Hello!
The two newest issues (#9 and #10) of Crimson Screens Fanzine are now available! Would you like a copy? If you do, then email me your address!!!
crimsonscreens@gmail.com
Showing posts with label gore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gore. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Update For The Last 3.5 Months...
Hello!
I haven't updated this is forever, but I have a couple good reasons...
There is a new issue, #9, of Crimson Screens available. This one is four pages and is the same format as always. It's a mixed issue, with a good mix of horror and obscure action titles. I have been mailing them out on my free time and am about halfway through my mailing list. If you aren't on my mailing list, then email me your address and you will be added. Issues of Crimson Screens are free. If you do a fanzine/newsletter/whatever, then let me know. I love to help spread the word about other zines.
Also, work on the Crimson Screens Book is getting closer and closer to being complete. I have added a couple other writers, so the perspective will be a little more varied. There will also be chapters on long gone video stores and theaters from my area of the world (Cleveland/Northeast Ohio). I will post updates on this as they happen. Printing this thing will not be cheap, so hopefully there are no financial pitfalls that force me to dip into the savings for this.
There have been a ton of solid DVD releases in the last few months. A few of them would be:
555- from Massacre Video- SOV horror from the late 80's about a mad slasher. Known more for its box art than the actual movie itself, its a mixed bag of bad acting and extreme gore. It's not the best movie, but it is watchable and certainly more entertaining than current DTV fare.
Don't Open Till Christmas- special edition DVD- remastered print of the great Christmas time slasher movie. Unlike other similar movies, santa gets killed here instead of him doing the killing. I have always enjoyed this one since the fun days of VHS and the presentation is superb. With a lot of well done special features.
Bereavement- a prequel to Malevolence. I hated this on the first viewing. I guess I went into it thinking it would be something else. The movie is very good, with some gore and a lot of suspense and demented characters.
Chromeskull: Laid To Rest 2- the original Laid To Rest was a surprise slasher hit. This one kind of drops the ball by explaining too much and having some pretty dopey characters. As in the other one, there is an abundance of gore. It's all very well done too, with no CGI, that I can tell. While not as great movie, you could certainly do worse.
Machete Maidens Unleashed- fantastic documentary about Filipino horror and exploitation movies. You can't go wrong with this title. Made by the same people who did the excellent Not Quite Hollywood movie.
The Exterminator- Blu Ray- my favorite exploitation movie, uncut, looks amazing and the commentary is a must hear. The best release of 2012, imo.
I have thought about contacting people who made a lot of the original horror fanzines, to try and do a "collection book", which would be a collection of all of the issues. I know this is a big task and I have already failed once at this, but I'm in a better position in life now to attempt this project, so if you are reading this and once published your own horror fanzine, please get in touch!
More soon!
I haven't updated this is forever, but I have a couple good reasons...
There is a new issue, #9, of Crimson Screens available. This one is four pages and is the same format as always. It's a mixed issue, with a good mix of horror and obscure action titles. I have been mailing them out on my free time and am about halfway through my mailing list. If you aren't on my mailing list, then email me your address and you will be added. Issues of Crimson Screens are free. If you do a fanzine/newsletter/whatever, then let me know. I love to help spread the word about other zines.
Also, work on the Crimson Screens Book is getting closer and closer to being complete. I have added a couple other writers, so the perspective will be a little more varied. There will also be chapters on long gone video stores and theaters from my area of the world (Cleveland/Northeast Ohio). I will post updates on this as they happen. Printing this thing will not be cheap, so hopefully there are no financial pitfalls that force me to dip into the savings for this.
There have been a ton of solid DVD releases in the last few months. A few of them would be:
555- from Massacre Video- SOV horror from the late 80's about a mad slasher. Known more for its box art than the actual movie itself, its a mixed bag of bad acting and extreme gore. It's not the best movie, but it is watchable and certainly more entertaining than current DTV fare.
Don't Open Till Christmas- special edition DVD- remastered print of the great Christmas time slasher movie. Unlike other similar movies, santa gets killed here instead of him doing the killing. I have always enjoyed this one since the fun days of VHS and the presentation is superb. With a lot of well done special features.
Bereavement- a prequel to Malevolence. I hated this on the first viewing. I guess I went into it thinking it would be something else. The movie is very good, with some gore and a lot of suspense and demented characters.
Chromeskull: Laid To Rest 2- the original Laid To Rest was a surprise slasher hit. This one kind of drops the ball by explaining too much and having some pretty dopey characters. As in the other one, there is an abundance of gore. It's all very well done too, with no CGI, that I can tell. While not as great movie, you could certainly do worse.
Machete Maidens Unleashed- fantastic documentary about Filipino horror and exploitation movies. You can't go wrong with this title. Made by the same people who did the excellent Not Quite Hollywood movie.
The Exterminator- Blu Ray- my favorite exploitation movie, uncut, looks amazing and the commentary is a must hear. The best release of 2012, imo.
I have thought about contacting people who made a lot of the original horror fanzines, to try and do a "collection book", which would be a collection of all of the issues. I know this is a big task and I have already failed once at this, but I'm in a better position in life now to attempt this project, so if you are reading this and once published your own horror fanzine, please get in touch!
More soon!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Crimson Screens #8... Out Now!!!
Hello! The newest issue of Crimson Screens is out now! Issue #8 has reviews, opinions, more reviews and thoughts on collecting. There is also a story about an old video store that I used to frequent. Email me your address for a free issue: crimsonscreens@gmail.com
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Unholy...
I frequently think back to the glory days of VHS. Obviously, you can tell that from reading this blog. One title that caught my eye at the video store was The Unholy. The box design had a cool black and red theme, with a demon, complete with an evil, glimmering eye, in the background. One look at that and it was a must rent! The store that I frequented at the time had a big poster for the movie on the front window, so even if you missed the VHS box, you certainly weren't missing the front window.
The Unholy is about a demon who murders sinners in the act of sinning. This sends their souls to hell. A priest discovers this and must stop the demon. This falls firmly into the genre of religious horror, which has been done better and worse in the past. The movie has a lot going for it. The acting is way above par. They managed to grab some legit fantastic actors like Ned Beatty (who is great in everything that he is in) and Hal Holbrook. The rest of the cast is good too and the solid acting really helps raise the quality of the movie, especially since the script can get real silly in spots.
There is also a lot of practical gore, which also adds energy to the film. I remember a gory still in an issue of Fangoria, featuring an eviscerated man hanging upside down on a cross. That was definitely a memorable picture and moment in the movie!
The movie does run out of steam towards the end and seems a bit overlong, but this fact doesn't ruin the movie. In fact, the ending achieves a cool level of absurd ridiculousness that isn't really done in movies anymore. It's so over the top and silly, that it's hard to be like, "that's retarded, I hate this!" It was more like, "what the fuck, that is retarded, I love it!"
Anyway, The Unholy is a lost 80's horror movie with a religious twist that I think is worth a watch or two.
The Unholy is about a demon who murders sinners in the act of sinning. This sends their souls to hell. A priest discovers this and must stop the demon. This falls firmly into the genre of religious horror, which has been done better and worse in the past. The movie has a lot going for it. The acting is way above par. They managed to grab some legit fantastic actors like Ned Beatty (who is great in everything that he is in) and Hal Holbrook. The rest of the cast is good too and the solid acting really helps raise the quality of the movie, especially since the script can get real silly in spots.
There is also a lot of practical gore, which also adds energy to the film. I remember a gory still in an issue of Fangoria, featuring an eviscerated man hanging upside down on a cross. That was definitely a memorable picture and moment in the movie!
The movie does run out of steam towards the end and seems a bit overlong, but this fact doesn't ruin the movie. In fact, the ending achieves a cool level of absurd ridiculousness that isn't really done in movies anymore. It's so over the top and silly, that it's hard to be like, "that's retarded, I hate this!" It was more like, "what the fuck, that is retarded, I love it!"
Anyway, The Unholy is a lost 80's horror movie with a religious twist that I think is worth a watch or two.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Creature...
This title immediately grabbed my attention due to its cool box art, the black alien in an outer space setting. I had seen pieces of this on Saturday afternoon TV but I had never seen the entire thing. It seemed to be a common movie at the time, since most rental stores of the day had a copy of it. In the 90's, when many video rental stores were closing, I bought a copy of it from the epic Movie World who were, unfortunately a casualty of Blockbuster. They always cut the VHS boxes to fit them into the white clamshell boxes that they rented, so the collector value of titles from that legendary store are pretty low, unless you find someone who just has to have a certain title. Creature was always in the science fiction section of that store, but a lot of other great titles were, as well.
Anyway, the movie is mostly about an alien offing people aboard a space ship. You see, they are on a rescue mission. They encounter a rogue scientist, who is the highlight of the movie. He is played by Klaus Kinski, who is pretty much wacked out in any role he plays. Another highlight of the movie is the tremendous gore. There is a lot of alien related violence. A lot of the aliens victims come back as zombies, so there is a lot of action in regards to that, as well. My favorite setpiece was the alien biting off a female characters head, blood splashing everywhere and then the head plops to the ground. It's a classic 80's gore scene, completely over the top and in your face.
As of now, Creature isn't readily available on DVD. There is a cheap public domain copy that shouldn't run you over $10. The quality is ok, but the colors are real soft, especially in scenes that take place in the light. I own two copies on VHS and they both look at least the same as the DVD. The movie doesn't cost you a lot if you track it down on DVD or VHS and is very worth checking out.
Anyway, the movie is mostly about an alien offing people aboard a space ship. You see, they are on a rescue mission. They encounter a rogue scientist, who is the highlight of the movie. He is played by Klaus Kinski, who is pretty much wacked out in any role he plays. Another highlight of the movie is the tremendous gore. There is a lot of alien related violence. A lot of the aliens victims come back as zombies, so there is a lot of action in regards to that, as well. My favorite setpiece was the alien biting off a female characters head, blood splashing everywhere and then the head plops to the ground. It's a classic 80's gore scene, completely over the top and in your face.
As of now, Creature isn't readily available on DVD. There is a cheap public domain copy that shouldn't run you over $10. The quality is ok, but the colors are real soft, especially in scenes that take place in the light. I own two copies on VHS and they both look at least the same as the DVD. The movie doesn't cost you a lot if you track it down on DVD or VHS and is very worth checking out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)