The Descent: Part 2 (2009)

by Stuart Conover on July 28, 2010

The Descent: Part 2 (2009)

The Descent Part 2 is the direct to DVD sequel of The Descent, one of my favorite horror films of all time. Going direct to DVD usually means I have to be nothing but worried but in fact, much like Cabin Fever 2, ended up being fun. It is the directorial debut of Jon Harris (who was involved in editing the original The Descent) with the screen play written by not 1, not 2, but 3 authors - J Blakeson, James McCarthy, and James Watkins. While all three of these writers don't have an overly extensive history what they were able to put together here should change that in the near future.

The sequel begins exactly how a sequel should - directly after the first film ended. I was rather worried how casting would be (I had done 0 research ahead of time) and we are treated to having the return of Shauna Macdonald as Sarah, the woman brutally traumatized in the first film. She has no memory of what happened to her or her friends but with the media having a field day trying to find them the local sheriff has decided that she is the only hope on finding them so brings her out with him when he attempts to explore a cave that they believe may lead them to the other women. He also is suspect of her as she was covered in blood that was not her own. While I was a bit annoyed with the temporary amnesia she experiences at the beginning of the film it both doesn’t last long and was realistically the only way they could explain away how she is willing to go back in to look for her friends.

When her memory does come back she has no motivation aside from escaping the mines but at this moment we are conveniently the Sheriff (who we are clearly setup to hate from the offset) accidentally cause a cave in trapping them all below. While their safe way out has been removed they can only move in further to hopefully leave from another exit and are quick to stumble across the mutants from the first film that are more vicious than they were previously. (If you were on a rescue team wouldn’t you have other people know exactly where you were?) As we know what they are now to an extent there is less of a reason to build up suspense and just push the violence, which is one of my few complaints in the film as the suspense is what kept the first one running strong. While I do complain about the amount of suspense there is still plenty to go around with some amazing returns to scenes from the original film as well as surprises that you really won't see coming.

As a sequel to a horror film that is top notch this one is able to give you part of the feeling of the original in an enjoyable way. We are given surprises, some suspense, and an amazing ending. Without giving you spoilers there is a twist at the end that would allow for another entry into the franchise that would not only give us a return to the caves but another aspect as well that could prove interesting. I salute Harris for giving us a great sequel to an amazing movie and will easily suggest this to anyone who enjoyed the first The Decent.

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Paranormal Activity (2007)

by Stuart Conover on April 12, 2010

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Paranormal was a smash hit that was first created and shown at fests throughout 2007 but only got it's theatrical release in 2009. Oren Peli both wrote and directed this film which is nothing short of a breakout success with how much attention and money he has made off of it with such an amazingly low production budget. Love it or hate it you have to give Oren credit for being able to create a film that has outdone almost everything out there on the ratio for the profit margin - it honestly wasn't a bad film either.

While it's a movie that suffers from being unable to sit through multiple viewings (at least anywhere near each other), being horribly spoiled by audiences knowing what to expect going into it, and many other things that come from a low budget movie's big screen success - it was still a great film. When I sat down for my first screening of the film it actually wasn't prior to a theatrical release and I'm glad I didn't have to watch it as a screener copy though possibly at a convention would have been cool. As I sat down you could feel a buzz going through the audience as it was a showing for all horror fans (about a month before a wide release was announced.) The entire crowd had heard amazing things about it and this was before the marketing machine had crept in and managed to dull the feeling of the film many have missed out on.

The entire film consists of 8 characters even though the majority only focuses on the couple Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat.) I love how the majority of the cast has the characters retain the same name as the actors who play them. It’s setup to show the couple as being completely realistic and also sets Katie up as having a chance at being a real scream queen if a few casting agents take notice as she really is able to belt it out. As I was saying the couple’s interactions for the most part are completely realistic (though Micah’s insistence at about the half way mark of the movie to still figure it all out on his own get’s a bit tiresome.) People who don’t believe in ghosts aren’t going to believe that a person can be haunted and try to poke at it to come up with a rational answer which is exactly what Micah does. Katie who knows she is haunted just wants to leave it be as provoking it always makes it worse.

The movie has a very slow build up which can hurt it with audiences who have no patience in their movies though the buildup brings up quite a few mind blowing moments of suspense for those who do like a slow start. They are able to capture exactly what makes our cast so afraid of going to bed at night. It’s an amazing achievement to be able to get a crowd react so much to purely suspense and not scares in a film and something that is mainly a lost art in Hollywood. Too many people enjoy instant payoffs so the slow buildup has been overlooked for years – Paranormal Activity shows that this is still a valid art form in the realm of making horror.

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Children of the Corn (2009)

by Stuart Conover on March 30, 2010

Children of the Corn (2009)

The film itself was directed by Donald P. Borchers who also ended up taking Stephen King’s original short story to adapt into the screenplay that produced this wreck of a film. Children of the Corn is Borcher’s third time behind the director’s chair but from his first time having worked with horror as he has worked as both crew and producer on a large amount of horror films in the past including a few movies you may have heard of (and loved or hated) such as Leprechaun 2, Highlander 2, The Fog, and a personal favorite of mine – The Howling. Did I mention he was also one of the producers on the original 1984 release?

The 2009 release of the classic Stephen King’s Children of the Corn should have taken a few queues of the 1984 release that had come before it. This movie trumps almost every other re-make that had come out in 2009 in teaching the lesson of what not to do while re-making a classic horror film. I’m actually shocked it came out as bad as it did with how easy of a concept the film actually has but it seemed that everything they could do to make it wrong was what they went with for the story. With Borchers past experience in the horror genre I really have to question how this film turned out as it did. Even the actors felt underused as the film went out.

We open the film with Burton Stanton (an actor you will easily recognize from a slew of television shows) and his wife Vicki (Kandyse McClure of Battlestar Galactica fame) are driving across country and it’s this initial scene that blows the movie as Vicki is really just more cruel than necessary and doesn’t seem to play the part right. The problem is after Battlestar you know Kandyse has the acting chops she just doesn’t seem to come off as believable hateful as she is supposed to be in this film. When the couple finally hit a child in the car and have to find a town they come across a nearly deserted city and find it full of only children with Issac (Preston Bailey who ends up playing Cody on Dexter and Nicholas in the 2010 remake of The Crazies) in charge.

For those that don’t know the basis of the plot, the children have taken over the city killing all of the adults and using them as sacrifices to a creature that lives in the cornfield whom they worship as a God. The big bonus of being able to see what is ruling these children’s lives never happens as there is no payoff that shows what it is and the ending felt both rushed and unnatural with how Burton falls into having flashbacks that overlay the horror he is experiencing.

ScyFy has put together some impressive re-makes in the past. Their production value on the Dune (yes I know not horror) miniseries comes to mind. However I will quickly admit that all I am doing right now is looking forward to the Dimension Films re-make that will be coming out in the near future to wipe this abomination out of my memory. With being involved in the original release of this film I don’t quite know how Borchers was able to steer this in such a wrong direction.

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How To Be A Serial Killer (2008)

by Stuart Conover on March 26, 2010

How To Be A Serial Killer (2008)

How To Be A Serial Killer was both written and directed by Luke Ricci which was the second movie he has written and first to direct. Honestly with the creative style and direction he went with the film I could see Luke coming up with some interesting property down the line and only hope he has the chance to get another film in the works as this one didn’t receive nearly the praise that it should have.

I’m usually down on comedy films that are also horror. There have been multiple ones the past few years that have actually been able to pull it off successfully I’m very jaded against the thought of mixing these two genres. It’s most likely due to movies such as the “Scary Movie” franchise having completely turned me off of the idea of mixing the two types of film but there have been just an increasingly large amount of movies that just did it right – How To Be A Serial Killer is exactly one of these movies. It is a black comedy that not only is about a serial killer but also mixes in an ongoing running gag of an ongoing late night infomercial selling the idea of being a serial killer to increase your self esteem and be a self help program.

The movie revolves around Mike (Dameon Clarke) who is running this mental self help program for himself. Near the beginning of the film he runs into a video store clerk who is being berated by customers and is exactly the kind of person who is in need of guidance and self help in their life named Bart (Matthew Gray Gubler.) Mike is quick on the uptake to sign Bart up for his course and slowly attempts to turn him into a serial killer. While Bart is completely hooked on the idea of being a killer he is unable to take the step to push him into that realm and continues learning until the very end of the film.

Mike’s character is so well played its disgusting. He is energetic, endearing, and charismatic – the perfect combination to play a sociopath and he pulls it off to perfection. He is able to lure you into wanting to follow every aspect of the story including being completely sold on everything he is going and everything he is doing is killing his victims. Not only do we get a lot of murder running throughout the movie but the murder is honestly creative. We get so many various ways that people are killed from hand to hand weapons, blunt object, guns, to household appliances. What differentiates him from almost every other serial killer you see or read about is that he doesn’t kill his victims in the same way which is completely against the standard view of how serial killers off their targets. With top notch casting and acting you’ll be shocked when remembering that this is an independent film. Luke Ricci is going to have an amazing career ahead of him in writing horror and Demeon was born to play in horror movies. I can’t wait to see what they both do next in the genre.

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Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror (2006)

by Stuart Conover on March 23, 2010

Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror (2006)

I know I generally jump directly into the director and writing information but this one is going to need a small bit of introduction first due to the amount of writers involved. Why are there so many writers? Well this was filmed in the style of Creepshow. If you haven’t seen the 2 Creepshow films (you are truly missing out on a couple classic pieces of horror being the case) than think more along the lines of novels. What kind of novels? Anthology novel! The Creepshow series and now the Hood of Horror are anthologies of mini-horror films that are put together and told by a single narrator and in this case it is played by Snoop Dogg himself.

The films are directed by Stacy Title who has had a few films previous and a few after but is not a high profile director. After seeing the Hood of Horror you have to hope she gets a shot at a big budget horror film to see what she can put together as each of these shorts had its own piece of charm you couldn’t help to enjoy. The first film Crossed out was written by Jacob Hair (whose done a large mixture of smaller horror films and television) and Tim Sullivan (who again worked with quite a few movies.) The second film, The Scumlord, was also written by Tim Sullivan as well as Chris Kobin (who worked on a few projects with Tim.) Finally the third film, Rapsody Askew was written by Jonathan McHugh and while this is his only writing credit he has done music for a lot of movies including Repo! The Genetic Opera and Saw 2. Now while each of these 3 short movies are a fun watch, unlike Creepshow which it’s clearly based upon, it’s hard to think of any of the three as scary.

Crossed Out is the story about a woman whose neighborhood is overrun with gang members and while she attempts to be a tough woman by spray painting over their ‘tagging’ to get back at them all they do is end up trying to kill her. She ends up making a pact to gain satanic powers to be able to end the gang warfare though in the end is guilty of committing the same acts that they do and have to suffer the same fate she had inflicted upon the gang members.

The second story The Scumlord is about a redneck who inherits his father’s condo that is being rented out on the cheap to veterans he had gone to war with earlier in his life. The redneck and his wife are racist bastards and treat the tenants like second class citizens though both end up getting exactly what is coming to them when they find out what the couple have done to a nurse that has been taking care of them.

The third and final story is Rapsody Askew about a rapper who sold his soul to become the best rapper in the world. Along the way he had both friends and enemies taken care of and his best friend who was holding him back has come back to teach him a lesson and let him know the time has come to pay his debt.

My suggestion when it comes to this one? Go pickup the original 2 Creepshow films if you want a horror anthology. If you’re looking for a way to kill an afternoon you can pick this up but don’t expect any real scares. I’d also suggest turning this into a drinking game with friends which would make it doubly enjoyable.

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Trick ‘r Treat (2008)

by Stuart Conover on March 22, 2010

Trick ‘r Treat (2008)

Trick ‘r Treat has an interesting release date. The film was actually ready to go much earlier than that but never got any real wide releases on the big screen or DVD until 2009. Somehow though it retains a 2008 release so we’re going to have to go with that instead of the 2009 one which would make more sense. The film is the creation of Michael Dougherty and he put in his own blood, sweat, and tears to get this film out and everyone who sees it can instantly agree it was worth it. This was his first movie fully directed (aside from the 1996 animated short Season’s Greetings which it is based off of) though he did write X-Men 2, Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, and part of Superman Returns prior. Don’t let that Superman reference throw you (with how many hated that movie I can see why it may be difficult to do) as Trick ‘r Treat is a homage to horror and anthology based fully upon Halloween – the only holiday that can be claimed by the horror community and has never had a movie to truly stand behind that celebrates it.

What we see within Trick ‘r Treat is an entity known as “Sam” who is both watching and participating in the Halloween festivals. There are traditions that are followed on Halloween but what we are shown is that many of these traditions are in fact rituals that need to be followed for if they are broken on this night it can mean certain death. The story is told during the course of a single night on Halloween and is being held in a small town that is meant to reflect any number of towns from around the world giving a “it could happen anywhere” vibe.

Sam links four stories that occur within the town and each one is more entertaining than the last. I really can’t give you a summary in order as multiple of these stories are partially spread out throughout the entire film. We open with a short of Sam being very unhappy with a woman who is anti-Halloween and takes down her decorations a little early. Following this we are told a tale that involves a principal (Dylan Baker) who starts his scene by teaching someone who is not following the “rules” of Halloween by giving him a taste of his own medicine and is shown to be teaching his son valuable lessons as well. We are let in to follow a group of young women who are getting ready for a Halloween party and see one of them (Anna Paquin pre-True Blood) being stalked. There are a group of kids who are stealing pumpkins as a way to terrify someone they aren’t close friends with but what happens when the urban legend they are using turns out to be partially real? Finally we end with an old man (Brian Cox) who is taught a lesson about both Halloween and not being able to run from his past.

I could honestly write for pages on various reasons on why this film is a must own. Trick ‘r Treat is the decisive Halloween treat for any Horror fan out there so all I will say is that if you haven’t picked this one up you are doing yourself a disservice.

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Zombieland (2009)

by Stuart Conover on March 20, 2010

Zombieland (2009)

Zombieland was the definitive horror themed comedy of 2009 and not only was it surrounded by a LOT of hype on the release date it was able to live up to all expectations AND surpass them. The first real zombie themed comedy since Shaun of the Dead stole the spotlight on horror comedies and what we see in this one is able to surpass it. Directed by relative new director Ruben Fleischer anyone can tell you this is a director to keep your eyes on. It was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick who have both worked in a few movies and television. They came together at one point to be a writing team and actually pitched Zombieland as a television show (which is convenient for us seeing a few follow up movies as they have a plot in place to follow through with a few.) With their success on Zombieland they of course are both signed up for a sequel, the Deadpool movie spinoff from Wolverine, and a sequel to the first G.I. Joe film. They are two writers who are going to be huge if they can keep up the momentum in these next three films!

We open the movie with an amazing cinematic showing off what has happened to the world being narrated by Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) as he explains how the world has come to an end. After that he quickly goes over the ‘rules’ he lives by (which is a comedic part that follows through the entire movie) and why he ends up on the move. Soon after beginning his journey to his parent’s house he stumbled across Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson.) Tallahassee is a very resourceful if high strung man and one of his quotes says it all, “My moma always told me, someday I'd be good at something. Who'd have guessed that something would be zombie killing?” This is a fact he has endless fun proving over and over again.

While on the search for supplies (and more importantly for Tallahassee, a Twinkie) they come across two other survivors. A pair of sisters who go by Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who quickly prove to be much more devious and resourceful than our two leads as they steal Tallahassee’s pickup and gun. As they leave our two Tallahassee stumble across a redneck’s H2 full of weapons and are on their way again only to end up coming across the pickup now broken down. Clearly a trap they are once again tricked by the two girls but at this point are able to put together a truce because, let’s face it the world is covered in the undead and there are more important things to do than worry about each other.

The film can be taken as a horror (great gore), comedy (absolutely hilarious at every turn specifically with Harrelson stealing most of the scenes he’s in), a romance (Anyone who doesn’t see that Columbus and Wichita are going to get together is blind), an action flick (guns guns and guns), and a post apocalyptic film (seriously everything is destroyed) and even with mixing all of these genres together pulls it off. It’s one of the funniest and just plain fun films that were released in 2009 and well worth the watch. While the scare factor and suspense aren’t that high you still won’t regret putting this one on.

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House Of 1000 Corpses (2003)

by Stuart Conover on March 20, 2010

House Of 1000 Corpses (2003)

Written and directed by the iconic metal singer Rob Zombie, this film marked his debut into the horror movie genre. Since it's release he has come out with a multitude of films though for the most part most people agree that he should be coming up with original material. Once he started making remakes fans everywhere where at first excited but now for the most part cringe with what he has done with the Halloween franchise. While not everyone agrees with that statement enough do to make you sit up and worry if you hear him working on a project - at least a remake. Thankfully though House of 1000 Corpses is from a simpler time of fresh ideas on how hillbillies from the southern portion of America really are the most frightening people to have to deal with.

We open the movie with 4 kids who are taking a road trip and are on an apparently deserted back road. Like the introduction to so many other horror movies that take place in the South they don't stumble across a single soul with real intelligence. They do however come across at Captain Spaulding's which is run be a demonic looking clown who sets the stage for what is to happen. At Spaulding's you can buy gas, fried chicken, and take a death ride! The death ride tells us about Doctor Satan who was apparently a local serial killer who was hung years prior. They go to look into where he was hung and on the way there pickup a hitchhiker - the ever luscious "Baby" (Sheri Moon.)

From this point it all goes downhill for the 4 kids who are drawn to where Sheri lives which is when the true "fun" begins as her entire family is basically a group of insane, cannibalistic, serial killers. Zombie knows how to craft a visually gritty film from top to bottom and it’s a shame that the plot isn’t half as good as the sequel (how often does that happen?) It’s a fun ride of sheer gore and violence though is rather weak on the suspense itself. The entire family is a top notch cast of insanity as we have Sid Haig playing the previously mentioned Captain Spaulding. Sheri Moon Zombie as the daughter mentioned. Karen Black (who was in countless classic B horror films) playing her mother and finally her brother Otis is being played by Bill Moseley.

The entire family (aside from Sheri) immediately comes off both visually and mentally as a group of cannibalistic rednecks who truly are just insane and that have never heard of morals. While Sheri herself is just as mentally twisted as her entire family she at least has the looks to pass as a normal member of society and they are clearly intelligent enough to use this to their advantage. As we all know sex sells and what better wait for a group of cannibals than to use it to sell safety right before everything goes to hell for their unsuspecting pray. As I mentioned the plot on the first one is kind of weak but if you are looking for a splatter fest than this is the film for you.

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Friday the 13th (2009)

by Stuart Conover on March 18, 2010

Friday the 13th (2009)

Directed by Marcus Nispel (Familiar with remakes from directing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003 and is currently working on the reboot of the Conan series that is due out next year.) While some movies have a single writer, to properly bring the new Friday the 13th they had Damian Shannon and Mark Swift for the screenplay and story as well as Mark Wheaton on the story as well. Shannon and Swift both have experience with the Friday the 13th universe as they co-wrote Freddy vs Jason together. Knowing this will turn some people away immediately as this was one of the more ill received movies of both of these franchises (I'll admit it having hated it when it came out but having re-watched it recently it wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered.) The final writer has done a couple movies previously though is his first entry into the Slasher genre.

This film is kind of a tough one to really go over because for as much as they got right with the reintroduction to the franchise there was so much that was wrong. The movie feels like it is a short movie at the introduction followed by the main feature that both involve the same characters (much as Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 felt like.) The only difference is all of it is “real” in the realm of Jason Voorhees and the first part of the movie actually takes classic moments from the first couple and remakes them to give us a kind of prologue for anyone who hasn’t seen the originals. This does not feel like a waste of time though. Just like Halloween 2 the introduction was the best part of the film. It had the classic moments that all felt just right while showing how little actually happened in the first few movies.

While the movie was able to follow the formula of a Jason movie “decently” after the introduction there was a slew of problems that brought everything great to a drag. Jason’s kills in the past all had that huge build up and pay off to each and everyone. This new entry into the franchise has the buildup down pat but each and every kill felt as if it lacked the payoff. While some of the styled in killing weren’t predictable this was due to them lacking the true strength of previous kills.

While it holds up as an OK watch and I highly enjoyed the introduction to catch anyone up on the series it kind of falls apart after that. There were modern day additions to a classically proven formula that just should not have made the cut: torture, traps, prolonged kills, abduction, a high level of gore, and Jason actually taking the time to run. Jason doesn’t run the entire point is a pepe le pew styled slow walk that would always catch up to the person running due to a mistake on their part or just getting tired. I really wanted this movie to work since the originals were all full of campy fun (and not something you should take as a serious slasher flick) but it just never seemed to reach the fun level and that’s a shame for all Friday the 13th fans.

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My Bloody Valentine (1981)

by Stuart Conover on March 18, 2010

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

My Bloody Valentine is a true classic that was created in 1981 as a slasher flick with a slightly different setting from most of the films of its time and that were created after. This film was directed by George Mihalka and amazingly was only his second film. Sadly though it would appear to be his masterpiece as while he has had many films under his belt in the years since its release - he did not have any major horror films after this point. The film was written by Stephen A. Miller (Who has sadly mainly worked in Television and not graving us with further horror greatness) and John Beaird (who unfortunately passed away in 1993.) It was early in the career for all three of these men and sadly none further pursued the horror genre in their careers as it's one that has been a fan favorite (if partially underground favorite until the re-make) of slasher films for decades at least when they were able to get their hands on the full movie. What surprising is how well the movie was received by horror fans even with the amazing kills and gore stripped from it as the entire movie was a masterpiece in horror as the acting, directing, score, everything was top notch.

When it originally came out it was horribly stripped of countless of the kills that were previewed that had horror fans everywhere clamoring for its release. What we ended up with was a stripped down film that did not provide the proper slasher feel that was both previewed and promised. It was a movie that could have become a franchise to outshine many there were out there and was cut short from horrible editing on the part of the studio. Today this isn’t an issue as every release of it you can find contains the full footage thanks to Lionsgate.

The story begins with a combination of a Valentines party in a mining community where 20 years prior a horrible accident in the mines occurred trapping one Harry Warden in the mines. He was trapped there for quite some time and after a bit of cannibalism with his friends who had died finally snapped. When he managed to escape he ended up being committed but was able to constantly escape to go on a killing spree. As I mentioned 20 years had passed since this horrible date and Harry has been long since confined in the institute. Clearly it’s time to let the guard down and re-open the doors for a Valentine’s Day festival for all of those who want to celebrate.

I’ll let you take one guess on who appears to escape and go on a killing spree when the younger minders start their party to celebrate. What I have to say is that we actually get a lot of great character development and interaction in the movie and a ton of creative kills on top of it. The Valentine’s Day 3D released in 2009, while a fun film and is attempting to turn it into a franchise, fails to properly delivery on the characters in the way the original did. It’s still a fun film but the original let’s you get excited on what could have been if it hadn’t been so mutilated by editors before going onto the big screen.

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