Draculas - Strand, Crouch, Wilson, and Kilborn.

Really quick, I just want to give a quick tip o' the hat to the book I am immersed in right now.

Draculas might be one of the most over-the-top books I have read. I am not so sure I have ever read a book that has one speed, and one intensity level only, before. In our first chapter we are introduced to Mortimer, an elderly gent who is dying of cancer. Mort's idea of a cure is to buy up a recently found skull that is thought to be the skull of Dracula. Mort's plan? Why clamp the thing to his throat and see what happens!

What happens is pretty much the entire rest of the book. Mort executes his plan within the first few pages of the book, and the rest of the book is a hospital trying to deal with what he did. What he did was create a draculas outbreak that is just non-stop carnage.

The book is a group effort by Jeff Strand, Jack Kilborn, F. Paul Wilson, and Blake Crouch. Each author handles a chapter a piece. Each chapter is broken into different characters. Remember sitting in class and writing a sentence, then passing it to a friend and having them add a sentence, then they pass it to somebody else and they add a sentence, until the story gets back and what is left is a wacky little tale? That is what has been done here, or so it seems. Does it work? Yes, the feel of fun is all over this book. It is more than obvious that the writers were having a blast, and the reader is right there along with them. Just don't expect anything enlightening, and the ride will be a ton of fun.

The book, by the way, is only available digital, so some form of digital reading device is needed.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9378084-draculas

Idle for so long.

I am not too sure how many folks out there might be reading this blog, but I still feel I owe a bit of an explanation. This blog has taken a back seat while I am finishing up my current sememster at Northern Illinois University. Once I am done with the current sememster I will be finding myself with almost too much time on my hands, so this blog will be taking off with quite a bit more material.

At the same time, however, part of one of my current classes projects is to create a blog. So that one has currently been taking up my time. That one can be accessed at http://www.sonicruin.blogspot.com/. The site, for the time being, is a reflection of the art class I am involved in. That site will see a topic shift once the semester ends. Eventually that site will be host to two things. First, it will be a location for things that used to appear in my former fanzine, Sonic Ruin. I will be adding reviews and music related items as they come to me. Second, that site will also be the running blog for the "album" I will be working on starting in the next few weeks. Well, I started on it about 6 months ago, but with the coming slow down of school, I intend to dive further into it than I ever did before.

So, there you have it. Yes, exciting stuff, I know. I am a man of adventure, what can I say?

Drag Me To Hell

O.K., so my contest from last week as to which movie I should watch, ended with an enormous amount of votes! I have to tell you, I was thrilled and very touched that so many of you sent in your votes! I’m actually going to do something very few people do in the internet age, and that is actually thank every single one of you personally for sending in your votes! So, here it goes:

Alan Simpson, thank you for your winning vote of Drag Me To Hell!!!

PHEW!!! That was exhausting!

Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s discuss the movie!

As many of you might have picked up on by now, the review this week is for the Sam Raimi return to horror, Drag Me To Hell. I had been interested in this one ever since the talk of it going into production hit the horror circuit. Like any other horror fan, a return to horror by Raimi was like music to my ears. After making the classic Evil Dead films, and the insanely disturbing Simple Plan, Mr. Raimi got all wrapped up in his Spider-Man films. Now, my being a freaky Marvel zombie made this just dandy. I was more than happy to be getting great Marvel films, no matter what might have happened with part three, I still enjoyed the dang thing. But still, a return to horror for Raimi was a lovely idea!!!

So what kind of film did the horror fans get with the triumphant return of Raimi? Was it a full blown horror extravaganza on par with the intensity of the first Evil Dead film, or more of the action flick that was Army Of Darkness? Or was it the middle ground and experimental overload that was Evil Dead 2?

In a nutshell, Drag Me To Hell is more of a conventional horror film than anything else that Raimi had done prior. Granted, it doesn’t pack the all out punch that the first two Evil Dead films had, but then since Raimi was a trailblazer back then, chances of this being that were pretty slim. So instead Raimi decided to use his trademark styles, and incorporate them into a more straight-forward possession style flick.

Drag Me To Hell is the story of basically making poor choices with the wrong people. The story centers on Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a decent person who is losing on the corporate banking ladder due to not being a rotten snake, as her competition Stu (Reggie Lee) is. She decides to go ahead and take advantage of an elderly lady who she could have helped on her mortgage.  Christine’s big mistake is that the elderly lady turns out to be a gypsy who is in cahoots with some nasty ol’ spirits and decides to curse poor Christine.

A person’s enjoyment of Drag Me To Hell might depend on their familiarity of the brilliant 1957 Jacques Tourneur film Curse/Night of the Demon, which was based on the MR James tale Casting The Runes. Certain plot points are shared by all three, and the two films are very similar in many aspects, right down to the ending taking place at the train station. This does not detract too much from the enjoyment of Drag, as Raimi was wise enough to alter key aspects that enable the film to carry its own persona. Although I do think that some of my enjoyment was sapped by the fact that I was quite often trying to guess what was going to happen due to my knowledge of Curse, and when it is mentioned to meet at the train station I smirked and got ready for an ending I knew was coming. So it should be stressed that this is more of my own problem, not the films.

I recommend Drag Me To Hell to anybody looking for a good little horror flick that surprisingly is rather tame in the gore and over-all violence. There is no doubt that this is a Raimi film, and yet he has learned his own style well enough to know that what made something a “Raimi film” was not the overabundance of the gore, but rather that unique camera style. The film has that style in spades, some nice scares and tense moments, and is a pretty fun time. It will make some wonderful Halloween viewing for those who have not seen it yet, and a nice annual film for all else.  

CREATURE - Beastie on the loose!

Did anybody know this movie was coming out? I swear, this thing came from out of nowhere. It was the surprise factor, in fact, that lead to this film being the center of a date night for my wife and me. Oh, it wasn’t intended to be such. In fact, when I heard about this movie and realized it would be in theaters for a second, it became a movie that I was just going to run out and see all by my lonesome. I know my wife is not a Horror fan, so I didn’t expect her to go. I, on the otherhand, have been missing good old fashioned monster romps in the theater, so I knew I was going to go. Imagine my surprise when my wife said “looks like fun, let’s make a date of it!”

Now, if I can be honest here, I am going to blame her going with me for being the reason why the movie was so far below being actually good. Not that she is a curse, far from it. The thing is, it seems that every single time there is a movie I am looking forward to, and she sees it with me, it sucks. This usually leads to the often said comments such as “next time I pick the movie” or “that’s it, you don’t get to pick anymore.” Usually I can’t argue with her, as she is usually right that the movies suck. This usually causes the odd situation of the movies that I see on my own being great, because she is done with my picks for a bit, and then when she decides to see one of my movies again, it sucks, setting the whole vicious circle back in action.

This brings us back to Creature, a film that came from out of nowhere and just does not feel right to be watching in a theater. We have become so accustomed to bigger budget films in theaters, that when one of such a small budget and one with so little advertising campaign does show up, it just feels weird seeing it in such a setting. I had a similar feeling while watching the abysmal Priest.

The film is fairly cookie-cutter in the execution, six friends are out on a trip and decide to go exploring. One of the friends, the one who seems to be the ringleader, is a fan of strange and crazy backwood tales of the bigfoot variety. It is his interest in a local legend that the group stumbles onto while grabbing groceries in a creepy little convenient store run by genre vet Sid Haig, that leads them off on their trek.

Intrigue and espionage lead us into a whirlwind of plotholes and “what the . . .” moments shrouded in plenty of naked people and surprisingly low amounts of gore and actual suspense. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy myself to some degree, because I did. I have been dying to see an actual beastie on the rampage movie for some time that I was willing to forgive all the many missteps that this film makes. The film was full of poor monster design, no real monster attacks, no gore, very little suspense, one too many endings, etc.

The film is easily worth a $2 second run theater if you have one by you. Or, if you need to wait it will make an enjoyable stream from your online provider or rental. As a full price first run showing, you might want to pass. As the theater was just my wife and me, I am thinking everybody else chose to wait for the stream. Like I said, though, I did enjoy myself. I’m pretty easy to please with these types of films, though. I will say that I will probably never own the movie, and will more than likely never rent it now that I have seen it. I might stream it for background noise in the future, but I will not make it an addition to my collection. Damn shame, really. This thing could have been what I, and I think a lot of horror fans have been itching for, an honest to God monster on the loose, a monster that a slew of garage kit builders are dying for. Instead, we got a bland looking beastie and an even blander movie with no real thrills. Shame.

What Should I Watch? You help me decide!!!

O.K., here is a thrilling game for the whole family to play! I have a stack of movie here to watch, and I just hate sitting here staring at them trying to decide which one to watch. So how about if we all vote, and whichever one gets the most views, I watch. Does this sound like fun!?! It sure sounds like a brilliantly fun idea, and not some pathetic way of me trying to get people to leave comments and/or start reading my sad little blog, to me!

So, without further ado, here are the movies for all of you to choose from, with a little blurb of what I know about each one to follow.

The Ruins – Based on the nest selling novel of the same name. A group of people go out traveling, find some ruins and the plants all come to life.

Splice – From what I know this is similar to Species. It seems to have a love it/hate it type of reaction to it. Supposedly there is some pretty disturbing imagery.

Dark Night Of The Scarecrow – An old 70s TV movie that is supposed to be creepy beyond belief. Sounds cool, aside from the whole “TV movie from the 70s” thing. Most of those were made of 100% cheese.

Machete – This is a tribute/satire/spoof of the old 70s/80s grindhouse action exploitation flicks. The original mock trailer was shown at the beginning of the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriquez flick Grindhouse. It stars the wonderful Danny Trejo, which is reason alone to watch it.

Let Me In – US remake of the now classic Swedish film titled Let The Right One In. In all honesty I have yet to see the original. I have it here, but have heard that the subtitles on the DVD are crap and not the ones from the theatrical release, which means I had no interest in seeing it.

Drag Me To Hell – Sam Raimi’s return to horror.

I Sell The Dead – A black comedy inspired by those two lovable scamps Burke and Hare.

The Roost – I think it has something to do with killer birds. I think. Cool cover for the DVD.

Legion – Angels and demon type of things, I think. It looks cool, but I could see it actually sucking pretty bad.

The House Of The Devil – Tribute to 70s Satan flicks!!!

So let’s end it there for now.

BLACK WATER

If you are wondering what this film is like, well, look back to my review of The Reef and replace the shark with crocodiles. No, they are not exact, but if you like movies of that type (people fleeing from some big ol’ nasty beastie), then this should work for you. There are some major differences with this one, however, such as the trek starting with only four people instead of five.

Basic premise: friends vacationing in Australia decide to take in the locale offerings, so they decide to go off and check out a croc tour. One nasty ol’ croc later, and our heroes are stuck in a tree trying to figure out how to get away from the nasty beast floating below.

Possibly little surprise comes from the fact that Black Water is directed by one of the directors of The Reef, Andrew Traucki. Black Water came first, however, and in some ways it shows. The Reef has a slicker feel to it, but Black Water has a little more of a heart to it. We get to know the characters a little bit more, and we grow to care for them a little bit more. Both films make for a fun evening of nasty beast viewing and should be viewed together.

Stay tuned for a review of my favorite of these people trapped by giant beast films: Rogue. Tell me you aren’t on the edge of your seat now!!!

THE REEF

O.K., let’s cut to the chase, The Reef is a movie about people trying to survive floating in the ocean while being chased by a shark. There isn’t much more to the plot than that. The main point of the beginning of the movie is simply a case of “how do we get the people into the water,” and to be sure, the way that is accomplished is never made clear. All we ever know is that at one point all is fine, and then all of a sudden the boat is upside down in the water. Mission accomplished, it’s feeding frenzy time!

If you fine folk reading are interested, however, it is like this: five people head out on a boat. One of whom is the professional sailor, Luke, who delivers boats for a living, his sister, her boyfriend, and our pro-sailors ex-girlfriend. Along on the ride is another expert sailor. There we have our cast, now to dump them into the water.

Once our boat is upside down our crew needs to make a decision, do they wait for rescue, or do they swim for an island that is believed to be ten miles away. Our 5^th wheel boating expert chooses to stay behind, while the rest (brother/ex-boyfriend, sister, boyfriend, ex-girlfriend) decide to be the ones to make a swim for it. Once we are all in the water, the fun and gut-wrenching tension begins.

The Reef is a ridiculously tense film once we hit the water. Part of this tension is derived from the amount of time Luke spends looking under the water trying to find the shark. We know the dang thing is out there, after all the DVD case shows us the fin, so we sit there squinting at the TV screen trying to make out the image of the shark every time he looks underwater. When it finally does show, our reaction is similar to the folk floating in the water. But when that dang thing finally lets its presence be known, and we finally come to terms with the fact that this thing is NOT going to leave them alone, let me tell you, nothing will prepare you for that scene. I don’t think I have ever seen a scene in a movie that has ever blown my mind like that scene. I have gone back to watch it time and time again, and every time it gets a jaw on the floor. I’m watching Jaws as I type this, and the scene where the shark shows up while Brody is throwing chum into the ocean is pretty much the same reaction. The makers of The Reef created a perfect “HOLY SHIT” moment for their movie, and it comes at the perfect time.

There is a definite sense of hopelessness in The Reef, and in a way it hurt the film a little bit for me. I so wanted a happier ending than we got, but knowing the people were in the ocean, I also had a feeling it would go the path it did go. I will say that what happens to who was a surprise. I did not expect it to go the way it did, but the end result (number wise) is what I expected. This, however, should not stop a person from seeing this film.

The Reef is an edge of your seat thriller that pulls no punches. It lacks the character build that some films might have (Jaws if I want to be unfair), but the tension is unreal. This is one of those movie that will put an ulcer in your gut in its runtime.