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Showing posts from June, 2015

Carnosaur (1993) - Adam Simon & Darren Moloney

Carnosaur is a really weird Science-Fiction Horror film produced by Roger Corman and Co-Directed by Adam Simon and Darren Moloney. John Carl Buechler created the models and effects for the film. It stars Diane Ladd as a weird Mad Scientist. It's bloody, it's trashy, it's a Corman picture. Surprisingly enough, this film was very loosely based on a book that was released in 1984.  I was expecting a Jurassic Park rip-off but didn't get one. Instead I got a really creative movie with obvious budgeting flaws. A Mad Scientist wants to release a virus on the world that will wipe out the humans and make way for her re-created Dinosaurs to live free again. However, one of the Carnosaurs breaks free from the facility that it was created in and wreaks havoc on the near-by small town. I never had very high expectations for this one. But it's impressive. The effects weren't as cheesy as I thought they would have been. I had presumed a lot before actually wat

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) - Bernard L. Kowalski

This movie looks much older than it rightfully should. It didn't hold up very well at all. The copy that I had watched was the Mystery Science Theater copy. It made it all the more bearable. It even came with a neat little short.  A yokel spots some weird creatures in a swamp nearby town. Of course no one believes him but his tales are real. Turns out giant Leech creatures are abducting people from the nearby town, dragging them into a cave, imprisoning them, and leeching on their blood! Eventually the town sends the Game Warden out to investigate and they contemplate how to find the missing people and destroy the Giant Leeches.  It's explained that the Giant Leeches are products of radiation from the nearby Cape Canaveral. Nuclear Radiation is a usual plot devise for movies from this time. Some think that it was playing on the real fears that people had during the Cold War. Nuclear War fear mongering. However, underneath the veil of propaganda is a Giant Monster

The Beyond (1981) - Lucio Fulci

The Beyond has everything that every vintage Italian horror movie has; horrible audio, poorly dubbed voices, messy scenes, strange music provided by some Italian art group, and a really intriguing story. Lucio Fulci brings us yet another Giallo splatter-fest. If you know me, you know that gore is the quickest way to my heart. And this movie has gore everywhere. It's really quite impressive.  An angry mob murders a warlock back in the twenties in the cellar of an old hotel. This event opens a door to a dimension full of gruesome zombies. Liza Merril, a young woman, inherits the hotel and wants to renovate it. However, while doing so, she falls victim to some horrible events. Some rather unpleasant and horrific events.  This movie is brash and violent. Some of the scenes are really brutal but effective in the horror sense. They really like the face melting element. They use it a lot. They do really well with it too. They get really detailed. Fulci gets right up into

The Knights of Badassdom (2014) - Joe Lynch

The Knights of Badassdom is a low budget comedy horror set in the world of Live Action Role Playing or LARP. Previously made famous in the extra-medium buddy comedy Role Models. It feels very loose and has vague motives for its plot developments. While it serves as a passable movie for a group viewing. It falls short of the target it was aiming for.  The film is about a group of thirty-something friends (Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn, and Peter Dinklage) that live in a castle, play black/sludge/doom metal, and live-action role play. While attending a large LARP'ing convention, they get in over their heads. They accidentally conjure up a Succubus from hell in the form of an ex-girlfriend. They do this using a strange book found on eBay. Now they have to save the world and send this succubus back to hell! It was painfully obvious that the money for this movie was spent more on the cameos, than it was on the actual production. This movie could be really well done. Howeve

John Dies at the End (2012) - Don Coscarelli

This is a fun, original, and adventurous film and book. Don Coscarelli is a veteran horror movie director that is known for creating the Phantasm series. It's apparent that he is a fan of the base material, as he does his best to include as much as possible without getting it too full. It is definitely a future cult horror movie but one to be enjoyed by as many as possible.  Best buddies John and David are modern day Hardy Boys with some next-dimensional shit going on. They both experiment with a strange drug that some Jamaican guy gives them at a party. It allows for these realistic hallucinations that allow them to drift through dimensions. Next thing you know crazy flying worms and exploding faces are everywhere. It's nuts. Reality is flipped upside down and it's looking like these two are going to have to save the world.  I was really impressed with this movie. I had read the book a few months prior to the film's release and couldn't put it down. S