Admittedly I wasn’t the biggest fan of Alex Pucci’s “Camp Daze.” While it was an original concept for the camp slasher it was a bit too reliant on throwbacks to the slasher sub-genre to be the perfect horror film. Pucci bounces back though with “Frat House Massacre” an excellent horror slasher that sets down in the late seventies revolving around familiar themes of revenge, karma, and the inevitable twist. It’s surprising that with such a small budget Pucci is able to accomplish what Ti West did in “House of the Devil,” hearkening back to the decade of the seventies so adamantly and making this feel successfully like a capsule of the time with fashions, hairstyles, and a killer soundtrack and synth score that makes this seem utterly genuine.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
I Love Sarah Jane (2007)
With the rising popularity of Mia Wasikowska taking the reigns of Alice in Tim Burton’s 2010 revival of “Alice in Wonderland,” and her show stopping performance in the HBO series “In Treatment,” I took a second look at Spencer Susser’s science fiction horror short “I Love Sarah Jane,” a very good epilogue to a larger story I originally reviewed in 2008 for the Sundance internet short showcase. “I Love Sarah Jane” is a teen romance set in the post-apocalyptic world overrun by the walking dead.
Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! (2006)
Though I thoroughly enjoyed director Chad Ferrin’s “Easter Bunny Kill! Kill!” I have to say that its primary downfall is that it takes much too long to build up to anything violent or horrific. A good forty minutes in to the movie I understood the build-up but could never understand why it took so long to extrapolate on the cruelty of the supporting characters. In spite of those flaws though “Easter Bunny Kill! Kill!” is a great little horror karma tale you’ll enjoy if you’re willing to invest enough time in the story and over the top performances.
Caesar and Otto’s Summer Camp Massacre (2009)
The best way to approach independent films looking to tap the comedy genre is to keep an open mind. Try a parking lot in the Grand Canyon type of open and you’ll be there. That’s the way I confronted Dave Campfield’s “Caesar and Otto” horror comedy. An apparent sequel to an earlier film of his, Dave Campfield enlists the horror genre to this installment and just goes all out wacky in every single instance he can muster up. Campfield doesn’t exactly follow a specific comedy formula here and it shows quite often with scenes that are just insanely nonsensical. From character Caesar’s inherent wackiness when indulging himself in a bit part as an extra in a television show (a scene that promised to be awful but was quite funny), to his implementing of “Where’s Waldo”-like glasses when reading a map, Campfield just seems to be using whatever he thinks will work no matter how nonsensical it may be and… It’s funny. It’s very funny.
Breaking Her Will (2009)
Director Bill Zebub’s exploitation horror film “Breaking her Will” is an exercise in torture. On the audience. It’s tedious, boring, repetitive, redundant, and has no purpose other than to be as shocking as humanly possible with torture methods that are tame compared to what I’ve seen in films like “Hostel” and “Hard Candy.” Bill Zebub doesn’t even want to try to present a premise, he just wants to get to the torture. The movie opens with a young girl hitchhiking. Where is she headed? Why is she hitchhiking? Who knows? She has no bags and barely any clothing. She’s picked up a man on the road who drives through the woods (the girl doesn’t even seem disturbed by this) and he stops at a parking lot and gets out (as she sits in the car confused!), he pulls out a knife on her and in spite of the fact the door is wide open, she submits to being taken hostage instead of doing what normal people would do like fight, or run, or scream. And that’s only the first four minutes.
Survival of the Dead (2009)
The second leg of Romero’s zombie epic takes a page from “Day of the Dead” in where our characters seek refuge in an island out on the water and are continuing an ever going debate on whether or not the walking dead can be adjusted to eat an alternative to long pig. Once again Romero splits audiences down the middle with “Survival of the Dead,” a definitely polarizing zombie entry from the master who continues to entertain me in spite of audiences continued misunderstanding of what the king of the zombies is pushing for.
Kitten with a Whip (1964)
I am admittedly ignorant to the praise and mocking this 1964 ditty has received over the decades. From a treatment on MST3K in America, to a cult following, “Kitten with a Whip” is that rare piece of cinema fodder that is a completely obvious chunk of sixties conservative propaganda demonizing the youth, free spirits, and sexuality altogether. Setting aside the context, “Kitten with a Whip” is a dumb movie. It’s sometimes very ridiculous to the point where this can just be deemed as a fantasy or a cartoon of a sorts. The vivacious Ann Margret coming off of “Viva Las Vegas” slums it and mugs it for the camera in this cliché youth gone wild quasi-thriller that is something of a fractured romance beneath the hilarious camp and utterly absurd dialogue.