Category: Reviews

Anna and the Apocalypse

  05/08/2020       Brian      Add Comment

Zombies at Christmas time? Yes please. It is no secret that I love zombie movies pretty much willing to try out any of them that come around. So when Anna and the Apocalypse walked into the my life I was glad to give it a shot.

In my mind you can view this flick as a Shaun of the Death meets a High School Musical. Now that might sound bad but it works and is honestly a pretty good flick to watch through..

A zombie apocalypse threatens the sleepy town of Little Haven – at Christmas – forcing Anna and her friends to fight, slash and sing their way to survival, facing the undead in a desperate race to reach their loved ones. But they soon discover that no one is safe in this new world, and with civilization falling apart around them, the only people they can truly rely on are each other.

Some may say the movie drags a little, but that will depend on your own personal taste as far as the pacing of the movie. If you have around 90 minutes to spare and looking for a ZomCom to pick up and watch check it out. It is available on Amazon Prime to watch right now.

Anna and the Apocalypse Trailer

All and all pretty decent flick for what it is worth. I’ll give it 4 stabs here at GLP

4 stabs
Reviews, Zombies

American Mary

  04/25/2020       Brian      Add Comment

It takes a special person to be a surgeon. I would like to say I would do it just so I could cut open people…but needless to say, I would completely pussy out. Not to mention all the schooling you have to take…Anatomy is a bitch. I have however always thought what it must feel like to be a surgeon. After all the hard work, your pay off is saving lives. Not bad. But then you hear about bad plastic surgeons…Carpet being used for breast implants, unnecessary bones being broken during procedures. Sounds ghastly but it actually happens, look it up.

American Mary tells the story of what happens when a highly skilled surgical student is pushed too far. Mary, played by the gorgeous Katharine Isabelle, is a promising medical student looking to become a surgeon. She runs into some financial troubles and decides to do something drastic. In the process she is thrown in to the underbelly of plastic surgery and extreme body modification. Only to find out, she’s more talented then she initially thought.
Basically, American Mary plays out like a Revenge flick, then turns upside down and back again. Written & Directed by The Soska Sisters (Jen & Sylvia) American Mary is a drastic leap forward from their last full-length effort “Dead Hooker In a Trunk”. Better writing, direction, quality, and acting overall really help push American Mary where Dead Hooker could have been. Jen and Sylvia also make an appearance in the film as the twins.
The cast in the film did very well. I had no glaring issues with any of the acting, sans the Soska’s German/Swedish accent, but in the end was not an issue since I myself could not have done any better. The films standout star is the beautiful Katharine Isabelle, whom I have had a soft spot for since Freddy V.S. Jason. Here character evolution though-out the film is amazing and very well received. The other stand out is the oddly lovable Beatress Johnson played by Tristan Risk. Her Betty Bop voice and all around sweetness makes her a very likable, and strange character in the film, adding a great deal of depth to the story and cast. American Mary also stars Antonio Cupo, David Lovgren, Paula Lindberg, Clay St. Thomas, and Twan Holliday. All did great jobs with their respective roles.
As far as gore, we don’t get a lot, however when it is used it was done very well. Nothing looked face or overkilled, and there were no harsh CGI moments to make your skin crawl. As far as nudity the guys get some scantily clad ladies with plenty of innuendo, and a close-up of a boob being cut into by a surgical scalpel. The ladies get the underside of an infected penis….gross.
I was very surprised by American Mary, I was expecting the same kind of ride as Dead Hooker but got a sophisticated upgrade instead. I really like the film and even the ending which I didn’t entirely see coming. The Soska Sisters are really fine-tuning their craft and as a result but out a tasteful thriller that is sure to do good things. GLP gives this medical lesson a solid 4 out of 5 stabs for great story, direction, and acting. To find out more about American Mary visit The Twisted Twins Webpage, as well as American Mary’s Facebook page. American Mary is currently in select theater as well as many OnDemand providers.

GLP Rating:

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Aftershock (2012)

  08/28/2017       Blaine Gaiser      Add Comment

I’m usually not a fan of disaster movies. There are some that I really enjoy, but most of those have been marred by the remakes of the predecessors. Take the Poseidon Adventure, the original is great, but the remake stunk to high heaven’s. Movies like The Poseidon Adventure & The Towering Inferno are great stables in cinema. A new trend in disaster movies has taken over with the introduction of CGI in film. These films try to capture the “what if” idea and push it to a new level. Modern films are just over doing it. I do however appreciate disaster movies with horror elements. Films like Cloverfield, 28 Days Later, He is Legend ect. These films have disaster film elements but are not really considered disaster movies due to the horror aspects of Monsters & Zombies. I can’t really recall a horror/disaster movie until I saw Aftershock.

Aftershock Movie Poster
Aftershock Movie Poster

Written by Eli Roth, Nicolàs López & Guillermo Amoedo, Aftershock is about 3 friends in Chile searching for chicks and a good party. While the friends are at an underground club in Valparaiso an earthquake hits casing massive damage, mass hysteria, and violence among others. To top it off, prisoners of a nearby prison have escaped due to the quake.

The film is wickedly entertaining. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The acting in the film is good. The film stars Eli Roth, Andrea Osvart, Nicolas Martinez, Ariel Levy, Lorenza Izzo, & Natasha Yarovenko. Overall I was pleased with the acting, there is a good blend of English and Spanish which made the film an easy watch. There was also a good amount of humor in the dialog which was a nice plus. Eli did a very good job with his part and was surprised by his performance. Nicolas Martinez stole the show however this his over the top character. Selena Gomez make a cameo appearance too!

The story is great, a lot of things happened that I didn’t see coming which was a great breath of fresh air. Normally these movies can become very formulaic, while still entertaining, but it was cool to see some things come out of nowhere. The effects were ok, a lot of CGI was used, but its kinda hard to get around with a film like this. There was however, a good amount of practical effects too, which helped even out dynamic. The film is surprisingly gory too. The viewer gets some smashing, shootings, impaling, dismemberment, and more.

While this is a shorter review than normal, I can’t think of any glaring anomalies in this film. It’s a fairly straight forward horror film with a disaster twist. The writing was witty, and the acting was good. GLP gives this film a solid 4 out of 5 stabs. I would highly recommend checking this movie out. If not for just the sheer fun of it, but the totally awesome ending.

4 stabs

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Blood Junkie (2010)

  06/16/2016       Blaine Gaiser      Add Comment

The 80’s, a plethora of VHS, Cassettes, Acid Washed Jeans, Leg Warmers and the Rubik’s Cube. But the 80’s also birthed the era of the slasher film! Slasher films in the 80’s were literally a dime a dozen, while short lived, most left a mark with their viewers. I am a child of the late 80’s (88’ to be exact) so I had the opportunity to experience most of these things, although it wasn’t until the 90’s. Something about this time period for film and pop culture really stuck with me. So when it comes to watching new horror films I almost always feel like there is something missing (even if it is perfect). Now that I think about it, it’s just the nostalgia of the films I grew up on, the setting, film grain, and 80’s culture in general.Blood Junkie Poster

Blood Junkie (a.k.a Rocky Trails) is a film that captivated me. Upon hearing about the film I immediately got very excited. As most of you already know, I am a HUGE fan of the Slasher sub-genre, so seeing this film was a no brainer. When I finally got the chance to see it I was not disappointed at all.

The film is set in the glorious 80’s, a group of teens set out the abandoned Rocky Trails Campground to have a weekend of drinking, sex and fun. However just beyond the old overgrown trails is a blood hungry maniac looking to eradicate all that enter his domain.

I had so much fun watching this movie. Director Drew Rosas did a magnificent job of recreating the 80’s slasher style. The cinematography, film grain, original soundtrack, and costume design took me back to the days of watching the likes of The Nail Gun Massacre, and Night School on VHS in my childhood bedroom. With just the right amount of 80’s cheese, and horror, this film delivered all the horror goodies!

This film was shot in Wisconsin for $7,000, and subsequently released by Troma Films. That to me is one reason this film is so great. The editing, special effects, and camera work make this film look like it has a budget of way more. The acting by Nick Sommer, Mike Johnson, Sarah Luther, and Emily Treolo was great, with just the right amount of bad! I can not begin to tell you how much I loved all of their performances. I will say that this movie will probably only work for hardcore genre buffs, most casual fans may pass this over if they don’t have education in the area.

This film serves up all the best things from the 80’s Slasher flicks. The cheese, gore, T&A, score, and more really take you back to a time when horror wasn’t over thought, and delivered the most outlandish characters in the world. This film gets GLP’s stamp of approval with 4 out of 5 stabs. If you would like to see this movie you can find it on Amazon.

4 stabs

 

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Puppet Master (1989)

  06/07/2016       Blaine Gaiser      Add Comment

I am a product of the home video era. I was raised in a video store. The earliest memories I have as a child were running up and down the isles of the numerous local video stores my mother managed. See, My mom had been working in the home video industry for quite some time when I came around. I can recall sitting in back rooms of NUMEROUS video stores watching any video I wanted… As long as I didn’t get out of line and start acting them out. One of the first horror movie covers to really intrigue me was Full Moon Video’s Puppet Master. I thought it was great, dolls that come to life to do their masters bidding! I was instantly hooked. Every chance I got I would pop in the series and just watch terrified of the possibilities that my action figures could do the same. But unfortunately we all grow up sometime, some faster than others, some just look grown up. I always held on to this film, even after all my wrestling and cartoon action figures had long been goon and forgotten.

While this movie is definitely not perfect, there is a quality of charm that make up for the continuity issues and goofs. And while this film doesn’t give me the awe struck feeling it used to, it still manages to take me back to a time when things were simpler. Charles Band’s Puppet Master is a creative film with very innovative villains. The dolls are my favorite part of this film. Blade, Leech Lady, Pinhead, Tunneler, and Jester all struck a chord with me. I even at one time had a small jester action figure. All the creative elements in this film make it a stable in the horror genre, & also did enough to spawn 9 total films, the 10th which is due out in October of this year. While critics have almost nothing but hate for these gems, the fans have giving their stamp of approval on this Full Moon Franchise.

puppet master posterLong story short this film is about a group of psychics brought together again by the death their colleague. Soon things in the Bodega Bay Hotel starting getting strange when friends start disappearing and the group begins to have violent visions of the demise. Aside from the creativity and amazingly crafted puppets, this film is hit or miss. Most of the acting is subpar at best, and there are so many continuity errors if your playing a drinking game to them you would probably be passed out on the floor before the movie ends. Fortunately as I said before this film has this charm about it that really keeps me interested, even when I am utterly disgusted by the events that are unfolding on the silver screen. Maybe is nostalgia, or maybe not.

Even though the actors could have stepped up their game, the gore and special effects are very well done. Full Moon Entertainment thrives off putting out B-Movie’s with gore and t&a. This film delivers both in rather creative style. Without giving away anything, lets just say the endings practical effects really carry the film. Let’s not forget the animatronics! At the time of Puppet Masters release Child’s Play had come out only a year before, and Stuart Gordon’s Dolls (Produced by Full Moon’s Charles Band) the year before that. The animated doll had not been done so well before this point, with the exception of the Made-For-TV classic Trilogy Of Terror in 1975.

I rather enjoy the work of Full Moon Entertainment, even if they are low on production quality and full of campy cheese. I thrive to be entertained and Full Moon delivers the goods. With all that said Puppet Master is no masterpiece. While full of awesome effects and creativity, the acting is lack luster at best. In the case of this film, the dolls carry the work. The dolls make you want to watch the whole movie. I mean, come on… Killer Puppets… That’s pretty sweet in my book. GLP gives this Full Moon effort a 3 out of 5 stabs for creative villains, great special effects, and amazing puppet design.

You can pick up the movie at Amazon by itself  or in a boxed set with move of the Puppet Master movies.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idsk__J3weA

 

GLP Rating:

3 stabs

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