Archive for the ‘Monsters’ Category

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Planet Terror

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

Ok – I have now seen the most disgusting and totally AWESOME movie I have ever seen.  Planet Terror, directed by Robert Rodriguez (my new favorite director), is gruesome and intense.  Created to mimic 70’s B movies, Planet Terror was great.  Rose McGowan is awesome in this flick – sexy and comical – she brings just the right mix of sultry and humor to this role.  Planet Terror is not really scary, but it is an intense thrill-ride of gruesome horror.  This is the first scary movie that I have ever seen where I actually gagged at one scene with Quentin Tarantino where he is attempting to rape Rose McGowan and his ’stuff’ starts to disentigrate.  Awesome effect – more than a little gross.  If you like zombie movies and you like blood and guts and a little humor with your horror then this flick is for you!

Here is what IMDB.co has to say about Planet Terror:

“After an experimental bio-nerve gas is accidentally released at a remote U.S. military base in Texas, those exposed to the gas turn into flesh-eating, mutating zombies out to kill. An assortment of various people who include stripper Cherry, her shady mechanic ex-boyfriend Wray, a strong-willed doctor, the local sheriff, and an assortment of various people must join forces to survive the night as the so-called “sickos” threaten to take over the whole town and the world. Written by Anonymous

In Texas, the gang leaded by the black market dealer Abby faces a group of renegade militaries leaded by Captain Muldoon in an abandoned military base. During their shootout, Abby shoots a recipient of biological weapon, releasing an experimental highly-contagious gas that turns humans to flesh-eating zombies. Meanwhile, in the local hospital, Dr. Block sees an epidemic with many patients with the same nasty symptoms. When the outbreak affects most of the local population, a group of people with immunity leaded by the mechanic Wray, Sheriff Hague, the stripper Cherry and the Dr. Dakota, fight to survive and become the last hope to save the world. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In a rural town in Texas, go-go dancer Cherry Darling (with a leg/machine gun), decides to quit her low-paying job and find another use for her numerous ‘useless’ talents. Cherry’s ex-boyfriend, El Wray, at the Bone Shack, a restaurant owned by J.T. Hague, a group of military officials, led by the demented Lt. Muldoon, are making a business transaction with a scientist named Abby for a deadly biochemical agent known as DC2 codename “Project Terror”, but when Muldoon learns Abby has an extra supply on hand, he attempts to take Abby hostage and Abby intentionally releases the gas into the air. As gun-legged Cherry Darling and one man wrecking crew El Wray try to save the world from a horde of flesh-eating zombies. Written by Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}”

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Posted in Monsters, Sci-Fi, Zombies | 2 Comments »

Jeepers Creepers III

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

The first two movies are awesome!  Will there be a third installment of this instant cult classic?

I’ve gotten this question repeatedly over the last few months.

The answer is – it sure looks like it and it looks like it will be released in 2011.  It looks like it will be directed by Victor Salva and a direct to video release – stay on the lookout for this film – to come soon!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepers_Creepers_III#Jeepers_Creepers_3:_Cathedral

Although the Wiki states the film will be released in 2009 – IMDB says it is still in production and will be released in 2011.  I can’t wait – what a great movie for movie night at the office.

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30 Days of Night

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

OK – its been awhile since either of us has had time to write, but we’ve watched a bunch of scary movies lately – or at least I have – Toby has been busy with a new baby boy – Oliver Henry!

Anyway my latest movie is 30 Days of Night – that I watched on Netflix Instant (very cool service by the way – just wish they had more titles).  This is the story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town’s husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction. (taken from IMDB.com – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389722/plotsummary.

30 days of night is a great movie – and some scary movie buffs will remember Josh Hartnett from movies such as The Faculty and Halloween: H20 (which I still haven’t seen).

Anyway this is a very well done vampire movie and a little different in its use of Alaska as a backdrop.  The vampires are well done, if portrayed as a little bit beastial – which suits me fine.  I have a feeling that if there really were vampires that they would be more in-line with these vampires than the vampires in The Lost Boys (also a really great movie).

I’d give 30 Days of Night a HUGE thumbs up and a 9 out of 10 stars or 4.5 out of 5 or whatever the heck ratings system we are using now.

PS Melissa George is awesome in this flick.

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Dawn of the Dead

Monday, December 1st, 2008

This movie is about flesh-eating zombies. If you’re not sure what zombies do, they eat the flesh off of people and then that person also turns into a zombie. Anyway this movie is about a dozen people or so fighting off the zombies in a mall.

Ana, a nurse comes home has sex with her husband, Louis and goes asleep for the night without watching the TV news about the zombies. The next morning, a young girl comes into their house and bites her husband, Louis in the neck. Ana is obviously terrified by the whole and tries to help him, but then Louis tries to attack her. She gets away into her car and then crashes into a tree. She is eventually helped by a police sergeant and they walk away from the accident together. Then they run into a pregnant couple and a jack-of-all trades named Michael.

They decided the safest place to go is the shopping mall where they meet some security officers from the mall. They were skeptical at first in helping them, but they eventually knew they need all of the help that they can get.

In the mall, they all confront zombies. It is a exciting battle.

I would give the movie 8 out of 10 stars.

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Desperation

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Stephen King’s Desperation was a great book.  He seems to be focused on the good vs. evil thing a lot lately in his most recent books.  Desperation is about a whacked out cop that kills everyone in his small town and captures a drunk, a family, a woman and her husband and a writer.

The stoy centers on their escape from the deranged cop, possessed by a demon (well they never actually say what Tak is, but I’m going to call it a demon, and their fight to destroy Tak.  Tak is uncovered after a collapsed mine is reopened releasing Tak, the unformed, and uleashing its destruction on the small mining town.

David, played by Shane Haboucha, is the oldest child of the Carver family.  The story centers around his relationship with God and his desire to do good in a bad situation.  David is confused, as any young child would be, when his sister is killed and God asks him to rescue the others and destroy Tak.

Stephen King’s storytelling has never been better.  The duel between good and evil is great and so is the story line.  The movie drags a little in parts, but mostly this is a solid movie, particularly one that was released on TV instead of the big screen.  Solid acting and great storyline make this a movie worth renting.

This is a must see.  I would give it 8 out of 10 stars.

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Posted in Demons, General Horror, Horror TV, Monsters, Weird and Unusual | 2 Comments »

Night of the Living Dead – the original

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Well Toby and I started watching the original Night of the LIving Dead the other day.  I have to say that this is a fairly good movie.  I like George Romero a lot who also brough us such great films as The Crazies (which I have yet to see), Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow and MonkeyShines.

I’ve always liked his films.  The have a gritty, down-and-dirty feel to them.  I think his films are typically more about the psychological effects of horror on its victims than it is simply about blood and guts.  I think too many filmmakers today spend too much time trying to make the goriest, nastiest films they can, when in fact they should focus a little more on the actors and how their characters would really feel in the situation they are facing.

If you look at all of the great horror movies: Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, Poltergeist, The Exorcist etc. – when you are watching those movies you really feel for the characters.  What makes them so scary is that you start to look at the movie from the character’s point of view and start to feel the terror they are portraying.

Now movies like the later Nightmare on Elm Street movies might be fun, but you never get into the characters the way you did in the first one.  Or stupid movies like Demons or Killer Colows from Outerspace.

One of the movies that I think that did the best job of putting you in touch with the actors and characters was IT by Stephen King.  That is the same reason that book ranks up there as one of my all-time favorites.  I tend to read sci-fi and watch horror, but occassionally I cross the line and read horror as well including: Stephen King and Dean Koontz (of which my all time favorite book is Odd Thomas – now there is a character worth getting in to).

Anyway the next time you watch a scary movie – think about if you are scared because of tricks like spooky music and things popping out at you, or whether you are really scared because you FEEL the terror that the character is going through.

Just my little rant for the day – I’ll write a full review on Night of the Living Dead once we finish watching it – I’ve seen it a couple of times before and have it on disc, but its been awhile.

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Tremors

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Well I finished watching the 1990 movie Tremors starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward.  This is a cult classic and one of my favorite non-scary scary movies.  The cast is great and the plot is OK (giant mutated killer worms attacka small town and kill the inhabitants one by one).

I watched this movie with my 9 year old daughter who is scared of her own shadow, which tells you how scary this realy is.  Ron Underwood is a great director and also directed City Slickers and the 2nd and 4th installment of Tremors (plus a bunch of TV stuff as well).

What are your thoughts on this movie Toby?  Even though we didn’t get a chance to watch it together this time we’ve certainly seen it enough times.  I need to re-watch the sequels to remember them, but this one I’ve seen about a dozen times.

PS: Toby is going to write on “The Grudge” which we saw again recently!

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Jeepers Creepers

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

The plot:

On their way back home during the spring break, Darry (Long) and Patricia (Philips) Jenner witness a mysterious person dumping something down a tunnel. Deciding to discover what was dumped down there, Darry discovers a huge disturbing hideout full of modified bodies. Darry and Patricia set off to get help, unaware that the individual is now aware of who has been down the tunnel. Darry and Patricia soon realises that their pursuer is not just a mysterious person, but something even more horrifying, who has more in store than they could possibly imagine.

The above was written by FilmFanUK on the Internet Movie Database – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0263488/plotsummary

As good of a summary as there is out ther on this movie.

Personally this movie is one of my favs – I especially like Gina Phillips and Justin Long as the brother and sister in this movie.  The second one was even better in my opinion.

My favorite part in the film is when Darry falls into the tube at the old church and finds the monster’s underground lair.  Too bad this also happens to be the worst plot point of the whole movie – if you just saw a man throw two things down an old sewer pipe that you were pretty sure were bodies – would you go down there?  NO WAY!  Oh well, I guess it is dumb crap like that that makes us want to watch these films – just so we can yell at the screen and say things like, “Don’t go down there you moron.”  Still a lot better movie than most horror movies.

My positives: Decent plot, great acting for a horror movie

My negs: Not enough nudity :-)

Anyway I’d give this one an 8.5 out of 10 – how about you Toby?

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Posted in Demons, Monsters, Weird and Unusual | 2 Comments »

The Lost Boys

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

The Lost Boys is a great movie directed by Joel Schumacher and made in 1987. One of the key elements of this movie is its comedic timing and the non-grittiness of the cast. Usually when you see a vampire flick the vampires look dirty and the cinematography is dark and foreboding. While much of this flick is shot at night, the scenes are lighted well (in keeping with the fairly light-hearted nature of the movie).

Lost Boys begins with two brothers (played by Corey Haim and Jason Patrick) moving with their recently divorced mom (played by Diane Weist) to Santa Clara, California (the murder capitol of the world if the signs can be believed). Santa Clara has a boardwalk and comic book store inhabited by the Frog brothers (played by the Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander). The Frog brothers warn of impending vampire doom and soon their warnings become reality.

I won’t ruin the movie for you, but there are some really great scenes and with Jamie Gertz thrown in the mix as the intoxicating Star, where can the flick go wrong. A little bit of nudity would have aided in an R rating, but overall the movie is very enjoyable.

I don’t know why it is, but when I watch a vampire flick I want to see some sex. Maybe it is the sultry nature of what a vampire is supposed to be… I always imagine a vampire as being some sort of sex-starved demon on steroids (like Salma Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn or Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire – another notable flick).

Toby thinks I give horror movies an extra rating point for having nudity, but this is not the case, only the really bad ones need nudity to make them enjoyable (like Demons – with scream queen Linnea Quigley – who also stared in Return of the Living Dead as a naked, punk-rock soon-to-be zombie – another good flick for reviewing too – but I think we’ll do those as a series).

There was rumored to be a Lost Boys 2 coming out at one point, but the production company canceled the film when their was little interest shown. As movies like From Dusk To Dawn 2 and Vampires 2 showed – unless you intended all along to make a sequel (Scream) you shouldn’t even try – although there are a few notable exceptions including most of the Halloween movies, some of the Living Dead movies and the Nightmare on Elmstreet scream-festival-became-franchise.

Toby, maybe our next reviewed horror movies should be anything with Sarah Michelle Gellar in it or the chick from Who’s the Boss? They both made some decent, er movies, scenes etc. My favorite still being the scene from the vampire flick where Who’s the Boss girl gets felt up by the nice lady photographer. What was the name of that flick? We definitely need to watch that one again! I feel a movie night coming on!

By far one of the best girlfriend-friendly vampire movies, Lost Boys rates a 9 out of 10 stars from me. Maybe I should go to bed or perhaps take a cold shower first – all of this talk of Jamie Gertz and Selma Hayek has me all futzed in the head.

Click on the link below if you wish to purchase The Lost Boys.

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Posted in Monsters, Vampires | 1 Comment »

From Dusk Till Dawn

Friday, June 27th, 2008

This is one of those vampire/comedy movies. Definitely a must-see. It has two great actors (George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino) who are bank robbers trying to get to Mexico. They end up kidnapping a family (which includes a former priest, a son and a daughter (Juliette Lewis)) and they take their RV to get past the border.

Once they arrive in Mexico, Clooney and Tarantino who are the Gecko brothers in the movie are meeting their friends to split up their share of the money that they stole from the bank. The place to meet was the Titty Twister (great name huh?).

Everything was going fine until a big fight breaks out and almost everyone in the bar turns into vampires. The best part of the movie has to be the show that Selma Hayek puts on in the bar. She is absolutely amazing.

This movie is a must-see just for that part with Selma Hayek alone.

This movie won 9 out of 10 stars for me.

What are your thoughts Mark?

Click on the link below if you wish to purchase From Dusk Till Dawn.

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