ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 17, 2016 By Steve Newton The Blair Witch Project was a huge sleeper hit when it came out in 1999. Made on the cheap, it grossed nearly $250 million worldwide, putting the found-footage horror flick on the map and paving the way for other low-budget cash cows like the Paranormal … Continue reading Blair Witch goes all-in on freakiness, not so much on scares
Tag: Eli Roth
The Green Inferno is a weak homage to cannibal horror
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 25, 2015 By Steve Newton If you were a horror fan in the eighties you were no doubt aware of the cannibal exploitation genre, which was best exemplified by Italian director Ruggero Deodata's Cannibal Holocaust. That 1980 gore epic was extremely graphic for its time, so realistically graphic, in fact, that at one … Continue reading The Green Inferno is a weak homage to cannibal horror
If you thought Stephen King’s Pennywise was creepy, get a loada this Clown!
Some people are really creeped out by clowns. The one that Tim Curry portrayed in the Stephen King mini-series IT freaked a few folks out, no doubt. Now here to give Pennywise a run for his kid-menacing money is the bozo in Clown, a new horror flick produced by Eli Roth, the frightmeister behind such gruesome efforts as Hostel and Cabin Fever. Here's … Continue reading If you thought Stephen King’s Pennywise was creepy, get a loada this Clown!
Horror review: Cabin Fever
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 18, 2002 By Steve Newton The promoters of Cabin Fever are using a quote from director Peter Jackson in print ads for their new horror flick. BRILLIANT! and FANTASTIC! are some of the adjectives attributed to the visionary filmmaker behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, this … Continue reading Horror review: Cabin Fever
Horror review: The Last Exorcism Part II
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 1, 2013 2010's The Last Exorcism was a pretty decent flick as far as Hollywood horrors go. It told the tale of an apparently possessed Louisiana teen named Nell (Ashley Bell) who is used as a test subject for a documentary shoot about fake exorcisms. While it incorporated a lot of … Continue reading Horror review: The Last Exorcism Part II
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: Turistas
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, NOV. 29, 2006 What Hostel did for the Slovakian tourism industry—which was basically to drag it into a backroom and torture it to death—Turistas should do for the backpacking-in-Brazil set. But while Hostel director Eli Roth’s controversial 2005 shocker was about as subtle as an electric drill to the eye, Turistas … Continue reading Horror review: Turistas
Horror review: Hostel
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 5, 2006 By Steve Newton The horror scene seems to be in the grip of a hardcore revolution these days. It's as if a cabal of serious fright-film fanatics got together and organized a bitter backlash against hokey Hollywood body-count flicks with cookie-cutter plots and predictable outcomes. In the last … Continue reading Horror review: Hostel