805 The Mangler (1995)

 Tobe Hooper adapting a Stephen King short story sounds good doesn't it ? This isn't, not by a long way. In fact, I'd say this film is even worse than Maximum Overdrive. Ted Levine is Hunton, a detective investigating a series of  industrial accidents at an industrial laundry plant aided by a hippy brother-in-law who  dabbles in the occult and divines that - somehow- the demonically possessed press machine is to blame. Levine is terrible, gargling the dreadful dialogue and  flitting  between his  only two facial expressions but he's outdone by Robert Englund as the factory boss Gartley, a way over the top pantomime turn. The film is far too long, has more holes than plot and wafer-thin characters that make it a loud, gory  and pointless bore.

Vanessa Pike ( as  Sherry )

Sex : No, she's a virgin

Death : Survives

Vanessa was a South African actress. This  was her  second fillm and seemingly her last appearance in a US production. Her  subsequent appearances were on  TV or film in South Africa and she seems to have retired in 2011.

Lisa Morris (as Lin Sue)

Sex : Lin Sue is Gartley's mistress

Death : Squashed in the mangler

This  was Lisa's only film role.

Ashley Hayden ( as Annette )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Ashley  also appears to have been South African and appeared in a number of the same productions as Vanessa Pike. She was last seen playing Margaret Thatcher's daughter-in-law in a Tv movie in 2006.

804 Hideaway (1995)

 Directed by Brett  Leonard ( The  Lawnmower Man )  and  apted from a Dean Koontz novel, this was a box office  flop not  helped by the author's struggle to dissociate himself from it. Jeff Goldblum plays Hatch a family man seemingly dead after a road accident but revived by an experimental doctor ( Alfred Molina ). However he now has a psychic link with Vassago (Jeremy Sisto) an alarmingly handsome serial killer with designs on his daughter. This is  a  watchable  film  thanks to  Goldblum's performance though  there's any number of  plotholes and  a pseudo-religious angle at the  climax cheapens it.

Christine Lahti ( as  Lindsey)

Sex : Lindsey has sex with Hatch

Death : Survives

Christine  was born in Michigan. She began acting in the late seventies and made her film debut in ...And Justice For All in 1979. She  was Oscar-nominated for her role in Swing Shift in 1984. From  the mid-nineties she branched out into directing and won an Oscar for  her  short film Liebeman In Love. Around the same  time  she  was  showered with awards for  her role in the TV series Chicago Hope. Though now in her seventies, her career shows no signs of slowing down.

Alicia Silverstone ( as Regina )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Alicia  is a Jewish actress from California who first appeared on TV in The Wonder Years in 1992. her  first film was The Crush a year later. She shot to fame in Clueless, the same  year as this film, securing a lucrative deal with Columbia. However things  quickly turned sour after Batman and Robin  where  her performance atracted negative reviews and comment about her weight. The first film released by her own production company Excess Baggage was a flop.  With her star somewhat tarnished, Alicia has kept working in independent film, the theatre, TV and the occasional return to mainstream film. She is a vegan  and  activist for PETA.

Rae Dawn Chong ( as Rose )

Sex : No

Death : Strangled by Vassago

Rae is a Canadian actress of Chinese descent. She was a child actress, appearing in The Wonderful World of Disney in 1974. Her first film was Stony Island in 1978. She is  perhaps best  known for The Colour Purple.  She  married her Soul Man co-star C Thomas Howell in 1989 but they divorced a year later. Her career is ongoing.

Joely Collins (as Linda )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Joely is the daughter of Phil Collins by his first wife Andrea. She was born in Vancouver but raised in London and trained at RADA. This was her first film. Most of her appearances have been on TV. She  has her own production company and has had moderate success.

Mara Duronslet (as Zoe) 

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Mara had a brief career as a bit part actress in the nineties.

803 In the Mouth Of Madness (1995)

 I  actually went to see this at the cinema and remember some hype about this being John Carpenter's return to horror, seven years after They Live. Sam Neill stars as  insurance investigator John Trent , hired by a publisher (Charlton Heston ) to investigate the disappearance of a popular horror author Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) . Trent  tracks him down to a remote New  England  village but  finds himself  trapped within the world of Kane's latest novel. Although made on a bigger budget, this  has many of the same issues as Prince of Darkness, dislikeable leads ( Neill is awful in this), a chorus of generic zombies and   pretensions  towards some higher truth that it can't deliver. It's  also so  reliant on jump scares that they become part of the scenery by the end of the film.

Julie Carmen (as Styles )

Sex : No

Death :  n/a, she's a fictional character

This  was  Julie's last horror film to date.

802 Scanner Cop (1994 )

 Though not  titled as such, this was the fourth film in the  Scanners franchise. Though credited as a writer , David Cronenburg had no active participation in the film. Sam Stasiak (Daniel Quinn ), an  orphaned scanner follows his adoptive father (Richard Grove) into the police force and  reluctantly  agrees to use his powers to  catch  a  serial killer Glock (Richard Lynch) who is using hypnosis to pursue his vendetta against the local force. This  went  straight to video with its  second  division cast  and poor  pacing  but  it's  still modestly  enjoyable due  to the  likeable characters at its heart.

Darlanne Fluegel ( as Joan)

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Darlanne  was born in Pennsylvania and started modelling in 1971. She  studied acting at the same time and made her film debut in  Eyes of Laura Mars in 1978. She had the lead female role in Battle Beyond The Stars (1980)  and appeared in some big films ( To Live And Die In LA, Once Upon A Time In America ). She also made an impression in the TV series Crime Story and Hunter. She  retired from acting in the mid-nineties and taught  drama at the University of Central Florida from 2002 to 2007. She was diagnosed with Early  Onset  Alzheimer's in 2009 and  succumbed to the disease eight years later.

 Hilary Shepard ( as Xena)

Sex : No

Death : Run down by a truck

Hilary was  born in New  York and  first appeared in a minor  role in the film Soup For One in 1982. For  the  first part of the eighties, she was primarily focussed on a musical career with the band American Girls. When they folded , she was more receptive to acting offers and her height and  sharp features led to villainess roles , notably Queen Divatox in the Power Rangers franchise She is good friends with Darl Hannah and co-created two board games with her.

Cyndi Pass  ( as Sarah )

Sex: No

Death : Survives

Cyndi was from California and first appeared in the film Full House in 1991.She  appeared in a number of action films that went straight to video she more or less retired at  the end of the nineties but  co-wrote  the  TV  movie  Murdered at 17

Christina Combs ( as Frightened girl )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Christina  was a stuntwoman on a few films in the early 90s. This  was her only acting role and her last film in any capacity.

801 The Paperboy ( 1994 )

 This  modest Canadian chiller about a  family  menaced by the  disturbed  teen who  lives  next  door is   likeable  and  entertaining  enough  if  very  predictable.

Alexandra  Paul ( as Melissa )

Sex : Melissa has sex with her boyfriend

Death :  Survives

This  was  Alexandra's  first  horror film since Christine .

Karyn Dwyer (as Brenda )

Sex : Brenda has sex with her boyfriend while babysitting

Death : Survives but as a paraplegic

Karyn was born in Newfoundland and started acting  on stage from the age of 10. This was her second  film. She  received rave  reviews for  her  role in the 1999 film Better Than Chocolate but  it  didn't significantly boost her career. She took her  on  life in 2018 aged 43.

Krista Erickson ( as Diana )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Krista  was  born  in Pennsylvania and  started acting as a teen, appearing in Diff'rent  Strokes in 1979.  She  was mainly  a  TV  actress with the occasional film appearance of which this was the last. She then crossed over into  serious  journalism and documentary making until 2009 when she retired from the public eye.

Brigid Tierney (as Cammie )

Sex : N/a

Death : Survives

This  was 9 year old Brigid first film after a couple of TV appearances.Since 1999, she has mainly worked as a voice actress including Rotten Ralph, The Tofus and Arthur.

Jenny  Campbell ( as Tiffany)

Sex : n/a

Death : Survives

This was  Jenny's second and final film appearance.

Clare  Reilly ( as Jeanne )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Clare  has had a long and ongoing career but has never escaped bit  parts. She is  often cast as  a  news  reporter or a medical professional.

800 Beyond Bedlam ( 1994)

 This deservedly-forgotten British flick  stars Keith Allen as  Gilmour an incarcerated psychopath  taking an experimental drug  pioneered by a very unlikely neurologist (Liz Hurley ) . When she  takes the drug herself to check for side effects (yeah, right) it  creates a  sort of psychic web which Gilmour is  able to control from his cell. Craig Fairbrass, is Terry,  the  cop investgating the resulting carnage  and he has history with Gilmour. At  least that's what I think's  going  on; after 30 minutes or so the  film gives up trying to explain anything and becomes a tedious incoherent mess. It's badly lit, poorly acted and completely worthless.

Elizabeth Hurley ( as Samantha )

Sex : Samantha has various erotic dreams

Death : Survives

Elizabeth was born in Hampshire  and  attended a comprehensive  school. She  dabbled in a punk band while studying theatre and dance. She made  her  first TV  appearance in Inspector Morse and her film debut in the arthouse film Aria  in  the  late eighties. She started dating Hugh Grant around the same time  and  became a tabloid sensation after attending the premiere of Four Weddings And A Funeral in a Versace dress. Her enduring  celebrity has  overshadowed her film career  ever  since  although it continues to this day.

Samantha Spiro ( as WPC Foster )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Samantha is a Jewish actress from London. She  began her acting career  on the stage which  remains her first love although she has also done a lot of TV work with film trailing a distant third. This  was her first film role. She has  won  two Olivier Awards for  her stage  acting and  a British Comedy Award for Grandma's House in 2010. She is best known for playing Barbara Windsor on both stage and screen.

Zoe  Heyes ( as Josie )

Sex : No

Death : Uncertain - Josie reads that she's been mutilated in her office then turns up in Terry's fever dream where he asks her if sahe's dead and doesn't get an answer

Zoe was born in Warrington and was seriously burned in a childhood accident. Her acting career was brief. This was her second and final film then she appeared in the TV mini-series She's Out  before landing a regular role in London's Burning. She quit after two series to pursue other opportunities but no one seems to know what they were.

Annette Badland ( as Nurse Nancy )

Sex : Nancy sexually services Gilmour

Death : Uncertain - she appears to have been shot in the fever dream

Annette was born in Edgbaston  and  has been an active character  actress since 1970  with numerous  credits on stage, radio, TV and film. In her early  career she was best known as secretary Charlotte in Bergerac.She has been in Dr Who, Casualty and all the soaps, most  substantially Eastenders and  currently has a regular role in Midsomer Murders. She appears to have lost some weight in recent years.

799 The Puppet Masters (1994)

 Despite some impressive casting, this  wa  a  notorious box office bomb and it's not difficult to see why. Robert Heinlein's objections to adaptation of his work meant that despite its three year head start over the  similarly themed The  Body Snatchers there had been three well received film versions - one  of  course very recent - of the latter before this hit the screen. Donald Sutherland plays the leader of a government agency fighting the alien menace alongside is  son Sam ( Christian Slater lookalike Eric Thal) and sexy scientist Mary.  The other big issue is how badly structured the film is , throwing  you straight into the struggle with a garbled explanation by Sutherland and  back story restricted to little snatches of dialogue in between the frantic gun battles. The film then has to slow down and can't avoid a perception of sagging; - how can Sam and Mary slope off for a bonk with human civilisation hanging by a thread ?  - and never really  recovers its momentum.

Julie Warner ( as Mary )

Sex : Mary tries to seduces Sam when under alien control

Death : Survives

Julie  is  from  New  York and made her first  screen appearance at 16 in the soap The  Guiding Light. Further roles eluded her until the end of the eighties and she worked as a a waitress . making her film debut in 1990 with a minor role in Flatliners. This film's failure and her short stature precluded any more leading roles but marriage to director Jonathan Prince stabilised her career and she  has enjoyed success in character parts such as Barbara in Little Women, Big Cars.