Super Shark (2011) - 2.5/4
There's no denying that sharksploitation is the 'sploitation de jour. Most exploitation subgenres take place in previous generations, like the nunsploitation films of the '70s, the blaxsploitation...
View ArticleThe Sleeper (2012) - 1.5/4
I had high praise for filmmaker Justin Russell's previous film, Death Stop Holocaust. Like Death Stop Holocaust, The Sleeper is a throwback, this time to '80s slasher movies instead of '70s grindhouse...
View ArticleThe Mask of Medusa (2010) - 2.5/4
The Mask of Medusa is the final film of Jean Rollin, as sure-footed an auteur as the horror genre ever had. His films are more appropriately thought of as fantasies, or 'fantastique', as the man...
View ArticleChain Letter (2010) - 2.5/4
When I took some sociology courses back in college, I remember the professor assigning an essay by Ted Kaczynski, also known as The Unabomber. Most of us were skeptical, because we knew him as a bomber...
View ArticleForget Me Not (2009) - 2.5/4
After a mildly mysterious, but not particularly encouraging pre-title sequence, Forget Me Not introduces us to a menagerie of tedious high school seniors and their sad little lives of fucking and...
View ArticleAmphibious 3D (2011) - 2/4
I've always been fascinated by Yuzna's work. He always teeters on the brink of hackwork, using story-ideas that are disarmingly insipid. Yet, when you watch the films, you see he always takes a...
View ArticleA Psychoanalytic Look at Organizm (2008)
Originally a made-for-TV movie that got new life on DVD and Netflix, Organizm is a beautifully perverse film that flew under the radar for that reason. The lot of made-for-TV movies is to fly under...
View ArticleWolf Town (2010) - 2/4
A group of youngsters take a road trip to a local ghost town where they are attacked by an unfriendly wolf pack. They have to use their ingenuity to defeat the wolves, hiding in the abandoned buildings...
View ArticleTwo-Headed Shark Attack (2012) - 2/4
“Two heads means twice as many teeth!” is the pithy quip of dialogue that sums up the brilliant idea behind Two-Headed Shark Attack, a new sharksploitation motion picture from The Asylum. The Asylum, a...
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American Horror: Studying Argento's Trauma (1993)
All of Argento’s films are deceptive. I don’t refer only to the narrative techniques he uses to mislead the viewer like a street magician, though they offer an interesting parallel. I refer rather to...
View ArticleState of Horror Address: The SyFy Channel
The SyFy Channel has something in common with Nixon. I don't mean the fact that they've both made the supergator battle the megashark. I mean no-one ever admits to loving made-for-SyFy movies, yet...
View ArticleState of Horror Address: The New Wave of French Horror
The French first surrendered to horror only a short time ago. Like a furious Napoleon, but with even more DVD sales, they raged overseas and made passionate love to American markets. And we...
View ArticleState of Horror Address: Teagan Clive
Some things just inspire poetry. The acts of great men have inspired Homer in The Iliad, and Walt Davis in Sex Psycho; the beauty of nature inspired Wordsworth's "Rain Cloud" and Max Hardcore's...
View ArticleState of Horror Address: The Bad Horror Movie
It was Aristotle who stipulated that what makes something bad is failing at its function; and it was Jim Wynorski who retorted that what makes something bad is not having enough tits. But there's...
View ArticleRosewood Lane (2012) - 2.5/4
Rosewood Lane is the latest film from Victor Salva. A vaguely supernatural thriller, it concerns the incessant harassment of a neighborhood by a teenaged paperboy. In particular, the paperboy...
View ArticleSlices of Life (2010) - 3/4
Slices of Life is a horror anthology film containing three stories, all directed by Anthony G. Sumner. Each story addresses an aspect of life--work, home, and sex--and are bound by a frame story in...
View ArticleNotes from the Turkeyground II: Another Month of Bad Movies
November is always a month my wife and I look forward to. Sure, for us horror zonks, October is the Halloween month. And we always watch a series of good movies. But sometimes we get bored of quality....
View ArticleV/H/S (2012) - 2.5
Video Home System. With the VHS, you had all the entertainment of the multiplex and the ability to make your own life into a home video. Compared to youtube, VHS was rubbish. But we of the ‘80s...
View ArticleRed Lights (2012) - 2.5/4
Red Lights is all about fakery and misdirection. Like the best magician, it draws your attention elsewhere while it works its ‘magic.’ In the best cases, this is enjoyable. David Copperfield makes a...
View ArticleSinister (2012) - 3/4
Sinister is proof that you can take a handful of the Same Old Materials and, with some skilful weaving, produce a good, very creepy horror movie. With Sinister, you get unsettling 8mm footage of...
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