Winter Horror-Thon

PART ONE - DEMONS

While I've talked about films like The Church (aka Demons 3) and Cemetery Man (aka Demons '95) let's take a look at a few of the other films in the alleged series. Which if I'm honest features an even more confusing pseudo-sequel numbering system than the Yes, Madam franchise. If there is even such a thing. Which of course... there isn't. In this case some of the releases in question are semi-remakes of other films entirely or take large portions of their stories from existing films. In reality it's best to ignore all of this title madness and just let the films speak for themselves. Be warned that this experience may result in a different kind of lunacy. But you'll never be duped into thinking that these are related at all, even if Michele Soavi is credited in them, either behind the camera or on screen.

Scorecard

NOVEMBER

FILM OF THE MONTH King of New York ☆☆☆☆

HCF Review - Going Off the Rails

BACKTRACK (2015)

Backtrack is an Australian mystery movie, part psychological thriller and part horror story. Peter Bower (Adrien Brody) is a troubled man trying to get his back life (and his career as a therapist) together after the tragic death of his daughter in an accident. The unpacked boxes in his new home suggests this plan isn't working out, and it's probably not a good sign for his marriage that his wife looks like she's feeling similar levels of trauma. The location they're in really isn't helping the situation since he seems to have moved them into a part of town where it never stops raining. But Peter has bigger problems which are about to appear on the horizon.

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Synth Cinema's World Tour

PART TWO: CASTLES IN THE SKY

Perhaps it was the way the information age was progressing or perhaps it was the people I knew at the time, but the turn of the Millennium led to an influx of world cinema. Certain kinds of films were being shown on late night television and certain discs were being passed around. Looking back this was a primitive time in terms of technology but a lot has changed in twenty years. But like the previous excursion to Hong Kong this look into Japan will examine a lot of new and exciting features that seemed to arrive all at once because of the changing home video landscape. Some were incredible fantasy epics and some were just incredibly extreme. But I'll try explore a little of this kind of genre variety if it's at all possible.

HCF Review - Tricks and Traps

THE HORDE (2016)

Genre mashups are pretty standard in movies that involve a certain amount of horror clichés but they tend to be a mixture of comedy and violence. Horror and action is perhaps less common, although at times the use of power tools and shotguns can push things in a certain direction. But in this case writer/actor Paul Logan dares to take the slasher film framework and ask a vital question, ‘what if Rambo was on the camping trip?’ He also wanted to cast himself as the muscle bound hero and who am I to argue. It’s certainly a change of tact in comparison to the other First Blood knock-offs out there. But all of those back woods killer tropes still have to be accounted for and so there’s a whole story about his teacher girlfriend and her class of expendable teens. Does this balancing act work out?

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