THE RING (2002)

I have to confess I haven't seen the original Japanese version of this (directed only a few years earlier) but after watching this one I'll definitely get around to it sometime soon (I have the Ring O prequel to watch as well) This film is a genuinely thrilling and suspenseful ride. Australian actress Naomi Watts as lead character Rachel looks stunning in this and everyone does a great job in acting their parts so theirs no real complaints here to level at the film makers.

There's no real gore or horror perse in this movie either which means it has to rely on direction and a solid plot both of which it has in ample quantities.

The plot itself revolves around a video tape which has been circulating for a while now and whoever watches it dies after 7 days. The last two victims being Rachel's niece and her boyfriend.... Obviously Rachel doesn't believe in the curse that the VHS tape carries but starts investigating the case and backtracking the events that led up to the death of her niece. Investigations lead her to a cabin her niece and friends shared on the night she viewed the tape and of course Rachel ends up watching the tape as well. The then asks her ex partner for advice about the tape and of course he ends up watching it thus numbering his days as well.

As investigations continue the VHS starts manifesting itself into real life which is when Rachel realises she's got some big problems ahead of her. The race to get to the bottom of the cursed tape starts. Some great plot twists ensure the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way through, but of course I won't spoil those bits for you so you'll just have to watch it for yourself!

Anyway I thought this was quite a well done film and would have no problems recommending it to anyone. And if nothing else I did learn a little more about the VHS format I grew up watching horror movies on!

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FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

Its a quiet Saturday night in for me this week and I thought I'd put one something easier on the senses so I dragged out an old VHS copy of FRANKENSTEIN.

Since writing this blog I've gained an appreciation for the horror classics, and I have to say out of all the golden era (20s and 30s period) this is probably my favorite. This is one movie I have to say really works well on the VHS format, the picture probably wasn't shot in anything more high definition than a tape would have been and the analogue tape format really carries the soundtrack and dialogue of the film well.

I'm sure we all have a fair idea of the plot or have at least read the book so there's no huge necessity for me to outline the plot again. Boris Karloff (see also The Mummy) once again is cast as the creature and while I'm not familiar with anyone else acting in the film they all do a great job, movies as this one rely on dialogue and the interplay with light/shadows and of course the soundtrack and a great job is done in all areas.

Production values aside it rolls along nicely as a film, the visual quality seems ahead of the other monster films of the time and doesn't feel as slow paced as some of the other films of the generation. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it the whole way through. Another point to mention is that Frankenstein's monster is not an ambitious talk to recreate with the technology of the time as some of the creatures (universal monsters) look quite comical now where as in this case the monster is quite believable.

As with most films of this era there's no real gore or graphic violence so you can watch it with your younger children or elderly parents without the fear of upsetting anyone. I couldn't find a free online version of it but its available to stream on You Tube or I'm sure you won't have too much trouble finding it at a second hand store or Ebay or something

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MACABRE (2009)

This is an Indonesian horror flick, I was unaware they had any sort of film industry there let alone a horror scene.... but I have to say this one isn't bad... In fact I was quite impressed with it!

The plot focus in on a group of tourists, who seem to be of mixed decent (either Indian or south east Asian) They decide to go on a break in Indonesia and let their hair down a little. On the drive back from a bar they meet a young attractive woman by the side of the road who says she'd been robbed. The friends decide to pick her up and take her back home. Her family are obviously glad to see her returned alive and thank the friends for their kindness by offering them a place to rest and a hearty meal.

This is where the plot thickens and it turns out the family are a murderous gang of butchers who on sell human meat to the wealthy elite.

I won't say the plot is fairly predictable, it does start out a little 'paint by numbers' but as the movie progresses we do get a couple of nice twists in it, and it is quite entertaining and the gore / violence levels are quite high, grim in parts actually, and the gore/bloodshed quite realistic adding well to the brutality of the movie. One thing that may deter watchers is the fact that the film is not in English, it does have English subtitles, but really the plot isn't that complicated so once the gang are in the house and it's evident what's going on you really don't need to focus too hard on the subs as the visual aspects of the film more or less keep it going.

Anyway if you do see this around or can download it, its defs worth a watch........

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BASKET CASE (1982)

Well, this is certainly a strange little film. Somehow I'd managed to live my entire adult life (I've hit middle age now) without having seen this film. Originally released in 1982 I gather it didn't do anything special at the box office but was one of the first ever horror films released on the then revolutionary format of VHS. I guess being one of the only horror films at the time to get a home video release it got an artificial boost of sorts and became a bit of a cult classic from there.

I actually quite like this film, I don't know yet if it will become an all time classic of mine but I'll definitely go back and rewatch this film to see what it holds a 2nd time around.

The plot focus' in on young Dwayne Bradley who has just moved to the big city with his little brother, Belial (who inhabits a basket) in some shithole flat in New York. Dwayne is relatively normal whilst his brother is his conjoined twin who is unfortunately the looser in the genetic sweepstakes  of life and seperated from Dwayne at birth, and subsequently discarded like a sack of genetic waste (which he pretty much was). As it turns out, Belial doesn't die and manages to survive with the help of his conjoined twin ad live in a basket with Dwayne

Basket Case uses a then revolutionary technique knows as stop motion animation (also employed in Evil Dead) and while it may or may not hold up now it was state of the art at the time. Back to the plot of the film, Dwayne starts to meet ladies and socialise in New York whilst Belial is resigned to life in a basket and obviously cracks the shits as a result and starts a murderous rampage.

I have to say I really enjoyed this film, and it kept my interest throughout the whole affair. Whilst there are some cheesy bits its overall pretty cool and there's some decent amount of horror and gore, I'd recommend it to any horror fan to at least watch once. It does have a certain charm which is hard to put your finger on but still retains a certain 'campness' that many B grade films are known for.

All  I can say is give it a watch and it will be a couple of hours well spent

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


Anyway the film is up on You Tube so you an stream it from here!

FRIDAY 13th PT 3 (1982)

Well with yet another Friday 13th upon us why not re-visit one of the greatest horror franchises of all time, this time its the third part in the series that goes under the postmortem examination.

This installments starts of with a handy re-cap of the events of the last film (which was great because its been a while since I've indulged in watching them) and then kicks off in the immediate wake of Jason's killing spree in part 2 with the body count starting to rise from the start with Jason still on the loose and adding to his grizzly death tally.

As luck would have it a brand new gang of teenagers come to visit Crystal Lake and take up residence in an old farmhouse, the usual suspects in terms of characters feature in this one with the horny couple, the jokester, the spanish chick, a jock, a couple of pot heads and of course a previous survivor of Jason's killing spree and soon after a couple of random bikers who hassle a couple of the teens.

After the run in with the teens the bikers co-incidently stop in at the farmhouse the teenagers have rented and unbeknownst to them that Jason has also taken up refuge in and of course this is where the mayhem and the killings starts again.

Probably the most important thing about this film is while at this farmhouse Jason finds his trademark hockey mask, which later set up what  the iconic imagery  by which the whole franchise would be known.

Over all im going to say I don't find anything particularly ground breaking or brilliant in this film but its a cool watch and keeps the franchise going nicely, I didn't find the violence as realistic as the first two films, some of it rather cartoonish actually.....  but my opinions aside, it did rather well at the box office for its time as well with a very healthy $36 million dollar pull in at cinema's making it the pretty darn huge for that year!

Check out our review of Friday 13th part 1
and Friday 13th part 2

CANNIBAL FEROX / MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY (1981)

Another in a long list of Cannibal / Exploitation films.... Again this one is fairly high on the gore scale and sits in a similar place to Cannibal Holocaust.

The plot this time revolves around two female university students who venture into the south american jungle one of whom is writing a thesis attempting to disprove the 'myth' that there are cannibal tribes in south America. Whilst there they meet up with two other westerners Mike and Joe. Whilst Joe seems alright, Mike is a cocaine addicted sadist and has already garnered the wrath of the local indian tribes after butchering a male tribe member. Mike is the kind of asshole that you just can't wait to be eaten,

Eventually the natives have had a gutful (no pun intended) of the white folk who've now killed a couple of their tribes people and attempted to rip them off for the gem wealth the region contains and begin to hunt the white folk and eat them in suitably gory and disgusting fashion

Over all this is a pretty cool flick, but I'm a bit of a sucker for the cannibal genre so there is a little bias in there... Again if you're new to the genre this along with Cannibal Holocaust are as suitable points as any to entre the genre. As far as the gore content goes I'd say its not as extreme as Cannibal Holocaust but not to far off either. Whilst I'm not entirely sure of the history of this film the cover says it was banned in 31 countries and there's a neat warning before the film starts warning us of its extremity. Obviously this is at the more extreme end of horror and probably best not for the faint hearted the easily offended or those new to the horror genre. Enjoy!!


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