Saturday 17 October 2009

Triangle




British director Christopher Smith's third film is aptly named for the three sided shape and the film has just as many angles as its geometric counterpart.

Single mother Jess (Melissa George) joins some friends for a days pleasure sailing. From the moment Jess turns up on the dock her behaviour seems off, she has trouble remembering where her autistic son is while she is taking the day off and seems to be lost in her own thoughts. During the sail the yacht hits an area of sea conspicously absent of weather. Suddenly a massive thunderstorm capsizes the vessel leaving the would be sailors adrift on the upturned hull. The next strange occurance is the arrival of an abandoned cruise ship Aeolus under full steam with no apparent crew. As the group explore the ships interior Jess catches glimpses of someone else aboard and is plagued with feelings of deja-vu as a tangled weave of multiple ongoing story threads unravel and then gather into a non-conclusive whole.

Part slasher, part mystery, part time-travel tale Christopher Smiths story unfolds in a non-linear fashion manipulating the expectations of the audience taking expected beat points and moving them around the films timeline. It is not the first time this technique has been applied and here it allows the movies journey to be a twist orientated Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode. By no means confusing this is a movie to surrender to, just let it happen and be entertained as you figure out each twist just moments before it happens.

Quite hard (especially at Melissa George)

Sunday 13 September 2009

Sorority Row H(t)its

Anyone seen it yet?



Seems like teen cheese to me. The director describes it as pure popcorn and as much as there is a place fir this I'm not in the mood for it right now.

The Final Destination give me a semi but it's no more than a 3D trick show. Halloween 2 made me ejaculate, superb stuff!

Wednesday 5 August 2009

42nd St Forever Vol. 5




By far the best thing on DVD is Synapses 42nd Street Forever series. Now at number 5 this a compendium of crazy ass grindhouse movie trailers likely better than most of the movies! Essential for the alternative cinema fan.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Pontypool


PONTYPOOL is a fresh take on the zombie/infected genre that pulls off the very unlikely sounding act of being a scary movie with very little on screen frights or bloodletting. Tension mounts through the delivery of three excellent performances and the horror really is on the suggestion of events unseen relying on a narrated relay of events. The sort of story that would make an ideal radio play becomes one of the most memorable horor movies of 2009.

Full on erection



After Dark and Ghost House Underground



News of upcoming Halloween treats from Ghost House Underground who will release 4 straight to DVD titles this year with a better eye on quality control. The Children from the UK gave us a total boner and the other three are causing some definate trouser stirrings. Good artwork but the Evil Dead mention is a bit of a cheat.






























After Dark Films are beginning to announce titles for their fourth horror fest including one of the Book Of Blood adaptations Dread.



Friday 10 July 2009

Jennifer Gets Us Hard





Even the dead would get a horror hard on over Jennifers Body. Get Diablo Cody to write the Scream re-boot!

Friday 12 June 2009

Last House and is It Alive?


Maybe it's age or may be remake burn out but the new Last House On The Left doesn't get me hard. In fact I found the rape sequence downright repellent. After that it was just dull. When it was a nasty cheap little grindhouse flick it worked but given a spit and a polish and multiplexed, not for me.

And where the hell is the remake of It's Alive? I miss Larry Cohens knock 'em out style. Might watch Q The Winged Serpent now.


Monday 8 June 2009

Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl





It'll not be long until the backlash about the saturation of gore splattered Japanese school girl movies but I don't care I love them. Here's the art from Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl from the makers if the bonkers Tokyo Gore Police.

Sunday 7 June 2009

Doghouse




Jake West's EvilbAliens was a bit of a belter, a good splatery laugh and his new one looks even better.

Friday 5 June 2009

Terminator Salvation

Don't see what the problem is, this is a hell of a lot better than Rise Of The Machine. Do reviewers not want to see past the Bale outburst or do they not like a film that does not feel the need to explain every damn little detail through exposition. As a summer blockbuster Terminator Salvation has more depth to it than expected. Either that or I know nothing about film which means I could have serious career troubles.


Thursday 4 June 2009

Rec 2




Another teaser and some clips have appeared for the Spanish horror Rec 2. The original is a brilliant piece of horror cinema and shaped up into a decent remake Quarantine, which has its own seperate sequel enroute, but am I excited by the follow up?

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Scream Remake?

No fucking thanks. I'll do my Criswell bit here, " I predict that a remake of Scream will not only be shit but also make no money."



Monday 1 June 2009

Road Train and Endangered Species

Keeping with the Australians the producers of Black Water which is a brilliant back water crocodile movie are bringing us Road Train. A colossal truck ripping up the Outback highways killing teens. A bit of Duel, Joyride and Fair Game? I feel a stirring in my shorts.



Somone I'm a big fan of his horror new bloc Eli Roth. Today he's teased his next feature a 60 million dollar sci-fi monster bash called Endangered Species. Sounds good but do you know what really gets me hard? The proposed feature length version if Grindhouse faux trailer Thanksgiving.

Sunday 31 May 2009

Not Quite Hollywood







I had quite a bit of fun watching this documentry on Aussieslotation. The best part is the focus on horror and Mad Max and Turkey Shoot. It's made me dig up copies of Razorback (why did Mulchaly never get an ElmSt to direct?) and Road Games. Also introduced me to a killer croc movie I've never seen called Dark Age and I do so like killer croc movies, when ate Synapse getting that out?

Friday 29 May 2009

Drag Me To Hell




Sam Raimi has long been championed a hero of horror though his horror output has really been limited to The Evil Dead it's sequels and producing some of the most dismal cookie cutter supernatural movies from his Ghost House Pictures outfit. He has proven himself the director of a remarkable thriller A Simple Plan and as the block buster maestro behind Spider Mans juggernaut assault.

Back on the scene with Drag MeTo Hell from its opening old style Universal logo, jarring score that harps back to the days of monster classics and CGI that is used to effect rather than excess Raimi rescends the dull and thought pretictable trailer that surfaced months ago.

There are two words that perhaps should not be used in relation to descibing a horror movie: zany and kookie. And yet those words best articulate Sam Raimi's approach to the genre. With his Evil Dead canon Raimi is practicaly a sub-genre of his own. And here he has pulled a blinder playing down inferences to Evil Dead when the film is jammed full of them. Witness Christina fight a haunted hankerchief which conjures up memories if a battle with a possessed hand or furniture and household items giggle and laugh, then there is the talking goat and a séance/possesion sequence that practically screams "Swallow got soul!"

To miss Drag Me To Hell at the cinema would be a dis-service to the film. The sound becomes unbearably cranked up to 11 at the right moments, jolts and laugjs leave everone with a grin on their face. Drag Me To Hell is mischeivous, malicios and must-see movie entertainent.

Totally erect.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Prey, Killer Pigs and Good-looking Corpses


Here's the one sheet for new Australian horror Prey.






I'm not feeling the artwork at the moment. After Wolf Creek, Storm Warning and Dying Breed and such classics as Road Games and The Road Warrior the Oz scene can always grab my attention. However reception to this film down under has been poor with director George (Maf Max) Miller even dropping his directors credit.

Killer pigs are flavour of the month with Pighunt and Korea's Chaw out to steal the crown from Razorback. No doubt The Asylum and Maneater movie companies will throw their hats into the sty, I mean ring.






The best looking slasher of all time Black Xmas is about to meet it's own challenge as the latest remake Sorority Row offers up some incredible hotties to be sliced and diced. Well it gives me a horror hard on!








Tuesday 26 May 2009

Plague Town





Dark Sky Films are best known for bringing good quality DVDs of obscure horror and exploration films to the masses. Now they venture into the field of film production with Plague Town.

A family trip to the Irish countryside to build bonds across some severly dysfunctional rifts leaves the family stranded overnight without prospect of food or shelter. Finding an abandoned car by the roadside is the first in a chain of events that will lead to the torture and slaughter of the misfit family at the hands of the countries hidden and deformed offspring.

Director David Gregory has cut a swathe through the DVD extra features world delivering most of the extra content that comes packaged on Dark Skys releases. Here he shows his tastes with a genuine tribute to 70s drive in horror in a nasty little tale enhanced with European flavour despite being filmed entirely in the States. A stunning and dischordant soundtrack create a startling counterpoint to the dark grimy photography and the haunting giggling deformed children. A pleasure for those who like horror stripped to it's roots.

Next off the production slate is Ti (The Roost, Cabin Fever 2) West's House Of The Devil and I for one can't wait.

A full on erection.


Monday 25 May 2009

S. Darko








A sequel to Donnie Darko without Richard Kelly will not be top of anyones "to watch" list but then after Southland Tales any Richard Kelly film is not at the top of my list. Take into account that financially Donnie Darko is not a success and the likeness of a sequel seems even more distant. Yet here we have it S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale.

The storys focus is on Samantha Darko sister to the eponymous Donnie, the role reprised by the now very attractive original actress Daveigh Chase, who has run away from home with her best friend fleeing to California along the dusty black top in a beaten up old car. When the car breaks down in a small town Samantha begins to exhibit the strange behaviour of her brother, the late night sleepwalking, and appears to others as a vision of death. Then a comet falls from the sky, a local nut job guilts a bunny helmet and there's the suspicious local church leader unhealthy lean toward young girls.

In a mish mash of perturbing and paradoxial plot and imagery S. Darko is an atmospheric retread of the themes of the original and helped along by a superb score goes a long way to being a decent companion piece and extension to the universe if you care to revisit. Without Kelly the visuals and deliberate indulgent complexities are left pale in comparsion.

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Jaime Ballaguero's Flatmate





After completing work on [REC]2 it looks like Jaume will be not be waiting on Hollywood to come knocking. This has the familiar artwork feel the Spanish releases of his other films LOS SINS NOMBRE, DARKNESS and FRAGILES though the plot sounds very much like his TV movie TO LET part of the 6 FILMS TO KEEP YOU AWAKE.




Tuesday 19 May 2009

Tormented




New British slasher flick Tormented looks a bit dodgy. You never know though.

Monday 18 May 2009

Interesting Horror Goings On

Things floating about the zietgiest that have sparked my interest. Try them in a search engine-
Samurai Princess
Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl
Pandorum
Ju-On 10th Anniversary films
The Horde
The Pack
Sorority Row (hot chicks, fuck off)
Night Of The Demons remake.