The Deadly Spawn

Where in the hell has this movie been all my life people? Dripping with the same low budget quirkiness of Evil Dead and Basket Case,The Deadly Spawn conjures up the spirit of 50s sci-fi drive in classics. Its a film that plays its cards right. Director Douglas Mckeown comes up with some brilliant use of light and shadow. The basic premise is that an alien eating machine falls to earth,takes refuge in a nearby basement as a storm ensues, then proceeds to pick off the inhabitants of the house while spawning little eating machines, and so on and so forth. The acting works for the film and the kid hero is pretty damn good. This movie is exactly why I love 80s horror films and other films pre CGI. Practical FX always seems to bring so much more texture and atmosphere, and they certainly do here. This is the type of movie you would expect to spark a directors horror career, but its seems Mr Mckeown has only done one other short film featuring a stop motion T-rex and a long list of plays, so I suggest that we all be grateful that the one full length film he did do kicks ass. I recommend The Deadly Spawn to fans of the Evil Dead series,Frank Henenlotter Films,the Alien movies,and the Sc-fi/Horror genre in general

Mad shout outs to: Tim Hildebrandt(executive producer), Ted E. Bohus (Producer), John Dod (SFX), Tim Sullivan (Production Assistant), and of course the Director Douglas McKoewn.

Two thumbs up!

Dr Franken

Let me start off by saying this movie is neither really gruesome nor awesome, but I feel compelled to share my viewing experience nonetheless. Dr Franken,Which is a modern retelling of the Frankenstein story, was a made for tv collaboration between Writer/Director Jeff "Blue Sunshine" Lieberman & Marvin J."Tank" Chomsky who in addition to directing said middle name has been directing since the the mid 60's on every thing from Hawaii 5-0 to Roots. The movie Stars Robert "Zombie 5:Killing birds" Vaughn ,Terri "Young Frankenstein"Garr,David"Headless body in topless bar" Shelby,& Robert "The Cracker Factory"Perault. I had had my eye out for this flick solely because Jeff Lieberman was one of the co-directors . I was hoping for one of those hidden gems and in a way this film is and it is not. Blue Sunshine and Just Before dawn are some of the best genre films of all time, Dr Franken was an aight tv movie, withs some aight utilization of real Surgery footage.The Screenplay ,written by Lieberman, is pretty solid though and there are some cool new ideas. Frankenstein gets laid, body parts are part of some universal memory,and the Franken monster has long flowing locks.The film also combines the elements of a murder mystery,love story,revenge flick,& a Robert Vaughn. Its a slow start but half way thru I started getting a little entertained. The soundtrack was kind of Funny, and in the end I found myself slightly charmed. Definitely not something id recommend to anybody but hardcore Jeff Lieberman fans,early 80's tv movie fanantics or Robert Vaughnaholics.

-Three out of 5 aights on the aight-o-meter

-notable dialogue - "I want Jim Parker's legs!"-Dr Eric Kerwin(Addison Powel)

Dead Snow

The Zombie Genre is Saturated as all hell these days and its always nice to see somebody spin it in a different direction. Thats exactly what Tommy Wirkola has done with Dead Snow.   Although the whole group of teenagers out on a camping trip scenario is played out like a motherfucker, Dead Snow brings a new flavor with its stealth Nazi Zombies. These snarling combat tested undead fiends are a far cry from the shuffling Romero/Fulci zombies or even the wild running zombies of 28 days later. They are organized soldiers, not only out for flesh but treasure as well.Oh, yeah and they have knives & shit too. I actually cared about the campers suprisingly. There is definitely some funny banter.I honestly felt for the fat horror movie nerd has his head was pulled apart whalst his brain flopped onto the floor. Its always good to get enough time to give a shit about the characters before they start getting dismembered. The film flows well and pays off big time. There some really satisfying battle scenes, lots of exploding heads, stabbing, eye gouging, drawn and quatering & the scaling of a cliff face with nothing but a single thread of nazi zombie intestine. Yup. Easily the best Zombie Flick I have seen in years. A man Hacks of a bitten forearm for fear of infection only to be bitten in the penis immediately afterwards for christ sakes! Bloody genius. Props to director Tommy Wirkola, hope to see more from ya!

A+