I have seen Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and I thought it was a pretty solid vampire movie. It definitely had something going on to separate it from other entries in the sub genre. What I mostly liked were the phenomenal performances by Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and especially a stand out performance by the young, talented and lovely Kirsten Dunst. This is a one of a kind performance in her slate of movies and should’ve gotten her an Oscar nomination. Such a strong and focused acting performance! I liked Christian Slater in his role but, in my opinion, Antonio Banderas was hugely miscast in this. I won’t go further into this, its just too obvious to ignore.

I loved the style by Neil Jordan in this, the settings, the costumes, the visuals, the blood and not to forget the brilliant make up effects. This movie, of course, had some problems, it dragged for too long in quite some scenes which took some of the focus on the story away. This movie did have some unfortunate twists as well. Overall its a great vampire movie of its kind and actually one of the best I have seen. I do however feel that Byzantium is a much better vampire movie. I still highly recommend this movie and I already ordered my Blu-ray since I wanna upgrade!

–Ferdi Akkulak

I have finally seen Halloween (1978) for the very first time (“H” of #AtoZHorror in August) and as everyone told me, I loved it! This movie has easily become one of my favorite horror movies of all time! Halloween doesn’t need to rely on blood and gore and is perfect in its way of building up suspense and showing our scary and mysterious killer. Halloween is one of the best scored horror film I have ever seen and benefits from having perfect camera work by the legendary John Carpenter, a simple but really interesting story, astounding cinematography and some strong and fun acting performances by Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, P.J. Soles and Nancy Loomis. As a matter of fact, Laurie Strode has just become one of my personal favorite final girls and scream queens.

I loved how much effort Jamie Lee Curtis put in this fascinating and totally likeable character. I can go on for much longer telling you how much I loved it but Halloween is a suspenseful cult classic and a groundbreaking entry in the horror genre. This is a must see/have for every (horror) movie fan out there! Michael Myers is a really menacing, vicious and scary killer.

–Ferdi Akkulak

I have seen Friday the 13th Part III for the first time and to be honest my expectations weren’t all that high to begin with. When I saw it, I was kind of disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it has some great things going on but it just feels weak when looking at the original and Part 2, which are far better. What worked for me was the cool compilation of what went down in the previous installment (that’s great seeing in every F13 sequel), the opening credits were VERY groovy and so 80s, the kills as usual are inventive and bloody, some of the characters (Shelly, Fox & Debbie) were so much fun, this is the one where the infamous hockey mask of Jason Voorhees was presented for the first time and the scene in which we see that is EPIC, I loved how cheesy it got sometimes and of course the obvious 3D gags that were fun in 2D too. Jason was played extremely well by Richard Brooker as well, may he rest in peace.

Now this movie had lots of flaws! First of all it has a really bad final girl (Dana Kimmell as Chris) who did nothing else than screaming, hiding and whining without pulling out a good fight. I find it an insult compared to Alice and Ginny… This is really a comedown after the spectacular Part 2 if you ask me! The movie in general has bad acting, and some really annoying characters. I also feel that the dream sequence has been done to death in the third entry, it feels tired and repetitive. The final act is nowhere near as suspenseful and powerful as its predecessor. I found Part III okay but nothing special, could’ve been much better, its still not entirely terrible. Still recommend it to the horror fans in general to give this a watch. Might consider upgrading to Blu-ray… Again, its too bad this never got re-released in Real 3D, the way it was made for.

–Ferdi Akkulak

I have finally watched Friday the 13th Part 2 for the very first time (“F” of #AtoZHorror in August) and I dare to admit that I loved it slightly more than the original, which I love too! This is one of the best slasher sequels I have ever seen along with the likes of Scream 2. I love how the continuing story picked up after the events of the original. Its definitely my favorite installment of the Friday the 13th franchise as of yet.

I thought the characters were very likeable, and my favorite character was of course Ginny played by the talented Amy Steel. Her tour de force performance won me over and I crown her as the best F13 final girl! What a smart, intelligent, witty and loveable character she portrayed! Props… I really liked every kill, loved how some of them were really unexpected and turned into a jump scare. I really dug the score in this as well, done by the always amazing Harry Manfredini! This is such a well done sequel, I fell in love with the characters and I thought it was very fast paced too, no loose ends! I adored the small but memorable part of Adrienne King (Alice) in this movie. The suspensefull final act is hands down my favorite part of the movie cause we saw a strong female heroine being born! I also kind of dug Jason in the sack mask to be honest…

All by all, a fantastic slasher sequel and an amazing installment in the F13 franchise that I highly recommend to all you slasher fans! This is getting an upgrade to Blu-ray from me, that’s how much I loved it! Cannot wait to see the segment of Part 2 on the Crystal Lake Memories documentary and to watch Part 3!

–Ferdi Akkuklak

I finally watched The Evil Dead for the first time (“E” of #AtoZHorror in August) and this movie took me by surprise! I love how this movie succeeded with minimal ingredients but having maximum suspense! I can even say that I enjoyed watching it more than the remake of last year and I did not expect that to happen. Not only did it have lots of black humor, it also had some fantastic gore effects and make up effects. It was really frightening and disturbing in a lot of parts and I was even grossed out sometimes, which rarely happens when I watch a horror movie.

Bruce Campbell was amazing as Ash! Some comparisons, the remake had more character development and the characters lasted longer, in the original however the movie finds the perfect balance between horror and comedy. The remake was more serious. Both movies have things that work in its favor though. The Evil Dead is a cult classic in the genre and has so many memorable scenes that you can’t forget about this movie too soon. Highly recommend it to every horror fan who wants a killer good time! Can’t wait to watch the sequels, also besides Ash, none of the other characters were really memorable, but that is an obvious observation.

–Ferdi Akkulak