Horror Fuel
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DanXIII

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Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Division 19 (2017)

In the astounding future year 2039, vox populi decides what prisoners wear, consume, watch…and most importantly who they fight via an online service called Panopticon TV. Before you can say “Fuck…The Running Man was a great film, ol’ PTV decides to increase their scope and make a whole town under their consumer’s whims as their most famous convict superstar, Hardin Jones (Jamie Draven), has gone rogue, escaped, and joined up with an underground resistance movement dedicated to put the kibosh on Panopticon. Filled with hyperactive editing, jarring tonal shifts, and an ultra-derivative plot (as well as The Running Man, District 9 is cribbed liberally as well), Division 19 has a lot going against it right out of the gate. For all of it’s high-concept, just a few minutes from now, social commentary…those elements aren’t given a chance to simmer and develop due to the fact that every time things get interesting in the ol’ world building department along comes a

Continue reading →
Mar 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Deadly Mantis (1957)

You want to know about the state of radar in late 1950’s america? Well The Deadly Mantis has your ass covered bro! The opening gives us this lesson as well as an excuse as to just what the hell our soldiers and boats would be doing the absolute middle of nowhere…not sure if the audience for a film about a giant insect needs this level of world building, but whateves. After a mammoth “bone” is discovered at the North Pole, scientists do their science bag and determine a frickin’ giant (and if the title of this baby is to be believed…deadly) prehistoric mantis has woken up from centuries of slumber and is on the loose…and if our stock-footage (of which this film contains an inordinate amount) military might, along with Paleontologist Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper) and his photo-journalist gal pal Marge Blaine (Alix Talton), can’t punch him a new asshole, civilization could very well be doomed as the creature

Continue reading →
Mar 10, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Blood Hunger: The Films Of Jose Larraz (1970 – 1978)

When I heard Arrow Video (along with our ghoulishly good pals at MVD Entertainment) were releasing a collection of films from famed genre director Jose Larraz, I was excited as…as…okay, I wasn’t excited; in fact I had barely any idea who this cat even was (though I had seen the remake of his film Vampyres back in 2015, and I dug that…but more on that title in a bit). So let’s see what all the hub bub is about this guy shall we? First on the collection is: The Coming of Sin (1978): You know shit is going to go sour when worlds collide in a film with the word “sin” in the title, and boy-fuckin’-howdy do they ever here. When an illiterate and superstitious gypsy girl comes to stay with a worldly female artist in her secluded, rural abode, the nightmares come fast and furious…like actual nightmares of a naked mother fucker on a horse who’s into the kink…and

Continue reading →
Mar 9, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Starfish (2018)

Aubrey (Virginia Gardner) is having one of those days; she wakes up the day after her friend Grace’s (Christina Masterson) funeral to find her small mountain town in the throws of a monster filled apocalyptic event (happens more than you think boils n’ ghouls…). Anyway, how her friend is connected to these events, and how they can be stopped, are up to Aubrey to discover as she goes on a scavenger hunt for a series of mix tapes Grace has left behind in various locations. Yup, some cassette tapes may cancel the apocalypse… Does that synopsis above sound weird, and perhaps a bit vague? Well, you can bet your ass the film it describes sure as hell is! Starfish is a post-modern, thinking person’s fright flick…but don’t let that turn ya off; this thing is packed with a sinister vibe, mysterious recordings, creepy monsters, and anime…and I don’t mean a character just digs on cartoons; there’s a full on, breathtaking

Continue reading →
Mar 6, 2019
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Horror Fuel

Nathalia Bas-Tzion’s A Death Story Called Girl coming to The Bloodlist!

Nathalia Bas-Tzion’s jaw-dropping surreal short flick A Death Story Called Girl has been announced as an online exclusive with The BloodList starting March 6th, and trust me boils n’ ghouls, you need to slap your putrid peepers on this one as soon as it goes live! In case you don’t remember what I had to say about A Death Story Called Girl last summer, here’s my wicked words from my revoltin’ review: A young woman named Bambi (Livvy Bennett) awakes and goes about her daily routine as if she is a robot. After journeying outside she visits an elderly couple and serves them odd food combinations and poisoned drinks. Hell ensues. Running a very surreal twelve minutes, A Death Story Called Girl is a fantastically bizarre and stylized view into the life of one fucked up girl living in the ultimate version of suburbia. Writer/Director Bas-Tzion Beahan presents an over-saturated, sun-soaked paradise where no one even notices when one of

Continue reading →
Mar 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Music Review: Johnny Unheimlich: Kintsugi (2019)

Demonic duo Johnny Unheimlich (comprised of Nick Ransom – vocals, guitar and lyrics, and Ben Hansen – bass) have strode forth from the abyss once more and have chosen to present their fiendish fans a new sonic ritual! To understand Johnny’s sinister sound; imagine a lone, leafless tree sitting under a steel grey sky while ghosts commune at it’s trunk…that kinda paints a picture of what you will get with these lads…real party music…sure it’s the Donner Party, but a party all the same! Spread out over nine tracks darker than a moonless midnight (with titles such as The Hypochondriac’s Lullaby, Scour Pads and Lye, and Agony and Atrophy ), Kintsugi grabs your very soul and takes it places it should never tread…and the journey will leave you mired in a fever dream so deviously dark you may never want to awaken. Also included on the release is the single Crooked Teeth (which we covered right here) which features accordion

Continue reading →
Mar 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Krypton: The Complete First Season (2018)

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own. Hearing that a Krypton based TV joint was being produced that wouldn’t focus on ol’ Superman made me as nervous as a cat nervous about shit that makes cats nervous (Disclaimer: I’m not a cat). Let’s see if that case of jitters was justified… Krypton concerns the adventures of Supes’ grand-pappy Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe) who resides in the Kryptonian city of Kandor 200 years before the planet is fated to explode…and let me tell ya; Seg’s having a time of it. The House of El is on the shit list after Seg’s grandfather got the ax for suggesting that their is life on planets other than Krypton, and our homeboy is caught up in the plottings of shifty chief magistrate, Daron-Vex (Elliot Cowan), who’s daughter Nyssa Vex (Wallis Day) Seg is set to marry

Continue reading →
Mar 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Man’s Best Friend (1993)

News reporter/animal rights advocate Lori Tanner (Ally Sheedy), who’s shoulder pads could be considered a character of their own, decides to take home (read: steal) a massive dog named Max from Ye Olde Animal Test Labbe run by your (not) so friendly neighborhood mad scientist Dr. Jarret (the legendary Lance Henriksen). Really, what could go wrong there? Sure that pooch could be riddled with Mega-A.I.D.S., or some other horrendous disease, but not to worry; the fact he’s comprised of the genetic material of all sorts of dangerous animals will ensure that most who cross his path will end up torn to pieces long before any disease sets in (owing to the fact he begins to rapidly turn into a four-legged lunatic if he’s away from the lab and his meds). Will Lori become a victim of her own good deed or will the powers that be “hound” ol’ Max until he’s neutralized? I could talk about how this film is

Continue reading →
Mar 2, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Sister Street Fighter Collection (1974 – 1976)

Spinning off from the massively popular Street Fighter series of films starring our homeboy Sonny Chiba comes the distaff edition; Sister Street Fighter! Featuring four fist and foot a-flyin’ flicks the series ran from 1974 -1976 and featured four films total…all of which appear on this new Blu-ray collection from Arrow Video! Kicking things off we have: Sister Street Fighter (1974): Li Mansei (Hiroshi Miyauchi), a Hong Kong drug agent (and Shorinji Kempo champion for good measure), pulls a vanishing act while investigating smuggling involving the totally legit and completely not made-up Central Trader corporation. Heading up the search for Mansei is his sister; the outrageously violence prone martial arts expert Li Koryu (Etsuko Shiomi) who’s journey takes her from seedy nightclubs, to dark back alleys, to martial arts academies and beyond. fortunately for our heroine she doesn’t have to whip everyone’s ass on her own as soon she is joined by Shorinji badasses Seiichi Hibiki (Sonny Chiba) and Emi

Continue reading →
Mar 2, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Into the Dark:Treehouse (2019)

Celebrity chef Peter Rake (Jimmi Simpson) heads out to the middle of nowhere to park his ass in his family’s secluded, and posh vacation estate. The reason for his exodus? Some of your typical family drama…oh and he’s being “raked” (oh hell yeah; still got it boils n’ ghouls!) over the coals by the tabloids due to some implied indiscretion with a lady. Once there he catches up with the family’s smart ass blind housekeeper Agnes (Nancy Linehan Charles) and his sister Gwen (Amanda Walsh) who is soon called away on business. What will Petey do to occupy his time? Well, he has a mysterious black goat, toilets full of gore, and pondering the old creepy treehouse he used to spend his childhood in to keep him busy. Along with all that, Pete befriends a bachelorette party staying nearby…and from there shit gets really intense as we learn Peter has more than one skeleton in his closet, and there are

Continue reading →
Mar 1, 2019

More from DanXIII

Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Division 19 (2017)

In the astounding future year 2039, vox populi decides what prisoners wear, consume, watch…and most importantly who they fight via an online service called Panopticon TV. Before you can say “Fuck…The Running Man was a great film, ol’ PTV decides to increase their scope and make a whole town under their consumer’s whims as their most famous convict superstar, Hardin Jones (Jamie Draven), has gone rogue, escaped, and joined up with an underground resistance movement dedicated to put the kibosh on Panopticon. Filled with hyperactive editing, jarring tonal shifts, and an ultra-derivative plot (as well as The Running Man, District 9 is cribbed liberally as well), Division 19 has a lot going against it right out of the gate. For all of it’s high-concept, just a few minutes from now, social commentary…those elements aren’t given a chance to simmer and develop due to the fact that every time things get interesting in the ol’ world building department along comes a

Continue reading →
Mar 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Deadly Mantis (1957)

You want to know about the state of radar in late 1950’s america? Well The Deadly Mantis has your ass covered bro! The opening gives us this lesson as well as an excuse as to just what the hell our soldiers and boats would be doing the absolute middle of nowhere…not sure if the audience for a film about a giant insect needs this level of world building, but whateves. After a mammoth “bone” is discovered at the North Pole, scientists do their science bag and determine a frickin’ giant (and if the title of this baby is to be believed…deadly) prehistoric mantis has woken up from centuries of slumber and is on the loose…and if our stock-footage (of which this film contains an inordinate amount) military might, along with Paleontologist Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper) and his photo-journalist gal pal Marge Blaine (Alix Talton), can’t punch him a new asshole, civilization could very well be doomed as the creature

Continue reading →
Mar 10, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Blood Hunger: The Films Of Jose Larraz (1970 – 1978)

When I heard Arrow Video (along with our ghoulishly good pals at MVD Entertainment) were releasing a collection of films from famed genre director Jose Larraz, I was excited as…as…okay, I wasn’t excited; in fact I had barely any idea who this cat even was (though I had seen the remake of his film Vampyres back in 2015, and I dug that…but more on that title in a bit). So let’s see what all the hub bub is about this guy shall we? First on the collection is: The Coming of Sin (1978): You know shit is going to go sour when worlds collide in a film with the word “sin” in the title, and boy-fuckin’-howdy do they ever here. When an illiterate and superstitious gypsy girl comes to stay with a worldly female artist in her secluded, rural abode, the nightmares come fast and furious…like actual nightmares of a naked mother fucker on a horse who’s into the kink…and

Continue reading →
Mar 9, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Starfish (2018)

Aubrey (Virginia Gardner) is having one of those days; she wakes up the day after her friend Grace’s (Christina Masterson) funeral to find her small mountain town in the throws of a monster filled apocalyptic event (happens more than you think boils n’ ghouls…). Anyway, how her friend is connected to these events, and how they can be stopped, are up to Aubrey to discover as she goes on a scavenger hunt for a series of mix tapes Grace has left behind in various locations. Yup, some cassette tapes may cancel the apocalypse… Does that synopsis above sound weird, and perhaps a bit vague? Well, you can bet your ass the film it describes sure as hell is! Starfish is a post-modern, thinking person’s fright flick…but don’t let that turn ya off; this thing is packed with a sinister vibe, mysterious recordings, creepy monsters, and anime…and I don’t mean a character just digs on cartoons; there’s a full on, breathtaking

Continue reading →
Mar 6, 2019
Horror Fuel

Nathalia Bas-Tzion’s A Death Story Called Girl coming to The Bloodlist!

Nathalia Bas-Tzion’s jaw-dropping surreal short flick A Death Story Called Girl has been announced as an online exclusive with The BloodList starting March 6th, and trust me boils n’ ghouls, you need to slap your putrid peepers on this one as soon as it goes live! In case you don’t remember what I had to say about A Death Story Called Girl last summer, here’s my wicked words from my revoltin’ review: A young woman named Bambi (Livvy Bennett) awakes and goes about her daily routine as if she is a robot. After journeying outside she visits an elderly couple and serves them odd food combinations and poisoned drinks. Hell ensues. Running a very surreal twelve minutes, A Death Story Called Girl is a fantastically bizarre and stylized view into the life of one fucked up girl living in the ultimate version of suburbia. Writer/Director Bas-Tzion Beahan presents an over-saturated, sun-soaked paradise where no one even notices when one of

Continue reading →
Mar 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Music Review: Johnny Unheimlich: Kintsugi (2019)

Demonic duo Johnny Unheimlich (comprised of Nick Ransom – vocals, guitar and lyrics, and Ben Hansen – bass) have strode forth from the abyss once more and have chosen to present their fiendish fans a new sonic ritual! To understand Johnny’s sinister sound; imagine a lone, leafless tree sitting under a steel grey sky while ghosts commune at it’s trunk…that kinda paints a picture of what you will get with these lads…real party music…sure it’s the Donner Party, but a party all the same! Spread out over nine tracks darker than a moonless midnight (with titles such as The Hypochondriac’s Lullaby, Scour Pads and Lye, and Agony and Atrophy ), Kintsugi grabs your very soul and takes it places it should never tread…and the journey will leave you mired in a fever dream so deviously dark you may never want to awaken. Also included on the release is the single Crooked Teeth (which we covered right here) which features accordion

Continue reading →
Mar 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Krypton: The Complete First Season (2018)

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own. Hearing that a Krypton based TV joint was being produced that wouldn’t focus on ol’ Superman made me as nervous as a cat nervous about shit that makes cats nervous (Disclaimer: I’m not a cat). Let’s see if that case of jitters was justified… Krypton concerns the adventures of Supes’ grand-pappy Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe) who resides in the Kryptonian city of Kandor 200 years before the planet is fated to explode…and let me tell ya; Seg’s having a time of it. The House of El is on the shit list after Seg’s grandfather got the ax for suggesting that their is life on planets other than Krypton, and our homeboy is caught up in the plottings of shifty chief magistrate, Daron-Vex (Elliot Cowan), who’s daughter Nyssa Vex (Wallis Day) Seg is set to marry

Continue reading →
Mar 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Man’s Best Friend (1993)

News reporter/animal rights advocate Lori Tanner (Ally Sheedy), who’s shoulder pads could be considered a character of their own, decides to take home (read: steal) a massive dog named Max from Ye Olde Animal Test Labbe run by your (not) so friendly neighborhood mad scientist Dr. Jarret (the legendary Lance Henriksen). Really, what could go wrong there? Sure that pooch could be riddled with Mega-A.I.D.S., or some other horrendous disease, but not to worry; the fact he’s comprised of the genetic material of all sorts of dangerous animals will ensure that most who cross his path will end up torn to pieces long before any disease sets in (owing to the fact he begins to rapidly turn into a four-legged lunatic if he’s away from the lab and his meds). Will Lori become a victim of her own good deed or will the powers that be “hound” ol’ Max until he’s neutralized? I could talk about how this film is

Continue reading →
Mar 2, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Sister Street Fighter Collection (1974 – 1976)

Spinning off from the massively popular Street Fighter series of films starring our homeboy Sonny Chiba comes the distaff edition; Sister Street Fighter! Featuring four fist and foot a-flyin’ flicks the series ran from 1974 -1976 and featured four films total…all of which appear on this new Blu-ray collection from Arrow Video! Kicking things off we have: Sister Street Fighter (1974): Li Mansei (Hiroshi Miyauchi), a Hong Kong drug agent (and Shorinji Kempo champion for good measure), pulls a vanishing act while investigating smuggling involving the totally legit and completely not made-up Central Trader corporation. Heading up the search for Mansei is his sister; the outrageously violence prone martial arts expert Li Koryu (Etsuko Shiomi) who’s journey takes her from seedy nightclubs, to dark back alleys, to martial arts academies and beyond. fortunately for our heroine she doesn’t have to whip everyone’s ass on her own as soon she is joined by Shorinji badasses Seiichi Hibiki (Sonny Chiba) and Emi

Continue reading →
Mar 2, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Into the Dark:Treehouse (2019)

Celebrity chef Peter Rake (Jimmi Simpson) heads out to the middle of nowhere to park his ass in his family’s secluded, and posh vacation estate. The reason for his exodus? Some of your typical family drama…oh and he’s being “raked” (oh hell yeah; still got it boils n’ ghouls!) over the coals by the tabloids due to some implied indiscretion with a lady. Once there he catches up with the family’s smart ass blind housekeeper Agnes (Nancy Linehan Charles) and his sister Gwen (Amanda Walsh) who is soon called away on business. What will Petey do to occupy his time? Well, he has a mysterious black goat, toilets full of gore, and pondering the old creepy treehouse he used to spend his childhood in to keep him busy. Along with all that, Pete befriends a bachelorette party staying nearby…and from there shit gets really intense as we learn Peter has more than one skeleton in his closet, and there are

Continue reading →
Mar 1, 2019