Hellraiser

This has been a movie I've wanted to review since almost the beginning, and it's been one of those movies where I keep pushing it back year after year. But I've finally seen it.

Based off the book by Clive Barker who took it upon himself to adapt and also direct the feature film, and my God is this story bizarre. Following the aftermath of a shady individual named Frank who acquires a unique puzzle box and upon solving it summons four horrific entities that literally tear him to bits, a short time later relatives move into the house who inadvertently ressurect Frank and he has plans to become a new man again with murder and freaky ass imagery abound. This easily is the most disgusting movie I have ever seen in my life, if I had a dollar everytime I said eww or made a sound of disgust I'd be a well off man before even the halfway point. The special effects are truly special and usurps The Thing as the most grotesque visuals I've seen in a horror film for my money anyway. I'd love to read the original work and am aware of the differences Clive made himself in making the movie, in fact this was his directorial debut and I'll admit he did not do a bad job in the slightest! The acting is a bit more than your ususal horror fare, with a lot of love going to Claire Higgins who is the most complex of the characters she just did such good work with this material, and I gotta admit real quick because I've seen far far too many movies I was looking at Andrew Robinson and was like I know you but why? Guess what, dude was Scorpio in the first Dirty Harry movie! So that was a big treat for me to see him act in this and he gets his moments. Despite all the promotional material the leader of the summoned entities known as the Cenobites known famously as Pinhead is not in the film a great deal and really comes more into play near the end but the performance and look is rock solid, with Doug Bradley nailing the power and dominating presence that grabs your attention seamlessly. You can tell they had a dedicated cast and crew for this and honestly it's a miracle the production studio, Roger Corman's New World Pictures, let them do what was in the final cut. It may not have as strong a representation in pop culture or fans as other horror juggernauts but it's a good movie that deserves to be seen more in my estimation. I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10! And while the month is coming closer to an end, we have such sights to show you...

Frankenstein Unbound

Oh my dear God. Where do I even start?

Well first things first thank you James from Cinemassacre for showcasing this on a Monster Madness and bringing it to my attention, second thank you Roger for going out on the most spectacularly batshit story possible for your final directing credit, so let's just do this. I wish, oh how I wish a movie would be made like this today. You know how fucking uppity people get in their tightwad asses about staying true to a book's source material these days? Their heads would explode in Lovecraftian insanity if they watched this movie, literal brains turn to soup and their heads would explode Scanners style, no question. I'm not even sure where to begin here but we'll try. So the year is 2031 (boy I can't wait to see that) with John Hurt as a scientist named Joe who developed a machine to implode matter however the experiments cause timeslips to occur and before you can say "I may have gone too far in a few places" he finds himself in 19th century Geneva. And that's only the start of the weirdness. So he meets Victor Frankenstein, then meets the fabled monster, then meets Mary Shelley and her entourage at the Villa Diodati (no Cyberman this time sadly), then somehow gets looped in the section of the novel where Victor creates a mate for the monster, as he tries to get, say it with me now, back to the future. Now Roger co-wrote, co-produced, and directed so to say he had his hand in this would be an understatement. I'm just completely speechless guys. I will give thanks and appreciation for the fact that despite the fish out of water trope Joe honestly rolls with this shit pretty quick and being an educated man knows the history of these famous literary people and the story of Frankenstein, no need for any floundering about for 30 minutes wondering what is going on. That's for after the movie ends. And to follow the more understandable concepts, the prodiction is honestly pretty friggin' good! It's practically a period piece with lots of costumes, real life settings and architecture filmed judging from the crew credits in Italy, and the special effects range from pure cheese to pretty decent when it comes to gore. Now when I heard Raul was going to play Victor I was psyched even knowing this was a film made during the very late stages of his life unfortunately, and sadly we only get bits and pieces of him until roughly the last 30 minutes where he becomes prominent yet the acting even in that case is stellar. He's already off the deep end at this point when we meet him and seeing this morally bankrupt, deranged, anything for science attitude does still give him a lot to play with and regardless is a highlight. John Hurt love that guy to death probably plays the most laidback and dare I say disruptful scientist not just in terms of creation but just slapping the space-time continuum like it owes him money, yet again it's kind of a testament to these guys acting ability facing this frankly preposterous off the wall material with a straight face that must be admired. Joe doesn't come alone either, getting sucked away into the bleeding time vortex with a car that I can only accurately describe as if the DeLorean and KITT from Knight Rider had a daughter, and he is the most blasè son of a bitch I have ever seen showing it off to anybody, uses it to prove Mary Shelley he is indeed from the future, also shows Victor just for yucks I guess, and is the reason he gets back to....some period of time I don't know which. That whole non-intervention thing you see in every time travel story practically gets taken out back and sodomized with a double barrel shotgun, personified perfectly with Joe flat out banging Mary Shelley. Oh yeah that happens. Do you see what I mean with my opening remark? This might be the biggest fuck you movie to anybody who pays attention to source material, and I kinda love it for that. I don't think anyone has the balls to make a movie on a book and pay barely any heed to it at all in this day and age, but not in a we decided to take a few liberties kind of way and more like I did four lines of cocaine and I just wrote unicorns conquered the moon kind of way. Hell the only slight I genuinely have against the movie is the editing, it's kinda off and feels slapdash in a good few instances and maybe some less than believable ADR work. But other than that, this is fine by me! What did you expect from the asshole who reviewed Frankenhooker? This is a special kind of nuts movie but it's entertaining, I see the craftsmanship to it production wise, I'd rather see something like this than just another plain jane adaptation of the book personally speaking. It has no reservations, it wholeheartedly does it's own thing consequences be damned, and I feel that's very telling of me who I am as a person so simply take it for what it is. Watch it, just give it a go, and make judgements later. 3 stars, 7/10 from me, I need to decompress from this so I will see y'all next week.

The Man With X-Ray Eyes

Not as existential as I thought it would be but still pretty good.

This was one of Roger's more ambitious films with a budget around $300,000 dollars with a large emphasis on optical effects and experimental cinematography, following the experiment of a Dr. Xavier who develops a drug to enhance the human eye. Of course nobody would test it but himself as we watch his spiral downwards from skilled doctor, to carnival attraction, to card shark with an appropriately eerie ending. For a film at about 80 minutes long it doesn't take long for the experiment to occur and it certainly kept me guessing until the absolute end where it would go, and I feel in my bones this is a plot that could be expanded upon in a much more existential and horrific way but the touches we do get while understated are still unsettling. Imagine never having the respite of closing your eyes, imagine light being unbearably painful, imagine seeking peace when none will come to escape the far reaching gaze that pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh. That's a different kind of horror, not quite body horror, not quite cosmic horror, but something people would not want to experience. The movie is carried exceptionally well on the back of Ray Milland as James Xavier, it's almost a performance based on his voice alone which is fantastic by the by, because it's hard to express the scope of such an unnatural power in the eye of the beholder but you can hear the pain and desperation he has. The experimental liquid is akin to a narcotic with him taking more and more culminating in a broken and dazed monologue at the end. I heard he wasn't keen on this movie but he performs very admirably! Diana Van der Vlis plays Diane another doctor brought in to explore the validity of the experiment and I have to give credit that no romance was written in, she's a colleague and a friend to this doomed man who tries to talk reason into him, though not a prominent part she plays it nicely. A surprise appearance by the great comedian and ball buster extraordinaire Don Rickles appears as the carnival manager Crane and my God is he great at playing this money grubbing scoundrel, again not around for very long but adds a unique element to the story and I gotta admit was great to see. The early 60s production gives a nice flair from time to time with set design, costuming, and dance moves but the beauty of the story is it really could be set during any time but the time capsule element is cool. The special effects are really damn interesting, seen entirely from the point of view of James with muddled colors, cross dissolves to see the interior working of man and machine, the choice of contact lenses for Ray, it comes together very dang well for my money. And for a person who has a substantial fear of unearthly eyes I'm happy it didn't freak me out too much but that doesn't mean eyes can't be a fair bit scary still. It's pretty impressive what Roger and the crew accomplished with such a budget during shooting and in post production, but Roger was a wild card in the deck of filmmakers that really did stuff his own way and was cost effective at doing so. It's not one of his most well known movies but it's a neat story that people can enjoy. 3 stars, 7.5/10 from me, and we got one more directorial effort from the great man himself before the week is out so stay tuned.

It Conquered The World

Damn I miss you Roger.

No way I couldn't have a little week dedicated to Roger Corman and no better place to start than a good old fashioned B-movie! Shot in a whopping 5 days this classic staple of goofy monster movie history follows a crashed alien craft with it's pilot slowly conquering...a town and not so much the Earth (hey man they had to get butts in seats somehow) with the help of a resident scientist leading to the military and the scientist's friend to stop the menace. It bears some similarities to Invasion Of The Body Snatchers which coincidentally came out the same year of 1956, and though it's far from air tight in terms of plot and it's absolutely one of those movies where you don't fully see the monster until pretty much the end I gotta admit I didn't hate it! I got involved in the story with the humans and can kinda applaud it for taking some dark cold moments from time to time. The acting is solid across the board, a lot of love was heaped upon Beverly Garland as the evil scientist's wife Claire who is far from a fainting worthless woman, in fact though it would have made the movie only about an hour she has the balls to go charging into the alien's lair with a rifle to take care of business and that is fucking awesome. Best known from shows like Mission Impossible and the host of A&E Biography along with movies such as Airplane, Peter Graves is a pretty solid yet basic lead as Paul. I'm not expecting deep writing in a monster movie but he gets the job done and has a real strong voice that I like listening to. Lee Van Cleef the legend himself plays the baddie Tom and he probably has the best written material viewing the invader as a benefactor and cure to all man's problems even fully knowing it takes over people's minds and has less than altruistic motives leading to many conversations about it. Also shoutout to Dick Miller as one of the army officers, it's always kick ass to see him in any movie whether in a major or minor role! A line that struck me hard in this movie is from Paul during one of the discussions of the wrongs the alien would put to right, "I'd have to take a long hard look at anything that was gonna change the world and me so completely." and man! That needs to circulate majorly in this day and age! Some may point to it as just a cheesy sci-fi movie but I think there's more to it, and it's not an incompetently made film either! The dialogue is good, the setting is basic but has logic, the production values of the sets are believable, and even the alien himself though slightly funny is without doubt a memorable design. Hailing from the planet Venus this red crab-like monster was laughed at even on set with particular shade being thrown from Beverly Garland, and yeah it's not that major a threat or anything but it has charm to it like any rubber suit monster has. Is it a forgotten classic? No. Is it atypical of the 50s B-movie? Yeah. But for a small budget and a run time of barely over an hour it isn't a waste. It's a sure fire recommendation if you're having a 50s monster movie night and you like them on the cheaper side. I give it 2.5 stars, 6.5/10!

Terrifier 3

Ohhhh fuck you!!

I'm too committed now, as much as I was hoping we could shed the sequels beyond #3 I guess Terrifier 4 here we come! I hope they call it The Final Chapter like with Friday The 13th. Alright so, shit where do I even start? Well it's 5 years after the last movie set during the most un-wonderful time of the year with Sienna getting out of a mental hospital and visiting some extended family for the holidays while Jonathan is attending college, but guess who's coming to Christmas dinner? I'll be up front, despite my opening remark I very much liked this film. It has the same quality of filmmaking in all departments as Terrifier 2 but since we follow our leads from before and given how much I loved that movie it's super easy to get invested. Lauren is acting her damn heart out in this movie, thankfully metaphorically than literally, dealing with the abundance of psychosis following such events and having to wrestle with some massive PTSD once her and Art cross paths again. Elliott is in a diminished role but we still get to see that Jonathan has been coping a lot better and get to see him in the college life. But what we lose with Jonathan we gain with new character and light of my life Gabs played by Antonella Rose, who is so cute and is such a respite for poor Sienna that you get attached quick. They do a proper good job expanding on the previously established characters and weaving in the new ones to form a solid plot. Of course Art is still up to terrorizing on a much bigger scale it would seem, with David having more vignettes to clown around in (Slapping my knee folks!) and I gotta admit I appreciate a horror film that holds zero reservations. This movie flat out says, man fuck them kids! They're not getting away unscathed here by a longshot, and I'm just like daaaamn! Is it so morbid though that you can't enjoy it? No you certainly can, from technicals to plot to that accursed cliffhanger. I was livid in that theater when credits rolled, obviously no spoilers, but considering the fact I was that emotional about it means two things, that I'm all in on these characters and that I need retribution because my feels were messed with! Have fun waiting two to four years for that conclusion said Terrifier 3 to me, which I shall reply with: day one you bastard! Now the big question at the moment is do I like it better than the second and I can say no buuuut it's still pretty good and gets a big thumbs up from me. It's kind of a testament to this series that I literally just stepped into it and I'm this dedicated, so clearly there is something there and I'm happy I got to experience this trilogy. 3.5 stars, 8/10!

Terrifier 2

Now we're talking.

Consider me not only a big fan of Terrifier 2, but count it as one of the rare few sequels that are better than the original, and just for good measure goes on my favorites list of modern horror post 2010! I'm honestly pumped for the third movie now and got plenty of questions from the end of this. So we pick up a year since the first movie where we follow siblings Sienna and Jonathan who are our new targets for Art, and when I saw the over 2 hour runtime I was slightly skeptical because of the progression of the first movie but nary a minute is wasted in any shape. This is a finely crafted movie with multiple improvements over the first though even I'll say the first movie was decent and a pivotal stepping stone. The writing is tighter, I loved the characters, the effects are even bloodier and more gross, the quality of the sets and direction are great, and it's surprisingly a movie that gets you in the Halloween spirit. It's almost Trick r' Treat levels with the abundance of costumes, decorations, traditions of creating or buying costumes, the giving of candy, and Halloween parties. It's soaked as much in blood as the spirit of the season. And yeah those effects put the first to shame, showcasing the superiority of practical gore effects that made me flat out go "Eww." many a time but I'm thrilled to announce there's more appeal to this movie than just the stellar effects. I'll admit I did like the characters from the first movie and actually didn't feel the writing was all that bad either, but the characters in this from major to minor I love to the moon and back! Sienna played by Lauren Lavera had my heart pretty much from the word go or rather should I say the creation of her costume and pictures of dragons on her bedroom wall, the girl is 5 feet of badass and is very relatable and extremely likeable, seeing her interact with her friends and her family makes you care and I wanted to see everybody make it out alive but that wouldn't make for a grand slasher film I know. Elliott Fullam as Jonathan had my respect from the get go too, seeing album art of King Diamond and Slayer adorn his bedroom was the right way to get me to like him and that faith was not misplaced, showing an intelligent boy on the cusp of puberty who is deemed a problem by everyone except his sister lending an underdog tone to him. Plus the whole dynamic of siblings against the evil while the parents are none the wiser was a great callback that I missed in cinema. David is on better form than even the last one as Art The Clown, still getting me to laugh loudly while still being a palpable threat with not an ounce of malice missing! It gives way more supernatural edges to his character which thusly makes me want to know more. Plus the score flat out shmacks, couldn't be more my type of vibe! Also I just damn well want to clap at that aspect because way way too many times have I seen a horror movie where the killer is supernatural but nobody else is, and the fact that our protagonists got some magic shit of their own here is downright fucking awesome! The only other examples I can think of off the top of my head is Nightmare On Elm Street 3 and Friday The 13th Part VII, and that aspect made those movies more interesting. It's downright illogical to think otherwise, why should the villain be the only supernatural force? So brava, brava, bravissima! I don't know what the hell happened but this movie hit all the right buttons for me, wellll...okay there were two things I flat out hated but that's just personal taste and not a slight against the movie. 1. A friend of Sienna's said no candy for adults which that sentence alone wanted me to see her d-e-d, and 2. Art gives out candy in one scene but it's that horseshit one piece per person. What the actual hell Art?? Are you kidding me?!! NO! You will not find any of that rubbish at my household! Weird thing to bitch about but I was downright offended at that and you know I'm right in the end. Tangent over, back to the review. So yeah, I was all in on this movie as ot progressed and it didn't disappoint. It took 4 years for this to hit theaters but the wait was worth it, and again applause worthy situation for Damien Leone who made it all happen I mean it must feel like a dream come true at this point. Is it possible for the third to top this? It's a tall ass order I'll admit because I'm giving this 4 glowing stars, 9/10! Easiest recommendation in a while from me. I can fully understand why there's a fanbase now and I can't wait to talk about the next one with you so stay tuned.

Terrifier

So this is the clown I keep seeing.

Art The Clown has been on my radar for only about a year or two, so I attribute that to the fact that the fanbase has only grew and grew since 2018 when this movie came out. Big congrats to Damien Leone of course who created the character and who's helmed the director chair of all 3 movies, and considering this was a super low budget independent horror movie it's all the more impressive. At an estimated budget of $35,000 this is a movie that proves you don't need multi-millions to craft gruesome practical effects or garner a large fanbase. It's the epitome of dirt simple storyline with two friends out and about on Halloween night that get stalked by this wonderfully deranged serial killer dressed as a clown, with more fresh meat for the grinder being introduced as the movie goes on. Now I am aware Art has been around since before even this movie with two shorts films under his belt but I decided just to focus on the trilogy here with the new movie coming out. It's a decent flick, I wasn't expecting groundbreaking material but more a humble beginning for a horror franchise and that's exactly what I got. The independent film style is apparent but I've seen my fair share of lowbudget horror movies and honestly I'm a fair bit impressed with all that they did with 35,000 bucks! Multiple sets, admittedly some are reused but they work just fine with the story. The effects though not lifelike still got visceral reactions from me and are just nasty at times! The acting is actually pretty decent with big time love going to David Howard Thornton and Pooya Mohseni who for my money were grand, but everybody commits and the dialogue isn't too shoddy either. It does make me rather look forward to jumping into the second movie to see if much changes since I have no concept of the production, but I sense it will go bigger and better. There was a point at roughly the halfway mark where I was wondering where the story would go, they kinda pull a Hitchcock on us and I know people will give this movie flak for how the plot progresses and some of the actions by the characters but this is a slasher film at it's beating heart, and you kinda have to accept it. But it can still be good and entertaining even if it does do the tropes. I could roll with the plot, I got grossed out at some of the kills, hell Art could somehow make me laugh now and then, and I'm happy the indie horror genre gets some attention. I give it 2.5 stars, 6.5/10, with hopes for the future.