The Leprechaun (1991)

I have to admit I didn't hold high hopes for this one at all the premise looked stupid and the DVD cover looked really budget but I thought to myself "What the hell... It's cheap.. and I may as well give it a shot" and you know what?  I actually enjoyed it.

It kinda sits somewhere between a kids movie and a horror movie but I'd say far too gory for kids under 12 to watch (unless they're really hardcore) but if you can deal with the child like qualities of this film its a fun watch. Oh yeah it has a very young Jennifer Anniston as the star, who is very easy on the eyes. 90's babes aside the Leprechaun himself looks pretty cool, with perpetual short guy Warwick Davis (from Willow) as the Leprechaun himself. Cute Irish accents abound in this wee feature, as well as liberal spatterings of Irish culture.

The plot revolves around Old Dan O'Grady who manages to capture a leprechaun and as a result is entitled to his pot of gold. He is then of course committed (lets face it who is going to believe his leprechaun stories). Years later the house is bought by Tory (Anniston) and her father. The local painters (one of whom Tory takes fancy to) and his off-siders, a slow witted Adult nicknamed Ozzy, and his much smarter child friend, Alex unwittingly become involved in a fight for their lives as the leprechaun returns hoping to find his gold, which it turns out Ozzie and Alex have found and taken possession of.

The horror levels for this one are quite respectable and enough to keep the horror fans entertained, and the comedy aspects of the movie keep it quite watchable and light hearted. While its not an all time classic by any stretch (and thankfully it didn't ruin Jennifer Annistons career) To be sure,,, To be sure its worth watching....

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

LOST CANNIBAL WORLD (1977)

Directed by Ruggero Deodato (Later responsible for bringing us all Cannibal Holocaust) Lost Cannibal World aslo known as Ultimo Mondo Cannibale follows the misfortunes of a group of prospectors who's plane goes down in the jungle. Not sure exactly where they went down (possibly Indonesia / PNG / Phillipinnes) but either way they find themselves in a world of pain when they realise they've gone down in a jungle inhabited by cannibals. The groups pilot and assistant are killed by natives and remaining members are caputured by natives.

The gore you'd expect from the creator of Cannibal Holocaust is all too present in some horrific scenes, tho not as intense as Cannibal Holocaust .... Again it's not for the faint of heart or those offended by nudity.

Shot in the same style of the Cannibal movies at the time this is raw and confronting and the gore is very realistic. All in all a cool watch and is more or less a precursor to the Cannibal Holocaust movie, and has a very similar feel, and would appeal to the same crowd of people.

Someone has been kind enough to upload the entire movie onto Youtube so for your viewing pleasure here's the full version!

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

*For more of Ruggero Deodato's work be sure to check out CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and A BALLAD IN BLOOD

SUSPIRIA (1977)

Well this was certainly a strange one...  Directed in 1977 by Dario Argento (later responsible for Demons in 1985) .... I really like this film, the colors in the filming are amazing and really help dramatize the whole affair nicely. Its quite a striking affair too, standing out as probably the only film I've seen that comes across in quite a manner. Visually speaking, the vivid colors give it a surreal / otherworldly feel to it. It's hard to describe but I found myself quite mesmerized by the visual imagery. I don't know that much about filming techniques, but I guess you'd have to see it to understand.

The plot itself revolves around a young lady Suzy who is accepted into a performance art school in Europe (Germany) and arrives late one night to see another student fleeing from the building. Co-incidently Suzi is not able to get into the building until the next day and decides to spend the night in a hotel nearby. Said fleeing student is then subsequently murdered along with her friend she has confided in in a gruesome double killing.  Suzy returns the next morning to the aftermath of the killing and some strange goings on in the academy.

The usual teething problems of gaining acceptance amongst her peers are present but there is something much nastier, an occult evil, lurking beneath the surface of what appears to be a prestigious academy, a mystery which Suzy tries to get to the bottom of.

I have to say its an enjoyable film but could be a little slow paced for the hardened gore fiends but I found it unique and entertaining. I'll definitely be rewatching it to see what else I can get out of this film, as I suspect there'll be more aspects to the plot that will be unearthed on a second viewing..

The gore levels besides the first two murders are not too extreme (though they were probably considered extreme for the time) nor does it live up to the marketing hype as the scariest film ever (I always laugh when I see those by-lines on movie covers/posters), so it won't make your non-horror friends loose their lunch, or think you need to be institutionalized either.

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

RISE OF THE ZOMBIES (2012)

This was over all a pretty cool watch, one thing that really irritated me was that this was the second time I'd bought a DVD on spec because it looked like a cool horror movie with Danny Trejo in it. It was the second time he'd died quite early on in the film making his spot on the cover seem a little overblown and making me feel a little ripped off.

Lack of Danny Trejo aside it was a pretty fun watch, the violence and horror certainly held its own against pretty much any zombie movie (even the more extreme ones) .... It really isn't too much of a thinker but more a fun way to watch zombies get blown apart for a couple of hours.

Basically the plot follows a zombie outbreak that seems to have pretty much taken over the whole of the earths population (at least as far as the handful of survivors in the movie can tell) and our "hero's" are the last remaining survivors in and around the area of Alcatraz prison are both looking for an immunisation and a means of survival against the zombie outbreak. Simple enough plot that allows for a few friends or a few beers to get in the way without ruining the movie but plenty of action to keep it entertaining the whole way through

Not a classic by any means, nor does it add anything to the genre .... but definitely worth a watch at least once.

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