Movie Review: Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever (2012, Dir. Calum Waddell)

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Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever

I learned of High Rising Productions, the company that created Slice and Dice, through the work that they did producing extras for Arrow Video’s DVD and Blu-ray releases.  Before High Rising Productions made extras a lot of UK horror releases either didn’t have them, or claimed an interactive menu was an extra feature.

The first High Rising Production extra I saw featured cast interviews, the thoughts of the director, and was made for a much more interesting viewing experience.  To the point where, if some of their short documentaries like ‘From Romero to Rome’ had been longer, perhaps they could have been stand alone features.

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Movie Review: The Paranormal Entity Series

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The Asylum's Paranormal Entity

Paranormal Activity was so successful for me because when I saw it, I knew nothing about it.  In fact, I’d seen a trailer for a film called The Fourth Kind and had thought Paranormal Activity was actually that film.  So, when I watched it, yes, I knew it wasn’t real, but the simple ideas and wonderful acting left me scared and intrigued.  The first Paranormal Activity film stayed in my head for weeks.  The scene of Kate being dragged away by an unseen entity freaked me out.  Shot on consumer grade camcorders, I find most found footage movies to be redundant.  But Paranormal Activity learned from its predecessors and offers a scary ride.  Where The Blair Witch shot itself in the foot by making a sequel that openly laughed at the first movie, the Paranormal Activity series has stuck with its winning formula, sometimes getting it wrong but always keeping the storyline consistent.

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Gravity Trailer Excites and Terrifies

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Gravity Trailer

Unless I’m mistaken, falling is a nearly universal fear. I’m not talking about what I do every time I try to eat while walking up stairs or step on a metal street grate in the rain. I’m talking about the plunge – the one that jolts us awake when our dreams toss us from the top of some place we know we shouldn’t be. I mean, I know people bungee jump, and base jump, and parachute all over all the time. But the fact remains, unless they’re suicidal, they always have that something protecting them. And to me, that’s what makes the trailer for Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming film, Gravity, so terrifying.

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A Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering Retrospective In Pictures

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Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering

This is the follow-up to our Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest retrospective in pictures, a look at Echo Bridge’s obsession with the Children of the Corn franchise.

Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering is not only the first direct to video sequel, it also features the most star power of any of the films in the Corn franchise (not counting the original). Unfortunately, Karen Black and Naomi Watts can’t save it from being a tad bit boring. The Gathering isn’t horrible, it just pales in comparison to Urban Harvest. It is also a kind of stand alone film since it doesn’t really follow the events of the first two sequels.

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5 Movies to See Instead of The Great Gatsby (2013)

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5 Movies to watch instead of the great gatsby

Maybe you like to take LSD and/or you hate yourself.  Those are the primary reasons why you would watch The Great Gatsby (2013) this weekend.

If the dozens of well-written reviews about the movie’s flaws don’t convince you not to see the film, then maybe reading an article written by someone who has not even seen the trailer, and in fact, has only gleaned enough information about the film such as “starring the guy from Inception, Academy Award Winning pouty-baby-hair-face and directed by the hooker-circus leader of Moulin Rouge (depicted below)” will do the trick…

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Movie Review: Kill Me Now (2012, Dir. Travis Long)

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Kill Me Now

Before discussing Kill Me Now, I must state that I am a pretty big fan of Cracked.com. This film was written by and stars Cracked.com columnist Michael Swaim (After Hours, Agents of Cracked). There are bit roles for Cracked.com regulars Katy Stoll (Those Aren’t Muskets) and Katie Wilbert (After Hours), and there is a cameo near the end by Daniel O’Brien (Those Aren’t Muskets, After Hours). Most of the people that write regularly at Cracked.com are thanked in the credits, all having some small role in helping some way.

I mention this because I cannot imagine anyone who isn’t a fan of Cracked enjoying this film. It is very much in their style, and although directed by Travis Long, it is truly Michael Swaim’s film. For those that like things in Cracked’s unique style, this is a very, very, very good thing.

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In Defense Of Ewoks…

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In Defense of Ewoks... Return of the Jedi

I fucking love Ewoks. I don’t really understand why so many people don’t….

But we’ll get to that in a minute.

Star Wars has had as profound an impact on me as any work of art can. In fact, it has on all of us. It changed the culture of blockbuster films and the way they’d be marketed, with its action figures, memorabilia, and women in gold metallic bikinis. Movies would never be the same after the original trilogy. Star Wars is so ingrained in our culture that it has its own holiday. May 4th is known around the world as Star Wars Day (as in, May the fourth be with you). As much as I grew up and worshiped the series, I never really celebrated this day. But this year I decided I would embrace my inner child (and geek) and take part in what was sure to be the biggest May 4th event: The 30th anniversary screening of Return of the Jedi.

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Movie Review: Antiviral (2012, Dir. Brandon Cronenberg)

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Antiviral

Cronenberg. This is a name all film junkies should know. David Cronenberg has directed horror classics such as Videodrome and The Fly, period pieces like A Dangerous Method, masterpieces like Eastern Promises, and underrated gems such as Cosmopolis. He is known for his cold and disconnected style, mixed in with a certain amount of surrealist horror and general oddness.

Does the name Brandon Cronenberg ring any bells? He should. He is the son of David (heh) and a new director. After years of nearly every art form but film, he finally gave in and tried it out with Antiviral. Having premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, it has just now been released in limited theaters and Video On Demand.

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Movie Review: CLONED: The Recreator Chronicles (2012, Dir. Gregory Orr)

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Cloned: The Recreator Chronicles

CLONED: The Recreator Chronicles is fucking brilliant. In fact, I only have two legitimate complaints about the film, and both stayed inside of Stella Maeve’s shirt the entire time. I appreciated the candor of this film, especially after being so let down by the spoon-fed dreck and insulting nature of the Evil Dead remake. Also, towards the end, there is a scene with a guy kissing his own clone, which I’m sure would cause any fine Christian to not know whether to spit or go blind. What with, not only the man-on-man action, but the whole immorality of cloning, blah blah, suck my satanic prick, issue. This film gets an A+ and extra fucking credit.

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