#Fischa

[clementhino]

Was für ein Wochenende... Abenteuer, Gärtnergold und schöne Aussichten!

[3amovies]

Death Spa (1989, Michael Fischa)

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/21/2023: DEATH SPA

This is one of those movies where I've been abundantly aware of the key art for most of my life, and maybe I lagged on watching it because I thought I understood what it was going to be. And I thought wrong! Sometimes you love to be corrected. Instead of a standard issue slasher movie starring a bunch of spandex-clad hardbodies...I mean, it is that, but it also features supernatural horror, an extremely soapy and confusing plot, and sci-fi elements that make it feel surprisingly modern.

The Starbody Health Spa is an amorphous institution that is at once a gym, a dance studio, a day spa, a restaurant, a tech company, and a lifestyle brand--basically, it is every inch a startup company that wants to be all things to all people. For no reason at all, the workout machines are all connected to a cutting edge, computerized master control system that is just as threatening to the clients as the ghost of the CEO's jealous ex-wife. I'm making this sound a lot more coherent and predictable than it actually is and I'm deliberately leaving out a lot of nuances and bizarre revelations because I'm so glad that I saw this with such low and simple expectations. It's really, really weird.

But full disclosure, for many years I worked for a techy startup that was acquired by one of the world's main evil megacorps, and I saw a surprising amount of modern life reflected in the delightfully dated DEATH SPA. The entrepreneuring imagineer who can't focus on perfecting just one useful good or service, instead sprawling out mindlessly into multiple markets just in case there's still a dollar left on the table somewhere; the implementation of overblown and hard-to-control technology with multiplying failure points that improves nothing for the end users but looks exciting to investors and advertisers; the importance of brand identity over product quality...I mean, this movie honestly gave me the chills, the way it reminded me of what it's like to work for one of these shameful pseudo-futuristic companies lead by a guy who doesn't know he's basically just a ridiculous figurehead and not an actual scientist or engineer or guy who knows how to do stuff. Watch DEATH SPA today and see if it doesn't give you a grim frisson of recognition!

[minty-oblivion]

Dean Haglund in "Rice Girl" (2003)

[michaelcoffeysthoughts]

Watched Today: Death Spa (1988)

[petty-crush]

Two or Three Things about “Crack House”

-//-/-/-

The film is incredibly lopsided.

The veterans have maybe half the screen time of the introducing new players.

This seems like it should be forty minutes, but then really extends the development to damn near double that.

Similarly, the main villain is mentioned once before showing up halfway. Odd lack of buildup.

-/-//-/-/—

Delightful scene where a woman pulls a cube of cheese out from a cup and puts it right between her massive boobs. Her date motorboats in appreciation.

-//-/—-

Possibly the most extraneous exit scene for a character ever. We get he’s run out of town. The scene with his shoes being shined and bragging about Hawaii gals is pure vamping.

[wornvhstapes]

Michael Fischa's Death Spa

[theactioneer]

Crack House (Michael Fischa, 1989)

[lady-of-glass-and-bone]

🦆 Duck's Horror Movie Wednesday 🔪

5/8/2024

It Stains The Sands Red (2017) Dir. Colin Minihan

Road Games (1981) Dir. Richard Franklin

The Changeling (1980) Dir. Peter Medak

Hellraiser (2022) Dir. David Bruckner

Prey (2022) Dir. Dan Trachtenberg

The Boogeyman (2023) Dir. Rob Savage

(not my gif)

Death Spa (1989) Dir. Michael Fischa

Blood Red Sky (2021) Dir. Peter Thorwarth

[garethllane]

FILM LOG || April 2024

★★★★★ - Pandora's Mirror, Shaun Costello (1981) ★★★★★ - Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni (1970) ★★★★★ - Night Tide, Curtis Harrington (1961) ★★★★☆ - Poltergeist, Tobe Hooper (1982) ★★★★☆ - Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, Kenneth Anger (1954) ★★★★☆ - The Trip, Roger Corman (1967) ★★★★☆ - Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper (1969) ★★★★☆ - Eggshells, Tobe Hopper (1969) ★★★★☆ - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Tobe Hooper (1986) ★★★★☆ - I Drink Your Blood, David E. Durston (1971) ★★★★☆ - A Night to Dismember, Doris Wishman (1983) ★★★★☆ - Blood Rage, John Grissmer (1987) ★★★★☆ - Take Off, Armand Weston (1978) ★★★★☆ - Let Me Die a Woman, Doris Wishman (1978) ★★★★☆ - Spider Baby, Jack Hill (1967) ★★★★☆ - The Old Dark House, William Castle (1963) ★★★☆☆ - Death Spa, Michael Fischa (1988) ★★★☆☆ - The Associate, Donald Petrie (1996) ★★★☆☆ - Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Gus Van Sant (1993) ★★★☆☆ - Blue Sunshine, Jeff Lieberman (1977) ★★★☆☆ - Stardust Memories, Woody Allen (1980) ★★★☆☆ - Burglar, Hugh Wilson (1987) ★★★☆☆ - Salem's Lot, Tobe Hooper (1979) ★★★☆☆ - Lifeforce, Tobe Hooper (1985) ★★★☆☆ - For Ladies Only, Mel Damski (1981) ★★★☆☆ - Killer Workout, David A. Prior (1987) ★★★☆☆ - She-Man, Bob Clark (1967) ★★★☆☆ - Invaders from Mars, Tobe Hooper (1986) ★★★☆☆ - Eaten Alive, Tobe Hooper (1976) ★★★☆☆ - Wild in the Streets, Barry Shear ★★☆☆☆ - Queen of Blood, Curtis Harrington (1966) ★★☆☆☆ - Riot on the Sunset Strip, Arthur Dreifuss (1967) ★★☆☆☆ - Macabre, William Castle (1958)

[gbhbl]

Horror Movie Review: My Mom's a Werewolf (1989)

A vegetarian housewife starts transforming into a carnivorous werewolf after being bitten by a male suitor. Her daughter makes an effort to free her mother from the werewolf curse.

My Mom’s a Werewolf is a horror comedy film directed by Michael Fischa, releasing in 1989. A vegetarian housewife starts transforming into a carnivorous werewolf after being bitten by a male suitor. Her daughter makes an effort to free her mother from the werewolf curse. Leslie Shaber is an average suburban housewife who is ignored and taken for granted by her husband Howard. On an outing to the…

[houseofgeekery]

Retro Review: 'Death Spa'

The 1980’s saw an explosion in people looking to don bright colored spandex and start working out. Of course in an era when filmmakers were putting slashers into every conceivable place one of the many health clubs springing up at the time was just as good of a place as any. In 1989 the responsibility of turning such a place into a house of horrors fell to director Michael Fischa with the horror…

[essi78]

neue nägel😁💅🏿 #nails #babyboom new nails😁💅🏿 #nails #babyboom (hier: Mitterndorf an der Fischa) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoznAW7KJ1WXNsaSlqJF7FI_ZlHOmpvn6Fk_wM0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Death Spa

It's a pity I don’t drink. A little wine would be the perfect accompaniment for all the cheese in Michael Fischa’s DEATH SPA (1988, Shudder). It’s an anthology of ‘80s hair, work-out fashion and music-video dancing. Actually, this is the kind of movie where you come for the cheese and stay for the stupid. From anatomically impossible deaths to the misspelling of the closing song’s title in the final credits (“Killer Groove” becomes “Killer Grove,” more suitable for an Arbor Day themed horror film), this picture carries ineptitude to epic levels. William Bumiller’s health club is one hot mess. The man who set up the computer system hates him. His lawyer is trying to sabotage the operation so he can buy out Bumiller’s shares. And his dead wife is haunting the place to get him to join her in the fiery death with which she had ended her life. The plot is rather choppy, possibly because of extensive cutting to avoid an X rating (remember them?). But maybe I’m being generous. Having the club’s sabotage come from two different sources that never meet seems rather poor plot construction. That cannot, however, compare to the inanity of the rest of the film. One club patron (Vanessa Bell Calloway, in the film that, miraculously, got her cast in FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR), is speared by a locker (I’d say you had to be there, but even in the watching it made no sense). Her body turns up later with the wound in a different place. And then nobody ever finds her. For all we know, she’s still hanging in that damned locker. The film also shows us that working on a pec deck with too much weight can make your ribs explode, and one can survive a whole day after having one’s face burned off by acid. Most of the cast are interchangeable in their bland attractiveness, but the divinely gifted Merritt Buttrick, in the last film he made, is the eccentric computer geek who turns into a kind of paranormal Norman Bates. It’s the only role I’ve ever seen that totally defeated him. Ken Foree is on hand to look good. And Rosalind Cash, as a police detective, is the only performer who exercises any kind of authority. She keeps trying to grab the film by its ears to make it work, only, to stretch this metaphor to the breaking point and beyond, the picture doesn’t have any ears to grab.

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

[gifmovie]

Death Spa (1988)