Splattery good fun from director Ruben Fleischer. Jesse Eisenberg, who has cornered the market on playing quick-witted misfits, teams up with Woody Harrelson on a cross-country road trip--the road being lined with legions of the undead. Along the way they meet up with sisters Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin. The siblings (and amateur conwomen) believe there's a west-coast amusement park utterly devoid of zombies. They kidnap the men for their car and set off for the Sunshine State.
John Ryan and Sharon Farrell as a couple that welcome a bouncing baby boy into the world. Unfortunately for them, Farrell took a load of questionably safe pregnancy pills, and the progeny comes bursting into the world as a genetic mutant, complete with fangs and razor-sharp claws. Baby monster goes on the crawl, ripping out throats left and right, as Ryan vacillates between wanting to kill his offspring and protect it from predatory scientists who wish to study it.
Needed a little fun last night. One of the 80's slasher films that got away, and released years after that bubble had burst, April Fool's Day is a nifty little horror-comedy with a twist ending, despite the logic holes you could drive a bus through.
An annual favorite of mine since childhood, and one of the better entries in the British witchcraft genre from the late-60's and early-70's.
I only watched the first twenty minutes of this piece of shit, so instead of a review, I thought I'd post the video to "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. Seriously, I'd rather rickroll you than torture you with details of how Jake "Body by Jake" Steinfeld (!) plays an escaped lunatic who terrorizes a house full of total circus freaks. Grade-Z, bottom-of-the-barrel, bad, bad, bad. Not even worth it for the boy in mime makeup who torments people with his guitar or the girl fond of singing Spanish songs off key.
Poor Sir Henry, suffering the family curse, manifested in the form of a spectral dog. A typical Hammer Film horror production: creepy atmosphere, gothic set-designs, a brazen color palette, and all the uptight British accents one could ever want. I haven't read the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story, but understand this adaptation to be rather loose. Worth a watch for Peter Cushing (as Sherlock Holmes) and Christopher Lee, those genre titans, who, let's face it, could roll around in dog crap for ninety minutes and still be the most interesting thing in the movie. Makes the rounds on Turner Classic Movies every now and then.
Jan 1, 2010: It's been a good night. Italian horror impresario Dario Argento's debut film, one that would help shape the giallo genre started, arguably, by Mario Bava nearly a decade before. Tony Musante plays an American in Italy, who becomes embroiled in a series of gruesome murders. Argento, one of the great masters of shot composition, directs in the high style that would soon become his trademark: tracking, crane shots, vibrant colors, the black-gloved-killer and elaborately-staged murder sequences. Bird is less violent than the movies that would eventually gain Argento notoriety (Suspiria; Opera), relying here on suspense, rather than shock. A terrific thriller, worth checking out. (Be warned that the movie is dubbed into English--badly.)
My first movie of 2010, and ho-lee shit! War-torn Japan. A destitute mother and her daughter-in-law, with nary a moral fiber between them, murder samurai and sell the belongings for food. Mom gets pissed when her son is killed in battle and his best friend returns unharmed, only to make a play for her son's new widow. The old woman is visited by a samurai in a demon mask who torments her and...
