Amanda's Horror Years-1980

1980 was a great year for horror! There were so many good horror movies released in this year and I cannot possibly get to them all, but I will choose a few and let me know if you want to add anything I have not included.

So, let me start with the best ones first. The Shining was released in this year and it starred Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. It is a classic these days because it was made by the late Stanley Kubrick. There was a great performance by Nicholson and it was an eerie horror movie. Next, John Carpenter released The Fog which is an all time favourite of mine. Jamie Lee Curtis stars in this chilling movie about a strange fog that creeps over a small town. There is something in the fog...Next, Friday The 13th was released in this year and so began a horror franchise which continues to this day. Dario Argento offered us the second part of his Three Mother's movies- Inferno. While this is not my favourite Argento movie, it still rates highly. Prom Night saw Jamie Lee Curtis in another of her scream queen roles. She also starred in Terror Train in this year which wasn't a bad movie either.Motel Hell was released in 1980 and I liked it. Mother's Day was another cult horror released this year.The Changeling was out this year too and it starred George C. Scott.

Cannibal Holocaust terrified and disgusted audiences in 1980. It was controversial and it can still horrify people today. Maniac is about exactly that- some maniac who is killing people in New York City. Another controversial movie was House on The Edge of the Park. It was a disturbing movie. The Children was about kids who were not what they seemed...Macabre was out this year and it was directed by Lamberto Bava. Some other titles which made their way to VHS in 1980 were Beyond Evil,The Boogeyman, He Knows You're Alone and The Hearse.

All in all, 1980 was a great year for the horror fan and some of the movies released in that year are still popular today and some are  just best left forgotten. If you can think of any I might have left out, let me know. I am always looking for new horror titles to watch!! Until next time...

Whiteout Movie Review 105

 

This movie is based on a comic book of the same name. It stars Kate Beckinsale and Tom Skerritt. It is directed by Dominic Sena who also directed Kalifornia and Gone in 60 Seconds.

Whiteout begins with a flashback to 1957 and two pilots are flying over the Antarctic. There is some shooting and the plane crashes. There is a locked box inside. Cut to Antarctica, present day at a U.S. Science Base. Marshal Carrie Stetko(Beckinsale) is quitting and heading back to America. The six months of darkness is coming as winter closes in. A body is found in the show and Carrie has to investigate it. The body is of a man who happens to be a geologist. Carrie and her team are baffled as to what he was doing out in the middle of nowhere.The doctor, John Fury(Skerritt) has a look at the body back at the base. He sees that it was no accident.They have to investigate the murder.

So begins all of the twists and turns as they try to find the killer who is aware that she is onto him and who follows her when she travels to another camp to find answers. The killer strikes, but fails to kill Carrie. A UN operative shows up to help her with the investigation and they try to find out the truth. They discover that the people who killed the geologist were looking for something in the ice.It all has something to do with that crashed plane. She manages to fall down a hole with the operative and they manage to escape.Then, there is a confusing twist and another turn and at this point, I began to get irritated with this movie. I just really lost interest near the end and I didn't really give a crap who the killer was.

So, all in all, this movie was poor. The premise was good and there was a lot of promise in this movie until it got bogged down with so many twists and turns. I like a good mystery, but this just had too much going on and then there was the fact that in the snow, everyone looked the same and I couldn't tell who was who. A poor movie which I would not recommend. It gets a low 3/10.

Dante's Inferno:An Animated Epic Movie Review 104

Dante's Inferno:An Animated Epic is a direct to DVD animated movie that is a spin off from the Electronic Arts video game of the same name. It is animated by Film Roman who also did Dead Space: Downfall. That was an animated movie I loved but never actually wrote a review so if you have not seen it, check it out now! A total of six animation studios were involved in Dante's Inferno and there are slight differences between each sequence. Dante's Inferno is about the Hero who is funnily enough called Dante and he has to journey through the Nine Circles of Hell. These are- Lust, Limbo, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery.

Dante's Inferno has some brilliant animation that is breathtaking and it is a joy to watch. This is also an adult movie as there are scenes of nudity and lots of graphic violence. So this is one to watch when the kids are gone to bed!Dante hacks his way through Hell and the blood flows freely as he does so. There are some great action sequences and  great use of slow motion as Dante heroically fights his way through. The voice over work is excellent with the always brilliant voice of Mark Hamill who voices The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and the Hobgoblin in Spiderman: The Animated Series. He playes a main character in a little known franchise that you have probably never heard of called Star Wars!!!!!In Dante's Inferno , Lucifer's voice is guy called Steve Blum who has a deep voice that is perfect for the Devil.Dante is going through the Nine Circles of Hell to rescue his beloved Beatrice who is voiced by Vanessa Branch. He will stop at nothing to win her back, but he finds out that he will have to face his own demons too...

I would definitely recommend Dante's Inferno to anyone who likes horror and animation. It is exactly as it is titled. It is an animated epic that everyone should see so either rent or buy this movie now!!!

Dante's Inferno:An Animated Epic- 10/10

Sorority Row Movie Review 103

Sorority Row is a remake of the 1983 movie The House on Sorority Row. It is directed by Stewart Hendler and it stars Carrie Fisher and Rumer Willis.

The movie begins with some girls who are the usual airheads and they are at some party. They play a joke on some young guy and they try to convince him that he has killed one of their friends,Megan. He believes them and they drive out to some deserted place to get rid of the body. The guy, Garrett(Matt O' Leary) decides to finish her off by stabbing her with a tire iron, not realising that she wasn't dead already. The bitchy girls have to decide what to do and they all agree to bury her and pretend that she has gone missing. They argue about it and some of them want to tell the cops, but they threaten to blame the murder on them, so they all have no choice but to leave Megan there and go back to their lives.

Cut to graduation day and the girls are all getting text messages with a picture of the tire iron used to kill Megan. It is their last night in the sorority house and they are going to have a party. Their sorority mother, Mrs. Crenshaw(Carrie Fisher) gives them a present each and leaves them to enjoy their last night. After, this people begin to drop like flies.The funny thing about this movie is that I was glad to see the young witches getting their comeuppance. There was not one character I had sympathy for and I found that they were all devoid of any sort of depth. So, you can imagine that they are all dying and then there is the inevitable scene where the survivors get out etc etc. I was bored by this stage.

I did not like this movie as you probably guessed and I would never want to sit through it again. It was terrible and if it was supposed to be a remake of that other movie, well, it was one of the worst ones I have seen so far. This is crap. Avoid it at all costs.It just barely deserves its 1/10.

The Collector Movie Review 102

The Collector is a horror movie that I was looking forward to seeing as it is written by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. Who are they? They are the writers of Feast and more importantly, Saw 4,Saw 5 and Saw 6. They will be the writers for Saw 7 also.The Collector is directed by Marcus Dunstan as well and stars Josh Stewart as Arkin who decides to rob a house where he is employed as security guy. The family is played by Michael Reilly Burke(He played Ted Bundy in the Bundy movie), Andrea Roth(who plays the wife of Denis Leary's character in Rescue Me) and their lovely daughter Madeline Zima(who stars in Californication and who is pictured below). Good news for guys is that she has a topless scene in this movie!The family are supposed to be going away so Arkin can rob their safe as he needs money to pay his girlfriend's loan shark who is played by Robert Wisdom. He played Lechero in Series 3 of Prison Break and he was the leader of Sona when Schofield arrives at the prison.

Arkin thinks that this will be a nice simple robbery but when he gets into the house, the Collector is in there too!! He is busy with his sick traps that are killing the family as they try to escape!! Arkin cannot get out and he realises that he has to try and outwit the Collector while trying to save the family especially their young daughter. Throughout the house are Home Alone/Saw type traps that can kill such as bear traps on the floor, spikes on the stairs and a very cool knife chandelier! It is just waiting for someone to set off the trip wire so it can fall down on them!!Every serial killer should have one!!!

The Collector was intended to be a prequel to the Saw movies but the producers did not want a prequel.It is clearly like Saw except these people do not get a chance of escape. It is filmed very like Saw so if you like those  movies, then you will love this.There are some gruesome scenes and I loved the idea of the Collector having a killer dog at his beck and call!There is not much else to the story other than the hero trying to get out and save as many people as he can but it is only an hour and a hald and worth checking out.It is quite obvious that the Collector will somehow live to fight another day as he is a good character so I hope that I am not spoiling it for you but watch out for a very short scene after the credits. The Collector is sitting on a box with a living victim inside screaming as he watches old home movies!!I liked this scene a lot and hope they make a sequel, but I doubt it somehow.  

If you like the Saw movie franchise, then I urge you to check this one out now. If you don't like gruesome scenes then give it a miss!The poor family cat meets a nasty end here too! Jigsaw would never have done that! Surely he is a cat lover like we are here at Jigsaw's Lair!!!

The Collector- 8/10