31 days of Horror 2012 day 30

Leatherface The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
1990
New Line DVD

I can remember seeing the trailers for this film and being very excited for a new TCM film hitting theaters.I went opening night and was slightly disappointed by the film. It felt like it was very edited down for an R rating. Well quickly thanks to various horror fanzines I learned the film had been massively edited. So I was hoping the VHS release would be the uncut version. But it was just the R rated cut. So I hold on to the hope that the Laserdisc release would be uncut. Well the Laserdisc was also R rated. I did see at a few cons people selling a supposedly uncut work print of the film. But they were always wanting $30 or more. And I had read in various fanzines that it looked really bad. So I just skipped getting the work print. Then around 2003 New Line released it to DVD and it has the R rated cut and an unrated version. Now the unrated version is still missing some footage. But some of that is included in the extras.

A brother and sister are driving cross country and run into some car trouble on the back roads of Texas. Where they end up running into Leatherface and the rest of his "family". None of the family members from the first two films come back,which is kind of confusing. One new addition is a young girl who IIRC is referred to as Leatherfaces's daughter. In the extra features we get to see that she is just as sick and twisted as the rest of the family. We get a nice part for genre legend Ken Foree as a gun toting survivalist and Viggo Mortensen makes a very early appearance as one of Leatherface's family. In the uncut version the gore flows and the film actually makes sense. The R rated cut is goreless almost and makes very little sense. The only real shitty part is the ending. Ken Foree obviously dies before the end. But he shows up in the last 5 minutes to save the final girl. I wish they had stuck to the original ending. Which is included on the DVD.

Now there is also a fun adaptation of this film in comic book form. I want to say it is 3 issues long. Northstar comics put it out. It seems to follow an early version of the script and has lots of stuff that didn't make it into the film. The script was written by well known horror author David J Schrow. And it is him and the director Jeff Burr that are on the well done commentary. If you have only seen the R rated version of this film give the DVD's unrated cut a try and see if you enjoy it more. Now as most people reading this know the original TCM is not only my favorite horror film,but in my top 5 best films,so naturally I am biased towards any TCM film.Leatherface the Texas Chainsaw Massacre III gets a B.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 29

Evil Bong
2006
Echo Bridge The Midnight Horror Collection volume 1 DVD

Got this in a 8 pack of films for $5. Knew it was from Full Moon and really didn't go in expecting much from it.

New guy moves into what seems to be a decent sided studio apartment. He shares it with 3 other guys who are all big time stoners. They see an ad in High Times magazine for a supposedly possessed bong and order it. Whoever smokes too much out of the Evil Bong is the transported to this strip club,that seems to be inside the bong. Where they end up being killed by the strippers. Lots of cameos of characters from other Full Moon films. Then close to the end we get the top billed Tommy Chong. It seems Chong is the former owner of the bong and tells the new guy,who doesn't smoke,that the bong has a voodoo curse on it. Lots of shit that makes almost no sense happens. And the film ends with everyone but Chong out of the strip club inside the bong. The bong is broken and we see that Chong now lives in the strip club and is playing with his hot wheels.

Wow now I knew going in that most modern Full Moon films aren't that great. But this one seems like they weren't really trying at all. It might work better if you watch it while fucked up on your substance of choice. But watching it while sober is a long experience. Which is strange cause it is barely over an hour long. Evil Bong gets a D+.

32 days of Horror 2012 day 28

Frontier(S)
2007
Lionsgate DVD

Got this one at the annual Wesson trade days. There usually is a dealer that has brand new DVDs cheap. I usually drop a decent amount of cash at his table so he cuts me a deal. Few years back he threw in this DVD for free. "Well it is subtitled so no one wants it." is his reasoning. Well I have no problems with subtitles and had heard this was like a French version of the classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So I was happy to get it for free. Well it sat on the shelf unopened and unwatched for years.

Yasmine and 3 shady guys escape Paris during some riots. They take shelter at a back roads inn. But the family that runs it is a weird Neo Nazi inbred family. So we get lots of bloody deaths and lots of torture. Overall this film is a fun watch and I can see why people compared it to TCM.

The DVD has basically no extras. There is no English audio options but the subtitles are great. Frontier(S) gets a B+.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 27

Stephen King's The Shining
1997
 Warner Brothers DVD

In 1997 Stephen King had a remake of his novel The Shining. This aired on TV. So figuring it would be badly edited for TV I didn't bother seeing it. Then after a few friends told me it was good I figured I would rent it one day. Found the DVD this year for $5. So grabbed it.

This adaptation follows the novel closely. What surprised me is how much of the novel was still in this made for TV film. Steven Webber and Rebecca Demorney are great in the parts of Jack and Wendy. Sadly Courtland Mead isn't that good as Danny. But the rest of the cast is spot on. There is some good FX work. Now the CGI hedge animals kind of suck but I am sure the budget on this was pretty low.

The DVD release is 2 DVDs. And has a great commentary with Stephen King,Steven Webber,Cythia Garris and Mick Garris. Loved this commentary and have listened to it 2 times now. There is also some deleted scenes. But really they add nothing to the film. Stephen King's The Shining gets a B-.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 26

Bloody Murder 2 Closing Camp
2003
Artisan DVD

Grabbed this one when Movie Gallery was closing a few years back. Had seen it once years ago and enjoyed it. Where as the first part was horrible attempt at a modern slasher this one is much better. Part of that is cause there is a much better cast in this one.

We get 7 counselors and the owner shutting down the camp for the year. With Tiffany Shepis playing one of the counselors. Lots of bloody kills and some nice nudity this time. With Ms Shepis providing most of the nudity. I have been a huge fan of Ms Shepis for years. The plot is your basic slasher plot. But with a modern spin.

Sadly the DVD has no extras. No commentary,nothing. Which sucks. I would have loved a commentary with the director and Tiffany Shepis. I hear there is a part 3 but I have never found a copy. Bloody Murder 2 Closing Camp gets a C.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 25

Bloody Murder
2000
Artisan DVD

Heard about this modern slasher for years. So when I found the DVD for $3 I grabbed it. Sure all the reviews of it were horrible. But I have learned that my taste in horror cinema and most online horror fans taste are very different.

The plot is a mishmash of various slasher tropes. Teens at a summer camp. Getting killed for having sex and doing drugs. Killer is named Trevor Moorehouse but is a obvious rip-off off Jason and Michael Myers. The kills are all bloodless and there is next to no nudity. Which is strange for a slasher.

Thankfully the dvd has a fun commentary with the director which goes into great detail about the production of the film. This commentary is worth the $3. So unless you find it cheap skip this. But rent it for the commentary. Bloody Murder gets a D-.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 24

The Cabin in the Woods
2012
Lionsgate DVD

This movie was filmed back in 2009 but held up from being released for a few years.Part of this had to do with MGM filing for bankruptcy. I heard about it in 2009 and all I knew was Joss "Buffy the Vampire slayer" Weldon was one of the writers. Now I enjoyed most of the seasons of the Buffy TV show. So I was wanting to see what he could do with a more serious version of horror. Well in early April 2012 it got a wide release. But the theater in town didn't get it and I didn't get a chance to see it. Thankfully I did real good about avoiding spoilers about the films plot. All I knew before I watched it today was what I had seen in the trailer.

WARNING SPOILERS BELOW SKIP IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM YET!

A group of 5 college students head up to a cabin in the woods. At first I was like "Great we got the normal horror stereotypes." There is the jock,the slut,the stoner,the smart guy and the virginal young lady. But quickly we find out that there is something up and this film isn't gonna be your normal teens/young adults get stalked and killed way out in the woods. It seems there is some kind of underground scientific lab below the cabin. And two guys in it are in charge of making sure that at the very least the four of the group,minus the virgin,die. And it looks like that is what happened. A group of inbred zombie hillbillies attack and the only one left alive is the virginal girl. She is out on the pier and is about to die when we find out the stoner isn't dead. He saved her and leads her to a underground room he has found. And this is where the film takes a major turn. The people in the lab keep talking about how these young adults must die to appease the "Ancient Ones". Which I must assume are the elder Gods from HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. We find out there are more than one lab like this. There seems to be many around the world. Once a year at least 4 people must die to keep the "Ancient Ones" from rising and destroying the world. Well it seems all the other labs have failed this year so it is up to the on in the USA. But the stoner and the virgin find an elevator and go down into the lab. Where they learn all kinds of monsters are kept in cages and depending on what item is messed with in the cabin's basement that determines what creature/creatures come to kill the people. There is a werewolf,zombies,vampires and my favorite a being clearly based on Pinhead from Hellraiser. Well the stoner and virgin manage to find the sacrifice room and then meet up with the director of this operation. Who is  a person I had no idea was in this film. Now I don't want to spoil the ending so that is all I can say.

SPOILERS OVER!

The DVD looks great and has nice strong sound design. The acting is all well done. With all five of the college students doing a great job. Chris Hemsworth plays the jock and this is the best acting I have seen from him so far. But outta the 5 the real stand out is Francis Elliott "Fran" Kranz as Marty the stoner. Most films with stoners overplay it.. But Fran does a great job of not going over the top with his performance. All the FX work is really well done and it was hard to tell what was practical FX and what was CGI. It seems outside of a few people this film is really well liked and considered one of the best horror films of the past few years. Cabin in the Woods gets an almost perfect A.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 23

Tourist Trap
1979
Koch Vision DVD

Saw the first half of this years ago when I was a kid on late night UHF.Really enjoyed what I liked but forgot the name of the film. So a few years ago I tracked down the DVD. Which sat unwatched for years on my shelf. Not sure why I didn't watch it for so long. But I have a bad habit of buying DVDs and leaving them unwatched on my shelves for years at a time.

We get a weird thriller with Chuck Conners and a young Tanya Roberts as the only real well known stars. Full of unset-telling moments and lots of creepy stuff. The film is full of creep manikins and all kinds of weird camera angles. Actually a few moments remind me of scenes from "Twin Peaks Fire Walk with me". The plot is your basic people trapped out in the boonies and having to take shelter.

The DVD looks decent. But I would love to see a totally remastered version of this film one day on Blu Ray.  The commentary is great and is loaded with info about the film. Lots of behind the scenes stories. Tourist Trap gets a C+.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 22

Three on the Meathook
1972
Substance DVD

Now this is a film I have heard about for years. Remember seeing the above video cover on the shelves of my local video store. But never rented it.

Supposedly based on Ed Gein,this film is a story about 4 women that go on a trip to a lake. On their way back they have car troubles and a nice young man takes them back to his farm. 3 of the girls die.

Wow what a boring badly paced film. I went in expecting a wall to wall bloodbath. And got a slow boring film. Directed by William Girdler, this was his second film. He ended up doing 3 blaxploitation films and then had his biggest hit. Which was Grizzly.

Now the DVD looks like a VHS rip. And the only extras are trailers for a bunch of low budget crappy looking films. Thankfully I just rented this instead of buying it. Three on a Meathook gets a F+.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 21

Lovecraft fear of the unknown
2008
Documentary Channel airing

I first heard of H.P. Lovecraft after seeing Reanimator with my Uncle. He told me it was based on a Lovecraft story. So next time I was at the library I found a collection of Lovecraft's stories. Read them and at that young age most of them didn't appeal to me much. Years later after hearing so many authors I love talk about how much they liked Lovecraft,I read some more of his work. And loved it.

This documentary,while it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know,is a fun watch. Some well known people like Neil Gaiman,Ramsey Campbell and Guillermo del Toro. The documentary is a nice walk through Lovecraft's life and all his influences. Plus loaded with info about his unusual views on society.My favorite part has to be when various people try to pronounce Cthulhu. Now since this was airing on the Documentary Channel it might have had some slight edits. But it didn't seem to be missing anything.

If you are a fan of Lovecraft's works. Or someone that knows the name and doesn't know much about him this is worth tracking down. Lovecraft fear of the unknown gets a B-.