Mimic (1997)

"Mimic" was Guillermo del Toro's first American film and only his second full-length production. His work as a director in the horror genre takes a few steps forward from his outstanding debut "Cronos". The film feels like a summer blockbuster, that it was made for the masses, which is made appearant by the casting choices and hefty budget for the time. While most people rate the movie highly, it failed to cover it's costs while in the box office. Luckily this fact did not harm del Toro's future as a director as he followed this film with "The Devil's Backbone" in 2001 and "Blade 2" in 2002.


The cockroaches of New York City are carrying and spreading a diesease that target and kills young children. The CDC is unable to find a cure or develop a vaccine to neturalize the diesease. They decide to approach the matter from a different angle, and with the help of Entomologist Susan Tyler, they introduce a bio-engineered breed of insect named the Judas Breed to kill off the cockroaches. The experiment is a success and the cockroach population drops to a new low. The Judas Breed were designed to die off within six months and were unable to reproduce. But.....
Fast forward three years and Susan is once again called into duty after two kids sell her a "weird bug" they found in the subway tunnels. To Susan's surprise, it's a large baby Judas. Before she is able to fully disect the spescisem, her office is broken into and steals the dead insect. Susan and her husband Peter go to the subway and break in to the area where the boys had found the bug, only to be turned away by a subway police officer named Leonard. A young austistic child named Chuy and his father Manny become involved after Chuy sees "the man with the funny shoes" enter an old church where a murder supposedly took place. All the main characters end up in the subway tunnels for their own reasons and end up attracting the attention of the Judas Breed, now called Mimic for their abiltiy to look like humans with long coats. These human sized, praying mantis-termite hybrids are quickly reproducing and present a real threat to the world at large. It's up to Susan and the others to find the nest and end the Judas program once and for all.

a Mimic

Susan and her husband Peter

A solider class Mimic

Norman Reedus is thrilled to be in his first movie

Trolljergeren (2010)

"Trolljergeren", also known as "Troll Hunter" in English, is a fantastic Norwegian horror/fantasy film that highlights the mythical creatures in a way that has never been seen before! What's great about this movie is that it touches on several different kinds of trolls and finds a perfect reason to connect them all together into one story. Each type of troll is given it's fair share of screen time and demonstrates their various traits. Otto Jespersen is amazing as the lead character, Hans the Troll Hunter. Best known as a comedian in Norway, Otto plays his role extremely straight and without too much emotion throughout the film which allows the college students working with him to have the excitable reactions one might have when encountering a troll.
The special effects vary throughout the film, with some trolls looking better and more detailed than others; this is too much of a distraction but is noticeable.


A trio of college students are following a hunter named Hans who they suspect is an illegal bear poacher. At one site where a dead bear is found, local hunters remark how the bear tracks look odd but Finn Haugen, the head of the Norwegian Wildlife Board, reassures that the bear tracks are real. The three finally track down Hans one night as he comes running out of a forest yelling "troll"! The commentator, Thomas, is bitten by something in the dark and the three also find that their vehicle has been destroyed. They ride with Hans back to his camp and ask if they can come along and film whatever it is that he's doing. He thinks about it, asks if any of them are Christians, and after they say no, he allows them to come along. The next night Hans takes the three to another forest where they find a three headed troll. Hans allows it to chase him and leads it back to his Land Rover where he activates a high powered UV light that turns the creature to stone. Hans begins to break down the stone remains as Finn arrives with a bear carcass and begins imprinting fake bear tracks. The three college students soon realize that they are privy to a secret government organization and the trolls are indeed real. They continue their travels with Hans as he tries to figure out why there is so much troll activity all of a sudden.

Oh, that's not good!

UV lights turning an older troll to stone

Hans the troll hunter and Johanna the sound tech

That's a large one!

Lair of the Mountain Kings!

Author's Note - 300th Review and MORE MOVIES YOU MUST SEE!

It's incredible to think that I only have 65 more reviews left before I reach my one year anniversary of starting this project. These past 100 days have been filled with more of the "classic" horror films that I've seen over the years; the ones I grew up watching and the ones that I've bought over the years to watch time and time again. There were some great movies that I got to enjoy again as I worked on the various themes over the past few months.

There are still many great movies to review, much more than 65! Will I continue with writing a review a day, I'm not sure. What I do know is that I'm excited to see and review the films that the twisted minds in Japan and Korea have to offer, as well as reviewing a long list of films I have yet to see for the first time!


And now I present to you the eight films from the past 100 days that I feel that you NEED TO SEE NOW!

1. "Fritt Vilt" - Set in the beautiful Jotunheimen mountains of Norway, a crazed hermit welcomes five innocent strangers in the only way he knows how, by trying to kill them!                                                 http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2013/12/fritt-vilt-2006.html                                                      
2. "Cigarette Burns" - The best episode from the "Masters of Horror" series staring Norman Reedus as a film buff who is hired to find a one-of-a-kind film that is rumored to have been destroyed after it's one and only screening.                                                                                                                             http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2013/11/cigarette-burns-2005.html                                        
3. "The Crazies" 2010 Remake - One of the best remakes of any movie I have ever seen!                       http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-crazies-2010.html                                          
4. "The Frankenstein Theory" - I might be one of the few people who enjoyed this simple found footage movie but I think it's worth repeating how much I do!                                                                          http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-frankenstein-theory-2013.html                       
5. "Curse of Chucky" - The famous killer doll is back and goes back to it's horrific roots. No lame jokes here!                                                                                                                                                  http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2014/01/curse-of-chucky-2013.html                                  
6. "The Moth Diaries" - Unique take on the Ghost and Vampire archetypes. Beautiful film!                        http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-moth-diaries-2011.html                                  
7. "Black Sheep" - Best combination of Comedy and Horror since "Dead Alive"!                                    http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2014/01/black-sheep-2006.html                                         
8. "Troll Hunter" - More Fantasy than Horror, this gem brings the famed Norwegian creatures to life better than any other film!                                                                                                                   http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2014/02/trolljergeren-2010.html

"Frit Viltt"

"Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns"

"The Crazies"

"The Frankenstein Theory"

"The Curse of Chucky"

"The Moth Diaries"

 "Black Sheep"

"Troll Hunter"

Humanoids form the Deep (1980)

I was expecting pure schlock and cheesiness from a film titled "Humanoids from the Deep" that happened to have Roger Corman as an executive producer, but I was happily surprised that it was also actually somewhat entertaining to watch. The film has it's violent moments with some decent make-up work that really felt ahead of their time. The acting is tolerable although some of the dialogue is down right laughable. The explanation on the evolution of the Humanoids makes more sense than many others films when trying to find explain their monsters. It's an outright updated monster flick like those from the 50's and 60's.


In a quiet Californian coastal town, the local fisherman are being attacked from something hiding under the water. First a boat is attacked and a child is pulled from the edge and killed. Then the fishermen dogs are all killed over the night. As the creatures become more daring, they begin killing the men of the town and raping the women when the chance arises. When a few of the locals realize what's going on, they, with the help of a doctor who is working for the company responsible for the creatures development, try to save the other residents just as the creatures attack in mass.

Leviathan (1989)

"Leviathan" was one of those cheesy monster movies that I loved to watch in the middle of a summer day when it felt to hot to go outside. It is one the several films that takes place deep underwater that came out in the late 1980's. It's a fun, stupid, and engaging monster flick with some memorable actors from that time including Peter Weller ("Robo-Cop" and "Buckaroo Bonzai"), Ernie Hudson ("Ghostbusters" and "The Crow"), and Richard Crenna (the "Rambo" series). The special effects were decent for the time and the movie holds up fairly well if you are looking for a cheesy monster flick. "Leviathan" is like "The Thing", but underwater but not nearly as cool.


Steven Beck is leading a mining crew deep underwater. During their six month long assignment, one of the miners, a dumb-ass named Six Pack, comes across a sunken Russian vessel named "Leviathan". The crew breaks into the vessel's safe and take the records showing how the crew died and the captain's video log; Six Packs pockets a flask of vodka that was also in the safe. Six Pack drinks the vodka which happens to be tainted with some sort of mutagen that the Russians were experimenting with. Six Pack dies and his body starts to mutate. The rest of the crew is now trapped after Six Pack's mutated body comes to life and begins to attack them. Even after they are able to "flush" out the corpse, a piece of him remains in the base and transforms into a murderous creature. The crew is trapped within as a storm rages above and time is running out....

Isolation (2005)

"Isolation" is one of the creepier films I have seen in the past few years. The atmosphere of the film is dark and foreboding, with the characters trapped on a secluded farm in rural Ireland. Maybe its because there are only a few actors who don't try to hog the screen more than they're needed? Maybe it's because the location of the film takes place on a large, empty, decrepit cattle farm? Whatever the reason, the film is effectively creepy and original.


Dan is the owner of a rundown, rural cattle farm in rural Ireland. He has an agreement with a bio-genetic company and is allowing them to use some of his cattle as test subjects. Something went terribly wrong with the pregnant cow that was being tested on and Dan is forced to pull the calf from the mother before it kills her. Orla, a local veterinarian, performs an autopsy on the calf after they are forced to kill it and discovers that is has six mutated embryos inside it. One of the embryos is still alive and escapes unnoticed. The lead doctor from the bio-genetic company comes to the farm and realizes that everyone on the farm, including two young adults hiding form their families, are now trapped on the farm until they find and destroy the quickly growing, extremely dangerous creature.

Cujo (1983)

"Cujo" is the 1983 adaption of Stephen King's novel of the same name. This was during the time when stories by King were still a new, hot commodity and were being developed adapted at a startling rate. "Cujo", while having it's moments of pure intensity also has more than it's fair share of slow, dull, dragging moments that typically don't fare well with a horror hungry audience. The reason for this is because the story treats the main character, the large St. Bernard name Cujo as realistically as possible. There isn't anything uncanny in the story to add extra scares other than the frightening possibility of a small child dying from dehydration. This story also has one of the more predicable but satisfying endings that King has ever written.


Donna and her young son Tad take their faulty car out to a mechanic who lives on a secluded farm. Unfortunately the mechanics pet St. Bernard has been infected by rabies and starts killing anything that moves, including the mechanic and his neighbor. When Donna is attacked by the large dog, she discovers that her car has completely failed and that she and her son are trapped. Her husband comes home early from a business trip when she doesn't answer the house phone, fearing that she left with a family friend that she had been having an affair with. He finds that his house has been trashed, by the former lover, but the suspect has no idea where Donna or Tad are. Meanwhile, Cujo attacks the car repeatedly until the door handles are broken and the windows are smashed. As Tad passes out and doesn't respond to Donna's pleas, Donna makes a last ditch effort to get to the house and call for help, willing to do anything to save her son.