For once, a new “Puppet Master” movie has a plot all on its own and offers little to no clips from the previous films as filler. I was certain there’d be a segue in to a clip show, but thankfully “Axis Rising” presents something of a plot and events. As well as mythos evolution. Taking place directly after “Axis of Evil,” the villainous Ozu is caught by the Nazis and killed once her puppets are discovered in her bag. Poor Tunneler is caught by the Nazis after he murders one of the officers, and hoping to figure out Toulon’s formula, they bring him to master scientist Freuhoffer, who hopes to use the formula for his own benefit. Evil Nazi officer Moebius plans to turn rebels in to his own army of puppet soldiers, but is finding little success with gory results. With Tunneler dissected and the scientist learning the secrets, the Nazi’s just may be able to form their own army of deadly puppets.
Tag Archives: Horror
H.P. Lovecraft's The Evil Clergyman (2012)
In 1988, Empire Pictures sought to create an anthology of films that would act as sequels to their big hits. There was a planned “Trancers 1.5,” a sequel to “The Dungeonmaster,” and the HP Lovecraft short film “The Evil Clergyman.” Re-uniting the legendary Jeffery Combs, and the gorgeous Barbara Crampton, the film was never released, and for many years it was thought to have been lost. After being discovered on a low quality VHS, the print of “The Evil Clergyman” was restored as best as possible by Full Moon and given a new opening title and brand new music to accompany a fairly twisted story.
25 Underrated Horror Films (And The Exorcist) [Paperback]
Take it from someone who has spent many hours in his early days on the internet perusing and haunting message boards, chat rooms, and movie websites: the definition of underrated and overrated is a hot topic and can cause hours of hot debating, analytical discussion, and very high tempers. Often times it results in insults and name calling and nothing is ever resolved. To a movie buff what’s underrated and overrated is often akin to discussing politics and religion. You just don’t broach the subject.
And if someone does, no one will admit they’re right or wrong, and no one is willing to bend to the other’s thoughts and arguments. No matter how valid their arguments may be about the movie in discussion. And in the end everyone decides they’d rather be apart than risk getting in to a slap fight. Insisting a film like “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is overrated often translates to “I touch myself while looking at pictures of your daughter” to some fans. They just gaze in disgust and prepare to chase you with a shotgun.
With author Paul Cornelius’ “25 Underrated Horror Films,” he’s walking a fine line between amusement and controversy.
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From The Living Dead [Paperback]
It was pretty obvious judging by the context of “The Zombie Survival Guide” that author Max Brooks’ smash novel “World War Z,” a sequel to “The Zombie Survival Guide,” would come to the hands of readers eventually. “The Zombie Survival Guide” basically establishes within its texts that it’s meant as a tool for the individual living in a world with the potential to be infested by the walking dead with plenty of experiences dealing with outbreaks and invasions of the walking dead before. So of course it was only a matter of time before author Brooks dropped the formalities and let us get a large exploration in to the world that inspired “The Zombie Survival Guide.”
While “The Zombie Survival Guide” is pretty much a very creative and informative book and manual about surviving in a world where the walking dead are as every bit a threat as Cancer and AIDS, deep down it possesses a core narrative injected within its pages that is subtle and haunting. For ninety percent of the novel, author Max Brooks provides every scenario for a major zombie apocalypse and what to do to ensure the survival of a person or a group of persons. And then for the final ten percent of the book, the author in question provides readers with a massive account of zombie encounters and horrific incidents involving the walking dead that date back to the Egyptian times right down to 2001.
Remembering "The Willies"
As a child “The Willies” was pretty much as horrifying as it got. As an eleven year old it was a disgusting, creepy, and horrifying little anthology horror film with some gruesome special effects. And it was also a childhood favorite, a film I saw over and over further feeding my lust for horror. And almost twenty five years later… it still has great sentimental value, it’s still a movie I’ll always appreciate as a favorite of a simpler time but… yeah, it pretty much sucks. Badly. It’s about as stripped down and derivative as you can get with a plot that really just relies on chestnuts of horror to do the work for writers that can’t really be creative.
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Almost thirty years later, 1986’s “Night of the Creeps” is a horror science fiction film that is nowhere near being a masterpiece, but is still one of the best horror romps I’ve ever seen from the decade. Director Fred Dekker treated fans to a double dose of horror entertainment, offering “Monster Squad” and then “Night of the Creeps.” While both films aren’t universally renowned like “Bride of Frankenstein,” they are classics in their own right. If you happened to love both films, you kind of want to give Fred Dekker a big hug. For me, it was a one two punch of horror comedy gold.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
After watching the incredibly over the top performances in “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” I’m suddenly not so shocked that subsequent this film, the four stars of this slasher never actually amounted to much cinematically. Not to be cruel or anything, but where as most slashers suffer from an abundance of bad acting, this film attempts to sap melodramatic performances from its four stars. That means a lot of shouting, and screaming, and attempted self-aware jabs at the horror genre. Ryan Phillippe in particular sounds like he’s auditioning for drama class as the testosterone laced Barry who runs around screeching at every character for the first fifteen minutes of the film. The incredibly loose almost pointless adaptation of the Lois Duncan novel “I Know What You Did Last Summer” stars a cadre of nineties stars trying their best to mine the gold left behind by Kevin Williamson’s “Scream.”