Inkubus

You know what I really like about Frightmare is the guests that you meet at the event.

There are some that you meet and you are like that person is really cool. The really cool thing about that is the fact that after you meet them you feel that they are a friend and sometimes they are.

My favorite memory of last year’s Frightmare was after the event was over Anjanette, my crew and I hung out in the bar and we hung out with none other than Robert Englund.

Now this man is super cool.

We spent hours hanging out in that bar drinking with Robert Englund while he told us tales of movies that scared him in his youth that I was downloading on Netflix that night.

I would not give up that memory for anything in the world.

Needless to say I was at the Redbox this past week looking for Oscar nominated flicks before the big awards show on Sunday and I saw his newest flick Inkubus.
This flick is Assault on Precinct 13 meets Hellraiser.

Using creepy editing Inkubus tells the story of a Police Precinct that is being closed as the staff prepares to move to another building when they have to interrogate a suspect that was found in a room with a headless corpse and while he tells the story of how a man that he didn’t know who he was severed the girls head and right after he tells the story and the police naturally don’t believe him.
That is until Robert Englund walks in the room with the girl’s severed head and allows himself to be taken into custody and uses his phone call to contact an old nemesis (played by another Frightmare alumni William Forsythe) whose wife he had killed years earlier and kidnapped his son.

Now what none of them realize is that Englund is a demon named Inkubus that is taking credit for all of the worlds unsolved crimes in the past 100 years and he is also getting into the heads of all of the police staff and either making them kill each other or killing them himself.

I loved the editing of the movie as well as the story. Beginning with a demonic childbirth the story is told by a survivor in a mental institution in a series of flashbacks that keep you entertained from beginning to end.

The story despite lacking in originality is a story that is not old but keeps you interested.

The FX is a good blend of CGI and Makeup Effects and they are gory.

9 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts but one hot girl in her underwear
1 Beast
Spine Ripping
Disemboweling
Cutting in half
Heart Nuking
Heads Roll
Arms Roll
Legs Roll
Cop Fu
Demon Fu

3 Stars
Check it out

Hostel Part 3

You know I was going to rant about what has happened to the plain old bachelor party but I have found that I can’t really rant without giving away who I was talking about so in the fact that I don’t offend all of my friends who are married that their wives are still letting them speak to me, I feel that I have more to say about the flick.

Now give me an old fashioned Bachelor party in Vegas…As a matter of fact just give me any reason to go to Vegas. I admit that I go to Vegas as often as I can because it is a place that I can relax.

As big of a fan of Vegas I am I am aware of what Vegas really are. It is a big show.
It is a town that makes it’s living on the tourist trade and it gets them there by convincing them that they can do anything that they want while they are there and they will be forgiven for what they have done as soon as they leave.

Which that fact alone is why Las Vegas is the perfect setting for Hostel part III.
Now I have some things to say about Hostel.

When the first flick came out I was late to the party.

I remember a friend seeing the movie first and he told me that the eyeball scene was the freakiest thing that he had ever seen in a movie.

The truth is when I finally checked out the flick I wasn’t too freaked out but the truth is that I’ve seen some pretty intense things on the screen. That is my job folks.

The real freaky thing about Hostel is that these places actually exist. I think that people didn’t know about them until Eli Roth made the flick but I already knew about them.

The truth is that life is cheap in some places.

Now for those of you that have been living under a rock for the past couple of years you will know that Hostel is the story about a group of young college guys that are backpacking across Europe and while they are staying in Hostels in Amsterdam they learn of a place that loves Americans and the women are loose and the drinks flow freely.

Well our guys go to this place but then find out that they have been set up by a Hunting club that rich people pay them a ton of money to kill people.

I actually liked Hostel part II more than the first flick. Hostel II follows more the Elite Hunting Club than it does the victims.

Well that brings to Hostel part III.

Hostel III is different than its predecessors.

Apparently the Elite Club has branched out of Europe and they are now in the states and are luring their victims from Europe to Vegas.

The story follows Scott who is going to Vegas with his friend Carter and meeting their other duo of friends to Vegas for a Bachelor party and to a Casino that is really a giant strip club (I wish that I knew where this Casino was) after Carter throws Scott a huge bash in their warehouse The guys along with the Escorts that they have hired have found themselves in the crosshairs of the Hunting club.

This flick has an interesting twist. Not only are people paying money for the pleasure of killing people, there are people watching like they are attending a Las Vegas show. Taking it even further is the fact that are also betting on the kills while placing their bets on touch screens while being served by waitresses that are wearing the tiniest outfits that you have ever seen.

Okay I like that part actually.

Well needless to say this flick is not as bloody as the previous couple of flicks but it is also missing other parts of the series.

Since the film now takes place in the States the Isolated feeling and the not knowing who to trust is not there.

There are definitely some twists in the flick that will keep you interested in the story.

I also missed the Bubblegum Gang in this flick.

I should mention that Eli Roth was not involved in this flick. He was credited with a Based on Characters created by credit but other than that he was not involved. This flick was directed by series producer Scott Spiegel.

Fans of the Torture Porn genre I definitely recommend this flick to you. I also recommend this flick to Vegas fans as it features great use of Vegas location shots but the flick was filmed in Michigan but it had some great green screen use that makes it look like they are in Vegas.

This is definitely an entertaining flick.

11 Dead Bodies
6 Breasts plus A lot of hot waitresses showing Breasts but not nipples
1 Ass
5 Villains
1 Villainess
1 Explosion
4 Twists
1 Face “Mask”
Arrow to the groin
Choking on Bugs
Axe to the chest
Cattle prod to the mouth
Interesting use of Tire Spikes
Arms Roll
Shotgun Fu
Weed Whacker Fu

2 ½ Stars
Check it out

Hellraiser:Revelations

I know that I am going to take a beating for this review but here goes nothing.

I am a Hellraiser fan. That is no secret. One of my favorite possessions is an Anchor Bay tin box DVD of the original film that I got signed by Doug Bradley and Ashley Laurence at the Texas Frightmare Weekend.

Which by the way is happening again this year on May 4, 5, 6 2012 at the Hyatt in DFW airport and DVDs are available at www.texasfrightmarevideo.com

The story goes like this. There is a box called the Lamont Configuration that is a fancy puzzle box that when solved it opens up the gateway to another dimension and brings out the Cenobites, led by “Pinhead” who proceed to perform some demented S&M on their victims. In doing so they also tap into their victims inner self and find the darkness and sins inside of them.

Hellraiser was based on the novella the Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, who also directed the film.

The film inspired 7 sequels as well as a line of toys and comics.

The interesting history of the films is that the franchise at first follows the survivor Kirsty Cotton as she goes into hell to rescue her father from the depths of hell. However the next couple of chapters follow Pinhead as he regains his soul and we are shown the origins of the box.

Then strangely the Hellraiser sequels went direct to video/DVD and they began following the stories of the ones that opened the box.

The now Iconic Pinhead is reduced mostly to glorified cameos but always he is portrayed by the incomparable Doug Bradley.

That is until now.

Now at first please let me explain.

Beginning with the flick Hellraiser: Bloodline the franchise rights belonged to Dimension Films.

Headed by the Hollywood Gurus known as the Weinsteins Dimension films is a division of Miramax and is one of the better distributers and makers of good Horror next to Lionsgate. Their titles include Genre Greats like the Halloween series as well as the Scream movies and the From Dusk Till Dawn trilogy.

Well currently the big trend in the movie industry is rebooting well established (and profitable) franchises that have made too many entries or have gone into a direction that has made the product less profitable for the studios.

Well a remake of Hellraiser is inevitable but they can’t get the project greenlit just yet.

However Dimension films was in danger of losing the rights to the film and they had to get a movie made fast. Well I was assured a few years ago by a fairly prominent movie star that the Weinsteins are shrewd in maximizing their profit margins and they decided to shoot a low budget short film in a super fast turn around and release it as a Hellraiser sequel.

Well needless to say Doug Bradley opted out of this outing and decided not to reprise his role as the lead Cenobite.

Now on to the flick.

The flick opens with Nico Bradley and his friend Steven Craven (I wonder who they are named after)filming themselves on a road trip to Mexico where Nico hopes to get Steven laid for the first time in a weekend of debauchery. After their car is stolen they are seen with the infamous puzzle box and naturally Pinhead appears.

It is then revealed that the video is being watched by Steven’s mother one year after the boys have disappeared while the parents and Steven’s sister/ Nico’s girlfriend Emma meet to have dinner to give themselves comfort during the trying time.

Emma eventually discovers the box after seeing other parts of the video revealing what really happened on the trip to mexico she opens it and then Steven appears at the front Door claiming to be pursued by the Cenobites.

In the process of the next hour we are shown the darkest secrets of our cast of characters while revealing what really happened in Mexico. All the while Pinhead and a new band of Cenobites come to the house with an agenda all of their own.
I have to admit that I liked the flick. It was better than some of the previous outings like Inferno and Deader.

I also have to be honest and admit that I went into the flick with my expectations with an all-time low.

Doug Bradley should have been in the flick that way it would feel like a Hellraiser than a glorified fan film.

The story did keep me interested and there were some parts that many of the mainstream audiences as taboo.

I think that the flick was not planned for a release but Dimension Films saw that there was some profit in it.

All in all the flick is what it was, It was an entertaining flick but we are all aware it was franchise milking that would have been better as a special Feature for the Remake of the original’s Blu-Ray.

Good flick but it isn’t the same

9 Dead Bodies
4 Breasts
5 Cenobites
Face Ripping
Throat tearing
Chain Hooking
Baby Killing
Hooker Killing
The Hellraiser Score is nowhere to be found

1 ½ Stars
Fans of the franchise Check it out