Greetings, all. Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. We’ve got another crop of new horror films ready to be harvested, but before we get to that…there’s this!
Indie writer/director Zachary Paul has started a petition to bring Michael Myers back to his roots in this online petition he put together. I’m not the biggest fan of the newest remakes, but HALLOWEEN remains one of the most influential films I’ve ever seen. To sign the online petition and find out about Paul’s unique vision for the HALLOWEEN franchise, follow this link here! Best of luck, Zachary! We need more fans of the original series like you out there being proactive about their passion!
Here’s a reminder from the guys behind the new CALL GIRL OF CTHULHU project. They are inching closer to their goal, but need support through Kickstarter. The screenplay for CALL GIRL OF CTHULHU has made it to the second round of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and the guys definitely have the enthusiasm to put together something special. Below is a pair of videos the guys made to help promote the film! Enjoy first a birthday message from Howard himself!
And then one of the director’s 5 year old niece explains Cthulhu! This you’ve gotta see!
William Wilson passed on this article he wrote about Don Glut’s unmade projects including an anthology he wrote for H.G. Lewis titled CASTLE OF GORE and the unrealized American ULTRAMAN project (with some amazing pre-production art). Follow the link here to read all about it!

Finally, the EVERYONE DIES HORROR FILM FESTIVAL is celebrating its second year in Orange County, CA. Friday, October 12 and Saturday, October 13 at the Brea Plaza Cinemas in Brea, California, the festival will showcase more psycho-slashers, killer mutant chickens and a gore-soaked musical starring Tim Burton as an 18th century vampire hunter! The weekend will be presided over by the festival’s super-sexy, blood-thirsty mistress of ceremony, Machete Betty. If you’re in the area, be sure to check it out! Find out all of the pertinent info about the lineup of films, how to get tickets, and more here!
I hereby say, “On with the reviews!”
(Click title to go directly to the feature)
Retro-review: CHILLERS (1987)
100 GHOST STREET: THE RETURN OF RICHARD SPECK (2012)
MOMMY’S LITTLE MONSTER (2012)
HIDDEN (2011)
MUNGER ROAD (2011)
BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW (2010)
Advance Review: MODUS ANOMALI (2012)
And finally…John Keefer’s SIX PACK!

CHILLERS(1987)
Directed by Daniel BoydWritten by Daniel Boyd
Starring Jesse Emery, Marjorie Fitzsimmons, Laurie Pennington, Jim Wolfe, David Wohl, Gary Brown, Jesse Johnson, Thom Delventhal, Bradford Boll, Kimberly Harbour, Michael Martin
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug
80’s schlock at its finest, CHILLERS serves as an anthology loosely woven together by the fact that all of the stories are told by folks waiting at a bus stop. Not the most ingenious way of bookending the film, but it does force the group of non-actors to be in one place and since this was the age before iPhones, they had to resort to old fashioned storytelling for entertainment.

I wouldn’t necessarily call CHILLERS good and I wouldn’t necessarily label the film as scary. It is a nice snippet of what horror was like in the 80’s, though. Sure, you had your big budget horror such as THE FLY, ALIENS, and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, but there was something gritty about the low budgeters at the time and CHILLERS definitely embodies all of that.
Poorly shot, poorly lit, and horrid sound which sometimes sounds like the score is being played in the room through a boom box as it often blocks out dialog, CHILLERS doesn’t even have good acting to rely on.

The dust was blown off of this schlocktaculistic 80’s flick by Troma, who has done some cool things lately by rereleasing old forgotten films and sponsoring indie horror seemingly inspired by Troma’s over the top nature. CHILLERS is definitely a hot mess, but it tries so hard to be scary that it’s almost endearing.
Almost.

100 GHOST STREET: THE RETURN OF RICHARD SPECK (2012)
Directed by N/AWritten by N/A
Starring Jennifer Robyn Jacobs, Jim Shipley, Tony Besson, Jackie Moore, Hayley Derryberry, Adam LaFramboise, Mike Holley
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
OK, I hate it when someone calls a moratorium on something, but I have officially had it with the scene where someone falls and is dragged off feet first and screaming into the darkness. It worked awesomely in [REC] and since QUARANTINE, it was made an iconic moment which was truly harrowing.

If this were the least of the film’s offenses, I’d almost forgive it, but there is nary an original scene present in the entire movie. There’s even a woman standing in the corner a la BLAIR WITCH at one point and a scene ripped straight from THE ENTITY (you know the one) for the sole excuse of showing a bit of T&A.

But no, they don’t do that.
Instead we get rehashed thrills used in literally hundreds of other found footage films. On top of that, there are no likable characters in this one at all as two male producers force a woman up in an attic which has a trail of blood leading up to it, then watch on camera as she is murdered. The guys try to act frightened and guilty for losing their crew, attempting to tease some kind of empathy for them, but since they sent a woman to her doom, I couldn’t wait for the last crew member to bite it.
This steaming turd of a found footager is so bad no one has assigned their name to it as director or writer. I wouldn’t either. 100 GHOST STREET: THE RETURN OF RICHARD SPECK is the reason why folks are sick of found footage films.

MOMMY’S LITTLE MONSTER (2012)
Directed by Ryan Rossell & Marshall UzzleWritten by Ryan Rossell, Matt Terzian, & Marshall Uzzle
Starring Matt Terzian, Geoffrey Lewis, Karen Black, Jack Gwaltney, Richard Blackbear Angulo, Troy Bailey, Jennifer Marlowe, Anson Scoville
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Good god this film was plodding. I’m sorry. I’m usually pretty positive when it comes to horror, but bad melodrama masked as horror I just can’t take. The cover of this one suggests a film about an evil child, right?

Though it’s always a treat to see actors like Geoffrey Lewis and Karen Black on screen, they do little here to save the movie. Lewis provides unnecessary drama in a complicated plot regarding a Native American Indian burial ground excavation and a gambling debt which somehow has ties to Taylor’s release. Black’s role is more meaty as the verbally abusive mother who both smothers him and berates him into having no confidence at all, leaving Taylor a twitching time bomb just waiting to ‘splode all over the place.

Boo, this film!

HIDDEN (2011)
Directed by Antoine ThomasWritten by Alan & Alana Smythy (screenplay), Mariano Biano & Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni (story)
Starring Sean Clement, Simonetta Solder, Jordan Hayes, Jason Blicker, Bjanka Murgel, Devon Bostick, Alessia Agrosì, Allan Kolman, Dawn Ford
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
I was looking forward to seeing HIDDEN. Not knowing much about it, I was taken aback by the cool cover art, and after reading the blurb about a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong as a mad scientist working on addiction brings those addictions to life I did feel it was an original premise that had potential to be something damn cool.

Dealing with science’s battle with addiction is an interesting hook to hang this film on. Bringing addictions to life is an innovative idea, one ripe with potential. But I don’t think the filmmakers were able to succeed in achieving that potential as the little addictions running around the abandoned hospital are basically ghosts, appearing here and there, haunting the investigators, and killing them. The filmmakers do take advantage of the dank hospital, forcing the cast to venture through all of its corridors and tunnels and crawlspaces and emanating a nice moody feel to the whole thing.

What this film is lacking is originality and real scares. The digital animation is too cartoony to be frightening. A swarm of a rare insect is the carrier of this addiction cure and there are plenty of “comin’ at cha!” scenes reminding you that this is a 3D movie (something that does nothing for me since I was watching it on a 2D flatscreen). The ghostly children haunting the corridors are spooky, but the burned out eyes and mouths are repeated too many times to cause any real chills.
Though my hopes were high, HIDDEN didn’t really live up to expectations. Despite some fun hokey horror science, decent casting, and a nice mood set at the hospital, this one just didn’t deliver the scares.

MUNGER ROAD (2011)
Directed by Nicholas SmithWritten by Nicholas Smith
Starring Bruce Davison, Randall Batinkoff, Trevor Morgan, Brooke Peoples, Hallock Beals, Lauren Storm, Art Fox, Maggie Henry, Bill J. Stevens
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Part found footager, part ghost story, part serial killer myth, part supernatural police procedural, MUNGER ROAD is one of those films that takes bits and pieces from many different subgenres of horror, but does so in a pretty seamless and fantastically executed manner. Most definitely low budget, MUNGER ROAD isn’t afraid to tell an expensive story and knows how to make it all work despite its shallow pockets.

Filmmaker Nicholas Smith captures these initial scenes well as a group of likable teens venture out to prove the existence of the paranormal by filming their Munger Road trip. The scenes in the car were palpably scary as the intensity of the paranormal seems to occur, but the story doesn’t stop there. Cut to a pair of police officers (Bruce Davison and Randall Batinkoff) tracking down an escaped killer who committed crimes years prior with ties to Munger Road. So instead of settling on being a found footage film about ghosts, real world scares are tossed in as a flesh and blood killer is wandering the woods. Smith juggles these subgenres well, and a lot of that has to do with Davison and Batinkoff giving it their all in their performances as the wizened older cop and the eager younger one, respectively. Without these two performances, I could have seen this film collapsing under itself.

As a single movie, this confidence that there will be another film takes a bit away from the impact of the ending and makes this film feel more like the first episode of a TV series rather than a film; still, MUNGER ROAD has a lot of imagination and chutzpah to have me rooting for it.

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW (2010)
Directed by Panos CosmatosWritten by Panos Cosmatos
Starring Eva Allan, Michael Rogers, Scott Hylands, Marilyn Norry, Rondel Reynoldson
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Consider my mind blown.
Imagine if Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY had an all night orgy with Lucas’ THX 1138, TRON, Michael Mann’s MANHUNTER, and Alex Proyas’ DARK CITY set to the music of Daft Punk by way of John Carpenter’s simplistic synth soundtrack and then you might just begin to fathom the mindfuck that is BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW an absolutely gorgeous film from the visionary mind of Panos Cosmatos.

Rogers is the true standout performance here as his Nyle is one of the most menacing villains I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in ages. Through a calm, staccato voice and a simple facial twitch, he speaks volumes about his character. Seeing him interact with others sends shivers down the spine. This is a performance that should open lots of doors for him.

Though some of the simplistic designs seem torn straight from the Kubrick rulebook and some of the more retro-futuristic looks make this feel like it was the lost sci fi film Michael Mann never directed, BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW has a style of its own by combining so many influential styles seamlessly and perfectly. More than anything, this is a film that looks absolutely unique. There are no shots that don’t seem meticulously framed to amp up even the most diabolical subject matter to beautiful levels. Be it a scene of Nyle driving his sleek car through a never ending tunnel or Elena sleeping in her bed crying over a photo of her mother, every shot is a visual masterpiece.

I have nothing negative to say about this film and can’t recommend BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW more. Much like DISTRICT 9, MOON, and LOOPER (which I recently saw and loved), it offers a fantastic vision of the future through a retro lens. This is one of my favorite films of the year and though I saw it on my flat screen, I’d kill to see it on the big screen. It is brutal and beautiful. Patient and jarring. Atmospheric and claustrophobic all at once and simply has to be seen to be believed. See BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW. I’ll expect a thanks in the mail soon after.

MODUS ANOMALI (2012)
Directed by Joko AnwarWritten by Joko Anwar
Starring Rio Dewanto, Hannah Al Rashid, Aridh Tritama, Izzi Isman, Sadha Triyudha, Jose Gamo, Marsha Timothy, Surya Saputra
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

A man wakes up buried in a shallow grave in the woods. He’s disoriented and alone and can’t remember his name, his life, or anything. Soon he realizes he’s not alone in the woods. In the distance he sees a man with a machete, causing him to run and hide. Approaching a cabin, he finds the body of a woman and a video camera. When it’s played, he sees the murder of the woman in the cabin and soon finds himself in a fight for his life.

Dewanto is fantastic as the man seeking truth and survival from an unknown menace. Most of the time he is communicating through simple facial expressions and the rigorous workout he is put through leaping through the woods. The turns this character takes throughout the film require much from this actor, and all along the way from start to finish Dewanto makes things absolutely believable.

MODUS ANOMALI is a grueling film experience, one that will definitely make you wince at the brutal action and gore. It’s not one anyone can predict outright, but it leaves enough breadcrumbs for the audience to figure things out by the end. If you like run of the mill films you can predict from the beginning, you’re going to hate this film, but MODUS ANOMALI doesn’t follow the well worn path and instead through clever directing and a convincing lead performance provided unexpected thrills and winces at what is playing out on screen.
Currently playing festivals, I’ll keep you all up to date when MODUS ANOMALI will be available for all to see!
And finally…John Keefer of 51 Deep continues his short horror filmmaking with a story of morality warning us of the dangers of drinking and using the telephone. Loved this little bastard of a film. Enjoy…SIX PACK!
See ya next week, folks!




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