If I tell you this movie is like Scream filtered through the world of Last Action Hero, I will have given you the premise of this movie, but will have told you nothing about its heart. This movie is a parody of the classic 80s slasher genre, but, as strange as it may sound, a good natured and emotionally poignant one that clearly wears its’ … Continue reading The Final Girls Review
This is without a doubt the laziest of all the Halloween movies. Even part three, as misguided as it was, at least tried to be creative. Halloween: Resurrection can’t be bothered with the formalities of either the franchise it represents or decent storytelling in general. For the past half dozen or so flicks, Michael Myers sole reason for continuing on was to finish the job … Continue reading Halloween: Resurrection Review
With a title like ‘Halloween H20’ featuring a mass murderer stalking a college campus I wish I could say this movie was about Michael Myers stalking the campus of South Central Louisiana State University doing battle with Bobby Boucher (Adam Sandler) with Bobby’s mom (Kathy Bates) taking over the Donald Pleasance role of reminding us that Myers is pure evil…”That Michael Myers, is THE DEVIL, … Continue reading Halloween H20 Review
I am reviewing the director’s cut here, which is the first time I have seen it—I would like to go back and see the original theatrical now for comparison’s sake, but I’ll save that for a later review. This is the first Halloween movie I was old enough to see as a kid, and being a young horror fan back then, I found it pretty … Continue reading Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers Review
The Halloween franchise, compared to Freddy and Jason’s series, is probably the most uneven of all the slasher series. Nothing will ever top the awful unconnected mess of Halloween III, which is why part four was such a welcome return to form, but this entry, while still at least a somewhat competent entry in the series has a whole crapton of WTF moments. The movie … Continue reading Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers Review
Halloween 4 is the movie that brought the Halloween franchise into the same slasher-fest league as the movies that had imitated it. Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on how big a fan you are of these kinds of flicks. John Carpenter had big Twilight Zone like ideas for the series, of which H4 was supposed to be a ghost story—but after the … Continue reading Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Review
Only John Carpenter knows what he was thinking when he agreed to let Tommy Lee Wallace helm this strange non-sequel (which he both wrote and directed) which is the third entry into his iconic Halloween series. The plot, in as much of a nutshell as I can come up with is this: Michael Myers was (to be ret-conned in future films) burned to smithereens at … Continue reading Halloween 3: Season of the Witch Review
This is generally how I prefer sequels to be done. Halloween 2 picks up directly where the original left off, bringing back most of the original characters (those that survived) from Halloween and setting them up for a new round of terror. Most of the action this time out takes place at the local hospital, which makes for a great place for a horror flick. … Continue reading Halloween 2 Review
What an unnerving film—and just in time for Halloween too. ‘Black Mass’ is an interesting exercise in genre bending/blending. There are really two films playing simultaneously. The first is the historical account of real life gangster James “Whitey” Bulger—a sociopathic killer who used his political connections to reign over South Boston (Southie) for several decades. This offers nothing new to the well-trodden ‘gangster’ genre and … Continue reading Black Mass Review
Notorious dream slayer Freddy Krueger has been dormant for years now in the little neighborhood of Elm Street. Business just ain’t what it used to be as teenagers just don’t really seem that afraid anymore, which, as the story goes greatly reduces his powers. Not one to take this lying down, he decides to lure old Hockey Puss himself out of hibernation to get the … Continue reading Freddy vs. Jason Review
The folks at Digital Dream Door have this movie at number 35 on their list of the 100 worst movies ever made. In his review of this movie Roger Ebert echoes the meta qualities of a quote of one of the characters who, right before being eviscerated by a giant space vacuum screams “This sucks on so many levels!”… I have to say while I … Continue reading Jason X Review
This was the first movie of the series to be filmed by New Line Cinema, and boy did they take some liberties here. Like I said in one of the earlier reviews, this was basically Friday the 13th’s version of “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch”, that being a disconnected mess that has almost no continuity with the rest of the series whatsoever (not that … Continue reading Friday The 13th Part 9: Jason Goes to Hell Review
The last of the original Paramount series, this movie suffers from a couple of things. First of all, the budget for the movie was drastically cut, and so many scenes that were to be set in New York, such as Jason in Madison Square Garden, Jason in Central Park etc, had to be cut, and more scenes of Jason on the cruise ship were included. … Continue reading Friday The 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan Review
Until the 2009 reboot, this was last traditional Friday the 13th movie that would be made for over two decades. Every movie after this featured an outrageous gimmick of some kind such as Jason in New York, Jason in Space, Jason as a body jumping Hell Baby (yeah…) but here it’s just good old hockey puss in his natural element, near Camp Crystal Lake dispatching … Continue reading Friday The 13th Part 7: The New Blood Review
The third and final installment of the Tommy Jarvis trilogy (with each movie featuring a different actor in the role) goes out with a bang. Thom Mathews is by far my favorite actor to have played this particular protagonist in the entire series. He has a great every-man sort of quality to him, and is far more likable than the usual machete fodder that populate … Continue reading Friday The 13th Part 6: Jason Lives Review
That final chapter idea of part four thankfully was an empty threat. However, until ‘Jason Goes to Hell’ came out, Friday the 13th Part 5 was the closest thing this franchise had to a “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” type installment—basically, one that most fans of the series tend to purposefully ignore. If you only edited so that the killer actually was (spoiler alert … Continue reading Friday The 13th Part 5: A New Beginning Review
Friday The 13th Part 4 tells the story of Jason Voorhees heroic effort to spare us all from the career of Corey Feldman. The fourth installment in this series was also supposed to be the last, hence the name “Final Chapter”. With that in mind the creators of this movie went all out in making about as good as a by the numbers Jason flick … Continue reading Friday The 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter Review
Friday the 13th part 3 is one of my favorites of the entire franchise. My wife and I watched this in glorious 3D with the little cardboard glasses, and were having a laugh a minute. This movie has a lot of firsts for the series. Most iconically, it is the first film to have the killer dawn the legendary goalie’s mask. I say the killer … Continue reading Friday The 13th Part 3 Review
If the first film in this series was “respectable schlock” this one was just pure schlock, and the series itself was still in the midst of finding its niche. Friday the 13th Part 2 is as straight of a by the numbers slasher flick as you could imagine. The introduction of the Jason Voorhees character (in unexplained grown up form) is the most historically relevant … Continue reading Friday The 13th Part 2 Review
I recently bought the entire F13 series on the cheap in several 5 dollar DVD double features, and the wife and I have been watching a couple every week. It is interesting now watching these movies that I used to stay up late watching as a kid. These movies were designed to be seen on dates, or in big group settings, and so I found … Continue reading Friday The 13th Review
