In Fear - Mini Review

 From the UK, comes "In Fear".  It is about a couple on a somewhat "date" to a hotel in the remote countryside.  Things start going wrong on the way, and soon they feel they are in mortal danger!

The film is good at building the tension.  There are some very creepy moments in the film.  The ending was a little bit of a let down.

There is a behind the scenes feature on the Blu-ray, that explains the interesting way the film was made.  Basically, the actors didn't know what was going to happen to them.

I like the film.  I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Blast Vegas - Mini Review

 Another Syfy produced film, like the movie, Scarecrow, that I just reviewed.  This is the better film between the two.

  A group of friends in Vegas, steal a sword and initiate an ancient Egyptian curse.  Soon, devastation is set upon Sin City.   This was a fun movie.  While not taking itself too seriously, it was a fairly good horror/disaster flick.

  Though not totally perfect, the visual effects / CGI was done well.  It was cool witnessing Vegas landmarks get annihilated time and time again.  The acting was great and the writing was intelligent.

 I would give the film 4 out of 5 stars.

Scarecrow 2013 - Mini Review

 This is a mini review for the Syfy channel original movie, Scarecrow.  First off, you might be enraged to learn that this movie does not contain a single crow, whatsoever! 

  The story involves a teacher taking a bunch of trouble teens to a farmhouse, where there is a legend about a killer scarecrow.  The film suffers from lazy writing, the kind many a horror flick falls victim to.  An old legend that no one believes- check, cell phones don't work- check, troubled, sex-crazed teens- check, truck won't start- check, etc.  My favorite part was when five of the characters were knocked unconscious at the same time, and awoke a few hours later, all at the same time.  The characters don't act realistically at all.  They behave irrationally and many times when they are being chased, they take their time and frequently pause to assess the situation.  The movie also doesn't explain many things about its plot.

  There is a lot of overacting in the cast, although, Lacey Chabert and a couple of the others in the cast do a fairly good job.  The creature is not a typical scarecrow.  It is created using Syfy's typical "discount" CGI.

  I did like some of the locations, particularly, the boat graveyard.  In summary, it was an adequate movie, just a typical straight forward kill the teens movie.  I would give it 2 out of 5 stars.

 

Celebrities that sell their autographs rant

  This rant encompasses not only horror celebrities, but all celebrities.  As conventions have become more popular over the last few years, so have celebrities selling their autographs at them.

  I am fine with celebrities signing for free to promote projects they are in, and those that are authors signing books that they have written.  However, I think celebrities that sell autographs and photo opportunities are leaching off their fans.  I think the whole scenario is really tacky.

  Autograph prices are now going up at conventions.  It used to be $20 for an autograph and a photo with the celebrity.  Now the amount celebs are charging is escalating.  They are now charging separately for photo opportunities.  Star Trek celebs are among the worse, with some now charging around $100 for an autograph.

  Many stars seem to look at their most die hard fans as a pathetic source of income that they can squeeze as much cash out of as possible.  I guess this is nothing new, I think of greatest hits albums from rock groups that include one new song, so the fans that bought all of their earlier albums, will have to buy the greatest hits album to own that one song.

  Now for the celebrities excuses as to why they do this.  They say it really isn't about paying for the signature, but paying for the experience to meet and converse with the celebrity.  Isn't this the same as paying someone to be your friend?  I have spent quite a bit of time around celebrities and most of them would rather avoid their fans than talk to them.  I think this is because they mostly encounter the aggressive type of fan, which are the ones who have the nerve to come up to them.  I think there is also a feeling when you are a celebrity, that everyone wants something from you.  I just don't think many would offer to sit and talk to their fans for free.  I don't really understand the allure of all of this.  Why would you want to talk to someone who is only interested in you because you gave them $40?  "Here is a picture of me with the entire cast of Star Trek the Next Generation".  "Oh yeah,  I am good friends with all of them.  I only had to pay $350 for it."

  The other excuse is- "I take the time to sign a picture for someone, the next thing I know it's on Ebay!".  Celebrities can't stand when someone else makes any kind of money off them.  It isn't like someone is going to make a career out of re-selling their autographs.  These people that re-sale their autographs aren't the ones the celebs should be getting mad at.  At least eventually, that autograph will end up in the hands of a fan.  The people to get mad at are the ones who fake their signature and sell it on Ebay.  And there is the photo opportunity fees.  Those aren't really sellable, as no one wants a pictures of a celebrity with a stranger.  It is only valuable to the person that is in the picture with the star.

  The autograph writers aren't very considerate of their fans many times.  Celebrities frequently don't show up to autograph events or are only their part of the time they are scheduled for.  Many have rules for what they will and won't sign and how they will sign it.  Some will only personalize autographs, some will only sign their name.  Some want to be paid the absolute highest value the item with their signature will be worth, if they sign it.  So if you have a $100 memorabilia item and it would be worth $150, if they sign it, they want to charge you $150 for the autograph.

  I realize there are celebrities that are nice to their fans.  There are celebs that give the money they make off autos to charity.  Some celebs that didn't get paid much for their acting careers see autographs as a way of making up some of that money they feel is owed to them.  I just think trying to make a living off the fans that like a show you were on 30 years ago, when you were ten years old, is kind of pitiful.

 In a perfect scenario, celebrities would be paid their costs to attend the event by the event promoters.  I don't think it should cost celebs to be at these events, but I also don't think they should be making money off them.  If they don't want to meet their fans and are only interested in making money, they shouldn't be at autograph events.

  What celebrities have done with this autograph selling is taken one of the few ways that they can give back to fans, and turned it into yet another way they can take from their fans.

Ticks - Mini Review

  From the pre-CGI early nineties, comes Ticks!

  This campy horror film is infested with a  good cast, with many familiar names, including a young Seth Green.

  The story is about a group of troubled teens who are sent to a wilderness camp (filmed in Big Bear, California), to confront their inner demons.  Little do they know, they are about to encounter real monsters, like mutated ticks and worse... crazy locals! 

  The movie is fairly good.  The practical effects are mostly well done.  There were some issues near the end, where there were jumps in the editing.  It was like they rushed through some of the ending shots. 

  I enjoyed the film.  I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The horror community and attending horror related events

I live in Southern California.  I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I believe the horror community here is comprised of a small, but devoted group of people.  These are the people that watch indie horror movies, go to horror conventions, attend horror film festivals, etc.

I would guestimate the number in the Southern California area to be around 1,000.  That is a pretty small number for such a populated geographical region.  I tend to see the same people at horror events here.  Maybe we should all carpool to these things.

At general conventions, the horror panels don't seem to draw a large attendance.  Horror-related panels at the popular San Diego Comic Con are always easy to get into. 

We know that we are a small group, and most of us do our best to support horror in various ways.  With the horror community being as small as it is, I think it is important for people who put on horror events to listen to feedback from horror fans.

 I think what happened with the Weekend of Horrors convention is a good example of this.  The people who ran it did 80% of things right.  The frustrating part was that they would not do the small things to take care of the 20% of things that they did wrong.  They had a tiered ticketing system and screwed over the people who paid for the more expensive ticket types.  For example, they sold reserved seats for the panels at double the normal price and then did not enforce the reserved seat rule.  People that bought reserved seats felt like idiots for paying more and had to kick out people that were sitting in their reserved seats, themselves.  The people who ran the convention ignored suggestions on how to fix the convention.  Unhappy attendees means lower attendance numbers for future conventions.  As a result, the Weekend of Horrors convention is no more.  I think there is a lesson here.

A frustrating thing is happening regarding horror events this year.  There aren't many major horror events that occur in the Southern California area, and yet The Days of the Dead Horror Convention, The Long Beach Comic and Horror Con, and the HP Lovecraft Film Festival are all taking place on the same weekend this year, September 27th and 28th.  It is maddening as hell!  Why!?

Random Acts of Violence - Mini Review

This is a documentary style film about a British man who casually kills people in New York. His main motive for this murder spree is to drive out all the pretentious rich people, so the artsy, real people can return to New York City.

The film has a dry sense of humor.  I think it is inferior to similar films, like "Behind the Mask".  It has a few twists, but I found it hard to stay interested in the film.  Despite being listed on the cover, Kirsten Dunst only makes a very brief cameo, as herself.  I thought she was going to be one of his victims, but no.  A loss of a cool opportunity.

The DVD has no extras.  I would give the film 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Mini Review

 This is a dark, horror movie with a dash of romance.  It is very reminiscent of the 1998 movie "What Dreams May Come".

  Mischa Barton plays a woman questioning her faith in religion, after enduring a tragedy.  She starts experiencing some strange phenomena in her life. Someone she cares about disappears and evidence seems to indicate he went, willing or otherwise, to the top floor of his apartment building.  The only problem with that, is the building used to be a mental hospital and the top floor is an abandoned, haunted hellhole.  After the police don't believe her, she and three friends must brave the eerie hallways to try to find him.

  The movie is very slow paced, during its almost two hour length.   The first part of the movie is the build up to the horror-filled second half. 

  The acting is good, and in a rare feat for a horror movie, the characters are actually intelligent.  They don't foolishly do stupid things, to create further plot complications due to lazy writing.  The story was interesting and unpredictable.  The movie doesn't dumb itself down to explain things to the viewer.      

  Where the movie shines is in its build up of the horror on the top floor and the creepy atmosphere / cinematography
of those hallways.  Once the four characters get off the elevator to start the search, the dread in the air and the danger they face is apparent and equally felt by anyone watching the movie.  These are the qualities that really make a good horror movie.

  While very well done, the movie is not perfect.  At times it gets a little too crazy.   It also might not be for people with attention deficit disorder.  I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Future of Horror Magazines

  I love horror magazines.  There is something about the scenes of terror depicted on the full-color slick pages.  Somehow, websites just can't compete with them.

  In the old days, I used to avoid them because magazines like Fangoria would show spoilers about the films, like revealing what the creature in the film looked like.  Nowadays, most of them are very well done and informative.  Reviews, previews, in-depth stories, interviews, and of course, great pictures.

   There are more now than ever.  There are even two named almost the same- Screem from the U.S.A. and Scream from the U.K..  However, they may be in a death spiral that many genres of magazines are experiencing.  Horror magazines seem to be spiraling faster than other types. 

 Competition from web sites, which are free and more timely, has cause the magazines to not only raise the prices, but also lower the number of pages contained in each issue.  As an example, Fangoria is now $10.99 and issue for 80 pages of content.  It is getting to the point where only die hard horror fans with plenty of cash can afford to buy these publications.

  I think some will go on, but very soon the herd will be culled.  I think horror fiction magazines, like Cemetery Dance will continue.  They have very little print or web-based rivals.



  Amid this, Full Moon Features is about to put out a new magazine in February of 2014.  It is called Delirium. The link is below.

http://www.deliriummagazine.com/

 It will be interesting what they will do with it.  They have the advantage of being inside the industry, and yet the disadvantage of not being able to do impartial reviews.

  I really hope these magazine thrive in some way, as they really support the horror community in more ways than one.

House of Bad - Mini Review

 House of Bad... Acting?  Sound?  Filmmaking?  Yes, all that and more.

  This is a low budget movie about three sisters who steal from a drug dealer and hide out in an abandoned house where two of the sisters grew up.  Of course, it hides a dark secret from their past.  Can you guess what it is?

  The movie actually starts off somewhat promising, story wise, and then slowly goes off the deep end.  The movie gradually gets worse with continuity errors, absurd action scenes,  nonsensical plot twists, and wacky acting, until in the final 15 minutes, it gets so bad, it is good.

  I would give the film 1.5 stars out of 5.

We Are What We Are - Mini Review

   First, a warning about this movie - if you don't like seeing people brutally tortured and savagely put through hell, please remove all mirrors and any kind of reflective surface around you, before you watch this movie.

   We Are What We Are and what we are is a bad movie.  A film about a family of cannibals.  It is slow.  It is stupid.  It did have good lighting.  If all you all you want out of a movie is well lit scenes, then you may like this.

  The behind-the-scenes and interviews run a total of 75 minutes.  I didn't care to watch them.

  I would give it 1 out of 5 stars.

Die Monster Die! - Mini Review

  Die Monster Die was one of the earliest film adaptations from an H.P. Lovecraft story.  It was also one of Boris Karloff's last films.  Made in 1965, the film is very loosely based off of Lovecraft's story, "The Color out of Space".

  It is a decent horror film.   The two things that keep the movie interesting are the acting and the atmospheric film locations, particularly the cool mansion in which most of the story takes place.

  The Blu-ray was recently release from Scream Factory.  It is not a special edition release, the only extra is a trailer.  The trailer is made up of all the action scenes in the movie, including the ending.  It is kind of like fast-forwarding through the entire disk.

  I did enjoy the movie.  I would have preferred that the film had followed Lovecraft's story more faithfully, but I guess the special effect technology at the time wouldn't allow it.  I would give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Scream Factory changes

 

It appears that Scream Factory, a sub-division of Shout Factory, has made a couple of changes recently to their collector's editions.

 

One change is that if you order from them directly, many times on their collector editions, they will give you a free poster.  If my memory is correct, they used to send the posters out rolled in a tube.  Now, they are sending them out folded in a magazine-sized cardboard sleeve.  I guess it saves them money, but it sort of ruins the poster.  See the picture below of two of their recent releases.

 

The other change is that they now shrink wrap the cardboard slipcase on their collector edition titles.  They are doing this to protect the slipcases, because the slipcases themselves are now "collector items", because they are only going to be included on the first pressing of the combo packs.  You can see the shine of the shrink wrap on the recent releases below.  It is funny because the original reason slipcases were put on dvds and blu-rays, was to eliminate the glare of the shrink wrap and to make them stand out on the shelves.  Now they are going to have to put a slipcase over the shrink wrap on the first slipcase.  It's a never-ending cycle.

 

Mischa Barton and Walmart

In this age where retail stores are now rarely stocking independent horror dvds and blu-rays, we horror fans have an unlikely ally, Walmart.  Walmart is one of the last brick and mortar stores that still stocks independent horror movies and at a bargain to boot!  Many of the dvds that Amazon list at over $20, Walmart sells for $10 to $15.  They typically get around 3 new titles a week.

  I have been a fan of Mischa Barton since the great movie, Lawn Dogs.  I guess she was eleven years old when she did that film.  Lately, she has been doing a lot of independent horror/thrillers that have gone straight to DVD.  She has done Cyberstalker, A Ressurection, Apartment 1303, and the recently released, I Will Follow You Into The Dark.  Of these, I have only watched Apartment 1303.  That movie had its moments, but was overall disappointing.

What does Mischa Barton have to do with Walmart?  Every single one of her recent DVD movies has been released at Walmart for $9.99.  As far as I can tell, all these DVDs are from different companies/distributors.  That is quite a coincidence since, even though Walmart stocks about three new horror titles a week, most new horror DVDs never see the light of day on a Walmart shelf.  Does the person who decides what DVDs to stock at Walmart have a crush on Mischa?  Does Mischa have a side job at Walmart in the DVD purchasing department?  A mystery is afoot!

Sanitarium - Mini Review

 This film is a horror anthology with tales based around some type of madness.  Malcolm McDowell plays a doctor at a sanitarium.  The movie involves him relating the stories of three of the residing patients.

  The acting is good.  There are many well-known actors in the cast.  The premise of all three tales are very promising, but how they all play out is disappointing.  The stories lose focus and tend to drag, especially the final one.

  The three stories involve:

•  An eccentric artist who creates these evil-looking clay figures straight out of a Tim Burton film.  He might be bringing these creations to life in more ways than one.   
•  A boy who suffers abuse at the hands of his father is suddenly stalked by a figure that may be even more savage than his old man.
•  A man who believes in the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012, builds a fallout shelter to survive it.

If only the film realized the potential of the three stories.  I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

You're Next - Mini Review

   I originally saw this film at its showing during last year's San Diego Comic Con.  After the film, there was a Q & A with actresses Barbara Crampton and Sharni Vinson, and the writer (Simon Barrett) and the director (Adam Wingard).  The pictures of the event are at the bottom of this review, including one in 3D.

  This movie takes place during a family reunion between a couple and their four adult children, who each bring their significant other.  The whole film takes place at a country house.  It is not long before they are attacked by men wearing pagan animal masks.

  The film is very good.  The story is not that great or very original.  What really makes the movie, is the acting, the dark humor in the interactions between the characters, and the execution of the action scenes.  They are all top notch.

  The only downsides to the film are one irritating shakey cam scene, which was done that way because the filmmakers were out of time to do it properly, and characters some times doing things they would never do in real life, to set up the story the way the writer wanted to, a la "The Purge".

  The Blu-ray is slim on extras: two commentary tracks and an eleven minute "making of" feature.

 I give the film 4.5 stars out of 5.

Barbara Crampton, Sharni Vinson, the writer (Simon Barrett) and the director (Adam Wingard)

The Picture on the right is an anaglyph 3D image.  You need the standard red/cyan glasses to see it in 3D.

Carrie 2013 - Mini Review

 I was looking forward to this movie, because I really like Chloe Grace Moretz as an actress.  I did have some trepidation about this remake, as Chloe was going against Sissy Spacek, who really nailed the character of Carrie as a sheltered outsider in the original.  It turns out my fears were realized as this turned out to be another soulless remake of a classic.

Despite the fact that the new Carrie is very similar to the original, with some aspects of the story being emphasized / de-emphasized, they just got it all wrong.  It's funny, because in the behind the scenes features on the disk, many times it is mentioned that the remake is going to be more realistic than the original.  This couldn't be farther from the truth. 

To start out with, Chloe is mis-cast as Carrie. Not just because she is pretty, like every critic of this movie has pointed out, she just doesn't have the emotion of a scarred individual that is oppressed by her mother, as Spacek had in the original.  Just observe how the line "You should have told me, Mama!" is delivered in both versions.  Sissy really made you feel the pain in her life with her performance and you felt for her.  The original was about a shattered girl trying to shake the mis-guided will of her mother and fit in with the rest of the world with tragic results.  In Carrie 2013, the title character is quite a bit less syphathetic.  This remake, in the words of the director in one of the featurettes on the blu-ray, "Is a superhero origin story".  Bleck! 

   I think Chloe has a great future as an actress, but I think doing this movie was a mistake for her.  I would have to give the movie 1 out of 5 stars.

Big Ass Spider! - Mini-Review

 This movie has a lot of buzz going on about it.  They did a pretty good job of promoting it.  Troma helped promote the movie at one of their panels at the last Comikazee convention in LA.  They passed out game cards from the movie.  Mine is pictured below, I didn't win anything.

  This is a fun, campy movie with some scares.  It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it is not too over the top where you don't care about what happens.  It fuses a 50's style giant insect movie with a modern day comedy. 

  The main star of the movie is the CGI spider and the CGI destruction it commits.  The CGI is fairly good for a low budget feature, and there is a lot of it.  The effects are not as believable as a big budget science fiction film, but for a film like this, they are adequate.

  My only critisism of the Blu-ray version of the film, is that the extras are lacking.  There are only some trailers and about 6 minutes of SXSW premiere footage / cast interviews.

  It was a fun, film, I would recommend it.  I don't think it quite lives up to its hype.  You can tell the filmmakers put a ton of effort into this production.  I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Empire of the B's book

I recently bought a cool book from Full Moon Features.  It is about the studio that Charles Band had before Full Moon, Empire.  Empire released Re-animator and a bunch of other cool flicks.  The author is based in the UK.  This is the UK edition, it does not have a US publisher yet.  Full Moon received 100 of the books early and sold them on their website.  They were numbered 1 to 100 and signed by Charles Band.  I got two copies, numbers 20 and 21.  They sold out in just a couple of days.  Full Moon might get more in later in the year.  It is softcover, with about 375 pages.  It has many pictures throughout the book in black and white.  The price was $50 each.  

Box of Dread - January

Today, I received my first Box of Dread.  This is a monthly mystery box that is similar to Loot Crate, except there are only horror-related items in the box.  It is about $20 a month.  The link to the website is below.  This month contained a ReAction Alien figure, a "vintage pack" of Terminator cards from the year 2000, an Insidious 2 water bottle, and an Insidious 2 led lamp with compass.

http://www.boxofdread.com/

Killer Klowns from Outer Space panel

Pictures I took of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space panel from Son of Monsterpalooza.

 

Nailbiter - Mini-Review

Nailbiter - Mini-Review

I watched this last night. I was orginally going to see this film at Shriekfest last year, but I didn’t go.

The film is about a woman on a car trip to pick up her husband from the airport. Accompanying her, are her three daughters. Along the way, they encounter a tornado and have to seek refuge in the cellar of a seemingly abandoned house. It turns out that the tornado is the least of their worries.

I had mixed feelings about the film. I like the premise and I thought the story was fairly good. It had some original aspects, I particularly like the old woman character. The creature effects and the way they were shot were impressive. On the negative side, some of the acting was sub-par. I also didn’t like the editing, many of the scene transitions were not smooth. It took me out of the movie and it made the story a little hard to follow.

Not a perfect film, but I enjoyed it. I would give it 3 stars out of 5.