Make-Out with Violence (2010)

Zombie movies are usually brainless (ahem, pardon the pun) but fun romps in the horror world. However, lately many have become disenchanted by the subgenre, usually forgoing seeing a zombie film with the assumption that it’ll be like all the rest, with nothing new or interesting to contribute. For most films, these assumptions would be correct. However, the zombie film Make-Out with Violence is an entirely different animal and takes the zombie film to amazing emotional depths.

Make-Out with Violence tells the story of twin brothers Patrick (Eric Lehning) and Carol Darling (Cody DeVos), newly graduated from high school and struggling to come to terms with the mysterious disappearance of their friend, the bright and beautiful Wendy Hearst. When a drive through the countryside surrounding their posh suburban community leads to the discovery of Wendy’s mysteriously animated corpse, the boys secretly transport the zombie Wendy to an empty house in hopes of somehow bringing her back to life. As the sweltering summer pushes on, they must maintain the appearance of normalcy for their friends and family as they search for ways to revive the Wendy they once knew, or, failing that, to satisfy their own quests for love amongst the living and the dead.

Make-Out with Violence feels more of like a drama rather than a horror film, and in fact focuses more on the trauma of growing up instead of inundating us with blood, guts and hordes of zombies. In fact, there is only one zombie in the movie, the lovely in life and death Wendy, and there are only a few instances where she is really scary. In fact, most of the time she just lays there, staring at nothing with her glazed-over eyes (until she tries to move, and then her jerky movements will send shivers up your spine).

You might be thinking that the plot line of teens keeping a pretty girl zombie as a “pet” sounds an awful lot like Deadgirl, which is what I thought before viewing the film. However, Make-Out with Violence takes an entirely different route than Deadgirl. The boys don’t ever sexually exploit the living corpse, but instead take careful care of her and try to get her to do normal things, like sit at a dinner table and eat some birthday cake. Instead of being shocking, vulgar and offensive like Deadgirl, Make-Out with Violence is a much more subtle film on the loss of innocence and growing up, with no less traumatizing results.

I also thought that all the actors did an amazing job. You really believed what they were going through and came to relate to them, especially through their unrequited loves. Eric Lehning and Cody DeVos were the standouts as the Darling twins. They expressed so many different emotions as their characters went through so much. Special mention must also be made of Brett Miller, who played the twins younger brother Beetle. For his young age, he was very impressive! Leah High was commendable as Addy, the twins long-time friend and Carol’s love interest. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the lovely Shellie Marie Shartzer, who played Wendy. Though she is silent and still most of the movie, she does an excellent job conveying the hopelessness of her situation and just how truly changed she is from when she was alive.

This is the first feature film from the Deagol Brothers, which I never would have guessed from watching Make-Out with Violence because it looks so stunning and polished. The visuals perfectly captured the bittersweet feeling of summertime, from singing cicadas to melty milkshakes. The melancholy feel and dreamy-like visuals reminded me of the film The Virgin Suicides, which also explored death and the malaise of summertime.

Make-Out with Violence isn’t for everyone, and if you go into it expecting a regular, run-of-the-mill zombie flick you’ll probably be disappointed. However, if you don’t mind introspective and intelligent films that are beautifully haunting and heartfelt, you just might want to cozy up with Make-Out with Violence.

Available from Amazon!

After.Life (2010)

Christina Ricci naked.

That seems to be the film’s only selling point, at least according to most reviews of this film. However, its actual storyline is pretty intriguing and this film has a lot more going for it that Ms. Ricci’s nudity.

After being involved in a car accident, Anna (Christina Ricci), wakes up in a funeral home where the sole proprietor Eliot Deacon (Liam Neeson) tells her she is now dead as he prepares her body for burial. Though Anna still feels very much alive,  Eliot tells her he has a special gift to speak with the dead and is there to help her make the transition to her afterlife. Anna’s distraught boyfriend Paul (Justin Long) comes to believe that the funeral director is hiding something and that Anna could still be very much alive. He has just a few days until her funeral to get to the bottom of Anna’s demise, but he may already be too late as Anna comes to accept her fate.

Besides all the fanboys going gaga over the nudity, there is a lot more to After.Life than T&A. It is a much more complex and intriguing film than others have given it credit for and definitely deserves a look.

Director Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo (who also co-wrote the film with Paul Vosloo and Jakub Korolczuk) crafts a beautifully subtle film about appreciating one’s life before the inevitability of death. The first thing that really grabbed me was the color symbolism used throughout the film. The color red, the color of blood and of life and vitality, is used predominately. Before her accident, Anna has frequent nosebleeds and has her hair dyed red, both blood and dye shown swirling down the drain. Also, the clinical white interior of the funeral “preparation room” and the autumnal world outside symbolize the transition from life to death, the “preparation room” acting as a sort of purgatory while the changing seasons outside show the cycle of life. I don’t mean to get all analytical on you, though, so let’s get back to what works about After.Life!

Besides the symbolism surrounding the visuals, director Wojitowicz-Vosloo also infuses the story with mystery, and we as the audience are never quite sure of each of the character’s culpability or innocence. Is Anna really dead or is Eliot some sick psycho? The answers are neither clear-cut nor easy, which makes After.Life a much more satisfying and complex film.

Also, the actors all do a fabulous job in their roles. I especially loved Liam Neeson as Eliot Deacon, the creepy funeral director. He played the part with equal parts menace and charm, never letting Anna or the audience know if he could be trusted or not. Christina Ricci also gives a remarkable performance as the unhappy Anna. There are parts of the film where she is naked, but I felt the direction made the nudity feel cold and clinical, never erotic. Plus, the nudity never distracted from Ricci’s strong performance as the confused Anna. Justin Long also appears as Anna’s distraught boyfriend and gives quite a solid performance.

With all these positives going for the film you might think After.Life was without flaw, but that isn’t the case. Its slow pace certainly won’t work for everyone, and the film tends to drag a bit in the middle. It doesn’t feature visceral action, instead opting for psychological drama. Very little blood is spilled in the film as the psychological terror of being dead is explored instead. However, I thoroughly enjoyed how After.Life explored themes of life and death and what comes after. It kept me guessing up until the end, and with no clear-cut answers it stayed with me long after I had finished viewing it.

Available from Amazon!

Deadgirl (2009)

Deadgirl is a beautifully twisted, if not slightly flawed, exploration of how childhood innocence is so easily lost in our disillusioned world. It is easily one of the most disturbing films I’ve seen in recent memory and while it’s a more coming-of-age drama than straight-forward horror movie, this film still managed to shock and deeply perturb me.

High school burnouts Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez, who looks like a mix of Joaquin Phoenix and Johnny Depp) and J.T. (Noah Segan) cut school one hot day and decide to seek refuge in an old abandoned mental institution. After trashing the place and downing some beers, they set off to explore the dank basement where they are shocked to find a seemingly dead woman’s naked body chained to a gurney and wrapped in plastic. While Rickie decides to high-tail it out of there, J.T. has nefarious designs on the naked dead woman…except he soon figures out she isn’t dead and, more so, can’t be killed!

Rickie soon discovers that J.T. has made the dead girl into his own personal sex slave. Yet, Rickie can’t bring himself to turn his best friend in, not even after more and more people find out about the dead girl and join J.T. in his perverse necromance. As the situation spirals out of control and the line between right and wrong blur, Rickie must decide where his loyalties lie.

Deadgirl is definitely not a fun film to watch, but then again I just couldn’t tear my eyes away from the grotesqueries on display. That’s not to say that it is at all gory or bloody, but instead the shock aspect of the film comes from the seemingly moral ambivalence of all the characters. It seems that no one really cares that what they are doing is wrong, and even Rickie, one of the few remotely likable characters, seems only worried about the repercussions if they are caught by the police. This is where the real horror lies…that these teens don’t seem to have any moral compass and that the scenario seems so plausible in real life.

Though the film never explicitly shows the many rape scenes, we know exactly what is transpiring. The film never eroticizes the rape, instead making it a vile, degrading act to watch (though the characters treat it very nonchalantly). The dead girl (played bravely by Jenny Spain) is like a hunk of meat to the characters, just another thing they can use to satisfy their teenage libidos. I’m not sure if the writer Trent Haaga or directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel intentionally wanted to make a statement about rape victims and their attackers, but J.T. and his cronies treat her like a rapist would treat his victim…they say “she’s not even human” and act like she is just a commodity to be used explicitly for their pleasure and then discarded. You end up cheering for the dead girl (the characters never even give her a name and we never find out her back story, making her appear even more like merely an object) but her rapists never seem to get the punishment they deserve.

Another theme the film explores is the “loss of innocence”, but more from Rickie’s and J.T.’s perspectives than from the dead girl’s. The characters go from rebels without a cause to perverse exploiters of human life rather quickly, and, as mentioned above, treat the dead girl as not even being human and repeatedly rape this “object”. Though “zombie” is never used to describe the dead girl, that is what she truly is and the film really turns the zombie genre on its head. Usually, the zombies are used as metaphors for our mindless consumer society, but in Deadgirl the living lead characters are the ones senselessly and coldly using up the “zombie” just as if she is another product. It says a lot about our society and how we as consumers voraciously devour any products we can get our grubby mitts on, without thought to consequences. Kudos to writer Trent Haaga for offering a new perspective and social commentary on the zombie genre. On the more distressing side, it also speaks of how ambivalent we as a society are towards rapists and the “boys will be boys” mentality.

On the visual side of things, directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel do a fantastic job of capturing the angst and alienation of youth in the film (especially accompanied by the moody soundtrack that includes Iron and Wine, Radiohead and Animal Collective). The opening scenes and subsequent framing shots really depict what it feels like to be an outsider in high school. It is a poignant journey until the twisted horror of the dead girl is revealed. From then on most of the action takes place in the dark, dank belly of the abandoned mental hospital, which J.T. slowly converts to his new crash pad, complete with softly glowing Christmas lights and a Lazy-Boy. The gritty setting coupled with the despicable acts the boys perform on the dead girl really makes your stomach turn. The setting reminded me much of Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door.
 
Despite a few shaky instances, the actors in the film did an amazing job. Noah Segan really made us hate his character of J.T. and Shiloh Fernandez made us alternate between hating and loving his character of Rickie. Other cast members did a terrific job as well, especially the dead girl herself, Jenny Spain, who we both felt sorry for and terrified by.

The film does have a few flaws, namely some slow pacing and failure to wrap up some loose ends. The film already has a pretty languid pace, but there are a few instances where the story really gets bogged down. I thought the subplot of Rickie’s mom’s boyfriend didn’t add anything to the story and could have been left out. Also, I really wanted to see some justice and prolonged torture befall J.T. and others for their part in making the dead girl their sex slave, but their fates were rather tame. The film’s grim ending was shocking (though you can see it coming), but it never followed up on what happened to some of the characters or the dead girl herself. Had the script and/or editing been tightened up, the pacing and storyline would have flowed much more smoothly, but still would have been no less perverse.

Deadgirl is a hard film to recommend. On the one hand, it is hard to watch, has its moments of misogyny and the rapists never quite get all they deserve, but on the other hand it is beautifully filmed and is just so damn disturbing! The moral ambivalence of the characters and the objectification of women speak to a greater extent of how we as a society have a nonchalant attitude not only towards the loss of innocence, but also towards rape. And that perhaps is the most frightening thing of all about Deadgirl.

Buy it on Amazon!

I Sell the Dead (2009)

I have always loved the evocative atmosphere of old horror films. You know the ones – they always seem to feature fog-shrouded cemeteries, an ominous score, stark trees silhouetted against an October moon and just a deliciously macabre feel to them. So when I heard about I Sell the Dead, a film that promised the same kind of spooky atmosphere combined with a morbid buddy comedy, I was definitely eager to see it.

The tongue-in-cheek horror comedy definitely lived up to my expectations, even surpassing them at times. Not only is the romantically macabre atmosphere of old horror films perfectly captured, but the story is gleefully unique with a good heaping of gallows humor thrown in for good measure!

The film is told in flashback form, but opens in the present 1800’s Ireland with convicted grave robber Willy Grimes (Larry Fessenden) meeting an unkindly end at the guillotine. His partner, Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan), is awaiting a similar fate when he is visited by Father Duffy (Ron Perlman), a rather odd priest who seems to take unusual delight in hearing all about Blake and Grime’s misdeeds. For five hours before his scheduled execution, Blake recounts how he fell into the corpse snatching business with Grimes, their ghoulish client Dr. Vernon Quint (Angus Scrimm) who always needed fresh corpses for his mysterious experiments, the many unusual “undead” things he and Grimes were paid to dig up and their unfortunate run-ins with the House of Murphy, a rival grave robbing gang.

I Sell the Dead is no doubt one of the best horror films I’ve seen all year! I really think 19^th century Ireland, with its bawdy bars, decrepit old cemeteries, moon-lit back alleys, desolated moors and strange isles populated by the undead, was the perfect setting for the film. It definitely captured that old Hammer horror atmosphere, giving the film a nostalgic feel. What’s even more amazing is because of a small budget the movie was filmed in New York! When there wasn’t enough money to construct elaborate sets, existing locations were used (such as for the pub used in the film) and backgrounds and such were added in by computer effects and mixed art media like photography, painting and illustration. Yet, when you watch the film, it is absolutely seamless!

Besides the nostalgic look of the film, the story, written by Glenn McQuaid (who also directed) is also absolutely delightful. As I watched the story unfold, I was just as gleeful as a kid on Christmas morning! When was the last time you saw a film that made you want to crow its praises from rooftops? Besides the fact that the story keeps popping up with surprises as to what Grimes and Blake would dig up next, the whole repartee between Grimes and Blake reminded me of Abbott and Costello-style shenanigans. There is some slapstick, but most of it is witty banter. Even the dialogue between other characters, especially Blake and Father Duffy, is very playful. The whole story has this irreverent, imaginative feel to it, but it is not without its moments of horror. Though the undead they encounter are more cartoonish than serious, there are several nice jolts throughout the film. I especially enjoyed a discovery of a vampire, though the two main characters had no idea what they had dug up and proceeded to remove the garlic around the undead’s neck as well as removing a stake through her heart. As a result, hilarity and horror ensues. Even the addition of the not-undead-but-still-damn-scary House of Murphy gang was pleasurable and added another dimension to an already colorful film!

The characters are fancifully drawn, with even the lesser characters being fully fleshed out. Besides the main characters of Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan), Willy Grimes (Larry Fessenden) and Father Duffy (Ron Perlman), I loved the menacing members of the House of Murphy, including Cornelius Murphy (John Speredakos) with his grim childhood at the hands of the cruel Murphy senior, Valentine Kelly (Heather Bullock) whose face was so disfigured by a fire that she now wears a blank, white mask that she only removes when she is about to kill someone and Bulger (Alisdair Stewart) whose toothy maw is full of razor-sharp dog teeth. Then, of course, is the sinister Dr. Quint (Angus Scrimm), who keeps demanding more and more bodies from Grimes and Blake and corpulent barkeep Ronnie (Joel Garland), among the many memorable faces! Plus, all of the actors delivered stellar performances. I have to make special mention of Daniel Manche, who played the young Arthur Blake! Hats off to the rest of the excellent cast, including a rather gleeful performance from the “Tall Man” himself, Angus Scrimm!

I really cannot speak highly enough of I Sell the Dead. It is a whimsically macabre film that will delight and entertain all horror fans. So far, I Sell the Dead is one of my favorite films from 2009!

Available from Amazon!

Frightmare (1983)

Not to be confused with the 1974 English cannibal film of the same name, Frightmare (aka The Horror Star) is the story of recently deceased horror veteran Conrad Radzoff (Ferdinand Mayne) who claims that death will be his best performance yet! The night after he is entombed into his specially constructed mausoleum (complete with a blinking neon star), a group of drama students break into the crypt and decide to take old Conrad back to their place for some partying! After a creepy dinner with the diners all wearing masks, they each take turns dancing with the corpse and one girl even goes to far as to smooch him! They put Conrad back into his coffin, but are too tuckered out to take him back to his final resting place, so they just put him in their attic and call it a night.

The next morning the cops discover Conrad is missing from the mausoleum and his widow enlists the help of a psychic medium to find out where he is. Turns out he’s in hell, but is hellbent on returning and getting revenge on the young whippersnappers that disturbed his slumber. His widow heartily agrees, saying, “Burn them! Burn them! BURN THEM!”

Having been summoned, Conrad rises from the dead and stalks the kids in the house, killing them one by one.

What is so interesting about Frightmare is that it tries to bridge the gap from Gothic-tinged Hammer horror (think fog-shrouded cemeteries, genteel-looking old men in Dracula capes, damsels in distress) with the kids-being-stalked-by-an-unstoppable-killer slasher formula. I liked the “classic horror” atmosphere of the film, but the slasher aspect felt a bit off. The story had some holes (a cop, who looks more like a mafia don, keeps popping up but doesn’t add anything to the story), pacing problems, awful dialogue (“We did something BAD!”) and the kills left a lot to be desired. Even though the result is a mixed bag, this seemingly strange combination of old and new horror styles makes Frightmare worth a look anyway.

The film was written and directed by Norman Thaddeus Vane and one good thing about his script is that he spent more time developing the character of Conrad Ragzoff than he did the kids’ characters. I felt much more empathy for Conrad than I did any of the annoying college kids, who exist mostly to get picked off. Conrad is one of the best things about the film, and the character is obviously an homage to Christopher Lee. Actor Ferdinand Mayne even resembles Lee and has the same kind of aristocratic air as he does.

Speaking of Mayne, he was truly a joy to watch in this role, especially in the opening scenes when he is still alive and in the videos he leaves behind for the funeral and those that appear to greet visitors to his crypt. Another actor to note in the film is Jeffrey Combs, who plays one of the clueless kids in one of his earlier roles. Most of the actors who play the college drama students don’t have much to do, but they all do a pretty good job of playing stupid and dying horribly. Even the “Final Girl”, just sits around and whimpers and only survives because she faints dead away at the sight of the resurrected Conrad.

As for the deaths, Conrad kills most of the kids with telekinetic powers rather than with his bare hands. One girl spontaneously combusts into a fireball, another girl gets squashed by a flying coffin, a guy gets locked in Conrad’s crypt as it fills with poisonous gas, another guy gets decapitated by a flying sword, and so on. The only “hands-on” deaths occur when a guy gets his tongue/jaw ripped out and then strangled, a woman gets her mouth stuffed with a wad of cash and another guy gets stuffed into a coffin and burnt alive in the crematorium. It was disappointing that the deaths weren’t at all gory (especially since at least half of the film was trying for that slasher vibe), but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. Instead, the film treated the deaths in the more restrained, classic horror tradition instead of going all-out like a slasher flick.

Still, there are some pretty silly scenes throughout the film besides the previously mentioned death scenes. One was the partying scene where the kids pass around Conrad’s corpse like he’s a party favor, which is so disturbing it borders on ludicrous! Another more “laugh-out-loud” scene is the over-the-top séance scene where Conrad’s widow and psychic medium are trying to contact the dead Conrad. The ladies put on such hysterical performances here that I dare you not to laugh! The film also features some god-awful music and sound effects that sound just like one of those cheap Halloween party CD’s, complete with howling and growling.

Frightmare has a lot of issues and I think it would have a lot of problems connecting with horror fans today. Still, it is an interesting little movie that tries to combine old-school horror with the slasher formula. Sometimes it doesn’t succeed, but it is still interesting enough to check out, especially if you love Gothic-tinged horror movies. Though Frightmare isn’t a “must-see” for all horror fans, those that appreciate both the old and new aspects of horror filmmaking may just find themselves enjoying it like I did!

Buy it on Amazon!

Cadaver (2009)

It seems that I’ve seen plenty of disappointing horror movies set in a morgue. Two disappointing films that come to mind are Unrest and Pathology, both that were stiffer than a corpse. So imagine my trepidation when I set about watching South Korean flick Cadaver, another film set in a morgue. Luckily, Cadaver didn’t arrive DOA and actually contained a solid storyline and a spooky atmosphere!

The film follows a group of first-year medical students as they enter their first autopsy class. The group’s cadaver is a young woman who died under the operating knife and she has a long, carefully stitched-up scar running down her chest. As soon as the students cut into her they begin having horrific nightmares of the girl as well as a one-eyed doctor. One by one they each get locked in the autopsy room and don’t leave until they come out in a body bag, complete with a scar along their chests that matches their cadaver’s. As the survivors try to make sense out of their friends’ deaths, they start to investigate who the cadaver was in life and just what or who might be causing her unrest. Is the cadaver’s angry spirit back for revenge or is someone more tangible responsible for their deaths?

Cadaver is a surprisingly engaging film, despite it seemingly being derivative of other Asian horror stories. It wisely avoids all the stereotypical Asian scares (accept for the appearance of a long-haired ghost…but this appears only briefly) and instead focuses on what the med students are going through and how it affects them. It rises above the limitations of stereotypical Asian ghost stories by melding an intriguing story with stunning visuals and a dark atmosphere.

Director Derek Son creates a foreboding atmosphere from the moment the students step into the cold and clinical autopsy room. He utilizes lots of dark shadows, rainy nights and creaking doors to add to the general unease of both viewer and character. The nightmarish visions of the one-eyed doctor and the cadaver were especially creepy, but I found the scenes within the autopsy room, especially when the students met their deaths, most effective. Not only does Son create a dark mood, but the film is also beautifully shot. Whether a shot of someone running up a winding staircase or a shot of a heart suspended in a medical container, many of the scenes are just stunning.

My only real complaints are that the story gets a bit bogged down and that the characters aren’t all that developed in the first place. After the first heart-stopping kill, there is just not enough time spent on making any of the other kills as interesting. The story starts to get bogged down because there is too much of a gap between the first kill and when the students start investigating their cadaver’s past. During this time the focus is shifted to the characters and their reactions to everything happening, but since there was so little character development in the beginning we really don’t care. The characters themselves aren’t very interesting and seem like stereotypical teens you would find in an American horror movie. There’s the slut, the nerd, the fat slob, the good-lookin’ rich guy and the two characters in love. None of them are particularly interesting, so when the film starts exploring how they are feeling about the situation I don’t really care…I just want to find out what is causing them to die such grisly deaths!

Despite these complaints, Cadaver excels at creating an engaging and mysterious story that you want to unravel as much as the med students do! It really utilizes the setting of the morgue to add scares and tension, so much so that the morgue and autopsy room becomes like an ominous character itself! It is also one of the few “morgue” movies to impress me – it’s got a smart script, stunning visuals and some grisly moments. Cadaver is definitely alive and kicking…

Cannibal Flesh Riot! (2007)

Gris Grimly is well-known as an artist of the macabre, lending his creepy creativeness to gothic tales like Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Madness and Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Death and Dementia, The Dangerous Alphabet, Boris and Bella and many, many more books. His art is striking, immediately recognizable and gruesomely gorgeous for fans with an inkling for the darker side of life.

Now Gris Grimly has taken on another medium – film. His 34 minute short film Cannibal Flesh Riot!, which he wrote, directed and produced, is just as much a fiendish feast for the eyes as his artwork is. Cannibal Flesh Riot! is a love letter from Grimly to old, black and white horror films and will have you falling in love all over again with Grimly.

After a very charming introduction by Gris Grimly himself explaining exactly what “ghouls” are (they are definitely different from your standard zombie or vampire), the film opens with a police investigation of a very unusual illegal exhumation at the local cemetery. The lieutenant (played by fellow amazing artist D.W. Frydendall) is baffled as to why there a fresh corpse exhumed from his grave and left above ground while his final resting place has been filled in with dirt again…just who or WHAT is buried in the dead man’s place?

We then cut back to the previous night, where we meet lanky Stash and hunchbacked Hub. Stash and Hub are centuries-old ghouls who eat the flesh of the dead…but they prefer fresh meat, so they are on the prowl for a freshly interned corpse. As they stalk through the cemetery they discuss important topics such as how to properly season a corpse, the plethora of condiments (relish is “pickle vomit” according to Stash), how to deal with nosy authorities and why humans dress up their food to make it look like people in order to make it appetizing (like the California Raisins or the McDonald’s characters).

As the ghouls start digging up a grave for their dinner, they get a very unexpected and unwelcome surprise…

Cannibal Flesh Riot! evokes the feel of our beloved, black and white B-horror movies. It is filmed in grainy black and white with added scratches and dirt that really adds to the creeptastic atmosphere. There are even moments when stop-motion animation is used and within this film it works extremely well, only adding to the overall, old-school horror feel of Cannibal Flesh Riot!

The look of the film is a mix between Tim Burton visuals and old gothic horror films. Some scenes are even reminiscent of German expressionist films, complete with exaggerated and askew angles. The film also feels like old horror TV shows like The Vampira Show with bats on strings flying across the screen. The cemetery, with its crumbling, crooked headstones is just pure gothic horror goodness!

The story, written by Grimly, is extremely engaging and you get quite connected to the characters of Stash and Hub. It’s towards the end that you remember that these two ghouls are bloodthirsty villains out for dead human flesh! Even then, I was still rooting for them! I loved the witty banter between them and the characters themselves are quirky and endlessly entertaining. Grimly’s story (along with the visuals) just put a big smile on my face throughout the entire film!

David Backus as Stash and Dustin Loreque as Hub are just fantastic as the ghouls. I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing the two characters. They both give rabble-rousing performances that really make the film. Without their amazing acting some of the dialogue could have come off sounding too over-the-top and campy, but Backus and Loreque fully immerse themselves in their characters and make their dialogue believable and entertaining!

The special effects used were also pretty cool…the last sequence when Stash and Hub are “surprised” by something is filmed entirely in stop-motion, but it is damn impressive! It reminded me of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion effects on Jason and the Argonauts, especially with a scene involving a skeleton! The stop-motion animation is done extremely well and fits perfectly into the atmosphere of the film.

Also adding to the already spooky atmosphere of the film is the amazing score by Hola Ghost. The slowly-building, ominous score really complements the creeping fog, hooting owls and hanging moss of the cemetery. It adds so much to the film and Hola Ghost should really be commended for crafting such a creeping menace of a score!

I just cannot speak highly enough of Cannibal Flesh Riot! After its success, I sincerely hope Gris Grimly will pursue more film projects (his next film project is entitled Gris Grimly’s Wounded Embark of the Lovesick Mind). I know that I can’t wait to re-watch (and re-watch and re-watch) this film, as well as sharing its genius with my friends.

If you are a horror fan that appreciates the classics, it is almost guaranteed that you will adore Cannibal Flesh Riot! as mush as I did! Cannibal Flesh Riot! is like horror film comfort food…it is familiar, satisfying and you’ll come back to it for seconds (and thirds…and fourths…)!

Just hold the relish, please…

Buy on Amazon!

Pathology (2008)

Pathology and forensics have always fascinated me. The science that’s behind discovering how, why and when someone died is inherently interesting to me, as is what happens to our bodies after we die. Which is why the film Pathology, finally seeing a release on DVD, had me pretty intrigued. I wasn’t expecting something as disturbing as the great Aftermath but I did expect something better than the horrible Unrest. Sadly, Pathology is DOA.

Dr. Ted Grey (Milo Ventimiglia) has got it all going for him – a beautiful, wealthy fiancé named Gwen (Alyssa Milano), graduating at the top of his medical class in Harvard and now, a residency at one of the most prestigious pathology labs in the country. He moves across the country and away from his fiancé to attend, but is quickly greeted with disdain by most of his peers, lead by the cocky Dr. Jake Gallo (Michael Weston). Jake and Ted soon go head-to-head in trying to show off, but once Ted shows his dark side he is inducted into their little group. Problem is, the members of Jake’s group like to play a game where they kill “deserving” (wife beaters, child molesters, pimps, cheaters, etc.) victims in unique ways so that everyone else can have a grand old time trying to figure out just how they did it.

With a little coercing, Ted becomes entangled in the group, as well as with Juliette (Lauren Lee Smith), the fiery redhead of the group who also happens to have a kinky relationship with Jake and other members of the group. Do these residents know how to party or what?! Soon, our Dr. Grey is smoking crack, cheating on his fiancé and having sex on autopsy tables…oh yeah, and killing people in creative ways with his newfound buddies. He finally sobers up after a visit to his fiancé and realizes he wants out…but is it already too late?

Pathology is a slick little movie that tries to walk to line between mainstream and hardcore horror audiences, yet fails at both. This film will be too graphic for mainstream audiences (though I wouldn’t call it gory) but too tame for horror fans (it really is more of a thriller than a horror movie). The story of falling into deep void and having to find your way out again is nothing new, and the writers (Neveldine and Taylor, who also wrote Crank) don’t try to add any twists or anything that would elevate it past its been-there-done-that vibe.

Probably the biggest problem with the story is the lack of sympathy we have for any of the characters. We hardly know anything about Ted Grey, yet we are expected to sympathize him when he falls into “the game” of Jake and his cohorts. If you ask me, he joins the game rather willingly and with little prodding from Jake. Ted is supposed to be this great, independent and highly intelligent individual, yet he caves into peer pressure at the whisper of a threat. Also, when he joins the group he throws away all his morals and willingly kills patients, cheats on his fiancé and starts taking drugs. None of this was very believable and made me not care what happened to Ted.

As for the other characters, they are also underdeveloped. Jake Gallo (and Michael Weston steals the show with his portrayal) is supposed to be the leader of their little group and one of the top residents, but he is so unstable I wonder how he didn’t get kicked out of medical school. It’s strange that none of his professors or superiors caught on to his craziness. Don’t doctors have to take psychological tests?? As for the other characters, we don’t even get to know them. Juliette is mainly there so both Ted and Jake can have violent sex with her, and the other members of the group just disappear after a while with no real point for them to be there in the first place. No attempt at all is made to develop them. I didn’t even know their names! As for Alyssa Milano, she is just wasted as Ted’s sugary sweet fiancé. She didn’t even seem to serve a purpose in the film except to spurn Ted into action at the end of the film.

Instead of constantly focusing on Ted’s minuscule guilt and scenes of partying and sex, it would have been a lot more interesting if some of the murders were actually shown (most happen offscreen and none are particularly violent). There aren’t even that many that happen!

One thing that this movie actually does right is the special FX by Tatopoulos Studios. The cadavers are incredibly realistic, both inside and out (of which we see plenty of both). I would have loved if the movie focused a bit more on pathology so we could have seen more of the corpses, but what I saw was very satisfying indeed. Keep in mind, hardcore horror fans will be disappointed by the lack of gore in regards to the “kills,” but these realistic-looking corpses try to make up for that fact (though they don’t quite make up for the crappiness of the movie).

Pathology is directed by Marc Schoelermann, whose previous efforts included music videos and commercials. The effect is a slick movie, but one that has no emotional depth. Pretty typical for a commercial director, but the weird thing is that the film carries a heavily somber tone throughout that makes you think some deep revelation is coming at the end, but when we get there, there’s absolutely no philosophical questions answered (not that they were asked in the first place). The abrupt ending, while it does tidily wrap up all loose ends, feels as empty as the rest of the film.

Like the autopsy rooms it takes place in, Pathology is a cold, clinical film. Though it’s not incompetently shot, it lacks emotion, a complex story line and believable characters so it ends up stiffer than a corpse.

Available from Amazon!

The Living Dead Girl (1982)

Though I haven’t delved too deeply into Jean Rollin’s filmography, I have found the films of his I have seen to be quite poetic and darkly romantic. The Iron Rose was the first film of his I saw, and it entranced me with its gothic feel and dark poetry. After that, I eagerly sought out his other work, which led me to view The Grapes of Death, a film I found to be rather disappointing.

However, I recently viewed Rollin’s The Living Dead Girl (aka La Morte Vivante), which came highly recommended, and this film did not disappoint. Sticking to a more straightforward storyline and somewhat leaving his slow and hypnotizing filmmaking behind, Rollin brings us a film filled with gore, nudity and an enthralling Living Dead Girl.

The film opens with a couple of workers dumping barrels filled with toxic waste into an old crypt under a castle in the French countryside. While they are down there, they decide to do a little grave robbing as well. As they are prying open the coffin lids of two coffins, an earthquake causes the toxic chemicals to spill everywhere. While one grave robber gets killed by the stuff, another gets his eyes clawed out by the resurrected Catherine Valmont (Francoise Blanchard), who looks as fresh and pretty as the day she died two years ago!

She makes her way back to her castle, though her family is also dead and the place has been put on the market. She kills anyone that gets in her way, including a realtor and her boyfriend who come to the empty castle for some hanky-panky.

When her childhood friend and blood sister Helene (Marina Pierro) discovers Catherine is still alive, she rushes to her aid and vows to never leave her, helping her to kill people when Catherine craves their blood. Even while Helene tries to find a semblance of normality for the two of them, Catherine truly realizes what she is and begins lamenting her current undead condition.

Catherine’s secret becomes further threatened when an American actress photographs her and becomes intent on uncovering her identity.

Living Dead Girl is probably Jean Rollin’s most commercial and accessible film. His signature dream-like atmosphere is more muted in the film (though still present) and the plot moves along rather briskly for a Rollin film. The gore and nudity are also copious and occur often, as do the lesbian undertones (which are present in many of Rollin’s vampire films) between Helene and Catherine.

Catherine’s weapon of choice were her long, curved nails, with which she slashed and stabbed through many victims. Blood splattered, sprayed and streamed over the screen throughout the film. There’s plenty of violence, from a girl getting her stomach repeatedly slashed open to a man on fire. The most impressive gore sequence came towards the end, when someone’s throat is literally ripped out, and it was so prolonged that it made me squirm a little in my seat! There was also plenty of flesh exposed on which to splatter said blood. Gorehounds will delight in many of the blood-letting scenes!

Francoise Blanchard is amazing as Catherine Valmont. Her innocent blue eyes and angelic blond hair contrast nicely with the chaos that surrounds her. She is very much the victim as opposed to the monster in this film, and you really feel for her predicament. Marina Pierro also does a marvelous job as Helene, who just can’t seem to come to grips with what Catherine really is. Her steely resolve to protect her friend and the love she shows toward Catherine are very admirable traits, though near the end you wish she would just come to understand what Catherine is going through. The rest of the acting is respectable, even with the subplot involving the actress stumbling across Catherine’s secret.

Surprisingly, the subplot doesn’t feel unnecessary, but instead adds a bit more depth and drama to the story, written by Rollin and Jacques Ralf. As for the pacing, it moved at a quick clip, something that can’t be said for all of Rollin’s films. There are plot holes (including the freshness of Catherine’s corpse!), but they are easy to overlook when the film is viewed as a whole. I enjoyed how the story never took a decidedly “zombie” or “vampire” stance with Catherine’s resurrection, but straddled the two myths. Catherine is never named as a “zombie” or a “vampire,” but is merely “undead” and marries aspects from both. She drinks blood like a vampire but also stumbles around like a mindless zombie most of the film. In the end, the character works, which is all that really matters. The rest of the story, including Catherine’s mounting angst and Helene’s burgeoning frustration, works nicely with the ensuing chaos and catastrophe of Catherine’s “condition.”

The cinematography, done by Max Monteillet, was also stunning and the vistas used in the film were gorgeous. The Valmont’s castle was outfitted for a king and the surrounding fields and town were vibrant. The leads were beautiful as well, which completed the film’s rich palette. Visually speaking, each scene has something to grab your eye.

If you are looking to explore Jean Rollin’s work, Living Dead Girl is the most accessible place to start. Its straightforward story moves at a brisk pace, the acting is excellent, the gore is out of this world and the leads are beautiful (and you’ll get to see plenty of them throughout the film if you catch my drift). The film follows some genre guidelines (toxic spill awakens the dead) but has a unique spin on the consequences. This Living Dead Girl is no brainless zombie intent only on brains, she is a thinking, rationale being with a strong sense of right and wrong who just happens to be back from the dead…and is a very messy blood-feaster.

Available from Amazon!

One Dark Night (1983)

The 80’s was a grand time for horror movies and it sees like you can always find a hidden gem no matter how many horror movies you’ve already seen. One such hidden gem is 1983’s One Dark Night (aka Dark Night aka Entity Force aka Mausoleum aka Night in the Crypt aka Night of Darkness aka Rest in Peace). It may not be a perfect horror movie, but it is one fun flick that will no doubt entertain!

High school student Julie (Meg Tilly) has always wanted to be one of the Sisters, an ultra-cool clique of girls that sports snazzy satin jackets and go around sneering at people. Problem is, Julie is dating jock Steve (David Mason Daniels), who just happens to be the ex of Carol (Robin Evans), the leader of the Sisters. To get back at Julie, Carol devises one last initiation for her…one where she must spent the entire night locked in a mausoleum.

Carol and her two Sisters Kitty (Leslie Speights) and Leslie (the cutie-patootie E.G. Daily!) fully expect Julie to back out once their plan is revealed, but Julie is determined to prove herself and accepts the challenge, even when boyfriend Steve tries to dissuade her from joining the silly clique. Julie is dropped off at the mausoleum and locked in, given only a sleeping bag, a flashlight and a “sleeping” pill to keep her company while the other girls drive off to plan other hijinks for later in the evening.

What the girls don’t know is that the famous psychic Raymar was interned in the mausoleum earlier that day. He died of unknown causes and was found dead, along with a group of equally dead young women, in an apartment that looked like a war zone. Silverware and plates were embedded in the walls and much of the furniture was smashed. According to some, Raymar was a “psychic vampire” and could drain the life energy from people. He is now entombed in a crypt, but can still use his psychic powers to terrorize, including moving corpses (and other objects, including busting out of his coffin) with his mind.

Meanwhile, Raymar’s estranged daughter Olivia (Melissa Newman) is discovering the truth about the father she never knew as well as her own psychic powers, much to the chagrin of her husband (played by Adam West! Yes, THAT Adam West!).

When Raymar unleashes his electromagnetic powers, Julie, as well as Carol and Kitty who have snuck into the mausoleum to spook her, are terrorized by Raymar as he tries to scare them with moving corpses so he can drain their tasty, tasty life force. Will anyone live through One Dark Night?

This gem follows the familiar pattern of 80’s horror that involved initiations (Hell Night, anyone?), but just because the formula is familiar doesn’t make this flick any less fun! From the cheesy dialogue to the atrocious fashions to the creepy corpses and spooky location, One Dark Night is a crowd-pleasing movie.

The story, written by Michael Hawes and Tom McLoughlin (who also directed), is surprisingly original. There aren’t many horror films that tell tales of psychic vampires, but this one tells it rather well (despite the cheesy instances of lightening bolts shooting out of Raymar’s eyes)! Also, I enjoyed the subplot of Raymar’s daughter Olivia and her discover of her father’s (and her own) powers. While at times it felt a little tacked on, overall it worked with the film and helped make things more interesting.

The acting wasn’t anything spectacular, but Meg Tilly was great as the determined Julie and the bitch Sisters were a hoot (except what was up with Kitty and her always chomping on a toothbrush??). It was also fun to see Adam West play Olivia’s straight-laced and stodgy husband.

The special effects on the corpses were extremely well done and the corpses looked amazing! The corpses here shouldn’t be mistaken with the “undead” or zombies, as they were just dead bodies that Raymar would control and move with his mind. So instead of walking, the corpses hovered a few inches off the floor, which was pretty damn creepy if you ask me. Also, there wasn’t any bloody gore to speak of, just raggedy old flesh and tons of maggots and worms! My favorite little snippet was when one of the girls was being suffocated by several corpses and she put her foot through the stomach of one of them. Maggots proceeded to spill out! Needless to say, it was wicked cool!

One Dark Night isn’t perfect, though, and some will find the dialogue a bit lacking and there are a few scenes that drag on forever. Did we really need a full-fledged tour of the mausoleum as Julie slowly walks through it?. Every hallway looked the same anyway! The ending and the subplot involving Olivia both felt a bit too convenient at times as well. If you want to get nit-picky, there were also some plot holes and characters that didn’t get developed. Despite these flaws, though, One Dark Night was entirely enjoyable and I didn’t get hung up on any of the negatives of the film.

There are few 80’s movies that can take you back to being a kid again, just kicking it in front of a late-night horror movie on TV, but One Dark Night is one that brings the joyful feeling back. This movie isn’t perfect and isn’t a horror masterpiece, but there’s just something about it that recalls the awesomeness of 80’s horror and just the love of horror in general.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do some for nostalgic terror! Just a tip, though, don’t watch the “Alternative Director’s Cut” unless you’ve already seen the theatrical cut. The director’s cut is very rough and utilized work prints that don’t feature sound. You definitely won’t have fun when you’re sitting there frustrated because you can’t hear what’s going on!

Available on Amazon!

Gory Gear: Bodybag Trading Cards

“…the badly decomposed bodies of 12 women were found in the crawlspace…”

“Scattered throughout…were the dismembered bodies of 7 local children…”

“The headless body of an unidentified female was found on a set of railroad tracks…”

“Her left arm was completely severed from her body.”

“The unknown assailant used a chainsaw to dismember both of the girls.”

“She had been bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe…”

“A large, gaping slash ran across her mouth, believed to have been inflicted with a straight razor.”

“…suffocated with a shower curtain and stabbed 27 times in the face with an icepick…”

“She had been beaten so severely that the back of her skull cracked open like a melon.”

These graphic quotes are taken directly from mock crime stories featured in Troy Holbrook’s Bodybag Trading Cards. Despite how shocking the stories on the cards are, the photographs are even more disturbing. They feature the grisly remains of the victims in stark black and white. The black and white photographs, just like the story, aren’t real…but they definitely look very realistic!

Creator Troy Holbrook not only came up with the overall concept for the cards, but he also did the special FX, the photography and the actual writing of the fictional crime stories featured on the back of the trading cards. The results clearly demonstrate his skill and passion in all three areas.

First of all, the special makeup effects are the most striking aspects of the cards. Everything from the blood running down the models’ faces to the cuts, disfigurements, bruises, etc. looks extremely realistic! The gore is so incredibly life-like that it only adds to the illusion that the photographs are real. One headless corpse in particular will make you do a double take!

Secondly, the stark black and white photography significantly heightens the realism of the trading cards. It’s easy to imagine the photographs as crime scene photos from police archives. Holbrook has captured truly horrified emotions on his models’ faces. He also sets up his photographs in a way that ensures the models are never exploited. Though nudity is shown, it’s never in a titillating way, but rather in a cold, clinical way much like crime photography the cards emulate.

Thirdly, the stories on the back of the cards pull everything together and tell us a story about the visceral photographs on the front. The stories themselves are realistically written, including names and ages of the deceased along with locations of the crimes. The small details and the matter-of-fact way the stories are written lend credence to the realistic tone the trading cards have. In fact, I had to actually contact Troy and ask him if the stories were actually pulled from headlines or if they were all made-up. He assured me that they were fictional accounts that he himself had come up with for the trading cards.

This is the first edition of the Bodybag Trading Cards, and they include 15 high-quality trading cards. The cards themselves are very thick and are UV coated on the back and front. They are an amazing set of trading cards that vividly depict the murder victims of mock serial killers.

If you’re a serial killer buff like me, there is no doubt you will enjoy these startling trading cards. Fellow fiends of the macabre will be tickled blood red by these grisly depictions of mock murders and horrific crimes!

Get yours today at www.bodybagtradingcards.com!

Aftermath (1994)/Genesis (1998)

This feature delivers three short films by director Nacho Cerda. Cerda recently directed The Abandoned, which screened at the After Dark Horrorfest. After seeing three of his short films, I am very disappointed that I missed seeing The Abandoned in theaters. Cerda certainly has an eye for horror, disturbing imagery and a knack with crafting eerie and, especially in the case of Aftermath, brutal stories.

The first short is about six minutes long and is entitled The Awakening. A student dozes off in class only to wake up to find that time has stopped. Everyone else in class is frozen in time, but he moves freely about. He discovers that he cannot escape the classroom as the windows and doors are impassable. What's happened to him? What's happened to time? Made in 1991 and shot in black and white, this film looks like old footage from the '50s. The ending isn't shocking, but like the rest of Cerda's shorts in this collection, it is devoid of dialogue. The classical soundtrack carries the film and this technique is, in fact, Cerda's trademark. An ok starting point for the trio of shorts, but the best is yet to come.

The absolute highlight of the collection is the second film, Aftermath. In a cold and clinical morgue, two morgue workers are performing autopsies on two patients. They remove all the organs to weigh and measure them. This includes the brain, which they have to scoop out after sawing open the skull. The chest is cut open and the ribs are buzz-sawed to reveal the rest of the organs. The heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and other organs are all removed, weighed and thrown back into the corpse before it is neatly sewn up and hosed off. One of the coroners finishes up and leaves the other one alone as a pretty young dead woman is wheeled in. Now alone, the remaining coroner relishes his alone time with her, mutilating and defiling her. Shocking and morbid, this film only runs 30 minutes but you'll be left feeling sick to your stomach for hours (perhaps days) afterward. The best part of this film is how realistic it looks. The autopsies look (and sound) incredibly real. I loved watching the autopsy bits, as I'm fascinated with the forensic side of things! As with The Awakening, there is no dialogue, but the main actor playing does a great job conveying his sick emotions, even with most of his face hidden behind surgical glasses and a surgical mask. The action is also buoyed along by the classical soundtrack. The film is shot beautifully, with long wide shots showing the autopsy action and extreme close-ups of gore. Everything is filmed under harsh, bluish fluorescent lighting, giving the morgue a starkly clinical look. Aftermath is extremely disturbing, sick, realistic and not for the faint of heart. You may want to consider cremation after watching this film...

The last film is Genesis, and it tells of a sculptor who is haunted by the loss of his wife. He has made dozens of statues of her, and is currently working on a beautiful life-size sculpture of her. Strange things start to happen - the statue begins to bleed, then slowly cracks appear to reveal what appears to be human skin underneath. The sculptor also has a transformation, as he appears to be turning into a statue himself! Again, this is a beautiful and creepy film. It does not contain the gore that Aftermath features, but is still well done nonetheless.

Now, more than ever, I am eager to check out Cerda's The Abandoned and any other projects he may do. Do yourself a favor and check out his work, especially Aftermath.

Order it on Amazon!

Unrest (2006)

Morgues are supposed to be creepy...pale, stiff cadavers and the foul stench of formaldehyde and death can give anyone the heebie jeebies. Somehow, though, Unrest manages to make cadaver labs both boring and completely not scary. It's a dumbed down, boring, meandering movie that goes no where.

Alison is a medical student, who, until her financial aid comes through, is sleeping in the hospital's unused wing. One of her first classes is gross anatomy, where on the first day her and her group are to dissect a cadaver. Her group, which includes Rick, Carlos and Brian, uncovers their cadaver and discovers that it is a young woman who has been mutilated. After upchucking all over herself and passing out, Alison senses something isn't right with her cadaver. Murders and strange deaths begin to occur, and Alison thinks it's linked to her cadaver. The group proceeds with hacking the cadaver open, affectionately naming her "Norma," while Alison tries to find out why she feels the spirit of the woman is trying to communicate with her.

I was really hoping this movie would be creepy and scary, but no such luck here. There are so many different opportunities that this movie could have taken to make things more interesting, but most of its storylines go no where. Why not develop the Aztec storyline? Why not show more of what happened to "Norma?" Why not show what happens to each of "Norma's" victims? There are so many plot holes that it becomes a big mess...For example, if so many people died, why aren't the police more involved? If everyone that touches the body becomes cursed, why weren't Alison, Rick, Carlos or Brian the first to die?

Ugh...this movie was aggravating to sit through! I felt no suspense, there was hardly any action, it felt like it showed the same scenes over and over again and I just kept waiting for something to happen (it never did)!! This movie would have worked much better as a short if the script was beefed up. As a feature it just drags on too long and it is aggravatingly repetitive. The only good things about the movie were the male actors whose abs we got a good peek of, the cadaver dissection (just catch it on the Discovery Channel instead of sitting through this movie) and the scene in which Alison and Brian take a dip in the cadaver tank to retrieve "Norma's" body.

Unrest is a plodding, rambling, repetitive mess of a movie that's never sure enough of itself to evoke any scares. If you like dumbed-down movies that hold your hand all the way through, that hold no surprises and no scares and have gaping plot holes, Unrest is for you. For the intelligent ones out there, I say skip it!

On Amazon!

Deranged (1974)

Deranged is based on the exploits of serial killer Ed Gein, who also inspired The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Psycho, and countless other films. The lead character this time is named Ezra Cobb. Ezra is a dedicated son, caring for his mother well into his 40s on their small farm. When his mother becomes ill, he spends all of his time caring for her until the day she dies in their home. On her deathbed, Mama tells Ezra not to trust any other women because they are all "sluts" who will "use their bodies" to get to his money.

After Ezra buries his mother, he stops farming and takes a handyman position with the neighbors, the Kootz's. He becomes extremely lonely and isolated, visiting his mother's grave up to five times a week. He misses his mother so much he begins talking with her and mimics her responses in her voice. After a year, he digs her body up and brings her home. On the way home, he is pulled over by a cop for speeding. The cop notices the foul smell of the rotting corpse in the truck. Ezra explains that the smell is coming from a slaughtered hog he forgot to clean out of the truck. The cop lets him go, and Ezra heads home with his mother. He sets her up in her old bedroom, which he has kept clean and warm for her return.

Ezra notices that Mama isn't looking too well (well, she is a rotting corpse) and decides to fix her up. He researches taxidermy and body preservation extensively, trying all sorts of different skins on Mama. Yet, none of them look like human skin. Ezra finds out about the obituary section in the local newspaper, telling him when people are freshly buried. He starts digging up bodies to use to patch up his mother's rotting skin. Soon after, he uses the bodies as "friends" for his mother, placing them around her room.

As he slips deeper and deeper into madness, he visits an old friend of his Mama's. She tries to seduce him, but the only thing he can think about in bed is his mother warning him of women. Soon, he begins a gruesome killing spree to find companions for his deceased mother...

This film was made in 1974 and it is still effectively creepy. Ezra's mannerisms alone are unnatural and frightening. The organ music that plays throughout sets the eerie atmosphere. I also like the realism that was used; a certain grittiness that almost made it seem like a documentary. The film does employ a narrator, which hinders the story a bit but didn't bother me too much. I was pleasantly surprised by this film, and recommend that if you like stories about serial killers filmed in gritty 70s style to check it out.

Check it out on Amazon!

Phantasm (1979)

One of the many movies I recently received was Phantasm...basically a boy discovers something very odd and creepy going on at the local cemetery. Corpses are disappearing, small Ewok type creatures are running around, and spinning orbs of death fly through the crematorium. Behind this all is the creepy mortician, the "Tall Man." The boy finally convinces his older brother what's going on and together they try to solve the mystery and stop the Tall Man for good.

This movie was pretty hard to find and I paid wayyyyy much more for it than I usually do for movies. Was it worth it? I'm not entirely sure...this movie was plenty enjoyable and it is a cult favorite, but...it wasn't really scary. It was fun to watch and had a slight sci-fi edge with the revelation of who the Tall Man was...but I can't say it's favorites. Gore was minimal, acting was ok, but the story was pretty unique for a horror flick. I am glad I finally got to watch it, and I am glad I own it now. I would definitely give this film a second chance and I am in loooooooooove with the cemetery in the movie! I wish my town had THAT cemetery (minus all the supernatural stuff happening - especially the deadly flying orbs!!). I would recommend this for someone who wants to see a slightly different horror movie with a light sci-fi touch.

Note: Now that they've re-released it on DVD, it's widely available!

Order it for yourself on Amazon!

Originally posted on Fatally-Yours.com.