Thursday, July 31, 2008

Every Review That's Been Done Here

For easy referencing, here's a list of every review so far:

Night of the Demons Review

Midnight Skater Review

The Howling Review

Dee Snider's Strangeland Review

Vampires: Los Muertos Review

High Tension Review

Blood: The Last Vampire Review

The Relic Review

The Wizard of Gore Review




Wrong Turn 2

Hatchet

The Ruins

Blood Car

Videodrome

Masters of Horror: We All Scream For Ice Cream

Believers

Cabin Fever

Dolls

They Call Her One Eye

Inseminoid

The House on Sorority Row

Planet Terror

Rob Zombie's Halloween

Funny Games

Friday the 13th

Sleepaway Camp

Camp Slaughter

Feed

Wrestlemaniac

Population 436

The Faculty

The Omen IV: The Awakening

Otis

Ax' Em

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter

The Curve

Lifeforce

P2
The Machine Girl

End of the Month Death Toll July 2008

This month in horror I've been struggling through some hard times. I was sick a while, I had to do a lot of things at work, and so this months end of the month death toll just dropped short of where I wanted to be.

I'll get back to it in August. I'll also be reviewing the new Lost Boys...whenever it comes through Netflix. Thanks for the request!

Night of the Demons Review

Midnight Skater Review

The Howling Review

Dee Snider's Strangeland Review

Vampires: Los Muertos Review

High Tension Review

Blood: The Last Vampire Review

The Relic Review

The Wizard of Gore Review


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.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Saw 5 Teaster Trailer

I'm jumping on this one too...Saw V is coming...and here is the first teaser trailer to hit the web.



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.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Night of the Demons Review



Alright, here is a classic for me, but not very well known for everyone. The movie is called Night of the Demons!

The movie revolves around a group of high school kids that are invited to a Halloween party at a haunted house. The house is a local mortuary, that has been abandoned for years. The kids are the usual gang of idiots, the class clown, the tough guy, the token black guy, the preppy kid, the preppy, the goth chick and the virgin who will have to fight off the demons! The main villain, Angela, decides to bring on a séance and unleashes hell onto the kids, and each dies a horrible death!

The movie was scary for me when I first saw it, when I was six years old! I didn’t really understand it when I was a kid, or what the gratuitous nude and sex scenes were all about, but then I bought the movie on dvd, and things all made sense.

The movie breaks a few taboos in it’s 90 minute course of horror goodness.



The first being that there is a death/sex scene in a coffin, which is not a good taboo to break, and reprehensible for me since one of my first jobs was selling caskets; a dead end job trust me. (That was a horrible pun)

The second thing being the black guy wins. No, no, I’m not a racist, and I know that you’re probably going to think that I’m going to be stretching a hard stance, but consider the fact that the ongoing stereotype is that the minorities get it first. Not this time around, we actually see a Michael Jackson costumed guy and an Alice and Wonderland girl barely make it through this one. Of course, I just spoiled the ending for you, but come on, I couldn’t resist.



The movie has a lot of sexual tension, and coarse joking. There’s even a scene where a woman puts a lipstick tube through her nipple, which is something you don’t really see everyday in normal Rated R horror films.

This movie is going to find fans quick, and those that have already seen it either love it or hate it. I am in the category of loving it. I think there’s a good mixture of cheese and gore, and the sexuality is turned up because the director and writers knew what the audience wanted out of this. When I saw this in the horror section as a kid, I thought that this film was a porno, but it turned out to be an awesome little goregasm of a film. (Gore and Orgasm forms the word goregasm, which mixes sex and horror/gore, my new vocabulary word of the day) I recommend this film, as it is full of cliché horror moments, a couple of taboos, and some scary “witching”. It really draws some lines between a slasher film, a zombie flick and a supernatural haunting. It really doesn't define any genre's, that's for sure.

This film spawned some sequels, but none of them as good as the original 1988 release Night of the Demons, now available on dvd.

Before the remake comes through, make sure you check this one out. The Remake of Night of the Demons, is not going to trump this one...or is it?

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.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

From The Mail Bag Volume 1

Welcome to the first edition of "From The Mail Bag" where I reach into my comments, emails and mail to answer a question from the audience (that's you). This week, since I've been battling a cold, and my wife was sick, I couldn't get to as many horror movies as I'd like. But instead of just dying on you guys, I decided to answer some email and comments...or should I say comment.

Critic_101 of At the video store writes:

wow that looks so cheezy and cool. Do you know who produced it?

That question of course in reference to my recent review of Midnight Skater on dvd.

Well,Critic_101, I don't know, I'm lazy....er...I mean:

The movie Midnight Skater was produced by some kids in college, on a shoe string budget. The Studio is that helped out is Splatter Rampage!

When I did searches for Splatter Rampage, I couldn't find anything but a bunch of wrestling dvd's.

However, the film most likely found distribution through Tempevideo, I think. Their website didn't help at all, and neither did this other site I tried to hunt down speedfreakproductions.com

So what do I know?

I know that the movie is available through amazon.com and some other retailers. I know that you can rent it via netflix, or stream it if you'd like.

I also know that Luke Campbell,Stacy Silvers,Andy Campbell, and other family members are involved.

I also know that if we still had grindhouse theaters everywhere, this would be coupled with other movies that are like this.

That's about it...I wish I had more info on this film. I just can't find anything worthwhile to mention. It's really low budget, almost no budget, but it has the creative spark of what I would make in college, so in that case it's not so bad.

Thanks for commenting! I appreciate all the comments I can get...even if it is only 1.

I'll make sure to get more reviews up, I've just been sick lately, so it's taking longer than usual.

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.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Midnight Skater Review



Midnight Skater is not just a b movie, it’s a c movie or even lower! I love skateboarding, and even have a skateboarding blog, so when I saw this waiting for me to review, I had to jump on the chance.

This movie starts out as a slasher film. There is a psycho guy that is starting to hack people up. But there is a greater subplot, where kids are taking these drugs and turning into zombies. Just when you thought that was it, you get a swerve! As more people are dying, a group of friends get hip to what’s going on and think it’s the midnight skater that’s causing everything! However, there’s a surprise ending and that’s probably the high point in this film.

Here's a trailer for Midnight Skater:


You get some scenes that make no sense, and the whole movie is filmed on hand held vhs camera’s; or at least that’s what I think they are. The quality of film is horrible, there is a lot of grain, and the audio wasn’t foley and wasn’t thrown in, it was straight off the camera’s mic and there’s a lot of static and fuzz. This will turn off a lot of people, and the average fan of horror will definitely turn this off.



The effects are amateur to say the least. We’re talking ketchup, water, and random red ink. This is a horrible example of effects, but by the time you get to the gore, you won’t care any longer. The zombie effects are also terrible, and laughable at times.

The actor’s are serious in most of the scenes, even in the necrophilia sex scene, this whole thing was just insane. This seemed like a student film, seriously, it was just not up to par with a lot of films out there.

However, what this film has going for it is that it’s completely independent. It’s completely full, and follows a distinct script. The zombie angle is thrown in there two take focus off the main plot holes, but the whole mysterious midnight skater pulls you t finish the film.

Unlike Sleepaway Camp, you see the main slasher in this film, and you assume that he’s the midnight skater, but you realize that there’s a strong chance that you might be wrong.



Midnight Skater is the type of independent film that you make with your friends while still in college or high school. It’s not something to take too seriously, but it’s worth watching for the comedic value of the gore levels. I give it up to these guys for following through a whole movie, given that it wasn’t exactly amazing. Imagine if you Be Kind Rewind (you know the Jack Black Movie) made a horror film, and this might end up being the product it made.

Check out Midnight Skater on dvd,if you’re a diehard B-Movie fan, it’s really low B Movie. It might be a new category of level.

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.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Night of the Demons Remake? Why?



While many of you are all set for The Dark Knight right now, I am still wondering why they are remaking classic horror movies? Seriously, now they are pushing a Night of the Demons remake? Why mess with a classic? I loved that movie as a kid, and felt it was my little dirty secret. Now the word is out and people are all over it. Lame.

Oh well, that's how things work out. Night of the Demons is definitely something I recommend. If you're down with the Dark Knight, enjoy. If not...oh well.

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.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Where's the Horror?

Sorry for the slight delay in new reviews.

I have been extremely busy, and I know that's a lame excuse to use, but I have been busy and tired and have been trying to get more out of my netflix account. Thanks to 1 dvd sale through my amazon links I can now afford to upgrade my account to 5 out at a time again. (Of course that sale didn't help, but I wish it did)

I'll get back tot he movies asap...just give me a few hours to watch some more.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

30th Anniversary Halloween Box Set



Today in happy news for horror fans, they have announced an awesome box set for those of you that are big fans of Halloween. You will get the following:

HALLOWEEN Restored (original 1978 version)
HALLOWEEN Extended Edition (out of print for years)
HALLOWEEN 25 YEARS OF TERROR: Disc 1
HALLOWEEN 4 DiviMax
HALLOWEEN 5 DiviMax
HALLOWEEN Blu-ray (bonus disc)

If that is not enough, you are also going to get a limited edition Mask. This is a serious box set for horror fans. I for one am going to be getting this one 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.

Monday, July 14, 2008

The Howling Review



The Howling is a werewolf classic
. However, it is not without its own flaws and many people disregard the franchise due to the amount of sequels involved in the series, however it is still one cool werewolf movie.

The movie follows a news anchor that nearly escapes the grasp of a serial killer. Along the way she learns of a psycho therapy colony that turns out to be a werewolf breeding ground of sorts, and is attacked. After the attack she starts to warn others of the existence of werewolves and when people don’t believe, she turns into one, causing chaos to break loose.

Here is a trailer for the film The Howling:



This movie is a classic in many ways. It is one of the first werewolf movie’s that I saw growing up and revisiting this classic was easy. For me it is just a cool movie at times, but the pacing has not gotten better.

The movie seems to go on a weird tangent involving sex at one point, and the pacing between the story set up and the actual dangerous situations seems a bit extended. I’m not sure at some points where the story is going, even though I know there is going to be a werewolf just around the corner.

Some might find the pacing to be the deal breaker, but if you hang in there, you will see a makeshift transformation scene.

One thing that I always ask when watching these films is, what are people doing during the transformations? I know one thing is for sure, they aren’t running. They wait for the transformation to be complete, then they scream and then they run.

The coolest part of this movie is found in the latter sequences where the main wolf is seen through first person viewing. You see two arms as the camera assumes the head position of the wolf, creating an awesome scene where you are almost in control of the action. Why they haven’t made a howling fps yet is beyond me!

The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously and you can notice this in many different comical reactions and disbelief in the characters as they realize what is going on around them. Unlike many werewolf movies, this one has a sense of its own stupidity, and doesn’t try to make it too serious like many other films. You actually appreciate that because if you’re a horror movie fan, you know how serious some of these werewolf movies try to be (ie; Cursed).

On a gore level, the blood splatter is minimal in comparison to other wolf films, but there is enough sexuality, blood and violence to satisfy most audiences. The Howling seems to want to stick to the original novel it is based on, although I doubt it really makes it to such a literary level.

I liked this one and it is one of my favorite werewolf films of all time. I know that the chimera aspect of werewolves is a bit odd for most, but there are some great sequences and for the time, the effects are awesome. I recommend The Howling as a staple in the werewolf film franchise, but make sure you take this with a grain of salt, because it’s not the end all be all werewolf film.

If you like werewolf movies, check out these other wolf classics:

Wolf via Amazon.com
Teen Wolf via Amazon.com
An American Werewolf in London via Amazon.com
Silver Bullet via Amazon.com
The Wolfman via Amazon.com

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.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Dee Snider's Strangeland Review



Dee Snider’s Strangeland is not that bad, but only after putting it into proper context and a few drinks. Strangeland came out in 1998, I was 15 years old, and hated anything hair metal. Therefore, I didn’t see this film, on the bases of hating the band Twisted Sister, and so many other incarnations of hair metal.

But times change, and while I’m still not a fan of the 80’s metal scene, I am a fan of horror films and had to pick this one up to review.

First and foremost, Dee Snider wrote this one, so I was not expecting anything worthwhile or even shocking. However, this movie does go into a deeper level of thinking if you take the time to consider the movies main premise.

The story revolves around a guy who lures teenagers via a chat room to parties, where they end being tortured and made part of strange piercing rituals. After Dee’s character, Captain Howdy, lures a detectives daughter he is thrown into an asylum, only to emerge a changed man. While he shows signs of change, the town’s people do not like it, and they end up lynching Howdy in a very public scenario led by none other than Robert Englund. Howdy survives, and comes back to haunt everyone who was involved.


This movie sounds a lot like Friday the 13th right? I mean it seems similar, but the main character is the guy from Twisted Sister! I couldn’t get passed that, and although he looks very creepy, I don’t know if I can separate the persona of metal mayhem and an evil doer. This film is hard to watch at times, but if you stick with it, it does have a clear message about the current state of trust and the internet. This film was probably more poignant in 1998, considering that chat rooms were huge, and not so popular now.

The movie is relatively short, and has a few gorey situations, but overall it’s not as good as I thought it would be. Honestly, it’s not as good as Bon Jovi’s Vampire flick, but it is not as horrible as some of the straight to dvd films that I’ve seen in my long adventure into horror film review.

Dee Snider’s Strangeland is worth checking out once, just to say that you’ve seen it, but I don’t really recommend this one to everyone. Most people will end up hating me, and the movie as a whole.

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.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Vampires: Los Muertos Review



Vampires: Los Muertos has only a few things going for it, and that’s not a good thing. The overall look and feel of the film is surprising to me. For a straight to dvd effort, the film quality if actually not half bad. But before we elaborate on that, let us consider the premise of this film:

The location is the same as the first film, Mexico. But long gone is James Woods, and here comes someone completely new, a vampire hunter named Derek Bliss, played by none other than Jon Bon Jovi. That right there should be enough to tell you to stay away, but not me, I’m an idiot and I like punishing my brain sometimes. (legally of course) The hunter goes through the streets of Mexico collecting bounties and going on his merry way. He then hears about a high profile case and starts to unravel a big plot. There is a syndicate of vampires run by a princess vampire and they are in search of the Black Cross. This cross will help aid the vampires in a ritual that will make them able to walk in the daylight. But before they can get their hands on this, they have to deal with Derek, his new pal Sancho, and some allies in the fight to stop this from taking place.

For a vampire film, there is very little gore involved. There are a few splatters here and there, but nothing really worth mentioning. There are some jump scenes, but overall this film is moderately paced, and even slow at times. You can feel as though the director knows that the networks are going to splice the movie into pieces and insert commercials, so there are a lot of key moments that seem to end out of nowhere, as if the commercials were going to arrive to fill the gaps.



The second thing that this has going for it, besides Bon Jovi’s lead role, is Diego Luna. Diego Luna somehow shows up in this film to play a 14 year old who wants to join Derek in his quest to fight vampires. Diego Luna is a great actor, and I loved him in a lot of different roles, but here, he just seems out of place.

Check out the trailer for Vampires: Los Muertos:


This movie wasn’t complete garbage. Bon Jovi has some above average acting skills, and he seems to be doing what he can with the role, and you know what? I kind of dig it. Sure it’s not the greatest vampire movie ever made, in fact it’s not even as good as the horrible first film with James Woods, but it has a certain level of Sci-Fi Channel charm that makes me enjoy it.

I’m not going to say that this is the greatest vampire film ever, but Vampires: Los Muertos is worth at least a once over, and to many Bon Jovi fans, a twice or thrice over.

Other Vampire Films:

John Carpenter's Vampires via Amazon.com
Dracula 2000 via Amazon.com
Blacula via Amazon.com
The Lost Boys via Amazon.com

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.

Monday, July 7, 2008

High Tension Review



High Tension is a balls to the wall horror film. This movie is insane on a lot of levels, and offers some great overall acting, scenarios, and horror. I don't fully understand some of the scenes in this film, and the twist ending isn't my favorite, but as a stand alone film, it is a knock out. I highly enjoyed High Tension on a lot of levels.



The plot revolves around a fat, creepy, dude. He is shown masturbating with a severed head, and that is the sickest introduction I've ever seen in a film. He then proceeds to murder a whole family, except for two young women. He takes one hostage and is unaware of the second, and as he puts one in his van tied up, the other one jumps in and hopes for a stop so that she can save her friend and bring justice.



We get to see this young lady in a lot of different scenarios. From her friendly introduction, driving to a new locale, to her more personal bedroom situation. She seems to be the main hero in the movie, and you really start to rally behind her as she goes through the slaughter, then tries to help her friend through various situations. High Tension was directed by Alexandre Aja, who went on to direct P2 and other films.

A specific stop is at a gas station, where she gets really close to calling the authorities before the clerk gets an axe to the chest. This prompts a really cool car chase scene with one of my favorite cars ever! You'll have to see the film to see this hot rod.



Just when you think you've got it all figured out, there is a big wrench thrown at you , and leaves you questioning the direction of this film. Some might be completely turned off by the "twist" of sorts, but others are ok with it, as it closes the film swiftly.

But before we talk about that, here is a trailer for the film High Tension:




What develops into a slasher film, really becomes an identity crisis film, and I know upon first viewing, I was definitely upset. However, after repeated watchings, I learned to enjoy this visual masterpiece and really loved seeing the development of what seems to be a one sided lover story.

Although, I felt that the duality scenario was just an easy way out for what was developing into a serious slasher franchise. It really relies on your willingness to just let logic go straight out the window, because if you're not that type of viewer, you're going to break your television with anger. The downfall of the whole film relies on the fact that the main character is the killer but not as you see him...or should I say her?

This film is a nice gorey thrill ride, and while I appreciated the effort, it just was one ending short of a full package. I liked it though, it was fun to watch, and really well edited, and cleverly shot. The musical choice of Muse also scored it some points too. Overall, not a bad import, and dubbed in an ok fashion. I recommend High Tension to anyone, but just warn you about the frivolous ending.

On a quick note, apparently the plot of this film is really close to the book by Dean Koontz entitled, "Intensity". I can not really confirm the similarities, as I haven't read the book, but maybe you want to look into that.

Other Foreign Film Recommendations:

Cache via Amazon.com
Irreversible via Amazon.com
Audition via Amazon.com
Three Extremes via Amazon.com

Also, check out "Intensity" by Dean Koontz via Amazon.com

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.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Blood: The Last Vampire Review



Blood the Last Vampire is an interesting anime horror film, but doesn’t really feel complete. The movie is only about 50 minutes long, but packs one heck of a punch, all things considered.

The story revolves around a school girl near an Army Base who’s sole job is to kill vampires, whom have taken human form. She uses a samurai sword to cut them in half, and then walk away. There is little talking involved, and little backstory, until the last moments when this film reveals a little more of the main character than you can assume.

Here is a trailer for Blood the Last Vampire:


The visual style is very good. It almost looks like a live action film, rather than an animated feature. The story is no nonsense, and full of action. You don’t get any major character development, and in its place you get a ton of blood splatters, gore, and freak out scenes.

If you’re not used to Japanese Animation, this film will catch you off guard. You don’t really see a lot of animated films in the United States with nearly as much gore. This film has a lot of blood, and it is unapologetic about it.

If you could make Blade into 50 minutes, you get this film.

I recommend it if you like Vampires, horror films, and anime. Otherwise, just skip out on Blood the Last Vampire.

Other Vampire Classics:

The Horror of Dracula via Amazon.com
Bram Stoker’s Dracula via Amazon.com
Dracula via Amazon.com
John Carpenter’s Vampires via Amazon.com
The Hunger via Amazon.com
Fright Night via Amazon.com

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.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

The Relic Review



The Relic is a slow moving horror film, with a lot of great ideas but little activity for the over stimulated culture we live in currently.

The movie is about a Museum researcher who returns from South America with all sorts of crap he finds. At face value, the findings seem scarce and the owner of the Museum is skeptical of what has really been found. Meanwhile, dead bodies are discovered on board of the ship that brought the crates over to the U.S. That would be weird, but then people start dropping off in the Museum and things start to take a horrific turn. It turns out to be a large monster that is now loose and its time to mop up.

First thing I thought about is how boring the execution of this film really is. I really had a hard time getting into the development of the overall characters a midst the ever growing horror that was being unleashed by this monster. It’s a cgi/effects monster and you can tell that the technology was fairly new at the time, because it’s really choppy and lackluster around the edges.

The movie progresses really slow to me. It’s hard to watch, and just like going to a real museum, this film has a lot of shots where the camera seems to be on a track and slowly moves through the museum to show off the interiors.




I would liken the monster to a warewolf of sorts, or some sort of wild animal on four legs, but I could be wrong.

At one point, I swear there is a dream sequence, or it could have been myself. There is a significant twist at the end, which forces you to hate the writers of this film.

I admit that this movie did have a lot of creepy points, and if you’re easily scared when the lights are out, and are creeped out by closed spaces, museums, and creepy, dusty, crates, you’re going to love this one.

There are a few moments of gore in this film, and it's interesting that this was a major release film, because usually it gets toned down.

I was more scared and entertained by R.L Stine novels then the Relic.

I thought The Relic was boring, slow, and uninspired. I didn’t read the novel that The Relic was based on, so maybe if I venture into the book by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston.

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.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Wizard of Gore Review



The Wizard of Gore is a gorey piece of horror history
, but really isn't all that great when you think about it. The movie follows a magician who is digging up bodies from the cemetery, brings them to life, then kills them live on stage, only to bring them back for the audience to see.

Within an hour, those same women are found dead.

Police are baffled, and one television show host wants to get to the bottom of things.



First of all, this magician looks like a 70's era porno star. He reminds me a lot of John Holmes or someone that would be in Debbie Does Dallas or some other film. I'm surprised Ron Jeremy wasn't featured in the back drop of this film, because the main villain looks like a porno star. I mean look at him...just look!



So with that in mind, I thought for sure I would see some nudity. That was thwarted fast. There is some slight cleavage on the part of the talk show host, but her "love" scenes are the most vapid and unsexy scenes I've ever seen. It is like the director wanted to tease you, but then decided not to after all. The sexual situations are so horrible, that it made me want to throw something at the television. The girls that this guy is digging up look perfect. There is no sign of decay, no sign of death, and you would believe that things are on the up and up.



The majority of talk of this film is not so much on the plot, but the gore. The blood is bright read, there are hot dogs and sausages looking like intestines, and while the magician (wizard) is messing around with killing these girls live on stage, the screams are just horrible. It's almost like they dubbed the screaming after the fact, and just went with whatever sounds they could get.

This film is so hard to watch that you might get lost as to what is going on. The story doesn't do a good job explaining itself, and right when you finally figure things out, the story throws a wrench at you. The story ends on such a stupid twist, and such a cop out, that you're seriously going to be upset.

Here is a trailer for The Wizard of Gore:


The Wizard of Gore might be a cult classic, but it is really hard to watch. Granted, this film was made in the 70's so my expectation levels were lowered, but this low? It wasn't all that great, seriously, it is gorey but there is such a horrible sense of acting in this film. It's either really understated, or really over the top. The gore, that's where this film shines. There's a lot of cool gore effects, considering the age of this film, and I liked that. Other than that though, The Wizard of Gore just isn't worth the time. I'm sorry.

Maybe I need a second viewing of this one. I don't know if I can make it though. It's worth watching at least once, and it's definitely getting a good push into the mainstream with the recommendation that was made in the film Juno. Herschell Gordon Lewis really does a nice job creating the splatter film genre, but this was a tough watch if you're not a fan of gore. If you are a fan of gore, you'll LOVE The Wizard of Gore, I mean it even has the word GORE in the title!

They remade this film recently with Crispin Glover as the main Wizard, so maybe the updated version might be an improvement. I'll make sure to check it out for a future review.

More Herschell Gordon Lewis films:

Blood Feast via Amazon.com
Two Thousand Maniacs via Amazon.com
She Devils on Wheels via Amazon.com
The Gore-Gore Girls via Amazon.com
Color Me Blood Red via Amazon.com
Blood Feast 2 All You Can Eat via Amazon.com

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.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Top 10 Bodily Explosions

Horror movies are known for a lot of gore at times. I for one enjoy a good gore scene, however some are better than others. Recently, Fearnet.com, posted a list of the best bodily explosions ever recorded onto film. Some are from horror films, some are from general release films, but one thing is for sure, bodily explosions are a staple in horror cinema.
Here’s their top 10 list, with links on where to purchase them, and finally, a link to where you can see some gruesome photos as proof.

10. Terror Firmer


9. Chopping Mall


8. Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland


7. Planet Terrror


6. Total Recall


5. War of the Worlds


4. Raiders of the Lost Ark


3. Cloverfield


2. Scanners


1. Dawn of the Dead
Obviously these films have some major gore in them, however, there are definitely other films that I would mention on the list. I think that there is a TON of films that have exploding body parts, heads, and body functions that aren't exactly easy to watch sometimes Fearnet.com has some photos from these films, if you're interested, otherwise I would suggest purchasing these and finding out what the hype is all about.

I wanted to post my own top 10, but honestly, I drew a blank when it comes to body explosions. I could name a few, but I'll save that for another place and another time.