Horror Film Gems

BOO! Halloween will be here soon, so I’ve been thinking about scary horror movies, of course. Below are four released from 2000 to 2005 that managed to scare the socks off me. Fortunately, they are available on DVD now for horror movie fans to enjoy.     

HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION (2002). "Let the dangertainment begin," exclaims Busta Rhymes in one of the most creative thrillers in this highly popular horror-flick series. Playing a TV reality show producer, Rhymes’ character arranges for a group of teens to spend Halloween night in the place where Michael Myers’ murderous rampage began. Giving these college students tiny cameras as they explore Michael’s dilapidated old childhood home, Rhymes  expects BIG ratings for his daring program. How could he foresee that more than ratings would be at stake? For during the show, Michael unexpectedly returns -- and wants to make sure none of the interlopers leave alive.  

AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000). Stylish, satirical, and soulless, American Psycho goes inside the mind of a serial killer who looks more like a matinee idol than a murderer. It also questions if Patrick Bateman, the film’s title character, is any more demented than the society in which he lives. Symbolizing the materialism and self-centeredness of the 1980s, Bateman (Christian Bale) cares about things, not people and spends his leisure time in torturing and killing numerous victims. Although playing an unbalanced character, Bale has no problem balancing horror with dark humor in this remarkable performance. His monologues about pop music, delivered so authoritatively in the midst of terrifying and raunchy activities, both shock and amuse. The hunky Welsh-born actor even manages a comic flair while wielding a chain saw! Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ controversial novel, the film version of American Psycho emphasizes black comedy over gore, but it’s still a very frightening movie. American Psycho is the first movie since Natural Born Killers to give me nightmares. 

THE CELL (2000).  In The Cell’s spectacular opening scene, a woman in a flowing white garment gallops her sleek black horse over gigantic dunes of dark pink sand. She is Catherine Deane, a psychologist inside the mind of a young coma patient. But this dreamlike landscape pales in significance to the nightmarish world of serial killer Carl Stargher, the man she agrees to treat next.Deane (Jennifer Lopez) has mastered a new therapy technique which enables her to experience what is happening in another person’s unconscious mind. When Stargher (Vincent D’Onofrio) loses consciousness after a seizure, the innovative therapist must help FBI Agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) find out where his latest victim is hidden before it’s too late. The only way to do so is by taking a dangerous trip inside the madman’s head. And what a creepy, disturbing trip it is! 

DEAD and BREAKFAST (2005). "Bed and Breakfast" is the first thing we see flashed on screen, but immediately after that, the word “Dead,” written in a blood-red color, splashes over Bed. Clearly, the title is really Dead and Breakfast instead. A clever way to get started, isn’t it? Fortunately, this little independent horror movie also serves up similar creativity and campiness almost from beginning to end. It’s a hoot! The story seems traditional enough. Six friends are traveling together to a wedding when they stop to stay for the night at a sinister inn in a creepy Texas town. After opening a mysterious object, one member of the group (Oz Perkins) turns into a violent ghoul. Before long, the ghoulish creatures outnumber the town’s living inhabitants. If this sounds a bit like zombie/ghoul movies you’ve seen before, you’re on the right track. But this one also features surprising musical numbers. (Think Rocky Horror Picture Show meets Shaun of the Dead.) 

You’re welcome, horror flick fans!

(If you would like to read my full review of each movie described above, please go to http://www.reeltalkreviews.com)

Horror Times Two

While thinking about the Halloween season this year, I'm reminded that one of my early critiques of horror films took on a bizarre tone and probably alienated Oprah Winfrey fans. As the only critic in America who saw "Beloved" and "Bride of Chucky" on the same day, I became fascinated by the similarities in these two movies. How could I ignore such an incredible discovery? So, of course, I had to reveal these findings. Below are the results reported in my review.

Neither "Beloved," the film version of Toni Morrison’s acclaimed anti-slavery novel, nor "Bride of Chucky," another campy sequel to 1988’s "Child’s Play," should be viewed by the faint of heart. Moviegoers brave enough to see these two films will be surprised at the gruesome plot points they share, in spite of their very different subject matter. Both films deal with the supernatural. "Beloved" features the adult ghost of a dead child come back to life to haunt its killer. "Bride of Chucky" presents the further misadventures of a psychopathic doll that comes to life after a dying serial killer transfers his soul into the doll’s body.

Blood and gore fill the screen in both movies. Beatings, lynchings, and baby killing make up most of the violence in "Beloved," while Chucky concentrates on explosions, severed body parts, and deaths by shattered mirror glass. An eyeball figures prominently in each film. In "Beloved," former slave Sethe (Winfrey) puts her dog’s eyeball back into its socket after the animal is slammed into a wall by a ghost. In "Bride of Chucky," the woman who was once Chucky’s girlfriend (Jennifer Tilley)places a toy eyeball into his doll face before bringing him back to life while performing a kind of “Voodoo for Dummies.”

I know it’s hard to believe, but both Sethe and Chucky’s girlfriends purchase dolls for their loved ones. Sethe spends the last of her meager funds on a doll for the ghost child. Chucky gets (you guessed it) a bride doll. A strange pregnancy occurs in each film also. The ghost becomes pregnant by Sethe’s boyfriend, and Chucky impregnates his re-vamped bride doll.

"Bride of Chucky" mixes weird humor with its scare tactics, including Tilley’s wickedly amusing bubble bath while watching the classic "Bride of Frankenstein" on TV. But there is nothing funny about "Beloved." Instead, it reveals the intense pain and suffering of a woman who will do anything to keep her children from becoming slaves. Clearly, imaginary evils like those on the latest Chucky flick are no match for the real horrors of slavery depicted so graphically in "Beloved."

Rocky Horror Again!

Movie Addict Headquarters starts getting ready for Halloween this week by revisiting Barry Bostwick’s popular interview about The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And we'll even be doing THE TIME WARP again!

Bostwick portrayed “Brad” in this 1975 horror/musical that became a cult film. The multi-talented actor has appeared in over 100 films and television productions. He’s a triple-threat entertainer -- singer, dancer, actor -- who created the role of Danny Zuko in Grease on Broadway and won a Tony for his work in The Robber Bridegroom. He’s appeared in such TV programs as Spin City, Cougar Town, Glee, Scrubs, Law & Order Special Victims Unit, George Washington, and War and Remembrance. Among Bostwick’s numerous movies are: Movie Movie; Spy Hard; Evening, and Swing. He has the following upcoming films completed or in post-production: Finding Joy; Home Run Showdown; and FDR: American Badass! (in which he plays Franklin Delano Roosevelt).

“Barry Bostwick & The Rocky Horror Picture Show” airs on Tuesday, October 11, at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on BlogTalkRadio. LINK TO LISTEN:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/movieaddictheadquarters

Halloween Movie Quiz

Question: What is Dracula’s favorite film?
Answer: The Vampire Strikes Back

Question: Which movie is the beautician’s favorite scary film?
Answer: The Texas Chainsaw Manicure

Question: What is the Egyptologist’s favorite motion picture?
Answer: Mummy Dearest

Question: What horror flick does the butcher like best?
Answer: The Silence of the Lambchops

(Sorry, folks, I couldn’t resist.)