October Horror Challenge: Day 13: “Drag Me to Hell”

Slasher Studios*October Horror Challenge

I will start this review off with one simple fact: I love Sam Raimi. I remember staying up late at night as a child watching the original “Evil Dead” through the corners of my fingers. It scared the hell out of me but, at the same time, there was something genuinely gratuitously amazing about the film. It was bold, bloody, filled with puss and maggots, and gore. It was incredible. If the nine year old me at the time could have married anything, it would have been The Evil Dead.

After the Evil Dead trilogy, Raimi pretty much stayed away from horror (not including the excellent and sorely underrated “The Gift”). That is until 2009 when Raimi splashed his way back into the scene with “Drag Me to Hell.” I’ll be the first to admit that I had no desire to see “Drag Me to Hell.” PG-13? Yawn. Ancient spirits? Double yawn. Justin Long? I think I’m falling asleep already. Little did I know what I had coming.

The plot is relatively simple. Determined to impress her boss and get a much-needed promotion at work, Christine Brown lays down the law when mysterious Mrs. Ganush literally comes begging for mercy at her feet. In retaliation for being publicly shamed, Mrs. Ganush places the dreaded curse of the Lamia on her unfortunate target, transforming Christine’s life into a waking nightmare. Her skeptical boyfriend, Clay, casually brushing off her disturbing encounters as mere coincidence, Christine attempts to escape eternal damnation by seeking out the aid of seer Rham Jas. But Christine’s time is fast running out, and unless she’s able to break the curse, she’ll be tormented by a demon for three days before literally being dragged to hell.

What follows is gore, gore, and more gore. How this film was granted a PG-13 I’ll never know. A waterfall of a nosebleed, gooey dentures, dancing goats, maggots…if you can imagine it, it’s here. The film works as a social satire (the death of the middle and lower classes) and as a horror/comedy (the ritual at the end has to be seen to be believed). The performances are top natch and the ending is quite ballsy in its conviction (you’ll see it coming a mile away but will be surprised they actually follow through on it). Overall though, if you love movies like “The Evil Dead”, “Army of Darkness”, or “Cabin Fever”, it’s a must watch. It is one of the best horror films of 2009.

Buy it here: Drag Me to Hell (Unrated Director’s Cut) [Blu-ray]

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October Horror Challenge: Day 12: “Husk”

Slasher Studios*October Horror Challenge

Scott (Devon Graye), Brian (Wes Chatham), Chris (CJ Thomason), Natalie (Tammin Sursok), and Johnny (Ben Easter), find themselves hunted by killer scarecrows motivated by the vengeful spirit. It seems that when any member of the group is killed, something possesses the dead body, forcing the corpse upstairs in one of the rooms to operate a sewing machine, creating a scarecrow mask. For instance, Johnny is missing after a flock of suicidal crows bombard the windshield of Chris’ SUV causing a serious crash. Brian and Scott are able to find the farmhouse by passing through the ominous maze of cornstalks, encountering the dead body of Johnny operating the sewing machine, nails in his fingers, eyes white and lifeless, yet some evil presence motivates his hands into sewing that scarecrow mask. Before long Natalie is taken next, with boyfriend Brian unable to accept her death, this unwillingness to let her go offering possible grave consequences. Chris is thinking about one thing—survival. Brian finds a Chevy truck he believes can crank, and Chris wants the three to leave immediately, yet Natalie’s memory will not fade. Meanwhile, the trio—Scott, Brian, and Chris—attempt to strategize on how to escape the cornfield and killer scarecrows.

Lame. For a killer scarecrow movie, “Husk” doesn’t get a lot of things right. Though the film is well acted and gorgeously shot, the story is a bore. It doesn’t know whether it wants to be a bloody slasher (killer scarecrows everywhere) or a supernatural tale (the brother who was killed and made into a scarecrow who now “haunts” the land). The characters are useless and the deaths aren’t nearly as interesting as they should be (though one impalement is pretty damn sweet). Overall, it isn’t a bad film just one with too much ambition. Maybe there are worse things after all.

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Even Bad Movies Need a Little Love: “Best Worst Movie” Review

Slasher Studios*October Horror Challenge

Before I go into my love for “Best Worst Movie”, I need to give some of you out there that are not familar with the cult of “Troll 2” a little background info. “Troll 2” was a 1990 horror film directed by Claudio Fragasso (under the pseudonym Drake Floyd) and starring Michael Stephenson, George Hardy, Margo Prey, Connie Young (here credited with her maiden name, Connie McFarland), Deborah Reed, and Jason Wright. Although produced under the title Goblins, United States distributors were skeptical about the film’s ability to succeed as a standalone picture and renamed it Troll 2 in an attempt to market it as a sequel to the 1986 Empire Pictures film Troll. The two films, however, have no connection, and no trolls are actually depicted in Troll 2.

The plot concerns a family pursued by vegetarian goblins who seek to transform them into plants so that they can eat them. The English-language script was written by Fragasso and his wife Rosella Drudi, neither of whom actually spoke any English at the time. Despite filming the movie in Utah, and casting the movie entirely with American actors (many of whom had no prior acting experience and had responded to the casting call hoping to be extras), Fragasso also employed an exclusively Italian crew, who likewise spoke no English. The resultant communication breakdown, coupled with the cast’s lack of experience and Fragasso’s insistence that his script be read verbatim, has led to the movie being considered one of the worst movies ever made.

Which all leads us to our movie of the day, the strangely poetic “Best Worst Movie”, a doc that revels in the notion of what is and is not considered a “bad” film. Probably the most heartfelt doc I’ve ever seen, “Best Worst Movie” examines the perspective of a “bad” movie from all angles. From the fans to the filmmakers to the cast, everyone talks about their experience. It’s a really sweet doc that I wasn’t expecting to find much weight behind but it’s one of the best experiences watching a movie that I’ve ever had in my life. Just because something is “bad” doesn’t mean it can’t or doesn’t deserve to be loved.

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October Horror Challenge: Day 11: “Night of the Creeps”

Slasher Studios*October Horror Challenge

In 1959, on board an alien space ship, two aliens feverishly race to keep an experiment from being released. But it is too late and the seemingly possessed third alien they are pursuing has shot the canister into space where it crashes to Earth. On this night a young college man takes a date to a parking spot where they see a falling star and investigate. Unfortunately, it lands in the path of an escaped criminally insane mental patient. As his date falls victim to the axe-wielding maniac, the boy finds the canister, from which a small leech-like thing jumps out at him and into his mouth.

Later in 1986, Chris Romero is pining over a love lost, being supported by his handicapped friend J.C. During pledge week at Corman University, Chris spots a girl, Cynthia Cronenberg, and seems to fall instantly in love. To get her attention, he decides that he must join a fraternity. As a part of their pledge (although the frat leader who is dating Cynthia has no intentions of letting them join), they must steal a cadaver from the university medical center and place it on the steps of the Phi Omega Gamma house. Chris and J.C. find one in a top secret room that is being kept in a state of suspended animation, but when it grabs one of their arms as they try to move it, they lose their nerve and run back to their dorm room. Meanwhile, Detective Ray Cameron, a cop that dated the girl killed back in 1959 and is haunted by the memories of what he found that night, is called in to the cryogenics lab break-in where there were two bodies, but one is now missing. The missing body is the one released from its cryogenics tomb – the same boy who found the alien experiment back in 1959. This missing body makes its way back to the same sorority house where he picked up his date 27 years earlier and all hell breaks loose.

“Night of the Creeps” is a forgotten classic from 1986 that mixes just the right amount of humor with a nice dose of jump scenes. When the film was first released, it grossed only $500,000 at the US box office before being unleashed on VHS and on pay stations everywhere. I remember the first time I saw it being scared out of my mind and begging to sleep on the floor of my parents bedroom. While the film doesn’t scare me as it once did, the effects and the acting both hold up quite nicely. If the film does drag a bit in the second act, it comes roaring back for a killer finale. Good stuff all around.

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October Horror Challenge: Day 10: “Leprechaun”

Slasher Studios*October Horror Challenge
"Leprechaun and Little People Fetishes Centerfold, May 1994"

Oh the joys of “Leprechaun”. The basic plot? A really nasty leprechaun is robbed of his gold and forced to lie trapped in a crate for ten years thanks to a magical four-leaf clover. When the Leprechaun is awaken from his slumber, he makes a vow to kill everybody who stands in his way of his recovering his gold. Sound promising? I’d say your luck just ran out.

"Lucky Charms, My Ass!"

“Leprechaun” is the sort of movie I might expect to see from someone who decided that there simply MUST be a St. Patrick’s Day horror movie (or October movie challenge….haha). The movie does have one good thing going for it, though, a young Jennifer Aniston who is actually quite charming as our lead and ultimate “Final Girl”. Tory is a spoiled young girl from L.A. forced to spend the summer with her father and friends in an all but condemned house in North Dakota. The very same house the mean, old Leprechaun has been staying!

"You think this is bad? You haven't seen Love Happens yet!"

Ugh…is this movie over yet? There is a slight bit of blood and gore, but the leprechaun spends more time trying to be funny (his “jokes” make Freddy Krueger seem like Woody Allen) than providing us with satisfying deaths. Far too many ridiculous sight gags are played, insulting the intelligence of even the youngest of viewers, and the climax (“FUCK YOU LUCKY CHARMS”) is too inane for words. In the world of horror movies, Leprechaun is typical B-rated horror….nothing more and nothing less.

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October Horror Challenge: Day 9: “Cabin Fever”

Slasher Studios*October Horror Challenge

Four high school school friends Paul, Karen, Bert, Marcy and Jeff rent an isolated cabin in the woods to spend a week together. When they arrive, a man contaminated with a weird disease asks for help, but they panic and kill the man, who drops dead in the water reservoir. When Karen drinks tap water and gets the disease, the group starts their journey to hell.

“Cabin Fever” is a no-holds-bars white knuckle horror-comedy that is both scarier and funnier than 95% of the other crap out there. The setup is simple: Five teens decide to go camping out in the woods at an old cabin when, one-by-one, they begin to become the victims of a killer flesh eating virus. As one might expect, many characters are killed in an awesome over-the-top gory fashion and there is a solid amount of nudity for a 2003 horror flick. It can be argued that this movie is not for everyone but fans of 80′s gore films will be in gore heaven.

P.S. I’ve talked to many people who have said they didn’t care for this movie because it wasn’t scary. Sorry, wrong type of horror flick. Watch it expecting “Evil Dead” and you’ll be fine. Also, I am one of the few people out there that genuinely loves the gooey horror sundae of a sequel, “Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever”.

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October Horror Challenge: Day 8: “The Last Slumber Party

Slasher Studios*October Horror Challenge

“You’re invited to a party … the Last Slumber Party … where the girls are dying for a good time.”

From United Entertainment/VCI (Haven’t heard of them? Don’t worry, neither has 99% of the general population) who gave us the awful home video ultra-no budget hit “Blood Lake”, comes “The Last Slumber Party”. On their last day of high school, Linda, Tracy and Chris celebrate by having a slumber party at Linda’s house. A few boys drop by and the beer flows like wine. Just good, clean, fun-loving kids. But the girls have another visitor, one they don’t yet know about. Hiding in the house is a homicidal maniac who has just escaped from a mental hospital. Armed with a scalpel, the nut slashes a little here, a little there as he sneaks from room to room. One by one the guests start disappearing. What evil lurks there? What nightmare world have they entered?
The plot is twisted inside out, leaving you stunned and clinging to your chair as you witness shock after horrifying shock. The ending will leave you breathless. Umm….sure.

There are bad movies and then there is “The Last Slumber Party”. The film looks like it was made for about $20, features “actors” that wouldn’t be able to get extra roles in community theater, and has the audacity to be neither gory OR show nudity. The film claims it was made in 1988 but looks like it was probably filmed in 1982 or 1983 tops. The film looks wretched, shots go on and on to the point of boredom, and the sound switches from not being able to hear a damn thing to shouting in your ear. Sound like your cup of tea? Well dig in and enjoy the bad horror movie you are soaking in.

For entertainment value alone:

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Slasher Studios: Halloween Series (Part 1 of 2)

Slasher Studios*Slasher Studios Podcast

On this week’s show, Kevin Sommerfield and Steve Goltz will be going over the first half of the Halloween series. The groundbreaking oriignal, 2, 4, and 5 (we don’t count 3 as a “real” Halloween film…haha) Make sure to listen in live tonight, October 9th at 10PM central to find out what we thought of the series as a whole as well as our indidivual reviews of the first half of the series.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/slasherstudios/2011/10/10/slasher-studios-best-opening-scenes

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R.I.P. David Hess

Slasher Studios*Horror

David Hess, best known to horror fans as “Krug Stillo” in Wes Craven’s infamous debut “The Last House on the Left”, and star of “House on the Edge of the Park” and “Swamp Thing”, has passed away today. He was 69.

His children updated his Facebook page today with the following statement:
“It is with great sadness that we have said our last goodbyes to our beloved dad and friend to all. David passed away peacefully last night. The Mad Hessian lives on in his family, friends, and all of his devoted fans. Sing a song in celebration of his life.”

More information forthcoming as details are released.

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October Horror Challange: Day 7: “Seed of Chucky”

Slasher Studios*October Horror Challenge

Chucky’s back and better than ever! Well, not quite, but “Seed of Chucky” is a silly, enjoyably campy horror flick with just the right mix of blood and giggles. The story? Glen, the orphan doll offspring of the irrepressible devilish-doll-come-to-life Chucky and his equally twisted bride Tiffany, is now alone, looking for his parents. When production starts on a movie detailing the urban legend of his parents’ lethal exploits, Glen heads for Hollywood where he brings his bloodthirsty parents back from the dead. The family dynamics are far from perfect as Chucky and Tiffany go Hollywood and get rolling on a new spree of murderous mayhem; much to gentle Glen’s horror. Chucky can’t believe that his child doesn’t want to walk in his murdering footsteps, and star-struck Tiffany can’t believe that the movie will star her favorite actress, Jennifer Tilly, who soon becomes an unwitting hostess to this new family in more ways than one… It may sound a bit confusing, but it is all done in good fun. Also in for the mix, John Waters plays a sleazy reporter obesssed with Tilly. Bloody good fun.

Trivia Facts about “Seed of Chucky”:
* The script was originally offered to Universal in 1998, who turned it down. Focus Features (a division of Universal Studios) finally picked up the movie in 2003.

* Jennifer Tilly wanted to lose weight to play herself in the movie, but she and Don Mancini inserted “fat jokes” into the script in case she didn’t make it.

* The TV spots for this movie displays an unusual disclaimer: Britney Spears Does Not Appear In This Movie. This disclaimer was inserted into TV spots because Britney’s management was concerned that people might be lead to believe that Britney actually appears in the movie. It is not her in the movie; but a look-alike.

* As revealed on the DVD’s commentary the directors and producer had difficulty agreeing on the look of Glen. The director wanted to give him his own look and style but the producer felt that he should have features similar to Chucky because after all Glen is his son. As a result Glen was given blue eyes, red hair, and freckles like Chucky. Glen’s blue eyes and red hair however are a different shade than Chucky’s.

* When the floor manager at the beginning of the film shouts “Hey, Tiffany’s left arm is loose again” and then the arm grabs his crotch, this is an in-joke as revealed on the DVD commentary for Bride of Chucky. Jennifer Tilly explains that Chucky’s left arm kept grabbing her breasts during shoots.

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