Horror Movie Reviews

In a time when the horror genre is getting a tad repetitious...again, discovering "Re-animator" was a welcome treat (Many thanks to my bud, John, for the gift). The story cleverly blends "Frankenstein" with "Return of the Living Dead," to create an original film with the frightful tongue-in-cheek humor of "An American Werewolf In London" and "Evil Dead." If gore is your thing (though I'm a squinter myself), this film is right up your alley too, with scenes that just might make you lose your lunch. And if cute, little blondes are your type (as they are mine), Barbara Crampton is an intense pleasure to see as Dan's girlfriend and the Dean's daughter, Megan Halsley, and you will see ALL of her on this awesome Millennium Edition DVD. Bruce Abbott (Dan Cain) and the rest of the cast are excellent as well, including David Gale as the villainous Dr. Carl Hill, who's inexplicable mind control powers make him a dangerous adversary for the re-animators. But the film truly belongs to Jeffrey Combs, Mr. Herbert West himself, who truly made his mark on the genre with this must see, cult classic. But hey guys, if for nothing else, you gotta check this out for Miss Crampton. She is very well put together!

(THIS REFERS TO THE UK VERSION)

Those extras:

Commentary: Fair. Reiner, who I've heard a few times now, really needs to work on this. Far, far too many lapses where he disappears. Another track features an arrogant Goldman bashing directors for having no imagination and praising---hell, overpraising---his writing abilities. At one point he even pauses for a few moments then chimes in, "Sorry, this dialogue is just so well written".

New Interviews: Pretty much picture perfect. Not just Caan, Bates, Reiner, and Goldman, but DP Sonnenfeld, and even Sternhagen. Interesting stories from the set and years later.

Overall: Just those couple of things to get excited about. A lack of behind the scenes stuff, deleted scenes, outtakes, et al, don't make this a must buy unless you just want to own the film.

Annie rescues the writer (Caan) and lovingly nurses him back to health...almost, that is. She has one little demand - he must return to her the now-dead Misery. And she has ways of making him do her bidding that grow ever more dangerous. What is so impressive about this film is that the writers took their time and let the tension slowly build until we learn that Annie is just another madwoman on a mission.

She beats and coaxes and jostles and tortures and pampers the writer as he begins his odious task. But oh what a surprise when she finally reads the conclusion! A terrific fight and great ending to a movie that remained close to the spirit of the book.
Rent it today.

Those extras:

Commentary: Not a bad job as Galligan, Cates, director Dante, and Mandel reminisce about the days on set. Unfortunately Dick Miller was asked to participate as well, but pretty much only backs up everyone else's comments: "Isn't that right, Dick?", "Yes, that's right". Galligan annoys a little with his endless "Remember that, Pheebs?", a total schoolboy crush in his voice. But they didn't blow it, it's fun. There's another track with Dante, Producer Finnell and FX man Walas, though not as fun as it's bogged down in technical aspects.

Behind the Scenes: An odd 16mm, narration-less piece showing various moments on set in between takes. Interesting, but could've been so much more.

Deleted Scenes: A nice collection of stuff dropped from the film, some amusing, some you see why they cut it. But one is a real good resolution to the fate of the Judge Reinhold character.

Overall: A pretty good job, little bare in the behind the scenes and interview area, but enough to satisfy.

If I need to know Lovecraft in order to like or understand this film, then I'm sorry, but that rather limits it's audience. It wasn't really all that scary; one part made me jump, but that was the extent of the scariness. Overall this is more of a psychological movie than horror. The only part about this movie that had to do with horror was the fact that there were some slimy creatures, and some axes in it. Otherwise this film could've meant anything. It's all about what you interpret it as in the end.

As far as directing goes, this isn't Carpenters finest work. For example, in one scene we see Trent (the main character) enter a room as he sees someone he knows (trying not to give anything away). Next thing we know there's a cut to the hallway and he's flying through the door. There's no real explination for this, and the cut is so fast it distanced me from the film. There are a few spots in the movie like this. I hate to say it, but even Carpenters Vampires was directed better than this film.

The film had good potential, a great original idea, but about halfway through it just fell apart. If you're looking for a strange psychological thriller, check this out if your bored. But if you're looking for a good Carpenter film I'd suggest The Thing.

Let's be honest here. As much as I adore and savor the works of Peter Jackson---particularly "Dead/Alive" and "Bad Taste", low-budget splatter-flicks helmed well before he was a Hollywood maven and Tolkien-resurrecting powerhouse---"The Frighteners" is a sketchy, chaotic, massively flawed film that is all over the map. But having said that, "The Frighteners" is an inventive little romp into soul-stealing and besides, it has Jeffrey Combs as a feral, uber-paranoid, necromantic FBI agent, which alone makes it worth a rental.

Michael J. Fox turns in a jolly performance as Frank Bannister, a con-artist who capitalizes on his winning relationships with a trio of accommodating spooks (including the great John Astin as "The Judge"). Producing poltergeists---and exorcisizing them---is big business until Bannister runs into the real thing, a Collector of Souls that eats ordinary ghosts for breakfast and throws his ordinarily profitable existence into turmoil.

It seems mass murdering grinning-until-the-end asylum guard Johnny Bartlett (a fine turn by Jake Busey) died a miserable death in a mass murder spree, and somehow all of this ties into a ghoulish spectre that sucks the life out of hapless mortals.

Add in an inspired performance by Jeffrey Combs as a paranormal and exceptionally sensitive FBI agent ("What? Ah-ha, now you're trying to stop *my* heart!"), and some genuinely startling special effects, and you have a jolly mishmash of a horror movie that really doesn't know when to stop. That's part of its fevered charm, right to the the final confrontation, though Busey looks far more malefic when covered up in a shroud.

What will you get out of "The Frighteners"? First, this is a schizophrenic movie: Jackson shows off Wingnut's ability to deliver on a wide range of highly startling effects. Second, Jeffrey Combs steals the show, and right down to his final moments on Earth is a laconic, paranoid, inches-from-a-nervous-breakdown wreck of a paranormal investigator. I want to Believe!, indeed.

Let's be honest: "The Frighteners" won't change your life, won't scare you, won't threaten your brain with an aneurism brought on by too much spectral derring-do. But the effects are stellar, the acting is uniformly competent, and the plot, while muddled, is jolly fun. Will it change your view of the universe and shift your political outlook? Absolutely not. Will it entertain for nearly two hours? Totally. Could you ask for more? Possibly, but for a special effects real that led Jackson from his uber-disturbing but underrated "Heavenly Creatures" to helming up "Lord of the Rings", let's not get picky.

Is "Frighteners" worth a look? Absolutely. Dust off your Ouija Board, repeat "I do, I do, I DO believe in spooks," sit back and relax, and get ready for some spectral, frantic, ectoplasmic goodness seasoned with some startling special effects and served up with a few perfunctory scares.

On the second disc, there is a director's cut of the film, including some scenes not even shown on the VHS "director's cut" editions. One scene that is most notably absent from the original
is the scene where the priest talks to the church carpenter about how strange Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) is. This disc also contains a selected audio commentary by screenwriter John Clifford and the late Herk Harvey. Some excerpts of films made by the Centron Corporation. As well as an essay on the history of Centron. Some printed interviews with film illustrations are featured here as well.

This DVD-set is the best DVD-set I've ever seen. The image quality of the black and white transfer is unbelievably clear, and is the best image transfer I've ever seen. The special features are very cool, and believe it or not, the outtakes featured here are remastered in picture quality as well, along with the music score.

I was blown away with this DVD, and I'm sure you will be too. It is one of the best treatments to a cult classic every put on screen. Carnival of Souls is my favourite movie I believe, and I
am so pleased with this DVD-set I could just burst. I thank the Criterion people for making this a dream come true :)

The story is as simple as it is complex. A woman is an innocent passenger in a car that gets into a drag race with some teenage thugs. The result is her car going over a bridge into a fast running, sandy river. As she crawls out of the wreckage covered in mud, the viewer thinks she has survived, but has she?

Ms. Hilligoss' character is a musician, an organist to be exact who takes a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City, Utah. As she begins her journey she is terrified of images of a phantom of sorts who seems to be seeking her out. Anyone who has driven for an average of twelve hours straight can tell you that driving can take its toll, and the mind can play tricks on a sleepy driver. However, after she checks into her room, she finds the same phantom lurking in the window, then in the hallway. Who is this creature, what does he want, where is he from?

The main point of the film is not horror, but human nature. Are we all alone in this world? Is everyone an island unto themselves. The lesson is thrown upon our character by a minister, a psychologist, and a would be male suitor. They all try to help her in their own way (except the suitor who is only interested in her for a chance to have sex). But our character waves a hand at them all, convinced that she can do it her own way. She is an independent woman who needs no man or companionship; a view that may have gone against society's thinking in 1962.

The male suitor (or 'just your normal guy' as he likes to call himself) is an obnoxious oaf to say the least. His headstrong pursuit of her is only his own selfish desire to have her. He's not an alcoholic he claims, yet he drinks at dawn. He quit college because he doesn't like to learn. This is not an ideal resume for a long term relationship for her or any other woman. When she is truly frightened by the visiting spectre, and she reaches out to him as a last resort for help, he runs. Not wanting to get involved, he was only interested in her for her body and his own sexual desire. Yet another lesson in this film for all the young ladies who care to pay attention.

As the story goes on Candace's soul seems to deteriorate. She slips in and out of reality and a strange sort of parallel world. This dimension looks the same as real life, but she cannot be seen or heard. The department store dressing room for example, shows how the lost spirit must learn that she is no longer of this world, but now belongs in the spirit world, where yet another companion awaits her.

Who is this man that haunts her in visions? We see at the end of the film that they are to be together forever. In the final seen where we see Candace's peek at her after-life. She screams in horror as the ghosts dance eternally as the haunt the carnival. She is finally captured by the ghosts and is spirited away. The police and minister are confused and baffled as her footprints and final body print leads nowhere. The minister gives a knowing look as if he has known all along, but says nothing.

The minister must have known there was something wrong with his new organist when he first met and eventually fired her. She had not the soul of a musician, she only had a knowledge for music. She was told this too by the organ builder in the beginning of the film. When she is possessed in the church and her true musician ship comes out as she plays without control, that is her true spirit, but the misinster fires her for 'blasphony'.

This film cannot be watched once and dismissed. It deserves to be watched over and over again. It is a timeless movie where something seems new every time you watch it. I applaud you 'Carnival of Souls'. One of the greatest movies ever made.

On the second disc, there is a director's cut of the film, including some scenes not even shown on the VHS "director's cut" editions. One scene that is most notably absent from the original
is the scene where the priest talks to the church carpenter about how strange Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) is. This disc also contains a selected audio commentary by screenwriter John Clifford and the late Herk Harvey. Some excerpts of films made by the Centron Corporation. As well as an essay on the history of Centron. Some printed interviews with film illustrations are featured here as well.

This DVD-set is the best DVD-set I've ever seen. The image quality of the black and white transfer is unbelievably clear, and is the best image transfer I've ever seen. The special features are very cool, and believe it or not, the outtakes featured here are remastered in picture quality as well, along with the music score.

I was blown away with this DVD, and I'm sure you will be too. It is one of the best treatments to a cult classic every put on screen. Carnival of Souls is my favourite movie I believe, and I
am so pleased with this DVD-set I could just burst. I thank the Criterion people for making this a dream come true :)

The story is as simple as it is complex. A woman is an innocent passenger in a car that gets into a drag race with some teenage thugs. The result is her car going over a bridge into a fast running, sandy river. As she crawls out of the wreckage covered in mud, the viewer thinks she has survived, but has she?

Ms. Hilligoss' character is a musician, an organist to be exact who takes a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City, Utah. As she begins her journey she is terrified of images of a phantom of sorts who seems to be seeking her out. Anyone who has driven for an average of twelve hours straight can tell you that driving can take its toll, and the mind can play tricks on a sleepy driver. However, after she checks into her room, she finds the same phantom lurking in the window, then in the hallway. Who is this creature, what does he want, where is he from?

The main point of the film is not horror, but human nature. Are we all alone in this world? Is everyone an island unto themselves. The lesson is thrown upon our character by a minister, a psychologist, and a would be male suitor. They all try to help her in their own way (except the suitor who is only interested in her for a chance to have sex). But our character waves a hand at them all, convinced that she can do it her own way. She is an independent woman who needs no man or companionship; a view that may have gone against society's thinking in 1962.

The male suitor (or 'just your normal guy' as he likes to call himself) is an obnoxious oaf to say the least. His headstrong pursuit of her is only his own selfish desire to have her. He's not an alcoholic he claims, yet he drinks at dawn. He quit college because he doesn't like to learn. This is not an ideal resume for a long term relationship for her or any other woman. When she is truly frightened by the visiting spectre, and she reaches out to him as a last resort for help, he runs. Not wanting to get involved, he was only interested in her for her body and his own sexual desire. Yet another lesson in this film for all the young ladies who care to pay attention.

As the story goes on Candace's soul seems to deteriorate. She slips in and out of reality and a strange sort of parallel world. This dimension looks the same as real life, but she cannot be seen or heard. The department store dressing room for example, shows how the lost spirit must learn that she is no longer of this world, but now belongs in the spirit world, where yet another companion awaits her.

Who is this man that haunts her in visions? We see at the end of the film that they are to be together forever. In the final seen where we see Candace's peek at her after-life. She screams in horror as the ghosts dance eternally as the haunt the carnival. She is finally captured by the ghosts and is spirited away. The police and minister are confused and baffled as her footprints and final body print leads nowhere. The minister gives a knowing look as if he has known all along, but says nothing.

The minister must have known there was something wrong with his new organist when he first met and eventually fired her. She had not the soul of a musician, she only had a knowledge for music. She was told this too by the organ builder in the beginning of the film. When she is possessed in the church and her true musician ship comes out as she plays without control, that is her true spirit, but the misinster fires her for 'blasphony'.

This film cannot be watched once and dismissed. It deserves to be watched over and over again. It is a timeless movie where something seems new every time you watch it. I applaud you 'Carnival of Souls'. One of the greatest movies ever made.

On the second disc, there is a director's cut of the film, including some scenes not even shown on the VHS "director's cut" editions. One scene that is most notably absent from the original
is the scene where the priest talks to the church carpenter about how strange Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) is. This disc also contains a selected audio commentary by screenwriter John Clifford and the late Herk Harvey. Some excerpts of films made by the Centron Corporation. As well as an essay on the history of Centron. Some printed interviews with film illustrations are featured here as well.

This DVD-set is the best DVD-set I've ever seen. The image quality of the black and white transfer is unbelievably clear, and is the best image transfer I've ever seen. The special features are very cool, and believe it or not, the outtakes featured here are remastered in picture quality as well, along with the music score.

I was blown away with this DVD, and I'm sure you will be too. It is one of the best treatments to a cult classic every put on screen. Carnival of Souls is my favourite movie I believe, and I
am so pleased with this DVD-set I could just burst. I thank the Criterion people for making this a dream come true :)

The story is as simple as it is complex. A woman is an innocent passenger in a car that gets into a drag race with some teenage thugs. The result is her car going over a bridge into a fast running, sandy river. As she crawls out of the wreckage covered in mud, the viewer thinks she has survived, but has she?

Ms. Hilligoss' character is a musician, an organist to be exact who takes a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City, Utah. As she begins her journey she is terrified of images of a phantom of sorts who seems to be seeking her out. Anyone who has driven for an average of twelve hours straight can tell you that driving can take its toll, and the mind can play tricks on a sleepy driver. However, after she checks into her room, she finds the same phantom lurking in the window, then in the hallway. Who is this creature, what does he want, where is he from?

The main point of the film is not horror, but human nature. Are we all alone in this world? Is everyone an island unto themselves. The lesson is thrown upon our character by a minister, a psychologist, and a would be male suitor. They all try to help her in their own way (except the suitor who is only interested in her for a chance to have sex). But our character waves a hand at them all, convinced that she can do it her own way. She is an independent woman who needs no man or companionship; a view that may have gone against society's thinking in 1962.

The male suitor (or 'just your normal guy' as he likes to call himself) is an obnoxious oaf to say the least. His headstrong pursuit of her is only his own selfish desire to have her. He's not an alcoholic he claims, yet he drinks at dawn. He quit college because he doesn't like to learn. This is not an ideal resume for a long term relationship for her or any other woman. When she is truly frightened by the visiting spectre, and she reaches out to him as a last resort for help, he runs. Not wanting to get involved, he was only interested in her for her body and his own sexual desire. Yet another lesson in this film for all the young ladies who care to pay attention.

As the story goes on Candace's soul seems to deteriorate. She slips in and out of reality and a strange sort of parallel world. This dimension looks the same as real life, but she cannot be seen or heard. The department store dressing room for example, shows how the lost spirit must learn that she is no longer of this world, but now belongs in the spirit world, where yet another companion awaits her.

Who is this man that haunts her in visions? We see at the end of the film that they are to be together forever. In the final seen where we see Candace's peek at her after-life. She screams in horror as the ghosts dance eternally as the haunt the carnival. She is finally captured by the ghosts and is spirited away. The police and minister are confused and baffled as her footprints and final body print leads nowhere. The minister gives a knowing look as if he has known all along, but says nothing.

The minister must have known there was something wrong with his new organist when he first met and eventually fired her. She had not the soul of a musician, she only had a knowledge for music. She was told this too by the organ builder in the beginning of the film. When she is possessed in the church and her true musician ship comes out as she plays without control, that is her true spirit, but the misinster fires her for 'blasphony'.

This film cannot be watched once and dismissed. It deserves to be watched over and over again. It is a timeless movie where something seems new every time you watch it. I applaud you 'Carnival of Souls'. One of the greatest movies ever made.