The Dungeonmaster / Eliminators: Double Feature [Blu-ray]

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Scream Factory continues to deliver for fans of the Empire Pictures and Charles Band era, with a double feature Blu-Ray set featuring two of their most entertaining titles from their heyday. While I’d be hard pressed to call these films masterpieces, they’re nonetheless entertaining and novel genre films that attempt to market on a particular trend. Charles Band was always savvy about aspiring to make films for his company that touched on current cinematic trends and the double feature here from Scream! Factory covers the gamut of pop culture trends quite well.

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A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

“A Christmas Horror Story” tries to do for Christmas that “Trick r Treat” did for Halloween, and really just ends as a mediocre effort with best intentions. While the efforts of the collective filmmakers to deliver a Christmas anthology for the horror crowd isn’t an awful movie by any means, it’s still a mixed bag of stories, all of which vary in tone and leave the overall film feeling bipolar in some respects. It even reaches for a clever surprise ending that just felt like a cheat for the sake of an obligatory “Gotcha!”

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The Final Girls (2015)

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Todd Strauss-Schulson‘s “The Final Girls” is probably the best coming of age film of the year. Hiding beneath the veneer of a slasher horror comedy beats a touching and heartbreaking dramedy about letting go, and accepting that sometimes nature has to take its course. Taissa Farmiga is wonderful as young Max, the daughter of Amanda, a once popular actress who has unfortunately been typecast for her role as Nancy in a famous slasher movie named “Camp Bloodbath.” Max keeps the hope in her mom alive, despite Amanda completely losing faith in herself, and in the hope of becoming a popular actress once again. Tragically the pair gets in to a horrible car crash killing Amanda and leaving Max orphaned. Three years later, Max is still clinging to memories, and is convinced by friend Duncan to attend a double screening of mom Amanda’s “Camp Bloodbath” movies, in hopes of indulging hardcore fans of the movie series.

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The Final Girls (2015)

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Emilie Black

After her mother’s death, Max has difficulty re-adjusting to life without her. As she grieves, she’s invited to a screening of 80s slasher Camp Bloodbath in which her mother starred. Against what might be her better judgment, she decides to go with her friends. Once there, an incident pushes the group into the film itself, Last Action Hero style, where they face off with its masked baddie Billy Murphy and try to save themselves, the cast, and Max’s mother.

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The Gift (2015) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Joel Edgerton’s “The Gift” is this year’s “Gone Girl.” It’s one of the most irredeemably dark and nasty thrillers made in years and one of the best films of 2015, easily. It’s packed to the brim with morbid undertones, despicable circumstances, and characters that always walk in shades of grey. Despite audiences being able to identify who the protagonists are, they’re brutally unlikable people that all pretty much build the foundation for truly dire consequences. I highly suggest to audiences that love a good mystery, that they completely avoid any and all spoilers, and really absorb the message and dread soaked mystery behind “The Gift” for themselves.

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Prank (2014)

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

If there’s ever a testament to the supernatural element of Halloween, it’s Alex Weight’s “Prank.” Set on Halloween night, director Weight examines what happens when a prank goes one step too far. And when evil plays a hand in pure utter revenge. Three trick or treaters dressed as a clown, a skull, and a devil meet up to go trick or treating for the night, and decide to pay an old friend named Jerry a visit.

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The Gallows (2015)

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

“The Gallows” watches like a really bad “Fear Street” novel. If it were written by RL Stine at gun point. It’s beyond me that “The Gallows” managed to achieve a wide North American theatrical release with a pretty good ad campaign all around. Meanwhile, “It Follows,” a brilliant horror offering, had to rely on word of mouth. Beneath the hype “The Gallows” is a brutally boring and unscary attempt to cash in on the found footage fad that reaches the scares you’d find in a normal young adult novel. And I am being kind, since even young adult novels can often achieve some semblance of suspense and tension when they want to. “The Gallows” however is a forgettable and downright stupid effort that lacks in brains, common sense, and general creativity.

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