Evil Is Only Skin Deep! “Skinless” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on November 12, 2014

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.

“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.

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.

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?

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.

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” S1Ep7 ‘Welcome to the FU-Bar’

Posted by Steven Lewis on October 28, 2014

After the crushing death of Charlie, the band of survivors continue their noble trek to the west coast, but first they must go through the middle of nowhere Kansas. Low on supplies and nearly dead vehicle, their only shelter option is an open field compound that houses a moonshine bar, a weapon’s depot truck, and a sharpshooting contest where the grand prize is for the best zombie kill. Little do they know, a tsunami of zombies, aka Zunami, is heading their way creating a dust cloud that can be seen from space.

Episode seven is not my favorite episode by far as some of the hilarity charm has omitted from ‘Welcome to the FU-Bar.” Instead, we’re drawn in by Warren’s woes over the loss of her man squeeze Charlie and there is a whole coming to terms with the situation scene which was done decently enough to warrant a mention. Other worth mention parts is Murphy is one again, with every episode, showing scenes of becoming a zombie by this time taking a bite out of someone’s shoulder. However, his bite has some fortunate consequences.

10k finds a love interest, but I swear he finds one every episode and I believe this is a purposful cock block because the boy was born post-apocalypse. 10K doesn’t even know what porn is which Doc describes it as ‘great’ and that isn’t really helpful to a boy with raging hormones. 10K sparks a love interest with another skilled sharpshooter who is half Asian (how exotic), but as soon as he makes a connection with her, the scene is chaos with a zombie outbreak in the middle of camp and their paths divide. I have a feeling we will see her again real soon.

10K’s sexy honey

Not the bet episode, but not a dull hunk of shit either. Still some decent kill scenes by Warren and 10K who were really the main focus with Murphy’s troubles lurking in the background. We’re heading out of Kansas being trailed by a juggernaut of Zs whom the group is to encounter next episode and being trapped in a small town and only Murphy to be their salvation. Should be a real kick in the nuts.

American Horror Story: Freak Show… R.I.P Meep

Posted by charlottekenvyn1994 on October 21, 2014

American Horror Story: Freak Show
Season 4 Episode 2 “Massacres and Matinees”

Wow! What an entertaining episode this proved to be, improving largely on last weeks. First and foremost Twisty was back spooking the shit out of us all. His scenes are so tense, and they are just amplified to the maximum because of his unnerving silence. He swiftly claims another victim, Mr Hanley, who is found by his toy shop assistant in a very suspenseful manner. He follows a blood trail that he soon finds leads to the head of poor old Mr Hanley and upon doing so is added to Twistys’ collection of victims by means of a knife through the throat. This creepy incident is what spreads further fear across the town, enough to invoke a citywide curfew.

What the townsfolk are unaware of is that Twisty now occupies a partner. We’re introduced to the pompous new character Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock). He is obsessed with being a thespian at the freak show but Jimmy Darling is strongly angered by this and warns him away. It’s now that Dandy storms off in a foul mood. His mood is soon brightened when his mother Gloria Mott (Frances Conroy) reveals she has purchased him his very own clown. Dandy invites the clown to pick a toy and whilst he is looking through them, Dandy makes the mistake of looking in the clowns’ bag. It contains the severed head from the earlier murdered toy store assistant. The clown knocks him unconscious and makes a quick escape. It is extremely predictable from this point that Dandy is going to team up with the clown. Firstly because we know Dandy has a dark side due to comments made by his Mother and maid. Secondly, we know the clown always kills his chosen victims. So it is no surprise that when Dandy finds a young girl running from the crazed clown, that instead of helping her, he picks her up and practically hands her over to the clown. We’ll be seeing more of this murderous duo next week.

Finn Wittrock as Dandy Mott.

New additions Dell Toledo (Michael Chiklis) and Desiree Dupree (Angela Bassett) joined the freaks as husband and wife. Or husband and husband… Dell is a strongman and Desiree is a full blown hermaphrodite with three boobs. From the get-go Dell is horrible to watch, trying to control the freaks and overpower Elsa Mars and her position. Elsa can see he is going to cause more harm than good but she is unaware he lied about the reason they fled to her show. The real reason being that his wife Desiree was pleasuring a normal townsman and Dell was certainly unhappy about this, so snapped his neck instantly. (Again, I wrongly assumed the townsfolk and freaks wouldn’t mix – but apparently freaks are very tempting and provocative).

Michael Chiklis and Angela Bassett as Dell Toledo and Desiree Dupree.

Immediately there is bitterness between him and Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates) and we soon find out why. Ethel and Dell used to be an item and Jimmy Darling is their son. Only he doesn’t know. Oh, and he also doesn’t know that his father wanted to kill him when he was a baby because of his deformities. Now maybe subconsciously Jimmy knows how evil Dell really is because he takes an instant dislike to him and the two seem to start a war. This conflict eventually causes heartbreak and devastation amongst the freaks, and viewers alike. Jimmy tries to set Dell up so the police will cart him away for good, but it is not him we regrettably see go. Upon finding out he was being set-up, he stabbed at all of our heartstrings by alternatively setting innocent Meep up. No-one was expecting this, possibly the biggest and worst surprise we’ve seen so far. Meep was violently beaten to death but the full extent of his torture is left to our imagination as the final images we see are of Meep screaming frantically. It brought a tear to my eye and created a lump in my throat.

The only thing to criticize is the fact that they are revealing a lot of the characters back stories extremely early into the show. Twisty the clown is proving to be the most chilling so far, with the freaks not especially enthralling to watch. Stayed tuned as next week we will finally be introduced to Maggie Esmerelda (Emma Roberts) who is unsurprisingly rumoured to beguile Jimmy Darling. I can also reveal Ethel will receive some “surprising” news in the next episode, which is titled: Edward Mordrake part 1. I hope this arouses your curiosities.

Emma Roberts as Maggie Esmerelda.

Syfy’s “Z Nation” S1Ep6 ‘Resurrection Z’ review

Posted by Steven Lewis on October 20, 2014

The time has come to have one of the main characters to be killed in action. Episode six ‘Resurrection Z’ delivered as the ideal, soul-sucking episode to kill off a major character since Harold Perrineau’s Hammond character in episode one. The writers of “Z Nation” are not just slapping together a splatter fest of zombie carnage mayhem; instead, ‘Z Nation’ is taking a cue from AMC’s “The Walking Dead” by actually creating and developing characters wroth the sight of our eyeballs. Developing beyond the point of can’t standing it, that when a series nixes a character, in a very public, gruesome, and dramatic way, the show becomes more compelling and real. I won’t mention who got the axe to prevent spoilers for those people who want to catch it On Demand, but I’ll say that that one of our surviving heros will not be making episode seven.

The episode itself consists of good underlying tone that good people will always be naive to their surroundings while the religious nuts will ruin your day by gun toting a AK47 with a deceptive plan in mind. Religious factions have always played into the zombie apocalypse before ‘Z Nation’ had ever introduced “Jacob” and his flock of suicidal crazies who happen to overrun the good guys compound to punished the non-believers of the resurrected. While I give props to a well thought out plan to infiltrate the good guys compound, I found that the fruits of the labors becomes way too easily nullified by Murphy’s Messiah rant.

Murphy has been the character to develop a lot the last two episodes. We find that Murphy is either an extreme sympathizer of the misunderstood Z or he is slowly transforming into one of the undead proving the antibody strain is ineffective. Murphy is immune to zombie affections and he has some sort of mind control over them making Murphy the ultimate guy to be buddy-buddy with in a zombie overrun world.

While we move on without one of the survivors, lets not forget the objective and lets not forget that “Z Nation” won’t tone down the bloody show; instead, the show will continue to get bloodier with each episode, the feelings will become even more twisted, and overall feel of the show will put your head in a vice and your eyeballs will pop out. You’ll enjoy every turn of the vice handle loving the pain the “Z Nation” brings to television.

Trapped in a Tomb of Evil! Day of the Mummy review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on October 11, 2014

Too few and far in between does a current release for a horror film about mummies comes out. Right off the top of my head, I can only recall Universal’s remake of The Mummy trilogy and Sands of Oblivion. I’m sure if I really thought more about this I could come up with one or two more films about mummies. When I was contacted to screen and review “Day of the Mummy,” a little piece of me couldn’t wait because the mummy genre is the neglected red-headed step child that the public doesn’t like and production companies just don’t know how to market Egyptian crypt keepers. Exploring “Day of the Mummy” was exciting at first but my finds remind me again why being dead, wrapped in bandages, and buried in an ancient tomb can’t catch a break in cinema land.

Well-experienced and notorious Egyptologist Jack Wells is contracted to joins a group of archeologist in a Egyptian desert where a hidden tomb of an infamous and cursed king named Neferu is supposedly buried. Jack’s intentions are not to locate the tomb, but rather recover the Codix Stone that was buried with Neferu. When the team locates the cavernous tomb, a collapse of the cave’s structure traps them inside a tomb that doesn’t exactly hold a dead, mummified King. Their search brings them face to face with undead King seeking human parts to devour and regain strength. Now their only hope for survival lies in the hands of the treasure hunter Jack Wells.

“Day of the Mummy” big named actor attached to the project is Danny Glover. Now, Glover isn’t the Indiana Jones type Jack Wells. His character Carl is a wealthy collector of the finer things and hires Jack, played by William McNamara, to bring back the Codex Stone for him. Glover’s role is a bit odd as he only interacts with Jack through a technology advance pair of wearing glasses that has built-in microphone, video camera, and satellite reception. I’ve known the Lethal Weapon and Predator 2 actor to be more of an interactive professional with other actors and actress around him. For Glover to play an isolated role with no one else in a scene with him takes his stardom away from the movie. He might have been better being the lead character of Jack Wells.

Speaking of the hidden video camera glasses, the film’s perspective majority plays through the eyes Jack Wells. The effect comes off like an adventurous amusement park ride rather than a found footage film where the you explore a cave and strap into a hydraulic seat and give whipped around while a movie screen plays through the action. Part of the adventure amusement park ride feel is due to Carl’s in-screen image that pops up inquiring about the diamond every so often. The only thing missing from this ‘ride’ is the 4-D effects. Now, this perspective makes the film naturally unique, but also takes a bit of maturity out of the plot. Yeah, the film profane dialogue tries to spark life into, but the first person effect can be more effective if a more grotesque view of events comes across one’s sights.

The sophomore film of director Johnny Tabor deserves to be recognized as a fair attempt at a genre that doesn’t spark any life into audiences. One thing that would have helped would have been to fill in the plot holes. The reason the team of archeologists venture to Neferu’s tomb was the result of a recovered video of another archeologist who found the tomb before them. The question is, how did the video get recovered in the first place once the first archeologist disappeared? How is Carl’s satellite feed still working in a sealed cave? Questions like these are annoying and baffling even if the logic is skewed just for the sake of a interesting story.

Along with Glover and McNamara, the cast rounds out with “The Black Water Vampire’s” Andrea Monier, Brandon DeSpain, and Robin Steffen, and along with Eric Young and Michael Cortez. A fine cast with loads of talent behind them, but Tabor’s mummy film entry lives up to others in which fall short of horrifying and thrilling. The hopes of fresh air are stiffened with mummified rotting remains of the past. The perspective is unique and welcomed, but could be fine tuned sieze an opportunity to scare the pants off audiences. The wait continues for a mummy movie to resurrect the floundering, most likely currently defunct, genre. “Day of the Mummy” is an interesting and entertaining ride non-the-less. Image Entertainment’s release hits retail shelves October 20th on DVD in the UK.