HALLOWEEN HOTTIE ON THE RISE: DORA MADISON

Photo:  IMDB/Johnny Marlow

This latest installment of Halloween Hotties features an actress who is not entirely new to horror, but one who is finally getting the attention she deserves. Director Joe Begos has been on fire as of late, with his two latest features Bliss and VFW . One of the many reasons these flicks have made an impact, is due to the presence of actress/singer Dora Madison! Born in Hutto, Texas, Madison, who has also acted under the names Dora Madison Burge and Madison Burge, has been a very busy actress since beginning her career in 2005. She had already done a variety of TV and film work, when in 2011, she had her first horror role in the college kids vs zombies flick Humans vs Zombies, as a gamer battling real zombies. Her Tommi is no damsel and a take charge kind of girl! She would go on to be featured in season 8 of the Showtime serial killer series Dexter as Masuka’s daughter, Niki, before a starring role in another horror flick, the 2014 found footage, Sasquatch horror Exists. It wasn’t until last year, however, that Madison made waves in the horror community, when she starred as struggling artist and drug user, Dezzy, in Joe Begos’ psychedelic, contemporary update on vampirism, Bliss. Her raw and realistic performance of a an artist already on the edge gave the film an added realism in it’s portrayal of L.A.’s underground nightlife and the people who inhabit it. A designer drug turns the down-on-her luck Dez into a blood thirsty fiend and Madison really makes us feel the many faceted effects of her transformation. The actress would star for Begos again that same year in his action packed, bloodbath VFW as ruthless gang member, Gutter. Any girl who can take on action legend Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, is definitely worth keeping our eyes on!

(Click on the highlighted links to read reviews of the films that our Halloween Hottie has appeared in)

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HUMANS vs ZOMBIES (2011)

As Tommi, a gamer forced into a battle with actual zombies when a role playing game becomes all too real!

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EXISTS (2014)

As Dora, a young woman who, when camping with friends, cross paths with a vicious Sasquatch.

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BLISS (2019)

As struggling artist Dezzy. Has a new designer drug called Bliss transformed her into something unearthly?

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VFW (2019)

As vicious…and scene stealing…gang member, Gutter in VFW!

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photo: IMDB/Elza Burkhart

There’s no telling where this versatile and talented actress will show up next. She shows no sign of slowing down with new projects already in phases of production! We can only hope she and Joe Begos will team up again, soon! For now her body of work, especially her two recent roles, qualifies Dora Madison as one of MonsterZero NJ’s Halloween Hotties!

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And don’t forget to check out our previous Halloween Hotties profiles…just click on the following link to head over to the Halloween Hotties listings!)

 

-MonsterZero NJ

source: IMDB

12 HORROR FLICKS THAT STARTED 2015 WITH A BANG!

We’re just past the first quarter of 2015 and I have already seen quite a few damn good horror flicks. Hopefully this trend won’t fade out and we’ll have a banner year for horror movies… only time will tell! Here’s 12 flicks that got my horror year started with a bang!

(Just click on the links below the poster gallery to go to our reviews of these outstanding new flicks!)

2015

(A lot of these flicks first made their presence known in 2014 but, I only caught up with them in 2015!)

Review Links:

1. It Follows

2. Wyrmwood

3. Late Phases

4. Girlhouse

5. Starry Eyes

6. The Taking Of Deborah Logan

7. The Houses October Built

8. [REC] 4: Apocalypse

9. As Above, So Below

10. Clown

11. Honeymoon

12. Exists

source: MonsterZero NJ

HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: EXISTS (2014)

EXISTS (2014)

(Clicking the highlighted links brings you to corresponding reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)

Blair Witch Project co-creator and director of the creepy Lovely Molly, Eduardo Sánchez, returns to familiar territory with this found footage horror about five friends who piss off the wrong Sasquatch. Deep woods horror finds brothers Matt (Samuel Davis) and camera happy Brian (Chris Osborn) taking friends Todd (Roger Edwards), Dora (Dora Madison Burge) and Liz (Denise Williamson) on a party weekend up to their uncle’s remote cabin. They neglect to tell everyone that their uncle, apparently, saw something in the woods that frightened him so much, it has kept him from returning to his own cabin for eight years. On the way there, they are having a good time and, since distracted, accidentally hit something on the dirt road leading up to the cabin. By the time they get out of the SUV, whatever it was is gone, but left hair, blood and a lot of damage to their truck. Unsettlingly, now there are also wails of pain emanating from the woods that seem to follow them as they reach their destination. Brian starts to see things in the woods, too and sets up his cameras to catch it, but soon the creature makes itself known and lays siege to the cabin with a bloodthirsty viciousness. What could they have done to enrage this normally peaceful creature of legend and will any of them escape alive?

Eduardo Sánchez, directing from Jamie Nash’s script, delivers a fun and sometimes intense monster movie. It’s not really scary, though he does return to the influences of his 1999 found footage classic and gives us some spooky night-set sequences. Most of the fun comes from the all-out viciousness with which our mythical…and quite intelligent…creature lays into our campers and the brutality of which it takes it’s anger out on them. There is a lot of intensity and ferocity to it’s attacks and the found footage format puts you in the cabin with them as they try to fight it off. Sánchez, taking his film very seriously and giving us some violent and bloody action, helps us forget that this is actually a bit silly, being about an angry Bigfoot. Unlike the phantom entity in Blair Witch Project, our creature is not at all that camera shy and once the film gets going, it shows up quite frequently to create destruction and bloody carnage. Sánchez also overcomes the usual found footage slow start by having things pretty much get moving right away and then, escalate very quickly into a survival horror as the remaining campers try to make their way out of the creature’s domain. It’s a lot of fun, if you let yourself go with it. Not everything works. Sure, you can probably, easily guess what the creature is so angry about, it’s not that hard to figure out. Seeing the creature so frequently, in the second half, also dilutes it’s effectiveness, though, the costume is very well rendered. I probably don’t have to mention that the characters also do some really stupid things to put themselves in harm’s way. Overall though, it was an entertaining 80+ minutes, especially if you just go with it and enjoy it for what it is.

The cast are all fine. They are all fairly convincing and likable, though I had issue with how Edward’s Todd was written. Not the fault of the actor, but this was another example of a Hollywood stereotypical portrayal of a black man who talks in perfect ‘ghetto’ and reacts to everything with a hair-trigger aggression. Todd’s dialog just doesn’t sound natural but forced…more like someone’s idea of how a modern black male should talk…saying things like “Where you at?” and “Wassup!” to a rampaging Sasquatch. It’s awkward and the stereotyping is uncomfortably obvious especially, since none of the other characters speak in this ‘urban’ vernacular. It comes off more as a caricature than a character and the actor deserved better. In some of the quieter moments, Edwards seems quite charming.

So, I enjoyed this found footage Bigfoot horror. There’s a few spooky scenes, but overall it’s fun is derived from watching it’s rampaging Sasquatch take it’s angst out on five campers. The film isn’t perfect, it has its flaws, bu, it’s found footage format works mostly to it’s advantage and who doesn’t enjoy some simple bloody Bigfoot carnage. Worth checking out!

3 (out of 4) Bigfoots… or is it Bigfeets?

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