2011 Horrorfest Pt. 4

Basket Case (1982)
This is another cult classic from the 80s, similar to The Re-Animator, well regarded for the sheer over-the-top insanity of it.  Although, this film is decidedly much lower budget than The Re-Animator.  Its the story of a naive-looking young man who comes to the city with a giant basket with a lock on it.  The basket contains Bilal - his half-formed, deranged separated conjoined twin.  The two have arrived to have their revenge on the doctors who separated them by tracking them all down and killing them.  Bilal also gets rid of anyone who gets in their way or gets too close to his brother.  Usually in fairly gruesome ways.  The effects are really cheap (most of the shots of Bilal doing anything are just arms reaching in from offscreen.  However, this movie is fantastic if you like that kind of slightly campy, goofy low budget horror.  Its just sheer insanity for most of the film.




Pumpkinhead (1988)
I am pretty sure I had seen this movie back in the late 80s or early 90s when I was renting horror films every weekend, but I didn't remember a whole lot about it going in.  Turns out there isn't much to the plot to remember; its pretty straight forward:a grieving father unleashes a killer demon to get revenge on a bunch of teens who accidentally killed his son.  The majority of the movie consists of Pumpkinhead stalking its victims through the woods at night.  Thats not to say that I didn't enjoy it.   A film doesn't have to be more complex than that for me to like it.  I liked the effects on the Pumpkinhead creature, and the setting in the misty woods at night is nicely creepy.  Add in the fact that the father is played by Lance Henrikson, who rules in every part he plays, and the result is an enjoyable monster flick



Night of the Demons (1988)
This is the original version of the remake I watched in Pt. 1. I had definitely seen this film a few times back in the early 90s, but after watching the remake, I decided to give the original another go. 

Just like the remake, the story involves a party on Halloween that inadvertently releases a demon (or demons - this one isn't as clear as to if it is one demon or several like in the sequel) to predictable deadly results.   The acting is pretty terrible, and there is an attempt to make a few of the characters "punk" without coming close to pulling it off (movies almost always fail at this).  BUT, I enjoyed the demon effects and the the film is nicely gory, so that made up for the film's shortcomings. 

Envelope, Blueprint, Icebird & RJD2 @ Skully's 10/8/2011

My brother and I took in a fantastic locally flavored hip hop show at Skully's last night.There was a decent sized crowd and everyone was really into the show - it was a great atmosphere.

Up first was Envelope.  He is a Columbus rapper, who I have seen a few times, most recently this summer at Comfest.  I really like him for a few reasons - he has an unorthodox rapping style, which is a nice change from most rap acts; his between song banter is usually pretty amusing; and he really knows how to get the crowd involved in his show (last night, he unleashed a ton of balloons with glow sticks in them for the crowd to either toss the balloons around, or pop the balloons and wave the glow sticks around).  As usual, his set was a lot of fun - including an appearance by a dude dressed up as a cat (which I unfortunately did not get a picture of).

The second act was Blueprint.  He is another Columbus rapper, but he has more of a national presence than Envelope, as he is signed to the Rhymesayers label.  I like Blueprint, and I have a few of his CDs, but he was SO MUCH better live last night that I anticipated (I saw him and RJD2 together a few years ago, and that was a great show, but last night he was amazing).  In addition to his DJ working the beats, Blueprint also had a guy playing bass guitar.  He also occasionally pulled out the keytar(!) to mix things up.  This combination of instruments allowed them to deliver some amazing beats to go with Blueprint's stellar raps.  GREAT set.

Next up was Icebird.  They are RJD2's side project that involves him playing keyboard for a full band.  This was the only low point of the night for me. Its not that these guys were bad, it's just that they really didn't do anything for me.  Their songs are all over the place.  Some songs sound like they are trying for an old school R&B sound, others like they are a 70s prog rock act (including one sound where RJ came out from behind the keyboard to play guitar, giving them 3 guitars and a bass).  Whichever sound they were going for, none of it clicked for me.

Then came the finale - RJD2 doing his set.  His equipment set up was amazing - 4 turntables, 2 drum machines, a laptop and also a live drummer.  As you can guess from having that amount of stuff to manage, RJ doesn't sit still for 1 second - I had a hard time getting any pics of him that were not blurry as he was flying back and forth between the turntables and his record crate.  His whole set was amazing - from starting off with the Mad Men theme (that's his song), to eventually inviting Blueprint on stage to do a few of their Soul Position songs, he had the crowd into it from start to finish.  A great end to a fantastic night of music.

2011 Horrorfest Pt. 3

The Awakening (2010)
This film is so low budget and unknown, I couldn't even find it on  Wikipedia or on IMDB.  Where does Netflix find these films?  This was another one that was fairly boring.  The plot involves a group of friends driving from LA to find a rave in the middle of nowhere.  Unbeknownst to them, the rave is taking place in an area that contains the spirit of an imprisoned Aztec demon (or something like that) that has been freed and is on the rampage.  The problem is that it takes like what seems to be 3/4 of the film for the main characters to get to the rave.  By that point, the demon has killed all the party-goers (in a scene which took approximately 3 minutes - the film's low budget really showed through here) and is looking for more victims. The inevitable scenes of the characters being separated and picked off one by one offer no real excitement - there is no tension or terror or even any really good bloody scenes to make up for the lackluster plot.  The only thing that redeemed this film is that they elected not to go for the happy ending, so that was a nice change.

(Not surprisingly, I couldn't find a trailer on Youtube.  Here is the cover art from Netflix at least...)

Nightmare Alley (2010)
Here is another low budget offering from Netflix - at least I could find this film on IMDB. This film is a series of short films tied together with a "Crypt Keeper" type host.  However, I only made it to the second short.  It involved a possessed toy rat and was so stupid I turned this film off...




Puppet Master (1989)
This is another 80s cult classic.  I am not sure if I have ever seen this whole film, unedited, from start to finish before.  I know I have seen parts of it, most likely on the USA Network back in the 80s or early 90s (back then, USA used to show horror films all the time on the weekends - not just on Up All Night either, I mean during the day).

The plot revolves around a group of psychics  summoned to a hotel owned by the wife of a former friend who recently committed suicide.  While they are there, the psychics are picked off one by one by murderous living puppets (it turns out that back in the 30s, a man figured out how to give life to inanimate objects and after his death at the same hotel, the puppets remained).  The puppets are really creepy and I love the puppet-eye view shot in some scenes to show how close they are to the characters without their knowing.  I really enjoyed this one.



Poltergeist (1982)
I watched this film last year on Halloween, so I am not going to add anything to what I already said about it then.  The only reason I watched it again this year was because i had a chance to see it on the big screen and it was pretty cool.  One of the theaters by my house is showing classic films on the big screen all month, and I am going to try and hit as many of them as I can.

Thursday Night TV Roundup 10/6/11

Just some quick thoughts on last night's shows, as it is way too nice outside to sit inside blogging...

Community
The best episode so far this season.  I love episodes that have all of the study group members at each others throats, and the lab partner scenario (and Abed's ranking system) led to some great exchanges.  I also really liked Chang's psychotic detective noir b-story that existed only in his deranged mind (and at the end, the Dean's as well).

Grade - B+ -> A nice return to form for the series

Parks & Rec
Another really funny episode.  Once again we got a pairing of Tom and Ben and it did not disappoint.  Also, the collection of Leslie, Chis and Andy allowed for the return of Bert Macklin, FBI!  He's back from the dead!  Good to have him around again, because I love Andy's attempts to be super serious as he portrays his alter ego (the scene where he escorted Leslie from the hostile bookstore was good stuff).  Lastly, I would really love to be able to pull off Ron's "wrong name" move in real life sometime....

Grade - A -> Good lord I love this show.  I need to get my hands on a copy of that Pawnee book...

The Office
A MAJOR improvement over last week.  I really like the dynamic between Andy and Darryl, so that helped this week.  Also, while some of it was silly, I enjoyed a lot of the hi-jinx in the warehouse.  I didn't realize how much I missed the warehouse on the show until this week. 

Grade - B -> Let's hope next week does NOT follow this roller-coaster pattern of quality that has been established so far.

It's Always Sunny
"This may be the darkest thing we have ever done" - Dennis Reynolds.  On a show that has set that BAR pretty high, a fake baby funeral, necessitated by Dee needing to get out of a tax audit caused by her claiming said baby, which she no longer has, may be at the top.  While this episode was not as funny as the others this seas have been, it was still pretty good.  So far this season, we have had episodes with a dead hooker, pedophiles and a fake baby funeral - what a great season!

Grade - B+

2011 Horrorfest Pt. 2

Blood Creek (2009)
This is a film that I had never heard of before and I stumbled upon when looking for horror movies to put in my Netflix Instant queue.  The premise sounded interesting, and it starred Henry Cavill.  Since he is now going to be Superman, and I had never seen anything he was in, I decided to give it a shot.  For an unknown horror film, it had the look of a bigger budget picture, which surprised me.  Somehow (probably because I was doing other things while watching and only discovered it when I looked the movie up on Wikipedia just now), I missed that this flick was directed by Joel Schumacher.  That explains that.  I know that he is not as big of a name as he used to be, but I am really surprised that I never heard he directed a horror film.

As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it.  The plot was a little hard to follow (most likely due to, as I just mentioned, the film didn't have my full attention - the one part that I still didn't understand was just cleared up for me by reading the synopsis on Wikipedia, so that's probably just me), but the story idea was fairly interesting.  It involved a supernatural Nazi-vampire type creature, still "alive" in modern times, that can turn people into his zombie slaves when they die (see why I decided to watch it just from reading the quick synopsis?).  The slick direction, out-there story, and lack of any really unnecessary scenes, made for an enjoyable viewing.  Although, this type of movie really didn't give me any insight on how Cavill will be as Superman.  I guess I will just have to wait and see...



The Cat O' Nine Tails (1971)
This is another Dario Argento Italian film (with which I have had varying opinions in the past).  While he is supposed to be the master of Italian horror, this film was more of a crime thriller than a straight horror film (albeit one with a little more viloence than your average crime film), in my opinion.  So, in that respect, I was a little disappointed (I was looking for horror).  On its own, it was a decent thriller (starring Karl Malden!) involving theft and murder at a genetics lab.  But, since it turned out to not really be a horror film, I am just going to move on.



House of 1,000 Corpses (2003)
This was the last of Rob Zombie's films that I had yet to see.  They had been a mixed bag for me.  I really liked House's sequel, The Devil's Rejects.  I didn't care for his remake of Halloween - mostly because, as I have stated before, the original is one of my favorite movies (not just horror) of all time.  Had he made the same movie, but changed the character to someone other than Michael Myers, I probably would have liked it more.  I enjoyed his sequel much more than the original (other than the ending), since other than having the same characters, it really was its own movie.

I wasn't too big a fan of this movie.  You could definitely tell that this is the work of a first time director.  I see what he was trying to accomplish, but he threw WAY too many elements into the film.  He obviously was trying to do an homage to the gritty, raw horror films of the 70s, right up to the occasional grainy look to the film.  However, he even undermines himself on that aspect by throwing in cut away shots that are REALLY grainy.  All that manages to accomplish is making the non-cutaway shots look too slick.  Also, while the film starts out as a 70s-ish "clueless strangers run afoul of demented, sadistic hillbillies" movie, by the end, Zombie has included elements from zombie films, Hellraiser, and Saw/Hostel-type "torture porn" films (before those two films even existed).  By the end, its just a mess.




The Re-Animator (1985)
This is another all-time horror classic that somehow escaped my viewing prior to now. With as many movies as I have seen, I don't know how that happened.  This film is in the category of tongue-in-cheek, over the top, schlocky horror.  And it is incredibly well done.  The scenes with the re-animated headless corpse were great and had me laughing more than once (in a good way, not in a "oh my god this is so laughably bad" way).  Both scenes with the rampaging corpses (the one when they first attempt to re-animate a dead human and the climax) were nicely gory.  This film definitely deserves its cult favorite status.

2011 Horrorfest Pt. 1

AAAANNNNDDD... we're off!  Once again, it's time for my annual October horror movie extravaganza.  Just like last year, I am stretching the movie viewing out to the whole month of October.  In addition to my normal at home viewing, I will be mixing it up a little by checking out a few horror classics on the big screen - the theater close to my apartment is showing horror movies all month (the first of which should appear in Pt. 2).  I may try something a little different this year and devote an entire post to a certain type of film (all Vampire, or all Italian, etc.), but that is still up in the air.

To kick things off, we have a nice mix: monster, supernatural, 70s vampire and 80s slasher:

Cloverfield (2008)
I have already seen this film before, but my brother hadn't, and since I had not seen the Blu Ray version, I decided to give it a second viewing.  I enjoyed it as much the second time as I did the first.  I did not remember it being so short - it clocks in at around 80 minutes (which I only found out after this second viewing was intentional, as that is the estimated running time of a tape used in the type of camera that is used to film the goings on in the movie) - but I think that is actually a positive for this film.  It makes for a very lean, action-packed film.  Once the action starts, it does not let you catch your breath for more than a minute or 2 all the way to the end.  While its true that the short running time doesn't allow for much character development among the leads, you don't really need it.  You don't need to know the characters more in order to care what happens.  The 2 real leads in this film are the monster and New York City itself.  Watching each recognizable NY landmark get destroyed by the monster, either up close or off in the distance, as the hope for escape is lessened with each disaster, keeps you on the edge of your seat.  The "American Godzilla" definitely delivers the thrills and the terror.



Night of the Demons (2009)
I did not realize when I started watching this that it is a remake of a movie from the late 80's that I had actually seen before.  Like most of the horror movie remakes that have popped up repeatedly in the last decade, this one keeps a few parts from the original, and then builds its own story from there.  Both films involve a Halloween party thrown by a character named Angela that results in demons being unleashed and possessing unsuspecting party-goers.  The main difference in the 2 versions is how the demons are freed.  In the original, the kids have a seance in a supposedly haunted house, so they were pretty much asking for it in my opinion.  In the remake, an accidental bit of bleeding starts the whole thing off.

The premise itself didn't blow me away when I read it on Netflix, but the main reason I decided to check it out was that it starred Monica Keena, who played Rachel on the great but too short-lived show Undeclared.  I really hadn't seen her in anything since that show, so it was good to see her in something (and she did a good job).  What I DIDN'T see when I was reading the description was that it also starred EDWARD FURLONG (speaking of people that have disappeared since their breakout role).  And, boy does he look like shit.  I know he has had some problems with drugs and alcohol, and his face and body are showing the signs.  As for the movie itself, it was ok.  There was some decent action, but the film relied too heavily on cranking the hard rock during the big scenes to build excitement instead of building it through what was actually happening.  I thought the film was totally redeemed by a super dark ending (the type of ending that you used to see in horror films all the time, but you never see anymore because movie studios have no guts), but I was ultimately let down. 



Vampire Circus (1972)
This is a a non-Dracula  offering from England's Hammer Studios (several of whose films I watched and wrote about last year, and will surely turn up again as the month goes on). While it doesn't feature Christopher Lee's Dracula, the plot is based on the same type of story that seems to pop up a lot in the Dracula pictures - a master vampire has been killed and it is up to his followers to try and resurrect him.  Wile the Dracula films
tend to go through this plot fairly early in the film (because, let's be honest, more Christopher Lee in the film is always a good thing), this one stretches this plot out through the entire film.  The evil Count Mitterhaus (cool name, BTW) is killed by angry villagers for his latest evil deeds - seducing one of the villager's wife and killing the young kid of another (a pretty shocking event and one that even most horror films steer away from).  Many years later the town is ravaged by a plague and living in a forced quarantine.  However, one day a mysterious circus manages to get through the blockade.  And, as you can tell by the title of the film, the circus has vampires and they are there to secretly bring the Count back to life (and also punish the towns people).

I thought that this film was actually pretty well done.  If its one thing that Hammer is known for, its great looking 19th century gothic horror films, and this one is no different.  The atmospheric settings in and around the village always make it seem like something sinister is about to happen (and it usually is).   Add in the added creep factor of a circus (featuring a strong man played by Darth Vader himself, David Prowse!), and you have a nice, little-known, vampire flick. 



Maniac! (1980)
I am pretty sure that I had seen this movie many times in the video store as a kid (the cover art looked really familiar) without actually pulling the trigger on renting it for some reason.  While the film has a couple of interesting things going for it, ultimately it was only ok.

First the good stuff.  I went into this thinking it was going to be one of your standard late 70s, early 80s slasher films where little is known about the mysterious killer until the very end.  However, this film has one thing that sets it apart from almost every other film in its genre - not only are you are introduced to the killer right away, the entire film is told from his perspective so you know all about his personality and what is driving him.  And, the killer is played by someone I recognized - the guy who was both Willi Cicci in the Godfather films, he was also Rocky's loan shark boss in those films.  The other good thing about this film is that the special effects were done by the legendary Tom Savini.  So, the gore is nicely done (especially a scene involving a guy getting his head blown off that was so realistic looking and graphic, it cause Gene Siskel to walk out of the theater).

Now, the bad.  There were way too many stretches of nothing going on, which left me bored.  Had those long stretches been different, I might have had a different opinion of the film.  I believe I mentioned this last year, if there is one thing I should never be during a horror film, its bored. 



Pt.2 coming soon!

Thursday Night TV Round-up 9/30/11

Community
This was an improvement over last weeks episode.  As a big Fringe fan, I really enjoyed the nod to that show with the Blue vs. red, Earth 1 and Earth 2 Model UN debate. I really enjoyed the whole plot with Annie's arch enemy, Annie Kim.  I hope that she becomes a regular member of the cast of zanies that attend Greendale and makes future appearances.  Martin Starr (of Freaks and Geeks and Party Down), as always, did a nice job as the professor of the week, and its always good to see him show up in something.  I wasn't as big of a fan as the Britta-Chang sub-plot - there were a few humerus bits, such as Britta trying to kick over the trash can, but I felt it really didn't seem to be going anywhere - until the very end of it.  Britta spitting at Chang as he carried her out of the room (one last feeble attempt at being a rebel when she knows she is washed up) made me laugh out loud and redeemed that whole story line.

Grade - B -> better than last week, but still a touch down from as good as it was last year (I have faith it will get there).



Park & Rec
I have been looking forward to this episode ever since they dropped the bombshell in the season finale that Ron's first wife, Tammy 1, was going to be making an appearance.  It did not disappoint either.   Patricia Clarkson did a fantastic job playing Tammy 1 as a cold, controlling ice queen who doesn't let anything shake her - even the first swig of Swanson family corn whiskey could only illicit a slight facial twitch from her.  The episode also gave a little insight into the past history of Ron Swanson, not only by detailing all of the roles Tammy 1 has played in his life (candy striper at his birth, and math teacher among them), but also by having Ron's mom, Tammy 0, show up.  A quick glimpse at her home life shows exactly where Ron learned everything he knows.  I can't wait until the inevitable appearance of Ron's father.

In addition to the main plot, which was extremely funny - Ron devolving into a sissfied, moustache-free version of himself was hysterical, as was Leslie's drunken state after she stupidly tried to out drink the Tammys in order to save Ron - the 2 subplots were well done.  Our first glimpse at the offices of Entertainment 720 showed that Jean Ralphio and Tom are being as hilariously lavish in their spending as I had hoped (the whole sequence where JR tried to come up with a new name for Ben before settling on Jello Shot was fantastic, as was Ben pushing the Party Button).  The 3rd plot with Ann and Chris filming the health video was Rob Lowe at his high energy, perfectionist best.

Grade -A -> Parks continues to be the funniest show on TV.



The Office
SIGH.. As I said on Facebook at the end of this episode, I think this was the worst episode of The Office to date.  Every bit of good will that the show built up last week with a surprisingly funny premiere was used up in the first 2 minutes with an incredibly stupid Kevin opening.  I did not laugh once during that opening and there were not many more laughs to be had in the rest of the episode.  Also, what was up with the subplot involving the appearance of Daryl's ex?  They completely ignored it in the last part of the episode.  I am assuming that it will pop up again in a future episode, but it would have been nice had they acknowledged it even a little.

Grade - D -> I am not going to waste any more time on this episode.  Hopefully, last week's episode will turn out to be the norm for this season, and not an aberration.

(I am not going to even bother posting a clip...)

It's Always Sunny
I don't think there has ever been a show that can take so many creepy and uncomfortable subjects and turn them into comedy gold as well as this one does.  In this episode alone they touched on kiddie pageants, pedophilia and necrophilia and the results were fantastic.  Add in Frank being made up by his creepy-ass mortician to look like Dean Stockwell in Blue Velvet, and the creep factor was off the charts.  And it was hilarious.  Any time the Gang is involved in some caper that winds up with them singing or acting, you can't go wrong.

Grade - A -> Season 7 continues to be incredibly strong.



Archer
There is only one bad thing I have to say about this episode of Archer - its the last one until next year.  These first 3 episodes have been great and, while they make me very optimistic about the rest of season 3, I wish that it was happening right now.  Archer's brief detour to become a pirate king led to some hilarious situations and gave him new characters to interact with - David Cross' and Patrick Warburton's characters were well done and I hope they stick around. 

Grade - A