My Review Of "Perfect Skin"

Bob, a cordial tattoo artist just found out he has Parkinson’s, a disease that will end his life long career. With the clock ticking, Bob’s obsessed with creating one final masterpiece before his body deteriorates. Just then he meets Katia, a young Polish woman with perfect, unblemished, untouched skin. He needs his final canvas, so he offers Katia a free tattoo, but she declines. Bob cannot accept NO for an answer, so he kidnaps Katia, locks her in a cell and goes to work on her blank canvas of a body. 

"Perfect Skin" is an impressive body horror that walks the line between sadism and sensuality. The film is directed by Kevin Chicken and stars Richard Brake, Natalia Kostrzewa, and Jo Woodcock.

The story is a dark character study on an artist's obsessed nature as his desire to create a masterpiece of body art on the perfect skin, and the manifestation of truly sinister actions he takes. It is all done with an almost breathless calm as a psychological drama destorts into something almost akin to bondage fetish. Of course Chicken never steps into such exploitational domain. He manages a hypnotic, intimate thriller that gingerly blurs the lines between body modification art and horror. 

The casting is perfection. The characters are strong, recognizable people we can all relate to, and who doesn't know "that" tattoo guy. Which makes the film more personable and terrifying. The direction that Chicken takes, going for more, subtle-suggestive expressions of horror, while still crsating a chilling story is beyond impressive for a directorial debut. 

"Perfect Skin" isn't your standard full-throttle psycho killer film. It stays more subdued as it creates a gradual tension. Most of the film's setting hangs closer to late 2000's exploitation/torture motif, never letting you forget that this is a horror movie. Plus, what gore is onscreen is enough to garner approval from any visceral driven horror fan. 

Overall I really liked "Perfect Skin". This isn't usually my subgenre, but the story, and characters are so real any one from ripped-from-the-headlines thriller fans to giallo inspired hardcore fans can get into it. Add to that some great cinematography and sweet music score and "Perfect Skin" is one to watch. My only negative would be that I didn't care for the ending- the last few frames. (4/5)

My Review Of "The Pining"

"The Pining" is a supernatural horror with crime thriller noir aspirations. The film is written and directed by Eduardo Castrillo and produced by Uncia Films. It stars Diogo Hausen (The Dark Knight Rises), Tom Sizemore (Mission Overlord; Black Wake; Halloweed; et al), Jackie Dallas (Stranger Things) and Natalie Gibson.

When members of Joe’s therapy group start dying under mysterious circumstances, Detective Harris is forced to reopen a cold case. Her only lead: burnt-out priest Father William  – the group therapy leader who seems to know more than what is in his police statements…

And the movie is as vague as the synopsis reads. Keep it handy, you may wanna refer back to it through the course of watching the movie. You will be as confused and full of questions as the generic detective struggling to solve this case. There's no consistency or proper train of thought going on to anchor the scenes coherently or to allow for the viewer to connect to the writer/director's vision. 

There are moments that almost spark some legitimate indie quality. The scenes between the photographer and love-interest model flow easily and naturally. Unfortunately just as you let go of the irritation over lack of understandable story development, editing flaws come along to kill the mood. I swear I saw a couple of scenes play out in different variants of the same scene.

As far as the horror elements go, I liked the body count, I appreciated the follow through on the effects, even with such low-budget quality. There's a few cool kill moments in "The Pining". I have seen plenty of low-budget, homemade horror movies that have either created good horror elements or blew it totally. Now this film definitely blows it, just not so much in the horror, as in every where else.  I don't recommend this one unless you just wanna see Tom Sizemore for what little time he is on screen. (2/5)

"CANDY CORN" RELEASES A BRAND NEW POSTER AND TRAILER!

HAVE WE GOT A TREAT FOR YOU! CANDY CORN RELEASES A BRAND NEW POSTER AND TRAILER!

Epic Pictures and DREAD are thrilled to release the brand new poster and trailer for Josh Hasty's feature film, CANDY CORN, releasing on VOD and Blu-ray on September 17th!

It’s Halloween weekend and a group of bullies are planning their annual hazing on local outcast, Jacob Atkins. When they take things too far, he’s resurrected to seek revenge against those that wronged him.
 

CANDY CORN is written & directed by Josh Hasty (In Hell Everybody Loves Popcorn), starring P.J. Soles (Halloween), Courtney Gains (Children of the Corn), Tony Todd (Candyman), Pancho Moler (3 from Hell), Sky Elobar (The Greasy Strangler), Caleb Thomas (The Terror of Hallow's Eve), Lovlee Carroll (Anabolic Life), Matt O'Neill (Edgar Allan Poe's Lighthouse Keeper), and introducing Nate Chaney.

Produced by Josh Hasty, Courtney Gains and Matt O’Neill alongside executive producers Tony Todd, James Claeys (Local Boogeyman Productions) Justin Mabry (Trick or Treat Studios), Lindsey Kowalski, Benjamin Scrivens (Fright Rags), and Johnny Cooper. CANDY CORN is the first production financed by Local Boogeyman Productions. 

 

The award-winning SFX make-up team includes Justin Mabry (sculptor of the Michael Myers mask in the 2018 Halloween & co-owner of Trick or Treat Studios), Chris Gallaher (Vice, Fear the Walking Dead) and Erik Porn (Scream Queens, American Horror Story). Additional accredited effects team includes Russ Lukich (Hellboy 1&2, Jurassic Park III) and Emmy nominee, Dave Hartman (Transformers: Prime, Bubba Ho-Tep) with costume design by Cody Varona (wardrobe designer to stars, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and Guns ‘n’ Roses).

My Review Of "The Mummy Rebirth"

"The Mummy Rebirth" is written by Justin Price and co-directed with Khu. The film is a supernatural horror revisiting the classic Mummy horror story. It stars Carter, David E. Cazares, Deanna Grace Congo  Shamel Hashish and Brittany Goodwin.

Two treasure hunters uncover a sealed tomb and awaken a mummy that has waited years to come back and wipe humanity from the face of the Earth. It’s a race against time as they try to stop the Mummy from wreaking havoc on the modern world…

The story is adventurous. Much more than what a movie production of this caliber can generally accomplish. There are familiar tropes, obvious set-up points and very stereotypical characters. The film plays along the lines of "The Mummy" ( Brendan Fraser's). It opens up almost drawing from Tomb Raider influences. And had it not gotten of with such a drawn out start, might have garnered some enthusiasm. 

I wasn't expecting a lot from the film, to be honest. Movies about mummies tend to let me down. Still Price and his team should be applauded. They went for something big and they went all in. The production staff, casting, CGI team, everything (even as much falls flat) shows total commitment and unified vision for bringing the story together. I just got the impression it was a small story stretched out way too much, in order to create a feature length story with very little substantial matter worked in. 

That being said, "The Mummy Rebirth" picks up a little half way through the middle and really kicks up the adventure side. As tacky as I thought the CGI effects were, they did provide enough to match a lot of the early 2000's Syfy stuff. Plus I loved the creature design for the mummies and the settings and backdrops rocked. 

Overall this one will appeal to a small select low-budget audience. The majority of horror fans who aren't as forgiving when it comes to quality and substance will not, still "The Mummy Rebirth" isn't the worst Mummy film I have seen lately. Oh and I almost forgot, the thing basically turns into a Kaiju monster movie by the end. (2.5/5)

Trailer Released For Horror Thriller "After She Wakes"

Check out the trailer for upcoming horror thriller "After She Wakes". Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, acquired the U.S. rights with plans to release the film on VOD in December. It is directed by David A. Clark and stars Hannah Ward (Ballistic), Conrad Goode (Con-air, The Longest Yard), Nicola Lambo (“American Crime Story”, “Will & Grace”) and Micah Parker (“Mob City”, “Vampire Diaries”, “Lola Versus”).

A narcoleptic mother who suffers from terrifying sleep disruptions as she tries to deal with ongoing grief following the tragic death of her infant son. 

Her family begins experiencing different episodes of parasomnia including night terrors and sleep paralysis, leaving them unable to move and only able to witness horrific visions. These nightmares become too disturbing as they create a rift in their own realities causing the mother to believe someone or something is watching her sleep every night.

New Trailer Released For Upcoming Horror "Gags The Clown"

A new trailer has been released for upcoming horror "Gags The Clown". The film is getting ready for a September 3rd limited theatrical and VOD release. It is directed by Adam Krause and stars horror veteran Lauren Ashley Carter. 

"Gags The Clown" is inspired by the viral media frenzy and worldwide phenomenon of ‘clown roaming’ sparked by his sixteen-minute short film “Gags” in 2016.

The film unfolds during a single night in Green Bay, Wisconsin when a mysterious clown bearing ominous black balloons appears to terrorize the town. As a local news reporter scrambles to reveal Gags’ true identity and the police attempt to maintain order in a city that is starting to go clown crazy, a group of high schoolers see Gags’ arrival as an excuse to cause a little copycat trouble themselves. Throwing even more gas on this dumpster-fire night, a far-right podcast host seeking law and order decides to live stream his “clown hunt” on social media as the world watches on in horror.

Trailer Released For Serial Killer Horror "Bloodline"

Check out the trailer for upcoming serial killer horror "Bloodline". Momentum Pictures and Blumhouse will release the film September 20th in theatres and On Demand. The film stars Seann William Scott (American Pie franchise, “Lethal Weapon”), Mariela Garriga (Nightmare Cinema, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), Dale Dickey (Leave No Trace, Hell or High Water) and Kevin Carroll (Velvet Buzzsaw, “The Leftovers”).

Social worker Evan (Seann William Scott) who values family above all else, and anyone who gets between him, his wife, and newborn son learn that the hard way. But when it comes to violent tendencies, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.