The Revenant (2009) - Horror comedy

The Revenant (2009) - Part of the Terrorthon 10 events at the Somerville Theater. We open on the funeral scene of Bart (David Anders) a soldier who has passed away while serving. It is clear from the minister that Bart never made clear his religious beliefs and so the chance for heaven was not assured. After the funeral Joey (Chris Wylde) , Bart's best friend talks to his former fiancee Janet (Louise Griffiths) about the minister in a bit of a cliche conversation. Still there was a good line in Janet asking in her amazingly hot British accent, "How do you stay so strong?" and Joey answering "Heavy sedation." The cringe worthy moves by Joey to then sleep with Janet felt really sleazy but of course set something up in the future.
After the funeral Bart wakes in his coffin, luckily the incompetent crew at the cemetery did not cover him in dirt yet. He wanders up to the cemetery building and he and the audience get to see that he is undead. The establish it well with his mouth being sown shut and the fact he is a bit rotten, spoiled, past his due date, definitely expired. This is tough for a guy and he really thinks he must be hallucinating or something.
He goes to Joey's house who is properly fucking freaked and hits him with a bat. As these things go the two try to figure out what is going on. Bart tries to eat pizza but unfortunately the gory result is he can not hold down food. Besides he looks like a zombie, funky eyes, bad skin and embalmed. Still They decide the emergency room should be their next step. Great scene when the nurses are examining him in the ER and he is asked to take off his shirt. The autopsy scar across his body freaks out the room.
At this point we have established a fairly comical and original buddy movie. There are still some things that have to be establish and the are as the plot marches through everything we need to know about Bart. First he collapses at sunrise appearing dead-er. Joey calls Janet's best friend Mathilda(Jacy King) who at this point knows nothing and comes over to find Bart's body in Joey's living room and of course it is dead, humorous by itself as she probably think he grave robbed the body and has lost his mind. Somewhere in here we also have learned that Bart actually feeds on blood and that it keeps him from rotting and gets rid of those awful pangs.
There is another great scene where the Boys go to the blood bank to steal blood and the nurse on duty catches Bart. Also the music is noticeably awesome at this point in the movie, the guys head out with the blood they have stolen and are cruising around town and the soundtrack is solid. It stays that way throughout the movie.
After coming out of a store run the guys are held up by a Latino man who shoots Bart, but when he rises after being shot the guy is thrown for a loop enough that Joey can knock him out. They take the guy so Bart can feed on him, which is gross. Little do they know at this point that Bart has turned the guy into a Revenant also.
At this point the movie takes two turns, one that was set up earlier and one that comes from a scene where Bart and Joey interrupt a robbery at a liqueur store. First though Janet enters the picture coming over to see Bart because Matti told her he is undead. The reestablishing of the relationship is pivotal in a couple ways. One the film established the noncommittal way Bart was when he was alive so that idea is reintroduced. He doesn't want to break up with Janet but yet he is luke warm to making a meaningful connection. It then also creates a future problem for the guys in the relationship because Joey scored Janet when she was sad and needing someone at the funeral. The second thing is with he second feeding on a criminal the guys suddenly have this vigilante angle to play to get blood for Bart.
Now in full buddy movie form and fashion things as vigilantes are going well and their popularity on the local news grows. Then things go horribly wrong. Joey is shot. The movie could have started to wind down here but instead writer / director D. Kerry Prior ups the ante. To "save" Joey Bart drinks his blood and after he dies we now have a pair of Revenant Vigilantes going around stopping crime. Matti though sees the car caught on tape on the news and recognizes it. She tracks them down to confront them. This does not go as she plans though and is shot by Joey when she says she will turn them in and tell Janet. He does not want his undead fun to stop. Still she manages to send a voice message of the conversation and suddenly Bart knows he wants Janet in his life, while Joey knows he wants it to just be the buddies. Bart feeds off Janet until she dies and it looks like his choice is made but while Janet is still dead Joey arrives with his cool hearse and wants the guys to head to Vegas. Bart wants the relationship with Janet. Can it get any more drawn out. Joey seeing a chance to be chosen over the woman tells Bart about sleeping with her and suggest they cut off her head. Who will be chosen. This should really be where the movie start wrapping up with the guys confronting each other and shooting each other in a funny scene. BUT no there is more, oh so much more.
After pissed and shot up Joey leaves Bart is actually going to do the beheading but instead is arrested by the police. At the same time the first victim the Latino guy and his gang get their hands on Joey and cut off his arm. When Bart does his morning death, the police naturally send him to the morgue so he is soon on the streets again. He gets in the mail the decapitated head of his friend Joey in a package. In a very funny way he can communicate with the head to talk and Joey at this point would like to die.
After the final scene with the buddies the movie really went off the rails for me. Attempted suicides were fun but at this point I was waiting for a wrap. Unfortunately it was a while before that happened. The ante is upped again and we are treated to the cops closing in on Bart and chase scenes and gunfights until dawn when he is collected by some government types. Weird that it went where it went and the final scenes are even stranger with the scientist filling in the gaps about how the zombies work. Then the last scene really ruined the movie for me. First it was stupid, just did not make strategic sense. Second it was not needed. If I ignore it I really liked most of this film so I will rate it ignoring the ending.
Rating (6.1) In the Zombiegrrlz rating system this would be a Rent it!

Dead Snow (2009) - Horror Nazi Zombies

Dead Snow (2009) - REVISTED, Part of the Terrorthon 10 events at the Somerville Theater. Opening scenes that capture the audience attention and pull us right into the story. It is what we get with this movie, the opening scene of Sara (Ane Dahl Torp) running from the dark shapes in the snow, totally panic-ed . She stops and looks off in the distance, did she loose them? Look out Nazi zombie! Credits roll and we already know what we are in store for. We don't know who Sara is at this point but we know there are horrifying things in these mountains. So when we go into the cars of the students on spring break and get introduced to the fodder, I mean characters we feel the dread of them not knowing their fate.
Some of the relationships are established Liv (Evy Kasseth Rosten) is with Martin (Vegar Hoel), the doctor in training who can't stand the sight of blood. Boy is he going to get over that in a hurry. Vegard ( Lasse Valdal) is the boyfriend to poor possibly dead Sara. Chris (Jenny Skavlan) the little hussy is going to make a play for Erlend (Jeppe Laursen) the movie geek. that leave Hanna(Charlotte Frogner) with Roy (Stig Frode Henriksen) and we have our quad of couples heading to the mountains for a ski break. Sara who went ahead to set things up will meet them there.
They park the cars and have a hike to the cabin. Vegard heading up ahead of everyone on his ski mobile. He finds it odd that Sara is not there when he arrives, but she knows the area and he figures she went out for a hike. Then there are some scenes to let us know that they are there to have fun.
Since we know the scares are coming we get to the night rather quickly and Hanna has to go to the outhouse. Cold and dark she gets tense when she hears something in the woods. She gets back to the others and says there is something out there. When Roy goes to check it out we get a good startle when the Wanderer (Bjorn Sundquist) appears behind him. People are polite in Sweden so they invite the stranger in. His role in the film is to inform us what the story of these mountains are.
In WWII Nazi Col Herzog was a viscous occupier for this area, he and his men tortured and killed many innocent villagers. When he realized the war was lost, and the Russian army was closing in he and his men systematically stole all the gold from the villagers. This was the final straw for the village and they rose up and killed the Germans. But the Herzog and a small amount of his men escaped into the mountains with the loot. They froze to death in the winter but apparently their greed for the gold was so great that if someone comes in possession of any of it they rise as Nazi Zombies and kill you to get it back. They are drawn to it from the dead.
He is there to put them all ill at ease and does a fine job. He tells them to tread lightly in these mountains. He heads off and the kids head to bed. Vegard dreams of Sara, she is closing the trapdoor to under the cabin, used to keep things cold. He follows her outside, She is standing outside by the cabin with blood coming out of her mouth. He wakes from his dream.
The film does a nice job with using the dark to create tension, character almost seeing things or using a flashlight limiting the scope of what they can see. We get one of these scene with the wanderer demise. Another thing with the filmaking as it should be wih monster movies is director Tommy Wirkola does not show the monsters right away, not in a clear way. It is the "almost" that make each encounter more tense. As the movie progresses we see more and more and the makeup is excellent so there is an excellent payoff for not seeing then early in the film.
Since his dream was so disturbing Vegard decides to use his snow mobile to search for Sara, leaving the others for a second day of playing in the snow.
When he is out there and stops for a bite to eat he sees the tent of the wanderer and goes to investigate. The blood in the snow should have been enough to scare him off but no... He falls through a snow bank into a cave while fleeing the wanderer's tent and is out cold.
Not knowing anything weird is going on the friends back at the cabin. While getting beer from the trap door Erlend finds a box of gold. Oh so that's why the zombies were after Sara. The group all paw at it and several have items they fail to put back in the box.
We get one of the grosses scenes ever Erlend goes to the outhouse announcing his need to shit. As he wipes Chris arrives to fuck him on the john, gross and fucking cold. Worse than the gore and the brains the idea of this act sends chill down my spine. Since they had sex we can guess what their fate will be. He heads in as she stays to go the bathroom after sex. Now we start to see the Nazi Zombies she is terrified as one is outside the outhouse. Surprise! The music inside it too loud for her to be heard screaming.
The already very well done pacing starts to pick up as we transition from creepy scary to action frightening. The zombies attack the cabin and the battle is on. By morning there are just two girls and two guys. They decide two of them should act as decoys while the other two make a break for the cars.
Vegard awakes and find he is in the snow cave lair of the Nazi Zombies. He find remains of Sara and then in his grief is surprised by a zombie attacking him. He has an epic battle and wins only to have another zombie rise from the ground. Eventually he shows his worth and is heading back to camp with a machine gun freshly mounted on his ski mobile.
The girls running to the car do not fare particularly well. One at least gets to grenade the swarm of fiend eating her guts as she dies. The other trapped in a tree is a bit of a ridiculous scene ends up fighting for her life and going over a cliff with a zombie.
back at the cabin Herzog rises his troops and sends them towards the guys. There is some wonderful battling in this set piece.
The last woman survives the fall from the cliff.
More of the big battle at the cabin has Vegard coming to the rescue but then being drawn and quartered by five zombies. The Final two guys manage to win again but not without a heartbreaking incident. This film is rocking good at this point, there is gore and humor and fighting and everything is moving towards a close. The final two guys think they have come out on top but again Herzog has troops in reserve and soon they are running towards the cars ahead of the zombie army. When one of the two dies the last guy alive sees Herzog taking the gold off him and finally makes the connection we have known all along. He rushes back to the charred cabin and find the box of gold showing it to the Zombies and then fleeing for his life.
Wow what a fun movie! Better on the third viewing... I really like when an idea is executed well. The story here is nothing too complex, they characters are just barely drawn but still this film delivers what it promises and that is very refreshing. There are surprises and gore with surprises and just the most epic battle scenes. Very good film for a zombie movie fan who likes action also.
Rating (8.0) 5.0 and up are recommended, Zombiegrrlz system I would say Buy It! Go see it!

The Horde (2009) - Horror Zombie

Le Horde "The Horde" (2009) - REVISITED, as part of the Terrorthon 10 program at the Somerville Theater. Reviewed in a spoiler filled article on this blog in August 2010, here is the second viewing of the film. The story plot is simple enough on an outward level but very complex in characterization. After a cop is killed by a local drug dealing gang, his cop friends make a plan to go execute the thugs. The night of the plan the cops are foiled and taking prisoner by the gang but right at that moment an airborne plague that reanimated the dead spreads fast and soon the gang and the cops are working together fighting for their lives against a horde of zombies. Fast zombies and aggressive they are hard to kill.
What is still great about this film is the interpersonal connections between the character. This is no simple good guys bad guys story. It is a web of long and short term relationships. The Ganster brothers from Nigeria, Adewale (Eriq Ebouaney) and the younger Bola (Doudou Masta) where the older has always looked out for the impulsive and easily anger younger brother. References to how they were treated in their youth in Nigeria make them more than just thugs but lets the audience see that they have a history. Lead cop Ouessem (Jean-Pierre Martins) holds resentment with female cop Aurora (Claude Perron) for having an affair with the cop they are seeking revenge for. It is his belief that the dead cop lost focus because of her. She has her own thoughts on this, she is carrying the dead cops baby and not only wants revenge but also wants to survive the horde to let the baby live. Tony, the wounded cop has feeling for Aurora and wished it was him she picked instead of the dead cop.
When the cops arrived the Gangsters including Greco (Jo Prestia) a drug dealer are beating a guy who is tied up and hooded in the bathroom. Hot headed Bola thinking this guy is the reason the cops are here shoots him full of bullets. This is poor choice since the zombie bug is in the air and soon the dead hooded guy is up and looking to bite anyone and everyone. It is established that shooting zombie guys in the head will stop them but it is still amazing how many times zombies get shot in the chest. Things go from crazy to balls against the wall very quickly and soon there are just three cops and three gangsters on the roof of the building watching the nearby city burn and hordes of zombies swarming around. Again I am struck by why would a horde of zombies head to this run down apartment building? Aurora, Ouessem, and Tony (Antoine Oppenheim) for the cops, Tony shot in the leg and needing assistance. Greco, Adewale, and Bola for the gansters and all recognizing that they do not want to be trapped in this building. So working together they will try to get out. You can question why they feel the need to get out, they can see hundreds of wandering zombies down there. Why not hold up and clear enough space to wait it out a while?
The travel down the building is scary and at time action packed. When Zombies attack Greco is stuck outside he safety door and has to fight off two zombies at once. The actor and former boxer is so up to the task. Great action until he finally makes it through the door but unfortunately is bitten in the leg. Tony and Aurora are separated from the others when a zombie woman attacks Tony. After they deal with it, in a great scene where Aurora fights like demon we hear more interpersonal information from Tony as he nurses a bite on his shoulder. He has had the hots for Aurora and was jealous of her relationship with the dead cop. She wants no part of his infatuation and seeing his bite get more zombie infected holds a gun on him and tells him to cuff himself. Not ready to go out that way Tony waits until she is handing him the cuffs and then BAM! cracks her hard into a wall mirror, knocking her out. Now love must be a fleeting thing because he leaves her there unprotected. Of course she just spurned him so maybe it was the sting of that.
Back at the gangsters, Adewale makes it clear to Ouessum that he is now alone with them and needs not be so sensitive to the increasingly unpredictable Bola. Adewale has to be sturn with his brother creating a shift in loyalty for the younger from his bro to Greco. These shifts in relationship keep the movie interesting in what is basically a survival story. They make there way to find a big old guy Rene (Yves Pignot) disposing of some zombies. He has been securing his area of the building and says he has killed a half dozen or so. Back in his apartment the racist Rene, he had fought in southeast asia and calls all the Zombies "chinks" and the survivors decide to head down the elevator shaft and then out of the building through the basement car park. Hopefully getting a ride. There is some funny stuff when Rene wants to cut off the leg of Greco so the infection won't spread. Of course Greco is having no part in that.
Tony finds them and starts telling them of Aurora's demise when she appears behind him and puts a bullet in his brain. The remaining group, Aroura, Ouessum, Rene, Bola, Adewale and bitten Greco head to the elevator shaft. When the teacher Zombie appears they wound her by shooting out her knees and they following the leave of Rene, Bola and Greco start playing with her. This pisses Adewale off as he remembers his childhood in Nigeria and he confronts Bola. The wedge has now been driven between the brothers and the scene was the final straw in there separation. Bola sees his brother as siding with the cops instead of him. He is young and impulsive and when they get down the elevator shaft to within a few floors of the basement he and Greco take all the guns and leave the rest defenseless. We do not really have to be told what Bola's fate will be choosing a soon to be zombie over his brother.
The final push is on in this flick with the weaponless group making for the caretakers apartment because Rene knows he was a gun nut. We get to see the horde pressing up against the locked front of the apartment. Re-armed there is the final sprint to the car park. The horde breaches the building ratcheting up the pace and the gunfire. We have who will survive in the final minutes of what has been a very good zombie film. There is an epic last stand for one of the cast. Adewale finds out what happened to his brother and then gets to dole out some vengeance on the zombie Greco. This scene is very reminiscent of actor JoePrestia death in the movie "Irreversible" where he played the rapist of of victim Monica Bellucci, that being one of the most horrible unwatchable scenes on film, not his death but his crime that is. The downer but appropriate ending was one this reviewer could live with. On a second viewing this movie like the earlier reviewed "The Human Centipede" comes out with higher marks than I gave it the first time through. This is a very well written and directed film for a genre that is difficult to do well. Seeing it on the big screen was a pleasure as my first viewing was a home.
Rating (7.6) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz System I say Go see it in theaters.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (2009) - Horror Comedy Vampires

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (2009) - The pre-credit scene of the actress getting bit by the vampire establishes the theater owned by the vampire Theo Horace (John Ventimiglia). After the credits we get the main character Julian Marsh (Jake Hoffman) an unemployed director who longs for his ex girlfriend( The lovely and former D.E.B., Devon Aoki) and lives in the back of his father's doctor office. His Dad gives him ad ad for a job directing a play at Theo's theater, looking for a young controllable human. The play a variation on "Rosencrantz & Guilderstern are Dead" except in this case Undead. He of course gets the job after an amusing interview including questions about whether he has any blood ailments. The great thing about this film is the light and witty dialog that is scattered through out. Although not laugh out loud it continues to bring smiles with wit in the writing by Jordan Galland who also directed.
Julian gets hired and quickly finds his actor best friend Vince (Kris Lemche) for the role of Hamlet. Through there scene we learn that his ex, Anna is an ex because Julian was caught cheating on her with a stripper. As they walk a street person, maybe fan warns Vince that if he ever finds himself in a Shakespearean play with vampires that he should call the given number. What a coincidence!
There is a bit more setup with the establishing of Anna's new boyfriend Bobby Bianchi (Ralph Machio) and getting Anna into the role of Ophelia in the play. Then it some really amusing scenes of rehearsal, the slave girls Theo has as part of the cast are beautiful Zadeska (AzieTesfai ) and Lyuba (Carmen Goodine) get established as well as vampire feeding and the suspicions of the humans that something is not right. The earlier crazy fan(Geneva Carr) comes back in other disguises and is shown to be part of a secret organization that really has no reason to exist but to fill in plot points for us.
Not wanting to spoil this film, here is the dirty but twist free finish. Opening night is important and the climax happens on that night. Since Julian is established as still involved with Anna will have a part with her and have to reconcile the existence of the boyfriend. Some of the characters are changed into vampires and there is a big plot point concerning the real hamlet and his relationships with vampires.
It was an amusing film that if they just avoided the few booby flashes probably could have been a PG-13. The writing was very clever even though the story was just okay, it is hard to get behind a hero who is a bit of a slacker.
Rating(5.5) 5.0 and up are recommended, On the Zombiegrrlz rating system, Rent it!

The Human Centipede: First Sequence (2009) - Horror mad doctor

The Human Centipede: First Sequence (2009) - Part of the Terrorthon 10 horror festival at the Somerville Theater. REVISITED -Originally reviewed here on this blog in May 2010 it received a recommended but just barely. Viewing it for a second time I think I enjoyed it much more. My initial review focused on the idea of the human centipede, it is a shocking idea that I was mildly disgusted with. This second time with the idea not such a big new idea, watching the film was easier. The performance of Deiter Laser as Dr. Heiter was much more impressive. He was the mad scientist an egomaniac who wants to create something never done before. The idea of humans only comes to him after the three dog centipede he created died. I had not noticed in the first scene that he was looking at the dog version in snapshots before he shoots the truck driver. He is a man in grief trying to fill the hole left with their passing. What drives the movie is his performance and it is really well done. He has the look and the intense eyes and works the part to the max.
Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie) are really underdeveloped but they do not need to be more complete than what we are given. They are victims and because of the downer ending their story arcs don't have to travel that far. Katsuro actually get to be more of a character and his outcome is a noble one, of course being the head is considerable more promising than being the tail, and poor Lindsay in the middle is really unfortunate.
The women are indeed foolish in their decision making to get into this position. They leave the road when they got a flat and although they can't have known the evil in Heiter's heart they did sense his strangeness but acted too slowly. There is also a bit of a logical flaw when they allow him to call the rental place for them since how would he know which rental place that was. Wouldn't they want to make that call? So they are captured and we get to see the cruelty of the doctor when the truck driver's tissue doesn't match that of the girls.
There are really a great scene after Heiter comes back with the trucker's replacement, the Japanese man Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura) who yells some very funny things in Japanese even though no one can understand him. The reaction of the three victims when the doctor explains with hand drawn slide what is in store for them is great. The mixture of WTF and then more WTF! and a sense that they are helpless, all actors pull this off but Katsuro in particular because he gets the idea of the operation just from the simple drawings. None of the three yet know where they are going to end up in this creation but it does not take long before that information comes out.
Lindsay gets free of her bonds and makes an escape. In a tense and well executed scene she looks like she is going to get away. Of course she doesn't get away and the punishment Lindsay suffers is because she failed in the number one rule when you escape an abductor. Never go back for your friend! You can get to help and than save your friend but going back always leads to bad things for you. In this case she earned the middle slot in the sequence.
After the operation we have less enjoyable scenes of the reaction of the victims as each wakes to realize the situation. Then of Heiter trying to train the human centipede as you would a dog. You see he is driven to replace his beloved dogapede and damn it if these humans are even more difficult to train. The rantings of our lead segment Katsuro, and the constant whimpering of the other two makes the doctor wish aloud that he had severed their vocal chords.
The squeamish should be wary of the effects of food on the human centipede. The first bowel movement is well acted but hard to watch. Then there is poor Jenny who does not do too well after the operation and seems to have an infection in her stapled face. As we move towards the climax of the film she is having a harder time staying upright.
When the cops come to the doctor about the missing girls he can not break his psychologically depraved desire to had to his creation and attempt the same drugging of the officers as he did the girls. It does not work out so well and in the end things get a bit crazy for the good doctor. Still trying to hold back the spoilers for this film no further information will be relayed here, other than the ending is not one of triumph of the human spirit over adversity. This film was much better on a second viewing.
Rating (6.6) 5.0 and up are recommended, on the Zombiegrrlz rating system I would say Rent it!

Next Door (2010) - Horror Supernatural

Next Door (2010) - Part of Terrorthon 10 at the Somerville Theater in Somerville MA.
Anna(Christina Rondano) is a depressed accountant living and working in NYC. She is down in the dumps not wanting to socialize with her friend Evelyn (Nicole Kruex) and is looking for a change. When in an email she mysteriously wins a house in Massachusetts thing seem to be looking up. She checks out the organization and it seems legitimate so she plans a weekend up at the house to check it out.
We saw from the opening scene that the towns' people in this town has decided they need to have people living in the house for some hidden reason. We get the idea that the house may be haunted or at least some grisly events took place there.
Anna arrives and find handyman Ronald Buckman (Sal Lizard) ready to help her settle in and welcome her. Local snoop Mrs. Rosenburg (Lynn Lowry) stops in with a casserole and pries a bit before being nudged to the door. It does not take long for director Andrew Sawyer to telegraph trouble with an animated conversation among town folk outside the house while upping the creepy music, was that a take off on "The Exorcist" theme?
Unfortunately things slow down from here and sitting through the slow build was a tough watch. It was not that the acting was bad but I wonder about the script. Writer Allison Lahikainen seemed to sacrifice coherence because she feared exposition. Granted it is tough to do when there is basically one protagonist. Anna spent a lot of time being scared from scrapes and bumps in the night and then discovering pictures. There is some building for her as she sets out to find out why the house is so strange but because she has no one to bounce ideas off there is never a clear narrative about why things are happening.
The information we do get comes from the towns people and even there it is their resistence to share information that is frustrating. When Anna starts having a crazy look we know somehow the house is affecting her, through some flashes for the audience we know some grisly thing happened and we see Anna slowly losing it. Thing is we can only guess why. This reviewer was going the evil house route. She invites Evelyn up and there is finally hope to discover a plot. Unfortunately the Things get even stranger as we get to experience Anna's insanity in cut shots of things that could or could not be happening. The final night does not go well for her and even worse for Evelyn and Mrs. Rosenburg.
It seems bad and I am afraid it was but not to worry in the morning Ronald is there explain the entire movie. Well sort of and not very satisfactorily. I won't tell you because damn it if you want to know you should have to suffer through this film yourself.
When thinking about the film what was missing was a clear plot, the idea for one was there but it was poorly relayed through the script. Since it was the townspeople luring people to their deaths the supporting cast could have been written much more menacing than it was. The actors were all competent and would have been able to pull it off. Filmed on what seemed video and truly a low budget picture you really have to give credit for the execution of getting the film made. Because of time, it was really late, I could not stay for the Q & A but really wished that I had.
Rating (3.1) 5.0 and up are recommended, On the Zombiegrrlz scale I would skip it!

Herschell Gordon Lewis:The Godfather of Gore (2010) - Documentary

Part of Terrorthon 10 at the Somerville Theater in Somerville MA
Herschell Gordon Lewis:The Godfather of Gore (2010) - In the late 50's and early 60's Herschell Gordon Lewis was a small time movie maker creating nudist movies in South Miami. There was a lot of censorship in those days so a way around it to show naked people was to do educational films on nudist colonies. Lewis was making a bit of money but not much doing just that.
In 1963 he was looking for a new vehicle to cash in on and with longtime assistant Allison (Bunny) Downe came up with the script for Blood Feast. In it a killer steals body parts from his victims all young women to perform a ritual feast that will bring the Goddess Ishtar back to life. In it was were lots of gruesomely real scenes of mangled bodies, possibly the first gore scenes on film. Shot in four days in South Miami for about twenty thousand dollars it was a surprise success. Included in the movie going experience was a gimmick of handing out vomit bags to the audience which went over well at the time. Went over well does not mean it was liked by critics, although it made a bit of money for Lewis and friends the film was panned by the critics of the time for being crude and unprofessional. There is a story told in the film by a critic who was approached by the manager of a Majestic LA theater and apologized that the film was shown in his theater.
This documentary is a loving look at a small time film maker and how he created a genre of film that would later influence many film makers in the horror genre. In the film we talk to Lewis, and long time collaborators and actors in many of his films.
We take a trip with H.G. Lewis back to St. Cloud FL. the site of his 1964 film 2000 Maniacs and here stories of what it was like to make the film about a small redneck town that wants to get revenge for the outcome of the civil war.
Covering many of his films with style, H.G. Lewis spins tales about a time in movie making long past. Some of the films covered include
Color me Blood Red (1965) - In which an artist uses blood instead of red paint for his art.
A Taste of Blood (1967) - Where a descendant of Dracula becomes a vampire and goes after the family line of his executioners.
Flesh Feast (1970) - A ring of Florida Nazis have possession of Hitler's body and want to bring him back to life. Starring the wonderful Veronica Lake
Many more films were included, directors Frank Henenlotter and Jimmy Maslon show the respect and love they have for Lewis and the appreciation they feel for his contributions to film. There are guest appearances from Joe Bob Briggs and John Waters to add weight to the appreciation of Lewis. By the end of the documentary the view has had an interesting and loving description, a history lesson about a small part of film making that changed what was seen on screen. We also have a picture of a man trying to make a few bucks who had no idea what the impact would be but should be appreciated anyway.
Rating (6.4) 5.0 and up are recommended, On the Zombiegrrlz scale I say Rent it!

Blood Feast (1963) - Horror Killer

Part of Terrorthon 10 at the Somerville Theater in Somerville MA
Blood Feast (1963) - A woman comes home and gets ready for a bath, she turns on her really cool radio, a Zenith Royal 250 to hear reports that women in town have been killed and to stay home after dark. Since she keeps her book of Ancient Weird Egyptian Rituals nearby and the camera lingers on it we know it is important. Suddenly as she relaxes in her bubble bath a man appears and stabs her to death and then after she is dead takes a leg as a trophy. So begins this 1963 gore movie, some would argue started the genre of gore in movies.
This is not a good movie, it is poorly written, acted and lots does not make sense as you watch. An example of this is the two cops that are featured. The Capt. Frank (Scott H. Hall) overly dramatic with every line repeatedly through the film states there are no clues to who the killer is. That's because in this work the police have yet to develop the ability to take fingerprints. The killer makes no effort to wear gloves or avoid smearing blood all over the place, but apparently the police don't know the existence of fingerprinting.
Nor does this movie attempt to hide the killer from the audience. We learn in the first three scenes who the killer, Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold) is, what his motivation is and what his larger plan is. I won't be spoiling anything here by saying that he worships the Goddess Ishtar and wants to perform the Blood Feast that will bring her back to life. Where our killer runs a catering service and has some kind of mind control abilities he easily convinces Dorothy Freeman (Lyn Bolton) to have such a Feast for her daughter (Connie Mason). It is not a spoiler because 15 minutes into this you are shown everything. So the rest of the film is about the inept cops learning it.
I love that the killer worships a store mannequin dress as the Egyptian Goddess. He is a strange character who overacts and limps badly but somehow is completely silent and can easily surprise the most cautious victim. Needing more body parts the killer heads out to the beach to find Tony and his girl making out. She wants to go home but he wants her to hang and "prove" her love. Fuad dragging his dead leg behind him in the sand, knocks out Tony and kills the girl. For some reason there is a boa constrictor on the beach, when the police arrive they do not have a clue and state that fact. Since they did not tape off the area all the walking around must have erased the trail left by the killer as he dragged his leg behind him. It could have gone something like this.

Capt. Frank: Well guys we are here a bit late again. If we could just find a clue to what direction the killer went.
Officer: Capt Frank there is this clear path here in the sand, looks like someone dragged something from over there, to where the kids were attacked and then off that way with something dripping blood behind it.
Capt.Frank: Good work kid, What's your name? Hey lets fallow that blood trail and see where it goes.

BUT NOOO! Instead they talk to Tony who is awake again and crying like a two year old who had his candy stolen. Then they bring the parents of the latest victim in to ask if they know who did it? You see this scene would not be necessary except that the writer Allison Louise Downe wants to introduce that Det. Pete Thornton (William Kerwin) is connecting the book from the first scene to this murder. Since there are more body parts needed for the feast there are more murders to come. The Captain and Tanielle return to a Miami motel drunk, we only see them from a distance but can tell they are drunk from their bobbing and weaving. Capt does not get to go into Tanielle's room probably saving his life. Ramses drags himself to her room using the railing of the walkway but since there are no finger prints in this world leaves no clues when he kills her and rips out her tongue. I loved that we know she is dead because she crossed her eyes.
Now we get filled in on the feast and it is through a lecture that Thornton goes to with his girlfriend Suzette Fremont (Playboy playmate Connie Mason) the daughter who will have the surprise feast. They are both interested in Egyptian culture and history and besides how will Ramses ever get caught if Det. Pete doesn't have a way to make connections.
There are more murders and on the night of the party the police close in on the killer. When they get to his catering store and find the latest victim they are shock and then figure out that Ramses is the killer and is at Suzette's house right now!
Suzette comes close to having her number punched but Ramses has to flee the cops before the deed is done. Dragging his bad leg behind him he manages to stay ahead of a bunch of cops for a very long time until he can hide in the back of a garbage truck. You can guess his outcome. The gore effect were pretty effective and I had a better feeling about this film after seeing the Herschell Gordon Lewis documentary after this feature, but as a film itself it was really poor.
Rating (3.2) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz system I would tell you to Skip It!

Art of the Devil (2004) - Horror (Thailand)

Art of the Devil (2004) - "Khon len khong" - It is a complicated plot played out in different flashes of time. We start in the present and see Nan (Arisa Wills) running through the house in a panic. She as she finds her family in various levels of bloody distress she gets a call on the phone. The voice say its her sister in law that is doing this to get out of the house. Before she can though she is struck unconscious and bound by the killer sister in law. The actress Wills could be the Thai sister of Jessica Alba but this is her only appearance in film so I guess she does not have the acting chops of Alba. Still she is pleasant to look at. The sexy but evil Boom, the sister in law is played by Supakson Chaimongkol who you can find tons of pictures of on the Internet. She seems to be very popular in Thailand. In this pg-13 film though there is not a lot of either of these lovely ladies to look at and the film is not particularly remarkable. After the first scene we have flash backs as to how Boom became part of this family. She was picked up at a bar by the father of a family, not the one in the opening scene but another. This is not entirely clear at first but later you figure it out.

The guy is a bit of a dick head and even though married with two sons a daughter and a wife he picks up this young lady, Boom for a night of sex. No time is wasted to move on to the standard "Are you pregnant scene?" . Boom extorts a million baht from the father but he decides to keep seeing her and then figures since she just wanted money he could let his friend all have a turn on her. Well if that was not enough to piss her off towards revenge I don't know what is.

Then the strange deaths start happening, nails coming out of heads, suicides, we learn that it is the guys who raped Boom. The deaths seem sort of supernatural and when the family starts to die. The scene happens fast at the family house and the whole family is killed. Very hallucinatory and a bit freaky.

Boom figures as the mistress she can claim his estate with his heir. But before she can do that she has to appease the spirits of the family she just killed with black magic by visiting the priest and praying. When she comes out of the temple she sees the spirits of the dead in a passing vehicle and is struck by a car. While she is in the hospital another mistress of the Father comes forward with her three sons and daughter, who is Nan to claim his inheritance. Worse yet Boom loses her baby. Now the only way to get what she thinks is hers is to get into Nan's family through one of the brothers and then kill them all with black magic. Lucky for us the movie wastes no time and bang she is in. This is interspersed with some scenes of a reporter closing in on the black magic angle of the story.

Since this is done in flashback we sort of know where this is going to end up and a good part of the rest of the movie is the setup to the next murder scene. There is the little albino ghost of Boom's dead baby. For some reason she is a little girl and not a baby. There is little tension and I just have to say the Father was a real Ass, two families with children the same ages. Every now and again we flash back to the present with Nan bound and Boom explaining what we are seeing. Blah!

Nan closes in on the truth but of course we know by the beginning of the movie she will be too late to stop anything. We see that Boom gets pregnant again so there is nothing now to stop her from killing everyone. Her brothers are killed and then the house scene makes a reappearance. I will leave the climax for you to see in this barely NOT recommended movie.

Rating (4.8) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz system I would say Skip it.

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977) - Horror

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977) - IMDB reports that George Barry came up with the idea for this film by having a dream which accounts for its surreal feel. More likely it is the reason it can put so many viewers asleep. The story of a bed in a mansion that eats people when they sit on it. There is no real plot other than "How do we get people on the bed?"
There are lovers sneaking away for tryst. Gangster holding up for the night, the main story of three women hiding from one's brother(William Russ). In general this is just a really bizarre story without any kind of interesting plot. Sharon (Rosa Luxemburg) runs away and ends up with her friends Diane(Demene Hall) and Suzan (Julie Ritter) at the mansion and on the bed. To make the film longer inter cut are short stories of the bed killing various other people through the years. In that they explain how a demon inhabits the bed and lives on the blood of the victims.
All of it is narrated by "the Artist"(Dave Marsh) voiced by Patrick Spence-Thomas whose spirit is trapped behind a drawing of the bed. His monotone droning adds little beside a calming voice as you fade into your nap. Blah!
The effects are dreadful with a yellow foam being the indicator that the bed is about to feed and then in the stomach of the bed views as people are eaten.
So why would people go onto some abandon bed? People barely trust motel beds so why would they show up in an abandon house and hop on the fully made bed? Besides that fact that it is a bed. It doesn't really do anything, although its supernatural nature probably is what attracted character. It is such a strange movie and boring I can't imagine there is a following for this flick.
Rating(1.6) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz system, Skip It!

Trapped Ashes (2006) - Horror

Trapped Ashes (2006) - A tour guide (Henry Gibson) picks up his motley crew of VIP guests for a tour of the old movie studio. As they drive around on what seems a lame tour, they come to the set house for the movie "Hysteria". The group convinces the guide they should go in and see the house. When inside they split up but each end up in a room with no apparent way out. The guide suggests that the follow the script from the movie and each tell their scariest story. So we have the film premise as each couple or single person shares a scary story. It seemed like a long setup and poorly constructed. Really you are going to tell stories to get out of the room? Okay so even if it is part of the tour isn't it a lot to go through?
Well then the stories start with "The Girl with the Golden Breasts" in which Phoebe (Rachel Veltri) tells a tale of her breast implants. Suddenly this little film is a lot like the show, The Hunger without the overbearing host. She tells her tale of how her alien breast implants need to feed on blood. Horrifying in that it ruins breasts forever, well at least until the image of the carnivorous boobies fades from memory.
In "Stanley's Girlfriend" The Great John Saxon tells of a girlfriend gone wrong. Nathalie (Michele-Barbara Pelletier) tells the story of her father and stepmother and how they died, as well as her relationship with her "Twin". Not the most impressive of the tales. and in Jibuku there is sex and scares and damnation. All of these tales wrapped up with the start and finish in the scary house.
Overall the tales are a bit hard on the women involved. They are alien deformities, cheating wives, murderous children, and life sucking witches, with the men in their lives as hopeful heroes or in most cases hapless victims. The stories are not really sexy enough to be erotica or scary enough to be horror, instead it is a mish-mash of both.
Rating (4.8) 5.0 and up are recommended In the Zombiegrrlz Rating system I would say Maybe rent it.

Exorcism (1979) - Thiller (erotic?)

Exocism (L'éventreur de Notre-Dame) (1979) - Jesus Franco is renown for euro-erotica and here he does not disappoint with a tale of religious murder and erotic performance art. Stepping into the role of Father Mathis Vogel he is a psychopathic killer who prays on sinners in the harshest terms.When the order was put in I was doing a lot of exorcism movies, and added this to the queue by the name "Exorcism" only not knowing anything about the film. It is the story of a lesbian couple who do pseudo black masses, erotic bondage art show pieces while the audience feel each other up.
Mistaken as a real black mass Father Vogel looks to exorcise the demons from those participating. Working his way from local participating prostitute to main or secondary characters he kills several lovely cast members, Lina Romay, Catherine Lafferiere, Nadine Pascal and Monica Swinn are all subject to his demented religious fanaticism. When the inept police finally catch up to him there is quite a body count.
There is a strange mix of religious dogma and erotic lifestyles in this with Vogel often needing the female victims nude before saving their souls by taking their lives. He is disturbed and is played well by Franco. Being a sleaze-fest we see lesbian love scenes, bondage erotic performance art, a group orgy which is a bunch of hairy people rubbing each others legs.
The treatment of women by the killer is degrading and the women barely resist. Men are unable to stop him with the police a full couple steps behind the killer. It was amazing how many times the killer just walks into a house without being seen. As a thriller it does not really work since there does not seem to be a sense that the police are ever closing in on the killer. Nor does the killer ever worry about being caught, lost in his own delusional world where he is turned on and repelled by sexuality.
Rating (4.3) 5 + are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system I would say Skip It!

Dark Harvest (2004) - Horror Monster

Dark Harvest (2004) - Its the Great Depression and every one's crops have failed because of the drought. Everyone that is but Elijah's (Paul Bugelski), somehow he has a green and robust corn crop. In fact it is so strange that the local sheriff comes out to ask him about it. He lets Elijah know that people are talking, wondering what is making his crops grow while theirs wilt. Elijah is not forthcoming but through the scenes we see that the secret is blood and magic. Elijah is bleeding people as scarecrows to make his garden grow. Cut to modern times...
Sean (Don Digiulio) inherits the same farm from parents he did not even know he had. He was adopted as a small child and had no idea who his family was. He is resistant but decides to take a trip to the farm with a group of his friends. The lawyer tells him it has not been lived in for decades and has 25 acres to it. He at least could sell the place if it has any value. So the kids arrive at a farm that looks like it is in the exact condition as we saw it in the 1930's scenes minus the color filter on the camera. Amazingly even though decades have gone by unattended the fields are full of corn, must be perennial. It doesn't matter though because none of the actor are good enough to notice. Nor do they know how to act, the stale forced out dialog is a combination of either quick memorization, or thinking about hurting the writers while saying the lines but nothing is remotely believable.
The veil thin characters squabble barely differentiating themselves from the others and nothing much happens as they look around the farm. When Sean heads into the country store for ice, he gets to have a long conversation with a ghost. She tell him and us the plot, no need showing then is there? He as the descendant of the murderous farmer will be visited by three ghost... no wait wrong story. The dead want retribution and he is the one they will try to take it from. The spirits of the past will inhabit the scarecrows and come for him. Since he has friends and this is a slasher you can guess the outcome for them. So through the night there is lots of running in corn, getting stabbed and making the ever so popular decision to split up. Sean watches his friend dwindle after stupid badly acted decision after badly acted out decision. When finally he and a friend survive the night there is the lamest ending line ever! Thank You writer and director Paul Moore
The effects consist of scarecrow masked and a couple times we get to see little glow in the dark eyes, some fake blood and entrails and a horrible CGI explosion. This film was awful, and I am one who believes there is value in movies no matter how poorly done. People did sweat over this even though the end product is poor and they should at least get credit for the effort.
Rating (0.8) 5.0 and above are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz rating system RUN AWAY FROM IT!

Blood Moon (2001) - Horror Monster

Blood Moon (2001) - Also listed as "Wolf Girl" this 2001 made for TV movie was actually not bad. The story follows several people, the main one is Tara the Wolf Girl (Victoria Sanchez), who is part of a traveling freak show run by the incomparable Tim Curry. She is not particularly happy with her lot in life having the disease hypertrichosis which makes hair grow all over you. When she meets Ryan (Dov Tiefenbach) whose Mother (Lesley Ann Warren) does genetics experiments in her basement to remove hair for cosmetics companies. What luck, Ryan likes the wolf girl and she is looking for a way to be a normal girl. So the two set about shooting her up with an untested serum that shows promise in mice.
Mixed in with this story line are the financial troubles of the traveling show. Tim Curry as Harley Dune is excellent at the subtle acting necessary to get the audience to feel for the troupes troubles. Also in the story mix are a group of four troubled teenagers, locals who pick on Ryan and are absolutely cruel to Tara. The leader Beau (Shawn Ashmore) does a commendable job with the role of a young man fighting his shortcomings through an angry response to anyone he thinks he can best. His sidekick Krystal (Shelby Fenner) who is more competent an an instigator keeps him in check but directs his rage outward.
Most of the story though is about the question of wanting to fit in versus accepting who you are. Ryan is the loser who is okay with himself. Tara is the Pinocchio in a sense wanting to not be the freak for just a while. Beau feeling so inadequate with himself hunts for a way to feel competent. So how far will Tara go? When the shots she is taking start effecting her by making her more animalistic in behavior while she actually loses the hair that has plagued her, she seems to choose the looks instead of her own personality.
The climax is a bit odd in this one and since it will be recommended by this writer (barely) I will not say too much. Let me say though that the turn is strange even though the story is compelling enough to watch through and the acting and production values are good. There are some strange real freaks in the carnival and a few musical numbers in the show featuring little people and a half man half woman Grace Jones. This is a rental for sure if you have Netflix but I would not go out and buy it.
Rating (5.0) 5.0 are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz rating system I would say rent it!

Dark Forces (1980) - Horror Supernatural

Dark Forces (1980) - Also called "Harlequin" a mysterious and incomprehensible man, Gregory Wolfe (Robert Powell) enters the life Australian Senator Nick Rast (David Hemmings) and is wife (Carman Duncan) and sick son (Mark Spain). The magical Wolfe seems to cure the leukemia that son Alex has been suffering. He becomes involved with the Mrs. Sandra Rast and creates a big stir in the political circles that the Senator runs in.

Nick Rast is being groomed for an appointment when the lieutenant Governor vanishes at sea. The group that is grooming him are very wary of the stranger coming into the Rast household and work to find out about him. Doc Wheelan (Broderick Crawford) will not have the appearance of this new comer interfere with his groups plan.

Wolfe has a very positive effect on the family but ultimately is too much in the way. He tries to get the Senator to see that he is being manipulated but it is too late. Not even the magic the man seems to have can in the end save him.

The movie came about as a modern telling of the Rasputin story. The disappearance was based on a real event in Australia, Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared off the coast after coming out against the Vietnam war in the 1970s. The film spend no time developing the Wolfe character he is portrayed as completely mysterious. Not working perfectly it is really a strange piece of movie making. The music is melodramatic and overly loud. The Cinematography was wonderful and the out of door scene nicely shot.

Rating (3.7) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz rating system I say Skip It!

Machete (2010) - Action

Machete (2010) - A former Mexican Federale left for dead after being betrayed by his own boss, Machete (Danny Trejo) comes illegally into the United States. He is picked up a a day labor stop by Booth (Jeff Fahey) the powerful aide to Senator McLaughlin (Robert De Niro). Booth wants him to kill the violently anti-immigrant McLaughlin, well that is at least what he tells him. Really it is an elaborate set up to blame an immigrant for a shooting and get the senator reelected. The stellar cast includes Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), as the head of an underground immigrant movement called the network. Torrez (Steven Seagal) as the arch enemy of Machete and former boss in Mexico who now leads a major drug cartel. Jessica Alba as a young immigration officer rounding up illegals. Cheech Marin as Padre the brother and priest of Machete. Lt. Stillman (Don Johnson) as the leader of a vigilante group who hunt and kill immigrants as they attempt to sneak across the border. There is also an amusing turn by Lindsay Lohan as Booth's daughter April.

Machete for the most part is on the run in this movie, there is lots of killing and funny dialog with the plot winding its way to a giant conclusion, a fight between the network and the vigilante group. Machete also gets a showdown with Torrez which is a great finish. Writer Director Robert Rodriguez has done a great job bringing forth many of the issues of illegal immigration and how the US on one hand wants the labor while also vilifying the participants. There have been complaints in reviews of this film saying it is heavy handed in its messages. This writer does not see it that way. What Rodriguez did was create a story that includes the issues and also give a multifaceted reading of the issues. The serious scapegoating of illegal immigrants in our society while ignoring the American who hire them and then drive down working Americans wages on top of it is not discussed her, what we see is how easy it is for American small businessmen to get cheap labor.

The film also has many wonderful turns and twists that make the humor and action an enjoyable trip. If you are looking for a fun and action filled movie this is the winner of the summer.

Rating (8.3) 5.0 and above are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz rating system Go See it and then Buy it!

The Straun House (2005) - Horror

The Straun House (2005) - Also called Dr. rage this piece of pulp is a hard watch. Michael Dare, falsely accused of rage problems takes a visit to the Straun Foundation to be part of a medical experiment instead of jail time. What appears to be an anger management program turns out to be so much more. The doctors Timothy Straun (Andrew Divoff) and Susan Verger (Denise Duff) are administering a drug that enduces rage in the recipient and then somehow they are collecting sample from their sweat. It makes really no sense, and that and a Renfield type character named Moe Mobius (John Kassir) is running around the streets giving the drug to homeless guys. Locked in the cellar is a child of Straun's whose secret we learn in the climax. Filling out the cast is Molly the incomparable Karen Black who is a lawyer funnelling men like Michael to the program.

The drug is very addictive and seems to have the opposite effect than one would think. Then we learn that Straun is taking the drug himself and very excited to live through the rage it creates. He sits in a straight jacket while Mobius administers the drug, and watches through spy cams his patient Michael. Slowly we learn that Straun thinks he can move the evolution of man forward by using the drug and releasing the hidden rage in all of us. This unfortunately is not the complete storyline. There is a deep dark family secret that Straun is hiding and in the climax we find out what it is.

This movie is really very incomprehensible with just horrible dialog and a ridiculous plot. There are some cool low budget special effects but in the end this was not the writers idea of a worthy movie.

Rating (1.5) 5.0 and above are recommended On the Zombiegrrlz rating system I would give it,a SKIP IT!

Enter the Devil (1974) - Horror exorcism

Enter the Devil (1974) - If there is one thing that can be said for Italian movie making in the 1970's when an idea got popular they jumped both feet into the fray. While "The Exorcist" was making money in the States, there were a string of exorcism movies put out in Italy. This entry into it is a decent to poor example. The earlier reviewed "The Antichrist" is a better example of these films. In this particular film a religious artifact is brought to the place Danila (Stella Carnacina) works restoring art, or being a student, it is not clear with the poor dubbing. The artifact is possessed and soon we have hallucinatory scenes where young Danila starts having sexual encounters with the devil. Not all at once but each building and more overt. Tied into this is Danila seeing her Mother, Luisa having violent sex with a lover, being struck with the thorny stems of roses, all in a sexual nude way. Suggesting that Danila is somehow disturbed and maybe the possession story is really about the psychological effects of what she saw. Certainly she notice her parents are not really loving with each other. When her sexualized episodes become more disturbing she thrashes about coming on to her father who is disgusted. Then an episode with Stigmata that comes with a hallucination of being nailed to a cross by the devil. In the end the devil has sex with her and we can say from that point she seems possessed. Stella Carnacina is a stunningly beautiful woman but the makeup people do a great job at uglying her up for the possession scenes.
The family consults doctors and psychiatrists before taking her to a remote Italian village for an exorcism. She escapes her room and runs about the village for a good long time before being found by the search party.
When the first exorcism attempt comes it is way too short and anticlimactic. Some wind to keep the priest away. She attacks him as he prays over him, the devil talks to Danila saying she should seduce the priest. She rubs against him now her beautiful looking sexy self instead of the dark eyed possessed girl. He pushes her away and leaves. "Abomination." he yells at her laughter.
No another heavy handed scene where the priest conduct self flagellation bringing the viewer back to the idea of pain and sex because this is just after Danila tried to seduce him. So he must have felt something and was now punishing himself. He prays for strength.
Danila in her room has a conversation with the devil who encourages her to go after the priest and beat him. He thinks that this victory would be grand. Amazingly Danila's room is not locked and she walks out into the courtyard as the priest comes to finish the job. He prays at her and she gets crazy, grabbing a chain and again with the whipping hits him repeatedly. This does not stop our priest from praying the demon out of her though. As he dies she vomits out the demon who was surprisingly green and slimy goo. Then the movie just ends there.
Such an abrupt final scene and really why all the whipping? What was direct Mario Gariazzo thinking. No story arcs for anyone , the family is not made stronger the message is really that poor Danila had been susceptible because of her mental state and only a dying priest could save her. This movie had so much promise with the early scenes of the statue coming to life, the devil being well, the devil and then it just ends so quickly when there could have been an epic show down.\
Rating (4.0) 5.0 and above are recommended Zombiegrrlz rating system I would say Skip It!

Blood Car (2007) - Horror Satire

Blood Car (2007) - The story of Blood Car is that in the near future Gas prices are over $40 a gallon so nobody drives. Archie Andrews (Mike Brune) works hard trying to come up with an alternative engine that be with a fuel made from wheat grass. Some of the character satire is that he is a vegan who tries to go through life not harming anyone. Archie is blind to the love of the wheat grass selling Lorraine (Anna Chlumsky) as he presses his single minded purpose seeking a solution to the energy crisis. When he accidentally cuts himself while working on his engine he discovers the solution fuel. Now a vegan in crisis can drain some of his own blood for fuel, but is this really a long term solution. In a field is the booth where he buys his wheat grass, across from it is the Meat shed, where Denise (Katie Rowlett) sells "Meat". She sees Archie driving his blood fueled car and suddenly he is very attractive to her. She comes on to him for a date to the drive in, humorous with people all sitting on blanket but no cars. His desire to have sex out weighs his vegan, harm nothing principles and soon he is killing people to feed the car the blood it needs to keep seeing Denise. Also there are government agents watching him, and their desire for his new car. This won't matter to the viewer though because this low budget satire is pretty poor and at this point in the film attention to the plot starts to fade. Will Archie choose the nerdy but pretty Lorraine over the shallow and slutty Denise? Will the Agents steal his invention? Will Archie be able to live with himself after leaving his principles behind? Good luck to those brave enough to go after this one.
Rating (1.9) 5.0 and up are recommended, On the Zombiegrrlz rating system I would Skip It!