Weekends are the perfect time for movie watching, you have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, three nights, three different films. Near the end of the week I’ll be highlighting three  different films, with some thing in common. Could be the sub-genre, a certain aspect, or a member of the crew.

Tom Savini is a legend to genre-hounds, the man has done some of the best special effects, from Friday the 13th to Creepshow, and trained Greg Nicotero, who now does effects on The Walking Dead. So over the weekend, why not dip your toes in some of Tom Savini’s best work.

Maniac (1980)

Maniac is a slasher film about serial killer Frank Zito, a disgusting man who likes to scalp girls, and keep them on manniques in his house. The fact that it’s sometimes considered more of a splatter flick than a slasher movie, should give you an idea of the effects in it. The movie drips blood from the cover, til’ the last frame, the best effect being  point-blank shotgun blast to the face. Fun fact, it was Tom Savini’s face. The gore in this one is so good, you might say it’s an Essential viewing.

Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Friday The 13th part four is widely considered one of the best in the series, it’s got a fun cast, including Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman, but most important of all, it has some great kills. Savini has experience with Jason and the family already though, since he helped to create Jason’s mother’s murderous rampage from the first film. They brought him back so he could help to kill Jason off, and make it a death to remember.

Day Of The Dead (1985)

Day Of The Dead is the third in Rameo’s dead series, and by far the best one. Day is about a US Army base after most of the world has been overrun by zombies. With characters everyone’ll remember, Bub the zombie, and Captain Rhodes, and some of the most gruesome gore in a zombie film. Savini had previously worked on Dawn Of The Dead, but this time around, he really got to step it up a notch. There is some outstanding gore in this film.

With the film finishing just seconds ago, I know I have to write this fast, as it’s already fading out of my mind. Cannibal Ferox is the 1981 cannibal film, coming in just at the end of the Cannibal Boom ( ’77-’81), it feels like just another shock’em exploitation film.

Cannibal Ferox starts out in New York, with a junkie going to score some drugs. In his dealers apartment are two mafia members who are looking for the dealer Mike, and gun him down in cold blood. Cut from there to the wilds of Paraguay, where Judy is traveling with her brother, and slutty friend, following up on a series of articles about cannibals, trying to prove that cannibalism as an organized culture, does not exist. Along the way they come across Mike, and his dying friend, who recounts all the terrible things that the cannibals did to them.

Of course, in the fashion of cannibal movies, it is really the white man, and modern society that is the bad guy. In the case of Cannibal Ferox, Mike represents the evil of society, as it was him who attacked the tribe of ‘cannibals’, while snorting coke every few scenes. The case that society is evil is best summed up by Judy in the excruciatingly bad dialog ” What a goddamn fool I was thinking I had to leave New York to find the reasons behind cannibalism. Do you realize it’s us, the so called civilized people that is the reason for their cruelty and our superior society.” Talk about beating us over the head with the message. But the strange thing is, the tribe was peaceful, until they decide to fight back against the invaders, saying that we are in fact the ones who made them cannibals. If that’s so, then why was there multiple articles about cannibalism in these parts?

The audio in the film is quite bad, with the speaking never quite matching with the characters, I’m assuming that it wasn’t shot in English, but I could be wrong for this. Since most cannibal films are Italian, I would assume it was re-dubbed when it was brought over as ” Make Them Die Slowly”, with the tagline ” They raped and killed his sister while he watched helplessly. Now it’s his turn to Make Them Die Slowly”. Too bad that never happens in the film.

The characters are almost as forgettable as the plotline of the cops trying to track down Mike in New York, which is intercut  with the footage of the cannibal story line, it just feels tracked on, much the same way any ‘character development’ does. The characters also make some of the worst choices ever. After hearing about the evil that the tribe did, they decided to camp in the middle of the village! From the first time together the characters will be best remembered as , The scientist, The slut, and The brother, beyond that, they’re just not deep at all, and any scenes trying to deepen them, just take away from what we want out of a cannibal movie.

The gore in the film is brutal in the nature of what is being shown, but the effects themselves are quite dated, and while practical, don’t seem to pack a punch. Our villain gets his penis severed, and eaten, there’s a scene with an eyeball removal, and a scene in which piranhas eat away at some one’s leg. All of these come across as goofy, more than frightening. The best elements of gore come when Mike has the top of his head sliced off, and his brains eaten, or when a character gets hooks through her breasts. But the most disturbing element of the film is the way they use real footage of animals killing animals, and even kill a pig for one scene. The approach of using Mundo footage would worked better, if it wasn’t so spread out from the rest of the story.

The main problem with the film, comes in the form of pacing. It’s a cannibal movie with boring characters, so lets get to the fucking gore already! By the time we’re finally getting to what we want to see, we’re nearing the end of the movie, and just as it feels it’s going to push the envelope, the film ends. What the hell!

While Cannibal Ferox might be considered the second best of the cannibal films, behind Cannibal Holocaust, it’s not a good film by any stretch, leaving me to ask, if this is the second best, what’s that say about the rest of them? With such a terrible story, the film won’t appeal to anyone but gorehounds, and with gore that isn’t done all that well, it’ll be a hard sell for them. What a shame it has such a beautiful poster.

Score – D -
Gore – 10/10
Gore Quality – 4/10

Cannibal Ferox made me realize  I would have to add a gore quality rating, because the film is bloody as hell, and the things they do deserve a 10, the quality just won’t cut it for any serious gorehound.

A trailer in essence is your film set up in a matter of clips, designed to attract an audience to the opening weekend, or to buy the dvd.  In a trailer we’ll learn from the underlying tone, and the scenes we’re treated with, what we’re getting into. So what happens if you change the tone? With a few edits, a different soundtrack, placement of scenes, you can make even your happiest family film seem like a horror film.

The Shining ( Happy Version)

We all know The Shining, the classic 1980 Stanley Kubrick adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same title. It’s the tale of the Torrance family’s time spent at the haunted Overlook hotel, and Jack Torrance’s decline into insanity. But change the soundtrack to be upbeat, and add some narration over top, and suddenly you got yourself a fun little family film about a man and child’s bonding.

Scary Mary

Mary Poppins is the 1964 Walt Disney musical about a magic nanny coming to help out an unhappy family, that won five of the thirteen Oscar nominations it had. Mary Poppins is in no way a scary film, but this trailer would give you a different idea. Using music made for the film ” An American Haunting” with Mary’s own singing over top of it, it looks like a genuinely frightening film.

Willy Wonka – Recut Horror

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory is one of those films everyone needs to see at least once in their life. I personally watched it every day for years growing up, and will return to view it once every couple years. Gene Wilder’s performance of Willy Wonka captures the essence of a boy trapped in a man’s body, who’s realizing he’s growing old. It’s a sad, and happy film all at the same time. But if you put the twist that Willy Wonka is delusional, the film takes on a tone of malevolence that’s chilling. At least now the tunnel scene fits in.

Toy Story 3 Trailer ( Horror Re-cut)

Toy Story 3 is regarded by a lot of people as the best of the series. My own opinions aside, the film is indeed as touching, and as deep as the first two, touching on themes of abandonment, love, and the meaning of friendship. In this re-cut trailer, the film takes on a much darker tone, and while it only works in a few of the scenes, the audio coming from Rob Zombie’s Halloween trailer, and presenting it’s self as a Zombie film, makes this one a good laugh.

Forrest Gump As A Horror Movie

Forrest Gump, is the story of a challenged man’s life, as boy in love with Jenny, to a man in love with Jenny, the struggles of his life, and love. While in the film, it’s played as both sad, and honorable the love Forrest has for Jenny, if you just put a dark tone on things, the same scenes take on a whole new meaning. Too bad this wasn’t what ‘Obsessed’ was.

Stuart Gordon and Jeffery Combs, back at it again, a combination that never does wrong. Once again their back to do a modern, reinterpretation of an H.P Lovecraft story,  of the same title. One year after they came together to make the classic Re-animator, do these two still have what it takes to pump out horror gold?

From Beyond is the tale of Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, here-on referred to as Combs, the assistant to the twisted Dr. Edward Pretorius, a sadist scientist with an unhealthy addiction to S&M. Together, the doctors are working on a device called The Resonator, which vibrates the Pineal gland, allowing you to see into a realm that is always around us, but never seen, and in return, never sees us, filled with weird flying warm like creatures. While testing The Resonator, success turns to terror as Dr. Pretorius has his head bitten off, an act which ends Combs in a insane asylum. Willing to take the risk to see if Combs story about another realm is true, Dr. Katherine McMichaels gets permission to take Combs back to the house it happened, with the help of  Bubba Brownlee, played by the always excellent and often underrated Ken Forbes.

The first two acts of the film are an absolute blast, upon recreating the experiment, we learn that Dr. Pretorius is now some form of super-being in this other realm, who’s form changes and molds as if made out of wax. Great effects, reminiscent of Re-Animator, as well as the body horror entries of David Cronenberg. Things quickly turn bad, and characters, mainly Barbara Crampton in the role of Dr. Katherine, start to make terrible decisions and choices. During this time it’s nice to see Ken Forbes playing the voice of reason, something often missed in horror films. Dr. Pretorius’ evil manner makes for a great backdrop to the spot on acting of Jeffery Combs, and they play off each other very well.

The third act of the film we start to see the story go downhill a bit. We step away from the house, and away from Dr. Pretorius and start to look at the effects the experiments have been having on the characters, and the downhill slope it leads them on. While interesting in it’s own right, it doesn’t quite feel right when compared to the rest of the film. When we finally get back to the house, we get an ending that I personally didn’t see coming when I first saw the film, not so much in it’s conclusion, but in how we get to it.

The film is beautifully shot, with a fantastic color scheme. The film is very bright, with lots of purples and shades of pink and red. It has the feeling of an episode of barney through the eyes of a demented killer on acid. Where most horror films tend to use a dark palette, working off of shades of grey, and crimson, it’s nice to see something up the color, but be able to keep the gore, and he scares with it.

From Beyond is a great film, and while the second collaboration with Combs, it’s far from the last, as they return together for such classics as The Pit And The Pendulum, and Castle Freak. It’s a good look at the earlier points in these two horror legends career, with a great character provided by Ken Forbes. If you haven’t seen From Beyond, what are you waiting for, get out there and vibrate that pineal gland!

Score – A
Gore – 8/10

Stephen King is a household name, everyone from your grandmother, to your child  knows who he is. King’s the guy who’s books gave us nightmares growing up, and influenced millions of people to take a walk on the dark side.  I have fond memories of reading ‘It’ by the light of the stars when I should have been sleeping, but with a book like ‘it’, what eight year old is going to be sleeping after?

I also have fond memories of going to Blockbuster ( for the younger readers out there, we use to go to a Blockbuster in order to rent VHS, and DVDS), and trying to convince my parents to let me bring home Pet Semetary. When I was older, and they finally let me, a love for films based on King’s writing grew and grew, and too this day, I love the films the man has brought to us. So I thought, how about I talk about my favorite five film adaptations.  While the man’s mini-series are almost arguably better, I wanted to limit the material to just the films.

5. 1408

1408 is the tale of Mike Enslin(John Cusack), an author who writes about haunted buildings, while not believing in ghosts himself, and his stay in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel. Over the course of what must be the longest night known to man, Mike learns that sometimes ghosts are real, and some times you should believe the warnings you hear. 1408 captures a great feeling of isolation, and hopelessness that will stick with you long after the movies finished.

4. Misery

Kathy Bates performance as one-screw-lose Annie Wilkes, is by far, the best performance in any of the films on this list, as the woman is the singular most terrifying reason this movie works. Without Annie Wilkes finding Paul Sheldon, author of her favorite series of novels, in a car crash in the middle of a snow storm, and taking him in, to nurse back to health, her own special way, Misery would not be on this list right now. Thanks to Kathy Bates performance, Misery is able to build up a level of tension that will have you grinding your teeth until the last frame.

3.  The Mist.

Based on novella of the same name written twenty-seven years earlier, The Mist rolls into third place simply for it’s ending. While the rest of the film is great, the characters decisions make sense, and you generally care for them, the hell that is experienced at the end of the film is one that leaves an impact. Stephen King himself came out and said if he had thought of the ending in the film, it would of been in the novella.

2. Christine.

Christine is the killer car movie to end all killer car movies. Directed by John Carpenter, Christine is the tale of a boy and his car, the boy in question being geeky Arnie, and the car being Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury. Christine has a mind of her own, and over the course of the film, really starts to charge Arnie from the nice boy he is at the beginning, to an total asshole. While the whole film looks great, the scenes in which Christine goes hunting, are both incredibly creepy, and odd at the same time, as it’s a car stalking it’s prey much the same way a certain masked man Carpenter helped invent does.

1. The Shinning

Was it any surprise to see Kubrick’s The Shinning make the top of the list? Everything about the film, from the haunting locale of The Overlook hotel, to the chilling deterioration of  Jack Nicholson’s character’s mental state, to the creepy little kid, and the two dead girls, this movie is fucking terrifying. It’s hard to believe Stephen King disliked this adaption, when just about everyone agrees, it’s the best.