WHITE ZOMBIE (1932)

One from the golden age of horror... This film (more widely known as the namesake inspiration behind Rob Zombie's band, White Zombie) holds up remarkably well even now, an immensely watchable film that has earned its place in cult movie history. Shot in black and white and dating back to the 1930's this is probably the earliest of the zombie flicks I have seen.  No gore or special effects to speak of in this film, it has to rely on plot, dramatisation, musical score and acting and it comes across as a very solid film even from the point of view of a modern (well 80's horror fan) movie fan.

The plot follows a young man Neil who is moving up in the world and his soon to be wife Madeline on the island of Haiti, where upon arrival they are greeted by stories and a close encounter of the undead roaming the island at night and working in the sugar mills (Good to see someone smart enough to put those zombies to work... think of all that free labour going to waste in modern zombie films) ... What I like about the story line in this film is that it sits closer to the historical origin of zombies than the "Night of the living dead" style zombies which is a pleasant change. Madeline has also unfortunately attracted the attention of Charles a wealthy businessman from the island who decides that since he can't have her he will turn her into a zombie.

Some kind soul has been kind enough to upload a remastered version of this classic! check it out below!

Check out our review for Revolt of the Zombies

Be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis!

CABIN FEVER (2001)

After the mind numbing stupidity that was "Children of the Living Dead" (See last review) I couldn't leave my weekend of horror limited to just that that so I threw on "Cabin Fever" to try and redeem proceedings.

  I don't rate this as Roth's best work as director but I have to say its quite enjoyable, and keeps you interested enough whilst still being simple enough you can watch it while your having a chat with friends or whatever.

The plot revolves around the age old cliché of the group of teenagers going out into the woods to party, they rent a cabin and the usual assortment of teenage hijinx ensures. whilst partying and the usual stuff one of the teens accidently shoots a local who is infected with a strange disease that is rotting his flesh away. The infected local tries to get help from the teenagers but understandably they don't want anything to do with him. Like any good disease it is highly contagious, and the carrier is highly persistent in his endeavors to get back at the teenagers. The teenagers have to stick together and find a way out of the forest without falling prey to the deadly disease which starts to spread. As you can imagine this paves the way for some very decent levels of gore, which I have to say was rather well done, especially considering Mr. Roth shot this film as an independent and it was his first feature length film.

Over all this is a pretty cool film, the acting (from the unkown cast) was as good as it needed to be for this kind of film and the gore effects were meaty and convincing enough to keep most gore hounds happy. and paved the way for Eli Roth to become a household name not only in gore films but mainstream cinema as well after this independently produced film was piced up by NewLine and took in box office takings of around $35 million worldwide (from a $3.5m budget). While this is no classic in my opinion its definitely a pretty solid and enjoyable flick!

For other Eli Roth Films see:

Hostel
Green Inferno
Clown

For more great horror movie news and reviews be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis!

CHILDREN OF THE LIVING DEAD (2001)

Another attempt to cash in on the monumental legacy of "Night of the Living Dead". This is what I would call "D Grade" horror, it could have easily made it into the realms of "B Grade" horror if the people involved had put a bit more work/time into it, especially with special effects maestro Tom Savini as part of the crew. The acting is a bit hammy (...well not just a bit...) most of the way through the film, but the zombies are quite reasonable and look fairly convincing. Tom Savini takes an early role in the film and also looks pretty convincing.

I'm going to be honest and say I'm not entirely sure what the movie is about, basically there's zombies and stuff, but I got distracted by some off color production work, very unprofessional... the movie seemed in focus for a bit and then went an off color yellow … then back in and this, where I started to focus on finding fault with the movie rather than focusing in on what was going on.

As you could imagine .. I couldn't make it through to the end so whatever... glad I didn't pay much for this one (again it was a flea market punt) but it is a shame to see the "...Living Dead" name dragged through the mud and its also a shame to see Tom Savini wasting his time on such crap. I can't honeslty give this one any kind of recommendation unless your some sort of "Living Dead" completist or you compulsively collect horror down to this level. Best avoid. 

For more great horror movie reviews and other things be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis!

THE OMEN (2006 remake)

The original "Omen" film is one of my all time favourate films. I'd seen this version when it came out at the cinemas (we don't get a lot of horror flicks make to the big screen here in Australia, and even when they do they're only on for a couple of days so If you can't make it you miss out) and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Now a little over 10 years later I thought I'd give it  re-watch and see how it goes.

This version (Also called "The Omen 666" … presumably because it was released into cinemas on the 6.6.06)  seems to follow the first version of the film fairly closely, there's subtle differences, enough to keep it interesting but essentially its a pretty close re-telling of the original. Some would argue that the original was a masterpiece (and I'd agree with that) but this is pretty damn good too and would serve to introduce younger horror fans to a classic storyline.

Basically the plot revolves around young couple Robert and Katherine who are expecting their first baby which unfortunately dies in the childbirth process... one of the priests at the hospital they had their child at suggests to Robert that he take an unclaimed baby as their own without the mother knowing her own child had died. Only problem is the child turns out to be the son of Satan … and of course a series of mysterious events and deaths follow in the child's wake. People start to notice there is something "up" with Damien including a photographer, Damien's mother and of course the priest that suggested the swap in the first place. Can they stop young Damien from becoming the living embodiment of Satan on Earth? Well that's up to you to watch the movie and find out!

Overall I was really happy with this while there's no major reason to watch this one as opposed to the original (they are pretty similar) this is well done and in my opinion doesn't damage the quite formidable legacy of the original film. Younger audiences may find this one easier to watch than the original as it basially moves with the time and has a more modern sense about it. Fans of the old film will still like this as it has that old biblical feel about it (the original film was heavily referenced to the book of revelations in the Holy Bible) which gives it that arcane / well researched feel, which does add an air of creepiness to proceedings. 

For more great horror movies be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis! 

THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960)

Well.. time to explore the semi distant dark past of the horror industry with some "Hammer Horror" flicks .. for this time round I chose "Brides of Dracula".

Hammer films were a british institution in horror circles, they managed to create (In my opinion.... some might disagree) some rather classy films when compared with what was going on at the time in the horror world of the 1950s through to the 1970s...

This is set after Dracula's death and revolves around the Baroness and young Marianne who is on her way to take up a job in Transylvania. of course the local coach driver who is still wary of the myths of Dracula that surround the region won't proceed to Transylvania and drops her off at the local tavern. Marianne can't find a room to stay so she takes refuge with a wealthy countess for the night. The countess keeps her son in chains within the house, she claims he is mentally unwell, but Marianne's curiosity gets the better of her and she meets him and finds him rather personable. It would appear the son is the heir apparent to the property and the countess is trying to keep him from claiming it. Marianne takes it upon herself to free the Countess' Son … without realizing he's a vampire.

Once loose the vampire is free to prey on the town folks and it up to the Dr. Van Helsing (the vampire hunter of Dracula fame / played by horror icon Peter Cushing) who just happens to be passing through town and Marianne to stop him.

Overall, its a well written and shot film, the violence levels are low so you can watching it with your horror loving offspring, tho some more may find the movie a little "campy", its definitely shot in that English drama style with a hint to Shakespeare, but if you can deal with that its a pretty cool movie!

For more great horror movie reviews and news be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis!

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)

Well its been a while since I last watched this one (almost 3 years) so I thought I'd give it another run and see how this one held up on another watch.

Since that first viewing I also managed to catch the remake of this one, which I have to say I liked better as it had a more modern style, but this version seemed more confronting than the version I originally saw (I must have seen a censored version originally) So it definitely won back a few points there!

This is the directorial debut from the mastermind that brought you "The Nightmare on Elm St" series, Wes Craven.  It follows the story of two innocent young girls, Mari and Phyliss who go into the city to watch the rock band Bloodlust on Mari's 17th birthday and decide to score some pot (Not even once, kiddies hahah) and instead get involved with some creepy drug addicted sleaze balls, who have recently escaped from prison where they were serving time for the violent murders of a priest and a couple of nuns. The girls are then (presumably) raped and drugged in their groups flat and dragged out to the surrounding countryside, where the gang continue to torment and assault the pair. 

The major part of the movie follows their attempts to escape from here on in,  obviously I can't say too much more than that without spoiling the movie.... but theres some cool twists and turns in the plot, it's not just the 'paint by numbers' teen escape / horror movie that many films end up falling into so for that reason alone it does have a lot of merit.
Some regard this film as a classic, I have to say on first viewing I wouldn't have gone that far, but on second viewing I found I got a lot deeper into the characters and the true impact of this film really hit me. ITs definitely a worthy addition to any horror fans collection.

The film has a gritty sense of realism about it, and Wes Craven does succeed in building an atmosphere which is repulsive in regards to the sex crimes involved but also like a car crash that you can't look away from. Whilst not as gory as the remake once you start watching this one its a hard one to get away from, I would imagine this would have bene fairly extreme for the time as in many countries the film had to be modified and in others it was even banned.
for more great horror movie reviews be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com

GINGER SNAPS (2001)

Well, this was an interesting one. Another impulse purchase from the flea market, I'd never heard of the film but thought "What the hell... may as well take a punt on it..."

This one revolves around the tribulations of two morbidly depressed, outcast teenage sisters, Ginger and Bridgette. The sisters while dark and introverted are tight and look out for each other. The town the two teenagers live in has fallen victim to the strange series of pet (dog) killings. As luck would have it Gingers period comes in while the pair are out and she is attacked by a feral dog which turns out to be a werewolf. Little by little the bite turns Ginger into monster, her hormones take over bit by bit as the infection spreads through her body and she looses control of her sexual urges and develops a bloodlust that she can't control.

Predictably Ginger starts having sex and spreads the infection amongst a series of violent attacks on her fellow stundents and its up to Bridgette to stop her sisters violent spree.

Over all, I have to say I found this one quite enjoyable... I wouldn't go so far as to call it a classic, or a particularly serious film, but the horror effects were quite well done, while it wasn't over the top gore it should be enough to keep most horror fiends happy. More importantly it was decent film and kept me entertained through the duration of the movie.

Also worth noting the soundtrack is pretty rockin' if you like late 90's/2000's mainstream metal with contributions from Fear Factory, Cradle of Filth, Machine Head and Soulfly amongst others of a similar ilk.

For more great horror movies be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis

JASON X

Not sure whether this was meant to be serious or more poking fun at the series, or maybe it was meant to be the final nail in the coffin of the Friday 13th series but it left me with a bitter taste in mouth for some reason. 

The movie had some potential and if it featured another villain... like say someone we didn't already know and love this movie would have been quite reasonable as a veg-out watch or something to do when hungover..  hell, its kinda fun, as far as B Grade horror goes, but as far as a movie that befits one of the most iconic horror characters of all time its a definite fail. 

Basically the pot revolves around a future team of space scientists (yes the movie is set in the space of the future) that stumble upon a cryogenically frozen Jason Vorhees and a would be victim from the early 2000's and the then proceed to thaw out the young victim who warns them about the potential horror Jason could unleash if brought back to life. The captain of the starship of course sniffs a few dollars out of Jason's corpse and decides to keep it. As you can probably guess the frozen corpse of Jason thaws out and he comes back to life to wreak havoc on the space cruiser. I have to say the film is shot quite well and the horror / sci-fi effects are actually pretty cool. Someone took some reasonable time, and spent some reasonable money on this film, its just the plot is quite undigestable to anyone who's followed the series...  the ship security team proceed to hunt down Jason onboard the ship and blast him to kingdom come, many times over which brings me to the next question, is Jason now immortal? he seems to regenerate at the drop of a hat, (sort of like the liquid terminator in T2) so basically you can amputate limbs or shoot him in the head, and he falls over but regenerates within minutes to start killing again. This does not sit right with me. Again if this was another character I didn't already know, maybe I could suspend disbelief but with Jason its hard.

Anyway this is one of those "If you see it cheap" at a flea market or download it for free type things... but unless you're a Friday 13th Collector, I wouldn't pay big $$ for this film,  As I've said with other Friday 13th installments I really think its best you the viewer go back to the start of the franchise to really get a feel for the legend that is Jason Vorhees before you worry about watching this film


For more great horror movie reviews and stuff be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis!

Also check our reviews on:
Friday 13th 
Friday 13th Part 2
Friday 13th Part 3
Friday 13th Part 4
Friday 13th (remake) 

HORROR AUTHOR - TONEYE EYENOT

Halloween is almost upon us and we've managed to score a very special interview and insight into the dark mind of Australian (now Spanish) horror author Toneye Eyenot! Read on \m/

First up can you tell us a little about your evolution from band guy to horror writer? When and how did this happen? 

Toneye:  Death Metal song lyrics were what got me started. But first, 13 years after my first band, Nomenclature Diablerie (c.1988), eye moved to the Blue Mountains and met the drummer from Chaotic Impurity. He and The Unnamed were in the process of resurrecting the band after a seven year dirt nap.Turns out he had a copy of my first demo and he asked me if eye wanted to join Chaotic as vokiller. Of korpse eye agreed right away haha. From there, eye resumed lyric writing and summoned dozens of evil word demons over the next several years. After writing them on and off for the past 30 years, more than one person asked me why eye don’t try my hand at writing a book.
One person in particular was more insistent than all the rest, and the more we talked about it, the more appealing the idea became.
Eye took a song title from Chaotic Impurity, 'The Sacred Blade of Profanity', and decided to base the story around that. That was back in 2011 and my first book, 'The Scarlett Curse', took me 3 years to write. Eye submitted it in 2014 after a few antho subs of poetry (some old lyrics of mine) and haven’t looked back since. The band side of things ground slowly to a halt the past few years, with members coming and going and life getting in the way. Eye have since relocated to Spain, so aside from the possibility of collaborating across the pond via the internet, that part of my life sits on the backburner and the writing takes precedence.

Is there a genre of horror that you feel your writing falls into?
Toneye:  Not really. With all the short stories, and several books written, my writing delves into many different subgenres.My first 2 books, the abovementioned 'The Scarlett Curse' and its prequel, 'Joshua’s Folly' are the first 2 books in my ongoing The Sacred Blade Of Profanity series. They are Dark Fantasy/Horror and my most ambitious writing venture to date.
Eye am hovering around halfway through the 3rd book in the series at the moment. It would be finished and eye would most likely be onto the 4th installment if it weren’t for my insatiable addiction to anthologies. After writing for at least 40 anthos now eye have finally broken its hold on me. Eye am a recovering anthoholic hahaha.
All my short stories are now being compiled into collections and being released through my own indie label, Luniakk Publications. 
While my series is a blend of Fantasy and Horror, pretty much everything else eye write is purely Horror; from the extreme end of the spectrum to the creepy and subtle. Some eye even inject a little dark humour into, depending on the theme. Extreme, psychological, occult, creature, body horror, splattergore, supernatural, even the occasional venture into the bizarro realm.
The one thing eye won't touch is 'paranormal romance'. That sub-genre has somehow infiltrated the Horror fiction world, with it's sparkly witches and ripped ab werewolf lovers ala Twilight and shite. My werewolves will rip out your guts and piss on your carcass. No love there haha.
Here's an example. A character from one of my books which is due to be published early next year with Luniakk Publications. It's a Werewolf/Clown Horror called Blood Moon Big Top, and Marbles is a fukking psycho. No ripped abs, no sparkles and fukkall romance to be found:

...A board creaked underfoot as Marbles stepped slowly into the room. The woman looked around with a smile, and the beginnings of a “Hello Darling” forming on her lips. All that left her mouth was a surprised gasp, and the smile turned to a look of confusion and horror. Marbles advanced quickly towards her and she jumped up out of her chair, the blanket tripping her and sending her to the floor with a painful thud. The poor woman could only make breathless gasping sounds. Her ability to cry out had escaped her, as she struggled to kick the entangled blanket free. Just as the intruder reached her, the woman’s muscles seized in fright, and all she could do was stare wide eyed at Marbles, as he fell upon her with frenzied strikes and slashes. Fight or flight kicked in, and as a last act of self-preservation, the near hysterical woman clawed at Marbles’ face; a sharp nail piercing the bottom of his left eyelid. With an enraged howl, Marbles grabbed the offending hand and snapped it backwards, before biting down hard on her fingers, removing three of them in an exaggerated display of blood. Before she had a chance to scream, he slammed his free hand down on the side of her face, yanking her head sideways with such force, her neck snapped and instantly began swelling with blood.That was all the encouragement he needed, and Marbles ecstatically bit down on the engorged neck. The plasma erupted from her in glorious bursts of red, as her fading heart pushed it out of her in gradually decreasing spurts. This was by far the most exciting kill he had performed. He let loose all reason and all control, giving himself over to this slaughter with complete abandon. Her thin night gown in shreds, the clown tore off her right breast in his teeth with a single, violent shake of his head. With one hand, he stuffed it into his mouth, chewing and swallowing insanely, while his other hand forced its way into the exposed wound and tore downwards, opening her up like a bag of crisps...

What have you been up to in the last few months or do you have anything exciting coming up that you want to let Gorenography readers know about?
Toneye:  After being traditionally published for the past four years, this year, eye have decided to go it alone as a self published author. Well, not completely alone. My darker half, Mar Garcia, runs a Horror Promotion company called The Bold Mom (www.theboldmom.com). She is also a graphic designer, artist, book formatter, and she takes care of everything to do with publishing my books. All the covers were created by Mar, and all the formatting. Eye wouldn't be able to do any of this without her. So far, eye have released four short story collections with Luniakk Publications: A flash fiction collection called 'Flash of Darkness', a psychopath inspired collection called 'Psychotic Interlude', a nightmare inspired collection titled 'Of Nightmare Realities', and a cannibal inspired collection titled Abysmal Feast: An Agglomeration of Anthropophagic Atrocities'. All my previously published books, eye have taken back the rights and unpublished them, to republish with Luniakk. The first of those books is a Werewolf novella which eye am hells excited about bringing back to life!, Wolvz: Whispers of War. It's on pre-order at the time of writing this, due for release October 31. One of the koolest things anyone has ever said about my writing is from a review for Wolvz -
"A melodic slaughter. Crimson honey for your mind."

What are the plans for the future? (ie: world domination? just keep doing what you're doing etc...)
Toneye:  Writing is my passion, so therein lie my plans. My dreams of making it in my music career were doomed from the start. For one, the kind of music eye play is pretty rarely ever sustainably successful. Apart from that, the Australian music industry is a total bag of shit.
There are hundreds of world class bands here in Australia, but nobody will ever hear of them because the industry here, as a whole, doesn’t give a shit about our homegrown talent. If you wanna make it as a muso, you’re better off moving to Europe or the US, so my dreams of success have now shifted over to my writing, but holding no illusions. Eye am good at my craft, but looking around me, there are so many authors who are absolutely incredible talents. Eye don’t get time these days to read all the big names like King or Laymon. Eye am in love with what eye see right here in the world of indie writers. There is so much awesome work in this ever expanding circle, it’s impossible to keep up with it all.
So, maybe someday in the hopefully near future, my name will rise up through the mass of brilliant authors who are my peers, and many of whom are considered my family. Even with so many around me, success as a writer seems a more attainable dream than as a muso. The one thing that stands out about the Indie Horror writing scene, is that apart from a few shitbag authors, 99% of everyone else are always happy and willing to support eachother. We all wanna be successful, but what sets us apart from others is that for the most part, it isn't a competition. We also all wanna see eachother be successful as well. A lotta love for this scene.

How would Gorenography readers be able to get a hold of your works?  Downloads from website? Social media etc...?
Toneye:  As of now, and for the next few moons, you can only purchase my books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Toneye-Eyenot/e/B00NVVMHVA. In time, eye plan to expand to various other distribution outlets. This year has kinda been a period of 'reinventing myself'.My website: https://luniakkpublications.com is the best place to find everything that's available, and keep updated on what's in store for the future.

What do you find the hardest parts and best parts of being a Independent Writer?
Toneye:  We'll look at the cons first: The hardest aspect is that you have to do everything yourself, or pay someone proficiently skilled to take care of things for you. Publishing a book isn't cheap. From hiring a professional editor, cover artist, formatter, beta/proofreaders, to learning how to upload your book, to the daunting task of getting your book out there to as many potential readers as possible - the costs literally run into the thousands. Monetary costs aside, the sheer amount of time you need to dedicate to just one book is astronomical. Promotion is not cheap either, and many 'promoters' offer you the world and deliver fukkall for your dollars. Plenty of sharks in the tank, that's for sure, and many green authors coming onto the scene get taken for a ride. Eye am extremely fortunate to have Mar by my side. She is the real deal and a well-respected name in the Indie Horror community. She made my decision to self publish a no-brainer. The downside of this being, as far as promotion goes, everybodyknows Mar and eye are a couple, so promoting my work, regardless of how sincere she is, may be seen by some as bias on her part. For this reason, my books get no more attention than any of her paying clients, even less. But eye am completely kool with that. My Dark Goddess first, Horror Promoter second.
 
Unfortunately, another shit deal about being Indie, is that due to the massive cost of publishing a book, there are a shitload of people who just want to be able to say they are a published author, which Amazon has made it far too easy to do. Without the necessary funds, or the know-how to release a
quality product worth paying for, they cut all the financial corners and flood the market with unreadable shit. This gives the rest of us serious Indie authors a bad name, as the stigma attached to self publishing is the inaccurate opinion that none of us have pride in our work and have no idea what
we're doing.

On the bright side, as an independent author, aside from the cut Amazon takes from your sales, all the profits come back to you. Being with a press, you are lucky to take (after Amazon's cut) 30% of each ebook sold, less for paperback sales. Plus, the onus is still on you as an author to advertise and promote your book. With a press, however, you don't need to pay for cover art, editing, or any of the other costs, pre-production. All you need to do before your book goes live is write the bastard and hope a press picks it up. But in the grand scheme of things, the benefits of self publishing, as long as you do it right, outweigh having your book traditionally published. Unless, of korpse, you land a publishing deal with one of the big publishing houses. Ones who have a handle on the actual marketing of your book. Otherwise, you're better off forging your own path, in my humble opinion.
Which is why eye made the decision this year to start Luniakk Publications and do my own thing.

Any really cool stories or memories in regards to what you do that you want to share?

Toneye:  A few of my best memories are with Chaotic Impurity. Nailing the support slot for Celtic Frost when they came to the Dirt Down Under was a definite highlight, even though Tom and Martin turned out to be gigantic shitkunt posers backstage and kinda ruined my perception of them. Dark Legion was a hair's breadth from putting ol' Gabe through the wall after some smart arse comment, but walked out instead, purely out of respect for the promoter who gave us the gig. One of my oldest mates filmed it for us. He was trippin' off his kunt on mushrooms and filmed us with a broken wrist hahaha. Pretty funny footage.

My best memory though, is from 2005, when we played at Bloodlust V. My son, Odin was 10 years old and we gave him his first taste of live performance. He got up and played our last song with us, ending our set with a shreddin' guitar solo that freaked every kunt out hahaha. Total proud dad moment! He's been playing guitar his whole life and been doin' the band circuit since he was 11. Years later, something quite ironic happened. Coroner (who incidentally were once Celtic Frost's road crew) came out to Aus and played the Manning Bar, on the same stage we opened for the Frosty ones a few years earlier. Sydney Black Thrash n Rollers, Bastardizer scored the support, but their bass player had a family member's wedding to attend in Mexico. Coroner being their drummer's all-time fave band, he insisted they find a replacement for the night. They asked Odin if he would be willng to trade 6 strings for 4 and fill in for them, and he agreed. So, about 5 years after eye warmed up the stage for Celtic Frost, my son warmed up the same stage for their old road crew.Another huge proud dad moment \m/

Anyhoo, that's enough rambling from this old wolf haha. If you wanna check out my writing, here's a list of links you can keep up to speed on:
My Faecesbook author page - https://www.facebook.com/toneyeeyenothorror
Luniakk page - https://www.facebook.com/luniakkpublications
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Toneye-Eyenot/e/B00NVVMHVA
Luniakk Publications website - https://luniakkpublications.com
And for more Horror fiction than you can fill your guts with,
check out The Bold Mom here - http://www.theboldmom.com
If you wanna follow my musical insanity, there's plenty of that to explore:

CHAOTIC IMPURITY:
Faecesbook - https://www.facebook.com/Chaotic-Impurity-176956532324131
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/user-119216506
Youtube (follow the stench from clip to clip) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GMZG9noPpU

INFINITE BLACK:
Faecesbook - https://www.facebook.com/Infinite-Black-234313873248790
Bandcamp - https://infiniteblack616.bandcamp.com/
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/infinite-black
Youtube (follow the stench) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JztPwsTYto

ROCK N ROLL DETECTIVES (Punk as Fukk):
Faecesbook - https://www.facebook.com/Rock-n-Roll-Detectives-786073428076319
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/rnrd-1
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rock+n+roll+detectives

and NOMENCLATURE DIABLERIE (c.1988):
Faecesbook - https://www.facebook.com/Nomenclature-Diablerie-176199139088687
Reverbnation (888 demo) - https://www.reverbnation.com/nomenclaturediablerie
https://www.reverbnation.com/nomenclaturediablerie

HALLOWEEN 3 (1982)

This is the much maligned third installment of the "Halloween" franchise.

My understanding of the affairs surrounding the original Halloween was that the Mike Myers story was supposed to be a once off and the franchise itself was supposed to have been a collection of creepy stories surrounding the idea of Halloween. After the success of John Carpenters original film of course of the lure of easy sequel money became too much and Halloween 2 was produced (much to Carpenters dismay) but this one sees Carpenter return to the franchise in an effort to reprise his original vision of different and unconnected stories connected by the Halloween theme. Only problem was that the Mike Myers character had become so popular that this film bombed spectacularly at the box office and incited the wrath of horror movie fans world over for the sole reason of not having anything to do with Michael Myers ….

Is this a bad film? No! It's actually a pretty good film (as with all Carpenter films) and its quite an engaging story if you can get past the fact that Michael Myers isn't in it. History has proven Carpenter right to some degree as the movie is now held in high regards amongst horror buffs.

Basically the film revolves around central character Dan (Tom Atkins) who is investigating the death of a patient in hospital in the few days before Halloween, who was killed by what was then thought to be a crazy person but no answers could be found as the man killed himself shortly after in the carpark. Dan teams up with the murdered guys daughter and further investigations point to a mask factory,  The Silver Shamrock in a nearby town Santa Mira and a belief that 'they' are out to kill him. This kind of movie revolves around a detailed plot and I wouldn't feel good going into too much detail for fear of ruining for you guys... Lets just say something a lot stranger than a factory producing a few children's mask is afoot

Over all like I said its a great film and engrossing from start to finish ...  This one has a very similar feel to another of Carpenters films, They Live, and if you can mentally disconnect yourself from the fact there's no Michael Myers in it, its a great film!

Also be sure to check out our reviews of Halloween and Halloween 2

For more great movie reviews be sure to check out http://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis!

PIRANHA (1978)

This is the original "Piranha" Produced by Roger Corman. Like many of Roger Cormans films Piranha follows closely on the heels of the success of a major studio film, in this case "JAWS".  I honestly can't remember if I'd seen this one back in the day (well my day anwyay) but I'd seen the remakes and they were pretty cool, mindless fun... High on the gore, some great CGI effects and plenty of exploitational violence and nudity. Now its time to see how the orginal compares to this.

The plot itself revolves around investigative journalist, Maggie and a local, Paul she meets who are investigating the dissappearance of two teenagers (who have been eaten by piranahs) they break into an old army testing lab and find some strange experiments in the dormant labs. At this point I have to say the creature effects on this are pretty cool. They meet an old doctor who was still lurking in the lab who informs them they've inadvertantly unleashed the experimental piranahs into the water stream. Besides the odd camper that uses the river their major problem is stopping the infestation before it attacks a summer camp upstream and a big budget water park due to open within days of the piranah being unleashed.

One by one the vicious little fish attack and devour anyone that is unfortunate to stick any limbs into the infested water streams...  I have to say after watching this one, my opinion of Roger Corman is a lot higher than it was before, this film is quite well shot and executed. The movie flows well and is overall rather enjoyable. The horror effects and gore are at quite respectable (but not extreme) levels and it doesn't look cheesy. 

Over all, I was quite impressed with this offering from Mr. Corman! 

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MANIAC (1980)

To be honest I'd only heard about this one after reading the "Video Nasties" list, a list of movies that got banned from the UK due to their explicit horror content.

The film revolves around a deranged serial killer with mommy issues, Frank who is striking fear into the hearts of the New York City residents after a series of his murders go unsolved. Frank obviously has issues separating reality and fantasy and his apartment is littered with mannequins with whom he has deluded himself that he is carrying on a relationship.

I could probably over analize this film and say that Frank has the similar sexual retardation as many horror movie villains (such as Jason Vorhees) and takes it out on his attractive female victims, but really this film isn't a thinker.... It does however attempt to dwell into the psychology behind the serial killer, and for that reason it still holds up to some degree today... but  I'm going to say its more firmly rooted in the B Grade Genre and I don't want to attribute any brilliance to it that wasn't there... Not to say its a bad film either, its quite watchable, and enjoyable... solid, but by no means a classic. The gore was reasonably full on for the era (but there was way more extreme films around by 1980) which was over seen by the one and only Tom Savini.

I got a reprint of this film, but I hear the currently available versions of this film are quite expensive. If you're on a budget there are a lot of films you should get before this one. If you see it cheap or have a lot of money to blow on BLURAYS its not a bad addition to the collection. And for collectors, it is... As I'm sure the main audience for this film now days would be the horror collector market.

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RITE (2011)

This is a pretty cool film... its well written and well executed. The DVD jacket says its the best exorcist film since "the Exorcist" itself.... big call. Does it live up to those claims? I'd have to say no, but its still a pretty cool little film and does bring another angle on the exorcism theme. The film THE EXORCIST is a very harsh and jarring experience with some quite disturbing scenes, this movie while no cake walk, is  a great watch is a little easier going on the senses, and may be an easier watch for those newer to the horror genre.

The film revolves around Michael, a young would be priest who has completed 4 years of study, not because he is a faithful catholic but wanted a free ride though college at the churches expense, who then on completion declines to take  up service as a priest. He is then threatened with liability for the study costs but given an option to attend the Vatican after a chaplain identifies a need for the church to have more exorcists on hand after rising numbers of  'incidents'. He decides to take up the offer and go to Rome (Vatican city) to study as and exorcist and is taken under charge of Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), a veteran exorcist, to view and hopefully rid a young woman of her demons

This is more of a thriller than just a standard horror flick but also raises issues of faith and belief when young Michael discovers there's a lot more to what's going on than science can explain. The movie itself has been well researched and the Latin dialogue during the rites  of exorcism come across rather genuine.

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LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

This is the 80's version starring Rick Moranis, I recently went back and watched the original from the 50's and while it wasn't particularly worse than other movies from the era, it left me rather underwhelmed.
This one however is a different story... its vibrant, funny and interesting... and a musical. Its hardly a gore-fest but I do have to say its a great watch and a heap of fun. The music is firmly "rooted" (excuse the pun) in 50's rock n roll but suits the vibe of the film perfectly.

The film if you don't know revolves around a failing flower/plant shop that's just about to go out of business when flower shop worker, Seymour (Moranis) finds a rare breed of flower that starts attracting customers into the shop. Only problem is that it feeds on... wait for it... BLOOD! As the town gets word of the strange flower the traffic to the shop grows, and so does the plants appetite.

There's a bit more to the plot that that but really it doesn't matter, this is just good simple musical fun. Switch off the brain and enjoy the film and the tunes!

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TOKYO GORE POLICE (2009)

Hmmm this one was an interesting one for me...... Initally this review was one of the first reviews I did on this site, and as with a few of them I've decided to revisit the films and these reviews with the benefit of a second viewing. I am not at all familiar with much of anything from the world of Asian horror so I found this one really hard to follow intially. (It probably didn't help that I'd had a few drinks) but with the benefit of a re-watch this film made a lot more sense. I'm still going to say the story was a little disjointed and the cinematic style is much different to what we'd expect in western cinema... much more vibrant and contrasting colours than what we'd be used to seeing and some truely disturbing visual creations. The violence/gore is waaayyyy exaggurated, and quite sexualised, which may turn some off or others on depending on what your bent is.... This is some extreme stuff depicted in this film, I would not recommend it to young people or anyone new to the world of horror movies.

Basically it follows main protagonist Ruka, who is a cop in the not too distant but much more grim version of Japan. Ruka Is an elite cop following in the footsteps of her her father and is looking to avenge his violent death. She hunts down bio mechanically enhanced mutant criminals called 'engineers'. This of course makes for some excellent gore opportunities! The colours, abstract shooting style and excessive violence confused / distracted me a little, which is why I'm sure I missed a lot of the finer points of this film the first time round. . Lots of WTF moments appear throughout the course of the film ... and even whilst at times not entirely knowing whats going on,  the film is a great visual voyage of abstract but very artistic horror, but the initial confusion does lend itself to a second viewing.

Maybe this film was just an excuse to cram as much bloodshed and violence into a film as possible and show off the visual creations of director Nishumura's (as it was his first film) and the plot is really just secondary to this? Either way its good squeamish fun!

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THE BLOB (1998)

Well, this was a nice bit of fun! This is the remake of the 1950's blob... I haven't seen that one yet so I can't comment on the age old question of  "Is it better than the original?" but this one was a great watch, the plot is fairly simple but the action keeps it moving along nicely!

Basically the plot revolves around a foreign object (spacecraft of some kind) that falls to earth and some sort of gelatinous ooze (the Blob) escapes and starts feeding on humans that are unfortunate enough to come across its path. The blob is translucent and feeds by acidicly dissolving and consuming whatever it attaches itself to which of course makes for some great horror effects. One by one it feeds on its prey until the whole town is cordoned off by biohazard troops, and it's up to a couple of teenagers to stop it from consuming the whole town.

Like I said fairly simple fun and it stars a very young Shawnee Smith who later went on to star in the SAW films (and Becker, Anger Management etc..) as one of the teenagers. The acting and production is quite ok, but there horror effects are pretty cool, and hold up well to this day. The fashion senses are of a distinctly 80's groove so there's plenty of mullets and hi top sneakers to keep us all amused at that glorious era of horror and fashion. While there is a little gore in this one its nothing too serious and people that may not be into horror should be able to enjoy this as well as your younger, more impressionable horror fans

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ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS / ZOMBI 2 (1979)

Firstly just to clarify a few things... My copy of this release goes under the name "Zombie Flesh Eaters" but I've more commonly heard it referred to as "Zombi 2" … George Romero's second installment of his "Dead" series, Dawn of the Dead from 1978 was titled "Zombi" in some parts of Europe. The only sensible thing to do was now to cash in on the success of "Zombi" and release another flick while the iron was still hot, and of course set it up as an unofficial sequel... and thus we have Lucio Fulci's "Zombi 2". I find this practice annoying and I'd much rather refer to it as "Zombie Flesh Eaters" (just to make it worse it has a few more variations of those names as release titles too)

The movie itself is actually pretty good and quite enjoyable... it has that distinct Italian style about it, very gritty and the gore is quite full on for its time as well... Earning it a spot in the "VIDEO NASTIES" list and getting banned in some places. Compared to some of the movies on that list, this is not the most extreme by any stretch infact id say there's only one scene (where a zombie drags a womans head into shattered glass and pierces her eye/eyesocket) as the only really extremity in the film while the rest of it is fairly standard zombie, munching, maggot riddled goodness these Italian flicks are known for.

The plot revolves around a missing scientist who is researching ancient voodoo magick on an island off the carribean which has fallen under attack by zombies... these undead nod a little to the older Haitian zombie legends rather than purely following the lead of the Romero type zombies but they're basically the same.  The film itself starts when a ship leaves the island and is discovered by coast guard when the occupants have been killed and  zombie who is still on board bites and infects a coast guard and investigations lead back tot he island.

Its gritty, well shot and has some levels of nudity in it but one scene in particular which I thought was really well done where a zombie attacks a shark I thought was rather well done! Especially for the vintage of this this film.

Overall I quite liked it, it didn't require too much thinking but it flowed well and was quite entertaining...…..  Id recommend any zombie to get a hold of this if they can find it.

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IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1995)

Yet another HP Lovecraft adaptation set to film. With legendary director John Carpenter directing you know this one is going to be quality. As expected the quality of the movie is amazing and immaculately shot, but maybe I am biased as I really do love John Carpenters work. Sam Neill as the main character does a stellar job, and while I haven't read any HP Lovecraft in many years from what I do remember of this story it tends to follow the original story quite well.

The story itself opens with main character John Trent (Sam Neill) committed to a lunatic asylum, and then the rest of the movie details John Trents descent from hot shot insurance fraud investigator, to taking on a case to find the whereabouts of acclaimed horror writer Sutter Cain, and insure the release of his next major chartbuster "In the Mouth of Madness". Cain is big business in the world of horror and his disappearance is also the subject of the a major insurance claim. In the process of undertaking the investigation Trent reads Cain's mind bending novels an sets off to find a town, Hobb's End which is referred to in Cain's books in the hopes of finding him. Unfortunately for Trent he finds himself getting a little too involved in Cain's writing and it begins to affect him mentally as lines between fiction and reality start to blur. I won't go any further into the plot than that but rest assured its a plot full of great twists and keeps the magical world that HP Lovecraft created alive and vibrant in movie form.

The is quite a few cool horror effects in this movie, but the movie itself  is more of a cerebal experience than flat out gore, meaning you do have to pay reasonable attention to what's going on (as opposed to other Lovecraft adaptations like Re-animator) but its a very rewarding experience which all I can do is recommend you check it out for yourselves!

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DAWN OF THE DEAD (remake 2004)

In all honesty this remake is pretty good, production values are great and the violence and gore is top notch. It just misses something. It follows a fairly similar story line and progression to the original "Dawn of the Dead" but something about the souped up special effects leaves me feeling like I miss the "Good old Days" so to speak.

The plot itself follows a few small groups of people who after the zombie apocalypse have holed up in a shopping mall in an effort to survive. Obviously with the situation unfolding around them the tensions mount and relationships between the parties are strained... one by one they are picked of by the hordes of zombies surrounding and breaking into the mall to feast on the survivors. There are slight plot differences, enough to keep it interesting and updated for current fans but no major departures from the original story line.

One thing that really annoyed me about this film was the fast moving zombies, to me zombies are supposed to be slow, sluggish and brain dead, where as these zombies run around like Olympic sprinters and seem to be able to master more complex operations than the zombies featured in the original film.

That aside, I really don't have any problems with anything else the film has done and in a way its probably a necessary evil as I'm sure it exposed a whole new generation of scare fans to the work of George Romero.

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MAY (2002)

Man! This film was something else!

I hadn't heard anything about the film (not even sure I'd heard of the film) before viewing it, but got it from a friend of mine with highest recommendations. She had said before that it started out a bit like a 'chick flick' and degenerated into a full on horror movie from there. She wasn't wrong

The film itself centers around May, who is an awkward and socially mal-adjusted young lady. May has no self confidence and has never had a boyfriend (or maybe never had any real friends) and upon meeting a boy for the first time she becomes obsessed by him. He of course freaks out and dumps her. May then takes things to the next level to be with her man. This is where it gets hard to describe anything further in the movie for fear of ruining the movie for you guys.

May is perfectly cast by a young woman I'd never heard of before (Angela Bettis)... she is creepy, introspective and morbidly obsessed with the idea of finding companionship. Her performance really allows the viewer to feel for her, and in my case fall for her a little.

Overall I found the film rather fun to watch and captivating from start to finish... Its not a big budget affair but rather well shot and executed. I have no complaints about this film at all.... the gore levels are high enough to keep most gore-hounds happy with proceedings while the story more than holds up on its own. All in all "May" is one creeeeepy film!

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A DEADLY BELSSING (1981)

This one, directed in 1981 by a then relatively unknown,  but rising star after his directorial effort in "The Hills have Eyes" in 1977, Wes Craven  revolves around a group of women who find themselves in the unfortunate situation of living in bible belt America surrounded by a backward religious sect known as the "Hittites".

Modelled on the Amish community they fear god and everything else they deem falling outside his teachings. Nothing really too bad in that I guess if that's how you feel you want to live your live but one of the flock (the same guy who played the inbred in "The Hills have Eyes / Goonies") starts taunting (well in this day and age it would be victimizing) the young women on fear they are incubus, sent by the devil to temp men.

This one stars a very young Sharon Stone as one of the sisters. The other two sisters are really good looking too so at least there's some eye candy as an added bonus. On another note, it's interesting how many big stars seem to have gotten a leg up in horror films and in particular Wes Craven's works. This one I would have to say falls closer to the "thriller" territory than straight out horror but either way I think it's a great watch.

Anyway back to the plot, one excommunicated member of the religious sect dies under a tractor in mysterious circumstances, then the big slow guy William is knocked off next... the mystery deepens as to who is killing off the locals but of course I won't go any further than that for fear of ruining the story for you, rest assured there are some good plot twists that keep the viewer interested for the duration of the film. While I wouldn't go so far as to say its a classic its a great watch and definitely worth seeing if you can get a hold of the film.

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