Beyond The Black Rainbow

Somewhere in between Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising, & David Lynch's entire catalog lies Beyond The Black Rainbow brooding in an 80's synth heavy cloud of marijuana smoke. With all the buzz going around about this film I wasnt sure what to expect, and im still not sure what I saw...but I know that I enjoyed it.

Directed by Panos Cosmatos, son of the late great director George P. Cosmatos( Leviathan, Cobra, Tombstone, Of Unknown Origin, etc), Beyond The Black Rainbow is an extremely impressive visual ride with a score that sinks hooks into you from the second it starts. With a film so extremely visually driven I found myself very curious has to what the script for it must have looked like. After my first viewing I found myself haunted by scenes all through the next day, and the more I thought about it the more I liked it.

Front and center of this mesmerizing, psychedelic nightmare is actor Michael Roger's who conjures up the intensity of Christian Bale as Barry Nyle. His precious Elena is played awesomely by Eva Allen. Both seem right at home in their roles, and deliver provocative performances. I highly recommend this
film.

I hope you liked my review..I tried to use alot of fancy words.

The Curse

Ive been on a recent kick of H.P. Lovecraft film adaptations lately. Luckily Movie Madness has an H.P. Lovecraft section. This little film is an adaptation of the story "The Colour Out Of Space", starring Wil Wheaton(Stand By Me, Star Trek: The Next Generation) & Claude Akins!  I was surprised to see "Louis Fulci" attached as producer of this film. Being a massive Lucio Fulci fan, I automatically gave this flick some points. In the end it doesnt really deliver, but there are a few nice atmospheric moments along the way. Although its worth a watch for the sole fact that this is one of four films that Fulci produced. Its one of the only reasons I reviewed this title. The basic story line is that a meteorite lands on a farm and shrinks inside the crater oozing out a liquid that makes crops large but not edible. The sickness eventually infects the family. Not necessarily highly recommended ,but worth a watch if your a fan of H.P. Lovecraft & Lucio Fulci.

Blood Diner

For years I've had reliable sources tell me to run out and see this movie. I must have almost bought/rented it a million times. Finally snatched it up from work the other day and proceeded to place it in my VCR, press play and watch the entire film..literally. What happened next was about an hour and a half of thorough enjoyment. After finishing the film I said to myself "Man that was a truly awesome film" I wonder who directed it. Jackie Kong directed it. Yeah thats right the same Jackie Kong who directed the Martin Landau smash hit The Being. 

Olaf Ittenbach's The Burning Moon

After viewing Things I made it a point to check out other release's from Intervision. I had heard of The Burning Moon & Olaf Ittenbach's reputation for gore from a list of horror anthologies I came across late one night. So when a copy arrived at Movie Madness I snatched it up immediately. The film totes two stories and a wraparound. After watching it once I can safely say that is well deserved of it's reputation. As far as shot on video horror efforts go this is top notch. Filled to the brim with murder,torture,early nineties fashion,junkies,gang fights,the occult,a zombie, demons, & a shockingly convincing conclusion in the dungeons of hell. This is bound for solid cult status in the states now with this new dvd release.

Outpost

Well well well, What a pleasant surprise. Turns out this little zombie flick I past up so many times before is pretty darn good. Now some may immediately think "Dead Snow rip off" but in fact this flick dropped the year before Tommy Wirkola's fine film and the similarities end at the look of the nazi zombies. There's no tongue and cheek in this one. Directed by Steve Barker, Outpost is a dark, bleak tale of a group mercenaries hired as guides into no mans land to find a WWII bunker. What they find is the result of strange nazi experiments, zombies. These zombies are unique though. Dont want to give anything away but there is definitely a cool twist to this story. Dark, low budget, and devoid of CGI, I quite liked Outpost.


*This product contains Ray Stevenson.

Chillerama

From directors Adam Green(Hatchet,Hatchet 2),Tim Sullivan (Driftwood,2001 Maniacs),Adam Rifkin(The Dark Backward), & Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2: Dead End) comes a new addition to the anthology horror genre, Chillerama. Consisting of four stories, "Wadzilla", "I was a Teenage Were Bear", "The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein", & the wrap around story "Zom-B-Movie", the film relies heavily on outdated FX & shock value.. in a good way. "Wadzilla" is the first story which combines elements of Godzilla & sperm. The results are quite funny, Adam Rifkin stars in and directs this story. Next is "I Was A Teenage Werebear" by Tim Sullivan which is a musical about gay werewolves. I hate musicals so this one was doomed from the start for me. "The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein" by Adam Green follows with Joel David Moore damn near stealing the ENTIRE show. This segment and "Wadzilla" are alone worth a viewing. 'Zom-B-Movie" by Joe Lynch has some really over the top zombie action & stars Richard Riehle..need I say more? Overall I profusely enjoyed Chilerama and will most likely buy it.

Humongous

Low expectations & a strange attraction to rare Canadian horror films are two large factors in why I Liked Humongous. Although the film starts begins with a rather uncomfortable rape scene (homie dont play dat), but it's a pretty solid and enjoyable slasher film from there on out. Seeing less is more is definitely the theme when it comes to the film's monster (offspring of the rape mentioned earlier). A clear shot of the mutants face isnt shown till the very end. Before that its just a giant in the darkness, or an eye peaking through a peephole. Believe it or not Ive tracked down quite a few of these examples of "Canuckploitation" & I'd say Humongous ranks up there with Corpse Eaters & Things. Official Awesome Gruesome seal of approval right der..go check it out fellas.