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.
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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.

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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)