Horror Movie Project

 With the modern IT coming out soon followed by The Dark Tower, it seemed to be a good time to look at the King adaptations. Like this revisit of Frank Darabont’s The Mist . I had reviewed this back in 2011 and decided to give it one more day in court. I am glad to go back and view The Mist . This time I had taken the advice of Rocket Film School and saw the movie in black and white. It was so much better. This picture is the closest thing we have to a Lovecraftian feature film. In the horror society it is well known that  Sir Stephen King holds H.P. Lovecraft in high regard. He has been loving up to that man for his entire career. I had always felt Cthulhu would have been genius on the big screen. In my wildest dreams I can picture Kubrick showing us a great Lovecraft story. Now I understand Ron Howard is working on something. Let's hope it is better than this... The Mist is a movie about a small town that gets terrorized by alternate dimension monsters that hid

The Deadly Spawn is one of those giant alien monster movies that TerrorVision was so good at making fun of. It's cheap, it's confusing and it's full of gore. Unfortunately, it has good effects that suffer from underfunding. Much like 90% of everything horror that was put to celluloid during this era. It's just a part of the eighties. Bad movies that became cult classics.  A meteorite crash lands on earth. Attached are man-eating alien parasites, that make their way to a nearby house on the outskirts of some town. They hide in the basement, growing larger and eventually maturing into a full blown giant monster. This thing brings chaos with it. Everyone is attacked by these arm-length worm like creatures with giant teeth. They even attack some random meeting of like eight old ladies just trying to enjoy tea. It's bloody. A woman has her face ripped off, people are devoured whole and the old women being bitten to shit by these things are just a few examples o

This unique horror-comedy had caught my eye but I hadn't ever seen it. I frequently had gotten this movie mixed up with Stay Tuned, which I had seen frequently as a child and thus never picked up TerrorVision. But after my first viewing, I had become a big fan. It's also a big product of the eighties. And it totally shows. A family with a satellite dish is frustrated with their poor service. The father customizes the dish and accidentally opens up a gateway for a horribly dangerous alien to come through. The alien has a taste for human flesh and can transfer from place to place through the television. It's dangerous in a huge house with multiple tvs. TerrorVision is actually a really good schlock picture. The comedy is just right and it appears to be much higher quality than other movies of its same recipe. The effects aren't meant to be amazing. But for a satire on the giant alien-monster movies, it's perfect. It's provided by our good friend John

Another movie chosen completely at random. Sounds like a really stupid title and surprises with its quality. It's hokey. Oh yeah it's hokey. But that just adds to the experience.  A quiet mining town in Colorado appears to be hiding something. When An old mine is disturbed allowing an ancient turtle thing to awaken, and it's hungry. It starts eating its way through the usual cast of characters. Our main heroes are two dorks just cruising for some scootch. They meet up with two girls and there you have your recipe for a survival monster movie.  It's not a terrible movie. Not completely. It has some moments of crap but overall ends up being just another mediocre horror flick with some decent blood and a few scarce creatures. That's the main issue here. The movie does a good job with establishing the young group. But that's really it. The movie doesn't really show you much, not until your three quarters of the way through.  This

I don't remember where I heard about the Host but I know it had a good reputation. I was intrigued to say the least. I'm not a huge fan of Giant Monster movies or Kaiju films. However, this one is really clever and it feels like it's a bit self aware and satirical. It has a surprisingly deep storyline. Nothing seems out of place. Park Hee Bong is an elderly yet spry munchies vendor on the Han River. He is a single father and taking care of his sons and daughter. All a real cast of characters. Gang-du is his eldest son and a bit of a let down. One day a giant monster emerges from the Han River! Mutated from chemicals dumped by the US Government. The monster tears through Seoul and steals Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seo. As Seoul is thrown into upheaval and chaos ensues. Gang-du has to allude a government mandated quarantine to find the giant monster and free his daughter. Bong Joon-Ho does a wonderful job mixing ingeniously strange, slightly over-the-top pe

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

Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward star in this early 90's drive-in masterpiece. When I was seven my dad and I went to the drive in movies to see this and I couldn't have been happier. It was great. I remember being scared and hiding my eyes during a scene when a Graboid (that's what the antagonists are called) pulled a station wagon underground. I don't know why that one scared me but it did. I caught this movie on AMC this week and was not disappointed.  A small desert town falls victim to giant earth dwelling worms that terrorize anything that touches the ground. It's like that game you played when you were a kid. Ground is lava. A Seismologist is researching in the area and figures that the worms are tracking humans based on the sounds of the vibrations they make on the ground. This means everyone has to stay quiet and find higher ground. Now, Bacon, Ward, and the Seismologist have to try to find a way to keep this little town safe. While figuring out just wh

Rawhead Rex was a surprisingly good feature that was written by Clive Barker and he rarely disappoints. I am a big fan of just about everything the guy dreams up. Rawhead is definitely different than his other ventures. At first I thought it was going to be a mindless slasher. But much to my surprise it's much more than that. The film takes an interesting religious approach. Rawhead is a giant, brutish, pegan barbarian/demon that loves nothing more than to rip humans apart piece by piece. This destruction led to him being worshiped as an old god. However, when Christianity came around Rawhead was imprisoned underground under a giant obelisk.  The film takes place in Ireland where Rawhead had previously ruled. After the protective obelisk is removed the unstoppable demon is released and Rawhead begins a new destructive reign.  The film isn't amazing. I wasn't thrilled with the make up, and it's obvious to see what Clive Barker himself didn't like abo

I started watching this one based on a recommendation that I got on Twitter. It looks like it will be a good addition to the 31 Movies of Halloween. I didn't start watching Troll Hunter with very high expectations. However, I was told that since I was a fan of the worlds that Guillermo Del Toro creates. I would love this too. That person was about half right. Troll Hunter is pretty fun and unique. Not very many movies out there that have to do with government conspiracies that cover up the existence of large, barbaric Trolls. That is original. The trolls themselves are pretty funny. They make me really miss Jim Henson. Thankfully, the director keeps away from the overuse of CGI and brings us actual guys in suits. I know, I know, cover your erections. The problem is that the Trolls look like giant cartoons. If I wanted to take this movie seriously. It's really hard to do with a baffoonish looking brute as your main antagonist. The story in the movie is actually a bit

Empire of the Ants is a celebration of old 50's Monster Movies and how the genre was absolutely terrible. You have ants that are blown up and superimposed in the background and actors that have to "fake it" the entire time. The movie is really awful and got progressively worse through out its duration. Some of the scenes with the monster ants are painful to watch, really, they are that horrible. How does this happen? How can you cast veteran actors like Joan Collins (Dynasty) and Robert Lansing (Kung Fu: The Legend Continues) to star in a huge piece of crap like this? Well I guess its not hard, just offer them most of the money that you have been allotted to make the picture. Other than Joan and Robert the rest of the actors are laughable at best; to the point where I was actually relieved when certain cast members were killed. But, that's just one of the problems with the movie. The movie is loosely based on a short story by H.G. Wells. It's main focus i