Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 6th, 2012
"Sometimes dead is better."
From the rather twisted mind of Stephen King, Pet Sematary is actually one of my favorites of his horror novels. It’s scary to think the story was never meant to be published and only offered up to finish a contract with his earlier publisher. As has been the Stephen King plague at nearly every turn, something ends up lost in the translation. In the novel, the deeper subtexts that King is so adept at take several hundred pages to set up and ultimately pay off. Unfortunately a mere couple of hours of celluloid never …seem to scratch the graveyard surface soil
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 1st, 2012
"800,000 children are reported missing each year in the USA. Most are found within a few days. 1000 children disappear without leaving a trace."
After seeing Pascal Laugier’s first film Martyrs, I instantly became a fan. It’s not often I can recall the exact emotions and thoughts I felt as I emerged from a theater years after the experience. He’s a director I also have no problem calling an artist, and I’ve patiently been waiting for him to assault my senses with his follow-up project.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 27th, 2012
"Now this is going to be so much fun."
They've just saved the world, yet again. If you watch Supernatural, you know I'm talking about the Winchester brothers Sam and Dean. You also know by now that saving the world is never the end of the story. Each time they put themselves out there to stop the big evil from putting a major hurt on planet Earth, it comes at a cost, and this season is no exception.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 27th, 2012
When you pick up a movie with the title Strippers vs. Werewolves, to expect anything more than schlocky B-movie horror is a mistake by the viewer and the viewer alone. This foray into cheesy cinema is best viewed after a few drinks or just as random fun late at night when you can’t sleep. It’s never a movie trying to change the way we view cinema but instead just something to have some fun with, a simple escape where our brains can shut off and simply enjoy the show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2012
"If there's a theme, you could call it The Return..."
Warner Brothers has entered the popular scene with yet another vampire series taken from yet another powerful franchise of popular books. Enter The Vampire Diaries. While I've avoided the Twilight series so far (I've had my fill of teenage angst as a high school teacher). The series follows loosely the series of novels written by L.J. Smith. If you're a fan of the books, you have to take a few things into consideration.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 12th, 2012
There is a long line of adaptations of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and here we have a modern re-telling of the classic horror tale. Like the original, Dr. Jekyll is experimenting on a wild potion, but while experimenting on himself a malevolent alter-ego named Mr. Hyde emerges from within him to go on killing sprees.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on September 7th, 2012
What’s the latest home video gimmick? 3D, of course. And what’s the leading genre for cheap thrills on a low budget? The goofball horror movie, right? So it makes sense – sort of – for an enterprising filmmaker to throw together a low-comedy fright flick with cheesy gross-outs and bouncing breasts. See, in 3D, those babies can bounce big-time. And if that’s not enough boost for the boys in the audience, you also get severed heads, detached limbs, barf jokes and the dopiest plot this side of Lake Placid the Final Chapter. OK, you caught me. I never saw that one, it just sounds ridiculous.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 31st, 2012
Anyone who has watched enough of the SyFy original movies has a pretty good idea of what they're getting. The network has made a bit of a name for itself with low-budget to no-budget monster movies. Most of the creatures are mutant and large and appear like they escaped from a bad 1950's drive-in theater. The computer generated stuff usually looks like a kid drew it up on their pocket computer, and the cast is going to be made up of unknowns with a few known names to give the whole thing some street cred.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 30th, 2012
George Romero created the modern zombie movie in 1968 with his low-budget masterpiece The Night Of The Living Dead. While we can debate the direction the genre has gone in the last 40 years, it's hard to argue that Romero defined the rules of the game with that first film and the series that followed. And while zombies have been populating the comic scene since the early days of Creepy and Eerie, it took the likes of Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore to give us a compelling interpretation of the Romero zombie in the form of a comic book series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 28th, 2012
"This is where society dumps its worst nightmares."
In 1978 John Carpenter created a landmark horror film in Halloween. While it certainly can't be called the first slasher film, it was absolutely the first commercially successful slasher movie and set up the pattern that we're still following today. Carpenter created a new kind of Hollywood monster: the mindless human-shaped killing machine. Michael Myers with his William Shatner rubber mask would eventually give birth to the likes of Jason and Freddy.
