SAW III - Directors Cut

REVEIW: BY TAMAKAZEE

In short, for a movie about love this was pleasingly gory. Those involved in the Saw franchise have a pretty solid grasp on how to create realistic looking special effects, and the traps depicted are always interesting. The traps depicted in this installment, however, were not possible to escape and I did find this slightly annoying- stick to the formula, guys!! There is no point in creating the psychological tension associated with ‘playing a game’ if the dice are loaded.

Now, why a love story? It primarily explored secondary feelings such as jealousy or grief that are created when a person loves another and the influence these secondary emotions have on the psyche, through Jigsaw’s games and the choices his victims made. While some of these choices came across as standard dumb-arse horror movie mistakes (cue shouting at screen “Just tell him you’ll die!!” “Use your damn shirt!!”), some were plausible and supported by convincing acting.

The director used flashbacks to fill in the backstory of the characters, notably Jigsaw and his assistant, while these scenes would make more sense to those who have seen the previous movies they did not feel too much like mere padding. The cinematography was standard for the genre, somewhat dark and plenty of close shots focusing on actors faces or gore. Overall, a decent watch- not intellectually challenging, or a movie that would leave one shaken, but a nice enough way to while away a few hours.

Be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com for more horror movie news and reviews!

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

One of the greatest horror movies of all time, without question. And the film responsible for introducing a whole generation (of then)  teenagers to discover the simple joys of the slasher flick. And paving the way for many horror franchises to come.

Set in the present time (of 1980 ish) a group of hormone filled teenagers volunteer to work at a summer camp in a newly re-opened Camp Crystal Lake. Upon arrival to the nearest town the teenagers are warned of a mysterious drowing death in 1958 and a couple of violent killings that took place at the camp the following year in 1958. The camp was shut down soon after and the murders never solved, only to be re oponed again 20 odd years later under new management.

In true horror movie style nobody heeds the warning of the locals and one by one the the teenagers start getting killed.

Most of you will have probably seen this movie but for the few people on the planet who haven't yet had the pleasure (or are lucky enough to be too young to have seen it)  I won't spoil the plot beyond that. Needless to say there are some excellent plot twists which makes the movie quite unique for its time, perhaps reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" in some ways.  I will say however that this film is well written and beautifully shot.I have it on DVD so I'm not sure if my version has been remastered but its a great watch and holds up well to this day, the actual horror while not considered over the top by todays standards, I think would have been considered pretty confronting for the time (aside from the more extreme films like Dawn of the Dead and the wave of Italian horror/cannibal flicks surfaced around the same time) as the death scenes do look fairly realistic.

Anyway for me this film is considered to be an all time classic and still receives a regular rotation on my DVD player once every couple of years at least. More than worth anyone's time to check it if you haven't seen it or a good one revisit if you haven't seen it in a while.

I couldn't find a full version of the movie on you tube (which is fair enough as the movie still probably sells well) but it shouldn't be too hard to buy and its worth it or if you can find the 8 disc box set and get the first 8 films its a box set worth having, or hunt it down at any second hand haunts you may have I'm sure you'll find it somewhere

Also be sure to check out our reviews of:

FRIDAY 13TH part 2
FRIDAY 13TH PART 3
FRIDAY 14TH PART 4
JASON X
FRIDAY 13th (2009 remake)

for more great movie reviews and recommendations be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com regularly!

HERBERT WEST RE ANIMATOR (1985)

I'm a great fan of the works of HP Lovecraft, so I try to watch as many of the adaptations of his works on  film as I can get a hold of, some them translate well onto film and others, sadly do not.

This one is very cool I have to say, I think as far as the time goes it does translate quite well onto the screen. It follows the trials and tribulations of one Herbert West, who is trying to unlock the building blocks of life itself with the hope of returning life to the dead.

Herbert West is creepy, sullen, introverted character played quite convincingly by Jeffrey Combs who studies at the Miskatonic University (HP Lovecraft fans will recognize the name) and develops a serum that once injected can bring the dead back to life. Said serum is then tested on a cat and succeeds in bringing the cat back. His first success becomes an obesseion as West and his Housemate Dan report the findings to the University and are subsquently removed from the university program. West then takes the bold step from animal to human and tests it on a corpse bringing the corpse back to a zombie-like state of life, an of course unleashes a whole lot more trouble than he bargained for.

The film is slated as a horror comedy, I don't see much humour in it, well maybe some black humour. Some pretty gruesome gore scenes and some that come off a little dated, but overall it is a well done horror flick in that glorious 80's style of horror, genuinely captivating and a great watch, true to the dark styles of HP Lovecraft.... definitely an all time fave of mine!

for more great horror movie reviews be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com

HOUSE OF THE DEAD (funny version)

After the immense failure that was the house of the dead movie (click the link for that review) one would have thought the director would have crawled into a hole and died (or at leaset committed most honourable act of seppuku), but no... he re-released the film as a funny version with stupid little captions pasted over everything....... Gotta hand it to him... at least the guy can take the piss out of himself.  To be honest its still shit, but its a much higher standard of shit than the original and now falls into the 'almost watchable' class of films. Still no real plot and a very 'stock standard' film with little to no acting credibility but at least now, with the additional captions, new footage we can all have a laugh at the film and its many plot holes. Strangely enough some additional footage taken from the video game and haphazardly pasted into the onscreen action, really steps things up a notch. Now with this version we're kind of laughing with them and not at them. Kind of, but not really.

for more great horror movie reviews check out http://www.gorenography.com

CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD

Directed by Lucio Fulci (Zombie Holocaust) in 1980 and not to be confused with the works of George Romero, this is a pretty cool watch... It never really made a huge impact at the box office, and over time has sunk further into obscurity. Shame about that....  It's not a bad film really, but thankfully through the magic of youtube and now the cult cinema guys who repress a lot of this stuff , many long lost movies like this one can be exhumed for new generations of horror fans to enjoy.

The plot has some deeper occult references than the typical zombie movie, which always scores points in my book. Basically the film follows the story of a group of women who in holding a seance see visions of a city of the dead in a town called 'Dunwich' (a name which HP Lovecraft fans might recognize) and their imminent rise to the realm of the living

Overall a well shot film with nothing too cheesy, and the musical soundtrack compliments the film well that old style horror soundtrack that movies these days just can't do...... The special FX which were probably cutting edge for the time / over the top gore for that era when they do happen ... (especially the flesh vomit scene) but I have to say it does come across as a little corny now but nothing that would take away from the feeling of the film

Defs worth the time it takes to watch this film, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a classic but over all its pretty cool... but as luck has it we've managed to find a decent version on youtube so you can check it out for yourself (but defs worth buying a copy of this one)

for more great horror movie reviews and other crap http://www.gorenography.com

KRAMPUS (2015)

Krampus: Review by Tamikazee

Tis the season of the demon!! The Krampus, a horned demon, is known in European culture as the antithesis of our dear friend St Nicolas, aka Santa. He punishes naughty children by whipping them with birch twigs or dragging them down to hell. Krampus visits every year during December . . . so, to celebrate, I’m reviewing Krampus, the movie!

The synopsis on the cover states this movie is “a wonderfully dark and subversive” film, and it surprisingly lives up to this claim.

The films opening sequence is much like any other Christmas movie- themed subtitles and a busy department store, a classic Christmas carol playing- yet the events that unfold are totally out of sync with its style, setting an undercurrent of dark humor which is delightfully sustained throughout the movie.

Little time is wasted on character development as the director has chosen to allow the actors’ appearance and costumes tell their story, and the situations in which the characters find themselves in are well paced, keeping the atmosphere tense and engaging throughout. The acting is also quite good, as expected from an ensemble of some particularly funny people, and the script has a decent number of quirky jokes both spoken and visual. The monsters we meet are camp, yet well realized, and Krampus himself is delightfully creepy.

There were plenty of interesting twists to the story without relying on cheap tricks such as jump scares, though be sure to look out for one in the first half of the film- its payoff is well worth the set-up.

I enjoyed this film much more than I expected- it’s definitely one I’ll watch again!

for more great horror movie news, reviews and more don't forget to check out http://www.gorenography.com

A NEW CONTRIBUTOR!

Since starting this blog a couple of years ago... I'd like to think I've made some progress with this thing and really enjoyed doing it. When I first started it, the site struggled to get 10 hits(views) a week and now we are still far from huge but we're getting from 50-100 which is a lot better, and it looks to be growing all the time.

With that in mind I also can announce I have my first contributor to the site ... Would you please welcome miss 'Tamakazee" to the Gorenography.com website! I just got her first article in today and it reads well and is has a different writing style to myself which should make the site much more interesting

I should have her first article live by this time tomorrow! Keep a look out for it!

FREDDY VS JASON (2003)

This one came across as a pretty cheesy idea, crossing over 2 of the most legendary horror franchises in all history was always going to guarantee some level of success for the film but was going to further bury franchises that had seemed to lack in any real ideas towards the end of the series or generate a new level of interest in the older films?

The film opens with a kind of introduction to the worlds of both protagonists meaning that the to at least some degree you don't have to have seen the other films (of either series) to be able to watch this film so maybe the idea was to funnel new fans into old franchises (which are now all available in box set form and proudly displayed in my collection) 

As usual the comeback scenario's are a little dubious, Freddy is in hell and has no power as any memory of him has been erased from the collective conciousness of Elm Street and Springvale, So his idea is to resurrect Jason from the dead to wreak havok amongst the town folk and put the fear of Freddy Krueger back into the town giving him  a means to worm his way back into the dreams of the teenagers of the town. But it works well enough and the rest of the film from there onwards seems to flow rather well. Its well shot and keeps the viewers interest from start to finish and I will go so far as to say not only is it a worthy sequel to both franchises it is better than some of the later ventures into both series. Should also note that it has a pretty heavy soundtrack too featuring Machine head amongst others.

Over all, a great watch and some cool creepy imagery keep this rolling along nicely and it has me fired up to watch the collective works of both series one more time! (which i'll post up here in due course)  

For more great horror movie reviews check out http://www.gorenography.com