Train to Busan (2016)

September 30, 2018

Directed by: Sang-ho Yeon

Written by: Joo-Suk Park, Sang-ho Yeon

Starring: Yoo Gong, Yu-mi Jung, Dong-seok Ma

Budget: 10,000,000,000 (Korean) $8,900,000 (USD)

Quote: "Dad, you only care about yourself. That's why mommy left."

Trivia: Train to Busan (2016) is the sixth highest grossing domestic film of all time in South Korea.






I have a friend who is reeeaaalllly into K-Pop so a while back when I was looking for horror movie recommendations, she recommended the Korean zombie film, Train to Busan. Train to Busan takes the well worn zombie narrative and puts it on a train which does make for an exciting movie. The movie also includes all the zombie narrative tropes (selfless acts of sacrifice, dread over ability to protect love ones, justice for the selfishness of individuals). What the film really excels at is the use of the sense of empathy it creates for the father and daughter. The characters are well developed and and it makes for a well developed movie. Also, the filmmakers added a few elements to the zombie story. The zombies in the film are fast, fast changing (a matter of minutes if not seconds), sense people based only on sight, and are generally dumber than your classic zombie. I'm a slow zombie guy, but this film is fun nonetheless.

The Lords of Salem (2012)

September 29, 2018

Directed by: Rob Zombie

Written by: Rob Zombie

Starring: Sheri Moon Zombie, Meg Foster, Bruce Davison

Budget: $2,500,000

Quote: "The blasphemous music echoes in my mind, driving me to the point of insanity. I, Jonathan Hawthorne, swear before the eyes of God, on this this day in the year of our Lord 1696, to destroy all persons who choose to pledge allegiance to the demon Satan and his spectral army!"

Trivia: Rob Zombie has hinted at this film being a metaphorical and spiritual prequel to his Halloween films.



I had been up in Jacksonville, Florida for a few days on vacation and decided I would finally give The Lords of Salem a chance. Although I loved Rob Zombie's other films, House of 1000 Corpses, Devil's Rejects, and 31, I am going into this film with some trepidation. My friend Dustin loves the Zombie films maybe even more than I do having both seen House of 1000 together right after high school, but he hated this film. The responses from the internet are also mixed, with some people hating it and some loving it, although it does appear there is a move towards a better appreciation for the film.

Curtains (1983)

September 28, 2018

Directed by: Richard Ciupka

Written by: Robert Guza Jr.

Starring: John Vernon, Samantha Eggar, Linda Thorson

Budget: $3,700,000 (Canadian)

Quote: "You haven't spent five minutes with me and now you're telling me I'm wrong for the part. Why? Because I haven't got a staple to my navel like that centerfold? Because I wouldn't pirouette into bed with you and skate on your face? I mean, what the hell are you looking for anyway and what do you want from me? I mean, who the fuck is Audra anyway?"

Trivia: The climax as originally filmed had Patti performing her stand-up comedy routine on a stage with the bodies of her victims. This scene was eventually changed in a reshoot to Patti pretending to perform her routine in the asylum in front of the inmates instead.

Curtains is yet another movie to capitalize on the slasher craze of the 1980s except this time the filmmakers hoped to target an adult crowd instead of the teenagers that the Friday the 13ths were attracting. In creating the film, director Richard Ciupka hoped to create a more cerebral arthouse thriller and constantly battled with the producer, Peter Simpson, who wanted a more classic slasher film (much easier to market). They battled back and forth before Ciupka up and quit in the middle of filming, leaving Simpson to finish directing the second half of the film himself. This struggle for creative control resulted in a disjointed and very bizarre film. The movie meanders, scenes do not connect to one another, and the ending is unpredictable because it is so lame (I kept guessing at who the killer was and what their motive was... I was really disappointed when I finally found out). There are numerous parts of the film that are great but as a whole it does not work. Ciupka would ask that his name be taken off the credits and replaced with the name of the main character from the movie.

Hospital Massacre aka X-Ray (1981)

September 27, 2018

Directed by: Boaz Davidson

Written by: Marc Behm, Boaz Davidson

Starring: Barbi Benton, Charles Lucia, Jon Van Ness

Quote: "Can you touch her in all her secret places?"

Trivia: This film was shot at night in an actual abandoned hospital.









Hospital Massacre (aka x-Ray aka Ward 13 aka Be My Valentine, Or Else), filmed in 1981, was another of those movies created to capitalize on the Slasher film craze of the early 1980s. The movie has all the great death scenes that the genre is famous for and even has a scary location, the hospital. But Hospital Massacre has something else that the other slashers didn't have: a playboy playmate. Playboy Playmate Barbi Benton is really what sells this movie and sets it apart from the 1000s of other slashers that came out at the same time. That's not to say that the kill scenes, comedic moments, and characters are not top notch, because they are, but the topless Playmate is what this movie banked on... and yes, of course, she does get topless.

Daughters of Darkness (1971)

September 26, 2018

Directed by: Harry Kumel

Written by: Pierre Druout, Harry Kumel, Jean Ferry

Starring: Delphine Seyrig, Danielle Ouimet, Andrea Rau

Quote: "Don't lie to yourself, you were pleased. It gave you pleasure. You actually enjoyed to see that dead girl's body."

Trivia: Shot entirely in English, even though the majority of the cast was French, German and Flemish. As opposed to most European "genre" films from the 70s, here none of the actors were post-dubbed by others. They can all be heard with their own voices (resulting in some accents), notably Delphine Seyrig's deep, smoky voice or Andrea Rau's and Paul Messer's German accents



Daughters of Darkness is one more of the movies presented by Joe Bob Briggs on his now infamous The Last Drive-In. I'm disappointed I was not able to watch it live last Friday the 13th, but after Daughters of Darkness, I have only one more movie to watch. Unfortunately, if you're looking for a horror movie or even a vampire movie, this film does not fully deliver. While it has some incredible acting performances (especially every scene with European bombshell Delphine Syrig) and is dripping with style it lacks the violence or vampiric elements that would make the film more interesting. The movie is more of an erotic thriller (thriller might even be an exaggeration) than a horror or vampire film.

Blue Ruin (2013)

September 24, 2018

Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier

Written by: Jeremy Saulnier

Starring: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves

Budget: $1,066,000

Quote: "You know what's awful? Just 'cause my dad loved your mom... we all end up dead."

Trivia: At one time Benny mentions a "Duce" who got hit by a train. This is a reference to "El Duce", lead-singer of punk-Hardcore band "the Mentors", who claimed Courtney Love offered him $50,000 to kill Kurt Cobain. He appeared in Nick Broomfield's "Kurt and Courtney" documentary. He died under mysterious circumstances after he made these claims.


A week ago I watched and wrote about Green Room, an incredibly violent survival/revenge film that I am completely in love with. It was written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier who also wrote/directed Murder Party, a movie I watched a few years ago (and thought it was just okay). After posted about Green Room, someone online recommended another of his films, Blue Ruin saying that it was as good as Green Room and much more realistic. The online recommender (sorry, I forgot who) was absolutely correct. Saulnier takes a realistic approach to the revenge film. It is like what would happen if some shlub like me tried to avenge someone; an increasing series of poor mistakes. Looking back at his three movies, Saulnier refers to them at the "inept trilogy," where in each film people are put into situations that they are completely unprepared for. Ineptitude is the perfect word to describe the main character of Blue Ruin, Dwight (Macon Blair). Dwight is unprepared and unqualified for the revenge business.

God Told Me To (1976)

September 25, 2018

Directed by: Larry Cohen

Written by: Larry Cohen

Starring: Tony Lo Bianco, Deborah Raffin, Sandy Dennis

Budget: $300,000

Tagline: Was he a god - the Devil or even something more terrifying?

Trivia: According to Larry Cohen, during the St. Patrick's Day Parade scene, he was organizing the crew, only to see Andy Kaufman, dressed in his policeman's uniform, antagonizing and making faces at the crowd. Some of the crowd members then attempted to jump the barricades and beat Kaufman, and Cohen had to hold them back.


God Told Me To is another of those peculiarly 1970s films with that gritty and unpolished look to it and that dark cynicism that would come to represent the decade. For most people, I imagine, the movie just have started off just fine. Senseless mass murders. Violent, but nothing too extreme as to be too shocking. However, at an hour into the movie, the narrative takes a sharp turn towards science fiction and I think it is here that people began to have a problem with the film. However, when you look at writer/director Larry Cohen's inspiration for this film, the narrative makes perfect sense. Cohen stated that his first influence with the Old Testament biblical God which explains the violence. His other influence was a 1968 book called Chariots of the Gods, which attributes ancient religiosity and human development to aliens.

Sleep Away Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)

September 23, 2018

Directed by: Michael A. Simpson

Written by: Fritz Gordon

Starring: Pamela Springsteen, Tracy Griffith, Michael J. Pollard

Quote: [The Angela Rap]: "Angels are pretty, angels can fly, and here is the angel that'll make you die! You got no style and you got no cares; all ya do is fight and swear. So say your prayers and make amends, cause ya life story is about to end."

Trivia: The script originally contained more elaborate deaths for the characters, which had to be changed for budget reasons. Herman was to have a flaming poker shoved into his crotch, with Angela proclaiming it "A wienie roast!" Also, Tawny and her entire news team were supposed to die in a fiery explosion after Angela cut the brake lines to their van.


Yesterday's movie Aerobicide inspired me to continue with my true cinematic love, the slasher film. It is with joy and some regret that I conclude the Sleepaway Camp sage with Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (I read somewhere that their was a fourth one made a decade or so later but it is more or less just a bunch of clips from the first three movies strung together with shots of bikini girls thrown in to attempt a new narrative... I don't know if this film really exists but if it does, I will watch it). Sleepaway Camp III was filmed just six months after Sleepaway Camp II and contains all the things that made that movie so great: great kill scenes, perfect one-liners, a bit of nudity, and a comedic take on camp slasher genre. Once again, Angela is back at camp incognito, but this time it is at an experimental camp where they combine troubled youth with privileged children (the campers are supposed to be 16 or 17 but I bet the average age between them is closer to 25).

Aerobicide (1987)

September 22, 2018

Directed by: David A. Prior

Written by: David A. Prior

Starring: Marcia Karr, David Campbell, Fritz Matthews

Lyrics (Credit Scene):
I'm a woman on fire and fright, and it frightens me.
I'm a woman on fire tonight, I'm out of control.
It's bigger than both of us, it's lightening and thunder.
That strikes at the heart of us, we run to each other.
...you'll know how I burn, burn for you.

Trivia: The director found it very hard working with the director of photography because "He had no respect at all for me and fought me all the way on every single thing we shot."



Holy. Crap. This movie is the worst movie in the best possible way, and I mean that as a huge compliment to the filmmakers. What they have made here is something magical that could only come from that wonderful decade, the 1980s. The movie has absolutely everything going for it: An obscene amount of gratuitous closeups on breasts, butts, and crotches! Several extremely long and extremely poorly choreographed fight scenes! A mysterious killer using the lamest killing instrument in horror history! Overacting! Underacting! Even more crotch shots! A fantastic disco/aerobics soundtrack, Even more breast closeups! A meandering plot that makes little to no sense! Even more butt shots! This is a slasher gem par excellence! It's on Amazon Prime, stream this movie immediately!

Revenge (2017)

September 21, 2018

Directed by: Coralie Fargeat

Written by: Coralie Fargeat

Starring: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssen, Vincent Colombe

Budget: $2,900,000

Quote: "Woman always have to put up a fucking fight."

Trivia: The film features so much blood that, according to director Coralie Fargeat, the prop team would often run out of fake blood.





Rape-revenge has to be one of the most unpleasant genres of films in horror. Both Wes Craven's first film The Last House on the Left and the infamous I Spit on Your Grave are almost unwatchable. There is something so much more emotionally troubling about watching a rape in a film than watching a murder or even a torture in a movie. Unfortunately that is all too often why director's exploit this for shock and awe in their films and television shows. Luckily the movie Revenge, while being a rape-revenge movie, focuses much more on the revenge part of the genre and not the rape. There is sexual violence in the film, but it is used as a plot device to move the story forward in order to demonstrate the incredible strength and resiliency of the main character, Jen. It is her story and the men in the story quickly become her victims. The movie is much closer to the bloody, violent, and gritty Mad Max and Death Wish films of the 1970s rather than I Spit on Your Grave. Matilda Lutz, as Jen, is just as badass as Paul Kersey in Death Wish, possibly even more so.

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

September 20, 2018

Directed by: Victor Salva

Written by: Victor Salva

Starring: Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck

Budget: $10,000,000

Quote: "You know the part in scary movies when somebody does something really stupid, and everybody hates them for it? This is it."

Trivia: Victor Salva has always said the Creeper legend is complete fiction but the scene where Trish and Darry witness the Creeper dumping a body down a well by an abandoned church was inspired by the case of Dennis DePue, a former Michigan Property Assessor who murdered his wife and was seen by witnesses near an old school house with a bloody sheet.

Jeepers Creepers came out the year I graduated high school and was really big with a lot of my friends but I never gave it a chance. After watching it seventeen years later, I'm kind of bummed that I missed out on a fun film with an incredible beginning. The film does lose a lot of steam towards the end and the more the show of the creeper, the less creepy he gets, but it is still a pretty unique and entertaining movie. I also really like that the two main protagonists are brother and sister instead of boyfriend and girlfriend, which has been done to death in teen horror flicks (the director Victor Salva chose this to avoid sexual tension and instead focus on them trying to survive). I also am fascinated by mythologies and Salva creates a really interesting one with the Creeper. We have a modern myth in the vein of Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil.

Terrifier (2017)

September 19, 2018

Directed by: Damien Leone

Written by: Damien Leone

Starring: Jenna Kanell, Samantha Scaffidi, David Howard Thornton

Quote: "That guy is harmless. He is just some douche bag in a costume, acting like a retard because it is Halloween."

Trivia: David Howard Thornton who portrays Art the Clown has previous mime experience, which he utilizes in his performance.






Terrifier is the Art the Clown spinoff from the 2013 anthology All Hallows' Eve. While this movie also suffers from some of the same problems as All Hallows' Eve (no character development, very little plot, and a reliance on shock rather than substance), it is able to capitalize on the scares of one of modern horror's great villains. Art the Clown was what we wanted throughout All Hallows' Eve but since it was an anthology we only got tastes of him until the end. In Terrifier, the clown is here mutilating his victims throughout the film. David Howard Thornton, who plays Art, does an incredible job of creating a menacing individual. Some of the scarier moments in the film are those when Art is just staring at individuals. It's the makeup, the costume, the mime routine, and the facial gestures that Thornton is able to deliver that make the film fun to watch. However, the shocking moments largely fall flat.

All Hallows' Eve (2013)

September 18, 2018

Directed by: Damien Leone

Written by: Damien Leone

Starring: Katie Macguire, Catherine A. Callahan, Marie Maser

Quote: "Please the killer is out here, he's following me... a man in a clown costume..."

Trivia: The short films on the VHS tape are actually old films made by the director, Damien Leone, years earlier such as The 9th Circle (2008) and Terrifier (2011).






This film is a three part Halloween anthology where all the stories revolve around a terrifying clown. I decided to give the film a watch to prepare for this spinoff movie that came out recently about the clown called Terrifier (I'm watching that one tomorrow). All Hallows' Eve has a couple great stories, a interesting overarching story, and a truly terrifying clown. Also, despite its small budget, the filmmakers are able to create effective effects and gore. However, the film ultimately lacks originality in its stories causing them to be largely forgettable. This seems to be a problem with anthology films (which is why after more than 100 movies, this is the first one I have watched). It is rare to find anthologies with stories as memorable as Creepshow or Tales for the Hood. Also, the second story about an alien seems to have been an afterthought of the director, filmed in order to fill the third slot necessary in the anthology. Not a bad movie, but not great either.

Suburban Gothic (2014)

September 17, 2018

Directed by: Richard Bates Jr.

Written by: Richard Bates Jr., Mark Bruner

Starring: Matthew Gray Gubler, Kat Dennings, Ray Wise

Quote: "It's nothing fifteen or twenty drinks won't fix."

Trivia: Most of the initial cast (including Ray Wise, Jeffrey Combs, Jack Plotnick and Mackenzie Phillips) made guest appearances on the show Criminal Minds (2005), which co-stars Matthew Gray Gubler.






Suburban Gothic is writer/director Richard Bates Jr.'s followup to 2012's Excision. I watched and wrote about Excision a few months ago. It is an incredibly dark look at mental illness and the difficulty of not "fitting in." Plus it has some of the most repulsive scenes in film. In Suburban Gothic, Bates is once again looking at suburban life and the struggle to find one's place in a world that makes no sense, this time as a person in their early twenties. Unlike Excision, Suburban Gothic is a much, much lighter film with a lot of genuinely funny moments and without the unrestrained use of blood and gore (bummer). Matthew Gray Gubler does a tremendous job bringing his character Raymond to life as he struggles to find a purpose in the suburban world that he has no connection to. As if being stuck between childhood and adulthood isn't bad enough, Raymond must also navigate the paranormal world when he discovers that his parents' house is haunted. It is the writing that makes the film a success. The ghosts are secondary to the dialogue and characters which really drive the film.

Mandy (2018)

September 16, 2018

Directed by: Panos Cosmatos

Written by: Panos Cosmatos, Aaron Stewart-Ahn

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache

Budget: $6,000,000

Quote: "...they lit her on FIRE! They were weirdo, hippie-types, whole bunch of 'em. And then there was some muscle - it didn't make any sense. There were bikers, and gnarly psychos, and... just crazy evil."

Trivia: The green glowing light that Mandy pulls out of the corpse during one of the animation sequences is a nod/homage to the glowing green orb featured in 1981's Heavy Metal



I'm writing this piece on Mandy almost a week after watching it because although I have been thinking about it ever since, I don't know what to say. It's hard to come up with the words to describe a movie like Mandy. It really seems to be one of a kind, but here I go: The movie is without a doubt one of the best movies I have ever seen! Visually, director Panos Cosmatos, creates a surreal and psychedelic world where the skies themselves carry emotions and a mystical quality to them. If you have ever experimented with DMT, you'll know what I mean. The score by Johan Johannson, released posthumously is beautiful and dark helping to build the otherworldly atmosphere that Cosmatos has created. The characters are so unique and the acting is great. I'll be the first to admit that I am not a fan of Nicholas Cage (aside from Leaving Las Vegas... dude can play a drunk!) but he gives one of his best performances in this film. Every aspect of the film is carefully crafted to create one of the most unique revenge films ever made.

Green Room (2015)

September 15, 2018

Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier

Written by: Jeremy Saulnier

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat

Budget: $5,000,000

Quote: "Now Gentlemen and Ladies. Whatever you saw or did... Is no longer my concern. But let's be clear... this won't end well."

Trivia: Patrick Stewart said in an interview that when he finished reading the script at his country home in England, it was so terrifying that he locked up his house, turned on the security system, and poured himself a Scotch. He then knew that he wanted to play the Darcy Banker role because a character that horrifying would be an incredible challenge, and make for a compelling film.

I grew up listening to punk rock so I was very excited when my friend Matt told me about this movie. The plot is simple: A punk rock band witnesses a murder after playing in what they find out is a white supremacists' club. The band is forced to lock themselves in the club's green room and find a way to fight their way out to save their lives. What follows is an extremely bloody and violent struggle for survival. The movie is much more violent than I had originally expected. I was wondering if it was one of those films that is vaguely a horror movie and more of a thriller? Hell no, this movie is straight splatter! Also, it is really well acted. In the band are Pat (Anton Yelchin who played Chekov in the new Stark Trek movies) and Sam (Alia Shakwak who played Maebe in Arrested Development) and the boss villain is played by Sir Patrick Stewart, Mr. Jean Luc-Picard himself who makes a terrifying white supremacist leader. More than just an interesting premise, this film really delivers some great disgusting moments.

Summer of 84 (2018)

September 14, 2018

Directed by: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissel

Written by: Matt Leslie, Stephen J. Smith

Starring: Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emery

Quote: "15. 15 is the perfect age. I wish I could freeze it for you."

Trivia: In Mackey's secret lockup is a Volkswagen Beetle. The same make of car owned by serial killer Ted Bundy.






Twenty years from now when people look at the mid-to-late 2010s, what they will notice is our heavy nostalgia for 1980s culture. The huge successes of Stranger Things and IT and the more cult successes of Future Man and Turbo Kid are testament to our love of all things 80s. Created by the same people who did Turbo Kid, Summer of 84 fits nicely in this mashup of nostalgia. While the 1980s culture is laid on pretty thick, it does both help to keep the film entertaining and more importantly helps build towards themes in the film.

The film at its heart is an attack on 1980s nostalgia. Nostalgia, at its heart, is a whitewashing of our collective memory. We choose to remember Pacman, ET, "Where's the Beef?", and Dexy's Midnight Runners. And therefore we choose to ignore the other stuff... the latchkey kids, rampant divorce, drug/alcohol/sexual excess, Reaganomics, the Cold War, the Savings and Loan Crisis, the Satanic Panic, a drastic increase in the prison population, etc. The 1980s were both a period of the perfect suburban home and the darkness that happens behind closed curtains. I think (and I could be wrong) that a character even mentions hiding secrets is why curtains were invented. Not everything is what it seems and not everything is how we choose to remember it.

The City of the Living Dead (1980)

September 13, 2018

Directed by: Lucio Fulci

Written by: Lucio Fulci, Dardando Sacchetti

Starring: Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Majo

Quote: "Mr. Bell, if those gates are left open, it could mean the end of humanity. We've got to get them shut again. At midnight on Monday, we go into All Saint's Day. The night of the dead begins. If the portholes of hell aren't shut before, no dead body will ever rest in peace. The dead will rise up all over the world and take over the Earth! You must get to Dunwich, Mr. Bell. You must reclose those gates!"

Trivia: The scene where the window opens wide and lots of maggots fly in was filmed with the help of two wind machines and 22 pounds (10 kg) of actual maggots.

This is the first in Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell Trilogy (followed by The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery). I hadn't seen any of them but was lucky that Amazon Prime has this one and Shudder has the rest (I'm sure I'll watch the other two over the next week or two). Holy crap this is a disgusting movie, in the best possible way. It is your classic zombie movie plot but the filmmakers took care to make it as disgusting as possible. Yes, there is the zombie gore the genre is famous for, but Fulci takes it to extremes and adds in worms, maggots, and other details to up the revulsion ante. Also, the film continues the Italian obsession with American horror and Americana. Although it is an Italian film with Italian actors, it is dubbed in English, takes place in America, and many scenes were even shot in America (New York and Georgia). The original title was actually Twilight of the Dead with a movie poster that looked a lot like Dawn of the Dead until a "cease and desist" order was sent out. I absolutely love George Romero's films and American horror and general, it's just odd how taken Italy also was. Neither Spain, Germany, or any other country can boast so many great American-influenced horror gems. Too much jabbering, let's get on with the movie...

Escape From Tomorrow (2013)

September 12, 2018

Directed by: Randy Moore

Written by: Randy Moore

Starring: Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez

Budget: $650,000

Tagline: Bad things happen everywhere.

Trivia: Filmed at Disneyland and Disney World without permission. Shot guerrilla style using 2 Canon EOS 5D Mark II cameras and 1 Canon EOS 1D Mark IV digital single-lens reflex camera, and shot in monochrome mode, filmmakers had to figure out weeks in advance where the sun would be.



First and foremost the fact that this film was made is both incredibly creative and brave. The majority of the movie is shot at Disneyland and Disney World without Disney's knowledge or permission. If anyone is familiar with The Disney Corporation, one knows how litigious they are about their intellectual property. I am frankly amazed that Disney did not sue the filmmakers. For their part, the filmmakers did everything in their power to avoid lawsuits: cutting out any songs, videos or images that could infringe on Disney's copyrights. They had the film's post production completed in South Korea to avoid Disney's watchful eye. They had the movie pulled from an early film festival and even contacted law school professors to see if Disney had a legal leg to stand on. Also, just the logistics of creating the film are incredibly impressive. They had to use cameras similar to what any tourist would have, scripts were held on iPhones, and the direction of the sun had to be calculated weeks in advance. The film is a legal and logistical miracle. But what is probably even more important is that it is a damn good film.

The Howling (1981)

September 11, 2018

Directed by: Joe Dante

Written by: Gary Brandner, John Sayles, Terence Winkless

Starring: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan

Budget: $1,000,000

Quote: "A secret society exists, and is living among all of us. They are neither people nor animals, but something in-between."

Trivia: Because to their work in this movie, Joe Dante and Michael Finnell received the opportunity to make the movie  (1984) for Steven Spielberg. That movie references "The Howling" with a smiley face image on a refrigerator door. Eddie Quist leaves yellow smiley face stickers as his calling card in several places all through this movie. Also James MacKrell's character as news reporter Lew Landers appears in both "The Howling" and "Gremlins", which suggest both movies share the same universe.

I hadn't seen this movie for over twenty years. Looking back at it, I was probably eight and way too young to watch the film when I did. I do remember this movie had the first full frontal nudity I had ever seen. Thanks Elisabeth Brooks! More recently in my teens and twenties I've seen a couple of the wonderfully bad sequels: the marsupial one and some other goofy one. After watching the original I have to say I really liked it. Sure, it's slow getting to the good stuff but I found myself caught up in the stories of the odd characters. Also, it has some of the best makeup and special effects of any werewolf movie, aside from maybe An American Werewolf in London (Both movies came out the same year and Rick Baker was originally supposed to do the special effects on The Howling but left to do An American Werewolf. We was replaced by Rob Bottin who did some amazing work).

Demons 2 (1986)

September 10, 2018

Directed by: Lamberto Bava

Written by: Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini

Starring: David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Carolini Cataldi-Tassoni

Budget: $1,500,000

Tagline: The Ultimate Horror Experience!

Trivia: Bobby Rhodes, who played Tony the pimp in Demons (1985), returns as a completely different character in this sequel. Lino Salemme also reappears, this time as a security guard.



After watching the movie I looked through a few of its reviews on the internet and I am really surprised how mixed people's opinions are on the film. Some people love the film while others absolutely hated it with a passion. I am definitely with the first group, I absolutely loved it! I loved it just as much as the first movie. The movie itself is basically a remake of the first one but in a new setting. We have a zombie-demon invasion, not in a movie theater, but in an building complex. Some people were upset that the movie did not continue the story of the first movie, but for fuck's sake, there was almost no story in the first movie! That was the beauty of it. And therefore, there is almost no story in this one as well.

Nobody loves the original Demons because of its plot. The directors who made the film went out of their way to have as little plot as possible. Hey, let's have a zombie-demon attack at a theater and watch as people try to survive. Now they said, hey let's put that same zombie-demon idea inside a building complex and see what happens.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Midnight Showing) (1974)

September 9, 2018

Directed by: Tobe Hooper

Written by: Kim Henkle, Tobe Hooper

Starring: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger

Budget: $300,000

Quote: "The old way... with a sledge! You see, that way's better. They die better that way."

Trivia: According to John Larroquette, his payment for doing the opening narration was a marijuana joint.





What is it about this film that makes it such a beloved movie? Ask anyone for their top five favorite horror movies and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre almost always makes it onto the list. Almost forty five years after the movie came out their are still screening it at midnight movies to sold out audiences. The title is absolutely perfect but really misleading. Despite being a brutal film, there is very little blood in the movie. Every moment in the film is carefully built to create a realistic but terrifying atmosphere. Set in the middle of nowhere, Central Texas, I believe that a family like the murderous family in the movie exists. The cast of unknown actors, their pithy dialogue, the low quality film (looks a lot like a documentary), and especially the voice over at the introduction (claiming this is a true story) all help to make the film seem real. That is part of Hooper's genius. He has an uncanny ability to make the unbelievable, believable.

The Funhouse (1981)

September 8, 2018

Directed by: Tobe Hooper

Written by: Lawrence J. Block

Starring: Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Jeanne Austin

Quote: "The Lord works in mysterious ways, little lady. He ain't such a bad fella. My son does get himself in all sorts of trouble, though, don't he? Anyway, blood is thicker than water. I'm sure he's gonna be a real comfort to me in my old age. Now, how many people know you're here?"

Trivia: Dean R. Koontz wrote a novelization of the screenplay under the pseudonym Owen West. The book contains a lot of backstory added by Koontz. Because of this, and the fact that the book was released before the movie due to a delay in post production, it is often mistaken that the movie is based on the book, but the book is in fact based on the movie.

The Ken Theater, the local independent one screen theater here in San Diego is showing a midnight showing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and to get me in the spirit, today's movie is another of Tobe Hooper's films that I have not seen yet: The Funhouse. This movie has a lot going for it and deserves to be up there with some of those other classic carnival movies: Freaks, Carnival of Souls, and Killer Klown from Outer Space (a damn classic if there ever was one!). It has some really great characters, some great killings, a really frightening villain, and the carnival setting of the film lends itself to the off kilter feeling of the film. The movie takes a lot of time to really get going but is definitely worth the wait.

The Nun (2018)

September 7, 2018

Directed by: Corin Hardy

Written by: Gary Dauberman

Starring: Damian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet

Budget: $22,000,000

Tagline: Pray for Forgiveness.

Trivia: An advertisement for the film was pulled from the video sharing site YouTube, as many users complained that the five second clip featuring a startling jumpscare was "too scary." Administrators thus removed the ad and apologized, claiming that it was not their intention to publish content that may potentially "offend" or "shock" viewers.


The Nun is the latest movie from the Conjuring franchise. First, I cannot believe how much money these movies make! Don't get me wrong, they are good films, but their widespread appeal is shocking. I saw this movie on the Friday after it came out and the audience boasts every type of person. We were seated next to three Hispanic ladies in their fifties who couldn't help but whisper to themselves "Dios mio" after every scare. There was the usual drunk college kids (it was a Friday night), families, older couples, etc. I don't know how producer James Wan and the production companies figured out how to market horror to the mainstream but they've done a remarkable job.

Basket Case (1982)

September 5, 2018

Directed by: Frank Henenlotter

Written by: Frank Henenlotter

Starring: Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith

Budget: $35,000

Quote: "Without words. I just here him whispering in my brain. Sometimes he talks for hours and won't shut up. i used to be able to talk to him like that, but that was when we were still connected. Our aunt said it was our special gift. But since we've been separated, I can't do it anymore, but he can still do it to me. In fact, he's even better at it now, he always knows what I'm thinking..."

Trivia: Most of the credits that appear at the end of the film are fake. The crew was very small and, rather than repeat the same names over and over again, they decided to just make up names.

Oh, Basket Case. Such a weird and amazing film. I first saw this movie a dozen years ago when my friend Raul told me about it. After watching it, I loved it but could not believe that it could ever have been made.... it's just too odd, in a genre that already prides itself on it eccentricities. The effects are largely practical and done with a shoestring budget but hold up as much today as they did in 1982 (sure the stop-go animation for the monster look like stop-go animation but it too adds to the skewed nature of the film). What really makes the movie interesting is that while the deformed brother is more silly looking than scary or gross, I came to feel for it. The movie really makes the viewer side with the deformed monster as the film progresses. I felt sorry for the little guy... until maybe the end when things just get bat-shit crazy.

Jennifer's Body (2009)

September 6, 2018

Directed by: Karyn Kusama

Written by: Diablo Cody

Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody

Budget: $16,000,000

Quote: "I dreamed some bad people were trying to nail you to a tree with hammers and big stakes and shit. Just like J.C. But I didn't let 'em get to you, 'cause I'm a hard-assed, Ford-tough mama bear."

Trivia: To prepare for her role as a possessed living-dead teenager, Megan Fox lost around 15 lbs, bringing her weight down to a near-frail 97 lbs, and stayed out of the sun.


Written by Diablo Cody at around the same time she wrote Juno, Jennifer's Body is a film created for the teens and twenty somethings of the late 2000s. It's filled with pop culture references, witty dialogue, and the individualist stance against the status quo. Sure, these can all be chocked up to teen movie cliches, I wouldn't disagree with this, but there is something else to the movie. Yes, it has Megan Fox. Yes, she is incredibly sexy in the film. Yes, Fox murders boys by having seducing them. Yes, it has a decent amount of gore. However, this is not what I think makes the film a success. Because, in all honesty, the movie is not as hot as one hopes nor are there any real scares. Instead, it is the relationship between Megan Fox's character and Amanda Seyfried that is the most interesting part of the film. Their relationship is a microcosm for some of the bigger issues that teenage girls and young women deal with daily in their lives. Being a man, I will tread on this subject lightly since I have little to no personal experience in this area (the best I got is that I've taught middle school for six years now).

Trick or Treats (1982)

September 4, 2018

Directed by: Gary Graver

Written by: Gary Graver

Starring: Jacqueline Giroux, Peter Jason, Chris Graver

Budget: $55,000

Tagline: ...when Halloween night stopped being fun!

Trivia: The bulk of this film was shot at the home owned by cast member Carrie Snodgress.






This movie left me pissed off at both the movie and myself for wasting 90 minutes of my life on it. Here's the plot: Some kid does all kinds of Home Alone pranks on a babysitter for 80 minutes while a man in drag races across town to murder him. The guy in a dress gets to the house and is killed by the kid. That's it. It is a tedious test of patience as you watch prank after prank after prank wondering when the hell is this bit going to end? Crap... now I'm getting pissed off at myself for spending another five minutes to write this review... I'm going to go have a beer and watch Texas Chainsaw to cleanse my horror palate.

The Conjuring (2013)

September 3, 2018

Directed by: James Wan

Written by: Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston

Budget: $20,000,000

Quote: "The devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow."

Trivia: When the movie was shown in the Philippines, some cinemas had to hire Catholic priests to bless the viewers before showing it. This was due to some viewers having reported a "Negative Presence" after watching the film. The priests also provided spiritual and psychological help to the viewers.


Man, I really missed out on horror movies over the past decade prior to a few months ago. As a kid and teenager I used to search through the aisles of Blockbuster Video watching nearly ever movie I could get my hands on. Then in my twenties I was part of a horror movie club that my friend started where a bunch of us friends would get together to drink beer and watch horror movies. But then I moved away for a bit and didn't keep up with the new movies. So I had never seen any of the Conjuring movies, but figured I should  probably give it a shot since the spinoff The Nun is coming out this Friday. Enough of my backstory...

The Conjuring is a film that explores the existence of paranormal activity. It is based on the true story from the case files Ed and Lorraine Warren which are more or less a true life ghostbuster married couple. The movie has a handful of cheap jump scares but what really makes the film effective is what we do not get to see in the film. The parts where the demons or ghosts are not visible and the moments when something is amiss but what is wrong is not yet apparent. When we finally first see the demon, it is rather disappointing because the viewer's imagination is what makes the demon and story so scary. But this is not to say that everything is left up to the viewer's imagination. Hitchcock and Polanski were masters using atmosphere to create suspense, but those were different times. Today's horror audience demands at least some visual satisfaction in the form of monsters and gore and this movie offers that as well.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

September 2, 2018

Directed by: Jack Sholder

Written by: David Chaskin

Starring: Robert Englund, Mark Patton, Kim Myers

Budget: $3,000,000

Tagline: Someone is coming back to Elm Street

Trivia: This film is famous for having undertones and themes that many perceive as homoerotic, and the events of the film are often seen as an allegory for Jesse's closeted homosexuality. While the makers of the film initially denied that this subtext was intentional, Screenwriter David Chaskin eventually admitted that the subtext was intentionally written into the script, in order to give the characters more depth.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, the often overlooked Freddy film. What makes it so overlooked is that it is missing the gifted directing and writing of Wes Craven that the first film had and it also lacks the silly and fun goofiness of the later Nightmare films. It is neither scary nor funny. Instead what we're left with is a watered down version of the first movie that is completely forgettable. I really hate to agree with People magazine of all things, but it really is a "tedious, humorless mess."

The House of the Devil (2009)

September 1, 2018

Directed by: Ti West

Written by: Ti West

Starring: Jocelin Donahue,  Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov

Budget: $900,000

Quote: "During the 1980s over 70% of American adults believed in the existence of abusive Satanic Cults... Another 30% rationalized the lack of evidence due to government cover ups... The following is based on true unexplained events..."

Trivia: Deliberately shot in the same kind of style and using similar techniques as the splatter films of the 70s and the 80s which it emulates.



The House of the Devil is a beautifully shot film that was carefully crafted to make it look like it came from the early 1980s. Filmed on 16mm film and set in 1983, the film really does look and feel like an eighties slasher film. While watching it, I had to double check on IMDB to make sure that it was in fact from 2009 and not 1979. The soundtrack also features an eighties classic by The Fixx played through a cassette walkman. Those of us in our thirties and older will recognize it. Finally, the film also borrows film techniques popular in the eighties slashers such as a zoom in on characters, the opening credits in yellow font, and a freeze frame at the end with a still image of the closing credits. While the movie itself is an occult film and not a slasher, it has the feel of the eighties slashers.

The Loved Ones (2009)

August 31, 2018

Directed by: Sean Byrne

Written by: Sean Byrne

Starring: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine

Budget: $4,000,000

Quote: "I'm gonna go to your house now and stab your mummy just like you did my Daddy. Then I'm gonna go find Holly and stab her in the heart just like you did to me."

Trivia: Under the instructions of director Sean Byrne, Robin McLeavy prepared for the role of Lola by researching the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, as well as watching Misery (1990), Natural Born Killers (1994) and the works of Quentin Tarantino.



The successes of the Saw movies and Hostel has given a rebirth to a genre of film making that has largely been ignored since the 1970s grind house exploitation films, the torture film. It's understandable why the genre has been largely ignored. The movies are so unpleasant to watch. And for the most part, the pejorative "torture porn" is an apt title since most of these movies are nothing more than excessive gore without story structure. The Loved Ones is certainly a torture film, but what makes it such a great film is that it has a rich story, well developed characters, and interesting twists. Plus it has one of the greatest villains in horror movie history: Lola "princess." While the torture is really unpleasant to watch, the film also has some great comedic moments that help to lighten up the film and an assortment of interesting characters whose lives all intersect around the madness of Lola.

Hatchet (2006)

August 30, 2018

Directed by: Adam Green

Written by: Adam Green

Starring: Kane Hodder, Joel David Moore, Deon Richmond

Budget: $1,500,000

Quote: "But you only shot him once, right? Maybe you gotta shoot him more times. Like four- or six- maybe you gotta shoot him six times?"

Trivia: If you watch all three "Hatchet" movies in a row without opening and end credits, it would be one uninterupted storyline, revolving around a few days




During the 1980s, the American slasher movie was king. Starting with Halloween and following shortly by Friday the 13th, there were dozens of movie franchises (most that went on way longer than they should have) cranking out movies where masked psychos killed teenagers. Then in the mid-1990s the genre began go quiet, aside from the Scream films (that time when there was only one set of footprints in the sand, that is when Wes Craven carried us). The 2000s gave us remakes and reboots of our beloved killers, Jason came back to life and My Bloody Valentine  got a 3D reboot. But where was the new slasher? Finally, in 2006 Hatchet was released. Hatchet is these filmmakers attempt to breathe life back into this truly American genre. Kane Hodder, who played Jason in a couple of the Friday the 13th movies, plays Victor Crowley a new and terrifying face in the Slasher genre. Packed with hokey comedy and a couple of cameos from horror legends (Robert Englund and Tony Todd make appearances, also John Carl Beuchler who made Ghoulies 3 makes an appearance as a piss drinking hillbilly) this is a perfect movie to watch with a few beers and friends.

All Cheerleaders Die (2013)

August 29, 2018

Directed by: Lucky McKee, Chris Sivertson

Written by: Lucky McKee, Chris Sivertson

Starring: Sidney Allison, Charon Arnold, Shay Astar

Quote: Somebody got fucked. Somebody got killed. I'm going to gym.

Trivia: Lucky McKee remade this film after finding his first film of the same name went straight to video and was very hard to find.







Alright, I think this'll be a quick one. I am usually a sucker for a cheerleader slasher movie but this one did not deliver. The movie pretty quickly goes in unexpected ways, which is pretty cool, but ultimately this just ends up being a disappointment. Instead of a slasher we have ourselves a witch film. There are elements of The Craft in the film, but this one falls flat. The movie is well shot, the special effects are decent, but the storyline does not grab the attention. Its biggest flaw is that none of the characters are very likable or interesting so I found it really hard to care about what happens to any of them.