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Starry Eyes (2014)
How Far Are You Willing To Go For Fame
The film starts out with a a struggling actress, Sarah, working at her grease pit restaurant job, going on film auditions, and punishing herself by pulling hand fulls of her hair out when she faces failure. One evening she sees an ad for an open audition for a film titled "The Silver Scream" from Astareus Films, on a career search star site. She submits her resume and the film begins with a party. A party where we meet the group of friends, who she doesn't consider friends, and her roommate Tracy. One is a huge b*tch named Fabianne who does nothing but comment negatively about Sarah as an actress; basically waving a neon flag of jealousy.
We follow Sarah to her audition with a male and female casting agent, which went well, but being so over critical, she goes into the bathroom and tortures herself and throws a disturbing fit of rage, Unbeknown to her, during this fit, the female casting agent outside the stall and hears everything. Somehow impressed by her fit of rage and asks her to come back in and show them more. Back in the room, she is once again in front of the agents, and puts on a fit that was so disturbing that it seemed she was possessed and somewhat animalistic. They are obviously impressed. They thank her and send her on her way.
Later on she receives a callback for the role, but something just isn't right. As she enters the same office, she finds it pitch black and is instructed to leave the lights off. A spotlight comes on and she is asked to go nude. She is reluctant but complies after they assure her that they want to see her at her most vulnerable and want to see her let go of all her hangups. The light begins to flash and weird sh*t begins appearing and an obvious change comes over her. They thank her and send her on her way.
Back to her everyday life we follow her through her daily work routine, dealing with her two faced friends, and begin seeing a drastic change in her personality. She quits her job and just starts not giving a f*ck about anything, until she gets a call to meet the Producer. The producer comes across as a sincere guy that wants to see Sarah make it as a star, but when he shoves his hand up her dress and tells her to proves she really wants it, she bugs out and leaves. It would seem that the Producer wanted her to have sex with him for the part, partly true, but not even close to his true intentions.
What follows is the desperation and anger that builds in someone that knows they are deserving of better but are always at an inch reach of touching their dream. It often takes people to the darkest places in life and makes people do things completely out of character to reach it. When a friend gives her a tab of X, she let's herself go and calls and arranges a new appointment with the Producer. She gets there and begins to give him a blow job, and as the camera pans away we see multiple people in dark robes and masks watching, thus letting us know this is more than just a bj, but a ritual into something bigger and more dangerous.
As Sarah wakes the next morning she is visibly sick. Something is wrong with her and its only getting worse. Over the next couple days we see her rotting away like a corpse, flipping out on her best friend, and returning to the audition office to find out exactly what the f*ck is going on, and ultimately turning into a rotting mess. Its easy to see she's dying. Her hair is falling out, her flesh is rotting away, and at one point the poor b*tch projectile vomits up maggots. Sh*t is f*cked for Sarah.
On one evening, as Sarah is gasping her dying breath on the bathroom floor, her phone rings. Its the Producer, and he tells her how she can be reborn, transformed, into the next biggest starlet in Hollywood, comparable to the likes of Marilyn, Jane, and all the greats. They want sacrifices. Many blood splattering sacrifices. She accepts this task.
What follows next is a bloodbath as she systematically singles out each one of her fake friends to murder as a sacrifice to whatever the f*ck is going on. One by one she lets her hatred and feelings of betrayal fuel her vicious slaughter of each one. What is the purpose? Is Sarah simply a pawn to satisfy some crazy cults blood lust? Who the f*ck is Astraeus really? Will all the darkness and despair that Sarah had to hit the depths of pay off in the end and turn her life into her dream instead of the nightmare of murder its become? I wont say. I want you to see this movie. I will tell you that this was easily one of the top 5 horror films out this year and if you don't see it you're really doing yourself a disservice. SEE THIS MOVIE NOW! It's available on demand and coming to DVD/BLURAY. The entire film is an emotional ride. You'll cheer for characters. You'll laugh. You'll meet characters that are such huge f*ck faced a-holes that you'll want to rage punch them in the face. You'll also feel the optimism turned turmoil that Sarah journeys thru. In the end you leave this film with a lasting impression of what great film making is and the realization that you don't need a big flashy studio turn out films of this quality, Do yourself a favor and have Starry Eyes soon. Thanks for reading.
Danny Mozz www.theshockchamber.com
Roadside (2013)
Road trip to hell
Roadside is a very smart horror thriller. Set on Christmas Eve, Dan and his pregnant wife Mindy are on their way to visit Dan's relatives. On the way they encounter someone on the road that is trying to cause an accident with his truck by constantly slamming on the breaks in hopes they rear end him. stop for gas and meet the store clerk; an kind and accommodating older gentleman, a police officer, and the asshole from the truck. After a brief encounter and an exchanging of words, they continue on their way to see thee family.
On the way they encounter a log in the road, blocking their path, and as Dan gets out to move it, their nightmare begins. In the woods on the side of the road hides a sniper, and he refuses to let them leave. Throughout the night, they are shot at, terrorized, their dog gets murdered, and Dan takes a bullet through the hand.
Hours later, Dan's brother in law comes to look for them and faces a pretty bloody, untimely death. Mindy goes into labor, and Dan decides its time to fight back and get his wife and unborn child to safety. He uses gasoline, road flares, and a book of matches to devise their escape plan.
In what seems like is about to be an anticlimactic series of moments they set their plan into motion. They distract the sniper by igniting a fire to interfere with the snipers night vision scope. Dan fast breaks to their vehicle to haul ass out of there. It looks like the plan worked, until the sniper finds his sights back on Dan. BOOM... a bigger explosion goes off to blind the sniper through the scope, and they get away.
As their making their way to a hospital they begin to run out of gas. Out of gas they start the footing it as fast as possible, but Mindy can barely go any further with her labor pains. Just when all looks bleak we see a car in the distance. Mindy fires a flare to get their attention. The driver stops and they climb in. They are relieved that it's the kind store clerk. The happy music starts and all looks promising.... or is it?
Who was the sniper? What fueled his hate for Dan and Mindy? Do they make it to the hospital safely? Find this out and everything in between to see exactly how enjoyable of a film this is. There's a few moments that make you think you have everything figured out, but then you are hit with a curve ball that shows you that you have no idea of the darkness these soon to be new parents. I would recommend this film to anyone. It has a really well done script. The intensity and terror these people go though is very believable. Ace and Katie turn out very believable performances that they both should be proud of. Ace Marrero, who reminds you of SVU star Danny Pino, plays the husband and soon to be father at a crossroads in life, and Katie Stegeman plays a great bitch that is fed up with her husband's sneaky ways and isn't afraid to show it.
Danny Mozz www.theshockchamber.com
Fast & Furious 7 (2015)
The SHOCK! Chamber Reviews: FURIOUS 7
I will admit, the franchise of The Fast And The Furious has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. From the fast sexy cars, the scantily clad woman, ridiculous action that's real world impossible, and most of all, the brotherhood between that characters, how could it not? Granted, the scripts aren't always the strongest, but they never fail to entertain you to the point of triggering your adrenaline, and keeping you on the edge of your seat. Furious 7 was no different, and succeeded with showing tribute to many aspects of what made it a hit franchise that has earned million upon millions worldwide.
This installment of the franchise brings out a new enemy, Deckard Shaw, the brother of Owen from part 6. Deckard is out for revenge of his brother's demise, and won't stop until he succeeds. Now, if you think Owen was a bad ass then you haven't seen sh*t. Deckard makes Owen look like a girl scout in many ways: he's more weapon savvy, a highly trained fighter, he has whatever he needs at his disposal, and he fears no man nor death.
Dom and the crew are back in L.A. trying to get back to normal as possible. Brian is trying his best to get use to being a normal dad who has put his adventurous past away for the better of his life with Mia and their boy Jack. The quiet doesn't last long when Deckard sends a bomb to their home and forces the "family" to get back together and avenge the death of Han.
Along the way they meet a secret government agent named Frank Petty, played by Kurt Russell, and he makes a deal with them. The deal is to track down a kidnapped hacker, Ramsey, played by Game Of Thrones star Nathalie Emmanuelle, with a program that can change the way criminals are tracked down, and with this program, track down Deckard and end him before turning it over to the government. In a series of amazing, intense stunts, they rescue her and make a new enemy who eventually works hand in hand with Deckard. Their common goal is obvious. From the Middle East to the streets of L.A., they face down with Djimon Hounsou as Mose, and Deckard, equipped with military grade weapons and drones.
After many mind blowing special effects filled moments we get to the conclusion of the film. There's hand to hand fights, big bad guns, and a plan that works out in the end in the way that can only be expected from the F&F franchise.
I was completely pleased with the amount of action, intensity, and nail biting moments that rounded out what I felt to be another successful installment. There were some moments in the script that felt a little off, but chalk it up the re writes due to the untimely death of Paul Walker. I rarely have a problem with the work that Director James Wan puts out, and the chemistry of the cast is always on point. This film also succeeded in answering some unanswered questions about Dom and Letty that were never brought to light, but everyone will be excited to find out. The way they have us say goodbye to Brian was tasteful, touching, and very fitting for fans to relate to, involving both the character of Brian and the actor. If more films are on the way we'll definitely miss Paul Walker's involvement, but with the chemistry of this cast you'll always feel like you're visiting old friends. Go see Furious 7. It's a rush!
Danny Mozz, The SHOCK! Chamber
Silent Retreat (2013)
Why are we being so quiet?
There's a girl running through the woods, panicked, beaten, with a leash around her neck, and begging for forgiveness. We hear growls, and the louder they get, the more panic overcomes this girl. Something unseen creeps up on her, and violence ensues. Death becomes her.....
This is a story about a young lady named Janey, a girl with a painful past, who was sentenced to a month at a retreat for behavioral modification. Upon arrival at the camp she meets Dr. Prince. He immediately comes across as a prick as he explains her the rules: NO TALKING, NO HAND GESTURES, NO PHONES, NO EYE CONTACT. NO MORE THAN 5 GIRLS CAN BE UNDER THEIR CARE AT A TIME. We already know from the opening that something more awaits the girls in the darkness of the woods surrounding camp, but what role does the Dr play, with the help of his only employees, his 2 sons Albert and Paul? She is settled in and her "treatment" begins.
As the girls begin to rebel, with Janey's influence, we meet Alexis. Together, Alexis and Janey are determined to get down to the root of the real purpose for the camp. As they begin snooping and spying, and some vomit inducing trickery, we soon find out the real Purpose of the camp. It's not to reform bad girls. It's not to teach them any skills, so don't expect to see any of the girls earning their badge for wicker weaving either. There's a deeper, darker bit of mind fuckery going on here.
What is this fuckery I speak of? I'm glad you asked. Come to find out, the judge that sentenced the girls to the camp is the brother of Dr Prince. They have this bible thumping fanatical idea of how women should carry themselves. It is their life's goal to break these girls down, through intense and drug induced brainwashing, turning into voiceless, weak, perfectly obedient wives, and the ones that fail the treatment test are sacrificed to what lurks in the woods. The ones to succeed will be their brides, only none thus far have been able to be completely broken down, and ultimately become dinner to the thing hiding in the woods.
Will Janey, Alexis, and the other 3 girls overcome the Prince family's tactics, and escape their horrible fate? Will they escape the thing in the woods that lurks around the camp borders? You will have to watch and find out. There were some slow moments in the film but it makes up with a twisted tale and a nice amount of guts and gore leading into the films climax. I enjoyed watching Silent Retreat, and I think many of you may too.