John’s Horror Corner: Black Sheep (2006), a goretastic New Zealand horror-comedy about killer sheep.
MY CALL: A horror comedy about mutant flesh-eating sheep? Sign me up! Fun, gory and delightfully funny with great practical gore and special effects, this is one every gorehound needs to see. MORE MOVIES LIKE Black Sheep: For more kitschy New Zealand horror comedies try Dead-Alive (1992), Bad Taste (1987), Housebound (2014), Deathgasm (2015) and What We Do in the Shadows (2015). And for yet more gory yet quirky creature features, go for Isolation (2005), Splinter (2008), Blood Glacier (2013), Zombeavers (2014) or Boar (2017).
After some agricultural experiments in genetic engineering go horribly wrong, a flock of sheep mutate into erratic flesh-eating monsters. For the most part, that’s all you should need to know in order to decide if this gory horror-comedy is for you. The humor is every bit as overt as Shaun of the Dead (2004), and a step in the direction of slapstick. However, it wanders nowhere near the extremity of Dead-Alive (1992).
For more HORROR COMEDIES: For more horror comedies try Critters (1986) and sequels, Brain Damage (1988), Blood Diner (1987), Frankenhooker (1990), Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh (1991), Leprechaun (1993) and sequels, Head of the Family (1996), American Psycho (2000), Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hazing (2004), Dead Snow (2009), Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009), Chaw (2009), Piranha 3D (2010), Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010), Final Destination 5 (2011), Chillerama (2011), Piranha 3DD (2012), Grabbers (2012), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Bad Milo (2013), Warm Bodies (2013), The Editor (2014), Burying the Ex (2014), Housebound (2014), Zombeavers (2014), The Voices (2014), Dead Snow 2 (2014), The Voices (2014), Smothered (2014), What We Do in the Shadows (2014), Cooties (2015), Deathgasm (2015), Bloodsucking Bastards (2015), Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015), He Never Died (2015), Ava’s Possessions (2015), The Final Girls (2015), Krampus (2015), Love in the Time of Monsters (2015), The Greasy Strangler (2016), Better Watch Out (2016), Mayhem (2017), Happy Death Day (2017), The Babysitter (2017) and Satanic Panic (2019).
The catalyst for our story comes when a militant vegetarian sabotages a scientist’s work by stealing a lamb fetus in what appears to be a cannister of Ninja Turtle ooze. A laughably slimy rubber monster of a mutant lamb fetus escapes from this incubator, bites the vegetarian animal rights activist, and wanders to a grazing flock of sheep with its umbilical cord in tow. Once infected by this genetically modified mutant fetus, the rest of the flock become ferocious flesh-eating sheep. And when these infected sheep attack, it’s pretty fun to watch!
Meanwhile, the activist’s infected bite manifests much like slowly turning into a zombie. Only the outcome is the slow transformation into a massive weresheep! Like in District 9 (2009), this transformation boasts various transitional phases between human and weresheep form. Those bitten slowly develop hooved feet, horizontal pupiled-eyes, and hulking sheepitaur bodies. I enjoyed the monstrous creature effects, which were all practical.
The gore is very “tearing stretchy latex flesh” in style, and there’s much wound work and blood and guts to be enjoyed. Especially when the protagonists fall into the offal pit! Also watch out for the blood-spraying plane propeller death scene, the stretchy penis bite, and loads of lacerated wound work and dismemberment.
His first feature film, writer and director Jonathan King brought us a cult classic horror comedy that I just love! How has this man not gone on to make 80 more similarly awesome, gory, hilarious films? Delightfully funny with great gore and special effects, this is one every gorehound needs to see.
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The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about the Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers, Showgirls) directed Hollow Man. Released in 2000, this horror-thriller tells the story of what happens when an egomaniac scientist is stuck in an invisible form (Hint – he gets super creepy and gross). In this episode, Mark and David Cross (of the Award Wieners Movies Review Podcast) discuss, Nu-metal, The greatness of Kevin Bacon, and Elisabeth “Action Hero” Shue. Enjoy
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #254: Swimfan, Sushi and Soggy Sagas
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The Soggy Saga continues! Jay Cluitt (Life vs. Film) came back to help us talk about the thriller Swimfan. So far, we’ve talked about the waterlogged Piranha 3D, Lake Placid and Anaconda, so, it felt like a logical move to talk about a movie that features lots of swimming, death and nu-metal. Released in 2002, Swimfan tells the story of a woman stalking a high school swimmer after they have a casual fling in a swimming pool (it’s weird). In this episode, we discuss sushi eating, Detroit Rock City, and ponder if the stalker really is a fan of swimming.
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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John’s Horror Corner: Isolation (2005), an Irish farmhouse horror about monster cow fetuses and a genetic experiment-gone-wrong.
MY CALL: This is a really great gore-slathered creature feature which, above all, is even written and directed and acted impressively as well. Strongly recommended to fans of gory creature features. MORE MOVIES LIKE Isolation: For more Irish horror movies check out Leprechaun Origins (2014), Leprechaun 2 (1994), Leprechaun (1993), Rawhead Rex (1986), Grabbers (2012), Cherry Tree (2015), Holidays (2016; St. Patrick’s Day segment), The Hallow (2015) and Hole in the Ground (2019). And for more remote mutating monster movies, go for Black Sheep (2006), Splinter (2008), Blood Glacier (2013), Harbinger Down (2015) and Life (2017).
I don’t know how many films have ever produced major scenes out of animal husbandry, but this movie begins with over 20 minutes dedicated to the rather graphic obstetric treatment (of a cow) and subsequent birth scene (of a calf). And dare I say, it was kind of intense watching our farmer (John Lynch; Black Death, Hardware) and veterinarian (Essie Davis; The Babadook) at work. There are liquid sloshing drippy sounds and birthing goop and an afterbirth-slick calf. The farmer actually gets his hand gorily mangled in the process (I won’t say how, you’ll have to watch). And right after all this, we roll into a moderately intense scene with the newborn calf and mother cow, and then a rather disgusting “post-partem” examination. This movie is off to a bold start! LOL
Reminiscent of a gore-slathered chestburster (Alien), slimy squirming mutant fetuses dissected from the mother cow’s body during an autopsy prove to be more viable than the veterinarian had estimated. Two nearby mobile-home squatters Jamie (Sean Harris; Deliver Us from Evil, Prometheus) and Mary (Ruth Negga; Preacher, World War Z) get pulled into the plot as early as the birth of the inordinately large calf, a product of large offspring syndrome, a genetic abnormality caused by a genetic experiment led by a shady scientist (Marcel Iures; The Cave) to produce beef and dairy more efficiently. And there’s the ‘farm macabre’ basis for your horror movie!
Conceptually, this wanders deep into the territory of The Thing (1982) with sociological fears of ‘the other’, infectious potential, the need to prevent its spread to civilization and gloppety-gook mutant gore. I was quite pleased with the creature effects and chunky blood’n’guts quality. We see the creature in numerous scenes and in different aspects and life stages as it scampers around the farm and matures a la Alien (1979).
Writer and director Billy O’Brien (The Hybrid, I Am Not a Serial Killer) delivers engaging pacing, decent photography and a solid cast. The writing is smooth and things stay interesting and tense throughout this dark and very messy, deliciously gross gorefest. Without a dull moment, this makes for an excellent popcorn fright night flick.
This movie is actually pretty good! Not only that, it’s quite credibly delivered (given its premise), which isn’t to be expected of a film with such abundant monster and gore scenes. Whether you enjoy jumpy creature features or gore-oozing flicks, this comes highly recommended!
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John’s Horror Corner: Blue Sunshine (1977), a weird drug-induced oddity of 70s cinema.
MY CALL: Don’t see this because it’s good—it’s not. But it is an intriguing horror oddity of the 70s and that alone makes it worth one viewing for completists. MORE MOVIES LIKE Blue Sunshine: For more drug-induced horror, try Bliss (2019) or Climax (2018). Although those movies feel like you’re on drugs whereas Blue Sunshine is just about the effects of the drugs.
IMDB—”A bizarre series of murders begins in Los Angeles, where people start going bald and then become homicidal maniacs. But could the blame rest on a particularly dangerous form of LSD called Blue Sunshine the murderers took ten years before?”
Perhaps a trend of the decade (e.g., Shivers, The Crazies), people are becoming psychotic for no apparent reason. They become edgy, aggressive and flat out murderous. Other than their overt behavior, the only symptom seems to be inexplicable hair loss resulting in advanced clumpy baldness. And once that hair comes off, the afflicted behave somewhere between Frankenstein’s monster and a 28 Days Later (2002) rage zombie.
The cause of this homicidal mania is traced back to a bad batch of LSD a bunch of classmates took at Stanford ten years ago. And, for some reason, after ten years it makes you go made like something out of The Happening (2008) or The Signal (2007). As manic as that sounds, this movie plays out far more like a mystery-thriller than horror.
This film also really drags. The content is intriguing, but the pacing is soporific. When the occasional “action” scene comes along, it’s not very exciting, suspenseful or scary; nor is there any gore beyond some blood pooling beside a dead body. Writer and director Jeff Lieberman (Squirm, Satan’s Little Helper, Just Before Dawn) needed to inject more urgency into this thing.
Overall this was a pretty boring but kinda’ neat oddity of the 70s. It falls in league with The Visitor (1979), another such oddity that I neither recommend nor rave over yet was glad I saw it for the simple sake of doing so.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #253: Vertical Limit, Long Jumps and Bill Paxton
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The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about the mountain climbing sorta-classic Vertical Limit. Released in 2000, and directed by Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) this movie tells the tale of an insanely dangerous rescue mission on the K2 summit. It’s a fun film that features excellent location work, gigantic jumps, and a young Ben Mendelsohn. In this episode, we discuss mountain dew explosives, broken fingers and a very slimy Bill Paxton. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
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John’s Horror Corner: The House on Sorority Row (1982), another forgettable “classic” slasher movie without one good on-screen death scene.
MY CALL: Another “classic” not worthy of the term. Crappy death scenes, nearly goreless, yet surprisingly impressive overall production value. Go figure. MORE MOVIES LIKE The House on Sorority Row: For more sorority horror, try Black Christmas (1974), The Initiation (1984), Black Christmas (2006) and Happy Death Day (2017). However, I’d skip the remake Sorority Row (2009).
Excited to move on to the next step in their lives, high society sorority girls Katherine (Kate McNeil; Monkey Shines), Morgan, Diane (Harley Jane Kozak; Arachnophobia), Vicki (Eileen Davidson; The Last Sharknado), Liz, Jeanie and Stevie are planning their graduation party. But when their crotchety House mother Slater won’t allow the celebration, the girls take matters into their own hands with a good old-fashioned sorority prank. Only, no surprise, the prank is taken way too far and goes horribly wrong… killing Slater!
But the party must go on, right? So the girls hide Slater’s body and go about their celebrations only to be picked off one by one by a killer. But wait! Who could the killer be?
I must come clean. I didn’t expect much from this movie—I expected exploitative 80s slasher garbage (like Unhinged). Yet much to my surprise, the score, editing and production value all greatly exceed my expectations. Just in the first five minutes it’s quite evident how much care went into the filmmaking. That said, for all the care that went into this, very little such care is attended to the death scenes. The kills are incredibly basic and, with little exception, largely off-screen… making for a big disappointment in the horror department. Dare I contest a ‘classic’, but the third act revelation isn’t as exciting as you’d hope either.
Writer/director Mark Rosman (Mutant, The Invader) does what he can to garner some cheap thrills (i.e., nudity, sex scene) and create a great horror movie framework. But he doesn’t seem to be trying all that hard to elicit scares. Sigh.
Despite noticeable efforts, this movie failed in the most important component: the horror. It’s perfectly watchable, but not something I’d recommend. Moreover, I wouldn’t recommend the reimagining/remake Sorority Row (2009), which is thankfully better in terms of jump-scares and kills, but by comparison to its source material “better” doesn’t really signify much.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #252: Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Blood Explosions and Fried Chicken
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker. (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere)
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about the criminally underrated Dracula: Dead and Loving It. We love this Mel Brooks directed spoof, and think it deserves more recognition because it’s a loving and hilarious take on classics such as Dracula (1931), Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1958), and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). In this episode, we discuss fried chicken, blood explosions, shady shadows and hair wigs. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire is an excellent film full of heartbreaking moments, beautiful vistas and wonderful performances. I know I’m using a lot of adjectives here, however, I can’t help but heap praise onto this film. Directed by Celine Sciamma (Girlhood, Water lilies) Portrait of a Lady on Fire tells the story of a painter named Marianne (Noemie Merlant) being commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of a woman named Heloise (Adele Haenel) on a remote island in 1770 France. What follows is a story about love, loss and art.
The cinematography by Claire Mathon (Atlantics – which also looks great) is wonderful, and I love how she framed each shot like a painting. After watching the movie, I dove into research to see how she achieved the look of the film because I loved how unique it looked. Mathon used the Red Monstro 7K with Leica Thalia lenses to create her own “18th century (AKA 2018th century) look, which I love because it avoids the traps of a flat-looking period piece that relies on predictable production design and excessive color grading to give it an old fashioned look. Here is what she had to say to IndieWire about the look:
“The choice of shooting format was discussed at a very early stage. Tests combining a 35mm/Leica Summilux and a Red Monstro/Leica Thalia gave an analogue reference for the grading of the digital images and made us choose the Red Monstro for the personification and presence that emerged from the first faces filmed. Even though Celine Sciamma’s film relates to the memory of a love story that took place in the 18th century, we did not want to highlight this dimension but, on the contrary, invent our own 18th century (our 2018th century)” with a contemporary echo.”
“The precision and very rich colors give a pictorial dimension to the film. The rendering of the skin tones was essential in my work on this film full of faces and portraits. Inspired in particular by Corot’s intimate portraits, I sought both softness and a slightly satiny, unrealistic rendering while remaining natural and very vibrant.”
To showcase the excellent cinematography, here are some GIFs to give you an idea of the look of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
You should watch this movie on the biggest screen possible so you can be immersed in the story, look and vibe of the film. You will love it, and you won’t regret it!
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VFW: An Excellent Action-Thriller That Brings the Violent Goods
When I first heard about the Joe Begos (Bliss, Almost Human) directed VFW in 2019, I knew I had to watch it. I was sold on the idea of Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don’t Breathe), William Sadler (Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight), Fred Williamson (From Dusk Till Dawn), Martin Cove (The Karate Kid) and David Patrick Kelly (The Warriors) battling drug-addled “zombies” who storm their VFW to recover a backpack loaded with a drug called Hype. The movie didn’t disappoint, and I knew I loved it during the initial siege when various “Hypers” have their heads smooshed into oblivion (think a watermelon stuffed with lasagna and cherry syrup). VFW is a neon-drenched siege thriller that is refreshingly straight-forward and always entertaining.
The film takes place in a near-future that is overrun by drug addiction, poverty and violence. The drug “Hype” has turned users into “zombies” who are totally fine jumping off buildings (and exploding when they land) to get a fix. The drug trade is controlled by Boz (Travis Hammer), a leather-clad drug lord who is looking to keep up with the incredible demand (not a bad thing for a drug dealer). However, his latest shipment is stolen by a kid named Lizard (Sierra McCormick) and everything goes to a very bloody hell as he and his second-in-command Gutter (Dora Madison) send an army of “zombies” to recover the “face-liquefying” drugs inside a local VFW, which is filled with soldiers who are supposedly “good at dying.”
What follows is an excellent and refreshingly straight-forward siege thriller that features head-squishing violence, excellent cinematography by Mike Testin (the handheld camera work keeps you in the action), and a likable group of badass veterans beating people to death with baseball bats. Joe Begos follow up to Bliss (one of our favorite horror movies of 2019. Watch it on Shudder) is an excellent example of low-budget, big stakes film making that stretches it’s budget to the limit while never showing its limitations. It’s a legitimate throwback that looks grungy, feels grungy and is unapologetic about being grungy (this is a good thing). There is no gloss or shine, this is a dark and violent story of veterans engaging in one final war.
If you are looking for a straight-forward and ultra-violent siege thriller that has an excellent synth score, you will love VFW.
Movies, Films & Flix 