The best action movie released all year, “Bounty Killer,” finally comes to DVD and Blu-Ray, as director Henry Saine delivers action fans a pulpy apocalyptic thriller worthy of a large fan base. “Bounty Killer” is set in the future where corporations are now enemy number one and have laid waste to civilization with their greed. The government has sent a slew of skilled and crafty bounty killers to hunt down and take down corporate executives daring to run away with their corporation’s profits.
I’m a proud Three Stooges fan, raised by two comedy loving parents that taught me to appreciate the classic vaudevillian trio. From Shemp, and Curly, to Curly Joe, I really love the Stooges and their antics. In 1965, Cambria Studios took advantage of their teaming with Curly Joe DeRita, and produced a two season long animated series for the Stooges. Though the animated series has very crude animation, and tones down the physical gags immensely, it’s still a fun and charming little vehicle for the trio of comedy legends.
“Creature Crypt” is a four part weekly column that spotlights two creatures from our childhood that made us in to rabid horror fans. These are the creatures that scared us, wowed us, made us cry, and made us hope they weren’t under our bed.
Well, I never expected “I Luv Halloween” to be so… unusual. Surely, I was expecting a demented bit of Halloween celebration within a three volume graphic novel, but the Tokyo Pop tale of a group of kids who trick or treat no matter what, is kind of compelling. Compelling in that it’s often gory, sick, twisted, and features a group of children that take Halloween more seriously than I do. How often do you see a small girl bash a kid’s head in with a large rock with a bra, and pulling out his teeth joyfully after he steals her candy? Molars, yay!
Director Darren Lynn Bousman’s “The Devil’s Carnival” is a movie that made me think I should probably give “Repo! The Genetic Opera” another chance. Since its release, “Repo!” has apparently become a road show in the vein of “Rocky Horror,” and “The Devil’s Carnival” seeks to carry that success further. I sought out Bousman’s hour long film anxiously on the internet, and after watching it on Netflix, I still can’t stop raving about it. It’s a dark, mature, often brilliant look at the age old tale of lost souls and the devil’s efforts to lure them in to his den of sins and eternal torment. Three souls on the verge of death enter in to hell’s carnival and are put to the test. Lucifer is the ring master of this wicked carnival, and with his trio of minions, tries to test the revolve of these lost individuals.
I remember the summer of 1993 fondly. It was the year I went to see the “Coneheads” movie and recall thinking back to the release of “Hocus Pocus” wondering why it wasn’t slated for an October release. Disney is usually smart with release dates, and “Hocus Pocus” ended up becoming one of the most revered holiday classics of all time. For Disney-philes, “Hocus Pocus” has enough menace to be considered a horror movie, but not so much where it’s impossible for the kids to watch. Twenty years later, “Hocus Pocus” is that classic horror film for kids that has yet to show its age at all, even when you consider adorable Thora Birch turned in to a gorgeous woman many years later. “Hocus Pocus” hearkens back to the most entertaining element of the Halloween season: the threat of witches.
It’s amazing how James Wan once went from the man who brought us movies about a maniac torturing people to one of the most horrifying ghost tales ever brought to the big screen. “The Conjuring” lives up to its hype as a slow boil and immensely scary supernatural tale about an average family terrorized by a vicious demonic entity that’s intent on ruining their foundation from the inside out.