J*A*S*M

Quality psychological horror by Cronenberg that stands out by its incredibly disturbing atmosphere. The first half is pretty chatty, but right when I was telling myself that this wouldn’t warrant an above-average rating, the film fully caught my attention and the ending is extremely tense. I will remember all those scenes with the child mutants for a long time (they look pretty good), but the most important thing is that they have such an unpleasant evil aura around them that they irradiate uncompromising rawness and tangible malice. Another thing worth praise is the fantastically escalating tension by the end.

I didn’t like Rabid very much. Even though it has a pretty gloomy atmosphere full of uncertainty, the film didn’t leave any deeper impression. The story is a clear copy of Shivers, but that infection worked better in the enclosed space of a residential complex than in the streets of Montreal. What I liked the most was the first part set in a clinic, but afterwards I almost got bored at times. That said, the internal transformation from human to monster was good. 7/10

Classic hixploitation that relies mostly on blood, violence and brutality. This time we follow several young people being punished by their previous disorderly behaviour. Some of the violent scenes are impressively realistic, others are impressively over-the-top, but they are numerous, so the film is never boring. There’s no point dealing with the plot, it’s the same as other similar films, but in terms of execution, there are many effective scenes, which makes Frontier(s) something quite nice to watch. After a rewatch in 2016: Really, there’s no point dealing with the plot, in the struggle between two extremists, Gens was unable to draw any interesting insight. But there’s plenty of gore, and it’s great.

Pretty good horror. The parasite looks very nasty, though it didn’t generate any feelings of disgust, and the atmosphere of the time wasn’t very intense. However, somewhere around the middle, when I was feeling quite bored, the film turned into something like zombie horror, slowly building up a thick atmosphere, and the bloody obscenities gained strength. The overall impression from Cronenberg’s first major film was more than positive in the end.

Low-budget exploitation horror has been enjoying an almost unexpected boom lately. Unfortunately, most of it is poor quality, something that applies to this piece of work, too. This time, the killer is dressed as a clown (doesn’t look too terrible) and, other than tat, there’s nothing interesting or original. I believe that the future of the genre should be elsewhere.

One of those really bad films from Horrorfest. We follow a group in an abandoned house in the middle of the woods who are at the mercy of a masked killer. The execution is average, the actors are not too good and the villain looks quite funny; this can never cause any fear. And then, when you’re expecting the only logical (though predictable, but that wouldn’t matter) resolution, the creators surprise you with an incredible WTF moment that brought my rating down to one star. Really, such a ruined ending is not something you see very often. Either the film should have taken that direction from the start (instead of wasting time with a mid-plot twist), or the creators should have opted for something less fantastic. So, if you want to avoid that stupid twist, stop film off at around the 65th minute.

Low-budget exploitation, enough said. No plot, bad actors, almost amateur cinematography and lots of blood. If you think watching one hour and a half of a group of whiny hens running away from a pissed off psychopath is for you, go for it. Myself, I didn’t like it much, that cheap execution was lethal. That said, I can imagine that if if had been made in the 70s, it would be considered a “classic” today.

I hesitated for a long time between two and three stars, in the end I went for the more generous option because from the 20th minute or so forward there’s always something happening and you never get bored (something I really appreciate). The film is set in a post-apocalyptic future where a group of heroes defend themselves against cannibals. Despite the not too optimistic premise, they never manage to convincingly convey a feeling of hopelessness (forget about any thick and raw depressive atmosphere) and this is mainly due to the sterile looking locations and sets (they try to make things look dirty and run-down, but it doesn’t work at all, you can see it’s fake) and the lack of any memorable villains (that was a big shame, if it had at least one, Tooth & Nail could have easily been above-par horror). What’s worth praise, on the other hand, is the fairly original ending (not the what but the how) that convinced me of a (weak) three-star rating.

I lasted for about 10 minutes before I skipped the rest to see at least the zombie scenes. It was funny, very funny. Now seriously, friends, this is no joke, this film is dangerous. If I was forced to watch it all from beginning to end, I think I’d probably hurt someone (or myself). Really, it’s the worst horror film I’ve ever come across (and I’ve seen a lot of garbage), an utter disgrace in every typical cinema attribute (direction, dialogues, actors). On the other hand, they could show it in film schools so students can see what a movie should not look like, that would be its only sensible use. Other than that, I recommend avoiding this zombie flick at all costs, I doubt anyone could watch it in full (at least not without serious consequences). By the way, the footage includes a zombie walk (a thing where normal people walk the streets dressed up like undead) and you can see it – the make-up, the movement and the behaviour of the zombies are really terrible, making an already bad experience a lot worse.

YAY! A horror film that made me feel a little scared again! I divide Asian ghost stories into two groups: the ones that make me feel scared (The Grudge, Shutter) and the ones that are boring (everything else). Shutter managed this thanks to the many effective jump-scares and terrifying moments that made me feel a proper chill more than once. The story is also good, it has a nice twist and it shouldn’t be confusing even for European viewers. I have no other option than to award this representative of my least favourite subgenre with a very high rating. PS: I’d love to see how much worse the upcoming American remake will be…