slasher

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

Click Here to Own and Watch Laid to Rest Now!

Cold Prey (2006) Review

September 21, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: Fritt Vilt

Synopsis: 5 young people are on a snowboarding vacation in Jotunheimen. They are forced to take shelter in an abandoned hotel when one of them breaks his leg and their car is too far away for them to reach within nightfall. Unknown to them, someone is still living in the hotel, and getting home, or even surviving the stay, isn’t as easy as they believe

My Quick Review: After Devil’s Pass I wanted to watch another movie set in snowy mountains. And since I had never watched the Cold Prey movies, I thought it would be fitting to start with the first one tonight.

The very first thing I noted on my notebook was “broken leg ripoff”. If you watch Devil’s Pass you will notice that they have the exact same “broken leg” scene (even the dialogue is the same) in both movies. Cold prey being the older movie, we know who copied whom.

OK, so, Fritt Vilt might be better shot and have better actors than your average slasher but I still don’t get the “hype” surrounding it. It it was an amemrican film, would the reviews have been harsher?

There is indeed very little gore, only a few kills, all of them unimpressive, I was never surprised or shocked. Thankfully, the cinematography is gorgeous and the production values higher than usual for a slasher movie.

Cold Prey disappoints and is IMO overrated. With that said, it’s a slasher film that follows the rules of the genre quite well. It might be refreshing for those tired of all the gimmicks and endless twists of the post-Scream slashers. Nothing groundbreaking though.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Director: Roar Uthaug

Origin: Norway

Click Here to Own and Watch Cold Prey Now!

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

Click Here to get the Awesome Blu-Ray/DVD Collector’s Edition of The Burning!

Evidence (2013) Review

July 25, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A detective hunts down a killer using video footage shot by the victims of a massacre at an abandoned gas station.

My Review: I was not a fan of The Fourth Kind, director Olatunde Osunsanmi’s previous effort, and, while I liked Evidence better, there are still many problems plaguing this found-footage movie.

First of all, it’s hard to care when all of the characters dying on screen or potentially in danger are just walking Las Vegas cliches (a dancer, an apprentice magician, wannabe actress, an addict with a big bag of cash and so on….) with no depth at all.

And let’s not even talk about the cops whose investigation does not come close to any kind of legitimate real world police work.

Finally you have a killer with no apparent motive, killing people in the middle of nowhere while everybody (including the killer) keeps on shooting videos.

I have to admit that, for the last complain, most will make more sense by the end of the movie. And I am one of the few who actually did enjoy the final twist and reveal (not too tough to spot, considering the many obvious red herrings the script is throwing at us).

Evidence did not leave such a bad impression on me after all and it is a step in the right direction for director Olatunde Osunsanmi. If you’re a fan of found footage movies you might want to check this movie out. For the others, maybe not…

By The way, there is another movie called Evidence from 2012 and it is a found footage movie as well. It is also a much better movie than this one.

Click Here if you want to watch Evidence Online Now!

My Rating: 5/10

Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi

Origin: USA

The Hills Run Red (2009) Review

July 14, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A group of young horror fans go searching for a film that mysteriously vanished years ago but instead find that the demented killer from the movie might be real.

Quick Review: The Hills Run Red is a breath of fresh air amidst the horde of average to bad slasher movies that make it to VOD or DTV.

First, it has an original script, second, the acting is way above average for this kind of movies and third, everything is aptly put together by Director Dave Parker.

All the codes of a slasher movies are being deconstructed in The Hills have Red and, as a result, you won’t see most of the twists and turns coming at you. Of course a few of them are a bit contrived but at the end of the day it will keep you guessing until the end.

Sometimes the movie can get a little bit too self conscious (“nobody cares about that subtextual shit, get to the kill!!” utters one character during the movie) and having characters reacting like “real people” used to watching horror movies is nothing new (Scream and more recently, The Cabin in The Woods are the most famous examples) but the script is still smarter than your average horror movie.

Because the movie is well paced, it’s definitively a fun ride and there is plenty to enjoy for gore and T&A lovers. And let’s not forget the killer, “Babyface”, who is hands down one of the most memorable killer in recent memories (what a great mask!!).

P.S: Don’t stop when the credits roll, you’ll miss one creepy last scene.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Director: Dave Parker

Origin: US

Click Here to Own and Watch The Hills Run Red Now!