8MM Review

When I first started Scary Film Review, many years before, I didn’t always review straightforward horror movies. I found that many mainstream thrillers were just as scary if not more horrified than modern horror. Every now and then I’ll run into a mainstream mystery, thriller, or drama that has a subject matter that is worthy of the Scary Film Review blog. That was the case with the following movie. 8MM came out in 1999 and it was directed by the guy that ruined the Batman franchise, but somehow, this Nicolas Cage film brought elements of horror to the mainstream in a way that should have been on par with “The Silence of the Lambs” but probably filtered out somehow. Join me today in a review of 3 elements that were scary in the Joel Shumacher film “8MM”.

SNUFF – The first thing that you’ll notice about this film is the subject matter. The movie is about a detective that is looking for a girl that could’ve been murdered in a snuff film. Now, I have talked about the genre in the past, and even saw a documentary about this. Is it real? Well, many people still swear that they have seen one, but honestly, there have not been a lot of real snuff movies available to the public. Hardcore, porn, and ultra violence, sure, but real snuff? That’s something that scares many people, and only serial killers have been known to distribute and record their stuff. That being said, the subject matter of the film shows clips of ultra violence and if you’re squeamish, you will flinch, as they are prominent and urgent to the story’s main plot.

Slavery – The second horror element that you’ll find in this film is a mix of violence and sex within the adult industry. Our hero, in this case a private detective, finds himself in the world of underground pornography, and he’s not sure what he’s getting into, until he is in too deep. Does this exist? Yes. I’ve seen many a CNBC special and even worked at an independent video store, and a small stint in the adult industry while I was in college. There is in fact sex trafficking, deviance, and a major criminal element within the adult industry that many people don’t know about. That is shown here in a very “comical” way at times, but it’s not something that is completely fictitious. It becomes truly scary to know that sex trafficking, kidnapping, and murder are all part of the pornography industry, even though many refuse to read, or know about it.

Missing Persons – The scariest thing about this movie is how hard it hits home for people. I am not a victim of this, but I do know several people that have gone missing. A friend of mine disappeared once, and a few years later resurfaced as a bum on the streets. For years his family searched for him and he was nowhere to be found. What happened? For all I know he decided to walk away. But how many girls, and young boys are taken away and either murdered or kept in someone’s basement with mothers and fathers waiting for them? This element is sad, and is a catalyst for the plot mid-way through the film.

8MM takes a slow moving plot and shifts into high gear in the third and fourth act. The movie is not without comical flaws, and over reaction moments with Nic Cage, but there are some serious sick and twisted elements. In the hands of a “horror” director, this movie would have seriously taken a more macabre road. However, you get just enough tinges of serious shock to make this one more than just a thriller, and categorize it into a “scary” film. If you've seen it already, give it one more go with new eyes, and you might enjoy it more this time around.




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Phantoms Review

When watching the movie “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”, in a pivotal scene Jay yells out “Affleck, you the bomb in Phantoms”, and runs out of the scene. While throwing a party, in which many people that I invited didn’t show up, I had the chance to watch Phantoms again, and boy did it leave a different impression than the first time I saw it all the many years ago.

First and foremost, the movie is based on a novel that was written by Dean Koontz. That guy can throw out literature as fast as Stephen King and it’s debatable who has more money at this point. Either way, the movie follows a very “Stephen King” adaption route, as Koontz wrote the screenplay as well. You really feel that this movie was adapted, from the first scenes where a couple of girls are arriving home after a trip. When they discover that their hometown is empty, they find that people are falling out dead, and there’s more to it as they discover that the people still alive, aren’t sure what’s going on.

To sum this movie up into a simple thing would be as simple as saying it’s about alien invasion. It’s really interesting to see how this develops, but it’s not quite the same “aliens” that you expect. In fact, it’s more of a biohazard than anything else, but the alien substance attacks and creates killer zombie like beings, and dogs, and well, you have to see it to truly understand. Mix a few things like “The Blob” with “The Stuff” and throw in “The Thing” and you start to see where the movie goes in terms of a villain.

As the movie progresses the crack shot team headed by the sheriff (played by Ben Affleck) go through stages of hell where they kill off anything that moves in hopes of getting rid of the enemy at large.

The movie breaks a few taboos, including killing children, but overall it’s a tame ride through 90 minutes of predictable alien like invasion. The movie does flow nicely, with a lot of cliché and one-liners thrown in for good measure. This lightweight horror film is not going to shock most, but it’s well done, fast paced, and worth checking out. I must admit, Jay was right, Ben Affleck is bomb in Phantoms, which is surprising considering everyone hated this guy….until he made the best movie ever…”The Town”, or at least a great one. Anyways, check out Phantoms again it’s worth it. I loved it, you might love it too.



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The Woman In Black Review

I’m not a big fan of slow moving movies, you might know that about me, but there are some movies that are worth looking at even if they are slow and prodding. I was hoping that the reviews about this film were not true, and that there was enough of a ghost story to really attract me, but alas, there was a lot of ambiance and then, well, a flutter in the wind before the climax revealed nothing more than another poor attempt to scare the audience.

The Woman in Black was released earlier this year and critics were excited to see that Daniel Radcliffe was in an adult movie that didn’t have anything to do with wizards. I for one thought he did well with the role, even if it wasn’t exactly too trying. Heck, I could’ve done the same role with a lantern and only 28,000 dollars for the performance. Yeah, that’s right, it doesn’t take much to sort through papers and do a little here and there.

The cool part about this movie solely relied on the atmosphere. The atmosphere was great and that made the story really creepy, but overall, the movie lost me through the plot points. There is a crazy woman, a dead child that wasn’t buried properly, and a weird community that is struggling with ghosts and lost children? The creepy moments relied heavily on the killing of children, but it was a diluted mess towards the midpoint.

Outside of a few creepy moments, the movie turned into a very odd horror movie. I wasn’t sure what was going on towards the third act, and eventually I threw in the towel. Unfortunately, The Women in Black is a boring moving that doesn’t really showcase the power of the story that might be involved with the original novel. I found it boring, and had I not focused on the set design, I wouldn’t have made it through the whole thing. This is a bad movie, and just not worth it, unless you’re a great fan of Radcliffe and in that case, buy the blu ray, it looks incredible.



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Club Dread (Again) Review

On Friday, September 9, 2011 I reviewed the film Club Dread, and recently I sat down to watch it again, why? Because it was on and I didn’t want to do anything else, and well, I had time. So in the sake of fairness, I wanted to give it one more shot and review it, because things change when you see things a second time.

Club Dread is a comedy horror movie that was produced by the comedy guys known as Broken Lizard. Those idiots brought you “Super Troopers” and while it didn’t set the box office on fire, it definitely has a fan base that is quite large. Well, they would release some stupid crap that flopped and would cause them to sputter out of control and back to Canada (I think they are from Canada), but they did put out a gem of a film, that no one saw called Club Dread.

Not to be confused with Judge Dread, this movie is about a party gone totally wrong. The movie carries a simple plot, as you are introduced to a variety of laughable characters that all have jobs at a resort island where good times are to be had. As the movie goes through some stereotypical horror set up, the body count starts to rise and pretty soon everyone starts blaming one another.

The movie derails midway, but in a good way, ditching most plots for straight up killing and gore. The death sequences are done with a comedic flair so you don’t have to turn away, but instead indulge in the unbelievable moments that would cause someone’s severed head to get stuck on a vinyl record player.

Let’s take a moment to mourn the death of a record player on film.

Ok, the movie picks up speed in the third act where we find out that the obvious choices for the killer are not to be blamed as they get killed off, and a serious tone sits over the movie. Once the island (and the guests) finds out that there is a killer on the loose and panic sets in, everyone starts to abandon and go back home. However, the team members left from the serial killer’s path stay to kick some serious ASS!

The movie looks great, and the jokes get funnier the second time around. There are some great zingers that don’t get enough attention, and fly by so fast that you forget you're watching a horror movie.

My favorite part of this movie is definitely the endings, multiple endings. Well, they are logical conclusions, in which we see the villain revealed, and his death imminent although he comes back again and again and again and a laughable comeback that had me nearly on the floor the second time around.

Club Dread is not going to win any awards from the mainstream media, but if you give it another shot, you’ll find that this fun romp through horror cliché is actually really good and worth your time. I know I now peg it as one of my top 10 horror comedies, even if it does have some moments of absurdity. I highly recommend checking out Club Dread one more time, and seeing if you like it as much as I do.



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Cabin in the Woods Review

I couldn’t escape hearing about this movie, and how it was the greatest thing to ever come to cinema. I didn’t get to watch in theaters despite trying to do so on a regular basis, so I had to wait for it to come to dvd and thanks to Netflix I finally got it. I would buy more movies, but I don’t make any money on this site, so it’s difficult to do so. Anyways, this movie was supposed to be the second coming of the horror film, but nope, it certainly wasn’t, but it did have some interesting points. I am now going to rant about the movie known as Cabin in the Woods.

Not Your Average Cabin

Guess what? The beginning of this film completely throws you into another world, one that is not like anything you’ve seen in previous cabin style movies. Now, I have listed the top 10 camping movies, which usually has a rag tag group of friends in situations that should and do kill them with ease, and that genre is definitely something that comes into the spotlight every year, at least for a few romps with the same formula of death and despair and of course a sprinkling of sex.

This time around there is a spoiler right from the start of the movie, and something that doesn’t lend itself well to purists looking for that traditional romp in the woods. Sure we get a little bit of wooden fun, and even sex, but it is a puppet master’s dream because that drives every twist and turn in the film.

The cabin itself is nothing more than a location that will swallow these people whole, and the foreshadowing is evident at every moment in the first 25 minutes. If you don’t catch all the signs, that’s ok, you’ll get thrown into the fray soon enough.

Deadly Sins

The movie has a great deal of the same standard of deadly sins that will shoot you in the arm with cool. Each stereotype is seen a mile away and when the demise happens to them, the teenage horror fan in you goes nuts; I know I was happy with the way things were going down. Then things start to unravel and the hinges completely break loose.

The death scenes are cool, not too gory, but definitely enough to give you blood shed without making you throw up, even the unrated version doesn’t fill you with so much blood you want to vomit, well, at least not in the first 50 minutes.

The Disconnect

The third act and subsequently the fourth act is definitely where this movie completely blows up in your face. Like a shotgun blast sequence happening when the protagonist opens the door (see Boogie Nights or Kill Bill 2), the whole world comes to an end (literally) and all hell is unleashed on the surviving 2.

With a world of monsters chasing the final 2 idiots, we get visited from a member of science fiction past and most certainly got me cheering, even if the fight sequence that followed was unlike what I would expect from “Aliens”.

Flutter and End

The end was lame. Have you ever collaborated with someone? This movie felt like a couple of writers got together and kept 1 upping each other with ideas and they didn’t edit things out, they took that and put it all into a film that shoehorns every horror element and comedic timed joke you’d expect from a self-aware horror flick.

Is it worth your time?

Yes! However, it is going to disappoint you. The movie mixes a lot of genres to bring a fresh take on horror, far better than the hype of “Drag me to Hell”. It delivers with some great moments, but you will definitely ask more questions than just focus on the story. Check out Cabin in the Woods on Blu Ray, it’s best looking that way. I’d have to see it again.



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Horror Deal of the Day: Reanimator (1985) Blu Ray

Reanimator (1985) Blu Ray $12.99 Buy it Now

Today we start something new. Before I write another review each day, I will recommend a dvd here on the website and on facebook. I will choose movies that you can save a little cash on purchasing, if you so choose.

Today, my recommended purchase is the classic H.P. Lovecraft tale, "Reanimator" on Blu Ray. If you haven't seen this instant classic, then you're missing out on one of the mid 1980s best science fiction/horror movie. Based on Lovecraft's classic story, this gore filled romp is quite the sight to see.

Purchase Reanimator by clicking here, and save 28% off today.



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