Back in 1982, American audiences were enamored with the extraterrestrial. We were in a time where the prospect of aliens was cuddly and friendly, and we were capable of exploring vast new worlds. What with “ET” and “Close Encounters” and “Star Wars,” who didn’t want to visit new worlds? Then John Carpenter came along in 1982 with his version of “Who Goes There?” a short story about an amorphous alien entity that could consume human bodies, and America wasn’t too kind to it. John Carpenter’s masterpiece is notorious for not being welcomed by critics or the box office during its release date, but thankfully years later, horror fans and movie buffs alike have embraced “The Thing” for the sheer pitch perfect masterpiece it is. John Carpenter doesn’t provide us with a more positive outlook of an alien visitor as he did with “Starman.”
Tag Archives: Thriller
Girl House (2015)
If you can accept that Nick Gordon’s “Girl House” is a digital age version of “Slumber Party Massacre,” you might be able to make it through the so bad it’s good horror film just fine. I feel like punching people that use the term “Hate watch,” but “Girl House” is the very definition of a Hate Watch. It’s stupid, tedious, and makes no sense, but is saved miraculously by a very mean spirited and intense second half. It’s not often a movie starts out as a cheesy thriller about an internet stalker and transforms in to Leatherface: The Handy Man in “California Power Tool Massacre.” Actor Slaine does as grand job as monstrous villain “Loverboy.”
All Through the House (2015)
Todd Nunes takes “Black Christmas” and wraps it in the Santa slashing madness “Silent Night, Deadly Night” for what is a pretty wonky slasher film. I appreciated the humor and inherent mean spiritedness of it all, as Todd Nunes definitely has a love for slasher films. He and his crew even seem dead set on creating their own iconic slasher with our silver faced Santa who has a knack for mutilating his victims with garden sheers. There’s also his habit for turning his male victims in to eunuchs, which is of shocking importance once the finale rolls around. I really like that Todd Nunes stuffs the film with more Latin and Hispanic actors, providing a very welcome diverse cast.
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Currently on the public domain hit list, “The Last Man on Earth” is one of the first and finest adaptations of “I Am Legend” that while not perfect, is infinitely better than most of the successors to follow. Set in 1968, Robert Morgan is a doctor who finds society at the mercy of a mysterious plague. Everyone in the world is gradually dying out from this disease, and he soon discovers that those who die inevitably return from the dead. Unless burned, the bodies will re-animate and look for the closest blood source. Cue director Ubaldo Ragona’s awfully gruesome imagery of a humongous pit of fire where bodies of the recently deceased have been dumped to burn.
The Hollow (2016)
In a small town in the Deep South, a young local is killed along with a couple of young tourists. One of these tourists being a congressman’s daughter from out of state, the case is assigned to the F.B.I. who sends agents Vaughn Killinger and Sarah Desoto to investigate. As Killinger battles his demons and Desoto tries to keep things together, a tangled web of connections and secrets is unraveled. Writer/director Miles Doleac builds an effective suspense thriller murder mystery. The characters he creates are complex with no one being good or truly bad. His characters are very human with different flaws of varying gravity, none fully hate-able.
Return of the Underrated Horror Heroines
Yes, I’ve spent a lot of time ogling women in film and pop culture, but I do love strong and independent women who give me a hard time. So for the past years, on every Halloween, I have dug through various horror heroines that I think are completely underrated. This is another edition of ten horror heroines that I think deserve their place in the pantheon of heroines like Ellen Ripley, Laurie Strode, and Nancy Thompson. These are strong, powerful, courageous women, many of whom can run circles around the men in their movies, and I love them.
Pretty Dead – 10 Horror Films (DVD)
Just in time for Halloween, Mill Creek Entertainment offers consumers a bargain with ten very notable indie horror films available in one pack. With just the right variety, “Pretty Dead” is hours of horror entertainment and interesting horror cinema that will make for a great weekend for any experimental horror buff. First up is 2011’s “Bunnyman,” the survival tale about a group of friends that run afoul a psychotic family of cannibalistic deviants that delight in torturing travelers. In order for them to make it back home alive, they have to evade the psychotic bunnyman, a deranged lunatic dressed as a giant rabbit. “The Lake on Clinton Road” from 2015 is a cabin in the woods thriller about a group of friends partying who begin disappearing in to the night. “The Lights” from 2008 stars Joe Estevez, and involves four friends who venture out in to the wilderness to catch a rare meteor shower.