Friday, September 30, 2016

Fatal Games Movie Review 414






Fatal Games is a 1984 horror movie directed by Michael Elliot and starring Sally Kirkland and Lynn Banashek.


This film begins in the Falcon Academy of Athletics. The athletes are working out and trying to get into the nationals. There are a close group of pals there and they are all young and talented. Sounds great? Well, hang on. Somebody is going around the academy killing students with a javelin(yes a javelin). People start to disappear around the place nobody seems that worried about them at first.
There are some shots of bare chested women of course as the killer prowls the halls waiting for the next victim.


If you are wondering why my review of this movie is a little short I will tell you why. There is not much to this film. There is some horrendous music during the killing scenes and not much happens during the movie. The person with the javelin is wearing a tracksuit and doesn't scare you one bit.
I did like the javelin deaths as it made me laugh but other than that, this movie is dull, dull, dull.
The 'twist' turns out to be that the nurse at the academy is the killer and she was killing them because 
she failed at her own sporting career. Groan.


I found that I really didn't care if these people got killed. I didn't really have any sympathy for them and it was tedious after a while. It is a by-the-numbers slasher and I do love slasher movies, but this is below par. I love 80's horror movies and that is why I gave this a chance. A mediocre movie with a silly ending. Only watch if you like bad horror movies. I will give it a 3/10.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

I Saw What You Did Movie Review 413



I Saw What You Did is a 1988 TV thriller movie directed by Fred Walton and starring Shawnee Smith, Tammy Lauren, Candace Cameron, Robert Carradine and David Carradine.

Lisa(Lauren) is asked to dinner at Kim(Smith)'s house for the evening. She accepts because she wants to meet her boyfriend in a parent free house. Kim's dad has gone away for the night and she is taking care of her sister Julia(Cameron). Cut to Adrian(Robert Carradine) who is with his girlfriend at his house. He is going to ask her to marry him. He has just lost his job and his girlfriend tells him that she wants to break up with him. Meanwhile, the girls decide to play a game. They decide to call people and tell them that 'I saw what you did and I know who you are'. They happen to choose Adrian's phone number. They call him and his girlfriend answers as Adrian is very upset. They tell her that they need to speak to Adrian so she goes to get him. He decides to murder her and the girls hear something on the line then hang up.


The girls get a fright when they see a local guy called Randy who is selling mangoes. Adrian buries his girlfriend. When he gets back, his brother Steve(David Carradine) is there. He  and Kim going to stay for a while. Adrian does not want him there. The girls ring Adrian again. They tell him that they saw what he did. He is worried that they know about what he did. He tells Kim that he wants to meet her when she talks to him on the phone. Lisa and Kim decide to go and drive by his house. Kim ends up going up to his door and he opens it. She tells him that her car has broken down and he invites her in to use the phone. He starts acting a little strangely and Kim runs out when Steve comes in. She forgets her purse. Steve is suspicious of what happened to Adrian's girlfriend. He thinks that there is something weird going on. He tells Adrian that she had called him telling him that she was worried about him. Adrian has a history of mental problems.


Kim realises that she has lost her purse. Steve wants to help Adrian with his problems but he gets hit on the head by Adrian who heads off to Kim's to get rid of her. He realises that she was the girl on the phone who said that she knew about his crime. A cop stops Adrian and he manages to escape by crashing his car. The cops think that he died in the crash. He gets a lift to Kim's house and she finds him in her kitchen. She tells him that it was all a game and that she just picked his name out of the phone book. He realises that she knows nothing. She tries to call the cops but he cuts the phone line and then comes back for her. He sets a fire and Kim and Julia escape through a window. The cops come and Adrian comes out of the house on fire and dies. The movie ends with Steve calling Kim and telling her that she killed his brother and he will get her.

I liked this TV movie. It is a good thriller. It is very well made and I realised that it was directed by Fred Ward who also did When A Stranger Calls and April Fools Day , both of which I enjoyed. I liked the main characters in it. Robert Carradine was good as the unhinged Adrian and his real life brother David had a smaller part, but he was good too. The two lead girls played their parts well and the whole movie was entertaining and fun. Not much gore here, but that isn't a problem as there is enough here to keep you watching. Enjoyable. I will give it a 7/10.

 


Saturday, September 24, 2016

Ginger Snaps Movie Review 412






Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian horror movie directed by John Fawcett and starring Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle.


In a place called Bailey Downs, two sisters, Brigitte(Perkins) and Ginger(Isabelle) have a strange bond. They are both fascinated with death and dying and they have made a suicide pact between them. They are out one night when Ginger is attacked by some sort of creature, namely a werewolf. The funny thing is that she has just began her period and this has led to her being chosen. A local guy called Sam(Kris Lemche) runs the creature over. Ginger is okay but she has been bitten by it. She decides to leave it and go home. Unfortunately, she begins to change from that night on. She is not the same person any longer. She is dangerous and she is changing and even growing a tail. Brigitte surmises that she is turning into a werewolf!


Sam and Brigitte try to come up with some solution to the problem, but nothing works.The local bully is at their house complaining because she thinks that Ginger did something to her dog when she has an accident and dies after a fight between the two girls. They don't know what to do now, so they hide her body in a freezer to keep their parents from finding out. The girls are in a bad position now. Ginger has to be stopped in case she kills someone, but she won't listen to reason and wants to go out and about. They bury the dead girl. Sam and Brigitte find a cure from monkshood, some kind of flower which is supposed to cure people who have been bitten. They are going to give it to Ginger,  but they don't get a chance because she is on the loose and she has transformed fully into a werewolf.


Brigitte and Sam chase her to try and stop her, but it is no use. She kills Sam in front of Brigitte and Brigitte has no choice but to kill Ginger when she attacks her. The movie ends with the two sisters together, one dead and the other one crying. This was a weird film in some ways. It is kind of a teen movie, but then there are some gory scenes, so it is more than just another horror movie geared at kids. It was made on a modest budget and the movie reflects this. There are some good scenes in it and I like the premise. It was entertaining and worth seeing. I haven't watched the sequels yet, but I will get around to them some time. I will give this a 6/10.

Friday, September 23, 2016

American Horror Story Season 5 , Episodes 6-12 Recap




So, this is not what I would normally do but I will make an exception with this TV show.  I liked all of the first four seasons of American Horror Story, but this season was dire. I don't know if it was because the season was a love song to Gaga or that it just felt like a tribute to MTV or what, but the show really irritated me this time around. So I am just going to recap what happened in the rest of the season as I didn't really enjoy the rest of the episodes but I would like to finish it off.


Episode 6 begins with the Countess having some sort of demon baby. Liz and Tristan become lovers.
Alex and John run around after their son in the hotel. Ramona and Donovan come to the hotel to get their revenge on the Countess, but she isn't there. They are going to kill her baby, but Donovan chickens out and the baby escapes. The baby ends up in John's suitcase and goes with him to his house where it emerges. John tries to kill it, but Alex saves it. The Countess finds out about Liz and Tristan and kills Tristan.


Episode 7 nothing much happens here. We find out how the Countess became a vampire. It is pretty dull. Episode 8 John continues his search for the Ten Commandments Killer, but he doesn't get far.
He thinks that he has found the killer. He is told that he was groomed by March to follow in his footsteps. He is the killer and he had not remembered that he is the one who was going around murdering people. He kills someone else and returns to the hotel. 
Episode 9 The Countess and Will get married. Ramona gets captured. The Countess leaves Will with Ramona who has been freed and she kills him..


Episode 10 Liz is upset over Tristan's death and wants to die. Iris tells him that he has to sort out his affairs before passing. He decides to find his son and make peace with him which he does. John and Alex reunite and Sally is annoyed and vows to kill John. Liz and Iris get guns and start shooting at The Countess and Donovan.
Episode 11 The Countess escapes while Donovan dies. She needs blood to survive and she turns to Sally for help.Ramona kills a guest in the hotel. John kills The Countess once and for all. She is doomed to spend eternity with March.


Episode 12-the finale. Liz and Iris are running the hotel now. There are still murders being committed by the ghosts. They hold a meeting and try to reason with the ghosts, but to no avail. They gets some medium in and make contact with Donovan who wants Iris to know that he loves her. Liz finds out that he has cancer and wants to die. The ghosts want to help him pass. They kill him and he dies. Cut to Devil's Night and John appears at the hotel to scare the medium who is filming in the hotel. He introduces her to all of the killers that he met before. They succeed in scaring her away when Ramona steps in. John has come to be with his family while he can. He died outside the hotel and he can't stay there as a ghost. His daughter comes to spend time with him. The Countess is still hanging around the hotel.

All in all, I didn't enjoy this season of American Horror Story. It wasn't great at all. I think that it was  like a music video for Gaga and it was just shallow and self indulgent. I am hoping that the next season will put the series back on track.


Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Sledgehammer Movie Review 411






Sledgehammer is a 1983 horror movie directed by David A.Prior and starring Ted Prior and Linda McGill.


The movie starts with a mother locking her young son into a closet while she fools around with a  man. The two of them get killed by someone holding a sledgehammer. Who is it? The kid disappears and is presumed dead. We don't know what has happened to him. Cut to ten years later and a group of people are going to stay in the same house for a weekend to party. You just know that something is going to go wrong here! They look around the house and happen to find a sledgehammer. What a coincidence... Of course you know that the killer will show up in the house to get his sledgehammer.
For some weird reason, the group decide to hold a seance and call upon the spirits of the mother and her lover who were butchered in the house. They manage to bring back the ghost of the kid who is now a man with a mask and a mighty big sledgehammer.


Now, you can see how the rest of the movie is going to go. The sledgehammer gets a workout and people drop like squashed flies! The ghost kills most of the group, but then he has a showdown with two survivors who challenge and 'kill' the man ghost. They get out of the house, leaving the ghost boy at the window, still in the house. It seems that they haven't beaten the ghost. This was a pretty cheap affair. It is a real B movie but it is entertaining in a funny way. I found this by chance and I had never heard of it, but I am glad that I watched it. It made me laugh in parts and in other parts I was horrified by the crappy quality of it. If you like cheap 80's slashers, like me, then this will appeal to you. I will be kind and give it a 3/10.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Open House Movie Review 410




Open House is a 1987 horror movie directed by Jag Mundhra and starring Adrienne Barbeau and Joseph Bottoms.


This movie begins with a real estate agent showing a client around a house. She happens to look in the bathroom and she finds a dead body in the shower. SOLD is written in blood. Another real estate agent is showing a house when she and her client are brutally murdered. Dr. David Kelley is a radio psychologist and a weirdo called Harry calls his show and talks about the murders. He thinks that the victims deserved what they got. David has a girlfriend called Lisa and she has her own real estate business Grant Realty. She has a rival called Barney Resnick who is battling her for the properties all of the time. He has his own company. David tells Lisa about the call in to his show today. 


Meanwhile, the local cops are working on the real estate murderer case. The lead detective is called Shapiro(Robert Miano)and he has no clues at all. His boss thinks that they should get Kelley to help them profile the killer. Resnick threatens Lisa and she is uncomfortable. He hints that he might have vandalised some of the houses that her company were showing to clients, but she has no proof. The killer strikes again. The cops want to tap the phone line at the radio station so Kelley has no choice but to help them. They wait for Harry to call, but he doesn't. David is spooked when he thinks that someone is watching him. Lisa tells him that she thought that someone was watching her too.
Is it the killer? Things come to a head between Resnick and Lisa and he threatens to get revenge on her. She is worried that he might be the killer.


Resnick arrives at a house that he is interesting in selling for the client. She happens to be a dominatrix and she invites him in. Unfortunately, the killer is there and he disposes of Barney and the woman.  This proves to David and Lisa that Resnick was not the killer after all. At the radio station, David, Lisa and the cops wait for Harry to call.The killer is at the radio station. He calls David from inside the building. He kidnaps Lisa and calls David to tell him that he has forty five minutes to find her. David looks around and he finds the killer with Lisa. The killer is a homeless guy who is angry at the realtors who tried to sell the house that he was living in. He wants the media to show up so he can tell his side of the story. He is going to kill Lisa when Shapiro shows up and shoots him. He falls down, but he isn't dead. Shapiro ends up knocking him off a balcony and he dies.


This movie wasn't great. It had an interesting premise. I mean, how many films have you seen about a psycho killing realtors? But, it was a bit dull in parts and the killer was not threatening at all in the ending. I expected someone much darker. There were some good parts in it and the killings were pretty bloody, but all in all, this was not scary and there were not many creepy moments either. It is a mediocre 80's slasher which is worth a look if you enjoy slashers, but don't expect too much. I will give it a 3/10.
 

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Don't Blink Movie Review 409





Don't Blink is a 2014 horror movie directed by Travis Oates and starring Brian Austin Green, Mena Suvari, Zack Ward and Joanne Kelly.


The movie begins with a group of pals who are going to a retreat for the weekend. They are Jack(Austin Green), Tracy(Suvari), Claire(Kelly),Lucas(Curtiss Frisle),Alex(Ward), Sam(Leif Gantvoort),Amelia(Emelie O'Hara),Ella(Fiona Gubelmann),Noah(David de Lautour) and Charlotte(Samantha Jacober). When they arrive, they are surprised to see nobody there at all to check them in. The petrol pumps don't work outside and there is noone there to help them. They have run out of petrol. They look around the place and find that people just dropped everything and left. There is food out and make up out in the bathroom. Where has everyone gone?


Jack tells them all to keep calm and look around the grounds to find someone. 'Help Me' is written on the door of a cupboard but they don't see it. The tap is running and the cooker is still on, suggesting that people had to leave immediately. Claire and Alex realise that there are no birds, no animals and no insects. The place is colder than it should be. Alex wants to leave. He needs petrol for his car.
He wants to siphon petrol from the other cars that are in the place but they don't have enough to get them back to civilisation. Jack thinks that they should stay put for the moment and look for a phone.
Tracy disappears and there is no trace of her. Noah disappears too. Jack tells them to go inside where they can stay together.


SPOILERS...People begin to disappear. Lucas goes and then Ella.Alex has a gun and he is losing his mind. Amelia disappears next. Sam tries to get out of there with the gun and he grabs Charlotte and takes the car. He disappears and Charlotte is in shock. The gun has been left on the seat. Noah returns and Alex thinks that he has something to do with disappearances and he shoots him and then leaves him outside where Noah disappears too. Alex goes crazy and shoots himself dead. His body disappears. Charlotte is the next to vanish leaving Jack and Claire together.  They get through to the emergency services but they will take three hours to get there.They try not to blink and they keep an eye on each other but they fall asleep and Jack vanishes. Claire is left alone and she sees people coming to help her. The people who come seem to know something about the place and she thinks that it will all be fine,but suddenly they all disappear, leaving her alone. She looks at herself in the mirror and she disappears too.


I liked the film most of the way through, but when I realised that there was not going to be any explanation for what happened, I felt cheated. I like to have some closure after spending ninety minutes watching a movie and this annoyed me. What the hell happened to everyone? Why did they disappear?  Was it some alien force? Not even a clue. This let down the movie, I'm afraid because I did like it up until the ending. That is why it gets a 5/10.



Friday, September 16, 2016

American Horror Story , Season 5, Episode 5



This episode begins with Alex who is now a vampire. She uses her blood to save the life of a young boy who she was treating. The kid is released from hospital and begins eating people, including his parents. He bites a kid at school and of course, all the kids get infected and eat the teachers. Cops are called and the kids make up a story about someone coming in and killing the teachers. They are led away from the building. John is going around the bend and tells his boss about what happened in the previous episode and meeting the serial killers etc. He gets fired for being a loony.


There is a flashback about Liz and she goes into her background with Iris. Iris kills two guests who are very rude and she feeds on them. She and Liz get rid of the bodies. John finds himself in bed with Sally and can't remember anything. Alex bonds with her son and decides to stay in the hotel. This was a fairly dull episode with not much happening.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

American Horror Story, Season 5, Episode 4



This episode begins on Halloween. Serial killer Richard Ramirez comes to the hotel and he kills someone with the help of James March. We see a flashback for Miss Evers and we find out that her son was kidnapped by a man who kept him in a cage and then killed him. Alex brings her weird son Holden back to the house, but he is not normal. He kills the family dog and she doesn't know what to do with him. She decides to bring him back to the hotel where the Countess is waiting for him. She and Alex have a standoff and she tells Alex that she took her son years ago and made him like her.
She offers to make Alex like her too so she can stay with her son.


John is wandering around the place when he sees Aileen Wuornos. He thinks that it is some sort of Halloween costume. He realises that there are more famous serial killers at a party that James March is giving. John Gacy, Zodiac and Jeffrey Dahmer are there too. John has been invited too for some reason. He is handcuffed to a chair and he watches as March brings in a young man. Dahmer is interested in him and drills a hole into his brain. John sees Sally who has brought another man to the hotel and she gives him to March. She takes John away from the awful party telling him that he drank too much. The episode ends with Alex deciding to become a vampire.


This was a so so episode. The serial killer party was good, but the rest wasn't great.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Rites of Passage Movie Review 408






  
Rites of Passage is a 2012 thriller/horror movie directed by W.Peter lliff and starring Stephen Dorff, Christian Slater and Wes Bentley.


This movie begins with a nerdy guy called Nathan(Ryan Donowho) who is in an anthropology class with his friends and his professor Nash(Dorff). His parents own a ranch where there was an Indian burial ground and he wants the professor and his pals to come along to have some Indian ceremony together. He brings along his pal Dani(Kate Maberly) whom he fancies. Nathan's brother Benny(Bentley) live son the ranch and he is very disturbed as he is taking an Indian herb which makes him hallucinate that he is part of a tribe. He is on the lookout for a bride and anyone will do as long as she looks the part. He goes to a college party and meets some of Nathan's pals who think that he is a weirdo. Nathan is worried about his brother as he doesn't look well. Benny is going home when a girl asks him for a ride home.


Next morning, Benny hasn't realised what he has done. He goes to his private room and finds the girl tied up there. He doesn't remember what he did the night before, but he has no choice but to kill her.
A weird guy called Delgado(Slater) lives on the ranch with Benny. They don't really get along, but they tolerate each other. Delgado knows that Benny is up to no good. Delgado smokes meth because his family were killed by a young drunk driver. He wants revenge on the girl.Now, what are the odds that Dani and her friends are coming to the ranch with Nathan and she just happens to be the young girl who killed his family. Could it get more convenient?


The college kids arrive and all hell breaks loose. Delgado wants revenge. Benny sees Dani and thinks that she will make a perfect bride and Nathan tries to work out what is going on around the place.
This movie was funny for obvious reasons. If the premise doesn't make you laugh, then you won't like this. It was weird and strange but good fun. I had never heard anything about this film , then it was on TV and I liked the cast so I gave it a chance and it was entertaining in its own way. If you like your horror a little strange, then this is for you. I will give it a 5/10.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Fright Night Movie Review 407






Fright Night is a 1985 horror directed by Tom Holland(Child's Play) and starring Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Roddy McDowell and Amanda Bearse.


Teenager Charlie Brewster(Ragsdale) and his girlfriend, Amy(Bearse) are making out in his bedroom when he happens to see something out of his window. He sees men bringing a coffin into the house next door. He wonders what is going on. The house next door has been sold and the new owner is a guy called Jerry Dandrige(Sarandon). Charlie is suspicious of him immediately. Charlie watches horror movies introduced by an actor guy called Peter Vincent(McDowell) who played a vampire hunter in his movies. When Charlie thinks that something sinister is going on, he calls in the cops to visit the house. A man called Billy(Jonathan Stark) answers the door and claims to be the roommate of Jerry. He invites the cop inside and they meet Jerry who seems amused. The cop finds nothing
amiss and is mad at Charlie for wasting his time. Jerry is not happy and Charlie is scared.


That evening, Jerry is invited into Charlie's home by his  mother. Jerry pretends to be nice, but later on, he pays a visit to Charlie and gives him a choice- back off or he will hurt him. Charlie refuses and a fight ensues with Charlie stabbing Jerry's hand with a pencil.They get disturbed and Jerry tells him that he will be back later to sort him out. Charlie knows that he is a vampire now and he is worried.
He goes to Peter Vincent for help, but he doesn't want to know. He tells Amy and his friend Evil(Stephen Geoffreys)  about it, but they think that he has lost the plot. Amy is worried about Charlie so she asks Vincent to go and see Jerry with Charlie and he decides to after she bribes him with money. They all go to Jerry's house and meet him. None of them think that he is a vampire except Charlie. Vincent thinks that Jerry is not a vampire until he sees that Jerry has no reflection in the mirror. He leaves the house in a hurry taking them with him, but Jerry realises that he knows.


The three pals are on the way home when Evil splits from them and gets bitten by Jerry and turned into a vampire. Jerry sends Evil to see Vincent and kill him, but Vincent manages to ward him off with a crucifix. Jerry takes Amy back to his house to lure Charlie and Vincent there. He bites her and turns her into a vampire too as she reminds him of a lost love. Vincent is confronted by Evil again and manages to overcome him and stake him. Charlie and Vincent go to Jerry's house and discover that Amy has been turned into a vampire. Vincent tells Charlie that Jerry needs to die to turn her back. They meet Billy who they fight. He is some sort of zombie and it takes a while to kill him.
Jerry is left exposed and he turns into a bat and tries to kill them. They chase him down to the basement where the coffin is.


Amy turns up and they have to fight her too. They manage to break through the windows which have been covered over to block out the light and they let the light into the basement and this kills Jerry. Amy turns back into her old self and they leave the house. The  movie ends where it began with Charlie and Amy making out in his bed. He looks next door and thinks that he sees red eyes in the window, but then he forgets about it. Little does he know that Evil has survived and he is next door now! This movie was very entertaining and amusing. I really enjoyed it. It is a good horror movie from my favourite decade. I watched this for the first time in years recently and I had forgotten how good it was. Great fun movie which I highly recommend. I will give it an 8/10.



Tuesday, September 6, 2016

American Horror Story Season 5, Episode 3


Tristan goes up to see James March to discuss reopening the hotel. March wants Tristan to make sure that the owner Will does not change the place. Tristan tells him that he is on the case. Alex doesn't understand why her daughter Scarlett is acting as if her son Holden is alive. Tristan talks to Will about the hotel and he is going to kill him but the Countess says no. John sees an injured Gabriel who was attacked by junkie Sally. He takes him to the hospital where he dies after telling John that it was Sally. John goes back to the hotel and wants to arrest her, but she disappears and he can't find her.


Iris and her son Donovan talk about leaving he hotel. He doesn't want to as he is happy where he is and they fall out. He tells her to go an kill herself and she is left devastated. Donovan goes out to feed and bumps into a woman called Ramona(Angela Bassett) who tasers him. She takes him off somewhere. Iris decides to kill herself with the help of Sally. Donovan wakes up and sees Ramona. He is tied up and she tells him that she wants to get revenge on the Countess as she killed her lover in the past. She wants to use him to get at her. He tells her that she has dumped him and Ramona lets him go.


John is served divorce papers from Alex and he is distraught. She wanders around the hotel and finds her son Holden. The Countess reveals her plans for seducing Will and marrying him for his money. Then she will kill him. Donovan arrives back and he finds his mother half dead. He feeds her his blood and brings her back. This was an okay episode. Nothing major here.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

American Horror Story, Season 5, Episode 2




This episode begins with weird vampire kids feeding on the tourists who were trapped in the first episode. They kill her and she is wheeled off by Liz to a dump where there are plenty of other dead bodies. Alex, the wife of the detective is treating a boy who has measles. Her husband, John is having nightmares and hallucinations in the hotel. Elizabeth meets a young model called Tristan(Finn Wittrock) and she takes a fancy to him and he to her. He wanders around the hotel and goes to the penthouse looking for drugs. He meets Donovan who wants to kill him but Elizabeth stops him. He runs off and bumps into James March who is killing some poor woman. Tristan runs off and bumps into Elizabeth again.


John and Alex's daughter Scarlett sees Holden in the hotel and talks to him. She tells them about it.
Tristan and Elizabeth have sex and he becomes like her. John goes mad and he attacks Iris and demands answers about the hotel. She tells him that it belonged to James March and he used it to murder people and when he was caught, he and his maid Miss Evers(Mare Winningham) killed themselves. They are still in the hotel, but John doesn't believe it. He thinks that there is a copycat killer who is following in March's footsteps. The episode ends with Tristan and Elizabeth drinking the blood of some poor man.

This episode was okay. I'm not really too jazzed about it.
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