It’s always a thrill when an indie horror movie, a good indie horror movie, manages to take America by storm. “It Follows” is the big horror indie of 2015, and for good reason. It’s a creepy, intelligent, complex, and occasionally terrifying glimpse in to a nightmarish world where having pre-marital sex results in dire consequences. Particularly there’s the demon simply identified as It. Maika Monroe is great and absolutely gorgeous as Jay, a young girl who goes out with a guy named Hugh on a date. After they hit it off they have sex in his car, and Hugh proceeds to kidnap Jay. Rather than harm her, he explains that during sex he’s passed on a supernatural curse, and he explains the rules on how to evade the demon. One of the main guidelines being that sex passes the curse on and she must find someone to sleep with to save her own life.
Author Archives: Felix Vasquez
Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985) [Blu-ray]
There are two reasons to watch “Howling II”: The sheer utter hotness of Sybil Danning, who walks around throughout the film in a tight leather leotard that makes her look like a Batman villain. And Two: The utterly inept performance by the one and only Reb Brown. It’s a long way to go from Dee Wallace to Reb Brown, but hot damn the creators of the sequel to “The Howling” are more than up for the challenge to remind us which of the pair is more convincing as a human being. “Howling II” is the official sequel to “The Howling”; it’s a goofy, wonky, and camp laden werewolf picture hell bent on celebrating the new wave movement by literally handing us European new wave super villains that happen to be a cult of werewolves.
Spider Baby (1967) (2-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray/DVD]
If I had to pick a cult film that I’d take with me on a deserted island, it’d either be “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”, or Jack Hill’s “Spider-Baby.” It’d probably be the latter if I was pressed. I fondly remember being introduced to “Spider-Baby” as a child, when I used to sit down to watch “Horrible Horror” with Zacharly. I always found the scene of Jill Banner slicing and dicing poor Mantan Moreland to be one of the sickest bits of horror cinema I’d ever witnessed. Years later, I was happy to watch the film in its entirety, and thankfully Jack Hill’s dark horror comedy hasn’t aged a single bit.
The Death of Superman Lives – What Happened? (2015)
It’s funny to think that in an alternate reality so many radical ideas were likely able to flourish. In some reality Jodorowsky made his version of “Dune,” and in an alternate reality perhaps we had “Superman Lives.” I wasn’t keen on exploring the story of the lost production of “Superman Lives,” the failed reboot of the Superman movie franchise initially. But the documentary proves that the enduring fascination with its potentially disastrous development is just, and very much a worthwhile exploration of too many cooks in the kitchen. There was a time where superhero movies weren’t a common place in cinema, and those that were in theaters were low tier barely marketable characters that almost always guaranteed to flop.
Sweet Madness (2015)
Since her inception in 1992, Harley Quinn has been one of Batman’s most intriguing and alluring rogues. She’s the ultimate fan girl to the point of lunacy, and her cunning along with her ability to match wits with just about anyone make her one of the most fascinating figures of contemporary culture. It’s no shock that director Peter Dukes sought to explore the inner most psychology of Harley, as she’s titillated just about everyone. And it’s satisfying that director Dukes is able to convey Harley’s persona so well. Despite the fact that Batman never appears, “Sweet Madness” is a pretty sick and brilliant fan film that puts Harley front and center.
Sci-fi, Super humans, and Romance. Pick Up “The Genesis Exiles” Today!
There’s nothing more harrowing than looking at a blank page that has to be filled with paragraphs and information. That’s why writing is such a feat. It takes hard work and commitment, even for people that just blog about their lives on a daily basis. To put it bluntly: I wrote a book, and I hope you buy it and enjoy it.
“The Genesis Exiles” was a long time coming, my very own universe very much in the vein of Superman and X-Men that takes two characters I fell in love with and pits them against the world. Surely it’s about two super humans fighting against the world, but it’s also about the unbreakable bonds of love, and how it can move mountains. I hope you consider buying “The Genesis Exiles” and if you do, I hope you enjoy it.
It’s on Amazon Kindle, and Smashwords; it’s action packed fun for any science fiction fan, and makes a great gift.
Thanks for reading Cinema Crazed.
Don’t Play with Ghosts (2015)
It’s always nice to see the beginning of a filmmaker’s career and if “Don’t Play with Ghosts” is any indication, Sydney Hord has a long road ahead of her filled with surprises. “Don’t Play with Ghosts” is a part of a 48 hour film competition with a three and a half minute length, and in that time Hord manages to paint a really spooky picture. It’s a simplistic premise, but one wrought with some interesting twist and turns.