Prolific director Guillermo Del Toro who penned the previous comic film “Blade 2” and the cult psychological horror film “The Devil’s Backbone” gives some competent direction in this adaptation of the hit comic book. A young agent John T. Meyers is recruited into the ranks of Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense Facility, he’s signed on to mentor their primary weapon of choice. Given a tour of the facilities gazing on to Abe Sapien a very intelligent reptilian sea creature, he’s assigned to take care of Hellboy. Discovered as a child during World War 2 during a raid on the Nazis, he was summoned to Earth to become the evil Rasputin’s child and eventual ruler of Earth, but when US soldiers discovered him, professor Broom took him in to reform him and he became Earth’s greatest protector using his powers for evil to protect humanity.
Tag Archives: Thriller
Ju-on (2002)
“Ju-On” is a sheer test of terror, tension, and heightening suspense, and director Takashi Shimizu who also writes the script gives some inspiring direction that echoes Hitchcock’s directing style of silence and horror within everyday aspects. Though the haunted house movie has been done as far back as movies have been around, Shimizu does one hell of a job with the formula creating not a movie with ghosts, but demons. Starting off with a gritty and frightening sequence in which a man murders a woman, her cat, and proceeds to make his way up to a young boy, and we skip to present day where we watch victim after victim fall under the unrelenting spell of the demonic entities that live in the house.
The Hunted (2003)
Tommy Lee Jones plays Lt. Bonham, an ex agent who is now a guard for a nature society tracking animals and stopping poachers and illegal hunters. After two hunters are found gutted, Bonham is called back into duty by an old colleague who needs his help to track the killer, Aaron Hallman, an ex-agent who has begun killing hunters in the forest, brutally gutting them without mercy. Bonham instantly goes into action and begins tracking Hallman making way for a really cool fight scene at the top of the film as the two duke it out in the forest. Director Friedkin manages to direct a very dark and interesting thriller with some good camera work and smooth editing, plus he knows how to create tension and surprises.
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)
I loved the original “Vampire Hunter D,” I remember watching it for the first time with my jaw hanging down, drool and some snot hanging down. So, I was obviously excited to see this, and after I popped this bad boy into my DVD player, I was not disappointed. I was weary about the new design for Vampire Hunter D at first, I wasn’t sure what was wrong with the original design, but he looks so much better here. With a design that Universal ripped off in 2004’s “Van Helsing” he’s just so stylish here with a beautiful costume that not only acts as a shroud but protection from the sunlight and they make his vampiric appearance better here with a white pale face and just a cold exterior that makes him such a great character to watch.
Monster (2003)
“Monster” is the biographical film and story of Aileen Wuornos, deemed the first female serial killer of Florida murdering five men from 1989 to 1990 who picked her up while she was a prostitute, attempting to get money without sex. Traumatized after being brutally attacked and raped, she no longer wanted to continue having sex for money and began killing the men who picked her up to support her lesbian girlfriend Selby. “Monster” is more of a tragedy than an actual biographical picture starring Charlize Theron who is basically stunning here transforming into the infamous serial killer who was executed on 2002. Theron is the most convincing actress to play Aileen Wuornos ever and really dives into the role of Wuornos. Here we witness not the birth of a monster, but the evolution of a monster, a woman who was always an outcast, always disliked, always abused, and always brought down, so inevitably she’s transformed into a ruthless killer.
King of the Ants (2003)
Director Stuart Gordon, the man who brought us the cult classic “Re-Animator” tells the tale of revenge in this low budget thriller about a young man named Sean Crawley, an out of work struggling man with no clue to his purpose or what he’s doing but takes any job he can get. After meeting a man named Duke in one of his jobs, Duke (George Wendt: Cheers) makes him a job offer. The details he gives him are vague and he seems to dance around what the job entails, but desperate, Sean agrees to meet with Duke’s boss Ray (Daniel Baldwin) a cocky self-assured rich man who tells Sean he wants a rival of his (Ron Livingston in a walk on role) followed. Sean agrees to tail his rival and proceeds to do so for a number of days until he’s approached by Ray to kill him and eliminate him as competition.
Extreme Ops (2002)
This is not regular ops, this is not plain ops, no this is Extreme Ops, what are Extreme Ops? Who knows, and we never really find out, but in this film we meet a group of extreme risk takers and extreme stuntmen, not sports stars but more rebellious young men and women who will take any risk. They’re gathered by an extreme commercial director to record an extreme DV camera commercial, but when they arrive on the mountain to record some sequences, they’re accidentally neighbored with a group of terrorists that think the group of extreme boarders, skiers and risk takers are really CIA agents out to stop their operation. Not very smart terrorists considering they’d probably be aware by now who is or isn’t a government official.