I was born around a time where television was beginning to change. Around the time where I was a kid, television was still all about local programming and whatever movies stations could dig up to fill the time slots, so my brother and I spent many days sitting down to watch horror movies that they just will not show anymore on local television. Many kids today have the internet at their fingers and can access whatever they want, but for people like me and people born much earlier, movies were an event, and one you stopped your day to focus on. Horror hosts died with the changing face of television and what with the censorship and corporate stranglehold of American television, all charm and enthusiasm has been lost in a sea of stale programming meant to sap dollars and not entertain.
Tag Archives: Horror
The Ten Best VHS Covers of All Time
I grew up in the Bronx where it was almost impossible to walk down the street without bumping in to a video store. There was one on every single block. They were the Starbucks of the bygone age. And nine times out of ten they were mom and pop stores. Low budget places just looking for a quick buck to make off of the big VHS craze of the eighties and nineties. This was before Blockbuster and Hollywood video began taking over these places and running them out of business. As a kid my parents were always off attending to financial affairs and on many occasions they’d leave me and my brother to spend the day with my cousin at the local video store “JR Video” (No relation). My aunt worked there for almost five years and we’d spend the entire day there running around the big store, watching low budget horror movies on the television mounted on the ceiling and playing in the back closet where they stored all of the VHS tapes and I could still remember looking out the back door in the end of the closet and seeing the poster for “Basket Case” glimmer in the sunlight. This is the place where I was basically exposed to movies of all kind.
Victims. Aren't We All? Conclusion
With bad editing and terrible miming, Tara Reid (at her usual level of atrocious) cuts out the eyes of Lily (Emmanuelle Chriqui at her worst) and hangs her because she… likes her eyes, she hints. But merely it’s there for shock value sans the shock. Every single performance in this movie is excruciating with Boreanaz mugging for the camera with an over the top zealousness incapable of playing off of Reid who couldn’t act off of a cardboard box. The two have zero chemistry thus you can’t buy that they’re lovers and partners in crime. Then Mungia relies on the talents of Eddie Furlong to carry the movie once Chriqui has worn out her welcome and Reid fails to pick up the slack, which is their biggest mistake because he’s hard to buy as this imposing harbinger of death and looks bloated most of the time.
Victims. Aren't We All? Part Eight
Dunst, in spite of delivering a pretty shrill performance, works well off of Mabius and portrays an interesting enough character who becomes more and more vindictive when she learns Alex is actually a hero and her heroes the villains. Bharat Nalluri is able to help this entry stand out by painting it with a darker blue hue and grain that makes “Salvation” feel more like a low budget horror film. Mabius isn’t perfect in this role but he does look and sound very menacing when taunting his killers and reveling in their pain. He even manages to horrify a pedophile cop and scares the ever loving soul out of two innocent girls caught in the cross fire. The movie doesn’t completely sink as the supporting cast actually helps it stay afloat, particularly Fred Ward who is a most despicable villain who is the obvious culprit.
Victims. Aren't We All? Part Seven
I don’t know if it’s the horrible editing or what, but the final moments are painfully jumbled as writer Goyer explains that Ashe’s power was taken so he was destined to be a wandering soul and drift through the world looking for the afterlife… but he also re-united with the spirit of his son and went in to the afterlife. Which is it, exactly? It seemed like Goyer and co. wanted to end the story in case the third film didn’t pan out but leave it open to interpretation in case Ashe and his tale continued on. “City of Angels” was a golden opportunity that was blown big time from a studio obviously hesitant to explore new realms of O’Barr’s story and just stick to the mold set by Proyas and Brandon Lee. Ashe, not surprisingly, did not come for the third outing. As if that wasn’t enough the third “The Crow” film was turned over to IMF Studios, a company related to Dimension and went on to visit the purgatory known as Direct to Video land, allegedly after piss poor test screenings.
Victims. Aren't We All? Part Six
They’re all so interchangeable and never quite pose a real threat to anyone. There’s a goon named Spider Monkey obsessed with the drug his boss Judah touts who suffers a fate involving a massive explosion that gives the director an excuse to use pyrotechnics. The explosion in the drug factory is eye catching but then once the crow flies past the palm trees setting them ablaze, I just scratched my head. Was that entirely necessary? Then there’s Rob Zombie’s “Boogeyman” blaring as Ashe emerges from the wrecked factory which would have been incredible had Ashe actually been somewhat of a charismatic force of nature who you’d be frightened of. The confrontation between Ashe and Spider Monkey is lame and I never quite understood why he was worth focusing on for a portion of the film. From there we follow Ashe through the city as he battles yet another annoying caricature Nemo, who dons a red wig because of his baldness and is a veritable addict of sex and voyeurism. How does that play out in the story?
Victims. Aren't We All? Part Five
Now “City of Angels” tries to be two different things. It tries to demonstrate some originality with its new story, but also relies on devices that hearken back to the 1994 original that shows the studios and Goyer really don’t have much faith in what they’re doing and want people to remember Lee’s film and invest just as much emotion in its imagery. Instead of a flaming crow there’s a crow formed out of shattered glass, and instead of devising new face paint for the main character, the protagonist Sarah paints him to look almost exactly like Eric Draven. And even Gabriel makes a few appearances! That wacky cat! While the story tries to chalk the face paint up to her obsession with Draven and the crow, this instead looks just derivative. There’s a considerable cowardice and exploitative undertone here that the Weinsteins rely on to try and keep this franchise in motion.