Random Film of the Week(end): Mother’s Day (1980)

Posted on May 11, 2014 by geelw

As horror movies from the era go, Mother’s Day hits all of the right notes genre fans should appreciate, which means this oldie’s NOT for the squeamish or anyone who hates a bit of nastiness in their fear flicks. Riffing off on better movies like Deliverance and gore classics such as I Spit On Your Grave and Last House On The Left, co-writer/director Charlie Kaufman (no, not THAT one, this one’s Troma Picture’s Lloyd Kaufman’s brother) cooked up a mean little revenge movie with a few twists and turns. It’s at turns scary, sick, and funny, and as noted, NOT for everyone, so beware if that goofy poster piques your curiosity and you decide to go in cold.

While more of a cult film than actual “classic,” this one’s got some pretty sharp teeth, bites really hard and deep. When three gals set out on their yearly camping trip, they run afoul of a pair of crazed brothers and their even more unhinged mother who’s not even close to a sympathetic character. The old bat has her boys kidnap and put the three girls through hell in some disgusting torture and abuse scenes that are still effective and hard to watch today. One girl dies from her injuries, but the other two survive… only to return loaded for bear in order exact revenge on their former tormentors…

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Alien Isolation “Creating the Cast” Trailer: Who’s Who Before All That Screaming And Dying Starts…

Posted on May 8, 2014 by geelw

Once again, it’s fantastic to see all the hard work going into making Alien Isolation a game worth watching. In case it hasn’t been made clear yet, this isn’t a run ‘n gun shooter or one more generic jump scare-filled horror game at all, but a project that’s hopefully going to be seen by fans of the series to fit like a glove in between the first and second films. Sure, that Colonial Marines game may be infamous on a few fronts, but AI will hopefully erase all those negative memories by being a completely different experience in every way. The game is coming to PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on October 7, 2014, so keep an eye peeled if you’re liking what you see in all these behind the scenes trailers…

Random Film of the Week: Happy Birthday To Me

Posted on May 7, 2014 by geelw

](thanks, oldhockstatterplace!)

I actually don’t do much on my birthday other than pore over whatever greetings sent my way (and this year has been good for people sending well wishes), while trying to stay out of trouble (so far, so good). It’ll be a light dinner (wait, pizza is light? It is when it’s your birthday!) and a glass of Chianti later tonight and maybe a movie or two, one of which may or may not be this 1981 slasher flick with the somewhat loyal cult following.

I’m aged enough to have first seen this one back in 1981 when it was initially released and while it’s got some effective, offbeat murders and a few cast members of note, it’s far from the best the genre has to offer. That said, it is fun to put together the plot’s parts and uncover the killer as you go, even though the film seems to want to surprise you with a twisteroo near the finale that may or may not make you want to stab someone…

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Random Film of the Week: Psycho II

Posted on May 6, 2014 by geelw

Well, it’s Mother’s Day this week as well as my birthday (tomorrow, so you still have time to get me that gift or else!), so I’m going to have fun with this week’s pick. While seen as sacrilege to some fans of the original movie, for my money Psycho II is a nice surprise that does well at following up on Norman Bates’ life post-release from the institution he ended up in thanks to his deeds in the original.

Screenwriter Tom Holland and director Richard Franklin get some great (albeit limited) mileage out of Anthony Perkins here as he portrays Norman as trying to live the “normal” life, but ends up instead plagued by forced memories from the past intended to drive him back to his old ways. Or perhaps he’s hallucinating all that bad stuff? Whatever the cause, bodies start piling up (well, the actual death count is small compared to other films of the era), the mystery deepens and it’s not until the final reel that things become clear with a double twist corker of an ending that’s still amazing… Continue reading →

Gallery: Monstrum – Junkfish Wants To Make You Seasick of Monsters Trying To Kill You…

Posted on May 5, 2014 by geelw

So, Monstrum, huh? Let’s see now: You’re a passenger on an abandoned ship with only a flashlight and maybe some flares and there’s a second “passenger” on board that happens to be a bit of a monster who you don’t want to run into. You need to find a way off the ship or die trying and if you DO die, it’s for good and the next game starts you out all over again with a fresh layout to get lost in? Did I mention there are assorted traps and dangerous stuff scattered about to beware of? Well, there are! Anyway, count me in and I’ll be the first to pat the team at Junkfish on the collective back for cooking up yet another horror game I want to dive into for a spell. Granted, I won’t be able to play it on anything but my current aging PC (for now), but the team is making the game compatible with the upcoming Oculus Rift virtual reality peripheral, a process that’s making for some really interesting blog posts.

Anyway, creepy and noisy video above – five alpha screens below. The game is due out in the fall, I believe. As the Rift isn’t (ha ha), I’d imagine it will be playable without it. I should ask for a demo to try out, shouldn’t I? Oh, I don’t know why I do this to myself, as I always get freaked out and end up sleeping in the kitchen sink or on top of the refrigerator…

Alien Isolation “Lo-Fi Sci-Fi” Trailer: The Future? Same Problems As The Past (You Need Four Hands For Everything!)…

Posted on May 5, 2014 by geelw

Eeek. I actually MISSED posting the Alien Isolation update from April. Oops. Hey, it happens with all these games coming out, kids. Anyway, how fitting that this video is about the low-tech equipment used in the game and the lower tech methods developer The Creative Assembly used to get parts of the game looking quite analog. I love this behind the scenes stuff and you have to appreciate that old techniques work as well as (or even better in this case) than just doing everything on a computer to FAKE video footage that looks garbled and yep, “lo-fi”. October 7, 2014, folks. Carve out some time for this one – it’s turning out really special…

DreadOut Launch Trailer: You’re Now Under The Table Without A Single Drink, Right?

Posted on May 5, 2014 by geelw

On May 15, a bunch of you will be sitting in darkened rooms, headphones on and hunched over playing Digital Happiness’ scary new game, DreadOut. I’m gathering there will be some squealing and flat out screaming involved on that day, particularly among those of you who do something dumb like play with the door to your room open and your back to that door. You KNOW that’s not a good ting, especially when someone else in your house or that pet running around decides to pop in and check up on you. Yeah, I’d expect those headphones to pop right off when you leave your seat and hit the ceiling, unless they’re wireless headphones. in which case you’ll want to have a pair with a NICE padded top, as ceilings can be quite hard when you fly up to them too quickly. Ouch. Turn off that ceiling fan while you’re at it, as it’ll keep your head from hitting the floor before the rest of you comes down. The police will have a hard time figuring out what happened until some deft detective sits down in front of that monitor, puts those headphones on and the scenario is repeated… Ouch.

Part Of My Weekend Plans Are Set…

Posted on May 2, 2014 by geelw

Yeah, yeah, yeah… TCM shows this a few times a year, but sometimes it’s just nice to own a movie if you happen to not want to rely on a channel (or worse, a streaming video service) to deliver the goods. There’s just something lovely and delicious about popping a disc into a player, sitting back and letting the film in question do its stuff and Bava’s horror classic certainly has PLENTY of stuff. I just find it amusing that as absolutely gorgeous as Barbara Steele was (and is, as she’s still with us, last I checked), in a number of her films, she’s buried under makeup that makes her look pretty horrific. But hey, that’s one reason she’s loved by many fans of classic horror flicks I guess.

As for Raiders, it was $2.50 new, I needed another copy and didn’t care if it was on Blu-Ray or not. I actually hadn’t seen it in a while and HATE watching it on AMC because of all those dumb interruptions and the picture quality is terrible to my eyes. One actually needs NO excuse to own this film, as it’s something you can pop on and loop all day as background noise while you’re doing stuff around the house. “I dunno, I’m making this up as I go!” may become your mantra after a day of this film, that’s for sure…

Ro, No You Didn’t NBC… But I’ll Try To Keep An Open Mind…

Posted on May 2, 2014 by geelw

So… this is actually happening and let’s just say my skin is crawling (and NOT from fear). Granted, the cast seems solid and veteran TV director Angiezka Holland is an excellent choice (her work on AMC’s The Killing, HBO’s The Wire and other shows shows she’s a master at her craft), but the original film is so (and still) perfect at what it does that even the best intended reworking will fall short by comparison. I may catch this when it runs, but why the hell is it playing on Mother’s Day? Yeah, I get the inherent humor here, but ha-ha, I know some people won’t like the idea of this being a way to end an otherwise fine holiday. Eh, my mom will probably watch it just because she was around to see the Polanski classic and I think she liked it a lot.

(Yeah, it LOOKS creepy… but sadly, by network standards ONLY)

The mini-series format and network not cable airing bugs me as well, but given that network TV has been approaching mild levels of cable-like content for a while now, I’m sure that this will deliver where it counts. That said, I definitely don’t like some saying this isn’t a remake because of the Parisian setting and whatever else has been changed from the book and original film. Zoe Saldana’s got a similarly skinny frame and has a variation on the haircut Mia Farrow had, it’s still the same plot (despite a few changes here and there) and if they show the baby in this one, it’ll destroy the ending of the film because it ruins the mystery completely of what the spawn of the devil would look like. That and you can’t top the dream sequence from Polanski’s classic one bit.

As noted in the title, I’ll try to keep an open mind, but there are a few strikes against this one already for me. Hopefully, the cast and director can save this one enough that even the more ardent fans will want to check it out. I’d imagine though, if it DOES do well, we’ll either see NBC trot it out yearly (eek) or get a sequel fast-tracked for next year (double eek). That idea didn’t do well for the original film at ALL, by the way…

Silent Hill Returns to PSP Via PSN: Time To Scare Yourself Silly On The Small Screen…

Posted on April 30, 2014 by geelw

Konami has finally gotten digital versions of the two Silent Hill PSP games, Silent Hill Origins and Silent Hill Shattered Memories up on PSN and both come highly recommended to horror fans looking to take some portable scares on the go. As you can also see, there’s a cry for fans to submit videos to that little gathering the company is planning so they can show off everyone basically saying the same things, ha ha. Okay, I’m joking, but there are a number of KEY moments in the original Silent Hill through Silent Hill 4: The Room that everyone who’s played them has jumped out of their seat over. Granted, that clip seen in the video above (that cuts off before the scare, thankfully) is probably THE moment I recall people talking about the most when I was working in an indie game shop (and yeah, it got me good the first time I experienced it).

My other favorite scare was late in the first game when you’re in those sewers and that radio you’d been relying on to screech out static when a monster was nearby… STOPS WORKING. This moment is a freak out because you get no warning the radio is ineffective and the stage starts off with something moving slowly towards you out of the darkness. Is it harmless? Nope, not at all and worse, you have to make it though the entire are with ZERO warning as to what’s coming your way. I recall I had a review to write and only a dozen hours to finish the game, so this section was tough, but I pushed through it and survived without poor Harry Mason dying (but I think I had a few gray hairs afterwards). Anyway, enough reminiscing on such a wet and cold evening- I’m starting to give myself the creeps!