review by John W. Herbert
B-movie king Bruce Campbell stars in (and co-wrote and directed) Man With the Screaming Brain. Campbell plays an American businessman who, along with his wife, is in Bulagria for a business meeting. He’s the typical "ugly American," loud, impatient an dimpolite. His marrige is on the rocks, and he doesn’t help matters by flirting with a mysterious gypsy woman. His wife helps even less by giving their cab driver an extra big tip. It turns out that the cab driver was engaged to the gypsy, resulting in all manner of murder and mayhem. Fortunately, the bodies end up in the hands of a mad Bulgarian scientist (Stacey Keach(?!)) who (with his Russian assistant played by Ted Raimi) has a knack for transplanting brains and resurrecting bodies.
Essentially, this is pretty silly stuff. It gives Bruce Campbell a chance to do his best Steve Martin impression, and his character ends up sharing his brain with his wife’s lover, the cab driver. Shot on location in Bulgaria, the film has pretty good production values for a film of with a limited budget.
There’s a good number of extras for a low budget movie. There’s some behind the scenes docs, but the best one is a short feature where Campbell and his writing partner chart the 20+ years it took to get this film made. This was worth the price of the DVD all by itself.
Nothing in the film is overly impressive, yet nothing is really embarrassing either. Well, maybe Ted Raimi’s version of Russian rapping. Thankfully, it’s short. Otherwise, it’s a solid and enjoyable, fun B-movie.
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Demon Night
by J.Michael Straczynski
review by John W. Herbert
Recently re-issued by iBooks, the first novel by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, originally publish in 1988, might be described as "Stephen King Lite." And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The story takes place firmly in King country, a small town in Maine called Dredmouth Point where an ancient evil has been waiting, gathering its strength, while prodigal son Eric Matthews, whose family was killed in the town when he was a child, has returned to unlock the secret of his family’s death, and the strange and mysterious black outs he suffers.
Straczynski tells his story in solid, non-flashy prose. He gets straight into the story and drives it ahead quickly. Whereas King might have used 200 pages of back story and small town life to slowly develop the mood, Straczynski sets the creepy mood from the outset as Matthews slowly discovers what killed his family, what is slowly destroying the town, and his destiny.
No one will mistake Demon Night for a great work of art, but as a solid and capable first novel, it is another example of the excellent story-telling we’ve come to expect for the ubiquitous "jms."
Originally published in Neo-opsis magazine and reprinted in Under the Ozone Hole #18.
review by John W. Herbert
Recently re-issued by iBooks, the first novel by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, originally publish in 1988, might be described as "Stephen King Lite." And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The story takes place firmly in King country, a small town in Maine called Dredmouth Point where an ancient evil has been waiting, gathering its strength, while prodigal son Eric Matthews, whose family was killed in the town when he was a child, has returned to unlock the secret of his family’s death, and the strange and mysterious black outs he suffers.
Straczynski tells his story in solid, non-flashy prose. He gets straight into the story and drives it ahead quickly. Whereas King might have used 200 pages of back story and small town life to slowly develop the mood, Straczynski sets the creepy mood from the outset as Matthews slowly discovers what killed his family, what is slowly destroying the town, and his destiny.
No one will mistake Demon Night for a great work of art, but as a solid and capable first novel, it is another example of the excellent story-telling we’ve come to expect for the ubiquitous "jms."
Originally published in Neo-opsis magazine and reprinted in Under the Ozone Hole #18.
BloodRayne
review by John W. Herbert
It’s not often that a film will come along that is so bad not even I will like it. BloodRayne is one such film. The plot is derivative, as is most of this movie. Kristianna Loken stars as Rayne, a Damphir, part human-part vampire. She is being pursued by a vampire overlord (played by Ben Kingsley, who must be paying off a lost bet by being in this), and some human vampire hunters led by Michael Madsen. Along the way, she learns secrets about her past, gains special powers, confronts her father blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. This film looks like it had a budget equivalent my allowance when I was eleven. The vampire make-up looks like Buffy leftovers. This film is filled with bloody violence that is about as realistic and comical as the Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Oh, wait – BloodRayne isn’t a comedy!Madsen is horribly miscast in this, but so is everyone else, too. Loken has some screen presence, but nothing can save her in this mess, and no-one else brings anything to their parts. Except for Meatloaf, who, in his only brief scene, deliriously chews on the scenery and swallows it whole. (He clearly is the only person who realizes what a piece of frommage he’s in – he’s billed in this film as “Meatloaf Aday.”)
Avoid this film at all costs.
Please.
originally piblished in UTOH #18, October 2006
It’s not often that a film will come along that is so bad not even I will like it. BloodRayne is one such film. The plot is derivative, as is most of this movie. Kristianna Loken stars as Rayne, a Damphir, part human-part vampire. She is being pursued by a vampire overlord (played by Ben Kingsley, who must be paying off a lost bet by being in this), and some human vampire hunters led by Michael Madsen. Along the way, she learns secrets about her past, gains special powers, confronts her father blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. This film looks like it had a budget equivalent my allowance when I was eleven. The vampire make-up looks like Buffy leftovers. This film is filled with bloody violence that is about as realistic and comical as the Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Oh, wait – BloodRayne isn’t a comedy!Madsen is horribly miscast in this, but so is everyone else, too. Loken has some screen presence, but nothing can save her in this mess, and no-one else brings anything to their parts. Except for Meatloaf, who, in his only brief scene, deliriously chews on the scenery and swallows it whole. (He clearly is the only person who realizes what a piece of frommage he’s in – he’s billed in this film as “Meatloaf Aday.”)
Avoid this film at all costs.
Please.
originally piblished in UTOH #18, October 2006
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