Starring Robert Glaudini, Freddy Moore, Demi Moore, Luca Bercovici, James Davidson, Al Fann, Cherie Currie, Tom Villard, Vivian Blaine
Directed by Charles Band
Expectations: High, the posters are all sorts of awesome.
On the general scale:
On the B-Movie scale:
It’s been nearly a year since I reviewed anything from the Charles Band era prior to the formation of Empire International, and what better time than Horrific October to make a return visit? From the short list I chose Parasite for two very specific reasons. One is that poster to the right. It’s not necessarily a great poster (or even a good one), but it’s one that instantly grabs me and tells me to watch the film. It’s delightfully cheesy and I figured if the film echoed any of this quality, it would be a good time. Not that horror posters are to be fully trusted. The other, and slightly less dubious, reason was that Parasite has the distinction of being Demi Moore’s first major film role. I’m not much of a fan, but early actor roles are always good fun, especially when they come in trashy horror films.
The story in Parasite is somewhat threadbare, but for this type of film there’s more than enough. Parasite opens with a high-color, intense laboratory scene where a scientist looks in various microscopes at various wriggling organisms. Another man lies strapped down to an examination table, freaking out. The doctor fucks up, dropping a petri dish and unleashing a dangerous parasite that quickly burrows into his stomach. The scientist loads a canister with another organism and books out of the lab as quick as possible. The man strapped to the table doesn’t fare so well though, as the parasite bursts out of his stomach first and then the top of his head. Whew! Five minutes in and already an alien has burst out of some dude’s head. This could be an instant classic.