PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007)

This one centres in on couple Katie and Micha who have been experiencing 'something not quite right' with the house they are in... is it haunted? Posessed? The couple aren't overly worried at this point, as Katie has has experienced some level of supernatural activity much of her life from childhood onwards... and really, it's just the odd 'clunky' noise and things moving in the night...  The couple decide to investigate what is going in in their house, Micha decides to start recording the goings on in the house via and old video camera and bit by bit stuff starts getting weirder.

Micha who is new to the whole paranormal thing thinks its all fun and games, but Katie starts to think maybe they are pushing whatever is in their house too far especially when Micha starts messing with an ouija board.

This is a rather well layed out movie shot in the 'found footage' style of film that had become a bit of a thing at the time. While there's no level of gore or horror in  this film, it is a well made and captivating and riveting watch the whole time. If you've ever experienced things going bump in the night at your place this will hit you a psychological level. Nothing in this film comes across to me as contrived or cheesy. Katie is super-cute too which makes the viewing rather easy on the eyes as well....

EDIT: This movie really impressed me! As a side note, I decided to do some research on the film and it turns out (well, according to wikipedia) that this was the most profitable film ever made when based on a costs v return ratio as the film would have cost virtually nothing to make yet made a huge impact at the box office. It proves to me that one person can do a lot with a shoe-string budget and only 7 days to work with, my hat comes off to you Mr. Peli... you have created a masterpeice!

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TRICK OR TREAT (1986)

More 80's Cheesiness here, with Trick or Treat. For those old enough to remember, Heavy Metal was a dirty word in the 1980's with Tipper Gore (wife of future politician Al Gore) leading a movement called the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Centre) which condemned rock n roll and heavy metal as tools of the devil and even tried to get many heavy metal bands banned or censored, claiming some bands had backmasked messages in their songs which would subliminally influence the youth of America.

This movie is based loosely on that controversy in a tongue in cheek fashion using the idea that heavy metal can summon the dead. It follows the trials and tribulations of Eddie, a young metal fan who is getting mercilessly bullied at school. His Idol, and heavy metal legend Sammi Curr (who co-incidently went to the same high school many years earlier) dies and Eddie manages to summon his spirit when inadvertantly playing Sammi's last unreleased recording backwards. The returned Sammi Curr then wreaks his revenge on unsuspecting victims and of course it's then up to Eddie to try and stop his Idol Sammi.

This movie is quite watchable if you like 80's Shlock, and 80's heavy metal (which I do),  but I'm not sure how others would take it. Honestly, there are a couple of cool little cameos including Gene Simmons (KISS) and of course Ozzy Osbourne perfectly cast as a concerned preacher looking out for the youth of the day, but  if you don't like 80's heavy metal this will probably bore the shit out of you. The 80's was a special time full of awesome denim and big hair that now looks so cringe worthy its almost worth watching the film for the fashion horrors alone ... which many of us lived!

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BLOOD DINER (1987)

This is a rather hard to find little gem straight from the 80's. Rooted firmly in the B-Grade Schlock horror it is some regards so bad it is actually good. Not sure if watching for the movie or the schlockiness of the whole affair but either way its fun! Big hair bad acting and cheesy dialoge complete the trinity of 80's cheesyness.

The plot  follows the exploits of 2 brothers, George and Michael (that just sounds 80's from the start)  whose uncle, Anwar was killed by police in a shoot out 30 years earlier. They stay true to their uncles last request and after studying the occult they set about ressurrecting the goddess "Shitar". To do this they did up the remains of their dead uncle and through some magical incantation they bring his brain back to life and store it in a jar where he advises the pair on the finer art killing 'immoral' women, and harvesting their body parts for the purpose of constructing a composite body for the returning goddess, and then holding an ancient feast to welcome the goddess back into this world.

Lots of tongue in cheek gore and blood... but its hard to take seriously with the hammy-ness of the acting and dialogue. Is this a horror comedy or is it so bad it becomes one by default? I can't tell but if you can turn your brain off for a couple of hours it is worth a watch!

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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.

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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)

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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!

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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.

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