The Bloodstained Butterfly (1971) aka Una Farfalla Con Le Ali Insanguinate

2 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Duccio Tessari
Written by: Gianfranco Clerici, Duccio Tessari
Actors include: Helmut Berger, Giancarlo Sbragia, Ida Galli
Genre: Horror, Giallo, Mystery, Thriller
Length: 105 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
I was surprised how little I liked this, it literally put my Husband and I to sleep three times (so maybe our judgement is effected by the fact that we watched it in 3 pieces over 2 days). Still it was the dullest giallo I've ever seen, all technical chatter about the solving of crimes and then a trial that was excruciating to sit through. The subs on this were extremely small so I felt like I'd read a novel by the end and usually I don't even notice subs. The film also seemed to skip out on the gratuity of other gialli and the colors and humor and violence...all not there. The actors were fine, it was nicely filmed and the scenery was lovely...that is the only good I can think of here. The story is about a girl who turns up murdered, then they go through the nonsense to find who they think is the killer. Then we watch the court trial. Then the story picks up slightly afterwards but it's too little too late by that point. I know this is a well regarded film amongst fans of giallo so you probably don't want to take my opinion on this one.

Availability:  On DVD

Mr. Vampire (1985) aka Geung si sin sang

4 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Ricky Lau
Written by: Ricky Lau, Cheuk-Hon Szeto
Actors include: Ching-Ying Lam, Ricky Lau, Siu-hou Chin
Genre: Action, Comedy, Horror
Length: 97 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Although I'm not sure this made a lick of sense were you to pull it apart it's not meant to be. It's purely entertaining absurd comedy with some kung fu action and a touch of horror thrown in. So I don't understand the why on most of this stuff but let's see if I can kind of give a plot synopsis. There is a Master, and two bumbling trainees, also an army of zombies who hop like bunnies (my favorite part) but are kept docile by putting spells on them. In fact spells (made from voodoo paper, and chicken's blood and sticky rice) seem to tame most things when they are in danger. There are also vampires, on of the assistants is bitten by a zombie and tries to stave off zombie effects by dancing around like a fool, and by filing his teeth and nails. The other assistant is possessed by some attractive ghost who throws her own head around. The lessons I learned from this film are that people in Hong Kong are very superstitious, you can't mix sticky rice with other rice, and that more zombies should bounce like bunnies, it's hilarious! It's well paced, action packed and full of laughs, definitely a winner for those of us looking for something rather strange but also very fun.  Also it's worth noting that there are several other entries into the Mr. Vampire series, but this is the first.

Availability:  On DVD

Dead End (2003)

3.5 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Read the signs.
Directed by: Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa
Written by: Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa
Actors include: Ray Wise, Lin Shay, Alexandra Holden
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 85 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Although I thought this was relatively enjoyable there were some extremely cheesy things that kept this from being great. The story is about a family driving out on Christmas Eve to go to a relative's house. The father decides to take a short cut which lands them in a world of trouble. They end up on a extremely long road, all signs of life have disappeared except for a ghost (badly acted by model Amber Smith) who appears every time they have to stop the car. It's kind of a hybrid of a Stephen King novel and Identity in a way, sort of the mystery of what the heck is going on (though it's obvious). It's definitely a situational horror thing and it's quite effective on that level, there is some gore and even a tiny bit of comedy (I love Mom's drawing) packed in there. It's not the most amazing film one is likely to come across, but the family is well acted and somewhat believable and the what if factor is what really makes it work.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray

Shutter Island (2010)

4 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Someone is missing.
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Laeta Kalogridis, Dennis Lehane
Actors include: Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Leonardo DiCaprio
Genre: Thriller
Length: 138 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Many people seem to have been recommending this to me at work lately, that or complaining about how confusing it. I figured I need to find out which side I'm on, I liked it. I thought it was rather easy to follow and rather well made (despite the fact that the digital clearness of the picture sort of detracted from it somehow...it should have been foggier or something). The story is hard to describe without giving things away, but it takes place with Leonardo and his partner going into an island asylum called Shutter Island. The inmates are divided up into separate wards, A+B for the regular nutters and then C is for the extreme cases. Leonardo (with a bad Bostonian accent) and pal are investigating a missing persons case, a woman named Rachel vanished from her cell. It takes a bunch of twists and turns along the way and yes it is somewhat predictable but they at least tried and threw a few surprises in I thought. It did to a good job of creating atmosphere, particularly in C ward, the mental patients are rather creepy too but that is to be expected of course. My only real complaint is that they could have made it a bit more satisfying, but I'm not necessarily disappointed either. Still a rather gripping mystery that I think most should enjoy providing you go in with an open mind.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray

Case 39 (2009)

1.5 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Some cases should never be opened.
Directed by: Christian Alvart
Written by: Ray Wright
Actors include: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 109 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Yikes, well there aren't too many nice things to start out with here, I made it to the end of the movie and it had a budget. There, I'm done. The story revolves around child abuse case worker Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger looking rather shoddy) who is overworked, and then her boss dumps Case 39 on her. It involves a little girl who won't eat and looks gaunt and terribly abused. Emily is concerned enough that she gives the little girl her cell phone number, so when she receives a desperate call for help from the girl she rushes to her aid and saves her. Then the little girl convinces her that she should stay at Emily's until she has a new family found for her. While I won't tell you what the rest is about I will tell you that immediately it's obvious what is going on so if they are trying to play "mystery" it's a huge failure. It also fails entirely to scare in any possible way, it fails on a psychological level, heck it fails all around in big ways. At least it was laughably stupid so I got a slight bit of entertainment out of how cliche it was, but I can't find much of anything to recommend here.

Availability:  On Blu-Ray & DVD

Massacre In Dinosaur Valley (1985) aka Stranded In Dinosaur Valley aka Nudo E Selvaggio

2.5 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Michele Massimo Tarantini
Written by: Michele Massimo Tarantini
Actors include: Michael Sopkiw, Suzane Carvalho, Milton Rodríguez
Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror
Length: 88 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Extremely lackluster and halfassed "cannibal" movie (though there is very little cannibalism. There is however a ton of nudity if that is your thing you might enjoy this? A fellow who acts much like McGuyver wants to go to Dinosaur Valley (which is dangerous what with the cannibals and man eating fish etc) so he manages to catch a plane ride with some models. When the plane crashes down off course they must struggle for survival despite clashing personalities and everything attacking them. They did try a little with blood near the beginning but it became clear that it was nothing more than a jungle porn really as it raged on. It's cheesy but not enough to really be funny, so it is probably one of the least entertaining of it's kind, yet I was still able to sit through it. At least the scenery is nice right? Oh well, another failure but for super big fans of this sort of thing it might be worth a gander.

Availability:  On DVD

Orphan (2009)

3.5 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Can you keep a secret?
Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Written by: David Johnson
Actors include: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Length: 123 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well, having just seen the wretched film Case 39, I was expecting this to be basically the exact same idea. It was, however this one is far superior, it's not as predictable (though it's not exactly surprising) and they actually bothered to explain what was happening which I appreciated. At any rate, a couple who have a deaf little girl and a little boy are having a hard time after a stillborn comes there way. They decide to adopt, so they go to an Orphanage and find Esther, a particularly unusual and bright 9 year old girl sitting off by herself. They fall for her and take her home and adopt her, and at first everything seems perfect. From there it basically goes into a retread of The Bad Seed only there is something different about this tale. It's not the most horrific film ever, in fact yes it's more of a thriller but I have to give it credit, it's over 2 hours long but it held my attention. That being said, in no way did it need to be that long but just the same probably worth a viewing on a rainy day.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray