Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,258
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jun 30, 2020 22:00:42 GMT -5
It has great fx work. And a crazy story. Plus it's a mini reanimator reunion.
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Post by DSR on Jul 2, 2020 23:46:15 GMT -5
Taking a break from my 50 states pet project, as I'm still in the midst of the massive Midnight Movies Monograph on David Cronenberg's THE BROOD. A film referenced within that book caught my interest:
DEADLINE (1980), made almost exactly one year after THE BROOD by Mario Azzopardi.
Stephen Young (SOYLENT GREEN) stars as Stephen Lessey, a successful novelist-turned-horror-scriptwriter. Stephen's marriage is falling apart, his wife (Sharon Masters, BOOBY TRAP) is constantly going to parties and drinking and doing drugs. The couple's three children see the animosity between their parents and act out as a result (one of the children played by Cindy Hinds, who played the imperiled child in Cronenberg's aforementioned THE BROOD).
Stephen barely acknowledges the problems with his home life, usually only getting angry at the family distracting him from his writing. Stephen's professional life isn't going so great, either. While he IS successful, there's pressure on him from his agent to continue churning out gore stories. Stephen wants to branch out, but the agent insists he sticks with his winning formula. While Stephen's working on his next book, he's also showing up on set and having arguments with the lead actress, AND he's being harassed by critics who feel his horror stories (and their cinematic adaptations) are having a negative effect on society.
While the primary focus of the film is on Mr. Lessey's personal life, we're frequently treated to gory set-pieces from his films within this film. We also get the chance to view imagined scenes for Stephen's next work. As Stephen's life falls apart, he loses his grip on reality...
In the bonus features to Vinegar Syndrome's blu-ray release of DEADLINE, producer Henry Less refers to the film as an "anti-horror film". Stephen R. Bissette (author of the Monograph on THE BROOD) believes the film specifically targets David Cronenberg for criticism: the way the main character handles critics, his very hands-on relationship with the film adaptations of his work, and the casting of one of the main stars of THE BROOD are all seen by Bissette as deliberate references to Cronenberg's work.
DEADLINE's assessment of Cronenberg's work (or Stephen King's work, or horror authorship as a whole) reads to me like over-the-top hand-wringing. I'm reminded of Helen Lovejoy shrieking "Won't someone PLEASE think of the children?!" Mr. Bissette points out that, ironically, one of DEADLINE's biggest supporters is the late Chas. Balun, who saw the characters heaping criticism on the Stephen Lessey character and immediately sided with Lessey. Balun also praised the film for it's imaginative gore scenarios, which turn out to be the best parts of the whole movie. So way to go, Azzopardi, you set out to dismiss gore films, and in so doing, made a gore film!
I do think this film is worth checking out as a comparison/companion piece to THE SHINING (which also deals with a writer husband/father who hates his family and loses his mind) or Lucio Fulci's A CAT IN THE BRAIN (which also deals with a horror filmmaker having "visions" of terror that invade his everyday life). Just, when you watch DEADLINE, get ready for mounds of melodrama and an overly sappy end credits song.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,258
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jul 3, 2020 0:08:52 GMT -5
Started Scare Package,new horror anthology, Joe Bob aired it on Last Drive In few weeks ago.
Nice premise, set in a VHS rental store we see a bunch of short films. Some with really great melting FX. Like Street Trash level good.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,450
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Jul 3, 2020 16:13:23 GMT -5
Train to Busan. 2016.
A masterpiece in a swarmed zombie market.
Terrific characters starting with a selfish, workaholic father in whom it takes an apocalypse to finally be a decent human being and a father to his daughter at last. Sure, it is cliched stuff, but at least the film bothers with characterization unlike many of its horror contemporaries. Then you have another selfish business man just like the first one, only one that lets the catastrophe making him an even bigger asshole than ever before, causing tons of death and happily sacrificing anyone that may ensure his own survival. His eventual transformation in to one of the monsters he hates is one of the most satisfying things I have seen this side of senator Kinsey becoming a Goa'uld. The actors portraying the two men gives electrifying performances.
The little girl is a gem. Strong of character and will and even in her incessant crying never crosses over to being annoying. Again comes down to a spellbinding actor performance.
You never get much a chance to breathe as the action is relentless and as tense as a newly strung piano wire. I found my toes curling in excitement a couple of times. And if one is prone to tears during movies, do not be surprised by this picture causing just that. The zombie set pieces are tremendous and come at a rapid pace. I loved how fast and agile they were. Great look as well. The picture is very violent but does not go particularly towards gore beyond being bloody.
Impeccable from beginning to end and highly recommended. Bon appetite.
5 Nintendo Wii out of 5.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Jul 5, 2020 10:16:19 GMT -5
My review of Bloody Moon (1981)
Plot: Students are stalked and killed at a language school in Spain.
Bloody Moon is a European production attempting to copy the style of an American slasher. It’s almost like director Jesus Franco, who had already dipped his toes in every type of B-movie you could imagine, literally just said, “Let’s copy Halloween and Friday the 13th because why the hell not!” Fair game, I suppose, as virtually everyone else did at the time. What we get though is less John Carpenter and more a trashier, sleazier Argento giallo. The American window dressing is present, but its whodunnit story, unfamiliar locales, and soapy plot twists are straight out of something like Tenebrae.
Also not unlike Argento, the violence is brutal and most of it directed toward women, which landed it a place on the list of Video Nasties (the real Criterion Collection, in all honesty). Its biggest claim to fame is a particularly relentless buzzsaw decapitation that does not divert the camera away for a single moment. The scene is sickening, and awesome. Almost just as striking is its bizarre setup in which the victim willingly allows herself to be tied up under the guise of kinky sex. Not my idea of a good time, but get it, girl. If that weren’t enough, the film follows it up by killing off a child via vehicular homicide and an all too real beheading of a snake. Another woman also gets stabbed through her breast, which is just the sort of thing you’d have on your Exploitation Movie bingo card.
My guess is that the film reaches for these extremes to distract from the pedestrian plot. It borrows ideas from ten other movies. It’s a stalk-and-slash salad, if you will. Many of the students are pretty indistinguishable for one another. Angela, our designated final girl, has friends named Inga, Laura, and Eva, all of whom feeling like variations on the same person. To make up for the vanilla student body, the film peppers the story with an incestuous subplot between head mistress Manuela and her disfigured brother Miguel. The way the affair unravels towards the film’s conclusion is some exquisite pulp and livens up a pretty routine finale.
The world the film presents is a tough one to map out. I’ve never been to Spain, let alone attend university there, and I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised nothing about the language school adds up because *super mega spoiler* its run by incestuous murderers, but it’s a real puzzle to figure out. The students’ living quarters look nicer than the school itself, which is as humble an abode as you could imagine. Oh, and there seems to be be a dance club on campus??? Lit if true, but, yeah, it’s a little weird. It’s feels we’re treated to random set pieces with little connection between them.
It’s easy to say Bloody Moon wouldn’t be that memorable if it weren’t for a few scenes of gore, and there’s definitely some truth to that, but I don’t think anyone would seek this out for any other reason. If you want bloody, this should satisfy you. Don’t expect much about a moon though.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,450
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Jul 5, 2020 19:18:09 GMT -5
Assassination Nation 2018.
Glad that I did not read any reviews of this beforehand as it probably would have caused me to skip it, as I would have missed out on a good experience. I compare it a lot to wrestling characters as it takes something plausible and amplify it. World is full of people who will go after others on the flimsiest of evidence as an excuse to use violence. That and those who will take the innocent and somehow make it dirty out of some need to feel superior. The picture gets a little preachy towards the end about the message it is trying to make but beyond that I found it a blast.
The four girls give strong performances though only two gets much substance to work with. Males play their sleazy characters with gusto, even if the picture could have served up some decent males to accessorize the girls. It is a little slow to start but after that the action is top notch. It gets bloody as hell and the eventual attack on our four leads had me squirming with unease, which is something that rarely, if ever, happens to me. I do wish the girls finally getting even would have gone further, it kind of showed a little restraint, but it is a minor quibble.
4. LOL's out of 5.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2020 2:49:37 GMT -5
my copy of From Beyond did not showup for the weekend so time to dig in my collection for something I haven't watched in a while.... decided to dust off "House Of Wax" (2005). fantastic special effects and that finale still looks absolutely gorgeous, even just on old regular DVD. Definitely a guilty pleasure, but I enjoy the hell out of it. Brian Van Holt's performance is really underrated, since 95% of the reviews couldn't seem to shutup about Paris Hilton (even though she's barely in it) any other fans of it?
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Post by DSR on Jul 6, 2020 23:48:32 GMT -5
Had the day off from work, spent it on this triple feature...
BEYOND THE DOOR (1974) is an Italian EXORCIST rip-off, from producer and co-director Ovidio G. Assonitis (PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING). It stars Juliet Mills (WAXWORK II: LOST IN TIME) as Jessica, a loving wife and mother whose life changes when she becomes pregnant with a third child. This new baby develops at an alarming rate, and soon enough, Jessica starts in on the head-turning, green-vomit-spewing, different-voice-having that are not hallmarks of a typical pregnancy. Jess's husband, Robert (Gabriele Lavia, DEEP RED) turns to Dimitri (Richard Johnson, ZOMBIE) to help, unaware Dimitri was his wife's previous lover. He's also unaware Dimitri is a Satanist, who set up Jessica to give birth to the Antichrist...
BEYOND THE DOOR is weird and tense and unsettling, with a great performance from Ms. Mills and a bizarre, funk-enfused score by Franco Micalizzi. But it's not perfect, as the film runs out of steam halfway through (I watched the 109-minute international cut of the film...the regular US cut was 97 minutes). I really love that first hour, but the second half just drags.
BEYOND THE DOOR II (1977), also known as SHOCK, is one of the last film's for Italian horror maestro Mario Bava (BLOOD AND BLACK LACE). This time out, Daria Nicolodi (SUSPIRIA) stars as Dora, a woman who has just moved with her husband Bruno (John Steiner, YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE) and prepubescent son Marco (David Colin Jr., who played the son in the first BEYOND THE DOOR...and is the only thing connecting these two movies) into the house Dora shared with her first husband. Soon after the move, Marco begins displaying an Oedipal Complex, hating his once-beloved stepdad and exhibiting a creepy attachment to his mother.
As if that weren't bad enough, Dora herself starts having hallucinations of her deceased first husband coming back from the grave to kill her. While Bruno and Dora have been telling everyone that her first husband's death was a suicide, the dead man knows better, and he's willing to possess his own son in order to enact his revenge...
While this film is shorter than its predecessor, this sequel-in-name-only still suffers from a languid pace. The creepy mother/son moments and Dora's ever-building hysteria are effective, but the build takes too long and doesn't amount to much overall. Also, Bruno's constant hand-waving of Dora's fears and inclination to leave the house becomes laughable. He's always got a "logical" explanation for things that becomes more illogical as the film goes on!
The gore effects are good and there are some decent jumpscares. It's a good movie, not a great one. I've seen worse from a horror icon's final outing.
BEYOND THE DOOR III (1989) sees Mr. Assonitis back, this time producing for director Jeff Kwitny (ICED). This film stars Mary Kohnert (MR. BASEBALL) as Beverly, a college student on a field trip with some classmates to Yugoslavia. When their chaperone (Bo Svenson, CURSE II: THE BITE) leads them to a creepy village where the villagers try to burn them in their sleep, the students make a run for it and hop aboard a train. It is aboard this train that Beverly learns the horrible truth: this field trip was set up specifically because she was chosen to become the bride of Lucifer! The longer Bev takes to accept her destiny, the more of her friends will die! The train itself becomes an instrument of their demise as it seems to have a mind of its own: the conductor and engineer both die early on, but the train keeps on rolling!
Also known as AMOK TRAIN, this film was never intended as a sequel to the original BEYOND THE DOOR. The American distributors thought titling it after those first two unrelated movies might bring in more cash. In addition to Ovidio's involvement, the connection between this film and the first in the "series" involves demonic entities and a mysterious person playing a flute (though the guy in the first BEYOND THE DOOR played his through his nose)!
BEYOND THE DOOR III raises excitement levels, as the runaway train angle imbues the film with a sense of urgency. This film also features the goriest demises of the three films I watched today. It's a bit of a double-edged sword, though, as some of the corpses are very obviously dummies. Again, this was a case of me liking a movie, not loving it.
I would like to point out that my ambivalence towards these movies might have something to do with the fact that it was, like, 97 degrees all day in my house today. It's very difficult to enjoy a movie when you're not even comfortable in your own skin. Though I was also nicer to these movies than a number of critics who presumably saw them in an air-conditioned theater. *shrug*
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,450
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Jul 10, 2020 15:25:44 GMT -5
Horns. 2013.
Man suffering from erotomania kills the object of his affection when she lets him know it is all in his head. Her recently dumped boyfriends get blamed by everyone, despite lacking concrete proof, only because he is the most likely culprit and people look for simple answers. It sounds so dull when you break it down to basics.
Of course this is from the King family, and you have to see the whole thing to find the truth under all the horror, devil horns and slithering snakes that constantly hit you in the face.
Quite a ride it is too, not just your mundane horror affair. The characters are complex and come with all too human motivations. I only wish the deceased girl had not been so perfect, but had turned out somewhat flawed which the movie teased.
The boy who lived gives a great performance, even if he kind of fails as a badboy. Everyone else is on top form as well, likely due to having shades of grey rather than black and white characters to dig their thespian teeth into.
The violence is sporadic but when it hits, it does so with a punch, particularly towards the end with some gnarly gore bits and this is not a picture for anyone with anything even remotely resembling snake fobia.
You also get a childhood flashback, IT style, with some strong teen performances. Childhoods that have an effect on the later scenes, rather than just being there.
Creepy slithering fun indeed.
4 Shia LeBeouf absences out of 5.
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Post by prettynami on Jul 10, 2020 18:21:06 GMT -5
Recently watched Feeders 1 and 2. About little grey aliens who fly in on space ships to invade earth, make pointless clonuses of mustachioed men that is both ignored and recognized in the second movie (confusingly enough), and eat people. The second one adds the element of christmas and the tiny aliens attacking santa.
Special effects are special all right........ but not in a good way. Somehow, they are worse in the second one where there is a second kind of alien that looks like Mr. Bill with sharpened bracers. Some of the kills are so bad they are funny (particularly in the first one)... And the people in the movies look so odd... so Pennsylvanian that it hurts/is-funny.
I wouldn't recommend the first one even though its mark-ably better in most areas than the second one. I would recommend the second one just cause it is a little more batshit insane, has better pacing, and is a little more interesting. The second one even recaps the entire first one anyways (which when they do it in sepia tone kinda drags the movie to a screetching halt, but oh well). If any of that makes any sense. Hahaha.
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mystermystery
Dennis Stamp
Still in the White Hummer
Posts: 4,190
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Post by mystermystery on Jul 10, 2020 19:40:36 GMT -5
Perhaps incredibly late notice, but there is a Horror Trivia contest called "Final Exam" that is doing all Stephen King movie questions this week. Final Exam is a 30 question quiz where you gain points for how quickly you answer a multiple choice question. Each question has 30 seconds to answer (the entire thing take up about 22 minutes with scoreboard pauses between questions). It starts at 10PM EST. I have no clue what first place is this week but 2nd and 37th win a year long subscription to a streaming service called Midnight Pulp. If you'd like to join, it's free. Just click the link, fill in a name and e-mail address, and you're good to go. crowd.live/DERRYEdit: Finished 51 out of 480. I'll take it.
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Post by prettynami on Jul 11, 2020 10:29:04 GMT -5
Tonight El Rey is apparently going to start showing some of those El Santo movies with werewolves and what not, if anyone is interested.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,450
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Jul 11, 2020 16:24:23 GMT -5
The Last Days on Mars. 2013.
This is what you get when the Thing is set on Mars and the threat to the characters come from zombies. Though it is not about the monsters as much as our response to them. Sounds like a familiar menu huh?
Do not get me wrong, the picture is fine with good actors and performances, good directing, good visuals, excellent effects and Cotton Weary is always a treat, it is all just so been there, done that.
It is kind of like a hamburger, a great way to kill time but still just another meal. Basically, it is a picture one needs to be in the mood for to appreciate fully. Maybe I just wasn't tonight.
3 easy to take off space helmets out of 5.
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mystermystery
Dennis Stamp
Still in the White Hummer
Posts: 4,190
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Post by mystermystery on Jul 11, 2020 20:15:20 GMT -5
Watched 47 METERS DOWN: UNCAGED today and I remembered people describing it as a "Slasher movie with a shark" which might have cued me in to certain things...
Overall, though, I enjoyed what I watched.
Two sisters who reject each other (brought together by their parents' marriage) reject initial plans made by their father to give them bonding time to instead go with the 'cooler' sister's friends to a secluded area for a day of fun in the water. Turns out, in a small world coincidence, one friend is dating an employee of the main character's father and has led them to the opening of a lost Mayan city, now underwater (or perhaps built there according to one line of dialogue) and the girls decide to essentially steal scuba diving equipment to go check it out (Hey, it's okay because two of them are related, one is dating an employee, and the other is...uh...yeah, this is all fine).
Enter the fun as the father's actions in the area to prepare it for clients has opened a section where SH-SH-SHA-SHARKS are located, long blind from evolving in an area with no light, and before you know it the girls are swimming, screaming, and swimming while screaming in attempts to survive.
I thought the movie was perfectly fine. It worked a couple good jump scares in between some really predictable ones (Sorry, y'all. That Samuel L Jackson motivational plan kill in Deep Blue Sea can never be topped only mildly recreated) while occasionally reminding that just being stuck under water is actual terror.
I put it off for a long time and really wasn't missing much. If you're bored and want some shark-tier sharking, it's an okay go of it.
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Post by prettynami on Jul 11, 2020 21:12:37 GMT -5
Watching the El Rey presentation of an El Santo movie right now... And the film quality is a lot better than I expected and the dubbing is really clear too. I'm wondering they got a remastered version of this and dubbed it themselves.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 18:21:02 GMT -5
www.shoutfactory.com/product/friday-the-13th-collection-deluxe-edition?product_id=7444Scream/Shout Factory is releasing the ENTIRE Friday the 13th saga on October 13th. List of most features are in the link but it has a ton of new features. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the deleted footage that they had to cut for the MPA is going to be included, but still, this looks incredible. 1-4 is getting 4K transfers and even Part 3D is getting a Real 3D transfer as well, so no more red and blue glasses.
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Jul 13, 2020 20:17:11 GMT -5
www.shoutfactory.com/product/friday-the-13th-collection-deluxe-edition?product_id=7444Scream/Shout Factory is releasing the ENTIRE Friday the 13th saga on October 13th. List of most features are in the link but it has a ton of new features. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the deleted footage that they had to cut for the MPA is going to be included, but still, this looks incredible. 1-4 is getting 4K transfers and even Part 3D is getting a Real 3D transfer as well, so no more red and blue glasses. Any surviving uncut footage, outside of Part 1 and JGTH, is either in incredibly poor shape (battered VHS workprints of 6 and 7) or flat out no longer exists. Paramount cleaned out their vaults in 1991 and most, if not all, of that uncut footage was lost. So you're never going to see a box set with uncut versions of anything outside of the aforementioned. This box set looks awesome though, and is about as definitive as it gets for Friday fans.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 21:32:54 GMT -5
www.shoutfactory.com/product/friday-the-13th-collection-deluxe-edition?product_id=7444Scream/Shout Factory is releasing the ENTIRE Friday the 13th saga on October 13th. List of most features are in the link but it has a ton of new features. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the deleted footage that they had to cut for the MPA is going to be included, but still, this looks incredible. 1-4 is getting 4K transfers and even Part 3D is getting a Real 3D transfer as well, so no more red and blue glasses. Any surviving uncut footage, outside of Part 1 and JGTH, is either in incredibly poor shape (battered VHS workprints of 6 and 7) or flat out no longer exists. Paramount cleaned out their vaults in 1991 and most, if not all, of that uncut footage was lost. So you're never going to see a box set with uncut versions of anything outside of the aforementioned. This box set looks awesome though, and is about as definitive as it gets for Friday fans. Unfortunate, but people seem to be mostly excited about having a new transfer of the uncut version of JGTH.
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Jul 13, 2020 21:41:15 GMT -5
Any surviving uncut footage, outside of Part 1 and JGTH, is either in incredibly poor shape (battered VHS workprints of 6 and 7) or flat out no longer exists. Paramount cleaned out their vaults in 1991 and most, if not all, of that uncut footage was lost. So you're never going to see a box set with uncut versions of anything outside of the aforementioned. This box set looks awesome though, and is about as definitive as it gets for Friday fans. Unfortunate, but people seem to be mostly excited about having a new transfer of the uncut version of JGTH. As am I. I've been stuck with the iTunes HD version for years now.
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Post by DSR on Jul 15, 2020 13:40:19 GMT -5
My personal 50 states horror movie project today takes me to Massachusetts for...
WINTERBEAST (1992), written and directed by Christopher Thies. Annoying forest rangers investigate the disappearance of one of their own, leading them to a local lodge. The lodge owner refuses to close down the lodge and let an investigation of the grounds commence. The rangers sneak around anyway, and find all sorts of totem poles with skeletons strung up on them, but still the owner refuses to give in to their demands (you'd think they'd call actual police officers or something, but no). The rangers' unofficial investigation leads them to believe that a Native American gateway to Hell sits somewhere upon the property, letting all sorts of evil spirits spring up and attack lodge guests or anyone else roaming around the area. The rangers will also soon find out that the lodge owner knows more than he's letting on...
Much like the Alaskan CLAWS, WINTERBEAST combines elements of JAWS (this time, an unscrupulous man putting financial gain ahead of the well-being of innocent people) with a Native folklore story. I'm happy to see Native culture represented in a film like this, though it's a bit disheartening that there aren't any actual Natives involved with the production.
This is another super-low budget production, and the monster attacks are handled via stop-motion animation. These attacks are the highlight of the film. The monsters frequently look like aliens out of a film like LASERBLAST. Definitely check out those scenes if you can. The person-to-person interactions, meanwhile, are less exciting. Our main characters fail to meet likability standards. Our human villain, the aforementioned lodge owner, does get to dance around to a creepy old tune when he thinks no one is watching him, though.
The film has its charms, but its far, far from perfect.
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