2009 – Horror Ghouls

Final Destination 5 (2011)

Posted on May 16, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Sam Lawton is an office worker who is going together with his colleagues to a company retreat. On the bus, he has a premonition where the North Bay Bridge starts collapsing due to high winds, and he witnesses a lot of people getting killed. This also includes himself, after getting his ex-girlfriend Molly Harper in safety. When the premonition is over, and he starts realizing that this is really going to happen as all the small details prior to the incident becomes familiar, he panics and urges everyone to get out of the bus. Several people follow him outside, and they manage to leave before the bridge collapses. Naturally, Sam is questioned by the FBI afterwards, but everything was ruled to have happened due to natural causes. Shit happens, sometimes. After the survivors attend a memorial for all their deceased colleagues, they start dying one by one. A woman named Candice dies in a freak accident at the gym, and a man named Isaac has a not-so-pleasant experience at a Thai massage. No happy ending there. Bludworth, the coroner who has appeared in some of the movies since the start and has always seemed to know about Death’s mischievous plans, tells the remaining survivors that they are now dying in the order they were supposed to die in if they had not survived the bridge collapse. So now Sam and the remaining survivors must try to figure out a way to beat Death.

Final Destination 5 is the fifth movie in the franchise. It was released in 2011, and is directed by Steven Quale and written by Eric Heisserer. Just like the previous film, called The Final Destination (which was actually yet another movie that was supposed to be “the final film“ but which changed due to the financial success) it was shot in 3D. And just like the previous film.. the 3D effects haven’t really aged that well. Still, that doesn’t ruin the experience at all, it just adds an additional goofy flavour to it. It grossed $157 million worldwide, making it the second-highest grossing film in the franchise. The sixth film has its premiere (at least in most places) today on May 16th, so let’s see if the new one breaks any of the old records!

This film follows the same formula as previously: the protagonist has a premonition, saves some people, and then Death is coming for them. Many franchises have lost all their steam long before coming to their fifth installment, but the Final Destination movies keeps it going surprisingly strong. This might have a bit to do with how these movies are always being very simple popcorn-horror entertainment that were never meant to be groundbreaking masterpieces. Plus, the concept behind the movies opens up for so many possibilities, it’s nearly impossible to not keep it at least entertaining with its main forte: the death scenes! Or most importantly: how everything leads up to the death scenes. As always, there’s several scenes here that gives that “ick“ feeling, and the kills are just as fun as ever.

Final Destination 5 is yet another fun entry into the franchise and proves that it’s still going strong. This movie is also providing some twists and turns and even ties everything back to the first movie.

Director: Steven Quale
Writer: Eric Heisserer
Country & year: USA, 2009
Actors: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, P.J. Byrne, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Courtney B. Vance, Tony Todd
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1622979/

The Final Destination (2009)

Posted on May 13, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Nick O’Bannon and his girlfriend is watching an auto race, together with some of their friends. Then (of course) Nick is having a premonition: a terrible accident that happens on the racetrack. After the premonition is over, and he starts noticing certain details that proves to him that this will actually happen, he starts to panic and brings along several other people with him outside of the stadium: his girlfriend Lori plus their friends Hunt and Janet, and also a racist truck driver named Carter, a woman named Samantha, a security guard named George, and mechanic Andy and his girlfriend Nadia. Once they’re outside, the accident happens and while you could’ve thought they were all safely out of reach, a stray wheel comes out of the stadium which decapitates Nadia. Carter also wants to run back inside the stadium because his wife is still there, but George manages to stop him from running into his certain death. Later, Carter has decided to give George a proper thanks for saving his life by driving to his house at night with plans of burning a cross on his lawn. In his distorted, racist mind it was George’s fault that his wife died (or the jackass probably just needed someone to blame, even if it was the man who saved his life). Death has other plans, though. The wind knocks off a horse hoof that was hanging from a rope on to the radio of Carter’s tow truck, where the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends“ starts playing (obviously, Death’s got a sense of humour). The truck starts driving by itself, letting loose a towing chain onto the road. It all ends with Carter getting wound up on the chain, dragging him down the street while sparks cause the chain to catch fire. That’s one of the survivors down. It doesn’t stop there, of course, as more of the survivors keeps dying in strange ways. Nick eventually becomes convinced that Death is coming for them all.

The Final Destination (aka Final Destination 4) is the 4th movie in the Final Destination franchise. It was released in 2009, as one of those 3D movies. The previous film, Final Destination 3, was originally supposed to be the final film, making the series a trilogy. But as already mentioned in that review, there would be no premonition needed in order to foresee that there would be a 4th film sooner or later. James Wong was originally on board to direct this one, but he had to drop it due to scheduling conflicts. Then, David R. Ellis returned (director of Final Destination 2). This movie ended up being the highest grossing of all the Final Destination films so far with $28 million on its first weekend (thus beating Rob Zombie’s Halloween II the same year) and with $187 million worldwide. There’s a sixth movie coming soon, so let’s see if that record gets broken then.

As mentioned, this movie was made with 3D effects. And, uhm… like in most 3D films… the effects haven’t really aged that well. They are not outright horrible per se, but they’re more likely to bring out a few chuckles here and there. As always, though, it’s the lead-up to the kills that brings the entertainment value. There’s some pretty decent gore, and Death is as playful as ever, having as much fun as possible while killing the characters off in all kinds of ways.

The Final Destination brings more of what you’ve already seen in the previous movies. It’s like that ordinary yet fulfilling meal you decide to eat on a lazy day: it’s nothing great, but keeps you content and does what it’s supposed to do. With a Final Destination movie you know pretty much what to expect.

Director: David R. Ellis
Writers: Eric Bress, Jeffrey Reddick
Country & year: USA, 2009
Actors: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb, Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella, Justin Welborn, Stephanie Honoré, Lara Grice, Jackson Walker, Phil Austin
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1144884/

The Collector (2009)

Posted on February 18, 2025February 21, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Arkin O´Brien is a handyman who is working for the Chase family. He’s a former convict, and his wife is in debt to loan sharks who wants to get paid due by midnight. Arkin then desperately makes a plan: he decides to steal a valuable ruby from the Chase home. After all, the family was going on a vacation so the house would be empty, so this would be like stealing candy from a baby, right? No such luck, though. While there, he finds that someone else got there before him, and they’re not after the ruby or any other valuables…he sees the father of the family getting dragged down into the basement by a masked man. Not only that, but when Arkin tries to call 911, he discovers that the entire house has been booby-trapped and rigged with all kinds of deadly devices. Even the windows have been boarded up and lined with razors. When he finds out that the entire Chase family has been captured by this masked madman, he discovers that the little girl of the family has been able to hide. He decides to try and save her, despite feeling like a fly trapped in a spider’s dangerous net.

The Collector is a horror film from 2009, written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, and directed by Dunstan. The original script was titled The Midnight Man, and was actually at one point considered a spin-off prequel to the Saw franchise as some kind of origin story of Jigsaw. Fortunately, as this movie stands very well on its own, this idea was dismissed by the producers and the script was re-written into an original story.

Despite the re-write of the script, the Saw/Jigsaw-esque traps are very prominent throughout the movie, and they are always sadistic and inventive. I also find the spider-like appearance and antics of the masked man to be quite enjoyable, making him stand out a bit from the all too generic slasher/serial killer villain by giving him some features of his very own. His victims are trapped in his spiderweb, so to speak, and you just gotta admire how the guy manages to put the most elaborate traps all over the place in no time. It’s like Kevin from Home Alone grew up to be a serial killer.

The kills are brutal and gory, delivering plenty of graphic moments. The serial killer comes off as mysterious and pretty creepy, with no background story or any actual motive or reasoning behind what he does. We do realize there is some kind of fascination towards bugs or especially spiders (there are also several spider shots throughout the film), and the black glowing contact lenses he appears to be using which makes his face appear more bug-like. He “collects“ one from each of his killing sprees, but for what reason, we can (at least for now) just speculate. In this movie the character was played by Juan Fernández.

While The Collector is, overall, a pretty fun time, you can’t really help but noticing a few puzzling and nonsensical things regarding the killer. Why take everything to such great lengths by booby-trapping the entire home, when he’d already captured the family and had them tied up? It wasn’t like he expected any visitors. Not to mention how fast he could put up all those traps…but hey, all of that is nitpicking for a movie that doesn’t really take itself all too serious to begin with. It is a fun home invasion/serial killer thriller, with a bit of Saw meets Home Alone.

Director: Marcus Dunstan
Writers: Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan
Country & year: USA, 2009
Actors: William Prael, Diane Ayala Goldner, Juan Fernández, Josh Stewart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Karley Scott Collins, Madeline Zima, Haley Pullos, Daniella Alonso
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844479/

Sequel: The Collection (2012)

Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Posted on October 18, 2024January 1, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1969, and the young medium Shaun San Dena gets a visit from a desperate couple who wants her to save their son. After having stolen a necklace from the gypsies, he’s fallen ill and have started hearing evil voices. Before she can even start a proper séance, the boy is quite literally dragged to Hell to never be seen again. Then, we fast forward to present day in Los Angeles, where Christine Brown works as a bank loan officer and is hungry for a promotion to become assistant branch manager. Her boss gives her some advice: she will prove her worth if she can show herself as someone being able to make tough decisions. She gets her chance pretty soon afterwards, when an elderly woman named Sylvia Ganush asks for a third extension on her mortgage. Despite Ganush literally begging on her knees, Christine refuses her pleas because she wants to show off her “tough decision making“ to her boss. Promotion, here we come! Later, in the parking lot, the elderly woman decides to give Christine a payback for shaming her and denying her pleas for help, and after a long struggle Ganush rips a button from Christine’s coat and curses it. Uh-oh. Christine is soon haunted by a dark spirit, which is attacking and tormenting her. She decides to beg Ganush for forgiveness, but before she can do so she finds out that the old woman has passed away. Not only that, but the curse that’s been cast upon her will have her tormented by a powerful demon for three days, before she will be dragged to Hell.

Drag Me to Hell is a supernatural horror film from 2009, directed and co-written by Sam Raimi with Ivan Raimi. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and became an immediate success. It grossed $90.8 million worldwide on a $30 million budget, and won awards and received generally very favorable reviews. Originally, the story for the film had been written 10 years prior to the film going into production, under the working title The Curse. After finishing the script for the film, Raimi was busy with the Spider-Man film series so it took a while before the film could be pushed forward. Raimi wanted it to be a PG-13 film, with less gore than his earlier horror films, stating that this time he wanted to do something different. He wanted to make a suspenseful movie with wild moments and a lot of dark humor, and in all of this he definitely succeeded.

The movie starts with a punch during the opening scene, where a little boy is quite literally dragged to the depths of Hell itself to burn forever while his terrified parents can’t do anything but watch in horror. And all over a stolen necklace…not exactly eternal damnation-worthy, but curses aren’t always supposed to be fair. Seeing this we know what Christine is at risk of, which heightens the suspense. While the protagonist isn’t all that innocent (she could have helped the old lady, but she chose to focus on her promotion instead), her actions are still not so awful that we think she deserves to be cast into Hell. Yes, we root for her, but we also can’t help but watch in glee when things turn into total demonic frolic mayhem, with scenes that are both funny and delightfully spooky. While the film does have its cheesy moments, its all done with a lot of excitement and manages to blend the dark humor with the horror elements very nicely. It’s all done in a boisterous Halloween spirit, managing to be a great load of fun. The special effects used in the film is a good variation of different techniques: green screen, prosthetics, puppets and cgi, and different effect houses were utilized, including Phil Tippet‘s studio.

Drag me to Hell is a blast from start to finish, and a perfect watch during the Halloween season!

In early 2023, Raimi revealed that Ghost House Pictures was actively trying to come up with ideas for a sequel. Well…we’re now in the late part of 2024, and while Drag me to Hell 2 is listed on IMDb, there’s absolutely no info about this sequel at all. So I’m not holding my breath for that one.

Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi
Country & year: USA, 2009
Actors: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, Adriana Barraza, Chelcie Ross, Reggie Lee, Molly Cheek, Bojana Novakovic, Kevin Foster, Alexis Cruz
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127180/

The Door (2009)

Posted on September 20, 2024September 20, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

David Andernach (Mads Mikkelsen) is a painter who’s cheating on his wife with the neighbor lady. One day, while busy with his affair when his wife is at work, he leaves his daughter unsupervised and she ends up drowning in the garden pool. His entire life falls apart: his wife understandably leaves him, he ends up with an alcohol problem, and five years later he’s still desperate for forgiveness. When he realizes none can be given, especially not from himself, he leaves his ex-wife a final message on the answering machine telling her he won’t bother her anymore. Then he tries to commit suicide by drowning himself in the same pool his daughter died in, but of course his ex-wife called for his best friend to go check on him after the not exactly subtle message. Later, when walking home, he suddenly sees a blue butterfly. Nothing really strange about that, except it’s wintertime. He decides to follow it (because, who wouldn’t follow after a blue butterfly in the middle of winter, right?), and is taken through a mystical corridor hidden behind some shrubs. He gets to a door, and on the other side exists in a world very much like his own, a parallel universe of sorts. Except for one thing: it’s five years earlier, and here his daughter is still alive. Knowing what’s about to happen, he manages to save his daughter from drowning in the pool while his other self is busy banging the neighbor. This means that in this world everything is the way he wants, but there’s only one problem: there’s now two of himself there. In order to live the life he desperately wants, being able to erase the hell he’s been living through for the last five years, he ends up killing his other self and buries him in the garden. Who could possibly suspect a murder when no one is missing, right? Except…things will not be that easy, of course.

The Door (original title: Die Tür) is a German science fiction thriller from 2009, directed by Anno Saul, based on a book by Akif Pirinçci (writer of the animated cat thriller Felidae). The story told here have the clear structure of an old-fashioned moralistic fairytale, told in a way where you will inevitably question what your own decision would have been in a similar situation. We all have things we regret, we all have our moments of “oh, if I could just turn back time…“ and believing everything would have been so much better. And maybe it would have been… or maybe not. Maybe everything would be even worse. There is no doubt in Hell, however, that someone would not have wanted to go back in time to save their own child’s life, despite the risks of things taking a different turn than hoped for or expected. Thus, The Door takes a common “what if I could have done it over again“ setting and turns it into something horrific, a dark fable playing on the darkness of the human psyche.

There are a few issues with the plot where some of it doesn’t make all too much sense. I haven’t read the book, so cannot make comparisons, and I can easily see how some of it may not have translated as well into film. Still, The Door is a nice sci-fi thriller that keeps you guessing with its many twists and turns.

Director: Anno Saul
Writer: Jan Berger
Originaltitle: Die Tür
Country & year: Germany, 2009
Actors: Mads Mikkelsen, Jessica Schwarz, Valeria Eisenbart, Thomas Thieme, Tim Seyfi, Stefan Gebelhoff, Suzan Anbeh, Heike Makatsch, Nele Trebs, Thomas Arnold, Karsten Dahlem, René Lay
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1223934/

Hidden (2009)

Posted on August 13, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

We start off in a dark, dark forest, where a boy keeps running in fear. He’s deathly afraid of something or someone, and when he runs across a forest road he doesn’t see the trailer truck coming in high speed. Luckily, the truck misses him, but the driver lose control over the vehicle and it all triggers a chain of events when the truck crashes into another car. Then, we proceed forwards in time and over to Kai Koss, who has returned to his hometown to settle affairs after his mother’s recent death. It’s been 19 years since he set foot there because of his mother’s abusive ways, but he soon finds out that he can’t outrun his past. In his ancestral house, he starts getting visions of previous events and it messes him up to the point where he actually wants to burn the entire shithole of a house down. Some local police makes sure he won’t be able to do that, though. But this revisit to his old hometown doesn’t only bring back memories, people start dying too…and it seems like something has been waiting for Kai’s return.

Hidden (original title: Skjult) is a psychological horror film from Norway, written and directed by Pål Øie. It had a budget of 12.6 million NOK (approx. 1.2 million USD), and was filmed on several locations in Norway including Eidfjord in Hardanger, by Vøringsfossen (the 83rd highest waterfall in Norway). It received mostly lukewarm reviews, but got some international attention as one of the featured films of the After Dark Horrorfest in 2010.

Hidden often has a few lynchian vibes in it, being slightly dreamlike and nightmarish. The dark and brooding atmosphere is what holds the movie up, and they really found a creepy location for Kai’s old childhood home, a place that pretty much seemed just as tainted by degeneracy as the former owner. When we follow the protagonist in his mostly befuddled state, the movie makes it very clear that the intention is to confuse us on the same level as the character himself. The distinction between what’s real and what’s just in Kai’s mind, can appear a bit messy at times.

Overall, Hidden is perhaps a bit too clichéd, but on the whole it is an okay psychological horror slow-burner, focusing for the most part on atmospheric surroundings and a nightmare-vibe riddled with guilt, confusion and trauma. The cinematography is a highlight here, and you will most likely find it enjoyable if you like mystery horror of the slow and moody type.

The director, Pål Øie, had his first horror movie release with Villmark in 2003 (english title: Dark Woods), which was a fine horror thriller that unfortunately got a rather lackluster sequel in 2015. After that there wasn’t anything new in the horror department from this director, until recently when a new movie titled Kraken was announced. It’s going to be Norway’s first sea monster horror film. Hopefully it will be fun, with at least some grisly body counts and proper monster effects! Time will show, though.

Writer and director: Pål Øie
Country & year: Norway, 2009
Original title: Skjult
Actors: Kristoffer Joner, Cecilie A. Mosli, Bjarte Hjelmeland, Marko Iversen Kanic, Anders Danielsen Lie, Karin Park, Eivind Sander, Arthur Berning, Agnes Karin Haaskjold
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1347007/

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)

Posted on April 9, 2024August 23, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Two young American ladies, Lindsey and Jenny, are visiting Germany. While driving through a forest they get a flat tire. And since they don’t know how to change a tire, they have to go on foot with their high heels through the forest while it’s raining to hopefully find some help. Luckily, they come across a house where the lights are on. They ring on the doorbell and out comes Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser) who invites them in for a glass of water while he’s calling the car service.

You have a really lovely home. Do you live here with your wife?, asks one of the girls. No… I don’t like human beings, he answers in the most unironically way with his creepy German accent.

Okay, then. Thanks for the water, but now it’s time to leave. Oops, too late. Because Dr. Heiter has laced their water with some strong sedatives, and soon they’ll wake up in his lab basement, strained to their hospital beds. Because, you see, this doctor has a very special passion, and that is to make the world’s first human centipede. And according to the poster, this is done with 100% medical accuracy. So this is perfectly safe to try at home, kids.

The Human Centipede was, at the time, the most brutal – shocking – sickening – gruesome – gross – revolting – disturbing – disgusting (and add all buzz words possible) piece of horror film that has ever been made on planet Earth – and probably the most hyped and viral thing that only Megan is Missing (2011) could come close to. The buzz for this film was so colossal and huge that it managed to crawl its way into the mainstream pop-culture and was even mentioned as a parody game of Pac-Man in an episode of The Simpsons. There is also a porn parody titled The Human Sexipede. Anyway – people who haven’t even seen the film call it the most disturbing thing ever. But for most of us who have actually seen it, we can confirm that this is a prime example of how a morbid concept like this sounds so much more horrific on paper with a pretty brilliant poster design that is cryptic enough to toy with your darkest imagination.

Because this is not exactly the body horror you’d expect to see from directors like David Cronenberg, Brian Yuzna or the horror mangas of Hideshi Hino and Junji Ito. It’s not even close to being as gruesome and graphic as the title and the poster would trick you to believe. Yes, it’s supposed to look more realistic and grounded with the less is more approach, but still… It’s quite underwhelming, and nothing but comical to see the actors squeezing their noses between their ass-cheeks to make us believe that they’re Frankensteined together, as they’re moaning like they’re in some scat porn video. The only legit disgusting moment here is the snot hanging from the nose of the Asian guy, who got lucky enough to be the first link to the centipede experiment. I can’t imagine the actors being proud to be in this and have ever shown it to their moms and dads and their friends – Hey, look at this horror film I’m in where I’m eating ass and breathing farts.

There are many unique ways to be totally humiliated on screen as an actor, but this has to take the shit cake – only until the far more fucked-up sequel The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) came and said hold my anus. And there’s no wonder why actresses who showed up to the casting sessions walked out in disgust after discovering what they were about to sign on to.

The Human Centipede was mostly filmed in a residential home in the Netherlands with primarily four actors and a small budget. The film could have been so much worse, but our villain, Dr. Heiter, makes sure to keep us entertained. He looks like an elderly meth-addicted Robert Pattinson with stage four cancer. A solid-looking mad-scientist villain, in other words, with an electric performance by the eccentric German actor Dieter Laser (1942-2020) which makes this film worth a watch alone. And speaking of meth… Dieter approached his role with method acting, didn’t mingle with either cast or crew between the takes, and pretty much kept to himself. According to Dieter, the white jacket he wore was by a real Nazi doctor from WW2. He took the role so seriously to a point where he started to feel some Nazi guilt, and got into a fight when he accidentally kicked the Asian guy. Welcome to showbiz. Tom Six views the film as a reflection on fascism and his fear of doctors and hospitals.

But at the end of the day, The Human Centipede is an unintentionally twisted, silly little comedy that got hyped out of proportions just because of its title alone, and it’s not to be taken seriously for even half a second. Our old friend Roger Ebert, on the other hand, hated the film so much that he gave it zero stars – which should be enough to pique your curiosity, if you ask me.

Writer and director: Tom Six
Country & year: Netherlands, 2009
Actors: Dieter Laser, Winter Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura, Andreas Leupold, Peter Blankenstein, Bernd Kostrau, Rene de Wit
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1467304/

Sequel: The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011)

Dead Snow (2009)

Posted on March 19, 2024September 9, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

First off, here’s a drinking game: Take a great shot of karsk for each time Norway/Norwegian is mentioned in this review. Now – Just like Cold Prey, we have Dead Snow, which was also a big deal upon its release back in 2009. Because of this one, we now had our first Norwegian zombie movie to finally show off, with Nazis even. And a lot of red, blood-soaked snow while the Easter sun is shining bright. Another note for the Norwegian film history books. Dead Snow became a hit at the Sundance festival that kick-started the fruitful career of Tommy Wirkola, who’s since made several films in Hollywood – most notably the Christmas action/horror flick Violent Night (2022) with John Harbour in the main role.

Dead Snow opens appropriately enough with Edward Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, as someone is getting chased in the mountain forest and killed by a group of, yes you guessed it, zombies. Zombies in Norway, you say? Huh, that was new. Thought they only had trolls, gnomes and brunost. Yes, but these aren’t Norwegian zombies, you see, so get ready for an upcoming history lesson. After this short and quick adrenaline-filled opening, we meet our group of body-counts/friends of four medical students who are on their way to a mountain cabin in Øksfjord, far up in the northern countryside to celebrate Easter, get drunk on beer and moonshine, party hard and the luckiest ones gets to fuck in the shithouse.

The party mode gets put on hold for a minute when our group of friends gets an unexpected visit from a hiker. And this guy has seen some dark shit, for sure, his face can tell. He gives them a history lesson of the notorious Nazi colonel Herzog, who with his death squad team occupied the area during WW2. They did gruesome things to the locals over a span of three years, and as our hiker says in his beautiful northern dialect:

Det hær va nånn onde SATANS jævla! Wich is best translated as: They were some EVIL motherfuckers!

To cut his story short: Herzog and co. stole a dose of valuables when the war was over and tried to escape over the mountains where they seemed to disappear. Legend says that they froze to death and there’s an evil lurking over the place that must not be awakened. Yeah, whatever. They only scoff at him and don’t think much of it afterward, because who in the right mind would. So, who wants another beer? It isn’t until they find some hidden old valuables and gold in the cabin crawlspace that the plot starts to thicken. Because, guess who also wants to claim that gold, other than the Leprechaun.

Nazi zombies aren’t something new, nor was it with Dead Snow. We can actually rewind all the way back to the 1940s and dig up the corpses of King of the Zombies and Revenge of the Zombies and the terrible cult-schlock from 1981 that is Jean Rollin’s Zombie Lake, and more. But, of course, in a cold, winter-filled Norwegian setting, this was something we never thought we’d see on a big screen. Especially considering that a film like this would have been completely banned in a gnome country like this, or at least cut to pieces to the unrecognizable if it was made in the VHS era.

The effects are nice and juicy and the film goes full-out with the carnage and what they had in the gore-department. Eyes get poked out in Fulci-style, heads ripped in half, bodies ripped to shreds, people hanging from someone’s fresh ripped-out intestines from a cliff as they fight zombies, some general hack and slashing and its list of references. And of course, we have some glorious chainsaw action. Approx 400 liters of fake blood was used here. Not too shabby for being the first Norwegian zombie movie.

It’s all done with a dose of humor with a great group of actors in some very likable roles. My favorite is Bjørn Sundquist, one of the finest legacy actors we have in Norway. His screentime is short but none other than him would be able to tell the backstory of Herzog in such a serious deadpan manner like he did. However, some of the humor may not land as much on the non-Norwegian audience, especially the classic scene towards the end with the tunes and lyrics of Åge Alexandersen’s Min Dag.

It also shows that this is an early film of a newcomer. It’s of course a big step forward after Wirkola’s debut with Kill Buljo in technical terms. The pacing keeps a steady track, it’s overall fun and entertaining with a lot of energy and some great use of nature scenery. But still, there are some rough edges here. Some choppy and clunky editing choices prevent some of the death scenes to shine and breathe, and the ending gives the impression that the budget just said stop. If Tommy Wirkola already had the sequel in mind, I don’t know, but Dead Snow 2, which came five years later, surely makes this more of a warm-up, or a vorspiel, as we usually say in Norway before the big party. Så det e bare for dåkk kjære hæstkuka å håll sprit’n klar.

Director: Tommy Wirkola
Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen
Original title: Død Snø
Country & year: Norway, 2009
Actors: Geir Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henriksen, Charlotte Frogner, Lasse Valdal, Evy Kasseth Røsten, Jeppe Beck Laursen, Jenny Skavlan, Ane Dahl Torp, Bjørn Sundquist, Ørjan Gamst
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278340/

Sequel: Dead Snow 2 (2014)

Summer of 84 (2018)

Posted on March 5, 2024June 12, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

It’s the summer of 1984, where there are no mobile phones, no TikTok, and kids actually spend time together outside. What a time to be young! A fifteen year old, Davey Armstrong, works a paper route and spends time with his friends Dale, Curtis and Tommy. They live in Cape May, where a total of thirteen teenage boys have disappeared over the course of a decade. None of their disappearances have ever been connected, but after a local newspaper receives an anonymous letter from someone claiming to be their killer, or the Cape May Slayer, Davey starts suspecting his neighbor Wayne Mackey who is a popular police officer. His friends don’t put much value into his suspicions, though, as Davey is known for being easily drawn to all kinds of conspiracy theories and urban legends. Things change when a boy who Davey claims was inside Mackey’s house, ends up on a milk carton just a few days later. His friends agree to help him with the investigation of his suspicious neighbor, in the hopes of revealing him as the Cape May Slayer.

Summer of 84 is a horror film from 2018, directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissel. It was written by Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, to a fair amount of praise as many of the critics called it one of the best horror films of 2018. Since the main cast in the movie are teenagers and it’s set in the 80’s, some may think of the popular Netflix show Stranger Things, but they can’t really be compared. Summer of 84 is more like The Goonies turned into a mystery thriller, and while you’ll definitely get your fair share of the 80’s with the fitting soundtrack and certain elements from that era, this movie ventures into a much darker road.

As we follow Davey and his friends, we watch them do regular stuff like meeting in their tree house, watch dirty magazines, talk about who is the hottest girls in the neighborhood, and so on. Just normal teenage-boy stuff. When their attention is shifted onto a possible serial killer next door, we still have a bit of that whimsical Goonies-vibe. You’re not really sure what to expect, which makes it quite suspenseful. It also has quite a few little easter eggs: one of the missing boy posters displays one of John Wayne Gacy’s victims, and when the boys are in the clubhouse Tommy drinks from a bottle of MacReady’s Whiskey, which is a nod to The Thing (1982). While the first part of the movie builds up rather innocently when the kids are trying to figure out if Mackey really is a serial killer, offering both suspense and a few lighthearted chuckles here and there, it pretty much makes a 180 during the final act.

Summer of 84 is not your typical serial killer film, but offers something quite suspenseful and enjoyable. While some people really hated the ending of the movie, to the point where some said it literally ruined the entire movie for them, I personally found the choice for a dark and somewhat edgy ending to ground the movie into even more horror themed realism, and I’m glad they had the balls to do it this way.

Directors: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Writers: Matt Leslie, Stephen J. Smith
Country & year: Canada, 2018
Actors: Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emery, Cory Gruter-Andrew, Tiera Skovbye, Rich Sommer, Jason Gray-Stanford, Shauna Johannesen, William MacDonald, Harrison Houde
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5774450/

Triangle (2009)

Posted on February 27, 2024June 12, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Jess is preparing to take her autistic son Tommy on a boat trip with her friend Greg, and while getting both her and her son ready the doorbell suddenly rings. No one is on the other side. Later, Jess drives to Florida and meets up with Greg at the harbor. She arrives without Tommy, and explains that he is at his special needs school. They board the boat, together with Greg’s friends Sally, Downey and Heather. Soon afterwards, a storm is approaching and Greg picks up a distress signal from a woman pleading for help. She says she’s in danger as someone is killing off the crew members on the boat she’s on, but before this woman can complete the conversation Greg’s boat capsizes. The survivors then boards a passing ocean liner, which appears to be deserted, but they saw the silhouette of someone apparently ignoring their pleas for help when wanting to board the ship. Jess gets an uncomfortable feeling of déja vu when exploring the ship, and after discovering her own keys near a display case for the ship, which is named Aeolus, a lot of strange things start happening. Jess finds that she is stuck in a time-loop that keeps repeating itself, and she must try to figure out a way to break it.

Triangle is a psychological horror film from 2009, written and directed by Christopher Smith whose directorial debut was Creep (2004). The film is partly based on the story of Sisyphus, a Greek mythological figure cursed to repeatedly push a boulder up a hill without ever reaching the top. He was also inspired by Dead of Night (1945) and Memento (2000). The movie was filmed on sets and location in Queensland, Australia. It received favorable reviews upon its release, both from critics and audience, but still grossed only $1.3-1.6 million worldwide on a budget of $12 million. Ouch. But it also didn’t have a theatrical release in the US.

While Groundhog-day horror movies where time-loops keep the protagonists struggling with figuring out how to break them is nothing new, and some of them take on a more lighthearted variant like for example Happy Death Day. This movie on the other hand keeps everything considerably more dark and mysterious. Triangle is like a puzzle of pieces which start fitting together one by one, and small details which previously might have seemed insignificant proves to tie things together. What makes the movie even more effective is how the protagonist, Jess, keeps trying literally everything in order to break the loop, and while both she and the viewers think “aha, now she’s on to something!” we suddenly see that she’s already tried that exact same thing dozens of times in earlier loops. There is very little predictability here, and keeps you guessing throughout, making it a very entertaining watch.

On the whole, Triangle is a fun and thrilling time-loop horror movie, and despite having a conclusion that some might find a bit inadequate, it still ends up as a satisfactory ride.

Writer and director: Christopher Smith
Country & year: UK, Australia, 2009
Actors: Melissa George, Joshua McIvor, Jack Taylor, Michael Dorman, Henry Nixon, Rachael Carpani, Emma Lung, Liam Hemsworth, Bryan Probets
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187064/