Gross Movie Reviews #456

 

The Crawling Eye (YouTube/DVD) – This interesting 50s alien invasion flick is also known as “The Trollenberg Terror” which under that title has some extra footage to it also. Two sisters are on a train and are sitting with a scientist named Alan Brooks who is stopping in Trollenberg. The sisters decide to stop there with him. When they are there they soon learn there is a weird cloud that moves around the Swiss Mountains and has caused many accidents. Many have gone in the strange clouded mountains to not return. Or when they do they are dead and controlled by aliens. The one sister named Ann is considered a threat because of her psychic powers so throughout their time in Trollenberg her life is in danger. The aliens use the cloud cover to keep hidden until they strike. A wonderful sci-fi flick that lets you soak up the story before they roll out the creatures for the finale as I give the film 2 ½ stars.

 

Death Collector (VHS) – This little known sci-fi film is from 1988 with two brothers Wade and Jack, one is a cop and the other is a traveling musician. Brother Jack gets shot saving Wade from a mob dude named Hawk. Apparently Hawk owns everyone’s life insurance policy. Wade gets framed and heads to prison for five years and then gets released along with all convicts because the world has gone broke. The banks caused the apocalypse as they made 99% of the world go into financial ruin. Wade is heads back to Hartford City to find Hawk as he wants to collect and it becomes a fight to the death. A different concept with not much going on in this post-apocalyptic film as I give it 1 star. Weird fact is the film was titled at one point “Tin Star Void”???

 

Escape from Safeheaven (VHS) – This is another lesser known society has gone into disarray film where there is safe zones called Safeheaven. They are fortified places that supposedly protect people from the savages in the outside world. Problem is the people inside run the community with an iron fist and sometimes are worse than the savages outside the walls. But a resistance is brewing inside the community and they are about to be led by a man named Pierce and a fake blind man. The film has a different take on the apocalypse but lacks in story telling as I give the film 1 ½ stars. The film also was sold in different countries as “Bloodscape”.

 

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (DVD) – I personally was rather excited when there was a sequel but oh I was sadly disappointed. The Kingsman’s headquarters and agents are all just about destroyed. In order to fight the man who help bring them down they join forces with American allies. The stunts seem to be bloated and useless with too much CGI.  And believe they should have left the Americans out of it as the films have now lost what was unique or fun about it. I give the sequel 1 ½ stars.

Leprechaun Returns (On Demand) – I believe this reboot of sorts surprised most of us horror fans especially since “Leprechaun: Origins” left a bad taste in our mouths. This film goes the way of the latest “Halloween” flick by ignoring all the other sequels. This newest entry tried to have a connection to the first film that Leprechaun fans would accept. Its biggest obstacle was replacing Warwick Davis as the title character. Well kids they did a good job and Linden Porco deserves a job well done for his performance as the Leprechaun. Lila is a college student who has just joined a sorority that bought a house far from campus for scientific reasons. The house happens to have the well where the Leprechaun was sent to his death 25 years ago and Lila is Jennifer Aniston aka Tori’s daughter. To help fill in backstory Mark Holton returns as Ozzie and tries to warn Lila of the danger. The Leprechaun has been mostly forgotten and the small town has moved on as the college has taken over. But of course you can’t keep a good Leprechaun down and he finds a way to return and begin his bloody killing spree again while looking for his gold.  Steven Kostanski did an amazing job bringing this once dead franchise back to life and added much needed gore back too. I know it made this Leprechaun movie fan happy there is a chance to see more as I give the film 3 ½ stars.

Killer High (DVD/SyFy Channel) – A high school reunion goes horribly wrong when a supernatural warthog mascot shows up butchering everyone. The women who went at each other all during high school trying to one up each other are made to work to together to solve this problem. Meanwhile the school becomes bathed in blood throughout the film until the two women can put aside their differences to battle this thing. There is an absolutely beautiful scene of a Christian girl who wants to face the thing with only a cross believing god will save her? Let’s just say she was wrong in a big way. What actually makes this movie wonderful is I was not expecting much from this film from its title and it premiering on SyFy but I was wrong! And happy to be wrong. Best way to summarize it is “Dance of the Dead” with a supernatural warthog instead of zombies as I give the horror flick 3 ½ stars.

 

Run (VHS) – A movie that was in and out of theaters in 1990/1991 where it places Patrick Dempsey in an action film. Patrick plays Charlie the law student who works as a mechanic to pay for college. He has a chance to make some extra money driving a car to Atlantic City one weekend. Of course young and dumb Charlie does it anyway and of course finds himself winning big at a poker table. Problem becomes a mob boss’ son is not happy and starts a fight with Charlie. But Denny accidentally dies in the scuffle and Charlie runs for good reason as the mob is now after him. For the rest of the movie Charlie must dodge the mob and the crooked cops in order to figure out who is actually on his side. Not a whole lot to the film but it is an entertaining watch if needing to kill 90 minutes as I give it 2 ½ stars.

 

The Hand Strikes (YouTube) – Philip Brocklehurst a young filmmaker that is constantly working as just released his latest short film about a troubled man. The man has relationship troubles and to him the only to help cope with it is to just cut off his left hand with a meat cleaver. I mean it is completely logical… I guess! But anyway the hand isn’t dead and wants revenge for its owner cutting it off. I always enjoy Mr. Brocklehurst’s work but one thing did bother me about the short film as the severed hand constantly goes from left to right throughout the short film. Otherwise great to see more fun stuff from another talented filmmaker as I give it 2 ½ out of 4 stars.

 

Any comments or questions please send to grossmoviereview@verizon.net or www.facebook.com/grossmoviereviews . Remember folks always support your local independent movie theater, independent video store, and independent filmmakers! It will keep horror alive………

Don’t forget you can also hear Kyle Poling and me talking about horror flicks on a weekly basis on the Bloodbaths and Boomsticks podcast at: www.bloodbathspodcast.blogspot.com/ also available at http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kyle-poling-2/bloodbaths-and-boomsticks?refid=stpr

Plus you can always go to the greatest T-shirt place online or if you are in Texas visit the store of “Fast Custom Shirts” where T-shirt Joe is the only place you should purchase your horror T-shirts: Go to www.fastcustomshirts.com for details.

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