This website is dedicated to horror movies (independent and mainstream), beer, Full Moon, Spookies, Graveyard Shift, Leprechaun sequels, massacre films and watching every god damn horror film ever made or die trying!
“Side Effects May Vary” will inject Pittsburgh, PA with a one-night only special event screening at the historic Harris Theater on Saturday, January 27th at 7:30PM!
Special appearance by star Floyd Ewing Jr. (“Skinned Alive”), who will join director J.R. Bookwalter (“The Dead Next Door,” “Ozone”) and writer/star James L. Edwards (“Her Name Was Christa,” “Bloodletting”) for a post-show Q&A hosted by Art Ettinger, editor of Ultra Violent magazine.
With the world gripped by a deadly pandemic, science denier Glenn Rollins turns to an experimental vaccine as treatment for a lingering sickness. Much to the surprise of his doctor, wife, and friends, the remedy immediately fixes what ails him. But Glenn will soon discover the only thing more fatal than the virus… is the cure.
Attendees receive a free collectible promotional giveaway surgical mask featuring full-color artwork from the movie’s poster. Presented with state-of-the-art digital projection and 5.1 surround sound in a landmark venue opened in 1931!
This unrated movie contains good stuff like nudity, language, sex, and graphic violence equivalent to a hard MPAA “R” rating! 17+ only, please.
For our next guest announcement is a person who has accomplished a lot in a short span of time: model, make-up artist, director, producer, writer, and influencer. This person has worn many hats and seems to be someone that the Grossfest crowd will just be delighted to meet! This person’s credits include acting credits in: Clown Motel 2, Sorority babes, Attack of the Corn Zombies, along with several more to be released within the next year. Yinz please give a warm welcome to this wonderful and beautiful newcomer who has already made an impact in the independent filmmaking world, Kelsey Livengood.
So for our latest guest announcement is someone who is on the rise big time in the independent horror community. They have been killing it as they have acted in over 40 films since 2017 and show no sign of slowing down. This guest of ours has acted in such films: Cannibal Hookers, The Embalmers, Bigfoot Exorcist, Satan Lives: The Rise of the Illuminati Hotties, Debbie Does Demons, Murdercise (with Drew Marvick), CarousHell 3, and has several more that are gonna be released over the next year or so like Crackcoon and The Legend of Crick Foot! Best way to describe this person is “she is a talented and delightful ball of joyous energy on and off screen”, may we introduce yinz to Jessa Flux!
Before we get to our next announcement there is some important news and sad to say The Mummy and The Monkey cannot attend Grossfest 2024. Because of their rising national and international success as horror host and hostess they are in high demand. As Janet said to us, “The Cleveland motto is maybe next year”, her words not ours, lol. Anyway all is good as we plan to bring this talented duo Janet and James (The Mummy and The Monkey) in for 2025 Grossfest! In all seriousness, we all know life tends to throw us curve balls and that is no different with horror conventions but don’t worry Grossfest fans we are in constant contact with this wonderful duo and plan to have them at one of our shows. So in the meantime please keep supporting these fine folks as we will! Thank you Janet and James see yinz next year.
Blood Feast (4K/remake) – I had no expectations going into this film because just like a lot of horror movie fans I felt this had been done already… ‘Blood Diner’ anyone?! Hell even ‘Blood Feast 2’ made a decade or two ago? But of course that didn’t stop anyone as an American family the Ramses headed to Paris six months ago to start up an American restaurant/diner thing. Owner Fuad Ramses and his diner are having tough times so he has been working a second job as night security dude at a museum. One morning Fuad has lost his pills which are critical to his health (according to Caroline Williams, the wife) and that night he witnesses Ishtar. Ishtar fascinates Fuad so much he goes to the library to do research on the goddess. Thus his research makes Fuad believe he has found the answer to his failings in Paris and it all starts with preparation for a giant feast that upcoming Saturday night with his family. Not only is he feeding on those he is killing but his family will also feast all in the name of Ishtar! There is no doubt the film went out of its way to be gory as hell. The cast and structure was great as Robert Rusler stole the flick with his performance that felt like he should have been in the 1963 original film as Fuad. Also it was great seeing an appearance of H.G. Lewis doing a YouTube thing giving backstory to Ishtar, a very tasteful gesture of a cameo. But my original stance on the film is still 2 out of 4 stars. Let me explain: If there was no original H.G. Lewis I think myself and other horror fans would have celebrated this release as soon as it was announced because this remake is solid and wonderful. But the biggest problem for any filmmaker is you are tackling something “historical” not only in minds of horror movie fans but just fans of “cinema”. So at least for me as I watch this version (as good as Robert Rusler was) I cannot get that original out of my mind let alone the over the top greatness called “Blood Diner” from the 80s. Hell, there is still a large portion of horror fans still learning of the legend of H.G. Lewis? This film I believe falls under the category “of it will be appreciated by horror fans in a decade or so after its release…” Also with this 4K version is the uncut version of the film, a ‘making of’ featurette, music video, red carpet premiere in 2018, promo teaser, and Scare cam. The full package itself I give 3 out of 4 stars and can be found through www.synapsefilms.com .
A Creature is Stirring (DVD) – So this was an interesting holiday film that stars Scout Taylor-Compton who I feel has craved a wonderful nice horror career for her. We are thrown right into an odd situation where a mother and daughter are struggling to communicate but clearly there is something more going on. As the two continue to deal with their secret to the audience a couple of backpackers have stumbled upon these two alone in a house during a vicious blizzard. As the holiday film gets a little odder we learn the daughter is some kind of porcupine magical monster shit?! This film had to be one of the odder holiday genre films I have ever encountered as I feel you need to be under the influence of drugs just to understand everything that happens as I give it a solid 2 ½ stars.
Silent Night (On Demand) – A John Woo film that seems to have that feeling of slipping under the radar of all the holiday nonsense here in the states and have been under advertised if that makes sense? The film opens with a terrific car stunt scene with the main character Brian and a pair of gangbangers. Brian’s boy was killed by a stray bullet and Brian took it upon himself to seek justice but fails as he is shot in the neck. But miraculously Brian survives to ignore his wife and begin training for next Christmas Eve where he plans to rein hell among all the gangbangers in his area. There isn’t a lot of dialogue and what helps this action flick out is this isn’t your Jason Statham taking an army of people and coming out completely untouched. Vengeance is messy, stupid in some cases, and everything doesn’t go to exact plan you had as this had some fun effects and stunts but feels like its holding back a little since it was made here and I can only give it 2 ½ stars.
Section 8 (DVD) – Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, and Mickey Rouke star in this feature about a dude named Jake who is trying to live the normal life until he has a scuffle with some neighborhood gangbangers who in return kill his kid and wife. Jake after losing his shit and killing a bunch of people for revenge is seeked out by a Black Ops team “Section 8” for a ‘get out of jail free card’ if he works for them. Jake isn’t happy with the option but takes it because he is out of prison until he is asked to kill some kids and now on the run. If there was one thing you will notice about this movie besides some of the kick ass action scenes is that everyone on the “Section 8” team goes overboard with the eyeliner as I give the film 3 stars.
Dreamland (DVD) – Stephen McHattie lives in some fucked up alternate world where he works for Henry Rollins and is asked to kill his doppelganger who happens to be some musician for a countess (Juliette Lewis) whose brother is a vampire and going to get married to a 13 year old! So there is a countess, a vampire, underage marriage, a mob boss played by Henry Rollins, kids smoking, and kids being sold on a regular basis… Yep you read that all correct as not a whole lot makes sense until the very end as it’s all about saving the kids in this German/Canadian/Belgium production as I give it 2 ½ stars only because Stephen McHattie plays two characters!
Ip Man 4: The Finale (DVD) – Leave it to my weird movie viewing ass to start with the last film first in this martial arts action series. Donnie Yen is Mr. Ip in 1964; San Francisco where his star pupil Bruce Lee has asked for his presence to help him get the Chinese in Chinatown to understand it is a good thing to teach martial arts to all people not one certain kind of people. The grandmasters ask Mr. Ip to keep his student in check while he is dealing with cancer and what time he has left to have with his son? Mr. Ip is not only asked to eventually to defend Mr. Lee and his people but his use of martial arts which becomes a highlight movie fight in the last ten minutes of the film with Donnie Yen and Scott Adkins as I give the film 4 stars.
Destroy All Neighbors (Shudder) – William who is a big Prog Rock dude and works on his own music constantly but never that big break has a noisy new neighbor who has just moved in. Vlad the new neighbor bothers William so much it is keeping him up at night but dislikes confrontation. William finally gets the nerve to speak out at Vlad but after a weird chaotic fake fight Vlad is impaled and that is where it gets real interesting for William as he proceeds to kill all his neighbors! The chaos of the murders goes next level weird when William begins to talk to the victims and they become his new dead friends who also play instruments in his recording! This is a weird not totally sure if it’s all a dream kind of horror comedy that will not knock your socks off funny but solid enough for a few laughs and happy you got to watch it as I give it 2 ½ stars.
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 and support!
Infinite Santa 8000 (Blu-ray) – One of my favorite Indy releases over the years is an animated feature from two brilliant minded people Michael Neel and Greg Ansin. Funny thing is it has been about ten years since I first reviewed this masterpiece of cinema coming to DVD. Now finally getting the special edition treatment through a great company Synapse Films more people will get to witness the glorious movie that I have talked about for years. This is a mind-blowing post-apocalyptic animation set thousands of years into the future where Santa still thrives or now just survives looking for people who still have the Christmas spirit. We begin with a narration to catch up the viewer “of how we got here” as Cyborg Santa is about to ‘Thunderdome’ with another in order to win sacks of meat as food is scarce in this world. Yes folks, our future are super violent, robots have taken over earth, and Santa must fight to survive but he still lives in the North Pole! What keeps the jolly bastard going these days is a robot girl named Martha who when not training loves to hang out with Santa in his workshop and hear stories of Christmas past. But after a mysterious visitor one evening Martha is kidnapped from Santa’s Ranch and we are off to the races with complete chaos as Santa and his robotic reindeer jump into action to chase down an evil rabbit! Martha’s and our holiday hero discover this is only the beginning as a thing from the past Dr. Shockleton and her mutant army are on course to not only to rid the world of the Santa menace but to reshape the world into her own. For movie nerds out there let me break this down: imagine elements of the film Wizards, Adult Swim programming, scenes from the original Terminator and Mad Max films, and a character that is a straight up an old school Bond villain, and a soundtrack that feels like lost audio tracks from early Slayer mashed together into this beautiful piece of animation that in the end is all about the Christmas spirit! And what is even better is this is the director’s cut with extended and new scenes added including a little look into who Dr. Shockleton is after credits?! To me what makes this even more special is the short interviews with the voices of the cast so you get to see and hear who these talented people are, the original 13 part web series of this project, audio commentary from the dynamic duo themselves Michael Neel and Greg Ansin, music videos, plus more than anything this feature being on Blu-ray I believe makes everything in this feature pop and look even better than it ever did when watching it ten years ago on YouTube and such. This brilliant piece of holiday cinema will make a great addition to horror fans’ collections but also yearly holiday movie watching for years to come as my opinion has never changed giving it 4 out of 4 stars and now officially can be found at www.synapsefilms.com .
Cryptids (Dropbox) – Justin M. Seaman and Zane Hershberger at no time are not working on a project as they put together with some other filmmakers an anthology that uses the “Mothman Festival” as a back drop and the legendary movie host Joe Bob Briggs as Harlan Dean a radio host for a program about Cryptids. For this week’s show Harlan has asked callers to call in with stories that deal with cryptozoology! First story deals with a legend of “Melon Heads” or young people who were experimented on instead of being taken care of by their doctor and escaped the facility to live in the woods. Second story is about a park ranger and his partner facing off with a group of Sasquatches deep in the woods while looking for lost campers. (Which I quite enjoyed the ending) The third story is the hilarious entry of the bunch that I think holds the anthology together of a man who disappears in the woods after he finds a monstrous fish creature and has what seems like an acid trip? This story works well for where it is as it releases a little pressure of the tension that was built up by the first two stories. Fourth story is set on Halloween where a fisherman brings home a mysterious rock/large egg thing that he wants to use for his set up that night. Problem is the thing hatches and now little ghoulish things are running rampant through the house. The fifth is about two chupacabras chasing down individuals in a building for the fun of the Mexican cartel who watch it on closed circuit TV. The last story involves two young men who decide to have a monster hunt for a mysterious animal that may or may have not been eating all the neighborhood animals recently to set up a prank. The anthology comes in at a brisk 76 minutes with all entries being quite delightful and entertaining experiences into cryptozoology. The project is well casted, well shot, as has Justin and Zane showing off their talents once again in the world of low budget filmmaking as I give this anthology 3 ½ out of 4 stars.
The Last Christmas in the Universe (YouTube) – The fine folks from Spain that have brought you the over the top brilliant work of “Fist of Jesus” and “Brutal Relax” have returned with a post-apocalyptic holiday short film. It is December 25th next year?! Everything has gone to shit and a gang of brutal thugs are about to kill a man but Santa has arrived because even though everything is just about dead Santa has a job to do as long as there is still one good person left. Santa and his magical bag of presents turns the fight to the death into a fantastic holiday splatterfest that includes Santa playing ‘Twister’ (the version of the game here in the US) with the thugs’ body parts in order to save this one good person. Need some dark humor in your Season’s Greetings look no further than this absolutely fun gorefest that will just make you smile like the days of unwrapping all those cool presents as a kid as I give this wonderful holiday short film 4 out of 4 stars. Also these talented people are in need of your support so please check out www.patreon.com/RedParty to help.
Mean Guns (Tubi) – This little known film has direct-to-video from 1997 written all over it as its about mobsters in a new prison staring Ice-T, Christopher Lambert, and Thom Mathews among a few other familiar faces. The real plot of it is getting all these members of the ‘syndicate’ who may have made a mistake or two recently and weed them out. Three out of a hundred are allowed to survive and collect a share of ten million dollars? But Ice-T has plans for all these evil bastards in the end as he plans to screw them all in this 110 minute “not totally sure if there was a real plot” action crime/action flick as I give it 2 ½ stars. P.S. think of this as Albert Pyun’s version of ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’ in a prison?
Adrenalin: Fear the Rush (Tubi) – A weird post-apocalyptic flick of sorts from 1996 starring Christopher Lambert where at the time Russia falling apart causes a bio-weapon germ to leak out and destroy most of Europe. Now some years have passed and this so-called germ has mutated and possibly causes the human race to become a super cannibalistic infected thing that infects people by touching them! This nasty thing has shown up in a ‘Control Zone’ and the local police chase it down in some tunnels only to become the hunted as the government knows what a disaster it could become. To make it even more fun we get Andrew Divoff playing one of the mysterious government types in this lower budgeted but effectively fun cat and mouse ‘infected’ film that I give 2 ½ stars too.
Blue Monkey (Blu-ray) – You know the story of John Vernon happens to run a hospital that so happens to be testing a laser thingy? Well of course some old dude gets pricked by a foreign plant at his woman’s greenhouse that basically gives him a heart attack and a weird bacterial infection. The infection eventually sends the hospital into lockdown which randomly has Joe Flaherty from SCTV and his pregnant movie wife at the hospital trying to give birth. It has nothing to do with the story but come on we all love Joe! Meanwhile Steve Railsback and a doctor are trying to track down the infection that has mutated into a creature with a Nintendo gun… That is before the government just runs and burns the place to the ground because they consider it a “Class 4 Quarantine”. The 1987 film was also known as ‘The Insect’ and that is most of what I wrote for a review several years ago for this movie. For as much as I am not a huge fan of this flick it does have a solid cast and believe this new transfer of the film to Blu-ray adds to the rewatching experience. The Blu-ray version is not as dark and colorful in spots that wasn’t highlighted throughout the film whether it was the creature and its lair in the basement of the hospital or just giving it even more late 70s TV movie look? Anyway I believe this helped me enjoy the film a little more and give it a little more respect a second time around as I give it another ½ star (2 stars overall now) for this B-movie madness.
Bad CGI Gator (Tubi) – Danny Draven for Full Moon tries to go the old SyFy Channel and Roger Corman route with fully knowing there is an independent movie out there called “Bad CGI Sharks” with making a simple quick film here. The movie takes place in southern Georgia (or out in the woods of Cleveland) where young college kids come to party and try to trend on their social media accounts by throwing their laptops into the pond! A gator lurking by gets electrocuted by the laptops and grows so next thing you know this mutated animal is doing (dated reference here) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon shit all over the cottage. The movie only runs 58 minutes which is a good thing as the movie wasn’t bad but if it makes sense at all wasn’t that interesting as it seemed like one those projects you question “why was it made now?” Anyhow it’s out there and I still enjoy Full Moon but can only give this project 1 star.
Caddy Hack (DVD) – Killer gophers on a golf course in a no budget flick I am usually in for but a “Caddyshack” parody forty years later sounds like a project that should have never left the paper the script was printed on? Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the killer gophers in this flick but there was a lot of filler in order to fill a running time. I am not saying don’t watch this film has there does look like these folks put a good amount of time and effort into it but next time go watch “Zombeavers” before you tackle a project like this? Or take a cue from the short film classic “Night of the Hell Hamsters”? Anyway for those of you that are weird like me and have to watch it… a shitty golf tournament at “The Old Glory Holes” golf course is in jeopardy when Hambone the groundskeeper accidentally mutates the gophers with his experimental fertilizer spray (not pesticides as listed on IMDB) in turns has the little bastards grow into a horrible “Gremlins” remake! Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy ideas like this but sometimes they just need to stay ideas if that make sense as I give this unneeded parody 1 star.
Toga Party Massacre (DVD) – This rare SOV flick made out of love and no money returns from 1989 to be available again for us completely nutzoid Indy fans. This horror parody gets in and out in 39 minutes as two young ladies have a toga party (even a dated reference at that time) after the parents head out of town. The party is rocking along until two dudes show up late (one wearing a Helloween shirt, kudos) to tell the story of Frankie Robertson that kills the vibe of the party! Now a mysterious man in a mask shows up to kill everyone, is it Frankie Robertson? This is one of those early SOV films that are so bad but so much fun as I laughed several times throughout giving it 3 stars and advise all fans to track this down for some fun.
1962 Halloween Massacre (DVD-R) – College school project, regular Indy project, whatever it is considered this is a film that takes place in 1962 following four friends to a party in the middle of nowhere. As no one dies for the first forty minutes of the film a mysterious killer stalks the party if you wanna call it that as it’s only a party when someone has to die as 99% of the film is focused on these four kids. There is a good idea of a serial killer film somewhere in here but what doesn’t help the project is the film is a very talky horror film. Lots of banter between the four kids driving to the party that continues throughout the movie like the filmmaker had something to prove? Or wanted to say I am smarter than the viewer which never flies these days. Either way if you can through the endless dialogue you will see what I mean about there is a good film somewhere in there it was just not made simply as I give this project 1 ½ stars.
There is Something in the Barn (On Demand) – A holiday horror delight that will baffle horror fans “how wasn’t this in theaters again?” It is Norway at Christmas time as a family has inherited a home in Norway and decided to move from the U.S. to this beautiful landscape. With that in mind the parents decide they are going to remodel the barn to turn it into an Air BnB or something within the year. But their son has different plans as the young boy learns of the barn elves and discovers they have one. The boy wants to respect the barn elf but the parents begin to follow through on their plans and that is where the holiday fun begins with the elves looking to kill all involved! It sucks not many got to see this entertaining horror film this past season but have a feeling like ‘Violent Night, Fatman, and Christmas Bloody Christmas’ horror fans are going to be adding this fun holiday horror to their list next year as I give it 3 stars.
Thanksgiving (On Demand) – It is the Grindhouse trailer turned into a feature that horror fans screamed for years. I have a whole theory on that but let’s get to the review first. For the first time ever the Right Mart store in Plymouth, Mass., is open on Thanksgiving and these people are vicious. A riot happens because the stupid humans want their waffle irons. Many are injured and a few are killed. One year passes by and it’s that time of the year again but some teenagers are receiving social media posts that they are invited to a creepy dinner as a mysterious figure in a John Carver mask has taken to slaughtering the residents who were apart of the riot. Its bloody, it’s fun, turned out better than I thought it would to give us a modern day Thanksgiving slasher that I give a solid 3 stars too. Now on that theory part of this film finally getting made? Should this been made a few years back when the whole ‘black Friday’ thing was more of a thing, yes. Should he have brought this to life after “Machete, Hobo with a Shotgun” got out there, yes. But Eli Roth working on other projects that either had horror fans frustrated fans or them happy as I believe this was a project he always intended to do but never found the right time? Now a little more mature in his filmmaking ways and a good chance of we will never know for sure behind the scenes he may have been forced to make this project when no one seen it happening because he was about to lose it? I have been critical of Eli Roth in the past as some will know but this feels like a Carpenter move by Roth in understanding what fans want but also understanding he is a fan also? There is more to this theory but I think you get what I am saying as I think it was good we got this horror film as it may have not been perfect but believe overall horror fans will enjoy it for years to come.
The Loch Ness Horror (DVD) – For the love of Rutger Hauer what the hell are yinz kids doing over there in the UK making this dumb bullshit? A ship goes down after searching for the mystical creature. Now, an exec cobbles together an unlikely crew for a rescue mission which of course isn’t true soon as you see the characters arrive on a docked ship that never leaves port. Yes this is one of those reviews where I point out all the dumb shit! Anyhow if the CGI monster and ocean isn’t enough be sure to pay attention to the storm that doesn’t get anyone wet, the radar on a cell phone honestly people you are on a fucking large navy vessel, the boat is supposed to be moving and the dude driving it is somewhere in the basement of the boat and yes I said basement because that is where this film should have stayed, or pay attention to the characters as the male characters look like bad extras from a fishing show and the female characters seem they are dressed to have drinks on their little rich yacht! Details PEOPLE! This wasn’t just bad this project is stupid bad and makes me question why I keep watching these things as I give it 0 stars.
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 and support!
grossmoviereviews 
You must be logged in to post a comment.