Review: The Mannequin, YouTube short

This 10 minute short film was brilliant very creative with minimal but good practical effects, enough to even give some full run time films a run for their money.

You can catch it yourself here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLBrCK6e0cA&feature=youtu.be

As for the actual film it's shot in black and white and I'm sure this is a choice not a necessity as it adds to the shorts overall feel of noir.
I'm sure it's meant to set in the sixties/seventies maybe even earlier by the clothing and hairstyles that's the best estimate I can come up with.
The thing date wise that threw me a bit was the TV looking thing in the corner. That aside it was just a good storyline too it got its point across clearly in the short running time which I find very admirable as some long run time films can even leave you confused these days.
I would like to see more from this channel/company in the future if this is the quality of production at the moment time and support can only help.

THN awards this short film a sturdy 4 out of 5 stars

Review: Hellraiser 3, Hell on Earth (1992)

Stars: Doug Bradley, Terry Farrell

Budget: $5million

Directed By: Tony Randel

At the end of the last movie a rotating pillar came from the bloodied mattress. That pillar has some how turned into a artistic piece, a bronzed work of art. J P Monroe a rich nightclub owner comes across this and buys it for his personal collection.

Unknown to him Pinhead and his world war 1 counterpart have been split since the last film. his demonic form imprisoned in said pillar. The puzzle box has also been embedded in the pillar too. Joey a young reporter witnesses a young club goer ripped apart by magical hooked chains.

She traces the death back to Monroe's nightclub the boiler room. She meets Terri a young ex of Monroe's who has stolen the box from the pillar.
Joey traces the history of the puzzle box and we see her view videos of when Kirsty was in the mental institute. She learns of the Cenobites through this also about the power of the puzzle box.

Earlier Monroe had splattered some blood onto the pillar after a rat bite, this obviously gives Pinhead just enough power to devour the skin then body of one of the girls J P has just slept with. Pinhead coerces J P to get more girls, J P can have his pleasures of the flesh then he can eat their flesh.
Joey is then contacted by Elliot the human side of the demon warning her that the demon is now just pure evil. If he ever got free he would wreak hell upon the earth. They formulate a plan to reunite both spirits and then send them both back to hell as one.

Back at the club Pinhead breaks free and does indeed wreak havoc killing everyone including Monroe. Terri is even tricked to come back there with a nasty fake answer machine message, as well as Joeys cameraman. Everyone apart from Joey dies, Pinhead resurrecting  most of the latter as new Cenobites. Each one embodying a power/ability they had in real life, DJ throws razor sharp CD's and the barman throws flammable cocktails which he spits fire upon.
Joey escapes each one of these through the streets as the police are killed by the inhuman demons. She seeks help in a church from a priest who doesn't believe until he sees the travesty that Pinhead is, trying to rebuke the evil just makes Pinhead laugh. Joey runs once again while the priest is 'dealt with' running to a construction site.

she tries to figure out the box and just as the Cenobites start torturing her she manages to configure it enough to send the weaker ones back. Her father appears telling her she did a good job and he should take the box for safe keeping. It is in fact good old pin nogging in disguise.
But she has managed to do what Elliot needed bring him to his realm. He starts to merge with him while Joey breaks free of a machine that was turning her into a Cenobite. That's where i end it for now.

this one again has the same flaw as the last bigger budget less story more flash and pizzazz. Again this not bad by any means as some bigger budget film series's suffer from jumping the shark by a third entry, its just the Hellraiser series does unfortunately go from bad to worse, film to film.
The third film is just plain unadulterated fun and i love the new cenobites, a running theme in the next film too. THN awards Hellraiser 3, 3 out of 5 stars

Review: Hellbound, Hellraiser 2 (1988)

Stars: Doug Bradley, Ashley Lawrence

Budget: $3million

Directed By: Tony Randel

The second film in the series continues near the end of the last. Kirsty has been institutionalized due to spouting on about demons.
Her doctor seems overly interested in this. Once he discovers that frank was brought back using human blood he uses a madman who commits suicide on the mattress Julia died on.

This does indeed bring her back from the hell dimension. apparently the doctor has had an interest in the puzzle box for years. It's then Kirsty starts seeing visions of her father telling her he's trapped in hell.
Kyle the doctors assistant catches wind of all gthis and believes Kirsty's side of the story. He frees Kirsty and they plus a girl who seems to have an aptitude for solving puzzles.

The doctor, Channard, has been stealing more crazies for Julia to feed on. Giving her an almost complete new skin. When the trio inspect Channards house they split up. Kyle heads to attic where Julia who he doesn't recognise now with skin ends up killing him, completing the last patch on her back. Kirsty catches the end of this and attacks the newly regenerated Julia, she is knocked unconscious.

Channard with minimal protestations from Julia use Tiffany, the girl to open the puzzle box. Pinhead and the rest arrive. The Cenobites sense that the girl is not the one to blame, Channard is the true caller of them.
Kirsty awakes and ventures into the hell dimension where she finds out it wasn't her father who was trapped but Frank. He tries to keep her there as one of his concubines, Julia appears and kills Frank in a jealous rage and for killing her. They fight again with Kirsty tearing Julias skin off making her fall to her doom.

Meanwhile Channard has been turned into Cenobite himself but of a new configuration of hell. This sets him at odds with Pinhead and the other Cenobites, he kills them one by one. Urging Tiffany to reconfigure the box again Kirsty in Julia's skin tricks Channard just long enough for the to use the box again.

I'm probably giving away a little to much of the end there but suffice to say there's still a good portion left that leads into the third movie. A larger budget gave way to less constraints and it can be seen here, by far a great sequel as far as sequels go but with a bigger budget they went off the rails just a bit with this one. Still a great film that just misses catching the original grittiness of the first.
THN awards Hellraiser 2 4 out of 5 stars

Review: Hellraiser (1987)

Stars: Doug Bradley, Claire Higgins, Ashley Lawrence

Budget: $1million

Directed By: Clive Barker

Larry and Julia move into an old family house after his brother Frank disappears. Julia wanders about the house we see her having flashbacks of a torrid love affair she had with Frank.

Larry helps the moving men with an item of furniture and ends up cutting his hand on a nail. He run in on Julia having a flashback of Frank and drops blood from his gashed hand all over the floor.

While Julia sorts Larry's hand out his brother Frank who has been dead after opening a puzzle box is resurrected. The puzzle box opens a gateway to hell where demons called cenobites reside. they then eternally torture your soul for being stupid enough to call them.

Kirsty, Larry's daughter decides not to move in she seems to have never trusted Julia, who is her stepmother. Julia discovers Frank, Frank uses his erotic hold coupled with blackmail to force Julia to bring him more 'blood'. This blood turns out to be hapless idiots who Julia brings back to the house with sexual promise. Kirsty starts to cotton on thinking shes just having an affair with these men. When she goes to confront Julia she is shocked by the skinless creature Frank is and is attacked. She manages to throw the puzzle box out of the window giving her time to escape. Grabbing the box outside Kirsty wanders for a bit before blacking out.

Later Kirsty awakes in hospital and while there she opens the puzzle box releasing the Cenobites. They are about to claim her when she offers them the soul of Frank back, at first they don't believe her but then a quick check and they agree.
Meanwhile Frank has killed Larry and is wearing his skin. Kirsty returns to the house releasing the demons, they attack who she thinks is Larry. Julia dies in the crossfire from Frank stabbing her, Kirsty realises the mistake shes made and tries to send the Cenobites back by getting the puzzle box.

This film has to be one of the all time classic horror films, spurning many, MANY sequels and a horror icon such as Jason, Freddy or Micheal in the process. Original book and script penned by one of the most successful horror writers next to Stephen King, Clive Barker who also directed this film. This is a superior piece of low budget movie making at its best. THN awards Hellraiser 5 out of 5.

THN Top 5: Movie Series Bad Guys

We all love them from the masked invincible killers, the dream stalking murderers or the every day psychos. Whoever they are they keep coming back for more in sequel after sequel here is my top five series killers:

1. Jason Voorhees, yes he's my number one guy something about the hockey masked invincible killer just hits the right spot for me. The way he is not stopped by bullets, the way he can, if you lose sight of him just magically appear right behind you. If your not Tommy Jarvis you will probably end up as worm food.


2. Michael Myers, of course with Jason being my number 1 the next invincible slightly less strong stronger chef knife wielding overall wearing nutcase has to be second on my list, with a strange obsession for killing his family this guy will murder anyone who gets in his way, again if your not Laurie or Dr Loomis you probably won't see the morning.


3. Freddy Krueger, everyone's favourite nightmare stalking knife fingered demon. A kid killer in life set ablaze by the grieving parents after he got off with their murders. He manages to return as an ethereal demon able to kill in people's dreams. A major weakness is if he's pulled into our world he's vulnerable like a normal person, or if he's forgotten about he loses his power over people's dreams.



4. Wishmaster, a djinn, a genie however you want to look at it but not the big blue friendly version this guy will want something for or twist your wishes in a way you wouldn't have wanted. I love how calm his demeanour is no matter the situation he's in. He is totally evil though no matter how smooth talking he is, don't ever trust him or make a wish as it will be your last!


5. The Warlock, only three films under his name, and an actor change for the third film this bad guy really made an impact on me from an early age. A totally evil spell caster supposedly the son of the devil and on a constant mission to bring his daddy into our world. Be that through ancient texts or the use of druidic crystals, this magic user will kill people and children alike to achieve his goals.


Honourable mentions:
Chucky
Jeepers Creeper's demon
Leather face
Pinhead

Hope you enjoyed my top five let me know what your top series killers are or if their same what you like about them, THN out!

Review: The Gate 2, Trespassers (1990)

Stars: Louis Trip, Simon Reynolds

Directed by: Tibor Tacaks

Budget: $2 million

The second story in the gate series, this is one of films where i actually liked the second one better than the first. Some might agree some might disagree on that.

This film follows Terry the boy who was friends with Glen from the first film. He's turned into somewhat of a nerd since the first film, also only three years later Terry does look considerably older.

So Terry the boy who we learnt lost his mum some time before the first film. His father is an alcoholic whose lost his job from it since his wife has died. Though he does get a new job with the same company later on.
So Terry has been studying demonology since the last film and using some computer tech and lasers he sets up a summoning gate in the basement of a knocked down house.
halfway through the summoning some bullies interfere with the ritual but with the help of the girl, Liz who also seems to be slightly into demons he talks them into joining in. Terry does the ritual and it seemingly doesn't work which angers the bullies.

Then one of the little demon things from the first film appears one of the bullies pulls a gun and blows it away. He then proceeds to destroy most of Terry's equipment. Terry then bottles the dead demon in a jar and takes it home. His wish kind of comes true when his dad gets a new job but it's not the best. Observing the demon Terry notices the bullet wound does seem to be healing, then suddenly later on the demon breaks free of the jar.
In an amusing little scene Terry manages to capture the little tyke and put it in a cage. He's visited by the girl a little later who starts to exploit the situation wishing for loads of things.

The bullies from earlier see Terry and the girl racing around in a sports car, after a weird dream sequence Terry wakes up to see all the wishes have turned literally into piles of shit. Liz rings him to confirm and we see the car has turned into a giant pile of shit too.
No sooner is this realisation hit that Terry thinks about his dad, 2 seconds later there's a knock at the door and low and behold his dad's had an accident.

Liz is beset by her bully boyfriend and spills the beans about the wishes. As Terry gets home he's assaulted by Liz's boyfriend as they rush off. They have broken in trashed the place and stolen the demon.
Getting high on a joyride the demon escapes it's sack confinement and causes havoc in the car. John Liz's boyfriend while trying to tackle the demon gets bitten. Moe keeps control of the car through all this.
The of course wish for lots of cash, in a fancy restaurant John starts to feel ill an then all their money turns into crap.

Meanwhile Liz and Terry are preparing a vessel to send the demon back to where it came from. Back in the restaurant John runs and crashes his car, then as Terry and Liz are about to go find the demon moe shows up saying that John transforming in a warehouse where moe works. After searching around for a bit we see moe is also getting ill. Then we see John has totally transformed into giant demon and moe either kills himself or falls to his death.

The movie here suffers from the same fate as the first it seems like they had wrote and wrote and now needed to come up with an ending. They throw lots of demons within etc in and travel with a Terry empowered vessel back to the original films house. Really speaking any further will spoil the end of the film despite there being 16+ minutes of running time left.
A few gripes about this film is as said the ending seems oh we need an explanation now throw in shit!, It feels like an early 80s film with some of the dialogue and Liz the way she seems to flip flop from Terry to John annoys me.

Aside from that the bullies make some good humour as does the little demon, more so than the first film. I also like Terry's character a lot, he is quite well written.
Is the film worth a watch? Just about especially if you have seen the first one and in some ways it does surpass the first in the first 2 thirds of the film making it for me a hairs breath better, the acting is also tenfold too.
THN awards gate 2 trespassers a decent 3 out of 5 stars.

Review: The Gate (1987)

Stars: Stephen Dorff, Louis

Directed by: Tibor Takacs

Budget: $2.5 million

Yes another one of them 80s comedy horrors, accept this ones a bit more serious than the rest.
So we see a very spritely Stephen Dorff apparently awake in the night. He takes a little walk through the house.
This amused me as when he passes the kitchen table a bottle of HP brown sauce is on there, a popular British brand of sauce we enjoy mostly on our breakfasts. Anyway hearing some kind of crying he ventures out to his treehouse in the garden. Inside he finds a doll crying then the tree gets hit by lightning and falls over with him inside.

Bam he wakes up again to the sounds of saws and work men, as the tree really has fallen down. When the roots removed a small geode falls free. We meet Terry later a friend who we learn lost his mum. He thinks digging will find them a bigger one they can sell for 100 bucks.
The inadvertently free up some gas which clears to reveal a large geode and bigger hole.

We then meet glen's older sister Alex, she's a typical teen girl not interested in her brother only herself. They borh persuade their parents to leave them alone in the house for 3 days while they're away. It backfires on glen as he gets grounded while they're away.
Alex immediately throws a party like any teen would. Terry and Glenn manage to crack open the new geode which leaves words written on a sketch pad.
Reciting the words glen and Terry unknowingly open the gate under the tree but only a crack.

Then the shit really hits the fan (foreshadowing) glen gets levitated, Terry gets a visit from his dead mum. Unfortunately his mum turns out to be the families aged dog dead in his arms. We then see Terry go home the next day, he seems to be having life hard with a dad that's rarely there. He reads on of his metal albums and realises that they were into demon worship/summoning and learns that the gate needed a sacrifice to open.

Alex entrusts her almost boyfriend to take the dog to an animal shelter. When the place is shut he returns and burries the dog in the gate hole.
Terry warns glen that the sacrifice should not be put in the hole otherwise the gate will open. They use some woods from the album sleeve and think they've sealed it.
Later Terry mentions that if the gate was opened it would need 2 human sacrifices to release it's evil into the world. Also then it would take an act of great love to kill/seal the demons back up.

Again demon shit goes down and they try to use the sleeve to seal the gate, it burns up. They then try passages from the Bible and when Terry after escaping from falling in the hole throws the Bible into there, they think they've sealed it. The twins who were staying over with Alex hid during all this and when the boys come over Alex just tells them all to leave.
The demons return in the shape of a dead worker Terry said was sealed in the walls, just as a joke to scare glen earlier. It drags both glen and Alex into the walls thus getting its sacrifices.

Vaguely glen does later stop it all with something that has a lot of love in it. I wont spoil anymore and leave it to you to see how it all ends.
Ok then sooooo the gate like some 80s comedy horror it's very hit and miss, the acting ranges from decent to diabolical at times. Also it truly feels like it was wrote by a kid as plot points seem to come as and when needed.
This doesn't necessarily make it a bad film though it's just it's pacing feels like it needed this padding wrote in over the weekend lol.

Overall the little demons are amusing and it really tries to hit notes that miss in the 80s comedy horror genre. But not by far so I'll give the gate a reasonable 3 out 5.