The Killer Eye (1999) Full Moon Craziness at it's best

   If you are looking for great effects, a killer story, or oscar winning performances  -  look elsewhere  lol.  No seriously Full Moon out does its crazy self with Killer Eye.

 However, if you're looking for gratuitous, full-frontal nudity, you've come to the right place. Other than that, this movie has nothing else to offer. This movie tries hard to be a quality B-film, but that effort in itself disqualifies the movie from consideration for that category. So, if you're into semi-attractive girls getting naked and fooling around with a wriggling, rubber optic nerve, by all means -- check this one out. If not, rent "Troll 2" instead. You'll see what I mean.


Rating...
5/10

Troubled Water (2008) Engrossing

   Not a movie to be taken lightly.  Troubled water is a good watch to say the least.

    Troubled water is the very sad story of a 4 years old boy, who disappears and gets killed 8 year before this story begins.

   We follow the murder, Jan Thomas (Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen) on his way back to the real life, after his years in prison, and the film brings us into his version of what was happened. After a while, we get a new perspective, when the little boy's mother (danish Trine Dyrholm)gives us her story with all the suffering and pain. The film is esthetic and brilliant in many ways: First and last because of the realistic acting of the two main actors: Hagen and Dyrholm; in fact, they didn't act, they really were these people! The pictures, the building of the drama, the sound and the mood Erik Poppe has made, couldn't be better for such a serious theme. It made me in a condition of silence, almost without breathing...

   This film makes reflecting - but not depressive- thoughts, over the worse aspects of life.


Rating...
6.5/10

House of the Devil (2009) Will be a classic someday

   My problem with this movie is the fact that, it takes almost the entire movie to build up any tension or intrigue. 

  The House of the Devil feels like it should have been released back in 1982, from the feathered hair of the leads, to the Walkman, to the music and sound, to the slow build of the suspense, to the vintage titles. It is even a mash-up of the late seventies obsessions with baby-sitters in peril (When a Stranger Calls) and satanism in the suburbs (The Omen). Most importantly, it has all the slow-burn intensity of the great horror films of that period.

  The baby-sitter in peril is Samantha (Jocelin Donahue). A college student, she is doing baby-sitting gigs because she needs money for a new apartment and desperately wants to get out of her dorm. Her roommate is a sex-addict and a slob and Samantha as a neat-freak germaphobe finds both behaviours repulsive. The job that Samantha ends up taking, on the night of a full lunar eclipse, is obviously (cue Admiral Ackbar) a trap, more obvious to the audience than to Samantha because we know that the name of the film is The House of the Devil, because her employer is Tom Noonan, the original Red Dragon from Michael Mann's Manhunter and because Samantha is too self-absorbed to notice that she is in danger.

   There is a danger to read too much into it, but there is a very real sense that this film is pitched perfectly at the divide between the sex and drugs disco party lifestyle of the Seventies and the money-obsessed, self-absorbed Eighties.

   There is even a sense in which the film (with the benefit of filmmaker hindsight) acts as a horror metaphor explaining how the drugs and sex excesses of the Seventies led to the health catastrophes of the Eighties, especially AIDS. Samantha may not know exactly why she is a germaphobe, nor why she is so freaked out by the house she is sitting at, but her anxieties are well-placed.

Rating...
6.5/10

The Crazies (1973) Technocolor madness

   To be honest I actually saw the remake before I seen this movie, so when I actually got arounf to watching this movie I was expecting a watered down version, but was very mistaken.

   Romero is a genius with the Living Dead films and Martin under his belt this one is nothing less then good.
  
   Just in case some stubborn people are still questioning George A. Romero's talent after his 1968 milestone "Night of the Living Dead", we hereby present "The Crazies"! Once again a film stuffed with subtle criticism on society and pitch black humor.

   The Crazies immediately demands your full attention with a powerful pre-credits opening sequence and the high-excitement level is upheld throughout the entire movie. The little Pennsylvanian town of Evans City is overcome with a secret, but very lethal, government virus leaving the infected either dead or incurably insane. "Trixie" initially was developed as a chemical weapon, so not one of the scientists or army officers know how to put a stop to it when innocent people are exposed to it.

   The simple plot and cheap elaboration are excellently camouflaged by Romero's sharp eye for detail. Right from the start, he builds up a tense atmosphere of truly realistic mass hysteria that confuses even you – the viewer – in not knowing which characters are infected and which aren't. They could all simply be trigger-happy Pennsylvanian hillbillies for all we know! Although this film never really becomes "disturbing", there are quite a few scenes that shock and that feel strangely real. You could also state "The Crazies" was quite ahead of its time because chemical warfare is much more in the picture now than it was 30 years ago, when this film was shot.

   Romero's premise is simple but efficient: the malfunctioning and greed of the human race is much scarier than any fictional horror monster could ever be. Best example is the military men who become eerie and threatening in their icky white suits.


Rating...
7/10

Race with the Devil (1975) An odd, but predictable movie

  
Another one of those movies that I honestly didn't know what to expect going into it.  RWTD provides some unique entertainment to say the least. 

RWTD is about two couples are on vacation and driving around in a huge motor home. They are Roger (Peter Fonda), Kelly (Lara Parker), Frank (Warren Oates) and Alice (Loretta Swit). One night while camping they see a Satanic ritual where a young girl is murdered. The members of the cult find out and the couples spend the rest of the movie with witches after them to kill them.

   The story is a little silly and the dialogue is pretty bad.  There is a couple of scenes with Loretta Swit in which I was like WTF, but this is the type of movie that used to pack them in at drive-ins. It's full of action, fast-moving and has likable (if one-dimensional) characters. It's basically a chase movie disguised and marketed as a horror film. The killing in the movie isn't that explicit and the nudity in it is purposely blurred out-some people think it was edited from theatrical prints but it was always that way.

   The acting doesn't really matter--I mean who's seeing this for the acting? Still all four actors give their all to this. The only thing that bothered me was Swit and Parker screaming nonstop when anything happens and letting Fonda and Oates "save" them. It's quite amusing to see Parker being attacked by witches in this one since she played the evil witch Angelique in the "Dark Shadows" TV series in the late 1960s. The climax is either a perfect one or a lousy one. I'm torn between the two myself.

Rating...
6/10

Thrashin (1986) A Quirky Movie

   I honestly didn't know what to think about this movie going into it.  It ends up entertaining which I believe to be the goal of any decent movie at least.

   Josh Brolin (The Goonies) makes a great skateboarding hero. This movie is filled with great styles and great fads from the time period, not to mention great music, including The Circle Jerks and The Red Hot Chili Peppers who perform in the movie.

   It's a classic story of good guy falls for bad guy's sister. Bad guy and good guy fight, and finally bad guy and good guy unite after good guy beats bad guy in a skateboarding race.

   This movie seems very comical watching it in present day, but it actually serves as a time capsule for the 80's. There are many great skateboarding tricks displayed, and many other great scenes including: a skateboarder riding into the side of a truck, and watch carefully (and rewind to watch over and over again) the hilarious scene where the young kid in the sunglasses shouts out "NO, you be there!", pure genious.


Rating...
6/10

The Fly (1986) A Watchable movie and good remake

   Let me say that first and foremost that this is a pretty decent attempt at a remake.

   Truly great – but very nasty – update of the classic 1958 sci-fi film with both Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in the roles of their lives. Technically, this is a remake, but with a genius like David Cronenberg in the director's chair, it's obvious that this isn't anything like the uninspired and irritating remakes that are being released nowadays ("The Amityville Horror", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"…). Cronenberg's interpretation of this ultimate terror-tale differs greatly from the original. In fact, the only resemblance is the basic premise of a fusion between an obsessive scientist and an ordinary housefly. Goldblum is terrifically cast as the brilliant, but slightly confused mastermind Seth Brudle, whose lifework are "telepods"; funny looking machines capable of transmitting matter through space. Journalist Davis, with whom he has a romantic adventure, closely observes the progress of his work but when he teapot's himself through space, the catastrophe happens.

   Mentally as well as physically, Brudle undergoes a horrible transformation into a fly and it cannot be stopped. "The Fly" is a very devastating film. Powerful enough, but not exactly pleasant to look at. Like only the greatest directors can pull this off, Cronenberg overwhelms the audience with a sublime mixture drama, misery and repulsiveness.

   You feel as helpless as the characters themselves and you painfully wait for the unhappy ending to come! The screenplay is filled with genuine metaphors and the romance between Goldblum and Davis is beautifully illustrated. The special effects, mainly created by Chris Walas (who went on directing the 1989-sequel) are definitely still staggering and they don't look the least bit dated by today's standards.


Rating...
7/10