This is a cool horror movie. They don’t make them like this anymore, that’s for sure.
The plot focuses on a couple of friends in New Orleans, on a trip into a haunted tour of the bayou. Things go wayward when, the boat the young adults are on stalls, and something in the water begins to attack.
Along the way, there is a story told that there was a family of weird hicks, who had their house burned down. While trying to save the family, the father kills his son with a hatchet, and eventually dies of what they call a “Broken Heart”.
The tagline that got me to watch this film is awesome. Although I think it’s really not true.
“It's not a remake, it's not a sequel, and it's not based on a Japanese one. Old school American horror.”
This film is gorey. It shows people getting their heads torn off, disemboweled and completely ripped to shreds. The sounds during these scenes, doesn’t sound like what I believe something of that nature would sound like.
How would I know?
I don’t know. But this film was gorey!
As far as horror movies are concerned, I’ve been known to say that boobs and gore make for a good time. This film has two more things that make films pretty cool. 1) Humor 2) Visuals
The film does a great job of poking fun at itself, but still maintaining a slight edge. The actors have some good one liners, good dialogue at times, and while the plot is somewhat thin, it still delivers some freakish scares.
How can you go wrong with horror clichés like sawing someone in half, chopping heads off, man in rubber suit (chimera), ghosts, the funny asian dude, dismembering victims, bad teeth, Robert Englund, and well…boobs and gore!
This film is a great piece of horror cinema. It’s grotesque in all the right places, it’s serious in some spots, it’s a true testament of what horror should be…if seriously considered a throwback to the 80’s new wave of horror films that came out.
I liked it.
However, the “sluts” get really annoying, and I wish they died first.
Horror fans, rejoice! An original idea…sort of…and well worth the “unrated” marketing scheme! You can’t go wrong if you like Horror films. This thing is bad ass!
If you're still on the fence with Hatchet, then consider the old formula for horror movies:
A group of young adults head into the woods, where there is a monster/serial killer waiting to get them. The ones that give into sexual temptation are killed, the minorities are killed, and it's up to the reluctant hero and the anti-social one to escape...but will they? Or will evil reign? The Hatchet Dvd is worthwhile on all levels, even if it doesn't star an all star cast; they do a well enough job, all things considered.
A while ago I got mailed a double feature dvd and wasn’t able to watch it right away. Liberation Media was kind enough to send me something so cool, that most companies never do for me, and I felt bad for a while. However, after moving from Seattle to Moscow Idaho, I was finally able to review this film. Wait, not just one film, two films! This is a classic drive in style b-movie double feature! That’s right up this blog’s alley too!
Liberation Cult sent me this dvd, and I packed in a box, but no box could contain the horror that was in this double feature. Up first I watched Mutant.
Mutant has a simple premise. Two brothers are on a vacation of sorts and they stumble upon something too scary for words! I like how the film began with a small tribute of sorts to the beginning of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 with the brothers getting driven off the road by a maniac truck driver. Whether the throwback was intentional or unintentional is really not known to me, but it was definitely reminiscent of that cult classic and favorite of this blog.
The movie moves forward fast, and we don’t see our mutant at first. We just see shadows and aftermath, with plenty of noise and slight gore effects. This kind of film making is always a plus, as you never really want to reveal your villain too early, especially when your villain is a rubber suit monster of maniacal proportions.
There are cliche's in this film initially of course the local law enforcement doesn't seem to buy the brothers story about a dead man at random. Meanwhile, they keep running into trouble with local rednecks. The movie then moves forward with some classic genre horror.
By the time you finally get the full story behind the monster in a rubber suit, you start to realize how cheesy the past generations of horror movies were. I didn’t mind this movie that much, as it had some classic lines and clever editing. The actor’s didn’t seem fake at all either, and there was a real down to earth quality overall. Sure this thing was meant for late night Channel Z type channels, or an Elvira classic movie late night showing, but it still has enough guff to push even the jaded fan to root for our main characters.
While it’s not the most gorey film, and while most people may not have heard of this film, it still packs a good enough punch to get your eyeballs into trouble.
Now, you have to really consider two factors to this film. The first being the presentation of the transformation of the mutations. The small town is being overrun by mutants, but you only see signs of "rubber suit" mayhem with latex effects and more. Things great really interesting when you realize that you're not watching a monster flick, you're watching a zombie film! That's right, a Zombie film!
The second part of our double feature is featuring killer cats…killer mutant cats of sorts. The film should not be confused with the Asian horror film “The Uninvited” even though it shares the name. This thing is the polar opposite in terms of film making, but still is cool enough to be part of this instant cult favorite of tag team horror dvd’s.
The Uninvited that this double feature showcases is a 1987 b-movie that feels a lot more like an episode of Tales From The Crypt rather than a feature length film. A shady business man tries to escape to a remote island, and while things are going smooth with him and his spring breakers on a ship to a remote island, a local mutated cat jumps aboard and mayhem ensues. This film is laughable to say the least, but it shows that the imagination of the past was a bit more fervent than anything we are seeing these days. Sure it’s slapstick at times, but this thing is hilarious and a cool view.
The Uninvited isn’t going to be on anyone’s top 10 list at all, but it packs a comedic horror punch. Of course, I’m not one hundred percent sure that it was totally meant to be comedic, but hey, it happens.
As a whole I would recommend checking out The Liberation Cult Double Feature Dvd as it is a classic look at cult horror films. You’re not going to find this too often these days, as there was just a sense of finesse to these things that just seems better. I liked them, and think it’s a good deal to get this two pack. However, be warned, these movies aren’t exactly home runs, but hey, they are cult classics…well…they are trying to be anyways.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
It's time once again to look at the mailbag for the latest and greatest comments from you, the fine readers. Well, not that there's a ton of readers, I'm still scraping by with minimal support. Oh and I'm still unemployed, because I'm an idiot and no one wants to hire me. So without further delay, here are the latest and greatest comments from the past 30 or so days.
Oooooh -- thanks for the suggestion! I am a connoisseur of true crime novels and serial killer lore, so I'm always on the lookout for movies about the likes of Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer, etc.
A few other great serial killer filims: "M," a disturbing German film based (supposedly) on Peter Kurten's murderous exploits, and "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." The latter is quite possibly the most unnerving movie I've ever seen.
No problem. I reviewed that a while ago, and still think it's one of the more brutal horror films of our time. The sexuality and abuse in the film is worse than most of the porno I've seen, including the kink club sites. I wonder how the actresses were able to deal with the "acting" that was involved, it just seemed extreme to me. Oh well. It's true what they say, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
Easily the best film that Renee Zellweger has ever appeared in and probably will ever appear in.
Yeah, she's annoying now, but back then? I admit, I think she was really cute. She's just been annoying ever since. I wonder how she was able to "act" when she apparently looked in pain, at least when she was getting choked out. I guess I should listen to the director/cast commentary someday.
This movie is absolutely amazing. The lines are classically hillarious such as the monologue given at the first crime scene from the guy with the thick East Coast accent and the neck tattoo describing body modification and how "different they are" from society. Captain Howdy has some hillarious speeches involving "the ampallang" and "rites of passage that must be physical." I have watched this movie countless times much to the dismay of my girlfriend. And whenever we need something in the background my reply is always, "hey, why donh't we pop in Strangeland?!?!?!"
Dee Snider did it well, and I hear there's a sequel in the works. I personally thought this film was great, it's still good. I don't think it's the greatest, but man, for being an independent film it hits hard and is as relevant today as it was when it first came out. Thanks for he comment, man, you're one brave dude to get your girlfriend to watch this...or at least request it often. I got lucky and married the only girl I know that says "yes" to anything horror related.
kelit thornell said in regards to The Witchunt Trailer: I know these guys and can't wait to see this movie. They are in a band called White Collar Sideshow. Thier performance on stage is mind blowing and extremely intense. So this movie has to be even more so. Check them out www.facebook.com/whitecollarsideshow and see this movie as soon as it opens.
I'm hoping T. Benson gets funding for a major release, and to finish the film. I met him and his wife at Tom Fest 2009 and thought he was a genuine guy with a good band. Hopefully they continue to do what they do, and yes, I'll be watching the film when it comes out.
Well folks, I hope you guys are ready for next month, I know it's not here yet, but I will be reviewing All Holiday Horror Movies in December this year, once again. I have even gone out of my way to purchase Holiday Horror films on vhs that are rare and out of print just to make things worth it here on this site. I would also appreciate it if you guys (the readers) would use the amazon links to do your christmas shopping, because it would help me out greatly. If not, that's cool. I'll be reviewing a special "double feature" on Wednesday so stay tuned in for that, otherwise, keep the comments coming and thank you kindly for all your support and generosity. Email me, leave a comment or catch me on aim "thecorporatehero" with anything you've got to say.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
I admit, the only reason I even sat down to watch this film was because Edward Furlong was in it. He was in a lot of movies that I personally liked, and as soon as I saw his name on the back cover, I was sold. The movie however, despite being filled in 2008, is not exactly the most gripping of horror movies, and really shows a lack of imagination in a lot of ways. In fact, all things considered, Dark Reel, might be the worst movie I’ve review in quite a while, and that’s saying a lot because I don’t exactly have a long list of great horror movies I’m watching for review on this site.
Dark Reel has a simple premise. But it gets overtly complicated for no apparent reason. We start the film in the older times of Hollywood, with someone trying to make a screen test and career launch. The woman in the screen test is murdered and it sets up the backdrop of our film, for later on. The movie then moves forward with Edward Furlong, a movie fan and now winner of a horror movie contest. He wins a walk on role to a B-Movie and falls for one of the actresses. While on set, someone is murdered and people start to blame him.
Not the most unusual premise huh? Well, it gets creepier as starlets from the film get killed in a variety of creative ways, none of which are worth mentioning. The film is so formulaic that you see the turns way ahead of schedule, and that’s not something that you want out of any movie. These turns come to a boil in the final act, where we find out that there is a ghost haunting the film and the son of the killed starlet from the beginning of the film is killing of actresses, why? For revenge? It makes no sense, and he is foiled rather quickly in comparison.
There are sub plots that are featured here, but none of them are exactly that great. There is a tad bit of gratuitous nudity, which is nice, but the most awkward love scene happens after two hours or so, which really made me hate this film. Furlong looks like a teen, even though he’s thirty years old in this film, and man…it looks sick to see him in a love scene.
My major complaint about this film is the pacing. This film clocks in at around two hours and it is a long two hours. What “Urban Legend” or “Scream” did in about 90 minutes, this thing takes longer and harder to develop. Not only that, the ending and story is so convoluted and executed horribly, that you want to just kick your television. Dark Reel is not a recommended film, it’s not even that scary. It really feels like a made for television scary film for the scyfy channel, which can be a saving grace sometimes, however, not this time. I don’t recommend this film.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
Well, well, the franchise that seems to never want to go away, at least in the slasher category. This time out, the increased budget is somewhat evident as the crisp and solid camera movement ties well with the dark and scary points of this film. Of course, the movie I'm reviewing is the 1990's entry into the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Series; Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Next Generation.
The movie moves forward immediately on some stereotypical stuff, a bad night at the prom. There are two major names immediately tied to this film, as you watch it. The first is a Renee Zellweger and the second of course romantic comedy veteran, Matthew McConaughey. Now, these two actors are not the cream of the crop of actors that you can get in such a film, but like Jennifer Aniston in Leprechaun, this film needed some fresh meat and while I had my doubts, these two put on a show in the third and fourth act that you can't really deny is epic.
The movie is your standard Texas Chainsaw fare, it just hs a bunch of teenagers lost in the woods, meeting up with a very ruthless family, about to get slaughtered. While that's the way this film goes, it does skimp out on the gore. This movie, for all intents and purposes is NOT as gorey as you would come to expect. However, if you watch the orginal film, (not the remake) you also notice that despite the naming convention of this series, it is not the most gorey franchise...until recent years.
The music selection was good, and it never really felt wasted, it felt spot on as the action unfolds. However, we get some sick sounds coming out of Leatherface, which I thought was definitely annoying. He not only seems a bit smaller, he screams and yells like a woman underneath the mask, and really doesn't add depth to the character.
The family and why they are there really gets no explanation, and there is some sick sexual tension going on. It almost feels like you're watching a Rob zombie film not another piece of the Texas Chainsaw franchise. Is Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Next Generation a Scary Film? : Yes.
There are some seriously scary moments in this film. I found that the third act had some scary points for those that are not interesting in S&M. At one pint McConaughey's character is choking Zellweger's character with his right hand and the camera doesn't seem to cut away and for the moments it's unfolding, it looks absolutely real. Like he's literally going to kill his costar, and that makes for some scary moments indeed. Obviously, you know it's a movie, but it gets into kink territory the way he treats her, as she is tied to a chair. The amount of intensity in the kitchen during this film really makes you nervous, especially if you have the sound up and the lights out.
The whole idea of getting lost in the woods in an era without cellphones, has to be a little scary. Especially the notion that no one can help you, even if you scream. The ending is another piece of scary film making, as one main character escapes only to get into a wreck and dragged back by Leatherface. This type of classic horror is not seen very often in the modern era of horror films. This one even threw out a pair of boobs for no apparent reason!
Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Next Generation is not the greatest horror film, and it's not my favorite of the series. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is my favorite, but this one isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. In fact, it had some great intensity at times, it had some sick moments, and despite this having to major stars of the future, it wasn't bad. I was thoroughly entertained, and liked it even more than say, The third film in the series: Leatherface. I recommend it, it's better than the prequel that came out recently, that's for sure.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
I finally found that double feature dvd that I was suppose to have reviewed last month, and I'll have that ready for this week. In the meantime, enjoy a classic review from the Vault, while I prepare more horror reviews to throw at you, including some special surprises.
In 2002 Ted Bundy came out and tried to chronicle the real life story of a man obsessed with sex and serial killing. Ted Bundy is a scary dvd, but more importantly was a scary individual to have running around our world.
Ted Bundy tells the complete story and unflinching at times in its show of sexuality, and brutality, it seems at times to be a made for tv movie, but its over the top fascination with gore and sex seems to point to a short run in theaters and/or a straight to dvd film. I’m not quite sure of the circumstances. However, this one is interesting on many levels.
The story tells the same biographical story that most of these movies start out with. Introducing their childhood and an attempt to give you some background, but this one is nothing extreme. Since Bundy didn’t really start getting into some serious business until he was older.
The story is laughable at times as the character seems over the top, and stupid. However, it starts to thicken up quickly as a relationship goes sour for Bundy and he starts to go insane. What bothered me at this point was how quick this guy turned from slacker to serious, career driven Ted Bundy. He really turned things around and started dating two girls at once, and then he really started to get into a cycle of killing. The movie makes a point of showing a lot of rough sex between Bundy and his love interests. Apparently this is to set up his murders later in the film, but the graphic sexual scenes are done with some sort of sincerity and are not too unlike softcore movies that were once shown on the Spice Channel (cable). I’m not sure how the actresses felt about making these scenes because they are really taking some punishment at times, and it is way overdone for this type of movie.
We then move forward to the murders, these are done without remorse (at least the way they are shown) and Bundy is sly and quick in these. He gains the trust of several women with his good looks, and then comes the hammer. He knocks them out, sexually assaults them and at some point even has sex with corpses. This is pretty sick, and what makes it worse is that its not a fictional story.
If those things weren’t bad enough, the film shows Bundy getting letters from women offering all sorts of things to him. It even shows Bundy getting visits from women and then paying off guards to let him have sex with them in the “family meeting” room. Whether or not this is true it’s appalling to think that this could in fact have happened.
The film quality is right above straight to dvd levels. The visual aspect is dead on and even though the actors do seem played naïve and over the top, I went along with it fine. I didn’t really have a lot of problems with the visual storytelling in this film, even if I did find some of the edits and time frames a bit amateur.
Why Ted Bundy is a scary movie: The movie seems a bit too pretentious to be a horror film. However, it is in fact a horror film as it glorifies the violence a little too much to be a straight forward biopic. This film tries to make Bundy an anti-hero, as some of the 80’s slasher flicks turned several serial killers into fan favorites. If you weren’t keen to knowing that Ted Bundy was indeed a real person, you might be a fan of his slayings as fictional accounts. However, this is not 100% fiction, and the fact that he was able to slay so many young women and have police fooled is amazing to me. It’s scary to think that the human mind could allow themselves to get a level where they would habitually kill and sexually assault women. Not only is the acts scary, it’s scary to think that police were truly baffled for so long, and furthermore that Bundy was smart enough to get away with it for so long.
The brutality, whether implied or not, is disturbing to say the least. There is even a seen where Bundy is being prepared to go to the electric chair and they stuff him full of cotton. I won’t tell you how, but you can imagine the horror in this scene. There are a lot of bad things in this film, and I’m not sure if the director and film makers wanted to glorify such things, but they sure make an entertaining portrait of Ted Bundy in this film, and like Leatherface, Michael Meyers, and so many other fictional killers, Bundy can easily be placed on horror fans mantels as an icon of horror; if it wasn’t real!
I would recommend this film to anyone that likes true crime. The fact that this is based on real life makes it even more scary than anything fictional. It might even be true what they say, truth is stranger than fiction. Ted Bundy is available on dvd and is worthwhile in the same category as other “true event” horror movies.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
Scary Film is a blog about horror movies. It is updated whenever the writer, in this case: sir jorge, can. I watch horror films a lot, and have been a big fan since I can remember. The reviews are formatted with general synopsis and then a couple of questions regarding why they are scary or why they are dumb.
Got a movie recommendation?
email me: sirjorge -AT- GMAIL - dot com
Comments are welcome, no matter how you feel about things. Enjoy a horror movie....and of course, if you have a few cents, click a recommended site or get a movie from amazon.
