April 2009

  • Worst Movie Monsters Ever

    By roskopp on 4/29/09 4:52am
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    There have been some truly appalling movie monsters over the years. Sometimes the idea itself is just too ridiculous and sometimes it is the execution that provokes hilarity. Here is a list of the some of the worst movie monsters ever, with video clips.

    The Ape Man
    This is cringingly embarrassing stuff from 1943 but Bela Lugosi never was all that picky about roles. In this film he is extra hairy and does his best to act like a gorilla after an experiment gone wrong. His animal nature begins to take over and with the help of his gorilla pal they wreak havoc on the locals.

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  • A corpse hangs in the web

    By akgoemans on 4/21/09 1:09am
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    Or, as it is known in some circles, Horror of Spider Island (HSI). This is a horror/science-fiction movie that currently lurks somewhere in the public domain. I must admit, calling it sci-fi is stretching the truth a bit; a mutant spider that spawns a natural selection reject hardly does justice to the genre. This German movie from the 1960s traces the failing-to-thrill adventures of a Mr. Gary and his dancing girls. Well, let me cover the basics: what's the movie about and is it worth watching?

     

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  • Ringu

    By roskopp on 4/14/09 10:38pm
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    Ringu UK CoverRingu was first released in 1998 and it proved to be an absolute revelation for the horror genre. Western horror films were stagnating with watered down teen horror flicks like I Know What You Did Last Summer. With the release of Ringu so called J-Horror burst onto the scene and suddenly we were awash with unnaturally animated Japanese girls with long black hair.

    Ringu was based on a successful novel which in turn drew on a Japanese folk tale. It is about a videotape which if watched will lead to the viewer’s death one week later. It kicks off with some teens talking about the tape and how a boy was cursed after watching it and died. One of the girls reveals that she watched it and received a strange phone call afterwards which told her she would die in one week. The prophecy comes true. The tape spreads like a virus with teens daring each other to view it and the bodies begin to pile up.

    A reporter named Reiko begins to investigate the claims and finds there is some truth to them.

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  • I thought I saw a kitty cat

    By akgoemans on 4/14/09 7:43am
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    The 1959 version of A Bucket of Blood was a cult classic. It came complete with in-depth characters who were either creepy, flawed or, at the very least, very believable. This is the opposite of the 1995 remake of the same movie. Somewhere along the way someone thought it would be a brilliant idea to carve out a well loved movie by toning down the character development and upping the nudity factor. Sadly, the quirky characters were the exact reason why A Bucket of Blood was worth owning.

    The 1959 version was a dark comedy directed by Roger Corman and written by Charles B Griffith. Incidentally, they were the geniuses behind the original Little Shop of Horrors.



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  • Desperation

    By roskopp on 4/8/09 3:59am
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    Desperation is another in a long line of adaptations from the novels of Stephen King. It starts brightly enough with a psychotic sheriff rounding up an eclectic group of characters and then goes rapidly downhill as they face off against some kind of vague ancient evil spirit. They managed to pull together a decent cast for this so it is a real shame that the awful finish didn’t live up to the early promise.

    We open with a couple travelling down a remote highway in backwoods America. Surrounded by scrub and desert they pass a road sign which rather ominously has a cat nailed to it. A short way on they get pulled over by Collie Entragian (Ron Perlman), the local sheriff of the nearest town which happens to be named Desperation. He seems friendly enough at first but then he finds a bag of grass in their boot and arrests them.

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  • Splinter

    By roskopp on 4/7/09 5:07am
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    Splinter is a low budget horror film which got a limited release last year and it is worth seeking out if you fancy an uncomplicated night of monster madness. Some kind of splinter entity is infecting people and animating their corpses. An unlikely bunch of survivors hole up at a remote gas station and try to fight it off. This is quite a tense wee movie and it was better than expected.

    The film opens with a redneck gas attendant being attacked by a feral creature and we get an initial glimpse of some kind of infection. This shock opening is well directed and sets the scene for the rest of the film. Our heroes are a young couple, Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner) who are out for a romantic camping trip.

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  • The Midnight Meat Train

    By roskopp on 4/1/09 4:01am
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    The Midnight Meat Train posterThe Midnight Meat Train came out last year and it only received a limited release which is a great shame because it is an action packed gorefest for fans of the genre. Based on a Clive Barker short story and directed by the talented Ryuhei Kitamura the film features a decent cast, a creepy setting and some brutal CG effects which will have you writhing in your seat.

    Clive Barker is a terrific horror writer but his work has often failed to retain its impact for the big screen. Hellraiser is the big success, the most obvious one of his works which made the transition well. Midnight Meat Train is based on one of his short stories from the Books of Blood collection and thanks to some excellent direction this adaptation really packs a punch.

    The basic premise centres on a struggling photographer called Leon (Bradley Cooper) as he struggles to get his career off the ground.

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