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Showing posts from April, 2016

Horror Island (1941) - George Waggner

I chose this movie at random and was surprised that it was a Universal feature. This movie has really weird vibes around it. Upon first impression, it's a really good quality and well made picture. However, it starts to take weird and bizarre turns. It's a sea faring horror flick with pirate overtones that's produced by Universal Pictures. What could go wrong? A broke sailor, Bill Martin, is convinced at trying his luck at obtaining a couple of million dollars in buried treasure. A strange sailor,  Leo Carrillo,   has a piece of a map that leads to that treasure and it just happens to be located on an island that the sailor's family owns. The sailor gathers a small group and they all travel to the island to stay the night at an old dark castle, with the intention of searching for the treasure. Only, they won't be searching for it. They will try to survive as a strange cloaked Phantom seeks to get them to leave one by one.  The music in the film is phen

Burying the Ex (2014) - Joe Dante

Horror Comedy has become so complacent. The jokes and atmosphere is stale, it's tough to pull off in a good way. This is one of those complacent movies. It has a good amount of star power, but the writing falls flat. The gore and practical effects are the saving grace. Veteran Joe Dante knows his stuff and happens to be the one person that is trying. It's just lame.  Max (Anton Yelchin) is in a crappy relationship with a controlling and manipulative girl, Evelyn. Fate smiles upon our young friend Max and kills off the girlfriend by having her struck by a bus. After a bit of grieving, Max has the freedom to start seeing a new girl, Olivia. Things get complicated when Evelyn comes back from the dead as a brain craving zombie. Evelyn seeks to rekindle her relationship with Max while physically deteriorating in front of him. And Max is trying to move on, keeping his dead ex-girlfriend a secret from Olivia for now.  This one is brought to us from horror movie legend, J

The Ghost Train (1941) - Walter Forde

Stuffy, boring and tedious. This movie has some great parts and good scenes. But overall it just doesn't cut the mustard. It's a British feature that acts as a vehicle for Arthur Askey more than an actual picture or movie. It tries to incorporate a good deal of drama as well but is overwhelmed with it's strangely dated quick witted humor. It's not a horrible picture, it's just terribly boring.  Queue the old dark house narrative when we have a group of strangers all stranded in an old dark train station overnight. The group is haunted by trains and ghosts the entire picture. Also, someone is trying to knock them off one by one. The entire time they are being bombarded with sharply dim-witted comments spewed off by Askey the comedian.  This movie was obviously filmed during World War II most notably during the German blitz on London. That accounts for the cramped nature of the picture. It's unfortunate. Arthur Askey is not the type of comedian you w

Riki-Oh: Story of Ricky (1991) - Lam Nai Choi

I had seen this movie years ago when I was a kid. It was weird enough to stick with me but alluded me all through these years. It had come on Cinemax for a long time along side movies like If Looks Could Kill, Parenthood and Fast Getaway.  If you grew up in the nineties then chances are you might have seen this. It was crammed somewhere in between your sessions of Street Fighter II or  Super Mario Brothers 3. Let's just say that the best way to enjoy this movie is with a Slurpee and bag of Chili Cheese Fritos. This is the movie about a misunderstood prisoner with superhuman strength, dexterity and endurance. Riki-Oh has been in prison for assault and manslaughter and must resort to some extreme measures in order to survive. The prisons are run by gangs and each one is ruthless, they all want Riki-Oh dead. It doesn't help that the prison is practicing cannibalism. Cartoonish and Entertaining, this movie mixes elements of late eighties Jackie Chan movies with Tom Savini

WNUF Halloween Special (2013) - Chris LaMartina

This movie is genius. I found this while browsing around on Shudder. Made to look like a VHS recording of a block of television on Halloween in 1987. This horror movie keeps the air light enough that it is a perfect selection for a playlist for a Halloween party. It's fun, it's creative and it has a great feel. I just fell in love from first sight.  As I had explained above. This movie is presented as a block of television from 1987. It comes complete with commercials and bumpers for two full programs. The WNUF Evening News and the WNUF Halloween Special. The focus seems to be on the Halloween Special where special reporter and local goofball Frank Stewart, take a group of paranormal investigators and unlucky people through an actual Haunted House. Things go awry of course and something ends up killing off members of the crew. It turns out that Frank Stewart doesn't have long to live and it will all be caught on tape! The films tension is broken up tedious