Silent Night Deadly Night

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Black Christmas

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Madison County

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Smiley

 

M8! Hrrr flms rly n33d 2 gt w1th teh t1mes... Sorry. As I've mentioned before on this blog, horror and the internet have really struggled to find common ground. Partly because the internet is awash with it's own stomach churning controversies and accusations of corrupting youth. Film makers have always been one step behind, unable to match the explicit content which is at everyones fingertips and often the results are ridiculous as a result.

Malevolence

 

I always start watching a film with the most optimistic of intentions. Delving into a film I know nothing about is exciting and trying to judge a film by it's title alone is usually a futile task (although some may be fairly self-explanatory; Slaughtered Vomit Dolls for example). Free from any hype or expectation is a great way to start to watch a film, it's even how I discovered my personal favorite - Antichrist.

Maniac

 

I’m going to kick this review off with a controversial statement. Re-makes are a good idea. I’m not saying all re-makes are good, or that all films should be re-made, but in some cases they can be great. Most genre films are so painfully unoriginal that they feel a title card away from a re-make anyway. Audiences sensibilities, the boundaries of what is acceptable and the technologies used to create them are always changing. So in the right hands, yeah, a Clash of the Titans re-make could have been pretty amazing. It wasn’t, it was a pile of steaming kraken shit, but it could have been. Here’s hoping the new Godzilla film will be testament to this. Let’s not forget, The Thing, The Fly and even Scarface were impeccable examples of the re-make being done right.

Friday the 13th The Series- A New Beginning or has Jason Gone to Hell?

So… It was announced yesterday that there is going to be a new addition to the Friday the 13th canon in the form of a series of hour long TV shows. I thought I’d take some time to share my initial thoughts about this announcement and as it is extremely early days I will try and stay as grounded as I can but if this turns in to a speculative rant I can only apologise (unless I’m right, in which case, fuck it!).

Evil Things

 

Genre films can have a reputation for being formulaic, recycling old plots that are carbon copies of a defining predecessor. So it all comes down to the quality of the execution to distinguish one from the other, whether it’s the technical prowess, the acting, an interesting self-referential twist or solid story telling. Either way you can be pretty sure that James Bond is going to escape from the tank of carnivorous laser guided newts, Jason Statham is definitely going to solve his problems with face punching and everyone who isn't the girl with the troubled past who is charmingly insecure and hot but not slutty, is going to die.

The Orphan Killer

 

There is apparently an important difference between visiting fancy cocktails bars during happy hour and putting a green Fruit Pastille and an old piece of chewing gum in to a can of special brew and calling it a Hobo's Mojito... a Hobojito? The point is that there is a distinction between 'low budget' and 'cheap'. This is no less true with film. Many of the greatest horror films ever made have been incredibly low budget because working within the restrictions of what is affordable can force film makers to create new and innovative shock tactics. When coupled with the resulting rough aesthetic, low budget indie horror can create more atmosphere and tension than any blockbuster ever could. It takes a lot of skill and ingenuity to make this work and the ratio of failures to successes is extremely heavily swayed towards failure.