TOWER OF EVIL (1972)

This is an interesting little film.  Released in 1972 it predates what we now know as the Golden Age of Slasher films by six years, but yet it still has a lot of the elements that we associate with the modern slasher film: freaky-looking killer with a twisted past (even named Michael), gloomy settings, sexual active young people as victims, drug use, a Final Girl, bloody murders, fog, victims trapped in a remote location with no forms of communication, fake ending, excessively violent kill scenes, decapitation, female nudity, dismemberment, investigators trying to solve the mystery, etc...but was it any good?!

Yes and no, the story is simple: young people looking for a place to party and fuck are killed in a gruesome manner, the Final Girl escapes and the investigators trying to solve the mystery soon become the next round of victims.  The film starts off quickly with some nudity, murder and psychedelic imagery, but somewhere near the last act things just kinda bog down.  The killer isn't nearly as clever and sinister as he should have been, the flashbacks are too jumbled up and the body count is too low.

Historically, THE TOWER OF EVIL is worth watching, it is a good film, but I think most of the younger horror audiences will be disappointed.  Especially with the lackluster ending. Would make an interesting double-feature with ANTHROPOPHAGUS.

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART II (1988)

The best thing about ROTLD2 is that badass poster art.  Other than that, it's pretty lame.

The story starts out with that one kid from THE BLOB remake finding a missing barrel of 2-4-5 Trioxin in a sewage drain and accidentally releasing the contents.  So now, before you know it, zombies start popping up all over the place and doing stupid comedy shit (falling in a grave, stepping on another zombies hand, dancing, talking about Harry Truman)...only about 1% of it is amusing.  By the time the end credits mercifully show up, you're ready to roundhouse this disc right into the trashcan.

Stupid comedy bits, Thom Mathews and James Karen totally wasted with unfunny lines, zero nudity, zero gore, that one guy from "The X-Files", that one guy from "Twin Peaks", 80's rock soundtrack and maybe even a Bub (from DAY OF THE DEAD) sighting. Which is really weird.  ROTLD2 had a few moments, but for the most part, it's very disappointing.

Part 1 - The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Part 3 - Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)
Part 4 - Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005)
Part 5 - Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (2005)