Annihilation (2018)

March 23rd, 2019

Directed by: Alex Garland

Written by: Alex Garland, James VanderMeer

Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson

Budget: $40,000,000

Quote: "Then, as a psychologist, I think you're confusing suicide with self-destruction. Almost none of us commit suicide, and almost all of us self-destruct. In some way, in some part of our lives. We drink, or we smoke, we destabilize the good job... and a happy marriage. But these aren't decisions, they're... they're impulses."

Trivia: The snake tattoo that appears on Lena's forearm is not there before she enters the Shimmer. It also appears on the arm of Anya (Gina Rodriguez), as well as on the body of the soldier killed on the wall in the building they enter. The tattoo is a symbol of a snake eating itself, which ties into the film's theme of self-destruction.


Sometimes science fiction and horror are a perfect pairing. The almost endless expansion of possibilities and cerebral qualities that science fiction provides compliments the bleak, sinister, and macabre elements of human existence that horror highlights. H.P. Lovecraft capitalized on this nearly a century ago and filmmakers have been capitalizing on this since, from Kubrick's 2001 to Event Horizon. Annihilation is one of the newest entries into the "Science Fiction Horror" subgenre and while it was a box office flop that left many critics disappointed, I personally loved the film and felt it was both a uniquely beautiful film and had an engaging story. Beyond the highly celebrated visual effects, the film is also able to capture humanity on the micro and macro levels. The film is part exploration of the inner turmoils that a group of women live with and part inquiry into the frailty of the human species as a whole. Well acted, well directed, and uncompromising, Annihilation is a movie that forces the viewer to question both existence and reality.

The Wraith (1986)

November 10, 2018

Directed by: Mike Marvin

Written by: Mike Marvin

Starring: Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, Sherilyn Fenn

Budget: $2,700,000

Quote: "You listen to me, you son-of-a-bitch! There's a kid out there usin' his car to kill people, not that it's such a big deal since it seems to be your gang he's got it in for... so, if you guys try to take the law into your own hands, and that killer turns up dead, I'm gonna see you all sniffin' cyanide in the Arizona gas chamber."

Trivia: Dedicated to the memory of Bruce Ingram, who worked on the film as an assistant cameraman. He was the single person killed when the camera car overturned.


Oh man, here we go again with the weirdness of the 1980s! This movie makes almost no sense, but that's okay, it's chocked so full of 80s greatness that the story line (or lack thereof) can take a backseat (no pun intended). The movie stars Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks!), Randy Quaid, Nick Cassavetes (the son of the legendary actor and independent movie icon John Cassavetes), and Clint Howard (with an Eraserhead haircut). Both Sheen and Quaid would later go on to produce their own independent shorts during their public mental breakdowns. The movie also has a killer soundtrack with Billy Idol, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bonnie Tyler among others. The movie itself is a scifi revenge film about a kid that comes back from the dead to race a car around, kill his tormentors, and bang Audrey Horne. And to top it all off, there is even a handful of topless nudity scattered throughout the film. Story structured be damned! Fast cars, deaths, and boobs are what this film delivers.

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.

Class of 1999 (1990)

August 28, 2018

Directed by: Mark L. Lester

Written by: Mark L. Lester, C. Courtney Joyner

Starring: Bradley Gregg, Traci Lind, Malcolm McDowell

Budget: $5,200,000

Quote: "The mind is a terrible thing to waste - don't make me waste yours."

Trivia: According to Director Mark L. Lester, the two films that influenced the visual style of the film were both The Road Warrior and The Asphault Jungle. The Road Warrior influences are completely noticeable in the look of the cars and the school itself on the outside.



Alright, this movie is much more of a scifi flick than a horror movie, but it does have certain horror elements, TubiTV had it listed as a horror film, and it was a pretty fun film. Watching this, I vaguely remembered this from my childhood. I must've been ten and saw it a couple years after it came out. I didn't remember much other than robot teachers killing kids, some weird drug that kids crack under their nose and one of the teachers mentions playing war games. The movie is actually pretty good and it has punk kids as the heroes (what was it about the eighties movies making criminals be either punks or rastas?). The film also has Clockwork Orange's Alex, Mr. Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach as a military nut with bleached hair, white eye contacts and a terrible mustache, and Ms. Foxy Brown herself, the beautiful Pam Grier. I guess that's what we'll all look like in 1999. Also, if you look real closely, you can see a very young Rose McGowan in her first movie role. Like, Clockwork Orange, this film focuses on a bleak future with the young run roughshod and have crippled society. This also seemed to be a common fear of the Reagan Era (and shortly thereafter).

Phantasm V: Ravager (2016)

July 12, 2018

Directed by: David Hartman

Starring: A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Dawn Cody

Quotes: You'll never be safe. I'm always watching you.

Trivia: According to the book "Phantasm Exhumed," filming on Phantasm: Ravager first began in late 2008 where it was originally envisioned as a spinoff webseries about the Reggie character. This webisode footage was eventually expanded upon with new footage that featured appearances by main cast members to become feature-length.







This is it. The final chapter. The last Phantasm movie. It is a bittersweet ending to one of my favorite horror film series. Luckily it ends on a high note. I absolutely loved this film! It had everything I could want in the final chapter of the Phantasm story. Comedy, horror, action, and of course the badassery of Reggie. Reggie is at his absolute best in this film and demonstrates a wider range of acting talent than he had in previous films. There are some epic battle scenes with the Tall Man and we learn a little more about what created the Tall Man. The movie's ending is vague and bleak but with some sense of hope. Coscarelli also includes a lot of the illusionary confusion that make his films so compelling. Finally, we get a couple of great and unexpected cameos that, as a fan, I was ecstatic to see.

Cube (1997)

July 9, 2018

I remember watching this for the first time when I was in high school when it first came out and loving it. I saw it right around the time I first saw Daren Aronofsky's Pi. I loved both of the films and I think they are what largely inspired my love for math (I went on to study history in college... but that is a story for a different day). I was nervous about revisiting Cube but fortunately, it was just as good as I remember. What I remembered most about the film was its use of math as a survival tool and of course the brutal and creative ways the puzzle kills its victims. These story telling tools were just as good as I remember, but what really pulled me in this time is the dynamic between the trapped characters. The film's writers and actors did an incredible job of creating complex and captivating characters.

Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)

June 3, 2018

"Where do you think you're going boy? Death is no escape from me." And so the saga of Mike and the Tall Man continues in this fourth installment of the Phantasm movie series. While the movie received mixed reviews from fans and critics, this was my favorite film aside from the original one (of course). This film, more than the previous sequels, has the closest feel to the original. There is a much bigger focus on illusionary and dreamlike scenes in the film that really made Phantasm such a unique and beloved movie. Also, while the second and especially the third movies were venturing hard into the action and comedy genres, Phantasm IV is much more inline with the scifi horror of the original. This movie was a back to basic approach to the film saga and it left a deep impression on me.

Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994)

July 2, 2018

"It's never over!" The Tall Man and his spheres are back to enslave the human race in Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead. This time writer/director Don Coscarelli had complete creative control over the production and we finally get back the original actors for Mike and Jody. Also, the film has a huge budget similar to the previous sequel so there is nothing creatively or budgetarily stopping Coscarelli from making the film he wants. The film continues immediately after the second movie with Reggie and Mike following the Tall Man to stop his evil plans for world enslavement. Along the way, Reggie and Mike get a few extra followers, Tim (a boy they meet whose family the Tall Man had killed), Rocky (a nunchuck wielding woman), and most importantly Jody (whose soul has been encased in one of the Tall Man's spheres). Together they battle zombies, spheres, and the Tall Man himself as he tries to destroy the world.

Phantasm II (1988)

June 28, 2018

"When you die you think you go to heaven? You come to us!" Nine years later, the Tall Man is still at it! Reanimating corpses throughout the United States to use as his slaves in his other dimensions.

First, there are a few issues that need to be addressed from the get go before getting into the finer points of the movie. The first is the issue of Mike. In the first movie and the three movies that follow this first sequel, Mike is played by A. Michael Baldwin. However, in this movie the studio producers didn't want either Baldwin or Reggie Bannister to play their beloved characters. The director/writer/creator Don Coscarelli went to bat for them and had to pull a few strings just to be able to get Reggie to once again play Reggie. Unfortunately, he couldn't get Baldwin and instead hired James Le Gros to play Mike. While Le Gros did a fine job, the absence of the original actor who played Mike is very noticeable. Also, Mike's brother Jody, who along with Mike was the main character in the original movie, is not in the movie at all. He will also be in the following three sequels. Despite missing two of the three original actors (and one of the central characters) Phantasm II is a really great movie that builds on the success of the original but takes it into a completely different path.

Phantasm (1979)

June 25, 2018

What is it about Phantasm that has captivated viewers for almost forty years now? I discovered this film twenty years ago when it had already become a classic spawning at that time three sequels (just two years ago the fifth phantasm movie had come out). I remember loving the film but being unable to explain exactly why. Like the film's villain, The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), the movie is so bizarre but also so lovable. The movie's score captivated me with the same eerie eight notes. The helps to create the mysterious atmosphere for the odd plot (if you haven't seen the film, think Exorcist theme). In my early twenties I was in a punk band that actually would occasionally cover the Phantasm theme.

Maybe what makes this film a cult classic is its misfit qualities and charm. It really doesn't fit in with any other movie. It is too weird, too bizarre to be classified next to the slashers, demonic films, and alien flicks that were popular in the late seventies and early eighties. Sure, it's technically an alien movie, but it doesn't incorporate any of the elements typical of an alien movie. I also didn't fit in with any of the cliques in high school and maybe that is what made this film so appealing to me. It is a great film. A really great film! And it doesn't have to conform to any of the expectations, themes, or genres of any other film. It is weird, but so what?

The Void (2016)

June 23, 2018

The Void is one of the first films I've seen in this journey through horror film that I thought was legitimately scary. Not, I can't sleep tonight scary, but definitely check out the window a couple times to make sure no one in a triangle hood is outside brandishing a knife.

The film begins with the shotgun and burning murder of a woman as a man runs away. He is picked up by a cop who brings him to the local hospital where all hell breaks loose. The visuals in this film are remarkably terrifying: The men in the hoods, the monsters that break out of people but still carry the people with them, the sudden flashes of occult and cosmic imagery. The gore is also used heavily and effectively. It reminded me of Event Horizon, including an early in the film death of a woman stabbing out another person's eyes as she cuts of pits of her face flesh.