Bloody Motels

Another day, another movie. Nice not having to worry about classes and all for a little while. I was going to start the day watching nothing but movies today but that didn't work out so well. But I did get one movie in at least. One day, before heading back to college I will try and fit in as many movies as I can just to end the year on a bang. After this review, the next set of movies up for review will be a series. Tune in soon to find out which series it will be. As for today, I watched a movie that came with a different movie that I reviewed a long time ago. Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1983) was originally released as Mountaintop Motel when New World picked it up in 1986 and added the Massacre to the end of the title.

Mountaintop Motel Massacre starts off by telling us that Evelyn (Anna Chappell) was committed to a mental hospital in 1976 and released in 1983, if I am remembering the dates correctly. Now that she is home again she takes care of the motel that she runs just off some highway. Actually it is set back away from the highway down some dirt road. When we catch up with her, she is busy working in her garden and spots one of her daughter's pets. She yells for Lori (Jill King) to come and get it before she kills it but Lori is busy inside with some of her other pets and talking to a picture of her dad. Since Lori didn't come out to get the critter, Evelyn takes her handy dandy hand scythe and kills it. Doesn't everyone use a hand scythe while working in the garden? I thought so. Evelyn heads into the house where she discovers that Lori is no where to be found. She heads to what I thought was the basement at the time and discovers Lori in some kind of trance while having a tea party with her pets, which include a goat and a rabbit. Evelyn starts to swing the scythe around, knocking down everything and accidentally hits Lori and kills her. She drags Lori back into the house and calls for help. Despite the best efforts of the paramedics, they can't do anything for her. The Sheriff wants to know what happened and Evelyn says it was a horrible gardening accident. The Sheriff wants to press the matter but Reverend Bill McWiley (Bill Thurman) tells the Sheriff that now might not be the best time to question Evelyn considering how upset at losing her daughter has made her. The next thing we know, Lori is being put to rest while Evelyn hears the voices of those present accusing her of killing Lori.

From there she heads back to the motel and we meet the rest of the cast. Bill either lives in one of the rooms or is staying there for a short while. I wasn't real clear on that but either way he is a family friend and is helping out at this time of need. The first guest to arrive is Crewshaw (Major Brock), an unemployed carpenter. Making their way to the motel still is Mary (Marian Jones) and Vernon (Gregg Brazzel) who will be spending their honeymoon there. It isn't much but Vernon can't afford a fancy hotel like the Holiday Inn. Also on the way is Al (Will Mitchel) who picks up Tanya (Virginia Loridans) and Prissy (Amy Hill) after they get a flat on their car. All eventually arrive and each time someone checks in, Evelyn sometimes acts like she is off in space somewhere. With Lori's voice saying things like, "Kill them mommy. They want to send you back to the hospital," you can probably guess what is in store for all of Evelyn's guests at the Mountaintop Motel.

The way things started out with the killings, I thought it was just going to be a little blood here and there that, at times, looked too watery. The film did surprise me later, by adding a couple of bigger effects. While they didn't look great, at least it wasn't just some blood being thrown around everytime. One very fake looking hand gets cut off. The best effect was probably the scythe through the mouth. It goes through both cheeks. The effects shot is done quickly which is a good thing because if you pause it to take a longer look at it, you will notice that the scythe is only on the outside of the cheeks. You can't see it at all inside the mouth. I know it is only a movie but that would have added a lot to the effect in my book. The acting wasn't too bad but there was no one that really stood out to me.

Mountaintop Motel Massacre isn't too bad of a movie but for some reason I found it just a tad boring. For one thing, Evelyn never came across as scary to me. There does seem to be a bit of a following on IMDb of people that love this movie. That is cool and all but I can't say that I get it. They say that you shouldn't watch this film as a slasher film but as a mood piece. I would say fine to that but to me it doesn't ever set up much of a mood. There is no real tension ever. Evelyn is able to get from room to room by a series of tunnels that are under each room. There seems to be a trap door, cleverly disguised by a rug and easily kept shut by one nail apparently, in the bathrooms. At first Evelyn takes some of Lori's pets and puts them in some of the rooms. She takes a snake and put it in the newlywed's room. She takes a bunch of rats and puts them in Bill's room. She takes some cockroaches, which I think were being used for food by the snake, and puts them in Crewshaw's room. Not real sure what the point of that was except maybe to fill in some time. The only pet that does anything is the snake which bites Vernon. I have never been bitten by a snake nor do I know my snakes too well, so I don't know if it was poisonous. But the area of the bite swells up and Vernon lays in bed for the rest of the film.

What keeps all of these people from leaving you ask? It is a stormy night and raining hard. As Al comes up the road to the motel, lightning strikes a tree and it falls across the road. Now they are trapped there at the motel. The storm has knocked out the power and the phones. As Al would explain to each person that a tree is blocking the road out, I kept thinking to myself, God forbid you should have to walk to the highway and flag someone down! Don't get me started on how lame the fight scene at the end of the movie was. If you like your early '80s slasher films, you might want to pick this one up just for old times sake but for me, it was a fairly boring movie.
2 out of 5 Should have hired Betsy Palmer

Harvesting Movies

I promised I would review the film Harvest Of Fear (2004) with this post because I watched the sequel to this movie before getting to it. I hate it when that happens but I had no idea I was watching a sequel. There was no number two after the title, which was actually refreshing now that I think about it. The description of the movie didn't hint at it being a sequel nor did it say outright for that matter. So today I sat down and watched this movie to see if it might be better than its sequel. It starts me off on my next fifty posts which I am looking forward to doing so I hope all of you are ready. The new year is inching closer and I am hoping to watch even more movies than I did this year. I don't know if it will be possible but I will certainly put the effort in.

Harvest Of Fear has the same cast as its sequel did so by watching The Path Of Evil first, I know who makes it into that movie so that spoils this one some for me. It starts off with a double murder right off the bat. A couple is out in the woods having a good time drinking and fooling around when the killer strikes. He kills the boyfriend first then goes after the girlfriend who is running through the woods topless. While some may see this just as a way to show nudity some more, I was glad to see this happening. Not because of the nudity per say but because that is what I would do if it were happening to me. Who cares if I'm half nude, I'm getting the hell out of dodge! After this we meet Billy (Ryan Deal) who is just arriving into town to start his internship with Dr. Jim Carpenter (Thomas Nabhan). Why a small port town like Devil's Lake? Because his dad did the very same thing twenty years ago. It just so happens that a series of murders happened to take place twenty years ago as well. It turns out that the bodies are dropping during what is called the Harvest Festival. As the locals describe it, it is their version of spring break except it happens during the fall. As the bodies start to pile up, many start to notice that the murders now have the same M.O. as the murders twenty years ago. They caught the right guy last time though....didn't they?

Not much to talk about as far as effects go. Some blood here and there. A few throats get cut and a few other people get stabbed. One person gets a pitchfork through his stomach and that is about all there is to report. Not that the acting was great in The Path Of Evil but it was slightly worse here. Ryan Deal was really starting to annoy me because it seemed like he was smiling in every scene. No matter what was being talked about and no matter the tone of the scene, he was doing it with a smile. Justin Ament was an interesting choice to make into the lead role in the sequel since he is pretty much nothing but a hot head here in this film. Whenever his ex is hanging around with Billy, you can be sure that Jake will show up swearing and throwing threats at Billy to stay away from his girl.

I liked Harvest Of Fear a little better than I liked its sequel but not too much more. Harvest Of Fear is a by the book slasher film. The killer mostly goes after couples. There is only a few exceptions to that. Each killing is pretty much the same. Either the killer distracts the person(s) somehow or they do it themselves and he kills them one at a time, and almost in the same way every time. Harvest Of Fear has a good pace to it, is well filmed, and is much better than some of the other low budget movies I have subjected myself to. Still, the killings in this movie are so by the book every time that it quickly becomes boring. To make matters worse, there is a group of college students who know of the killings because someone they were at a party with gets killed. That would be enough for me to head on back to college but because the house they are staying in is paid for for the next six days and they can't get their money back, they decide to go ahead and stay. Lose some money or lose your life....tough call there isn't it?

In a way I am glad I watched The Path Of Evil first because I think I would have given it an even lower rating for being a pointless sequel after seeing Harvest Of Fear. We learn that they did get the wrong guy all those years ago and we learn that they got the wrong guy again at the end of this story. We learn this because they make it obvious who the killer actually is. He gets wounded and we see who the person is with the wound just as they capture the "killer" so it isn't too much of a secret. So once you start in on the sequel, you will already know who the killer is in that movie. Never mind that the plot already walks you to that conclusion because you would know in advance anyway.

If you are the local Sheriff, would you go to the family whose relative was accused of the murders twenty years ago and ask for their advice on the recent murders? That didn't make a lot of sense to me but that is what ends up happening. Harvest Of Fear is better than some low budget movies and it does give an effort but I felt it came in just short. At least it was better than the sequel, which some people actually considered to be the better of the two, but still isn't very good. Maybe worth a watch once...maybe.
2 out of 5 At least the mask is a lot better this time around

Hazing You To Death

I did it! I made it to 300 posts before the end of the year. I knew I could do it, but the question was would I do it? As slow as things have been, as far as my blog goes, I wasn't so sure if I could find the time to reach #300 before the end of the year. I haven't reached my 300th review yet but I am sure that will be coming up soon enough. I don't keep track of that as well as I should but I do know there can be found well over 200 reviews on this blog now. I hope all of you have enjoyed them since I have had fun letting everyone know what I thought of each film. I know not everyone is going to agree with me since that is just the way films are. Besides, it would make for a boring world if we all agreed on everything all of the time. As most of you probably know by now, every 50 posts I pick out a movie that I consider a favorite that I have yet to review. These posts aren't really a review of the film but I think I still get across how I feel about them. This time around, I picked out The Hazing (2004).

The Hazing is probably the newest movie I have picked out as a favorite before I started this blog. As always, I watch the movie before I write about it. This only makes the second time I have watched this movie. I have yet to buy it but I will someday. You may also know that I'm not a very big fan of movies that try and mix horror and comedy together. In my opinion, there are very few movies that get this mix right. Director Ralfe Kanefsky is one person that knows this mix very well. When I first watched The Hazing around two years ago and fell in love with it right away. It isn't scary at all but the comedy and horror mix was nailed with perfection. After seeing Nightmare Man (which you can find reviewed here), it turned me into a big fan of Ralfe Kanefsky since he proved to me this movie wasn't a fluke.

The Hazing is about some pledges that are trying to get into a frat/sorority. The pledge leaders send their pledges on a scavenger hunt where things are worth so many points. If they want in, they need to collect 50 points and meet up at a house where some murders took place years ago. One item on the list is a book that Professor Knapps owns. Doug and Marsha go to the professor's house only to discover that he has murdered one of his students and is now after them. In defending themselves, they accidentally kill him. In their panic they call 911 but take off before talking to anyone, keeping the book and staff that the professor had. Since they left the line open, 911 was able to trace the call and take the professor to the hospital where they discover he isn't dead just yet. The professor is able to send his spirit over to the house where all the pledges are now, to give them a little treat.

The Hazing borrows from The Evil Dead in the fact that there is an evil book and a certain body part takes on a life of its own. Not a hand this time around though. Along with a chainsaw with some over the top blood. It will also remind you a bit of the movie Night Of The Demons as well. A few people hate The Hazing because it reminds them too much of those two movies and accuse it of stealing from them. Don't let those reviews fool you though. Even though The Hazing will remind you of those movies, I thought it was more of a nod towards them instead of trying to steal from them. The Hazing is very much its own movie. I can understand someone getting upset when an entire scene is lifted from another movie with very little changed but that wasn't the case at all here.

In my review for Nightmare Man I talked about this movie being one of my favorites so I decided then that it would be the movie I would talk about for this post. The mix of comedy and horror hits its mark and it really made me laugh at times. The body part that comes to life and when it comes to life is just so perfect. It was done in such a way that it would be funny to both women and men as well. The effects are very well done and the acting wasn't too bad at all. Brad Dourif appears as the professor. Brad seems to give his best for every movie I have watched him be in so far and this one is no exception. A few reviews talked about renting this movie because Brooke Burke is in it. To be honest, I don't know who she is. She is only in it at the start of the film though. Nectar Rose, Tiffany Shepis and Charmaine De Grate are the lead women. Philip Andrew, Jeremy Maxwell, Parry Shen and David Tom are the lead men. The Hazing may not make it on every one's list of favorite movies but it sure made mine. It wouldn't have gotten one of those magic 5 stars because it really isn't scary at all but it is still a very fun movie to watch.

Paths Less Taken

I probably won't be around tomorrow as I am going to try and stay off the computer all day so to all my friends and to all the people that may be reading this, Merry Christmas! I truly hope everyone gets what they have been wishing for and I hope you all have a nice and safe holiday. So you are all probably wondering why I am watching a horror movie instead of a movie to get me into the Christmas spirit. I wanted to do a review today so I could wish you all a good Christmas and also because I am waiting for the movie, A Christmas Story to start up which will be running for 24 hours. Over the last couple of years, I turn my TV on and leave it at the channel while I go about and do other things. I have watched it so many times now that I pretty much know what is going on at any given moment in the movie so over the 24 hours I will have watched it completely at least once. I thought I would get a horror movie in before A Christmas Story starts up since I won't be watching much else. This also means that my next post will be #300 which is something I have been looking forward to and I am glad I got to it before the new year. The Path Of Evil (2005) was the movie I watched and as it turns out, it is a sequel to another movie that I have here but didn't know they were connected. Maybe I should watch the original and review it before this one but screw it, I'm already writing.

The Path Of Evil follows Jake Barker (Justin Ament) for the most part. Jake used to work for the Sheriff's department but is currently on leave because he had been stabbed "a few times" and also because he seems to have a lot of personal issues, that tend to cause him to drink like there is no tomorrow. Jake's parents were killed by someone 20 some odd years ago. As a little boy at the time, he discovered their bodies and it still haunts him to this day. He often dreams of discovering the bodies and looks at pictures and videos of his parents. To make matters worse, his long time girlfriend Stacey (Carrie Finklea) broke up with him and is now dating Billy (Ryan Deal) the local medical examiner. It seems that the town called Devils Lake had a serial killer, that claimed Jake's parents as part of the body count, and then the murders started up again in 2004. The killer was caught and put in jail. But, if the guilty is in jail, why have the murders started up again? Sheriff John Roberts (Don Alder) is on the case and is trying to solve this new string of murders before it goes public. Jake is also trying to help in order to be trusted by everyone again.

The effects were ok at best. There is some blood here and there with a few bigger effects thrown in. A couple of slit throats. An ear gets cut off and a hand gets chopped off. None of the effects were bad, in fact they looked fairly realistic. I just wasn't overly impressed probably because the movie itself wasn't all that impressive. No one in the acting department was all the impressive either. All did a good job and all, just that no one really stuck out to me. The killer himself looked way to much like a more famous killer. Every review I could find, and there aren't many, brought it up but I will let you see for yourself without telling you.



Even though I have yet to watch the original movie, which was called Harvest Of Fear, I was under the impression you don't have to see it in order to watch The Path Of Evil. Nothing hints that this is a sequel. It never flashes back to the other movie as far as I know. Having now read the description for Harvest Of Fear, it takes place during the second set of killings. The only flashbacks to be found in The Path Of Evil are that of Jake finding his parents and a few small flashbacks of Jake and Stacey when they were a couple. So if you happen to decide to watch this one and not the original (which will be reviewed right after my 300th post), you will be able to follow this movie with no problems.

The Path Of Evil is a mix of a slasher movie and crime drama. You will find a few minor sub-plots going on. Jake and Stacey is one along with a professor and his student looking to write a book about the previous killings. The main problem is the run time. It comes in short of two hours and not a whole lot seems to happen during those two hours. The killings that we get to see aren't too bad as I have noted. There doesn't seem to be any reason for who is picked as the next person to die at the start of the movie but then about mid way through the killer starts to leave notes and picks out the next person for certain reasons. This could account for the twist ending but the twist felt tacked on just so there would be a twist instead of plotted out. I'm actually surprised more people didn't like The Path Of Evil because it holds your hand and leads you through the entire plot about who the killer is. Just about everyone that isn't involved in the case, by that I mean the police, seems to know who the killer is and this person starts to behave more and more crazy as the movie goes on. And guess what? This person does turn out to be the masked killer! Sorry to spoil that for you but it really does not come as any surprise. It does not require any thinking and that is why I found this to me a very dull movie. So, in a couple of days, I will watch Harvest Of Fear and see if it turns out any better than this one did.
2 out of 5 Dumbed down serial killers

Giant Octopus

Even though everyone, well most everyone, seems to be MIA at the moment, I am still here watching movies. Not like I have anything better to do. Maybe I do but I have been slacking this year when it comes to watching movies. Plus with each review, I am nearing post #300 which will be coming up very, very soon. I hope everyone comes back soon and gives me some comments for my Christmas present! Today I got real bored and decided it was the prefect time to watch a movie. So I put in the movie Octopus (2000) and tried to prepare myself to be amazed by a giant octopus that can take on a cruise ship if the poster can be believed. That isn't to much to ask....is it?

Octopus starts off in a kind of weird way. It starts during the Cuban Missile Crises. A Russian sub is trying to get to Cuba so it can off load the drums of dangerous chemicals it has on board. Once I saw these I knew where things were going. A United States sub is giving the Russian sub warnings that it needs to turn around now or it will be fired on. When they get no answer, they fire off two torpedoes. They find their mark which happens to be right where the drums are. We see the sub sinking deeper into the ocean with chemicals spilling out the big hole that is now in the sub. Thirty eight years later was are now in Bulgaria. CIA agent Roy Turner (Jay Harrington) is at the United States embassy and steps out with his partner. While they are walking around outside, the embassy explodes. They figure out who did it fairly quickly because just as they were leaving, an old woman comes in with two bags but leaves with only one and they see her moments before the explosion and have to wonder what happened to her other bag. They give chase and it turns out the old woman is actually Casper (Ravil Isyanov). Casper is very well known terrorist who loves to bomb things. Roy manages to capture Casper but not before he is soon the last survivor of the bombing because he can't seem to shoot anyone.

Once our government catches wind of this they make plans to get Casper over to the States so they can find out what he knows. Since there are already people on the move to free Casper, they think their best bet would be to put Special Agent Turner with Casper on a nuclear sub that is doing some training not too far away. Even though this is supposed to be a secret, it doesn't stop the people who are on the rescue mission from finding out the details and make plans to hijack an ocean cruise ship. Captain Jack Shaw (David Beecroft) brings Roy and Casper onto his sub and his first stop is the bridge where a game of strip poker is being played out. The Captain takes this is stride and lets everyone know what is going on with their new guests. They have to travel through an area that is called, if I remember right, the Devil's Eye, or something like that. This happens to be the place the giant octopus calls home. So we have Roy that is trying to get Casper to the States while Casper is trying to get away (he is on a submarine, where is he going to run off to?) and meet up with his pals so they can blow something else up.

The effects are a mix of model and CGI. Mostly CGI from the looks of it. It didn't look too bad for the most part. I mean it wasn't the best CGI around, but it was good enough to be believable at least. The octopus did seem to change size from time to time and people complained that its mouth wasn't like any octopus they had ever seen before. Then again, it is supposed to have been mutated by the chemicals so maybe that is the reason behind that. The only time I didn't care for the CGI at all is when it was trying to interact with a real object. Like a tentacle would wrap itself around someone and pull them away. The tentacle wouldn't look real compared to the real human. Since Octopus was given a PG-13 rating, I wasn't expecting much as far as gore and got zero. We do get to see some blood in the water at one point and one character manages to have a tentacle impale him in the stomach and come out his mouth. That scene would have been even better if there had been blood...oh and guts too!



The acting was alright considering the movie. It was the characters that would be way off base so it was a little hard to fault the acting. Carolyn Lowery plays a doctor who specializes as an oceanographer. She is a big help in figuring out what it is that attacks the sub and finding out what it is after. Are you ready for this? It needs sugar. Whatever mutated the octopus caused it not to have enough sugar so that is why it is angry all the time. I swear. Anyway, I'm getting away from the point here. I thought she did a good job but there seems to be mixed reviews when it comes to her acting. Half of the reviews that bring her up seem to have liked her acting while the other half hated her. There is one other person that shows up a lot and that is Ricco Ross. Many people know him from his role in Aliens.

Octopus is all over the place when trying to decide what kind of movie it wants to be. Is it a horror film? An action movie? Or maybe it is a spy film? As a horror movie, it just doesn't work. The octopus is rarely seen up until the end of the movie. That is fine in a way since showing the monster too much can back fire at times. But since the creature doesn't do a whole hell of a lot we are left with the characters chasing after Casper who does manage to escape and can seemingly hide pretty well in a submarine. Since it can't make up its mind what kind of movie it is, we are left with a movie that has tons of plot holes in it. Like can Casper's friends truly figure out where he will be when it comes time to rescue him? The octopus manages to stick its tentacles into the sub and grab people for lunch so why isn't water rushing in at all?

The characters don't act like they should the biggest part of the time. We have a CIA agent that is afraid of shooting anything. A Navy Captain that doesn't mind his crew playing strip poker right on the bridge when an international terrorist is being brought aboard. And a doctor that is a major flirt and seems to get teased about her losing her clothes, for good reason. Lets not forget about the crew that take off to who knows where into the sub when things are looking real bad. A lot of people point out that the doctor was speaking with an accent when we first meet her but loses it shortly after that. They think it was because this was a bad movie and it was just another way to show just how bad this movie is. I thought she was just using the accent as a way to get to the person she was playing poker with at the time. I'm not saying this isn't a bad movie because it is. Oddly enough though, it was fairly entertaining. Not fun enough to save it but at least I wasn't fighting off trying not to sleep or findind something else to do while watching it. Might be fun to watch once, or maybe not.
2 out of 5 One tough cruise ship

Ripper Is Back

With finals done and out of the way, at least for a couple of weeks, I hope to get a few more movies and reviews in. My last post about Ripper: Letter From Hell was something of a start of a series as well as being a tribute post to A.J. Cook. The reason I decided against it being a series post is mostly because there have only been two movie in this series thus far. The second movie, Ripper 2: Letters From Within (2004), I believe was released over in the Netherlands before it found its way to DVD here in the states. Maybe that is a clue to how good or bad this movie is?

Ripper 2 is a direct sequel to the original movie. We pick up with Molly (now played by Erin Karpluk) who is now in a mental hospital trying to deal with everything that has happened. We know this is the same Molly Keller since they are so kind to use flashbacks to the island she was on at the start of the original movie. The island scenes are the only things used from the first movie with the exception of a few newspaper clippings that hint at what happened through the rest of that film. Her doctor tells her about a place that is willing to help her but she will need to go overseas because the treatment would never be allowed nor approved here. It doesn't take her long at all to sign the paper and make the trip. Doctor Samuel Wiesser (Richard Bremmer) has a way of doing a little surgery that taps peoples minds into something of a virtual world. He can then watch to see what our subconscious is doing and can try and change things so that our minds will now accept that instead of what the person sees as right. For example, Molly has a dark figure, that looks more like the phantoms in Lord Of The Rings than the Ripper, that is stalking her and the people that she meets at this new hospital. The doctor tries teaching her remorse for her actions since he believes this figure represents her killer side. But the Ripper has other plans.

The effects tend to be hard to find even though this is a slasher film. You will find some blood but not a whole lot of it. You will find an axe in the back of one person. Part of a hand that gets cut off. Another person gets impaled on a fence. All of these are fairly bloodless. I'm not asking for a blood bath but some more than was there would have been a nice added touch. Most times I would say that the few effects the better, possibly, but in a slasher movie I guess I am waiting to see blood and lots of it.

The acting wasn't too bad but sometimes the characters would get on my nerves at times. Erin Karpluk wasn't bad in the lead but she is no A.J. Cook. Erin doesn't have that same bitchy feel that A.J. gave to Molly. I can't really blame Erin for this since she wasn't always given a lot to work with like A.J. was. I didn't really care for Richard Bremmer all that much. I just felt his acting didn't come across too well. You will also find Nicholas Irons, Mhairi Steenbock, Jane Peachey, Daniel Coonan, Colin Lawrence and Myfanwy Waring.

Ripper 2 tries to be different. It is a slasher film with a little science fiction thrown in as well. The virtual world is an interesting idea but it doesn't work very well the way they use it. When you think they are out of this virtual world, it turns out they never left it. It becomes very confusing after a while. The people Molly meets at the new hospital all have their problems. We are told what each of their problems are in one scene. One is a pyro and another has anger issues and so on. Strangely enough, they are all young adults. They have all been linked to this virtual world and can interact with each other. As it turns out, some of us are pretty damn smart in virtual worlds. Once everyone knows they are being hunted down, the make their way to the computers that are running the program. The computers are running the program while inside the program...interesting. A couple of the characters seem to know how the program works and start to use it to their advantage. How they are able to figure out the program so quickly is something I would like to know so I can do that whenever I sit down at a computer.

While some of the characters are super smart, not all of them are. A couple of them will wander off for no reason so they can become easy targets. More times than not, more than one will wander off so that you can try and guess which of the two is going to get it. One of the guys goes into a S&M club which made for some interesting scenes but this went on for way too long. What made the movie even more confusing was the ending. It seemed to have several endings thrown together but if the last ending is to believed, the whole movie never happens. Ok so that is a given since it is a movie but I think you know what I mean. Ripper 2: Letters From Within takes a completely different direction from the first movie and falls pretty flat with an idea that might have worked better if it was better written. Stick with the first movie but skip over this one unless you feel the need to watch sequels regardless of how bad they are.
2 out of 5 On the dance floor, no one can hear you scream

Tribute: A.J. Cook

It is tribute time again. It has been a while since I have done one of these tributes, since I have been waiting for the movie that will be reviewed along with it. With college and swimming and watching a bunch of movies at the theater, it has taken a while for me to get around to getting this movie moved up in the queue and sent to me. The actress I picked for this tribute isn't a big horror actress. She happens to be one of my favorite out there though and she has been in at least a couple of horror movies. If I could meet just one person from Hollywood, she would be the one with Christina Ricci being a very close second. When I noticed this movie was on its way up my queue and I would have it soon (turns out I didn't get it soon though) I decided that this would be my next tribute. So I present to you, A.J. Cook.

Andrea Joy (A.J.) Cook was born on July 22, 1978 in Oshawa, Canada, to Mike and Sandra Cook. Mike is a teacher and Sandra works for a psychiatrist. A.J. didn't get the acting bug until the age of 17. Before that time she was a dancer. She started dancing competitively at the age of 4 in the styles of tap, jazz, and ballet. She also taught dance in Oshawa. Upon seeing the film Dirty Dancing, she decided that she wanted to be an actress. Her first job was in a McDonald's commercial. A.J.'s first credited film role was in the film Laserhawk as Pretty Girl #1. Her first big role didn't come around until 1999 when she was cast in The Virgin Suicides. Since then she has been in several movies along with being on several TV series as well. You can currently find her on the television series Criminal Minds. You can find a complete filmography here.

Since I have already explained why I picked A.J. Cook for this tribute, I will try and explain why I like her so much. I first remember seeing her in a movie called Out Cold. I liked the movie for several reasons. It wasn't the best comedy around but it had its moments for sure. A.J. caught my eye right away, and I was a little disappointed that she didn't have more scenes. I haven't watched everything she has been in but I am slowly getting there and love it when she has the lead role. My favorite movie that she has been in so far would be Final Destination 2. One of the few sequels that rivals the original film. I will be straight forward. A big part of why I like A.J. Cook so much is based on her looks. I think she is very beautiful woman. I love her voice as well. She may not be the best actress around according to some but she is certainly my favorite.

A.J. Cook movies that I have reviewed so far are:

Wishmaster 3: Beyond The Gates Of Hell

Yes there is a review in this post! The movie I watched today would be Ripper: Letter From Hell (2001). It starts off with Molly (A.J. Cook) running around on an island that seems to have a lot of dead bodies on it. We are given no clues as to what happened here but Molly makes her way to a boat where she makes her get away. Five years later we catch up with Molly who is now taking a college course on profiling serial killers. We discover that Molly was the only survivor of a mass killing in which the killer has never been caught. Marshall Kane (Bruce Payne) is teaching the class and seems to have a secret of his own. Marshall asks the class what they would do if he were to kill one of them right now. Some don't seem bothered by this question, even after he picks up a knife and starts to walk around the room. He suddenly cuts the throat of one of the students but not all is as it seems. He does this to show them that they need to think outside of the box when it comes to killers. Soon after this though, some of Molly's classmates turn up dead. Molly figures out that the killer is killing people in the same way that Jack the Ripper killed his victims. Who could be doing this though? That is a question perfect for this class.

The effects weren't too bad for this film. Some of the killings get pretty bloody but at least once the blood looked a little fake to me. The killings could be pretty cool at times. The first murder occurs over a rave dance. A woman is stabbed over and over and the camera picks up a trail of blood that flows to a hole in the floor. This happens to be just above one of the people dancing and she gets a shower in blood. It takes her a little while to notice which I thought was a little odd. Another one takes place in a saw mill that could have been a lot better than it was, but it still turned out pretty good. The acting was really good. A.J. Cook sports a different hairstyle and even has a tattoo. She is a little bit more of a bad girl in this film but still pulls off being the lead. Ryan Northcott looks a lot like a Baldwin brother. You can also find Claire Keim, Derek Hamilton, Daniella Evangelista, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Kelly Brook and Jurgen Prochnow as the creepy Detective.


Ripper: Letters From Hell started off pretty cool on the island. I also liked the setting of the murders happening to a class about serial killers. This movie could have gone somewhere really good but as soon as they tried to say that the killer was a copycat killer of Jack the Ripper, it lost some steam. Why? Because they weren't copycat killings at all. The first murder was supposed to have the same amount of stabbings as the first Ripper victim. In an overlay of the stab wounds, it is shown that they are even in the same place. Now I can see some of them being in the same place but all of them? I could be wrong but that was the impression that I was given.

This isn't a bad slasher movie. It tries to be more than just a slasher movie and comes close to that. The ending is left open just enough that you might still be guessing as to who did it and just what the ending actually means. I think because the Ripper murders have never truly been solved, they tried to leave the ending for this movie open as well. If you like the slasher genre then you can't really go wrong with this one. It is just too bad they had to try and include things about the Ripper. It is very informative about the Ripper murders however. I was just disappointed that they tried to say these were copycat murders when they were no where near that.

3 out of 5 When under a saw, move a little faster

Dump This Movie

The problem I have with Netflix sometimes is that I don't always remember why I added a movie to my queue. Actually that is my own fault in some ways since I don't always pay attention to what I am adding. It's a horror movie? Add that sucker then! I don't start to pay attention to the titles until they are ready to be shipped out to me. Then I will sometimes read the overview. Once I am ready to send it back I will read what other people had to say in their mini-reviews. Dumpster Baby (2000) has a title that makes it sound like it could be a fun movie. Sure it has some low ratings on Netflix but it wouldn't be the first time I have disagreed with the majority.

Dumpster Baby starts with two women doing drugs and one goes into labor. The fact that she doesn't look pregnant at all, just rather fat, should tell you something about how this movie is going to turn out. She asks her friend to help and the friend goes into the kitchen and grabs....you guessed it, a knife! She checks her hair in the blade before going back to help with the knife. I guess that is what drugs will do for you. After having the baby, the woman tells her friend to get rid of the baby because she doesn't want her boyfriend to know about it. It has been two years since they have had sex so obviously the boyfriend isn't the father. The friend wonders around trying to figure out what to do with the baby. First she tries to sell it for my drugs but the dealer doesn't want a kid so she ends up putting it inside a dumpster. Soon after this, a guy with a hooker comes into the alley and while they are doing their thing, he hears something and finds the baby. Thus begins the baby's adventure as it is passed from person to person in different ways and we take a peek into each life for a short period.

There are barely any effects to speak of. A couple of scenes show a little blood. The woman giving birth has some blood splatter on her face and bed next to her face. I have no idea where the blood is supposed to have come from. There is a small fade out and when we come back she is just laying there after having the baby and the blood has managed to disappear. She doesn't appear to be hurt at all either. Most of the violence occurs off screen so no real gore to be found at all. The acting was pretty bad with only a couple of bright spots. The best actress was Angela Benjamin. I'm hoping I am praising the right person here. By the time her character came around, I had pretty much lost interest in the movie so wasn't expecting much. I could have gone back to find out the character name but all I could think about was to get this one sent back. No one else seems to have caught the character name either since she is only talked about as the girl that kept the baby because she was raped. If I have the right person, sadly this is the only movie she can be found in.

Dumpster Baby was released by Troma. I don't know if it was made for Troma but it was released by them. I would like to say some more good things about this movie. Outside of the one actress, I can't think of anything. There was no real plot, just a bunch of mini-plots that weren't all that interesting. Just a way to show how everyone in the film has crappy lives if you ask me. The sound is the biggest problem to my "who cares" view of the film. It was very hard to hear a lot of the times and it made people sound like that had a lisp as well. Since Dumpster Baby is heavy on what people are talking about, the sounds issue makes it even worse.

The description for the movie made it sound like it could be a killer baby movie. Instead, we get a baby that we never see until the very end of the movie. It never moves. Never cries. Never makes any baby sounds. And no one ever feeds it. It doesn't take a smart person to figure this out. To throw us off, the guy that first finds the baby claims he heard some crying. One guy that found the baby has some visitors the next day that claim they heard a baby crying during the night. So you have a movie with some piss poor sound which makes the stories next to impossible to follow. No effects. Some nudity. And a guy that is going around in a hat and trench coat that is supposed to be death himself. Easily one to avoid!
1 out of 5 At least jumping nude into traffic gives the drivers a trill before hitting you

Evil Rooms

It seems I have a thing for the supernatural of late. While I have actually reviewed more slasher type movies, it is the supernatural that strikes my interest more. I'm not sure if I truly believe in ghosts but I know that they can scare me when it comes to ghosts in movies. Not every ghost movie scares me but I feel I have a better chance of feeling scared by a movie that has something to do with ghosts. Last night I watched 1408 (2007). It was a movie I wanted to catch on the big screen but was unable to do so for what ever reasons. I was a little worried by the movie because it seemed to have a lot of CGI effects. Not all movies are bad when they rely on CGI, take 300 for example, but most times I'm less than thrilled by them.

1408 is about Mike Enslin (John Cusack). Mike writes about my favorite subject. In some other reviews, people say he is a man that specializes in debunking the paranormal. Maybe that is the case but it wasn't how I saw the character. To me, he is a man that wants to believe in the paranormal but so far hasn't found what he is looking for, so is bitter because of this. One day he gets a postcard with a picture of the Dolphin Hotel on the front with the message "Don't stay in room 1408" on the back. When he calls the hotel about the room, he is basically refused when he tells them that he wants that one room. The more he researches the hotel and the room, the more he wants to stay there so his publisher helps him out and Mike is able to book the room. Before he can check into the room, Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) wants to have a talk with him about the room. Olin does his best to try and talk Mike out of staying in the room, or at least stay in a different room and just pretend in his next book that it was room 1408 that he staying in. Mike won't have it though and makes his way to his room.

Not the greatest telling of the plot but I don't want to say to much about what happens in the room. As I thought from the trailer, 1408 does go heavy on the CGI effects. While they are not bad effects, they didn't impress me all that much. Not everything is CGI, there are a few effects that aren't but they are very few and have nothing to do with blood. Not saying you need blood to have a horror movie but a lot of horror movies do have some blood effects. The acting...what can I say about about it? John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson are two of the better actors out there and they both do a wonderful job here. If you are a Samuel L. Jackson fan you might not want to rent this if you are going to watch it just to see him. His part in the movie is actually fairly small. John Cusack's reaction when he first entered the 1408 room made me laugh a little when he holds his arms out and says "This is it?"

1408 is a fun ride but it wasn't what I was expecting it to be when I started to watch it. I guess I was expecting more of a ghost story. What I got was a story about an evil room. It wasn't a bad story. It is just hard sometimes to enjoy a movie when you thought it was about one thing but you get something else instead. The story starts off interesting enough. While there isn't a lot of character development, I enjoyed what was there. The interaction between Mike and Olin was fun to watch as well. When Mike gets to the room, I was still enjoying the film but the longer he stays in the room, the less interesting it seemed to get for me. I think the biggest problem I had with it is there is no real build up of tension. The most tense moment to me was when Mike climbed out onto the window ledge.

I bought the DVD for 1408 and it comes with two discs. The first disc is what made it to the big screen while the second disc is the extended director's cut with an alternate ending. I watched the extended cut and then put in the first disc so I could see the different ending. I think I liked the ending that was on the theatrical version better. I'm having a hard time finding anything to say without giving too much away, so I will just say that it is worth checking out even if I didn't like it as well as I thought I was going to.
3 out of 5 Very long brick walls

Odd Titles

Since I only have one final today and it is late in the day, I decided it would be a good time to write up a review instead of burning myself out reading over notes I have been reading for the past week. Plus, after the last movie, I was ready for the next one. Dead Birds (2004) was the next movie up and Netflix was showing a high score for it, so I had my hopes up going in. I don't know where they got the title for the movie, since it has nothing to do with birds and I could only find one dead one in it. Cool title but it has nothing to do with the movie itself. Some people suggest that the title is like a warning. Dead birds are often a warning that something isn't right and I guess that does fit with this movie. But maybe they could have explained that just a little better.

Dead Birds is set in 1863 during the Civil War. A group of soldiers enter a bank with sacks of gold, wanting to deposit them. While two of them remain outside, another group comes riding up. When asked what they want, they reply that they have business in the bank. The soldiers tell them that they will have to wait but are killed before they can do little else. Once inside the bank this second group kills everyone except the one woman who was there, because she happens to be in on the robbery. They take the gold and split. On the way out of town, they get into another shoot out where a little boy is killed. They ride out of town looking for a place to hole up, before they start their ride to Mexico. Since they are in the deep South (Alabama actually), they are looking for a plantation that was once owned by a soldier who is now dead. The leader of the group, William (Henry Thomas), decides it would be a good place to go for the night since he thinks no one will be there.

They manage to find the place and have to go through a corn field to get there. They find a creepy looking scarecrow, and Sam (Patrick Fugit) shoots a weird looking creature. They don't think too much of it and make their way to the house. Once there, they discover some foot prints in the dust. So William and Todd (Isaiah Washington) check out the house, while Clyde (Michael Shannon) and Joseph (Mark Boone Junior) check the outside. Sam has Annabelle (Nicki Aycox) try and get a bullet out of him, that he got during the bank robbery. They soon discover that not everything is as it seems though.

The effects are very good for the most part. There was one scene that I wasn't too thrilled with, when a guy gets his head shot completely off. I thought it was a little extreme and didn't look that good. You will find some CGI effects. Some people felt they were used too much for this film, but I'm not one of them. The CGI effects were well done, and there is only one place in the film where they are used a lot. That is during a flash back sequence. Another area that turns out to be real gory, is when Todd finds a slave woman in the basement. She gets cut open and...well, I will just let you see that one for yourself. And don't forget about what they do to the poor horses!



I really enjoyed the acting in Dead Birds. At the time the film was made, I don't think it had a well known cast. I had heard of Isaiah Washington before, but I couldn't place where I have seen the name before. I didn't know it until after watching the movie, that Henry Thomas was in E.T. as the little boy that was basically one of the main characters. I liked Dead Birds so much in part because of Nicki Aycox. I really liked her performance and her character. Nicki herself isn't too bad either.


Much like Session 9, Dead Birds is a slow building movie. It starts fairly fast with the bank robbery and kind of gives the wrong impression about what kind of movie this is going to be. It starts out with a lot of action and some gore, so I think most people expect it will keep that pace going. Instead, it slows and stays that way. It does manage to invoke a very creepy feel along the way though. The music, even though some people say is too repetitive and reminds them too much of The Shining, really added to the feel of the movie for me. The effects made me jump and even yell just a little, because they weren't really what I was expecting and because they are very well done.


That's not to say that everything was great about Dead Birds. The pace of the movie will turn some people off, along with the fact that things are not truly explained. It only hints at what happened in the past, that is causing the things that we see happening. While these things didn't bother me at all, the lighting could at times. They are only supposed to have a few lanterns to give them light, but yet everything can be very clear. This wasn't a big complaint, since at times I complain about things being so dark that you can't see anything. My big complaint was how are we supposed to get involved in a bunch of characters that aren't very likable? Are we honestly supposed to care about a bunch of people that will kill anyone for some gold coins? Still, it is a movie that I will gladly buy and watch many times. This isn't a movie for everyone but I sure loved it!
5 out of 5 Scary kids get me every time

Creepy Locations

I'm way behind on the curve when it comes to Session 9 (2001). After reading about it on a couple of different blogs, I went looking for it on Netflix and discovered that I had already added it to my queue. Instead of bumping it up, I decided to wait for it. After watching many movies ahead of it, either buying them or watching them on the big screen, it finally arrived and then simply sat there for a month. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise though. More often than not, I get disappointed by a movie that I read a lot of good reviews from. While I didn't read a lot, two reviews by Final Girl and Crwm, they were both glowing reviews. I remember that but I couldn't tell you what was said in either review, outside of the fact that both loved the location, until I went back to read them after watching this film. Maybe that was a good thing since I got to go into this movie not knowing what to really expect from it.

Session 9 starts with Gordon (Peter Mullan) and his partner Phil (David Caruso) going to a place called Danvers State Mental Hospital in order to bid on a job there. They are part of an asbestos cleaning crew that will clean up the hospital, which was closed down in the 1980s, so it can be reopened for office use. They take a tour of the place and when the guy in charge of showing them around asks how long it will take, Phil answers three weeks. Gordon then says two weeks and Phil agrees. At one point during the tour, Gordon hears a voice that says hello to him. As they leave, Phil remembers that he left a bag in the building and goes back to get it. Gordon is desperate for a job because he just had a baby enter his life and is feeling the pressure of this and tells the guy that they will get the job done in a week if they get the job and they do.

From here we meet the rest of the crew. There is Hank (Josh Lucas) who is a bit of a smart ass. Jeff (Brendan Sexton III) is the new guy on the crew and is Gordon's nephew. And Mike (Stephen Gevedon) who is kind of the brain of the group. His dad is a big shoot lawyer and Mike even went to law school but then decided against it. Mike is starting to change his mind again when he discovers a box that is taped up and marked as evidence. Inside he finds some reel to reel tapes that cover nine sessions with Mary Hobbes (Jurian Hughes). Mary was at the hospital and had multiple personality disorder. The story on these tapes seem to parallel the story of one of the workers. Which one and what is the story?

In the case of Session 9, little is better. You will actually find very little effects and those that are found wait until the end of the movie to show up. You won't actually see anyone being killed since this isn't that type of movie. The acting was pretty good. I remember seeing David Caruso on TV but I don't think I have actually watched any of the shows he has been on. They all gave a good impression of just being working class guys trying to get a job done. A comment about the acting, about Peter Mullan actually, made me laugh in one review. The person said that Peter had the worst Scottish accent he/she had ever heard. What made that so funny is that Peter is from Scotland so he has a true Scottish accent.

Session 9 will probably bore some people to tears. It is a very slow burning movie but surprisingly it never once got boring to me. Part of this has to do with the location of the film. Right from the get go there is a creepy vibe that stays with the film all the way through it. It isn't just the location but also the music. I can't say anything spooky actually happens while they are there but the place makes you feel like that anything could happen at any given moment. It take a while before anything happens and even when something does happen, we are left wondering what it was. As slow of a build Session 9 has, it is a shame that they don't delve into the backgrounds of the small cast more than what they did. Because of the very slow build up, it comes close to being boring at times which is why I think this movie didn't take off even though I really liked it.

Session 9 tells you just enough so you know what is going on but it may take more than one watch in order to figure out everything. Once you make up your mind as to what is going on, you might want to watch it again with that in mind so you can catch other things. That is the fun thing about Session 9, it doesn't explain everything and lets you decide what is happening. Is it supernatural or psychological? Watch and decide for yourself. Maybe they could have tried to make it slightly more scary and I had to wonder, would they really only bring in five people to try and clean up a place so large? If this sounds like a movie that would be something you could really get into, give it a chance. It is well worth it.
4 out of 5 Hoping a disembodied voice never says hello to me

Curse Of The Long Titles

Hi all. Some of you may have been wondering where I have been for the past week. Finals are coming up fast so that means it is crunch time. This set of classes I am working through have been the hardest yet so I have been fairly busy keeping my nose in my books. I needed a break though so I decided to pop in a movie and try and relax for a bit. Before I get into the movie, you may have noticed that I added another link to the blogs list. Bloody Mary did a review of the last Film Club selection, which I forgot about and didn't have time to watch anyway. I did read the different reviews though. Bloody Mary's blog was a new one to me so I checked it out first. She has designed a very nice looking blog that made me jealous right away. She obviously put a lot of time and effort into it and it shows. She also puts a lot of time into her reviews so give them a look sometime.

The movie I watched today was Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key (1972). Now you know why I titled the post the way I did. Your Vice opens with a party. We meet Oliver (Luigi Pistilli) who is making a toast to his recently departed mother. His wife Irina (Anita Strindberg) doesn't share in the toast however. Oliver doesn't much like this so goes around and collects drinks from the young hippies that Oliver often parties with and forces Irina to drink them. We soon discover that their marriage isn't the best around. Oliver is often looking at other women and sleeping with them while he abuses and humilates his wife. One of Oliver's lovers asks him to meet up with her. He tells her he will as long as he isn't busy. She shows up only to get her throat cut by a curving blade. The police suspect Oliver since they found out that they were lovers. Irina sort of covers for Oliver even though he wasn't home at the time of the murder.

The next person to go down is their maid. She tries on a dress that once belonged to Oliver's mother and she is killed while wearing it. Irina discovers the body while Oliver begs her to help him hide the body. His reasoning is that because he didn't kill the maid, the police might think otherwise since his lover was also killed. What made this whole scene laughable in a way is that if neither of them killed the maid, shouldn't they be worried that there is a murderer that could still be in the house? The next day they find out that Oliver's neice has invited herself to their home to stay. It has been a while since Oliver has seen Floriana (Edwige Fenech) so he is taken aback when a very beautiful young woman arrives. So now we have her added to the mix. What is her agenda and who is killing off everyone?

The effects were bad even for 1972. The blood didn't look real at all and the reason for that is because they used tomato sauce in place of fake blood. There is an interview extra on the disk and that is where I learned this. You will find a couple of throats and other body parts getting slashed up and you can tell they weren't using a real person when he or she was being cut. This surprised me since it is an easy effect to do with a real person. I enjoyed the acting even though everything was in subtitle. Anita Strindberg was great as the always afraid wife. If I remember correctly, this is the first movie I have watched Edwige Fenech in. After reading about this film, I discovered that she has a large following and it is easy to see why.

While watching Your Vice, I was never sure where the plot was going. Was it just a simple slasher type movie or was there more to it than that? Just when I thought I had everything figured out, they throw a wrench into the works and it made me rethink everything. I kept telling myself that it couldn't be so simple and that I was missing something. I ended up being surprised by the ending of the film. Not because I was wrong but because I was right about who I thought was doing it. It just turned out for different reasons than I thought was all. The plot was fun to figure out but it did drag along in places. If you are a cat lover then this movie might offend you to some degree. Irina attacks the cat that seems to hate her after it goes after her doves. Even though I knew it was fake, I couldn't help but cringe all the same.

Your Vice has it all actually. Murders, nudity, incest and even some girl on girl action. What surprised me about this scene with the two women was that there was no nudity to be found in it. Even though both women appear nude in different scenes, nothing is shown when they are together. I wasn't expecting to be shown them having sex but I guess I was just surprised I didn't see a breast the entire time. Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key isn't great but it was worth watching at least. If you are wondering, there is a locked room but it is only used once. I guess the title has more triva value than having to do with the movie itself. It was taken from a line from another movie by the same director. A silly way to name a movie but whatever.

3 out of 5 Poor little kitty