Dead Within (2014)

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

It’s always nice when a director is bold enough to take the zombie genre and try to transform it in to something completely unique. While “Dead Within” doesn’t re-invent the wheel, it’s definitely a gripping view of the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. And I don’t speak particularly of the walking dead, so much as what happens when survivors have to live with one another and with the guilt and shock of the lengths they’ve gone through to survive. Is it worth surviving the end of the world if you aren’t really living? Can you really trust anyone once the world has resorted to the survival of the fittest? Can you justify murdering potential infected to your conscience? How do you outrun your fading sanity and crushing guilt when you’re stuck in a small room in dead silence?

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Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

I honestly can’t think of a better film where the opposite spectrum of film come together so seamlessly, it’s absolutely flawless. Abbott and Costello were always that comedy pairing that could walk in to any situation and find themselves in peril, but teaming them with Universal monsters is a gamble. It’s one that thankfully pays off in to one of the funniest horror comedies of all time. While I tend to like “Hold that Ghost” a little more, “Meet Frankenstein” is spectacular just the same.

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My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

It’s unusual how a film made in 1993 actually feels like it was made in 1983. And that’s likely because of producer Sean Cunningham and composer Harry Manfredini, both of whom inject an eighties atmosphere that makes Bob Balaban’s “My Boyfriend’s Back” a surreal but entertaining zombie romance comedy with a very funny script by Dean Lorey. It even has something of a Tim Burton aesthetic where the small town the story is set feels perpetually stuck in the fifties despite being the nineties.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

Yes, it’s not the vision that Joss Whedon had originally planned, but you know what? “Buffy” was just too ahead of its time and eventually found its place with the cult favorite series. But that’s not to say that the original 1992 movie isn’t any fun, either. Taken as a stand alone horror comedy, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” actually manages to be a creepy, twisted, and very funny take on the vampire slayer mold, teaming an ass kicking valley girl against vampires. And Kristy Swanson is a better Buffy than Sarah Michelle Gellar. Teeming with 90’s paraphernalia, “Buffy” is dated, but definitely one of the better attempts at mixing vampires with comedy.

Surely enough it’s also a good gateway drug for anyone that wants to delve in to the horror genre without bathing in unnecessary gore, and heavy sexual themes. This variation of “Buffy” is “Clueless” meets “Lost Boys,” with Kristy Swanson playing the titular Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Cursed with visions and dreams of a past life involving a young girl seduced and eventually murdered by a vampire, Buffy slowly realizes her world is changing around her. Especially considering that the pains she’s experiencing are being accompanied by her sudden heightened strength, agility, endurance, and advanced senses. Buffy just wants to be a normal shallow valley girl whose world revolves around school dances and boys, but she eventually meets Merrick.

As played by Donald Sutherland, he proclaims she is one in a long line of vampire slayers, and is destined to guide her in her battle against the forces of darkness and the supernatural by acting as her “watcher.” Meanwhile, the immortal vampire Lothos has risen and begins feasting on local high schoolers, while Buffy realizes she has to train and eventually face off against the dreaded vampire master and his minions. “Buffy” has its share of problems, especially considering the fact that the entire grand plot of Lothos seems hellbent on eating Buffy and nothing more. All the while the face off and eventual death of the villainous vampire is abrupt and unsatisfying. I was also never sure how anyone would explain the vampires, but director Fran Rubel Kuzui approaches the material with absurdity so it’s a footnote that’s glossed over.

In either case, “Buffy” still entertains greatly, thanks to its hilarious script and slew of top notch performances. Luke Perry is fun as Buffy’s ally Oliver, while Kristy Swanson kills it as the sexy, smart alecky, and tough as nails Buffy. There’s also Donald Sutherland who is fun as Merrick, while Paul Ruebens is laugh out loud hilarious as Lothos’ second in command vampire Amilyn. He plays the role like Evil from “Fright Night” if he ever grew in to the role of blood sucker. While it’s been noted much of the dialogue is improvised, Reubens has fun the role, while also playing the resident punching bag. I still cackle at many of the one-liners, as well as Amilyn’s refusal to die after being staked. I also really find the martial arts throwdown between Buffy and the vampire minions in the fog pretty damn sleek. “Buffy” serves more as a fun guilty pleasure, but one that chooses to embrace the absurdity and run with it, as opposed to Whedon’s series that embraced the irony and wit.

Once Bitten (1985)

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

It’s often completely ignored or dismissed in the annals of Jim Carrey’s film career, but “Once Bitten” is one of my favorite of the Carrey comedy works. It’s not a masterpiece by any means, but it’s one of Carrey’s most restrained roles, where he’s funny without being over the top or rubbery as he was in his more successful films. “Once Bitten” is that eighties guilty pleasure I go back to again and again for a good chuckle. And to ponder the idea of being seduced by a vampiric Lauren Hutton. Either way, it’s all good.

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Life After Beth (2014)

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

Director Jeff Baena’s zombie romance comedy is one part “Death Dream,” one part “Zombie Honeymoon,” and two part indie romance. It’s an eerie and gross allegory about breaking up, and being able to let go, no matter how horrifying it is. Though “Life After Beth” is grating at times with a self awareness that can be on the nose sometimes, Baen definitely captures the spirit of a tragic romance, and a brutal zombie film in a disgusting hybrid. Dane DeHaan plays Zach, a lovelorn young man whose girlfriend Beth dies after being bitten by a snake while taking a hike. After mourning, and displaying an unusual bond with Beth’s parents, Zach discovers by accident that Beth is actually alive.

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Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

I really enjoy what director Frank Oz does with “Little Shop of Horrors.” Rather than simply ignoring the cheesiness and camp value of the original, he embraces it. He also injects a pulpy comic book atmosphere, along with sixties pop and soul that compliments the tale perfectly. While I’ve always had a weak spot for Roger Corman’s original, Frank Oz succeeds in giving “Little Shop of Horrors” the campy adaptation that it deserves with a brilliant cast, and great tunes. This is a movie that always played on local TV as a kid and I always ignored it for reasons I don’t quite remember. In either case it’s no masterpiece, but it’s a fine and fun horror comedy.

Star Rick Moranis plays Seymour Krelborn, the workaday loser in the slums of his city who works at a flower shop. After fawning over his co-worker Audrey, he decides to take some initiative after financial concerns from his boss and brings in a rare flower. The flower was hit by lightning during a solar eclipse, and Seymour immediately buys it for the sake of the novelty. After pricking his finger, he realizes the plant is alive and hungry for human blood. Soon enough the need for blood transforms in to hunger for human meat, and Seymour must either feed the plant, or lose it and his fame. Nicknamed Audrey II, the vicious plant that turns in to a villain for Seymour, is a wonderful monster. The puppetry matched with Levi Stubbs’ performance make it a menacing foe that is so much more dangerous than it initially looks. Moranis plays Seymour as a mentally unbalanced but very desperate loner who is in love with Audrey and finds she is incapable of being with anyone but her abusive boyfriend.

Steve Martin as Orin Scrivello pretty much steals the film for the screen time he’s given as an over the top biker who works as a dentist for the thrill of torturing patients. Martin is hysterical in the role of the heel, and he even shares a hilarious scene with Bill Murray as the masochistic patient anxious to be tortured. Along with Murray and Martin, there are some great cameos by John Candy, Jim Belushi, and Christopher Guest, all of whom lend a high comedy pedigree to Moranis’ already charming performance. Keeping the film ironic and somewhat meta is the excellent musical numbers, all of which serve as a means of forwarding the narrative, and occasionally challenging the motives of Seymour and his man eating plant. The trio of Tichina Arnold, Tisha Campbell and Michelle Weeks are impressive, delivering some excellent musical numbers of their own, including the opening title track. “Little Shop of Horrors” is a pulp pop twist on the original Roger Corman horror comedy that’s funny, fun, catchy, and well worth its reputation.