Filmmakers, Jose and Eduardo Quiroz’s latest flick Deliverance From Evil brings us the tale of a young couple and their son moving into a new house in San Francisco that holds dark secrets. When their son drowns in the bathtub, the couple is left to deal with the intense heartbreak of losing a child on top of an evil presence that becomes prevalent after their son’s demise. The couple are then forced to deal with the presence and get to the bottom of the strange events before the entity claims them as well.
Story-wise, Deliverance From Evil follows the standard haunted house movie formula pretty closely. There is hardly, if any, surprises to be had in terms of plot. The son getting killed was an interesting concept and probably would have been surprising if it wasn’t announced in the synopsis. If the son had more of a prominent role and it showed him actually trying to cope with the malevolent entity in the house before it had killed him, I think it would have worked out better for the story and suspense. And speaking of suspense; the movie fails to have any. With most of the scenes taking place during the day or heavily lighted, all chances to gain any suspense from this ghost story was thwarted. However, gripes aside, the story does pick up a little after the halfway point and there are some moments that are borderline creepy.
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A group of criminals planning a heist in the middle of winter in South Dakota pull Gil, a ski instructor (Michael Shane), into the mix. Before they break in to the local bank, they stage a diversion, entailing blowing up a nearby mineshaft. Once the cops are distracted, Alex (Frank Wolff) and his crew waltz in and scoop up as many gold bars as they can carry. The getaway part of their plan involves holing up in Gil’s cabin in the woods to wait for a plane to come in and whisk them off to Canada. Everyone except Gil and his maid are in on it. All Gil knows is that he’s made some fast friends who want to hang out at his cabin for a couple of days.
The Horror Homo has been on a sabbatical for a while, setting up some new digs half way around the country. There hasn’t been a whole lot of gay-themed Horror hitting my mailbox lately, and that’s why I was surprised when this Hustler porn arrived the other day. The Horror Homo isn’t a huge fan of porn films, but the combination of Horror, Porn and 3-D definitely got my attention.
PRIMITIVE begins with an introduction to a man named Martin Blaine, played by Matt O’Neil. Blaine is a special effects artist who specializes in making monsters. He’s toiling away on his next flick, playing the monster, but it’s obvious he’s got problems. To begin with, the quality of his work is slipping and he doesn’t like the director. His girlfriend is in the movie business too, and she is working with him on this gig. Things finally take a turn for the worse when he spots the director getting too cozy with his chick. He takes his anger out on the director later on during an argument, decking the guy outright.
Filmmaker Mike O’Mahony of Maniac Films, whose last movie Deadly Detour has been picked up for distribution, brings us his latest offering which is another crazy slasher gorefest with its sick and twisted moments.
THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS is the best adaptation that I have ever seen of an H.P. Lovecraft tale! There, I’ve said it, and I’m sure some of you are glad I did. But, as usual, I’m getting way ahead of myself. Before I prove that statement with some evidence, let’s back this review up and start at the beginning.
I first became aware of Carlos Atanes’ third feature film Maximum Shame because its cast included, among others, the British scream queen Eleanor James, whom I really enjoyed in films such as Colour From The Dark and Forest of the Damned. I was even fortunate enough to meet her on the sets of Unrated – The Movie and Karl The Butcher Vs. Axe. Elle’s scene in Atanes’ movie, however, is rather short and weird… and to be honest it didn’t help much to aid my viewing pleasure of what’s most likely one of the strangest, most fucked up and unfortunately least entertaining flicks I’ve seen in quite some time.
Indie horror director, Patrick Rea, has shown great promise through his darkly dramatic collection of short films. They have style and substance, slowly built up to explore an unexpected yet all encompassing personal horror. His feature, Nailbater, shows much of this same promise. It has great atmosphere, production values, and performances. Still, it felt like it fell short of the potential it held.
SHRIEK OF THE SASQUATCH is about a couple, Julie and Nick, who are on some kind of road trip and run afoul of good ol’ sasquatch. The film starts out with a photographer taking pictures of this hot chick in the woods when he suddenly spots something hairy and humanoid off in the distance.
The trailer was my first exposure to this film. I remember seeing it on TV and it immediately caught my interest simply because of its title—HUMONGOUS! Based on what you see in it, you can easily assume it’s a monster movie, and that’s what I thought it was. I also thought it took place in a jungle and not the woods.
After releasing his magnum opus Mutilation Mile last year, underground auteur Ron Atkins now gives us the release of his long awaited The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell, a story of two psychopaths who meet up in a post-apocalyptic world.
In 2011, there have been very few horror films that have actually delivered the goods. In fact, over the last decade, it has seemed that the best films have been coming from across the pond, most notably from Spain, France, and jolly old England. The English has been exporting plenty of quality programs to American audiences over the last few years spanning from The Mighty Boosh, both versions of the Office and an American remake of Shameless on Showtime to miniseries/films such as Dead Set, Colin, and the new film Panic Button which has definitely lived up to the hype it has had before this review.
Published by Warren Chan October 20th, 2011
in MOVIE REVIEWS (ALL) and NEWS.
The first Wrong Turn came out in 2003, well after I had lost faith in mainstream horror films. I have still never seen it. But after accidentally seeing the first few minutes of Wrong Turn 2, I decided to give the franchise a shot.
Being a movie hoarder, er….collector, certain titles repeat in my collection and not just once, twice but sometimes three, four or five editions of the same title. Gaining numerous items of the exact title does a number on my subconscious; the notion that is inserted about these various editions leaves me lethargic in getting to the actual movie and, in turn, can cease my ambition in reviewing a blu-ray edition of one of the best, if not the best, exploitive movie we’ve seen to date! Cannibal Holocaust is notorious around the world and was once believed, and probably considered still is, a snuff film even if the actors have revealed themselves alive and well. In my eyes, Cannibal Holocaust is a kind of snuff film, but not the sort of snuff film that you’re thinking.
If you’ve been a horror fan for longer than the last five minutes, the title THE THING should be very familiar to you. It’s John Carpenter’s aliens-in-the-arctic masterpiece, one of the best horror films ever made. And now there’s a different The Thing in theaters. Yet, Universal has been insisting this is not a remake, but a prequel to Carpenter’s Thing.
