Black Water Movie Review

Trailer here.

Black Water is a 2007 Australian horror movie directed by David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki and starring Maeve Dermody, Diana Glenn and Andy Rodoreda.

Three people, Lee(Dermody), Grace(Glenn) and Adam(Rodoreda) go to a crocodile park in Northern Australia. They decide to go on an alternative tour. Grace is pregnant. They go on the tour with a man called Jim. They start fishing in the river when Adam catches something heavy on his line. Their boat capsizes and Lee and Adam have to climb up a tree. There is a crocodile in the river. It shakes the boat and Adam creates a diversion. They spot a rope dangling from the boat. Lee gets it and she throws it over to Adam. Adam and Grace try to pull the boat back into the right position but they can't. Lee tries to swim over to it but she hurts her ankle. They assume that Jim is dead. They wonder what to do next.

Adam tells them that they really need the boat to escape. There are ripples in the water...Who or what could it be?? Grace decides to see if they can get away by climbing from tree to tree. It isn't possible. They wait to be rescued, but there is nobody coming, Adam wants to try and swim over to the boat and turn it over so they can leave. He tries it but it is caught on a log. He goes underneath the boat and it does flip over but Adam meets the killer croc. It is a giant. It has Adam as a snack and the two girls are left alone. The girls try to get to the boat, but the killer croc is circling them. Grace gets bitten by it.

 They have to go back to the trees to safety. Lee bandages Grace's wound. She hears a boat coming and she screams for help, to no avail.

Lee has no choice but to get into the water and get to the boat. She manages to get into it and start it, but the killer croc follows her and attacks. She wakes up on land. Her fingers are broken and she has been bitten in the side. She finds the remains of Jim. She grabs his gun and she cleans the mud from it. She decides to lure ol' croc and shoot it in the head. It doesn't work. It isn't as dumb as it looks. It attacks her and she manages to get the gun into its mouth and pull the trigger. She blows its head off and she goes back to get Grace. Grace has died from her wound.  Lee drags her into the boat and she rows away.

There was some good croc action in this one. I always enjoy these kind of films because you know what you are going to get and crocodiles can be scary! Australia has so many predators- killer pigs, spiders, snakes, crocs etc etc. It does make for fun films though! The ending was a bit of a downer, but it doesn't ruin the film or anything. I am giving this a 6/10 because I did find this movie entertaining and I thought it was good fun.

The Hands of Orlac Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Hands of Orlac is a 1960 horror/thriller directed by Edmond T. Greville and starring Mel Ferrer and Christopher Lee.

Stephen Orlac(Ferrer) is a concert pianist. He is very famous and he has a great career. He is on a plane when it crashes and he is injured. His hands are in a bad way. In a strange coincidence, there is a strangler being executed that very night. Stephen is brought to the hospital and a man called Professor Volchett(Donald Wolfit) is brought in to operate on him and give him new hands which just happen to be the executed mans. When Stephen wakes up, he is naturally very upset to find out what has happened to his hands. Six months later and he is dismayed to find that he can't play the piano the same way. Stephen has an idea that the hands he has are not his. His girlfriend, Louise(Lucile Saint-Simon) wants to get married. Stephen is at a funfair and he tries out the strength machine. He finds that he has really strong hands. He knows that this isn't right.

Stephen calls Volchett but he isn't there. Louise and Stephen go to the French Riviera for a break. The cat won't go near him and shortly after, it is found dead.  He tells Louise that he is afraid of himself. He puts his hands around her neck. He thinks that he is losing it. Stephen goes off by himself to Marseille and he wanders into a hotel. A magician called Nero(Lee) is staying there. He has an assistant called Li-Lang(Dany Carrel). She is afraid of Nero. She meets Stephen and they talk about Nero. She tells Stephen that she is afraid of him and that he is a madman. She comes onto Stephen. Stephen goes to a club called The Blue Monkey where Li-Lang performs. He watches her and Nero watches him. He is setting something up. Louise arrives at the hotel and asks for Stephen. Nero tells her that he is there. Stephen meets Li-Lang and she tells him that she will meet him in her room. 

Louise meets him when he gets back from the club. Nero is eavesdropping on their conversation. Stephen tells Louise that his hands are the killers hands. Louise thinks that he is imagining it. He tells her to leave. Li-Lang shows up and Stephen tells her that he is leaving but Nero bursts in. He tells Stephen that he knows who Orlac is. He tells him that the killer was a friend of his and he makes fun of Stephen. Stephen returns to the villa. He tries to get back to normal. He starts playing the piano. He and Louise get married. They are happy together. Stephen decides that he is going to play in public again.

He receives a package and in it are gloves with the killers name on them. It causes him to lose his confidence. He cannot play. He throws the gloves into the river. Stephen gets a call looking for Louis Vasseur, the killer. Louise gets a visitor from a woman who is talking about her husband. She tells her that her husband died in bad circumstances and that he left a message for Stephen- it says not to trust what belongs to him. Louise goes to a clinic to get a break from it all.

Nero is behind the message for Stephen and the wife. Stephen tells Louise what has been happening. Nero wants money. Li-Lang doesn't want to help him, but he threatens her. Louise confronts Li-Lang and she asks her what's going on. Li-Lang confesses all. She makes a deal with Louise to go to the police. Nero overhears this. Nero calls Stephen and he says that he wants to talk. He tells Stephen that Louise is planning to put him into an asylum. Louise's godfather wants to know more about Vasseur and he gets Stephen's prints on a cigarette case and hands it to the police for investigate. Stephen thinks that Louise might be plotting against him. The police think that she is in danger. They arrive at the villa and meet Stephen. He hasn't killed Louise. He disappears. Nero murders Li-Lang. The police are after him but he runs off. Stephen finds him and confronts him. There is a fight but the police grab Nero. They tell Stephen that the fingerprints they found from the cigarette case are his own. The hands that he received belonged to an innocent man. It turns out that Vasseur was not guilty so the hands are not evil. The movie ends with Stephen playing the piano once again.

This is a good film. I like the cast and the story is interesting too. Christopher Lee plays a good villain in this film. It is interesting to see him in this early role. I would recommend this if you enjoy old horror movies. There isn't much in the way of scares, but it was made in 1960, so you can forgive that. There is enough in it to entertain. It is certainly worth your time. I will give it a 6/10.

The Gravedancers Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Gravedancers is a 2006 horror movie directed by Mike Mendez and starring Dominic Purcell and Clare Kramer.

The movie begins with a woman who is facing a supernatural force. She ends up getting hanged and she drops a black envelope. Cut to one year later, a man called Harris McKay(Purcell) returns home for a funeral of a friend. He meets his old friends, Sid(Marcus Thomas) and Kira(Josie Maran). They all go to the cemetery after funeral to say goodbye to their friend. There is a black envelope at the grave. Sid opens it and reads the words on it. They dance on the grave and get drunk. They think no more about it. Harris' wife, Allison(Kramer) gets a weird phone call. Two weeks later, she comes home and she hears weird noises from the bedroom. There is nobody there. She tells Harris about it.

Harris puts in an alarm in the house. He is woken up that night by a piano playing and cat crying. Allison sees a woman in the bedroom. The cops come as the alarm was tripped. Harris and Allison think that it might be Kira as she had stalked him before. They go to Kira's house. Her house is dirty and destroyed inside. There is writing on the wall. They see Kira and she is bitten and disheveled. They call the cops and she sees a doctor. He says that he thinks she was raped. Harris calls Sid who asks him to come over. He has two paranormal investigators, Vincent and Frances with him. Sid thinks that he is being haunted. Vincent hasn't seen anything yet. Allison thinks that she and Harris are being haunted also. She goes on camera talking about what is happening. There is a fire at his house as they talk about it.  It turns out that the words Sid read were a spell. The spell lasts for one month Vincent tells them that they will all die if they can't find out about the graves they danced on.

Kira hides under the bed at the hospital. She and a nurse get attacked.  The others meet up with her and they find out that the grave she danced on was a depraved judge. Sid's was an arsonist kid and Harris' was a killer piano teacher. Vincent has a solution. They need to rebury the bodies to break the spell. Harris is attacked by his ghost. Kira gets trapped in a coffin and Sid gets set alight. They are rescued by Vincent. They get the bones of the dead and they rebury them. They think that they are okay. That is not the case. The ghosts attack again. It turns out that Frances kept the skulls of the ghosts as evidence of what happened. Kira and Sid are killed by their ghosts. Harris is hunted by his. It kills Frances. Allison escapes. Harris has to face the ghost. He has her skull. Allison drives a jeep through the house and into the ghost. It chases them until Vincent manages to return to the skull to the corpse and break the spell. The ghost is vanquished. The movie ends with Harris and Allison in the cemetery after the funerals of Sid and Kira. They don't see a black envelope being placed on one of the graves....

This film is entertaining in parts and the ghost scenes are decent. The cast aren't bad either. The only person I really recognised was Purcell, who also starred in Prison Break. It's not the greatest film but it is worth a look. I will give it a 5/10.

The Reef Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Reef is a 2010 Australian horror movie directed by Andrew Traucki and starring Damian Walshe-Howling, Gyton Grantley, Adrienne Pickering and Zoe Naylor.

The movie begins with a man called Luke(Howling) who is delivering a yacht to Indonesia. He meets his friend, Matt(Grantley) and asks him to come along. Matt brings his girlfriend, Suzie(Pickering) and his sister Kate(Naylor). The guy who is going to sail the boat with Luke is called Warren(Kieran Darcy- Smith). Their boat gets hit by the reef underneath and starts to sink. It capsizes eventually. They sit on top of it and decide what they are going to do next. Luke knows that they can't stay there. Warren knows that there are sharks in the waters around them. Luke decides that they should try and swim for a nearby island. Warren isn't keen on getting into the water. Luke dives under the boat to get some stuff that might help them. The others start shouting when they seem movement in the water. Luke gathers his stuff and gets out.

Luke informs the group that they are going to swim for it. Kate doesn't want to go. Warren won't go either. They are going to stay behind on the boat.  Kate changes her mind and they all leave Warren sitting on top of the capsized yacht. There is something in the water with them, They find a dead turtle floating. Suzie gets very scared. Warren spots something in the water. Suzie starts to panic and Luke sees the shark. They are all very scared and then Matt gets taken. His leg is bitten off and he dies. They have to leave him in the water. They know that the shark will return. The next day, they are still floating in the water. Kate spies the island in the distance. They head towards it, keeping an eye out for the shark. Suzie is next to become shark bait. Luke and Kate see a reef and they swim for it. Kate gets onto the reef but Luke isn't so lucky. The shark comes for him. Kate is rescued.

I enjoyed this shark movie. It is like others that I have watched, but I still liked it. It isn't particularly original but there is enough happening to keep you interested. I think that if you enjoy the shark films, this will be right up your street. I had fun with it and I didn't take it too seriously.  If that sounds good, then have a look at this one. I will give it a 6/10 because I enjoyed it.

Rise of the Scarecrows:Hell On Earth Movie Review

Trailer here.

Rise of the Scarecrows: Hell On Earth is a 2021 horror movie directed by Geno McGahee and starring Eric Michaelian, Lorrie Bacon and Brent Northup.

The movie begins with a guy and a girl in the woods. They talk about these killer scarecrows that have been murdering people for years. There have been sightings of them but nobody has been caught. The guy goes to relieve himself and leaves his lady alone. Well, you know what is going to happen next! The scarecrows take care of the two young lovers. Cut to a guy called Mitch(Michaelian) who is a writer. He has come back to his hometown to visit his dad, Ben(Northup). Mitch has lost his mother and he feels like he needs to be with his dad. He moves in with his father, intending to write a novel. He meets a local woman called Stacey(Bacon), who helps Ben with his errands etc. She and Mitch have an instant connection and they become friends.

In the woods, a group of pals are camping out, unaware of the danger that lurks within the dark woods.

They are  Dan(Matt Hebert), his friend Jake(Tom Hebert), Sharon(Sharon Marr), Stephanie(Jesse Waegelein-Hall) and Jake's brother, Randy(Brandon Macey). A  guy in wandering around the woods looking for Randy when he has the misfortune to bump into the scarecrows. Cut to Stacey and Mitch, who are getting along very well and they make a date. Mitch discovers eerie paintings of the scarecrows in his dad's closet. Back at the campsite, a man called Cooper(Martin DuPlessis) turns up and tells the campers that he is looking for the killers of his sister. He tells them that the cops didn't help, so he is taking matters into his own hands.

Mitch asks Ben about the weird paintings. Ben dismisses it. Stacey and Mitch go for a walk in the woods and meet the campers. They get invited to a party that evening.  They head back to Ben's for a while. Randy starts drawing some creepy pictures of the scarecrows. He begins to feel uneasy and he tells Steph that he thinks something bad will happen to them if they stay in the woods. He tells Steph that he has been having visions of the scarecrows too. His fears as justified as he ends up meeting the scarecrow gang and getting himself chopped up! Mitch tries to talk to his dad about these scarecrows, but Ben gets angry.  There is something going on...Sheriff Gilmore( Nathaniel Cook) comes to visit him and they talk. It turns out that Ben and the Sheriff know all about the scarecrows and they have made a deal with them not to interfere in their killing in exchange for them leaving Ben and the Sheriff alive.

The dead bodies are buried and nobody knows what happened to the missing people in the area. Ben feels guilty about the killing and he wants to get rid of them. The Sheriff tells him that this is impossible. They can't die.

Cooper is in the woods, searching when he meets the scarecrows and tries to fight them. It doesn't work, and he ends up being sawed in half. The campers realise that Randy is missing and they go to search for him. Mitch calls the Sheriff, who turns up and tells them to go back to their camp and stop looking. He won't help them. Jake gets killed. Stacey sees it and she tells Mitch and the others. The Sheriff tells Mitch and Dan to come with him. He shoots Dan in the head. Mitch realises that the Sheriff is working with the scarecrows. He grabs a gun and runs off with Stacey and Sharon. They go to Ben's and he tells them to get inside the house. He explains that he has a deal with the scarecrows and that Mitch will be fine because he is Ben's son. He wants to kick the girls out and let the scarecrows have them. Mitch takes his shotgun and heads off with the two girls.

The Sheriff turns up and he attacks Mitch. Stacey hits him on the head with a shovel and Mitch shoots him dead. He, Sharon and Stacey get to the car and drive off. The scarecrows are mad. They go to see Ben and they exact their revenge on him. Cut to one year later and Mitch and Stacey are together. They  talk about Ben's house and Mitch says that someone else can have it. We see the new owners are a couple and the real estate guy is talking to them and showing how obnoxious he is when the scarecrows come around and shut him up. There is a mid credits scene where a man is going to prove that the scarecrows are real. He is going to find them.

So, I reviewed the first movie here. It wasn't as good as this one. That was way back in time, so things have changed a bit. I enjoyed this film, I have to say. I liked the characters and the woods setting was fun. The scarecrows have been upgraded and this is much better than the first movie. I was impressed with them. I thought the Ben character was good and I liked Mitch and Stacey also. I enjoyed the kills -they were pretty decent. I think that the director has come a long way and that shows in this film. I had fun watching it and I would definitely recommend it to any horror fans and any scarecrow fans!!!There is something creepy about scarecrows and this film proves it! So, I think this is entertaining and worth your time. Give it a try. Check out the Facebook page for more information and you can watch it free on Tubi here .

Halloween Party Movie Review

Trailer here.

Halloween Party is a 2019 horror movie directed by Jay Dahl and starring Amy Groening, T. Thomason and Shelley Thompson.

A couple of college girls called Zoe and Grace(Groening) are chatting when a Halloween meme comes up on Zoe's computer. It asks people to type in their greatest fear or run out of time. Grace types out her greatest fear, which just happens to be vagina spiders. Zoe is afraid of pigs. She types in pig people. That night, Zoe is working when she is attacked by a pig person. She dies. Grace is very upset by her friend's death. Three weeks later, Grace sees a picture of a person with a pig mask at the crime scene. She goes to the computer science lab at the college and she looks for a guy called Spencer(Thomason) and she shows him the picture of the mask. She tells him about the Halloween meme that is being passed around. She shows it to him and he tells her that that it is complicated. He goes to look at Zoe's computer. Grace finds that Zoe's room has been rifled through. Spencer gives her a motion sensor for Zoe's room so she can find out who is going into Zoe's room.

The meme makes it way around the college. It seems that the meme causes death for those who enter their worst fear. Spencer finds out that the meme sends itself to other email addresses. Spencer finds a demonic rune hidden in it. They also see shadows in the meme. Grace thinks that the strange things that are happening are coming from Zoe's closet. She and Spencer look at the floor and they find that it has been bricked up. They go to the library to find out about the house. They discover that the dorm house was built on the site of a home for children. There were disfigured children there. They were called balloon babies. They see a doctor on a video that they find. They visit his wife, Dr. Barbara Macail(Thompson). They talk to her about the babies. She tells the, that they turned nasty when they got older. There were five left and they were bricked up to keep them away from people. They talk to the doctor himself and when he sees the picture of the shadows from the meme, he goes crazy.

Barbara gives Grace a talisman for luck. Spencer deletes the meme from his phone. He is going to delete it from his computer but his computer pals open it and it gets passed on. Spencer's name comes up and he runs out of time. He knows that he is doomed to be the next victim. The five children who were buried under the floor and causing the deaths. They have to go to where the hospital was underneath the house and unblock the children. Grace and Spencer find out that the children want to be free. They go to Zoe's room but Spencer gets caught and killed. Grace frees the kids from their prison. She goes back to see Barbara and tells her what happened. Barbara is horrified. She tells Grace that they were bricked up for a reason. The film ends with Grace being on a plane and the meme showing up. Everyone's fears start coming to life including Grace's.

This was entertaining. There was nothing amazing about it but I found that I enjoyed it. I liked the idea of a Halloween meme causing deaths but I wasn't too crazy about the children and all that. That made the story a bit too silly. It is worth a look if you are stuck for something to watch on Halloween. You could do a lot worse than this one. I will give it a 5/10.

The Curse of Halloween Jack Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Curse of Halloween Jack is a 2019 horror movie sequel. It is directed by Andrew Jones and stars Patrick O' Donnell, Tiffany Ceri and Peter Cosgrove.

The movie follows on from the first one. The town of Dunwich has its own cult called The Lords of Samhain. They gather together one night to bring back Halloween Jack. The local cops led by Detective Rockwell(O'Donnell) learn about this and they go to stop them from causing trouble. There is a shootout and the cult members are killed. Halloween comes and the mayor Lou Boyle has banned Halloween because of what happened in the past. His daughter Danielle(Ceri) is going to a Halloween party anyway. She is going with her friend Nancy and two guys, Glen and Tommy. Halloween Jack is on the prowl. He pays a visit to Mayor Boyle first. He electrocutes him and kills his wife too. Glen and Tommy share some really silly chat in a pointless scene. Tommy ends up meeting Jack and he gets murdered.

Rockwell is at the crime scene in the mayor's house. They think it might be a murder suicide. Old man Duke Tanner(Cosgrove) shows up and he has a southern accent. He says that is a hunter and he is hunting Halloween Jack. He also has an eye patch for some reason. His character is very amusing. He is like some old grizzled veteran hunter who just happens to show up and just happens to be looking for Jack. Hmm. He spins some yarns about Jack and how he came back and how he has powers. He also tells them that there is a curse and only he knows how to break it. Halloween Jack kills Nancy and Glen.

He decides to join the party in a ridiculous scene where the party goers shuffle around and try to get killed. Danielle spots him and they share a look between them before she leaves without getting killed.

She ends up at the police station with Stockwell. Halloween Jack makes his way there. He kills Rockwell and old Duke shows up to inform Danielle that they need to get Jack to a place where they can destroy him. He gives some silly speech about druids. Jack needs one of his bloodline to be reborn. Guess what??Danielle happens to be his daughter. How coincidental is that! She was adopted by the mayor and his wife. Tanner just happens to have a dagger which can kill Jack. Those coincidences keep coming. He wants her to use it to banish Jack. We learn that Jack killed Duke's daughter. That is why he is on a mission to kill him. Jack arrives and Tanner faces off with him. There isn't much of a fight and Tanner meets his end easily. For a man who has been planning to kill Jack for years, he isn't much of a fighter. Danielle faces off with Jack. She talks to him about the family unit and then gets close enough to stab him with the dagger. She blows up the place too and Jack seems to have gone back to where he came from. The field. The film ends with a news report saying that Jack's body has not been found. Oh no. Surely this doesn't mean that he will come back for another sequel!!Hopefully not.

This film was worse than the first one. This time Jack has a sack on his head which seems to contain two orange lightbulbs. He isn't very scary. The acting isn't good. The character of Tanner made me laugh. Is this film set in America or Britain? Most of the actors sound British. Tanner had some sort of southern accent. There were a few scenes where the characters just talked about rubbish. This is a bad film. I don't mind that it was cheap and that the acting wasn't great but some of the characters were silly and it wasn't worth my time. I will give it a 3/10.

Great White Movie Review

Trailer here.

Great White is a 2021 horror movie directed by Martin Wilson and starring Aaron Jakubenko,  Katrina Bowden, Tim Kano and Kimie Tsukakoshi.

The film begins with a couple who get attacked by something in the water. Cut to Charlie(Jakubenko) and his girlfriend Kaz(Bowden) who run a charter service bringing people around to islands in their seaplane. They get a booking. It is a married couple, Joji(Kano) and his wife, Michelle(Tsukakoshi). They want to go to a place called Hell's reef. Charlie and Kaz bring along Benny, who is a cook. Charlie was a marine biologist but he got bitten by a shark and this turned him off the subject. The group land on the island and find a dead body. It is one half of the couple from the start of the film. Charlie realises that the person was killed by a shark. They find a phone and look at pictures of the couple and their boat. They go looking and they find the boat. It has capsized and Benny goes inside for a look. There is a dead body in there. A shark comes out of nowhere and attacks them. The sea plane starts to sink. They get onto a raft. Michelle drops a paddle into the water and Kaz goes to get it.

The shark doesn't get her. Joji is arguing with Benny and he pushes him into the water. Benny isn't so lucky and he gets taken by the shark. Charlie has a knife and he thinks that if he can get close enough to it, then he can kill it. The shark upturns their raft. Joji is the next to be chomped by the shark. It has also punctured the raft. They need to do something. Just their luck- there are two sharks!! Michelle sees the shore and they paddle to get there. The two sharks are not far behind. Charlie decides that he is going to distract the shark long enough to let the others get to shore but it ends up being Kaz and Charlie who distract it. Michelle swims for shore.  Kaz and Charlie look for the shark. Kaz shoots it with a flare and Charlie stabs it. Michelle gets stranded on an old wreck. Kaz and Charlie chase the other shark. Charlie gets attacked. Kaz gets to the wreck and stays with Michelle until the shark comes back for them. They have to swim for shore. Kaz manages to stick a spike into the second shark and kill it. The two girls swim away.

This was a decent shark film. It was a little talky in parts, but there was a lot of good shark action and the ending was pretty good. I am a fan of shark films and this one wasn't that original, but I think that it was fun. If you enjoy these kinds of films, then this one will appeal to you. I will give it a 5/10.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow is a 2020 horror movie directed by Jim Cummings and starring Jim Cummings, Riki Lindhome and Robert Forster.

The movie begins with a couple who are staying at a cabin. The guy pisses off some of the locals. He finds his girlfriend dead. The local sheriff, Hadley(Forster) is on the case, along with Marshall(Cummings) and Robson(Lindhome). Robson talks to some of the locals, but they deny having seen or done anything. The police wonder what happened to the girl. It looks like it might be an animal, maybe a wolf. Marshall isn't so sure. He thinks that it's a man. The cops visit the boyfriend before he leaves. Some of the locals report seeing some sort of wolfman. A local woman gets killed by the werewolf creature. John is finding it all hard to believe. He worries about his daughter. He starts drinking, which is bad as he is an alcoholic.

The werewolf strikes again, this time at John's daughter. She escapes, but this makes John go off the rails and he drinks himself into oblivion. The Sheriff dies. John straightens himself out. He begins calling to some of the suspects and returns their belongings that were in evidence. He calls to a strange guy who is a taxidermist. The guy invites him in for a cup of coffee. John realises that there is something off about the guy. He begins to put two and two together and he knows that this is the killer.

He tries to escape but the guy stabs him. The man dresses up in a werewolf suit and prepares to go out and kill someone else. John chases him. He is in a bad way. Julie comes along and she shoots the werewolf guy. John manages to finish him off. The movie ends with Julie being the new sheriff.

This was a decent film. I wasn't crazy about the comedy elements in it, though. I don't think that it worked very well here. The story was pretty good and there were some good moments. I didn't have a problem with the cast and overall, this is worth a look. I will give it a middle of the road 5/10.

Outback Movie Review

Trailer here.

Outback is a 2019 Australian thriller directed by Mike Green and starring Lauren Lofberg and Taylor Wiese.

The tale begins in Sydney. Wade(Wiese) and his girlfriend, Lisa(Lofberg) get a car and are going to drive around Australia. They are arguing. They visit a beach and Wade gets stung by a jellyfish. Lisa wants to go to Ayers Rock. They drive to the outback and their GPS sends them into the middle of nowhere. They are in the desert. Lisa wants to head back to the main road but Wade says that they are going on. The GPS keeps rerouting them and they get lost. They find time for some chatting about their relationship while this is happening. They decide to walk to a ridge to see if they can spot a way out. It begins to get dark so they can't drive until the next morning.

Wade's leg is getting worse from the sting. They walk along for a while, but then have to rest. Lisa gets stung by a scorpion. Wade sees a plane and he goes off to get some help. Lisa wakes up and she is alone. They both search for each other. Wade makes his way back to the car but it doesn't work. Is anything going to go right for these two?? Wade wanders around in the heat, looking for Lisa. Lisa makes a video on her phone . Wade becomes sicker as time goes on. His leg is in a bad way. He starts to cough up blood so you know his time is running out. Lisa finds him and he tells her that the battery is dead in the car. He tells her that she should go to the car for shelter. She doesn't want to. Wade becomes very sick and he passes out. Lisa has to drink his urine to survive. She makes her way to the car but there is a snake in it. She has to come out. On the sixth day, she is found by a woman. Wade has died. Lisa makes it out of there alive.

This film is pretty simple. There isn't a lot to the story, but it is worth a look. The outback is a scary place if you get stranded and this story revolves around that. The characters are okay but you don't really care that much if they survive. At least, I didn't. I liked the idea of it and it was entertaining so I will award this one a 5/10.

Movie House Massacre Movie Review

Trailer here.

Movie House Massacre a.k.a. Blood Theatre is a 1984 horror movie directed by Rick Sloane and starring Mary Woronov, Jenny Cunningham and Rob Roy Fletcher.

The film begins with a movie theatre that is closing. Someone sets fire to it and the theatre clears out. The same person has a knife and he stabs the ticket girl and he sets her alight. There are more people in the theatre who are dead. There is a $25,000 reward to anyone who will open the theatre. A chain called Spotlite Theatres have taken it over. The owner is called Dean Murdock(Fletcher). Adrian(Andrew Cofrin) is the manager.  Murdock and his secretary Miss Blackwell(Woronov) show some people around the theatre. They are going to clean it up and get it working once again. He offers one person a reward for good work. Jennifer(Cunningham) is one of those people working in the theatre. Her pals show up to meet her, but they end up getting killed by an unknown assailant.

An employee called Selina goes into the theatre causing trouble. Miss Blackwell takes her outside.

Adrian and the others find old films. They look at them and see a film from the night of the massacre .

Adrian is alone when he sees a typewriter typing on its own. It says that the theatre could be his. All of the doors close in the theatre. Employees are killed by a strange man lurking in the theatre.  Murdock is beaten up and his movies are snatched. More people die as the killer goes mad. He sees Jennifer. She reminds him of a lost love. He is the owner of the theatre who went crazy years ago and killed some people. He hugs her and she takes the opportunity to stab him. The movie ends with the police being called and Miss. Blackwell deciding to leave her job.

This film wasn't great. I did like the setting of a cinema. The acting wasn't good and it was really cheap.

I did enjoy parts of it, but there were other parts that just weren't very interesting. So, this is worth a look if you are a fan of 1980's slashers but just don't expect too much. I am giving this one a 4/10.

Destroyer Movie Review

Trailer here.

Destroyer is a 1988 horror movie directed by Robert Kirk and starring Lyle Alzado, Deborah Foreman and Anthony Perkins.

Ivan Mosler(Alzado) is a killer on death row. His time has come to die. He is going to the electric chair. As he is being electrocuted, the power goes out. He comes back to life and he kills the priest who is with him and the prison guard. Cut to a writer called David(Clayton Rohner), who is making a movie called Death House Dolls. The director is Robert Edwards(Perkins). Susan(Foreman) is a stuntwoman standing in for Sharon(Lannie Garrett), the star of the movie. There is a film crew and a janitor guy called Russell(Tobias Anderson) who is keeping an eye on the old prison where they are shooting. The old warden of the prison shows up. He is all riled up. He wants to talk to the film crew. Susan finds an old doll with a message on it. 

The warden talks to David about the prison. He isn't too happy about them filming there. David is curious about what happened at the prison. Robert tells him to stop asking questions. The warden ends up getting killed. Russell sees the body. He turns a blind eye. A police officer shows up and he asks Russell about the warden. The prison is the same one that Ivan Mosler was in. He is still there. He is the one who is leaving messages. He has an eye for Susan. Russell leads the cop down to Ivan's lair. Ivan kills him. Sharon decides to quit the film.  She gets drunk and ends up meeting Ivan. He chases her. Russell tries it on with her and she fights him off.  He ends up falling. Ivan kills her. Susan is scared when she sees another message.

David talks to a former inmate of the prison. He tells David about Ivan Mosler and what happened.

He says that Ivan is still half alive. Russell is Mosler's dad. Robert gets fried in the electric chair.

Mosler shows up pretending to be a police officer. Susan realises it and she runs away. Mosler chases her. David looks for her. There is a fight when he runs into Ivan. He gets knocked out. Susan manages to electrocute Ivan but he isn't dead. Susan and David reunite. They try to escape. Mosler comes back yet again. They pour gasoline over him and Susan sets him alight. Russell dies also. Susan wakes up in hospital where she sees Mosler but it is just a bad dream. She survived and so did David.

I watched this film because Anthony Perkins was starring in it. He played his part well and made this better than it was. The film was entertaining in parts but some of the acting was dire. Overall, this is a fun slasher movie, but nothing special. I will give it a 5/10.

Necromancy Movie Review

Trailer here.

Necromancy is a 1972 horror movie directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Pamela Franklin, Michael Ontkean, Orson Welles and Lee Purcell.

The movie begins with a woman who wakes up in hospital. She is looking for her baby. The woman is called Lori(Franklin), and she is at home now. It turns out that her baby was stillborn. She is married to Frank(Ontkean). He has a new job in a place called Lilith, working in advertising. They move there. His new boss is called Mr. Cato(Welles). He is a bit of an oddball. Lori isn't that happy to be moving to Lilith. They get into a car accident and the other car bursts into flames. The cops come and Lori takes a doll from the scene.  Their car breaks down and Frank has to walk into town to get gas. Lori sees a funeral but when she looks again, it has disappeared. Frank gets the gas and they go to Lilith. They go to Mr. Cato's house for dinner. He is into the occult. Lori is spooked by him.  He gives her a book to read. It is about witchcraft. 

Lori wants to leave Lillith, but Frank doesn't. A woman called Priscilla(Purcell) tells Lori that Cato owns the town and all of the people in it. Lori is disappointed when Frank says that they have one week left before they can leave. She starts to have visions of devil worship and weird things happening. She sees a young boy. She tells the doctor, Jay(Harvey Jason) all about it, but he doesn't seem to believe her. She sees the young boy again and she asks Priscilla about it.  Priscilla doesn't know what she is talking about. Lori goes to visit Cato and informs him that she doesn't have any interest in witchcraft. He tells her that he is into necromancy. He wants to bring his son back from the dead. He knows that she has power and he wants it. Jay asks her and Frank to become members of their group. They practice witchcraft. Lori is not happy and she has horrific visions. 

She looks for Priscilla and they talk but Priscilla and Jay tell her that she won't be able to leave town. Frank disappears, making everything even stranger. Lori burns the doll that she found at the car crash site. She sees herself becoming a witch. Priscilla calls her to meet and says that she will help her leave. She tells her that Frank is a witch. When Lori arrives at Priscilla's, she finds her dead. The weirdness continues. The boy appears once again and he takes her to a field where she sees Cato and his cronies at his son's grave. They are trying to bring him back to life. She gets shoved into the coffin instead. It's another dream. She wakes up at home with Frank. The events of the movie start to replay from the start. Lori is scared and she screams as she realises that everything that happened in Lillith will happen in the future and what she experienced was a premonition.

This was a weird, jumbled up movie. The ending was odd. It was a strange film , to be honest. That doesn't make it a bad film, but it wasn't thrilling, by any means. The cast were decent. It was fun to see Michael Ontkean in this. I will always think of him as Sheriff Truman! Orson Welles somehow ended up in this which strikes me as odd. He must have needed the money, I suppose. Anyway, this was a strange offering, but I think that it will satisfy fans of occult movies. It kept me watching, so I will give it a 5/10.

The Video Dead Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Video Dead is a 1987 horror movie directed by Robert Scott and starring Roxanna Augesen and Rocky Duvall.

The film begins with two delivery men who drop a television off to a Mr. Jordan, who is a writer. He takes it inside and plugs it in. There is a weird zombie movie on it. He switches it off, but it comes back on again by itself. He tries plugging it out but the same thing happens. The zombies emerge from the TV and they kill him. The two delivery men come back. It turns out that it was a mistake. The TV was meant to go to the paranormal institute. It is left in the house as the body of the writer is found. Three months later, the house has been sold. A teenager, Zoe(Augesen) and her brother Jeff(Duvall) are moving into the house before their parents arrive.

A  man called Joshua Daniels(Sam David McClelland) calls to the house. He is looking for a package that was delivered there. A TV. The TV is in the attic. Jeff hears a woman talking and calling him. He finds the TV and brings it down. Jeff meets a local girl called April(Vickie Bastel). Her dog runs off and they look for it. April tells Jeff about the writer and his death. They discover the dog's body. Jeff turns on the TV and he sees a weird zombie movie. A woman shows up on the screen. She talks to Jeff and then she appears out of the TV. She goes back into it and she gets killed. A man talks to Jeff on TV and shows him that the woman is a zombie. He tells Jeff that they look human. He is called the 'Garbage Man'. He gets rid of the zombies. He says that Jeff is in danger and warns him to lock the TV in the basement. He tells him to get a mirror and put it next to the screen. Jeff does it. Something tries to attack him and he chops its hand off and puts it in a bag and throws it into the garbage disposal.

The zombies are out and about and they converge on April's house. They kill her father. The zombies go to other house's too and they kill more people. The police come to April's house. Jeff goes to see what's going on. Joshua Daniels calls to the house and Jeff lets him in. He tells Joshua what happened. Joshua says that he tried to destroy the TV but he couldn't, so he packed it up and tried to get rid of it. Zoe doesn't know what is going on. She thinks Joshua is crazy. April is abducted by one of the undead.

Zoe sees it and she becomes a believer. Daniels needs mirrors to keep the zombies away. They hang them outside the house. Jeff and Daniels decide to go and get the undead pests. They go into the woods and attack. April is dead. They try and get rid of all of the zombies. They can't kill the female one and she ends up wounding Daniels. She chases Jeff with a chainsaw. Joshua dies and Jeff tries to battle the female flesh muncher alone. He decapitates her but she kills him before she dies.

The zombies rise once again. Zoe waits for Jeff and Joshua. The zombies have the house surrounded. She goes out and talks to them. She invites them inside. She gives them food. She leads them to the basement. They realise what she is doing and they start to eat each other and return to the TV. The movie ends with Zoe's parents coming to visit her in an institution. They have brought the TV with them. Zoe screams when the movie comes back on the screen and her fate is sealed...

I liked this. It is meant to be a comedy so you don't take it seriously at all. It was a lot of fun. The zombies were pretty decent in it also. I liked the idea of the TV and the zombies within. There were some good scenes and it was enjoyable overall. It is worth watching for some 80's fun. It kept me entertained and I think it will pass ninety minutes nicely. I will give it a 5/10.