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Showing posts from February, 2010

The Stuff (1985) - Larry Cohen

The horror business is full of big names. One of which being Larry Cohen the director of It's Alive and The Ambulance. This little gem that I am reviewing today is The Stuff. Another really cool and fun Cohen movie that is campy and weird. He has put out some of the most unique horror movies and the eighties are definitely Cohen's golden age.  This film is kind of Larry Cohen's take on the Blob. It isn't the Blob, however. This movie is about an alien substance that is being sold in high quantity to just about everyone in America. They ingest it and become addicted to it then finally succumbing to it's blob-y and gooey mass. The movie draws heavily on the Blob, but brings a higher amount of conspiracy and intrigue. Not much. Cameo's are pretty good in this one as well. Keep an eye out for Danny Aiello & Paul Sorvino. Just remember this is just like Vincent Price said "you don't watch a horror movie for the Thespian arts. You watch a Horr

Event Horizon (1997) - Paul W.S. Anderson

So I guess this is one of the last good movies by Paul W.S. Anderson, well this and Resident Evil are about all I can stomach of his. The first part of the movie is amazingly mysterious and scary. It has a feel to it that makes you believe that this is going to be a scary f'ng movie. Then the second half kicks in with this "Hellraiser in Space" feel to it, and it kind of lets you down. The movie doesn't let me down enough to say that it doesn't scare me, which it does. However the end seems really thrown together and rushed. A ship, the Event Horizon, has resurfaced after a long period of time with a completely slaughtered crew and a bunch of creepies all over the thing. A rescue crew is hauled in with a scientist that built their Hyper Gravitron or whatever to find out what happened to the crew and where the ship has been. Spooks and Scares ensue. This movie was made in 1997 and you can see that the budget was pretty good, yet the CGI wasn't fully

Fiend without A Face (1958) - Aurther Crabtree

In the 1950's Monster movies were a dime a dozen. You couldn't go to a drive in theater in the 50's and throw a rock without hitting a teen couple making out in the passion pit to giant sea creatures invading New York. This was common place, well I am excited that I have finally cracked my first 50's monster movie, for review. Fiend Without A Face comes to us from America's hat, Canada, and it serves up a pretty good time. Atomic Testing at a US Air Force base in Alberta leads to various town folk being killed by a mysterious force that is feeding on the Atomic energy. Marshall Thompson plays the hero, Major Cummings, who realizes that the US should stop their testing but of course they don't listen and he has to save the world! This movie goes places that I really enjoy and they even employ clay-mation to bring you the monsters. Brains! These movies are a dime a dozen and they all have the same storyline. I can't give this movie too high of a

Popcorn (1991) - Mark Herrier

Wow, this is a bad movie. But really who comes into a horror movie expecting great thespian heights! Popcorn is full of bad acting and even worse bad story! But it does have Mr. Hand from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, oh and it had some really unintentional funny parts. The only problem that I have is, this storyline has been done before. A lot. A group of high school students band together to reopen a theater and have a Horror Movie Marathon on Halloween, the proceeds going to the High School of course. One dude though, has it out for one of the students and wreaks havoc over the entire theater. Oh did i mention that the Movie Marathon is all 50's schlock horror with gimmicks; Mosquito is in 3D (with a giant mosquito), The Electrified-Man is in Shock-o-Vision with buzzers on the seats, and The Stench is in Smell-0-Vision!!! But I heard that you have to be careful for Possessor its the one that will kill ya! I had fun watching this, of course I was a few beers in and cou

Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) - Andrzej Sekula

Cube 2: Hypercube is not as good as the original Cube. I loved the first one, it is easily in my top 100 movies. This, on the other hand, is not even scratching my top 100,000 movies. Convoluted and too smart for its own good is a good way to describe this sci fi/horror with a Tesseractic honeycomb as the killer. (Thank you Wikipedia) I didn't much like the acting in this movie, especially from the supposedly senile and babbling Mrs. Paley. I didn't find myself much caring about the back story to who made the cube either. Hackers, Mathematicians, The Government... who cares really? This is just another series of movies that didn't need to be made. They could of just stopped with the first movie, that's really the best one. What we have here is just primarily the same story as the first. A bunch of people wake up in a cube and they don't know how they got there. Slowly they start to put the pieces together in this deadly puzzle and they begin to figure out

The Gate (1987) - Tibor Takács

When I was a kid I used to sneak into the living room when my dad was watching horror movies and i would watch them from the hall way adjoining the room. My dad caught me many times and finally sat me down in 1988 and told me that if i wanted to watch horror movies, I would have to sit and watch The Gate with him. So this movie holds a special place with me. Steven Dorff stars in this Canadian horror film about a gate to hell opening up in a kids back yard. The movie is pretty simple and there is not much beyond what you see on screen, but it has a certain nature about it. Maybe its the fact that they use clay-mation to show all of these little tiny demons. Maybe its the simple "Ghost Story" type spooks and scares that this movie conjures up. Whatever it is, this is a really fun movie for fans of Horror. If you want to see a fun easy going horror film check this out. You will have a good time with it. On the other hand, I might be pretty biased. I watched this on VHS (a

Cat's Eye (1985) - Lewis Teague

Three tales of terror from Stephen King and company. Each with their own twists and turns. They call theses movies Anthology movies. You could put this in with Creepshow or Tales From the Crypt. I really like these movies because they have the ability to come at you from all angles. Not only that. The movie has a ton of cameos like James Woods and Drew Barrymore. This movie had just about everything it just didn't have the fear. The first story is one of the most interesting. It stars James Woods in a role not too far out of his  Videodrome piece. Woods wants to quit smoking so he goes to an experimental anti-smoking place called Quitters Inc. They have... lets say... interesting strategies on the subject. This was probably the best story and most compelling. It felt original. Followed by a story of a compulsive gambler that gambles peoples lives. Then closing with Drew Barrymore as a little girl haunted by a goblin who does battle with her new found cat. The last stor

Massacre at Central High (1976) - Rene Daalder

Lets see, where to start, the atrocious acting? The ever present boom mic? The terrible direction and lighting? The story-line? Where should i begin picking this apart? Oh well, they were all sucky, except for the boom mic, that was awesome. I'm pretty sure my roommate pointed out the lead nerd from Revenge of the Nerds makes a good appearance in this and dies pretty mightily! Oh I'm sorry did i ruin that for you? Get over it... We have some former jock with a career ending injury who shows up in school and becomes target #1 to join every one's little cliq. Unfortunately for them this guy starts offing everyone in really weird fashions, he is like a crazy terrorist who kills everyone in school. This movie being way before Columbine, made it alright for a film like this to exist. Otherwise I think that this would be torn apart and dismantled by some right wing disgusting group of old moms who like to complain about everything. Blood, well kinda, there aren't real

Zombieland (2009) - Ruben Fleischer

Watched this in the theater and loved it. I remember being really hyped for it. I am personally a big fan of Woody Harrelson and Zombies. So, this was right up there. It actually turned out to be much funnier than I thought it would have been. Even with Jesse Eisenberg. Zombieland is about a young man that is just trying to reach his loved ones during the Zombie Apocalypse. During his journey he finds another traveler and the two form a small group. They end up running across some more survivors (girls) and thus begins the conflict. This movie is about a group of survivors that are trying to get from Point A to B with Zombies chasing them throughout. It's predictable, it's campy, but it's smart and well done. Ruben Fleisher wanted to give the masses a big budget zombie movie and he did well with Zombieland. It paid tribute to the Zed word and is a perfect addition to the genre. It has a great mix of all the right elements including gore, suspense, shocking terror