i'm kael's ghost

Spoilers, typos, and bad grammar ahead. You've been warned. I've learned, over the years, that walking into a movie with too many expectations leads to my displeasure. In the case of Late Phases , I had read a couple of good reviews and was only hoping I wouldn't hate it too much - and I'll tell you what, I was quite pleased with the movie overall. The short version of the story reads like this: Getting old sucks. The slightly longer version of the story reads more like: a blind, aging veteran ( Nick Damici of Stake Land ) is sent to live in a remote, assisted living community by his son ( Ethan Embry - who I always think of as just a shitty comedic actor from the 90's). It'll come as no surprise to any horror fan that this "out of the way" village is plagued by "something terrible" and the Norman Rockwell exterior is shattered pretty quickly by a series of gruesome "animal attacks." I think  Eric Stolze  took some risk...

Spoilers, typos, and bad grammar ahead. You've been warned. Tonight's tale of Good and Evil comes to you from the UK. The difficulty with this type of story is that there are really only a couple of ways that they can end: either Good wins, Evil wins, or it's a "draw" and you know  that the fight will be revisited another time (in the sequel, of course.) There's an even greater challenge faced by any  filmmaker these days: creating a compelling story that isn't just a "rip off" or retelling of a story that has already been told . There's this really fine line that exists between being inspired by previous works and not being creative enough to write something unique . I was surprised to find that - for me - Let Us Prey  stayed comfortably on the side of inspired by . Here's how it plays out: Two strangers come to a remote island town. One is a rookie cop (played by Pollyanna McIntosh ), the other is an imposing man of few words ...

Since the untimely passing of my blog editor, I've been having difficulty getting back into reviewing movies. I was actually starting to believe that some part of me had just died off, as well. Today, while working from home, I dove head first into Lazarus Effect . 35 or so minutes from the end of it - I realized that I do, indeed, still have the desire to dissect movies. Alleluia. Hold that praise a moment: I've got to admit, this movie is way too easy a target to really count as "inspiring me to return to my blogging greatness." Regardless, I'll count this as progress. Here's the gist: if Pet Cemetery  had an illegitimate baby with Flatliners  and that baby got hot and heavy with Hollow Man  - the resulting creation might look something like Lazarus Effect. But, I suppose that really just scratches the surface of it. At the heart of this movie is a morality tale known well by horror fans: play god and you'll be punished. The creation of life must...