walkingdead-fan50 Reviews

Sweatshop (2009)

Painful to watch

[1/10 · 7 November 2011]

Okay, I can sum this up in just a single sentence: lack luster over acted gore film about a maniac who beats people with a magic troll hammer. Didn't we see the hammer on Buffy the vampire slayer already? I admit I am not as much into the titty slasher masked killer genre as I am zombie flicks. But this looked interesting so I gave it a shot. Luckily I bought a cheap used copy and didn't pay full price for this movie.

There has been a lot of really crappy low budget movies coming out since the digital cameras became available for just anyone to get and declare themselves a movie maker. But for real fans of horror it's going to take more than some fake blood and tits to entertain. The acting was pretty lame. Visually there were some impressive visuals, I will give it that, but it really could have been better. I was hoping for so much more. Too much really lame and irritating dialogue, and not enough terror action.

I think I will just stick to zombie flicks from now on.

Klagger (2010 Video)

Not a zombie flick, but worth a look!

[8/10 · 7 November 2011]

this was an interesting flick. I am normally a zombie flick fan almost exclusively. I rarely watch short films either. But this was an interesting story with a really great setting. I loved the industrial gritty setting and the misty visuals. Good acting. Good production values. A unique story, I liked this movie enough to give it 7 out of 10. A full length feature would be good, but the short was pretty good.

Normally a ghost/spirit story wouldn't interest me, but this was well done and I think it's definitely worth a look! I heard a rumor that a full length feature is in the works, and I'd definitely give that a look too.

Boggy Creek (2010)

Five stars for Creature Effects, but that's about it

[5/10 · 5 November 2011]

I must say that this film seemed to have it all: a great new imagining on the Killer Big Foot genre, and reawakening a classic! The location was awesome, and the trailer for this movie really grabbed me. I saw an article on Dreadcentral about the creature Fx, and I knew this was going to be the best Big Foot movie ever made.

boy was I wrong. The movie was nothing like I expected it to be. The story got too caught up on the B.S. of some emotionally disturbed chick and her daddy issues. It was more like watching a French coming of age teen drama than an American made monster movie. I found myself fast forwarding through the eternally long scene where this girl wanders through the house while an out of tune piano tortures the audience. I kept waiting for the sightings of Big Foot.

I did not like the characters, they did not interest me at all. And there seemed to be pieces of the story missing. A lot of holes. Not that I gave a damn about the story, because I bought the movie to see the monster. Where is the monster?

FINALLY! We see the monster. It's a pretty bad ass monster! Facades FX created the creature FX and the gore for the kills, and they did a KICK ASS JOB! they saved this movie for me. The kills were great, the creature was great, but there wasn't enough of either. Also, there is a kill pictured on the DVD box, but it was not in the movie. That disappointed me.

The Behind the scenes footage and interview with the FX man Phil Nichols along with what few scenes of the creature there were, made the price of the purchase worth it for me. But I am hesitant to recommend this title to anyone based on the plot or cinematography or other elements. The scenes seemed somewhat blown out at times, and it had a lot of continuity problems (it's raining, now it's not, it's raining, now it's not... it's night, no it's day, oh wait it's night again).

I'm not sure what the screenwriter and director had in mind, but this wasn't what Boggy Creek / Big Foot/ Monster fans were expecting. So I will give it five stars for the creature effects, but that is about it.

Let's hope they learned their lesson with the Zombies V. Humans that is due out soon from this same group.

Silent Night, Zombie Night (2009)

This movie puts me in the Christmas Spirit!

[5 November 2011]

I first heard about this movie from listening to Gruesome Hertzogg's Zombie Movie reviews. He seems to have his finger on the pulse of movies I like, so I tune in and get his feeling and recommendations. I'm glad I did because I would have missed out on this little gem!

Imagine being trapped during the holidays with people who are at each others throats... then throw in a zombie outbreak on top of it all. REALLY being trapped. This movie is for zombie genre lovers, as well as fans of the often awkward yet entertaining holiday movies.

I thought it was a fun, original and cool movie. Low budget, yes, but over all a really surprising and cool addition to my growing zombie movie collection! I give it 7 stars!

Macabre Theatre: Renfield the Undead (2011) Season 9, Episode 1

"I'm a vampire, dumb-ass!"

[10/10 · 5 November 2011]

I received my copy of Renfield the Undead from Amazon.com, and was super excited to finally see this movie I'd been hearing about for years! I followed all the coverage on Dreadcentral, and also other movies done by the special effects makeup artists from facades fx. This movie was the creation of facades artist Phil Nichols, who wrote, produced, created the special effects and creatures for, as well as taking on the lead role of Renfield, himself. An ambitious thing to do. But it paid off, in my opinion.

I am a big fan of other FX men turned film makers, John Carl Beachler ("TROLL") Tom Savini ("Night of the Living Dead"), Greg Nicotero ("Walking Dead"). Phil Nichols seems to have taken a page from these guys' book, and created a really bad ass vampire comic book universe steeped in Bram Stoker's Dracula story.

As a special effects artist, Phil Nichols work is bad ass!!!!! (It's the only thing that salvaged Boggy Creek!) But as an actor... WOW! Who knew? Man this guy can act! He has the same kind of presence as The late Great Vincent Price, or... even better: Robert Englund (THE REAL FREDDY! Now and forever!). Renfield's madness and maniacal antics mixed with the awesome creature makeup and fx make this move a real feast for the old school Fx fans like me.

And here's something: normally I'm a zombie fan exclusively. I can't stand that slasher crap, masked killers with kitchen knives or big hammers and chainsaws. Yawn. ZOMBIES are the bomb. But, I have to give a nod to Renfield The Undead, for it's really unique style, and a lot of good fun. Dark humor abounds. And A very cool and creepy Dracula played by an actor named John Stephens. And I thought bringing the story into a modern day time was something new and wild. And the cops believing Renfield to be a serial killer, was a nice spin.

Now this movie does have its problems, like any low budget movie. I will say the beginning scene with the large breasts was really gross. And it seemed out of place with the rest of the story. No explanation as to why suddenly a vampire is biting a pregnant chick with big jugs. But there it was. And the actor who played the young twerp vampire sucked at an English accent. I could even hear some Texas twangy in there a few times. Who is that guy anyway?

the chick playing Mina (the bitch vampire leader) over acted a few times. I'm guessing this is all due to the director, who we all know from his suck-fest *S*I*C*K. Despite this, he somehow pulled off a half way decent job of telling this story.

I did like the scenes between Renfield and the city coroner, in Renfield's crypt where he reveals to her his story. How he became a vampire, and basically a flash back of the Dracula story. really cool, as it's back in Victorian times. There's even a lesbian kiss between Mina and Lucy, who according to the end of the movie, will be featured in the sequel.

This movie also features two scream babes from the Texas horror scene: Julin (Spirit Camp, Boggy Creek, Cherry Bomb) and Denise Williamson (Boggy Creek, School Girls from Outer Space, Spirit Camp), and possibly the creepiest Dracula ever.

Some of the cgi backgrounds are really video game looking, but again I attribute this to the low budget and not being able to afford good cgi artists. I can forgive that, because it seems like they spared no expense on the makeup effects! The vampire bites were big ugly gruesome wounds, and there is a KICK ASS decapitation and beheading scene where Renfield pulls a guy's head off with the spine hanging off of it... it's gross city, but so bad ass!

There was even a spider vampire! That was freaky cool! I'd never seen that before, and it was a cool surprise.

I liked this movie a lot, it surprised me how much I did like it. I'm glad I have it in my collection. I was disappointed by the lack of any special features other than the trailer. But maybe they will release a blue ray with behind the scenes special features sometime in the future.

My wish is that Phil Nichols will take on the zombie genre and make a cool zombie flick next! I would love to see what he would do as an Effects artist with zombies! Now that would really be bad ass!