Review: Mirrormask (2006)

Review: Mirrormask (2006)

By William Pattison

For Horror Bob’s Blog

This time I got a dark fantasy that was written by Neal Gaiman, the writer of Sandman….

Helena, a 15-year-old girl in a family of circus entertainers, often wishes she could run off and join real life. After a fight with her parents about her future plans, her mother falls quite ill and Helena is convinced that it is all her fault. On the eve of her mother's major surgery, she dreams that she is in a strange world with two opposing queens, bizarre creatures, and masked inhabitants. All is not well in this new world - the white queen has fallen ill and can only be restored by the MirrorMask, and it's up to Helena to find it. But as her adventures continue, she begins to wonder whether she's in a dream, or something far more sinister.

So, what do you get when you team the Henson company with Neal Gaiman? You get an overflow of unique creativity. This fantasy film is on another level when compared to other films in this genre. This film is actually unique when it comes to the work of Henson because it doesn’t rely on puppetry. I stead this film uses multiple styles of animation to create this world and its creatures. As well the music track for this film is extremely chaotic and experimental. It actually makes the music itself a character in this story.

Neal Giaman explores the concepts of duality as well as identity in that uniquely Giaman way and in that way makes this one of his more intriguing projects. This is one of Giaman’s works that doesn’t seem to get enough love. Mainly because this film is an insane mix of style, twisted creativity, with a strong dose of intellectuality that can be easily missed in all buy multilayered visuals. Still, this is a film you could watch a hundred times and still not catch everything. This one is truly one of Giaman’s best works.

This is a film that is a must see…

Keep on Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s Blog…

 

Review; Meridian, aka Meridian: Kiss of the Beast (1990)

Review: Meridian, aka Meridian: Kiss of the Beast (1990)

By William Pattison

For Horror Bob’s Blog

This time I’m reviewing Charles Band’s Beauty and Beast tale that was one of the opening Full .Moon Films.

An American heiress returns to her ancestral Italian castle where a traveling carnival brings performers who hide ancient evil beneath their smiles. Shadows pool in gothic arches as two women drink wine that burns with betrayal, their bodies becoming contested ground between a magician's hunger and a beast's cursed existence. The castle breathes with memory; portraits watch. Catherine moves through corridors where past and present bleed together, her inheritance proving more than stone and title. She must choose between breaking centuries of punishment or preserving her own survival.

 This was the second release from Charles Band’s newly formed Full Moon Pictures, after the popular Puppet Master. This was the only attempt to do a hard core fantasy film by Full Moon. It is also one of the better of the early Full Moon films with its dark fantasy, psycho sexual style

This film features the iconic Italian Park of Monsters, which was also featured in the classic Christopher Lee horror film Castle of the Living Dead. In many ways this film is a sequel to the Lee classic.

Sherilyn Fen plays Catherine, the kove interest of Oliver, aka The Beast. This film features an intense sex scene between Catherine and The Beast as well as a rape scene with Charlie Sprdling, who plays Catherine*s friend and will be the future Full Moon spokes girl.

Also, the beast costume was so well constructed that years later Francis Ford  Coppella reused it with a few minor alterations in Bram Stocker’s Dracula.

The only unfortunate thing about this film is the ending is so predictable and fast that it is so unsatisfying given the rest of the film. Also, unfortunate is that Full Moon bever did another dark fantasy film. The only film even close to this film is castle Freak and it is not even close to the style of this film.

So, if you want to see a rare attempt by Charles Band to do dark fantacy this is your film.

Keep on Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s Blog…

Review: Frankenstein Island (1981)

Review; Frankenstein Island (1981)

By William Pattison

For Horror Bob’s Blog

This time I got a 1981 Frankenstein film that stars John Carradine

Frankenstein Island (1981

When a hot air balloon crashes on a remote island, the crew discovers Dr. Frankenstein's descendant, Dr. Sheila Frankenstein, carrying on the family work, along with a race of mutants and a population of Amazon warriors. Somehow, the Frankenstein Monster is also thrown into the mix.

If there was ever a film that entiplifies the word absurd this is the film. The fact that this film was made and came out in the era that brought us Star Wars and ET shows just how insane this film is because this film is literally a film that is out of time. It is a film that should have come out on the late 60s, not 1981. The production values, music, storyline, andacting look at least 15 years out of date .

One time horror icons John Carradine and Cameron Michelle had to have been royally in need of money to have accepted the roles they ended up with. John Carradine plays Doctor Frankenstein, who is now a cult leader who has died and cames back as a projectíon who spouts monologues. Cameron Mitchelle plays a crazy man who spouts quotes from Edgar Allen Poe and morns his dead Lenore and stalks one of the tribal women that supposedly looks like her

Oh, and Frankenstein’s monster shows up atOne point for no good reason, but it is the best part of the movie bevause the gentleman who was playing the monster did a picture perfect performance of the classic James Whales Frankenstein monster. Boris Karloff what be proud. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is just plain weird and badly acted and produced. This film is FRANKENFREAKY and you will need a ton of pot and acid to make sense of this funky throwback to the time when hippies ruled the world…in no ways an 80s film…

Keep on Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s Blog…

Review: The Last Frankenstein (2021)

Review: The Last Frankenstein (2021)

By William Pattison

For Horror Bob’s Blog

This time I’m reviewing an independent low budget Frankenstien film I’ve never heard about, which is rare…Oh boy!

Buried in a dormant life and a dead end relationship, Dr. Jason Frankenstein, the last of his family, finds himself frustratingly approaching the middle of his life with little progress to show towards carrying forward his family's experiment. But after a creature from his past brutally re-enters his life, he is catalyzed to finally complete his work. With the help of a pair of drug dealing paramedics and a nurse with a shady past, he sets down the blood-soaked path to create a living being from the bodies of the dead.

Now just to let you know I’m a Frankenstein fanatic. I love Frankenstein films. I love a serious Frankenstein film. I love tacky, freaky Frankenstein films. I’ve  never found a Frankenstein film that didn’t entertain me, until today…

This film is a boring, slow paced, mess with no talent, except for the poor camera man who did an excellent job shooting this turd. The acting is wooden. The main character and the guy playing him is a hopeless loser. Seriously, this guy played the part with no heart at all. He was just speaking lines. He is supposed to be married but there was nothing there. And, when it came down to it it was the same with even the guys playing the creatures in the film, though the last one did a little better, which isn’t saying much.

And, speaking about the creatures, they were all guys wearing cheap masks. There was no real attempt at making a creature worthy of the name Frankenstein.

To put it simply this film was a horrible waste of time and a blatant insult to the title of Frankenstein. This film is royally FRANKENSHIT!!! Avoid like the plague..

Keep on Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s Blog…

Review: Hellraiser Rebute (2022)

Review: Hellraiser Rebute (2022)

By William Pattison

For Horror Bob’s Blog

Ok, now we finish our marathon of Hellraiser reviews with the Hulu Hellraiser Rebute.

Haunted by pain and guilt, Riley has struggled for years to break her addictions. After a heated argument with her brother, she and her boyfriend stumble upon a mysterious box in an abandoned storage warehouse. Convinced they have struck gold, their early retirement plan takes a dark turn when Riley unwittingly unlocks its secrets. Suddenly, people around her start to vanish or die. As she uncovers a disturbing connection between the artefact and a shady American investor with a penchant for the occult, Riley uncovers a terrifying truth: the enigmatic object serves as a gateway for the Hell Priestess and the Cenobites. With exquisite suffering as the ultimate reward, what if one person's angels are another's demons?

After the disastrous period Hellraiser needed a well deserved Rebute and Hulu has done this brilliantly.

For one thing they have given us reimagined Cenobites that far more resemble the ones in Clive Barker’s bovella. Their “clothing” is actually made from their own skin. The Hell Priest is actually played by  transsexual actress, Jamie Clayton,  makes her Pinhead not really either gender, like in the.story. all the other Cenobites, including an updated Chatterer are some of the best put on screen in years.

Even the iconic puzzle box is updated. Now the box marks its victims by cutting them and drawing blood. Also this box radically changes its shat with each use. As well in this version of the puzzle also requires sacrifices as well. And, at the end the survivor of the puzzle gets a choice of fates, but in this game nothing is as expected.

What this film strongly reminds me of is the remake of Evil Dead in that it is clearly Hellraiser but it is enhanced and in some ways more brutal. It is the perfect Rebute after all the damage done to the franchise by Dimension. I really see if handled by the correct hand this could lead to Hellraiser being better than ever. The pain could be wonderous!

If you are a Hellraiser fan, this is the film you’ve been waiting years for.

Keep on Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s blog…

 

Review:Hellraiser Judgement (2018)

Review: Hellraiser Judgement (2018)

By William Pattison

For Horror Bob’s Blog

Now it is my pleasure to review the final Dimension Hellraiser film.

Hellraiser: Judgment (2018)

 

Detectives Sean and David Carter are on the case, to hunt down a gruesome serial killer terrorising the city. Joining forces with Detective Christine Egerton, they dig deeper into a spiralling maze of horror that may not be of this world. Could the judgement awaiting the killer's victims also be waiting for Sean and can he survive Leviathan’s Cult of Judgement?

I am of two minds when it comes to this film. I really find the new group of Cenobites, The Cult of Judgement, interesting and a breath of fresh. I also like that in this film we firmly establish that there is more than one Hell Priest in Hell since the one in the cult is clearly not the Pinhead we’ve known, which also helps my head canon with Hellraiser Revelations and the fat Pinhead.

I really like the Hell Proest in this film. He is a lot like our old Pinhead but there are enough differences, shit his costume is different. He seems to be Leviathan’s contact person between it and the cult. I really liked that.

I also liked the unique way the cult serves Leviathan. Their methods and goals are different from The Gash. They seduce extremely evil people and through putting them through the tests of Judgement they determine if the person’s soul is worthy of Hell. A plain old naughty person isn’t enough. They want prime evilness to brim to their master, basically they are the Gordon Rameses of Hell. Good stuff in my book.

What I hated about this film was that the serial killer in this film was a carbon copy of the killer in SEVEN. Come on people! You give us a total new group of Cenobites but get cheap with the killer. I was pissed and disappointed when I saw this. This film could have saved Hellraiser and steered it in a new direction with a new set of Cenobites. Also, in this film they brought in the angels and did something very interesting with that plot line, but spoilers… let’s  just say Heaven isn’t put in a good light.

The ending of this film was a lost opportunity that would have made an interesting next film, but allas.

All in all as a Hellraiser film this one is ok. It kind of reminded me of the original Hellraiser comics where they played with the mythos in interesting ways. But this film does not have the strength nor brutalness to reenergize the series. We’d  have to wait for the reboot for that…

Keep on Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s Blog…

 

 

Review:Hellraiser Revelations (2011)

Review:Hellraiser Revelations( 2011)

By William Pattison

For Horror Bob’s Blog…

This time we got the first domension Hellraiser film to get a theatrical release, unfortunately..

Hellraiser: Revelations (2011)

 

In search of adventure, American friends Steven and Nico document their road trip to Tijuana on camera. However, they are in for a nasty surprise. At a local bar, a stranger gives them a puzzle cube, promising extraordinary experiences to those who can solve it. Instead, the two friends vanish without a trace. A year later, their grieving relatives gather for dinner, having long abandoned hope of ever seeing their boys again. Pretty soon, they discover firsthand that some doors are best left closed. With disturbing raw footage revealing that pain is the ultimate pleasure, and the interdimensional Cenobites at their doorstep, are they prepared for an eternity of suffering at Pinhead's hands?

The only good thing about this film is it was a film meant to be a Hellraiser film. The bad part was this film was only made to keep the Hellraiser copyright with Dimension. The production was rushed and the budget was cut so bad that this film actually looks like a bad fan film. Also because the budget was cut they only offered Doug Bradley the insulting amount of only $3,000 to play Pinhead. Doug told them to shove it. He had had enough.

So, Dimension hired actor Stephen Smith Collins for the part of Pinhead. This was a mistake because Collins bore no resemblance to Bradey in voice,  facial structure, or even body type.on top of that because of the budget Collins wore a  cheap Pinhead costume that was actually rented from a costume shop making him look fat in the illfitting outfit. The other Cenobites didn’t care better. The Chatterer wore a cheap mask that didn’t allow his teeth to   chatter. The only new Cenobyte the Nailhead had to wear an extra production Chatterer body suit that didn’t fit.

Though the film was clearly a Hellraiser scrip it didn’t expand the mythos and in fact reused ideas from Hellraiser and Hellbound.

The acting in the film matched the fan film quality of the rest of the production.

So, just to end the pain, if you love fan films you might get a bit of enjoyment, but if you are looking for a true Hellraiser experience it’s time to bring out those mind altering drugs yet again…NOW IT’S A PARTY!!!

Keep On Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s Blog…