Galaxy of Horrors

This sci fi horror anthology really delivered some interesting stuff, I have to say. It was really solid and held my attention throughout. As with most anthology films, there were some hits and misses. However, the overall experience was positive, engaging, and presented some concepts and storylines that I had not seen before. I love that.

I'm very happy that these folks had a vehicle to get their short films out into the world and I was happy that the Exploding Heads Horror Movie Podcast gave me the heads up about it.






Wraparound Segment (dir. Justin McConnell)
Maybe notthe most engaging segment - it was really just a throughput to the end goal of seeing the videos. However, it was still interesting and did what it was meant to do.

Eden (dir. Todd Cobery)
Dystopian future fun with some interesting visuals and both practical and 3D effects. Pretty solid. 










Iris (dir. Richard Karpala)
High concept goodness. A grand and simple morality play with heavy big brother overtones.





Flesh Computer (dir. Ethan Shaftel)
Not really my cup of tea, but it had enough interesting visuals to keep me engaged even if i didn't find the story to be to my liking.



Pathos (dir. Fabio Prati, Dennis Cabella and Marcello Ercole)
Very BRAZIL in feel. One of those, "I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm interested," sorts of segments.





Eveless (dir. Antonio Padovan)
Another that slipped a bit, but this two man act was interesting for sure.

They Will All Die In Space (dir. Javier Chillon)
Reminded me of OUTLAND (1981) a bit. Solid sci fi.




Entity (dir. Andrew Desmond)
Whoa. That was really strange. I liked it. :)







Kingz (dir. Benni Diez and Marinko Spahic)
Wild visuals, cool action choreography, and a odd little plot made this a fun watch for sure. Pretty wild.







 All in all, I believe this is well worth a viddy. Currently available on AMAZON PRIME.

Savageland

HOLY COW! I loved this film! 

SAVAGELAND is a riveting and completely engaging "mocumentary" about the lone survivor of a small town attack by unseen forces. He shot a roll of film with many disturbing shots of multiple attackers, but was still tried for the murders.

What really happened?



This film was a masterwork of both writing and acting. Like LAKE MUNGO, this film is presented in documentary style and interviews are held with the people involved in the investigation - both within legal realm and the news and reporting realms. The actors playing the parts sell it all without question and the writing is rock solid.

And the images that were caught on film are horrific and creepy as hell! heheheh  I love them!

 Bad acting and crap writing can kill a film like this in a heartbeat, but the writer/director team up of Phil Guidry, Simon Herbert, and David Whelan was pure perfection! Things were tight, believeable, and took a few turns that I was not expecting, but loved when I saw them.

No, there are no masked, ax swinging madmen in here or smashed in jump scares. This is a creepy tale that takes it's time telling a story and brings it all home with some nightmare fuel stills that are fantastic. A must watch for lovers of a good, creeptastic, dark story. 

Currently available on AMAZON PRIME. 

Better Watch Out

What a treat BETTER WATCH OUT is!

This will be a very short, spoiler free review.


 This film is shot well, it's packed with awesome performances, and it's SO MUCH FUN!  It's a ton of fun, in fact. It has a great style and keeps switching things up in a wonderful way.

Don't read anything about it online. Don't Google it. Just watch it!

Chris Peckover has come a long way since Directing Undocumented - a fine film, but not on this level, in my most humble opinion. I want to see more team-ups between him and Zach Kahn for sure. It made for a wondrous film experience. 

Loved this film. Watch it at once. Currently running on SHUDDER (U.S.)

Crying Wolf

Ok....I'm going to keep this light fun. As light and fun as this film is.

First, I'm going to say that this film has flaws. Sure. It's stomping around in low budget territory for sure. The effects can be dodgy. The werewolves are clearly wearing masks. There's a lot of 3D elements in here. There are even some cartoon comedy sound effects. But, this film has heart and knows not to take itself too seriously.

And, it's just fun. A great, silly, splattery, comedy horror film that I really enjoyed.

The film plays like an anthology. We see various stories related to our wolf pack. How they got there. Who they've killed and why. It zips along through various tales and never stops trying.

There are some fun comedy elements that actually work really well. I found myself laughing a lot. The end does run off the rails a bit, but I still found it to be an enjoyable tale.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Tony Jopia knows how to have fun with genre movies. I always find his stuff to be entertaining. It's funny - the film trips and slips from time to time, but I still find it far more entertaining than some low budget items I've seen of late. I believe it's due to Jopia's sense of fun and whimsy. I'd still love to see what he's make with a higher budget.

Give it a viddy if you're in the mood for some horror fun and you're not taking things too seriously. I think you might dig it.

Marilyn Manson: KILL4ME video

Agent K.BaRToN hipped me to another amazing Marilyn Manson video recently. I have to say, the man is knocking it out of the park with this latest round of videos. This time, editor Bill Yukich is in the Director chair. Yukich has worked on videos for Beyoncé, Selena Gomez, Maroon 5, Audioslave, and Godsmack just to name a few, but it's always been in the editor chair. It's obvious from this KILL4ME video that he'll be doing a lot more Directing in the near future. The video is grand.

And, of course I love it because it has a very giallo feel to it. Masked Manson in a trench. Johnny Depp rolling about with women lit with reds and blues. The video has a fantastic look and is a grand bed for the heaving hitting, grinding beat of the song and it's dark lyrics. Matt Bass' cinematography is fantastic.

Check it!

The Big Racket

Ok...this isn't horror, but it made me SO FRIGGIN' HAPPY that I had to write a little bit on it. 

James Hancock posted a scene from the film on Twitter and it was brilliant. It showed Fabio Testi (What Have You Done To Solange?) being rolled down a hill in his car by an angry mob. But, they don't just show the car rolling down the hill. They have cuts to Testi in the car rolling with debris flying around in the car as he rolls! It was amazing. I had to see the film.

The plot is classic crime gialli. A good cop named Nico Palmieri is tracking down these hoods that are shaking the store owners in a small town down for protection money. He's trying everything in his power to get this racket dealt with, but he's not getting any support from his department. And, if people happen to brave the mob and come forward to help Nico, horrible things happen to them and their loved ones. Tensions run high as things don't get any better. Finally, he needs to take things to another level.

This movie was so much fun! I found myself cheering for the good guys and booing the bad guys. As things escalate, I thought I had an idea about just where the film was going, but it took it to a whole new level and kept upping the thrills until the bullet ridden conclusion.

I need to see more of Enzo G. Castellari films. I've heard a lot about his work, but after doing some looking i found out that this was the only film of his that I've seen. I've heard of others like The Inglorious Bastards, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, and The House by the Edge of the Lake, but I have not seen a single one. After seeing his work on this film, I'm going to seek more out right away. And the guy is still making movies! Amazing.  I just saw that he did a film called The Heroin Busters in 1977 with Testi and David Hemmings. I think that might have moved to the top of my list.

It took me a minute to place Testi. I loved him in Solange, but there he was rocking this wondrous beard. I don't recall seeing him in anything else. I've heard that Contraband is a good one. I'll have to seek it out. He has this super cool, tough guy thing going in this film that I loved. At one point - after the car rolling - he has a cast on his arm. He goes to arrest some of the hoods and gets into a fight where the cast turns out to be a super solid shield and weapon! Just fun, fun, fun through and through.

We have a classic cast of characters in the film as well. All the hoods are grand, flat, bad guy bad guys. There are some other folks who take on roles as victims that have various sides to them from vengeful spirit to sad broken man to one foot out the door and they are work really well.

If you love crime thrillers along the lines of The French Connection, gun fights, and classic good guys verses bad guys, this film is a must view. I plan to own it in the near future. I can tell that this will be in rotation often! WELL worth a viddy! 

Short Film: THE SUBSTITUTE

THE SUBSTITUTE on Shudder at the time of this posting.
Directed by Nathan Hughes-Berry  • 2015 • English • 24min

Wow! This 24 minute short film was really well done. It has a high creep factor and reflects today's current political and news climate. It's a rather sad reflection of the "male" in today's society.

A substitute teacher starts a job at a school where there is a strong system set in place between boys and girls. Something is very wrong here.

Fantastic acting and a strange, TWILIGHT ZONE / NIGHT GALLERY feel to the whole of it.

I can't wait to see more from Director Nathan Hughes-Berry. Fab style.

And Madeleine Sims-Fewer as the substitute Ms. Byrd was fabulous.

Check it out at once!