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Reviews
Doomsday Preppers (2011)
Fun show that stands the test of time
The reviewers trashing the people in this show are the people fist-fighting you right now during the covid scare while filling their cart with their 50th roll of toilet paper. Some of the folks portrayed may have carried things a bit far, but none of them were wrong in exercising some preparation. They are the ones getting the last laugh now. Give this a watch in case the world doesn't complete it's descent into mad max dystopia, then you'll be working on your own prep!
Masters of Horror: The Screwfly Solution (2006)
Interesting sci fi, not really horror with trite ending
I gave this 4 stars because it has a lot of interesting themes many here have already mentioned. From the domestic violence, to sexuality and many of the taboos therein. Outside of the gore I really would not call this horror so much as I would science fiction.
It's bleak, depressing and hopeless. While I don't mind a less than cheery ending, I'm really very tired of the "humans suck" cliché that's central to every movie. I know you can't get a liberal arts degree today without bowing to the alter of self-hatred as a member of the human race, but how's 'bout as a writer/director we pretend we are different than everyone else in the pack and notice that the ALIENS KILLING THE HUMAN RACE are evil! Right now, if you are reading this and believe that humanity deserves to die, just go out, find a lake and swim 'til your arms are tired. This way you won't be around to direct the next film or write the next book telling me I deserve to die for being alive. It's silly, not thoughtful, and boring.
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007)
Ignore the hating, horror fans will enjoy
Not perfect, but far from boring. Many here have noted similarities to great 80's horror romps like Evil Dead and House and I agree. The production values are higher than Raimi's early stuff and the gore ratcheted back a bit but, overall, I would easily have paid to see this at the theater than some garbage like Saw 402. As a few also noted, the lack of CGI is refreshing and entertaining. A rubber suit may be a rubber suit, but at least the damned thing reacts in a way an object bound by the laws of physics typically does.
As it happened, I stumbled upon this as a Watch Instant feature on that online rental site. At 2 a.m. on a slow night at work it's easy to "fast forward" watch a few horror flicks by skipping past the monotony and only watching the "good parts" but, while this flick did have some parts that were slower than others, I never had to fast forward on this one. Each segment of the flick seemed to serve a purpose, whether to highlight the monster degeneration of the teacher, give insight into the history of the creature, or detail the background of Jack.
If you like campy horror movies, give it a shot. It beats the boring gore-fests like Saw and Hostel being churned out nowadays, leaves the Sci-fi CGI drivel-of-the-week in its wake, and leaps 1000x farther than anything Troma has ever created.
Blood Car (2007)
Not bad, though I really wanted the protagonist dead.
This is, pure and simple, a movie for people that enjoy B movies. That said this is above the level of a Troma feature. Lots of gratuitous nudity, violence, and shock in this little horror flick that really borders more on macabre comedy.
As a previous poster mentioned, the female roles seemed much better written and acted than the lead. I kept hoping this mopey hippy would die at SOME point in the 1 hour and 16 minutes, but alas he did not. The lead wasn't necessarily a bad actor, it just seemed like the writing on it wasn't entirely fleshed out and when he wasn't interacting with the 2 ladies in the film it was very hit or miss on the boring scale.
The themes and politics of the flick seem like they can appeal to all. Yeah, there's the insta-bash on working class "truckers," but you also get a fairly direct illustration of how conceited the "save the world" vegan hippy fellow is when he's wasting education time at his job as a teacher preaching political garbage like the kyoto treaty to kindergartners as well as ignoring the rest of humanity outside his narrow-minded goals.
All-in-all, watch this if you like horror and/or absurdist macabre comedies. For a first flick, a great effort, hopefully a little refinement will make this director someone to notice.
Silence Becomes You (2005)
Horribad. Imagine the most pretentious "gender studies" class you've ever taken..
I watched this on a lark on Showtime when I got home from work to kill a little time before bed. The description made it sound like an interesting taut thriller. Instead I was subjected to a meandering goofy ill-conceived premise with no meaty plot, but lots of artsy cinema shots.
This movie had that sort of pretentious "if you are smart enough you'll read our minds to get something from this drivel" delivery that I often got in college from overzealous gender-studies or other irrelevant liberal arts classes. You know the ones, they put half a breast on a piece of paper and you're supposed to get that it symbolizes a repressed woman held under a sheet of ice under the Eiffel Tower by Neptune-"how can you not see that? You must be stupid!"
Avoid this unless you REALLY REALLY want to see the actress who plays Grace "grace" you with her pleasant to look at upper half. Be forewarned, you'll have to get through about 3/5 of the movie to get there. Tivo it and fast forward. I'm only giving it a two for the assets you get to see about 3/5 of the way through the movie. Fast-forward is your friend!