benjithehunter Reviews

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Non-Stop Gore and Little Else

[5/10 · 23 April 2023]

A young groupie busts in on her sister and their single-parent household right before their apartment is due to be demolished. Her sister's children discover an ancient text and record underneath their parking garage after an earthquake and unleash blood-thirsty demons who want to feast on everyone's souls.

Evil Dead Rise is a well-shot horror film with a good amount of mood and some hair-raising special effects, but the lack of character depth keeps it from rising to the occasion as much as it should. It spends a good half hour with the main characters of the film before the demonic events start and, yet, we still know very little about them. It makes it hard to care once the stakes are raised.

A prologue and epilogue appear to have been added later on which has next to nothing to do with the rest of the movie.

Breaking News in Yuba County (2021)

An Uneasy Mix of Comedy and Drama

[4/10 · 23 April 2021]

An overlooked, lonely woman catches her husband having an affair which gives him a heart attack and kills him and, instead of calling the police, she decides to bury the body and tell everyone he's missing, making her a local celebrity.

The concept of Breaking News in Yuba County is a strong one and director, Tate Taylor, has assembled an enviable group of fantastic actors to bring these characters to life, but the tone keeps veering in between comic farce and gritty, violent drama and they never meet in the middle in a satisfying way. The violence feels like something from an entirely different movie and the comedy, which I'm sure read as more farcical on the page, is played too straight to manage more than a chuckle or two from the audience.

Host (II) (2020)

Somewhat Creepy Found Footage Movie

[7/10 · 11 November 2020]

During the COVID quarantine, a few friends get together on Zoom to hold a seance with a psychic, but they upset the spirits and strange, deadly things start happening.

Considering this was shot during the height of the COVID crisis, you have to give the filmmakers props for their ingenuity and creativity. The characters are at least not as annoying as they usually are in found footage horror movies and there's a good excuse as to why they keep the cameras rolling. It wisely builds the scares bit by bit, saving the most effective ones for the last 10 minutes, leaving the film on a terrifying note.

Poltergeist (2015)

Sad and Bland

[3/10 · 11 November 2020]

A suburban family has to save their daughter from the astral plane after she's kidnapped by evil spirits.

What a missed opportunity this was. To have a cast this wonderful and a perfectly constructed skeleton of a story and waste it like this should be considered a crime. There's hardly a scare or intense moment to be found here and the parents who were so well developed in the first film essentially take a back seat and let the son character do all the heavy lifting.

Blood Diner (1987)

Ridiculous

[7/10 · 30 October 2020]

Two brothers chop up patrons of their diner to bring back a demonic goddess.

Blood Diner is pure silliness from start to finish and mostly a semi-remake of Blood Feast, but there's enough gore and 80's cheese to keep you entertained if that's what you look for in a horror film.

To All a Goodnight (1980)

Ho Ho Horror

[6/10 · 30 October 2020]

Sorority girls who stay over the Christmas break are hunted by a serial killer dressed as Santa Claus.

Simple and to the point, To All A Goodnight probably won't become anyone's new favorite Christmas tradition and it can't hold a candle to similar Yuletide slashers like Black Christmas and Silent Night, Deadly Night, but it's enjoyable enough for what it is. None of the characters make much of an impression and there's little to no suspense in the stalking scenes, but some of the gore effects impress. It also has one of the most confounding endings you're likely to ever see.

Blood Games (1990)

More Entertaining Than Expected

[7/10 · 30 October 2020]

A female softball team gets terrorized by a rival male team who are upset they didn't win and a chase ensues.

Blood Games is a simple movie with simple pleasures. You won't come away remembering any vibrant character arcs or awards worthy performances, but it's a memorable enough journey into depravity with a nice girl power message. It does get into icky rape/revenge territory at times, but it usually pulls the plug before it gets too intense.

Deadly Manor (1990)

Terrible

[2/10 · 30 October 2020]

A bunch of idiots break down and decide to break into a mansion they don't own that's in the middle of the woods. Obviously, someone who lives there isn't thrilled and kills them in uninspired ways.

Deadly Manor is one of the worst movies I've ever been unfortunate enough to view. The plot is non-existent, the characters are idiotic, and the kills aren't gory or interesting enough to make up for it. It does have a great central location, but that's about all I can recommend about it.

Kolobos (1999)

Really Cool Concept

[7/10 · 30 October 2020]

A handful of young folks are invited to star in a Big Brother-esque reality show in a house that's been rigged with all sorts of deadly booby traps and a deformed killer.

Kolobos is one of those movies where it's better if you turn off your brain before you watch it. It's pretty to look at and it's got a Dario Argento vibe at times. The gore is more than plentiful, but the story falls apart a little bit by the end of the film. Still, it's an interesting and underseen horror film that deserves more love.

Blood Rage (1987)

Thanksgiving Murder Fest

[7/10 · 30 October 2020]

A homicidal child blames his twin brother for a grisly axe murder he committed and he's sent away until one Thanksgiving when he's released and the murders starts up at their mother's apartment complex again.

There's a hint of Greek tragedy throughout Blood Rage that doesn't always hit the mark, but you have to admire the filmmakers for daring to make something more than just another run of the mill slasher. If that's what you're looking for, you'll still be more than satisfied, because in it's uncut form, Blood Rage might be one of the bloodiest slashers from this era. Hands are lopped off, heads are split in half, and torsos are torn apart. Louise Lasser also blesses us with one of the great unhinged performances of all time.

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)

An 80's Classic

[9/10 · 30 October 2020]

A jilted boyfriend accidentally sets Mary Lou on fire before she gets to wear her prom queen crown and, years later, her spirit possesses a mousy teenage girl and uses her to get her revenge.

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II might be one of the best time capsules of the late 80's you'll ever see. Everything is larger than life from the hair, makeup, dialogue, performances, and gore effects. It's not a subtle movie at all, but it's very effective and Wendy Lyon is especially excellent, showcasing lot of range as she goes from quiet repressed girl to sultry sex pot.

Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992)

Bad, but Not Totally Unenjoyable

[5/10 · 30 October 2020]

Garrett and his son, Danny, travel to Nebraska to take a new job right as the news is getting out about the massacre from the first film. The murderous kids are all put into foster homes, but they still meet in secret and plan to make more sacrifices to He Who Walks Behind The Rows and they might want to recruit Danny as well.

If you come into Children of the Corn II for excellent plotting and nuanced characters, look elsewhere, but some of the murder set pieces are memorably deranged. An old lady is crushed by her own house, another old lady is hit by a truck and flies through a window, and another unfortunate victim suffers a deadly nose bleed via voodoo.

The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977 TV Movie)

Ok TV Movie

[6/10 · 30 October 2020]

Miriam (Karen Black) is a frumpy 26 year old housewife who's been suffering from nightmares involving her own funeral. She feels stifled in her marriage where she's being forced to procreate as soon as possible and gets inspired at the mall one day when she sees a fancy red blouse and a blonde wig. She purchases them and becomes a new woman, renting a house by the beach, and frequenting dive bars. What's even stranger is that everyone she meets comments about how much she looks like a woman named Sandy who they haven't seen for a while.

Like most TV movies from this era, Mrs. Oliver is a brisk 75 minutes, but there's not a whole lot of tension in the story and it's barely horror-related at all. It starts out as a somewhat engaging feminist manifesto before throwing that out altogether and becoming a strange metaphysical/psychological story about a damaged woman who's suffered tragedy in her past and reinvented herself. Karen Black is wonderful as always and she keeps you interested even when the story drifts off.

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Excellent Low Budget Horror

[10/10 · 14 October 2020]

A church organist nearly dies in a watery car accident that claimed several of her friends' lives and, after her recovery, she finds herself drifting through her days without much purpose and feeling as if she was unworthy to survive the accident. Even stranger, there's a pale creepy man who keeps following her and stalking her every move and not even moving to another town can rid her of him.

Made for almost no money at all, Carnival of Souls is one of the most perfect examples of the power of low budget horror filmmaking. Without big special effects, lavish sets, and big name stars, this film has to rely on real storytelling and ingenuity to pull everything off. It has a mood like nothing before or since and many films have tried to capture it (some have come close, but none have done it better). It's scary almost without even trying.

House of Wax (1953)

One of the Best 50's Horror Films

[9/10 · 14 October 2020]

Due to a disfiguring fire that not only destroyed his wax museum but his body as well, a wax artist rebuilds his museum, trying to create the most lifelike wax sculptures in the world, but there's a reason they look so real.

House of Wax plays like an early iteration of the slasher film with Vincent Price's black cloaked killer stalking the streets, sneaking into women's bedrooms, and chasing them across town. Many of these scenes are incredibly effective and suspenseful and, unlike most other 3D movies, this film still plays well without all the effects.

Stepmonster (1993 Video)

Really Entertaining

[7/10 · 14 October 2020]

After his mother disappears while his family is on vacation, a young boy's life is turned upside down when his father decides to remarry a younger woman who he starts to suspect is a monster in disguise.

Stepmonster keeps things mostly kid friendly minus the fact that the lead kid is bit of a pervert who wants to see his teenage neighbor naked. The scares aren't too intense for most kids, though, and the film has a great atmosphere of fun throughout. There are better and funnier family-themed horror movies out there, but it's not a complete waste of time at all.

Frightmare (1974)

One of Walker's Best

[8/10 · 14 October 2020]

Jackie's having some major issues with her sister, Debbie, who she's had to raise ever since her parents were sent to prison for murder and cannibalism. Jackie's attempt at trying to lead a normal life dissolves when her parents are released and might not be as rehabilitated as they originally thought. Jackie's mother has these intense cravings for meat and, although Jackie's been supplying her with animal meat and telling her it's human meat, her mother is catching on and it won't be long before she gives in again and has to find a way to satisfy her craving.

British director Pete Walker has made some wonderful horror films, but Frightmare might just be his best. He grounds this gore fest with weighty domestic drama and interesting characters which only makes everything more diabolical. Sheila Keith is excellent as the mother who goes from sweet as pie to terrifying in the blink of an eye.

The Prowler (1981)

Good Effects

[6/10 · 14 October 2020]

A young woman named Rosemary sends her lover a "dear John" letter while he's overseas during World War II and then gets killed by someone with a pitchfork a little while later. Years pass and a new batch of teens want to rekindle the tradition of the dance and, as in many of these films, this sets the killer off, they come out of hiding, dust off their sharp implements and go on a rampage through the town.

While well shot, reasonably well acted, and featuring some of the greatest special effects Tom Savini has never put to film, The Prowler can be a bit of bore to get through in too many places. The pacing is fine for the first 30 minutes or so and it goes along in fairly traditional slasher fashion with it's mysterious bloody prologue, a little build up and character building, and then a few nasty murders, but it takes a turn midway through and the pacing doesn't recover until the big finale.

From a Whisper to a Scream (1987)

Well Done Anthology

[9/10 · 14 October 2020]

A reporter stops into a creepy small town to get the scoop on a murderess who's getting executed and her family member and town historian says she wasn't always like this and it's the town itself that's responsible for corrupting her. This gets the reporter's attention and she stays for storytime with this historian who relates four tales of terror to prove his point which include stories about a creepy loner who lives with his sickly sister who kills a female coworker and has sex with her corpse, a thief who gets a taste of his own medicine, a carnival worker who can't escape due to a curse, and a group of Civil War era children who have had to go it alone since their parents died.

From A Whisper To A Scream might not be as bouncy and campy as stuff like Tales From the Crypt, but the stories are well structured and well told with fine performances all around by a seasoned cast of genre veterans such as Vincent Price, Susan Tyrrell, Martine Beswick, Rosalind Cash, Terry Kiser, Clu Gulagher, and Cameron Mitchell. It's more of a downbeat movie with an overcast, gloomy feeling throughout, so even if most of the stories end on a satisfying "just desserts" note like the EC Comics that inspired so many other anthologies, the tone is much different, but just as effective.

Blood and Lace (1971)

Trashy in the Best Ways

[7/10 · 13 October 2020]

After her mother and her lover are brutally murdered, a teenage orphan is sent to a group home run by a cruel middle aged woman who's under the misguided impression that, if you kill someone and freeze their bodies, there will come a time when they'll be able to unfreeze them and restore them back to life. If anyone misbehaves or tries to run away, this woman will send her handyman after them with a hammer.

Blood and Lace doesn't get talked about very often and that's surprising since the story itself is one of the sickest and most depraved things I've ever heard told on screen even if it's not the goriest or most brazenly exploitative. Gloria Grahame seems to be having a good time playing a wicked woman even as the film meanders a bit to it's incredibly bleak and trashy conclusion.

The House That Screamed (1969)

Stylish Spanish Slasher/Thriller

[8/10 · 13 October 2020]

A young girl is dumped into a private all girl's boarding school and quickly learns that the school is run with an iron fist by the wicked headmistress who seems to get off a little too much when she whips disobedient schoolgirls and while she watches them shower. The headmistresses' son is kept there, too, apparently too sickly to make it on his own, but he develops relationships with many of the students until they start dropping dead or disappearing.

The House That Screamed feels like an early version of Suspiria with it's all girl's school being tormented by a mad slasher plot line and wicked headmistresses. If it's gore you want, you'll be very disappointed by how little there is (especially depending on which version you see). There's one truly bizarre development towards the end where a character poised to be the survivor is killed and we're stuck with a much less likable character who helps us wrap up the film. It's an odd, but brave choice and the ending itself is absolutely unforgettable.

Deadly Friend (1986)

Different Style of Film For Craven

[7/10 · 8 October 2020]

Paul, a teenage wiz kid, moves in to a new neighborhood with his single mother and immediately strikes up a friendship with Samantha, his neighbor. Their relationship blossoms, but when tragedy strikes and Paul can't come to terms with his new friend's untimely passing, he takes a chip out of his robot's body and places it into Samantha's corpse, reanimating her, but losing her humanity in the process. Now, Samantha is an emotionless killing machine and Paul must stop her before there's no one left in the neighborhood.

Deadly Friend isn't usually thought of as one of Wes Craven's best films, but it has a lot more heart and sweetness than it's given credit for. Maybe it's the Goonies-esque adventure stuff that doesn't mix well with the gory horror moments that turns people off, but I find it to be a fascinating mix.

The acting is good and some of the set pieces like the basketball head explosion are hard to forget.

The Editor (2014)

A Modern Giallo That Gets It Right

[8/10 · 25 August 2020]

Rey, a film editor, becomes the lead suspect in a series of brutal murders happening on the set of the film he's currently editing and a police detective wants to get to the bottom of it.

Right off the bat, The Editor gets it right. From the colorful lighting, extreme gore, odd dialogue, and dubbing, this is a movie that knows what made giallo films from the 70's so unique and special. While there are a few outright homages here and there from other well known giallos, it still manages to feel like its own original story which is no easy feat.

It's hard to judge the acting since so much of it seems to be intentionally campy, but Paz De Le Heurta is hysterically funny as Rey's mentally unbalanced former actress wife and it's always nice to see Udo Kier show up in anything.

If you're not familiar with giallo films, you might find the whole thing a bit much, but if you're a fan of these kinds of movies, I have a hard time believing you wouldn't find something to enjoy in this.

The Lift (1983)

Wasn't Into It

[5/10 · 17 July 2020]

The Lift has a ludicrous premise about a killer elevator terrorizing the residents of an urban high rise, but people like Stephen King have managed to make silly ideas like that work. Sadly, Stephen King didn't write this and the end result is mostly a bunch of tedium in between a few scenes of the elevator raising hell.

That isn't to say that The Lift is poorly made. It's not. Far from it in fact, which only makes the unexciting script all the more depressing. The people behind the scenes clearly know how to make a film and shoot it with style, but it's the story and script that let them down.

Replace (2017)

Beautifully Shot Garbage

[4/10 · 15 May 2020]

Kira is terrified of getting older and, one day, she notices a strange growth on her finger that starts to spread to other parts of her body, rendering her skin flaky and rough. After seeing a doctor and a specialist who don't seem to know what's wrong with her, she suddenly realizes that replacing her skin with other human tissue can heal her, but it doesn't last forever and she needs more and more victims to heal herself.

On paper, the concept of Replace sounds excellent, but the script is complete mess with characters doing things that require huge leaps of logic. The first 45 minutes are mostly a series of odd decisions made by our heroine which are never explained even when a big mid point twist arrives, trying to make sense of everything we've seen up to that point.

Kira does things like pick up a slice of her friend's foot that's just been injured on a broken wine glass and stick in on her own skin. Why was she lead to do this? I suppose because the script said so. Even weirder is when she leaves her doctor's appointment and decides to take a trip down to the morgue to flay the skin off of a corpse and try it on for size. It's never explained why she jumps to these extremes and it makes for an infuriating watch.

On the plus side, Replace is one of the most beautifully shot indie horror films I've seen in years, but it almost has to be to keep the audience interested in its moronic script and characters. Even horror icon Barbara Crampton can't save this mess of a movie.