White Zombie (1932)

4 / 5
Tagline: The Dead Walk Among Us!
Directed by: Victor Halperin
Written by: Garnett Weston
Actors include: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorne
Genre: Horror
Length: 69 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: USA

Review:
I actually thought this was rather atmospheric and neat, the shadows really worked to their advantage in this one. It's obviously one of the first major zombie films and a good one at that. On route to be married a young couple is intercepted by their new friend Mr. Beaumont and they are convinced to stay with him. Beaumont takes a liking to the female and gives her a zombism potion to appear dead so the fiancee would take off. At the same time the area is littered with zombie workers as well they work slowly but ask no pay, the scenes in the work environment were the creepiest. They actually do a decent job making their zombies give us the creeps. As the woman comes back Beaumont is alarmed to find that she's emotionless...like a zombie, but when the zombie potion maker decides he has an alternate use for the female well things get nasty. It's a pretty easy to get through film, it's short, it's creepy and it clearly lays out zombie motives and ways using Haitian voodoo and such. This is a must for horror fans and zombie film fans, sure it's rather dated but it's more than worth your while.

Availability:  On DVD or watch for free online here:  http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-3254015135505259329&ei=_WQTS-XEJKCOqwLm--zyDg&q=white+zombie+1932&hl=en

Night of the Demons (1988)

3 / 5
Tagline: Angela is having a party, Jason and Freddy are too scared to come. But You'll have a hell of a time.
Directed by: Kevin Tenney
Written by: Joe Augustyn
Actors include: Billy Gallo, Linnea Quigley, Amelia Kinkade
Genre: Horror
Length: 90 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: USA

Review:
I actually initially saw this flick at a party and half paying attention I quite enjoyed it. This time around I was sitting squarely in front of it and somehow I was puzzled why I had really liked it the first time. The acting is atrocious (not that it's that uncommon for a horror flick but this is subpar for even that style), the characters are one-dimensional and downright annoying. It takes over half of the movie for anything to happen and when it does it's too little too late. They do try a bit with their gore effects (some nice eye gouging and demon effects) so on that note it does work. Also as a Halloween film it makes sense because the whole shebang takes place at a party in a cursed former Funeral parlor. A group of moronic friends gather to dance and party but they soon realize that the spirits of demons are infecting people and making them kill! There is some definite nudity here and some hilariously bad (and predictable dialog) and a boy who is way too obsessed with his sister's rack. I think this is the sort of thing that will go over best with many drinks at a party, paying attention to it may only annoy you (or at least that was the final effect with me). It could be worse but it could have been oh so much better, I'm afraid of what the sequels will look like!

Availability:  On DVD

Casa d'appuntamento (1972) aka French Sex Murders

2.5 / 5
Tagline:  N/A
Directed by:  Ferdinando Merighi
Written by:  Paolo Daniele, Marius Mattei
Actors include:  Anita Ekberg, Rosalba Neri, Evelyne Kraft
Genre:  Giallo, Horror, Thriller
Length:  83 minutes
Banned:  Norway
Country:  Italy/West Germany

Review:
Well...now there are cheap yet effective giallo films, and then there is this one. It's got a Humphrey Bogart look-alike as a detective, some of the cheapest cutaway gore effects one will ever see (likely) and stupid psychedelic color flash repeats when some deaths occur. I mean if your effects suck why show them over and over again in different colors, wouldn't you try to conceal your ineptness? Really though the cheapness and bad dialog (and lady slapping) is amusing in places but it's not enough to keep the momentum going on this borefest. The mystery does kinda come together I suppose but it's far from engrossing in fact it's probably all around one of the worst of the genre that I've come across yet. Oh and did I mention there is a plot with mad doctors doing experiments on eyeballs? Yeah erm, only diehard fans of this sort of cheap stuff will be interested, I'd say avoid!

Availability:  On DVD

Fear in the Night (1972)

3 / 5
Tagline:  N/A
Directed by:  Jimmy Sangster
Written by:  Jimmy Sangster, Michael Syson
Actors include:  Judy Geeson, Joan Collins, Peter Cushing
Genre:  Thriller, Horror, Drama
Length:  94 minutes
Country:  UK

Review:
I too really like Images and Les Diaboliques, but somehow this film which combines elements of both is duller than dull.  It takes a severly long time before anything happens and when it does it's pretty darned predictable.  I was more interested with getting to the end (which some claim is a real surprise) because it was so uneventful.  The idea is that a young blonde teacher (who even looks like Susannah York) moves to a small town to be with her husband at a boys school.  The one-armed headmaster (Peter Cushing) and his snotty wife (Joan Collins) also play a part in this and they share the general grounds.  The young blonde teacher is pretty naive and known to have had a little breakdown so it's a bit of a case of "is she crazy or is someone trying to get her" only I didn't really care whatever way it played out.  They did throw some different things in there but no scares, not much in the way of blood and it seemed to drag on and on.  Not my choice for a good Hammer film but I suppose it came together in the end (if you haven't seen any of the movies it borrows from ).

Availability:  On DVD (OOP except in the UK though)

Antitrust (2001)

2 / 5
Tagline: Truth can be dangerous... Trust can be deadly.
Directed by: Peter Howitt
Written by: Howard Franklin
Actors include: Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook, Claire Forlani
Genre: Thriller
Length: 109 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: USA

Review:
The ridiculous title should have been enough to keep me at bay but noooo I had to watch this on cable. The story is about a computer programmer genius named Milo who graduates and moves on up quickly when offered a job at NURV (the lead character loosely based upon Bill Gates). The company has been working on project Synapse and they need Milo to help them meet their launch so he agrees and takes the job. Of course from there he learns that the company isn't exactly what he thought and he learns not to trust certain people. It's a bare bones thriller that offers absolutely no thrills, just dull deception.

Availability:  On DVD

Strange Behavior (1981)

3.5 / 5 Aug '09
Tagline: Cuts up parts other movies just dislocate
Directed by: Michael Laughlin
Written by: Bill Condon, Michael Laughlin
Actors include: Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, Dan Shor
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Length: 105 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: Australia/USA/New Zealand

Review:
Certainly a creative film with a decent idea, it just had a few problems with budget, staying on topic and so forth. If you've seen Disturbing Behavior this is rather similar (although this came first of course). It's about a couple of good boys from a small town who decide to take part in a research study for money. The thing is the research is dangerous and before long they are out killing with no recollection of what happened. It's got a few bloody moments, but most of it is cutaway and lacking gratuity. This has a sense of humor, and in several ways it feels like a weirdo '80s comedy which is kinda neat. It's just not consistently funny or anything and unfortunately the scares are nowhere to be found. At least it's got a few neat moments and overall the story was pretty interesting. Not a lost classic but rather a hidden treat that should somewhat satisfy!

Availability:  On DVD

Abandon (2002)

1.5 / 5
Tagline: Watch who you leave behind.
Directed by: Stephen Gaghan
Written by: Stephen Gaghan
Actors include: Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt, Charlie Hunnam
Genre: Thriller
Length: 99 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: USA/Australia

Review:
Oy, a co-worker lent me this one saying that it was a pretty good thriller. I can only deduce that she hasn't seen very many thrillers as this was pretty much tripe. The story is about a girl named Catherine (Katie Holmes) who is stressed out about exams and completing her thesis and all of that good stuff. Things go from bad to worse when her old boyfriend shows up after 2 years of being absent. This is the sort of thing that offers no thrills and sadly barely anything happens...I really wanted most of the characters dead. You can see twists a mile away and truly it felt like nobody involved really gave a rat's behind about the film and neither do I.

Availability:  On DVD

Chaos (1999) aka Kaosu

3.5 / 5
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Hideo Nakata
Written by: Hisashi Saito
Actors include: Jun Kunimura, Ken Mitsuishi, Masato Hagiwara
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Crime
Length: 90 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: Japan

Review:
This was actually rather spooky and atmospheric in many ways, the only real downfall is the slowness. This one is about a couple, a rich man and his wife. She goes outside and is offered some money if she does something to help out a handyman. She doesn't return and the Husband is left with the task of finding her, but things get more complicated when he is contacted by a kidnapper. It's one of those twisty turny stories that is a bit confusing but if you pay attention it makes sense. Definitely different from what one would expect from Hideo Nakata especially since I'd only seen Ringu previously. This is more like a complicated drama/thriller than a horror film, but it's still a pretty neat story.

Availability:  On DVD

The Silent Partner (1978)

 4.5 / 5 Aug '09
Tagline: "The Silent Partner" begins with a crime of sheer genius and builds to a climax of sheer terror!
Directed by: Daryl Duke
Written by: Curtis Hanson, Anders Bodelsen
Actors include: Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York
Genre: Thriller, Crime
Length: 100 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: Canada

Review:
So it may borrow a few ideas from other exciting '70s thrillers...who cares! This has got to be one of the best thrillers that Canada has to offer, it's gripping from beginning to end and the cast is fabulous. Elliott Gould plays mild mannered banker Miles Cullen, a man who accidentally finds out in advance about the mall's Santa plot to rob the bank. Instead of giving him all of the money he happens to stash the majority of it away for himself. Christopher Plummer (who I had trouble at first believing he was evil because of his kindness in The Sound of Music) plays evil store Santa who finds out he was ripped off when the radio announces how much he made off with...let's just say he's pissed off about the gyp. From there it's harassing phone calls, fish attacks and spying amongst other fun thriller happenings. I honestly liked all of it's twists and turns and it's actually just a slick thriller that just about anyone should enjoy. An extra bonus was that this was filmed in the Eaton's Center in Toronto in the '70s so the scenery was pretty neat too. Oh and the extreme violence bits were awesome, horror fans should love this too.

Availability:  On DVD

The Boxer's Omen (1983) aka Mo

3.5 / 5 Aug '09
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Chih-Hung Kuei
Written by: Chih-Hung Kuei, On Szeto
Actors include: Somjai Boomsong, Tien-chu Chin, Phillip Ko
Genre: Horror
Length: 105 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: Hong Kong

Review:
Very surreal, yet extremely cheap and gross out boxing revenge movie. I would be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued by this most of the way through, although I kept hoping for some extra explanations for what was going on. What I made out of this was that a Boxer got in trouble for breaking a Man's back during a competition and therefore wasn't allowed to box anymore. The guy who he injured has a brother who has vowed revenge. Our disgraced Boxer joins the Monkhood and learns some super meditative powers to fight the dark wizard and his creations and the brother. The dark wizard conjures up some magical alligator skulls for yapping, bat bones (made from chicken bones me thinks) that fly about and other bizarre things one wouldn't expect (oh and the vomiting of a live eel ewww). You can tell it's trying really hard to be colorful and surreal, but the cheapness of everything makes it more laughable than "deep". Especially where you get into scenes with a giant red devil character. It's something that really must be seen but it's just a shame it wasn't made a little more professionally because it had potential to be creepy instead of just gross and weird.

Availability:  On DVD

Alone in the Dark (1982)

4 / 5 Aug '09
Tagline: Too frightened to breathe...
Directed by: Jack Sholder
Written by: Jack Sholder, Robert Shaye
Actors include: Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau
Genre: Horror
Length: 92 minutes
Banned: Finland, Iceland
Country: USA

Review:
I actually think this would have worked really well as Halloween III: Season of the Witch considering it has more in common with the franchise than the actual third sequel. This one is about a group of mental patients (who are seriously disturbed...Jack Palance and Martin Landau were particularly creepy) that seem to believe that their old Doctor was killed by new Doctor Dan Potter (the old doctor was named Harry...so Potter had to track down Harry har har). Anyhow, Dan Potter and his wife and daughter are in trouble when the electricity goes out. You see the mental ward door is controlled by electricity so when they break out guess where they are going! This was actually created with a great sense of humor (chasing the mailman down for his hat for example) and some nice teases of gore. It's just a shame that the nastiest scenes were dream sequences...still this does have some blood in realty too. Just because this is rather erm derivative doesn't mean it isn't a ball of fun all on it's own.

Availability:  On DVD

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977)

 3 / 5 Aug '09
Tagline: The Doctor is In-SANE!
Directed by: Don Taylor

Written by: H.G. Wells, Al Ramrus

Actors include: Burt Lancaster, Michael York, Nigel Davenport

Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Horror, Romance

Length: 99 minutes

Banned: Nope

Country: USA

Review:

This is my first experience with the story (baring the South Park and Simpsons parodies of course), and I must say I was rather disappointed. The first 3/4 of the film is rather dull and I was just begging for something to happen, but at least the last bit was interesting and even cool. First of all we watch a boat capsizing and a man floats aboard a tiny island. We learn of a Scientist named Dr. Moreau (Burt Lancaster) who seems to be conducting experiments on the island. He has some freaky looking assistants and of course a beautiful young assistant named Maria who our shipwrecked fella (Michael York) falls for. Before long though York realizes something strange is going on with these experiments as there are many animals who resemble poorly made-up Ewoks (though that wasn't what they were supposed to look like me thinks). See the Scientist thinks that he can turn animal to man, but of course the lesson is don't play God. It does get exciting once real animals enter the story, but by that time you've had to suffer through a lot of love garbage and a lot of talking. Still not a bad story and I'd try the remake (that I heard was more exciting), just hold on for the end of this one or else you will have entirely wasted your time.

Availability:  On DVD