This might not be much of an endorsement, but Nightmare City is by far the best shitty zombie movie ever made. It treads that fine line of cheesy and awesome that a lot of horror movies hover around. To most, it won't seem that much different than any other bad foreign zombie film of the 80s...but it is. There aren't too many plots for this kind of movie; in this case, a plane exposed to radiation gets the undead rolling. Plane lands, zombies attack, city is...nightmarish!
Yes, you'll be laughing through a lot of this, but that doesn't take away from it at all. These zombies run, know kung fu, and can use machine guns. I repeat: kung fu and machine guns. If you have a problem with that, I don't want to know you. They're more like vampires in that they go after blood instead of flesh, and they still have control over most motor skills (One of them manually lowers an office elevator!).
There's extremely little in the way of story or character development once the blood starts flowing. There's a news reporter/doctor couple on the run, and a general's wife holed up in her isolated mansion. Everything else is pretty much "run away from zombies". The zombie makeup is noteworthy for its shitiness: the blood-sucking goons look like they stuck their faces in a pot of hot oatmeal. There's a hint of some kind of social commentary, how there are "monsters creating monsters" or something, but a Romero movie this ain't.
Later films, especially the Dawn Of The Dead remake, would utilize zombies that do more than stagger around, so you could say this was a precursor. But really, these zombies can drive cars, sneak around, pretty much everything but talk, so it's one of a kind. I recommend picking up a 6-pack of Samuel Adams Octoberfest and settling down with Nightmare City. By the end of the last beer, you might love this movie as much as I do.
If you want some horrible acting and ridiculous plot lines, you're in the right place. Pieces tries to be several movies at once and fails pretty miserably at all of them. Chalk this one up to a Bermuda Triangle of shit:
1. Despite being filmed in Boston, half the cast is Spanish and dubbed horribly into English.
2. The lighting is so bad, most of the scenes are awash in shadows and you can't even tell what's happening.
There's a chainsaw killer loose on campus, and it apparently has something to do with nude jigsaw puzzles and tennis. Don't ask.
There's some full-frontal nudity, a whole lot of blood, and even more incoherent story. It's slightly reminiscent of the Italian giallo horror flicks that Argento was pumping out around the same time, but only because of the killer P.O.V. camera techniques.
I've sat through many a shitty horror movie, and I've been known to love quite a few of them. But Pieces actually takes effort to sit through all of it. If you're up for the challenge, power to you. If not, I understand. Not everyone can be as awesome as me.
Ah, now this is everything a classic 80s horror movie should be. Drunk college kids, a haunted house, inventive kill scenes and Linds Blair. What more do you need? Released in the summer of '81, Hell Night wasn't a huge success (it was actually the last film released by defunct Compass International Pictures) but this was the Golden Age of the Slasher, so there were plenty of quality flicks getting passed over by the public.
Four pledges (two guys and two girls) are instructed to spend Hell Night in haunted Garth Manor. While the pledge masters have been setting traps and practical jokes, the very real surviving member of the family that was massacred there has a plan of his own for the trespassers.
This movie really succeeds on all levels. The set design is fantastic; shades of The Shining, Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre can be seen throughout the mansion and its grounds. The kids aren't stupid, either. When they realize what's happening, they take charge and refuse to just be victims. The killer isn't seen until late in the movie, which is also a good effect that prolongs the tension and keeps the mood scary. Linda Blair is the only recognizable talent, but each actor's performance is decent to say the least.
Aside from some dated dialogue and lack of nudity, Hell Night has all the qualities a classic horror movie should. This is a definite must-own for serious horror fans, and even casual viewers should check this out ASAP. You'll be glad you did.
Horror-comedies are tough to pull off well. The name alone is an oxymoron; how can something scary be funny, and vice versa? This goes beyond black comedy, or a horror movie with a funny scene or two. I'm making a statement: the ONLY horror-comedy that exists is Evil Dead II. No other film (that I've seen, at least) balances the gruesome horror and laughs like Raimi's classic splatter fest. Everything else that is classified as a "horror-comedy" falls into the "funny movie with gore" category. This is where we find Dead & Breakfast.
This is not to say these movies are necessarily bad. This film, along with peers Shaun Of The Dead, Fido and others are very well done and have some great performances. There is no skimping on the gore or makeup effects, either; plenty of blood and guts are flying here. The plot for Dead & Breakfast is simple: traveling group of friends stop at sketchy deserted hotel, some residents end up dead, group becomes suspects, evil spirit is accidentally released and the townsfolk turn into zombies. Makes perfect sense.
Strong performances from genre vets like Jeremy Sisto, Gina Phillips and David Carradine (who probably did this as a favor to his daughter Ever) boost the legitimacy of the film, which is then balanced out by painfully unfunny zombie dancing scenes and hip-hop/country songs about the undead. This movie would have been much better if they had played it straight; the last stand in the hotel at the end is right up there with Night Of The Living Dead in tension and scariness.
Ultimately, this is a decent movie with lots of replay value. Most of the funny scenes are actually funny, and the flesh-chomping is in full gear. Definitely one to put on during a Halloween party; everyone can appreciate it, even those weird folks averse to scary movies. What's with those people?
This is the kind of horror flick Tarantino and Rodriguez had on their minds when they were talking about "grindhouse cinema". Car chases, Satanic cults, Texas yokels, and a few Seventies icons. Race With The Devil rules from start to finish.
First of all, any movie with Peter Fonda AND a fancy new '75 Winnebago is a winner by default. Despite its hokey premise - two all-American couples stalked through Texas back roads by evil cult - it's the 70s and everyone is playing it straight, which removes the humorous irony that most scary movies tend to dwell on these days. Peter Fonda and Warren Oates lend a sense of credibility; these guys were still in their prime at the time, not desperate for work.
The film looks great in that Seventies way; a little washed out, but made up for with tight shots and good cinematography. The creepy score comes courtesy of Leonard Rosenman, who won an Oscar the same year for his work on Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. There isn't much gore or anything, but the sense of unrelenting dread makes for that in spades. Once the pursuit is underway, it doesn't let up until the surprisingly downer ending.
There really ought to be more RVs in horror movies; other than this and that scene in Friday The 13th Part 6, I can't really think of any. So, with that in mind, I can honestly say this is the best RV horror movie of all time. Check it out.
Clive Barker is an icon in the horror community. Stephen King famously referred to Barker as "the future of horror" and, millions of copies sold later, that prediction more or less came true. But like many other horror authors (including King himself) the transition from page to screen has been spotty, at best.
Nightbreed, based on Barker's novella Cabal, was plagued with production woes and negative studio intervention. Coming off the success of Hellraiser, Barker was obligated to deliver an R-rated film that was less gory, a ridiculous task to say the least. Combined with the studio forcing Barker to cut almost an hour from the final cut, the end result looks and feels like an incomplete movie. If this film were a book, it would only be a few chapters.
There are highlights, however. Danny Elfman's original score is fantastic. It sets the mood for each scene and sounds exactly like the soundtrack to a classic monster movie should. The makeup effects for the Nightbreed creatures are easily the best part of the film, followed closely by the set design. Each monster has a unique appearance and personality; they're not just otherworldly beasts, they're characters that you can invest in. Over the course of the film, the monsters of the Underworld go from being scary things in the dark to sympathetic, almost human, beings. They're the good guys this time.
The human characters' motivations are the biggest question marks in the film: why does Boone dream of Midian, the old cemetery home of the Nightbreed? Why does Dr. Decker (David Cronenberg), Boone's psychiatrist, want to destroy it? Why is the town sheriff such a prick? Perhaps these are all explained in Nightbreed's cut footage, which as of today is still sitting in a studio vault somewhere collecting dust. Recent petitions from horror fans have led to the release of other lost classics (Phantasm II being a recent example). Maybe the time has come to give Mr. Barker his due and get a director's cut of this film into the light of day.
For this entry we travel to Spain, the home of visionary director Guillermo del Toro. The common thread running through del Toro's work is the fairy tale story; many of his films deal with children in perilous situations, and their battles to escape or resolve them.
Like it's popular "spiritual sequel" Pan's Labyrinth, this film is set in Spain during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. Young Carlos arrives at an orphanage, believing his father will come to retrieve him when the war is over. Almost immediately, the boy is witness to a ghostly apparition that only enhances the turmoil surrounding him in the isolated and decrepit orphanage.
Themes of abandonment and innocence lost permeate The Devil's Backbone. The desolate orphanage provide the perfect setting for hopelessness. Ghost stories may seem played out as horror film topics these days, but del Toro delivers the atmosphere and genuine chills that makes this work extremely well. The young child actors are be commended for handling such heavy material not only competently, but masterfully.
As I've mentioned before, the best way to watch a foreign film is with the original language audio track and subtitles. Dubbing just ruins the atmosphere, especially for a film trying to scare you. So remember that when you sit down to experience The Devil's Backbone. Warning: if you have kids, you'll never want to let them out of your sight after watching this. Enjoy.
This is an interesting film. It's a somewhat-fictionalized account of the filming of Nosferatu, the infamous 1922 German adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The rumors and speculations surrounding that film have all the makings of a Hollywood movie, so it's a wonder it took almost 80 years to make it happen. Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films produced, with donations made online from private individuals being rewarded with a "virtual producer" credit on the DVD.
This movie works very well on multiple levels. The casting is brilliant; Malkovich as the egomaniacal perfectionist director F.W. Murnau is wonderfully fitting, and no one but Willem Dafoe could play the inimitably creepy and downright repulsive Max Schreck (who has to pull double duty, playing Schreck who is playing the character Graf Orlock). The legend goes that while Murnau was scouting locations in Eastern Europe for Nosferatu, he found Schreck living in a decrepit castle feeding on the blood of rodents. Stranger than fiction...
Shadow Of The Vampire is a wonderful ode to the era of silent film. The recreated scenes from Nosferatu are shot in black-and-white, but the rest of the movie is drenched in dark hues and stark angles. This maintains the atmosphere and theme of the whole idea. While there are a few moments of dark humor, all the actors are playing their roles straight here, which adds to the feeling of a genuine horror movie. The outstanding cast is rounded out by genuine talent like Cary Elwes, Udo Kier, Eddie Izzard and Catherine McCormack.
Dafoe lost out on the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor to Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) that year, so one can't really say he was robbed, but his performance was definitely worthy of recognition. He became Max Schreck in that role. While the film received plenty of critical praise and turned a profit, it seems to get lost in the shuffle of great horror films over the last decade. It's a fantastic movie with a great story and incredible performances; make it your next Netflix rental.
Being a horror movie fan means sifting through a lot of shit. For every great scary flick that gets made, there's about twenty godawful abominations. I'm not in the habit of recommending bad films, but Children Of The Living Dead needs to be seen, if only so I'm not alone.
I bought this on DVD in a rare moment of impulse; I had never seen in, nor knew anything about it. There were 3 indicators that compelled me to grab it:
1. It's a zombie movie. 2. The cover looked cool. 3. Tom Savini is in it.
How can you go wrong? Well, you can. Horribly, horribly wrong.
Looks cool, right? It starts off promising enough; some grave robbing, a badass main zombie with great makeup effects, and Sex Machine kicking all kinds of undead ass. Then the movie hits the ten minute mark, and it all goes to shit. There's some dumb kids traveling through town in a van, a la The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and you're actually pulling for the zombies to kill them because they're so goddamn unlikeable. The head zombie, an evil preacher or something (hard to tell because the exposition makes no sense) goes from destroying everything in his path to shambling around the rest of the movie. I'm not kidding; there's scenes where it's just this guy staggering through the woods or a field, not doing a damn thing.
This one comes dangerously close to crossing the line from "hilariously bad" to "painfully bad". Some decent action, kills and Tom Savini save it from being a complete failure, but just by a hair. If anything, it can inspire would-be zombie filmmakers. Someone invested money in this pile of shit, so why not yours?
Dog Soldiers not only succeeds as a horror film, but as a film period. Director Neil Marshall says it best: "This isn't a werewolf movie with soldiers, this is a soldier movie that happens to have werewolves". Masterfully directed, well acted, and featuring some of the best non-CGI effects seen in a long time, this is arguably the greatest debut for a horror film director since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
A group of British grunts are dropped into the Scottish wilderness for war games against a rival unit. Several of the main characters have some good, gritty conflict going before any blood is shed. When the opposing team is found slaughtered, the soldiers find themselves hunted by a pack of big-ass lycanthropes and hole up in an isolated farmhouse. That's when things get really good.
I really can't say enough good things about this movie. The dialogue is spot-on, and is complimented by the great performances from a somewhat-unknown (at least to us in the US) cast. If there are any computer-driven effects, I can't find them, The werewolves are as realistic as you can imagine, realistic and huge. They never wear out their welcome, which is a trap too many horror films tend to fall into. Marshall knows that fear of the unknown is the biggest fear of all, and he keeps his audience on its toes.
As great as the action/kill scenes with the werewolves are, it's the human element that pushes this film from 'decent' to 'outstanding'. Each character has a real personality and is memorable in his or her own way. The conflicts that arise once the group has barricaded themselves in are just as dangerous as the beasts creeping around outside. If you haven't seen this movie, clear your Netflix queue and make it happen. There's rumor of a sequel in the works (of course) but in the meantime Neil Marshall's follow-up to Dog Soldiers, The Descent, is also required viewing for any fan of well-made horror flicks.
Good werewolf movies come along once in a blue moon. (Sorry, I had to.) This is the best one since The Howling. Yeah, I said it!
