It Follows

Okay Kiddies there are in fact some perks to being sexually anorexic and that is not dealing with the drama that usually follows the act itself.  There is the main area which is having unplanned children and if you are in a relationship that is a whole other area to work on and whole It can be nice to have a partner there has been known to have a few complications.

Then there is the usual pitfalls of casual nookie. If it is someone that you see everyday then that makes things awkward especially for where you work and there is the situation where your parter may want to be in a relationship and you don't. Then there is the friends with benefits which is a whole other issue. 

In a Horror Film sex usually has more deadly complications. In a Slasher film sex usually ends in death at the hands of a deranged killer...usually wearing a hockey mask. There is also again child bearing that can often end up as giving birth to the Anti-Christ...If you are Lucky. 

Then there is when you hook up with that someone that is cursed and as a result of the hook-up you you then inherit the curse and must pass it on to someone else. 

That is what brings us to It Follows, The new film that is making all the rage on the Horror Scene. 

It Follows tells the story of Jay (Miaka Monroe) who is dating Hugh and despite his strange behavior soon consummates her relationship and is suddenly attacked by him and taken to a strange location where she is informed that there is a shapeshifting creature that will keep coming for her where ever she goes and when it finally catches up to her it will kill he, ooh and the only way that she can she can stop it is to quickly have sex with another person and pass on the curse to them. That is until she kills that person and then targets them again. 

Soon Jay's friends are pulled into this madness and despite the fact that they aren't targets of the monster's wrath they must stop the entity and save their friend. 

Now this is an interesting entity. You first off think that the creature is a ghost but it seems to be just invisible however naturally there are scenes where the entity attacks it's victims but the Entity can be attacked as well and be physically hurt and injured but seems to always make a recovery at an inhuman speed. 

It also can only walk at the same pace and that is it's only means of travel which is why characters often travel long distances in order to avoid the Entity however it always arrives eventually and that is one of the more frightening elements of this antagonist. 

I have to admit that I was pleasantly impressed by the lack of special effects in the film and instead it's use of lighting camera work and editing to provide the scares in the film. 

There is a couple of effects in the film for the entity's attacks. The scenes where the Entity is seen following the characters do add to the flick especially in the scenes where it's not the entity following and It's choices of characters to shift into. 

The story in the flick isn't bad despite a few plotholes and there are times where you find yourself thinking why don't they take the more logical approach to this situation and then you have to remind yourself that this is a Horror Movie where characters have to make the wrong decisions in order to move the film forward and advance the story.

Despite these flaws it's definitely a good flick to watch and has some good scares. Fans of the Ring as well as the recent supernatural films will enjoy this film. 

2 Dead Bodies

4 Breasts

7 Beasts

Corpse Raping 

Leg Breaking 

Chair Smashing 

Heads Exploding 

3 Stars 

Check it out 

Dracula Untold

Many of you know that I am a massive fan of The Universal Monsters and especially of the Trinity which consists of Frankenstein, The Wolfman and Dracula, and we all know that the classic monsters are resurrected far more times than their namesakes and I am loving every minute of it.

Now as far as vampires go there have been some interesting interpritations in recent years and some are better than others. 

I am not even going to try to tell you how many times or incarnations that Count Dracula has taken on the silver screen or how many interpretations of Bram Stoker’s original novel have been adapted over the years, which I find quite ironic considering what the first film Nosferatu went through when Bram Stoker’s widow ordered that all copies be destroyed as she would not allow for any screen adaptations of her husband’s work.

Needless to say There have been plenty of adaptations of the novel and personally I prefer Bela Lugosi’ performance in the 1931 Film and have been highly loyal to the film.

Film audiences in recent years are not stupid. Along with the invention of the internet which is referred to as “The Information Super Highway” for a reason and we are all aware that Dracula actually existed, therefore most of the incarnations in the past decade have featured not just Dracula but Vlad the Impaler as well.

Prince Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia is an interesting character in history. In College I dated a young girl from Romania and was interested to learn that where Dracula is viewed as a villain in both history and film he is regarded as a hero in Romania and in my time with her I found some other interesting facts about the “Son of The Devil” such as that there is no real Castle Dracula in Romania and…well Vlad’s real method of Impaling his victims.

The fact of the matter is that when I first learned of Dracula Untold I really wasn’t all too interested since as far as I was concearned I had seen the films 1,000 times over and this just looked like just another merging of the Legend of Vlad the Impaler with Vampires.

Honestly since the fire I have been seeking to reclaim my movie collection and I soon learned that The Universal Monsters were receiving the full DVD boxset rerelease and I went ahead and ordered the set rather than pay what the going price for the set that I lost would have cost. (Trust me that was a being talked off the Roof experience)

When I did receive the boxset I noticed that it came with a free ticket for the film and I did some further research and I soon found that Dracula Untold is to be the first in a series of films that will reboot the Universal Monsters films for the current age and that all of the films will be Rebooted. (Including the Wolfman and Mummy films but We will discuss that later).

Needless to say I decided to check out the film and I did go in with expectations low especially after some good folks at the Alamo Drafthouse were bashing the film while MCing some of the events and I have to tell them that they were Dead Wrong.

This movie is Awesome!

I honestly think that with the exception of Love at First Bite and The Munsters this flick is the first time that Dracula is portrayed as the protagonist rather than the antagonist in a film.

Once Again merging the legend of Dracula with the Vampire mythology the film shows Vlad as a devoted husband, father, and ruler of Transylvania where after growing up with the Turks and learning Warfare and strategy returns to his home where he maintains piece.

When the Sultan that Vlad grew up with refuses to honor a peace treaty and demands 1,000 boys to use as solders in their army along with Vlad’s son the prince defies the Sultan’s orders and begins to create a full scale war on his people. Out of desperation Vlad Returns to a cave where earlier He and his men were attacked by what was later revelaed as a Vampire in which Vlad was the lone survivor.

This particular Vampire is trapped in this cave until he can find a willing replacement to be turned and will take his place and looking the strength to defend his people Vlad chooses to take this position temporarly if he can avoid feeding on Human Blood that will permanently turn him.

Trust me you are going to get to know this Character in more films and I am looking forward to them. 

Armed with this new power Vlad soon becomes a formidable opponent for the Sultan and his armies but must still defend his wife and son from his childhood nemesis.

There are many twists in this flick that I am not going to spoil for you here but this flick is definetly worth a look.

The scene where Vlad fights an army of 1,000 troops is worth watching alone and fans of the Underworld films will like this film for the NEO Goth aspects and characters.

Also Sarah Gadon is both Hot and great in the role of Vlad's devoted wife. 

The film has received the fill Blu-Ray Treatment as it is available in a set that included DVD BluRay and Digital copies from both ITunes and Ultraviolet avalibility.

In what is a rare treat today the film also features Extras that make the purchase worth the price with a special Video Commentary from Star Luke Evans where he discusses the film and the experience as an actor.

Also included is  a day in the life of Luke Evans where a day of shooting is shown for the actor as well as the History of Vlad is shown and Deleted that show a slight subplot that was cut from the film and Much More In the set.

2,000 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts

15 Beasts

Impaling

Clawing

Slashing

Ripping

Heads Roll

Arms Roll

Gratutious use of Green Screen Locations  

4 Stars

Check it out and...

                                     “Let The Games Begin” 

Halloween Picks: AMC Fear Fest

Those of you that are fans of Halloween are probably aware of AMC Fear Fest or as I still call it Monster Fest since that is what it was called for over a decade.  programming Block that I never miss.

Similar to Discovery's Shark Week AMC has it's famous

Back in the days before AMC was known for their award winning shows it was a classic movie channel called American Movie Classics. 

The channel was intended as an wander to the classic films that were released on television and were all unedited and in Black and White. Also the movies were not commercially interrupted. 

Beginning in 1997 AMC began Monsterfest which was a week long block of programming featuring a multitude of classic horror films. Along with the films were documentaries such as "Monstermania" hosted by Jack Palance telling the screen history of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman. 

Monstermania proved to be so popular that in the next couple I years saw the sequels like Bride of Monstermania telling about women in horror, and Attack of the 50 foot Monstermania  featuring Giants on screen. 

Many of these Documentaries were hosted by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark with her own comedic style. 

Monsterfest also began having hosts book ending these productions. These hosts included Linda Blair and Whoopee Goldberg giving the viewers information about the films. 

In 1999 Fright Film Producer Roger Corman was the host featuring his own original segments. 

In 2002 AMC began their own film school and commissioned their students to make Short Screamers and the shorts were shown durring that year's Monsterfest line up even receving their own special hosted by John Carpenter.

One year later a new slew of shorts were screened  and again they had their own special this time hosted by Clive Barker.

By the way speaking of John Carpenter AMC aired the infamous Television cut of Halloween 2 along with one of the definitive documentaries on the film Halloween: A cut above the Rest which went on to become one of the Special Features on the Halloween 25th Anniversary DVD release one year later.

in 2007 Monsterfest celebrated it's 10 year anniversary with new specials and even a DVD release of some cult classics featuring many of the works of Roger Corman among others.

However in 2008 the tide began to change. AMC began airing Horror Films on late Friday Nights entitled Fear Friday with the website featuring the change in tide.

Surely enough that October Monsterfest was re-branded Fear Fest bringing mostly just a change in title but much of the programing remained.

The name change was appropriate since the programing had less emphisis on the monsters and more fear elements.

In 2008 Fear Fest was hosted by Rob Zombie.

The next Year George A. Romero Hosted the marathon.

Another change to the line up was utilized in 2010 when that year's Fear Fest on Halloween Night treated viewers to the Premiere of the first ever Zombie Television Show The Walking Dead to a massive viewing audience

in 2012 AMC Fear Fest made another change when instead of One Week in October the programing now became a two week event and to promote this as well as the return of Comic Book Men AMC Fear Fest was hosted by the one and only Kevin Smith who treated the viewing audience on his views on horror films.

Also added to the line up was the now infamous Friday the 13th marathon making AMC the location where you can find the best in Slashers and Horror entertainment on Halloween.

Gory Matters Here.

You're Next

If you watch as many of the horror films that I watch you will notice that many of them claim to be the film that changes the face of horror.

There are many that make that claim for many reasons. There are the trend setters that are the first of many copycats and there are the films that technique changes the direction of the films that follow.

There are others that play themselves as more parody of the current trends of horror that means that that particular era of horror has come to an end.

When a popular trend in horror happens their eventual fate if that the trend eventually takes a comedy turn.

The best example of this is the Universal Monsters. All of the monsters met their fate at the hands of Comedy. Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman along with The Mummy and the Invisible Man had showdowns with the comedy duo of Abbott and Costello and the Creature from the Black Lagoon met with the team from Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Many of the Slashers ended differently, Chucky got married, Jason was blasted into outer space and Freddy was reduced to one liners. Eventually they all suffered the eventual fate of the reboots after being parodied in the Scream Franchise.

Zombies made a return in the mid-2000s in the form of running angry beasts that became far more frightening until they turned to comedy in the form of Zombieland.

The real trends in horror come from our fears in the age that they are made.

A subgenre that came out in the past couple of years has been films depicting the events of a Home Invasion.   

Beginning with the film The Strangers in 2008 in which a young couple are terrorized by a trio of masked killers for only the reason “Because you were Home.”

This year will see Lionsgate release the film You’re Next in which a family is terrorized by a group of masked killers.

The plot goes like this.

 A family reunites for their parents’ anniversary and after tensions erupt in an argument with the family over old issues the family is attacked by a band of mercenaries wearing animal masks.

Erin (Sharni Vinson) The girlfriend of one of the brothers is the final girl in this film and there is some twists that you will see coming but you will still be surprised to see them.

There are some great Scares and Shocks in the film that you will enjoy as well as some laughs.

The comedy of the film is in the action. There is no over the top situations just the reactions in the film.

I definitely say check the flick out.  I don’t see it as the next Paranormal Activity or Saw Franchise but it is definitely worth seeing.

15 Dead Bodies

4 Breasts

6 Beasts

Machete to the face

Arrow through the Head

Multiple Axes to the Head

Multiple Stabbings

Multiple Throat Slashings

Piano Wire to the Throat

Some Characters that will not Die

Honorable Mention goes to Sharni Vinson as Erin and the Best actress nomination goes to Horror Icon Barbara Crampton as the mother.

3 Stars

Check it out.