Horror Movie Reviews

You will find on this page all the latest Horror Movie Reviews. My reviews are usually short and avoid spoilers. The idea is to give you a quick feedback on whether I believe a movie is worth watching or not.

Feel free to agree and disagree in the comments or submit your own reviews.

The Brides of Dracula (1960) Review

December 17, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Vampire hunter Van Helsing returns to Transylvania to destroy handsome bloodsucker Baron Meinster, who has designs on beautiful young schoolteacher Marianne.

My Quick Review: The Brides of Dracula is the second in the series of Dracula films produced by Hammer from the late 50s to the early 70s. It’s also the only one not to have Dracula appear in the movie (the title is really misleading).

Like most of the Hammer productions, Brides of Dracula makes the best use of colors and lightning and the sets are impressive. The acting is superb in this one as well, even if Christopher Lee’s presence is still greatly missed.

The story is quite unoriginal though and,despite a short running time, the pace towards the more exiting end of the movie is frankly too slow.

It’s always hard to watch those classic horror movies back nowadays. We have been spoiled by so many great entries in the genre that, compared to a 60’s audience, it’s difficult not to wish for more to happen.

With that being said, contemporary filmmakers could take a lesson or two in set designs and overall direction. Unfortunately I can only recommend Brides of Dracula to fans of old school hammer productions.

My Rating: 6/10

Director: Terence Fisher

Origin: UK

Click Here to Get The Brides of Dracula on Blu-Ray

Open Grave (2013) Review

December 16, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A man wakes up in the wilderness, in a pit full of dead bodies, with no memory and must determine if the murderer is one of the strangers who rescued him, or if he himself is the killer.

My Quick Review: I had forgotten about Gonzalo Lopez Gallego, the director of Open Grave, despite him being the man behind El Rey de La Montana, a very exciting thriller with some awesome POV shooting scenes. The problem is that since that movie he also directed Appollo 18, one of the worst found footage of recent memories (according to critics, so maybe I should go and watch it to make my own opinion soon).

The early scenes in Open Grave are gorgeously shot and demonstrate all the technical ability of Lopez-Gallego. What could have been another variation of the “strangers waking up in a locked place” genre ends up quite elevated by the direction and a story that shows some originality.

To say more about the story would spoil the fun and I’d suggest to stay clear of any trailer or promo materials if you wanna enjoy Open Grave to its fullest.

There are only 2 main issues with the movie: the pacing is a little bit off at time, there are some lackluster scenes when I did have a look at my watch. And the script, while entertaining, keeps the cards too close to the chest and prevents us, the viewers, to be totally concerned or involved with the characters (who are not being helped by poor dialogues). This is a case of keeping the viewers too much in the dark.

Open Grave has been out in Europe for a few months now and will be stateside in early January. It’s the perfect little thriller to start 2014 in style.

My Rating: 6.5

Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego

Origin: US

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In The Mouth of Madness (1994) Review

December 15, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: An insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer’s books have on his fans is more than inspirational.

My Quick Review: It feels so good to watch In The Mouth of Madness almost 20 years since I first watched it in theater.

Back then I was a teenager and already a big fan of Horror Movies, and John Carpenter was the Man, the Master of Horror who had yet to make a bad movie (I’m not considering Memoirs of an invisible man to be a Carpenter’s movie). In the Mouth of Madness was fascinating to my younger self and I have to say it hasn’t lost much of its impact with me after a second viewing.

This is indeed Carpenter at his best and while the film is a blatant homage to horror writers such as Stephen King and of course HP Lovecraft (whose work heavily influenced the creatures introduced in this film) it also fits well with 2 of his other monsters/apocalypse movies, The Thing and Prince of Darkness.

Carpenter relies heavily on practical effects and makeup (highly appreciated in an age of everything digital) and succeeds in creeping us by giving us a feeling of uneasiness thanks to some truly nightmarish visuals (The old guy on a bicycle, the husband handcuffed to his wife ankle, the arm creeping outside Sam Neil’s asylum room, the painting…).

if you’re a fan of Carpenter or Lovecraft or just an old-school horror afficionado, you can’t afford to miss In the Mouth of Madness, one of the most underrated gem in John Carpenter’s career.

My Rating: 8/10

Director: John Carpenter

Origin: US

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The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) Review

December 14, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A man, upon entering his fiancée’s family mansion, discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride to be prematurely.

My Review: It’s always a nice breath of fresh air to watch old classics after spending weeks looking at bad CGI and found footage movies.

Back in the days, there was a particular care towards building great sets (The House of Usher really comes to live here), casting versatile actors (Vincent Price in one of his best role) and using actual orchestra music to score the most memorable moments and add to the tension of the script.

With that being said I’ve got to admit that House of Usher left me unsatisfied. I expected more creepiness, more scares and a better ending. House of Usher does not have much going for it besides the few positives mentioned in the paragraph before and would probably work better as part of an anthology. I’d have found more pelasure watching it if it had been one of the segment of Black Sabbath for instance.

In the end, if House of Usher works as a good display of Vincent Price and Roger Corman’s skills, it fails in the frightening department and barely spooks its modern viewers.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Director: Roger Corman

Origin: US

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Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) Review

December 9, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Mrs. Voorhees is dead, and Camp Crystal Lake is shut down, but a camp next to the infamous place is stalked by an unknown assailant. Is it Mrs. Voorhees’ son Jason who didn’t drown in the lake some 30 years before?

My Quick Review: Since I was quite disappointed while re-watching the first Friday the 13th, I had lower expectation getting into the first sequel.

But Friday the 13th Part 2 is actually a better film. Steve Miner takes the director role this time and he shows more skills than Sean S Cunningham whose direction was more tv-like.

As a result, Friday the 13th part 2 got more thrills than the original movie and better kills too (who can’t remember the spear death as well as the machete kill).

It does help as well, that the heroine in Part 2 is played by Amy Steel, who can actually act and we also get so see Jason for the first time as the titular killer (albeit with a paper bag on his head, not yet his iconic hockey mask).

And, the last 20 mn or so of the movie, a lengthy chase through the woods/cabins, are extremely efficient and nerves cracking.

While the set-up is the same, as it will be in most of the other sequels, Friday The 13th Part II still stands as an important entry in the series, with probably the best use of the score/music and location (starting with Friday part III, there will be an overuse of studio sets instead of natural location) and some of the best deaths.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Director: Steve Miner

Origin: US

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