Oct 28, 2014
Review: CHEAP THRILLS (2014) {0}
Are human beings wired to enjoy the suffering of other human beings? Does everything truly have a price? How far would you be willing to go to ensure your family’s peace and prosperity? Does morality work on a sliding scale?
These are the questions I pondered while trying to come up with an opening paragraph for my review of Cheap Thrills, a low-budget but high-energy thriller that’s nasty fun on the surface, but rather a smart little morality play on the whole. Sort of like a wise-ass American rendition of a Michael Haneke film, Cheap Thrills offers us vicarious thrills by having characters get their own vicarious thrills at the expense of another character’s well-being. In other words, two of the characters in this film are compelled to do some truly unpleasant things to each other, but we’re allowed to enjoy their safely fictional miseries because the filmmakers have a dark and crafty story to tell, as well as a few interesting points to make.
Oct 28, 2014
Review: THE SACRAMENT (2014) {0}
You think you know what to expect from Ti West by now. Like many horror movie nutcases, you saw The Innkeepers and/or House of the Devil, and maybe you went back and dug up The Roost and Trigger Man. Hell, you could have even given Cabin Fever 2 a fair shot. (Big mistake.) But if you think you know all of Ti West’s tricks, well, prepare to be pleasantly surprised — because the man’s latest indie chiller may just be his darkest, deepest, and freakiest feature so far. It’s called The Sacrament, it’s one of those new-fangled “found footage” presentations, and it’s another shining example of how you can cook up a truly haunting piece of horror with only a handful of cameras, a few good actors, a realistically creepy premise, and some subtle but obvious craftsmanship behind the camera.
Oct 28, 2014
Retro Review: STREET TRASH (1987) {0}
Very few films combine horror and slapstick well, but Jim Muro’s body-melt masterpiece ticks all the boxes. The film has been plagued with censorship issues in the UK but finally we can experience the film in its full uncut gory glory, at http://www.TheHorrorShow.TV
A beleaguered liquor store owner stumbles upon a case of a beverage called ‘Viper’, and starts selling it on the cheap to the city’s vagrant population. What he doesn’t know is that Viper is what it does to consumers: it consumes people from the inside out. When pools of dead homeless people start turning up, it’s up to grizzled Vietnam veteran Bronson (Vic Noto) to crack the case – not to mention some skulls.
Oct 14, 2014
Review: PROXY (2014) {0}
There are few things more horrifying than a mother causing harm to her own child as a means of seeking attention, yet this particular pathological phenomenon, known as Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP), has only occasionally been explored in horror movies, most famously in M. Night Shyamalan’sThe Sixth Sense, in which the ghost of a young girl draws Cole Sear’s attention to the cause of her death (poisoning by her mother), thereby saving the life of her sister, who has begun to exhibit the same symptoms. (MSbP also featured in 2003 J-horror One Missed Call, and as a subplot in the second series of Danish-Swedish television seriesThe Bridge.) With Proxy, the startling fourth feature from writer-director Zack Parker, MSbP becomes the catalyst for a compelling thriller-slash-horror film in which, as with the syndrome itself, nothing is what it seems to be. Even the poster, with its disturbing image of a bloody embryo, is misleading in a deliberate way.
Sep 5, 2014
Review: WHITE SETTLERS, aka THE BLOOD LANDS (2014) {0}
Any serious horror fan who focuses on film festivals, VOD listings, limited releases, and DVD dates will feel a deep sense of familiarity as they read the plot synopsis of the new British thriller called White Settlers, now available in the US as The Blood Lands. In other words, if you’re familiar with films like Eden Lake, Storm Warning, The Strangers, Them, You’re Next, or even the original Straw Dogs, then a lot of White Settlers may feel like a remake – but as a guy who knows (and likes) all of those films despite a basic feeling of “been here, done this,” I have no trouble adding White Settlers to the list of horror stories about “city people” who piss off “country people” and live to regret it in a serious way.
Sep 4, 2014
Exclusive Review: THE PACT II (2014) {0}
Nicholas McCarthy’s The Pact is one of those horror films that tends to divide audiences: either you think it’s an over-stretched, needlessly complicated snooze-fest with a few decent jump scares and one or two committed performances (step forward Caity Lotz and Haley Hudson), or a quietly effective little horror whose reach, if we’re honest, exceeded its grasp. Either way, it has no shortage of ideas (arguably a few too many), and certainly enough of a backstory (and box office) to warrant a sequel. But with McCarthy off writing and directing At the Devil’s Door (aka Home), a new writer-director was called for, and who better than Dallas Richard Hallam and Patrick Horvath, the filmmakers behind the very Pact-like 2012 chiller Entrance?Well, based on the evidence of The Pact II, the answer to the “who better” question would seem to be “anybody”.
Aug 26, 2014
Exclusive Review: DEAD WITHIN (2014) {0}
There’s nothing inherently wrong with filmmakers offering audiences a worm’s eye view of the apocalypse, but it’s too often employed as a means to show (or rather not show) the end of the world on a shoestring budget, rather than something required by the story. More
Aug 25, 2014
Review: ZOMBEAVERS (2014) {0}
With a title, a premise, and a presentation built around the adorably nonsense word “Zombeavers,” one should not approach a film expecting any sort of depth, warmth, humanity, or metaphorical ruminations on the desperately sad nature of man’s existence. All you need to know is if the silly-ass movie is “stupid-bad,” like most (but not all) of the Syfy Channel/Asylum movies –- we’re talking your Sharknados here – or if it’s “stupid-fun,” like lots of low-budget monster comedies that are made by people with more affection for B-movies than actual production cash. Examples include flicks like Big Ass Spider, Black Sheep, Tremors, and the resoundingly silly but generally satisfying Zombeavers. More
