The Drums Of Jeopardy (1931)

3 / 5 Jan '11
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: George B. Seitz
Written by: Harold McGrath, Florence Ryerson
Actors include: Warner Oland, Lloyd Hughes, June Collyer
Genre: Horror, Drama
Length: 75 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This is the sound remake of a film from 1923, I haven't seen the original but this is reasonably decent I suppose though it wasn't very exciting. The story is about a Man (worth noting that this character is called Boris Karlov in both versions of the film and the book which predates Boris Karloff's notoriety in the film Frankenstein) who discovers his daughter dying, he asks her who is responsible but she refuses to answer. Soon after he finds a necklace that has the "Drums Of Jeopardy" on them, it just happens to belong to the Petroff family. They have many members, and Karlov can't be sure whom, but he does know that the necklace charms are apparently cursed. When a drum is sent to someone, they turn up dead shortly after, so he begins sending off the drums one by one to family members to try and find and punish the guilty party. It's rather dry, and the deaths aren't very shocking, it's just a color by numbers revenge tale. I can't help but wonder if the original were more lively, this one does drag on even at a mere 75 minute run time. Oh well, I won't be watching this again but if you love early horror films then you might want to give this a try.

Availability:  On DVD

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

3.5 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell.
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi
Actors include: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver
Genre: Horror
Length: 99 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
I'm actually surprised that I liked this, the last handful of new horror films I've watched were pretty lousy. It's very typical of his style still, it's got cartoonish violence and a very over the top nature which makes it quite comical and he doesn't scrimp on gross effects either. The story is rather entertaining, it's about a young loan officer named Christine (Alison Lohman) who is in line for a promotion at work. She's informed she'll have to make some tough decisions so when an ugly disgusting Gypsy woman comes in wanting an extension on her house loan, she decides to deny her. Let's just say things don't go so well from there as the Gypsy curses her and suddenly she's suffering in nearly every way imaginable. She's left racing about trying to figure out how to get rid of the curse, meanwhile she looks incredibly insane. It's quite a fun little picture and although it's very cheesy in many places, and far from frightening it still makes it's point, and I liked the concept. It kind of reminded me of Night of the Demon [Curse of the Demon] which is a better film but heck for a relatively new horror film I did like this and would recommend it.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray