Clown (2014) #501

From the director and writer team that gave us Marvel Studios beloved Spider-Man trilogy comes “Clown”, a grisly story about a loving father who dons a cursed clown outfit and unwittingly becomes the avatar for a murderous Icelandic demon. What fun! It’s a subtle trend that Marvel hires horror creators due to the fact that they are able to produce effective movies with lower budgets, essentially proving themselves worthy of a large blockbuster budget. This film was produced by Eli Roth, who also makes a brief appearance in the film. "Clown" is also a great film to those that love body horror, so you easily watch this with "Killer Klowns From Space" or "The Fly".

Kent is a loving husband and father and takes the task of donning a clown outfit that he finds in a house he is preparing to sell when the clown that was hired for his son's birthday doesn't show up. A smash at the party, Kent falls asleep in the clown outfit, and in the morning, he finds that he can't remove the wig, take off the nose, of pull off the outfit. He's forced to go to work in the clown outfit and tries once again to remove it but ends up hurting himself. When he arrives home, his wife Meg is able to pull off the nose but doing so causes Kent extreme, blood pain. It seems that he's become one with the outfit. 

Kent tracks down the owner of the outfit, who warns him not to touch it. The mysterious man, Karlsson,played by Peter Stomare (Bad Milo), knows the history of the outfit, explaining that it is the embodiment of an Icelandic demon known as the Cloyne, who must consume a child for every month of winter. Karlsson drugs Kent in order to decapitate him, but Kent awakes and escapes in time. Unfortunately for Kent, he begins to change into the demon, slowly becoming possessed and giving in to his hunger for small children. Trying to resist the demon, Kent tries to kill himself, with disastrous results.

Finally, the demon takes control, and the feeding begins. His first meal was Robbie, who dies in an accident involving Kent's attempt to decapitate his own head. The second is a bully from his son's school. Then two more at a Chuck E Cheese. The movie is dark! For the fifth and final sacrifice, the demon goes after Kent's son. Meg tries to fight off the full demon Cloyne, but will she be able to save her son from the maniacal killer clown? 

There's a great moment in the film when Meg meets Karlsson, who goes on to explain that he fell victim to Cloyne, and the only way to be set free was to devour five terminally ill children from the hospital that he volunteered at, as an entertaining clown!

Hostel 2 (2007) #491

 

"Hostel 2" is a smart and engaging sequel to its notorious original in the series, which is also written and directed by Eli Roth. "Hostel" is often times credited as one the films to inspire the term torture-porn, and while there are a few such scenes in this film, it is not the primary focus. Eli takes this opportunity to further explore the inner workings of the Elite Hunting Club and how members become involved. The film also examines how a group of women would be lured to the hostel in Slovakia, with obvious different motivations than the men had in the first film.

The movie begins with Paxton, the primary character from the first film. He has a long and detailed dream about the aftermath of his escape. When he awakes, his girlfriend tells him that he's being paranoid. She becomes distracted, leaving the room for a few moments, but upon her return, she finds that Paxton has been killed and his head removed.

The next scene then introduces this film's group of friends who are currently in Rome; practical Beth, outgoing Whitney, and introverted Lorna. The three women meet Axelle, who convinces them to join her on a spa getaway. They arrive in Slovakia and check into the hostel, where the quirky desk clerk from the first film takes their passports and uploads them to Elite's website, where men and women from around the globe begin placing bids on the auction for the three women. 

An American named Todd wins both Beth and Whitney, celebrating his win while on the golf course. He then calls his best Stuart to tell him about his plans, and together the two quickly fly out to Slovakia. The two arrive in time to watch the women at the annual harvest festival. The friends notice that the cider is extremely strong, so Beth decided to stop drinking while Lorna is convinced that the drinks are not alcoholic. Beth is then hit on by a local, whom she politely declines several times before he declares that "I could have helped you". She then meets Stuart, and the two talk for a few moments. At this time, Lorna is escorted away down the river where she is kidnapped and delivered as a prize to the woman who won her auction. 

Beth eventually becomes separated from her friends, waking up in the spa without her belongings. She is chased by a group of men, losing them in the woods only to be stopped by the street children from the first film. Before any harm can come, she is saved by Axelle and her boss, Sascha. They return to Sacha's mansion, were Beth accidently finds a trophy room with decapitated heads, including Paxton's, set on display. She is then gaged and taken to the torture factory. There she is joined by Stuart, dressed in a smock and ready to begin his torture. At first, he is reluctant but when he finds out that Todd has been killed because he couldn't finish off Whitney, he completes his friend's task before coming back for Beth. He explains that Beth reminds him of his hated wife, and this will be as close to killing her as he can get. Beth is able to get free and chains Stuart to the chair. The pair are interrupted by Sascha and a host of guards. Beth negotiates her freedom by buying the chance to kill Stuart, in which she does so in a very gruesome fashion. Beth becomes an Elite Hunting Club member, the only way to ensure her safety.

What I enjoy about this movie is how Eli shows the process of the auction and Todd's and Stuart's initiation into the Elite Hunting Club. Before we learn about Stuart's motivation, we hear how insecure Todd is and how killing someone will somehow make him someone to fear and respect. When Todd and Stuart arrive at the factory, they are required to receive the Club's official tattoo. Stuart is hesitant, knowing that his wife is not going to approve and ask too many questions about it. He only relents when he realizes that his and Todd's life are on the line if they don't go through with every requirement that the Club enforces. And we see what happens to Todd when he is unable to kill Whitney after he accidently maims her with a bone saw.

The Green Inferno (2013) #425

"The Green Inferno" is Eli Roth's ode to the cannibal movie sub-genre of 1970's and 80's, a film that offers plenty of gore as well as Roth's signature sense of dark humor. The movie is perhaps best known for it's mainstream theatrical release after it was dropped by its original distributor, even though it was well received during its time shown in the film festival circuit. When it was finally released on the big screen, I did see it with about a dozen other people at a local cineplex. And was it worth the wait? Meh....

The violence, the gore, and the very nature of the movie isn't meant the average movie attendee, but to have its distributor drop the film is a bit suspect. It's not the first or the last to have this happen and you can almost gunarentee that when it does occur, the film in question will earn more discussion than if it quietly appeared as planned. Much like Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses", I was expecting something more after hearing about all of the hype.

Essentially the movie is about a group of student protesters from Columbia University who fly down to Peru's portion of the Amazon in order to stop a logging operation that will destroy innocent tribal villages left untouched by the outside world. After successfully halting the operation and getting arrested in the process, the protestors begin to fly back to the city, but the plane that they are on crashes, killing some of the people on board. The lucky survivors are then found by members of the "innocent" tribe and are brought back to the village, only to find out that the tribe are cannibals. 

The Sacrament (2013) #391

"The Sacrament" is an mediocre offering from director and writer Ti West, with horror fiend Eli Roth serving as one of the producers. The film stars regular Ti West collaborators A.J Bowen, Joe Swanberg, and Amy Seimetz. The film might be a little too polished for a first person perspective film but at least the viewer is saved from an overly shaky and nauseating experience. The film doesn't offer anything new to the material that it covers but it does present that content in an entertaining fashion.

"The Sacrament" is a simple, effective, straightforward, and yet predictable horror film about two independent web-journalists, Sam and Jake,  and a collaborator, Patrick, who go to an unnamed country to make a documentary about Parish Eden, a possible religious utopia for former drug addicts and social rejects. Patrick wants to find his sister Caroline, a recovering drug addict, who wrote a letter to her brother asking him to come. When the three first land, they are taken to the parish by armed locals, giving them quiet concern. While the sibling reunite, Sam and Jake interview the parish residents about their new life and what their leader, Father, is like. Sam and Jake begin to see the positive aspects about the simple life that the parish residents are living but when they meet Father, their fears and concerns quickly return. Soon they realize that there are secrets that are being kept from them and that their lives are in grave danger.

Father being interviewed by Sam and filmed by Jake

Sam and Jake

Caroline holding her brother Patrick

Hostel (2005)

Each horror movie that’s about a vacation has an obvious rule that should have been followed; if the rule was not ignored, everyone would still be alive. Don’t use the sauna, don’t drink the water, and don’t go to the ruins off the beaten path. In “Hostel”, the rule might be as simply as to not travel with a group of horny guys, make sure that there is a girl there that will keep you from being seduced and separated by sexy foreign girls. “Hostel” is another genre defying film written and directed by Eli Roth. Again, he brings the viewer a different kind of horror movie with odd moments of black comedy sprinkled here and there. And like “Cabin Fever”, there is a moment where the main character tells a story that has nothing to do with the main plotline but adds a certain flair to the film.

Two Americans, Paxton and Josh, and their Icelandic friend Oli are backpacking around Europe. When they get bored of hanging around Amsterdam, they are told about an undocumented hostel near Bratislava and how the town there is filled with beautiful women and barely any men (because they are all off at war). The three friends go and are quickly seduced by their roommates Natalya and Svetlana. It turns out that Natalya and Svetlana, as well as the guy who told them about the hostel back in Amsterdam, all work for a company called Elite Hunting, a group that kidnaps tourists and sells them to be totured and murdered by rich businessmen from around the world. It doesn’t take long before Oli, and then Josh, to be taken away in the dead of night and transported to the old factory where Elite Hunting provides its services. Paxton finds Natalya and Svetlana and demands that they take him to his friends, which they do. Soon Paxton learns the truth and tries to survive the rest of his vacation…

Favorite moment - I really like that Jay Hernandez (Quarantine) plays the lead, Paxton. The casting was just a smart choice.

Cabin Fever (2002)

Summer is the perfect time to go camping and sadly so many young adults are killed by various silent maniacs wielding machetes and other sharp objects. So imagine what a breath of fresh air the film “Cabin Fever” presented to the horror movie loving masses. You still have a group of young college age friends, you still have nudity for the target audience, and you have people dying. But “Cabin Fever” doesn’t have a person killing people but rather a contaminated water supply. The movie also has some of the best unexpected moments of black comedy thrown in to keep the viewer engaged. This film was Eli Roth’s big picture debut as a writer and director and he impressed the hell out of me.

Five college friends (Paul, Karen, Bert, Mercy, and Jeff) go out to the woods for a camping getaway to celebrate the end of the school. They meet some interest locals at the gas station/market, making a great first impression. Once they are at the cabin the group breaks up to do their own thing; Paul and Karen go swimming, Macy and Jeff have sex, and Bert goes off alone to shot squirrels…and eventually a homeless guy. Later that night the homeless guy shows up at their front door, bloody from the gunshot wound as well as something else. He’s sick and wounded and when they refuse to help him and he realizes that Bert is in the cabin, the homeless guy goes to their truck and begins to get blood all over the inside. They manage to chase him away in the morning they split up to find help. But unaware to them, they have been drinking the same water that affected the homeless guy. Soon they begin to show signs of the infection and things only go downhill from there.

Favorite moment – Watching how the group treats Karen and the process of her decay. It’s hard to imagine how a group in real life would approach this situation and the way the movie handled it is a very likely possibility. 

The Last Exorcism 2 (2013)

I’m beginning to love horror movies that are rated PG-13 more and more. Why? Because they don’t solely depend on violence and gore, they don’t need sex scenes (because how many times has that been the cause for terror in a horror movie anyway?), and they can keep the profanity to a minimum. Most, not all, of them are amazing and tend to have stronger stories and more real scares than their R rated counterparts. “The Last Exorcism 2” is a perfect example of a great PG-13 horror movie, just as the original film was too. The atmosphere and pacing were perfect and set up the second half of the film just right.

This is a great film to end a week about possession because it’s all about a girl who was possessed in the first film and is now trying to keep the demon from taking over once again.

The film begins almost immediately after the first film, when Nell was last seen giving birth to a demon. She ends up scaring the crap out of couple when she ends up invading their home and found crouching on their kitchen counter. Fast forward a bit and Nell is now in a house for troubled/orphaned older teens. She slowly let’s her guard down and becomes friendly with the other girls (remember, she was home schooled after her mother died). She gets a job as a maid for a hotel and develops a crush on the owner’s son. She gets to experience Mardi Gras and while she’s out, a street performer tells her that “they’re happy” that she’s back. This is when the film begins change and takes its tragic course as the followers and powers of the demon Abalam begin to surface, beginning with Nell having hallucinations of dead father.