Franklin, John

Tower of Terror

Kirsten Dunst stars as plucky teen niece to Steve Guttenberg in this 1997 telefilm that sets out to provide background for one of Disney/MGM Studios' popular thrill-rides, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Guttenberg plays Buzzy, a down-on-his-luck former journalist relegated to concocting stories for a Weekly World News-inspired tabloid. When an elderly woman approaches Buzzy with a compelling ghost story, he's persuaded to investigate. Dunst is Anna, who joins Buzzy in his search to find out the truth about the mysterious 1939 disappearance of five people--including a Shirley Temple-like child star--at the eerily abandoned Hollywood Tower Hotel. There are some scary segments, which may truly frighten sensitive younger viewers. Still, for older kids and adult viewers, Dunst's presence and a fairly fun story makes this an engaging film. (Ages 8 and older) --N.F. Mendoza

Big-screen stars Steve Guttenberg (THREE MEN AND A LITTLE LADY) and Kirsten Dunst (DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL) encounter a host of haunts in this delightfully spooky mystery! Buzzy Crocker (Guttenberg) is a hard-luck photojournalist whose unexpected encounter with an old woman leads him to investigate an unexplained, decades-old disappearance. It seems that one Halloween night, many years ago, five partygoers vanished in the elevator of the Hollywood Tower Hotel ... and ever since, their ghosts have remained trapped inside the dilapidated old building! In an action-filled story that delivers creepy fun for everyone, Buzzy ultimately teams with his niece (Dunst) to solve the mystery while managing to save their lives and capture the biggest story of the year!

Children of the Corn

The murder rate is as high as an elephant's eye in this flaccid adaptation of Stephen King's short story. While driving through Nebraska en route to a new job, medico Burt (Peter Horton) and his wife Vicky (a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton) nearly run over a mutilated boy who staggers from the cornfields. Seeking help, they enter the town of Gatlin, whose under-20 residents have butchered their parents per the decree of junior-grade holy roller Isaac (John Franklin), who preaches the word of a being called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." King's original story (from his 1978 collection Night Shift) was a lean and brutal mélange of Southern-gothic atmosphere and E.C. Comics-style gore, which scripter Greg Goldsmith effectively neutralizes by adding a youthful narrator (a grating Robbie Kiger) and putting an upbeat spin on the story's morbid conclusion. Fritz Kiersch's direction is TV-movie flat, with the sole inspired moment (hideous religious iconography glimpsed during a bloody "service") delivered as a throwaway. Aside from Horton and Courtney Gains (as Isaac's hatchet man Malachai), the performances are dreadful, and the depiction of the Lovecraftian monster-god as a sort of giant gopher inspires more laughter than terror. Amazingly, the film spawned six sequels; Franklin (Cousin Itt in the Addams Family films) later appeared in and wrote 1999's Children of the Corn 666. --Paul Gaita

Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return

With riveting performances from stars John Franklin (CHILDREN OF THE CORN, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES), Stacy Keach (AMERICAN HISTORY X), and Alix Koromzay (CARRIE II, THE HAUNTING, NIGHTWATCH), ISAAC'S RETURN is the sixth and newest bone-chilling chapter in the thrilling CHILDREN OF THE CORN series! On a trip to find her birth mother, Hannah Martin picks up a dark stranger who kicks off a mysterious chain of events. Little does Hannah know that her journey may help fulfill a sinister prophecy made 19 years earlier by Isaac, the cult's original evil leader! It's a hair-raising movie event you don't want to miss as Isaac makes his terrifying return and the frightening Children Of The Corn achieve their ultimate destiny!

Python

Anaconda had the grace to be campily bad; Python, a flagrant rip-off, just sucks. A military transport carrying a whopper of a snake crashes somewhere in the mountains near a sweet little town, where two brothers live. One of them is an avid cyclist who's come back after his father's death to help his brother with the family business--a metal-engraving company that, for some reason, has enormous vats of acid. The snake starts eating people; when their semidigested remains are found, suspicion falls on the cyclist, because only he would have access to the acid necessary to burn the victims to the bone in this disgusting manner. (It's a particularly tacky detail that a lesbian couple are the first victims of the enormous, phallic snake.) Anyhow, some special unit of the government comes in, including our supposed stars Casper Van Dien (with a cheesy mustache and a cheesier accent) and Robert Englund (of Nightmare on Elm Street fame). In various incomprehensible action sequences, they prove to be incompetent, and it's only our stalwart bicyclist and a sturdy young deputy who save the day. Python is terribly written, terribly acted, and terribly directed and features mediocre special effects (the snake is never the same size from scene to scene). Jenny McCarthy has a cameo, for those who care about such things. --Bret Fetzer

Scientist Dr. Anton Rudolph (Englund) has engineered the perfect killing machine - the world's first massive, genetically enhanced python. Mistakenly unleashed in a small American town, this unstoppable creature with a voracious appetite is raging out of control. As the massive python gobbles up the locals one by one, it's up to Special Agent Parker (Van Dien) to conquer nature's ulitmate terror. If you enjoyed movies like Lake Placid and Anaconda, you'll eat up PYTHON.

Children of the Corn (Divimax Edition)

The murder rate is as high as an elephant's eye in this flaccid adaptation of Stephen King's short story. While driving through Nebraska en route to a new job, medico Burt (Peter Horton) and his wife Vicky (a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton) nearly run over a mutilated boy who staggers from the cornfields. Seeking help, they enter the town of Gatlin, whose under-20 residents have butchered their parents per the decree of junior-grade holy roller Isaac (John Franklin), who preaches the word of a being called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." King's original story (from his 1978 collection Night Shift) was a lean and brutal mélange of Southern-gothic atmosphere and E.C. Comics-style gore, which scripter Greg Goldsmith effectively neutralizes by adding a youthful narrator (a grating Robbie Kiger) and putting an upbeat spin on the story's morbid conclusion. Fritz Kiersch's direction is TV-movie flat, with the sole inspired moment (hideous religious iconography glimpsed during a bloody "service") delivered as a throwaway. Aside from Horton and Courtney Gains (as Isaac's hatchet man Malachai), the performances are dreadful, and the depiction of the Lovecraftian monster-god as a sort of giant gopher inspires more laughter than terror. Amazingly, the film spawned six sequels; Franklin (Cousin Itt in the Addams Family films) later appeared in and wrote 1999's Children of the Corn 666. --Paul Gaita

Children of the Corn [UMD for PSP]

The murder rate is as high as an elephant's eye in this flaccid adaptation of Stephen King's short story. While driving through Nebraska en route to a new job, medico Burt (Peter Horton) and his wife Vicky (a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton) nearly run over a mutilated boy who staggers from the cornfields. Seeking help, they enter the town of Gatlin, whose under-20 residents have butchered their parents per the decree of junior-grade holy roller Isaac (John Franklin), who preaches the word of a being called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." King's original story (from his 1978 collection Night Shift) was a lean and brutal mélange of Southern-gothic atmosphere and E.C. Comics-style gore, which scripter Greg Goldsmith effectively neutralizes by adding a youthful narrator (a grating Robbie Kiger) and putting an upbeat spin on the story's morbid conclusion. Fritz Kiersch's direction is TV-movie flat, with the sole inspired moment (hideous religious iconography glimpsed during a bloody "service") delivered as a throwaway. Aside from Horton and Courtney Gains (as Isaac's hatchet man Malachai), the performances are dreadful, and the depiction of the Lovecraftian monster-god as a sort of giant gopher inspires more laughter than terror. Amazingly, the film spawned six sequels; Franklin (Cousin Itt in the Addams Family films) later appeared in and wrote 1999's Children of the Corn 666. --Paul Gaita

The Addams Family

Director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) brings his distinctly cartoonish sensibility to this feature film version of the old Charles Addams comic strip. Anjelica Huston was born to play Morticia Addams, matriarch of the ghoulish Addams clan, while the late Raul Julia is a very agreeable, lusty Gomez. But it's Christina Ricci who arguably steals the show as their stone-faced daughter, Wednesday. As is often the problem with adaptations of comics or television shows, somehow an original story has to be implemented that doesn't clutter things up. But clutter is an issue here as the script gets tangled on a lame plot concerning efforts to steal the Addams' house and fortune. Still, it's fun to see an ideal cast reanimate an old favorite. --Tom Keogh

Andy Colby's Incredibly Awesome Adventure

Experience a "funtastic" family adventure over the airwaves where anything can happen and your only protection is the remote control. Just when Andy Colby appears destined for another boring day of babysitting he and his sister Bonnie watch a peculiar and powerful videotape. Andy's little sister is mysteriously sucked into the TV by an evil villain and he must survive a vortex of car chases commercials and cartoon calamities in an incredibly awesome adventure to save her!System Requirements:Running Time: 74 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 786936694574 Manufacturer No: 4962403

The Killing Grounds

After the fatal crash of a small airplane in the high Sierras, six greedy strangers clash over a fortune in stolen gold. When four hikers stumble on the treasure and begin hauling it away, two drug dealing thugs come to claim the loot, regardless of who gets hurt. The torturous trip down the mountainside becomes a frightening ordeal as each has his own plans for the gold. No one hears their bloodcurdling cries as they cross the killing grounds at the bottom of the mountain.

Children of the Corn Revelation/Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return