REEL HORROR (1985)
Article 4652 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-11-2014
Directed by Ross Hagen
Featuring Alexandra, John Hayden, Howard Honig
Country: USA
What it is: Recycled

A female exorcist arrives at a movie studio that is being haunted by footage from old movies.

Well, here’s one way to recycle your old movies, though not a good way. Five movies from the seventies are edited down into roughly fifteen minute bits, and the footage is interspersed with new footage showing how each of these movies is haunting someone working at the studio. The five movies are DADDY’S DEADLY DARLING, CYCLE PSYCHO, NIGHT CREATURE, MAXIE and NICOLE. I’ve seen the first three for this series, but not the other two, and based on the fact that I found it nearly impossible to follow the plots of those two, I’d say the editing of the movies isn’t particularly good. All five of these movies looked like they were low-budget affairs, but the new footage looks even cheaper. I suspect the new footage is supposed to be funny, but it’s just pathetic. IMDB shows a DVD image from the movie which prominently features John Carradine’s name, but his footage takes up about two seconds of screen time. Is the movie any good? I’d say it would be better to ask if the movie is a complete waste of time, and if you did, I’d say yes. This is perhaps the most worthless thing I’ve seen in the last year or so. The best thing I can probably say about it is that the promised sequel, REEL MONSTERS, appears never to have gotten off the drawing board.