Thankskilling (2009)

Horror fans don’t have a lot (if any) options when it comes to horror-themed Thanksgiving holiday movies. When Eli Roth’s faux Thanksgiving trailer was seen during the Grindhouse double-feature in 2007, interest in a feature-length Thanksgiving-themed movie only grew (speaking of which, Roth’s horrifying holiday vision is supposedly in the works).

Well, now horror fans have another option with Thankskilling, and independent production from In Broad Daylight Pictures being released November 17^th, 2009. Thankskilling comes off as a wacky Troma film, filled with bad acting, ridiculous situations, silly one-liners and hell, a talking turkey! You definitely need a sense of humor to get through Thankskilling, just like you need one to get through seeing your relatives during the holidays.

Thankskilling is about a group of friends that drive home for Thanksgiving, but inadvertently find themselves and their community terrorized by a talking, killer turkey. The turkey was resurrected 510 years after a Native American placed a curse on the pilgrims after the very first Thanksgiving.

Dear lord, I’m sure glad I was in a Vicodin haze while watching Thankskilling. This is a campy, over-the-top film that is completely silly and isn’t to be taken seriously. The best parts are when the turkey is on screen…he is completely hilarious! There is even a part where he skins and wears someone’s face a la Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that’s pretty awesome! And take a look at some of the gut-busting lines he utters: “I’m gonna drink your blood like cranberry sauce” after threatening one of the characters or “You just got stuffed!” after raping a character or the infamous “gobble, gobble motherfucker!”

The rest of the characters are all basically brain dead and are intended to poke fun at all the stereotypical horror situations. There’s the slob of a redneck, the nerdy bookworm, the jock, the slutty airhead and the Final Girl. The characters’ parents all play minor parts in the film as well, and I really enjoyed the silly Sheriff’s character!

Of course, some of the acting is pretty bad, but most of the actors are decent. I really enjoyed Chuck Lamb as Sheriff Roud and Aaron Ringhiser-Carlson as the redneck Billy. And whoever voiced the turkey was just brilliant!

Some situations are so unbearably stupid, though, that my disbelief was wayyy too suspended. For example, a dog peeing on the turkey’s grave resurrects him. Really? Writers Kevin Stewart and Jordan Downey couldn’t think of anything more creative than that to bring back the killer turkey? Or how unbelievably dumb the characters are in certain situations (hmmm if a turkey was wearing my dad’s face you’d think I’d notice!). I understand that this was the tone for the film and part of its appeal, but if you don’t enjoy horror-comedy hybrids that are this outrageous, you probably won’t enjoy Thankskilling.

For a low budget film, I really was impressed with the look of the killer turkey. Besides being hilarious, he also looked pretty awesome. I believe they used a puppet, and whenever he spoke it did indeed look realistic. The gory effects were pretty good too…I especially enjoyed when one of the characters ate the turkey and the turkey ate its way out through his stomach! The skinned face of one of the characters looked pretty realistic as well. And the turkey used an electric carver, a meat thermometer and other Thanksgiving utensils as killing tools! Unfortunately, there were some instances of CGI that were noticeable, but luckily these weren’t too numerous or distracting.

If you enjoy campy horror-comedies in the vein of over-the-top Troma releases, you just may count Thankskilling as one of your blessings this Thanksgiving. If those aren’t your thing, though, you way want to steer as clear of Thankskilling as you would dry turkey and nosy relatives!

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The Manitou (1978)

We all bitch and moan about the state of horror and the death of originality in Hollywood, but looking back on older flicks perhaps they had a bit too much creativity! Take, for example, the zany 1978 film The Manitou, which features, among other things, a midget medicine man, ghostly lizards (well, actually, someone dressed in a lizard costume), Tony Curtis dressed as a psychic, a levitating granny, Native American demons that look like a giant eye and lots of colorful, bright lasers!

The film starts with Karen (Susan Strasberg) visiting her doctor after discovering a fast-growing tumor on her neck. The doctors aren’t sure what to make of it, but it definitely looks like a fetus, so they schedule her for surgery. Concerned that the doctors aren’t telling her everything, Karen contacts her old flame Harry (Tony Curtis) for help. Harry is a psychic who scams little old ladies out of their money, one of the reasons why Karen left him. Nonetheless, Harry agrees to stand by her as she goes through the surgery…only it doesn’t go as planned. The doctors are unable to remove the growth because their scalpels are turned against them. Karen is moved to another room and monitored and Harry contacts some his psychic friends to hold a séance and find out if an evil spirit is behind Karen’s affliction. It turns out the evil spirit is none other than Misquamacas, a 400-year-old medicine man who plans on raising hell as soon as he’s reborn.

Harry visits an old professor (Burgess Meredith), who wrote something in a book about reincarnated medicine men, and he suggests that Harry hunt down his own medicine man to “fight fire with fire”. Harry tracks down John Singing Rock (Michael Ansara), who agrees to help him fight the evil medicine man.
When Misquamacas finally “hatches” from Karen, the real showdown begins…can Singing Rock and Harry save Karen and the world before it’s too late?

The Manitou is one crazy, over-the-top flick! The first half of the film starts off pretty solidly (who doesn’t love to watch Tony Curtis prance around pretending to be a psychic or watch a little old granny become possessed, speak in a Native American language and levitate before being tossed down a flight of stairs?) but the last half of the film, where the midget-sized medicine man is born, just devolves into pure schlock. I seriously question how any of the actors could take their roles so seriously when there were rogue lasers and ghostly lizards to deal with. How many takes did it take for them to act with a straight face?

The director behind the film, William Girdler (who also co-wrote the film), is behind such schlocky fare like Grizzly and Day of the Animals, but The Manitou is beyond bizarre. It takes a special kind of horror fan to really appreciate this odd and “out there” horror flick, but purveyors of the peculiar will no doubt enjoy The Manitou for its sheer strangeness.

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The Devil's Ground (2009)

The Devil’s Ground opens with a blood-splattered college student, Amy (Leah Gibson), running through the woods and trying to get away from a hulking psycho trying to kill her. From there we cut to Carrie (Daryl Hannah), who is driving late at night and following the cross-country route her now-missing boyfriend took to get to Maine. After having an odd encounter with a gas station attendant (who eerily resembles the man that was chasing Amy, played by Twan Holliday) when she stops at a run-down gas station, Carrie gets back on the back roads of Pennsylvania. Suddenly, a traumatized-looking Amy steps out onto the road and begs for Carrie’s help. As Carrie drives them to get help, she asks Amy exactly what happened. In flashbacks we see that Amy was part of a college archeological dig that hoped to find Native American remains in order to stop a gold mining operation. She and four other classmates had come out to the middle of nowhere at the direction of their environmental studies professor and to secure passing grades. Before heading to the dig site they stopped for gas and met a handless gas station attendant named Billy. He tries to warn the group not to go to “the devil’s playground,” but they just brush him off.

After experienced a strong earthquake (or the locals rocking their Winnebago) in the middle of the night, the five students begin their work early the next morning and discover many Native American skeletons. Unfortunately they also find some much more recent remains…and discover they’ve stumbled upon a killer’s dumping ground for bodies. Soon the killer is after them and begins systemically killing them.

Amy got lucky and escaped, but can she and Carrie find help before the killer tracks them down?

Obviously this movie treads some very familiar ground, but for the most part it was engaging and entertaining. With that said, it does have some major flaws that hampered my ability to completely enjoy it and it is no where near perfect. Nonetheless, let’s start with what I did like about The Devil’s Ground.

First of all, I liked how the characters were intelligent and actually had a purpose for being out in the middle of nowhere that didn’t involve sex or drugs. The fact that they were there for scientific study made me respect them much more than if they had just been there to party. Though not all the characters were likable (yes, we get the token asshole, but at least he wasn’t some stupid misogynist), it was much easier to cheer for them because they weren’t the stereotypical young partiers looking for a weekend of debauchery. Also, all of the acting was great and there wasn’t a bad apple in the bunch!

Secondly, the production values and direction were both top notch. Despite a relatively low budget, the film looks amazing. There were some inventive camera angles used and lots of different point of view shots kept things interesting. Director Michael Bafaro really knows how to keep your attention and keep the pace moving along with some great camera tricks. These tricks gave the film a slick, professional feel that is usually sorely lacking in independent productions. The stylish look of the film is reason enough to watch it!

Thirdly, while the basic backwoods slasher story has been done to death, there are several touches to the story that make The Devil’s Ground unique. One is that the killer used not only a machete, but also a gun. This may have taken some fun out of the kills, but it also made the killer much more menacing and much more of a threat. Also, I loved the interplay between the students, Billy and the killer. The dialogue was believable and the characters even discussed any bad decisions they made (like why one of them left his girlfriend to die instead of facing the killer). It just felt so much more well-made than the usual brainless backwoods slasher flicks.

Now, on to the negative aspects of the film, The Devil’s Ground really needed a bit more oomph to set it apart from standard backwoods slashers. I know I just said it was much more intelligent and believable than most horror films (which is true), but nonetheless it still lacked that special something to make it stand out. The ending tries to be different from most slashers, even delving into the supernatural, but it just didn’t work.

The “twist” is predictable and the ending is confusing and unsatisfying, pretty much ruining any momentum and suspense the previous hour and a half had established. After the abrupt ending I was left wondering what could have been had the climax not been botched so badly. Also, the gore was nonexistent. I’m not asking for buckets of blood, but something more than a severed hand and body engulfed in flames was desperately needed. Some cool, cringe-worthy deaths really would have made this film much more memorable.

I’m pretty evenly split on The Devil’s Ground. On the one hand, I was well entertained for most of the film, but on the other hand, the ending was a real let-down and overall the film wasn’t that memorable. If you’ve got about 90 minutes to kill, The Devil’s Ground is good for a rental, but go ahead and stop it at the 65 – 70 minute mark to avoid the abrupt ending!

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Rest Stop 2: Don't Look Back (2008)

When I first saw Rest Stop, I was severely disappointed. To me, the movie had no redeeming value, was unmemorable and was an absolute chore to sit through. So when I heard a sequel had been made, I expected it to suck just as epically as the first one had (if not more so). Surprisingly, I found that Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back, while not a “must-see” horror flick, got things much more right than the original.

Tom (Richard Tillman) is on leave for 10 days from Iraq. He decides to take his time off to search for his little brother Jess (Joey Mendicino) who disappeared with his girlfriend Nicole (Julie Mond, replacing Jaimie Alexander from the first film) on their way to California. He takes his bitchy, alcoholic girlfriend Marilyn (Jessie Ward) and his goofy friend Jared (Graham Norris) along with him for the ride. On the border of California they find an old gas station attendant that remembers Jess and points the trio to the Old Highway where he and Nicole were last seen. Pretty soon the three friends are back at the same rest stop Jess and Nicole disappeared from and the driver (Brionne Davis) of the beat-up yellow truck with license plate number KLZ 300 is after them…

Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back was a surprise to me. It’s not the best or most memorable movie in the world, but it is far superior to its predecessor. My main praise stems from the fact that the story is much more fleshed out, though the script feels rushed and gloms over some new developments. For example, we learn more about the ghostly driver’s backstory and about an Indian legend that says if your eyes are plucked out and you are buried without them, your spirit is doomed to wander the earth. Still, neither of these plot points are developed very well, giving us just enough to kinda make sense of what’s going on. Also, the creepy fanatical family is back for a few scenes, though I’ve always thought using the religiously crazy in films shows a lack of creativity on the writer’s part. Despite these issues, I enjoyed the more developed supernatural story in Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back. 

The creepiest scenes (there weren’t any really scary or even tense ones) involved our protagonists’ interactions with ghosts…however these apparitions were very real and you could even reach out and touch them (ask Jared!). They would be there and in an instance they would just disappear. This kept you on the edge of your toes and towards the end you weren’t quite sure who was alive or dead…giving you some nasty and nihilistic surprises near the end.

As for the characters, they were all pretty shallow and unlikable. Tom is your typical buff hero, Jared is your typical goofy sidekick and Marilyn is your “typical” bitchy girlfriend. I say typical in quotes because I don’t know how anyone could stand her constant complaining and meanness. Not to mention she hits the bottle between every other breath. Why can’t anyone write a believable, likable female character?? Despite this, the characters redeem themselves towards the end, when we do start caring for them, but I think by then it’s a little too late.

Also, they sure show The Driver (that’s how he’s credited) a whole lot towards the last half of the film…perhaps a little too much. When they reveal the killer, showing his entire face and body, he loses some of the mysteriousness as well as his scare factor. I think they should have kept him shrouded in the shadows or just show bits and pieces of him, like in the original (wow! one thing the original did right!). Yet, actor Brionne Davis does a great job bringing The Driver to life by just using subtle facial expressions and not saying one word (unless you count the flashback in the Winnebago).

The rest of the acting in the film is pretty solid, even though the characterizations are shallow. No one really stands out as being either very good or very bad, so there isn’t much to say about the acting except for the fact that it works.

Despite being a supernatural slasher movie, Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back doesn’t have that more gore. Sure, there are freshly-plucked eyeballs, body parts drilled and hammered with nails and some bloody corpses, but most of the action is off-screen or obscured within the scene by people or things standing in the way of the money shot. Nonetheless, the lack of explicit gore actually helps the film and it doesn’t become just another run-of-the-mill “torture porn” movie.

Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back is a much better film than its predecessor, Rest Stop, but that doesn’t automatically make it a great film. It has its flaws and it’s not an entirely memorable movie, but for one night of mindless fun you might want to pull over and pick up Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back.

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Savage Harvest 2: October Blood (2006)

It’s usually hard to follow up a horror movie, indie or otherwise, with a substantial sequel. Most sequels exist only to exploit the popularity of the first film and to plunder its creativity without coming up with anything original. When there is a change in writer and director (which is usually the case) the problem is further compounded. The heart, soul and essence of the first film are discarded in pursuit of one thing, and one thing only…money.

Luckily, we have smart independent horror sequels like Savage Harvest 2: October Blood to make up for those other soul-sucking sequels. Instead of exploiting the source material, new writer/director Jason Christ reverently stays true to the original while adding his own improvements.

Thirteen years have passed since a group of six friends awakened evil demons on a rural farm. The last remaining survivor, Mikki (Lisa Morrison), committed suicide several years ago. Her younger sister Ashley (Emily Haack), receives an unmarked video of a blood-drenched Mikki that reopens all the old wounds from her sister’s suicide. This video throws Ashley back into a deep depression and she returns to her and Mikki’s hometown to try and heal her wounds. Once there she runs into her old high school sweetheart Tyge (Benjamin Gaa), who’s running from his own personal demons. Tyge is staying with his old friend Zack (Eric Stanze, the writer/director for the first Savage Harvest film), who is enthralled by Native American folklore, especially that based on the native tribes of the area. When Ashley becomes determined to discover why her sister committed suicide and why she made that video tape, the friends head back to the isolated farm where Mikki survived a massacre and unwittingly re-release the very same evil spirits that turned Mikki’s friends into demons!

Savage Harvest 2: October Blood is an impressive sequel, one that works closely with its source material but tweaks things just enough to make them interesting. It also takes the time to improve on the original’s weak spots, including character development. Writing and directing duties have been handed over to Jason Christ, taking over for Eric Stanze who stars in the film. Christ does a fantastic job creating an engaging story, well-developed characters and a foreboding atmosphere.

The pace of the film comes in sharp contrast with its predecessor; while the first wastes no time in getting to the gory action, October Blood wisely takes its time building up the story and characters. Though some might say it takes too long, I believe that in the end it benefits the overall film. The actors do a great job of carrying the first part of the film solely on their performances. Emily Haack as Ashley conveys an emotional depth that is rarely seen in low-budget horror films. I also enjoyed watching Benjamin Gaa as Tyge as he and Ashley’s relationship deepens (and then turns nasty!). The real delight, though, came from Eric Stanze. I never expected him to be as great an actor as he is a writer/director, but he proved me wrong! He was an absolute joy to watch as Zack and brought some quirky and funny moments to the film.

Fans of the fast-paced Savage Harvest might need to be a bit more patient for the bloody pay-off in this film, but their patience will be well rewarded. The special FX are back in October Blood, with the infamous chainsaw making a nice comeback. Gorehounds will be pleased, though they’ll be waiting an hour plus for the bloodbath to begin.

Released in 2006, Savage Harvest 2: October Blood has been a long time coming since the original Savage Harvest was released in 1995. Despite the long wait, fans will be well pleased by the sequel. It may run a little long for most genre fan’s likings at nearly two hours, but those that appreciate well-constructed characters will think it’s worth the wait. Even those who haven’t seen the original Savage Harvest will easily be able to enjoy the film – the first film’s mythology is cleverly laid out at the beginning of October Blood.

Wicked Pixel Films continues to produce quality, independent horror film and Savage Harvest 2: October Blood is no different. Check it out today!

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Savage Harvest (1994)

Most indie horror aficionados are familiar with filmmaker Eric Stanze, who has brought us such solid indie efforts as the shocking Scapbook and Ice From the Sun, or his production company, Wicked Pixel Films. Yet you may not be familiar with one of his first films, entitled Savage Harvest, though you should be! Savage Harvest is a gruesomely good time, brimming with plenty of blood and guts to make any gorehound drool with pleasure, even though it is a no-budget indie film. Despite its shoestring budget, its impressive gore still holds up today even though the film was made in 1993!!

Six friends head up to an isolated farm in the country to help an uncle clean out a barn filled with his father’s belongings. His father was very interested in Native American mythology and collected many stories and artifacts about the Native Americans who used to call the area their home. The uncle recounts a popular legend concerning the surrounding woods. During the Trail of Tears, many Cherokees managed to escape and settled in these woods. Times were tough and one of the elders attempted to help the tribe by turning to black magic. When he was found conjuring evil spirits, the tribe killed him. Soon after, all of their crops turned to stones, stones that bore strange markings on them that possessed whoever touched them. The Cherokees abandoned the woods, calling them cursed. It is said that if a direct blood descendant of the tribe was to set foot on the cursed land again, he or she would re-awaken the evil spirits.

Well, unbeknownst to the six friends, one of them actually is a blood descendant and the evil spirits are released to posses the friends one by one! Now the friends are trapped on the Cherokee’s cursed land and possessed by the demons that inhabit the stones. Whenever someone touches the cursed stones, they are possessed by the stone’s particular demon…and become hungry for flesh! Can the remaining survivors find a way to stop the demons and reverse the curse?

I figured with a name like “Savage Harvest” this would be another derivative demon-possession-in-the-woods flick, but I was wrong. Savage Harvest really takes the time to build up its story and the Native American folklore behind it. I loved that they used Native American folklore in the film, a rich mythology that is sadly underused in horror films. The story, written by Eric Stanze, is extremely engaging and moves at a fast pace (though it’s little slow at first). The story was interesting and unique enough that the film didn’t feel like the typical, Evil Dead-inspired, kids-stuck-in-the-woods-with-demons horror flick.

The actors all held their own as well, despite the fact that they were amateurs. I really enjoyed the fact that they looked like normal people and didn’t look like they stepped straight out of the latest Teen Vogue or CW show. Their performances were definitely not the best I’ve seen in a horror film or even an indie film (some actors’ performances were downright annoying), but they served the plot well enough. I felt the characters could have used a little more development, but when the film kicks into high gear and the blood starts flying, “character development” didn’t seem too terribly important anymore.

Speaking of blood flying, the gore in this film is amazing! It is even more impressive considering the film was made in 1993 and Savage Harvest was Wicked Pixel’s first feature film. The blood flows freely as people are eaten, decapitated, eviscerated, gouged, electrocuted…and even taken to with a chainsaw! If it’s one area that this film absolutely succeeds in, it’s the gore. The demon special FX aren’t all that bad, either, and are reminiscent of the toothy demons from Demons.

Of course this film isn’t perfect – the picture is often times fuzzy, grainy and distorted (though I don’t think the film was originally made for widescreen LCD’s), some of the acting is a little grating at times and the psychedelic “lost-in-the-woods” scenes were beyond annoying, but these problems seem to go away when you realize that you are actually enjoying the film!

All in all, Savage Harvest is a fun and gore-filled addition to any fan of Eric Stanze or Wicked Pixel Films, or is a proper starting point for people who appreciate no-budget indie films. Either way, you’re sure to appreciate this nicely done demon possession flick!

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