The Fog (1980)

The Fog is the 7th John Carpenter film that i've seen and it certainly won't be the last as i've yet to see a bad film from Carpenter and he even made one of my favorite movies (Escape From New York).

The Centenary of the small sea town, Antonio Bay, is approaching. While the townsfolk prepare to celebrate, the victims of the crime that founded the town rise from the sea to claim retribution. Under cover of the fog, they carry out their vicious attacks, searching for what is rightly theirs.

Once again the usual Carpenter features in The Fog. Adrienne Barbeau (Escape From New York), Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween), Tom Atkins (Escape From New York), Charles Cyphers (Halloween), Darwin Joston (Assault on Precinct 13) and I even thought that I saw Donald Pleasence as the ghost-storyteller but it turned out that it wasn't him after all. They all do well (although never great) and the best probably was Adrienne Barbeau. Another notable thing is that Jamie Lee Curtis for once isn't the good virgin but this time is a somewhat wilder hitchhiker. She even fucks the first guy who picks her up although he could have been her dad or even her grandad.

The film's plot actually is a simple ghost story and i'm quite surprised that Disney haven't made some kind of attraction just like they did with for example Pirates of the Caribbean. The fog moving above the water and landscape creates brings some very decent atmosphere (Along with the great soundtrack of Carpenter). And that's not the only thing the fog brings... In the fog there are dozens of zombies/ghosts who bring some really good tension. The ghost are mainly shown only mysteriously and are never shown full-screen and that's part of the power of the movie. They stay mysterious and that way are pretty scary.

The Fog surely isn't Carpenters best but still is a very cool atmospheric movie with some great tension. You gotta love Carpenter!

The Dead Next Door (1989)

I've seen this movie three times by now and it's still as enjoyable as it was the first time.

The government sets up a Zombie squad after an epidemic has made the world run rampant with living corpses. Raimi, Mercer, Kuller, and others head off to Ohio to try and find a cure to the epidemic but soon run into a crazy cult of zombie lovers who are set on preserving the zombies and letting a new world be born because they believe that it's God's will. When Mercer gets infected with the zombie virus, Raimi and the others must work quickly to find a cure and avoid the cult.

The Dead Next Door is made by some students, a group of hard working friends, and it shows. You can basically see on every single detail that this movie was not made by people who had any or much experience in movie making. Though it's mainly the enthusiasm that they put in it, which shows in the movie, that makes The Dead Next Door this much fun.

The acting is hilariously bad and more than once provides a smile on your face. Especially Bogdan Pecic as Doctor Moulsson is embarrassingly bad but at the same time very funny to watch. It's a bit of a bummer that the sound was very bad. This way the dialogs (although they don't mean much in a movie like this) sound kinda dumb and it also make gunshots sound like huge farts.

The Dead Next Door biggest plus is absolutely the gore which never looks realistic but does look pretty cheesy. Think of heads being cut off who continue to bite for flesh and bodies without heads who are still moving and more of those kinda cool things. I didn't like the whole religious cult part though as I felt it didn't fit the movie.

The Dead Next Door is an ambitious little film made by guys who had the best time of their lives making it and that shows in the movie. Don't take the movie serious as it doesn't want to be taken serious. Just enjoy this pure cheesyness.!

Road Train (2010)

The pretty explicit sexscene in the beginning of the movie probably was the best thing of the whole movie as the rest of the movie is just some boring shit.

The teenagers Marcus, Liz, Craig and Nina are camping in the remote outback of Australia. While driving on the road, a road train crashes on their car that leaves the road in a serious accident. The quartet survives and Craig breaks his arm, but their car is totally wrecked. However they see the train truck parked on road and Marcus and Liz walk to the vehicle to ask for help. They do not find the driver and soon Craig and Nina arrive. When they see the driver shooting at them, they decide to carjack the road train. Soon they begin to act strange possessed by some evil force.

Quickly 4 youngsters are bumped of the road by a Road Train (That's wat Australians call a huge truck) and from that moment on the youngsters see this as an opportunity to do some of the dumbest things possible. They decide to take the truck as the driver is nowhere to be found. More and more it seems like they are being possessed by the truck one by one. Though I don't know if that was wat I meant to think as the story is verry confusing and nothing that happens really gets explained. Even when some of the characters start to act like they're some kind of Charles Manson maniac it doesn't really get clear why this is happening leaving you with a ton of questions (although you don't really give a shit about the answer.

The acting isn't all that bad but it's mainly the shitty script and the fact that the personality of characters are stupid that you don't give a rats ass whether they die or live. The movie also takes place on the same spot to much. This way it gets kinda boring (especially because the things that are going on are not interesting at all). 

One of the little good things about Road Train is the cool setting in the beautiful landscape of Australia and visually the film itself looks pretty decent.

Don't get yourself fooled by the cool poster of even by the trailer which might seem like it's a Duel (1971) kinda movie. This is some ''huge truck going supernatural'' bullshit which leaves you with a lot of questions after you're done watching as the film itself makes no sense at all.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Even after watching it for the second time The Hills Have Eyes still is a great watch for you'all horror fans.

A family going to California accidentally goes through an Air Testing range closed to the public. They crash and are stranded in a desert. They are being stalked by a group of people, which have not emerged into modern times.

The base of the story of The Hills Have Eyes has become very standard as the years have flown by. A family drives through some deserted land, the car crashes and the family is stuck in the middle of nowhere and as it turns out some group of primitive cannibal killers had already nested themselves and are not willing to share the spot with some hysterical teenagers which mom and dad can't control. 

The Hills Have Eyes does remind me a lot of Tobe Hoopers classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre but misses certain things that Hoopers brilliant horror classic did have. The typical 70's grainy horror atmosphere is great and fits in great with the bizarre sound effects/music and the sultry/deserted landscape. In the beginning The Hills Have Eyes manages to create some decent tension as scene's where you look though the killer's eyes who's watching the stranded family and is communicating with his fellow cannibals are in pretty tensive and atmospheric. 

Unfortunately these kind of scene's are not so tensive and atmospheric when the cannibals are showed full-screen as they are just some feral dudes who run around in bear skin and act like they have down syndrome (no offence). Though I have to be honest, Michael Berryman (Yeah, the bald weirdo that you probably know from the other gazillion low-budget horror movies he's been in) and Lance Gordon (Yeah, the dude with the huge hairdo and his crooks mug who has never achieved more in his career other than movie like ''Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 Women) do look and act pretty creepy. On other hand though there are members like mother cannibal. A fat chick who also walks around in bear skin and has a headband with teeth (or were shells??) and  kinda looks like Bertha, the laundress of Charlie and Alan in Two and a Half Men.

The kills are never showed full-screen and also don't have the impact that for example the kills in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (also without gore) did have. 

Though what the movie does have is a lovely 70's horror atmosphere, great popcorn cheesyness and a killing Michael Berryman on the loose! Must watch!

Movie Kill of the Week: Episode 4 ''Zombi 2 (1979)''

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I will post the Movie Kill of the Week videos on this site every week as well.

Movie Kill of the Week: Episode 3 ''Dawn of the Dead (1978)''

Check out my youtube channel for more videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/itagorehorror/videos?flow=grid&view=0

I will post the Movie Kill of the Week videos on this site every week as well.

Haute Tension (A.K.A Switchblade Romance) (2003)

Alexandre Aja probably is a familiar name to many of you due to his remake of The Hills Have Eyes his pulp flick Piranha en the more serious Mirrors. Though if you really want to see the best this guy has made so far i'd recommend the French ''Haute Tension''.

Alexia travels with her friend Marie to spend a couple of days with her family in their farm in the country. They arrive late and they are welcomed by Alexia's father. Late in the night, a sadistic and sick killer breaks into the farmhouse, slaughters Alexia's family--including their dog--and kidnaps Alexia. Marie hides from the criminal and tries to help the hysterical and frightened Alexia, chase the maniac, and disclose his identity in the end.

The film had just began as I realised i already had a lot of sympathy for this film. The bright collors during the drive through the countryside of France (although IMDB says it's shot in Romania) look like you're watching something from the seventees which I love in movies.

Haute Tension has a continually tension that gets mostly created by something simple like a ringing doorbell in the middle of the night. The lovely morbid soundeffects thoughout the film work really well aswell. 

The badguy is also woth mentioning. It quickly gets clear that this guy has a pretty sick mind (unless getting your dick sucked by a decapitated head is normal in France). His sick head and eyes lurring under his hat and his imposing posture in his blood smeared work suit make it tough to like this guy (like a killer should be: dirty, gross, creepy and sick). 

The havoc that he leaves behind is even a little bit scarier. There are tons of great kills that are done by special effects artis Giannetto De Rossi who is Italian (which other nationality can make such amazing, bloody and realistic effects...?). Though Alexandre Aja should get a lot of credit to. He often manages to create a great atmosphere that reminds me of the 70's and 80's horror flicks and he even throws some giallo influences in the mix which turn out great aswell. Visually Aja does great to. The camerawork and coloring are often very, very good and create some very nice images. 

The ending is incredibly surprising and while it might take away a little bit of the film the second time you watch it it still is an amazing and clever final to a great movie.

Karl the Butcher vs Axe (2010)

This is only the second film, after Unrated: The Movie, that i've seen from Timo Rose and Andreas Schnaas. And again it's very amateuristic basing on the paper mache mask of Karl the Butcher, the bad visual and audio quality, the poor script and the even poorer acting.

2023 and Karl The Butcher Jr Returns from hell after 25 years, and is on a mission to kill a new butcher, Axe. But the world he returns to is in devastation, civilization is split between gangs, including the Gang loco, The Others, the tyrant Queen Scara, The Black Monks, and of course, the nomads Axe and his sister Vendetta whose family history is unknown. An ultra-violent journey in a wasteland awaits...

In the beginning i thought it was gonna be the same kind of thing as Freddy vs. Jason. Two horror-legends fighting each other. Oh, well.... Horror-legends?... Karl the Butcher only featured in the 3 earlier Violent Shit films and Axe makes his debut in the film. But later it turns out that they're not going to fight each other but the two of them are gonna fight the other scum in the world. Whatever... Both of them don't look very frightning. Karl the Butcher mainly just walks around in the woods like 1 of the 7 dwarfs. For some way he kinda reminded me of the gorilla with the diving helmet from Robot Monster. Axe looks a bit more brutal though.

I know that the Violent Shit movies are made for the gore. That's why I decided to watch this movie. But I have to say that I was a little bit disappointed by the gore. The film focuses to much on the stupid plot about some groups/gangs fighting with each other in a post-apocalyptic world. That leaves us with to much bad actors and script writing and to little of Karl and Axe slicing and dicing. Luckily the gore picks up at the end battle of the film which lasts like 20 minutes or so.

Karl the Butcher vs Axe is everything but a good movie. Still Karl and Axe are entertaining enough to keep me focused throughout the movie.

Movie Kill of the Week: Episode 2 ''Undead (2003)''

Check out my youtube channel for more videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/itagorehorror/videos?flow=grid&view=0

I will post the Movie Kill of the Week videos on this site every week as well.