Jenna Ortega as Wednesday in Tim Burton’s upcoming Netflix series!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEW QUEEN OF HORROR JENNA ORTEGA!
New queen of horror Jenna Ortega turns 20 years young today and we here at MonsterZero NJ’s Movie Madhouse wish this busy and talented actress a very happy birthday!
Watching horror flicks during the Halloween 🎃 season, there might be one face, aside from Karloff, Lee, England and Lugosi, that you might see more than once…and that familiar face is actor and horror icon Jeffrey Combs! A horror film veteran for almost forty years, Combs has appeared in a number of horror classics and cult classics, from the early 80s to present day, like Re-animator, From Beyond and the remake of The House on Haunted Hill. So, in honor of this icon of horror, here are 10 horror flicks that illustrate why it’s not Halloween 🎃 without Jeffrey Combs!
A talented and versatile actor who has worked in the horror genre continually for almost four decades!
(To get to the reviews of the titles listed that were covered here at the Movie Madhouse, just type the title in the search engine to find the corresponding critique!)
SWEDISH INDIE HORROR “REPORTAGE NOVEMBER” GETS A POSTER AND TRAILER!
From the official synopsis…
“Carl Sundström’s REPORTAGE NOVEMBER, starring Signe Elvin-Nowak, Jonas Lundström, and Isabel Camacho will premiere on digital and VOD this October from Terror Films.
A mysterious death of a mother and the disappearance of her child leads a group of freelance journalists to the outback of Sweden. The group of four, led by the famous journalist Linn Söderqvist, will make a reportage about the happening and search for leads missed by the police. Equipped with cameras and supplies to survive in the forest for days, they wander out in the woods to find the truth.
The film, penned by Nathaniel P Erlandsson, was shot in Sweden.
Says director Sundström, “Many years ago when I got my first glance of the second act of Cannibal Holocaust, I felt that faux documentaries was the best ways of touching the audience deep inside. A way to create a genuine feeling through a documentary format and bring the horror out from the screen into the real world. Ever since then I have been an avid found footage fanatic who appreciate the story telling from a POV perspective. To have the slow burn concept where you get to know the characters thoroughly and you are feeling like a part of the story. A style of film where you cannot show more than the characters see. What they know, you know, and what you know, they know.
Reportage November is made for found footage lovers and while writing it we had all aspects and rules of what makes this genre great in mind. A film that focuses on suspense and mystery to bring the viewer to the edge of the seat. We have created a film that is just as much about the slow build-up of the story as the horror. I hope that you enjoy this slow burning thrill that takes place deep in the Swedish outback. “
REPORTAGE NOVEMBER hits digital and VOD worldwide October 14
Carl Sundström’s REPORTAGE NOVEMBER, starring Signe Elvin-Nowak, Jonas Lundström, and Isabel Camacho will premiere on digital and VOD this October from Terror Films.”
Uncork’d Entertainment will release Paul W.F Franklin’s furiously fun creature feature CROC!
The film, starring Mark Haldor, Sian Altman, and Chrissie Wunna, tells of a group of killer crocodiles that crash a wedding!
Lisa and her family unite at a wedding venue, excited for the big day. However, unknown to the family, a nest of hungry crocodiles has been living in the nearby lake. As the crocodiles crash the wedding in a blood thirsty massacre, the remaining family members must survive the night against these Jurassic beasts.
“CROC! Is another highly entertaining horror film from the Jagged Edge production team.” said Keith Leopard, President Uncork’d Entertainment. “Like Jagged Edge’s recent KINGDOM OF THE DINOSAURS, which we released in September, it’s absolutely super fun!”.
Producers Scott Jeffrey of Jagged Edge Productions negotiated the deal on behalf of the film team with Keith Leopard of Uncork’d Entertainment.
Murder mystery/slasher mash-up finds a group of friends partying in a mansion while a hurricane rages outside. They decide to play a game called Bodies Bodies Bodies where everyone draws a piece of paper, one piece selects someone as the killer while the others are potential victims. Lights are turned out and if the killer happens upon a victim, the poke them in the back “killing” them. Someone is playing for real as one of the group turns up dead. Soon fear and paranoia are flaring, fingers are getting pointed and bodies bodies bodies start piling up. Is there a killer among them…will any of them survive?
Film is well directed with a very European/Giallo flavor by Halina Reijn from a witty script by Sarah DeLappe, based on Kristen Roupenian’s story. We have a perfect set-up with a large mansion, a fierce storm to trap everyone inside and a lot of drinking and partying to dull senses and unleash inhibitions. We also have a lot of drama between characters just bubbling beneath the surface waiting to explode. We then are given the simple rules to the game which apparently gets taken far too seriously by someone…but who? The film is very effective at setting up the paranoia and the fear of the survivors and keeping the guilty party a secret even as the numbers start to dwindle, as desperate people do desperate things. It’s very entertaining and it comes to a nicely unpredictable conclusion that ads a twisted and fun dimension to the proceedings. It’s a fun and sometimes bloody flick with a nice visual style and a cool score by Disasterpeace, who did the great score for It Follows. Bloody fun slasher/whodunnit. Cast includes Maria Bakalova, Amandla Stenberg, Myha’la Herrold, Rachel Sennott, Chase Sui Wonders, Pete Davidson and Lee Pace.
Rob Zombie’s revisit to the classic TV show The Munsters, is basically a prequel that introduces the characters and how they met and became a family. Netflix streaming flick finds lovelorn vampiress Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie) looking for love, while her father The Count (Daniel Roebuck wonderfully channeling Al Lewis) is all too eager to help…as long as it benefits him. Meanwhile Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang (Richard Brake) is trying to build the perfect human specimen in his lab. When his hunchbacked manservant Floop (Jorge Garcia) accidentally switches the brain of a genius with that of a stand-up comedian, Herman Munster (Jeff Daniel Phillips) is born. Lily takes a shine to Herman and now The Count must find some way to interfere as romance blooms.
Messy reboot is written and directed by Zombie and once again illustrates that writing is not his strong suit. It’s not as bad as the cringe-worthy trailer suggests, but nowhere near as good as we’d like. It starts out OK with Zombie providing some really great candy-colored visuals, which is his strong suit as a filmmaker, but its goofball in overdrive sense of humor starts to wear out its welcome about halfway through. The jokes are hit and miss, and Zombie has decided to make it far campier than the show, which gets tiresome. There is barely what can be considered a story. It basically skips from set-piece to set-piece with only a thread of consistency. It’s like a 110-minute music video. Only a subplot about Herman signing over the deed to The Count’s castle to Lily’s debt-laden werewolf brother Lester (Tomas Boykin), evokes the old show. Sheri Moon Zombie portrays Lily way too campy when she was the voice of reason between the bumbling Herman and her father. Phillips’ Herman is far too cocky here, as the original character was humble and sometimes a bit timid. The only one who nails it is Roebuck who is truly channeling the late Al Lewis as The Count aka Grandpa.
Overall, The Munsters might be worth a curiosity streaming when it premieres on 9/27/22 on Netflix, though don’t expect much. Reboot is an improvement over Zombie’s previous two flicks and do give him credit for making his first…and possibly only…PG rated movie.
Vampire flick has pretty artist Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) finding she has family in England and traveling overseas to meet them. As this is a horror flick, or at least an attempt at one, Evie’s arrival at Carfax Estate does not bode well for the New Yorker.
Tepid horror is directed by Jessica M. Thompson from a script by Blair Butler. It has slightly more bite than a Twilight movie but suffers from severe Anne Rice envy. It’s obvious from the start something is wrong here in Carfax and stuffiness is not the only thing Evie’s English relatives have wrong with them. Servants drop like flies, and one wonders why anyone goes to work there as nobody in servitude positions seems to leave with their jugular intact. The family wants to make Evie one of them in the worst way and thanks to some convenient character changes of heart, Evie might just have a chance to avoid the whole coffin and fangs scene. An uninvolving vampire movie overall that at least finds lead Emmanuel trying hard and the cinematography at least doing its job. Dry and dull equestrian vampire flick.
Prequel to Ti West’s X tells the background story of that film’s horny, homicidal spinster Pearl (Mia Goth). It takes place in 1918 with young Pearl on the farm tending to her ailing father (Matthew Sunderland) while under the strict and watchful eye of her overbearing mother (Tandi Wright), when she’s not sneaking off to the local movie theater. Her husband Howard (Alistair Sewell) is away at war and Pearl sees her dreams of being a dancer fading away. Her frustrations come to a boil when she meets a handsome projectionist (David Corenswet) at the local theater and soon Pearl will do anything to see her dreams come true…even murder.
Pearl is directed by West from a script by he and star Mia Goth and is filmed like one of those old-fashioned technicolor movies of yesteryear about a young girl wanting to be a star…only this one is homicidal. There are some disturbing sequences and some gory violence when things get going. The film is also set during the Influenza epidemic and thus makes plenty of COVID era commentary about masks and paranoia. What holds the film back from being an equal to its predecessor is a very slow pace and long dramatic dialogue sequences between the good parts. It’s a somber and dreary film despite the candy-colored cinematography and it gets tedious in parts till Pearl starts to pursue her dreams with a vengeance and slaughters anyone that gets in the way or makes her angry. These moments do their job, but it’s the in-between melodrama that slows things down and interrupts the more devious tone these scenes have. It doesn’t quite have the sense of naughty fun like X did, though there are some sequences that elicit an uncomfortable giggle like Pearl’s rendezvous with a scarecrow. It’s a decent enough prequel, overall, but not quite the bloody good time X was.
Mia Goth is wonderful as the sweet yet demented Pearl. She lets us know from the very beginning that something is already not right with Pearl. Then she gleefully takes us from girl with stars in her eyes to woman with bloodlust in her heart. She’s like a demented Snow White who has a friendship with all the farm animals, including the local gator. If anything gives this film a pulse and some life, it’s her. Tandi Wright is good as her oppressive, religious German mother Ruth. She is a strong woman whose own dreams where shattered as she now must take care of a sick husband and manage their slowly dying farm. Matthew Sunderland does good work as the very sick and silent father. He communicates much only with his eyes and minimal body language and does it quite well. David Corenswet is solid as the handsome projectionist who sets a fire under Pearl’s dreams and in her married loins. Emma Jenkins-Purro is good as Pearl’s sister-in-law Mitzy and Alistair Sewell appears briefly as Pearl’s soldier husband.
Overall, this prequel had its moments, but despite some disturbing sequences and gory violence, it’s far drearier and more somber than the deviously naughty X. Mia Goth is exceptional as Pearl and the technicolor cinematography makes the carnage quite colorful, but a slow pace and some more tedious sequences between the scenes of mayhem and murder make this flick a lesser prequel to one of the best horror films of the year.
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