Deranged (1974)–Interesting if Flawed Docu-Drama About The Man That Inspired So Many Horror Movies
Last night I watch the masterful biopic, Hitchcock, about the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock and absolutely loved it. The movie takes place during the filming of Psycho. What I learned was that Psycho was loosely based upon the crimes of Ed Gein, a serial killer, body snatcher and possible necrophilliac from Plainfield, Wisconsin. This left me wondering about who this Ed Gein was and were there any movie based specifically about him and not just inspired by his crime. A quick Google search and I foung the movie, Deranged from 1974.
Deranged starts with a warning that everything in the film is based on real events and that the names have been changed to protect the innocent…. blah, blah,blah! Telling the story of a man that was raised by an overbearing religious fanatic mother that taught him that all women, aside from herself, were diseased whores out to corrupt him. Not allowed to socialize with others outside of school, Ed was bound to come out twisted. Ed, obsessed with his mother, devoted himself to her caretaking. When she suffered a stroke, he became even more so. Upon her death he boarded up the rooms that she used and left himself a small area in the house for his own use.
In the movie, Ed soon finds himself missing his mother terribly, and convinced himself that she was actually sleeping and not dead. His mother’s voice calls to him telling him to retrieve her and bring her back to their home. Exhuming the body, Ed does just that. Mother, having been buried for the better part of a year was not in prime shape, so Ed decides to make repairs to his mother. Using bits of fish skin and the like he fixes her up as best he can. Eventually, he studies taxidermy to improve his skills. Not content with animals, Ed exhumes bodies from the grave yard, taking parts of or whole bodies from fresh graves. Ed’s a ghoul.
Soon Ed ups the ante when he becomes smitten with a local bar owner and kidnaps her. Hoping she’ll be his wife, he introduces her to his mother and dinner guests: posed bodis of the peopl he stole from the graveyard. Playing along, she convinced him to release her bound hand, and attempts to escape… Sorry! Ed ain’t letting you go. Instead of a wedding, she’s dead now.
Ed keeps up his shit with no one suspecting him at all, until a girl keeping shop dissapears with signs of foul play. The last person in the shop was Ed and the local Sherriff goes off to Ed’s farm house to talk to him. That’s where they find the body of the girl and evidence of all of Ed’s grisly crimes. The movie then ends with a write up of Ed being found insane…
Okay, this is not a great movie, but I did find it interesting as I knew little of Ed Gein. There have been a lot of movies about Ed and based on him. Not many of the biopics are very good, but this is one of the first. Should you watch it? If your interested in the crimes of Ed, then yes. If not, then don’t bother.
House of Wax (1953)–A Must Watch Classic
The first time I watched The House of Wax was around 1984 when a local theatre was showing classic 3D films each Friday for a few months. I was 14 at the time and thought I was in for a hokey experience – what I ended up with was a new appreciation for the classics, for 3D cinema (when done well), and especially for Vincent Price.
Released in 1953, it was a remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum without the humour of the original (thanks Wikipedia). The film was one of the first colour 3D movies from a big American studio, and apparently one of the first with stereo sound… pretty innovative for 1953. The movie tells the tale of Professor Henry Jarrod (played by Vincent Price), an master in the art of wax sculptures and his quest for vengeance against his financial partner, who burns down the Wax museum to recoup his investment through insurance. In an attempt to stop the blaze, Matthew Burke (played by Roy Roberts) knocks out Jarrod in a fight and leaves him to burn in the fire.
Thinking Jarrod perished in the fire, we learn that Burke collected the insurance payout through a conversation with Burke and his girlfriend/Fiancé at dinner. Burke also tells her a tale of how sad he was at the loss of his friend and partner… a lie of course.
Well, it turns out that Jarrod was not killed in the fire, but was burned, leaving his hands useless. He has decided to create a school to teach his art and to recreate a new wax museum, but this time dedicated to the macabre, depicting true life horror scenes in wax. Working through the hands of his students, he even goes as far as to model the faces of the wax figures on victims of crime in the news papers.
Well, all is not as it seems, and a shadowy figure is seen leaving the wax museum/school and descending on Burke, murdering him while making it look like a suicide through hanging. We catch a glimpse of the killer who is horrible disfigures – it is the true face of Jarrod, dis-figured in the original wax museum fire. Shortly after the suicide is reported in the news, Burke’s body disappears, and a new exhibit opens in the museum depicting Burke’s apparent suicide with a picture perfect model of Burke as the centerpiece. Next to go is Burke’s fiancé who is murdered in her sleep by the grotesque Jarrod. Almost caught, he is seen by a flat mate of the now dead lady. When she describes the horrible face of the killer, she is not initially believed. Soon Burke’s Fiancé’s body disappears and a new exhibit depicting Joan of Arc at the stake takes it’s place with a model that looks exactly like the freshly dead woman.
What’s happening? Burke, enraged and crazed after the loss of his life’s work and his disfigurement in the fire, has decided to get revenge on his former partner and all those that may stand in his way. He has taken to creating wax sculptures by covering the bodies of his victims in wax and making them the centrepiece of his works. The burn make up on Price, in my opinion looks great and the performances by all are top notch. I really don’t think that it should be considered scary by today’s standards, but is a classic in any case. The movie has recently been re-released on Blu-Ray and in 3D and I must say it looks fabulous. This is a movie that I heartily suggest you watch, even if you’ve seen it before.
Check out the Trailer below:
Manborg (2011)is Out On DVD And You Should Buy It… A Couple of Times
Manborg, a low budget sci-fi film made by Astron-6 has just been released. Should you care? Yes… The movie is freakin’ awesome. Made for $1000 dollars, and yet they kept me enteretained throughout.
Trying something different this time folks: What follows is my attempt at a video blog post. Short and boring, let me what you think.
The Zombie Diaries (2006)–Everyone Attached to This Film Should Be Ashamed of Themselves
So I watched the 2006 movie, Zombie Diaries last night. It was easily the worse zombie movie I’ve seen.
It was worse than Zombie Babies (which I also hated).
Everyone attached to this movie should have been banned from ever attempting to create anything artistic. And guess what? They made a sequel.
So… What’s wrong with the movie? It’s boring and poorly made. Oh, did I mention that it was boring?
Don’t watch this piece of shit.
Trailer? Oh, why the hell not:
The Zombie Diaries (2006)–Everyone Attached to This Film Should Be Ashamed of Themselves
So I watched the 2006 movie, Zombie Diaries last night. It was easily the worse zombie movie I’ve seen.
It was worse than Zombie Babies (which I also hated).
Everyone attached to this movie should have been banned from ever attempting to create anything artistic. And guess what? They made a sequel.
So… What’s wrong with the movie? It’s boring and poorly made. Oh, did I mention that it was boring?
Don’t watch this piece of shit.
Trailer? Oh, why the hell not:
The Vineyard (1989)–Everybody’s Favourite Asian “That Guy” Makes a Movie–Too Bad It Sucks
So I had a little time before work today and decided to fill it watching a cheezy movie suggested by Netflix: 1989’s The Vineyard. Maybe I should have taken a nap instead.
Written, directed and starring James Hong, a venerable actor that seems t have been in everything from the TV show MASH to Kung Fu Panda (the voice of the Master) and almost everything in between. It’s just too bad that this was the movie that he decided to make.
The Vineyard tells the tale of a Winemaker, Dr. Elson Po who invites a group of young aspiring actors and friends to his island vineyard under the pretence that he wants to make a movie. Well, things are not really as they seem and neither is Dr. Po.
Dr. Po is ancient and stays young(ish) and healthy by way of a secret potion that requires the blood (or some other vital fluid) from young people. He has kept himself alive for centuries like this, and that is the real reason this group has been brought to this island: so Po can harvest more of whatever to stay young. One bonus? One of the girls, (a hottie played by Karen Lorrie), seems to be his “chosen”” one with whom he plans to marry.
So… bad stuff happens to them, there’s a rescue attempt. There’s some Zombie like creatures. We see Po’s even more ancient mother… there’s some late 80s boobs. And the movie sucks.
Want to watch a bad, cheezy movie? Even if you do, you can watch something other than this. Hell – I like bad movies and this couldn’t keep my interest. This is a seriously boring attempt at a horror movie and doesn’t even have that “so bad that you have to see it” type cachet.
Here’s the trailer if you are interested, and as noted, it’s available on Netflix.
The Legend of Hell House (1973) – Creepy British Horror
1973’s British production, The Legend of Hell House is a stylish, early 1970s horror movie that kind of surprised me. You see, I usually find 60’s and 70’s British horror to be boring… and mostly crap. With the exception of some (but not all) Hammer films. Well I am glad to say The Legend of Hell House is an exception to this.
The story is basically this: A millionaire, Mr. Deutsch hires a group of “specialists” to investigate a purported Haunted house, The Belasco House, in an effort to either prove or disprove life after death. The Belasco house had been the home of Emeric Belasco, a rumoured, evil giant of a man who reportedly held massive orgies in the home. Later, after the death of Belasco, people who entered the house either died or suffered insanity.
In the 1950s, a group that entered and tried to get to the bottom of the hauntings ended in tragedy. The only survivor, a 15 year old physical medium named Ben Fisher survived. Now, in 1974, Ben (played by Roddy McDowell), along with physicist Dr. Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill), his wife, Ann Barrett (Gayle Hunnicutt) and spiritual medium Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) make up the new team that was hired to investigate.
The fist night together in Belasco House, the group partakes in a séance (or sitting). During this sitting, Florence claims to be channel a spirit, and in a weird, manly voice warns and threatens the group, while physical objects around the room are shaken and moved without anyone touching them. While the group is shaken up, Dr. Barrett believes that there must be a scientific reason for the events.
As the days go by, Florence is visited by what appears to be several spirits, but most notably, one claiming to be Belasco’s son, asking to be released. These visits seem to end with Florence being physically attacked – even by an evil, determined black cat.
Florence isn’t the only one being targeted – they all are. Ann Barrett, becomes temporarily possessed while sleep walking and tries to engage Ben in sex. Ben, realizing it is the spirit talking and not really Ann, slaps her awake – she comes to and runs away. – A note: Ann is pretty hot – Ben must have used some serious will power here-. Also, during another sitting, Dr. Barrett is targeted by flying objects that are hurled in his direction seemingly by invisible hands. Dr. Barrett, though, is still convinced that this can be explained scientifically.
Barrett has a large piece of equipment delivered to the house that I think drains the ethereal energy of the house – Florence attempts to destroy the machine but fails. Barrett starts up his machine and gets to work. While they are doing so, Florence gets up and enters the chapel of the house… where tragedy befalls her. While this is happening, in the room with the machine, Dr. Barrett believes that the machine has done it’s job, and even Ben agrees, declaring the home “clear.” Well, almost immediately a bunch of crap happens and Dr. Barrett is killed. Ann and Ben enter the chapel, and find Florence dead. Ben, coming to a realization, hurls accusations at the spirit, belittling it, and soon they discover a hidden chamber… and the truth of the evil Emeric Belasco…
Well, as I stated at the beginning of this post, I generally find British horror from this time boring , but I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was an interesting story and the acting was good. Not a lot of gore, but that’s okay. Should you watch it? That’s completely up to you.
Check out the trailer below:
Eddie The Sleep Walking Cannibal(2011)–Weird Film… Weirdly Excellent Film
Here is another movie that I had not heard of until this week and was pretty much blown away by how much I liked it.
Eddie the Sleep Walking Cannibal tells the story of a Danish painter, Lars (played by Thure Lindhardt), who travels to a small Canadian town in order to both teach art and to hopefully get his muse back and start painting again.
Lars has trouble fitting into the community at first, stating off his adventure by hitting a male deer (a Buck), with his truck – that scene, while grim has a certain morbid humour to it that sets the stage for the rest of the movie. Shortly after starting teaching, one of his students, Eddie, (played masterfully by Dylan Smith), an adult mute with what seems to be a learning disability loses his care giver, his aunt, and ends up in the care of Lars, living in his home with him.
Soon Lars finds out Eddie has an interesting, if disturbing habit of walking and killing (and eating) living things in his sleep. Witnessing this, Lars finds that it drives his creative juices and suddenly he can paint again – the sleep walking Eddie becomes his muse.
Eddie starts off killing and eating a small animal but soon progresses to humans. Each time, Lars is inspired again to paint, and each painting he cerates, he sells and uses the proceeds to help the small community that he now resides in.
Lars soon learns that Eddie only does things when he is upset, and as Eddie becomes more comfortable with Lars, he stops the killing. Lars, feeling the need to create, tries to create a situation that upsets Eddie in order to spur on his nocturnal activities. Lars is becoming addicted to Eddie in a way.
This movie explores a weird and unusual subject. Lars at first is a sympathetic character, but morphs into someone unlikeable. His relationships within the community develop in an interesting manner as does his descent into darkness. Strong performances by the supporting cast helps to elevate this movie from an interesting B movie to something that I strongly suggest you watch. Keep an eye out for Stephen McHattie as Lars’ agent – you might remember him as Elaine’s therapist/lover from Seinfeld.
Check it out! Here is the trailer:
Evil Dead (2013)–This Remake Rocks so Go See it In the Theatre… GO!!!
My awesome wife and I saw the new Evil Dead remake this weekend and I have to say it was fantastic. Not a direct remake as much as a re-imagining of the original, but it manages to keep the basics of the original.
This movie was a great horror on it’s own and a great addition to the Evil Dead movies as a whole. If you are a horror fan then you owe it to yourself to see this film.
Go… NOW!!!
Here’s the trailer if you’re not convinced:
Sushi Girl (2012) – You’ll Either Be Bored or Love It–I loved It
I don’t think I’ve said this on the blog before, but I generally don’t like torture horror. You know those movies where a guy is tied to a chair or something for most of the movie while he gets the crap beat out of him for what ever twisted reason. Well, Sushi Girl is one of these types of movies, and I really liked it.
What’s the movie about? Well, six years ago a group of 5 crooks pulled off a diamond heist that went bad at the last minute when their get away van was involved in a vehicle crash. Four of the five escape, with the new guy (and the guy responsible for the bag of stolen diamond), Fish (played by Noah Hathaway) getting caught. Fish ends up spending six years behind bars for the crime, never spilling the beans on his fellow crooks.
Now the six years have passed and Fish is being let out early for good behaviour and is met at the prison gates by a driver in a black limo. The limo delivers him to an ornate Chinese themed building where Duke (played by Tony Todd, the organizer of the diamond heist, has gathered together the original team. Duke, seemingly obsessed with Japanese culture and symbolism, has had an elaborate Sushi dinner prepared for the group, served on the body of a living but still “Sushi Girl.” Duke’s plan is to have the group eat the sushi, starting with the mild stuff on the outside, working their way to the center ending with Fugu – a dangerous piece of sushi created by a toxic puffer fish that when prepared properly, causes some numbness and a sense of elation, but when done incorrectly causes death. Duke wants the group to eat the meal while they all discuss an important matter: where are the diamonds from the heist? You see, they’re all wondering what happened to the diamonds, as the police reported that the bag that the diamonds were in was empty. Believing Fish had stashed the diamonds before being caught, the crew now wants their cut, despite Fish’s insistence that he never had a chance to stash them. Fish, not wanting to beat around the bush, and not wanting to play any games is very adamant that he did not have the diamonds, and that he did the group a favour by doing his time and keeping his mouth shut. The others are not convinced, and Fish soon finds himself tied to a chair while the goons take their turns attempting to torture a confession, all the while with Fish refusing to tell them what happened to the diamonds, other than he didn’t have them.
The movie shows the original heist in fits, when fish occasionally loses consciousness and lapses in to his memories of the event. It’s an interesting way to fill in the back story and each flashback shows another key part of the original heist. Fish get’s brutally beaten over and over again, each time worse than the last.
The movie goes on like this for quite a while, and there is an amazing performance by Mark Hamill as Crow, an over the top, flamboyantly gay, sadistic fellow crook – he really stole the show with his portrayal of this character. The end of the movie is a twist that I did not see coming – I know that there was going to be a big twist – I just hadn’t figured out exactly what that twist was. Although I thought this movie was great, I have to say it is definitely not for everyone. I mean for most of the movie a guy is brutally beaten while tied to a chair. That said, if you can stomach that, then I say watch this movie, even if only to see Mark Hamill in a performance that just may be the best of his career.
Check out the trailer below:
Hatchet I and II–Fun Throwbacks To A Simpler Age
A couple of nights ago I re-watched Hatchet (2006) and Hatchet II (2010) after seeing a teaser for the upcoming Hatchet III. I am glad I did.
Hatchet tells the story of a group of people that take a night tour of a Louisiana swamp during Mardi Gras festivities and run into the psycho-killer, Victor Crowley. Victor was born horrible disfigured and was raised in a cabin in the swamp by his father, Mr. Crowley (played by the always amazing Kane Hodder), protecting him from the cruel outside world. Local kids would come by in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the disfigured boys. One night, the local kids decide to scare him out of the cabin by throwing fireworks. Unfortunately the cabin catches fire, and in an attempt to rescue his son, he accidentally kills him. Now, years later, Victor Crowley (also played by Kane Hodder) is forced to relive that night and takes vengeance to whomever enters the swamp.
So, this unlucky group of folks are on this tour of the swamp, in a portion of the swamp that has been closed for years by authorities, with an incompetent tour guide (an Asian fellow with a Louisiana accent – sometimes). The tour guide does a great job getting them hung up and thereby forcing them to get off the boat and onto land… and into Victor Crowley’s lands.
One by one they are picked off in different but equally horrific ways. We also learn a bit more about each of the tourists, though at this point it doesn’t matter as they are going to die soon. We do learn that one of the people, an attractive young lady by the name of Marybeth (played by Tamara Feldman) is acually a local and along for the ride in hopes to find out what happened to her Father and Brother who disappeared a day earlier while ‘gator hunting in the same section of swamp.
Like most of these movies, we see the characters taken down one at a time in great gory scenes. The movie isn’t the greatest, but it is a good slasher flick. If you like this style of film then I think You’d like Hatchet.
Hatchet II continues from the very last scene of the first movie. Marybeth’s character now being played by Danielle Harris. Kane Hodder returns as Both Victor and Thomas Crowley.
Part two is a story of a hunt for Victor Crowley, pushed for by Marybeth, but organized by Reverend Voodoo (a role reprised from the first movie and played by Tony Todd). Marybeth wants to retrieve the bodies of her brother and father, while Reverend Voodoo wants to clear the swamp of Victor Crowley so he can run more tours out of the swamp and make a bigger profit. Voodoo gets together a posse to defeat Crowley and they head out.
Of course it’s not that easy and one by one the hunters become the hunted. We see more, gory killings as the posse’s numbers dwindle. Crowley seems unstoppable.
Soon we learn Voodoo’s true plan (but I won’t tell you what it is as you can watch the damned movie yourself), and we learn just how much a douche he really is.
Plans are great, but they rarely work out in movies, right?
Hatchet 2 is fun, but not as good as the first, though I do suggest watching both.
Check out the trailers for the two below:
Hatchet
Hatchet II
Midnight Movie (2008)–Better than Average
So Netflix has been suggesting this movie for quite a while and I finally decided to watch it. The viewer reviews were positive (generally) , but that doesn’t mean much: people are raving about Safety Not Guaranteed and that movie SUCKED!!!
Well, this time the reviews were right: this movie is pretty good for it’s genre. A 70s horror movie is being played at a run down movie house – the first time the film has been released since it;s director killed a munch of people as the main character and then disappeared. Two police officers that arrived on the scene are on hand for the movie just in case the director shows up.
Also, there’s a biker and his woman, a couple of cute girls, one who is managing the theatre, and her friend and both their boyfriends, the managers little brother and another guy they know but don’t care for a lot.
Well the movie starts and weird thing happen – it takes a little while for the audience to figure out that some scenes are actually taking place in the theatre that they are in. Thinking that it’s a practical joke when the one guy that they don’t like much shows up in a scene after he goes to the washroom.
Well, eventually they figure out that they are being picked off one at a time by the killer that appears ion the film.
This movie isn’t perfect, but most horror movies aren’t. What it is is entertaining. Should you watch it? Well, if your looking for a simple little horror movie that harkens back to the 80s then I say yes.
Check out the trailer here: