horror gallery

Killer Double Feature: Bad Dreams and Visiting Hours

Shout Factory has a series of DVD titles that feature two films on one disc. Many are action double features or Roger Corman Double, Triple or Quadruple features. This disc is titled Killer Double Feature. It contains two movies: Bad Dream and Visiting Hours.

Bad Dreams I can remember seeing in theaters when I was eleven years old with my friend and his mother. Back then, ti scared the crap out of me. I remember that the TV spot for the film was all over television. It was a film that got a theatrical push in 1988 and actually grossed more than twice its budget. The film is about a girl, Cynthia, who wakes up from a coma in a psychiatric hospital almost thirteen years after surviving a mass suicide where cult members doused themselves with gasoline and lit themselves on fire. However, things start to take a turn for the worse when patients in the hospital begin to kill themselves and Cynthia begins to suspect that the leader of the cult is still around and has come to claim her.

Visiting Hours is a film I never saw before. It is about a TV Journalist who goes on a crusade to expose and stop domestic violence. However, she has sparked some rage in some people, especially one man who brutally attacks her. She survives the attack only to have her assailant’s violence escalate. Now, not only is she in danger, but so are the people around her as this violent pursuer will stop at nothing until he kills her.

I really didn’t care for either of these films. Bad Dreams I remember as being a boring horror film when I was kid, but the burnt killer creeping out of the ceiling tiles in the hospital used the scare the shit out of me. Not so much anymore. Visiting Hour just doesn’t have enough action to keep my interest. Maybe because it’s an older film that just seems to fit in with all the other psycho killer films and it really just didn’t catch my interest as a stand out slasher film.

Overall, the disc is nicely put together with a ton of special features for Bad Dreams such as Audio Commentary, interviews with Cast & Crew, and two behind-the-scenes featurettes. Both films also had trailers and TV spots included in the special features. This is a disc you may want to pick up only if you are a fan of one or both of these films. The transfer of both films is nice, but unless you’re a fan of the films, this is one you may want to skip.

- Horror Bob

Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore

Herschell Gordon Lewis will always carry the title of, “The Godfather of Gore,” and the documentary about his life has the same title. When I first saw his film, Blood Feast, I knew that he was a man before his time. Blood Feast pushed the boundaries in a time when many would not even think of laying eyes on such a film for fear of being thrown in jail.

Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore is a documentary about the man’s life featuring interviews with cast and crew members who worked on his films as well as critics and other famous directors and horror personalities, such as John Waters, Joe Bob Briggs and even an interview with Herschell Gordon Lewis himself. The film talks about his career starting out making nude exploration films such as Nudie Cuties right up to the time he made Blood Feast and other shocking films, such as Two Thousand Maniacs and The Gore Gore Girls.

This documentary is directed by Basket Case director Frank Henenlotter and producer Jimmy Maslon. It is a great documentary about the career of Herschell Gordon Lewis with clips and outtakes form his film as well as testimony from people who have worked with him. The DVD also features over an hour of deleted scenes, an H.G. Lewis Trailer Reel, one of his shorts, Hot Night at the Go-Go Lounge as well as a gallery of H.G. Lewis Exploitation Art.

Overall, this documentary is put together very well and is a very informative and inspirational look at a man who paved the way for explicit horror cinema and is a pioneer in the genre of guts and gore. This is a must-see for fans of Herschell Gordon Lewis.

- Horror Bob

The Child's Eye

Usually when you hear of the Pang Brother you automatically think great Asian Horror Directors. I think of my favorite Asian horror film, and one of the best films I have ever seen, The Eye. The brothers are known for their excellence in horror. However, as of late they have been in decline, as some of their films have not been all that great. I expected this one, The Child’s Eye to be awesome, because it is kind of a sequel to The Eye. However, what I got was a lackluster film with some bad acting and a ghost story that offer nothing new to the genre.

The Child’s Eye is about six young people on vacation in Bangkok that find themselves stranded at an airport due to a riot. They go to the Chung Tai Hotel, run by Chuen (Lam Ka-tung), where Rainie sees a female ghost and Ling finds a hovering hand trying to grab her. While at dinner the three men disappear. Rainie leads the girls with the aid of Man-man and her ghost-seeing dog Little Huang as they try and find them in the hotel's underground passages where they encounter the female ghost and a strange monster which is actually a dog human hybrid.

This film was originally shot in 3-D and was one of the first 3-D Hong Kong horror films. You can see in the film that scenes involving some kind of giant bug and tear gas canister are all done with the 3-D technology as are some of the ghosts. The film lacks in a lot of areas the script reads like a long boring talkie and the action, (besides a few moving chairs) gets off to a slow start. The acting is nothing special either as it seemed that the lead actors in the film struggled to grasp hold of their characters. Sure it had a few good scares here and there but I didn’t think the film was anywhere near as great as The Eye was.

The DVD has a few features such as a behind the scenes interview with the Cast & Crew as well as a Trailer Gallery. The DVD also offers the film in Cantonese and English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio as well as optional English and Spanish subtitles.

Overall, I was impressed by the style of the film but not with the story, the acting and yes even the hokey effects. There is also something about a ghost seeing dog that just brings up the thought of that dog in the original Hills Have Eyes 2. What’s with these psychic dogs in movies? It just does not work for me.

- Horror Bob

Cyrus: Mind Of A Serial Killer

No matter if they are real or fictional; people will always be interested in the story of serial killers. The unanswered truth to why they do what they do and the stories of their lives are what we as people want to know about. What makes them the way they are and why do they methodically kill? When real life serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Richard Speak and Ed Gein were captured, their stories were told not so much by themselves as they were from the people who knew them. Thus the reason why we have so many serial killer films about the dame person, all made with different perspectives. Each witness to the crime or knowledge of the killer has sold their stories to movie studios.

Cyrus Mind of a Serial Killer is a story based on the true events of the County Line Cannibal”. I’m not sure if the entire story is real or if this was derived to help sell the film. The movie revolves around a news reporter and her camera man that are contacted by a man with information about two hundred disappearances of students from Midwestern University. The man has information of the serial killer who did it and what he did with the people he abducted. The information that will be revealed to them just might put their lives in danger as well.

I saw this film a while ago, and actually forgot about it until I watched it again recently and about quarter of the way though realized I’ve seen it. I think the release date was delayed, but none the less the film is now here in all its bloody glory. The DVD has only one special feature which takes you behind the scenes of the film. Other than that the DVD is pretty much bard bones.

As for my overall opinion of the film; it’s nothing special. The story is nothing original and it is just another one of those dull serial killer films that tells a decent story but it’s something that is predictable, a plot that we are all to familiar with. However, the film does have its positives. Brian Krause gives us a great performance as Cyrus and for fans of serial killer films there a few thrilling scenes. Don’t expect anything to crazy but there are some intense moments. Overall, Cyrus Mind of a Serial Killer is nothing special. It’s an alright serial killer film but it’s nothing new to what we expect from such a movie. Some will enjoy it, while other won’t. In my opinion it’s just alright.

- Horror Bob

insidious

I’ve seen, read and listened to people bitch and complain about PG-13 horror films for the past few years. Honestly we have become fans that only want our horror films to be full of blood, guts and gore. The more the better, who cares if the story is good or not? Who cares if there are social issues involved? That’s the problem. We have become accustomed to the gory the better idealism of a horror film and not the story. Insidious is a film that has no blood, and OH MYGOD; no body count. Yet, it is the scariest horror film I have seen all year.

Insidious is about a family that moves into a new home. Once there everyone except the father begins to experience dark things in the house. When one of the boys mysteriously falls into a coma, the family is stunned. The doctors can’t figure out why he is in a coma as all the tests they have run came back negative. The family soon discovers that there is something evil involved in their son’s sudden coma. After the spirits begin to haunt the mother, the family agrees to move. However, the house is not haunted, their son is and they will need the help of professional paranormal researchers and a clairvoyant to help unlock the truth behind the haunting and help get their son back.

Insidious reminds me of a film that scared the hell out of me when I was a child; Poltergeist. The films are very similar in terms of storyline and plot, yet both are different in their originality. I think it’s a fair assessment to compare the two films. Insidious is a film that has that feel that makes the viewer uncomfortable. Right from the beginning we know that there is something very wrong with the house and the family. We are thrown right into the situation and become entwined with what’s going on. It is one of those horror films where the mystery is just as frightening as the experiences the characters are going though.

Insidious has decent acting, great visual and special make-up effects and awesome directing. It’s hard to believe that James Wan the director of Saw was able to create a film where there is no blood or guts involved and use the less is more method to make such a frightening film. There are echoes of classic horror films such as Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein throughout this film. I felt like I was watching a classic horror film or a William Castle ghost film.

If you go into Insidious thinking blood, guts, and death you will be disappointed. This is a film that goes back to the way horror films were meant to be made. The story is the main focus, not the body count and gore. It is a classic chilling ghost story that gets under your skin. I highly recommend this gem of a film.

- Horror Bob

platoon

In 1986 at the ripe age of nine, my father saw it fit to bring me to the movies to experience a film that would open me up to what war is really like. Sure, Platoon is a Hollywood made film and no real act of war cannot compare to a film. However, this Oscar award winning film would take my war movie virginity. Sure, the year before my father took me to see the action film Commando, which would make me a huge fan of all action films, but Platoon was the film that would open me up to what real cinema was all about.

Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is the new American shoulder assigned to a Platoon of men that have seen a lot of action during the Vietnam war. During a raid of a small village, members of the platoon kill people in the village that they believe they are working for the enemy. Members of the Platoon become divided on the issue. As the war intensifies Chris finds himself in a tug of war with his emotions and the men in his Platoon as he does not make it clear on whose side he is on about the massacre. The film is based on writer/director Oliver Stone’s first hand experiences in the Vietnam War.

Platoon is a film that I have not seen in over a decade. Revisiting the film on Blu-ray I not only felt a better appreciation for the fantastic film that it is but also have a higher understanding and respect for what our troops went though during this war. I have an uncle who was on the front lines of the war and was the only remaining member of his Platoon that survived. From what my family has told me the war changed him a lot. Most people don’t realize the horrors that our troops faced during this war and it is films like Platoon that help us better understand just how horrible things were during this war.

The Blu-ray disc is loaded with tons and tons of special features. There are two audio commentaries, one with Writer/Director Oliver Stone and another with military advisor Dale Dye. There are deleted and extended scenes with optional commentary with Oliver Stone and also Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots. The disc also includes some featurettes called Flashback to Platoon. They include Snapshot in Time: 1967-1968; Creating the ‘Nam; and Raw Wounds: The Legacy of Platoon. There are also two documentaries, One War, Many Stories and Preparing for’Nam. There is also the Vignettes features which include Caputo & The 7^thFleet; Dye Training Method and Gordon Gekko. The Blu-ray disc also comes with a DVD copy of the film also.

Overall the 25^th anniversary edition Blu-ray of Platoon is a must have for fans of war films, history buffs and as a reminder that this was a war that took the lives of many brave men. This is a must have disc for one of the best films ever made.

- Horror Bob