Gory

Laid to Rest (2009) Review

October 3, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: (from IMDb) A young girl who wakes up in a casket with a traumatic head injury and no memory of her identity. She quickly realizes she was abducted by a Deranged Serial Murderer and in an isolated rural town she must survive the night and outsmart the technologically inclined killer who is hellbent on finishing what he started.

My Quick Review: I did not care much about Laid To Rest. I’m actually surprised to see quite a few good reviews and even a strong fanbase of Chrome Skull lovers.

I have to admit though that the killer is quite iconic and his kills are extremely violent and graphic. But like a porno, there is nothing but air in between kill scenes, and those are too few to make up for the rest of the movie.

Laid to Rest has extremely bad acting (especially from the annoying lead character) and the script is so poor that I could hardly make it through to the end (I have to admit I actually fast forwarded some of it). Despite some OK make up effects and cool killer, I cannot recommend this movie, even for slasher or gorehound fans.

Many people compared this to Hatchet but, trust me, you’ll have more fun watching Hatchet (even the weaker third one) than Laid to Rest.

My Rating: 4/10

Director: Robert Hall

Origin: US

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The Burning (1981) Review

August 31, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.

My Quick Review: The Burning was one of the many movies that followed the success of Friday the 13th, and it’s also the first feature film bearing the credit “Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein”. It was banned in some countries upon its release and is one of the lesser known slasher of the 80’s.

But trust me, The Burning has everything you would want in your 80’s slasher: T&A (including full frontal), jerky and horny teenagers, useless adults, gory kills, killer theme music, unrealistically strong killer, cheap jump scares and so on and so forth.

What makes the Burning a bit different for me was its Giallo influence, most notably through the use of music and the way some kills are shot. There is actually more style in this film than most of the early 80’s indie horror flicks.

On the negative side, the ending is fairly disappointing (we always knew who the killer was and there is no grand climax), and the script is average at best.

What remains nowadays of The Burning is a movie, at times very cheesy, but that’s what makes the charm of classic slashers and, to be fair, a very efficient “popcorn scare” film.

My Rating: 6/10

Director: Tony Maylam

Origin: US

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Art of the Devil 3 (2008) Review

August 21, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: Long Khong 2

Synopsis: The youngster Ta returns to his hometown. He misses his mother Daun, who was poisoned by his father Prawase, and soon he learns that his family will use black magic to bring her back. However, Ta’s family will quickly discover the price of the black magic.

My Quick Review: I was a bit confused while watching Long Khong 2 until I realized this was actually a prequel to the first Long Khong (Art of the Devil 2).

The problem with a movie like Art of the devil 3 is that it actually deserved to be called a Torture Porn movie since we can actually fast forward through most of the movie just to watch the good stuff. With no characters to relate to or empathize with, and a messy script, Art of the Devil 3 only exists for its Black Magic scenes. And then again there is nothing we haven’t seen in Art of the Devil 2, and usually not as impressive or gruesome.

My Rating 4.5/10

Frankenstein’s Army (2013) Review

August 12, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis (from IMDb): Toward the end of World War II, Russian soldiers pushing into eastern Germany stumble across a secret Nazi lab. The scientists have used the legendary Frankenstein’s work to assemble an army of super-soldiers stitched together from the body parts of their fallen comrades.

My Quick Review: I’ve got mixed feelings about Frankenstein’s Army. On one hand it did entertain me and I just loved the whole universe they created, especially the monsters looks and overall design, really brilliant stuff. On the other hand I’m on the fence regarding the use of POV style shooting, barely justified in the film.

The strongest elements of Frankenstein’s Army are the undead super-soldiers. I just loved each and every one of them and wished we could have seen more of them actually. Found footage style can increase the tension and some of the shocks (and it certainly does a few times in the movie) but it also does render the whole happenings quite chaotic. We never have the time to really get a good look at each menacing soldier and while it can work in a 1-monster movie such as Cloverfield it’s a bit of a waste in Frankenstein’s Army.

What the POV style brought to the table though, is a bit of a video game flair. At times I felt like I was watching somebody playing Bioshock or Wolfenstein and it surely added to my overall enjoyment. But this came at the price of losing focus and creep factor.

So, would Frankenstein’s Army have been better if it had been shot the traditional way? Probably. But as it is, Frankenstein’s army is a real indie gem that deserves to be watched. And who knows, if it makes enough money we might get a follow-up with even more inventive undead soldiers!

My Rating: 6.5/10

Director: Richard Raaphorst

Origin: Netherlands/US

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Art of the Devil II (2005) Review

August 1, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: ลองของ (Long Khong)

Synopsis: A group of high school friends reunite after two years when one of their fathers’ committed suicide. They all spend the night at their friend’s place. When darkness falls, strange things begin to happen to them one by one. It is as if someone is using the black arts on them in revenge for an act this group of friends committed together back in high school.

My Quick Review: Long Khong’s english name is misleading as there is absolutely no connection with the first Art of The Devil. Western distributors just named the movie Art of the Devil 2 as it does share common use of Thai Black Magic.

Art of the Devil II is a much more graphic movie than the first one and actually ends with one of the hardest to watch torture scene ever put on film (there are some similarities with Audition since we have the pretty girl inflicting pain here as well).

It is a pity then that the script is completely uninteresting and quite confusing in its plot lines.

What could have indeed been a Torture Porn classic ends up short of greatness because the gory/creepy scenes are surrounded by bland storytelling and poorly defined characters.

My Rating: 4.5/10 (5.5/10 for torture lovers).

Director: Ronin Team

Origin: Thailand