Life After Beth (2014)

March 18th, 2019

Directed by: Jeff Baena

Written by: Jeff Baena

Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly

Budget: $2,400,000

Quote: "No. No. How could I be... how could I be dead if I'm alive? You can't be both things Zach. You can either be dead or alive, and I'm alive."

Trivia: Nick Offerman can be heard narrating the documentary on Machu Pichu in the beginning of the film. One of the several ties to Aubrey's role in Parks and Recreation.



Oh man, remember My Boyfriend's Back? That movie from the early nineties? The one where the guy stages a fake bank robbery to impress the hot chick at school but it backfires and he is actually killed but returns from the dead nonetheless to take her to prom, and hilarity ensures as he tries to manage his sexual attraction with his cannibalistic urges. Life After Beth is like that movie, except without the funny moments, likable characters, or narrative arc. The movie is not a complete waste, it offers great performances by Molly Shannon and John C. Reilly. It also adds its own touches to zombie mythology and has a couple of good gory moments. It just seems very unfocused which left me feeling, "what's the point?" With so many zombie movies out there, this one is not necessary viewing.

Night of the Comet (1984)

October 31, 2018

Directed by: Thom Eberhardt

Written by: Thom Eberhardt

Starring: Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran

Budget: $700,000

Quote: "Come on Hector, the MAC-10 submachine gun was practically designed for housewives."

Trivia: When cheerleader Samantha Belmont (Kelli Maroney) is playing at the radio station as a disk jockey, she says that she is taking requests from "all you teenage mutant comet zombies". This was the working title of the film



Overview: This is a fun little gem absolutely drenched in eighties nostalgia (I was barely two during its release so is it possible to feel nostalgic for a time I didn't experience?).  Filmed during the final years decade of the Cold War, this film is an homage to the "end of the world" films of the 1950s. The ending of the 1980s coincided with the ending of the Soviet Union and thereby ended this particular brand of apocalyptic films (they would largely be replaced by the zombie apocalypse trope). Night of the Comet is a fitting finale. The movie is also a look at mall culture and attempts to showcase everything "cool" about the mid-1980s. Adding to the coolness of the movie is a really good soundtrack full of the 1980s version of bubblegum rock. While the movie is very stylistic with some great tongue-in-cheek comedic moments, it lacks both action and plot. The movie is a example of style over substance and the nostalgia is quickly replaced by boredom. Either way, it was a fun little movie. There is also something really hot about a valley girl in a cheerleader outfit with a machine gun.

Dead Shack (2017)

October 19, 2018

Directed by: Peter Ricq

Written by: Phil Ivanusic, Davila LeBlanc, Peter Ricq

Starring: Matthew Nelson-Mahood, Lizzie Boys, Gabriel LaBelle

Quote: "You cannot shotgun what you can't see, dumbass."

Trivia: Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things (2016) and It (2017) fame starred in the proof of concept trailer for the film's Kickstarter campaign video.


Dead Shack is a comedy horror that intermixes these two influences into a very unique blend. The comedy is mostly really light (although there is a handful of dark comedy thrown in) and juxtaposed next to the brutal gore and violence, it gives the film an odd quality. Many previous reviews have already commented negatively on this aspect of the film, however I liked it. It reminds me of Sam Raimi's use of comedy in Evil Dead 2. While the movie is a zombie film, it is the banter between the characters, especially Roger and his son Colin that are most memorable in the film. Their exchanges, and the dialogue as a whole, are so seamless that it almost seems like they're doing improv. The gore is extreme, the story original, and the soundtrack is absolutely on point.

Night of the Demons 2 (1994)

October 12, 2018

Directed by: Brian Trenchard-Smith

Written by: Joe Augustyn, James Penzi

Starring: Cristi Harris, Darin Heames, Robert Jayne

Budget: $1,300,000

Quote: "Well, listen to this: About a year ago her parents were sent a weird Halloween card. It was home-made and really creepy; like decorated with dead bugs and dried blood, totally disgusting... anyway it was signed by Angela."

Trivia: Some of the scenes involving Angela floating on the hallways was taken from the first Night of the Demons.




The original Night of the Demons, along with Return of the Living Dead, were favorites of mine in high school. I was really disappointed after watching the sequel to Return of the Living Dead (review here) so it is with some hesitation that I watched Night of the Demons 2. Luckily, it ends up being a pretty decent movie. Not as good as the first movie (how can it be without Linnea Quigley?), but an overall fun sequel nonetheless. This movie even benefits from added comedy. It's really hard to make a successful horror sequel. By its definition, the premise has already been done so filmmakers have two choices, to either build off what was established in the original or to veer off into a new direction. If filmmakers choose the latter, we get weird moments with Telekenesis in Friday the 13th Part VII, The Howling 3: The Marsupial, and Leprechaun in the Hood. Some work (Lep in the Hood Come to Do No Good), but most don't. The other option is to build on what the original movie created. The downside to this is that the premise is by now stale, so filmmakers need to do something to up the ante and all too often this means adding comedic moments. Return of the Living Dead 2 is a perfect example of how filmmakers tried this and failed. Night of the Demons 2 on the other hand actually is able to create some funny moments while successfully building on the first movie's concept. Particularly entertaining are the scenes with Sister Gloria (Jennifer Rhodes), a tough nun whose out to preserve her students' virginities and kick demon ass.

Return of the Living Dead 2 (1988)

October 5, 2018

Directed by: Ken Wiederhorn

Written by: Ken Wiederhorn

Starring: James Karen, Thom Mathews, Michael Kenworthy

Budget: $6,200,000

Quote: "Look, they're ugly and they're dirty and they're dumb, and I don't even care if they are dead. I hate 'em, there's no way they're touching me!"

Trivia: Thom Mathews disliked the sequel so much that he said the best part about making the film was the outstanding craft services.




I remember this VHS box cover from the blockbuster shelves when I was a kid, but never rented it. The original Return of the Living Dead (reviewed here) is a top five favorite horror movie of all time, without a doubt! So when it finally came time to watch the sequel I was pretty excited. I can't remember the last time I was more disappointed with a movie. The movie is garbage. Like I mentioned in my last review on Halloween 5, last '80s had this weird fascination with making kids the protagonists of horror movies. I went on a long rant during that review so I'm not going to do it again here other than to say, it almost never works. In addition to that; there's a bunch of moments meant to be comical that fall flat, the zombie prosthetics are lame, and the score sounds like its from an ABC Family movie (not the soundtrack, the soundtrack is actually pretty good).

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 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...

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.

Hell of the Living Dead (1980)

August 17, 2018

Directed by: Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso

Written by: Claudio Fragasso and Jose Maria Cunilles

Starring: Margie Newton, Franco Garafalo, Selan Karay

Quote: "What's the matter? Dissapointed? Sorry, boys! I guess I'm not on the menu after all! Ha, ha, ha, don't let it worry ya! I figure we'll all meet again... in hell!"

Trivia:  Stock footage from the film Nuova Guinea, l'isola dei cannibali (1974) was used for the native scenes. Nuova Guinea, l'isola dei cannibali, aka Guinea Ama, has been recently re-released on DVD as The Real Cannibal Holocaust.





Okay, so sometimes there are movies that are just perfect. The acting is incredible, the story pulls the viewer in, and the cinematography is stunning. Casablanca and Citizen Kane are two examples. I would also put most of David Lynch's films into this category. Then there are movies that are great for the opposite reasons. The story line meanders, the acting is over-the-top and the dialogue is silly. Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space and Tommy Wiseau's The Room are two classic examples of this. For me, Hell of the Living Dead falls into that category. It is a terrible movie and I loved every minute of it! The gore is excessive, the actors are caricatures of what Italy thinks tough Americans should be, and the plot makes almost no sense. It is sexist. It is stupid. It is mean spirited. It is great!

Demons (1985)

July 30, 2018

Directed by: Lamberto Bava

Written by: Dardano Sacchetti, Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini

Starring: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny

Budget: $1,800,000

Tagline: Their Evil Becomes an Orgy of Bloodshed

Trivia: The scene where the cocaine is dropped inside the car and where the characters are picking it back up has been quite a subject of controversy; which led to the scene being censored almost all over the world.



I have to say, so far in this horror movie adventure, Demons is one of the best horror movies I have seen yet! It has some of the greatest practical effect deaths and zombie/demon makeup! An absolutely killer soundtrack and score! Great cinematography! No character development and almost no plot to get in the way of the gore. A film project by some of Italy's greatest horror film directors, this film is a truly incredible film in the eccentric way that only Italy could create.

Rabid (1977)

July 19, 2018

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Written by: David Cronenberg

Starring: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silva

Budget: $530,000 (CAD)

Quote: "I sure as hell don't want to become the Colonel Sanders of plastic surgery."

Trivia: The song that plays on the radio in Hart's workshop is Marilyn Chambers' own disco single "Benihana" (about 25 minutes into the film).




Rabid is one of David Cronenberg's first feature films and he will go on to incredible success with Scanners and The Fly. However, it was in this film that Cronenberg lays out many of the themes that he will look at in his future movies. Cronenberg's movies are all "body" movies which look at changes in the body or made to the body, our own connection to technology, and how both these aspects tie into our own sexuality. His movies set forth the road map that the Netflix show Black Mirror will go down almost forty years later. People, rightfully so, praise Black Mirror for its brazen look at the areas of ourselves and our society that no one wants to look at, but it should be known Cronenberg was doing this long ago. Marilyn Chambers (the actress from the early pornographic movie Behind the Green Door) does some incredible acting as the film's star. Also, the film really made me think about the Zombie and Vampire genres and where this film should be categorized.

Night of the Creeps (1986)

June 6, 2018

I recently watched The 50 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen and true to its title, many of the films I have never seen. This horror movies spotlight is responsible for some of the previous movies that I have watched (Food of the Gods and Silent Night, Deadly Night are two in particular). One of the films they mentioned was Night of the Creeps which the critics raved on what an overall fun film it was. And you know what? They weren't lying. This movie is great! I have no idea how I spent 35 years of my life without seeing this gem. It's got brain infecting slug parasites! It's got zombies! It's got head collapses! But, it's also a great eighties comedy that could've been directed by John Hughes or whoever directed the Revenge of the Nerds movies. A horror comedy film that only the 1980s could deliver.

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

June 4, 2018

"Ever fantasized about being murdered?"

I feel this film is hands down the best non-Romero zombie film. I know that Fulci's Zombi 2 is a great film with a well-deserved cult following and the 28 Days Later films were box office smashes, but for my money, The Return of the Living Dead blows them all out of the water. This is the most fun of all the zombie movies and has the best soundtrack of possibly any horror movie ever made. It has some really horrific gory scenes, just the right amount of comedy, and a little nudity thrown in for good measure. Well acted with great practical special effects, this movie simply has everything anyone could ever want in a non-licensed Night of the Living Dead sequel.