Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL: The experiment is a very lame TV-movie/pilot about the adventures of ugly Seventies people with long sideburns working in an airport. Yawn. The host segments are bizarre: Mike does his then-topical Urkel impersonation, and recurring characters (Jan in the Pan, Pitch, Torgo) turn up to laugh at it. A forgettable episode, though as always the riffing provides enough laughs to make it a decent watch. 3/5.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched a pretty decent film called DEAD OF WINTER.
A group of geocachers are driven by bus to a remote area in the Rockies to chase down a $25,000 prize.
But when they start dying one by one in horrible booby traps, they realize that a different kind of hunt is underway . . .

This one was pretty well done, and I didn't guess the villain till the end.  4/5

[claws]

Ouija (2014)

Mourning the loss of her best friend who committed suicide, a young woman tries to contact her by using a Ouija board. She soon unleashes a deceiving evil force that is out to kill her friends.

Beautiful teens in supernatural trouble based on Hasbro's board "game" with heavyweights Michael Bay and Jason Blum as producers. The outcome is still very average to say the least. This plays out like a PG-13 version of Final Destination with a few unintentional funny deaths and mild suspense. However, Ouija has one little sweet surprise up its sleeve in the casting department. I won't name the actress but she's always good at what she does. A little more of her and my rating would've been higher 2/5.

The Millennium Bug (2011)

December 31st, 1999: escaping the millennium hysteria a family of three decide to go camping in the mountains. There they encounter a brutal backwoods / inbred family who kidnap the daughter so she can produce healthy children. Things get worse when a giant insect creature goes on a roaring rampage of destruction.

Over-the-top redneck-splatter / monster movie mayhem mash-up. Think Wrong Turn meets Godzilla with a bit of comedy thrown in for good measure. Surprisingly entertaining low budget affair with practical effects only. The first time director clearly had a vision, an interesting concept and quite a few original ideas but its still missing a final polish and smarts that would've made The Millennium Bug a underrated cult film. As it is, a good 2.5/5 rating from me.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead" (2014)
http://youtu.be/glIoXwTcG60

The lone survivor of the first "Dead Snow" enlists a team of American zombie "experts" - and some undead Russians - to help him defeat that horde of pesky Nazi zombies once and for all. This sequel to the Norwegian horror/comedy hit is faster, funnier, and just as over-the-top gory as the original. Ultra-violent, sicko fun.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Boa vs. Python" (2004)

http://youtu.be/7WC-rB7IV5E

Two cheaply CGI'd serpents battle it out, with a bunch of stupid humans caught in the middle. Nuff said. "Sharknado" looks like "Masterpiece Theater" next to this dreck.

[indianasmith]

I watched a pretty cool little indie horror film called ROWS tonight.  Not terribly fast-paced, but well-done, with a great creepy ending.  3.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (1964): A Parisian woman takes a job as chambermaid at a country estate where the mistress is frigid, the master is randy, the grandfather is a shoe fetishist, and the handyman is a Fascist. This upper crust satire/melodrama is a great example of how "accessible" Luis Bunuel could be when he chose; with the exception of the relatively straightforward (and relatively weak) TRISTANA, it's the last in a series of Marxist-flavored realist films he made before returning to Surrealism for good. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE FOX FAMILY (2006): A family of foxes take human form and pose as circus performer; if they can each eat a human liver on the lunar eclipse, they can become human for good. Nothing really special, but the premise is exotic and the comedy is broad enough to work cross-culturally. Korean, with musical numbers. Female lead Si-Yeon Park is incredibly beautiful. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Demons 2" (1986)
http://youtu.be/ULnIgqU3LRI
In Lamberto Bava's sequel to his '85 Italian gore-fest, those pesky Demons escape out of a horror movie being shown on TV and get loose in a luxury high rise building. Mayhem and gore immediately follow and so do many plot holes and lots of bad acting. Everything about this enjoyably silly splatter flick (the fashions, the soundtrack, etc.) is sooooo '80s that it hurts.

[lester1/2jr]

Alice Sweet Alice - this was a decently creepy 70's evil kid horror, I especially like the obese landlord guy, but the plot twist thing was baffling and left me scratching my head till the end. imagine if at the end of Fight Club we learned that Brad Pitt wasn't Brad Pitt he was actually the guy who invented the pet rock, just for no reason. thats what this was like but in the middle

still enjoyable 3/5

[indianasmith]

Tonight I watched  a really twisted little flick called THE HOARDER.
Two lady friends visit a storage facility late at night to see if they can find where one's fiancée has hidden his journal - she think's he's seeing someone else, and has moved his journals to a storage facility to keep her from reading them.  But then, when they take the elevator to the unit's underground level and open the wrong door, something evil is let loose . . . and no one in the building is safe!

I rented this one with zero expectations, and it turned out to be a wonderfully creepy little film!  Great make-up effects, zero CGI, believable characters . . . this one is indie horror at its best!! 4.5/5

[Trevor]

Phantoms with Ben Affleck and Peter O'Toole (!!!) last night: that was bad, friends and neighbors! 

[indianasmith]

The Dean Koontz novel was brilliant - one of the most eerie things I have ever read.  But the movie adaptation majorly blew!

[Trevor]

The Dean Koontz novel was brilliant - one of the most eerie things I have ever read.  But the movie adaptation majorly blew!

Agreed: I still can hear Jason Mewes in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back shouting to Ben Affleck "Yo, Affleck! You the bomb in Phantoms, yo!"  

Oh yes, forgot: what was Peter O'Toole doing in that? 

[Trevor]

MST3K: SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL: The experiment is a very lame TV-movie/pilot about the adventures of ugly Seventies people with long sideburns working in an airport. Yawn.

That should be on the liner notes right there.