After spending years out of print, it’s good to see Fred Dekker’s eighties horror classics finally being given the special treatment that they deserve. For fans of the 1986 “Night of the Creeps,” they’ll be happy to know that Dekker’s zombie comedy hasn’t aged much at all. While it’s very much of its time, it still allows for an accessible and very interesting mix of horror, science fiction, coming of age, and romance that’s tough to beat. Plus, there’s Tom Atkins who is just downright fun in the role of detective Ray Cameron.
Author Archives: Felix Vasquez
Achoura (Achoura: La Nuit des Enfants) (2018) [Cinepocalypse 2019]
It’s only a matter of time until everyone begins to compare “Achoura” to “Stephen King’s It” mainly because they’re so thematically similar and share almost identical story beats. On its own, “Achoura” is a fine horror thriller that explores the loss of innocence, how fleeting innocence is for children, and how the past almost always catches up to us. As a symbol of the very heavy commentary is the rather spooky and interesting monster of the film, the Bougatate, that’s less a figment of imagination, and more a living darkness that devours kids’ joy, and fear.
Ma (2019)
We don’t have nearly enough horror movies about the aftermath and fall out of bullying and how often times bullies can destroy us. We’ve had “Slaughter High” in the past, but we’ve come around to sharp thrillers like “The Gift” and “The Final” which depict the victim less as insane, and more as broken people. “Ma” is kind of that film that approaches the very themes, but never quite knows what to make of its titular villain. “Ma” is a sharp thriller with a killer performance from Octavia Spencer that manages to rise above a narrative that’s very confused about what it’s trying to say.
The Green Inferno (2013): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray/CD]
At the very least, “Cannibal Holocaust” had something to say about humanity and the cruelty of alleged civilized societies. It also had a lot to say about xenophobia and white privilege. Even “Cannibal Ferox” had something interesting to say. “The Green Inferno” is peak Eli Roth where it has no idea what it wants to say and it bathes itself in disgusting, sadistic, unpleasant, garbage that it never quite rebounds from. Whether it’s stoned cannibals eating a guy, to a prisoner masturbating to calm himself down, “The Green Inferno” is the bottom of the barrel sophomoric nonsense that Eli Roth puts on to film with pride.
Cinepocalypse 2019 Shorts Block 2: Sex, Blood, and Heavy Metal [Cinepocalypse 2019]
This year I covered Cinepocalypse’s second shorts block, and for this round the topics included Sex, Blood, and Heavy Metal. Not all of the movies are horror here, nor are they particularly scary, but they’re an interesting variety for the festival.
You Have to See This! Tammy and the T-Rex: The Gore Cut (1994) [Cinepocalypse 2019]
“I was sticking all this shit in it, just to make it work.” – Stewart Raffill on writing “Tammy and the T-Rex”
In the nineties America was obsessed with dinosaurs. For reasons we could never put our fingers on, Dinosaurs were in just about every facet of pop culture you could imagine. Video games, movies, animated series, they were mascots for snack foods, they were the basis for a family sitcom, and yes, they were fit in to movies amounting to cinematic oddities still making movie buffs scratch their heads. We had a family film about miniature dinosaurs, a buddy cop comedy about a female cop and a dinosaur, and yes, we even had “Tammy and the T-Rex.”
Attack of the Demons (2019) [Cinepocalypse 2019]
I have to say that I hate that I didn’t like “Attack of the Demons.” Throughout its merciful seventy five minute run time I anxiously tried to love it, and wanted to recommend it thirty times over. But by the end, while I appreciated its approach and concept, it’s really just a dull demonic thriller in the end. There might be a new way here to tall a story, but it’s by no means a novel take on the premise of a demon apocalypse by Eric Power.