Just in case you haven't had your fill of zombies, here comes PLATOON OF THE DEAD (2009), a new zombie flick by writer/director John Bowker, now available on DVD.

PLATOON OF THE DEAD is the story of three Marines, Lieutenant Roberts (Chris Keown), Sergeant Butler (Tom Stedham) and Private Dillon (Tyler David) survivors of a zombie ambush in a war of the future- just when and where this war occurs is not specified. It looks like present day, which is mighty convenient for a low budget production like this. The movie was shot in Oregon, and there's nothing in the movie to suggest that the action doesn't take place there.

The Marines take shelter inside a seemingly abandoned house, where they ... (more…)

With LAID TO REST, writer-director Robert Hall has created a kick-ass slasher movie with surprisingly sagacious characters who actually act like real people. Too bad he chose to saturate this shock-fest with excessive gore effects.

That he did should come as no surprise. Hall has a list of credits a mile long, most of which stem from the special effects department, specifically make-up effects. Two recent films in which Hall served as special make-up effects supervisor include RED SANDS (2009) and QUARANTINE (2008).

LAID TO REST wastes no time getting started. A young woman (Bobbi Sue Luther) wakes up to find herself inside a coffin. She escapes from the coffin and barely has time to ... (more…)

Some ideas just work.

Take the movie SPLINTER (2008), for example, now available on DVD. No, it's not a movie about wooden slivers that innocently enter little fingers and then tear their way through entire bodies (hey, that's not bad!).

The premise behind SPLINTER is the idea of enemies needing to bond together to fight a common foe. Great idea, very likeable, and it certainly piqued my interest. Now the film doesn't really pull off this plot point with any great pizzazz, yet, this didn't stop me from liking this picture.

In SPLINTER, we meet an amiable couple about to go camping to celebrate their one year anniversary, nerdy but charming Seth Belzer (Paulo Costanzo) who is studying for ... (more…)

On the carcass menu today, it's RED SANDS (2009), a new horror movie from director Alex Turner that takes place in the desert of Afghanistan.

I gotta tell you, as soon as I found out that RED SANDS was my carcass pick for this month, I was psyched, almost as psyched as pulling away that succulent piece of meat from the carcass and chomping down--- what? That's turkey carcass, okaaay? Jeeesh! Anyway, I was psyched because a horror film about American soldiers in the desert of Afghanistan promised something more refreshing than the standard horror fare we see so often today. You know, the usual stuff, stories about violent psychotic killers or the recent ubiquitous ghost stories, most ... (more…)

Welcome to another edition of PICKIN' THE CARCASS, the movie column that looks at horror movies you missed the first time around.

I'm in the mood for some carcass pickin' right now. I mean, here we are in March already, and I have to say, the horror movies of 2009 have been a bust. It's pretty bad when the genre film I've enjoyed most so far this year has been CORALINE, the dark animated kids' movie based on the story by Neil Gaiman.

I'm hungry for some quality horror.

Time to pick the carcass! What tasty treat do we have in store for us today?

Hmm. Something called SHARKS IN VENICE (2008), now available on DVD. Sounds campy. It has that SNAKES ON A PLANE ring going for it. Maybe ... (more…)

Welcome to PICKIN' THE CARCASS, the new column by yours truly, Michael Arruda, where each month, we'll look at movies you might have missed the first time around.

You know how it is.

You've seen everything you wanted to see, but you're still not satisfied. You're hungry for more. So, you decide to go back, to see what's still out there, looking for that one last tasty little morsel to make your horror movie fix complete. You're picking from the carcass.

Let the pickin' begin!

Up this month, it's RISE OF THE GARGOYLE (2009), a made-for-TV movie, one of those Sci-Fi Channel originals, now available on digital cable. I tend to avoid Sci-Fi Channel originals like the plague, and so I didn't ... (more…)