Review: Creepshow 3 (2006)

Stars: Kris Allen, Magi Avila

Budget: $3.5 million

Directed By: Ana Clavell, James Dudelson

Sigh okay so we got a third movie in the series. Why do I sigh?
Because this is the dip in the series, even for a anthology lover like me. This creepshow is not like the others. It's less comic style and more just standard film style like any other anthology.

Though one thing this does do in it's difference is to link the stories together. Some of the character from one story will interact with others from one of the other stories.
This is redeeming as it's a new direction possibly to inject something new into the series.

The film is five stories like the first one again which i also appreciated. The only problem is they feel like things i've seen before in something like outer limits or twilight zone. Remotes that can freeze time or a person who might be a robot really. Lets get on with the each segment in my breakdown:

Alice:
This shit is confusing Alice a young girl with an attitude problem comes home to see her father messing around with some kind of remote control. This like so many sci-fi trope is able to change/control aspects of time/space, but not only that it's able to change other things like skin colour etc. The remote has been given to them from someone from another of the segments a scientist down the road. Well each press makes Alice mutate 'show her true ugly form' until her family finally notice just how ugly she is inside. Then the scientist turns her into a small white rabbit at the end.

Rachel The Call Girl:
Possibly one of my favourites of the five and a nice little twist that made me laugh too. A guy (Victor) hires a hooker/call girl (Rachel) to entertain him for the night, only shocker! Shes a murderer. She secures Victor to the bed kills him, then sticks a pillow over his face.
After cleaning herself off she hears his voice saying she killed him, removing the pillow we see Victor is a massive mouthed vampire of some kind, in a twist he then kills her. Placing her corpse with the occupants of the house who he has also killed.

Professors Wife:
Another reasonably funny one but again something i've seen in many other things before, someone seems better than they should be so their a robot right?
Two students go see their professor who has seemingly married a really beautiful woman much better than anyone would have though he could get. The professor is also brilliant in robotics and she also seems very methodical in her actions.
They end up accidentally murdering her looking for cybernetic parts in her body.
Rachel is also seen in this one.

The Radio:
A security guard buys a replacement from the tramp from the haunted dog, the radio tells him to kill people untill he gets to be with a woman he really likes. The radio warns him to kill her but he doesn't as he loves her, she does indeed end up killing him with the gun he's killed others.
She is immediately shot and killed by a pimp from the guys building who then goes back to his car where a radio is also telling him to do things. We see Rachel in this one and the two guys from the professors wife too.

The Haunted Dog:
A doctor doing some kind of community service in a free clinic where he is excessively rude to all of his patients. Karma however bits him in the ass when he one day goes to get a hot-dog from a street vendor dropping the dog he gives the filthy food to a tramp who often troubles him.
He dies and comes back to haunt the doctor, muttering the woods thanks for the dog, or something along those lines. It gives me de-ja-vu from Creepshow 2 thanks for the ride lady from the hitch-hiker. This one also ties a lot of the other stories together too, anyway the doctor gets scared to death.
The hotdog cart guy ends up being the creep too at the end.

If you like anthology films like me and have seen the others you'll want to complete the trilogy and see this otherwise really only watch it if theres nothing else around at the time. THN scores Creepshow 3 a 2 out of 5 stars.

Review: Creepshow 2 (1987)

Stars: Lois Chiles, Tom Savini

Budget: $3.5 Million

Directed By: Micheal Gornick

The second film of one of my favourite anthology series's Based off Stephen King stories this one was directed by Micheal Gornick instead of Romero.

This one is almost exactly the same in tone, comedy horror with the first segment 'old chief wooden head' probably being the most serious of the three.
Notice i say three there, this offering only gives us 3 complete stories. There is like the first one a prologue and epilogue, though also in between each segment we have a an interlude too continue the prologue but mostly to introduce the next story.

There was supposed to be two other segments though they were cut for both budgetary and time restraints. Though Billed as a star Tom Savini plays the Creep but for only a few brief minutes before the segment turns into cartoons and is then voiced by a different actor.

-Prologue-
A young boy with the same name as the kid from the first, though it is not stated he is the same kid at all, travels on his bike to the back of a truck where the shutter flies up and reveals the creep. He is dressed as a delivery guy and throws out a brown paper parcel. It starts to unwrap itself as the live action dissolves into cartoon instead where the delivery guy reveals his identity. He then proceeds to introduce the first proper segment as Billy reads.

Old Chief Wooden Head:
In a town thats still kind of back water with old tensions still between native americans and whites are still tense two old people own an old store. The town is dying out slowly and the owners of the general store are thinking of retiring themselves.
The store is decorated by an old wooden indian used for advertising many years ago. The couple are called Ray and Martha, they are pleasantly surprised to get a visit from an old Indian friend Elder Benjamin. He comes bearing a gift for them, turquoise jewelry as his tribe are indebted to Ray for help he has given them in hard times. Given the valuables until his tribe can pay back the debt they owe the two Benjamin leaves but not before nodding farewell to the wooden statue.
Not long after Sam, Benjamins nephew along with two of his friends, fatstuff and Andy bust into the shop and subject the two to a robbery. However once he demands the jewelry that his uncle left with them the two decline to hand it over. Sam is very vain and says he wants it to make money so he can get to Hollywood and become famous.
In a scuffle both Ray and Martha are fatally wounded by Sams shotgun, the three of them after taking the jewelry and money leave the crime scene. Chief Woodenhead comes to life and then starts to kill the thugs one by one. I won't spoil any further just to say this is the most serious out of the three stories with little to no comedic elements, rightly so as the two old folk are brutally murdered by the three thugs, a good story though.

-Interlude 1-
Billy finishes reading old Chief Woodenhead and then grabs a package addressed to him from the local post office, despite the protestations of the clerk. He replies the package contains a Venus flytrap to which he rolls his eyes at.

The Raft:
Randy and his three friends Deke, Lavern and Rachel all college students find themselves a lake that just so happens to have one of those white floating rafts out from shore. They all decide to swim out there and party it up a little. Rachel is however grabbed and consumed by the 'blob like' floating black good that looks like an oil slick (which she pokes repeatedly)
Terrified the teens argue for a while upon the raft before Deke the more athletic and stronger of him and Randy decides to try for a swim ashore. Before he can however the mass seeps up through the crack in the boards of the raft and pull him through the planks consuming him too.
Then in one of the most stupidest moves ever (after dodging the blob by not standing on the cracks) both Lavern and Randy fall asleep on the deck. Yeah fall asleep with the cracks and a giant blob tar monster that's clever etc!
Well anyway Randy wakes up suddenly realising they fell asleep and for some unknown reason starts to fondle the sleeping Lavern. We see it may have been a ploy for the creature to attack Lavern to give Randy time to escape as Lavern wakes up screaming with the blob attached to her face.
Randy leaps from the raft and begins his swim back to shore, does he make it?
Well you'll have to watch the film to find out!

-Interlude 2-
Billy is seen and chased by the local bully who grabs his box and rips it open seeing the bulb for the plant inside he throws it to the ground and crushes it underfoot. Billy having thrown to the ground manages to get a swift kick into Rhino's nuts and escapes from the gang.

The Hitcher-hiker:
An older business woman awakes next to man, Mrs Lansing, who by her speaking to herself we realise has been cheating on her husband with a gigolo. Seeing it is late she quickly leaves so she can be home before her husband gets back.
Flying down the road at high speed she fails to see a hitch-hiker thumbing for a lift as shes pruning herself in the rear-view mirror. The unlucky man is knocked over and killed instantly, in fear and also the want to get home she just leaves his corpse by the roadside.
Pulling over a little while away from the accident Mrs Lansing thinks she may have gotten away with it, not worrying about the consequences. Suddenly the hiker pops up by her window claiming "thanks for the ride lady!" He keeps repeating this throughout the segment, no matter how mashed he gets.
No matter where she drives though the hitcher keeps reappearing eve when she continuously keeps running him over. He keeps coming back more and more mutilated each time. Does Mrs Lansing make it home before her husband notices or the hitcher kills her?
You'll have to watch it and see!

-Epilogue-
Billy makes the gang follow him for a while until they reach an abandoned junk yard where Billy has a surprise waiting for them!

Overall and considering this was the first one of the trilogy i watched so that make me biased somewhat I like the second creepshow just a tiny bit more than the first one but still it has some flaws like i explained in the raft one, so THN awards Creepshow 2, 4 out of 5 stars

Review: Creepshow (1982)

Stars: Stephen King, Leslie Nielsen

Budget: $8 million

Directed By: George A. Romero

I may have mentioned it just a few times, probably not enough for you folks to pick up on that I like me a good old anthology story film.
3 or more spooky tales upon one film brings a smile to my face.

Maybe i'm just tricked into thinking that i'm getting more for my time or money. More than likely it's due to the fact that I don't have commit myself to one thing taking up 90+ minutes of my time.
I can instead watch anywhere from 3 thirty minute shorts to 5 or 6 15-20 minute shorts instead.

Creepshow is one of the best to do this genre, along side body bags etc. Creepshow however hearkens back and takes it's inspiration from the old horror anthology comics of our past like tales from the crypt etc.

This also features a plethora of well known actors and cameo's. From the  Comedic, Leslie Nielson, Ted Danson and many others.

Theres five stories in total started and ended by a prologue and epilogue, i'll explain about one and give the film it's over all rating at the end:

Prologue:
A young kid named is told off by his father for reading what he believes to be trashy horror comics and is grounded, in his bedroom Billy see's the creeper who beckons him on a journey.

1. Fathers Day:
When a daughter, elderly herself plus mentally unstable due to her fathers constant nagging, demands and put downs (which we see in flashbacks) kills her father on fathers day after his constant demands for a fathers day cake.
The rest of the family descend on the house like vultures when his fortune is to be shared out. The daughter (Bedalia) we see is drunk and shouting at her fathers gravestone. Her rotten fathers corpse sudden pulls itself from the grave much to her horror. He starts asking for his cake again over and over, he kills everyone one by one until he gets his cake, in a most frightful way!

2. The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill:
Jordy (played by King) is a down and out loser with not to much in the brains department comes across a meteorite on his travels. Thinking he'll be able to sell it to the local college for study for enough to cover his $200 bank loan tries to grab it but it's to hot to handle.
when he douses it with water the thing cracks open exuding a green goo that he touches, unfortunately to Jordy he now thinks the thing will be worthless. He starts to itch and very soon a weird green growth starts growing on him, in dream sequences both the doctor and his father scold him for being stupid or not to take a bath.
When he can't bare the green growth anymore he does take a bath and despite it feeling good initially later on he's seen pretty overgrown with the stuff. In one last attempt to do something right Jordy sticks a shotgun to his head...

3. Something to Tide You Over:
When a husband (Nielsen) finds out his wife is cheating on him he hatches a plot to kill her and her lover. Luring them both to his house one by one he then takes them to the beach and burries them up to the neck with the tide rushing in.
Both of them drown but when the husband thinks all is done the soggy fish eaten zombies come back from the grave to exact revenge against him!

4. The Crate:
Probably one of the scariest shorts of the whole film, when a freaky hundred or so year old crate is found under some stairs in a college. Of the two one of the guys gets murdered brutally and gory by it's occupant. The other one escapes to tell someone only for them to be murdered too.
He then goes to his close friend another university professor, he however thinks his friend has murdered these people in some weird turn of sanity and tries to clean up the mess. The professor see's this crate as a way to kill his loudmouthed braggart of a wife. Once the deed is done he secures the crate with chains and dumps it in a lake, is the beast dead?

5. They're Creeping Up on You:
A rich tycoon afraid of dirt bugs and germs does everything he can to keep himself in a clean, sterile area. He achieves this by paying a lot for a room that's sealed and pumped full of sterile air.
It's monitored by security and one night when the power goes off his nightmare truly begins, Cockroaches start appearing out of every hole. From the sinks, ventilation and anywhere else they can squeeze in through. Making his way to his panic room he dies of shock when he see's it too is full of cockroaches. When the lights come back on however, not a trace of cockroach

Prologue:
Aaah young Billy hasn't been idle while we've been away he has gone to the pages of the comic where you can buy assorted things like x-ray specs, young Billy has bought himself a voodoo doll to exact some revenge on his father.

truly one of the best anthology films you can get your hands on THN awards Creepshow  4 out of 5 stars

Review: Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

Stars: David Koachner, Tye Sheridan


Budget: $15 Million

Directed By: Christopher Landon

Why is it these lower budget comedy horrors do so much right? Sometimes close or far from perfect, despite that seem to do something that bigger budget films often miss. That and the fact comedy works so well in the zombie genre too.

I stumbled across this on Netflix last night and thought i'd give it go, i'm glad I did. Recognizing the ginger kid (Joey Morgan) from other things and of course David Koachner.
The effects are great for a middling budget film and the story-line/zombie outbreak are both great and explained to the point that are more than satisfactory for a film of this calibre.

There's great acting and brilliant chemistry between the lead characters too. Also yes for an age 15 rated film some nice boobies and rude jokes too, but i'll get to them a little later on. The nudity is of course done as tongue in cheek cliche with both horny teens and having nudity in a horror film as a staple. So lets get on with the spoilery bits and explain a bit about the film!

We start the movie with our explanation of the zombie virus with an amusing musical number by some sort of janitor at a biological research centre. It's not long before he cocks up accidentally killing some infected comatose guy, of course this guy has the zombie virus in him. He's killed by the hulking great man and comes back as a flesh eater himself, he then kills the doctor who was on late too. We then join scout leader Rogers, his three scouts, Ben, Carter and Augie trying to recruit some new people for the scout group. They show a rather drab VHS 80's type recruitment tape which even fails to impress the single nerdy kid that has shown up!

We swiftly learn that even Ben and Carter are having second thoughts about still being a scout too, though they still agree to join Augie on a trip to receive his newest badge. Deciding that they will break the news after he gets done with his badge Ben and Carter leave in a car.
While talking about things they are going to do instead of being scouts and the future, not looking where he's going they hit a deer with the car.
Not long after Carters Sister and some of her friends stop by them in their jeep. Ben has secretly had a long time crush on her, the boys in the jeep think it's cool that they hit a deer and invite them to a senior party. Once the others leave Ben realises the deer has disappeared but they all dismiss it.

Now convinced to blow off even Augies badge ceremony Ben and Carter try to get some beer for the party. Their first choice a weird crazy homeless man doesn't go to well as he tries buying an assortment of weird items. When an older girl they've both heard about that works at a nearby strip club walks out of the shop and her bag strap breaks Ben manages to fix it for her.
They chat and get along well so she goes in takes the money from the guy and buys them their beer for the party.
Meanwhile we see scout leader Rogers making his way towards the camp to be there for when the boys show up. He is however attacks by the now zombiefied deer the boys hit earlier, amazingly he manages to dispatch it with his favorite Dolly Parton knife.
Unfortunately he is then taken out by one of the other zombie people from the original lab outbreak.

Ben and Carter decide on ditching the badge ceremony when Augie is asleep and going to the party they've been invited too. Ben feels guilty as they've had a good day with Augie beforehand, though they did find it odd that master Rogers never turned up.
As they sneak off leaving Augie asleep in the tent they are shocked when the lad suddenly appears before them a distance into the forest. Ben tries to apologize to him but they have an arguement and leave him on bad terms. Both of the boys drive into town to change for the party, they however get sidetracked by the disappearance of the bouncer from the from of the strip club.
Inside they are treated to an erotic dance by a dancer who turns out to be a zombie when they see her neck all torn apart. The bouncer also bursts in attacking, they are saved by a shotgun wielding Denise, they girl from earlier who Ben helped.

They make it back into town an find out everyone who hasn't been turned has been evacuated by the army. Except the senior party and them as they were/are both miles away in secluded places. The three of them are then chased into the back of a police precinct where they have to lock themselves in a cell to escape being eaten.
While this has been happening Augie has gone to look for Master Rogers at his house, entering it we see it's like a shrine to Dolly Parton. This could have been expanded upon and feel like it was meant to be a bigger joke than it was. Augie is attacked by the zombified Rogers but he manages to stop him and set him on fire too before escaping.
Still in the cell the other three are surprised when music start playing outside and all the zombies leave to investigate the new sound. After a failed attempt to retrieve some keys to open the cell Augie comes in and sets them free anyway. The foursome now get a car and escape to the freeway, though very soon they out of fuel.

They are saved by an army guy in a Humvee Corporal Reeves, They decide to go and see if the party people have been a fake address, no surprise there!
Unfortunately the Corporal appears to have been bitten some time prior to meeting them and turns attacking Denise in the vehicle. The boys try to help her in a bumbling way until she breaks free herself and destroys Reeves head with the door of the Humvee.
Hearing about the town in going to be bombed on the radio Carter tells them that his sisters diary may well have the real address for the party. Heroically they all decide to go back to help the people who dissed them. While at Carters house Denise teaches Ben how to be relaxed around women and how to kiss. The others however are attacked by a zombie granny downstairs who thankfully due to no teeth only gums one of their bottoms.
While escaping via a trampoline outside the window Ben finally spots the diary and only just manages to escape because of it (to extremely funny consequences). Getting back in a car they knock over master Rogers doing even more damage to him. Some more zombie hilarity happens in the form of dancing to Brittany Spears with a bunch of them, then Denise finds a dirt bike which she thinks is a better idea to split up so she can go try and deter the army from bombing them.

The three of them alone now go to a hardware store and using their accumulated scout knowledge use it to make zombie killing weapons. They head to the party just as zombie attack too, going on a z-killing spree they save as many people as they can. Ben even saving Carters sister.
I'll leave it there as there is still a nice tense scene towards the end of here that I don't want to spoil, also the film is a decent one that I don't want to spoil either. SGTTZA garners a decent 3 out of 5 with a high recommendation to watch.

Review: Cult of Chucky (2017)

Stars: Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif


Budget: unknown


Directed By: Don Mancini

Great! A return to a franchise, no reboot, no re-imagining a PROPER sequel. This is what i want to see from all my favourite horror franchises.
I've recently learned jeepers creepers 3 is out too so that'll be reviewed soon!

So yes this continues from the end of the last in the series, curse of Chucky. Nica is in a high security mental asylum where she is made to believe she was responsible for the murder of everyone from curse of Chucky.
We even see Andy Barclay! Back from his cameo at the end of curse too.

Andy is on a date he seems to not have luck with the ladies as many people know or have looked up who he is online. With his bloody past and collection of guns he scares off potential girlfriends.
The woman he's on a date with has of course looked him up on google, Andy tries to explains but just seems to dig himself a deeper hole, this ends up with her leaving the restaurant. Leaving himself Andy drives up to his wooden house (seemingly in the middle of nowhere) Entering the house we see him ponder over the massive armory of guns he has locked away. Then going over to a hidden safe he opens it revealing the original Chucky's head nailed to a plank of wood.
It's got nails etc hammered into it and a large chunk missing, where Andy shot him in the after credits scene of the last movie, taunting the head then lighting up a joint he sits back to enjoy it. Chucky asks for a hit of the weed. Andy actually lets him take a hit but Chucky tries to bite his fingers just missing him, Andy gets angry and starts torturing him with a blow torch.

The screams of torture morph into us seeing Nica on a table receiving shock treatment. She does however get transferred to a medium security asylum by Dr Foley who looks after her. The orderly who initially helps her seems to be stand offishly nice despite not liking what she's been committed for, he leaves her some juicy fruit gum.
She goes on a trip of the asylum and in the day room she is greeted by another patient who thinks she's ghost, Nica is then saved by Micheal who seems normal to begin with. Swapping a stick of gum for a cigarette the two of them are quickly having sex a little later in a stairwell!

A little later they are in a group therapy session where Nica, Micheal, Dr Foley, Angela (the ghost lady). We are also joined by Claire and Madeleine, Claire dislikes Nica for what she's done despite being an arsonist herself and Madeleine has lost a child.
Nica does feel extremely bad about what she's done though, which she expresses a lot to anyone, despite her not actually doing it as well. Dr Foley introduces a a good guy doll to the group which he thinks will help them deal. Micheal also sticks up for Nica when Claire starts on her about her crimes, Madeleine seems to adopt the doll as a surrogate baby.

Tiffany also ends up visiting Nica too, it's funny she brings up that she looks like Jennifer Tilly, she ends up telling her that her niece is dead. Just before she leaves another good guy doll with a distraught Nica too. In the night Chucky comes to life and steals a scalpel to kill Nica with, however heavily depressed from the news of her niece Nica has broken a wheelchair spoke and tried to cut her wrists with it.
Chucky see's this and just she passes out Nica also see's him as a blurry image, she wakes up in the morning and her wrist has been stitched up. Angela however has been made to look like she has committed suicide, after messages wrote in both her's and Angela's blood.
Nica finds out that Tiffany's last name is Valentine, which she works out was Charles Lee Rays girlfriend. This makes her believe that Chucky is back even more, realising the doll is him she thinks that Madeleine mat be in trouble while she is possession of the doll.

When Nica helps Micheal follow Madeleine outside to make sure she is safe Nica see's outside that Madeleine pushes Micheal into a dug grave after throws her Chucky doll in there. They save Micheal from the hole but it looks like he's been possessed by Chucky while he was in there, he even tells them to refer to him as Charles.
Claire tries to get of the other doll but suddenly starts to believe Nica after the doll bites her on the arm, Dr Foley and the orderlies end up sedating her when she goes mad over the doll. Awake but unable to move Claire watches in terror as Chucky comes in taunting her and uses a pressurized air can to smash a skylight above her. The shards of glass rain down upon her, a particularly large piece severs her head from her body too.
In a regression session we see that Dr Foley has been inappropriately touching Nica while she's been under, sickened and impressed with him Chucky knocks him out with a glass and tries to make Nica kill him.

Madeleine smoothers her good guy doll, we find out she had killed her baby because it was crying so much. They end up burying the doll to help come to terms with what she's done. Andy ends up learning about the killings online too and devises a plan to get into the asylum himself to try and help rescue Nica.

Now i'm going to end here despite theres a good portion of the film left, as a sequel to a franchise i love it. Theres some flaws of course, the pacing seems a little off at times and the whole new possession thing, which i won't spoil any further, you'll see.
The practical effects are great though like back to the old times of filming, some of the CGI can be a little odd looking (on the faces) aside from that I loved it. It's strides better than seed and just as good as a follow up to curse. The film doesn't mess with continuity either it follows every strand (well almost) from all the other films nicely, Oh and watch out for that after credits secret!!!

So THN awards Cult of Chucky 4 out of 5 stars.

Review: Child's Play (1988)

Stars: Brad Dourif, Chris Sarandon

Budget: $9 Million

Directed By: Tom Holland

Oh child's play you know I looooove horror franchises, especially if they star some kind of weird homicidal killer. Be that a drowned retarded boy, a Shatner masked mentally disturbed brother or a guy who kills you in your sleep.
I am just a massive sucker for a series I can just stick on and watch start to finish for a good few hours of my life.

Running from the police Charles Lee Ray a serial killer escapes to a department store. When he is shot by detective Norris his partner escapes leaving him to bleed out. Before he dies however Charles manages to transfer his soul into a good guy doll.
As the spell completes a bolt of lightening levels the shop. Norris then discovers the corpse of Charles believing the killer has just bled out from his wound.

The next day we meet Andy Barclays mum who seems like a very hard worker just to keep her and her son with a home and fed. Andy has wanted a Good Guy doll, Karen manages to find one from a homeless guy for Andy.
The next night While Andy is being babysat once he goes to bed the sitter is attacked by the doll, proclaiming he's called Chucky now. After she is hit in the face by a hammer then falls from the window to her death. Detective Norris comes on the case and seems to think Andy may have had something to do with her death. His mother Karen balks at this idea and puts Andy to bed.

The next day Chucky forces Andy to take a train downtown so he can sort out one of his old friends, very same guy that left him to die in the store. Chucky sabotages his his cooker which causes it to explode and kill his ex-partner. Despite her misgivings as it's her son, Karen is powerless when the police section Andy in a mental hospital.
Karen very soon realises that the doll never had it's batteries put in from the get go, quickly she believes Andy's story. She goes to check out Chucky who comes to life in her hands and begins to fight her, biting kicking and kicking her.

Though he just escapes from Karen, going to the police she tries to make detective Norris believe the story, even showing him the bite mark. He doesn't believe her until he's attacked and nearly killed a number of times in his car by Chucky himself.
Chucky goes to his old voodoo friend who taught him the tricks of the trade, since he was able to bleed in doll form he's worried. Rightly so too as he's told being inside the doll for to long it will become more and more human until his soul becomes totally trapped inside it.
It is revealed he must transfer his soul to the first person he told his secret too or he will never be human again. Chucky kills his teacher when he refuses to help him, Karen and Norris show up just in time for the man to tell them he can be killed by his heart which is now totally human.

Chucky shows up at the mental hospital to try and get to Andy, the kid manages to trick the doll long enough to escape. He's unfortunately caught by Dr Ardmore he tries to sedate Andy unsuccessfully, he's then killed by Chucky with the electroshock gear.
Andy somehow makes it home only to be knocked out by Chucky with a baseball bat suddenly. He begins to cast the spell to transfer his soul and nearly completes it too before Karen and Norris get back to stop him. They manage to set fire to Chucky and think he's dead once he ends up an almost charred lump of plastic. Karen manages to shoot off Chucky's head, leg and arm, the rest of the police up to help then. Chucky's body is no where to be found proving he's still not dead, only for the burnt crazily mutilated doll to attack again.

As always i'll leave it there as THN doesn't spoil endings so we'll leave it there, this film was and still is a masterpiece of suspense. you hardly see the doll for a good portion of the film and just see from his perspective, this was a brilliant way to make the film more eerie back then. The films did lose that flair in the sequels which quickly devolved into more comedy horror as time went by, those reviews are for another day though. THN proudly awards Child's Play a maximum score of 5 out of 5!

Review: Stephen King's IT (2017)

Stars: Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard

Budget: $35 million

Directed By: Andy Muschietti

So we finally get the redo of the 90s
adaptation of one of Stephen King's
greatest books IT. People were very
weary of this due to a number of reasons.
A few being the initial look of Pennywise,
rose tinted glasses over the original and just
plain old it's a horror movie being made
in this day and age so is it going to be any
good?

Right off the bat I will say this is going to include
spoilers for the movie so if you want to stop
reading here I'll just say this in short:
It's a great film with awesome coming of age
aspects, amazing kid acting seriously some of
the best I've seen, brilliant setting, they pull off
the 80s perfectly. The 135 minute running time
goes so fast it does leave you wanting more,
additionally they wait time we have till the
sequel considering it's not even cast as of now
is bad as I want more!

Now the bad stuff, the actual horror is VERY
hit and miss as in it works 50% of the time
well, the other 50% it's a little to goofy and
yes silly CGI. Goofy? I hear you cry? But he's
a clown surely it's meant to be silly?
Yes I get that and Pennywise is awesome in this sorry Tim Curry for blasphemy but you were best aspect of the 90s version you know that! But when as mentioned you get some silly CGI rotting guy, what happens to Georgie or headless boy wobbling at you it just seems so I don't know removed from the rest of the story. Now don't get me wrong this doesn't mean it's not needed I just think that could have been done practically for the guy and looked better, also a little less comically for the boy, Georgie is to spoilery to add here. With a modest budget it had some more practical effects would  I have been nicer. I'm sure this isn't spoiling anything as it's not in context but when you do see it I'm sure you'll agree.

Now on with the spoilers I'm going to be breaking down the film here so don't read on any further unless you want to know more about the film!

The film starts with the typical opening of Bill making his little brother Georgie a paper boat to take advantage of the heavy rain outside. He sends his little brother to get sealing wax from the basement (their mother is playing so really tune in the pain too) Georgie is clearly scared and does does get freaked out but conquers his fears with a torch.
Completing the boat for his brother Bill watches as Georgie gleefully run's from the house to use his new toy. Unfortunately after a bump on the head Georgie is unable to keep up with the boat and it flows into a street drain. He is then greeted by a very dribbling freaky looking Pennywise, was so amusing to hear so many people gasp and squeal at this I just though it was funny because being afraid of clowns is just absurd to me at least. I did love his design and can see why people would be scared though.
Pennywise gains Georgie's trust through talking about fun things (an old woman comes out to see the rain and sees the kid kneeling at the drain eluding to the fact the townsfolk know that there's something going on with the town) luring him closer to the drain with the boat he then proceeds to bite Georgie's arm off.
Now this was shocking as it's a kid and you see him trying to crawl away in pain missing an arm, here's one thing though was it needed? I think just in my opinion something more subtle as just him vanishing would have worked just as well here, not that didn't like it it was visually gruesome and nasty but was it to just bump up the rating?
Anyway Georgie is dragged into the drain by the clowns extending arm, the woman watching on from the shadows of her porch step forward a bit just to see the kids blood mixed in with the rain in the street.

Cut to a few months later with Bill in school talking about checking out an area he thinks his brother might be, he doesn't believe Georgie could be dead despite everyone else thinking so, brilliant child naïvety. His first three friends are also shown here too. Richie, Eddie and Stanley who are leaving the school for spring break. We are then introduced to the school bullies the main one being Henry Bowers, who says he let bill have a free ride because of his brother but now he's going to make their spring hell.
We also see Beverly being bullied by other girls for being a slut, a young girl heavily hinted at to being abused by her father.
She runs into the 'new kid' Ben who despite being chubby and cumbersome seems to win over her heart. We also learn he's being bullied by Henry too. Lastly we see Mike who is home schooled as his grandad hates the town trying to dispatch a sheep with a boltgun, when he can't his grandad reprimands him, we learn Mike's parents died in a fire later on, he strangely enough is also bullied by Henry whenever he comes into town delivering meat to the butchers.

So one by one through either bullying by Henry or something scary happening to them they all meet up and become friends over the holidays.
Beverly helps them steal supplies to tend to a bullied, wounded Ben when they can't afford it. It's just great to see them all bonding and funny to see how googly eyed they get over Beverly as young teens.

Each kid is authentically different in attitude at style even in home life. Bills parents hate it that he won't drop it that his brother isn't dead, Richie is the funny one though we don't really see his home life and he seems the least effected and normal of the group apart from his nerdy appearance. Stanley is a young Jewish kid picked on for that also looked down upon by his father for not being able to learn his Hebrew properly.
Eddie is a mother's boy to a forced extent by his overweight mother who keeps him dosed up on many placebo's in an effort to keep him scared and dependent on her.
Ben is a new kid in town with no friends initially bullied for being overweight and new, it's very nasty what Henry does to him. Beverly and Mike I have already explained.

Anyway the kids bond making friends and experience life with each other, Ben has done research on the town as the new kid so he knows about disappearances over the years. Most of them are skeptical or at the least unable to believe that there's some kind of entity haunting Derry. Then each one of them have a run in with Pennywise making each of them believe to some degree, though some choose to not believe.
The biggest shove to believe is when they are all together and the clown attacks them all from out of a set of slides. They confront the clown a number times which tests some of their friendships even to breaking point, ultimately they find that together and being not afraid is their main strength against the evil clown demon. When Beverly is taken by Pennywise the kids regroup and go to save to her despite earlier confrontations.

I'll end it there so I don't completely spoil the film, at least it's ending, which as you know we rarely do here on THN unless the films a real stinker. In final words I really enjoyed IT and to see that a R rated (though only 15 rated in UK) has done so well is another good sign, especially seeing that it gives a green light to the sequel too which I personally would have loved to seen cast by now (Amy Adams would make a perfect older Beverly she look JUST like her) Spoiled only by for me at least by some iffy horror at times also jump scares never work on me but they were brilliantly timed and I always watch the reaction of the audience to which was funny and genuine.
If I could give IT a 4.5 stars out of five I would i'm really really split I didn't like the CGI, headless easter egg boy being all wobbly and wiggly and the whole Georgie thing. Bugger it Stephen Kings IT Chapter 1 Gets a full 5 out of 5 Stars from THN!

Review: With Friends Like These (1991)

Stars: Micheal Burns, Rachel Bruneau

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Multiple, Thomas Parkinson

Wow what can i say, I was trawling through the cheapo section of my local CEX, a place where you can go sell DVD's games etc.
I came across a DVD box set called horror 2 it featured 4 horror films. This, some weird pseudo documentary about bogmen (boggy creek 2), another zombie type one (Mutant) and the fourth i can't remember. It was like 99p for all four of them on two double sided discs.

Anyway this and the zombie type film were the only two decent films in the four set, I also mean decent in the furthest term i can like finding a nugget of corn in a turd.
Anyway this film is an anthology of friendships that go wrong, kind of told you so stories. You've all had that friend in your life who is more trouble than their worth but you keep trusting or giving one last chance too. So this film is three precautionary tales eluding to that topic.

Not sure the order they go in but here goes a breakdown of each one of the separate stories on offer in this anthology:

The Classic:
A young man buys a classic car but the car is possessed and leads him to do things he normally wouldn't do, starting to care more and more about the car than anyone else. He leaves his girlfriend/wife and relies on the advice the car gives him, to disastrous consequences.

Fridge guy:
Not it's actual name but it's been a long time since I've seen this anyway we have a massively dirty and lazy slob living a trashy apartment. He somehow has managed to bag himself a girlfriend too, she rightly complains about the smell and dirt when she's there.
This takes a turn for the odd when he inspects the smell coming from his fridge to find some food that's been festering in there for 6 months has evolved into a living lifeform. A moldman of sorts, using his DNA and totally sentient but only exists from the waist up. Initially they form a close friendship only to fall out and end up having a battle at the end.

To Good To Be True:
Ok possibly the worst one on here but still good in the story just poor in execution. A woman busy with every day life goes on a dating agency and gets paired with an amazing guy, she starts getting paranoid that he's to good. It culminates in the woman thinking he's a robot or something like that after she thinks she see's him power down, yeah..

Okay like many people have mentioned this about the film, I have to say it too. In the UK this film has an 18 rating which is our highest rating. This film is however is like watching tales from the crypt keeper (the cartoon) or goosebumps level of horror and gore.
Well this film is by no means good, but if you like anthology films and find this cheap, even if it's like the quadruple pack i got because Mutant was a decent b-movie flick too for 99p like I did then give it a go if you really want too THN awards With Friends Like These 2 out of 5 stars.

Review: Leprechaun 4 In Space (1997)

Stars: Warwick Davis, Jessica Collins

Budget: $1.6m


Directed by: Brian Trenchard-Smith

It's that thing a lot of horror films eventually do at some point in their franchise, they head into OUTER-SPACE. A lot of them have done it, either before or after this, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser have all ended up within the futuristic setting of space.

Since almost none of these movie are sequels or even follow on from each other, maybe in da hood and back to tha hood can be ever so slightly but up to and including this offering they are just different stories including leprechauns who look mysteriously alike!

The Leprechaun in this offering is already healthily out and about being a little menace to the surrounding populace of a quadrant of space. He's arranged for himself to marry a princess he's kidnapped called Zarna, though they are both plotting to off one another once the deed is done. The Princess is just a greedy woman who is after the wee man's money, where as the leprechaun is after power or some such. However some marines come to his planet as he's been a menace to surrounding mining operations. They do appear to kill him and injure the princess in the process, except through his magic the leprechaun manages to infect one of the marines through his genitals.

Yes you heard that right, the wee man magically turns himself into some kind of STD in order to come back to life. The leader of the rag tag marines is some crazy scientist who has little in the way of a body left anymore. When he realises the princess has some regenerative properties who goes about using her DNA to help him make a new body.
The marine infected with the leprechaun's STD however is about to have a bad day when the magical guy emerges from his penis when he's about to do the fandango. One by one the marines are now hunted and killed in amusing ways just like any other leprechaun film.

This one has some great stuff in it though when the small guy discovers that the scientist is playing Zarina's DNA he mixes in some scorpion and spider DNA into the mix and uses on Mittenhand transforming him into a hideous arachnid cross human. Now calling himself Mittenspider, the main hero marine sticks goes to try and stop the ships self destruct sequence that has been set off. He is however caught and webbed up by the Mittenspider.
Fighting the leprechaun they accidentally turn him massive using a growth ray, yes the irony of a 20 something foot tall magical wee man isn't lost on THN. Now theres a still a sizable chunk left of the film but to tell you more would spoil to much I believe.
This is indeed worth watching too, especially if you like parodies of sci-fi things and are a true franchise lover like me you'll want to see all of the leprechaun films, well up to this one at the least because from here 'in da hood' is a massive step down. So THN awards leprechaun in space with a decent 3 out of 5 stars and a recommend to watch if you like the series.

Review: Body Bags (1993)

Cast: Mark Hamill, Stacey Keach, Twiggy

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: John Carpenter & Tobe Hooper

I love anthology stories, always have, always will (though they are few and far between these days)
This offering from horror veterans Carpenters and Hooper is a great addition to anyone's anthology collection.

Featuring all the usual things from both directors including musical scores etc from Carpenter, as well as nods to their other works, which i'll get too.
This particular film has three stories on each different in their own respects.
The Gas Station is a run of the mill scary murderer story.
Hair is an alien based horror story with elements of vanity biting you, quite literally.
The last is Eye, body horror story about a transplant gone wrong.
Each of these segments is introduced by what we think is the coroner (played by Carpenter too) until the end film.

I haven't been able to find info on the budget and the film also has some cameo's from other people too such as Tobe Hooper himself and Tom Arnold. So lets get on with each segment, also as a side note i may well spoil the the stories endings or may not, depends how the review of each segment goes, this doesn't mean they are bad it's just they are small and it's still worth the watch despite the spoilers!

The Gas Station:
A College student, Anne has gotten a job on a remote gas station in the middle of the night just as a crazy maniac has escaped from a mental asylum. Love the fact Haddonfield is referenced in this (afterall it is JC's segment) it's a nice little touch.
So she is dropped off by a friend and shown the ropes by the person who was on before her, Bill tells her about the keys for office and rules for the pumps etc then leaves her. We are treated to a few colourful customers and one Anne likes the look of who accidentally leaves his credit card behind.
After few jumpy moments Anne tries to contact Bill as the short keeps you guessing as to who the killer is, until this point.
It is one of the people we have already met but Anne also gets some help froma another returning face too!
A standard homage to a standard slasher film this short gets a 3 out of 5 stars from THN


Hair:
This is a vanity based horror with alien aspects to it too, because this relies on cgi effects which were new in 93' it doesn't hold up to well to today's scrutiny in that respect. So we join a man, one Richard Coberts who is extremely self conscious about losing his hair. His girlfriend claims she doesn't care but still tells him to go see a hair dresser friend of hers.
When he's not satisfied with what he does, Richard then buys loads of other products to try and cover up his bald spots. This ends up in him and his girlfriend breaking up. Spotting an ad on TV about a hair restoration clinic he goes to check it out.
They bring him in are kind and courteous to him and do a procedure to give him a full head of long hair. It works and the next day he reveals long dark brown locks of hair. His girlfriend who didn't care gets incredibly turned on by it too. Unfortunately he realises it keeps growing, a lot!
I even starts sprouting in the back of his throat and all over his face, going back to the clinic it is revealed the hair is tiny alien organisms eating his brain, these aliens use the fact that humans are vain in order to do this and gain sustenance.
THN thinks this one is silly and awards it only 2 stars out of 5

Eye:
Mark Hamill plays a baseball player (Brent Matthews) who has never quite made it really big who may well be in with a chance of hitting the big time in his next game. Unfortunately on the ride home in a storm a deer in the middle of the road forces his car off the road.
He is later found by some police and when he is turned around it is seen that shards of glass have destroyed his eye. When he come around in hospital he doesn't realise this until he told and it just happens to be his pitching eye too. Another doctor offers a new revolutionary transplant surgery to replace his eye with a healthy donor.
Of course he jumps at the offer and they proceed with the surgery right away as they have the donor available almost right away. Unfortunately Brent starts getting splitting head aches as a side effect, his wife tells him they're expecting too.
The side effects get worse as Brent starts to see images of murdered girls and himself being abused as a baby. His whole attitude starts to change too and he gets abusive towards his wife.
He finds out from the doctor the eye belonged to a murderer fascinated with killing young blondes then raping their corpses, When he later nearly kills his wife through being possessed by the eye he finally manages to stick some garden shears through the offending appendage.
This segment is good but i also feel it's very unfair also this poor man who has done nothing wrong to anyone who has tried hard all his life just has shit poured on him constantly only to then end up killing his possessed self leaving a pregnant wife behind.
For this THN awards Eye 2 out 5 stars.

So overall a very strong start and some amusing filler from the segments between each story with the gas station being a strong 3  Hair being a decent 2 and my reasons for Eye scoring so low Body Bags is going to get an overall score of a decent 3 stars out of 5

Games News: Friday the 13th

With a smart new update to their website Friday the 13th the game creators illfonic and gun media have done what at least a large portion of their fan base has asked.
Given us news and things to actually look forwards too, rather than keeping us in the dark about up coming things we've all been wondering about.

The site teases that yes they are working on new maps and not just the ones that are smaller versions of the existing ones. Which I myself have been guilty of saying what's the point in them?
But now with more information on my plate I'm seeing the smaller maps are actually different enough with new placings for items and vehicles, as well as the the parts to fix them.

But yes they also go on to say that there is A, 1, SINGLE, ONE, Jason in the works note my emphasis on one there as I'm sure with 4, Roy and both normal and Uber Jason left from their films rosters to choose from this won't be all we'll be seeing hopefully.
There's emotes, a HUD/UI update too, tweaks to existing Jason's and new music too!

Finally we see two more things coming 2 new councillors and 2 new clothing packs, one of which we Tiffany sporting a beach babe bikini get up. Hot or what?
The latter being a beach themed affair for all the councillors for $3.99 I'll gladly throw money at that to support more content in the future.
Considering it'll probably be about £3 UK side well hopefully unless the pound drops even lower by then.

All in all THN is happy with the way the creators are treating us lately, and yes I'm sure their working on those packanak and rocks in the water glitches too....

Head over to : http://f13game.com/# to check it out yourself!

Review: Society (1989)

Cast: Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez

Budget: $2 Million

Directed By: Brian Yuzna

Society a satirical comedy horror looking on how the upper classes basically leech off the poor. Which is what the actual films logo is.
Directed by one of my favourite comedy horror directors/producers good old Brian Yuzna. Despite having a large part in making Re-Animator this was his first actual directorial debut.

Thanks to his pull on both the Animator films he was able to snag this and a modest budget. Every dollar was used well in the making too, all the practical effects are brilliant too.

So we join Billy as Bill Whitney a well off kid in a well off family, he has it all going for him in every area of his life too. Girlfriend, school both academic and others. Except he doesn't feel like he fits in anywhere especially with his family. He regularly tells his shrink about this every time he goes to see him which the doctor tries to quell those fears. They do indeed seem to just be young boy angst, that is until his sisters ex boyfriend Blanchard gives him a tape with some weird shit about his family having a strange orgy.

He goes to his shrink with the evidence but when the doctor plays the tape back it has inexplicably changed since the last time he listened to it. When he goes to get another copy from Blanchard he discovers that he's been involved in a crash and has died. Though no else seems to particularly care about it other than Bill's other friend.
When Bill is invited to a persons party (Ferguson) he was not particularly friends with in school he is surprised, at the party though he properly talks to Devin's character Clarissa who he's admired a few times from afar. Ferguson meanwhile bullies Bill and admits to him that they did indeed have a strange with his sister. Angry and confused Clarissa takes him to her house and they have sex.

Unable to get it out of his mind though he goes to confront his family and finds them in a compromising situation in lingerie in his parents bedroom, freaked out he leaves them too it and runs.
When Bill and Milo, his other friend, go to Blanchard funeral then touch him they discover that his corpse doesn't appear to be real. Then his rival as student president tells him fearfully to meet him in the woods so he can tell him about something he's learnt.
/bill meets him in the forest but when he goes to his car to talk to him he discovers the young man dead with his throat cut. The next day in school however when Bill tries to explain to the collective people at the presidential run that Petrie is dead he is shown up when Petrie walks on the stage and says he's just had car trouble.

Totally freaked out at all the weird goings on Bill tries one last attempt at confronting his family only to be drugged by his doctor. Milo however trails them to the hospital and when Bill manages to escape Milo warns him that it was a bit to easy for him to escape like that.
He doesn't listen and stupidly goes back to his folks house where he's chased and trapped by the other and forced to watch as the 'society' weirdly eat in a strange absorption kind of way the real Blanchard. Escaping again thanks to Clarissa he finds his sister and folks all mixed in with each other having some kind of weird alien orgy. He makes his way back downstairs and is challenged to fight by the bully Ferguson, THN won't spoil anymore as Society is well worth watching if your a big fan of 80's comedy horror especially the weird kind of body horror Yuzna specializes in. For this THN awards with this class act of a film 4 out of 5 stars.

Review: Tremors (1990)

Stars: Kevin Bacon, Micheal Gross, Fred Ward

Budget: $11 Million

Directed By: Ron Underwood

Can I just say I loved Kevin Bacon in movies, I miss him being the main star in movies too.
To me the guy just oozed charisma and confidence in any role he was in especially in the 80's-90's.

Those were certainly his best years, in those years a certain film came out on the ends of the 80's comedy horror streak. That film was Tremors and it spawned a whole series of films and even a TV series, none as successful as the first film though.
The difference was Tremors horror was at times genuinely scary, again as is becoming a thing here on THN this film did scare me as a kid. Unlike other films of that kind though I managed to sit through and watch all of this thanks to the comedic elements.
The sequel's never truly felt as scary I felt they went in a more comedic way than horror that the first film did so well, more on those should I get to reviewing them.
This film also had amazing practical effects for its time, the grabboids looking as realistic and moving just as well as you could expect a real life creature like this to.

So let's get into the meat of the movie, a town called perfection in Nevada is home to two handymen Earl and Val (Bacon&Ward) it's an ex mining town and is close to being desolate. Earl and Val decide to pack up and leave for a neighboring community when they spot a guy dead up in an electrical tower.
Being a small town they know the guy as Edgar Deems, who has apparently died of dehydration afraid in the tower still holding his Winchester rifle.

So we then see an unknown thing killing a bunch of sheep and their owner, which low and behold Val and Earl stumble across again. Thinking some murderer is to blame for it all they rush to warn the others in town. unknown to them they have pulled some part of the creature away with them attached to their trucks axle.

They grab some horses from perfection to go and try to warn the people who live on the outskirts of town. They unfortunately find two people's truck buried near their camper trailer but them nowhere to be seen.
Then the two are suddenly attacked by the subterranean terrors and after an intense chase they end up in a thick concrete water duct thing. As the creatures are blind and only sense vibration it crashed into the duct killing itself leaving it's mangled head exposed on the other side.

Rhonda a seismologist in the area explains she's picked up vibrations from similar sized creatures, at least another 2 or 3 out there. They become trapped on some boulders they use as protection but the creatures don't let up all night and exhausted in the morning they don't know what to do.
That is until Rhonda uses a pole to start vualting from one rock to another until they reach her truck.

Not long after reaching town the remaining grabboids attack forcing everyone up onto the rooves of their buildings. This doesn't keep them safe long as the grabboids start learning to take out the foundations of the buildings making them collapse to the ground.
Meanwhile Burt Gummer played by Micheal Gross and his wife manage to kill another of the creatures. While in their survival/weapons shelter one slams into their reinforced walls.

Back in town however people keep dying until Val comes up with the idea to chain a large trailer thing to the back of a JCB to ferry people away. They try to make their way to a mountain range where the solid rock will help them, unfortunately the creatures get clever and make a sinkhole which disables the JCB.
Burt kills another one with some home made pipe bombs and they make it to the safety of some boulders again. The last grabboid however doesn't fall for SW the bomb and spits it back at them. This forces them down from the safety of the rocks and they have to run again until Val makes it chase him with the last pipe bomb.

I won't spoil the ending as usual as this is a start to a great series atleast the sequel, well maybe we'll, see when I get around to review them lol!
So THN awards Tremors with a 4 out 5 stars

Coming Soon: Camp Cold Brook

Looking like decent b-movie chiller I recently received information on the film from its source, keep an eye out and if I get chance to review it I will as it sounds like it could be good'un.

Chad Michael Murray (House of Wax, TV's One Tree Hill) and Danielle Harris (Halloween, Hatchet III) will headline director Andy Palmer's Camp Cold Brook.

Script hails from up and comer Alex Carl, writer-director of Reeves Road. 

Produced by Warner Davis of Petri Entertainment, Gremlins alum Joe Dante and Mark Alan of Renfield Productions, and Jason Van Eman and Ross Marroso of Weathervane Productions, pic tells of a reality TV crew that get more than they bargained for when they decide to film the next episode in the legendary Camp Cold Brook.

Reality TV producer and host, JACK WILSON (Chad Michael Murray), finds himself in a tough spot. His finances have crumbled and his show, “Haunt Squad”, is about to be cancelled. In a last ditch effort to spark ratings to land a final season, he and his producers Angela (Danielle Harris) and Emma as well as their trusted cameraman Kevin choose the legend of Camp Cold Brook to save their show. The camp was host to a horrific incident, where the young campers were drowned in a nearby creek 20 years ago.  Their arrival begins like any other episode. Cameras are placed, lights spark to life, but this is not going to be a regular episode of chasing errant noises and measuring for EVP. The terror here was real and the 30 are about to rise.

Courtney Gains (The Burbs, Children of the Corn), Michael Eric Reid (TV's Victorious),Candice De Visser (The Funhouse Massacre), Mary Kathryn Bryant (Hellraiser : Judgement), Loren Lodesma (A.S.K), and Jason Van Eman (1 Mile to You) help make up the ensemble.

Review: Hellraiser 6 Hellseeker (2002)

Stars: Ashley Lawrence, Doug Bradley

Budget: $3 million

Directed By: Rick Bota

It's the sixth film in the franchise and it's a high point (of the lowest point) before a steep, sorry very steep plunge into the sheer abysmal. Again it features all the Hellraiser tropes, Lemarchands box, surreal moments and hallucinations. It also saw the return of Clive Barker in a minimal capacity too.

This one one though is a lot better than the previous one though and see's the return of some familiar faces even though like the last film no one in this one is someone you can really route for. Even the surprise return of Kirsty is let down by, even though it's totally justified, the fact everyone is just protecting their own ass.
Well that's enough with the explanations, I know I've made out here a major weakness in the film but it still is a peak for the series as the next three, like I said take it to the bottom especially with the last one!

A car accident sending their car plunging off a bridge Kirsty Cotton, the protagonist from the first and second films seemingly dies. Only her husband survives the fall, though the police cannot find Kirsty's body when they go looking.
A month later all the usual hellraiser things start to happen, When Trevor wakes up in hospital he starts having nightmares and seeing things. His memory of the accident is also in pieces. We are initially thought to believe that Trevor and Kirsty were happy but as the film progresses we learn this is not the case.

The unreality and phantasms slowly bleed into Pinhead revealing himself and showing Trevor and us, that he was an asshole to Kirsty. Cheating on her and actually trying to make her open the box and get rid of her. this is where i'm up in arms with the whole finding it hard to get behind a protagonist in this film. Yes she was wronged but she's also in cahoots with pinhead too as we'll learn now.

She offers up five other people in return for her own soul, self defense in the most part yes. Especially vs Trevor and his friend, who are after her fortune although the other three are his mistresses arguably not all to blame for the most part.
I'm giving away a major plot point here but to be honest you should be only watching this if your a big fan of the other films. You see Trevor is actually dead in limbo piecing together how he died as part of his punishment, I wont spoil the full ending as it's got a bit more to it than just that and worth watching if your fan, like I said.

THN enjoyed this as part of the franchise but if it was a stand alone maybe not as much so i'm giving it a strong 2 out of 5 stars and a recommendation to watch if you like the series.

Review: Lights Out (2016)

Stars: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman

Directed by: David F. Sandberg

Budget: $4.9million

I've not been a massive of the recent slew of mainstream horror films. You know things like paranormal activity and the millions of sequels.
Yes they've done well but they're just so run of the mill and the same things, like jump scares and creepy over used situations.

Lights Out is a recent horror film too from 2016, yes it's taken a while for me to review it but I've been put off afraid it's going to be so standard.
I finally tried it out and was reasonably happy by what I saw though. The effects are nicely practical for the most part and very good at conveying the point they needed to.
That point is an innate fear of the darkness and what lurks in there.
Unfortunately the main story kind of spoils it ultimately by making it not just about the dark but spirits attached to people too and mental illness.

problem is this film seems to try to stick to much in, as all the separate parts are good coupled with some decent acting even from the child actor (which can be rare). So i'll get on with the movie description and leave the choice in your hands ultimately.

So we join a man in work, he seems rather busy and it's late. When his co-worker/secretary tells him she's leaving for the night. She turns off the lights in one of the work rooms and briefly see's a shadowy outline there. Scared she turns the lights back on quickly, then off, then on each time the thing keeps appearing and disappearing.
She gets freaked out and goes to see the boss, he dismisses it but she warns him to look out and be careful. When he eventually decides to move, out in the storeroom he is attacked by the shadowy thing in between each over hanging light. Making back to his way back to his office turns on the lights to fend off the creature. The electric blinks off and the man is killed by the dark creature.

We learn the man was the step father of Martin a young child who is also terrified of the beast which pops up in the night scaring him from sleeping. When he starts to fall asleep in classes and they can't reach his mother they get hold of his sister.
His sister is a twenty something whose father left at a young age and has bonding problems with her current boyfriend. She goes to pick Martin up and when he starts to tell her about the the thing and about their mother talking to someone in the night times Rebecca seems to recognize something about the stories and takes him to see their mother.

We learn she suffers from severe depression and that Rebecca left when she was young, her mental state seems to be worsening though but not so far that child services are getting involved. Rebecca gets Martin to stay with her. That night the creature comes and scrapes a message into her floor that she doesn't see until the morning.

We learn the entity is a woman named Diana who had a weird skin condition and when their mother was was in a mental asylum was her only friend. Though it seems she was forced into the friendship by Diana, Diana is treated by the doctors with some extreme light therapy. This seems to kill her, though it doesn't she just loses her body and imprints herself onto Rebecca's mind.
Rebecca's boyfriend who loves her a lot despite her attachment problems believes her totally and helps so much throughout the film too. Near the end they all try to sort out the situation by helping the mother get rid of Diana but things go wrong.

Like it said it's a decent film and better than some of the other mainstream rubbish that's about these days, like usual i don't spoil the ending and it's a decent enough film to not spoil. THN awards lights out with a 3 stars out 5 and watch if there's nothing else to do.

Details: Cult of Chucky

Cult of Chucky

Release Date: 20th Oct 2017

No remake, no rehash, this is a straight up sequel seeing people from all the last movies return in a great come back of the series. This is what we as fans want more of the same especially in horror franchises we have grown with up and love very much.
Andy Barclay returns as the woman from the last film is incarcerated in a mental institution after being blamed for the deaths of everyone. Andy finds out and tries to help free her as the warden and a bunch of other seem in on a plot that involves Chucky himself.
We even see a return of Tiffany, in human form somehow. I'm so interested to see how this plays out and will Andy survive again?
It seems we are in for a violent and macabre twisted fun filled return to the franchise just from the trailer alone, it's posted above please feel free check it out for yourselves!

Review: Here Alone (2016)

Stars: Lucy Walters, Gina Piersanti

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Rod Blackhurst

The tired old zombie apocalypse setting needs to do something special these days to grab the attention of people.
(unless your a die hard zombie fan like me who'll give anything zombie based a go)

This movie thankfully does break the usual mold, still holding a few tropes and also making a few silly mistakes here and there.

Since the death of my son I also find it hard to watch films where babies end up in any kind of peril too. This, the hallows and a few others i find hard to watch due to this reason.
But thankfully this movie had a lot going for it that kept me powering through the scenes involving the baby.

The setting is more infected rather than zombie they are maddened and fast much the likes of 28 days later, yet they do crave food especially in human shaped form.

Lucy Walters stars as Ann a woman who has survived this viral outbreak thanks to her husbands fast thinking and skills in the wild. We join Ann in the woods where her husband Jason was brought up, she is alone and isolated. We realise Ann smears herself in dung etc to mask her scent from the crazy people when she needs to get food. We see her in this state as the film starts she then quickly gets naked and cleans herself off in the nearby lake.
We watch as she slowly eats her supplies then checks her traps to find nothing caught in them running low we see her do her dung trick and head off to a nearby house looking for supplies.

Finding some food she unfortunately makes some noise and attracts a few of the crazies. In so doing she drops a few of the tins on the ground after putting her pack down for a while.
On her way back she spots a young girl and a man stumbling around on the road she seems to decide whether to help them or not. Once the man stumbles once last time and falls to the ground as he passes out Ann decides to help them.
The young woman is Olivia and the man is her step father, Chris. In-between peeks at how her husband taught her to survive in the wild and then losing him We see her strike up a friendship with Olivia and Chris regain his strength.

Trust is hard though to begin with especially for the jaded Ann, Chris (in a bout of good acting and writing) starts to win over Ann though coaxing more and more information about her past. There is some real humanity on offer here, where they start to relax and laugh with each other.
This is where two of the things that make me go a bit off the film happen one is of course the flashbacks to just her and her child left surviving, of which the baby gets some blood smeared on her because Ann carelessly picks her up while splattered with crazy blood.
This of course leads to the baby getting infected and Ann having to crush loads of aspirin tablets (and blood) into some milk to send the baby off.

The second thing is a sub plot that Olivia is actually in love with her step father and when Ann and him start to fall for each other she gets jealous over it. I know they needed something, something other than an inevitable camp invasion from the viral's but this was just a little off putting especially as Olivia initially seems to come across as quite intelligent and wanting to learn from Ann.

So the film continues on in this fashion until Ann and Chris eventually have sex much to Olivia's chagrin as she had also the same night prepared herself to have sex with Chris too. She rebels after seeing them stealing food and eating loads while they spend the night together.
She is attacked in the forest too and just about saved by Chris and Ann, low on food they decide to go foraging again. Chris distracts the viral's while Olivia and Ann check out the same house as earlier. Again Olivia in a uncharacteristic and stupid jealous bout knocks Ann out and ties her to a cupboard and screams to attract viral's.

Ann being plucky escapes the bonds and the infected and gets back to her camp seeing both Chris and Olivia being attacked by the infected. With one bullets left she keeps aiming between Chris and Olivia unable to decide who to save (I know who I would).
But you know here at THN we won't spoil endings of good or even half decent films unless they're so abysmal it's not worth watching them. This despite it's flaws to me both in the story and person reasons is well worth a watch, THN awards Here Alone 4 out of 5 stars.

Review: Chopping Mall (1986)

Stars: Barbara Crampton, Kelli Maroney

Budget: £800k

Directed By: Jim Winorsky


This film seemed like a nostalgic pleasure of mine distributed by none otherthan Roger Corman the king of schlock horror films.
Starring two of the cutest ever scream queen's ever, Babs
Crampton and Kelli Maroney.

Both known for their active roles in the weird and wonderful. Bab's best known for Reanimator, Kelli possibly for night of the comet.
Both great films in their own respects, poor Babs though seems to cop it in any film she's in. Reanimator, this a bunch of other horror films too.

Now I hadn't seen Chopping Mall for quite a while. One of the things that caught me off guard was the running time,
I could have sworn nigh on 15 years ago the film I watched seemed longer than it is.

May be I'm right though as this 77 minute film may well have a 95 minute run time version too. Maybe that's the one I actually watched all those years back?
Anyway the film doesn't suffer in this respect from a short run time.

This film has all the classic tropes of horror movies even the typical drinking, sex and partying. Though all this is capped by evil robots, made evil by lightening!
If you needed a robot security system or army weapon robot to turn either good or bad back in the 80's or 90's all you needed was their systems scrambled by a blast or two of lightening. So the movie starts with a security firm showing off a demonstration of their new advanced robots, laser eyes, sleep darts, taser shots and sharp claws.
A nice cameo by Mary Woronov who was/is also a veteran to horror films as her and her work partner take turns cutting jibes at the robots expense. The Mall has employed the services of three of these robots. We are then shown our heroines of the movie Bab's as Suzie and Kelli as Alison Parks both working in a greasy little cafe in the Mall.

We are then shown the guys who work in a bed shop, Ferdy (played by Tony O'Dell) is rather nervous as the rest of the guys want to throw a party in the shop once the Mall is closed. Gerrit Graham from C.H.U.D. II is also in here as one of the technicians of the security bots.
His partner is in the security room relaxing before the robots go online when a random thunderstorm throws down three bolts of lightening that fry the central computer that controls the robots. They then kill the one technician and hide his body, Gerrit's then taken out next. The robots then go on patrol around the mall.

After partying and sex one of the teens is killed after he goes to get cigarettes for his girlfriend, not only that a cleaner played by Murray Futterman actor Dick Miller is electrocuted by one too. The girl goes looking for her boyfriend and is chased almost back to the others. The rest of the teens see her screaming outside and her head is blown up by a laser blast. The rest of them then go about arming themselves and trying to take out the bullet proof killer security robots.
They slowly get taken out one by one occasionally destroying one of the mad robots every couple of teens killed. It is yes, very standard and straightforward as many horror films, this time though there's just a certain chemistry that makes this feel good to. By far no gem but definitely worth a watch and deserving of a place in many peoples cult classics.

THN awards Chopping Mall a good 3 out of 5 stars and watch on a rainy day!