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Category: Movies
Genre: Horror

Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman
Screenplay by: Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan
Story by: Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, & Thomas H. Fenton

I absolutely love the consistency present in the Saw Series

Setting: A morgue. Saw IV opens with a pathologist mouthing the words into a portable recorder, “Subject’s name is John Kramer. 52 year old male; Caucasian. He’s seen better days.”

Word of caution boys and girls, I was eating a bowl of cereal as this was going on…learn from my mistake. Don’t!

After watching the SAW Trilogy, I have grown to admire the character of engineer John Kramer (played by actor Tobin Bell) and his twisted quest to provide others with a sense of realization as to the value of their existence. Sure, there are the ingenious “traps and tricks and plot twist” but who is really John Kramer? What was he prior to his days as the media christened Jigsaw? Did he have a family?

Saw IV gives us all the answers.

In an interview with Wizard Entertainment prior to the release of the aforementioned film, Bell gives fans some insight into his Kramer character.

“The world has changed and Jigsaw’s troubled by a lot of things. He has one foot in Nietzsche and the other foot in today’s New York Times, and then another foot in Jesus, and one more in Shakespeare. He listens to Mahler, Beethoven and Mozart.”

Bell added:

“So as long as we have writers and directors and the cast and crew that we’ve had…I mean, the crew is amazing. We’ve had the same director of photography since the first “Saw,” the same scenic designer since “Saw II,” the prop guys, gaffers, our sound guy, all those guys are the same guys. It’s just such a pleasure to work collaboratively with a team like that.”

Familiarity. Cohesion. Perspective. And a great product.

SAW IV has got to be synonymous with success.

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Category: Movies
Genre: Horror

I would constantly get migraines brought about by the camera’s rapid movement. On top of this inconvenience, character development also left much to be desired.

Originally proposed as a short film by neophyte filmmaker Michael Bartlett to Director Kevin Gates, The Zombie Diaries was eventually made into a non-linear feature length film using an ensemble of relatively unknown actors and an impressive make-up crew.

At the onset, The Zombie Diaries seems to pay homage to other horror films as Directors Gates and Bartlett take elements from celebrated cult classics such as “The Blair Witch Project” (filmed as a documentary using a hand-held video camera), “Night of the Living Dead” (Zombies inspired by Director George A. Romero’s interpretation of zombies), and “Shaun of the Dead” (a British themed zombie flick) in creating their fictional post-apocalyptic zombie infested rural England.

Overall, I found great difficulty in watching the Gates and Bartlett opus in a single sitting, as I would constantly get migraines brought about by the camera’s rapid movement. On top of this inconvenience, character development also left much to be desired.

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Category: Movies
Genre: Action, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller

As she zips up the boot of her right leg, Cherry (Rose McGowan) says, "I need a dramatic change in my life." Ironically, it is the same leg which is later amputated.

A highly creative film (that was fun, cringing, and difficult to watch) that incorporated all the elements that you would expect from ten cult movies ranging from an exploding head, a chipped tooth, amputation, dislocation, blood, gore, puss, dislocation, foreign objects embedded in bodies, a child (Rodriguez’s kid, Rebel) introducing a bullet into his own head, and yes, a melting member.I’m a big fan of blood and gore, but Robert Rodriguez has really pushed the envelope with his latest body of work. It may have been too much…way too much for me.

Watch out for the Machete trailer prior to the start of Planet Terror with fan favorite Danny Trejo (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Con Air, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories), Jeff Fahey (Psycho III, Darkman III: Die Darkman Die), and the beloved Cheech Marin (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Lion King, Once Upon a Time in Mexico). Efforts in the two-day shoot of this parodied trailer have given birth to the actual film of the same title that is now in production (2010).

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Category: Movies
Genre: Horror

An excellent screenplay that focuses on Michael Myers troubled beginnings

Tyler Mane plays a very convincing adult Michael Myers.

Halloween (2007) Director Rob Zombie seems to be no stranger to serial killer/horror genre after past projects (e.g., The Devil’s Rejects (2005) and House of 1000 Corpses (2003)) that have focused on similar themes. However, remaking a cinema classic such as the John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween is no “walk in the park” given the film’s established cult following.

But Rob Zombie seemed up to the task with an excellent screenplay that focuses on Michael Myers troubled beginnings as an 8-year old child from a broken home; his fetish for masks; as well as the subsequent homicides, fratricide, and to some extent–matricide–as his mother committed suicide following Myers initially killing spree. These horrific and visually graphic events (the film has been Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence and terror throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity and language.) eventually lead to Myers incarceration at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium for the next 15 years.

Upon his inadvertent liberation at the hands of a decadent watchman and his equally obtuse cousin, Myers picks up where he left off, spilling carnage along his path until he comes face-to-face with his younger sister and former physician Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell; Star Trek: Generations).

Much like most slasher-flicks of the past, Halloween (2007) does not present a fresh take on this age-old formula. Instead, the average moviegoer’s interest may be piqued by the director’s vision and take on the “selectively mute” (and I use this term very loosely) Michael Myers.

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