Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 13th, 2005
The Ring was an almost overnight success. Based on a Japanese horror film, it was “Americanized” and captured audiences with its creepy cinematography and wickedly sinister story. It was inevitable that the formula would be tried again.
You would think that The Grudge has everything necessary to continue that successful story. The Grudge is based on not one but a well known series of haunted house films in Japan. Spider Man’s own Sam Raimi teams up with Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Ge...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 21st, 2005
Synopsis
The salvage ship Mother III comes across a derelict ship that has been floating in space for50 years. The crew (oh-so-cleverly named after the main characters in Bram Stoker’s novel)board the ship, and before you know it, are up against Dracula himself. The idea is halfwayinteresting, what with a setting of eternal night in a future where no one believes in God. UdoKier even puts in an appearance as the video diary of the derelict’s deceased captain, in a niceecho of the ep...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 17th, 2005
Synopsis
Centuries ago, a gargoyle is shot down by a priest and sealed in the ground. In present-dayRomania, an earthquake breaks the seal and unleashes a host of monsters on Bucharest. CIAoperative Michael Paré is investigating what at first appears to be a series of kidnappings, buteventually finds himself up against the mythical beasts.
The dialogue consists of cobbled-together clichés (and bargain-basement ones at that), andthe plot makes no sense. The Romanian setting i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 12th, 2005
Synopsis
Molly (Millie Perkins) is seriously disconnected from reality. She tells her two nephewswonderful tales about their grandfather, whom she declares a saint, even though we see (indisturbing flashbacks), that he repeatedly raped her. She also enjoys ogling well-built men andfantasizing about their violent deaths. But she doesn’t stop at fantasizing...
Well! Here she is, Anne Frank herself (from the 1959 film) all grown up and castrating menwith safety razors. This is ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 29th, 2004
Synopsis
An over-worked couple (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) whose marriage, while not indanger, has clearly reached some difficult shoals, head off on a diving vacation. A mix-up (whichis disturbingly credible) results in the tour ship leaving them behind. Stuck in the middle of theocean, they float together, hoping against hope for rescue, growing cold and hungry. And thenthere is the marine life. Like stinging jellyfish. And sharks...
The trailers made this look like...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 29th, 2004
Synopsis
Shaun (co-writer Simon Pegg) is on the cusp of his thirties, and still has growing up to do.He and girlfriend Liz wind up in the Winchester pub every night, and she’s sick of it, much to thedelight of her roommates Liz and David (the latter being an insufferable twit who pines for Liz).His best friend Ed is a pig, and has crashed permanently in Shaun’s house, much to thedispleasure of his housemate, Pete. Liz dumps Shaun, who thinks his life is over. Then, hegradually becom...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Apocalypse picks up where the first Resident Evil left off. The sinisterUmbrella Corporation re-opens its underground lab, and in so doing unleashes the T-Virus onRacoon City. The metropolis is cordoned off to contain the infection, and there are only a handfulof survivors left who, led by the now superhuman Alice (Mila Jovovich), must escape the citybefore it is sanitized (i.e.nuked).
The scale is far more grandiose than the first film, and there is m...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 21st, 2004
Synopsis
Set in the near future, well before the Alien films but after the Predatorfranchise, AVP has a group of scientists and security experts in the pay of the LanceHenriksen (Weyland, of the Weyland-Utani Corporation that plays such an important role in theAlien films) arrive in Antarctica. Here they find a pyramid buried deep in the ice, whichturns out to be a Predator training site. A trio of these creatures arrives for training, but thehumans have ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 14th, 2004
Synopsis
Aaron Gaffey plays Jack, whom we first meet in a warehouse, strung out, paranoid andfestering, and who, given some unholy drug cocktail overdose, flips his lid and kills histormentors with a jackhammer (hence, the title). Extended flashbacks then show us how Jackdescended into a hell of drug addiction, and he now takes orders from the hallucination of hisdead best friend. The orders, unsurprisingly, consists in killing as many people as possible withthe jackhammer.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 7th, 2004
Synopsis
Pater familias Ray Wise is driving his squabbling family to his in-laws for Christmas. Whilethe rest of the family dozes, he takes a turn off the Interstate for a change of pace, then almostgets into an accident when he falls asleep himself. Now on an unfamiliar road, the family picksup a mysterious woman in white, and they then find themselves spiralling down into nightmare,where they are picked off one by one by supernatural forces while journeying down a road thatnever e...
