Tag Archives: Review

Skipping School Only to be Trapped by Evil! “Playing Hooky” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

playinghooky

Skipping school and playing hooky is a rite of passage for any under 18 student. Almost everybody and their mother have ditched class to go to the mall or smoke pot or drink or even probably something more naturally and hormonally scandalous between two teenagers. Usually the only worst thing that could happen from playing hooky is being caught and punished – grounded, detention, or suspension. Now if you were to skip school to go to a potentially demon possessed and satanic sacrificial abandoned insane asylum to get your kicks, then you might have something other than the prospect of getting pregnant or suspended from school to be worried about…

Five high school students decide to play hooky and set up a smoke and drink shop in an abandoned Psychiatric facility where rumors of spirits and demons inhabit. The creepy, spiderweb infested asylum delivers to be the perfect isolated spot for their fun day away. That’s until they meet Buddy. Buddy unleashes a playfully rough and violent game of hide and seek. When the five students realize that Buddy isn’t all right in the head, the jig is up and playing hooky has become a fateful and frightful game for their very lives.
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“Playing Hook” is the first film under the Chad Clinton Freeman created Pollygrind, a Las Vegas Film Festival, title. Shot in only seven days, Frank S. Petrilli’s found footage film inspires us all to invest a cheap camera, a decent script, fair actors, and to produce solid entertainment for a hour and half. Petrilli’s film has a lot of heart; more than most well-funded and fully production glazed films today. Every scene involving an effect is based off slight of hand or implying techniques. The first act of the film bares the only fault where too much exposition on backstories and too much wandering around to find a hang out spot creates a loss of excitement. These scenes seem too much like script filler than important notations.
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Not until the second act are we greeted with a compelling escape and the maniacal Buddy. Buddy, a childlike grown man with a schizo mentality, has a violent and perverted nature about him. Tom Petrone makes good on Buddy’s character. I wish I could say the same amongst the five students. If you’re playing hooky and doing what raging hormonal teenagers like to do, there needs to be sinful activities. Most of their activities are implied. The bag of weed is shown, but nobody is seen smoking it. The bottle of whiskey is stolen from one of the student’s home, yet nobody drinks it. Sexy dances are given, but no sex was given. The intentions are there, but the execution was a bit lacking because in most slasher-survival films, sinful acts get you killed. There was one scene in particular where Rosie and Megan made out, but the camera was behind Rosie and the kissing was blocked intentionally I’m sure. A sure sign of being on the edge and then you’re pulled right back to safety and safe is what I feel “Playing Hooky” was made out to be.
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“Playing Hooky” stars Kim Kleemichen as the tough girl Rosie, Becky Byers as the sexy Catholic girl, Vincent Kulish as the slick as shit driver, J. Wright Chester as the mouthy hidden camera guy, and Theresa Davis as the ugly Catholic girl. Every actor and actress has their role and plays it well, but there characters lack depth and that isn’t their fault except for maybe Vincent Kulish who co-wrote the movie. However, “Playing Hooky” is a good first release film for Pollygrind and Derelict Films and a good edition release for Wild Eye Releasing on October 27th.
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Nudity Report

Not a damn thing…

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

Posted by Steven Lewis on

resurrectZ

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.

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)

Syfy’s “Z Nation” S1Ep4 ‘Full Metal Zombie’

Posted by Steven Lewis on

fullmetalzombie

Another episode of Syfy’s “Z Nation,” and another great night of television. Z Nation just keeps getting better and funnier. Doc, played by Russell Hodgkinson, plays the lovable, father-like, product of the 60’s survivalist whose one liner deliveries get me rolling with laughter every time and as Doc learns more about the zombies of his post-apocalyptic society, he learns more about his friends. I’m talking about 10K and his backstory with his deceased father and the promise 10K made to him. You learn something new about each character every week it seems. We’ll have to catch next week’s episode to find out more.

Also, fucking Bill Moseley made a special guest appearance. Yes, that just happened. Moseley’s character is a one and done of an gone-batshit-insane general holding a last stand building in McClean, Virginia. Our survivors are looking for air transportation and the information received was that the general had a helicopter. Things don’t look bright as the general has lost, not only his men, but his marbles. Mr. Moseley is fantastic as always with his iconic badgering and his unique voice. More screen time could have made warranted for a legend like ‘Otis Firefly,’ but overall ‘Full Metal Zombie’ is a solid episode. The special effects get crazier, the story lines get whackier, and the gruesome fun just gets funner.

Now, bring on Znado!

Judgment of Evil Looks: “Blackbird” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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Columbine. Your first thought? I bet your first thought is a Columbine high school massacre of 15 students and teachers in April of 1999. Two armed to the teeth individuals walk into a school wearing trench coats and black clothing giving the look of Goth a bad name and forever giving the once questionably fashionable outfit of the early nineties stigma of hate, anger, revenge, and murderous intentions. The film “Blackbird” explores what happens when fear takes over a community because a Goth 15 year old boy makes insubstantial threats among his peers. His life is forever changed because he dresses the part of historical mass murders and lives in a cycle of despair because his right to freedom of speech is revoked by just a few expressive words written on a blog.
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Sean is an outcast. His black, satanic laden clothing, thrash metal music, and pacifist persona make him an easy target for popular kids, say the entire hockey all star team. When popular hottie Deanne shows interest in Sean’s life, the angst of high school becomes more of a burden upon Sean’s shoulders Deanne’s boyfriend threatens him. Sean’s counter threats go public and he is thrown into youth detention center by a community who fears a school-shooting massacre. From then on, Sean is force to conform and lie about who he really is and tries to regain his dignity and self from in and out of jail and in a community that fears him.
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Bravo writer-director Jason Buxton for producing a freshman film that is powerfully anecdotal, well performed by young actors, and well down in a production sense. Lead actor Connor Jessup serves as a force driven by his bottle emotions in the character of Sean. Jessup, who might remember as from TNT’s sci-fi series Falling Skies, harks up being a gothic pacifist as if he was one himself. Another stand out actor is Alex Ozerov as the relentless youth detention center bully Trevor. These two actors, plus a just as equivalently strong cast with Alexia Fast and Michael Bule, represent a strong contingency of intermediate Canadian actors that need more international exposure.
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While Blackbird doesn’t rely on major effects, the captivating storytelling is worth the price of admission. There are numerous underlying issues in Blackbird that are current in today’s world which makes this film so compelling and interesting. Topics like bullying, being true to yourself, high school shootings, parenting, and the broken court system are just a few of many touched upon and exploited for our own good. We, as people, can learn a lot from Blackbird. We can all relate to being bullied and being the bully and facing all the consequences in between.
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This multiple festival award winner is being released on VOD platforms and on DVD home entertainment by Breaking Glass Pictures on October 21st here in the States. This release should be a big win for Breaking Glass and a big win for whomever goes and grabs a copy.