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Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Haxan (1922)

Haxan definitely realizes the Devil is in the details; quite literally as Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 silent masterpiece that attempts to document the origins of witchcraft and it’s propagation down through the ages. After a lengthy history lesson on the mystical beliefs of years past, the film kicks into creative high-gear with a vignette (the film is comprised solely of these pieces instead of a traditional narrative) examining the ghoulish goings-on in a witch’s cottage; a fantastic piece of set design featuring effective use of contrasting warm and cool tints, as well as rich lighting that creates deep shadows where one can imagine evil forms lying coiled waiting to unleash all manner of mischief. Yet for all that sweet, sweet darkness we also get a streak of humor as we are witness to the outrageous results of the witch’s potions on a monk whom a woman lusts after. Also in the segment we get grave-robbing (for science purposes forbidden by the

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 9, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Crazy Fat Ethel (2016)

Ethel (Dixie Gers) has gotten her ass in the soup right good this time. Institutionalized for the murder of her uncle Joe (Brian Dorton), she’s abused by patients and staff alike before finally using the fact that she was raped by some (dis)orderlies to leverage being transferred to he care of her aunt Joyce (Jenny Coulter). True to form, Ethel soon begins eating her aunt out of house and home (while watching cooking shows no less… at least she’s all in on that binge eating shit). Joyce reaches her limit and locks up all the food in the house which naturally leads to Ethel becoming a murder machine once more! But there are consequences for her ways, and soon all those missing persons begin to cause static for ol’ Ethel in the form of a police detective (William Allen Nugent) who becomes mighty suspicious of our anti-heroine… but Ethel is no slouch in covering her tracks. Will anyone be safe

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 9, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Paganini Horror (1989)

After a piece of sheet music makes a young girl chuck a hairdryer into her mamma’s bath water we cut to a (mostly) female rock n’ roll outfit performing a song with almost the exact same melody as Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name… and thus we begin the headlong plunge into cinematic insanity known as Paganini Horror! So that band? Well their management think they suck as of late… now if only they had something new they could play that would really appeal to every eager earhole world wide! Well as fate and a cameoing Donald Pleasence would have it, they are brought just such a piece; a forgotten work from the legendary Italian Violinist Paganini… I wonder if that could be that shit we saw earlier… nah! Anyway; our heroines trek out to a remote castle to film some slick-ass fright flick style “video clips” for their new masterpiece and before long are plunged into a

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 9, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ultra Q (1965)/Ultraman (1966)

As a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with Japanese creature features (still am, actually!) but there was only so much of that material available in my small mountain hometown. Occasionally my friends and I would trek to the nearest “big” city where there was a store that had all manner of import toys and magazines, and here is where my mania became even more intense as I wanted so badly to see some of the Far East flicks and shows mentioned in those petulant pages… and nowhere seemed to be kaiju ground zero more than the Ultra shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions, headed by man-in-suit wizard Eiji Tsuburaya! Anyway fast forward to like last week sometime, and those sexy devils at Mill Creek Entertainment have sent yours cruelly Blu-ray sets of the first two series set in the Ultra universe; 1965’s Ultra Q and 1966’s Ultraman! Let’s get balls deep in the Q to kick things off, shall we? Now

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 7, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Ringu Collection (1998 – 2000)

1998’s Ringu is the fright flick phenom that started a J-horror wave that spread across continents, and today I’m going to be putting my putrid peepers on a whole mess of them preternatural pictures, so gather the fuck ’round! First up is the “original” Ringu (this is technically the third film adaptation of Kōji Suzuki’s 1991 novel), who’s plot goes a lil’ something like this: After a gaggle of teenage girls begin dying seemingly from extreme fright, investigative reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), an aunt of one of the victims, begins to believe the tales of a cursed video tape she has been researching may be involved. Discovering the girls rented a cabin before their demise, our heroine treks out there and actually finds the damn tape… which of course she watches, even though she knows the evil within will most likely come a-callin’ on her soon. And what an “evil” it is; namely a tortured ghost of a mutant

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews: Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival

Special guest coauthor: Chris Weatherspoon The 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), the largest genre film fest in both its home of South Korea and of Asia as well, took place about a month earlier than its preceding editions (running June 27–July 7 this year) and delivered one of its strongest lineups in recent memory. BIFAN boasted horror, thriller, action, and other genre films of all stripes from around the world. Following are our thoughts on five of the fest’s offerings. Chris Weatherspoon: Irish horror-comedy Extra Ordinary is the feature debut for writing/directing team Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman. Comedian Maeve Higgins (Inside Amy Schumer) stars as Rose Dooley, a bumbling spinster who earns her living as a driving instructor; however, Rose is far from being an ordinary, lonely middle-aged woman, as the movie’s title notes. Rose has the ability to communicate with the dead and to exorcise ghosts, but a childhood incident has left her traumatized, and for

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: She Walks The Woods (2019)

Brad and Mike Rayburn (Danny and Scotty Bohnen who also co-wrote the picture) along with their bosom chum Dennis Copley (Jason Potter) run an amateur survival web series. To that end they trek out to a cabin out in the middle of nowhere… a location 1600 people have vanished without a trace, so right there you know we are dealing with a real brain trust here. A slow-burn ensues until finally these folks realize the reason all those people pulled a Greta Garbo and now it’s looking to make their asses extinct right quick! I’ll tell you up front, She Walks the Woods is a found footage fracas, so you know what to expect there for better or worse visually. Thankfully it does some things with the genre I really appreciated… but more on that in a bit… Leading the positives is the fact that our lead characters Mike and Brad are actually likable dudes instead of the normal annoying

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Crypsis (2019)

Harker Island is deep in the sinister soup, as the wicked woods that cover the local are seemingly home to one hell of a creepy creature. Unfortunately for them, a group of city slickers make a bet to see who can make it through a camping trip on the island… and the expected result ensues; namely that maniacal monster begins ripping them a new asshole free of charge! Crypsis is a creature feature with a lot going for it. Leading the plus pack is the fact that this fright flick wastes precious little time getting to the monster-based stalk n’ slay action we came for. This is a tense, fast paced thrill ride with plenty of peril for our heroes to endure. Speaking of our heroes, while they aren’t the most well-defined of characters, they are a likable bunch of ball busters that manage to make us care if they get out of this monstrous mess with their hides intact.

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 3, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Wrinkles the Clown (2019)

Good ol’ Wrinkles the clown came to our attention back in 2015 when a video of him scaring the shit out of a young girl went viral A.F. Come to find out, the dude hired his services out to parents to terrify their misbehaving children which had all the attention and backlash that you could imagine; some were excited about the service, others wanted that creepy clown dead… and naturally among the youth he became an urban legend, and one you could actually reach by phone. The videos continued to appear, and his legacy grew as his services began to be viewed as child abuse… because you know, it fuckin’ is. Of course Wrinkles is pragmatic about the whole affair, and considers his reign of terror to be “just a job”, and doesn’t feel bad about what he does in the slightest. That’s right, we get to hear from Wrinkles himself, who in reality is an old homeless dude who

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 2, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Addams Family Strokes (2019)

If you are like me, you may not have given much thought about the Addams Family fucking, but since we live in a glorious modern age, someone has… and filmed it, so here we are! First things first, the clip is actually called Addams Family Orgy, and it begins like an episode of the series we all know and love with Morticia ( the gorgeous Audrey Noir) clipping the flowers off from rose stems in her sitting room. Enter Gomez (Eric John) who begins espousing his love for his wife which leads to oral… typical Addams goings-on, amirite? Of course Fester ( Dick Chibbles) gets wind of the action and begins licking props and doing a stealth fap as one would do in polite society. Meanwhile Wednesday (the adorable Kate Bloom) is performing some sort of light bondage/sex magic routine with Pugsley (Juan “El Caballo” Loco) which is witnessed by Thing who rats the dastardly duo out to Gomez who

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 2, 2019

More from Reviews

Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Haxan (1922)

Haxan definitely realizes the Devil is in the details; quite literally as Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 silent masterpiece that attempts to document the origins of witchcraft and it’s propagation down through the ages. After a lengthy history lesson on the mystical beliefs of years past, the film kicks into creative high-gear with a vignette (the film is comprised solely of these pieces instead of a traditional narrative) examining the ghoulish goings-on in a witch’s cottage; a fantastic piece of set design featuring effective use of contrasting warm and cool tints, as well as rich lighting that creates deep shadows where one can imagine evil forms lying coiled waiting to unleash all manner of mischief. Yet for all that sweet, sweet darkness we also get a streak of humor as we are witness to the outrageous results of the witch’s potions on a monk whom a woman lusts after. Also in the segment we get grave-robbing (for science purposes forbidden by the

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 9, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Crazy Fat Ethel (2016)

Ethel (Dixie Gers) has gotten her ass in the soup right good this time. Institutionalized for the murder of her uncle Joe (Brian Dorton), she’s abused by patients and staff alike before finally using the fact that she was raped by some (dis)orderlies to leverage being transferred to he care of her aunt Joyce (Jenny Coulter). True to form, Ethel soon begins eating her aunt out of house and home (while watching cooking shows no less… at least she’s all in on that binge eating shit). Joyce reaches her limit and locks up all the food in the house which naturally leads to Ethel becoming a murder machine once more! But there are consequences for her ways, and soon all those missing persons begin to cause static for ol’ Ethel in the form of a police detective (William Allen Nugent) who becomes mighty suspicious of our anti-heroine… but Ethel is no slouch in covering her tracks. Will anyone be safe

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 9, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Paganini Horror (1989)

After a piece of sheet music makes a young girl chuck a hairdryer into her mamma’s bath water we cut to a (mostly) female rock n’ roll outfit performing a song with almost the exact same melody as Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name… and thus we begin the headlong plunge into cinematic insanity known as Paganini Horror! So that band? Well their management think they suck as of late… now if only they had something new they could play that would really appeal to every eager earhole world wide! Well as fate and a cameoing Donald Pleasence would have it, they are brought just such a piece; a forgotten work from the legendary Italian Violinist Paganini… I wonder if that could be that shit we saw earlier… nah! Anyway; our heroines trek out to a remote castle to film some slick-ass fright flick style “video clips” for their new masterpiece and before long are plunged into a

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 9, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ultra Q (1965)/Ultraman (1966)

As a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with Japanese creature features (still am, actually!) but there was only so much of that material available in my small mountain hometown. Occasionally my friends and I would trek to the nearest “big” city where there was a store that had all manner of import toys and magazines, and here is where my mania became even more intense as I wanted so badly to see some of the Far East flicks and shows mentioned in those petulant pages… and nowhere seemed to be kaiju ground zero more than the Ultra shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions, headed by man-in-suit wizard Eiji Tsuburaya! Anyway fast forward to like last week sometime, and those sexy devils at Mill Creek Entertainment have sent yours cruelly Blu-ray sets of the first two series set in the Ultra universe; 1965’s Ultra Q and 1966’s Ultraman! Let’s get balls deep in the Q to kick things off, shall we? Now

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 7, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Ringu Collection (1998 – 2000)

1998’s Ringu is the fright flick phenom that started a J-horror wave that spread across continents, and today I’m going to be putting my putrid peepers on a whole mess of them preternatural pictures, so gather the fuck ’round! First up is the “original” Ringu (this is technically the third film adaptation of Kōji Suzuki’s 1991 novel), who’s plot goes a lil’ something like this: After a gaggle of teenage girls begin dying seemingly from extreme fright, investigative reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), an aunt of one of the victims, begins to believe the tales of a cursed video tape she has been researching may be involved. Discovering the girls rented a cabin before their demise, our heroine treks out there and actually finds the damn tape… which of course she watches, even though she knows the evil within will most likely come a-callin’ on her soon. And what an “evil” it is; namely a tortured ghost of a mutant

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews: Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival

Special guest coauthor: Chris Weatherspoon The 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), the largest genre film fest in both its home of South Korea and of Asia as well, took place about a month earlier than its preceding editions (running June 27–July 7 this year) and delivered one of its strongest lineups in recent memory. BIFAN boasted horror, thriller, action, and other genre films of all stripes from around the world. Following are our thoughts on five of the fest’s offerings. Chris Weatherspoon: Irish horror-comedy Extra Ordinary is the feature debut for writing/directing team Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman. Comedian Maeve Higgins (Inside Amy Schumer) stars as Rose Dooley, a bumbling spinster who earns her living as a driving instructor; however, Rose is far from being an ordinary, lonely middle-aged woman, as the movie’s title notes. Rose has the ability to communicate with the dead and to exorcise ghosts, but a childhood incident has left her traumatized, and for

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: She Walks The Woods (2019)

Brad and Mike Rayburn (Danny and Scotty Bohnen who also co-wrote the picture) along with their bosom chum Dennis Copley (Jason Potter) run an amateur survival web series. To that end they trek out to a cabin out in the middle of nowhere… a location 1600 people have vanished without a trace, so right there you know we are dealing with a real brain trust here. A slow-burn ensues until finally these folks realize the reason all those people pulled a Greta Garbo and now it’s looking to make their asses extinct right quick! I’ll tell you up front, She Walks the Woods is a found footage fracas, so you know what to expect there for better or worse visually. Thankfully it does some things with the genre I really appreciated… but more on that in a bit… Leading the positives is the fact that our lead characters Mike and Brad are actually likable dudes instead of the normal annoying

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Crypsis (2019)

Harker Island is deep in the sinister soup, as the wicked woods that cover the local are seemingly home to one hell of a creepy creature. Unfortunately for them, a group of city slickers make a bet to see who can make it through a camping trip on the island… and the expected result ensues; namely that maniacal monster begins ripping them a new asshole free of charge! Crypsis is a creature feature with a lot going for it. Leading the plus pack is the fact that this fright flick wastes precious little time getting to the monster-based stalk n’ slay action we came for. This is a tense, fast paced thrill ride with plenty of peril for our heroes to endure. Speaking of our heroes, while they aren’t the most well-defined of characters, they are a likable bunch of ball busters that manage to make us care if they get out of this monstrous mess with their hides intact.

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 3, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Wrinkles the Clown (2019)

Good ol’ Wrinkles the clown came to our attention back in 2015 when a video of him scaring the shit out of a young girl went viral A.F. Come to find out, the dude hired his services out to parents to terrify their misbehaving children which had all the attention and backlash that you could imagine; some were excited about the service, others wanted that creepy clown dead… and naturally among the youth he became an urban legend, and one you could actually reach by phone. The videos continued to appear, and his legacy grew as his services began to be viewed as child abuse… because you know, it fuckin’ is. Of course Wrinkles is pragmatic about the whole affair, and considers his reign of terror to be “just a job”, and doesn’t feel bad about what he does in the slightest. That’s right, we get to hear from Wrinkles himself, who in reality is an old homeless dude who

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 2, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Addams Family Strokes (2019)

If you are like me, you may not have given much thought about the Addams Family fucking, but since we live in a glorious modern age, someone has… and filmed it, so here we are! First things first, the clip is actually called Addams Family Orgy, and it begins like an episode of the series we all know and love with Morticia ( the gorgeous Audrey Noir) clipping the flowers off from rose stems in her sitting room. Enter Gomez (Eric John) who begins espousing his love for his wife which leads to oral… typical Addams goings-on, amirite? Of course Fester ( Dick Chibbles) gets wind of the action and begins licking props and doing a stealth fap as one would do in polite society. Meanwhile Wednesday (the adorable Kate Bloom) is performing some sort of light bondage/sex magic routine with Pugsley (Juan “El Caballo” Loco) which is witnessed by Thing who rats the dastardly duo out to Gomez who

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 2, 2019
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