VHS Visions: Blood Tracks (1985)

By Brad Henderson

After Alien came out, we received rip-off after rip-off (mostly all good films, though) and the same thing followed after The Terminator was released. Hell, I’ll admit there were a ton of films from the ’80s that copied others because of the success of Hollywood blockbusters during that time.

After the release of The Hills Have Eyes there were a few films with the same likeness and concept but a different setting. Frankly, I couldn’t care less because most of these films were fantastic. Some of them are still my favorites and that includes the film Blood Tracks. Blood Tracks borrows many of the same elements of The Hills Have Eyes except it is set in the snow and the characters that get slashed to bits are a rock band called Solid Gold (Swedish band Easy Action) and their groupies.

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DVD Review: Holy Ghost People

By Brad Henderson

Religious horror films are truly terrifying. We have our slashers, monsters, and alien horror, but we know those can be easily dismissed. Sure, there are accounts of people dressing up and killing people and there are serial killers, but we are not surrounded by that. We hear about these things on TV and the Internet but it doesn’t hit close to home. Probably the only things that hit close to home are school shootings because that could literally happen anywhere, at any time, by anyone.

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DVD Review: The Punk Singer

By Brad Henderson

Kathleen Hanna was my dream girl growing up. It all started when I went to a record store and found a copy of Reject All American by Bikini Kill. I had no clue what it was but the cover intrigued me. I gave it a shot because it only had a 99-cent price tag.

I left the store with a few CDs that day (mostly punk) and listened to them throughout the rest of the week, but that night I popped that one in and it did a number on me. First, it sounded completely badass. It was raw and ferocious. The lyrics were well thought out and this girl singer was not fucking around. Between “Rebel Girl” and “Statement of Vindication,” this was the best album that I’d heard in years. I immediately found out who Kathleen Hanna was and tracked down everything she put her hands into.

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DVD Review: Sorority Horror House

By Brad Henderson

How do people normally feel about made-for-TV horror? I’m not speaking about direct-to-video flicks, I’m talking about the ones that go straight to television and then are put on DVD and buried almost instantly. These movies are easily dismissed and frowned upon. I give them a chance when I can because every once in a while you find a gem. Sorority Horror House is one of those films.

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Blu-Ray Review: Return To Nuke ‘Em High, Volume 1

By Brad Henderson

Sigh . . . What can I really say about Troma? Let me start off by saying I’m not really a fan of Troma films. By this I mean the films that are produced by the Troma team of Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hertz, not the films they have distributed in the past that they don’t have any input into. There is an audience for these films but I’m not part of that audience at all. I find their films crude, mean-spirited, and disgusting on a level of just being disgusting for the sake of it. Sure, there are some films that are OK but most of them are exactly the same and follow the same formula and never veer away from that.

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VHS Visions: Pledge Night (1990)

By Brad Henderson

Would you want to see a ’90s supernatural slasher flick with a soundtrack by Anthrax? Well, you’re in luck: it does exist and it is called Pledge Night.

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Blu-Ray Review: Dead Kids

By Brad Henderson

All film fans should explore movies made during the “Ozploitation” era of Australian low budget filmmaking. Just about every film that came out during this time is fantastic. Many people have probably seen these films and are just unaware of the term Ozploitation or what movies fit this description.

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Blu-Ray Review: Odd Thomas

By Brad Henderson

I’ve always thought Odd Thomas was a fun book and when I heard it was being made into a film, I was both intrigued and scared. How in the hell were they going to pull something like this off? If you know anything about the story of Odd Thomas then you know where I’m coming from. It’s a good story but a little out there and hard to fathom seeing on the screen. Also, when I heard Stephen Sommers was directing it I admit that I did frown a little because I’m not a fan of his work aside from Deep Rising.

Upon viewing it I was pleasantly surprised and very happy with the direction it took. The CGI isn’t all that bad aside from a couple of scenes that look a little wonky, but everything is else is pretty solid. Anton Yelchin and Willem Dafoe both do a superb job and give everything they have to bring some of their best work to this kickass flick.

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