Lord of Tears film review (no spoilers) 2013

Kount Kreepy was kind enough (or was it really to torment me?) to drop off "Lord of Tears"for me to review.

Thanks to Lawrie Brewster the director for sending  this collectors DVD to review.

This movie fits the bill for creepy movies. The haunting imagery starts strongly right from the beginning and does not disappoint. The tone is like an impending doom that makes you wait and want to know more as the story evolves and has some twists toward the end that many won't see coming, but done in a way that is fitting with the story and characters. Based on urban legend as well as ancient myths gives it some historical setting. If one is a Jungian follower of psychology you could well find that this film will hit that deep seated nerve or collective memory.

There is a dark wintry feeling to the imagery and scenery with brief moments of faint hope for the main characters against a foreboding back drop. Lord of Tears relies on the camera work and ambiance instead of the special effects and CGI that too many films seem to rely on these days. Its like being taken back to when films could scare the crap out of you without the buckets of blood and fancy tricks.
(imagery courtesy of Lord of Tears on tumbler)

I hate comparing films to others as this one surely stands on it's own but for those looking for an idea or "its kind of like such and such" this film has elements of other films I've enjoyed immensely. Some films just stick with you for a long time after and Lord of Tears is no exception to that.

Visually it  has a lot of power and suggestion to it putting me in the mind of films like Ringu (or The Ring in English- a Japanese Horror film) or The Shining (When a building just sitting there gives you the creeps!)

Feeling wise it puts me in mind of Dagon or In The Mouth of Madness which fits in with the Lovecraft style and pace of the film. Given that the budget was from a Kickstarter campaign the film is great.

A part of the film struck a chord with me (I don't think its really a spoiler), the main character finds the taps in the bathroom turn on by themselves. Many moons ago I had stayed at a hotel that was allegedly haunted and awoke to find the taps on. Thinking about it this happened twice at two different locations and both were apparently haunted!

So enough said already. Get the DVD, it has some great bonus features including an interview with the Director who comes across as inclusive with his audience. He is like a tour guide of horror coming along with you for the ride and experiencing what you experience, he just has a few more of the answers and helps put it all into perspective.

Also there is a quick mention of the next project "The Unkindness of Ravens" about:

"Andrew Alburn, a homeless veteran suffering from PTSD is plagued by flashbacks, stemming from a traumatic event he witnessed while in the armed forces. He spends time in a highland retreat where he hopes to overcome his fear of ravens, the dark creatures that trigger and populate his visions. But in the bleak highlands of Scotland, his nightmares manifest into an enemy more powerful than he could ever have imagined." from Facebook

being a veteran myself I can't wait to see this. If Lawrie does it any justice like Dog Soldiers (portraying military characters as more than 2D cut outs) I'm sure it will be a good film.

Thanks for tuning in.- Evil von Scarry

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Mrs. Von Scarry's Halloween Cookies

Mrs. Von Scarry has started her traditional Halloween themed baking and artwork getting ready
for our favorite day of the year. Ironically our anniversary so I have no excuse to forget it!

Here's some examples of her edible artwork done with cream cheese icing with food coloring and applied with pipping bags.

 Frankenstein's Monster

The Count!

 The Pipping bags, she does it all free hand!

 Collection of Halloween spookiness!

 Classic Witch  riding Mrs.Von Scarry's other car, lol. Especially when she doesn't get her coffee.

 Another tasty collection.

Have a great Halloween and hope these inspire you creative types out there. Be sure to send us pics of your Halloween inspired works and maybe we'll feature them here!

Thanks for tuning in.

-Evil von Scarry

how pumpkin pies are really made

Saw this one and had to post it LMAO!
I love pumpkin pie just for the record, but I will never be able
to look at it the same way again.
 Count down to Halloween - 22 days and a wake up!
-Evil von Scarry

Lords of Salem review

Just finished watching it and had a few things I wanted to get out before I sleep on the rest of it.

First impressions....The Shining meets Lair of the White Worm. It had the feel of a lot of the creepy 1970's horror films which had cults and devil worship with the promise of the devil coming back in human form ( Blood on Satan's Claw, Rosemary's Baby, Hungry Wives,The Pyx,Carrie,Audrey Rose,etc. The surreal and what the fuck of The Wicker Man). Funny how life would be influenced by art, that would play out later in the big whipped up fears of devil cults and heavy metal music of the 1980's (PMRC-Tipper Gore, now her husband tries to scare us about Carbon). The fears of right wing evangelical America .The following song features in the film and is pretty fucking creepy.

A very different movie from Rob Zombie's "Devil's Rejects", which seemed to be just a shocker for the sake of it. I was expecting that watching this but was pleased to see it was not just a bunch of shock and gore for the hell of it. Actually it was pretty artsy and had a bit more depth to it than many of his previous films. I hope it's the start of Rob Zombie coming into his own as a more serious director.

Post sleep- after thoughts

Had some more time to dwell on it after a strange dream about musical scoring and sheet music, lol.

There was quite a bit this film had to offer and some great background,etc but it kind of felt disjointed which I wonder if that was almost deliberate. I figured that maybe getting the low down from the man himself might help. So here's Rob Zombie in an interview about Lords of Salem.

This film was certainly a departure from his previous shock films and was more of a thinking kind of movie with horror as the vehicle for it. Over all it was an enjoyable movie and think that Rob Zombie has branched out trying out a new approach. The critics bashed it into the ground but to hell with em, this ain't no happy ending feel good film. Also might as well enjoy it as Rob Z claims that this is his last horror movie for at least 10 years. Now something comes to mind like "you take the boy out of the blah blah but not the blah blah out of the bogy. Stay tuned, I give him 3 years tops.
 -Evil von Scarry

Harbinger Down. A return to animitronics, fx make up.

Harbinger Down. A Practical Creature FX Film.

This creature feature will be a return to animitronics and actual fx make up art. Lance Henriksen is helping back this up as well as some other heavy hitters via Kickstarter (they already reached their goal, but hey more money is always better). Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki of Dark Dunes Productions (teaming up with Studio ADI) has also come on board after the Kickstarter campaign to team up and get this movie out there. After seeing the video I gotta say I can't freakin wait for this one. Give us back our animitronics and real f/x, someone else can have CGI!

The Story (from the site)

"A group of grad students have booked passage on the fishing trawler Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas in the Bering Sea. When the ship's crew dredges up a recently thawed piece of old Soviet space wreckage, things get downright deadly. It seems that the Russians experimented with tardigrades, tiny resilient animals able to withstand the extremes of space radiation. The creatures survived, but not without mutation.
Now the crew is exposed to aggressively mutating organisms. And after being locked in ice for 3 decades, the creatures aren't about to give up the warmth of human companionship. "

I going to go out on a limb and say that Frankenstein's Army woke up allot of people in the industry and fandom to realize what we were all missing in the CGI movie world.

Not unlike the difference musically between analog sound and digital. Sure digital (like CGI) is convenient but it's just missing that certain quality. And luckily I'm not the only one who shares this belief.

Alec Gillis (of Amalgamated Dynamics Inc.) is leading the project some of you may know him from such awesome creature features as Aliens and The Thing (2011 version), Starship Troopers and more.

"In 1985 he met Creature Legend Stan Winston and worked on Invaders From Mars, Aliens, Predator, Leviathan, and Monster Squad, among others. In 1988, along with Tom Woodruff, Jr. Alec formed Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. Their first feature film was Tremors, followed by Alien 3 (Oscar nomination), Death Becomes Her (Oscar win), Mortal Kombat, Jumanji, Starship Troopers (Oscar nomination) , The Santa Clause franchise, the Spider-Man franchise, the Alien vs. Predator franchise, Wolverine: Origins, X-Men: First Class, The Thing (2011)."- from Kickstarter profile.

Harbinger Down Website

Again we can't wait for this one and are looking forward to seeing what this crew will bring back to creature features!!! -Evil von Scarry. Thanks for tuning in.

Frankenstein's Army film review 2013

Frankensteins Army film review 

Evil von Scarry signing in here. Saw this movie finally at long last!
As a follow up article of Kount Kreepy's announcement of the film (pre-release) here's my review of the film. I would recommend that folks check out KK's article as it gives a good backgrounder and some other things from "Worst Case Scenario" (by Richard Raaphorst ) the proto-Frankenstein's Army.

1/ Its a great movie, go see it. Especially if your one of those (like use) that have been waiting essentially since "Worst Case Scenario" for this movie.
2/ This is essentially a creature feature, and a good one at that. Lots of gore , great creature fx/make up and prop work. No need for CGI here!
3/ not exactly Academy Award acting, but good enough as really it's a fun movie and not a drama. 
4/ never mind the critics, they take themselves too seriously and film too seriously. Really. Its about reanimated monsters for Pete's sake!
5/ Richard Raaphorst as his directorial debut did a great job!

SPOILERS******************** Last warning**********SPOILERS **********SPOILERS**************************

 
I'll try not to spoil the whole thing, but be warned.

It was a great creature feature. The Germans are using one of the descendants of Dr. Frankenstein who happens to have a mad penchant for reanimation of corpses (and sometimes not so dead) and creating killer undead cyborg monstrosities.

A Russian reconnaissance patrol is out near the end of World War 2 and stumbles across the man made hell of Dr.Frankenstein's Army in a near abandoned industrial town somewhere in East Europe. Taken from a "found footage" aspect it does still flip into cinematic so won't drive away those who hate the found footage genre. 

I wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't disappointed. However. The setting was a bit haunted house

and felt, kind of  a "look and see what we can do". With the glut of WW2 soldiers vs. zombies we've seen the last few years I think the FA team did what they could to be different and stand on their own which they accomplished. FA did seem a bit rushed and if they had a bigger budget and more film they could have done an epic film instead of just a good film.

Felt a bit like House of 1000 Corpses meets Dawn of the Dead and insert found footage film here. As I've said before it does stand on it's own and has earned it's place in the horror film lexicon. I hope it does spawn a sequel and maybe with a bigger budget this time.  Some critics knocked it down but to hell with them, this was a fun movie!-EvS