John of the Dead's Horror Flick Reviews

Director – Jake West

Cast – Emily Booth, Jamie Honeybourne, Sam Butler, Jodie Shaw, Peter O’Connor, Nick Smithers, Norman Lovett, Christopher Adamson, Jennifer Evans, Mark Richard Hayes, Chris Thomas

Release Year – 2005

Reviewed by John of the Dead

Evil Aliens is a film I heard much good buzz from since its debut in 2005, and for reasons unknown it took me until now to finally give this effort a watch.  Filmed on a low budget and marking the sophomore effort of Jake West’s career, Evil Aliens is a zany and literally insane alien flick with loads of gore and cheap FX that will turn off some viewers, but the majority will appreciate this flawed but fun experience.

When sleazy reporter Michelle Fox, the host of a fake UFO investigation TV show, learns of a woman who claims to have been impregnated by aliens, she enlists her crew and a few others to held to a Welsh island to investigate the matter.  This investigation proves to be different than her previous for one reason and one reason only: there are real aliens on this island.  Eager to ride the wave to super-stardom, Michelle gets the cameras rolling in this insane gorefest.

I can say right now that my personal love for anything UFO-oriented is the biggest reason why I though I would enjoy this piece, and much to my pleasure I was given more than just aliens – I was given tons of gore as well.  From the get-go we are thrown into the maniacal madness provided by the aliens who impregnate the young girl in vicious fashion, doing away with her boyfriend as well via an extreme form of anal probing.  Once Michelle Fox and her production crew, accompanied by a knowledgeable UFO nerd, make their way to the island we see their enthusiasm and lack of respect for those who “believe” run to the ground when they interrupt the now cattle-slaughtering alien invaders and provide them more meat for the slaughter.  From then on out the rest of the film consists of the crew and the pregnant girl and her family running from and trying to fight off the aliens, aliens that came in pretty original-looking designs that consisted of some ridiculous looks, but more on that when we get to direction.  There are plenty of kill sequences to go around, however at times I felt the film dragged a bit, which I think resulted from the flick giving us the same damn template for both the second and third act, consisting of the humans battling the aliens and not really giving us much more than that.  I don’t normally tire from alien action, but when I do, it’s from too much alien action and not enough of everything else.

Director Jake West(Doghouse) did a good job with what he hard to work with, and I was glad to see that he appropriated his funds to where they needed to be directed…to the horror.  We are given sweet-looking aliens via live-action FX that delivered awesome live-action gore, which surprised me given most low-budget films these days are almost obligated to overdo the CGI to make ends meet.  Now, there were some scenes of fairly crappy CGI regarding the space ships and relevant sequences, but those were forgivable in my opinion thanks to the awesome horror.  As I mentioned just now, the look of the aliens was pretty cool and creative, and I saw a hint of Peter Jackson-style humor in the aliens, with the females having multiple sets of breasts and other insane ideas.  I have also noticed that some have mentioned Jake West’s early stuff being very reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s early stuff ala Bad Taste and Dead Alive, but I have do disagree with such comparisons.  I do somewhat feel that similarity, but it is very obvious that Jake West’s early stuff is far from the quality of Jackson’s early stuff despite them both essentially coming with the same elements.  Nonetheless, West did well in this one and made up for poor acting and cheap CGI with lots of alien action, gore, and good laughs as well.

Overall, Evil Aliens is a fun film that if you can find yourself a bit forgiving should result in an awesome gore-fueled experience heavy in insanity and alien action.

Rating: 7/10

Director – Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford

Cast – Rob Freeman, Prince David Oseia, David Dontoh

Release Year – 2010

Reviewed by John of the Dead

The Dead received a lot of hype on the road to its debut in 2010, serving as the first zombie effort filmed in Africa, and one that apparently provided a similar feel to the original Dawn of the Dead. Soon after its debut the mediocre reviews began pouring it, which is why I took my time getting to this one. I was excited for it nonetheless, but after viewing this piece I must agree with my horror brothers/sisters that despite some good ideas this is one effort that lost much potential and was just OK in the end.

When his evacuation flight from war-savaged Africa crash lands off the coast, Air Force engineer Lt. Brian Murphy must use wits and courage to find his way back home from a country suffering a horrific plague where the dead are returning to life to consume the living.

Right off the back I will say that this flick does deserve some of the good buzz it was receiving early on. It really does “feel” like an older zombie film, partly due to the low budget and also as a result of the the Ford brothers’ execution. I really enjoyed the idea of setting the story in Africa as it provided a unique background never used in well-distributed zombie films. In addition to this, I also took joy in the thought of the irony that human life is thought to have begun in Africa, and the zombie outbreak proves that human life will begin its demise in Africa. This notion is never brought up in the film, but I still found it a cool idea nonetheless. It does not take long for the story to kick into high gear, with the zombie outbreak already present at the time the opening credits roll and we follow Lt. Murphy struggling to free himself from the plane crash that ultimately left him the lone survivor of his emergency aid battalion. The story does move slow despite giving us lots of zombie action, and I found no faults in this thanks to the high levels of conflict going on. For starters, Lt. Murphy is in Africa for humanitarian reasons, and then finds himself the one who needs help if he wishes to leave the country and be reunited with his family. Eventually another main character is brought in, Sgt. Daniel Dembele, an African soldier who deserted his military unit to search for his son after his home village was taken over by the undead. Sgt. Dembele’s situation adds to the conflict, and despite their differences both soldiers realize they need to help the other out if they want to survive and make it to their families. I really respect this story for giving us more than just zombie carnage but also conflict and drama as well as I have just explained without giving away any major spoilers. Thankfully, the Ford brothers did bring forth A LOT of kills, both of the living and the undead, making for a pretty solid zombie effort story-wise.

The Ford Brothers’ execution is what held the film back from being a really good experience. They have won awards for commercials they have filmed, but I can see why they did not win any notable awards for this piece. I applaud them for their atmosphere and the sets used, which apparently included filming in volatile and dangerous regions of Africa plagued by wars (a great way to match up with the storyline). The scenery is fantastic and it taking place in the deserts of Africa provided a sense of dread for what Lt. Murphy and Sgt. Dembele had to go through without any solid resources of food, water, and ammunition. Of course, there are the zombies, and for the most part I fell the Ford bros did well with them. There was plenty of gore in this piece, live-action gore thankfully, although I did fell that the zombies were able to bite and rip people apart much too easily. We humans are brittle compared to other animalia species, but we aren’t made of jello like the ones in The Dead. While I liked how the zombies were portrayed, slow moving and hungry for human flesh, I took issue with the performances by those portraying the zombies. I felt the poor performances by the zombie actors held the film back enough to keep it from being a great one, which was not the only fault with the Ford bros’ direction but definitely one that stuck out enough to be worth mentioning given it had to do with the most important element of zombie films.

Overall, The Dead is a moderate effort that provides some good zombie action shown in an enjoyable “classic” style, but directing faults kept it back from being a solid overall effort. The story is great and moves very well, providing drama and conflict as well as lots of zombie carnage, in the end making for a flick I recommend for zombie fans willing to forgive a little.

Rating: 6/10

Director – Keenen Ivory Wayans

Cast – Anna Faris, Jon Abrahams, Regina Hall, Marlon Wayans, Shannon Elizabeth, Cheri Oteri, Shawn Wayans, Andrea Nemeth, David L. Lander, Dan Joffre, Dave Sheridan, Carmen Electra

Release Year – 2000

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I highly enjoyed this film when I first saw it in theaters back in 2000 (that one year where the world did not end) and after not seeing it for several years I was honestly surprised to find that I still enjoyed it.  There are many films that I found joy in as a youngster and after viewing them as an adult found that they were not as enjoyable as I remembered them to be, but Scary Movie did not seem to suffer that.  Of course, I love parodies and when you mix in the horror genre you have my devout interest, and while the rest in the Scary Movie series slowly deteriorated this initial effort remains one of the best horror parodies there is.

When a group of high school friends accidentally kill a man and dispose of his body, they find themselves stalked and killed off by a moronic killer.

Judging by the storyline it is obvious this flick parodies I Know What You Did Last Summer,  but once things get going you will notice that it also mostly parodies another popular teen flick…Scream.  I was not surprised to see these two films parodied given they appealed highly to the teen crowd that this parody is meant to appeal to, and unsurprisingly it worked much to Scary Movie‘s advantage.  The flick starts off like I Know What You Did Last Summer then eventually follows Scream‘s storyline, which happened as a result of two different screenplays, each parodying one of the films mentioned, being mashed together into one cohesive story.  This idea bleeds disaster, but it managed to defy the odds and give us a storyline that works and comes with the usual humor and trickery brought on by the Wayan’s brothers and the crew behind Date Movie and Epic Movie.  So how is the humor in this horror/comedy?  Personally I loved the humor, but I have always had an appeal for the ridiculous humor found in these flicks.  A good comparison would be Not Another Teen Movie (Shannon Elizabeth appears in both films), so if that made you laugh then Scary Movie should have you laughing too.  And the horror?  The horror was OK, we are given a fair amount of kills and slight gore here and there, but obviously this piece is more about the humor  than the horror, but both sufficed.

Keenen Ivory Wayans serves as the film’s director, and also acts in a small role regarding a non-existant Amistad II that had me laughing out loud.  His direction was positive and I am sure this is his best directing effort to date due to how he executed all of the elements involved.  The kills were tame and definitely could have been better given the film’s R-rating, but the humor was executed well and in very silly fashion – just the way I like it.  One element that did surprise me was how great the acting performances were.  None of the performances should be taken seriously, but at the same time I feel these actors achieved the goals of the filmmakers in providing funny performances that came off just as they should have, and I applaud Dave Sheridan who gave us the best performances as the hilarious Doofy.

Overall, Scary Movie is a fun horror/comedy that results in one of the better parodies and best horror parodies there is.  The direction is good and the story provides for many laughs, but keep in mind the silly sense of humor and prepare for it as it most likely does not appeal to all.

Rating: 7/10

Director – Nick Simon

Cast – Billy Burke, Mark Kelly, Oz Perkins, Emma Caulfield, Kelly Brook, Elliott Gould, Sharon Omi

Release Year – 2010

Reviewed by John of the Dead

Much like Occupant (which I just posted), Removal is a film that I really expected to like but was only left with disappointment.  Of course, I did not read on either film so I had no idea of their numerous negative reviews, but personally I find it more exciting going into a film without any prior knowledge of the piece.  Removal is gothic in nature and provides an overall storyline that I enjoyed, but that same story fell flat and held the experience back in the end.

After experiencing a traumatizing murder-suicide involving a personal friend, Cole is left suffering emotional repercussions that have cost him dearly.  He suffers hallucinations, his wife has left him, and his career has dwindled into a blue collar job as a lackey for a cleaning service company.  Cole’s despair brightens when he is offered $5,000 cash to clean the home of a wealthy gentleman overnight, however everything comes with a price and Cole finds himself enthralled in a “mess” he should never have been a part of.

I figured I’d enjoy this story due to the dynamic conflict it would provide regarding Cole, who obviously had a good life before the self-inflicted death of his friend, an event that lead to the loss of everything Cole loved about his life.  This conflict is greatened when he is provided with an opportunity to fix some of his financial woes and hopefully win his life back, but of course not everything is as easy or simple as it seems.  The film moves fairly slow and is quite uneventful after the initial suicide Cole experiences, however the introduction of the wealthy man, Henry Sharpe, made things more interested due to his demeaning nature and well-written dialogue that hinted at him killing his wife and using Cole to clean up the mess.  It is from then on out that we accompany Cole on the roller coaster ride in determining whether or not Henry did kill his wife and is using Cole as an accessory, or if this is simply another hallucinogenic side effect of the suicide that left Cole in a mentally unstable state.  Things boil down to the wire in regards to this dilemma, which I found fairly interesting when we find out what finally happened regarding Henry’s wife, but the ride to get there came with many bumps in the road.  There was the inclusion of another main character that threw me off a bit during the latter half of the film, and it was that writing idea that I felt kept the film back even though it should have progressed the experience if anything.

Director Nick Simon did a decent job with this piece, giving us good atmosphere and great set location when we get to Henry’s large and Italian-esque home.  There is a heavy sense of dread provided throughout this experience, and while I expected some good horror the horror never really surfaced, but I blame that more on writing than direction.  The scenes of horror that we do get are good, especially the final kill in the film, and it shows that despite this not being a good overall film that Nick Simon does have some directing talent in him.  The acting performances are good enough, with Oz Perkins stealing the show as the eccentric asshole Henry Sharpe, and it if were not for his performance I would have found this piece a lot more boring at possibly unwatchable.

Overall, Removal is a film that came with an interesting premise but suffered numerous story-related faults that held it back in the end.  The direction is fairly good, but it was far from enough to salvage this piece.

Rating: 5/10

Director – Henry Miller

Cast – Van Hansis, Cody Horn, Thorsten Kaye, Jamie Harrold

Release Year – 2011

Reviewed by John of the Dead

Occupant marks the 1,357,983th film that I was really excited to see thanks to what seemed to be an awesome plot, but in the end made for an experience I wish I would have skipped.  The atmosphere is great and things start off very well, but Occupant eventually succumbed to poor writing and equally poor execution.

When his grandmother dies and leaves him a nice rent-controlled apartment, 25 year old Danny Hill must stay locked in the apartment for 12 straight days to attain legal standing to secure it in his name, however he may not be the only occupant.

The idea of Danny being locked in an apartment with a hidden horror really appealed to me, and at first it seemed the film was going to provide me with what I wanted to see.  It came off supernatural and quite creepy during its first act, but once things got going my interest slowly faded as things became more and more bland and annoying.  For one, the “occupant” in the film was not a supernatural occupant at all, and for the sake of spoilers I cannot say exactly what the “occupant” is, but as soon as I figured out what was going on I thought “great, it’s this idea again”, and was not suprised at my distaste for this storyline in the end.  In addition to that the story does get bland and repetitive, which was an indicator of poor writing but was not unexpected.  When you set a film in a single location, in this case Danny’s grandmother’s apartment, you must throw in unique ideas and keep the viewer engaged to make up for the lack of setting movement, but that was not the case with this story and the film suffered greatly because of that.

Director Henry Miller (Anamorph) did a decent job with this one at first, giving us great atmosphere and throwing us into what I was expecting to be a pretty creepy film given his awesome musical score.  Of course, once the storyline changed his direction changed too, which seemed to mimic the storyline in every fault as we were given poor execution once the story began to cave into its mess.  The acting performances could have been better as well, although I applaud Van Hansis’ performance as Danny Hill given his character required that he portray numerous different emotions as the film pressed on.  As far as the horror goes there are no worthwhile scares, and most of the horror proves to be psychological more than anything else.  The horror is OK if you put yourselves in Danny’s shoes, but even then it should have been much better.

Overall, Occupant is another film that fails to live up to expectations and instead provides for an experience I cannot recommend.  The overall storyline is cool, but it suffers greatly once things get going, and sadly the direction suffered with it.

Rating: 5/10

Director – David Brooks

Cast – Brian Geraghty, Alice Eve, Josh Peck, Aaron Hughes, Will Woytowich

Release Year – 2012

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I was pretty excited to see ATM because it was going to give me one of my favorite tactics/elements used in the horror genre: a nowhere-to-run scenario. Much like Devil, Feast, REC, etc., films that leave our protagonists stuck in a confined space with danger lurking around every corner provide for good tension so long as the filmmakers have decent ability to keep the viewer engaged, and that was mostly the case with ATM. The story is simple but provides enough complexities to make for a unique watch, and despite some downtimes and moments of bland writing this effort made for a mostly-positive film in the end, although it could have (and should have) been better than it was.

While traveling home from a work party three coworkers stop at an ATM and find themselves trapped by a strange killer with a hidden vengeance.

I really liked this storyline as I love simple stories that throw in a few unique curveballs and rely on good direction to seal the deal. It does not take long before the three coworkers leave the party and stop at an ATM so that the most annoying of them can pull out some cash, and before you know it the three of them are stuck within the ATM (which has glass walls and is the size of a small room) with a creepy hulking figure standing in the parking lot between them and their vehicle. As the freezing temperatures begin to take effect on the three coworkers panic then ensues, and when the hulking man begins hacking and slashing all hell breaks loose. Our protagonists being stuck in the ATM kiosk made for some good tension and allowed me to put myself in their shoes and think of what decisions I would make if I were in their situation, which since I legally carry a firearm would have been easy for me (and helped my chances of survival compared to the protagonists) but nonetheless any film that allows the viewer to envelop themselves in the story makes for an engaging one the viewer should appreciate. Most of the story takes place in the very parking lot with the ATM, and despite that I never once really found myself bored, although I did wish the storyline would have contained less holes and given me more background on the killer. While I enjoyed the killer and the hell he dished out I did find the writing regarding him to be a bit dry and keeping much of his potential from the viewer, which is one of the biggest reasons behind the film not achieving a higher rating. The climax was one that I did not expect and it came with a bit of confusion as well (another thing I did not see coming) but ultimately I believe this story by Chris Sparling, the man who wrote Buried, did a fine job with this one.

ATM marks the full-length film debut of director David Brooks, and for the most part he did pretty will with this effort. This atmosphere is great and his sets worked very well, especially that of the ATM kiosk where we spend the bulk of the runtime hiding with the protagonists. His execution of the horror was positive, giving us good tension and some gut-wrenching kill sequences that left me licking my lips at their awesomeness. I enjoyed the killer in the film, especially during the scenes where he was barely visible and all we were shown was a hulking man in a winter parka, and the usage of him during the kill sequences was incredible as he delivered quality kills reminiscent of the incredible Tyler Mane. The rest of the actors did well and Brooks’ did a fine job mashing them together to serve as both friends at times and enemies at other times, which played into why this film had the potential to be a good one, but story issues held it back in the end.

Overall, ATM is a cool film that provides much tension thanks to the setting provided by the cool storyline and an awesome killer with a thirst for carnage. The direction is good and there are some memorable scenes, but the story felt a bit bland at time and ultimately kept this film from being an outrightly well-done effort, making for a mostly-positive one that I would recommend if you need your horror fix.

Rating: 6/10

Director – David Denneen

Cast – Travis Fimmel, Teresa Palmer, Stephen Moyer, Nate Jones

Release Year – 2008

Reviewed by John of the Dead

Restraint interested me due to its psychological thriller feel, combined with the fact that it came out several years ago and I had never once heard of it(always looking for that hidden gem). While not as horrific as I wanted or expected, Restraint managed to put together an interesting storyline that I had yet to see in the horror/thriller genres, making for a decent effort in the end despite a lack of horror.

On the run after killing two people, small-time criminal Ron and his girlfriend Dale break into a home in hopes of stealing a vehicle, but instead are greeted by Andrew, an agoraphobic. When Ron learns that the weak Andrew is in fact a wealthy weak Andrew, a plan is enacted to withdraw $40,000 to get Ron and Dale out of the country, but Andrew has other plans for them…

One writing tactic that I absolutely love is when criminals find what seems to be an easy break, but instead find themselves way over their heads. I’ve seen this in Deep Rising and many other horror films, and the idea just works in regards to keeping my devout attention. It does not take long for Ron and Dale to break into Andrew’s home and take him prisoner, and while it seems they are in control of the situation it is really the calm and collected Andrew who has the upper hand. I enjoyed this idea, however it was not used in the way I expected. I was assuming that Andrew was either some sort of insane serial killer or someone with hidden badassery, but neither was really the case. As the story progresses we learn that Andrew is in fact not the timid guy he portrays himself to be and that he definitely has a dark side to him, but he never developed into the shocking character that I wanted – instead he wound up a calculating psycho who wanted something from the couple all along and did what he had to do to get it. I personally wished that Andrew would have proven to be a more contrasting character, coming off weak but instead inhibiting hidden strengths, but was in fact weak all along and never broke away from it. There really is not anything wrong with that as it is only my personal opinion, however I feel it made the film just as weak as he was and it suffered boredom at times due to that. Also, there is much that I cannot discuss as I would expose many potential spoilers, so you will just have to see this one for yourself if you seek further plot information.

Restraint marks director David Denneen’s first full-length film, and for a newcomer I found his direction to be fairly good. His atmosphere was appropriate and the sets used were good for the film’s budget, but what really surprised me was the character performances he got from his actors. This being a slow-burning effort with much dialogue, good acting performances are required to keep the viewer’s attention, and he deserves applause in regards to the actors. So how is his execution of the horror/tension? I thought he did well with what little of it the film had to offer. The actors did a great job selling the tension, and Denneen’s execution of everything around them: atmosphere, camerawork, etc.. made for some very engaging scenes that showed the film definitely had the potential to be a better watch in the end.

Overall, Restraint is a borderline-positive psychological thriller that never fully developed into the exciting experience I was expecting. The story stays reserved for nearly the entire effort and the horror that does kick in is fairly tame overall, making for a film I would not recommend unless you need something to fall asleep to.

Rating: 6/10

Director – Chris Kentis, Laura Lau

Cast – Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Julia Taylor Ross, Adam Barnett, Haley Murphy

Release Year – 2012

Reviewed by John of the Dead

My experience for Silent House was exactly the way I desire to watch every horror film…BLIND.  I only heard of this American remake of the 2010 Uruguay effort, The Silent House(which I have not seen), just a few days ago and went into this effort without ever seeing a trailer or even reading what the film was about.  I aim for this because it allows me to go into the film without any expectations whatsoever, and while it usually helps me appreciate a film a bit more it was not enough to result in a pleasant experience for me.  While Silent House is a technical marvel that takes off amazingly well, it slowly burns into a predictable mess that I saw coming and wish I could have avoided.

While helping her father and uncle clean up the family’s lakeside retreat, Sarah(Elizabeth Olsen) begins to experience numerous ominous events going on within the home, and soon comes face to face with horrors she never saw coming.

The storyline follows the original for the most part as we follow Sarah reminiscing of the past while cleaning out the old mold-infested home she used to live in.  It does not take long before she begins hearing strange noises occurring within the home, noises that could not come from her father or uncle as they did their work.  Eventually terror strikes when her father is attacked by someone, and from then on out the storyline leads us on a tension-filled ride until the closing credits.  The first two acts of the film are incredible, leaving us in the dark over what is going on in the home, which I found very enjoyable given it kept us in Sarah’s shoes given she had no clue what was going on either.  She is chased within the home by a creepy and shadowy figure, but despite her best efforts she finds very little success in leaving the home – providing that nowhere to run scenario I love so dearly.  Sadly, the third act ruined everything the first two acts accomplished.  I began making my guesses for how the film would end or what the “twist” would be during around the end of the first act, and sure enough I was right…and disappointed.  I won’t go into too much detail on the twist for now (maybe when the film has been out for a while) but the fact is that I saw it as the most predictable choice, and in addition to that it detracted from the dark and gritty tone employed during the first two acts.  I honestly felt my hopes die out during this doomed final act as I saw what could have been a good storyline turn to a sour one.

Silent House comes to us with two directors, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, and both are also responsible for a high-intensity film shot in the same format…Open Water.  Hollywood’s fascination with the POV filmmaking style ala Parnormal Activity, Cloverfield, etc., has plagued the industry these days, but Chris Kentis did it with Open Water, and he does it again with Silent House.  What did he do exactly?  He gave us IN YOUR FACE direction and cinematography that come off as if you yourself were closely following Sarah around.  I first took great notice to this filmmaking style with Kidnapped, and I found this tactic both highly engaging and very fun to watch.  The original film this is based on, The Silent House, was also shot in this filming style, so it was only fitting that Kentis employ that tactic and he did so with very good results.  I mentioned earlier that this flick is a technical marvel, and that is a direct result of the film being seemingly shot in one take.  Yes, ONE take.  There are no obvious cuts throughout the entire 90 minute experience, with the camera following our characters around corners and never once cutting away from what was going on.  Now, I find it very hard to believe that the film was actually shot in one take, which leads me to believe that there are some very soft and clever edits throughout the film.  Of course, what matters most is that the film “appears” to be shot in one single take – still an amazing feat.  Another thing that amazed me about the film was Elizabeth Olsen’s performance as Sarah.  As mentioned earlier, I knew nothing of the film before viewing this piece, so I was not informed that the lead actress was the younger sister to the “Olsen Twins”, and boy did she outdo both of her sisters in this one.  Her fear felt real, her cries were desperate, and for a film shot the way this one was it was incredible to watch her express such intense emotion on numerous occasions.  In addition to this I was impressed with Kentis’ execution of the horror and how he used his insane camerawork to fool the viewer and provide some good chills at times.  Most of the fault behind the film’s demise lies in the storyline, as even during the demise of the third act Kentis’ direction was still going strong.  My only gripes against his direction were a few scenes where we follow Sarah as she flees her potential captor, which due to the filming style made for some hard scenes to follow due to how shaky the camera was.  I literally had to look away from the screen to prevent a massive headache, but of course in the end I still wound up with that headache thanks to the storyline completely ruining this experience.

Overall, Silent House is another disappointment that starts off incredibly well but ultimately falters to a stupidly-written third act that destroyed the accomplishments brought on by Kentis’ direction.  The horror is great, tense,and most of the film is pretty enjoyable, but in the end I did not find this effort worth my time or my money.

Rating: 5/10

Director – Ji-hun Kim

Cast – Ji-won Ha, Sung-kee Ahn, Ji-ho Oh, Ae-ryeon Cha, Man-wi Lee, Cheol-min Park, Sae-Byeok Song, Jeong-hak Park

Release Year – 2011

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I was very stoked to see Sector 7 when I first read on it and saw its initial trailers, as it blended two elements of horror that I absolutely love: creatures and a nowhere to run scenario. We have seen this epic combo used on various incredible horror films throughout the years, such as Feast and The Mist, and this being a film from South Korea, a country known for good horror, I expected good results. Soon after the film’s debut the negative reviews began storming about the horror community, and boy were they BAD. Nonetheless my stubborn self went into this piece hoping to enjoy it and believing my horror cohorts were just wrong about the flick, but it turns out they were right.

Onboard The Eclipse, an offshore oil drilling rig positioned above a mining area known as Sector 7, a group of scientists and oil workers find themselves in a battle for their lives when their rig is attacked by a giant mutant sea creature.

This is the type of simple story that I enjoy, and it only takes decent execution and writing to give me an enjoyable experience, but Sector 7 fell flat on both. The overall storyline is a cool one, as I have seen numerous killer sea creature films but never one that takes place on an oil rig – one lacking a handsome Bruce Willis as well. It takes a while before the creature action kicks in, with the majority of the first half of the film consisting of dialogue and character play. Once the first death occurs the social breakdown kicks in, with the crew blaming each other for the death of the person (not aware the crew member was killed by the creature), but soon enough the creature action kicks in and from then on out it never relents. So how is the story so bad with so much creature action? Well, writer Je-gyun Yun failed from the start by giving us annoying character-play that was sadly combined with HORRIBLE dialogue. The bad character-play eventually burned out when the creature action kicked in, but the horrendous dialogue stuck with us till the end and made for an experience that I just could not take seriously. In addition to that the film dragged heavily, a common factor with most Asian horror films, with the final act being drawn out so tremendously that it left me tempted to fast forward to the closing credits despite the heavy creature action.

Director Ji-hun Kim also deserves heavy blame for the mess that is Sector 7, thanks much to poor execution of nearly every element involved. The acting performances are so-so, however the dialogue makes them appear worse than they really are, but it was his execution of the actors and the character-play between them that soured their efforts. Kim’s execution was downright laughable on numerous occasions, with horrendous editing that reminded me of films I made with my friends back in my middle school days. It is this horrendous execution that plagues the majority of the film, coming into full effect during the creature scenes that were supposed to be the best the film had to offer but were sadly some of the most unenjoyable to hit the screen. Thankfully I did enjoy the look of the creature, and despite it coming off solely in CGI the CGI was fairly good for not being a major studio effort, but in the end Ji-hunb Kim could have really done much better and potentially saved the film from its poor screenplay.

Overall, Sector 7 is a film I really wanted to enjoy due to it blending numerous elements that I heavily enjoy, but in the end Sector 7 pretty much comes off as a Syfy film of South Korean origin.

Rating: 5/10

Director – Gary Yates

Cast – James Van Der Beek, Alexandra Castillo, Arne MacPherson, Ryan Rajendra Black, Bryan Edward Roach, Erik Fjeldsted, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Larissa Tobacco, Kyra Harper, Kelly Wolfman

Release Year – 2007

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I normally stay far far away from TV films made for the Syfy channel, and for obvious reasons that need no explanation, but I’ll give you the biggest reason why: they suck. Well, after reading many good reviews and constantly hearing “it’s really not that bad, it deserves a higher rating!” I decided to give this Syfy movie a watch, and while it really was not “that bad” it still fell to the usual hijinks of such movies, and is far from the experience such reviews made it out to be.

That James Van Der Beek guy from those weird-feeling teen shows/movies like “Dawson’s Creek” and Varsity Blues stars as Dan Leland, a scientist employed by NORA sent to a small fishing community to investigate their depleted fish density. Soon after he arrives the community suffers mysterious deaths that lead him to believe a giant freshwater squid is feeding within their large lake, and despite NORA and the townsfolk finding his claims ludicrous they will soon learn how right he is.

The story takes off right away, giving us killer squid action from the get-go, and it was that opening scene that let me know exactly what I was getting into: a cool story with decent direction and HORRIBLE CGI FX. This tends to happen with most of the low-budget Syfy films that plague the TV screen, but I will admit that in the case of Eye of the Beast it is not THAT bad, which I’ve said before and will most likely say again. I enjoyed the storyline as we follow Leland doing his research, research that is not welcomed by the local fishermen who rely on their “catch” for their living. Leland is supposed to help them, but they view him as someone willing to shut down the fishery if he finds something he does not like. Also thrown into the mix is Fisheries Officer Katrina Tomas, a half anglo / half Native American who believes she saw a giant squid consume her father when she was a child. There is a good amount of conflict provided between Leland, Tomas, and the local fishermen (aided by their wives), with lots of deceit and flaring tempers inhibiting Leland from doing his job. I was surprised to see this given must Syfy films just follow the basics and rarely add much more to the story than what is necessary, but writer Mark Mullin seems to have made the most of this simple storyline. What I also loved about the story is the numerous deaths provided by the squid. We see both good and bad people die, with the good people providing an emotional impact on the viewer that I also did not expect to see in such a film. Bravo to you, Mark Mullin.

Director Gary Yates also seemed to have made the most of the deal he was given, giving us good execution of the actors, conflict, and the horror. The acting performances were much better than what is usually provided by these films, and his execution of the conflict was aided by their performances. So how was the horror? Well, everything but the FX was very well done. The actors also helped sell the fear provided by the squid, and Yates’ camerawork and non-squid FX provided good tension. The only huge detriment from the film was the squid itself, which came with laughable FX that pretty much kept this piece from achieving anything other than a mediocre rating at best. There were a few scenes where we saw some live-action FX, but they were mere closeups of the tentacles grabbing someone and lasted mere seconds. It really is too bad that the film suffered from a poor budget, because for once it seems we were given positive actors and good filmmakers for once in a Syfy effort.

Overall, while Eye of the Beast is a better watch than most Syfy crap, it still suffers from insanely poor CGI that despite best efforts from its writer, director, and actors, still made for an experience I cannot recommend outrightly, but maybe one you can check out on a boring night, maybe…

Rating: 5/10