Oculus

"Oculus" (2013, Mike Flanagan, Blumhouse Productions, WWE Studios, Intrepid Pictures, Relativity Media) is a film about a family destroyed by a creepy antique mirror's presence.

Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) has returned to her childhood home with her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites), who has spent the last 11 years in a psychiatric hospital for killing his father. Kaylie believes that Tim is not responsible for the death of her father, and is convinced that the antique mirror in her parent's study is haunted and the cause of all of their heartache. She intends to prove her brother's innocence once and for all.

We see the film in two timeframes; present day and also Kaylie and Tim's childhood through flashbacks. Slowly, the truth behind the sinister effects of the mirror are unveiled as both adults begin to see ghosts, memories and creepy things.

An old trope done with a modern slant, I thought this film was really well put together and manages to use some old horror cliches without being predictable.

Some of the hallucinations are truly inspired, and the atmosphere is truly very intense with some great camerawork.

The flashbacks also manage not to detract from the film's building dread, and the characters are well written, especially the parents, who we watch slowly come under the dreadful influence of whatever lurks within the looking glass.

It's still freaky to hear Karen Gillan with an American accent, however!

[Image: Intrepid Pictures, et al]

 

Hani

The Deadly Spawn

"The Deadly Spawn" (1983, Douglas McKeown, 21st Century Film Corporation) is a fun, schlocky horror sci-fi film about an alien invasion.

 

An alien crashes onto earth, spawning hundreds of squirmy offspring and devastating an entire family before moving on to the rest of the town. It's up to a small group of teens (lead by a budding scientist) to stop the massacre.

 

With some fun scenes (including some severed arm humour), squirmy phallic-looking monsters, wonderfully awful special effects (one prop is clearly one of those drag-a-long caterpillar creatures you used to get as a kid with a 'spawn' skin draped on top of it!), tainted salad, pseudo science and a lot of goop and teeth, this film wishes it was a poor man's Aliens movie, but no matter how much it's definitely not that, it is a bloody good late night campy B-horror flick worthy of your time.

 

[Image: 21st Century Film Corporation]

 

Hani

Gingerclown

"Gingerclown" (2013, Balázs Hatvani) is a horror comedy set in 1983.

I add "comedy" in loosest possible way....

A group of unconvincing high school bullies dare Sam (Ashley Lloyd) to go into an abandoned amusement park. One of the bullies' disgruntled girlfriends, Jenny (Erin Hayes), who seems to be growing a conscience, goes in after him, spurring the bullies to follow suit.

Unfortunately, the park is now home to a pack of monstrous creatures who, as well as hating each other, also enjoy torturing and killing hapless humans.

An absolute 'WTF' from the get go. From the forced "bad movie" dialogue from our 'teens' to the foul-mouthed rubber creatures, this film is just not what I expected.

It's like someone said "you know, Tim Curry was terrifying as IT and Brad Dourif really was fantastic as that sweary little dolly... I wonder if they'd voice a scary clown and a gross alien creature for us?" and somehow convinced them, and Lance Henriksen from Aliens, to join the cast! Albeit with voiceovers probably recorded elsewhere...

But that's as far as the creativity went...

From start to end, this film smacked of wanting to make a 'so bad it's good' film, without actually being able to pull it off. The result? So bad it's... well, bad!

The purposefully stilted delivery of all of the lines gives the film an odd feeling. Rather than being 'in the style of the 1980s' it comes across more of someone doing a really bad impression of an 80s film...

The styling of the creatures is fun. From evil tea kettles to head-punting spider monsters, but each scene is the same. It's like walking through a ghost ride with a camera then playing it back to find that you really had to be there to enjoy it.

1) Sam stumbles into new scene
2) Jenny follows
3) awkward conversation about how all the others are dicks/escaping
4) cue monster
5) monster swears a lot and says some crazy stuff (eg. a crap riddle)
6) monster attacks
7) Sam and Jenny escape and move onto next scene
8) Repeat steps 1 - 7

Ginger Clown himself (Tim Curry) doesn't look much like a clown, and doesn't really sound like Tim Curry... Which surely defeats the purpose?

It's very formulaic and I wouldn't sit through it again, but I must commend Mr Hatvani on getting a horror-star studded voiceover cast into his movie, even if the end product is just a horror channel worthy effort.

Hani

Popcorn

"Popcorn" (1991, Mark Herrier, Alan Ormsby, Studio Three Film Corporation) is a fun American horror comedy set in an old theatre.

The Film department at a college is new and lacks funding. The students there, along with their teacher, Mr Davis (Tony Roberts), decide to run a horror marathon in the old cinema in town to raise funds and awareness for the department.

They are helped out by local film memorabilia collector, Mr. Mnesyne (Ray Walston) who helps them decorate the cinema and also provides them with William Castle-esque shlock props (zapping seats for a film about an electrocuted killer, a giant mosquito for a movie about killer mosquitos and some unpleasant aroma therapy mist for a Japanese horror film called "The Stench").

Maggie (Jill Shoelen) is one of the students, and an aspiring screen writer. She's been having some weird dreams about a strange bearded man and plans to write about the dreams in her own movie. However, when the gang come across a strange film reel called "The Possessor" which was filmed by madman, Lanyard Gates (the same bearded man that Maggie was dreaming about), who slaughtered his family live on camera, things become very weird.

Things become stranger still when, on show night, people begin to be killed off one by one by a masked killer. Is it the mental film maker returned? What is Maggie's connection with him? And who will survive the horror fest?

Fun and surprisingly well put together for a film with not only a fledgling director, but where the director was replaced half way through!

The story is engaging and the acting is perfect for a cheesy, but very watchable horror film. The plot is one part reflective fun at older horrors and another part 80s slasher homage.

The film was actually made in Jamaica, not America, so enjoys some interesting music and Maggie's mother is played by scream queen, Dee Wallace.

"Popcorn" manages to pay homage to the shock horror films of the 50s and the gimmicks created by directors of the day, primarily Mr. Castle, who pioneered several interesting cinema gimmicks. However, the slasher (or actual horror) part of the film is pretty standard fare, it does blend well as a film, and the ending result is an entertaining and humorous film.

If you're looking for serious, mind bending horror, look elsewhere, however, as this is very much light entertainment.

[Image: Studio Three Film Productions]

 

Hani

Basket Case 2

"Basket Case 2" (1990, Frank Henenlotter, Synapse Films, Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment) is the sequel to "Basket Case".

We're back in the company of our old pals, Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) and his deformed, killer siamese twin, Belial Bradley.

The twins are on the run, but seek solace in the home of Granny Ruth (Annie Ross) who runs a home for people with similar deformities to Belial.

This oddly tame and completely off-kilter sequel does not do justice to the first film, which was a fun, if badly put together, low budget schlock fest. This time Belial finds a lady love and the whole film is just a step off of theme too far.

Lame and ridiculous. And I've sat through (and enjoyed) some pretty crappy stuff. 

I also can't help but wonder if the deformities dreamt up in this film helped inspire the Floop's Fooglies in "Spy Kids"....

[Image: Synapse Films]

Hani

Stitches

"Stitches" (2012, Conor McMahon, Fantastic Films, Tailored Films, MPI Media Group, Irish Film Board) is a British and Irish revenge 'comedy' horror starring comedian Ross Noble as an undead clown, back to reap revenge on the child bullies who brought about his demise now that they are all fornicating teens.

I'm perhaps biased as I find Ross Noble to be less than funny at the best of times, but this gross out film didn't strike a chord with me at all.

While the gore is commendable, inventive and fun, its cartoon-like quality detracts from any scares that could have taken place and Nobel's foul-mouthed, grimy, burnout clown lacks the charisma of most speaking-part slasher killer characters.

The film doesn't feel like a horror or a comedy, and the rude, brash 'humour' is just slapstick and bad language. I'm Scottish, believe me bad language doesn't bother me, but the scriptwriters seemed to be using it here instead of actual comedy.

While the acting cannot be faulted, the hollow plot doesn't create the fun 80s feeling I was hoping for.

Trashy and unfunny... But there's heaps of blood and bodily explosions, if that's what you want. But I bet it read better as a story board, really.

[Image: Fantastic Films]

Hani

Urban Legend

"Urban Legend" (1998, Jamie Blanks, Original Film, Phoenix Pictures, TriStar Pictures) is your average 90s teen slasher.

Taking all the typical (American) Urban Legends into account, and creating a couple of their own, we follow a group of college students (Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum & Tara Reid) who's number is rapidly depleting, thanks to someone using urban legends to kill them.

A sleepover favourite, this slasher doesn't hold the same punch as it did when I was younger. The plot is very predictable and the gimmick is... well, just that: Gimmicky.

The film's ending is also very odd and highly displeasing. Although I'm sure it seemed ok at the time.

The characters are quite one dimensional, although it is fun seeing Jared Leto and the others in their younger years.

I also felt that Robert Englund was highly underutilised as a character.

Good teen sleepover fodder, but it doesn't survive a revisit.

[Image: TriStar Pictures]

Hani