (Robert Englund). When the Mangler processes a woman and an investigation begins, it becomes apparent that Bill has a deal with the machine to feed it. Then there's the Mangler's "friend," the refrigerator. There seem to be demons at work here. Yes, there is a sequel.
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Poltergeist 1982  PG, 114 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Heather O'Rourke, Richard Lawson, Oliver Robins, Zelda Rubinstein, James Karen, Michael McManus, Virginia Kiser, Martin Casella, Lou Perryman, Clair E. Leucart, Dirk Blocker
Evil spirits (poltergeists) drop in for a visit with the suburban California Freeling family–father Steve (Craig T. Nelson), mother Diane (JoBeth Williams), 16-year-old Dana (Dominique Dunne), eight-year-old Robbie (Oliver Robins), and five-year-old Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). Strange things begin to happen, especially when Carol Anne is called to the television set where she announces, "They're here." More horrors lie in wait in this excellent story about unhappy ghosts. This film was co-written and co-produced by Steven Spielberg. There are sequels.
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Salem's Lot 1979  PG, 112 min.
Genre: Horror / Drama / Mystery / Thriller
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: David Soul, James Mason, Bonnie Bedelia, Lance Kerwin, Lew Ayres, Ed Flanders, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor, Fred Willard, Kenneth McMillan, Ned Wilson, Julie Cobb, George Dzundza, Clarissa Kay-Mason, Geoffrey Lewis
Ben Mears (David Soul) returns to his hometown, Salem, looking for inspiration for a new novel. He falls in love with Susan (Bonnie Bedelia) and gets to know young Mark (Lance Kerwin) who convinces Ben that his school friends are being turned into vampires. Ben has been suspecting that strange things are going on in Salem–especially with antiques dealer Richard K. Straker (James Mason). Will Ben and Mark get to the bottom of the strange occurrences in Salem that include people dying and there appearing to be no explanation? There is a sequel: "Return to Salem's Lot."
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Spontaneous Combustion 1990 R, 97 min.
Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror / Thriller
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Brad Dourif, Cynthia Bain, Jon Cypher, William Prince, Melinda Dillon, Dey Young, Tegan West, John Landis, Michael Keys Hall, Dale Dye, Dick Butkus, Frank Whiteman, Joe Mays, Stacy Edwards, Brian Bremer
In the 1950s, Sam's (Brad Dourif) parents participated in radiation experiments to find an antidote for nuclear radiation. But, when Sam was born, it soon became obvious that he could cause spontaneous combustion, and his parents were his first victims. Now an adult, he is haunted by his past and is determined to find out more about what went on with those experiments, and people trying to stop him must be torched.
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974  R, 83 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Marilyn Burns, Allen Danzinger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail, Teri McMinn, John Larroquette, Jim Siedow, Edwin Neal, Gunnar Hansen, John Dugan, John Henry Faulk, Gerry Green, Ed Guinn, Joe Bill Hogan, William Creamer
When Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) takes her wheelchair-bound brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain) to their grandfather's cemetery after learning that it has been vandalized, Sally's friends join them. Not a good idea. One-by-one, they are hacked to death by a vicious family of cannibals, including Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) who wields a chainsaw when confronting his victims. This film quickly had a cult following and spawned sequels.
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 1986 R, 95 min.
Genre: Horror / Comedy / Thriller
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Bill Johnson, Jim Siedow, Bill Moseley, Ken Evert, Harlan Jordan, Kirk Sisco, James N. Harrell, Lou Perryman, Barry Kinyon, Chris Douridas, Kinky Friedman, John Martin Ivey, Judy Kelly
The year is 1985 in an alternate universe, and the tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. have reached an all-time high. The Watchmen, who are costumed adventurers, must come to the rescue. Their groups are divided into Generation 1 from the 1940s and Generation 2, which followed. One member of Gen 2, Laurie/Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman), spans both Generations because she is the child of a Gen 1 member (Carla Gugino). Gen 1 Watchmen have moved on; Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) has become a head of industry, and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) is now a physicist. When The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is killed, his former colleague Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) joins forces with his group of retired Gen 2 Watchmen to uncover a plot to rid the world of superheroes. The nuclear clock is ticking, and Rorschach sees a conspiracy that reaches both Generations, and the battle is on to save humanity.
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The Toolbox Murders 2004 R, 95 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Angela Bettis, Brent Roam, Juliet Landau, Rance Howard, Marco Rodriguez, Sara Downing, Greg Travis, Adam Gierasch, Christopher Doyle, Adam Weisman, Alan Polonsky, Christina Venuti, Jamison Reeves, Stephanie Silverman, Charlie Paulson
In this loose remake of the 1978 film with the same name, Nell and Steven (Angela Bettis and Brent Roam) move into a cheap apartment complex that is sorely in need of repair, and most of the inhabitants appear to be strange. When a series of gruesome murders–accomplished by the use of toolbox hardware (hammers, saws, etc.)– begins, Nell tries to find out what is going on.
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| 1. Body Bags (1993)
2. Eaten Alive (1977)
aka: Starlight Slaughter
aka: Legend of the Bayou
aka: Horror Hotel
3. The Funhouse (1981)
4. Invaders from Mars (1986)
5. I'm Dangerous Tonight (1990)
6. Lifeforce (1985)
7. The Mangler (1995)
8. Poltergeist (1982)
9. Salem's Lot (1979)
10. Spontaneous Combustion (1990)
11. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
12. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
13. The Toolbox Murders (2004)
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