Today, I decided to review a film that was just beyond the scope of my usual reviews. Once again, I have tested my personal limits of viewing, and trying to understand horror as a subject matter beyond comedy. I really had to fight myself to get involved in this film, and guess what? I think I've met my intellectual and comedic match. Today, for your reading pleasure, I present one of the most goriest, ridiculous, and overall stupid movies ever made. Of course, I am referring to the third installment of the Basket Case trilogy. This is NOT going to be my normal templated review, as this movie doesn't really provide much in the realms of psychology and reasoning. This film takes the horror comedy genre and plays favorites. This film is just a marvelous piece of shiny poop. Good shiny poop, terrible, I know, I'm not doing well in this introductory paragraph. For your reading pleasure, enjoy Basket Case 3.
First, here is a trailer for Basket Case 3:
The Basket Case movies are not exactly the first things people think of when thinking of horror comedies. However, I find them to be an interesting take on the genre for a lot of different reasons. The story involves two brothers, one full bodied man and his twin brother who just happens to be a bloody attachment of his side. It is sickening, and he's repulsive. Imagine if you had a wax mannequin and melted it down, but only 75% down, and you will get the idea. We have two brothers, Duane is the normal one and Beliel is the bloody, disgusting stump of a being.
In this third film we join the brothers in a house of deformities. (A throwback to the second film) This house of freaks, is an astonishing array of mutated creatures that are insanely designed. The make up effects on these creatures is nothing short of brilliant. We're talking about alien heads, mutated half heads half bodies, big earlobe looking things. Some look like brains with no skulls, Cthulu throwbacks, and all sorts of latex rubber suit monsters. If you have a good imagination, it wouldn't be a match for these creatures, that are so greatly designed and created. I liked them.
We start the movie with a sex scene. This has to be the most vile, disgusting sex scene of all time. We see two alien stumps, barely with craniums, and weird looking ghouls making human sex sounds while rubbing on each other. I kid you not this is the sickest, genre bending sexual situation that I've ever seen in a horror movie. But at the same time, it wasn't the most explicit, someone has one heck of an imagination, I'll tell you that much.
We move on to find out the main story. The story revolves around these two lumps of mass that are going to have a baby. Yep, a weird alien humanoid stump of a baby. Weird. So the freak house goes on a little road trip to try and get the alien woman person thing to a hospital or delivery room or something. Trust me, the movie really doesn't help with the storyline, as it is just so weird at times.
The movie continues in the grotesque department by showing you a birth of several babies, that are ridiculous. We're talking about complete and utter Inseminoid quality Alien births, with the goriest of situations. It's so bad that I contemplated turning off the movie.
I stuck with it, out of sheer curiosity.
The second half of the film involves a kidnapping scheme, with the local law enforcement stealing the baby aliens and trying to hold them for ransom, while the freak house gives chase. This was after the mother was shot to oblivion with a 12 guage shotgun, in another gorey film effect, proving that this film might as well win the crown for gore.
Basket Case 3 is available on dvd, and it's an interesting look at horror comedy. It has a lot of serious gore though, and I was surprised that it didn't get to "Meet the Feebles" type of comedic gore. It is weird.
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Yesterday I had a huge blow out at work. Well, it wasn't bad, it was just very hard to understand. I work with two former movie store clerks, so my level of movie critique and viewing should fit in well with them. We can go back and forth through the 80's a lot and then it hit me. They haven't seen anything pre-1980! I asked outright and they were quick to divulge the details, one stating that no film before 1980 is worth looking at and that most movies before that era are boring! What an outright lie! I gathered my wits and just closed off, I can't argue film with these guys. So I went home and watched a 1981 slasher film that was written and produced by the two biggest guys in Hollywood...the Weinsteins, The Burning. So today, we have an interesting review for you to read and try to follow along with. I present for your reading displeasure, my review of the 1981 film, The Burning.
Ah yes, that great slasher cinema feeling. Tom Savini was given a mere 3 dayst o come up with effects for our killer, and it shows. The setting is an old camp site, and teenagers are getting killed off in brutal murders. Sounds like a Friday the 13th rip off, and you know what? It sort of is in a way. A good idea, and a lot better looking than "Sleepaway Camp" but who cares right? This stands on its own as a cool looking, great slasher film, or does it?
The story starts off like a lot of other slasher films from this era. A group of kids play a prank on someone and it goes terribly wrong. That person returns to get revenge and kills off the new generation of kids at the camp, while trying to get revenge on the original campers, one of which is now a counselor. Simple plot, and overall a little standard, but it wasn't scene that often in 1981. At least not yet anyway.
There are notable actors in this film, including Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter, but aren't main characters. The acting isn't too bad, but it definitely doesn't feel like the people in the movie are teenagers. They look much older and therefore kind of ruin the perception of youth.
There are a lot of gore effects, but they do seem a little rushed. The blood in this film is really thin and flows like water, rather than blood. There are moments where the kills are just sophomoric to say the least. The camera also cuts away a lot for a rated R slasher film, and I don't know why. The movie really feels bigger than the sum of its parts, but the edits are just done with haste and really make you dislike the overall tone, which is supposed to be serious.
There are plot holes. There are big plot holes. My main argument initially, was why didn't anyone call the police? Seriously, why didn't anyone call law enforcement? It seems that finding a raft of dead bodies isn't alarming enough. Plus a camper goes missing, after being killed, and no one does anything but blame her boyfriend. I guess this is all explained away with the time and place of the film. Apparently, if you went to a sleepaway camp, you automatically have no communication with the outside world. I know cell phones don't exist, and there is no internet, but come on! There's no phones at all? Even the ill fated Nickelodeon show "Salute Your Shorts" had pay phones! Ok, I admit that was a cheap way to get "Salute Your Shorts" a little attention, but come on, I like that show.
Is The Burning Scary?: Yes. This movie is scary on several notes. Sure the movie plays like a terrible drama with cookie cutter plot sequences and stupid murders. However, there is a serious tone to the film that can not be ignored and definitely offers a good scare.
First and foremost, we see the notion that sex will kill you. At least if you have sex at camp. The campers that have sex in these slasher films from the 80's get killed. It's a rule, and it's sad to think that teen sex, usually means death for you and your loved one in these horror movies. It's scary to think that someone thought this was a way to make sex scary, or even doing the wrong thing scary. Death is no punishment for this "crime" and it's scary to think that if you're alone in the woods, you're done for. On second though, it was the 80's and AIDS was starting to becoming a national epidemic, so maybe there was a good point to all that.
Secondly, the idea of revenge is explored here. The campers get revenge on what I assume is a janitor or groundskeeper. Later in the film is is explained that the kids didn't like the groundskeeper because he was a tyrant of sorts. Their prank goes wrong and the guy gets burned into an unrecognizable monster. He then comes back to kill! The disfigurement of the victim is sad, but is losing your identity (your face) worth killing for? That idea of psychological trauma due to facial disfigurement is a scary thing. What would you do if you lost your face? Think about how much money is spent on advertisements for acne medicine. Think about how much pressure there is to have clear skin, or to lose wrinkles, now consider this man's plight. He's sleeping and kids play a prank, next thing you know he's terribly disfigured and is now going to have the "mark of Cain" for the rest of his life! Is it something to kill over? Maybe not, but it seems like a nice metaphor here to the lifestyle obsession that we all have with clear skin, nice skin, and/or anti-aging. Disfigurement comes unnaturally painful in this film, and the disfigurement ruins this mans life. That is a scary notion. The notion that you could go insane if you lose your looks, and furthermore are burned into a monster. This is 1981 afterall, the only major plastic surgery that I'm aware of being popular in those days was breast augmentation and it hadn't hit like it is today. The Burning may not have set out to be a film that had serious implications on the psyche, or to make you think, but I sure thought about that idea when presented this film. I like to think that movies, even scary movies, have unintentional morality tales and showcase a mirror for us to view life in general.
Lastly, the scariest thing is probably the most simple. As parents, a lot of times we (I'm not a parent, but I use the "we" in the sentence for dramatic tone), are over protective. I know parents that only feed their kids organic foods, or don't even vaccinate their kids. We try to put them in a bubble so that the outside world doesn't get in. Then they grow up and they go to camp. Today we don't fear such things because of modern communication technology and how far it reaches. However, in 1981, going to camp might induce anxiety for many people. I know I would be scared if I were a parent and saw The Burning or other great Camp Slasher films. The Burning presents camp as a carefree, sex filled, murderous place. Sure it probably isn't like that in real life, and I began to think about that too. These films were made by people that most likely went to camp and thought it would be scary if this happened. Ruining camp forever! It's really the same kind of effect that we are seeing from the information age. We have so many people freaked out about some frivolous things like Bird Flu, Peanut Allergies, and global pandemics that really don't reach as far as the children we are trying to protect. Camp nightmare movies can and probably do induce fear into parents and teens that only propel the idea of "Camp Camp" or novelty. One such case is the interesting social comedic book by the title "Camp Camp" by Roger Bennett and Jules Shell. The scariest notion about this film is that you are in a place of assumed safety, Camp. Even with the illusion of safety present, you are still in a place that can go terribly wrong! Seriously, terribly wrong! Making The Burning a scary film.
I admit, I'm really trying hard here. I try hard to come up with something interesting to talk about in these reviews, and yes, they are a bit absurd at times. However, if you sit down and think about why these films can be scary, you might find a new appreciation for horror films. I know I do, and that's why I started this blog. The Burning is a good overall film. Sure it has its flaws, but hey, I can forgive the flaws because there are some good moments in this film. Savini might of had his hands tied in regards to the special effects, but he did the best he could given the circumstances. I would have to say this goes right up there with my picks for best camp slaughter films, and you know what? The genre needs a good kick in the nuts. Then again, when's the last time you went to summer camp? Thought so.
As a Bonus, check out my top 5 comedic camp movies. These 5 films will make you laugh or cry, and you know what? Sometimes a little comedy goes a long way to balance out the top camp horror movies list that I posted earlier in the life of scary film blog. Anyways...here you go, my top 5 all time comedic camp movies (which aren't horror films, so don't kill me, it's a bonus)
5. Salute Your Shorts - Technically not a movie, but the show was hilarious. I wish they had a dvd set for this show as it is one of my favorite childhood nickelodeon television shows. I recently read an article with Donkey Lips, good guy, hilarious still. Remember that one dude from Salute Your Shorts that was in T2? Wonder what happened with all that. Oh well.
4. Camp Nowhere - Lord of the Flies comes to life in this hilarious romp. The movie had a terrible first and third act, but the middle was fun. The premise basically answers the question: What if we (teenagers) started our own camp?...hilarity ensues. Oh and thrown in Christopher Loyd.
3. Wet Hot American Summer - A parody of camp comedies, that you either loved or hated. I personally thought it was funny, but it's been a while.
2. Heavyweights - Heavyweights is a Judd Apatow written romp through hell and back. Well, first you go to heaven with the premise of a fun fat camp, then you go to hell when Ben Stiller shows up as a weightloss guru! Hilarity once again ensues. You learn to be yourself in this Disney film, but it's a funny one.
1. Meatballs 2 - Meatballs 2 gets my pic as the kids at the crappy camp have to battle Camp Patton. Hilarious movie with a cool Space Alien that smokes weed and can go through walls. Hilarious! My favorite Camp Comedy of all time, it's hilarious.
That concludes the little bonus here, sorry it's not much, but hey, it's a bonus.
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While I was one years old, movie executives decided to green light a horror movie about mutants underground. The film came out in 1984, and was named C.H.U.D. CHUD, as it is known, stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller and with a title and premise that comes along with this type of film, you would think you'd be in for a good gorey mess. NOPE! So today, I present for your reading pleasure, a review of the 1984 C.H.U.D directed by Douglas Cheek (relatively unknown) and starring John Heard and Daniel Stern.
The movie opens up with a woman walking her dog, and as she passes by a manhole a mutated arm comes out and grabs her! This opens up the movie and presents a good overall initial punch. The premise revolves around investigators looking into a lot of new reports of missing people. Along the way we discover that there are mutants living under the streets of New York and they are now starting to come to the surface. You would think that CHUD would create an interesting premise and good overall movie, but nope, nope, we get a a long winded film, that has some interesting scary moments, but loses its steam in the latter portions of the film.
First and foremost, I didn't like the fact that there wasn't a lot of gore in this film. par to fthe title of the film stands for "cannibalistic" and therefore you would think you'd see more eating of flesh. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of cannibal films, but if you're going to sell me a movie with the first letter of the acronym standing for "cannibalistic" you gotta deliver on some gore. There are portions of gore, but overall there's no real sign of cannibalism, even though they show a little here and there, you don't really get a full throttle flesh eating example. I'm not convinced, and that definitely took away from the overall theme of the film.
There is a lot of investigation and slow moving plot sequences to the final "fight" if you well. The movie really isn't too fast nor is it too fast in the way it is dealing with the story. There are a lot of scenes of discussion about the idea of CHUD rather than seeing CHUD showing up and taking people left and right. The characters in this film act as though, they are in an episode of Law & Order rather than in a straight forward horror film. Yes, the film is old. But it's not that old, nor does it warrant the slow pacing that comes through in this film. We're talking about 1984, not 1964, there is no need for a lot of the films scenes, and really provides no way of building tension. The tension doesn't even arise until the third act, and that is done through music not the actual sequence of events.
Is CHUD scary?: There's not definitive answer to that question. Usually there are clear cut themes that I can go to in regards to horror films, but not for CHUD. Can CHUD be viewed as scary? Yes. The idea that homeless people living underground can turn into zombies, is scary. But that's not the scariest part. The scariest part of CHUD is the way that the law enforcement and city agencies deal with problem. They plan on nearly causing the whole city of New York to blow up by reverting gas lines towards the underground causing asphyxiation to occur to the CHUD army.
Even now, it seems that government agencies are more scared about this "recession" that America is in, rather than a biological terror. Sure, we're not going to get a zombie uprising straight up, but it seems like governments around the world mirror the way the actions that are shown in CHUD.
CHUD isn't super scary. Sure it's creepy to think that there are radioactive people underground that will crawl out and start eating everyone, but that's not what we see in CHUD. We do not see an army of CHUD's we do not see more than maybe three at once. If the whole city (New York) is really worried about 3 CHUD's running around, then we have bigger problems to worry about. CHUD is not the greatest horror movie to come out of the 80's but it's a cult classic at this point. I recommending seeing CHUD at least once, just to say that you've seen it, but it's not essential viewing. I saw the CHUD Special Edition dvd, and it's forgettable, but it's part of the big collection, so I guess CHUD wins again. It's not that great, not that scary and not necessarily going to haunt your nightmares.
Oh and just when you thought this film was trash or a throwaway. This film spawned a sequel, CHUD 2! Here's the movie poster for CHUD 2:
Also, if you recall the episode of the Simpsons where Homer recalls his visit to New York,Homer says "...and that's when the C.H.U.D.s came at me." and Marge responds: "Of course you'll have a bad impression of New York if you only focus on the pimps and the C.H.U.D.s." So maybe it's not so bad afterall.
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.
Today in dvd releases, we get a few good horror releases, and a TON of Jason re-releases. Ok, maybe not a ton, but a good amount for the date. I know that the new Friday the 13th is scheduled to come out in a couple of weeks, and people are trying to make a few dollars off the franchise, but come on! We don't need 4 Friday the 13th releases right, or do we? I don't know. The horror movie releases this week isn't going to win any awards, but it's only the first week in February, so it's not crazy. I personally am looking to pick up Afro Samurai, I know, it's not scary.
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.
Calling this post a review is a stretch. This straight to dvd sequel to American Psycho is just bad. I did sit through some terrible films for this blog, I think that maybe this one takes the hat. Sure, Camp Slaughter, Axe Em, and Blood Car weren't picture perfect, but they were at least worth sitting through. However, American Psycho 2 tries so hard to sell me the main character, that I just didn't like it. I'm sorry, this movie is a terrible example of straight to dvd sequels. So instead of my usual dissection of emotional and psychological themes in horror film, this is just going to be bad.
American Psycho 2 came into video stores around the same time I was getting a job at a video store. People rented it out of curiosity but I warned them that it was a terrible movie. The original film starred Christian Bale, this movie stars an attractive young lady named Mila Kunis. Who is Mila Kunis? She's one of the girls from "That 70's Show", or if you recognize her voice she is the voice of "Meg" from "Family Guy". She tries her best at this role, but her lack of experience mixed with the seriousness of the themes introduced by the original film this movie is based on. Seriously, this is a terrible, terrible movie.
The movie starts well. A home invasion greets us, and shows a girl squirming out of being bound, and takes out the serial killer that has invaded the home. She's 12 years old, and we get a flashback throughout the film in bits and portions. We then fast forward to current day Racheal, as she is in college and enjoying her life. As people start dying off, we then find out that Racheal has a killing impulse and goes throughout the film killing off anyone that gets in the way of what she wants.
The worst thing about this film is that there is no nudity from Kunis. The original film had a lot of sexuality and sex scenes that helped push the plot and story. There was a deep psychological story going on with pornography, and graphic serial killings, but this film pulls you away from that. There is no nudity in this film that measures the first film, which is one of the reasons why a lot of people liked the first film, as messed up as that notion is.
American Psycho 2 sucks. It's a bad film not worth seeing again for me, however, if you absolutely must, check out American Psycho 2. Oh and if you're a HUGE William Shatner fan, he's in this, so maybe that's something that will have you interested to see this film.
As a bonus, here are a few movie posters that you will enjoy. They are of the Psycho sequels
Yeah, this is just one of many examples of terrible sequel ideas. Seriously, terrible.
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.
Here is a very limited list of what horror movies came out this month. Every tuesday I try to find the horror movies that might interest you and others in regards to the horror genre. I miss out on a few, and this is not the most comprehensive list of movies that came out, but I try my best to find and link them for you guys. The links all go to amazon.com, where you can purchase them. Once again, these help me continue to not only review relevant horror movies, but also helps you build your collection of good overall horror. At the end of every month I will recap all the movies in one easy list, in case you missed a week or two. If you'd like you can take this list and post it on your site, I don't mind. If nothing else, at least it gives you a broad idea of what horror movies came out in the month of January 2009. I missed two weeks, but in February I'll have all 4 weeks done and a monthly recap. I will also be doing a yearly recap of all the movies that came out the whole year, which will be a massive list, but it will definitely help you and me figure out what came out in horror that year. I hope to continue this throughout the months, so keep your eyes open.
Thanks again to all of you that have read this site, commented, and shared your thoughts. I'll have more movies to review starting next week. I have family in town, so I might not get a review up until Wednesday, but I'll see what I can do.
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.
Thank you, dear readers, for taking time out of your schedule to not only read these reviews, but to also comment on them. Some posts get more comments than I get to in a timely manner. That doesn't mean I don't get them, so please keep commenting on the reviews and giving out suggestions for me to check out. I'm always open to anything you have to say, good or bad, and I try to make sure that I'm somewhat available to communicate with you.
This January we saw the beginning of a couple of things. We saw more reviews of course, but also, I've started to give out the movies that I think are important to the site and that you might enjoy as well. These movies range from horrror to thriller, and are given in a post every tuesday. At the end of the month I'll tally them up and give you guys a quick reference to look at, in case you wanted to order something online through the links. The links on this site, help me get more dvd's and rent more movies. Thank you for your continued support. I'm saving up to get my own domain name, and then it's going to get good. Not that it's not good now. Thanks again.
Here are the movies that I reviewed this week, with easy links for you to check out.
Thanks again for your continued support. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please let me know.
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.
