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Reviews
The Dead Want Women (2012)
Not scary, not funny, a total waste of time
As someone who actually likes "so bad they're good" B grade horror flicks, I thought that a movie titled "The Dead want women" would definitely fall into this category. I was disappointed that it fails both as a "horror" movie and as a "so bad it's good" B comedy. From what I can see, the director seemed to want to make an authentic scary horror movie. Unfortunately, neither the script nor the limited acting skills of the cast allow for a serious movie. OTOH, the film contains none of the campiness or self-referential parody of a fun "B" flick. Even the makeup effects on the "undead" are simply unbelievable and quite cheesy looking.
The only things saving this movie from a "1/10" rating is the lighting, the very pretty eye-candy (especially former soap opera star Jessica Morris who is gorgeous) and a not bad soundtrack. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to keep my interest. Avoid.
Wolf Creek (2005)
Very good horror movie
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Some surprisingly bad reviews for this film (both here and at other web sites) for what I consider a very good horror movie. And those are the key words here: "horror movie": IOW I'm judging this movie compared to other films in its genre, not with "Shindler' List", "Casablanca" or "2001: A Space Odyssey". This isn't Kubrick or Hitchcock. It's a low budget Australian horror flick made by a relatively unknown director. And as a horror flick, this movie excels.
The positives: I love the slow pacing for the first half of the movie. While other reviewers have criticized the first half, I felt it was essential to get us to like the characters and identify with them. That's why I love the casting choices as well: the three main protagonists, while attractive, look and act like average twenty- something young adults. Had this been a big budget Hollywood flick, they likely would have cast someone like Megan Fox or Blake Lively in the female roles and some overly muscled wisecracking jock in the male role. The three in this movie OTOH look and act in the first half just like my friends I knew in my 20s. The nervousness, the tentative and halting first steps to a kiss between Liz and Ben are reminiscent of my own nervousness in forming relationships in my early 20s. And Ben's reaction in the scene in the diner where a bunch of beefy, large men make sexist remarks about the women is also realistic. Ben and the women walk away rather than fight (which is what I would do in a similar situation). In a Hollywood blockbuster, the hero would have taken on the whole roomful of guys twice his size and kicked all their butts (and of course the women would be so grateful that he'd get a typical Hollywood style "reward"). It is rare in a horror movie for me to actually like and identify with the characters, so when the nastiness finally begins, it is truly jarring.
The negatives: In spite of my high rating for this movie, yes there are some glaring negatives. First the obvious and overdone clichés: it's yet another movie which portrays rural people as barbaric, violent savages while urban people represent "civilized values". Second was the utter stupidity of Liz in two scenes: First when you have the chance to kill a seriously deranged psychopath, you take it. Second, when you finally escape, you don't go back to where the psychopath lives in the hope of stealing a car. Stupid, stupid, stupid! These two flaws might be acceptable in "Friday the 13th" or "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies (where the stupidity of the victims is assumed) but not in a movie where the first half made me like and empathize with the characters. In spite of these flaws, I give this movie a solid 8 out of ten and recommend it for adult horror fans. However if you not a horror fan, steer clear because the violence in the second half is truly revolting and shocking.