Resident Evil (2002) -review by the Director

Based on the popular video, probably the most successful video game to movie adaptation ever made Resident Even is a survival horror movie like the game.

A multimillion dollar research company built under Raccoon city has an accident. The super computer called the Red Queen locks down the underground facility as the workers exposed to the T-Virus become flesh craving zombies. Terror and thrills ensue.

Oh Milla:

Milla Jovovich owns this movie as our protagonist Alice. Alice wakes up in the shower with her memory partly erased. She finds herself in a mansion in the country. The mansion is simply a cover for the entrance to the ‘Hive’ the underground complex owned by the umbrella corporation. The movie starts off there. A special military group is scent down to investigate, not knowing what they are walking into. The soldiers are lead by One (Colin Salmon) and includes the kick ass Rain (Michelle Rodriguez). Alice joins them as they head down to find and gain control of the Red Queen A.I. super computer.

The movie moves at a swift pace. The action races. Its violent, even gory. The zombies in the movie are more like infected people not so much the walking corpses yet, since this has all recently gone down. Besides zombies the group comes in contact with genetic freaks, like attack dogs and a creature from the video game called the Licker.

Alice is a trained special forces agent too. As she gains her memory through brief and hazy flashbacks that she is also part of this elite special forces group guarding the Hive. Her unparalleled skills keep her alive and are pure eye candy. Not only is Alice beautiful the camera loves her. She is a blast to watch in all her scenes. Especially the ones where she is fighting.

The movie sports great visuals and tense action sequences.

Acting: Milla Jovovich is fantastic. You can tell she gives her all in every scene. She is a joy to watch in all the Resident Evil movies. I’m pretty sure she does a fair amount of her stunts. She looks amazing it her outfit. A red dress with black bike shorts and long black boots. She wheres a leather jacket in the second half of the movie. I couldn’t get enough of her.

Michelle Rodriguez show off her talents in her type casted bad ass girl role. Colin Salmon (One) sweats cool and makes a great team leader, playing down his role but ramping the intensity. His dialogue comes to life in his cool, deep, polished voice.

There is no comic relief in this movie, only Eric Mabius as Matt the reporter trying to sneak in and get the scope on the dirty secrets the Umbrella corporation has up their corporate sleeve.

Gore:

We get chopped off heads, gun shots, gashes, bites, zombie transformation, sliced to death by laser beams (very cool).

Nudity:

Its quick but its hot. Milla shows all the goods here. A tit scene in the shower and at the end of the movie in a very scanty hospital gown you can, if you don’t blink, catch a glimpse of her trim.

Directing:

Paul W.S. Anderson no stranger to big hollywood action thrillers, helms this flick and he doesn’t miss a beat. The film is brilliantly paced and a wonderful watch. It goes down like your favorite meal. Great composition, pacing, action sequences, and use of slow-motion. He even throws in some creepy boo-scares.

Final thought:

Resident Evil is a joy to watch. If by some chance you never saw it do yourself a huge favor and add it to your DVD collection. Its so good its re-watchable. I’ve seen the movie several times and it never gets old. Movies this good come out only once or twice a year. To sum up the highlights. Millia Jovoich eating up the screen with her gorgeous Russian eyes leaving you hungry more. A nice group of combatants including Colin Salmon and Michelle Rodrigeuz in their best type-casted roles, tough guy bad asses.Awesome visuals, action, zombie battles, a few subtle twists, a good ending, and Paul Anderson’s skilled directing.

-The Director

Night Wolf (13Hours) -review by The Director

 

The Visit:

Attractive blonde Sarah Tyler (Isabelle Calthorpe) returns home to England during a break from college. She visits with her father, brothers, some friends, and her father. Her mother is out but on her way home. Things go wrong. It’s horror movie. The group of crude teens find themselves in the family’s mention with the power out…being hunted.

Night Wolf:

Great title because the whole movie takes place at night and there is a creature who is vaguely wolf-like. The movie was also released under the name 13 hours which is also a fitting title because that is the amount of time covered during the film.

When Sara returns her family is somewhat dysfunctional. After visiting her father she goes out to the barn where her brothers are sitting around drinking themselves drunk and smoking weed. They spend a lot of time being obnoxious. Telling jokes and insulting each other in a facetious manner. Some of them have strong british accents and I found I had to listen closely to understand them. Clearly there is some underling hard feelings toward Sarah from her brothers. Maybe it is because she left the family to go to school in America. It’s also hinted to in the film that their mother and father have a rocky relationship. I don’t see why it’s a big deal Sarah is going to school stateside.

The brash and sometimes cowardly personalities of the brothers makes them a little unlikable. I wonder if film makers feel they need to make the heroine seem like a sweetheart and the rest of the cast those about to die horrible deaths jerks. I just wasn’t digging the vibe straight away.

Sarah’s oldest brother Stephen is a total sociopath. He is a dead ringer for Loki in the Marvel Avergers movie. At every turn her he shows his asshole side. When the group does get in trouble and trapped while being hunted by the monster he is of little to no help. He is only out for himself.

Fortunaly for Sarah one of the group, Doug comes to her aid.

The group find themselves trapped in the attic of the mansion while beast hunts them. The monster is rally scene. It moves very fast and kills and brutally. What is this thing, who is it? You’ll have to watch and enjoy the tension, thrills, and reveals Night Wolf has in store.

Acting: Sarah Tyler (Isabelle Calthorpe)plays a solid lead. She is hot and that only helps watching her for the duration. Stephen her step brother is played by Peter Gadoit. He is great as the irritating jerk only out for himself. They shine and everyone else is serviceable. There wasn’t any bad acting to be critical of.

Gore: The movie seems a lot gorier than it actually is. The kills are heightened by the tension, a nod to the skill of the director, but not so satisfy to us gorehounds. We get some groovy transformations, and bloody after kills.

Sex and Nudity: Emily (Gemma Atkinson) is a good looking double D cup chick. While she does show off her copious cleavage we get no nudity. Sarah is nude in one part but her is only seen from the neck down. Fucking bullshit.

Directing: Jonathan Glendaling also responsible for Stripper’s vs. Werewolves does a great job of creating tension. His work it tight and professional. His shots of the transformations and kills are way too quick and off scene at times. I would like to have seen a lot more.

Final Thought: The plot is decent. The movie is a good watch. I think any horror fan would enjoy the view. It’s not by any means a bad movie. I did feel it was a one watch and not something you would ever go back to. The creatures that are called werewolves do not look like any werewolf I’ve ever seen.

I don’t want you to think that look ‘original’ is a good way. I personally did not like the werewolf make up. They wouldn’t even pass for werewolves at a costume party. The werewolf on the movie poster is not even in this movie. These werewolves are hairless. The make-up is solid though. Night wolf is a solid there. It’s fine for watch and entertaining but it’s not a movie you need to run out and see. If you have nothing better to watch and you like werewolf type stories you’re welcome to it.

-The Director.

 

 

Beyond the Darkness (Buio Omega) 1979/ review by the Director

 

The edge of Darkness:

Frank Wyler is visiting his beloved Anna Volkl in the hospital. She is very sick. As they kiss Anna dies in Franks arms. Tormented Frank is not ready to let Anna go. Now we go onto the darkness aka madness and beyond.

In the Beyond:

To give you a little backstory on Frank. His parents were quite wealthy. Frank has inherited their gorgeous villa, a lot of money, stocks, and investments. He is set for life. Frank has a passion for taxidermy, women, and jogging. He is a good-looking well dressed a stereotypical affluent out of touch with reality playboy. Frank’s home is taken if care of Iris, who clearly has concupiscence for young Frank. It’s clear early on she takes care of Frank beyond her household duties. Doing things for him like letting him nurse from her nipple and jerk him off when he is stressed. Nice of her huh? Frank still treats her like shit. He even slaps her around at one point, not a good thing to do to someone who practices voodoo.

Frank has a plan to keep his beloved Anna a part of his life. He is beyond devoted. You will probably figure out soon enough it involves his taxidermy skills.

Frank is quit the lunatic and will go to any lengths to keep his macabre tactics operating.

This results in several deaths and some truly gruesome dissections. I don’t mind gore but italian film makers use real organs in their special effects and it was difficult to watch while I ate my raisin bran.

Frank’s murders don’t elude police investigation. Iris helps Frank cover his murders up. She obviously enjoys the dastardly deeds they engage in. There is another man investigating Frank and he becomes a problem for Frank and Iris. How all this unfolds you can enjoy for yourself when you go beyond the darkness.

Acting: Frank (Kieran Canter) is very believable in this role. He is the highlight, carries the movie, and has voice over work by Ted Rusoff who works on several Joe D’amato Italian films for the english voice over. Ted does fantastic voice over work. I enjoy listening to him. Iris (Franca Stoppi) is creepy and steals her scenes. Other than them the rest of the cast are supporting and rather thin characters, but they don’t need to be well established for their small roles.

Gore:

This is a gore hound buffet. It’s a good example of video nasty. A reputation the Italian horror films earn quite deservingly. Very, very realistic needle injections, if those are fake I don’t know how they pulled them off. Close up stabs that look very real. Ripped off finer nails with pliers. Chopped up bodies and burned or disintegrated by acid baths which looks awesome.

A disgusting dissection scene you won’t soon for get. Great looking large scalpel incisions. Copious organ gore and it all looks very real, probably actual animal organs.

Nudity: Frank flashes his cock. Iris flashes her boob and four different girls get naked full frontal with large italian bush.

Two of the women are dead with they are striped, not so sexy. But lots of nudity!

Directing:

The setting is gorgeous. The scenes are well shot.

It’s classic Joe D’Amato. Good looking actors. A subtle sensuality about the film and the dread of madness through out. I enjoyed several scenes, the dissections, the grave robbery, the even, yet sort of slow, pace.

The dissections were particularly well shot, well lit, to maximize the great special effects. D’Amato did well keeping as little as possible hidden from the camera.
Classic ‘zoom ins’ for zingers on peoples’ faces for reaction shots. This was popular around this time because zoom technology on film cameras had taken a leap forward and Joe D’Amato loved to use his zoom. Reminds me of Bruce Lee films. If you like Joe D’Amato’s solid work you will see more of it here.

Music: The score is by The Goblins who are great. They have done the music for popular foreign films like Susperia where they really shine. Again the Goblins score in Beyond the Darkness is a great highlight to the movie.

Final Thought:

There is a slight drag in the movie about 60% of the way in. You pretty much know where things are going and you feel a little anxious for this creepshow to finally end. So I can’t give it a perfect score. The film holds up. Great score by the Goblins. It’s still gross and there is lots of nudity and madness.

It’s classic video nasty cinema and I highly recommend getting a copy.

-The Director

Curse of Chucky (2013) review by the Director

 

Hi I’m Chucky:

Nica a paraplegic, Is morning the untimely death of her mother. A large package comes in the mail. Nica’s sister and family come to visit and morn with her. The package contains a large red haired doll.

Wanna play:

Nica’s sister Barb arrives with her daughter Alice, Nica’s cute little niece, her husband Ian, the nanny Jill, a smoking hot runway blonde, and a priest Father Frank a friend of the family.
Nica decides to give the Doll to Alice as a present. Ian remembers the popular “Good Guys” dolls from the 1980s. He thinks it’s harmless and cute. Little Alice immediately loves the doll. Barb thinks it’s creepy.

Barb is not a likable character. It isn’t until you find out a secret about her later in the movie that you like her. She wants Nica to sell the valuable estate. She explains she needs her share of the profits.

Nica doesn’t want to. She has stayed in the house her whole life and she is kind of a shut in anyway, handicapped from birth, and likes living there. Barb is frustrated, her business isn’t doing well, and Ian has been reduced to working at Starbucks. Interestingly they can still afford a $400 a week live in Nanny Jill. This becomes clear later in the movie. I won’t spoil it for you.

As the movie progresses quickly it becomes all about Chucky.

He keeps disappearing or showing up in strange places. Everyone assumes Alice is playing with him, setting it up. Though it get’s weirder and weirder, it has the Amityville Horror and Poltergeist angle going for it. Only the girl talks to Chucky. And oh the things he tells her, my, my, where did she learn to talk like that?

It doesn’t take long for the killing to start. There isn’t much build up. Chucky offs Father Frank with Rat Poison in Act one! After a couple deaths Nica figures out what Chucky is.

I felt there wear far too few characters in this movie. I was sad to see them die off so fast. Usually in a serial killer slasher like this you expect some build up, but Curse of Chucky takes about ten minutes and things get going.

So the whole second half of the movie is tedious. The final act is this long explanation. This is where the story is revealed. Usually a movie plays out and the clues to the climax are peppered into the story. In this Chucky installment we get Chucky in the mail, he kills all the ephemeral cast, then the third act is the entire plot of the movie explained by Chucky in flash backs. It’s not exactly like this, I might be a tad over simplifying it. Though this is how it will feel.

Acting: Fiona Dourif (Nica) carries most of the movie. She is a good actress. Kind of like an Anne Hathaway clone. Danielle Bisutti (Barb) is fun to watch. I think she was the highlight for me. Brad Dourif (Chucky) was decent. Dourif is an Oscar winner for his role  in ‘One flew over the Coukoos Nest.’ His role here is not Oscar worthy. I guess Fiona is his daughter? He not only does Chucky’s voice but he also plays him. I kept thinking of him as the Police chief in Rob Zombie’s Halloween. I liked his role in that movie better, he was great. He is a good actor, his role as the guy who becomes Chucky in this movie seemed silly to me.

Gore:

Death by electrocution (I want to make something clear, for fans and movie makers. It is possible to die from a wall socket, but it’s not that easy. Certain variables come into play, like amperage, etc. I’m not an engineer, but I think I’m right in saying electrocutions in movies are way oversimplified.), death by fall (weak), stabbed in the eye, eye pops out, nasty leg wound, awesome car wreck decapitation with fountianous blood spray from the neck. Gorehounds will not be satisfied but what is feed up here.

Nudity: Nothing! And this movie had several good looking women in it!  We have to settle for Maitland McConnell (Jill) looking fine in her Victoria Secret bra and panties.

Directing: Don Mancini (Director), this guy must live and breath all things Chucky.

He is like the George Lucas of Child’s Play. He has written all the Childs Play movies, some of their screen plays, and this is his first time directing one. I think his directing is good. Looks like the movie had a hefty budget.

I do like this shot, well done!

Nothing bad with most of the directing, but I didn’t enjoy the pacing and the story. The story moved too fast and treated us at the end like we were second graders.

Playtimes over:

Not really, this movie leaves it wide open, like sloppy seconds, for more squeals (Child’s Play 7?). We even get a special guess star at the end.

I was wistfully wondering if this would be a decent movie. It let be down, though gently. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before from Child’s Play. I wish I could spoil the movie for you. There is a good dynamic in Barb’s family that I really enjoyed and I didn’t see it coming. That was some good writing by Don Mancini. Unfortunately as soon as it’s revealed a character dies and we don’t get to enjoy any of it playing out! It’s really the only redeeming value to the movie. Maybe the producers ruined that, I don’t know.

If you have time to kill and you’re a Child’s Play fanatic, Cure of Chucky might be worth checking out. It’s absolutely worth seeing if you are a Child’s Play fanatic. Are their Child’s Play fanatics out there?

It’s up to you if you…

-The Director

The Devil’s Due (2014) -review by the Director.

 

The Gist:

Zach is in love with Sam. They’re soon to be wed, those little love birds. Zach is a sycophant codependent. Every move Sam makes he is there with his video camera.

Zach and Sam will have no need for long term memory because Zach is literally recording everything they do. In fact that is how we watch the ‘Devil’s Due’ through video cameras.

OBGYN:

When you are on vacation, lets say your honey moon and you are drunk and tired. It’s your last night of your vacation. You just want to get home to your hotel, have sex one more time and get some sleep before you catch a plane in the a.m. Don’t, and I mean don’t, go with some ostentatious cab driver hyper-pressuring you to go to this wild party only the locals know about.

Because you might drink to much tequila and end up put in a room that acts as gateway to hell. In this room you might get boned by the devil and subsequently get pregnant with his hybrid love child. This is exactly what happened to Zach and Samantha. Her slit was filled with satanic seed.

 The palm reader knew where this was going.

Through the hand held and surveillance camares we watch Samantha come to term.

Being pregnant with demon sperm effects a girl. Sam is a vegetarian and she eats raw meat in the grocery store. She has some type of super power, while eating deer in the woulds she kills some kids by throwing them violently into the air. 

          Get away you nosey fuckers!

Zach is realizing something is wrong. He, very slowly and far too late, uncovers the whole thing is a satanic plot. 

Devil’s Due isn’t an exact remake though it does follow closely the basic plot of Rosemary’s Baby except you see the movie more through the husband’s perspective rather than the mother’s, a subtle deviation from Roman Polanski’s film.

Acting:

I thought the acting was good.

 A lot of Sam lying around is exciting to watch.

Gore:

Some mutilated deer, a post caesarian section which isn’t very gory (nothing like Inside), some blood spitting, a huge needle going stuck in Sam’s belly bump, one decent boo-scare, some death by devil jedi force power.

Sex:

No nudity, no devil fucking, it’s only implied. Sam in a bikini, some clothed butt shots by her codependent hubby.

Something like this would have made the movie a lot better!

Directing:

Good job, telling a whole story with a video camera, that can’t be easy. Remarkable sound quality for watching something recorded with a surveillance camera, a hand held video cam, and a spy cam.

 Aww Satan junior is kicking, hard. 

Due Date: 

Before I say anything too critical I want to say I do like movies shot like this. Shot like Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch, Cannibal Holocaust. They create tension and realism. I think making a movie like this, with ‘an actor using a video camera’ ( I say that because in reality the actor is not really recording, the film crew is. It just looks like the actor is doing it.), is brave and takes talent to tell the story.

I love horror movies, this is a horror movie, and it’s not that bad.

 Don’t mess with a girl make a gateway to hell.

But that being said it’s not a movie you should go see at the theater, buy the DVD, or even rent at red box. It’s a film you might check out when you have a world class hangover, are suck home while your friends are out snowboarding, and it happens to be on cable. 

The story is predictable as hell. The movie lacks punch, gore, sex, sometimes it’s down right boring. How do you make a movie about being pregnant with Satan’s baby and it is boring? Somehow Devil’s Due accomplished this. A big plot hole is why doesn’t Zach watch all this footage he has taken? You could have found some clues there buddy.

The Symbol used in the movie the C with two dashes is explained to be a cult symbol for 1 John 2:18 about the anti-christ. While that is explained by the priest. We get no further details. Why or from where this symbol comes from is never explained. Is it really from a satanic cult or is it a symbol the writer (Lindsay Devlin) just arbitrary used because she thought it looked cool?

On a purely personal note, the part that really upsets me, and this is even true of a good devil baby movie like Rosemary’s Baby, is that in the end, the devil worshipers get their antichrist and the movie ends! We never get to see what happens. I just invested 90 minutes watching a 9 month occult pregnancy and I don’t get to see what shenanigans Satan junior get’s into. All I saw in Devil’s Due was that Demon’s Son’s head glows orange. I won’t spoil who lives or dies if you still want to see what Zach has on his SD card.

Unfortunately, in conclusion  I’m going to have to give this one a thumbs down. I hate to do it. I really wanted to like this one, but it just wasn’t satisfying enough.

This is the look on my face at the end of the movie too!

-The Director.

Jacob’s Ladder (1990) -review by the Director

 

This film came out in 1990. It’s been under the radar for me. I’d heard people say it was good, but enthusiasm sells and no one seemed to love it. One of my fellow aficionados Chris Webb, was the enthusiastic sell. After he told me how much he liked it I found it on Netflix and sat down for a watch.

The first rung:

The movie starts off slow and cautious. Jacob (a young Tim Robbins)  is working as a mailmen. He is living with a co-worker, Jezzy, an attractive emotional and sexual latino girlfriend. Jacob has flash backs to vietman where he was a solider. He was apparently badly wounded in action but survives. He also has flash backs to his first marriage. His marriage evidently disintegrated after the death of his young son Gabe (a young Macauly Culkin) who’s death he feels somewhat responsible for, though he was hit by a car.

Down the Ladder:

This is a cerebral thriller. As the movie unfolds it becomes harder and harder to distinguish which reality is the one Jacob lives in. Is he dreaming while in Vietnam, living with Jezzy, still married and dreaming.

There is a steady dread overwhelming to the film. Jacob feels he being followed by demons. He meets up with other me members of his squad in the war. They join with him to expose a government experiment called the LSD ladder, and it goes wrong. Then we aren’t sure if Jacob was even in the war. He is in a mental hospital having tests done on him. Then it’s unclear if he ever survived the war. It’s all a mystery.

Jacob is metaphorically scaling down a ladder into insanity. 

Acting:

Tim Robbins is great and establishes himself as the even greater actor he will become. Danny Aiello plays Jacob’s chiropractor and pseudo psychologist. He has some great lines and all the scenes with him and Jacob are magic. Those seemingly innocuous moments in the movie are the grounding between Jacob and reality. Good stuff.

Gore:

The movie has it’s moments of violent war gore. Some demon special effects and boo-scares.

Sex:

Jezzy get naked several times and they have sex. T & A stuff.

Directing: 

The directing style is grungy and strong. This movie was probably ahead of it’s time. Their are gloomy and bizarre shots that obviously inspired latter film makers. The whole movie has a gritty surreal feel. It’s very slow yet it draws you in. It cries out for a satisfying ending to clear up all this madness.

End of the Ladder:

This movie just moved to slow for me. I couldn’t get into the mind rape. I found myself liking it then wanting it to be over. Though I wanted closure so bad I stuck it out to the end. It’s probably going to have people that like it, and maybe love it. It’s a quality movie and I hate to say it’s bad. I just didn’t dig it. You might, but you will have to decide if this is your kind of movie and take a chance.

-The Director.

Zombieland (2012) review by the Director

 

Here we go again:

Columbus Ohio (Jessie Eisenberg) a young anti-social yet happy go lucky guy finds himself in a zombie apocalypse. He makes clever rules, which he writes down, and carefully follows.

These rules are repeated throughout the movie on the screen. Columbus hooks up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who is a roughneck natural zombie slayer. Columbus cracks observational humor throughout the movie, which sometimes annoys Tallahassee yet amuses him enough to stick with the ‘scrony little spitfire.’

Zombieland:

After a great intro of crazy zombie shenanigans…

Tallahassee, who names everyone after the city they come from meets Columbus.

Tallahassee and Columbus raid a super market in search for Twinkies, Tallahassee’s favorite treat, which reminds him of life before it went to crap.

After butchering all the Zombies in the store they hear a little girl crying for help. That is when the two meet up with anti-heroes Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock her little sister.

The crew eventually teams up for while before Wichita and her sister split ways to head to their ultimate destination, a childhood amusement park. The plan here is for Little Rock to have her last peaceful fun a child should have before a hard life living in Zombieland, a world ruined by people turned into flesh eating monsters (metaphorically not much different than the world now). Columbus forms a crush on Wichita, which because she is super hot and let’s face it, there aren’t many eligible girlfriends running around.

Their is trouble and gun fights, tension, and a lot of actually charming and funny jokes.

What makes Zombieland unique is it’s not a straight up horror. It’s also an adventure comedy. It’s made like a horror movie. Its chock full of graphic gore living easily up to it’s R rating. Yet it has a playful, satirical feel. It’s a fun movie and highly entertaining.

Shaun of the Dead is the definitive the fan favorite cult zombie comedy. Personally I didn’t like Shaun of the Dead as much as this one. I wanted to like Shaun better, it was more violent and more terrorizing. There is no denying Zombieland has a charm and it gets under your skin. I think Zombieland is more American dark comedy and Shaun of the Dead is more British or Irish type macabre comedy. Booth are worth seeing and I’m sure I’m the minority in liking Zombieland better.

Zombieland tightrope walks its comedy and violence, keeping it just a little bit cartoony and fun without loosing the terror of a zombie take over. I think their trick is almost never killing a human character. If they had humans dying it wouldn’t have felt like fun, it would have been another horror zombie movie. That’s why Zombieland is a comedy about zombie horror and Shaun of the Dead is a zombie horror movie that happens to be funny.

Acting:

Woody Harrelson is great in comedies and he is having fun in this one. Emma Stone is cute and plays the tough girl yet vulnerable role well. Jessie Eisenberg is kind of a dork, but his is smart, has great timing and delivery. I really enjoyed his semi-nerdy role. Though he seems weak, his is tough enough and certainly smart and discipled enough to survive in Zombieland. He sells the character great.

Gore:

A couple smashed heads, blown apart zombies, endless shotguns kills, zombies stabbed, ran over, exploded, on and on, lots of bloody gore. Nothing horribly disgusting but very violent and not for young children.

Sex:

Nothing, just Emma Stone looking sexy.

Directing: 

Triple threat writer, producer, director Robin Fleischer helms this boat. Slick high budget Hollywood studio produced, the movie looked great. Nothing particularly creative, but its wasn’t an artsy, low-budget movie so it was made the traditional way, high quality, no mistakes, no chances taken, nothing gained, nothing lost. The movie never takes itself too serious, the Zombie Rules Columbus comes up with are written on the screen! It’s funny though, and the rules are good zombie survival skills, they keep Columbus alive.

This is Zombieland:

A fun way to spend 90 minutes. It’s not great but it’s very entertaining. If you are looking to watch something a little light hearted with clever banter but still want your horror fix, its well worth watching. I recommend seeing it.

-The Director.

The Purge -review by the Director

 

Release the beast:

In a not to distant future, America is run by the ‘New Founding Fathers.’ A new law is enacted that allows everyone to go fucking nuts one day a year. Nothing is illegal, murder, rape, child molesting, whatever horror you can dream up you can enact onto your fellow man and it’s perfectly legal for 12 hours. It’s called the Purge.

Time to Purge:

It’s purpose is to release all your pent up anger and frustrations by going on a killing spree, vandalism, or the like. Because of the new Purge act crime is at an all time low. Everyone feels it’s psychologically in their best interests to purge. I will discuss my philosophical view of the purge in a bit.
The movie is a thriller. I felt quite uneasy watching this film. It creates a lot of anxiety just watching it.

The plot; a wealthy family with a super duper security system in a well to do neighbor hood are tucked in for the Purge. The family goes about their activities for the next 12 hours, the purge length. Outside the house is monitored by cameras.

The young boy in the Sanders family of four, besides Dad, Mom, and older sister, sees a wounded black man in the street crying for help. He opens the house and lets the guy in. The family freaks out and the guy runs and hides in the house. Before they can do much, there is another incident in the house I won’t spoil. After that a group of privileged rich college age kids come to the house demanding the black man be released to them so they can perform their right of purging on him.

The polite ‘Patrick Bateman’ type leader of the group (Ryhs Wakefield) warns the Sanders  if they don’t give the guy up they will break in and kill them all.

I won’t spoil the movie, but they do end up  turning off the power, making the sanders use flashlights, and breaking in, the thrills continue.

Acting:

Ethan Hawke plays the father James Sanders. He is a seasoned A-list hollywood actor and of course is good in the movie. His wife is played by the beautiful Lena Headey, its a tough role, she does okay, she is very striking so its easy forgive her somewhat rigid performance. Everyone else is good. The Polite Leader of the Purging co-eds, charismatic Ryhs Wakfield plays a great villain. His character is a little thin as is everyones actually. But what he and the other characters symbolism is very much relatable. Which is, what you do throughout this movie. You constantly find yourself thinking, what would I do in this situation?

Gore:

This being a horror movie there is violence. Mostly ungainly visceral fighting, stabbing and shooting. Not a gore fest.

Sex:

Some kissing, nothing really.

Directing:

The movie looks great, the highlight is the use of the door’s peep hole to see the psycho co-eds in creepy masks.

There is a lot of low light flash light stalking well shot.

Good use of security cameras to tell the story and well excited close ups to show emotion, concern and fear of course.

Rating?

Yes see this movie. Its well worth watching. Is it a classic? No way. Will you watch it again? Probably, to enjoy with a date, friend, or if it happens to be on TV.

Philosophical angle:

The invisible ring concept: If you had an invisible ring, a ring that by wearing turned you invisible, would you steal, exact revenge, or engage in voyeurism and rape if you could get away with it? Maybe you would. What if everybody had invisibility rings? It would be chaos. Unless there were ethics, morality, consequences the foundation on which civilization is built. Why is it okay for you to get away with murder when no one else can?

In the movie, the Sanders boy, pretty much fucked everything up by being disobedient to his father and opening the security door into the house. There are two reasons why he may have done this. I think it demonstrates the lazy discipline we see in modern family dynamics. Kids are aloud to question their parents’ authority without much consequence. Which on the one hand might encourage critical thinking skills and debate skills but it also creates a dark side. Kids actually don’t know more than their parents. They need to listen to their parents and teachers. If they refuse to listen to them, they will have to listen to the police and judges. They might need to be locked up with the rest of people who don’t respect civilization’s laws.

Secondly the kid most obviously opened the door to the hurt man because he took pity on him, even though it was dangerous to himself and his family. The families empathic capacity is well demonstrated later in the movie. The sudden realization of ‘what have we become’? I can’t live with myself if this is how I’m going to act.’

The Purge itself has an insane yet utilitarian value to it. It deals with over population, criminals, conflict with races, and basically eliminates the stupid people. How? The first people that start killing each other are the criminals this results in less criminals. The racists begin killing minorities. Minorities fight back, the two kill each other weakening their numbers. The elite set out to purge the homeless from the streets, this results in less homeless people. The young psychopaths that threatened the Sanders were not fit for society. There was nothing lost by eliminating some elitist bastards. Over all, all the killing helps lower the population. The people wise enough not to purge survive and benefit society. The people that engage in the purge, because they are lunatics, hopefully get killed, again removing some of the lunatics from the society.

The Purge teaches you who your friends really are. If you are locked up in a house with people, even if they are family and friends, it’s perfectly legal for them to bash your brains in from behind if they feel inclined. The people who wear a mask and are secretly miserable might go on a killing spree, killing their boss, so don’t be an asshole boss, or other two faced ‘friends’. It’s a great time to kill your spouse or abusive father.

What would you do during a purge, go kill minorities, kill an ex boyfriend, kill cops, or stay home and try to avoid the rampage outside? The intention of the Purge is to eliminate the maladjusted to make life better for the rest of society. Of course no well adjusted society would have a Purge Act.

-The Director.

The Wolf Man (1941) -review by the Director.

The Wolf Man (1941)

 

During the continuing era of scientific enlightenment the curse of the werewolf becomes an unbelievable reality. Relatively naive Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) comes to England to learn and take over his aging father’s (Claude Rains) inheritance and business. Lawrence’s brother has murdered in a hunting accident, which also serves the plot as to why John wants his son to move in with him.

The Curse:

Lawrence, a stereotypical man of the 1940, comes to an old European town, home of his father’s mansion. He begins the tale with spying on the town through his father’s telescope. Instead of looking to the stars the horny man notices the beautiful and also an incongruous stereotypical 1940s American woman Gwen Conliffer (Evelyn Ankers). what is a woman like her doing in Europe, running an antique shoppe.
Lawrence asks Gwen out on a date and she denies him several times. He is woefully persistent in his courting. it’s uncomfortable, he is boarding on stalker behavior. Gwen sells Lawrence a can with a silver wolf handle. They discuss the werewolf lure which they both believe is a silly myth. Gwen who we latter find out is engaged finally agrees to a walk with Lawrence. Lawrence is sort of disappointed when Gwen brings along her friend Jenny for their walk.

The two women and Lawrence visit a Gypsy caravan. The women want to have their palms read. Maleva, the fortune teller, sees the sign of the pentagram in Jenny’s palm. Both women are freaked out. Jenny goes off running. Bela (Bela Lugosi) a Gypsy man turns into a werewolf. He chase Jenny down and mortally wounds her. Lawrence uses his silver cane to beat the living shit out of the wolf. As the Wolf dies he turns back into his mortal form.
Lawrence is confused. The police get invoked thinking Lawrence is a murderer. The problem is, Jenny was clearly attacked and killed by some kind of animal and Lawrence assues them he killed a wolf not a man. In the fight, Lawrence is wounded. His wound quickly heals and he begins to experience strange feelings. Soon as the wolf bane blooms and the full moon rises he will shape shift into the Wolf Man. The rest of the details I shall leave to the viewer.

Acting:

Lon Chaney Jr. is particularly good in his role. He captures the innocent fish out of water nature of his character. He is well mannered and kind. A gentleman before his sanity begins to break down ultimately giving way to the wolf man curse. His father John played by Claude Rains plays the enlightened skeptic, business man, and loving father quite well. He is confident in his stance until the mythical curse is no longer a myth by necessity. Werewolves are real.

I of course, as I mentioned in the Mummy (1959) review, found the 1940s era acting too notable and dated. I wished the characters had acted more timeless, but that is how people acted in the 40s so I shouldn’t be so xenophobic of the decades. I’m only warning you that the movie will have a distinct 1940s feel.

Gore:

Other than off screen beatings and a wound, nothing. Its all PG.

Sex:

Nothing, Lon Chaney Jr’s hairy legs if you are a homosexual man with a hairy leg fetish.

Directing:

George Wagner’s directing is suitable. The ubiquitous fog in the woods is done well, creating a creepy malevolent atmosphere.

One silly goof was when Lawrence transformed he was in his pajamas wearing a wife beater. When he lurks in the woods as the wolf man, both times he changes his outfit into a mechanics jumpsuit. Why the wolf man does this is never explained. The viewer just accepts it. I suppose movie goes in the 40s were not so continuity savvy as later movie watchers would become.

Full Orbit:

What is so fantastic about the Wolf Man is that until this point no one had ever made a werewolf movie (except for a less famous Universal movie Werewolf of London, six years the elder. Werewolf of London is more a Jekyll and Hyde movie as well, though it introduced the transmitting the curse via bite and hints at the moon). The mythos was there. But no one had created a popular Hollywood movie about it. Elements of the Wolf Man sub-genre created by Universal Studios, in it’s purest form, are still prevalent in today’s werewolf movies and books. I personally like the were wolf make up in this film and especially in the remake of the Wolf Man (2010). Even though the were wolves of American Werewolf in London and the Howling are very cool there is something about the very human looking were wolf of the Wolf Man movies that seems more like what a were wolf would look like instead of the wildly fantasy themed Minator looking were wolves in later werewolf sub-genre films like Dog Soliders and the Underworld film for example.

When the nostalgic mood is right, take a trip back and watch the original Universal Monster movies. These films were pioneers of the fantasy sub-genre of monster horror. They should hold a special place in a horror fan’s heart.

-The Director. (with additional input from reviewer Lawrence S. Talbot)

The Mummy (1959) -review by the Director

 

The gist:

Some zealous archaeologists are hacking into Egyptian ruins looking for the 4,000-year-old tomb of remarkably caucasian looking princess Ananka. Angry Mehemet Bay with his intimidating fez hat warns the explorers that all they will find is death by desecrating sacred graves.

The revenge:

Stephen Banning, who’s dream has always been to locate the tomb of Ananka, finds the priestess sepulcher. The tomb looks like a stereotypical Egyptian Hollywood set. It’s remarkably well preserved probably because it was just built with plywood and paint.

Stephen enterers the tomb and screams, he falls on Ananka’s coffin. His friend Mr. Whemple and son John (Peter Cushing) find the poor bastard in a sad state of lunacy. A condition he stays in for the next three years.

Mehemet is pissed. Being the self appointed ‘humble’ servant of Ananka’s god he curses the three explorers who found and moved Ananka’s coffin and body to the British Museum.

Here we get a back story. The High Priest Kharis (Christopher Lee) is performing prodigious burial rites. The back story of ancient Egypt is returned to several times as the mystery is exposed.

Mehemet calls for the ancient guardian (who is a mummy) to kill the trespassers of Ananka’s sepulcher. Who is this Mummy? As the mystery unfolds we will find out. The Mummy journeys to England via Fed Ex. He gets to work quickly killing Stephen Banning and his fellow explorer friend Joesph Whemple. John Banning begins to investigate. He finds Mehemet in England. He uncovers a forbidden concupiscence between the long dead High priest Kharis and princess priestess Ananka. Will John Banning die at the hands of the Mummy? Who controls the mummy? How the hell can the Mummy be stopped?

You will have to watch the movie.

On the good side I enjoyed the sets in England. I enjoyed how powerful the Mummy was. He violently bashed through iron grates and large locked doors. (Interestingly the doors to the mansion were supposed to be made to break away when the Mummy crashes through them. The doors were not, they are regular doors. Christopher Lee to his credit bashes through the doors and breaks his shoulder, he never breaks character despite his injury. Lee is a tough and devoted actor!) The Mummy could be shot many times, be stabbed with a large spear, and never loose his volition of vengeance. Christopher Lee is always the superlative actor and the camera loves him. I watched this film mainly because Christopher Lee was in it.

On the negative side the sets in Egypt were a sad sight. They should have looked far more dilapidated by thousands of years of decay. It was enough to be distracting. The movie, much like the classic wolfman couldn’t escape its 1950s dated feel. Not so much with the lead actors, but all the supporting cast looked straight out of the 50s including Anank’s doppelgänger Isobel (Yvonne Furneaux). She especially looked dated. I only found this negative because it takes away from the timelessness that the film could and should have aspired to.

Gore:

Gunshots, stabs, chokings, an off screen tongue removal, mass murder, all PG, 1950s violence.

Sex:

A quick peek of Ananka’s naked side during her embalming. Just a cruel tease.

Directing:

Terence Fisher is a prodigious director. He is especially noted for his work on Hammer horror films. He didn’t seem to have much of a style other than he favors large encompassing shots. This allows you to watch wherever you want whether you are looking at a large room in a mansion or a crowded pub.

I loved the scenes with the murky pond. A fog rolled over the opaque bog. The Mummy slowly creeps out of it. His wrappings caked in filth. It looked fantastic.

The Wrap:

The Mummy is iconic classic horror. It is something all horror fans should see. It’s a trip down heritage lane. Is it worth running out to see it? No, I don’t think so. It’s a movie I’d recommend when you are in the right frame of mind for a classic film. There is something therapeutic about watching classic horror. One can unwind and soak in the nostalgia. If you are not in the right frame of mind, or you force yourself to watch it. I’m sure this exercise will backfire and you will get bored watching an old film that seems slow paced, dated, and tedious.
I would certainly recommend this so anyone obsessed with Christopher Lee. Though his role here is very character driven, he doesn’t have the ability to take many artistic liberties as high priest Kharis. not like when he plays a warlock, a wizard, a sith lord, a vampire, etc.

In his other role during the Mummy he is great. What is his other role? You’ll have to see the movie.

-the Director