Movie Review: Four Boxes

*This review was originally posted on BrutalAsHell.com, but was pulled and replaced with more of a well-thought out and better written review.  I stand by this review, however, as more thought was put into my review than was put into this pile of crap that is the film Four Boxes.

DVD Review: Four Boxes (2009)
Directed by: Wyatt McDill
Starring: Justin Kirk, Terryn Westbrook, Sam Rosen
Review by: Sean Duregger

Some movies are “so-bad-they’re-enjoyable-with-alcohol”.  Some movies are just plain bad and annoying.  Four Boxes isn’t enjoyable even with vast amounts of alcohol, believe me, I tried.  I’d compare this to a Horror version of The Room, but The Room is actually enjoyable on a certain level, hell it even had more gore.  Maybe this should have been called Four Rooms? Oh wait, a far superior movie already has that title. From absolutely horrible dialogue to atrocious pacing, Four Rooms is a total piece of shit and a waste of time.

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Movie Review: The Hills Run Red

The Hills Run Red

Rating:  

Directed By: Dave Parker

Starring: Sophie Monk, William Sadler, Tad Hilgenbrink, Janet Montgomery,

Plot Synopsis:

When they hear there’s a complete print of their favorite slasher movie hidden in their hometown’s backwoods, a group of horror movie buffs heads out in search of the celluloid treasure. Once arriving at their destination, they discover that the carnage captured in the movie was completely real, and worse yet, the filmmakers are looking to spill more blood before they’re ready to call “cut.” (Netflix)

Review:

Since 1978′s Halloween, the Slasher flick has been going strong.  I’m actually surprised this sub-genre has continued to thrive.  With The Hills Run Red, New director Dave Parker shows us that there still is some life in this tired genre with a clever script by David J. Schow, John Dombrow and John Carchietta.  We can also welcome an awesome new masked killer to the short list with Babyface.  Yes, a dude who wears a baby mask.  Trust me, it works.

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Movie Review: The Last Winter

The Last Winter

Rating:  

Directed By: Larry Fessenden

Starring: Ron Perlman, James LeGros, Connie Britton, Zach Gilford

Plot Synopsis:

Ron Perlman stars as Ed Pollack, an oil company employee who arrives in Alaska. He’s eager to take some of the tundra’s oil bounty, but the rising temperatures have an environmental scientist (James LeGros) worried about the irreparable damage they could do to the Alaskan wilderness. Soon things start to go wrong at their camp, and one of their one dies mysteriously. Whether it’s cabin fever, poisonous gas, or supernatural forces, something is threatening the camp and the people who live there. (Rottentomatoes.com)

Review:

The Last Winter is a slow burn, claustrophobic thriller set in the remote Alaskan wilderness.  It’s not a thrill-a-minute story, but one that unfolds in a logical yet unsettling way.  What makes The Last Winter work is not necessarily the effects or scares.  The character development is strong and the film makers rely on our relationship with the characters to build the story’s main tension.  Not many horror movies these days trust their audiences enough and burn through plot to get to the scares.  The Last Winter is a genuinly creepy tale, but is no crap-your-pants frightfest.

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Movie Review: Wolfhound

Wolfhound (Volkodav iz roda Serykh Psov)

Rating:  

Directed By: Nikolai Lebedev

Starring: Aleksandr Bukharov, Oksana Akinshina, Aleksandr Domogarov, Igor Petrenko

Plot Synopsis:

He was condemned to death, but survived to wreak revenge for the murder of his clan. The last member of the clan of the Grey Hounds became a fearless warrior by the name of Wolfhound. After cheating death in the mines, Wolfhound sets out on a journey with his constant companion, the Earthbound Bat. Wolfhound has but one desire – to destroy the Maneater, a merciless warrior who slaughtered the village of the Grey Hounds.

Review:

The 2006 Russian Fantasy film Wolfhound, based on the novel by Maria Semyonova, is a welcomed entry in the Fantasy genre. Not enough of these movies are made, and when they are they are pretty horrible (Dungeons and Dragons).  So, when one comes around and is actually pretty awesome, reading subtitles is the least of my concerns.  Finally released on DVD in 2009, Wolfhound is an awesome ride.  If you love movies like Conan, Beastmaster, Krull and Lord of the Rings, then you’ll adore this little film.

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Movie Review: Timecrimes

Timecrimes

Rating:  

Directed By: Nacho Vigalondo

Starring: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, Nacho Vigalondo

Plot Synopsis:

Lauded short film director Nacho Vigalondo makes his feature debut with this tense, unstoppable vision of science and natural law gone awry.

Hector (Karra Elejalde) is relaxing on a lawn chair outside of his new country home, surveying the nearby hillside through a pair of binoculars, when he catches sight of what appears to be a nude woman amidst the trees. Hiking up to investigate, he is attacked by a sinister figure whose head is wrapped in a grotesque, pink bandage.

Fleeing in terror, he takes refuge in a laboratory atop the hill, where a lone attendant (director Nacho Vigalondo) ushers him in to a peculiar scientific contraption. He emerges what seems to be moments later, only to find that he has traveled back hours in time, setting in motion a brain-twisting, horrifying chain of events. [Trailer Addict]

Review:

Timecrimes is one of those films that is best viewed when you don’t know anything about the film.  Avoid the trailer on this one! All I knew was that it was a mystery, thriller involving some sort of time travel.  If you go into the film like this, you’ll have a blast with this mind bending puzzle of a thriller.

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Movie Review: [REC]

[REC]

Rating:  

Directed By: Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza

Starring: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza

Plot Synopsis:

A beautiful TV reporter (Manuela Velasco, Law of Desire) and her cameraman are doing a routine interview at a local fire station when an emergency call comes in.  Accompanying the firefighters to a nearby apartment, the news team begins recording the bloodcurdling screams coming from inside an elderly woman’s unit.  After authorities seal off the building to contain the threat, the news crew, firefighters and residents are trapped to face a lethal terror inside.  With the camera running, nothing may survive but the film itself. [Sony Pictures]

Review:

If you saw Quarantine first, you got ripped off.  Luckily, I purposefully delayed watching Quarantine until I viewed the original Spanish horror flick, [REC].  [REC] is a tight, edge of your seat scarefest that succeeds on the realism depicted.  Something Cloverfield or The Blair Witch Project couldn’t achieve.

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Movie Review: Laid to Rest

Laid to Rest

Rating:  

Written & Directed By: Robert Hall

Starring: Bobbi Sue Luther, Kevin Gage, Lena Headey, Sean Whalen, Thomas Dekker

Plot Synopsis:

Laid to Rest is the terrifying story of a young girl (Bobbi Sue Luther) who wakes up in a casket with a traumatic head injury and no memory of her identity. She quickly realizes she was abducted by ChromeSkull (Nick Principe), a metal-masked serial killer with the money and means to emulate the 1980s Slashers. Isolated in an unfamiliar rural town, the Girl and those who have come to her aid must survive the night and outsmart the technologically inclined murderer who video records his vicious killings and is determined to finish his masterpiece tape featuring “the Girl.”

Review:

With over-saturation of remakes, re-imaginings, and reboots, it’s nice when a little slasher flick shows some originality.  Laid to Rest does owe a lot to slashers of the 80s, however, this low budget flick boasts some fantastic gore and a memorable baddie with Chrome Skull.

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geekVault Reviews: Demons

Demons

Rating:  

Directed By: Lamberto Bava

Screenplay By: Dario Argento

Starring: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey

Plot Synopsis:

A group of people are trapped in a large West Berlin movie theater infected by ravenous demons whom proceed to kill and posses the humans one-by-one thereby multiplying their numbers,

Review:

Demons is one of those movies I would always see on the back Horror shelf of the video store as a kid.  I remember looking through all the vhs boxes imagining what these movies were like.  In the process, I would freak myself out and most likely have a nightmare that night.  Finally, 20 years later I’m catching up on all the great horror flicks of the 80s, and the Italian gore-fest Demons is 80s mayhem at it’s best.

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geekVault Reviews: Maniac Cop

Maniac Cop

Rating:  

Directed By: William Lustig

Starring: Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Robert Z’Dar

Plot Synopsis:

In New York, a man in a cop’s uniform starts killing people for no apparent reason. (IMDB)

Review:

The tag line (“You have the right to remain silent.  Forever!”) pretty much sums up Maniac Cop.  There are no suprises or twists here.  We have a maniac cop murdering innocent people for no reason.  And it’s up to Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps) and Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) to stop him!

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Movie Review: Alien Raiders

Alien Raiders

Rating:  

Directed By: Ben Rock

Starring: Carlos Bernard, Mathew St. Patrick

Plot Synopsis:

It’s the end of yet another night at Hastings Supermarket, an idyllic family grocery store in Buck Lake, Arizona. But the normal monotony of rounding up shopping carts and settling out the cash drawers is broken at 11:07pm, just before closing when a group of masked and armed-to-the-teeth militants invades the store, immediately killing several of the employees and shoppers and holding the rest hostage.

Though the hostage-takers at first appear to be robbers or terrorists, they reveal themselves to be a cadre of rogue scientists that has discovered and tracked an alien infestation to this store on this night, and they are determined to find out which of the survivors are extraterrestrials and end the invasion at any cost. (Trailer Addict)

Review:

So, the award for the lamest title of a good movie goes to … Alien Raiders.  I mean, seriously, this is where studio intervention is a bad thing.  Originally titled Supermarket (I know, not much of a better title), Alien Raiders is a movie that is way better than the title suggests.  When I first heard of this movie, I was thinking it would be a low-grade Sci Fi Channel original crap-fest.  But, then I started hearing some good things and decided to check it out.  Alien Raiders has no right to be as good as it is.  It’s a blast.

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