Tag: Horror Review

Mask Maker (2010)

With so many unknown and turkey titles its great to find the nice diamonds in the rough. Mask Maker is no exception.

Mask MakerMask Maker is about a young couple who buy an old farm house in hopes of flipping the property to make some money and finally get married. The more time they spend in the house, the more they find out about the homes tumultuous past. This film surprised me, I went into the film with low expectations and came out of it a believer.

The acting in this film was pretty good. Nikki Deloach does a great job with the leading lady role, she carries with film and really brought a genuine feel to the character. The rest of the cast does a good job as well. Every character seemed legit, and we all pretty likable. Veteran’s Michael Berryman, Treat Williams, and Terry Kiser make appearances in the film and do great as usual.

The downfall of the film is the killer. Nothing special to talk about here, which is a rather big bummer. The films killer is like a cross between Jason and Leatherface, and his motives are about as generic as they come. I feel like with the story the film created the killer could have been a lot cooler. The only gripe have with this film is the killer, although he is slightly redeemed in the end. All in all too generic for me.

The films special effects are the strongest part of the film. The gore, and kills are impressive. I am not a fan of cg effects but it seemed the film used them in a moderate manner, and also mixed in great practical effects as well. The gorehounds will be happy with this modern slasher. We get stabbings, decapitations, skinnings, and a pretty sweet meat hooking…sort of.  The fans of T&A are surprisingly rewarded with some very nice booties, and a couple beautiful pairs too.

All in all the film was a pleasant surprise. Mask Maker serves up a rather by the numbers slasher flick with good acting. The biggest down fall of the film is unfortunately its killer but the gore and nudity make up for the lack of creativity. GLP gives this mediocre slasher a solid 3 out of 5 stabs for good story, acting, and gore. Check out this film on DVD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwt4ekCqt2k

GLP Rating:

3 stabs

Twixt (2012)

 

Have you ever finished a movie, and while the credits are rolling ask yourself, “What were they thinking?” Well that’s exactly what I did after watching this next film. With a film that had as much hype behind is as this one, I was surprised at the outcome. What was the killer of the film? Read on for my thoughts.

TwixtTwixt is about a struggling writer named Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) who has resorted to drinking and the moniker of “a bargain basement Stephen King”. Hall is tired of writing failing witchcraft stories and while in a small town, gets an offer of his dreams. While investigating strange deaths in the town, Hall is thrown headlong into a blended world of dreams & reality.

The film is not the completely terrible; there are moments when you really want to find out what happens next, but with bad green screens, cgi, and extremely bad pacing issues the film becomes hard to watch and ultimately a letdown. Written, Directed & Produced by Francis Ford Coppola the film never really had a solid sense of direction. I feel like too many plot elements resulted in the film being overly complex.

The acting in the film was one of the only qualities I enjoyed in the film. Val Kilmer holds his own, and re-affirms why he was so popular in the 90’s, Young Elle Fanning hits a homerun as V, and gives her older sister a run for her money. The rest of the cast is decent, but none really stand out as great.

Unfortunately, Twixt is not for everyone. Some will hail its artistic cinematography and used of “Touch Of Color”, will others will really get lost in the muck. The pacing issues are the hardest to get through. The middle of the film makes the film drag on for what seems like an eternity. Lack of movement and anything exciting left me wanting more, so when the film actually starts to pick up, it abruptly ends. The ending left me saying “WTF” and “You got to be fucking kidding me”. Nothing is resolved and nothing is really explained.

The most distracting aspect of the film is the weird and often overly fake green screen. By the looks of it, the effect was to add a dreamy aspect to the film but unfortunately it fell very short. I get the goal but it just wasn’t successful.

The film just doesn’t really do much for me. There are just too many aspects of the film that make this a very low caliber film, and effort by the great Francis Ford Coppola. Plagued by terrible pacing, low rate cgi green screens GLP gives Twixt, a 1 out of 5 stabs. If you want to see this film for yourself you can check it out on Amazon.

 

GLP Rating:

GLP 1 Stab

Fright Night 2: New Blood (2013)

Vampires have almost always been around in some form or another. In the 80’s a great vampire flick named Fright Night helped put a modern spin on the vampires of the past. Shortly after its sequel (Fright Night II) arose from the coffin but failed to turn any heads. Fast forward to 2011, A remake steps into the light. Capitalizing on the success of many Real-D movies beforehand Fright Night re-emerges with a fresh new spin on the classic 80’s fare, and a hip new cast. Which leads me 2 year after…yet another remake has stepped forth, but in the form of a sequel.

Fright-Night-2-AFright Night 2: New Blood is straight-to-video film about 3 friends studying abroad in Romania. One of the students starts getting suspicious about his teacher and soon finds out that some secrets
are better left unknown. The film was good, but unfortunately none of the actors of the first remake reprised their roles for this installation. While it would have been nice to see the character back for a second time it wasn’t necessary, because this film has nothing to do with any of the events in the first. The only similarities between this film and Fright Night (remake) are the characters names.

This is where I became confused. The film’s title is Fright Night 2, it has pretty much all of the same characters, but are not connected at all. Usually with a sequel containing the same characters, the film would be a continuation of the last…this is unfortunately not the case at all. Directed by Eduardo Rodriguez, Fright Night 2 is its own film. There is no story continuation. It acts like the original remake never happened. Jerry Dandrige is now Gerri Dandrige and is female. The characters of Charley and Ed still seek out Peter Vincent who is the host of a paranormal hunt show.

With this slight over site out of the way, the film is still rather good. The acting was done very well. Will Payne does a good job as Charley. Chris Waller is almost a spot on Ed. And Sacha Parkinson is a wonderful Amy. The stand out of the film for me however, was the gorgeous Jamie Murray (Dexter). Here portrayal of the now female Gerri Dandrige was great. She’s screams sex throughout the entire movie. Even when she vamps out she has this sex appeal the really makes the character of Gerri stand out.

There is a lot of red stuff in this film, most of which is CGI effects but it’s done with a very fine precision and looks polished. The viewer gets blessed with a throat slitting, an eye stabbing, tons of crucifix burns, and a sunshine evisceration. The film also boasts a very high t&a count, with a full frontal female nudity & some various booby shots. There is not much for the female views except for Sean Powers shirtless…sorry ladies.

As I said the film is good. I wish it were called “Fright Night: New Blood” but I understand why Fox decided to release it that way. I would defiantly look into this film as it really was entertaining and fun. GLP gives this blood sucker a 3 out of 5 stabs for good story, acting, and visual effects. Fright Night 2 is available on DVD and Blu-Ray/DVD Combo.

GLP Rating:

3 stabs

Presidents Day (2013)

In the 80’s, horror fans were treated to a very common slasher theme. Holiday Slasher films became very popular and as a result ton sof titles were subsequently released. Titles like Silent Night, Deadly Night, My Bloody Valentine, April Fools Day, New Years Evil, Halloween were flying off of home video shelves and filling theaters alike. However as the genre died so did the amount of holiday-based slasher movies. Sure some still trickled into video stores but, those really didn’t do anything for seasoned fans. Its hasn’t been until recently that holiday slasher films have started making a slight comeback,Granted most are in the form of remakes like My Bloody Valentine 3D, Rob Zombie’s Halloween 1 & 2, Silent Night, but I’m also seeing some upcoming original films like Easter Sunday… and the yet to be made Eli Roth fake trailer Thanksgiving! Presidents Day is no exception to this group!

Written by Jimmy George & Chris LaMartina Presidents Day is basically about a slack named Berry, he gets a hard on for the new girl and notices she’s running for student council president. As a way to get to know her more, Berry also runs for President. Little do they know another President is in the running, and this time he’s killing the competition.Presidents Day

Being that the film was shot in 2009 and just now released,gave me worries but Presidents Day is a really good new slasher film.Everything is good about this film. Acting, Practical Effects, Story, Editing,and Directing are all just pieces of what makes this film so successful. The film notably stars Bennie Mack McCoy IV as Berry, Lizzy Denning as Joanna,Nicolette le Faye as Chelsea, fellow film reviewer Shawn C. Phillips as Dennis and Ryan Thomas as Officer Kennedy. All the actors, even the ones I didn’t name did great jobs with their respective roles. I felt that every character was believable and seemed like they were all around the age of high school students. Bennie was the stand out for me, he did some subtle thing in reactions and mannerisms that really helped bring a fluid & natural feel to his character.

The gore in the film was done very well, and the body count is very high. Practical effects took the lead in the effects department offering up some choppings, decaps, slices, dices, burnings, hangings, suffocation,smashing, some comical dismembering, and more. This film is not without the red stuff and gore hounds should be satisfied. Also the film boasts some skin for the guys including two breast shots, and a lingerie shot. The ladies are out of luck on this one, sorry girls better luck next time.

The story is fluid and there were no big plot holes or continuity errors. My only disappointment is I knew who the killer was right off the bat. It doesn’t take anything away from the film as the reveal was still good, I just had my suspicions. Editing of the film was also very well done, no harsh cuts or terrible dialogue levels, I believe this can be attributed to the direction of Chris LaMartina, nothing was out of place or weird. We got some fairly straight forward shots and as a result the film is easily watchable.

Obviously, GLP loved Presidents Day and we thing you will to, It does everything a slasher film is supposed to do. Independent films are taking the for front of Horror and I am not complaining. GLP gives Presidents day a solid 4 out of 5 stabs for great story, gore, acting, and behind the scenes work. I highly suggest hunting down this film and grabbing your copy. It’s a great flick and has classic written all over it. The film is currently available on DVD through Amazon.

GLP Rating:

4 stabs