So Another Year Ends

Another ends, another begins. Even though I had more posts this year than in previous, I really sucked bad this last month. I blame being off work most of the month. Even though I had planned to get a lot of reviews in, I got side tracked...a lot. Mostly I have been playing Everquest 2. This last week they added a bonus to those playing, better adventure experience mostly, so it was hard not to take advantage of that. I spent way to many hours playing, but I can say I had a lot of fun doing so. I made a promise to myself that I would at least get my 800th post in tonight before the new year started up. I owe my blog that at least. I'm not very good at keeping promises to myself, like updating more often this month, so I will promise all of you instead, I will do better next month! I won't be doing a post everyday or anything, but it will sure as hell be better than eight posts (six here and two at  Top Horror Movies Club).

I was trying hard to think of a movie to talk about for this post. While I do have a lot of movies I call favorites, not all of them are horror movies so that limits things a little bit. Around the time I started trying to figure out which movie I would watch for this post, it was about time for another HorrorHound Weekend. I wasn't able to go to this last one, but it did get me thinking about the last one I did get to go to. I met Catherine Mary Stewart there, and that got me thinking about Night Of The Comet (1984). Since I was really into this movie for a while, I decided it would make a good movie to talk about for this post.

I first watched Night Of The Comet when I was around 11-12 years old. I was spending the night with some friends and we all watched it that night. It was a fun time. Not all of us liked the movie but I did. With it being PG-13, I thought it was cool that my friend's parents were allowing us to watch it. I'm sure my own dad would have let me if I had asked, but I didn't. I wasn't really into horror movies when I watched Night Of The Comet but I still enjoyed it. In truth, this is what I call a lightweight horror movie. It was geared more towards teenagers and it works in that way. I did watch it more than once through my teen years, but watching it now...it didn't have the same appeal to me as it did back then (not that I am removed from those years by a lot). I still enjoyed revisiting it again, but I admit I was feeling a little bored with it this time.

In case you haven't watched it, the plot is pretty simple. A comet that rarely comes around is about to once again. Everyone seems to be pretty excited by this and most people seem to be outside to watch it in the night sky. Never mind that even if it passes by supper close, they still should be able to see it for days ahead of time. Anyway, Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart) is your typical older teenager who works at her local move theater. Her younger sister Samantha (Kelli Maroney) is stuck at home with her stepmom (Sharon Farrell), who is having a comet party. Regina agrees to spend the night with a guy that works at the theater for a whole $15, while Samantha gets punched by her stepmom at home and spends the night in the shed to make her worry. Once the comet arrives, the sky puts on a show for everyone. In the morning Regina wakes up to discover a bunch of clothes and some red dust, but no one else seems to be around. The big city of LA is empty, even of cars it appears (which makes no sense at all for a major city). What are two teenaged girls to do?

I noticed a few things, like the cars, that bugged me when I watched it this time around. I'm sure I noticed it years back, but just wasn't paying as much attention to it then, and maybe I wasn't as smart then either. I have always thought that those that were fairly well protected from the outside somehow survived whatever happened with the comet. When I was watching it this time though, the scientists that were holed away under the ground have ran into a problem because they left the air vents open when the comet passed by. This suggests whatever it was passed through the air, which means that everyone should be dead or dying since nothing is air tight.

Those things aside, I still had fun watching Night Of The Comet again. I have always liked Stewart in the few movies I have watched her in. I keep meaning to watch other movies of hers, but I never seem to get around to it. It is mostly movies from the '80s that I have watched her in so far. Kelli Maroney also puts in a good performance. I did find it funny that she knew so much about guns this time around. Well they both did actually but it was pushed more for Maroney's character. I can't forget to mention Robert Beltran who has a smaller, but no less important role in the movie. It was also cool to see Geoffrey Lewis as well.

Another small thing that bothered me some was that they only run into a few people in LA. I figure more people would have survived but that is a minor thing to me really. One of the things that I remember clearly from when I first watched Night Of The Comet is when the sisters decide to raid the stores. I remember thinking that is what I would have done when there wouldn't be anyone around to stop me from doing it. Hell I still dream of that! I might have felt a little bored with Night Of The Comet this time around, but I still consider it to be a favorite of mine. It might be a bit slow in places, but it is still a fun movie overall.

I do hope everyone has a fun but safe new year. I have something coming up for the start of my 6th year as a blogger, something that I hope some of you will help out with again like last year, but you can do this with your own blogs instead of mine this time around. Happy New Year everyone, see you all next year!

Damn Those Wannabes

While going through my DVDs today to decide what movie I wanted to watch check, I came across Wannabe (2008). This is a movie short, it has a run time of 19 minutes, and I haven't done many (if any) reviews for shorts. Earlier this year while I was at the HorrorHound Weekend Indy, I was walking by tables when a guy stops me and asks if I like vampires. I responded that I do, and he looked at someone at the table we were standing in front of. Apparently feeling bold, he then asked if I also like nudity. I shrugged and said sure. He then went into a sales pitch for the movie Wannabe. Since they weren't asking a lot for it, I decided to go ahead and buy it. Once I agreed to buy it, I was asked if I wanted Robert Webster to sign it. I had no idea who he was but I said that was fine. As it turns out, he is one of the actors in the movie. The cool thing about that was they didn't charge me extra. So that is the story of how I got this movie. I didn't expect to be watching it this late in the year after buying it, but at least I got around to it before the next convention.

Viola (Steffani Pieart) wants to become a vampire. So far she hasn't had much luck. She knows that only a real vampire can give her the gift of eternal life, but so far all she has found are wannabes. Knowing that you can find anything on the internet these days, she takes to the net to find a real vampire. There she finds one, or so she hopes, and heads over to the agreed place. After being questioned for a while, they get down to it, but not all is as it seems.

Obviously this isn't the whole of the story. I can't get to much more into it though without giving away too much. I wasn't too sure about Wannabe when it first got going. The bulk of the movie is just two people talking to each other, so I was afraid I was going to get bored with it. The longer the conversation went on though, the more I felt myself being drawn into it. It is a pretty simple story, with a simple set. I think what helped save it for me was the look of the vampire. We only hear the vampires voice because the vampire is completely covered. The vampire's face with a veil, which you can kind of see on the poster but looks much better in the film. While I was trying to figure out what the vampire might look like, I started to get more into what was being said as well. A couple of twists at the end aren't really surprising, but they do add to the movie all the same.

The effects were a little disappointing to me. It isn't that they look bad, but it was more from the fact that they didn't feel very real to me. A couple of wounds is what we end up with, I don't want to get into what type of wounds though. What bothered me about them was how quickly they stop bleeding. It is sort of explained a little later, which I guess I can buy into, but I still felt disappointed some. The acting was pretty good. Both Steffani Pieart and Robert Webster have only been in this one short so far. First being their first time acting, I didn't think they did all that bad of a job with it. It is also the first time in the directors chair for James Mannan.

If I had to complain about anything for Wannabe, it would be for the film quality. The movie itself looked very grainy and almost had a blurry look about it. Now it could have just been my eyes, with the blurry look, but I don't think it was. It was annoying at first but I started to get used to it after a while. The sound was also a bit of an issue at times. The place where most of the movie is in had an echo affect to the voices at times which could make it hard to understand what was being said. The voices and the music were also fighting for control at times as well.

I don't see Wannabe as a movie that everyone just has to see, but if you should come across it, you might consider giving it a try. For the price, I feel I got my money out of it. The DVD also has more extras than some major movie DVDs have. With two commentary tracks, outtake reel and rehearsal footage, I was somewhat impressed with the extras. I'm pretty sure they have a web site that you can order from if you think this movie is something you would be interested in. While I did end up liking Wannabe, I'm not sure I would go out of my way to get it if it wasn't for the convention.
3 out of 5 I don't think I would want to be a vampire

Film Club Day Part Eleven

While doing a review over at Top Horror Movies Club, I discovered that today is Final Girl Film Club day. While I was at the store Saturday night, I decided to check out what was in the Redbox there. They didn't have a lot to pick from, but I did decide to go with Don't Look Up (2009). I did the review for it Top Horror Movies Club if you are interested in checking it out. I forgot to take it back so now I have my first late fee with them! Since I needed another movie to review for today, and since I haven't done a film club movie in two months, I figured why not Sugar Hill (1974)? It is the official selection after all. Lucky for me that it can be found on Instant Watch through Netflix. That came in handy since it was short notice for me.

Diana "Sugar" Hill (Marki Bey) is having a great time at her man's night club when Langston (Larry D. Johnson) is confronted by a group of guys who work for a guy named Morgan (Robert Quarry). The guys want "protection money" but Langston won't hear it. He runs them out of his club, which does worry Diana some. Later that night the thugs return to work over Langston, and do a little too good at it. They leave him in his own parking lot to be found by whoever. One of the employees finds him and alerts Diana, who rushes to his side only to find him dead. Diana does what any woman would do in her shoes, she vows revenge! Diana goes to Mama Maitresse, a voodoo priestess, and asks her for help. Mama Maitresse decides to help and hooks Diana up with Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley) who also agrees to help by giving her control over his zombies, but for a price.

Even if I didn't know what year Sugar Hill came out before I started watching it, it wouldn't have taken very long to figure it out. It doesn't take long before you get into the '70s look and feel. Within the first ten minutes you already get big hair, bad suits, funky music, and bad fight scenes. Once I got past all of that, I ended up enjoying Sugar Hill a lot. It manages to mix a few different sub genres together, like horror and blaxploitation, and even a healthy mix of revenge story. Besides this though, Sugar Hill had the right amount of weirdness to its story that kept it interesting. From the look of the zombies, to a chicken leg that manages to hop around on its own, you can't help but sit back and enjoy. One of things I didn't care for though was the way the movie was edited. Some scenes felt like they weren't finished yet before being cut away and taken into the next scene.

Not a lot for special effects. The zombies had a great look about them. With cobwebs hanging off of them, although I didn't get way since they were underground, and I loved their eyes. To make it even more interesting, they gave the zombies a little bit of a back story. Even though I was disappointed that most of the kills happen off screen, it didn't bother me much once I knew this would happen. What is implied was great all the same. Hacked to death and death by hungry hogs are just some of the deaths that get implied. It was really the acting though that got me into Sugar Hill. Marki Bey brings the right amount of sexy and cold heart in order to bring her revenge about. Don Pedro Colley was also fun to watch as a voodoo God of the undead. While his acting is a tad over the top, it fits the character so well.

I was taken aback some by the language but I just reminded myself that Sugar Hill is from a different time where views were different from what they are today, for most people anyway. I have watched plenty of horror movies from the '70s, but this one was different with its cross over genres. I can't say that I have watched a blaxploitation, or if I have it was nothing like this one. For the most part it is a new genre for me, and I have Stacie to thank for tuning me in. Sugar Hill is a different type of horror film but I had to like it because of that. Just how weird the story is, and the zombie eyes had me hooked. If you are looking for a different kind of horror film, you really should find a way to check this out. Sadly it isn't out of DVD yet, but there are other ways to find it.
3 out of 5 Makes me want a zombie army now!

Flunking Exams

Work called me up yesterday and asked if I would like to stay home for the day. How can you in turn say, "No, I think I will work!" Sure I lose a day of pay, but with a head cold in the works, I'm not going to complain. Staying home lets me relax, pop cold pills, and of course watch a movie. I also played Everquest 2 for a little while, which I am trying to reach the level cap...again. Anyway, I am behind on reviews not only here, but also over at Top Horror Movies Club. I will be three reviews behind there this weekend. I was going to take care of one review today with Exam (2009), but since it isn't really a horror movie, I decided to do the review here instead. I know I don't have to review this movie, but I liked it enough to want to tell all of you about it.

A big corporation has chosen eight candidates to possibly join the highest ranks in the company. The eight people are placed into a windowless room. All that is in the room are eight desks with papers on them (that say candidate 1, and so on) along with a pencil. At the front of the room is a screen of some sort with a clock timer below it. A guard (Chris Carey) comes in with a guy who says he is the Invigilator (Colin Salmon). The eight are then instructed that they are there to fill one position within the corporation and all they have to do is come up with the answer to one question. They have 80 minutes to come up with the answer but they can not talk to the guard or the Invigilator. They will be disqualified if they do. If the spoil their papers in any way, they will be disqualified. And if they choose to leave the room for any reason, they will be disqualified. The Invigilator then asks if there is any questions, which no one asks any so he starts the clock and leaves. The guard does remain behind though. When the candidates turn their papers over, they discover that the back side in completely blank. So what is the question?

As you can probably guess, Exam takes place entirely in the one room. The whole 80 minutes the candidates are in the room is shown. No cut aways at any point. Once all the candidates are alone, except for the guard, it does start off a little slow. There are other times that the plot drags its feet a little, but for the most part it kept me interested in what was going on. One thing I really liked about Exam is how they set it up so you were trying to figure things out along with the candidates. That was fun to me, coming up with things they didn't think of, and seeing things they thought of that I didn't. The candidates start to think that they had to figure out what the Invigilator didn't say. Like he said they couldn't talk to him or the guard, but he didn't say they couldn't talk to each other. Some of the things they come up with was creative, some of them were questionable, and others led to some movies mistakes. Like they busted all the lights to get the emergency lights to come on, but when a "lights out" voice command was discovered, they turn the lights back on and the busted lights are somehow working again.

The acting was pretty good for what they were given. Once the candidates discover that they won't be disqualified for talking to each other, they come up with nicknames for each other. We have Chinese, who is played by Gemma Chan. She gets disqualified very early. Dark, played by Adar Beck. Blonde, played by Nathalie Cox. Deaf, played by John Lloyd Fillingham. Black, played by Chukwudi Iwuji. White, Luke Mably, who gets the most to do it seems. Brunette, played by Pollyanna McIntosh. And Brown, played by Jimi Mistry. Some were more active in the story than others, which I think you will see that with any group of people that you put together.

While Exam is a far cry from a horror movie, no one gets chased around by a killer or anything, it is a nice little thriller. Exam did get a bit more violent than I was expecting though. It did surprise me what some of them were willing to do in order to be the last person standing in that room. They also get into what the company does for the world, and why it is so important for some of them to get this job. This added a layer to the plot that was nice, as it made the tension a little higher at times. I didn't end up loving Exam, but it was a nice way to spend some time on my day off. If you haven't heard of this UK film, I would suggest giving it a try. It is a little slow at times, but it was fun all the same. I'm also curious to see if any of you will come up with the question before the time is up.
3 out of 5 Keeping one foot still in the room doesn't actually mean you are in the room does it?

Raiding The Zombies

For some reason my link to Top Horror Movies Club didn't update when I posted there last. I did a review there a couple of days ago for the French movie Mutants. If you are interested in reading about it, and hearing my thoughts about it, then you should head on over there. Much like that post, it has been a while since I have done any writing. I just got in a mood where I didn't give a shit about anything. When that happens, no matter what projects I have going, they all get put on hold. I think I am over the mood now, but I am trying not to come down with a cold. If it isn't one thing, it is another. I watched Raiders Of The Damned (2005) way back after I did my last review. Even though I didn't like the movie, I decided to watch it again since it has been so long since I last watched it. I could have skipped over it and not worried about doing a review, but that is a rare thing for me to do.

Raiders Of The Damned never gives a time line, but at some point World War 3 broke out. A new kind of chemical was used during the war that would kill the body, but not the brain. I don't really know how that would be useful, but whatever. When nuclear weapons are also used, the chemical changes and now it makes zombies. Somehow, something else that is never explained, the zombies have been contained by a very, very large wall. Doctor Wells (Elijah Murphy), along with his assistant Stephanie (Amanda Scheutzow), are flying over the zombie area testing a new kind of chemical that seems to work rather well. When they notice that some of the zombies are hanging back though, they order their pilot to get in closer. The smarter zombies have set up a plan though. When the copter comes in low, they launch some rocks at it, which causes it to crash. On the other side of the wall, this news doesn't seem to upset anyone too much until they realize that one of the zombies is none other than Colonel Crow (Thomas Martwick)! The colonel wants to use the doctor to cure the zombies from rotting anymore, and wants Stephanie for more sexual reasons. Lewis (Richard Grieco), who is now in charge since Wells has been captured, decides to put a together a small platoon to get Wells back.

The main problem with some low budget films is that they don't know their own limits. Raiders Of The Damned is a good example of that. It is obvious that writer Mike Ezell and director Milko Davis have some ideas that are outside your normal zombie movies. I'm not sure talking zombies is really the way to go, but I understand trying to be different from everyone else. The main problem for me is that hardly anything was really explained at all. We are told why there are zombies, which is handled in the second scene with Lewis talking to himself. The rest is never explained, or given such a quick explanation that you could miss it if not paying close attention. The biggest question for me was how were they able to build a wall so big while keeping the zombies inside? The sucker is so tall you need to fly over it. Why does even need to be that damn tall? The people they gather up to do battle is also a bit odd. Two of them are apparently prisoners for some reason, and I was never really sure if the other two were or not. Besides not dropping much information, the budget really shows itself when we see the CGI graphics. I can't say that they looked very bad, but you could tell they weren't up to date CGI graphics. Because they looked out of date is what makes them look bad.

Outside of the CGI effects, which were mostly seen at the start of the movie, Raiders Of The Damned doesn't have much to offer for special effects. A couple of heads get cut off, along with an arm, but it isn't very graphic at all. One happens so quickly that even after watching it twice I still wasn't able to figure out how it happened. There is also a throat getting cut in there somewhere as well. The zombies themselves looked cool to bad. The cool ones sort of reminded me of the zombies from the Blind Dead series. The acting wasn't the best around, but it isn't even close to being the worst I had to sit through either. Richard Grieco is over the top with his over acting. He has a fuzzy mouse toy that he carries around most of the movie. Laura Zoe Quist, Gary Sirchia, J.C. Austin and Laurie Clemens make up the platoon that go in after the doctor.

One thing I could never really figure out is why Colonel Crow is such a bad guy. I mean I know he has the only guy that can supposedly save mankind and all that, and he wants to lead the zombies against humans, but he is trapped behind this ridiculous wall so I never got why they fear him. It was just another thing that they tried to include that never went anywhere. With trying so many different things to tell a story, it all just mashed together and didn't end up telling much of a story at all. The action sequences are generally good for a laugh. The team wears glasses that glow, good way for a zombie to pick you out of the dark, that tell them if what they are looking at is alive or dead. Like they can't tell that from looking at a zombie with their own eyes? I guess it was an idea that sounded cool at the time, but in the end it is something that makes Raiders Of The Damned fail even as a low budget movie. Might be good for a laugh or two, but can't say to go watch it either. I will try to get some more reviews up soon. I am behind, not just here, so I have some catching up to do. Just hope my cold doesn't get in the way too much.
2 out of 5 Even weapons in the future are not too useful against zombies

Web Horror

A week for today I will be back to work. I haven't done a whole lot with my time off, but I look at this way: at least I'm not at work! I did have to take my car in today to have it serviced and see why it will suddenly down shift on me, and then not shift at all. It hasn't happened a lot, but enough times that I figure I had better get it checked out. So while I wait on the call to tell me my car is ready, I decided to get started on my next review. I decided to go with a movie called Buried Alive (2007), mostly because it is only an hour long. As it turns out, this is a movie that the history behind it is more interesting than the movie itself. I braved forward all the same though.

Five friends are hunted down and placed inside coffins. Each coffin is different on the inside. Some are buried alive, while others aren't. On the outside, Melanie (Brit Morgan) is worried after only a few hours about her friend Sage (Nikki McKenzie). Apparently Sage hasn't called, or texted, Melanie so she just knows something is wrong. Melanie takes her pleas to the Internet, where she posts a video blog about what she thinks is going on. She doesn't go to the police, supposedly, because Sage hasn't been missing long enough. Her video blog attracts the attention of the person that took her friend, who then includes Melanie in his little game. With the help of her brother Travis (Jeff Blum), who doesn't seem like he gives a shit, they go in search for Sage and the others. Meanwhile, the kidnapper was kind enough to put video cameras and even TVs so each of the friends can talk and see each other. Each coffin has clues as to who is doing this to them. They quickly figure out it is someone they all know, but who?

I never figured out how that information was going to help them at all, but the obvious person, Tommy (Augusto Aguilar), I figured wasn't the actual person. As the plot played out, I realized there is a lot of information being crammed into this movie with it only being an hour long. There are basically three things going on. Melanie and Travis trying to find their friends, the friends spending more time trying to figure out who is behind it all instead of trying to find a way out, and we get a lot of back story thanks to the videos they all took the year before. Buried Alive was actually an Internet series. Apparently we the viewer could go to one of four web sites to find the different segments and then put them all together. Each one was two to three minutes in length. Maybe it would have been fun to do a scavenger hunt type thing for the different video clips, then again maybe not. I may never know after all. Someone decided to edit those together and make a movie from it. From what others have said, there were 100 clips to be found, so obviously not all of them were included for the movie version. The DVD does include a lot of the clips that were left out, but I have no idea if all of them are there. I didn't watch all of them, since it took three to four pages of deleted scenes. Some of these also included ads, so I just didn't feel like sitting through that many. If Buried Alive had been more interesting, I might have watched them all.

The acting was okay. I wasn't all that impressed with most of the cast. I did like Augusto Aguilar as the outcast of the group. Greyson Chaswick was also good with the limited time she was in the movie. I was happy to see her in another horror movie at least. Some of you may remember her in Dance Of The Dead. Her character, Becca, is the object of Tommy's affections, but she is dating Rick (Bram Hoover) who is the bully jock of the group. It wasn't so much the acting that bothered me as it was the characters. There wasn't one, maybe Becca but didn't know enough about her, that I managed to care about. Sure I felt sorry for Tommy, as no one likes to be picked on. Buried Alive was lacking effects as well. A couple of cuts that bleed a little bit, but that is it. I have to give the effects crew credit with the coffins though. As I said, each one is different inside and is supposed to relate and provide clues to each person. They did do a nice job with the different coffins at least.

I didn't know that Buried Alive was a web series before I watched it. While I was watching it, I kept wondering if there was more to what I was watching. Even though it is all been edited down to an hour, which keeps the plot moving at all times, I have to wonder now why it was decided to make this only an hour long feature. With at least 200 minutes worth of movie, if what people were saying is true, there should have been plenty there to make a full length movie. All we see of the five friends is of them picking on Tommy in some way. This isn't really fair though since that is only part of their lives. The twist at the end completely lost me. It could have been just me, but I felt that was because not enough information was given about the characters. I'm not sure I would have liked Buried Alive in its original format, as I tend to get annoyed by a lot of short clips (which I why I passed on most of the "deleted" scenes), but hopefully it gave more insight than the DVD version did.
2 out of 5 I would want the pink bubble wrap coffin