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Thursday, September 21, 2017

Pumpkinhead - (1988) review





Pumpkinhead should be approached like a dark fairy tale.  It’s a simple story of revenge, of a father who loses it all and makes a deal with the devil, but realizes too late that nobody makes it out alive when Pumpkinhead is summoned; he will eventually consume your soul.  The set pieces are excellent, the creature FX spot on; this was Stan Winston’s directorial debut, so it’s no surprise that the creature FX stand the test of time.  The lighting and foggy wooded backdrop certainly adds to that dark fairy tale quality of the movie. 

Lance Hendrickson plays the father of a son who is callously ran over by a dirt biker who seems more concerned about saving his own ass from jail than helping the kid.  His gang promptly leaves the scene to call an ambulance, leaving one guy behind to tend to the farmer’s son, but when Lance shows up he is hearing none of it, and gives one of the best death stares in all cinematic history.  His son was his world, and they took it away from him, left him to die….but Pumpkinhead will set things right.  Or so he believes, and in a fury he sets out to discover an old back woods hag that is said to have strange powers.  He knows Pumpkinhead is real enough, he saw him as a kid, it terrified him and stuck with him all his life, but poor Lance (aka Joe Harley) doesn’t know the steep price the witch demands for such a summoning; she wants nothing less than his immortal soul.  When Pumpkinhead is finally brought back to life after being dug up from a foggy grave, Joe Harley begins experiencing terrible bouts of pain and terror.  He suffers a vision of his son returning to life, asking him “what have you done daddy”.  He sees through Pumpkinhead’s eyes as he slowly tortures the teenagers involved in the death of his son, and it’s too much for his simple mind to take.  He knows he has unleashed something worse than revenge, and it’s his Christian duty to put an end to this madness.     

Pumpkinhead’s design is grim and iconic; I remember always wanting to rent the VHS at the local grocery store for the striking cover art alone, same goes for the sequels.  When he does capture the target of his revenge he seems to toy with them for a while before eventually releasing them from their torture through the final embrace of death.  He seems to love tossing people around and dragging them over the ground, it’s not the quick death you’d expect from the giant lanky creature.  One girl he really takes his time with, using his nails to gouge deep rivets in her face, then tosses her through a window when he’s bored, it’s awesome.

The movie is so very 80’s, two characters in particular really stand out for their over-the top performances; Joel and Maggie.  Joel is the alpha male cock-bag that runs over the little kid with his dirt bike after guzzling beer and trying to show off, then refuses to help and tries covering it up like a coward, turning on friends at the drop of a dime.  There’s something horrible and entertaining about these over the top asshole types in 80’s movies; they really came off as complete psycho-paths often worse and more nerve grinding than the monster they would eventually meet their well-deserved end to.  He has an uncharacteristic turn of heart later, but it comes too little, too late, after holding his friends hostage at gun point to ensure they don’t rat him out to the police for a few hours he decides to give himself up.   

Maggie is just hysterical.  The way she spit fires her lines about “Only God can save us” really tickles me every time I watch this.  Her self-induced hysteria after the bike accident is almost as funny as how she comes out of it by looking at a Catholic cross that her boyfriend dangles in front of her.  She definitely gets it the worse of the bunch, which was unfortunate because I could have used a few more laughs on the way to the end, but this is a dark fairy tale, and there is plenty of Velveeta to be had in the sequels.

Joe Harley figures out that Pumpkinhead is taking over his soul with each victim he claims, in regret for his decision to release the demon of revenge, and to save the remaining teens, he puts a bullet through his own head, killing the creature as well, as it was tied to his own flesh.  The carcass of Pumpkinhead lights on fire, removing all traces of the nightmare.  

I’d definitely recommend Pumpkinhead as a mood setter for the Halloween season to come.  It has some of the best creature FX work I’ve ever seen, from Pumpkinhead to the Swamp Hag; it all looks very well crafted and lit impressively in hues of orange and blue.  The atmosphere and mood more than make up for any bad acting or technical gaffs, certainly a movie I plan on revisiting time and time again for it’s simple pleasures.


Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Halloween 6 - producer cut poster


Friday, September 8, 2017

Limited Edition The Burning T-shirt by Cavity Colors

Sweet shirts!  Get them before they are gone forever!

Cavity Colors


Silent Night, Deadly Night - Shout Factory release

Holy jumping Jesus Christmas shit, Silent Night Deadly Night is getting a new release on blu ray, along with a Billy NECA figure!  Now all your other toys can be punished!  NAUGHTY!

Silent Night Deadly Night blu ray release news....




Community leaders tried to stop the release. The P.T.A. fought to ban it. Now one of the most controversial slasher films of all time is back in a new high-definition release! This new edition of the horror holiday favorite has been restored from the original vaulted film negative.
Silent Night, Deadly Night is the heartwarming story of little Billy Chapman who was traumatized by his parents’ Christmas Eve murder, then brutalized by sadistic orphanage nuns. But when grown-up Billy is to dress as jolly St. Nick, he goes on a yuletide rampage to “punish the naughty!” Santa Claus is coming to town … and this time he’s got an axe! Robert Brian Wilson and Scream Queen Linnea Quigley star in this jaw-dropping horror classic that a nation of angry mothers still cannot stop!

Bonus Features

  • Original Theatrical And Unrated Versions Of The Film Taken From A NEW 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative.
  • NEW Slay Bells Ring: The Story Of Silent Night, Deadly Night – Featuring Interviews With Writer Michael Hickey, Co-Executive Producers Scott J. Schneid And Dennis Whitehead, Editor/Second Unit Director Michael Spence, Composer Perry Botkin, And Actor Robert Brian Wilson
  • NEW Oh Deer! – An Interview With Linnea Quigley
  • NEW Christmas In July – Silent Night, Deadly Night Locations – Then And Now
  • NEW Audio Commentary With Actor Robert Brian Wilson And Co-Executive Producer Scott J. Schneid
  • Original Theatrical Trailer
  • Original TV Spots And Radio Spot
  • Audio Commentary By Michael Hickey, Perry Boykin, Scott J. Schneid, and Michael Spence
  • Audio Interview With Director Charles E. Sellier, Jr.
  • Santa’s Stocking Of Outrage
  • Poster And Still Gallery
Now if you are the ultimate SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT fan then you’ll want to take note of two exclusive offers on the release—which are only available at www.shoutfactory.com while supplies last:
STANDARD OFFER
– Receive the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray with slipcover
– Receive a rolled limited-edition 18” x 24” poster of the newly-designed art from artist Joel Robinson
– Product will be one week earlier than the national street date of 12/5/17.
DELUXE OFFER (Limited to 2,000 orders only. US & Canada only)
– Receive the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray with slipcover
– Receive a rolled limited-edition 18” x 24” poster of the newly-designed art from Joel Robinson
– Product will be shipped one week earlier than the national street date of 12/5/17.
– Receive an exclusive, limited edition 8” tall “Billy/Killer Santa” doll created by NECA – N.E.C.A and officially licensed! This will only be available here on our site!
– Free Shipping.


Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Horror Rises from the Tomb & Captain Kronos double header

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter – Captain Kronos is a bleary eyed bore, a man with unparalleled skills with the blade but not much else.  He comes off as kind of a jerk.  His hunchbacked companion, the good professor Grost, is more worthy of our sympathies but even he seems kind of weak.  He ruminates and sobs over being disfigured after a group of local bar flies harass him about his ailment and meet their end at Kronos’ swift blade.  You would think a vampire killer would have a stronger back bone to stand up to verbal jabs, especially a hunchback.  What sets this movie apart is that the vampire ages its victims; turning young babes into cancerous old crows.  

They also use an unusual method to detect vampires; if a dead frog in a box comes back alive a vampire is near.  I’ve never heard of that one.  At the end it’s revealed that a short haired lesbo vampire is to blame for the accelerated ages of several virgins around town, and Kronos and his hunchback companion set out to confront her.  She tries to hypnotize Kronos but he uses his sword to reflect her hyno-magic back at her.  After a brief stint of swashbuckling the movie comes to and end and Kronos and Grost ride off to more adventures.

Horror Rises From the Tomb -   Euro-sleaze at its pinnacle; an illogical, gory, dark, and atmospheric homage to the spirit of Hammer, of monster worship, and the slow burn of gothic styled horror.   Paul Naschy delivers the goods with a shoestring budget, the heart behind the camera bleeds through the screen.  This is a love note for madmen inspired by the cinematic ghouls of yesteryear; Karloff, Lugosi.  Aged, cheap, a perfect vehicle to deliver gothic gore brewed in Spain.  




Quite appropriately it begins with a witch and warlock being led on a death march; they will pay for their crimes of lycanthropy, of witch craft, of renouncing all that is holy in kinship with Satan.  The warlock is decapitated; the witch is hung upside down and tortured in ways unique to her gender.  Flash forward a hundred years and their curse comes to fruition.  The warlock is able to possess the living, sending his mind slaves out to massacre the common folk, and bring him the flesh of the living.  Beating hearts are crudely cut from the chests of screaming nubile women.  The terror and madness stretches its dark pall across the countryside, simple village folk are made helpless victims, food for Satan.  With enough fresh blood spilt the warlock resurrects his dutiful witch seductress in a ritual that suggests nymphomania.  The film revels in sleaze with reckless abandon as the bodies pile up.  Boobs and blood are the order of the day as the witch seduces the men from the local village, ripping their throats out when they close in for a kiss with the beautiful mystery woman that suddenly appears at the end of their beds, like a wet dream made flesh.  The warlock works his magic on the women, leading to an orgy of destruction and terror.   As things seem their darkest, as friend turns upon friend, as fiend reign supreme, an old family relic comes to bear, one that can fight back the ancient evil of Satan and his newly resurrected minions of darkness.  A silver pendant decorated with the hammer of Thor turns out to be the secret weapon needed to end Naschy’s reign of terror; both the warlock and the witch meet their end because of this powerful relic that simply comes out of nowhere to end the film.  Despite the large gaps of logic and against all sense of finer taste I loved Horror Rises from the Tomb.  Naschy has a way of taking a cheap budget and set and ratchet the exploitative charm to 11.  Some Naschy movies may suffer from a plodding storyline, but any lull in the movie is quickly offset by gore and blood, even if it makes little sense.  You really got to turn your brain off for this fare and let the tidal wave Euro-sleaze whisk you away.  Horror Rises from the Tomb is great fun for the fan of gothic horror, a classic and Naschy at his pinnacle.           


Wednesday, August 23, 2017

HAMMER movie reviews

I've been addicted to a lot of Hammer horror lately; secretly wishing for a Gothic horror revival.



Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell – Someone is burning the midnight oils, following in the ghastly footsteps of the infamous Baron Victor Frankenstein.  Soon an English bobby man runs amok of his experimentation, discovering a jar full of eye balls in his care, the frightened police man promptly arrests him on charges of black magic when the man calmly explains he is trying to resurrect the dead.  Simon Helder is committed to an insane asylum for his crimes, something he seems to take in stride until arriving at the asylum and receiving his first fire hose shower.   Baron Victor Frankenstein, now under the assumed alias of Dr. Carl Victor, rescues the aspiring surgeon from being severely beaten and tormented by the guards, recruiting him to assist in his new creation; a monster created from the dead body parts of select patients around the asylum.   The good doctor begins scavenging the body parts he covets for his monster; the hands of a sculptor, the mind of a great mathematician, the body of a powerful Neolithic throwback of a man.  As the suspicious deaths start mounting so does Simon Helder’s conscious, soon enough he is questioning if the doctor has gone too far with his mad experiment, but he is too curious to stop him.  When they finally complete the monster he goes on a blood thirsty rampage, tearing people apart with his bare hands until the orderlies turn the asylum loose on him.  The creature is ripped apart piece by piece by a frenzied mob, although Victor doesn’t seem concerned.  He is already thinking about his next experiment, and who next to donate to the cause….

Frankenstien and the Monster from Hell has the distinction of being a bit more gory than its predecessors, focusing on body horrors such as dissection, and surgery on the eye.  It moves at a fairly brisk pace, Peter Cushing once again delivers a perfect performance as the cold and calculating Victor Von Frankenstein.  Besides the brightly colored blood additional eye candy comes in the form of a mute but busty and alluring assistant to Victor a girl named “Angel”.  She catches the creature’s eye a few times, able to woo him where the sight of others caused him to go into a ravenous fury.  The description of the creature enjoying cutting people’s faces with glass is a particularly gruesome addition.        



The Horror of Dracula – The Christopher Lee classic; this is the one that started it all.  It’s a relatively straight forward adaption of Bram Stroker’s work, with a few twists thrown in to keep things fresh.  This is another version of Dracula where Jonathan Harker is doomed and the action focuses more on Van Helsing; no complaints from me.  Peter Cushing plays a perfect foil to Christopher Lee’s blood dripping eyeballs.    



The Vampire Lovers – An ancient lesbian nympho vampire stalks old Europe spilling innocent nubile blood across the countryside.  Count me in; this is a movie that wrestles with horror and my crotch.  There is actually a lot more gore and horror than what I originally suspected; I thought this would be a softcore porn with zero plot, but that wasn’t the case.  The Vampire Lovers is loosely based on one of the first vampire stories ever found, Carmilla, and kicks off a trilogy of lesbian vampire movies (the Karlstein trilogy) from Hammer, all full of cleavage, decapitations, and gore.  In this entry Carnilla the ancient vampire charms her way into household after household, preying on the young women within.  Of course nobody suspects the innocuous Carmilla (who assumes many false identities) as being the cause of these young women’s listlessness, their night terrors and mysterious dual puncture wounds found on their breasts, but soon enough a vampire hunter searching for revenge puts it all together.  Somehow Peter Cushing is again called in to perform the coup de tat to the ravenous undead.  After decapitating Carmilla with little adieu her portrait slowly ages into a skeleton. 



The Fearless Vampire Killers – A Hammer inspired comedy directed by Roman Polansky; co-starring his future wife Sharon Tate.  The kooky Professor Abronsius and his bumbling assistant Alfred are on the hunt for the undead deep within the heart of Transylvania.  They shack up in a local lodge to escape the snow-swept tundra outside and discover the locals hanging garlic all over the lodge and with stern warnings against visiting the local castle.  This of course makes Professor Abronsius rather happy as it seems like a likely setup for vampires; Alfred however is more interested in the bathing beauty of the lodge, young Sarah.  Sarah is eventually taken by the vampire Count von Korlock while bathing at night.  The fearless vampire hunters track Sarah to the local castle where they are openly greeted by the Count, who exhumes a sense of charm and dignity that the Professor has a hard time wrapping his head around.  He seems rather impressed by the Count’s aristocratic ways and intelligence but is still determined to end his dastardly existence for the greater good or perhaps just to get proof to his intellectual peers that vampires really do exist.  The duo search the castle for the vampires but are split up when Alfred shimmies down a hole too small for the Professor to fit through.  Alfred finds the grave of the Count but is too cowardly to stick a stake through his heart, much to the chagrin of the nutty Professor who is stuck half frozen in a hole.    Alfred goes to rescue the Professor from his hole outside but runs into Sarah on the way, who reveals that the count is having a huge ball at midnight then disappears as if into thin air.  Alfred rescues the Professor, bringing him news of the ball, but the Counts foppish homosexual son attacks them, cornering them behind a locked door to freeze or starve to death.  Much to their horror they witness multiple vampires emerge from their tombs below, the Counts annual ball is in full swing.  The fearless vampire hunters escape their confines by cleverly blowing down the door with a cannon turret. They mingle and dance with the vampires at the ball by pilfering some old raggedy dust worn Victorian outfits, but their cover is blown when out of the entire ballroom of undead fiends they are the only ones to show up in a the grand mirror circling the ball room.  Quickly they snatch up Sarah and make way for the snowy mountains on a sleigh, but little do Alfred and the Professor realize Sarah is already infected with the vampire virus, and by escaping with her they really exposed the rest of Europe to the vampire disease.




The Fearless Vampire Killers is a beautifully shot film with a dreamlike quality that sticks with you after watching the film; like a living fairy tale full of vampires and busty bathing buxoms.  Alfred and the Professor stumble about each scene in a cartoonish fashion that isn’t as funny as it is endearing to fans of the cinematic absurd.  The movie was later followed around by the dark cloud of the real life murder of Sharon Tate by despicable scumbag hippies operating under the cult like influence of Charlie Manson, but in terms of Hammer-esque gothic horror productions it sits as one of my personal faves.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Tourist Trap shirt - Cavity Colors

Check out this rad Tourist Trap shirt from Cavity Colors!

Get it here: Cavity Colors

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

"Leatherface" RED band trailer

BD exclusive Leatherface red band trailer and pics


VHS slasher toys

From Bloody-Disgusting:

VHS SLASHER TOYS!

Brilliant.  Limited edition  hand made customized toys based on VHS box art.  These need to go into full scale production right now!  Are they buying?  SELL SELL!  Are they selling?  Then BUY BUY!


Thursday, July 6, 2017

Maniac Cop 3 - review



By the early Nineties the slasher formula had become shop-worn and the rule of diminishing returns was in effect for any stalker sequel hitting the cinema.  Maniac Cop 3 was rated NC-17 and plopped right into HBO when it came out.  While it is the weakest entry of the series, with strange unexplained plot twists that come from nowhere and fizzle out quickly and bloody action scenes that feel like filler, there is still plenty of fun to have here.



Maniac Cop has some of the best continuity in slasherdom.  This movie picks up right after the last movie, with Cordell smashing his coffin lid and grabbing his badge.  Matt is back, but why?  Its not really clear, theres a voodoo priest guy that explains that he was the one to bring Matt back to life, that he really died in Sing-Sing, but he had unfinished business and that some souls leave echoes in this world that go on far after they are done living.  Okay, thanks for that, but why is this guy concerned with Cordell to begin with?  You expect some sort of reasoning, but he offers none, and things get sillier from there.



Detective McKinney is back, but this time he has a sidekick Katie Sullivan, a beat cop with a reputation for shooting first, asking questions later.  Sullivan is wrongly accused of using excessive force in a hostage situation; she is shot and left in a coma as corrupt news reporters dice her reputation to pieces and the department abandons her.  Its up to Detective McKinney to clear her name and find out what really happened during the hostage standoff.


Cordell hears a radio broadcast of what happened to Officer Sullivan and takes immediate interest in the case.  At first it is assumed that Matt just wants to clear the good officers name and seek revenge on those who wrongly persecuted her; but later through Sullivans dreams and coma induced visions it is apparent Cordell is really looking for a wife and partner in his doomed afterlife.  I guess even Maniac Cops can get horny.   He starts going after any doctor who might show any callousness to Sullivans precarious health, electrocuting one with shock paddles and X-raying another to death.



Detective McKinney discovers the video tape used to convict Sullivan of excessive force was heavily edited by scumbag ambulance chasers to depict Sullivan killing an innocent hostage when in reality the hostage was working an inside job with her schizoid junkie boyfriend (Jakcie Earle Haley of NOES reboot fame).  However by the time he puts the pieces together the junkie and several other convicts have escaped their hospital room confinement and start shooting up the place, leading to a harrowing gunfight between McKinney and the criminal element, the kind of 80s blood and sweat gun fight where people are riddled with hundreds of bullets and gun clips seem to hold an infinite amount of ammunition.  I wouldnt have been surprised to see a few slow motion doves fly by, John Woo style.


During the chaos of battle Cordell sweeps Sullivan from her hospital bed and takes her body down to the secret voodoo church below the hospital where he hopes the voodoo priest will join him and Sullivan in a kind of unholy union.  McKinney follows him down and tries to plea to Matts good nature to let Sullivan go, but he refuses, and the priest is shot dead.  The church catches on fire and the battle spills out into the streets where Matt chases McKinney by car while smothered in flames.  Cordell seems to be lit on fire for half an hour without melting or showing any signs of slowing down.  Eventually the chase is concluded when his car explodes, seemingly spelling the end of the Maniac Cop.  McKinney lights a cigarette with one of Cordells severed arms and walks off into the city night, satisfied the Maniac Cop has been laid to rest.   

 

Maniac Cop 3 is a fun movie if you dont think too hard.  They try to tie McKinney into a romantic sub plot but it just doesnt work.  I really couldnt imagine the blonde bombshell they couple him with would be interested in a chain smoking cop with bad acne scars, but the movie spends a lot of time trying to set that up.  They never explain why Cordell was so in need of a bride, especially since that wasnt his prerogative at all during the prior movies.  Its just kind of stapled on without any afterthought.  Why would the voodoo priest have any interest in what Cordell does at all?  Who knows?




Its a little sad that its the last entry in the series, but Maniac Cop will return in the form of a remake scheduled for NEXT YEAR.  Count me in.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Until Dawn - PS4

I have not played the slasher survivor horror game Until Dawn, but it looks like I will have my chance.  In the month of July Until Dawn will be available for free to PS Plus subscribers.  Cool beans, 3 stalk and slash titles in one summer (Friday the 13th, Dead by Daylight, Until Dawn), definitely the summer of digital stalk and slash.  I will have to review them all.


Maniac Cop 2 - review


I love Maniac Cop.  I know Matt Cordell is not a name that crops up as often as Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger, but it should.  This series offered a nice action/horror hybrid slasher alternative to teens getting diced at summer camp and you cant go wrong with a cast like Bruce Campbell and Tom Atkins all rolled up in one movie.  The first movie in the series is great and well worth checking out, but as much as I love it things tend to get bogged down in police procedure and laying out Matt Cordells origin story; its like the great mouthwatering salad and appetizer you get before the main course.  Plus Atkins dies in it and I dont know if I dig that.  Things dont really get rolling until the end of the flick.  So when I get into my Maniac Cop mode I usually skip the croutons and delve right into the main course; Maniac Cop 2.



Maniac Cop 2 is one of the best action/horror hybrid movies I can name off hand, probably the best of the stalk and slash golden era.  It begins by recounting the final moments of the last movie, which happen to be the best moments from the last movie so no complaints, and then there are some nice tracking shots of a junkyard full of smashed police patrol vehicles for ambiance.  Matt Cordell is back on the beat in no time, claiming revenge on Bruce Campbell for refusing to be the patsy from the first movie.  He kills him with his trademark bayonet/night stick combo; a blind newspaper salesman touches his hand and says it brings him right back to WWIII, hiding from Nazis under the bodies of the frozen dead.  I really dug that the old codger had more to say than youre all doomed; casting no shade on Crazy Ralph but it was a nice change.



Next Cordell targets Bruces girlfriend from the first film; Mallory, a fiery blonde who knows Matt is still alive but cant convince the newly appointed commissioner and police chief hes anything but a ghost (again).  When she hears of her boyfriends demise she wisely choses to get the hell out of town; but Matt somehow cuts the brakes on a taxi she is taking, which leads to a cool extended car chase.  Eventually the cars crash and come to a stop, and in the fray Mallory gets her hands on a chainsaw by raiding a local hardware store.  It proves ineffectual against Cordells deadly grip; he stops the chainsaw dead in its tracks by simply grabbing the chain and then casually snaps Mallorys neck.  The revenge is complete; the cult stars of the prior movie are left dead in the street. 



However Mallory had a passenger in her taxi, a police psychologist that miraculously survives when Matt hand cuffs her to a runaway car and now knows the truth of his existence, a fact the city officials would rather ignore.  She gets help from a hard-boiled detective named McKinney, who is also chasing a serial killer targeting strippers named Turkell.  I just realized Turkell was the same actor as Budd from Halloween 2, his acting was so spot on as a scummy serial killer with a Southern draw, I had trouble connecting the two.  When Cordell goes after the same victim as Turkell the two strike up an impromptu friendship with secret handshakes and inside jokes only maniac serial killers would get.   Then they have a slumber party and pillow fight.  These things happen.



Turkell is caught by Detective McKinney, and soon Cordell comes to his rescue, massacring an entire police station in the process.  Working his way back from the gun range the Maniac Cop brutally dispatches all police he sees, much like the T-800 in the original Terminator he seems unstoppable, impervious to bullets, full rage mode engaged.  Matt looks more zombified in this movie as well, suggesting that he truly is an undead being, a force that cannot be stopped, rather than a cop with bad acne and brain damage.



Turkell thinks Matt is looking for a full on revolution against the police, releasing prisoners and causing a riot; next stop Sing-Sing.  Cordell seems to be along for the ride until the commissioner admits to any wrong doing against him, confessing his part in the corruption that led to Matts death, promising him an honorable burial and for his name to be cleared once and for all.  Upon hearing this Cordell switches gears and goes after the prisoners who cut him up in the first place; even while engulfed in flames he shows no sign of stopping in his pursuit of revenge.  Turkell realizes he is not the key to the revolution he hoped for and stabs him in the back with his own bayonet.  Cordell grabs Turkell, and the two go careening through a cement wall into a bus that explodes on impact.


In the end Cordell is finally given an honorable funeral service and his name is cleared, but as the funeral winds down a white gloved hand smashes through his casket lid to grab his badge.  Cordell lives!  Maniac Cop 2 raises the stakes in every way a sequel should while maintaining solid continuity with the entry before it, a rare instance in slasherdom.  The action scenes are top notch, and the cast is pretty solid as well, great acting all around, another rarity for these kinds of deals.  Even the Maniac Cop is given a nice story arc of revenge and redemption and there is even a theme song at the end; so what are you waiting for lovejoy, add Maniac Cop 2 to your slasher collection today!    


Tuesday, June 27, 2017

The Intruder - 1975!?


This one came out of nowhere.  Apparently there was a slasher made in 1975, predating the 80's craze and sitting right smack in the middle of Black Christmas and Halloween.  Never released in theater or home video; The Intruder is coming to boo-ray 8/1/17.  Color me interested as hell.




Hatchet Ongoing Comic Series

Bleeding-Cool

Check out these new cover images for the Hatchet ongoing comic series coming in September.



Monday, June 26, 2017

New Jason Lives poster art

Via Andrew Peters on Instagram:


Thursday, June 22, 2017

Lake Nowhere - review



Lake Nowhere reminds me of a condensed version of the Grindhouse movie.  It perfectly delivers the ambiance of an old VHS 80s tape, complete with faux beer commercials and mock movie trailers.  Out of all the retro-slasher revival movies Ive seen I believe this one is the best looking of the bunch; the sounds and visuals are all top notch and will evoke memories of renting VHS tapes from a local mom and pop store.  For me one of the best places to rent horror movies was the grocery store Big M.  They only carried B-movie titles but I never gave a shit; kind of ironic that the horror movie section was right by the butcher shop.  You could pick out The Mutilator to watch and a pack of luncheon meat at the same time; thats service. 


The story is as bare bones as possible, focusing more on style than substance.  The movie follows a group of vacationers partying in a cabin by a nameless lake, Lake Nowhere.  One of the partiers stumbles upon a graveyard in the woods, and reads the inscription off one of the tombstones out loud.  This seems to evoke the evil spirits of the lake, much like the Evil Dead, and the stalk and slash fun begins.



The killer is unique looking, the close-ups to his face are creepy and slightly off putting as it looks like his eyes are upside down.  His mask is made out of tree bark giving him a naturalistic camouflaged look, almost like a ghilie suit.    The whistling air accompanying these close-up shots was a nice effect as well, the washed out colors of the movie leave an impression of  fall like chill.  The unnamed killer is large and deliberate moving, much like Jason.  If anything this movie could be the love child of Friday the 13th and Evil Dead.  It wears these influences proudly on its sleeve and manages to exude the same atmosphere of dread in its short 1 hour timespan.  The setup is quick and the filler is mercifully brief. 



Many shots in this film are very well framed, and it doesnt skimp on the booze, boobs, and blood.  There are a few quick hack edits overlaying other VHS-quality images or sequences into the film, creating the feel of a bootleg tape.  The acting is appropriately and deliberately campy, but not so over the top as to interfere with the horror elements of the movie.  There is even a zombie thrown in for good measure.  The blood seems to resemble the brightly colored corn syrup used in many basement budget horror productions from the 80s; perfectly contrasting the dark wood grain lighting of the set.  The ending is purposely open ended, but powerful in its imagery and delivery; it doesnt get undercut by the campiness before, taking on a rather ominous dark tone that fit perfectly for the send-off.  There is a funny subversion to the final girl element as well.  There was a lot of 80s VHS slasher love behind this one.  Definite recommendation for the retro-slash-head; I am very glad to finally be able to watch this little gem.  Hell I thought the mock trailers were more entertaining and had more charm than some full feature movies.   


Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Friday the 13th - The Game

Some random art associated with the Friday the 13th game.  This weekend is double CP awards from June 23rd to June 25th.  I'll see you at camp!