ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 15, 1998 By Steve Newton Usually, the youthful victims in slasher flicks get slaughtered for having sex, but in the opening scenes of Urban Legend, college student Michelle apparently gets her head whacked off just for driving badly and singing along, out of tune, to Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the … Continue reading Urban Legend’s cookie-cutter stereotypes undermine its slasher capabilities
Halloween H20 director Steve Miner once had Jason Vorhees squeeze a guy’s head until an eyeball flew out at ya in 3-D
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 6, 1998 By Steve Newton Hollywood surely is the land of make-believe—especially for people like the producers of Halloween: H20. Why, they only had to close their eyes and click their heels three times and all those pesky Halloween sequels—including 1995’s nonsensical Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers—vanished from memory. That … Continue reading Halloween H20 director Steve Miner once had Jason Vorhees squeeze a guy’s head until an eyeball flew out at ya in 3-D
Horror review: Species II
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 16, 1998 By Steve Newton Last week, David Letterman had as one of his guests Natasha Henstridge, the lovely young actor best-known for parading around in her birthday suit throughout the 1995 horror flick Species. At one point, Dave said something along the lines of, “So, are ya … Continue reading Horror review: Species II
Horror review: Deep Rising
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 12, 1998 By Steve Newton What’s up with Vancouver and the scary movies that are made here? This town may be tops in TV terror (Millennium, The X-Files, The Outer Limits), but it sure has trouble producing decent horror flicks for the big screen, as anyone who’s suffered … Continue reading Horror review: Deep Rising
Event Horizon emerges as a truly twisted, nightmarish summer shocker
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 21, 1997 By Steve Newton I’ve been a die-hard horror fan for most of my life, and the film that first got me hooked on the genre, when I was about eight, was a 1958 B-movie called It! The Terror From Beyond Space. It was about a spaceship that gets boarded … Continue reading Event Horizon emerges as a truly twisted, nightmarish summer shocker
Horror review: Breakdown
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MAY 15, 1997 By Steve Newton The scariest breakdown I ever had occurred about 10 years ago on a Granville Bridge on-ramp during afternoon rush hour. My ’68 Polara with the busted fuel gauge ran out of gas halfway up the curving incline to the bridge, and I had … Continue reading Horror review: Breakdown
Eyeball-popping antics and Jon Voight’s one-man freak show can’t save creature-feature Anaconda
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 17, 1997 By Steve Newton “When you can’t breathe, you can’t scream,” declares the promotional tag line of Anaconda, director Luis Llosa’s $45-million “adventure” film about a group of documentary filmmakers who run afoul of a giant snake in the Brazilian rain forest. Fortunately, when you can’t breathe, you can still … Continue reading Eyeball-popping antics and Jon Voight’s one-man freak show can’t save creature-feature Anaconda
Horror review: The Relic
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 16, 1997 By Steve Newton If somebody asked you to name two of the most popular contemporary action-horror films, there’s a good chance Jurassic Park and Aliens would come to mind. That’s what happened, it seems, when Paramount Pictures started looking for celluloid inspiration for its latest action-horror … Continue reading Horror review: The Relic
Horror review: Tales from the Crypt Presents Bordello of Blood
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 29, 1996 By Steve Newton About halfway through Bordello of Blood, the second of three features slated to come from the producers of TV’s Tales from the Crypt, private detective Rafe Guttman (Dennis Miller) makes a lame wisecrack that stands out from the multitude of others infesting this puerile horror-comedy. While … Continue reading Horror review: Tales from the Crypt Presents Bordello of Blood
Horror review: Halloween–The Curse of Michael Myers
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 5, 1995 By Steve Newton I’m sorry to say that Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is most definitely not a seasonal TV variety show starring that boyish redheaded comic from Saturday Night Live and Wayne’s World. The bad news is that it’s the sixth in the series … Continue reading Horror review: Halloween–The Curse of Michael Myers
Devin Townsend’s early days: Gray Skies, Steve Vai, Commodore highs
Vancouver's Devin Townsend is a master of extreme metal. I'm not saying that from personal experience, because I'm not into extreme metal. Old Iron Maiden's about as extreme as I get these days. But from what I've heard the fortyish singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist is quite the artistic genius when it comes to various … Continue reading Devin Townsend’s early days: Gray Skies, Steve Vai, Commodore highs
Horror review: The Prophecy
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 7, 1995 By Steve Newton Highlander and Backdraft screenwriter Gregory Widen forgot one very important thing when he set about making his directorial debut with the supernatural horror flick The Prophecy. He forgot that when people are watching movies depicting the supreme struggle between good and evil—heaven and … Continue reading Horror review: The Prophecy
Horror review: Lord of Illusions
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, AUG. 31, 1995 By Steve Newton Clive Barker is the ultimate lord of self-delusion if he believes that Lord of Illusions—which he wrote, directed, and coproduced—is going to help the film career that took a nosedive five years ago with the nonsensical and inept Nightbreed. That flick, like Barker’s … Continue reading Horror review: Lord of Illusions