The X-Files (Season 10): I started watching the newest episodes of the X-Files. I didn't really like the first one, but really enjoyed episode 2, 3 (Were-Monster) and 4 (Band-aid Nose Man) so far. Episode 3 being my absolute favourite of them. That episode is totally awesome and funny. You really got to see it, if you enjoyed the funnier episodes of the series in the past. It's not just funny it actually has a deeper meaning, but you'll see. For me it feels like back in the old days. Unfortunately there are only 2 episodes left to watch in this tenth season. It seems to me that the writers got more mature and included a lot of criticisms of our society in some episodes (especially episode 2 and 3).

Watched several Akira Kurosawa films lately, now back to the more usual stuff.

Victor Frankenstein - not really a horror, except for the creations of course. In this film, the story is told from the perspective of a hunchback circus clown who gets recruited by Victor Frankenstein because of his knowledge of human anatomy, which he showed in an accident with Lorelei, a female artist in the circus. Together they embark on the mission to beat death, after having escaped the circus crew first, and the police second (during the circus escape one guy doed and therefore the police started an investigation). The clown gets a new name, Igor, and after a while they succeed with an ape-like creature, who gets resurrected from death. This is picked up by a rich guy Finnegan, who wants to grab power by having control over Frankenstein's creations. With Finnegan's money, Frankenstein goes to extremes to achive his goal, withstanding the warnings from Igor and the pursuit by the police. The ending is quite sweet and soft, which I didn't expect from a film with this theme. Igor and Lorelei have the default love affair, the story is rather uninteresting overall, which surprsied me seeing the production values. Daniel Radcliffe performed great, like in Horns, but James McAvoy turned overacting into a new art, his performance was annoying at best. The cgi was rather well done, 19th century London looked cool, but lacking some interesting content makes me never watch this film again.

Convergence - film with an arty premise: a guy wakes up in a hospital, to find out that the hospiotal is not a normal hospital, but in fact the portal to different worlds in the afterlife. He is pursued by an avenging angel, and he must prevent being taken by him. Slow at first, this film took it's time to let the story develo, and while that is OK in general, in this case it made the film a bit too boring. The plot interested me, but the executio was poorly done. After 20-30 minutes I knew how this wuld go, and I thought that I might be wrong because it was too obvious, Well, I wasn't wrong at all. Acting is OK, I didn't know any of the castmembers, so there were some good debuts for me, but since the story was so predictable and vague at the same time, it didn't grab me. Forgettable film imo.

You Are Not Alone - a girl returns to her hometown to see some friends and party a bit. She is having fun, but there is a curfew enforced because of a killer being on the loose. When she gets home after the party, she finds out that the killer is in front of the house where she is sleeping. Trying to survive, she runs away to hide in other houses, but the killer stalks her relentlessly. The first 55 minutes of the film are about the girl returning, you get to see her friends (everything is shot in a way like you look throuhg her eyes, including going to sleep with the eyes closing, etc. - no blinking fortunately) and the party and all. There are some minor events pointing at the fact that there is a killer on the loose, like a news itme o the radio in a dner, and a cop telling the girls about the curfew. The stalking part lasts for 35 minutes and is pretty intense, even though you had to wait for it so long, it is kind of worth it. It has a very real feel over it: apart from a few instances, I think I would have done the same as this girl when there was a killer stalking me. An example of something which was actually kind of stupid, was

Spoiler:

when she got hit by a car: she didn't stay with the persons in the car, where she was relatively safe (because they were calling for help on the phone): instead she limped on into town, where survival was uncertain

But overall, pretty realistic and therefore also pretty grim. So: boring first part, but intense second part. Maybe the long intro is needed, I don't know. Weird little film, not your everyday slasher at least.

Southbound - wow, cool film! Several stories linked together, the common factor being a highway going south. The transitions between the stories are sometimes pretty smooth, sometimes a little less so. There are four directors who have been working on this film, and while it is quite common that different directors make different segments in an anthology, it is not so common that they succeed in making the film look and feel like one movie, instead of linked segments. Acting is good, atmosphere is what you might expect from a desert roadmovie in the US, and the way the stories are turned into a cycle, a perpetuum mobile if you wish, is rather clever. I noticed it before it was revealed and it was quite cool

Spoiler:

that two of the guys with masks in the last segment wre the main characetrs of the first segment

Highly recommended, one of the better films I have seen lately.

Harbinger Down - sometimes when you watch a movie, it starts with a comment like "inspired by true events". Well, this film could have opened with "inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing", because wow, this is a blatant rip-off of my favourite horrormovie of all times. Here goes: replace Antarctica with Alaska - check. Replace Kurt Russell with Lance Henriksen - check. Replace crashed alien spacecraft with crashed Soviet spacepod - check. Replace alien with DNA copying properties with little secreature with DNA copying properties - check. There are more similarities, but it would become very boring to read this rebiew if I'd mention them all. What's missing, is a "who is infected and who is not?" scene, these things occur, but they come and go. Oh, and here we got

Spoiler:

one survivor

If you have 80 minutes to kill and like shapeshifting alien-like monsters, give it a spin. But if you want a good movie, dust off your old The Thing DVD, and pass on this one, please.

13 Sins - Elliott Brindle, a kind, but also a bit of a weak man, is hoping for a promotion to senior salesman. If he gets it, he will be able to provide for his wife, his unborn child and his mentally retarded brother who needs ambulant care. However, instead of getting promoted, he gets fired. In dire financial need, he gets a phonecall: of he swats a fly, he will receive 500 dollars. If he eats it, he will get another 1000, etc. etc. Elliott goes for it and starts playing the game, but each challenge is more daring, more risky. Not only to himself (het gets in trouble with the law soon), but especially for the people around him. The question is how far will Elliott go to complete all 13 challenges, and win the game. This kind of story is not new, this plot reminded me a bit of Falling Down (although there it wasn't a game with prizes), it has influences from the Saw series and the "invisible group of people entertained by these games" was already presentred in the Hostel series and other horrors like that. There is some gore, but most of the horror is not in the flesh, but in the mind: every man can turn into a monster. Acting is decent enough, the guy playing Elliott is really changing on the screen, well done. The plot about the other player gave it a nice spin, but it was also a bit lame, because it was quite easy to guess who it was. Quite a nice film, not a waste of time, but nothing superbly groundbreaking either. An OK way to kill 90 minutes.

Djinn - latest film by Tobe Hooper. The djinn is an Arab spirit-like creature which plays a role in many Arab folktales. This film starts in the US, but soon we move to Yemen, where the rest of the film plays out. I must say that I really liked that, because there aren't many western film being made in the Middle East and when they are, they are about war. So this was a nice change of location and it really helped me to enjoy the film. The story itself is not ervy groundbreaking, but the [premise of a baby being half djinn half human is actually quite cool, and it gets used in different ways. One of those is really very predictable, but the other one I didn't see coming immediately. Acting is good, I didn't know any of the castmembers, but they did a good job and Razane Jammal is a beauty. There is some ugly cgi, but overall the effects and the setting were good. Recommended, this is something different from someone you know, nice.

Little Dead Rotting Hood - Asylum film on the werewolf theme, with a somewhat original twist, though it was a tad too fantasy for me. In a small town several things happen in a short period of time: an older woman usually called "The Wolf Lady" is found dead, her granddaughter goes missing and peope in the surrounding area start being attacked by wolves. The startled sheriff and his deputies are trying to figure out what's going on, and after a long search and a wolfhunt which goes horribly wrong, the appearance of Little Dead Rotting Hood makes sure that the wolves can't really harm the townspeople. A lot of crap ensues and the wolves look Ok, but the endboss wolf looks butt ugly as it's cheap cgi. The story doesn;t end all too well, which was quite cool for a change. Bubblegum horror with wolves, OK-ish in some parts, ridiculous in others.

Lost After Dark - modern slasher which gives an ode to the old slashers of the 70s and 80s. Not only does the story play out in that era, effects have been added to make the film look more old and grainy, like we know from films like Planet Terror. Although this trick is not new, it pays off as the atmosphere is close to some of the slashers from the old days, which is nice.

Spoiler:

there is also the missing reel thing, which was kind of dumb/unoriginal, but it worked out better than I expected because you expect someone to die, but she doesn't

A group of teens hijack the schoolbus while they are on a schoolball and they joyride it to the cabin of one of their fathers. Out of gas, they get stranded near a desolate farmhouse, which, unknown to them, houses a cannibalistic killer. Of course they all try and stay alive and escape the iller, but he seems to have superhuman strength. In the meantime, a teacher and the father who owns the cabin are out for a search, because the missing schoolbus is being noticed. Acting is OK, the characters are deliciously cliche, effects are good. Most of the film is in the darkness, but it didn't bother me too much. Some nice kills too, actually the first one is the best, imo. Great film if you like older slashers and want to watch something new. Recommended.

Emanuelle in America - Laura Gemser again starring in a Joe D'Amato film: this makes me expect certain things about it. And yes, it delivers: it has Gabriele Tinti, it has hardcore (and a lot of softcore) sex, it has a storyline that is barely noticeable and it has a misleading title, as a large part of the film is not in America at all, but in Venice. Supposedly, Gemser plays a journalist who goes undercover when she finds out about a network creating snuffmovies. But all I saw about snuffmvies, was that they were played by people while having sex. Gemser records a lot of stuff by taking pictures with a hidden camera (well, not very much hidden, lol), but when she offers the story to the publisher, he rejects it. Then she goes on a holiday where she gets treated to a weird jungle experience by her boyfriend. For Italo or, more specifically: D'Amato fans only I guess.

Darkest Day - uggh, this is one of the most boring films I have seen lately. "British zombie horror at it's best", says the cover. Well, you may judge for yourself of cours,e but if you take a minute to read this review, it will save you 89 minutes of your life. Dan wakes up on the beach and he has no mempory. He walks into town to see that a virus has eradicated almost all human life (hello, 28 Days Later). He meets some people who are on a foodrun from a shelter (hello, The Walking Dead) and soon they find out thaty Dan is being wanted by the military. This makes them leave the shelter and go thorugh the countryside, hoping the evade the searching soldiers.

Spoiler:

in the end Dan chooses to save his new friends by lkeavg them and walk into the sea - wtf??

The ending was really stupid, acting and effects were bad, there was almost no plot and this film was just absolutely bollocks. Avoid at all cost.

The Hallow - aka The Woods. A London couple, Adam and Clare, moves to Ireland because Adam has a job to mark trees in the forest for cutting: the forest has been sold by the state. The locals are angry about the sale and they also believe in several supernatural beings (Hallows) living in the forest. Some of them are supposed to change babies for changelings, and the neighbour of Adam and Clare believes his daughter was taken by the Hallows in the forest. Of course, they don't believe the stories about the supernatural at first, but when Adam has brought home a certain fungus, and their baby cries intesenly in the night, they slowly and steadily get introduced into the world of the Hallow. Ultimately sacrifices have to be made, and the forest is not easily satisfied. Acting is good, atmopshere is great: the forest is actually kind of scary, like the forests from fairy tales. Subtitles are recommended, as the accents are heavy. Watching this film is recommended too.

The Veil - this is a ghostfilm. It is about a cult which committed mass suicide together with their charismatic leader, back in the 80s. There was one survivor, a little girl, and years later a filmcrew and the now grownup Sarah return to the scene in order to make a documentary. Jessica Alba plays the director and she wants to make this film because her dad was the leader of the FBI team that found the cult when they were committing the mass suicide, and he was never the same after he had experienced that. Duyring their investigation, it becomes apparent that several problems of the past haven't been solved yet, and sprits of the deceased start haunting the team. The plot takes quite some twists, most of which are nice and a one or two of them were not very predictable. Acting is great, especially by Lily Rabe. Atmosphere is good too, the creepy surroundings really add to the feel of the movie. Enoyed it, recommended.

The Blood Harvest - the 2016 low budget UK horror. The story is quite OK; a cop is near solving a serial killer-like case, and then he gets taken off it by his boss. The reason for that is that the cop thinks there is something supernatuiral about the killer, he might be a vampire. The boss thinks the cop has gone coocoo and sends him off. In secret however, he continues to work on the case together with his former partner. When he finally gets to the solution, he discovers something about the perpetrator that really surprises him (and most somewhat realistic viewers too, I guess). Acting is decent, some bad guys in the film are overacting a bit. Effects are meh, but that's quite explainable because of the budget, a lot of kills and related violence happens off screen. Story is not really original, and for a while I started losing interest because the middle part was a bit bpring, but it's an OK start for the cast and crew, let's hope they get a bigger budget next time.

June - nice premise, but turns out to be a rip-off of much beter films such as Carrie. Film opens with a ceremony by a cult which loooks a bit like child's play at first, but soon a baby is being laid down on an altar and a priest-like figure is wielding a large knife. Then the ritual goes wrong, but a sprit has come down into the baby's body anyway: the bay grows up to be June, the spirit is Aer, inside her. June goes from foster home to foster home, and she is trying to hide and/or conquer the urges of Aer, having triuble to do so regularly. When she gets upset, she screams and a stormy wind blows around her: so far the cool part. When June gets adopted by the latest foster family, she bonds with the woman quite fast, but sees the man as some sort of an enemy. This was the prelude to a very predictable, tame and uninteresting film which was barely horror anymore. The characters do thigns which are quite weird, like the woman sending her husband out of their home in favour of the foster child, therefore choosing a relative stranger over the man she has known for years and is married to. Right. The rage scenes dwindle fast in the second half and the way the oh so not surprising plot "twist" is presented makes you feel like a small kid who needs an explanation for everything. Although it's relatively short (some 80 minutes) it's a complete waste of time imo.

After.Life (2009): This one was quite nice. There are some discussions about it on IMDb what really took place in the movie. But don't read those or the director's summary before watching it. So to the plot: a young woman named Anna (Christina Ricci) has a car accident and is transported to the funeral home of Eliot (Lian Neeson). There she wakes up and is confronted with her death by Eliot who claims to have a supernatural ability to talk with the dead. But is Anna really dead or Eliot a psychopath that buries people alive? What I liked about the movie is that is constantly gives you clues to switch from one conclusion to the other. There is quite some gore in the movie in form of nightmares. I would recommend it. It might even hit you to think about your current life.

Mutant World - postnuclear film from Asylum. A huge meteorite, a "planetkiller" is about to hit North America, so the King family and their friends start running for their shelter which they have been preparing for years. Upon entering it, they need to take down people who want to join them, because otherwise they won't have enough food. Melissa and George King get in, but they see their father staying outside while the doors are closing. Years later, the underground community has adapted to life in the nuclear winter (teh meteorite hit a nuclear powerplant while impacting on earth), but one day the powersupply is being hit and they will run out of energy soon. Melissa and George now lead an away party to get the needed supplies to repair and resupply the base. On their journey they encounter the mutants from the title, which are actually quite funny beings, a sort of half humanized zombies with green lights in their eyes. Of course the mission is now not only to find the supplies, but stay alive and fight off the mutants. Acting is half-decent to decent, effects are laughable (there is a cgi decapitation which as to be seen to be believed) and the story itself is meh, but there are some good looking actresses (Amber Marshall and Holly Deveaux for example) and the mutants are kind of cute. Not a very memorable movie, though.

Freaks of Nature - comedy with horror elements. In a small town there are three social groups: on the top the vampires, in the middle the humans and the lower class consists of zombies. When an alien invsion starts, the three groups pit against each other, while the real danger is in the invasion itself. A coincidental gang, which has one representative from all three groups, has to save the world now. Although this was pretty corny, there were some good jokes, like canned brains for sale for the zombies and bags of blood in the supermarket for the vampires. Also the alien encounter was pretty funny, with references to several other alie films, like Close Encounters... and Alien. There is a funny twist at the end revealing the real nature of the main character, but it gets never scary, one of those things you have with horror comedies. Acting is decent, there are some more well known names involved, like Denis Leary and Bob "Saul" Odenkirk. If you wanna have a quick laugh, then this is a nice pick. If you wanna get scared or be amazed by an original director, then skip this.

While She Was Out (2008): X-Mas horror movie. Kim Basinger rans out of gift wrap paper and drives to a mall at night to get some. As she wants to leave she is harassed by a group of morons. Things get out of hand and she flees into the woods with a toolbox from her car. The morons are so stupid that they get killed of by her one by one. This movie is just bad. It's so unbelievable and stupid that I can't recommend this to anybody.

Playing With Dolls: Bloodlust - very crappy movie about a guy hiring people for a "reality TV show", while in fact he is the only one watching. The people have to survive a week in a cabin in the woods (wow, the originality!) while a mad slasher is on the prowl in the surrounding forest. Of course the candidates get to meet him, the last (wo)man standing is promised a million dollars. The opening scenes are a somewhat weak attempt at developing characetrs, but they are superfical, onedimensional human beings. Acting is wooden at best, the Magnus character sounded a bit like a young Schwarzenegger, not being able to utter a sentence with more than four words in it. Longer sentences are simply cut into two or more shorter ones. He knows one emotion/facial expression, and for an ex-soldier turned bodyguard, he looks quite helpless: the blonde bimbo type actually comes across as a stronger character. The ending is sudden, in the middle of a scene. I sincerely hope this doesn't mean that there will be another sequel (knowing that this was one already). Very cliche and unscary, this is one to skip for sure.

Jeruzalem - Israeli horror about two girls going on a trip to Israel and while they are in it's capital, the apocalypse starts. I had seen the postapocalyptic "Another World" already, and that one wasn't very interesting: this one is just a tad better imo. What was quite cool about this film, is that it is filmed through a pair of Google glasses, which is a nice change of pace from the found footage genre. It also leads to some funny scenes with the Whatsapp chat in the foreground and the played scene in the background. What's also pretty OK, is the sense of impending doom that you keep having throughout this film. The bad things are that I also had another feeling: that I was watching an Israeli propganda film disguised as a horror. I can't put my finger on it, as it wasn't blatant at least, but it got under my skin and it felt uneasy that way. What was also not so good was that it took some 50 minutes before something happened. That could have been shortened for sure, although it does help to get to know the characters, it doesn't make you feel very attached when they die. The production values are very good, I hope that the Israeli film industry will succeed in making horrors which actually grab me. They made some warmovies which I really dug, so they can make films, that's for sure. It's just the question when they are gonna release a scary horror.

Sharktopus vs Pteracuda - I don't have much to say about this film. The title should already be enough for you to see what kind of film this is. The cgi is very crappy, Robert Carradine has a cool oneliner just before every one of his actions, the characters are exaggerated like in a kids movie or book, etc. etc. Nothing redeeming about this film except for the fact that they aren't pretending like they are actually making a (good) film. Brainless timefiller, for late at night or with friends and a keg of beer.

Mad Max: Fury Road - remakes usually make me wish I hadn't watched it, but this one is a tad different. While the characters and the storyine are roughly the same as in teh original, the rest of the film is new and refreshing. It's more a sequel than a remake in that aspect. Max is a victim for a pretty long time in this film, as he is being used as a bloodsack (and referred to as that as well) for a warboy: one of the warriors of Immortan Joe, the leader of the postapocalyptic world. In this film, a convoy going out for gasoline and bullets, is going on the run instead: on board are the wives of Joe, and the convoy is led by Imperator Furiosa, a role well played by Charlize Theron. Actually she is more the main character than Max, and almost the entire movie plays out while the convoy races along Fury Road. While this doesn't sound too exciting, the film never gets boring, even though it has a long runtime and the location stays the same all the time (the war rig - big armored truck - on the road). There have been many postapocalyptic films since Mad Max '79, and this one just fits right in. Enjoyed it, if you like the genre, go watch it.

The Frighteners (1996): Michael J. Fox in a horror comedy from Peter Jackson. Since a car accident Fox can see the spirit of the deceased. He uses them to play tricks in others' homes and cash in as the ghost buster. But soon a really mean spirit arises and start doing away with the living and the spirits. Since Fox is known in his town for his "job" he must not only fight the deadly spirit but also stay away from police and the FBI that are after him. I somehow didn't really like this one. While the story, the acting and the directing was nice, it somehow felt like a kids movie. Most of the jokes were dull for me. It was nice to see some actors from other Peter Jackson movies doing cameos. Even Jackson himself is in the movie in one scene. So I can only recommend this to maybe teenagers and real fans of Jackson or Fox.