From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: Satan Place A Soap Opera From Hell (1988)

Posted on May 2, 2026 by bloodlinematt

Welcome back to Rotten Ink for this “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update that will be a fast one as we will be talking about a 1988 shot on video anthology horror comedy film that has been long forgotten by many and only got a VHS release back when it was completed, and that film is called Satan Place: A Soap Opera From Hell! And shockingly enough, this 1988 film would get a comic book in 1992 showing that no matter how small your horror film is in budget and viewers, it still can make for a great horror comic release. This is one that has been on my list to cover for many years now and I feel it is a perfect fit for this two year long look at horror comics based on horror films. So with that, let’s dust off the old VCR and put in the VHS tape as it’s time to take a look at the silly low budget anthology film known as Satan Place.

Let’s take a look at Sally Satan, a lady of the night who is a serial killer! Sally is a very beautiful blonde woman whose looks are stunning and cause men who see her to turn to perverts as well as forget common sense and ignore warning signs all around them. She can use her looks, sexual charm, and she is so hot that it can burn the chest hair off her male dates. She is also very kinky and likes to tie up her dates. She likes to also scare them by claiming she belongs to Satan and speaking in a demonic voice and then use plastic knives to try and scare them to death. Sally is also the bringer of bad luck and misfortune as when she interacts with other people they find themselves in very weird and bad situations that mostly end with them killing or being killed. But while Sally is a killer, she is also very much human and can be killed like any normal person like being shot, stabbed, drowned, crushed or even have a whole blown through her chest by Satan himself for playing games using his name. While not the most dangerous killer we have ever covered here, Sally Satan still has a body count and has help lead to others dying just by people crossing her path.

So now that we have taken a look at Sally Satan and her ways of tormenting and killing, I think that it’s time that we take a look at the film she is from and that is Satan Place: A Soap Opera From Hell that was released in 1988 via VHS. And like we do with all the From Horror Movie To Horror Comic updates, I will be taking the films plot from our pals at IMDB and then I will write about the film’s production as well as my thoughts on the film, so let’s get to Satan Place and see what spooky laughs are to be had.

Satan Place: A Soap Opera from Hell (1988)

“A horror anthology, in which the beautiful bleach-blonde Stephanie Spencer fields a series of crude remarks from belching, T-shirt-wearing, pickup-driving character actors, then watches them die in grisly blood-spurting closeups after being visited by zombies, so that in the big final story of the video, she can dress up in black lingerie, tie her weenie boyfriend to the bed, and summon a demon into her body.”

In 1988 two directors came together to write and direct a horror comedy anthology film. They were Alfred Ramirez and Scott Aschbrenner and they had Melanie Johnson help them with the script and this would be the only film the three would ever work on. The film was clearly shot on video with a low budget and they would bring in such actors as Stephanie Spencer, Warren Andrews, Mark Rackstraw, Nora Miller, Sonja Etzel, Jon Kay, Marsha Malone, Lisa Hatter, Alice Ashbrenner and Mark Blouin to name a few. The film would feature four stories and would have backyard style special effects and once done would be released on home video. And sadly as fast as it was released, the film fell into obscurity and never was able to find its audience. In 1992 the filmmakers would continue Satan Place on with a comic book and this as well never found its footing and most horror comic readers do not even know about it. But those who do know about the film seem to really enjoy it, so it has what could be said a Micro Cult Following. The film would only be released on VHS and never get a DVD or Blu-Ray release yet as of this updates posting. The film in 1988 was released alongside such other horror movies as A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Return Of The Living Dead Part II, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Pumpkinhead, Waxwork, Rabid Grannies, Night Of The Demons, Howling IV, The Blob, Child’s Play, Halloween 4, Maniac Cop, Phantasm II, Friday The 13^th Part VII: The New Blood, Critters 2, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Sleepaway Camp II, Return Of The Killer Tomatoes, Poltergeist III, Dead Heat and They Live to name a few showing that 1988 was a great year for horror.

Satan’s Place: A Soap Opera From Hell is one of those 80’s shot on video films that was released on VHS with hopes of it being on rental store shelves that faded away before it could even be discovered and even to this day a very small amount of horror fans know about it. I first heard of the film many years ago when I was part of an indie horror group that talked about small budget films and this one was brought up a few times, and then a short time later I found out that it also had a comic book based around it that was used to help promote the film. While the comic was easy for me to find, the film was not as used copies of the VHS were rare and when they did pop up they would sell for hundreds of dollars. So I would have to search the grey market and that is where I found a copy to watch, and spent one hot summer evening eating chicken wings and checking out this forgotten humorous fright flick. And the first thing that came to mind when watching it was the old Public Access films I use to watch as the production value was around that same quality. For me the best segment in the film was called “Disposable Love” were a terrible husband kills his wife over beer and then cooks here body as soup to put down the garbage disposal, and yes it has lots of twists and turns and a fun mix of Horror and Comedy. The other three segments are great and Satan in the final tale “Sally Satan” is amazing cheesy stuff that I love about SOV Horror films. I also really like the films score that was done by Scott Aschbrenner and Jon Kay as it has that sound that made so many of those style films special back in the day. And I am sure I am not the only one who thinks that actress Stephanie Spencer who plays Sally Satan looks like she stepped out of a 80’s Hairband music video, and with her looks she should have been in more indie Horror films! While Satan Place is not the greatest horror anthology in the world it is a fun little 80s watch that has some silly humor mixed with some backyard Horror that should get a release on modern physical media in my opinion.

Now that we have taken a look at Satan Place: A Soap Opera From Hell as well as Sally Satan, I think now we should take a look at the comic book based on this 80s flick that was released by the people who made the movie! More indie filmmakers should do this as so many of these awesome indie horror films in the world should get the comic book treatment! And for those of you creators that do just that, good on you and for those who don’t you are missing a great tool to promote your film and give the fans of your film something cool to collect and add to their collections. But enough of that as we have a comic to review so first I would like to thank a Ebay seller for having this comic in stock and making this update possible. I would then like to remind you all that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So with that, let’s knock on the door at Satan Place and see if Sally is home.

Satan Place: A Soap Opera from Hell # 1 **1/2
Released in 1992 Cover Price $3.50 Thunderhill #1 of 1

Sally is new in town and is looking for the apartment complex she is to be moving into and meets a real jerk named Eddie who gives her the directions and then creepily hits on her…Sally gives him a punch for his attempt. “Disposable Love” Eddie comes home from work and his wife Doris and makes her feel like crap over what she made for dinner, he then starts drinking beer and watching wrestling on TV and is demanding more cold beer and when Doris refuses over his health, he hits her so hard that she dies! Eddie chops up his wife and cooks her remains and then puts her down the garbage disposal, with the bones being tossed in the trash truck. But things get spooky for him when the ghost of Doris appears and keeps haunting him even causing his fingers to be chopped off! In the end Eddie dies of a heart attack and you find out that Doris is still alive and she now is being haunted by his ghost as he even mean in death. Sally’s car has broken down before she can get to the apartment and Johnny just drives on by her “Say Goodnight Sophie” as Johnny keeps on driving as he is heartbroken over his lady breaking up with him, and while screaming at his ex on the phone he hits a old man with his truck. Johnny is able to get the old man to the hospital were he later dies as Johnny hits the bar to get drunk. That night on his way home Johnny finds the body of the old man in the road and freaks out and takes it home. In the morning after waking up Johnny takes the old man’s body out and buries it, only for that night to find that the old man is now a zombie and with his zombie lover Sophie they start eating the face of Johnny! Sally has finally made it to her apartment and meets the landlady Enid who is very rude and leaves for home. “Too Much T.V.” as Enid gets home her teenage daughter Lisa is ingnoring her as she is watching her favorite show that is hosted by Richard Slasher and as he keeps showing bloody movies Lisa keeps imagining that all the violence is happing to her mother as Richard Slasher is telling her to kill her mom via the TV! In the end it’s Enid that ends up killing her daughter by slashing her throat. “Sally Satan” Jonathon goes to the apartment of Sally as the two have a date, but once inside things are very weird as he finds a disgusting meal in the microwave, newspaper clippings about Sally being blamed for a murder and she herself is just acting odd when she ties him up to the bed. Sally then pulls out knives and tells her that she is with Satan and stabs him…but the knives are fake and she was pulling a prank. But Sally’s life comes to an end when Jonathon is Satan and kills her for playing games.

Satan Place is a comic adaptation of the film and is clearly being used to not only push the sale of the movie on VHS but also to help launch Thunderhill as a comic book publisher. This comic features Sally a woman new to town who when she comes across people bad things seem to happen for them that night and she is almost out host of four ghoulish tales that feature zombies, ghosts, killers and even Satan himself! The best story in the comic is “Say Goodnight Sophie” as I think it was the one that translated from movie to comic the best, plus you can never go wrong reading about face eating zombies! And I think that the one that did not make the leap very well was “Too Much T.V.” as that one is defiantly better on tape as the whole segment is about the movies Lisa is watching and the host telling her to kill her mom, on panels that spooky feel is lacking. The team behind this comic really did do a great job of bringing this shot on video film to the pages of the adaptation comic and it really reminds me of such indie Horror Comic titles like “Vault Of Doomnation” and even “Campfire Stories” with the later having a indie film made about it. The comic has blood and violence and the Horror comes from not only that but also the creatures and monsters that are roaming around with Satan and the Zombies being my favorites. I have to praise the makers of this film and comic as they understood the power of promotion via a comic as throughout the issue there was ways for readers to order the film on VHS, plus they also showed the films cover box at the start of the comic. The cover for this issue is really cool as it shows Satan’s eyes looking over a mound of fire. The comics interior art is a mixed bag as several different artists helped on this issue and these artists include Alfred Ramirez, Jackson Guice, Al Val and Jeff Guice. Some of the art is very classic Indie Horror style from the late 80s and early 90s, while some was a little more amateurish. But with that said I will say that I really do dig the style and feel of this comic as I feel they creators did a great job of staying true to the film its based on. If you are a fan of the film Satan Place or just enjoy Horror Anthology Comics make sure to track down a copy of this one as I think you will truly enjoy it. Check out the artwork below to see the styles used in this comic.

As you can see Satan Place: A Soup Opera From Hell is once of those micro films made in the late 80’s that made its way into the world of comics in the early 90s and for the most part it made a small impact in both as it really is a fun combo to checkout if you like micro budget films as well as comics that bring a series of spooky stories. But sadly our stay at Satan Place has came to an end but our time with Horror Comics based on Horror Films is still going strong as our next update will be about the indie film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night and the comic book released about it. So until next time read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next update as we take a walk with the vampire called The Girl.

From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: Creepshow (1982)

Posted on July 14, 2024 by bloodlinematt

Welcome back to Rotten Ink! Since I have started doing the “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” updates, there is one comic that I have been requested to do and that’s Creepshow as so many of you readers love this classic graphic novel and wanted to see it get the Rotten Ink treatment, and well here it is! Creepshow is one of those films that seems to gain more and more of a following as the years pass as newer horror fans discover it and ultimately fall in love with it as it could be one of horror cinema’s most prefect anthology films. Plus The Creep, who is the film’s storyteller and guide through these tales of the macabre, is a true horror icon and has become so popular that he has even sparked action figures as well as has appeared on t-shirts and posters. For this update, not only will we be taking a look at Creepshow the film and the graphic novel, but we will also be talking a little about Monster Bash 2023 as Juliet and I also attempt to visit at least one of the filming locations of Creepshow while we are in the Pittsburgh area. So with that, a thunderstorm is brewing outside and there is a tapping at the window as The Creep says it’s time to talk about Creepshow!

Let’s first start off taking a look at The Creep, who is the main villain in Creepshow, and talk about his ways of helping dealing death to mankind. The Creep is a creepy looking rotting skeleton ghoul with long white hair who is also very much ghostly in nature and loves to share his horrific tales of horror with those who will listen. His grotesque appearance could easily frighten a person to death, as could his sinister toothy smile because his undead look makes him very frightening on the human eyes. He also has the ability to fly and hover around, making him also very dangerous, as he can get at least two stories high. He also seems to have a kind of control or at least can encourage wicked youngsters into committing acts of violence by using voodoo and black magic on their parents or bullies, and this power can make him very evil as he also seems to feed off of fear and even hate that people have for one another. He also is able the spread his messages and gruesome tales via the pages of a comic book he is the host of. And at this time it is very unclear if The Creep has any true weaknesses and what, if anything, can kill him as he mostly stays in the shadows and pulls the strings like a puppet master. While The Creep is more of a spooky storyteller than a killer, he still is very bad as he can help lead people to do very bad things that lead to being severely harmed to even death.

So now that we have taken a look at The Creep, the twisted storyteller, I think it’s now time we take a look at Creepshow, the cult classic anthology film that truly is a masterpiece of 80’s Horror cinema that he is the star of. I want to first remind you that, like always, we will be taking the film’s plot from our pals at IMDB, and then I will write about the film’s production as well as my thoughts about the film. So if you are ready, let’s dive into the world of Creepshow.

Creepshow (1982)

“Five tales of terror are presented. The first deals with a demented old man returning from the grave to get the Father’s Day cake his murdering daughter never gave him. The second is about a not-too-bright farmer discovering a meteor that turns everything into plant-life. The third is about a vengeful husband burying his wife and her lover up to their necks on the beach. The fourth is about a creature that resides in a crate under the steps of a college. The final story is about an ultra-rich businessman who gets his comeuppance from cockroaches.”

George Romero was working with his own Laurel Entertainment and United Film Distribution and after Dawn Of The Dead, Martin and Knightriders, his next film was to be a team up with horror writer Stephen King for Creepshow, a spooky anthology film that was a love letter to the classic EC Comic series like Tales From The Crypt, Vault Of Horror and Haunt Of Fear. While George A. Romero would be the director, the script would be handled by Stephen King who would also appear in the film in one of the segments as a simple minded farmer. The film would have a budget of $8 million and with that they brought in Tom Savini for the film’s special effects and some bigger name actors to join the cast with names like Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Richard Gere, Ed Harris and Tom Atkins, to name a few. The film would mostly be filmed around the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area with some parts also being filmed in New Jersey. The film was very heavy on the special effects as many creatures, monsters and deaths depended on them to look good and be the main punch to the gut for the stories being told. And at one point in the film, over 20,000 live cockroaches were used on screen to deliver some chills as well as be the killers for their features segment. And once done, the film would be scored by John Harrison who would go onto do the music on such films as Day Of The Dead and Tales From The Darkside: The Movie. Laurel Entertainment, who were having money issues at this time, ended up selling the films distribution to Warner Brothers who would release the film on November 10, 1982 and would go on to make around $21 million. The film would be very well liked by critics and fans and would get even a bigger fan base once released on home media. The film would be released alongside such other horror films in 1982 as Friday The 13^th Part III, Basket Case, Poltergeist, The New York Ripper, Night Beast, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch, Slumber Party Massacre, Swamp Thing and The Thing ,to name a few showing that 1982 was a great year for horror in the cinema. The film would spawn two sequels as of this updates posting as well as a TV series.

Creepshow was a film that was a must watch at our household as both my brother and I were big fans, and we used to watch it all the time when it aired on HBO as well as on VHS. I can remember telling all my friend on the playground at school about the film as well as how cool The Creep was. I think for me why this film works so well is that each of the five tales are very different and each have their own twists and turns that can bring out fear. Creepshow also brings the viewer many types of horror “killers” as it features zombies, a monster, roaches and even a killer alien fungus and this makes it feel like a pick your poison of what really scares you kind of film. The film has that true comic book feel to it and moments in the film takes inspiration from the shocks of comics as backgrounds change and make you feel like the characters are really trapped in a comic book world. As a kid, one of the things that also stood out to me was the toys in Billy’s room as he had some amazing toys like a Mego Incredible Hulk, the Shogun Warrior versions of Godzilla and Rodan, a Remco Universal Mummy as well as he had Krusher the growing green monster! Plus let us not forget that he also had a Universal Dracula poster on his wall…Billy was awesome! Growing up I think my favorite story was “Fathers Day” as when I was a kid the look of the zombie version of Nathan was so well done and the twist ending of him having a head as his cake was so shocking and stuck with me, but as I got older, I think that “The Crate” became my favorite story in the film as I love the flesh eating monster who unknowingly helps a man get rid of his over bearing wife. Oh and yes, my brother and I would also talk about the fact that Bob Backlund makes an appearance in the film as the Stephen King played character Jordy is watching a WWF match on TV. One other memory I have of the film growing up is that my mom hated the segment “They’re Creeping Up On You” as the roaches busting out of the rich old man in the end grossed her out. Creepshow is one of those films as that I upgraded from VHS to DVD when it was released as well as over the years have the film’s score music on CD as well as have some t-shirts that showcase characters from the film and it really is one I have seen so many times as it truly is a classic fright flick and one that I recommend that everyone should watch. I just cannot say enough on how great this team up is of Romero and King two of the 80’s biggest horror icons really is.

So now that we have talked about the film Creepshow as well as The Creep who is the storyteller in the film I think that it is time that we take a look at the graphic novel that was released around the same time as the film in order to help promote it. I would like to thank Game Swap Kettering for having this GN in stock and making this update possible. I want to also remind you all that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So if you are ready, let’s open the pages of Creepshow # 1 and see what The Creep has in store to share with us when it comes to spooky tales.

Creepshow GN # 1 ***1/2
Released in 1982 Cover Price $6.95 New American Library # 1 of 1

The Creep welcomes us to Creepshow and then ushers us to the first tale “Father’s Day” that is set at the Grantham House as family members are in the parlor for Father’s Day waiting on Great Aunt Bedelia who was said to have killed her abusive father. Family is telling Henry, a man dating one of the Grantham’s all about the rumors and dirty secrets of the family. Aunt Bedelia arrives at the house and heads to the family cemetery and sits by her father’s grave and remembers back to the death of her lover that was ordered by her father to look like a hunting accident. She also remembers the day she killed him with an ashtray as he banged his cane against his wheel chair screaming about wanting cake! As Bedelia sits and remembers back, her father rises from his grave and kills her as well as Henry who was sent out to find her when she was late for dinner. In the end after killing another of his kin and making her head into a cake, The Father finally got his cake to the horror of the remaining Grantham family members. The next creepy tale is “The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill” goofball Jordy Verrill watches as a meteor falls from the sky near his farm and when he finds it he by accident burns himself by touching it, he thinks he can sell the meteor to the local college and make some money but when he pours cold water on it the meteor splits and green goo comes out of it and as well gets on Jordy who ends up slightly defeated in his dream of getting money after he cracked the meteor in half. But things gets worse for Jordy as the goo in the meteor makes his body grow a mold that takes his skin over and as well his farm land, in the end Jordy ends his own life but the growing mold is spreading even outside his farm. The next terror tale is called “The Crate” Henry Northrup is a Professor who hates his wife Billie and who gets a call from his friend Stanley after the night janitor finds an old crate hidden under the stairs, that ends up housing a very hungry creature that eats the janitor as well as a student! And Henry comes up with an idea that will solve his wife issue as he will lead her to the creature have it eat her and then he can chain up the crate and drop it into a body of water and things will be better for them both, so Henry drugs Stanley with sleeping pills and after this plan happens we see that the creature is still alive even at the bottom of the water. The next spooky tale is “ Something To Tide You Over” that has Richard Vickers capturing his wife Becky and her lover Harry in the act of cheating and takes them both to a private beach and buries them in the sand with only their heads out, and waits for the tide to come in so they both can drown and even video tapes it and makes Harry watch as Becky drowns just to be even more cruel before the water comes for him. In the end Richard is at home cocky and happy about his double murder when he is visited by his now zombie victims who take him to the beach in order to suffer the same fate as they did. The final tale is called “They’re Creeping Up On You” Upson Pratt is a very rich man who lives in a very nice apartment and he is mad when he finds a cockroaches are all over his living area and demands that the exterminators get their within an hour, but things turn bad for Mr. Pratt when the city has a blackout and thousands of roaches come out to play and cause him to have a heart attack! When the lights finally come back on we find that the roaches have hidden in the body of Mr. Pratt and all escape via his mouth.

This amazing graphic novel was released around the same time the film was released in theaters and once more proves my point that comic books are a great tool to help promote as well as give fans of the films a little something more to collect. And let’s be honest, Creepshow is a graphic novel that almost everyone who reads horror comics has in their collection. The graphic novel has five twisted tales and each bring a different type of horror to the readers, and as you can guess they are the same tales from the movie and these comic versions of the stories do the ones from the film justice and bring some truly memorable chills. The one change that the comic has is that The Creep is the main focus of the segments between the tales and all the parts of young Billy and his father are missing that make up the films over all story arch. And while the film is clearly inspired by EC Comics, this graphic novel is even more so as The Creep truly acts like The Crypt Keeper with his dark humor puns to take us along the journeys of these twisted tales. All five of the stories are very good and well done with many of them having some very impactful moments with Jordy being covered with that mossy mold killing himself and the undead father holding his head cake; they all spark a feeling of dread. I think if I had to choose my favorite story from this graphic novel I would go with “The Crate” as I am a sucker for a good creature and this one delivers as he eats humans and looks very mean and scary, and if I had to choose my least favorite I would say “The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill” as the story is great and all but does not pack as much of a scare as the others, but it does have one of the most impactful downbeat endings. There is lots of blood, death and gross moments in this GN and that will surly please those readers who like the red stuff spilt in their horror comics. The cover for this GN is amazing and very eye catching, and I would also say very iconic, the interior art is done by the master of the macabre Bernie Wrightson and for those who know his style, you know just how great it is, as I love the way he drew the undead as well as the Crate Monster in this book. Over all this is a truly amazing graphic novel and truly is apart of the Creepshow legacy and could even be a bigger part than the sequels and Shudder series in many fans eyes. Check out the artwork bellow to see the style of Wrightson used in this book.

Creepshow is a great film as well as a great graphic novel and both should truly be in every horror fan’s collection. But as you can see, our look at Creepshow is over ,and now it’s our time to take a brief look at Monster Bash 2023 as this was the year that Juliet and I went on a quest to find ata least one shooting location used for the film Creepshow, and we found it as we went to the house that was used for the prologue exteriors. It was great as it looked just about the same as it did in the film…but sadly we were not able to get a picture as the home owner was doing yard work and we did not want to be rude and bother him, but it was a very cool experience of seeing it. But as you can see, we have come to the end of the update and that means we have to leave The Creep behind and head to the Rotten Ink Theater as we talk silent cinema and take a look at the film Speed Spook! So until next time, read a horror comic or three, watch a horror Fflm or two and as always, support your local Horror Host. And again sorry I wish I could have gotten that picture of the Creepshow house for you guys to have seen on that day.

From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: The Willies (1990)

Posted on October 4, 2017 by bloodlinematt

Welcome to the fourth spooky update to our countdown to Halloween 2017 and another in our From Horror Movie To Horror Comic series. Today’s update is about the PG-13 kid friendly horror anthology film, The Willies! Back in the 80’s and early 90’s many scary movies and TV shows were marketed towards kids as horror was super popular with the youth, and The Willies was one such movie. It’s amazing to sit back and think that The Willies got a promo comic made in order to try and draw more kids into seeing it via home video rental. So let’s start up a camp fire and all sit around it and share some tales of what I am calling “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: The Willies”! I once more would like to say to any independent horror filmmaker or distribution company that making comics based on your films is a great idea as it is a tool to offer fans a little something more as well can bring in viewers who read comics and might not have even known about the film it was based on.

Our villains of this film are many but we have two major ones that are showcased in this film that we will focus on. The first we will look at is The Bully Killing Monster who is a tall slender demonoid like creature who feasts on the flesh and bone of mean spirited people who treat others bad. He is very sly in his way of killing as he hides and strikes when he needs to and also strikes fear into his victims. He also can wear a fake suit of human skin in order to find his targeted prey and takes the appearance of an old man school janitor who is super polite and fun loving. We get the impression that he has killed bullies for years and will continue to do so for decades to come. His manner of killing is his sharp teeth as well as his claw like hands. He can also freeze his prey with fear as he drags them into the celling to hide his killing deed. While he is a demon like monster, he can be hurt with books and soap to the face. While he is not super powerful, this monster does know how to get the job done when it comes to killing off bullies and getting away with it. Our second monsters of this film are the Mutated Giant Flies who were created by a mad farmer named Spivey who makes chemical enhanced soil. When they grow, they want revenge on a twisted young man who enjoyed capturing them and torturing them. The Mutated Flies when full grown via the soil walk on two legs and are the side of an adult human! They have a mean spirit to them and are violent towards the teen who was mean to them. They are semi strong and they kill in a pact as there are three of them and they do eat human flesh! The Mutated Flies don’t kill, they torture as they ripped off the arms of the teen in order to teach him a lesson and to feast on his removed arms. The Mutated Flies are just giant flies so they can be killed with bug spray or even squashed. While the mutated flies are not super scary nor even racking up a body count, they can cause damage to their prey. So as you can see this film has two different style of monsters and each bring something of their own to the world of horror characters.

So now that we understand the film’s top two monsters we should take some time and talk about the over all film. I will be taking the film’s write up from our pals at IMDB and I will also talk briefly about the film’s production as well as about my first time watching it with my thoughts on it. So let’s dive in and see if you will get The Willies from reading about The Willies!

The Willies (1990)

“Two brothers camping with their cousin try to frighten each other by telling stories. There are two main narrations: one involves strange happenings at an elementary school; the other, a teenage boy with a peculiar interest.”

The Willies was released in 1990 and is a Horror/Comedy film that was marketed towards teens and adults who enjoy horror anthology films. The film was written and directed by Brian Peck, who is known for his role as punker Scuz in Return Of the Living Dead, and is the only film that he ever directed. The film was lower budget and was released by Paramount Pictures on home video and joined such films Tremors, Nightbreed, Child’s Play 2, Cat In The Brain, Predator 2 and Psycho IV to name a few. The film starred lots of actors who were well known to the horror genre fans like Clu Gulagar, Sean Astin, Dana Ashbrook, Kirk Cameron, Kathleen Freeman, James Karen and Tracey Gold to name a few. The film is a mix bag of positive and negative reviews and while not a household name, The Willies does have a cult following and many fans of the film always get happy to talk about Michael Bower who played Donkeylips in the Nickelodeon show Salute Your Shorts playing a cruel bug collector in one of the shorts. The film was distributed by Force Majeure Productions and not much more can be said about the release and making of this film.

The first time I saw The Willies was via a VHS rental from Blockbuster Video when I was a teen. As always my older brother Bryan was the one who rented it, and we watched it one late weekend night while eating chips and drinking pop and immersing myself into the world of The Willies. I have always been a fan of horror anthology films and from the first watch, I can say that I really did enjoy The Willies as I found it very fun and reminded me of the show Are You Afraid Of The Dark that I was watching every week. Later on I would go on to own the film on VHS and now on DVD, and while it’s not one I re-watch super often I still enjoy watching it and can say I recommend it for horror fans who have not seen it before. My favorite story in this film is “Bad Apples” that’s about a monster in a school bathroom who gets revenge on bullies! The monster effects remind me of monsters used in the TV show Tales From The Darkside and the payout of what and who the monster is reminds me of an episode of Goosebumps! I think the main reason I really dig this movie is the fact that I love the idea of sitting around the dark woods sharing spooky stores as it reminds me of my youth and telling scary stories to friends in school or making up monsters and such with my cousins! I also enjoy the fact that the film also has smaller little spooky stories that are based on Urban Legends that we have all heard before. Plus I love the use of practical effects for everything as I think the monsters as well as the gore effects are pretty solid for this low budget of a film.

So now that we have taken a look at The Willies in film as well as two of the main monsters of the film, we should now dive into the comic book that was made to help promote the movie. I am not sure what to expect from this comic as it’s unclear whether it’s an adaptation or new stories told by the brothers and their cousin. So this element of surprise is making this read even better for me! So I first want to thank a vendor at the Monsterbash Convention for having this in stock and thanks to them I learned that this comic even existed. So with that, let’s sit around a camp fire and kick off October right and give this comic a good read and see if we can spook ourselves silly.

The Willies # 1 ***
Released in 1991 Cover Price $1.95 Force Majeure # 1 of 1

A group of youths are sitting in a tent telling each other spooky stories that include the woman who ate a fried rat at a fast food restaurant, the old man who died of a heart attack after going into a carnival’s haunted house as well as the old woman who put her dog in the microwave to dry it off! Finally one of the boys gets into his story that is about a young boy named Danny Hollister who is being picked on at school and is helped out by the school’s janitor named Mr. Jenkins who tells the youngster he will take care of the bullies! Danny leads his bullies as well as his mean spirited teacher to the bathroom where they meet their end at the hands of a monster who is in fact the janitor! Next another of the youths tells a story of Gordy, a mean fat kid who steals from a local farmer as well as likes to rip the wings off flies he captures. Well one day the Farmer gets fed up with Gordy and gives him some special chemical enhanced soil for his flies that in fact turns the fly’s human size and they get their revenge by ripping the arms of the terrible youth! After the stories the youth begin to argue that none of the stories were real when one of their fathers show up to reveal that he in fact is the monster who killed the bullies!

I must say that this is a promo comic adaptation done right as it stays faithful to the film and yet cuts just enough to make it a fast paced read that captures the fun spooky nature of the flick. The film’s plot is very simple and is much like any horror anthology comic or film as we have stories being shared that all end with Twilight Zone style twists that by the end all turn out to be true. The Three Kids are your typical group of friends spending time hanging out in the woods and sharing stories they think will shock and scare the others. While we get to know them as friends we do not get to know their personalities all that well besides one of them has lead the other two to their deaths at the hands of his monster father. It makes you wonder, did the two kids who meet their end by the comic’s conclusion pick on the third kid and that’s why he wanted his dad to kill them? The main monster of this comic series has to be the Bully Killing Monster as he massacres at least six people in the course of this comic! While at first it seems like he is nothing more than an avenger for the weak by the end it makes you wonder if he just likes to kill! The Mutated Flies are also kind of the bad guys as they do rip the arms off of a kid, but if you really want to break them down, Farmer Spivey the one who made the soil mixed with chemicals is the real baddie as he made that batch that mutated the flies with the idea that they would kill Gordy! The comic has a few good creepy moments as it captures a real EC Comic appeal with twisted tales that have morbid outcomes, the only difference is that this comic is pretty much bloodless and that’s a shame as even the film had a little of the red stuff. The comics cover is really amazing and would capture the eye of fans of the film as well as Horror Comic readers. The interior art is done by Brain Murray and is fantastic stuff as he captures the mood and even the look of the actors and characters from the film and is really great stuff. So over all, fans of this film should find this comic and give it a read as it’s amazing and will surly please, but I must warn that this comic is hard to find so if you do find a copy make sure to buy it! Check out some of the art below to see Murray’s art style.

The Willies might not be a household name when it comes to the world of Horror Films but it does have a solid and loyal cult fan base that I feel will grow more and more over the years. I also think that its great that this film did get the comic treatment as it is one that I think lends itself to being one. So with our next update we will be staying in the world of From Horror Movie To Horror Comic and will be taking a look at Jason X the tenth film in the Friday The 13^th film series and the comic from Avatar Press based on Uber Jason from the film. So until next time, tell a ghost story or three, read a horror comic or two and as always support your local Horror Host. I hope this update didn’t give you The Willies too badly as our month of Horror updates has just started see you in space for the next one!