Underworld -- 2 reviews: Book and DVD

Underworld Movie tie-in book. Novelization by Greg Cox 

Based on the screenplay by Danny McBride. 

 “A gripping tale of passion, betrayal and revenge starring ate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman.” ~ Blurb from the back cover of the book. 

Note: This review may contain spoilers, so if you would like to see the movie and be surprised, it might be best to skip this review. Also a DVD review follows the book review ~ Richard Lee. 

I have always loved werewolves and vampires. I have a book about werewolves and a chapbook series with werewolves and vampires fight each other also. This book, is hard out action from beginning to end. The writing style is great, smooth and each sentence produces a perfect picture of the action taking place, and the best thing is that Greg Cox does not treat the reader like a fool and feel the need to fully explain in intricate detail every little thing. He suspects (and rightly so) that we know what a subway station looks like. The Gothic mansion where the vampires live is only outlined, giving an overall vision that does not hamper with the pace of the story. 

A story spanning 900 years. The vampires are at war with the werewolves. 

The book starts off well, with Selene, an excellent Death Dealer (the band of warrior vampires that hunt and kill the werewolves), is standing on top of a five-story high building overlooking the city, Budapest. She spies two thugs and recognizes them as werewolves. And from page four, the action starts. Greg masterly implants Michael a young doctor, fleeing America from a past he can’t bare to handle any longer, into the mix straight away, placing him walking along the street headed to the subway station. Exactly where the werewolves are headed. Selene notices him, his appearance very pleasing to her. Quickly she tries to put him out of her mind, she has spotted the Lycanthropes and must deal with them. During a firefight, she sees the American in the middle of crossfire helping to save a young girls life. She admires him for his bravery, and while watching him, she notices something very strange. One of the werewolves lurches for the young doctor - not about to kill but to capture. 

She quickly shoots the werewolf, injuring but not killing it. The werewolf runs into the subway tunnels. In shock and not knowing what else to do, he heads to work, and returns home in the early morning hours. He doesn’t know that Selene has found his house and is waiting inside. Once he discovers her, there is a slight altercation where the Death Dealer throws him against the wall, wanting answers to her questions. Suddenly there is heavy thumping on the roof. 

 The werewolves have arrived, confirming Selene’s suspicions that they are after Michael for some reason and she needs to keep him alive to find out why. In a ferocious action packed chapter, Michael is bitten by the leader of the werewolves, Lucian, who spits some of the blood into a small test tube. 

Why does Lucian want to keep some of Michael's blood? Well to make a long story short: Michael is a direct descendant of the very first immortal, he does not have the power to change into either werewolf or vampire. The werewolves want to mix his blood with that of a vampire and werewolf to create a new breed of immortal. A hybrid. The vampires do not want this. The hybrid will be the most powerful immortal to ever exist. 

 Kravan, the lead vampire running the house of the elder Viktor, tries to stop Selene's efforts to help Michael every step of the way. He is jealous. He wants Selene for himself, but she just plain hates him. In a desperate bid to find help, she awakens the elder Viktor, only to learn that he believes Kravan over her any day for the pure and simple reason, that she is love with a Lycan. 

*Note: There are three elders, two sleep like mummies for a hundred or two hundred years while only one reigns. The next to be awakened should have been Marcus not Viktor. Selene broke the number one rule that has saved their lives for centuries. This infuriates Viktor so much he decides that Selene must be judged before the high council – and that means death. ~end of note. Selene escapes the mansion and rushes to Michael's aide (she has earlier handcuffed him to the chair in a special room at an interrogation house). The Lycans follow her, knowing she will lead them to Michael. In a vicious battle, the Lycans grab Michael and take him to Lucian. 

The book focuses on the vampires most of the way through, making the werewolves out to be the bad guys. I wasn't happen about this until I reached the part of Michael meeting Lucian in the Lycans lair. Here the truth comes out and all is reveled. I haven’t seen the DVD yet, but have ordered it based on how well this book is written. 

 1. It was un-put-down-able. 

 2. The story flowed wonderfully. 

3. Not over explained details. 

4. Fast paced. 

5. Is more than a movie tie-in, it is a full sized novel at 372 pages. 

Over all rating out of 5: 5 Content, action, description: 5 Writing - style and prose: 4.5 

This book is a MUST for any horror library. 

DVD version review of Underworld Screen Gems productions. Widescreen edition. • 

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman • 

Encoding: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.) • 

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby • 

Rated: Not for sale to persons under age 18. • 

Studio: Columbia Tristar Home • 

DVD Release Date: January 6, 2004 • 

DVD Features: • Commentary by director Len Wiseman, writer Danny McBride, and writer-actor Kevin Grevioux • Commentary by creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos, visual effects supervisor and executive producer James McQuaide, and sound designer Claude Letessier • 

Theatrical trailer(s), TV spot(s) • 

"The Making of Underworld" featurette • 

Creature effects featurette • 

Stunts featurette • 

Sights and sound featurette • 

Storyboard comparison • 

Finch music video: "Worms of the Earth" • 

Widescreen anamorphic format

I really enjoyed this movie, it rocked. Plain and simple. 

BUT, I think that was only because I had read the book, the day before. So much was cut! Nothing blended perfectly with the movie, also making no sense. This is not a case of the book being better than the movie, ‘cause the book is a movie tie-in – it was written from the script. Still I am glad to have the DVD stand on the bookshelf next to the book. 

If you have the chance, get the book and read it. It is horror. There are only a few differences: 1. Michael is holding his hands above his head trying to fend off the rain. 2. The girl in the subway is shot in the leg, not the shoulder. 

Apart from the edited scenes that ruined the movie, I can’t recall much of what else was missing. If you liked the movie or thought it was so-so, get the book and read it, the movie will then make sense. Why do editors feel the need to cut good shit from the movies? 

Thanks to DVD we can now see the cut scenes.

Razor Blade Smile -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Razor Blade Smile 

Written and Directed by: Jake West 

Starring: Eileen Daily 

 Christopher Adamson 

 Jonathon Coote 

Released by: Manga Live 

 An EYE DEAL IMAGE production in association with Beatnik Films. 

This review is based in the video release. 

 This is a vampire movie, told in first person. Razor Blade Smile is a British movie, set in the present day, about a hit-man called, The Angel of Death. Her latest assignments have all been about one sect, the members all wear a ring that resembles the Evil Eye. There’s also connections with the Illuminati and the Free Masons. 

 Sounds good doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t. Sorry. The storyline is good (the idea of it anyway), problem is the acting is so lame, zombies would do a better job with the script. And here lies the second problem. The script sucks. The dialogue is forced and immature, unnatural in every aspect. The killing scenes are impossible to devour, the Van Helsing part was wooden and unbelievable. He is part of the Illuminati and associates with vampires in the ‘group’ but doesn’t believe in them. 

 It’s like this movie starred puppets. 

I endured 95 minutes of this … and why? Because the dialogue was so bad it was almost funny. 

 The movie starts off in first person POV and constantly switched back and forth, between first and third point of view. A confusing watch. I mentioned POV here, due to the fact it is a telling-type movie (first or second person POV - here it was first person), yet it is also played out in third person. 

 There were two good actors in this movie but they only had small roles (hey, don’t wanna ruin the Z-Grade effect) and played them very well. 

The scene with the widow screaming about the hit-man being a monster, a vampire, was very well done. I was enthralled for those brief 2 minutes. And the second was the lover-boy/hit contract-maker, when he was kidnapped and video taped. 

 Anyway, a bit about the movie: 

A vampire hit-man (female), accepts contracts for the thrill of doing something. She claims it’s boring being alive for hundreds of years with nothing to do. So she visits a Goth bar, makes friends with this chick who is right into vamps (movie versions). She becomes dinner part way through the movie. The man who arranges the contracts for ‘The Angle of Death’ is also her part-time lover. 

In her last hit, she failed to collect the ring and it falls into the hands of the police. This will not do, so the ‘bad guys’ want their money back and to get it they kidnap lover-boy. She races to his rescue and during a terrible filmed battle scene involving guns, he is killed. She faces off with her adversary who turned her into a vampire. 

 An unpredictable twist arises here (yes there is one), but it pulled off so suddenly and terribly that instead of saying, “What the……”, one finds oneself laughing. On reflection, I’m thinking was this movie meant to be comedy, black comedy perhaps? On further reflection, I must discount this theory, as the movie tried to be a real horror. It had the blood and a story idea that could have worked well, but sadly didn’t. 

Not one of the story plots were investigated, a third grader speaks better than these actors, and the action scenes (maybe trying to be artistic) were instead hard on the eyes. The camera work was jittery and the editing could have been a lot better. 

 At least we didn’t see the mike and the actors not once looked at the camera. That’s a bonus. 

 Only hardcore vamp lovers could endure this movie, and only just barely. 

 Overall rating: 1 

Acting: 1 (except for the two above mentioned). 

Script / dialogue / action scenes: 2 

Worth owning / viewing: No. 

 Yes, it’s true I’m being hard on this movie. Watch it and you’ll find out why.

Dying Days -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Dying Days By Eric S. Brown 

Cover art by Russ Dickerson $11.95 

Horror Collection 

 128 pages 

 39,400 words 

http://www.silverlakepublishing.com/catalog/ddays.html 

 Eric S. Brown, 29 years old, is an author with an active imagination. In his collection: Dying Days, you’ll find 19 tales of horror and cross-genres. All the stories are quite short, a few were perhaps too short to really get into the characters and the settings. 

Most of the stories were ‘telling’ more than showing, which robbed me of any feelings towards the huge cast of characters. In the Introduction, Jason Brannon tells us the end is coming and introduces us the mage called Eric S. Brown and this collection. Jason’s introduction was awesome, and pumped me up to read the collection as quickly as I could.

 Eric seems to like to cross genres. “To Reach the Gates of Alavon”, one of my favorites in this collection, contains cross-dimensional travel, aliens, mythic warriors and a group on a quest that was fun to read. It is one of the longer stories in this collection at 10 pages. 

Another great story is “The Return”, a great story but it needs work to make us feel for Jack. There was no emotion to follow his realization. A good thing was the vision of reckoning day. This story had little show, and apart from Jack the rest of the cast were 2D at best. 

 Quite a few of the stories contain futuristic elements making the collection part SF / part horror. Some of the ‘talk’ needs to be improved, but he’s a new guy (to this reviewer at least), so mistakes aside (yes there are a couple, not big but noticeable), this first collection is a great start for the young writer. 

Most readers will find 5 or 6 stories they love in this book and these stories make the $11.95 asking price well worth it.

A red dark night -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

A red dark night By A.P. Fuchs 

214 pages

Coscom entertainment 

 ISBN: 0-9734848-0-2 

© 2004 Adam Fuchs 

$12.95 USD. 

Adam P. Fuchs set out to write a B-Grade horror flick in book form. He failed. Instead, A.P. Fuchs produced a book that is an A-Grade page turner. 

It starts off in 1982 at Camp Silverway, where we are introduced to the Bloodans and Tarek, a man from a future darker than we could imagine. There is a battle between The Bloodans and Humans. They are from the future and somehow have found a way to cause a rip in time, so they can seep into the past. They have two weaknesses only, one just recently discovered. 

Camp Silverway seems to be a focal point for the Bloodans, they all enter the past at the same location. Bloodans don’t just kill, they sink into a body and drain it of blood. They need blood to survive, and shortly after, the dead becomes one of them. 

 A.P. Fuchs shows us a future controlled by the Bloodans. A place where the sky is red with patches of charcoal black and thick gray smoke hangs in the air. All in all, this book is a great read. The start is a bit slow as everything is laid into place. After that, it takes off at a quick pace and never lets up, building momentum with every turn of page. 

 Unfortunately, A.P. Fuchs doesn’t spent enough time building characters the reader would care for. The warriors were well built and believable (apart from some of the dialogue), but the female leads, Mary and Sarah, come across as just names on a page. 

 There are a few scenes when the “Un-believability Factor” is broken – that fine line crossed – that momentarily destroys the world we have entered. The most important being in chapter two where Mary is racing to the camp after her lover is killed, while being chased by a Bloodan -- and no one seems concerned. Also there is the lack of emotion from every character (except Tarek and Salch) in the book. Some of the characters that were portrayed well, died quickly. Was this the B-Grade effect A.P. Fuchs was looking for, which is mentioned in the introduction? 

 Get past the above (I’m a picky reader/reviewer) and this book will seem like an action packed movie. 

The story flows from page to page. All you need is popcorn and a coke. This book would make an excellent movie.  

Over all rating out of 5: 3.5 (due to the above mentioned lack of characterization) 

 Content, action, description: 4.5 (reads like a movie - great visual scenes) 

Writing - style and prose: 4 

I’ll leave you with A.P. Fuchs’s description, told via Tarek, of what the Bloodans are: “Bloodans,” he began, “are made of blood. They come from a place where more blood has been shed than on any other ground on earth. The evil which caused the bloodshed’s very real. It is the embodiment of darkness, the essence of death and murder, and that…evil…gives them life. Death fuels them. Unfortunately, as long as there is death, there will be Bloodans.”

Long Time Dead -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Long Time Dead
AKA: The Shadow
©2002

Directed by Marcus Adams

Cast:
Rob -- Joe Absolom
Stella -- Lara Belmont
Annie -- Melanie Gutteridge
Webstar -- Lukas Hass
Spencer -- James Hillier
Liam -- Alec Newman
Joe -- Mel Raido
Lucy Marsha Thomason


This is one hell of a movie based on the old and overused concept -- the Ouiji Board, and an evil spirit.

It’s a British movie with punch. Largely better than most British horror before 2002, it surpasses all expectations. I was tense watching this; the only problem with this movie was the way the lead characters were introduced -- as social druggies. The four guys are outside snorting coke off a rail line as the train came toward them, just to see how far they’ll go for kicks. The girls are upstairs in a warehouse drinking.

There are 8 in all who take part in the Ouiji Board “fun” and one has a video camera.

The movie opens in the standard “you are about to watch a horror movie” way. It opens in Morocco, 1976, where a group of occultists are murmuring / chanting, while a group sits at an Ouiji Board making contact with “Djin” an evil spirit from the ancient days. A Shaman is supervising, when all hell breaks loose and Djin kills all but two.

--Time for the credits--

Next we are introduced to the characters. As I mentioned there are eight. The leading man, Liam is accosted by constant flashes of a boy running away from…something. There are two leading ladies at first Stella and Lucy. Stella dies an awesome death and that leaves Lucy to figure out a way to get rid of the evil. I didn’t actually know there were two leading ladies, I thought it was only Stella, so much focus was on her until she bought the proverbial farm.

Anyway, Lucy is the one who knows about contacting spirits and it is her idea (while the guys are stoned and the girls drunk) to do an Ouiji Board session. She warns them not to break contact with the glass ‘cause that’ll be like shutting the door the spirit used to enter, leaving them (it) trapped in here -- our world.

Most don’t believe in this hogwash until Lucy says, “Is anyone there?” and the glass moves to YES. “Do you have a message for us?” A-L-L-D-I-E. The messages is repeated twice. Then it spells out it’s name: D-J-I-N, repeatedly, going faster and faster and faster until the glass is hot to touch.

Freaked out by all this and suffering another vision during the ‘session’, Liam jumps up, grabs the glass and smashed it on the floor. Locking Djin in our world and the only way he can get back is by killing everyone. But, he’s not in a hurry to get back -- he has a score to settle with the two remaining cult members for 1976.

The film’s only been playing roughly twenty minutes and the next seventy-four minutes are tense, in your face…fear. That reads: T-E-N-S-E-F-E-A-R. The killings are done one by one and all are executed beautifully. The best of the lot is Stella in the University bathroom. And why? Because she’s not alone, there’s a student in the stall next to her.

Djin is like a God of fire so the only way to be rid of him is to somehow burn him. But we never once see the spirit and I think this is what adds to the fear factor that made this movie great.

If you can find it, rent it or buy it. A great addition to any dvd/movie collection and a must see for all horror films. Oh, by the way, this movie was not a big budget movie with thousands of bells and whistles and 90% eye-candy and a ten minute credits roll. I don’t think it was an Indy film as it had too many professional touches to it and the editing was hard to notice and GOD, the soundtrack…is so perfect. This was a low budget, small company movie and it rocked.

Hollywood should watch some of these movies and take note. I haven’t experienced a great movie like this in years, thought I was numbed to the tension a film was meant to deliver. Guess not.

Once in awhile a gem, comes along and Long Time Dead is it.


88%

Hourglass -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Hourglass
By David Lester Snell
PublishAmerica
Chapbook
51 pages
©2003

Review word count: 613


“You have until next orbrise to save your son...”

And so starts the journey of Ozzington (Ozzy, sometimes Oz) Noble and his quest to find the last surviving Hourglass tree. His son was stung by a Widow-Wasp, thought to be extinct. The only thing that can save his son is the golden sand from an Hourglass tree rubbed into the wound, also thought to be extinct.

To find a cure for his son, Oz visits the witch Zelda, she tells him of the existence of one last Hourglass tree. She doesn't know where it is, but if he does one thing for her, she will tell him who it is that knows.

Completing the task, she informs him that the Serpent Elder knows of the last tree and maybe he will divulge the location. Thing is, he doesn't like humans. Oz must agree to helping the serpent also, which he does, though he doesn't know why.

Through all these obstacles and challenges, through forests with trees that try to eat him and phantom trains; a plantation owner who hates him and is seeking revenge, to, Elfins that want him dead, and The Caliginous (a wonderfully designed creature), Oz charges on, seeking the hourglass tree and it's essence.

Each short chapter in this chapbook is another challenge, each one more demanding than the last. Oz's trek through the tunnel where The Caliginous await, is my favorite section in this book. The descriptions, imaginary is amazing, it felt like I was actually standing in the darkness, my feet in a puddle, watching and (especially) hearing the low growls, echo off the walls.

At first I wasn't sure what time-line the book is set in. I thought at first it could be somewhere in the middle ages, but then there was a mention of railway tracks, tunnels and trains. So, it appears that we are taken into a future, I would not wish to live in. The perils are many and the life style hard.

Oz is a complex character, at times, very manly and sure of his actions, knows to rest when he must, eat when he must and fears little. He is also a character plagued by nightmares involving the love of his life, Ambrosia. He carries her locket as a reminder of their love. His wife died during childbirth and Oz often calls on her for strength as he continues this quest for the hourglass tree.

The son, unfortunately is left as a two dimensional character, though in all fairness, he spends 95% of the book locked in a high fever and unconscious, but I felt that a little bit more could have been added to the character to add a bit more 'life' to the boy.

Occasionally the book seems a bit jumpy as chapters suddenly stop and the next starts without any sense of flow, the entire book is one POV only and this, I think, is what's so hard to keep the flow in the beginning. This is the first book I have read that is a single POV from start to finish and told in third person style.

Apart from the few jumps at the start, the book quickly finds it's pace, and settles into a great little story. Can't help but think that if it was fleshed out a tad bit more, it would make a great novella.

Hourglass sits on my shelf with the few other chapbooks I own and have read. The book will take you away from the trials of everyday life, like all good stories are supposed to do.

At hell -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

@hell by Nora Publish America

194 pages

6X9 Trade paperback.

SBN: 1-4137-1088-3





@hell is the story of Jack Cottrell, a hood, heavy drinker, motorbike racer, owns a Hog and likes to hack in Net. He's also the type of person who likes to 'prove' himself and will never back down from a dare. He comes across as the average tough-guy jock who never grew up after high school. He doesn't realize he's about to enter hell.

An old high school acquaintance returns to the town they grew up in. Davis Travers has always been an ass – and he still is, only now he's a heart surgeon, who's an ass. And engaged to the only girl, Jake ever had any real feelings for.

Davis has a tendency to rub Jake the wrong way and he seems to do it on purpose. Then just as Jake is about to thump him, he magically turns the situation around and convinces him to do what he wants. He knows what buttons to push, and pushes them freely.

Jake's kind-of-buddy introduces him to a site filled with hot naked chicks (a private site). Davis tells Jake to choose one and while he's looking -- such a hard decision to make-- Davis kills the connection.

At home, wondering why he puts up with Davis and his shit, he checks his email and finds a message from next@hell.net. How they got his email, he's not sure, only his closest friends have this address. @hell.net lures Jake via a dare, in the email. They want to know if he wants to play with more of their toys. All he has to do is hit reply.

Never one to back down, he sends off the email, claiming their toys will never be too hot for him -- And then the fun starts.

The book is written in the first person and has all the trappings of a first novel. Repeated words in the same paragraph, loose descriptions and unfilled reasoning. For example: Why does Jake always go to Davis, when he hates the guy? Why does he always give in to what Davis wants him to do? Who or what is @hell? Why is Angie with someone like Davis? And many more. Some of the questions are answered a bit later but all in the first chapter is a little confusing. Oh, and the first chapter is 38 pages long with way too much info crammed into it. Personally, would have like a couple of extra chapters in there to break up the overflow of information.

None of the characters are fully explored or fleshed out enough to warrant my care of their outcome. The main character Jake is described as a rough and tumble kind of guy with excessive drinking and likes fighting, ripped jeans, leathers and stuff like that. He loves his Hog and wants to work on it everyday. And he often mentions how he likes to hack the Net. Umm, to me, this kind of character would not be interested in hacking, as it is a long and tedious thing. He doesn't seem like the kind of character to sit for hours at the computer running programs and writing script. The attitude just doesn't compute.

I felt there was way too much back and forth action happening in the book and each one led to a similar outcome. It seemed like the author was trying to flesh out the action or scene placement before having an earnest course in mind. Or it was padding.

Often confused to his actions, Jake stumbles from one scene to the next in overly long chapters. The action and story slowly builds up the suspense, as the novel evolves and shapes into a well thought out book.

This review may sound mainly negative, when it shouldn't. Writing style aside, the basic idea of the book is an excellent one and I'm sure many readers would enjoy it. I have a tendency to review books on style as much as content. My reviewer's hat never really changes from editor and this is on purpose. A review should include both angles, and I hope I do this evenly and openly.

This type of book (first person), rarely gels with me, unfortunately. I found the character descriptions lacking in the reality department. Maybe there are hackers out there who act the way Jake does – I wouldn't really know, yet I didn't feel “in-tune” with any of the characters except an angel and a demon. I thought the temptress was interesting also.

On another note, Nora does well with supporting characters, I found Rachel Darnell (the afore mentioned temptress) very tempting and playing the role very well. The book also has third person sections, involving Micah the angel who's helping protect Jake, and the demon, Zane, out to do some soul collecting.

If you can get past the weak descriptions and repeated words, you'll find a good story that requires a light brushing with an editor to polish it up to shinning status. The only real annoying thing rampant in this book that really breaks the reading flow are thoughts in speech quotations and quickly followed by actual speech. Many times I thought Jake was speaking, adding action my the words in my head, only to learn it was a thought. Very distracting. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I like thoughts in italics.

RV -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Robin Williams .... Bob Munro

Cheryl Hines .... Jamie Munro

Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque .... Cassie Munro

Josh Hutcherson .... Carl Munro

Jeff Daniels .... Travis Gornicke

Kristin Chenoweth .... Mary Jo Gornicke




RV is your standard run of the mill, done-to-death, vacation movie, starring the forever good, Robin Williams.

But there is something a little different to this movie. It holds your attention and doesn't let go. The chemistry between all the cast and the fantastic performances make this movie watchable.

That's watchable, not great.

The story is about Bob Munro, who has to cancel his family vacation due to work and a possible pay rise/bonus. He has to go into the mountains and get a small company to join his huge company.

He finds a compromise. What is a compromise? A compromise is where both parties miss out. In this case he hires a RV (recreational vehicle) the size of a bus and tells his family they are going on a trip to the Colorado Rockies.

No one is happy about it and are determined to make the trip a nightmare.

The nightmare starts off when Bob tries to make a three point turn on the single lane road and it escalates from there. Including the loss of brakes when they park, they need to put blocks under the tires to stop the RV from running away.



Cassie Munro: Dad, the RV's rolling away.


There are two excellent scenes in this movie which makes it worth the rental price. The scene where he needs to clean out the previous users crap from the toilet. And then the trip from a secret meeting back to the camp site via Diablo pass. The antics are fantastic.

Actually parts of this movie are slapstick.

Still, it's worth a watch. I wouldn't pay to own the DVD unless it was at a garage sale for a couple of bucks.

Watchable. Though Robin Williams is great and there are no tear-jerker parts in this film, although I think they tried a couple of times.

Cassie, age 5:
Daddy?

Bob Munro:
Yeah, baby?

Cassie, age 5:
I'm never gonna get married.

Bob Munro:
Why not? It's not as bad as it looks.

Cassie, age 5:
Because I always want to live here with you.

Bob Munro:
Well, you know, one day, you're gonna grow up, meet a wonderful guy,
and you're gonna get married. But you and I will always be best
friends.

[kisses forehead]

Cassie Munro:
[Scene switch] Dad, could you be any more of a dork?

Bob Munro:
Cassie, you know where this girl lives or you just think you know?

Cassie Munro:
I know where, I just know one way to get there. And you refuse to go that way.

Bob Munro:
Because it's a stupid way.

Jamie Munro:
You're lost, aren't you?

Bob Munro:
Yes I'm lost, because our daughter doesn't know where her friend's house it. She knows it's next to the house with the fountain.

(the above is borrowed from imdb)


Rating: 57%

Crank -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Crank
Directed by Mark Neveldine
Brian Taylor

Writing credits
Mark Neveldine (written by) &
Brian Taylor (written by)


Crank is a rocking movie. It is typical Statham action flick (which he is very good at playing) and mixed with a little humor as well.

Jason plays Chev Chelios a hitman, who hits the wrong Chinese Tirade man. The top guy. For revenge his rival, Verona, injects him with "The Beijing Cocktail", a poison that will kill him when he slows down. To stay in the game he needs to keep himself pumped.

Eve, his (sexy) girlfriend thinks he is a game writer or creator. For Eve, whom he loves deeply, he is willing to leave the hitman business and start a life with her. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe him and storms out of the restaurant, he follows her. This leads to the movies top moment in comedy and disbelief. In the middle of this scene his phone rings and he answers it. Unknown to him, Eve follows and witnesses him in action, and gets involved in the action.

This film is a great time waster. I do wish the movie was a little more fleshed out than it was. There were some parts with no answers to them but each scene ran onto the other seamlessly and effortlessly as they are meant to when a movie follows the plot-line.

It is a formula style action movie so don't expect to be astounded but do expect enjoyment for your dollar.

script: Rocky -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Recently I have moved into the movie writing world and as I have no idea how to do this, I downloaded Rocky Balboa. Sly uses Final Draft, like I do LOL. Good reason, aye.

I read the entire script in one sitting. As I have seen the movie several times I wanted to know how he built up plot point 1 and plot point 2.

He writes almost to the formula that Syd Field describes as the formula for movie creation.

Setup pp 1-30 // confrontation pp 30-90 // Resolution pp 90-120


Sly's script wasn't exactly this formula as it was part 6 of a life time story of a character movie goers love and couldn't (I think) stick to the formula. Plus Sly doesn't need to stick to any kind of formula. He knows what he is doing.

This is the way movies are meant to be written, I think. LOL. It was simplistic and worked well. It was actually better than the movie. There wasn't a lot of description I think that was left up to the director -- and Sly was the director, right? Plus all the sights we already knew, although they had fallen into disrepair.

What is the underlying theme of this 6th Rocky movie? I think it is about a man who lives in the past -- and what an amazing past it was. But Rocky is getting tired of telling all the old stories of his past. Remember Rocky is a brawler more than a boxer, he doesn't have the expert training of a boxer. But he has heart and courage and the will power to remain on his feet.

This script give you the inside knowledge and the reading of scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor.

And the one liners are great as well.

I will end it here, before this turns into a review of the movie, which I have already done. Next I will read a script of a movie I have not seen.

Script: Alien -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

A different style to the format with this script.

It starts off with pictures and sound. Images are directly in your face.

I have to agree with the some of the reviewers:

This is fucking art!

Check it out at
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Alien.html


Awesome scripts there as well.


We all know the movie, Alien. Did you know the original title was STARBEAST? That's so B-Grade and yet they wrote an A-Grade script. It is engrossing from the get go and barely eases up.


This is how A-Grade HORROR used to be penned.

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Alien.html

Script: The Matrix -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

http://www.dailyscript.com

Category: scripts

Posted by: admin

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http://www.dailyscript.com/

This is the site were one gets scripts to read via PDF and the good and SAFE thing is that they scan the pages first and then PDF the file. People are happy to copy and paste but not re-type, I guess. Most are HTML.

The site is very easy to navagate and opperate. It's child's play.

I think Chucky would had a groovy time here.

The site loads very fast, is of simple design and does what it promises.
These scripts are for Educational Purposes only.


http://www.dailyscript.com/

If you want to read some scripts and post a review of them on this site under movie scripts reviewed, please do. I would love to hear what you have to say.



So, for May 6. 2006, the Daily Script is:

Mimic - june 19, 1996 production draft by Matt Greenberg & Guillermo del Toro

Should be an interesting read.

THE MATRIX
Written by
Larry and Andy Wachowski
http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/matrix_96_draft.txt


These brother describe everything minute by minute, but the tension is there right from the start. I had actually forgotten the opening. It is not exactly like the film but close enough.

An example:




You can really SEE the action rolling out. (Can you tell I'm learning shit? It's bloody exciting) I can see how a book could easily be written from this script whereas with ROCKY BABOLA the movie would need to be seen.

The Matrix script is the original, prepublication, prerelease script 1996. There is another online that has the movie version.

This is the 1998 version in pdf format:




Reading this 133 pages script is like reading a visual book with no character expressions. Yet the action is very visual and full on.

This is a fantastic read.

Freddy VS Jason -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Freddy VS Jason 

Movie tie-in Novelization by Stephen Hand 

Based on the screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark J. Swift 

 The book based on the screenplay. 

Let me start by saying, I loved this movie. 

Now, may I add that reading this book was painful and confusing. 

 Allow me to explain: The book is from the original screenplay which differs from the movie we all saw. The beginning is very different. But that’s about it. There’s this thing called POV (point of view), which allows the reader to follow the action and the character. This is hard to do when nearly every paragraph focuses on a someone different. Some writers like Phillip K. Dick can pull this off very well. 

Unfortunately, Stephen Hand, can not and it is this reason the book sucks. It is so hard to follow. Now I have that off my chest, let’s take a look at the story itself. In the DVD (movie), the visualization explains everything in seconds, like the boiler room or the construction going on at Camp Crystal Lake. In the movie, I just accepted it and enjoyed the movie. The main reason for buying this book was to see how a slasher was written and how all those movie props were explained. I also wanted to know what those things were called. 

For this the book excels. It explains the locations and action very well and the Nightmare on Elm Street series, making refs to part 4 (I could be wrong but after seeing so many Nightmares, they all kind of blend in). I also like learning how Freddy became Freddy via the black shadows that promised him eternal life. I also did not know that Freddy went to trail for the murders of little girls and was released. Were these scenes cut from the movies or is my memory just shot? In regards to Jason, I remembered everything mentioned, his past and his reason for existing. I did not know that he was a mommy’s boy. 

The book remains on Freddy and the kids most of the way through, using them to carry the story. One main point for lovers of this movie and a solid reason to buy and read the book, despite the POV changes, is that the ending explains exactly who wins the battle. The POV jumped like crazy here, one paragraph for Jason, one for Freddy, and our 4 heroes, mainly Will and Laura. 

I recommend getting the DVD and the book. 

Watch the movie on DVD, catch the alternate beginning and then read the book. I mentioned earlier how well, Stephen Hand described the locations, I feel I should clarify this. Most of the scenes are described well, while with some (especially the party at the cornfield), it is best to see the movie first, it helped a lot. 

This is the very first movie tie-in I have ever read and was worried that this is how these types of books are written. I am glad I was wrong. Read some of my other movie tie-in reviews. 

Over all rating out of 5: 3 Content, action, description: 4.5 Writing - style and prose: 2 

Note: Worthwhile addition to any horror lovers bookshelf, standing next to the DVD.

Resident Evil 2 -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Resident Evil 2
Director: Alexander Witt
Starring:
Milla Jovovich
Sienna Guillory
Mike Epps
Oded Fehr
Jared Harris


This
is an awesome movie, the hype killed some of the thrill, but I wasn’t
expecting much. What I got was an action packed zombie movie with all
the bells and whistles and a few plot holes. Some things didn’t match
up, I’d like to think this was due to some bad editing choices.

The movie was tight and it stayed that way all through to the end. Even had some good one-liners.

Resident
Evil 2 carries on the story of Alice and the T-virus. At the end of
number one, we see her walking out on a city of death, she picks up a
shotgun from a police vehicle and here’s where number one ends. Part 2,
shows us in flashback mode what happened to her after they carried her
into the hospital. Not all is given away here, only a taste of what the
scientists did to her.

We are shown the hours before the
zombies escape, and the scientist ordering the Hive to be opened.
They’re going in. Unfortunately the zombies come out. An evacuation of
the city is ordered and the only exit point is Raccoon city bridge. The
virus quickly finds it’s way here and the exit gates are closed,
leaving thousands trapped.

Viewers get to meet Dr. Ashford the
creator of the T-virus and the reasons why he made it involves his
daughter who is trapped at her school. This shows itself to be the
overriding storyline of part 2. Alice meets up with three others, one a
TV reporter, and 2 cops -- one of whom is bitten early. The other cop
is Valentine, a tough as nails, disgraced female cop. We learn this via
newspaper articles pinned to her wall. Somehow she knows of the
infection and goes to the city police station, where cops are trying to
restrain the zombies and she shoots them in the head saying, “They’re
infected!”

Dr. Ashford enlists the help of Alice, Valentine,
Terry (reporter) and later also enlists the help of Umbrella Corps.
special police force, who were standard in Raccoon City to fend for
themselves.

All in all, five go in search of his daughter at her school. A bonus note here: The dogs are back. Gotta love the zombie dogs.

The
action in this movie is hard and fast, non-stop all the way. A real
thrill ride. If you are expecting horror due to the zombie elements -
don’t. This is an action flick.

A good cast fills this movie
(wish I could remember all the names) and they run with the storyline
to the ‘max’ extent. Making this a great movie to watch and pure
enjoyment. And it is here, that I must mention some bad stuff about the
movie. Sorry about this, but…

“Hello plot-holes!”

It’s
true and I wish most of it was because of poor editing choices. First
off, when Alice meets up with Terry and Valentine, how does she know
they are hiding in a church? How does she know there are Lickers there?


Dr. Ashford explains the T-virus he created for his daughter but doesn’t mention why he didn’t use it on himself.

This
movie is about the T-virus and the people it affected, so how the heck
did the dead rise from their graves and attack Alice and the others??

****Warning
- a spoiler kind of, I mean it was predictable, so I have no worries
mentioning it here: Dr. Ashford gets shot in the head. How did he
become a zombie? No bites and he was never anywhere near the action
until the ending where he was, as I mentioned, shot. This boggles the
mind. I must have missed something important.

Some Alice’s
lines are wooden and I thought a third grader had written them. All the
rest of the cast had decent lines. And often her acting is lacking.
It’s like after a quarter of the movie has passed before she finally
gets into it and does a wonderful job. In all fairness, though, I
believe that part of the woodenness is acting, as Alice has to come to
terms with a new feeling building inside her.

On another point
the action and martial arts were excellent but too fast to actually see
what was happening. And the stunts were over the top and beautiful.

This
is a wonderful movie to spend your time watching, if you can ignore the
stuff mentioned above. The action in this flick helps with that. If
you’re looking for an SF action movie with zombies and a little bit of
blood, tense action and a few shocks, see this movie. You won’t regret
it. If on the other hand you want to see a horror zombie movie with
blood and gore -- this movie isn’t for you.

One last point: If you liked Resident Evil 1, you’ll like Resident Evil 2.

I
rate this movie as 8/10 for action, storyline and a great blending of
the two movies, you could watch one and two, back to back -- no
problem. Because of the plot holes and being a writer myself, I’d have
to rate the overall story 5.5/10.

In short: Very watch-able and enjoyable and F.U.N.

Blood Hunt -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Blood Hunt. Vampires! Yikes!

The movies were:

Demon under Glass: A great movie. Made in 2002 with real actors. In this movie, there is a special “government” group and they want to catch a vampire. They want to learn more about this creature.

In a daring sting operation, they are successful. He is known as Vlad the serial killer who drains his victims of all blood, but he calls it survival. At first he is locked in a steal box and a young doctor is assigned.

The box can only be opened during the day when the sun is high above. There is a metal plate in place over the roof; if the vamp gets out of line, they open it and he dies. That is, if the stories about sunlight are true…

The scientists start testing him after he is healed. But the tests are just plain cruel and makes one wonder who is the real animal here? Also, we learn how blood is used for the vampire and also how the teeth work, via x-ray.

Vlad inadvertently becomes the guy to root for in this movie and we are pleasantly surprised with the ending. The scientific facts presented to us make so much sense it almost seems possible -- real.

The best scene in this movie is where the scientist, who has become a “friend” of Vlad goes out and gets him a hooker; for sex and food. The scene is so well done and convincing that it just ‘made’ this movie.

This is a classic movie. Buy it, watch it, then watch it again, and again and again…

How to slay a vampire: Stay away. Home made, bad acting and bad, stupid story that was meant to be funny but was in fact childish. Two brothers find a vampire in the basement wrapped up in a carpet and they invent ways to kill it.

Blood slaves of the vampire wolf: A lovely beautiful lady meets a horror lover. She seems interested in him and goes to his place. While he is cleaning himself up, she drops a pill into his wine. Drugged, he offers little resistance to her fangs and turns him into a slave to get new fresh blood for her. Which he does without emotion. Her bodyguard, is tired of the vampire queen (ex-movie star who didn’t fancy death) and the abuse she dishes out.

The police discover a tunnel under the house, with is very convenient. At the same time, the bodyguard has plans of his own. The guard is mute, but at the end, he laughs loud and proud.

It is a slow movie and the storyline is at least thought out. There were too many conveniences that made me groan, but all in all it an okay watch, nice time killer.

Sorority House vampires from Hell: For some unknown reason this video is interrupted for long periods of time so we can see some chick dance, naked or almost naked and listen to a very distorted TV set. After this the movie starts and it is fun. We got a vampire in broad daylight enticing young men to her so she can drink their blood and make them slaves, to get fresh blood for her. Each time she kills, a natural disaster occurs.

We got another vampire, who struggles for quite a while to get out of his coffin, followed by many mishaps that would make the Three Stogies smiles. This movie is a comedy with blood and a weak but okay storyline, mainly due to the humor. And if you like huge breasts, then this movie is a must for you.

If only they had kept the dancing out of it. I didn’t like having to sit there 4 or more minutes watching a lovely lady gyrating…hang on a minute (LOL). But seriously this destroyed the movie and what’s with the UFO demon in the TV set? Half of what he said I couldn’t hear. Speak clearly, man. But it does have a big breasted lady called, “Buffy”, if that’s any constellation.


Demon under the Glass is well worth full price of $18.95 alone.

The Gathering -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

The Gathering
©2002 Granada Films & Capital Films
101 minutes plus bonuses
Starring: Christina Ricci .... Cassie Grant, Ioan Gruffudd .... Dan Blakeley, Stephen Dillane .... Simon Kirkman, Kerry Fox .... Marion Kirkman, Simon Russell Beale .... Luke Fraser, Robert Hardy .... The Bishop, Harry Forrester .... Michael Kirkman and Jessica Mann .... Emma Kirkman
Director: Brian Gilbert.
Distributed by: Dimension Films

4 out of 5 stars.
Reviewed by Lee Pletzers.

Two kids go up a mountain for some…fun, when all of a sudden the boy vanishes. This freaks the girl out and suddenly she falls from a crack in the ground and comes to in a buried church. She finds her boyfriend speared on a broken statue. Surrounding her are faces chiseled into the walls, all facing a crucifix with the effigy of Christ nailed on it. And so starts a ripping good movie.

We meet Cassie Grant (Christina Ricci) when she is hit by a car driven by Marian (Kerry Fox). Cassie has short-term memory loss from the accident, and feeling sorry for the girl, Marian takes her home.

Cassie starts having visions, horrible visions.

Marian’s husband Simon is hired by the Church of England to investigate the buried church and date everything. At the same time a local priest does his own digging. The images on the wall of the buried church (buried on purpose around the time of the Black Death by soil brought to England for this exact purpose) resemble with 100% accuracy the painted images of people though-out the ages all surrounding, watching, disastrous times in human history. They are called the watchers, and many scholars have documented (and been confused by) their existence.

“They came only to see, from the East and the West and from the praying. They came only to see, not in holy reverence to the Lord, but in lust.”

The movie is about watchers, people who stare at disasters only so they could see it. When a group ‘watched’ the crucifixion, they were cursed to wander all time…watching. They have learned they can interfere with events to ensure they happen. Kassey takes it upon herself (with the visions) to stop the coming event.

As the director says: This is a British horror movie that deals with ancient Roman, Celtic and British elements.

It is also a very well thought out movie that leaves zero holes, and has an excellent sub plot that joins the main perfectly bringing the entire movie into focus. Can you tell I’m trying not to give anything away. Watch this movie, enjoy this movie.

Beasts of Terror -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Beasts of Terror


The Wolf Man does cometh

And he did. He came in 4 DVDs nicely packed in plastic wrapping that was near impossible to open. So, I guess he almost didn’t cometh.

The four DVDs I saw were:

Moon of the Wolf
Scream of the Wolf
Snow Beast
Wolf Man


This was one of them special low priced bonus movie packs. Contains four DVDs on two disks. These movies were quite good for the time they were made, and you may notice a few faces in their early careers. I did.

Two of the movies were real good, one was excellent due to the surprise twist. Only one didn’t work for me and that was Snow Beast. In this movie we were at a ski resort. At the beginning we witness a death via a beast, white as the snow. The glimpses are short and fast. Nice. What beast is this? Added some mystery there, but after that the movie goes down hill. In fact, it doesn’t go down -- it rockets down at speeds that NASA would be impressed with. I’m serious, we got a movie about Big Foot killing skiers. There was no tension. I don’t even want to explain the full storyline as I don’t want to put my fingers through such torture; my eyes and brain and physical body suffered enough for one night. One thing I do feel I need to add: The acting was good, but not good enough to carry the plot with conviction.

Moon of the Wolf on the other hand is interesting. In the start of the film, a young girl is found murdered. The young lady’s boyfriend wants revenge. They all think wild dogs did this. This movie has twists and turns at every angle. And it will keep you watching. We learn some old remedies to keep werewolves at bay and a dying French man who can see the mark of the next victim on their palm. About three quarters through we learn who the werewolf is. In this movie, Lycanthropy is a sickness and there is a pill that can hold it down. But he’s been missing his pills…

Scream of the Beast is a rip roarer of a movie. It is short as well at only 78 minutes. It starts hard and fast and keeps the story and action going. A man is being hunted by two masked men. He was the hunter, but now he has become one of the hunted. There is a safety point he must reach, through the forest and across a dry ravine. There’s a rumor that others like him (he has been bitten) can find a place to live in peace and to relax. Will he make it?

The movie is very cheaply made, has a cast of four and I think was made with a Handy Cam . BUT, it is interesting and the twist at the end will make you smile. It made me say, “huh?” and laugh.

The fourth movie is good in the respect that it is well acted and the suspense is excellent. This too is an old movie (they all were, I think). The family has a curse on it. A pact made with the devil through a Satanic Ritual preformed by a priest.

Colin returns home to bury his father. Part of the will states that he must remain in the house for a certain period of time and he will inherit the estate. The story is set in the late 1800s and some of the set looks very 90s (hahaha. I especially loved the wall switch. It was ignored as the cast used lanterns, surely they could have removed the switch) but forgive this error and the terrible Q&A between a doctor and Colin and you get a good suspense movie, where the cruse has passed onto Colin.


All in all, I only paid $6.99 shipping for this 4 movie pack, and was pleasantly surprised.

Sleep Away Camp Series,1, 2, 3 -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Sleep Away Camp Series
1, 2 and 3
Reviewed by Lee Pletzers


Sleepaway Camp 1
Released by Anchor Bay released 2002

Written and Directed by Robert Hiltzik
Staring Mike Kellin, Katherine Kamhi and Paul Deangelo
Color / 84 minutes / Rated R
1983, originally released by: American Eagle Film Corp.
{Note: this movie was a shocker hit in the 80’s and it still is}

I must admit, I had never heard of these movies and going by cover only, I would never have rented it from the video store. And what a loss that would have been! The three-disk set is part one through three, and from number two it stars the sisters or brothers of already famous people.

Part one was filled with unknown actors/actresses and was played by real teenagers for the most part. Thankfully. They actually looked their age. A nice touch.

Sleepaway Camp was an okay movie until the end where it blew me away. The twist at the end was so shocking that I never saw it coming. Very seldom can a movie do this to me, especially an old one from the early 80’s.

It starts typically enough: A man has his son and daughter at on a small river sailboat. In the background is a Summer Camp. Also on the river is a speedboat with a skier in tow. The skier is complaining, she’s had enough and wants to go back. Driving the boat is a camp lifeguard, in the passenger seat is a counselor or student, who begs for a chance to drive. The lifeguard gives in and hands over the steering wheel.

The family on the sailboat is playing around, enjoying the day. The little girl pushes her father into the river, the sailboat overturns, and suddenly everyone is in the water and laughing.

Back on the speedboat, the skier is complaining and both the lifeguard and passenger turn to try and hear what she is saying. Suddenly the skier sees the direction they are headed, she tries to warn them but fails.

The kids and father notice too late. The speedboat takes out one kid, hits the hull of the sailboat and tears open the father.

The camp is closed and bought years later by a wealthy businessman.


Eight years later:

We meet Angela (Felissa Rose)and her stepbrother as they head out off to camp. The mother is strange, likes to talk her thoughts out loud. She sends them off and gives her special daughter a hug good-bye.

Angela is a very shy girl; she barely talks and has no friends. Her stepbrother is constantly protecting her; especially at Camp Arawak, where almost everyone seems to hate her, yet no reason apart from her shyness is given at first.

To the other campers, she is a weird kid; to the camp counselors, she’s special and needs a bit more attention.

During dinner, she refuses to eat and the head counselor takes her to the kitchen and asks the head chief if there’s anything else, she might like. He’s unsure and takes her into the back room. “See anything you like?” he asks. She shakes her head. “I know you’ll like this,” and he proceeds to undo his belt. Before things get out of control, her stepbrother bursts in. The chief grabs him by the throat, slams him into the wall, and is threatened by a bloody violent death if he breaths a word of what he saw.

Shortly after someone enters the kitchen while the chief is on a chair and putting corn into a huge tub of boiling water. The killer yanks the chair and the chief is covered in boiling water.

There are 5 deaths in this movie, which seems to be the standard for movies in the 80’s. Some of the kill scenes are extremely well done like the afore mentioned, but the others are not good at all.

The actress playing Angela does an excellent job; her acting is near perfect as is a few of the supporting cast. Some of the others are typical b-grade, but the movie is highly watchable and you’ll be guessing at who the killer is. Until the end, all you see is a pair of hands or a shadow.

The tension in the movie is there but it is soft; the cinematography and lighting is just right, throwing eeriness over the camp that sits well and a roughness that adds to the reality of what we are viewing.

The last ten minutes are going to blow you away.

This is a great movie that will take you back to the good old days of slasher movies, like Freddy and the great Jason…

Speaking of Freddy and Jason, enter:

Campaway part 2: Unhappy Campers.
Directed by Michael A. Simpson.
Staring Pamela Springsteen (sister of Bruce Springsteen), Renee Estevez (sister of Emilo Estevez and Charlie Sheen) and Brian Patrick Clarke.
Color / 79 minutes / rated R
Originally released by: Double Helix Films

A brilliant squeal to the original movie. It even tells us in the beginning what happened to Angela in part one. This movie is set five years later and Angela is working at Camp Rolling Hills.

It follows a more standard route of the slasher film’s of the 80’s, but the kill count has increased.

This movie unfortunately uses adults playing kids, not a single actor looked like a teenager -- this is the only downfall of the movie in my honest opinion. The acting and scenery is three times better than before and the director kept the gritty feel to it. It is far more entertaining than the first.

The movie starts with camper sitting around a fire telling the classic scary story when one of the campers mentions The Angel of Death. The kid who killed only bad people. I’m not going to say what the story is, that is for you to find out. If you’ve seen number one, then you need to see number two. Not just for the answer of what happened to Angela but because it is a darn good movie and had references to Jason, Freddy and Leather Face, the chain saw scene is one of the best.

But, the best scene ever is Angela in the small cottage where the kids sleep and she is looking for a weapon to kill one of the kids who was nosy and telephoned the parents of the dead (thinking they had been all sent home). “You talk too much,” Angela says finally finding an object to use.

So far these movies have had a kind of message attached to the killings. For example in number one, everyone who died was an asshole in one-way or another. In number two, the same and the similar: kids who are mean to others, fornication, drug use (beautiful death scene attached to that), the baring of breasts and pornography. These are not things good girls/boys partake in and is unacceptable at Camp Rolling Hills.

Everyone she kills is (to her boss) supposedly “sent home” and when she sends too many kids “home”, she is fired from the camp. Crying and depressed, she walks to an abandoned shack where she likes to go to think by herself.

What’s in the shack?


Sleepaway Camp 3
Directed by Michael A. Simpson
Staring Pamela Springsteen, Tracy Griffith (Melanie’s sister) and Academy Award nominee, Michael J. Pollard (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967).

Quote from case: “Nasty but fun!” ~ Variety.

And they weren’t wrong.

In the third installment of Sleepaway camp, our beloved Angela is up against gangsters, a police officer (the one who arrested her in the first Sleepaway camp, and also the father of one of the boys she killed in part two -- nice connection there) and rich kids. Why were these two groups put together? For an experiment in sharing. Think it worked? Nope. The husband and wife owners are umm, umm, umm…well, the husband likes to shag the young girls while the wife like to lay in the sun and have the kids do all the work while she looks at travel magazines.

The opening of this dvd is the best scene in the entire series, buy it for this scene only. Angela follows a teenage girl and disposes her in classic style and poses as her to get into the campground. Camp New Horizons, the same camp as in part two -- under new ownership with government support.

Angela is her usual funny self and some kill scenes are great. The two best, in my opinion are:

The flagpole (funny comment from Angela, which also rings true for many people in this world).

The Lawn mover incident. Great kill scene, especially the sound…

This installment of the Camp series is the run of the mill slasher movie in many aspects, including the “she’s dead -- whoops, no she isn’t” part.

Part two and part three were filmed back to back.

This is the perfect box set to own. Sleepaway Camp survival kit, is available at Amazon for about $35.

I heard there was a part four that totally sucked and was pulled from the sales shelves. I’d like to see that movie, but can’t find a copy anywhere.

Dead Body Man -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Dead Body Man
A Ryan Cavalline film
Starring Syn DeVil, Adam Berasi, Peter Blessel and Desiree.
Running time 100 minutes.
Produced, written and directed by Ryan Cavalline


Willie is a normal guy, kind of, until he hears a call from God to clean the world. He rushes to fulfill God’s wishes and comes across a hooker at the start of the movie. He pretends to be retarded and she goes back to his place.

Down in the basement, he tortures and kills “bad people” and sells the meat to a select buyer.

He feels very lonely until he see an advert in the local paper: Are you a serial killer? Come to our sessions. There he meets three others.

Although this movie stars the wonderful Syn DeVil, the movie is really a bomb. And it doesn’t even star her, she has one scene in the whole movie.

Most of the acting is below B-Grade (except for Syn (stranded girl in broken car) and Peter Blessel (another serial killer)) and the script needs work. It does show real promise and I know many people love this film, but I didn’t find anything in it I liked. The story got out of hand and didn’t seem to be going anywhere very fast. There was a lot of blood and gore but the movie missed the bulls eye on more than one occasion.

I do think that Ryan Cavalline has a real love for movie making and on no budget, he is doing well (see review of Demon Slaughter in this issue).

Expect bigger and better things from this writer/director in the near future. But I would not recommend this dvd to be added to your collection, unless you wish to follow his career.

Demon Slaughter -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Demon Slaughter
Brain Damage Films
Starring Shannon Johnson, Bill Whitman, Vic Badger, Desiree
A Ryan Cavalline film
DVD Movie


A very interesting and fun low budget horror flick about a young man who steals mob money so he can leave the mob. He is sleeping with the bosses ‘girl’ and is also married.
The mob learns of his plans and sends a couple of guys to rape and kill the wife. They just kill her instead -- a bath-full of blood.

Jimmy finds her, and freaks out. He doesn’t know the two killers are still in the house. He battles with them and ends up tired to a chair in the basement. His vision is hazy and the killers swim in and out of focus. Suddenly he is free.

He decides he needs to hide in a shack out in the woods and this is where the real fun starts.

There’s a small old television that likes to turn itself on, goes from preacher to whores and then the devil appears and Jimmy refuses the devil’s deal and is forced to defend himself against zombies.

Only problem is, when he kills them, they come back. Again and again and again.

For a film shot with a video camera, this is very well done. The editing is excellent and the music background matches the action. The special effects are handled well. For an independent film, this is a notch above others that I have seen.

Clive Barker's, SaintSinner -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Clive Barker's, SaintSinner
Running time: 86 minutes
Copyright 2002 USA CABLE ENTERTAINMENT LLC.
Released by Universal Studios


Usually with short movies, especially on DVD without any extras like, cut scenes or making of or director comments means I won't usually rent the movie. I want to be entertained for at least an hour and forty minutes, but with Clive Barker I'm assured of a great viewing experience. And I was not disappointed with this offering.


SaintSinner is an intriguing movie. It uses a lot of the old (been there, done that) props to get the storyline moving, but it is done in such a way, that it is forgivable. The story in a nutshell:

1815: Two monks enter a repository they are not meant to be inside. A visiting father has a package to be stored, so it will never been seen again. Thomas opens the box and finds a beautiful marble oval with a engraved pattern resembling two women intertwined. His brother Gregory takes it and his hand slides into the marble, trying to help his bother, he yanks him free at the loss of his arm. The marble oval enlarges, and blends into two succubi.

Also in the repository is a time machine in the shape of a clock. As the two succubi face the clock, Thomas tries to attack them with the knife, but it burns his hand and he drops it. The two succubi are sucked into the clock and sent into the future.

Thomas leaves the church but on hearing of his brother's impending death, he returns and accepts the challenge of entering the future and stopping the succubi.

There he meets Rachael, a police detective convinced of his quest, she helps.

The two succubi are feasting on men, left, right and center.

But there is one problem, Thomas is a monk, and the dagger must be wielded by a saint.

The time travel sequence is well done, showing us the passage of time where he is entering, we also get glances at those who will help him. The acting by Thomas and Rachael is superb. Thomas is very believable, especially showing his amazement at the future.


Saintsinner is an enjoyable watch. The two succubi collect men as hookers and learn expressions from television advertising (info-mercials). There are a couple of unbelievable scenes where they feast on the victims but all in all, this is a great movie. Not scary in the jump scenes, but well flesh out. The two lead actors make this movie more than watchable and enjoyable. They take their parts very seriously. The action is fast and hard. The 86 minutes will fly by and the ending is awesome. If there must be complaints then I have only two: 1) The speech of the succubi is terrible and almost predictable.

2) One succubi has a child, at the end of the movie it is thrown to a wall. Did it die? Survive? What happened to it? These questions are not answerable as it is completely forgotten about a second later. This might have something to do with the editing, which is actually well done through-out, but we all know movie editors cut scenes that are required to tie up the story – maybe the answer was cut.


Ratings:

Content: 8/10
Style: 8/10
Acting: 9/10
Storyline: 6.5/10 (overused props and story)


Lee's over-all rating: 7.5/10

Additional comments: From the many horror movies I have seen, this was easily watchable a second and third time. Usually I watch movies only once and even in the second time through, I was captivated.

The Wreath by Chris Howard and Chloe Howard -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Lykeion Books

379 pages, US $14.95
ISBN: 0-9773807-1-8



This
is the story of Kassandra, a just turned thirteen year old girl living
at St. Clement's Educational Center in central Nebraska, and afraid of
water. She has only two friends in the entire school and the school
bullies pick her on due to her being different. For one thing, she has
scar tissue between each finger and toe, she cannot cry -- not a single
tear, and Ms. Ithilbrix the governess of the girls 9-15 year old hall
seems to have an unhealthy and painful attraction to the young girl.

On
her thirteenth birthday, the 9-15 year old department headed to Red
Bear Lake. This is not a trip for her birthday; in fact no one seems to
remember except her. The trip goes fine at first, Kassandra finds a
nice large tree to read under and enjoy the day, peacefully. Plus she
wants to be as far away from the water as possible.

Unfortunately,
Ms. Ithilbrix crashes into her and for punishment, orders her onto a
leaking canoe with the school bullies, who row out to the middle of the
lake and rock the canoe until Kassandra falls in…And this is where the
story really takes off.

Fighting her way to the top but unable
to make it, she succumbs to the murky depths and inhales water.
Inhales? Yep, Kassandra can breathe under water, and she can swim too.
This is bliss, she is confused, yet happy and she feels perfect (at
home) in this underwater world.

Then she hears a beautiful
song, a song she thinks is from her mother. The soothing lyrics lure
her deeper into the blue when they suddenly stop. Searching madly, she
swims deeper into the murk. Suddenly, a green…sea monster attacks her.
It looks kind of human, apart from the skin tone, the large teeth and
the ability to breathe underwater.

With a scream, "Go away!" the sea creature leaves as if her words were like arrows.

From
this moment on, her life will never be the same. She wears a Wreath
passed onto her by her mother, when Kassandra was only a baby. To hide
her from a King, the child is left on a rock in the middle of a stormy
ocean. Gregor is a fisherman sent to pick up the child and deliver her
to a woman who collects heart shape pebbles on the beach. He fails and
Kassandra is sent by the king to St. Clements and the torturous hands
of Ithilbrix.

It seems as though the Wreath wearers are all
inside the Wreath when they die. Two have awakened when Kassandra awoke
in the Lake. In this book you will meet Wreath wearers, Praxinos and
Andromache (who teach her old Greek and sword fighting technique in her
sleep and are always at each other’s throat), and Kassandra's relatives
from the house of Rexenor. You will also come across the Olethren, a
250,000 strong, army of the dead and an amusing science teacher. Let’s
not forget: River-witches, mages, and ocean creatures of tremendous
size, which emerge from a single teardrop.

I found this book
very interesting, my first ever full on fantasy and YA, since I myself
was a Young Adult. I feel a lot of kids and those young at heart (re:
Harry Potter) may enjoy this book. I did at first think the size of the
book is a bit of a put off, especially at trade paperback size but the
story flows very fast and barely lets up throughout the entire ride.
There were a few lengthy scenes on the properties of water via the
science teacher. I was wondering after finishing the book, “Were those
‘talks’ really needed?” and I don’t think they were. Most readers don’t
need hard details or facts to be taken away by a story; they just need
the storyteller to be good with the set-up and delivery, and Chris
Howard, with the help of his kid-daughter, sure can tell a story.

You’ll
be whipped away and totally enthralled from the introduction of
Kassandra and the weird things that happen to her as she learns her
destiny and discovers her family. Family seems to be the main theme of
this story. Humor is strewn throughout in all the correct places,
breaking up the suspense and giving us time to take a breath, though
not a long one, before the plot is laid on us again.

You won’t
be disappointed picking up this book and taking it home with you, and
it is a story your entire family can read and enjoy.

Writing style: 3.9/5 (overuse of ‘like a…’ and ‘as if…’)
Plot: 4/5 (very gripping and has the possibility to be extended and built on)
Back
story/ reasons of character actions: 3/5 (Some of the reasons why
things happened the way they did were not clearly explained. There was
just enough information for me to nod my head and say, “Oh, I see.
Okay. Cool.”)

The idea behind this book has the possibility to
be so much more. I’d like to see it extended into a mini-series as it
ended with such a nice ending, leaving a lot of room for the next book.

The Curse of Mephisto’s Seed -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

The Curse of Mephisto’s Seed
Book One: The Day of Awakening
By William P. Haynes
PublishAmerica
ISBN: 1-4137-2865-0


A fast paced action book about the devil’s son. Or is it really the devil’s son?


You
see, Elliott has always been different; he has no friends; is extremely
quiet. As a young child he sat in front of the window most of the night
waiting for his father to return home from work. Being too young to
understand death, he waited and waited. His mother tries her best but
is at a loss, she sees something seething under the boy’s skin,
reflected in his eyes.

He is kicked out of every
school as unexplained things happen around him. One case being a school
bully teases him and shortly after a large wolf attacks the kid -- a
wolf sent from Hell, to protect and befriend Elliott.

His father sold his soul to have a son. The Devil granted his desire, with his own cause in mind.

The
boy grows into a handsome young man, his dark powers have increased and
he has discovered a room where all the black magic books reside. And he
learns them all. The wolf has become a close friend, only friend
actually and leads the boy into Hell to see his real father. He learns
what his friend, the wolf, went through to save him from an early
death. Angered, he bounds the Devil in thick heavy chains. The tortured
souls of Hell scream for release -- they sense his power.

The
Devil allows himself to be bound for a time, give the boy false
confidence in his powers, but shortly after he’s made his point clear,
the chains fall to the ground and the devil disappears.

Two
cops stumble onto and link several incidents to Elliott, only thing is
-- one of them is a reincarnation of an ancient angel who’s walked this
track before, hundreds of years ago.

The wolf warns
Elliott to kill him quickly before the cop learns of his real powers.
But Elliott is too sure of his own strength and decides to play with
his first.

It was a mistake.

This book is full of surprises and it’s only book one of three.

Many
readers know I hate Point Of View changes without some kind of warning
of the change like a series of asterisks or hash marks or a couple of
blank lines, but William Haynes switches POV easily and smoothly that
it is barely noticeable, keeping the book readable and enjoyable.

Mr.
Haynes is a well noted poet published in Japan, Europe and across the
United States and he lends his verse style to this book, blending
sentences into beautiful pictures of vengeance, bewilderment, betrayal,
lost hope, action, reality and the dark side of humanity.

A perfect edition to any horror library and I can’t wait for book two.

City Infernal -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Edward Lee
City Infernal
Leisure Horror
April 2002
366 pages
$5.99 US

853 words


This
is the first Edward Lee book I have read. Most of his work is done by
the small press and I’m not a collector, so paying $40 or $50 or $150
for a limited book is not my idea of a good buy. It is for collectors
though.

City Infernal is about twin sisters, Cassie and Lissa.
Lissa is a bit of a slut apart from not having sex, yet. She blows a
bouncer so her and her sister can get into the Goth Bar/club with live
bands.

Lissa’s boyfriend is the bartender, and to get her sister a bit looser, they slipped Ecstasy into her beer.

Looking
for her sister, Cassie ends up searching the back rooms and ends up in
a storage room where Radu (Lissa’s man) makes moves of her, and she’s
so spaced out that she thinks she wants it, wants her sister’s man to
pile drive her. This is the night she’ll loose her virginity. And beer
mixed with Ecstasy has made her more than ready.

Into some
heavy petting, in walks the sister, naturally she blows her top and
shots Radu - dead, then blaming her sister, she turns the gun on
herself.

After the suicide, Dad moves with Cassie to the
South. He feels they need to get away from the city, he’d already lost
one daughter, he didn’t want to lose another.

And this is
where the story takes off and Edward Lee shows his writing excellence.
The haunted story house bit has been done to death - no pun intended.
But Mr. Lee adds a new dimension to it, an entry point into hell.

We
learn that ghosts are just images left over from the previous owner and
can’t hurt, see or touch us. We meet Xeke, Hush and Via. They are
Hell’s residents but are also known as Ex-Residents. We meet Satan’s
ex-friend and number one resistance fighter in Hell (Yes, resistance
fighter), his name is Ezoriel and is often trying to attack Satan’s
fortress. Each attempt is a failure. Real hope shows itself when he
learns (as Satan does) of Cassie, an Etheress in the city of hell. What
is an Etheress? Well, in short, she’s a saint of Hell (the first
saint), the Etheress must be a virgin and not be dead and be able to
enter Hell.

The book doesn’t start of very well at all. In fact
I was reluctant to read it. It starts with a description of Hell, which
I feel isn’t needed here as everything is explained in detail later on
when our heroes enter Hell. Which is a huge city, with TV, news and
bars and restaurants etc. It seems as if the start was added as an
after thought or by a request from the publisher. In fact I even wonder
with Mr. Lee actually wrote it, as it is far different in tone to the
rest of the book.

But, Edward lee has a rep in the horror
world and it’s one that I can endorse after reading this book. If there
are anymore Trade Paperbacks or Mass market books by this talented
author, I will certainly be buying them and will face a good read if
City Infernal is anything to go by.

The characters (even the
dead ones) are fleshed out into full real-life people. Cassie is the
quite girl at school who just doesn’t seem to fit in. Val and Hush are
standard chicks hanging out on the streets who are into Death Metal.
They’re the one you see walking around looking bored. Xeke on the other
hand is the guy who knows where to get everything and he knows the
rules and how to break them. And he does.

And there’s Dad, who
blames himself and his lack of attention for his daughter’s suicide and
Cassie’s attempted stab at it. He also has the hots for the
housekeeper, who we discover also holds a bit of a torch for him.

Throw
in the resistance force and Satan’s eternal battle with Ezoriel, the
hunt for Cassie’s sister, Lissa and you get one hell of a great book
that holds your attention all the way to the end.

There are
some overly long-winded passages that are not required in the slightest
as they are barely mentioned again in the book and many of the
descriptions of the demons are vague in one instance and over-done in
another.

Still, Mr. Lee writes like a man possessed, pumping
out this book with a tight story-line and believable characters. Wish I
could tell you more about the story of this book, but in doing so, I
would ruin some of it for those wanting to buy the book.

It is
also notable that the book ends without an ending as I have just
learned that Edward Lee is planning this as a three parter. YAY! The
second book, Infernal Angel has some bad reviews. Stay tuned in and
I’ll give you the real run down at a later date.

Caliban and other tales -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Caliban and other tales
Robert Devereaux
Leisure Horror 2002
359 pages

573 words


Quite possibly the worst book I have ever had the misfortune to read. That’s a very harsh statement, but I stand by it.

Robert
Devereaux is a very good writer, excellent story telling ability,
smooth readable paragraphs and clear concise explanations. He does use
‘and’ a lot. It wasn’t his writing style I had trouble with.

The
only problem I have with this book are the stories inside. They are
incredibly different, I can say, “I’ve never read anything like them
before.” Add to this that most of the characters are two dimensional
and we end up with un-enjoyable stories. In my humble opinion, the only
reason a story works is because of the characters. Give us people we
can’t care about and the story doesn’t work to it’s full potential.
Even with my favorite story listed below, I did not care about Bucky.
Who would care about someone like this - and I think that was the
point, hence I liked it. But the only character I felt a smidgen for
was Alex in the Tinker Bell story and only because I’ve been in a
similar position, once.

The only story I liked was the first
one, about Bucky and the voices inside his head, telling him to kill
everyone. At first I thought this was a standard story (ho-hum) and the
first several pages proved me right. But when I reached the climax, I
was in for a pleasant surprise. Wow. Never expected that. This story
alone is worth the $5.99 cover price. Pity about the rest.

This
book contains stories of clowns (Ridi Bobo -- never finished it, story
went nowhere and did nothing in the first 10 pages, so I skipped the
rest).

We got a story about Tinker Bell and her human lover.
What she does with her wand is truly amazing. The story is good
through-out but does drag in several places and found my concentration
wandering a few times.

The next story is about a tongue that eats people and the 50ft woman.

Then
we get a porno-like story - frightfully descriptive. No thanks, I want
to read horror. And what’s next? Ah, the novella the book is named
after: Caliban. And unfortunately I never made it to chapter two. If I
had read on, maybe it would have turned into a decent horror story, but
it was impossible to follow and sadly I pulled out my bookmark and
placed the book on the self.

In my honest opinion, the book
lacks characters that we can relate to and feel for. The book is loaded
with great reviews and blurbs including a heap of advertising for his
novel, And Santa Steps Out. I have not read that, but I may if I come
across it somewhere. I often give new writers (newly discovered by me,
that is) the benefit of the doubt and check at least two of their
books, before I’ll decide if I’ll keep reading them.

I don’t think I need to add my ratings for this.
A quick jump to Amazon, shows that I am not the only person would didn’t like this book. There was one other.

*
footnote: This is more of a dark fantasy than a horror. Personally I
think these two subjects (horror and Dark Fantasy) deserve their own
labels, so the readers know what they are buying.