Reviews

A general atmosphere of fun permeates every frame of Creepshow - a film so joyous in its own silliness and grotesque humor that you just have to laugh. The very game A-list cast are allowed a lot of breathing room to chew up scenery and come up with some wild comic book characterizations and the stories themselves are delicious in their gory EC Comics irony.

Margot Kidder plays Danielle and Dominique, two recently separated Siamese twins who are having a hard time adjusting to their new life. Well, Dominique really is.

When Dominique commits a gory knife murder, it's witnessed by their neighbor across the street who happens to be a reporter and she takes the case on, trying to prove that she's telling the truth.

Brian De Palma get a chance to show off his flair for Hitchcockian suspense mixed with humor and gory shocks for the first time which would soon become his calling card. It's much more low budget than his later films, but that promise was already there.

While it has all the ingredients for a memorable film, My Brother Has Bad Dreams keeps its pacing a bit too sluggish for most of its run time to ever generate much excitement. If nothing else, the characters and performances are genuinely weird.

Karl and his spinster sister, Emma, live together since their father murdered their mother and they're just a huge ball of sexual repression until a mysterious biker named Tony comes into their lives and all hell breaks loose. Well, it breaks loose slowly.

Eyes of Laura Mars makes for a nice meeting point between glossy studio thriller and sleazy giallo inspired slasher. An all-star cast and a theme song by Barbra Streisand of all people makes the whole experience a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Faye Dunaway plays the title role of a high end fashion photographer whose models are being knocked off one by one by a mysterious killer. Even stranger, she's able to see these killings while they're happening, temporarily taking on the point of view of the mad slasher.

Tommy Lee Jones plays a detective and potential love interest for Dunaway in this odd, but captivating movie.

This is meant to be a throwback to the old school exploitation horror tropes, but the story makes very little sense and there's not a single character to root for. Every actor is playing one-note hysteria the entire time and it gets annoying very quickly. If you're into nudity, you'll be delighted to hear that just about every character, both male and female, wears clothes for only about 5 minutes of the runtime, but it's not offering much more than that.

Arnold Schwarzenegger gets the chance to show off his rather impressive comedic chops as he's tormented by drug dealers, young children, and Carol Baker with a gun. It's not the most artistic or life-changing film you'll see, but it knows what it wants to accomplish and it does so with flying colors.

Shot in a gauzy and foggy 70's low budget style, Let's Scare Jessica To Death will get under your skin better than most films with 10 times the budget and star power. It doesn't need complicated computer effects or buckets of fake blood to terrify you. It's scary enough to imagine that you're in Jessica's shoes - unsure of your sanity and helpless to escape this nightmare. Zohra Lampert is fantastic in the lead role.

The Fly would be worthwhile if it were only for the brilliant special makeup effects that turn Jeff Goldblum into a gooey, sticky fly, but the script keeps the drama on a real human level and Goldblum and Geena Davis give some of the best, most heartbreaking performances of their careers.

The special effects in An American Werewolf in London still impress and wow to this day and the script is funny and tragic in equal parts which isn't an easy thing to pull off. On top of that, there are several scares that jolt. A must see for horror fans.

I'm sure this film is no longer considered politically correct since it involves a scene where a prostitute shows pre-teen boys her breasts, but it has a lot of cute moments and Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris have great chemistry. It made me smile more than I'd like to admit and I suppose that counts for something.

Whispers in the Dark has been mostly forgotten as far as early 90's erotic thrillers are concerned and some of that is for good reason. While the concept is strong and the actors are great (Annabella Sciorra and Deborah Unger being the standouts), the film's pacing ebbs and flows a bit too much and the film is never as sexy as it wants to be.

It is memorable for it's completely off the wall last act which turns what has been a fairly down to earth thriller into something that wouldn't be out of place in a teenage slasher film with wine bottles smashed over people's heads and seaside chases with gardening instruments.

What a treat to find a film of this vintage that still feels remarkably fresh and relevant. Now, Voyager is the story of Charlotte Vale, a rich spinster who lives under the thumb of her cruel and domineering mother. She suffers a mental breakdown and a psychiatrist is brought in who not only helps her to heal, but gives her a new lease on life. She's sent on a cruise and meets Jerry - a married man with children who takes a shine to Charlotte. They have a passionate love affair, but eventually, they must return home to their respective lives. But can their love make it through this?

Of course, much has been said about Bette Davis' magnificent performance as Charlotte, but the pacing of this film is really excellent. There's not a lot of fat on this movie. It does take a slight dip about 70 or 80 minutes in where it seems like it's struggling to figure out where to go with the story next, but it finds its footing and ends on a great, memorable note.

I'd been under the impression from friends that The Swerve was a horror film. It's not really that, so don't go in expecting gore and things that leap out at you. It's more of a psychological drama that builds to an incredibly disturbing, if slightly predictably bleak conclusion.

It's beautifully shot with a haunting musical score and a genius performance by Azura Skye, but the bleak nature of the story can get to be a bit much. It almost makes you wish there was a little more humor or levity sprinkled in to keep it from being so insanely depressing. Still, one can't say it's not memorable.

If you're not in the market for a moody, atmospheric horror film, Messiah of Evil might not be for you. The script is nothing to write home about and a lot of it can be rather confounding, but it more than makes up for it with some of the spookiest set pieces I've ever seen on screen.

Two sequences stand out in particular. 1.) a woman enters a grocery store late at night to find a horde of zombie-like creatures eating all the raw meat in the freezer section and 2.) another woman goes to see a late night movie and finds herself swarmed by the living dead in a sleek homage to a moment from Hitchcock's The Birds.

Messiah of Evil is a well crafted, creepy, and very memorable experience akin to a nightmare from your childhood. You won't be able to remember all the little details, but you'll remember how it made you feel.

Scream Bloody Murder isn't what I'd call obscure. It's been in print and released on every cheapo DVD box set since I can remember. Still, not many people have seen it or maybe they don't think it'll be worth their time, but I'd like to convince them to check it out. It has its problems, but it's much more interesting than you'd think.

There's a young boy named Matthew who, as a child, runs over his father with a bulldozer and ends up severing his own hand in the process. He grows up, gets a hook for a hand, and turns psychotic when he discovers his mother has a new lover. He kills them in a jealous rage and escapes to make a new life for himself as visions of his dead mother haunt him.

He meets a hooker who he treats as a surrogate of his mother and ultimately kidnaps her in a house than he's broken into and it turns into a sort of Misery-by-way-of-the-grindhouse kind of movie.

There's a lot to love about Scream Bloody Murder. The acting might not always be Oscar worthy and the script could be tighter, especially in it's latter half, but the story is interesting and some of the plot developments are so outrageous and out of left field that it makes for a fun ride.

The 70's were a great time for smart, supernatural horror films and Burnt Offerings is one of the best of the bunch. Thematically, it shares a lot of DNA with The Shining with it's happy family spending a holiday at a secluded home only to slow be tuned insane by the spirits in the house who are starving for souls.

The most interesting part of this film is how it never shows any ghosts or ghouls at all. It leaves everything to your imagination and goes the psychological route, allowing the house to take over the minds of its guests and exploiting their own past traumas and fears to tear them apart.

Instead of a father going mad, you have the mother (played by Karen Black) slowly descending into insanity as the house changes her personality and the way she dresses and behaves. It's much scarier to think your wife or mother is going insane and wants to harm you than having a bunch of hokey ghosts leaping out of closets.

By this point, the Final Destination series was on its last legs, especially due to the horrible 4th installment that came out a few years before this. I suppose someone in charge decided to end things once and for all and, thankfully, this entry allows the series to rest peacefully...for now.

The story is the same as all the others except this time the big prologue disaster is on a suspension bridge and all the survivors are taken out by death one by one. If you're coming to see a Final Destination movie, you know it's all about the crazy death scenes and this one does deliver. The most memorable involves what happens to a gymnast when she doesn't stick to the landing.

There's an awesome twist that ends up connecting this one to the original film and brings the entire franchise together in a beautiful, full circle kind of way. If this really is the end of the franchise for good, at least it ended in a satisfying way.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has been running on fumes for awhile now. Sequels felt like unnecessary remakes most of the time and destroyed the simplistic terror of Tobe Hooper's original film. Leatherface is the 2nd sequel in the series that has tried telling something about the origin of Leatherface and this version ends up being awe-inspiringly dumb.

Despite stellar production values and a surprising assortment of respected and dependable character actors like Lili Taylor and Stephen Dorff, Leatherface feels like it was written by a 12 year old with an overly simplistic vision of what makes a serial killer.

If you've seen Rob Zombie's Halloween, this is basically the same thing. A young boy shows signs of being psychotic, boy murders someone, boy is sent to mental hospital, boy breaks out and causes havoc. It's all very by the book.

Gore effects are strong with a memorable diner massacre sequence, but the story at its core is hollow.

Melissa McCarthy has been on the scene for awhile, but she's never been as good as she is in Can You Ever Forgive Me? Known mostly for her wacky, brash comedy (Bridesmaids, The Heat, or almost every other film she made since Bridesmaids) or quirky bubble headed characters (Gilmore Girls). This time, she plays a character so real, so flawed, so salt of the earth, and so deeply human that I have a newfound respect for her as a performer.

That said, Can You Ever Forgive Me? isn't without humor. This story is told with a little more sass than you'd expect from the trailers. A New York writer, Lee Israel (McCarthy) has fallen on hard times and she's desperate for money. Since no one will publish her latest idea for a biography (on Fanny Brice), she turns to selling counterfeit literally documents by well known authors as a way to make ends meet. She enlists the help of fellow bar fly (Richard E. Grant) to help her and they both end up getting way over their heads.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? captures the atmosphere of early 90's New York perfectly and every exchange and mannerism feels painfully real. Nothing feels overwritten or clever for the sake of being clever. McCarthy and Grant have excellent chemistry and keep the film rolling along with aplomb and make it a must see.

One expect a little weirdness with foreign art film like Possession. I don't think any sane person has sprung from their seat as the credits have rolled on one of these movies and proclaimed "that was the most brilliant film I've ever seen in my entire life." One needs time to think on films like this before making such grand exclamations.

I saw it 3 days ago and I still can't wrap my head around it. The best I can do to describe it is if Kramer Vs. Kramer and The Brood got together and had a really angry, loud, shrill baby that cries and cries at all hours of the night for reasons you can't understand.

The performances here and pitched at such a high level at all times that you're scared that the actors might bust a nerve or blood vessel at any time. Much has been made of Isabelle Adjani's deranged mental breakdown in the subway and for good reason. It's an unforgettable moment.

That's one thing Possession has going for it - it's unforgettable. Unfortunately, it drags and drags along the way and the characters are so shrill and unlikable that most people will tune out before the finale.

I didn't know too much about The Burning before watching it except that it boasted the first film appearances of people like Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter, but I certainly wasn't expecting it to end up as one of the best examples of an early 80's slasher flick out there.

The story, as most slasher films are, is very simple. A cranky summer camp handyman suffers severe burns after a prank goes horribly wrong and he returns to the camp years later to even the score, killing anyone in his path.

The Burning is a sleazy, nasty piece of work filled with gruesome special effects by Tom Savini. It's also a fairly well written and directed piece of work. Once people realize what's going on and that people are being murdered, they mostly stick together. It's also notable for having its most horrific scene take place in pure daylight.

If you're looking for an intro to slasher films, you could do worse than this.

On the surface, White Palace might sound like a typical cheesy romantic drama, but the strong writing and wonderful performances by Susan Sarandon and James Spader make it worthwhile.

Spader plays a well off late 20-something widower who meets a waitress played by Sarandon and they end up having a little fling which turns into love. The film has a lot to say about overcoming class and age differences and even has a pretty great supporting cast with the likes of Jason Alexander, Kathy Bates, and Eileen Brennan.

The ending might get a little schmaltzy (especially when compared to the fairly realistic previous 90 minutes), but it's charming comfort food entertainment. Still, one thing bothers me. Why does Sarandon say Spader looks like Tony Curtis? He's looks the complete opposite of Tony Curtis.

While released by gross out distributor Troma, The House on Tombstone Hill (or Dead Dudes in the House in some circles) is pretty different from most of their regular output. It's still low budget and there's a nice helping of gore, but it's a bit more mature and ambitious than expected.

There's a bit more emphasis on creepy atmosphere and mood than on slashing or gore effects. When the gore does show up, it packs a punch, but it's refreshing to see a Troma film that embraces more than just blood, boobs, and silly gross out humor to tell a story.

Speaking of the story, it's your usual "people want to fix up a haunted house and creepy things happen" saga, but these ghosts seem like they might still be alive, including one creepy homicidal granny.

The effects work are better than usual and some moments reminded me a bit of Sam Rami's Evil Dead films. It's definitely a movie worth checking out.

Jason Takes Manhattan has a pretty bad rep in the horror community, but I'm not sure why. Does it make a lot of sense? Probably not, but the filmmakers some so eager to please that I can't help but hop on the cruise ship and go along for the ride.

By this point, the franchise was obviously running on fumes having stretched out an already thin idea into 7 movies, but there's still a good bit of energy here. Yes, the film should probably be titled Jason Takes A Cruise (most of the film takes place on a cruise ship that's on its way to Manhattan), but he had to get there somehow.

The cast is fairly appealing and likable enough which isn't always a given with these kinds of movies. The death scenes are inventive, if light on gore (then again, the MPAA had it out for these movies since the original, so that's probably their fault), and the pacing is pretty tight. It's not the best Friday sequel by a long shot, but it's far from the disaster everyone makes it out to be.

I'll admit to not being the biggest vampire movie fan, but Daughters of Darkness just hit all the right spots for me. For starters, you have Delphine Seyrig at the lead and she is, without a doubt, the single sexiest vampire ever put on film. She plays against all the tropes and depicts her Countess Bathory as more of a pampered, spoiled princess than anything else. With her deep, alluring voice, you never have any doubt that she could convince anyone to do anything she ever wanted.

Daughters of Darkness also straddles an interesting and exciting line between arthouse respectability and grindhouse exploitation. It's a great mix.

Some of the other performers can't help but dim in the shadow of Seyrig, but most everyone does a decent job. The music score is lovely and haunting and the locations are incredibly moody.

If you're into smart, slow burn horror flicks, Daughters of Darkness might just become one of your favorites.