Indie Horror Movies

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) Review

June 5, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: (from IMDb) Inspired by the fictional Dr. Heiter, disturbed loner Martin dreams of creating a 12-person centipede and sets out to realize his sick fantasy.

My Quick Review: What a gruesome movie. After all the backlash Tom Six got with The Human Centipede, he made a movie filled with everything that was missing in the first one and only suggested (teeth being pulled out, knee being severed, skins being ripped apart, people eating shit….). And to top it off we have barb wire on c..k and a baby being killed (by its own mom!!).

This is like a big Fu.k you to all the critics of the first movie: “you wanna see disgusting, I’m going to give you the worst you’ve ever seen” And yes, the movie delivers some of the most disgusting and sick perversions ever put on film (not THE worst though).

I still prefer the first one in the sense that it feels more true to the filmmaker’s vision and nobody can top Dieter Laser’s performance. Nobody? Well, first time actor Laurence Harvey is quite close to perfection in his performance as Martin the madman obsessed with The Human Centipede. With his peculiar physique and creepy mannerisms you could not dream of a better lead villain. Say what you want about Tom Six, he knows how to choose his villains.

Th first movie was more psychological, the Human Centipede II is a gore-fest, I’m wondering what’s in store for The third movie. Can’t wait for it!

My Rating: 5.5/10

Origin: USA

Director: Tom Six

Year: 2011

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Stripped Movie Review

June 3, 2013 by Eric S. 1 Comment

Synopsis: (from IMDb) Stripped unravels over the course of 24hrs as a group of best friends document their Vegas vacation. Things take a turn for the worst when they call strippers that have them travel to a remote location.

My Quick Review: As you might know, I’m actually a big fan of Found Footage Horror Movies. I know many people despise those, but for some reasons I really like the format and can tolerate most of the movies shot this way.

It’s the case with Stripped, a found footage version of Hostel meets Turistas. Except here, strangely, the horror scenes are the weakest and I did enjoy the long 40mn intro/character’s building.

It is indeed very rare for me to immediately like/empathize with the future victims but there is something about this group of people going to Las Vegas for their friend’s 21st birthday that just feels right. Perhaps it is the chemistry between the actors or the charisma of Alvaro Orlando (from VH1’s Pick Up Artist) but by the time shit is hitting the fan, I’m actually caring for them.

Unfortunately, as soon as the carnage happens, I lost interest. We lose the strict found footage POV and the torture scenes are lacking gore and shocks. It feels like the director did not know how to shoot those scenes now that the camera was back in his hands, and, while trying to make the mad doctor scary, it just fails miserably to create any sense of tension.

For those reasons I can’t recommend this movie to casual horror fans or people who dislike Found footage movies. Only the fans of this style of movie might appreciate spending time with this cast of characters.

My Rating: 4.5/10

Director: J.M.R Luna

Year: 2012

Origin: U.S

Aftershock Review

May 19, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Year: 2012

Director: Nicolas Lopez

Synopsis (from IMDb): In Chile, a group of travelers who are in an underground nightclub when a massive earthquake hits quickly learn that reaching the surface is just the beginning of their nightmare

My Short Review: After finishing Aftershock, a thought went through my mind: isn’t Eli Roth, after all, one of the most overrated person in the Horror industry nowadays? If you look at his credentials, apart from the first 2 hostel movies (that I really enjoyed, but maybe I should watch them again), nothing he has done has been above average, IMO: Cabin Fever, 2001 Maniacs, The Last Exorcism 1 & 2 (OK, I did like the first one), Hemlock Grove (haven’t seen the series yet but the reviews are not very good) and now Aftershock where he is executive producer and main star. It seems to me that Eli has still a lot of credit left from his first 2 movies, Cabin Fever and Hostel as well as the friends he made in the industry, such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

Back to the Review of Aftershock, it’s not that it was a very bad movie, it’s just far from being a good one either. First of all, this is a very small budget movie and it looks like one. Most of the scenes are shot in close-ups, in tight quarters or inside locations so we never have to see any disaster happening on a grand scale. And for a disaster movie, this is bad news because I could not get a feel of the danger of what was happening.

Furthermore, because the characters are looking like they are coming out of Hangover part IV, we can not really connect with them either (despite the fact we are spending more than 1/3 of Aftershock getting to know them). The gore is few and far between, there are no scares at all, it’s an emotionless movie directed with no flair that is definitively not worth the price of admission, even on VOD.

My Rating: 4/10

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Girls against Boys Review

May 6, 2013 by Eric S. 1 Comment

Year: 2012

Director :Austin Chick

Summary (from IMDb): After a series of bad experiences with men, Shae teams up with her co-worker, Lu, who has a simple, deadly way of dealing with the opposite sex.

My Short Review: Girls and Boys left me with a mixed bag of emotion. On one hand there is plenty to like about this classic tale of rape-revenge (the 2 actresses performance, the score and soundtrack, the dream-like cinematography, the great use of locations), on the other hand the movie left me a bit cold.

At no point do I feel like we can connect to the characters and what is happening to them. There are so many cliches about men that they do not feel like real people (it’s like a man’s vision of what feminism is). Similarly, it’s difficult to understand why the main character Shae, is doing what she is doing BEWARE SPOILER AHEAD (especially since one of the first shot of the movie spoils us the fact that there is no Lu, but that it will only be Shae all along). Sure she has been raped just after having been dumped by her married boyfriend but the transition does not feel natural.

In short, Girls against Boys beneficiates from strong technical qualities but the script should have been more polished and the male characters better depicted.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Cube Zero Review

May 2, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Year: 2004

Director: Ernie Barbarash

Summary (from IMDb): A young man whose job is to watch over the Cube, tries to save an innocent woman trapped in one of its rooms.

My Short Review: I was a big fan of the first Cube movie when it was out in 1997. I was 20 years old, went to the theatre to watch it and really enjoyed the ingenuity of the script. Keep in mind this was way before the Saw movies and other torture porn flicks with people trapped into deadly devices.

It felt fresh, was nicely shot despite a small budget and the acting was convincing. Everything that Cube Zero isn’t. The acting feels amateurish at best, the gore is plenty but pointless and the traps are more or less recycled from the other 2 Cube movies.

As for the script, they wanted to show scenes outside of the cube but there is nothing more boring than 2 guys in a surveillance room watching screens. All of the scenes outside the cube’s rooms are just slowing down the pace and the ones inside the rooms are just poorly shot, edited and acted.

I’d strongly suggest to stick with the original one and forget about the 2 follow-ups, especially this one.

My Rating: 3.5/10