Review: “Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet”

Based on an urban legend, “Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet” takes a page from the folklore, which can’t even decide where the legendary events took place.

The movie tries too hard to play homage to the classic horror of “Friday the 13th” or “My Bloody Valentine,” while also attempting to be “intelligent cinema” by pumping in too much information about a rare mental disorder. (No spoiler here, as they bring it up in the opening credits, but there have only been 250 documented cases of menstrual psychosis in the last 100 years.)

It’s the typical slasher flick set-up: a group of teens celebrating a local-tragedy-turned-holiday, partying in the house of the girl whose parents have conveniently left town. And the clichés start racking up from there, from a cleverly-yet-transparently disguised Ouija board to the moment where all modes of transportation and communication are cut off from our teen heroes. Yawn.

Let’s hit the low points, so that we can end on a higher note. And yes, there is one. Read more

April 12, 2010 | Filed Under Movies, Reviews | View Comments 

60-second claymation Evil Dead is as good as the real thing

I like The Evil Dead, but the problem with full length movies is you have to watch them, which requires sitting still and paying attention for a really, really long time. That’s why I think this sixty-second remake is perfect. And the claymation style looks right at home if you remember some of the effects from the original.

The movie was made for a contest for Empire magazine. If you like it, you have until March 12th to vote for it–click over to the Empire site and cast your vote.

There’s a sixty-second version of A Nightmare on Elm Street too, and although it’s got some impressive recreation of Freddy’s glove and his phone-sex gag (see image to the right), it’s nowhere near as satisfying as this one.

Evil Dead remake with clay and done in 60 seconds, made for the Empire Jameson competition 2010. http://www.missinghead.co.uk

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Funny, Movies, Video Clips | View Comments 

Catch up on old Freddy before new Freddy stabs you in the gut

The Freddy Krueger film reboot is almost here, so now’s your last chance to experience old-school Freddy before he’s turned back into a truly frightening, evil monster. The very first Nightmare positioned Freddy as a boogey-man for teenagers, someone who was actually terrifying and not just campy. Then all the other movies happened, and Freddy became a sort of malicious clown of death, a bachelor uncle turned serial killer.

I’m not sure how I feel yet about the new version–it looks scary and serious, but it also looks like it falls into a lot of modern horror movie traps: the use of video diaries and websites to make it contemporary, too much reliance on scenes from the original, and an affiliation with Michael Bay. I do like that Jackie Earle Haley is playing Freddy, but honestly in the trailer he sounds so much like Rorschach that I’m worried I’ll keep thinking of Watchmen as I watch it.

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March 6, 2010 | Filed Under Arts & Entertainment, Movies, Reviews | View Comments 

Redneck bar wipeout from “Near Dark”

My favorite scene from one of the best vampire movies of my childhood. Rediscovered via Cinematical.


Near Dark Bar Scene
by CreatureCorner
June 20, 2009 | Filed Under Arts & Entertainment, Monsters, Movies, Multimedia, Online, Vampires, Video Clips | View Comments 

“His bite was outta site!”

ms-blacula-doll


It is a stormy night without rain in 1780! At Castle Dracula! The wicked Count is entertaining royalty from “the dark continent,” as he calls it, as if he thinks he’s some sort of colonial patriarch, and yet he refuses to do proper business with the Africans. In fact, he supports slavery! Who knew the Count was a slave owner? No, none of this makes any sense, but blaxploitation films are not revered for their plots. What matters is the Count bites this “dark prince,” and thus creates BLACULA, the film world’s only black vampire (to my knowledge) until Vamp came along in 1986.

Below is the opening sequence to the movie:


Why resurrect Blacula now? Because Amok Time and Sideshow Replicas have released a 12″ articulated replica of the Prince (see photo at top of post). What makes this figure rock is he’s got three interchangeable heads, including my favorite, the rotted corpse look. Every doll should come with this, particularly Bratz dolls. What makes this not so special is the price is $65, which puts it out of the reach of all but serious collectors.

Oh well, even if you can’t afford it, click through and take a look at the awesome work that went into modeling the three heads.
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May 19, 2009 | Filed Under Movies, Shopping, Vampires, dolls | View Comments 

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