Crocodile Blu-ray review

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Crocodile (Blu-ray) – For the first time this Taiwan/Korea production from 1978/1979/1981 aka Crocodile Fangs (watch the extras and read about it at www.synapsefilms.com you will totally understand) has been released in special edition Blu-ray form. Apparently there was several editions released even with a different director’s name in the credits but this the U.S. version restored. You can check out some alternate and deleted scenes in the extras after. Anyway, after a horrible storm and some atomic blasts this causes a crocodile to come hunting for humans! Two doctors and their families are on vacation and become victims to the ever growing mutation of a crocodile. These two doctors being very distraught resign their jobs and begin doing research on crocodiles and why would a giant one eat their families? While those two do that the giant crocodile feeds every three days on the next village downstream destroying all in its path. After getting the bad ass local fisherman involved the second half of the movie literally becomes almost a scene for scene of ‘Jaws’ exception for the leaping giant crocodile that had me laughing for a good five minutes. This flick is some wonderful international B-movie cheese but the real treat is the extras: besides the commentary from a writer and film historian along with the several different openings and endings that are alternate or deleted scenes that may have not been seen by U.S. audiences? My favorite extra has to be the interview with Won-se Lee! The real director as his interview is around 35 minutes and gets into him not actually knowing his name wasn’t in the credits (Sompote Sands by the way), or how hard it was doing a Thai/Korean production, or how much the film has fans outside of his country? This interview alone is entertaining, interesting and worth the price of the Blu-ray edition of the film as I give it 3 out of 4 stars and can be found at www.synapsefilms.com .

Gross Movie Reviews #639

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Galaxy Warriors (DVD) – Veteran Indy filmmaker Brett Kelly uses his mind and his usual no budget to bring a futuristic women in prison movie together. A bounty hunter in space under the name Demeter is contacted about her sister Artemis being imprisoned on a prison planet. So it is big sister to the rescue as her and co-pilot gets thrown in prison to find her sister. Once there Demeter notices everything is not going according to plan and they will need lots of help to make their escape. The film has a lot heart and feels like a 90s independent movie more than a recent one. But it loses some steam towards the end as it felt like Mr. Kelly wasn’t totally sure on how to end this project but that is just me thinking out loud there? No matter what I see fans of Brett Kelly enjoying this film as I give it 2 ½ stars.

Amityville Bigfoot (DVD/Tubi) – Shawn Phillips returns to the director’s chair with entry #60 folks! This time around there are scientists in a secluded cabin experimenting on what should be an unknown creature, “Bigfoot”? What else the plot throws at you is a movie shoot about Bigfoot that is ongoing in the same woods, there are also activists against Amityville Chemical, and a few rando homeless people smoking weed. Once the creature escapes the cabin and there are more sinister things at play here Bigfoot begins his bloody rampage through the woods slaughtering all who cross him. This Bigfoot slasher (maybe?) also stars Eric Roberts, Trent Haaga, and the wonderful Tuesday Knight. I am not totally sure what exactly this entry had to do with Amityville but it was fun to see a movie that could be considered a Bigfoot slasher as I give it 2 stars.

Shakespeare’s Shitstorm (On Demand) – Only Troma could pull something off like this where a new drug has hit the shelves from “Big Pharma” called “Safespacia”: a pill for 18 to 30 year olds so they don’t feel an uncomfortable moment in their lives. They can see friends because it helps create a safe space around them. The story or parody is of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” like only Lloyd can produce. A boatload of Big Pharma execs are shipwrecked onto the shore of Tromaville, New Jersey. From there they all go looking for help and find “Prospero’s Retreat” in an alley of Tromaville where they can continue their partying and evil ways. But little they know the club is run by a scientist named Prospero who was ousted many years before because he wasn’t in it for the money? Now it’s Prospero’s turn to get his revenge but will that change when his blind daughter falls in love with the big exec’s son? The film takes on all the recent issues of social justice, etc., etc., no stone goes unpunished in usual Troma fashion. As usual the film is perverse and fun but felt like about 60 minutes in or so the message was being beaten into you instead of entertaining you but I still liked the movie enough to give it 3 stars.

Flesh Games (DVD) – What looks like another ‘Jackass’ fan film goes in a little bit of a different direction? A small group of so-called no name stuntmen and comedians are getting the “band back together” to start filming some Jackass adventures again like they did some years before. Then they were teenagers like a lot of people who were influenced by Knoxville and crew but now they are border-line out of shape folks getting drunk and reliving the past while filming it. There is the grandma skit, terrible twister, Homerun derby, glass jaw, skateboarding accidents… you get the picture where this Indy film is going. What seems like just another Indy film being a copycat of the popular project “Magnum Opus: The Movie” from Addison Binek takes a dark odd twist of how far is too far about ¾’s the way through the film. Trying not to spoil it as it was kind of a small surprise for this just over 60 minute movie that I think Indy fans will embrace if they stick this out what it was really going for as I give it 2 ½ out of 4 stars. Can find it for purchase at:  https://srscinemastore.com/search?q=Flesh+Games

The Primevals (Full Moon) – A passion project from no other than David Allenunder Charles Band’s Full Moon Pictures label that has been in some kind of production for decades. Sadly David Allen died in 1999 never seeing the project finished. As the story goes Allen who did the wonderful puppet effects in the first couple ‘Puppet Master’ films had been trying to get this project up and going for decades starting right after the film ‘Laserblast’. Not until the early 90s did Band have the funds for Allen to pull the production off but one thing after another happened causing this project to never being finished and talked about many Full Moon fans for years. But to Charles Band’s credit and some others getting involved in a recent crowd funding campaign the film was finished and restored so all of us fans get to see the fun stop-motion stuff that brings this picture to life! The story revolves around a discovered frozen Yeti and sent off to the U.S. for presentation to get everyone excited for such a creature. This event sparks an expedition to do research in the Himalayas to possibly find proof or another one of these creatures? Their adventure literally leads the group to another world where lizard people/things control the Yetis and rule in this possible alternate prehistoric world! The film comes off very family friendly but the real star is no doubt the stop motion effects of the Yeti and the lizard men that is just such a wonderful throwback to old school filmmaking that will thrill not just Full Moon fans but some cinema buffs too. Thank you to all who got this together for us movie fans to check out and thank you David Allen even though you didn’t get to see you finished product as I give it 3 ½ stars.

Blood, Guts and Sunshine 2: The History of Horror Made in Florida (DVD) – A sequel from Chris Woods who once again dives into the rich history of filmmaking in Florida. There are lots of stories and interviews with such legends Fred Olen Ray, J.R. Bookwalter, Sean Donohue, Chris Woods himself, along with a few well known online movie critics. The first entry dealt with a lot of recent Indy films that have been released and made there where this sequel explains the history of some of our favorite horror films being made there but how different parts of the state can be used for any part of the world for said film. I quite enjoyed also this documentary felt a little more polished than the first but the real gem might be Fred Olen Ray telling stories of how he sold his first film and his experiences early on in his career. Rather entertaining B-movie stuff that very few could pull off or even be done today. Entertaining as hell kids as I give this project 4 out of 4 stars and believe me you will learn something that you didn’t know from this doc. Soon to be available through www.gatorbladefilms.com   

Amityville Backpack (Tubi) – No, you haven’t lost your mind as this is entry #61 into this long running series that doesn’t surprise me what they do next but know I will be there to watch and keep track of. From the filmmaker behind the ‘Death Toilet’ series we get this entry where a possessed backpack is bought from a garage sale. (Sorry folks, the vibrator in the yard sale were the best concept) Anyhow, after a kid is murdered by the backpack (you got me paying attention right there) Luther buys the backpack at the garage sale believing it is the answer to all his woes of forgetting stuff? Doesn’t take long for the backpack to try killing Poopsie the cat and heading off to the pool for a beer before killing anyone in its path around Luther at the office. Or at least all the people who have this weird obsession of putting on a backpack? Also if that wasn’t enough the object knows how to shoot a gun and drive a car as over 80 minutes is too much. I believe this joke would have worked so much better as a twenty minute short but that is my opinion as I give it 1 ½ stars. Sometimes projects are better as short films, examples: Amityville Quilt Store and Amityville Outhouse.

Any comments please send to grossmoviereview@verizon.net or www.facebook.com/grossmoviereviews .

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!

My favorite movies to rewatch from the past twenty years!

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Point of this list isn’t so much to piss everyone off as much I was asked to do a podcast recently and put together “my favorite twenty horror movies over the past twenty years”? So now that I have done the podcast, I thought I would post the list for those who didn’t or won’t hear the podcast.

Top 20

1) VFW

2) Hobo with a Shotgun

3) Shaun of the Dead

4) The Barn

5) Hexercise

6) 30 Days of Night

7) Holy Shit… Zombies!

8) Dead Snow

9) Wolf Cop

10) The Void

11) The Collector

12) Feast

13) The Devil’s Rejects

14) Don’t Kill It

15) Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

16) Frankenstein’s Army

17) The Rec 1-4 series

18) Pool Party Massacre

19) Garden Party Massacre

20) Planet Terror from Grindhouse

Guess who is coming to Grossfest???

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Surprise, surprise, surprise guess who is coming to Grossfest 2024?! This is something that has been in the works since we began Grossfest. This person is a longtime friend, a brother to me, a person I have respected and championed his work for years to not just independent filmmakers but to all horror fans, you have heard me scream at conventions about him we present to you Grossfest fans: the man, the myth, the legend, the greatest horror T-shirt person out there T-shirt Joe Garcia!!!

http://www.fastcustomshirts.com

(PLEASE GO CHECK OUT HIS WEBSITE AND BECOME A BELIEVER)

Grossfest 2024

Friday and Saturday August 2 and 3rd, 2024

Comfort Inn Conference Center

699 Rodi Road, Pittsburgh, PA, 15235

Need to reserve a room: Hotel link to reserve a room for Grossfest 2024! https://www.choicehotels.com/reservations/groups/ET81E2

Tickets: $10 at the door for one day, $15 for both days for those who will be attending

Vendor and movie room hours:

Friday 4-10pm

Saturday 11-7pm

http://www.grossfest.com

Sneak peek at a movie coming to Grossfest 2024!

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May 1, 2024 – Brad Sykes’ previously unreleased SOV horror movie DREAMS OF THE DEAD has been acquired for Blu-ray release.  Made in Virginia Beach, Virginia over the summer of 1994 by student filmmakers including Brett Edenton (THE PACT), DREAMS OF THE DEAD is a gripping supernatural horror film which combines Eurohorror imagery with Tales from the Darkside-style atmosphere.

Sykes, whose many horror credits include CAMP BLOOD, DEATH FACTORY and PLAGUERS, did not initially seek release for DREAMS OF THE DEAD back in 1994, screening it only for friends and family. 

30 years later, DREAMS OF THE DEAD is ready to be unleashed, with a new music score by composer David Zuzelo and a new sound mix and titles by filmmaker Anthony Catanese.  The result is an improved viewing experience that still retains the look and feel of the film’s gritty analog origins.

DREAMS OF THE DEAD will be released on VHS by Nightfall Pictures in Fall 2024 with a special edition Blu-ray to follow in 2025.  Local screenings are planned throughout the US this year so indie horror fans can experience this one-of-a-kind horror film for the first time ever.

DREAMS OF THE DEAD Synopsis

Creatively blocked and recovering from a bad breakup, writer Adrian Hallow becomes obsessed with a series of letters he receives in the mail.  Addressed to the previous occupant, who disappeared under strange circumstances, all the letters are written by a serial killer known as ‘K’.  At the same time, a mysterious woman appears to Adrian in a series of disturbing dreams, beckoning him to save her.  Adrian’s reality unravels as he begins a quest to find the truth behind the woman and her strange connection to K.  Will Adrian rescue her in time, or simply become K’s next victim? 

DREAMS OF THE DEAD credit block

NIGHTFALL PICTURES presents

a BRAD SYKES film

“DREAMS OF THE DEAD”

BRETT EDENTON – DAWN SOLERI – JOHN LIPFERT – KERSTIN GENNERT

and BUTCH EDENTON as ‘K’

Special Makeup Effects by BRETT EDENTON

Photographed and Edited by BRAD SYKES

Post Production Supervisor ANTHONY CATANESE

Music by DAVID ZUZELO

Co-Producer ANTHONY CATANESE

Executive Producers BRAD SYKES- JOSEPHINA SYKES

Written, Produced and Directed by BRAD SYKES

Nightfall Pictures

https://nightfallpictures.wixsite.com/mysite

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nightfall-Pictures/280551435317248

https://www.instagram.com/nightfallpix/

Hi-Fear – On DVD & streaming – July 11th!

https://www.facebook.com/HiFearmovie

Hi-Death

https://www.facebook.com/hideathmovie

Hi-8

https://www.facebook.com/Hi8HorrorIndependent8

www.plaguers.com

Grossfest 2024 is coming!

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August 2nd and 3rd, 2024, Grossfest 2024

If you have any questions please email us at grossfest@gmail.com

So spread the word we are two days this year. Tell your friends, relatives, scream it from the rooftops; share it on all yinz social medias n’at as we want this to be the biggest Grossfest yet?!

Comfort Inn Conference Center

699 Rodi Road, Pittsburgh, PA, 15235

Need to reserve a room: Hotel link to reserve a room for Grossfest 2024! https://www.choicehotels.com/reservations/groups/ET81E2

Tickets: $10 at the door for one day, $15 for both days for those who will be attending

Vendor and movie room hours:

Friday 4-10pm

Saturday 11-7pm

Guest list (in case yinz forgot and of course subject to change)

Sean Donohue

Sushii Xhyvette Holder

Roni Jonah and Jason Crowe

Kelsey Livengood

Matt Cannon… also appearing with Matt is Victor Butler who was the detective in Hexercise. 

Jorge Delarosa

Nathan Rumler

Rebecca Rinehart

Special guests

Dave Castiglione

Steve Rudzinski

Jennifer Nangle

Also let’s not forget ultra-talented, super horror movie fan, tattoo artist Angel O’Connor who will be doing tattoos at Grossfest both days!

(Movie room schedule is coming together and hopefully have it posted Fourth of July weekend)

Gross Movie Reviews #638

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Crocodile Swarm (DVD) – A group of thrill seekers head into an abandoned cave system to explore. But unknowingly they have disturbed a group of crocodiles using it for a nesting spot. Now some rescuers have come to help but there is good chance they will suffer the same fate as the crocs are pissed and sound like a herd of cats fighting at times. It is the usual corny killer animal fun that I will give 2 stars too.

Monster Grizzly (DVD) – A small snowy town where fracking has taken over as the residents are about to know the consequences of fracking as a pissed off grizzly has decided it has had enough! This grizzly is different, the grizzly is not killing for food, and it is literally slaughtering residents because it’s pissed.  Lots of time is wasted in the movie as cops search the mountains for the grizzly even with bloody messes to find everywhere but still can’t find it. Started off fun but gradually has a terrible dull finish as I give this flick 1 ½ stars.

Late Checkout (DVD) – Indy filmmaker Josh Graves goes and gives independent movie fans a slasher film which involves a group of friends renting a cabin for a weekend to hang out again. Doesn’t take long for the drama between the young friends to start as it distracts them from a welder’s mask killer showing up to slaughter them one by one? I felt like the movie has a tacked on ending but I would say this film comes off as a cautionary tale for the young people to not Air BnB the cabin you are going too in the woods. The ending may have felt forced but Josh made sure to give fans a straight up old school slasher as I give the flick 2 ½ stars.

Screature of the Lagoon (DVD) – A terribly conceived independent film that has locals screaming about a possible creature or something escaping a top secret military facility into the Canadian woods. Some so-called mercs are hired to track down the creature and possibly capture it? Think bootleg “Robowar” but without the fun corny vibe to it that you knew it was a clear “Predator” rip-off as give this 1 star.

The Last Amityville Movie (Tubi) – For those of you still counting with me this is entry #59 into the long running franchise. This entry is from Josh Spiegel who plays himself in the film and considered a content creator and belongs to a horror online group that just covered the last Amityville film “Amityville Zoo”. Another pandemic comes down the pike affecting the world including trapping Josh’s wife and child in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pa. Unemployed and a bored Josh begins to document everything online for his content during this new pandemic. One day Josh receives at his door a mysterious package from Amityville and it’s a doorknob? He makes fun of it online but immediately strange things begin to happen to him in his home. As things get weird he commits to filming everything until he can figure things out. Josh even has contact with a professor who explains that the doorknob is a cursed object from the original dwelling. Now Josh who recently bashed the Amityville series online and after some advice from a filmmaker of several entries has decided to turn this footage into a movie to hopefully be rid of the curse of Amityville. There are a lot of hilarious moments with Josh working in the absurdness of this series including “Amityville Vibrator”! Josh is all about breaking the curse including being chased by a bootleg CHUD in an alternate Amityville world?! I quite enjoyed this piece of entertaining cinema as Mr. Spiegel like Steve Rudzinski’s “Amityville Christmas Vacation” understood from the beginning to not take it too seriously. But just like Nathan Rumler’s “Amityville Vibrator” and the just mentioned Rudzinski project use your mind to put a great twist on the series that viewers will actually enjoy watching instead of moaning halfway through they are watching another shitty entry! Spiegel’s entry is well-crafted and a fun watch for all who have put themselves through watching so many of these Amityville movies as I give it 3 ½ stars.  

Any comments please send to grossmoviereview@verizon.net or www.facebook.com/grossmoviereviews .

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!

New guests added to Grossfest 2024!

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Grossfest got some excellent news this week from Jessa Flux about her fulfilling her dream! We support this and already have it in the works of working to bring her in for Grossfest 2025? So of course we always have a list of great independent people to bring in so let’s waste no time greeting and introducing our next two guests for Grossfest 2024 as they are super talented and sure yinz will love them:

Roni Jonah started her career as a professional wrestler, managing Mike “The Miz” Mizanin. From there, she became a staple on the indie film scene, appearing in nearly 80 films. Including fan favorites Shark Exorcist 1 and 2, Thrust, Deadly Dealings and The Wicked Ones among others. Definitely keep a look out for Roni starring alongside Erin Brown (aka Misty Mundae) in the upcoming Scream Dream.

Jason Crowe, a Kentucky native started his film career with a bang, landing the lead role in the now cult classic zombie film, “Dead Moon Rising.” Since then, Jason, a “fearless” actor known for immersing himself within a character, won best actor for his honest portrayal of Josh in Harvest Lake, and has continued on in films such as The Bad Man, Space Babes from Outer Space, The Wicked Ones and Hooker with a Hacksaw.

Friday and Saturday August 2 and 3rd, 2024

Comfort Inn Conference Center

699 Rodi Road, Pittsburgh, PA, 15235

Need to reserve a room: Hotel link to reserve a room for Grossfest 2024! https://www.choicehotels.com/reservations/groups/ET81E2

Tickets: $10 at the door for one day, $15 for both days for those who will be attending

Vendor and movie room hours:

Friday 4-10pm

Saturday 11-7pm