Reviews

Here you'll find some reviews I've written specifically for this blog. For a much larger database of movie reviews, check out my YouTube channel.

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Coming of age tales about the alienated, outcast and oftentimes disturbed certainly aren't anything new.  It's no wonder that the horror movie community embraces these sort of titles, not only for their dark subject matter and socially awkward protagonists, but for the fact that we who love horror share an affinity for a genre so many never have, nor never will understand, and therefore by popular perception we too are alienated, outcasts and disturbed.

Such is the story of Excision and its protagonist, Pauline (played by AnnaLynne McCord), a young woman whose fantasies revolve around necrophilia and dismemberment.  It's no wonder she aspires to be a surgeon.  She's odd, she knows it and she's damn proud of it.  Pauline is the product of an overbearing mother (Traci Lords) and a father who's good intentions were met with such utter disdain from his wife that he seemingly tuned out long ago.  Pauline's only balance is her younger sister, Grace, a debutante to be, with a life threatening illness.  Despite their obvious differences, Pauline would do anything to save her younger sister as her condition soon begins to worsen.  This ultimately culminates in a disturbing finale in which Pauline executes a homemade surgical procedure in the family garage.

Writer/director Richard Bates, Jr. creates a world fraught with dread (you just know it's not going to end well for anyone), but with just enough quirk and black humor to keep it an interesting, almost warm sort of dread.  At one point, Pauline approaches "the popular boy" and asks him to take her virginity as if she were requesting a stick of gum.  She just chooses not mention that she wants this undertaking to occur while she's menstruating.  AnnaLynne McCord delivers a stripped down and wholly unglamorous performance.  This definitely isn't 90210.  McCord and co-star Traci Lords seem to battle over just who's stealing the show.  The best moments in the film occur when they share the screen.  Their tenuous mother/daughter relationship is delightfully uncomfortable to watch.  Among the extended cast include John Waters, Malcolm McDowell and Ray Wise in small roles.

Excision takes its viewer down a dark path.  Granted, it's one that horror fans have tread before, but the performances, black humor and bloody finale are worth the price of a rental alone.

Buy Excision on Blu-ray by clicking here.

Freakishness abounds in Frank Henenlotter's third - and to date final - entry in the Basket Case series, which finds Belial and his long suffering brother, Duane (played again with a kind of absurdly endearing panache by Kevin Van Hentenryck), on the road with a busload of Granny Ruth's "eccentrics" to "an understanding" doctor in Ohio to prep for the birth of Belial's PROGENY.  Needless to say, this birth(s) will have severe complications.

Those familiar with writer/director Henenlotter's oddball sense of humor, with one-liners like, ""She's poppin'em out like Pez candies!" or "You're gonna need a bigger basket" and affinity for the disgusting (see: Brain Damage and Frankenhooker) will have a blast with Basket Case 3 for its over-the-top (and oftentimes pretty darn good make-up effects, particularly during Belial's siege of the sheriff's office), cheesy acting and Henenlotter's tendency to air on the side of the absurd.  Henenlotter does a nice job humanizing the colorful cast of "freaks" and lowering the "normals" to the level of ignorant degenerates who deserve their bloody comeuppance. 

Basket Case 3 is, in the end, an orchestra of freaks conducting a beautiful symphony of ooze, goo, puss and blood.  See it.  Extra special kudos for the musical number, "Personality" sung with much gusto by Granny Ruth, played with far more gusto by Annie Ross.

The DVD released by Synapse Films has no special features to speak of, save for the theatrical trailer.  The picture and sound quality are both top notch.  Fans of the movie should definitely acquire this release.

Watch my review of Synapse Film's Blu-ray Special Edition of FRANKENHOOKER here.

Visit Synapse Films official site here.

The holiday slasher movie, Silent Night, wants nothing more than to be a throwback to classic 80's slasher fare, but with a kind of winking, self-referential charm and glibness intended to let the viewer know that they're in on the joke with you (in this case the joke is, unfortunately, on you).  Yeah, it's over-the-top in the bloodshed department (we get a topless girl forced kicking and screaming into a wood chipper) and there's the prerequisite boobage (see above), but the movie severely lacks that intangible fun factor that made so many 80's slashers classic and is, more-so, a fairly witless and charm-free zone that makes it's scant 94 minute run time feel much, much longer.  

The synopsis on the back of the DVD would lead one to believe that Silent Night was a sequel, or at least in some way related to the original Silent Night, Deadly Night released in 1984, a film that was quickly pulled from theaters midst a storm of controversy.  The only thing Silent Night (2012) shares with the original film is its plot.  A Santa-clad psycho is out to wreak havoc on a small town (this is compounded by the fact that seemingly every male in the town dresses as Santa on Christmas Eve) and punish all those he judges to be "naughty".  This milieu of degenerates includes adulterers, pornographers, coke dealers, a crooked priest and even a bitchy 14 year old girl.  Oh, my!  The movie also shares the most memorable kill from the original SNDN.  I in no way want to herald the original 1984 film to a status its not due.  It's not a great movie.  Not even close.  But the 1984 film had that intangible quality that a lot of early 80's slashers seemed to have in abundance.  Exactly what that was isn't easy to explain.  I'm talking about a kind of odd purity and a complete lack of cynicism that made you take the movies seriously, regardless of how corny and/or dumb they were.  They were unabashedly bloody, and so what if they objectified women and seemed to revel in the fact that they made the fairer sex such entertaining victims for their predominately male audience to view butchered.  Silent Night (2012) wants to capture that kind of senseless brutality and filter it through a tongue-in-cheek hue that falls incredibly flat.  Everything about the movie is...well, flat.  Lifeless.  It's the slasher movie equivalent of watching paint dry.  

It's a shame good actors the likes of Malcolm McDowell, Donal Logue and (more often than not) Jaime King are associated.  Their performances are embarrassing, but you can't blame them for phoning it in.  They really have very little to work with here.  Even for a slasher movie the plot is toilet paper thin (think single ply).  The characters make cardboard look like tempered steel.  There are no surprises.  There is no tension.  Not a shock was stirring, not even the most disposable boo scare in sight.  The climactic axe battle at the end sums up the entire movie: clumsy and boring.  Are you still with me here?  In other words I'm saying the movie is dull, painfully and remarkably and unequivocally dull.  This is a serious lump of coal in horror fans collective Christmas stockings.  Avoid.

Only Deftones would give their latest release and seventh studio record a title with no English translation.  The closest English interpretation would be "love at first sight", though the Japanese proverb doesn't apply to the actual feeling of love, but rather refers to the knowledge that a future love is inevitable.  I explain this only because the breadth of the title, the mystery of its meaning, perfectly exemplifies the Deftone's signature musical style, one of ever-shifting moods and mind-bending soundscapes, wavering from blunt force trauma to soaring, almost ethereal grooves, back to a melancholy swooning that's damn near delicate.  This almost bi-polar approach to music making is what has garnered Deftones legions of die hard fans and critical praise, with the band often being compared to such critical darlings as My Bloody Valentine and The Cure.  Frontman Chino Moreno's vocal style and lyrical approach also goes hand-in-hand with the title.  His breathy voice shape-shifts from whispers to roars, and his vocals are oftentimes sensual and abstract, leaving the music wide open for interpretation and oblique enough to propose a multitude of meanings.

Fans of Deftones have come to expect the unexpected from the band, and Koi No Yokan is no exception.  "Swerve City" opens the record with a bludgeoning guitar riff from Stephen Carpenter, accompanied by hard-hitting percussion provided by Abe Cunningham, while Moreno's voice pulses and echoes everywhere like a symphony of ghosts crying out from beyond.  "Romantic Dreams" and "Rosemary" are steeped in a beautifully muddy arrangement of ringing guitar and pounding drums while Frank Delgado provides a brooding atmosphere of sound dense enough to choke you.  Love songs they are, but no less neck-breaking.  Delgado's keyboard work in particular takes the music to staggering new heights.  "Tempest" and "Entombed" soar like rocket ships into space.  Both songs are so meticulously crafted and densely textured they're impossible not to utterly succumb to.  Deftones certainly don't abandon the thunder on Koi No Yokan.  "Leathers" has a kind of wanton, dangerous urgency, with Moreno flatly chanting "wear your insides on the outside, show your enemy what you look like".  "Poltergeist" shifts from what seems like a lover's spat to Moreno moaning almost sarcastically that "I love you to death, like you love this game".  And despite all the shifting moods and dense textures the songs boast, the record doesn't feel unfocused in the least.  If anything this is Deftone's most even-feeling record since White Pony, another masterpiece of revolving moods and musicianship, and yet manages to remain focused while maintaining a merciless hold on the listener's attention.

Considering the breadth and depth of their sound, Deftones have made a career of creating music perfect for any mood you're in.  The musical textures and soundscapes on Koi No Yokan are some of their most ambitious to date.  Whether you want to be bludgeoned about the head, taken into outer space or lulled into a dream, Koi No Yokan is your all purpose guide to that and more.  The riffs are catchy, the beats abound and the hooks are undeniable.  Deftones can attribute their longevity to the fact that they've never been comfortable with labels and instead of finding a formula and sticking to it, they've continued to explore and expand musically.  Their newest effort is their most accomplished yet.  

Purchase Koi No Yokan by clicking HERE

The Human Centipede is a movie that must be experienced.  It has to be seen to be believed.  I say this only due to the fact that until the other day I had not seen the movie, but I had HEARD everything about it.  Yeah, EVERYTHING.  But hearing and seeing are two very dissimilar senses, particularly when it comes to a movie like The Human Centipede.

The movie was released to a hail of controversy and curiosity.  The subject matter was, in its favor, original, but even more so risque, unflinching.  What many in the horror community call "hardcore horror".  I eschewed seeing the movie for the longest time due to this.  I'd been suckered into so much over-hyped and ultimately flat foreign fare that I expected The Human Centipede to be more of the same.  Don't get me wrong, the movie is no masterpiece.  FAR, far from it.  The movie masquerades itself as a deep psychological portrait of a madman, and on some small level it is.  On a much greater level, however, its a torture porn that relies on simple shock value to assault the audience and test our gag reflex.  The characters aren't your typical dimwitted horror movie cannon fodder, either.  They are on a whole new level of insipid.  You hate the characters for their stupidity.  I say hate the writer.  The character's complete lack of simple common sense is pretty astounding.  You can forgive quirky dialogue in a foreign film, as much of it can be chalked up to a barrier in translation.  But stupid is stupid, regardless of nationality. 

I will say this for the the movie, its fairly well made and the acting from Deiter Laser, who portrays Dr. Heiter with such diabolical relish that you can't help but be drawn into the movie by his wild-eyed, brash performance alone.  There's nothing in the way of character development here.  You simply feel bad for the characters considering their "predicament".  The last act of the movie is primarily comprised of one character yelling in Japanese, Dr. Heiter cackling, and the two female leads muffled cries.  I do mean muffled.  Then the movie just sort of ends.  A fitting end when you think about it.  There's no resolution, but then there's really no plot to speak of to resolve.

I enjoyed the movie.  God help me, but it was pretty damn entertaining.  Sure, I felt like I needed to bathe afterward and admitting that I enjoyed watching it certainly doesn't illicit a feeling of profound pride.  I found it on Netflix and decided to give it a few minutes to see what happened.  What the hell, I thought.  Not long thereafter I realized I was actually wrapped up in the movie and enjoying every minute of it, not just on a shock value level (though, admittedly, that's most of this movie's charm, and I use the word 'charm' loosely), but it was actually kind of suspenseful.  The Human Centipede succeeds in turning the viewer's screws and getting them invested in what's happening, even it's making them sick to their stomach.  That alone is a major accomplishment in my book.

Enter the world of hobos, derelicts, the unwashed and the criminally insane with Synapse Film's newest Blu-ray release, STREET TRASH, directed by James Muro and written by Roy Frumkes.  Street Trash is the saga of a group of derelicts living in a junkyard under the merciless rule of a psychotic Vietnam vet.  Plot number one.  When several derelicts turn up mysteriously liquefied, the police come down hard on the derelict community in search of answers.  Plot number two.  It turns out the local liquor store has been selling a new hooch called Viper, and at just one dollar a bottle, even the hobos can indulge. Unfortunately for them, drinking Viper has some very fatal side-effects.  Plot number three.  Oh, and there's gang rape, a scene of implied necrophilia and a game of keep-away involving an errant, excised penis!

While STREET TRASH has its fill of rather nice special effects work involving the gross, yet colorful demises of those sampling Viper, cheesy dialogue and memorable (memorably sick) characters, it's the fact that the multiple plots run together instead of coalescing into a single coherent story that makes the film difficult to follow.  The emphasis on character development also weighs down the middle of the movie after a strong opening, and by the third act it's just sort of a mess. What is Viper? Where did it come from? Why is it turning bums into puddles of neon goop?  We never find out.  Instead the movie resolves itself with a long chase and awkward fight sequence involving the junkyard king, Bronson, and our "hero bum" Fred, the only derelict with, at least, some semblance of humanity, yet manages to remain totally unsympathetic.  Did I mention the part about the errant penis?

For me STREET TRASH was a reminder of the kind of films that filled the void after horror had sputtered out in the latter part of the 80's.  Along with films like Frankenhooker (watch my review here) and Brain Damage, STREET TRASH took a hard left toward far less commercial territory.  Despite its flaws, I had a good time with STREET TRASH overall.  It's low budget, but high concept, chock full of black humor, cheese and some rather nice gore effects.  It's sick, twisted fun.  I say check it out.

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BLU-RAY DETAILS:

The HD transfer is fantastic!  The image is crisp and clear, with vivid colors and rich textures throughout.  The audio quality is hit and miss, however, as some character's voices are less discernible than others.  We get two audio commentaries from producer/writer Roy Frumkes and director James Muro.  The original STREET TRASH 16mm short film that inspired the movie is a quick interesting watch.  "The Meltdown Memoirs" is an exhaustively detailed featurette chronicling the making of STREET TRASH.  Rounding out the extras, we get 5 deleted scenes and an interview with actress Jane Arakawa about her experience making the film.

Buy STREET TRASH here.

Check out Synapse Film's website here.