Movie Review: Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (2008, Blu-ray, Cinevolve)

Howard Philips Lovecraft was quite a complex individual. Most brilliant people are. What H.P Lovecraft has provided in his writings for readers, current genre authors and filmmakers has been a journey into world like no other..his world. Cinevolve, the studio behind Cinema Head Cheese favorite, The Jesus Guy, have given the “Father of Cthulhu” a very welcome expose on the man called Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown.

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One of the first things that struck me in viewing Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown was the assemblage of talent brought on hand to give their thoughts on Lovecraft. John Carpenter (The Thing, In The Mouth of Madness), Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth), Neil Gaiman (Coraline), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, Dagon) and others give scholarly insight on Lovecraft's work. I was most impressed with Neil Gaiman, this guy seemed to bleed Lovecraft with the way he quotes passages from his stories. As someone whose dabbled sparingly in the written work of Lovecraft, seeing this enthusiasm gives me the sudden urge read all his stories.

Movie Review: Best Worst Movie (2010)

A smiling dentist named George Hardy starts his day with a protein shake. He gets off to work, where he's seen as more of a friend than a boss. Everyone in his small Alabama town loves his personality and his vibrancy, including his ex-wife. He helps the local kids who can't get dental care, and he's just a really happy and confident guy. What most of his neighbors don't realize is that George has an interesting bit of personal history. He was co-star of one of the worst movies ever made.

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Hardy plays father to Michael Stephenson, the real star of the film. Stephenson thought he would be a star, until he saw the movie one Christmas morning. He knew immediately that this was a bad movie. So did Hardy and many of the other stars once they saw it, and they all saw their acting dreams go up in smoke. Almost two decades later, Stephenson started to see something happen. Troll 2 was becoming a cult phenomenon.

Movie Review: The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)

I'm pretty sure I just watched a guy blow himself for an hour and a half. Robert Evans is the producer of some of the greatest movies of all time including The Godfather, Marathon Man and, of course, Popeye. According to him, he is the greatest producer, lover and mind of the twentieth century and beyond. I heard about this movie over and over, and I had to finally sit through it. I discovered one thing. There are blowhards, and there is Bob Evans.

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Movie Review: The Walking Dead Girls (2010, Cheezy Flicks)

The folks over at Cheezy Flicks are starting to crank out some original productions in addition to their retro-cult film releases. One of their newest DVD's comes in the form of sexy zombie photo shoots and surprisingly enjoyable convention interviews with some of the best the zombie genre has to offer. The Walking Dead Girls is a 70 minute documentary showcasing the likes of zombie flick veterans, Linnea Quigly (Return Of the Living Dead, Night of the Demons), Bruce Campbell ( The Evil Dead Trilogy) and the father of the zombie film, George Romero( Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Martin).

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We start off with a solid interview with the man himself, George Romero, followed by a zombie girl photo shoot. As I said before, the ladies look really attractive and most appear to be "enhanced" very nicely. Add the gruesome makeup to the lovely canvas and you have a horror geek’s masturbatory dream come true.

Movie Review: Zombie Doomsday (2010)

I love the Zombie genre. I mostly have a soft spot for the pre- "Land of the Dead" Romero classics and of course Lucio Fulci's masterpieces, Zombie and City of The Living Dead. Over the past 20 years there have been numerous micro-budget zombie entries. The best being, in my opinion, the ridiculous Redneck Zombies. A micro-budget zombie film isn't that easy to pull off though. The creators of Zombie Doomsday and the documentary of Zombie Doomsday, Another Zombie Flick make a valiant attempt, mixing in some zombie horror with a little shaky POV and a lot of improv. This however isn't the recipe for a primo gut-muncher.

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Movie Review: Behind The XXX (2010)

As an avid watcher of adult film features, one thing that has always made me curious is what does it actually take (besides a reliable boner) to make a movie? It’s good to have someone who can turn-on a camera, edit ,wrangle some women eager enough to nail the generally ugly fellows, and of course write a story. Ok, kidding on the last one. Behind-the-scenes are nothing new to XXX DVDs, you see all the big companies using them in their supplementary materials, but rarely are they put out into a feature-length package like Brookland Bros. Behind The XXX.

Movie Review: Zombie Girl: The Movie (2009)

Directors: Justin Johnson, Aaron Marshall and Erik Mauck

In August 2005 the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund granted $1,000 to a filmmaker making a zombie movie in order to aid with the post production work. That's not too surprising, given that everyone and their dog are making zombie movies nowadays, but this particular filmmaker was only twelve years old at the time. She's Emily Hagins, a sixth grade middle school student in Austin, TX, so hardly your average film buff, let alone your average writer/director/editor. The only thing not surprising is that when she progressed at the age of ten from a set of short films to her zombie feature, Pathogen, a team of documentarians made their own film about her. This is that film and it does a reasonably good job of explaining who Emily is and what she's like as both a person and a filmmaker. It succeeds best in capturing the change between the ten year old girl who has the crazy idea of shooting a feature and the thirteen year old premiéring it.

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Movie Review: The Psycho Legacy

Who would have thought that writer Robert Bloch's fascination with frail Wisconsin based serial-killer cannibal, and perennial "mama's boy," Ed Gein would become the phenomenon known as Psycho. First came the novel from Bloch and not long after, the feature Psycho from legendary thriller maven, Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock's film, while staying close to the book had his own special signature that would put the film into an elite category that few films(other than maybe Jaws) have come close to touching. With a remake and three subsequent sequels from protégé, Richard Franklin, Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins and Mick Garris, the Psycho Phenomenon has maintained a steady lock on the horror genre as one of the true franchises. Right now on the heels of a superb documentary on one of the "other" franchises, Nightmare on Elm Street from earlier this year, The Psycho series is now the focal point. This time, it's first-time director, Robert Victor Galluzzo of Icons Of Fright Productions, Shout! Factory DVD with the release of The Psycho Legacy. Could that be two excellent documentaries in one year? Lets see.

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Movie Review: Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy - Collector's Edtion

Let me start by saying, I am not a huge fan of the Nightmare On Elm Street series. The original film was fairly brilliant and quite frightening – easily one of Wes Craven's best films. The sequels didn’t portray Freddy Krueger as the true “monster” that he embodied in the first film. I’ve drifted back and forth over the years watching the series grow: the six sequels, Freddy Vs. Jason, the ill advised but inevitable remake and of course, Freddy’s Nightmares. Over the past 25 years, of all the popular movie monsters (Chucky, Jason, Pinhead, Michael Myers), Freddy has reigned supreme. Why not make an epic documentary on all things "Freddy", four-hours in length, and unleash it on all the Freddy-fanatics? Directors, Andrew Kasche and Daniel Farrands, thought that was an excellent idea - but will that bring in the non-fans or those folks in the middle (like myself)?

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Heather Langencamp (“Nancy” from the series) narrates Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. Each film is represented in segments with some seriously creative clay animation at the opening of each “Nightmare” piece. All the films (even the lesser entries like “Nightmare II”) have some interesting production background. Some of the stand-out information I digested in the segment for Nightmare on Elm Street were the origins of the script. It’s based on a real-life tragedy that took place in the Philippines, involving a disturbed and sleep deprived youth. Another link to the story I found intriguing was that one of Craven’s childhood bullies also had an influence on the story. This brought a personal touch that I didn't expect. His name – Freddy. We’re also treated to surprising casting story; British actor, David Warner, was the original choice for “the gloved one” – not Robert Englund.