Don't Invite Zombies To Your Campout

The last movie I watched while traveling around was Zombie Campout (2002). This was another movie that was about to be taken out of instant watch, so I decided to get it watched. I have another one that is about to be taken out, so I will watch it either tonight or tomorrow. My time away from work is starting to draw to a close at last. While I didn't get any where near the posts I wanted to get done this month, I can't say I am disappointed by that. Swimming has been a big part of my life for a long time. While I would still go swimming nearly everyday, I am glad that I was able to reconnect with it and actually compete again. I didn't realize how much I missed that until it was time to do it again. So in a way, I'm glad I didn't just sit around all month watching movies and writing reviews. Not that I have a problem doing that, but it was nice doing something else as well.

Bunny (Misty Orman) and her boyfriend Steve (John M. Davis) are going camping. Bunny is taking her recently single friend Tammy (Tiffany Black), and Steve is taking is also single friend Trevor (Jeremy Schwab). Things start off a little awkward, but once everyone gets to know each other better, they loosen up and start joking around. Once at the camp grounds, which there is a cemetery next to it, the Park Ranger (Larry Putell) offers some suggestions on what to do while there. He also lets them know that there will be a meteor shower that night as well. When one of them asks if that could be dangerous, he jokingly tells them no it isn't unless one lands in the cemetery, as that will cause zombies to rise up. Of course that night, some do strike at the cemetery, and zombies really do rise up. Will the two couples and others at the camp grounds be able to escape?

Zombie Campout, by writer/director Joshua D. Smith, is a campy type of zombie movie. It tries to be more of a comedy, but fails at it. I found some of the stuff entertaining at times, but only one scene actually made me laugh. At the time I thought that the one scene, which had the two couples talking to each other, a movie mistake. After watching the whole movie though, I realized that was the point in the movie where it went from trying to be funny, to outright campy. This isn't my kind of movie. Sometimes a campy type of movie can be funny, but I don't find them to be as funny as a normal comedy film. Maybe the comedy would have worked better for Zombie Campout if the acting had been better. As it is, a lot of the jokes fall flat because of the bad acting. Another problem was that the zombies show up pretty late to the party. Even when we see them start to rise out of their graves, it still takes a good while before they start to have any impact on the story. Show the zombies stubble around, show our couples renting a boat. Show the zombies kill one person, spend a long time watching the couples out on the lake and so on.

Once the zombies do get the main camping area, it can be a gory movie at times. The effects aren't done the best always, but it was still gory, which is more than I can for last couple of movies I have watched. I think the biggest disappointment though has nothing to do with special effects. Joshua D. Smith seems to have gone out of his way to not show nudity. There were plenty of times that nudity could have been shown, like when Bunny and Tammy were flashing the guys. There is also a scene where some other female camper was changing behind a bush or tree. The branch that was blocking the view would actually move up or down following her movements. I don't need nudity in my movies, but if you are going to keep putting scenes where nudity could be there, why not show something?

I guess I don't like campy movies because they tend to try too hard to be funny. They go from being funny to silly or just down right stupid. Zombie Campout wasn't the best movie anyway, but once it turned that corner, it became even worse for me. Sure it managed to get a good laugh at me once, but I still thought the movie as a whole just didn't work. When you have lead actors that are slightly below average, and then throw in a bunch of people that are worse than that, it isn't a very fun time. Even though I didn't like this one at all, I at least don't feel like I wasted my time on it. I am glad that I was, in a way, forced to watch it instead of picking it to watch.
1 out of 5 I knew I was a city woman for a reason

A Forest Is A Good Place To Die

I just finished my last review as I write this. I don't expect to get this review done tonight, but to get myself back into a writing mood again, I thought I would at least get this review started. Another movie that I watched while resting up from a swim meet was Forest Of Death (2007). I watched this one on my lap top, which I don't really like to do because I haven't figured out how to change the settings to keep it from wanting to shut down when no mouse or keyboard activity. Truth is, I don't really use as much as I probably should. Anyway, I used a headset so I could get better sound from it as the speakers aren't very good at all on the laptop itself. Forest Of Dead was an instant watch movie that was about to be taken out, which will be the case for my next two reviews.

Detective C.C. Ha (Qi Shu) is investigating a death that happened in a mysterious forest. What makes it so mysterious is that it is a well known place where people go to kill themselves. According to news reporter May (Rain Li), there are a couple of other places around the world where this happens. May, and the people she works for, uses a supernatural angel in order to get big ratings on their clips about the forest. There is some truth to it though. Even rescue teams that go in have trouble finding their way out even while using a compass. Ha believes that in at least one case at least, the person didn't kill herself, but was murdered. Shum Shu-hoi (Ekin Cheng) is a botanist who has discovered a way for plants to be able to talk in a way. They don't actually talk, more like telepathy I guess you can say. As it turns out, May and Shum are a couple, and Ha gets Shum to use what he has learned in order to get the forest to tell her about what happened to woman she thinks was murdered. Will this work out? Will we find out why people go to this forest to commit suicide?

Forest Of Death is a movie out of Hong Kong and was based in Thailand. It was directed by Danny Pang, so I was expecting something good out of this movie. It starts off okay, but a little confusing as I was trying to figure out how the three story lines were going to work with each other. It was easy to see where Ha and Shum were going to converge their two stories, but I wasn't really sure where the supernatural part of it was going to fit in. Was May's story line a false one or would it play into the other two somehow? As the movie goes on, it does resolve some of its story lines, but then it keeps going and ends up in a way that I didn't care for. If it had ended with the resolve of it was a murder or not, I would have walked away happy. Still not a great film, but it was okay all the same. The whole plants can express feelings isn't new to horror, but has never come across as anything more than cheesy I think. It wasn't much different here. I guess that Pang and Cub Chin felt that since they included so much about the forest being a hot spot for suicide, that it was needed to show why. Some mysteries are more fun when we don't know the answer to them. That was how I felt about why this forest, and others apparently, were popular spots for suicides. It was hinted at more than once that it was something paranormal going on. I was happy just leaving it there and was very disappointed with how it was wrapped up.

Forest Of Death isn't a gory film at all. Thinking back on it, I don't recall there being any gore effects to be found. The acting wasn't too bad. This was a sub titled movie in instant watch, which was fine with me. I didn't have much of a problem keeping up with the reading this time around. I thought the acting was fine, and enjoyed Qi Shu in the lead role. I did feel a little sorry for Ekin Cheng some. I know any role means money, but I would find it hard to place his role seriously I think.

I never thought too much about Forest Of Death. It was an average movie at best and went below that by the end of the movie. While I found some of the story lines to be silly, I was willing to let that go so I could try and enjoy the plot. In the end what kills Forest Of Death is Pang trying to mix in too many story elements. I understood the twist at the end of the movie, or more the reason for it. We keep getting pushed in one direction, and then there is the twist that takes it in a completely different direction. It just wasn't one that I liked though. Hopefully Pang can find his voice in horror movies again. Many are starting to feel that The Eye might have been a fluke. I don't want to discourage anyone from Forest Of Death, but I felt it could have been so much better than it was.
2 out of 5 No forest of death around me that I am aware of thankfully

Never Pick Up David Hess

Sorry I have been so silent of late. I haven't been home much it all lately. Instead, I have been out doing a lot of swimming, and even been in a couple of swim meets. I didn't do great in them, but didn't do all that bad either. The highest I placed was 4th, which I didn't feel too bad about considering I haven't competed in a long time before now. I did manage to get a review in for Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. Check it out when you give it a chance! That was my last review which I did...two weeks ago I think? Almost three now actually. I have watched a few movies though, so hopefully I will get caught up with writing about them now. Not sure if I will review Super 8, but will say that I did enjoy it. The first movie that I watched in my travels was The Naked Prey (1977), or Hitch-Hike as it is known on the DVD release.
Walter (Franco Nero) and his wife Eve (Corinne Cléry) are on vacation in California. They are trying to save their marriage, but in truth, they aren't doing a very good job of it. They fight all the time, most because Walter tends to drink a lot, which gets him in a bit of a rough mood. Walter is also a reporter, but hasn't been doing much writing it seems. Instead, he gets accused of living off of Eve's money. As they leave a camp ground, they find Adam (David Hess) near his car that has broke down. Eve offers Adam a ride, despite that Walter doesn't want her to do so. What they don't know about Adam right away is that he helped rob a bank, and that there is a dead body in his broken down car. As they travel along with him, they soon discover his secret and have to deal with his attraction to Eve, and some of his partners in crime as they make their way to Mexico.

If you have been reading my reviews long enough, you will know that I have a high tolerance for a slow moving plot. The fact that The Naked Prey started that way didn't bother me. The fact that it was still that way well into the movie still didn't bother me much, but I admit I was starting to get bored with it. It did get a little more interesting when a couple of the guys that Adam robbed the bank with showed up, but even that fell flat eventually. After watching The Naked Prey, I went to IMDb and was rather shocked at the high average rating it has. With a 7 star average, I feel a little embarrassed going the opposite way on it. With a few exceptions, the pacing never really picked up much. Even when it did, it didn't take long before it was back to a slow pace again. By the end of the movie, I was glad that it was over as I was feeling bored with it. I stuck with it mainly because I rarely don't make it through a movie. I take pride in that there aren't even a handful of movies that I have given up on. Anyway, the fact that Corinne Cléry didn't mind showing off her body now and then didn't hurt in keeping me watching. I guess the reason I didn't get into this one much was because of the characters. I got so tired of hearing Walter and Eve fighting all the time. It got very old after a while and I just no longer cared what happened to them.

There wasn't much for special effects in this one. People got shot, and of course there was blood when this happened, but that was the extent of it. At least it wasn't the real bright red that I have seen other films use out of the '70s. The acting was something I did enjoy at least. I don't call myself a fan of David Hess, but I have always enjoyed his acting. He can play a very good bad guy in a movie, but there in was the problem for me. This makes the third of fourth time that I have watched him in a movie with basically the same character. His acting was his usual good bad guy self, but I'm rather tired of this character. Corinne Cléry and Fanco Nero were also good, even if I didn't care for their characters either.

While I didn't hate The Naked Prey, I can say that it just wasn't for me. I haven't been a big fan for this type of movie either, which I am sure played into it some. There were some scenes that went on a bit too long. The one that comes to mind was when a truck seemingly wanted to pass. That went on for a long time and I just didn't get why they didn't pull to the side long enough to let the truck pass. No one accused any of the people in this one being real smart though. Obviously I am in the minority with this movie. People seem to like it since it is above what I see an average movie on a ten star scale. Please do give it a chance if you do decide to watch it, if you haven't already that is. I wanted more though and didn't get it this time around.
2 out of 5 I would never cook for my kidnapper but that is just me

Trapped In With Zombies

I didn't think I was going to get my review in for the day yesterday. I had been working on it on and off, but mostly was just messing around doing whatever. Not only did I watch Stag Night, but I also decided to watch G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra for whatever reason other than it was there. After that I started to watch the first season of Dexter. I have never watched the show but have always heard good things about it. I got through the first four episodes before I realized I had yet to finish up my review. For today I decided to watch Dead Summer (2005). This is a movie that will be taken out of Netflix's Instant Watch in a few days. I decided to go ahead and watch it in order to get it out of the way.

Apparently a zombie outbreak has happened in the state of Pennsylvania and a couple of other states, or so rumor has it. Pennsylvania has been blocked off until the zombies can be taken care of. This must take forever since the people that we meet in this movie talk about it being eight years since the first zombies. The zombies are mostly taken care of by "sweepers" but the town folks also carry weapons. We meet a small group of twenty somethings as they sit around in a bar talking about who the toughest cereal box character. One of them eventually talks to some other guy who has discovered a mix of chemicals that make zombies act more aggressive. I guess this is a good thing since you can use it on a tree and the zombies will attack it, and then you can attack from a distance.

I knew I might be in trouble with Dead Summer from the opening scene. All it shows is some zombies running around, but when you notice that they only have makeup on their faces, you know you might not be sitting through a good movie. Dead Summer is a short movie, clocking in at only 71 minutes. I like these something though, as I can get a movie in a little quicker if I am busy. The main problem that I had with Dead Summer was that there was no real plot going on. It was more or less a peak into these peoples lives. I don't know if writer Robert Brewer wrote everything that the characters would say, but I was getting annoyed by them repeating things all the time. Something that a lot of low budget films suffer from is bad sound. This one is no different, but it isn't really because voices are too low to hear. Voices, more so when the scene is outside, can become very muffled sounding. I could still hear them fine, but it could be hard to pick up everything that was said at times, or it would all sound the same if more than one person was talking at the same time.

As I mentioned before, the makeup isn't all that great. There are times when only a persons face would have makeup on it, but most of the time their arms would as well. It wasn't so much that not all skin was covered in makeup, a problem that even some large budget films can have, but that it just didn't look good. Their idea of showing someone being ripped up after a zombie attack is to throw some blood on them. Even the acting wasn't all that great. The only people listed on IMDb in the cast is Amy Liszka and Peter Blessel. I don't know why more isn't listed, unless they just didn't want to make a page for themselves. The acting felt awkward at times with some untimely pauses between lines.

I guess by showing their lives without much of a direction for the plot was supposed to show us the tragedy that befalls them. This was used at least three times as someone is killed. For some reason it was always the women, with the guys crying over them. The ending felt very sudden with one of the normal guys showing up and the zombies listening to him for some reason. They all walk off and then we get a screen saying something about this is the beginning of the zombies evolving. Sure, if you all say so. Anyway, I'm all for low budget zombie movies, but this one just didn't work at all. Hopefully Netflix replaces it with something much better.
1 out of 5 Nice to know the military will shoot you even after you decide to leave

Stupid Male Rituals

I am officially on layoff! It actually started two days early for me, so what have I done so far? Nothing! I have some things I want to get done though. I need to clean my computer room and bedroom something bad. I have magazines and clothes laying around everywhere. I have a clothes basket, but since it is shoved in a corner and hard to get to because of the mess around it, my dirty clothes are currently on top of the mess in front of the basket. Makes sense right? I thought so. I also have a side project of swimming even more than I already do and will be in at least one swim meet, on the state level, maybe two. I'm really looking forward to them and I'm even throwing the idea around of being in a national meet in two months. Anyway, I took the time to get a review done over at Top Horror Movies Club, Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre, which you all really need to check out. As I promised, my next review for here is Stag Night (2008).

Mike (Kip Pardue) is out on the town for one of the last times as a single guy. Along with his brother Tony (Breckin Meyer), who can be a bit of a trouble maker, and friends Carl (Scott Adkins) and Joe (Karl Geary), they are out hitting the bars in New York City. When Tony manages to get thrown out of their current bar, the group argues with Mike (who wants to go home) and eventually gets him to agree to hit another bar. They have to take the subway to get to it, which by then is very late in the night, or very early in the morning, depending on how you look at it. On the subway train with them is Michele (Sarah Barrand) and her friend Brita (Vinessa Shaw). Carl starts to hit on Michele, which goes pretty well for him. When Tony tries the same with Brita though, he ends up getting maced. Getting maced in a small space isn't good for everyone, which causes them to force the doors open while the train is stopped while waiting for another train to pass by. The place where they get out is an old platform that has been locked up for a very long time. Most of the group decide to start walking to see if they can find a platform that will let them out. While walking, they see a few guys that look homeless attacking and killing a police officer. When they are discovered, these people turn their attention to our group who goes on the run.

I usually read some of what people have to say about a movie on Netflix after I watch a movie. I also do the same on IMDb. I do this mostly to see if I had the same feel for the movie as the majority did. Most of the time I am right with them, but sometimes I find one that I really liked that gets bad reviews or vice versa. After watching Stag Night, I was surprised by the number of bad reviews that I was finding. A big complaint was that it just wasn't anything special and took from other slashers. True, Stag Night will mostly likely remind you of The Hills Have Eyes or Wrong Turn, but I still found this one to be a well made movie. The tension was very high at times and I really liked the lead guy Mike. Not a lot of background was given for each character, but enough was there to help make you care about them. Something that was got a lot of complaints, and something that I even found very annoying, was that the camera has a way of moving around a lot during action scenes. I didn't find it as bad as some other movies I have had to watch this in, but I do get very tired of it. This seems to be the style though right now. Maybe one day film makers will realize we don't care for it.

I was pleasantly surprised by the effects in Stag Night. It can get pretty bloody at times and they look real good on top of that. Lots of slashing with some dog attacks and heads getting cut off and smashed at times as well. Some good stuff there when you can see it without the camera going all over the place. The acting was also fine. I liked the guys in this movie. Some are pretty good looking. I didn't have a problem with any ones acting in this movie at all.

Some say that what happens in Stag Night could never happen in real life. Since I have never been on a subway before, I don't know how easy or hard it would be to force the doors open while at a stop. I don't know how confusing the tunnels would be while walking or running around down there. I can understand where those people are coming from. I complain about how movies screw things up when I do know about it. That can take me completely out of a movie at times, but this time I was willing to over look the fact that this most likely couldn't happen. The tension that writer/director Peter A. Dowling manages to create was enough for me to over look things. When I had watched the trailer for Stag Night, I wasn't all that impressed by it at all. The movie really surprised me though. I liked this one a lot. One of the best movies to come out of the Ghost House Underground titles. Give it a shot for sure.
4 out of 5 Personally I think the ending is a false ending

I'm Crazy And I Love It

After I got done with my review from yesterday, I would have normally watched my next movie. Since I have the day off though, I knew I could get the last review done a little late, but have plenty of time today to get a movie watched for today. Things have been slow all week at work, so I was asked if I would like a day off, which I didn't have a problem saying sure to. In a way I hope they don't suddenly get busy and then need me, but they will be calling if that does become the case. Anyway, I was excited about today's movie, Psych:9 (2010). Ghost House Underground didn't release any new movies last year, and this year they only released two new movies, this was one of them. I will be watching and reviewing the other one next.

Roslyn (Sara Foster) is getting a new job at Saint Johns hospital, She will be working the night shift in order to be able to spend more time with her husband (Gabriel Mann), who also works nights as a taxi driver. The hospital has been closed down for a while now, and Roslyn will be sorting files all night. She will be working alone, but is told that there will be a guard out front, and a doctor sorting files on the 5th floor as well. To make things worse, a serial killer is working the area around the hospital it seems. The killer likes blond haired women. Lucky for Roslyn, she has dark hair. Things aren't the best between Roslyn and her husband. Roslyn has some past issues that she has yet to get over and it is causing a rift between the two. Roslyn eventually seeks out Dr. Clement (Cary Elwes) and they start to talk. Will he be able to help Roslyn and how does this killer fit into things?

Psych:9 likes to mess with your mind, but not always in a good way. Many, including myself, found Psych:9 to rather confusing. By the end of the movie, I still wasn't sure what had happened. All I knew was that the movie didn't end in a way I had thought it would. The first couple of nights that we watch Roslyn doing her job, the hospital gives off a haunted feel. She hears strange sounds, sees strange things on the video monitor and so on. Then a detective shows up asking about a recent murder that happened in the neighborhood of the hospital. The plot seems to change direction a little bit at this point. Doctor Clement starts to get more involved with the plot, and things about Roslyn's past come to light. It wasn't until after the movie when I was watching the deleted/extended scenes that things clicked for me. It wasn't the deleted and extended scenes explained anything that helped me understand. While watching an extended scene, I noticed something that I didn't pick up on before: a shirt that I thought showed up at the end of the movie. I went back and double checked and sure enough there it was. Once I confirmed the shirt, everything else fell into place. I know it seems silly that a shirt would help me figure everything out, but it is true.

If you are looking for a gory movie, you will have to look elsewhere. There is nothing as far as gore expect a bloody hammer. The acting was pretty good at least. Sara Foster grew on me the longer I watched her. I wasn't sure how well I would like her in this role, but she pulled it out I thought. It was cool to see Cary Elwes here. If you like his style of acting, you should like him in this movie as well. A nice surprise was seeing Colleen Camp. I haven't watched her in a movie in a while. She just has a small role, but it was still good to see her again.

I'm not sure how many people will end up liking Psych:9 even if they do give it a chance. The pacing can be rather slow at times, even after the one hour mark, which is usually when most movies really start to pick up. Director Andrew Shortell and writer Lawrence Robinson do manage to weave together an interesting tell. I'm not sure if the story, or maybe just the way it ended up being edited, that ends up making it rather confusing. If you do decide to give this one a chance, then good luck with it. Even though I managed to figure it out, it took a lot of thinking. It could have been explained just a little better I thought. I don't want everything explained, but don't make it confusing either. I do like this one but because of the problems I feel I have to give it a slightly lower rating than I wish I had to.
3 out of 5 I don't think I would enjoy working all night

Forgetting About The Past

Even though my plans for the weekend didn't go as planed at all, I was still able to at least get all the movies watched I needed to from my Instant Watch queue. As hot as it was yesterday, I just stayed in and got the review finished and watched The Darkroom (2006). As much as I was looking forward to winter ending, I'm already getting tired of it being so hot. I would rather be cold than hot in truth. Once you are hot, there isn't a whole lot to do about it. Being cold though, you can move around more, put more clothes on or whatever. Anyway, now that I got my Instant Watch stuff out of the way, I can move on to other movies. I'm looking forward to the next couple of movies.

A man (Reed Diamond) has been in a mental hospital for the last fifteen years. He was found wandering a road with a bad cut and blood all over his hands. He doesn't remember anything before the moment that he was found, not even his name. The doctors have no idea who he is either. Doctor Allen (Ellie Cornell) shows up with an offer. She has a new drug that is supposed to help unlock memories. The drug has not been approved yet so the doctor is looking for someone that it could possibly help in order to show that it does in fact work. Our lead character decides to let her use the drug on him because he wants to know who he is, and what happened to him. He does get some flashes once the drug kicks in. Some kind of creature coming out of mud. A woman chained up and bloody with a cross tied to her leg. The creature cutting the woman's throat. When he wakes up he tells Dr. Allen of the visions. Thinking that the drug has failed, she leaves. On his return to his room, a fight breaks out which allows our man to escape out of the hospital. Eventually he meets a young man, Stanley (Shawn Pyfrom), who he helps out. Stanley has his own problems with kids picking on him. Having no friends. A step dad (Greg Grunberg) who disrespects his mom (Lucy Lawless) and spends a hell of a lot of time in his darkroom after being out all night with his camera. Together they try to help each other.

The Darkroom was co-written/directed by Michael Hurst. It offers a twist that I often don't guess until the last second. The twist was a little different this time, so it threw me off some. I feel I should have guessed it sooner though because they were throwing hints around like crazy just before the hour mark. I caught on shortly after the hour mark. Once the twist is revealed for sure, it does open up some plot holes. I was willing to overlook that though mostly because the story kept me interested. The story moves along a little slow at times, but not bad enough for me to feel bored by it. Eventually it had me asking a certain question, and that is when I started to figure out the twist. I don't want to repeat the question here since I don't want to spoil anything. Even though The Darkroom is often listed as a horror movie, it isn't one really. Outside of a few scenes that make it boarder the horror genre, it is much easier to call it a thriller. Don't let this scare you away from it though. Even though I didn't think it has a lot of thrills to it, I still liked this one well enough.

The acting is what sold The Darkroom. Reed Diamond does a nice job with his co-lead role. He uses his face a lot to express things which was pretty cool. Shawn Pyfrom managed not to annoy me as a child actor. Actually he would have been 20 years old when this was released, but I don't know what year it was filmed in. His character could be a little too wimpy at times, but then not every guy knows how to stand up for himself. Greg Grunberg was just the right amount of creepy but could also come across as a really nice guy. I think the biggest surprise though was Lucy Lawless. I had no idea it was her as I was watching the movie. I know who she is of course, but she sports blond hair, which gives her a different look. She doesn't have a big role but she does show up a lot and plays it off very well.

The effects are also good, but there just isn't a whole lot of them. After our guy is given the drug that is supposed to help him remember things, he starts to have visions once in a while. Most of the effects happen while we see these visions. The creature that he sees is pretty cool looking. It seems to change sometimes, or maybe that was just me, but it looked like it did. The other effect was a slashed throat that appeared often in the visions. Only once did this happen outside of the visions. There is some blood when this happens, but not a whole lot.

The Darkroom gives an interesting twist that seasoned movie goers shouldn't have too much trouble figuring out before the reveal. Of course they give flashbacks to make sure one gets what the twist is. What I found interesting was that the movie doesn't end with the twist like some movies do. Instead it goes on and wraps up some of its loose ends before ending. While I didn't find The Darkroom to be one of the greats out there, it was a pleasant surprise. I'm glad that I watched it, and would watch it again without any problem. Maybe it will come back to Instant Watch sometime, but you can always get the DVD until then. Check it out sometime if it sounds interesting to you.
3 out of 5 There needs to be more mud creaturs in horror