Reviews

A man battles his nagging mother and a hoard of zombies all while fighting for love in 'Dead Alive', a cult classic horror film from 1992.

We first begin in 1957 Skull Island where a zoologist smuggles a hybrid rat monkey creature from the jungle. These creatures carry some sort of a plague type virus, and the audience quickly sees the fear of the locals when the zoologist is bitten by one of them. The captured creature ends up being shipped to a New Zealand zoo in Wellington which is where we meet Lionel, a man who is controlled constantly by his awful domineering mother - Vera. While in a downtown shop one day, Lionel bumps into the shopkeepers daughter Paquita - a beautiful young woman who he instantly falls in love with, much to Vera's chagrin.

Eventually, Vera is bitten by the creature while spying on Lionel and Paquita at the zoo, and that's where the fun begins. Vera begins to deteriorate almost in a matter of days after the bite, turning into a decaying zombie. She kills her nurse who also turns into a zombie right in front of Lionel. Absolutely devastated about his mother, Lionel works hard to keep her "alive" and preserved by constantly keeping her locked up in the basement. After a while, she breaks free and starts infecting others who come over to the house. Can Lionel keep his deadly secret from the police and his lady love Paquita, or will a zombie outbreak kill everyone in Wellington?

'Dead Alive' is definitely one of those horror movies that bombed at the box office during it's release, but has built up a massive cult following since then. It's perfect blend of comedy, horror, and gore done by legendary Peter Jackson makes this a classic that I often go back to watch often. One of the funniest (and goriest) scenes is when Lionel and his decaying mother sit down for lunch with the head of a social committee the mother wanted to be a part of. Tons of physical comedy, such as Vera's ear falling off into her pudding in front of the guests. It's such an insane chaotic scene which is sad and horrific, yet it works as a comedic moment as well. There were a lot of elements of other horror movies, at times it played very much like 'Evil Dead' meets 'Dawn of the Dead'. The acting was hilariously over the top worked to perfection by Timothy Balme who played Lionel. Diana Penalver was great as the romantic Paquita, and a lot of credit goes to Elizabeth Moody who led a lot of the film early on as Lionel's nagging mother.

Overall - a great story, really good gore, and stellar campy acting makes 'Dead Alive' is a must watch horror film.

8/10.

An evil pharmacuetical company plans on cashing in on blood supply after a vampire plague has almost ended humankind in 'Daybreakers'.

The film tells us that thanks to an infected bat, a plague in 2009 caused most of the world's population into vampires. Most of the remaining humans were captured and harvested into laboratory farms for blood supply while the deadly vampires began building and underground world to avoid death by the sun. We meet our main character Edward, who is a big time hematologist for Bromley Marks which is a supplier pharmaceutical company specializing in the supply of human blood. As the human race is getting to a point of being completely wiped out, Edward and a colleague begin developing a blood substitute.

One night while driving home, Edward runs into a group of humans being lead by a woman named Audrey. Instead of turning them into the authorities, he lets them go showing a more "human" side to himself. After that, Edward and his brother Frankie encounter what is called a Subsider - a psychotic bat like creature which vampires turn into when they are deprived of blood long enough. Determined to put an end to the human genocide, Edward agrees to have a meeting with Audrey and discovers that there is a human in their group which was once a vampire. His reversion was due to being exposed to the sun for just a short period of time, and then falling into a body of water stopping death by sunlight. It will be up to Edward, Audrey and the rest of their team to stop the evil head of Bromley Marks.

'Daybreakers' was a fine entry to the vampire horror sub-genre. We got some heavy hitters in the acting department such as Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill who all did a good job. My major issue was that the movie had a great premise, but ended up becoming a mash up of different genres. It had a bit of horror, sci-fi, romance, action, undead/walking dead. It never really hit any of them with excellence. I did like that the film still showed society being an absolute mess even after a vampire plague. Major cities still have a homeless and low income issue, with poor people on the streets begging for blood instead of food or money. The Subsiders also looked very creepy and I definitely jumped when the first one popped up at Edward's house. But overall, it had a Hollywood blockbuster feel to the film that sadly gave us a ton of cliches which was a negative for me.

I'd give 'Daybreakers' a watch, especially if you're into vampire/end of the world movies. It was just ok for me, nothing that would draw me back in for a second viewing.

6/10.

A psychiatrist and a janitor do battle with a deranged serial killer while trapped inside of a 'Dark Asylum'.

The film begins with us finding out that a serial killer named "The Trasher" has killed well over a dozen people, leaving only their blood at the crime scene which is always near a dumpster. While on the beat, a couple of cops hear screaming underground near an open sewer grate. They decide to go down and end up finding The Trasher and all of his bodies. After killing one of the cops, he is captured and taken to the Crestmore Asylum for an evaluation by our main character Dr. Maggie Belham. The serial killer quickly escapes capture killing a bunch of hospital stage and cops before setting his sights on Maggie. While on the run in the hospital, Maggie runs into someone named Quitz who first claims to be the janitor but eventually reveals himself to be a patient who fell through the cracks of the system. Maggie and Quitz will have to fight The Trasher until midnight when the feds are scheduled to arrive for the transfer. Can they make it?

'Dark Asylum' is a very straight forward horror film that doesn't involve a lot of thinking, which isn't necessarily a bad thing given it's lower budget and not having the best script. The location of the asylum was really one of the best things about the movie. It was dark, creepy, and felt very dated and desolate. It was infuriating at times, with the characters constantly making dumb decisions for 90% of the movie. But overall, it kept me invested enough to sit through the whole thing and interested to see how it all played out.

Larry Drake is a scary dude. He is huge, and played the role of the psychotic "Trasher" very well. The rest of the acting had question marks for sure, but I thought it was alright overall and didn't distract from the movie. Supermodel Paulina Porizkova played final girl Maggie pretty well, hitting all the beats of fear and strength. Judd Nelson was all over the place as the janitor/patient Quitz, but had a likability to him which made me root for his survival at least.

I would recommend giving 'Dark Asylum' at least a watch if it comes your way. It was done at a time (2001) when a ton of these straight to video low budget horror films were being chucked out, so don't expect a masterpiece. Take it for the mindless thriller it is and you may enjoy the ride.

5/10.

An evil spirit threatens the lives of children who lose their last baby tooth in 'Darkness Falls', a 2003 flop that had a lot of potential.

The film begins with an old tale of Matilda Dixon, an elderly woman who would give children gold coins whenever they would lose their baby teeth. After a fire destroyed her house and disguised her face, she wore a creepy porcelain mask to hide the burns. The town believed she was a witch and ended up hanging her. Before her death, she put a curse on Darkness Falls swearing revenge. Over the next 150 years, the story became a legend which said she visits children on the night they lose their last baby tooth - if they look her in the eye, someone dies. Fast forward to 1990 where we meet a young boy named Kyle who loses his last tooth. Matilda of course visits him, he looks her right in the eye, and his mother is murdered leaving the police to believe he did it. Twelve years later, Kyle's best friend/girlfriend Caitlin from 1990 reaches out to him because her little brother Michael has been refusing to sleep in the dark. We learn that Kyle was insitutionalized after his mother's death and still suffers from anxiety and sleep disorders. Kyle tries to explain to Caitlin and everyone in town that Matilda is real and will strike again, but no one believes him. With Michael in serious danger after losing his last baby tooth, the people of Darkness Falls may soon regret not believing in the folklore.

I wanted 'Darkness Falls' to be so much more than what it was, especially after such a strong opening scene. The script overall was just ok and the pacing felt rushed with very little buildup, in particular the reunion with Caitlin and Kyle after being apart for over ten years. Unfortunately suffers from being a PG-13 film. It lacked the scares and gore that it should have given to the audience, and at times felt like a really good episode of 'Are you Afraid of the Dark' instead of a blockbuster horror film. Despite the mixed-negative reviews from critics, the movie managed to make quite a lot of money at the box office for such a lower budget.

The characters for the most part were not well fleshed out. Caitlin hadn't spoken to Kyle in twelve years, never reached out to see how he was for so long, but then all of a sudden calls him up out of the blue to help her brother with his issues? It just felt that no effort was really put into making the two of them this connected and romantic force out to end Matilda Dixon. Lead actress Emma Caulfield did a good job as adult Caitlin, but I found Chaney Kley's performance very low energy and not as engaged.

Overall, I didn't enjoy this one as much as I wanted to. I kept on waiting for a payoff, but each murder and scare scene was a let down. The great opening scene wasn't enough to save this one from being just a very average horror film.

5/10.

A young woman new to the big city purchases a Jaguar haunted by ghosts in "Dark of the Night", a surprisingly eerie 80's film from New Zealand.

We first meet our main character Meg at a car dealership looking to buy used car. Once persuaded by the dealer, she purchases a stunning Jaguar. Meg decides to drive her new car across the country to a new city, and has to sleep in the car overnight on the drive there. The first night she's sleeping, she hears a haunting kind of moaning sound coming from the back seat. When she turns around, no one is there. Frightened, she drives into the night and makes it to her mother's house safely. Meg begins having nightmares of being chased on a road by the Jaguar and also visions of another woman she's never met before heading towards the Jaguar.

A lot of the middle frame is Meg reconnecting with her parents and some old friends she hasn't seen in a while, but after that, Meg is back on the road again to the big city. On the way there, she experiences some creepy moments. For one, the woman from her dream appears and gets into her car to hitchhike. At the same time, a man also gets into the front seat. When she looks back, the woman is missing from the backseat and the man tells her that there was never a woman in the car with them! Meg eventually discovers that a woman was murdered in the backseat years prior. With the killer never found, will history repeat itself for Meg?

'Dark of the Night' is a very effective ghost story film which likely hasn't been seen by many, luckily I happened to find the VHS years ago. The movie has some really creepy and haunting moments which are shot very well. The sounds in the backseat, the car trunk opening on it's own when no one is around. 'Dark of the Night' was also shot on location in New Zealand, so we get some really beautiful scenery of New Zealand out by the coast.

The main character Meg was very likeable, and the script tried to develop the character so the audience would feel her fear and misery over the situation she found herself in. I knew none of the actors from anything else, but found them all to be pretty good - especially Heather Bolton who had the lead role (Meg).

All in all, I highly recommend "Dark of the Night' to any horror/thriller fan who enjoys a good ghost tale. It was a bit slower moving at times, especially the middle frame, but the payoff was worth the wait.

6/10.

Young Sally Hurst battles a hoard of mini demons determined to capture and kill her in this 2010 remake 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'.

The film begins in the early 19th century with an old man in a mansion who sacrifices his (and his maid's teeth) to something in the basement that lives in an ash pit in the fireplace. He believes that he can get his missing son back if he gives over the teeth. They reject his offer because they aren't children's teeth, and kill him. Flash forward to present day where we meet 8 year old Sally who is going to live with her father and his new girlfriend Kim. They have just recently purchased the mansion that we saw at the beginning of the movie.

We learn early on that Sally is a very angry and moody child who hates her father's new girlfriend Kim, and the three of them have many domestic spats. Eventually Sally starts exploring the report and discovers the basement which has since been boarded up and hidden from plain sight. By opening up the wall blocking the path to the basement, Sally, Kim and Alex unknowingly unleash the demons who begin reaching out to young Sally. Will the demons succeed in capturing the little girl, or can Kim help save the stepdaughter who hates her.

I have very mixed feelings on this remake of a made for TV movie that I hold in very high regard. It definitely isn't as atmospheric or creepy as the 1973 version, but it would be hard for any director to capture the magic in that one. The opening scene with the broken teeth was very effective. The voiceovers of the demons was also very well done, sounded very close to the original 1973 film. One very ineffective change with this remake was that we could see the demons (or tooth fairies), where as in the original movie they were kept in the dark from viewers until near the end. It was one of the things which made the '73 version so memorable.

Katie Holmes gave a great performance as Kim, the embattled stepmother to Sally, who ends up being Sally's biggest support system in the film. The character Alex was written even more insufferable than in the original. He completely neglects his daughter who appears to be suffering from a breakdown. Bailee Madison put in a powerful performance as the (at times) grating 8-year old Sally. The acting of Holmes and Madison were a few of the view major positives of this one.

Overall, I'd give this at least one watch if you're a horror fan or even a Guillermo Del Toro fan. A lot of the same themes we've seen from his work such as Pan's Labyrinth come into play in this one. I just felt that this was an inferior imagining of a classic.

5/10.

Miniature demons attack a woman and her mental state in 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark', a made-for-TV movie from 1973 which garnered a ton of positive attention.

We meet our main character Sally Farnham and her husband Alex who have just inherited an old creepy mansion from Sally's recently deceased grandmother. One day while exploring the basement, Sally notices that the fireplace has been all bricked up and closed off. When the estate's handyman Mr. Harris doesn't give her any answers as to why that is, Sally decides to try and remove the bricks herself ending up creating a mini entry way into the fireplace. We then hear several whispers from the fireplace saying "she set us free".

Sally then starts hearing voices whispering her name and stating "we want you"! Eventually, at a dinner party for Alex's new business partners, Sally is stunned when she actually sees one of the small hideous demons. She completely flips out at the party, embarrassing Alex who thinks she is beginning to lose her mind. The demons start physically attacking her which prompts her to want to sell the house. With no support from her husband, and her mental state being questioned by everything, will Sally ever prove that these monsters exist ... or will she fall victim to the creatures?

These old ABC movies of the week from the 70's really did a great job at building mood and atmosphere. The house is creepy and dimly lit, really sets the mood and tone of the film so well.

Kim Darby did a fantastic job as the often jumpy and timid housewife Sally. Sally is a character who seems unhappy with her husband's work schedule which takes him out of town on a regular basis, but she still puts a smile on as the perfect wife and hostess. All played to perfected by Darby. Another standout was Barbara Anderson who played the well fleshed out character of Joan, best friend of Sally who tries her best to support her throughout the movie.

I highly recommend watching this one. Great mood and atmosphere paired up with terrific acting and a shocking ending. They don't make them like this anymore - sadly.

8/10.

The crazed Dr. Feinstone escapes a psych ward determined to rid the world of oral decay in 'The Dentist 2', an average follow up to a 1996 sleeper hit.

The film begins with Alan living out his days in a psychiatric facility following the events of the first film. Cleverly finding a way to escape, Alan makes his way to the sleepy town of Paradise, taking a new identity (Dr. Lawrence Caine). Meanwhile, Alan's wife Brooke discovers he escaped from the facility and begins a search of her own for him determined to make him pay for cutting out her tongue in the first film. While in Paradise, Alan now known as Lawrence meets a beautiful woman named Jamie who has a striking resemblance to Brooke. He begins to fall in love with her very quickly, but still battles impulses on a regular basis.

Feeling itchy to get back into his work as a dentist, Alan murders the local dentist taking his place as the only one in town. Now with his brand new practice in full swing, Alan begins hallucinating again and not being able to cope with his severe OCD, leading him to either hurt or kill many of his patients. A few people in town begin to get suspicious of the mysterious Dr. Caine, but his new love Jamie stands by his side. With Brooke hot on his trail, and the questions of the nosy townsfolk, will the pressure get to Alan once again, or will his new love for Jamie help him see the light?

After enjoying the first movie as much as I did, I know it would be hard for the sequel to match or surpass it - and I was right. 'The Dentist 2' followed the same formula as the first film, just with the added twist of a new location. We get a lot of the same Feinstone breakdowns that we've seen before, not nearly as effective a second time around but still acted well by Bernsen. There was one scene in the movie that was particularly gruesome and that was the torture scene with Bev and Alan. Very well done. But the characters weren't as effective, and it lost my interest a bit mid way through.

Overall, 'The Dentist 2' lacked the originality and non stop roller coaster feeling the first film gave us. But this follow up sequel wasn't all that bad and is worth at least a watch.

5/10.

Dr. Alan Feinstone is 'The Dentist' who has it all. A beautiful house, gorgeous wife, and a booming practice. He also has a severe obsessive compulsive side that pushes him to the brink of insanity.

We meet his wife Brooke early on in the film and, along with Alan, discover that she is sleeping with the pool boy. This discovery makes him late for work, but as the only dentist at his practice - the show must go on. He arrives at the office to a bunch of impatient clients, only pushing his stress levels even further. He ends up cutting a child's gums when imagining the child has rotting teeth. After that, he sexually assaults a beauty queen patient of his while hallucinating that she is Brooke. On top of all of this, his staff of dental hygienists hate him and the IRS man is on his tail.

Late that night, he brutally attacks Brooke in the dental office removing all of her teeth and tongue but keeping her alive and in severe pain. The next day, his staff notice him on edge and aggressively destroying another patient's molar without any regard for what he just did. Things start spiralling further when his hygenist Jessica discovers he sexually assaulted the woman from the other day. Alan will have to clean up all of these messes before he is caught once and for all.

I love everything about 'The Dentist'. Stylistically speaking, the movie was shot in a very clean and sleek way. Great work by horror director Brian Yuzna and shoutout to Alan Howarth who did a great job on the musical score that really sets the intense tone of this one. As someone who has a bit of a fear of the dentist, there were some very well done scenes at the dentist office involving drills and other sounds you hear when getting a check up. Tons of squeamish and cringeworthy moments, especially once Alan starts killing various patients with his tools.

Corbin Bernsen knocked this out of the park, and really could have been a more household name in horror if he wanted back in the day. Watching Alan's journey as he goes deeper and deeper into insanity was a fun joy ride to be on, and it came down to the fine acting of Bernsen. He had a great chemistry with Linda Hoffman who played his sexy adulteress wife Brooke, she gave just as good as she got. It was also a real treat to see Ken Foree (of Dawn of the Dead fame) again in horror as well. Also noteworthy was an early appearance of Mark Ruffalo who brought star quality even at a younger age. Every actor no matter what the part, big or small, brought the goods in this one. Earl Boen as the dastardly IRS guy, Molly Hagan and Patty Toy as Alan's hygienists, Jan Hoag as the secretary. All did a wonderful job.

'The Dentist' is an above average campy, thrilling and at times gruesome horror film that has sadly been overlooked in the genre. Definitely recommend giving it a watch if you aren't too squeamish when it comes to dental care.

8/10.

A group of teenagers and army soldiers in Colorado battle zombies in 'Day of the Dead', a 2008 remake which fails to surpass the original by a large margin.

The film starts with our group of teenagers having a good time, drinking and engaging in sex, that sort of thing. One of them gets a nosebleed and runs out. Meanwhile, we find out that the entire town has been bordered off by the U. S. military due to a mysterious virus plaguing the area. We meet the military crew which include Nick Cannon playing Salazar, Mena Suvari as Corporal Sarah Bowman, and Ving Rhames as the strict and stern Captain Rhodes. When Sarah goes to see visit her sick mother, she sees her brother Trevor who mentions the friend that had the nosebleed from earlier. She knows right away that he was one of those infected by the virus. Can Sarah and the others survive, or will they succumb to the zombie apocalypse?

'Day of the Dead' was such a disappointing film, I shudder to even refer to it as a remake of such a great movie from George Romero. The acting was surprisingly so bad that it actually took away from the overall film. The characters themselves were not well developed and were unlikeable. The gore was also terrible overall and the story was severely flawed. There were some very tense moments in the air vents between a zombie and the character of Sarah Bowman which I thought were well done, other than that the scare scenes were very weak and not well developed.

Overall, 'Day of the Dead' was a failure in terms of coopering the charm of the original. Despite the big names in the credits, the acting was so bad that it hurt the overall final product.

3/10.

Staff and patients at a psychiatric hospital are under attack by a mysterious virus in 'Day of the Dead 2: Contagium', a silly and unrelated sequel to George Romero's 1985 classic.

The film begins at a psychiatric facility in 1968 where an infected Soviet man is being operated on. All of a sudden, the military show up and start shooting everyone in sight at the hospital including other random patients and staff. We notice a staffer pick up a vial of something and put it in his thermos. It seems that the infected man has also infected others around him, turning them into zombies. The staffer is eventually shot dead and the thermos lays on the ground undetected. Fast forward 37 years to the same exact hospital where we meet a group of disturbed patients and a couple of their doctors, including the lead character Dr. Donwynn.

One day when picking up trash, a patient finds the thermos from all those years ago and takes it back to the clinic with him. Once opened, the strange object falls from it thereby releasing the virus from 1968 which infects the entire group. The patients begin exhibiting symptoms of the Virus such as coughing up blood, varicose veins, and even rotting flesh. Eventually the virus overtakes the group and they begin attacking and infecting others leading to a bloody ending.

This is a sequel to 'Day of the Dead' in name only - to be clear, there is zero connection to any of the "Dead" series. The film tries to tell the audience that the zombie attack started with this mysterious airborne virus, which as we know does not follow any of the laws/story of the OG series. Outside of Stephan Wolfert (Dr. Donwynn), the acting was atrocious which matched the at times ridiculous dialogue given to them. None of the characters were all that fleshed out so when they met their demise, I never really cared. The gore was gross, but not in a "wow" way just a lot of nasty skin peeling from the infected group and also a lot of puking up of blood moments as well.

'Day of the Dead 2' is extremely skippable. Outside of the opening scene, we go an hour into the film without a single zombie attack. It dragged on far too long with no payoff at any point.

2/10.

Since the events at the mall in 'Dawn', the world has completely overrun by the undead in 'Day of the Dead - George Romero's third and final entry to the original 'Dead' series

The 'Day' begins sometime following the events of the 'Dawn' where we meet a crew of people in a helicopter exploring a major city in Florida in search of any people who are still alive from the attack by the undead. Their search is unsuccessful as we learn that at this point things have gotten worse since 'Dawn' and the world has been completely overrun by the zombie attack. The crew (Sarah, Flyboy, Bill and Miguel) return back to the underground base, a dark and dingy lair being run by misogynistic military type men who think they know more than the doctors/scientists who are trying to help solve the problem.

One of the doctors is Dr. Logan who has been nicknamed Dr. Frankenstein. His job is to cut open the captured undead to see if he can discover what is causing this attack. We soon learn he's keeping one of them locked up, a friendly and likeable zombie named Bub. With the work of Dr. Frankenstein, Bub starts to remember parts of his past life and shows signs of human behaviour. He seems to believe that zombies can eventually be controlled and conditioned to behave in society. Once the military men realize what Frankenstein has been up to, they kill him and in turn cause a deadly zombie attack inside their base. Will the good guys survive?

'Day of the Dead' was a solid entry to the OG 'Dead' series, but was certainly the third in the trilogy. I loved the opening scenes in the city. Extremely atmospheric with how empty and desolate the streets were, except for the undead roaming around. The film mostly takes place in the dark underground base, which for me wasn't so enjoyable as a backdrop for the entire thing. The mall from 'Dawn' and even the farmhouse from 'Night' were way more effective. The acting was stellar overall led by Lori Gardille as our heroine Sarah and Joseph Pilato as the main villain Rhodes. Shout out has to go to Richard Liberty and Sherman Howard who gave us that wonderful Frankenstein/Bub relationship which gave this film a lot of enjoyable life.

All in all, 'Day of the Dead' was a fine horror film in the zombie sub-genre. Pretty good special effects and character development makes this a much watch. Nowhere near as good as the first two films, but it holds up overall.

7/10.

Flesh eating zombies attack a group of civilians at a large shopping mall in 'Dawn of the Dead', a 2004 remake of George Romero's classic.

The film begins with our main character Ana coming home after finishing a shift as a nurse, missing the emergency news bulletin detailing the latest on zombie attacks. Her and her husband Luis wake up to a whole new world as a little zombie girl sneaks into their house, killing Luis. Completely traumatized and scared, Ana runs out of her house and eventually finds a group of people looking for refuge from the evil that has taken over the world. They come across a seemingly abandoned mall and decide to break in to stay alive.

Over time, some of the group end up succombing to the attacks of the zombies. Some of the single people start building romantic relationships with the others as well, including our main character Ana. When the mall no longer becomes a safe haven for the group, they decide to leave and go on the run in the city. When it becomes clear that the only way to stay alive is to take a boat to an island, it's a race against time (and zombies) to find a way off the main land and get to safety.

My major critique (like most people including George Romero had) was that I hated that the zombies can run in this one. Nope. I have never been a fan of running zombies. It makes the creatures less creepy and eerie for me, which is what I want when I'm watching a film like this. Other than that, it was an enjoyable film overall. The acting was good, led by Sarah Polley and Mekhi Phifer. And the characters were well fleshed out and for the most part we wanted them to survive and do well.

This 'Dawn of the Dead' remake was a lot of fun, and overall a solid zombie entry. The only issue I had with it, like with most remakes, is that it just wasn't as good as the original. It derfinitely felt more like an action film than a zombie horror movie.

7/10.

The undead attack a group of survivors who take refuge inside a large shopping mall in the iconic 1978 version 'Dawn of the Dead'.

Taking place right around the time of the events from 'Night of the Living Dead', we learn that the United States has been completely devastated by a plague that brings the dead back to life as flesh eating zombies. We meet a couple of our main characters Stephen and Fran who work at a local news station covering the zombie attack. They've come up with a plan to steal a helicopter and escape the country. Along for the ride of escape are two police SWAT officers Roger and Peter.

After some close calls with zombies while trying to fuel up the chopper, the group makes their way to a seemingly deserted shopping mall thinking it's the perfect place to stay considering it has food, medicine, and various other consumables. All is calm and going well at the mall, until a biker gang finds the mall and decides to break in, destroying all the barriers our main group put up. With hundreds of zombies inside the mall, it's a race for the foursome to escape before the living dead tear them apart.

I love this movie a lot. Dawn of the Dead was one of the first horror movies I had ever seen when I was young, and it built my love for the zombie sub-genre. There are very few flaws with this film overall. I thought that the characters were fleshed out very well, and were given a ton of substance to make the audience care for all of them (even Stephen). Dawn of the Dead does a great job at giving hope of survival to the characters. There isn't a whole lot of dread which the next entry (Day of the Dead) brings. It's interesting and also funny when the main characters decide to put on the music in the mall and also start up the fountains, trying their best to make the mall feel like home.

The mall is a great filming location choice for a movie about zombies. It's an open space, but does have it's small corridors which presents a ton of danger to the group at various points throughout. In terms of acting, Ken Foree stole the show for me. His performance as the heroic Peter is a memorable one, such good acting. In terms of special effects and gore, next to 'The Prowler' this may have been Tom Savini's best work. Some of the special effects like the helicopter death scene involving a zombie and the mall attack on the bikers looked very realistic.

Overall, 'Dawn of the Dead' is a must see for horror fans. Kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

9/10.

The Demons series takes a turn in storyline with "Demons III: The Ogre", a made-for-TV film from 1988 which has nothing to do with the first two films.

The film begins in Portland, Oregon where we see a little girl having trouble sleeping during a thunderstorm. She gets up to look around for her mother in what looks like some huge old style castle. The little girl makes her way down to the creepy basement where she sees some sort of a cocoon type thing growing on the ceiling. All of a sudden, a creepy hand punches out from the cocoon and the monster emerges, getting ready to attack the little girl. Just kidding - it was all a dream. The movie then switches to a couple with their son driving in Italy heading towards an old castle they've rented for a vacation. The mother (Cheryl) is a famous horror novelist, and pretty soon we realize that she was the little girl from the opening scene.

As time goes by, Cheryl starts exploring the castle and it becomes evident that it is the same one from her dreams as a little girl. One day while she explores the basement, we notice that the cocoon from her dreams is there, except open up with no monster inside. When Cheryl tells her husband, he of course doesn't believe her and thinks she's imagining things. Eventually, the Ogre makes an appearance, killing the babysitter one day while the parents are out in town. With the Ogre now roaming the castle halls, Cheryl gets her much anticipated confrontation with the monster and will have to try and survive.

The movie runs extremely slow, probably the weak point of the film for me and a reason why I didn't like it more. It has a calm, almost trance like feeling for the early part of the movie as we meet the family and get introduced to the town in Italy. The Ogre itself didn't make a real appearance and kill until around the 1 hour and 10 minute mark. The Ogre (or Demon) looked pretty creepy, it's just unfortunate we didn't see more of him throughout the film. Perhaps it being an Italian made-for-TV film is what caused the lack of airtime for the ghoul (and also the lack of kills/gore). And don't get me started on the rushed ending.

Demons III: The Ogre is a sequel to the original two films in name only, which I knew heading into it. Overall, it is an average/ok monster movie set in a creepy old castle in Italy. The story is a good one, and the acting by our final girl was good, but it all moved too slow and wasn't as scary as it could have been.

5/10.

Vicious monsters from a movie break through a TV screen to invade the real world in 'Demons 2', a sequel to the highly popular Bava/Argento classic made the year prior.

The film begins with us being introduced to a slew of characters living in a beautiful downtown high rise apartment building, each person with their own unique personality. Each one of them during the evening put on a horror film that is being broadcast on television. The twist is that the film they are watching is a continuation of the events that took place in the first 'Demons' film, which lets the audience know that what we saw in 'Demons' was an actual movie in the world of this sequel.

In reality at the apartment complex, a young girl named Sally is getting ready for her birthday party. Not vibing with anything to do with the party including her dress and the guest list, she decides to lock herself in her room and watches the horror movie that's on TV. As the friends prepare her cake, a demon climbs through the television set and attacks her turning her into a blood thirsty demon, similar to what we saw in the original film. Pretty soon, Sally starts attacking the guests and others who live in the building, infecting and turning whoever she bites or scratches into fellow demons. Can they all survive the demonic outbreak?

I enjoyed the way the filmmakers took us around the apartment complex and inside each unit of the main characters, showing us all of their different family or living dynamics. And they made sure to show us that each person we would be focusing on was watching the 'Demons' like horror movie on TV, very well done. I also really liked when the demon actually came through the screen to infect Sally at her party and the initial attack on her guests. It was fun watching the fun get started as the tenants began to be infected one by one.

Some of the acting was extremely questionable and silly at times, but the really bad dubbing (especially with the Sally character) no doubt contributed to that. The special effects were good, in particular the transformation scene when Sally became a demon. The kills were realistic enough too. Overall, I'd recommend this sequel which was equally as entertaining as the first 'Demons'.

7/10.

A group of strangers find themselves trapped in a Berlin movie theatre with ravenous 'Demons' threatening to kill them.

One night while riding on the Berlin subway, Cheryl is approached by a strange man in a mask who gives her tickets to a free screening taking place at a local cinema. Cheryl drags her friend Kathy to go along with her, and when they get there they meet some other attendees include two college boys, a married couple, and a couple of prostitutes along with a few others. At the cinema, the guests find some interesting artifacts and memorabilia including a mask similar to the one the strange man wore on the subway. One of the prostitutes named Rosemary puts it on and accidentally scratches her face on it causing her to bleed.

The film finally begins, and it is a horror movie about a group of teens who decide to dig up a body. One of the characters scratches themselves with the mask in the movie (just like Rosemary), which causes them to go insane, turn into a demon and kill their friends. Just as all of this takes place in the movie they're watching, Rosemary runs to the washroom and turns into a demon herself! It'll be up to the rest of the group of strangers to fight off the demons and escape death.

'Demons' was a lot of fun! Once the madness begins, the chaos in the cinema with the moviegoers trapped and trying to survive kept me no the edge of my seat. The soundtrack really added to the whole 80's punk vibe Argento and Bava were going for. I thought the makeup, gore and special effects were pretty well done as well. There were some really grotesque looks (such as Rosemary's transformation into a demon) and also some creative works with the kills in the movie.

I highly recommend 'Demons' to all fans of horror. This one did not disappoint when it came to non-stop fast paced gruesome excitement. Check it out.

7/10.

Residents of a small town are once again infected by a biological agent that turns them into violent killers in 'The Crazies', a 2010 remake of the 1973 classic.

The film begins with David the sheriff of Ogden Marsh, Iowa being forced to shoot a local citizen who threatens to kill other residents. At the same time, his wife (the town nurse) notices another man in town showing disturbing behaviour unlike his normal persona. Later that night, the man sets fire to his house killing himself and his entire family. We soon find out that a military plane had crashed into the river in town, which could have contaminated the water resulting in some of the strange behaviours of the locals.

Late one night, David along with his wife Judy and his deputy Russell are taken out of Ogden Marsh to a military base by a group of officers with hazmat suits on. When there, they check their temperatures as if there is some sort of virus that has contaminated the town. Judy's levels are high and they are separated from each other. David decides to go back into Ogden Marsh to get Judy, and in the process meets up with Russell and Judy's assistant Becca. The group will have to find a way to escape not only "The Crazies" in order to survive, but also the virus that threatens to turn them into the thing they fear the most.

'The Crazies' remake definitely keep me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. There were a ton of tense and shocking moments throughout the movie. The opening scenes with the father who sets fire to his house was one that stood out, along with some of the dark and creepy atmospheric moments at the end. A lot of what also kept things tense was the unknown. We never really knew if or when one of our main characters was going to turn and be affected by the contamination.

Timothy Olyphant did a fine job as the films hero, although having only ever seen him as the killer in Scream 2 it was strange to see him play a good guy. Radha Mitchell played the sheriff's wife Judy, and did a pretty decent job as the "final girl". The characters themselves weren't really fleshed out well in the script, but I guess a movie like this didn't care about that too much. It didn't help me really care if they lived or died though, which was a negative for me.

Overall, 'The Crazies' was a great remake and a rollercoaster ride from start to finish. It wasn't without it's flaws, but if you're looking for an action packed contamination type of horror film, this one is for you.

7/10.

Residents in a small town become infected by a military biological weapon which turns them insane in George Romero's 'The Crazies'.

The film begins with two young children witnessing their father going crazy and killing their mother before burning the entire house down with them in it. Not long after that, we see the government and the army move in to quarantine the surrounding area of that house that burned down. They seem to believe that there is a highly contagious virus that caused the man to kill his family and burn his house down with them in it.

Our main character Judy is a pregnant nurse who finds herself in the line of fire with the quarantine in effect. Her boyfriend Clank is a firefighter who is first on the scene at the farmhouse that burned down. With the government wanting a nuclear weapon to destroy the entire town of Evans City, can Judy and Clank survive the outbreak and the threats of death from the army?

Overall, I enjoyed 'The Crazies'. It was extremely eerie watching the masked soldiers enter houses of people infected by the virus. The actors did a very good job of seeming insane, usually with creepy smiles on their faces before they attack the soldiers. One scene that was chillingly effective was a "crazy" woman sweeping in a field while people around her were being shot at, not even concerned of her surroundings.

'The Crazies' isn't without it's flaws of course. Some of the dialogue isn't the best, it is extremely low budget looking, and a couple of the background actors chewed the scenery a bit too much. But all in all, I would recommend giving it a watch.

6/10.

Obsessive script writer Stanley Caldwell returns to finish what he started in this made-for-TV sequel to 'Cabin By The Lake'.

Two years after being presumed dead, Stanley (as Alan) is even more deranged than he was in the original. We see that he's feeling all sorts of anger over his original script for "Cabin By The Lake" being changed by a new writer named Alison. Alan decides to infiltrate the set of the movie, pretending to be a second unit director. At the same time, we meet the brother of one of the victims from the first film (Paul Parsons). Paul is determined to shut the film down.

Late one night while at the studio, Alison is attacked by an unseen assailant, leading everyone to believe it was Paul Parsons trying to stop the film production in the honour of his dead sister. With Paul out of the way, Alan begins his devious plan to bring the film to life. He murders the director, taking over production himself with a sick scheme to actually murder the cast while it's being filmed. Not long after that, Alan begins to obsess over Alison the way he has over women in the past. Will it get in the way of his master plan?

'Return to Cabin By The Lake' was a marginally better film than the original. I enjoyed the dialogue in this one so much more than the first movie. It didn't take itself seriously at all, and the film was more fun for it. Judd Nelson led the way as the deranged Stanley/Alan, and he seemed to have a lot of fun in the role with a more comedic script than the original had. A standout was Dahlia Salem who played the final girl 'Alison'. She put in a very strong performance and was very root-able. The movie quality however and the way it looked was surprisingly worse than the original filmed a year prior.

Overall, 'Return to Cabin By The Lake' is a watchable made-for-TV thriller. The entire series as a whole never wowed me enough to recommend it. Some slow moving parts and frustrating decision making by the characters has always kept both films mediocre in my eyes.

5/10.

A deranged script writer plans to kidnap and murder young women for inspiration in 'Cabin by the Lake', a made-for-TV chiller from 2000.

We meet Stan who is writing a script for a slasher film and is currently experiencing a writers block. When talking to his agent who is expecting his scrip in ASAP, he makes a remark that he's keeping a girl hostage and plans to perhaps kill her as a part of his "research" for the horror movie ... already we can tell that something is not with Stan. Eventually we see that he is keeping a young woman named Kimberly locked up in his basement. Once he's in need of more inspiration, and to get into the mind of one of his film's potential victims, he ties a large block of concrete to an already tied up Kimberly and dumps her in the lake.

After that, we discover that Kimberly isn't Stan's first victim. At least four other woman have missing posters up at the police station, clearly all dead at the hands of Stan. One night while seeking his next victim, Stan goes to the movie theatre and meets an employee named Mallory. He is instantly fascinated by her and the fact that she hates water. He kidnaps her the same way he had all the other girls, but something about Mallory is different. She's stronger than the others. Stan ha found his "final girl". Can Mallory live up to that title and defeat the monster once and for all?

I'm very indifferent to 'Cabin by the Lake'. The plot has a ton of potential for a horror/thriller fan like myself, and the acting was pretty strong overall. The film sadly lacks because of the fact it is a made-for-TV film which comes with certain limitations. There aren't a ton of scares overall and almost no gore/blood for the audience. Some of the background music feels out of place at times, and definitely doesn't add any creepy ambience to the movie either.

Judd Nelson was deliciously deranged as the films serial killer Stan. The way he plays the character so emotionless when he commits a crime or a murder, almost with a sarcastic smirk while doing it. Hedy Burress did her very best playing Mallory, the final girl that Stan was obsessed with. It wasn't the strongest performance ever for a role like that, but she did have great chemistry with actor Michael Weatherly who played the hero cop Boone. Everyone else involved were just filler.

Overall, 'Cabin by the Lake' was a ho-hum sleepy made-for-TV movie that failed to be that effective as a thriller. Almost impossible to find, I wouldn't try that hard to seek it out.

5/10.

A young blind girl inherits a castle in Albania and discovers more than hidden treasures in this 2020 retelling of 'Castle Freak'.

The film begins as the original did with a woman (much younger this time) keeping a monster captured in the depths of an old Albanian castle. She feeds her and then beats her. This time around, an unseen person lets the monster out and kills the woman. We then meet our lead character Rebecca and her very unlikeable group of friends. After a night of drinking, Rebecca and her boyfriend John drive drunk and get into an accident causing her to go blind. Not long after that, Rebecca discovers that she has inherited the castle from her now deceased long lost mother. This prompts her, her boyfriend, and all of their friends to travel to Albania to see what she's inherited.

Rebecca starts exploring the castle, finding some of her mothers things and wonders about what she and her father were like. At the same time, she begins having nightmares (almost like visions) of her mother at the time she died. She also starts believing that there is someone else in the castle, something evil. The creature begins to roam the castle stalking Rebecca and her friends. Can they survive? And what secrets are hidden in Rebecca's new found family connecting her to the 'Castle Freak'?

They included much of the same plot from the original involving the captured "freak", addiction issues, and even had a blind lead character named Rebecca. But none of it stood up to what the first film captured. A major flaw was the actual freak himself. The look wasn't as good as the original, just some basic mummy costume. And we also got full length views of him in scenes during the day, rather than him stalking in the shadows. Not nearly as effective at being terrifying as the 1995 version achieved.

One of the best things this movie had going for it was Clair Catherine who played Rebecca. The actress played a blind person very well and she also brought the strength and energy needed for a "final girl". Jake Horowitz tried, but his awful abusive boyfriend John character had so little to work with. Every other actor was just background to be honest. The terrible characters are matched up with awful dialogue that doesn't make them any more likeable. All of them were added for bodycount numbers, clearly not for their quality as individuals.

Sadly, the 2020 version of 'Castle Freak' was a major letdown when compared to the far superior version from 25 years ago. There were far too many annoying characters, a confusing ending, and less scares.

4/10.

A family who inherits a large castle gets more than they bargained for when they realize a monster lurks the halls in 'Castle Freak'.

The film starts with us seeing an older woman preparing a meal for someone in an old Italian castle. She goes down to the depths of the place, and we see that she has something locked away. She beats the creature and leaves, but as she gets to her bedroom she collapses and dies. Sometime after that, we meet an American family who have inherited the castle from the old woman who died. Right away we see that the family is in shambles. The husband John was drunk driving months back with his two kids in the car and got into an accident causing his son to die and his daughter Rebecca to go blind. His wife Susan still hasn't forgiven him for what happened.

Rebecca decides to explore the castle one day, and in the process unknowingly awakens the monster that has been locked away for years. The creature manages to escape captivity and starts roaming the dark corridors of the castle scaring Rebecca. Of course no one believes her when she says there's someone else living there with them. Susan and John continue to fight, and one night he breaks his sobriety and brings a prostitute to the castle. The freak ends up killing her causing the police to suspect John of the crime. Can John convince them there's a monster on the loose, or will his family be mutilated while he rots in prison?

I really enjoyed 'Castle Freak' a lot! I love when horror movies give you different layers with characters so that you actually care for them one way or the other. The family dynamics with Susan hating John because he caused their sons death was well written and well acted. There was also a really dark and eerie vibe to the entire movie, great filming location at the castle with all the shadows. The "freak" was hideous looking and was really creepy each time he would come out to attack or stalk the family. The monster realizing that Rebecca can't see was an interesting scene considering he was clearly ashamed of what he looked like.

The acting in 'Castle Freak' was pretty good all around. Jeffrey Combs played the desperate father fighting to save his marriage very well. He played John so pathetic that you couldn't help feel bad for him despite his many flaws. Barbara Crampton was fun to watch as the nagging mother and wife Susan, never able to forgive John for the death of their son. The real standout though was Jessica Dollarhide who played the blind daughter Rebecca. The terror read so well on her face each time the "freak" came around, and she had to play it all as if she couldn't see. Very well done.

'Castle Freak' was a lot of fun overall. Was it perfect? Not at all. But it kept my interest the whole way through, despite not picking up steam until the last 30-40 minutes. A must watch!

7/10.

Daniel Robitaille has come to Los Angeles to kill off the remaining member of his family in 'Candyman 3: Day of the Dead'.

The film opens with our lead character Caroline experiencing a recurring nightmare of hers in which Candyman attacks and kills her. We learn that she is the great great grand-daughter of Daniel Robitaille, meaning she is the daughter of Annie Tarrant - our lead character from the 2nd film. Caroline's artist friend Miguel has decided to put on an art exhibit featuring the works of Daniel Robitaille, all while exploiting the fears of Candyman as Day of the Dead approaches. After Caroline says "Candyman" five times in the mirror at the art gallery, Candyman repays Miguel for his exploitations by slaughtering him and his girlfriend that night at his condo.

Caroline discovers the body, and two racist police offivers immediately start pressuring her to name a latino man (David) as the killer. David was an actor at the art gallery that night who was paid by Miguel to scare everyone during the Candyman exhibit. With Caroline believing that Candyman is real again, and David on the run for the murders, the two team up to clear David's name and defeat Candyman once and for all.

'Candyman 3' is definitely had the lowest budget and felt the lowest in terms of quality when it comes to the original series. Despite the cheap feeling to it, it did have it's moments. I enjoyed the stalking scenes down in the subway while Caroline waits for the train in the grimy empty station. The gore was plentiful in this one, in particular the very well done death scene of Caroline's roommate Tamara. Another good idea they had for this was to continue the Tarrant family storyline from part two, and bringing in young Caroline (who we saw at the end of the sequel) as the now adult lead. I did however hate that they wrote in that Annie from 'Candyman 2' was killed after all the work she put in to survive that film.

Tony Todd put in another stellar performance as Candyman, bringing all the creepiness and an air of mystery to each scene he's in. 'Baywatch' star Donna D'Errico got the role of our final girl Caroline. I thought she did a decent job, most of the time she a little out of place. But she could scream very well and had an on-screen presence that made the audience root for her survival. It was great to see Jsu Garcia (from A Nightmare on Elm St) in horror again. He led the way for a lot of the movie where some of the other actors faltered.

Overall, 'Candyman 3: Day of the Dead' is a flawed horror movie that felt rushed, cheap, and with no clear story direction at times. But I enjoyed some of the acting performances and it was a good touch to continue the storyline from the sequel.

5/10.

Daniel Robitaille comes to New Orleans to kill off his family members in 'Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh', a follow up sequel to the very popular 1992 slasher.

Taking place in New Orleans three years after Helen Lyle's battle with Candyman, the sequel begins with a familiar face (Phillip Purcell from the original) giving a presentation on his new book about the murders that took place in 1992 and the infamous urban legend. He decides to put on a show for the crowd and chants "Candyman" five times while looking into his reflective book cover. Once alone in a bar washroom, the Candyman murders him. Ethan Tarrant is blamed for the murder, as he was seen arguing with Purcell that night regarding the death of his father.

We then meet our main character Annie, and discover she is Ethan's sister. Their father said "Candyman" five times and ended up being murdered shortly after. In an attempt to clear Ethan's name, Annie starts looking into her family's past and discovers that she is the great grand-daughter of Daniel Robitaille! It was her family that cut off his hand decades back and used bees to kill him. After saying his name five times herself, Candyman comes to New Orleans to kill everyone surrounding Annie before eventually claiming her as his last victim.

There is a lot of Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh' that I enjoyed more than the original. We got way more Candyman and Tony Todd for one thing, which helped make the movie not drag on so much. There were a ton more deaths and a lot more gore. I also enjoyed following the actual backstory of Daniel Robitaille and how he was brutally murdered. The connection he had to our main character Annie and her family was told really well (and also set up the next sequel pretty nicely I must say). At the same time, there was something more real and raw about the original that this one lacked. This went way more supernatural and over the top at times, it certainly didn't take itself as serious as the first movie.

The acting was extremely strong in this one with Kelly Rowan leading the way as Annie Tarrant. I may have actually preferred her "final girl" performance to Madsen's. Tony Todd was given way more to do in this one, and he relished in the role. Veronica Cartwright of 'Alien' fame played Annie's mother and I thought she brought a lot of comic relief and wit to the movie which was needed.

Overall, this sequel to Candyman wasn't all that bad! It's a shame it didn't do better at the box office, the backstory of Daniel Robitaille becoming Candyman was finally told to it's full extent and told pretty well.

6/10.