Category Archives: Evil Reviews

Reviews are important to read because what if you want to pick up an off-the-wall film and have no idea what to expect? Well, I just might have it in the review vault….

Ready to Choke on Evil? “Collar” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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Rookie officer Dana starts her shift as usual and like any other night patrolling with her partner the drug dealt and working girl streets of the city. Responding to a working girl assault behind a pharmacy leads Dana down a path of violence, torture, rape, and cannibalism. A wandering drifter murders her partner and forces a leashed collar around her neck, raping her repeatedly, and subjecting her to his lunacy. Who will come to her rescue? Her pregnant lesbian girlfriend? The drug dealing pimp and his prostitute? Or will it be the two violence junkies looking to record every detailed of the wanderer?
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Director Ryan Nicholson, better known for his directorial of the 80’s slasher-homage film “Gutterballs,” pens and helms a disturbing look into the soul of a massive killer whose background involves clergy abuse leads him to renounce film, take up Satanist rituals, and reek havoc amongst anybody who stands in his way. Genre vet Nick Principe (Chromesull from the “Laid to Rest” films) dons the garbage-clad homeless man look and uses his gargantuan build to create the character of Massive, a stricken man living off abusive fears and a re-wired mental state where killing, raping, and chowing down on human hearts is all he knows.
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But where Massive’s rampage stems from his backstory narrated by flashbacks to explain his intentions, his hunger for hearts can be only guessed at for his rituals for Satan. That’s the whole state of “Collar,’ where the motivation is a guessing game and instead, “Collar” also realistically reveals a more perversive farce to not only Massive’s maniacal being, but to also the surrounding stereotyped characters begging to become dead meat at the hands of Massive. Not one single character to put stock into leaves more than a bad taste and we circle back around to the only character for whom to root for and that would be Massive. Even Dana, our supposed heroine according to the synopsis, isn’t a tough cop. Dana gives up almost immediately to Massive and doesn’t fight back agains’t her rape and doesn’t fight for her survival. Instead, Dana whimpers and cowers, too afraid to take on the brute who gutted her partner and ate his heart.
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Gore is where the film flourishes but, sadly, that is where the blooming ends. “Collar” is a ride at an amusement park that looks so thrilling, so exciting, so stimulating that you’re thirst to ride can hardly be quenched, but when the ride comes to an end and you’re walking out the ride’s gate, you grumble under your breath becomes you’ve been lied to because the fierce facade of the ride was only a mask, a smoke and mirror, to lure you into a mediocre experience. That’s how I felt after viewing “Collar.” The promising cover and a synopsis had to drooling from the mouth, but the girth, the heart and soul, didn’t thrill me nor excite me – well maybe Aiden Dee and Mihola Terzic’s nude scenes might have perked me up a tad and gave me a thrill somewhere.
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Positives due reside in Ryan Nicholson’s “Collar.” Chillwave snyth music from Protector 101 (http//protector101.bandcamp.com) puts the work in for the score at the beginning and ending credits creating a retro vibe that might suit Nicholson’s “Gutterballs” than “Collar.” Unearthed Films is a particular film label that you can expect some nasty, gore and shock films from and “Collar” certainly fits the mold, but as of late the quality of the films have diminished and not so much the storyline but also on the technical side. The ambiance score drowns out too many scenes wroth of dialogue making the dialogue totally inaudible.

“Collar” is a short 77 minute film of one man’s distaste for humanity and to deliver evil amongst all. Certainly an anti-religion, or anti-clergyman, film sparking more controversy than entertainment when consisting of three rape scenes, multiple eaten hearts, unhelpful voyeurs, and a savor for vengeful justice. “Collar” hits retail shelves November 18.

Evil Is Only Skin Deep! “Skinless” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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I’ve been following Dustin Mills and his films for quite some time now. From the ambitious, multi-role Zombie A-Hole to the from actual news to your for your home entertainment Bath Salt Zombies, producer, writer, and director Dustin Mills has all the makings of a great independent director. The latest indie feat for the ambitious director is “Skinless,” a fierce and grotesque body horror film that sparks a familiar resemblance to a certain David Cronenberg film but with more ooze and goo that will leave a sticky, slimy aftertaste sensation that makes the film difficult to look away from yet still hard to wash off once the credits roll.
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“Skinless” revolves around brilliant scientist Dr. Peter Peele who suffers from a terminal condition of the cancerous melanoma. His only hope is a flesh-eating enzyme from an exotic worm. Peter’s research partner, Dr. Alice Cross, genetically modify’s the enzyme to attack only cancer cells. When Peter and Alice are refused backing funds for the project, Peter turns to a more radical approach to use his own body as a test subject even at Alice’s stern disapproval. The enzyme worked as the cancer cells were stricken from Peter’s body, but at the cost of losing all of his flesh and going through a metamorphose that drives Peter into a murderous monster.
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It’s icky. It’s sticky. It’ll have your skin crawling literally of your muscle tissue. Dustin Mills and his body horror entry proves that heart still exists in independent films today. Brandon Salkil and Erin R. Ryan, a regular cast of actors used by Dustin Mills, star as Dr. Peter Peele and Dr. Alice Cross. These two have chemistry on screen making chemistry. Salkil co-wrote the script with Mills making his character, pre- and post- metamorphose, into completely separate entities. There is a serious tone change in Dr. Peele that results in Dr. Cross to change with him in the second act of this two act film. What I like about Salkil is his style of acting, much like his other roles in previous Mills’ work, resembles a “Dumb and Dumber” Lloyd Christmas from an alternative universe – fairly silly with a realistic handle and grip of tension and hostility.
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Once you view “Skinless”, you might feel like you’ve had a dose of deja vu. I know I did. I started to compare “Skinless” to David Cronenberg’s remake of “The Fly” in which Jeff Goldblum plays an inventory who develops a transporter, uses himself as the first test subject, and has his DNA infused with a fly’s DNA. Much of the same qualities from “The Fly” are transposed to “Skinless” from the projectile digestive acids to the transforming fly-like-ticks each character develops through the metabolical change. Was “The Fly” a big inspiration for “Skinless?” I would like to think so since the evidence is hard to ignore, but is this an intentional homage or a re-write flying below the bar?
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Any way you dissect it, one can’t deny the special effects from the crew with one name to mention in Brandon’s Salkil’s wife – Sherriah. There’s something to be said for creativity and invention in body horror films because without the transformation of Dr. Peele to this skinless, fleshing eating thing, you would literally have no movie. Some of the puppetry might some dated and cheesy, but campy and still can put a ripple up your spine to think and feel like you’re going through the flesh-deducing change yourself.
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Whacked Movies and MVD bring you the latest and greatest of Dustin Mills Productions with “Skinless.” Check it out on DVD on November 18 and watch this sleazy take on a gory-glorified body horror film.

 

 

Syfy’s “Z Nation” S1Ep8 ‘Zunami’

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Murphy has put himself the blurred line category when speaking of heros for “Z Nation.” Episode eight, ‘Zunami,’ pits our heros against a migrated cloud of fleshing eating zombies that will rip through the midwest like a shredder. A dehydrated and weary group of survivors must rely on Murphy’s anti-zombie blood to aid them in their con of hiding from the human-feasters.
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This episode is really all about the Murphy character and his choices. He crosses the line in actually wanting to stick with the group, but at the same time makes a drastic decision to exhaust the life of two survivors to spare his own group. Now not only is Murphy slowly and painfully transforming physically and mentally into a Z, he’s crossed that imaginary line of morals and ethics by taking a life indirectly.

Citizen Z finally received a lot of air time. I was wondering when isolation would get the best of our scrawny NSA agent. Isolation and a compound load of harmful, delusion inducing carbon-monoxide gases. The outcome was obvious, but there whole invent of the imaginary astronaut for ISS sparked something in Citizen Z and at the same depressed him a bit as well. His “astronaut friend’s” realization was a bit bittersweet.
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This episode paid their dues to Murphy and Citizen Z characters. I’m still waiting on more exquisite and gory zombie death scenes. We haven’t seen much since ‘Philly Feast.’ Yea, you get the occasional headshot, but that’s getting old real quick. In fact, this episode lacked many deaths I think only one or two if I recall. I hope that this will deter any viewers and I also hope that this isn’t a decline from a very spectacular start of episodes for “Z Nation”

Evil Review: The Evil Within

Posted by EvilGamer on

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So I was going to do a video review of this on our Youtube channel but I just haven’t had the time to record or edit so I’ll just write my review here. Before the review I’ll like to wish all of you a Happy Halloween! Watch horror movies or do what I’ll do tonight, play horror games! Anyway lets talk about The Evil Within, this game had to be my most anticipated game of the year. I was so excited when I heard that Shinji Mikami was coming back to horror, that I could hardly wait. For those who don’t know who Shinji is, he is the original director of the Resident Evil games, he pretty much created Resident Evil but unfortunately his last one was Resident Evil 4 and I’m sure you can tell it was his last because all Resident Evil games after that were terrible. So Shinji has put together his own development team, partnered up with Bethesda and gave us The Evil Within.

In the game you play as Sebastian Castellanos, a detective of the Krimson city police department. After a dispatch call, Sebastian and his team go to investigate a gruesome massacre at the Beacon Mental hospital but is later lured into a nightmarish world. The first thing you’ll notice in the game is that the graphics are very well done. The lighting is probably the best I’ve seen in a horror game and it sets the mood very well in the environment around you. Character and monster designs are excellent, environments were detailed and gritty, and the gore physics oh the gore physics were awesome! If you love blood and guts then this game has it, but If you can’t handle the sight of it well then there is an option for you lower the blood but wheres the fun in that?

Character development in the game is good but VERY limited, you won’t learn shit about the characters unless you collect documents scattered throughout the game. Sebastian’s back story only unfolds through documents and letters you find and the same goes for the main antagonist Ruvik, who may I add is my favorite character in the game. He is voiced by Jackie Earle Haley and he does a fantastic job. Ruvik also acts as the nemesis of the game, if you have played Resident Evil 3 and you remember that nemesis would chase you at random moments of the game, well Ruvik will do the same. He will randomly spawn in the world and chase your character. The story of the game is very unique but It is confusing as hell, you will not know ANYTHING about the game on your first play through. You will need to research and play through the game several times to understand the story.

Now this game is BRUTAL it is hard, if you think this game is easy and you can get through it without dying well your wrong. You will die a lot in this game, it is punishing and some times just plain out fucking you up. Minor enemies of the game can be difficult, even in small groups they can over power you, I can say that I have died a total of 65 times in the entire game and there is a total of 15 chapters. There is an upgrade system in the game where you can upgrade your weapons, abilities, inventory, etc. In order for you to upgrade your character you will need ”green gel” which you get as rewards for defeating enemies and bosses.

For everything that is good about this game there are of course some minor things I didn’t much care for. First thing is that there is a season pass. Now I hate when companies announce downloadable content before the game is even released and they try to sell us a season pass. You can thank games like Battlefield with it’s Premium passes and Call of duty for my hatred of season passes. But the good thing about the Evil Within’s season pass is that you get three upcoming expansions for $20 so I have to admit that’s pretty good. The second thing that isn’t really a bad thing but it just threw me off is that the game is always in a widescreen mode. Like when you play a DVD and it’ll ask you if you want to watch in wide screen, well that’s what the game is doing. It has a bar up top and a bar at the bottom, not sure why they added this, I guess for a more cinematic experience but either way I hope they patch it to where you can disable it. Now the the thing that I’m really getting tired of seeing in horror games, especially Resident Evil is the damn chainsaw enemies. I’m so sick of chainsaw enemies I know that they were scary in Resident Evil 4 but they just aren’t scary anymore because Capcom milked that same tactic over and over again. I hope Shinji doesn’t bring back these stupid chainsaw enemies in a sequel. The final problem I had with the game is it’s lack off true horror. It may have a creepy atmosphere but for a veteran horror gamer like me, it just didn’t deliver that feeling of terror and fear of what will happen next.

Before I give my personal rating of the game I’m going to change how I rate these games. So now I will rate them from 1 to 10 so for the The Evil Within I’m going to give it a very high 8/10. It is a very good game and it is worth playing, especially if your a big Shinji Mikami fan like me.

AMC’s “The Walking Dead” S5Ep3 ‘Four Walls and a Roof’

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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As one chapter closes, another opens when Rick faces off agains’t what’s left of Terminus and Daryl and Carol discover a whole new dire situation. Bob has been returned to the group sans a leg and informs Rick and company that his time is near as he was also bit on a run. Poor Bob. Lawrence Gilliard Jr. will be missed as Bob Stookey, a level headed, positive thinker who gave much of the group hope. His alcoholic and lonely past turned for the better when he met the group. He was a shining example all that was potentially good. Well, a good thing can’t last forever as this episode hints.

I’m a bit glad that Gareth, played by Andrew J. West, wasn’t another Governor character. Instead, Gareth becomes a short lived catalyst vehicle that may or may not have split Rick’s group into two halves – one half doesn’t trust anybody new and becomes violent against the against the grain riders and then there are those who believe everybody is good and you just have to sift through that darkness. Carl and Rick are the prime examples of each category which will make for good television later on in the series because I’m sure Carl will once again blame his dad Rick for something. However, Rick has been right for most of the show’s life.

I’m still curious about Father Gabriel. His guilt runs deep, but how did he survive for so long being a coward. Rick still doesn’t trust him, but Father Gabriel didn’t rat out the group with Terminus hooligans make their threatening entrance into the church looking for revenge blood. However, Rick decided he was going to keep his promise to Gareth and Sasha had some revenge on her mind against Terminus folks as well.

Next episode will be something we haven’t seen before; a new group of foes unlike the show has ever given us. We’ll find out what happened to Beth and where Carol and Daryl discovers her. This should be interesting as this gives Rick and his group a new path and takes them off their now stagnant stay at the Church and leave Terminus in the past for good.