Bill Moseley Movies
Many may associate the lean, frequently menacing actor
Bill Moseley with his repeat work for goremeister
Rob Zombie, in whose efforts
House of 1,000 Corpses (2002),
The Devil's Rejects (2005), and
Halloween (2007) he starred, nearly always as a deranged, homicidal lunatic. In truth, seasoned horror aficionados will realize that
Moseley had already attained iconic status long prior to his affiliation with
Zombie -- particularly given his prominent billing as the maniacal cannibal Chop-Top, opposite
Dennis Hopper, in 1986's horror comedy
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. This role (the actor's third) effectively put
Moseley, then in his late twenties, on top; in successive years, he did occasional work in features from other genres, such as the 1992 family comedy
Honey, I Blew Up the Kid and the
Richard Gere-headlined romantic psychodrama
Mr. Jones (1993), but remained most commonly tied to horror. Memorable efforts in this vein included
The Blob (1988),
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3 (1989),
Night of the Living Dead (1990), and
The Convent (2000).
Moseley's affiliation with
Zombie began when the two met at a Haunted City Walk in Los Angeles in 1999 and immediately struck up a rapport. They remained friends, and not only worked on the said three features (with
Rejects, in particular, benefiting enormously from
Moseley's long-haired presence -- his gaunt, weapon-wielding appearance was used as a major selling point for the film), but collaborated on the
Zombie-directed featurette to
Quentin Tarantino and
Robert Rodriguez's
Grindhouse,
Werewolf Women of the S.S. (2007). Also in 2007,
Moseley starred in the horror outing
House, the tale of a bunch of Satanists who keep two couples captive. In addition to his film work,
Moseley's professional activities include performing as a musician in the band Cornbugs. He is not to be confused with the actor
William Moseley, active in Britain at about the same time. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

- 1990
- R
- Add Night of the Living Dead to Queue
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Makeup wizard Tom Savini's color remake of George A. Romero's 1968 classic follows the original almost shot-for-shot, so quality comparisons are somewhat pointless. The film was clearly made for younger viewers who refuse to watch black-and-white films, no matter how good they may be. The result is passable, but the very fact that the original was made 22 years before makes this version seem almost dated in its restraint. By the time of its release, Romero had already geometrically raised the gore quotient with Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985), so Savini's starting back at square one further lessened the impact of this pointless retread. If this version has anything to offer, it is Patricia Tallman's engaging lead performance as a gun-toting independent woman, one of this film's few elements not lifted wholesale from Romero. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, (more)

- 1990
- R
Actress Dyan Cannon, whose 1976 directorial debut Number One was nominated for a "best short subject" Academy Award, moves on to feature-length projects with The End of Innocence. In addition to directing, Ms. Cannon wrote the screenplay and played a leading role in this story of a young girl spiritually torn apart by forces beyond her control. Rebecca Schaeffer plays Stephanie Lewis, unwanted and ignored by her eternally squabbling parents. Mom and Dad do further damage to Stephanie's battered psyche by giving her mixed messages concerning sex and religion. The girl's self-esteem dwindles to microscopic proportions thanks to a series of no-good boyfriends. Suffering a nervous breakdown, she is placed in an asylum, where for the first time she treated as a human being rather than a nuisance by compassionate psychiatrist John Heard. Completed in the late 1980s, End of Innocence was released in 1990, one year after the death of star Rebecca Schaeffer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Dyan Cannon, John Heard, (more)

- 1989
- R
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This lackluster attempt at blending equal parts action movie and supernatural thriller ends up sacrificing the merits of both genres. The plot finds baby-faced homicide detective Logan (Lou Diamond Phillips) on the trail of "Pentagram Killer" Patrick Channing (Jeff Kober), negligibly assisted by lots of occult mumbo-jumbo espoused by various doomsaying members of the Catholic Church. Channing is eventually captured and executed, but this turns out to be a big mistake: one of the Satanic powers Channing managed to acquire through ritual sacrifice is the power to transfer his soul into other living bodies, allowing him to roam about incognito and continue his killing spree. There is little overt horror on display, as we usually see only the aftermath of Channing's evil deeds; there is scarcely enough mystery to propel the police-procedural elements either. Worse, the producers apparently decided to toss in a romantic subplot involving Phillips and psychic Tracy Griffith to keep things interesting, but fail to sustain credibility even in this department. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Lou Diamond Phillips, Tracy Griffith, (more)

- 1989
- PG13
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For his third film as a director and his third film directing Clint Eastwood, stunt-man Buddy Van Horn helmed this action comedy involving a skip tracer, some neo-nazis, and the titular vehicle. Eastwood stars as Tommy Nowak, a bounty hunter with a knack for catching bail-skippers with an array of costumes and characters. After he captures a young woman (Bernadette Peters), he suddenly finds himself between the woman's good-for-nothing husband and his white supremacist cohorts and the wads of cash hidden in the pink Cadillac she's driving. With the skin-heads hot on their tail, a romance sparks between the skip-tracer and his captive. Written by John Eskow, Pink Cadillac costars Timothy Carhart and Michael Des Barres. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Bernadette Peters, (more)

- 1989
- R
It is difficult to believe that this wretched sequel was Monte Hellman's first American film since Cockfighter (1974), and even more difficult to believe that it is the work of the man behind cult classics like Two-Lane Blacktop, The Shooting, and Back Door to Hell. The grown-up Ricky (Bill Moseley from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) comes out of the coma in which he ended the last film and goes on another murderous Christmas Eve rampage despite the fact that his brain is exposed under a glass dome after reconstructive surgery. There's a confused subplot about a doctor (Richard Beymer from Twin Peaks) investigating the dreams of a blind psychic girl (Samantha Scully), whose visions have something to do with Ricky's past. The glass-plated killer shows up at the girl's house, pursued by the doctor and a grumpy policeman played by Robert Culp, for the final standoff. The cast includes Eric Da Re, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Leonard Mann, there are flashbacks to part two (which consisted mostly of flashbacks to begin with), and obligatory in-jokes like several scenes from 1963's The Terror (which Hellman co-directed), and an homage to the original Carnival of Souls. There are some interesting camera angles, and one envisions Hellman thinking he was doing something different with the series, but the script and acting are terrible and Ricky's story had pretty much run its course anyway. The next sequel was a completely unrelated gorefest from Brian Yuzna (Society), whose unique vision -- if roundly rejected by series fans -- was at least a change of pace. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Richard Beymer, Bill Moseley, (more)

- 1988
- R
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After the phenomenal box-office and critical success of David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly, a series of big-budget remakes of '50s horror favorites rode in on its coattails in the late 1980s -- though none managed to rise above mere camp clones of their elders, albeit garnished with modern makeup effects in an attempt to draw modern teen horror-junkies. One remake that managed to live up to its cheesy inspiration was Chuck Russell's version of The Blob, in which the title goo crashes to earth and promptly begins digesting the residents of a small California town while growing to gargantuan proportions. The clean-cut teen hero originally portrayed by Steve McQueen (his first starring role) is replaced here with a rebellious outsider (Kevin Dillon) whose preppie rival (Donovan Leitch) for the affections of the cute heroine (Shawnee Smith) is quickly eliminated by the all-consuming space-gelatin. No sooner has the plasma menace set up house in the town sewers when a shadowy government Blob Squad shows up under the direction of the grandfatherly Dr. Meddows (Joe Seneca), to clean up the mess... or not. This high-spirited remake replaces the '50s "Daddy-O" conventions of the original with '80s cynicism -- not even likeable characters are spared from the slaughter -- and anti-government sentiment. It also pushes the gore envelope in ways unavailable to its low-budget parent -- e.g. the scene in which one victim is sucked through a sink drain was only hinted at in the 1958 film, but here viewers are treated to the entire bone-crunching ordeal. Though the quality of blob effects seems inversely proportional to the creature's size (some of the climactic "wall-of-blob" footage is painfully cheap-looking), the end result is more blob for the monster-movie fan's dollar. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, (more)

- 1988
- R
Thrown out of the house by his wife Eva (Trudie Styler), Gene (Gregg Henry) finds an inventive way to get revenge. Traveling out to the desert, Gene purchases a deadly mamba snake and sets it loose in their apartment, locking his wife in with the creature. A lethal game of hide-and-seek ensues as Gene watches the action from a cleverly configured monitoring system. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Trudie Styler, Gregg Henry, (more)

- 1986
- R
- Add The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 to Queue
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Over ten years after making the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper returns to his deranged family of reclusive cannibals for another round of chainsaw chases and non-stop screaming. Hooper brings a real budget this time (having recently directed Poltergeist for Steven Spielberg) and the talents of veteran make-up artist Tom Savini. This means he can make things bigger, louder, and gorier than ever before -- and they are. He also brings a wacky, self-deprecating sense of humor, as if deliberately flaunting Texas Chainsaw Massacre's status as one of the first and still greatest "splatter" movies. The result is an impish take-off on the original film (and contemporary horror movies in general) that elevates its own clichés -- buckets of blood and gore, droll dialogue, the screaming female lead -- to the level of high camp. The movie is loosely concerned with a small-town disc jockey named "Stretch" (Caroline Williams, who does most of the screaming) and an embittered Texas Ranger named "Lefty" (Dennis Hopper). They team up and decide to put an end to the murderous activities of the Sawyer family once and for all (that is, of course, until Texas Chainsaw Massacre III). The real highlight of the film is when Stretch and Lefty find their way into the Sawyer family hideout -- a ruinous, winding abattoir underneath an abandoned amusement park -- and engage in a chainsaw-battle-to-the-death with Leatherface (Bill Johnson) and the rest of the clan. Jim Siedow is back from the first film as the acerbic Drayton Sawyer, the family cook and owner of the Last Roundup Rolling Grill. Chop-Top (Bill Moseley) and Leatherface do most of the movie's dirty work. ~ Anthony Reed, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, (more)

- 1985
-
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The titular "Osa" ("female bear" in Spanish) is (Kelly Lynch), a brave young woman with a superactive persona and stiff training in target practice since her days as a tot. Set in a thirsty future dystopia when all the water has been contaminated, a Mr. Hammond -- one evil capitalist -- has cornered the market on potable water and is selling it for $200 a gallon. His chief thug is Mr. Big (Daniel Grimm) who terrorizes one and all, until several murders into the storyline he is finally in a confrontation with Osa. That last bloodletting is staged as an elaborate game, but for some reason the baddies are under the fatal assumption that Osa will play by the rules. As usual, motivation and character development are the first casualties in the build-up of violent scenes leading to the culminating gore. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Kelly Lynch, Daniel Grimm, (more)

- 1982
- R
Based on a true story, Endangered Species stars Robert Urich and JoBeth Williams. Urich plays vacationing ex-cop Ruben Castle, while Williams portrays Harriet Purdue, a small-town sheriff. Intrigued by Purdue's investigation of a rash of cattle mutilations, Castle begins following the evidence trail himself. What has been attributed to a religious cult or extraterrestrials by the locals turns out to be a covert operation conducted by a corrupt cartel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Robert Urich, JoBeth Williams, (more)