Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Posted on March 24, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

In 1978, George A. Romero followed up his classic “Night of the Living Dead” with an even bigger horror hit known as “Dawn of the Dead” this time showing the world only weeks after the outbreak where society is now overrun by the undead and carnage ensues as people struggle to comprehend what is happening and how it happened. True, director Zack Snyder’s re-working of “Dawn” is a lot slicker than the original, but ultimately it lacks the truly sick and sometimes twisted satire and jabs at pop culture and the consumer era.

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Long Time Dead (2002)

Posted on March 14, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

After a night of partying a group of friends decide to play with a Ouija board, maybe the CD player was broken, who knows? But once they begin playing, they accidentally unleash a mysterious demonic entity who is now stuck in our reality after someone breaks the link. Now, it’s up to the group to discover who out of them all is possessed by the demonic force before each and everyone in the group keeps being killed off. I said it once before, and I’ll say it again: Foreigners make the best horror films, now before you start calling me anti-American and begin dumping your French wine down your toilet, hear me out. Foreigners are rarely ever people who buy into hype and rely solely on something that Hollywood lost years ago… what’s that called? Ah, originality.

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Dog Soldiers (2002)

Posted on February 15, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

What if Steven Spielberg and Stephen King got together and decided to mix “Silver Bullet” with “Saving Private Ryan”? You have a rather large hunk of horror/action fare for any movie nut to chew on, and this is some film to chew on. Take a group of completely different people, store them in a confined space with very little and/or limited weapons while they’re forced to fend off against ravenous monsters who are lurking at every corner while they’re forced to deal with each other, as paranoia inevitably ensues. “Dog Soldiers” is one bad mutha of a horror film successfully following that formula and creating an experience for viewers that will linger on your mind forever.

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The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting (2003)

Posted on January 25, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

Out of all the films out there “The Hitcher” wouldn’t be my first choice for a sequel, as a matter of fact, there’s not really a need for sequels these days, yet Hollywood continues to pull them out despite big budget or small budget as is revealed in this inferior straight to video sequel to the eerie chiller from 1986. It’s hard to set up a story for a sequel that wasn’t really necessary; we have B queen Kari Wuhrer as C. Thomas Howell’s girlfriend Maggie, Howell’s character Jim from the original film is now grown-up and sports a bad five ‘o clock shadow and a scratchy deep voice to better accentuate his manly persona, Kari Wuhrer plays the inept girlfriend to Howell’s Jim whom is never truly informed on Jim’s horrible past, but urges him to seek professional help… why would she suggest he get personal help when she doesn’t know what happened to him?

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Dracula II: Ascension (2002)

Posted on January 25, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

When a coroner brings in a charred body, he and a doctor named Elizabeth discover that the body is that of Dracula. When they get a mysterious offer from a buyer who will offer them millions of dollars for his body, they and a group of college students decide to take it upon themselves to discover what makes Dracula immortal while hoping to extract the evil from within the essence but when Dracula becomes too hot to handle, a mysterious knife wielding priest is on the hunt for them and will stop at nothing to take Dracula down.

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Underworld (2003)

Posted on January 11, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

In this horror action film directed by Len Wiseman, Kate Beckinsale plays Selene, a warrior and assassin for a vampire clan who is on the hunt for a young doctor named Michael Corvin who bears an unknown gift, but now the vampire clan is at war with a rival clan of Lycans (werewolves) who are intent in crossing the young man over to their side; but soon Selene and Michael begin falling in love as the war intensifies and must choose between their family or love. I remember when I went to the theaters to check this out; I had ten dollar bill in my hand and I had to choose between “Cabin Fever” or this. I inevitably made a decision that I would soon live to regret for all my days as I chose “Cabin Fever” hoping I’d come across a horror gem, I really wish I would have chosen this instead.

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John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

Posted on December 28, 2003 by Felix Vasquez

It’s not hard to believe that the character and presence among the entire film Sutter Cane is a depiction of Stephen King who also bears a collection of almost unearthly and creepy books as Cane does in the film, and they both have a mass following of readers. Of course, his fan’s devotion to his books is not as intense as it is in this film. John Carpenter manages to show people with “In the Mouth of Madness” why he’s considered among the best directors in film and among horror royalty. Watch “Halloween”, “The Fog”, “Vampires”, “The Thing”, just to name a few and you will witness his true aptitude for capturing horror in its true essence, and what he manages to do in “In the Mouth of Madness” is capture it in all its pure unrestrained essence onto the cells of this film.

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