"CATCH YOU FUCKERS AT A BAD TIME?"

The Meateater

tn_meateater

(this isn't really a slasher movie, but I thought it was gonna be)
(this isn’t really a slasher movie, but I thought it was gonna be)

THE MEATEATER (1979) is a pretty good really bad one I found. I looked up the director, writer and lead actors and none of them have any other credits except the leading man Peter Spitzer had a small part in a Cannon movie the same year called GAS PUMP GIRLS. I can’t vouch for that one, but THE MEATEATER has a certain charm to it because you can tell they’re trying hard but the amateurish acting, dialogue and pacing make it feel more like an Ed Wood movie than like other low budget horror of the era.

The story is about a Florida traveling shoe salesman named Mitford Webster (Spitzer) who comes home one day, makes his wife come out on the porch (maybe they weren’t allowed to film inside?) and complains about being unfulfilled. Then he checks the mail and oh what a surprise, he bought a movie theater in some town somewhere. (read the rest of this shit…)

The Hills Run Red (2009)

tn_hillsrunredTHE HILLS RUN RED probly isn’t a new classic, but I think it’s a solid DTV horror and a good take on the “meta-slasher” sub-subgenre that includes SCREAM and my unfavorite BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF etc. etc. This is another one about people making a documentary, but thank the Lord Christ it’s not presented as a documentary. Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrink, some guy from DISASTER MOVIE) is a film school nerd obsessed with a 1982 slasher movie called THE HILLS RUN RED (wait a minute… that’s what this movie is called! what on earth is going on here?). It was supposedly so horrifying it was pulled from release. The director and all prints of the movie have been missing for over 20 years. (read the rest of this shit…)

Save BLACK DYNAMITE

tn_blackdynamiteAttention New Yorkers, Los Angelenos, Philadelphiacs, Atlantians, Chicagoians and Seattleors:

I got an email from BLACK DYNAMITE co-writer/director (and one time outlawvern.com commenter) Scott Sanders. As I feared, he says the lack of a serious advertising budget is resulting in low ticket sales, and “Unless word gets out about the film soon, we have very little chance of surviving the weekend.”

It turns out that having the trailer online and showing the ad one time on BET doesn’t get everybody’s attention. Just ours.

Sorry for the infomercial but I have an interest in this doing well because 1) I want to see a sequel and 2) your life will be made better by seeing this movie, and I am a humanitarian. So here is my outlaw guarantee: if you go pay full price to see it this week and you regret it, contact me. In lieu of a refund I promise to review the movie of your choice. Even if it’s the fucking Boondock Saints or some shit like that, I’ll do it for you. But I probly won’t have to because this movie will kick your ass and grow you a mustache.

blackdynamitescoreIn other BLACK DYNAMITE news, the soundtrack and score albums finally came out this week. They didn’t get them at my local record store though, so I have them on order. But I’m listening to them online right now – skip over that hip hop remix (not sure what that’s about) and you can hear what’s actually on the albums. The soundtrack is the original songs by Adrian Younge and the score is all library music, which explains part of why the music sounds so authentic – it is authentic. But listening to those Adrian Younge songs, I swear I forget it’s not one of the vintage collections I have – even the recording quality sounds 1976. That attention to detail is part of what makes the movie so great.

links and more info if you click the ‘click here’ thing (read the rest of this shit…)

Nomads

tn_nomadsOne year before PREDATOR, two years before DIE HARD, John McTiernan wrote and directed this unusual thriller about ghostly demons or demonic ghosts. (Actually I thought they were ghosts, but the back of the DVD calls them demons. So let’s split the difference.) NOMADS stars Lesley-Anne Down as Dr. Flax, recently moved to L.A. One night after 32 hours on shift she sees a patient covered in blood, babbling in French, so crazed that they have to cuff him. He’s played by “Pierce Brosnan, the star of REMINGTON STEELE like you’ve never seen him before” according to the trailer narrator.

His name is Pommier and as he’s convulsing he whispers to her, then bites her ear, wounding her bad. After a few moments of shock she tries to cut the tension with gallows humor, saying “Well, looks like he got me there, didn’t he?” But then Pommier dies. (read the rest of this shit…)

A Slasher Overview

VERN’S MAILBAG

Hi Vern,

Maybe on the site you could have a list of 10 or so of your favorite slasher films. I’m dying for some good stuff to watch this month, and I would trust a list from you.

Keep up the excellent work,

Cassady

I thought this was a good idea. My apologies to Doc Phibes though, who was sick of all the slasher movies I was reviewing. Hope you enjoyed the killer bear and demonic virus reviews, Doc.

I think instead of a list I’ll just do a little run through of ones I enjoy, with brief comments. This won’t be a definitive list or even the definitive definition of “slasher.” Just to get some variety I’ll loosen it a little to include almost anything with some jerk going around killing people with a sharp tool.

1. THE MASK OF ZORRO starring Antonio Banderas. (read the rest of this shit…)

[REC]

tn_recWell, say hello to the bad guy. The wet blanket, the party pooper, parade pisser, Gloomy Gus, Whiny Waldorf, Joyless Jim, Bum-out Benjamin. I’m talking about me here, the guy who achieved the dubious record of “First Person Not To Like [REC] Very Much.” Sorry guys. Didn’t think it would be me, so I didn’t prepare a speech.

If you’re not familiar with it, [REC] is the ’07 Spanish horror picture already remade in the U.S. as QUARANTINE. It’s a fakumentary/found footage one like BLAIR WITCH, CLOVERFIELD, THE OFFICE, etc. The premise is that a TV hostess and her cameraman are doing a story on firefighters when they respond to a building where a deadly 28 DAYS LATER type infection (zombies except in name) breaks out. They get trapped in the building and document the mayhem because the people have a right to know or whatever. (read the rest of this shit…)

Grizzly

tn_grizzlyLoosely based on Hanna-Barbera’s YOGI BEAR, GRIZZLY is the story of an uptight forest ranger (Christopher George) who just can’t stand that a bear is running around his woods living the free, unencumbered life of fun that his conformist philosophy won’t allow him. This is the more realistic BATMAN BEGINS version though so Yogi doesn’t talk or wear a hat or tie. Instead he’s 15 feet tall and weighs over a ton. Instead of stealing pic-a-nic baskets he steals people, by which I mean he eats them. Boo Boo is not a major character but is represented by a bear cub who some yokel hunters decide to capture and use as bait for Yogi. Yogi’s wiseass response? He eats Boo Boo. (read the rest of this shit…)

“Explosive! The next Peter Travers!”

This is from Sunday’s New York Times:

blackdynamitequote

(larger than actual size)

This is the first time I’ve ever been a quote whore in my ten years of reviewing. Glad it’s a movie I really like. I always figured if it happened they’d just write “Ain’t It Cool News” and no name, but I lucked out I guess.

Other notes:

1.I believe the censored part was “god damn” in the original review, not “fucking”. So read it right.

2. They contacted me to clear the quote, which surprised me considering some of the out of context and one word quotes you see by other people. Do they really have to get your permission or are the Black Dynamite people just really polite?

3. The best part is they sent the quote and then a correction because the one approved by the MPAA had different symbols for the “god damn” than the one they originally ran by me.

Until now the only times I’ve been quoted on ads were a couple fakes I made. Click through to see those. (read the rest of this shit…)

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

tn_halloweeniiiHALLOWEEN III isn’t the worst HALLOWEEN sequel, but it’s probly the most hated because it’s a new story unrelated to Michael Myers. Producer John Carpenter had this knuckleheaded idea that it was better to treat it like an anthology series, each one a new story having something to do with the holiday. What he didn’t consider seriously enough, maybe because he’s too modest, is that the first HALLOWEEN is a masterpiece and not a whole lot of stories or concepts feel worthy of being in the same series. Maybe if he’d done HALLOWEEN III: THE THING people would’ve gone for it, but not this.

I do know a cult of horror fans who swear by SEASON OF THE WITCH. Their numbers are smaller than the Thorn Cult from parts 5 and 6, and they’re probly just overcompensating for the people who hate the movie just for being a different story and not on its actual quality. And these cultists had me going a bit, I was starting to remember it as being kind of good. (read the rest of this shit…)

Dear Twisted Pictures and Stephen Susco: Don’t fuck it up

By now you’ve probly read the news that Twisted Pictures (the production company behind SAW parts 1-through-indefinite) and writer Stephen Susco (THE GRUDGE) have nabbed the TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE rights out from under the noses of Platinum Dunes. They’re supposedly gonna “reboot” again, now setting it in the modern day instead of the ’70s, and doing it in 3-D. And while Platinum Dunes were only given the rights on a movie-by–movie basis, Twisted is supposedly planning a whole series of them. (Dude, do a trilogy, like LORD OF THE RINGS! Or CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK!)

Of course, I am a huge nerd for the TEXAS CHAIN SAW pictures (the real ones) so many of you were kind enough to notify me about this development. I think maybe I should be outraged, but I actually think it’s kind of a good thing. It was clear that Platinum Dunes were never gonna figure out what to do with these movies, and had sucked all the blood they could out of them. At the same time they already broke its remake cherry, following up on two iffy-even-if-I’m-in-a-charitable-mood sequels from the ’90s. So another one I don’t think is gonna tarnish the CHAIN SAW legacy any more, it’s just gonna smear it around a little. I’d rather the series rest in peace now, but I guess it’s fitting somebody would dig this thing up and play around with its corpse.

chainsaw-leatherfacewithfac

Plus, the naively optimistic idealist in me thinks about what if it actually went right? What if this was the WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE impossibly ideal scenario? Picking out pictures to use for this post I kept looking at shots from part 2 and thinking 1) I should be watching that right now instead of writing this and 2) holy shit, imagine that in 3-D! What if instead of a typical modern horror movie this was some crazy funhouse, one o’ them visual marvels like part 2? It could be amazing! (read the rest of this shit…)