CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
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DocumentariesMoviesReviews
You lot know I love me some Dark Shadows; Dan Curtis’ ground-breaking 1960’s soap opera filled to the brim with Gothic atmosphere, witches, werewolves, and of course vampires, and it’s with that last denizen of the creature feature that the series featured it’s most enduring icon, the undead Lord of Collinwood, Barnabas Collins… played by to suave perfection by Jonathan Frid… speaking of which… Dark Shadows and Beyond: the Jonathan Frid Story, the new Blu-ray documentary release from MPI Pictures will either delight you with tales of showbiz and theater, or aggravate you if you want to know the man himself. What this film does right is explores in great detail the entire breadth of Frid’s work, from stage, to television, to movies, and back again; the man was an impressive actor with dozens of memorable performances under his belt before he even slipped in those enamel canines and set about putting the bite on Collinsport, Maine. Of course much
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Since the head honcho of a local Yakuza family just shook hands with the ol’ Grim Reaper, the next in line to take the reigns is none other than his estranged daughter… spunky, goofy, pretty fuckin’ ridiculous in every respect, high school student Izumi Hoshi (idol singer Hiroko Yakushimaru)! Cue stupid-ass record scratch sound effect here. Izumi is more than ready to become a delinquent, and immediately abandons school (though the sailor suit remains… and yes, she weilds a rather angry machine gun as well at times)… though at first she isn’t sure that livin’ in a gangsta paradise is for her… but soon she actually takes to the role and ,along with a quartet of henchmen, begins to become a presence in the underworld… but will she manage to keep ahead of the game, or be swallowed by it? I have to tell you, reading that above synopsis I wouldn’t blame you for expecting a wall-to-wall, live-action anime style
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
The Unhealer Director Martin Guigui’s The Unhealer (2021) is a “the bullied becomes the bullier” revenge tale that plays like a 1990s horror movie, with plenty of familiar genre-film faces on display. Pflueger (Lance Henriksen) performs faith healing miracles — for donations, of course — having gained supernatural powers from the hoary cinematic chestnut that is “Indian burial grounds.” He accidentally and unwittingly transfers his powers of instantly healing from any injury or pain to Kelly (Elijah Nelson), a teenager bullied by classmates because of suffering from the eating disorder pica. His childhood friend Dominique (Kayla Carlson) is a popular girl at their high school who tries to get her jock boyfriend and his buddies to cut Kelly some slack, but an incident in which one of them tries to fight Kelly and gets injured instead helps Kelly realize that he has inherited powers that turn others’ violence toward him on the perpetrators. Megalomania ensues, along with deadly acts of
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
With the holiday’s fast approaching at the time of this writing, I’m sure there is nothing that brings more cheer than Cesare Canevari’s 1977 exercise in poor taste; The Gestapo’s Last Orgy… and by “cheer” I mean images you’ll need to scrub your eyeballs with a wire brush to unsee… Lise (Daniela Poggi) returns to the place of her internment after the close of world War II, and begins to relive her terrifying misadventures in a concentration camp utilized as a bordello by the most Italian German officers you are ever likely to lay eerie eyeballs upon. So what sorts of monstrous memories are revisited by our heroine? Well, after a cold, sterile gyno exam, the pick of the prisoners are given to the horny as hell ranks where the soldiers are more than ready to do the deed after watching a preposterous series of slides (featuring a muscle bound Hitler having anal with a woman eating a bucket of
Continue reading →
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Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Night Caller You’ll probably feel like you need a shower after viewing writer/director Chad Ferrin’s Night Caller. This paean to grindhouse gorefests oozes a 1970s vibe from practically every frame. The film is lurid in both senses of that word, from its color palette to its graphic violence. It pays obvious homage to Maniac (1980) with its killer’s method of murdering and scalping victims as it name checks — with video clips — psychic horror of the past such as Patrick (1978) and some public domain fear fare, with some spaghetti western and Laurel and Hardy references, as well. Clementine Carter (Susan Priver) works as a telephone psychic with boss Jade Mei (Bai Ling) when she begins receiving calls from a serial killer, whose upcoming acts of violence she sees in visions as they talk. As Clementine tries to solve the mystery of just who the fiend is, she brings danger closer to her elderly father (Robert Miano as Charles
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
If you are new to the whole giallo genre (or looking to fill in gaps in your collection), Arrow Video has you covered with it’s new release of a Blu-ray set titled appropriately enough; Giallo Essentials, a collection of three films that deliver all of the mystery, murder, and terrifying twists the genre has to offer! Disc one brings us 1965’s The Possessed: Successful writer-type Bernard (Peter Baldwin) returns to a small Italian village for his winter holiday in the hopes of gettin’ hot n’ horny with Tilde (Virna Lisi), a local gal he had some fun with the last time he was down this way. The fact that she committed suicide a few months before he returned doesn’t sit well with our hero, so he goes a-sleuthin’… a good thing too, as some around town believe she was actually murdered! More of a straight-forward murder mystery with giallo overtones (those sick bed hallucinations baby), The Possessed, co-directed and written
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
The chances that you folks haven’t seen Dario Argento’s arguably finest giallo experience Deep Red are pretty fuckin’ slim, so I’m not sure how much my wicked words will do to help you make the decision to purchase this new Blu-ray release from Arrow… because you know damn well you’ve already bought it, but here we go… Jazzman Marcus (David Hemmings) is livin’ the life in Rome until he witnesses the murder of his neighbor Helga (Macha Méril), a noted psychic who just picked up some serious bad vibes from a member of the audience at her most recent mind-readin’ hootnanny. Of course, given his complete lack of any sort of crime solving experience, our hero leaps balls first into solving the homicide, and to that end teams up with reporter/sass-mouth expert Gianna (Daria Nicolodi). This naturally makes him a rather large target for the black-gloved murder machine stalkin’ the streets, and it’s only a matter of time before the
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Death Screams begins with a classy theme song that would be right at home in a historical drama… that is until it decides it’s heralding the arrival of the King of the Entire Fucking Universe (or is kicking off the ABC Movie of the Week at any point in the late ’70s, then going into a free form jazz odyssey before transitioning to the next piece of music that sounds like it would be on some rinky-dink live-action PBS kids show in the early ’80s. Why am I taking the time to tell you this? Well, it’s because it’s batshit crazy, that’s why… and let me tell ya cats n’ creeps, the images that shit accompanies are pretty out there as well! Beginning with a fuck shesh turned deadly (this just so happens to be the first sentence in my upcoming auto-erotic biography as well… ) … which comes complete with a “dick caught in zipper” joke as well as
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Canada’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival, which runs in Toronto from November 18–23, 2021, features a jaw-dropping array of homegrown horror and horror-comedy features and shorts. Following are reviews of three of the short films that screen at the festival. Giant Bear Giant Bear (Canada, 2019) is a beautifully animated vision of an Inuit legend that is absolutely stunning. Codirectors Neil Christopher and Daniel Gies have crafted an absolutely gorgeous work. As beautiful as the snowy landscape is, the underwater world in the short is breathtaking. A lone hunter tries spearfishing with his dog, only to come face to face with a monstrously large bear. Much more than just an animated creature feature, Giant Bear is a riveting experience. Wolf in Dude’s Clothing Writer/director Solmund MacPherson’s Wolf in Dude’s Clothing (Canada, 2021) sees a wolf assume a human lifestyle after finding a suit of human skin in the wild. The wolf-man (Erik Athavale) — a fun play on the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Peppergrass Eula Baek (Chantelle Han) and Morris Weiss (Charles Boyland) are in a relationship — and quite obviously not a happy one, judging from their constant sniping and bickering — and are driven to desperation during the COVID lockdown for her titular restaurant and his bar. They hatch a plan to scam veteran Captain Reuben Lom (Michael Copeman) — who lives in a very rural area and who was friends with Eula’s father — into giving them some valuable truffles that they can resell to try to make ends meet. Morris gets greedy and aggressive, and suddenly the three people are fighting for their lives. Peppergrass (Canada, 2021) toys with the “home invasion goes south” style of fear fare before diving headlong into survival horror, but rather than fully committing to the more grueling side of the latter, focuses instead on being more of a dread-filled mood piece with lots of wandering around in the woods. Codirectors Steven Garbas and
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
DocumentariesMoviesReviews
You lot know I love me some Dark Shadows; Dan Curtis’ ground-breaking 1960’s soap opera filled to the brim with Gothic atmosphere, witches, werewolves, and of course vampires, and it’s with that last denizen of the creature feature that the series featured it’s most enduring icon, the undead Lord of Collinwood, Barnabas Collins… played by to suave perfection by Jonathan Frid… speaking of which… Dark Shadows and Beyond: the Jonathan Frid Story, the new Blu-ray documentary release from MPI Pictures will either delight you with tales of showbiz and theater, or aggravate you if you want to know the man himself. What this film does right is explores in great detail the entire breadth of Frid’s work, from stage, to television, to movies, and back again; the man was an impressive actor with dozens of memorable performances under his belt before he even slipped in those enamel canines and set about putting the bite on Collinsport, Maine. Of course much
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Since the head honcho of a local Yakuza family just shook hands with the ol’ Grim Reaper, the next in line to take the reigns is none other than his estranged daughter… spunky, goofy, pretty fuckin’ ridiculous in every respect, high school student Izumi Hoshi (idol singer Hiroko Yakushimaru)! Cue stupid-ass record scratch sound effect here. Izumi is more than ready to become a delinquent, and immediately abandons school (though the sailor suit remains… and yes, she weilds a rather angry machine gun as well at times)… though at first she isn’t sure that livin’ in a gangsta paradise is for her… but soon she actually takes to the role and ,along with a quartet of henchmen, begins to become a presence in the underworld… but will she manage to keep ahead of the game, or be swallowed by it? I have to tell you, reading that above synopsis I wouldn’t blame you for expecting a wall-to-wall, live-action anime style
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
The Unhealer Director Martin Guigui’s The Unhealer (2021) is a “the bullied becomes the bullier” revenge tale that plays like a 1990s horror movie, with plenty of familiar genre-film faces on display. Pflueger (Lance Henriksen) performs faith healing miracles — for donations, of course — having gained supernatural powers from the hoary cinematic chestnut that is “Indian burial grounds.” He accidentally and unwittingly transfers his powers of instantly healing from any injury or pain to Kelly (Elijah Nelson), a teenager bullied by classmates because of suffering from the eating disorder pica. His childhood friend Dominique (Kayla Carlson) is a popular girl at their high school who tries to get her jock boyfriend and his buddies to cut Kelly some slack, but an incident in which one of them tries to fight Kelly and gets injured instead helps Kelly realize that he has inherited powers that turn others’ violence toward him on the perpetrators. Megalomania ensues, along with deadly acts of
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
With the holiday’s fast approaching at the time of this writing, I’m sure there is nothing that brings more cheer than Cesare Canevari’s 1977 exercise in poor taste; The Gestapo’s Last Orgy… and by “cheer” I mean images you’ll need to scrub your eyeballs with a wire brush to unsee… Lise (Daniela Poggi) returns to the place of her internment after the close of world War II, and begins to relive her terrifying misadventures in a concentration camp utilized as a bordello by the most Italian German officers you are ever likely to lay eerie eyeballs upon. So what sorts of monstrous memories are revisited by our heroine? Well, after a cold, sterile gyno exam, the pick of the prisoners are given to the horny as hell ranks where the soldiers are more than ready to do the deed after watching a preposterous series of slides (featuring a muscle bound Hitler having anal with a woman eating a bucket of
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Night Caller You’ll probably feel like you need a shower after viewing writer/director Chad Ferrin’s Night Caller. This paean to grindhouse gorefests oozes a 1970s vibe from practically every frame. The film is lurid in both senses of that word, from its color palette to its graphic violence. It pays obvious homage to Maniac (1980) with its killer’s method of murdering and scalping victims as it name checks — with video clips — psychic horror of the past such as Patrick (1978) and some public domain fear fare, with some spaghetti western and Laurel and Hardy references, as well. Clementine Carter (Susan Priver) works as a telephone psychic with boss Jade Mei (Bai Ling) when she begins receiving calls from a serial killer, whose upcoming acts of violence she sees in visions as they talk. As Clementine tries to solve the mystery of just who the fiend is, she brings danger closer to her elderly father (Robert Miano as Charles
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
If you are new to the whole giallo genre (or looking to fill in gaps in your collection), Arrow Video has you covered with it’s new release of a Blu-ray set titled appropriately enough; Giallo Essentials, a collection of three films that deliver all of the mystery, murder, and terrifying twists the genre has to offer! Disc one brings us 1965’s The Possessed: Successful writer-type Bernard (Peter Baldwin) returns to a small Italian village for his winter holiday in the hopes of gettin’ hot n’ horny with Tilde (Virna Lisi), a local gal he had some fun with the last time he was down this way. The fact that she committed suicide a few months before he returned doesn’t sit well with our hero, so he goes a-sleuthin’… a good thing too, as some around town believe she was actually murdered! More of a straight-forward murder mystery with giallo overtones (those sick bed hallucinations baby), The Possessed, co-directed and written
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
The chances that you folks haven’t seen Dario Argento’s arguably finest giallo experience Deep Red are pretty fuckin’ slim, so I’m not sure how much my wicked words will do to help you make the decision to purchase this new Blu-ray release from Arrow… because you know damn well you’ve already bought it, but here we go… Jazzman Marcus (David Hemmings) is livin’ the life in Rome until he witnesses the murder of his neighbor Helga (Macha Méril), a noted psychic who just picked up some serious bad vibes from a member of the audience at her most recent mind-readin’ hootnanny. Of course, given his complete lack of any sort of crime solving experience, our hero leaps balls first into solving the homicide, and to that end teams up with reporter/sass-mouth expert Gianna (Daria Nicolodi). This naturally makes him a rather large target for the black-gloved murder machine stalkin’ the streets, and it’s only a matter of time before the
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Death Screams begins with a classy theme song that would be right at home in a historical drama… that is until it decides it’s heralding the arrival of the King of the Entire Fucking Universe (or is kicking off the ABC Movie of the Week at any point in the late ’70s, then going into a free form jazz odyssey before transitioning to the next piece of music that sounds like it would be on some rinky-dink live-action PBS kids show in the early ’80s. Why am I taking the time to tell you this? Well, it’s because it’s batshit crazy, that’s why… and let me tell ya cats n’ creeps, the images that shit accompanies are pretty out there as well! Beginning with a fuck shesh turned deadly (this just so happens to be the first sentence in my upcoming auto-erotic biography as well… ) … which comes complete with a “dick caught in zipper” joke as well as
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Canada’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival, which runs in Toronto from November 18–23, 2021, features a jaw-dropping array of homegrown horror and horror-comedy features and shorts. Following are reviews of three of the short films that screen at the festival. Giant Bear Giant Bear (Canada, 2019) is a beautifully animated vision of an Inuit legend that is absolutely stunning. Codirectors Neil Christopher and Daniel Gies have crafted an absolutely gorgeous work. As beautiful as the snowy landscape is, the underwater world in the short is breathtaking. A lone hunter tries spearfishing with his dog, only to come face to face with a monstrously large bear. Much more than just an animated creature feature, Giant Bear is a riveting experience. Wolf in Dude’s Clothing Writer/director Solmund MacPherson’s Wolf in Dude’s Clothing (Canada, 2021) sees a wolf assume a human lifestyle after finding a suit of human skin in the wild. The wolf-man (Erik Athavale) — a fun play on the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Peppergrass Eula Baek (Chantelle Han) and Morris Weiss (Charles Boyland) are in a relationship — and quite obviously not a happy one, judging from their constant sniping and bickering — and are driven to desperation during the COVID lockdown for her titular restaurant and his bar. They hatch a plan to scam veteran Captain Reuben Lom (Michael Copeman) — who lives in a very rural area and who was friends with Eula’s father — into giving them some valuable truffles that they can resell to try to make ends meet. Morris gets greedy and aggressive, and suddenly the three people are fighting for their lives. Peppergrass (Canada, 2021) toys with the “home invasion goes south” style of fear fare before diving headlong into survival horror, but rather than fully committing to the more grueling side of the latter, focuses instead on being more of a dread-filled mood piece with lots of wandering around in the woods. Codirectors Steven Garbas and
Continue reading →
