Killer Klowns from outer space

Title - Killer Klowns from outer space
language - English
Genre - Horror, sci-fi, comedy

















Crescent Cove is a normal American small town.  One Friday night a group of the local teens are at the ‘Edge of the world’, the local make out spot when a shooting star passes overhead and seems to land in nearby woods.  Debbie and Mike decide to see if they can find where it landed they go into the wood only to be distracted by a circus big top.  As there is no one around they decide to go inside and, instead of the open ring they were expecting they find themselves in fun house type corridors.  As they explore they find a room a few pieces if candyfloss hanging up. They hide when they hear someone coming and watch as a clown comes into the room who starts to do something with a popcorn machine.  As they hide Mike knocks one of the hanging candyfloss and discovers a body in it, the clown hears them and chases them out firing popcorn at them as they go.  As they leave the big top the clown is joined by another.  Debbie and Mike make it back to their car just as the clowns catch up with them, they run over the clowns but they just get back up.

Mike and Debbie go to the local police, officer Kurt Moonie believes its a joke but Dave, the other police man agrees to go back the tent with Mike but when they get there the tent is gone.  In the mean time an army of clowns are rampaging through the town killing and abducting the locals.

Killer Klowns from outer space is a good little B movie from the 1980’s with good fun effects and costumes.  The Klowns themselves are quite creepy looking as any horror/sci-fi clown should be and they carry out their kills with a creepy almost childlike glee, most of the time entertaining the the victims first.   The film does a good job of keeping the Klowns clown like but also making them not quite human.  The circus theme is also kept up well with the various weapons and ways of killing that the Klowns use whether they be candyfloss guns or shadow puppets.

The story in Killer Klowns follows a pretty standard, alien invasion B movie plot.  something is seen landing near a small American town, some locals go and look and discover the alien, they try to warn the town but no one believes than until it’s too late and I find that many of these films easily become a clone of another film with a generic monster or alien rampaging through the town, a blond female who normally does a lot of running around screaming (mostly without much clothing on) and then the military or local jock/nerd team up save the day and most of these films tend to bend in with one another.  Killer Klowns stands out from some of the other because the monsters, the Klowns are memorable, they are not ‘Pod people’ or an unintelligent monster killing everything it’s path.  The klowns obviously enjoy the carnage they are creating and, although they may give off the impression of being the rampaging monster of other films they have put some thought into how to get their victims.

Killer Klowns also has some memorable scenes, without giving too much away the scene with the small Klown and the bikers always sticks in my head.

So If you want  a low budget b movie with a sense of humour give Killer Klowns from outer space a watch.

Whilst writing this I have come across the imdb entry for the sequel due out in 2016, whether this will happen or I can’t say but it may be worth keeping an eye open here

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

Title - Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
Language - English
Genre - Horror, Zombie, magic

A man in top hat and another that looks like a ghoul dig up a grave, they attack the caretaker when he finds then.  The duo then removes a corps from the coffin and the man in the top hat gets in.  Later Alan leads a group of his friends off a boat and through a graveyard towards the empty caretaker’s house.  Alan is the leader of an acting troupe and his friends are all actors in the same group.  As they walk they talk about the history of the graveyard with Alan telling grizzly tales about the former caretakers and the occupants of the graves.  When they reach the caretakers they break in, planning to spend the weekend.  After some time Alan opens a large chest that he had brought with it, he claims it is a magician's box.  He puts on a cape and takes a book he claims is a grimoire out and claims that they are going to raise the dead.  Treating it all as a joke the party go back out to the graveyard and dig up the grave of Orville Dunnworth, they hand Orvel over the cross behind his grave and, whilst Alan lays out some candle other party members dig up other graves.  Alan the reads incantations out of the book and, when nothing happens he curses the devil.  Other members of the group get in on the act by seeing who can give the best performance and curse.  Most of the party return to the house, bring the corps of Orville with them whilst two others remain in the graveyard to cover up the rest of the graves.   Alan's behaviour with the corps gets more and more bizarre leading to the rest of the actors walking out on him but, as they leave the house they are greeted by the return one of the their colleagues who was filling in the graves and hot on his trail are the residents for the graveyard who have been summoned forth as zombies.  The party retreat back into the house and try to  find a way past the attacking horde and back to  the boat.

The Acting in 'Children shouldn't play with dead things' is deliberately camp and over the top as the main cast are an acting troupe looking to get their next part.  Alan refers to them as his 'children' (making them the titular children) and he is often putting them down.  There is obvious tension in the group which seems to get a lot of outlet in the 'devil cursing' scene and after that Alan seems to have won back some of the group who were slowly turning against him but, as his behaviour with the corps gets worst those that are against him gain more support in the group to the point where his threats of kicking them out of the play is a risk they are willing to take.

Once the zombies appear in the film it takes on a classic ‘night of the living dead’ or ‘Evil dead’ feel with the group of protagonists trapped in a cabin with an increasing number of the dead surrounding them, in fact, as with Evil Dead they also have one of them inside the cabin.  The zombies themselves are quite good and do look like the undead corpse type and they seem slightly more intelligent than the zombies in other classic movies, although they do swarm in the same manner they are able to climb to higher windows and set up an ambush.  The final scene of the film leads us to believe that they either have more intelligence than previously shown or it is increasing.

The Films Score is good at setting the mood but i did find that, when the zombies were first rising the incidental music was distracting.

Over all I found ‘Children shouldn't Play with dead things’ a good low budget zombie flick.

Doppelganger

Title - Doppelganger

Language - English

Genre - Horror, psychological

Patrick can’t believe his luck when the beautiful Holly rents his spare room but he soon begins to suspect that there is something strange about her.  He sees her on the street but when he calls her she ignores him and when he mentions it she denies even leaving the house.  Even when they sleep together she denies it was her.  As the relationship continues Holly behaviour seems to get stranger.

Holly's brother is confined in a metal home.  He was accused of throwing their farther out of a window when he was eleven and Holly herself has recently been accused of killing their mother.

Holly tells Patrick that it wasn't her, that the person he has been seeing around (and sleeping with)  is the same person who killed her mother and that it is not actually human but a Doppelganger, a spirit or demon that is a duplicate of Holly. As Patrick tries to find the truth to what is going on he finds that there may be some truth in Holly’s claims and, even if there isn't there is definitely more going on  than anyone knows.

Doppelganger is an odd film that i came across  on one of the less known Uk TV channels (at the time) and it had me hooked almost straight away.  The film is part thriller part ‘Psycho’ and part horror movie and for a long time we (the viewer) are made to wonder if the monster and other Holly are real or if it is just all in her head and, as the film progresses the mystery gets stranger.

Doppelganger has a good flow and Drew Barrymore does well at switching between good and bad Holly, although I’m not sure where the scene where Holly kicks Danny Trejo between the legs is supposed to fit in.  The film has a good feel to it with some of the jump scares tuning out to be dreams that are almost reminiscent of the dream scenes in ‘An American Werewolf in London’ and these coupled with the hallucinations and reflections of the creature that Holly has all add the mystery of what is actually true.

I have seen a couple of reviews for Doppelganger in the past and none of them thought the film was much good and I really do have to disagree with them.  There isn't much gore in the film but that’s ok it a more psychological film, focusing more on the ‘is she mad’ aspect of Holly than on the gore and murders.  There is a bit of sex and nudity but it does not detract from the film, instead it is used to show/hint at and move along relationships between some of the various characters.  One of the reviews I saw stated that the only reason to watch the film was for the shower scene featuring Drew Barrymore and yes it’s always nice to see some naked flesh on screen I’m not sure that the other reviewer quite understood that the scene was also there to show part of the ‘other’ aspect of Holly mind.

As I said earlier Doppelganger is, in some ways more than one thing, the psychological, the slasher and the monster and in other films i have reviewed I have said that this kind of tale doesn't always seem to work.  In some other films i have reviewed some parts just seem to have been added to cover all the bases, for instance in the Japanese Cursed the film seems to suffer from not really knowing what is killing off the character, some are killed by slashers, some by ghosts whilst others just disappear.  This is not the case with doppelganger, the genre switching mystery is handled in such a way that not knowing what we are actually dealing with until the end actually helps keep us interested instead of leaving us with a jumble unnecessary plot lines and characters (although until the end I was beginning to wonder what the point of Holly’s dad was).

Over all I would recommend Doppelganger it has a good narrative, a mystery, a monster, some killing, some (female) nudity and a cameo by Danny Trejo.  Who could ask for more?

Samurai Bride

Title - Samurai Bride
Language - Japanese
Genre - Anime, harem, fighting

Samurai Bride is the follow up series to Samurai Girls  so there may be some spoilers.

After the events of Samurai Girls Muneakire had gone travelling to help get over the final battle, leaving the samurai in charge of the dojo.  The series starts as Muneakira returns to find that the Dojo was running out of money and so, to stop it closing the girls have opened it up as a maid cafe.  Muneakira is not happy with this but is soon persuaded that it is the only a temporary measure until they can make the money to pay off the debts.

As part of the promotion for the cafe Kangtsugu is sent out to hand out fliers, on her way she takes shortcut through the local graveyard where she runs into four strangers. Later these strangers visit the Dojo/maid cafe and reveal themselves to be recently resurrected dark samurai who are looking to challenge Jubei, who they believe to be the strongest warrior around to a fight to the death.  The Dark Samurai then attack the girls but Jubei does not have the ability to transform into a master samurai any more.  The dark samurai believe that Jubei is an imposter and give the girls one month to produce the real Jubei, they put a curse on Muneakira that will stop him raising his arms in battle and if, after the month the real Jubei does not fight them Muneakira will lose his power and none of the girls will ever be able to become master samurai again.

The first few episodes are mainly fan service with the slowly developing story line of Muneakira and the others trying to find a way of getting Jubei her powers back (Jubei lost her powers when she sacrificed herself at the end of season 1.).  Having to have at least the same amount of fan service we now see all the main female cast in maid outfits and we have the introduction of the 4 dark samurai, all of whom are female and one panty stealing monkey,  also who manages to accidentally become one of Muneakira's samurai. This upsets Kangtsugu and leads to a few comic moments. The fan service in the first half of the show reaches its high point when due to the sudden surge of people opening maid cafes in the area the girls decide to hold a competition to find out which is the best.  The episode starts at the final of the competition with the last two cafes being Muneakira's and one open suddenly by the dark samurai (no one knows where it is & we don't think they've ever had any customers).  Muneakira's team are cheating as they see wining as way of boosting their revenue, the dark samurai are using it as a way to find out the strengths of the samurai girls, especially Jubei.

After this episode the story starts to play out properly the samurai girls now have clue as to what is wrong with Jubei and set out to find Keiji Maede the one person they think can help.  There is also a strange creature stalking the streets below the dojo that seems to be linked to the dark samurai.  Muneakira and co have to find out what the creature is and why the dark samurai were really resurrected.  With the help of a de powered Gisen and some information that Yoshihiko Tokugawa has been keeping secret will the girls be able to save Great Japan from chaos and destruction.

Samurai bride takes it's time getting down to the main story using the first few episodes to introduce the dark samurai, the problems Jubei has and to set up some small storylines.  The first half of the series relies more on the fan service than the story which i have no problems with.  I was watching the American edit and can’t help wondering how much of the censorship was for that audience.  I am waiting for the UK edition to come out.  When the story starts proper it is interesting and has quite a few twists and turns in it which kept me entertained (again the fan service also helped) although it was pretty obvious who the bride was going to be.

One of the strengths of the first series was the art style and i was glad to see that this was carried on in this season.

Samurai bride is a good follow on to the first season and if you watch for the story more than the panty shots then stick with it.

If you have seen Samurai girls then you have a good idea what you will be getting into but if you haven’t (& why not) then be warned there is fan service, panty shots & nudity everywhere.

So this is definitely one to watch if you like action fighting ghosts and did i mention the fan service.

Cursed (2005 American)

Title - Cursed
Language - English
Genre - Horror, werewolf

On their way home Ellie and her brother Jimmy hit an animal in the road causing them to crash in to another car which they knock off the road.  Whilst they are trying to help the other driver they are attacked by the animal.  Ellie and Jimmy get away but, over the next few they begin to realise that they are changing into something else.  The race is on to find out who the werewolf who attacked them is and to kill them to stop the change and the killing.

Cursed is a Werewolf film directed by Wes Craven and it deliberately plays along the lines of a standard werewolf film, for a bit. As with a lot of Wes Craven's films it has a dark sense of humor and a sense that it doesn't take itself totally serious.  The standard setup is the same as a lot of werewolf films, the main character, or in this case two of the main characters get bitten by a werewolf and then they have to deal with the consequences.  The one advantage of having two victims of the wolf attack is that we are shown two ways of dealing with the change.  First up there is Jimmy, the younger of the siblings who is slightly nerdy and often accused of being gay, which he isn’t.  It doesn't help that he is interested in Jenny the school jocks (Bo) girlfriend.  As in other werewolf/vampire films of this type Jimmy has a convenient collection of werewolf comics to help in his research into what is happening to him and, of course no one believes him, even Ellie to begin with.  Jimmy's story line takes a 'Teen Wolf' approach to coping with the wolf curse, pushed by Bo's bullying he ends up at tryouts for the wrestling team where he shows that he is stronger and more athletic than the rest, although unlike Teen Wolf he does not need to turn into the wolf to do so.    

Ellie, on the other hand has trouble believing that they are cursed, to begin with she refused to believe that the original attack was by a werewolf but as time moves on she can’t deny the changes that are happening to her.

There are parts of Cursed that seem to use traditional vampire law instead of the recognised werewolf law for instance silver will hurt a wolf but not necessarily kill it.  To kill the wolf you only need to separate the brain form the body.

To end their curse Ellie and Jimmy find they have to kill the wolf who turned them but who is it.

Cursed is a good film, it does not take itself too seriously and has a good story.  Most werewolf films have a victim coping with the curse and not necessarily trying to end it or have a pack of wolves terrorizing a community/group of people but Cursed we have the victims trying to end the curse without doing too much damage themselves and this works well as there are more there is more than one wolf. 

We also have Christina Ricci gothing up and looking cute so that’s always a bonus.

Cursed (Japanese 2004)

Title - Cursed
Language - Japanese
Genre - Horror, J horror, ghost

Ryoko has been sent, instead of her boss to help the transition of a small convenience store that is joining the ranks a of corporate chain store but almost as soon as she arrives she begins to think that something is wrong.  Nao, the daytime casher seems normal enough but when the store managers appear, accusing her of being late for the appointment Ryoko is confused, she’s convinced that she is there in plenty of time, the appointment is for two O'clock but when she checks it’s 4.30.  In the meeting with Mr & mrs Kitura, Ryoko is concerned by their reaction to the new of her boss’ accident, not only do they know that he has lost his legs but they seem very happy about it.

Whilst Ryoko is taking the shops inventory there are a few strange occurrences.  There is the one customer who stands reading the magazines, his face is totally covered by the hood of his parka jacket.  There are strange sounds coming from different rooms and eyes watching them, and crows flying into the windows as well as the owners strange behavior to contend with.

Outside of the store some of their customers are coming to grizzley ends.  

When the man in the Parka attacks Nao and then does something to Komori, the night shift cashier Ryoko and Nao know that they need to find out what is happening in the store, if they can stay sane and alive for long enough.

Cursed starts off as a good ghost film, it’s not too creepy but there is a bit of gore.  As it goes on it does get creepier, the Parka guy is an interesting character but possibly under used and this seems to be a bit of a recurring problem.  There are a number of deaths in the film and all of them are different, i understand that they are supposed to be the manifestation of the curse and they are supposed to be person/environment specific but each death seems to bring an unrelated character or event in just to kill off the person and then they are forgot.  This would have been ok if the murderers were connected or possessed but they are unconnected, swinging from normal people to ghosts & slashers all of whom  have no explanation.  Cursed should have either stuck to one or two killers (they could have used the Parka guy) or gone down the route of having events not people to do the killing in a similar style to the ‘Final Destination’ series.  Instead Cursed give the impression that it is trying fit too much in, it obviously knows what it is but it seems to want to try to please too many people.

Cursed also seems to be a bit  more ‘western’ that other J horrors I've seen.  It is definitely Japanese but there is definitely something different, the ‘slasher’ kill is more of a western style and when the woman in her apartment is about to be haunted is was expecting her to open the fridge and see a dog shouting ‘Zool’ and we do get a second ‘dimension’ to inside of the fridge before getting a ghost reminiscent of the ‘Ring’.

Over all Cursed is a good if somewhat confused film that tries to do too much and falls a little short of what it should be.  It does have gore and quite a good story line so give it watch.