In the small town of Ooty, India, a toxic spill transforms people into blood-thirsty, fast running, wire-stunt performing zombies. Director Shakti Soundar Rajan takes a fairly typical zombie story, mixes in an unrequited love story, a dash of political observation, a Bollywood musical number, wire-stunts, and a good sense of humor about the whole thing to create a zombie film that doesn’t feel like it’s just hitting the tropes and its marks mechanically, it’s fast paced and fun while adding a special touch to its subject. The idea of mixing Bollywood style film with zombies might not seem like an obvious choice but here it works of course, the humor being quite on point adds to this and to the enjoyment overall.
Tag Archives: Horror
Fetish Factory (2017)
In a private burlesque parlor in Hollywood, performers and VIP clients face off with a zombie attack. Directed by Staci Layne Wilson from her own screenplay based on a story by Lony Ruhmann, Fetish Factory mixes burlesque dances and performers with end of the world and zombie tropes for a fun result. Staci Layne Wilson takes the zombies sub-genre that is all over the place lately and focuses it by bringing her personal touch to it and adding a varied group of beauties to fight them off. Granted, this in and of itself is nothing new (we’ve seen hotties and strippers fight zombies before) but her usage of actual burlesque performers and actresses adds to this in a way that changes from the usual boobs and blood route these films take.
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
One of the many legacies that Bruce Campbell will leave behind is that he is willing to take on roles that not a lot of actors would. Say what you want about “Bubba Ho Tep” but who else would play an aging Elvis stuck in an elderly home fighting an ancient mummy that shambles around in cowboy garb? And Campbell is willing to commit, too, which makes him one of the last of a dying breed of actor.
The PC Thug: George Romero and The Blame Game
I should preface this rant by saying that I avoided making this article for a few days if only because I am a big Romero fan. I think Night, Dawn and Day of the Dead are brilliant masterpieces that should be analyzed by film students everywhere, while films like “Knight Riders” and “Creepshow” are pretty fantastic in their own right. Hell I’ve even ardently defended Romero at every turn, cheering on his efforts to make a “Resident Evil” movie, “Dead Reckoning,” and I’ve even defended “Land,” “Diary,” and “Survival of the Dead” despite being his lesser movies. But lately I’ve managed to come across an interview with George Romero who has decided to bring the whole house down with him despite someone who has offered films with diminishing returns. And what’s worse is some media outlets are pretty much enabling him.
The Fiancé (2016)
It’s rough around the edges here and there, but “The Fiancé” manages to be a unique idea that allows for some interesting moments of horror and drama altogether. I like how director Mark Allen Michaels turns transforming in to a monster in to something of a metaphor for how the relationship between our main characters is doomed to fail. Dallas Valdez plays Michael, a wealthy man who is on the verge of losing all of his money after criminal dealings with the Russian mafia. Convinced his beautiful wife Sara, as played by Carrie Keagan, will leave him, he invites her up to a cabin in the woods to propose to her. Meanwhile a Sasquatch is on the loose, murdering people and hunting down whoever gets in its way. We follow a documentary crew and a small group of hikers as they’re all injected in to the movie to transform the mythical beast in to a valid threat.
Fetish Factory (2017)
In the “Fetish Factory” every male client comes attached with his own fetish and arrives to the special mansion to watch some of the best and sexiest burlesque performers realize some of their weirdest fantasies. Director and writer Staci Layne Wilson delivers a horror comedy that’s admittedly rough around the edges but has enough charm and laughs to entertain audiences that enjoy a bit of kink with their zombie carnage. Carrie Keagan plays burlesque performer Bettie, a dancer at the Fetish Factory who takes on the persona of Bettie Page for her clientele and dances almost every night. After a mysterious wild storm takes hold of Hollywood, the walking dead begin swarming the Fetish Factory mansion, prompting the surviving dancers to fight off the hordes of flesh eating zombies.
Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell (2016)
You can’t get anymore Halloween than teaming up Marvel’s monstrous Hulk alongside the Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange. On Halloween Night, demons begin wreaking havoc in New York City, prompting Doctor Strange to do everything he can to slay them and bring them in to his holding cell in his temple. Thankfully he calls upon the Incredible Hulk to help him, and Hulk is more than happy to oblige in stomping some demons. Little does Hulk know that the demons are manifestations of human victims that are being held hostage by the villainous Nightmare who has kept them held in their own dream plains. Strange ventures in to the dream dimension to save Bruce Banner when Nightmare begins using the Hulk to hurt Strange.