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Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Assassinaut

The ol’ President of Earth (Irene Santiago) drops some nukes to end an alien invasion which naturally results in some friendlies getting the all over suntan. So she pops off to an orbiting space station to rule from the sweet, sweet vacuum of space. Enter Sarah (Shannon Hutchinson), a science minded teen who gets chosen to visit the space station, along with smiley genius Brooke (Yael Haskal), sullen Charlie (Jasmina Parent), and pint-sized douche-nozzle boy Tom (Johnathan Newport)…all accompanied by their hard-ass overseer Commander (Vito Trigo). Before you can say “What could go wrong in this scenario?”, an assassin shots the Prez and sets of a time bomb forcing those aboard to jettison to the beautiful, yet hostile, forest planet below. Soon our youthful heroes are up to their noses in alien parasites, body horror, and hot buttered murder…okay, the murder is just regular murder… Holy hell boils n’ ghouls; Writer/Director Drew Bolduc has really delivered with Assassinaut! While deftly

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Mar 29, 2019
Horror Fuel

Short Film Review: I Am The Doorway (2018)

Arthur (Simon Merrells) has a few things to be proud of; he’s the first astronaut to orbit Pluto, he survives a rather shit crash landing back on Earth, and he grows alien eyes on his hands that present to him monstrous visions and cause him to not only believe he has murdered, but to believe he is the conduit (or doorway if you like) for an alien invasion. I Am the Doorway is one hell of a somber, grim, and ultimately intriguing sci-fi yarn. Based on a short story by some dude I’ve never heard of named Stephen King (I sincerely hope you boils n’ ghouls know I’m assing around here), this is a moody, darkly atmospheric affair that details one man’s descent into madness facilitated by cosmic interference (let’s just say this is King at his most Lovecraftian); and everything from the muted color palette, to the locations, to the grizzled appearance of Merrells as our protagonist adds to

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 29, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Dead Love (2018)

Brandon (Grayson Low) is a classic ‘momma’s boy’ sans said momma, ‘cuz her ass is defunct thanks to a suicide. This sends his world into a desperate tailspin, because everything he has found comforting in life has been suddenly, violently, taken away…hell, he can’t even afford a decent funeral for the lady. Enter Fiona (Nicole Elizabeth Olson), who becomes enamored with our hero upon hearing his hard luck case…and wouldn’t you know it, her sister Caterina (Kate Linder), and her husband Lassiter (Bob Buckley) run a funeral pallor! Everyone seems overjoyed that Brandon has arrived in the scene, and are more than ready to accept him as the chosen one to receive the knowledge of their dark secret…but just what is that secret, and how will it effect our hero? Dead Love is a stylishly shot film, for sure, and Brandon’s near catatonic state as a result of the loss of his beloved mother is believable (at least at first)…but

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 28, 2018
Horror Fuel

Short Film Review: Mystery Box (2018)

Moa (Lisa Henni) is trying her damnedest to grab a lil’ R&R in a cabin on a remote island…but that goes south six ways to Sunday when she finds a strange metal box while fishing. That night, the box keeps appearing on her front porch no matter where she moves it too, followed by a litany of strange noises. Before you can say “Pandora” our protagonist opens that cursed container (after barfin’ up a key ‘natch) and what she finds…well, you’ll have to see the flick yourself for that one my creeps! Directed and co-written (along with David Liljeblad) by Sonny Laguna, who can be one of my favorite people ever thanks to bringing us the excellent Puppet Master The Littlest Reich or one of my most reviled since he made the execrable Animalistic. Well, I’m pleased as poisoned punch to say he knocked Mystery Box out of the park (thank Dagon, because no matter what I feel about the

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 27, 2018
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Last House on the Left (1972)

I’m gonna come right out and lay some truth on you cats; The Last House on the Left was never one of my favorite Wes Craven fright flicks…but it has been well over a decade and a half since I last laid my eerie eyeballs upon it, so now that Arrow Video is unleashing a feature packed Blu-ray of ol’ Last House, let’s see if the ever shifting sands of time have mellowed my attitude towards this (admittedly classic) film… The Last House on the Left concerns the misadventures of young Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassell) who heads out (after a bizarre conversation with her parents about her tits) to a concert by the wholesome sounding Bloodlust with her friend Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham)…a concert taking place in New York City…far away from her bucolic home. Meanwhile, the ultra villainous Krug (David Hess) and his kill krew have recently escaped from prison, and soon our comely protagonists find themselves in the

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 10, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Day of the Purple Sun (2018)

A woman with brain cancer (Margarethe von Stern…who also co-wrote the feature) enters a surreal version of the Egyptian underworld (this time comprised of bucolic fields, swamps, and gaudy rooms and industrial settings). She soon becomes obsessed with the mummification of deceased animals (at times overseen by a frog…could this be a manifestation of the fertility goddess Heqet? Not a stretch when you hear what happens to our terminal heroine next…) before being mummified herself by the god Anubis (this time represented by a man, naked from the waste down and adorned with a fetishistic mask that roughly resembles a canine countenance). Before long our protagonist encounters multiple versions of herself (or so they seem) as she attempts to reconcile her mortality and sense of self. The Day of the Purple Sun is more of an “experience” than a traditional motion picture. The film is comprised of aesthetics more than a standard narrative, and the end result challenges the viewer

Continue reading →
DanXIII
May 23, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Goran (2016)

Pity poor Goran (Franjo Dijak); all he wants to do is drink (a lot), drive his cab in the tiny isolated snow bound Croatian village he calls home, and hang out in a cabin with his BFF (Goran Bogdan) gettin’ his soak on…but unfortunately, his non-stop nag of a blind wife, Lina (Natasa Janjic) makes that increasingly difficult. Things carry on as usual until Lina announces she is pregnant, which goes over like a fart in a submarine for our hero, as he believes the child may not actually be his, but rather his sauna sittin’ pal mentioned previous. Well push comes to shove (literally) with disastrous results, and after a chemically enhanced Birthday party things get completely out of hand (read: incredibly violent and oh so very, very wrong)! Goran plays out like a relationship/family drama for nearly forty out of it’s eighty two minutes of run time (with credits), but then things go so incredibly south so incredibly

Continue reading →
DanXIII
May 4, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Evolution of Evil (2017)

After a truly impressive opening of a car winding through secluded mountain roads viewed from above (think Kubrick, but doubtless shot utilizing a drone for a mere fraction of the cost of a helicopter…but damn does it look great), the story proper of Evolution of Evil gets underway; to wit: a young couple (maybe they are just friends…damned if I could tell), named Christopher and Lori for those of you keeping score at home, treks out to the middle of nowhere to get away from it all, and everything is artisanal beer and bratwurst until the silence of the night is split by distant gunshots. Well the following morning things go from pleasant to poopy as Chris is abducted (I know, right?!!) by some seriously fucked up woodsmen and subjected to all manner of rape and abuse (again, right?!!). Meanwhile Lori wanders the woods in a daze before being picked up by one of our batshit antagonists. What follows is

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 27, 2018
Horror Fuel

DVD Review: Soultangler (1987)

Crazed scientist Dr. Anton Lupesky has for some baffling reason created a drug that frees the soul from the body and lets it inhabit any given corpse, as long as it possess eyes. That sounds pleasant…but wait, it get’s worse. You see the drug also gives the user hellacious hallucinations and drives them batshit bonkers. While that bit of biz is going on, an intrepid reporter is hot on the Dr.’s heels as she feels he may have had something to do with the death of her father…but mostly she smokes a lot and randomly bangs on typewriter keys. Along the way we thrill to people wanting to rent videotapes, random serial killers, Lovecraftian pseudo-science, buckets and buckets of blood and gruesome gore, a jingle-jangle soundtrack, a zombie that appears to be practicing for the Cunnilingus Olympics, and most importantly rampaging Long Island accents! As baffling as it is brilliant, Soultangler is a film you just have to experience…preferably under

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 16, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Rave Party Massacre (2018)

Travel back…way back to the far flung past of 1992; there were no smartphones, no widespread internet usage…but what we did have was the ability to go to an ass cold warehouse dressed like a god damned idiot, gobble down some drugs, and dance to a bunch of whompa whompa garbage. In Rave Party Massacre, a squabbling couple enter into a scenario exactly like the one mentioned above…in a sequence that runs a staggering seventeen minutes (bear in mind that this film runs an hour and sixteen minutes including credits)…that’s seventeen long, tedious minutes of dancing (punctuated by some dry humping and puking ‘natch). The couple (and a handful of other folks) awaken after the rave to find themselves hunted by a masked killer. And that’s about all she wrote plot wise (there is some “New world Order” malarkey bandied about too…which does add a bit of uniqueness to the affair, but basically that’s the long and short of it).

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 12, 2018

More from indie

Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Assassinaut

The ol’ President of Earth (Irene Santiago) drops some nukes to end an alien invasion which naturally results in some friendlies getting the all over suntan. So she pops off to an orbiting space station to rule from the sweet, sweet vacuum of space. Enter Sarah (Shannon Hutchinson), a science minded teen who gets chosen to visit the space station, along with smiley genius Brooke (Yael Haskal), sullen Charlie (Jasmina Parent), and pint-sized douche-nozzle boy Tom (Johnathan Newport)…all accompanied by their hard-ass overseer Commander (Vito Trigo). Before you can say “What could go wrong in this scenario?”, an assassin shots the Prez and sets of a time bomb forcing those aboard to jettison to the beautiful, yet hostile, forest planet below. Soon our youthful heroes are up to their noses in alien parasites, body horror, and hot buttered murder…okay, the murder is just regular murder… Holy hell boils n’ ghouls; Writer/Director Drew Bolduc has really delivered with Assassinaut! While deftly

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Mar 29, 2019
Horror Fuel

Short Film Review: I Am The Doorway (2018)

Arthur (Simon Merrells) has a few things to be proud of; he’s the first astronaut to orbit Pluto, he survives a rather shit crash landing back on Earth, and he grows alien eyes on his hands that present to him monstrous visions and cause him to not only believe he has murdered, but to believe he is the conduit (or doorway if you like) for an alien invasion. I Am the Doorway is one hell of a somber, grim, and ultimately intriguing sci-fi yarn. Based on a short story by some dude I’ve never heard of named Stephen King (I sincerely hope you boils n’ ghouls know I’m assing around here), this is a moody, darkly atmospheric affair that details one man’s descent into madness facilitated by cosmic interference (let’s just say this is King at his most Lovecraftian); and everything from the muted color palette, to the locations, to the grizzled appearance of Merrells as our protagonist adds to

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 29, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Dead Love (2018)

Brandon (Grayson Low) is a classic ‘momma’s boy’ sans said momma, ‘cuz her ass is defunct thanks to a suicide. This sends his world into a desperate tailspin, because everything he has found comforting in life has been suddenly, violently, taken away…hell, he can’t even afford a decent funeral for the lady. Enter Fiona (Nicole Elizabeth Olson), who becomes enamored with our hero upon hearing his hard luck case…and wouldn’t you know it, her sister Caterina (Kate Linder), and her husband Lassiter (Bob Buckley) run a funeral pallor! Everyone seems overjoyed that Brandon has arrived in the scene, and are more than ready to accept him as the chosen one to receive the knowledge of their dark secret…but just what is that secret, and how will it effect our hero? Dead Love is a stylishly shot film, for sure, and Brandon’s near catatonic state as a result of the loss of his beloved mother is believable (at least at first)…but

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 28, 2018
Horror Fuel

Short Film Review: Mystery Box (2018)

Moa (Lisa Henni) is trying her damnedest to grab a lil’ R&R in a cabin on a remote island…but that goes south six ways to Sunday when she finds a strange metal box while fishing. That night, the box keeps appearing on her front porch no matter where she moves it too, followed by a litany of strange noises. Before you can say “Pandora” our protagonist opens that cursed container (after barfin’ up a key ‘natch) and what she finds…well, you’ll have to see the flick yourself for that one my creeps! Directed and co-written (along with David Liljeblad) by Sonny Laguna, who can be one of my favorite people ever thanks to bringing us the excellent Puppet Master The Littlest Reich or one of my most reviled since he made the execrable Animalistic. Well, I’m pleased as poisoned punch to say he knocked Mystery Box out of the park (thank Dagon, because no matter what I feel about the

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 27, 2018
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Last House on the Left (1972)

I’m gonna come right out and lay some truth on you cats; The Last House on the Left was never one of my favorite Wes Craven fright flicks…but it has been well over a decade and a half since I last laid my eerie eyeballs upon it, so now that Arrow Video is unleashing a feature packed Blu-ray of ol’ Last House, let’s see if the ever shifting sands of time have mellowed my attitude towards this (admittedly classic) film… The Last House on the Left concerns the misadventures of young Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassell) who heads out (after a bizarre conversation with her parents about her tits) to a concert by the wholesome sounding Bloodlust with her friend Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham)…a concert taking place in New York City…far away from her bucolic home. Meanwhile, the ultra villainous Krug (David Hess) and his kill krew have recently escaped from prison, and soon our comely protagonists find themselves in the

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jun 10, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Day of the Purple Sun (2018)

A woman with brain cancer (Margarethe von Stern…who also co-wrote the feature) enters a surreal version of the Egyptian underworld (this time comprised of bucolic fields, swamps, and gaudy rooms and industrial settings). She soon becomes obsessed with the mummification of deceased animals (at times overseen by a frog…could this be a manifestation of the fertility goddess Heqet? Not a stretch when you hear what happens to our terminal heroine next…) before being mummified herself by the god Anubis (this time represented by a man, naked from the waste down and adorned with a fetishistic mask that roughly resembles a canine countenance). Before long our protagonist encounters multiple versions of herself (or so they seem) as she attempts to reconcile her mortality and sense of self. The Day of the Purple Sun is more of an “experience” than a traditional motion picture. The film is comprised of aesthetics more than a standard narrative, and the end result challenges the viewer

Continue reading →
DanXIII
May 23, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Goran (2016)

Pity poor Goran (Franjo Dijak); all he wants to do is drink (a lot), drive his cab in the tiny isolated snow bound Croatian village he calls home, and hang out in a cabin with his BFF (Goran Bogdan) gettin’ his soak on…but unfortunately, his non-stop nag of a blind wife, Lina (Natasa Janjic) makes that increasingly difficult. Things carry on as usual until Lina announces she is pregnant, which goes over like a fart in a submarine for our hero, as he believes the child may not actually be his, but rather his sauna sittin’ pal mentioned previous. Well push comes to shove (literally) with disastrous results, and after a chemically enhanced Birthday party things get completely out of hand (read: incredibly violent and oh so very, very wrong)! Goran plays out like a relationship/family drama for nearly forty out of it’s eighty two minutes of run time (with credits), but then things go so incredibly south so incredibly

Continue reading →
DanXIII
May 4, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Evolution of Evil (2017)

After a truly impressive opening of a car winding through secluded mountain roads viewed from above (think Kubrick, but doubtless shot utilizing a drone for a mere fraction of the cost of a helicopter…but damn does it look great), the story proper of Evolution of Evil gets underway; to wit: a young couple (maybe they are just friends…damned if I could tell), named Christopher and Lori for those of you keeping score at home, treks out to the middle of nowhere to get away from it all, and everything is artisanal beer and bratwurst until the silence of the night is split by distant gunshots. Well the following morning things go from pleasant to poopy as Chris is abducted (I know, right?!!) by some seriously fucked up woodsmen and subjected to all manner of rape and abuse (again, right?!!). Meanwhile Lori wanders the woods in a daze before being picked up by one of our batshit antagonists. What follows is

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 27, 2018
Horror Fuel

DVD Review: Soultangler (1987)

Crazed scientist Dr. Anton Lupesky has for some baffling reason created a drug that frees the soul from the body and lets it inhabit any given corpse, as long as it possess eyes. That sounds pleasant…but wait, it get’s worse. You see the drug also gives the user hellacious hallucinations and drives them batshit bonkers. While that bit of biz is going on, an intrepid reporter is hot on the Dr.’s heels as she feels he may have had something to do with the death of her father…but mostly she smokes a lot and randomly bangs on typewriter keys. Along the way we thrill to people wanting to rent videotapes, random serial killers, Lovecraftian pseudo-science, buckets and buckets of blood and gruesome gore, a jingle-jangle soundtrack, a zombie that appears to be practicing for the Cunnilingus Olympics, and most importantly rampaging Long Island accents! As baffling as it is brilliant, Soultangler is a film you just have to experience…preferably under

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 16, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Rave Party Massacre (2018)

Travel back…way back to the far flung past of 1992; there were no smartphones, no widespread internet usage…but what we did have was the ability to go to an ass cold warehouse dressed like a god damned idiot, gobble down some drugs, and dance to a bunch of whompa whompa garbage. In Rave Party Massacre, a squabbling couple enter into a scenario exactly like the one mentioned above…in a sequence that runs a staggering seventeen minutes (bear in mind that this film runs an hour and sixteen minutes including credits)…that’s seventeen long, tedious minutes of dancing (punctuated by some dry humping and puking ‘natch). The couple (and a handful of other folks) awaken after the rave to find themselves hunted by a masked killer. And that’s about all she wrote plot wise (there is some “New world Order” malarkey bandied about too…which does add a bit of uniqueness to the affair, but basically that’s the long and short of it).

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 12, 2018
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