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The 1986 horror comedy House, directed by Steve Miner from a screenplay by Ethan Wiley (based on a story by Fred Dekker), has a solid cult following to this day. The 1987 standalone sequel House II: The Second Story (watch it Here), which was written and directed by Wiley (again from a story by Dekker), has a less positive reputation than its predecessor. But there are fans out there who enjoy House II even more than the first House – and I happen to be one of those fans. So I’m very happy to see that JoBlo’s own Lance Vlcek has decided to celebrate House II: The Second Story, which has been a favorite of mine since childhood, with a new video that digs into The Best Scene in the movie! You can check it out in the embed above.

If you’re familiar with House II and wondering which scene...

Haunted houses are a standard in horror for a reason. It’s not just the spectral invasion of our home that unnerves, but the unpredictability that comes with ghostly presences. A masked maniac can be stopped or temporarily subdued, but all bets are off in haunted houses.

This week’s “Stay Home, Watch Horror” streaming picks highlight the horror staple but not always in the way you’d expect. As always, here’s where you can watch them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Ghostwatch – Tubi

Upon initial airing, this made-for-tv movie stirred up controversy for the BBC, as its mockumentary style left viewers convinced what they’d just watched had been real. It plays like a live TV special with a camera crew on-site attempting to investigate the truth behind the most haunted house in the country. Neither they nor the viewer were prepared...

Happy October, dear readers! The Halloween season officially kicks off today, and to get you in the spirit and help you along as you start to make your movie-viewing plans for the month, I thought I’d go ahead and scour the extensive horror offerings on Tubi to find 31 movies that should get you ready for all things All Hallows’ Eve. For this list, I went ahead and focused on movies that were either centered around the Halloween holiday, feature October 31st in some fashion, or are films that are essential watches for me every Halloween season as they give off some supremely spooky vibes. And the best thing about these movies? They’re all free to stream on Tubi, which should help with your seasonal budgets.

Check out our rundown of these 31 killer horror titles below, and be sure to check back right here on Daily Dead throughout the...

One of my favorite horror movies to watch when I was growing up was a 1985 film called House. Outside of my family, I don’t know a lot of people that are familiar with this movie, so I thought I’d bring it to your attention just in case. If you have seen the movie… congratulations! You win! And now you can go watch it again.

The movie was written by Fred Dekker (Monster Squad) and Ethan Wiley and it was directed by Steve Miner. House also had a great cast that included William Katt (Greatest American Hero), George Wendt (Cheers) and Richard Moll (Night Court).

The story follows a character named Roger Cobb, a Vietnam vet with a career as a horror novelist, whose son Jimmy mysteriously disappears while visiting his aunt's house. As Roger doesn’t give up looking for Jimmy his marriage comes to an end and...

We should go ahead and rename December 12th “Arrow Video Day,” because the fine fiends over there have a ton of titles coming out this Tuesday, including Special Edition sets for The Premonition and Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood, and they’ve also put together standalone special edition Blu-rays for both House and House II: The Second Story. Severin Films is resurrecting Asylum this Tuesday, and fans can finally get their hands on the latest season of Game of Thrones, as well as a box set featuring every episode from all seven seasons.

Other notable releases for December 12th include K-Shop, Once Upon A Time at Christmas, Brackenmore, The Snake Woman, Beware the Lake, and Hollow Creek.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season (HBO, Blu-ray & DVD)

Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. It will stretch from the south,...

[Editor's Note: A version of this retrospective originally appeared in the September 2014 issue of Deadly Magazine.] With House II: The Second Story, the vastly underrated sequel written and directed by Ethan Wiley (who also wrote the screenplay for the original House), New World Pictures introduced audiences to a whole new world filled with unexpected frights and adventures with an Old West twist. The sequel was released in late August of 1987 and took a decidedly left turn away from the more straightforward house of horrors style seen in Steve Miner’s original film, instead favoring a tone that was much more light-hearted, fun-spirited, and far more family friendly.

For the uninitiated, House II follows a young man named Jesse (Arye Gross), who inherits a strange house from the parents who gave him up for adoption when he was just an infant. As he begins to settle into his new dwelling with the help of his girlfriend, Kate (Lar Park Lincoln), his best pal, Charlie (Jonathan Stark), and Charlie’s aspiring musician girlfriend,...

[Editor's Note: A version of this retrospective originally appeared in the September 2014 issue of Deadly Magazine.] With House II: The Second Story, the vastly underrated sequel written and directed by Ethan Wiley (who also wrote the screenplay for the original House), New World Pictures introduced audiences to a whole new world filled with unexpected frights and adventures with an Old West twist. The sequel was released in late August of 1987 and took a decidedly left turn away from the more straightforward house of horrors style seen in Steve Miner’s original film, instead favoring a tone that was much more light-hearted, fun-spirited, and far more family friendly.

And while The Second Story did respectable business during its two-week theatrical run that summer and was also a profitable sequel for New World, House II isn’t a film that I feel gets nearly the love that it should. Case in point: Joshua Jackson’s character makes a comment about House II during the sequels discussion scene in Scream 2,...

Nick Aldwinckle Jun 5, 2017

We round up the latest horror-tinged Blu-ray and DVD releases....

So, after a brief hiatus, it turns out a lot’s happened in the few months between these round ups. A snap general election has been called, terror has struck at the heart of Manchester and a scandal approaching Watergate levels has hit the U.S presidency. More importantly, Troll 2 has finally come to UK Netflix and is the cherry on the cake made entirely of a series of kind of wonderful, kind of… not films on DVD and Bluray.

So, 1990’s Troll 2, you may or may not be aware of, is generally regarded as one of the very greatest 'so bad it’s good' movies. There are many worse (The Rollerblade Seven or Gary Oldman little person rom-com Tiptoes come to mind), though it’s difficult to think of many other truly awful movies...

Growing up, I was a big fan of both House and House II: The Second Story, so as you can imagine, Arrow Video’s recent House: Two Stories Blu-ray collection was right up my proverbial alley. Both films look better here than they did on DVD (which is how I’ve been viewing them for years now), the new retrospective featurettes do a great job of diving deep into both movies, and the other supplemental materials included are a welcome blast from the past. For fans who are on the fence about adding House: Two Stories to your home media collections, I can emphatically say this set is well worth the investment.

In House (1986), we meet famed writer Roger Cobb (William Katt), a Vietnam vet with a slumping career and a marriage that has hit the skids after his son disappeared while visiting Roger’s aunt Elizabeth in her gothic abode one fateful day.

I hope you guys are ready, because April 11th looks to be an incredible day of home entertainment releases for genre fans, especially if you’ve been patiently waiting for the stunning new Phantasm Blu-ray set from Well Go USA, which features every film from the franchise together in one nifty package. Arrow Video has also assembled the first two House movies for a limited edition Blu-ray set that arrives this week, and Severin Films has resurrected the cult classic Cathy’s Curse in HD for the first time ever.

Severin Films is also keeping busy with a pair of other releases—Dark Water and The Other Hell—and Scream Factory is giving both The Vampire and Demented the Blu-ray treatment as well.

Other notable horror and sci-fi home entertainment offerings for April 11th include The Bye Bye Man (Unrated), The Violent Shit Collection, Chupacabra Territory, Naciye, Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive trilogy,...

Arrow Video isn't playing any April Fools' Day joke on horror and thriller fans with their Blu-ray releases for next month, which include the respective House: Two Stories (previously scheduled for a March 21st release) and Donnie Darko box sets, Wolf Guy, Caltiki the Immortal Monster, and more.

Press Release: Mvd Entertainment Group furthers the distribution of Arrow Video in the Us with several titles for April 2017. On April 18th comes The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave (Blu-ray and DVD) and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (Blu-ray and DVD), two giallo chillers from director Emilio P. Miraglia which were previously only available in the limited edition box set entitled Killer Dames. Miraglian blends the grisly whodunnit of the giallo with gothic and supernatural elements to create some truly unique chills in tales of revenge from beyond the grave and killer curses.

One of Emilio P. Miraglia's supernatural,...

Step inside, we’ve been expecting you! At long-last, Arrow Video is proud to present the first two installments of hit horror franchise House on Blu-ray for the first time! In the original House, William Katt (Carrie) stars as Roger Cobb, a horror novelist struggling to pen his next bestseller. When he inherits his aunt’s creaky old mansion, Roger decides that he’s found the ideal place in which to get some writing done. Unfortunately, the house’s monstrous supernatural residents have other ideas… Meanwhile, House II: The Second Story sees young Jesse (Arye Gross) moving into an old family mansion where his parents were mysteriously murdered years before. Plans for turning the place into a party pad are soon thwarted by the appearance of Jesse’s mummified great-great-grandfather, his mystical crystal skull and the zombie cowboy who’ll stop at nothing to lay his hands on it! From...

With every horror fan’s favorite time of year just right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to put together a list of 31 genre-related titles currently available on Netflix Instant that undoubtedly will get you ready for the Halloween season.

Happy Haunting!

Invaders from Mars (Tobe Hooper)

David is the only one who knows the truth about the aliens invading his small town in this remake of the 50s science-fiction classic.

Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon)

Based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, this campy send-up follows an egotistical medical student who develops a serum that miraculously revives the dead.

Fright Night (Tom Holland)

When Charley Brewster discovers that his suave new neighbor is a vampire, he seeks help from actor Peter Vincent, famed for portraying a ghoul hunter.

Creepshow 2 (Michael Gornick)

Join the rotting but amiable Creep as he introduces this anthology of three gruesome tales written by the master of horror,...

One of House II: The Second Story’s taglines was “It’s getting weirder!”, although if you caught Steve Miner’s original film expectations should have been high that House II would be as frenetic and chaotic. But Ethan Wiley’s sequel does nothing with the first film, instead branching off of the notion that old houses have crazy secrets and running with it into western sub-genre terrain. Because House already paved the way for Wiley do off-the-wall shit, House II takes things even further – both with the zany storyline and with the comedy, which was always apparent in the first film but much bleaker than the slapstick here.

The Second Story starts with a rainy night, with a couple trying to get their child out of a house before a cowboy-hat wearing zombie shoots them up. And then it jumps years into the future, when Jesse (Arye Gross) finally...

Fred Dekker’s 1986 horror-masterpiece Night of the Creeps changed my life – and it probably change yours, too. It was the horror film that brought aliens, parasites, axe-murders and zombies together in one grand, hilarious and terrifying masterpiece. It was the horror film that wed John Hughes’ teenaged life with George Romero’s on-earth death-walkers.

Back in 1959, a meteorite crashed into Earth, bringing with it a type of parasite that feeds on human brains. When the first victim of the parasite is put into deep freeze, no one expects two teenagers, Chris and J.C. (Jason Lively and Steve Marshall) to inadvertently release these slug-like aliens onto their campus when they unthaw an infected man who has been cryogenically frozen since the fifties. Now with the help of a sorority girl that Chris is crushing on and an aging, cynical detective, they must stop the slugs from infecting their friends before...

Now available on DVD, from Anchor Bay is director/co-writer Ethan Wiley's 2012 family comedy feature "Elf-Man", starring Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, Mirelly Taylor, Jeffrey Combs, Mackenzie Astin, Mirelly Taylor, Carly Robell and Blake Kaiser :

"...it's Christmas Eve at the 'Harper' house and young 'Ryan' and 'Casey' are excited that their scientist father has finally perfected his new invention! But when dad is kidnapped by a bumbling gang of thieves, Casey’s wish on a magic doll causes Santa to leave behind a mischievous 'elf' to save the day.

"Will Santa’s little helper lose all faith in his elf self, or can he discover his true powers to become a real superhero?..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Elf-Man"...

I enjoy all four of the House films because they strike a chord with me from my wonder years, but Steve Miner’s original has to be my favorite. The movie came out of left field in 1986 and became a box-office hit and a fan favorite. Almost three decades later, egad!, it is still a blueprint on how to make a great horror-comedy. Suffice to say, it is a true Late Night Classic.

For those of you wondering what is the deal with House III (The Horror Show), the answers are right here.

Jason Bene: The story for House was written by your pal Fred Dekker. What kind of changes, if any, did you have to make for the final script?

Ethan Wiley: Fred and I were roommates at UCLA and we had worked together on various plays, short films, and we even wrote my stand-up comedy routines together.

I can’t think of anything more vapid than watching Sarah Connor and the dude from thirtysomething driving around cornfields for the good chunk of the running time of 1984′s Children of the Corn. I’m sorry but Malachai (Courtney Gains) yelling “Outlander!” doesn’t make fine art. Astonishingly, a majority of the sequels in the series have been pretty damn entertaining and a gas to watch. One of them being Ethan Wiley’s Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, which was his first directing assignment since House II: The Second Story.

Jason Bene: Personally, I felt Children of the Corn was tepid and overrated. It is one of the few series’ where most of the sequels outshine the original. When Tom McLoughlin sat down to write and director Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, he watched all the prior films to see what worked and what didn’t.

Nazi Dawn

Stars: Lance Henriksen, Gary Stretch, James Russo, Katherine Randolph | Written by Roel Reine, Ethan Wiley | Directed by Roel Reine

When the SS Lane Victory, reactivated and deployed in the Persian Gulf for black-op interrogations, falls radio silent, an elite Marine task force are sent to apprehend the terrorists. Led by Col. John Willets (Henriksen), the team find one survivor, John’s son Colin (Stretch). But as the soldiers search for the men responsible for the bloody butchery of the ship’s crew, they soon discover a more devious enemy than any of them had ever imagined and all hell breaks loose as they become locked in brutal battle to the death.

A more devious enemy than any of them had ever imagined eh? Sounds like this film… Originally titled Deadwater, then Black Ops and now premiering on UK DVD as Nazi Dawn this film was purportedly written and...

Bear

Stars: Katie Lowes, Mary Alexandra Stiefvater, Patrick Scott Lewis, Brendan Michael Coughlin | Written by Roel Reiné and Ethan Wiley | Directed by John Rebel

An idyllic trip into bear country turns into a nightmare when the mini-van carrying two brothers and their partners suddenly blows a tire on a mountain road and rouses the attentions of one of the inhabiting Grizzly population. Defiantly one of the brothers, Wall Street hot-shot Sam, pulls out a gun and kills the curious creature – Big mistake! As the group head on into the woods, the bear’s mate, a ferocious eight-foot-tall Grizzly, arrives on the scene and attacks. As they battle against the surprisingly cunning and intelligent beast, secrets between the brothers and their own mates begin to emerge. Trapped inside their van, fighting for their lives, the group must use their wits and every last drop of survival instinct they have to survive...

There has been a brief uptick in killer bear flicks the last two years, and not all for the best. Now comes a new one simply titled Bear that, judging by its trailer, takes the T-Rex/jeep scene from Jurassic Park, ages the occupants in peril about 15 years, replaces the T-Rex with a very angry grizzly with vengeance on its mind, and builds an entire movie around it.

"Two young couples are driving through a remote forest when their car breaks down. When a run-in with a curious grizzly bear ends up with the bear being shot to death, the bear's mate arrives on the scene and vengefully attacks their van. The couples are trapped inside the disabled car and must come up with clever ways to survive. As they battle the surprisingly intelligent creature and contemplate their uncertain fate, secrets begin to emerge that threaten to tear the group apart before the bear does.

The Associated Press has reported that actor David Carradine was found dead this morning in his hotel room in Bangkok, an apparent suicide. Carradine, who was in the Thai city to shoot a movie, was 72.

The actor was discovered by a hotel maid hanged with a curtain cord, and a preliminary police investigation found no signs of foul play. Further details are being withheld out of consideration for his family. Carradine’s long career ranged from the art house to the grindhouse and everything in between, with horror credits including Larry Cohen’s Q, Gary Graver’s Trick Or Treats, Robert Martin Carroll’s Sonny Boy, Anthony Hickox’s Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat (pictured) and Waxwork II: Lost In Time, Fred Olen Ray’s Evil Toons, Ethan Wiley’s Children Of The Corn V: Fields Of Terror, Mitch Marcus’ Knocking On Death’S Door, Mark Lambert Bristol’s The Monster Hunter,...

Two special effects vets are cooking up new films at Wiseacre Films. Chris Walas, who's been absent from the scene, is in line to direct Baby Zombies . The film recently popped up as a new listing on the IMDBPro which made us dig a bit further until we found this page which sports artwork and some more details. Walas last directed The Vagrant (remember the video box with a screaming Bill Paxton?) in '92 and before that, the underrated The Fly II . According to the Wiseacre site, he's nurturing Baby Zombies with Ethan Wiley ( House , House II: The Second Story ). Here's the rub: The listing on the site says the film begins production in April...of 2008. Yet, on the site's news page , it says it will go into production this year. Either way, we'll keep an eye on the...