The Town That Dreaded Sundown 2014

Cast:

• Addison Timlin as Jami Lerner
• Travis Tope as Nick Strain
• Veronica Cartwright as Lillian, Jami's grandmother
• Gary Cole as Chief Deputy Tillman
• Joshua Leonard as Deputy Foster

Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Plot: A masked maniac terrorizes the same, small community where the infamous  murderer, known as the Phantom Killer,  carried out his horrific crimes  decades earlier

Masks, I do love a masked killer!.

There's a large resurgence of 80's style slasher flicks at the moment. This one is part remake part sequel to the 1976 film of the same name. It follows on from those events but also recognises the film was made of so we have the sometimes clever idea of a film within a film! I say sometimes because a lot of the time this concept doesn't work. Thankfully, this time it does, mostly.

Damn pesky kids.

So, just like the last review, It Follows, let's start by saying the look of this film is stunning. This is another director who knows how to set up a shot and the 80's feel is superbly handled. The film quickly introduces us to our main character, Jami, a small town teenager, not enjoying the horror movie she is viewing at the local drive-in with her boyfriend. They leave to go park up and do what teenagers do and what do you know, the serial killer is back. It's a great throwback scene to the best slasher films of years past.

Hands up!

The next hour or so follows the usual formula to most slasher films, people are picked off, cops suspect the wrong people, more teens park up to kiss and cuddle, all though there is a brave  twist to this in that it's a boy - boy encounter which further shows the director knows that your expecting one thing and he delivers the opposite. The kills are mostly done very well and the main antagonist is creepy enough and has just enough menace about him.

Spooky font, awesome!

We quickly find ourselves at the climax to the film and this is where it falls down just ever-so slightly. It's true to most 80's pics that the killer is unmasked and the reveal is a shock, and that's the case here, but it still felt like a bit of an anti climax. Maybe because I had enjoyed the previous hour and a half so much I was more disappointed that is was almost over, but I couldn't help feel that it needed just something else. What? I don't know, but it did. Maybe. All in all though a great movie. Stunning visually, great acting, and no recent movie has captured the feel of the 80's as well as this!

Summary:

 Great because:

• Actors were spot on
• Practical effects, you'll never beat them
• The movie in a movie concept worked
• Great masked killer

 Crap because:

• Ending fizzled out just a tad. Maybe.

Hamster Rating: 

Gore: 3

Scares: 3

It Follows 2015

Cast:

• Maika Monroe as Jaime "Jay" Height
• Keir Gilchrist as Paul
• Olivia Luccardi as Yara
• Lili Sepe as Kelly Height
• Daniel Zovatto as Greg Hannigan

Director: David Robert Mitchell

Plot: After a sexual encounter, Jaime Height is pursued by a supernatural entity,  that her friends cannot see or hear. It's up to them all to stop it!

Damn pesky kids.

A new and original idea for a horror movie? Do what? Yeah, that's right, a completely new take on the old story of a supernatural stalker. Let me start of by saying this is a small, low budget, independent film. Secondly let me say this, this film looks absolutely stunning. The director, David Mitchell,  is a future big hitter, no question. The entire cast do a wonderful job and Miss Monroe is a star in the making. The film is probably set in the late 80s, its never really revealed, and the suburban style is fantastic. The cinematography is the best I've seen in horror for years.

She'll catch more than a cold.

So Jaime has sex for the first time with her boyfriend in the back of his car.  Moments after he chloroforms her and she wakes in an abandoned warehouse bound to a chair. He tells her that he has passed on the "disease" and she will now be pursued by a relentless being who will try to kill her, and it will not stop until she passes it to another, via the act of nookie nookie. Pretty crazy yeah? Well yeah but because its played so straight and serious, and because when the entity does show up its absolutely terrifying, the whole thing works to a tee.

 That'll get infected!

The film flows and grips you right from the start. Because you never know when, or what in what form, the evil will strike you are constantly on edge, waiting. Is it the old lady across the street? Is it the young boy behind you? It could be anyone and because of this you get a lot of tension. Now, this is an arty type of film, lots of dialogue and build up but when this thing does show up the minimal CGI effects are top notch, putting lots of big budget movies to shame!

Peekaboo!!!!

The film races to a fantastic climax as Jaime and her friends prepare for the final confrontation with the evil being. The nice little twist at the films end is also a nice touch and could lead to a sequel but to be honest, this film is so original and so well done it should be left to stand on its own. An absolute gem of a film and hats of to everyone involved. Directors and writers of horror should all watch this film to see that you don't need vast sums of money or countless CGI or gore shots to create something special. I cannot recommend this film enough. Nice one!

Summary:

 Great because:

• Actors are amazing
• Limited effects are spot on
• Completely original
• Beach attack scene? No thank you

 Crap because:

• I didn't write it

Hamster Rating: 

Gore: 1

Scares: 4

The Ghoul 2015

Cast:

• Jennifer Armour as Jenny
• Jeremy Isabella as Ethan
• Paul S. Tracey as Rayn
• Alina Golovlyova as Katarina
• Inna Belikova as Inna

Plot:  An American film crew heads off to Kiev to interview the locals regarding historic cannibalism. Once there confirmed they are introduced to a local witch, who explains that supernatural forces were responsible. Whilst carry out a  seance, the crew summons the spirit of killer and cannibal, Andrei Chikatilo, who was active in the area in the late 1970s and 1980s. Chikatilo begins his spree again

Hmmmmm, cannibalism, OK. I haven't seen too many films regarding eating other people, unless you count porn, but this one is a found footage movie and if there's one thing I love, its found footage! The film gets going straight away, with our American docu-film makers arriving in Ukraine and meeting their creepy guide and his translator daughter. The war ravished location, and slightly simple locals gives it an immediate Deliverance vibe which works well.

No, its not Croydon.

Soon enough our friends and their guide have arrived at a deserted, semi derelict, farm house, with the local witch joining them who reckons supernatural forces were responsible for Chikatilo's crimes. Sure enough, as soon as the sun goes down, they get drunk and one of them suggests doing a seance! Yup, they're in cliché city!

Don't scratch the fuc#king table!

All sounds pretty bog standard yeah? Well it is but its all done OK. Nothing outstanding but more then watchable and the whole cast are pretty good. A few jumps later and the sun has risen, the guide has vanished and the glass used on the ouiji board sits, still upturned, on the table with the witch claiming that the spirit raised by the group the previous night, was under the glass and was gonna prevent anyone from leaving alive!

Underground mayhem ensues!

So now we get the usual night vision jump scares and it goes pretty run of the mill until 20 minutes from the end the film heads underground which is always garunteed scares! The effects are nice, the sense of claustrophobia underground is awesome and the ending just about lifts the film from the gutter in to a mid table winner. All in all a nice, well shot independent, found footage film. The actors were above average and the unique location helps me to recommend this film too anyone who likes found footage, cannilbilistic, Ukrainian ghost stories with nice twists.

Summary:

 Great because:

• Actors do a good job
• Effects are pretty effective
• It goes underground!
• Buried alive? No thank you

 Crap because:

• It could have been scarier
• No gore to be found, not that it needed it

Hamster Rating:

Gore: 1

Scares: 3



Salem's Lot 1975

Cast:

• David Soul as Ben Mears
• James Mason as Richard Straker
• Lance Kerwin as Mark Petrie
• Bonnie Bedelia as Susan Norton
• Lew Ayres as Jason Burke

Plot:  A writer named Ben Mears  returns to the town where he lived as a boy (Jerusalem's Lot, or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, to discover that the residents are all becoming vampires!

Right then, a real classic revisited! David Soul and James Mason, amoungst others, what could go wrong? I can remember being forced to watch this at the age of 8, 9 or 10 and being so scared lying in bed waiting for the scratching to start at the windows! Originally shot as a 4 hour, 2 part TV mini series, the version I watched was the 3 hour edit. There is also a 2 hour version witch was released in European cinemas.

Classic Soul man.

Let's get this out the way first. This is dated. Long hair, flares, corny dialogue, its 1975 for Christ's sake. That being said, David Soul never looked so cool. The hammy acting from James Mason is just that, hammy, but this just adds to the creepy atmosphere of the whole thing, and creepy it is. Young boys are killed. Mothers of young, murdered boys are killed. Husbands of mothers of young murdered boys are killed. People drop like flies and it's all down to pesky vampires which breed like rabbits!

Lock those windows!

The vampires and the vampire effects are great, even by today's standards. Directed by the legendary Tobe Hooper, of Poltigiest fame, the sight and sounds of the monsters hovering outside the window as the fog swirls around them is nerve shredding. These are classic vampires too! Shove a crucifix on to their forehead and woosh, they disappear, wailing and screeching. Show them some Hawthorne or holy water and they'll brick it, big time. They are exactly what a true vampire should be.

Look at those gnashers!.

The long, TV format, run time means we get a lot of characters and so a lot of sub plots, but they're all done well and are never boring. The makeup on Reggie Nalder is fantastic and a nod to Max Schreck's Nosfertu and is a joy to behold. The film builds up to a wonderful climax as our heroes go in to the beasts lair, in this case the large creepy house and I can garuntee that by the time Detective Kenneth Hutchinson gets to the cellar, you'll be right on the very edge of your seat. An absolute must for any real horror fan, ignore the large collars and it don't get much better than this!

Summary:

 Great because:

• David Soul and James Mason
• Effects are faithful to folklore
• It just goes on and on
• The window scene, no thank you

 Crap because:

• Hard to find the full, uncut version
• The dog dies, needlessly

Hamster Rating:

Gore: 2

Scares: 4.5