Dead Snow (2009)

This low budget Norwegian zombie flick shouldn't really work, but it does. Filled with every single horror movie cliche and trope, it's one of those films that are ridiculous in a good way. The story revolve around a group of medical students on holiday in the remotest part of the Norwegian wilderness they could find.

The characters are the biggest cliche of all, from the deadlocked women who looks like a predator, the quintessential attractive blondes, to the fat film geek guy - who is the source of many a horror movie reference during the film.

After the unlikely group settle in, the not so unlikely drunken party starts, a party which is soon interrupted by a knock of the door of the cabin...The knock is the local weirdo with a scary tail to tell. The man proceeds to tell the group about the legend of a lost Nazi battalion whose evil presence remains on the mountain.

Well it doesn't take long before the man's fears are realized, and the group soon start dropping like flies, and it drops to a few remaining to survivors to face the ravenous army of Nazi zombies. The group of remaining characters, one resembling Ash from Evil Dead, with an amputated arm and chainsaw combo, dispense with the zombie horde in more and more over-the-top and super gory ways.

The special effects are pretty convincing for such a low budget indie film, and each zombie death is more original and mega gory  than the next. Dead Snow is good old-fashioned comedy horror fun. A little indie gem which is up there among the best comedy horrors that I've seen.

Dead Snow (2009)

This low budget Norwegian zombie flick shouldn't really work, but it does. Filled with every single horror movie cliche and trope, it's one of those films that are ridiculous in a good way. The story revolve around a group of medical students on holiday in the remotest part of the Norwegian wilderness they could find.

The characters are the biggest cliche of all, from the deadlocked women who looks like a predator, the quintessential attractive blondes, to the fat film geek guy - who is the source of many a horror movie reference during the film.

After the unlikely group settle in, the not so unlikely drunken party starts, a party which is soon interrupted by a knock of the door of the cabin...The knock is the local weirdo with a scary tail to tell. The man proceeds to tell the group about the legend of a lost Nazi battalion whose evil presence remains on the mountain.

Well it doesn't take long before the man's fears are realized, and the group soon start dropping like flies, and it drops to a few remaining to survivors to face the ravenous army of Nazi zombies. The group of remaining characters, one resembling Ash from Evil Dead, with an amputated arm and chainsaw combo, dispense with the zombie horde in more and more over-the-top and super gory ways.

The special effects are pretty convincing for such a low budget indie film, and each zombie death is more original and mega gory  than the next. Dead Snow is good old-fashioned comedy horror fun. A little indie gem which is up there among the best comedy horrors that I've seen.

Open Grave (2014)

Open Grave starts confusingly and pretty much maintains the confusion throughout. This mystery/survival flick, kicks off with a man waking up in an pit full of dead bodies in the middle on nowhere. He soon finds his way into a nearby house, where he meets a group who say they have just woken as well.

The next hour basically consists of the group aimlessly roaming around trying to figure out what has happened. The story unfolds arduously slow, as the members of the group claim to recognize each other and suffer strange flashbacks, they also begin to display symptoms of some kind of psychosis, and start turning on one another.

The story is predictable as hell, a textbook shock-reveal story, which is as poorly executed as it is boring to watch. After an hour of pointless flashbacks and screaming at each other, the group finally discovers the truth.

I don't want to give too much away, but the plot twist basically involves a deadly virus and a military conspiracy. The acting was a bit ropey at times, the only exception being  Sharlto Copley's performance. The last fifteen minutes are the best of the film, as everything starts to fall apart, and Copleys character fights for survival.

Open Grave could have been so much better if it had a bigger budget and a better script, its a classic case of a good idea, poorly executed.

 

 

Open Grave (2014)

Open Grave starts confusingly and pretty much maintains the confusion throughout. This mystery/survival flick, kicks off with a man waking up in an pit full of dead bodies in the middle on nowhere. He soon finds his way into a nearby house, where he meets a group who say they have just woken as well.

The next hour basically consists of the group aimlessly roaming around trying to figure out what has happened. The story unfolds arduously slow, as the members of the group claim to recognize each other and suffer strange flashbacks, they also begin to display symptoms of some kind of psychosis, and start turning on one another.

The story is predictable as hell, a textbook shock-reveal story, which is as poorly executed as it is boring to watch. After an hour of pointless flashbacks and screaming at each other, the group finally discovers the truth.

I don't want to give too much away, but the plot twist basically involves a deadly virus and a military conspiracy. The acting was a bit ropey at times, the only exception being  Sharlto Copley's performance. The last fifteen minutes are the best of the film, as everything starts to fall apart, and Copleys character fights for survival.

Open Grave could have been so much better if it had a bigger budget and a better script, its a classic case of a good idea, poorly executed.

 

 

V/H/S 2 (2013)

Unlike previous horror anthologies like Creepshow and Trick 'r Treat ,V/H/S 2 fails to deliver on what was a good idea.

Found footage films are usually cheap, low budget affairs, and must be done right to have the desired affect; not many films have achieved this, with the exception of  REC, REC 2, The Blair Witch Project, and The Last Broadcast. V/H/S 2  takes found footage and anthology horror and puts the two together. The result is the horror equivalent of  "You've Been Framed".

The film is basically made up of four found footage shorts, the of which is a tale about a man who has an experimental eye implant that makes him see ghosts, which is all shot in the first person perspective of his eye implant. The hole thing feels like you're playing a survival horror video game, the ghosts look like the ghosts in games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. The digital interference that keeps cutting into the display of his implant video, is cheap and video game looking. The film just follows him around his house trying to get away from the comically bad looking ghosts that aren't scary at all. Its just a really silly and boring film.

The second film is basically like a bad episode of  The Walking Dead, in which a man (conveniently wearing a helmet cam) sets out on a bike ride through the woods, and is suddenly attacked by a pack of zombies.  To cut a long story short,  he gets bitten, becomes a zombie, and runs around the woods infecting unsuspecting bikers and hikers before taking part in a blood bath at a camp site, where he and the pack of zombie tear apart a group of people celebrating a birthday party. Its all predictable, boring, and some of the acting is truly zombies-like.

This third film is about a team of journalists who go into a monastery school of some kind which is run by mad man. It turns out the loon and his followers are all devil worshipers, and intend to kill all of the journalists, besides a pregnant one, who they intend to use as a sacrifice so the devil.

I quite liked this one. Its the best episode in the film. The special effects were "ok" with some truly stomach churning moments. When the devil eventually surfaces and is let loose from the monastery, he takes chase after the only surviving journalist. When he finally catches up with him, the devil himself looks like a cheap donkey costume with horns on the head, its really comical. Overall though, this one wasn't bad at all.

The final short film, is set in a lake side house in which a group of middle-class teenagers are having a sleepover/party. The camera work is done by one of the kids as they document their exploits. They start playing pranks on each other during the night. During one such prank, a bright light suddenly engulfs the house -- coming from the direction of the lake. The house starts shacking, the lights flicker off, and then suddenly aliens with extremely long fingers burst into the house, and start terrorizing the group of teens. The aliens don't probe the idiot teens, but instead display their staggering ineptitude when it comes to kidnapping. They are within two feet of all of the group many times, but instead of grabbing or fingering them, they lightly stroke them and dance like homos. In the end no one gets fingered, the aliens go away and book some dancing lessons.

At the end of the day, V/H/S/2 is three poorly made low budget short films and one passable one. I hope the current surge of found footage films ends with this terrible example, because the fad is wearing a little thin. Don't be in a rush to see this one.

The NHS keeps getting worse..


Despite being mediocre overall, there are some great gore moments in this film, especially in the monastery episode. The zombie film also produced some good blood spurting and flesh eating moments as well. A solid four gore-bucket film.

V/H/S 2 (2013)

Unlike previous horror anthologies like Creepshow and Trick 'r Treat ,V/H/S 2 fails to deliver on what was a good idea.

Found footage films are usually cheap, low budget affairs, and must be done right to have the desired affect; not many films have achieved this, with the exception of  REC, REC 2, The Blair Witch Project, and The Last Broadcast. V/H/S 2  takes found footage and anthology horror and puts the two together. The result is the horror equivalent of  "You've Been Framed".

The film is basically made up of four found footage shorts, the of which is a tale about a man who has an experimental eye implant that makes him see ghosts, which is all shot in the first person perspective of his eye implant. The hole thing feels like you're playing a survival horror video game, the ghosts look like the ghosts in games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. The digital interference that keeps cutting into the display of his implant video, is cheap and video game looking. The film just follows him around his house trying to get away from the comically bad looking ghosts that aren't scary at all. Its just a really silly and boring film.

The second film is basically like a bad episode of  The Walking Dead, in which a man (conveniently wearing a helmet cam) sets out on a bike ride through the woods, and is suddenly attacked by a pack of zombies.  To cut a long story short,  he gets bitten, becomes a zombie, and runs around the woods infecting unsuspecting bikers and hikers before taking part in a blood bath at a camp site, where he and the pack of zombie tear apart a group of people celebrating a birthday party. Its all predictable, boring, and some of the acting is truly zombies-like.

This third film is about a team of journalists who go into a monastery school of some kind which is run by mad man. It turns out the loon and his followers are all devil worshipers, and intend to kill all of the journalists, besides a pregnant one, who they intend to use as a sacrifice so the devil.

I quite liked this one. Its the best episode in the film. The special effects were "ok" with some truly stomach churning moments. When the devil eventually surfaces and is let loose from the monastery, he takes chase after the only surviving journalist. When he finally catches up with him, the devil himself looks like a cheap donkey costume with horns on the head, its really comical. Overall though, this one wasn't bad at all.

The final short film, is set in a lake side house in which a group of middle-class teenagers are having a sleepover/party. The camera work is done by one of the kids as they document their exploits. They start playing pranks on each other during the night. During one such prank, a bright light suddenly engulfs the house -- coming from the direction of the lake. The house starts shacking, the lights flicker off, and then suddenly aliens with extremely long fingers burst into the house, and start terrorizing the group of teens. The aliens don't probe the idiot teens, but instead display their staggering ineptitude when it comes to kidnapping. They are within two feet of all of the group many times, but instead of grabbing or fingering them, they lightly stroke them and dance like homos. In the end no one gets fingered, the aliens go away and book some dancing lessons.

At the end of the day, V/H/S/2 is three poorly made low budget short films and one passable one. I hope the current surge of found footage films ends with this terrible example, because the fad is wearing a little thin. Don't be in a rush to see this one.

The NHS keeps getting worse..


Despite being mediocre overall, there are some great gore moments in this film, especially in the monastery episode. The zombie film also produced some good blood spurting and flesh eating moments as well. A solid four gore-bucket film.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 8 Review: Too Far Gone

The last two seasons of the The Walking Dead have been stale, boring, lacking in plot and character development. This episode goes a long way to remedying those issues, and has put the show back on track.

All scores get settled in this brilliantly written dramatic episode - the best of the entire series so far in my opinion. The governor inevitably goes back to his old ways, and arrives at the prison with his new friends, demanding that the group leaves or he will kill them all.

The group come together to fight the governor and fight they do. Some of the best action in two seasons of politics, crying and Rick-posturing. Rick as usual is the diplomat, who tries in vain to talk the governor out of creating bloodshed. But diplomacy seems to be the last thing on the governors mind, as he seemed to be at his most ruthless and blood thirsty.

The show looses two main characters in this battle; both are emotionally charged and well written death scenes. This episode leaves the show on several cliffhangers, who in the group survived the battle? And will they ever see Carol again?

After all the dust had settled, it seemed pointless for the governor to have even started the battle in the first place. All the fences were destroyed by the tank, and hundreds of zombies infest the prison - kind of defeats the purpose really. Saying that though, hes not always been the clearest thinker.

Verdict: The best episode in the whole series so far. I just hope the rest of the forth season doesn't tale off like the third did, and maintains the action and suspense that has kept me glued to my screen.
 

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 7 Review: Dead Weight

The Walking Dead never ceases to be uneven and at times implausible. In this episode we see the Governor, a completely reformed character from the homicidal mad man we saw slaughter the towns folk of  Woodbury the end of the last season, drifting along the back rounds trying to find somewhere to rest his head, and shave off that terrible stick-on beard.

He comes across a family in a small apartment building who take him in for the night. During the next few days the Governor, being the nice guy that he is, helps the family out by doing favors. Like getting a back gammon board for the families old grandpa and an oxygen tank for the old fella because hes dying of lung cancer (he's such a nice guy).

The governor and the family end up in a camp run by a couple of the governor old friends from Woodbury. It isn't long before the governor is back in the thick of things, trying to run the camp and take charge no matter who gets in his way. He seems to have taken the family that he met for his own. His relationship with the women he has known for only a few days resembles that of a long married couple, which is just stupid.

Despite the ridiculous parts, this episodes is not without its graces. The shot were the Governor looks into the lake and the golf scene are highlights. The episode ends on a cliffhanger setting everything up nicely for the mid season finale.