Monday Movie Review - RAW MEAT

If you think you're watching a Hammer Film from the 70s, you're not, but this flick feels and looks and quacks just like one.

Decades ago, a group of miners working in the underground tunnels, digging the subway systems, are caught in a cave-in.  Back then, women were allowed down there, as well as the men, so that when the unfortunate group was unable to be rescued, they were able to survive and multiply anyway.  And here comes the only "glitch" that I could see in this whole thing.  If the inbred survivors were able to survive on hunting down hapless people venturing into the lower depths, why couldn't they have emerged out into the open, thus freeing themselves?  I mean, the whole point of being "trapped" below where there was nothing to subsist upon but rats and each other.  So how were these people able to start taking down fresh victims?

Aside from that minor squabble, the movie is rife with gory scenes, most of them very convincing.  The acting is top-notch (except for the hero, who often feels stilted).

More than that, don't be surprised if you find yourself rooting for the "villian".

That's why I suggest you give it a try and 

New Link! HORRORLAND

I've added a new blog link.  Check out HORRORLAND: The Macabre Side of Horror

Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday Movie Review - SKYLINE

It's so sad to see a promising movie not live up to its potential.

I braved the theaters to see Skyline in all its extra-wide glory.  In my opinion, films like this need to be viewed in that kind of setting.  But despite how beautiful the movie was shot, no matter how good the acting was, no matter how convincing the CGI effects were, Skyline just didn't deliver.

To summarize: A couple from New York fly out to LA to visit a friend and co-partner in a new business venture.  That night they're awakened by strange blue lights, and the fact that their apartment tower is shaking like its in the center of a major earthquake.  Truth is, Earth is being invaded by aliens, who are sucking up the human inhabitants for consumption.  With really nowhere to go, the four friends are basically sitting ducks waiting for the inevitable to occur.

Halfway through I found myself comparing it Independence Day and Cloverfield, which I'm sure others did as well.  Yes, there were a few scary moments (one of which is in the trailer/commercial, and was totally ruined for us.  Note to filmmakers - Don't Do That!)

Then ending, however, left me completely dumbstruck.  It was a payoff this romance lover never saw coming, but I was struck by its implications.  Which is why I'm going to buy me a copy of this flick (second hand), if nothing more but to re-watch it for those last few minutes.  Otherwise, my suggestion is that you

Book Review - TEN LITTLE ZOMBIES

This one is not for the kiddies, but it's hilarious fun.
You can get it here on Amazon.

Oh, go get it!  You know you want a copy!

"Porcelain figurines for your zombie grandma's mantel"

You'll never look at your grandmother's porcelain figurines the same way again.

Or, better yet, you might want to try what Jessica Harrison has done to her collection.

Go over to io9 and check out the rest of them!

Monday Movie Review - SEVEN DAYS

Sometimes torture horror hits home, and sometimes it misses.  This one hit home.

This Canadian French film (with subtitles) tells the story of a surgeon whose 8-year-old daughter is raped and murdered by a known pedophile.  The father makes arrangements to kidnap the criminal before he goes to trial, and give the man his own form of justice.  The title refers to the fact that the father informs the police that in seven days (which end on what would have been the daughter's 9th birthday) the murderer will be killed, and then he'll turn himself in.

This is not one the high-action, extremely bloody and violent films that you might see if it had come from the U.S.  This is a deep, intense study of human nature.  Of the power of love.  Of the strength of commitment.  Of vengeance.  Of the difficulty in dealing with an untimely, brutal death.

Yes, there is graphic content, and you will squirm at what the father does to the rapist.  But you will also find yourself cheering for the surgeon.  And you will commiserate with him.

Which makes my recommendation to be a wholehearted