SCAVENGER HUNT (1979)

A wealthy game inventor, Vincent Price, croaks while playing a frog game and leaves his entire $200 million estate to the person (or persons) who can collect the most points from a list of Scavenger Hunt items he left in his will. The potential beneficiaries (family, servants and a taxi driver) have until 5pm this afternoon to gather the items. Chaos ensues.

As far as IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD knockoffs go, SCAVENGER HUNT is an alright film. You’re not gonna soil your Ewok Underoos with piss from laughing so hard, but you might get a chuckle or two. The most notable thing about the film (thanks to the passage of time) is the cast. From Vincent Price and Arnold Schwarzenegger to Ruth Gordon and Scatman Crothers…this movie has a great cast! I was most impressed by the then 30 year-old Richard Masur playing the spoiled and mentally unwell son of Cloris Leachman. He was a trip. (It’d be a lot of fun to sit down and really analyze the entire cast of this film. Did you know that Carol Wayne, who played Vincent Price’s nurse, died just a few years later of suspicious causes at the age of 42?)

Simple story, impressive cast, interesting Southern California filming locations, quick pace, unfunny but not painfully unfunny humor, an ancient Jack in the Box, numerous vintage cars. Not the funniest movie ever (or even funny at all), but it has a certain charm to it. Worth watching for fans of 1970’s comedies.

CHAW (2009)

Do you know why somebody would rent a movie about a giant killer boar terrorizing a small mountain town? To see a giant killer boar terrorizing a small mountain town. Not, I repeat not, to spend well over a hour of the 121-minute running time watching the lame locals talk and talk and talk about their lame lives and their lame thoughts on what's killing people and then finally their lame idea on how to kill the giant CG boar that's running so stealthily through the forest that we don't even see it completely for first 57 minutes.

To make a long story short, a giant boar is running around the mountains outside a small village. It kills a few people, so a group of big game hunters are brought in to kill it. They and the local cops talk a lot and wander around in the woods forever until they finally confront the giant boar and then exactly like the giant boar fight in RAZORBACK they have a final showdown in a large warehouse building. The End. I was happy for the first few minutes then things just kept going on and on and on with no action and completely needless side stories (the police officer's mother, the old folktale about a giant boar) until finally I was praying for the end.

Not a horrible movie (there were a few humorous scenes), but it's way too long. Zero tits, no gore, very little blood. Skip it. Watch TREMORS or JAWS again instead.

What is up with that dude's pants?!!

DEATH SPA (1988)

[Update 09/19/2022: Rewatched the film last night. Just deleted the old review and working on fixing the pictures. Will write a new review soon. I hope.]

"...I'm Beta and you're VHS."