I am Omega

Based on the novel “I am Legend” this is the story of Renchard, played by Mark Dacasos star of the American Iron Chef, Who believes he is the last man on earth. The world’s population has been infected by a virus that turns them into cannibalistic mutants. He soon finds out that there are other people left, including a woman who is immune and may hold the key to mankind’s survival. He must rescue her before it si too late.

This is yet another Asylum “Hollywood tie-in” released to piggy back on the Will Smith fueled I am Legend coming out at the end of the year. This film was really pretty decent. It had allot in common with The Asylum’s War of the Worlds, in that they tell similar stories as their big budget counterparts but do it with very little special effects and using much cheaper locations. I thought the locations worked well and the mutants looked really pretty good for such a low budget film. The story was not bad but did get drawn out a bit. They could have added a few more story elements and cut down on some of the slower parts. The acting was good for the most part. Mark turned in a good performance and only seemed to struggle based on the writing. The female lead was not quite as good though and seemed very stiff in parts. This is defiantly the best Asylum film I have seen yet and one I would recommend to fans of B-movies.

My rating 7 out of 10 (b-movie rating)

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

Freakshow

This is yet another David Michael Latt/Asylum production. This is a sort of remake of Tod Browning’s “Freaks” (1932). This is very low budget and it really shows in the lack of sets. Everything takes place on the same small circus set but that doesn’t really affect the story much. A group of outlaws plan on ripping off of traveling carnival. Then they decide to take it further by having the girl of the group try to seduce the owner so he gives up his secret money. Everything is not as it seems with him though. They soon find out how tight of a family the circus family is. There is not a lot in the way of story development and it seems a bit drawn out sometimes. I feel a bit more could have been added as well as some better dialogue. The use of some real circus sideshow “freaks” adds a nice touch. I loved the soundtrack which was all very old sounding records that seemed like something you might have heard at a carnival in the 20’s or 30’s. It really added a nice touch and gave a pretty eerie feeling to the slower parts of the movie.

As I stated before, the movie does move a bit slow in parts and what you know is coming seems to take a while to get there. With this said however I was not fully prepared for what happened in the last act. I was quite pleased (and a bit disturbed) by the last 10 minutes and it made the entire movie worthwhile in my opinion.

My rating 6 out of 10 (B-movie rating)

Review by Elvis Lawson

H.G. Wells War of the Worlds

Written and directed by David Michael Latt who is building a modern B movie empire. This is not the Tom Cruise fueled remake of the original B-movie masterpiece, or even the original masterpiece. This is based on the H.G. Wells book like the others but pretty much made to ride the coattails of the Tom Cruise remake (as are lots of Latt’s recent productions) This version stars C. Thomas Howell whose career doesn’t seem to be doing so well as of late.

This version follows a similar story line to the others since they are all based on the same book. Honestly I like the non action parts of this version better than the big budget Tom Cruise remake. Sure the special effects in the big budget version were much better but these for the most part were surprisingly suitable. While not ultra realistic, I found they had a bit of nostalgia feel to them. C. Thomas Howell was not as bad as I expected him to be and was pretty believable in parts. It is obvious that this was shot quickly and doesn’t have a ton of variation of sets but in an independent movie this is to be expected and they did pretty well for what they had to work with.

So while this movie was made to take advantage of the release and advertising of the Tom Cruise remake, I feel it holds up well and is a pretty decent B-movie. If you are tired of big stories being overshadowed by bigger special effects, then this movie is right up your alley.

My rating 6 out f 10 (B-movie rating)

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.