A nod to European Horror

Here's another post from a guest. I've been battling sickness, writing a lot, starting a business, and just haven't had time to watch as much horror as I'd like to. I will return to a full schedule sooner than later, but until then, check this out.  

It’s a known fact that they sure know how to make movies that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up over there on the old continent. For all the faithful horror fans out there- just the mere mention of names as Dario Argento or Guillermo del Toro, but the last decade has witnessed a lot of involvement from part of the Scandinavian, Russian and Serbian directors who’ve managed to offer some truly amazing titles that are surely to earn a permanent place in the Horror Hall of Fame. Let’s take a quick look at some of the most memorable ones.

Sauna (2008)

A very strong title born from the collaboration of Finland and the Czech Republic. The somber and depressing movie has a solid plot with a feasible background story, which is all the more painful as it deals with the horrors of war or, more precisely, the aftermath of these horrors and the way everything good in the human nature crumbles before the atrocities we are capable of committing.

Philosophy of a Knife (2008)

Written and directed by the promising Russian talent Andrey Iskanov, the movie follows the true story of the notorious Japanese Unit 731 - known for unbelievably brutal human experiments during WW2. The atrocities carried out in the infamous unit are far too horrendous to require extra video effects, which is something the Russian director was fully aware of. His movie is but a peak into the hellish nightmare that devoured thousands of men, women, children and infants.

Semum (2008)

A surprisingly original Turkish horror, despite the fact that it exploits a theme that we’ve seen one time too many. The effects are pretty decent for this kind of budget and the plot is as simple as it is effective. Allegedly the movie is based on the real-life events of Canan Karaca. Definitely worth checking out.

Let the Right One In (2008)

The movie is actually a remake of a previous one by director Tomas Alfredson. A different and quite unorthodox story about vampires, which is as eerie as it is endearing. Every minute of the film is brilliantly steeped in the characters’ emotions and the cinematographic and music are both beautiful.

Srpski Film / A Serbian Film (2010)

In case you have missed out on this one it’s time to make up for it. Serbia has single-handedly given to the world some of the best movies in the past several years and A Serbian Film is one of them. A brutally honest, disturbingly realistic visual experience - this movie is about as snuff as it’s ever going to get. As if the topics it deals with are not atrocious enough, the camera doesn’t shy away from the violence in a way that will make you sick to your stomach.

Indie Horror Films Worth Checking Out

I'm starting to feel better, but still am not at 100%, so you'll have to deal with guest postings yet again. I'll return to the helm with all new reviews for Chemical Burn Studios work. 

Indie movies are often overlooked by fans, mainly due to the fact that their limited budget and unrecognizable actors don’t make for a very appealing advertising campaign. If you don’t frequently browse through the horror fests’ lists of indie flicks, you risk missing out on some of the best, chilling, original and disturbing titles the horror genre has ever witnessed. For those of you, who’ve only stayed up-to-date with the mainstream titles released over the past few years, we offer a list of a few brilliant indie horror films that are definitely worth checking out.

Joshua (2006)

Travis Betz is an f-ing genius for single-handedly writing and directing one of the most dark, demented and truly disturbing horror flicks of the past decade. It is truly amazing what can be done with just few mediocre visual effects and an extremely strong background story and tight plot. Betz’s efforts have been rewarded with this realistically disturbing tale of human downfall into depravity and insanity.

Splinter (2008)

A very effective Sci-Fi horror flick, which is one of those movies that actually gains from not revealing too much about the cause of events, is what you find here. The effects are decent and the gore is just the right amount to contribute to the build-up of suspension and feeling of dread throughout the movie. Director Toby Wilkins has done a marvelous job with the plot as well as with the cast.

Dead Girl (2008)

A very powerful and disturbing movie, exploring serious social issues, full of horror that should shake you is presented here. This memorable stomach turning flick deals with the most depraved choices people make when nobody is watching. The director is sparing of effects, but effectively creates a dark tale that starts off slow, but quickly builds up to a climax of absolute destruction and carnage.

Triangle (2009)

This is more of a psychological type of horror, but still it is worth mentioning, as it is quite fresh with a very unexpected turn of events. Although the movie starts out as just another slasher, pretty soon it takes a turn for the worse and the viewer is introduced to something much more sinister than just another deranged killer hunting down a group of good-looking folks.

Perkins’ 14

Perkins’ 14 is an unusually stark flick, superbly directed and filmed by Craig Singer and it’s one of the best things to come out from the After Dark Horror Fest in recent years. The unique style and engaging script only add to the movie’s effective somber atmosphere, which draws the viewer into a downfall of horror, psychological pain and brutal violence.

Clive Barker's Books of Blood Review

(Buy the Book Here)

Your old pal Sir Jorge is still sick. I haven't been able to do a whole lot of writing, so you will have to enjoy another guest blogger attempt to get you interested in horror of a different kind. Enjoy.

Clive Barker is a well-known name in the world of horror and fantasy. His biography of a director and producer holds titles such as ‘Hellraiser’ and ‘Jericho’, which are trend-setters in times, when people thought that everything has been done before. Having said this, Barker’s true talent shines most in the field of literature. Known as one of the most promising writers in the horror genre and proclaimed by none other than Stephen King as the future of the said genre, all of Barker’s books prove that he will most certainly live up to these expectations.

The first volume of the Books of Blood consists of 6 stories and 3 introductions. The first story carries the title ‘The Book of Blood’ and it unfolds the tale of how the said book came to be. The narrative is original and grim with brilliant twists and the incorporation of paranormal elements. It is interesting to point out that Barker doesn’t abide by the rules imposed on authors at the beginning of their careers for a strict word count of their works and creates every story as he sees fit. The end result is compact, concise stories that are surprisingly engaging and influential.

The second story in the book is ‘The Midnight Meat Train’, which most people will recognize as the film adaptation with Vinnie Jones and Bradley Cooper, which was actually pretty decent. The author himself has expressed his desire for the movie to become the first of a trilogy, which will shed some light on the creatures that are behind all existence and demand bloody sacrifices for it.

In ‘The Yattering and Jack’ Barker offers an interesting insight into the mishaps of an inferior daemon. Even though someone might argue that comic is not a term that ought to be used when we’re reviewing a book in the horror genre, this story has an undeniable humoristic element to it. Time and again Barker manages to offer something fresh and original, proving that he definitely doesn’t fall under any categories of the said genre.

‘Pig Blood Blues’ makes the infamous scene from Hannibal pale in comparison. Barker is truly at his best in terms of ruthlessness and brutality that makes the reader squirm with disgust. Another proof that he is willing to experiment and explore different angles and approaches of the genre, playing with and pushing the limits of sane and normal.

In ‘Sex, Death and Starshine’ the plot unfolds following the pattern of…well..sex, death and starshine. Although far from frightening, the story is quite intriguing. The dead too require a healthy dosage of entertainment and apparently they know how to get it.

‘In the Hills, the Cities’ deservedly is placed at the end of the first volume of the ‘Books of Blood’ as it is truly the best work of the author of the 6 stories. Barker’s imagination has really surpassed all limits and ventured into realms of unimaginable horror and dread.

As a whole ‘Books of Blood’ has its weak and strong points. As we mentioned before, Barker is not amongst the authors to follow predetermined patterns in their style of writing or narrative and he’s definitely not the one to spare his readers any brutality. He’s exhaustive and thorough to the point where it can get physically unsettling for the person on the other side of the book. His works are a must-read for anyone who’s looking for something different than the mainstream horror formula.

Silent Hill Revelation 3D Review

(Buy silent hill here)

From time to time, your pal Sir Jorge (me) gets sick. This week I got the flu, so in that case, I had a little help from a guest blogger. This guest blogger didn’t want to be named, just wanted a shot at posting on the old blog o rific, so without further adieu, here you go.

We dare to dream of the day that Hollywood will stop trying to make movies based on game sequels, but alas that day is yet to come…For the time being we’re forced to sit through a [yet another] mediocre and downright laughable cinematic version of one of the greatest horror game franchises that were to ever grace the face of this pitiful planet. KONAMI must really be regretting selling the rights to the franchise to an American company - now that the fellow Americans hold the legal rights to the game(s) and movie(s) all bets are off.

But onto the movie, we will see... It’s hard to write a coherent review for a movie that’s all over the place, so let’s just use the same approach to do it justice. This movie has no reason to exist. Period. After the dreaded and insufferable Silent Hill from 2006 a lot of game fans were convinced the making of films based on games had hit rock bottom and nothing worse could ever live to see daylight. Apparently scriptwriters, directors and visual artists in Hollywood mistook this for a personal challenge and thus - Revelation was born. Sometimes I think virtually every movie based on a game is doomed to failure and the guys from the East Coast seem pretty keen on proving me right (note: no, putting Angelina Jolie in the lead role does NOT a movie make or save; she’s freaking hot as hell, yes, but if I wanted to watch an hour long of a hot chick flashing her curves from every angle I’d just play me some random Sasha Grey clip).

As a religious fan of the game sequel I have to shamefully admit I was timidly hopeful for the second Silent Hill movie after having experienced one of the worst disappointments of my life sitting through the first (seriously, I wasn’t that upset when I found naked pictures and ongoing correspondence of my boyfriend with his ex, leading to an ugly break-up). Further to this the fact that it would be loosely based on the third installment of the game series, which is one of the strongest and sickest in the sequence, only added to that adorable pitter-patter of my heart and the butterfly feeling in my stomach. By the time the credits appeared on the screen I was deeply pensive about whether to pull a James Holmes on the theatre (alright, this was completely inappropriate in the light of the recent events, but you get what I am trying to say) or go home and slit my wrists with broken DVD pieces.

See? I promised you a review as coherent as the movie and so far I think I’m delivering. In all seriousness, though, the movie is all over the place - like literally. There isn’t the slightest effort from part of the script-writer to put together anything even remotely decent in terms of background story (the glue that hold together all Silent Hill-related stories no matter how irrelevant or unrelated they might seem in the beginning) and the director has only assisted with throwing in here and there random images in the spirit of the game franchise. Apart from recognizing some of the series most infamous monsters there is little that the fans will be able to relate to. As if in a meek attempt to block out these flukes, several up-and-coming and one or two famous actors have been thrown in the movie, but they’re just as out of place as everything else. Almost all of the casting of ‘Game of Thrones’ is present, which goes on to prove that when the industry has decided to promote someone, they’re going to promote the living shit out of them - even if that person can’t act to save his life (which is kind of ironic since one of the actors in question does die in the movie…and in ‘Game of Thrones’ for that matter. Wonder if it was due to bad acting). Carrie Anne Moss hasn’t acted in a scene as laughable as the infamous last dialogue with Neo from the 3rd Matrix, where he tells her she can’t die, but she argues that she can and dies, until now.

Things are not looking good in the soundtrack department either, which is baffling to say the least. With a monumentally genius composer like Akira Yamaoka, who single-handedly ensured that musically Silent Hill is just as eerie and disturbing as the story and gameplay intended it to be, the music to the movie is nothing like any of the brilliant tracks we get to experience in the games.

Without spoiling the movie for those who will bravely venture into the theatre to catch a glimpse of the abomination that it is, let me just shout out a fair warning to all faithful game fans - the notorious, but beloved Pyramid Head appears in the most unimaginably grotesque (not in a good) way - one that will leave you with nightmares for weeks to come and will possibly result in several shrink appointments.

The general atmosphere of the movie is dark and somber, albeit in a way that has little to do with the sad hopelessness that the games used to make the player care. You will find it doesn’t really matter whether the characters live or die and will fail to be thrilled by their personal tragedies, which are told in a more of a soap-opera-drama style. The safest choice you could make is to take my word that the best thing about this movie is the poster and move on with your life.

Total Recall Review

I was only 7 years old when my mom and her boyfriend dragged me to see this movie. My mom was awesome, she had no major filter, she let me watch whatever, and this Rated R movie was just another piece to my childhood, and it allowed me to blossom into the little horror fan that I used to be, and the big horror idiot that I am now. Total Recall is a classic, it has a better plot than Inception,a nd features some great moments for both horror movie fans and science fiction fans alike.

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this movie alongside some other people, but who cares right? This movie was based on a story by Philip Dick and was loose on plot after it was introduced. The main focus of the film concerns a construction worker, tired of his life away from Mars and wants to get back to the Red planet, but when his wife doesn't let him, he goes to a dream factory in which he can get a memory implant to let him become a Mars resident and super spy. When the implant doesn't work out and his repressed memory comes to the forefront of his mind, the movie goes out of control with a secret police chasing him, and the movie's plot gets wilder and more unpredictable.

The first major piece of this movie that I loved was the interactions of Doug Quaid (Arnold) and Sharon Stone. The fight scene that they have was quite good, and Sharton Stone is hot! The two have a nice fight in their apartment, and then things get better and better as Arnold runs throughout Earth and eventually to mars. The second piece that I enjoyed was the gore. There was a lot of gore in this movie, with some nice fights, gun play, explosions, and even a head exploding!

There is some nudity, and some interesting sexual points, but nothign too much. The three breasted alien lady was a nice little touch in the mid point of the film, even if it was an after thought of the Alien bar.

The rest of the film is relatively predictable, and msot of it just ends up being a little boring, but not before the one liners get ramped up more and more. Including the famous line where Arnold's character takes a huge drill to a tank and yells out, "SCREW YOU", getting the driver into a bloody mess inside the cockpit of the rover-drill.

I hate the whole identity crisis thing, and it's something that I've written about in the past on this blog. Memory repression, lack of memory, and the same thing that plagued Inception for me, is found here. I never liked it, and I still don't like. While I am ok with it here, I hate how lazy it is in story telling and it's one of the over used tricks of the trade.

Visually, this film is very appealing, even after all these years. There are some very stupid graphics, there are some terrible one liners, but the over the top violence, chase sequences, editing, and musical score made this one a great overall cool film to watch. It's funny to note that this film got an X-rating, but was later given an R rating.

I love how the filming of the film happened in Mexico City (which is one of my home towns) and the subway did in fact look much more futuristic than I am used to. The movie did so well at the box office that they wrote a second film and it was never filmed, it later became Minority Report, which no one cared for or watched.

Total Recall has its flaws. I did find myself laughing at several non-comedic points. However, I liked the picture of the future, and I really loved watching Sharon Stone (a much younger one). Arnold's one liners aren't as comedic as they were much later in his career, and the violence, gore, and plot points come at you fast and easy. I found myself wanting to see the special features on this disc, but instead, I just watched it again with a bag of popcorn. Total Recall is best viewed in blu ray here.




Bonus!



I recently enjoyed playing the Total Recall video game for the NES 8-Bit system. I love the NES and this game is challenging, and similar to Contra on some levels. You play as Doug Quaid rolling through different levels and fight off villains. There are a lot of crappy points in this game, but it's worth checking out if you're into Nintendo. They also made a game for the Commodore 64, and good luck if you loved that game. The NES game got some terrible reviews, but screw them, this game rules. You can buy Total Recall for the NES here.

They also made a one shot comic book series that adapted the story well. DC Comics published it in the early 90's, but most recently news broke that they would be reviving the Total Recall franchise first with comic books, than with a new reboot, albeit, nothing has surfaced about a release date. It can't possibly live up to how awesome this original film was.

Predator Review

What's this? I finally cave in and review the original Predator film? That's right, i finally got around to re watching the original science fiction horror film starring the governor of California. I can safely say that the 1980's even with the limited CG effects, were far better in a lot of regards than today's stupidity of remakes. I'm not a film maker, and I don't have any money, but I do have is a brain and four eyes (cause I wear glasses, get it), and after years and years of picking my nose and sitting on the couch, I can at least say that I know a quality flick when I see one, and this one is in fact a better than average film, and was surprised how well this movie holds up, even in today's standards.

The story seems self explanatory, at least from the back of the vhs box that you're looking at in the museum of a video store you have in your town. But for those without that, the story goes as follows: A group of mercenaries are hired to go deep into the jungles on a mission to rescue some trapped allies. However, what they aren't told is that there is something in the jungles, and it might not necessarily be human, and it will cost most of the men, their lives.

The start of this film is actually similar to Rambo 2, or more recently, Tropic Thunder. We have the setting of a real Jungle, and we have a group of guys that are so tough, they probably eat nails. You get some awesome throwaway characters all buff and all strong. The standouts are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and they are the focal point of some carnage, and of course, death and mayhem. Despite the geeks with video editing software, Arnold's one liners aren't too out of place and don't hit as funny as they are when Austrian Death Machine plays them over metallic guitar riffs. Yes, his lines are somewhat cheese filled, but maybe I love cheese.

The gore is well in place here. Gore is used in some great shots, including a head exploding and spilling blood on the camera. Arms getting severed, shots exploding through body cavities, and so much more. They are not all supernatural either, there are great pieces of gore throughout the kills from both Predator and the mercs. Obviously, this rated R film is far more than just a standard science fiction film, as it showers the viewer with blood and guts, more so than is necessary for this type of film.

As the movie progresses, you lose all dialogue and the hunter becomes the hunted and it's awesome. The film goes through some changes in tone, as our heroes are killed off one by one in devastating fashion. The movie ends in a satisfying way, even though the latter portions of this film have little to no dialogue, and just use visual cues to entertain the audience.

Predator is fascinating, it's good, it's horrific at times. It's not a "scary" film today, as I've seen it one hundred times by now. However, when this movie was released (when I was a kid) up to when I was a teenager, I only saw this film in two ways. I either rented it from the Korean video store near my house, in the ghetto, or I would watch it on one of the network television channels. The movie was heavily edited for tv, but it still had a great deal of great moments. Now with DVD it's available to watch all the time, unedited, extended, and a great deal of features that were never found on the original vhs version of Predator. We are so spoiled, this digital generation of ours, but that's ok, because you can watch this anytime.

I liked this movie a lot, and despite the "GET TO THE CHOPPA" line, I was ok with the rest of the film, more so than a great deal of movies this year. It holds up very well. It's rare to see a movie hold its weight, especially when there are remakes all over the place. The series was tied into the Alien series, and well, it was remade earlier this year in one of the worst reboots in the history of film making.


Click HERE TO BUY PREDATOR


BONUS!



If that wasn't enough for you, you might want to check out the NES Game adaptation for Predator. The game was made for the NES 8-Bit by Activision. The game is a side scroller, similar to Contra, with lots of similar backgrounds and jungle sequences. You start the game with only punching, yep. You don't get a gun, you just run and punch, proving that you're the most bad ass dude! This is 8 bit, remember! Not everything needs to make sense here.



This is a challenging game, with a learning curve that is far higher than your average game. This is another example of how it was to be a kid growing up in the 80's and 90's. You either bought this game or you rented it, and you HAD to put time into it. If it sucked, it sucked, but you still went forward and tried to beat the game, because that's all you had to do, play video games. For the sake of this review, I revisited the game, and it's fun, but only if you like 8-bit challenges. This game is NOT for everyone,and it's not a complete adaptation from the movie, it's another adventure altogether. I liked it. There are 30 levels, and there are a variety of cool spots with the sprites nearly hitting 16 bits.

You can pick up the Predator for NES Here. I recommend it, but only if you like NES and hard games, otherwise, you're better off just watching the movie.



Oh, and if that isn't enough, there is a Predator 2 video game, on the Sega Genesis. But we won't dive into that one for this review, I'll save that for the movie review of that, later...well much later.