Deep Red Review

Deep Red Poster (1975)

One of the best directors in horror is Dario Argento. He is an Italian horror director that creates lavish set pieces, with amazing colors and commentary that is absolutely grand. I love his work, and have reviewed many of his movies on this website. However, today, we are going to talk about one of my favorite movies of his, and it’s “Deep Red”. This is a movie that features a lot of different elements that you would get from horror, and with the idea of “Gialo” detective movies. The music, the visuals, and the story will definitely stun most.

The movie features a man that looks a lot like Paul McCartney, and he is a piano player. He is working on a piece when something happens during a lecture. A psychic seems to see something evil, and she senses it. When this is all said and done, she goes to her apartment, and out comes a figure in the dark and hatchets her to death! I kid you not. You don’t see the killer, you get a POV version of the events. This also occurs to several other people that have something to do with the music, and our main composer is on the hunt, alongside a journalist. The two have a slight love story, but the bodies keep piling up. Along the way, you get to see POV style death sequences that are over the top, grotesque, and yet charming with the way that Dario Argento works through the color palette and the music of Goblin. Great stuff.

The movie is a bit slow, and my version of the movie didn’t have subtitles at all. It would cut in and out of Italian, and it was a bit difficult to manage. There was dubbing for half of the movie, and the other half had Italian. Now, I speak Spanish and Italian is not too far away from it. I liked that, and it was interesting to listen to the languages. Goblin’s score is great overall, and I loved it.

As for the movie, this is an interesting take on horror, and features a detective subplot, with a little love thrown into the overall elements. However, when the killer is revealed, you feel like air is coming out of a balloon slowly. The buildup is epic, but you’re going to end up laughing at the ludicrous nature, and the overall findings. It’s funny, and not at all what you’d expect. However, the special effects, the visual design, and the movie is quite good overall.

Dario Argento’s “Deep Red” has a lot of creepy moments. Good direction, misdirection, and quality music from Giorgio Gaslini and Goblin. It really is a good horror movie, and it’s paced well, with some great elements of fear, especially considering this was from 1975 of all years.

You can pick up “Deep Red” on blu ray by clicking here. It’s worth checking out, especially on Halloween!

Did you see “Deep Red”? If you did, drop me a comment below.

Frankenhooker Review

Frankenhooker Poster

Let’s journey back to the 1990s, and check out a movie that most people don’t even remember. That’s right, we’re going to talk about the black horror comedy entitled, “Frankenhooker”. Now, this came into my view via an adult website, and once I realized it wasn’t an adult feature, I had to check out the film. It starts Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen, wearing a fat suit at first, and a bunch of no-name stars, but that doesn’t matter, because this is not going to make a career out of anyone, with a few exceptions.

The movie is a fast paced horror comedy, and features a young man’s quest to bring his fiancé back to life. When his girl dies from a lawnmower accident, he goes through a lot of endeavors to reanimate her, but doesn’t have enough parts. So he starts to hire prostitutes, but when they find his super crack, they start exploding. That upsets their pimp, and while he is able to make his woman come back, she becomes a Frankenstein monster, and hooker, and well that leads to a lot of shenanigans.

The movie is only 85 minutes long, but there are a lot of great sequences here. There’s the constant exploding of the hookers, there’s the continual beat downs that Jeffrey Franken gets, and of course the nudity. If you’re a fan of gratuitous nudity, then you’re going to love the middle point of this movie because there’s a lot of exposed breasts. The movie goes from horror to absurd in 60 seconds, and you can’t really take this one too seriously.

Aside from the “Frankenstein” plotting, this is a movie that features a lot of interesting points, and is a nice set piece to the original book by Mary Shelley. But is it worth your time? YES! This is a great romp into the 1990s, late grindhouse era of movies that have good overall effects, funny moments, and classic one liners. The same guys that did “Basket Case” are responsible for this movie, and you can see it through their gross out effects, the explosions, and musical selections. This movie has one killer ending too, making it one of the better horror comedies to come out of the 1990s. It’s one that you have to see to believe, because you can’t get away with a lot of the things that this movie had in it.

This is one hell of a movie, and it is worth checking out. It has everything you'd want in a horror movie, and then some.

You can purchase "Frankenhooker" by clicking here. 

Did you see "Frankenhooker"? Drop me a line in the comments. 

Cult of Chucky Review

Cult of Chucky 2017 Cover

This is the seventh movie that features the killer doll, and you would think that they would run out of ideas. But nope, here we are with an all new full length feature that is all about Chucky and his killer ways. This time around there are some very nuanced kills, and thrills, with a story that isn’t too bad, but isn’t going to win any awards at any point either. “Cult of Chucky” went straight to DVD and Blu Ray and is now available, but I wasn’t paid so here’s my honest review sans any sponsorship as per usual.

The movie picks up where the previous one ended, this time around with Nica in a wheel chair and trying to figure out why she’s in an asylum after blaming Chucky for burning down her house and family. Of course, that’s the doppelganger because the movie is going to feature a lot of different elements that will tie this to the past, and the future.

In another section of the movie we catch up with Andy, the kid that started it all, and he has Chucky’s head and has been torturing it for a long time. Through the course of the movie, he has been trying to tell the asylum that holds Nica that Chucky is alive and is going to kill again. They don’t believe him. They throw him out, and of course we continue our story.

The movie is a slow moving starter, but it starts to gain steam when Chucky comes alive, and you realize that there’s more than one. Then you start to think that this movie is lazy, with the idea of the existence of Chucky being only in Nica’s mind, but that’s a red herring. The movie switches tones, and starts back into the one liner, comedic elements of Chucky, with him slashing, and dicing his way through the asylum.

There’s a lot to this movie, but at the same time, there’s a limited cast, and it really drives through a convoluted voodoo plot that throws away a few ideas, but at the same time, builds into the ethos of what made “Child’s Play” so good. There’s a lot going for it, and the visual design is the main key factor. The visuals and kills are juxtaposed with a clean, white, and pure asylum in contrast to the redness of the blood.

The movie was good. It had some decent acting, some great pacing, and a body count that rivals the original film. You get a lot of loose ends tied, and eventually, Chucky and Tiffany reunite. Woops, I spoiled it! Hahah!

I recommend checking out “Cult of Chucky” it’s a modern send up to the classic series, and not half bad if you ask me.

You can purchase “Cult of Chucky” via Blu Ray by clicking here.

What did you think of “Cult of Chucky”? Drop me a line in the comments below.