Author: HorrorGhouls

THE WORLD OVER – Horror Short

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When a reclusive mother-to-be discovers a door leading to a mirror image of her home, her husband goes snooping inside and never returns. Fearing the worst, she gathers her courage and goes in search of him, but instead finds her doppelganger on the other side.

 

The World Over is a good blend of sci-fi and horror, and tells a creepy story that explores the idea of a multiverse…

 

THE WORLD OVER - Horror Short

 

Director & Writer: Heath C. Michaels
Country & year: USA, 2019
Actors: Tess Granfield, Brett Keating
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt6791596/

 

 

 

 

SAMANTHA – Horror Short

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A blogger interviews a woman about her transcendental experiences.

 

Samantha is a creepy horror short dealing with good visuals and interesting topic: people experiencing how departed loved ones appear in their dreams, and how looking for answers may not give the result they want…

 

SAMANTHA - Horror Short

 

Director & Writer: Joshua Carley
Country & year: USA, 2018
Actors: Luke Edwards, Laura Cayouette, Melissa Saint-Amand
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt6442326/

 

 

 

 

Murder-Set-Pieces (2004)

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The film starts off with a quote from Jack the Ripper that says “The Jews are not the men to be blamed for nothing.”  Then we see some silent and grainy black and white documentary footage of the September 11 attacks, as we hear a little girl’s voice saying “Just you wait a little while, the nasty man in black will come. With his little chopper, he will chop you up!“

 

And after this quick, cryptic segment we see some images of some freshly dead young women, drenched in blood, in some kind of torture room, just to gives us a foretaste of what to expect during the next 90 minutes.

 

In Murder-Set-Pices we get the pleasure to meet The Photographer, played by the German actor Sven Garrett. He’s a muscle-build pussymagnet, who during the daytime spends his time with his airhead of a girlfriend, and by night roams the streets of Las Vegas to photograph young naked models. And from what we saw in some glimpses of in the opening sequence, The Photographer is a cold-blooded, emotionless serial killer who, after having threesomes, rough sex orgies and anal-raping his models like a gorilla, ends the ritual by murdering them in some grisly fashion, and sometimes tortures them in his basement.

 

And if that’s not enough to shock and disgust you, he also mutilates them and eats their flesh. And just to place the rotten cherry on top, he’s also a neo-Nazi who listens to speeches of Hitler while he’s pumping iron and thinking about his next victims. Doesn’t sound quite family friendly, but even though 55 gallons of fake blood were used on a kill count of 30 victims, Murder-Set-Pieces is way too amateurish to do its purpose.

 

Gunnar “Leatherface” Hansen pops up in a quick cameo as a car mechanic so The Photographer can buy a gun. He then goes to a stripclub so we can enjoy some fresh nudity before it cuts right over to a rape scene. Then we see some flashbacks of The Photographer as a kid where he cuts off the dress of a barbie doll. Then it jumps to a scene where The Photographer is getting a blowjob in his car by using a severed head. Then we see Tony “Candyman” Todd in a cameo as a desk clerk in some adult book store, which escalates into a messy robbery scene, and it’s the only scene here that’s got some tension and entertainment value. But guess what happens next: more rape scenes, a pornographic photo session with two lesbians, a drawn-out torture porn scene that seems to last beyond the running time, before we the film completes The Unholy Trinity of Cameos by Edwin “The Hitchiker” Neil.

 

And as you’ve probably figured out by now, there’s is none to zero plot to find here. The film is a mishmash of a bunch of random scenes that are stitched together with no relation to each other. There’s no start, middle and end, no track of time, no progress, and the whole film feels more like a 90 minutes montage of deleted scenes from a film that never got finished.

 

The most noteworthy and head-scratching thing is that writer and director Nick Palumbo managed to raise 2 million dollars from investors, which at that time was the highest budget to an independent slasherfilm. Quite impressive, though, for a young underground filmmaker. But then the big question is: where did the budget go? There’s zero style or any form of production value to see here, and The Human Centipede, which had a lower budget than this, looks like a David Fincher production in comparison.

 

Murder-Set-Pieces is also filled with controversies. Palumbo claims that this is the first film in the history that’s been thrown out of three laboratories, producers were arrested, and cast and crew were arrested numerous times. Sounds like one of those disastrous film productions where a four hour long behind-the-scenes documentary would be far more interesting and entertaining than the movie itself. But if this sounds interesting enough, be sure to avoid the US release from Lions Gate where 20 minutes have been cut out, and instead look for the European director’s cut version.

 

Murder-Set-Pieces Murder-Set-Pieces Murder-Set-Pieces

 

Writer and director: Nick Palumbo
Country & year: USA, 2004
Actors: Sven Garrett, Cerina Vincent, Tony Todd, Gunnar Hansen, Edwin Neal, Jade Risser, Valerie Baber, Destiny St. Claire, Maria Keough, Renee Baio, Lauren Palac, Andrea Mitchell, Jessie DeRoock
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0422779/

 

 

Tom Ghoul

 

 

 

WITHIN – Short Horror Film

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A dark short film about a young family on the verge of collapse. A simmering, slow downward spiral of insecurity with devastating consequences for all involved.

 

Within is a creepy horror short with some pretty good cinematography of the atmospheric woods.

 

WITHIN - Short Horror Film

 

Director & Writer: Rory Wood
Country & year: USA, 2021
Actors: David Lewis, Lisa Chandler, Ridley Havok McLeod.
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt15812664/

 

 

 

 

The Gravedancers (2006)

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The movie starts off showing a scene with a woman alone in a room, who is attacked by something neither she nor we can see. She gets hanged in the stairways, and a black envelope drops to the floor. We then fast forward to a year later, when a group of friends (Sid, Kira, and Harris) have attended a funeral and decides to go drinking afterwards. Drunk and stupid, they decide to do something silly that can only be brought on by drunken stupidity: they first break into the Crescent View Cemetery. Their original plan was to just say their final goodbyes to the recently departed, but Sid finds a black envelope amongst some of the flowers on the grave. Inside is a poem which urges them to be joyful and to dance upon the graves. And of course, since they’ve already gotten quite sloshed by now, they think this sounds like an excellent idea in order to celebrate life. And so….they start dancing on graves…

 

Later, mysterious things start happening to the friends. Harris and his wife Allison start hearing strange sounds at night, and suddenly have creepy visions. Kira starts getting attacked by an entity that bites and assaults her, and Sid experiences unexpected fires. Eventually they get in contact with some paranormal investigators, who thinks that they awoke something when they danced on the graves.

 

The Gravedancers is directed by Mike Mendez, who also directed the cheesy spider-creature-feature flick Big Ass Spider. It starts off in a very routine-like fashion, where we get an ominous start showing us that something sinister is going on, followed by some people making a stupid mistake, and then shit starts hitting the fan. You needn’t see many supernatural horror movies in order to recognize this formula, but what matters is how it spins the movie around it. So, how does The Gravedancers do in that regard? Well…

 

First off, the story isn’t half-bad. It’s not very original, but it works, and I actually liked the revealed reason for why they get haunted in the way they do. Much of the story is simple but it’s not a completely hackneyed entry into the supernatural horror genre, it does have a few things of its own. When it comes to scenery, I gotta give some props with using actual locations for the filming. The filmmakers sought out houses that were going to be demolished/burned (in South Carolina, it’s common to burn down abandoned/condemned houses) and asked if they could film there before they were burned down. The location for the hospital, however, was not an abandoned place, but actually a convalescent home (a place where people are recovering from illness or medical treatments). During the shooting at that place, the filmmakers received numerous complaints about the loud screaming and dangerous stunts. Not sure how shooting a horror film in a place where people are supposed to recover and need some quiet and peace was considered a good idea, but what the hey…you take what you can get, I guess.

 

Regarding the effects and ghosts, they are…incredibly cheesy, actually. There’s even a scene with a giant flying disembodied head chasing a car, something that would be perfect in a Ghostbusters movie (or a Goosebumps episode), but considering how the movie takes itself somewhat seriously, this scene actually caught me a bit off-guard. However, it was said that the Disney ride The Haunted Mansion was a major inspiration to the film and design of the ghosts, so that explains a few things…

 

While The Gravedancers does come off a bit as a run-of-the-mill supernatural horror flick, it does have its moments, I gotta give it that. It’s not great, it’s typical B-grade horror, and its (unintentional or not) cheese-factor is actually one of its redeeming factors.

 

The Gravedancers

 

Director: Mike Mendez
Writers: Brad Keene, Chris Skinner
Country & year: USA, 2006
Actors: Dominic Purcell, Josie Maran, Clare Kramer, Marcus Thomas, Tchéky Karyo, Megahn Perry, Martha Holland, Oakley Stevenson, Samantha MacIvor, Jack Mulcahy, Jim McKeny, Geneva Avarett-Short, Bob McHone
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0435653/

 

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

Tom Ghoul reacts to trailers: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Studio 666 and Dario Argento’s Comeback with Dark Glasses

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We’re expanding our site with a brand new section: Trailer reactions ! So let’s just dive into it:

 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I have to be honest and say that I didn’t give a rat’s ass about this when I heard they were going to make yet another film in this dead horse of a franchise, when they haven’t been able to make Leatherface great again since the 2003 remake. This is also the second attempt to make a new sequel to the original after Texas Chainsaw 3D, if you even remember that one.

 

Then the trailer came and … other than the moment where Leatherface pops out of the farmfield like an old, demented geezer, which made me chuckle, it looks decent enough. Some great imagery and solid cinematography is to behold here, which reminded me more of the 2003 remake – which is good enough for me, since they would never be able to match the raw primitiveness of the original anyway. The gore and the brutality looks promising, and that scene on the bus with the kids and their phones looks like one of the highlights. And Sally, the last survivor from the original, returns as an old grandma for whatever reason. Fede Alvaraes (Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe) is involved with the story and producing, which alone gives a glimmer of hope.

 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is releasing on Netflix this upcoming Friday.

 

Studio 666

I thought this was some documentary about Foo Fighters when I first saw the thumbnail. But no, it’s actually a horror comedy starring Dave Grohl as himself and his bandmembers of Foo Fighters who rents an old haunted mansion to write and record their 10th album. Dave Grohl struggles with writer’s block, then gets possessed by Satan to help him write the ultimate album … something like that. Kerry King pops up in one scene. Cool.

 

I have no idea what to expect, really, other than it looks polished, colorful, fast-paced, rich on production values and something to not take too seriously for a single second. How far the horror elements goes, remains to be seen. Is this in the same alley as Deathgasm, or does it take a more family friendly approach? Dave Grohl seems to have the time of his life here, though, and we’ll just have to trust his own words when he says that: “Studio 666 is absolutely insane.”

 

Studio 666 has theatrical release in February.

 

Dark Glasses

It’s been a decade since Dario Argento’s last film, which was Dracula 3D. A film that was mocked and laughed at by everyone and showcased once and for all that the once acclaimed Maestro of Italian Horror had completely lost his touch with himself and all aspects of filmmaking, and was long over due for retirement. And the whole disastrous crowdfunding project The Sandman that followed for several years is a subject for an other time.

 

As the time went it’s fair to believe that almost no one expected a new film from Argento. And just out of the blue from absolute nowhere pops a trailer up for his brand new film, called Dark Glasses (Occhiali Neri), with a movie poster that looks pretty similar to John Carpenter’s They Live. And no, this is not a remake of the mentioned film, its Dario Argento’s return to the Giallo genre.

 

Here we follow a blind woman who must use a Chinese boy to hunt down a serial killer in the dark corners of Rome, called The Cellist who kills his victims with cello strings. And judging from the trailer this looks like amateur hour with poor image quality, out of focus images, weird close-ups, sloppy camera work and overall cheap trash. I’m not surprised. It’s kinda sad when Argento is now in his 80’s, and the only reason to be curious to watch his new stuff is to see how bad it is, and expect more unintentional laughs than chills.

 

Black Glasses will be released on Shudder in Fall 2022.

THE BACKROOMS – Horror Short

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A cameraman helping to shoot an indie film suddenly finds himself wandering a liminal space.

 

The Backrooms a 9 minute found footage short film made by the 16-year old director and VFX artist Kane Parsons which takes the concept of liminal spaces to a whole new level of horror.

 

BACKROOMS - Horror Short

 

Director: Kane Parsons
Country & year: USA, 2022
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt17291392/

 

 

 

 

Nightbeast (1982)

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Welcome to Z movie hour. Today we take a look at a micro-budget and campy sci-fi schlockfest with an evil alien and his lazer gun, made by amateur filmmaker Don Dohler, starring his neighbours, brother-in-laws, himself, and his two sons.

 

Nightbeast opens with a small spaceship that gets hit my a meteor and crashlands spectacularly in the woodsland of Maryland. And there went the whole budget, I would guess. Out of the burning spaceship comes a hideous-looking alien (Nightbeast). He looks like a skinned gorilla and always has a sadistic, evil grin on his face, which clearly tells us that he’s not here in peace.

 

Some of the locals get sheriff Cinder to show the crashlanding area, and he then says with a deadpanned face: “j e s u s ! Must have been lightning.”  Nightbeast has no time to waste, and starts killing off some local hunters with his tiny lazergun that makes them disappear into thin air. He then kills uncle Dave and chases his two nephews (played by the two sons of director Dohler) through the woods where they hide in a car. Hah, as if that helped! Nightbeast zaps the car and it vanishes with the kids inside. There’s no mercy with this alien. And besides of his beloved gun, he uses his hands to rip out the entrails of his victims, which gives us some decent gory moments.

 

After thirty minutes of almost non-stop cheesy guns-and-lazer-action scenes with some really hilariously bad effects, the movie gets to a halt with a pointless sideplot with some biker called Drago. He’s just a scumbag who likes to hit women, and you can’t wait for him to be killed off.

 

And we have a pool party, shot in the back of Don Dohler’s house with his friends, family and a bunch of extras, neighbours I guess, who’s probably not aware they’re a part of a film. All seems to be invited, except for Nightbeast. What happened to him, you ask? He’s still around and lurking, even in the daylight. And just before you know it, he pops up and encounters his next victim with a jump scare and… how can I describe this…well, he taps on the victim’s arm which then falls off. I believe we’re supposed to believe that he rips his arm off, but no, he just taps on it and Don Dohler tries his best to hide the poorly made effect in some quick, inept editing. It’s Z movie schlock at its finest!

 

The two sheriffs Cinder and Lisa is determined to chase the alien, and the film of course shoe-horns a love interest between these two. And then we eventually get to the love scene in some motel room, and God almighty, this is the most cringey and awkward thing ever. As if they weren’t amateur actors already who have zero ability to convey any emotions in front of camera, it starts the scene with Lisa half-naked after having taken a shower and says to Cinder: “I better get dressed now, huh?” Cinder then says with his deadpanned face: “No ….. You are a very attractive girl, Lisa …….. I guess I never really noticed it before.”  Some romantic piano music plays and … next! The film at least ends with a fun and action-packed bang with some more spectacular cheesyness. And yes, don’t you worry about our woman-hitting biker Drago, which you probably have forgotten about already, he will get his karma.

 

And of course, I have to mention that the synth soundtrack is composed by a 16 year old kid, named Jeffrey Abrams, later known as JJ Abrams. And this is his first screen credit. Nightbeast was originally released by Troma in 2004, which seems to be out of print. It’s now available on a Blu-ray/DVD Combo from Vinegar Syndrome.

 

Nightbeast Nightbeast Nightbeast

 

Director: Don Dohler
Country & year: USA, 1982
Actors: Tom Griffith, Jamie Zemarel, Karin Kardian, George Stover, Don Leifert, Anne Frith, Eleanor Herman, Richard Dyszel, Greg Dohler, Kim Pfeiffer
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0086013/

 

 

Tom Ghoul

 

 

 

KANDITTUND! (SEEN IT!) – Animated Short

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The ever-vibrant Mr. P. N. K Panicker has several shockers up his sleeve. He takes the viewer along a moonlit stroll and paints a quirky picture of the supernatural encounters he has had.

 

Kandittund (Seen It) is a somewhat light-hearted story about an old man’s encounters with supernatural beings. In this animated short, Adithi Krishnadas and her Studio Eeksaurus team shows us some Indian folklore spirits, with the voiceover of 89yr-old storytelling expert Mr Panicker.

 

KANDITTUND! (SEEN IT!) - Animated Short

 

Director: Adithi Krishnadas
Country & year: India, 2021
Voice Actors: Suresh Eriyat, Resul Pookutty, Sabari Das T.K, Oorjit B.S , Adithi Krishnadas
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt15302856/

 

 

 

 

 

Terror (1978)

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A lady called Mad Dolly is being chased by some mob in a forest who believe she is a witch. She gets captured and about to get burned at the stake, on order by Lord Garrick. Before they get the chance to lit her on fire, she gives her final speech with silly facial expressions, and summons some demonic forces that causes one of the executioners to catch fire, and then all hell breaks loose. Lord Garrick runs back to his mansion where an arm bursts through the wall and strangles him. Lady Garrick, who wanted to see Mad Dolly dead more than anyone else, finds her Lord dangling from the ceiling. The Lady is then confronted by a resurrected and vengeful Mad Dolly, who chops her head off and gives the most cheesy, evil laugh ever. And only eight minutes in it’s fairly okay to ask what the hell this is.

 

What we just saw was the ending sequence of the fresh, new supernatural horror film by James Garrick, which he screened for some of the cast members. What a load of rubbish, says one guy in the audience. The film is supposed to be based on true events that happened to James’ ancestors 300 years ago, and he has inherited the mansion from Lord and Lady Garrick. The inheritance includes the most important item of all: the sword that chopped the head off the Lord, hanging over the fireplace. While James is throwing a party in his inherited mansion, we meet Gary who can’t stop bragging about who great he is to hypnotize people. He gives a demonstration on Ann, a struggling actress who works for James. Things gets an unexpected turn when she slips into full trance, and picks up the sword and tries to attack James. Ok, party’s over! After she wakes up, she runs out the door and back to the hostel where her roommate sees her on the bathroom, washing her hands for what we can assume is blood.

 

And the morning after, James’ girlfriend Carol is found dead near the woods, knifed to death. James highly suspects that Ann did it after she tried to stab him with the sword the previous night and is determined to expose her.

 

This is an odd, little film, made by the English horror film director Norman J. Warren, known for his obscure low-budget exploitation flicks such as Satan’s Slave (1976), Outer Touch (1979), Inseminoid (1981) and Bloody New Year (1987). With Terror he wanted to make something new since the horror films at that time was pretty much the same, and he took a lot of inspiration from the new wave of Italian Giallo films and his new favorite, Suspiria. The inspirations are clearly visible for sure, with the use of colors, but as a whole there isn’t much new to behold here. And that’s a shame since there’s some potential here with its flexible camera work, gothic imagery and classic, gloomy atmosphere with fog machines and all. It has the visual package, but the script turns it into an unfocused mixed bag of supernatural horror, whodunnit mystery, slasher, cheese and sleaze and God knows what, stitched together frankenstein-style with several long and pointless scenes that drag on for too long.

 

One of the highlights is the scene with Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in a certain film called Star Wars the year before. His appearance comes in the most unexpected moment, it took me completely off guard. And there’s also a scene with a nude stripper in a sleazy bar in London, a long and pointless filler scene. Director Norman J. Warren added this in to make the film more commercial. And he’s really determined to give us shots from all different angles and close-ups so we can enjoy some fresh nudity and forget the rest of the movie for some minutes. But it seemed to work, though, since Terror became a box-office success in England after its release, despite the censorship from Video nasty. A fun little nugget of trivia: the stripper in the film was a real stripper they had to hire because the other stripper who auditioned for the scenes seemed too tired and bored. “She was indeed sexy and scary“, Warren said, and her act was so outrageous, they had to cut part of it because there was no way the censors would let it through.

 

There’s some decent gory moments here, such the traditional knife stabbings, glass panels that falls and chops off a head, a drunk dude who gets fence stabbed and then crushed in a garbage truck. Awesome. And then we have…a flying car. Ok, I didn’t expect that one. The last four minutes is the best part which at least ends with a great, colorful and crazy climax. Not a terrible film, but not great either. As a 70’s oddity it works fine as a curiosity, I guess, and it has its moments. Terror is available on Blu-ray/DVD Combo on amazon.com

 

Terror Terror Terror

 

Director: Norman J. Warren
Country & year: UK, 1978
Actors: John Nolan, Carolyn Courage, James Aubrey, Sarah Keller, Tricia Walsh, Glynis Barber, Michael Craze, Rosie Collins, Chuck Julian, Elaine Ives-Cameron, Patti Love, Mary Maude, William Russell, Peter Craze
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0141897/

 

 

Tom Ghoul