MONSTER BRAWL -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/6/12 

 

Remember back in the 80s or 90s when "Fangoria" started trying to incorporate wrestling into their magazine?  Mainly because editor Bob Martin was such a big wrestling fan and thought it would qualify if he dubbed the really fake-bloody matches "horror wrestling"?  And remember what B.S. that was, and how mad I got about it, and how I wrote all those nasty letters complaining about it?  Wait, you wouldn't remember that.  Heh, heh.

Anyway, that wouldn't have been such a bad thing if what Fango called "horror wrestling" had been as much fun as MONSTER BRAWL (2011), writer-director Jesse T. Cook's geeky homage to both monsters and all that WWE stuff that I generally have zero interest in myself. 

Mind you, this movie had to grow on me, and it wasn't until near the halfway point that I started sorta getting into it.  Basically, it's like a slicker version of Ed Wood's ORGY OF THE DEAD only with wrestling monsters instead of strippers.  Barring some flashbacks, it all takes place in a graveyard in Michigan where the pay-per-view battle of the monsters is going out live to viewers in Canada and beyond.  Criswell would've fit right in here, and, needless to say, so would Tor Johnson.  With a drunken Ed Wood in drag cheering them on from the sidelines.

Instead, we get venerable Canadian actors Dave Foley ("Kids in the Hall") and horror stalwart Art Hindle (THE BROOD, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) as tipsy Howard Cosell-type commentator Buzz Chambers and his crotchety sidekick "Sasquatch" Sid Tucker.  Foley and Hindle seem to be having fun with their roles, especially after an unfortunate incident with a zombie results in Sid growing increasingly foul-tempered as the night goes on.  Color commentator Jimmy Hart adds his own irrepressible dash of personality from the sidelines with a gorgeous ring girl on each arm.

The monsters themselves are a cross-section of archetypes including Frankenstein ("Technically it's 'Frankenstein's Monster', if you want to be a dick about it"), the Werewolf, the Mummy, Lady Vampire, Zombie Man, Witch Bitch, Cyclops, and a repulsive overweight creature known as Swamp Gut.  Most are played by actual wrestlers so the ring action is as "real" here as it is in the actual WWE events, a fact made clear the first time we see gorgeous Kelly Couture as Lady Vampire get body-slammed into the mat.  The usual stats graphics and trash talk segments are all here, albeit with a Gothic touch, and there's also the expected quota of dirty moves and illegal use of foreign objects such as meat cleavers and wooden stakes. 

Flashbacks to how the monsters got involved in the event take the place of commercial breaks, including a pretty cool creation scene for the Monster.  Lady Vampire's segment was filmed on an overgrown estate which is one of the ideal "found" locations that add much to MONSTER BRAWL's look, as does the extremely well-done graveyard set that was constructed in an abandoned warehouse.  Monster makeups and gore effects are very nicely rendered by the Brothers Gore and look more expensive than they are.  Other major factors in the film's look are good direction and editing along with some above average cinematography.

Humorwise, it's your basic WWE stuff with even more of a satirical twist.  Witch Bitch (Holly Letkeman) had me chuckling with her eyerolling performance and so did the vile Swamp Gut (Jason David Brown, who also plays Cyclops and graveyard caretender Cyril Haggard), a veritable fountain of offensive gases and corrosive substances.  A news report about the Mummy's escape from a museum warehouse, during which he kills a forklift driver, includes graphics such as "Mummy Kills Dummy" and "MILF Alert: Mummies I'd Like to Find."  Proving that even if he can't be in every movie ever made he can at least be heard in them, Lance Henriksen provides the voice of "God" as narrator and occasional fight commentator with concise, throaty quips such as "spectacular" and "phenomenal." 

Wrestling fans will find many of their favorite moves here along with some new ones like a meat cleaver to the ref's throat and the old head stomp, with magic and other supernatural forces coming into play.  Those who felt cheated by FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN's non-ending should welcome the sight of the Monster and Werewolf going at it again--this time to the finish--while a full-blown zombie uprising in protest to their graveyard's invasion by pay-TV provides a lively diversion.  I'd also just like to mention again that Lady Vampire (Kelly Couture) is gorgeous, and that if you like strong women wearing black opera gloves, then that's two big fetishes covered right there.

The DVD from Image Entertainment is in 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 surround sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  Extras include commentary with director Cook and producers Matt Wiele and John Geddes, a "making-of" featurette, some Jimmy Hart outtakes, and a trailer.

Some viewers have opined that MONSTER BRAWL is boring and wonder if it even qualifies as a real movie.  To the first point I would say that, yes, it is slow-paced and will seem pretty boring if you don't really get into the kind of mood the movie's going for.  To the second, I would say...ehh.  If ORGY OF THE DEAD was a real movie, then so is this.  Will you like it?  It's purely a matter of taste.  I had fun with it.

MONSTER BRAWL -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE HAUNTING -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/16/10

In 2010, Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.


Hardly the sort of flashy, pyrotechnics-packed SPFX show POLTERGEIST turned out to be, 2009's THE HAUNTING (aka NO-DO: THE BECKONING) is the kind of slow-building, stately-paced ghost story that really gets under your skin if you're willing to settle in and let it go to work on you.

In 1940s Spain under General Franco, propaganda newsreels known as "No-Dos" packaged the latest news for general theater audiences, but a certain number of these films containing sensitive material were made for privileged eyes only.  Thus, only high-ranking members of the Catholic church were allowed to view footage involving a mysterious prostitute purported to be able to perform miracles, and the ill-fated process of judging her suitability for canonization which resulted in her supposed suicide and other unfortunate consequences.

Jump ahead to the present day, where Francesca (Ana Torrent), Pedro (Francisco Boira), their young daughter Rosa, and their infant son have just moved into the imposing old country mansion, formerly a school for priests, where the previous events took place.  Having lost their first child ten years earlier, Francesca is overprotective of their new baby to the point of frazzled obsession, which worries her husband.  And making things worse is the fact that Francesca is beginning to experience a growing number of terrifying paranormal visions as Pedro fears that she's losing her mind.  But we know better, don't we?

One thing that has always creeped me out is the use of scratchy, faded old black and white film as a mysterious element in stories such as this.  THE HAUNTING really scores on this count, with the forbidden No-Do reels playing a crucial role in ratcheting up the creep-out factor.  We discover that they were made using a special emulsion that made it possible to capture supernatural entities on the film, which is demonstrated by some pretty disturbing images.  When Father Miguel (Héctor Colomé), a psychiatrist priest bent on helping Francesca, opens up a shadowy, top-secret vault and plays one of the forbidden reels for her and Pedro (thus risking excommunication), it's one of the skin-crawling highpoints of THE HAUNTING. 

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, we find that the couple's new home isn't going to help Francesca's unstable mental condition much.  In fact, they might as well have just moved into the friggin' Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland.  The distraught new mother keeps waking up in the middle of the night by banging noises and footsteps coming from the attic, which naturally her annoying skeptical husband never hears, and before long she's seeing ghostly figures floating around.  In one scene she grabs a flashlight and follows a trail of footprints into one of the upper rooms, where they go right up the wall and onto the ceiling.

The house is so alive with restless spirits that the film soon has us watching the shadows in every shot, waiting for them to coalesce into eerie figures.  Adding to the nightmare is Francesca's constant concern for her baby, whose incessant screaming has her at wit's end, and the presence of a weird old woman named Blanca (María Alfonsa Rosso) who keeps hanging around the house due to her involvement in the ghastly events of years past.  Even Francesca's daughter Rosa is starting to act strange, as though she knows something she's not telling.
 

The film is directed with stylish assurance by Elio Quiroga and elegantly photographed, with a very deliberate pace that allows us to wallow in the deeply atmospheric mood.  Argento fans should feel at home here, as will those who enjoy creepy old B-movies such as THE SCREAMING SKULL.  Special effects for their own sake are kept to a minimum and serve the story, with some genuinely unsettling ghostly images augmented by two or three blood-chilling jump scares.  A robust musical score alternates between sinewy subtlety and ear-splitting cacophony. 

As the story builds to a climax there's a fairly shocking surprise ending with some nasty twists.  (I'm glad I'm not one of those "I saw it coming" people--who wants to always know the surprise before it's revealed?)  In one of the best moments, Francesca, following one of the ghosts into the house's musty attic, finds herself inside the darkest and most ghastly of the old No-Do films and witnesses firsthand the horrors which inspired the haunting itself.  Unfortunately, the appearance of a final apparition which is meant to be the ultimate embodiment of evil is a bit of a letdown after all the anticipation, its monsterish countenance rather conventional and not very imaginatively designed.  But this is a minor quibble since the rest of the film is so pervasively effective.

DVD specs were unavailable, but according to Fangoria.com the film, "arriving as a Blockbuster exclusive August 6, will include a subtitled making-of featurette, the 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers. The DVD will offer both Spanish (with subtitles) and English-language soundtracks."

I've seen THE HAUNTING twice now and liked it even more the second time because I could better appreciate its visual style, good performances, and devious little nuances.  It's an old-fashioned ghost story with the visceral impact of a modern horror tale, and it left me feeling satisfied if not entirely terrified.

 

THE HAUNTING -- Movie Review by Porfle

DARK HOUSE -- movie review by porfle

 

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]

Loud, obnoxious, and dumb, DARK HOUSE (2009) is like a cross between a slasher flick, a ghost story, and a funhouse ride.  Its 80s-retro vibe even reminded me a little of Tobe Hooper's FUNHOUSE (along with films such as the obscure cult fave SILENT SCREAM), only minus most of the fun and plus a heaping helping of cheese.

The story opens with a little girl being dared by her friends to enter the neighborhood "scary house" (actually, it looks more quaintly picturesque than scary) and finding the bodies of seven murdered children strewn about.  Their foster mother, Miss Darrode (Diane Salinger), is in the kitchen grinding her hands off in the garbage disposal.  She thinks that by killing them, she's just saved the souls of her evil foster children because she is that most dreaded of all horror movie psychos--a religious fanatic! (Gasp!)

Fourteen years later, Claire (Meghan Ory) is, not surprisingly, undergoing therapy, and her doctor urges her to return to the house and confront the fears which continue to haunt her, hoping that she'll regain her buried memories of the event.  Conveniently enough, the members of her college drama class have just been hired by flamboyant horror showman Walston (Jeffrey Combs) to work in his brand new hologram-enhanced spookhouse attraction, which is located in none other than the Darrode house. 

Claire's friends are a sorry bunch of stereotypical kill fodder that we can't wait to see get theirs.  There's Rudy, the arrogant jock; Ariel, the dumb blonde nympho; Bruce, the nerd; Eldon, the black guy; and Lily, the Goth chick.  That's literally the extent of their character development, and from the first moment we see them in drama class "acting out" their true feelings for each other, we hate their guts.  Then Walston flits in to pitch his new haunted house idea to them, and we hate his guts, too, because the wonderful Jeffrey Combs has been given a truly awful character to portray and he tries way too hard to sell it.

The filmmakers tip their hand the moment we enter the house, when a misty black shape can be seen flitting about.  Then we get a demonstration of the holographic attractions, including a psycho clown with an axe, a mad scientist, a dungeon master, various zombie types, and, my favorite, a really freaky-looking young lady with long, sharp fingernails who reminded me of "The Angry Princess" from THIR13EN GHOSTS.  They aren't very scary but are fun to look at as they spring out at us as though we were watching a 3D movie.  (SCTV's Dr. Tongue would love it.) 

Naturally, the malevolent spirit of Miss Darrode enters the computer that runs everything and turns the holograms deadly.  There's not a whole lot of suspense and most of the characters are done away with rather summarily, one breaking her neck from a tumble down the stairs and a couple of others dying off-camera.  The first of the drama students to die (see if you can guess who) gets a mace to the head by that scariest of all horror characters, a medieval knight.  The resulting gore effect is done digitally instead of with good old-fashioned physical effects, which is always a disappointment--you just can't fake a genuine exploding head with CGI. 

The film's main asset is Diane Salenger as Miss Darrode.  She's pretty unsettling at first--an early jump-scare with her insane face shooting toward the camera is a real jolt--but she's overused to the point where all her prolonged screaming and twisty-faced mugging into the camera gets old.  (I'd love to see what a really good Japanese or Thai horror director could've done with her character.)  Before long, the jump-scares themselves begin to feel like someone continually goosing us until the effect is diminished.

Direction by Darin Scott is slick but doesn't quite capture the sort of fun-spooky William Castle atmosphere he seems to be going for.  Things get less dumb-fun and more serious in the final act, when the hidden secrets behind Miss Darrode's murder spree and Claire's amnesia are revealed, although the more we're shown the more confusing things seem to get.  I think I caught most of it but by then the film's dogged attempts to terrify me had become rather numbing.

I watched a screener of this movie so I can't comment on DVD specifics.  According to Fangoria.com, special features will include "a commentary track by Scott and producer Mark Sonoda, the 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers." 

DARK HOUSE is just diverting enough to be worth watching if you don't have anything better to do.  But you have to go into it the same way little Claire crept into the spooky old Darrode house all those years ago--expecting the worst.

 

DARK HOUSE -- movie review by porfle

ROAD KILL -- movie review by porfle

 

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


Two young couples motoring across the long, lonesome highways of the Australian Outback are menaced by a massive double-sized tractor-trailer rig known as a "road train" (the film's original title) in 2010's ROAD KILL, a fairly effective horror-thriller that takes a different route than you might expect. 

The premise immediately brought two movies to my mind upon first viewing.  One is Steven Spielberg's classic made-for-TV thriller DUEL, in which Dennis Weaver plays a harried salesman whose tiny car is the prey for a crazed trucker in the middle of nowhere.  Yet another Aussie thriller, ROAD GAMES, is also set in the Outback and features a trucker (Stacy Keach) and a comely young hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis) in a cat-and-mouse game with a traveling serial killer. 

But just when I'm thinking ROAD KILL is going to be a rehash of these two plots, it decides to go somewhere else entirely.  The two couples--Craig and Nina, and Marcus and Liz, who have a history of jealousy and rivalry simmering below the surface of their fragile friendship--are run off the road by the roaring behemoth just when we think we're at the start of a long chase sequence.  This is the last such scene we'll see until much later in the film when there's one more high-speed clash between truck and automobile.

Climbing out of the wreckage with Craig (Bob Morley) badly injured, they stumble along until they find the road train parked by the side of the highway with nobody in it.  They get in just as a crazy man emerges from the bushes blasting away at them with a pistol, and Marcus manages to get the thing moving.  Lulled by hours of monotonous motion, they drop off to sleep--even Marcus seems to doze at the wheel as the truck continues to rumble onward.  Suddenly it stops, and they awaken to find that Marcus has accidentally turned off onto a side road and gotten them lost.  Or...was the truck acting on its own?

Yes, with our four main characters now stranded in the wilderness, ROAD KILL becomes a haunted truck story.  While a bitterly quarreling Marcus (Xavier Samuel, TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE) and Liz (Georgina Haig) strike out for the main highway on foot, Craig and Nina begin to sense a pervasive evil eminating from those two locked containers.  I'll skip the details of what follows, but it includes possession, betrayal, and the horrific discovery of what's really going on inside that damned truck.  Meanwhile, Marcus and Liz have some pretty shocking experiences of their own before they make it back just in time to get in on the gory fun.

Dean Francis' capable direction (this is his first feature) keeps the suspense pretty taut considering that most of the movie consists of four characters and a truck.  Good performances by the cast help to put over a script that often doesn't make a whole lot of sense (and doesn't really try to), with Sophie Lowe as Nina carrying most of the acting load and giving us at least one character we can identify with who isn't a total jerk.  She even gets to drive that damned truck when they finally get it back out on the highway for the exciting gear-grinding conclusion.

I watched a screener so DVD specs were unavailable.  Fangoria.com lists the special features as "audio commentary by director Dean Francis, a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes, the 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers."  One thing's for sure--if the nerve-wracking soundtrack for this flick doesn't threaten to jar your skull right out of your head, you've got stronger ears than I have.

I'm not sure how rewatchable ROAD KILL will be once you've slowly and patiently peeled the onion away from its mysterious core, but that first time was definitely enough to maintain a firm grip on my attention span.  And I now have an interesting new mental image for the term "monster truck." 

ROAD KILL -- movie review by porfle

PIG HUNT -- movie review by porfle

 

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


I didn't know it was such a short drive from San Francisco straight into the heart of DELIVERANCE country, but in PIG HUNT (2008), five friends from the city end up stranded in Yokelvania and running for their lives from homicidal hicks, cutthroat cultists, and a man-eating hog big enough to keep two Piggly-Wigglys stocked in bacon and pork chops for a year. 

When a loony forest-dwelling uncle dies, nephew Johnny (Travis Aaron Wade) inherits some land and the old shack where he grew up.  Johnny and his girlfriend Brooks (Tina Huang) decide to spend a pig-hunting weekend there with three friends--green, trigger-happy Marine Ben (Howard Johnson, Jr.), chubby tenderfoot Quincy (Trevor Bullock), and slacker Wayne (Rajiv Shah).  In the woods, they run into some of Johnny's childhood acquaintances, hillbilly brothers Jake and Ricky (Jason Foster, Nick Tagas), who go along for the hunt.  Jake tells them of a legendary 3,000-pound boar hog named Ripper who supposedly roams the woods, but of course they don't believe him. 

Things turn ugly when the hunters stumble upon a huge marijuana field hidden in the forest.  While Jake and Ricky want to sack up a few hundred pounds of prime weed, Johnny's for alerting the authorities to their find.  An altercation results in death for one of the brothers, and the other, stoked for revenge, runs off to gather the rest of his kill-crazy clan.  The city kids flee to the supposed safety of a hippie commune run by a mysterious stranger (Bryonn Bain) where they find themselves in even deeper hog-poop than before.  Carnage ensues when city dwellers, yokels, cult crazies, and a 3,000-pound surprise guest hog start makin' bacon out of each other.

While lesser hands may have botched such a promising premise, director James Isaac (JASON X, SKINWALKERS) scores a bullseye by mixing gory TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE-style backwoods horror with a wicked sense of fun.  The long build-up of the film's first half explodes into kinetic energy when the hillbilly clan goes into action against Johnny and his friends, racing headlong down dirt roads in their trucks, dune buggies, and motorcycles in the first of several sequences that look like the filmmakers had a ball shooting and editing them.  When they converge on two of the main characters back at the old shack there's a frantic sense of real terror as they scramble desperately to escape the mindless killers. 

Meanwhile, Ben stumbles into a scene right out of his most surrealistic fantasy when he comes across about a dozen beautiful naked women lounging around the local swimmin' hole.  I have to hand it to the writers here--this scene really adds that certain special something to the story.  Ben ends up like a shiek in a harem, complete with hookah, and thinks he's gone to heaven.  Hog heaven, that is, which he's about to abruptly discover.

One of my favorite scenes occurs after one of the yokels bursts in and starts blasting away.  As he holds the main cult babe at gunpoint, she plucks a boar's tusk from her necklace and jams it into his eyeball.  Johnny grabs the gun and points it at her, but waits.  As cult-babe is viciously rearranging the hillbilly's face, she glances up a couple of times to make sure Johnny's going to hold off and let her finish before pulling the trigger.  It may not sound like much in the description, but the way it's acted, shot, and edited makes it one of the coolest moments in the film.

And then there's the Ripper.  For most of the film his presence is shown by a JAWS-style POV accompanied by low, throaty growls and brief glimpses of blazing eyes and jagged tusks.  When he finally makes his grand entrance in the final act, complete with a dead bit player dangling from his mouth, the rig that the SPFX guys have come up with to depict this massive pork-orca is so over-the-top outlandish that it's hilarious and impressive at the same time.  CGI would've rendered a smoother, more active creature, but ruined the more satisfying effect achieved by good old-fashioned methods and judicious editing.

I watched a screener so DVD specs and details on special features were unavailable.

A capable cast playing fairly interesting characters for a change helps kick PIG HUNT up a notch over similar films.  (Trevor Bullock as Quincy is particularly good as he reacts convincingly to his impending death at the hands of the hillbilly clan.)  Add to this a sense that the filmmakers are having all sorts of fun making this movie, and you've got a no-holds-barred backwoods blowout that's just as much fun to watch.

 

PIG HUNT -- movie review by porfle

HUNGER -- movie review by porfle

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


With a name like HUNGER (2009), I was expecting yet another vampire or zombie flick.  Fortunately, this is something else entirely--it's one of those "predicament" stories where the characters are placed in a seemingly inescapable situation which slowly degenerates as their desperation grows, along with their hunger.

Five people awaken to find that they've been kidnapped and imprisoned in a dark underground pit.  When the lights come on, they're surrounded by stone walls with the only exit being at the top of an overhead shaft.  Four barrels contain plenty of drinking water, but there's no food.  A clock mounted on the wall is designed to tick off the next thirty days one by one, which, according the attractive blonde surgeon Jordan (Lori Heuring), is roughly the amount of time a person can manage to survive without eating.  It doesn't take long for them to figure out that they are little more than human lab rats in a ghastly experiment. 

With this interesting premise established, L.D. Goffigan's script takes us through the early stages in which personalities are revealed, alliances are formed, plans are made, and escapes are attempted.  Grant (Linden Ashby) is the level-headed older guy who takes charge and immediately sets to work trying to scrape some bricks loose from the wall.  Anna (Lea Kohl) is the mousey girl who's a hair's breadth away from freaking out, and Alex (Julian Rojas) is the insecure loner who isn't far behind.  The one we start to worry about the most right off the bat, though, is Luke (Joe Egender), an antisocial hothead with violent tendencies and a ruthless will to survive.  But we know that any one of them is capable of killing since, as we discover, each of them has killed before for various reasons.

Like a slow fuse, the story takes its time setting up what's to come and letting the situation gradually worsen.  Tension mounts as we wait for someone to snap, which is heightened when one of the subjects discovers a big, sharp scalpel (just right for slicing human flesh) which has been placed in their prison.  Sure enough, hunger trumps humanity and the five captives begin to turn on each other with horrifying results, while those who refuse to surrender to savagery become entrees on the grisly bill of fare--all of which is dispassionately observed by their captor whose motives are revealed through tragic flashbacks. 

Director Steven Hentges displays a talent for keeping all of this claustrophobic interplay consistently suspenseful and involving, allowing the story to unfold in a deliberate and believable manner until it's time for the inevitable bloody horror to begin.  With only one interior location for most of the film and a limited cast, he turns what was probably a pretty small budget into a stylish film that looks good.  Performances are fine, particularly from a low-key, intense Lori Heuring as Jordan and a frighteningly manic Joe Egender, who reminds me of Giovanni Ribisi, as the unstable Luke.  Linden Ashby is ideal as Grant, the authority figure whom we hope can keep things under control, while Lea Kohl as Anna and Julian Rojas as Alex emerge as unpredictable wild cards later on.

I watched a barebones screener so I can't comment on DVD specs.  According to Fangoria.com, extras will include "director’s commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers."

HUNGER is a tense, engrossing survival thriller that's all the more disturbing since these aren't zombies lurching around ravenous for human flesh, but regular people who have been driven to madness.  Who will survive, and what will be left of their humanity?  A final battle of wits between the last test subject(s) and "The Scientist" leads to a stirring conclusion which left me fully satisfied.  (BURP!)

HUNGER -- movie review by porfle

GRIMM LOVE -- movie review by porfle

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


Why the hell would anyone want to be a cannibal, or a cannibal's  dinner?  I haven't a clue, but according to the fact-based GRIMM LOVE, aka "Rohtenburg" (2006), such a subculture exists and they're pretty serious about it. 

While part of the Fangoria FrightFest series, this isn't really a horror film at all, the gruesome elements shown so matter-of-factly that it de-emphasizes the horror and softens our repulsion.  In fact, at times it even feels a little like a tragic romance.  It would be different if Simon Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann) were portrayed as an Ed Gein type, preying on unwilling victims and reveling in mindless sadism, yet he's anything but.

Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell) is an American grad student in Germany gathering research on notorious cannibal Simon for her thesis.  She has an unhealthy fascination for him and his crimes which will eventually cause her a great deal of emotional turmoil as she delves deeper into the case.  Meanwhile, we're shown flashbacks of Simon's unhappy childhood as he's separated from his father and forced to live with a mentally unstable mother who will never release him from her arthritic grasp as long as she lives.  Once freed to live out his increasingly twisted desires, Oliver turns to the internet in search of willing and equally-troubled subjects to help him fulfill his one great desire--to feed upon human flesh.

He meets Simon (Thomas Huber), who, for reasons that are depicted in further flashbacks, yearns to be taken apart and devoured like the character in a Grimm's fairytale he was read as a child.  Even a loving relationship with his handsome boyfriend Felix (Marcus Lucas) can't quell this obsession.  Oliver and Simon, isolated at last from the judgements and condemnations of the normal world, revel in a brief episode of intense mutual fulfillment which they perceive as something beautiful.

The cliche' "You complete me" would be pretty appropriate here, as they reciprocate each other's impulses and fulfill each other in the most basic fundamental way imaginable.  Maybe the most disturbing thing about the film is how understated and unsensational it is, as our sympathy for Oliver and Simon almost allows us feel, as they do, that the culmination of their mutual desires is natural and even necessary.  GRIMM LOVE certainly makes no attempt to frighten us or even to establish a creepy atmosphere.  Director Martin Weisz is interested only in presenting a very dark, slowly-unfolding character study which contemplates a terrible depravity with a certain amount of empathy for its hopelessly deranged participants.

As Katie, Keri Russell is good but doesn't get to do much emoting until the end, when we find out whether or not she's really as much of a sick puppy as we fear.  It's interesting to watch how Katie's initial perceptions of Oliver are affected as the comfort zone between her imagination and stark reality is diminished.  Thomas Kretschmann (KING KONG, BLADE II) manages to convey Oliver's inner pain and yearning with barely an overt gesture or expression--his feelings are deeply repressed.  As Simon, Thomas Huber gives the most moving performance as a man still wracked with sadness, regret, and fear even as he surrenders to the terrible bliss of his heart's fatal desire.

I watched a screener so DVD specs were unavailable.   According to Fangoria.com, extras will consist of "director’s commentary, deleted scenes, 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers." 

GRIMM LOVE is, ultimately, a weird love story about two people striving to satisfy their bizarre, overwhelming physical and emotional needs by reaching out to make a symbiotic connection.  The fact that what follows is utterly horrific and revolting is shown only through the shocked reactions of a third-party observer--the film itself seems blandly sympathetic.  "He was a nice boy," an old neighbor of Oliver's tells Katie, and we're tempted to agree even after we've witnessed his ghastly crime. 

GRIMM LOVE -- movie review by porfle

FRAGILE -- movie review by porfle

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


While the first half may cause drowsiness, eventually FRAGILE (2005) begins to take effect, with a generous dose of gloomy British atmosphere and enough creepy ingredients to elicit symptoms of restlessness and anxiety in most viewers.

Calista Flockhart stars as Amy Nicholls, the new night nurse at a secluded children's hospital in England.  The hospital is closing down but a train disaster has delayed the evacuation of the young patients to their newer accomodations, and Amy finds herself working in a creepy, decrepit old building whose entire second floor has been mysteriously sealed off completely.  She discovers that some of the children have suffered broken bones for no apparent reason, and one of the girls, a terminal patient named Maggie (Yasmin Murphy), blames this on a malevolent apparition she calls "the mechanical girl", who lives on the second floor.

Amy forms a close bond with Maggie and eventually becomes convinced of the ghostly presence herself.  Venturing up to that spooky second floor in search of answers, she finds evidence of a former patient named Charlotte whose nightmarish experiences in the hospital may be the source of the haunting.  But when she finally convinces her superiors to get the children out of there as soon as possible, it may be too late to save them from the terrible wrath of "the mechanical girl."

Director and co-scripter Jaume Balagueró ([REC]) uses the first half of the film to build up a fair amount of suspense and rainy-day, gothic English mood.  Several of the early scenes have the potential for your usual jump scares, but for the most part Balagueró wisely holds off on these in order to increase our tension for what's to come.  This begins to pay off when the (pretty freakin' awesome-looking) ghostly entity makes its grand entrance late in the film and fulfills our anticipation quite nicely.  I didn't find any of this to be all-out terrifying, but it's definitely very enjoyably unsettling, with a chaotic climax that mixes cool special effects with some cliffhanger excitement. 

Calista Flockhart is impressive in the lead role, enough to actually make me temporarily forget that she was "Ally McBeal."  As Maggie, Yasmin Murphy proves to be quite a talented child actress.  VAN HELSING's "Count Dracula", Richard Roxburgh, does a low-key job as Dr. Marcus, who's skeptical at first but eventually comes around and helps Amy battle the supernatural, while HARRY POTTER regular Gemma Jones is the annoying head nurse Mrs. Folder.  Another VAN HELSING alumnus, Elena Anaya, plays day nurse Helen Perez.  Colin McFarlane, who was Commissioner Loeb in BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT, is likable as Roy, a kindly orderly who befriends Amy and the children.  I don't think it's giving away too much to reveal that at least one of these characters will die a wickedly OMEN-style death before it's all over.
 

I watched a screener so DVD specs were unavailable, but according to Fangoria.com the extras will consist of "a behind-the-scenes featurette, a look at the creation of the film’s visual FX and the 8 FANGORIA FrightFest trailers."

FRAGILE isn't bash-you-over-the-head, turn-your-guts-inside-out scary, but it should suffice until something more horrible comes along.  That second floor is wonderfully creepy, and "the mechanical girl" is the stuff of nightmares.  The ending may turn some viewers off, but what the hey--it appealed to my sentimental side.

FRAGILE -- movie review by porfle

THE TOMB -- movie review by porfle

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


Horror fans expecting this entry in the Fangoria FrightFest series to satisfy their sweet tooth for sanguinary scares may be in for a rude awakening when they watch THE TOMB, aka "Ligeia" (2009).  Or perhaps "awakening" isn't quite the right term, since this pedestrian Goth-boiler is more apt to elicit an opposite reaction. 

Wes Bentley (AMERICAN BEAUTY) plays college literary professor Jonathan Merrick, whose engagement to sweetie-pie Rowena (Kaitlin Doubleday) is threatened when he falls under the spell of a beautiful dark-haired Russian student named Ligeia (Sofya Skya).  Ligeia marries the pie-eyed prof and whisks him off to her castle in the Ukraine, where he discovers that his new wife is engaged in a dastardly scheme to prolong her life by sucking the souls from her victims by means of a weird mechanical contraption.  When faithful Rowena rushes to Jonathan's aid, the terminally-ill Ligeia chooses her as the next vessel for her wicked soul and retains her hold over unsuspecting Jonathan.

Despite some nice photography and great Russian locations, THE TOMB resembles one of those obscure low-budget flicks you might've run across in a video store back in the 80s.  Direction is a little shaky at times, and the editing is loaded with those annoying speed-up/slow-down moments and other unnecessary gimmicks.  Everything makes noise, too--jarring bangs and clangs are meant to startle us while some of the whiplash camera pans sound like a jet taking off.

Even so, the film seems as though it may be going somewhere interesting early on, when we see Ligeia applying her soul-sucking device to her victims' faces and extracting their life essence into vials.  (Although what she eventually does with these is just a tad goofy.)  When we relocate to her Russian castle, however, it starts to feel as though we're trapped inside one of those old Gothic romance comics that DC used to put out.  There's a lot of business with creepy crypts, dark basements, windy parapets, and women creeping around in the dark in their nightgowns, with very little of it managing to raise any hackles or scare up as much as a shiver.  The disjointed story sometimes makes it seem as though scenes are missing, especially when major characters die and people barely notice.

Sofya Skya is interesting as a spidery seductress who resembles a young Morticia Addams, or perhaps a grown-up Wednesday.  As the blonde, purehearted yin to her evil yang, Kaitlin Doubleday ("Cavemen") is adequate.  The main problem in the acting department is a glowering Wes Bentley, who wanders blandly through the role of Jonathan as though he thinks they're still doing a read-through.  It's funny that when I saw him in WEIRDSVILLE (which I liked), he reminded me of a young Eric Roberts--one of my favorite actors--since Roberts appears here in a tiny, thankless role meant only to add his name value to the cast.  Ditto for a disinterested Michael Madsen, grunting his way sleepily to another paycheck.  Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (PEARL HARBOR) fares somewhat better as another hapless professor lured into Ligeia's evil web.

I viewed a screener so DVD specs weren't available.  According to Fangoria.com, extras will include "behind-the-scenes footage, 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers."

Wes Bentley recites "The Conquering Worm" over the closing credits, which is about as close to Edgar Allan Poe as THE TOMB ever gets.  As a horror flick it barely registers, with a story that's so rote that if it were a fill-in-the-blanks quiz we'd all get an A+.  Even the "surprise" ending is right off the rack.

THE TOMB -- movie review by porfle

FANGORIA FRIGHTFEST Review Wrap-up -- Eight Reasons to Sleep With the Lights On!

Now that we've watched all eight entries in the fearsome Fangoria FrightFest and put in our two cents' worth about each one, here's your chance to check out all eight reviews:

THE HAUNTING
DARK HOUSE
ROAD KILL
PIG HUNT
HUNGER
GRIMM LOVE
FRAGILE
THE TOMB 



For full FrightFest info, click here.  And don't forget to visit www.FangoriaFrightFest.com to view all the trailers and vote on your favorite one.  (Voting ends July 19.)  The winner will be given a limited theatrical release in late July.  And you may have a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas!  Now that's scary.

FANGORIA FRIGHTFEST Review Wrap-up -- Eight Reasons to Sleep With the Lights On!

FANGORIA FrightFest! Eight Terrifying Tales Coming to DVD in September

Fangoria® Magazine Partners With Lightning Media™ to Launch Unique, Multi-Tiered Distribution Program Under 'Fangoria FrightFest' Banner

Eight New, Terrifying, Feature-Length Horror/Thrillers Available on DVD, VOD & Digital Download Sept. 28, Featuring Such Stars as Twilight Saga's Xavier Samuel, Calista Flockhart, Keri Russell, Michael Madsen, Eric Roberts & More

Targeted Marketing, Advertising & Viral Campaign to Support Program
Includes Fan-Driven 'Demand It' Film Festival Competition

LOS ANGELES - June 2, 2010 - Fangoria magazine has partnered with feature film producer/distributor and DVD/VOD distributor Lightning Media to launch a unique, multi-tiered distribution program, it was announced today. Highlighting the program are eight feature-length horror/thrillers which will be collectively - and exclusively - marketed under a Fangoria FrightFest banner.

As part of the multi-faceted program, fans will be the voting jury in a mini film festival "Demand It" competition from June 21 through July 19, hosted by Fangoria, to select one of the eight films for limited theatrical release in late July (www.FangoriaFrightFest.com). Fans will be able to view and vote for their favorite trailer and will then be automatically entered into a summer consumer sweepstakes to win a trip to Las Vegas and other prizes.

Also, from June 21 through July 19, a 30-minute special, 8 Fangoria Frights, will be available on Time Warner, Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon FIOS and other cable systems (Check with your provider and look for Fangoria FrightFest  in your "Movies on Demand" menu). Hosted by Cerina Vincent (Cabin Fever), the program will feature clips from the films, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with many of the films' directors.

The Fangoria FrightFest line-up represents a diversified array of quality genre enter-
tainment, embracing a range of horror film styles, from supernatural chillers to psychological horror and slasher flicks, embracing fans of every demographic. These eight new, terrifying, feature-length horror/thrillers feature such stars as the Twilight saga's Xavier Samuel, Calista Flockhart, Keri Russell, Michael Madsen, Eric Roberts and more.

Films included in the Fangoria FrightFest promotion are:

Fragile - An atmospheric ghost story from Spanish director Jaume Balagueró (the [REC] trilogy, Darkness), Fragile received widespread critical acclaim overseas and makes its much-anticipated U.S. debut. Amy Nicholls (Calista Flockhart, Brothers & Sisters), the new night nurse at a soon-to-be-abandoned children's hospital, readies the last group of orphans to leave.  But it becomes increasingly clear that these are not normal children. An official selection at multiple U.S. and international film festivals, it was the winner of "Best Actress," "Best Cinematography" and "Best Editing" at the Barcelona Film Awards; "Best Special Effects" at the Goya Awards; and the "Audience Award," "Special Jury Prize" and "Youth Jury Grand Prize" at the Gerardmer Film Festival.
Rated PG-13 / Running Time: 95 Minutes / Catalog #: P4F-55600 / UPC: 6-25828-55600-5

The Tomb (aka Ligeia) - Director Michael Staininger's updated adaptation of the classic Edgar Allan Poe tale The Tomb of Ligeia.  Successful writer and scholar Jonathan Merrick (Wes Bentley, American Beauty, Ghost Rider) falls under the spell of the bewitching beauty Ligeia, who is fighting a fatal illness. Willing to stop at nothing in a quest for immortality, Ligeia plots to steal souls … beginning with Jonathan's. Co-starring Michael Madsen (Kill Bill) and Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight) and produced by Jeff Most (The Crow). The film was an official selection of the Saint Louis International Film Festival.
Rated R / Running Time: 90 Minutes / Catalog #: P4F-55690 / UPC: 6-25828-55690-6

Grimm Love (aka Rohtenburg and Butterfly: A Grimm Story) - In this fact-based thriller, German graduate student Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell, Waitress, TV's Felicity) is researching cannibalistic killer Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann, King Kong, The Stendhal Syndrome) for her thesis. Obsessed with her subject, she plunges into "the lifestyle."  Directed by Martin Weisz (The Hills Have Eyes II), Grimm Love was an official selection at numerous U.S. and international film festivals, winning "Best Director," "Best Actor" and "Best Cinema-tographer" at the Sitges Film Festival; "Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver" at the Luxembourg International Film Festival; "Best Actor" and "Best Director" at the Puchon Inter-national Fantastic Film Festival; and "Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Gold - Special Mention" at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival.
Rated R / Running Time: 85 Minutes / Catalog #: P4F-55720 / UPC: 6-25828-55720-0

Road Kill (aka Road Train) - An Australian surprise starring emerging heartthrob Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and festival favorite The Loved Ones).  In this supernatural thriller, a group of teenagers (including Samuel) embark on a road trip and find themselves menaced by a driver-less truck in the Australian outback. Directed by Dean Francis, the film was an official selection at London's Barbican Australian Film Festival and the Dungog Film Festival.
Rated R / Running Time: 87 Minutes / Catalog #: P4F-55620 / UPC: 6-25828-55620-3

Dark House - Directed by writer/producer Darin Scott (Tales From the Hood), this thriller is a high-tech take on the traditional "haunted house," featuring a charismatically maniacal performance by horror legend Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, The Frighteners, Star Trek).  Winner of "Best Feature" at the Shriekfest Horror Film Festival.
Rated R / Running Time: 85 Minutes / Catalog #: P4F-55670 / UPC: 6-25828-55670-8

Hunger - Steven Hentges' shocker stars Lori Heuring (Wicked Little Things, The In Crowd) in a physically and psychologically demanding role. Five strangers (including Heuring) find themselves trapped in an underground dungeon. Realizing they are the subjects of a sadistic experiment to test the depths of a human being's will to survive, their hunger increases as their humanity fades. An official selection of the Austin and Hollywood film festivals.
Rated R / Running Time: 102 Minutes / Catalog #: P4F-55560 / UPC: 6-25828-55560-2

Pig Hunt - Called "Enjoyably offbeat hybrid horror" by Variety, this quirky action/thriller - directed by James Isaac (Skinwalkers, Jason X) - was a success story at 12 national and international film festivals. In Pig Hunt, a young man and his pals embark on a guys' weekend to hunt wild boars on his late uncle's remote ranch. But as the group treks deeper into the forest, the awful truth is revealed about his uncle's demise and the hunters become the hunted. Winner of the "Bronze Audience Award" at the Fantasia Film Festival and the "Gold Remi Award" at the Worldfest International Film Festival. 
Rated R / Running Time: 100 Minutes / Catalog #: P4F-55580 / UPC: 6-25828-55580-0

The Haunting (aka No-Do: The Beckoning) - This Spanish chiller from director Elio Quiroga (Fotos, La Hora Fria) was inspired by the Catholic Church's documentation of actual, unexplained supernatural phenomena in the '40s and stars Ana Torrent (Tesis) as a new mother driven to the brink of madness. An official selection at the Shriekfest Film Festival, Brussels International Film Festival and San Diego Latino Film Festival.
Rated R / Running Time: 95 Minutes / Catalog #: P4F-55710 / UPC: 6-25828-55710-1

About Lightning Media
Lightning Media, a division of Lightning Entertainment Group, Inc., headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., focuses on the worldwide distribution and licensing of quality independent feature films of a variety of genres and documentaries for theatrical, digital download and VOD; and, through Lionsgate and Phase 4, on DVD.

FANGORIA FrightFest! Eight Terrifying Tales Coming to DVD in September