Happy Halloween from Texas Frightmare Weekend

Our friends at Texas Frightmare Weekend have posted a few Halloween treats for all of us horror fans.

The Wild Man of the Navidad is the first film selected to screen as part of our ongoing Texas Frightmakers showcase. Co-writer/directors Duane Graves and Justin Meeks (who also stars) will join us as well as cast members Stacy Meeks, Charlie Hurtin and the Wild Man himself, Tony Wolford. This lensing of Lone Star State lore was produced by a legend in his own right, Texas Chainsaw Massacre scribe Kim Henkel. And, yes, he’ll join us too!

But wait, we have more Halloween treats …

Jason Lively of the fan-favorite Night of the Creeps!

Plus, returning favorite Elieen Dietz of The Exorcist.

Michael Myers Lives’. Again!

Even though Mike died at the end of ‘Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers,’ the man just won’t stay dead. That’s right he is back and this time it’s revenge he’s after.

Mike evidently evaded capture again and made his way to a secluded cabin in the woods where he could sleep for a year and rejuvenate his super psycho killer powers. And while Mike is resting up for the big night, Jamie (Danielle Harris) is in a home for crazy kids that get possessed by their evil uncles. Oh, and now she has a psychic link to the man in the Shatner mask. Somehow she can tell when Mike is going to kill someone, which is a nifty skill to have since she’s on the list of people he wants to dismember.

Her foster sister Rachel makes an appearance as well, but is killed off faster than you can say, ‘Get her Mike.’ Which brings me to her replacement, Tina (Wendy Kaplan), the most aggravating woman on the face of the Earth. I was praying that Mike would hurry up and kill her, but he got distracted by a group of partying teens. I guess he decided that he needed to exact his revenge on these goobers for having a good time instead of hiding on Halloween night. The upside to this distraction is that he kills a shit-load of people at the party.

Loomis is here as well, only this time he has decided that Mike might stop killing after he kills Jamie, his last living relative. So he decides to use her as bait, but whether he is going to let Mike chop her up or try once again to kill him is never really explained.

This installment in the series definitely has more blood, which is a plus, but the flick still doesn’t live up to the strength of the original. It’s entertaining schlock but not a killer film.

Celebrate Halloween with AMC!

Most of you genre fans like myself probably know that AMC plays some pretty great shit during their Monsterfest every year. What I didn’t know until today was that their website is even better! AMC’s Monsterfest website has year-round horror movie news and features. There are plenty of contests to enter, including Horror Movie Trivia games and various polls like “Favorite Child Star” or “Best Killer”. To top it off, you can watch your favorite horror movies condensed into one-minute long films and even better, you can watch some classic horror films in their entirety like “Dementia 13″ and “Spiderbaby!” I seriously can’t get off of the site. I want to move into it and go to sleep.

Get out those inner-demons at the Monsterfest website.

Happy Halloween again!

Happy Halloween!

Hey boys and ghouls and every other pet name the Crypt Keeper ever gave us! We at Killer Film just wanted to wish all of you a wonderful and safe (but not too safe) Halloween! Sure, it’s on a Wednesday but all of us devotees will find something fun to do anyhow! So put on your Bloody Sunday’s best and cake on that make up from your Living Nightmare kit. It’s time for the horror fans to party! We only get one day a year, make it count!!!

Check out our Features section today and later on for some assorted pictures from the Killer Film crew’s October celebrations!

<3

Must Be Something in the Water…

There is a difference between a good movie and an enjoyable movie. I feel that many modern moviegoers cannot separate the two. This is why people say Transformers was a good movie. Was it entertaining? To some, sure. Was it a good, quality film? Not by any definition of the word. I am starting this review this way because Eli Roth’s first feature film Cabin Fever is not a good movie. It is entertaining as hell, though. I love everything about this movie. I think it is scary, hilarious, gruesome. It has it all, including a naked Power Ranger! How can you NOT love this movie?

The film is about a group of five friends who just finished their finals and are on their way to a cabin in the woods for a week of drinking, hunting, and fucking. Their plans are quickly halted when they contract a deadly flesh-eating virus from a vagabond in the woods. With a busted vehicle, they are forced to do whatever they can to try to survive. I won’t go into many details, because honestly, that’s about all there is to it. It’s not a deep film. There are no underlying subtexts. It’s just plain ol’ bloody fun.

There are many scenes worth mentioning from this film. Some hilarious, some downright disturbing. The shaving scene is always the first to come to mind. I actually cringed, which is very difficult for a movie to accomplish. It made me want to cover my eyes. There is also a mutual masturbation scene that takes an unfounded fear of many guys to an entirely new level. The scene that completely sold me on this movie was the joke of an ending. No kidding. Roth ended his first horror film with a completely ludicrous yet hilarious joke. I loved him for this.

I still remember the first weekend this film came out. A close friend of mine wanted to go see Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. I painfully agreed. That’s right. I went see Charlie’s Angels over Cabin Fever. Andrew chose to see the latter the same night, but luckily he didn’t mind going see it again the next day with me. What a good friend, right? The only reason I wanted to see this film in the first place was because Boy Meets World was my favorite television show. I was very happy to see Rider Strong getting work. I went for Shawn Hunter, but left with a whole lot more (mono from Andrew).

(Editor’s Note: Rodney, I hate to own you with my embarrassingly great memory, because even though your closing sentiments give me a boner, it was “28 Days Later” that I saw the night you guys went to see “CA: Full Throttle.” I first saw “Cabin Fever” at the 12pm feature with Rob Guillory. I remember this because everytime they used the “N-Word” I looked out of the corner of my eye at him before laughing. I saw it again with you guys the next day when I had started dating Kayla. It rained as we were leaving the theatre. We didn’t have umbrellas. And you’re welcome for the mono! –andrew’s lame memory.)

Corporal Punishment

Have you ever had one of those teachers that you thought would just snap at any given moment? We had a few of those in high school and we pushed them to do so for our own amusement. We were quite cruel back then. We went through three Religion teachers in the 10th grade because we made the first two break down and cry. Oh, Catholic school, you raised us so well. But enough about why I’m going to Hell; let’s talk about going to detention. For a low budget/direct-to-DVD film, I have to admit I was left moderately surprised by ‘Study Hell.’ Though it boasts a horrible pun for a title (I didn’t catch the ’study hall’ joke until they crossed out the A in the opening credits and replaced it with an E), the film still has some redeeming values.

This movie is sort of like a mix of ‘The Breakfast Club’ and ‘Class of 1999 II: The Substitute’ (and if any of you know the latter film, then I love you for understanding my referencing of guilty pleasures). A group of students (varying in popularity) are sent to detention which apparently takes place really late at night. Mr. Keller, the teacher put in charge of the detention session has a few screws loose. Not only is he a retired military Captain with bad war flashbacks, but since the passing of his wife, his performance as a teacher as been declining and the detention students aren’t going to give him a break. Once he reaches his breaking point, Keller goes apeshit and proceeds to hunt down the students to give them a suspension ‘ from life. (And no, I didn’t get that from the back of the box!)

Okay so here’s the thing about ‘Study Hell.’ The acting is pretty fucking shoddy. Some characters try their best and they’re tolerable, but most move about and speak like a ventriloquist doll: stiff and spewing what sounds like forced dialogue. The characters are pretty average for slasher fodder: slut, pothead, suave mcgee, nerd, loner-girl, etc. The nerd is surprisingly likeable though. The film is no-budget and features a lot of stale tripod shots. However, there are actually a few scenes where the cinematography isn’t half bad when it’s not docked in place. I also liked how the entire film takes place in the school at night. I can remember how when I would attend school events or meetings at night, walking through the halls felt so creepy and different with nobody around. So for a no-budget flick, it makes good use of its surroundings. What impressed me the most, however, were the fight scenes. There are obviously no stuntmen at work in this film and when Keller throws these students over desks or bangs their heads against a pipe, it’s really that student. A lot of the stunt landings look accidental and therefore more painful than they should’ve been, which is an added bonus if you pay enough attention to them. The film ends quite surprisingly and even a tad on the ‘awww’ side, but you know modern horror films just can’t resist the element of twist.

This isn’t a movie that you need to rush out to grab and watch immediately. Take your time and save it for a free period.

The Hidden Message: Sorry again about making you cry and quit Ms. Mire and Ms. Other Lady Who I Can’t Remember. Seriously though, teaching Religion in a Catholic school? You’d have better luck teaching ‘How to not get Pregnant’ in a public school.

A prequel to species…?

Before Writer/Director Fred Olen Ray gave up on making ’serious’ sci-fi/horror films and focused on features such as ‘Genie in a String Bikini’ and ‘13 Erotic Ghosts’ he made a couple serious’(maybe?)’attempts in the sci-fi/horror genre. Films like ‘Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers’ and ‘Evil Spawn”the kind of movies you either love or hate. If you know anything about me’then you know I am game for a shitty film any night of the week. On today’s menu; 1985’s ‘Biohazard’.

Angelique Pettyjohn plays ‘Lisa’; a bra-bustin’ psychic working for the government in a secret lab where with the help of a wacky doctor and a hollow globe on her head she can visualize matter and transport whatever she is visualizing into the same room with her. When there is a mishap with the equipment, Lisa inadvertently summons a creature from another planet hell bent on destroying earth. When the army fucks up and loses the alien, they enlist Lisa to help them track down the ‘beast’. The rest of the army go back to the base and it’s up to Lisa and Sgt. Carter (William Fair-who looks like a poor mans Bruce Campbell) to lead the investigation. Carter shacks up with Lisa, they get busy, they search for the alien (who randomly kills locals), some uncredited hot blonde girl gets naked and there is a twist ending I really’REALLY didn’t see coming.

Saying the ‘monster’ is a man in a rubber suit is giving it too much credit. The monster was actually Olen Ray’s 5-year-old son, Christopher in half a rubber suit’the upper half. The lower half seriously looks like a pair of jogging pants. The acting is flat’except for Pettyjohn who steals the show (and spends a lot of screen time in clothes that don’t fit her). The gore’oh the gore’well’the gore is on par with TROMA films (at times). Olen Ray is obviously from the school of alka-seltzer and red food coloring, and well, surprisingly it is effective. Drew Neumann’s score is comparable to an episode of Star Trek (when they are on an unknown planet type of stuff) and works well for the film. There is a lot of low keys mixed with high organ. Eerie stuff that if the lame dialog wasn’t interfering with your enjoyment of the music then I could give this a higher rating based on the score alone.

Besides the score, the silliness of the aliens ‘action’ scenes (which are sped up to make him seem more intimidating’? Maybe?), and Pettyjohn there is little reason to spend a lot of time trying to track this one down. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Pettyjohn is fucking hot (sadly she passed away in 1992 to cancer), and watching this 76-minute piece of Olen Ray trash wasn’t hard to do (it’s kind of fun actually), but unless you come across this one on cable or a used cheapie bin I wouldn’t stress out about it too much.

Charlie ‘You’re nothing but a pain in the ass’ Brown

Mike Just Won’t Stay Dead

At the end of ‘Halloween 2′ Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) die a fiery death and forced the franchise to live on without the masked one in ‘Halloween III: Season of the Witch,’ a flick that didn’t do very well at the box office. So in ‘Halloween 4:The Return of Michael Myers’ it’s no surprise that both Mike and Loomis somehow survived. It’s funny what money can do.

First we find out that the comatose Myers is getting transferred to another hospital so that he can wake up from his coma, kill the ambulance crew, and search for his niece that until that very moment he didn’t know existed. Damn Mike is a badass!

Mike’s niece, Jamie (Danielle Harris) is the daughter of Laurie Strode and mental case because of her mother’s death less than a year ago. Don’t worry this is the Halloween franchise so Laurie Strode isn’t really dead. Anyway, Jamie is living with a foster family and feels a close bond with their older daughter Rachel (Ellie Cornell), who would rather be out with her boyfriend Brady (Sasha Jenson) than hanging out with her foster sister. What Jamie and Rachel don’t know is that Mike is going to use his slasher-sense to find them and kill them with a big knife. Although they shouldn’t worry too much because a now burn scared Loomis is there to save the day. The only problem is Loomis now walks with a limp so running is out of the question, and when Mike is around lots of running and screaming is required.

Director Dwight H. Little did the best with the tools he had and the film is a blast to watch, mainly because of the ridiculous plotline. Plus Mike isn’t just Michael Myers anymore he’s super Mike. He can put rip out your face with his fingertips, survive multiple gunshot wounds, get up after being run over by a pickup truck, and find any living relative without even knowing their name (if the slasher thing doesn’t pan out he can get a job at the Census Bureau).

If your looking for a good time horror flick and you don’t require flawless plot structure, then ‘Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers’ is for you. It’s not quite a killer film, but not all films have to be killer to be fun.

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