The Jacket - Not a horrorfilm, but it's about death, so might appeal to horrorfans anyway. Andrew Brody plays Jack Starks, a soldier who gets wounded in the Gulf War. AFter he has returned home he gets involved in a murder but he is convinced he didn't do the killing. The judge sends him to an institute for the criminally insane, where he gets a weird treatment: from time to time he is strapped up in a straight-jacket and pushed into a morgue drawer. Alone with his thoughts he gets flashbacks to the war but also some strange visions, maybe flash forwards but not really because they are about what happens after his death and he experiences the events like he was present. In those visions he meets a girl (played by Keira Knightley) who he has met in real life too but now she has grown up and Jack wants to help her. So after he returns to his present state he wishes to be in the straight-jacket again in order to complete this "mission", while the doctors in the institute try and find out what is the matter with him. Acting is good, the story is a bit fantasy-like and sometimes goes a tad overboard on the emotional part, but all in all I enjoyed this film and it was a different experience from most stuff I saw lately. Well done.

Hangman - a thriller about an intruder who uses parked cars of families on vacation to track down houses and live there for a while before killing the inhabitants. Creepy thought that so.eone might be in your house for such a long time. The man is also obviously mentally damaged, as he screams and cries from time to time and of course does these sadistic things to families. The creepy feeling got to me but the fact that the intruder had some kind of HQ with screens on which he can watch the family 24/7in the house itself without being discovered was too far fetched to me. I was expecting more of a slasher film so I didn't really enjoy watching this one, maybe also because it can actually happen. So don't watch this unless you are in for a pretty realistic thriller.

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel - documentary of the king of B-movies ijn which many celebrities like Jack Nicholson, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese tell stories about Corman's career. It's very nice to see where Corman came from and how he managed to churn out so many movies in such a short timespan (I mean the average time of making a film was lowered all the time untila minimm of 2 days was reached). Also nice how some of the effects were made, you get to see some behind the scenes of Dinoshark. Stories about how to make these movies without any permits, changing the story while shooting because some equipment doesn't work, etc. Very nice introduction to Corman if you don't know any films from him, otherwise it's just a nice ride through his career with a nice climax near the end.

Machete Maidens Unleashed - a documentary on filming in the Philippines, with attention for the indigenous film industry, but mostly for the American crews who landed in the Philippines during the 1960s and 1970s. A treasure chest for those who want to dive into cheap exploitation movies: keep a notepad within reach, the titles are flying across the air! Fun to see how exploitation films about revolutionaries were made in a dictatorship. With a lot of the same celebrities being interviewdd as in the Corman documentary I reviewed above, but ficused more on filmmakers and journalists. You get to see Joe Dante, John Landis and Eddie Romero, one of the Filippino pioneers. Good fun, you can't miss it when you are a bad moviefan.

Insidious: the last key - part four of the Insidious franchise, of which pats one was quite impressive, part two more of the same and three was more forgettable and I was actually hoping that they would stop making these films. This fourth installment didn't really change my mind on that, they should stop. But it was a tad better than part three at least. In this one, we go back to Elise's childhood where she struggled with her gift and with her tyrannic father, who blames her for her mother's death. When she gets a call from man now living in her childhood house, she at first doesn't want to go back, but eventually she does and she finds out about several ghosts in the house. After meeting her nieces, they all go back to the house where lots of things aren't what they appear to be. Acting was nice again and the atmopshere was better than what I remember from part three. I didn't get really scared, though and there were some lame jokes by Elise's crew. The nieces were nice though, but they should really stop now. From best to worst: 1-2-4-3.

Dead Above Ground - a 2002 film but it looks like mid 90s, both in image quality, in story and in clothing. The plot is about a Goth student making trouble by changing an assignment into a horror movie. After he gets chased off the road, people start dying like in his horror movie (this is also on the backside of the DVD, but it's rather lame that you don't get to see the horrorfilm, so you can't know whether they are actually dying like in the film). His former girlfriend tries to contact him through seances, while the police is trying to find the killer by some cliche leads, as in leaving portraits of the next victim on the most recently found body. Acting is mediocre, gore is lame and mostly offscreen and the seances are ridiculous. A pretty bad movie if you ask me, especially because the final part is so very cloiche, although the monster looks pretty neat in those scenes. You won't miss much if you decide to skip this one.

Gags The Clown - a town is struck with curiosity and fear about a person dressing up as a clown and just standing there in the street not doing anything. His black balloons do harbour a nasty surprise though: the powder inside them turns people into strange zombie-esque creatures who first start hurting themselves before they attack others. Both the police and a bunch of local TV crews are hunting the clown and soon a vlogger, who publicly states the police is not doing its work so he will turn into a vigilante, joins them. And then we have a group of youngsters who are doing a parody on the clown thing by dressing up one of them as a clown to scare people. Of course all this rolls into one big messy climax. The clown stays a mystery throughout the film., You may think of it as a strongpoint, or as the opposite, but you won't know why the clown is there or where he came from. The rivalry between the TV crews is a bit childish but it has its funny parts. The vigilante story is actually the most interesting one and it has a  nice twist. The climax is nice, I didn't expect it to turn out like that. Acting is pretty good, I especially enjoyed the acting of the vigilante and the anchorwoman of the underdog TV crew. There is also enough gore to go around, if you can live with the lack of explanation, this is a nice passtime.

Blackwater - a crocodile movie which I hadn't seen yet so I was curious. A small cast makes this Australian movie: a couple and the younger sister of the woman are making a boattrip into the mangrove forests but the official trip just left, so the guy at the station offers to take them out himself, in a much smaller boat. This boat then gets attacked by a large saltwater crocodile, a species which has been known to attack people regularly. This is a different kind of croc movie, it's not so much horror, it's more a thriller, as the tension of the people being hunted by the giant reptile is the main feature of the film. They keep watching the waters, is he coming back? Or is he already back, lurking at the bottom of the mangrove waters? What's the best option? Climb the trees towards safety from the croc, trying to dash for the boat and get out, or wait for help to come? Some personal elements make things more complicated: will they get out alive? Acting is great, the effects are good too. If you want lots of gore and action this one isn't for you. If you like films in which the danger is mostly invisible, give it a shot.

The Dead Center - a man who was dead and tagged as a John Doe wakes up in the bodybag in the morgue and runs towards a hospital, where he hides in a room. Because he is katatonic, the nurse who finds him and the doctors can't figure out who he is. In the meantime, the morgue has called the police, and a medical examiner is doing some private detective work in order to find what he believes is the missing body. This story will intertwine with the story of doctor Daniel Forrester, who works at the hospital where John Doe turned up and he is trying to find out who the man is. When he is making progress, he finds out about much more than just the identity of the man: dark forces are at play and the man seems to be a medium to them. Very nice film, a different story from most of the other movies which have evil powers in them. I liked the two stories being developed and of course finally coming together.Acting was good and there is plenty of gore, although the kills themselves are bloodless. The ending was also satisfying and fits many horrorfans I guess. Recommended.

Fear Inc. - Joe, an unemployed horrorbuff, takes out his girlfriend Lindsey for a tour in a haunted house but Joe thinks it's really lame. Afterwards he gets a business card from a guy working on the premises, and it's a card of a company called Fear Inc. Customs cares for anyone, you just have to call them. The next day two friends of Joe and Lindsey arrive and they tell him about Fear Inc being a really strange company, they advise Joe to not get in contact with them. Of course Joe doesn't listen and he calls them anyway. From then on, strange things are happening and Joe finds himself in the most horrific situation which he recognises from the horrormovies he has seen in his life. This film is "The Game" in a horror version. So if you liked The Game (the one with Douglas and Penn) then you will enjoy this one. I also enjoyed it up to the final scene where the ending was, well, I had mixed feelings about it. It was listed as a horrorcomedy which is totally wrong imo, the comedy part is missing entirely. It's not your everyday horror and it's a nod to several classics of the genre and to The Game of course. Again: recommended if you liked The Game.

White Space - aka Beyond White Space. In deep space, close to what people call "White Space", where, according to legend, your disease gets cured and your sorrow gets lifted, live two dragons guarding the entrance to White Space. Once upon a time, one of them was beaten by a space marine (certainly looked like one). Twentysomething years later, in the 22nd century, his sons are on a cargo ship which gets attacked by pirates. After they're being looted the captain decides to avenge his father by going after the remaining dragon. In the meantime, there is discord among the crew and oxygen levels are lowering... I enjoyed this one. I was in the mood because I just finished an episode of a sci fi game so I was really in the mood for this one. Of course it has the regular scfi bullshit like explosions in space, the cgi (although well done this time) dragon making whale noises (although that is also one of the many Moby Dick references this movie has), it also has some nice eyecandy (three babes running around the spaceship) and enough space action with the crew of the ship trying to harpoon the dragon. I had fun, don't expect anything more intelligent than the MB refs and you'll be good. A nice scifi flick to spend some time on.

Emanuelle in Bangkok - a Joe d'Amato film with Laura Gemser as "black Emanuelle" in Bangkok, although half the film plays in Casablanca and not Bangkok. The story is simple: Emanuelle goes to Bangkok for work as a photographer, her boyfriend/husband (it wasn't really clear to me which one of those it was), of course played by Gabriele Tinti, is an archaeologist who accompanies her for a while but then is being called to Morocco for an excavation. Emanuelle is having fun taking pictures but if course also having sex with a servant, people she meets etc. Tinti does the same btw, and therefore it is rather odd they sometimes have words about this. The sex is straightforward, except when they go see strippers but because I was watching the cut version I missed out on the pingpong ball scene. When there is a coup d'etat in Thailand, Emanuelle goes to Morocco as well, but she loses her passport in the process. In Morocco, the film repeats itself with Emanuelle having sex with several people she meets, male and female. This was rather repetitive and even a bit boring, sitting out an Italo movie has been easier in the past. It's an ok film to introduce yourself to the Emanulle series, otherwise it's for fans/completists only, as the number of interesting scenes is to be counted on one hand.

Kampuchea Express - aka Angkor: Cambodia Express. Really felt like watching this film, a bit of 80s action and war mixed into B-movie madness, bring it on! The film is shot in Thailand and has a large Thai cast, they speak Thai amongst themselves (I guess so, I'm not knowledgeable enough in Southeast-Asian languages to distinguish Thai from Cambodian) and those parts aren't dubbed or subbed so they are only helping atmosphere. Most other parts are in English though, and it's enough to follow the not very complicated story, which is about Andrew Cameron,an American journalist who frequently visited Cambodia, but gets into trouble after the Khmer Rouge takes over the country. He wants to smuggle some clandestine photographs out of the country, but also wishes to take his Cambodian girlfriend with him, who is now (forcibly?) a part of the Khmer Rouge. After he gets caughtand sent out of the country, he tries to get back in to rescue his girl, meeting various strange characters on his way: the Vietnamese army, the Khmer Rouge, some militia led by an American general who got left behind after the Vietnam War, etc. As for the performances: acting is often wooden, the explosions make people dive towards them instead of away from them and the general transports himself by means of an elephant. So there is enough to enjoy even though the film itself is a bit lame, if you like bad movies you might enjoy this one.

Warlock Moon - watched this one with the introduction by a guy dressed up as a cowboy named Joe Bob Briggs, whom I had never heard of before. He told me some nice background info though, like this was released in 1974, a few months before The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Biggest difference is that TCM became famous and WM is forgotten, but the plots have several similarities. Also, there is no warlock in this film, nor is there a moon so the title is quite enigmatic. The story is about Jenny, a student who falls in love with John, a reporter. They spend some time in the countryside and visit a weird place called Soda, Spring, Spa. There they meet a strange old lady who insists on letting them stay over because Jenny seems to feel a bit sick, but Jenny feels like the entire situation is suspicious and wants to leave. John brings her back later, and then Jenny finds out whether she was right or wrong... Acting was so so, Jenny (Laurie Walters) did a great part and so did John (Joe SPano), the others were not so great. Effects were nice considering the age of the film. While watching this, my disc was having trouble completing the spins and it hung in  my player. I tried a few times but it got really annoying so I watched the remainder of the film on YouTube where you can find the entire film. I'm not surprised this one got forgotten, but it's still a pretty nice entry into the cannibalistic family slasher genre.

KM31: Kilómetro 31 - a Mexican film with some Spanish influence, which is noticeable in the atmosphere but also by the fact one of the main characters is Spanish. Twin sisters Agata and Catalina (played by the same actress) are being ripped apart by an accident in which Agata gets hit by a car and goes into a coma. Catalina wants to find out what really happened that night on the highway, with help of her best friend / boyfriendNuño and Omar, the boyfriend of Agata, she starts doing some research and she finds out about the history of the place. While discovering this, she also uncovers her own youth trauma to Nuño and finds out how she and her sister are seen by the outside world. Meanwhile, the supernatural character of the accident becomes clearer and clearer, and Catalina has to save Agat's spirit which is trapped between the world of the living and the world of the dead. There is only one way to do that... I love Spanish horror, especially because of its atmosphere. This one comes very close to some of the best films from Spain but it's not 100% bull's eye in my opinion. There is one pretty scary scene towards the ending, and overall acting is great. I can safely recommend this one to any horrorfan.

Infestation - Cooper is having a bad day: his dad is on his ass for not getting a better job, his current boss is firing him and he almost got hit by a car crossing the street to work. But all of a sudden there is a high pitched sound and when he wakes up everyone is covered in white stuff forming a cocoon around each person. Soon Cooper finds out there are giant bugs running and flying around, now taking control over the city. He starts waking up some people by opening the cocoons, and soon enough they have some survivors together to make a plan and get rid of the infestation. This is a total BS movie and you should watch it when you're in the mood for such a thing. I was, so I enjoyed it and all it's cliches, with Cooper being the guy who wants to be funny all the time and lives life like it's a comedy, Sara, the boss's daughter who becomes Cooper;s love interest, Ethan, Cooper's father, an ex-military who still thinks he is in the army and that it's war now with the bugs, etc etc. Acting is OK enough, the bugs look like shit (bad CGI) and the story doesn['t make sense, but who cares if you are in for some dumb crap, watch this. Bad movuefans will enjoy it for the bugs and the goo.

Come Out And Play - remake of "Who Can Kill A Child?", the Spanish horror from the 70s. This remake is shorter, and like with most remakes, not better than the original. Atmosphere is OK, but can't reach the levels of the original and that is mostly where this one is lacking. The setting is nice, it's in Mexico this time and the tourists are Americans. The intro is pretty well done and captures the atmosphere of being a stranger in a Latin American country quite nicely, But as soon as they leave with the boat it goes downhill (and that is pretty fast) compared to the original. Don't compare it then, I hear you say. But this one follows the story so closely that you can only not compare it to the original if you haven;t seen that one. I have and I'm glad I did, because it is way better and gave me way more creeps when the children would arrive than this one. In this one there are several scenes in which you could just solve the entire problem pretty easily. Ending was nice though, I don't really recall how the original ended, but this one ended in a pretty cool way. It's a nice film, but my recommendation would be to watch the original.

Frenzy - in my search for more sharkmovies I had come across this one several times but the bad reviews always turned me off. I gave in recently when I could buy it in a package deal and after watching it I must conclude that there aren't many films in which SO much is wrong as in this one. Let me sum up some stuff:
Great whites don't hunt in packs
Movement of the sharks doesn't make sense and doesn't match with their swimming direction
The shark's speed is such that it should overtake Lindsey within seconds, yet she makes it
She dives to dodge the shark attack and lives to tell the tale
The plane is going down without a wing, so it should spiral, not go down in a straight line
Cgi looks ugly as hell, stuff like the shape of the water on plane impact or when the sharks attack doesn't make sense
A wide shot shows Lindsey all alone in the ocean yet seconds later a fellow survivor shows up meters away
The wound on Lindsey's shoulder heals and then reappears
The sharks could have finished the survivors of the planecrash in the first 5 minutes after the crash, or a bit later by continuing to push the raft over
The guy who gets his arm bitten off falls onto the floor of his boat (makes sense) and then falls overboard (makes no snese)
The sharks growl like wolves or lions
Page has her leg broken yet she stands on it even though it's only bandaged not splint
A bleeding shark should get attacked by other sharks as the blood makes them go on a frenzy
When the shark attacks Page, her leg is all inside the shark's mouth but when she leaves the water there is only a big wound on the leg while it should be ripped off
This is by far not everything that was wrong in this film but it gives you an idea. If you like spotting mistakes then this movie is paradise, if you want a realistic sharkfilm then steer clear of this one as good as you can. Only for bad moviefans or shark completists.

Nurse - Danni, a new nurse, is starting work at the hospital. Her mentor is the more experienced Abby, who has a hatred towards men, especially adulterous men. She seduces them and then mutilates and kills them, but Danni doesn't know: she is looking up to Abby, and Abby wants to become friends, even invites Danni to stay over at her apartment whenever she wants to. But when Abby is stretching it a bit, Danni feels like she is the object of her obsession, and she wants out. Problem is that Abby has some pictures of her she doesn't want to go public.... I read in some reviews that this movie doesn't work because Paz de la Huerta isn't a hot babe. Apart from that being subjective, a woman doesn't have to be a hot babe to be a sensual or seductive person, and in that aspect Paz is succeeding (although imo Katrina Bowden takes the prize for being the cutest sweetheart). There is a lot of sex in this film and also a lot of death. Gore isn't rare either. This is a pretty likeable movie if you don't care too much about realism (I mean, literally every man in this film is just following his dick around) but that goes with the genre of course. I can recommend it if you just want gore and a little story, if you like nurses or if you like a mixture of fucking and killing.

The Assent - a not so very typical take on the exorcism subgenre. Joel, a British artist who moved to the US and married an American woman, is now mourning her death and trying to take care of their son Mason. This is hard because Joel doesn't have a real job and the little money he makes he has to spend on the babysitter for Mason, because he needs her to be around or Mason might be taken away from him, He is also in counseling because he is a schizophrenic. One day Mason tells his father he can see strange creatures, and when Joel finds out the babysitter is gonna quit, things get worse. Father Lambert, a priest recently released after he had served time because of a failed exorcism, is being sent to their house in order to save the two-men family. The battle with the demon soon begins... acting is OK, I liked the atmosphere and most of all I liked the way they gave the story a twist. You could see it coming but it was still a nice surprise. Recommended.

Evil Games - a mexican horror about Aram, a nobody who keeps working unpaid overtime and coming home to a wife who asks herself why her husband is not getting a promotion. Sick of the situation, Aram kidnaps a girl to impose his will on her, to at least have a feeling of being someone. He starts leading a triple life: he is the husband, the client of a prostitute and the hardened kidnapper at the same time now. When his life seems to turn for the better, he starts enjoying his new status: he buys his wife nice things, he starts an affair with the new employee and he releases the kidnapped girl. Soon however, he finds out that the entire situation is turning on him now. It takes a while before this movie gets going, but the storytelling is nicely done and in the moments you are likely to lose interest, some big breasted babe walks across the screen (both the wife, the employee and the prostitute have nice racks, with the wife taking the cake). The detail which topples Aram's plan is nice but the way the girl turns is a bit extreme in my opinion. The violence is intense, actually I think this isn't a horror as I didn't notice anything supernatural. The cover reads "this is the best Mexican horror since Pan's Labyrinth" and I'm not so sure about that. It isn't a bad film, but not one I would rewatch anytime soon.

Ghosts of War - pretty good film which starts out as a warmovie: a squad of American paratroopers have to relieve another group who are guarding a huge mansion. When they take over, the other group of soldiers is kind of in a hurry to leave, which raises some suspicion with the paras. Upon scouting out the rooms of the house they hear strange noises and see weird things. In the evening a German patrol is checking out the mansion and the Americans have to defend themselves. That night all hell breaks loose when some vengeful spirits are haunting the soldiers. So instead of the Nazis outside they have to fight the ghosts inside. When there is something warlike going on I always check the equipment and it is surprisingly well done, I only spotted a British sniper rifle and the fact they were talking about the 82nd taking something whereas their shoulderpatches are also 82nd was a bit off. The story about the ghosts is being unraveled bit by bit and it's nicely done although it didn't scare me. Ghosts usually are the creatures in horror that give me the most creeps, but not this time. In the end there is a very nice twist that I totally didn't see coming so that was well done. I can recommend this even to people who don't enjoy horror.