Nina Forever (2015)

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Emilie Black

After his girlfriend Nina dies in a car crash, Rob attempts suicide he is so grief stricken. Following his failed attempt, as he’s working at a grocery store, Rob meets Holly and falls for her. As their love blossoms, Nina comes back to life to mess with their minds and taunt them.

The film was written and directed by Ben Blaine and Chris Blaine who create characters the audience cares about even through the mounting stress and non-sense of the dead coming back to life while they have sex. The characters feel human; their emotions being appropriate to their situation if one can believe that they would not simply run far from each other as soon as Nina shows up.

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Celebrating Neil Marshall’s “The Descent”

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I don’t consider it a far off notion to call Neil Marshall this generation’s John Carpenter. The man has delivered his own twisted and original visions of various genres that have ended in some of the most riveting movie experiences I’ve ever had. I first discovered Marshall with “Dog Soldiers,” which successfully combines the werewolf sub-genre with a war movie, resulting in a quite obvious homage to “Assault on Precinct 13.” I’m also a humongous fan of his post apocalyptic tale “Doomsday,” which is his loving ode to the post apocalypse sub-genre and zeroing in on a heroine that’s basically Snake Plissken, even missing one eye, to boot.

Marshall at his best is a raw and relentlessly brilliant filmmaker who can muster up some unique emotions and arouse hot debates among the horror and science fiction community. Marshall’s masterpiece is his odd form of “The Thing,” in where he casts a predominantly female cast, all of whom are confined to one location, forced to fight off delirium, and mistrust, and becoming victim to their landscape, which is harrowing and dangerous no matter where one turns.

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Slashers (2001)

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Maurice Devereaux’s “Slashers” is that satire that is right up there with “Dawn of the Dead” and “Battle Royale” in how is explores an element of our society that warrants a poking. “Slashers” is an often absurd commentary on the extremes our society is willing to go for entertainment, and how television continues evolving to new extremes to whet the appetites of a society gradually warped by violence. First and foremost, “Slashers” is a horror slasher comedy, but it has a good time mocking the reality show trend of the early aughts. “Slashers” is set in a universe where Japan has produced its highest rated game show of all time. Said game show is called “Slashers” where a group of people volunteer to run through an obstacle course and be hunted down by knife wielding maniacs that brutally murder them on air.

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Alleluia (2015)

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Emilie Black

Gloria, a single mom with a simple life, meets Michel and they go out for dinner during which he begins a con on her. After a one-night stand, she lends him money to help keep his business afloat. Little does she know, he spends it at a bar as she goes looking for him. She finds him and convinces him to keep her around. Together, they con women out of their money by seducing them as a brother and sister duo. Gloria’s jealous soon rears its ugly head and turns to violence and murder. The two then continue their romance and their evolution towards total chaos.

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Martyrs (2008)

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I think if it weren’t so obsessed with its own self-indulgent pseudo-spiritualism and didn’t stop to tell four different stories simultaneously, “Martyrs” may have been a decent film. It begins as a solid revenge picture, but then devolves in to an absurd campaign in torture and pain. It’s a grueling sadistically boring horror drama with a narrative so convoluted I stopped caring about what was unfolding after the first half hour. “Martyrs” loves to pretend it’s this transcendent statement about our questioning of the afterlife, but in reality it’s just misogynist torture porn painted as art house dribble that will make you feel dirty.

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Eaters (2011)

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

It should serve as no surprise that a zombie movie produced by Uwe Boll is nothing but an empty and utterly tedious experience. I’m not going to proclaim “Eaters” as the worst zombie movie ever made, but it’s definitely one where there’s simply no substance and nothing to take away from it. It’s not too much to ask for a zombie movie where we can empathize with characters, and experience something exciting while also having a good time. “Dead Set” managed to accomplish that well.

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Caedes: Forestglade of Death (2014) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Emilie Black

Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015

Forest, zombies, Germany, sounds like a match made in horror-comedy heaven. Caedes: Forestglade of Death, or Caedes – Die Lichtung des Todes, follows a group of friends as they go to Happy Camping for a weekend of relaxation and beer, lots of beer. Quickly a leader is established in Dan who approaches a blond babe named Leen only to be shot down. Everyone settles in, meets their camping neighbors, and parties all night. When morning comes, some awake with one hell of as hang over while others wake up as zombies, something clearly having happened overnight. Zombies go looking for food where they can, attacking the remaining campers who defend themselves as best they can. San and his friends Manesh, Jose, and Jorrun all survive along with Leen, Fritz, Tina, and a few others. This band of survivors then works together to live, finds the zombie source, and get out of there.

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