OH NO! IT'S SAW VI!

I've seen every installment of the SAW series, and I'd say the hardest part about watching these movies is trying to convince yourself that what you're seeing is actually new. After awhile, these movies tend to all blur together and seem interchangeable. Between the flashbacks to scenes from previous movies, to newly filmed flashbacks to scenes we hadn't seen before (mainly revolving around John Kramer (Tobin Bell) the "real" Jigsaw back when he was alive), and then the same torture devices we've seen in other SAW movies popping up again (how many times can they use that contraption that is like a bear trap for people's heads?), it can get confusing without a score card.

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I stand atop a facsimile of The Empire State Building. It looks pretty good - a little pixilated, not as sharp as most current gen visuals - but the cornices are rendered adequately and scale, at least in terms of height, seems fairly accurate. The rest of the world, far, far below, the whole of Manhattan, splays out before me in a knobby stretch of angular skyscrapers. The landscape sprawls gray and more gray, punctuated with the shine of glass here, the shimmer of chrome there, interrupted by a large rectangular patch of Central Park green and brown. Again, everything looks pretty good, but again, again, shit is a little muddled and not as crisp as I've come to expect from high def ... (more…)

Deluxe Edition DVD
Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood
Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan

Paramount Home Video 2009

Here we go again.

Just in time to fill your favorite horror fan's dirty X-Mas stocking, Paramount has released the next 2 in the F13 Deluxe Edition DVD series, with less impressive results than the previous discs making up this ongoing cash cow. The films look and sound as good, and each installment comes with the prerequisite deleted scenes, theatrical trailer, and a commentary tracks. All cool, but not anything out of the ordinary. Missing from these DVD's are any new installments of the "Crystal Lake Massacre Re-Visited" featurettes, which were my favorite element ... (more…)

I recently wrote an article about all of the low budget horror films being produced in Buffalo, and posted an interview with the co-director of one of them. Now I'm going to review another one - HOUSE OF HORRORS: THE MOVIE, which is having its premiere at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre today, and is also now available as a Limited Edition DVD (1,000 copies). A non-disclaimer is in order: I shot my short film GRUESOME at the House of Horrors, a haunt attraction in my home town Cheektowaga (which means "Land of the Crab Apple Tree"), and I've met Tim Bunch, who owns the House and executive produced this movie. I also know Michael O'Hear, who plays a priest in this film; Jennifer ... (more…)

Mad Cow Disease has mutated into something far worse, and the world is overrun by bloodthirsty hordes of post-28 DAYS LATER sprinting infected*. Four lone survivors come together and make their way across a ruined and desolate America, all for the love of Twinkies and in the hopes of finding someplace free of zombies**.

It's DAWN OF THE DEAD meets NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION, but this is really all you need to know: ZOMBIELAND contains one of the funniest sequences ever put to film***. Feel free to stop reading this review right now because the damned movie is worth your time for this sequence alone, and if you keep reading you may miss the next available screening. I'll keep talking, and ... (more…)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Norman Rubenstein penned this review of on the eve of its publication by Humdrumming last year. Because of his enthusiasm for the project, I looked forward to running this along with my interview with co-author Michael Kelly. Then the unthinkable happened: at the very last minute, Humdrumming folded, leaving Ouroboros without a home. In a rare instance of a reviewer taking action into his own hands, Norman presented the material to Larry Roberts at Bloodletting Books. Roberts acquired the novel, which also led to a stint for Norman as an associate editor at Bloodletting. Because Norman had become involved in the book's publication, I decided to run his review - which ... (more…)

Forget what the TRUE BLOOD vampire fanatics will have you believe: DEXTER is the finest horror series - and one of the finest comedies - on TV. Each serialized season of the show about everyone's favorite serail killer, Dexter Morgan, tells a complete story, like a novel. There are no cheesy cliffhangers, but a full and thematic resolution to what we've watched unfold over three months. Last year's coda, in which Dexter married his pregnant girlfriend, Rita, served as both a conclusion and a springboard for this season's arc, which opens with Dexter deprived of sleep, and of his favorite past time (murdering killers who have escaped the reaches of the law), because his son has already ... (more…)

On the whole, the second season of HBO's TRUE BLOOD proved superior to the first. I believe that because pay cable TV shows have such short seasons (10 - 13 episodes for most, versus 22 - 24 for a network series) it takes twice as long for them to fully develop their characters and develop chemistry among their casts. Of course, the truly brilliant series - THE SOPRANOS, THE WIRE, DEXTER and CURB YOU ENTHUSIASM - hit the ground running. TRUE BLOOD isn't in that league, but its best episodes come close. I've not read the source novels, but I suspect that producer Alan Ball and his writers are somewhat restricted by them, even though following the wide cast of characters in the way that ... (more…)

If you know anything about making movies, then you know it's not all fun and games...it's tons of hard work...just ask our editor-in-chief Greg Lamberson! Well, it's no different, no matter where you go, case in point, the new Belgian movie SILENCE CA TUE (Silence We Are Shooting).

SILENCE CA TUE is the story of a young Belgian filmmaker who's tired of trying to either find an investor for his film or get money from the government to help his production, so he gathers his friends and decides that his best avenue to get a film made is to make a documentary about getting a film made. He begins by gathering his friends and going to a party on the morning before his big meeting with a noted ... (more…)

Right off the bat I knew this film was in trouble.

It started with the title itself, THE FINAL DESTINATION. Here you have a movie, the fourth in a series, where the original film was called FINAL DESTINATION and the subsequent films were numbered 2 and 3. Now, I can understand not wanting to go the number 4 route because that implies assembly line sequel, and so I don't fault the filmmakers for not naming this film FINAL DESTINATION 4.

But THE FINAL DESTINATION? That's it? That's the best they could do? The opening credits haven't even rolled yet and this film is already suffering from a brain fart.

The gimmick in the FINAL DESTINATION movies is that there's this tragic accident--- in ... (more…)