Shocker (1989): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

It baffles me to this day that “Shocker” is still considered one of Wes Craven’s best films. It’s especially baffling considering Craven has not only pulled off much better genre films, but because “Shocker” is really just a remake of “Nightmare on Elm Street.” A vicious serial killer wreaks revenge on his pursuers through supernatural means which allow him to shift through his own dimensions, can contact our protagonist through dreams, and does battle with a lone teenager who enters his realm in the finale and confronts him. It’s the exact same film from beginning to end, except it has a much more prevalent self awareness than “Nightmare” did.

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Stung (2015) [FrightFest 2015]

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Emilie Black

FrightFest 2015

Julia has inherited her father’s catering company and has a big event to work at Mrs. Perch’s estate. This is a yearly event and is attended by the most affluent people in town; it could make or break her. To help her out, she has hired bartender Paul who has a less than subtle crush on her. Mrs. Perch and her son Sydney are what some might call a bit eccentric and their mansion also has a beautiful greenhouse filled with very lush plants and flowers. As Julia, Paul, and a stoner musician hired for entertainment prepare for the event, slightly bigger than usual wasps come out of an in ground nest quickly becoming a pest but no more than regular bugs. After the dinner guests arrive and start mingling, more and more wasps show up. Soon the mayhem starts as really big wasps take over and attack the guests, implanting their eggs in them which eventually burst out of their human hosts as even bigger wasps looking to attack anything that moves.

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Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf (2015)

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I bet you’re wondering the same thing. In order for a whalewolf to come to life should a werewolf bite a whale, or would a whale bite a werewolf? If a whale bit a human would it become a werewhale? Hey, the logic I’m posing is just as silly as the logic in “Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf,” a movie that’s much more fun than it has any right to be. Right off the bat, the thing to remember is the movie doesn’t take itself seriously at all. This is about a movie where a sharktopus are murdering people left and right and our main heroes aren’t all that emotionally distraught after the fact.

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Synchronicity (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Jacob Gentry’s “Synchronicity” is the kind of film I really do enjoy. It’s non-linear, it has a taste of noir within it, and it’s filled with existentialist themes about parallel worlds and wormholes that dare to challenge its audience. “Synchronicity” is the kind of challenging fiction that will spark conversations among its audience and leave them pondering on the bigger questions that it poses right through to the end. I didn’t quite understand what was happening in the film for the first half, but Gentry really brings all of the narrative together making what seems like a scattershot series of events feel like one giant master plan. It’s a film in the tradition of “Memento” sparking brilliant visuals and a vivid world where nothing is ever really what it seems.

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Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Peter Pau and Zhao Tianyu’s “Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal” is nothing short of a mesmerizing and surreal romance epic. It’s a marvel for the eyes, and the ears, and provides one of the most engrossing tales of good versus evil I’ve seen in a long time. “Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal” has a meaty narrative that requires a lot of back tracking and flashbacks, but thankfully the sharp writing prevents the narrative from falling apart by the second half. I was worried I was losing track of the story but the movie would always come full circle and really explain a lot of the twists, leaving no loose ends.

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Sexy Warriors (2014)

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Say what you want about softcore porn, but it serves its purpose if you’re in the mood to ogle hot women without the nastiness of hardcore stuff. “Sexy Warriors” definitely lives up to its title, supplying a foursome of really sexy women, all of whom indulge audiences in an Amazonian fantasy. This time around the really gorgeous Jazy Berlin is a warrior woman named Diana from the land of Lesbos who uses a magic orb to go to the future. Why she chooses LA is anyone’s guess, but she warps there. She’s followed by red headed bombshell Athena who is looking for her, and the two find that the future holds various pleasures. This is kind of like 2011’s “Thor” if Thor were a sexy Amazonian lesbian.

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Spider Baby (1967) (2-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray/DVD]

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

If I had to pick a cult film that I’d take with me on a deserted island, it’d either be “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”, or Jack Hill’s “Spider-Baby.” It’d probably be the latter if I was pressed. I fondly remember being introduced to “Spider-Baby” as a child, when I used to sit down to watch “Horrible Horror” with Zacharly. I always found the scene of Jill Banner slicing and dicing poor Mantan Moreland to be one of the sickest bits of horror cinema I’d ever witnessed. Years later, I was happy to watch the film in its entirety, and thankfully Jack Hill’s dark horror comedy hasn’t aged a single bit.

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