Urban Legend (1998)

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

I never understood why, if “Urban Legend” is set in New England, does the killer wear a heavy winter coat that drapes over their face during what looks like the early Fall season. You figure the killer would opt for something sleeker and more compact, as well as something that doesn’t directly cut off peripheral vision. But that is one of the many irritating aspects of “Urban Legend” that demands a lot from its audience in the way of suspension of disbelief. This is a world where suddenly everyone owns a winter jacket with white fur lining once we’re aware of the killer’s garb. Even swimmers who happen to be wearing swimsuits decide to wear it while walking along an in-door pool. Only in this universe does that make even the slightest bit of sense.

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Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Jason X

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

My original thought was how the hell they’d explain Jason Voorhees fighting uber-Jason from Jason X. And the writers do a piss poor job of it. Maybe there are two realities in the future in where the space scavengers form a time rift? Who knows? What we learn is that Uber-Jason is not really Jason, but the head of Jason with a body compiled of nanobots, and robotic parts. He is kind of a pseudo-Jason, to be exact.

We learn in the two part mini-series that he’s convinced he’s Jason and is trying to re-claim the psyche of the original Jason to complete his memory and continue his mission to murder everyone and anyone who steps foot in Camp Crystal Lake. So Jason belonged to Earth Prime, which is now a wasteland, and the space crew from “Jason X” froze and destroyed Jason from Earth 2. That Jason was re-invented as a science fiction monster known as Uber-Jason. They then went to Earth Prime to capture Jason again, and learn from his regenerative tissues. That failed. Duh.

And now Jason is thawed and lurking on the abandoned ship. We now have two Jasons. So does that mean we have two Freddy Kruegers and two Pinheads and two Leprechauns? In either case, taking off from the “Jason X” special, the characters from Earth Prime that survive their confrontation with Jason end up on the party ship where Uber-Jason is, and as one female pilot attempts to flee, she ends up caught in between the battle of Jason and Uber-Jason for complete dominance.

As with the usual slasher fare, there are no characters we can root for, but this comic takes it to a whole other level. There are literally no interesting heroes or heroines here, and it’s mainly just pages of slaughtering hapless victims. The fight between uber-Jason and Jason also doesn’t warrant much sense, especially considering the Jason the writers chose to go with, in the end. Uber-Jason kills Jason, and puts his brain in to his own head to garner the crown of Jason Prime. So then what? Is Uber-Jason the primary design now? It’s all so unsatisfying, in the end.

Jason X Special [Avatar Press]

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

When Uber-Jason crash landed in to Earth in the end of “Jason X,” it turned out to be another virtual reality. In an effort to grab a part of his regenerative tissue to learn about his healing properties, a young scientist is able to snare and trap him. Since that doesn’t last long, things get worse when Uber-Jason’s psyche re-invents the memories of his mother as a computer system who begins controlling Jason’s thoughts and commands.

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Pinocchio’s Revenge (1996)

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

With “Pinocchio’s Revenge,” it feels as if Director and Writer Kevin Tenney concocted an entire script based on a serial killer whose spirit inhabits his beloved Pinocchio doll and begins wreaking havoc on a hot mom and her daughter. And then mid-way he thought that perhaps it’d skirt legal issues, and then he suddenly transformed it in to a dull whodunit dramatic thriller. That’s the only way I can figure the logic for the title, at all. There’s no actual revenge, and in the end there’s not a lot of reasoning for Pinocchio to commit these crimes. But at least there’s still the hot mom.

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It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

The argument over whether “It!” inspired the film “Alien” continues to this day. Film buffs alike still debate about “Alien” and the shocking almost inarguable similarities. The similarities of which were so close the producers of this sued Ridley Scott for plagiarism. It isn’t the first time Ridley Scott or Jame Cameron has been accused of plagiarism, and it certainly won’t be the last. Fans are still finding similarities from “Avatar” to other earlier works of science fiction, and there’s still a heavy opinion that James Cameron lifted his concept for “The Terminator” from “Outer Limits.” There’s also the similarities of “Aliens” to “Starship Troopers.” I’m not saying he’s guilty of plagiarism, but I’m not writing off the potential for it, either. Once you see “It!,” it’s not hard to ignore the similarities, and some may even agree it’s a plagiarized film among many.

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Curse of Chucky (2013)

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

One thing is certain after watching “Curse of Chucky.” While it is a lower budget reboot of the series that also works as a sequel, director Don Mancini loves the character. There are call backs to the previous movies, and director Mancini keeps the series focused on Chucky and Chucky alone, without the intervention of side characters. Brad Dourif returns to voice the character of Chucky, and has a good time reprising the monstrous killer doll that returns to wreak havoc on a dysfunctional wealthy family with many skeletons in their closet.

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Top Ten Horror Characters We Hate

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

We all have those movie characters we hate. Horror movie fans especially know the feeling of watching a horror movie and having to endure those obnoxious useless characters that we’re desperate to see perish. If we’re unfortunate enough it’s three or more people we want to die, and if we’re spared, it’s only one. Sometimes they’re whiny, or loud, or useless. Sometimes they’re unfunny, or shrill.

Sometimes they contribute nothing to the survival effort, sometimes they bug the other characters, or do nothing but moan about their own problems. Or sometimes they’re just there to pander to audiences. Every horror movie has that character you wish would just disappear or die a horrible death, and as such we’ve compiled a list of our top ten horror characters we hated. And these are characters we still hate, no matter how much we may enjoy the movies.

10. Teddy – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Is it any wonder everyone in the movie gets to sleep around except this character? Even Crispin Glover gets to sleep with one of the girls in the group, and yet the character who spends most of his time judging people on their relationships ends his sub-plot watching silent porn, and being stabbed to death by Jason.

9. Titus Telesco – I Still Know What You Did…

I like Jack Black like I like apple pie. I’m not crazy about it, but I enjoy it whenever it’s around. But Black as the dreadlock donning rastafarian is one of the worst elements in an already stupid horror movie, and his death is a wonderful release that ensures the writers were intent on murdering everyone who made us roll our eyes. Somehow Brandy was spared.

8. Carter – Final Destination

I can understand anyone being freaked out in this situation. You beat Death, and now Death is coming for you in as twisted a way as possible, but Carter really does nothing but make things difficult for literally everyone and gets Sean William Scott decapitated. Okay, maybe he’s not all that bad. In either case, he shockingly survives until the end. Thank goodness he never appeared in the sequels.

7. Glen – Seed of Chucky

Hell, the writers couldn’t decide on giving Chucky a son or a daughter, so why not give him a transgender sexually confused puppet for a child? That’s funny. I assume. “Seed of Chucky” is a miserable enough movie, but Glen as a whole is a poorly conceived running joke that was so stupid he didn’t even take over the series for Chucky and Tiffany like the producers obviously planned. The studios were smart enough to hit the reboot button before Chucky ended up in space.

6. Randy – Scream 2

Randy was only in “Scream” to explain the references to audiences unfamiliar with horror movies. He serves literally no function other than to stand around explaining every single plot twist and connecting it to a horror movie. Why is he friends with this group? If that isn’t enough, he ends up in college with Sidney Prescott, and once again, he does nothing to help the cause but try to find the killer, and is dumb enough to be murdered in the middle of a crowded college campus. But at least he had the foresight to film a tape of his last words… to explain the story for the audience yet again.

5. Dewey – Scream

How this fool made it all the way to the end of “Scream 4” is beyond me. In the first film he was a lucky survivor, in part two he was a tragic survivor, and by part three it was clear that writer Kevin Williamson just didn’t have the balls to kill him off. Even in “Scream 4” he evades the new killers at every turn and manages to survive to see the closing credits. Yes, it’s so meta to have the least competent character survive and become the hero, but it’s boring when you know by the third film that nothing bad is going to happen to them.

4. Lindsay and Jenny – Human Centipede

Never drink anything you didn’t mix yourself. And most importantly, don’t trust the man living way out in the middle of nowhere. No matter how nice he seems, he is German, after all. The pair of girls in Tom Six’s ode to stupidity really do nothing but make some of the stupidest moves imaginable, even when it becomes clear to about anyone with common sense that the doctor they’ve happened upon while being stranded is in fact mad and psychotic. And rather than simply run away and come back for her friend, one of the girls goes back to free her friend ultimately sealing her fate as the middle of the centipede. Getting crap forced in to your mouth just about sums up Tom Six’s movie.

3. Kia Waterson – Freddy vs. Jason

Kelly Rowlands can’t act, thus she adds almost nothing to a movie that really needed all of the energy and charisma it could get. The movie was fun, but a risky experiment, and it paid off. No thanks to Rowlands who plays one of the most insignificant best friends in horror history, doing nothing but complaining, and only has a small moment with Krueger who almost tears her nose off in a dream. In an effort to piss off Freddy, possibly the stupidest moment of the movie, Jason thankfully puts the audience out of our misery and smashes her in to a tree.

2. Tina – Halloween 5

The only reason Tina is such a large part of the movie is that she was canoodling with the director off screen. There’s no reason why this moronic shrill irritating self centered human manifestation of nails on a chalkboard should have survived until the very end. With Ellie Cornell asking to be let off of the series, the final films basically cut off one of the more likable characters, and replaced her with Tina, her best friend. It’s odd she never appears in “Halloween 4,” or is ever mentioned, but suddenly she’s Jamie’s best friend and big sister? I don’t get it. Not to mention she must have been aware of the fact she and her big sister had a run in with a masked psychopath, and yet does everything to avoid listening to common sense. Even when she’s being sweet, you just hope Michael comes and skewers her with a pitch fork.

1. Everyone from Dawn of the Dead 2004

For survivors, it’s a wonder how any of these morons ever survived a single day in this zombie infested world. These zombies run at full speed and chomp on you, and yet they can barely catch this group of idiots that can’t even get together and devise a solid plan of escape from this mall. They spend the whole movie trying to get to Andy in the gun shop, but don’t figure in the fucking sewer that leads to his shop, until air head Nicole goes to save her mongrel dog Chips. She even drives over there on the truck smashing through zombies and makes it inside Andy’s shop. Hello?! Why didn’t anyone try that?! And they don’t have hobby shops in the mall? How about a high powered toy helicopter to carry a stupid sandwich to his roof top?

Or a race car with a meat loaf strapped to the top to get to Andy? Hell, feed him the dog. And Andy never had a CB radio to contact the group? What, you can build a tank like MacGuyver, but you can’t figure out how to get food to a guy across the parking lot? Ana is probably the shittiest nurse in history, who doesn’t even check up on character Andre’s wife once, considering she’s about to have a child in a world without medicine, doctors, or life support. Genius Michael builds a tank that has the survivors holding active chainsaws in a moving truck. Lo and behold two of the characters are offed during the final chase because their inability to hold a damn chainsaw still. Right, give the chainsaws to the thin woman and feeble elderly man. That’s brilliant. No one ever commandeers the underground parking lot until the lights go out, perhaps to check for gasoline or a working car to escape with. It just goes on and on. Worst remake ever.