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Campfire Tales

Some of the movies I've rented in the last few months come courtesy of the one and only, Trailers from Hell. Since I'm a fan of a number of the featured directors on there, I'm inclined to check out some of their favorite movies. Some movies I checked out were really great (Vanishing Point) while some were so-so (the original Haunting). Still, it's a great site to find out about cult classics beyond some of the most well-known cult classics.

As of late, I've checked out a few movies Eli Roth and Edgar Wright have commented on. In particular, because of Roth, I hope to sit through the pure train wreck that is Exoricst II: The Heretic. But before I get to that, I plan on seeing a movie he references in his commentary for Three On a Meathook: Abby. A film whose distributor was sued by Warner Bros. because of its similarity to the original Exorcist, Abby: The Story of a Woman Possessed is a blaxploitation horror flick. Since I've never seen a movie like this (and the film isn't reviewed on a certain site I occasionally do reviews for), I plan on watching it this weekend.

In addition, thanks to Edgar Wright's commentary, I hope to see Raw Meat, aka Death Line, soon. Donald Pleasence in a movie about underground tube dwellers? Sounds promising to me. No, seriously.

I'm well aware that many of these movies are not great. A number of them were knockoffs or cheap cash-ins because of blockbusters of their day. Since I had never heard of these movies growing up (mainly because they were made before my time and not available at my local Blockbuster), I'm curious to see what's up. With the movies that I find surprisingly great, that's the reward. With the ones that are less-than-satisfying (or just flat-out suck), well, that's just part of the search.

All this said, I can't help but imagine some talented filmmaker in the future who finds tremendous value in the 90s equivalent of genre movies from the 70s. I'm talking Campfire Tales, Scream 3, and Jeeper's Creepers. What if some filmmaker with a tremendous talent just goes on and on about how incredible these movies are? Since I lived through the late 90s as a fan of horror movies, open to watch even something like Campfire Tales, I can't help but cringe. Hopefully, like Wright, Tarantino, and Roth know the difference between great films and entertaining films, this person will know as well.

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