[6] Two boys accidentally uncover a portal to hell and then have to fend off the demons that emerge from it. Probably for budgetary reasons, The Gate takes place almost entirely in one house, but the menace really needed to grow beyond in order to make a bigger impression. The demons themselves lack identity. They take the form of tiny monsters, one big monster, and …
[6] Lethal tarantulas take over an Arizona town in this remarkably well-paced, well-put-together little B-movie. And William Shatner is the star! How frickin’ cool is that? He actually delivers a decent performance. And Shatner fans will be happy to know that old Shat ain’t afraid of no spiders — to juice up the climax of the movie, it was his own idea to glue a …
[6] Just when you thought the Nazi zombie subgenre was dead, Scandinavia gives us Dead Snow. For those who find the concept appealing, the movie cuts the mustard, as well as several arteries. Unfortunately, a hackneyed plot, stock characters, and a scarcity of memorable gags keep Dead Snow from transcending our expectations. The lack of originality is counterbalanced by the movie’s brisk pace and a …
[6] Troll is a dark fantasy confined to an apartment building where an evil Troll is sacrificing the tenants to open the doors to another dimension. The makeup effects are a bit hit and miss, with the main troll character being the most successful creation from director John Carl Buechler’s creature shop. Budgetary constraints keep the film from delivering a satisfying climax. Noah Hathaway (Atreyu …
[6] Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) gets locked in a London subway station overnight and soon discovers she’s not alone. Someone, or something, is after her. Creep is a simple but solid indie horror thriller. It’s not terribly original, but director Christopher Smith (Triangle, Severance) is capable of building tension and conjuring some spooky atmosphere. And when the ‘monster’ is revealed, it’s not a let-down …
[5] A professor and his daughter travel to a village in Cornwall to investigate a deadly epidemic only to discover the dead are crawling back to life! Hammer’s only zombie flick takes a long while to unearth its title subjects, and once they arrive, they take second fiddle to another villain. The zombies themselves look nice, especially in a dream sequence where they climb out …
[5] In the ‘so bad, it’s (almost) good’ category, welcome to Troll 2. When a vacationing family discover a town full of goblins disguised as people, they have to escape before they become goblin food. This is one of the most famously awful movies ever made — a perfect storm of horrible writing, horrible acting, and horrible execution. What really sets the movie apart, though, …
[7] What appears to be a hackneyed vacation nightmare movie turns out to be a fresh thriller from reliable writer/director David Twohy (Pitch Black, Below). The script takes a cue from Scream, reaching a level of self-reference that allows it to exceed genre expectations. I often criticize movies for indulging in unnecessary plot twists, but not this time. Twohy’s twists are well conceived and executed. …
[7] Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley throw moral caution to the wind by creating the first animal-human hybrid, a creature they call Dren. Of course, once they open their genetic can of worms, things begin to go very badly. Dren, who has a poison stinger in her tail, forms an intimate but dangerous relationship with her foster parents. Things get especially complicated after Polley’s character …
[6] A demented German surgeon connects the gastro-intestinal tracts of two hapless American women and a Japanese man to create a ‘human centipede’ in this sick little horror flick from Dutch director Tom Six. The film is most horrifying before the operation, where the surgeon (played most creepily by Dieter Laser), gives his victims a slide show presentation of what he’s about to do with …
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