Movie Review: Deathdream (aka Dead of Night)

Well before he was making mainstream films like Porky’s and Rhinestone, and way before he directed the Christmas bomb that became a Christmas classic (A Christmas Story), Bob Clark was creating horror movies. It is hard to picture, but it’s true. He made his debut in 1972 with the (in my opinion) overrated Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (I know I have friends who love it, believe me, I’ve tried). He would peak in 1974 with the classic Black Christmas. However, earlier in 1974, he released another horror movie that, despite it’s alluring title, tells a tale that could easily fly under the radar. The movie is called Deathdream (aka Dead of Night, which is the title on the actual transfer presented here). I had seen pieces of it before, but this is the first time I have seen it in its entirety. The best thing to start with is to say: See this movie.

Movie Review: Hotel Mumbai

The first time I heard of Hotel Mumbai was a few weeks ago from a friend who had seen it. He mused about how involving and well saged it was, while simultaneously wondering who would want to recreate such events. I must admit, it is a thought I have often had when it comes to a movie that seeks to depict, often in great detail, such horrible events. It come to mind when I decided to see this film. I sat there and thought, in succession, why would anyone want to recreate these events, then who would want to watch such a thing, and then about how I was there watching such a thing. I have to admit, the movie was quite an experience.

Movie Review: Peppermint

When people ask me what I thought of Peppermint, my answer is always the same. I tell them that the movie is nothing but a collection of missed opportunities. On some levels I liked it, but on other, more, levels, I just did not. I was relatively excited to see it, too. There are things to like about it, but when you watch it you will notice things, things they should have done, beats they should have taken, moments of genuine character they should have let happen. After awhile it just becomes annoying. However, anecdotal evidence proves that the people around me enjoyed it considerably more than I did.

Movie Review: Revenge (2018)

Rape/Revenge movies have a long and grimy tradition in the cinema world. These movies don’t glorify the prior act, while putting the latter on a pedestal. This is the way it should be, rape is in no way shape or form a defensible act; however, in the form of a rape/revenge movie it can become quite exhilarating to watch the woman overcome and have her revenge on her attackers, thus destroying the male gaze. The films in this genre can be as grimy as they come, like House on the Edge of the Park and I Spit on Your Grave, they can be unsettlingly artistic like Ms. 45 and Irreversible, they can even be popular mainstream films like Death Wish and Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Of late, there have not been all that many that I have been aware of. Now, I have Revenge to fill that hole.

Movie Review: The Tortured (2010)

While looking for movies featuring Bill Moseley, I stumbled across The Tortured on Netflix. I read the description and must admit to being intrigued, if not exactly wowed. I decided to give it a shot, being less than 90 minutes, it wasn’t exactly going to be a complete time suck. So hit play an settled in. The first thing to great me was the familiar Twisted Pictures logo, that I have ingrained in my mind as the start of a Saw movie (like Village Roadshow with The Matrix and the Fox fanfare with Star Wars). In any case, this movie doesn’t really need this much of a preamble, if you couldn’t guess from the title, this is your standard torture porn feature.

Movie Review: Beyond the 7th Door

Beyond the 7th Door is a movie that almost defies explanation. It is a movie that was made on the tiniest of budgets, with the tiniest of casts, and once it was made it seemed to pass directly into legend. It did not pass Go and I am pretty sure it did not collect it’s $200 dollars as it passed from completed film into Canuxploitation obscurity. An oddball puzzle movie with the most fascinating of leads, likely passed around the underground on worsening generations of VHS tape, confounding ll who watched it. It is a movie that on one hand fascinated me and on the other hand made me question my own cinematic tastes.

Critical Capsule: Skyscraper (2018)

Skyscraper would likely be more entertaining in a world where Die Hard didn’t exist. Unfortunately, this is not that world. Perhaps if you are just getting into movies, are young, and don’t know of the great Die Hard yet, you may like this. If you couldn’t figure it out, this is like a copy of a copy of Die Hard, the more layers of separation, the more generic and bland the replications get. On the other hand, Skyscraper does star the Rock, and he has large enough personality to actually carry this and keep me somewhat involved. This is fun enough. The story follows Rock, hobbled by having one leg, work his way through a burning tower to save his family and stop the bad guys from getting to the building’s owner. This is hardly must see cinema, but you could do worse if you stumble across it one night on cable.

Movie Review: The Equalizer 2

Four years ago, director Antoine Fuqua re-teamed with his Training Day star, Denzel Washington, to reinvent a 1980’s crime drama series as a big screen action thriller. That film was The Equalizer. That movie proved to be a hit, making more than $100 million at the box office. I liked it, I thought it could have been more, but there was something about how Denzel portrayed this character that I liked. I never thought it was going to be the sort of film that would get a sequel. Goes to show what I know, right? Anyway, the sequel is here and I went to see it, not expecting all that much. I am here now to tell you that this sequel surpasses the original by a long shot. This movie floored me and I can do nothing but recommend it.

Movie Review: A Quiet Place (2018)

It seems like every year has that one genre film that breaks out and gets on the hype train. In many cases, the hype is deserving. Even though hype has a way of leading to backlash, i have found the films to get the positive hype to be more than deserving. One thing that I am liking is that in recent year the films are retaining the quality and are skewing closer to mainstream success. I love the idea of more people discovering genre films and letting the sickness spread. In case you didn’t know, the movies I am referring to are It Follows, The Babadook, The Witch, Get Out, and now we have A Quiet Place. I make no secret that I love them all.

Movie Review: The Teacher

There was probably a time when a teacher seducing a student was considered taboo and was an act that was completely unheard of. It must have been a long time ago. It seems like we can not go all that long without story of some young teacher seducing a student for illicit sexual escapades. Just the other day I saw a news story about a guy who took off with a female student on the sports team he was coaching, only to get caught trying to get a job to make some money to get across the border. It all makes the plot of The Teacher seem all that more mundane when all you need to do is turn on the news for something more scandalous. Still, I found the movie to be pretty watchable, although not terribly good.

Movie Review: The Devil's Honey

For as wildly inconsistent as Lucio Fulci can be, almost all of his films (at least the ones that I have seen) have something of interest about them. Granted, as much as love and enjoy many of his outings, I realize I have only seen a small slice of his filmography. With that said, when I saw Severin Films announce the release of a Fulci film called The Devil’s Honey, I was immediately intrigued. Besides the opportunity to get more Fulci on Blu-ray, it was a movie I had never even heard of. What is this mysterious Devil’s Honey? Turns out it is an erotic thriller that eschews in your face blood and gore and turns it's attention to in your face, melodramatic, sleaze.

Movie Review: The Commuter

What is it about Liam Neeson that makes him such an effective badass/everyman? Is it that voice? His imposing stature? Maybe it’s the way he can go from being a kind fatherly type, to a cold blooded killer, to a rage filled man out for justice in the blink of an eye? Whatever it is, it doesn’t really matter how familiar the movie feels, he always brings a certain class and charisma to the screen. It should come as no surprise, then, to find The Commuter is an easy to watch and entertaining film, even being as predictable and flawed as it is. I just seem to really like him in these increasingly familiar. Something akin to a manufactured Bronson type, aging star appearing in crazy action films. No, he is no Bronson, but you can see where the comparison comes from, right?

Trailer Park: The Commuter

It is amazing to see how an actor seems to completely reinvent themselves. Liam Neeson, I always looked at as that respectable drama actor type, but then something changed. Liam became the ultimate cinematic badass, the likes we haven’t seen since Charles Bronson’s heyday. Well, that may take it a bit too far, Neeson is no Bronson, but there is no denying the string of action/thrillers that he has put out over the past decade or so and the entertainment they have delivered. Yes, the Taken films have run out of steam, but now we have another Taken-style thriller. Will it deliver the goods? One can hope.

Trailer Park:Proud Mary

I know a lot of people who just don’t care for modern movies. I can understand the frustration that comes from, but I like to think a good number of movies have some sort of positive element to them. This lets me have the feeling of excitement while watching trailers and coming across one for a project I was completely unfamiliar with. There is nothing quite like sitting in that theater and seeing something that makes you sit up and pay attention. Proud Mary is one of those trailers that made my take notice, make me really look forward to seeing it.

Movie Review: Jigsaw (2017)

Truth be told, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Saw series. I don’t hate it, but I feel it deserves the mix of love and hate it gets from its audience at large. I am happy about the blood in horror renaissance it sort of brought in the wake of the wake of the PG-13 copycats that flooded the market in the self-aware post-Scream horror landscape. The problem was that the more it went on, it became more about messing with the audience and developing a labyrinthian reality than about about giving us a compelling story and characters. I was kind of glad they ended it after the seventh, but I guess it was just a matter of time before they brought it back. Enter Jigsaw.

Movie Review: Hana-Bi (aka Fireworks)

Hana-Bi, or HANA-BI, or Fireworks, if you prefer, was a fascinating viewing experience. I am not saying it was great, although it was certainly very good, it was just something that that I was completely not expecting. It is not so much a movie as it is an existential bi-polar examination of a man who seems to be so disconnected as to not care anymore, although if there is one thing that he does, it is care. It might help that I am not that familiar with the films of Takeshi Kitano, and what I do know makes it a complete surprise to know that he is famous as a comedian. I didn't see that one coming.

Movie Review: Runaway Nightmare

So, as I was looking for something to watch, my gaze turned to my collection of Vinegar Syndrome releases. In the past couple of days, I watched a pair of their releases and figures I might as well keep it going. As I scanned the spines looking for an appropriate title, I settled on Runaway Nightmare. An oddity released way back in 1982 and one I was pretty sure I had never seen before, that’s always a plus. Anyway, as I started to watch the movie, something seemed vaguely familiar. As it turns out, I have seen Runaway Nightmare before, but I’ll be damned if I could remember any specifics about the plot. The deeper into the movie I got, I realized why I couldn’t remember the details.

Movie Review: The Mummy (2017)

When I heard that Universal was going to create a Dark Universe of movies for their stable of classic monsters, I was intrigued. The idea of a gothic shared universe where Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, and more roamed the same darkened streets of the same foreboding cities is truly something to be happy about. Granted, there is the trepidation that goes with the idea that these beloved creatures of the night being rebooted, but it’s not like they haven’t been through it before. However, word around the block is that the universe may be dead before it even gets started, as evidenced by the supposedly troubled production and the actual box office disappointment of the flagship film, The Mummy.

Movie Review: Besetment

When I first approached watching Besetment, I had a question, probably one that I shouldn’t have before watching a movie. I guess, more than that, I probably should have had the answer before even getting this far. I blame the educational system. Anyway, I did not know what the title meant. What is besetment? Well, it is defined as to attack on all sides; assail; harass. With that cleared up, we can move onto the movie itself. It is another in a long line of direct to video, low budget outings that seek to execute an involving story made with very little money. It can be done, but it just seems to be be out of reach of so many. So far as this one is concerned, it has a lot going for it, but it just doesn’t quite take it all the way.

Trailer Park: Death Wish (2017) - Trailer 1

So, it has finally arrived. The first trailer for the Death Wish remake has arrived. When I first heard about it I thought, like I do about a lot of projects, I’ll believe it when I see it. It had been announced that Eli Roth would be directing and that Bruce Willis would be stepping into Charles Bronson’s legendary shoes. These announcements only enhanced the I’ll believe it when I see it feeling. Of course, there are those who decried the idea of a remake and others who seemed more than willing to give it a shot. Well, it is real, it is coming. What do you think?