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Makeup Master John Carl Buechler is Battling Cancer and Needs Our Help
For horror fans, the name John Carl Buechler is one that conjures up all kinds of incredibly cool and memorable images, as Buechler’s effects work over the years is downright legendary. Fan favorite films like Re-Animator, The Dream Master, Ghoulies and From Beyond (to name just a few) wouldn’t be what they are without Buechler’s makeup effects talents elevating them, and that’s not even including the makeup master’s contributions as a director.
Most notably, of course, John Carl Buechler directed Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, bringing Kane Hodder into the franchise for the very first time and re-imagining the iconic Jason Voorhees with the single coolest makeover the character has ever received over the years. Buechler also directed Troll, Cellar Dwellar and Ghoulies Go to College.
Sadly, we’ve learned this week that the horror legend is currently battling Stage IV prostate cancer, but you can help him win the fight through a fundraiser over on Go Fund Me.
Lynn Buechler explains…
For many starting out in the movie business in the 80’s, John Carl Buechler was much more than the man who gave many of us our start. He was a hilarious and positive friend who believed in giving young people a chance, often keeping us on payroll even when he didn’t have work…and in some cases while we were still learning the craft itself. His friendship, love and dedication has been unfaltering throughout the years to not only his friends, but to his family and fans.
We are sad to report that John has recently been diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer and he and his family desperately need help. For months John has quietly been trying every treatment he can to turn his situation around and in the process has not only exhausted his insurance, but his personal savings. There is still a glimmer of hope that a miracle will occur, and that John’s situation will get better, but regardless his wife and family are about to be hit with thousands of dollars-worth of medical bills and lost wages, due to the fact they spend much of their time with John at the hospital. Every penny the family has is going to John’s care and comfort. The bottom line is we desperately need to raise money for his continued treatment.
He is currently focusing on the best of both conventional and alternative medicine, as well as taking daily physical therapy. He is responding to his homeopathic treatment, but it’s an expensive process – all of this is tremendously taxing both physically and monetarily.
Although it was tough making the decision to go public with his situation – it’s time for his friends, family and the horror community to come together to do everything possible to help make him more comfortable and hopefully get him on the road to recovery. John is a fighter and insists on not giving up. It is his hope to turn his situation around and get back to work. More importantly his family is his main priority and he is fighting ferociously to get better and have the chance to spend more time with them.
We are raising 120k to pay off his past and much needed upcoming treatment bills.
If you’ve been touched by John Carl Buechler’s incredible work over the years (and who among us hasn’t?), you can head over to Go Fund Me to pitch in and help his recovery.
Please do consider it.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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