Category Archives: Reviews: Movies

Movie Review: No Reason (2010)

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(2010)
Directed Olaf Ittenback
Stars Irene Holzfurtner, Mathias Engel, Alexander Gamnitzer, Andreas Pape, Annika Strauss, Ralph Willmann, and Timothy Balme

Being a young gorehound back in the VHS bootleg days, you were always looking for the next Evil Dead type of film, with over-the-top gore, showing you the blood and guts action you’d never see before. When you hear of a German film moving through the great market, even though it wasn’t available in English or subtitled, it was extremely gory, you know you had to see it. That is when I first became aware of German filmmaker Olaf Ittenback and his 1989 film Black Past. On this SOV film, Ittenback was the writer, director, producer, special effects, visual effects, and one of the actors! He followed that up with The Burning Moon in 1992, another gore-filled low budget epic. For some reason though, I never followed his career after those initial titles. Maybe because the availability of other films, and then with laserdiscs and DVDs, I had my hands full.

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Movie Review: Onibaba (1964)

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(1964)
Directed by Kaneto Shindo
Starring Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato, Taiji Tonoyama

Back in the days before the internet, horror reference books are where we learned about older movies. For me, Phil Hardy’s Encyclopedia of Horror (the title of the first version of the book I had) was very key into helping me discover a wide variety of titles from around the world. There was a shot from this movie in there, of a woman wearing a demon mask, with grinning mouth and wide eyes, that immediately made me want to know more about it. Eventually I would track down a copy and then understood why it was praised so much. When you are talking about classic Japanese horror cinema, this must be in the conversation.

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Movie Review: The Dead (2010)

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The Dead (2010)
Written & Directed by Howard J. Ford & Jonathan Ford
Starring Rob Freeman, Prince David Oseia

When this first came out, I was amazed at how well done and effective is was. I recently got the soundtrack, which made me want to revisit it for the first time in over a decade. I was still amazed how good it still is and realized that I had never officially reviewed it here on the Krypt. That is now fixed! For a sub-genre that is a half of a century old (yes, I am making Romero’s Night the starting point) and has hundreds of entries, it is very difficult to make one that is entertaining, let alone effective and scary after all this time. But with a very small cast to carry the story, some incredible special effects, and a land as barren and sparse as one’s hope in the film, the Ford Brothers has created one of the best zombie films in these last 50 years.

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Movie Review: Astro Zombies

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(1969)
Directed by Ted V. Mikels
Screenplay by Ted V. Mikels and Wayne Rodgers
Starring John Carradine, Wendell Corey, Tom Pace, Tura Satana, Joan Patrick,
Rafael Campos, Vince Barbi, Joe Hoover, Victor Izay

I first met Ted V. Mikels at the very first Cinema Wasteland, back in Sept. of 2000, where he was set up next to us in the vendor room. I knew of his work, from seeing trailers, some other clips, and seeing him in some documentaries, but my appreciation of his really developed after that first meeting, since he was so honored to be there to meet his fans. Every time someone came up, he would stand up and greet them with a handshake and honest hello. I mention this only because to really appreciate his work, you need to know and understand the man. Always on the low budget side of filmmaking, Mikels had that passion for the industry. He knew how to do just about everything in the business, from writing to directing to editing and more. Sure, some may say that he wasn’t that great in any of those duties, but I still say for any filmmaker to create just one film that has lasted the test of time, let alone many of them, that is a true filmmaker. And Mikels is definitely one of them.

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Movie Review: Dead Snow

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(2009)
Directed by Tommy Wirkola
Starring Charlotte Frogner, Ørjan Gamst, Stig Frode Henriksen, Vegar Hoel, Jeppe Laursen, Evy Kasseth, Evy Kasseth Røsten, Jenny Skavian, Bjørn Sundquist

If Peter Jackson was to remake Shock Waves (1977), but set it in the snowy mountains, then you would have Dead Snow. After getting a lot of internet hype, we had the chance to see this new Norwegian zombie film in the theater and just loved it. For someone to take a sub-genre that has been done to . . . death (sorry, couldn’t help it), co-writer and director Tommy Wirkola pulled out all the stops and gives us one bloody entertainingly good movie.

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Movie Review: The Deadly Spawn

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(1983)
Directed by Douglas McKeown
Starring Michael Robert Coleman, Charles George Hildebrandt, James Brewster, Elissa Neil,
Karen Tighe, Tom DeFranco, John Schmerling, Ethel Michelson

Back in the era of video stores, the first time you walked through the horror section and saw the big box video of Return of the Aliens Deadly Spawn, you knew you had to see that movie immediately! How could it be bad when you have this huge monster with three huge tooth-filled mouths, and blood and body parts everywhere? Granted, it was actually just The Deadly Spawn, but was changed slightly to key into the success of Alien. No matter what the title was, it was hard to walk away from that first viewing with a little slack in your jaw. For a low budget film from some guys in New Jersey, it became a very memorable ’80s monster flick for most fans.

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Movie Review: The Unseen (2016)

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The Unseen (2016)
Written and directed by Geoff Redknap
Starring Aden Young, Camille Sullivan, Julia Sarah Stone, Ben Cotton

Here is yet another example of stumbling across a title that you’ve never heard of, and then are so blown away by it that you’re amazed this is the first time you’re hearing about it. Or at least that you remember! Especially with the big Invisible Man remake from last year, you’d think that the spotlight would have been put on any similar type films. But this one really seemed to be left… unseen!

One of the things that I love about this film is the ambiguity. A little information is given about what is going on, but honestly the obvious has little to do with the story itself. Aden Young plays Bob Langmore, once a contender for a promising career in professional hockey, but has seemed to drop off the radar. He’s left his wife and young daughter, heading to the outskirts of nowhere to work in a mill. We’re not really sure what is wrong with him, but he seems to be in pain, and is seriously contemplating throwing himself into one of the giant grinders at work. Our first clue that something strange is going on is when he is at home and unwraps the bandages on his hand and we see parts of two of his fingers are gone. But then we realize they are not gone, we just can’t see them. He’s partially invisible. But unlike the traditional stories of this type, he’s not slowly fading in and out, just parts of him are transparent, and not completely transparent, but what seems like layers of him. And it seems to be spreading. For some reason, the process seems to be painful. Could the physical injuries he’s receiving, like in a fight, aggravating his condition? Right before he jumps into one of the machines, he decides he needs to see his daughter one last time. Shortly after he gets back home to visit, she doesn’t come home from a night with her friends. As he and his ex-wife start to investigate where she might have gone, more and more truths about what is going on becomes a little bit clearer. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Deadly Mantis

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(1957)
Directed by Nathan Juran
Starring Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, Donald Randolph, Pat Conway,
Florenz Ames, Paul Smith, Phil Harvey

“One of the worst SF films made by Universal.”

The above quote is from writer/film critic/historian Bill Warren. Granted, he makes a lot of valid points in criticism, but as much as I respect him and his work, I have to completely disagree with him on this one. Out of all the ’50s giant monster flicks, The Deadly Mantis remains one of my favorites. Maybe it comes down to the simple fact that I think this is one of the best looking creatures in these films. Or that I fondly remember this one as a kid and it has always stuck in my head. And I will say, that while Warren, and a lot of others, refer to this as a science fiction picture, let us get one thing perfectly clear. When you have a giant monster attacking cities and killing people, that right there, my friends, is horror, plain and simple. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Dog Soldiers

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(2002)
Directed by Neil Marshall
Starring Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham, Emma Cleasby, Thomas Lockyer, Darren Morfitt,
Chris Robson, Leslie Simpson

Back when this first came out, I ignored it. The reason was that it debuted on the Sci-Fi channel, and fans quickly learned that whatever made their debut on there was going to stink. For example, Cherry Falls (2000), Wishmaster 2 (1999), or Vampires: Los Muertos (2002). Now, not to knock anybody who likes those films, I would say they are not that well made. So when I heard of this new werewolf movie that was going to debut there, I paid no attention to it. A couple of months later, when it hit DVD, I started hearing from friends on how it is actually pretty damn good. So I gave it a whirl and was just blown away. Sure, it could be because my expectations were so low, or it could have been because it was just a well made horror flick, with an amazing cast, and some of the best practical werewolf creatures I’ve seen since The Howling (1982). Continue reading →

Movie Review: Nightbreed

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(1990)
Directed by Clive Barker
Starring Craig Sheffer, Anne Bobby, David Cronenberg, Doug Bradley, Nicholas Vince, Simon Bamford,
Charles Haid, Hugh Quarshie, Hugh Ross, Catherine Chevalier, Oliver Parker, John Agar

There is something about the mythology of monsters that is so fascinating. It seems that with ever new monster flick if we don’t have the back story to the creature, we want it! Or if there is some hints to it, we want more! What Clive Barker has done with this film, or the novella it is based on, is do exactly that, by giving us a tale of monsters that have been shunned from normal society, either choosing to or force to run and hide from it, all gathering to a place called Midian. Continue reading →