I Am Mortally Challenged

Even though I didn't get another review in yesterday, I did get another movie in. Late last night I decided to watch another movie, but by the time it was done I was ready for some sleep. Zombies Anonymous (2006) is a movie that I watched on Instant Watch. It was taken off a few weeks ago, so I added it to my DVD queue since at the time I didn't get around to watching it before it was pulled. When I checked last night to see which movie I wanted to watch, I had a different movie in mind actually, I noticed it was back in my Instant Watch queue, so I decided to watch it instead. I don't know why it was added after being gone such a short time, but whatever. I for one am glad they added it again.

Zombies Anonymous is really two stories that start together, go their own ways, and then come together again. When the movie starts we see a bunch of news clips that the recently dead aren't staying dead. They have a heart beat of twice a minute, so while not alive, scientist aren't really sure what to call them. Then we meet Angela (Gina Ramsden) who is sitting in her bathtub while her exboyfriend, Josh (Joshua Nelson), is pounding on the door with a gun in his hand. Josh is demanding to know why Angela broke up with him, suspecting it is another guy even though Angela swears it isn't. Josh alternates between telling Angela how much he loves her, to how much he wants to kill her. Some boyfriend, no wonder she wanted out. Eventually Josh breaks down the door, and shoots Angela. When Josh realizes what he has done, he runs out. Angela awakens and calls 911, but the paramedics realize she is already gone, so pack it up and leave, despite Angela begging for their help.

Five months later, a new world is taking place. The zombies of this world can talk and function like a living person, but of course they don't look living. Their skin is chalky looking, and their wounds never heal. Raw meat seems to be the only thing they can eat without throwing it back up. The governments are dragging their feet about what to do with its new zombie population. Most zombies are being hired to do work that no one else really wants, but the living see this as taking good jobs away. Groups are starting to spring up to "take care" of the zombies in their own ways. One such group is lead by The Commandant (Christa McNamee), who mostly picks on homeless zombies but is starting to branch out now that she is getting more people into her group. Josh is one of the people that is trying to get in.

Angela is still coming to grips with being a zombie. She is attending a group where they like to call themselves mortally challenged instead of zombies, and still eat human foods. Angela is still holding her job, but is starting to have trouble with her coworkers. She eventually meets another group of zombies that is growing tired of the living hunting them down. They have turned their backs on society, and are even using the living as a food supply. They feel a war between the living and the dead is right around the corner, and with Josh still following Angela around, it will happen sooner than they think.

That is one of the longer synopsis' I have written in a while, but there is a lot going on in Zombies Anonymous. Despite this, Zombies Anonymous is a low budget movie written/directed by Marc Fratto. I was worried for a while that this movie would be in over its head with so much going on, but Fratto does manage it nicely. Some of the information about what is going on, mostly in the world that we can't see, is told through news clips on TV. I thought this was smart because Fartto can now tell a larger story without having to film a lot of different things. I did feel that the story goes a little long. The movie itself clocks in at 108 minutes. The pacing is fine actually, though some scenes to go a little long at times. From what I was reading, there is a version where 17 minutes were cut, but it ends up making the movie more confusing since a key scene ended up being cut. The version on Netflix appears to be uncut.

It was the story that really pulled me into Zombies Anonymous. While I understand this type of story has been done at least a few other times, many have said that this one is much darker than the other ones. There were some things I would have liked to have been different though. They say that the only way to kill a zombie is to completely destroy the brain. A bullet through the head, or a knife for that matter, will not kill a zombie, but it will put it down for a short while. That apparently will cause the zombie a great amount of pain at the very least. What I would liked to have seen different would have been to see the zombies act different because of the damage to their brains. I think it would have changed the story some if they had done that.

Zombies Anonymous does throw out a lot of social issues, which made it more interesting to me, but the film makers didn't leave out the gore. There are all kinds of ripping skin, people's guts, heads being cut off and even exploding. Not all of the effects look great, but for the most part they got it right. Sometimes the zombies themselves have different looks. By that I mean the makeup will sometimes change between shots, another thing that was slightly wrong with the effects. The acting was also very good. Some of the minor roles could have been better, but the leads are pretty solid.

I did read one review that said they hated Zombies Anonymous because people want to see blood and guts when it comes to zombie movies, not social commentary. Usually with zombie movies that is what I think of when I know I will be watching one. Even so, I will gladly take a good story over a gory movie any day. I don't care for the title of the movie to well, it was originally called Last Rites Of The Dead before it found a release to DVD, but one can't have everything I suppose. If you are looking for a movie with a good story to it, plus some pretty good special effects, you really should give Zombies Anonymous a look. I know I was hooked in by it.
4 out of 5 Thankfully I haven't had a need for a support group

Plaster Isn't Scary

Yesterday I decided to head out of the house in order to watch The Rite. Short end of it is I liked it. If you would like to read my full review on it though, you can head on over to Top Horror Movies Club and check it out. It was nice to get out to see a movie again. Even though I was a little short on cash, I went anyway. For today I picked out a movie from my own collect again, and went with one called Plasterhead (2006). Since football season is nearly over, I will have more time on Sunday's to watch movies again. I'm still feeling a little bored, not sure what has been up with that, so I might get another movie in later today, but will see about that as the day goes on.

Four friends are heading to spring break down in Miami. When the highway gets too crowded for Steve (Josh Macuga) decides it is time to hit the back roads instead. They eventually pull over so David (Ernest Dancy) can take a piss, while Audra (Raine Brown) tries to figure out if they are lost. While taking his piss, David spots a bag in the field which ends up having a lot of money in it. Maggie (Kathryn Merry) finds an address inside of the bag and wants to at least make the attempt to give it back to the owner. They stop off in a small town to eat and get some gas and ask the waitress if she knows where the address is. She says she has no clue, but calls the Sheriff (Gerard Adimando) to tell him what the kids are up to. When they talk to the gas station owner, who says he has no gas, they learn the town they are looking for is the one that they are in, it just has been renamed a few years back. They find the house they are looking for, but no one appears to live there anymore. David and Maggie soon learn though that a black man was beaten badly years back and his body was left near the house they are all staying in, but the body was never found. Now the locals believe that the man still wanders the area, killing everyone he comes across. Is it just a local legend, or is it true?

Plasterhead was written/directed by Kevin Higgins. This was his first time out, and so far it seems his only film. This is a movie that starts off strong, but quickly goes down hill from there. While listening to the radio, we hear a voice over telling us a little bit about Plasterhead. While we listen to this, we see a reporter getting ready to leave, she is apparently doing a story about the beating that took place, and we see the guy without his self made plaster mask. From there we meet up with the four main characters, and it just never seems to have the same feel. The bag that they find is the ladies bag that the reporter had with her. We know what happens to her before we get to the main story. Higgins makes some mistakes from here on out. For one, we hear the story of Plasterhead more than a couple of times from the locals. Another is that the group of friends are almost out of gas. They are so low that they don't want to risk going the 50 miles they are told is the nearest place to get gas. Even so, they have no problem with driving out to the address they found, back into town and then out to the house again which is a few miles out of town. The house has been closed up for years, the whole area actually according to the Sheriff, yet it has running water and the place looks spotless. It was funny to see the actors making it look like it wasn't spotless though. Coughing when they first go inside, rubbing their fingers over stuff and giving faces like they can't believe how dusty it is.

Not a whole lot happens until about an hour into the movie. Stories being told and some driving back and forth is about it. It would have been fine if more than one story was being told, but no such luck. Plasterhead himself looked great without the mask. They did some very nice makeup there for him. The actor that played him, Brian Dixon, looks to be a big guy as well. Once he has his mask on, it only covers half his head which made me wonder how it was staying on. Plus it just didn't look good with the white plaster mask. The rest of the effects were just okay at best I thought. Not a lot of gore, but they do. The acting wasn't the best, but you get used to that in low budget films. I thought the worst was Gerard Adimando. It wasn't so much his acting as it was the accent he was trying to pull off. At least I sure hope it was a fake accent.

One thing I didn't get is why some of the people in town ended up getting killed. We only meet seven people from the town, if I am counting right, and almost half of those are killed off. One is understandable. He has something to do with the story behind Plasterhead, and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. The others though made no sense at all to me. I also wondered if the film crew had permission to film in the area, as often signs in the background get blured out. I guess that shows how bored I was getting when I start looking at signs that have nothing to do with the story. I can't say that Plasterhead was all bad, but it could have been a lot better than it ended up. I would say to skip this one, but there are those out there that did enjoy it.
2 out of 5 At least I can tell the difference between a dead or a living person

Mutated Tasmanian Devil's Are Sweet

I hate this movie poster. It looks so bad. After I got things done for the day, I came home and was ready for another movie already. I don't know why I have been in such a movie watching mode lately, but I'm not complaining. I think part of it is the fact there just isn't anything good to watch on TV last few days. I did watch Face Off the other night though, and I found it to be interesting. If you don't know about it, it is a new show on SyFy (hate spelling it that way) about makeup artists. One thing that gets me about these types of shows is that they will eliminate someone on the first show. Sometimes it is obvious who will be asked to leave, since they always have people that know their shit, but they always throw in a couple of people who aren't very experienced. Those are usually they first people to leave, which seems a bit unfair to me. Anyway, I am looking forward to see where this show goes.

The movie I decided on for today was Cemetery Gates (2006). A couple of guys break into a science lab where they find that an animal is being used for experiments. Since the guard is in the bathroom taking a long dump, they decide to take the big crate with them in order to set the animal free. What they don't know is that the animal is a Tasmanian Devil, and that it has been mutated on top of that. While they are looking for a place to release the animal, we meet Hunter (Peter Stickles), who is about to head out to meet up with his friends in order to start filming on a horror movie Hunter has come up with. Belmont (Reggie Bannister) doesn't want his son to leave, but Hunter feels it is time. Hunter meets up with Kym (Nichole DuPort), August (Kristin Novak), Tony (Ky Evans), and a couple of others. Hunter has gotten permission to film in a cemetery outside of town. Once Belmont finds out about the missing animal, Dr. Kollar (Aime Wolf) goes with him in order to either kill it or get it back. Wouldn't you know it that the animal got away not far from the cemetery Hunter and his friends will be at.

I first read about Cemetery Gates over at Dr Gore's Movie Reviews. I even left a comment about it before I went to Netflix to add it to my movie queue. Roughly two and a half years later, it finds its way to my home where I got to watch it. It is a little embarrassing that I am that far behind, but then I do tend to add a lot of movies and bump them towards the top. Oh, Dr Gore, if you should happen to be reading this, Precious is a female. Anyway, Cemetery Gates is a low budget film that has its good and bad sides, but overall I found it to be a fun movie. Maybe the worst thing about this movie was its monster. It just looks so bad at times. At the same time though, how bad it looks is what makes this movie so fun. A lot of the time you can tell it is just a guy in a suit, and honestly that is what makes it funny. You haven't lived until you see a Tasmanian Devil leaping into the frame to tackle someone. Or what looks like it rubbing its feet on a person when it is supposed to be tearing into them.

The rest of the effects really aren't all that bad. There is a lot, and I do mean a lot, of blood to be found. I almost boarders on silly sometimes. I mean it isn't like a person gets scratched and a stream of blood comes pouring out, but at times it can feel that way. I don't know if the writers, and director Roy Knyrim, set out to make a funny movie or if they just decided that with what they had it would work better that way. With body parts flying at times, and blood going everywhere, it is hard not to have a good time with it when it is being caused by the guy in the suit...err...I mean a mutated Tasmanian Devil.

The acting had a lot to do with the fun mood of Cemetery Gates as well. With a lot of people calling the acting bad, when being kind I think, I didn't find it to be all that bad. Maybe not the best actor, but certainly the one that gave me the most laughs would be Kristin Novak. She nails the not so bright blond and provides a couple of topless scenes. Some of the things she does, and says, got me laughing pretty good at times. The leads are pretty good, and of course it is always nice to see Reggie Bannister in a movie. To my surprise I didn't really care for his acting at first, but it did improve. Maybe I didn't care for it since it has been forever since I have watched him in anything. FX guys Howard Berger and Gregory Nicotero show up in front of the camera as a couple of stoners, and are also pretty funny.

Cemetery Gates starts off okay, but once they started to show the mutated Tasmanian Devil, I was quickly thinking that this movie would be another two star movie at best. But I kept watching and to my surprise, I had a great time with it. That doesn't make Cemetery Gates a great movie, but I can easily see me taking this movie to a party or just like minded friends and I'm sure everyone would have a good time with it as well. It is a movie that if you take it too seriously, it will be one of the worst ever for you. It is a gory movie, but it is done in a way that makes it over the top, so it is almost funny instead of gory. A lot of people have complained that there is next to no character development to be found. That there are too many random people that get killed. It is all true, but Cemetery Gates is more about its creature than the human characters found within it. If you do decide to give it a try, and I honestly hope you do, just sit back and relax. Have a few laughs and enjoy. I know I sure did.
3 out of 5 I would have gone and got my bike back!

Those Damned Vampires

I got bored again and decided to watch another movie. Since the next movie I had in mind was only 76 minutes long, I went for it. Since I had a slow start for the month, which I had a reason for really, I'm glad that I am getting back into watching movies again. It sucks to be bored, but at least I'm back into movie mode again. A couple of days ago I watched and reviewed San Franpsycho which I wasn't all that thrilled with. As luck would have it, I don't know if it is good or bad luck though, the next movie I wanted to watch on Instant Watch was made by the same people. At least with The Damned (2006), this time around it is more of a horror movie than the last movie was.

A clan of vampires, lead by Marco (Jose Rosete), has moved into a bad neighborhood of Oakland. They have picked it so that their victims won't be as noticed with the high crime rate. On their second night, two of the four vampires heads out to find their meal. They come across two guys that are trying to rob them. One guy runs off once the vampires reveal themselves, with one of the vampires giving chase. Meanwhile, Tom (Brian Velthoe) is driving home when his car breaks down. Knowing he is in a bad neighborhood, he takes a baseball bat with him as he walks the rest of the way home. He comes across the vampire attack, and before he can leave his cell phone goes off. The vampire sees him and attacks. Tom breaks his bat on the vampire and then accidentally uses the broken handle to stab the vampire in the heart, which causes him to turn to ash. Tom runs home and tells his roommates. Nacho (Daniel Landeros) doesn't believe a work of it, but Danny (Raul Martinez) is more open to the idea of vampires since he watches a lot of horror movies. Unknown to them though, the remaining vampires are looking to get revenge for their buddy.

The Damned reminded me a little bit of Fright Night. The two movies are vastly different, but I think you can see where one will remind me of the other. Writers/directors Eduardo and Jose Quiroz do some things right with their vampires. They have to be invited into a house, something I think gets over looked a lot in vampire movies. A cross by itself doesn't work. It has to be blessed by a priest in order for it to work. Something else that was interesting was that the blood of each of their victims seems to stay with the vampire. This was the first time anyone has suggest that as far as I can remember. The police were able to find DNA of several people from the blood they found on the bat. The setting for The Damned was also slightly different than most horror movies. The three friends were all Hispanic, so that was also something that was a little different.

Not everything was good though of course. Despite the things done right with the vampires, I couldn't help but find the vampires to be a little on the silly side. When they went into vampire mode, their eyes would turn milky and they would now have fangs. Instead of simply biting their victims though, they would like tear flesh away. My only guess for this would be that the police were blaming the attacks on mountain lions. So I am assuming they were tearing at the flesh to make it look more like an animal attack. Even so, I found it to be more zombie like instead of vampires. Since the vamps turn to ash, they had to do something so they would catch fire. They didn't do so right away, like a couple of seconds after the stake hit the heart, but it was the CGI effect for the fire that I hated the most. It looked bad, very bad in fact. I think I would just had them die instead of turn into this small pile of ash. I know a lot of vampire lore as them turning into ash, but when you are working with a low budget, is it really that important?

The Quiroz brothers, which they feel is important enough to trade mark, make their movies pretty quick it seems. The Damned was the third movie they released in 2006. You will find much of the same cast in their movies. Jose Rosete, Victor Zaragoza and Chris Angelo all appear in all three movies, while Todd Bridges appears in two of the three. Bridges has a much bigger role in this movie. Along with James Logan, they play a couple of guys who have lost someone to the clan and have been tracking them ever since looking for a good time to strike back at them.

I didn't find the story for The Damned to be a bad one. It is on the simple side, but for a shorter than average movie, along with a low budget, I can understand why it isn't a more complicated plot. Even though I found The Damned to be more enjoyable than San Franpsycho, I still wasn't sold on it completely. I didn't really have a problem with the acting, but I got tired of the way the script had them talking. This was more for the three roommates, as everyone else seemed to talk more normal. It wasn't bad so much as I just got tired of it pretty quick. Instead of being scared, I got a laugh or two out of it instead. Like many of the other movies I have been watching lately, I can't tell anyone to go find this movie. Still, I thought it was an improvement, however slight, over some of the others.
2 out of 5 So few ashes for such large bodies

Legends Are Made Of This

When my local Video Connection stores closed down, I spent way too much money snatching up DVD's on the cheap. I can't say that I'm sorry that I did, but in truth, I didn't really need them. When I went to the second store that I had to travel further to, I came across a movie called The Legend Trip (2006) that was in the new DVD section. Of course some of the movies that they would have in their new section had been around for a long time. I didn't know anything about this movie, had never heard of it before, but I decided to take a shot at it. It was a little more money, since it was in the new section, but it was still probably cheaper buying it new at the time. It has been close to a year I think since the stores closed, and I am still working my way through all the movies that I got from them.

A group of college students, who are part time ghost hunters, are looking for a new place to investigate. They decide on the Buth house. This Wisconsin home has a long history of bad things happening in the house or around the property. The first owners of the house lost their young daughter when she drowned in the bath tub. A man killed himself after coming home and finding his wife and daughter dead. Some gangsters holed up in the house in the 1920's. One of them went insane and killed his partner along with the hostage they had. Death came again in the 1970's. And now this group of four are heading to this house to see what they can discover. Will they find ghosts? Maybe they will find the madness that has found others. Or maybe they won't find anything at all. Right, like that will happen.

The Legend Trip is a low budget movie filmed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I've read on IMDb where a few people from the area went to the first screening for this movie. For the most part they are pretty proud of this little movie. I can understand. No matter the movie, it is always cool to see places you know so well on film. IMDb also lists the budget to be around $75k, but director Jason Satterfield says that it was actually closer to $20k. Even though I didn't know any of that going in, I had this feeling that this would be the movie that I would be impressed by despite being low budget. Maybe it was the promise of ghosts that made me feel this way. After all, I am a sucker for ghost stories.

My feeling for The Legend Trip proved to be wrong though. Instead of just telling us about the past of this house, they actually have to show us. Because of that, more time is spent in the past then in the present. Once we get to the present, and stay there, the story feels very rushed. In truth, there isn't much of a story here. Sure we learn a lot about the history of this house, and why it is considered haunted, but I feel like they went about that the wrong way. If that is the story they wanted to tell, why not make The Legend Trip in the style of a documentary instead? The way the past stories are told is also a bit of a mess. We start off with a priest that was blessing the home, and was confronted by a ghost it seems. Then we go to present day, where I believe is a few years removed from the start of the movie. We flashback to the original owners of the home and what happened there. Then we go to the present in order to flashback to the 1920's. Not all of that story is told though before we go back to the present for a short while in order to a flashback to the 1970's. One of the couples in that story starts to talk about what happened in the 1920's, so we flashback to that story again. I didn't find any of this confusing, I was able to follow it fine (with the exception of the first owners of the house, since I was never sure if it was the original owner that killed himself or another guy that owned the house), but I got real tired of all the jumping around.

Another thing that bothered me was that music was almost always playing in the background. There was another low budget movie that did the same thing that I just watched recently as well. I don't mind music, but a lot of times in low budget movies, the music wins out over the voices of actors. It wasn't too bad here, I only had this problem in small sections of the movie, but one voice was a voice over so there should have been no reason for the low volume there. Music can help set a mood, but do we really need that much music? There are more scenes with music then without.

With the exception of some of the minor roles, I didn't think the acting was all that bad. Nothing that really stood out to me, but for a bunch of people I have never heard of before, not too bad. I give them a lot of credit for actually trying, even the ones I didn't care for, which is more than I can say for some actors that show up for low budget movies. The effects for The Legend Trip turned out to be pretty good. An inkpen to the eye, guts being pulled out, and a ghost with barb wire wrapped around it. For the budget, they came out pretty good I thought.

Were there any ghosts to be found in The Legend Trip? One or two can be found, but the funny thing about that is that you can find more in the trailer. The Legend Trip turns out to be more of a history lesson about people going insane while at this one house. There could be a reason for this, as often there is a demonic sounding voice that can be heard. Can the people there at the time hear this voice as well? That is hard to say for sure. Some seem to interact with it, while others don't. It wasn't so much that I didn't like the story, but more that I didn't like the way they tried to tell it. If they story sounds interesting to you, you might consider giving The Legend Trip a try. It certainly isn't the worst of the movies I have been watching lately, but it still missed the mark.
2 out of 5 Will be having flashbacks of flashbacks all day now

Purple Killers Are Scary

As I keep watching low budget movies, I seem to have come across a rash of bad ones. This isn't the first time I have gone through this, and I'm sure it won't be the last time either. It isn't discouraging or anything like that to me. I just put them behind me and go on to the next one. I always hope, and try, to enjoy each movie I watch. I found if I go into a movie thinking I will hate it, more likely I will find reasons to hate it. I try to go into each movie not expecting to love it or hate it, but that doesn't always work. I have had Mutation (2006) sitting around here for nearly a month now, so it is about time I got around to it. I have been moving my Netflix movies a little quicker this month, and I hope that keeps going. Last month didn't go real well, but I have managed to exchange all the movies I've had here at least once this month so I'm happy.

A killer known as K (Eddie Croft) is loose somewhere in L.A. and it is up to Detective Gornick (Brian Schwartz) to stop him. Gornick and his partner think they have found where K is at and bust into the building. After a fight with K, and saving a girl who is tied to a chair, Gornick manages to kill K, but at the cost of his partner being killed as well. Five years later we meet Detective Russo (Bryan Hanna) and his girlfriend Brooke (Jessica Moon). Brooke is a parole officer who is on her way to watch over four other women who are out on parole while they clean up a place. Of course this place happens to be where K was at five years ago. While they start to clean, we then meet Dr. Paul Friedel (Jim Patneaude) and Janet (Erin Holt) who are experimenting with something called Trioxen. This is supposed to help with cell regeneration. After years of research, they have found something that seems to work. Instead of testing it further though, they decide to inject it into a corpse to see what will happen. The corpse they pick just happens to be K, who has been frozen for the last five years. At first nothing happens but then K is up and walking around, and of course killing people once again. Russo is sent to investigate and eventually figures out where K is heading.

Mutation gets its name because of Trioxen. Since the good doctor rushed things, it is later discovered that it causes mutations. Mostly it causes purple bumps to show up all over K's head, but it also helps him recover from wounds a lot faster. While it looks silly as hell, that wasn't my main problem with Mutation. How can you tell that you stumbled into a very low budget movie? Most when the police officers don't wear actual uniforms, black slacks and long sleeved shirt with a badge pinned to it instead, and rarely carry a gun. That was amusing to me instead of a problem really. It was more of the fact that writer/director Brad Sykes can't be bothered by simple things that go a long way. Like when the detectives enter a building they think might hold a dangerous person, they do so without calling for backup. Probably because they only ever use cell phones. They also go in without their guns out and ready to use.

The place where K likes to hang out has a stage in it. While the cleaning crew was doing their thing, they would find boxes of knives and swords. Now I admit some of that might have been props for the stage, but at least one knife was K's. We know this because when one of the women picks it up, she gets flashes of K and what he did with the knife. You would think the police would have took anything that was a real weapon with them five years ago. Speaking of the cleaning crew, the place didn't look like it needed much cleaning, yet they were there all day and part of the night. Once lady can't be found after being sent for food, so Brooke goes looking for her. The lady comes out the same door and explains she came in the back way. Yet when they front door is jammed shut later on, the same lady asks Brooke if there is another way out. She should know since she used the back door earlier!

At one point K is chasing after four of the women when one gets by him. He takes off after the group of three but then suddenly appears behind the woman who got by him. It is all of this that makes to story more laughable instead of scary. If you want to, you could even throw in the special effects in with that. Hardly any blood but the wounds you will find don't look very good at all. One guy gets stabbed and when they show it we see a good sized hole in his shirt and skin. The guy got stabbed, not shot effects people.

The acting was kind of just there but at times it wasn't too bad. I enjoyed the people in the smaller roles instead of the main ones. The tag line for the movie mentions that there is some kick boxing action. I would have never have known it if it wasn't for reading other reviews, but Brian Schwartz is a champion in the sport. Eddie Croft is a kick boxing trainer. Despite this though, the action sequences came across as rather dull. Anyway, the biggest surprise for me was finding Katie Featherstone in Mutation. It is a minor role but it dates back before her time with Paranormal Activity. I also liked Erin Holt, who is apparently more into the theater scene.

I'm tempted to give Mutation my lowest score, but I just can't bring myself to do that. I did find it to be a silly movie, but with it only having a run time of 73 minutes, it wasn't like I invested a lot of time with it. There were small things, mostly some of the acting that made me not hate this one completely. Sure I didn't like Mutation, but I never felt that I hated it at any point. I save my lowest score for my hated movies. I can't suggest for anyone to find it. I am a little glad I watched it since I got to watch the first movie Katie Featherstone was in. Not that I am a big fan or anything, just sort of cool.
2 out of 5 At least there wasn't a purple people eater

West Coast Killers

Anyone want a cat? As much as I love mine, he has been driving me freaking insane lately. Always meowing at me for attention and when I try to pet him, he runs off then comes back to me meow at me some more. Usually when he gets like this he wants to play, so I tried that but no go. It has come down to kill the cat or shut the door. Since I don't want to hurt him, the door it is. Hate to be that way, but I can only take so much of it. No that I got that out of system, I did sit down to watch another movie for today. San Franpsycho (2006) has been moving up my DVD queue and it is also in my Instant Watch queue, so I decided to just watch it online so I could get some other DVD instead. I watched The Expendables last night, which was what I was expecting out of it. It has been said it is a throw back to the '80s action flicks, and I understand why people say that. A ton of bad guys yet the good guys never once get seriously hurt.

San Franpsycho opens with one person already dead, and another being killed but a muscle head of a guy. The killer (Jose Rosete) has killed before but no one really knows this yet. Rita (Eleni C. Krimitsos) is a news reporter for the local TV news. In her report on the double murder she mentions facts that the police had not yet released. Detective Bill Culp (Joe Estevez) wants to know how Rita knows this information, but Rita will only say that it isn't someone from within the police department. When another murder happens, we discover that the killer is sending letters to Rita, which is where she was getting the information from. Culp believes the letters are from the actual killer (they are) so puts an officer (Todd Bridges) on protection detail for Rita. When no leads and no evidence pointing towards the killer, they decide to try and flush him out by calling out the killer on the news. Will this method work, or will it just cause the killer to go after them instead?

San Franpsycho is a low budget movie written/directed by Eduardo and Jose Quiroz. It is a fairly long movie at 106 minutes. A lot of people call this movie a horror movie, and it is even tagged that on IMDB, but I failed to see where any horror was. Sure we have some guy going around killing people. He claims to have a reason for each kill, married couple was sleeping with others, a gay guy, a stripper...things like that. The way the film makes it look is that he suddenly leaves his places, picks a person at random and kills them. Since he seems to know a little about each person he has killed, it would have been nice if they had shown something on how he knew these things. The story is more about Rita and the two Detectives working the case. Since the plot decided to focus on them, you would expect them to do something, right? Rita gets a letter, goes into a bit of a panic and calls either the police or the officer that is guarding her. Culp gets mad for whatever reason, but when they show him with his partner, they tend to wonder what to do next and poke fun at each other. Rinse and repeat. Add Rita's boyfriend and do it all over again. Everything they find out is from the killer. We never see the cops talking to anything in the area of the murders or anything like that. We learn that the killer killed at least two people in other states, which took the body count up to six at one point. But everyone kept saying the body count was at five. I guess they forgot there was a double murder in there. Or maybe since it took place at the same location, it counted as one instead of two.

No special effects to be found. A little bit of blood when someone gets stabbed, which looked pretty stupid since the guy didn't struggle at all. The acting wasn't great either. I have watched Joe Estevez in some other horror movies before, but I didn't notice his name in the opening credits. I knew it wasn't Martin Sheen, but I couldn't place who it was either. I just knew he looked and sounded like Martin Sheen. Todd Bridges was a bit of a surprised to me. I know he was in a popular TV show in the 70's and 80's but I have been watching him on Tru TV over the last couple of years. He has a small part and is only in a few scenes. Victor Zaragoza got the part of the partner, who was more or less the comedy part of things. Chris Angelo got the part of Father Gomes, the only person we ever see the cops talk to about their case.

With San Franpsycho feeling more like a crime drama, and not a very good one at that, along with the plot never really going anywhere, I was pretty disappoint with it. If it had been a good movie, I would have forgiven it for not being a true horror movie. I might not have put a review here, but I wouldn't be putting it down either. I was pretty amazed that they were able to keep the story going for as long as they did. The ending went with an unhappy ending, which I usually like, but I just buy into it. San Franpsycho manages to stay well away from the worst ever group of movies, but it never manages to get into the average group either. Too bad it couldn't have been better to match up with the kind of neat title they went with for it. It does fit since it was filmed in the San Francisco area. There are some nice scenes with the city as a back drop, but not enough to have to sit through the whole movie for. Just a movie for fans of the actors I'm afraid.
2 out of 5 At least the killer knows how to kill since he sure can't sing

I Dare You To Say Bloody Mary Three Times

I was planning on doing two reviews today, but I got bored. Hardly anything on TV today that I was interested in at all. Been watching the NFL playoffs since getting the movie in, but I'm not really into any of the teams that are playing today. I'm still interested, just don't really care either way who wins. Not that anyone cares, but on the gaming front I did make it to the level cap again in Everquest 2. So far it is the only MMO game that I have reached a level cap in. Since I have a station pass with SOE, which allows me to play more than one MMO for one monthly price, I decided to give the game DC Universe a try. So far it has been just okay to me. Anyway, I sat down and watched a movie out of my own collection, Bloody Mary (2006). This is yet another movie I picked up from the DVD rental close out sale.

A group of nurses that work at a mental hospital is making the new girl go through a silly hazing. Somewhere down in the tunnels below the hospital, that are no longer being used, is a mirror. The new girl has to stand in front of the mirror, while being completely naked, and say "I believe in Bloody Mary" until something happens. The leader of the group, Jenna (Danni Ravden), has set up a guy to be down there to scare the new girl. When the new girl starts to scream, Johnny (Troy Turi) shows up late. If it isn't Johnny down there, then who is it? A week goes by and Natalie (Kim Tyler) shows up to find her missing sister. It seems no body was ever found, so no one knows if it was murder or if she just took off. As it turns out, Jenna and the others know about the Bloody Mary legend, which seems to have its own twist for the this hospital, and they know she is real. For whatever reason though, Bloody Mary isn't very pleased with the group.

Bloody Mary is a low budget movie where you might think there is something there, but it never shows itself. Writer/director Richard Valentine gives us a different take on the Bloody Mary legend. In his story, Mary was a patient there at the hospital. Her name wasn't known, but the staff started to call her Mary. She seemed to be obsessed with her own reflection. When an orderly tries to have sex with her though, she responds by clawing his eye out, thus she then became known as Bloody Mary. It was cool to see Valentine take an urban legend and make it into his own, much like Clive Barker did with Candyman. Except that is about as interesting as Bloody Mary ever gets. There are problems with the effects and acting, but it is the plot that drags it down. The pacing is a little on the slow side, but they do space out the deaths enough to keep it at least somewhat interesting. The problem is that outside of Bloody Mary herself, nothing is explained. I suppose it doesn't matter, but it would have been nice to know how Jenna and the others knew about the mirror. It would have been nice to know what is in it for Jenna and Bloody Mary. All we know is that Jenna wants to protect Bloody Mary, and that Bloody Mary is not happy with the group because of the things they say. It isn't that I need everything spoon fed to me, but give me a hint as to what is going on at least.

Like everything in this movie, the effects and the acting are a mixed bag. The effects deal mostly with eyes getting pulled out. I have never tried it but it always amazes me how the eyes are intact still after being pulled out. I couldn't really tell if CGI was being used to show a missing eye, but I know that it was used in some other scenes. At times the blood being used looked fine, and there were times it looked very fake. Kim Tyler gets the lead role, at least I guess I can it that. There were times I liked her acting, and times I hated it. The same can be said for Danni Ravden. The best acting came from Anna Pippus who is limited to just a handful of scenes.

I don't mind nudity in a movie. While I don't go around showing my body off, I don't get too embarrassed if someone does see me nude or partly nude. I don't see the big deal about nudity personally. Bloody Mary does have its share of nudity but I was puzzled by it. Like everything else, it is never explained why the girls get undressed before going to the mirror. Not that I minded, but why was it a rule? Jenna, who happens to be one of the woman that is shown nude, starts to have a nose bleed while talking about Bloody Mary, and at one point has blood coming out of her ear. This is never explain either. Why are the eyeballs kept? All these little things just lead to a lot of whys. It is too bad that the script wasn't fleshed out a little more than it was. While I never thought that Bloody Mary came close to being a great movie, I do feel it could have been better than it was. I know we can say that about every average to bad movie out there, but there are just some movies you can see that it wants to be better, but never gets there for whatever reason. Bloody Mary just happens to be one of them.
2 out of 5 A jar with eyeballs that has my sister's name on it? Eh, no big deal.

Let Them In Already Novel

It seems like forever since I last did a book review. Months back I was going to do a review of a book by James Herbert called '48. Since it was more of a thriller, that didn't have much to do with horror, I eventually decided against a review. As soon as I finished '48, I already had in mind which book I wanted to read next. Since watching Let Me In, I have been wanting to read the book both movies were based on. I ran across it at a book store one day, with the cover you see to the left. I have been curious for a while now what the book holds differently than the movies. Before Let Me In was even announced I had been thinking about trying to find this book. Since director Matt Reeves said that he took more from the book, it made me all the more curious when the movie felt more like a remake to Let The Right One In.

Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist was first published back in 2004. It was first published in the States in 2007. It tells the story of a troubled 12 year old boy, Oskar, who has trouble at school being picked on all the time. He eventually meets a new girl in the building next to his named Eli. At first Eli tells Oskar that they can't be friends, but eventually they become just that. Eli has a secret though, more than one actually. One of the secrets, and probably the main one, is that Eli is a vampire. She doesn't really see herself as one, but when it comes down to it, she is a vampire. She uses people, currently Håkan, to get blood for her so she doesn't make more vampires. Will Oskar still want to be around Eli when he learns the truth?

After watching the original movie, I wrote that I felt this was a movie about a friendship between Eli and Oskar. Many others felt it was about Eli looking to train Oskar to be her human servant. I sort of felt the remake leaned more in that direction. The book starts off with Eli asking Oskar many questions that made me believe that she wanted him to be a killer. In other words she wanted him to kill in order to get Eli the blood she needs. But as the story goes on, a friendship does happen. Eli even asks Oskar if he would like to become a vampire like her at one point. I was surprised at how close each movie took from the book. Each movie does things differently at times, and you will find some things that one movie used but not the other. Now that I have watched both movies and read the book, I feel like Let Me In was more of a remake instead of following the source material more closely.

Let The Right One In is a good book. I found some of the writing a little off at times though. This could be because of the translation to English though. It wasn't enough for me to not like the book at all, and I found this mainly with the conversations between the characters. Things you will find in the book, but not either movie, is that there is more of a backstory for all of the main characters, and even for some of the supporting characters. We find out what actually happened to Eli two hundred some odd years ago. Not everything, but enough to let you fill in the blanks from there. Not a whole lot more you will learn about Oskar, but we do discover why he lives with his mom. There is a small part of the story where Oskar even goes to visit his dad. I think the character that we learn the most about though would be Håkan. We find out how he met Eli, and we learn about his past some, like he was once a teacher.

One of the biggest differences between the book and the two movies is that there is a group of friends that play a part in the story. If I remember right, the original movie comes close to this, but the remake never touches it. What makes it different is the woman that becomes a vampire lives a bit longer in the book. What happens to Håkan is the same for both movies and the book, but his story doesn't end there in the book. This was also a big difference in book and movies. Where the story ends up from there is something I can understand why it didn't make it into either movie, but I would like to have seen it all the same. It could have been done in a suggestive way without showing anything.

A big part of the story is the same in both movies, but if you ever get curious about the book I think you should give it a read sometime. There is just enough that is different about it that will make it interesting even if you have watched either or both movies. The fact that there are more vampires. Eli can shape shift a little bit. It is also hinted at why a stake to the heart is a good way to kill a vampire. There is a good mix of vampire lore there. Give Let The Right One In a shot. If you liked the movies, you will probably enjoy the difference between those and the book.
4 out of 5 Tendons snapping like strings has got to hurt a lot!

French Style Zombies

I read yesterday what I have been saying for a while now. Netflix has decided to phase out its DVDs  over the next two years and have only the Instant Watch feature from there on out. I have been saying that this would happen. Ever since they started it actually. It just made sense to me. Why mail DVDs when you can just have people watch them online and save money not having to pay for postage? Two things Netflix needs to keep in mind, even though they have apparently already made up their mind, is that not everyone has a high speed connection. That will make it hard for some people to get through a movie without feeling frustrated. And the other thing is Instant Watch is just the movie. No extras to be found anywhere, which is a big reason why people like DVDs, you get more than just the movie. I can see this as being a good thing, and a bad thing all at the same time. What do all of you think? Speaking of Instant Watch. I decided on Revenge Of The Living Dead Girls (1987) for today. It is a movie out of France so that made me curious.

Before I get into the plot, know that IMDb doesn't list character names for this movie so I have no idea what they were off the top of my head and who played them. A milk truck is driving around when the guy notices a hitchhiker and picks her up. He eventually finds a place to spend some one-on-one time with this woman, but fails to notice that a guy on a motorcycle has been following. When this guy notices that the happy couple isn't coming back out right away, he pours something into the milk. We then see a woman talking with her mom as she drinks milk. As she is drinking it, she falls over dead. Two friends are drinking milk in a bar (who the hell drinks milk in a bar?), and also falls over dead. The guy that poured stuff into the milk gets worried, but the woman he is working with blows it off. She happens to work for a chemical plant where the owner has hired a guy to dump toxic waste. Of course he picks the place where these three girls were buried at. The combo of whatever was put in the milk and the toxic waste manages to bring the girls back, who then go after the people that put them in the grave.

As I said, I was curious about this movie because it is a French movie. I love movies out of France that have come out recently, but I haven't liked some of the older horror films. What I found with Revenge Of The Living Dead Girls is that it is a bad movie, but it makes up for it a little bit by having some very weird scenes in it. The plot for this movie is very thin and often times makes no sense at all. I think we can blame the short run time for that. Another reason I picked this movie to watch was because it was late and it is only 73 minutes. No reason was given as far as I could tell as to why whatever was poured into the milk was done so in the first place. When the girls first come out of their graves, they go after the owner of the chemical company. He isn't home, or leaves just as they get there, so they go after the wife instead. Maybe because it had a small town feel that knew where he lived, but why blame him? They wouldn't know it was stuff from his plant that killed them. It is plot details like this that make Revenge Of The Living Dead Girls a stupid movie at times.

The effects were okay. Some people didn't care for how the zombies looked, but I didn't have much a problem with that. I did find it strange that not all of their hands had makeup on them, but all of their faces did. There are a few gory scenes. One guy finds out what oral sex is like from a zombie. Well there wasn't really any oral sex there but I think you get the idea of what I mean. Some guts find their way out at one point as well. The strangest, and maybe the goriest, scene had to do with a pregnant lady. Her stomach seems to melt away and then we can see the baby still inside of her. What this had to do with the zombies though is anyones guess. I think it was supposed to be about the chemicals that her husband works with, but there is a plot line that never really went anywhere, much like a few others.

Another strange scene is when a guy picks up a woman to pay her for sex. The zombies scare the guy off, get in the car and drive off with the woman. They apparently take her back to her place, undress her and themselves, and have some four way fun. Who knows the why of it, just roll with it I say. For those interested, there is plenty of nudity to be found. Even though I found Revenge Of The Living Dead Girls as a whole a bad movie, it was these strange scenes that at least kept the movie from being a total bore. I can't really suggest this movie to anyone, but if you like what you read about it here, give it a try. The Instant Watch uses English dubs instead of sub titles, so that should make some people happy at least. For the time spent watching it, I can think of much worse things to do.
2 out of 5 Swords are not meant to go into certain places

No Fun At The Fun Park

For those of you that have been reading for a long time, you may remember when one of my best friends mother passed away. Fay meant a lot to me, as she was there for me through the years as well. The 17th made four years that she has been gone now. At times it feels like a life time has passed since it happened, and there are days it feels like it was just yesterday. I still miss her a lot, and think of her often. After going to pay my respects, I came home and decided it was time for another movie after a while. I didn't want to get myself to down in the dumps after all. I decided to watch a movie called The Fun Park (2007) for no real reason at all. I tried to write after watching it, but I just couldn't get in the mood. I sat around lost in my thoughts for a long time, shedding a tear now and then. For some reason things have hit me a little harder this year than in the past years. Anyway, I have been watching a fair share of ghost stories lately, and the box for The Fun Park made it sound like that maybe this would be another one. Oh how little I knew.

Back in 1980, a clown by the name of Bobo - The Insulting Clown was supposedly beaten to death at the fun park that he worked at while closing down for the night. The body was never found though, and because of the publicity, the park closed up. Now twenty some odd years later, the park is about to be leveled. A group of teens decide to go there for a night of smoking drugs and whatever else comes to mind. They also want to see if the place really is haunted by Bobo. Megan (Jillian Murray) is the only one that makes it back out alive. Even though she has been hurt, and tells the police a story of her friends being killed by someone at the park, the police don't believe her since they can't find anything to support the story. It is up to Doctor Marissa Jade (Jennifer Ferguson) to find out the truth.

The Fun Park may not have been a ghost story, but it still fits with the movies I have been watching lately since it is a low budget movie. From what I have gathered, which I learned after watching it, radio DJ turned movie director Rick Walker put The Fun Park together using mostly local actors from the Crescent, Oklahoma area. While all this is great, and I have to give a lot of credit to Walker for putting it all together and getting it out there, I found that The Fun Park can be summed up in one word: boring. I get that clowns are scary for some people. They have never been that way for me, so I can't say that I understand. I think that the way The Fun Park was filmed had a big affect on me seeing this one as boring. See we are told right away that Megan and her friends went to this park and that Megan was the only one to come out alive. This didn't bother me so much, it has been done before after all. The story picks up with the doctor and flashes back to what happened now and then before we get one long one flashback. To add to that, we get flashbacks within flashbacks. I don't know about all of you, but I have always found that to be silly. There are long stretches where there is very little dialogue, or none at all. Bobo is barely in this and doesn't do a whole lot either.

Very little special effects to be found. A few faces get pulled off, but we don't really get to see that happen, just the aftermath of it. While it looked okay, I just wasn't all that impressed with it. Same went with the acting as well. It was great to see Jullian Murray in another movie at least. I didn't like The Graves, but Murray was the highlight for me in that movie at least. She looks a little different here, but still very good looking. Even if she does put her hair up weird while at school. I don't think it was so much the actors as there just wasn't much for them to do. All one guy has to do for a long period is look stoned. Another long period is most of the teens tied up with tape over their mouth so all we hear is muffled crying or screaming. I don't think the bad guy ever says a word. I could go on about this but I don't want to spoil it anymore than I have to.

If I remember right, The Fun Park is told over a three to four day period that is mostly flashbacks. While I appreciated the time frame, I found it about worthless here. I think that Rick Walker, who also wrote the script, would have been better off using the Megan/Doctor scenes as bookends to the story and had one long flash back to what happened to the teens instead of jumping back and forth. The ending was fine, but didn't make a lot of sense. Mild spoiler here: Apparently the killer moved the bodies so they would easily be found. Why bother? It wasn't all bad at least. The way some of the characters are connected ended up being interesting. Even so, not much time was spent letting us get to know the different characters outside of Bobo and Megan. And even with those two, not a lot of information in dropped. Maybe my mood at the time had some affect as to how I felt about The Fun Park, but since I was looking to be entertained to get my mind off things, it didn't work out to well for me. Maybe the next movie I will watch will have better luck.
2 out of 5 Who knew killing people would be so boring?

Haunted Barns Are Fun

I have been on a bit of a roll lately. I haven't posted to here much this month, but in the last five days, I have managed as many reviews. I have been posting more reviews over at Top Horror Movies Club so far this month. Just yesterday I posted a review for Death Of A Ghost Hunter. I fell behind last month, a slightly this month, on my reviews over there, so I have been trying to catch up some. I will be posting more to here shortly though. Since I watched Death Of A Ghost Hunter on Instant Watch, which has now been taken off, I decided to go with Blood Creek (2006), a movie I have had sitting around from Netflix since the end of November. It is also one of the few movies I have had in my saved queue that actually came out of it.

A bunch of friends are sitting around having a good time, for the most part, when James (David Dineen-Porter) suggests that they all go camping. He knows a place where they can all go and not be bothered by other campers. The best part is, it is about to developed so it won't be like this for much longer. Five of the friends head up, while the other two have some other things to do before meeting up with their friends. James' girlfriend, Sheryl (Ashley Morris), joins him, along with Kyle (Ryan Tonkin), Lara (Angelica Montesano) and Dickie (Perry Mucci). While looking for a good spot to set up camp, they find an old barn. Sheryl, for whatever reason, wants a picture taken of them all standing beside it. Oddly enough though, they don't show up in the picture. They later learn, through a magazine that Dickie has, that the barn is supposed to be one of the most haunted places in America. According to local legend, if you do certain things in the house and barn, you will see the ghosts of the family that was killed there more than 80 years ago. James dares his friends to go through with it, but will they?

It's a horror movie, so you know they will. Blood Creek is a movie that I came across while looking for the trailer of another movie by the same name. I decided to go ahead and add the movie, even though it didn't look great, to my Netflix queue. At the time Netflix didn't have it, but they do now. Even though the trailer didn't impress me a lot, I went ahead and moved it towards the top of my queue instead of leaving it way at the bottom. Knowing that Blood Creek was a low budget movie wasn't a problem for me, but I was quickly getting worried about it because of the characters. The friends feel like a very odd bunch. The women seem normal, but the guys are another story. James is the asshole of the group. Either wanting to pick a fight with someone, or just talking down to everyone. Kyle is the outcast, pale skin and long dark hair. While Dickie is the guy that tries too hard to be funny, but never is. Dickie is also very annoying since he is always shoving a tape recorder in every ones face.

It takes a little while before the group returns to the barn and finds the house. Once they do though I thought maybe things were turning around some. Director Sean Cisterna manages to make things somewhat creepy at least by showing just enough. Even with this though, writers Robert Lazar and Daniel Wener have the characters doing some stupid things. Like Sheryl in the hay loft. It is high enough to need a ladder to get into, but not high enough to jump down from but yet she refuses to do so. Or Dickie trying hard to light a candle after he is left alone to light his way when there is a lit lantern at his feet. Despite these stupid character moments, I enjoyed this section of the movie. Once it is over though, they go back to camp to meet up with their friends who are now there. Blood Creek does try to get back to where it was towards the end of the movie, but it is never able to do so.

Very little effects to be found. A little bit of blood and sometimes a person's eyes will start to glow but that is about the extent of it. The acting was pretty bad, or maybe it was just the bad characters. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference there. I did like Angelica Montesano at least. I swear I have seen her before but she hasn't been in anything else I have watched, according to IMDb anyway.

I knew Blood Creek was going to a tough call from the start. There is more than one quick review that stated the person turned it off within 10 to 20 minutes. There are plenty of movies that start shitty, but end up being an okay movie. That is why I tend to watch the entire movie, no matter how bad it seems. Even when things did pick up and became interesting, the film makers got away from that for some reason. This results in bad pacing since now everything slows down again while the two new people join the party. Since it could never reach what the middle of the plot got started, and the ending wasn't very good either, Blood Creek ends up as a not so good movie. I didn't find it as bad as a lot of others did, but I think that just comes from watching so many low budget movies. Once you see some very bad movies, movies like Blood Creek are not as bad now.
2 out of 5 Never did like to play truth or dare

Aztec Version Of The Crow

At long last I am back with an actual review. I have done two over at Top Horror Movies Club, if anyone is interested. I watched the remake of Night Of The Demons, and I went yesterday to see Season Of The Witch while the ticket was cheap. Season Of The Witch was the first movie in a while that I watched and reviewed on the same day. That will be another trend for today as well. Since I was told to stay home today, not enough things to do to pay me to be at work which sort of sucks bad (a draw back to being the last person hired so far), I decided to get a review done for here at long last. I have lost track with which movies to watch lately. I know I have watched either an Instant Watch movie, or one that Netflix has sent me, but it has been a good while since I watched a movie from my own collection. So I picked out The Dead One (2007) at random to watch.

Diego (Wilmer Valderrama) and his girlfriend Maria (Angie Cepeda) make a good couple. What she doesn't know about Diego though, and what he doesn't seem to remember, is that when Diego was a child, he was marked as a sacrifice to the Aztec Gods. Diego gets ready for the Day Of The Dead holiday, getting his face painted and getting just the right clothes, when he has an accident while driving. He wakes up a year later to discover that his friends are holding a small service in his honor, which confuses him. He soon discovers that he can be seen at least, as Aparicio (Tony Plana), the grounds keeper of the cemetery, tries to help him. Diego eventually learns that he is being controlled by the Aztec God of human sacrifice who wants three very specific people in order to bring about the rise of the Aztec's once again, and apparently the end of days. When Diego learns one of those three people happens to be Maria, will he go through with it or fight against the God?

The Dead One is a low budget film (around $1 million according to IMDb) that is based on the comic book El Muerto, The Aztec Zombie. A lot of people call The Dead One a ripoff of The Crow, which is where I got my title from. I understand where people are coming from with this. The makeup used is fairly close to each other, and they are both brought back to life a year after their death. I felt that the two characters matched up differently from there though. Where The Crow was an avenger of death, El Muerto is supposed to take lives. Diego does discover that he can heal people, and even bring people back from the dead. The movie itself is a bit on the slow side. I found myself checking to see how much time had passed a few times, so it wasn't holding my attention real well. Once Diego returns he of course wants to see Maria. Just a couple of problems with that though. She thinks he is dead, and his makeup is now part of him. It doesn't wash off at all, which is easy to figure out since it is almost always raining where ever Diego goes. A big part of the plot is Diego trying to come up with ways to see Maria again. He apparently doesn't have a problem with seeing his best friend though, Zak (Joel Moore).

The main problem with The Dead One is that it is very confusing. An Aztec God brings back Diego as something like a human servant. At least that is what most God's do. I had assumed that Diego would have to do the killing himself, since the God has the power but can't actually touch someone. Gods are weird that way, needing someone to do things for them when they are supposed to be all powerful. But once Diego finds who it is that is to be sacrificed, guess who did the killing? It wasn't Diego, so why is he even there? Apparently he was needed for the last sacrifice though, which again didn't make any sense. His healing power, being able to bring back the dead, is explained as Diego having the heart of a good person.

Since The Dead One is only a rated PG movie, there is hardly anything for gore effects. A few cuts and stabbings, but nothing too major. A few CGI effects like lightning and cracking mirrors are thrown in here and there. The acting was just okay to me. I didn't feel anyone was bad, but no one really stood out to me either. Wilmer Valderrama shows he can be serious when he needs to be at least. Joel Moore was good, but under used. Angie Cepeda is pretty, but doesn't do a whole lot. Billy Drago shows up, in drag even. It was funny in a way but at the same time it was way too easy to tell it was him when he was supposed to be an old woman.

I wanted to like The Dead One mainly because of the story. I found it interesting at first, but eventually it became too confusing. I thought the Aztec angle of the story was a nice touch. Not something I have seen in a horror movie, that I can remember anyway. I hate to turn anyone away from this movie, but in the end I didn't feel it worked as well as I wanted it to. Maybe it requires another watch before things fall into place for me. I know that there are some movies that require that, I'm not that smart to get everything the first time around sometimes. Worth a watch I think if you find the plot interesting or into one of the actors.
2 out of 5 I wonder how it would have been if Fez played the role

Starting A New Year

A new year started up a few days ago. I didn't do much to bring in the new year honestly. I sat around home, had a couple of drinks, and watched a little TV. I'm not much of a party person, and most of the people I am good friends with are married. That can make me feel like the odd person out at times, so I just stayed home. I didn't make any new year resolutions this year. If anything, the only thing I want to work on is here. I want to try and be more active leaving comments, not only on my own blog to show that I appreciate all comments left, but also on the blogs that I read.

Speaking of blogs, a new year has officially started here at Mermaid Heather! I survived my fifth year, barely, and now I get to start my sixth. I was starting to wonder if I was going to quit towards the end there, but I pulled myself through it. I have no real plans for this year, no new challenges or anything like that. I guess I will just play it by ear and see what happens.

Last year I had this big plan at the start of my fifth year where I invited a bunch of people to do a guest spot on my blog. Since I throw out a favorite older movie every 50 posts, I asked for a favorite movie from other people. Without going back to look, I am pretty sure I ended up with 18 posts in that fashion from 18 people. I felt pretty good about that. I didn't get one from everyone I asked, but that was fine with me. Guest blogging isn't for everyone, plus I know people get busy as well. Since last year was all about old favorites, what should I do for this year?

I know I haven't been posting much at all since the new year started. The one post I did put up didn't take long at all, but I have a good reason for that. I may not have been busy watching movies or reading books in order to do a review, but I have been busy with my blog. My plan to kick off my sixth year is to talk about new favorites. I'm not going to make a bunch of posts about it like I did last year, but I do hope all of you that have blogs will join me in this.

Over the last few days I have been pouring over my blog, writing down all kinds of things, and racking my brain while trying to figure out which movies to call a new favorite. Here is the rundown of what I have been writing down. If I didn't miss anything, which I am sure I did somewhere, I have 670 reviews on Mermaid Heather that I have given a rating to. That includes books as well as movies. That does leave out my old favorites, since I don't give them ratings, and I have some posts where I talked about different TV shows which I didn't give any kind of rating to either. Still, 670 reviews in 5 years is pretty good to me considering I was going through college the majority of that time. I have 82 reviews over at Top Horror Movies Club, so that brings my grand total up to 752 reviews! I also did a guest spot over at And Now The Screaming Starts, but I didn't give that movie a rating, so it didn't make the above totals.

I have often wondered about how many movies fell under which rating. I have always assumed that my three star rating would have the most since it is my middle ground. I also assumed that my two and one stars would out number my four and five stars. Since I was writing a bunch of stuff down anyway, this is what I came up with:

• For my top honor of 5 stars, only 7 movies were able to get it.
• All my other ratings have books included in them, except maybe my 1 star. Anyway, 131 reviews ended up getting a 4 star rating.
• I knew I was right about my 3 star rating as I was writing them down. More times than not, 3 stars would out number all others in my notes. I came up with 344 reviews that ended up getting 3 stars.
• Some of my 2 star reviews could have made it to my 3 stars, but didn't for one reason or another. Not saying I hate anything that landed in 2 stars, but there were a few that came close for sure. 224 of my reviews managed to get those 2 stars.
• And last (and dare I say least?) are my 1 star reviews. The ones I hated the most for whatever reasons. I was expecting a low number here and was a little surprised there wasn't more, and that there wasn't fewer. I know, I'm often split like that. So far I have had to give 46 of my reviews the lowest of the low 1 star rating.

When I decided to pick out some of the reviews to talk about, I decided to set up one rule for myself. If any of you decide to do the same (and I hope a bunch of you do), I hope you follow this same rule. All reviews I will talk about are things that I watched, or read for that matter, for this blog. That means I had never watched it, or read it, before I started my blog. Any movie or book that I did watch or read before I started my blog, and there are a few, I threw out as a new favorite. I think the seven movies that managed a five star review speak for themselves, so I didn't include them in this list. Plus they can easily be found on the side bar to the right. All four star movies I can also call a favorite, but I wanted to point out the ones that really stand out to me. Some will be obvious, but I hope there are some surprises as well.

• These are the reviews I wanted to point out from my first year, 2006. Alucarda is a Mexican film that really pulled me into it. I have watched it probably once each year and it never gets old to me. It wasn't scary to me at all, but it is so entertaining all the same.
• High Tension is the movie that set me down the path of French horror movies. I had never watched it before I started my blog, but I knew the twist ending going in. In some ways, I think that helped me enjoy this movie even more. It might be the only movie on this list that I can't get enough of debating people about.
• The Descent is one of the few movies that Stacie, over at Final Girl, picked for her film club that was out in the theaters at the time. I don't know if I would have gone to see it if it wasn't for that fact. At the time I wasn't going to the theater very often. So I have Stacie to thank for getting me to watch this awesome movie. One of the four stars that came real close to getting to the top.
• Dead End is a movie I mostly remember as being a little on the weird side. I like that in my movies most of the time. I can't say this with 100% certainty, but I believe it is the first movie I watched with the kind of twist ending that was given. The twist seems to be pretty popular now, but this was the first time I remember coming across it.
• Malevolence is a movie that I decided to include because it is a low budget film. I think most of you know I have no problems with giving low budget movie a shot, so I wanted to include at least one from each year. Malevolence was one of the rare films that I had trouble making up my mind which rating I wanted to give it. In the end it won me over and I gave it a four star rating. It may not be to the liking of everyone, but I sure enjoyed it.
• The following came from 2007. Session 9 is a movie that mostly sticks with me because of the location it was filmed at. I did enjoy the story, but it was the location that put the movie over the top for me.
• P2 was a surprise for me. I wasn't expecting much when I went in, but I ended up having a great time with it. It is more of a thriller instead of a horror, but it is still a favorite of mine now. I don't see too many reviews from other bloggers on this movie, so maybe that will change now.
• 2007 was the first of two years that I was able to go see the 8 Films To Die For in the theater. I walked out with two becoming favorites. Nightmare Man was from the same director that one of my older favorite came from. The mix of comedy and horror was just right to me. It is one of the few of this mix to make this list.
• It was Borderland that ended up being my biggest favorite out of that set though. The fact that it is loosely based on a true story helped this one become a favorite. I was also surprised by how many of the actors I ended up knowing in this movie.
• Under The Raven's Wing gets my shout out for the low budget movies out of this year. Out of them all, it was this movie that impressed me the most. I liked it so much that I managed to get two interviews from people that worked on the film, the director and one of the actors. So far it is the only movie I can say that for.
• Even though I gave Spider Baby a three star review at the time, it has become a favorite all the same. It is another one of those weird movies that I can love so much. I often suggest it to people as well, which was the main reason I had to include it here.
• Rest Stop is a movie that still confuses me when I watch it. I have yet to work everything out in my mind, but that is why I like it so much as well. It isn't confusing to me in a bad way at all. I enjoy trying to work everything out about the plot, which is why I included it here.
• 2008 was a year that I watched a lot of good movies in. Teeth kicks things off. Like some of the other movies on this list, Teeth wasn't a movie I was scared by at all, but the subject matter along with a good mix of comedy makes this a must see.
• Dance Of The Dead is another movie that mixed comedy well. It was one of the first movies I got to see at a horror movie convention the first time I went to one, so it also stands out to me for that reason as well. Based on the title for this movie, I wasn't sure about it at all, but it won me over and then some.
• The Strangers was an odd movie for me. I was worried that the movie opens, in a way at least, with how it is going to end. Despite this, it made me give it my full attention. For that I thank it, and for that reason it was an easy choice as a new favorite.
• Inside gets on the list for a reason no other film on this list can take credit for. I admit I have not watched Inside very often, but it is because that the story gets to me in an emotional way. It is a hard movie for me to sit through not only because it hits me on an emotional level, but also because of the special effects that are shown as well. Love it or leave it as far as French horror goes, but this one is a must see.
• Reeker is yet another movie that mixes comedy in with the horror in a very good way. It also gets my low budget shout out for this batch of movies. It doesn't hurt that one of my favorite actresses in it as well.
• The Orphanage was a movie that I started to hear about from other bloggers. I decided to give it a try, and I am so glad that I did. Not a very gory film, but it has one of the best ghost stories around.
• I know a lot of people that passed on The Ruins because of the plot. Killer vines? Yes it is true. Once I got people to give this film a chance though, they had to admit it was a lot better than they thought it was going to be.
• 2009 marked the year that I started doing reviews over at Top Horror Movies Club. Some of the favorites from 2009 and 2010 were from the reviews I did there as well. I will start things off with my shout out to low budget movies. For this year I picked Pathogen. Even though I had some issues with it, I was very impressed with the movie as a whole. One that should be checked out.
• From Within was a movie I almost gave up on because of the heavy religious tones. I stuck with it though and the plot eventually won me over. I still really enjoy giving it a watch now and then.
• Martyrs was another movie that I had been hearing a lot about not only from other bloggers, but also from horror fans in general. I was excited when I got to go see it at a horror convention that I went to. It lived up to all the hype and then some. This is the last of the French horror movies to make my favorites list, but the last one that managed to get a four star out of me.
• Plague Town was another movie I watched at the same convention. I loved this movie so much that I gave away two copies of the DVD!
• Of course I can't leave out Let The Right One In. I have been reading the book lately, so I hope to have a review for it at some point. I may never have heard of the book if it wasn't for the movie though. One of the best vampire movies to come around in a good while.
• Shuttle was another movie that I caught while at the horror convention. It is also the only other three star review to show up here. Much like the other one, I picked this one because it is a film I often suggest to other people.
• Baby Blues is another low budget movie that made my list from my 2009 list. Not everyone likes this movie, as is to be expected, but I love it a lot. It helps that it falls into my self made sub genre, the killing of kids in a movie.
• Orphan was a bit of a surprise movie for me. I sort of had the twist figured out ahead of time, but it still surprised me a little bit. The story was also a big part of why it has become a favorite as well.
• This was the year that Paranormal Activity came out as well. Again, this was a movie that had a lot of hype going for it when I went to go see it. For me anyway, it lived up to it. The simple effects and plot worked very well for me.
• Last year was a good year for me on here. I managed to get the most posts in for a year, thanks in part to all the guest posts I managed to snag from all of you. I will start things off with The Children. What can I say about this film from the UK? Killer kids and kids being killed, why aren't all movies like this?!?
• The Appeared is a movie I have yet to see reviewed by any of the blogs that I read. I would love for that to change though. This was a movie that I picked up on DVD while at the horror convention. I had never heard of it before, but something about it had me wanting to take a chance on it. The ghost story, combined with discovery, sure made me glad that I did take a chance on it.
• I knew many people that wrote off Devil before it ever came out. I think it will surprise a lot of people once they do give it a chance.
• Hidden is a movie that kept me guessing through it. I'm still a bit undecided about the ending, but I still enjoy it a whole lot.
• Dead Snow was a lot of fun. I have been feeling a little burned out on zombie movies, but Dead Snow is just so fun that you forget about that for a little while at least.
• My shout out to low budget goes to Parasomnia. The story was a lot of fun but it was really the how well some of the scenes came together that sold me on this movie. I still sit in amazement of it.
• Everville is the only book review I picked for this list. I like Clive Barker's stories, but his story of Maeve was just so, so good that it made this book my favorite of his easily.
• I watch a few movie every year that has something to do with aliens, but Altered is the only to make this list. Even though the story starts off in a way that feels like you have just walked in on a movie that has been on for a while, it pulls it off wonderfully.
• To round off my list, I picked Fragile. I'm a sucker for ghost stories anyway, but this was another movie that managed to get to me on an emotional level. As I said in the review for it, it made me cry which is something that not too many horror movies can claim.

So there it is, my list of new favorites. I could have picked more, I wanted to pick more, but I didn't want the list to go on forever. This is already one of the longest posts I have done, so I don't want to make it all the longer because I can't make up my mind one what movies to include. I made some tough choices in leaving some out, but I like the list I came up with. If you want more information on any of the above favorites, you can find links to all the reviews in the "My Review List" over to the right. I hope I see some reviews pop up on other blogs because of this list. I would also love to see all of you come up with your own lists like my own, using the same rule as well. Give me some movies to review people! If you do take my idea here and run with it, all I ask is that you link back to me and let me know about your list. Simple as that! This is the first time I have presented an idea for other blogs to use, so I hope I see a lot of you using it. Please encourage your readers to do the same as well!

I'm looking forward to another year here at Mermaid Heather, and at Top Horror Movies Club. I will start watching some more movies so I can get reviews up soon now. I will see you all around!!

Guess Who

Can anyone name the above actress? I will give you all a hint. She has only been in one film, but it was a fan favorite. The film came out in 2008. No prizes for getting it right, just thought it would be fun to see if anyone knows who this is.