Dismembering Christmas Review

My love of holiday themed horror is well known. I also happen to be a big fan of the work that Kevin Sommerfield and the guys over at Slasher Studios do. Earlier this week, I got a chance to check out their latest, a holiday themed slasher, Dismembering Christmas. As with earlier Slasher Studios releases, this is yet another enjoyable example of what an independent company with a passion for the genre can manage to accomplish without a huge budget.

Dismembering Christmas centers around a group of teenagers who are celebrating the holidays together, away from their families, at a lake house owned by one of their fathers. What begins as a weekend full of drinking and partying quickly takes a sinister turn as the group gets a visit, and ominous warning, from a local wandering by. When night falls, the group begins to disappear one by one as they are stalked by a masked killer out for revenge, who has a past connection with the secluded cabin.

That plot description may not sound like the reinvention of the wheel, and it isn't. That's the thing about the slasher genre, most of the plot lines are pretty paint by numbers. You get a group of kids, throw them in a secluded location, and have them killed off one at a time by some sort of masked killer who most likely has a past connection with either one of the kids and/or the location. Throw in some nudity, inventive kills, and a plot twist at the end, and you have yourself a movie. It's what slasher fans expect, and enjoy. That's why I love Slasher Studios so much. They deliver old school slasher films for fans of the genre because that's what they themselves are.

The cast all performs well, with the standouts for me being Baker Chase Powell as Mark, and Nina Kova as Sam. The both played well off each other, and delivered believable performances. Effects wise, everything is practical, so fans of the real stuff will undoubtedly enjoy the gore. The kills themselves range from tame to deliciously clever. I always love it when the holiday decorations in one of these movies come in to play, and let's just say I don't think I've ever seen a better use of a Christmas wreath. The killer looks good, the pacing is almost perfect, and all around this is just a really fun holiday horror film.

With Dismembering Christmas, Slasher Studios once again managed to capture the magic of an 80's slasher, just as they did with Don't Go to the Reunion and their other films before it. The difference this time though? Polish. For as good as Reunion, Popularity Killer, Teddy, and the others are, they are admittedly a bit rough around the edges. Dismembering Christmas adds some finesse, camera work, a tight script, and other little enhancements that makes it their best production to date.

Morbid on DVD today

Chuck Conry's directorial debut Morbid is officially available on DVD today! This fun throwback to classic 80's slashers is entertaining from start to finish, with lots of comedic elements as well as a mean streak a mile long. Highly recommended, and you can read my full review below. 

The extras on the disc include three commentary tracks, a radio interview, deleted scene, a behind the scenes video, and trailers. The film itself has also been recut and features footage not included in the review copy I got to see early.

Get yourself a copy HERE.

Review:

Morbid is the directorial debut from Chuck Conry of Zombies Don't Run fame. I'm a long time reader of his blog, and he graciously allowed me to view a screener recently. I can honestly say that I didn't have the highest of expectations for it, I simply expected to be entertained, and in the long run I think that's exactly how Morbid should be viewed.
The films official synopsis sums it up perfectly and does so better than I could, so here it is:
A small town becomes the playground to a masked killer stalking and killing the locals for no apparent reason. With the town's sheriff and locals still more worried about a high school football game than getting to the bottom of what's going on, one detective from out of town must rush to save the lives of a group of teens tossing a party in the middle of all the chaos. But, as we soon learn, these teens have some complicated issues of their own.

It's obvious from the very beginning that Conry is as much of a fan of 80's slasher flicks as most of the rest of us. Morbid is a love letter to those glorious days in horror's history. It's got all the ingredients, a bunch of partying teenagers, bumbling police officers, and a killer with a badass mask. Surprisingly, it even had a good amount of gore. The only thing holding Conry back was a budget. I can only imagine what this guy could accomplish with a little more money to work with. The characters are all fairly cliche, with the regulars all making appearances, the jocks, nerds, metal kids, etc. The dialog is purposely awful at times, filled with genre references, and made me laugh out loud several times. These movies aren't known for their convoluted plots filled with twists and huge reveals, and that's the point.

When all was said and done, I ended up having a blast watching Morbid. The location, atmosphere, and actors made me feel right at home, largely due to the fact that I believe Mr. Conry is from my neck of the woods. It was like watching something me and my friends would've done had we had some money and access to a camera to play around with. Morbid is a hilarious, gory good time. I can't wait to see Chuck's next film.

Pernicious Review

I can't remember exactly how I became familiar with James Cullen Bressack, but I do remember that the first of his work I was able to see was Hate Crime when it hit vod. I rented it, then bought it and everything else he'd done and has done since. I've said since then that his was a name that horror fans needed to be aware of. Pernicious is his latest, and most ambitious feature, and last Friday it made it's way to vod and I immediately checked it out. This feels like the first time Bressack has worked with any kind of a substantial budget, and not only does he not disappoint, he managed to exceed all of my expectations.

Pernicious follows three college aged American girls on a summer trip to Thailand. When they arrive, they discover an ancient golden statue of a small girl in the house they're staying in. Their trip takes a turn for the worse after they uncover the statue, unleashing an evil spirit housed within. As the body count rises, the mystery deepens as they attempt to figure out why the spirit is bound to the statue and the reasons behind it's bloody desire for revenge.

This is one of those films that at times reminds you of others, and you think you know what's going to happen next based off of those, but then it flips the script on you. It's at times part Hostel, at times part The Grudge, and there's even a hint of Pumpkinhead in there, yet it still manages to be it's own thing. It's hard to explain. As the plot played out, every single time I thought I knew what was going on, it threw a twist at me. It never went off the rails, but it kept me guessing. Whenever a movie can do that, I definitely consider it a win. The cast mostly performs well, with Ciara Hanna and Jackie Moore being the standouts, as Alex and Rachel respectively. The third of the girls, Julia, was played by Emily O'Brien and she had a few brief moments where reactions were a bit extreme to situations, but she was far from the worst I've ever seen.

Effects wise there was your standard practical/cg mixture. Thankfully most of the blood and gore was of the practical type, while the cg was left mostly to animating the statue. The practical stuff was great, the cg was probably serviceable at best. The budget for this movie went into so many things, practical effects, camera shots, location, etc., that I am more than forgiving if what little cgi is in it isn't quite cutting edge. It looks fine, trust me.

Coming from a guy who shot and edited an entire movie using an iPhone once, Pernicious is a great example of what James Cullen Bressack can do when he's given a real budget and let loose. Gore hounds will appreciate the head bashing and throat slitting, fans of supernatural fare will enjoy the creepy atmosphere and overall tone of impending dread. It's brutally violent at times, moves at a good pace, and tells a story that's entertaining and intriguing from start to finish. Highly recommended for fans of ghost/revenge movies, but Pernicious has a little something for everybody.

Infected Review

I never thought I'd see the day where I would say the words "I'm tired of zombies", but here we are. Actually, let me rephrase, I'm not tired of real zombies, I'm tired of these "infected" zombie movies. They're all the same. At this point in the game, I'd like to think we are way past being able to just throw some tattered clothes and fake blood on a mob of people and have them run screaming at other people, but sadly we aren't, and there's a new one of these movies getting released every other day. The filmmakers behind stuff like this aren't even trying anymore, and I, for one, am just tired of it. Enter Infected, yet another in the long line of cookie-cutter infected zombie fare, which does nothing to set itself apart from the pack.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. There's a group of kids in a club, drinking, dancing, and having a good time until one of them suddenly feels ill. One thing leads to another, and he ends up running around biting everyone. The people who are bitten do the same. The town becomes overrun, and ultimately the military shows up. The "zombies" end up being too much for them, and a small platoon is all that survives. The soldiers hole up in a school with a few other surviving 20-somethings and before long the two respective groups turn on each other.

You name it, and Infected has got it. There is absolutely nothing in this movie that's even remotely original. Cliched characters, the same plot as hundreds of others in the genre, awful cgi blood, bad acting, horrible sound, and so on. Hell, even the name of the movie is boring and generic. It's inexcusable in a world where people are literally making far better and more entertaining movies on their iPhones. The absolute worst thing about Infected though, is that it commits the cardinal sin of a movie of it's type by having a two hour run time. Yep, I sat through TWO HOURS of this garbage.

Infected is sort of like a two hour film class student's project for finals. I can't imagine anyone who wasn't in this, or is friends of someone in this, enjoying it. About the only way I'd say give this a watch is if you 're a person who absolutely, positively HAS to watch every single piece of zombie related media in the universe, and if you're that guy then I weep for you, friend. As for the rest of us, do yourselves a favor and look elsewhere for your flesh eating fix.

Private Number Review

I was initially drawn to Private Number because of Tom Sizemore and Judd Nelson. The premise sounded interesting, but it was their involvement that really caught my eye. As it turns out, there are plenty of reasons to give this indie thriller a watch, and while Sizemore and Nelson are in fact in the movie, they both only have bit parts (despite being displayed prominently on the cover art) and don't have a lot of screen time. Still, this mystery/supernatural/thriller doesn't need to rely on star power to make a name for itself.

Plot synopsis from the Summer House Pictures website:

A series of sinister phone calls haunt an ex-alcoholic writer as he struggles to finish a novel. Efforts to trace the calls result in dead ends, leaving the author with no choice but to solve the mystery himself. As he pieces together scant information he discovers the local police are hiding details about a horrific serial killer. In his obsessive search for answers, he loses his grip on reality, and spirals downward into a maelstrom of violence and terror.

Private Number kept me guessing. It takes inspiration from several different places, part The Shining, part Se7en, and while it isn't as good as those films by any means, it's impossible not to make the connections. There's definitely more of a supernatural vibe than I was expecting, which ended up being a good thing. Just when you think you have a handle on where the story is going, the film shifts in tone. In some instances this can be jarring, but writer/director LazRael Lison handles the transition well, raising questions but never so much so that you feel lost. Things continuously ramp up to what was ultimately a bit of a disappointing ending. It's not so much that it was a bad ending, just an abrupt one, and I was still ready for wherever else the story was going. 

The film mainly focuses on Michael and Kathy, played by Hal Ozsan and Nicholle Tom respectively. The two turn in solid performances, as Michael struggles with the horrific hallucinations and trying to stay sober, and Kathy has to deal with her husband slowly going crazy, as well as her own deteriorating health. There's a lot of delicate subject matter, on top of the hallucinations and murder, which keeps the movie grounded throughout. If the cast hadn't been up to the challenge, this could have been disastrous. 

Private Number is an easy recommendation for fans of thrillers with light horror elements, Stir of Echoes comes to mind. It may lack the polish of similar bigger budget affair, it does enough to entertain for it's 95 minute runtime. For those looking for a more traditional horror experience, there are definitely things to like here, but not enough to likely satisfy. 

The film is available on DVD tomorrow, June 2nd. 

The Pigman Murders Review

Normally, I'm a sucker for a guy in a mask, esepcially a cool mask like a pig one. Pigs freak me out. I'm also not a found footage hater, and most of the time I dig indie cinema. Knowing that, you'd think that The Pigman Murders was going to be a fairly entertaining movie for yours truly. You'd be wrong, but I can see where you'd think that. As it turned out, Pigman was disappointing, and at times downright annoying.

Plot wise, there's not a lot to get into. A group of guys are getting together to celebrate the life of a friend of theirs who has recently passed away. They hire a camera man to film the entire weekend, filled with drinking, fighting, and tales of debauchery involving their fallen mate. The plan is to give this footage to the guy's family...because that's what every young man's parents want to see. Things take a turn for the worse when they enter the woods though, and the guys end up on the run from a ruthless killer in a Pig Mask, probably.

I said probably there because this movie commits the cardinal slasher film sin of almost no screen time for our masked hero. Movie people, we come to these things for the killer. Plain and simple. If we don't get to see the killer, we won't be very happy with your work. I really, really wanted to like this movie. The cover art is sick, and as I said, a pig mask is just an awesome visual. Aside from a lack of presence from the killer, the other thing that bugged me about this movie is the constant flicker and skipping of the "tape". I get that this is supposed to be the footage found in a camera in the woods, but it was literally every 10-20 seconds. I hoped as time went on it would lighten up a bit and just play the movie, but it never did.

The kills themselves were the one bright point in the movie. They weren't inventive, they almost all happened off camera, and they weren't particularly brutal, still there was some decent practical gore, and when the rest of the movie is as disappointing as Pigman was, you'll be surprised at what you focus in on for positives. The cast was also not terrible, for this sort of microbudgeted production.

Don't let the fantastic cover art on this one fool you too. I want to believe The Pigman Murders had it's heart in the right place. It definitely had potential. I can't imagine it was all that difficult to throw a pig mask on a guy and have him run around in the woods with a knife, hell I would've done it if they'd called me, but for some reason this movie focuses far too much on the victims, and gives the killers an almost indicated presence. If you're a die hard slasher fan who has to see every single one that's ever been made, check this out for some ok gore and not much else. Everybody else, look elsewhere for your mask wielding maniacs.

Raiders of the Lost Shark Review

Do you like a little silly with your low budget giant killer animal movie? Boy do I have one for you. Raiders of the Lost Shark is every bit as ridiculous as that title suggests, but it's the right kind of ridiculous for a select few of us who are able to just take it for what it is and have fun with it. This is the kind of flick that you put on at 1 in the morning after you've had a few drinks, preferably surrounded by friends. I laughed nearly from start to finish.

The plot is as simple as you can get, as is to be expected. Some company is drilling in a lake and accidentally comes across an underwater cave, unleashing a prehistoric Megalodon. That's right, an enormous prehistoric shark was living in a cave at the bottom of a lake. A couple of police officers getting into some extra curricular activities with some trashy looking ladies get eaten, an investigation ensues, more people get eaten. Then, from out of nowhere, the shark starts flying. Yes, flying. Through the air. Some sort of mad scientist comes into play, and a college professor (who has flashbacks to her sister dying in the same lake) has to put a stop to the Megalodon's reign of terror.

If the above paragraph didn't totally sell you on Raiders of the Lost Shark, then this movie simply isn't for you, and feel free to kindly move along. For those still with me, this movie is an absolute blast. It's awful, but in all the right ways. The acting is bad, but the script is written in a manner that the cast almost seems to be making fun of themselves before the viewer can. Case in point, the Captain that takes the professor and students out on the lake to search for the shark is obviously the "Quint" of the movie, but he also just so happens to have just a slight pirate accent to go along with his over the top performance. These movies are often of the make it or break it variety when it comes to the animal in question, and to be honest when I first put the disc in, I fully expected first person camera shots (ala Jaws) and maybe some stock nature footage from Shark Week cut into the movie. So you can imagine my surprise when a fully CGI shark leapt out of the water, growling, and snapped up another trashy young lady who was doing a photo shoot in the water. It wasn't a particularly good looking CGI shark, and they probably blew most of their budget on the two or three scenes where the CG was used, but it was there and that was something I never expected.

For killer animal purists, Raiders of the Lost Shark is probably a pass. It lacks the seriousness of even the typical SyFy fare, which itself is often not really serious. I wouldn't go so far as to call Raiders of the Lost Shark a spoof myself, but I can see where one could make that argument. If you have the ability to just sit back for an hour and some change, get some friends together, partake of some sort of mind altering substance, and just enjoy yourself though, there's a good time here. I dare anybody to watch the part were the shark just starts flying around for no discernible reason and not laugh. It simply is not possible.

American Poltergeist Review

Ever since Paranormal Activity came out, ghosts have been giving zombies a run for their money in the micro budget indie/direct to video market. I guess the cheapest thing to put in front of a camera is either an actor with some faint eye makeup and blood around their mouth, or an invisible ghost. Just as with their zombie brethren, some of these haunted house flicks have been ok and some have been just plain bad. Enter American Poltergeist, another small hopeful looking to make itself heard amongst the masses.

The movie centers around a group of paranormal investigators who are just getting their start in the ghost hunting business. So far, they've had no luck in capturing any evidence, and their optimism is dwindling. When a night spent in one of the reputable haunted locations in their area turns up nothing yet again, it causes one member of the group to start verbally abusing the alleged spirit inhabiting the building. While at first, even this tactic appears to bear no result, it's not long before strange things begin to happen to his wife at their house. It looks like not only did he anger the spirit, but it followed him home.

American Poltergeist is as micro budget as micro budget movies get. I get the feeling to truly get anything out of this one you either need to have been involved in the making of it, or be friends with someone who was. At one point, when the ghost attacks, he's supposed to be choking the wife against the wall, and I swear the shadow "effect" was literally someone standing off camera in front of a large light, making a choking motion with his arms so it would look like some sort of shadow figure had it's hands around her neck. The acting is not a whole lot better either. Performances basically range from " I have no idea what I'm doing" to worse. I'd be surprised to see any of the actors and actresses in this movie in anything else ever again.

Still, there were some fairly cool points. When there actually were practical effects, they were decent. There's a good burn makeup toward the end, as well as a little girl apparition with her eyes missing and lips sewn shut, and they both looked good. The other thing I can praise American Poltergeist for that I can't a lot of others is that it doesn't overstay it's welcome. At just over an hour, at least there's not a ton of down time and useless dialog between the uninteresting characters. So there's some good, the problem is the good was just few and far between, and was heavily outweighed by the bad.

It's hard to recommend American Poltergeist, even though I think it's heart is in the right place. As with a lot of indie efforts, I feel like budget constraint was the main issue. That and it didn't do a whole lot to help itself stand out in a grossly saturated sub genre. With ghost hunting being so prevalent these days, there could have been a really cool movie here. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. If you're a die hard fan of these low budget haunt affairs (those people exist, right?), maybe give this one a look, but I can't imagine anyone being anything but disappointed with it.

Zombeavers Bluray Review

I got a chance to see Zombeavers a while back, and had an absolute blast with it. It's a horror/comedy that brings both in spades. This is the kind of thing that some people will turn their noses up at immediately, and to those people I say lighten up. There's absolutely nothing wrong with turning your brain off  for an hour and just enjoying yourselves. 

The Movie

When an auto accident sends a barrel of some toxic badness crashing into a lake near a beaver dam, it turns the normally docile furry little guys into rabid, flesh eating monsters who prey on a group of college kids who are spending the weekend at a cabin near by. With a film like Zombeavers, you basically learn everything you need to know from the title. It's obviously not meant to be taken seriously, and thankfully everyone involved seemed to understand that. While there are definitely horror elements, and a good amount of gore (although mostly of the beaver variety), the comedy aspect is the main focus, and it totally hits the mark.

There appeared to be a very tiny bit of CGI used for the effects, but I'd say probably close to 90% practical. Again, the zombie beavers all look pretty cool, but watching the way they move around and listening to the sounds they make is intentionally silly. There's a bit of a twist during the final act of the film that was also both hilarious and awesome at the same time, but no spoilers here. The cast all turn in fairly decent performances, they obviously knew exactly what they were getting into and what was going to be expected of them, and there were even a couple of great cameos. 

When all was said and done, I thoroughly enjoyed Zombeavers both times I've watched it now. Horror snobs will likely not even give it the time of day, and I hesitate to say even fans of things like Sharknado and the typical SyFy fare may not be able to really get into it, as those movies tend to at least attempt to take themselves somewhat seriously for some unknown reason. If you're looking for an excuse to have a couple of beers and watch some college kids meet their demise at the big buck teeth of zombified beavers, and you fully understand how ridiculously hilarious that concept is, Zombeavers is a complete and total riot. 

The Disc

The bluray boasts a pretty large amount of extra content. There's a cast and crew commentary, a behind the scenes featurette, a deleted scene, cast auditions, a building a beaver featurette, man becomes monster featurette, storyboards, trailers, and more. While initially that amount of stuff was exciting, sadly most of the featurettes only last one to three minutes. I love the behind the scenes, building a beaver, and man becomes monster segments, but ultimately they only act as teasers leaving you wanting more. My favorite was a mock-interview between Stephen Merchant, Bill Burr, and John Mayer which was completely hilarious. It's hard to be disappointed with such a large amount of bonus content on a disc like Zombeavers. It may not all totally satisfy, but what's there is highly enjoyable. 

Trailer

 

Final Score

Movie - 3/5

Disc - 3/5

It Follows Review

I, like most of the indie horror loving community, actually went out to a real theater to watch a movie! It seems like you can't go five minutes these days without reading/hearing/seeing something about It Follows. With the amount of hype surrounding this one, I feared once I finally did get to see it, there was no way it would live up to it. Thankfully my fears were laid to rest, and it happened within the first few frames. If you've heard It Follows described as "Carpenter-esque", there's good reason for that. There's a shot about three minutes in that you'll swear John Carpenter was flown in just to shoot, but only after he finished writing the score for the film, which is amazing. Writer and director David Robert Mitchell is obviously a fan, and God bless him, he managed to not only recreate that early Carpenter magic, but he got it on the big screen. 

Again, this movie is all over the internet right now, and while I typically use this space to do a synopsis, I don't really think that's necessary here, as you've likely already read it a million times in other places. The short version is, Jamie (Maika Monroe) goes on a date, has sex with the guy, and for the rest of the movie is pursued by an unrelenting shapeshifting supernatural force that only she can see. Something is passed between partners that causes the demon/alien/thing to pursue the latest victim, and the only way to get it to stop is to pass it along to the next person. 

For everything It Follows does right, it's Mitchell's use of tension and the sound design that steal the show. The atmosphere in this movie is so thick you can feel it. There were times that the hair on the back of my neck was literally standing up. For a person like me who desperately wants a movie to not only entertain, but force some sort of reaction, this is huge. I felt uneasy at times, and I loved it. The score brilliantly enhanced the feeling of dread, and the theater I was in had the volume cranked to 11. Of course all the atmosphere and music in the world wouldn't help the movie if the script and performance of the cast wasn't equally as good. Once again, the movie delivers. When I sat and thought back on the movie, it hit me what a fantastic job it did of subtly developing these characters. These kids all grew up together in a suburb of Detroit, had been neighbors their whole lives, slept at each other's houses, were each other's first kiss, etc. We learn all of this about them through simple dialog that didn't feel forced, but felt like natural conversation between the characters. Maika Monroe was solid as the lead, and after this and The Guest, she's quickly becoming an actress to keep an eye on. Overall, most of the performances were solid, but Keir Gilchrist (Paul) was hands down my favorite, He played the "scrawny quiet kid who only desperately wanted to save Jamie because he'd been in love with her his entire life" perfectly. I genuinely felt bad for the kid, that's how good he was. 

 It Follows is not without it's flaws though, and in the interest of this review not being complete and total praise, I'll nitpick a little. The biggest complaint I had were some pacing issues. The run time is about an hour and forty minutes, and there's easily five minutes or so that could've been cut. The first half flies by, but there is some lag in the second half leading up to the final act. It certainly didn't ruin the movie, but it's there. The main problem I can see people having with It Follows though, is that it doesn't ever come out and explain exactly what "It" is, how it started, where it came from, etc. I didn't mind that, as I sort of liked that the only thing we ever know about it is that it doesn't stop, ever, but it's going to leave some people unsatisfied with the overall experience. 

Now for the obligatory "If you complain about the lack of horror in the theater" paragraph. If you are one of those guilty of said complaint, now is the time to put your wallet where your mouth is. It Follows is that very, very rare occasion where an independent genre movie has sparked some interest from the masses, and like the Little Engine That Could, has put itself over the hill and landed in wide release at mainstream theater chains. The only way we are going to see more of this is to go out and support it. With our money. Go see it, love it, then tell your friends to go see it so they can love it too. 

As an added bonus for this one, I'm also imbedding the soundtrack which you can listen to in it's entirety on YouTube below. I actually bought it weeks before even seeing the movie. It's that good. 

Applecart Review

I got a chance to look at Dustin Mills' newest film, Applecart and I loved it. Check out the full review at HorrorSexy.

Digging Up the Marrow Review

In order to enjoy Digging Up the Marrow, you need to know a few things going into it. First, it's a mockumentary, second it's also part found footage, and finally, it's an Adam Green movie. In fact, it's a bit of an Adam Green movie about how in love with himself Adam Green is. If none of those things bother you, you're good to go. Personally, I don't kneel at the altar of Adam Green, but I do enjoy his work most of the time, to some degree or another. I didn't know a ton about Digging Up the Marrow going in, but I knew it was a monster movie and that's generally enough to get me interested. As it turned out, I had a good bit of fun with this one, even if the ride to the good stuff was a bit of a tedious one.

Marrow begins with Adam Green explaining that he gets a lot of fan mail, including art, letters, underwear, etc. One fan in particular, William Dekker, had been sending him photos, letters, and even a full notebook of what he says is proof that monsters really exist. After meeting with Dekker, Adam decides to begin filming his story and investigating his claims about the creatures who live underground, in what he refers to as "The Marrow".

Initially, I was a little turned off by this one. It begins with footage from a horror convention, with several familiar faces talking about monsters, and whether they believe in them or not. The focus then changes to Adam Green, and stays there for a while. He talks about himself, how many fans he has, etc. and to be honest, I kept expecting him to just blow himself on camera. Eventually the movie does pick back up though, as we meet Dekker, who was played by the brilliant Ray Wise. I'm a big fan of his, but the problem here is that he's acting off a script Adam Green wrote, and it's obvious. Essentially other than Wise, everybody else in the movie plays themselves, to varying degree of annoyance.

The real reason to watch Digging Up the Marrow is the monsters. It's a monster movie, after all. It's here that I really began to get into the movie. At first things are hinted at, you get a shadowy figure barely moving, things like that. Eventually though, the monsters do emerge from the Marrow, and while we only get semi-decent looks at a handful of them, they're some of the most original, creepy designs I've seen since Nightbreed. The movie shows just enough for you to get an idea as to what they look like, but being the monster lover that I am, I wanted more, of course. That said, I was really thankful that being that this was a found footage type of movie, we didn't just get a lot of noises and a blurry quick close-up at the very end.

While the movie does a good enough job of giving you an idea as to what the creatures look like, it wasn't until I watched the 30 minute "Making of the Marrow" documentary included on the dvd that I really got an appreciation of these monsters. It's explained that artist Alex Pardee approached Adam Green at a horror convention and handed him a pamphlet from one of his art galleries that was full of monsters. The pamphlet not only included art, but some backstory, which described The Marrow. After reading it, Adam got the idea for the movie, and from that Digging Up the Marrow was created. Alex's work is absolutely fantastic, after watching the movie and doc, I looked him up online, and have liked/subscribed/followed him on just about everything I can. His style is different from just about anything else out there, his designs are amazingly strange, and I immediately fell in love with them.

Digging Up the Marrow takes a while to get to the good stuff, but when it gets there, there's plenty to take away from it. The monsters all look great, there's a few good jump scares, some fun cameos, and if you're a documentary fan like me, the mockumentary style makes it fun to watch. If you're not a fan, or are one of those people who find Adam Green to be untolerable, you definitely won't be changing your mind with this one. If you can get past him though, Marrow is an entertaining monster movie, with original creatures, great practical effects, and a premise that has tons of potential. After watching the documentary on the making of the creatures, I'm really hoping to see the residents of the Marrow explored even further, be it in another film or some other form.

Headless Review

Before we get into Headless, let's talk a bit about Found, a movie that hit dvd last year, and I immediately fell in love with. Found was a movie about a kid named Marty who, via snooping through his bedroom, discovered his older brother was a serial killer. It was an original, well made horror movie and also had one of the most disturbing endings you'll ever see. Marty is a bit of a horror geek, and at one point during the movie his mom takes him to the video store to rent some tapes. One of the movies he chooses is called Headless, which he's unable to rent because the tape had apparently been stolen. Turns out, his brother is the one who did the deed, and Marty finds the movie in his room, sneaks it and watches with a friend of his who's sleeping over.

The tape shows a man wearing a skull mask brutally murdering a woman, eventually decapitating her and then raping her severed head. It's a particularly nasty scene, and the goriest in the entire film. A short time after the release of Found, a kickstarter campaign began to turn Headless into an actual feature. The goal was to raise $15k, and they went above that easily, earning a total of over $20k. Apparently the gorehounds really wanted to see this thing happen. Me? I'm not much of a gorehound myself. I like some blood and whatnot in my horror flick, but I'm a monster guy. With that in mind, I understandably went into Headless not expecting to get much out of it. I find there's just not much appeal to watching bad actors hack and saw away at a dummy or two for 80 minutes.

When Headless begins, the credits describe it as a lost slasher from 1978. I've got a bit of a rant about this type of thing as well, but I won't go into it here. The short version is, there's nothing wrong with a throwback flick every now and then, but when almost every single thing coming out claims to be one, not only does it get tedious, but what are the people of 2035 going to have to throwback to? "Our new movie is a throwback to horror movies of 2015, all of which were a throwback to the 1980's!" It just doesn't work.

On to the movie itself though, Headless starts off with the scene from Found, The guy in the skull mask, murdering the woman, and then having his way with her severed head. I saw this and feared the worst, I had no interest in 80 minutes of this, over and over again. To my surprise, and delight, the movie began to actually flesh out quite a bit. The main character is the killer, and instead of just rampant depravity for no reason, the film does quite a bit to show us just why this guy is as fucked up as he is. Via flashbacks, we meet his family, a mother who despises him, forcing him to live in a dog cage, rarely feeding him or giving him water, and an older sister who does nothing but taunt and tease him. We also get to see a young boy with a skull for a face that seems to be the influence, or personification of the killer's desire to murder. If you've seen Found, never in a million years would you think that eventually you'd see a movie that would make you actually feel for the guy doing these horrible things. Headless is that movie.

Fear not though, gorehounds. there's still plenty of cannibalism, dismemberment, and head fucking. Director Arthur Culliper and writers Nathan Erdel and Todd Rigney seem to have captured the all too uncommon lightning in a bottle of a nice balance between story and gory. As stated, the main focus is the killer and his backstory, but there was also a bit of a plot involving one of his victims and her boyfriend, an abusive asshole. There's not a lot there, but at least we aren't just given random victim after victim, without being told anything about them, which very easily could have been the case. The effort to produce an actual movie, and not just a practical effects gorefest is what impresses the most in Headless. The ending was my absolute favorite part of the movie, it's unsettling, much in the same way that Found's ending was unsettling. The meta aspect of knowing the killer from Found was a fan of this one made me appreciate it even more. They don't mirror each other, but there's some family dynamics on display that you can definitely make a connection with, which is a nice touch.

Headless is a worthy spinoff of an already fantastic movie. While at first it may seem unnecessary, it doesn't take long to assert itself, showing that it's more than capable of standing on it's own. There's gore, nudity, cannibalism, and depravity in spades, but it also has a story to tell. I highly recommend fans of Found tracking this one down, as it adds a bit to that experience in my opinion. I'm looking forward to picking this up on dvd and popping in Found, then watching Headless in it's entirety when Marty puts the tape in, then finishing Found after. Gorehounds will eat this one up, but Headless is a special treat for those who want a little more from their splatter movie. It's a hard recommend due to the absolute sickness of it, but if you've read this far, and what I described doesn't bother scare you away, there's a lot to like here.

Tusk Review

Long before it became hip to hate Kevin Smith for no reason, I became a fan of the guy's movies. I'm still a fan of the guy's  movies. Not being one that's particularly into podcasts, I've never really given much of a look to his whole Smodcast thing though. Tusk is an idea apparently born from one of said podcasts, about a guy getting turned into a Walrus. As ridiculous as that concept sounds, knowing Kevin Smith was getting behind the camera again, there was no way I wasn't going to be watching it.

The movie did the usual festival circuit, Toronto, etc. and then almost unbelievably, it got a limited theatrical release. Even more unbelievably, it played in a theater 20 minutes from me, I was gonna get to see it on the big screen. Being that I have work, and responsibilities beyond movie watching, I wasn't able to make it on opening weekend, but I had plans to see it the following Wednesday. The theater pulled it on Tuesday. Disappointed was me. Fast foward to now, and Tusk is finally on VOD, and I got a chance to watch it.

Podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) runs a popular podcast known as the "Not-See Party", a show that pokes fun at internet "celebrities" like The Star Wars kid or Antoine Dodson, complete with one on one interviews. When a trip to Canada ends up being a bust, Wallace is drowning his sorrows at a local pub in Manitoba. He comes across a strange letter hanging on the wall above the urinal, written by a man who claims to have a lifetime of stories to tell and nobody to tell them to. Not wanting the trip to be a total waste, he calls the guy. When he arrives at a mansion in the middle of nowhere, he's greeted by a wheelchair bound man named Howard Howe (Michael Parks), who offers him some tea and regales him with tale after tale from the interesting life he's lead. Things quickly turn sinister when Wallace learns of Howard's affinity for the noble walrus, and just how deep his love for the animals goes. Meanwhile, Wallace's podcast partner, Teddy, and his girlfriend Ally, enlist the aid of a private investigator to try and track him down.

Tusk isn't Smith's first foray into what could be considered horror, his last movie Red State dealt with a religious cult, and also starred Michael Parks. Personally, I thought it was fantastic, so I was more than ready for more of Kevin's darker side. Tusk plays to that a bit, particularly in the first two acts, as things are pretty twisted for the first 45 minutes. After that though, it's hard to describe exactly how I felt about things. While still dark in tone, things almost get lighthearted, especially when the private investigator, played by Johnny Depp, comes into things. If I had to compare his inclusion, and what ultimately ended up being the mood breaker, I'd compare it to when Lin Shaye showed up in Insidious. Everything was going great, and then...BAM, complete shift in tone. Thankfully, in Tusk the transition wasn't as jarring, and even though there was tension, things were so ridiculous that it was almost hard not to laugh at them anyway. Couple that with the fact that Wallace really was a dick in the first place, and it was hard to feel all that bad for him, If Wallace had been in any way likable, the change most likely would have ruined the movie for me. As it stands, Tusk is insanity, but the kind that you can laugh at.

There's not a lot to talk about effects-wise, and what is in the movie isn't supposed to look good, or hell, even feasible, so let's just say it works for what it is. There's not much blood or anything like that, this is more of an atmospheric horror-thriller that's also a comedy but it's not really any of those. If you're looking for a were-walrus on a rampage, you're going to have to look elsewhere. And for God's sake, if you find that somewhere, please get in touch with me.

Performances and dialog are always the strong points of Kevin Smith movies. They may not be your thing, or your sense of humor, but I think Kevin certainly has a gift when it comes to realistic characters and dialog, and his ability to bring out incredibly believable performances from the actors he works with. Tusk continues in that tradition, save for one disappointing exception. Justin Long and Michael Parks of course are the main focal point for a majority of the movie, and the two of them are great together on screen. Things are moving along well until the aforementioned tone shift, when Johnny Depp shows up. I'm not sure if it was just the character, a French-Candaian ex-cop turned private eye, or what, but we've all come to expect better from Depp, and he's just off in Tusk.

When the credits finally rolled, and I sat and thought about how I felt about Tusk, I knew two things: 1, I liked it, and 2, I had no idea how in the hell I was actually going to be able to put those feelings into words that made sense to anybody unfortunate enough to be reading them. This movie just might be the new definition of "not for everybody". In fact, it invents it's own sub-genre, titled "not for every Kevin Smith" fan. I liked it a lot, but at the same time, I totally understand why so many hated it. If you're in the market for something different, not just from Smith, but different than everything in general, Tusk is worth a watch. If you're into horror/comedy/suspense/thriller in the more traditional sense, you'll probably want to skip it. I'm sort of on board for this new, jaded version of Kevin Smith as long as he's producing original, insane concepts like Tusk. While I don't expect Yoga Hosers or Clerks III to be anything even close to what this is, I certainly can't wait to see them, or what Kevin comes up with next.

Late Phases Review

It took me a long time to finally get the chance to see Late Phases. It was one of those movies that I felt like everybody but me had seen, and being the self proclaimed werewolf aficionado that I am, this just didn't sit well with me. It's finally on VOD, and I sat down to watch it, hoping to add it to an all too short list of great werewolf films.

When Ambrose, a blind war vet, is reluctantly moved to a retirement communtiy by his son, he soon learns that it's residents have been dying off, the apparent victims of wild animal attacks. When he narrowly escapes one of these attacks on his first night there, he begins to suspect that there might be a little more to the attacker than a wild animal. The more he discovers, the more things begin to look more like the work of a werewolf, and he's only got a month until the next full moon to plan his counter-attack.

I've learned over the years that you've just got to let a lot of things go if you're going to be a werewolf film collector. It's just the way it is. There just aren't that may truly great werewolf flicks out there. I applaud Late Phases for trying something different, and mostly succeeding. That said, the ONE thing that you've got to make sure you get right is the werewolf, for me at least. Unfortunately this is the one glaring thing that I just couldn't get past in Late Phases. The first few, dark glimpses gave me hope, especially in shadowy silhouette, but toward the film's climax when everything is out in the light... well, let's just say if I hadn't known going in that this was a werewolf movie, I'd probably have been wondering what kind of "were" these were. Werehamsters maybe? I dunno. But I wouldn't have guessed wereWOLF right away.

Still, if you can get past the look of the creatures, Late Phases is a pretty solid movie. Nick Damici as Ambrose understandably ends up with most of the screen time to himself, and thankfully he does a fine job (although there are moments especially toward the end where you'd swear he can see just a little). Tom Noonan (woo hoo!) also lends his talents to this movie, as Father Roger, and I always enjoy his work. There are a few other notable names in the cast, but they have bit parts at best.

While the looks of the creatures may have left me disappointed, the effects were actually halfway decent. This is a creature feature, and those are usually fun. There's not a lot of blood and guts, but enough to satisfy. Things seemed to lean more towards the practical side too, and if you're into that kind of thing like I am, that's definitely a good thing.

Late Phases is a good werewolf film, not a great one, which ultimately ends up being disappointing. While there is plenty to like here, I just couldn't get past the poor creature design of the werewolves themselves. If you're not quite as picky of a werewolf person as I am, most definitely check it out. If you're like me, and have a pretty specific vision when it comes to the look of your lycanthrope, this probably won't be your cup of tea.

V/H/S: Viral Review

I, like most horror movie fans, love anthologies, as has been documented well here at the Batcave. There's no other genre that makes use of the short film the way horror does.  Throw three of them together, maybe a bookend segment, and you've more than likely got something that horror fans are going to be paying attention to. The first V/H/S film was met with mixed reception, some loved it, some hated it. Me? I loved it. I'm a fan of almost everyone involved in it, and I thought it was a quite solid anthology. Then V/H/S 2 came along a year later, and it was greeted with almost nothing but praise. I'll admit, as much as I enjoyed the first, V/H/S 2 blew it away. It wasn't perfect, of course, but it was just on a different level than the first. Now we have a third, and supposed final, installment in the series, V/H/S: Viral.

Viral begins with an opening bookend sequence called "Vicious Circles" that raises far more questions than it answers. The editing is purposely choppy, and the parts of it that are clear don't make a whole lot of sense. Surely by the end, it's going to come together and end up telling some semblance of a story, right? Nope. There's a guy, his girlfriend, and some kids on bikes that are chasing an ice cream truck that is on the run from the police. And they're all running in a circle. It makes absolutely no sense, and no effort whatsoever is made to explain why any of this is happening. Or maybe I just wasn't smart enough to figure it out. Either way, it was a mess, and wasn't entertaining in the least.

That was just the bookend story though, surely the segments will fare better, right? They've almost got to...

For the first segment, titled "Dante the Great" we're treated to a tale of a maniacal magician whose cloak is possessed by a demon and must be fed victims for it to continue to perform. Bad premise, bad performances, just an all around bad opening to the short films. The idea of an insane magician could have been cool, but the execution here is lacking severely in imagination. Writer/director Gregg Bishop instead delivers a bland tale that ultimately disappoints from start to finish.

The second segment, titled "Parallel Monsters", from Nacho Vigalondo, ends up being the one bright spot in Viral. It's an imaginative, wonderfully weird, mind bender of a story that brings to mind one of the best segments from V/H/S 2, "Safe Haven". A scientist, working from the basement of his home, ends up perfecting a machine that opens a portal to a parallel dimension. When he opens the door to find another version of himself staring back at him, the two decide to trade places in the respective dimensions for just a few minutes. What they quickly discover is that despite an initial familiarity, the two dimensions end up being far from the same. This one will stick with you, folks. It's more the kind of thing you'd see in Eerie than Creepy though, if you're familar with those old horror comic mags. Really, really enjoyed this one.

The third, and final short is "Bonestorm" from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead. It basically takes a group of these skater kids with the Go Pro cameras, and slaps a coat of horror paint over it. It sounds mediocre from that description, and that's exactly what it ends up being. A bunch of teenagers take a credit card from one of their dads, and head to Tijuana to film themselves shredding in a large, remote drainage ditch. When they get there, they are attacked by a group of masked cultists, looking to make a ritual sacrifice of some sort. The whole thing is jerky, the characters are awful, and it's basically 20 minutes or so of kids running around a drainage ditch hitting skull mask wearing people with their skateboards, and occasionally shooting one or two of them. It's not exciting, we get absolutely no clue as to who the guys in masks are, or what they're doing, and it's just not entertaining.

V/H/S: Viral was a monumental disappointment for me. As a genuine fan of the series, I can only hope that some of the people involved in the first two return for one more shot at bringing the series back from this terrible entry. I'd hate to see it end on such a down note.

The Guest Review

The Guest is a rare misstep from director Adam Wingard, who's You're Next was one of my favorite films of last year. A weak script and ridiculous ending are the biggest offenders here, but there's no denying this is an easy favorite for best soundtrack of 2014. Check out my full review at The Liberal Dead.

Pieces of Talent Review

Pieces of Talent has moments of brilliance, unfortunately they're surrounded by a mess of a plot which takes far too long to attempt to come together into anything cohesive. The kills are setup in a way that makes you think the movie is about to deliver the goods, only to have the rug pulled out from under you when something simple like a shotgun blast happens after a quick cut away. Don't believe the hype, folks. Full review here.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown 2104 Review

It could be argued that this sequel to the 1976 classic is unnecessary. As a matter of fact, I probably wouldn't even argue with you. Still, I'm a sucker for a guy in a mask, and the Phantom just has one of those looks that I can't help but love. You throw that hood on a guy in a generic slasher every year, and I'll be there every single time. As a fan of the original, I went into the new one with absolutely no expectations, as a matter of fact, I puropsely skipped anything other than the teaser trailer. I wanted to go into this thing as open minded as possible.

The Town that Dreaded Sundown takes place 65 years after the events of the first movie, in Texarkana, Texas. The "moonlight murders" begin again, on a night when the town is having it's annual showing of the 1976 film about the original killer. For a town that's done it's best to move on from the horrific events surrounding the original Phantom, this serves as a brutal reminder of the horror that took place way back in 1946.

This is exactly what you'd expect from a modern version of The Town that Dreaded Sundown. The Phantom in the 1976 film is a killer, yes, but that movie is tame in comparison to this modern version. The Phantom in 2014 has more in common with Ghostface from the Scream series than he does his original counterpart. The kills in this movie are absolutely brutal. I don't know why, but I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of the original, and this definitely isn't your granfather's Sundown. It's been a day since I watched it, and I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about that aspect. On the one hand, I'm all for a fun, new, violent slasher movie to watch, but on the other, I love the old movie, and this one just feels so different that it feels like something completely new that borrows from a classic just for it's namesake.

My fence-riding aside, this really is a fun slasher flick. I enjoyed the kills, there's plenty of brutality and blood, the obligatory bit of nudity, and a badass looking masked killer wreaking havoc. The other thing it has going for it, for me at least, is the screenplay was written by comic writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who you might recognize from this latest "Afterlife With Archie" which puts the Riverdale gang smack in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. That comic is just pure fun, and when I read that he was writing a sequel to Sundown, I hoped he'd bring that same fun to the movie. Aside from the slightly disappointing reveal at the end, I felt like he succeeded in penning a modern sequel to a classic story, whose only flaw in my mind is that it's a bit too modern. As to whether that's a fair criticism, I'll let you decide.

If you liked the original, and don't mind a lot of modern slasher tropes being interjected, you just might come away enjoying this one. If you've never seen the original, and enjoy a good slasher, then by all means give The Town That Dreaded Sundown 2014 a look. Personally, I'm still undecided, but plan to revisit the film again when I add it to my collection.

The Babadook Review

The creepiest movie I've seen this year. The Babadook is like a nursery rhyme from Hell. It's a character driven spookfest, sort of a slow burn but it's got a nice payoff for those who stick with it until the end. Read the full review at The Liberal Dead.