by: sprouticus
Posted on 02.08.10 in All Horror Films > Comedy
Release Date: 2010

Little *ucker isn’t necessarily a film you should have high expectations for, but on the other hand, if you have high expectations (wink wink cough cough) you just might find yourself enjoying this silly little film. Directed by Michael Muscal, Little *ucker hearkens back to the B-Horror films of the ’80s giving it a distinct, almost Troma-like feeling. Since the film aspires to be nothing more than a B-film, this means that when it stumbles it fortunately doesn’t have far to fall…and it does stumble.

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by: KFear
Posted on 02.08.10 in All Horror Films > Thriller/Suspense > Torture
Release Date: 2000

I can’t say that it’s a “nice” change of pace to see the Japanese actually remake an AMERICAN horror classic, but it did catch me off guard, and I guess the idea intrigued me enough to give Living Hell a watch.

Japanese horror has always been the front and center of my DVD collection. There are a number of ghostly and eerie images that have stuck in my mind from many of the genres classics. These films certainly have their ways of terrifying the audience, and in most cases, they come hand and hand with enough mystery and storytelling to keep my interest in the films from start to finish. Living Hell is no different, but what it does do is pay homage to Hooper’s original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I’ll admit, at first, this sounded like a terrible idea, and it took me awhile to finally pop this film into the DVD player to see how it would all unfold. Once I did, like many other J-Horror films tend to do, it sucked me in. Still, although the film does build suspense and terror in all the right ways, it manages to find difficulty in fulfilling the many moods that it tries to produce from scene to scene. This, of course, was something that Tobe Hooper had no problem doing in TCM.

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by: Letitia
Posted on 02.07.10 in Action/Adventure > All Horror Films > Thriller/Suspense
Release Date: 2006

The French-language film Ils (Them), directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, is one of the least original yet most tense and frightening movies I’ve seen in years. Although its bag of tricks is a well-worn one (think The Strangers, Funny Games, or any other movie that involves a couple being pointlessly terrorized by unseen or unknown enemies), and although the characters sometimes do the very dense things that characters in horror movies always seem to do, the movie still somehow manages to be frightening, effective, and beautiful to look at.

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by: Obaid K
Posted on 02.05.10 in All Horror Films > Supernatural > Thriller/Suspense
Release Date: 2009

This slow churning horror flick is a welcome throwback to the cult movies of the 70s and 80s. With its deliberately slow pacing, constant foreshadowing, and faded hues, this is an unabashed tribute to that golden era of horror, but might end up being too slow and uneventful to keep some viewers interested.

This is basically a twisted but polished, modern version of the classic babysitter movie with none of the cheap scares or corny lines you might associate with that subgenre. In fact, the only cheesy dialogue you’ll hear is from the local anchors during the news segments. The opening montage feels incredibly authentic and I’ll admit that I watched the intro a couple of times before watching the rest of the movie.

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by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 02.05.10 in All Horror Films > Comedy > Exploitation
Release Date: 1987

Street Trash represents the height of horror absurdity, a film in which almost every taboo is not only explored, but satirised. Few horror films have such a brazen attitude to such subject matter as rape, castration, and out of control vagrancy. The vagrant community the film depicts is a vile cesspool. We feel not an ounce of sympathy for the street trash of the title. They are either homicidal, rapists, or thieves. In the wrong hands a film such as this could have been a truly abominable piece of cinematic excrement, but in the talented hands of director Jim Muro and writer/producer Roy Frumkes the result is a mind and body bending catalogue of carnivalesque imagery and laugh out loud dialogue.

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by: Letitia
Posted on 02.04.10 in All Horror Films > Psychological Thriller
Release Date: 2008

I’m a big fan of cheap horror movies. There’s one thing that talky indie movies and horror films have in common: they don’t necessarily require special effects or fancy camerawork to be effective. The things that most frighten me are mundane: insanity, the dark, being trapped somewhere small, etc. Big-budget horror movies often err on the side of telling too much, showing too much, and throwing too much money into making everything look shiny and new.

Breathing Room, a low-budget film with no recognizable actors and one major setting throughout, certainly doesn’t waste money on special effects and camerawork. The whole thing looks like it was filmed on a webcam circa 2000 and has a grainy, gritty, murky feel that generally works in its favor.

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by: JohnSoister
Posted on 02.01.10 in All Horror Films > Torture
Release Date: 2015

“This time you really, really, really won’t believe how it ends…until next time.”

If only I had had been twisted enough to think of locking someone in a room with a bear-trap rigged to their head, I could be a part of the most lucrative horror franchise in history and be well on my way to penning the much anticipated “Jig Saw’s Uncle Ginsu’s Killer Cutlery, part 7 of 9, volume 4, episode 6: The Revenge.”  If only.    Maybe then I could kiss my office corner goodbye (note: I didn’t say “corner office” because I do, in fact, sit in an actual corner – sans cubicle – in a hallway, no less) and have legions of fans lining up for the latest installment of gruesome doo-hickery.

Love it or hate it, you’ve got to admit that Leigh Whannell – the Melbourne-born writer who is responsible for spawning the Saw phenomenon – has got it made. This guy has cranked out the same exact movie six times running and movie-goers are still begging for more.  Maybe the resounding success of the Saw franchise is a testament to the notoriously short American attention span. Or it might be attributable to our society’s thinly veiled appetite for gratuitous violence. Or maybe people just like saws.  Whatever the reason is, I don’t get it.

I just know I’m jealous that I didn’t come up with it first.

by: KFear
Posted on 01.29.10 in All Horror Films > Supernatural > Thriller/Suspense
Release Date: 2002

There is a delicateness of life and dread that lies within the production of many of the popular eastern releases throughout the late 90’s and into the earlier years of the current century. The horror is paranormal but never spiritual in a religious sense, and underneath the drab color schemes, steady shots, and scares (only described as elegant and inspirational) lies a vengeful tale that takes place within a world where spirits and humans collide. The Eye, a film by Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang, is a perfect example of a haunting tale that unfolds like the stages of a supernatural thriller, but leaves the audience with the coldest scares and bone chilling visuals. The first time I saw this film I was actually frightened, so frightened, that I had to pause the film and try to understand what I was viewing. To dramatic? Well, when I saw this film, I was a little puzzled and amazed at how simple, yet effective, the scares were. I was terrified and amazed at the same time. For me, The Eye was a revolution in the ways in which I viewed horror films. While it still has its faults, it’s still a staple in not just Asian horror cinema, but horror in general.

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by: KFear
Posted on 01.26.10 in News

A group of friends in LA go out for a “good time” and bring home a streetwalker. The night gets a little rough when the woman gets murdered, but that’s just the beginning of their problems! She returns back to seek revenge! Sounds like Very Bad Things with an extra dash of dirty. Check out the early spring DVD release!

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 01.25.10 in All Horror Films > Mystery > Supernatural
Release Date: 1973

This somewhat solemn and humourless paranormal horror film has stood the test of time extremely well. Over three decades on it emerges as one of the most durable and rewarding films of the early 1970’s. It shares a number of obvious similarities with the Robert Wise adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting (1963). But Richard Matheson’s novel Hell House differs greatly from Jackson’s work in its emphasis on deviant sexuality, and plays up to greater degree the dichotomy between rational scientific reason and the irrationality of the psychic world. The differences between the two films, made ten years apart, is a good barometer of shifting tastes. Matheson continues an excellent run of screen credits that included The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957 – based on his own novel), The Devil Rides Out (1968) and Duel (1971 – based on his own short story). Matheson retains the spirit of Hell House even though the content of the novel was toned down considerably for the screen.

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