Dead Alive AKA:Braindead

This is an early movie by Oscar winner Peter Jackson, of Lord of the rings fame. People will always argue which Peter is better. The goremonger of Bad taste/ Dead Alive fame or the CGI special effects guru of Lord of the ring/ King Kong fame. I am of the camp that both are tremendous. I love his old work and really dig his new word as well. The same arguments are often made about Sam Raimi. Several internet dorks argue that Peter sold out when he began making the Lord of the rings, but this is just stupid to me. He made movies he always wanted to make and happened to make a ton of money doing it. Sure I would like to see some more films from him in this vein, but you can’t fault him for doing what he really wants to do.

Dead Alive starts with a New Zealand zoo keeper captures a ratmonkey on Skull Island and returns it to the local zoo. The monkey ends up biting Lionel’s mother. The bite turns the woman undead and Lionel tries to keep her in check with tranquilizers. Of course the woman spreads the virus and Lionel and his new girlfriend fight to stay alive. First time viewers will compare this to Shaun of the dead, and wouldn’t be far off. While Shaun of the dead is a fantastic film (thinking about it makes me want to watch it again and review it here) this movie is so much more over the top Shaun can’t even touch it.

This movie doesn’t take itself seriously and is written to be much more of a comedy than horror, despite its gore and horrifying storyline. This movie has perhaps the most gore I have ever seen in a film and it is glorious. You won’t believe some of the things that Peter Jackson puts in this movie. You will laugh at things if described to you would make you sick. I won’t go into too much detail so as not to spoil it for those that have yet to see this wonderful gorefest but I actually almost threw up from laughing so hard a one point. I can’t underline the amount of gore in this film though, if you are the least bit squeamish you may want to have a trashcan nearby.

My rating 9 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

Death Proof- Grindhouse

This is the other part of the Grindhouse double feature (along with Planet Terror) put out by the Weinstein group. This film is written and directed by Quentin Tarantino . It doesn’t have the old look that Rodriguez used in Planet Terror but it does have a very “grindhouse” look to it nonetheless. I was quite pleased with the look and direction (not surprising from Tarantino) and I feel it made an ok script much better than it should have been.

The first half takes place in the same town as Planet Terror before the events in that movie and contains several of those characters. Kurt Russell plays a former stuntman who has turned madman hunting down young women in his “death proof” car. The first part is ok but pretty much only exists to have you root more for the women in the second half. Kurt plays the part pretty well but honestly seems like pretty much every other character he ever plays. Most of the women’s parts were played pretty well though and you do find yourself rooting for them. The last half does have a pretty great car chase scene which seems to be the entire point of the movie. While an ok movie with some good parts it is far from Tarantino’s best work and greatly outshone by Rodriguez’s effort on Grindhouse.

My rating 7 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

Planet Terror- Grindhouse

Planet Terror is a part of the Grindhouse double feature that was put out by The Weinstein Company. This one was written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. The movies even had fake movie trailers between them, which were way over the top. One of them (Machete) is actually being made, and had one of the best trailer taglines ever. “They just fucked with the wrong Mexican.” How can you not want to see that movie after hearing that? This movie was processed to really feel like you were watching a movie form the 70s, with tons of scratches on the film and often made to look like parts of the film had warped or burned. I felt this effect really worked well and added a very nice touch. It was particularly great when He used a missing reel gag.

A bio-chemical spill has started transforming a small town into flesh eating zombie-like creatures. A group of various people happened to be immune and fight for their lives and freedom. So it sounds like a nice cliché Day of the dead remake right? Wrong, this movie takes a lot of the clichés to a new level. It looks like a b movie and even has many things that would be seen in a B horror movie but actually makes them work. Some of the things are so freaking cheesy but I found myself liking them and rooting for the characters even more. I found myself rewinding the DVD at least 4 times to see parts over again. I mean Rose McGowan gets her leg eaten of and replaces it with a machine gun and it is fantastic. This movie is over the top in every area. The gore is absolutely of the charts. It has been a good while since I have seen a movie this gory.

I will not say much more so as not to ruin it for those that haven’t seen it, but trust me in that this movie is worth seeing. I would rate this as one of the best zombie movies of all-time.

My rating 9 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

The Texas chainsaw massacre 3: Leatherface

Somehow leather face survived part 2 (typical slasher shit where they kill someone and bring them back) He is now living with a different strange family which seems to be related to him. A traveling couple is being hunted by the family and trying to escape. Has the feel of the second (as compared to the first )but the story trails off and gets even more ridiculous than the second one. Overall it feels like a bad Friday the 13^th. The family this time around is a lot more demented (although when you are a cannibal, degrees of dementedness seems redundant)

This movie features and early appearance of Viggo Mortensen, as one of the crazy family members. He really isn’t too bad in it and could have been better if ti weren’t for such bad writing and directing. For all fans of his that don’t know he is also a musician please take the time to check out his stuff with the brilliant guitarist Buckethead. Speaking of music, this film actually did have some great 1980’s shread metal playing during one of the climax’s fight scene.

My rating 5 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Just about every single horror buff that has lived through the past century has seen Dawn of the Dead, but for those that haven’t,I will describe it for you. Dawn of the Dead is a survive-the-mass-zombie-outbreak-in-which-you-happen-to-be-one-of-the-1%-of-the-known-world-left-alive genre movie. The original took place almost exclusively in a mall while zombies swarm around and inside the said mall. The survivors are forced to avoid or outwit the zombies to retrieve items they require for sustenance while devising a plan to escape the mall and flee to safety. Overall in my opinion, this is one of the best zombie flicks created to date.

The 2004 remake of DOTD follows relatively closely with the storyline of the original with some satisfying revisions. First of all, the beginning of the film goes into much greater detail as to how the outbreak started and progressed. It then follows to how the individuals find themselves into the mall. Within the mall, differences are added with the interaction between the characters and the number of characters as well. More characters are added with a group of people who flee to the mall in a big rig. More depth is added as with family relations and having to deal with the birth of a “child”. Near the end it changes with the group of survivors flee the mall to escape to an island where they should be safe. Secondly, the zombies can HAUL ASS! Unlike the original version or basically every other zombie movie in existence, the zombies in this movie can run. In my opinion, this adds to the scary and freaky values of this movie and makes the zombies ever more human.To me it also added the question of what is next? Zombies that can operate tools and machines? Perhaps firearm wielding zombies?! Only time will answer, but for now, this is a very solid and fun-to-watch film.

Review by Tyler Zimmer

I really don’t have much to add that my son did not cover above. I will say that I know there has been a controversy since this film came out about the running zombies. Some hate that they have changed the classic zombie while others love that it adds a new dimension to the fright. I am firmly on the love them side of the line. As hard as it is to say, this film offered me more fright (well as much as someone who has seen as many horror movies as i have can feel) than any Romero film ever has. This is one of the best zombie movies i have seen in a long while.

My rating 8.5 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

The Texas chainsaw massacre part 2

It’s been 14 years since the original film. Tobe hooper is back with a bigger budget to show us how ole Leatherface has been doing. Dennis Hopper joins the cast and plays a former Texas Ranger who is obsessed with finding the murdering family that killed his family members (two of the kids in the original). The weaver family was forced to move after being found out in the first one. The set up shop in a rundown theme park outside of Dallas. After one of their murders is caught on audiotape by a radio DJ the family needs to stop her from helping Dennis Hopper and catching them.

IT is obvious from very early on that the great Tom Savini was in charge of the special effects. While this film doesn’t have his best work, it does have some pretty nice effects and a few special moments. I especially liked the plate in chop Top’s head. That coupled with the coat hanger and lighter bit added a creepy touch that was truly disgusting. Overall the gore was ratcheted up from the first one and probably has the most of the series (not counting the remake and its new storyline) still not as much as it could have been but was well done none the less.

Chop top is a different character from the hitchhiker in the first one (maybe brothers and he was absent in the first one because he was in the war) but they are pretty much the same. Chop Top has more humor but has most of the same mannerisms. Dennis Hopper plays his part pretty over the top (not uncommon for him) but it works form most of the film. This film deals a lot more with Leatherface and tries to delve into his emotions. This doesn’t always work though. Some of it is pretty sick and twisted. Watch the first 20 minutes of The Texas chainsaw massacre:the beginning and you get a much better interpretation of his emotions as far as I am concerned. Despite that it worked ok (especially when this film was released). Parts of Leatherface’s movements really reminded me of Kevin Smith as Silent Bob.

This has a totally different vibe from the first one. It is much cleaner looking and doesn’t have that independent feel. This movie is much more inline with the slasher films that were being produced at the time, with some campiness, some comedy and overall set to be less terrorifing. Fans of primus will recognize an audio sound bite from Sailing the seas of cheese. One thing that really disappointed me and really showed some terribly lazy writing was a 10 minute scene that was an exact duplicate from the first film. Why they felt the need to rehash this scene(which wasn’t that great the first time) is beyond me. A big step down from the first one but better than most released that year.

My rating 6.5 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

The Texas chainsaw massacre (1974)

Well I was supposed to watch Broken tonight (heard it has crazy gore) but the disc was broken (go figure) so I figured I might as well re-watch and review the movie I took the title of this blog from, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I have often felt that “who will survive and what will be left of them” is the greatest tag line in the history of everything. Anyway in my mind I have always thought that this was the best horror movie (well in the slasher genre at least) of all time but when I sat down to review it I realized I hadn’t seen it in a dozen or more years. I (as with all movies) tried to judge it on its merits of the time it was made. For instance I wouldn’t count against it for special effects that don’t live up to today’s standards. I also took into account the fact that it was an independent movie so I gave some leeway on the acting.

The movie follows a group of young adults as they visit an old family country house. Eventually they disturb some local crazies who proceed to hunt and kill them. The movie would have what many today would consider clichés but you have to remember that this movie was made 4 years before the original Halloween. Most of the clichés weren’t clichés back then. The movie being over 30 years old and being low budget doesn’t look very clean. To me that grittiness adds greatly to the mood of the movie. The effect is so effective that Rob Zombie gave house of a thousand corpses and Devil’s rejects a similar feel (he was going for the feel of the era not necessarily this film)

There are several things about this film that made it so freaking disturbing back then (and it still beats 95% of today’s films). One thing is the shear brutality of the murders. Tobe avoids lack of buildup through most of the movie so when something happens it shocks you. For the most part when someone is going to die they are just killed quickly. This makes it seem much more real and real violence tends to make people uneasy. Tobe uses good camera angles to add to the intensity as well as a lack of extra lights in the dark scenes. Most of the time filmmakers use blue lights on night scenes so it still looks dark but allows you to see everything. Tobe doesn’t use that technique most of the time. He uses mostly the light in the scene such as a flashlight or car lights (technically he does use some added lights but turns them down way low). This again adds to the realism and adds a creepy as shit mood.

The soundtrack is also disturbing as hell. It has no real soundtrack to speak of. Instead it uses strange sounds said to be recorded from a slaughterhouse. This also adds a lot to the creepiness of the film. The acting for the most part is fair. There is some overacting but from a low budget 70s movie, that is to be expected. Overall this still holds up as a fantastic horror film and will give the average viewer the willes for days. I still declare this a horror masterpiece!

My rating 9 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

Penny Dreadful

One of the 8 films to die for, or the After dark horrorfest, Penny Dreadful is about a girl named Penny who is haunted by a crash when she was little. She witnessed both her parents die. She sets out on a journey with her psychiatrist who is trying to help her overcome her fear of cars. Along the way they end up picking up a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker is a madman. You know the rest. A cliché for sure but then again almost everything is these days. The film differs from most hitchhiker movies in that Penny is trapped in the car for most of the movie, giving it a panic room feel.

For starters I would say I like my psycho hitchhikers to be much less psycho looking. I mean you watch this and say ”well look at the guy what did you freaking expect?”. This, like most movies of this type relied on terror for its scares. Your basic stalking idea. It does have a few good moments like that and does make some good use of the claustrophobic terror while she is trapped in the car. Unfortunately these few good moments are not enough to pull this movie through. The movie is in the end just boring. Some movies make good use of the choppy, altered static editing but this isn’t one of them. And to be honest it is becoming overused nowadays. I also really hated the idiotic goofy guy that tried to help her. If you are going to make a terrifying movie, then don’t make it funny. I don’t mind comedy in my horror but not just a small bit in a movie that is taking itself seriously. The ending was pretty lame and has been done several times before by much better filmmakers. I will say though that I did really like the opening credit sequence and found it fairly unique.

Overall 4.5

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

Hannibal Rising

Hannibal Rising tells the story of America’s most beloved psychopath before we first saw him in Manhunter and Silence of the lambs. The story starts with Hannibal as a small child and shows how his family was killed during World War II. He was particularly troubled by the murder of his sister (which was pretty heinous I must say). He also ended up living in an Orphanage which was located in his family’s former home. Hannibal eventually finds his distant aunt and moves in with her. From here he really starts to become the killer we know and love. He sets out for revenge on those that murdered his sister.

Now onto the movie. I should start off by saying that, while I enjoyed Silence of the lambs when I first saw it, I am not the biggest fan of this series. With that being said, this movie is a bit different from the others in tone and style. I felt the acting by Gaspard Ulliel not particularly inspiring and at time pretty over the top. He did come across as very creepy (which I assume is what they were going for) but he just didn’t give me the felling of silent dread that Anthony Hopkins did. The story was a bit uninspired and kind of patchy in spots. I also didn’t like or believe the sexual tension between Hannibal and his aunt. While I understood Hannibal’s anger towards the men that killed his sister, it seemed a bit contrived.

The death scenes were pretty good and some were bordering on great but that couldn’t save the movie for me. I liken this to many sequels that have had to change main cast members and couldn’t quite capture that same feel. While not as bad as Dumb and dumberer as far as prequels go, it is leagues below Silence of the lambs. I would recommend it to fans of the series but have reservations going in. Non series fans should watch something else.

My rating 6.5 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

The Reaping

Hilary swank plays scientist who dispels miracles while she teaches at LSU. She is asked to investigate a river turned red in the swamps of a very small town in Louisiana. She of course tries to explain the phenomenon but is taken aback when more things begin to happen. It becomes increasingly difficult to explain plague after plague. After a while she begins to think that this small town is not what it seems.

I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised at this movie. It has a very “Omen” vibe to it, especially towards the end. I went into it not really expecting much, but I was wrong. I felt the acting overall was pretty well done. One reason I was weary was Hillary Swank who has been great in dramas but not great in some other things. She had a very solid performance here and was joined by a fairly solid group of supporting actors. To me the movie was reminiscent of the Omen and other horror movies from a few decades past. The special effects were very good in some places and a bit poor in a few but overall effective. Overall a very enjoyable movie with a very good ending and a nice amount of suspense throughout.

My rating 8.5 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.