I hadn’t seen this movie since I was a kid and I remember it freaked me out. A young scientist named Herbert West (Jeffery Combs) has discovered the secret to reanimating dead flesh. Very Dr. Frankensteinesque with a bit more style and gore. West has concocted a glowing serum that he injects into dead things to bring them back to life. It works, but what comes back isn’t necessarily civilized. He moves in with Dan Cain, a fellow student and resident at the hospital with access to lots of dead bodies. West plays up the mad scientist role, testing on cadavers and his roommate’s cat! When Dr. Hill, a lobotomy-happy doctor at the university tries to steal his secret formula, West cuts off his head and injects it with the serum. Seems like a good idea until Dr. Hill’s body and severed head walk out with the formula and Cain’s girlfriend and go back to the lab for some experimentation. Filled with melodrama and humor this is a classic horror movie.

I didn’t expect much of this movie and can’t say I was let down. The first 15 minutes are incredible, especially for Jaws fans like myself. After that its just a gratuitous gore that will make your skin crawl and a LOT of T&A. There aren’t a lot of 3D scenes, but the ones that are there are definitely gimmicky. There were lots of laughs, jumps and “Awwwwww no way dude” moments. Elizabeth Shue is pretty badass and Christopher Lloyd is more over the top than Donald Pleasance’s Dr. Loomis in “Halloween”. Lots of disposable characters and pretty predictable. Judge this for yourself, but I don’t think I’ll be watching it again.

Ok this is a cheeky little grindhouse movie with some pretty bad dubbing. At first I wasn’t sure if it was filmed in english but apparently some of the sound just doesn’t sync up in places. The opening sequence shows a young boy putting together a puzzle of a naked lady, just about to put in the final piece when his mother storms in and flips out on him. He grabs and ax and hacks her up and finishes his puzzle. Ha! Flash forward to the 80’s and some maniac is hacking up pretty girls on campus with a chainsaw and piecing together his own perfect woman. Kind of reminds me of the 2002 movie, May. Some good gore, pointless nudity, random karate scene that makes NO sense, and lots of red herrings and the weirdest/funniest ending EVER.

I first noticed this movie on the shelf as a kid when it was entitled Creepers. The cover alone grossed meout and I didn’t actually watch it until2005. The cover art is different and the title is now Phenomena. Jennifer Connelly is wonderful as always. She has this haunted quality about her that I was always drawn to since I first watched Labyrinth. Here she plays Jennifer, the daughter of a famous director sent to a Swiss boarding school. She is an odd girl with a telepathic connection with insects. There is a psycho killer on the loose and Jennifer teams up with Donald Pleasance, his monkey and an army of insects to help track them down. There is some bizarre rock music blaring in a few scenes that make this seem like a surreal European music video from the 80’s. Pleasance and Connelly give strong performances in this dizzyingly dark fairy tale. Probably my favorite Argento film so far.

This is one of my favorite Stephen King movies. Dr. Louis Creed moves his family move to a small town in Maine. There seems to be an odd vibe in the town, definitely some history that he is about to become a part of. Their pet cat, Church, gets hit by a truck. Ominous neighbor, Jud, brings Louis to a gravesite behind the Pet Sematary to bury it. The next day, the cat is back, a little creepier than before, but the rest of the family is none the wiser. During a picnic, their baby boy, Gage, is playing with a kite and ends up running towards the road where he is plowed over by a tractor trailer truck. (This scene always breaks my heart, he was the cutest kid on the planet. I always wish it could have been the obnoxious daughter.) Grief stricken, Louis buries his child in the Pet Sematary. Big mistake. Gage isn’t so cute when he comes back and certainly not as lovable. Can Louis stop the evil before its too late or has he dug himself in too deep?

Night of the Demons (2009) is about a group of teens invited to a Halloween party at a creepy house when suddenly people start turning into demons and killing off the guest list. My favorite was a cameo by the lovely Linnea Quigley wearing the crazy tutu outfit she wore in the original. Also the recycled “lipstick” scene. A fun remake but not an improvement on the original, just a bit more glamorous with its starlets.

Bruce plays himself as a pompous B-list actor. He is abducted by an obsessed fan boy when a small town is terrorized by an ancient Chinese demon. Naturally, only a hero like Bruce can defeat the demon. Thinking this is a birthday gag, Bruce plays along. When things get a little too real he flees like a wuss. Bruce chews up the scenery in this horror/comedy delivering corny dialog and jokes. This is a pretty amusing movie for fans of Bruce Campbell/Evil Dead.

Frozen is a chilling story about a trio of teens bonding at a ski resort. They bribe the ski lift engineer to let them take a late night run. Unfortunately for them the chair lift breaks down, leaving them stranded hundreds of feet in the air. The resort is closed for the weekend, so no one is around to hear them scream for help. Will they find a way down before frost bite or starvation kicks in? This movie is along the lines of “Open Water”, leaving you to question what you would do to survive when its just you vs. nature. Great movie, but keep a warm blanket handy!

Ed GeinThis isn’t the first movie made about Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. You know, the one that killed women and made little outfits out of their skin. I watched it purely out of fan loyalty to Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th 7,8,9, X, Hatchet). It’s great to see him in front of the camera without a mask. Personally, I had a hard time differentiating him from his character. That being said. I think he did a great job. He certainly plays the intimidating brute well. He shares some screen time with Michael Berryman, another horror icon (The Hills Have Eyes, Devils Rejects). As far as historical accuracy goes, I think I preferred the 2000 version called “In the Light of the Moon”

I have never read the book or seen any previous film versions but this one seemed attractive to me. Dorian Gray is a young, unsophisticated man who moves to London to claim his inheritance after his abusive father passes away. He is naive and is easily corrupted by his new friend, Harry. He is envious of Dorian’s youth and introduces him to the finer things in life like scotch, opium dens, and prostitutes. Dorian has his portrait painted and realizes his youth will forever be preserved on the canvass while he faces his own mortality. He makes a proverbial deal with the devil and soon overindulges in sinful behavior, sacrificing his soul and losing his first love. He remains young and beautiful while his portrait decays, revealing Dorian’s true ugliness. Eventually, all his friends age while he remains youthful. Everyone wants to know his secret, but if he tells you, he’ll have to kill you. I really enjoyed this movie. The acting is top notch and there’s a bit of everything, sex, murder, love, betrayal. You sympathize with, envy, and despise Dorian all at once. Its a classic fable with moral undertones. Is it worth selling your soul to be young forever?