Jumpscare!

In case you were wondering we haven't disappeared, we've just been busy. We had a child and had to take some time off to get settled. Right now we're working a Podcast and would appreciate you listening. We're available at the site below and on iTunes. Give us a listen!

Happy Death Day

College student Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity.

This is one of those movies I was on the fence about.  I heard good things about it, but I still wasn't sure if we needed another Groundhog Day inspired movie.  It turns out we did. 

While the film follows the basic formula established by GHD it adds enough twists to separate itself.  There is also enough humor to lighten the mood and make you really like the characters. 

Jessica Rothe does a great job of going from the bitchy sorority sister to final girl.  To make a great slasher movie you need two things, a great final girl, which they have in Rothe.  The other thing you need is a great killer.

While the killer never gets a name he manages to be very creepy and still have the morbid sense of humor we want from a slasher. 

Produced by Blumhouse for under $5million it managed to make over $100.  While a sequel seems unlikely I'm always glad to see horror films do well. 

Better Watch Out

On a quiet suburban street, a babysitter must defend a twelve-year-old boy from intruders, only to discover it's far from a normal home invasion.

I knew absolutely about this going in, and I think that is the best way to see it.  Things are so easily spoiled now that it's good to be surprised. 

I was expecting Home Alone meets The Strangers, but got so much more. 

Co-writer and director Chris Peckover deliver a very unique holiday horror film that delivers on tension and surprises.  

I wouldn't be surprised if this shows up in a lot of top 10 horror movie of the year lists. 

Never answer a call when you're isolated in a house.  

Add this to your holiday watch list today!

Annabelle: Creation (mini-review)

This was a  film that I missed in it's theatrical run, but finally caught it on Blu-Ray.

I have to say that I was impressed by the film.  Director David Sandberg does a masterful job of delivering scares, with little or no CGI. The actors all deliver great performances and the script does a great job of connecting to the first Annabelle film. 

All in all a great horror movie!

IT (2017)

Hurricane Irma slowed this down a bit, but I wanted to share my thoughts on IT.

First, everything you've heard is true, the movie is phenomenal.

Where the movie really succeeds is in the relationships between the kids.

All of the "Losers Club" deliver great performances.  They all feel like real kids, they're probably the best ensemble of kids since The Monster Squad.  Watching them takes you back to the 80's and really lets the nostalgia well up in you.

I can't say that I'm 100% on board with the new look of Pennywise, but I certainly can't find fault with Bill Skarsgård's performance.  His Pennywise is every bit as creepy and disturbing as you would imagine.  

The only complaint I have about the movie is that I want the second half now.  The movie is great but having read the book, it feels a tad incomplete without the adult half of the story.  

That said, it's still a milestone horror movie.  I can only it's amazing box office will give us more top notch horror movies.  

Jackals (2017)

I saw this at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival and I went in knowing nothing about it.  This was case where not having any info ahead of time made the movie more exciting.

Written by Jared Rivet and directed by Kevin Greutert Jackals is a tense thriller that doesn't overstay it's welcome.  

I won't spoil the plot because I think going into this film blind really enhances the tension.  I will say that I loved the Halloween homage at the beginning and that the "cat joke" was one of my favorite parts of the movie.  

The cast includes genre vets Stephen Dorff, Johnathon Schaech, and Deborah Kara Unger.  All the cast do a great job of conveying fear and tension.  Schaech does a commendable  job of showing just how far a father will go to protect his family.  

Do yourself a favor and go see Jackals before someone spoils it for you!

Terrifier

Well I'm convinced he's scary

Another film I saw at the Popcorn Film Frights Festival, was Terrifier.  I have to say it lived up to it's name.

The plot is simple, an evil clown terrorizes three women on Halloween night.  This is hands down one of the goriest and most violent slasher movies I have seen.  It definitely veers into torture porn territory in some parts.  That said, it is still a very effective and entertaining film.

I'll take my food to go please

 Actor David Howard Thornton does a great job as the evil clown.  He manages to convey menace and humor all without speaking a word.

Writer/director Damien Leone has created a film follows the slasher tropes, but also adds new twists to them.  There is one scene that has the clown do something that I have never seen in a slasher movie before.  That scene, which I won't spoil, got an amazing reaction from the crowd.

If clowns don't scare you and you can handle extreme gore, then check out Terrifier!

Die! Sitter! Die!: Rupert

Last week I attended the Popcorn Frights Film festival in Miami Florida.  I saw several films, but I wanted to talk about a short I saw first.

Die! Sitter! Die!: Rupert was hands down one of the highlights of the festival for me.  The story is simple, a girl takes a babysitting job and things go wrong.  This is not a new concept in horror, but the twist the filmmakers drop on us is.

I was expecting an evil baby, or a slasher attacking the babysitter trying to kill her and the infant. What I got was something else entirely.

Directed by Sam and Lee Boxleiter and written by them along with Alex Holcomb, this short introduces a whole new kind of horror villain.

The short is now available online and you should definitely give it a watch.  

by: Shad Youngblood

Star Trek horror

Near the end of it's first season Star Trek: The next Generation did something different, and something they haven't tried since.

In the episode "Conspiracy" Captain Picard and crew learn that a race of alien parasites has infiltrated the Federation.  Picard and crew of course stop this invasion, no surprise there.  This could have been standard Star Trek fare,  but they managed to make one of the goriest episodes of TV to that point.

The episode is of note for horror fans for several reasons.

First of all, one of the people who tells Picard about the conspiracy is Captain Rixx, played by Michael Berryman.  Berryman played a Bolian (named for the shows director Cliff Bole) and this race would be featured a lot in TNG and other Star Trek shows.

This was one of the few Star Trek episodes that featured non-humaniod aliens.  The parasites were all puppets and were stop motion animated in some scenes.

We were also treated to this scene where the parasite infected officers eat live grub worms for dinner.

The mother creature of the parasites was a pretty gruesome creature.

What this episode is most remembered for hough is this scene.

Hands down this is one of the best head explosions ever.  This is at least as good as the Scanners one.
Reaction to the episode was mixed and the show never did another gory episode like this again.  It's a shame, I would have liked to seen more horror in Star Trek.

Zombeavers

For the longest time I scrolled by this movie on Netflix and just laughed at the name.  Most of time movies whose whole premise is based on a pun, are not for me.  The other night I decided to give Zombeavers a try, and I'm glad I did.

Zombeavers is a genuinely fun horror movie that takes itself seriously.  Before seeing it I envisioned this a horor comedy or parody of monster animal movies.  Zombeavers however is quite the opposite. While the idea is of course silly, it's played straight.

The movie very much reminds of a 1980's horror movie.  It's filled with gratuitous sex, nudity and over the top violence.  

I have opened my door to worse

A great part of the reason I enjoyed this movie (other than the gratuitous nudity) was the effects.  The creatures are all done practically, and this really adds to the charm of the movie.

The actors all do a great of selling you on the Zombeavers being viscous monsters.   There are some pretty good twists later in the movie, I won't spoil them but they're amazing.

If you're looking for a fun movie, that takes you back to the 80's then Zombeavers is for you.

Two Evil Monkey Movies You May Have Missed

Whether there's a whole planet of them, or just one, monkeys are scary.  They're funny to look at in the zoo, but when the walls between us come down, they have the advantage.  Here are two movies about killer primates you may have missed.

Our first entry is SHAKMA from 1990.  A LARP game in a medical school goes awry when a supposedly dead baboon starts killing the players.  Part slasher movie, part nature gone wild movie SHAKMA has become a cult hit.

I can definitely see why actress Amanda Wyss was reportedly terrified of the baboon on set.  It was the 1990's no CGI monkeys here.  SHAKMA is currently streaming on Shudder and Amazon video.  

Next is LINK, from 1986.  When zoology student Jane Chase (Elisabeth Shue) shows up at her professor's remote house she discovers he has a super intelligent orangutan as a butler.  If this didn't clue her to get the hell out of there I don't know what would.  

I'm here to draw your bath,  

Things start to go bad when Link, develops feeling towards Chase.  Yes, it's a story of unrequited ape love.  The film was directed by Richard Franklin who also directed Psycho II and Road Games.  

 The evil ape Citizen Kane is of course Monkey Shines, but I think everyone has seen it.  Hopefully this will point fans of Monkey Shines to other lesser known killer monkey movies.  

The Hearse

I was lucky recently and won a copy of this on Blu-Ray,  I had never seen it before, despite having looked at it in the video store for years as a kid.  It was just one of those ones I never got around to renting, I assumed video stores would always be there,

First, let's talk about the disc itself.  Vinegar Syndrome did an amazing job with the transfer on this. It was scanned in 2K and restored from the original negative.  I can't imagine that it looked this good even at the time of its release.  The colors are all very bright and even the night scenes are clear.  The sound is great and level throughout the movie.  I don't like the releases where the dialogue is quiet and the action scenes deafen you.  Here every sound in the house and outside is crisp and adds to fright factor of the movie.

The edition I got had a reversible cover and I liked the art better than the original theatrical poster. The art is by Chris Garofalo and you should look at his stuff, it's amazing.  Here's a link to his site:   http://quiltfacestudios.storenvy.com/

Now onto the movie itself.  The Hearse revolves around Jane Hardy (Trish Van Devere) who moves from San Francisco to Blackford.  She takes up residence in her aunts old house, which was left to her years ago,

Now all horror fans know that once you move to an old house in the country there are two possible situations.  The house is either haunted or you will be menaced by evil locals.  In this movie it's the former, but with a dash of the latter.

"Why hey there pretty girl" there were no sexual harassment laws in the 80's

 

Once Sarah moves in she find the locals are uncooperative with her and afraid of the house.  It also doesn't take long until the titular hearse shows up to menace her at every opportunity.

Not a sight you want to see in your mirror 

 This is slow burn movie that reminds me a bit of The Changeling  and Burnt Offerings.  I enjoyed it and I miss this era of movies a lot.  There was no heavy reliance on special effects, just old fashioned suspense.

One last thing, is it just me or does the local preacher look like Reverend Kane's younger brother?

Streets of Horror

We recently decided to snap some pics of some streets around Orlando with horror related names.

Enjoy our trip through the mean streets of Orlando.

It didn't seem like a very legendary road.  

Not a summer camp in site.  

There were some odd looking people, but this is Florida

This one just reminded us of Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street

Virus (1999)

A salvage crew discovers an abandoned Russian science ship only to discover the creature that killed the crew is still on-board.

Virus was released in 1999 and had the bad luck to come out after Scream and in the middle of the slasher revival.  People just weren't in the mood for a monster movie.  It's a shame because this movie has some top notch effects and the story, while reminiscent of The Thing is still a lot of fun.

 

The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin, Marshall Bell and Donald Sutherland.  This was one of the last horror movies that Curtis did, and she seems to have nothing but disdain for it.  Which is odd since it is FAR from the worst horror movie she's been in (I'm looking at you Terror Train).

 The practical effects are what really set this movie apart.  If it was made today, they would do all the creatures with CGI and it wouldn't look nearly as good.

Some of the creatures reminded me of the ones from Hardware.  This was the first film directed by visual effects artist John Bruno.  He was responsible for effects on several of James Cameron's films, including The Abyss.

I was actually able to meet John Bruno and one the actors Marshall Bell at a convention in Tulsa Oklahoma before the films release.  They were both very excited about the film and the clips they showed at the con delighted the fans.  It was a shame the movie didn't do better at the box office.

Ghostwatch

Now available on Shudder is the made for TV movie Ghostwatch.  The movie originally aired in 1992 on the BBC, and caused quite a bit of controversy.  The film is presented as a "live" TV special and despite opening credits stating it was fictional, many people thought it was real.  One suicide and two cases of PTSD were linked to the show.

The film centers around an investigation of a haunting in a London house occupied by a single mother and her two children.  If this sounds familiar it's because it is based on the true story of the Enfield haunting,  The Enfield haunting was also the inspiration for The Conjuring 2.


Watching Ghostwatch I couldn't help but notice how much other found footage movies have been influenced by it.  All the tropes that are common today in found footage films are in Ghostwatch. One of the most noticeable is the explaining of how all the equipment works.  This is forgivable in 1992 because no one had seen this done a hundred times.

Paranormal Activity anyone?

Ghostwatch was definitely a film ahead of it's time.  When it aired nothing like it had been seen before.  It unknowingly set the standard that found footage movies have been  following ever since.

The Void

The Void was one of the most anticipated horror movies of 2017.  When it was released Friday fans were not disappointed.

Writer/directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski  do not disappoint with this intense thriller.

The story begins when police officer Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole) bring in an injured man to the local hospital,  The hospital is run by a skeleton crew because it will be closing and relocating in the morning.   Soon after the man is brought in a mysterious group of people in robes show up and surround the building.

There is no chance they are here to help you.

 I won't say anymore about the plot, the less you know the better.  The film reminds me several older movies most notably The Thing, Hellraiser, and Assault on Precinct 13.  I say this as a compliment, I was glued to the screen for the whole film.

The movie relies on practical effects and those effects are very strong.  The film is shot in a way that uses shadows and darkness to it's advantage.  That said, it never feels like you can't see what's going and again it's nice to be able to see the action for change.  One of my pet peeves is movies that are so dark you can't see what is happening on the screen.

I can't recommend this movie strongly enough, it's what horror fans have been waiting for.  

Campfire Tales (1997)

Horror anthologies are one of my favorite sub-genre of horror movies.  Campfire Tales is a movie that tends to get lost in the shuffle.

Released in 1997 it features a cast that would go on to much bigger things.  Check out this cast list and imagine the budget needed to get them all together today,

Christopher Masterson,Ron Livingston, James Marsden, Amy Smart, Jacinda Barrett, Christine Taylor and Jay R. Ferguson.

The film opens with the pretty standard hook handed killer on lovers lane urban legend,  After that it focuses on a group of college students who have a car wreck,  While waiting to picked up they pass the time by sharing scary stories.

All three stories are well acted and have great atmosphere, but the second one is the one that everyone will remember.

The second story revolves around a young girl (Alex McKenna) who is left alone while her parents go out.  She has a friend online that is not quite what she seems, when the friend finds out she's alone, things get very weird.  The story is also based on a urban legend and it has some of the creepiest images you will ever see,

Campfire Tales is out of print on DVD, and has no Blu-Ray at this time.  I actually had to get a VHS to watch it again.

Hopefully somewhere will pick this up and give it a decent release.  I would love to see this get the Scream Factory treatment.