Sequel: Cruel Summer II (2022)

Picking up where the first movie left off, I already have questions. Why didn’t their parents go to the house rather than the police station? Even if there is bad cell and phone reception, shouldn’t the cops be concerned the officers they sent to investigate haven’t been heard from? Also don’t they use radios rather than cell towers? Why did the survivors go through the woods when the road is straight down the driveway? And more importantly why didn’t the girls take their car rather than walk off into the woods? But enough of his nonsense.

Cut to two years later.  Heather is working at an auction house.  Felissa just got out of an institution. Doug is still alive but blind and super bitter about it, and no one has heard from Barb.

As if on cue,Barb wants to meet up and says she’s written a play about the night of the murders. Her therapist says they should all confront their trauma in a controlled environment.  I would counter that doing a play in a theater is in no way a controlled environment.  But the kids don’t put this together, so they agree to play themselves in the production. 

At one point Heather and Felissa promise each other that if bad memories start coming back, they’ll pull out of the play.  Yet that is literally why Barb asked them to do the production, to manifest their trauma. 

Again we have a movie where characters have no self preservation and do nothing to stop the oncoming loss of their lives.  No one tries to escape or fight off the killer. Characters that don’t matter to the plot are introduced just increase the body count. 

The characters are not good at putting things together. The police reports about the murders don’t mention finding a body.  Heather thinks it is an oversight… in every report. The police aren’t concerned since they figure the body will show up at some point, which is just plain odd. At the theater, the other actors are not told Heather and Felissa are playing themselves.  When the actor playing the killer says boo to the women, they get offended. If they can’t handle something so benign, how are they going to handle reliving their attempted murders?

Ridiculous dialogue

Heather: I’m really glad we could meet in person. Felisssa and I really wanted to see you.

Doug: [sigh] Yeah well um the feelings mutual. [sigh] Too bad I can’t.

You know she just got out of the mental hospital.

Blind Doug and his books

The theater is full of pretentiousness

Cruel Summer (2021)

A group of college students steal the key to a house for sale so they can have a murder mystery weekend. They even print up invitations in advance. Since the theme is the 80’s, Heather insists they leave their phones at home, but the others think they need one in case of an emergency. Heather’s not the brightest bulb so she says no.

Caretaker Vince is surprised to see kids at the empty house, but he buy’s their story of being the owner’s niece.  He tells them the only other people around are mechanic Gunnar and nosy neighbor Bill.  You’d think the kids would be discreet since they have no right to be in the house, but they’re noisy enough to bother Bill.

If you’re wondering who the murderer is, they make no secret about it.  When Gunnar gets out of work, he kills a guy whose car broke down. Then he kills a father and daughter on a walk, a couple who ran out of gas, and Bill. After this, he heads towards the partying kids and the cops investigating the noise complaints.  There’s a lot of missing flyers up in town so apparently he does this often. 

No one has any self preservation.  They don’t fight back and only one victim tries to get away. When Gunnar walks onto the porch, Doug thinks it’s Robert wearing a mask which makes no sense.  Robert is thin and tall with shoulder length hair.  Gunnar is fat, the same height as Doug and has a crew cut.

The characters spend a lot of time complaining.   The cops complain about Bill calling them.  The patrol officers complain about having to investigate. The couple complains about running out of gas.  The neighbor complains about the noise. The kids complain about Bill and Victor.   It never ends. 

It’s hard to feel any sympathy for the kids. They’re guilty of breaking and entering, plus when Barb and Heather are looking for Victor, they go inside his unlocked home, go through his stuff, and Barb wants to steal some of it.  These kids are jerks.

Ridiculous dialogue

I heard a ruckus. Hello? There’s a ruckus going on.

Felisha: Did you fall in?

Doug: I can assure you that when I’m done you’ll be the second.

The 80s party with generic clothing that doesn’t scream 80s

A cop has disappeared? Be wary of this town

This clothing would pass for 70s

Who saves only the headlines of articles?

Why did Heather’s dad freak out when he saw this?  Did 
 he know they were breaking into the house to have a party?

They’d be unable to use this as a slingshot with the drawer open

Killdozer (1974)

While doing construction on an island 200 miles off the coast of Africa, a strange blue light goes from a meteorite into a bulldozer that’s trying to move it. After this, Kelly the foreman has trouble controlling  the machine and Mack gets fatal radiation burns from seeing the blue light.

When Kelly tries to drive the bulldozer the next day, it seems to have a mind of its own.  He cuts the hydraulic lines to make it stop and tows it back to base camp to have the mechanic look at it.  Nothing appears to be wrong with it so he fixes the hydraulic lines. But when Beltran gets in the drivers seat, the bulldozer takes off. Later they find Beltran’s body.  

With two of the six dead, Kelly starts to think Mack was right and the blue light did something to the machine.  While the others are skeptical, Dutch says machines can’t run by themselves.  Soon it’s a battle between the four men left and the slow crawling, yet stealthy and tricky bulldozer.

It’s not the most exciting film, but it’s got a great title and where else can you see a bull dozer try to take out a construction crew.

Robert Uriah is the first victim

Nice font

Killdozer attack!

A tiny jeep doesn’t stand a chance

Oh the humanity!

Listening for killdozer

Scream of the Wolf (1974)

When several people are killed in what seems to be an animal attack, Sheriff Bell asks John, a hunter, to help with the investigation.  John says the track are odd. They start out as four tracks, but then end up only two, and the weigh appears to be much heavier once they are walking on two feet.  They bring gods, but they lose the scent once the tracks turn into a biped.

John looks to his good friend Byron for help, but Byron can’t be bothered. He thinks fear is good for the townsfolk. They’re too boring and fear of death makes them more alive.  Okay weirdo.  

John’s girlfriend Sandy thinks Byron is a creep.  Later Sandy is attacked at home by an animal and begins to believe Byron is behind it. She tells John she believes Byron is a werewolf.  John is not amused.

Things are going to get worse before they get better, and no one believes there’s a werewolf even though it might explain those tracks. This movie was made by Dan Curtis, who did the 60s soap opera Dark Shadows. The music is done by Robert Cobert, who also did music for that show.  The movie features Peter Graves, Clint Walker and Jo Ann Pflug.