Not to point out the obvious (but I will anyways) war is a kind of horror worthy of our nightmares. Sure, The Exorcist is scary, and people are afraid of ghosts,
but I’ve yet to see any proof that either demons or ghosts actually exist, and therefore is not worthy of our fear as human beings. If you disagree with this, well, that’s too bad because you don’t have any proof that ghosts or demons exist either.
But war is real, and Restrepo will make you afraid of it. Very afraid.
Settled in a highly contested area of Iraq, a group of soldiers are documented in the fight against terrorism in this emotionally draining movie, which took home the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year. We get to see, up close and very personal, the lives of several men affected by the brutality of war. The movie isn’t particularly graphic (it is actually very light on any actual blood and gore), but is nevertheless a movie that has the potential to make you re-evaluate your existence and how you go about your daily lives. All it takes is a slight grimace, or a particular look in one of the soldier’s eyes – men not unlike myself – to stir you emotionally. And that is what Restrepo does best. There were several moments in the film where I heard the audience let out a depressing sigh just to relieve some of the tension, myself included.
Instead of focusing on the tragedy and grotesque horrors of war, Restrepo is aimed more at putting you in the shoes of the soldiers, to let you feel what they feel, as best as it can. You become part of the group, if only in spirit, and that is what makes Restrepo work so well.
It becomes easy to identify with the soldiers, whether or not you’ve ever seen this kind of thing up close. You don’t have to actually experienced war to know the kind of torment these guys suffer. One man reveals he actively avoids sleeping because the nightmares are too intense. He may laugh about it, but it is the slight pause of reflection afterward that sticks with you. There are several moments like these in the film, and they are the best parts.
So, if you’re looking for a graphic war film with crazy battle scenes and lots of destruction, look elsewhere, because Restrepo isn’t about that. Not at all. It is more about the personal lives of the men who saw action – and they do see action – and the effects it has on them. While it isn’t a flawless film, Restrepo does what it intends to do well enough to warrant a viewing, because it does what it intends to so well.
I love sci-fi/horror hybrids. From Event Horizon to Dark City to Alien, Sci-Fi and Horror are two great tastes that taste great together. Because of the success of Alien in ’79, there came quite a few cheeseball rip offs, most notably Galaxy of Terror as well as other Roger Corman knock off flicks. Some focused on creepy aliens, while others the suspense. A small repugnant few focused on the rape. Yes, of course that’s why Alien was such a success, because a dude gets mouth raped and has a chest baby. That must be it. Inseminoid is one of these filthy few, and the only thing good about it is the name.
Set in the future a ship of explorers set out to land on a hostile planet to do some exploring. One member of the team becomes infected by an alien, is brought on board and havoc ensues.Sound familiar? Only this time a female crew member is drugged and raped with beaker of alien green stuff and now she’s a possessed killer carrying alien babies.
Let’s just get to the point shall we? This movie stinks. Terrible music, mediocre acting, a smidge of grue and alot of running and screaming and not a whole lot else. The pace is slow and the sets, makeup, and technology are all horribly dated. Seriously it looked like they were using an Apple IIe, couldn’t they just create something that looked a little bit futuristic? It’s not gory enough or sleazy enough to be amusing, just dull. Honestly Inseminoid is for alien ripoff fanatics only. There’s just not enough meat on this one’s bone.
As habitual readers of Toxic Graveyard know, I love the new wave of Japanese gore flicks. From The Machine Girl to the mighty Tokyo Gore Police to the lesser known Meatball Machine, the Japanese are doing splatter right.
Samurai Princess is set in the future past where people are able to become “mecha” or people with weapons built into their bodies. One evil doctor is responsible for the murder of several people to fulfill his “art” of creating new beings from several humans. Our hero is one such piece of “art,” assembled from 11 of her friends into one hot mecha. Now she must find the evil doctor and get her revenge.
Quality wise this follows the trend of shot on video with lots of practical gore. The story is silly and meanders far to much and I felt we were just watching filler between fights. The action and vibe of the whole film is that of a live action old school anime which brings a certain type of cheese that I rarely find palatable. I had high hopes here as the film was written and directed by Kengo Kaji, the writer of Uzumaki (film) and Tokyo Gore Police, my favorite J-gore film. Those hopes were not realized. Sure, it had wacky weapons like boob grenades and a chainsaw leg but the action was far to cartoony and poorly done for my taste. CG blood sneaks its way into the film and hampers the film to this old-school practical fan.
Samurai Princess finds itself far below Tokyo Gore Police but above Sukeban Boy in the heirarchy of the new wave of J-gore. If you love the genre as much as I do, you’ll check it out anyway and honestly you could do a lot worse. If you’re knew to the scene check out Tokyo Gore Police first to see the true potential of the genre.
As I’ve mentioned before I’m tired of zombies. Tired of new zombie flicks, tired of zombie novels, tired of zombies period. I LOVE zombies but right now there’s just too much out there to get me excited. Candy is great too until you’ve had too much. You still like candy though right? You just don’t want any right now. But seriously, how in the hell did Redneck Zombies fly under my radar for so long? I’ve had it in my netflix queue for ages but why didn’t anyone tell me that its so awesome? It’s criminal.
Redneck Zombies is about a bunch of rednecks that get turned into zombies by drinking moonshine made out of toxic waste and proceed to eat a band of campers near by. Yup. That’s it.
Redneck Zombies is touted as the first feature length film ever shot on video. I doubt that but I would agree that it was probably the first bought and distributed decently, by Troma naturally. How many times have you rented a flick with a crazy title hoping for b-movie gold but got b-movie garbage? I’m looking at you Knightriders. Redneck Zombies actually delivers. Sure the first 20 minutes or so is total garbage with horrible acting, slow pacing, and below average shooting but see, that crap is just to weed out the non-believers. Those viewers without the patience enough to crawl through a mile of shit to find out if there’s gold on the other side. Well this gem finder was willing to make the dreary trek and found just what I came for. GORE! Splatter fans rejoice, a gore flick that actually has a lot of gore! Scalp peeling, neck biting, decapitations, gut munching, eye gouging, eviceration, it’s all here in red splashes! The zombies are very modest in their makeup but the grue delivers. Big hunks of what must be real meat are thrown in reckless abandon. It even includes a drug enduced hallutionated autopsy and an awkward zombie rape scene that rather then be repugnant and disturbing, is just silly. Quotable lines and memorable gore, I’ve found heaven.
Horrible acting? Check. Bad music? Check. Terrible but funny dialogue? Check. Simple yet stupid plot? Check. Buckets of satisfying gore? Double check. I was beginning to think I had overturned every rock and found every gore filled fright flick from the last 3 decades but it looks like my search must begin again in earnest. Thank you Redneck Zombies for making me believe again. You have filled my heart with hope and my stomach full of nausea.
What can I say about this strangely entertaining horror film from 1985? While I give it props for being a must see film for those of us who enjoy films of this sort, I have to say this was bad for a B-movie. Stranded on a strange island a group of people must find a way to survive an island filled with many dangers, including acid lakes, a lack food, and blood thirsty action figures. Yes, you read correctly, the monsters in this film are poorly manufactured, tikiesque puppets that are supposed to be living beings. The acting was generally less then compelling, with many memorable moments of over acting including my favorite line from film, “Damnit Morgan.” Adding in the bad film quality and terrible soundtrack you have the perfect example of why some film are never distributed on DVD. I give it one blood thirty tiki action figure out of five.
I love cheesy old exploitation flicks. Films created on the fringes to attract audiences on sheer shock value alone. Roger Corman’s New World Pictures specialized in such films that were scant on budget but big on sleaze. Galaxy of Terror finds itself in the pantheon of Corman’s excess but where on that scoreboard of sleaze does it reside?
Galaxy of Terror is one of many Alien rip off films that flooded the market in the early 80′s. Starring Robert Englund and Sid Haig, Galaxy of Terror finds a search crew crash landing on a forbbidden planet searching for a lost exploration team. What they find is TERROR! Literally. The planet makes each person see their greatest fears..and kills them with it, thus making those fears completely understandable.
Here’s the thing. The film feels like it’s missing important pages of script. Now, I’m not one to scoff at a difficult film. Many of my most rewarding film watching experiences have been watching difficult and complex films. This is not the case here. Its just simply poorly scripted and poorly directed thus rendering the film hard to follow. In the interest of full disclosure, I was very tired when I watched it, but my friend whom watchted the film with me was not and still had trouble deciphering what the hell was going on. The film cuts to characters doing something for unknown reasons, one dies, and then cuts to them with another group of characters with no segue at all. The film promises us gore and yes it does deliver, but 1981 gore, not 2010 gore. Which means all the characters meet gruesome ends but the scenes are quick, graphic, and mostly non-sensical. It a word, unsatisfying. Maybe if we spent a little bit more time getting to know what each character’s fear was and then have it unleashed later in the film, it would have been more effective. As it stands, each person dies with only a brief mention of what they’re afraid of and we’re left seeing their death seen and thinking, oh yeah, she’s afraid of worms right? I dunno, I think she briefly mentioned that? Oh, I guess that’s why a giant worm is raping her to death.
All that being said the sets are great, the acting ok, and the kills come fast. In black and white this seems like it would be the perfect slab of cheese for me but in technicolor it left me feeling underwhelmed. Galaxy of Terror doesn’t let things like an understandble and fullfilling plot get in the way of what it set out to do. Make a quick buck ripping off Alien with a lower budget but more graphic kills. It’s exploitation at its most economic.
I haven’t done one of these in a while and this is one of my favorites. One of many scenes that proves The Story of Riki is the best kung fu film ever. Enjoy.
Recently I’ve discovered the awesomeness that is Comet Press. There is a myriad of small press horror publishers out there, and more seem to be popping up all the time. Many times these small press companies promise “extreme” horror but often what you get is a poorly edited book riddled with grammatical and spelling errors with mediocre unknowns sandwiched between old stories from established authors. Thank goodness for Comet Press. I’ve reviewed their previous releases Vile Things and The Death Panel and loved em both. The bar was set high for Sick Things, and it soared over it on cloven hoof.
Sick Things is a sequel of sorts of Vile Things. Instead of body horror though, this time we get creatures. Now body horror is my favorite but creature horror comes in at a very close second. God Bless Comet Press for giving us great collections of wonderful NEW ideas. What a revelation. Gone are (most) of the creatures herein are new and different ideas. Hell the only “zombie” story here is unconventional, funny, gory, and written by former Spin City star Michael Boatman! I’m so sick of zombies and vampires I could spew and I’m so glad the editor of Sick Things saw fit to keep the genre tropes down to a minimum. Many of the same authors that were included in Vile Things and/or The Death Panel return here, and again they’re the best of the bunch. Fred Venturini turns in a story about creatures that steal secrets, Randy Chandler tells us about a woman raped by demons. Tim Curran gets my award for most descriptive tale in the bunch, a retelling of Hansel and Gretel, Sean Logan’s tale, “The Neglected,” was so disturbing and uncomfortable I almost couldn’t get through it. One of the more creative and bizarre of the bunch, Legacy of the Last Invader by M. Shaw, is about a now exstinct group of aliens whose sole purpose was to repopulate their race with our women, the problem is they’re hung like baseball bats and kill nearly every woman they meet. The always impressive John Shirley turns in a story about the after life and Jefferey Hale finishes the set with a story every adolescent male would cringe at. 17 stories in all and not a bad one in the bunch. Some are more successful than others but all were a good read.
Comet Press once again has produced a superior collection of extreme horror. Honestly I feel like this one’s the best yet from them. All the authors here turn in tight, sharp work that surpass the previous collections. Most of the authors here are virtual unknowns some are even publishing their first work here but don’t let that deter you, these are going to be the horror leaders of tomorrow, catch them now and be ahead of the curve. Recommended.
Dystopic/anti-government films never get old for me. I love to see films that look into our near future and try to predict what our reactions to very real threats just might be. 28 days later, the Road Warrior, Carriers, they all try to show humanity as it falls apart and how some will pull together to survive. Salvage started out strong and may have reached my list of favorite apocalyptic films but sadly it just didn’t have the script to finish strong.
Salvage is about a residential neighborhood in England that comes under lockdown by black op government soldiers. There’s something in the neighborhood that’s killing the residents and one mother must stop at nothing to find her daughter and bring her to safety.
What starts as a strong drama about a divorced family with a child in the middle turns into a great survivalist thrill ride but devolves into a pointless monster film that’s short on scares. This film is a crime. How can a movie start out so strong, get me invested in the characters and in the plot and then lose it in the last 20 minutes? Once again a modestly budgeted film utilizing great actors, a great director and editor get screwed because the script was no good. There was so much to investigate in this film, the first 2/3 were rich in character development and humanity and then it just turns into a cheesy stalk and slash monster flick and loses all its intelligence and power. I mean how can an unarmed woman survive against some super killing machine when special ops soldiers with GUNS get killed? Add that to many other poor plot choices and what you have is a 75 minute film where the last 15 minutes are rubbish. Honestly, even given the short run time I felt the film was too long. I’m so frustrated because I really wanted to like this film but the ending is so poorly constructed, I just couldn’t.
