SILVER SCREAM

THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012)

2012-03-08T02:21:00.000-08:00

Directed by: James Watkins

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciarán Hinds

First off I should probably mention that I haven't read the original novel or the TV movie based on it, which I actually think is a good thing because it means I won't be comparing this remake to the original source material in this review. The prospect of seeing Daniel Radcliffe in something other than HARRY POTTER was a little strange at first and I was curious to see how well he could carry this movie. Thankfully by the time the credits rolled I was well impressed with what I had just seen.

Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe) is a young lawyer who has been suffering from the death of his wife during childbirth a few years back and it has been affecting his performance at the law firm for which he works. He is sent on an assignment to prove his dedication to the firm. He must travel to a remote village on the outskirts of England to look over the papers and finalize the legal proceedings of the recently deceased Mrs Drablow. But when he arrives there is obviously something wrong. Children have been mysteriously dying and the townspeople want Arthur to leave as soon as possible. After a bit of sleuthing, Arthur seemingly finds more and more questions. Who was Mrs Drablow? And why will nobody venture near the old house on the island? And who is the woman dressed in black who keeps mysteriously appearing?
Arthur of course, takes it upon himself to try and unravel these mysteries.

On the surface this seems to be a generic ghost story. There is a dilapidated mansion on a remote island which is haunted by the ghost of its former inhabitant. A mysterious woman dressed all in black is seen, and each time a child dies in what seems like a terrible accident. Pretty standard fare for a ghost story really.
But what I thought set this apart from most others was the incredible atmosphere and the period setting. It really brought back memories of those classic Hammer titles from yesteryear.
THE WOMAN IN BLACK does a great job of ratcheting up the tension too and it is genuinely creepy. There are a few cheap jump scares thrown in but mostly the film relies on the atmospheric scares. And take a look at those toys and tell me that they aren't creepy as hell!
As for the acting, the entire success of the movie really relies upon Radcliffe's performance and though it may be hard to accept him as a father and lawyer rather than the boy wizard we're all familiar with, as the story moves along you don't really pay it much attention. Ciarán Hinds as Daily (Kipps' only friend in the town) is also a great support and Janet McTeer (Mrs Daily) does a good job too.
Even though the ending isn't exactly original or surprising, I found that it fit in just fine and wrapped up the whole experience nicely.

So far this year THE WOMAN IN BLACK has been the only movie which I have really enjoyed. The story is easy to follow while not being boring, the acting is brilliant, the setting is perfect and the film just looks great. If you want to see a genuinely creepy and atmospheric ghost thriller then this is the movie for you.

SIMONE (2010)

2012-03-06T02:14:00.003-08:00

Directed by: Joops Fragale

Starring: Erin Nicole Cline, Jennifer Ward

After being impressed by DATE NIGHT the prospect of watching another short film from 386Films was looking pretty good and I'm glad to say that SIMONE actually exceeded my expectations.

Simone (Ward) wakes up disoriented and seemingly very hungover. She is naked, her makeup is smeared and there is a half full bottle of vodka beside the bed. All of these pieces seem to suggest that she had herself a hell of a good night, even though she may not remember it. But then Simone starts to feel really ill and a series of flashbacks piece together a night which did not end well at all.

Both actresses do a great job and although there is minimal dialogue the film moves along fluidly, building tension until the big reveal at the end. The cinematography is brilliant, the use of lighting and camera angles make this film engaging from beginning to end. The only real criticism I have is regarding the very final moments of the film which I felt was a little too revealing and I think it could have been left out to leave a little to the viewers' imagination. Having said that though, it really isn't a big deal and doesn't detract from the viewing experience at all. There may also be a continuity problem or two but really what film doesn't have at least one of those? Apart from those minuscule problems the film is almost flawless.

SIMONE is a brilliant short film that delivers on style, tension, atmosphere and blood and it has only reinforced my love for short films. The softcore lesbian scenes are also a bonus. And even more good news is the fact that you can purchase SIMONE on dvd with a massive 85 minutes of bonus features including a commentary by producer Michael Long and director Joops Fragale, an on-set interview, 'Behind the Bitch' featurette and much more. Highly recommended.

DATE NIGHT (2011)

2012-03-06T01:28:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Joops Fragale

Starring: Erin Nicole Cline, David Fuit

Recently I was contacted by writer / director Joops Fragale from 386Films to watch and review his latest short film DATE NIGHT as well as another short titled SIMONE. With this particular film being "conceived and shot within a small window on a pizza and beer budget" I wasn't sure what to expect so I just decided to dive straight in.

I have to say that every short film I've seen recently has left me more than a little impressed. It's amazing what can be accomplished in a small running time (in this case about 15 minutes) on a micro budget with a small cast (only two characters here). Short films like Fatal Pictures' FAMILIAR have held my attention and entertained me for their entire duration and DATE NIGHT is no exception.

Erin Cline's character (only know as She) is having a phone conversation with a friend who is trying to lure her out to try and meet 'Mr Right'. She declines the invitation however and opts to spend her night alone on the couch watching TV. During a trip to the kitchen to cook up some popcorn She turns around to find a mysterious man in the room with her. Obviously she is confused and frightened. What confused me however is how quickly She is calmed by this mysterious stranger as he spouts every corny romantic line you could think of.
"You complete me"
"You make me want to be a better man"
"You are so beautiful"
And every other cornball line from countless Hollywood romance movies. Even though He (Fuit) delivers these lines in a very synthetic (and creepy) manner, She is obviously swept off her feet. She runs off to the bathroom to pretty herself up for a night with the man of her dreams. But is he really?

You've probably guessed by now that this isn't exactly a horror film, but it is a little creepy and drenched in dark humor with a very weird and surreal vibe. The performance from Cline is fantastic, delivering her lines believably and managing to make the situation seem normal when it is obviously not. Fuit also does a great job at giving his lines in a purposely artificial manner. Visually the film looks great especially when you take into account the tiny budget, and the sound and editing are equally impressive.
DATE NIGHT is a brilliantly conceived and executed short film and is well worth watching. If you would like to see it you can do so right here.

Interview With Sevé Schelenz - Writer / Director Of SKEW

2012-03-04T15:03:00.001-08:00

Recently I was contacted by Canadian writer / director Sevé Schelenz to watch and review his POV psychological horror flick SKEW (full review here). I enjoyed the film immensely and took the opportunity to arrange an interview with Sevé who was kind enough to take some time out to answer my questions. Read on for the full interview.

Jake Cadaverous - "Hi Sevé. First of all could you tell us a little aboutyourself and how you got into filmmaking?"

Sevé Schelenz - "Hi Jake, thanks so much for taking the time tointerview me. I’m pretty stoked to havethe chance to chat with you about SKEW. I feel pretty luckyto have been working in the film industry for over 15 years now. Early on in high school I convinced my parentsto buy me a VHS camcorder and I began shooting everything in sight. This shooting quickly gave way to scriptedmaterial as I created short films and commercials. It was around this time when my guidancecounselor pressured me to figure outwhat I wanted to study for in university. The funny thing is, I never thought of filmmaking as an option. I guess I always believed you went on to postsecondary school studying to be a lawyer or an accountant. So I stayed clear of my counselor for weeks,as I didn't know what else I wanted to do. It wasn't until he let me know that film school was an option when Iknew exactly what I wanted to do. After five years of study I entered the working world and started inpost-production. For the last fifteenyears I've been paying the bills through jobs in editing and color-correctionfor movies and TV series work. It wasduring this time that I made the decision to start working on my ownprojects. I've had the chance to producesome television shows and write a few feature screenplays in the last while and I've been lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive people who have helpedmake it happen. I’m quite excited aboutthe success of SKEW and I’m reallyhappy to be working on the next project. I’m a firm believer of “do it yourself” filmmaking and I think you haveto have a very positive attitude to work in the film industry"

JC - "When did you first get the idea for SKEWand how long was it in development before you actually got around to filmingit?"

SS - "In 2004 I put some thought into creating myfirst feature film – at least one that went beyond just writing a script. The one problem that seemed to come up wasbudget. I’d seen so many independentfilms that tried to be greater than they could actually afford to be -essentially trying to look like a Hollywood film with no money. I really felt these movies didn’t work becausethe quality of the film removed me from the cinematic experience, thereforedisplacing me from the story and characters. During the summer of that year, a few days before an actual road tripwith two other friends, the idea finally struck me. How do I get around creating a trulyindependent film that will still be accepted by the audience? Holding a video camera in hand for our roadtrip, the film’s concept fully came to mind. I quickly wrote the first draft of the feature during the entire fourdays of the trip. Six months and a few versionsof the script later, I completed the final draft of the film. Before ParanormalActivity, Quarantine, and Cloverfield were in development, Ilooked to The Blair Witch Project forcreativity. It had been several years sincethis style of “found footage” film had been created and I thought there wasopportunity to explore this creativity again. The big difference was I didn’t want to copy the idea of the filmsfootage being discovered and edited together for the audience. So instead of using the camera as a gimmick,as most found footage films tend to do, I decided to go a differentdirection. Without giving anything away,let’s just say that once you’ve seen SKEW you’ll quickly realize it’s notlike any of these other films at all. Thereason is because SKEW is not actually a “found footage” film at all. It’s actually a narrative feature thathappens to be filmed in POV style from the video camera of one of thecharacters along for the road trip. Wewent into production in 2005 and finished the film by 2010. It took five years to complete due to thevisual effects in the film. When you’rerelying on friends and favors, and you have a limited budget, this is just allpar for the course"

JC - "Being an indie film with a limited budget I wasamazed at the level of quality in regards to the acting, production values andbasically everything. If you had access to a bigger budget is there anythingyou would have liked to add or improve on?"

SS - "Thanks so much for your kind words on thefilm. I am quite proud of the finalresult of SKEW. I really took thetime to utilize all my resources and focus on making the film look bigger thanthe budget allowed it to be. SKEW was completely funded from 3 sources – me, myself, and I. Yet even with the money I had, I relied on alot of friends and favors in the film industry. Quite frankly, if I had a bigger budget on the film, I would have kepteverything as is and actually paid more to everyone who was involved. Before the final edit of the film was locked,I originally had a different opening scene to the movie. It was actually a POV shot from the camera ofone of the passengers of the tour bus in the film. From this viewpoint we were to see the deerstanding in the middle of the road as our three main characters drove by. Following this we would view the deeractually getting hit by a car as it drove through frame. When I brought this shot to some visualeffect houses they explained how long and how much this shot would cost tocreate – essentially a CG deer. The coston this alone was almost half the existing budget for production. I decided to scrap the scene and begin SKEWexactly where it does today. This is anobvious case where a bigger budget would have helped in solving thisissue. Yet at the end of the day, SKEWis supposed to look a little rough around the edges as it’s shot from one ofthe main characters handicams. Ipersonally feel we’ve achieved that look and I’m not too sure if a biggerbudget would have helped or hindered that in the end"

JC - "SKEWhas been invited to lots of film festivals and has picked up quite a fewawards. Did you have any idea how much success your film would have?"

SS - "SKEWhas been a real passion film for me. Written in 2004, shot in 2005, and finally completed in 2010, the filmhas been six years in the making. Uponcompletion of SKEW I screened the film with a sales agent who, once thecredits rolled, turned to me and said, “This is a slam dunk sale!” I was pretty excited to hear that news. I mean it was my first feature afterall. A few weeks later, he was headed tothe AFM (American Film Market) to hopefully line up the sales. Well, one week before AFM a little filmentitled Paranormal Activitypremiered and took the weekend as the highest grossing low budget horror filmin history. We figured this was greatnews, as it would help to garner attention for SKEW. Well, the opposite happened. Every production company and theirgrandmother had “found footage” horror trailers of films that didn’t even existat the Market and by the time distributors arrived at our table they didn’twant to hear any more about this type of film – even though ours was completeand ready to be bought! So SKEWsat in limbo for almost six months before its world premiere at A Night of Horror International FilmFestival in Australia. From there itgained a little momentum and buzz as it started hitting some festivals in NorthAmerica. One year later SKEWhas been burning up the festival circuit by premiering in over 40 and pickingup 7 awards so far. I’m sohappy for the great run SKEW has been having and am veryhonored to be chosen by some of these great fests as they’ve taken a chance onmy film. The general audience reactionhas been quite positive. I have always described SKEW as a “thinking man’sfilm.” You really have to pay attention from start to finish so you don’t missanything, including the twist of an ending. I had the great opportunity to be a part ofsome Q&A sessions following the screening of my film, and I am surprisedand quite pleased at how attentive audiences have been with the story. It’s even more fun to explain parts of thefilm to the viewers that may have missed something. I love catching that moment of realization ontheir face when they finally understand a particular action or line of dialoguethey originally didn’t catch. It trulyis amazing when I hear an audience member remark that they would like to seethe film again to catch what they may have missed the first time"

JC - "What kind of advice would you give toprospective filmmakers?"

SS - "I have a message on my phone that comes on everytime I hang up. It says, “Never give up.” As an independentfilmmaker, nine times out of ten (hell, ninety nine times out of a hundred) youwill get “No” for an answer. Well, that’s unacceptable. Youhave to keep moving forward and look for that “Yes.” It will come. Don’t be discouraged. I would also say it’s so important to do yourresearch. Not just research on your particular project, but on thefilmmaking process itself. There are so many levels to making a film thatyou will inevitably not be prepared for and it will bite you in the asslater. And finally: Pre-production. I cannot stress how importantit is to ensure that you are fully prepared before going into Production. Trust me when I tell you that it’s better to spend that one extra week inPre-production, on your own, to avoid disruptions on set when twentycrew members are looking to you for answers. Oh, and one other thing: goread Rebel Without A Crew. Notonly will it teach you how to make a truly indie-style film, but it willinspire the hell out of you"

JC - "What are some of your personal favourite horrorfilms?"

SS - "I’ve had the chance to attend a few horror festivalswhen SKEWwas chosen as an official selection. Imet so many horror aficionados that I felt pretty wet behind the ears when itcame to all the frightening Independent and Hollywood films out there. I learned so much from these horrorphilesthat it has really opened my eyes up to films that I still need to see. These include: Let The Right One In, WolfCreek and A Serbian Film. As for those that I can check off my horrorfilm bucket list: Halloween, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, The Ringand, of course The Blair Witch Projectare some of my favorite horror films. The one true characteristic that secures my love for a film of any genreis story. Without a well-written screenplay,believability is thrown out the window and you lose interest not only for thestory, but also for the characters—for whom we’re supposed to be sympathetictowards because they’re living the nightmare—and that is the kiss of death fora movie. I continue to learn from suchhorror masters as John Carpenter and hope to one day be able to make films asgood and diverse as his"

JC - "Who are some of your favorite directors and whoare your biggest influences?"

SS - "I am very fortunate to have grown up in the 70sand 80s. These two decades are filledwith some of the greatest films ever: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Terminator,Jaws and Back To The Future are just a few that have had a huge impact onme. The writers and directors connectedto these films have been a big influence in my life. Spielberg, Cameron, and Zemeckis arefantastic directors who know how to tell a story through film. When I hit university,Tarantino had a huge influence on me. Hisstorytelling, development of characters, and use of timeline manipulationreally intrigued me. Not to mention howhe killed off characters in a cool way. Iam also a big fan of early M. Night Shyamalan – and let me clarify that byspecifically referring to The Sixth Senseand Unbreakable. Shyamalan developeda sense of anticipation in his first two features that really grabbed myattention. Once again, it’s the storythat I’m most interested in and it’s that relationship between the screenwriterand the director that really makes or breaks a film. Ultimately you cannot have a good film withouta good script and more often than not I find directors who have either writtenit or had a large influence in the screenwriting process tell the best stories"

JC - "SKEWhas a very ambiguous ending and leaves a lot to the viewer’s imagination. Doyou enjoy hearing different people’s personal opinions of it?"

SS - "Any movie that makes youthink and discuss it afterwards is a good thing. Especially if the film lingers long in themind and has you asking more questions about it in the days following itsviewing. As the writer of SKEWI know exactly how the movie ends and its meaning. Granted there is an opportunity for theaudience to draw their own conclusion, but the clues are there to help you cometo the same outcome. I had a chance toend the film a few different ways and I debated over each one for sometime. The most important thing for mewas having an ending that made sense and caught the audience off guard. I didn’t want to have a conclusion that wastoo obvious or had been used the same way in many other horror films,especially ones that are deemed “found footage.” I’ve had quite a few fans contact me andprovide their own interpretation of the ending. Quite frankly I’m honored that they took the time to write me. Some of their insight into what the endingmeans and how the rest of the film is intertwined with it is quiteincredible. I’m stoked that fans tookthe time to think about what they saw and pieced that giant puzzletogether. I welcome viewers of Skewto drop me a line if they have any questions about the film. The best way to reach me is through the IMDb pageor my Youtube channel"

JC - "And finally are you working on any upcomingprojects? If not then what are your plans for the future?"

SS - "I appreciate you taking thetime to discuss SKEW. I’ve been so luckyto have the opportunity to show it at several venues around the world. So far we have screened at over 40 festivals,won 7 awards, and are streaming on Netflix in the U.S. SKEW will also be on DVD in Germany,will have its U.K. premiere on Horror Channel, and will be available on PayTVin Russia all in the month of May 2012. The movie will also have its Canadian premiere on TMN in June of2012. In addition to all this, I’ll beattending Fantastic Planet Film Festivalin Sydney, Australia in late March 2012 and will not only be screening SKEWthere along with a Q&A afterwards, but will have the honor of being afeature judge at the festival. So if youhappen to be in the area, come down to the fest, support some independent film,and grab me for a chat. Oh, and I shouldmention here that we’ve been working on the next script – yes, another horrorfeature – and hope to go into production in 2013. This time we’ll be going a little moretraditional and moving away from the handheld camera style of filmmaking. Not to worry though, we promise a lot ofblood, boobs, and black ooze on this one… and maybe a few twists too"

Once again I'd like to thank Sevé for taking some time out to partake in this interview. If you ever get the chance to see SKEW then I strongly urge you to do so, and if you have any questions about it Sevé will be glad to discuss them via the film's IMDb page or Youtube channel.
As Sevé said, he will be attending the Fantastic Planet Film Festival in Sydney which runs from March 22nd until April 1st. He will be screening SKEW and also appear as a feature judge so check it out if you can and go support independent film.
SKEW is currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

SCREAM PARK Teaser Trailer

2012-03-04T14:33:00.003-08:00

I've just stumbled upon the Facebook page for an upcoming slasher film and it definitely has me intrigued. SCREAM PARK takes place in an amusement park on closing night and is described as a "throwback to the golden age of 80s slasher films"
Written and directed by Cary Hill, SCREAM PARK began production in November last year with filming expected to continue through Spring and should have a release date later this year. The film stars horror legend Doug Bradley (HELLRAISER) alongside Wendy Wygant (MURDER MACHINE), Steve Rudzinski (THE SLASHER HUNTER), Dean Jacobs (SPINEVIEW), Alicia Marcucci (A BITTER LULLABY), Nicole Beattie, Kailey Marie Harris and Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre.
Check out the teaser trailer and concept trailer below and visit the official website for more details.

Synopsis: A local staple for many years, Fright Land amusement park is closing its gates for the last time. A group of teenage employees decide to send the old park off by throwing a party inside after hours. The party is soon interrupted by the arrival of two strangers. The teenagers come face to face with terror as the strangers begin killing them off inside the park. As it turns out the park’s owner has a new plan to sell tickets — by making their grisly deaths the new attractions!

THE DEVIL INSIDE (2012)

2012-03-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

Directed by: William Brent Bell

Starring: Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth

THE DEVIL INSIDE just hit theatres here in Australia on March 1st and despite all of the negative feedback I've heard about it (literally everything I've heard about it has been negative) and the fact that it only has a 5% rating on RottenTomatoes I decided to watch it anyway.

Maria Rossi apparently killed three people in 1989 while an exorcism was being performed on her. 20 years later her daughter Isabella (Andrade) is on a mission to discover just what happened to her mother. She travels to a hospital for the criminally insane in Rome where Maria has been locked away to find out whether her mother really is just mentally ill or possessed by a demon. After visiting a school of exorcism she recruits two young priests (Quarterman & Helmuth) to try and prove that Maria is possessed and also to try and help her through unauthorized exorcisms and a mix of science and religion.

The film begins with a 911 call from Maria, confessing to the murder of three people, then we are shown through the crime scene via handheld camera as the police talk about the victims. Maria is tried in court but ultimately exempted on the grounds of insanity and is shipped away for some unknown reason to a mental hospital in Rome. The film then leaps forwards 20 years to daughter Isabella announcing that she wants to travel to Italy to find out what happened to her mother, and she wants to bring along cameraman Michael to film it all. She arrives in Rome where we are treated to lots of shaky camerawork and introduced to two priests. They decide to bring Isabella along to an actual exorcism. The exorcism scenes are done very well and have a certain look of realism about them, but scary? Not at all. Maybe a little creepy with the body contortions and such but if you've ever seen any other exorcism movie then this will be no surprise. We also get to see all of the other demonic possession hallmarks that are also shown in every other exorcism film ever made such as speaking in tongues, strange voices and super strength. However, none of these are shown with an effectiveness even close to something like say THE EXORCIST.

The inclusion of science alongside religion is a rather unique one, but whenever I hear both science and religion uttered in the same breath it makes me laugh. The two just don't mix.

Technically the movie is just what you'd expect from the mockumentary / found-footage sub-genre with plenty of shaky camerawork, grainy security camera footage etc. It is also exactly what you'd expect from any movie in the exorcism sub-genre with priests, bible passages, people being thrown across the room etc.

Apart from the lame inclusion of science there is absolutely nothing new here. There was maybe one standout scene for me (I won't say which) but in general I found it to be boring, bland and unoriginal. And definitely not scary. The acting leaves a lot to be desired too, especially in the case of Fernanda Andrade.

And I guess I should mention the controversial ending too, the part everybody seems to be complaining about. I actually though it was fitting and since it is a found-footage film I also found the ending to be realistic. It leaves questions unanswered but sometimes that's a good thing.

In summary I'd say it's definitely not a movie I plan on watching again, but it's also not one that I regret watching either. I've seen a few movies which have had me wanting my money back but this is not quite that terrible. Close, but not quite.

THE TUNNEL Sequel On The Way

2012-03-03T00:23:00.001-08:00

It looks as though a sequel to last year's successful Australian low-budget horror film THE TUNNEL is in the works, and has received funding from Screen Australia earlier this month. Picking up the story years after the first movie, THE TUNNEL: DEAD END will follow Tangles' sister Lindsay as she investigates her brother's disappearance in the underground tunnels beneath Sydney.

After the release of THE TUNNEL the filmmakers weren't planning on making a sequel but its creators Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey have recently stated “Initially, we weren’t anticipating doing another Tunnel film but the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the original – as well as our fans clamouring for another on an almost daily basis – made us go back and give it a second thought,”

And the filmmakers have also announced that they have another project on the way, a claustrophobic thriller titled AIRLOCK. No dates have been announced for either film yet.

Sources: Horror-movies.ca
If.com.au

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 3: FINAL SEQUENCE Begins Casting

2012-03-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

Good news for all you HUMAN CENTIPEDE fans out there. The third and final instalment in Tom Six's trilogy is definitely going ahead and what's better is that we will see two familiar faces making a return.
According to Entertainment Weekly both Laurence R. Harvey and Dieter Laser have been cast in lead roles and Tom Six himself will be making an appearance in a supporting role.
Producer Ilona Six has said that principal photography will take place in May and June in the southern states of the U.S. FINAL SEQUENCE is set for a 2013 release date and will apparently be "100 percent politically incorrect"

FAMILIAR (2011)

2012-03-02T01:11:00.001-08:00

Directed by: Richard Powell

Starring: Robert Nolan, Astrida Auza, Cathryn Hostick

I've been hearing such good things about Fatal Pictures' FAMILIAR, and when producer Zach Green recently offered me a chance to watch and review it I ended up watching it twice in succession. It's that good.

John Dodd (Nolan) is a middle-aged man with a wife and a daughter. Although his wife (Auza) and daughter (Hostick) seem to be fairly nice, normal people, John feels a deep resentment and perhaps even hatred towards them. He sees them as something which is holding him back and he daydreams about the day his 'parasitic' daughter goes off to college. He even exclaims that "after 45 years of existence my life is about to begin"
But his plans are crushed when his wife reveals that she is pregnant. John can't stand the thought of this getting in the way of his scheme so he decides something drastic has to be done about it. As the film progresses we get the feeling that perhaps these angry and violent thoughts aren't actually John's own. Finally it all culminates in a surprisingly bloody and gory ending.

I was captivated for the entire 23 minutes of this short film. The main reason was because of Robert Nolan and the way his calm yet violent inner monologue narrates the scenes in front of us. And his facial expressions are brilliant, particularly the way you can see him trying to conceal his hatred and bitterness.
Although the beginning is a bit of a slow burn, you can tell it's building up to something big and it is engrossing enough to keep you interested right through to the end which is well worth the wait. Astrida Auza also does a great job as Dodd's wife. Although he paints her to be some sort of evil bitch, it's easy to empathize with her character and you can see her pain clearly.

I loved pretty much every aspect of FAMILIAR. The use of Dodd's inner monologue as a way to move the story along, the range of emotions it evokes, the cinematography, and the practical effects in the film's final minutes are fantastic. In fact the only part I didn't like was the short running time and by the time it finished I wanted more. I guess that's why I watched it again.

FAMILIAR has also rekindled my interest in short horror films and I plan on seeing Fatal Pictures' previous releases as soon as I can. And I look forward to seeing a feature length film in the near future. I strongly recommend everyone see this if they get the chance, it's well worth it.

Also, if you're a fan of Robert Nolan you might want to keep an eye out for another upcoming horror short THE PROSPECTOR'S CURSE

Horror Feast: John Carpenter-a-thon

2012-03-01T22:00:00.001-08:00

Well since its been raining so much lately it seems that I'll be trapped inside my house by floodwater all weekend. Normally I'd be pissed off but I've got plenty of food and supplies and an assload of horror movies to watch.
On today's menu: John Carpenter.

THE FOG (1980)

Carpenter's original beats the hell out of the crappy remake of course. This is actually one of my favorite of JC's movies, even though it has practically no gore it still is a pretty creepy film. The start is a great opener too, a ghost story being told about a ship which sunk in a thick fog and how the dead sailors will come back 100 years to the very day. Of course this day happens to fall on the town of Antonio Bay's anniversary and while the townspeople are getting ready to celebrate, the fog rolls in and the bodies start to pile up. It seems that these ghouls are back for revenge for a past atrocity and a small handful of townsfolk have to figure out how to put and end to the curse. Both Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother Janet Leigh star alongside Tom Atkins and another JC favorite George 'Buck' Flower.
As I mentioned the movie doesn't rely on blood and gore but instead it relies on the creepy atmosphere created by the ominous fog and it does a great job.

PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)

With the death of a priest an ancient secret is revealed. A mysterious cylinder of green liquid is found in an abandoned church basement and after a team of physics students is called in to investigate, the cylinder is found to contain the essence of Satan himself. The liquid goes to work possessing the students and working toward its final goal, releasing the father of Satan; an all powerful anti-God. Can these physics graduates stop him in time? And will they survive the wrath of Alice Cooper? Cooper plays a murderous vagrant who leads some sort of homeless army. Yep. Donald Pleasance also stars as a priest. I love Donald Pleasance.
This is definitely one of Carpenter's darker films and is actually pretty original too. The special effects and makeup look good also and Jameson Parker's moustache is pretty cool too.
The only complaint I have is that when I watch a movie called PRINCE OF DARKNESS, I expect to see the FUCKING PRINCE OF DARKNESS! But alas he never appears.

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1995)

George 'Buck' Flower appears once again here (why does he always play a drunk or a vagrant?) but this time his fellow cast members include Mark Hamill, Christopher Reeve and Kirstey Alley. I must confess that I've never seen the original film nor read the novel on which it's based but John Carpenter has done a pretty fine job here indeed.

The entire town of Midwich fall asleep one day. As you can imagine a few people die while driving cars or standing over barbecues, but also upon waking 10 of the town's women find themselves mysteriously pregnant. They all give birth at the same time and they all give birth to creepy, white haired, mind reading children. The children aren't very nice either. They like to use their freaky telepathic powers to force people to hurt and kill themselves. Can the combined forces of Luke Skywalker and Superman defeat these evil children? Watch the movie and see for yourself.

VAMPIRES (1998)

I've decided that James Woods doesn't play a very convincing badass. If I wanted somebody to kill a vampire for me he's one of the last people I would think of. But here he is, leading a group of vampire slayers and working for the Catholic church. After finding a 'nest' and destroying the bloodsuckers within the team decided to have a party. Hooray! However they get ambushed by a powerful vampire named Valek who kills all but two of them. So James Woods teams up with one of the less important Baldwin brothers (Daniel I think) and a prostitute and they decide to track down this Valek before he finds an ancient artifact which will allow him to walk in the daylight and therefore be unstoppable.

Crap. I don't like this movie at all. The characters are stupid and the one-liners are lame ("How do you like your stake, bitch?")
At least the vampires aren't sparkly pussies, and there is a fair bit of gore also. One of Carpenter's less impressive films.

THEY LIVE (1988)

Roddy Piper and his majestic mullet star in this film about rich aliens corrupting and controlling the American lower class. Keith David is also here and so is George 'Buck' Flower (again) who plays a drifter (surprise!).

Nada (Piper) is down on his luck and wandering about aimlessly until one day he finds a pair of magical sunglasses which show him the world as it really is. Rich yuppie aliens are controlling humans through subliminal messages and a signal broadcast from television sets. There is probably some sort of social commentary here about the upper class feeding off the lower class, but what's more important is that we get to see Roddy Piper kicking some serious alien ass!

And watch out for the world's longest fight scene between Piper and Davis. Don't worry, you can't miss it.

Upcoming Horror Movies 2012 - Part 6

2012-03-01T18:43:00.001-08:00

I was asked if I could find any more horror films coming up this year that a lot of people may not have heard about yet, and the answer is that yes I actually have a list of well over 100 of them. The problem with most is that there just aren't enough solid details for me to post about. But I have decided to add a Part 6 to this list (and there may even be a Part 7) so read on, and hopefully you can find something worth looking forward to this year.

THE CLOTH

I pity the demon who gets in the way of Danny Trejo. Trejo will play a priest and hopefully we will get to see him kicking some serious demon ass. No specific release date yet.

Synopsis: Action/horror story centered on a secret organization formed by the Catholic Church to counteract the rising number of cases of demonic possessions across the country. The story follows a young godless man who is being recruited into the cloth in order to prepare a new generation with the tools needed to stop the rise of the ultimate evil; Beelzebub.

MURDERDROME

Not exactly a movie as you might expect, MURDERDROME will actually be a free to watch 5 part roller derby slasher. Currently in post production it should be available to watch on Youtube in the near future. Check the Facebook page for more info.

Synopsis: Cherry Skye just wants to skate, but the vengeful ghost of a killer has plans for her soul. Trapped between the wrath of love scorned and supernatural evil, Skye races towards The MurderDrome at breakneck speed. When she gets there there's no guarantees anyone is coming out alive.

Welcome to The MurderDrome, it's not a game anymore..

CHERNOBYL DIARIES

This film written by Oren Peli (PARANORMAL ACTIVITY) is due in theatres in only a couple of months but strangely I haven't seen the slightest hint of a trailer or even a poster. Directed by Brad Parker, CHERNOBYL DIARIES is set for a May 25th release according to its IMDb page or May 28th according to Bloody Disgusting. Let's just say the end of May then.

Synopsis: A group of friends become stranded in an eerie and desolate city. Years before in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster, nature has begun to reclaim everything. As the sun sets on this radioactive ghost town, inhuman cries cut through the night air. It seems they are not alone.

DJINN

Tobe Hooper's DJINN will be more of a supernatural horror than a thriller or slasher according to German producer Danielle Tully, "It is a tale told with a lot of respect for the Emirati traditions and it will stay with you for a long time.”

There are apparently already plans for a prequel and sequel as well. Filming should end in April with a release date to follow.

Synopsis: The film is set in 2015 and follows the story of Khaled and Salama, a couple who return home from America to discover their apartment in a luxury high-rise, built on the site of the deserted fishing village, is also home to malevolent beings.

RESIDENT EVIL: DAMNATION

DAMNATION will be a full CG animated sequel to RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION. Once again Leon Kennedy will be the main character and the story is said to revolve around bio-organic weapons used in the European war zone. A 3D release is expected sometime this year.

LOVELY MOLLY

Eduardo Sanchez's LOVELY MOLLY has been getting some positive feedback from festival screenings and is set for a limited theatrical release starting May 18th.

Synopsis: Newlyweds Molly (Gretchen Lodge) and Tim (Johnny Lewis) move into Molly’s deceased father’s house in the countryside. An ex-addict with a deeply troubled past, Molly is strong in her new life of recovery. Unexplained disturbances in the night unnerve the couple, and when her husband goes away for business, Molly is

left in a house that holds many painful memories. Her isolation is soon shattered by a malicious presence that unleashes a physical and mental assault. As she struggles to regain footing in her simple existence, Molly’s grip on reality begins to waver. Her erratic behaviour is a warning sign to her friends and family, whose interventions drive her further into solitary torment and spur a deep, dark infidelity within her. Lovely Molly explores the thin line between demonic possession and psychosis. It starts off as a simple horror film about things that go bump in the night but slowly turns into a thriller about the evil power that exists inside one troubled young woman.

OUTPOST II: BLACK SUN

I wasn't a huge fan of OUTPOST but it did have a great premise, and who doesn't like Nazi / zombie / ghost films? Hopefully this sequel will take the ideas from the first movie and improve on them. No official release date yet, but keep a look out for it. A third movie is also in the works titled OUTPOST: RISE OF THE SPETSNAZ.

Synopsis: The year is 1945, the closing stages of WW2, and a German scientist by the name of Klausener is working on a frightening new technology that has the power to create an immortal Nazi army. Flash forward to present day, and a NATO task force is hurriedly deployed to Eastern Europe, where a sinister enemy appears to be mercilessly killing everything in its path. But this is no ordinary foe. Only Helena, a gutsy investigator on the trail of the notorious war-criminal Klausener, accepts the reality of that they are facing a battalion of Nazi Storm-Troopers, a veritable zombie army on the march. With the help of Wallace, a man who's been chasing Nazi secrets for years, the two of them team up with a Special Forces Unit to venture deep behind enemy lines. Their mission to fight their way back to the source of this evil army and prevent the seemingly inevitable rise of the 4th Reich.

VAMPYRE NATION

So far I have been less than impressed with every Syfy film I've seen. Here comes another one about a future world where vampires outnumber humans and a synthetic blood has been created so that they can live 'peacefully' side by side. As if that's going to work. I'm guessing that the filmmakers watched DAYBREAKERS before coming up with this one. Expect it to premiere on Syfy this year.

Synopsis: Bucharest, Romania. The not-too-distant future, but an entirely different city. The human population is dwindling. The vampire population, meanwhile, is exploding. Having emerged from the shadows a decade earlier, vampires now walk openly amongst the human population, as a precarious peace exists between the two. A peace made possible by the introduction of a synthetic blood substitute, dispensed by the Romanian government, making traditional vampire feeding, and preying on humans, no longer necessary. But even so, it's not a peace that everyone is entirely comfortable with...

THE MOTH DIARIES

Apparently a vampire thriller which takes place at a Gothic boarding school, THE MOTH DIARIES looks like it might be aimed more at the TWILIGHT crowd than horror fans. Although after watching the trailer it does in a way remind me a little of GINGER SNAPS as well, so maybe it won't be too bad. IMDb has a release date set for April 20th.

Synopsis: Rebecca is suspicious of Ernessa, the new arrival at her boarding school. But is Rebecca just jealous of Ernessa's bond with Lucie, or does the new girl truly possess a dark secret?

A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE

"A fresh twist on the zombie genre" I sure am tired of hearing that line to describe every single zombie movie ever. Still this Canadian horror / comedy (going by the trailer it's a lot more comedy than horror) may just live up to that description after all. Release date on IMDb just says 2012 at the moment so keep an eye out.

New Official Poster For REC 3: GENESIS

2012-03-01T13:52:00.002-08:00

I cannot even explain in words how excited I am to see this movie. It feels as though I've been waiting forever to hear any news of an international release date, but sadly there is nothing yet. The Spanish release is set for March 30th so hopefully other international dates will soon follow. Anyway, thanks to the guys over at Horror-movies.ca we have the brand new official poster for REC 3 which looks awesome. Check it out below.

THE GREY (2012)

2012-02-28T22:49:00.002-08:00

Directed by: Joe Carnahan

Starring: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo

When the credits finally rolled on THE GREYI will admit I was feeling more than a little disappointed. I’d been prepared(thanks to the misleading trailer) to see a horror/suspense movie with LiamNeeson battling it out with a pack of killer wolves in the Alaskan wilderness.Well I was partly right, Liam Neeson was there, the wolves were there and thewilderness was there, but this was more of a suspensful drama than a horror /action film. After mulling it over in myhead for a few days though I have decided that I actually really enjoyed themovie, I was just a bit pissed off at how much the trailer mislead me.

Liam Neeson’s character Ottway is not in agood place. We are introduced to him somewhere in the middle of Alaska workingas a sniper keeping wild animals away from oilfield workers, and after a bit ofa lengthy monologue we see him placing the barrel of his gun in his mouth andpreparing to blow his own brains out all over the snow. Obviously he doesn’tthough. Instead he jumps on a plane with some of the other workersheaded to Anchorage. But the plane never makes it to Anchorage. In one of thebest ‘plane-ripping-itself-apart-in-in-the-air’ scenes I’ve seen on film, the plane(and most of the passengers) ends up in pieces scattered around the snow in themiddle of nowhere. The remaining survivors gather and after realizing that theyare deep in wolf territory they decide that they really need to get the hellout of there as soon as possible.

Now you might think that the wolves are thefilm’s main focal point, but they’re not. This movie is about so much more.Central to its themes is death. It’s everywhere. It’s also a look at the human’swill to survive and to overcome the odds. It’s also about finding somethingworth fighting for and never giving up. It is also a very depressing movie. Thedeath scenes are not put in purely for entertainment, they are genuinelyunsettling. There is almost no hope here as these men come to their individualdeaths not just by the wolves but also by nature itself. Also important is theincredible change Ottway undergoes, from being completely prepared to killhimself at the beginning to fighting for his life through to the end. Andspeaking of the end, it’s an ending that will divide viewers. At first Ithought of it as a total disappointment, but now I can see that in fact in away it was the perfect ending and a very poignant one too.

Neeson’s acting is top notch as always, thecinematography is incredibly good, the plot and script leave a lot to bedesired though. This is definitely not a very realistic movie. And the CGIwolves were a bit offputting, not all of the time but most of the time. But apart from the lame premise and the even lamer digital effects THE GREY is a really emotional and enjoyable film. If you're looking for a fast paced thriller with Liam Neeson punching wolves, or a bloody man vs wolf finale (as the trailer leads you to believe) then you're barking up the wrong tree. Instead you will find a beautifully bleak suspenseful drama which may not be written extremely well but plays out perfectly nonetheless.

FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 (PS3)

2012-02-23T20:04:00.000-08:00

When I first played FINAL FANTASY XIII Ihave to say I was a little disappointed. It was so linear, it didn’t let youloose to explore until right near the end. There were no towns in which tointeract with other characters and visit item shops. There wasn’t even a worldmap. It seemed that half of the thingswhich I loved about the FF games previously had been taken away. But afterplaying for over 80 hours I actually realized how much I loved it. It may beterribly linear but it had a kickass battle system, an amazing soundtrack,great characters and voice acting and of course an epic sweeping storyline. Andgraphically it was the best looking game in the franchise so far. So rather than being annoyed or disappointedthat Square Enix were bringing out a direct sequel I was actually prettyfucking excited. In fact I was so excited that I spent the extra money andpre-ordered the Crystal Edition. I will admit that I still had a bit of anuneasy feeling though because of course the last direct sequel was the piece ofcrap FFX-2. Earlier this month the gamearrived and it was time to see if my excitement was justified, or if this was arepeat of the FFX-2 incident.

I guess a lot of people’s first question is“is it better than FFXIII?” and I will answer that right now. Yes. It is 100%better. They’ve basically taken all of the good points from XIII and added evenmore good shit.
As I said earlier I ordered the Crystal Edition, so it is the one I will bereviewing. Not that it matters much, the game is exactly the same it just comeswith some extra goodies.

There’s so much in this game that it’s hardto know where to start, but I guess I will start with the characters. In FFXIIIthere were a total of 6 playable characters which were for most of the gamearranged into two parties. But with FFXIII-2 they’ve decided to go withsomething a little different. First of all I have to admit that I haven’tactually finished the game yet, but I can tell that I’m near the end so Ihave pretty good overview of the game.As far as I can tell there are only two playable characters in the entire game.Serah from XIII and a newcomer named Noel Kreiss. It sounds bad doesn’t it? Ithought so too at first but when I realized what the other characters werebeing replaced with I thought it was an awesome idea. Monsters. That’s right, monsters.When you fight monsters you have a chance of taming them. It’s like FINALFANTASY meets Pokemon. You gather monster crystals and you can then use any ofthese captured monsters in your party. But that’s not all. If you’ve playedFFXIII then you’ll know all about the paradigm system, if you haven’t then youcan go look it up because I can’t be bothered explaining it. Anyway, themonsters you tame all have their own particular role. For example a Behemothwill be a COM, a Cait Sith will be a MED, a Bunker Beast will be a SEN and soon. Although you keep all of the monster crystals, you can only set a maximumof three active monsters at a time. These three monsters will take the place ofyour third character when you shift paradigms. Your two main characters however can learn all six roles. So if you wantto use the Cerberus Paradigm (COM, COM, COM) you will need one of the threeactive monsters to be a COM. If you don’t have one then you won’t be able touse that paradigm. And to make things even better you can actually level upyour monster companions. You will collect monster materials throughout the gamewhich can be used in the Crystarium to level up and upgrade your monsters.

There will also be plenty of monsters andcharacters available as dlc in the near future. These will be able to be foughtin a special Coliseum level and used in the game in the same way as the regularmonsters. One of bonuses which came with the Crystal Edition was some exclusivedlc which included two extra character outfits and also the opportunity tofight the legendary Omega Weapon in the Coliseum. Defeating it gives you achance to tame it and use it in your party. At the moment the only other dlccharacters are Lightning and Amodar but I’m sure there will be more soon.

I will also talk briefly of the game’sstoryline. I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll leave most of it for you tofind out for yourselves, but will talk about the basics. First of all you don’tneed to play FFXIII before you play this sequel, but I would suggest it if youreally want to understand what’s going on. Basically after the whole savingCoccoon incident at the end of XIII Fang and Vanille have been trapped insidethe crystal pillar which is now holding up Coccoon. Lightning has somehow endedup trapped in Valhallah, Snow has left on a journey to go find her and Sazh isalso gone. Serah is convinced that Lightning is still alive even though nobodyelse does and when Noel Kreiss suddenly arrives and tells her that Lightningsent him she follows him through time in a quest to find her. Follows herthrough time? You may ask. Yes that’s right, this whole game revolves aroundtime travel. How awesome is that? As I said I don’t want to give too much away,but essentially you will find yourself travelling to different locations indifferent time periods. On the way you will meet some old friends and also anew enemy in the form of Caius Ballad. Soon you’ll find that not only do youneed to save Lightning but you will also need to save the future.

Once again there is no world map but in itsplace there is what’s called the Historia Crux. It’s a kind of grid or timelinewhich contains all of the locations you have visited and have yet to visit. Italso contains different time periods of the same locations. To unlock these newlocations and time periods you will need to fulfill certain requirements. Thiswill usually involve finishing a level/location, defeating a boss character orsimply finding a specific artifact. Artifacts are the keys to opens gates todifferent periods and locations, and there are specific artifacts for specificgates. Not all of the locations will need to be unlocked in order to finish thegame but if you want to unlock all of the trophies / achievements then you willneed to find every artifact and location.

One thing a lot of people complained about(including me) with FFXIII was the lack of quests or minigames. Well you canrest assured that there are plenty on offer in XII-2. Across the entire gamethere are 160 ‘fragments’ which can be collected and most of these are foundthrough quests. Most of them are simple ‘go from point A to point B, bring backitem A’ type of quests but once you add in the whole time travel aspect thenthings get a little more difficult. For example you may travel to a certainlocation like say Yaschas Massif in the year 100AF but in order to complete aquest you may need to then travel to Yaschas Massif in the year 110AF ascertain key items are only available in certain time periods.

Apart from these fragment quests there arealso a bunch of mini-games. In certain levels you will find ‘anomalies’ whichneed to be solved in order for you to proceed further. To solve these anomaliesyou will need to step into them and complete a few puzzles. There are threetypes of puzzles. One where you need to make your way across disappearing tileswhile collecting crystals, another where you need to link crystals to make akind of constellation image, and then the frustrating hands of time puzzleswhich involve clearing all of the numbers of a clock face.

There is also a location in FFXIII-2 calledSerendipity which is basically a casino. You can race Chocobos, play slotmachines and soon with dlc there will be card games available. You can alsotrade in your acquired fragments for certain fragment abilities which will helpyou along in the game.

Now that I’ve gone over most of the newadditions I’ll also talk about the things which have stayed the same and alsothe things which are no longer present. First of all is the battle system whichis identical to the one in FFXIII. The same ATB system which lets you queueattacks and switch paradigms is back and I think that it’s great. TheCrystarium as also back but it is slightly different. It still uses the same CPto upgrade the same roles but it has been refined into a single tree for eachcharacter which makes levelling up a lot quicker and easier. You can also levelup monsters with monster materials.

The weapon upgrading system from XIIIhowever is thankfully gone. I fucking hated it. In XIII-2 you will find betterweapons as you progress through the game. You will also be able to constructspecial weapons if you have the right materials. But that’s all you need, youdon’t need to spend a shitload of gil buying components and upgrading forhours. And speaking of weapons I have to mention Serah’s Bowblade. Not only isit a weapon but when she is not using it transforms into the little Mooglecompanion named Mog. Mog is a very important part of the game. Not only does heseem to have a great understanding of the whole time travel thing, but he canalso be used to find hidden items and artifacts. Later in the game you canactually get the ability to throw him around so that he can fetch distanttreasures for you.

This review is getting way too long so I’llhave to wrap it up here with a bit of a brief overview. Basically this game isFINAL FANTASY XIII but better. If you didn’t enjoy XIII then you probably won’tlike this, but if you liked XIII then you will love XIII-2. The ability tocollect and use monsters like Pokemon is awesome. The addition of quests andmini-games is great and the ability to move between locations and time periodswhenever you want is a fantastic way to get rid of the linearity that theprevious game had. Once again the voice acting is top notch, the soundtrack isamazing (a four disc CD soundtrack was one of the bonuses with the CrystalEdition) and the graphics are perfect. Even though I think VIII will always bemy favorite, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that FINAL FANTASYXIII-2 is one of the best in the franchise so far. A lot of ‘traditional’ FFfans may not like it because it’s so different but I urge you to give it achance, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Poster and Synopsis For ANIMALS

2012-02-22T01:45:00.000-08:00

I've just today heard about this upcoming Australian zombie film ANIMALS. With a script which has been described as "Mad Max meets Romper Stomper" I am definitely intrigued. Below you can find the first poster and the synopsis courtesy of Horror-movies.ca

ANIMALS is directed by Edward Drake and stars Dave Lamb, Sweeney Young, Melissa Howard, Reg Corman and Scott Brennan.

Synopsis: “Animals is a bold and ambitious project about Marcus Young, a shaken young man trying to find his place in the world in the wake of a global pandemic. When Marcus learns that the love of his life, Sarah Finch, a woman he hasn’t seen in almost two years, is trapped in a massive reserve known as the Red Zone, Marcus launches a suicidal bid to save her from forces conspiring to stop her uncovering a laboratory abandoned at the height of the plague. But when Marcus enters the Red Zone, with the help of his estranged and tormented brother, he must confront the demons from his past and learn to move on.”

For more information visit the official website and Facebook page

Upcoming Horror Short - THE PROSPECTOR'S CURSE

2012-02-22T01:02:00.000-08:00

I've just received the press release for an upcoming western-themed horror short which sounds like it could turn out great.
THE PROSPECTOR'S CURSE has just wrapped production near the town of Ponty Pool, Ontario. It's described as a darkly comedic short and was written and directed by Josh Heisie and produced by Bruno Marino. It stars David Roberts, Johnny Quinn, Amanda Ives and Robert Nolan. Nolan as you may know starred in WORM and FAMILIAR, both shorts from Fatal Pictures which I've heard great things about.
I suggest you keep an eye out for this film.

Synopsis: Theodore “Tubby” Ellsworth and Jack smith are two criminals on the run, lost in the
untamed wilderness. When they stumble across a mutilated Prospector, dying on Indian
ground, they promise to give him a Christian burial. The fugitives break their oath and
steal the old man’s gold…but that night, the Prospector’s corpse returns to make them
pay!

For more information check out the film's Facebook page and stay tuned as hopefully I will have a review up as soon as possible.

MACHETE KILLS Teaser Poster

2012-02-10T15:48:00.000-08:00

So you might have heard that Robert Rodriguez's MACHETE is set to become a trilogy. Well it looks like things are rolling along smoothly and thanks to ComingSoon we have a synopsis and some poster art for the first sequel titled MACHETE KILLS. Danny Trejo will reprise his lead role and the movie should start filming in April.
After this first sequel you can then look forward to the third instalment which will be titled MACHETE KILLS AGAIN... IN SPACE!

Synopsis: "MACHETE KILLS finds Machete recruited by the U.S. Government for a mission which would be impossible for any mortal man. Machete must battle his way through Mexico to take down a madman cartel leader and an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has hatched a plan to spread war across the planet with a weapon in space. Machete takes on an army in an effort to dismantle a plan for global anarchy."

SKEW (2011)

2012-02-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Sevé Schelenz

Starring: Rob Scattergood, Amber Lewis, Richard Olak

Reviewing an independent film is always a little different from reviewing a big budget Hollywood film. I usually tend to be a little lenient and take into consideration all of the financial and time constraints etc. But at the same time I try not to be too soft, because since indie filmmakers are usually just starting out I think it's important that they are made aware of any weak points in their films which can be improved upon. These days anybody with a video camera and a bunch of friends can make their own film. The majority are absolute shit, but every now and then you stumble upon one which is just as entertaining and clever as any big budget blockbuster. After watching SKEW I think I can honestly say that it falls firmly in the second category.

SKEW is an independent psychological horror film from Canadian director Sevé Schelenz and it is his feature length directorial debut. It is shot in a POV / found-footage style and concerns three friends who on a road trip which turns bad. I know that found footage type movies have been popping up all over the place over the last few years and a lot of people are probably sick of them, but don't let that put you off. This entire movie is shown through the lens of a handheld camera but rather than just being a portal into the film, the video camera is actually an integral part of the storyline.

Simon, Eva and Richard are three friends who embark on what is apparently a long-awaited road trip. Richard (Olak) and Eva (Lewis) are obviously in a relationship while Simon (Scattergood) seems to be the third wheel as his girlfriend has refused to come on the trip with them. This is our first hint that there is trouble brewing. The trio travel the roads and highways, stopping at offbeat tourist attractions like the 'world's biggest chair' and 'world's biggest Viking head' and so on. Tho whole time Simon is videotaping absolutely everything. It turns out that Simon has a very personal reason for documenting everything but I'll leave that for you to find out yourself. His constant filming however starts to get on Richard and Eva's nerves and things begin to get tense between the three friends. Things escalate even more when Simon realizes a terrible and fatal truth about the video camera. Simon's grip on reality seems to be slipping and the friends' relationship begins to decay further until finally ending in the brutal and shocking conclusion.

POV / found footage films have been done to death in recent years. Paranormal Activity, REC, Cloverfield, Apollo 18, The Devil Inside are just a few and there are a ton more in the pipeline. An interesting fact about SKEW though is that it was filmed in 2005, so it actually predates all of the movies I've just mentioned. While it's still not one of the originals of this sub-genre, at least it cannot be accused of trying to capitalize on the recent success of movies like PA and The Devil Inside. And it's a very original spin on the tired sub-genre.
The acting is great, especially for a bunch of amateurs with hardly any other credits on their resumes. At times it was a little awkward but it's not distracting or annoying, and it definitely didn't detract from the movie overall. The effects both practical and CGI are used sparingly and to good effect, although they do display the small budget fairly clearly. As a horror film SKEW isn't really as scary as it is unsettling. There are only a couple of cheap jump-scares which are effective but as it is a psychological horror the movie does depend mostly on atmosphere and tension, both of which it does well.

All in all SKEW is a very entertaining and engaging film. It does have its flaws which include the beginning dragging on a bit slow, some awkward acting, a few scenes going on perhaps a little longer than they should and less than perfect effects but in the end most of these are easy to overlook, especially after you see the final scenes and ambiguous ending. SKEW is definitely worth your time.

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD (2009)

2012-02-09T22:42:00.000-08:00

Directed by: George A. Romero

Starring: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Walsh, Richard Fitzpatrick

After the terrible LAND OF THE DEAD and then the abysmal DIARY OF THE DEAD I guess you could say I was a little worried going in to watch George Romero's latest zombie offering. It turns out I had good reason to worry.

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD concerns itself with Plum Island and the residents which have lived upon it for generations. Two families which have inhabited the island since forever (the O'Flynns and the Muldoons) can't seem to see eye to eye on what to do about the recent zombie outbreak. Patrick O'Flynn (Walsh) gathers up a posse and decides to go around putting the dead to rest or 'extending the island's cemetery' as he puts it. Seamus Muldoon (Fitzpatrick) however is against the idea and wants to keep the zombies around until they show signs of improvement or until somebody comes up with a 'cure'. Since the Muldoons outnumber the O'Flynns this disagreement ends with Patrick being forced to leave the island at gunpoint.

At the beginning of the movie we are introduced to Sarge 'Nicotine' Crockett who you may remember from his brief appearance in DIARY OF THE DEAD. It seems he and a few of his soldier pals have decided to go AWOL and fend for themselves. To survive they become highwaymen, stealing from anybody they come across. After a shootout they come across the young character known only as 'Boy' and he tags along with them. He shows them a video broadcast of a man calling himself Captain Courageous who announces that people looking for a safe haven should make their way to Plum Island. Even though it is most likely a trap the soldiers decide that at this point anything is worth a try so they head to the location given by Captain Courageous (who is actually Patrick O'Flynn), but upon their arrival they discover that if they want a boat to Plum Island they will have to trade everything they own. Another shootout leaves O'Flynn and the soldiers on a ferry making their way to the island. After they arrive O'Flynn and Muldoon resume their bitter rivalry but this time they are determined to end it once and for all.

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD isn't really a zombie movie, let me just get that out of the way first. The zombies are really just background noise, something added in perhaps to help the movie fit in with the rest of the DEAD franchise. The main focus of the film is upon the rivalry between the two island dwelling families, so much in fact that you almost forget that the movie even has zombies in it at all. At no point are the zombies presented as a serious threat like they were in Romero's previous movies. And the notion that killing zombies has become some kind of moral dilemma is laughable, and only makes the movie seem less serious and more ridiculous. Romero combined the undead with social commentary perfectly in his original trilogy but lately he seems to have been taking shots in the dark and missing every time.
The acting in SURVIVAL is pretty average across the board and the characters are all too one-dimensional to even care about. The pace is all over the place but mostly slow, and serious scenes shift into horribly out of place slapstick comedy. And don't get me started on the CGI. The practical effects look great so why add the CGI? It looks horrible.

George A. Romero is and always will be a legend when it comes to horror cinema. He perfected the modern zombie film, but honestly I think after DAY OF THE DEAD was released he should have just put the franchise to rest and tried his hand at something different. Its easy to forget that he used to make movies without zombies in them. The Dark Half, Martin, Monkey Shines and Creepshow are all fine movies and a hell of a lot better than his last few DEAD offerings. Hell, I'd even prefer to watch Bruiser than see SURVIVAL again. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

Name The New CALABRESE CD Contest

2012-02-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I'm a huge fucking fan of Calabrese and excited as hell to hear that they have a new CD coming out soon. If you haven't heard these guys yet then hurry up and get right on it, in fact I'll save you the trouble and include a couple of their songs in this post.
As usual the Calabrese brothers are giving leaving it up to the fans to name their upcoming CD. Below is the artwork for the new album for inspiration.
All you have to do is email your suggestions to:

NewCdContest@CalabreseRock.com

You have until Friday April 13th to submit your three best suggestions for your chance to get your name published in the liner notes, and to receive a free signed copy of the new album.
For more info on the band head to www.calabreserock.com

PRIMAL (2010)

2012-01-28T05:29:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Josh Reed

Starring: Krew Boylan, Lindsay Farris, Wil Traval, Zoe Tuckwell-Smith

A group of friends take a road trip to check out some ancient Aboriginal cave paintings which apparently nobody has seen in over 120 years. One of the guys Dace (Traval) is working on his thesis and the rest of the group are basically just tagging along for some camping and adventure.
A group of friends taking a trip out into the wilderness? Could it get anymore cliché? Of course it could.
The first half hour or so of the movie introduces us to the characters who are exactly as we expect them to be. There is the couple who seemingly came along only for the chance to fuck in their tent. There is the girl with a past traumatic experience which she must overcome, there is the leader of the group, the joker and another girl thrown in with the single purpose of dying horribly.
But soon after taking a nude dip in some leech infested water, Mel (Boylan) begins a horrifying transformation. First she breaks out in a fever, starts talking gibberish and then her teeth fall out and are finally replaced by extra long pointed fangs. She reverts back to some primal, animal-like state and begins violently attacking her friends. Before long they realize that face a moral dilemma. Do they kill Mel or do they risk death themselves by trying to capture her alive?

PRIMAL reminds me of movies like The Ruins and Cabin Fever but especially the latter, with the protagonists being pitted against not only a killer virus but also against each other. I'm not a huge fan of either though and I actually have to say that I preferred PRIMAL over both of them.
The first hour or so gets pretty intense particularly after Mel's transformation, and the way the friends deal with their situation is intriguing to say the least. After Mel kills and then chows down on one of them, the rest seem to make up their mind that she needs to be killed. All of course except for her stupid boyfriend Chad (Farris) who seems to think that she's 'still in there' and that he can 'get through to her'.
Apart from the sometimes frustratingly stupid characters and the shoddy looking CGI (especially the scenes involving any kind of super-high jumping or people being thrown) I found the movie to be entertaining and engaging and it kept me intrigued right up until the last 20 minutes or so where things fell apart a little. The final scene however did get a little chuckle from me.

Despite being about as predictable and cliché as you can get and not scary at all, I actually found PRIMAL to be an enjoyable enough movie with some good action scenes, decent acting and a fair amount of blood. Veteran horror fans will find nothing new here, but casual watchers will probably enjoy it although the violence (including rocks smashing heads, teethe falling out, throats being torn open etc) may be a little too much for some.

DAMNED BY DAWN (2009)

2012-01-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Brett Anstey

Starring: Renee Willner, Bridget Neval, Dawn Klingberg, Danny Alder

Being Australian myself I'm always up for seeing a good Aussie film, especially if it falls into the horror / thriller / drama categories. But I will also be the first to admit that this country will definitely not be remembered for it's contributions to horror cinema. I could name a whole bunch of fantastic Australian movies like Mad Max or Romper Stomper or Snowtown or Two Hands but when it comes to horror not much really comes to mind. I guess Razorback is good, and The Loved Ones is great and I enjoyed Wolf Creek but other than that they are mostly average or below such as Patrick or Black Water. Unfortunately DAMNED BY DAWN continues this tradition.

Claire (Willner) travels with boyfriend Paul (Alder) to visit her relatives whom she hasn't seen for a year and a half. It turns out that her grandmother (Klingberg) is dying and she has entrusted Claire with a special urn, telling her that she wants to be cremated. She also tells her of the 'lady of sorrows' who will come when it's time for her to die and take her soul. This lady is a banshee and must not be prevented from doing her job Claire is told, but on the night that this banshee comes she decides to interfere. Bad idea. The banshee gets pissed off and uses it's wail to raise the dead who come after Claire and her family. Claire has to find a way to stop this banshee and her hordes of undead before her it's too late.

I applaud DAMNED BY DAWN for utilizing the legend of the banshee which is not often done in horror films (the last one I saw was Syfy's Scream of the Banshee which was fucking terrible) but unfortunately this main story is underdeveloped and it's not long before the film skews off in a different and well tread direction which involves a group of people in a house trying to survive a supernatural attack.
The similarities to The Evil Dead are too numerous and obvious for me to overlook, from the familiar looking woods permanently shrouded in fog to many of the camera setups to even the fucking title itself which is clearly ripped straight from Evil Dead II. I'm not sure whether this was supposed to be seen as an homage or just a rip-off but personally I think it has borrowed way too much.
Visually this movie looked great especially the outdoor shots but they were ruined a little by the fog some of the time which I couldn't really make up my mind as to whether it was real or CGI. Whatever it was sometimes it looked good and sometimes it looked shit. And speaking of CGI this is where the movie really lost points from me. It was a shame too because there was some quite good use of practical effects but these were offset by the laughably fake flying ghouls.

Being an independent, direct to video movie with amateur actors and a first time director, DAMNED BY DAWN has obviously been made by passionate horror fans. However I didn't find it scary in the slightest, the writing was average, the acting a bit shabby and the CGI just ruined it for me. With perhaps a bigger budget and more development of the banshee myth this could have been more enjoyable but as it is it's really just another below average Australian horror flick.

PEEPING TOM (1960)

2012-01-27T03:52:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Michael Powell

Starring: Karlheinz Böhm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer

Widely remembered as the film which single-handedly ruined Michael Powell's career and often wrongly labeled as a 'slasher', PEEPING TOM is a brilliantly dark look at the voyeuristic and almost pornographic element in the act of filming. It has been over 50 years since it's release, but the film is perhaps more relevant now in a period of reality television and CCTV, than it ever has been. A movie well ahead of it's time.

Mark Lewis (Böhm) works as a focus puller at a film studio. After hours however he provides photographs for a small newsagent / porn store and creates his own special home movies while dabbling in a bit of murder.

A lonely, shy and quiet man, Mark has a strange obsession with fear and more importantly capturing that fear on somebody's face at the moment they are about to die. We learn that this obsession comes from the experiments his father conducted on him when he was just a young boy, trying to research fear and it's effect on the nervous system.

He meets Helen (Massey), a woman who lives with her blind mother in his building and they begin a close relationship. But can he keep his deadly hobby a secret?

A lot of people consider this to be one of the first slasher films, but I'm not one of them. I definitely agree that this has heavily influenced a lot of horror movies including the slasher sub-genre but along with Psycho I don't believe that this should really be considered a slasher film.

One of the film's strengths is the great performance by German actor Karlheinz Böhm as Mark Lewis, and indeed the rest of the cast are almost as good. Mark's character is likeable and there are some scenes where it seems that he genuinely wants help, so it's easy to sympathize with him even though we all know he is a killer.

Other positive points include the use of color which reminded me almost of some of Dario Argento's work, and also the effective, mesmerizing piano score which creates a perfectly eerie atmosphere for the film.

Of course the film does have its negative point too. Some of the dialogue is awkward especially between Mark and Helen, and there are a few pacing problems with sections of the movie dragging on while others are tense and powerful.

Lots of comparisons are made between this movie and Psycho since they released around the same time, but in reality they are two completely different films and I actually prefer this one over Hitchcock's classic.

Although this movie is ultimately about a serial killer, don't expect to see blood and gore or a high body count. Do however expect to see a very bleak and very human film that unfortunately was ahead of it's time.

THE DRILLER KILLER (1979)

2012-01-25T06:48:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Abel Ferrara

Starring: Abel Ferrara, Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day

There were two things which led to my viewing of this film. First was the simple fact that it made the infamous 'video nasties' list in the UK, and the second was an image of the original VHS cover which showed a rather brutal scene in which a man was getting a power drill right through the skull. As it turns out these two facts are actually very misleading, but that's not to say that the movie was bad it just wasn't what I expected.

Director Abel Ferrara plays (under the name Jimmy Laine) the man character Reno Miller, an artist who is struggling to make ends meet as he finds himself dealing with professional problems, personal problems and a band which has just moved into the building. It's not long before Reno seemingly goes insane, running around the streets of New York at night murdering people with a power drill.

I have to say that even though I was expecting more of a slasher / splatter film I still enjoyed it for what it was. It kind of has a similar feel to Taxi Driver and Maniac Cop especially with the filthy New York streets and Reno's insane hatred for the scum living there. As for being on the 'video nasties' list I really don't think this deserved to have been included. It's a lot more violent than a movie like AXE but even for the late 70s I would think that there were plenty of worse films around. The scene I mentioned earlier with the homeless man's skull getting drilled is probably the most violent image in the movie, but even that looks fake so it really doesn't hit as hard as it probably did 30 years ago.
I'm still not quite sure why Reno decided to murder vagrants when he probably should have taken the drill to that amazingly terrible sounding punk band who moved into his building. Another thing which was strange was the fact that there is not a single police officer in the entire movie. With such a high body count in New York City you would expect the cops to come into it at some point, but no (this isn't a bad thing though, I actually thought it was a clever decision).

THE DRILLER KILLER is more of a drama / social commentary than a horror movie, which you may not guess by the way it was marketed, but it is still a pretty solid film. A few pacing problems lead to some boring areas but once the action resumes you forget all about it. Worth a watch, just don't expect to see a blood-soaked slasher.

THE GREY Red Band Trailer

2012-01-25T05:52:00.000-08:00

THE GREY is a film I'm definitely looking forward to seeing, especially after seeing this brand new red band trailer. I'm always interested in these type of survival movies, in particular the ones which pit man against beast.
What's that you say? Unprovoked wolf attacks on humans never happen?
Well who really cares? Since when did the facts ever get in the way of good entertainment?
Just shut up and watch the trailer.

Press release:
Open Road Films will release the highly anticipated, action-packed survival thriller, The Grey, in theaters nationwide on January 27, 2012. The Grey stars Liam Neeson and is directed by Joe Carnahan (A-Team, Smokin’ Aces, Narc); it was produced by Liddell Entertainment.

In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few days to escape the icy elements – and a vicious pack of rogue wolves on the hunt – before their time runs out.

The Grey also features Frank Grillo (Warrior and Lay the Favorite), Dermot Mulroney (Burn After Reading, About Schmidt), Dallas Roberts ("The Good Wife", 3:10 To Yuma), Joe Anderson (Across The Universe, upcoming ABC series "The River"), James Badge Dale (upcoming World War Z, The Conspirator, HBO’s "The Pacific"), and Nonso Anozie (Conan the Barbarian, Atonement, RocknRolla).

The Grey is produced by Jules Daly, Joe Carnahan, Ridley Scott, and Mickey Liddell. Executive producers are Tony Scott and Jennifer Hilton as well as Jim Seibel, Bill Johnson, and Marc Butan of Inferno Entertainment.

AXE (1977)

2012-01-22T22:59:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Frederick R. Friedel

Starring: Leslie Lee, Jack Canon, Ray Green

Logically you'd think that the infamous 'Video Nasties' list would be comprised of only the sickest and most depraved films to ever be released on video, right? But the reality is that for every Cannibal Holocaust or The Toolbox Murders on the list, there is a much more tame counterpart which really has no place being included at all. AXE is one of the latter.

Essentially AXE (aka LISA, LISA) is a home invasion / rape / revenge flick similar to Last House on the Left or I Spit on Your Grave, albeit much more mild. It's inclusion in the nasty list is probably due to its marketing, with the trailer describing it as the most terrifying movie since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Echoing this comparison is one of the movie's alternate titles 'The California Axe Massacre'. The misleading trailer even describes a 'killing spree' which never actually happens. But unlike the three films I've just mentioned AXE isn't overly violent (most of the violence happens off camera) and its single rape scene is awkward rather than brutal. Even by 1977 standards this movie would seem tame compared to most other horror releases.

Three men - Billy, Steele & Lomax - have been involved in a murder and decide that they need to find a place to lay low until the heat dies down. After having a bit of fun with a female clerk they drive out to a house seemingly in the middle of nowhere. A young girl named Lisa lives in this house with her paralyzed grandfather.
After deducing that Lisa and the wheelchair-bound man are the only inhabitants of the house the three men decide that they've found as good a place as any to hide out. At first things go smoothly, they order Lisa to make them food etc but in general they aren't too aggressive towards her or her grandfather. But later that night Lomax gets a bit horny and decides to sneak into Lisa's room where he proceeds to slip into her bed and rape her. Lisa pulls out a straight razor and kills Lomax, but curiously she does so by hacking at the back of his neck instead of his throat for some reason. While he's being sliced he screams fairly loudly but miraculously nobody in the house wakes up. Lisa uses an axe (it's a hatchet really" to dismember the body.
You can probably figure out the rest of the movie yourself.

I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie, especially with it being a very low budget film from the 70s but it does have a certain charm. Technically it is terrible, with laughably fake ~~red paint~~ blood, horribly dubbed sound bites and possibly the most annoying soundtrack I have ever heard in my life. I honestly think that somebody must have said "Hey let's gather the most annoying instruments ever made and use them for the soundtrack" because AXE's music is almost entirely comprised of bongos, tambourine and a very irritating high-pitched synthesizer-like sound. The only way it could have been worse is if it had included bagpipes.
There are plenty of plot holes, some stupid writing and the acting is nothing to be proud of. Basically the movie looks bad and sounds bad. But as I mentioned there is something enjoyable about it. Maybe it's the simple fact that it was one of these 'video nasties' and subconsciously we know that it was once 'forbidden'. It's inclusion on that particular list is actually the only thing this movie has going for it, well that and the fact that the character Billy looks exactly like Bob Ross. AXE is a very tame, dull movie and ironically if it hadn't been included on the nasty list it would almost certainly been forgotten by now.

COLD FISH (2011)

2012-01-22T02:03:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Shion Sono

Starring: Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Denden, Megumi Kagurazaka

COLD FISH tells the story of two fish store owners who, apart from their occupations couldn't be any more different. Shamoto (Fukikoshi) is a timid man with a modest shop, recently re-married with a daughter from his first wife. Murata (Denden) on the other hand is a successful, loud and outgoing man who owns a store five times that of Shamoto's.
Shamoto is called into Murata's store after his daughter is caught shoplifting, but instead of contacting the authorities Murata decides to let her off and even offers her a job at the store. Murata 'befriends' Shamoto and even offers him a position as a business partner. On the surface Murata seems to be a genuinely nice and friendly guy but we soon discover that underneath he is a monster. Shamoto witnesses him murder another business partner after a misunderstanding and Murata forces him to help with the disposal of the body.
Murata brags about killing over 50 people (or 'making them invisible' as he says) and never being caught. Shamoto finds himself being pulled down into the other man's world of violence and murder and unable to escape due to threats against his wife and daughter. Will Shamoto find a way out? Or will Murata be successful in making him his 'apprentice'?

Once the main character witnesses the first murder things kick into gear and move along at a swift pace. During the rest of the film you will witness plenty of scenes of murder, abuse, rape, dismemberment, blood and guts but somehow all of this violence doesn't seem gratuitous at all, it feels needed. And by the end you'll realize that the movie isn't just about telling the story on which it is apparently based, but is also a look at more universal issues such as responsibility, abuse, dependency and family dysfunction. It touches on life, death, madness, anger and regret with a lot of pitch black humor laced throughout.

At just under two and a half hours COLD FISH is much too long and drawn out and could have been much more effective had that time been sliced almost in half. Fortunately the actors all do their jobs well so watching this isn't as tedious as you might imagine. Denden is especially good as the insane and over the top Murata.
This movie is not for everybody but if you like a lot of gore, realism, a well written story and a bit of social commentary then you'll definitely want to see COLD FISH.

THE INNKEEPERS (2011)

2012-01-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Ti West

Starring: Sara Paxton, Pat Healey, Kelly McGillis

This movie confused the hell out of me. Since watching it I've read a whole bunch of positive reviews from all different people because honestly I don't see what the fucking point of this movie was and how anybody actually enjoyed it. And even after reading all of these reviews I still don't get it, they're all just as vague as the actual movie itself.

THE INNKEEPERS follows two employees at the supposedly haunted Yankee Pedlar Inn. The inn is just about to close down and these two friends Claire (Paxton) and Luke (Healey) are working the final weekend. With almost no residents staying at the inn, Claire and Luke decide to hunt for the ghost of a woman named Madeline O'Malley who supposedly died way back when.
With Luke feeding her descriptions of his own paranormal encounters, Claire is more than excited to find this ghost. After not much happens, there is finally some unexplained activity (voices and piano keys are heard) and eventually one of their few guests (who just happens to be a psychic) warns them not to go into the basement.
So of course Claire decides to go into the basement.

Now you would expect by this point in the film that some scary shit is going to go down. Up until this point THE INNKEEPERS has been slow and drawn out with it's character development, but it genuinely feels like it's building up to something big. But you'd be wrong.
Almost nothing happens in this movie and the things that do happen seemingly happen for no reason at all. No explanation is given for anything. Normally I don't have a problem with movies that leave some unanswered questions at the end, but this is taking it way too far. The entire movie is slow and vague and not scary at all. It's like they spent too much time concentrating on the characters joking and chatting and walking around that they just didn't leave enough time to resolve the whole ghost plot.
And I know that stupid characters seem to be an essential ingredient in most horror/thriller films but nobody is as stupid as Claire. She gets told not to go into the basement so she does and bad things happen. Later she is told by the same person to leave the building, so what does she do? Back down to the basement of course.

What the movie lacked in storyline it (almost) made up for in other areas. The entire film looked good, the inn was a great location, the acting was above average and the atmosphere created was actually not bad at all. Unfortunately though this wasn't enough to counter the lack of tension and numerous other problems.
The most disappointing thing for me is the fact that this could have made for a really good, slow burning, atmospheric horror flick. Instead it turned out to be an hour-and-a-half of nothing happening, and will probably appeal to fans of the Paranormal Activity franchise.

THE DARKEST HOUR 3D (2011)

2012-01-21T15:15:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Chris Gorak

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella

Well I can't say that I actually expected this to be a good movie after watching the trailer. However the current line-up at my local theatre is so bad that THE DARKEST HOUR 3D seemed to be the best choice. It was either this or Happy Feet 2, and now I'm thinking that it probably would have been a better idea to go see the latter instead.

And before I get to the actual review there's something I need to say. I have nothing against 3D movies. If people want to watch them that's fine, as long as people like me have the option of watching them in regular old 2D. Unfortunately the local theatre didn't offer that option.

A pair of software developers arrive in Moscow to pitch their newest idea which they're convinced will make them multi-millionaires. Unfortunately they are beaten by a rival who has stolen their idea and is pitching it himself just as they walk in. So they do the only sensible thing by going to some sort of trendy nightclub to drown their sorrows. They not only run into their software stealing friend Skyler, but also a couple of attractive girls. Maybe things are starting to look up! Or not. Suddenly the nightclub is plunged into darkness and everybody finds themselves outside. There is some strange sort of Aurora Borealis type phenomenon going on in the sky and strange orange balls of energy are drifting down to the ground. Everybody stands back except for one brave (or stupid) police officer who decides to get a little closer. He is instantly vaporized. Everybody runs around in a panic, and our main characters find themselves locked inside some kind of storeroom. After a week of waiting it's finally time for them to venture outside and see just what the fuck is really going on.

There are a couple of refreshing elements to this movie, namely the location and the enemy. Rather than being a familiar location such as NYC or Los Angeles or Tokyo the choice has been made to set this in Moscow, Russia. The aliens aren't something you normally see either, mainly because you hardly get to see them at all. They are invisible for the most part except for the brief orange flashes of energy they emit and the fact that anything electrical lights up like a Christmas tree if they go near it. This actually adds another little twist to the film in the form of night travel being safer than day travel.

So the movie isn't a complete piece of shit, but as far as the good points go I really can't think of anything else. Everything else was below average or just downright terrible. The script was ridiculous, the characters were idiots, the acting was sub-par and the CGI was made-for-TV quality. And of course the 3D aspect was pointless as usual. There were one or two scenes which incorporated 3D but other than that there was just no reason for it.

Save your money and avoid THE DARKEST HOUR. You could certainly do worse, but you could definitely do a hell of a lot better.

And don't be fooled by Timur Bekmambetov's production credit.

MANIAC COP (1988)

2012-01-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

Directed by: William Lustig

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Tom Atkins, Richard Roundtree

The MANIAC COP trilogy is in my personal opinion one of the most underrated in the horror genre. Although none of the three movies feature amazing storytelling or award-winning performances, they are truly entertaining. As is usual with trilogies, the first film is the strongest. It also has one of my all time favorite taglines.

Somebody is roaming the streets of New York City at night and violently killing innocent and unsuspecting civilians. What makes this even more frightening though is the fact that this killer is no average Joe. He's a cop!

Or at least a guy who dresses like a cop. Anyway, once this fact is made public the residents of the city go into a panic. If they can't trust the police, who can they trust?

Soon after this Detective Jack Forrest (Campbell) is accused of being this so-called 'maniac cop' after the body of his wife is found in his hotel room. As he tries to clear his name he is joined by Lt. McCrae (Atkins) and together they discover the identity of the real killer. A supposedly dead police hero named Matt Cordell. But can they prove it?

MANIAC COP is really half slasher and half police thriller. It's a good mix though and Lustig takes what he needs from each genre and splices them together seamlessly.

New York City in the 80s is a perfectly seedy backdrop to this film. It's rain-soaked streets and grimy alleyways giving the city an uneasy vibe especially in the night scenes and are the perfect location for the high-speed car chases, explosive shootouts and violence that follow.

Accompanying these fast-paced scenes is some of the best B-movie talent of the time. Bruce Campbell of course at his most popular after starring in The Evil Dead II the previous year. Tom Atkins from such films as Halloween III and The Fog, and of course Richard Roundtree the one and only 'Shaft'. All of their performances are above average, but it is a shame that Bruce doesn't get to showcase his humor.

I should also mention the fx / makeup which for the time are actually pretty good, especially on the villain's face.

Of course the movie has it's bad points too. The story isn't terrible but honestly it's pretty predictable and generic. And why exactly does this maniac cop seem to be invincible? It's never really explained, I guess it's just one of those slasher clichés. The movie is very dated too what with the 80s music, the hair, the shoulder pads etc. But even with these negative points, MANIAC COP succeeds in being a very entertaining film and a great setup for the two movies which follow.

RE5IDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION Trailer & Stills

2012-01-20T02:00:00.000-08:00

When the first RESIDENT EVIL movie came out I personally never thought it would even get to three films, but here we are now with the fifth entry into the RE franchise on the way. Not only do we have the first official trailer for the upcoming movie, but also some slick looking stills. You will find both below.
There is also a new logo (above) for those who may be interested.

Synopsis: “The wildly successful film franchise adaptation that has grossed nearly $700 million worldwide to the popular video game series, Resident Evil, returns in its highly anticipated fifth installment, RE5IDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION in state-of-the art 3D.

The Umbrella Corporation’s deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the flesh eating Undead. The human race’s last and only hope, ALICE (Milla Jovovich), awakens in the heart of Umbrella’s most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex. Without a safe haven, Alice continues to hunt those responsible for the outbreak; a chase that takes her from Tokyo to New York, Washington, D.C. and Moscow, culminating in a mind-blowing revelation that will force her to rethink everything that she once thought to be true. Aided by newfound allies and familiar friends, Alice must fight to survive long enough to escape a hostile world on the brink of oblivion. The countdown has begun.”

RE5IDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION 3D hits theatres September 14th 2012.

RESIDENT EVIL 6 Official Trailer & Artwork

2012-01-20T01:25:00.000-08:00

After a number of leaks and a viral ad campaign, Capcom have now officially confirmed the much anticipated Resident Evil 6. Not only is the game in full development but a release date has already been revealed along with new artwork and a launch trailer.

From the press release:

Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, is very proud to announce that Resident Evil® 6 is in full development and scheduled for release on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system on November 20, 2012, with a Windows PC version to follow. Blending action and survival horror, this latest installment in the multi-million selling franchise is the most ambitious, immersive, and feature-rich title of the series to date and promises to be the dramatic horror experience of the year.

It has been ten years since the Raccoon City incident, and the President of the United States has decided to reveal the truth behind what took place in the belief that it will curb the current resurgence in bioterrorist activity. Due to be by the President’s side is his personal friend and Raccoon City survivor, Leon S. Kennedy, but when the venue suffers a bioterrorist attack, Leon is forced to face a President transformed beyond recognition and make his hardest ever decision. At the same time, Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance member Chris Redfield arrives in China, itself under threat of a bioterrorist attack. With no country safe from these attacks and the ensuing outbreaks, the entire world’s population is united by a common fear that there is no hope left.

In a first for the franchise, Resident Evil 6 sees series favorites Leon and Chris come together to face this unprecedented threat. They will be joined by new characters, each with their own unique perspective and involvement, in this relentless dramatic horror experience enacted on a global scale.

“Resident Evil 6 represents a giant stride forward in the evolution of the series,” commented Katsuhiko Ichii, Head of R&D and Global Marketing. “The development team, led by Hiroyuki Kobayashi, is working tirelessly to deliver the most impressive Resident Evil® title ever both in terms of scope and production values. We are all genuinely excited by the title and cannot wait to share it with the world.”

Hiroyuki Kobayashi, Resident Evil 6 Executive Producer added: “From the outset the team’s intention was to create an experience that delivers a gripping storyline, tense single-player and co-op action all set against a constant theme of horror. We are calling this fusion 'dramatic horror' and are confident it will resonate with both existing fans of the series as well as newcomers.”

RESIDENT EVIL 6 will launch on PS3 and XBOX360 on November 20th 2012 with a PC release date soon after.
Hit up the official website for more info.

Full Synopses For REC 3: GENESIS & REC 4: APOCALYPSE

2012-01-13T15:43:00.000-08:00

As much as I normally bitch and moan about all of the endless sequels coming out, REC 3 and 4 are two which I am actually really looking forward to. And now thanks to Bloody-Disgusting here are the full synopses for both of these upcoming films.

REC 3: GENESIS
Synopsis: "Koldo and Clara are about to celebrate the most important day of their lives: their wedding. Everything appears to be running smoothly and the bride and groom and their families are enjoying a wonderful day; that is until some of the guests start showing signs of a strange illness. Before they know what’s happening, the bride and groom find themselves in the middle of a hellish ordeal, as an uncontrollable torrent of violence is unleashed on the wedding. Amidst the chaos, Koldo and Clara become separated and begin a desperate search for one another. What started off as an idyllic day quickly descends into a nightmare of the worst kind…"

REC 4: APOCALYPSE
Synopsis: "Angela Vidal, the young television reporter who entered the building with the fireman, manages to make it out alive. But what the soldiers don’t know is that she carries the seed of the strange infection. She is to be taken to a provisional quarantine facility, a high-security installation where she will have to stay in isolation for several days. An old oil tanker, miles off shore and surrounded by water on all sides, has been especially equipped for the quarantine."

REC 3 will see a March 30th 2012 release in Spain.

HOSTEL: PART III (2011)

2012-01-13T07:16:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Scott Spiegel

Starring: Kip Pardue, Thomas Kretschman, Brian Hallisay

There were three signs that told me this was going to be a terrible movie, and I ignored them all. I wish I hadn't.

First of all was the fact that Eli Roth was nowhere to be seen, and instead we have Scott Spiegel who's last attempt at a sequel gave us the terrible From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.

Then there is the location change. All of a sudden we're taken from a creepy little European town all the way over to the bright lights of Vegas? Why?

And then of course there's the fact that HOSTEL: PART III had no theatrical release and instead went straight to video.

A group of friends take a trip to Vegas to celebrate the impending marriage of one of them. After a big night out one of the friends goes missing and the others go looking for him. Soon enough they find themselves involved with the Elite Hunting Club who are hosting a new perverse game of torture.

The first Hostel may not have been the best movie out there, but at least it actually accomplished something. It carved out it's own little niche, and the term 'torture-porn' was coined because of it. The sequel was a nice, if unneeded follow up but this third entry is just horseshit.

I will admit though that there is a twist and it actually had me fooled for a second. I feel a little ashamed to say that, but it's true. Other than that though, this movie was as predictable and yawn-inducing as you can get.

The torture scenes are extremely tame and there is no tension or build-up at all. They just kind of happen. It's like Scott Spiegel didn't bother to watch the first two films and instead decided to make a child-friendly horror movie. Yes it really is that tame.

And remember the really dark, gritty atmosphere from the first two movies? Well don't expect that here. The decision for this to take place in bright and shiny Las Vegas was a bad one.

There is really only one reason to watch a Hostel movie. The torture, gore and violence. Nobody watches them for their acting, storytelling or character development, they just want to see gratuitous violence.

HOSTEL: PART III is nothing like the previous two films. It is boring, the acting and casting are awful, the FX are crap and pretty much everything else is just plain bad. Don't even waste your time.

THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES (2007)

2012-01-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

Directed by: John Erick Dowdle

Starring: Stacy Chbosky, Ben Messmer, Samantha Robson

I am usually a fan of low budget found-footage films and mockumentaries. But of course there are always exceptions (Blair Witch & Paranormal Activity come to mind) and THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES is one of those exceptions.

A mockumentary about a one of a kind serial killer known only as the 'Water Street Butcher', the film starts by telling us about the boxes of VHS tapes which were found in an abandoned house. These particular tapes contained scenes of torture and murder and were apparently filmed by a notorious serial killer known only as the 'Water Street Butcher'. The movie then continues to chronicle the Butcher's crimes and the subsequent police investigation. It does this by introducing us to a whole slew of characters, from the family members of victims to police officers, FBI agents, experts, news reporters, and the list goes on. This is where I first had issues.

These fake documentaries are supposed to look as realistic as possible, otherwise there really would be no point to display them in this type of format. And since the bulk of the movie is made up of interviews with people, it would make sense that for the movie to seem real these people should be believable, right?

Well that's where the movie loses a lot of points. Not only does it have way too many characters, but the acting (or over-acting) is horrible. I was not convinced at all.
While on the subject of realism though, I do have to admit that there were a couple of clever devices used to make parts of the story seem factual.

First of all is the fact that Poughkeepsie actually had it's very own serial killer in the 90s named Kendall Francois (A lot of people seem to think that this movie is based on his crimes, but if you do a little research there aren't really a lot of similarities between the two) who was linked to the deaths of at least 8 women.

Second is the use of real locations. Not only is Poughkeepsie a real town in NY, but it really does have a Water Street and a Dutchess Ave. During the film you will notice that a signpost depicting the intersection of these two streets is shown more than once.

And thirdly there is the reason why the Water Street Butcher didn't make headlines around the world. The excuse used is the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, which is perfect if you think about it. That event overshadowed any other news event at the same time.

But even these clever devices weren't enough to save the movie. Not only was the acting horrible, and the characters too numerous, but some of the scenes involving 'found-footage' went from being slightly disturbing to being just plain ridiculous. And asking an audience to believe that a serial killer is actually some sort of mastermind genius who can not only evade the police for so long, but actually frame a police officer?

The premise is a good one, and I think that if it was all simplified a little it might have been better. As it stands though, it's definitely one of the weaker entries into the found-footage / mockumentary subgenre.

Sundance Poster For JOHN DIES AT THE END

2012-01-12T20:45:00.000-08:00

With the Sundance Film Festival just less than a week away, the lineup for horror-related films is looking great. Park City at Midnight will be premiering a bunch of movies including Excision, Black Rock, Grabbers, The Pact, V/H/S and of course John Dies at the End. Below courtesy of Bloody-Disgusting is the festival poster featuring the savage-looking 'Bible Belter'.

Synopsis: "On the street, they call it "soy sauce." It's a paranormal, psychoactive drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. Its users drift across time and dimensions, but some who come back are devoid of all humanity. While most of Earth's inhabitants remain blissfully oblivious to its threat. Make no mistake, an otherworldly invasion is under way, and mankind needs to be saved. Enter John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. How can these guys possibly be expected to rescue mankind from certain destruction?"

The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 19th through to the 29th in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

Sundance Poster For EXCISION

2012-01-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival will be starting in about a week, and one of the more interesting looking films which will be showing is Richard Bates Jr.'s EXCISION. From the information available so far it's looking decidedly bloody and messed up. Below is the official festival one-sheet.

Synopsis: A disturbed and delusional high school student with aspirations of a career in medicine goes to extremes to earn the approval of her controlling mother.

The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 19th through to the 29th in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

Tobe Hooper's DJINN Official Trailer

2012-01-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

You may have heard in the past week or so that there has been some controversy surrounding the release of Djinn. Something about one of the members of Abu Dhabi royal family not agreeing with the film's portrayal of the UAE, and paying producer Mohammed Al Mubarak to bury the film. Something like that anyway.
But now apparently these reports are all false according to this statement from production studio Imagenation:

“These rumours are unfounded. Djinn is in active post-production, and Image Nation looks forward to releasing the film in theatres later this year. As for offers, there have been no formal offers were made for Djinn.”

Whatever the case, here is the full official trailer for the (hopefully) upcoming movie Djinn.

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION Gets A New Title & Full Synopsis

2012-01-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

So it seems that Sony Screen Gems has decided that they want to emphasise the fact that Retribution will be the fifth film in the RE franchise. From now on the full title will be RE5IDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION. Get it?
So I kinda lied, it's not really a title change they only replaced one letter but anyway... what's more interesting is that an official synopsis has been revealed! Read on below.

RE5IDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION is set for a September 14th 2012 release.

Upcoming Horror Movies 2012 - Part 5

2012-01-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

List number 5. This makes a total number of 50 films to expect over the next 12 months. I still have an ass-load more too. You know the best part about this particular list? There no remakes on it at all. Amazing isn't it? Even more amazing is the fact that there are also no sequels here. Unfortunately most of these don't have any specific release dates yet, but they should be coming this year.

THE CORRIDOR

Synopsis: Tyler Crawley needs his friends, now more than ever. Recovering from mental stress in the wake of his mom's death, Tyler has been counting on a weekend with the guys to bring him back to normal. For Tyler's sake his old buddies rally themselves, though the "glue" which keeps them together has weakened with the passing of recent years -- a natural enough occurrence.

But with the introduction of a single unnatural occurence -- the corridor itself -- the knots in these male bonds will come loose with a terrifying speed. Both a fantastical passageway to somewhere and a passageway into the mind of the male animal, the corridor will lead Tyler and his friends to the very edge of sanity and beyond...

The Corridor has been described as 'The Big Chill slammed into The Evil Dead' but actually reminds me more of Dreamcatcher, what with the friends meeting in a cabin in the woods for some male bonding. Fortunately the trailer makes this look a lot better than Dreamcatcher though.
IFC Films acquired the rights a few months back, so expect to see this one soon.

EPISODE 50

Synopsis: Focuses on two television crews of paranormal experts: one team of skeptics looking to de-bunk myths about ghosts and another consisting of believers looking to prove their existence. Teaming up for the first time for a special episode, the crews get more then they bargained for when they actually make contact with a spirit of tremendous power and must band together to stop it before it destroys them all.

The first movie which came to mind when I read this synopsis was Grave Encounters, which I didn't think was a very good movie at all. Unfortunately the trailer just makes it look even more like Grave Encounters.
According to Image Entertainment this film is headed for an April 17th DVD release.

6 MIRANDA DRIVE

Synopsis: Based on true events, the movie is about a family that unwittingly brings a supernatural force home with them from vacation. Feeding off their own fears, the evil presence threatens to destroy them from within as it takes over their lives and home, with terrifying results.

Whenever I read a synopsis for a supernatural horror film and it includes the words 'based on true events' it puts me off straight away. However this is being directed by Greg McLean, and since I liked his work on Wolf Creek and Rogue I will probably check this out anyway. It's currently in development so no release date as of yet.

MONSTER BRAWL

Synopsis: Eight classic monsters fight to the death in an explosive wrestling tournament set inside an abandoned and cursed graveyard.

I already hate this movie. It sounds like Mortal Kombat but with famous monsters, which should be a cool concept. But as a general rule I hate horror comedies, and especially ones which can't even get a certain famous creature's name right. It's Frankenstein's Monster NOT Frankenstein!
Monster Brawl will be out on DVD & Blu-ray March 27th 2012.

SLEEP TIGHT

Synopsis: Cesar works as a doorman in a Barcelona apartment building. Happiness eludes him and he feels the need to reaffirm his reasons for living on a daily basis. In Clara he has found the perfect target, and he will go to extreme lengths to make her life miserable. But Cesar is starting to get a bit too cocky, and soon his carefully thought out plans will start to unravel… Luckily for him, he has one last ace up his sleeve.

Kind of reminds me a little of The Resident, which really disappointed me. But since this is directed by the same man (Jaume Balaguero) who brought us REC I will definitely be checking it out. No release date as of yet, but hopefully we will be seeing it soon.

SHADOW PEOPLE

Synopsis: Small town radio personality Charlie Crowe (Dallas Roberts) is thrust into the mystery when a strange caller relates a terrifying experience during Crowe's late night call-in show. At the same time, CDC Public Health Agent, SOPHIE LANCOMBE (Alison Eastwood), is hot on the trail of the cause of the rare medical condition known as SUNDS. Her investigations entwine her with Charlie's own discoveries and take them both into a dark world and a decades old cover-up about the phenomenon we now call, The Shadow People. Once you open the door to the mystery...you'll never sleep soundly again.

Pontypool is the first thing that comes to mind, which isn't a bad thing I mean it was a decent film I suppose. More interesting though is the fact that SUNDS (Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome) is actually a real condition and this film is (unfortunately) 'inspired by true events'.

EVIDENCE

Synopsis: A detective hunts down a killer using video footage shot by the victims of a massacre at an abandoned gas station.

Sounds interesting. My only worry is how much of the film will involve the officers sitting around drinking coffee and sifting through the video footage compared to how much time they will be doing some actual field work. Guess we'll have to wait and see. I'm having a little trouble find much info on this film, because if you type the words 'evidence' and '2012' into Google you just come up with a bunch of doomsday bullshit. I can't find a trailer or poster yet, but since Radha Mitchell is in this film I guess a pic of her will be good enough.

GINGERCLOWN 3D

Synopsis: It is 1983. A group of high school students are having a great time near Hollywood Hills one weekend when they bump into the Loser from their school, Sam, who's just on his way home.

Sam would do anything in order to get Jenny's attention, one of prettiest girls in school. Unfortunately she's also the girlfriend of the school's bully, Biff, the quarterback of the football team.
Biff and his buddies are keen to take Sam to the old abandoned amusement park to make him prove his courage as part of their initiation ceremony. They involve Jenny in their cruel game as the grand prize of the competition. Sam accepts the challenge but the girl wouldn't let him go in by himself, she follows him into the amusement park and a night they'll never forget.
Because in the old park, hidden in the darkness are frightening and somewhat eccentric monsters that love to torture innocent human beings while intensively annoying each other.

You may have noticed earlier that I said I hate horror comedies. Well that's just a general rule, every now and then I will find one that I enjoy. So far this seems like it will be one of them. It has an amazing voice cast too with Tim Curry, Brad Dourif, Lance Henriksen, Michael Winslow and Sean Young.

THE APPARITION

Synopsis: "When frightening events start to occur in their home, young couple Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan) discover they are being haunted by a presence that was accidentally conjured during a university parapsychology experiment. The horrifying apparition feeds on their fear and torments them no matter where they try to run. Their last hope is an expert in the supernatural (Tom Felton), but even with his help they may already be too late to save themselves from this terrifying force..."

I gotta say I'm a little sick of all of these paranormal, haunting movies. That sentence "When frightening events start to occur in their home" could apply to so many films, all of which end the same. Perhaps this will have an awesome twist to set it apart from every other evil spirit movie, but I doubt it.

The release date was already pushed back from 2011, but we should be seeing it released August 24th 2012.

7500

Synopsis: Passengers aboard a flight across the Pacific Ocean encounter a supernatural force.

I don't think I've ever seen a movie that I've actually liked which has been set on a plane. Maybe that one part of the Twilight Zone Movie, but that wasn't even a whole movie. Nevertheless this could always turn out to be a great movie but I won't be getting my hopes up.

Oh yeah, the movie should be out around August 31st 2012.

Upcoming Horror Movies 2012 - Part 4

2012-01-07T02:50:00.000-08:00

Well here's the fourth list with another 10 movies you can expect to see sometime this year. I may do another list, I may not. Hopefully there is at least one film on this list that catches your attention. Personally I urge everyone to see The Dead when it's out on DVD and Blu-ray. Fucking brilliant.

THE DEAD

Synopsis: An American mercenary, the sole survivor of a plane crash, has to run the gauntlet across Africa, battling with the living dead. Joining forces with a local military man, desperately searching for his son amongst the chaos, they fight together to survive.

THE DEAD is easily the best zombie movie I've seen since George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The bleak, harsh African landscape is perfect, and the zombies are actually real slow walking zombies. Definitely a must see in my opinion. Coming to DVD February 14th 2012.

SILENT HOUSE

Synopsis: Sarah returns with her father and uncle to fix up the family’s longtime summerhouse after it was violated by squatters in the off-season. As they work in the dark, Sarah begins to hear sounds from within the walls of the boarded-up building. Although she barely remembers the place, Sarah senses the past may still haunt the home.

This is a remake of the original Uruguayan film of the same name from 2010. I haven't seen the original so I can't really comment on it, all I know is that it was supposedly shot all in one continuous take with a single camera and only a $6,000 budget. The remake claims to be in real time with a much larger budget.
Release date is March 9th 2012.

DARK SHADOWS

Synopsis: In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet-or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy...until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better...

Tim Burton directs Johnny Depp (of course) and Helena Bonham Carter (of course) in this gothic tale based on the 1960s/70s TV series. Also stars Christopher Lee and Alice Cooper among others. I used to be a really big Tim Burton fan but I have to admit Alice in Wonderland and Willy Wonka really put me off. Hopefully he spends as much time on the story as he does on the design.
Coming May 11th 2012.

THE ABCs OF DEATH

Synopsis: The ABC's OF DEATH is an ambitious anthology film featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world's leading talents in contemporary genre film. Inspired by children's educational ABC books, the motion picture is comprised of 26 individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The directors were then given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death. Provocative, shocking, funny and ultimately confrontational; THE ABC's OF DEATH is the definitive snapshot of the diversity of modern horror. Drafthouse Films, Magnet Pictures and Timpson Films are proud to present this alphabetical arsenal of destruction orchestrated by what Fangoria calls "a stunning roll call of some of the most exciting names in horror across the world."

As the synopsis suggests this is a 26-part anthology with each short chapter coming from a different director. Directors include Jason Eesener, Ti West, Adam Wingard, Srdjan Spasojevic, Cavier Gens and heaps more. I've watched a few of the short submissions and it looks like there is some clever stuff here. No official release date but expect to see it some time this year.

THE ZOMBIE KING

Synopsis: Samuel Peters once an ordinary man, dabbles within the laws of voodoo to bring his wife back from the grave, he soon encounters the God of malevolence 'Kalfu', where he makes a pact with him to destroy the underworld and bring chaos to earth; in return he will become 'The Zombie King' and walk the earth for eternity with his departed wife. Seven days before the rise of the Dark Moon, Samuel Peters (The Zombie King) calls upon Kalfu to raise seven of the recently departed, where their souls must be held on earth for seven days. With the ever growing horde of zombies, they begin to completely wipe out a countryside town. Once the Government get wind of what is going on, they set a perimeter around the town area and employ a shoot on sight policy. Trapped within the town, the locals and unlikely bunch of misfits fight for their lives, and the remaining humans soon realise that they have to unite in order to survive..

If you skip the first three quarters of that synopsis you'll see that this is basically just going to be one of those 'bunch of people fighting off a horde of enemies' films. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Corey Feldman playing the God of Malevolence? Edward Furlong as the Zombie King? Sounds cool to me.
Release date is currently set for October 30th 2012.

HATCHET III

This is what I have so far. Hatchet III will continue where Hatchet II left off, as a young woman sought revenge on the malevolent monster that killed her family while they were fishing in Louisiana swamp country.
Adam Green will not be directing this sequel though. BJ McDonnell, the cameraman who worked on the first two films will be making his directorial debut with Hatchet III. Expect to see Danielle Harris and Kane Hodder back.
I actually liked the first Hatchet, but the second one was a little disappointing to say the least. Still I'm a sucker for anything with Danielle Harris in it, and it will be interesting to see how they bring Victor Crowley back after what happened to him in Hatchet II. Release date should be some time this year.

ZOMBIE MASSACRE

Whenever I see the words 'Uwe Boll' preceding the title of a movie, it doesn't exactly get me excited. In fact it does pretty much the exact opposite, it makes me never want to see the movie. Ever. Zombie Massacre doesn't have any sort of detailed plot however I did a little research and found that the directors (Luca Boni & Marco Ristori) have already worked together on another of Boll's films Eaters. But it gets worse. Boll is notorious for his horrible video game adaptations, and this is no different. Zombie Massacre is the title of an unreleased Wii game, which is now being pushed for a release on the Wii U around the same time the movie comes out. No official release date yet but check the trailer below.

THE BARRENS

Synopsis: Despite their reluctance, Richard Marlow takes his wife, Cynthia; their young son, Danny; and his teenage daughter, Sadie to the Pine Barrens for a long weekend of camping and family bonding. As they arrive at the Wharton State Forest, a mutilated deer runs out into the road, nearly colliding with the Marlows' car. Later that evening, another bloodied animal falls from a tree. Bad turns to worse when, in the middle of the night, a college boy camping nearby disappears into the woods. Nevertheless, Richard presses the family to hike further into the forest to the spot where he used to camp with his father. He is feverish, and a past wound on his arm appears badly infected, but when it begins to rain, there is no turning back. Richard's sickness soon becomes debilitating; his headaches turn to hallucinations. What's worse, he believes there is something stalking them…something with yellow eyes, pointed horns, and the wings of a bat - THE JERSEY DEVIL. The disfigured bodies of the missing camper and another college boy soon turn up. The Marlows must fight for their lives as the horrifying answer reveals itself in a shocking and tragic conclusion.

Darren Lynn Bousman's track record doesn't seem very consistent at all. He directed three of the Saw films (II, III & IV), Repo! The Genetic Opera, the decent Mother's Day remake, and most recently the lacklustre 11-11-11. Now it seems he is trying his hand at doing a film based on the legend of the Jersey Devil. Starring Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and Mia Kirshner (The Vampire Diaries) I really have no idea what to expect from this, I guess I'll just wait for a trailer. Release will be later this year.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: RESURRECTION

Synopsis: In 2012,the deceased have risen from their graves with only one instinct-to feed on the living. As academics speculate on the scientific cause of the phenomena, theologians point to the Armageddon foretold in the Book of Revelation. As the cities are over run and civilisation crumbles, a family take refuge from the undead army in an isolated farmhouse in West Wales. But the greatest threat is already among them.

Do we really need another NOTLD? Of course not. This is apparently not a remake or sequel but a 'companion piece' which I don't think will fool anybody. Read the synopsis and you will see the same basic premise as the original NOTLD. It's like saying The Thing was a prequel, when we all knew perfectly well that it may as well have been a remake. One difference here though is that this movie has a modern setting (2012) and is also set in the UK. Will that be enough to set it apart though? We'll just have to wait and see.

BLOOD

From the official website - BLOOD has been written for the screen and will be directed by award-winning filmmaker Marc Rosenbush, and is being produced by Omar Kaczmarczyk and Yakov Bentsvi. The motion picture adaptation promises to turn this provocative DC/Vertigo graphic novel into a hugely entertaining popcorn movie.
BLOOD explores fascinating themes of identity, loss and redemption, while delivering an action-packed movie experience full of terrifying vampire battles, hallucinatory imagery, and more.

I've never read or even seen this graphic novel before, but now I've looked into it a little and it looks kinda cool. It's described as 'a vampire story unlike any other' which sounds just fine to me. Expect to see it later this year.

Upcoming Horror Movies 2012 - Part 3

2012-01-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

Once again here are another 10 horror (well for the most part) films that you can expect to see sometime this year. Everything from sequels to remakes, 3D films, slashers, exorcisms and paranormal entities. I stuck the new Batman movie in here because I think it's one a lot of horror fans will enjoy. I know it's not horror, please don't feel the need to point that out.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

One of the most anticipated movies of 2012. This will be the final piece in the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Batman trilogy. The previous film The Dark Knight grossed over $1 billion worldwide so expect this next one to be mega popular as well. Villains will include Bane and Catwoman.
Release is set for July 19th 2012.

Synopsis: Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the terrorist leader Bane arrives in Gotham City, pushing it and its police force to their limits, forcing its former hero Batman to resurface after taking the fall for Harvey Dent's crimes.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK

A remake of the 1989 movie of the same name, The Woman In Black stars Daniel Radcliffe. Although this is not his first non-Harry Potter role, it will be interesting to see how he does, because for a lot of people this will be the first time they will see him not playing the boy wizard. The movie hits theatres February 3rd 2012.

Synopsis: A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.

THE DEVIL INSIDE

Exorcism movies in recent years (Exorcismus, The Rite, The Last Exorcism) have really sucked. Seeing the trailer for this new one though, has me actually looking forward to it. Release date is set for February 16th 2012.

Synopsis: In Italy, a woman becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms during her mission to discover what happened to her mother, who allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism.

THE RAVEN

I love Edgar Allan Poe and I love John Cusack, so this one is definitely on my must-see list. Coming out January 5th 2012.

A fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet pursues a serial killer whose murders mirror those in the writer's stories.

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3D

A direct sequel to the original 1974 film. I'm not getting my hopes up for this one, but will probably check it out anyway. Comes out October 5th 2012.

Synopsis: A young woman travels to Texas to collect an inheritance; little does she know that an encounter with a chainsaw-yielding killer is part of the reward.

THE POSSESSION

Originally titled Dibbuk Box. Another of those 'based on true events' horror films. Even though it's all bullshit, it is actually a pretty interesting story and if you want to read about it you can do so right here.
Release date is August 31st 2012.

Synopsis: A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child.

EXCISION

Haven't seen a trailer or poster for this yet, but some of the stills look pretty gory. No specific release date yet.

Synopsis: A disturbed and delusional high school student with aspirations of a career in medicine goes to extremes to earn the approval of her controlling mother.

DARK STAR HOLLOW

An adaptation of the novel of the same name by Matthew J. Fougerousse. Sounds like an interesting one, but I think I'll reserve my judgement for when a trailer is finally released. Release date should be sometime this year.

Synopsis: September 15, 1965. A storm destroyed the dam of the quiet little town of Bright Star, which lay nestled in the valley of the great Tennessee mountains. It was not an accident. Six-hundred and fifty-three people lost their lives in the horrible flood. That was not an accident. Thirteen people survived. That was an accident. For forty years, the town of Bright Star lay hidden underneath the murky waters of Lake Natas. An unspeakable evil stood guard over the town from the hills above. Waiting. David Sinclair has been given a second chance to finish what he started forty years ago. David Sinclair has returned from Hell and he is not about to go back. He has a job to do. September 2005, a group of vacationing houseboaters take a cruise on Lake Natas for a week of relaxation and rest. They have no idea that they are embarking on a one-way cruise to Hell. The vacationers and locals quickly find themselves surrounded by the nightmares of the past...

SMILEY

A slasher featuring a killer with one of the most fucked up masks I've seen. Looks like this one could be good fun. Expect to see it some time this year.
Synopsis: After learning of an urban legend in which a demented serial killer named SMILEY can be summoned through the Internet, mentally fragile Ashley must decide whether she is losing her mind or becoming Smiley's next victim.

APARTMENT 1303

A 3D remake of the Japanese horror from 2007. Mishca Barton and Rebecca De Mornay star. Coming out later this year.

Synopsis: A modern ghost story which turns a love/hate relationship between mother and daughter into a tale of horror. Some rentals are too good to be true.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 Confirmed For 2012

2012-01-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

I know, we all saw this coming didn't we? I mean you can't expect a franchise which has had this much financial success to just stop can you? As much as I hate the PA films, there are a fuckload of people out there who love them and now we are getting a fourth instalment sometime this year. Paramount sent out a press release today about their release plans for this year, you can read the full release here.
Here is the direct quote pertaining to the release of a new PA film.

"In 2012, Paramount’s release slate highlights include “World War Z,” a zombie thriller starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster , “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” the next instalment in the global franchise starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Channing Tatum , a new chapter in the “Paranormal Activity” franchise, and “The Dictator,” starring Sacha Baron Cohen and directed by Larry Charles , the team behind “Borat.”

The only questions remaining now are when will it be released? And what path will it take? Will it continue on from the last film? Will it introduce new characters?
Honestly I could not give a fuck, but my money is on a late October release date. But after nearly falling asleep in the theatre during PA3 I'm not feeling too enthusiastic about seeing the next instalment.

Bela Lugosi DRACULA Poster From Mondo

2011-12-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

The guys over at Mondo are fucking brilliant. They never cease to amaze me, and seem to get better with each poster that they release. Here is their newest design, a Dracula poster featuring the one and only Bela Lugosi in his most famous role. Unfortunately they're all sold out already, so if you want one you'll have to go check out eBay and probably pay a ridiculous amount of money. But go check out their official website anyway, and see all of the awesome posters they're released over the years. And look forward to more Universal Monsters posters as we head into 2012.

THE LAST OF US (PS3) Trailer And Details

2011-12-29T02:05:00.000-08:00

Give me any sort of post-disaster, survival story and I will be all over it. Movies, games, books you name it. Fallout, Resident Evil, The Last Man on Earth, Mad Max, The Road are all favorites of mine. I don't know why but I've always loved these kind of survival horror, against the odds type of stories. This new game THE LAST OF US from Naughty Dog looks like it's going to be a combination of all of the above, so of course I am fucking excited and glad that I chose a PS3 over an X-Box 360. The trailer which you will find below, was revealed a couple of weeks back as Naughty Dog's new project. The trailer was revealed, but that was all. No storyline or other details, although just by watching the trailer it's pretty easy to see what the game will be about. But just in case, here are the latest details released by Naughty Dog.

"Abandoned cities reclaimed by nature. A population decimated by a modern plague. Survivors are killing each other for food, weapons; whatever they can get their hands on.
Joel, a brutal survivor, and Ellie, a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together if they hope to survive their journey across the US."

UPDATE: Here are the latest story details I've snagged courtesy of DreadCentral -

- The world presented in The Last of Us takes place 20 years after an apocalyptic event has made civilization slowly fall apart.
- The story begins in one of the last remaining military sanctioned quarantine zones where martial law is in effect and every preventive measure is being taken to prevent its collapse.
- Joel is introduced in this quarantine zone as a man in his late 40's who has taken on a hardened exterior from the brutal events that occur in the new world. Joel works within the city doing any jobs that pay good money, and his latest assignment is to smuggle a 14-year-old girl out of the city.
- Ellie is the 14-year-old girl in question, and she has never ventured outside of the quarantined walls of the city. Ellie is raised in an orphanage with many other kids, and she constantly gets into trouble.
- The duo are soon discovered outside of the quarantine zone, and Joel is marked as a enemy of the military. Since reentering the city is no longer an option, the two set off to find one of Joel's friends that may watch over the girl for him in the outside world.
- The outside world presented in The Last of Us imagines and closely imitates a world that has been forgotten by man and reclaimed by nature. Busy cities have now been taken over by vegetation, wildlife and other forms of nature.

Check out the official website for more videos and downloads.

SECONDS APART (2011)

2011-12-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Antonio Negret

Starring: Orlando Jones, Edmund Entin, Gary Entin

I've always found identical twins to be a little creepy. But add some psychic powers into the mix and they can be downright scary. This is the case in SECONDS APART.

Seth and Jonah are identical twins born just seconds apart. They both possess an amazing and dangerous ability. Telepathy. While working on a project, things begin to spiral out of control for the twins when their classmates start dying in mysterious circumstances, and one especially sharp and intuitive cop suspects them. The pressure from the police officer and the addition of a love interest finally gets too much and the twins find themselves fighting against each other.

When it comes to movies involving telepathic abilities, the odds always seem very unbalanced and this is why the characters with these abilities have to have some sort of limitations. In this case the full power of their telepathy can only be brought forth when the twins are together. When pressure and jealousy divides these two boys, that is when things start falling apart.
The story isn't very original. Mysterious deaths and a smart cop hot on the trail of the killers, but still I thought this movie was a great attempt at a telepathic horror film. In fact I don't think I've enjoyed one of these telepathic horrors this much since I first saw Carrie.
One of my favorite aspects was the decision to use real twins in the lead roles, rather than a single actor playing two separate characters. This allows a wider variety of camera shots and scene construction. And the twins actually did a pretty decent job too.

The movie starts out with a bit of excitement and holds your attention pretty well for the first portion, but then it sort of slows down a bit in the middle. Thankfully toward the end it picks up again and it finishes with a great twist. There aren't any really scares or shocks here, it's more of a thriller/mystery but it does a better than decent job and it is certainly something worth watching.

PROMETHEUS Official Teaser Trailer Revealed

2011-12-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

Finally!! I am so fucking pumped for this movie. In fact I'm so excited for PROMETHEUS that I'm just going to let the official teaser trailer do all the talking. Check it out below courtesy of ShockTillYouDrop.

Synopsis: Ridley Scott, director of "Alien" and "Blade Runner," returns to the genre he helped define. With PROMETHEUS, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

PROMETHEUS hits theatres June 8th 2012.

My Favorite Movies Of 2011

2011-12-22T02:32:00.000-08:00

Please read this before you scroll down, because I would like everybody to know a couple of things about this list. First of all I don't do 'top' or 'best of' lists because obviously I'm just one person with my own opinion. I don't expect anybody to agree with all of my choices because everybody out there will have their own opinions and therefore there own lists. Also I haven't seen every film which has been released this year, so a definitive 'best of' list would be impossible.
Secondly I should say that not all of the following movies are straight up horror films. Having said that though, they are all in some way connected to horror cinema, even if it's just by the atmosphere or a certain theme or subject matter. Horror will always be my favorite genre of film but it's not all that I watch.
These ten movies below are really just my favorites of the year. They aren't the ten which got my highest star ratings, they're just a selection which I have really enjoyed for different reasons.
So in no particular order, here are my personal favorite films of 2011.

The links to the full reviews are in the titles.

THE ORPHAN KILLER (review)

My favorite slasher of the year, although Chromeskull would be a close second. A great independent horror movie and the gore and practical effects are phenominal.

YELLOWBRICKROAD (review)

This movie is a real mindfuck. If it weren't for the unsatisfactory ending this would have been amazing.

SUPER 8 (review)

A fantastic combination of The Goonies, ET and Cloverfield involving a bunch of kids and an alien.

STAKE LAND (review)

Like Zombieland meets The Road. But with lots of vampires and religious nuts.

ATROCIOUS (review)

Spanish found-footage film with lots of tension and a disturbing end.

THE DEAD (review)

The best zombie movie I've seen since the original Night of the Living Dead. Period.

A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE (review)

A serial killer movie with a difference, and a filming style you will either love or hate.

SNOWTOWN (review)

Ok so I said these were in no particular order, but I can tell you that this is my personal favorite movie of the year across any genre. The most powerful, disturbing and bleak movie of 2011.

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (FULL SEQUENCE) (review)

More ass to mouth action with a new twisted villain and a score of fresh new victims.

SECONDS APART (review)

Identical twins are creepy. Identical twins with psychic powers are downright scary.

FINAL DESTINATION 5 (2011)

2011-12-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Steven Quale

Starring: Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Tony Todd

I'm not ashamed to say that I love the FINAL DESTINATION franchise. I guess it's one of my guilty pleasures. I know that they are all basically the same movie with different characters and different death scenes, but I just find them so enjoyable and satisfying. So obviously I was really looking forward to the fifth installation, although I wasn't too keen on the 3D aspect. Luckily I had a chance to see it in regular old 2D, and I loved it.

I guess I don't really need to go into too much detail about the story because as I said they all have the same basic plot. Every movies starts off with somebody having a vision, which then leads to themselves and their friends avoiding a huge disaster. In this case it's a bridge collapse while a group of colleagues are taking a trip to a business retreat. The remainder of the movie then follows these survivors as they try (and usually fail) to survive. Death doesn't like being cheated.
In this case however, the storyline is given a bit of a twist when these survivors realise that they can save themselves by killing somebody else in their place.

FINAL DESTINATION 5 was obviously made for 3D. There are things constantly flying toward the camera, but even watching it in 2D was fine for me. The acting is what you'd expect, not great but not too bad to frustrate or piss you off. The death scenes are over the top of course and somewhat unbelievable but there are plenty off inventive uses of environment as always and a few suspenseful moments where you expect something to happen but it doesn't. But the one part of this movie that made it (for me at least) the best of the franchise was the ending. It's clever, unexpected and cool how it brings the whole franchise full circle. I hope that's not too much of a spoiler..

Anyway. FINAL DESTINATION 5 is exactly what you'd expect, nothing more, nothing less. If you're a fan of the previous instalments then you will enjoy this. If you haven't liked any of the other films then you will probably want to stay away.

SNOWTOWN (2011)

2011-12-17T07:13:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Justin Kurzel
Starring: Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris

I actually saw this movie way back in May when it first came out in theatres here in Australia, but for some strange reason I have neglected to post a review of it yet. Since I'm trying to cram in as many more 2011 reviews before the end of the year I thought now is as good a time as any. Fortunately this isn't the kind of film which is easily forgotten.

In case you're not familiar with the true story on which this is based, I will briefly fill you in. On the 20th of May 1999, eight bodies were found in barrels of acid inside a disused bank building in Snowtown, South Australia. This eventually led to the discovery of a further four bodies and the subsequent arrest and conviction of four people for their part in the murders. This movie tells the story of how the bodies ended up there.
But it tells so much more than just that.

Sixteen-year-old Jamie lives with his mother, Elizabeth, and two younger brothers, Alex and Nicholas, in a housing trust home in Adelaide's northern suburbs. Their home is but one of many sun-starved houses crammed together to cater for a disenfranchised society. Jamie longs for an escape from the violence and hopelessness that surrounds him and his salvation arrives in the form of John, a charismatic man who unexpectedly comes to his aid. As John spends more and more time with Jamie's family, Elizabeth and her boys begin to experience a stability and sense of family that they have never known. John moves from the role of Jamie's protector to that of a mentor, indoctrinating Jamie into his world, a world brimming with bigotry, righteousness and malice. Like a son mimicking his father, Jamie soon begins to take on some of John's traits and beliefs as he spends more and more time with him and his select group of friends. (IMDb)

I can honestly say that SNOWTOWN is the most powerful and disturbing film I have seen all year. It will either have you totally immersed and riveted to your seat, or you will find yourself walking out of the theatre (as many did). The violent scenes are few and far between, but when they happen they are gruesome and hit with the force of a sledgehammer. But the violence is not the aspect which has the most impact. It is the relationship between Jamie Vlassakis (Pittaway) and John Bunting (Henshall) which at first starts off very paternal and friendly before growing darkly sinister and twisted. Bunting slowly leads Jamie into his world of bigotry and righteousness before revealing his homicidal plans. Jamie then finds himself struggling with Bunting's ideals (which seem to have some kind of a moral base) and his own conscience.

SNOWTOWN is beautifully shot, perfectly written and every single actor plays their part perfectly. What's extraordinary is that almost all of the cast were effectively taken off the street with no prior acting experience. And amazingly this is director Justin Kurzel's debut feature film.
There is no doubt that this movie will have some kind of impact on every one of its viewers and will stay lodged in your mind long after it has been seen. This is both a recommendation and a warning.

A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE (2011)

2011-12-17T05:33:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Adam Wingard

Starring: AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Joe Swanberg

A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE may sound like a cheesy slasher flick or an over the top torture movie, but I can assure you that it is miles away from either. Instead you will find yourself descending into a lonely, cold and desperate character piece with a dynamic presentation and a simple but incredibly well executed story.

Two main stories make up the bulk of the film, with a third being the glue which binds them together. First we have the story of Garrick Turrel, a prolific serial killer who has just escaped police custody and continues his murder spree as he makes his way through back-roads and lonely highways to his ex-girlfriend.
Next we have Sarah's story. Sarah is Garrick's ex whom after ending their relationship is trying to get on with her life as best she can. She regularly attends AA meetings to help cope with her alcoholism, and it is at these meetings that she meets and begins a relationship with the kindhearted Kevin.
Thirdly is the area in between. Every now and then we see flashbacks of Sarah's life with Garrick and we find out why Sarah is so screwed up.
I won't say anymore, because honestly I think the less you know bout the movie, the better.

At first I found the story a little confusing and difficult to follow, because it chops and changes between current happenings and flashbacks so often and sometimes seamlessly. But eventually I settled into a groove and it all went pretty smoothly after that.
Obviously the movie has put style above substance when it comes to the more violent scenes, with most murders actually happening off screen. But I actually felt that this worked well and fit in with the whole mood of the film. And speaking of style, the camera work is one aspect of this movie which will definitely divide viewers. You'll love it or hate it, there really is no middle ground. I personally loved it. It's deliberately shaky and often moves in and out of focus, and for the most part it seems as though a stranger is filming these characters from outside a window or behind the bushes. It is intimate yet somehow detached at the same time. I thought it worked extremely well, but I know a lot of people will find it terrible.
Still on the subject of style I have to comment on the sound and color grading, both of which I loved and both of which fit the whole desolate mood perfectly.

All of the actors played their parts perfectly. AJ Bowen was especially great as Garrick, and the contrast between the scenes of his sinister side and his more loving side while with Sarah is both frightening and powerful. Amy Seimetz and Joe Swanberg as Sarah and Kevin were also great, and their more personal intimate scenes were very organic and believable.

If you're looking for a lazy horror film which requires zero thinking and unfolds effortlessly before you, then look elsewhere. But if you want a dark and disturbing thriller which will challenge you and leave you feeling satisfied then I highly recommend this.

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 UNCUT Now Available

2011-12-16T05:21:00.000-08:00

Well the inevitable has finally happened. After being initially banned in multiple countries THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (FULL SEQUENCE) is now available 100% uncut and 100% legal!
It's available from Bounty Films to rent for $5.99 or purchase for only $14.99.
Unfortunately it isn't available in all countries (including the U.S) but if you are in Australia or the U.K then you are in luck! So go check it out in all of it's original full length glory!

PROMETHEUS Official Poster

2011-12-16T00:08:00.000-08:00

PROMETHEUS is probably the number one movie I am really looking forward to next year, and I know a lot of people feel the same way. Everything has me excited. The premise, the Alien connection, all of the stills I've seen and especially the leaked trailer. Now we have a slick looking poster for you to feast your eyes upon courtesy of Horror-movies.ca.

Synopsis: “Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life’s ultimate mystery.”

Look for it in theatres June 8th 2012.

Tobe Hooper MIDNIGHT MOVIE Book Review

2011-12-13T23:46:00.000-08:00

Earlier in the year I read Wes Craven's first (and so far only) foray into the world of novels, and I was pleasantly surprised. Now I've read the debut novel of yet another legendary filmmaker, Tobe Hooper.
Actually the book is actually a shared project, co-written by Alan Goldsher, but whatever. Here goes.

"The good news: Director Tobe Hooper has been invited to speak at a screening of 'Destiny Express,' a movie he wrote and directed as a teenager, but that hasn't seen the light of day in decades. And Hooper's fans are ecstatic.
The bad news: 'Destiny Express' proves to be a killer . . . literally. As the death toll mounts, Tobe embarks on a desperate journey to understand the film's thirty-year-old origins—and put an end to the strange epidemic his creation has set in motion."

MIDNIGHT MOVIE opens with Tobe Hooper (yes he is one of the characters in the book as well as the author) receiving a mysterious phone call, inviting him down to Texas for a very special screening of Destiny Express. Destiny Express is a film Tobe made as a teenager, and even though he doesn't know how this strange caller got their hands on it, he agrees to attend the screening, which takes place at a tiny, shitty little bar as a part of the SXSW festival.
All goes relatively well and when the screening is over Tobe goes home. But that's when some really fucked up shit starts to happen. A string of meth lab explosions, people fucking themselves to death, zombies and blue pussy juice. The whole country begins to fall apart at the seams, and where can all of this be traced back to? The screening of Destiny Express. Soon enough Tobe Hooper and friends realise they need to find a way to undo the mess caused by his movie, before it's too late.

For a first time author, this book is pretty damn decent. It's written in a very easy to follow conversational style, and rather than just being a single long narration it's actually presented from multiple view points and in multiple formats. Some paragraphs are presented as news stories, others are text messages or emails, there are diary entries and even Blogger and Twitter posts. Admittedly some of the news articles don't seem very professionally written, but they work well enough to get their point across. And it helps that Tobe is writing about characters he knows (himself, film critics and fans) and subjects he's familiar with (horror film). Some times, particularly at the start of the book it seems that Mr Hooper may be talking himself up a fair bit, but honestly I think the man responsible for the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre can be forgiven for that.

With stories that are told from multiple points of view, I often find myself getting bored with one character's chapter and praying that it finishes so that I can get back to the more interesting character. With MIDNIGHT MOVIE however, I found all of this chopping and changing between characters and formats kept me reading because it was ALL interesting.
This novel isn't a revelation, it won't change your life. But it is an easy and fun read and will appeal to fans of old school horror for sure.

I also thought it was worth mentioning that I actually read this on my Kindle. I'm not sure about the physical book, but the ebook has a 'bonus material' section at the end, which is an interview with Tobe Hooper. It's actually an interesting read and explains that some elements in the novel are actually based on reality. Not the zombies and blue pussy juice of course, but you can read it yourself and you'll see what I mean.