Terror in Tinseltown: Hollywood Horror (2005)

Hollywood Horror (2005)

Rating: **1/2

Starring: Forrest J. Ackerman, Christopher Berry, Jimmy Bridges

A rarity and an oddity! We have ourselves a twofer here!

Differing groups of teens find themselves mysteriously invited to a horror-themed party way up somewhere at an old Hollywood building once owned by a socialite named Howard Hughes back in the 1930s, left abandoned and condemned all these years after a fiery accident. What they didn't know, however, is that the building's built like a maze, a perfect prowling spot for an enigmatic cloaked figure in a skull mask to thin down the attendee count one lost victim at a time, as well as for ghostly apparitions to haunt and taunt these hapless chumps. Who will be left alive by the end of this Hollywood Horror? Only time will tell...

Admittedly, this isn't a very good movie, but the reason for that leans heavily from the fact that this here is a lost slasher title; there are no posters or trailers for the film, nor any actual evidence of video releases despite a few online sources citing a US release date of 2005, which makes the plot taking place in 2007 just that stranger. By all means, Hollywood Horror (2005) looks like it was filmed in the late-90s, riding along Scream (1996)'s pop culture self-references ala dialogue and inside jokes, only to be seemingly shelved unedited and unfinished until it's leaked online via Youtube at 2022. 

We're basically watching a rough cut here, so I'm a tad more forgiving about its production flaws of missing reels and shoddy editing, and too its uninspired audio quality and shlocky camerawork. In terms of the movie's plotting and tone, it's a shoddy attempt of merging low-budget supernatural hauntings with the common slasher affairs of a costumed ghoul murdering people. The resulting work is an undeniably cheesy smorgasbord of ghosts and spooks menacing the casts, running gags of dismembered body parts expressing their annoyance of being killed off, and an overly ambitious twist that simply boils down to someone being bitter about money. It's all done in a hammy manner through its writing and actors for an intentional tongue-n-cheek approach and although it doesn't always work, it can be fairly funny, not to mention bloodily decent whenever it does. Where else, after all, can you find a slasher movie where a victims gets crushed and flush down a rigged toilet? That sure got a laugh out of me!

Intriguingly, there's a good line of familiar faces to be seen here, such as late-horror veteran Angus Scrimm as a curious psychic who warns some of the teens about the dangers residing in the Howard Hughes building and Diff'rent Stroke's Todd Bridges in a cameo as a weed-smoking security guard who gets a bad ending encounter with a forklift. Twins Tamera and Tia Mowry of multiple TV projects also show up here as a pair of fun-loving sisters looking for a swell time and, too, Natalia Cigliuti, Lindsay Warner of Saved by the Bell: The New Class, donning the obvious final girl role with a B-grade flair. A good deal of the casts are practically a walking time capsule and I'm all for it, frankly!

I can understandably see how Hollywood Horror (2005)'s unpolished mish mash of ghosts and killers  wouldn't fly right for most audiences but, as a guilty pleasure of sorts, I can dig it; the story has potential, the characters are fun, the killer looks alright and the gore effects are an okay mix of practical and hilariously dated green screen effects. Without a doubt, the film can definitely benefit from a couple more visits through the cutting rooms but, judging on what we have so far, not bad for a lost and unfinished late-90s/early-2000s find!

Bodycount:

1 female set ablaze

1 male knocked out of a building with a forklift, falls to his death

1 male crushed against the ceiling by a camera crane

1 female decapitated with a guillotine

1 female crushed and flushed down a rigged toilet

1 male electrocuted to death

1 female decapitated with a battle axe

1 male hit with a car

2 females hit with a car offscreen

1 male thrown off a building, falls to his death

1 elderly male succumbs to gunshot wound

1 female crushed dead in a falling elevator

Total: 13