Albert Band Movies
Albert Band was born in Paris to Italian parents; his first movie job was as a film cutter at Pathe Studios. Relocating to Hollywood in the late 1940s, Band was employed as a combination production assistant and "fall guy" for maverick director John Huston, gleaning valuable experience on the set of The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Red Badge of Courage (1951), even while being subjected to Huston's sadistic practical jokes. Band's own directorial bow was the 1956 oater The Young Guns; his best Hollywood film was the low-key 1958 shocker I Bury the Living. In the 1960s, Band kept busy as producer, director, and/or screenwriter of a variety of internationally financed productions, including better-than-you'd think Dracula's Dog. Among his more recent efforts as producer were Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992) and Dragon World (1993). Albert Band is the father of director Charles Band. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A renegade scientist and a young woodcarver join forces in an attempt to recapture Puppet Master Rick's magic, but soon find their human experiments spiraling into disaster. As Dr. Magrew's "House of Marvels" echoes with the screams of his unfortunate victims, the puppets sit idly by, awaiting the perfect moment to strike. Only they can stop the Dr. Magrew's diabolical quest for power, but in order to succeed the puppets must act quickly. A renegade scientist and a young woodcarver join forces in an attempt to recapture Puppet Master Rick's magic, but soon find their human experiments spiraling into disaster. As Dr. Magrew's "House of Marvels" echoes with the screams of his unfortunate victims, the puppets sit idly by, awaiting the perfect moment to strike. Only they can stop the Dr. Magrew's diabolical quest for power, but in order to succeed the puppets must act quickly. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Peck, Emily Harrison, (more)
An American family discovers the horrific mystery that lies within a spooky Italian castle in this low-budget horror film from cult director Stuart Gordon, best known for such works as Re-Animator and From Beyond. Castle Freak reunites Gordon with Re-Animator star Jeffrey Combs, who portrays John Reilly, an American who inherits an Italian castle when a distant relative passes away. John, a recovering alcoholic, travels to Italy with his estranged wife Susan and blind daughter Rebecca. On the advice of the estate's executor, the three plan to stay at the castle until they can liquidate the estate. Little do they know, however, that a horrible, freakish monster has been kept locked away in the basement. Soon, the beast has escaped and emerges hungry for blood, leading to a series of unexplained deaths and disappearances. When the police name John their prime suspect, he must find the true murderer before he or his family becomes the next victim. Along the way, he must not only battle the creature itself but overcome demons from his own guilty past. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
What do you get when you combine a Western with a Science Fiction film? You might get this shoot'em up in space. It is set in the distant town of Oblivion (it was actually filmed in Romania). Though it's a high tech town, it has the feel of an old fashioned Western outpost from the 1800's. The town is being terrorized by the snakelike, power-mad Redeye who is also out for the contents of local mines. He shoots the sheriff and disarms Stell Barr, his cyborg deputy. Enter Zack Stone, son of the late Sheriff Stone. Zack is of a rare breed, the empaths. Because he feels the pain of others, he walks a path of non-violence. Can he remain pacifistic in the face of Redeye's terrifying reign? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Joseph Paul, Jackie Swanson, (more)
- 1994
- PG
This made-for-video adventure is aimed squarely at younger audiences. The energetic quintet of pygmy dinosaurs that formed the basis of Prehysteria, returns, this time with an entirely different cast of people. Their exploits begin after they escape from their pen and leave the farm where they first hatch. Unfortunately, they blunder into a raisin shipment and end up sent to the home of rich but lonely boy Brandon Wellington (Kevin Connors). He shares his newest "toys" with his tomboy neighbor Naomi (Jennifer Harte). Trouble comes when Brandon's stuffy housekeeper Mrs. Winters learns that she is terribly allergic to his diminutive reptiles. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kevin Connors, Jennifer Harte, (more)
- 1993
- PG
In this follow-up to its predecessor Robot Jox, Robot Wars again involves a bleak post-Armageddon world where the survivors settle their differences in mammoth robot fights. Here a couple of desperates resurrect the world's last "good-guy" robot which they use to save all humanity. ~ Rovi
- 1993
- PG
This lively children's comedy centers upon a 13-year-old electronic whiz with a knack for building clever remote control gadgets. Young Randy gets into big trouble after one of his inventions destroys his buddy's science project. Afterward, his parents attempt to get him to find other interests. Its a good thing they fail because when burglars come to call, it is Randy and his fabulous "toys" that save the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1993
- PG
This family fantasy focuses on a widowed farmer and his kids who find some mysterious eggs which hatch to reveal a brood of baby dinosaurs. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- 1992
- R
Doctor Mordrid (Jeffrey Combs) is an interdimensional sorcerer whose earth cover consists of acting as a super for a Manhattan apartment building. He gets word from his contact that a rival sorcerer, Kabal (Brian Thompson), has escaped and is coming to earth to take over the planet. Framed by Kabal for murder, Mordrid is sent to jail where his girlfriend (Yvette Nipar) is the only one who can help him escape -- and prevent the destruction of Earth. ~ John Bush, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Combs, Yvette Nipar, (more)
- 1992
- R
This third entry in the sci-fi Trancers series involves a futuristic L.A. cop/detective who time-travels to battle more Trancers from a 23rd-century totalitarian government that maintains control by injecting victims with trance-inducing drugs, causing them to become virtual puppets. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
In the sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, a bumbling but brilliant scientist (Rick Moranis) accidentally makes his two-year-old son into a giant who becomes larger every time he comes in contact with electricity. Though he and his wife try to control their son, the child inevitably escapes and wreaks havoc, eventually terrorizing the streets of Las Vegas. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rick Moranis, Marcia Strassman, (more)
- 1991
- R
Once again someone from the future has come back to create an army of Trancers, human zombies who do what they're told without question or pause. Now officer Jack Deth, a cop from the future stranded in the past, must once again go forth to stop them. This sci-fi action sequel chronicles his courageous actions as he struggles to save the future. His difficulties are compounded when his boss sends his first wife back from the future to help Deth who has unfortunately, married a 20th-century girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, (more)
- 1991
- R
Only loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story, this horror film was filmed on location in a spooky Italian castle and tells the convoluted story of a mad priest who devises exquisitely painful ways of getting his victims to confess to dabbling in witchcraft. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lance Henriksen, Rona de Ricci, (more)
Sometime far into the future international powers settle their differences in gigantic arenas where each nation sponsors an incredible robot gladiator. These gladiators duke it out to determine the distribution of world territories. This might be best appreciated by pre-teen video warfare fans. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Gary Graham, Anne-Marie Johnson, (more)
- 1987
- PG13
This pedantic sequel to Empire Pictures' less-than-original Ghoulies was released directly to video and summarily slipped into oblivion. At the outset of this one, the title creatures -- rubbery puppets originally conceived as cut-rate Gremlins lookalikes -- are shanghaied by a priest who intends to exterminate them, but they manage to escape to a low-rent carnival. There they take up residence in "Satan's Den," a foundering, old-fashioned haunted house attraction run by Royal Dano, who fears he may lose ownership of the show due to sagging attendance. The presence of the ghoulies at first gives business a much-needed boost ... until the slimy little buggers start dining on the patrons. Despite some enhancements in the lackluster monster effects (by John Buechler, who's done better work elsewhere) and clever stop-motion animation by David Allen, this film is just as pointless as its predecessor. There is, however, one memorable scene, which makes good on the promise of the first film's ad campaign -- which featured one of the reptilian critters leaping from a toilet bowl, accompanied by the tagline "They'll get you in the end!" ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Damon Martin, Royal Dano, (more)
- 1986
- R
This inventive low-budget action-fantasy from producer Charles Band was released briefly as Swordkill before undergoing a title change for home video. Basically a samurai variant on Iceman, the story involves the discovery of 400-year-old Japanese warrior Yoshimita (Hiroshi Fujioka) encased in glacial ice in the hills of Motosuka, Japan. Revived at a high-tech cryogenics facility in Los Angeles by scientist Dr. Chris Welles (Janet Julian), Yoshimita is forced to acclimate himself to the modern age, but his samurai code of honor compels him to continue the quest for his long-lost bride that he began in his own time. The standard fish-out-of-water premise is helped along considerably by the appealing Fujioka, who exhibits an appropriately stoic demeanor amid a blur of computerized, MTV-styled culture shock, and some well-handled action sequences. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- 1986
The hokey TerrorVision is more an unintentional model of how horror films were made in the early '50s than a trend-setting story about the TV monster who ate them all. When Stanley (Gerrit Graham) goes outside to adjust his family's satellite dish, a living, organic alien monster-cum-garbage-disposal is zapped into the TV sets in Stanley's household. The monster pops out of the sets once in awhile to grab a quick snack of anyone within reach. Hopefully, the young boy in the family -- the only one close to normal in the house -- might have a solution to their problem. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Diane Franklin, Gerritt Graham, (more)
The production team responsible for the twisted cult classic Re-Animator -- including director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna -- returned the following year with this equally depraved (perhaps more so) follow-up, based once again (and very loosely) on the pulp-horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. Also returning to the fray is Jeffrey Combs, here playing the mild-mannered Crawford Tillinghast, apprentice to the dangerously obsessed Dr. Pretorious (Ted Sorel) and co-inventor of an enigmatic and ominous-looking device known as "The Resonator" -- a machine designed to stimulate the vestigial sensory apparatus contained within the human pineal gland. Such stimulation allows participants to "see" the slimy creatures which occupy a dimension parallel to our own, but with some chilling side effects -- the first of which being that the interdimensional vision works both ways. When a powerful sentient force devours Pretorious and assumes his consciousness, Tillinghast panics and destroys the Resonator -- soon to find himself in a padded cell, accused of his mentor's murder. Called to the case are Dr. McMichaels (Barbara Crampton, another Re-Animator alum) and amiable cop Bubba Brownlee (Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree), who escort Tillinghast back to the shattered laboratory in an attempt to corroborate his deranged account by re-creating the experiment. Their attempts are all too successful, and the Pretorious-thing emerges to take control of the reactivated Resonator and draw the others into its hideous realm. Also called forth are the participants' darkest sexual desires -- another interesting by-product of pineal stimulation -- and, in Tillinghast's case, an uncontrollable urge to devour human brains. Just when it seems it can't get any weirder...it does. Gordon explores this demented scenario with relish, allowing nearly every scene to go completely over the top into surreal mayhem while retaining the dark brooding sense of menace characteristic of Lovecraft's work. (It's not likely, however, that the author's dignified upbringing would have explored the psychosexual dimensions of the premise -- at least not in the kind of detail seen here.) All manners of perversities abound, accompanied by the wizardry of four dueling special-effects studios and the rich, creepy score by Richard H. Band, bringing the film to a literally explosive climax and a chillingly poetic final shot. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, (more)
- 1985
- PG13
When a family moves into a San Francisco apartment, an opportunistic troll decides to make his move and take possession of little Wendy (Jenny Beck), thereby paving the way for new troll recruits, the first in his army that will take eventual control of the planet. As luck would have it, the building conveniently rests on a crease in the time-space continuum, so it isn't hard to open the door to trollworld, or whatever the troll would call it. But even the path to world domination begins with a single step, so the troll begins by disposing of each tenant with his pointy magical ring; each victim then turns into a fern (this may be the only existing film in which the late U.S. Representative Sonny Bono becomes a houseplant). Fortunately for the human race, the next door neighbor is a kindly old witch who has just the game plan to win back Wendy (now under the troll's influence as evidenced by her poor social skills and equally bad eating habits), vanquish the paranormal pest, and save the human race from imminent troll tyranny. The stage is then set for inevitable battle between the good witch and the evil troll for control of the world, but first she and the brave family must combat a twenty-foot tall ubertroll who looks akin to a Furby doll left in the sandbox over a long, hard Minnesota winter. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi
- Starring:
- Noah Hathaway, Michael Moriarty, (more)
- 1984
In this funny Japanese adventure, the great 16th-century samurai warrior Yoshimitsa ends up frozen in a glacial crevasse while looking for the villains who abducted his wife. Four hundred years later his remains are discovered by skiers and sent to LA to be studied. Miraculously, the warrior awakens after he thaws out. He soon escapes into the wild strange world of California during the 1980s and resumes his search. He is pursued by an evil, self-serving researcher and assisted by a nice young woman. Mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hiroshi Fujioka, John Calvin, (more)
- 1983
- PG
- Add Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn to Queue Add Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn to top of Queue
Metalstorm was a courageous if unsuccessful attempt to renew the 3-D craze of the 1950s. Jeffrey Byron heads the cast as space ranger Dogen, who is bound and determined to stem the activities of integallactic looney-tune Jared-Syn (Mike Preston). We then segue into a plotline that is more Western than Science-Fiction in nature. The special effects aren't going to give the producers of Star Wars any sleepless nights, though there is some ingenuity in the variety of asteroids, spaceships and stuff that are thrust stereoptically at the audience. The supporting cast of Metalstorm boasts some interesting names, including Tim Thomerson, Richard Moll and Larry Pennell. The film was produced by Albert Band and directed by Albert's son Charles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Byron, Tim Thomerson, (more)
- 1977
- PG
Based on the book by Cleo Dawson, this film follows the struggle of a female settler as she becomes involved in a political conflict during the Spanish-American War. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi
When soldiers foolishly remove a stake from a mysterious Transylvanian grave, they release a vampire dog belonging to the Dracula clan. Also freed is Veidt-Smit (Reggie Nalder), an old servant of the Count himself, not quite a vampire, but immortal all the same: he can work in the daylight. Together, the blood-sucking dog and he go to the U.S. in search of Michael Drake (Michael Pataki), who is the last of the Dracula family line and who has no notion that there is anything strange in his family tree. Meanwhile, they are being followed by a Transylvanian vampire-hunter, Inspector Branco (Jose Ferrer) ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Pataki, Reggie Nalder, (more)
- 1975
You knew what to expect when you tuned into a TV-movie with the title The Centerfold Murders, so don't complain. This ersatz movie was actually a 90-minute videotaped offering from the ABC late-night anthology Wide World Mystery. The setting is the main office of a girlie magazine which is suffering financial reversals. Instead of receiving the customary pink slips, several of the prettier employees are being "terminated" for keeps. The all-TV cast includes Carol Lawrence, Mark (Lost in Space) Goddard, and perennial blonde bombshell Inga Nielsen. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
- PG
The "little cigars" are five midget criminals, masterminded by Billy Curtis. They team up with full-sized Angel Tompkins, a gangster's girlfriend who's on the lam from her homicidal "protector." Tompkins and the five little people form a travelling carnival as a front for their crooked activities. Two of the midgets kill off the mobsters who've been sent to rub out Tompkins; in gratitude, she begins an affair with Curtis. At first planning to desert the other midgets and abscond with their hard-earned stealings, Tompkins and Curtis have a change of heart, return the money to their chums, and ride off together for a most unusual romantic rendezvous. Though Little Cigars has been unfairly maligned by such "authoritive" books as The Golden Turkey Awards, the film is actually quite entertaining, and not nearly as exploitive of Little People as might be expected. Among the other well-known Hollywood midgets and dwarves in the cast are Angelo Rossitto, Felix Silla, and Jerry Maren. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
In this spaghetti Western, Joseph Cotten stars as Jonas, an ex-Confederate soldier who robs a Union freight train in order to re-ignite the Civil War. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Norma Bengell, (more)
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