PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Return Of The Living Dead - Rave To The Grave 2005

Return Of The Living Dead - Rave To The Grave is the last of the films in the series. It's from 2005, William Butler and Aaron Strongoni are the writers, Ellory Elkayem is the director. Peter Coyote has some Trioxin and the Russians are after it. They want to destroy the stuff but they fail and some zombies are created. Peter is killed and the story moves to the survivors of the last movie. They're in college. They hear of Peter's death and find a couple of barrels of Trioxin in his house. That creates more zombies. Again, the film doesn't come up to the level of the first three films. Oh, well, that shit happens, huh.

The Return Of The Living Dead - Necropolis 2005

The Return Of The Living Dead - Necropolis is the 4th film in the series. It took until 2005 to return to the series, William Butler and Aaron Strongoni are the writers and Ellory Elkayem is the director. Peter Coyote is a mad scientist who's gone to Chernobyl to find the last of the Trioxin 5. It doesn't go so well but he gets his Trioxin 5. One of his nephews is hurt in a motorcycle accident and pronounced DOA. His friends find out that it's not true and try to rescue him. Peter catches them and takes them to the nephew. The zombies get out and the nephew gets bit anyway. After a lot of carnage Peter gets away with a couple of barrels of Trioxin 5. He'll return in the next movie. It's not quite good enough to be average but I got through it. Now to go watch the last one.

Big Bad Wolf 2006

Big Bad Wolf is a 2006 werewolf film that's written and directed by Lance W Dreesen. Some young guy's mom marries a rapey werewolf and people die. Ain't that the lesson to be learned. Fuck a supernatural being, bad shit will follow. The young guy pals up with his friend and they fight to stay alive.

It's about average. The werewolf costume looks OK but not great. There's lots of werewolf slaughter and limbs tossed about. The main characters are more likeable than you often find in a horror movie. The script was straight forward and it moved along well. David Naughton plays the sheriff. Clint Howard plays a local who warns the young guy and his pals not to go to the cabin. It was part of a three pack of horror films I got from Hamilton Books for 4 bucks. I'd watch it again someday but it's going to be a while.

Eye Of The Beast 2007

Eye Of The Beast is 7th of the Maneater Series. It's a Canadian film that came out in 2007. It's directed by Gary Yates and Mark Mullin wrote the screenplay. James Van Der Beek is a scientist who comes to a fishing town that is having a problem with fish. Not enough of them. What's the cause? I suspect it's the beast in the title. Perhaps an octopus. There's plenty of rough seas ahead as James enlists the local fishermen to work together to kill the beast. Many will sacrifice their lives to the great sea god this night. Well, it was actually yesterday when I saw it but you get the idea. Hardly anyone isn't taking a salt nap. I gave it a 3, it's too talky, there's not anywhere near enough beast.

Swamp Devil 2008

Swamp Devil is another in the Maneater series of films. It came out in 2008 and the screenplay is by Gary Dauberman and Ethlie Ann Vare with David Winning directing. Bruce Dern is the big name, he plays a guy the sheriff is hunting for multiple murders. It wasn't Bruce, it was the Swamp Devil, but no one believes that at first. If fact, it's often the last thing people believe as the creature's intrusiveness rips their bodies asunder. The movie was shot in Montreal in three weeks. Bruce Dern broke his leg in the second week but continued on. It's nothing special, I only gave it a 4, but watched it to the end. I might watch it again, I'm keeping the Maneater series as I want to watch a few of them again.

Evil Remains 2004

Evil Remains is a 2004 film that's part of a Triple Feature DVD set from Screen Media. I got it from Hamilton Books for just over 4 bucks. I keep hoping for that nice little gem. Not much hope so far. James Merendino is the writer and director. A guy is writing his thesis and part of it brings him, and some fellow students, to a cursed plantation house. The students cover the whole range from annoying to somewhat less annoying. They go to the plantation house and do some looking around. People start acting odd and start arguing with each other. One guy wants to go home and they should have listened to him. Soon after the wall starts bleeding and they find a dead guy. More follow. Pays not to go into cursed buildings. Shit poster too. Not something I'd get back to any time soon, possibly ever.

Nature's Grave 2008

Nature's Grave is part of a Triple Feature DVD from Screen Media Films. It's a 2008 Australian film about a couple who go camping and die. It's pretty awful. Jim Caviezel and Claudia Karvan are the couple. Everett De Roche is the screenwriter and Jamie Blanks is the director. The Aussie landscape is nice. I can't say the movie is.

Sand Serpents 2009

It's Tremors meets the Taliban in Sand Serpents, a 2009 film from the Maneater series. It's the 19th film in the series with a script by Raul Inglis and direction from Jeff Renfroe. Jason Gedrick and Tamara Hope are the actors who's name I knew. Jason is moving scientist Tamara across Afghanistan when they get attacked by the Taliban. Giant man eating sand worms kill off the Taliban and the rest of the movie is spent running from the worms and trying to avoid the Taliban. It's well below average and I did start fast forwarding in the boring bits. It's got Romania filling in for Afghanistan but it looks like what I'd expect to see there. It's part of a 6 pack of Maneater films that I'll keep, a couple of the others are ones I might want to watch again.

Black Swarm 2007

Black Swarm is a 2007 killer wasp movie from the Maneater Film Series. It's the 9th film in the series and it's set in a small town in New York state.It's written by Todd Samovitz and Ethlie Ann Vare with David Winning directing.

People are acting weird around the town, wondering aimlessly around the streets. A man turns up dead in a shed and Deputy Sheriff Jane Kozik looks into it. She's just moved back to the town with her daughter. Her dead husband's twin brother lives in the town, she left him at the alter to marry the brother. They spend a lot of time on that relationship.

Robert Englund is a weird bee keeper who has a secret lab under his trailer. It's so well hidden everyone who comes into his trailer immediately goes to the trap door and visits the lab. It's got a so-so script but the characters are more likeable than many of these type of movies. It's a bit below average but watchable with the help of VLC's variable speed control.

Rise Of The Gargoyles 2009

Rise Of The Gargoyles is a 2009 monster film from the Maneater Series 6 pack of films. It's the 18th film in the series. It's written by Andy Briggs and Steve Horvath, directed by Bill Corcoran.

Eric Balfour plays a professor who wrote a book on gargoyles. It wasn't received well and his friend invites him to Paris. She takes him to an old church that's being torn down. They sneak in and go into the cellar where they encounter something in a tunnel. They escape but the friend is killed by the something and Eric is a bit of a suspect with the local police inspector. There's more killings before Eric teams up with a reporter, her photographer and a Priest who wants to kill the gargoyle. Eventually they figure out how to kill it.

There's plenty of nice location footage and the creature isn't awful. There's some action, some gory bits and plenty of yakking. I usually like Eric Balfour and he's OK here. Most of the actors do well. Nick Mancuso plays the Priest but I didn't know any of the other actors, many of whom seem to be Romanian. The film was shot in France and Romania. There's nothing special about it, but since I have it, I'd watch it again but who knows when.