To be perfectly frank, most of my favorite childhood memories somehow involved horror films. I used to collect Todd McFarlane's Movie Maniacs action figures and a buddy of mine and I would use them to stage elaborate battles. Freddy Vs. Jason, Jason Vs. Wishmaster, WISHMASTER VS. PINHEAD would have been so sweet! But I digress...

I mention this because while watching “Cabin In The Woods”, The new horror comedy from Joss Whedon (Buffy, The Avengers) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield), I felt like I was 12 years old again: placing bets on not just how these insipid but attractive teenagers would die, but how and by whom. Waiting for the obligatory tit shot thrown in simply because being 12 years old in the 90's, that was as close as you could get to soft-core porn. Laughing your ass off when your friend next to you jumps but you don't. These are the things true horror fans live for. And “Cabin” delivers.

I do truly think that it is impossible to avoid spoilers reviewing this film, but I will try. After the first scene in which you might question whether you are watching the right movie, we are introduced to our typical slasher movie fodder kids played by Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth (of Thor fame. thankfully with shorter hair), Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse Williams. Each of them seem normal at first but after a while start to embody the characteristics of the virgin, the whore, the jock, the fool, and the nerd respectively. But why? Figuring that out is one of the films many humorous surprises. They are heading for GASP, a cabin in the woods. But not before stopping and receiving an ominous warning from GASP, an eerie gas station attendant. Feel like you know where this is going? If so, I pity you.

To reveal too much more of the plot would serve to spoil what is arguably the best genre film in recent years. Without saying too much, the film is full of entertaining surprises and scares with tongue placed firmly in cheek. Scenes such as a gleeful homage to the “Ju-on” films of Takashi Shimizu, Hutchison making out with a stuffed wolf, Hemsworth clothes-lining a little girl zombie and then later pulling off what I can only describe as a motorcycle jump that would have Evel Knievel pissing his pants with laughter serve to entertain those with a vast knowledge of horror movie trappings and cliches. That isn't to say that people who are new to the genre will be put off. But, like most horror films, you will need a strong stomach to endure the relentless orgy of gore towards the end of the film which will cause multiple gore-gasms among slasher movie fans.

Whedon and Goddard know their stuff. This is a near perfect love letter to horror films of old and a wonderful satire of torture porn and zombie films. The supporting cast which features such genre veterans as Richard Jenkins (Let Me In), Jodelle Ferland (Silent Hill, Case 39) and even Sigourney Weaver in a neat cameo. If you love the genre, you can't afford to miss it. If you are new to horror, you can't afford to miss it. It is that simple. And yes, I know what you're thinking: “But when will they ever have a slasher movie with a Mer-man?”. Don't worry... Whedon and Goddard have you covered.

Onto the DVD features: We get a full length commentary with Whedon and Goddard in which they discuss such feats as writing the script together over the course of only three days and having to share a few of the sets simultaneously with the filming of the “Twilight” films (Which also feature Ferland). They truly love what they do and their enthusiasm more than makes up for the somewhat one-note tone. Unfortunately all they are doing after a while is congratulating each-other to the point of subtle arrogance.

Also we are treated to four behind the scenes featurettes. “We Are Not Who We Are: Making The Cabin In The Woods.” focuses on the writing and casting of the film with fun little comments by the cast and crew, Particularly Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. “An Army Of Nightmares: Make-up and Animatronic Effects” centers on the monster-making and flipping awesome zombie make-up designs featured in the film, mostly in the third act. “Primal Terror: Visual Effects” is (you guessed it) about the various CG tricks and digital effects although fan will appreciate the emphasis on practical effects over digital effects. “The Secret Secret Stash” is my favorite, in which Joss Whedon gives us a tour through the cabin and Fran Kranz teaches us the finer points of smoking fake pot through a coffee thermos bong. Also a recording of the Wonder-con Q&A session with Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. Also a Theatrical Trailer for the film, which is pretty standard for a Lionsgate release. All in all a fully stocked DVD for a truly inventive and absolutely hilarious film. Don't rent it. Buy it.

Tags: Drew Goddard, horror-comedy, Joss Whedon, Sigourney Weaver, Chris Hemsworth, Horror-Fix Review, The Cabin in the Woods

Jerry Blake is a successful real estate man who values his job, his clients, and above all else, his family. Jerry Blake is also a homicidal maniac who drifts from town to town leaving slaughtered families in his wake. Hey, it's cheaper than divorce and at least in this scenario one party gets to walk away happy.

On the surface The Stepfather is typical 80s pseudo-slasher fare wrapped in the guise of a suburban thriller. Deeper though, it is a study in modern serial killers.  We aren't talking about the "he was always the quiet type" serial killer, but instead the " Jesus Jumping Christ!, he used to walk me to my car after work serial killer”... and that is what makes the film a successful entry into the genre… successful enough to spawn multiple sequels and a remake.

Terry O Quinn, who most of the audience will recognize as the sage-like philosopher and survivalist John Locke from tv's Lost, plays Jerry, a husband that any divorcee would count herself lucky to meet… and all Jerry wants is for his family to exist in harmony, living the American dream. Enter his new wife's teen daughter, who's all like " whatever, whatever, you don't know me... You ain't my daddy.. I do what I want!" and suddenly Jerry's dreams start to shatter...oh and remember that bit about him being a serial murderer.. Yeah, that too... Cuz it looks like Jerry's old brother -in-law is also on a mission of vengeance to track down Jerry in his new personna and finally put and end to his driftin and mass murderin ways.

It's O'Quinn who sells this film and we are reminded of his acting chops every time Blake's veneer starts to break and we see the monster underneath. He is also the reason the film, which might have easily fallen through the cracks with similar films of the same period in the late 80s went on tto make such an impression with the video rental audience.

Despite some rather typical and paint-by-numbers direction from Joseph Rubin and a score that falls somewhere between an aerobics video and a cheap porno, The Stepfather is a worthwhile watch and at the risk of looking too deep into the film's core a worthwhile examination of the death of the nuclear family unit and it's flawed ideals, and maybe just a little superfluously how maniacs often masquerade as Ward Cleaver in suburban America.

Tags: 80s horror, Joseph Rubin, The Stepfather

I am a huge fan of "what if" films. What if the alien from Alien went up against a rough and tumble group of Space Marines? What if Freddy actual fought Jason? What if a zombie was cognizant and if that zombie were you, what would you do? The Revenant, starring David Anders and Chris Wylde not only answers that question but does so in such a gleeful fashion that you might wonder why we have had to sit through so many uninventive zombie movies when offerings such as this are on the table. I'm not going to say that it reinvents the zombie film but it manages to be so much fun that you could care less what it reinvents as long as it keeps doing what it does and it pretty much manages to do that for the bulk of its running time.

"...it manages to be so much fun that you could care less what it reinvents as long as it keeps doing what it does"

Its the middle of the night in war ravaged Iraq and Bart and the rest of his platoon are driving their humvee to an undisclosed location when Bart hits, what he believes to be a child, standing in the middle of the road. Much to the displeasure of his men Bart leaves the safety of the vehicle to check on the child only to get gunned down, shot in the head, and subsequently shipped back to the states for burial, leaving his man-child best friend and pining girlriend mourning his untimely death.

We all have friends like Bart's best, Joey. Friends that while we were building our careers or fostering relationships or creating families were still spending their late nights playing Xbox, eating cold pizza and borrowing their rent money from their parents. Friends that allowed us to forget our stresses at work, the complications of our marriage or the doldrums of PTA meetings and slip back into those years where responsibilities took a back seat to having fun and plain old fucking off. These friends, while they may encourage us to call in sick to work or lie to our spouses about where we went drinking sometimes represent the last bastion of hope that our youth is still accessible, just within reach for us to pick up and try on for size when the pressures of the adult world become too much. sometimes, however, they are the proverbial bag of bricks that tumble across the ocean floor, pulling us down and slowing our progress now matter how hard we try to swim against their weight. Bart, for all of his good intentions and ambitions, just couldn't pull free of the gravity of Joey's lethargy, even in death, and that, is exactly where he winds up after clawing his way to thhe top of the fresh dirt covering his coffin.

Enter the smart divergence where The Revenant decides to play it loose and instead of Joey grappling with the horror of finding out that his dead best friend is back from the grave with a taste for fresh blood, he revels in it, seeing his new friend's apparent invulnerabilities as an opportunity to elevate his own status. Wylde tears the role open as the two do what any self respecting team of zombie and human would do: they take arms and become fly-by-night vigilantes.. Robbing the dreggs of society...of their blood. It is this portion of the film that will immediately win most detractors over as the duo hop from convenience store to urban locale, easily putting themselves in the middle of heist, robbery and drug deal, soon enjoying the monetary fringe benfits as they lift more than plasma from their victims. This horror send up of Robin Hood works so well that, in fact, the movie could have relied on this one device alone to propel it to cult status.

Early on however we get the inkling that nothing good lasts forever. Bart, although dead, is still trying to carry on as thou death is just a temporary setback. When not robbing petty crooks of the red stuff, Bart is, albeit reluctantly at first, still seeing his girlfriend and as his situation brings himself closer to the limits of just what his supernatural affliction is capable of, that relationship strains the bond between he and Joey.

I'm not going to highlight The Revenant as the viewer really needs to see the film with a fresh pair of eyes that allows them to experience the surprises firsthand. Luckily, that is the word that most will walk way with after seeing the film: SURPRISES. The Revenant manages to pull them off with a competence rarely seen and at no point does the film seem to struggle with its ambitions. If the film will have any fault with its audience, it will be its gradual change of tone in its third act. Remember when I hinted at the subtext that "the party can't go on forever"? Well when the lights go up and it's last call on The Revenant the morose turn is noticeable and might throw people a little off the rails of the preceding roller coaster of comedy and action. this is not to say that the third act is ungrounded, unnecessary, or even unfitting of the film. It's logical and sadly a little tragic, but it is framed in such an explosion of violence and weirdness that the climax takes this horror comedy and gives it a very real and disturbing resonance.In other words, even if you've come for the comedy, stay for the horror. The Revenant has already cemented it's place in my top 5 of 2012 and I expect that upon further viewings it will secure a place among my all time favorites. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The Revenant hits dvd tomorrow September 18th, 2012.

Tags: Chris Wylde, David Anders, horror-comedy, Kerry Prior, Lionsgate Entertainment, zombie movies, The Revenant

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One of the all time classics of that golden age of Rankin-Bass stop motion animation makes its way to bluray jus tin time for the Halloween holiday. Read the official press release below!

What better way to get in the Halloween sprit than by celebrating with a monster party? Lionsgate Home Entertainment makes Mad Monster Party available for the first time in High Definition with the release of the Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray + DVD) as well as HD Digital Download and On Demand arriving just in time for the spookiest holiday of the year as well as the theatrical release of the similarly themed Hotel Transylvania. From the team who created the stop-motion and animated holiday classics “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman,” Mad Monster Party stars the voice talents of Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) and Phyllis Diller (Eight on the Lam). The Blu-ray Combo Pack bonus materials include a “making of” featurette, plus two featurettes that look at the animation and the music of the film, as well as two bonus sing-along tracks. The Mad Monster Party Blu-ray Combo Pack arrives on September 4^th for the suggested retail price of $14.99.

Baron Von Frankenstein (voice of Boris Karloff) has decided to retire as the head of the Worldwide Organization of Monsters. But first, he must inform the other monsters about his plans. How to deliver the news? How else - through a Mad Monster Party! Von Frankenstein’s guests include a who’s who of Halloween favorites, including the Werewolf, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Mummy, the Invisible Man and more. But who among them is fit to be the new head of the monsters?

BLU-RAY & DVD COMBO PACK SPECIAL FEATURES*

“Mad Monster Party: Making of a Cult Classic” featurette

“Groovy Ghouls: The Music of Mad Monster Party” featurette

“It’s Sheer Animagic! Secrets of Stop-Motion Animation” featurette

Two Bonus sing-along tracks for kids of all ages

Trailer

Tags: Boris Karloff, Mad Monster Party bluray, Rankin-Bass

Year: 2011

Genre: Action/Fantasy/Thriller

Runtime: 95mins

Rating: PG-13

IMDB Score: 4.5/10 (29,700+ Votes)

Director(s): Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor

Writer(s): Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman and David S. Goyer

Plot/Synopsis:

As Johnny Blaze hides out in Eastern Europe, he is called upon to stop the devil, who is trying to take human form.

Forethought(s):

Going to be bad.

Fun Fact/Trivia:

Eva Mendes turned down the option to reprise her role.

Stars of the movie:

Nicolas Cage,Ciaran Hinds and Idris Elba.

The Breakdown:

Lots of bad reviews,lots of decent reviews and lots of in the middle thoughts. People just can’t seem to agree on this movie. So how do I find the movie? I find it to be decent with a shit ton of wasted potential. There were things I really thought were cool while other things never should have been in the movie the way it was in there.

Let’s get this out of the way right now,Nicolas Cage,you should not have been the Ghost Rider again. You’re good in many things and bad in many things,this was one of the things you were bad in. You, my master of inconsistency needed not to elongate every few words and did not need to enunciate every word as if they have a profound meaning to them. Ciaran Hinds, you were fine as hell in this movie but I didn’t buy you as the mother. It’s like the kid was more of a package than your son and that took a way from the movie(not a lot but some). Idris Elba, you’re the man,you rock almost all roles you get but sadly this was not one you rocked. You did a good job don’t get me wrong but man that French accent you used was laughable.

There’s not really a lot of action in this movie,maybe,just maybe,three real action sequences. They weren’t very long but two of them were neat to see while the third was anti-climatic.

This a true to the comic movie? I have no clue to be honest whit you. I never got into Ghost Rider but I have read some stuff about him on comic sites and this doesn’t really seem to stick with the history. I could be wrong since I don’t have any first hand knowledge on the Rider. I can tell you that if this was true to the comic then I have no fucking clue how the comic has had such a following.

 I learned something from this movie and that is if you ever told your better half that they don’t look fat in that outfit or if you ever used Napster back in the day than you going to lose your soul.

Best line/exchange in the movie:

Johnny Blaze: Yeah. Black, French, alcoholic priest, kind of a dick. Why, do you know him?

The Verdict:

No where near as bad as people make it out to be but by no means a real winner. If you want a mindless movie to watch give this one a try but just don’t expect much out of it.

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Tags: Nicholas Cage, Ghost Rider 2

The Corridor hits DVD shelves everywhere today and director Evan Kelly was able to take a moment out of his schedule to talk to us here at HorrorFix about the film, his own phobias and the dynamics that go into telling a great story. The film, which has been hailed as "Awesome... evocative of Stephen King and Donnie Darko", can be purchased directly from Amazon here and at retail stores everywhere.

Listen to the full interview here.

Tags: Evan Kelly, The Corridor

It is said in certain circles that so much testosterone was fused into the very film used to shoot James’ Cameron’s Aliens that if you play the movie backwards it will give you an abortion. That being said, Cameron’s Aliens is a “what if” scenario film that takes big and makes it even bigger. Bigger guns, bigger ships and bigger Aliens. It does so in such a fashion that it literally date rapes the original’s stifling sense of isolation and confinement and gives us a whole new world to play with. And that is the name of the game with the sequel to Scott’s classic scifi shocker, EXPANSION.

Aliens is not so much the sequel to Alien as it is the sequel to the late night diner conversations about Alien. It gives us the coolness and the novelty of the original by taking those ideas and questions and expanding them. What is the world of Alien like and how does it differ from the world now? What kinds of weapons do they have in this world? What if instead of bluecollar workers the alien(s) was up against a band of gun-toting, foulmouthed, trigger happy space marines?!?!?

Our story opens with sole survivor of the first film Ripley, still in a heavy cryosleep as a salvage team finds her and her cat 57 years after the events of the original. After recounting the events that left her crew dead she is held accountable for her actions of self preservation which, coincidentally, resulted in the destruction of corporation property totaling in the tens of millions. The Weyland Yutani corporation quickly revokes our heroine’s flight license telling her that the planet whose distress signal they responded to has been colonized for the last twenty years therefore throwing her testimony out in an act of true douchebaggery. Fastforward to Ripley taking the only job she can on the loading docks when out-of-the-blue… Weyland Yutani loses contact with their colony. Asking for Ripley’s help the corporation leverages the reinstatement of her flight license and Ripley, along with company rep Paul Reiser and a group of surly, firepower packing marines is on her way to LV-426.

The rest of the film follows a core group of the soldiers, along with Ripley and Reiser’s character Burke, as they attempt to escape the legions of aliens on LV-426 with their lives. Although we are treated to a “who survives and what will be left of them” formula, Cameron’s approach almost singlehandedly redefined the sub-genre of sc-fi action. There is a giddy love and reverence for Scott’s universe that makes Cameron’s film approachable and, in some terms a more mainstream and digestible approach to the franchise.

Cameron’s soldiers are stereotypes,sure but are still likable and we genuinely want to see them live to fight another day. Ripley is stronger and somehow her wisdom in the face of Weyland yutani’s greedy naievete makes her ever more the hero. Henricksen’s take on the human-loving android Bishop AGAIN brings our audience to sympathise with yet another character, this one almost incapable of complete destruction, yet somehow we still fear for his safety. AGAIN, we are dealing with EXPANSION, this time of the classic character archetype.

SO it might all seem like glitz and spent shells but Aliens introduces an interesting social narrative into the film that continues throughout the rest of the series. The aliens, as vicious as they are, represent an investment and corporation’s like to earn a return on their investments. As Ripley and the colonial marines fight for their lives, reiser’s Burke fights for a sinister corporate agenda and the real monster finally makes it appearance. It is Weyland Yutani’s deception and ultimately inhuman lust for profit shares that makes our character’s struggle that much more personal.

It has often been said that to compare Scott’s Alien to Cameron’s Aliens is like comparing apples to oranges. I disagree. I think the inability to compare the two should be a hallmark of any great episodic story. Not only did Aliens set a benchmark for genre sequels, it also set a benchmark for Cameron’s career as he went on to direct the current top two worldwide grossing films of all time.

My only criticsm of Aliens is not a fault of its own, but in that its iconic action movie portrayl of the marines has been so over-used and copied over the last 26 years that in retrospect it is almost a parody of itself. Well, that and the director’s choice not to use Queen’s Killer Queen when we first see the queen alien, which would have been balls-out awesome. 

Tags: HR Giger, James Cameron, Prometheus, Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver, xenomorph, Aliens