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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jun 22, 2019 11:11:17 GMT -5
I watched Frogs today starring Ray Milland. I think the most fun this year I had watching a movie was another horror movie Milland starred in, The Thing With Two Heads. I had been waiting for years to see that and only now got around to watching it.
I noticed that despite being “the old man” in both movies Milland acted for over a decade more after these sometimes in horror movies. I’d love to check out some more if anyone has any recommendations.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,404
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jun 22, 2019 23:50:46 GMT -5
Months ago added something called "The Horror Host Network" on my Roku. Looking at it earlier it seems to mostly be a collection of hosts that upload to Vimeo and Daily motion. Got on the Dead Vault Horror Show airing of Basket Case 3. The host keeps popping up on the screen cracking bad jokes and reminding us we are watching the Dead Vault Horror Show. But hey free viewing of a Henenlotter Classic.
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Post by DSR on Jun 23, 2019 0:52:57 GMT -5
I watched Frogs today starring Ray Milland. I think the most fun this year I had watching a movie was another horror movie Milland starred in, The Thing With Two Heads. I had been waiting for years to see that and only now got around to watching it. I noticed that despite being “the old man” in both movies Milland acted for over a decade more after these sometimes in horror movies. I’d love to check out some more if anyone has any recommendations. For Ray Milland, I highly recommend X - THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES and PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! I've reviewed both films in these horror threads a long time ago, but the search function isn't working for me, so I can't find them right now.
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Post by DSR on Jun 23, 2019 1:39:45 GMT -5
Also, sorry to double post, but like I mentioned last week, Today I hit up Monster Bash, The Classic Monster Movie Film Festival & Expo! A run-down of my experiences at the Cranberry DoubleTree Hotel where the festivities took place: -Ricou Browning autographed my CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON Legacy Collection DVD set, Christopher Neame signed my DVD of DRACULA A.D. 1972, and Tom Savini signed my CREEPSHOW poster (bringing the total number of autographs on that poster so far to 13!). -Meandered around the vendor hall and picked up a hardcover book of Swamp Thing comics; Doyle Greene's book Mexploitation Cinema: A Critical History of Mexican Vampire, Wrestler, Ape-Man and Similar Films, 1957-1977; and a copy of Classic Monsters of the Movies magazine's special on Hammer's CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957). -In the Event Room, I sat down to watch author and historian Tom Weaver run a quiz show on classic horror; Martine Beswick did a Q&A where she talked about Hammer and her James Bond films; author Greg Mank did a presentation about the life of actor Laird Cregar, followed by a screening of THE LODGER (1944), in which Cregar gave a tremendous performance as Jack the Ripper; writer/director/producer/actor Joshua Kennedy did a Q&A before introducing the cast of his new film HOUSE OF THE GORGON. I'll do a separate post with a brief review of the film later. -We all went out to the lobby to have ourselves a snack; the Monster Bash staff cut up giant cakes and gave out slices to all who wanted them. -Out on the lawn, a projector and a big screen were set up. A few animated shorts were shown (Looney Tunes) before our feature presentation, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (the sequel to CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON). -Back inside for a presentation of some of the Rondo Hatton Awards, and also the Bash's own Forry awards (named for Forrest J. Ackerman), followed by a performance of the "Festival of the New Wine" song from FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, and finally the midnight Prize Toss, where Bash staffers throw several hundred prizes to a rabid crowd of monster kids: I snagged a free copy of BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA! I almost caught some other DVD as well, but it hit my hand a bit hard and bounced off to God-knows-where. There was another couple of events on the schedule, but I had been at the Bash for 12 hours at that point, it was after 12:30am and I was ready to bounce. I had a lot of fun, all the same. Monster Bash typically holds three events annually, two in the Pittsburgh area and one in Ohio. You can look it up at www.creepyclassics.com or www.monsterbash.us, find it on Facebook. While there I met a guy from Toronto, so if you see somebody's coming to the Bash that you just have to meet, swing by my neck of the woods!
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Jun 23, 2019 11:35:40 GMT -5
My review of Ghost Ship (2002)
Ghost Ship is one of two directorial efforts from visual effects artist Steve Beck. The other is Thir13en Ghosts and much like that film, Ghost Ship looks all shiny and polished but falls completely flat otherwise. Well, except for its opening scene. In fact, it boasts one of the best kill scenes in horror movie history. If you ever wanted to see a large group of people get sliced in half all at once, here’s your chance. Unlike the rest of the film, it’s deeply unsettling to watch. One of the victims’ pants falls down which, in any another scenario, would pass as comedy but there’s something disturbingly real about such an odd little detail like that here. Also helping matters is that it’s completely ridiculous and unbelievable like all the good kill scenes in movies often are.
Considering it opens with such a bang, it’s especially disappointing that the rest of film is wholly forgettable. There is loads of potential in the premise for some deep psychological horror (which was the plan in the early drafts of the script). Instead, it settles for dumb action/horror 101. There’s potential in the cast too, which is impressive for something like this, but they’re all boxed into characters who are smug, obnoxious cardboard cutouts. They all go by their last names because of course they do. Emily Browning is our resident creepy kid except she’s not creepy at all. Alien meets Titanic isn’t a bad idea so why does it have to be this tired? Just writing about it bores me.
The weirdest thing is that several parts of the film are shot like a nu-metal video. I guess I should’ve expected it given the time period and the people behind it but in a film about a haunted ship from the early ‘60s, it feels really out of place. The flashback sequence, which is admittedly bonkers, is set to nu-metal despite it being set in 1962 and it just takes me out of it. Speaking of the flashback, am I the only one who thinks we could’ve gotten a way more interesting movie if it focused on that story instead? There’s a lot to unpack there, with food poisoning and mass murder and a devious nightclub singer. I’d much rather see that than a film where a bunch of goofs stumble around a ship for 90 minutes.
Ghost Ship still looks sleek as hell but ugh. I’ve tried avoiding boat puns, but the rest of the film totally drops the anchor on whatever buzz you’d get from watching the first few minutes. Just so middle-of-the-road in every way. But I’ll try to look on the bright side: there’s at least good Mudvayne music video floating around somewhere on this ship.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,484
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Jun 24, 2019 16:37:59 GMT -5
Jeepers Creepers 3.
How refreshing to see actors with wrinkles driving most of a horror picture. Meg Foster looked very old but has certainly not lost any of her spark and talent.
The director is as good as usual, still giving great visuals. Many people boycott his films because of his controversial past but despite hating his actions the man has been convicted and served his time, which is all a criminal can do.
Part 3 is a definite step down from the first two pictures I must admit. Lacking in gore and suspense and the youthful cast could have done better.
A nice little time waster but not much more than that.
Two and a half freckle faces out of five.
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Post by DSR on Jun 25, 2019 0:51:05 GMT -5
Looking at my rundown of the events of Saturday's Monster Bash festivities, and I forgot to mention Tom Savini and some of his proteges gave a live (and loud!) demonstration of squibs in action. Squibs, for those who don't know, are the tiny explosive blood-packets that get taped to an actor to mimic gunshot wounds as they happen.
Anyways, as promised, here is a quick and dirty review of...
HOUSE OF THE GORGON (2019) - Shot in five days with money collected via an Indiegogo campgain, this is writer/producer/director/actor Joshua Kennedy's low-budget love letter to the gothic horrors of Hammer (though with additional nods to things like Roger Corman's Poe cycle and even MANOS - THE HANDS OF FATE).
At the very tail end of the 18th century, beautiful Isobel Manning (Georgina Dugdale, daughter of Caroline Munro) is traveling by train to the village of Carlstadt, along with her best friend Christina (Jamie Trevino) and her mother Anna (Veronica Carlson, of DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED and others).
Isobel is planning to meet up with her fiance, Dr. Julian Pritchard (the aforementioned multi-hyphenate Joshua Kennedy), and finally tie the knot and live happily in Carlstadt for the rest of their days. What she finds, however, is a town devoid of female population, a tavern full of inhospitable drunken men (a staple of accursed villages found in Hammer films like THE REPTILE), a sympathetic but haunted priest (Christopher Neame, of DRACULA A.D. 1972), and her dear fiance acting strangely. He seems little more than a puppet, his figurative strings pulled by his enigmatic aunt, Baroness Bartov (Caroline Munro, also of DRACULA A.D. 1972, as well as films like CAPTAIN KRONOS - VAMPIRE HUNTER and William Lustig's MANIAC).
What poor Isobel doesn't yet know is that Baroness Bartov and her sister Euryale (Martine Beswick, of DR. JECKYLL AND SISTER HYDE and Oliver Stone's SEIZURE!) are actually the titular gorgon(s) who have influence over this small village but will become far more powerful once they've drank the blood of a virgin...and Isobel is saving herself for her honeymoon with Dr. Pritchard. Let's hope our heroes figure this all out before it's too late...
This film (and the Q&A which preceded its US premiere screening) is my first exposure to the 24-year-old Mr. Kennedy, but he's got a number of films to his name, the titles to which all suggest that paying homage to the horror and sci-fi films of yesteryear are his primary passion (titles include ATTACK OF THE OCTOPUS PEOPLE, THE VESUVIUS XPERIMENT, THE NIGHT OF MEDUSA, and others). And obviously over the course of his already illustrious career, Kennedy's made friends of Hammer Studios' alumni, having done at least one short film with Martine Beswick prior to HOUSE.
He's got a lot of enthusiasm, he's got connections, and he's not got a lot of money. So...how does the movie actually stack up? I think I have to break this down a bit:
Acting - the main selling point of this picture is four of the Hammer family (Hamily?) finally sharing the screen (of Beswick, Carlson, Munro and Neame, only the latter two actually worked together on a film previously), plus Beswick and Carlson coming out of retirement for the picture. Neame and Carlson on the heroic side give more understated solemn, performances, while the villainous Beswick and Munro are chewing scenery and havin' fun (Maggle). Our younger and/or less-renowned castmembers play their parts well enough, but are rather bland (possibly deliberately keeping with the Hammer tradition of young protagonists being overshadowed by more charismatic villains)
Special Effects - We're talking Gorgons, folks. The snake-hair effects are well-done given budget limitations. The turning-folks-to-stone is handled with some gray paint and making an actor stand still. There are attempts at a hallucinogenic effect with boldly colored lighting tints, which are okay enough. My least favorite aspect of the special effects is the lack of blood. I mean, how are you gonna do a Hammer homage (Hamage?) and not get some of that red-paint-looking blood flowing?
Titillation - By which I mean another staple of Hammer, the plunging neckline and heaving bosoms of beautiful young actresses. Not to perv out on you guys, I'm just saying it's part of the appeal. The Gorgons have for some reason seen fit to do away with Carlstadt's womenfolk and our revered actresses have grown up and grown out of the skin business. Isobel is pure and chaste (and our main character), so we've got best friend Christina taking a bath for your viewing pleasure. The most scandalous bits are tastefully covered, but Jamie Trevino is a gorgeous young woman. *ahem*
Music and costuming were well-done, though not particularly memorable.
Writing - I initially had this much earlier in my breakdown, but moved it to the end, because I think it wraps up this long-winded malarkey of mine nicely. I mentioned THE REPTILE a number of paragraphs ago, and this film's plot is structured rather similarly, with a lot of hapless heroes trying to come to terms with what's happening in the small town. There's a couple of villagers that fall victim to the Gorgons' bloodlust, but for the most part tension doesn't really ramp up until the final act. Which, as I mentioned way way back in October, I was kinda bored with THE REPTILE when I watched it, and there were stretches in HOUSE OF THE GORGON where I was similarly unenthused. Otherwise, the film is reference heavy, but light on jokes. It's not looking to deconstruct or parody the gothic horror tropes, but it does hope that the viewer has fun picking them up as they appear. Perhaps the most noteworthy tributes are a number of replicas of famous paintings of Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Ingrid Pitt, the Master from MANOS, and many others littered throughout Bartov Manor. They add nothing to the plot of the film, they're just references for your nostalgic amusement.
Which ultimately gives the film as a whole a similar vibe: it's nothing spectacular, it covers well-worn territory. It's not a reinvention of the wheel, it's simply a nostalgic look back at some nicely made wheels. I'll say the film has more personality than a lot of the low-to-no budget films I reviewed when I went through the Freakshow Cinema collection many months ago. I'd say give it a look, as it'll more than likely rekindle your interest in Hammer Studios (if it so needs rekindling). And I definitely think Josh Kennedy's got potential. I feel like the best is yet to come for this young filmmaker.
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Post by DSR on Jun 28, 2019 17:21:15 GMT -5
Sorry I've been posting a lot of old-timey stuff to all you damn millenials! *shakes fist menacingly* BUT, I just found out that Tuesday nights in July (and for some reason one Wednesday night) Turner Classic Movies will be airing Sci-Fi movies starting at 8pm eastern! Some of the sci-fi films that overlap with horror are INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, THEM!, THE BLOB, and THE FLY. You can check out the full schedule right...over...here: outofthisworld.tcm.com/schedule/(I'm 35, if you were wondering.)
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Jun 28, 2019 17:28:35 GMT -5
My review of Silent Hill (2006)
As someone who hasn’t played any of the Silent Hill games, and most video games in general, I’m probably not the most qualified to determine whether the Silent Hill movie is a solid representation of the franchise as a whole, although I feel the answer to that question is an affirmative nope. As a matter of fact, I feel like fans of the games hate this with a passion. However, as a standalone piece of atmospheric horror, I can comfortably say it does have some merit.
Let’s get one thing out of the way: the story is total nonsense. It stuffs all sorts of junk into the plot. Something about religious cults? What’s wrong with the daughter again? How and when does the little girl manifest herself into Rose? What the hell is going on here? It’s pretty easy to lose track of things if you’re not paying close attention. Oh, and reading the plot synopsis online won’t help. I tried that. You’ll get confused there, too.
That, and the film is way too damn long. I guess I can appreciate that the director got to see his vision fully realized, but surely the moviegoing public didn’t have to be subjected to that. There’s a lot that could’ve been cut out. The performances are, by and large, nothing amazing. Sharon/Alessa suffers from the terrible way children are often written in movies where her character is 8 or 9 years old but the script insists she act like a toddler. Most of Sean Bean’s scenes are unnecessary. But, hey, at least his character survives this time, which is more than I can say for Laurie Holden. Between this, The Walking Dead, and The Mist, I’ve seen her die in tons of shit.
But if the film does its fair share of flaws, it makes up for it with some excellent atmosphere. From Rose’s entry into the town, it’s already got the look of a place that I want to know more about. The director is a huge fan of the Silent Hill games and it shows. It totally nails that sense of eerie quietness where it feels like something terrifying will happen at any moment. It reminds me, I dare say, of Suspiria or The Beyond where the story is far less important than the look and feel of the film. It’s supposed to resemble a nightmare and I appreciate what it’s trying to do on that front.
Also like those two films, Silent Hill gives us some great scenes of gore and violence. A woman is literally skinned alive by a criminally underutilized Pyramid Head. A church full of people is carved up with a barrage of razor wire. There are deformed nurses and charred zombie babies. I don’t what any of it means and it’s not really explained how a lot of these creatures relate to the overall story, but I kinda like that it doesn’t give answers. It’s just serving up cool-looking stuff constantly and that’s more than I can say for other films of this type where we’re just waiting forever for the ghost to show up.
Overall, Silent Hill is far from great. But, hey, considering Mortal Kombat is the only outright good video game movie, this at least has some legs to it. There’s a truly great horror movie in here somewhere. Unfortunately, much like the town Silent Hill itself, that movie just doesn’t exist in our dimension.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jun 28, 2019 18:01:49 GMT -5
My copy of the French classic Eyes Without a Face arrived today. Won it at a hair over $11 on eBay despite it usually going for more than double that. Aside from that I have two Something Weird releases I’m waiting for in the mail. A triple feature and a double feature that I got through eBay auctions for pretty good deals since they are both out of print. Lastly, I have at least 20 movies on my Amazon Prime watch list I want to get through so I should be good for a while
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Chainsaw
T
A very BAD man.
It is what it is
Posts: 90,480
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Post by Chainsaw on Jun 28, 2019 19:36:36 GMT -5
Months ago added something called "The Horror Host Network" on my Roku. Looking at it earlier it seems to mostly be a collection of hosts that upload to Vimeo and Daily motion. Got on the Dead Vault Horror Show airing of Basket Case 3. The host keeps popping up on the screen cracking bad jokes and reminding us we are watching the Dead Vault Horror Show. But hey free viewing of a Henenlotter Classic. Speaking of horror host Roku channels, I can't highly enough recommend OSI74, the channel launched by horror host Mr. Lobo, which features a good slice of his Cinema Insomnia show, Sleazy Pictures After Dark, hosted by GWAR "manager" Sleazy P. Martini, Monster Madhouse, and 12:01 Beyond, a throwback to the Night Flight days. A lot of the shows even have vintage commercials interspersed through the shows, and a host of other subchannels like a Church of The Subgenius category and a section devoted to Bob Wilkins. It's great stuff.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Jun 28, 2019 20:28:58 GMT -5
My copy of the French classic Eyes Without a Face arrived today. Won it at a hair over $11 on eBay despite it usually going for more than double that. Eyes Without a Face is such an overlooked film. Like, it's critically acclaimed now and everything, but I don't think it's quite gotten the mainstream praise like a lot of films of its era. This inspired me to do a Google search and Edith Scob who played Christiane, literally the eyes without a face, passed away two days ago, on the 26th
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jun 28, 2019 21:56:40 GMT -5
My copy of the French classic Eyes Without a Face arrived today. Won it at a hair over $11 on eBay despite it usually going for more than double that. Eyes Without a Face is such an overlooked film. Like, it's critically acclaimed now and everything, but I don't think it's quite gotten the mainstream praise like a lot of films of its era. This inspired me to do a Google search and Edith Scob who played Christiane, literally the eyes without a face, passed away two days ago, on the 26th That’s too bad. Also, such a weird coincidence!
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,404
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jun 28, 2019 22:03:37 GMT -5
Months ago added something called "The Horror Host Network" on my Roku. Looking at it earlier it seems to mostly be a collection of hosts that upload to Vimeo and Daily motion. Got on the Dead Vault Horror Show airing of Basket Case 3. The host keeps popping up on the screen cracking bad jokes and reminding us we are watching the Dead Vault Horror Show. But hey free viewing of a Henenlotter Classic. Speaking of horror host Roku channels, I can't highly enough recommend OSI74, the channel launched by horror host Mr. Lobo, which features a good slice of his Cinema Insomnia show, Sleazy Pictures After Dark, hosted by GWAR "manager" Sleazy P. Martini, Monster Madhouse, and 12:01 Beyond, a throwback to the Night Flight days. A lot of the shows even have vintage commercials interspersed through the shows, and a host of other subchannels like a Church of The Subgenius category and a section devoted to Bob Wilkins. It's great stuff. Kick ass. I watch lots of OSI74 stuff on Vimeo. Love how if you have the Vimeo app you can download the vids to your device to watch later on. Most of the time I got a few episodes of the OSI74 cartoon show and Count Gore De Vol hosted movies on my tablet.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jun 29, 2019 9:55:24 GMT -5
I watched the Tobe Hooper film Eaten Alive early this morning. It is another movie I’ve been meaning to see for about 20 years since I learned there were two movies named Eaten Alive made within four years of each other. The other is a cannibal flick which I have on DVD. After that I popped in disc four of my One Step Beyond set. I’d definitely recommend the first episode that came on. I think it’s called The Leopard or something. It’s about these three stereotypical 1950’s businessmen on vacation. It starts raining out as they wait in their cabin having nothing to do. One of them pulls out this old Chinese game that one of their father’s got years ago. To play you make a hexagon with a bunch of sticks then grab another one and say a short phrase. One guy does and he starts acting like a cat. It’s done completely seriously, but it’s hilarious watching your stereotypical 1950’s businessman act like a car in front of two others with, “The f***?” expressions on their faces. This goes on pretty much the whole episode. The funniest One Step Beyond I’ve seen so far
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,404
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jun 29, 2019 14:30:04 GMT -5
One of my favorite One Step Beyond episodes has Charles Bronson as a boxer.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jun 29, 2019 16:01:06 GMT -5
One of my favorite One Step Beyond episodes has Charles Bronson as a boxer. It looks like that one is called The Last Round and is on disc 6. Looking forward to getting there
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Jun 30, 2019 12:30:04 GMT -5
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,484
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Jun 30, 2019 17:28:31 GMT -5
Victor Crowley. 2017
Yes, a good old fashioned slasher picture never fails to be fun.
This one was clearly a love letter to the fans of the franchise.
The humour was actually funny, the gore set pieces wild and crazy and it did not shy from nudity.
The characters were mostly douche bags, making the deaths more satisfying than horrific, which is just as well.
Even male full frontal was offered but I can not imagine even the less discriminating of my fellow homos finding pleasure in it.
End credits include a fun cameo.
A rollicking good time from the first reel to the last.
5 hatchets out of 5.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,404
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jun 30, 2019 22:26:56 GMT -5
Victor Crowley. 2017 Yes, a good old fashioned slasher picture never fails to be fun. This one was clearly a love letter to the fans of the franchise. The humour was actually funny, the gore set pieces wild and crazy and it did not shy from nudity. The characters were mostly douche bags, making the deaths more satisfying than horrific, which is just as well. Even male full frontal was offered but I can not imagine even the less discriminating of my fellow homos finding pleasure in it. End credits include a fun cameo. A rollicking good time from the first reel to the last. 5 hatchets out of 5. Still need to see the 4th Hatchet. But enjoyed 1 and 3. 2 wasn't too good.
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