So, last night I was unable to sleep so I started watching my Video on Demand stuff. I love the Free Movies section put out by Fear.Net I mean yeah most of them are low budget, poorly acted stuff, but they also have a few original films. This one, however was not actually a film, but a serial that they had put out, I believe originally on the website only. Each episode is about 27 minutes long and is marketed as an interactive horror mystery. You cannot find much info on this show other than from the Fear.Net site, in fact the Fear.Net site is so hard to navigate I couldn’t find any background information on it.

Pretty much it is done like a web-blog of sorts. There is a group a friends from high school Pretty much 2 guys are the main focus, then there is another buddy, his older sister, and then a geeky kid who most of them pick on. The older sister and one of the girls are lovers, apparently, and the gals brother is behind the camera most of the time videotaping everything that is going on. Also using web cams and what not chronicling these kids lives. However one by one they disappear (all but the brother and sister and the geeky kid who had disappeared after an apparent botched suicide attempt) and they wake up, each of them are in a different type of box. One guy has a window in his box where his medication is along with a ton of dirt in which he is buried. If he tries to get at the medication the dirt will fall on him and kill him. Another gal is stuck in a box full of broken dolls. One is in cased in bubble wrap, one is in a box that is slowly pouring in sea water, and she is hooked up to one of the guys who has all of these loose electrical wires. They all have little web cams that are hooked up to view them, they are all wired for sound and have video screens so they can actually communicate with each other at certain times.

Now, granted I watched them all one right after the other and on the TV instead of my computer screen. Maybe it was more nerve wrenching and more of a psychological mystery had I watched an episode a week (there were only 6 episodes). During each episode you would get clues, and the brother and sister were trying to find his friends and figure out what was going on and where they were. During the time they were getting fed clues through the internet and text messages. But it was, at least to me, obvious who it was. The ending was meant to be a shocker, but all in all it wasn’t. At one point the two get the location of the 2 girls who were left, the one with the baby dolls (Sage, the girlfriend of the sister) and the one in the bubble wrap (who happens to be pregnant by the Geek kid Tommy’s biological brother)… however the clue read… if you go for Sage they both die, but if you go for the pregnant chick only Sage dies….and actually the sister took a good 15 minutes to decide to go after Sage….hence going to kill them both. Yay makes perfect sense!

Ok, so the characters were pretty canned, we had the jealous jackass boyfriend, wimpy girlfriend who is having an affair, slutty bisexual tease, gritty drug dealing pharmaceuticals student, jack-ass prankster, geeky kid with the “why don’t you guys like me” syndrome, annoying guy with a camera, dark sultry stranger who seduces wimpy chick, and big sis who feels she must know what is going on and solve the mystery instead of going to the police like any normal person would do, not ever realizing that she is relatively close to the killer the entire time.

All in all, watching the episodes back to back, pretty much ruined the aura they attempted to give it I think. On top of that, well the characterization sucked, even with the flash back clips you really don’t care much if any of these people live or die, we had no real understanding of the characters, had no real glimpses into who they were other than how they show off in front of a camera. It was all too staged. The clues they gave were way too obvious… especially the one with the kids name scrawled on the wall. So we know from our own personal deduction from watching revenge films that the geeky kid is some how being avenged for some reason. Is it the biological brother? Or is it his annoying friend with the camera who is sitting on the fence the whole time… either siding with the mean kids or hanging out with the geeky kid.

There was no creativity to the deaths, no real interesting understanding about the decor of the coffins… well other than the bubble wrap chick because she was being “protected”.

So, maybe had I watched this on the computer and watched each episode a week at a time instead of on the big TV all in one setting, maybe it would have been good….but I some how doubt it.

I give it 2 whiny teenagers out of 5

Demon Summer

A while back I posted a review for “The Red Skulls”, written, directed, produced, and staring Andrew and Lucas Campbell. Today I found I had another one of their films, “Demon Summer”. It was in a video 4 pack called Skinned Alive; seeing as how I got a kick out of “The Red Skulls” I thought I should check this one out as well. This film is earlier in the brother’s career so I knew I was digressing a bit and wasn’t expecting anything of high caliber.

As I watched the film I recognized a number of the key players that were in “Red Skulls”. Very much like when I watch a Christopher Guest movie and see the same people playing different roles, I was interested in seeing if the same held true for this group.

Eh… not really.

Ryan Maille who played the silent Romeo in Skulls, actually had lines in this one as “Kid”. Though his younger self was still a cutie, I think I liked his portrayal of Romeo better.

We have the same type of characters, really. Instead of gangs we have cliques of young people. We are treated with all the emotions of high school angst such as hormones and fights and wanting to be noticed. The writing was good, I will give them that much.

With that said, it is obviously a low budget film; they did a good job of working with what they had however many of the scenes were way too dark. The performers, just as with Skulls, were obviously not trained professionals. It came across as a lot of kids who got a hold of a camcorder and decided to make a movie. The performances were about high school play quality. But, like I said, they had to work with what they had.

Another issue I had was the whole age factor through out the movie. Now I understand that with no budget you will have a hard time finding actors, however an adult should somewhat look like an adult rather than the same age as the kids. The cop and Crazy Bob looked no older than the other actors in the movie. More than likely they were the same age; however it made the whole idea of them in these roles as laughable.

I will state again, I do look forward to seeing more of the Campbell brother’s films, I think they really do have a good future in film making if they could only get a decent budget and actual actors.

2 discussions on anal sex out of 5

Amateur Porn Star Killer

So, today I picked up one of the movies on the stack of films that
have been sent to us to review. Today’s film du-jour was “Amateur Porn
Star Killer” written directed and starring Shane Ryan. The movie which was filmed in entirety on a handheld video camera, is about a young man named Brandon who picks up a girl who claims to be 18 (played by the co-writer Michiko Jimenez ) who is waiting on a ride. He invites her back to his hotel room to make a movie, then after a very awkward
interview period, he rapes and kills her.

The main focus on the movie is in reality, the urban legend of the snuff film. The beginning of the movie we get a little background on the “myth” of the snuff film. There is still a lot of controversy over whether there is or is not such a thing. There has never been any actual movie that has been found to be genuine so at this time it is still just considered a myth. The ending of the movie gives us a little information on our killer; that he is still at large and that he apparently rented movies and then replaced them with his own films. Very much like “The Last Horror Film”.

Now from the get go we know what the movie is about. It says so right on the movie case; “This young girl will be humiliated, raped, murdered. And you will watch.” Unfortunately what it doesn’t tell you is that you get to enjoy the homemade movie of Mr. Ryan and his wife during the entirety of the film. Now don’t get me wrong, I have
nothing against a home video like that, however it had nothing at all to do with the movie. I mean if they made it out to look like it was the film that he taped over, that would make more sense but they didn’t do that. And then throughout the movie, you would see in the corner a window with them having sex, which was distracting, however it did give you something to focus on during the rather tedious parts
of the movie.

So we have the young girl who claims to be 18… Then she says no, she is 16… And then she says she is actually 13. And then we have Brandon, our host for the evening, who says he is 18. We see Brandon as a personable and fairly attractive young man, very much like Jeffrey Dahmer was said to be. Unfortunately, with the soft spoken lines and the rather boring build up to give it realism, which I am sure is the point, it also made me sit there looking at my watch and reaching for my DS. The rape didn’t seem like much of a rape to me, either. There was a showing of dominance, yes; she just sort of laid there like a rag doll and really gave us nothing to truly sympathize with. It just seemed overly choreographed and rather tedious. Where it is obvious that it was shot with a low quality camera, again adding to the realism of the film, the poor lighting, the odd angles and the shots of the floor and ceiling made the movie a bit annoying. I mean, I understand why it was filmed in this way but I would think that if this guy who we later understand has made the most wanted list in 10 states and has had over 81 films found, that he would at least know what he was doing giving us a better production.

With serial killers, they are usually very particular on how they do things. The drive is for a specific reason, not just the want to kill; there is something more to it. In video taping the kill he is showing that he wants to see his dominance, wants the world to see his dominance, but due to the poor filming and the fact that we didn’t really see it clearly, it makes it very difficult for me to view this guy as the serial rapist and killer that he is supposed to be seen as. In my mind he would have taken great care to have the camera set up properly to get the best view, he would have made sure that the lighting and the mood was just right so that we would be able to view his accomplishment. The fact that we were not given these things not only makes his kill worthless and meaningless, it doesn’t give us the whole impact of his mentality. In order to appreciate the depravity of his actions we must understand his madness. He video tapes it to let us see through his eyes; this movie, unfortunately, didn’t give me that.

The whole build up was a bit lack luster. Where it did give us the whole awkward feeling, as she sits there looking down at her hands not knowing what to say and acting all shy and coy, he really didn’t give us much of a reason to continue watching it. He is supposedly putting this movie out for us to see but he hasn’t given us a hook to keep us
watching. There was no real personality on either character’s part. The only really interesting character was the blond at the beginning of the movie. She at least gave us some personality.

2 penis shots out of 5

Insecticidal

Today I watched Fangoria’s “Insecticidal”. It is a 2005 sorority house
romp complete with busty blonde lesbians, shower scenes, lots of sex,
and really bad dialogue and strangely enough, all the girl’s names end
in “i”. Our heroin is of course the mousy and brainy girl who is
only in the sorority because her sister is one of the busty lesbians.
Our little Grissom-in-training is fascinated with the insect world and
has devoted her studies to the idea that at one point in time that
insects were larger and more aggressive before man walked the earth.

Unfortunately for young Cami (Meghan Heffern), a few of her
genetically enhanced bugs get loose and start roaming the halls.
Unfortunately they end up in one of the girl’s bed rooms; a snobby
princess wannabe with a role playing fetish named Josi. Josi and her
Fabio-haired boyfriend Mitch (Travis Watters) decide enough is enough
and take a can of bug spray to Cami’s little project. Unfortunately,
due to the fact that the critters were genetically enhanced, the bug
spray has a different effect. So instead of heading to the garbage
heap in the sky these bugs grow to enormous sizes and begin attacking
the girls and the party guests at the sorority house.

Now, this movie is fun to watch and I feel would make a great drinking
game movie. It is full of clichéd characters and obvious story lines.
The bug animation is done ok; they aren’t too cartoony but
definitely not realistic looking. Though you know it is super-imposed
in the shot it isn’t too noticeable, so not that distracting.

Death scenes were a little lack-luster. I felt that if you are going
to use bugs to kill people off, they should possibly act like they do
in the wild. For instance a preying mantis female will mate and bite
off the Male’s head and then lay her eggs in his carcass. Now that
would have been much more fun to watch than them just eating the guy.

I was also sad to see the lack of different bugs to be used. There
were only 3. The mantis, a beetle, and a scorpion… which I never
knew actually was considered an insect.

All in all, it was eh, ok.

2 Bug-zappers out of 5

Return to House on Haunted Hill

I have always been a fan of Vincent Price’s “House On Haunted Hill”, the 1959 classic which set the idea for murder mystery weekends into motion. “Nothing like having a party with murder on the mind.”
In 1999 they remade the film staring Jeffrey Rush in Price’s role. The remake I felt, was a bit on the hokey side during parts of the film, but I also felt that it really paid homage to the horror and comedy blend that the original film showed us.
It is now 2007 and we have a sequel to the remake, “Return to House on Haunted Hill”. All in all, I will say it was not too bad. Not great, either.

To set the story we are introduced to our main characters; a photographer, a woman who runs a magazine (Amanda Righetti), and a professor of a local college (Steven Pacey). The professor has been searching for an idol which is said to be hidden someplace in Hill House. The woman who runs the magazine happens to be the sister of Sara Wolfe (played by Ali Larter in the 99 remake) who was one of the survivors of the first film. Sara had come across a journal which explained where the idol was hidden; however she gets killed before she can divulge the information. She happens to send her sister the journal because she knew her life was in danger.

The idol is apparently worth five million dollars so it is understandable that not only Pacey’s character (named Richard) as well as another treasure hunter (Desmond, played by Erik Palladino who also starred in Dead and Breakfast and looks a little like my husband’s friend Rick) is in search for it. Desmond, however is more violent in his methods of searching for it. And during a very Indiana Jones moment, Richard says “It belongs in a museum!” To which I yelled at the screen “So do you Mr. Jones!” (For those of you who don’t remember that quote it was from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”)

So they all go to the house to find the idol and one by one get attacked and killed.

As far as script writing went, other than that stolen Indiana Jones quote, it wasn’t too bad. The story itself flowed nicely and thanks to some great comedic timing by some of the actors, it worked very well.
One thing I will say with this film, this time we learned a little more about the patients from the asylum. When the guests got touched by the dead we got to witness the ghosts last few moments of life and how they died. I liked this little story telling technique as it made us feel for these poor trapped spirits. And of course we still had Jeffrey Combs as he reprised his role of the evil Dr. Richard Benjamin Vannacutt.

For death scenes, again not too bad. Though some of them were rather boring, there were some lovely and messy deaths involved in the story. My favorite one was the two lesbian ghosts seducing one of the female thugs and then the doctor carving the skin off her face; that was really nice. The gal who had the fridge dropped on her head however was a little anti climatic though it did make a lovely splatter and squishing noise. No big twist, as there was in the first movie.

This movie was done well enough to stand on its own as a haunted hospital movie. You do not have to have knowledge of the original film or the remake to enjoy this movie. Other than the same location and the connection with the Wolfe sisters, there really is not much mentioned about the first film other than one brief dialogue.

All in all I give it 4 nudes in straight jackets out of 5

The Red Skulls

For a movie made with little to no budget, Red Skulls wasn’t too bad of a film. The plot was mostly coherent and understandable with few gaping holes. With the make up effects it was evident where they spent the most of their funds. Some very nice gore effects, considering the economic restraints held on the artists. The script was passable, not Shakespeare or King, but workable and something that is important when you make a film like this. Costuming, well, the movie revolves around gangs, and where for the most part it was basic street clothing, some things sort of glared out at me on it. The belts, for one thing… large and oddly shaped… what was the symbolism for this?

Did it denote rank? Or was it just a bit of decoration? Also, one of the gang members I noticed had a blue bandanna and the gang’s color was supposed to be red. Now I have never been a member of a gang, however I used to work with a fellow many many years ago who was. I remember discussing in detail with him some of the ins and outs of gang membership; one aspect being the colors. I was told if you wore something such as a bandana, in an opposing gang’s color, you would be shot on site. This was just one of those things that stuck with me.

Ok, let me go back a bit. The beginning of the movie, we have an older man who gives us a very bizarre styling of a disclaimer. The man reminded me of a minister for some reason. Some cast members are standing around behind him as he introduces us to the film’s beginning. Explaining that we are going to be treated to images that are “Bad… mkay…” drinking, smoking, mass quantities of blood”… so we have been warned….Now I am always one for fun disclaimers to movies. I love the old throwbacks to the cinema features that had a buxom blonde in the lobby of the theatre in a skimpy nurse’s costume for you to sign a waiver incase you have heart problems or die of fright from the film. The old preacher just wasn’t buxom enough to hold my interest, however. Nor did he remind us to say “It is only a movie… it is only a movie…” incase you have a hard time discerning it from reality.

As far as the story line goes, we have a gang called The Red Skulls. One of the members has fallen from an encounter with a new rival gang called The Rats. At the funeral the second in charge, Uri (Lucas Campbell who also co wrote and co directed the film) decides enough is enough and /gquit … I mean leaves the gang. So leadership falls to the next in line, who is set on revenge of his fallen brethren. He starts to recruit more members but Uri thinks it needs to stop. On the side, a couple of gang members go and break into some medical supply warehouse and come across some non labeled red liquid (which looked a lot like Hi-C fruit punch). One of the guys drinks a little and promptly dies. The second leaves his buddy there running off with the rest of the juice, unaware his buddy has been turned into a zombie of sorts that attacks the patrolling night watchman. Unfortunately no more is said about the friend or what the liquid is for or anything. The idea isn’t even reflected upon again until the night of the pre-brawl bash when the young man being upset he was looked over in the chain of gang politics decided to off the new leader by pouring it in his wine bottle. Unfortunately this backfires and the wine was ceremoniously added to “The Nail” which was a form of Hairy Buffalo from my college days, where everyone dumps every sort of alcohol possible into a large container and everyone drinks from it. Of course, all of the new gang members drink and turn into zombies.

Yeah that is pretty much the plot. Where it was a great idea, the film itself was lacking in some ways. Other than the unexplained red juice; I mean really, we could have had a news flash in the background about it, or a news print ad or even someone talking about what was going on with that to add to the drama. It would have only taken a few moments of film time, and it would make a lot more sense. Next it was the casting. Now, I understand that when you have no budget you must call on those who will work for free. Unfortunately for this movie, it created a gang of “Emo” kids. Yes, we are talking the wiry, wimpy, whiney sort. This unfortunately did not add to the realism of an actual gang, with the exception of the silent Romeo (Ryan Maille) who I thought was just adorable. On top of that we had the opposing gang… words cannot express anything I can say about the rival gang… so maybe photos might help?

Speaking of the casting, the actors seemed to muddle through the lines, with little or no infliction or feeling which made the parts that were supposed to be dramatic comical, and the parts that were meant to be comical just plain sad.

I will say however, that for this type of movie, they did okay. It didn’t make me want to slash my wrists as some no-budget movies have made me do, though I did learn that Emo kids a good gang does not make. And overweight creepy uncles do not need qualify for gang initiation.

I do look forward to viewing more of the Campbell brothers work as their experience grows. Where they do have more to learn, including making sure the shots of hits actually connect for the final shot, they do show a lot of potential.

3 Pizza Slicers as Rumble Weapons out of 5

The Messengers

Now as you may know, I love a good ghost story. Anything dealing with the paranormal, well it is right up my alley which is why I was looking forward to seeing The Messengers. The commercials for this film had me wanting to see it simply for the reason of it being another haunted house film. I have always had an interest in parapsychology; the big question of what happens to our souls after our body gives out, and the questions of unfinished business. Movies such as Amityville, The Shining, and Poltergeist (which has a whole other personal attachment to me) are our views on the afterlife, however at the same times these films also include a descent into madness as well. The same holds true with this film. It could be commentary on how our weak little minds can not wrap around the bigger questions of the universe, or maybe because the answers aren’t all as fascinating as we had hoped and so they have to add the element to give us something other than the oppressive darkness that may actually consume us. Regardless it makes for great entertainment.

Just as most of these films come about, it is a family with obvious problems. Father out of work, mother on the brink, troubled teen daughter and silent toddler who was almost as spooky as the twins from The Great Outdoors. They buy an old rundown sunflower farm and decide to make a go at it. They get help from a wandering knight of the road and try to make their little happy family noises again. The only thing is, the abandoned home was a site of an unknown tragedy. From the beginning of the film we see three family members being assaulted by an unknown shadow. As the shadows continue to prey upon the new inhabitants, only the toddler seems to notice the phenomenon as well as the girl. The parents, per usual, do not believe the daughter’s stories and only see it as her acting out and not adjusting to her new surroundings.

Now as the film has many elements we have seen in countless films, I must say it had a lovely twist. Now, it could have been that I was on a caffeine rush and it was 5 in the morning when I watched the film, but I didn’t catch it at all until they revealed it. To which I actually had to wake my husband up and tell him (which is why I am writing this review on my own and it is not one of our He said She Said segments). His reply was a sleepy “No shit!”

Monster and ghost effects were lovely, cinematography beautiful. Story line and plot right on target, I felt. And granted Dylan McDermott doesn’t look old enough to have a 16 year old daughter, the cast seemed pretty solid. The movie was enjoyable, so why, do I wonder, not many people enjoyed it? I feel it could be due to the fact it isn’t a typical ghost story. Part of the frightening aspect of the film is not due to the ghosts themselves, but to the violence that manifested there. The energy that causes a true haunting; it isn’t spirits, it is the negative energy that is left over from the violent act that occurred there. This movie touched on that in a way that most films do not. Where the ghosts appear to be evil in all films like this, are they truly evil, or was it the events that led up to the deaths that causes it?

All in all it is a decent movie to watch, there are some lovely jump scenes. And, where it is not typical for your basic haunted house film, it was very thought provoking. Especially at 5am buzzed on too much energy drink.

3 smoking man cameos out of 5

Lair of the White Worm

The Lair of the White Worm has always been a fun film to watch for me. The whole campy feel of this film has always made me giggle. From its British dramatic flare to its interesting characters, its comical insight, horrible special effects, or maybe just for the dream sequence that no matter how many times I watch it makes me laugh so hard.

The story revolves around two sisters whose parents had mysteriously disappeared. One of them brings in a Scottish archeologist who has an interest with the history of the land her home is built on. He finds a huge skull and some information on an ancient Pagan cult revolving around a snake god. Hugh Grant plays a wealthy land owner who lives near the girl’s home who is fascinated with his own family’s lore that revolves around the myth of a huge snake that one of his ancestors killed. Then in between the 2 houses is another manse owned by a mysterious woman, who I might add had some awesome costumes, and a passion for the children’s game snakes and ladders (for us Americans, this game was changed to chutes and ladders).

One thing I love about this type of film other than the cheesy effects, blatant nudity and that fun dramatic British acting is the fact that they created a wonderful myth and legend here. Where as so many films are rehashes of the same thought, same idea, same things that go bump in the night, this one adds a more perverse and phallic symbolism that so many creature features miss. I mean it is so blatant they slap you in the face so hard with it, you almost miss it. What is the story really about? Is it about a snake woman? A Pagan God? No, it is pure and simple; it is a movie on the evils of sex. Where as the snake is so purely phallic in shape and being, in ancient times the snake was a symbol of womanhood.

Then we throw in a little religion for fun. I mean where else have we seen the evils of the snake other than the Bible? Give us a great little vision of nuns praying around the cross which is then surrounded by snakes and Romans who go into a rape frenzy. Also, might I add the humor in checking the casting list on the nuns and find Linzi Drew, famous for her Buttman and Ben Dover

After Sundown

I love low budget films, especially these little gems I have been finding lately. After Sundown could be seen as just another zombie-vampire-cowboy flick, but in it we find something special. The movie begins in the 1880’s, when a young woman… who happens to be a vampire… gives birth. Immediately we are ported into the present where a construction crew is busy moving a cemetery for urban development…. something about not wanting dead bodies buried in the back yard or something, pshaw! While digging up this 100 year old cemetery they come across the well-preserved body of our young mother clutching her baby, both found with steaks through the heart. They bring the bodies back to the morgue, put baby on ice and like people who have never watched a bad horror film, they remove the steak from mommy dearest. After that well… You know chaos ensues, zombie slaves are made; your typical gore fest.

Even though this movie is nothing new in theme, nothing new in kills, no new and brilliant twist or idea, it was well done. Out side of the blood not having enough red #40 and some bad blue screen shots, it moved at a good pace, kept continuity going, had some great characters, decent enough gore make up and special effects for the budget, and some good writing… “You can’t run people down in the street, even if they are already dead!” That one I am storing away. On top of that, this movie gave credit to those who stand on the back lines, those people who show up nameless on your screen. The ones who say “Hey! I was in a movie!” and can prove it because their name is in the credits. Extras are hard working people, they want their 15 minutes and they need the credit for it! This film gave those people that. For a low budget film, this movie had a ton of extras. Lots and lots of zombies and they all got their name in the credits. For that I give a round of applause.

Oh, and remember folks, twigs a good weapon does not make.

4 pen clicks from an O.C.D. zombie out of 5

Big Bad Wolf

Now, in fairy tales, I have always been fascinated with the character the Big Bad Wolf. Even so much to the point that I have started to write my own little tale revolving around the character but, I digress. The movie Big Bad Wolf tries to take on the B-movie falling a tad short of the mark. Where this may be yet another werewolf film, it gave a little more in some places where it was lacking in others. It lands in between camp and Sci-fi Channel original.

The story revolves around a young college student named Derek (Trevor Duke), who lost his father ( Andrew Bowen) in a strange hunting accident. His new step father ( Richard Tyson) was one of his dad’s hunting buddies. The step-dad has this hunting cabin that no one is supposed to visit, but the boy steals the keys in an attempt to impress the local fraternity and goes up with his best friend Sam ( Kimberly J. Brown, who you will remember from Rose Red as the cute little girl…she still looks the same, but in this movie with piercings and tattoos) for a weekend getaway. Unfortunately it is the weekend of the full moon… and well, yeah you know what is going to happen. Now, this could have made for a typical and fun movie. I mean we had all the basic elements. Slutty girls, drunken frat boys, tough chick with a heart and nerdy guy with a spine, crazed lycanthrope and a full moon…. however, just like my prom date, all that build up and it was over in the first fifteen minutes.

The movie then switches into a different gear. However, by trying to take us to a whole psychological and personal level, it gives us no twist, no unknown. We know who the killer is. We know they need to stop him, and we know they are going to. It is too formatted to be any other way. We know exactly what is coming, so there is no heart pounding jumps. We know these types of characters by heart so there is no surprise twist to it. And worst of all, we know who the werewolf is so there is no wondering who to trust. This makes for a boring movie.

The saving grace I felt, was the writing. Lance W. Dreesen , who also directed this film, added some very humorous elements to the film. It made me want to watch to find some more of these little gems. Plus, where as in most werewolf films we get a grunting and growling more-animal-than-man, in this the creature talks. And to me, it made me giggle. However it felt more Freddie Krueger-esq in its deliveries. I still enjoyed it.

Creative deaths; not really, however when our villain is in post-wolf form and finds a finger stuck in his teeth… that was classic. Special effects were on the low scale, the transformation was just poorly CGI’d to death. But then again, after American Werewolf in London, most transformations pale in comparison. And speaking of which… take a look at who makes a cameo as the sheriff. David Naughton! Also making a brief appearance, Clint Howard.

All in all it was ok; I recommend it for the humor alone.

2 Geraldo wannabes out of 5