“Ghostbusters” was a superb one and done premise that worked because it had such regular men who were called in to confront some spectacular circumstances, and in the end have to figure out how to live in a reality where they’ve essentially proven the existence of the supernatural. It’s surprising that the follow up is so sub-par and often monotonous as it almost has nothing to do with the original concept. It kind of goes through the motions and doesn’t exactly know how to continue building on these originally complex and flawed individuals. They don’t evolve much at all from when we last saw them, and writer Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd seem to be painted in to a corner by devolving them and building them back up all over again.
Category Archives: Halloween Horror Month
Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron (2007)
“Blood & Iron” is a stellar sequel to the entertaining and raucous “Sword of Storms,” and it’s a yet another faithful adaptation that emphasizes the lore and world of the BPRD. The animated follow ups to the movie, set somewhere between the movies, have been worthy of the time spent with excellent animation, and a compelling narrative, overall. The idea bout the audience watching outcasts defend our Earth and realm is continuously fascinating, and the cast bring their A game.
Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms (2006)
For folks that appreciated the subversive artistic style that launched Mike Mignola into stardom, “Sword of Storms” practices a lot of the grit and indie flavor, along with much of what made Del Toro’s films so stellar. There’s even voice work from the original films’ stars including Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, John Hurt, and Doug Jones, all of whom are about as fun as ever. Directors Phil Weinstein and Tad Stones’ animated movie is set between the live action installments, channeling creator Mike Mignola with dark and often grim animation, with the back drop of an exciting narrative that never trails from its original source material.
Five Bogeymen Who Might Be Related to Freddy Krueger
If you’ve ever seen the series “Freddy’s Nightmares” (Trust me, don’t, it’s awful), then it’s verified in various episodes that Freddy Krueger isn’t the only dream demon out there. In fact he’s one of many, and there are other types of demons that can haunt our dreams and our subconscious. In either case, I was thinking about the slew of horror movie monsters out there introduced since Krueger hit the movies in the eighties and wondered what other boogey men could perhaps be a part of Freddy’s world, or from his lineage. Here are five monsters that I think could be related to Freddy Krueger.
The Crescent (2017) [Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2017]
Following a death in their family, a woman and her son go to the family’s secluded house to try and heal and find their way.
Written by Darcy Spidle and directed by Seth A. Smith, The Crescent is more family drama than horror film, but it does have some horror elements involved. The story is one of the slowest burns seen this year or maybe even this decade, it’s slow to a painful crawl. The film has some good elements, but they get lost when the viewer loses interest due to the pace and the fact that most of the conversations are between a woman and her small child. Those conversations are cute at times, but they bring pretty much nothing to the story. If the film had been entirely silent as some of its scenes are, it may have had more impact. As it stands, the film’s dialogue eventually feels useless and like babbling. Missing parts of it is not that big of an issue, which is not something that helps keep attention to the film. The story itself feels a lot like something that could have made a short with a brisker pace and this would have been plenty time to tell the story.
Mayhem (2017)
Joe Lynch is a filmmaker not prone to delivering just everyday horror and genre outings, and “Mayhem” is proof of that. This is a man who should be delivering his off beat storytelling and directorial style to big budget features like James Gunn, but that is by no means a slight on the director. “Mayhem” is a demented dark satire and horror film filled with gore, dark humor, and a biting commentary on the doldrums of the work place and world of corporate back stabbing. Director Joe Lynch takes “Wolf of Wall Street” and “Warning Sign” and drops it in to a blender creating one of the most ruthless balls to the wall meshing of genres I’ve seen in a while. While Lynch is very liberal with the use of gore and splatter, there’s a damn good reasoning for all of what goes down.
Inheritance (2017) [Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2017]
After inheriting a very expensive house from the father he thought long dead, Ryan moves in with his girlfriend Isi. While trying to figure things out about his father, Ryan finds more than he bargained for.
Writer/director Tyler Savage creates a film that is very low key and takes its time to develop its characters and story. This leads to a slow burn of a film that is deliberate and works for the story. The film is one of those films that will take too long for some viewers but should delight those loving when films take their time and bring the creep factor in slowly and in small doses. This is not a jump scare type of film, but one that works on the psychological level of things. The story is mainly about Ryan and his quest to understanding why his father left him this how and why he stayed silent and away for so long. This is done through calculated reveals and scenes that are created with a great attention to details.