Cult actor Bill Oberst Jr. plays a deranged struggling writer with insomniac. Bill’s lack of sleep drives him to extremely hallucinate to the point of being dangerous to not only himself but to others. His derangement wields a bowie knife, a rust colored hammer, and a sporting bow and arrow as the hallucinations get weirder, stranger, and more violent and everyone that Bill comes into contact with becomes a target of his severe breakdown into insanity.
Who doesn’t love Bill Oberst Jr? The veteran actor has a unique look about him and his acting method brings stage and screen acting together into one great performance in Trevor Juenger’s “Coyote.” Without saying much through the entirety of the film, Oberst interpretation of one man’s sleepless delusions sports no talking head explanation. Rigorously and physically involved in the role, “Coyote” could not have been possible if it wasn’t for Oberst serious role indulgence.
The film is described as a blend between “Taxi Driver” and “Videodrome.” That description is entirely accurate. Full of body horror and plenty of schizo to go around, the surrealism in the editing by Juenger is remarkable pitted against budgetary restraints. Hard to follow, lost in translation, yet somehow by the end of the movie you get it, you just get it. You might even feel lost for the first hour and by the time the last half hour comes around, you’re just as angry, confused, and disturbed as Bill. You might even want to take out a person or two with a bowie knife.
“Coyote” won’t break much cinematic ground like “Taxi Driver” or “Videodrome,” but “Coyote” will be a great embarkment to a honorable homage and a surreal look into fresh art-house horror. If you like this type of material full of masochistic mutilation, visceral carnage, and a visual look into the mind of lunacy, then Wild Eye Releasing’s “Coyote” is for you.
Tag Archives: Evil Review
Lovecraft Evil Done Well! “The Thing on the Doorstep” review!
“The Thing on the Doorstep” is a nearly 8o-year-old gothic tale converted the short story written by H.P. Lovecraft to a small screen adaptation from Leomark studios and MVDVisual home entertainment. The story tells of Daniel Upton and his relationship with friend socially hopeless affluent Edward Derby. When Edward meets and weds a bizarre hypnotists Asenath Waite, his relationship with good friend Daniel turns eccentric and mysterious. Edward’s personality switches from the person Daniel knows and loves to a completely separate entity. As Daniel investigates down the rabbit hole, he learns that Edward might be a victim of black magic and that Asenath’s disturbed and demented background might be behind it all.
Telling the story of this magnitude would be a difficult feat but director Tom Gilserman’s style through the narrative the character Daniel Upton and the structure is simple enough to make this story work well on screen. Penned by Mary Jane Hansen, who also has the lead role of Asenath Waite, pieces together natural dialogue to form believable characters. For great writing to transmit, you also need great actors. David Bunce, Susan Cicarelli-Caputo, Ron Komora, and Rob Dalton round out a great first time cast of actors that join Hansen and have completed a flowing conversations.
Gilserman does try to a create a Lovecraftian atmosphere with unique camera angles, a dark complexion, and a gothic facade that would make H.P. proud to have his story told through this medium. The film plays out as a bad nightmare full of continuous and repeated flashes of scenes that will drown you into madness while also attempting to make Edward have two sides of him – his soul and a wicked others.
One thing that I thought the film lacked with the use of black magic revealed. Anenath is suppose to be this powerful being who may or may not be human, but a witch, a succubus, a shell of a human. What the plot is more focus on is Daniel and Edward’s relationship and I believe this to be contributed to the narrative style of this film as it delivers as if one is reading straight from the source – the short story. Not too much is given about Asenath or her ‘hired help.’ Budgetary constraints more than likely contributed to the lack of black magic effects if there were to be any.
Take the plunge and test out this adaptation of one of Lovecraft’s more psychological horror stories. The DVD from MVD was released this past tuesday and surely will get your head twisted around and your spine snapped with intense suspense and mystery.
No Nudity 😦
American Horror Story: Freak show… freakin’ hell
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.
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.
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).
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)
This Evil Island is More Like a Luxurious Resort: “Zombie Isle” review!
When I first read the title “Zombie Isle,” the first thought was the popular survival horror game “Dead Island” where you can take on a horde of bikini clad, thong and thong wearing, tropicana-sippin’ zombies with various melee weapons. Sounds blood thirsty enough to be turned into a movie, right? Well “Zombie Isle” is obviously not the same brainchild from the people behind the “Dead Island” video game. One could only help and what happens to high hopes usually? High hopes are usually squashed and sure enough “Zombie Isle” was a big bust for not only meeting my expectations of being like the “Dead Island,” but for also being one of the many sheep in the undead genre.
A group of university students and their teacher embark on a field trip to an uninhabited island to study the habitat. When they split up into groups of two, all hell on the island is unleashed and the students succumb as meals for the zombies that inhabit the uninhabited island. Not only do the flesh eaters swarm the island, but a mad Nazi doctor looks to replace the brain his deceased love into one of the bodies of the gorgeous girls trespassing on his island.
“Zombie Isle’s” plot is, first off, way too scattered to fully explained how this island became ground zero for possible Nazi or U.S. Army experimentation – it’s not really explained. The Nazi mad doctor has a syringe he injects into the neck of the dead bodies to awaken them into flesh eaters. Nobody knows how he got to the island and no one really seems to ask. Also, the doctor keeps a giant three headed mutated zombie chained to a tree. Again, this all goes unexplained. Half the characters gets rip to shreds in the first 15 minutes of the film and that makes caring for characters really difficult.
On the positive spectrum of “Zombie Isle,” the gory schlock really is potent. Zombies scooping out brains with their hands, stomachs being ripped open and disemboweled, and brains being munched on. With the gory and the blood, the parodical nature of the film, especially with the two dimwitted hotties, can kind of keep us awake at times; as for the rest of the duration, watch your eyelids become heavy and heavier. The zombies themselves do a good job. Hell, even the three headed mutant zombie has a certain ghoulish charm to it even though it’s obviously fake and goofy cladded, but with director Robert Elkins’ use of cigarette burns and faux faulty-like film strips the creature is hidden behind the throwback grindhouse cinematic style. The cast consisting of Crystal Howell, Tony Jones, Apryl Crowell, Kyle Billeter, Davids S. Witt, and Jonathan Moody are seemly a tight-knit group of people who’ve worked on films together before. They feel comfortable in what they’re trying to accomplish, but their really is no depth in their personas.
On a technical note, the dialogue audibility is absolute crap. One minute you can hear the characters fine and then the next you’re turning up the volume. Constantly I was fiddling with the controls to find a ideal setting and just wasted my time and energy. Also, the soundtracks is very repetitive and drowns out most of the dialogue as well. The sure signs of low budget filmmaking and not making use of something better than to just repeat soundtrack audio. The foley sounds of squished heads and knocks to people’s dome pieces might as well come straight out of a Roadrunner and Coyote cartoon.
“Zombie Isle” heart and soul likes with the gore effects not leaving the film to be an empty shell. The characters are the empty shells and the production kind have been better along with fine tuned story in which the parody could have stayed as some of bits were smirk-able. Surprisingly, no nudity for a zombie film with a bunch of university students, but that doesn’t give the film low marks at all. With that being said, “Zombie Isle” releases this Tuesday October 7th, but if you must venture into an overplayed genre, there are better zombie films out there that won’t leave you stranded on an island.
Half-Assed Evil Exorcists! “John Dies at the End” Book Review
Jason Pargin, under the pseudonym name David wong, is a major success stories that inspire all of us hopeful writers. Pargin, a low on the totem poll data entry administrator, is the brains behind the insanely clever, notoriously witty, and devilishly deranged novel “John Dies at the End.” Without even an English degree to his name, Pargin wrote short stories that turned into a full fledged novel solely by word of mouth from total strangers. Eventually Pargin was contacted by Phantasm director Don Coscarelli and as soon as Pargin blinked, a movie was adapted from his story and the rest is hisory.
“John Dies at the End” revolves around David Wong, a video store clerk whose life isn’t exactly that excited, but when he discovers the “soy sauce” from a homeless Rastafarian Wong and his friend John are sucked into the massive plans of an alternative reality species that has their sights on enslaving humanity in the name of their leader “Korrok.” Only Wong and John can see the truth because of the “soy sauce” and while others live their daily lives, Wong and John prepare for battle the only way they know how – with boom boxes, flame thrower water guns, and Molly the bomb eating dog.
Pargin’s novel will be a treat that you’ll never ever in your life read something similar like it again. Somehow able to paint a perfect picture with his colorful use of dictionary, Pargin certainly knows how to make silly scary and fun. The pages just kept turning as if I was hooked on the “soy sauce” and was warped, like a “Star Trek” hyper drive, into an other world universe. The randomness of scenes with Wong’s first person version of events can only be described as batshit nuts with a hint of nihilism. Once you add his friend John into the mix, it’s a whole different story as John is a colorful character with classically hilarious one liners and a mind like a 13 year old boy ready to take on the world.
I’m one those people who watched the Don Coscarelli movie first before reading the book and I did this before with Stephen King’s novel The Mist and so far, I’m not disappointed with my ass-backwards way of doing things. Of course, the novel will always have more than a movie adaptation, but damn did Coscarelli bring Wong’s world to life and light and I do believe that the writings of Pargin are so vivid and clear that this made Coscarelli’s job easy.
“John Dies at the End” is a must read. It isn’t the latest best seller as the book’s been out since 2007, but this horror comedy will make you laugh and thrill you into thinking about the possibilities of our universe.
It's Bloggin Evil! 