Chucky_Jr Reviews

Friday the 13th: Vengeance (I) (2019)

Pretty good for the most part.

[19 September 2019]

Jason wakes up after 30 years and goes on another killing spree. Meanwhile his father is out getting revenge on the people responsible for his son's death.

For a fan film, the production values are very high. This is not something an amateur shot with friends in someone's backyard, but a film with professional directing, cinematography and special effects. They even went the extra mile of getting people who worked on the official films involved such as Steve Dash, C.J Graham, Harry Manfredini and Tom McLoughlin. Thumbs up for that.

The writing could've been a bit better. There are several things that feel random or poorly explained. No proper resurrection for Jason, he just suddenly wakes up. Elias' motive isn't consistent, he mostly kills people for revenge, but also random bystanders who never did anything to him or his family. Jason impales someone who later reappears unharmed with no explanation. The open ending suggests maybe these things will be explained in a sequel. But I would prefer it to mostly stand on its own without having to get answers from a sequel that isn't even guaranteed to happen.

Special effects were great. Lots of gore and inventive kills where little to no CGI was used. The costume for Jason was also good. They went with a custom silicone mask and a detailed and realistically aged hockeymask. My only gripes were that the black fabric in the eyeholes is often visible and he should've been much more rotted and skeletal after being dead for 30 years. But a full zombie bodysuit like in Part 7 was likely to costly for their budget, so I can forgive that.

Acting was mostly decent. The younger cast members do a good job for the most part, but real standouts are the returning actors from past films such as C.J Graham and especially Steve Dash. The latter is a blast to watch, and conveys the sheriff's annoyed and bitter attitude really well. This was Dash's final role and he went out on a high note.

Demon Resurrection (2008 Video)

Fun horror flick

[22 June 2017]

A devil worshiper wants to use a woman as the mother for a devil offspring, but she escapes and seeks help from a group of friends in a old mansion. The Satanist resurrects a horde of mummified corpses and orders them to attack the woman and her friends.

The film was made on a low budget and it shows in some of the acting and effects. The pacing could've been better, but once the zombies show up it gets fairly entertaining. There is a lot of creepy atmosphere in the horror scenes and it feels very inspired by horror films from the 70s and 80s. The rubber masks used for the zombies are very reminiscent of films like Creepshow and Burial Ground for instance. Good choice of location as well.

Overall, for something made by people with little experience and money this was a well done film.

The Demon's Rook (2013)

A decent effort

[6 February 2015]

A demon from another dimension kidnaps a boy and tries to raise him as his own. But when the child becomes an adult, he begins to resent the demon and travels back home. Other demons follow him back to earth and raise an army of zombies. The monsters invade his hometown and kill everyone they come across.

The Demon's rook is clearly made by a big fan of horror and special effects. There are a lot of impressive creature designs and splatter scenes at display here. The prosthetics and masks used in the film have a neat retro-vibe to them and are a breath of fresh air in a time where cgi-overuse is frequent in modern cinema. The cinematography is very stylish as well and reminiscent of films like Creepshow and Suspiria with all it's colored lights.

But it seems the director was so occupied with trying to make a film that looks good, he forgot about making a coherent story. The plot is somewhat difficult to follow at times and there are too many scenes that only consist of one-dimensional characters being introduced and then just get killed minutes later.

The hero and his girlfriend are fairly fleshed out and developed, but nearly all of the secondary characters are slasher movie stereotypes such as rednecks, bimbos or drunks. There is a female artist who seems to have some kind of psychic link with the demons, but this is not developed much or explained. Which would have been more interesting to see instead of another scene of an expandable teenager getting eaten alive.

The story also could've needed more buildup and a better climax. The ending is very anti-climactic and the villains are defeated ridiculously easy.

The Demon's rook is a gory retro-styled splatter with lots of practical effects that will entertain horror fans, but viewers who crave a film with more interesting characters and a more well-constructed story might skip it.

Dracula's Widow (1988)

Fun B-movie

[12 August 2014]

The owner of a wax museum receives a crate containing the titular character. She makes him her slave and starts to massacre various idiots throughout town. A hard-boiled cop slowly catches on and tries to take the fiend down.

I don't get all the hate for this one. Sure, it's no masterpiece. But as a fun monster flick it works well. Good pacing and suspense. Plenty of gore and cool creature effects. I also loved the cinematography, particularly the use of colored lights. So while it may be a b-movie, it sure wasn't boring. I was entertained from beginning to end. The only bothersome problem in my opinion was the plot, which should've been more cohesive. A better outfit for the vampire widow could've helped to as she looked more like Lois Lane rather than the bride of Dracula.

Curse of Chucky (2013)

Curse this movie

[25 September 2013]

What happened? This had the potential of becoming so great and then in the second half everything fell apart.

The first half of the movie is great. It takes time to establish and flesh out the characters, the scenes where Chucky moves and talks are used very briefly to build up suspense and keep the character mysterious. We get some terrific deaths with great staging and payoff. And the tone of the movie is more darker and closer to the first two films.

But then, somewhere in the second half things start going haywire. Plot holes, contradictions and confusing scenes begin to pile up. The tone of the film suddenly becomes much more comedic and several loose ends are never tied up. We get a anticlimactic and inconclusive ending and are left with lots of unanswered questions.

Or should I make that endings? It's like they shot several, couldn't decide which one to use and put them all in the movie, in random, illogical order.

So to sum it up; it was a half-decent movie that could have been much better. The cinematography and acting was great, but the film was let down by a bad script, plot holes and nonsensical crap.

The Beyond (1981)

Confusing euro-trash

[17 March 2012]

I don't understand why there's so much praise for Lucio Fulci in the horror community. People hold him in the same regard as Mario Bava and Dario Argento but he belongs better with trashy turkey-makers like Jess Franco or Bruno Mattei.

The Beyond has pretty much all the typical flaws you find in a Fulci film.

Snail-slow pacing? Check. Bad acting and dubbing? Check. Torture-porn-esque gore scenes? Check. Disjointed and confusing story? Check.

There is some semblance of a plot here but it fades away about half-way through. Then it's mostly various set-pieces of random people doing unexplained things or being killed for no reason.

The acting is mediocre at best, on par with what you see in a standard soap opera. The dub-actors unenthusiastic and bored performances bring it down even further.

When I said the gore-scenes remind me of torture porn I meant by how drawn out and overly graphic they are. It's all about the "money shot" and lingering on it in closeup for as long as possible. I don't mind gore in horror films but in order for it to work it has to be scary. Here it isn't scary, just vomit-inducing and tedious.

Fulci has a terrible sense of pacing, it takes forever for the movie to get from beginning to end. I think I would rather watch one of Bruno Mattei's films over this cause while they were bad they were at least entertaining and fun. Thanks to all unintentional comedy. But this one isn't even so bad it's fun, just boring, slow and overall depressing to watch.

If you want loads of blood and guts go watch the early works of Peter Jackson. And if you want a eerie horror film with a Lovecraftian feel go watch In the mouth of madness by John Carpeneter.

Lucky Luke (2009)

Good, but not great.

[26 November 2010]

A famous cowboy is ordered by the president to clean up a crime-infested town. The town's crime boss is not happy about this and tries to have him killed, which turns out to be quite a difficult task.

The good things about this film must be the great visual style. The sets, costumes and props look great and in some cases a bit cartoony. The camera-work is nice to, lots of use of interesting angles. And the acting is decent as well. It was neat to see some other villains than the Dalton gang used this time. But they do go a bit overboard with the crooks. One of the things why I didn't think the sequels to Batman were as good as the first was that they kept adding more and more villains in each film. And as a result the films become somewhat cluttered and didn't have as good focus on all the characters. That is what happens here to, as this film features Pat Poker, Billy the kid, Jesse James and Phil Defer. (And a cameo by Doc Doxey) Some of these seem more like they were added as fanservice and not because they were crucial to the plot.

There are also some pretty dark parts here which clashes with the more light-hearted and comical ones. Like in one scene you have a child witnessing his parents being shot to death and then later you have a goofy desperado play around with lollipops and water-pistols.

Still, it is probably the best live-action adaptation of Lucky Luke to date. I would recommend this over the Terrence Hill film or Les Daltons, but if we're talking Lucky Luke films in general then I would advise you to check out the animated "Go West" instead.

Eek! The Cat (1992–1997)

Kumbaya!

[26 October 2006]

This is one of my favorite shows from my childhood. The crazy, sometimes even Monty Python-like humor is incredible. The main character is the lovable purple cat. He tries to be helpful and kind to others, but because he's a bit clumsy and dumb, he sometimes makes things even worse. The other characters like his overweight girlfriend, his owners (A mother and her bratty kids) and the shark-like dog who is always out to get him are a lot fun to. Some of the episodes had some satirical humor in them, as well as good, old crazy cartoon violence. Why this hilarious show hasn't been released on DVD yet I don't understand.

Return of the Living Dead II (1988)

One of my favorite movies.

[7 May 2006]

This is one of my favorite zombie movies of all time. I saw it for the first time as a kid so I have some sentimental childhood memories attached to it. It has everything I want from a zombie movie: The zombies are rotted, buried corpses from a graveyard, just like I think zombies should be like, the humor is great(Like the zombie getting his hand stepped on and then on the head and when Doc is talking in the walkie-talkie and a zombie replies. Great stuff) and the dialog has plenty of funny lines. One of my favorites has to be when Joey is saying "It's like all this happened before, like we been her before, you, me.. Them!" I think this sequel is very loyal to the original film, it brought back a lot of the things that made part 1 great. Like the rock music, the graveyard sequences, the comedy elements and of course the brain-eating. Unlike the other sequels that had barley any of this stuff. The effects are great to, the make up on the zombies are great and the part were one of them is blown in half with a shotgun is a very memorable and funny scene. If like old-school zombies and want a movie with a 80's/retro feeling then watch this one.

Free Jimmy (2006)

Finally!

[22 April 2006]

Fritz the cat was one of the first 2D-animated cartoons for adults. Over twenty years later comes the first adult 3D-animated film. (For those of you who didn't already knew it, Nielsen is actually a big fan of Crumb)This is a film I've been waiting on for several years now. And I must say it was defiantly worth the wait. Director/writer Nielsen's film is controversial, tragic, violent and very funny. One of the best things of the film is the "ugly details" such as cracks on the walls, unclean skin, unshaved faces, blood shot eyes, rust marks on the cars etc. I also love the character designs, some of them have already appeared in Nielsen's comic books(Like the drug-users and the hunters) while there are some new ones as well. But all of them have a individual look and behavior and offers plenty of good lines and jokes. It would've been funny to see a sequel, but I highly doubt it will ever happen considering how much trouble and problems the filmmakers went through in order to finish this one.

The Trouble with Terkel (2004)

Great for children... If your kids are homicidal maniacs.

[6 October 2005]

Bullies, ignorant parents, odd teachers, zombies, psychopaths and drunks all appear in this hilarious and gruesome animated film from Dennmark. Wow. If that's how the Danes make family entertainment, I wonder how the adult movies are. Poor little Terkel has a lot of problems, his parents barley show him any attention, his friend makes him watch slasher movies and he's begin bullied at school by two weirdos with paint ball guns. And as that wasn't bad enough, a psychopath on the loose is out to get him. Talk about a traumatic childhood! This movie is great and funny in many way, but it's sort of south park-like humor makes it hard to watch for small children. But teenagers and adults with a twisted sense of humor will probably enjoy it as much as I did.

Return of the Living Dead III (1993)

ROTLD in name only.

[11 April 2003]

A teenage couple end up in a traffic accident and the girl dies as a result. So what is the boy to do? Well, why not bring her back with the zombie gas his dad experiments with at the local army base? First a brief message to directors who want to make sequels that are totally different from the original: The whole purpose of a sequel is to give people more of the same. If you don't want to do that, then make an original film instead of leeching of the popularity of other films and misleading your audience.

As if abandoning the comedic tone wasn't enough, the movie also contradicts several of the rules established in the original. Julie is able to use pain to make the hunger go away, while in the first film, pain is what drove zombies to eat people in the first place.

The zombie behavior is awfully inconsistent, Julie is able to think and act like a human most of the time, while others act like braindead psychos. Sometimes they eat flesh, sometimes brains. Make up your mind.

Riverman was a cool character, but the Mexican gang members were awfully annoying. Effects were fairly good most of the time and the acting was adequate. But the writing itself wasn't very good with to many plot holes and inconsistencies.