After Dark Horrorfest
For those not familiar with the series each of the past two years there has been an annual festival of horror movies released at theaters for one weekend only. A few months later they are put out on dvd. The newest 8 movies are released tomorrow on March 18, 2008. Very similar to the Masters of Horror series but these are all full length releases. I havent seen them all yet but I have seen half of them this past weekend. As expected the movies range from horrible to watchable so far.
Ill start with Lake Dead, the one with the coolest cover. What a deceiving name for this movie. Yeah there is a lake and one girl gets buried there but thats the extent of the lake being in this movie. This movie is basically another inbred family on a murder spree after some city folk invades its territory movie. Too bad its been done a thousand times already and many are much better.
The next one I saw was Tooth and Nail. This is basically an 80's type of post apocalyptic survivors banding together movie. This is the only one with actual "name" actors of all the ones I saw. It stars Rider Strong, Vinnie Jones and Michael Madsen in some cool but short roles. The movie is about the year 2012 and gas supply has completely diminished. There are no more running cars, no power plants working and no vehicles able to deliver goods so the whole world goes crazy and starts killing one another. There are a band of survivors that are holed up in a hospital just trying to make it through the days. One day while out on a scout mission 3 of the survivors stop an attack on a girl by one of the outlaws. They bring the girl back but the Outlaws are hot on her trail. The outlaws are a bunch of cannibals that travel from town to town eating their prey. Overall it was enjoyable but I did have a few minor gripes. The ending showdown was gory but a bit of a letdown, there was one twist I saw a mile away and the movie seemed a little short. Other than that it was fun and had some cool gore kills. Easily my favorite of the four.
Next up was Unearthed, the "monster" movie of the bunch. It starts off pretty strong and has a kind of indie "Feast" kind of feel to it. Unfortunately the rest of the movie felt way too familiar to other movies. The monster that gets uncovered is almost an exact replica of a Ridley Scott "Alien" creature. The way it looks and moves was 85% the same. Not that it was horrible it was just so cliche and added nothing new to the genre. It was definitely directed and acted well just something about it had a "yawn" factor to it.
The last movie I saw was overall the worst. Nightmare Man was absolutely pathetic. It was ultra low budget with horrible actors. I think the screenplay was ok and I got the idea but the execution was pathetic. It was basically about a crazy chick that gets chased by a maniac demon guy through the woods until she comes up on a house with a group of four friends that are partying. They take her in and get ready for an attack. Someone calls her husband and he says to not call the cops cuz she is crazy and was on her way to the loony bin and he will be right there to pick her up. Before he can get there the bodies start to pile up. For a movie this short it had almost as many endings as "Return of the King"! I cant recommend this to even the most hardcore std fan. The only other positive thing I have to say is the score was a dramatic horror score that helped the movie immensely. I might would have been tempted to throw the dvd across the room if it wasnt for that one semi saving grace. So out of the four I saw two were horrible: Lake Dead 3 out of 10, Nightmare Man 2.5 out of 10, one was almost watchable: Unearthed 4.9 out of 10 and one was pretty decent: Tooth and Nail 6.9 out of 10. Hopefully the next four I get to are better.
Ill start with Lake Dead, the one with the coolest cover. What a deceiving name for this movie. Yeah there is a lake and one girl gets buried there but thats the extent of the lake being in this movie. This movie is basically another inbred family on a murder spree after some city folk invades its territory movie. Too bad its been done a thousand times already and many are much better.
The next one I saw was Tooth and Nail. This is basically an 80's type of post apocalyptic survivors banding together movie. This is the only one with actual "name" actors of all the ones I saw. It stars Rider Strong, Vinnie Jones and Michael Madsen in some cool but short roles. The movie is about the year 2012 and gas supply has completely diminished. There are no more running cars, no power plants working and no vehicles able to deliver goods so the whole world goes crazy and starts killing one another. There are a band of survivors that are holed up in a hospital just trying to make it through the days. One day while out on a scout mission 3 of the survivors stop an attack on a girl by one of the outlaws. They bring the girl back but the Outlaws are hot on her trail. The outlaws are a bunch of cannibals that travel from town to town eating their prey. Overall it was enjoyable but I did have a few minor gripes. The ending showdown was gory but a bit of a letdown, there was one twist I saw a mile away and the movie seemed a little short. Other than that it was fun and had some cool gore kills. Easily my favorite of the four.
Next up was Unearthed, the "monster" movie of the bunch. It starts off pretty strong and has a kind of indie "Feast" kind of feel to it. Unfortunately the rest of the movie felt way too familiar to other movies. The monster that gets uncovered is almost an exact replica of a Ridley Scott "Alien" creature. The way it looks and moves was 85% the same. Not that it was horrible it was just so cliche and added nothing new to the genre. It was definitely directed and acted well just something about it had a "yawn" factor to it.
The last movie I saw was overall the worst. Nightmare Man was absolutely pathetic. It was ultra low budget with horrible actors. I think the screenplay was ok and I got the idea but the execution was pathetic. It was basically about a crazy chick that gets chased by a maniac demon guy through the woods until she comes up on a house with a group of four friends that are partying. They take her in and get ready for an attack. Someone calls her husband and he says to not call the cops cuz she is crazy and was on her way to the loony bin and he will be right there to pick her up. Before he can get there the bodies start to pile up. For a movie this short it had almost as many endings as "Return of the King"! I cant recommend this to even the most hardcore std fan. The only other positive thing I have to say is the score was a dramatic horror score that helped the movie immensely. I might would have been tempted to throw the dvd across the room if it wasnt for that one semi saving grace. So out of the four I saw two were horrible: Lake Dead 3 out of 10, Nightmare Man 2.5 out of 10, one was almost watchable: Unearthed 4.9 out of 10 and one was pretty decent: Tooth and Nail 6.9 out of 10. Hopefully the next four I get to are better.
3 comments:
Awesome post; I'm queing up Tooth and Nail-.
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Smartphone, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://smartphone-brasil.blogspot.com. A hug.
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Monitor de LCD, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://monitor-de-lcd.blogspot.com. A hug.
Post a Comment