MB Blog Anonymous Reader Appreciation Day: April Fool's Day

After my April Ghoul's blog, it was brought to my ghoulish attention that I missed over an apparent April gem: April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is a 1986 horror film directed by Fred Walton (who also did the original When a Stranger Calls). The cast is a bunch of people from 80's awesome movie royalty (actually, to be fair, when I first started writing this, I hadn't even seen the movie yet, so I put "a bunch of people that I've never heard of" and upon seeing it, had to change it immediately in the middle of watching it because of the all-star team in this movie)....First of all, there's Amy Steel, who plays Ginny in Friday the 13th Part II (You, know, the one that puts on the dead-and-headless Pamela Voorhees' sweater and uses her "child psychology" college education to distract Jason).

Does the pitchfork ring a bell?
Amy Steel ALSO is in Walk Like a Man (just learned that now).

Aside from Steel, there are two...not one...but two characters from Just One Of the Guys-the one that plays Deborah, and the one that plays love interest Rick; Biff from Back to the Future; and Larry from Summer School.

Anyway, I decided to check it out...and while it couldn't be the first blog of the month...we're going to close out April Ghoul's with April Fool's Day (The Movie!)! When have you known MB Blog to be conventional with horror? Don't answer that- And off we go!

Ok so first of all, I have to come clean that seeing this trailer, despite it's awesome Top Gun music in the beginning, is so horrific and terrible that it nearly completely deterred me from seeing it:




But I pressed on. I mean, it's considered a "cult classic" after all, how bad can it be?

Basically, the movie starts off as most 80's horror films do...there is a heap of college students all gathering together for some kind of graduation or spring break party at some rich snob's (Muffy St. John...how much more snobby can you sound?) house. Everyone has to take a ferry over, and one of the friends gets seriously injured and is taken away.

Everyone is very jilted by this, but they press on to Muffy's pad and are greeting with some practical jokes set out by muffy-a whoopie cushion, this awesome chair that folds back and you spill out, et al.

Next, people start going missing and showing up dead. The survivors are trying to figure out "who done it?" and it turns out that Muffy's insane twin, Buffy, has escaped and killed Muffy and that the host is really Buffy, not Muffy. Wow, what a mouthful!

So now it looks like Kit (one of the remaining girls) has lost her boyfriend somewhere in the mix and is running for her life. She runs into the living room, where all of her "dead" friends are sitting on the couch waiting for her. She's in disbelief...and soon, boyfriend ends up in the living room too and sees that everyone is alive and fine. It turns out that Muffy has been practicing for some kind of weekend murder-mystery event to help keep the estate open. Everyone was in on the joke except the two "survivors". This must be the "twist" ending I'd heard so much about.

Anyway, the movie seems to have reached the end and Muffy goes back to this Jack-in-the-Box that scared her as a child and she decides to make it open up...and as she does it...some girl that you hardly see throughout the movie comes up behind her and slits her throat! Whoa! Oh, wait...no she didn't...it was just another April Fool's!

There was a remake to the movie made in 2008:

starring Scout Taylor-Compton (who played Laurie Strode in Rob Zombie's Halloween), but it was released straight to DVD, and apparently, wasn't that good.
Here's the trailer for that, sorry the sound isn't too great...even though the movie looks far worse than the quality of sound:




Overall, this movie was kind of an un-scary-scary movie. Nobody actually died, so you can leave feeling good about it, and the idea behind it was pretty clever. Jim hated it though, so he kept trying to fast-forward it. After he named what other movies all of the cast members were in, he completely lost interest, which made the movie lose some of its luster for me.

Seriously though, I wish I had a friend that could do Hollywood special FX makeup...my Monster Bashes would be even greater! Muffy is one lucky rich snob.

The Thing

A little while ago, Jim was looking in the store at used horror movies on sale. He called me and I proceeded to consult IMDB.COM to find the best movie for the price.

So, after much debate and consideration, we decided on John Carpenter's The Thing.


The movie had it all: John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog, They Live, and Village of the Damned), Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, and it had GREAT ratings online. I had to see it.

The Thing is Carpenter's 1982 adaptation of the novella Who Goes There? which ultimately inspired the 1951 film The Thing From Another World. Basically, the movie is about a group of American scientists, who, upon finding some weird stuff that the Norwegian scientists left behind (including a dog being shot at for the first 5 minutes of the movie), are faced with a shape-shifting alien who is trying to imitate them, take them all over and destroy everything and everyone on the planet.

Here's the trailer:





I have to say before we start, that the more I think about this movie, the more I love it. The idea behind the movie is extremely clever...and terrifying. Basically: You can't trust anyone.

They are in complete isolation, kind of like in the Shining, yet there's an alien running around taking on shapes and ripping people to shreds.

There's also alot of blowtorching...


I mean...A LOT:






Basically, everyone starts becoming suspicious of one another, and the doctor, Wilford Brimley, loses his marbles and gets locked in a shed in isolation. Kurt Russell's character, who is a drunk helicopter pilot named MacReady and seriously, I loved him, becomes the next object of suspicion and he's locked out in the cold where his beard freezes.

Anyway, MacReady somehow makes it back into the complex and holds everyone at dynamite-point rather than gunpoint.

One of the greatest scenes in this movie then happens...one of the guys is so stressed out by what's going on that he has a heart attack and falls lifeless. The one doctor tries to revive him with the defibulator...and...:


DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!?!? OK, ok, let's recap...


AHHHHH!!!!

So MacReady decides to test everyone's blood with heat, because "The Thing" doesn't like heat (as illustrated above by said blowtorching)...so...see the guy on the right?

Yeah, him. Well, his blood screams and runs away from the hot wire...and guess what..


AHHH!!!!

AHHHHHHHH!!!

Here's a great video clip of that entire scene:


The end of the movie turns into a very action packed ending sequence where Wilford Brimley has become a "Thing" and he was building a spaceship in the ground underneath his holding cell. The Thing and Kurt Russell have a final showdown...mano a alien-o. The final scene has Kurt Russell and one of the other guys, Childs, sit and have...what else-a drink...together as they distrust each other and await their frozen deaths.

Someone also put together what they consider to be the 3 best parts of the film on YouTube. The first two are great...the scene with the dogs and the scene with Bennings. The 3rd one I already put up here, so go check out the other two if you want to see some more awesome The Thing clips.

This movie is great. For some 1982 special effects, I thought it was fantastic. Also, Kurt Russell's beard is spectacular.


**Special thanks to Kooshmeister for these great movie stills**

2009 Top SpoOoOoOooOoky Props from Transworld

Every year, TransWorld holds a convention that allows for people in the "Haunting" industry to check out the latest and greatest props. This year, the convention was held from March 27th to March 29th in St. Louis Missouri, at the America's Center.

Here's a video from Haunternet.com (love the name, btw):



Scaryladyvideos also made a great video from the show:

I know, it's kind of long, but it has a great scene in the beginning with the psych patient behind the door in a video, a giant mobile pumpkin with a guy riding in it (1:50), some cool werewolves eating their prey (2:12), a "drowning" prop (3:48), and a whole bunch of huge winged creatures. The props are over-the-top this year, larger than life, intricate, and overall...really awesome!

Seriously, that prop with the door and the video screen behind it is almost becoming my "Spitting Debbie":


of last year...these next clips are from youtube:

Here's more of my fave: The Asylum Door:


HauntedReport.com, who keeps me up to date on such great things as HAuNTcon, also had a pretty good interview with the people from Pale Night Productions who came up with this (click here for a list of their props, see some cool videos, and find out how to order them for Monster Bash 2009!).


Krazy Kristen:


The AtmosFEAR booth:


Here's a better look at that prop from AtmosFEAR, called "The Devil Inside Her":

She challenges you to a game of tic-tac-toe...on her face...for your soul!

Where was this last year for my Monster Bash?:


Here's that awesome werewolf again:


Haunted Illinois has some great info on all of the vendors from Transworld 2009, as does The Haunted Report via video, so check them both out for more info on these great props.

And then buy me one.

Now the question is: where do I fit these in Jim's room for Monster Bash '09? Hmmm....

...I think I could find a spot....

Monster Bash Blog's Evolution of Feelings About Cannibal Holocaust

I once heard that there was a movie called "Cannibal Holocaust".
When I searched it, I was surprised that it was real...and then I was intrigued...

What is this movie? I asked myself... "The Most Controversial Move Ever Made"?!

Then I watched the trailer, and I was confused...and appalled.


I wasn't sure what was more disturbing:
1. The full-frontal male native/female filmmaker nudity
2. The amount of gross huge bugs, dead bodies being eaten by maggots, and animal death

3. The inappropriate elevator music playing during the trailer?
4. That this was true?!

Was this really true?!

I couldn't bear it. I mean, I've fallen trap to that ploy before...with The Strangers, The Blair Witch Project, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Exorcist. I am so easily toyed with. You put "Based on a True Story" or "Based on True Events" and I am all over it. Reality is frightening.

What was more confusing was why this movie was so expensive in stores. What is it about this movie? Were these people really dead and eaten by cannibals? Was this footage the last known footage of these people? Can they really put that in a movie? What about their families?

I then discovered that the director of the film, Ruggero Deodato (this film is Italian, btw), was arrested for making this film. ARRESTED?!?!?!



This guy was arrested??!?!? He looks like my old pediatrician. How could this sweet old man have such a sadistic mind?

He was arrested, according to Wikipedia, for "obscenity charges", which he was later cleared for, yet the film was still banned in major countries for a long time after that.

**Side Note** In writing this blog, I found out a lot of crazy shit about Ruggero Deodato. I mean, not really "crazy shit"...more like "fun facts". First of all, after Deodato was allowed to make movies again, he made the film "The House on the Edge of the Park" which features David Hess...who also happens to be in "The Last House on the Left" (based off of Deodato's film). The House on the Edge of the Park was actually created after The Last House on the Left, but both have simliar qualities (i.e. controversial, graphic scenes).
Deodato is so closely associated with cannibalism that he also had a cameo in Hostel II as a cannibal gnawing on a person's leg. I found one clip of it, but it was extraordinarily difficult for me to watch the rest of the video, so I will just post the link here in case you are braver than me. **End Side Note**

Anyway, for some reason, knowing the director got arrested for creating a film makes the film that much more interesting and exciting to me. I mean, how horrifying is this movie that the director fooled people enough into getting himself arrested?!

I went into full research mode, surely there was some catch as to why I haven't seen this movie. Why have I not heard of this movie more? I felt a deep rooted desire to see this movie.

And then, I found it.

Because the movie is from Italy in 1980, there were no laws about cruelty to animals, and therefore, the animals in this movie (6 of them) were brutally killed on camera.

Well, that's enough reason for me. I mean, I love horror, but I also love puppies:

kittens:

and the rest of the animal kingdom...and I don't think that they deserve to be tortured and killed for the sake of anything...let alone a movie. Monster Bash Blog loves animals (especially those dressed like adorable pumpkins).

Amd there you have it. I went from:

"What is Cannibal Holocaust?"

to "This trailor makes me nauseous"

to "ARRESTED!!?? I must see it!"

to "Nope."

And what is Deodato's next project? According to IMDB, it's a film called "Cannibals" due out sometime in 2009. It's a "companion piece" to...you guessed it: Cannibal Holocaust. Go figure.

Let's hope he doesn't use real animals this time, huh?



Aw. They're SpoOoOoOooktacular in their costumes, aren't they?

28 Weeks Later = Helicopters vs. Zombies

I have been falling into a routine that on Saturday or Sunday mornings, if I don't have work, I end up flipping on HBO on Demand and looking for a horror movie to keep me occupied while Jim does his school stuff.


A few weeks ago, I watched One Missed Call, which I haven't reviewed...I guess I'll put that in my back pocket for a rainy day blog. The other morning, I watched 28 Weeks Later (Before we start I'd just like to say that I personally loved rottentomatoes.com's review of this movie, and I suggest you read that too).




28 Weeks Later, released in 2007, is the follow up to 2002's 28 Days Later. 28 Days Later was really frightening, because it is pretty realistic. It's one of those movies that could really happen. A chimp in a lab infected with a Rage virus is released by animal activists, and the virus spreads to a pandemic and the infected are extraordinarily vicious and bloodthirsty. Of course, it kind of gets a little bizarre with the whole soliders starting a new community involving raping women to continue the population and whatnot...but overall, this movie was terrifying. The infected were like fast, insane, bloody zombies.

With 28 Weeks Later, I was kind of expecting the same thing. The movie begins with some survivors in a boarded up house, eating dinner together. A young child bangs on the door for help, and they reluctantly let him in. A few minutes later, some of the rage-infected zombies burst into the house and begin attacking the survivors.

"Maybe my boyfriend's out there....."

Don, one of the main characters, manages to escape and ditches his wife, Alice, to run for freedom.

This was particularly gutwrenching, because she's pounding on the window begging for him to help and he runs off as she watches him leave her in the dust. What a jerk.

They cut to a black screen that basically gives a timeline of what happened to England during the Rage outbreak:

15 days later: Mainland Britain is quarantined.
28 days later: Mainland Britain has been destroyed by the rage virus.
5 weeks later: The infected have died of starvation.
11 weeks later: An American led NATO force enters London.
18 weeks later: Mainland britain is declared free of infection.
24 weeks later: Reconstruction begins.
28 weeks later: Repatriation begins.

It basically took 28 weeks for the infected to die of starvation and for the rebuilding/reoccupancy of England to start again.

Skip ahead to the 28 weeks later...and we find that the army is trying to help people move back into "District 1" (declared safe) of Britain.

Two of the youngest citizens to return are Andy and Tammy, who happen to be Don and Alice's children:

Andy has an inherited trait called heterochromia, which is basically a difference in coloration of the iris, hair or skin. This is discovered by the chief medial officer of the new District 1, Dr. Scarlett:, during an examination:

Noticing it, but too focused on how Andy and Tammy are the youngest allowed back, Dr. Scarlett picks her battles. Don has been giving the job of head caretaker of District 1, and shows his kids around. He also tells Andy and Tammy about how he tried to save their mother,but couldn't. Hey, Don, remember this?!

Didn't think so...

Anyways, the kids go off "exploring" and OF COURSE, stupid Andy has to have a picture of his mother, so they leave District 1 (which is forbidden) and head off to their old digs. I would've thrown these kids out of District 1 if I were the Army. Send them back to Spain or put them in Quarantine for being disobedient turds. I love kids.

Anyway, Doyle (our hunky hero officer) spots them leaving District 1 and I guess takes action? I don't really know...

Meanwhile, the kids make it back home, and Andy finds...Alice?! Alive and looking pretty craptastic.

The kids and Alice are taken back to quarantine, and while Alice is disinfected (rinsed with a hose) and examined, Don is notified that his wife (that he ditched to save himself like a selfish a-hole) is still alive and his kids were rescued. Don sure has some 'splaining to do to his kids, doesn't he?

While he's whipped by Tammy's lashing tongue, Dr. Scarlett sees that Alice has been bitten...and that her eye is bloody, yet she is asymptomatic to the Rage virus:

Anyway, Dr. Scarlett wants to keep her alive to study her and try to discover a cure, but the commanding officer wants her destroyed to avoid spreading the virus.

While they are discussing Alice's impeding doom, Don has to see for himself that Alice is alive and (kinda) well. He uses his exclusive care-taker cards and scans himself into her room.

After he apologizes, and she accepts (which I would've never done, Don can rot in hell for all I care), they make out.

Well, guess who isn't immune?

Now, Zombie Don not only ditches Alice, he also mutilates her:

Seriously Alice, Don wasn't worth your time.

Anyway, with another outbreak on the loose, the Army calls for a "Code Red", which is basically extermination after attempts to quarantine and isolate have failed.

Doyle, super hunk, decides that he can't go around killing innocent people, and runs off.

He somehow ends up with Dr. Scarlett (who is trying to save Andy and Tammy because she believes that they hold valuable research/medial importance due to their genes with Alice) and the kids and a few other people who I guess die? I forget.

(I feel like Doyle and Dr. Scarlett make an awesome couple, btw)

The small group have to now avoid blood thirsty rage infected zombies, the Army's attempts to blow Britain to smithereens again, and deadly gases.

Doyle has a friend, Flynn, who is constantly riding around in his helicopter. He has Flynn come to help them out at one point, but Flynn is afraid of being taken by the Army, and does an amazing thing where he takes out a FIELD of infected zombies!

Seriously, I tried to find a good clip of the scene online but I couldn't. If you don't want to see this movie at all...Just watch this scene. It is worth it. Trust me. I think this one scene is worth seeing the entire movie just to get to this scene. It is...incredible.

Anyway, after Flynn takes out a zillion infected in a gory, body part chopping massacre, he tells Doyle and co to meet him at some stadium so he can get them out of here.

Doyle and Dr. Scarlett make their way, and before getting gased, get into a little car and cover their faces while trying to not get infected:

Eventually, the infected die from the gases, and Doyle tries to get out and push the car to get it started...but....there are Army guys with flame throwers...and...

NOOOO!! DOYLE!!!!

Dr. Scarlett is now the lone adult with Andy and Tammy, trying to get to this stadium.

Now things get really scary. They end up in a dark tunnel, and Dr. Scarlett only has night vision to guide Tammy and Andy around in the pitch black past dead bodies and avoiding the infected.

Of course, daddy dearest is hot on their heels, and he destroys Dr. Scarlett in a scene that we have to experience in night vision. Yikes.

Tammy and Andy are the only ones left, and Don is attacking poor Andy and ends up taking a bite out of him. Tammy shoots and kills Don, and she and Andy make their way to the stadium.

They meet up with Flynn, and Flynn begins to take them out to safety. Little does Flynn know, Andy has been bitten and is an asymptomatic carrier, just like his mother.

The film ends with a disturbing scene showing the crashed helicopter that Flynn and the kids were flying in, and a shot of the Eiffel Tower with the infected running towards it. This basically signifies that all of mainland Europe has been infected with the Rage virus.

What's next?

28 Months Later? Possibly...

My thoughts were that I may have liked 28 Weeks Later better than 28 Days Later. I felt that the story was really intense and frightening, and I loved the idea of trying to bring back the citizens and thinking that everything is over and safe and then OH NO! It isn't! I also thought the way it was filmed with the shaking camera footage and night vision added to the effect. It felt realistic, and I was completely invested and involved in the movie the entire time.

Of course...if for nothing else, watch this movie because of the usage of a helicopter as a giant zombie-killing machine. You may never be the same.

Hellraiser Who?

On my blog, I always promise upon promise that I'll bring you the most spoOoOoOoOktacular stuff around...and for the most part, I really do try to be fair and objective...but I've realized that my blatant favoritism of Jason and the Friday the 13th franchise has hindered this a bit.

So I'm going to take a step back from my Voorhees obsession for a few minutes and take you on a little trip...

....to Hell(raiser).


Hellraiser is a 1987 British horror film written and directed by Clive Barker (who also did Candyman and a whole slew of other horror related things).


Since the original, there have been 7 sequels, and there is a remake in the works for 2011. The movie is basically centered around the evils of overindulgence in things, such as sexual fantasies, and especially Sadomasochism. An evil man named Frank buys a strange box (kind of like a fancy rubix cube) from a merchant and solves the puzzle, becomes corrupt, loses his skin, kills people in the attic, and then his niece, Kirsty, falls into the madness and has to sacrifice people to save her own soul.

Seriously, I own this movie and I have seen it maybe 3 times...and I'm still moderately confused. This movie is one of the most bizarre horror movies I've ever seen. I'm actually researching it to write about this because I don't feel comfortable in my Hellraiser knowledge enough to do it from memory.

Anyway, more about this "box"...:

(thank you photobucket, you hit the jackpot with this graphic for me.)
...is called a "Lemarchand's box" or Lament Configuration. Here's a scene that shows how it works (from the beginning of the movie):


It is basically a Chinese-style box that, when configured, unleashes a "schism", or an opening to another dimension, and the Cenobites can come into our world...and raise Hell! Get it?!

So Cenobites, in case you were wondering, are these demonic beings who live in another dimension and can only cross paths with our world through that box. They are all covered with mutilations and piercings, the most famous being Pinhead (Doug Bradley).
Honestly, I never thought a horror movie with a main villain named "Pinhead" would be taken even mildly seriously, but here I am, proven wrong.

*Fun Fact! In the movie, his actual name isn't "Pinhead", but "Lead Cenobite"...his nickname was coined by his makeup artists. Special thanks to Wikipedia for that one.

Pinhead's character is actually a departure from other horror movie villains in the sense that he doesn't kill merely for revenge or for the Hell(raiser) of it (sorry, I had to). He is much more calculated and surprisingly, is willing to make deals with the victims. I love the way Wikipedia describes his character, because he truly was unique, in the first Hellraiser film, from other villains...especially for the 80's...this guy was revolutionary!

The deaths in the first film are fairly gruesome...lots of hammer deaths and skin ripping off and pulling:

What I don't get about this particular picture, which shows Frank wearing his deceased brother's skin and being re-captured by the Cenobites after escaping them, is that his last words, before basically being ripped completely apart, are "Jesus Wept". Jim informed me that his original last words were "F-you" (except he really said the entire F word..hey...kids may read this!), but that didn't fly with the movie folks, and was changed. I think the "F- you" would've been more fitting and appropriate.

The basic theme of the movie is that if you're an evil person, and you're greedy and get into some weird stuff, you're going to be punished in the most gruesome ways possible when the other dimension collides with us and they'll "tear your soul apart" (Pinhead '87).

**Update** In researching this movie, I decided to watch it AGAIN the other day. Let me just say that there were a few things that really jumped out to me. First, there's a scene where Frank cuts a rat in half at the foot of the bed while Julia and Larry are going at it. W...T....F.

Then, there's this homeless guy who is following around Kirsty, the niece. This really confused me, he looked like a mix between Rob Zombie:

and Mick Foley:

The name of his character in the credits is "Derelect", but according to Wikipedia, he's the puzzle guardian. Either way, this guy is a total weirdo, following Kirsty around and at the end, turns into a dragon.

Moving along, the special effects in this movie are kind of terrible. Bright neon lights = zaps of electricity coming from the box. It kind of looked like a bad 80's music video. BUT, the amount of gore, maggots, rats being nailed to walls/cut in half, blood, guts, and Frank eating victims definitely makes up for the lack of cool effects.



What else....

Wikipedia gives alot of great info on the plot and differences between the novella (The Hellbound Heart) and the movie. Also, there's an official Hellraiser website, Hellraiser: Online for all you Cenobite lovers out there. Here's a website that has some great movie stills and more info about the film. Not good enough? They even have the draft of the original script by Clive Barker online for you to read! If that doesn't quench your 'Raiser thirst, I don't know what will.

Cape Fear Scared the Crap Out of Me

Cape Fear is a Martin Scorcese film starring Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and Juliette Lewis. Normally, movies like these are what I like to call "Jim movies". What is a "Jim movie", you ask?
"Jim movies" consist of either having a starring role featuring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio, or some sort of combination. They are either directed by Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, or Martin Scorcese, and they usually are critically acclaimed and/or Academy Award winning movies. Jim's taste in the arts is somewhat refined and generally well-accepted by most. My taste in movies is somewhat more obscure and I usually tend to gravitate towards what the norm would consider "garbage movies".

So when Jim suggested Cape Fear to me, not as a horror movie, but as a Martin Scorcese movie starring Robert De Niro, I figured it was going to be another Godfather or Goodfellas or Raging Bull, and I was going to end up sitting at the computer trying to google scary things for MB Blog or something.

But then he promised me that it would be scary. And boy oh boy, he delivered.

Basically, Cape Fear is from 1991 (it's a remake from the 1962 version starring Gregory Peck...who is ALSO in the 1991 version, fyi) and it took me almost 20 years to see it. But who cares how I got here, I'm here now, right?

The plot is about Robert De Niro being a convicted rapist and batterer who gets 14 years in prison. He gets out seeking vengeance on Nick Nolte, who was his defense attorney who apparently withheld evidence that could have cleared De Niro, because he felt that De Niro deserved his sentence. De Niro's character learns to read in jail and he becomes very familiar with the law. Well, madness ensues, and DeNiro chews a woman's face off and goes after Nolte's family.

Robert De Niro scared the crap out of me. I believed him! First of all, he's RIPPED in this movie:



Would you look at the ink on this guy?

But then he's also kind of amusing, because he says funny things and dresses like a funny sailor:


Nick Nolte tries so hard to get rid of him, even resorting to hiring hit men to do away with him...but he always comes back:




DeNiro continues to terrorize the family...especially the teenage daughter (played by Juliette Lewis) which include a super uncomfortable scene on the phone and on a stage...then he goes after Jessica Lange's character.
Eventually, the family flees for a houseboat to make an escape...and of course...DeNiro terrorizes them there too...It gets pretty wild on that boat:


Really wild...


Here's one of my fave scenes toward the end where Robert DeNiro is actually likeable in a weird way:

"Are you offering me something hot?" is the greatest.

I won't tell you the ending because it's over-the-top....literally....

I realized while writing this that I'm a big jerk, because I won't try and "spoil" the ending for you of a movie that came out in 1991, yet I'll give you then entire rundown of a movie that came out last week...figure that one out.

Anyway, take it from me...this movie is great. Go see it, counselor.