The Legend of Hell House 1973
Published March 13, 2013 | 
THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE: HAUNTED HOUSE TERROR
The Legend of Hell House is an interesting film for more reasons than the obvious one… that it is an effective haunted house film. The film is produced by James H. Nicholson and his American production company Academy Pictures Corporation. The Legend of Hell House is one of only two films produced by Nicholson’s APC before his death in 1972. The other film produced by APC was Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974). Before APC James Nicholson was the co-founder of American International Pictures with which Nicholson produced scores of… Continue reading
Grave Encounters 2
Published January 25, 2013 | GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2: THEY’RE BAAACK… SORT OF
Grave Encounters 2 is the sequel to 2011′s Grave Encounters written and directed by The Vicious Brothers, Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz. This time around Grave Enounters 2 is written by the Vicious Brothers and directed by John Poliquin. This is Poliquin’s first feature film as director but he has worked as a production assistant on various films including Snakes on a Plane (2006). The original Grave Encounters was an effective Found Footage film that delivered the scares. The sequel sticks with the Found Footage format and adds a few tweaks… Continue reading
Bad Kids Go to Hell 2012
Published January 23, 2013 | BAD KIDS GO TO HELL: …AND THEN THEY HAVE TO APPEAR IN THIS MOVIE
Bad Kids Go to Hell is the first feature film for writer director Matthew Spradlin. The film’s apparent claim to fame is that it is a Horror take on the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club from 1985. The film borrows the premise from the John Hughes film about a group of kids having to attend Saturday detention for various offenses. The film also has Judd Nelson (John Bender from The Breakfast Club) make an appearance as Headmaster Nash to further make the connection… Continue reading
Kill Baby Kill 1966
Published December 24, 2012 | KILL BABY KILL: MARIO BAVA GOTHIC HORROR
I was introduced to the films of Mario Bava through the films of Dario Argento and the Italian Giallo genre. As a kid I had seen Argento’s Suspiria (1977) but had no idea of the important history the film. All I knew was that it scared the pants off me. Until the internet came along, I didn’t have a way to research and discover films. Basically I and a few select friends would rehash the same conversations about films from our youth. As we grow older these conversations dwindle and you dismiss… Continue reading
Lovely Molly 2011
Published September 17, 2012 | LOVELY MOLLY: SLOW BURN TERROR EXECUTED TO PERFECTION
In 1999 I, like many people, saw the television ads for a new film at the time. These ads touted a new experience in terror and presented a quote from a Rolling Stone film critic that just read “Scary as hell”. I mention this because these ads were my sole reason for purchasing a ticket for the film. “Scary as hell” was all I needed to know. I remember sitting a in a packed theater. The anticipation in the crowd was palpable. My friends and I had to sit in the… Continue reading
Dark Shadows 2012
Published September 7, 2012 | DARK SHADOWS: TIM BURTON BRINGS THE DEPP
Tim Burton burst on to the scene with 1985′s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure co-written by Phil Hartman (R.I.P.) and Peewee himself, Paul Reubens. Burton delivered a visually whimsical film that complimented what Reubens had to offer perfectly. Next Burton delivered to the world Beetlejuice (1988). Even without Paul Reubens, we still were presented that carnival like visual style and atmosphere that has become the hallmark of Tim Burton. It was evident that Tim Burton was determined to present his films in a slightly off kilter way bringing something new. Peewee’s Big Adventure and… Continue reading
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The Cabin in the Woods 2012
Published August 20, 2012 | THE CABIN IN THE WOODS: FANBOY HORROR
When I watched the trailer for The Cabin in the Woods, I was excited and at the same time somewhat skeptical by small bits in the trailer. When I say skeptical I refer the bird flying into the force field. When I say excited I am absolutely referring to the Horror trope of the cabin in the woods. When you say cabin n the woods, a Horror fan’s thoughts should immediately go to The Evil Dead (1981). That is where my mind went. My point is that I had high expectations for… Continue reading
Posted in 10's, Demons and Devils, Ghosts, Horror, Monsters, Reviews, Sci Fi, Slasher, Supernatural, Werewolves, Zombies | Leave a comment
House 1986
Published June 11, 2012 | HOUSE: DING DONG, YOU’RE DEAD
House is an early Horror Comedy mash-up… before they became all the rage with Evil Dead 2 (1987), Braindead (1992) and again in 2004 with Shaun of the Dead taking the Horror Comedy sub-genre mainstream. House is an interesting film for me because if you dig a little under the “hood”, you discover that there are a lot of Horror genre people involved in the film. First off, Sean S. Cunningham is credited as a producer on the film. Sean S. Cunningham was the director of the seminal Friday the 13th (1980). According to… Continue reading
Cassadaga 2011
Published April 27, 2012 | CASSADAGA: KILLER + GHOST = ONE NIFTY LITTLE MOVIE
Cassadaga is the second directorial effort from Anthony DiBlasi and was written by Bruce Wood. DiBlasi was the writer and director of 2009′s Dread. Dread was a film based on a short story by Clive Barker. Love or hate Clive Barker a lot of his stories wind up be made into films although none have had the success of the Hellraiser films. Nonetheless, more voices in Horror is always better so I would argue more stories please… regardless of where they come from. I went into Cassadaga… Continue reading
The Awakening 2011
Published April 16, 2012 | THE AWAKENING: WE ALL HAVE OUR GHOSTS
I have always argued that ghost stories are difficult to do well in cinematic terms. Part of the problem is the inherent issue that ghosts, strictly speaking, are non corporeal entities. They have no substance therefore they can only scare not hurt physically. Ghosts were normally portrayed with jump scares but never any of the excitement that you would get with say zombies, vampires, monsters or any other cinematic menace. Further more, because of the inherent limits in ghosts stories the pacing of these tales is usually slug-like. The Changeling… Continue reading
Stormhouse 2011
Published February 17, 2012 | STORMHOUSE: A BUNKER, A GHOST… TIME TO PLAY
Stormhouse is a new film from across the pond. It is directed by Dan Turner and written by Jason Arnopp. The film boasts that the story of Stormhouse is based on true events. I don’t know about anybody else but saying that a film is based on true events does not do anything for me. The marketing department may think that somehow “based on true events” translates into more dollars but I am here to tell you that this consumer runs in the opposite direction when I see “based on true… Continue reading
Dark House 2009
Published January 9, 2012 | DARK HOUSE: GHOSTS AND THEIR CAREER IN THE IT INDUSTRY
Dark House is a horror film from 2009 written and directed by Darin Scott. It was nice to scan the cast list and see an old familiar friend, Jeffery Combs. Aside from Mr. Combs, their is nobody of note but we do get lots of fresh young faces to round out the cast. I did a little research to find out a little more about Darin Scott to see what he had done before. I found some directing and writing credits that may cause a horror fan to wince.… Continue reading
