Killer dolls are popular once again and now seems like a better time than ever for Chucky to enter stage left and remind people that once upon a time he was the plastic maniac with a butcher knife. 1988’s “Child’s Play” is still a mini-classic that dabbles in the killer doll sub-genre and offers up its own twist. It’s essentially a slasher movie through and through, but it has small doses of the supernatural, and mysterious to add some kind of logic to the origin of Chucky. Brad Douriff’s turn as Chucky is immortal as he plays serial killer Charles Lee Ray, a man who is chased by police during a robbery. After being mortally wounded during a shoot out, Ray ducks in to a toy store and finds no other option but to summon magic to keep himself alive. Said magical incantation allows his soul to be transferred in to a popular doll named the “Good Guy Doll.”
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Child Eater (2016) [Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2016]
Based on the 2012 short of the same name, Child Eater follows a babysitter as she watches the new kid in town in an old house that has a bad history. As she tries to sooth the boy she’s watching, he seems to be good to go to bed. He then decides to go exploring the nearby woods which contain a terrifying legend. Writer/director Erlingur Thoroddsen whose short this feature is based on takes his story of the boogeyman and expands it to a wider story. The creepy figure he creates is at first a looming figure, something that may or may not be real. However, clues abound to its existence and who or what it used to be before it started doing its evil deeds.
Psychotic! (2016) [Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2016]
This film follows a group of friends attempting to enjoy the party scene in Bushwick (Brooklyn) when a party killer starts eliminating party goers here and there. Not know who the killer is or when they will strike again. The friends are navigating life, dating, expensive apartments, and their passions. Credits for the film are not yet on IMDB, so the festival’s site is the only source of information for now. The film is directed and written by Maxwell Frey and Derek Gibbons who start the film off with a clear homage to stalker films of the early 80s with a scene that follows a person stalking a girl.
The Master Cleanse (2016) [Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2016]
In the hope of letting go of the past and of heartbreak, Paul goes on a retreat where he undertakes a “master cleanse” that cleanses him of more than just toxins. Writer/director Bobby Miller creates a film that is equal parts drama and comedy while having some fantasy and horror elements. The way he mixes both works very well here and he manages to reach that ideal balance between both while creating a story that is good and well developed. The characters he creates are relatable and easy to care about, especially the lead. His characters, the leads in particular, are people with issues and needs to be accepted and to move on with their lives. Of course, the situation they find themselves in is a bit ridiculous, but the way it’s written makes it work.
Stake Land 2 (2016)
Fans have wanted a sequel to “Stake Land” since its premiere in 2011, and while the conditions of it being a TV movie aren’t ideal, thankfully the follow up is just as good as the original. Dan Berk and Robert Olsen continue what Jim Mickle started delivering a sequel that’s just as bleak and complex as the original. “Stake Land 2,” once known by the superior title “The Stakelander,” takes off six years after we met the dynamic team of Martin and his enigmatic mentor Mister. Fans of the original will be happy to know that original stars Connor Paolo and Nick Damici return as the characters of Martin and Mister, with the sequel placing a greater emphasis on Martin as an adult. Writer Nick Damici also returns to progress the characters further and does a bang up job opening up this world even further and unfolding a narrative that transforms in to a whole other tale of survival and revenge by the second half.
Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
It’s really hard to ignore the charm of Ernest and his Halloween adventure. “Ernest Scared Stupid” most definitely has a lot of nostalgic value and sentimental value, but it’s also a very good kids’ horror movie where Ernest battles a bunch of trolls. Ernest and Jim Varney has just always had a good chemistry and here it’s on full display when trolls are unleashed during Halloween. Here, Varney plays Ernest as a garbage collector in a Missouri town. Hundreds of years before a troll that used magic to turn kids in to wooden dolls was locked in a tree and kept dormant. Ernest helps his three friends Kenny Binder, Elizabeth and Joey construct their own tree house which they use as a means of entertainment and warding off the local bullies.
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Disney’s 1951 adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” is perhaps one of their most iconic animated productions. And yet it’s one of my least favorite Disney films of all time. More so than “Hunchback of Notre Dame” even. Alice, as played by Kathryn Beaumont, is a restless British girl who falls down a rabbit hole when she attempts to chase a talking rabbit who is insistent on reaching an appointment. After falling down a rabbit hole, she enters in to Wonderland where nothing is ever what it quite seems in her world. Up is down, big is small, and everything garners some sense of sentience that makes her exploration of this world even more menacing and baffling than she imagined.