Monster: The Ed Gein Story - a quick rant...

Season 3 of Netflix's true crime drama series from Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy has appeared on our screens, and after detailing the life and crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer (season 1) and the Menendez Brothers (season 2), their sights have now been fixed upon the so-called Butcher of Plainfield, Ed Gein.

The excellent first episode suggests a less gaudy and in-your-face tone, something with a splash of relative class (helped in no small part by an excellent performance from Laurie Metcalf as Gein's ultra-religious and overbearing mother) ... but this brief flirtation with taking the material seriously rapidly devolves, to the point that already by episode four Ed Gein is stalking babysitters and chasing two lost hunters through the woods with a screaming chainsaw while wearing a flesh mask, which was most certainly something he never did. Such moments become increasingly common as it becomes crystal clear that hewing close to the horrifying truth is of no real interest to the showmakers...

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Mosquito (Gary Jones, 1994) Review

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“My God – this looks like a proboscis!” Your common or garden mozzies have sucked the blood of an alien lifeform that has crashed to earth, and now they've mutated into giant man-killers and they've got a mad thirst on for some juicy human haemoglobin. So who's gonna save the world? A park ranger, a meteor hunter, and a chainsaw-wielding bank robber, that's who!...

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Ghoulies II (Albert Brand, 1987) Review

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“Look out! The behemoth returns!” After the somewhat limited Ghoulies (1985), the ghastly little demonic hell spawn return, this time to wreak havoc at a full-blown carnival. Surely these devious teensy troublemakers will find something to do with all these guillotines, switchblades, and unoccupied toilet bowls lying around...

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Ghoulies (Luca Bercovici, 1985) Review

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“I got an idea – let's do a ritual.” A Lucifer-worshipping cult, laser eye battles, slimy little green monsters that look like mangled turds with teeth popping out of toilets, and gratuitous indoor use of sunglasses? It can only be Ghoulies...

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Double Bill Mini Reviews: Under Your Radar Edition...

Anomalisa:
What's it about?
A middle-aged family man arrives in another identikit hotel in advance of giving another motivational speech on yet another whistle-stop tour. Feeling lost and alone in his life, so much so that everyone but him in this world has the same face and the same voice, he's doomed to misery - until Lisa enters his life.
Who would I recognise in it?
David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan (all voices).
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Sometimes the format in which you tell a story can make all the difference, or put an intriguing spin on the material. With "Anomalisa", writer/director Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) teams up with director Duke Johnson to present this very grown up tale of middle-age melancholy in the form of stop-motion animation...

Click "READ MORE" below for the verdict on this flick as well as Kevin Smith's weirdest movie to date...

Creepozoids (David DeCoteau, 1987) DVD Review

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“More acid, more megatons – it ain't over yet.” David DeCoteau's low budget creature feature has aspirations walking in the footsteps of Aliens (James Cameron, 1986), but let's be honest, those are far out of reach. However, influenced at the time by the last dregs of Cold War nuclear paranoia, Creepozoids – with its bleak world view and gooey practical effects – provides a charming dose of VHS era sci-fi horror. The year is 1998 and World War III has turned planet Earth into a nuked-out husk where nomads and survivors populate the wastelands as the fighting rages on...

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Tremors 5: Bloodlines - Mini Review...

What's it about?
Burt Gummer - graboid hunter extraordinaire - is now a survivalist reality show host, but he's pulled back into action when a man from the South African government turns up in search of his help. Joined by Travis, a laid back stunt rider, they discover that the graboid/shrieker/ass blaster family aren't solely an issue for North America and Mexico - there's an entire African bloodline with their own evolutionary surprises out there causing havoc.
Who would I recognise in it?
Michael Gross, Jamie Kennedy.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
It's been years since we've had anything from the Tremors franchise, and coming off the back of a sorely under-funded third film, an intriguing but strangely repetitive fourth film, and a one-season TV show of variable quality, a new entry is a somewhat surprising occurrence...

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Double Bill Mini Musings: Butt Monsters and Wolf Cops...

Bad Milo:
What's it about?
A stressed-out guy struggles to deal with his problems, so naturally a murderous beast shoots out of his butt and starts killing people!
Who would I recognise in it?
Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Patrick Warburton, Stephen Root, Peter Stormare, and others.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
It's a movie about a monster that comes out of a guy's arse and goes around killing people, what's not to enjoy here? Snappy, gory, and enjoyably silly, fans of dark comedy and practical puppet F/X (sometimes like the sweet/sour mix of Gremlins) will have plenty to chuckle over. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for WolfCop...