Monday, April 27, 2015

The House That Vanished Movie Review 356





The House that Vanished is a 1974  horror movie directed by Joseph Larratz and starring Andrea Allan and 
Karl Lanchbury.


Valerie(Allan) is a model who goes with her dodgy boyfriend Terry(Alex Leppard) to an old house in the fog.
Terry has arranged to rob it. He breaks into the house, leaving Valerie in the car, waiting for him. She gets tired of waiting and goes inside. Terry scours the place for valuables. He finds lots of women's passports. They hear someone coming into the house. It is a man and a woman. They can only see the woman. The man is hidden from them. The woman takes off her clothes and it looks as if they are going to have sex when he kills her. Terry and Valerie are horrified, Val runs from the house, leaving Terry behind. She gets chased by the killers, but he can't find her. She flags down a car and gets a lift back to her flat.She is nervous after her ordeal and she sees Terry's car parked outside her house. He is nowhere to be seen. She finds her pictures in the car where she left them. One has disappeared.


Val goes to see her pals and tells them what happened. They think that Terry will turn up. She tells them that a woman was murdered.She meets an artist called Paul(Lanchbury) who designs masks and they get along.
He tells her that he will give her a mask if she calls over to his place. She gives him her number. He calls her and asks her out. There is a new tenant moving into the house and Val thinks that he is a little strange.
Val and her pals search for the house where the murder occurred. They finds Terry's car at a junkyard. They can't locate the house. Val meets Paul and his aunt, Susannah(Maggie Walker). She makes the masks for Paul. There are some seriously weird things happening between Paul and his aunt. They end up in bed together.


Val's flatmate,Lorna(Judy Matheson) comes home from her holiday and Val fills her in. The new tenant
Mr.  Hornby(Peter Forbes-Robertson) calls into them to introduce himself. He is a bit odd. Paul likes Val but Susannah thinks that it is not a good idea. Valerie tells her friends about him and how she likes him. The killer breaks into Val's flat and kills her roommate, Lorna. Val finds her.She goes to the police and they ask her if someone had keys to the flat. Mr. Hornby wants to help her, but she doesn't want him to.She and Paul decide to go away together. He takes her to house in the woods. It is the same house! How does she not know???Anyway, it seems that Paul is the killer and he has been luring young women to the house and killing them. He likes Val, though and he can't kill her. He kills his aunt instead.  This film was okay. It is nothing special, but it wasn't too bad. The story was a bit thin,but  it kept me interested. It is a cheaply made 70's horror/thriller, but I think that if you enjoy B movies, then you will like this. I will give it a 5/10.

Friday, April 24, 2015

The Walking Dead, Season 5 ,Episode 12 and 13




Episode 12 begins with the group entering the Alexandria safe zone. They meet the leader Deanna(Tovah Feldshuh) who they talk to  in turns and who records their conversations on camera. Deanna was a congresswoman and she thinks that she can run the place with her husband who is an architect. Rick warns her to be careful of strangers as people can be as dangerous as the walkers. She thinks that she has everything under control. Carol is being wary and she does not tell Deanna that she is an expert with weapons and killing. She pretends to be the mother of the group and she pretends to be sweet and naive.
They are given houses with running water and electricity which is amazing for the group.


They meet some of the others who are living there.Rick meets a woman called Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) who is a hairdresser and who cuts his hair for him.Carl meets some kids his own age and he finds it a bit weird. The survivors realise that the people living here have no idea how bad it is outside the community. They have gotten used to their home comforts and have gone soft. Rick and the others do not want to go soft. Rick goes out to find the gun he stashed but it has gone. He is not happy. Aiden(Daniel Bonjour) is Deanna's son and he is a cocky guy. He takes Tara, Glenn and Noah out for some walker practice, but he is reckless and stupid and ends up fighting with Glenn, who thinks that he is an ass.
Daryl intervenes in their fight and Rick pulls him away.Deanna tells Glenn he was right to take her son down a peg or two and she asks Rick and Michonne to become police constables for the settlement. They accept. Rick is still wary of the place though and he tells Carol and Daryl that if Deanna and the others are too weak, they will take it over.


Episode 13 begins with Sasha acting strangely and going off by herself into the woods. Rick, Carol and Daryl want their weapons back and the only way to get them is to steal them back.They kill a walker and notice a W etched into its forehead. What does it mean? Deanna throws a party to welcome Rick and the others. They are all pretty uncomfortable with it. Rick meets Jessie again and there is a spark between them. Aaron and Daryl have dinner together with Eric as Daryl doesn't want to go to the party. Aaron shows him his garage with tonnes of motorbike parts that he collected. He wants Daryl to help him to build a bike. He also asks Daryl to replace Eric as a recruiter.


Carol goes into the weapons store and steals three guns. She is caught by Jessie's son, Sam and she threatens him. She tells him that if he tells, she will feed him to the walkers.Rick has a walk around the settlement and sees Jessie with her husband. He can hear the walkers outside the wall and he feels strange as he is so used to killing them but now, he doesn't have to. These episodes were entertaining and setting up the new location and characters. I think that Deanna needs a reality check and I think that Alexandria will have to toughen up.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Nightmare In Wax Movie Review 355





Nightmare in Wax is a 1969 horror/thriller directed by Bud Townsend and starring Cameron Mitchell and Anne Helm.


Mitchell stars as Vincent Renard, head of the make up department at Paragon Pictures. He is seeing an actress called Marie Morgan(Helm) and they are in love. Marie is going to quit Paragon Pictures and the boss Max Black(Berry Kroeger) doesn't want her to leave. She is a big star and he won't let her go. He is jealous of Vincent and while Vincent lights a cigarette, he throws a glass of something into his face, setting him alight and disfiguring him for life. What are the odds of that happening? Anyway, after the accident, Vincent turns mean and he pushes Marie out of his life. He buys a waxwork museum and he makes displays that are eerily lifelike. If you have seen House of Wax with Vincent Price, then you get the idea....


So, stars from Paragon Pictures are disappearing and there is no trace of them. The cops are investigating and they come to Vincent. He talks to them but they don't really suspect him of any wrongdoing. The cops also talk to Marie about Vincent. Ironically, Vincent is making a wax figure of  a guy called Tony, who just happened to be Marie's lover..How odd is that? Marie calls Vincent and she asks him over for dinner.
She wants the wax figure of her lover. Vincent thinks that this is a bit strange. He wants Marie to pose for a waxwork in exchange for the figure of Tony.  He warns her not to tell anyone. Vincent has a helper guy called Mick who is a bit of a drinker and Mick tells Vincent that he thought he saw a waxwork move. Vincent persuades him that it was all in his imagination.


Vincent knows an actress called Theresa(Victoria Carroll) and she is close with Max so he asks her to bring Max to the waxwork museum to see her in wax. They arrive and he shows them the waxwork of Theresa.
Vincent drugs Max and he tells him that he will be going into his waxwork display. He turns on Theresa and he kills her. Max tells Vincent that the cops are outside. They followed him there and if he doesn't come out, then they will come in. Vincent dresses as Max, puts Theresa in the car and drives away/ The cops tail him and he crashes the car and runs off. The cops find Theresa and assume that Max killed her and ran off.
They chase Vincent but they lose him. They show up at Vincent's later and they are suspicious. Vincent has Max over the hot wax, ready to dip him in. He also has Marie held captive. He reveals that he uses a drug to inject his victims and it paralyses them and they turn into zombies. He has complete control over them and they have to do his bidding. He tries to get them to kill the cop when he comes back but it doesn't work. Vincent ends up falling into hot wax and that's it. This movie has a weird ending. You would think that he is dead after falling into the wax, but he is seen at the end alive, so I don't really know what that means. Was it a dream or some mental breakdown? Who knows, who cares. This is not really one that you would watch again. It is not original as House of Wax was a better movie and this is kind of a rip off of that film...I will say that it was worth a watch, but don't expect too much! I will give it a 3/10.


Friday, April 10, 2015

The Walking Dead, Season 5, Episode 10 and 11




Episode 10 begins with the group having to travel on foot when their van runs out of gas. It is very hot and they are all suffering. They are all thinking about Beth and Tyreese and everyone is miserable as they have very little food or water. Sasha is becoming reckless and she is putting the lives of her fellow survivors at risk when they run into a group of walkers. Michonne tries to get her back on track but Sasha will not listen. Sasha kills some wild dogs and this is their dinner. They discover water bottles in the middle of the road and they are tempted but they can't trust it.


That night, they take shelter from a storm in a barn. They get some water finally. They get overtaken by a group of walkers and they have to barricade themselves inside. The next morning, they are relieved to find that the walkers have been destroyed by the storm and that they are OK. Sasha is talking to Maggie about how she feels when a man approaches them. They are on their guard as he says that his name is Aaron(Ross Marquand) and he asks to speak to Rick, much to their surprise.


Episode 11 starts with the group wondering who this guy Aaron is.Rick is very wary of him and he will not trust him at all. Aaron tells him that is lives in a community where there are other people and power and food and security from the walkers.He left them the water to drink as a good will gesture. Rick is sceptical of this ideal community. He knocks him out and ties him up. They search through his bag and they discover a flare gun so they think that there are more out there. When he wakes up, Aaron tells them that he is with a partner who is waiting for him. He has transport to take them to the community. He tells them that he will take them to them, but Rick wants them to check it out before they do anything. They find a car and an RV so it seems as if Aaron is on the level.


Aaron tells them that he will get them to the camp, but will not tell them the exact location. Rick does it his own way by taking an alternative route. Rick is wrong and they run into a horde of walkers. They fight their way through them and they even manage to save Aaron's partner, Eric(Jordan-Woods Robinson). Aaron tells them the location of the community-Alexandria in Virginia and they all head here. They pull up outside the gates and they hear the sounds of children playing. This makes Rick decide to give it a go and they enter the gates...

Two good episodes with a new story arc beginning. The introduction of Aaron spells another chapter in the story which is good. I look forward to finding out more..

Sunday, April 5, 2015

American Horror Story, Season 4, Episode 12 and 13




Last time, Dandy was going round the twist pretty darn fast. Episode 12 begins with Chester becoming the new owner of the freak show. He seems like a decent fellow. Elsa is leaving soon. Stanley gets outed by Maggie and he is chased by the freaks who have murder on their minds...He tells them about Elsa killing Ethel but they don't seem to hear him. Elsa gets her doctor to make Jimmy some prosthetic hands. Dandy visits the twins and he tells them that Chester is not to be trusted. They don't want to hear what Dandy has to say. They are a little suspicious now of him and they decline to be in his magic act. Maggie steps up instead. He puts her into a magic box and proceeds to pretend to saw her in half. Unfortunately for her, it is for real and he kills her whilst hallucinating about his dead wife. The freaks find her body and give her a burial/ Chester attacks his doll for making him kill again. He goes to the police station with her and hands himself in. 


The freaks are after Elsa for the death of Ethel. She has to pay for what she has done. She has been warned by the twins and she gets out of there. She decides to sell the freak show to Dandy and she leaves town.
Dandy finally has what he wanted. He finds what is left of Stanley who is in a cage. He has no arms or legs and his tongue has been cut out. This is a homage to the 1932 movie Freaks in which the character of Cleopatra ends up as a freak as  punishment for the wrongs that she has committed. Jimmy receives his new hands which are the same as his lobster claws. Jimmy is finally happy as he is.


Episode 13 is the final episode of the season. Dandy is pushing everyone around and the freaks are getting sick of it. They all decide to leave. Elsa goes to Hollywood and meets with someone at a network. It looks as if she will make it. Dandy loses the plot and begins to murder the freaks, one by one. He starts with Paul and Penny. He just mows everyone down. Desiree manages to escape by hiding from the monster. Jimmy returns and finds everyone dead. He is devastated. Bette and Dot were not killed and they have married Dandy. They sit with Dandy at their dinner and they tell him that they have a surprise. They drug him and he sees Desiree. He knows that the freaks are going to repay him for what he has done. He ends up at the freak show in a tank which is filling with water. He is slowly drowned as the three remaining freaks look on.


Elsa is famous beyond her wildest dreams. She is not happy though. A copy of her snuff movie makes an appearance and this signals the end of her career. She knows this and she talks to her doctor with whom she had been in love and asks him to run away with her, but he is dying of cancer, so that is not going to happen. She decides to do a Halloween special and she knows that if she does, she will die. It is her way of going out with some class. She summons Mordrake and he takes her. He stabs her and she goes to the afterlife which just happens to be the freak show where all of her friends are. She is finally happy. Desiree sees this. She has a husband and she is happy as are Bette, Dot and Jimmy who are also married and happy.

This series was interesting and enjoyable. The characters were unusual, but that was good. It was another good installment of the show. I wonder what the fifth season will bring. Hearing that Lady Gaga is going to be in it makes me NOT want to watch it, but we will see...

Thursday, April 2, 2015

House of Death Movie Review 354




House of Death or Death Screams is a 1982 horror movie directed by David Nelson and starring Susan Kiger, Martin Tucker and William T.Hicks.


The movie begins with two young people having some fun down by the river. As with all of these movies, sex equals death so they meet a grisly demise and are thrown into the river. The local Sheriff Avery(Hicks) is looking for them around town. It is thought that they ran away together. The killer is still on the prowl though. There is a carnival coming to town and the local young people are looking forward to it. Lily(Kiger) meets the local Coach Neil Marshall(Tucker) and they agree to go together. There are other locals going too.
A local guy call Casey is mentally challenged and he is lurking around. He is the Sheriff's son.


Lily is friends with Kathy, Ramona, Bob and others and they decide to meet at the carnival. The killer is around and begins killing. He kills a young girl who was out alone. The Sheriff is concerned when he finds out that Casey has gone missing. Is he the killer? The Sheriff scours the town looking for his son as the killer claims more victims. The group of young people go down to the river to have fun and the killer follows them.
They begin to get killed one by one. The group begins to thin out until there are only a few left. They find an old house and take shelter there. The killer is outside and starts to smash his way in.

SPOILERS- Don't read past this if you don't want to know the ending!!!!

They have to fight off the killer as he enters the house. It is revealed that it was the Coach all along and he has a traumatic childhood and a strange relationship with his mother which made him do what he did! It is a bit of a weak motivation, but it's a movie! He gets cornered by the Sheriff who shoots him. That is the end of it...This movie takes a while to get going. It started off well, then dipped, but then finished well. It was a bit confusing as we thought that the killer was dead already and it was not really revealed what happened to Casey, but we assume that he was killed. Not a bad slasher movie. It is worth a look, but nothing very special. I give it a 5/10.