September 2008 Death Toll

Wow, we have passed 100 posts with this one. This is post 101 on this blog and I want to thank all 3 of you readers that have commented and made these last few months in horror movie reviews quite enjoyable. I admit, my reviews aren't the greatest, and this site isn't the greatest, but I'm giving it my best shot to update it daily with news from the horror movie genre and throw in a little science fiction for you nerds out there that are enjoying going through the site. Tomorrow I will be featuring a review on Ice Spiders. With new Entrecard regulations handed down, I'm unable to give out all the entrecard credits, but I can try to send you some...I'm sorry about that.

This month we went through some great horror movies if you ask me, and well they aren't the greatest films per-say they were interesting to watch for different reasons. Horror isn't always going to be the most well done genre, but I love it anyways. Here is what you missed if you didn't catch all the reviews in the month of September of 2008.

The Dead Next Door Review
Pumpkinhead Review
Child's Play Review
Silent Night, Deadly Night Review
Monkey Shines Review
The Devils Rejects Review
Wes Craven's Shocker Review
The Changeling Review
Vacancy Review
House of 1,000 Corpses Review
The Tattooist Review
Feast (1992) Review

And of course, the overall death toll grows with the following reviews as well:

The Dead Next Door Review
Pumpkinhead Review
Child's Play Review
Silent Night, Deadly Night Review
Monkey Shines Review
The Devils Rejects Review
Wes Craven's Shocker Review
The Changeling Review
Vacancy Review
House of 1,000 Corpses Review
The Tattooist Review
Feast (1992) Review
Death Race Review
Lost Boys: The Tribe Review
Hard Candy Review
Mirrors Review
28 Days Later
Feast
28 Weeks Later
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

The Search For Rob Zombie's Halloween

This weekend I managed to watch a horror movie, but it was overshadowed by what I am titling today's post as "The Search For Rob Zombie's Halloween". This weekend my wife and I were out as usual, and we were at a used book store. We sold all our leftover inventory from half.com and ebay and got a measly 12 dollars. We used that to purchase a few christmas presents in the form of massive books for my kid sister. I'm trying to push her to read more, so I bought her some stuff from the horror genre with my favorite authors classic writing style. (Stephen King) We then ventured forward to FYE, Target, and Best Buy to search out Rob Zombie's Halloween. Needless to say that we struck out on all accounts for different reasons.

FYE - I hate FYE because they were really rude to my mother in law about returning something they said that she could return. It all worked out, but it was a stupid situation and FYE didn't fulfill their customer service promises without ease. So I don't really like going there. Besides their crappy customer service, I don't like their prices. A lot of stuff is way overpriced and while you might find some deals with used merchandise, a lot of their new items are just priced way too high for anyone's good. They didn't have anything from Rob Zombie in the form of dvd, and had only one copy of the Original Halloween. We weren't after the original, we wanted the new one. So we left.

Target - Target usually has a mediocre selection of dvd's but when they do have something that I want it's usually cheaper than most other places I go to. They had Rob Zombie's Halloween on sale for $13, and they were all sold out! This is the first time I've ever really wanted to buy a niche market dvd that a chain store carries and find it sold out upon arrival. It must have been the price point, since $13 is less than even Amazon charges for the same dvd.

Best Buy - I like to clown on Best Buy, but when the chips are down, they have what I want at a price that is somewhat reasonable. I don't like the way the store smells, and my wife hates the way the Best Buy near us is sprawled out with no real reasoning. Best Buy had several copies of the unrated 2-disc director's cut of the film but they wanted $29.99 for it! That's just too much to pay, considering that we just saw that Target was selling it at $13. We looked around for a single disc version and just never found it, and we eventually just left.

Dejected, we went home empty handed and didn't give it another thought. I checked Amazon when I got home and they had it for 13.99 which was not a bad price, but then there was shipping costs. I didn't want to get too close to paying $20 for this dvd, as my budget doesn't allow much wiggle room when it comes to entertainment purchases. So we just forgot about it.

The next day (Sunday) we went to church. We try to go to church each sunday, and you readers might be surprised to find out that I'm a Protestant Christian. Yeah, weird for a horror movie fan, but yes, I am a Christian. Church was ok, and is nicely situated next to a supermarket, so we went to the grocery store and found a diamond in the rough. They had Rob Zombies Unrated Director's Cut of Halloween, and it was $13!!! So we bought that, and a gallon of milk and we called it a day.

I never thought that finding Halloween would be so difficult. Considering that it's the end of September and it wasn't exactly the most critically acclaimed film of our times, I thought it would be in stock and relatively cheap everywhere that I went. It wasn't. I reviewed Rob Zombies Unrated Halloween dvd in a previous post and I liked it enough to buy it. Take a moment to read my review of Halloween, and maybe purchase it for yourself, it's not THAT bad.


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The Dead Next Door Review

I’m all for Zombie movies, trust me, I love zombie movies. However, The Dead Next Door seems like a parody of a zombie movie, instead of a straight forward zombie film. If you recall my complaints for the movie Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter, then you will get a feeling for my complaints on this movie.

The movie starts off with an Epidemic, zombies have risen and are eating people left and right. My favorite moment in this movie was right away with some of the greatest interior shots of a video store I’ve ever seen. This movie captures the look and feel of the old time vhs rental shops to a tee and I was definitely proud to be a former video store clerk! The zombie make up is awesome for what appears to be a low budget film, and overall it was cool. I liked the make up and effects in this film, and I enjoyed seeing a mixture of fast zombies and slow zombies throughout the whole film.



The main plot points revolve around the fact that there is a cure. There is a cure and it involves two powerful serum’s, however the two serum’s are located far apart from each other. The Zombie Squad is called in to transport one of the scientists, aptly named Savini (a tribute to Tom Savini of course).

Here is a trailer for the classic Zombie film The Dead Next Door:


Alright, so the film is horrible in the way that it looks. It was filmed entirely in high 8, and most likely had the original film on vhs tape! It looks that bad, and even the dvd transfer looks like this. I don’t mind crappy movies, as you’ve seen me try to tackle movies like Ax’Em, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, and Midnight Skater, but this one made me upset a lot.

I guess I can’t really fault the crew too much. A little investigation shows that Sam Raimi produced this film and the whole crew, cast and workers did it for next to nothing and were acting for free! The coolest part of all this low budget nightmare is that Bruce Campbell does some voiceovers. Oh yeah, the whole film is dubbed over in English, however the spoken language is already English! What he heck! I hate when American films do this, but I guess you kind of have to given that the film was done using old vhs camcorders. (only a joke people, I know the film they used, and I know how they did it, so cut me some slack)

For 1989, this film is not completely trash. Seriously, it is kind of cool to see the gore. I loved that part of this film. Heads exploding, make up effects, and great overall tone and quality, George Romero and Tom Savini would be proud because a lot of the effects rival some of the other Zombie films out there. With recent zombie disaster movies going straight to dvd, I actually started to enjoy this film as my wife was falling asleep next to me. Sometimes you just gotta sit through these things to really appreciate the effort or lack there of that goes into filming such an obvious tribute to Romero.



The Dead Next Door isn’t the greatest zombie film ever, but it does offer up enough of an interesting story to make fans of the genre applaud at the end, even if it is convoluted to say the very least. If you’re a diehard fan of Zombie films, like my favorite podcasters Mailorder Zombie, then you’re probably going to enjoy this one. However, this is a poor example of a good zombie film, but you have to put it into proper perspective. No budget, free actors, and high 8 vhs quality film, if you add those things up, this movie is like the Academy Award equivalent of home made zombie flicks. Why not? Check out The Dead Next Door if you’re a zombie fanatic, otherwise, maybe just take my word for it as a misstep in the genre. This one really put Akron, ohio on the Zombie map, that's for sure.

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Black Devil Doll Is Coming

I first came across Black Devil Doll via rotten cotton's website. This thing has been on my mind for a while now, and I'm going to introduce you guys to it. I warn you though, this thing is really graphic both in gore levels and nudity, so DO NOT stick around if you're easily offended.



This dvd is coming straight to store shelves sooner than later, and had I not been a big fan of all things doll & horror related, I may have missed out on this one.

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Pulse 2 Poster and Trailer

Pulse was an ok fright movie, but Pulse 2 is coming out September 30th and you gotta be a little creeped out at the latest trailer for this movie. I'm not sure if it's going to be very good, but it has a creepy element to it, that might be worthwhile, even if it is a straight to dvd follow up to Pulse.

Here is a trailer for the Pulse 2 Dvd:



Pulse 2 Hits DVD sooner than you think.

Pumpkinhead Review

When I was a kid I had to beg to watch horror movies. I remember one day I was sick and my mom felt bad so she took me to the video store to rent some movies. The vhs tapes that I picked were Wrestlemania V and Pumpkinhead !

If you don’t remember Pumpkinhead, I don’t blame you, this movie was not exactly a big ticket Hollywood item. The movie revolves around a group of young people that go out to a remote cabin. During one day they are horsing around and riding motorcycles when they accidentally kill a local kid. The father is so distraught that he visits a witch who exhumes the monster Pumpkinhead and the young visitors never saw it coming! Pumpkinhead is a revenge horror flick, and it is low budget, but it has some good kills, some great spills, and a short enough premise to allow even jaded fans of horror a good time.

Here’s a trailer for the cult classic Pumpkinhead:


The movie doesn’t hold up well. It is somewhat grainy, and even remastered versions aren’t exactly crisp. Sure, it’s not as horrible as some other horror movies, but it is tough to watch this one again. The main problems that I have with the film quality is the lack of lighting on certain scenes. It really does look amateur at times, and that might be because the budget wasn’t all that high.

Beyond the looks of the film, it is a juvenile effort to cash in on the growing horror movie demand of the late 80’s. Sure it had some good plot points and the rubber suit monster is awesome, but it’s not enough to really engage you very much. It is not a very long film, and that is something great that it has going for it. However, the idea of a voodoo monster that comes to take revenge just doesn’t really pan out too well for me, and while Pumpkinhead was a childhood favorite, it’s not exactly something that I want to watch again and again. Pumpkinhead spawned many sequels, and all of them are horrible. This one is the strongest entry in the franchise, but that’s not saying a whole lot.

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Child's Play Review

What’s scary about a doll coming to life? Nothing. What’s scary about a criminal casting a voodoo like curse and putting his soul into the body of a toy doll? Everything! Child’s Play was definitely a favorite of mine when I was a kid, and today I still enjoy it, just on a different level.

The movie starts of like a police thriller with a criminal being chased down and desperate. In a last act he conjures up a spell and takes his soul and places it into a doll. This doll is later purchased by a mom who gives it to his unknowing child, and business starts to pick up!

The doll starts talking to our main character named Andy, and Andy starts to obey. The initial killings aren’t so bad, and this film maintains a creepy quality by allowing you to see first person through the eyes of Chucky as he carries out his killing spree. (which isn’t a lot, considering this is the first entry in this film) The movie moves away from simple killing, and really focus’s on Andy and his new home inside a psychiatric ward. However, Chucky shows up and Andy escapes, and we get a dead doctor!

Here is a trailer for the Horror Classic Child’s Play:


Alright, we’re 20 years after the movie came out and I wax nostalgic for this film and remember when I first saw it. I was merely five years old when this movie came out and I somehow weaseled my way into seeing it with my parents. The movie wasn’t as brutal as today’s horror films, but it was creepy at the time. While I wasn’t immediately scared of the movie, it did set my imagination on fire in regards to what could happen if voodoo were in fact real. (That’s arguable) I used to have Cabbage Patch Kids in my toy chest and this movie made me paranoid of having the stupid things. I also had one of those “My Buddy” dolls which looked a lot like the Chucky doll in the film.



The movie is a classic, but not in the traditional senses of classics. This movie is classic for me because it was a horror staple as a child. I was such a big fan that I remember begging my parents to take me to see Child’s Play 2 in the theaters and they took me! Suckers. I loved these films and they still hold true today, however, the plot is pulled a little thin, and the movie shows it’s age in a lot of the dialogue, situations, and even death scenes. Plus, it’s just a doll, spirit or not, it’s a doll! Pick up Child’s Play Birthday Edition on dvd if you don’t already have it, and revel in the 28 year old cult classic of Horror.

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Silent Night, Deadly Night Review

One of my favorite films ever is this piece of garbage Horror movie from the 80’s. Silent Night Deadly Night is a straight up slasher movie featuring a killer Santa Claus, and offers some spills, thrills, nudity, and gore, a perfect blend for horror fans.

Growing up in the era of mom & pop rental stores, this movie caught my eye with the awesome movie poster. The box was also oversized, and I immediately thought it was porno, and that made it more enticing. The movie starts off slow, a family visiting their loved one at a nursing home. The grandparent has stopped speaking for years and the family just stands there, eventually they leave Billy alone with the old man, and he wakes up to tell him a dark secret: Santa Claus doesn’t bring presents to naughty kids, he punishes them! Scaring the living crap out of the kid, only to have his parents come back to a docile old man.

On the way home from their visit little Billy and his family encounter Santa Claus stranded on the road. They stop to see what’s the matter and instantly, chaos ensues. St. Nick kills Billy’s dad straightaway, then attempts to rape his mother, and eventually slashes her throat, meanwhile Billy watches from across the road, scared and most likely wetting himself.

The movie then gets a little slow, as we see Billy grow up in a Catholic Orphanage, and when Santa Claus visits, he sock’s him out right! This scene is awesome, the little kid socks Santa Claus!

Right when you are ready to give up on the movie, Billy, all grown up and working at a toy store starts a killing spree after he sees a coworker harassing a woman in the back room of the toy store, and it never ends! He uses a bow and arrow, an axe and a knife to kill people left and right.

Here is a trailer for the movie Silent Night Deadly Night:


Silent Night Deadly Night has been called one of the most controversial films of the 1980’s because of the fact that Santa Claus is the killer. In fact, the film was so bad that it was banned from Movie Theaters and although there were other films that were similar in plot, this one got the blunt force of disdain. Critics panned this film and said it was a shame that anyone would make such a movie. The movie was eventually forgotten and lived a lonely life on the movie rental shelves, until the Horror pick up of the late 80’s where the film really started to gain cult status.

The movie is straightforward, and the DVD holds true to my memories as a child. It is not overtly scary as it is gorey. There are decapitations, and even a scene where a lady gets pushed through some Antlers on the wall of a house! The villain kills teens, and adults that he deems naught, but there is a soft spot in this film when he gives a little girl a gift. He points his anger towards Mother Superior at his old orphanage and we really see the thriller unfold. However, the film has a great final act where we see it all unfold in front of the children of the orphanage, and when the smoke clears, we have ourselves the perfect setting for a sequel!

This movie came out on dvd and the transfer is awesome. The film has been given a great cosmetic lift, however there are portions of the film that the producers didn’t really edit out so that you can see the original and the newer update at the same time. I kid you not when I say the old vhs transfer sucks in comparison, and you’ll notice on this dvd that they switch between the two a few times, and this could be a drawback if you’re new to the franchise. The dvd version also comes with part two of this series, and well, it’s basically a rehashing of the first film frame by frame and then a killing spree. A hilarious killing spree at that; Silent Night Deadly Night is what I think about when considering Christmas related horror films, and most people haven’t event seen this cult classic. Sure it’s not on par with a lot of the other films in the genre, but it does enough of a job to warrant a once or twice over. I love this one, and I’m sure that horror fans will enjoy it too. Silent Night Deadly Night is available on dvd and I highly recommend checking it out, as it is a classic cult slasher film from the 80’s.

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Saw V Pendulum Trap and Poster

October 24th 2008 is going to be historical for horror films and box office in general. The Saw franchise is set to release their 5th film and it's already generating a lot of buzz with its latest trailer featuring a Pendulum trap, and for a while no one could get it. But thanks to the millions of people on youtube, here it is for you to enjoy:


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Monkey Shines Review

George Romero’s Monkey Shines is a piece of horror gold, and if you haven’t seen this film, you’re missing out on one of the creepiest pieces of film to ever come out on vhs and dvd.

The movie revolves around a newly crippled man. While jogging one morning, Alan Mann is hit by a truck while jogging, causing him to lose use of his limbs. Meanwhile, his doctor starts dating his girl, and he just dips into a deep depression. After his scientist friend discovers Alan trying to kill himself by putting a bag over his head, things start to change. Alan’s friend gets him a trained monkey, to help him with tasks.

Now, if you remember the Simpsons episode where Homer got a monkey, and used him for cheap labor, you’ll immediately understand the capacity of this movie, because it essentially starts out that way. The helper monkey is completely trained and seems to start working out quite well, but like all horror movies, there’s a catch. This monkey was clinically dead at one point, and no one knows! No one except the mad scientist and Alan, who starts to grow accustom to the Monkey’s autonomy.



Meanwhile, back at the lab, the scientist is getting pushed around by none other than the voice of Bill from King of the Hill. Hilarious! Things start going awry, as with all horror films, and Alan is getting really pushy towards his nurse, and starts to love his monkey way too much. Within 45 minutes of this film, nothing horror related happens, and we just have to settle for a lot of build up, but the build up is great, as things have a tendency to go downhill after that period of time.

Here is a trailer for Monkey Shines:


There is not a lot of gore in this film. There are not a lot jump scenes, and the pacing seemed a little slow. It really turned into a science fiction, mad scientist story, rather than a straightforward slasher or zombie epic, that we are used to seeing from Romero. However, this one is the epitome of a slow burner, you have to really hang on, and try to keep your wits, or else you’ll miss out on the overall tone of this film. The movie is hard to watch at times, because there are a lot of emotional sequences, which really take some getting used to, considering that horror films have a tendency to hit you in the mouth at times.

The film takes a weird turn towards the fourth act, showing a sex scene with a disabled person. That was definitely awkward, and I don’t know if I enjoyed that very much, but I guess that’s a good thing, considering that disabled people can still use their genitalia. I’ll leave it at that.

The monkey starts to kill people off, that’s the crux of the film, and while there is a revenge plot towards the end, it’s too little too late for a lot of fans. However, just like a lot of other man vs. beast stories, the beast gets too smart and turns on man, and we are treated to a really creepy film, a really creepy and grotesque piece of film making.

Monkey Shines was based on a novel, which is out of print right now, but if you have a chance to score one, get it. The book might dive into a lot more medical detail and story than this film, and like Stephen King adaptations, is most likely lackluster by comparison. The movie is tense, but it’s a slow burning, very slow paced intense film. The horror elements come from your thoughts of “what if” rather than relying on scare tactics or gore, which I appreciate greatly from this film.

The final act of this film is the most tense and really provocative in a lot of ways. The film makers and trainers did a great job of juxtaposing real live Monkey's with fake ones, and it never looks out of place and doesn't look fake at all. I have seen a lot of "animal" movies, and there's always that moment of disbelief, but this film really tries hard to break that, and I am impressed with how well this movie ended up portraying trained animals. This movie's monkey is creepy, scary, and an amazing example of how good animal based villains can be. Too bad Hollywood didn't learn their lesson from this film.

If you haven’t seen Monkey Shines on dvd, you gotta check it out at least once. If you’re a fan of Romero, don’t expect his usual gore fest, but expect a very creepy, and I do mean it, creepy piece of film making. I haven’t seen such a creepy film with little gore, since I was deep into reading those darn Goosebumps books. Monkey Shines is a classic example of science fiction, with a touch of horror, but not in the traditional sense.

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The Devils Rejects Review

While House of 1,000 Corpses scared us with insanity, The Devils Rejects shows how far depravity can go, when the firefly family go on the run after the events of the first film. If you’ve seen the original film, then you’ll see all the characters here that you saw from the previous film, and an introduction to a few of Rob Zombies friends, who aren’t half bad at all. This film also includes my favorite wcw superstar, Diamond Dallas Page! But that’s just a sidenote.



First and foremost, the marketing for this film had a lot of great posters. The posters were grotesque to say the least, and they didn’t make it to the dvd box cover art, as shown above. The posters were so harsh, that I was wondering how in the world Rob Zombie got away with showing these in public. The brutality of the film is references with such a subtle positioning of an arm out of a hotel door, and that in itself was enough to get me hooked.

The film surrounds the family as they are being chased by a deranged and rogue Sheriff, who happens to be the brother of the first investigator, creating an intense revenge theme that circles the whole movie; if you recall the death scene from the first film, you’ll remember one of the most artistic pieces of death in a horror movie. (I know, that sounds morbid, but if you saw the film, you know how great that part of the film was) The movie follows a good revenge plot and it once again throws back a lot of scenes and dialogue to the greater horror movies of the past. References to grindhouse classics are felt throughout this film, which in my view, focuses more on the law than the actual family.

Here is a trailer for the Devils Rejects:


The gore has been turned up a notch, and the hostility is at an all time high. We’re not talking about boobs or nudity for the sake of it. We’re talking about complete and utter repulsion. We’re talking about as close as you’re going to get to shocksploitation in the new era as you are going to get. Nudity and near rape scenarios are highlighted in this film without flinching and the cruelty that you see is hard to watch. Even veteran horror movie fans can agree that scenes of harsh cruelty involving women who are “older” age is a horror in itself, and like I said hard to watch. We’re not talking about uncomfortable x-rated stunt double sex, we’re talking about cruel punishment that had to have shaken the actors to go through. The genuine feeling of the situation was definitely a fine touch by Rob Zombie, and is a credit to the horrors of this film. If you miss the emotional tie in that is given to the victims before their death, you are way too jaded to watch any movies and should most likely just give up altogether.



This film is more than just a revenge throwback or a 70’s grindhouse film, it has a lot of layers that involve more than just the rainy night scenarios that were involved with the first film. There are also additional scenes with Captain Spaulding and his banter with his brother, who runs a brothel. The film doesn’t bode well overall and is not going to allow a sequel, nor is it going to spawn a prequel, this film goes out in a hail of furious revenge. I kid you not, this film is a hard luck piece of film making and is a good testament to horror ethos, while not forgetting how to crossover into the mainstream.

The Devil’s Rejects might not be hardcore horror, but it is essentially a better movie than the original. However, The Devil’s Rejects is like a brief introduction to the past, while cementing Rob Zombie as a viable director of horror film, even if you don’t like his remake of Halloween. I recommend The Devil’s Rejects to anyone that liked House of 1,000 Corpses, but remember it is a different film with a different tone.

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Terror Train Remake Makes Me Sick

I understand that previously, it was hard to get your hands on movies, so no one actually saw movies at home, that weren't on television. However, times have changed and films are ubiquitous on dvd and other formats, and I don't understand the need to keep rehashing the past. The latest remake news is that Terror Train is getting an update. Seriously? Do we need this at all? If it's a straight remake, I'm going to be even sadder than the previously announced remakes.

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Wes Craven's Shocker Review

Wes Craven manages to squeeze out Shocker, before filming more sequels to the Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise. This film is interesting to me on a lot of levels, but the story is ridiculous, so throw your brain out the window for this one.

Shocker is the story of a serial killer who’s eventually caught by a rogue agent, and then is sentenced to die via electric chair. However, before dying he makes a deal with the devil and he stays alive but not in the traditional sense. He is alive only when there is electrical current and he can possess anyone via that medium. The killer than seeks out revenge, but he’s going to have to put up one hell of a fight!

Here’s a trailer for the Wes Craven cult classic Shocker:


The best part of this film is not the acting, it’s not the story, it’s the instance when the killer and the cop get sucked into the television and they fight across different channels. I always wanted to see this movie when I was a child, but my parents never let me, so once I got older and finally saw it, I realized that this film could’ve been my favorite movie of all time! Seriously, this is better than when James Woods gets sucked into the television, it’s an amazing effort by the visual effects people to create a futuristic, supernatural element to this film.

The effects aren’t exactly cutting edge compared to what we see today, however, they are good for the time and seriously the best part of this classic film. The fights in between television shows are so awesome, that if you haven’t seen this film, you gotta check this mess out. Wes Craven really puts up a great effort in hindsight. Craven has had a lot of missteps, but this wasn’t one of them. The story is convoluted, the acting is subpar, but the idea of an electrical killer and a cop fighting through television stations, that’s what cult classics are made of, and Shocker delivers a great moment in horror film history.

I highly recommend Wes Craven’s Shocker, because it has that piece of special effects history, and well, I’m a sucker for it. The movie is not too scary, although it does have some horror elements, and it is for all intents and purposes a horror film. Check out Shocker at least once, or else you’ll be left behind.

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.

The Changeling Review

The Changeling is a slow moving nightmare, and if you stick with it, you're going to like the tour de force acting job done by the cast. The movie itself is not one that is filled with a lot of gore, but it offers some rare scary moments, and deals with the human condition a lot more than straight forward scary notions.

Dr. Russell is our main character and after the tragic loss of his family he moves into an old house. The house starts to act out and the doctor is scared for his life, as we start to believe that the this is just another haunting movie. The movie goes into straight forward haunting mode until it is discovered that the ghost that haunts the place was killed in there, and the true horror begins. The movie transitions from a haunting to a real drama as the story unfolds and we discover that a powerful U.S Senator is linked to the slaying of a young child.

Not scary huh? Yeah, I know, it is a bit of a stretch to try and give you a synopsis of this film as it has a real winding road to understand what's going on. The movie is slow moving and the horror elements are really more of a "scary" haunting variety, rather than gore or random slashings.

Here is a trailer for the 1980 Rated R film The Changeling:


Yes, this film is quietly haunting and brooding at times, but it is slow. It's hard to sit through if you're not accustomed to the pacing of the early 80's as this film epitomizes the storytelling of the time period. While the actor's do a great job with every single piece of dialogue spoken, the scenes can take some time to develop into full blown story mode and the haunting sequences rely heavily on sound effects rather than true visual stages. The most haunting of the pictures is definitely that of the wheelchair and the closing moments of the final act. You'll have to see it to find out, but it definitely causes a stir in your mind as you see the closing arguments of the secret revelations that this house has.

I don't recommend The Changeling for everyone. Most people will not enjoy how this one unfolds and at times you really want to just sleep through it. However, if you're brave and you can sit through this one, it does have a twist of horror that is unique to the year that this was made, and who can say that George C. Scott's performance wasn't award worthy? He did a great job with the material, and it might even be rivaled by Christopher Walken's performance in a very loosely similar film The Dead Zone. Check out The Changeling if you want a somewhat serious horror film, not really for the new fans of horror, but definitely a close crossover hit for the genre.

Feast 2 Photos and Trailer

I made a quick post on Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds a couple of days ago, and here is a quick update with some photos and a trailer for you guys to enjoy. (All 3 of you)




Photos via BloodyDisgusting.com

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Vacancy Review

Vacancy mixes horror elements and gore to provide a good overall horror film. The movie surrounds a couple in the midst of a road trip, who run into some car troubles in the middle of nowhere, out in the middle of nowhere. They are basically stranded and end up getting a room in a nearby hotel, which they have conveniently ended up in front of. They talk to the front desk, and the clerk is super rude and not at all cool, and after some banter David (Luke Wilson) finally gets a room and the two end up in a seedy motel room together. What occurs next is like a homage to classic horror stories and movies from the past, as they put in a tape of what seems like their room, only a different couple getting snuffed out. Turns out that the motel does in fact film snuff films, and they are the next couple to get in on the action, and the clerk is involved. This film turns into a great piece of horror cinema, but only if you hang in there, it is a slow burner. The acting isn’t exactly great, but if you hang on, there are some crazy scenes.

Luke Wilson can seem boring at times, and his deadpan reactions really are hard to swallow, but then again, I think about myself in his predicament and I might end up acting similarly.

Here is a trailer for the movie Vacancy:


I have some problems with this film, I admit it. The movie is relatively short, and only the last parts of this film is really good. The director creates a lot of mood with some slow moving shots, and we get treated to some great moments when the couple fights back with all they’ve got. Proving once again that the human spirit can not be broken easily, as David goes to hell and back trying to survive what seems to be his last moments, including driving a car straight through the hotel room and killing a guy, pinning him to the wall! You have to see this scene as it really got me riled up and I was cheering for Luke Wilson at that point.



There are some great quirks and good dialogue, but that’s not without its problems. Sometimes this movie feels like an episode of Tales from The Crypt, and not a full length studio horror film. There are also lazy points in this film, where the director seemed to have given his assistant the camera and slept under his chair. If you can see passed those blemishes, this movie seems to be the sibling of some other crazy slasher films that were relevant in the 80’s. I admit, this movie does get the torture porn moniker for no apparent reason, but I could see where that argument is relevant. I won’t immediately sweep that idea under the rug, but this film has a lot more to offer in the scary department than most people seem to realize.

Vacancy is not a straight forward horror flick, and it is not the goriest, it is not the best, but it offers enough entertainment for you to enjoy and it even spawned a sequel that should be out sometime in 2009.

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This Week in Horror Dvd Releases

This Week, the week of September 9th, we got a few horror movies coming through the pipe. One thing I hate about horror film marketing is that NO one ever seems to promote these very well, so good luck finding an ad anywhere for these. Check out the notable horror releases for this week, it's not half bad.


House of The Dead Director's Cut Dvd - Some people might cringe at hearing that this is out, but I personally don't think it's that bad of a zombie movie. If you're a fan of the video games, you'll probably enjoy this one, although it's NOT a glowing example of great horror writing or film. It's worth a look or two, and for you horror fanatics, a must own.



Pet Semetary Special Collector's Edition Dvd - This dvd has come out before, but this week another edition came out which is being called a Special Collector's edition which features a few commentaries, mini docs, surround sound and a lot more. Not bad, for a re-release of sorts.



Pumpkinhead Collector's Edition Dvd - It's finally back in an all new collector's edition and most places have sold out of this one. If you're a fan of the classic movie that is Pumpkinhead, then this is a must own. It is one of the first movies that I saw as a new horror fan back in 1989, as a 6 year old! Yeah, this one brings a lot of memories for me.



Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! - Strippers VS Zombies dvd - The name says it all. B or C level horror is found here in what is a very deserving straight to dvd release. I'll see it, although I'm not sure that anyone else will. If it's any consolation, it has 5 stars on Amazon as of this post.


Species Box Set Dvd - The Science Fiction series Species lands into a full blown 5 disc box set for you guys to devour. I saw the first couple films while I was going through puberty, and wow...talk about an awakening. I know, that was gross, I'm sorry. The films range from mediocre to horrible, but it's a box set and you can have the whole series in one shot.


Fox Horror Classics Collection, Vol. 2 Dvd - A box set of horror films from way back. You get Dragonwyck, Chandu The Magician, and Dr. Renault's Secret, and it's all in one easy box set. The films aren't going to get rave reviews from everyone, but you horror buffs are going to eat this up, as am I.


Child's Play Special Edition dvd - this has come out a ton of times, but now on its 20th birthday comes out the special edition dvd. Why not? It's a must have if you don't already own the box set, like I do.

Feast 2 Dvd Cover Art

I'm not a big fan of the original porno-esque "Feast" dvd, but I do enjoy the project greenlight version of Feast, and here is the latest cover art for the straight to dvd project Feast 2! Looking good to me...I'll go nuts if Rollins shows up.

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.

House of 1,000 Corpses Review

Rob Zombie’s directorial debut is like a journey into hell on dvd. I recall when this movie made it’s theatrical run, and Sid Haig was outside of my local theater passing out tickets to a horror convention that he was signing autographs at. It was hilarious, and I didn’t know who he was until I sat down and watched the movie.

The movie has a simple premise, a group of young adults are traveling the nation looking for weird and spooky tourist traps. They stumble upon Captain Spaulding’s museum of weird stuff and chicken, alongside The Murder Ride. In this ride they learn about Doctor Satan, and after some questions find out that the Doctor Satan house is just down the road, so of course, they must explore it.

Meanwhile, there are a group of cheerleaders missing, and locked up in a dingy garage somewhere. We don’t hear more about this until later, but it plays as a key turning point later on in the movie. The beginning of the film sets up for what kind of language and violence is to come, when a failed robbery turns into a hilarious introduction to Captain Spaulding. (My Favorite of All Clowns)



The movie starts to feel a little recycled, and then the horror starts. If you’re a fan of Gore, you’re going to be in love with how its presented here. Skin peeling, guts exploding, head shots, ax cuts, surgical procedures, zombies, and even occult rituals pour out of the crevices of this film to make quite a cesspool of interactive fun.

The ending is also a great tribute to the 1980’s scare secenes, but I won’t deliberate more information than that. You’ll love it, that’s all I will tell you about that.

Here is a trailer for House of 1,000 Corpses:



Alright, so you either hate this movie and hate Rob Zombie, or you love this movie and get all the references that long time horror movie fan Rob Zombie threw in there. If you’re a fan of horror you’ll catch all the references to movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, Friday the 13th, and dare I say…A Nightmare on Elm Street, oh and I’m reaching for this one, but Toxic Avenger is also summoned in spirit, if you really pay attention. The overall tone of this film is dark, and it’s rainy. There are a lot of cut scenes that you don’t really know how to explain, but you don’t have to, you just strap in and get ready for a journey into what the radio spots call “Hell”.



Rob Zombie may have got a lot of heat for Halloween, and when I reviewed the movie Halloween, I didn’t think it was as bad as people said it was. House of 1,000 Corpses is a great entry into the horror genre for both nostalgia’s sake and horror on its own. If you’re a long time horror fan, rejoice that this is not a Japanese remake of some kind, it is definitely NOT pg-13 and is definitely worth its weight. I admit, the first time I saw this movie I didn’t really like it, but it grows on you, like the fungus or disease in Cabin Fever (a favorite of mine). House of 1,000 Corpses is not the greatest, but it is heavy and hardcore enough to win this horror movie buff over, with enough blood, guts, and glory. Try it on for size, and enjoy the ride!

The Tattooist Review

The Tattooist is a slow moving, haunting film. The movie really is slow moving, and I usually don’t mind that if there is a lot of tension or story that it helps progress. This movie is just slow for the sake of being slow, and the actors aren’t exactly high caliber, forcing the viewer to sit through some odd set up, and weird character development that truly isn’t all there.

The movie surrounds a tattoo artist that claims he has healing powers with tattoo’s that he makes. The movie shows him putting a tattoo on a young child, his father promising him money for it, although hesitant, our main character gives a very young boy a tribal tattoo. Flash forward to a tattoo convention and our main character stumbles into a Samoan tattoo ritual after seeing a lovely lady smiling at him. He then leaves, but before he completely vanishes, he steals an ancient instrument of tattoo delivery. As he steps outside he runs into the boys father (refer to the beginning of this paragraph), who claims that his tattoo did nothing to help, and the story progresses from this point. But first the camera quickly pans to a minor injury, where our hero of sorts lands hand first onto the ancient tattoo needle….foreshadowing the rest of the film, and we’ll get to that.

For some odd reason the tattooist, who’s name is Jake, travels to New Zealand to hunt down this woman. He is not in a foreign place, which I initially thought, he finds his old pals and begins to set up shop there tattooing people. However, each person begins to die horrible tattoo related deaths, and he starts to worry. Eventually he tracks down the woman, and is connected into a web of strange cult-like hauntings only to realize that the art of “tatu” isn’t just fun and games.

Here is a trailer for the film The Tattooist:



I hope that synopsis made sense, because I found it hard to even come up with that much information about this movie. The set up seemed painstaking at times, and following along was really not fun. However, right when I was ready to throw in the towel on this vapid film, a sex scene occurred and I was back at it, paying lots of attention. I don’t think I would have cared as much about this random sex scene, but the woman involved looked like my eight grade crush, and I couldn’t help be remember all those times that I was nervous around her. As an adult, obviously these memories are just that, memories, but it’s rad to think how movies can help you bring back old memories. After this sex scene things start going really bad, as people are dying some awesome deaths. The deaths usually involve lots of ink being dripped slowly from the wounds of the tattoo’s done by Jake and they flow like fountains.

The third act in this film is where things start to fall apart for me. Thrown in for good measure there is a family feud, a well kept secret about the woman’s uncle killing a boy, and of course if that wasn’t enough a ghost. Yep, they threw in a ghost to make sure we were still scared, and you know what? No one is scared, and no one cares at this point, making me wonder why anyone would spend any amount of time trying to watch this piece of crap film.

Granted, this film is straight to dvd, and the woman (who is a relatively unknown actress) looks like my 8th grade crush, this movie isn’t going to spark a lot of fires within the horror community. The Tattooist has a great amount of graphic design revolving the packaging, and pointing towards a better market for straight to dvd horror films, but this movie just isn’t very well paced, well acted, or scary at all. I wouldn’t highly recommend this film at all, and more over, I would most likely only see this film if you’re a male and like nudity, although brief. This straight to dvd, or seemingly straight to dvd effort really is lacking in the scares, the gore, and the horror elements. Sure we get a haunting, sure the tattoo death effects are awesome, but the story is so choppy and the set up takes so long that if you’re still around for the closing moments of the film, you’re going to be upset.

The Tattooist is now available on dvd, and while it has some great effort, it doesn’t do the job of scaring up anything. Unless you count my 8th grade crush, spank bank material. Uh…I didn’t really just say that…you’re imagining things.

Don’t forget to join The Scary Movie Club for October 2nd, and check out our Grindhouse Store for some sweet deals on horror movies and more.

Movie Club: Ice Spiders

In our first ever Movie Club movie, we are featuring Ice Spiders. This is how it will work, you the reader...all 2 of you will get this movie by either buying it, renting it, borrowing it, stealing it or getting it on Netflix. (Or if you're lucky catch it on Sci-Fi Channel) You will write a review of it, then let me know, and I will post an update with My review of this film, and the link to your review! That's right, we will help each other out. Tell your friends, bloggers, family, and make it a movie night of horrible B-Horror movie madness! Let me know by September 30th 2008, because on October 2nd, the month of HORROR I'm going live with My review of ICE SPIDERS! And you're links to your review of ICE SPIDERS! Heck, you do this review and you can get 1,000 ENTRECARD CREDITS! That's right, easy credits. Here is the dvd cover, and a trailer! Oh and for you Entrecard Junkies, I'll throwdown 3000 Entrecard Credits if you PURCHASE this dvd from the links below and let me know...yeah...so you have time, and you have the incentive, so lets get this movie club thing working...if I get no entries, well at least you get to read my thoughts on what could be the most disastrous made for tv horror/science fiction film ever! Oh and last but not least, if you participate, send me a link, and i'll add you to my blogroll and link to my front page...share the love!





Here's your shot at 1,000 Entrecard credits, and if you're generous 3,000 entrecard credits!

September 30th is the deadline for your posts, my post will go live October 2nd with a link to your review, and of course if no one steps up, I'll keep my credits, and will at least post my review.

The first 3 people that buy the dvd will get 3,000 credits, and up to 15 people will get 1,000 entrecard credit prizes. I am not made of credits, but I have quite a few to dish it out.

Feast (1992) Review

"Feast (1992) Box Cover Art"

Everyone has probably heard of the horror movie Feast that came out in the last few years, but this movie isn’t anything like that one. This film called “Feast” is like an R rated porno film. The movie is suppose to be horror, but it stars a porn star named Sharon Mitchell and has a cameo from none other than Ron Jeremy! There are also cameo’s from other porno actors and/or directors of porno films, and there seems to be an underlining sexual current in this film.

Two friends are seducing women into auditioning for parts in a movie, only to get killed and eaten! That’s right, this is a cannibal movie! These two guys are polar opposites, except that they love eating young women. Meanwhile, one man is getting psychiatric help and the doctor begins to fall in love with her patient, and begins to want to experiment with him and his sick storytelling.

The movie is straight to vhs, it is shot in the same manner as any good straight to vhs film. However, the film quality is higher than anything I’ve seen straight to DVD recently, but then again, there are most likely a lot of people in the porn world with access to full fledged cameras, equipment, editing, and the likes. The make up effects are horrible, and the dead bodies look completely fake. The characters spew lines as if they are serious, and this movie really isn’t all that fun to watch at all.

As the story develops, a rogue cop starts to piece together a cannibalism trail and now the Psychiatrist is in the middle! This is about the most tense the movie got, but really this one is just bad. I’m not sure if there is an x-rated version of this film where hardcore sex is involved, or whether this was just an oversight by Netflix or if this seriously is an attempt at a horror film. It has horror elements, but overall, this movie is just weird. I swear this film looks and plays out like a big budget 70’s or 80’s porno film, just without the hardcore sex involved.

I do NOT under any circumstances recommend watching Feast, the 1992 edition, and you probably won’t even see this one in stores, since it’s one of those obscure horror films that just didn’t pan out. Had I been working at a video store again, I’d have been completely upset over this piece of trash film.

One saving grace though, the film quality is really good. I’m glad that at least the cinematography takes itself seriously.

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The August Death Toll

Wow, we're in September already and another month passed by without much of a whimper. I'm sorry for the lack of posts this month, all 2 of you out there that still read my site are probably wondering what happened.

Well this month was haulted in large part to Netflix screwing me over, and my time being split into more little niche's than normal. I also took a small vacation the last 5 or so days and wasn't watching horror movies are even thinking horror. In fact, I spent most of my time playing Sonic The Hedgehog on my ds.

However, there are some hidden gems from August that you should check out, and see how the death toll (reviews) went down in the month of August:

Death Race Review
Lost Boys: The Tribe Review
Hard Candy Review
Mirrors Review
28 Days Later
Feast
28 Weeks Later

The Overall Deathtoll continues too:

Death Race Review
Lost Boys: The Tribe Review
Hard Candy Review
Mirrors Review
28 Days Later
Feast
28 Weeks Later
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

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.