Gareth Edwards science fiction horror flick is a grim picture, and one nowhere near intent on offering a positive look on humanity and a new world. What he instead does is spotlight a new world where one side has learned to co-exist with a new breed of creatures that crash landed on Earth, while the more privileged side of the world is so intent on refusing to admit the inevitable that they’ve built possibly the largest wall to separate them from the rest of society. Edwards’ genre offering while essentially a monster movie with carnage and shocks is also a thought provoking piece on society and two views on it looking down at two characters who see more than they ever have in a matter of forty eight hours.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Piranha 3D (2010)
Alexandre Aja’s latest remake feels so utterly lazy and muddled and idiotic that it seems like the studio just threw a few million dollars his way and asked him to just throw as much blood and guts to the screen as humanly possible. And I imagine it was the easiest payday this man ever saw. From minute one Aja’s film wants to be taken on so many levels. It wants to be a political commentary, a schlock cult film, and a satire of schlock films, it doesn’t take itself seriously, but it depicts violence so realistically.
Red: Werewolf Hunter (2010)
I have to admit that I was rather surprised to watch Sheldon Wilson’s television movie “Red: Werewolf Hunter” and realize mid-way that it’s not what I originally assumed it to be. What I thought would be a low budget retooling of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a ginger haired beauty learning she’s destined to be a werewolf hunter is actually not what it purports to be. In actuality heroine Red is well aware of her destiny in the opening of the film and engages in a routine werewolf hunt with her brothers and grandmother throughout most of the story.
The Bad Cookie (2010)
Director Drew Daywalt’s short “The Bad Cookie” is something of a twisted dark comedy and horror story that is really almost impossible to peg down but is nonetheless very entertaining and goofy in some instances, it’s that classic horror story of pure evil born out of hatred, and the romance between a woman and a her cookie. Daywalt comprises a genuinely entertaining and simultaneously ridiculous fantasy horror film about a young woman named Denise who is something of an angelic young woman prone to many hobbies, one of which is celebrating Halloween with horror movies, and baking cookies.
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
It’s not often movies are released that manage to disturb the human consciousness anymore; especially a horror film. In this day and age horror fans have seen everything and are desensitized to the point where the death of an animal rolls off our backs. So it’s pretty surprising to be visiting my favorite movie haunts online to witness numerous comments from horror buffs proclaiming “I’m never watching “Human Centipede!” People are horrified to see what director Tom Six has concocted because good or bad, he has managed to create one of the most evocative, controversial, and utterly disturbing horror films ever made. And it’s one that will spark many debates from movie buffs on its intent. Is it a study of the human psyche, the god complex of surgeons, or just an excuse for human torture for ninety minutes?
The Hills Run Red (2008)
If you’re willing to ignore the obligatory self-aware jabs at slasher films in the first half hour that derails the story for a good portion of the prologue, “The Hills Run Red” is actually quite an entertaining slasher film, and one that dabbles in that classic formula of teens wanting to uncover a legend and meeting pure evil and chaos face to face. If you keep knocking on the devil’s door, eventually he’s going to answer, and two aspiring filmmakers learn that lesson when they team up to find the mythical grindhouse flick “The Hills Run Red” a controversial gory film in the vein of Ruggero Deodato’s classic that mysteriously went missing along with its director and co-stars.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010): DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Pack
While scouring reviews for “Nightmare,” I read a comment online that suggested the reason why Samuel Bayer’s absolutely lethargic lazy remake of the horror classic is so bad is because he wasn’t recruited by Platinum Dunes to re-imagine this world, but to simply lens it for them. And that’s an apt observation when you’ve managed to sit down and actually watch Platinum Dunes latest cinematic slap to the face of movie goers and horror lovers everywhere. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” 2010 is possibly one of the worst remakes of all time, it’s a lazy, unimaginative, nonsensical, and absolutely tedious piece of hogwash that doesn’t try to do anything new with the material before it, nor does it re- invent much, but instead merely goes through the motions as a routine horror affair focused on squeezing in as much shocks as possible and moving on to the next scene.