J.R. Bookwalter Movies
Former USS Enterprise captain William Shatner takes the helm as director and star of this sci-fi adventure following a young couple who travel to a small-town near the notorious Area-51 military base in search of extraterrestrial life. Deep in the heart of the Nevada desert, not far from Area-51, Commander Gossner (Shatner) has been conducting highly classified experiments on captured extraterrestrials. But the government is about to shut him down, and two wandering truth-seekers are about to make his life miserable. When his alien test subject is kidnapped, the vengeful Commander Gossner resorts to extreme measures in tracking down the otherworldly visitor. Dick Van Patten, Duane Whitaker, Tom Towles, and Dan Gauthier co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner
Low-budget horror mogul J.R. Bookwalter (The Dead Next Door) directed this second sequel to the mildly successful Witchouse, another in his Tempe studio's productions for B-movie legend Charles Band's Full Moon Pictures. Cult favorite Brinke Stevens takes over the role of Lilith in this installment, which -- being shot on DV in Los Angeles -- represents more modest aims than the glossier 35mm look of the Romanian-lensed Witchouse 2. Like both of its predecessors, however, the film owes a lot to The Blair Witch Project, as Lilith is revived by a pair of documentary filmmakers (Debbie Rochon, Tina Krause) and their friend, an abused woman (Tanya Dempsey) seeking shelter from her past. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 2001
Rosemary's Baby meets The Lost Boys in David DeCoteau's follow-up to his 2000 film The Brotherhood, which keeps the same setting as that film, an exclusive private school known as Chandler Academy. In this film, a warlock named Luc (Forrest Cochran) uses his powers to seduce three young students into doing his bidding. The tension builds as the students slowly discover that Luc may be using them as conduits to bring the Devil to life. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
No one would have guessed that Mrs. Albright, the seemingly sweet, elderly proprietor of a New England boarding home, was actually a demon hiding beneath a facade of stitched-on human skin. Her mission, capturing boarders and imprisoning their souls within a book of paper dolls, seems impossible to stop. Stitches is directed by Neal Stevens, who co-wrote the screenplay for 2001's Thirteen Ghosts, and features Elizabeth Ince, Debra Mayer, and Lindy Bryant. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
Cult filmmaker J.R. Bookwalter (The Dead Next Door) directed this sequel to the 1999 shocker helmed by David DeCoteau under the pseudonym "Jack Reed." Much as the original aped 1987's Night of the Demons, this installment mimics The Blair Witch Project with a number of handheld camcorder shots and a similar approach. The plot concerns Professor Sparrow (Ariauna Albright) and her students, who are called to investigate the discovery of some unmarked graves by a construction crew planning a new shopping mall. The mall site just happens to contain a haunted house, where Prof. Sparrow and her students stay while they investigate the graves, the haunting, and a found videotape depicting the murder of a young couple in the nearby woods. As they dig deeper, interviewing the sinister town historian (Andrew Prine of The Miracle Worker and Grizzly) along with doing their own research, the group discovers information about an evil witch named Lilith who lived in the area. She was burned at the stake centuries before and has come back for revenge along with her bloodthirsty coven of red-eyed demons, leading to possessions, murders, and the obligatory twist ending. Bookwalter's atmospheric direction is a step up from the original, and paved the way for yet another sequel (Witchouse 3: Demon Fire) the following year. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
In this installment of the gory series, an innocent woodcarver finds himself possessed of the evil creator of the murderous animated puppets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Peck, Emily Harrison, (more)
This gruesome and surprisingly well-done indie shocker from Matthew Jason Walsh (who wrote Blonde Heaven and The Sandman) concerns a psychotic woman (Ariauna Albright from Witchouse) who tracks down a famous serial killer and blackmails him into teaching her the tricks of his trade. Their bizarre relationship and some gruesome murders (including a shotgunned infant) make this one not for the faint of heart. The cast list is like a who's who of contemporary indie horror, (Sasha Graham, Tina Krause, Scooter McCrae) and the film is overall a treat for fans of hard-edged splatter. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
A group of college interns gets caught in the woods with drug dealers and an alien being that can assume the form of anyone with whom it comes in contact. This sci-fi horror from the prolific J.R. Bookwalter (The Dead Next Door) is one of his best, with solid characters and a professional look. The presence of one of the best actresses in indie horror, Sasha Graham, doesn't hurt either, and despite being about the 300th treatment of the same basic story, Polymorph is entertaining and highly watchable. Screenwriter James L. Edwards co-stars with Ariauna Albright (Witchouse). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James L. Edwards, Ariauna Albright, (more)
Someone, or something, is knocking off the residents of the Yokum Trailer Park. Late one night a writer who can't get to sleep notices strange goings-on at the trailer next to him and catches a glimpse of a glowing, red-eyed creature. He decides to see what the connection is between the creature and the fact that all his neighbors are being killed off. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
A cop arresting a drug dealer is stabbed with a syringe. He soon begins to see everybody around him turning into zombies, led by a mutant creature with the face of a pig. He believes himself to be hallucinating because of the drug he's been injected with, until he himself begins turning into one of the zombie creatures. He tries to find out what's behind all of this before he turns into a complete zombie. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1991
During a drug bust, a narcotics cop comes up against a voodoo priest called Dr. Death. The cop kills Dr. Death as he is chanting a voodoo curse, but Dr. Death manages to kill the cop in the process, damning him to an existence as a zombie. During the night both rise from their graves as members of the living dead -- but the cop enlists the help of his human partners to track down and stop Dr. Death from taking over the world. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1991
This tiny-budgeted, direct-to-video vampire item from Dead Next Door producer-director J.R. Bookwalter tells the story of young Jeff, an apparently mild-mannered and likable kid who lives with his mother and works the night shift at the neighborhood liquor store, a suitable place of employment for a century-old vampire. Content with keeping a low profile, Jeff is nevertheless forced to reveal his true nature to pretty young Nina in order to protect her from his hideous, homicidal mom, who has a penchant for preying on local children. Owing a lot to George Romero's character-based vampire film Martin, this entry offers little new to the genre, with more emphasis on shocks and creepy visuals than storytelling, but Bookwalter manages to keep things moving at a brisk pace and remains one of the few independent genre filmmakers with enough style to overcome the unavoidably cheap look of shot-on-video projects. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Actress Brinke Stevens hosts this compilation of interviews with 11 low-budget filmmakers, mostly in the horror genre. Among the directors profiled are Jeff Burr, Fred Olen Ray, Charles Band, Scott Spiegel, J.R. Bookwalter and David DeCoteau (who also happens to be this film's executive producer). ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
The feature debut of ultra-low-budget horror auteur J.R. Bookwalter, this fast-paced zombie mini-epic is very likely the most expensive movie ever shot on Super-8 film. Playing with the long-established mythos of George A. Romero's Living Dead trilogy, The Dead Next Door was produced with the help of many of the Evil Dead crew: financial backer Sam Raimi is credited as "Master Cylinder" and one of the characters is named after him; Evil Dead co-writer Scott Spiegel plays a role; and some character voices are dubbed by Bruce Campbell. The story centers on the members of the "Zombie Squad" -- an assault team trained in the hunting and extermination of the living dead -- and their mission to track down the scientists who developed a zombie-making virus and find the rumored antidote. Of the many lethal obstacles in their path, the deadliest comes in the form of a religious cult whose leader sees the zombie epidemic as a precursor of Armageddon -- and is hell-bent on expediting it. Very stylish for what is essentially an epic-scale home movie (and gushing with plentiful home-style gore effects), this remains Bookwalter's best effort and contains numerous witty homages to the Romero films which inspired it. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1989
The title tells all in this chiller that centers on a woman who with her children travels across the country in her van selling fine leather clothing. It is leather of a quality that most people have never seen and is quite popular until a detective finds out just where she is getting her goods. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
A crime-fighting ninja leaps from his cartoon-page origins into the real world to take on the worst the underworld has to offer. ~ All Movie Guide
