Return of the Underrated Horror Heroines

taryn

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.

Continue reading

Night of the Living Deb (2016)

notldebEver since “Shaun of the Dead,” many filmmakers have been intent on delivering their own horror comedies about self obsessed thirty somethings thrust in to the zombie apocalypse. Kyle Rankin’s “Night of the Living Deb” is not a masterpiece by any definition of the word, but it ends up being a decent diversion that has a good time using zombies as a means of emphasizing the dynamic between our main characters. Set on the fourth of July, awkward Deb awakens in the apartment of her love interest Ryan. Though she’s in love with him, Ryan isn’t entirely interested in her and is anxious to get her out of his life as soon as possible. Little do either of the pair know that overnight their small town of Maine has been consumed by a zombie apocalypse and everyone they known are now flesh eating zombies.

Continue reading

Five Ways to Fix “Fear the Walking Dead”

fear-twdI’ve given “Fear the Walking Dead” two seasons already and it’s failed to really impress me. It shifts locations constantly, doesn’t seem to garner one interesting character of the bunch, and there are so many sub-plots that are set up only to be left dangling at the end of the season. While most people are saying the show resolves a lot of the sub-plots, I still am asking a bunch of questions after the finale. Also, I’m still trying to figure out why the series builds up these huge storylines only for them to sputter out and run out of gas so suddenly? So Daniel really is dead or what? Why did Ofelia leave the hotel and go out on her own, again? Why didn’t she at least leave a note for Alicia? Was she trying to look for her father? So can Nick talk to walkers or was he hallucinating? Why did Madison and Alicia fight for the hotel and work so hard to clean it out as a refuge only for them to give it up at the drop of a hat?

Continue reading

Night of the Something Strange (2016) [FrightFest 2016]

night-of-the-something-strangeA group of friends hell-bent on going to the beach for spring break embark on a road trip during which they stop at a small town cheap motel.  As they arrive, an STD-like disease is ripping through town. Directed by Jonathan Straiton who wrote the story it’s based on and co-wrote the script with Ron Bonk and Mean Gene.  The story they create is completely dependent on gross out sex jokes and monster rape.  The film still manages to keep things fairly lighthearted as things are approached in a way that works for its subject matter.

Continue reading

The Walking Dead: The Complete Sixth Season [Blu-Ray/Digital]

TWD-S6This is it, this is the year we finally meet Negan, and it is a thing of beauty. Season Six is where the series “The Walking Dead” is taken to a whole other level, rebooting itself yet again. No longer is this a series about a bunch of survivors looking for a new home. They’ve found their home. Now they realize they have to fight tooth and nail to protect it. And they have to protect it from a trio of humongous menaces which include a massive horde of the walking dead that threaten to destroy the town Alexandria, a cult of terrorists known as “The Wolves” that raid Alexandria at its weakest, and of course, the Saviors, a group of raiders and nomads that want everything that Alexandria and Rick Grimes have worked for and accomplished. Season six promises us a glimpse in to a larger world, and lo and behold we get it. The series expands in to a much larger set piece and introduces many more characters, a lot of whom have been established fan favorites in the comics.

Continue reading

Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues [Blu-Ray/DVD]

RedSonjaQOPYour enjoyment of “Queen of Plagues” will depend on your love for motion comic books. Shout Factory has shown a love for the format of motion comics in the past, and they continue that trend with adapting Gail Simone’s miniseries from Dynamite! Despite the draw back of animating certain panels that just look awkward in motion, “Queen of Plagues” is an engrossing adventure where we meet Sonja once again in battle. After the noble King Dimath raids and conquers a kingdom in a bloody battle, he enters a dungeon and decides to free the two remaining prisoners and let them go without trial. One of them is Sonja.

Continue reading

Seoul Station (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]

seoul“If I had a place to go… I wouldn’t have stayed at Seoul Station.”

Yeon Sang-ho’s animated prequel to the excellent zombie action film “Train to Busan” is every bit as terrifying as its successor, and occasionally much more intelligent and biting in its social commentary. While “Train to Busan” is a very emotional look at class warfare and how the society divides in the time of crisis, “Seoul Station” is a very evocative commentary on the poverty crisis in the world. This horrific zombie virus is able to thrive thanks to the massive homeless population in South Korea, and it’s confronted more than once in how the government views its homeless as animals and sub-human even before the flesh eating ghouls appear.

Continue reading