Totally amazing! I am so happy that I took a friend's recommendation and checked this one out because this was a f$%#ing blast! Director Mike Mendez and writer Chaton Anderson have come up with a fun horror movie about a group of young people that break into an abandoned convent and soon encounter a budding population of demon nuns! Innovative and gory special effects abound including decapitations, head bashings, face peelings, penis bitings, a blood shower, and an opening sequence that was so shocking that I started laughing out loud that a filmmaker of this day and age would have the balls to film it! The cast of characters consists of a group of cliche (purposefully) horror victims who are all played with tongue firmly in cheek by a very capable cast which includes Joanna Canton as the sensible girl, Megahn Perry as goth chick Mo, Renee Graham as the cheerleader (including the outfit), Richard Trapp as the stoner-stud wannabe, Jim Golden as the jock named Biff, Dax Miller as the pretty boy, and Liam Sullivan as the kind of nerdy guy who wants to be in the frat. We also have David Gunn as a goth Satan worshipper who really has no idea what he is doing who reminds me of this goth guy that used to hang around the Vancouver club scene that my friends and I nicknamed "Vlad". You know, the guy who is all decked out like he is a vampire or something but we all know that it is all a carefully orchestrated image. Gunn pulled off this character so well that I was in awe of how "goth-pretentious" one could be! Rapper Coolio and genre regular Bill Moseley (Chop Top from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre II") also make a brief but memorable appearance as a couple of campus police. I don't think that 80's horror movies could ask for a better homage as "The Convent" and in fact this movie rivals many of the classics that are missed so much. This one comes highly recommended and believe me it is WAY better than all those other titles that look like it! There is also a surprise appearance by a horror icon that will make you smile and cheer! Don't pass this by...
Mario Bava creates another masterwork and once again proves he was way ahead of his time with this great mystery/thriller that is also known as being the first of the "giallo" films of Italian cinema that were made famous by Bava and Dario Argento. From one of the coolest opening shots through a series of violent yet creative murders to a great climax, this film delivers on all fronts for those who are fans of this genre and who remember what is was like when filmmakers had style. There are some Bava films that I have had a problem with as they were a little too surreal for me ("Hatchet For A Honeymoon") but "Blood And Black Lace" was a thoroughly satisfying murder mystery experience and once again had some amazing shots that blew me away and made me think back to how much I loved "Black Sunday" and what a true master with the camera that Bava really was. Cameron Mitchell stars as Max, a fashion mogul who runs a fashion house with Cristina (Eva Bartok). They have a number of models who begin to drop off in gruesome ways from strangulation to burning to medieval claws in the face. For it's time, I'm sure these murders were particularly gruesome and they still managed to make me cringe. Soon the body count rises as do the suspects and it is anyone's guess who is the actual killer. Although the plot is not the most original, the style in which Bava tells this story is what gives it it's life and makes for such a great movie experience. Check out the DVD for a very interesting commentary by Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas.
There has been a lot of hype over this one and with good reason. First of all, this is well-crafted and acted action movie set in the most frightening of circumstances. I just wanted to say that right off the bat before we get into the premise as that is all that most people seem to talk about and seem to forget about the fact that this is a piece of entertainment that happens to make you think. A grade 9 class is drugged during a class trip and awaken on a deserted island with electronic necklaces on. They are then told that they have three days to survive on the island. The kicker is that the object for the exercise is for them to kill each other and the only way to survive is to be the last living person at the end of the three days. If more than one of the students are still alive at the end, the electronic necklaces are programmed to explode and you can imagine what a pleasant sight that is. I found this to be an amazing idea and although there have been similar ideas used in "Escape From New York" with the internal time bomb as well as a number of movies regarding humans fighting humans to survive, the idea of it being a class of innocent high school students was particularly horrifying. The students are all given a random weapon ranging from a machine gun to a cross bow to a flashlight and basically it is all about luck. Performances are wonderful and the depiction of the breakdown of friendships and sanity due to the circumstances are all quite realistic. There is also the requisite gore with a couple of head explosions, a throat slitting, and many bullet hits. I think that the most frightening aspect of the whole film is that the whole "Battle Royale Act" came into play to basically teach teenagers that authority does still exist and this type of punishment comes from kids acting like jackasses all the time. Who knows what the future may hold? This has been compared to "Lord Of The Flies" and the TV show "Survivor" but I assure you that this is a totally unique experience that is well worth checking out if you can get your hands on a copy. Stars Beat Takeshi as the leading authority figure and directed by Kinji Fukasaku.
For the uninformed, Ed Gein is a murderer who inspired both the characters of Norman Bates and Leatherface. This, however, is a version of the true story that was previously seen in the creepy 70's film entitled "Deranged". Steve Railsback stars as Ed in this film and I thought he did a great job by somehow making Ed a sympathetic character who truly was sick in the head. You see Ed was schizophrenic and it seems that the death of his mother really pushed him over the edge and he likes to dig up graves and create art out of the bodies. You know, door handle ornaments made out of heads, bowls made from skulls, and clothing made from skin. Things really get sick when Ed starts to hear his mother's voice and see her and begins to listen to her instructions to start killing people. This soon results in fresh meat for the art and an increasingly frightening character who truly does not feel like he is doing anything wrong. I found the whole thing fascinating and frightening and it really makes you think twice about the older guy who seems a little "off" at work. I usually find constant flashbacks and trippy "do it" type voices really annoying but they somehow worked in this one. There is even a blatant reference to "Texas Chainsaw" with Ed dancing around in the moonlight with a torso sweater and a flesh mask that was terribly amusing and scary at the same time. Railsback had previous experience playing a real-life madman with his depiction of Charles' Manson in "Helter Skelter" in 1976. In a comparison of "Deranged" and "Ed Gein", I think that I would still recommend "Deranged" for shock value but "Ed Gein" is definitely worth watching for a little more insight into this damaged mind. The real Ed Gein was put in jail where he died in the early 80's.
Pretty Maids All In A Row (1971)
Director Roger Vadim obviously loved women. The way the camera takes in the female form in this film shows that this guy truly enjoyed this cast of beautiful high school girls who are dropping out of school in the most unfortunate manner: they are being murdered. The first body is discovered by Ponce (John David Carson who went on to make "Empire Of The Ants"). Ponce finds the body in the boy's washroom while he is trying to settle down another problem that his has with a part of his body rising whenever he is in the presence of a female. After discovering the body we are introduced to the detective assigned to the case (Telly Savalas in a pre-"Kojak" role) as well as a studly guidance counselor named Tiger (played by Rock Hudson) who also happens to be sleeping with his students in his office. The investigation goes and we discover that the murdered girls happened to be Tiger prey and also that Tiger has a wife and kid at home. This puts Tiger in an awkward position but he doesn't seem to mind and continues coaching the football team, setting Ponce up with a sexy new teacher (Angie Dickinson), and of course sleeping with his students. There are actually two storylines going on throughout this film, one is the cheerleader murders and the other is the relationship between Ponce and the new teacher Betty. Although I thoroughly enjoyed both, I must say that the relationship between Ponce and Betty was funny, sexy, and expertly played by both Carson and Dickinson and these were definitely the standout scenes in the film for me. This was all in all just a great piece of 70's nostalgia and I recommend it for all who like 70's movies, black comedy, a little bit of cheesiness, and can appreciate the female form. Look for Roddy McDowall as the high school principal, James Doohan ("Star Trek"'s Scotty) as Savalas' partner, and Margaret Markov ("Black Mama White Mama"), Barbara Leigh ("Terminal Island"), Aimee Eccles ("The Concrete Jungle"), and Brenda Sykes ("Cleopatra Jones") as some of the pretty maids. To my surprise, this was written by "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry!
Full Moon Productions was at a very successful point when this one came out. It was sort of in it's heyday if you will. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, you will know exactly what to expect. For those of you who do not, you will be treated to a type of science fiction film that really gives it's best for being a low budget movie. I always found that Full Moon movies are always high concept and usually end up pulling off an entertaining 90 minutes of action and special effects. "Mandroid" does not disappoint with the central effect being a robot that is controlled with a virtual reality suit that was created to help harvest a type of mineral or something that can put an end to many of mankind's diseases. This is all fine and dandy but would not make for a very interesting action movie so we also have an evil scientist who has also come up with a way to use the Mandroid as a war machine capable of kicking some serious ass. It doesn't take long for our noble robot to fall into the wrong hands and become a killing machine. We then root for the good guys after our evil scientist becomes deformed and takes control of the robot and they must stop the madness. This was filmed in Eastern Europe so there are some great locations for the robot to shoot people and blow things up. As with most Full Moon pictures, this is perfect for a Sunday afternoon. A sequel was made and is entitled "Invisible" and focuses on one of the scientists who inexplicably becomes invisible over the course of "Mandroid".
It took me about an hour to recuperate from this one. "Rollercoaster" is one of those movies that, if you allow yourself, can totally absorb you and make you feel exhausted at the finish. I love that feeling because it is an example of how a film through simply words and feeling can totally envelope you. This film concerns a group of five teenagers who break into an abandoned amusement park so that two of them can follow through on a suicide pact. The film simply progresses through the day and we see how this pact affects the other characters and how certain events may or may not change how the day plays out. The film immediately creates a sense of dread as we are told right off the bat why the youths are there so you are always having that inevitable climax in the back of your mind as you are watching the characters. This makes even the smallest act of picking up garbage seem so much more significant as we know that at least a couple of the characters are doing many of these things for the last time. All of the actors were exceptional with the standouts being Brendan Fletcher as the hyper wild child Stick and Crystal Buble as the melodramatically determined Chloe. Kett Turton and Brent Glenen also turned out great performances as troubled brothers. Impatient "Mummy 2" fans may think this movie is "slow" but if you let yourself go and accept the fact that this is a film that excels in "boring" things like plot and characters, you just might like it. Seriously, this is a great flick that is well worth the ride...
Everyone has said that this is a great place to start if you want to see an Italian crime thriller from the 70's. Although I was not overly blown away by it, I can see why people would say this. Basically, Maurizio Merli stars as a bad ass cop who likes to deal out beatings to the bad guys in order to stop an extortion racket. He makes it personal when a young boy is crippled after his father refuses to pay the evil extortionists. Maurizio becomes hell bent on stopping the gang and pursues them throughout the movie. I must admit that while I was watching this, I was a little underwhelmed but in retrospect, I can see why people talk about this one. I think it was because I was waiting for the whole movie for the amazing car chase that the wonderful box had the perversely fun time of false advertising. Waiting for this epic car chase that never happened I think distracted me from the other things that were going on. We did have quite a few decent action blasts and what would an Umberto Lenzi ("Cannibal Ferox") movie be without a bit of gore (an impaling, a bowling ball vs. someone's head, and a brutal head vs. trolley shot). This has all the aspects of a good Italian crime flick and the more I think about it the more kick ass it seems. I have learned my lesson to continue to avoid video box synopses. Look for John Saxon ("Enter The Dragon") in a supporting role.
A Lizard In A Woman's Skin (1971)
Lucio Fulci made some great horror movies and some that weren't so great. This was one of the latter and although I can usually excuse the convoluted storylines in some movies by Fulci, Argento and others, this one was extremely difficult. Those of you who have been reading my site for a while probably know of my hatred of those trippy drug-like scenes from the 70's. Well, this movie was full of them and although there were lesbian orgies and the infamous disemboweled dogs, these scenes annoyed me more than they entertained me. Frankly the whole movie kind of annoyed me and I ended up looking forward to every time a certain cop appeared on the screen who was always whistling. This was the most entertaining part for me because the dubbing of the whistling did not match his whistling face and he always whistled in the weirdest and most awkward moments. I wonder if this was intentional. Another odd thing is that while watching the movie, my friend Kent and myself realized that our minds were both wandering and we both happened to be thinking about how weird ears are! There is no explanation as to why but he turned to me and said "Aren't ears weird" and I was thinking the exact same thing! Maybe Fulci was trying to subliminally convey some weird ear fascination he had. Well, Lucio, it worked...
Dracula: Prince Of Darkness (1966)
What kind of pathetic loser creates a cult movie web site and then has the audacity to inform his loyal followers that he has never seen a Hammer Dracula movie? Holy crap, I am guilty as charged and boy do I feel like a moron. I did not know what I was missing until I saw this flick. You see, I have given Hammer a try before with "Plague Of The Zombies" which did not really impress me and also "The Vampire Lovers" which was decent but again I thought somewhat overrated. I think these two experiences kind of made me think that the legendary Hammer studios was not really for me and I sort of forgot about it. I then decided that I was starting to feel like I was missing out on a whole genre so I bought a bunch of the Hammer Dracula movies that have been reissued by Anchor Bay and I now know what a good gothic horror movie is supposed to look like and now know that nobody on earth pays Dracula better than Christopher Lee. He is scary, cool, elegant, and brutal and totally commands the screen and now I am off to find everything that he has done. It is so weird that I have been into horror movies for so long and have never seen him before. The point here is that this story of a group of four travelers who end up at Castle Dracula blows many horror movies that I have seen before away and proves to me that all the legends are true about Hammer and I have truly stumbled onto an amazing new world of horror to experience. Lee does not even have any dialogue in this movie but from the first appearance when his hand comes out of a coffin like a spider to the lurking in the shadows and slowly baring his fangs to the hissing at his victims, this is one scary dude. Co-stars Barbara Shelley, Andrew Kier, Francis Matthews, and Suzan Farmer. Many of the actors also appeared in "Rasputin: The Mad Monk" in the same year. This was Lee's second appearance as Dracula which was preceded by "Horror Of Dracula" in 1958 which was also directed by Terence Fisher.
Seeing as I am always going on and on about how much CGI is destroying the horror and sci-fi genres, you would think I would hate this one as one of it's claims to fame is that it is the first movie to fully use computer graphics. What I discovered while watching this is that I actually don't completely hate CGI but what I hate is when big studios rely on the CGI to tell the story as opposed to letting the plot and characters tell the story. When a movie is made to simply be a showcase for effects with no regard for plot and characters, the result is usually a disaster as was evidenced in "The Mummy Returns" and "Tomb Raider". If, however, the CGI is used as a tool to help tell the story, the result is dependent on the script and can end up being quite good. Effects can be screwed up in any genre but if a good story is carrying these "bad" effects, then they can be looked over. For example look at numerous genre pictures in the 50's and 60's such as the Sinbad movies or classics like the original "King King". These are great movies even though the effects do not look entirely "real". I think my true hatred of CGI is that it is much easier for studios to cop out and try and pass a lame script off as a good movie by filling it with lackluster effects and then using said effects as the selling point. I already feel it happening with both "Spider Man" and "Resident Evil" and that is what really pisses me off. Anyways, I just went off on a huge tangent and need to return to "The Last Starfighter". This one had a classic story of a young man who has dreams of getting out of Nowhere, USA with his girlfriend and making something of himself. For Alex Rogan, he gets more than he bargains for when he discovers that his favorite video game is actually a recruitment tool for the star federation to recruit "starfighters". When tragedy hits the federation, Alex must make some decisions and find bravery within himself when he realizes that he is that last hope for the human (and many other) races. The beginning of this review basically helps to set up the fact that although the effects in this movie are primitive by some of today's standards, it doesn't matter because this is a timeless story with likeable characters and a good versus evil plotline that will have you rooting for Alex the whole time. This is just a good old fashioned sci-fi family movie that will have you cheering and enjoying every cheesy minute. Starring Lance Guest, Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart ("Night Of The Comet"), and Robert Preston.
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