Fulci Lives

Well, his work does at least. Last night I watched "City Of The Living Dead", this is one of the early films in his big 4 of zombie films. (Zombi, City Of The Living Dead, House By The Cemetery, and his masterpiece, The Beyond) As you watch each film you can see how he progresses toward better editing, quicker paced story telling and just how far he can push the actors. Even the soundtrack by Fabio Frizzi sounds identical to "The Beyond".

"City Of The Living Dead" open with a priest hanging himself in a cemetery in Dunwich (former place of the Salem witch trails), thus opening the gates of hell. A woman holding a seance sees this and dies of fright...or so we think.

A reporter investigating myserious deaths throughout town is moseying through the cemetary when he hears our dead psychic screaming from inside her coffin. He breaks her out and they then begin to investigate.

People in Dunwich are dying very greusomely right after they see the dead priest flash before their eyes.

I wont spoil the whole movie for you but know that this does come with some excellent acting...Katherine McColl, Michael Soavi, and Lucio Fulci himself are all in the film. A definite must watch for any who are in love with the seedy underbelly of horror.

The Strangers

I really ate my words today after watching this film. When I first started seeing trailers for this film I thought that it had potential, but I just didn't like Scott Speedman. This film was genius. I don't say that a lot about films, I am a really harsh critic, but "The Strangers" really did scare the hell out of me.

Based on true events, "The Strangers" follows two characters Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman). James and Kristen were at a friend's wedding reception, when they ran into some relationship problems. They are staying at the family cottage and start to make amends when there is a forceful knock at the door. There is a young woman asking for Tamera.

After sending her on her way, we are back to the doom and gloom of their relationship. James goes for a drive to get Kristen some cigarettes, and that is when the fun begins. Eerie placement of the strangers through the house, and incredible attention to natural sound bring so many terrors to this film I wish that I had a safety blanket.

The film is based on true events, and those events are from the writer/director Bryan Bertino's childhood, and also the events that took place at Cabin #28 at Keddie Resort. I look forward to seeing more work from Bryan, and highly recommend this film to all who are looking to lose a nights sleep.

The Machine Girl

As I walked the aisles of Wal-Mart's electronics section I stumbled across this film "The Machine Girl". What a diamond in the rough this is. Though it is an Asian film, it was made specially for the American audiences, never aired in Japan.

The story has a very common theme in Asian cinema...revenge. Ami is a normal school girl who has been taking care of her younger brother since her parent's committed suicide. Things seem to be going well in their lives until her brother, Yu, gets caught up with the Yakuza and gets himself killed.

Distraught, Ami decides to take vengeance upon the Yakuza family that killed her brother, the Hanzo family. Yes, that's right, Hitori Hanzo. Ami storms the families house and fights several henchmen before she is caught and tortured. The loss of her arm leaves her in pain and on the brink of death. Luckily she manages to stumble upon the doorstep of Yu's friend, who also died by the hands of the Hanzo.

After a little home suturing and some mechanical know-how, shes back to fighting, and now with a machine gun arm. She teams up with a mother of Yu's friend who was also killed by the Hanzo clan. After several ridiculous battles involving ninjas, and also an angry group of mourning parents, Ami and her partner descend on the Hanzo family temple with all the power that they have.

This film is riddled with excellent visuals, and very inventive weapons i.e. the drill bra, the flying guillotine, a suiroken sword, and also an arm that has been fried like tempura. It also is an homage to, I'm sure, some of the writer/director's favorite movies. Kill Bill, Army of Darkness, and Planet Terror to name a few.

I highly recommend this film to all.