// Category Archive for: Horror

Blu-Ray Review: Argento’s Dracula 3D

By Brad Henderson

Let me start off by saying that I’m a huge fan of Dario Argento. Huge. He’s been a big influence in my life and is one of my favorite directors of all time. I’m sad to say this is the first Argento flick that I’ve disliked. (Yes, I like Giallo, so don’t bother asking.) Still, I didn’t go into this film with high hopes but it has Rutger Hauer and Asia Argento so I was thinking what could go wrong with something like that?

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DVD Review: Dark Touch

By Brad Henderson

It’s hard to keep up with horror films because there are so many. Between all of the indie and mainstream horror movies released, it is next to impossible to determine what to watch and stay away from. That is why there are people like us to help you decide what you need to watch right away or take your good ol’ time to get around to seeing.

Dark Touch is a film that I recommend that I actually didn’t care all that much about. Weird, right? I know. I’m one of those people that will recommend a film even though I disliked it because I can see many people digging this film and enjoying it quite a bit. The plot is very intriguing and it immediately got me interested: A little girl is the survivor of a massacre that took place at her home. The cops suspect vandals broke into the home and killed her parents but the little girl knows the truth of what happened on that horrific night.

My main problem with the story is that we know the truth of what happened right away. This kind of ruined the film for me because I would have rather been on the other side of the table with this one. The film is beautifully shot and well done, but that wasn’t enough to save Dark Touch for me personally. Even though it wasn’t for me I think this film will find its audience quickly . . . or not.

Dark Touch was released on DVD by IFC Midnight on January 28.

DVD Review: Devil’s Pass

By Brad Henderson

Renny Harlin has brought us many great films throughout his career, making a name for himself through action films. So what happens when Harlin wants to do a found footage horror film? I’m down. Recently Harlin brought us Devil’s Pass, a.k.a. The Dyatlov Pass Incident, which was inspired by true events.

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DVD Review: The Banshee Chapter

By Brad Henderson

There are countless horror films released in a year and most of the good ones go unnoticed by the general public. Unless a horror film is in theaters these days, people just don’t see them. Thankfully VOD is getting more popular and the general public now has access to all the films that we film geeks love and try to promote. The VOD industry is very much like the home video boom in many ways. Independent and low budget films didn’t stand a chance at the theater in the days of the home video boom (and they still don’t), but once these movies hit the video store it became an equal playing field. The same goes for VOD these days: Indie flicks are in the same row as your big budget blockbusters.

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DVD Review: You’re Next

By Less Lee Moore

“Bidding war” are two words that filmmakers sometimes wait years to hear. In the case of You’re Next, though, it also meant that audiences would have to wait years to see the movie that caused the stir in the first place. If you saw You’re Next at TIFF’s Midnight Madness a few years back and wondered what happened to it, you’re in luck. It’s now out on DVD after a brief theatrical run at the end of last year.

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DVD Review: The Black Water Vampire

By Brad Henderson

It seems that every week a found footage flick is released. This is met with a lot of negativity and people tend to brush them off without even watching them. The style seems to get an automatic eye roll these days, which frustrates me because people just think that if they’ve seen one, they’ve seen them all. We also hear that they are cheap, silly, or just plain boring. Honestly, the same could be said for everything you watch. Found footage is just another way to tell a story and it’s no different from what we consider the norm.

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Blu-Ray Review: Crawlspace

By Brad Henderson

Scream Factory has brought us another so-called gem from the horror vaults with Crawlspace. I wasn’t that excited when I found out about the release, but since it was from Scream Factory, I decided to give it a whirl. When I was younger I saw the VHS cover of Crawlspace wherever I went. It was one of those titles I never picked up because Klaus Kinski was in it. That might sound a little harsh but I’ve never been a fan. I don’t think he is a bad actor or anything; I just don’t like watching him on screen.

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DVD Review: We Are What We Are

By Less Lee Moore

Having only recently seen Jorge Michel Grau’s Somos lo que hay, I was excited to see Stake Land director Jim Mickle’s reimagining of the story in his latest feature, We Are What We Are. I was not disappointed. It’s tempting to compare and contrast the two films, but that would be a disservice to both; while the core narrative is similar, each film explores the terrain of family and tradition in different ways, both culturally and tonally.

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Blu-Ray Review: Prince Of Darkness (Collector’s Edition)

By Brad Henderson

John Carpenter is almost a household name in my opinion. Unfortunately, it is mainly for Halloween and The Thing, which isn’t bad, but there are many other excellent Carpenter flicks that get buried below his “commercial” hits. Even among your common horror fans some of his greatest works are not discussed; they mostly speak about the Escape flicks and Big Trouble in Little China.

I consider myself a huge Carpenter fan in many ways and one of those ways is that I’m a fan of everything he has ever done. Yes, that goes for Ghosts of Mars and The Ward. I know that many people look down upon some of his flicks but I just try to find the Carpenterness in each flick and find my own inspiration. I’m a writer of reviews, but I’m also a screenwriter trying to make it and if it wasn’t for John Carpenter, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

Scream Factory has released another Carpenter flick on Blu-Ray and again, it is outstanding just like the rest. Prince of Darkness is a Carpenter film that I believe is forgotten about amongst the horror community. I know many would say that they know the flick but when is the last time you’ve actually seen it? I spoke my film friends and even they admitted they’ve forgotten the last time they watched it. I admit the film escaped me for a long time but I revisited it a couple years ago and fell in love all over again.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Horror Show

By Brad Henderson

The Horror Show is a horror film that fell off my radar years ago but I still have the cut box VHS in my media room. It isn’t a bad film, but it just doesn’t do it for some people and that includes me. In a lot of ways the film reminds me of Shocker and feels almost like a prequel. (I might be alone on that one.)

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