I didn’t expect “Headless Horseman” to live up to these standards, because it’s clearly a low budget horror effort, but hell, when you spin on the Sleepy Hollow tale, you have some responsibility to entertain. And if you fail, you’re going to fall hard. “Headless Horseman” is that exact movie that takes a classic tale and turns it into much more clichés. There’s a bunch of white bread actors playing college students who are on the road traveling to a party. I think. Their van breaks down, and they end up in an old Southern town where old characters mutter chestnuts like “Y’all just passing through, huh?” Director Ferrante really twists the story for the sake of avoiding anachronisms and error in facts, especially insisting that the character of the headless horseman really didn’t strike in New England, but the Southern town they happen upon.
Abominable (2006)
Schifrin’s horror thriller is set up with so much obligatory plot devices, and potential victims of our vicious abominable snowman, and yet, I really liked it a lot in the end. “Abominable” has that same old “Rear Window” device borrowing heavily from the formula as Matt McCoy plays Preston, a crippled man healing from a horrible accident who returns to his mountain home to grieve over his wife. Things have changed around his neck of the woods, as a vicious monster is roaming the wilderness killing animals, and Preston really can’t do much of anything in a wheelchair.
Hostel: Part II (2007) (Unrated Director's Cut) (DVD)
When “Hostel Part II” failed to burst from the starting gates at the box office, there was many an interesting developments. The torture fad had officially drawn to a close with “entertainment insiders” lamenting the death of said fad that polluted theaters, horror geeks worried about the fate of hardcore gore filled horror films, and Eli Roth pretty much blamed everyone but himself. He blamed the bootleggers, he blamed critics, he blamed the studio, and hell, he warned of the death of R rated horror if his film did poorly. To date, two R rated horror films have been hits in the box office. The explanation toward the lethargic pacing of “Hostel Part II” at the box office can be summed up in a short sense. It was merely a retread of the first.
The Jazz Singer (1927) (Three-Disc Deluxe Edition) (DVD)
I always manage to garner negative reactions from fellow movie geeks who find my sheer stern love for film rather irritating. I’m told to lighten up, I’m told that I take this stuff too seriously, and that movies are just entertainment; “They’re just movies! They’re there to entertain above everything else! Don’t be so critical!” The reason why I hold movies to such a high regard with a strong importance is because movies are a powerful form of art and expression, and images in film can hold a great deal of power that can affect everyone from casual observers to the deepest of film buffs. If it were the contrary, Warner Bros. would have included the most famous image of “The Jazz Singer” on the box of this new deluxe edition, rather than opting for an image of Jolson’s shadow in a beaming spotlight.
The Ant Bully (2006)
When we experience misery in our own lives, we look for ways to vent our frustration. When we’re bullied, many of us in anger tend to bully as well, only on smaller individuals than us. “The Ant Bully” is yet another “What they do when we’re not looking” animated film that revolves around yet another microcosm with species learning to survive in our mass consuming intrusive world. Films like the hilarious “Over the Hedge” and the groan inducing “Barnyard” as well as a slew of others dare to demonstrate such a concept.
Nature of the Beast (2007)
The death kiss of the “American Pie” franchise continues, as Rodman Flender’s comedy asks us to pontificate the notion of one of the guys from “Teen Wolf” actually growing up to be married. And what if this guy didn’t tell his wife that he was a werewolf by nature, or super nature? Sure, this is really just a ninety minute sitcom in reality that uses a small horror device that doesn’t even place it within the horror fold, but it does indeed rip off “Teen Wolf” considerably. This could very well have been a sequel that occurs ten years later if they pushed for theatrical distribution hard enough.
Bloodsucking Cinema
There are three reasons for “Bloodsucking Cinema” premiering on Starz! as part of the Fearfest Month. One: there’s the premiere of David Slade’s “30 Days of Night” which is, coincidentally centered around blood thirsty vampires in a terrain where night lasts for a full month. Two: Starz! is ringing in the holiday again with this great two hour documentary, and three: vampires are just flat out fantastic pieces of lore and the occult. Ever since I was a child from Bela Lugosi to Christopher Lee, vampires have been one of my primary focuses of the horror genre. They’re the easiest monster to create for the screen, and they’re the most prevalent, and that’s because there’s still so much to do with the vampire mythology.