Zombie High (1987)

REVIEWER RATING: 
3/10


When I think "Zombie High" I think of a fun flick with a group of high school students taking on their zombified classmates in an epic battle on school grounds. Instead, what we're actually given is a excruciatingly dull movie about lobotomized students becoming successful in life (WTF??). That's essentially the story for the misleading "Zombie High," as we follow a young Virginia Madsen who accepts a scholarship at a prestigious boarding school where she notices something amiss with her fellow classmates.

Things are especially dubious when one of her peers is a rebellious outspoken sonuva bitch one minute, then an emotionless creeper the next. Virginia eventually discovers that the students are undergoing brain surgery against their will and the school's elder staff are benefiting from it. Apparently they extract certain parts of the brain and mix it with blood to create a means of eternal life. Now Virginia must find a way outta the school before she too becomes yet another science experiment.
Sector 7 (2011)

REVIEWER RATING: 
5/10


South Korea has been slowly trying to recreate the success of The Host since its release in 2006, but have since failed. At first it seemed as though Sector 7 would finally rectify the situation, but after having seen the movie, I'm sad to say that it didn't. The film is just all over the place and the questionable CG didn't help matters either.

The story revolves around a small group of oil-riggers working off an aged drilling station dubbed Sector 7. With years of non-existent oil, the crew are close to calling it quits until the old captain returns to suggest drilling one last time. Success!! And Sector 7 is saved from its seemingly inevitable closure. However, this comes with a cost, as the crew soon discovers when people start mysteriously dying off. The death's are quickly revealed to be thanks to a large aquatic creature roaming the station and it's up to the surviving crew and its resident "touch chick" to put a stop to the foul beast before it devours everyone.
The Innkeepers (2011)

REVIEWER RATING: 
6/10


After tackling sequel territory with Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, Ti West returns to moody horror with The Innkeepers -- a movie that I had been anxiously awaiting since I saw the spooky trailer. Much like West's previous slow-building effort, The House of the Devil, this pic focuses on a really slow-paced character driven story, as opposed to your standard ghost tale and manages to be a slight improvement over the man's previous additions to the genre.

The story revolves around a couple young 20-somethings as they work the remaining days at a supposedly haunted hotel named The Yankee Pedlar. The duo spend their lasting hours bantering back and forth, while occasionally attending to the mere handful of guests left in the hotel. Determined to find absolute proof that the place is haunted (in hopes that it will somehow save the place from closing), the starry-eyed and easily impressionable, Claire (Sara Paxton), sports a EVP meter and sets out through the halls in search of the resident spirit, Madeline O’Malley.
Hostel: Part III (2011)

REVIEWER RATING: 
5/10


The first Hostel was a movie I surprisingly enjoyed. It was gory, creative, and ballsy for a theatrical release. I admired Eli Roth's attempt to (along with Saw) bring forth a very dark and incredibly gory approach to death in mainstream horror. The sequel was a disappointment for me, as it was simply more of the same, but at least the gore was amped up and we were given a little backstory on the society that runs these torture chambers. Now, four years later, we're given a low-grade straight-to-DVD sequel that's nothing more than an obvious cash-in on the Hostel name.

Eli Roth takes a step back and lets his friend Scott Spiegel (Intruder, From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money) take the reigns, which I wasn't entirely against since the last two horror fares from Spiegel offered some clever camera tricks that I had hoped to see him revisit with this sequel. Sadly that's not the case here, as aside from a lot of gratuitous shots of the camera following someone's ass (for whatever reason), it's all a pretty straight forward directorial effort.
Screamtime (1986)

REVIEWER RATING: 
4/10


Chillerama (2011)

REVIEWER RATING: 
5/10


The Thing (2011)

REVIEWER RATING: 
6/10


The Thing has had a long development process, as it was originally announced as a remake, then later said to be a sequel that would air on the SyFy channel as a two-part four-hour miniseries. Luckily it became neither, as we were eventually given a prequel and "re-imagining" of the series instead. Despite being a prequel, the filmmakers opted to keep the title as The Thing, which has proven to confuse movie-goers into thinking it's a remake of John Carpenter's masterpiece. Going in with doubts, to my surprise, the movie actually turned out to be a fairly entertaining watch.

The flick is set before the events of Carpenter's version, following a young American Paleontologist (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) whose hired by a team of Norwegian scientists to help examine the remains of a possible alien life form that was frozen in the deep reaches of Antarctica. While the group celebrates their amazing discovery, the creature escapes the block of ice and it's not long before fear and paranoia overtake the remaining crew.
Shark Night 3D (2011)

REVIEWER RATING: 
4/10


11-11-11 (2011)

REVIEWER RATING: 
5/10


After tackling a few Saw sequels, Repo! The Genetic Opera and the Mother's Day remake, writer/director Darren Lynn Bousman now attempts to make his mark in the religious horror sub-genre with 11-11-11, a film loosely based on the 11-11 phenomenon, which many believe to be linked to key events in history and others a sign of mystical powers or a supernatural presence. I wanted to like this film as it offers an interesting storyline and seemed to have potential in this sea of unoriginal genre projects, but it just failed to deliver in many aspects, and those familiar with similarly-themed efforts will find its climax to be incredibly predictable.

The story focuses on Joseph Crone, a writer who recently lost his wife and child after one of his crazed fans sets fire to his home. As if matters couldn't get any worse, Joseph gets into a car wreck, but despite his suicidal urges to end his own existence, somehow makes it out with barely a scratch. Immediately following the accident, he receives a call from Spain about his dying father, compelling the writer to make a trip out there in hopes of seeing the man before his passing.
Making Contact (1985)

REVIEWER RATING: 
5/10


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