Tagarchief: Horror

Dungeon Classics #15: Blade

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Blade (1998, USA)

Director: Stephen Norrington
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson
Running Time: 120 mins.

Things are happening in the vampire order. Some of the bloodthirsty creatures, led by the fiery Deacon Frost, want to become the world’s dominant species rather than living in secret. Who’s gonna stand against them? Well, that would be half-vampire and professional ass-kicker Blade! His mother was bitten by a vampire before he was born, therefore he has all of the vampires’ strengths but none of their weaknesses. Blade, portrayed by the formidable Wesley Snipes, is the daywalker. A vampire killer who goes out every night to hunt for wicked bloodsuckers with a whole arsenal of weapons. On his mission to prevent a vampire apocalypse, he is aided by the vengeful weapon-maker Whistler and blood-expert Karen who survived a vampire attack. Blade is certainly one of the coolest action-horrors of the nineties. The bloody special effects are kind of outdated, but due to Snipes’ perfect central performance, the stylish action and the comic book violence, this is still superb entertainment.

The Verdict: Fear Street Trilogy

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

The Fear Street Trilogy (consisting of Fear Street: 1994, Fear Street: 1978 and Fear Street: 1666) is Netflix’s most surprising release so far this summer. It revives a genre that has been dead for a while now: the slasher. The first scene, in which a girl is stalked in a shopping mall by a skull-face masked killer, reminds of Scream. But soon it diverges from this genre classic by going supernatural. You see, the town of Shadyside is cursed by the witch Sarah Frier, who was hanged in 1666, and is therefore now plagued by possessed killers who go on murder sprees. The bordering town of Sunnyside, on the other hand, is perfectly peaceful.

In the first part, teenage girls Deena and Sam, who are having a sexual affair to please the male audience, have to survive the next rampage and find a way to end the curse. In the second movie, a killing spree occurs during a summer camp in 1978 (yes, very much like the first Friday the 13th). In the third and final film, we first learn the history of Shadyside and Sunnyside through a transcendent experience by Deena. And then, after a major plot twist, it is up to her and her friends to end the terror once and for all. While the first part gets the lowest rating on IMDb, I liked it best, because it has the most old fashioned horror moments. But the whole trilogy, successfully directed by relative newcomer Leigh Janiak, is entertaining throughout. With genuine scares, excellent casting and plenty of brutal kills. This is how you do a slasher.

The Fear Street Trilogy is now available on Netflix

The verdict: to stream or not to stream? To stream.

The Verdict: Army of the Dead

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

When the great zombie revival began with Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002), director Zack Snyder (300, Man of Steel) was one of the first to capitalize on it with a remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004). His innovation: running zombies. While it took some getting used to, it added to the suspense. In Army of the Dead, another breed of zombies is introduced: the Alphas. They’re some type of intelligent zombies. While the master of the genre George A. Romero experimented with this idea in Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005), the Alphas are definitely the most advanced flesh eaters yet. They can communicate, they can hunt every effectively, and I’ll admit: they’re pretty creepy. There are also ‘normal’ zombies present in this apocalypse by the way.

The pandemic occurred in Las Vegas this time, and the US government managed to maintain it within the city borders. As they are about to nuke Vegas, a group of mercenaries go in to steal 200 million dollars from a casino safe before the city is destroyed. These bad asses have to deal with normal zombies, Alphas and double crossers amongst their own ranks. As can be expected, Snyder throws in his usual visual eye candy, and admittedly, Army of the Dead looks pretty stunning. Unfortunately, it appears as though they’ve fired their continuity officer before the shoot began. There are a bunch of really major errors, even for a film of this kind. However, a campy story like this is too delicious to resist and the largely unknown cast definitely do a great job. There is also no lack of gory zombie extermination action and funny side gags along the way (this is Vegas, so an Elvis zombie and tiger zombie – from Siegfried & Roy – are present). Snyder is having a good time again and it shows.

Army of the Dead is now available on Netflix

The verdict: to stream or not to stream? To stream.

Dungeon Classics #10: Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990, USA)

Director: Joe Dante
Cast: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover
Running Time: 106 mins.

According to IMDb, director Joe Dante prefers this movie to the first one. Understandably so. Obviously, the makers had a lot of fun coming up with the overload of mayhem the new batch of gremlins cause. This time Billy finds Gizmo in a hyper modern office building, but leaves him unattended. So of course, he gets wet and the gremlins make a glorious return, creating an incredible amount of damage to the building. Since most of the human characters are unsympathetic, it is easy to root for the monsters. It is only because of Gizmo, who Spielberg insisted must remain good in the first film (originally he was to turn into Stripe), that we find satisfaction in the gremlins’ ultimate demise. This fast-paced sequel does indeed offer plenty of the good stuff that made the first movie such a resounding success.