Tag: Horror

Horror Movie Posters: “Girlfriend from Hell” (1989)

Slasher Studios*Slasher Movie Posters

Girlfriend From Hell is a horror comedy filled with some great cheesy one-liners. It’s fun to watch from beginning to end and this first poster helps sell the goods! It’s bright, full of color and we are treated to some cool custom text for the title graphic. This poster gives you a decent preview of what is to come once you pop in your vintage VHS.

posters_of_the_week_gfh_a

This second, revamped poster is…a disaster. Just an awful piece of crap that gives no insight into the film at all. A rose on fire? Thats the best they could come up with? Yikes!

posters_of_the_week_gfh_b

Share:

Slasher Studios Podcast: Horror Actor/Director James Balsamo (“Cool as Hell”)

Slasher Studios*Slasher Studios Podcast

cool-as-hell-banner

On this week’s episode of Slasher Studios, our slasher hosts Kevin Sommerfield and Steve Goltz will be chatting with horror writer/director/actor James Balsamo about his brand new horror feature “Cool as Hell.” Show starts Monday February 4th at 10PM central. Make sure to tune in live and call in with horror related questions for James. To listen in live or to catch an archive, simply click on the link below.

Slasher Studios Podcast: Horror Actor/Director James Balsamo (“Cool as Hell”)

Share:

Slasher Studios Scares Up New Poster & Rewards for “Don’t Go to the Reunion”

Slasher Studios*Don't Go to the Reunion

Don't_Go_To_The_Reunion_Poster,_House(resize)

Some exciting news for you slasher fans, we have a brand new poster for Slasher Studios first ever feature film, Don’t Go to the Reunion. We hope you like it and would love to hear your feedback! Remember, there is less than 10 days to become a backer and we need all the help we can get. Some amazing new rewards that you will definitely want to check out! If you aren’t yet ready for Don’t Go to the Reunion, we have some drive-in totals to whet your horror appetite! Two breasts, two gratuitous male butt shots, several dead bodies, an unstoppable killer, shards of glass to the throat, multiple decapitations, 14 80’s slasher films mentioned, fire poker fu, abandoned mansion in the middle of woods fu, slasher sex scene to end all slasher sex scenes fu, and one hell of a final line.

Are you a backer yet? To become one:
Don’t Go to the Reunion Kickstarter

Share:

The Asylum’s “Hansel & Gretel” Proves to be Tasty Horror Appetizer

Slasher StudiosHansel & Gretel (2013)

hansel-gretel-2013-poster-artwork-dee-wallace-brent-lydic-stephanie-greco-small

I must admit that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with most films from Asylum. With over 50 movies in the can, the production company has yet to lose money on a single feature. Often from the time a title is announced to the moment the film is available to purchase is less than six months. This is cynical filmmaking to say the least but there is something ingenious about the business side of this sort of low brow end of movies approach. Is this really anything different than what Roger Corman did in the 60s and 70s? Joe Dante’s Piranha was a shameless rip off of Jaws. The Asylum’s Hansel and Gretel is a shameless rip off of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. The real question to ask…does this rip off work or is it even worse than the “blockbuster” it is trying to capitalize on. Let’s take a bite out of Hansel and Gretel.

As Hansel & Gretel begins we witness an overweight girl tied up in shackles trapped in a dark and dreary basement. She manages to get herself free and she runs out of the house and into the woods only to find herself trapped yet again. An apple in the mouth and some seasonings and she has become the next meal for the family who lives in the house. After “treated” to the opening Saw “homage”, I was already tuning myself out of the film. But then something strange happened. The movie developed a sense of humor about itself and it went from being a chore to sit through to becoming one of the more entertaining movies of the last few years. We have our two heroes (Hansel and Gretel, of course) on a race against time as they battle the delightfully evil Dee Wallace as the witch. But I mean Dee Wallace runs a bakery that sells meat pies called The Gingerbread House. How great is that?

I’m been complaining lately that there haven’t been enough good-bad horror movies lately. Horror movies that aren’t exactly great but are shamelessly entertaining. The Asylum’s Hansel and Gretel completely fits the bill. Not only is this Asylum’s best work to date, it is also their most enjoyable work yet. A terrifically over-the-top performance by Dee Wallace who gets to shout lines like “EAT YOUR FUCKING DINNER!” and “I was always going to eat YOU!” seals the deal. A must watch for slasher fans. I can’t wait to dig in for seconds.

3

Share:

Not Quite Horror: “G.I. Joe: The Movie” (1987)

Slasher Studios*Not Quite Horror

Not Quite Horror contains reviews of films not traditionally considered horror films. By analyzing them as horror films (identifying the monster, discussing the shared worry for the audience and the main characters, and understanding the depth of horror available to the viewer), who knows? There more than one way to watch a movie.

G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987)

The Monster: The new villains facing the forces of G.I., the Cobra-La, provide new faces and new toys to be sold to fans of the show. Their leader has the lower body of a snake, their strongest warrior has wings, and their foot soldiers have axes larger than their torsos. They were barely more monstrous than Cobra’s evil soldiers.

Their plan for global domination involves using one of the Joe’s many techno-toys to spread evil spores across the world, mutating all of the innocent civilians of the planet.

The Horror: In the midst of the show’s regular laser-light show of combat and bravado, a truly terrifying narrative emerges in the unlikeliest of places.

Cobra Commander, arch enemy to the heroic Joes, is ousted from his position of power and forcibly infected with the Cobra-La’s spores. During his escape, he devolves into a mutant snake that can’t stop hissing about how he used to be a man.

The Shared Fate: G.I. Joe: The Movie was released during the Cold War and marketed at adolescents.

These adolescents grew up believing in the threat of mutation and mutilation at the hands of the Evil Empire. However, the one who suffers the most in the movie is Cobra Commander, the enemy they used to fear. It’s not unrealistic to assume adolescents would identify with Cobra Commander’s plight, as they themselves worry about being betrayed by their growing social connections.

The horrifying moral of Cobra Commander’s story? Your friends will abandon you and you’ll suffer, then die alone. G.I. Joe had weapons, but when the credits on the film rolled, they couldn’t fight that fear of isolation and abandonment.

— I am indebted to Noel Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror for his ideas on defining horror, as well as John Skipp and Craig Spector’s article “Death’s Rich Pageantry, or Skipp & Spector’s Handy-Dandy Splatterpunk Guide to the Horrors of Non-horror Film” in Cut! Horror Writers on Horror Film for a similar idea.–

–Axel Kohagen

Share:

Kevin & Steve’s Horror Movies: “Girlfriend from Hell” (1989)

Slasher Studios*Kevin & Steve's Horror Movies

Girlfriend from Hell (2)

Steve: This little she-devil sure packs a punch in, Girlfriend From Hell. With great one liners from the entire cast and an over the top, yet fun story to follow, this movie delivers the cheesy goods. Setting itself apart from the mundane films that we have grown far too accustom to, Girlfriend From Hell lets loose and allows it’s audience to escape into a dimension (or two) that we just can’t find in today’s film world.

Kevin: Well, what do you know? Turns out the Devil wears red dress and attends high school birthday parties. At least that’s what SHE doesn’t in the 1989 horror-comedy “Girlfriend from Hell” which is easily one of the silliest movies I’ve seen in quite some time. In this case, silly really isn’t all that bad and this movies turns out to be way more fun than I would have ever expected it to be. So…back to the “plot”…

Steve: I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when we began the film with laser guns and some odd CGI, but I soon embraced this gem more and more with every outrageous scene. The acting is spot on for a film of this caliber and the characters scream likability. I was actually sad to see most of the characters leave us and wish they could have stayed around longer. Rocco and his girl are a comedic duo made in heaven. The devil chaser himself was a pleasant surprise with his mind on sex 99% of the time. His line delivery was out of this world as he had me rolling with laughter on multiple occasions.

0WBSF

Kevin: What Steve, I thought you were going to talk about the plot? Anyway, The devil is on the run and being pursued by God’s assistant, a devil chaser named Chaser (played with pitch-perfect comic timing by an underrated Dana Ashbrook). When the devil makes a wrong turn to a high school birthday party, the devil takes over the body of innocent and painfully shy Maggie (wonderfully played by Liane Curtis who displays the perfect amount of tart sweetness to the role). Maggie is on the blind date from..err…hell. The bodies pile up and the fun begins as we have assault rifle nuns, soul stolen during sex, a journey throughout time, and a religious woman holding onto her dead life by a floating cheeto. Seriously. “Girlfriend from Hell” never takes itself too seriously and is never boring. It is actually a lot of fun with a clever script and a breezy pace.

Steve: This is by far the most surprisingly fun films I have seen I a while. Is it a perfect script with top of the line effects and A-list actors? Hell no. But it sure beats out the majority of the crap out there today. So, for the true experience, dust off the old VCR and don’t be afraid of making a date with Girlfriend From Hell.

Kevin: Fun fact: In early 2011, playwright/composer Sean Matthew Whiteford adapted the film into a stage musical. The pop-rock musical features 20 original songs, a revamped story line, while still using several of the original film’s characters, and using the film’s release date year, 1989, as the year the show is set in. The show opened for a test run at The Gene Frankel Theatre in NYC on July 21, 2011. The original Off-Off Broadway cast included Melissa Matthews as Maggie (the role originated by Liane Curtis in the film), Dana Gough, Gregory Krupp, Frank McGinnis, Foster Miller, Cassiopeia Ottulich, Matthew Patane, Juda Leah, Michael Siktberg, Sean Matthew Whiteford, and Margie Zarcone. The show is currently preparing for a new, revised production in June 2013 at the Center For Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, NY.

Share:

Indie Slasher “Laughter” is a Delightful Scream

Slasher StudiosLaughter

540187_299516593458780_871641108_n

Over the last few months I have been moaning and groaning about the lack of quality slashers in the marketplace. With the exception of Texas Chainsaw 3D (which just barely qualifies as a slasher), can you name the last slasher to receive a nationwide theatrical release? You would have to go back to the release of Scream 4 back in April 2011. That’s right, there hasn’t been a quality slasher to hit screens in 20 months. Back in the 80’s, you couldn’t go 20 DAYS without a brand new slasher hitting the marketplace. The times are changing and slashers are being released straight to dvd. Last year saw the release of two high-quality slashers, Justin Russell’s The Sleeper and Steven Miller’s Silent Night remake both of which, with the exception of a small theatrical run, shuttled unfairly to dvd. The point of this all? The best slashers are going straight to dvd and the indie horror world needs to stand up and take notice. Today’s slasher tale, Adam Dunning’s Laughter is such a slasher.

Laughter tells the tale of Joey, an angry and seriously depressed teenager with a love of clowns and the masks thereof, who has an abusive father and a lot on his mind. Joey along with friends Chris and Brian decide to play a brand on a group of students celebrating the end of the school year. Just as they huddle around the campfire to share their scary stories, Joey pops out, clown mask and all, to scare the hell out of them. Sadly for Joey, the joke backfires. It backfires big time actually as he is attacked by resident bully Mike beats Joey to death. The team decide to band together to bury Joey in a hole vowing to never, ever speak of the horror night again. A few months later, someone is harassing the group with strange calls and texts. One by one, the original campfire teens begin to disappear. Has Joey come back for revenge or is someone else getting the revenge that Joey deserves?

Laughter is the kind of slasher that would fit right in with some of the best SOV horror movies of the 1980’s. It has a low budget that it wears with a badge of pride. Sure the acting is a little on the stilted side and some of the performances are a bit forced but it all tends to be part of the charm of this film. Writer/director Adam Dunning knows the genre and every inch of this film is filled with a joy and kinetic energy that is simply missing from most of the horror today. It is fun from beginning to end and I gotta love and appreciate the practical effects that were applied in this film. No CGI here and the film is better for it. The love of horror as displayed in this film is simply refreshing and it makes me wonder what Dunning could do with a larger budget and a slightly more experienced cast. Either way, this is a must see for fans of indie horror (the clown mask is truly terrifying and the deaths are a lot of fun). It looks like they had a blast making this film and I was right there with them watching it.

Like the Laughter Facebook page below for updates on the film:
Laughter (Facebook)

3

Share:

Slasher Studios’ TEDDY Nominated for Best Horror Short by Horror Society

Slasher Studios*Teddy

TEDDY_hs_best_short_nom_copy

We are honored to announce that our very own TEDDY has been nominated for Best Horror Short of the year by Horror Society. Slasher Studios fans, we need your help! Vote for TEDDY as many times as you’d like at either the link below or by clicking the picture above. Let’s see the beary scary slasher with Best Horror Short. A big thank you to all of you! We couldn’t have done this without you.

Horror Society Nominations

Share: