Florida filmmaker Jason Liquori of Hocus Focus Productions, who have given us films like All Wrapped Up, Death Plots, and The Lunar Pack, bring us this unique canine horror flick with a twist.
Debbie Rochon stars as Maria, a woman caught up in an abusive relationship looking for a place to escape the wrath of her ex-boyfriend. Thinking she’s found an environment that’s safe enough, she gets a job as a house sitter and befriends the house pet, a canine named Lotus that appears normal enough at first. While alone at the house and looking after the dog, things start to get spookier as an animal of some kind (a bear?) is running around the neighborhood killing townsfolk and Maria accidentally lets Lotus out and Lotus doesn’t come back. She is then deluged with phone calls from her mother and a series of desperate sounding text messages from her ex-boyfriend. The police look for the loose bear. Things become more intense as it becomes more apparent that the bear may not be the biggest threat Maria and the neighborhood are faced with.
Perhaps it’s something near and dear to the household?
Continue reading ‘Movie Review: Savaged (2008)’
Anthology horror never runs a jolt of excitement through me as I have hardly any in my collection to begin with. The ever growing count of zombie and slasher films in my stash could surpass any major rental chain yet I lack seriously in short story horror. However, I’m not all ignorant of anthologies as I do have Romero’s and King’s collaborative Creepshow DVDs (1 and 2, of course) and a few other notable ones. For me, I’m a continuous story kind of guy; the idea of many characters and plot lines in one setting has me at a bore. When the U.K. distributor Odeon Entertainment sent me one of their new releases, a horror anthology, I immediately thought to myself, “I can’t wait to review this” in a facetious tone…
Today’s current term for the word “zombie” is defined as a deceased individual who is brought back to life by supernatural forces. You could also toss in some Romero key words in there like cannibalism and apocalyptic. Most of my generation only knows this type of zombie and doesn’t realize that George A. Romero only re-innovated the undead. There were two vastly different groups of zombies pre-1968: the voodoo zombie and the automaton. The voodoo zombie, similar to that of the Romero zombie, still resurrects from death but only for objective purposes; in other words, the zombie will do the dirty work for the resurrecting practitioner. You’re shit out of luck on this review because we will be discussing the automaton zombie like that from the Zombies from the Stratosphere.
Published by Greg November 24th, 2007
in MOVIE REVIEWS (ALL) and Movie Reviews 60's.
While out in the desert seeking thrills and racing their cars, three sexy and tough go-go dancers meet a nice young couple just looking to run some time trials for their car. Varla (Tura Satana), the leader of the gang of go-go dancers, wants to emasculate the guy and show how big her balls are so she challenges him to a race. Of course she cheats a little and a fight ensues in which she kills him with her bare hands. Instead of leaving any witnesses, they drug and kidnap his girlfriend.
If Psycho is the grandfather of the slasher film, then Homicidal should be considered the crazy great-uncle of the genre. When William Castle, master showman and Hitchcock rival, saw the box office returns on Psycho he wasinspired to make a similar film. Castle handed the scripting duties to frequent collaborator Robb (House on Haunted Hill) White. Then, Castle devised a great advertising campaign.
The cases for the five-disc set are lovingly adorned with multiple international posters and lobby cards for the five films and further encased in a beautiful slip cover featuring a striking image of Bava on the spine. “Black Sunday” (1960), “Black Sabbath” (1963), “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” (1963), “Knives of the Avenger” (1966), and “Kill, Baby…Kill!” (1966) are all films that would be at the top of any Bava fan’s wish list and are a great example of the diverse genres Bava handled expertly…
Published by wil December 16th, 2006
in MOVIE REVIEWS (ALL) and Movie Reviews 60's.
“Two Thousand Maniacs” is the second film in director Herschell Gordon Lewis´s infamous “Blood Trilogy.” “Maniacs” was often bundled together with his earlier film “Blood Feast” and the 1965 release “Color Me Blood Red” at drive-ins and budget theaters across the country, although these films were narratively unconnected to each other.
Published by Shane November 12th, 2006
in MOVIE REVIEWS (ALL) and Movie Reviews 60's.
one by one become the victim of this whacked old koot who, during the kill scenes, wears various mannequin-like masks/wigs/outfits and adopts a fucking retarded voice while in “character” while all the figures around him in his museum come to life complete with animated gaping mouths and fucking beyond absurd “aaahhhh” voice effects.
