Tag: USA

Directed by Katie Aselton [Other horror films: N/A]

This movie doesn’t have a lot going on, really – six total characters, and really, only five get all that much screen-time. It felt like a cheaper version of Eden Lake, more or less.

While at first I didn’t know where the story was going, once the catalyst to the action occurred, everything afterward was pretty predictable. The gore was decent, more on the realistic side as opposed to a splatter film.

What was really the strong point of the movie was the friendship, somewhat strained, between the three main female friends. While the dialogue can sometimes feel like a bit much, I thought it worked out well, and the actresses all did a decently good job (Kate Bosworth being my favorite, as I also enjoyed her performance in 2008’s crime/drama movie 21). For most of the beginning, it felt like a real friendship, and to me, they seemed to talk like real people, which isn’t something that is always seen in movies.

Past a certain point, though, things drag a bit, which is saying something, as the film’s under 80 minutes. It starts out decently strong, but peters out about twenty minutes in or so. All-in-all, Black Rock’s not a bad movie, but in the end, it feels rather more average than I’d have preferred. An okay viewing the first time around, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again, as it’s just far more predictable than I’d have hoped for, and drags rather badly at times.

6.5/10

Directed by Don Mancini [Other horror films: Seed of Chucky (2004), Curse of Chucky (2013)]

Having just finished this at the time of this writing, Cult of Chucky is a somewhat hard one to rate.

It certainly feels much more ambitious than any of the previous films, and follows Curse quite nicely. But as for the story itself, I think it got a bit away from itself.

The setting of a mental institution is quite fun, and especially as the film begins having a dreamier atmosphere a bit through the movie, the bright white surroundings work well. Actually, I really liked the dreamy feel this movie had, and parts even reminded me of (I know, it’s crazy) A Cure for Wellness. Hell, even the cinematography was of very high production.

Curse of Chucky was a step toward trying new techniques, but this one, with slow motion, and occasionally dreamy scenes, and split screens, thrown in with a somewhat befuddling story, really makes this one stand out. For the most part, that’s a positive thing. Even though there were a few atrocious CGI scenes (one of the death scenes, for instance), most of what was tried here works still.

Gore was pretty solid throughout, with multiple stabbings, stompings, and, of course, disembowelments. All in good fun. Like I said, the only death that wasn’t that great was due to CGI, unfortunately.

Despite a plethora of these positive factors, the story is a bit of a mess toward the end. It’s not as though it was without some solid tension, and it was definitely better than the abortion that was Seed of Chucky, but really, the story seemed to go all over the place, and with the route they took, I’m sort of getting the feeling that future films won’t really be as solid as Curse was able to be. I can’t say much more without spoilers, but it was worth mentioning, as it’s about the sole reason this isn’t being rated as near as well as Curse.

There are plenty of good things about Cult of Chucky, but it’s no doubt that Curse was a more cohesive, enjoyable, and better movie. The direction that this takes the series seems iffy, but time will tell. If you’re a fan of the series, this is certainly worth seeing, but as it’s entirely different than all of the other movies, I can’t guarantee you’ll love it.

6.5/10

Directed by Marcus Nispel [Other horror films: Frankenstein (2004), Friday the 13th (2009), Exeter (2015)]

This won’t be a very long review, because quite honestly, I can’t think of much to say.

Throughout the whole of the film, I just felt it very bland. It’s not bad, per se, but nothing really did anything for me. The gore was top-notch, with some solid dismemberments and impaling on meat hooks and the like, but with the glossy style the movie sometimes took, it sort of weakened the impact.

One thing, gore aside, that this movie did really well were the sets. The Hewitt house looked great, with a really creepy exterior and fantastically-done basement, with a whole mess of random horrific stuff crammed down there. The meat packing plant was appropriately creepy also, so kudos there.

As for the actors/actresses involved, none of them were either that great or that bad. They just felt sort of there, going through the motions. I didn’t care for R. Lee Ermey’s character, but he did okay. As Leatherface, Andrew Bryniarski did decent, and looked rather menacing. As for Jessica Biel and company, really, nothing good nor bad stands out. Biel was certainly attractive in some scenes, which is what they were going for, it seems, but other than that, eh.

The movie starts off a bit sluggish, and doesn’t really pick up until about forty minutes in, and when it does, it’s a smooth ride forward, but I just couldn’t shake the idea of how bland I felt the movie was. It has it’s positive factors, but from 2003 alone, I can think of other horror flicks I’d rather watch (such as Dead End or House of 1000 Corpses), so ultimately, I wasn’t much impressed this time around.

6/10

Directed by Robert Kurtzman [Other horror films: The Demolitionist (1995), The Rage (2007), Buried Alive (2007)]

Very much a B-movie, Wishmaster has a lot to offer fans of horror.

The story is a fun one, as we don’t get too many Djinn-focused horror flicks. What made it even better, though, was the solid cast. Tammy Lauren did pretty damn well as the main star, despite not really being in all that much of note (the only place I know her from is the 1988 television remake I Saw What You Did, co-starring Shawnee Smith).

Most everyone else was a pleasure too. We had some Kane Hodder, Tony Todd (fantastic as Johnny Valentine), Robert Englund in multiple scenes, some narration by Angus Scrimm, and a fun character played by Jenny O’Hara, who, I kid you not, I only know from a random episode of House (the series starring Hugh Laurie). This movie just had a fun bunch of actors and actresses, and even the individuals who I didn’t care for as much (such as Andrew Divoff, who was a bit too hammy at times) did okay.

Also, the special effects need to be brought up. A few times, they didn’t work out well, especially when they went the hideous early CGI route, but overall, the special effects through the film were something to behold (at both the sequence at the beginning and the party at the end, it’s endless eye candy, such as the great skeleton scene and the half-alligator man). So many of the death scenes were well-done (great jaw-ripping scene), and the special effects just looked great.

Wishmaster is no doubt a B-movie, but I think that works out in it’s favor. I really liked Lauren’s acting, and her character’s final wish was pretty clever. While I cannot speak on the necessities of the sequels (I’ve seen only the second Wishmaster at the time of this writing, and was deeply displeased), I can say that this one is very much a movie worth checking out. Having seen it twice, now, perhaps three times, I think you’ll have a fun time.

8/10

This is one of the films covered on Fight Evil’s podcast, so to give Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I a listen, check out the video below.

Directed by Jake Aurelian [Other horror films: N/A]

Depending on your expectations, The Stripper Ripper might come across a hoot, or one of the worst things you’ve ever seen. Truth be told, I’m leaning toward the latter.

This comedy-horror spoof-type movie, at this point in time, doesn’t appear to have an IMDb page [and as I saw this in April 2018, it’s been a year, and still no page up], but information can be found out about it from various online articles.

Filmed entirely in Danville, Illinois, this movie, for the most part, acts as a documentary about a clown terrorizing Ripper County, delving into the victims of the so-called Stripper Ripper, copycat crimes, local reaction to the events, along with interviews from FBI profilers and a Sam Loomis-inspired character named, you guessed it, Dr. Pleasance (played by Shawn Hosseini).

It’s a very silly, slapstick movie, which is exactly what author and first-time director Jake Aurelian was going for. The thing is, I just don’t think it works well at all. Perhaps as a short, this could have been okay, and maybe mildly amusing, but at an hour and 22 minutes, it just drags on and on.

Sure, we have a plot of sorts: a clown is assaulting people by throwing pies in their faces, and Dr. Pleasance tries to get the local authorities to take the guy seriously, all the while the Stripper Ripper continues his reign of terror. But some of the sequences just run on far past the point of amusing. Indulge me, please, as I list a few examples.

Berating an impersonator, the Stripper Ripper complains for something like five minutes (occasionally impersonating Macho Man Randy Savage, for some reason) before finally punching out a guy who is mimicking the Ripper’s style. There’s an “interview” with a comedian who got arrested for threatening an audience member that he’ll pie her face (in the local climate, this came across as tasteless, apparently). It’s fine in theory, but again, it’s at least a five minute scene.

At seven minutes, there’s a sequence where the Ripper gets pulled over by a police officer for not using his headlights, and the officer asks a barrage of questions. And at eight minutes, there’s a FBI profiler who take the time to explain why the Ripper is the man he is. Eight fucking minutes.

Out of those four scenes, 25 minutes total have passed. And nary a chuckle was to be found.

Certainly, there were some occasionally funny moments, such as the “Run, Lola, Run,” line, and Shawn Hosseini’s acting is just so unbelievably amusing. But for a movie that is first and foremost a parody, the laughs are too few and far between.

One more positive thing I’ll say for it – the actress Chloe Miller (playing a character named, get this, Laurie Lee Curtis) was moderately decent in her role. With the few scenes she had, she definitely seemed a bit of a highlight to me.

Many portions of this film mimic well-known scenes from Halloween, which is all well and fine, and perhaps if the movie focused more on parodying that classic, I might have enjoyed it more. But slapstick has never been my thing, and this movie just went overboard on everything (don’t even get me started on the narrator – the narrator was almost worse here than in Curse of the Faceless Man). These individuals may have had a great time making this, but I just had a horrible time watching it.

1/10

Directed by Dennis Dimster [Other horror films: N/A]

This is a moderately interesting little movie, if not potentially somewhat forgettable.

Starring Brian Bonsall (who was on Family Ties for three years), Mikey’s a story of a psychotic kid, though without the flair of The Bad Seed or the religious nature of The Omen. Just a kid who gets off on killing people.

It’s a simple affair, and Bonsall does his role pretty well. Generally speaking, most of the main cast does also. Mikey’s adoptive mother, played by Mimi Craven (who had a small appearance in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street), is memorable in her role. Whit Hertford (Jacob from the fifth A Nightmare on Elm Street and also having a minor scene in Jurassic Park) was pretty decent as a neighbor of Mikey’s (though really, he never goes anywhere).

Lyman Ward (who, funnily enough, had a small role in Freddy’s Revenge as Ron’s father) was pretty fun as a school psychologist, though I wish he had gotten more scenes. Quite attractive in her role, Josie Bissett played Hertford’s sister pretty well, though again, like Ward, I wish they did a little more with her in the movie.

The unsurprising standout, though, is Ashley Laurence, who is most well-known for her role of Kirsty from the first two Hellraisers (well, and Hellseeker, but let’s not talk about that). Mikey comes across as a lower-budget flick, so how they got Laurence, I don’t know, but she shines in every scene, and her interactions with Ward were always enjoyable.

The thing that stands out most about Mikey, Laurence aside, is the low-budget feel the movie has. At times, it reminds me of The Stepfather, in that it occasionally feels much like a television movie. While there’s not really a ton of gore (the most common form of execution is electrocution), there’s a few solid scenes of individuals beaten with hammers and bats, or shot with arrows. For the most part, though, they don’t really stand out one way or the other.

One small last thing, the setting of this film, being Arizona, was sort of interesting. While most of the time you couldn’t tell one way or the other, a few of the shots that showed the moderate sparse locality just felt interesting. For one reason or another, though it made zero difference insofar as the plot’s concerned, it stood out to me.

Mikey’s occasionally slow throughout the film, but with as many interesting actors and actresses as there are, I was never quite bored. The final twenty minutes were pretty fun (as was the entirely expected last minute scene), but I wouldn’t quite say the movie was entirely worth watching. Having seen it twice, I personally find it a decent flick, but it’s one of those movies where it’s not quite good, but has some charm to it. I would probably put Mikey somewhere marginally above average, but if you go in looking for The Omen, or even The Good Son, you probably won’t be happy.

7.5/10