Leprechaun, the quirky horror-comedy starring Warwick Davis, was released in 1993. According to IMDB, Leprechaun cost an estimated $900,000 and grossed $8,556,940. It also inspired five sequels and a prequel. The latest film in the series, Leprechaun: Returns was released in 2018. With the Leprechaun series seemingly at an end (for now) the best purchase value is Leprechaun:…
Seattle’s 4th annual Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF for short) opened its doors on Oct. 4, 2012 at 7:30 pm. The festival’s opener, Mon Ami (2012), played at 8:30 pm at the SIFF Film Center, located at Seattle Center, following a brief introduction from Festival Director Eric Morgret. MIFFF dedicates its programming to independent “genre” films and shorts that…
Review of direct-to-DVD film Hostel: Part III In the opening scene of the 2011 film Hostel: Part III (buy here) a young American backpacker, Travis, enters a dank hostel room. Surprise – it’s occupied by an attractive Ukrainian couple, Victor and Anka. Victor is hostile at first but soon lets his guard down and invites Travis to drink out…
Wes Craven’s 1989 film Shocker had a great concept, at least on paper. The idea of a mass murderer sentenced to death in the electric chair, only to come back stronger than before, is completely original and has loads of promise. There are any number of ways Craven could have woven this story to make for a compelling…
On Sept. 2, 2011 Zombie Diaries 2 (aka World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries, aka World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries 2, aka Zombie Diaries 2: World of the Dead) was released as a double feature with Hellraiser: Revelations for a limited theatrical run. Both films are distributed by Dimension Extreme, and both run somewhat short, so…
When I wrote this review of Chucky: The Killer DVD Collection on Sep. 22, 2011 the home release of the series was a bit confused. The original Child’s Play film had been released by MGM, while the sequels up until that time were released by Universal. At the time the two studios were unwilling to,…
On Sept. 2, 2011 Hellraiser: Revelations was released as a double feature with World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries (aka Zombie Diaries 2) for a limited theatrical run. Both films are distributed by Dimension Extreme, and both run somewhat short, so it was a savvy marketing decision to offer the two together as a double feature. Hellraiser: Revelations…
Final Destination 5: Is this the end? With the release of Final Destination 5 (purchase link) it’s a good time to look back at the series as a whole. 2000’s Final Destination was a breath of fresh air. The film was clearly marketable to the teen market, along with other horror flicks of the time, including Scream and I Know What…
The Night of the Living Dead films are unique in that they are explicitly political. George A. Romero injects his heavy-handed political commentary at every turn. You can enjoy a Dead film without accepting the social or political message, but you can’t ignore that there is one. Behind the blood and guts there is always some very pointed social…
Writer Charlie Kaufman seems to have a hard time dealing with reality. His newest film is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. As in Kaufman’s earlier films, the sleeper hits Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, a similar formula was used to create disjointed masterpieces of existential confusion and circular logic. Eternal Sunshine is a tale of love gone sour.…