I’ve always fancied myself more of an “Addams Family” fan but I have great respect for the “Munsters” franchise. It’s a shame that Rob Zombie, the professed horror fan has so oddly botched his one attempt at reviving the “Munsters.” Zombie has the golden opportunity to really reinvigorate the Munsters for a new generation and drops the ball for what I can only describe as a disaster of a reboot.
Simplicity has always been the best friend of the slasher movie. Nine times out of ten the best slasher movies aren’t convoluted or complex. Most times they’re just simple premises with simple motivations but a lot of subtext added throughout the narrative. “Halloween,” “Scream,” “Friday the 13th,” all benefited from being fairly simplicity and so does “You’re Next.” Adam Wingard’s horror thriller came like a wrecking ball back in 2011, sideswiping me and just blowing me out of my seat. Although now he’s headed for the bigger blockbusters, Wingard’s horror outings tend to channel John Carpenter with how they mesh sub-genres.
Dammit I love “Dracula 2000.”
I’m not too sure what the ultimate plan was for the Dracula character in the larger scheme of things, except the fact that everything had to be rebooted in the new millennium apparently. Everything had to press the reset button, including Dracula. This Dracula was a hunky vampire for the modern age where he would once again roam free to build his army, and do battle with Van Helsing. And he would do it set to rock music that ruled the radio, wreaking havoc to the tune of System of a Down, Linkin Park, and Disturbed, to name a simple few.
Picking up a few years after the last scene of FP 2, this third entry in the series takes JTRO and his fam and gets them involved in a new challenge that includes everything from remixed to time travel. Will they manage to figure out what to do in time to save their world?
Wes Craven was a man who managed to re-invent the horror genre at least three times during his entire career. Craven was a man who helped define a lot of the modern tropes we take for granted, and yes, even brought the nineties out of the drudges with his jolt of adrenaline known as “Scream.” However, sometimes Craven’s efforts didn’t always click, and while he had a knack for fascinating characters and complex situations, “Deadly Friend” is one of his more notable genre misfires.
The Z Movie to end all Z movies, “Frankenstein’s Daughter” is both a cult classic and a classic piece of cinematic trash. It’s a god awful attempt to take the Frankenstein tale and retro-fit it in to a teen horror drama about coming of age, legacy, and uncomfortable scenes of men aggressively hitting on high school girls. In either case, “Frankenstein’s Daughter” is something of an anomaly, it’s a movie that’s been widely accepted within the genre, but it’s just so painfully bad when you finally experience it.
The sequel you knew was coming!
This 4th year, folx know what to expect: a calendar focusing on horror. In particular this year, its indie creators with a queen of the horror world who is a regular of indie films, big budgets, and everything in between as the cover lady. If you have not recognized her yet, she is the one and only Eileen Dietz (The Exorcist, Itsy Bitsy, a total of 119 credits to this day).
When left under their grandma’s care while their parents go on vacation, a brother and sister find themselves without electronic devices. When they meet two local kids and find a mysterious book, they work together and awaken a Kratt who is hellbent on causing mayhem if not kept occupied with a job at all times.