There Was Blood Everywhere Part Three

It's almost March already? My how time flies when you get older. Even though I didn't get as many posts in this month, compared to last month, I still managed to add more than I have in previous years. I'm happy about that at least. After this post, I have two more to go before I reach my 500th post. I know I keep throwing that out, but I'm excited about it. That's a lot of writing! I would like to say I have it all planned out, but I don't. Before I dive into my 999 challenge though, I wanted to watch Feast 3: The Happy Finish (2009). This was filmed back-to-back with Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds. After watching the first sequel though, I wasn't so sure I wanted to watch the second sequel. But being a horror fan, and feeling I need to finish off a series, I had Netflix send it to me.

As expected, Feast 3 picks up right where Feast 2 left off. Since the first sequel had a cliff hanger ending, I assumed it was going to pick up there for this one. At first though, we get a few flashbacks to the first film. I have no idea why, I would think by this point, we get the idea. We find out how the survivors on the roof manage to live on. Everyone is still there: Honey Pie (Jenny Wade), Lightning (Juan Longoria Garcia), Biker Queen (Diane Goldner), Greg (Tom Gulager), Tat Girl (Chelsea Richards), Tit Girl (Melissa Reed), Hobo (William Preal), Secrets (Hanna Putman), and Bartender (Clu Gulager). Throw in a few new characters: Slasher (Carl Anthony Payne II), Jean Claude Seagal (Craig Henningsen), Shitkicker (John Allen Nelson), and Prophet (Josh Blue). The plot? Try and get to the big city before they all die.

The first thing I noticed about Feast 3 is that the character bio's are back. They are not as funny as they were in the first film, but I was still glad that they had returned. The second thing I noticed is that Honey Pie is killed off way too early. Sorry to spoil this, but I knew before hand as well. I didn't know it was going to happen so quick, but I did know. Patrick Melton, the co-writer, had this to say about Honey Pie: "...so when [Honey Pie] eventually gets it, it's just about the worst, nastiest kill we could come up with." Sound interesting doesn't it? If you don't want to know, then skip ahead a little. Her death goes down as one of the monsters runs up, and rips her head off. Then it looks at it, and swallows it down in one piece. Then we see the head come out the other end of the monster. I admit this is a new one on me, but is that seriously the best they could come up with?

Since I was let down by the last film, I wasn't expecting much from this one. I think I ended up enjoying this a little more than I would have otherwise. The effects are about the same for a Feast film. Plenty of blood to go around. As noted above, heads get pulled off, and arms get pulled off as well. Not as much puking or other body fluids this time, thankfully. I liked the effects more this time around, since there wasn't very much done in front of a green screen this time. If you liked the acting in the second film, no reason why you won't like it this time around. Since there are only a few extra people around this time, the acting is pretty much the same. The few new actors are good, but don't stick around for long.

In Feast 3: The Happy Finish, I thought they went back to making the film a little more like the first movie, instead of the second one. I can see hints of both films in this third installment. Not surprisingly, the people that loved the first sequel, hate this one with a passion. They call this third film the weakest of the set, even going as far as saying it has some of the most stupid things seen in a Feast film so far. I guess seeing different types of body fluids gush all over different women, wasn't all that stupid to them. In a way, this surprises me. Since this one at least tried to be slightly more like the first film, people are calling it weak. Even some people that hated the second film are still calling this one the weakest, that confuses me even more.

In truth, I didn't find this third film to be great, but I did like it a lot better than the second film. It does have a lot of problems, under used characters being the biggest one. At one point, one of the survivors gets turned into a monster. They make this seem like a big deal, giving it a bio and everything. However, this new monster doesn't really do much of anything, and isn't seen all that often. A scene that I had mixed feelings over, was something of a rave type scene. It had a strobe light effect going, which went on for way too long. That was the annoying part of that scene. On the plus side, some of the things they did during that scene did turn out to be pretty neat. Feast 3: The Happy Finish wasn't as good as the first film, but how many sequels are? Because I did like it better than the second film though, I have to give it a slightly higher rating. One more thing about this film before I finish this off, it has the strangest ending I have yet to see in a horror film.
3 out of 5 At least it ended up an upward note

Telling On Two Sisters

A few weeks back I had a surprise. I had gone to watch The Univited, and when I got home, I found it was a remake of A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003). After finding this out, I queued it up in Netflix. I sent it straight to the top of my queue and got it soon after. In my mind I have to watch Netflix movies in the order that I get them. Once in a while I will break that rule, but most of the time I won't. Since I had a few movies to watch first, and my computer went down during that time, it took me a little while to get around to this one. I will compare the two movies here some, which I normally do on the remake. Since I watched the remake first though, I will have to do it here.

In A Tale Of Two Sisters, we meet Soo-mi (Su-jeong Lim, listed as Su-mi in the subtitles, so not sure which is correct), and her sister, Soo-yeon (Geun-Young Moon). They arrive home with their father (Kap-su Kim). They spend some time outside, and on a dock, before heading into the house. Once inside, the stepmother, Eun-joo (Jung-ah Yum), asks how the sisters are doing, and other such small talk. The sisters never say anything to her though, and eventually head up to their rooms. Eventually we learn that the sisters hate Eun-joo because they feel like she is trying to take their mother's place, who passed away. Soo-mi seems to hate her more than her sister does. It also becomes clear that Eun-joo mistreats Soo-yeon, often locking her up in a closet. Soo-mi does her best to protect her little sister from the evil stepmother, but what happens when Soo-mi discovers that not everything is real?

Since I had watched the remake, I had an idea of what to expect when I put this film in to watch. It was a very nice surprise when I discovered that the plot in this film was the same, but there was also a whole lot more. After watching A Tale Of Two Sisters, I almost wanted to change my score on The Uninvited. The reason for this is because I felt that the remake took the plot and simplified it. After having a couple of days to think on this though, I have decided to stick with the score I gave The Uninvited, since I realize the changes made were to make the two films feel the same, yet different. That is how I like my remakes, give me some of the same story, but change it around at the same time, so I'm not watching the same film all over again with new actors. So I still stand by The Uninvited. Another good reason for that is because Arielle Kebbel is in it, so...umm...yeah.

A Tale Of Two Sisters starts off so slow. While we do get a lot of interaction between characters, expect for the father, there isn't a lot going on. Not a lot of information is dropped. We know that the sisters hate their stepmother. While that isn't an uncommon thing, we are left in the dark about their real mother. A lot of people complain about how slow this film starts off. I can understand how this will turn people off, and then not pay attention to it like they should. Everything that happens is important though. If you aren't paying close attention to what is going on, then when the twists happen, it won't make sense at all. The film shoots itself in the foot by being slow for that reason. I can get into slow movies better than most of the people I know, yet I was feeling a little bored at times. The plot did feel very confusing at times. It had me wondering what was going on, a lot of the time. Once the twists happen though, everything falls into place.

Not a lot of effects to be found. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to find a lot. This type of story didn't call for it. A few small ones to be found though, that are done well. The acting is very good. Everyone does a great job with their roles. Except for the father, but you can place blame on the story, not the actor, for that. I was most impressed with Su-jeong Lim, who plays Soo-mi. She is, more or less, the main character of the film, and carries it well. I was afraid that watching the remake first would ruin this film for me, I'm happy that it didn't. If you are like me, having watched the remake first, be sure to watch this as well. You will know one of the twists, but there are plenty more surprises to be found. If I had to pick between the two films, I would say that A Tale Of Two Sisters wins out for me. The Uninvited is a close second though.
4 out of 5 I'm glad I don't have a crazy sister

Tribute: Arielle Kebbel

It is tribute time again. It hasn't been all that long since my last tribute post, but I wanted to work another one in before I hit my 500th post. It has been a long time since I did a tribute post for an actress though. The main problem I have with doing a tribute post for an actress, is that the ones I really get into don't do a lot of horror films. This post will be for Arielle Kebbel. It just happened to work out perfectly, so I could do a tribute to her. Earlier this month, I went to the theater to watch The Uninvited, which happens to star Arielle Kebbel. She has a supporting role in the film, but does still have a large role. Not long after that I bought an issue of Fangoria, where I discovered that a new film with Arielle would be coming out soon. It even had an article on the film, which I just skimmed through. Sometimes their articles give away a little too much information. I thought this worked out great! Arielle's fourth horror film (actually third, but I will get into that later) is about to come out, so I can work a tribute around that. My last two tributes I wrote, featured a guest review. As much fun as that is for me, and a time saver in a way, this one will be all me. So, here is my tribute to Arielle Kebbel.

Arielle Kebbel was born on February 19th, 1985, in Winter Park, Florida. She graduated from Appalachin State High School a semester early. Within the first week of moving to Los Angeles, she landed the role of Lindsay Lister on Gilmore Girls. She landed her first movie role in the film Soul Plane. In 2005, Arielle was cast as Cookie in her first horror film, Reeker. In an interview clip that I watched, she said that her mom used to think there was something wrong with her, because she would rent ten horror movies on the weekends to watch. It is nice to know that she is willing to act in horror movies as well. In 2006, she was in the film The Grudge 2, where she had the lead role in a subplot. 2008 marked the release of Freakdog, which didn't come out on DVD here in the States until mid February, and was retitled to Red Mist. This is the film I will be reviewing for today. I had trouble finding it on IMDb since I didn't realize there was a title change. While I thought this was her fourth horror film, since the DVD was release after The Uninvited, it turns out to be her third. This was pretty much the only information I could find about her, outside of her being 5'8, and being in the 2002 Miss Florida Teen pageant. I can't believe she didn't win that. Anyway, if you are interested in seeing the things Arielle Kebbel has been in, you can click here.

I first came across Arielle in Reeker. I enjoyed her character a lot in that film. I was also impressed with her acting. I can't say that I remember her too well in The Grudge 2 though. I don't think it was her fault at all, I just wasn't impressed with that film. I do recall the character, just not much about it. I was surprised when I found out later that it was Arielle in that role. I really liked her in The Uninvited. So far I think it is a tie between Cookie and Alex for my favorite characters she has been so far. I haven't watched the films outside of the horror ones she has been in yet, but I sure plan to do that soon. Actually, for all I know she may have been in more than four horror films. I am just going by the titles of the films that I haven't watched yet, which isn't a very good way to spot a horror movie.

Having read an interview, and watched a couple of others, I have noticed that she takes her acting choices very seriously. She only takes the roles that she feels will be a good fit for her. In talking about her role in Red Mist, she says that she talked with Paddy Breathnach, the director, about some changes that she wanted to see happen. Arielle says that Paddy was on the same page, and also wanted those same changes, so she accepted the role. There was a nude scene in the script which she says "wasn't going to happen!" As much as I wouldn't have minded seeing that, I completely understand. I don't think that is something I would do either if I was an actress. I know you can't get to know someone through film and interviews, but I do get the sense that if I knew her in person, she would be someone I could quickly become friends with. With each film I have watched, with Arielle in it, I have become more impressed with her. Add that she is very beautiful on top of that, I would have to say she is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses.

These are the reviews of films I have done that Arielle Kebbel is in:

Reeker

The Grudge 2

The Uninvited

Red Mist starts off with a flashback of sorts. We see a boy, who is peeking through a keyhole, watching his parents fight. At least that is I assume they are. He watches as his mother gets beat up, and then sees a pool of blood forming from under the door. From there we meet Kenneth (Andrew Lee Potts), who is taking pictures with his cell phone of a dead woman, while cutting himself. We then meet a slew of characters: Catherine (Arielle Kebbel), Kim (Sarah Carter), Jake (Alex Wyndham), Harriet (Katie McGrath), Yoshimi (Christina Chong), Sean (Martin Compston), and Steve (Michael Jibson). All these people are in training to be a doctor. After trying to save the life of a medical dummy, they head to the locker room, where they plan for a party. As they leave, they run into Kenneth, who had been recording Cat on his cell phone. They don't catch him doing this, but they do think that Kenneth is a weird guy. At the party, which is at a bar one of them works at, Kenneth is there also and tries to talk to Cat. I don't think she really likes Kenneth, but doesn't want to be mean or rude, like her friends are being. She basically tells Kenneth she will talk to him another time. Kenneth seems fine with this, and starts to leave. Sean, being the jerk that he is, has to say something mean to Kenneth before he leaves though. Kenneth shows Sean a video that he recorded of Sean getting some drugs that he shouldn't have. Sean talks Cat into getting Kenneth to come back. While she is doing this, Sean is mixing together some drugs and alcohol, which he eventually gives to Kenneth. This, along with flashing lights, trigger epilepsy in Kenneth. There is a battle over to help Kenneth or not. They don't. Instead they dump Kenneth in front of a hospital, and drive off. Cat is feeling guilty when she discovers that Kenneth is in a deep coma. She decides to try and help him, by giving him a mixture of new drugs. This doesn't help Kenneth in the way she thought it would. Cat discovers that the drugs target the area of the brain that is believed to control out of body experiences. Will anyone believe her once her friends start turning up dead?

I liked Red Mist for one simple reason, Arielle Kebbel in the lead role. I also enjoyed the plot, since it is one that isn't used much. I really wanted to love this movie, but that didn't happen. The opening plot line goes nowhere. It does help explain why Kenneth is a little messed up in the head, but it could have been expanded on more. I know not everything needs to be explained about a character, but I would have liked to have seen more about Kenneth. That goes for all the characters really. That is the main problem with having a large cast, not very much character development for one movie. Some of the death scenes are pretty cool. We see some happen on screen, and then it switches to having them off screen.

The effects are well done, but it is a shame there aren't more of them. The best effect is one that shows the death of the character after she has been killed. It is a bloody scene that is fairly impressive. It would have been nice to have more effects, but that is how it goes sometimes. The acting wasn't too bad. Arielle Kebbel did very well in the lead role. Her character really surprised me at one point, in a good way that is. MyAnna Buring, who you may remember from The Descent, has a small role as a nurse. I would have liked to have seen her in a bigger role. Sarah Carter, who also has a nice bloody scene, surprised me when I looked at the films she has done. Sarah has also been in Final Destination 2, Wishmaster 3, Mindstorm, and Skinwalkers. Along with some other films.

Even though I did enjoy watching Red Mist, it wasn't as good as I had wanted it to be. I'm not ashamed to admit that I would gladly watch it again just for Arielle. I sure can't blame Kenneth for liking her. While that would be my main reason to watch this one again, it would also be because this isn't all that bad of a film. Shrooms was also directed by Paddy Breathnach. This makes two films by this director that I have enjoyed, but has just missed by a little bit. Hopefully Paddy will direct a film that will put all the pieces together that I like well enough. Until then, I'm looking forward to Arielle's next film, and I'm happy to say that she has at least three more on the way.

3 out of 5 Arielle can nurse me back to health anytime

Small Town Dead People

I started this review yesterday, but didn't get far at all. I was debating on adding this movie to my challenge. I have decided against it at, after thinking on it long and hard. Plus I just haven't had the time to write over the last couple of days. I'm taking a class that is putting me in the lab a lot more than I expected. As much as I would like to get to my 500th post, it might take me a little longer to get there than I had planned on. Don't worry, I will get there. Anyway, I watched Dead & Buried (1981). This is a film I have heard a little bit about over the years. A friend of mine, back home, has the DVD in his collection. He saw me looking at it one day, and told me it was a very good movie. I believed him, but since then I have noticed that our taste in horror films differ to some degree.

Dead & Buried takes place at a small town in Maine called Potters Bluff. The movie opens with George (Christopher Allport), who is on vacation, taking pictures of various things on the beach. A woman (Lisa Blount) shows up, and strikes up a conversation with George. He starts taking pictures of this woman, who doesn't seem to mind at all. When she asks George if he wants her, to which he nods that he does, she takes his camera away from him, and takes a picture of him. As soon as she does this, a bunch of other people are suddenly right there, and start to beat up George. Some of these others are taking pictures as well, and one is even filming it. They eventually wrap George up in a fishing net, and set him on fire. From there, we meet Sheriff Dan Gills (James Farentino), investigating a car wreck. The car had crashed and then caught on fire. The driver is found alive however. Dan later finds out that the driver is George. Dan doesn't know for sure why, but he feels the car crash was staged. He talks to his wife, Janet (Melody Anderson), about what he thinks, and discovers that she sort of knows the guy. Janet says that George sold the school some cameras. But when Dan talks to the Principal about it, he doesn't know anything about cameras being sold to the school. After George dies, the guy that runs the hotel tells Dan that George is now working at the gas station. But since Dan never actually saw George's face, since it was burned, he can't say one way or the other. As more murders begin to happen, Dan struggles with trying to find out what is going on.

Dead & Buried has something of an odd plot to it. It easily keeps you guessing as to what is going on, at least for a good while. Once you do start to figure out what is going on in the plot, it is very easy to see where it is going from there. The plot does start to unravel towards the end though. It just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me by the time it was on its way to the end. It felt that the writer was more interested in throwing in a couple of twists, just for the sake of doing it. If you go through the movie again, after you know the twists, I'm not so sure the film will make sense. The pace is a little slow at times as well, but that wasn't much of a problem for me. It is never explained why the mob feels the need to take pictures of what is happening. Even so, it does add a sense of eeriness to the whole thing though. I figured that in the end it would help Dan figure things out, and it does.

The effects were done by Stan Winston. Most of them were anyway. There is one effect that was done after the film was wrapped, that was done by someone else. This is an easy effect to pick out because it doesn't look as good as the others. Some of the effects didn't come across too well, at least I didn't think so. Others were nice, but I can't remember one that jumped out at me. I take that back actually. There is a scene where the undertaker is doing his magic. He wants the woman to look beautiful again. While this was a good looking effect, I didn't understand why they took it so far. The acting wasn't too bad. It was great to see Melody Anderson in something other than Flash Gordon. I didn't think she was great here, but I still enjoyed seeing her. Robert Englund has a small role in this film. Jack Albertson has the role of the town's undertaker. From what I have been reading, Jack was battling cancer when the film was being made, and passed away during post-production. James Farentino wasn't all that bad in the lead role. At times he would over act some of the scenes, but by then I guess it was a little called for.

By the time that Dead & Buried was being made, the film was a bit of an odd ball out. I would explain more, but I'm doing my best not to spoil one of the twists in the plot. I guess that they originally filmed Dead & Buried as more of a dark comedy. The company that was financing the film decided that they want gore over comedy. So a couple of scenes were added in, and the some of the scenes moved. This explains things a little, since you have a character who hadn't been introduced yet earlier in the film. That same scene, which involves the family passing through town, was all done under a large tent. Due to child labor laws, the child actor could not work at night, so they had to put a tent over the set to make it dark. Due to the noise of the fans, to keep the air moving, the actors had to record their lines, which made things not match up with their lips in the film at times.

I can't say that I would ever pull Dead & Buried out and tell someone they need to watch it. I did enjoy watching it, but I wasn't that impressed by it. I liked the plot up to a point. That point was when it started getting a little too silly with the twists. Normally I like twists, but I don't think it worked as well as it could have here. That could just be me though. Not a bad film though. Worth a watch at least once I would say.
3 out of 5 Odd ball out could mean no eating of people who are still alive

Screaming For Ice Cream

Today I was in the mood to work on part of my 999 challenge. Since a friends has my season one set of Masters Of Horror, and is taking forever to watch them, I have to settle with my season two set. This worked out in a way, since I found out that a younger actress that I like is in one of those episodes from season two. So I figured out where in the set We All Scream For Ice Cream (2007) was, and pulled it out. I'm pretty sure that I have my movie line up set for up to my 500th post now. It might change, seeing as I had to already change it once, before I get there. These are all films that I am looking forward to watching as well. As for my challenge, check out my review of Friday The 13th (2009), over at Top Horror Movies Club, for my second of nine remakes. We All Scream For Ice Cream marks the sixth film for my challenge, out of eighty one. I have a long way to go yet. This also marks the fifth category, 9 Masters Of Horror episodes, that I have visited so far. Just four more to go. Too bad I haven't figured out all of the films yet. I really do need to do that.

We All Scream For Ice Cream tells us a story about Layne (Lee Tergesen), who has returned to his childhood town to live with his family. Layne moved away when he was a child, because he accidentally killed Buster (William Forsythe). Buster was a guy that dressed up like a clown, and enjoyed his job of selling ice cream to kids. Buster liked to put a smile on kid's faces whenever he could. Even though Buster was said to be a little slow mentally, he always did what he set out to do. All except Virgil (Colin Cunningham), who seems to hate everyone. Virgil gets Layne to release the emergency break, while the ice cream truck is on a hill, in order to "bump" Buster. It actually uses Buster as a speed bump, killing Buster. Layne is now back in town, and it would seem that his arrival spells death to his old friends. The friends that were with Layne that day many years ago, have started to die off. Buster appears to be back, and is killing people using ice cream. You will just have to see it, to believe it.

We All Scream For Ice Cream is directed by Tom Holland. Holland also directed Fright Night, which I really need to watch again for a review, and Child's Play. It is easy to see why he was tapped to do an episode for Masters Of Horror. However, directing only takes a film so far. The script, by David J. Schow, also plays a big factor. Schow knows his horror as well, Critters 3 and 4, and Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, to name a few. It was the script that I had the most problems with in this case. There are some leaps of faith in this film that don't make a lot of sense. I liked the way Buster was killing people. I know some people would have liked to have watched a more straight up slasher type film, but I really enjoyed the creative way it was done. The ending for the film present the biggest problem. Layne's battle plan is something I didn't understand how he could prepare for. The big battle was rather disappointing as well. I don't want to give too much away, so I can't get into why I didn't like the ending, without spoiling it for everyone else.

I loved some of the effects to be found here, while hating some of the others. The first few melting effects are very well done. The are done with actual makeup, instead of CGI. There is a little bit of CGI help in some of them, but not enough to make it really noticeable. So that makes the last effect very confusing to me. For whatever reason, they decided to make the last effect completely CGI, which really sucked. Why bother with CGI on an effect that has already been done, a couple of times at that, with actual makeup that looked a hundred times better? The makeup for Buster was also well done. Both before, and after death makeup. They had to go and mess that up as well, by wanting a freeze glow at one point. William Forsythe was great as Buster. In the flashbacks, and in present day, he makes you care about Buster. The rest of the cast wasn't as good, but good enough. The kids were pretty creepy at times, even though they didn't have to do a lot. Alexia Fast was the main reason I wanted to watch this episode. Fast played the daughter of the main character. I have watched her in a couple of other things, and have really enjoyed her acting. She doesn't get a whole lot of screen time here, but I still enjoyed seeing her.

We All Scream For Ice Cream started off good. The plot itself was just ok, but the effects and some of the acting helped it a lot. Then it gets towards the end, and just falls apart. It could have been a real good episode though. While I don't want to discourage people from watching it, just be warned about it. It has its ups and downs for sure. I enjoyed the over all episode though, just wish it had been better.
3 out of 5 Staying away from ice cream shaped like people

Horror Reality TV Part Seven

I'm a little late getting this post up. I watched the new episode Friday, but was half distracted while it was on. Today I got around to watching it, with no distractions. Turns out, this is the next to the last episode. The first season is almost completed, with just three people left. When this episode started though, we had five people left. As we know, Erica is the killer. She knows that she will have to make another kill soon, and has her eyes set on Adam. Nasser and Ted have other plans though, when Erica tries to lie about her not being the killer anymore. They let Adam in on their secret, telling Adam to stick with them no matter what. That way, if Erica really wanted to kill someone, it would have to be Melyssa. Everything is going to plan, until Adam gets stupid. He makes a run back to his room to get something. His running is what gives him away actually. Erica hears him running, and gets him before he can leave his room. The third, and last person, has now been killed off by the killer.

From there, everyone is ordered into one of the rooms. There they find straight jackets waiting for them. They are placed into them, and told that the first two to escape will be safe from the execution ceremony. Erica manages to get out of her straight jacket very quickly. It is a very close race between the last three though. Nasser is the next to get out of his, with Melyssa just seconds behind him. That is too late for Melyssa though, as Ted and her will be up for elimination. It is sort of odd how that worked out. The only two people left that have never been put up on the elimination block, are now the two that will be going.

In the execution ceremony, Ted and Melyssa are sent to a junk yard. Once there they watch as two cars get crushed. They are then told to open the trunks of two cars they have been standing behind. Once they do that, minions push them into the truck and close it up. The cars are then placed into the crusher, and they are told that the first one to escape will live to see another day. They have been left with a wrench inside of the trunk, which they use to try and loosen the back seat so they can get into the car itself. While they are doing this, the crusher keeps coming down, and gives the cars a good bump. Ted manages to be the first one out of the car, leaving Melyssa to be crushed to death. Ted is happy, since he feels like he has taken a piece of Erica away. Next week, who will win the $66,666?

I was a little surprised that Adam took a chance at going back to his room by himself. At least try and sneak in, instead of making it obvious to the world. What really got me is when Erica, even though she was the only person that could be the killer, still would not admit it to Melyssa. Erica was the only person that could not be accounted for, and Adam yelled out her name on top of that. But Erica still would not admit to it. It will be interesting to see what the Mastermind has in store for the three remaining next week.

Help!

Since I hated that my help post is counting as a post here, I decided to edit it and make it a proper post. One worthy of my blog! Of course, by now, you all know the good news. I got my computer back yesterday. If I could, without being electrocuted, I would have made love to it. I admit that I was a little lost without it. I don't sit in front of it as much as some people I know, but I do at least for a little while every day. I found other ways to take up my free time though. Mostly I cleaned up my DVR. I only have four more things to watch on it now. Which equals 37% of used space. The lowest it has been down to in a very long time. I did watch some movies, but only one, A Bucket Of Blood (1959) was a horror movie. I have a few movies I want to watch, before hitting my 999 challenge full on. One of the movies will be my next tribute post. I'm also heading up on my 500th(!!) post. The film I have in mind for that post, is one I think I can work into my challenge.

A Bucket Of Blood takes place mostly inside a coffee house. There we meet Walter Paisley (Dick Miller). The coffee house is home to a lot of artistic type people. They like to show off their art, poems, and so called singing talent. Walter is their busboy, and they let him know that is all he is. Walter has eyes for Carla (Barboura Morris), who likes that artistic type of guy. Life isn't much better at home for Walter. He lives by himself, and has an overbearing landlady. Walter has a bucket of clay, that he is trying to make something out of. However, Walter has no talent, at least not the kind he is looking for. After failing to make anything out of the clay, he tries to help a cat that has ended up stuck in his wall. For whatever reason, he picks up a knife and plunges it into the wall. The same spot that the cat happens to be in actually. The next day, Walter takes a sculptor that he calls "The Dead Cat" to the coffee house. Everyone loves it of course. They want to see more though, so what will Walter do next?

As far as I know, this is the earliest work of Roger Corman's that I have watched so far. Some people like this early work much more than the work he has done in more recent years. A Bucket Of Blood is described as a dark horror/comedy. Everyone has what they feel is funny. I didn't get the comedy in A Bucket Of Blood at all. I didn't find anything about it funny in fact. Since it only clocks in at a little over an hour, it isn't a hard film to work through. Still, I found it a little slow. Edit it down a little, and I think it would have made a good TV episode. I think the setting of the film had a lot to do with me not liking it. I'm sure not into the coffee house scene, I hate coffee. I think people that can do artistic type things are cool, I'm just not interested in sitting around hearing them.

The acting did help save this one a little bit. I have watched a lot of movies with Dick Miller in the supporting role, so it was nice that he got the spotlight for once. To date, this is the only movie he has had the lead role in. Even though this film is close to fifty years old now, Miller hasn't changed a whole lot. The other actors were ok, but it is Miller that shines. Not a lot as far as effects in this film. It would be interesting to learn if the sculptors were actual sculptors, or just people with makeup.

A thing I didn't really get about A Bucket Of Blood is that the owner of the coffee house quickly figures out what Walter is actually doing, and stays quiet about it. He does his best to try and get Walter to do something else, and even admits that he is starting to feel responsible for what is happening. He never does anything about it though. I didn't get the reasoning behind that at all. It is an ok movie considering how short it is, but I just couldn't get into it. Maybe it was the fact that I missed my computer too much to enjoy it. No, I don't think that was it. Most people seem to really like this one though. Pretty much all the other reviews give it a good score, so I guess it is just me. That is how it goes sometimes.
2 out of 5 I would make a bad sculptor, so don't even think it

Music: Salvation

To mark my return, my computer is back up and running once again, I decided to post another music video. After watching the video for Salvation, I noticed it had a horrorish vibe to it. Plus the song's title seemed to fit for my return in some odd way. I have some things to do tomorrow, but hopefully I will manage to get a new review up. Until then, please enjoy Salvation by The Cranberries!

Music: The Kill

Since I have been in a musical mode of late, I have been watching videos, and checking out lyrics. One of my favorite current songs is by a group called 30 Seconds To Mars. This song, The Kill, isn't about any horror theme, but I'm sure the video will remind you of a certain horror movie. Let me know if I am right. Enjoy!

Horror Reality TV Part Six

Tonight's episode of 13 - Fear Is Real, was actually kind of interesting. Last week, the killer became one of the dead, so that meant the death box was up for grabs once again. Tonight the remaining seven were taken to an old slaughter house. No one liked that there were all kinds of animal bones laying around, among other things. The three remaining women take a room that has been set aside for everyone. The guys split into two groups. They are told that Rodney was the killer, which surprised some. The death box was left in the kitchen, but once again, it had to be taken in secret. With everyone in the kitchen, Erica found the box, and somehow managed to sneak it out.

Later that night, Ted decided to go in search for the box again. No one honestly thought it had been taken, since everyone was in the kitchen looking for it. Erica shows up, and tries to kill off Ted, but it back fires on her. It was hard to tell how the kill was supposed to go down. Erica had something in her hand, so I assume that she was supposed to touch the kill with this object, or possibly hand it to them. Erica tried to get Ted to come to her, but Ted was on his guard. Instead of revealing her as the killer though, Ted pulls Nasser to the side, and tells him. They come up with a plan to work with Erica, and help her kill off one of the other guys. Ted tells Erica his plan, and she agrees to go along with it. Ted and Nasser get Adam to head off with them, leaving Cory alone. The other girls, I guess they are thinking Erica is waiting on them, have no idea that Erica snuck off to try and kill Cory. Telling Cory that the girls want to talk to him, he lets Erica into his room, where he is killed off.

From there, Adam is upset that Cory has been killed off. Leah and Adam start talking, when the Mastermind tells everyone that it is time for the ceremony. One person looks under their bed, where they find a map. They follow the map, and find some doors with holes at the bottoms. When they crawl in, they discover that they have been trapped inside a cage, which has been locked behind them. Their partners are supposed to find them, release them, and get back to their room. The keys are in one of the holes that are in the walls. They just have to reach in and get the key, but of course they don't know what will be in each hole. Oh, did I mention that there are rats all over the floor? Adam and Leah are the last to do this, so they will be put up for execution.

For the execution ceremony, they are taken by bus...to a bathroom? With a scene damn near out of the first Saw movie, they are handcuffed to a pipe and told that everything they need to get free can be found in the room. They both just sit there until they start to hear a noise. To their surprise, and mine, the toilet starts to over flow, a lot! The water starts to get deep, while Adam starts to figure out the clues. Then snakes start to come out of the toilet, where they were hiding, I don't know. The key they were looking for was in their own shoe, but they had to use the saw to get to it. Adam was the first to do this, but I kind of got the feeling that Leah wasn't trying as hard as she could have. She had been feeling guilty that she let Adam down, by not getting the key to release him, even though she had been looking right at it.

So now five people remain, with the promise that Erica will strike again next week. Ted and Nasser want Adam gone, but is that who Erica will take out? It is a nice strategy to work with the killer. I'm not sure I would be doing that so late in the game though. With so few people left, and $66,666 up in the air, would you really trust someone's word that they won't kill you off, if given the chance?

Living With The Others

Since I have been adding to my 999 Challenge by reviewing a film in each category so far, I decided to add another one. This time it will be for 9 Haunted House movies. I am slowly getting my movies mapped out for each category. Some, like the Universal films, will be easy to do, since I have a lot of those right now. The Remakes will also be an easy one to fill. A couple of Werewolf films, and just one other Killing Children so far. For this category though, I have so far picked out five other films. So I still have some planning out to do, which I hope to finish up this weekend. Speaking of weekend plans, I'm considering going to watch Push and Coraline 3-D. If I go see the latter, I will need to make a little trip again, since the nearest theater doesn't seem to like 3-D films. Maybe I will even try and go to the new Underworld film, but I think I will wait until sometime during the week for that one. I'm getting too long winded with these things. So, today I watched The Others (2001). I have watched it once before, back when it was released in the theater. This makes the first time I have watched it since then. With tears in my eyes at times, I visited The Others again. I will explain that one later.

The Others starts in 1945. Grace (Nicole Kidman) is taking care of her two children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). The children suffer from a disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum. This is a disease where the body is unable to repair damage caused by ultraviolet light. It is a rare disease, which roughly one thousand people in the world have. People with this disease have to stay out of direct sunlight, and in extreme cases, even indirect sunlight. This is the life that the children have, always behind closed doors. Grace has rules where all curtains have to remain shut. All doors should be shut behind anyone going through them. The children are often at least two rooms deep in the house at any given time, the better to avoid indirect sunlight. Charles (Christopher Eccleston), Grace's husband, has gone off to war, and has not been heard from at all. To add to everything else, all her help has left suddenly, without pay. Grace hires Bertha (Fionnula Flanagan), Edmund (Eric Sykes), and Lydia (Elaine Cassidy), not too long after the film opens. There are something odd about the new help though. There is also some odd things going on in the house. Doors are opening and closing on their own. A child crying that is not one of Grace's own, and music seemingly coming from nowhere. Is the house haunted, or is there a much darker secret to be found in this house?

When The Others was released to theaters, I wanted to go see it badly. The weekend that it came out though, seemed to be a bad time. All my friends were busy, or just didn't want to go. So I asked my "second mother," Fay, to go. She wasn't really thrilled about going to see this movie, but went because I asked. I loved the film, but Fay didn't seem to agree. I never figured out if she truly didn't like the film, or if she was just pulling my leg, since she said it with a smile. Either way, I was always glad that Fay went with me to see The Others. As some of you may remember, Fay passed away a couple of years ago. So, with her not far from my thoughts, I started to watch The Others again. I admit that my attention wasn't on the film, as much as it usually is this time around. Since I had already watched it once before, even though it was many years ago, I wasn't feeling all that guilty about not having my full attention on it. I got a little teary eyed at times. Not from the film, but from memories.

The Others is a perfect film to start things off with my Haunted House films category. The fact that the house is haunted is an easy thing to pick up on. It is the twist that got me though. At the time I first watched the film, I was actually kind of mad at myself that I didn't pick up on the twist before hand. Watching it this second time, it was frustrating again, just because the clues are that much more obvious when you know what to look for. What made The Others so good is that it is so subtle, with what it is trying to tell us. It is one of those films that doesn't use special effects. If there are any, they are small and minor. The film comes across all the better because of this really. As much as I love my gory effects, I can't honestly call them scary. The Others is nothing more than a haunted house story, with a couple of twists along the way, and pretends to be nothing more than just that.

The acting was very good. If you like Nicole Kidman that is. I know not everyone does. There have been films I don't care for her in either, so I just take each film, and go from there. I thought she did a great job here though. This was the first film for both James Bentley and Alakina Mann, who beat out 5,000 other kids for the roles. I liked Bentley, but it was Mann that impressed me the most. I thought they both did very well though, considering it was their first acting jobs. In my opinion, this is one of the best haunted house movies around. I guess there is a good reason for that though. One of my all time favorite, and rare five star reviews, The Innocents, has something in common with The Others. They are both loosely based on the same book. The Others goes off in a different direction though. One that will more likely surprise instead of disappoint.
4 out of 5 Wondering who was more scared of whom in this film

Don't Hug The Children

I was sitting around today, trying to figure out how to add to my 999 Challenge. I have plenty of films out of my own collection that I can add to it with no problem, but I like to try and keep my Netflix stuff on the move as well. I have a film here that has been waiting almost a month for me to watch it, but once again, it will have to wait. Instead, I looked into what I have queued up in my Netflix Instant Watch, and decided on The Children (1980). From the synopsis of the film, there just had to be some kids being killed off! Perhaps I should explain that one a little more. As part of my selection, I picked 9 films where children are killed. Maybe that makes me sound like a bad person. I like kids, some of them anyway. Truth be told, even though kids tend to be shy around me, they all seem to like me. I try not to ignore kids, and treat them like I would anyone else. With that in mind, I love it when a child dies in a movie. I guess because it's such a taboo thing, not something you see all that often. By the way, when I say children, I mean it. While a person in their late teens is still considered a kid, that is just too easy to find in movies. A lot of times, they aren't actually teens, in real life anyway.

The Children starts off with an inspection of a nuclear power plant. The workers don't see anything wrong, but the camera eventually leads us to a leak. From there, we follow along with a school bus. The bus has either dropped off most of the kids, or there are just not many around. These kids make riding the school bus home, more fun than I ever remembered it being. As they all sing the same song (Can we kill them now? No? Damn), the bus passes through a yellowish cloud without a second thought. A little later, Sheriff Billy Hart (Gil Rogers) passes by, minus a yellowish cloud, and finds the school bus. It is still running, but no one is around. Leaving the bus blocking the road, and not checking the area or calling out to anyone, Billy heads to the nearest house, where one of the kids would have been dropped off. This parent, while worried about her kid, is very hateful towards Billy, before she even knows why he is there. The next set of parents are even worse. When Billy explains that the kids have gone missing, the mother exclaims "A kidnapping in Ravensback? How exciting!"

At least there is one set of normal parents in this film, John (Martin Shaker) and Cathy (Gale Garnett) have a daughter (Clara Evans) that was on the bus. At least John rides around with Billy while they look for his daughter, and the other children. Although, they do keep Cathy in the dark most of the time about what is going on. We discover that the children have become zombie like. They don't go around eating people, or anything like that. Instead, they just want a hug! Can we all say "aww" at once? No? Well...ok. This is one time that hugging your kids is the wrong thing to do. Once they hug you, smoke starts showing up everywhere, and then you die from being...burned, I guess. I don't know how else to explain it. Of course they want to try to help the children, but is that such a good idea?

The Children is not connected with the upcoming film, with the same name. As far as I can tell anyway. This is an easy film to make fun of. We are never told why the cloud only seems to affect children. I would think it would affect anyone that comes across it, but it doesn't. Not too many of the characters are very likeable. The deputy (Tracy Griswold, I wonder if he is any relation to Clark) is trying to hook up with a farmer's daughter (Joy Glaccum). A seemingly gay guy shows up at one point for no real reason. While his driver is taking them into town, they get behind the farmer's daughter, while she is riding on her bike. We get a scene of the car driving real slow while honking at her. Apparently the driver has never heard of passing. I guess the big question is, does The Children fit into my 999 challenge? I was starting to wonder if it would, since the sheriff shoots one of the kids, and she gets right back up. But I am happy to report, there are some dead children to be found. Six of them actually! Although, most die in an odd way. It seems that the only way to kill the zombie like children is to...no, I will let you find that out yourself.

Not a lot of effects to be found in this low budget film. The burned people do look rather impressive though. You can also find a few severed body parts here and there. The acting, well it was just plain bad. It was hard to tell if it was bad acting, or a bad script. I believe the answer is found somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't call it the worst acting ever in a film, but it was pretty bad at times. That just helped make the film easier to poke fun at though. I'm not sure how well the child actors were in this film, since they weren't given a whole lot to do. Mostly walk around, smile when they see their parents, and want a hug from them, and everyone else they came across. They did get to say mommy or daddy though. In one case, one of the older girls said da da. Seriously? I really hope it was that way in the script, for her sake.

I don't know. I liked The Children to a certain extent, but felt the film itself was pretty weak. When I see a child get shot, get back up and keep coming, only to see it happen again...I don't think I would hit the person doing the shooting over the head. At this point, I don't think it is the child that needs protected, you know? It is all these silly things that does make it funny, in a bad way, but doesn't make for a good horror film. The surprise ending isn't such a surprise, if you pick up on a key detail, that is very hard to miss. I think I would be willing to watch this one again, if I was depressed maybe. It is good for some laughs at least, so I can't dog it too much. Worth a watch, at least one I would say. If no other reason to watch it, watch it for all the dead little children!

2 out of 5 Can I have a hug? Wait...I was just joking!

Music: Bloodletting

Following in CRwM's footsteps (hope you don't mind), I decided to post a video for a song that one of my favorite groups did. This is a song by Concrete Blonde called Bloodletting (The Vampire Song). I mannaged to catch Concrete Blonde in concert a few years back at a small club. At the time, I knew who there were, and I had one CD of theirs, but that was it. By the time I saw them in concert, they had gotten a new drummer. He actually improved this song with his drum work, but I can't find a video of it being played in concert. So I will just have to settle on the original video they did for the song. Still a good song though. Hope you all enjoy it!

More Rants

As I reported in another post, I bought the latest issue of Fangoria a couple of days ago. I had flipped through it some, but today I actually sat down with it. Since it has a listing of movies coming out on DVD, and in the theater, I was using it to help me plan for my 999 Challenge. Which by the way, I accidentally added to yesterday. I went to see The Uninvited yesterday, not knowing at the time that it was a remake of A Tale Of Two Sisters. So I can add one to my 9 Remakes! Two films down, only seventy-nine more to go. Thanks to this issue of Fangoria, I have planned out a tribute post. There is a movie that will be coming out sometime this month, not sure when, since I am seeing conflicting release dates, that I will plan around for a tribute post to an actress. Be on the look out for it!

Another thing that I learned is that the first three Friday The 13th films are being given special treatment DVDs this month. I knew the first film was getting one, but not the second and third films as well. The main reason I bring this up though, is because the third film will come with 3-D glasses! If you haven't watched this film in 3-D, now you can. It is worth it, trust me.

I decided to write this post after reading an article about Feast 3: The Happy Finish. As you may, or may not know, I didn't care for the second film at all. Since it was just a one page article, written by Sean Decker, I decided to see what it had to say about the third film. It starts off by saying: "'It's darker than Feast 2, and more disgusting than Feast,' says series scribe Patrick Melton..." Darker I like. Hopefully this means it will be more of a horror movie, and less of a comedy. Since the second film went with comedy over horror, I was rather disappointed with it. The first film blended the two very well.

Later in the article, director John Gulager is asked what he thought of the split reaction over Feast 2. This is basically where my rant begins.

"I realize there are a lot of pussies out there who were offended by Feast 2," says the 51-year-old director, "but I guess we knew that was going to happen, because it happened with the original, and that film eventually found an audience. The deal is, I love Feast 2. The whole idea was to make a non-generic monster comedy-a pop film that is far out. Believe me, it would have been much easier to make another movie about monsters breaking into a bar, but we wanted to do the unexpected-to surprise and delight. So I have to take umbrage with people who despise the sequel. They're assholes. I hope horror audiences haven't become used to being spoon-fed; it used to be that horror films were the ones breaking barriers." (emphasis mine)

I have an issue with the quote. I never expected that Feast 2 would take place in the same bar, or even in a new bar. That it picked up where the first movie left off, more or less, is something I was glad that they did. I like films that do this, instead of having a self contained story that never even brings up the other movie(s). Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just prefer to see some connection between each film. So the fact that John Gulager doesn't want to remake the first film a second, and third time, is a good thing. I can't say that I despised the second movie, but I sure didn't like it. What Gulager had to say, still felt directed towards me, and people like me. I would expect something like that being said by someone on a message board somewhere, after a heated argument. I wouldn't expect that from a director of a film though, not if said director wants people to keep watching his/her movies anyway. People don't like your film? So what. It doesn't matter what film we end up talking about, there is always going to be people that don't like the film. I sure won't go around calling people that didn't like my movie assholes. Instead, I would say something more like I hope you like my next film better then, if you give it a chance. Just a thought.

The article then switches back to Patrick Melton. Melton had this to say:

Melton (who also scripted Saw 4-6 with Dunstan and recently made his directorial debut on their script The Midnight Man) echoes Gulager's sentiments, "First off, I think it's crazy that we were even able to make three films like Feast," he says of the franchise, which was produced by the Neo Art & Logic company. "The first one was admittedly tame when compared to the latter two. That's likely because of the studio oversight to make sure we didn't go too far, because most people really didn't understand what we wanted to do. John certainly got it, and these movies really are his babies, and I love the outcome."

At this, Fango ruminates on Feast 2's bodily-fluid-strewn autopsy scene (courtesy of LA-based FX house Optic Nerve, which also provided the beasts and splatter for Feast 3), and the subsequent disparate viewer response. "This type of horror is for a select group, so others constantly try to pacify the content," Melton notes. "We were given a much larger amount of freedom with the sequels, but also a much lower budget. We did just about everything we were told not to do as film students-and that's the fun. We broke taboos, defied expectations and went way, way beyond the realm of good taste."

I know guys think body fluids are funny. Come on guys, you know you do. While I don't find it all that funny, I don't mind going beyond the realm of good taste now and then. Lets face it, it can be funny. But when you do something that was already done in the first film, and then do it repeatedly, it no longer becomes funny. I'm all for making a film just like the director and writers want. It is their film after all. If they are happy with it, then great! But that doesn't mean I have to like it.