“Candyman”
Wow … what a movie! “Candyman” is a deft mixture of folklore, crime, urban decay and the supernatural. Sounds like a lot going on for one film? It is and writer/director Bernard Rose does a nice job with keeping all those elements in their place. He never lets one element outweigh the rest. Watching “Candyman” reminded me a lot of Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser.” Innovative story, great acting (especially by Virginia Madsen), nice “pull the rug from underneath you” moments. The Phillip Glass score works like it should … heightening the tension and totally creeping you out. “Candyman” is definitely one of the top five horror films of the 1990’s. I will state that I am officially a dumbass for not having seen this movie until now.

“Ravenous“
Grrr … another misfire in my horror marathon. I figured this one was just gonna be a nice “man becomes a cannibal, goes crazy and can’t stop eating that good ‘ole human flesh” flick. Well, it is … sorta. Add in some Native American folklore and you have “man becomes a cannibal then becomes an unstoppable Wendigo.” Kinda like if Jason Vorhees eats his victims as well. Add two more Wendigos to the mix and the movie suddenly becomes “Battle of the Wendigos.” Put some black humor into the last couple of reels and it pretty much kills this movie off. Another misstep is the music by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn that works against the mood of the film. Some have blamed Fox’s marketing for this film not being a hit (they marketed it as a black comedy). The problem is that the film just can’t decide if it’s action, horror or black comedy.~

“Ghost Ship”
Well, the third entry from Dark Castle Entertainment turns out to be just as bland as the first two (the remakes of “House on Haunted Hill” and “Thirteen Ghosts“). If you have a chance to watch the opening credits to the movie (like on HBO or something) you really should. The first five minutes of the movie are the best. Shocking, gore filled and quite fun … but after that the movie degenerates into a muddled mess with characters and situations that go nowhere fast. It seems a consistently coherent plot is a little too much to ask for in a horror film these days. Maybe screenwriters are counting on the audience to all be short attention span television junkies. Guess what? Some of us actually pay attention and get really irritated when 1) Characters constantly flip-flop on getting away from the evil ship or staying to save it 2) Plot twists that make NO SENSE are thrown in 3) You have a lot of bad CGI that supposed to scary but just looks dumb. If you want some real fun with evil on the high seas, go out and rent “Death Ship” instead.

1) Saw Michael and J over the weekend.
2) Went on a great hike with PT and Michael on Saturday (photos soon).
3) Saturday night was pretty evil by the time it was all said and done.
4) Sunday was mostly a “napping” kinda day.

The local video store offers a “Rent Three and Get Two Free” special, so I rented five horror films yesterday. Three I have not seen before and two I have (a loooooong time ago). So, later today I will post the first mini review in what I call my “Five Horror Films in Five Days” marathon.

The remake may be questionable … but the poster sure does kick ass.

“What’s most interesting about the zombies in Dawn is that they seem to be most influenced by “the infected” of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (itself inspired by Romero’s trilogy, especially Day of the Dead). If anything, this felt like the Hollywood version of that film over Romero’s. I was left with a strange sense of ambivalence about the choice the filmmakers made to go this route, as initial scenes of full-blown SPRINTING zombies lead to some unintentional titters in the audience. Just how dead are these re-animated bodies? Even zombies who might not have been the fastest or strongest in mortal life seem to attack with incredible speed and above-average strength. (Several key moments of zombie movement are actually sped-up with camera trickery to accentuate their quickness, once again, recalling Boyle’s film.) I found myself distracted during the climax by one background zombie in particular, who, finding his intended path blocked by fiery debris, scampers from one spot to another with near problem-solving agility. The “Modern / Swift Zombie Vs. Lumbering / Traditional Zombie” debate will surely rage even further once this one hits theaters.”

Hmmm. Seems like I was saying something about this just yesterday. An advance review for “Dawn of the Dead: ’04” is now up over at the Creature Corner.

It looks as if “28 Days Later” (a film I really, really liked) has ruined zombie movies forever. Gone are the shuffling, slow zombies of the past. The new breed moves super-fast and can fuck your shit up in a hurry. This is evidenced in the new (and not all that exciting) “Dawn of the Dead” Trailer.

Remember that really, really bad horror film I was talking about? Well, here it is … “Cabin Fever.” Ah, but where to start? There are so many thing wrong with this film. Things so wrong that even a neophyte horror buff would wince while watching it. I think that the movie’s main problem is its writer/director, Eli Roth. He claims to be a dyed-in-the-wool horror fan and that’s just great. Horror film fans kick ass! What Eli Roth does that is wrong (and disastrously so) is try to reference every single horror movie that has inspired him … “Last House on the Left,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Evil Dead 1 & 2,” “The Thing,” “Deliverance” and “Dawn of the Dead” This pulls the plot of the movie in so many directions that the final act is a muddled mess. Not only do we have the “virus in the woods” … we have dumb backwoods townsfolk, the creepy child at the general store, corrupt small town policemen, the dumb deputy, a rabid dog … the list goes on and on. Argh! The only good moment in the movie comes about 3/4 of the way in when our young hero feels he must kill the girl he loves (whose flesh is being devoured by the virus) with a shovel to the head … several times. Now, that was good stuff.~

We all have those films that we like … those really trashy films that somehow make us smile when we watch ’em … like “Showgirls” and such. So, I’ll admit that I really like “Final Destination 2.” Now you may ask what would make a die-hard horror film fan sing the praises of such a questionable movie. Well, quite frankly, it’s the gore. Lots and lots of gore … eye socket impacts, heads poppin’ off, slicey-dicey barbed-wire fences, falling plate glass windows, airbag carnage … it all good! Plus you get that super cool freeway pile-up early on in the film. Yes! Like most modern horror films, “Final Destination 2” doesn’t have any real scares (they haven’t made a good scary movie since around 1985, with a few exceptions). What you do get is that giddy thrill waiting for the final impact and that oh-so-glorious splatter of blood. Mmmm, mmmm.