Birthday Guest Blogging Part Ten

You may have noticed a small change with my blog. Thanks to B-Sol at The Vault Of Horror, I now have a new banner for my blog. He came up with a better banner than what I was thinking of for it, so thank you B-Sol. I do appreciate it very, very much. I have had it for a while now, but I wanted to wait to use it when it was B-Sol's turn at the guest spot light. Since it is now up, and being shown off, I guess that means it is time to hear from B-Sol!

I met B-Sol kind of through CRwM. When the contest for favorite female horror blogger came around, CRwM encouraged me to throw my blog in with all the rest. I didn't want to at first, but I folded on the last day to enter into it. From there I have talked to B-Sol on and off. He is a really good guy who will go out of his way to help out. You can even see this in his blog at times, as he tries to get other blogs involved with what he has planned. Since I don't go around asking people to check out my blog, it is always nice when blogs that are more popular are willing to share the love, so to speak. Not only is he willing to share, but he also keeps his blog interesting with a wide variety of things within the horror world. If you haven't checked out his blog by now, and I would be very surprised if you haven't already, then you should. If for no other reason than to check out the pod cast with Roddy Piper!

Since B-Sol is nice enough to get other blogs involved with his ideas, it seemed only right that I invite him to do a guest post here. The Vault Of Horror is one of my favorite blogs, don't get me wrong about that. I enjoy heading over there to see what B-Sol has come up with next. Anyway, here is the B-Sol himself to tell us about one of his favorite movies.


I’d like to talk a bit about a movie that I realize is far from universally loved, yet has always been close to my heart, and one of my favorite horror movies of all time. It’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

When this movie first came out, I went to the theater to see it a total of six different times. Each time, I would find people that I knew who had never seen it, and drag them out to go see it, mainly so I would have an excuse to see it again.

At the time, I was in college and on a huge Anne Rice kick. And for me, Coppola’s vision of Stoker’s novel was as much an interesting adaptation of a long-cherished horror classic as it was a perfect synthesis of Rice’s contributions to the vampire mythos.

Because let’s face it, the movie is not the ultra-faithful adaptation of the original novel it’s marketers touted it as in 1992. After all, Bram never had even the slightest hint of a love affair between Drac and Mina, and all that reincarnation stuff was a pure invention of the filmmakers. Yet what the film did was to distill the best of what Rice brought to the table, and graft it on to the most recognized vampire tale of all.

Call it hammy if you like, but I found Gary Oldman’s performance as Dracula to be breathtaking, and I still think he deserved an Oscar nomination for it. The problem with the role has always been the shadow of Bela Lugosi that has lingered over everyone else that attempted it—yes, even Christopher Lee. But what Oldman did was to absolutely and completely make it his own. And for that, I applaud him.

The rest of the cast, admittedly, is hit and miss. I love Cary Elwes as the stuffy Arthur Holmwood, and Richard E. Grant is interesting as Dr. Seward. Tom Waits is amazing as Renfield—this was my first exposure to him, and I was shocked to discover he was American and not British.

But then you have a way too over-the-top Anthony Hopkins chewing up the scenery as Van Helsing—he makes the stagey Edward Van Sloan appear to be a study in subtlety. And then there’s Keanu. Oh boy. The man almost single-handedly derailed the flick with his terrible, awkward performances. Almost.

But despite Keanu, BSD fascinated me utterly from beginning to end. The gorgeous set design, the lush costumes, and that instantly iconic score by Wojciech Kilar—a European composer I can’t believe has never made bigger strides in America, given his obvious talent. That foreboding and majestic music is a big part of what makes this movie work.

Over the years, the reputation of this movie seems to have taken a hit, I suspect owing to some of the somewhat histrionic performances. Or maybe it’s due to the perceived disingenuousness surrounding the adaptation, whose faithfulness was far less than Coppola declared it to be. Nevertheless, it does remain perhaps the most faithful adaptation we’ve seen thus far. And I stand by the belief I’ve held for the past 17 years, that when all is said and done, Francis Ford Coppola will be remembered as the guy who directed The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Stay Away From Tree Sap

Don't you just hate computers sometimes? Even though my computer has a clean bill of health, as far as a viruses go, I'm still having issues with it. I actually had to walk away from it earlier today, before I tossed the damn thing out the window. It locks up at odd times, sometimes during the boot, sometimes right after it boots, and sometimes long after it has been on. I get an overclocking error once in a great while, so I'm sure that is the cause of the lock ups, from what I read on the web anyway. I have no idea what  overclocking is, or how to prevent it though. Anyway, between lock ups, I did manage to watch Severed (2005) on Instant Watch through Netflix. It was moving up my DVD queue, and when I found out it has no extras to be found on it, I figured I would just watch it online instead.

Somewhere in Canada, lumberjacks are cutting down trees while a group of protesters complain about the killing of trees. I think this is happening on some island, but I'm not completely sure of that. Anyway, what neither side knows is that the company making all the money is using a chemical that helps trees grow quicker. They figure this is good for two reasons, there will no longer be such a thing as deforesting anymore, and it will help put more money in their pockets. What the company doesn't realize is that this chemical caused the tree sap to look a bit like blood, and when it gets into a human, it makes them zombie like. When production isn't what it should be, the head of the company sends his son,Tyler (Paul Campbell), to find out why. Tyler soon finds out the reason. He eventually finds Rita (Sarah Lind), head of the protesters, and Mac (Julian Christopher), the onsite boss, as well as a few other people. Carter (JR Bourne), the onsite scientist, is also with them. With no help around for hundreds of miles, will they be able to survive?

I was a little surprised with Severed (the title on the DVD is actually Severed: Forest Of The Dead, but that is the name it was given on DVD release). I hate to call the infected people zombies in this film though. It is a very grey area for this movie. Unlike other infected people, where they use any means to kill like in 28 Days Later, the infected in Severed do actually eat noninfected people. Severed and 28 Days Later actually share a lot more than having infected people killing others. The set up and general plot are very close. A protester causes the outbreak, not on purpose, but it is their fault all the same. They may not be going through a big city with no one around, but the forest is just as deserted. They head to where they think they will find safety, only to run into a lot of men who aren't all that friendly. It isn't the same movie in a lot of ways, but it does parallel 28 Days Later. There seems to be two ways to get infected in this movie. You can be infected either from the tree sap, or from getting chomped on by one of the infected. Even though more than one person gets sprayed in the face by the blood of an infected person, for some reason that doesn't seem to cause the person to turn. It doesn't make any sense because blood transfers everything. There are some pacing problems, and the movie nearly drags to a crawl towards the end. During some of the action sequences, the camera becomes rather shaky and even out of focus. The close-ups become very annoying during these times as well.

The effects are a bit of a mixed bag. I didn't see any effects that I would have considered bad though. The thing is that one of the first effects we see is an infected person munching on someone else, so we see guts and all of that. We get that kind of effect more than once. These aren't always the greatest in the world, but they will do. But during a lot of the attacks we see nothing. If we do manage to see anything, it is just blood spraying up, with the kill happening just off camera. This makes things feel uneven with the effects. I'm sure that because this was a low budget movie they couldn't put a lot of effects in. I get that, but it still made it feel uneven to me. The acting was a lot better than I had expected it to be. JR Bourne was great in this movie. He starts off normal enough, goes a bit crazy, and comes back again. He has some very good scenes. Sarah Lind was also very good. Even though Paul Campbell has the lead role, I guess you can call it that, he has got to be one the most quiet leads I've watched.

I think what made Severed worth watching was the human interaction. Neither of the two groups, the guys from the logging company and the protesters, is shown as bad people. They are just doing their job, or what they believe in. Of course once things go bad, they still argue over things. But as time goes on, the two groups begin to bond like anyone does when they have to go through something horrible together. Their differences begin to drop away after a while, and they just become survivors. There is a scene where both the survivors and infected converge on protesters that have been chained to trees. This made for an intense few minutes. This does lead to another problem though. I don't know for sure how many people were in the woods when things went to hell, but it seemed like no matter how many of the infected were killed, there were always plenty more to take their place. The ending could have been slightly better, since I wasn't sure if one person was killed or what happened.

In the end Severed had some problems that kept it from being a great movie. However, for a film that had infected/zombies in it, in the middle of the woods at that, it came out a lot better than it probably deserved to. If you don't have another movie lined up, you should give this one a watch sometime. It is worth it to watch it at least once.
3 out of 5 I always knew trees were evil!

Birthday Guest Blogging Part Nine

When I was going through names of people I wanted to invite for my guest posts, two names came up that didn't have anything to do with blogs. As far as I know, neither have a blog of their own. After throwing the idea around for a while, I decided that I should ask them if they would like to do a guest post at the very least. They are both very good friends of mine, who I try to keep in touch with, so it just made sense to me to ask them. Both have agreed to do a little writing for me. The first person I asked was Kimberly Amato. She has plans for her guest spot, which means it will be coming later in the year. I could have pressed for it sooner, but it is her guest spot. I'm not sure when I will get it, but I know that I will.

The other person I decided to ask is the person known to everyone here as Jed Cooper. Why Jed? Mainly because he is one, if not the first, long time supporters of my blog. I'm not sure who came around first, and in truth it doesn't matter. Jed is a very nice guy who will do anything for you once you get to know him as a friend. Hopefully I have been that kind of friend back. Since getting to know Jed through my blog, we have moved things to chat and email at times as well. He has been very useful in bouncing ideas off of for my blog. He has also become something of an editor for me, catching all the stupid mistakes I make in my writing. I truly feel sorry for him in that respect. Another reason I asked Jed is because some of his comments might as well be a post in themselves. I figured if he was going to do all that writing, I might as well channel it into a guest post!

When I asked everyone to do a guest post, I just gave them a general idea of what I was looking for, and let them run with it. I think that has worked out wonderfully. As you have all noticed, everyone has come up with their own version of that idea. When Jed sent me his post, he warned me that I might want to edit a lot of it out. When I started to read it, I discovered that a lot of it was about me, and not about a movie. I didn't edit any other guest posts as far as content went, so I decided not to do that for Jed's either. So here is Jed talking about me, and some of his favorite movies as well.


I have had both the pleasure and honor of knowing Miss Heather as both an internet friend and “kindred spirit” for five years plus now. She was a classic example of how the internet can make the world not seem so large at times for me. I quickly learned she was attending the same college I graduated from on a full swimming scholarship. (Yes as much as I often try to hide it with my comments, I actually went to college, and graduated with honors in double majors.) Speaking of which, academically Miss Heather managed to make the Dean’s List every one of her eight semesters in college, which in itself would be a major accomplishment. Especially when you realize her major was chemistry, and she was one of the few females in that major. She also managed to accomplish this feat at a college recognized for its academic excellence and not as a party school. But couple that with being an active member of the women’s swim team for four years, practices, meets, AND running a horror blog. I would often ask her when she found time to sleep and eat. Now you start to better understand why I so often call her “amazing lady” and many other respectful phrases. None of those phrases have ever been offered lightly or in jest, well at least none of the positive ones anyway (grinning).

Outside of our political views (sighing heavily and rolling my eyes), Miss Heather has largely restored my faith in what I call the “youth of America”. If more young adults were clones of Miss Heather, I would not feel nearly so concerned they will be running our country one day. To me she is very much like the attractive young girl next door, that I have been privileged and honored to watch grow into an incredibly beautiful woman. For the past five years we have frequently chatted as only close friends can and will. We know things about each other that can only be shared with trusted friends. I understand some of her hopes and aspirations for her life, and I sincerely hope she is able to achieve each and every one of them. She deserves them. Because what makes this incredible lady even more unique to me is the fact, with everything she has going for her (brains, beauty, and athletic talent), she is clearly the least conceited friend I have ever made.

So I clearly am a huge fan of Mermaid Heather, Miss Heather, and “the incredible sick puppette” (grinning). I am also someone who feels honored to be able to call her my best internet friend. But all these things said, on her blog I do my best simply to be a major fan of hers. I quickly discovered we both share many of the same interests in our love of certain sub horror genres, our love of well done blood and guts, and of great effects in general. So when other fans read I largely agree with her views on a post, it simply is because I do, not because I consider her a friend. Sometimes we disagree on a flick, but I admit, those are rare times indeed. But even then I know I can express my views without her being offended. Think of how boring our world would be if each of us loved exactly the same things in our horror movies. Yuck !!!

So I can not truly begin to express my surprise, shock even, when Miss Heather asked me to do a guest birthday post. I can honestly say that was the last thing I ever expected her to ask me. But once I got beyond the shock and terror of having the spotlight here, I realized how honored I was to be asked to do that too. So Miss Heather, this one is for you special lady (smiling, tips my hat).

First let me apologize for making such a long introduction to my thoughts. But I realized this WAS my one chance to be in the spotlight, and I wanted to use part of my time to let other fans, especially her newer ones, get a better feel for the amazing Mermaid.

I have been watching movies now for nearly 60 years. My earliest memories of movies I can clearly recall were some of the “classic horrors” (THE MUMMY, THE WOLFMAN, FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA, etc) being shown on Shock Theatre late Saturday night. At 5, I was sitting up with my two older brothers and my grandmother, eating popcorn she had just made, and watching double feature horrors. All of the other adults were asleep, because they thought the four of us were nuts (grinning). Fast forward 50 plus years, and my three favorite movie genres are horrors, westerns, and action-adventures (in that order).

I have made myself become a bit philosophical to figure out why these genres work for me as well as they do. Simply put they each normally involve a battle between good and evil. With action-adventure movies it is usually the lone good guy battling staggering hordes of bad guys, with weapons blazing and blood and body parts flying. Since I proudly call myself a “sick puppy” that is clearly not a bad thing to me at all. But as I mentioned in a comment to Miss Stacie’s recent post, I often have serious issues with the way firearms are used in most action-adventure flicks. Handguns that hold 6, 8 or 15 rounds are fired 12 to 30 times before the good guys finally need to reload. Handguns, shotguns and rifles dramatically blow the bad guy off his feet and toss him yards away. Trust me folks, it just doesn’t happen that way in real life. If a weapon would knock the bad guy down, it would take the good guy down when he fired it too…think Newton’s Law here.

Westerns also portray this epic battle between good and evil, but usually are much more realistic in how weapons are used. In the early movies the good guys wore white hats, and the bad guys the black ones – literally. Now western movies have grown up a bit, and hats no longer clearly id the players as they once did. But the struggle between justice and injustice is still strongly in evidence. In most westerns care is taken to use firearms authentic to the time frame the oater covers.

Of course there are exceptions to that too. I am a big John Wayne fan (be nice Miss Heather, grinning). He quickly became rich enough from his roles in B westerns to be able to produce his own films, which meant he called the shots. My only issue with him in several of his Civil War era westerns is the fact he was using firearms that had not yet been invented. He is often seen wearing a Colt Single Action Army revolver and carrying a Winchester lever action rifle – neither of which was invented until 1873. Now John Wayne knew this, as he was a big gun owner/shooter. These two weapons were his favorites, and he wanted to use them in these movies. As I noted, it was his money making them, and he called the shots. But at least to his credit, he knew how many rounds of ammo each firearm held, lol.

But the epic struggle in westerns is generally more clear cut to me, more black and white if you will, than in many action-adventures. You generally have one lone lawman, or the Sheriff and a couple of brave deputies going up against staggering odds, battling outlaws or the bad guys who have them greatly outnumbered. Or sometimes it is the lone rancher, or a couple, trying to protect their property from the evil cattle baron. In many ways, westerns to me clearly and simply illustrate courage in the common man. One of my favorite quotes is that “courage is saddling up even when you are scared”. While it may well sound like a cliché, I think it very nicely sums up the heart of most westerns for me.
 
Then we finally move to my favorite movie genre - horrors (I know some of you have been wondering, if and when I would ever get here, lol). If I was asked to pick a favorite horror movie, I simply could not do that honestly. I have watched far too many over the years, and for one reason or another, have enjoyed most I have seen. Not always for the same reasons, but it is a rare horror movie that I can not find something positive or really well done in. But I do think I can at least pick a favorite category of horror movies, and those would be the Hammer Films.
 
As much as I still love the “true classics”, I see stages in the development of horror movies (just as I see in westerns). First let me make it clear, I do not consider myself an “expert” or horror historian, or anything akin to those terms. I am simply a big movie fan. So you are going to get “my take” on the development of horror movies. It may well not be totally accurate, but hopefully it will explain why I am such a fan of the Hammer Films horrors.
 
We started with the classics, THE MUMMY, FRANKENSTEIN, THE WOLFMAN, DRACULA, etc. Universal and others spent some serious money for that time frame making these movies. When they were released, movie goers quickly realized that horror movies could be made that equated to other movie genres, and deserved to be taken seriously as a unique genre. So to me, these great movies create the birth of “the true monster movie”. But the quality of the 1930’s and 40’s flicks mysteriously seemed to give way to the rise of the “B horror movie” in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. I am not throwing mud on B movies, and I have several in my horror collection. As I have said, it is a rare horror that I can not find something I liked about it.
 
But to me, they largely were a step backwards, rather than forward, in the development of horror movies. I think too many studios saw the popularity of the classics, and wanted to make money without spending the funds needed to make more “classics”. So horror fans were made to suffer through countless sci-fi type horror movies, with the monsters in hideous rubber outfits, with scripts that most would be ashamed to admit they wrote today.
 
Then suddenly a small studio in England appeared called Hammer Films, and horror movies became more like the older classics again to me. Here was a group of film makers and actors who clearly loved the old “classic horrors”, and wanted to make their own movies in honor of them. At least that is how I see the folks at Hammer. From many things I have read and watched, the folks who worked there became a large family. Watch enough Hammer Films, and you will quickly begin to see many of the same faces over and over. Not just the main stars, like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. But you will also notice that many of the supporting cast will keep showing up in other movies. All of a sudden we stopped battling the creature from some foreign planet, and went back to folks more clearly engaged in the fight of good versus evil. Gone were the hideous rubber outfits, and “class” was restored to horrors.

Hammer Films spent enough money to make quality movies again, that true horror fans had been longing for. Again watch a few of them, and you will see some amazing scenery, great film sets, incredible acting, strong scripts, and some of the most amazing special effects possible for that time frame. You will also get to see some truly beautiful women in these films too, which has never hurt my feelings (grinning). No, sadly they are not full of blood and guts and flying body parts that I enjoy so much. But to me they set the stage, created the atmosphere, where all of those later incredible, gory effects could be done, and done well. In my view, Hammer Films allowed horror movies to be taken seriously again by their fans. They were largely a return to the “classics” updated with better sets and scenery, coupled with more impressive effects than were possible for the earlier classics. They allowed horror fans to once again hold their heads up high and be proud to be followers of that genre.

Now talk about true courage, folks. Hmmm, let me think, would I rather be armed with Colt revolvers and Winchester lever action rifles…or mirrors, crosses, holy water, swords, and a pitchfork here and there. No contest, but these brave believers in the power of good stood up against whatever evil they had to face, with a minimal number of “weapons”. So taken as a whole, the Hammers allowed a new era of horror movie to develop beyond them, and continue to develop into ones we enjoy today. I say “taken as a whole”, because I will be the first to admit, that not every film this studio made was an “updated classic” to me. I remember politely bugging Miss Heather countless times in both comments and our chats, to watch and review a Hammer Film. When she finally did, she managed to start with one of the weakest ones they made in my view. It was one I felt was really more of an action-adventure movie than a horror. I shook my head and rolled my eyes, and hoped I had not managed to turn The Mermaid off completely on watching another Hammer flick. I am happy to say Miss Heather hung in there, and even added that as one of her recent challenge categories. So I think, while not every Hammer movie she has reviewed has been a huge hit for her, she can at least understand now why I see myself as such a big Hammer fan.

I think one of the reasons that horrors are my favorite genre is that in many ways they are a more realistic representation of how I see the world, than other types of movies. Contrary to the heroes we encounter in action-adventures and westerns, the typical horror hero is “every man”, John Doe, who is not martially arts trained, proficient with every weapon known to mankind, nor does he/she usually wear a badge and enforce the law. All of these are attributes that would easily explain why they are likely heroes in the other genres. By comparison, the horror hero is thrown into a situation he/she did not want nor chose, and is largely ill-prepared for. Yet when faced with the evil confronting him/her, our hero still manages to “saddle up”.
 
There is another reason why the Hammer Films (and the original “classics”) have always been special movies to me, and it is for incredible personal memories they produce for me. I have clearly been the biggest horror fan within my family, but my wife was becoming more of a fan as time went on. My wife died before Miss Amy officially became a teenager, which I know was very hard for both of us to deal with. Miss Amy quickly became the “only lady in my life”, as I was even more determined to be the best parent I could, since I now needed to be both mom and dad. With the help of some fantastic babysitters, I was able to make sure Amy was never alone when work kept me out late. I made sure we always had some special time the two of us could share by ourselves.

I was a bit surprised when Miss Amy wanted to watch some horror movies with me. Not wanting to scare her off the genre, I intentionally started her out with the “classics”. The first time we sat on the couch together and watched Bela Lugosi in DRACULA, I could tell at times she was scared, because she would sometimes grab my arm. But when it was over, she said it was ok, but everything looked so old it in. I think the word she used was ancient. So I pulled out one of the Hammers with Christopher Lee playing the count. She said she liked it better, but I could also tell it scared her more too. I had a couple of bruise marks on my arm from her death grips to prove it too (smiling).

So that became one of our horror rituals quite often. We would watch one of the original classics together, and then pull out one of the Hammer movies. Miss Amy always seemed to prefer the Hammer versions more. As she grew older, we continued to watch horrors together, both on the big screen and at home. When she would come home on a college break, we would always find the time to watch some horror movies together. Sometimes older ones, sometimes the newest releases, but we always made time to watch some of the Hammer ones again too. In many ways, I considered the Hammers to be “our horror movies”. Miss Amy died in her late 20’s, but it helped to know she was with her mom at least.
 
So now whenever I watch a Hammer flick, I always recall some of those special moments, watching them with my wife and later with my daughter. Yes, I know and admit there are horror movies that have more gore, and might produce a rare shiver for me now. But the Hammer movies will always be special ones to me too.

In closing I would simply like to thank Miss Heather for giving me the opportunity to express my thoughts. Maybe I have alluded to this before in some of our chats Miss Heather. But I don’t think I have ever phrased it quite like this if I have maam. I know you also lost your mom when you were young, and were raised by your dad who did his best to fill both roles as well. Many times when we chatted, you would say something, or answer a question I asked you. In doing that Miss Heather, you allowed me to realize I had been a much better father to Miss Amy than I had hoped I could be. For helping me know that sweet lady, I will always be eternally grateful to you (big hug).
 
I hope the ramblings of a non-blogger were at least worth the time it took to read them (if you are still reading, lol). To be perfectly honest I have to admit it now. Remember I said I loved horrors so much, because they most closely represented how I see the real world. My most favorite horror movies are those where the forces of evil manage to end up winning. Of course this usually happens in a small reveal while the credits are running. But it happens, and that is all it takes to make me grin like a madman. Shucks I did warn you folks I am a “sick puppy”. So what did you really expect me to say (grinning, tips my hat).

The Art Is Here

When I was trying to decide what I should read next, I decided against reading another James Herbert novel. I had read four in a row, so I decided to read something else. The book I first picked out was actually the second book of a series (of two books as far as I know), and I couldn't remember what happened in the first book at all. That was an easy problem to solve, so I picked up The Great And Secret Show by Clive Barker instead. There is a reason for this actually. In about a month's time I might get a chance to meet him in person, if he doesn't pull out of the convention by then. The Great And Secret Show is a book that I remember reading, but never finishing. I got so far into it and gave up on it. My memory tells me that I picked it up again years later and finished it that time, which is why I was going to read the second book. I guess my memory was playing tricks on me. Because when I started reading it again this time, I only remembered almost half the book, but nothing from the second half of the book.

The Great And Secret Show is a hard book to describe the plot for. Things start off with Randolph Jaffe working in a post office in Omaha, Nebraska. Jaffe is the type of guy that for whatever reason, no one seems to like. His boss, who doesn't like Jaffe at all either, puts him in the Dead Letter room so he will be out of the way of everyone else. The Dead Letter room is where all the mail that can't seem to find a place to go ends up at. Jaffe is supposed to go through it all in order to look for money and other items that can be split up between everyone. Jaffe does this, but he begins to discover that people all over America know about something called The Art. No one really knows what it is, but Jaffe is able to put enough clues together in order to start understanding it a bit. When his boss figures out that Jaffe is hiding something, which he thinks is money and not knowledge, Jaffe simply murders him instead of giving his boss what he has learned. Jaffe then sets out to find a man named Fletcher. Fletcher is a scientist who has ideas that Jaffe thinks will help him discover The Art. Jaffe finds Fletcher at his lowest point however. His fellow scientists don't believe a word of what he says, and he is now addicted to drugs. Fletcher pulls out of his drug habit though, and eventually he discovers Nuncio. Flecther knows he can't let Jaffe have this though, because it has the power to change a person. Fletcher used it on an ape, who now still has ape like features, but can talk like a normal person. He knows he needs to keep this from Jaffe, who now is obbessed with gaining power in order to perform The Art. Both Fletcher and Jaffe end up affected by the Nuncio though. Fletcher has become someone that loves the light and can use someone's hopes and inspirations to use in a war with Jaffe, who feels safer in the dark and uses people's nightmares.

The story then shifts to a group of four teenaged girls. They live in Palomo Grove, California. This happens to be the place where Fletcher and Jaffe, who now calls himself Jaff, ended their war temporarily. They are in the caves below the town, and are using the last of their powers to keep the other from getting away. A flood has caused the caves to fill, along with some water above ground as well. The four friends decide to strip down and go for a swim in this water. Jaff and Fletcher do something to the girls so that they will get pregnant. They do this so that their sons and daughters will carry on the war. The girls get pregnant by guys, but Fletcher and Jaff are the true fathers in a sense. The story then shifts about 18 years ahead, to when the three children that were born, or are still alive, finally meet.

The first time I read this book, that is about as far as I got, and maybe not even that far really. The trouble then and even now, was that I was having a hard time getting into the story. We start to get to know the first two characters, Jaffe and Fletcher, only for the story to shift to four new characters. Just as their stories were getting more interesting, the story shifts again to a bunch of new characters. It isn't like Clive Barker writes about the back story to the main event in a few pages either. He takes his time with the back story. I was actually fine with that, but I was getting tired of having to learn about new characters all the time. The Great And Secret Show is basically a good versus evil type story. Barker throws in a lot of twists with a lot of different characters. Once the main part of the story gets underway, it does get a lot better. It just takes well over 100 pages before it really gets going with the main story.

I started reading The Great And Secret Show sometime last year. My dad got me a book about Gordon Ramsay for Christmas, because he thought I might like it. I'm a big Hell's Kitchen fan, and I actually loved it. I started reading it right away, which meant that The Great And Secret Show got put on the side for a bit. I eventually went back to the book I had started first though. Now that I finished it, I will get back to the Gordon Ramsay book and finish it. Once I finish it, I will start up on the second book in this series of books. I haven't checked if there is a third book yet.

I will give Barker credit, because he gives us some great characters to keep the story interesting. I would like to have seen the set up be shorter, but the book itself was a fun ride. There is actually a lot more to the story than what I have described so far. There is a whole thing about another dimension, where people visit there at most three times. There is a man named Kissoon, who is trapped in a time loop; and then there is an evil called the Iad Uroboros. What do they all have to do with each other? You will just have to read the book to find out. Clive Barker weaves fantasy with horror, to come up with a pretty interesting story once it really gets going. I enjoyed the back story, and felt it was interesting. I understand why he took his time in the telling of it, even though some of it didn't come into play later. It was just that starting over with a new story three times was a bit much. I don't think it is his best book, but I am looking forward to the next one, now that I know who is who in the story.
3 out of 5 Be careful if you dream of an ocean

Music: Ghost Town

I wanted to do a review today, but I will be doing (hopefully) two reviews over at Top Horror Movies Club today instead. Since I have a lot of movies on Netflix I want to get through, I will hopefully have a new review here either on Monday or Tuesday. I will follow that with another guest post. For today though, since I wanted to get a post up here, I thought I would include another music video.

Over on my sister site, I put up a video by the group Shiny Toy Guns yesterday. The other day while going to work, their song Ghost Town was on the radio. I wanted to check out the video before posting it here, even though the name of the song fits in well enough. The video for it is actually animated, which I found to be an interesting choice. It is animated by Glen Hanson. Ghost Town is off the second album that Shiny Toy Guns has released so far. Le Disco, the song I featured on my other site, is off their first album. Between the two albums, a new lead singer was put in place.

Enjoy the video!

Birthday Guest Blogging Part Eight

With certain posts out of the way now, I can get back to my birthday guest posts. With just a few more to go, I hated to wait as long as I did to get them finished up. I am actually waiting on two others. One of which will be showing up later in the year hopefully. For today though, I invited Holger Hess, the man behind Hammer And Beyond, to work his magic for this guest post.

It has been a little over a year since I first started talking to Holger. Cattleworks invited me to try the 999 Challenge with him, and gave me Holger's email addy. I wrote to him and asked if I could try the challenge out with him, since he was the one that came up with the idea in the first place. Being the nice guy that he is, he welcomed me in. We haven't talked much outside of that, but I wanted to make sure to invite him to the birthday bash. Holger's taste in horror movies are mostly what I call the old ones. He loves the films out of Hammer Studios the most of course, he did name his blog after the studio after all. His blog has helped open my eyes to films from this era. I found it very helpful when I was trying to map out which Hammer films I would be watching for the challenge. Even if you have managed to watch every Hammer film, and even some that are related in some way, I think you will find Hammer And Beyond to very interesting. He puts a lot of work into his posts, which is why it has become a favorite blog of mine.

I will turn things over to Holger so he can tell us about some of his favorite movies:

Amando de Ossorio’s series of four Blind Dead movies is the best and most original series of Eurotrashers that have ever been put on film.

True, we also have Paul Naschy’s Waldemar Daninsky films, but they are based on an already existing monster and for the most part can also be quite tedious to watch. There is the series of 32 Edgar Wallace movies shot by the German company Rialto, but apart from the original author and certain similarities in style, they don’t really share a consistent vision and are certainly not the brain child of a single auteur. Jess Franco’s Dr Orloff productions? Well, let’s face it, they are Franco films after all, so in terms of quality these are all over the place.

A number of other examples could be quoted, but none of these would be able to come anywhere close to Ossorio’s Blind Dead movies which in just four instalments managed to establish a unique universe, populated by those rarest of cinematic horror creations: a truly new and original movie monster, and filled with enough entertainment, sex, violence and atmosphere to create an exploitational vision that is worth returning to in regular intervals.

If you ever need to convince some of your more mainstream friends about what is so special about cult productions from around the world, you can’t go wrong with popping Tombs of the Blind Dead into the player and watch a non-believer turn into a convert. (Trust me, I’ve done it.)

The Blind Dead have accompanied me pretty much all my life. I first came across them as images on German pulp fiction magazines. Too young at the time to be allowed to watch them cinematically, those images were enough to make me check out those movies when they finally made it to VHS or to record them when they were on telly (no doubt, heavily butchered). I since have watched these endless times, and upgraded to whatever version was available for them up until Blue Underground's DVD release from a while back presented all four of them in wonderfully restored editions and also included a separate disc with a documentary about the director. Presented in a coffin shaped box set and with a 40-page booklet about the movies, The Blind Dead Collection is a real keeper and now takes pride of place on my DVD shelf.

Tombs of the Living Dead starts off with the credits over pictures of an empty monastery supported by spooky Gregorian chants and moans, until a bloodied skeleton hand comes into the picture and, pre-empting the film’s climax, we see Betty (Lone Fleming), the female hero, screaming her head off, followed by a cut to a Portuguese holiday resort in the summer where Betty meets an old friend again, Virginia (María Elena Arpón), with whom she once had an embarrassing lesbian fling that gets shown in an hilarious soft-focus flashback later in the movie. Virgina has now shed aside her Sapphic tendencies and is on vacation with her new boyfriend, Roger (César Burner), who quickly invites Betty to join them on a tour through the country. In a fit of jealousy mixed with uneasiness about her former lover, Virginia jumps off the train and hikes to Berzano, an old abandoned monastery that the locals don’t like to talk about anymore and that - yes, you guessed correctly – is still inhabited by the Undead corpses of our friends, the Blind Dead Templars, who make Virgina the first of many victims in this series.

Filmed primarily in Portugal (Lisbon, Estoril, Setubal, Palmela, Sesimbra) as well as in the Monasterio del Cercón (Madrid), Tombs of the Blind Dead is a Portuguese/Spanish co-production (as opposed to its follow ups which were “proper” Spanish only produced movies) and makes excellent use of its old abandoned outdoor locations.

The success of certain modern horror films is all too often just dependent on an extensive use of gore. Although Tombs does have its fair share of excessive violence (one scene e.g features the cutting of swords into a young girl’s breasts), it has far more to it than just blood and guts. Ossorio manages to create an atmosphere of dreaded tension through clever use of sound effects: Throughout the entire film we hear various mixtures of Gregorian chants, screams and moans, simple piano tunes and drum beats, wind effects, creaky doors and overall atonal weird sound effects that appear to have been slowed down and brilliantly accompany the Templars riding in slow motion and that ensure that even the most basic scene is filled with a sense of dread and horror that makes up for the fact that the Templars themselves don’t even show up until half an hour into the movie and also otherwise don’t have all that much screen time in their first outing. Even when they’re not around, this masterful and unusual approach for a movie soundtrack ensures that they’re never forgotten and are always in the viewers’ mind.

It is of course also very adequate for blind monsters to depend entirely on sound, and scenes in which sound is entirely absent with the exception of characters’ heart beats are simply genius.

Of course the Templars’ design is also striking. With minimal budget Ossorio managed to nevertheless create imagery that cannot easily be forgotten: The make up effects are flawlessly depicting mummified corpses dressed in decaying Templar gear displaying Egyptian crosses. They move slowly, yet threateningly, and when on their horses they are only ever seen riding in slow motion. Although never openly explained in any of the movies (although an alternate dimension is indicated for The Ghost Galleon), Ossorio is quoted as saying that a “displacement in the relationship Time/Space (sic) slackens their motions”.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it is what Ossorio must have thought as both the sound effects as well as the overall design for the Templars would be carried over into all the other films of the series.

A flashback nearly an hour into the film courtesy of the resident eccentric professor type (Francisco Sanz) narrates this film’s back story: After returning to Berzano from the Crusades as Devil Worshippers with a penchant for killing young local girls and drinking their blood, the Templars were executed and their corpses left hanging from trees to have their eyes plugged off and eaten by birds. They did, however, come back from the Dead and are now depending on sound alone for catching their victims.

The second half an hour of Tombs features a digression that moves away from the Blind Dead and concentrates on Virgina resurrecting on a morgue table and going on a killing spree herself. The morgue is conveniently located next to Betty’s mannequin warehouse and those scenes – as out of place as they otherwise may be for a movie of this series – are genuinely haunting with a bizarre morgue assistant (Simón Arriaga) playing with frogs and showing a very unhealthy interest in the dead girl’s body and some masterfully lit sequences in colour schemes that are very reminiscent of Mario Bava. Even the mannequins itself are creepy.


In Tombs we also have the first of several rape scenes in this series. Most of the films show a rape (or at least an attempted one) and these scenes are the only ones that strike a very unpleasant and uncomfortable tone for modern viewers. Sadly these are quite typical in Eurotrashers of the time and clearly date the productions. The films could easily have done without them. Oh, and without displays of manly sweaty arm pits.
 
The climax of the film is one of those images that one isn’t likely to forget in a lifetime of movie watching: Following a cat fight with another girl and an eventual escape from the monastery on board a train, Betty reaches the next town’s station just to discover that the Templars have been on board massacring the entire compartment (also including a young girl and her mother). Betty’s hair appears to have greyed overnight and her final scream is endlessly heard through some freeze framed pictures that have already been shown during the movie’s starting credits.


Tombs proved to be a highly imaginative, unusual and most importantly successful horror film. Its success guaranteed that it was used as a prototype for all the following movies of the series and guaranteed one new Templar movie a year over the next couple of years as well as allowing Ossorio to direct other genre films in between.

Music: Y-Control

Over at Favorite Song Of The Week I posted a music video by the group Yeah Yeah Yeahs. My good friend Aaron suggest that I check out the video for their song Y-Control. He thought it was a very good video, and one that I might like.

After I watched it, I decided that it would fit in better over here. I have not posted a horror related song here in a long time now. It has been over a year I believe, so it is long overdue. I thought it was a pretty cool video for a good song. If you watch the video you will understand why I like it.

Blood On The Highway

Sorry it took so long to get to my 650th post up. Even though I could have watched this movie on Netflix, I wanted the DVD in order to watch any extras that were on it. In order to do that though, I had to watch a movie that I had here at home in order to get to this one. I was intending to review that movie over at Top Horror Movies Club, and I still intend to do that, but I have yet to finish it. I will try and get that done before the weekend, since I want to hit the theater this weekend if at all possible. So anyway, 650 posts now! The movie I wanted to review is an old favorite of mine, but isn't a horror movie. Moving Violations (1985) is a movie that I can tie into the horror genre oddly enough though. It is a straight up comedy, but one of the characters is a horror movie loving guy, and of course there is the movie within a movie: Blood On The Highway.

In a way I grew up watching Moving Violations. We had cable, and we also had a couple of the movie channels. I tended to watch HBO more than any of the movie channels. I don't really know why, since they only had a couple of movies that were different from each other in any given month. I never understood why they repeated movies so damn much though. You would think with all the movies they have access to, they wouldn't show one movie 50 times over a month. Okay, maybe it wasn't actually that bad, but it sure seemed like it. With some of the movies I didn't care that they were repeated so much. Moving Violations was one such movie. I can't tell you how many times I have watched this movie. But every time I would see that it was on, I would be sitting there watching it. It is just one of those movies that never gets old for me. Some of the jokes are still funny, and make me laugh every time I see them.

Even though I was probably too young to be watching this at the time, although it only has a PG-13 rating attached to it, my dad didn't much care. The nice thing about watching this movie, and being a fan of it even then, was that I didn't really understand a lot of the jokes at the time. I knew my dad laughed at some of them, and he would try to explain why but it was over my head still. For me though, as I grew up and learned more about life, I could watch Moving Violations again, and now I would get more of the jokes. Because of that, Moving Violations became even more of a favorite of mine.

If you have never watched it before, the plot is pretty simple. A group of people, for one reason or another, are sent to traffic school in order to get their license back. Dana (John Murray) is the main character. Dana owns a landscaping business, and gets sent to traffic school basically because of his smart mouth. Deputy Halik (James Keach) and Deputy Morris (Lisa Hart Carroll) have to teach the class, thanks to Dana...in a way.The judge (Sally Kellerman) decides that because this group has had so many violations over the years, they will not get their cars back if they fail this class. The judge and Halik come up with a sceme to make sure they don't pass though.

The reason I like Moving Violations so much isn't really because of the jokes, even though they are a big part of it. It has more to do with all the different actors. Having a lot more movies watched now, I can appreciate this even more. I remember reading a review for this movie that said something like the reason John Murray never made it big as an actor is because he was trying too hard to channel his brother Bill, which you can see in Moving Violations especially. I understand that to a point, since he did remind me of Bill Murray in this movie. But I feel John was never given a fair shot. Or it could be that John just isn't into acting as much as his brothers are. Either way, I do wish he was in more movies. Jennifer Tilly can also be found in one of her early movies. In the commentary by Neil Israel, he mentions that this is her first movie. It isn't, but it is pretty close. Israel forgot that Don Cheadle was in this movie. He has a small role, but you can easily point him out. James Keach is someone I always feel, I don't know...weird I guess, when I see him in a movie. The reason why is because he reminds me a lot of my dad, as far as his looks go. They wouldn't be twins or anything, but I can see a resemblance there. Obviously I take after my mom a lot more than I do my dad. Keach is a great actor, but I always think of my dad when I see him. You can also find Brian Backer, Wendy Jo Sperber, Fred Willard, Nedra Volz, Ben Mittleman, and of course Clara Peller. I know of her because of my dad telling me about the Wendy's commericals she was in. It was, and still is, a great cast.

Neil Isreal makes the statement in the commentary that the reason Moving Violations wasn't as popular as some of his other films, like Police Academy, was because Moving Violations was like the fifth or sixth film in the same vain of comedy that he had been doing. Because of that, people were getting a little tired of it by then. I guess I was lucky in this way. And I guess people felt they were ripping off their older movies as well. I watched these movies in reverse order in a way. Moving Violations was being played a lot more than the older movies by the time I started to watch them. I mentioned how some of the jokes still make me laugh. The thing that made me laugh when I was little, and still gets to me today, is when the person dressed as a duck goes flying off the float. With a duck "voice" the person says "Oh shit!" I'm pretty sure I would watch the movie for that part of it alone, when I was little. There are other places in the movie that make me laugh every time as well. This is what makes it a true classic to me. No matter how many times I watch it, it is still funny.

I enjoy the character of Spencer even more now. Spencer is the big horror nut in the movie. I can relate to him, even if I don't start talking about horror movies with everyone I meet. Even so, I connect with the passion that Mittleman put into the character, for his love of all things horror. I'm not sure if the movie shown for the class was called Blood On The Highway, it could have been Road I guess. You would think I would know since I just finished watching the damn thing. Anyway, even though it doesn't show much, just the impression that little kids are being run over, well I still take delight in it. I'm pretty sure this was something else I would laugh at when I was little as well.

So there it is...my favorite movie for my 650th post. Not a horror movie at all, but at least it has some ties to the horror world. If you haven't watched this movie yet, you simply should if you are into this style of comedy. If you have watched it before, you should check out the trailer for the movie sometime. The trailer was included in the extras, and was one of two extras on the DVD (I was a little disappointed there were not more extras). Plus I noticed there are a few scenes in it not found in the movie at all. That was pretty interesting to me. I will leave this post with a fun fact about the movie. Did you know that Michael J. Fox was slated to play the main character? The studio thought he would be too young though, so John Murray got the job instead.

Dying For Movies 4 Part Eight

I had wanted to get all of the After Dark movies reviewed before last weekend, but obviously that didn't happen. With the big football game Sunday, I didn't get a whole lot done as I expected to do. I was a little disappointed the Colts didn't win, but if the Saints had been playing anyone else I would have been on their side. Because of that I wasn't like depressed over the Colts losing. Things have been slow, as far as blogging goes, mostly because of work. I usually write when I get home because I have more time then. Lately though, I have been pretty tired once I do get home. I hate to write while tired because I tend to get writers block more easily, and I feel I rush through the review in order to get it finished sometimes. Sorry this has been a slow month so far. I will try to do better.

Some quick plans to talk about before I hit the review itself. It might take a couple of days before I get to post 650 because I need to watch a Netflix movie in order to get the one I want for post 650. I decided I would review this movie over at Top Horror Movies Club, since I am once again behind on my weekly reviews there. I won't say which movie will be in place for 650, but I will say it has nothing to do with horror. I decided to go with a comedy this time around. Also on the news front is that I started another blog last weekend! I'm branching out into a music blog which will feature some of my favorite songs new and old. I might even consider some co-owners with this new blog, if anyone is interested. For now though, take a look at Favorite Song Of The Week! Okay, onto the last movie of this year's Horrorfest, Kill Theory.

Things start out with Dr. Trufin (Don McManus) talking to someone that we don't get to see the face of. The person (Kevin Gage) was rock climbing with friends when things went wrong. In order to save himself, he had to cut his friends loose, which resulted in their deaths. The court believed however that he didn't do it to save himself, but to simply kill his friends. The good doctor explains all this to the guy, just in case he had forgotten I guess. He can be released if the doctor gives the okay to do so. Even though the doctor wants him to come in to talk about things still, he does feel the guy can be released back into the public. From here we cut to a group of soon to be college graduates. They are heading to a lake house that is owned by one of their father's. There are three couples and the odd guy out. Luckily for him though, his friend's step sister is already there, even though she isn't interested. After having a fun day, and a big dinner together, they settle in for the night. They are rudely awakened by one of the friend's dead body being tossed through a window though. They learn that there is a killer out there, but they have some choices to make. The killer tells them that they have until 6am to do one of two things: kill their friends until there is one person left (who will be able to walk away alive), or die as a group.

Kill Theory is interesting in that the people who are being stalked by the killer have choices. I liked that they could turn on each other at any moment. The characters in the movie also know this as well. That is where things got a little old at times though. I assume the killer lets them have a gun, since he seemingly knows every inch of the place. That situation also causes more than one fight over who should have the gun. I understand that the person with the gun is more than likely the least trustworthy person of the group. It was just that every time someone managed to get the gun, there was always a fight as to who should have it. After a while it was starting to get old hearing it. It wouldn't get old if it were me wanting the gun, but having to just watch...move on to something else already. It was interesting in that the killer will let the group get away with something that you normally wouldn't think would happen. Of course he does this for a reason, but it still comes as a bit of a surprise that the group was able to do it. Kill Theory gets away from the usual slasher fair, like The Graves, by at least forcing the group to either go after each other, or trying to find ways to outsmart the killer.

The effects are fairly good. Most of it is someone being shot or stabbed, but there is also a death by human bear trap. Actually, I can't say the person actually died from that, but it was still pretty cool. The acting was better than the average slasher type movie. You will find Ryanne Duzich, Teddy Dunn, Daniel Franzese, Agnes Bruckner, Patrick Flueger, Steffi Wickens, Theo Rossi, and Taryn Manning. Some feel the talent was wasted for this movie. I understand what they mean, since these types of films aren't usually very deep. Still though, even if the movie turns out to be very bad, at least good acting will give you something nice to say about it.

Kill Theory does manage to be slightly different from other slasher type movies. Unlike The Graves where they just run from the killer most of the time, Kill Theory mostly sets people against each other. There is some running around done, but it isn't a big plot point. It was easy to figure out which of the college students would turn on their friends the quickest. But it did keep you guessing as far as who would be the next to be killed. I would have liked to have the killer interact more. We mostly only hear his voice. There is a small twist right at the end of the movie that helps explain things a little bit. I can't say that Kill Theory was a bad movie, but I wasn't blown away by it either. For some reason I feel like a lot of people will pick Kill Theory as the best of the bunch though. After a long day at the theater, my day didn't end as well as it had started. But at least it wasn't a total fizzle either.
3 out of 5 Couldn't they have all just run in different directions?

Dying For Movies 4 Part Seven

Instead of buying all the tickets at once, I got back in the ticket line after each movie. I guess I did this to give me an excuse to get up and walk around, outside of using the bathroom that is. After the first movie of the day was over, I got back in line and noticed this other woman got in behind me. She was at the first movie, so I started talking to her a little bit. She was planning on catching most of the movies that day, and then come back the next day to catch the rest of them. After the third movie was over there was an hour wait between movies. Since it was 6:45pm, and everything except the theater closed at 7pm, I decided to go sit in my car for a little bit and listen to the radio. On my way out, the woman that had been to each movie so far asked if I was leaving. Of course I wasn't, but she was going to leave after watching Hidden (or Skjult in Norwegian). Even though I will probably never see this woman again, it was still fun to talk to her a little bit.

Kai Koss (Kristoffer Joner), or KK to some, is returning to his home after being away 19 years. His mother has passed away, and even though there was no will, everything now belongs to him. Kai is not happy about returning though. His mother would abuse him when he was a child, and kept him locked up. He did manage to escape, but caused an accident that killed a family when he did so. His return has caused a stir among the locals, because some are happy to see him and some aren't. After seeing his mother's corpse, he heads to his old home to have a look around. He carries in a couple of big gas cans along with him. After walking around, and having this weird experience with a ball, he is ready to burn the place down. Sara (Cecilie A. Mosli), one of the few people that is friendly towards him and also apparently the police chief, stops him before he can even start though. When a couple of teenagers disappear the next day, fingers start to point at Kai. Did he do something wrong, or is it someone he thinks did it?

Hidden was the only subtitled movie of the eight. This surprised me a little, since I wasn't expecting a subtitled movie. I shouldn't have been too surprised though, because it has happened before in their sets. Hidden can almost be called a mystery movie instead of a horror movie. There is an air of mystery that runs through the whole film. While we only meet a handful of people in the movie, they do give you the sense that Kai isn't wanted back in town. Is it because of the accident? Or is there more to it than that? Hidden will bug a lot of people because it doesn't bother to answer some questions it raises, and only teases us with some answers to other questions. It isn't a very straight forward movie, which I'm sure many people will want to watch at least twice in order to figure out what is going on. I noticed where a couple of people, so far, thought the ending was leaving things open for a sequel. But I felt it was just making you think about everything you had just watched. I didn't find this movie confusing, but it did keep me guessing as to what was going on. Maybe the plot was a little too open, but this didn't bother me for this movie.

There are a few effects that are well done. We get to see a few bloody bodies, and one guy gets impaled. Nothing is very graphic, but the impaling looked pretty cool. The acting was very good. Kristoffer Joner was very good in the lead role. The woman that works at the hotel was also very good. I would give her name, but the IMDb cast listing is listed in Norwegian, so I don't understand what some of it is saying. Usually in a film that is subtitled, I have a harder time judging the acting. This is mostly because I'm required to read, so I'm not paying as much attention to what is going on in the background. Hidden seemed to be the exception to that rule though.

The only time I was a little frustrated with subtitles is when a fight broke out. Trying to read, plus watching what was happening made it a little frustrating. I know a lot of people hate reading, and I agree to some point. But I would suggest giving this movie a try. The only thing that bothered me in this movie was when they showed the dead bodies. They were in a bathtub after the police said they cleared the house. I know they could have been moved there, but it still didn't make a lot of sense to me. From what I have been reading, Hidden made some pretty good money when it was released in Norway. There have been some questions as to why this hasn't been released to DVD yet, and I am assuming that was because After Dark was trying to get it for Horrorfest. This is one to watch for once the set is released.
4 out of 5 Still trying to decide what happened

Dying For Movies 4 Part Six

After The Reeds finished up, there was a little over an hour wait before Dread was to start. Because all I had to eat in the morning was a candy bar to hold me over, I figured this was the perfect time to go eat. I had decided that a burger sounded better than a pizza, so I went to this place that served burgers, dogs and fries. That was all that on their menu. All burgers, expect for what they called their mini burger, came with double patties. I decided to get a bacon cheeseburger with a regular fries. I got my food after a short wait, and had to dump the fries out on some napkins because there was a layer of them over the burger. Once I found my burger, and the cup that was supposed to hold all the fries, I discovered even more fries under that! I was glad I didn't order a large at his point. Their fries are cut fresh and fried up right there, so they were very good. After eating all that food (I wasn't able to eat all the fries), I was starting to feel a little tired while watching Dread.

Stephen Grace (Jackson Rathbone) is a student in college looking for a subject for his thesis. By a chance meeting, he comes across Quaid (Shaun Evans). After talking for a long time, they start to become friends. During one of their talks, Stephen tells Quaid about the fear he has had since his older brother was killed in a car wreck. Quaid has his own fear that he hasn't really told anyone about. When he was a little kid, his parents were murdered and he watched it all happen. He has been running from the nightmares ever since. Quaid talks Stephen into doing a study about dread for his thesis. Stephen then goes to his friend Cheryl (Hanne Steen) and asks if she would like to take part in this study/thesis, and she agrees. They find people that talk about their fear of spiders and such, but Quaid is looking for something much deeper than that. He begins to find what he is looking for, but the others see it as a means to an end. Quaid wants more than that, and will go about getting it.

Dread is the second movie of the Books Of Blood series. At least I think it is. When I started hearing about this movie, it was being promoted as such, but it wasn't in the title sequence anywhere. Not that it matters at all. Books Of Blood is a series of books, but they aren't part of a series as far as the stories go. Each book is a collection of short stories by Clive Barker, which Dread is a part of. I have some of those books, but I don't remember if this is one of the stories that I have read. The movie itself takes its time building up, but director Anthony DiBlasi manages to keep things interesting despite this. One of the things that struck me early was the use of sound. Like the killer slowly walking up the stairs with his axe in hand. The axe was thudding against each step as he made his way up. I can understand how seeing and hearing that would give you nightmares for the rest of your life. Things were kept interesting to me because I wasn't really sure where the plot was going with things. A big help was the different characters, and their interesting backgrounds. Their stories keep things interesting, as well as the story moving.

Dread offered up some pretty good effects. They are slim again, but they are still very good. The best being the camera following the axe as it buries itself into someone's head. In truth this movie didn't need a lot of effects, because it manages to get into your head some. Listening to the different stories makes you think a lot. Like a brother being killed in a car wreck, a family being killed before the son's eyes, a girl being molested by her father and the memories it invokes, and a birthmark that makes you stand out from everyone else. It isn't only the stories they tell, but the acting that goes into them as well. Hanne Steen and Laura Donnelly both do such a great job with their roles. Not only is what is done to them moving, but also the way they act it out.

Dread was making people squirm in their seats. It was making me a little uncomfortable as well at times. The few people that were there I could notice them squirming in their seats at times. This is what made Dread such a surprise to me. It wasn't that it was trying to scare me, but it was trying its damnedest to live up to its name. There were more reviews for this film than the others, because some people got to see it back in May for an early screening. From what I was reading of those, some of the scenes have changed since that screening and what I watched. Hopefully After Dark will include deleted or extended scenes on the DVD. Outside of the movie being a little slow in places, I thought Dread ended up being a great film. If you are looking for something a little different in your horror watching, give this one a try for sure.
4 out of 5 I will never look at a steak the same way again

Dying For Movies 4 Part Five

After the first movie for the day was over, I decided that I had enough time for a walk. I mainly wanted to find out what there was to eat in the area. If I was going to be there all day, I knew I couldn't go far for dinner. I found a pizza place and a burger place. There were other places as well, but I figured those two places would be a bit cheaper than the other places. The area the theater was in wasn't a shopping mall, but instead it looked like they took a bunch of strip malls and set them all up in one big area. It was pretty neat actually, with a big variety of stores to pick from. But they could have figured out parking a little better than they did. Anyway, by the time I got back, it was time to head for The Reeds. This was the second of three movies that were made outside of the USA. Lake Mungo is an Australian movie, while The Reeds comes out of the UK.

A group of friends have decided to get away for the weekend by taking a boat out on what is called the reeds. It is an area over grown with reeds, but there are canals where boats can get through. Laura (Anna Brewster), our main character basically, is driving one of the two cars when someone runs across the path to the boat yard. The person, a youngish red haired girl, stops long enough to smile and then runs off again. They are told at first that the boat they rented has been taken and torn up. They eventually get another boat, but find a small group of teens already on it. Laura is the only one that is able to get them to leave, but even she doesn't know why they listened to her. After having a fun day on the water, they decide to head back once they realize their map is a bit out of date. Seeing a boat like their own, they decide to follow it. Thinking that it will lead them back to the dock, but instead they find all kinds of trouble.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that only a few reviews for these movies are finding their way onto the net. With The Reeds, I have only been able to find a handful of reviews so far. There were about that many people at the theater that I went to as well, which was also disappointing. Of course there may have been more people at the other times the movie was showing though. My Sunday at the theater was a big surprise as far as the different movies went. Much to my surprise, I loved Lake Mungo, so I was a little worried that I would feel let down by The Reeds. That was hardly the case. I didn't love it as much, but I still found it to be a very surprising film. The trailer does a good job of not revealing very much information about what is going on. The movie itself is much the same way. It keeps you guessing as to what this group of people is up against. The opening sequence gives it the appearance that there is some type of animal possibly in the reeds. The group sees a boat like their own a couple of times, but it appears that no one is on it from what I could see. Then one of guys from the group sees himself running towards their own boat. The teenagers pop up now and then, sometimes they are burning what looks like animals. From what I could see from others, a few wished the story would make up its mind what it wants to be. Is it a person, an animal, or the supernatural? I understand the complaint, as I have complained about this in some other films. But this mix of sub genres worked for me this time around.

The effects are a bit on the skimpy side of things, but what they do give us will probably stick with you. The biggest one would be an impaling. It looks pretty real, and is shown for a good while since it doesn't kill the person outright. Outside of this we get a few minor effects. The acting was pretty strong for The Reeds. Maybe the actors are more known in the UK, but I didn't know any of them. You can find the likes of Karl Ashman, Geoff Bell, Daniel Caltagirone, Emma Catherwood, Reece Chapman, O.T. Fagbenle, and Scarlett Alice Johnson.

After I watched The Graves, I was afraid that The Reeds was going to be the same type of movie where they go in and someone starts to kill them off one by one. I was partly right on that, but it is only a small part of the movie, and the script makes it to be more than that as well. I think that is why I ended up enjoying The Reeds so much. It managed to keep me wondering what was going on. A movie that keeps me guessing is a good thing these days. The story gets rather boring at times, if I can figure out what is going to happen too far ahead of it. The Reeds manages to avoid that though. Even the ending should keep you thinking even after the movie is over. I may not have loved it as much as Lake Mungo, but I still had a lot of fun with this movie. This is another one to check out for sure.
4 out of 5 Wondering if there was any fish in the reeds