Dead Snow 2 - Dead Vs Red

Dead Snow 2 follows in the tradition of Evil Dead 2 and other horror/humor type films that dont take themselves too serious, and for what it was, I was entertained.

Once you take a deep breath and in the first few minutes of the movie, is introduced to our hero ,(in a very helpful flashback, since I hadn't seen the original) Martin, the only one left alive from the previous film, is introduced exactly where the flashback left off, with him fighting off an army of zombie Nazis.

The fight lands Martin in the hospital, where Martin is outfitted with a replacement arm that just happens to belong to Nazi Zombie Colonel Herzog, the movie's main bad guy.

His arm, in a very much Evil Dead fashion, has a life of its own and grants Martin powers, but also is bloodthirsty, making for most of the movie's funny scenes.

Also comedic relief is found in the form of "Zombie Squad", a group of Americans that basically supposed to represent everyone watching the movie, they are funny and provide the comedic relief while kicking major ass without really having any sort of experience in the zombie killing field.

Plot was surprisingly for me, very well put together. Honestly I went into this waiting for a catastrophe and can tell you folks, I was entertained the entire time. The lead actors are solid (as solid as you get for a horror flick) and with a pretty decent budget (about 5 mil or so in dollars) they were able to pull off most of the gore effects and still have tanks, and all manners of crazy locations.

 One thing about this director, he doesnt shy away from what he wants to do. The gore is over the top, so is the story and the effects and it all, again to my surprised works.

When our heroes enlist the help of a group of "good zombies" to fight the Nazis you cant help but to cheer and enjoy the violent carnage that ensues.

Again I very much enjoyed Dead Snow 2 and will make a point to watch the first one now..

if you havent had the chance to see it, do it!

The Laughing Mask Movie Review

I've wrote a few pieces about this feature, mostly because I largely support independent features and I've been following the movie's progress since 2012 when the first short was released on Youtube.

I had the chance to see the film last year when I was sent a screener by the Director Michael Aguiar,and I enjoyed it for what it was. A low budget independent film with a very different take on the horror genre.

So I was surprised when after nearly a year, I received an invitation to go to the Wolf's Museum of Mysteries in St Augustine to review the film.

I arrived for the 6pm showing and was already impressed by the amount of people there, the courtyard was full and I had to sit on the side as there were no seats available. After awhile the movie didnt start as they were waiting for it to get darker so the projector could be used, so I left my seat and went on to look around the museum.
Upstairs they have a ton of the props and even a torture machine I didnt recognize from the first movie screning, so I assumed reshoots had been done.

This will have spoilers about the some of the parts so if you dont want to know, just stop reading here.

The movie finally started at 7:30 or so, just the very beginning of the film was already completely different, there was a scene involving cartoons that was a little jarring but very cool to look at, then we went into another new scene at a police station and we get some more information about the plot involving Kate and Cordova, then all was about the same except for the fight scene, and what a DIFFERENCE that made, I honestly hated the actor they had playing the pimp in the original, he was bad as they get, huge it didnt make for a good scene, but the new scene was very well done and improved in every way. That was what I noticed about the film the most, it seemed like everything was just bumped up a notch, the blood, effects and production value. It was as if I was watching an entirely different movie and I loved it.

The Laughing Mask character was given more depth and screen time, we now have a place he lives in, a "lair" if you will where The Laughing Mask keeps his most prized possessions, the guilty ones who didn't deserve a quick kill, but are kept as pets for his amusement. You couldn't help to feel sad for the Pig Man or nauseated at the mermaid made with pieces of human skin and force fed a fish. We also had a very interesting scene involving a made up puppet machine and I have to say that new sequence was my favorite in the film.

That's where the spoilers will end because come the end of the film you need to really see it. The beginning with its odd sequence ties up completely to the end showing a mental breakdown in a way I haven't seen in a horror movie, also kudos for the homage to the original "The Iron Claw" silent film that had (we were told during the Q&A) a mysterious character also called The Laughing Mask and he makes a cameo appearance in the film.

The acting was solid in most parts, the day players were weak and Kate's ex made me want to groan. Instead of feeling bad for him you actually feel for Kate, who is probably going for worst mother of the year award by doing exactly the opposite of everything to keep herself safe.

Im definitely interested to see how this movie does and if there is a sequel. A good part of the cast was there signing autographs and taking pictures, there was also a small impromptu Q&A session where they discussed the making of the film and how much has been added to it, also in a very smart move close to Halloween, we had The Laughing Mask "masks" on sale, I bought one myself, couldn't resist..

For the people who enjoy gore and mindless horror films, this is not for you. I cant even classify The Laughing Mask correctly as its very gory at parts but a police thriller at heart.

I took some pictures from the showing out of the Wolf's Musum of Mystery Facebook account and as well as the Laughing Mask FB.

The Babadook

The Babadook is one of those films that either people will love it or hate it.

I for one love it, and one of my favorite things about it is how it's duality leaves the fans not knowing exactly what to think in the end.

The movie starts with an overly tired and grieving widow(played magnificently by Essie Davis) who takers care of their son Sam, after her husband died in a car accident while driving her to the hospital.
There we are introduced to Sam. A child who in the first part of the movie I wanted the Babadook to eat it and take it away. The kid actor is fantastic and the idea behind it was to show what kind of stress level his mother was dealing with, as well as Sam's inability to deal with his father's death, causing him to have all kinds of behavior issues and ends up being kicked out of school.

That's when the movie really begins, Amelia finds an odd book in the shelf and reads it to Sam, The book is called "The Babadook" and once the book is read, the creature apparently come to life.

In a very "childs play" fashion, Sam starts being involved in odd acts and attributes them to The Babadook, causing Amelia to rip the book into shreds and burn it. Next day, during a birthay party with the worst family members ever, the worst cousin on earth makes fun of Sam for not having a father and gets a well deserved punch in the nose, (she deserved it.. babadook or not), on the way out of the party, Sam has some sort of  seizure and Amelia asks the doctor to prescribe Sam some medications to allow him to rest.

The very next day, the damned book is sitting in front of her door and for me at least that's when the story takes place. Not until that moment, when she walks into the police station and says out loud everything that has happened to her, we realize how crazy it all sounds. And that night, Amelia is finally visited by the Babadook who "possesses" her.

Then we go straight Shining, as Amelia kills their dog as predicted by the book, then proceeds to try to Kill Sam who stabs his mom in the leg, causing her to "fight the creature" and throw up black goo.

They win in the end after Amelia yells at the Babadook that they are no longer scared and in the end, at Sams birthday party, we see that Amelia kept the Babadook as a pet and feeds him worms.

A lot of people see this as a monster movie, but I saw it as a film about a woman dealing with depression. There was never a Babadook, Amelia always resented her son for being the "cause" of his father's death, her hallucinations came from lack of sleep and in the end, she created the storybook to cope with her own dark thoughts of murdering her child, but when confronted with the reality of she was about to do Amelia fought against her illness and kept that dark side of her locked away, but in control 

I thought it was a masterfully done movie, the use of the cartoons and practical effects were very well done. They had a sizable budget for a low budget feature with a 2 million dollar price tag, and part of that was crowdfunded. Then they won the grail of independent features at Sundance and the rest is history.

I recommend it for anyone to give it a shot