I finally had the opportunity to watch the fourth episode of The Following last night on On Demand – trying to catch up is harder to do when there are a billion other shows on your plate. Anyway, enough of my problems and lets move on to Ryan Hardy’s issues. Episode four was probably my least favorite so far because the majority of the episode was the focus on Ryan Hardy’s past – his off and on relationship with his sister Jenny, his deadly cursed family, and his inner morality battles in being with Claire (Joe’s Carroll’s ex-wife). Though knowing more about Hardy’s tragic and sad personal background is important for the premises is key and the way Hardy’s life comes to light is executed well with heart pounding emotion.
Unlike the last three episodes, the blood hardly flows in this one – no gruesome deaths. Instead, one victim receives a flesh wound and the other victim dies of a fatal gunshot, but we are subjected to neat form of torture by the use of magnets! The human body, especially Ryan Hardy’s, is a unique machine and that scene will makes us all feel a little bit weaker.
Like I’ve been writing about, this episode is all about emotions and especially between the three kidnappers of little Joey Carroll. After some deceptions and tensions, the three stick with each other and decide to “share” each other, if you know what I mean. The two who have killed before will not give up on the one who lied about killing before and this will make for some interesting dynamic.
Lets all hope that the next episode can fulfill the body quota the first three had while continuing to be studded down with a heavy heart! Until next Monday, or for me, next Thursday, keep watching!
Almost a year ago, do you remember the real life face-eating cannibal Rudy Eugene due to, unconfirmed, street drug nicknamed “bath salts?” Eugene basically left his disabled vehicle near a Miami causeway, stripped completely butt-ass naked, and assaulted one Ronald Poppo by beating him down to the ground, stripping off his homeless man trousers, and proceeding to munch on the upper portion of his face. A real life zombie? Most likely not, but the more probably cause would be high as a kite on drugs, making him insane and almost superhuman-like. Reportedly, the attack went on for nearly 20 minutes and police even shot Eugene four times.
Not in the film, but I wanted you to have an idea of what to expect!
A year later, ambitious filmmakers came together with the “Miami Zombie” inspiration in mind and made a highly exaggerated, or was it, loosely based film about drug addicts turning into face biting zombies after smoking a bath salt resembler that is actually concocted from a highly toxic, military grade, weaponized substance that somehow mysteriously disappeared from the military’s inventory. Hot on the destructive addict’s tail is a relentless DEA agent who will stop at nothing to put an end to reign of bath salt terror!
Who are these ambitious filmmakers? And how the hell did they pull off a great fun and creative movie about the bath salt “Miami Zombie?” First off, the team of creators and actors behind that fantastic little Faustian film Night of the Tentacles were involved! Dustin Wayde Mills, whom very uncanny in looks and voice resembles Red State director Kevin Smith, directs, co-wrote, and also co-stars as the money hungry mad scientist behind the bath salt concoction. Night of the Tentacles lead man Brandon Salkil who is comically animated and has great facial features for film. Secondly, my main man Clint Weiler produced and co-wrote Bath Salt Zombies. Clint is also a head hancho over at MVD, a major home entertainment distributor for music and DVD video!
Bath Salt Zombies combines 300 with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. You have the epic fight scenes, done very well by the way with well done choreographs by co-star Jason Eal (DEA agent), with the Scott Pilgrim like animations that turn a cheesy premises into the next big indie cult film – the next Dead Next Door comes to mind. Now, I could be wrong, but I found that Bath Salt Zombies paid homage to a couple of other notable horror and action icons such as the first Resident Evil video game in the mini-cartoon intro at the beginning reminded me of first appearance of a zombie and the subway fight finale reminded me of Neo and Agent Smith duking it out in the first Matrix. However, Bath Salt Zombies delivers more blood and more creative style with the budget.
What I really wanted more from this film was Erin R. Ryan’s twins in the shower. Along with Ryan’s ta tas, Bath Salt Zombies offers other perks such as a fully frontal 4 minute scene of DeviantArt and Model Mayhem model Bella Demente! You also have a great punk Soundtrack to go along with the spew of blood, the elastic internal organs, the dismembered body parts, and the multiple decapitations. I highly recommend this movie to any comedy, horror, or drug addict fan because Bath Salt Zombies entertains with a blood, boobs and banter that hasn’t been this witty for a indie film in such a long, long time! Well played!
Brand spanking new trailer for The Lords of Salem by shock rocker Rob Zombie has landed! The first teaser was incoherent and messy, but this official trailer looks astounding and epic. Epic may not be the correct terminology because I don’t think Zombie would want his work to be described as “epic,” but the trailer did make his latest film seem very so.
Sherri Moon plays a Heidi, a local DJ who plays a mysterious record backwards that sparks trauma and bizarre violent flashbacks of the town’s past. I’m loving more and more that Zombie is back with original work. The Lords of Salem will be in theaters 4-19-13 and don’t forget about his new album hitting shelves shortly after 4-23-13 Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor! Hell yeah.
Remember my video post a few days back? (See Evil Mail Call! post) You just recall me blabbing about Lethal Ninja (aka For Hire), you know, the Blue Laser title DVD with a really neat retro nineties look with a white boy ninja, holding a sai and is reflecting a half naked woman? Well, I had the time to pop in the disk and try to see how lethal this white nina with a mullet really is?
Chinatown is overrun by kung-fu expert gangs who are controlled by the mob. The mayor weak footed stance has him unsure about what to do and it doesn’t help matters if the cops don’t want to patrol Chinatown in fear of losing their lives. The mayor receives mysterious notes at every turn and read “For Hire” and a 555 telephone number. The mayor mustards up his last bit of hope and calls the For Hire number. J.D. Makay answers the mayor’s prayers as he uses his ninja abilities to clean up Chinatown from the foot troops to the head of management, but at the stake of the mayor’s family.
We begin Lethal Ninja with early nineties hip-hop james and dancing then a gang comes up and starts to throw fake punches, knocking people down. All this happens even with the hip-hop band still sings and dances turning it into an In Living Color musical introduction. This is just one of the instances that doesn’t make sense in this direct-to-video film. We have random imagery of J.D. Makay practicing his movie hyped ninja moves. Every time a for hire card is exposed, J.D. Makay throws a karate chop or a round house kick. What scene really disturbed me was when Bambi Swayze, who plays as Rachel – family friend to the mayor and his family – is riding the main boss’s crotch. He twists his lips and eyes into some contorted mess that I can’t really explain what is really going on. He chants “obey me” while images of his son Sonny come on and off the screen. Oh, and by the way, Sonny is shot in the gut in the cemetery scene and still lives and is walking around just fine. Literally, shot in the guy with the bullet going through his body leaving a bloody shirt tail at his back. But that twisted face will leave me with nightmares for the rest of my days.
The character J.D. Makay just isn’t an assured action hero. He can’t seem to protect the mayor’s family, he is saved a quite a few times by the mayor’s youngest boy, and can’t even tell that a cross-dressing hit man creeping around the burial ceremony. Makay’s skills are a joke. If I put Barney Fife in the Octogon with J.D. Makay, Barney would surely win by the first round. Unfortunately, director Stefan Rudnicki just didn’t have the budget to afford better actors and special effects which would have aided the passable DVD cover. It’s a good thing I only paid $1.86 for this DVD. I couldn’t see myself paying the retail of $15.99 or more and if I did, I should just give away all my money – perhaps donate it to the veteran ninja society for the disabled. I still look for to the other Blue Laser DVD Boiler Room. I imagine it’ll be just as glamourous and thrilling like Lethal Ninja.
Lethal Ninja is an enjoyable film with lots of booze and many humorous compadres. You won’t be able to teach yourself the ways of the ninja or learn the responsible ways of running a city as a mayor, but you’ll have your joke vault filled for the rest of your life. The gullibility of the writing is incomparable. I’ve seen Paul Naschy movies better than this, but I guess we all inspire to have a little ninja in us every once and awhile and that is why we make movies about them no matter how much money we don’t possess. If you don’t want to catch this awesome flick on DVD, you can watch the cliff notes version below!
