Hellboy - Blood and Iron (Animated)

Amazon.com

In some ways, Blood and Iron captures more of graphic novelist Mike Mignola's original vision than Guillermo del Toro's lackluster feature did in 2004. Hellboy, the demon brought into this world by the Nazis, but raised by "Professor Broom" to fight for good, was conceived as a drawing, not an actor buried under make-up and latex. The story, which incorporates elements from Mignola's "Wake the Devil" collection, sends Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Prof. Broom to the haunted mansion of a vulgar millionaire. Hoping to cash in on the supernatural angle, he's filled the house with relics of "Blood Countess" Erzsebet Ondrusko (based on the 16th century Hungarian noblewoman Elizebeth Bathory), whom Prof. Broom defeated in 1939. It's really haunted, and the gang tackles harpies, ghosts, witches, werewolves, vampires, and the goddess Hecate. The key actors from the live action film repeat their roles as voices: Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz), Doug Jones (Abe), and John Hurt (Broom). Perlman makes a suitably underplayed Hellboy, growling his annoyance at everything from a bad donut to a vicious blow from the iron-clad goddess. The limits of the animation would be less problematic if the direction were more dynamic. Tad Stones and Victor Cook don't get the needed power out of the action sequences, especially the prolonged battle between Hellboy and Hecate. It would be interesting to see what a talented director like Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Ruruoni Kenshin) or Hiroyuki Okiura (Jin-Roh) would do with this material. Blood and Iron will appeal to some "Hellboy" fans, but it lacks the dark panache of the original books. (Unrated, suitable for ages 14 and older: violence, grotesque imagery, potentially offensive religious imagery) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

Ok.......2007-07-25

I love Hellboy! I enjoy the comics and the major motion picture. The animated adventures are just ok to me. Not as fun as the movie, but they will do until the sequel comes out.

A CUT BELOW LIVE-ACTION HELLBOY.......2007-07-17

I'm a big fan of the movie Hellboy, which is the only reason that I watched the animated Blood And Iron. However, I'm not a fan of cartoons. So, naturally I wasn't blown away by this. Sure, it had some good humor, and the animation was topnotch. It's just that it had a kiddie feel to it that kept me from really getting into it.

Hell Boy: Blood and Iron.......2007-07-07

A Good flick; this toon is very true to the Hell Boy Comics and features voice acting by the cast from the Motion Picture. The animation isn't on the greatest budget and doesn't impress, but witty writing and good character design make up for this a good deal. I found "Storm of Swords" slightly more enjoyable, but if you're a fan- you won't regret this purchase.

If you liked the Movie, This, you will Love!.......2007-07-07

This is Great! I was really surprised by these animated films with all the actors from the film! its really good with excellent voice talent of abe sapian, and of course hellboy *ron perlman* and the animations are excellent and clean as a razor. sound quality is also excellent (played this with my dolby surround running and wow!) I Really enjoyed this one more then Sword of Storms, because of the gothic aspects *they are fighting a Vampire* and of course hellboy's patented "oh crap" line that seems to always be dropped in at the perfect moment! I cracked up several times watching this. If you are a fan of all things Hellboy the do your self a favor and go buy this. afterward rent sword of storms to make sure you want that one.

Animation: animatrix/Dark Fury style artwork always a plus with me 5 star

Graphical quality: again 5 star not a glitch in it.

Sound: Scary good!!!! 5 STAR!!!

extras: some and really not that interesting. 3 star
aside from dull extras this film is worth every cent and its over an hour long vs dark fury *chronicles of riddick* is only 35 minutes! its a very good deal I was really surprised!

Buy Blood and Iron Here
Hellboy - Blood and Iron (Animated)

Old Enemies Menace Hellboy's Surrogate Father.......2007-07-01

HELLBOY: BLOOD AND IRON is the second Hellboy animated movie released direct-to-DVD. The first was HELLBOY: SWORD OF STORMS. As in the first feature, Ron Perlman provides the voice for Hellboy. Other stars from the feature film lend their voices as well, including Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Peri Gilpin, and John Hurt. The story is taken from the second story arc of the Hellboy comics. It was originally called, "Wake the Devil".

This movie shows more of Hellboy's upbringing than the feature movie starring Ron Perlman. It also reveals a lot more of Professor (Bruttenholm) Broom's background before he found Hellboy back in the 1940s after the Nazi Germans brought him into this world. As it turns out, Professor Broom was quite the paranormal investigator long before Hellboy arrived.

During those days, the professor's arch-nemesis was Erzsebet Ondrusko, a vampire and worshiper of Hecate, the queen of witches. The opening sequence showing Broom's encounter with the villainess is appropriately chilling and a visual treat. In fact, the whole movie owes more to creator Mike Mignola's artwork than the feature-length movie. The scenes in the animated movie could have been ripped directly from Mignola's comics pages.

Hellboy is introduced while lurking through a sewer system and looking for a monster. He, admittedly, is up to his neck in crap. The humor mixes very well with the action and emotion in the film. This isn't Leo Tolstoy, but it's nice to have characters you feel like you know and can care about. Especially when they're dealing with old business that carries a lot of emotional baggage for them.

Hellboy puts down the creature with help from Abe Sapien and they quickly return to the hidden headquarters of the BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). They sit around talking and the viewer gets to know more about the characters. One of the things I enjoy about the movies is that you don't have to know much to understand who the characters are. You're given what you need to know as you go along, and it's never dull even for the true fans that already know everything.

When assignments are given out, Professor Broom usurps control of the meeting and assigns Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and Liz Sherman to investigate sightings of ghosts in a mansion that's been remodeled into a top-of-the-line museum/lodge. The job was initially a low-priority for them. The professor offers no explanation and the rest of the team is left wondering what's going on. More than that, the professor is going along and that hasn't happened in years. All of them are concerned for his health.

Of course, when they arrive at the mansion, things are decidedly much worse than they were led to believe. There's not just one ghost; there appear to be dozens. And even more evil is afoot.

Interspersed for the current ongoing story line, there are flashbacks to Professor Broom's earlier encounters with Erzsebet Ondrusko. The story concerning Hellboy and the others definitely takes second-place to the overall storytelling until the very last of the movie. It's all the clues and backstory of what has gone on before that really captures the interest.

The fight scene at the end of the movie is multi-layered as Hellboy and the others are divided. It's all interesting to watch, but it tends to drag on the little, especially when you realize that time after time it is not over.

Due to the violence and the scary appearances of many of the monsters, this animated feature is and recommended for young kids. However, if you like cartoons and your kids do too, this is definitely one you can sit down and enjoy together. There's enough story and enough action to keep everyone happy. At 75 minutes, you can easily fit the movie into an evening.

Average customer rating:

OPEN THE DOOR TO A TWISTED, DARK WORLD
One of the best horror movies I've ever seen
Where's the uncut version??!!? Uncut Version: 5 stars!!!
"If you cheat us, we'll tear your soul apart!"
Amazing.

Hellraiser
Starring: Andrew Robinson , Clare Higgins , Ashley Laurence , Sean Chapman , and Oliver Smith
Director: Clive Barker
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
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ASIN: 6305972001
Release Date: 2000-09-26

Amazon.com

Having made his reputation as one of the most prolific and gifted horror writers of his generation (prompting Stephen King to call him "the future of horror"), Clive Barker made a natural transition to movies with this audacious directorial debut from 1987. Not only did Barker serve up a chilling tale of devilish originality, he also introduced new icons of horror that since have become as popular among genre connoisseurs as Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman. Foremost among these frightful visions is the sadomasochistic demon affectionately named Pinhead (so named because his pale, bald head is a geometric pincushion and a symbol of eternal pain). Pinhead is the leader of the Cenobites, agents of evil who appear only when someone successfully "solves" the exotic puzzle box called the Lamont Configuration--a mysterious device that opens the door to Hell. The puzzle's latest victim is Frank (Sean Chapman), who now lives in a gelatinous skeletal state in an upstairs room of the British home just purchased by his newlywed half-brother (Andrew Robinson, best known as the villain from Dirty Harry), who has married one of Frank's former lovers (Claire Higgins). The latter is recruited to supply the cannibalistic Frank with fresh victims, enabling him to reconstitute his own flesh--but will Frank succeed in restoring himself completely? Will Pinhead continue to demonstrate the flesh-ripping pleasures of absolute agony? Your reaction to this description should tell you if you've got the stomach for Barker's film, which has since spawned a number of interesting but inferior sequels. It's definitely not for everyone, but there's no denying that it's become a semiclassic of modern horror. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

OPEN THE DOOR TO A TWISTED, DARK WORLD.......2007-06-19

Clive Barker realy caught lightning in a bottle with this movie. With this movie, Clive Barker took a Lovecraftian idea and fused it with his own sado-masachist,pain verses pleasure ideas. the result is a complete new enviroment for horror that still holds up, and i'm sure, will hold up for years to come. I don't like giving spoilers so I'll give a brief overview. Larry and his new wife, Julia are moving into the old family home after his brother, Frank disapeared. To celebrate the occation, Kirsty, Larry's daughter has come. It seems Larry doesn't know that Frank, as well as sleeping with Julia, is involved with the occult. He purchased a puzzle box(the Lament Configuration) with the desire to open a doorway to experiance the threshold of pleasure. What he got was unimaginable pain and torment compliments of Pinhead and the Cenobites. As Larry is moving furniture, he cuts, his hand and the blood spilling on the floor somehow ressurects Frank. This has got to be one of the best parts of the movie!! It's very graphic, but with the symphonic music in the backround, it becomes vey beautiful. After Frank's "resurection" all "HELL" breaks loose. This movie was way ahead of its time and was a relief to all the lame slasher films of the time. Any fan of H.P. Lovercraft and fantacy horror should check this one out!!!

One of the best horror movies I've ever seen.......2007-03-21

I just watched this movie for the first time in years. When I was a kid, it was one of my favorites, and I'll admit that I wasn't expecting much this time around. After a recent viewing of NightBreed (which I also loved when I was younger), I was prepared to have a similar experience with Hellraiser. Instead, I was surprised at how well this movie has held up over the years. Unlike NightBreed, which comes across as cheesey and poorly acted, Hellraiser is still a good horror movie.

The thing that struck me the most about this movie is how complex the plot was for the genre. Back when it was made, horror was dominated by Jason Voorhies and Freddy Krueger. The average horror movie consisted of a bunch of teen-agers being stalked by the Unstoppable Killer, who would slaughter them all in gruesome fashion for such unforgivable crimes as Smoking, Drinking, Having Sex, and Being Mean To The Nice Girl and/or Bookworm Kid (although the Bookworm Kid would usually die first if he commited the deadliest horror movie sin of all... Wearing Glasses).

Instead of these tired old cliches, Hellraiser brought us something fresh, and much deeper. The plot centers on a love triangle between Larry Cotton, his wife Julia, and his brother Frank. The movie opens with Frank solving the Puzzle Box (and suffering the consequences) in his attic. Following Frank's disappearance, Larry and Julia move into the old house. Julia is reluctant, because being in the house stirs old memories of her affair with Frank. But she relents under Larry's enthusiasm. While they're moving in, Larry cuts his hand on a nail. The blood soaking into the floorboards partially revives Frank, bringing him back to a kind of half-life. Frank then convinces Julia to help him get more blood, so he can become whole again. The interplay between Frank and Julia is very layered for this kind of movie. Julia forces herself to become a seductress and murderer, all while telling herself that it will let her finally be with the man she loves. Frank uses his obvious emotional power over Julia to convince her to do unspeakable things for him, all while looking for his next conquest (Larry's daughter Kirsty).

Although they would become the main characters later in the series, Pinhead and the other Cenobites get comparitively little screen time in this film. I think this gives thier appearance a much greater impact when it finally happens. Later movies would reduce Pinhead to being just another horror movie slasher. But here, when the Cenobites arrive to return the murderous and manipulative Frank to Hell, they almost seem to be instruments of divine (?!) justice. As Pinhead himself says at one point: "We are Angels to some, Demons to others".

Where's the uncut version??!!? Uncut Version: 5 stars!!!.......2007-03-10

I first saw this DVD at my friend's place. I was instantly blown away by this movie. In fact, i consider this one of the best horror movies ever made! But my friend's dvd was completly uncut (he owns the american DVD edition). I wanted to have the same totally uncut version my friend owns,but this new cut version is missing great parts like the full shot of the "Ripped to shreds" scene. Who the hell thought of cutting essential parts of an otherwise awesome movie??? Seems like i must search hardly now for the first UNCUT edition print of this DVD in other areas.

"If you cheat us, we'll tear your soul apart!".......2007-02-11

I've read The Hellbound Heart, but the fresh approach Clive Barker made in directing the film added "uumph" to an already excellent story. What a visual conception! Goobers coming up from the floor, the unforgettable scene of spinal cord meeting the goopy brain, the gelid, slippery goo, the half-formed rib cage - hello vicar!

Larry and Julia Cotton are moving into the house left to Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his wayward brother Frank (Sean Chapman). The house is a mess, with maggots in the kitchen and a makeshift bed and evil shrine in one of the upstairs rooms. The shrine shows evidence that Frank has been and gone from the house.

After cleanup, while moving, Larry cuts his hand on a nail and bleeds heavily onto the bare floorboards of the room which formerly held the shrine. Julia (played by Clare Higgins - her businesslike sexiness was a real turn-on) has been reminiscing in the room over her former affair with Frank.

It turns out Frank had been playing with a very dangerous toy in his room, Lemarchard's Box, which opens the gates to a hellish realm ruled by Cenobites from the Order Of The Gash. Indeed, Frank unlocked the gates to hell itself. Larry's blood on the floor sparks Frank's return from hell, growing his flesh back from goo.

Enter the Cenobites, "Angels to some, Nightmares to others", starring Pinhead (played by Doug Bradley). The cenobites rule the worlds of pain and pleasure (we have such sights to show you). Frank wants to come back from hell, and convinces Julia to bring him more blood in order to fill out his fleshless body.

But she's observed by Kirsty, Larry's daughter, and when Kirsty discovers that Frank is alive in the house, she manages to get the box away from him and inadvertently summons the Cenobites again. Can Kirsty make a bargain with Hell, for Pinhead to accept Frank's return instead of taking her?

This is one of the best horror flicks ever made. Pinhead rocks! He's evil and nasty looking, as are his followers. There's a lot of gore and gross, gooey things in the film, more than enough to satisfy that unnatural taste you have for bleeding flesh. Julia's coldness always drew me to her. I loved it, her elegant, icy demeanor. I also love Kirsty's happy drunk. It reminded me of me. The upside-down Hell-Monster was cheesy-cool, unique and frightening.

If you are a horror aficionado and don't own this movie, then buy it ... it won't disappoint. A 10-Star horror flick. Enjoy!

Amazing........2007-02-01

Clive Barker's directing debut follows the tale of a couple (Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins) who move into an old house and discovers a hideous creature (Oliver Smith) -- the man's half-brother (and his wife's former lover) -- hiding upstairs. Having lost his earthly body to three demons, the man's been brought back to life by a drop of blood on the floor. Soon, he's forcing his former mistress to bring him human sacrifices to complete his body. A complete masterpeace.

Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht

Average customer rating:

Best Nosferatu ever!!!
Did you ever think you'd empathize with the vampire?
Resurrection of the legend:
Count Kinski
a good reinterpretation

Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht
Starring: Klaus Kinski , Isabelle Adjani , Bruno Ganz , Roland Topor , and Walter Ladengast
Director: Werner Herzog
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
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ASIN: B00005YJMX
Release Date: 2002-07-09

Amazon.com

Werner Herzog's remake of F.W. Murnau's original vampire classic is at once a generous tribute to the great German director and a distinctly unique vision by one of cinema's most idiosyncratic filmmakers. Though Murnau's Nosferatu was actually an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Herzog based his film largely on Murnau's conceptions--at times directly quoting Murnau's images--but manages to slip in a few references to Tod Browning's famous version (at one point the vampire comments on the howling wolves: "Listen, the children of the night make their music."). Longtime Herzog star Klaus Kinski is both hideous and melancholy as Nosferatu (renamed Count Dracula in the English language version). As in Murnau's film, he's a veritable gargoyle with his bald pate and sunken eyes, and his talon-like fingernails and two snaggly fangs give him a distinctly feral quality. But Kinski's haunting eyes also communicate a gloomy loneliness--the curse of his undead immortality--and his yearning for Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) becomes a melancholy desire for love. Bruno Ganz's sincere but foolish Jonathan is doomed to the vampire's will and his wife, Lucy, a holy innocent whose deathly pallor and nocturnal visions link her with the ghoulish Nosferatu, becomes the only hope against the monster's plague-like curse. Herzog's dreamy, delicate images and languid pacing create a stunningly beautiful film of otherworldly mood, a faithful reinterpretation that by the conclusion has been shaped into a quintessentially Herzog vision. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Best Nosferatu ever!!!.......2007-09-10

This is one of my favorite versions of Dracula (Nosferatu) ever released. The cinematography, the screenplay, the score, the directing and acting are superb. Klaus Kinski (Count Dracula); Isabelle Adjani (Lucy Harker); and Bruno Ganz (Jonathan Harker) performances are pristine and deep. Score is so good that really involves you during each scene to feel the sadness, extreme fear or joy; the score is so good that the soundtrack is a most to buy for all collectors, as well as the Popol Vuh performances of the score available in other albums. The movie won 2 awards and was nominated for Best Foreign Film by the USA Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. This movie is a must to have for all of those fans of Dracula movies, it's a classic and one of the best versions of the Nosferatu vampire ever released.

Did you ever think you'd empathize with the vampire?.......2007-08-11

Beautiful movie! The best vampire movie ever to my mind. Set in spectacular landscapes, with really well selected music and a plot, that even if it recapitulates the original silent movie, provides a whole depth into the characters and the underlying questions about death and immortality.

Resurrection of the legend:.......2007-05-22

Fifty seven years after F.W. Murnau, Herzog resurrected the Dracula's legend with this film in which his favorite actor/best friend/worst enemy Klaus Kinski played the title role as a very tired, very quiet, very lonely Count Dracula who looked like he literally had not slept for centuries. The film is undeniably Herzog's and has many of his signature signs - the stunning views, the slow deliberate pace, the eerie music, the dreamlike atmosphere, the admiration by the nature and its indifferent to the humans' worries power and remote beauty; even the story of the ship with all crew members dead as the result of the horrible mystery. Breathtakingly beautiful Isabelle Adjani plays an object of Dracula's obsession and the contrast between his ugliness and her divine beauty is simply mesmerizing. In this film, the pure-hearted and brave woman takes it upon herself to face off the undead evil. By the time, Dr. Van Helsing arrives with the stake and hammer, his services are not required.

Count Kinski.......2007-05-15

Best Count Dracula I've ever seen.

Kinski is a marvel, in fact, the entire cast is spot-on perfect. Direction and writing, cinematography...just about flawless--and this is praise from someone who was never a huge fan of Dracula to begin with. A friend suggested I see it, and am glad I did.

Better than Bela, than Lee, than Peter Cushing, et al... Kinski is the man. Some talent.
R.I.P.

a good reinterpretation.......2007-05-12

This film is a wonderful reinterpretation of the 1922 original. It includes dialogue by the characters, while still maintaining a sense of being more visual than audio-based.

I recommend this to anyone who loves the Dracula mythology, especially if you like the 1922 original.

Average customer rating:

Now that thar's whut I call a REDNECK!
Gritty, Haunting & Eerily Sublime ...
There vampire's
Be Bitter if this movie was before your time
A Terribly Underated Vampire Film...

Near Dark
Starring: Adrian Pasdar , Jenny Wright , Lance Henriksen , Bill Paxton , and Jenette Goldstein
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0002NIAZC
Release Date: 2004-07-01

Amazon.com

The word "vampire" is never mentioned in Near Dark, but that doesn't stop this 1987 cult favorite from being one of the best modern-era vampire films. It put then-unknown director Kathryn Bigelow on Hollywood's radar and gave choice roles to Aliens costars favored by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron: Lance Henriksen is the leader of a makeshift family of renegade bloodsuckers, nocturnally seeking victims in rural Oklahoma; his immortal gal pal is Aliens and Terminator 2 alumnus Jenette Goldstein; and Bill Paxton is the group's deadliest leather-clad ass kicker. Fellow traveler Jenny Wright lures Okie farm boy Adrian Pasdar into the group with a love bite, and he's soon turning toward vampirism with a combination of frightened revulsion and relentless desire. With Joshua Miller (River's Edge) as the youngest vampire, Near Dark is Bigelow's masterpiece of low-budget ingenuity--a truck-stop thriller that begins well, gets better and better (aided by a fine Tangerine Dream score), and goes out in a blaze of glory. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Now that thar's whut I call a REDNECK!.......2007-09-13

Love bites! Love bleeds!

Tell it to bored Okie farmboy Caleb (Adrian Pasdar): for him, it's the oldest story in the world & the one he's looking for on a Saturday night:

Boy meets Girl. Boy wins Girl. Boy takes Girl to tractor pull.

But he doesn't figure on the special sauce. Nobody does.

That little modification throws in some groovy new beats to the mix: Girl Bites Boy. Girl leaves godawful nasty hickey on Boy's neck.

And, about an hour later: Boy lurches over tobacco fields in the Lower 40 with a hankering for meat considerably rarer than ground round.

I think it was the old vampire fighter Professor Abraham Van Helsing who observed of his undead foes "the Dead travel fast".

That was 1897: he shoulda got a load of the white trash bloodsuckers in Kathryn Bigelow's riotous "Near Dark", where the Undead ditch their long-haired gypsy servants & wagons for some real horsepower, muscling up and sunlight-proofing a Winnebago and carrying out a rampage of cold-blooded (or warm-blooded, or blooded, anyway, which is the point) killing spree across the windswept badlands.

Director Kathryn Bigelow & screenwriter Eric Red beat Tarentino & Rodriguez to the pop culture punch by more than a decade in this blood-drenched fusion of Southwestern Vampires and the joys of the tri-state killing spree, done right & done hard: "Near Dark" is a nihilistic little cinematic IED of battery acid, Semtex charge, sweat, rage, sex & desperation, all wrapped up in spikes & roadworn leather.

Breaking up may be hard to do, but it's murder if your lovely young pallid drifter hottie-of-the-moment Mae (the ethereal Jenny Wright, who vies with the flick's Tangerine Dream soundtrack for most dreamy movie presence here) has a family with a real aversion to laying down stakes.

No, literally.

Anyway, Caleb flees from what he is becoming, the Family follows, & the Law hunts all of them.

"Near Dark" is a child of the Night, no doubt, but even more it's a child of the eighties, a country-cousin (the one who mainlines white-lightning) to blood-soaked eighties stalwarts like "The Hitcher" and "Lost Boys": the snarling white-trash bloodsucker of the film's windswept Oklahoma hellscape has more in common with the mass murderering duo of "Badlands" than with the mincing machinations of Underworld's Eurotrash vamps or castrati courtliness of a Lestat.

That's what's cooking in "Near Dark": the vamps here are monsters. They're scary. They're a little feral. They stink of Death & the weary, endless blacktop. The tragically hip vamp of modern cinema is a fashion victim too hip to kill, too busy trying to Emo you to death to ever get around to killing you.

Not so with the nosferatu from "Near Dark", who offer up a different breed of bat: they're hungry, for one. They dispense with the Bau Haus & haute couture in favor of razor blades and sawed off shotguns; they worry more about running blood and less about running black mascara.

Bigelow raided James Cameron's casting wardrobe for her crack cast, & here it pays off: Paxton, Henriksen, & Vasquez form up the old Aliens trifecta and cook up a little downhome bloodletting attitude.

Bigelow's underworld is an unforgettable nightland of all-night diners and truckstops and endless blacktop lit up by neon and arc-sodium and flickering, hissing fluorescent, where you look half dead even if you're still trucking around your 5 quarts of red slosh, baby.

There's something breathtaking about the way Bigelow squares and stages and fixes her action: the steady waltz of doom and sadness and savagery in the bar-scene to the strains of "the Cowboy Rides Away", for one, possibly the first time in history sheer infinite boredom caused a barfight, which midwifes a slaughter.

Or the Siege: the riveting syncopation of the blackpowder ballet as M16 bullets tear holes in walls of seedy motel flop where the vamps have holed up and dug in after their latest killing spree, death borne not of the bullets but the rents of sunlight they unleash on the room-temperature desperados.

"Near Dark" is as cool as the tailfin on a Shelby cobra, but it's not all empty style: there's an overarching sense of awe front and center, whether it's the stark & sere emptiness of its midwestern urban badlands, haunted by its own faded fallowness, or the hard-bitten ghoulishness of its monsters. It's the landscape, in fact, that becomes almost a central character here, spinning out its own calculus in crafting the food that drifts across this dusty backstage Night Land and the predators who hunt them.

There are vampires---& then there are vampires.

And the worst of them take more than your blood.

JSG

Gritty, Haunting & Eerily Sublime ..........2007-06-23

Near Dark is a vampire film with a look and feel unlike your typical fang-fest: daylight is harsh and painful, while the quicksand-lull of shadows by night are at once sharp and surreal, altering the landscape and ensnaring the viewer unawares.

Co-written by Eric Red (writer of the original "The Hitcher") and Kathryn Bigelow (director of "Strange Days"), this film is a taut, smart and surly Western Vampire flick that still stands up to - and surpasses - today's standards of chop and spray film-making (thank goodness). This was a film with a vision, evolving out of the mid-80s when film-makers were still taking chances and the genres of old were a-changing. These are no walking corpses in molding black capes, hiding in coffins and dodging wooden stakes. These vampires mean business and the landscape in which they travel is as cruel and as unrelenting and as personable as are they.

Charactor development, the look and feel of the piece, plot, and snappy dialogue are those things that matter in Near Dark. If you're going to make a horror film, by god, make the thing. And the cast/crew/creators of Near Dark did just that.

I was a pre-teen when I first saw Near Dark, back in the late 80s. No movie before or since has left me with such an eerie memory of intensity, pain, and ... strangely enough given the subject matter ... a giddy sort of hope. As a kid the infamous "bar scene" nearly did me in, and provided fodder for nightmares this fearless horror-film watcher didn't think were possible. For years, just remembering that scene, was enough to keep me passing it by in the rental aisles.

But, being the admirer I am of many of the central cast in Near Dark, I couldn't stay away for long, and so I rewatched it with adult eyes. It was even better than I'd remembered it. I'm not ashamed to say I had to buy my own copy, which I watch every couple of months.

There is the naive and flirtacious Caleb Colten, perfectly cast in Adrian Pasdar (who plays the polar opposite in the deliciously wicked "Jim Profit" in the tv show "Profit", also now available on dvd) who meets the at once simple

There vampire's.......2007-05-20

Only Calab doesn't know that. He is thinking with his heart, not his brain.

Be Bitter if this movie was before your time.......2007-05-02

Certain vampire movie franchises which I shall not name are as so many other media products all about selling lipstick and lisp in these shallow shallow days.

This movie has so much style and probably was made for very little money.

A Terribly Underated Vampire Film..........2007-01-26

I first watched this film when I was younger, but since then I have loved this film and consider it definitely one of those films that should be much more popular than they are. Most people I know don't even know it, although they claim they have a good knowledge of horror films. I always recommend it, but at least where I live the video stores don't even have it.

Anyway though this movie does go above so many other vampire films made today. It definitely gives its own unique view on vampires. I was a huge fan of Anne Rice's romantic, suffering vampires but watching this film where instead the vampires are dusty and completely cruel to their victims without any air of sophistication gave it a much more real and frightening view on such creatures.

The cast carry out their parts well, but its truly Paxton that steals the show. He is the most cruel of them all, and the loudest. Right away he just steals the show. The others kind of fade compared to him, but quiet Mae, the complete opposite of Severen, holds her own candle on the show. And yes, you do root for her and Caleb, who is roped into being a vampire thanks to her seduction.

A dark, harsh and powerful movie about vampires that matches to the maturity of Interview with the Vampire, yet with a complete new view on their lifestyle. I highly recommend it if you can find it.

4.5/5

Twitch Of The Death Nerve (a.k.a. Bay Of Blood)

Average customer rating:

Murky plot, silly dialog, vague motives, creepy fun and the birth of
Bygone Beauty
Overrated slasher flick that spawned the slasher craze...
The slasher originator
Gee, they're good at playing dead...

Twitch Of The Death Nerve (a.k.a. Bay Of Blood)
Starring: Claudine Auger , Luigi Pistilli , Claudio Camaso , Anna Maria Rosati , and Chris Avram
Director: Mario Bava
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000055ZCA
Release Date: 2001-01-02

Amazon.com

This late entry in Italian horror auteur Mario Bava's catalog is in keeping with much of his other work: a rather murky plot, inventive camera work and editing, gauzy lighting using red and blue gels, and an atmospheric, dreamlike feel throughout. Where it parts ways with many of his films is in the high body count--so high that many feel Bay of Blood was a likely influence on American slasher films such as Friday the l3th. The killing centers on a list of potential heirs to a piece of lakefront property ripe for development (a subplot involves camping teenagers who are also being slaughtered--sound familiar?). The slayings come fast and furious, with gunshots, chokings, stabbings, decapitations, and a two-for-the-price-of-one impalement, to name a few. Bava creates an off-kilter mood of melancholia for the film that makes it somewhat less fun than the mindless slasher flicks of the 1980s, but also renders it a more thought-provoking, cynical sort of movie. --Jerry Renshaw

Description

Countess Federica, the elderly owner of a coveted piece of bayside property, is brutally slain by her husband--who is himself killed by a mysterious third person at the murder scene! Who is the killer? Could it be the real estate developer or the entomologist neighbor who wants to preserve the natural insect life thriving around the bay? Perhaps the Countess's illegitimate son, in a bid to claim a name for himself, is responsible? Whoever it is, brace yourself, because no one's a suspect for very long in Mario Bava's black comedy of human greed--which boasts 13 characters and 13 of the most shocking murders ever filmed! A.k.a. "Bay of Blood" and "Carnage."

Customer Reviews:

Murky plot, silly dialog, vague motives, creepy fun and the birth of .......2007-05-12

[...]While parts of this are beyond belief the camera work is fluid and the murders are very interesting.
A piece of prime property will be inherited by someone in this large circle of people and someone wants that circle just a little tighter and starts to bump the others off. There is also something about Campers on the land. It's all delightfully surreal with murders that top each successive murder.
Watching this one you will be struck at how much "Friday The 13th" owes to this movie. Some scenes were lifted wholesale from this into the story of Jason and his blood fetish. Not for all taste to be sure, but for it's nightmare like mood I found that I really liked this one

Bygone Beauty.......2006-11-01

Bava plays a Hitchcock like trick at the beginning of BAY OF BLOOD, using Isa Miranda precisely as Hitchcock used Janet Leigh in the first reels of PSYCHO. Surely once you had secured the services of one of the greatest international stars of all time, you weren't going to kill her off--and so quickly! But that is precisely Bava's strategy, and that's precisely what he does. The gesture of this shock effect is largely lost to contemporary audiences who don't remember Isa Miranda properly, but she was still a potent force in 1971 when BAY OF BLOOD (also known as TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE) was produced. When you kill off your biggest star within the first fifteen minutes of the movie, in an especially brutal way, you are signalling your audience that all bets are off, no one is safe, and check your preconceptions about cinema and narrative structure at the door.

A shame in a way, because the movie sure could use a lot more of Miranda, though talented actors pop up every ten minutes or so like ducks in a shooting gallery. Isa Miranda was the great international sensation of Mussolini's Italy; even MGM got wind of her and imported her a la Garbo for a few unsuccessful American films right before the outbreak of World War II put a kibosh to her career in the States. Back in Italy she continued in her reign as a sort of Dolores Del Rio slash Naximva tragedy Queen, with huge dollops of sex thrown in for mass appeal. Thus in LA RONDE (1950) Max Ophuls saves her perhaps the most delectable sequence of all, larding her into a sex sandwich between boyish Gerard Philipe (the Ryan Philippe of his day!) and stalwart Jean-Louis Barrault from CHILDREN OF PARADISE. David Lean made her the earthy manageress of the Pensione spinstery Katharine Hepburn stays at in Venice in SUMMER MADNESS (aka SUMMERTIME, 1955), using her magnificent, somewhat ravaged sensuality as a contrapuntal force, much as plain Deborah Kerr is confronted by wild Ava Gardner in John Huston's later film of NIGHT OF THE IGUANA. In BAY OF BLOOD, which begins with Miranda's countess rolling her wheelchair moodily past window after curtained window in her chateau over the bay, a mood of desolate and painful memory is instantly set up. It's as if she's thinking of all the "white telephone" movies she's ever played in, and rueing the day when her great beauty came to an end. Bava's photography is always topnotch, but in the opening sequence of BAY OF BLOOD he puts it to memorial use; the color shimmers, the light radiates off of Miranda's hair, eyes, profile, and the wheels creak in protest as she forces them across the long gallery for one last look at her bay.

Overrated slasher flick that spawned the slasher craze..........2006-01-03

[good things]
Some of the best kills in slasher movie history, some great blood and a nice cold setting. The acting was pretty good for being an Italian movie, and the characters, at least were very well developed and easy to get along with.

[the bad]
The actual plot was good, but it really didn't interest me. It (to me) seemed like there was too much going on, and it was hard to watch the movie, enjoy the kills and think about the story. The ending was really lame, It was great how it ended, but I did not like the 2 kids... I just thought it was silly.

[final thoughts]
I remember watching this movie as a kid, and hating it. Rewatching it years later was a treat, and my opinions were almost opposite of the ones I had back then. The atmosphere in the movie is great, it reminds me of the atmosphere in the first Friday The 13th (Sean S.Cunningham got the inspiration of Friday The 13th from this film), which seems right. It is no secret that Friday The 13th was inspired from this movie, but inspiration and perhaps the setting was the only similarities that I saw. There were 3 kills in this movie that mirrored (almost exactly) kills in the Friday The 13th sequels, which was fun to watch. The kills in the movie are very well done, bloody and really nasty at times.
I thought (aside from the intricate plot) was very good, and a very solid slasher flick. A must see for the genre.

The slasher originator.......2005-09-24

This movie is groundbreaking in the slasher world. There was others, but there is scenes completely ripped out of this movie in some of the more well-known slashers, like Friday the 13th. If you conisider yourself a fan of horror this is a must see, at least for it's orginal quality. I agree it's not Bava's best, but it's worth a watch at least for it's influental status.

Gee, they're good at playing dead..........2005-08-28

I liked ths gory movie. The sound was hard to hear and that made it a little confusing as to who was who and who was double crossing whom. But with that aside,this thriller was photographed and directed well. The colors were excellent and added to the omnious atmosphere. It is very clear where Friday The 13th got it's origins!

Average customer rating:

I Wish You Were My Mummy
Blood From The Mummy's Tomb: The Mummy Film Based On A Stoker Book
Who - - Or What - - Must Not Be Named
Great piece of late Hammer hokum
Jewel is Right

Blood From the Mummy's Tomb
Starring: Andrew Keir , Valerie Leon , James Villiers , Hugh Burden , and George Coulouris
Director: Michael Carreras , and Seth Holt
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005KHJO
Release Date: 2001-08-07

Product Description

A British expedition team in Egypt discovers the ancient sealed tomb of the evil Queen Tera. But when one of the archaeologists steals a mysterious ring from the corpse's severed hand, he unleashes a relentless curse upon his beautiful daughter. Is the voluptuous young woman now a reincarnation of the diabolical sorceress or has the curse of the mummy returned to reveal its horrific revenge? One of Hammer's most notorious productions, BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB was plagued by the sudden deaths of director Seth Holt and the wife of original star Peter Cushing, leading to rumors of a real-life curse. Andrew Keir (QUATERMASS AND THE PIT) and the luscious Valerie Leon star in this supernatural shocker based on Bram Stoker's classic novel JEWEL OF THE SEVEN STARS. Includes a 4-Page Collector's Booklet. The first 10,000 copies will contain a free bonus DVD of THE HAMMER TRAILER COLLECTION.

System Requirements:
Starring: Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon, James Villiers
Director: Seth Holt
Producer: Howard Brandy
Running Time: 93 Min.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Customer Reviews:

I Wish You Were My Mummy.......2006-01-20

One of the last in a long line of Hammer horror films, 'Blood From the Mummy's Tomb' is not among the best. It doesn't possess the same depth and dimension of light and atmosphere that many of the early features are famous for. The footage is dull and drab throughout appearing as though it was filmed in an old abandoned warehouse. The set is also quite spartan, there certainly didn't seem to be much of a budget available for this feature.

However the one thing Hammer didn't jeopardize in this film was there reputation for having at least one beautiful, bosomy woman among their cast of characters. That woman is British actress Valerie Leon in the dual role of the soon to resurrected Queen Tera and Margaret, daughter of the archeologist/Egyptologist responsible for the discovery of Queen Tera's tomb and remains.

Neither scary or insightful, making it quite easy to pass on this one altogether if not for the presence of Valerie Leon on-screen.

Blood From The Mummy's Tomb: The Mummy Film Based On A Stoker Book.......2006-01-09

TO: Hammer Film Fans

WARNING! SPIOLERS!

The Good:
This is a great film based on a Bram Stoker book (Jewel Of the Seven Stars). It dosen't actually have a waling mummy, wrapped up in cloth. Tera is a dark queen of egypt. When a man opens her grave, his wife dies, birthing his daughter. She also dies, but Tera lives inside her. Years later when she gets a ring, tera is relesed inside her, and a ritual to reunite tera with her body begins.

The Bad:
There is one pothedic scene where a cat statue kills a woman.

FROM: The Hammer Film Reveiwer

Who - - Or What - - Must Not Be Named.......2005-10-06

The bosomy young woman Margaret wakes up screaming from a nightmare. Her father Julian comes into her bedroom to comfort her. A scar across Margaret's right wrist makes it look like she has tried to slash it in the past. What could have driven this young woman, who lives alone with her father, to try to kill herself?

Julian gives Margaret a ring with seven stars in the shape of the Big Dipper reflected in it and makes her wear it "for protection." (This movie is based on Bram Stoker's novel Jewel of the Seven Stars and is better than the book.) Margaret and her father hold each other for just a little too long, and Julian looks just a little too longingly into Margaret's eyes.

Wearing the ring, Margaret belongs to her father in a way she hasn't until now. But this relationship must be doomed.

I've read that victims of incest sometimes feel like it's happening to someone else. Margaret really is someone else - - Tera, the uncorrupted beauty Julian stole from Egypt and now keeps hidden in his basement, the woman he sneaks away to look at every night, the woman he wishes his daughter was. (Of course Tera and Margaret are identical).

Decades ago Julian and a group of archeologists found Tera in her crypt, where she had been placed by ancient Egyptian priests who chopped off her right hand (to represent the unnamed "sin" she had committed) and left her to rot. But first they obliterated all reference to Tera, and left a message over her tomb that within lay "She Who Must Not Be Named."

But Tera is "above law and taboo" and it is the priests who die, while Tera waits in her tomb for Margaret to begin to dream of her once Margaret "comes of age." In other words, once Margaret is old enough for her father.

The scientists found Tera's preserved body with its perpetually bleeding right arm (Hammer films did this kind of thing very well) at the exact moment Margaret was being born in England. Both Margaret and her mother died, but once Tera was uncovered by Julian, the baby Margaret started breathing again.

Why did Julian leave his wife in England when she was about to give birth? Egyptian sarcophagi had waited thousands of years; they'd wait another few weeks. Why did he abandon his wife to search for the beautiful Tera, or whatever Tera represented to him? Was Julian tired of his wife already? Did he already want something more? Something strange? Something forbidden?

As Tera's personality gradually replaces Margaret's, she dreams of a "land far away" with "no scheming priesthood, no repressive or archaic laws, and love is the divine possession of the soul." A place where any love is permissible.

Now we may guess what at least one of Tera's sins was. At the moment Margaret's mother died, Margaret became her relplacement.

As Julian looks down at Tera's body, wanting her, you see his knowledge of the wrongness of it in his face. I think Andrew Keir (star of Quatermass and the Pit) - - fleshy, with a sensuous Scottish accent - - was better suited to this role than the thin and flinty Englishman Peter Cushing, who started work on Blood from the Mummy's Tomb but left after his wife died. (If Cushing had played the role, I wonder if I would have even thought about the idea of incest. Which leads to more questions - - did the filmmakers intend it or did that "taboo" come from the actors' performances?)

Margaret has a boyfriend who hits her at one point. Most of the men in her life now that she's a grown, sexually available woman brutalize her in one way or another. Her father is using her, as is one of Julian's old colleagues who wants to control Tera's evil power. (Margaret's boyfriend is named Tod Browning, for the director of Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Freaks. Sometimes in-jokes just take you out of the story and are unnecessary. In a film that doesn't pretend to be anything but a comedy, like Shaun of the Dead, it doesn't matter, but in a movie that takes its story seriously it's better to resist the urge. But to be fair, when this movie came out in 1972 fewer people may have even gotten the reference.)

Julian and Margaret are shown to be matched as a couple in another way. Tera has had her right hand cut off. Julian has a stroke that paralyzes the right side of his body, leaving him unable to use (especially to raise, if I'm not getting too Freudian) his right arm.

In the conflagration at the end, Margaret and her father almost kiss. They slowly come together and almost do it. But they resist and hold hands. In the end they have to accept that they're "as meaningless as all of the dead." (One thing I like about Hammer horror movies over some Universal pictures is that Hammer makes them tragedies. There's no redemption at the end.)

The last scene is chilling and finally makes Blood from the Mummy's Tomb a "mummy movie."

Great piece of late Hammer hokum.......2005-02-01

Plenty of blood and guts, by Hammer standards anyway, in this 1971 offering from the famous "House of Horror". The story concerns an Egyptian princess being reincarnated in modern-day London, thus giving plenty of scope for both contemporary and ancient elements.

A very stylish production is directed with plenty of atmosphere by stalwart Seth Holt (Taste of Fear, The Nanny), who sadly died before filming finished. James Villiers stands out for his sliminess as the central villain, where Valerie Leon stands out mainly for her ample bosom. A great cast also includes Andrew Keir and George Coulouris. The score by Tristram Cary (The Ladykillers, Quatermass and the Pit) is pivotal to the tension.

In-joke alert: Hammer afficianados should look out for the names on the sign outside Villier's house early on in the movie.

Jewel is Right.......2004-01-21

Bram Stoker's little known novella Jewel of the Seven Stars is filled with suspense, Egyptian lore, and just the right amount of sex appeal to lure you. The film takes advantage of that by giving you the visually stunning Leon as a focal point. Backdropped by richly colored Egyptian artifacts, and tinted with that just so shade of horror, this is one of those Hammer Films that you wish they had taken the storyline a little bit further just to see what happens next. Kind of makes you wonder if H.R.R. Ryder and Bram were friends, because Ryder's story which Hammer Films also did, with Ursula Andress as "She", are similiar in nature.

Average customer rating:

Gory and Cheesy but Interesting too!
this night was so bad it was good!
These people wouldn't know a bad movie...
your all doomed to be eaten up!
Love the movie, but....

Hell of the Living Dead
Starring: Margit Evelyn Newton , Franco Garofalo , Selan Karay , José Gras , and Gaby Renom
Director: Bruno Mattei , and Claudio Fragasso
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
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ASIN: B00005R24H
Release Date: 2002-02-19

Customer Reviews:

Gory and Cheesy but Interesting too!.......2007-09-03

A scientific experiment goes wrong at a lab in New Guinea resulting in the outbreak of a deadly virus with horrifying symptoms. The disease spreads quickly, and soon the island is overrun by flesh-eating zombies. When a commando squad shows up on the island without knowing the situation, they proceed on dead reckoning, picking up an attractive television reporter and her cameraman along the way. Those that survive make their way to the Hope Centre laboratory where the disease originated to discover it's dark purpose.

"Hell of the Living Dead," AKA "Virus," AKA "Zombi 4," AKA "Zombi 5: Ultimate Nightmare," AKA "Zombie Creeping Flesh" and a slew of other names, is, in many ways, your typical Italian "Dawn of the Dead" wannabe. There's plenty of cannibalistic gore, a swat team, lots of shooting, and they even borrow the music by Goblin. The film also uses stock footage to give the impression that it takes place in New Guinea when it was actually shot in Spain (it's not THAT badly done though). Nevertheless, "Hell of the Living Dead" is somehow more engaging than other films of its type. Perhaps it's the characters, badly dubbed as they are (hate that UN scene). Perhaps it's the breasts. For some, it's probably the butcher shop gore and crocodile gutting scene. There's also the origin of the disease that is revealed at the end, which I think definitely takes the film up a notch. I also love that the film includes a final scene, similar to what Fulci did in "Zombie" though not quite as grand, showing that the virus has moved out of the jungle and on to a highly populated area, as I personally prefer seeing zombie films set in more civilized locales to the jungle zombie films. It's just scarier when you see it happening in an area that looks more familiar to you. Overall, if you enjoy zombie films you should see this one, and especially if you're a fan of the Italian entries into the genre. The DVD from Anchor Bay (mine is the double feature version with "Rats") looks great in widescreen and includes a trailer, still and poster gallery, a text bio of director Bruno Mattei, and a pretty good interview with the director as well (entitled, "Hell Rats of the Living Dead").

this night was so bad it was good!.......2007-07-29

This film from spain was just a splatterfest.Sure its actors are terrible and the dubbing is bad....That's the point! Like the previous writers said its so bad its good.I only wished they would of focused more on the city area and not the natives.The birds diving and the other animals hunting their prey was not necessary.I found it distracting! Overall this one stays in a collection for a cheap laugh providing my mood.

These people wouldn't know a bad movie..........2007-06-19

I don't know if we're even talking about the same movie here -- this is definitely NOT the worst zombie movie ever made. A big problem on Amazon reviews is that reviewers just say a product is "good" or "bad," but give no actual description. So instead of doing that, I'll just describe a few things about it, then let you decide if it sounds good or not.

Is it boring? In order for something to be boring, I would say it needs to have pretty much nothing happen for a very, very long period of time. Thats not so in this film; there are several scenes of zombie attacks, a plethora of zombie shootings, and quite a few zombie bitings (all the makings of a good zombie movie). Also, there is some pointless (and culturally offensive) nudity. As far as the acting -- not great, but at least they show emotion (even if it is too much), which is better than a lot of the lifeless acting in most Euro-sleaze.

Is it a blatant rip-off of "Dawn of the Dead?" Yes and no; the costumes are clearly designed to look like the SWAT team blue uniforms in Dawn, and they even "borrowed" some of the Goblin soundtrack from Dawn (hey, at least they "borrowed good music). Other than that, its very different -- the group is constantly moving, not trapped in a single space, the cause of the zombies is explicitly stated to be intentional and man-made, and it is not a "zombie holocaust" like Dawn -- for almost the entirety of the movie, the zombies are confined to New Guinea, and several cut-away scenes reveal that the rest of the world is still operating normally (although panicy).

Is the story oscar-worthy? No, but then again, if you're considering buying a movie called "Hell of the Living Dead," you probably know what kind of story to expect. The plot is very simple -- nuclear plant-look-alikes are being used to create some sort of super secret project, which has accidentally (or was it?) been released into the Native population of New Guinea. A crack para-military unit is sent to the site of original infection for reasons explained in the film.

Are the special effects bad? For a 1980 Italian movie, no. In fact, there are several quite good head-shots. Of course, there are several scenes where the actors are clearly holding raw meat on the victim and chewing on that, and many of the zombies are simply painted blue -- then again, so are practically all the zombies in Dawn.

The worst part of the movie is the director's annoying habit of splicing in stock footage of wildlife, footage which is clearly of lower quality and not blended into the film well at all.

So, is this a terrible movie? No, certainly not. In my mind, terrible movies are movies that are technically inept or that have incomprehensible plots, like "Oasis of the Zombies" and "Children of the Living Dead." Other than that, its just a matter of opinion. If you like sleazy Italian horror, especially Italian zombie movies, you should find this entertaining. If you're looking for a well-crafted Romero-esque film with biting and deep social commentary, this isn't your film.

your all doomed to be eaten up!.......2006-11-20

perhaps one of cheesiest and most bizzare zombie films ever made, hell of the living dead is a very enjoyable undead gorefest. the story involves a team of swat commandos encountering zombies in the jungle of some foreign country. obviously inspired by dawn of the dead, hell of the living dead is a perfect example of the 70's and 80's cannibal and zombie craze. if it wasnt for the bloody gore effects and comical cheesiness of the film, it would be nearly unwatchable. the horrible overacting, riddiculouse dialouge and mind numbing use of stock footage are what keep this film from reaching 4 stars. overall hell of the living dead is an enjoyable, blood soaked zombie atrocity. only for hardcore zombie and euro sleaze fans, everyone else may want to avoid this one.

Love the movie, but...........2006-07-26

The big problem I have with this movie isn't the storyline. I love the storyline, it is a very Faustian, very grim, storyline about the desire to end world overpopulation by...well...as the chemicals show...creating zombies across the 1st and 2nd world countries. And things work out pretty darn well...no more overpopulation, everyone's a zombie, and everyone has a meal... the living... a great story, and while the actors and special effects aren't anything to write home about, I think the movie does a great job bringing the story from beginning to end. The big problem I have with the movie is the transfer of the movie onto DVD. Now, yes this is a fairly old movie, and it seems that the DVD company that's selling it isn't around (at least I couldn't find it on the net). Still, one would hope for this price we would see the transfer far clearer than when the movie was viewed on vhs. I really wish the film was cleaned up enough so that I can see what's going on. Still, if you like zombie movies, this is a great one, I give the movie itself thumbs up...you'll just be straining your eyes to see what's going on!

Average customer rating:

There is a method to the madness of this tottering Jenga of a horror film
It's a shame cos it's a good movie..
Facing Your Fears
Not as bad as I had thought, but that's not saying much
Some good chills, but not too original...

Room 6
Starring: Christine Taylor , Shane Brolly , Chloe Moretz , Jerry O'Connell , and Ellie Cornell
Director: Michael Hurst (II)
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000F3UA84
Release Date: 2006-06-13

Description

Christine Taylor (DODGEBALL, ZOOLANDER and THE CRAFT) stars as Amy, a young schoolteacher with a lifelong fear of hospitals. But when her boyfriend is injured in a car crash and taken to a hospital that no longer exists, Amy and a concerned stranger (Jerry O'Connell of CROSSING JORDAN and SCREAM 2) enter a nightmare where demons walk among us, hallucinations run rampant, and sultry nurses engage in lesbian blood rites. What is the shocking secret of `St. Rosemary's'? Why does Amy dread these cursed halls of healing? And what final soul-ripping horror lies waiting behind the door of ROOM 6? Shane Brolley (UNDERWORLD), Chloe Moretz (THE AMITYVILLE HORROR), Ellie Cornell (HALLOWEEN 5) and Kane Hodder (JASON X) co-star in this graphic shocker from the producers of FREE ENTERPRISE, HOUSE OF THE DEAD and ALL SOUL'S DAY

Customer Reviews:

There is a method to the madness of this tottering Jenga of a horror film.......2007-06-30

Like most of you who have seen this 2006 horror film I checked it out because the trailer for it was popping up on a lot of other DVDs that I was watching. The implication was that there is a room in this particular hospital where the doctors and nurses do evil, wicked, bad and nasty things to patients. How that is the just the ground floor for this tottering Jenga of a horror film. Our heroine is Amy (Christine Taylor), who not only has nightmares about hospitals, she is having nightmares about the hospital in this movies. When she is not asleep and having nightmares Amy is a schoolteacher with one young student who makes weird comments and a tendency to look at people and suddenly see them as demons. Then Amy and her boyfriend Nick (Shane Brolly) are in an accident. A crowd stands and stares but offers no help and then an ambulance shows up to take Nick to the hospital. The problem is that when Amy tries to find Nick, he is in none of the hospitals in town. No, poor Nick is in the hospital that Amy has been seeing in her nightmares.

"Room 6" is one of those horror movies where they seem to be throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, and then that hits you smack in the head too. You have Nick in the hospital from hell, which could be enough to sustain a horror movie plot, but Amy is seeing things and doubting her sanity. Not only that, but she has a deep dark secret in her past, and there is a back story about St. Rosemary's Hospital, which burnt down many years ago. There is a little girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) with a touch of the supernatural, naked nurses finding fun things to do with blood, and Jerry O'Connell in the role of the only person who believes anything that Amy is saying but who is clearly too good to be true. There was so much going on in this movie as the script by Mark A. Altman and director Michael Hurst (the team that brought us "House of the Dead" and "House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim") kept pouring it on, that it was not until the second appearance of the taxi driver (Billy Gardell) that I finally started to get a handle on what was really happening.

You might enjoy "Room 6" more the second time through once you know how to "read" it properly. You might not agree with the point of the story once you know what it is, but it does offer an explanation as to how all of the seemingly disparate elements in this film fit together, especially for people weaned on "The Twilight Zone." On balance, I liked the scenes with Nick in the hospital more than those of Amy trying to find Nick, largely because every time she saw another demon it seemed more like a distraction that another piece of the puzzle. The film does have a nice look, thanks to cinematographer Raymond Stella, who was the camera operator on "Halloween" and 59 episodes of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." For horror buffs there is a cameo by Kane Hodder (a.k.a. Jason), and the boiler room location used is the same one Wes Craven used for Freddy Krueger in "A Nightmare on Elm Street." For DVD extras there is the trailer for "Room 6" and some other Anchor Bay releases, a 41-minute featurette "Hospital From Hell," a decent enough commentary track from Hurst and Altman, and if you pop the disc in your DVD-rom drive you can read the film's screenplay.

It's a shame cos it's a good movie.........2007-05-25

..between horror and deep emotions with a capital fault:
What the hell they think they are in giving us a clear statement against euthanasia??? We are no longer in the middle age I thought.. Even for American standarts this should cause a big scandal!

Facing Your Fears.......2007-02-07

A young woman has a fear of hospitals due some terrible thing she did when she was younger. She still has terrible nightmares about being in a hospital. Now she is faced with a relationship that is developing to the next stage when the two are in an auto accident. He is taken by an ambulance to a hospital. She is not allowed to ride with him and they do not tell her which hospital. She doesn't realize the omission until after she takes a cab to the closest hospital. She then meets the driver of the other vehicle. He tells a similar story. Together they try and find her partner and his sister. Their search of all of the hospitals turns up nothing.

Meanwhile her boyfriend is in a strange hospital and the staff are the ones from her nightmares. He realizes things are not right and tries to learn more and get out of the hospital despite the warnings from others in his ward. He witnesses strange and terrifying things. But as he tries to get out his girlfriend is following unorthodox methods and learns about an old hospital that burned down before she was born. She is told she can find it if she really wants to. The two paths converge as she has to face her fears and their causes before she can locate her boyfriend and help him. The end is unexpected and help explains much of the strangeness in the earlier parts of the film.

This is a film you have to stick with. At first I though it was very poorly written. Take the accident for instance. There are no police. There is no exchange of information. The participants just walk away and leave their vehicles behind. But this and many other strange things will make sense if you watch the whole movie. But you will have to put the bits together. There are no replays of scenes from different angles like in The Sixth Sense or Hide And Seek. But if you do stick with it you will discover what the film is really all about and it really works quite well. But it is not what you would really expect from the trailer. I personally think it winds up being better that they trailer lets on. Check it out.

Not as bad as I had thought, but that's not saying much.......2006-12-04

Of all the recent direct to DVD horror movies that Anchor Bay has been churning out lately, it's safe to say that Room 6 is one of the best. Sadly though, that's not really saying a whole lot: Room 6 features many of the cliche' story conventions and predictable twists, and arguably one of the dumbest characters in a recent horror movie that I've seen lately in Shane Brolly (Underworld: Evolution) who after a car accident is taken to a mysterious hospital where the patients don't come back. Christine "Mrs. Ben Stiller" Taylor stars as his wife, who along with another victim of the accident (Jerry O'Connell) looks to find out just what's going on. The plot hardly makes sense, but Taylor, Brolly, and O'Connell are decent enough in a film that is far undeserving to feature any of them in it. Gore effects are good and Ellie Cornell (all grown up from the later Halloween films) is here, as are some blood drinking lesbian nurses (always a plus in my book), so Room 6 isn't as bad as it could have been. It's worth a look for horror afficiondos, but that's it.

Some good chills, but not too original..........2006-11-23

There are some interesting developments, but basically all the characters are clueless and can't seem to figure out what's right in front of them. "Room 6" immediately reminded me of John Carpenter's "They Live", without the originality, suspense, and especially its way of making the audience learn everything along with the characters, instead of planting clues early on. Not the best; glad it was loaned to me.

Average customer rating:

C'mon, it paid some rent......
Call it whatever you want, it's still low grade junk
return to horror high
"Some of the bodies were pretty torn up, sir."
SIGNS OF A WASTE OF TIME

Return to Horror High
Starring: Richard Brestoff , George Clooney , Vince Edwards , Al Fann , and Panchito Gómez
Director: Bill Froehlich
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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