ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 26, 2007 A couple of months back, a promotional item came into the Georgia Straight office advertising the second sequel to the 2002 video-game spinoff Resident Evil. It was a plastic globe that, when you flipped it over, had sand filter down through letters cut into a surface so the words … Continue reading Horror review: Resident Evil–Extinction
Horror review: Hatchet
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 12, 2007 The movie industry can be an incredibly strange creature, case in point being the theatrical release of Hatchet . How this utterly worthless slasher flick managed to avoid going straight to video and then directly to the bargain bin will confound discriminating horror fans for days, if not … Continue reading Horror review: Hatchet
Horror review: The Invasion
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 22, 2007 The Invasion is the fourth film adaptation of American author Jack Finney's classic sci-fi satire, "The Body Snatchers", which was originally serialized in Collier's magazine in 1954. It was filmed in 1956 and 1978 as Invasion of the Body Snatchers one of the best B-movie titles ever, right … Continue reading Horror review: The Invasion
Horror review: Skinwalkers
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 15, 2007 Skinwalkers is about two gangs of werewolves, one good and one bad. Elias Koteas stars as Joshua, leader of the nice, family-oriented werewolves who, when a full moon approaches, bind themselves up in leather harnesses so they don't harm anyone. Jason Behr from The Grudge and TV's Roswell … Continue reading Horror review: Skinwalkers
Horror review: I Know Who Killed Me
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 1, 2007 Hollywood is crawling with limo drivers, so how come Lindsay Lohan keeps thinking that she has to drive herself around L.A. whenever she's drunk and packing drugs? Maybe she's taking transportation tips from her agent, or whoever the hell suggested she top-line this ultra-sleazy horror-thriller, an excruciatingly awful … Continue reading Horror review: I Know Who Killed Me
Horror review: Captivity
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JULY 18, 2007 As the distributor of the Hostel and Saw franchises, Vancouver-based Lionsgate Films has a virtual stranglehold on today's gruesome and sadistic horror flicks. But now that Lionsgate has seen how much money it can make with so-called torture porn, it's gotten greedy; case in point being Captivity is … Continue reading Horror review: Captivity
Horror review: Joshua
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JULY 18, 2007 Now here's a certifiable nightmare maker for people with young kids. Anyone who's ever heard (or just imagined) troubling sounds coming from a fuzzy baby monitor or fretted while their fifth-grader traversed a big-city crosswalk will have their nerves seriously jangled by Joshua. It's a wonderfully absorbing shocker … Continue reading Horror review: Joshua
Horror review: 1408
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JUNE 20, 2007 Unforgettable haunted-house flicks are extremely hard to come by; the only two I can think of are 1963's The Haunting and The Shining. The subgenre of haunted-hotel-room flicks is promising in that the number of hotel patrons passing through maximizes the potential for untimely death and subsequent souls … Continue reading Horror review: 1408
Horror review: Hostel Part II
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JUNE 13, 2007 I've never been so disturbed by a horror flick as I was by the original Hostel; its notorious dangling-eyeball scene literally had me grinding my teeth in revulsion. So when word arrived that taboo-blasting director Eli Roth was planning a follow-up to last year's subversive torture flick, I … Continue reading Horror review: Hostel Part II
Horror review: Severance
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MAY 30, 2007 In Severance’s promo material, the British horror-comedy is described as “The Office meets Deliverance”. It’s better defined, however, as a freaky cross between Friday the 13th and Hostel—with some serious chuckles thrown in. Discriminating horror fans should also note that it’s the most exhilarating fright flick to hit … Continue reading Horror review: Severance
Horror review: The Invisible
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MAY 2, 2007 Director David S. Goyer turned the familiar sights of our fair city into a seething battleground for vampires in 2004's Blade: Trinity, but his latest Vancouver-shot supernatural flick, The Invisible, doesn't have nearly as much bite. It's a remake of the 2002 Swedish thriller Den Osynlige, but it … Continue reading Horror review: The Invisible
Horror review: Vacancy
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, APRIL 25, 2007 Vacancy is an effective horror flick on a few levels. It preys on your fear of getting hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere, and it preys on your fear of being waylaid by murderous strangers. But mostly it preys on your fear of getting stuck on an … Continue reading Horror review: Vacancy
Horror review: The Reaping
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, APRIL 11, 2007 What's with the recent spate of Oscar-winning actors starring in shockingly bad supernatural horror flicks? Two weeks ago you had Forest Whitaker embarrassing himself in The Marsh, and now you've got two-time Academy Award champ Hilary Swank committing career hara-kiri in The Reaping. Have their Hollywood agents signed … Continue reading Horror review: The Reaping