Tag: horror

Final Destination 2 is one sick, gruesomely over-the-top flick

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 30, 2003 By Steve Newton In his 1981 treatise on horror, Danse Macabre, Stephen King wrote: “I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I … Continue reading Final Destination 2 is one sick, gruesomely over-the-top flick

Horror review: Darkness Falls

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 30, 2003 On the Darkness Falls Web site, there’s a poll question that asks: “If you were forced to die in one of the following ways, which would it be?” Between the five options available—being buried alive, eaten alive by insects, burned alive, dismembered, or beheaded—85 percent of … Continue reading Horror review: Darkness Falls

Horror review: They

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DEC. 5, 2002 By Steve Newton The makers of They thought that by throwing the name of horror master Wes Craven around—as in “Wes Craven Presents They”—they would garner interest in the film from the millions of moviegoers who made the Craven-created Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream series so successful. But … Continue reading Horror review: They

Horror review: Ghost Ship

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 31, 2002 By Steve Newton The folks at Hollywood’s Dark Castle Entertainment just don’t know when to give up. After nauseating viewers big time with their lamebrained haunted-house remakes, Thir13en Ghosts and House on Haunted Hill, they’re now polluting the high seas with this dead-in-the-water combo of The … Continue reading Horror review: Ghost Ship

Horror review: Reign of Fire

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 18, 2002 Reign of Fire is one of the most intense and enjoyable monster flicks I’ve ever seen. It’s got throat-clutching suspense, pulse-pounding action, incredible-looking sets, deft direction, stunning cinematography, razor-sharp editing, rich production values, and terrifying creatures. In other words, it ranks right up there with Alien … Continue reading Horror review: Reign of Fire

Horror review: Eight Legged Freaks

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 25, 2002 By Steve Newton I love watching horror movies starring spiders, mainly because they scare the heck out of me. I don’t mean those pretty gold-coloured ones you sometimes see hanging out in the garden, or those spindly daddy longlegs; I mean those hairy, brown, sinister-looking wolf … Continue reading Horror review: Eight Legged Freaks

Horror review: Jason X

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 25, 2002 By Steve Newton I met Jason once. Back in ’89, they were filming Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan at an abandoned high school in Burnaby and I was covering the shoot for American horror mag Fangoria. During a break, stuntman-actor Kane Hodder came lumbering down the … Continue reading Horror review: Jason X

Horror review: Frailty

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 25, 2002 Hollywood marketing departments seem more desperate than ever to find sources for the hyperbolic reviewer quotes they splash across TV screens and newspaper ads. There’s no need to rely on established critical outlets like the New York Times and the Village Voice when they can magnify … Continue reading Horror review: Frailty

Horror review: Resident Evil

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MARCH 21, 2002 The TV trailer for Resident Evil features a scene in which a scrappy chick in a red dress takes on a pack of bloodthirsty mutant Dobermans that appear to have been skinned alive. The part where she runs up a wall and then twists around to … Continue reading Horror review: Resident Evil

Horror review: Queen of the Damned

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 28, 2002 Awesome vampire flicks are hard to find. The last one that really blew me away was Near Dark, and that was way back in ’87. In the case of contemporary big-budget efforts, Bram Stoker’s Dracula was too grandiose for my tastes, and the pretty-boy adaptation of … Continue reading Horror review: Queen of the Damned

Horror review: The Mothman Prophecies

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 31, 2002 The Mothman Prophecies is supposedly based on a series of mysterious events that occurred in the mid-’60s in the small town of Point Pleasant, Virginia. Reports of unexplained lights in the sky, strange telephone noises, and sightings of a man-sized, mothlike entity culminated in a bridge … Continue reading Horror review: The Mothman Prophecies

Horror review: Bones

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 15, 2001 Lately, it seems as though a deluge of gory, made-in-B.C. horror flicks has been unleashed upon the moviegoing public. First to drench local screens with blood ’n’ gore was Thi13een Ghosts, the noisy and nauseating haunted-house flick that’s about as intriguing as a 90-minute Rob Zombie … Continue reading Horror review: Bones