Romantic

Kiss of the Damned (2012) Review

January 6, 2014 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: The vampire Djuna resists the advances of Paolo, but soon gives in to their passion. When her trouble-making sister unexpectedly comes to visit, Djuna’s love is threatened, and the whole vampire community becomes endangered.

My Quick Review: Probably the sexiest vampire movie in recent history, Kiss of the Damned goes back to the roots of vampire movies. No emo-type vampites who glow in the sun, the vampires in Kiss of the Damned are sexy but also afflicted by their condition. They are also potentially dangerous blood-thirsty creatures, as shown with the character of Mimi.

Xan Cassavetes has truly crafted with Kiss of the Damned, the renewal of the vampire genre. Sure, the movie isn’t without its own problems (the script never really goes anywhere, some of the dialog seems forced), but it is superbly supported by its lead actresses (the 3 french leads are perfect in their roles) a haunting score, and an eroticism brilliantly shot.

I certainly hope we will see more from director Xan Cassavetes soon (and why not a sequel to Kiss of the Damned), since we need more feminine sensibility in our horror genre.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Director: Xan Cassavetes

Origin: US

Click Here to Own Kiss of the Damned Now!

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

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

Click Here to Own and Watch The Fall of the House of Usher Now

Pee Mak Phrakanong Review

August 6, 2013 by Eric S. 4 Comments

Synopsis: Mak served in the war during the beginning of the Rattanakosin Dynasty. At war he became friends with Ter, Puak, Shin, and Aey, whose lives he saved. Once the war was over, Mak invited his four friends into his home in Phra Khanong town and introduced them to his beautiful wife Nak and his newborn baby boy Dang. But A rumor is going around in the village that Nak had died giving birth to her stillborn baby, Dang and lingered as haunting ghosts .

My Quick Review: From famed director Banjong Pisanthanakun (Alone, Shutter) Pee Mak is the first film that I have watched in 4D. I have to say that past the first minutes of surprise when your seat is moving and you receive small splash of water in your face, it is really gimmicky and brings nothing to the movie (it’s actually quite distracting).

Nevertheless, I had a blast. Pee Mak is the Highest Grossing Thai Movie of all time and when walking in the streets of Bangkok, you can’t miss all the billboards full of advertisement starring the actors of the movie.

For fans of asian horror comedies with a touch of romance, Pee Mak brings a sense of nostalgia and evokes the golden days of HK ghost movies such as “A Chinese Ghost Story”. There are brillant comeedy scenes (mostly physical but also plenty of wordplay jokes that might be a bit difficult to catch if you don’t understand Thai).

But don’t fret, you do not need to be familiar with the Thai culture or language to get all the jokes and laugh at the situations and the awesomess of the main characters. It does help that there is a very strong chemistry between all of them, already estabished in the best segments of 4Bia and Phobia 2.

If there is one reproach we can make towards Pee Mak, is that there is not much in terms of scares and the movie definitively pushes towards a full out comedy/parody. So if you are looking for another Thai Scary movie, you will be disappointed, but if you just want to spedn a good time at the movies, you will have a blast watching Pee Mak again and again.

My Rating: 8/10

Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun

Origin: Thailand

Pee Mak is now available on DVD Import from HK with english subtitles Here!

Carrie (1976) Review

June 20, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A young, abused and timid 17-year-old girl discovers she has telekinesis, and gets pushed to the limit on the night of her school’s prom by a humiliating prank. [ from IMDb]

Neoli’s Review: There’s a new Carrie movie coming out in the fall of 2013, a hopefully nice remake of Brian De Palma’s 1976 classic horror movie of the same title.

But don’t let the shiny new retelling overshadow the original; the original Carrie is jarring and irrevocably tragic unlike no other. Stephen King wrote the novel so expect horror piled upon horrors.

The titular character Carrie ( played by Sissy Spacek) is a gawky teenage girl in a dysfunctional family setup—weird bible- quoting mother, absent father. Carrie is, to modern kids, a complete loser, a definite bully material. But she’s not exactly defenseless— she can move things with her mind especially when she flares up. And that’s a dangerous combination: bottled up adolescent anger and untrained psychokinetic powers equals mayhem, which in the world of Stephen King is mayhem of the horrific kind.

The most famous scene is when Carrie is crowned Prom Queen ( through a rigged election by her arch nemesis girl schoolmate) and a bucketful of pig’s blood pours on top of her. Carrie, all blood-drenched and raging, won’t back down any longer and unleashes her power to its full destructive potential.

In this way Carrie became the single most potent depiction of teenage bullying and its consequences back in the late ’70s. Maybe it became a cautionary tale against bullying for our parents and our parents’ parents.

But now kids who haven’t seen Carrie are still at it, and there’s even a more sophisticated non-physical yet just as traumatic way to bully these days: cyber-bullying. Bullied kids commit suicide just because of a humiliating post, comment, or meme on Facebook, and it’s a serious matter worldwide.

I hope that new Carrie film jars the kids today real good.

Neoli’s Rating: 9/10

Click here to Own and Watch Carrie Now!

Directed by: Brian De Palma

Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta

Released: 1976

Beware of the spoilers in the trailer below!