Tag Archives: Clown

The EVIL Clown Takeover is Has Begun! “Helloween” reviewed! (101 FIlms / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Just in Time for the Season. “Helloween” on a 101 Films “Bluray!

October 31, 1996 – A disturbed 10-year-old Carl Cane, donning red and white lashes and slashes clown makeup, slayed his fostered before brutally axing down a healthcare social worker assigned to his case. Twenty years later, Cane has been locked away at Morton Psychiatric Prison for most of his life but still manages to be a high-risk inmate wearing the same clown makeup.  In ward of his care is Dr. Ellen Marks who endorses stringent safety protocols and has a stern bedside care for her dangerously persuasive patient.  Flash forward 20 years later during the 2016 #clownpanic craze, the mass clown sightings provide cover for Cane to mastermind his escape and influence the disenfranchised to wear his lashes and slashes maquillage and rise against all of Britain, Dr. Marks must race home to protect her daughters as they become marked in Cane’s chaos scheme of nationwide epidemic violence.  This year, Halloween is more tricks than treats in a manipulative game of incited rise against authority with a murderous madman at the helm. 

Not to be confused with the German metal band of the same name, the 2025 film “Helloween” is a UK production that’s been compared to “The Purge” meets “The Joker” from writer-director Phil Claydon (“Vampire Killers,” “Within”).  “Helloween’s” story pans briefly from 1996 to primarily set in 2016, the year when clown panic was a national news item where mysteriously scary clowns would show up in random places and projecting a menacing way about them, enough so to cause public concern.  Claydon expands upon the year-specific-craze with a killer clown motif and a coordinated attack on a nation’s infrastructure, creating national havoc while the mastermind of ceremonies stays with his bubble of motive, to completely destroy his psych ward physician in charge of his austere care.  “Helloween” is a production of Shogun Films under the producing eye of Jonathan Sothcott with Lance Patrick co-producing. 

For “Helloween” to be centered around an incitive massive violent force, one that’s purely evil, demented, wicked, etc., that character is required to be bigger than life in a show of calculated malevolence and will be ultimately the driving juggernaut key to the film’s success.  Carl Cane is that described character, an educated mental case hellbent on being a reign of chaos from the very moment his 10-year-old self, fostered and abused through the social childcare system, chops up his foster parents and social worker without blinking an eye of hesitation.  However, the 1996 boy and the 2016 man of Carl Cane showcase two different genus of the same sociopathic species as adult Carl Cane has a knack for the flamboyant flair and is a talkative taskmaster whereas his younger version is about as quiet as a calculating church mouse.  Forever the bridesmaid and never the bride, Ronan Summers finally receives his time to shine and expel his talent to the world as a prominently gaudy villain donning edgy Joker-esque clown face makeup and sporting a dirty inmate jumpsuit.  There’s always the expectations Batman will be coming down from the rooftop or creeping from out of the shadows at any moment!  Summers, who did have a small role in “The Dark Knight” as well as be a supporting actor alongside Richard Brake in “The Dare” and had numerous voice acting roles in notable videogames, such as “Dead Island 2,” “Wolfenstein:  The Old Blood,” and “Cyberpunk 2077,” has tremendous presence with a spine-shattering laugh and creates a dark arura around Cane’s ambivalent supernatural abilities.  Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott, wife of Shogun Films producer Jonathan Sothcott, goes up against the antagonist playing Summers as Dr. Ellen Marks, head of Cane’s psychiatric ward.  The “Peter Rabid” actress finds herself on the precipice of a clown barrage against her family that has its own secrets and troubles teenagers (or adult?) as there is divisive tension between the planned daughter of Leah (Caroline Wilde, “Ghost”) and the unplanned and resentful daughter Alice (Megan Marszal).  Michael Paré (“Streets of Fire”) is perhaps the biggest name, an American name, attached to the project as an investigative reporter unearthing a theorized connection between Cane and the coordinated clownpanic sightings and Paré’s about as straightforward and conventional unimpactful in performance as they come.  The cast rounds out with Shanton Dixon, Samantha Loxley (“Hosts”), and Tamsin Dean (“Everyone is Going to Die”).

Though “Helloween” borrows pieces of “The Purge” and “The Joker,” another generous portion of the inspirational pie is “Halloween.”  Not only does “Halloween” and “Helloween” share similar titling but also certain “Helloween” plot points and framed shots that resemble a clown costumed Micheal Myers expressionlessly exiting his family home after murdering older sister Judith.  Claydon’s nods may dilute the original story some but the mashup manages to curate an interesting tale of a large scale terror on a small time budget by using televised media to indicate Cane’s grandiose scheme from the confines of his impenetrable holding cell and creation tension with good, old-fashioned editing and framed shots for those jump scare and distressing moments.  One thing is for sure that hinders the large-scale scenario but doesn’t obliterate the affect it has in its entirety is the small number of locations used.  Much of the story takes place between two locations:  the Morton Prison and Dr. Ellen Marks’s home.   These two primary locations service most of the story’s core elements and, perhaps, Claydon relied too heavily on news media to spread the clown carnage rather than have it unfold in frame with not only more locations of active aggressive assaults, like we see in “The Purge” series but also hire more extras as clown faced Cane acolytes and have a number of victims suffer at the hands of clownpanic.  Set designs, colorful lighting, stark contrasting features, the rapid pace storytelling, and the performances do pick up the slack and hold onto that collapsing of society sensation in more of a localized manner rather than widespread.  The twist ending pops disjointedly with a welcomed turn of events but isn’t setup with a crucial visual or expositional detail, leaving on the table the one important puzzle piece of the considerable why rather than focusing on the exposed when and how. 

101 Films isn’t clowning around with their new Blu-ray release of “Helloween.”  AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition resolution, and stored on a BD50, “Helloween” has plenty of picture quality positives going for albeit the film’s primary color spectrum, a Spirit Halloween store amount of haze and smoke machines, and plenty of negative area shadows all of which wreak havoc of the encoding of data.  One way to judge video compression is the ability to delineate every object in the feature from inanimate to animate and there’s no questioning in the presentation as all objects have an elucidation effect that doesn’t work the mind harder than it should.  Claydon works depth to create effective highly taut moments while staying in the purge of light and hope atmospherics of omnipresent darkness.  Curiously, the Blu-ray back cover mentions the feature containing an English uncompressed Stereo PCM and a compressed English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with the extras solely being a Stereo PCM.  However, the Dolby audio icon is stamped on both back cover and DVD art.  While there’s no menu option to toggle between either feature track, my play listed the encoded audio as the PCM Stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 which can be concurred with by the uninhibited punchiness that heightens the scares and the eerie hallmarks of lightning cracks, creaky floors, and other loud bang sounds.  Ronan Summers’s is a proper English speaker with great emphasis on his pronunciations, much like Paré’s classic westerner approach to any situation and role, but there are some UK dialects that skirt the cockney accents and though difficult to cling to, the mix greatly makes clear the intended word or sentence without any issues.  UK English subtitles are optionally available.  Special features include a commentary track with director Phil Claydon, a behind-the-scenes featurette with cast and crew interviews going through their experiences and roles, and the film’s theatrical trailer.  There is also listed deleted scenes but there’s an issue with the encoded playback as when pressed, the option glitches back to the bonus features scene, never moving forward into the deleted scenes.  The clear Amaray case with one-sided art has a less-is-more cover art with a face closeup of Summers in a sinister expressed Cane makeup with a blade silhouette just in front-right of him.  While we’ve seen a few inconsistencies with these release – the audio track conflicts and the deleted scenes bug on the encoding – there’s one more variance with the UK rating.  The case has a UK rating of 15 for Strong Violence, Bloody Images, Threat, and Language; however, the disc is pressed with a UK 18 classification.  “Helloween” clocks in at 93 minutes and is locked with a region B playback. 

Last Rites: The energy from Phil Claydon’s “Helloween” amps up and matches Ronan Summers’s intellectual madman persona with a smoke and mirrors widespread mayhem and reliable jump scares that breed infectious tension for clowns and the disenfranchised in this quaint and modern day clownsploitation.

Just in Time for the Season. “Helloween” on a 101 Films “Bluray!

This Serial Killer Clown is Nothing More than an EVIL Romantic. “100 Tears” reviewed! (Unearthed Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“100 Tears” Extended Director’s Cut Available Here!

Mark Webb and Jennifer Stevenson are two tabloid journalists looking to cover something more substantial than chasing cheap thrill information for quick cash.  When Jennifer raises the topic of covering serial killers and their cases, she focuses onto the Teardrop killer, a local serial killer who savaging murders and leaves behind a blood-stained mark in the shape of a teardrop as a calling card.  The deeper they dig into older and new cases, some of the incidents cross reference with a circus act was in town, believing the killer to be somehow involved with the travelling carnival but their investigation leads them to Gurdy, a deranged maniac dressed as a clown, fueled by a wrongfully accused of crimes past that resulted in the separation of him and the woman he loved.  Decades of slaughter culminate to the journalists’ confrontation with not only the killer clown but also his estranged, equally demented, daughter. 

A reconfigured inspiration of John Wayne Gacy, “100 Tears” is the extreme blood-soaked and vehemently violent killer clown picture from ultraviolent special effects artist and filmmaker Marcus Koch.  The 2007 feature is directed by Koch from a script penned by writer-actor Joe Davison (“Experiment 7,” “The Bell Keeper”) and more-or-les solidified Koch and Davison as independent artists in their own right, launching Koch orchestrating behind the camera instead of hands deep in practical gloop and glop of special effects as well as giving Davison a voice as a writer and a chance as an actor to which continues onto this day.  “100 Tears’ is a coproduction between Manic Entertainment, Pop Gun Pictures, and Starving Kappa Pictures initially released under the now defunct Anthem Pictures, but a legal issue with Unearthed Films eventually landed the extreme horror boutique label the rights for at-home release and would be not the only Marcus Koch film to be distributed by Unearthed Films under founder Stephen Biro as the two entities would reteam for the American Guinea Pig series with Koch directing “Bloodshock” and supervising special effects on the Biro-directed “The Song of Solomon.”  Davison would produce the film with Melissa K. Webb.

Not a direct replica of John Wayne Gacy, who’s modus operandi was to lure men and boys to his home to force unspeakable acts on them before eventually killing them, the Teardrop Killer, Luther Gurdy, shares with Gacy a large and portly frame, a full clown getup with makeup, and an indeterminable coldness when whacking and slicing into victims with an oversized cleaver.  Whether or not actor Jack Amos (“Unearthed,” “Experiment 7”) channels Gacy’s black heart spree is not exactly clear, but Amos does fashion Gurdy’s black-and-white patchwork bag of tricks when it comes to molding a formidable facade and approach to an unstoppable killing machine of malaise, hence the teardrop calling card soaked in blood.  Gurdy’s a sad, angry, and vengeful clown, the very antithesis of what the usually zany circus performance is supposed to be, and the gothically stitched macabre of an empty shell man is ultimately what Amos can strive to make of it as Gurdy is completely mute and exacts very little-to-no emotion other than an occasional smile when interacting with estranged daughter Christine (Raine Brown, “Nightmare in Shallow Point”) as they merrily slaughter, catching up for lost time after two decades.  Gurdy and Christine’s bond doesn’t quite reach a level understanding or development to quench ties of nature over nurture when it comes to their sociopathic tendencies in what is a more happenstance run that’s not fleshed out fully by the script.  A better, more robust duo, but still lacks the finer details is journalist colleagues, best friends, sexually pressurized roommates, or however they define their living arraignment and relationship status, Mark Webb (Joe Davison) and Jennifer Stevenson (Georgia Chris, “Vampire Biker Babes”), the tabloid founders chasing the Teardrop Killer story for more substantial, worthwhile content.  Their motivation is clear after a minor conflict of what to investigate and publish next and as they hit the streets, cross-reference facts, and interview persons of interest, Mark and Jennifer effectively become well-oiled investigators under the table of an ongoing police case that has seemingly hit dead-end after dead-end by clueless detectives Spaulding (Kibwe Dorsey, “Dead End”) and Dunkin (Rod Grant, “Noxious”).  “100 Tears” fills out with mostly with a kill fodder cast of adults playing troubled teens or rave party revelers but there’s Norberto Santiago as the carny connection to Gurdy’s baleful past that made him who he is now and the tabloid investigators looking to score substance.

Rooted by its sought after extreme gore, “100 Tears” is not just a simpleton story gorged with guts and blood.  Davison does his due diligence building character backgrounds, especially around Gurdy, despite his clown’s marginal motivations for going maniacally murderous the last 20 years in what was essentially unsubstantiated gossip that got out of hand with retaliation real quick under the circus tent in a black-and-white filtered backstory of carny love and loss.  Marcus Koch, however, didn’t want to make a drama about hurt feelings and harsh reactions of a melancholic clown but rather a melancholic clown that hurts people in a show of extreme prejudice and in an arbitrary, randomized course of mass murder for the sole purpose of our viewing pleasure, and when I say “our,” I mean viewers with visceral responses to decapitations, dismemberments, and spewing blood splatter.  The opportunity for Koch to show off his special effects talents are then delivered tenfold as a charcuterie of cuts, literal slice and dice cuts of Gurdy’s cleaver and the editorial process of cut and taping footage, not only excel Koch into the world of underground practical gore effects but also certifies him as a filmmaker-director that can be cohesive, coherent, and a challenger against censorship and convention, as we see later in his career with the American Guinea Pig films amongst others.

As far as killer clown movies go, “100 Tears” is pleasingly brutal in a stoic maniac manner in its less than spirited, disjointed story.  In a continuing effort of updating their DVD catalogue to high-definition, Unearthed Films release “100 Tears” onto AVC encoded, 1080p, 50 gigabyte Blu-ray.  Barebones information regarding the transferring process on the back cover doesn’t shed any light on the upgrade but the film, the extended director’s cut presented 1.77:1 widescreen aspect ratio and dropping the NC=17 rating, retains a lot of the grittiness inside a lack of color saturation, likely a Koch stylistic choice rather than a print concern, but this also retains a darker, indefinable image that becomes murky around low-lit scenes.  Even the lit scenes have a paleness about them, almost twinning the black and white clownish trappings and makeup of Gurdy’s jester attire.  There are miniscule posterization issues in the deeper negative spaces that makes me think the BD50 is not enough space to handle the feature plus all its bonus content, which includes the original NC-17 cut of the film.  The English language LPCM 2.0 track has lossless fidelity culminating through the front two channels.  Dialogue is clean and clear, but commercial grade equipment and unfiltered sound design does product a consistent buzz or hush of electro-interference.  Not a ton of range or depth to note in shots that are limited to closeups and mediums but a great amount of dominating squishy hacks when the big cleaver is brought down on limbs and heads with a blunt force hit that sounds, well, blunt.  English subtitles are optionally available.  Aforementioned, extras include the NC-17 original cut  as well as a feature length audio commentary with director Marcus Koch and Unearthed Films founder Stephen Biro, a lengthy online video interview with Koch, the making-of “100 Tears” in Blood, Guts & Greasepaint, the original and raw behind-the-scenes footage, bonus behind-the-scenes footage 16-deleted scenes, outtakes or goofed takes, Marcus Koch’s childhood short films, and a pair of “100 Tear” trailers.  Physical package is not much different from the DVD with a standard Amary with the same front cover image of Jack Amos in full Gurdy attire, holding a giant clever, and a tied-down body at his feet.  Disc is pressed with a similar image of Gurdy, and no other bonus material included.  The extended director’s cut Blu-ray has runtime of 95 minutes and is region A locked for playback.

Last Rites: “100 Tears” is all special effects, moderately dialogued, and feeble in story and this upgrade dominates more so with encoded special features with an A/V staying the course in the jump between formats.

“100 Tears” Extended Director’s Cut Available Here!

Can You Survive Rob Zombie’s Evil Death War? “31” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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Traveling across a remote highway, five carnival workers journey to their next small top gig on Halloween day in 1976. Stopped by scarecrow-like figures in the middle of the road, the carnies find themselves led into a hostile trap and are kidnapped, held hostage to be poorly prepped for the dilapidated warehouse “Murderworld.” The violent death labyrinth is set for a hellish game entitled “31”, launched yearly by the sadist Father Death with Sister Serpent and Sister Dragon, that pits the captive against a series of killers, specialized in their own brand of merciless murder. To survive inside “Murderworld,” you have to stay alive for 12 hours in the dark, dank warehouse.
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After a self produced campaign, a hefty amount of soul crushing crowdfunding, and a slew of production and distribution ups and downs, “House of a 1000 Corpses” director and shock rocker Rob Zombie was finally able to release this year his latest horror installment “31” since 2012’s “The Lords of Salem.” Lionsgate acquires the home entertainment rights to deliver “31” with a R-rated version of the Zombie’s claimed return to roots horror. The survival slasher, when compared to the director’s other work, capitalizes as the most seriously disturbed work to date, but the premise is not particularly original. We’ve all seen the placing of disoriented victims in a life or death game scenario before; Schwarzenegger’s “The Running Man,” based off the Stephen King novel, strikes many similarities, closely relating the two films by sheer plot alone. With Zombie’s “31,” the differences stagger between the main characters being simple carnies looking for a place in the world and “Murderworld” not being a total dystopian future of skewed justice. Instead, the shock rocker pens in his own ‘motherfucking’ motivations of satanic rituals to filthy the pot of sadism and mayhem.
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Overall, I thought “31’s” characters were inviting and interesting even if they’re a cookie-cutter roster engineered by the likes of Rob Zombie. The idea is good to have five ordinary folks enduring a 12 hours bout of being hunted by a pint sized nazi enthusiast, a pair of chainsaw wielding hillbilly whack jobs, a tall German in a pink tutu and his Harley Quinn modeled femme fatale, and, then, there’s Doom-Head, portrayed by the impeccable Richard Brake. My first experience with Brake came from another facet of the word ‘doom,’ 2005’s “Doom,” to be exact, the adaptation of the popular id Software survival horror video game, and even then did Brake have the outer shell of a complete sleaze ball, dipped in an indescribable amount of pure malevolence. Rob Zombie is able to tap into Brake’s true potential with Doom-Head, an egocentric nihilist professionally suited for murder while oozing with unapologetic shamelessness. Along with Brake lies co-stars very familiar from prior Zombie films and these individuals are Jeff Daniel Phillips, deeply blue-eyed Meg Foster, and Judy Geeson from “The Lords of Salem,” the legendary Malcolm McDowell and Lew Temple from the “Halloween” remake, and, of course, Sheri Moon Zombie, the dedicated wife who stars in everything the man does from movies to music videos. Rounding out the film has Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Kevin Jackson, Jane Carr, Pachno Moler, David Ury, Torsten Voges, and “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’s” Elizabeth Daily on the docket.
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The problem with the characters are not that their ‘cookie-cutter’ characters, as I aforementioned, but rather their just well, well under written. Developmentally, almost every character becomes wasted space, floating stagnantly across the 103 minute runtime. For the hunters aside from Doom-Head, they’re backgrounds are mysterious which fits the rules of “31.” Doom-Head is a different story because he’s the golden child of “Murderworld,” spoken very highly by Father Murder and graced with so much monologuing that it’s absurdly comical and, unfortunately, predictable. As far as the carnies are concerned, most of the group never blooms into relevancy and I couldn’t help but to root for most of their savage deaths. Sheri Moon Zombie’s Charly character was the slice of life, the slither hope, that showed promise. Yeah, Charly looks and sounds much like Baby Firefly, but Charly is a fantasy heroine with a modest range of emotions and when even faced with defeat, she’s stands strong.
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Though I wanted “31” to exceed all my expectations with the promise of untapped brutality, here we stand with a cut version Rob Zombie’s crowdfunded film. I’m interested in what exactly hit the cutting room floor because, just taking in “31” at first viewing, every single scene could be remedied by reimplementing, if any, omitted scenes. From my understanding, Rob Zombie submitted the survival horror numerous times to the MPAA in order to purposely retrieve a R-Rating and the ending result suggests a heavily cut film: off camera moments of attack, choppy warehouse segments, unintended shortened character developments, etc. Something more must be behind the scenes that holds back a fan well-deserved and fan well-funded unrated version and I’m not totally knocking this rated Lionsgate release, but a perception has been cemented on the fact that fans were promised an unadulterated Rob Zombie spook show and ended up not getting what they paid for ultimately.
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Lionsgate Home Entertainment will be releasing the Saban Films’ “31” on Blu-ray on December 20th in 1080p High Definition with a 16×9 widescreen 2.46:1 presentation and an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. A DVD version is also available. The presentation is in the detail of the image quality with only some minor dialogue loss, slightly muddled amongst the levels, in the DTS track. Certainly not a disparaging opinion, but once in close quarters, such as the carnies’ van, the ambiance hum of the engine, the tires on the road, and the jingle-jangle of objects in the van drown out parts of dialogue from Meg Froster and Jeff Daniel Phillips. An impressive 2-hour comprehensive documentary on the making of the film entitled “In Hell Everybody Loves Popcorn” and an audio commentary with writer-director Rob Zombie completes the bonus material. “31” feels like a Rob Zombie film; the rocker’s trash talking grit and loads of rockabilly swag leaves his unique brand seared into the horror scene, but Zombie’s “Murderworld” story is a promise-filled return to roots sensation for the director. Honestly, Zombie never strayed from his grungy grindhouse of inhuman torture and death origins, but only for a fleeting moment, and so “31” stays the abrasive, distasteful course that’ll speak, like in cult comprehensible tongues, to only his fan base.

Rob Zombie’s “31” on Blu-ray!

“31” on Motherfuckin’ DVD!

American Horror Story: Freak show… freakin’ hell

Posted by charlottekenvyn1994 on

American Horror Story: Freak Show
Season 4 Episode 1 “Monsters among us”

Evan Peters as Jimmy Darling. The scene in which he pleasures an ordinary housewife with his lobster-like hands.

Evan Peters as Jimmy Darling.
The scene in which he pleasures an ordinary housewife with his lobster-like hands.


American Horror Story hit our screens after a largely anticipated return. We were quickly introduced to Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) and the other characters. Jessica Lange performs brilliantly and it was a surprise to find out that she isn’t just fame-hungry. She’s paraplegic and fame-hungry. Evan Peters is back with lobster hands, playing Jimmy Darling. We meet the very likeable Bette and Dot Tattler (Sarah Paulson). The relationship between the two is funny and very entertaining to watch. We see Ma Petite played by Jyoti Amge, who is actually the smallest woman in the world – claiming a Guinness Book of World Records title. Providing the terror in the first episode, and possibly the title, is Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch). If killing an innocent couple isn’t enough, he also keeps two young children locked up and terrifies them to the point of torture. “There’s a big story that explains the clown and what he’s doing that’s based on an urban myth we uncovered” revealed director Ryan Murphey. It is the fourth season that will explain to us what we are eager to know about Twisty, so stay tuned.
Twisty the clown
Kathy Bates comes across far too tame playing the bearded lady. Her acting skills are capable of providing a more sinister and malicious character… but this could be exposed throughout the season. We will meet Angela Bassett next week who is Desiree Dupree, the three-breasted lady (and according to her a “full-blown hermaphrodite”). We are also yet to meet con artist Maggie Esmerelda (Emma Roberts) and strongman played by actor Michael Chiklis.
Erika Ervin, Jyoti Amge, Evan Peters and Mat Fraser (Amazon Eve, Ma Petite, Jimmy ‘Lobster-hands’ Darling and Paul the illustrated seal).

Erika Ervin, Jyoti Amge, Evan Peters and Mat Fraser (Amazon Eve, Ma Petite, Jimmy ‘Lobster-hands’ Darling and Paul the illustrated seal).


We know from the previous seasons to expect; brutality, rape, seduction, distressing scenes of violence, racism, discrimination and so on. Sensuality and seductiveness has always been a huge part of the show which has interested us, the mature audience, because of its candid approach. I have never had any issues with the previous scenes of this nature, sure I’ve been like “what the hell” during rape scenes but it’s never disgusted me to the point where I feel nauseous. That is until now. Prior to watching this episode I generally perceived that the freaks were ostracized from the “normal” townsfolk. I wrongly assumed that the freaks would be considered vermin, and that even making eye contact with one could result in receiving the cold shoulder from ordinary people living in the area. What I see instead is quite the opposite. In one scene Jimmy Darling, who has lobster hands, can be seen pleasuring regular women with his deformities. Women are literally lining up to pay for this. We see him moving his lobster hands towards the woman’s sex, leaving absolutely no room for doubt that he is prostituting his deformed hands. This left me feeling slightly bewildered more than anything because I just cannot believe that that many women, if any, would be sexually intrigued by this man with lobster-like hands. The moment of nausea smacked me in the face when we see Elsa Mars watching a video reel. A young woman enters threatening to expose all of the shenanigans happening behind the scenes at the freak show. It soon becomes clear that the young woman was willingly high on opium and whilst she was so, she took part in a sex orgy with the freaks. This is the most unsettling scene American Horror Story has offered us to date. Pepper getting excited like a child in the clip intensified my feeling of horror and I was left feeling utterly shocked. If the programme continues to show these depraved acts, which I’m sure they will, I’m not sure how much my stomach will be able to handle.
Jessica Lange and Jyoti Amge (Paraplegic and world’s smallest woman)

Jessica Lange and Jyoti Amge (Paraplegic and world’s smallest woman)

The House that Holds Evil! “Slasher House” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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Here is an entertaining little piece of UK slasher horror that will sure be appreciated as well as thrilling. “Slasher House” had finished filming and was wrapped up in a nice bow two years ago but, finally, made an appearance on DVD just last year in the UK. A whole another year later and “Slasher House” hits retail shelves this past Tuesday in the States – about damn time – courtesy of Sector 5 Films. In all honestly, the good old USA missed out on releasing “Slasher House” as this English film’s crew and cast were the highlights of turning a run of the mill survival film into a great little unknown gem of a movie.

Red wakes up stark naked in a cell of a grungy rundown prison. Plagued with amnesia, she can’t remember who she is let alone how she how she got here. When her cell door opens up, Red discovers she isn’t alone as their other captives, but these captives are not so innocent. Within these iron bars and walls, she is trapped with notorious serial killers who are being released from the cells one by one. With no way out in sight, Red must elude the killers as they hunt for her in the corridors. There are more sinister means behind this game, but she must go through the players first to find out why she’s here and who she really is.
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Leading lady Eleanor James was labeled one of Britain’s new age scream queens. Though she delivers no real scream here in “Slasher House,” James’ character resembles more of Milla Jovovich’s Alice character in the Resident Evil series – more so with the red dress, calm demeanor, and feistiness with less kung fu, ESP abilities. Her performance as Red has you rooting for her all the way because she is the first and last “last girl” in “Slasher House” against a handful of murderous sonuvabitches.
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Each notorious slasher has a trademark and a unique personality – a child killer, an operator, a brute, a dual personality – leaving no room for boring characters. Their backstories are briefly told in a flashback anecdote just short enough to give you their whole persona. The plot is a bit more complex than it’s unique cast of characters. I like the idea of bringing a lineup of serial killer allstars into a dirty old prison and letting them face off. I wish there was more of that. Half of “Slasher House” was trying to find an exit and the other half was escaping the maniacs. No real dull moments plagued the film, but with a premise that involves a battle royal amongst the worst of the worst, you would think you’d be up against a blood spattered wall and heads would be constantly rolling. The other half of my mind says the slowed down story goes better with a film like this to build the characters up for a great and glorious downfall.
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“Slasher House” plays out like a graphic novel and could be well turned into one. A great one in fact. “Slasher House” also delivers a twist ending that you won’t see coming until the very end! Speaking of the movie’s end, the open ending doesn’t explain much to the character’s situation. One could only guess to the purpose behind the game, but none of the plans are plainly explained.
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“Slasher House” is a must buy from Sector 5 Films. Two years have I waited for a film like this that could entertain me on a budget while pulling off major production status. I’m very impressed by director MJ Dixon and his vision and his future is bright with indie pictures and possibly get a gig in Hollywood if he keeps turning out good films. If you have a fear of clowns you may want to stay away; other than that, pick this DVD up that was released this past Tuesday the 26th!