Flashback Weekend Coming!

Book Review: Naked Theater & Uncensored Horror

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Movie Review: From Beyond

Directed by Stuart Gordon
Starring Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, Ted Sorel, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Bunny Summers

For horror fans, the ‘80s were a time of sheer wonderment when it came to special effects. With the constant advancement of special makeup effects, it was a time of foam rubber, latex, and slime, with the only boundaries being imagination. One film that represents that more than most is Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond.

When I worked at the theater back in the ‘80s, Re-Animator (1985) played there and it just blew me away, between the gore and just the outrageousness of the whole story. I had already been reading Fangoria by that time, so when From Beyond was coming out, I was already excited about seeing it. And luckily for me, it played at my theater as well, so I spent a lot of time in there watching it over and over. I had recently started reading horror fiction, and thanks to Stephen King, had already started to dive into the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and had read the very short story that From Beyond was based on. In fact, the pre-credit sequence in the film is pretty much the whole story. But I think writer Dennis Paoli, along with producer Brian Yuzna and director Gordon, fleshed out the rest of the plot that, while way gorier and gooier than Lovecraft would have spelled out, I think it still felt it could be in the same universe.

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Movie Review: Abominable

Abominable 3

Abominable (2006)
Directed by Ryan Schifrin
Starring Matt McCoy, Haley Joel, Christen Tinsley, Karin Anna Cheung, Tiffany Shepis, Jeffrey Combs, Natalie Compagno, Paul Gleason, Lance Henriksen, Rex Linn, Dee Wallace Stone

Matt McCoy stars as Preston, a rich guy who lost his wife, as well as the use of his legs, in a rock climbing accident several months before. Still having trouble dealing with what happened, his doctor has one of the male nurses taking him back to his mountain cabin to help him face his fears. Shortly after arriving, a group of young women arrive at the house next door for their own weekend getaway. Still dealing with the memories from the accident and not wanting to even be there, things get worse when he starts to notice something moving out in the woods. Granted, his asshole of a nurse refuses to listen to him because he’s been complaining since they got there. But then as Preston is watching from his window, he sees something come out of the woods and snatch up one of the girls right off her feet. Continue reading

Arrow Re-Animates the Bride

Bride of Re-Animator - ArrowAs we all know, it is very hard for a sequel to top the original, or even come close. And when you’re talking about the original Re-Animator, it would seem to be an impossible task even to think about. But producer turned director Brian Yuzna did just that with his 1989 film Bride of Re-Animator. And you know what…it’s actually pretty damn entertaining!

Okay, so we all know that it isn’t as good as the first one. Case closed. But as a sequel, filled with some incredible, crazy, and down right jaw-dropping effects, not to mention some humorous and wonderfully dark performances by Jeffrey Combs and the rest of the cast, this is well worth your time. Even on mutliple viewings, this is still a great film.

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