It’s the Halloween season, and as usual I’m digging in to my pile of vintage video games to play some of my favorite horror titles of all time. Stuff from the SNES and Genesis just never gets old. And though I’m not a gamer anymore, its fun to re-visit some of the better horror based games, some of which I’m still trying to beat. Hey, I said I was an ex-gamer, not a skilled ex-gamer.
I love the idea of a horror movie centering on heroines that also happen to be brawling roller derby babes. And I love the idea of a slasher film centered on the whole roller derby motif, but it seems that director Daniel Armstrong has a nugget of an idea for a horror movie centering on roller derby, and then really has nowhere to go with it. The DVD case describes “MurderDrome” as equal parts action, romance comedy, and slasher, and yet all three of those elements are never balanced out. Everything about “MurderDrome” feels painfully uneven, to where fans of either sub-genre will be anxious to see director Armstrong deliver. Truthfully the characters were so fun I wouldn’t have minded a romance comedy about roller derby squads, but “MurderDrome” desperately wants to be a horror movie. Even if the horror feels awkwardly tacked on.
So apparently, not only does the leprechaun value his gold beyond all else, but he also requires a bride, too. His convoluted rules are that if the bride sneezes three times and no one but the leprechaun blesses her, he can marry her and she’s eternally bound to the knee high monster. The sequel to “Leprechaun” opens in ancient Ireland, where the leprechaun agrees to free his man servant, once he chooses his bride. Unaware the bride is the servant’s gorgeous daughter the servant outwits the leprechaun, causing him to look elsewhere for his bride. Which takes a thousand years on St. Patrick’s Day, for some reason.
I remember the first time my brother and I asked my parents if we could rent “Leprechaun” from the video store. My dad responded with “No way! You guys won’t be able to look at a box of Lucky Charms for a month!” Suffice it to say he did rent it after we begged, and not only did the movie not scare us, but it bored us to tears. You can just sense that writers behind the concept were running low on mythical monsters to turn in to horror villains. Trolls were taken, as were elves, so the leprechaun seems like a logical but failed next step.
In 2012 we listed ten of our favorite Horror Heroines that we consider underrated. This year we thought we’d list five more very underrated horror heroines that risked life and limb for their family, or for a cause battling against a monster, demon, or some kind of alien. They’re gorgeous, strong, and prove you can be the final girl in a horror movie and not be at the mercy of pure evil. It’s really tough to find female characters in horror that are heroic and not just final girls. There’s a ton of final girls, but not many heroines, however we were able to find five we loved that also were conveniently enough, heroines until the very end.
“Deadly Weekend” (AKA “Zellwood”) is one of those very poorly put together horror movies where every aspect of the production is shaky. So much so that you can sense the cast spend more time struggling not to acknowledge the camera than they do trying to get in to character. There’s even a very brief introduction in the beginning involving the owner of an airboat in the film and his daughters. The two tween actors spend their screen time so blatantly trying to stay in the scene without ruining the take, that it’s pretty embarrassing. Sadly, they play key roles in the narrative, mid-way.
“Deadly Weekend” is yet another back woods horror slasher about a group of friends having one last booze and fuck fest before they all move away from one another. Model and former playmate Sara Jean Underwood is pushed front and center for this eighty minute waste of time, for the simple fact that she’s not only the most notable name in the cast, but is pretty damn gorgeous. Director Sutton is wise to feature her in as many skimpy outfits as possible, including a tank top that barely clings to her for most of the movie. Not surprisingly Underwood is not much of an actress, and the movie itself just feels like cobbled together takes all edited to present the illusion of a seamless narrative.
If you’re investing time in “Deadly Weekend” for the sake of ogling Underwood, just look her pictures up online. You’ll save yourself some IQ points. Director Jason Sutton’s film amounts to literally nothing, watching like a lame student horror film where the script was a mere after thought. Instead there’s a ton of gore and torture effects, all of which have zero impact, because we never get to know or like the heroes, and we never get to really fear the villains. The latter of which are so utterly over the top and cartoonish, it’s tough to believe anyone could have a difficult time battling them, let alone four very fit thirty year olds.
The villains are utterly inexplicable and their introductions so random, I had a hard time forcing back laughter most of the time. Sutton fills the movie up with so much filler and padding that you could literally edit the movie to forty minutes and length and probably come out with something a little less embarrassing. From the overlong red herring opening scenes, to the endless rambling dialogue between the characters that bear no relevance to the movie’s resolution, “Deadly Weekend” mainly just seems to want to build up to the blood soaked finale. You can’t really root for four people that camp out near a muddy lake while their busty girlfriends work on their tan during an obviously cloudy afternoon. Production aside, “Deadly Weekend” is really just an empty, ridiculous horror entry that brings nothing to table. The acting is horrific, the script is paper thin, and the ultimate resolution is pitiful.
I wasn’t expecting to like “Scarezone.” I didn’t go in to it wanting to hate it, but I was not looking for anything resembling something watchable, either. In the end, “Scarezone” surprises as a solid horror effort that mixes comedy, horror, and a slasher whodunit in to a charming indie genre installment. It’s also nice to see an indie film take a horror attraction and use it to the advantage of the film to induce suspense and tension. “Scarezone” has its faults, but I’d definitely recommend it for experimental fans that appreciate films like “Popcorn,” and “Scream.”