Review: The Crazies

Well I may be a little late on this one, but I just finally saw the Horror movie The Crazies.

I stumbled across it on Netflix looking for a Zombie movie and since I have Netflix Canada, there just wasn’t a whole lot on there, at least that I have yet to see.  I had not heard much about the movie, but decided to give it a go anyways.  Especially since Netflix had it listed as a Zombie movie.  Which in reality it wasn’t much really.

Instead I was treated to a virus outbreak movie.  Sure, the virus leads people to have zombie like symptoms, like no longer having control of their bodies and becoming psychotic, but I would hardly consider it a true zombie flick.

The movie wasn’t the scariest, sure it had some scary moments and some suspense, but overall it was pretty campy and fun.  Most of the plot was pretty predictable, but luckily The Crazies was done in a very fun fashion.  Plus it was fun not only having psychotic townspeople to worry about, but also government and military types for the main characters to run from.

One of the best scenes occurs when the military begins isolating those they believe sick with the virus leading to an entire room filled with people bound to stretchers.  After the camp is overrun by crazies, the people are abandoned and then one of the townspeople that has been affected, begins slowly walking in with a pitchfork dragging behind him and slowly begins stabbing people violently 1 by 1, with them unable to escape.  By far the best and most horrific scene of the movie and makes the watch well worth it.

So pretty much if you are bored and are running out of horror movies to watch, I’d recommend The Crazies. It’s not going to blow your mind or be anything new in the horror genre, but it’s definitely a fun, easy ride.  Enjoy.

What Are The Top Grossing Horror Movies?

Fans of the horror genre, have you ever wondered what are the top 5 grossing horror movies of all time?  You would be surprised.  A lot of the classics are not even close to cracking the top 20.  It’s a shock, but flicks like The Shining, 28 Days Later, The Exorcist and The Evil Dead don’t even come close to cracking it.  In fact most of your favorite zombie and vampire films don’t even come close.  It goes to show you that the general masses just don’t have an appreciation of true horror.  So without further delay, here are the top 5 horror films.

#5 The Ring (2002)

US Box Office Sales = $129M

The Ring was the introduction by Hollywood of the Japanese horror film.  Pretty much done shot for shot of the original film Ring U, The Ring follows a young journalist introduced to a disturbing video that according to urban legend, leads to the mysterious death of whoever watches it after 7 days.

 

#4 The Blair Witch Project (1999)

US Box Office Sales = $141M

The Blair Witch Project took theaters by storm in 1999.  It was a low budget independent horror film costing a mere $35,000.  It was shot documentary style about 3 young filmmakers searching out a legendary witch in the woods and when they head into the forest to investigate strange things begin to happen to them.  The Blair Witch Project was in no way a great film, but showed that with a small budget and enough imagination, you could create a high grossing horror movie.  It later paved the way for other similar horror films like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield.

 

#3 Gremlins (1984)

US Box Office Sales = $148M

Gremlins is a cross between a horror movie and a bizarre version of the muppets.  It’s in no way scary and definitely contains more comedy then horror, but it is still a great film nonetheless.  It’s a fun romp that is perfect to watch every Christmas at the very least.

 

#2 What Lies Beneath (2000)

US Box Office Sales = $155M

What Lies Beneath is a supernatural horror film starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a well off couple who are experiencing all kinds of strange activity in their Vermont home.  It’s filled with suspense as it’s slowly revealed why their house is being haunted and the mystery becomes solved.

 

#1 Jaws (1975)

The Steven Spielberg classic Jaws made sure that no one ever wanted to go into the water ever again.  Following a police chief of a small island community investigating mysterious missing people, it’s found that a giant, psychotic killer Great White Shark is hungry for blood and eating all those who enter the ocean.  While it’s not the scariest film in the world, it kept me from going into lakes as a child even though I was assured that Sharks can’t live in fresh water.

Is anyone else going crazy waiting for The Walking Dead to return?

Last night I sat at home and decided to watch Resident Evil: Afterlife.  In it, a group of survivors is found holed up in a prison protecting themselves from the horde of undead zombies outside,  All I could think of was, hey this is pretty similar to what’s going on right now in Walking Dead.  

This of course made me really miss Walking Dead and I now really can’t wait for it to return to AMC on February 10th.

What will happen to Rick Grimes and company now that they are holed up in their prison?  Will they suffer the same fate as those in Resident Evil?  Will they find out that they may be protected from the evils outside the walls, but then realize that they are in fact trapped in their own surroundings?  

I don’t know what to expect, but I can’t wait to find out when the show returns.  Season 2 may have been a bit of a drama snoozer, but so far season 3 is really ramping up into something fun, exhilarating and really quite exciting.  I cannot wait for it to return.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll just keep watching other Zombie flicks to get my fix so I don’t lose my mind playing this waiting game.

End of The Year Horror Movie – End of Days

First off Happy New Year everyone.

I might be a little late on all this, but what the hell…..

Here’s an end of the year horror movie for you dating back to 1999, End of Days.

If you are old enough to remember this horror movie and the whole Y2K apocalypse scare that went on when it came out, I think it’s quite fitting to feature it at the end of this year.  Especially since we went through another “apocalypse”  doomsday warning in 2012 with the Mayans end of the world theories.

Well, just like Y2k, we are all still here.  At least until the next time the world ends.

For those of you too young to remember this flick, all I got to say is the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger takes on the greatest villain of all time…….. The Devil himself.

So grab some popcorn, dim the lights and relive this horror classic (is it too early to say classic?).

Sorry to add this so late, but the holidays are a crazy time.

Enjoy!

5 Christmas Horror Movies

‘Tis the season to be scary.

While most people will spend the holiday season watching Christmas classic’s like Miracle on 34th Street and Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, some of us prefer our Christmas movies to be off the beaten path.  Films like Die Hard come to mind, but what about some good old fashioned Christmas/Horror crossover movies.  I present the Top 5 Christmas Horror movies for your holiday viewing pleasure. (Sidenote: Please be aware that I do tend to gravitate towards b-horror and the absurd)

# 5. Bikini Bloodbath Christmas 2009

Do I even need to write anything about this flick?  The tittle alone should give you enough reason to see this movie!  I actually don’t even know where to start with Bikini Bloodbath Christmas since nothing about this will make any logical sense.  For starters, it’s hard to believe, but this is in fact the third installment of the Bikini Bloodbath franchise.  That’s right the third!  The plot makes even less sense.  For starters, the horrific villain of the movie is an evil chef.  The girls work at a bong store competing with a Christian deli and all the carnage goes down during their Christmas party.  It pretty much gets even more absurd from that point on.  As an added bonus, Llyod Kaufman of Troma fame makes some appearances.  Not the scariest movie by far, but a great title to tell people you’ve seen it!

#4. Black Christmas 2006

Black Christmas is your typical slasher movie with a holiday twist.  Billy, a man with a very troubled childhood becomes a troubled maniacal psychopath who escapes from the mental asylum to revisit his childhood home.  Only problem is that his old house is now currently used as a sorority house filled with hot coeds (we’ve never seen this concept before in a slasher flick have we).  It doesn’t take a neurosurgeon to figure out that it all goes wrong for the girls after that.  The movie also stars what’s left of Michelle Trachtenberg‘s career post Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

#3.  Silent Night, Deadly Night 1984

After it’s 1984 release, Silent Night, Deadly Night was such a cult classic it spawned four additional sequels.  The plot quite simply goes as follows.  A young boy is warned by how evil Santa Claus is by his grandfather in a mental institution.  He then witness his parents death at the hands of a bandit dressed as Kris Kringle himself.  Then as an adult, all that trauma catches up to him and he begins to go on his own killing spree complete with the Santa outfit.  I’m sure you can figure out the rest from there.  Just make sure you don’t accidentally watch Silent Night, yet another Christmas/Horror movie that’s just not as golden.

#2. Jack Frost 1997

Not to be confused with the feel good family movie starring Michael Keaton that came out the following year with the same name.  Jack Frost is the story of a serial killer whose spirit and mind becomes a snowman.  Yup, you read that right, a killer snowman.  I won’t bore you with the scientific aspects of how that happened, but it did.  The great part about Jack Frost is it’s your typical slasher horror in which everyone is scared to death and acts that way, except the bad guy who is filled with cheesy one liners and puns.  Other craziness includes Shannon Elizabeth being sexually assaulted with a carrot.

#1. Gremlins 1984

Gremlins is by far the greatest Christmas/Horror film ever made.  It really encapsulates the small town Christmas movie that on it’s own would make for a great holiday flick, but then inserting those evil, sociopathic Gremlins for a horror aspect is just the icing on the cake.  Anytime you start thinking that it’s more of a children’s movie, something grossly unexpected happens, like watching a Gremlin get cooked in a microwave until it’s guts explode anywhere.  Heartwarming and filled with evil violence, I can’t think of a better movie to represent both genres.

 

Hope you enjoy these holiday horror movies.  Merry Christmas and a happy new scare!

 

Started Watching Walking Dead………Finallly

So I just started watching AMC’s The Walking Dead.  I know finally.  I just find it hard to launch myself into these character driven, developing story series only to have the networks pull the rug out after a season or two.  With 3 seasons in the can and from the look of it, plenty more to come, I shouldn’t be disappointed anytime soon.

After watching the first episode I was instantly hooked.  What did it to me where two scene’s in particular.  The first scene that really lured me in was the beginning when Rick Grimes awakes in his empty hospital room, slowly trying to find someone and as he walks by the morgue the doors slowly creak and rattle until whatever is behind them tries to bang their way through. Then we slowly see hands trying to pry their ways out.

The second is when Grimes hides out in Morgan Jones’ house and we are left with the sight of his zombie wife walking up to the house.  Half knowing that she belongs there but can’t quite get the reasons why.

I finally see what all my friends on Facebook have been raving about, pleading with their friends not to post any spoilers.  The Walking Dead taps into something primal for all of us.  It takes us back to a place and time that lives in our deepest crevices.  A time when man walked the earth in fear of nature and the world around him.  When we had to really on our instincts and wit to keep us alive.  When food was scarce and you didn’t have the safety of calling 911.

It also plays into our doomsday fears.  A fear that consumes people, religious and not.  Which has been popular as of late with the current mystic behind the Mayan Apocalypse theories.  Just like in did in 1999 with Y2K.  Apocalypse scenarios really make for alluring story’s as they are a testament of the human will and spirit.

It’s really the perfect combination for a Zombie series since zombies themselves are quite primal in nature.  Constantly on the hunt for prey. Relying on their instincts over their intellect.

Plus zombies are really in right now.  Everything from the Resident Evil series to upcoming zombie files World War Z and Warm Bodies, zombie flicks seem to be popping up everywhere.

Thank you AMC.  I am hooked.  Now I just need to find a way to watch the 20 hours worth of episodes, which will be especially hard since the 1st episode left my girlfriend with horrible anxiety.

Been Looking For Good Horror Games

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Review

Abe Lincoln Killing Vamps!

It seems as if their is a trend in horror films at the moment to reinvent the genre.  We have seen it in movies like The Cabin In The Woods and the upcoming horror flicks Warm Bodies and World War Z .  Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is no stranger to this current trend.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is purely a revisionist historical retelling of the life and times of one of the greatest presidents of the United States of America.  The movie would probably be pretty similar to the 2012 release of the movie Lincoln by Steven Spielberg, with one glaring difference…….  There are VAMPIRES involved.

Before you jump ship and start screaming about how absurd a concept this is, just be known that it’s done quite well.  The story is able to convey the idea of the historical facts, along with the legend of the man and add a whole new spin to it.  Written by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also brought us the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter seamlessly inter-splices historical fact with horror fantasy in ways unimaginable.

The movie is filled with action and is actually a ton of fun.  i originally saw it based entirely on the name alone and quite frankly was not expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Even my girlfriend who hates horror and vampire movies loved every moment of it.

The story begins when a young Abe get’s into a skirmish with a local slave owner who happens to be a vampire that later that night kills his mother.  From that day on Honest Abe carries out a personal vendetta against vampires.  After meeting a sympathetic vampire he begins training on how to kill them……  While wielding an axe!

Along the way he discovers his political aspirations and is determined to create change thinking that it is the better way to go, but ends up being hounded by vampires the entire way.

The idea that confederate soldiers were also using vampires is as absurd as it is brilliant and the fact the Grahame-Smith is able to fluidly incorporate them into all parts of Lincolns life is a true testament to his imagination.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is definitely a film to watch.  Whether you are a fan of horror movies, vampire films or historical documentaries you will be a fan of this movie.  And if you are a fan of all three, it’s just an added bonus.

Just make sure you do the film justice and grab yourself a copy of the BluRay!

Watch the trailer here:

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Trailer

Getting Ready For Christmas With Gremlins

Last night made it exactly 1 month before Christmas and the girlfriend and I decided to celebrate with a good old fashioned Christmas movie, but with a twist…….  A horror Christmas movie.

We ended up settling with the 1984 classic Gremlins.  Written by Chris Columbus and produced by Steven Spielberg, Gremlins is a horror comedy movie that easily switches between the 2 genres.

Taking place in the small town of Kingston Falls, a father searching for a christmas present for his son discovers an animal called a Mogwai in a small store in Chinatown.  The shop keeper refuses to sell the pet saying it comes with great responsibility.  However, he ends up buying the Mogwai from the shop keepers grandson behind his back.

Owning a Mogwai comes with rules such as don’t get him wet and don’t feed him after midnight which the main character Billy does, and on the second day of owning him, COME ON MAN!

The results ends up creating a ton of new mogwai’s who end up being evil and turning into Gremlins.  The Gremlins then over take the sleepy town killing a few people, but mostly just wrecking general havoc on the town of Kingston Falls.

Now here is where it switches between horror and comedy.

There are ton’s of comedic scenes involving the gremlins.  Mostly with them getting drunk and terrorizing a bar and then in a second scene where they have taken over a movie theatre and are watching the Disney classic Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.  All while singing the “Hi ho” song!

Those scenes definitely make the Gremlins less scary and quite comical.  But there are also other scene’s that are quite violent and horrific.

When Billy’s mom discovers the gremlins for the first time, she ends up killing one in a blender, stuffs one into a microwave and cooks it until it explodes and stabs another to death.  pretty violent stuff considering I originally saw this movie as a small child.  Even some of the scene’s in which the Gremlins kill their victims are a little intense.  For example a mall Santa ends up being mauled by a bunch of Gremlins which falls onto the deaf ears of the bumbling cops of the town.

Although it is a tad violent, Gremlins really is a classic Christmas movie.  Besides being a horror movie, you will find elements of other Christmas movies like Scrooge.

So be sure and gather the family and make sure you watch Gremlins this holiday season!

 

World War Z

First off I have a feeling zombie fan boys are going to be pretty split about the upcoming summer zombie movie World War Z.  It’s a strong departure from the typical zombie flick and I’m sure fans of the genre will cry foul over how the movie seems to break away from all the standard zombie conventions.  These are not your standard creeping, slowly moving zombies slowly roaming the city like we are used to, but instead a horde of blood thirsty mindless humans running at full speed after their targets.  They look more like a buffalo stampede and crawl over each other like ant’s would to get over obstacles.  I’m sure zombie guru George A Romero would be rolling in his grave if he saw this new breed of zombie.  I mean if he was dead,

World War Z stars Brad Pitt and is directed by Marc Forster (who’s credits include the James Bond film Quantum of Solace and the acclaimed Monsters Ball).  Which in itself sounds like a great mix to make a great horror movie thats front loaded with tons of action.

However, buzz around the internet suggests it might not be as promising as the trailer insists.  While the 2006 book it was based on World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks,was widely received by critics and fans alike, the movie adaptation has been receiving a lot of flack.

The problems plaguing the production of World War Z seem almost as horrifying as a zombie outbreak itself.  It was originally slated for a December release, but has since been moved to June for various reasons.  One of which was the various rewrites the film went through.  Originally J. Michael Straczynski was signed on to write the script, which was soon tossed out and rewritten by Matthew Michael Carnahan.

After shooting was finished Damon Lindelof was brought on to rewrite the back third of the script and had to bow out to have Drew Goddard (The Cabin In The Woods and Cloverfield) pick up the slack. Combined with weeks of reshooting and reedits, it’s rumored that World War Z went completly over budget and had almost grinded to a halt during numerous stages of development.

I guess we will have to wait until it’s release to see if it’s any good, but fans of the genre have already pointed out how disappointed they are with the zombies who have been compared to those in the movie I Am Legend.

In the meantime check out the trailer and let me know what you think.