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michaelbr88
Reviews
The Dead Matter (2010)
An Enjoyable Horror Film To Watch
McCallister and Mark, a vampire/zombie fighting duo are after Vellich, the ancient vampire leader, who has a scarab artifact in his control that allows him to have power over the undead and the forces of darkness. McCallister and Mark temporarily take possession of the amulet and are on their way to a mystical place in the Ohio woods where the unholy relic can only be destroyed. However, Vellich will try to get there first to prevent this and take back the amulet. While both parties fight it out at the magical location, they lose the scarab.
Enter Gretchen and her friends the following evening, who decide to hold a séance in the woods at the same mystical place, to help her communicate with her dead brother. The group finds the artifact at the magical site and Gretchen takes it home with her. She soon befriends a zombie that comes to her apartment and she feels that her new found amulet and walking dead friend can help bring her deceased brother back. However, McCallister and Vellich both want to reclaim the relic and Gretchen's friends are concerned that she has set them all on the road to utter doom.
The Dead Matter is a well executed movie with good directing and editing. Special attention is placed on the film's technical areas for smooth viewing throughout. The story is also quite involved, so the viewer will have to really pay attention to take in the different characters and sub plots that are going on to understand their connections.
Midnight Syndicate, known for their Halloween and haunting, horror music CD's provides the soundtrack for The Dead Matter. The movie had some good eerie music in it, particularly the main title and end credits theme. Edward Douglas, the president and co-composer of Midnight Syndicate, steps into the film director's chair for The Dead Matter. He does a nice job using the camera to tell his story visually with good choices for shots.
British actor Jason Carter delivers some fine acting and is well cast as a Van Helsing type vampire hunter named McCallister, who is after the scarab and tries to save Gretchen and her friends from the forces of evil. He is very intense in the role and his sharp features, European accent and old style clothing really embellish his performance as McCallister. Our main indication that McCallister really lives in the present day world is that he carries a cell phone with him.
Horror genre favorite Tom Savini, the special make-up effects artist behind such scare classics as Friday The 13th, Dawn Of The Dead and Creepshow, has a small role in the film as Sebed, a modernized rival vampire leader to Vellich, and his old style blood sucking ways. Savini fans will enjoy seeing him acting in the movie. And fellow special make-up effects man Robert Kurtzman (formerly of KNB EFX Group) is one of the producers of the movie. Robert Kurtzman's Creature Crew provides the special make-up and visual effects for The Dead Matter.
There are some creepy looking night exterior shots of the walking dead coming up the road and through the fields. In a few scenes, there is also homage to classic horror movies like Night Of The Living Dead, A Nightmare On Elm Street and others that fans of the genre should pick up on.
An interesting scene that was chilling takes place when Gretchen and her boyfriend Mike try to get the zombie to help her communicate with her dead brother in the cemetery. Aligned with a jolting music cue, the zombie suddenly starts repeating in a strange sounding voice, "Death is the answer...death is the answer
death is the answer
death is the answer!"
One particular humorous scene in the film occurs when friend Jill arrives at Gretchen's apartment and wants to speak with her but the zombie then walks over them. Jill eyes the zombie and turns to Gretchen, "We need to talk
alone." Gretchen looks at the zombie and then smiles at Jill and says, "Okay." They both then step away farther into the room.
Frank (Christopher Robichaud), one of the friends in the group, is a scientist and IT specialist at Trilec Labs, which specializes in diet pill formulas. He is fascinated with the zombie and wants to study it and run scientific tests on it, despite his friend's objections. Frank's character provides most of the film's comic relief and black humor.
The feature film was made in Ohio and hats off to the filmmakers for shooting the movie on Super 16mm motion picture film, a great format for low budget filmmaking and horror in particular. The Dead Matter is a fun movie to watch with a new storytelling take on the traditional vampire and zombie films.
The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
Great 80's horror-comedy starring Hugh Grant
Lair Of The White Worm is a great British made horror movie filled with English style black humor. It is based off the Bram Stoker novel and directed by English director Ken Russell (Gothic, Altered States). It is about a small English country town, that celebrates the centuries old slaying of a giant snake god that once lived there with an annual party extravaganza, hosted by Lord James D'Ampton, who's family slayed the giant serpent centuries earlier. But some of the co-eds have now discovered a giant snake skull in their excavated yard and are about to find out that the legend of the snake god and its human sacrifice is still very much alive today, and they are about to find themselves a part of it.
Whereas the Bram Stoker novel is a very serious and creepy turn of the century story, the movie version of Lair Of The White Worm took a lot of liberties from the book. The emphasis is still on scares, but with a late 80's twist full of horror-comedy, great one-liners and wicked, naughty fun.
Hugh Grant is at his finest as the young and friendly wealthy English gentleman landlord D'Ampton, who has returned from an Air Force tour of duty, and now leads his friends to unlock the mystery they are now apart of. His girlfriend, played by attractive Catherine Oxenberg is well cast, as is Amanda Donahue as the mysterious and alluring Lady Silvia Marsh who may very well be connected to the ancient snake legend.
Ken Russell fans will be in for a real treat with his usual blending of eerie and fantasy dream sequences inter-cut with reality. Ken Russell does a great job as a visual director here making the camera help tell his story with talent moving in and out of wide angle lenses to emphasis the weirdness and unreality of the subject manner. Dick Bush's colorful night lit cinematography full of shadows adds to the story's atmosphere. The viewer also will see more in the movie each time with repeated viewings. Highly recommended.
The Prototypes (2009)
Sci-Fi Spoof & Devil's Tower
The Prototypes is a campy, fun to watch Sci-Fi spoof that needs to be seen to be believed. It revolves around the story of Bob, an alien advertising account executive who is out to make the big ad sale and his spaceship has come to Earth in search of it. At the same time, Vicky Forsyth, a young girl next door type, news field reporter hoping for her big break story, grabs her TV cameraman Bill to help her follow breaking reports of UFO sightings in their rural Wyoming county. Sooner or later, the paths of the TV news team and those of alien account exec Bob are going to cross, while trying to elude U.S. defense forces out to get the spaceship.
An interesting take on the look of aliens visiting Earth can be found in Eliot Case's The Prototypes. Here, Bob and the other aliens are not your traditional little green big eyed Martian men in funny outfits carrying ray-guns, but full human size aliens clad in American bald eagle masks and business suits. Sci-Fi movie viewers will enjoy the tongue-in-cheek background of Wyoming's Devil's Tower from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind as the backdrop for a few scenes from the production.
The lead gal Jordyn Rice who plays news field reporter Vicky Forsyth is great to watch. She has fun with the role and is a likable character and quite real for the viewer to relate to. One time NFL linebacker Paul Tuttle does a nice job as well as account executive Bob with his tall and physical prowess in the role.
Great scene in the very beginning on the spaceship, when account executive Bob domineeringly leans over the desk of his boss to intimidate him by pointing his finger in his face and speaking to him with an annoyed, loud voice to get his point across, ala a worked up Harrison Ford/Han Solo style.
The Prototypes is not without a budding romantic, side love story either. While waiting for the spaceship to arrive, so they can get some great video footage and a reporting package, Vicky and her news cameraman take some time to get to know each other in the news van and the TV news station hot tub.
Whereas many low budget productions today that can't afford or won't pay for film, choose to shoot on film-simulated 24P, it was a nice change of pace to see The Prototypes shot in HD but at traditional video speed. This added to a more live, pleasing and realistic feel to the low budget production and one that helps the audience relate to it.
The Beast Within (1982)
A great early 80's horror movie
The Beast Within (1982) based on the novel by Edward Levy, is a very scary movie right out of the starting gate through to the end of the film. From its opening shot of car headlights approaching on a lonely, rural road at night, complemented with an unnerving film score, the viewer is in for an experience.
The Beast Within is the story of Michael, a seventeen year old kid who has something growing inside of him that has his parents and the local doctor at a loss. While on a stop over in a small Mississippi town, Michael begins to date seventeen year old Amanda, a beautiful blonde girl next-door type. She, like others around Michael, begins to realize that there is something very wrong with him. There are unexplained, grisly murders taking place at night and Michael's parents start to realize that the town they are staying in is hiding a terrible secret that is tied to Michael's own mystery. Something horrible had happened in that town seventeen years ago that involved Michael's past and it is about to come to the surface in the worst way.
The initial marketing of The Beast Within "dares the audience to sit through the last 30 minutes of the film without covering your eyes, screaming, or running from your seat." And it delivers. The last act of the film contains great special gore effects that are physically created and not on a computer. The director relies on atmosphere and suspense to build the audience up to the movie's very disturbing climax. The film is part of the golden age of horror movies that were made in the early 80's and rarely replicated since. A must see for the true horror fan.