‘ … and the dead shall inherit the Earth’
Curse of the Blue Lights is a 1988 American supernatural horror film written and directed by John Henry Johnson, based on a story by Bryan Sisson. It stars Brent Ritter, Bettina Julius, Kent E. Fritzell and Willard Hall.
A group of teenagers drive out of town to Make-Out Hill. While there they notice two mysterious blue lights floating around black surroundings.
Investigating a nearby cemetery, the teens discover demonic creatures attempting to bring an ancient demon god back to life so they enlist the help of a local witch to prevent this…
Reviews:
“The acting contributes heavily to the hilarity at hand here, as well as the line delivery and how Loath and his minions always speak with a lisp due to the fake teeth they have to wear. Then there’s the climactic sword battle between Loath and one of the teens, which is easily the worst sword battle anyone has ever seen.” James Oxyer, Obscure Cinema 101
“The prosthetic work on the monster characters was good enough to give them a creepy look but it also rendered their speech incomprehensible. At times, I would hear that a character was reciting their lines, but I would only understand a few of the words they said.” HNN
” …has in interesting production design (particularly Loath’s dungeon), lighting, and make-up effects (courtesy of Return of the Living Dead’s Michael Spatola and The Resurrected’s Mark Sisson) what it almost thoroughly lacks in acting and storytelling.” Eric Cotenas, DVD Drive-In
“Curse of the Blue Lights means well, and in spots shows some shimmer of a good concept, but stale and dated dialogue along with some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen damage the film far too much to even be remotely worth recommending.” Chris Nichols, The Trash Pile
“The limited budget effects and talentless acting cripple an atmosphere otherwise served well by close attention to lore […] The zombies are unobjectionable, if conventional – certainly more interesting than the actors in the fake ghoul masks.” Peter Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia
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“Curse of the Blue Lights exists almost entirely to showcase its monster effects and gory set pieces at the expense of any reasonable character development. That’s fine in this case, however, since the film manages to work up a reasonable level of charm and enthusiasm for its subject matter…” Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital
“Totally laughable with very weak make-up effects (which are, of course, called ‘spectacular’ on the box) and amateurish acting this is only good for laughs at the many horrid moments; otherwise it’s a miserable, miserable time. After an okay scarecrow opening attack it’s all into the toilet…” The Video Graveyard
Release:
Released in the US on videocassette by Magnum Entertainment in both rated (92m:30s) and unrated (95m:13s) editions.
Code Red’s 2013 DVD release is an anamorphic widescreen (1.66:1) transfer of the R-rated version. The gore differences, other than a dissolving head and another head crushed by the Muldoon Man, are minor. Approximately 3m 16s of the difference is taken up by a daylight-set dialogue scene in a car that follows the opening attack by a scarecrow.
Filming locations:
Pueblo, near Pikes Peak, Colorado
PC Game:
In 2015, a Hungarian team of game developers apparently created a 1980s Sierra-style PC game based on the movie.
There is also a version of the film dubbed into Hungarian:
Release info: DVD Drive-In | Image credits: Horror News | Mondo Digital
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