Bad Kids Go To Hell (2009)

Bad Kids Go To Hell isn't stupefyingly bad but it is dull as it plods along at a snail's pace with no scares, shocks or even laughs. It picks up a little steam towards the end when the somewhat complicated plot is wrapped up but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone...although I see there is now a sequel. Go know.

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Plague (2014)

Plague is not The Walking Dead or a Romero type zombie film. It's more about the disintegration of a marriage due to the circumstances of the unidentified (but zombie-creating) bacteria. The acting is decent and the script well-formed so if you're into a (Harold) Pinter-esque take on the zombie apocalypse then Plague is for you.

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Odd Thomas (2013)

I hadn't heard of the Dean Koontz book Odd Thomas but when I saw his name attached I figured how bad could it be. Well, it's a great occult mystery that has a few layers at it's core, excellent acting, involving characters, and the scary/comic tone of Zombieland. Nicely written and directed by Stephen Sommers, it also seems like we haven't seen the last of Odd.

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Let There Be Zombies (2014)

Let There Be Zombies is a decent B-flick (on Amazon Prime now) with a script that has some characterization and is not laden with ridiculous actions by the protagonists. It's definitely a funny zombie movie although some of the jokes fall flat, and it's obvious writer/director Andrew Patterson knows his genre as there were shots that seemed direct homages to Night of the Living Dead. It's not scary and it's not very bloody but I still got drawn in by the story and the actors - who were very good in their respective roles - and it's got that social commentary thing running through it.

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Housebound (2014)

It's not often that I want to watch a movie again right after I've seen it for the first time but that's exactly what I did with Housebound, the fantastically funny horror film from New Zealand written and directed by Gerard Johnstone. Morgana O'Reilly and Rima Te Wiata are spot on as a mother and daughter forced to spend eight months together in their haunted, childhood home. In spite of (or because of) the story cues from ABC Movie Of The Week, it is an almost perfect movie.

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Billy Club (2013)

Billy Club is not earth-shatteringly bad or resoundingly refined. It's a typical revenge slasher film with a denouement I've seen before. It wasn't badly filmed, kept my attention (especially the truck kissing scene with writer/director/actor Nick Sommer) and had a premise about bullying but that's all I got.

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Rebound (2013)

Although Rebound starts out as cheesy crap (despite the bra on the girl in the sex scene), it definitely proved itself as worthy of attention. I was never sure who was the bad guy and once the answer was clear it still went in a number of atypical directions. It doesn't break any new ground but writer/director Megan Freels creates a creepy movie with some nice camera work; certainly worth a watch for those into the horror genre.

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The Cottage (2012)

Wow, David Arquette must really need the money for alimony and child support to have taken the lead role as a Manson-like pedophile in The Cottage, a cinematic piece of shit posing as a Lifetime drama. The script is misogynistic, the characters and situations stock, and the only redeeming values are the cottage (a beautiful property on which most of the movie takes place), Arquette's nude swim and the little seen movie poster in the style of Saul Bass. I posted a JPG and created a triptych so you can go on with your day.

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Scourge (2008)

Scourge doesn't trod any new ground but it's decently involving and the titular corrigia, created using CGI, was well-done. For this type of B-movie the script could've been worse and the acting was decent; when the femme lead was fighting the corrigia she actually looked like she was fighting the corrigia - in spite of the fact that she was fighting nothing. It might've been better had the movie answered some of the questions asked by the characters themselves regarding the corrigia (which means shoelace while scourge means whip) but you can't have it all.

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The Uninvited (1944)

1944's supernatural tale The Uninvited isn't the most horrifying ghost story but it does have the following things going for it:

• Charles Lang's Oscar-nominated cinematography
• Gail Russell's performance as Stella By Starlight (the pop standard based on the movie's theme)
• a story that engrosses up to the somewhat unexpected denouement
• a hint of mid-40s lesbianism offered up by Cornelia Otis Skinner

With Russell, Skinner and Ruth Hussey, Ray Milland comes off even more bland than usual, and frankly a little ridiculous. Fortunately though, we can watch Russell as she takes over the screen with her bedroom eyes, full lips and hauntingly delicate performance - 17 years before she died from alcoholism at the age of 36.

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The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)

The Taking of Deborah Logan is a somewhat original yet involving horror film about an Alzheimer's patient who turns out to have more afflictions than her diagnosis portends. The acting is outstanding especially Jill Larson (All My Children) in the title role, Anne Ramsay (Mad About You) as her daughter and Michelle Ang as the filmmaker documenting Deborah's illness. Some twists and a particularly creepy end to this 2014 film (now streaming on Netflix) make this perfect for a dark and stormy night.

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The Sacrament (2013)

I thought The Sacrament was going to be a trashy, found-footage reenactment of the Jim Jones massacre at Jonestown (in 1978) but it turned out to be mesmerizing with a horrifying script and some incredible acting. Despite Eli Roth's name attached as presenter it is not a horror film; in fact, it brought to mind John Frankenheimer's Seconds which I had seen the week before. Gene Jones and Amy Seimetz, in particular, are excellent as the fanatic cult leader and his paramour but kudos go out to all the cast and crew (especially multi-hyphenate Ti West) for, if not helping us to understand these peoples' actions, putting them into a perspective.

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Seconds (1966)

Rock Hudson has always seemed more a (cardboard) personality than an actor but he does acquit nicely in the somewhat squirm-inducing John Frankenheimer science fiction film Seconds - and he only appears in the last two thirds! Seconds is not an ordinary movie; it contains themes that are au courant, was filmed stunningly in black and white by James Wong Howe, and directed tautly by Frankenheimer. Any more details will spoil the unfolding horror so watch it cold for an indelible and harrowing experience.

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Sugar Hill (1974)

Marki Bey sizzles the celluloid (bits?) as Sugar Hill in this 1974 voodoo-zombie-revenge thriller that reminded me of the structure of the female revenge thriller I Spit On Your Grave. And, of course, there's Zara Cully as Mama Matrisse the voodoo queen - a few years before hitting the big time as Mother Jefferson in the iconic television series. It's not bloody because the zombies are not the flesh-eating kind; that said, the zombies look kind of ridiculous but the movie is fun and well-acted and you might recognize a few other actors before they became more prominent in Hollywood pictures.

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The Conjuring (2013)

The Conjuring is an intriguing and (somewhat) engrossing take on demons and exorcism. The film makers did their home work in one respect because there are bits and pieces of every demonic possession movie I've ever seen integrated into this story. In another respect no homework was done: being a pastiche, the threads in the story should be invisible, not black.

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The Happiness Of The Katakuris (2002)

The Happiness Of The Katakuris begins as claymation and ends as a wonderfully imaginative zombie musical. The musical works because the central characters are developed and the story (of a family trying to market their bed and breakfast) is not an afterthought to the zombies. Director Takashi Miike (of Audition and The Ichi Killer) has created an entrancing mashup of The Sound Of Music and Night Of The Living Dead; its surreality is beyond mere description and deserves a look.

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World War Z (2013)

First and foremost, World War Z is not a zombie movie but more of an international thriller with zombies. I use thriller loosely because there's not many thrills in it although the computer-generated wall-crawling zombies are decent enough. Brad Pitt and company have created a treacly family story out of Max Brooks' report so if you want to lose yourself in zombie realness, read the book instead.

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Devil's Playground (2010)

Devil's Playground has precious little to do with the devil and everything to do with Danny Boyle's living zombie flick 28 Days Later. You might also add a pinch of Doomsday as the characters fight to bring Angela (who has immunity to this version of the rage virus) to safety. I fell asleep at the end but I would assume she's being tested in some laboratory right about now.

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The Lords Of Salem (2012)

Rob Zombie has tried, with The Lords of Salem, to make a movie you can take grandma to see. To be sure we're talking teen birth grandmas but this story of Salem witches, a somewhat bizarro mashup of Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby and Mario Bava's Black Sunday, is an attempt on the director's part to stretch as a filmmaker, make something less horrific and broaden his audience. The jury is out on the latter because the movie's just not consistently interesting OR scary (although a great game of guessing the actors not seen in decades did help pass the time: Meg Foster, Dee Wallace and sweet holy mother of god academy on i love jesus street Judy Geeson aka Miss Pamela Dare).

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Evil Dead (2013)

I'm not sure when hacking off infected body parts yet surviving to fight evil became a horror film staple but Evil Dead hacks and survives in droves. It adds even more unbelievability to this remake of 1981's The Evil Dead while the new back story adds nothing (unlike the remake of The Hills Have Eyes). There are plenty of homages to the original (from the cellar to the tree to the chainsaw) so watch the original instead for frights and laughs - two things it has in droves.

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