The Domestics (2018)

October 7, 2018

Directed by: Mike P. Nelson

Written by: Mike P. Nelson

Starring: Kate Bosworth, Tyler Hoechlin, Sonoya Mizuno

Budget: $10,600,000

Tagline: This 4th of July, Pledge Your Allegiance

Trivia: Kate Bosworth played as Lois Lane in 'Superman Returns', while Tyler Hoechlin plays as Superman in 'Supergirl' TV series.






I was really impressed with The Domestics. It is the story of a couple trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic America. It's very much a cross between Mad Max, The Warriors, and Straw Dogs (three incredible movies). In the future, what's left of America has been carved up into gang territories who fight each other for power. In the midst of this, a couple tries to make there way the 140 miles to a families how without being killed. The movie is a survival film that benefits from its heavy use of action and horror. The action elements in the movie are so pervasive in fact, that at times it felt like a video game, while the violence and gore are so intense that it moves this film out of the action genre and squarely into the horror camp. Coupled with a 1950s soundtrack and a great acting, this movie is a grim and exciting look at post-apocalyptic Americana.

Dude Bro Party Massacre III (2015)

October 6, 2018

Directed by: Tomm Jacobsen, Michael Rousselet, Jon Salmon

Written by: Alec Owen, Ben Gigli, Brian Firenzi

Starring: Alec Owen, Ben Gigli, Olivia Taylor Dudley

Budget: $400,000

Quote: Drunk dad to son: "What? You think you're better than me? Just because you have a suit and a good job?"

Trivia: The first film produced by the website 5secondfilms.com. Founded in 2008, creators of the site produced one 5 second film every weekday until 2013. This feature film is based on one such short, a fake trailer.




I saw this movie on Shudder the other day but was hesitant about watching it, having not seen the first two movies. However, there is no other movies. This series begins with the third movie. Created by the guys at 5 Second Films, a website who made weekly five second movies, is a horror slasher comedy spoof that is actually really funny! The characters do a great job of portraying California fraternity dude bros that are caught in the midst of a massacre by a villain known as mother face. The dialogue in this movie is especially a strength with some great quotable moments. And although it is a comedy spoof, they do a good job of including over the top blood and gore. Beyond just a dumb comedy, this movie is also an impressive dissection of the 1980s horror slasher genre that picks apart each cliche element. Oh, and it has some really funny commercial bits in between.

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).

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

October 4, 2018

Directed by: Dominique Othenin-Girard

Written by: Michael Jacobs, Dominique Othenin-Girard

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell

Budget: $3,000,000

Quote: "No, of course you don't forget. How could you? You never looked into his face, did you? You never saw his eyes. You never saw that- that nothing, no expression, blank. My memory goes back twelve years to the night I offered... I'm gonna show you- show you something. Look."

Trivia: In the infamous laundry chute scene, Jamie was originally stabbed in the leg but the shot was cut from the film by the MPAA because it was deemed "too disturbing" (as Jamie exits the chute, a bloody wound is visible on her leg). Danielle Harris still owns the prosthetic leg.

I'm starting to doubt if I should really watch the sixth Halloween, because they are getting worse and worse. This movie is more of the same except with the late-1980's watering down that horror movies in general, and slashers in particularly, went through. I'm not an expert on the issue, but I have been noticing a trend in the chronology of horror movies. The first half of the 1980s had horror movies become more gratuitous in both nudity and gore. These movies focused primarily on teenagers (or college kids), were lower budget, contained less of a plot, and had a much darker feel to them. 1987 seems to be a high water mark because after this the nudity and gore in horror movies seemed to be toned down. Then, movies focused on children as the protagonists in their stories, the budgets go bigger, the plots more convoluted, and they had a lighter and sillier atmosphere. The reason for this, I believe, it two part. First, outside influences such as the moral majority and the increasing power parent groups were gaining (like the PMRC) were putting pressure on politicians, movie studios, and the MPAA to censor movies. The second reasons involves the inside influences of the movie studios and producers themselves. The beginning of the 1980s had shown that horror could be incredibly profitable and these people wanted to see these profits continue and one way to do that was by appealing to the largest audience possible. Movies became watered down, nudity rare, and mommy and daddy could feel fine letting little Johnny watch Freddy Krueger make puns. I have gone on a long enough rant... Here's a five word review, inspired by @5WHorrorReviews on Twitter: Michael's back, but who cares?

Mom and Dad (2017)

October 3, 2018

Directed by: Brian Taylor

Written by: Brian Taylor

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters

Budget: $4,000,000

Quote: "Your motherfucking mother said to open this door! And motherfuckers, you're going to open this motherfucking door!"

Trivia: Nicolas Cage said this was his favorite movie in ten years that he had filmed.






2018 really has been a great year for horror movies! Mandy, Summer of '84 and the excitement around the upcoming Halloween are all reasons to celebrate this year. And Mom and Dad is yet another great and unforgettable horror movie. Writer/director Brian Taylor cut his teeth writing and directing the Crank movies, which were action flicks with a premise that the main character's heart rate needs to stay elevated or he will die, which forces himself to engage in intense situations (drugs, suffocating, electrocution) in order to survive. It is with this intensity in mind that Taylor wrote/directed Mom and Dad, an extremely dark comedy about adulthood and the darkness of suburbia. The basic premise is that inexplicably a mass hysteria causes parents to kill their children. Upping the ante, the film also stars Nicholas Cage who always brings an extra level of craziness with him in his acting. The movie is violent, bloody, at times funny, with an interesting look at the parts of us we do not want to recognize.

Tales From the Hood 2 (2018)

October 2, 2018

Directed by: Rusty Cudieff, Darin Scott

Written by: Rusty Cudieff, Darin Scott

Starring: Kedrick Brown, Alicia Davis Johnson, Creighton Thomas

Quote: "Welcome to hell mother fucker!"

Trivia: The director team approached Clarence Williams III to play the story teller again over the years but since the twenty year gap between the first movie and this sequel, Williams did not feel he was up to it.






I cannot express how excited I was to watch this movie when I heard it was coming out. I have a very clear and fond memory of when I was in sixth grade, after a sleepover, watching the first Tales from the Hood on a VHS rented from Blockbuster while eating Chinese food. I don't know why this memory has stuck with me so much over the past twenty plus years but regardless, the movie had a huge impact on me. I immediately loved the movie not just for the gore and for the silliness but also because even then I could recognize that this movie was tackling things bigger than itself. That movie was one of several movies looking at the social and political problems of life in America's inner cities. The rise of gangster rap and the success of Boyz n The Hood and Menace II Society are both symptoms of the myriad problems in America. These movies and the culture become so pervasive that they were even parodied by several comedies, including Fear of a Black Hat (also by the same filmmakers as Tales from the Hood), Don't Be A Menace to South Central.., and CB4. Far from just silly gangster movies, all these movies took hard (and admittedly often silly) looks at the realities that many urban black people were forced to deal with.

Riding the success of Get Out and Atlanta, Tales from the Hood 2 continues the social commentary by once again take a poignant look at American society with four new horror tales. While this movie is updated with new elements of American culture (such as the #metoo movement), it's unfortunate that many of the same problems persist and the stories reflect this fact. With all the heavy social and political commentary, the film is careful not to take itself too seriously and become overly preachy. The film uses the absurd to create really comedic moments while also including enough blood and gore to satisfy the horror crowd.

Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)

October 1, 2018

Directed by: Hershell Gordon Lewis

Written by: Hershell Gordon Lewis

Starring: Connie Mason, William Kerwin, Jeffrey Allen

Budget: $65,000

Quote: "Well then you tell me why would a southern town want northerners as guests of honor at the centennial. It must has something to do with what happened a hundred years ago. So, something is very wrong with this town."

Trivia: This film inspired the name of American alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs.




Hershell Gordon Lewis, the master of gore, does it again with Two Thousand Maniacs! Lewis delivers the gore, some great laughs, and cements a certain image of the southerner in cult cinema that continues today (although there is some anger and controversy with respect to this). Earlier, Lewis invented the splatter exploitation movie genre with his 1963 movie Blood Feast (reviewed here). With his follow up movie, Lewis continues with the gore fest and over-the-top characters but with a much better narrative. Whereas Blood Feast's plot was an afterthought to the gore, Two Thousand Maniacs actually has a really fun revenge story about the south rising again.