The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

It’s a remake! It’s a sequel! It’s a remake! It’s a sequel! No, it’s an homage! Who knows what “The Rage: Carrie 2” is. Like most “sequels” in the late nineties and early aughts, I imagine this was originally just called “The Rage,” and the studios decided to plug in a lot of continuity from Brian DePalma’s “Carrie.” A few quick fixes, and voila! We have a sequel to “Carrie” that no one wanted. “Carrie 2” is actually a solid dramatic thriller when all is said and done, the problem is it’s really not necessary. We don’t need to know what happened once Carrie White destroyed her entire student body.

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Carrie (2002)

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Back in the early aughts, remake fever was hitting pop culture like a mad rush, and even major television networks were getting in on remaking classic horror films. From “Helter Skelter,” to “Salem’s Lot,” no classic horror movie was off limits. 2002’s “Carrie” doesn’t just remake the Briand DePalma movie for a contemporary audience, but attempts to spin the entire story in to a potential television series for NBC. I’m not too sure what direction they would have taken Carrie in her own series. Perhaps she’d be an anti-hero, or someone who helped other troubled supernatural beings while traveling on the road with Sue Snell. Who knows?

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Little Monsters (1989)

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

The 1989 horror comedy from Richard Greenberg is definitely one of the best buddy comedies from the late eighties. While nostalgia is very kind to it, many years later it’s just a very good movie that hasn’t aged all that well. In either case, “Little Monsters” is a childhood classic I recall watching about three times a day for a month, and still loving. I was a seven year old horror fan and couldn’t get enough of this world presented to us on-screen. It also helped that the movie starred Fred Savage who, at the time, was the big name as a child star.

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Riddle (2013)

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

It’s a movie about a girl solving a mystery in a town called Riddle. Soak that in. If anything, “Riddle” isn’t a complete loss of time when you consider that Elizabeth Harnois and co-star Diora Baird are mind-blowingly gorgeous. The pair can also provide good performances when given the right material. I’m still not sure why Elizabeth Harnois keeps being handed these roles that straddle the line between horror and drama. Is she trying to garner a fan base while not being pegged a horror scream queen? She’s very pretty and a decent performer. Diora Baird is now and will always be a bombshell of a woman, so her presence is welcome. She has charisma that make almost any movie watchable. That said, “Riddle” is not quite a drama, and not quite a horror film. It’s just right there in the middle for a broad audience.

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Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Author Anne Rice has been accused of feminizing the vampire creature for a very long time. While Bram Stoker was one of the first authors to take a fear creature of its period and turn it in to an individual with feeling and romantic urges, Anne Rice gets the brunt of the blame for taking a horrifying creature and transforming it in to a romance novel element. I can safely say I’ve never read a single Rice novel, but I am always surprised when I find that “Interview with the Vampire” is an entertaining film. It’s probably the most erotic mainstream film of all time. It’s a glorified Jean Rollin vampire film that places sexual emphasis on blood sucking and vampirism that Jess Franco or Jean Rollin would have offered fans in the early seventies.

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Profoundly Disturbing: The Shocking Movies that Changed History [Paperback]

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Joe Bob Briggs is a well of horror knowledge, and in “Profoundly Disturbing,” he is filled with amazing stories about some of the most game changing films in movie history. He re-visits the grindhouse and the drive-in once again to profile some truly incredible and unique films. Rather than explain why the movies altered cinema, he also discusses interesting facts about their productions and the odd effects they had on pop culture. Did you know on “The Exorcist” that the actress who could projectile vomit sued the studio for not crediting her as the vomiter? Did you also know Ellen Burstyn had at least five different stage names before she was Ellen Burstyn?

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Stephen King’s It (1990)

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Stephen King creates the ultimate boogeyman and he is neither man nor monster, despite the visage of a clown called Pennywise. “Stephen King’s It” is filled with the usual King doldrums of a small town with hidden demons, and at least one character that wants to be an author. That said director Tommy Lee Wallace’s adaptation is a great horror film, and a perfectly good bit of nostalgia. “It” gets a lot of flack for deviating from the original novel, but considering it is a television movie, director Wallace does a bang up job. “It” for being only TV movie packs a ton of iconic horror moments, as well as an Oscar caliber performance by Tim Curry.

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