society for a scarier planet

CHAIN LETTER (2010)

A group of teens are sent a chain letter on their cell phones and/or computers and are told that if they break the chain they will be killed. They of course blow it off thinking its just a silly prank but soon find out that its no joke when they are knocked off one by one in various gory ways by an unknown killer. The makers of the movie try to get you to play along with the characters in their guessing game of who is the killer, but the truth is the characters are so underdeveloped and they appear on the screen and die so fast, you really don't have enough time to care about their plight.

More or less this is a tale warning us that yes , technology can be helpful in someways but in the wrong hands and the fact that we are obsessed with it as a society , it can also be deadly. That ends up being an area where this fails because the technology angle is good and one that i agree with , but in the end they don't take it far enough . Its funny that the very same day that i watched this movie i saw a segment on the news warning people that their smart phones had GPS devices in them and that criminals were using them to track people and commit crimes, that's exactly what the killer in this film does. I'm sure that made this a bit disturbing to some people. Another thing they do is bring up that maybe there is some kind of anti-technology cult out there behind the killings but again this is never explored in depth.

I found it to be a decent movie but very ,very flawed, it did have an old school slasher film vibe to it and i love old school slashers. The gore FX are done well so gore hounds will get a kick out of that point.

The filmmakers hearts were in the right place but in the end this has so many holes and under utilized points in the plot it seems unfinished . That fact is further hammered home by the abrupt ending. A film that could have been great but because of the makers inability to flesh out certain plot angles makes this only a fair effort. Maybe you can get it right next time guys.

THE OTHERS(2001)
This is a big budget suspense thriller starring Nicole Kidman that was very highly acclaimed by many critics at the time of its release but many horror fans were scared off by the fact that it was PG 13 and most PG horrors are underwhelming to say the least. That fear is unwarranted though as this is a very good ghost story, a modern throwback to such films as the classic THE HAUNTING(1963 ) , a film that relies more on mood and atmosphere as apposed to all out in your face scares.
Kidman stars as Grace , a devoted mother who lives with her 2 children in an old secluded island mansion while awaiting for the return of their husband/father from war.
They start to see and hear unexplained things around the house and Grace struggles with this thinking are we crazy or is this house really haunted .
Three mysterious servants who creepily appear on the door step one day add to the mood and seem to know whats happening but they withhold what they know until they think the family is ready for the truth , all the while Grace tries to get to the bottom of what or who is haunting this family.
The children suffer from a disease that requires them to be kept out of bright light and they go to extreme lengths to insure the children's health , heavy curtains are all pulled shut across the windows , dim lighting is used so very little light is ever in the home , they must shut one door before they open another to insure no light gets in , all this adds to the overall creepiness of the film.
There is not one unnecessary moment here , every scene no matter how insignificant it seems at the time all come together and fall perfectly into place in a good twist ending. At 104 min. it may seem a little long and slow moving to some but being a fan of old school horror movies i found this to be very entertaining and many notches above most big budget horrors.


THE MAD(2006)
Billy Zane stars in yet another zombie comedy, a trend that seems to be endless, jeez enough already guys.
Zane plays DR. Jason Hunt , he and his girlfriend Monica are on a trip to his cabin to spend some time away from the city , along for the ride is his daughter Amy and her boyfriend Blake , the makers try to create comedic situations by pulling the generation gap card , the kids laugh at the adults because they are so uncool and Zane tries to prove to the kids how cool he is by telling them time and again about when he used to play in a band , and that they were a very cutting edge band that were ahead of their time , in the end proving how uncool he really is. Alas the jokes do not work because they are not very funny.
While on the trip they decide to stop at a country diner for some down home cooking. During their meal some of the other customers start acting crazy , we soon find out that the diner has been getting beef tainted with toxic chemicals from a local farmer , everyone who eats it turns into flesh craving fiends. Zane and the rest of his clan fight for survival along with the diner owner and his step daughter , while under attack the group argues among themselves over if the ghouls are really zombies or are they just sick with something like mad cow disease, another bit that is not funny.
In conclusion we get an unfunny horror comedy with a fair amount of blood but nothing that pushes this above an R rating despite the DVD box displaying the unrated tag almost as big as the title. I could take it or leave it, it doesn't move me either way.


DELTA DELTA DIE! (2003)
Scream queen Julie Strain stars as Mother Fitch , House mother for the DELTA DELTA PI sorority, the most popular girls on campus. The Delta girls are getting ready to have their 20th anniversary and decide to have a bake sale , the problem with that is their baked goods are made with human meat , pretty soon male students start disappearing and get ground up to make the filing for the Delta house pies.
An inquisitive reporter for the school paper is suspicious of the Delta girls and he starts to investigate the young men's disappearances and a former member of the sorority who knows their culinary secret, played by Brinke Stevens, sets out to stop them.
This is an unashamedly micro budget B movie filled with bad acting , cheap gore and tons of nudity. As bad as this is i cant hate on it to much for the simple fact that i got the disc for free because i have a Friend who worked on the film, he even has a scene in it , he's the guy near the beginning who buys a pie from the Delta girls and says"Id die for that Delta pie" Silly stuff for bad movie freaks only.




HALLOWEEN(2007)
John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN(1978) is a classic that cant be topped so you must keep that in mind when watching this movie. Rob Zombie apparently knew this when he made this and didn't try to copy the original film , he took the basic elements of it and tweaked it to fit his own twisted vision.
What he came up with is the dark , nasty world of a white trash family filled with abuse , within the family is a young boy who's mind is warped to the point the he becomes an emotionless killing machine.
What we essentially end up with is the original movies plot of a maniac escaping an asylum to return to his hometown to kill his younger sister. What Zombie adds to the mix is a back story detailing what happened to him to turn him into a monster.
Mr. Zombies vision is an extremely violent , brutal world filled with nasty characters , deplorable people that you hope to God don't really exist. A world so disgusting that you feel dirty and depressed after watching and because of that the movie is successful. You wont be cheering for the killer like you do for Jason or Freddy , this ain't no film for the young teenage crowd ,this is dark horror from the underbelly of America . His version of Michael Myers is a nasty S.O.B with a big knife and no conscience. Forget about the original for a bit and go into it with an open mind and you ll get something out of it.


HALLOWEEN 2 (2009)
Rob Zombie takes us back to his version of Haddenfield and somehow comes up with an even more brutal version of Michael Myers than he gave us in the first flick.
This movie deals with Lori Strode played again by Scout Taylor Thompson and her struggle to keep from succumbing to insanity after surviving the events in the first movie.
The focus tends to stay more on her and Dr. Loomis than the Michael character , he is brought slowly , progressively more to the forefront of the film as he makes his way closer to Lori , all the while brutally dispatching those who get in his way.
When i first started watching this i had the feeling that this was going to be better than the first movie but as the film unfolds the visions/dreams Michael was having about his mother became tedious and by the films end it was hard to make sense of what was actually happening , then on top of that Lori ,who has been having nightmares through the whole film does finally go off the deep end and starts having some of the same visions as Michael , so it was hard to differentiate reality from dream , that ultimately moves this a notch or two below the first . I did like the way Mr. Zombie chose to present Dr. Loomis though , he has him turning into a media whore, writing books ,making TV appearances , doing lectures and basically getting rich off of the name Michael Myers, sadly this portrayal is believable , there are people like that out there. That's one of the things that makes this film work, believability. That and like the first movie , its a gritty portrayal of white trash America that many people never get to see but are completely fascinated by it when they do get to see it , much the same reason people watch TV shows such as COPS , GANGLAND and LOCK UP , its a gritty , raw , dirty , brutal slice of realism.

RIDING THE BULLET(2004)
This is a Stephen King adaption directed by Mick Garris and unfortunately it is one of the lesser films in both men's cannon. Alan is a college student/artist who tries to commit suicide on his birthday because his girlfriend tells him she wants to break up, his attemp isnt successful because his gal pal and a bunch of other friends bust in on him in the middle of the act to give him a b-day party and are able get him to the hospital before he dies. The girlfriend tells Alan that the break up was a joke , just a way to set him up for his suprise party (What a stupid woman , what the hell kind of joke is that!). After recovering in the hospital he gets a call informing him his mother has had a stroke and he's soon off hitchhiking home to visit her.
Along the way he has hallucinations and crazy dreams and he relives his life through flashbacks and ponders the world in which he lives in. The closer he gets to home his dreams and hallucinations become weirder and more vivid. He is chased through the woods by some rednecks with a shotgun and eventually ditches them and winds up in a graveyard where he comes across the grave of a man named Geoge Staub who died on his birthday. Leaving the graveyard he is picked up by a car and the driver turns out to be the ghost of the same George Staub who's grave he saw . George soon gives Alan an ultimatum , he has to pick if he will die or his mother. Is it drugs, a dream or is Alan insane? Unfortunatly i cant give you an answer because this is one big confusing jumbled up mess of a film that makes no sense what so ever.It is definatly not one of the better King adaptions. Dont bother with it .


HELL NIGHT(1981)
Linda Blair stars in this sucessful mix of the haunted house and slasher genres from the awesome 80's. On Hell night Fraternity and sorority pledges are locked inside a supossidly haunted mansion , Garth Manor , that legend says was once the scene of a massacre and of course the chapter leaders have rigged the house with various tricks in attempt to scare the bejesus out of the pledeges. Before long we find out the lengend is true and the college kids are stalked and killed off by a maniac . Even though plot wise this has all been done before there is something here that elevates this one a couple of notches above alot of other slashers , things like a good script , good dialog and beleviable characters . Even though this isnt as gory as most 80's slashers what it lacks in that department it more than makes up for it in suspense. Availible on a double feature DVD with FADE TO BLACK(1980) from Anchor Bay .Good stuff , recomended.

FADE TO BLACK(1980)

A crazed movie fan played by Dennis Christopher (BREAKING AWAY) , who lives a lonley existence as an outcast , he is often belittled and bullied by those around him , he eventually is pushed too far and snaps and gets revenge on his enemies by dressing up like characters in his favorite movies and acts out murders in the style of the characters he portrays.
A great idea that ultimately fails due to a lackluster perfomance by the usually good Christopher and the fact that its an overly long movie at 102 min. and is hinderd by a talky script that makes this somewhat tedious and boring.
It has its moments but its a case of too little too late for this one. Extremely dissapointing , if handled correctly this could have been great.