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DanXIII

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Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: American Horror Project: Volume 2 (1970 -1977)

A few years back, those freaky fiends at Arrow Video released a collection of three lesser-seen fringe fright flicks under the name American Horror Project: Volume 1. As you can tell by the title of this review, they have gone done and released a new collection of weird ass shit, and it’s up to your’s cruelly to take the ol’ deep dive and see what these putrid pictures are all about! First up we get: Dream No Evil (1970): An orphan girl spends her days keepin’ the faith that her daddy dearest will re-appear and sweep her away. Well that shit doesn’t come to pass; but she does get adopted and joins a revivalist Preacher in his carny existence. A few doomed romances later, and our heroine finds her daddy all right…laid right out on the mortician’s (who is also a pimp…because…well…) slab. Anyway, her grief resurrects him and he goes on a murder spree as one does. On the

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 26, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Nightmare Cinema (2018)

Five strangers end up in an abandoned theater where a strange projectionist (the one and only Mickey mother fuckin’ Rourke) shows them some fright flicks that contain each of their deepest fears. Thus begins Nightmare Cinema; the latest arcane anthology that weaves five terror tales balls deep in the ol’ horror biz! The first story is titled The Thing in the Woods (directed by Alejandro Brugués) and it begins with us thrown directly into the third act of a slasher picture already in progress. Our spunky final girl is on the run from the wicked Welder (and his implements of bodily harm) who has managed to kill nearly all her friends. Unfortunately for that masked maniac, our heroine is more than capable of putting up quite the fight…and then something turns this already pitch-perfect stalk n’ slay pastiche into a real thing of beastly beauty. Full of great grizzly gore, excellent shifting of paradigms, and an ability to bring some

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 24, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Universal Horror Collection Volume 1

Ol’ Scream Factory are unleashing a slew of second tier terror tales featuring two of the grand champions of the horror biz; Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in one handy package dubbed Universal Horror Collection Volume 1. The set contains four fearsome features which I will be setting my eerie eyeballs on post haste! First up comes: The Black Cat (1934): Young newlyweds Peter (David Manners) and Joan Alison (Julie Bishop), are on their honeymoon in Hungary, where they meet the most Hungarian of Hungarians Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Béla Lugosi), who explains he’s been locked up for 15 years in a Siberian prison and is travelling to visit an old friend; one Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff), an Austrian architect. Soon all become stranded at Poelzig’s art deco mansion, where Werdegast accuses ol’ P-dawg of stealing his wife while he was in prison, and just for shits (and because his terrified of pussies) kills his host’s black cat…good thing Poelzig has

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 22, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ghosts of Mars (2001)

Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) and a cadre of Mars cops are called out to a remote mining colony to pick up a prisoner, one Desolation Williams (Ice Cube), and transport him back to civilization…and more thorough incarceration. Once there they discover that nothing is left of the colony but mutilated corpses. Our heroes all have their theories as to what happened, but the simplest explanation eludes them…centuries old space lizard ghosts have possessed the miners and turned them into some sort of primal street gang lead by Big Daddy Mars (Richard Cetrone)…you know, like any other given Tuesday. Of course this makes survival a bit dicey for our heroes, but thankfully Desolation’s hard-ass pals show up to form an uneasy alliance making Operation: Save Ass a smidge more doable. I’m just going to come out and say it; Ghosts of Mars takes waaaay more shit from horror hounds than it deserves. While admittedly not one of John Carpenter’s best

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 16, 2019
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Horror Fuel

Short Film Review: After Her (2018)

Hailey (Natalia Dyer) and Callum (Christopher Dylan White) are best buds who make an excursion to the woods…woods where Hailey has discovered some strange object that she decides to keep…what could go wrong? Fuckin’ plenty, that’s what. You see, after that fateful day, ol’ Hay-hay is never heard from again…but she haunts Callum’s dreams like a pro. Flash forward five years Callum returns home and ends up continuing the search for his long lost friend…which brings him back to those wicked woods, and in contact with that outre object mentioned up yonder…which rends reality apart! Let me tell ya; Writer/Director Aly Migliori has created one hell of a fantastic piece of psychotronic cinema with After Her! Filled to bursting with missed phone calls, strange artifacts, and metaphysical/cosmic ponderings…this short film is everything a fan of H.P. Lovecraft or Silent Hill could love…but the story presents an extra layer when it adds in a dash of J.M. Barrie to the mix

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 14, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

Baron Frankenstein (the legendary Peter Cushing) is resurrected from the dead (what a twist!) by his colleague Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters) as part of an experiment involving the retention of one’s soul over a specified period of death (science…dodgy…making my…brain seize). So what does ol’ Franky-baby do when he’s up and about? Well he goes out for dinner…yeah, not really what I was expecting either…but eventually he gets up to the devil’s business we paid for as Hertz’s assistant Hans (Robert Morris) is wrongfully accused of murder and executed…which causes his girlfriend, the lovely yet disfigured Christina (Susan Denberg) to commit suicide…and the doomed lovers become the Baron’s next pet project. Soon ol’ Chrissy is back among the living; her face fixed, her hair now blonde (science!), and her subconscious packed fat with Hans’ soul…and this comely lass is hellbent on murderous revenge! Now you may wonder how a Frankenstein pic will fair with nary a stitched together man-monster shamblin’

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 13, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Head Count (2018)

Evan (Isaac W. Jay) and his older bro Peyton (Cooper Rowe) are spending some quality time together, now matter how disparate their personalities. You see, Evan is a college party dude, and Peyton is a clean livin’ type, balls deep into New Age bullshit who resides in a trailer in the desert…so fun is in short supply. Before long our heroes soon cross paths with a group of students on a hike…and that group contains a comely lass named Zoe (Ashleigh Morghan) who Evan gets an instant case of the hornies for…so it’s “later bro” to ol’ Peyton…even though our boy is awkward A.F. around Z-dawg. So what do these gang of goofs do for funsies? Why get loaded and read rando terror tales from a Creepypasta-esque website…which summons a shape-shifting Hisji, a demon totally all up in the number five and as is always the case, the fight to survive this preternatural menace is well and truly on! Let’s

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 12, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews: Dances with Films Festival premieres: Driven, Would You Like to Try Again? and Wowzers

In this creep column, I’m focusing my putrid peepers on three vastly different flicks that will be prancin’ across the sinful silver screen this month at the Dances with Films Festival! Playing Saturday, June 15th at 11:45 pm at TCL Chinese Theatre is: Driven (2019) Ride share fright flicks are en vogue these days; and as a relatively new phenomena they are ripe for exploration and fresh ideas, and Driven exemplifies this fully! Emerson (Casey Dillard who also wrote and co-produced the film) is havin’ the usual ass-pain of a night schlepping around various annoying fares, but things take a turn for the batshit when she picks up Roger (Richard Speight Jr.). You see Rog-baby is lookin’ to dump off a curse handed down through the generations, and now he and E-dawg are in for a night of supernatural shenanigans as they attempt to confront a preternatural evil. Sounds like a Tuesday to your’s cruelly… The lions share of what

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Audiorotic Set to Fill Your Eerie Earholes With Arcane Audio!

Recently I had the pleasure of surrounding myself with a musical miasma most dark and lascivious! I’m speaking of the sinister sounds of the new electronic outfit getting ready to rocket forth from the fog and rain choked graveyards of Seattle Washington…Audiorotic (comprised of members William Wilson and Michael Guillory)…and what a moonless midnight hued blackness that filled my soul as I listened to their demonic digital wizardry ! Want a taste my fiends, head here…I’ll wait for your return… I know you dug that the most…but if you need any further reason to follow these monstrous musicians, they have recorded their own version of David Bowie’s theme song to Paul Schrader’s 1982 remake of Cat People, and if that doesn’t sell ya on these dudes, nothin’ fucking will! I urge all of you boils n’ ghouls to soak in these sinister sounds as soon as inhumanly possible…and be sure to follow Audiorotic on Facebook! Tell ’em XIII sent ya!

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Andromeda Strain (1971)

The US Air Force’s Project Scoop deploys a small unit to retrieve a satellite that has crashed back to Earth near Piedmont, New Mexico. Sounds easy enough; except the entire town is now dead A.F. and the folks sent to investigate end up the same thanks to something that hitched a ride on said satellite. Enter: Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) who warned this type of shit would go down years previous and was ostracized for his trouble. Now Uncle Sam comes practically begging for his assistance; and that of his team; Drs. Dutton, the brassy Leavitt and Hall (David Wayne, Kate Reid, and James Olson, respectively) and ships them off to the high tech underground facility known as Wildfire. Once there the work begins (after a series of wacky…and hilarious tests and decontamination protocols) to isolate the lethal life form (which of course is mutating) while determining why two people from Piedmont (an old drunk and a six-month-old baby)

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 9, 2019

More from DanXIII

Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: American Horror Project: Volume 2 (1970 -1977)

A few years back, those freaky fiends at Arrow Video released a collection of three lesser-seen fringe fright flicks under the name American Horror Project: Volume 1. As you can tell by the title of this review, they have gone done and released a new collection of weird ass shit, and it’s up to your’s cruelly to take the ol’ deep dive and see what these putrid pictures are all about! First up we get: Dream No Evil (1970): An orphan girl spends her days keepin’ the faith that her daddy dearest will re-appear and sweep her away. Well that shit doesn’t come to pass; but she does get adopted and joins a revivalist Preacher in his carny existence. A few doomed romances later, and our heroine finds her daddy all right…laid right out on the mortician’s (who is also a pimp…because…well…) slab. Anyway, her grief resurrects him and he goes on a murder spree as one does. On the

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 26, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Nightmare Cinema (2018)

Five strangers end up in an abandoned theater where a strange projectionist (the one and only Mickey mother fuckin’ Rourke) shows them some fright flicks that contain each of their deepest fears. Thus begins Nightmare Cinema; the latest arcane anthology that weaves five terror tales balls deep in the ol’ horror biz! The first story is titled The Thing in the Woods (directed by Alejandro Brugués) and it begins with us thrown directly into the third act of a slasher picture already in progress. Our spunky final girl is on the run from the wicked Welder (and his implements of bodily harm) who has managed to kill nearly all her friends. Unfortunately for that masked maniac, our heroine is more than capable of putting up quite the fight…and then something turns this already pitch-perfect stalk n’ slay pastiche into a real thing of beastly beauty. Full of great grizzly gore, excellent shifting of paradigms, and an ability to bring some

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 24, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Universal Horror Collection Volume 1

Ol’ Scream Factory are unleashing a slew of second tier terror tales featuring two of the grand champions of the horror biz; Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in one handy package dubbed Universal Horror Collection Volume 1. The set contains four fearsome features which I will be setting my eerie eyeballs on post haste! First up comes: The Black Cat (1934): Young newlyweds Peter (David Manners) and Joan Alison (Julie Bishop), are on their honeymoon in Hungary, where they meet the most Hungarian of Hungarians Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Béla Lugosi), who explains he’s been locked up for 15 years in a Siberian prison and is travelling to visit an old friend; one Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff), an Austrian architect. Soon all become stranded at Poelzig’s art deco mansion, where Werdegast accuses ol’ P-dawg of stealing his wife while he was in prison, and just for shits (and because his terrified of pussies) kills his host’s black cat…good thing Poelzig has

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 22, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ghosts of Mars (2001)

Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) and a cadre of Mars cops are called out to a remote mining colony to pick up a prisoner, one Desolation Williams (Ice Cube), and transport him back to civilization…and more thorough incarceration. Once there they discover that nothing is left of the colony but mutilated corpses. Our heroes all have their theories as to what happened, but the simplest explanation eludes them…centuries old space lizard ghosts have possessed the miners and turned them into some sort of primal street gang lead by Big Daddy Mars (Richard Cetrone)…you know, like any other given Tuesday. Of course this makes survival a bit dicey for our heroes, but thankfully Desolation’s hard-ass pals show up to form an uneasy alliance making Operation: Save Ass a smidge more doable. I’m just going to come out and say it; Ghosts of Mars takes waaaay more shit from horror hounds than it deserves. While admittedly not one of John Carpenter’s best

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 16, 2019
Horror Fuel

Short Film Review: After Her (2018)

Hailey (Natalia Dyer) and Callum (Christopher Dylan White) are best buds who make an excursion to the woods…woods where Hailey has discovered some strange object that she decides to keep…what could go wrong? Fuckin’ plenty, that’s what. You see, after that fateful day, ol’ Hay-hay is never heard from again…but she haunts Callum’s dreams like a pro. Flash forward five years Callum returns home and ends up continuing the search for his long lost friend…which brings him back to those wicked woods, and in contact with that outre object mentioned up yonder…which rends reality apart! Let me tell ya; Writer/Director Aly Migliori has created one hell of a fantastic piece of psychotronic cinema with After Her! Filled to bursting with missed phone calls, strange artifacts, and metaphysical/cosmic ponderings…this short film is everything a fan of H.P. Lovecraft or Silent Hill could love…but the story presents an extra layer when it adds in a dash of J.M. Barrie to the mix

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 14, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

Baron Frankenstein (the legendary Peter Cushing) is resurrected from the dead (what a twist!) by his colleague Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters) as part of an experiment involving the retention of one’s soul over a specified period of death (science…dodgy…making my…brain seize). So what does ol’ Franky-baby do when he’s up and about? Well he goes out for dinner…yeah, not really what I was expecting either…but eventually he gets up to the devil’s business we paid for as Hertz’s assistant Hans (Robert Morris) is wrongfully accused of murder and executed…which causes his girlfriend, the lovely yet disfigured Christina (Susan Denberg) to commit suicide…and the doomed lovers become the Baron’s next pet project. Soon ol’ Chrissy is back among the living; her face fixed, her hair now blonde (science!), and her subconscious packed fat with Hans’ soul…and this comely lass is hellbent on murderous revenge! Now you may wonder how a Frankenstein pic will fair with nary a stitched together man-monster shamblin’

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 13, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Head Count (2018)

Evan (Isaac W. Jay) and his older bro Peyton (Cooper Rowe) are spending some quality time together, now matter how disparate their personalities. You see, Evan is a college party dude, and Peyton is a clean livin’ type, balls deep into New Age bullshit who resides in a trailer in the desert…so fun is in short supply. Before long our heroes soon cross paths with a group of students on a hike…and that group contains a comely lass named Zoe (Ashleigh Morghan) who Evan gets an instant case of the hornies for…so it’s “later bro” to ol’ Peyton…even though our boy is awkward A.F. around Z-dawg. So what do these gang of goofs do for funsies? Why get loaded and read rando terror tales from a Creepypasta-esque website…which summons a shape-shifting Hisji, a demon totally all up in the number five and as is always the case, the fight to survive this preternatural menace is well and truly on! Let’s

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 12, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews: Dances with Films Festival premieres: Driven, Would You Like to Try Again? and Wowzers

In this creep column, I’m focusing my putrid peepers on three vastly different flicks that will be prancin’ across the sinful silver screen this month at the Dances with Films Festival! Playing Saturday, June 15th at 11:45 pm at TCL Chinese Theatre is: Driven (2019) Ride share fright flicks are en vogue these days; and as a relatively new phenomena they are ripe for exploration and fresh ideas, and Driven exemplifies this fully! Emerson (Casey Dillard who also wrote and co-produced the film) is havin’ the usual ass-pain of a night schlepping around various annoying fares, but things take a turn for the batshit when she picks up Roger (Richard Speight Jr.). You see Rog-baby is lookin’ to dump off a curse handed down through the generations, and now he and E-dawg are in for a night of supernatural shenanigans as they attempt to confront a preternatural evil. Sounds like a Tuesday to your’s cruelly… The lions share of what

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Audiorotic Set to Fill Your Eerie Earholes With Arcane Audio!

Recently I had the pleasure of surrounding myself with a musical miasma most dark and lascivious! I’m speaking of the sinister sounds of the new electronic outfit getting ready to rocket forth from the fog and rain choked graveyards of Seattle Washington…Audiorotic (comprised of members William Wilson and Michael Guillory)…and what a moonless midnight hued blackness that filled my soul as I listened to their demonic digital wizardry ! Want a taste my fiends, head here…I’ll wait for your return… I know you dug that the most…but if you need any further reason to follow these monstrous musicians, they have recorded their own version of David Bowie’s theme song to Paul Schrader’s 1982 remake of Cat People, and if that doesn’t sell ya on these dudes, nothin’ fucking will! I urge all of you boils n’ ghouls to soak in these sinister sounds as soon as inhumanly possible…and be sure to follow Audiorotic on Facebook! Tell ’em XIII sent ya!

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Andromeda Strain (1971)

The US Air Force’s Project Scoop deploys a small unit to retrieve a satellite that has crashed back to Earth near Piedmont, New Mexico. Sounds easy enough; except the entire town is now dead A.F. and the folks sent to investigate end up the same thanks to something that hitched a ride on said satellite. Enter: Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) who warned this type of shit would go down years previous and was ostracized for his trouble. Now Uncle Sam comes practically begging for his assistance; and that of his team; Drs. Dutton, the brassy Leavitt and Hall (David Wayne, Kate Reid, and James Olson, respectively) and ships them off to the high tech underground facility known as Wildfire. Once there the work begins (after a series of wacky…and hilarious tests and decontamination protocols) to isolate the lethal life form (which of course is mutating) while determining why two people from Piedmont (an old drunk and a six-month-old baby)

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 9, 2019
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