[6] Like the first movie and The Blair Witch Project before it, PA2 utilizes a faux verite approach to exploit some of our most primal fears. I’m not sure I want this crude, unpolished treatment to become a full-blown sub-genre, but one of these kinds of movies every couple of years could be a nice diversion from homogenized remakes of iconic horror movies. Basically, if …
[6] Often regarded the best of the atomic age ‘giant critter’ flicks, Them! is best in the beginning, during two police officers’ discovery of a little girl roaming the desert in a catatonic state. Looking for her family, they come across a demolished trailer and a destroyed store, a few dead bodies — and what’s that eerie sound? It’s genuinely spooky for a while. Production …
[6] Gore, boobs, and monsters have always been a recipe for success — at least a moderate degree of it. Piranha 3D, Alexandre Aja’s remake of Roger Corman’s cult classic, proves the recipe may well be immortal. This flick is a big love letter to the low-budget creature features of the 70s and 80s. It’s not better than any of those movies, it’s not quite …
[7] Street Trash is grade-A schlock, precisely the kind of movie that would make your mama cry if she knew you were watching it. An unwitting liquor store owner discovers an old crate of booze and starts selling it to the local homeless population. Unfortunately, the toxic brew has a nasty side effect — the drinker quickly disintegrates into a puddle of bubbling goo! The …
[6] You’ll find immense, beautifully dressed sets and breathtaking oceanside locations in the 1979 Dracula. You’ll also hear a richly romantic John Williams score. These elements go a long way in creating a mood and atmosphere that are more lush than any Dracula movie has ever had before — and are enough to warrant a recommendation. But I think the superlatives end there. Frank Langella …
[7] M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) returns to form after over ten years of sub-par and crappy output. The Visit is a small-scale but clever character-driven thriller about two children who go for a week-long visit with grandparents they’ve never met before. Things are okay at first, but then the grandparents begin exhibiting strange behavior. Then things start to get spooky… and that’s all …
[3] I went into Jaws: The Revenge (the fourth movie in the series) thinking, ‘Hey, it can’t be worse than the third one.’ And I was right. It’s exactly as bad as the third one. Though for slightly different reasons. Part four brings back not only the shark, but the Brody family. Lorraine Gary reprises her role as Mrs. Brody, now widowed, and her two …
[3] The shark is back, this time working its way into Sea World in Florida where it threatens the tourists. Now, I’m okay if you want to keep bringing back the same shark for four movies, even though it is literally blown to bits at the end of all four of them. For some reason I’ll never be able to explain, I’m even okay with …
[5] Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee headline this so-so adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story. I gotta say, I’ve yet to see a Lovecraft adaptation I really like. The internalized dread and abstract horror just don’t translate to film very well. Anyway, Stockwell plays an agent of the Old Ones here, Lovecraft’s big squid Gods from another dimension. He’s trying to get his hands on …
[4] Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters) co-wrote this low-budget horror flick that dovetails two storylines — one involving a scientist medically experimenting on teenagers to turn them into controlled assassins, and one about a widower sheriff trying to solve the mystery surrounding his wife’s death many years ago. Despite competent leads in Michael Murphy as the sheriff and Dan Shor (Tron) as his son-turned-assassin, and …
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