The Dead Centre

The Hammer Vault- Treasures from the Archives of Hammer Films was released in December 2011. Iwas so surprised when it arrived in the mail, this was a gorgeous book.

The Hammer Vault is a must have for horror fans. It is set in chronological order starting from the 1950’s and works it way up to 2009.

Each film represented has a two page spread filled with facts about the making and release of the film. However it is the photos that really make this book special. It is filled with photos of original posters, ads, lobby cards, and other promotional pictures of the actors.

Newspaper clippings, press releases and pages from the scripts themselves are also present. It is a thorough, but also rare glimpse into the history of Hammer Films. A must have for any horror fan!

By: Thomas Mitchell (meezookeewee)

Movies based on video games. Paul W.S. Anderson. The general rule of thumb with movies based on video games is that they really suck, and vice versa. I think the reason that movies based on video games suck is that most of them stray too far from the source material and end up pissing off the fans of that particular game, because the film doesn’t deliver what they want to see. On the other hand, gamers are a finicky bunch because even if the film delivered what they wanted to see, they always bitch about how it sucks and it shouldn’t have been made. I will agree with that sentiment when Uwe Boll gets the job, he screws it all up. There are some movies that DO get it right, even if they aren’t perfect. Paul W.S. Anderson directed his first video game movie, Mortal Kombat, which was actually pretty decent in terms of acting and on-screen mayhem. Anderson would go on to direct other films like Event Horizon, Resident Evil and Alien Vs Predator. Resident Evil is another game-based movie that gets it right….mostly.

The film opens as a woman, Alice(Milla Jovovich) wakes up in a mansion with no memory of who she is, where she is, or why she’s there. Soon, the mansion is breached by a small special forces group headed by James Shade(Colin Salmon) and Rain Ocampo(Michelle Rodriguez). It seems that the mansion is a secret entrance to a highly classified underground facility called The Hive, which is run by the Umbrella Corporation. It also appears that said facility has suffered a major catastrophe when a lethal virus was unleashed, killing everyone inside and forcing the facility’s artificial intelligence to seal it off from the outside world. Only thing is, the people that were killed inside the facility didn’t stay dead.

Having actually played the Resident Evil games, the movie is actually quite faithful in terms of atmosphere, story and…..zombies. Resident Evil was originally going to be directed by the godfather of zombie movies, George Romero, but due to some disagreements, he opted not to do it. So, Paul W.S. Anderson stepped in. There is not a zombie movie out there today that hasn’t been influenced by Romero’s work in some fashion. Resident Evil doesn’t just have the zombies, but zombie dogs. Yes, dogs. These suckers are creepy as hell. The licker, despite some bad CGI is a very interesting creature that evolves after it attacks someone. What also works is the cast. Leading the way is the very sexy Milla Jovovich who does a lot of her own stunts and action sequences in the film despite her being in a fairly revealing dress…..not that I mind of course. Michelle Rodriguez brings her usual tough-girl attitude to the screen, but it works fairly well here. She’s a real spit-fire that doesn’t hesitate to whoop some ass. The rest of cast does well despite being general fodder for zombies and a psychotic A.I.

The effects are mostly practical. The make-up effects and the zombies are done very well with the exception of some bad CGI. The zombie dogs are done very well. Despite the good practical effects, the CGI is pretty bad, especially when you first see the zombie that’s missing half of his face. That was pretty horrendous. The licker creature is straight up CGI, despite some close-up shots that are clearly a puppet. While the design of the creature is brilliant, the CGI execution is less than spectacular. One good thing is that the film’s R-rating allows for some fairly gruesome effects shots and for the most part do the job well. Had the film been PG-13….well, it’s not, thankfully. The music has a very hard edge to it, as it was composed by Marco Beltrami AND Marilyn Manson, and it’s appropriate for this type of film.

Resident Evil was fairly successful as there are three sequels available on home video: Apocalypse, Extinction and Afterlife. Another sequel is on the way, entitled Retribution. There’s also another Resident Evil game coming soon, but I haven’t been a fan of the series since Resident Evil 3. So…despite so many movies based on video games going wrong, Resident Evil at least takes its source material seriously and Paul W.S. Anderson expertly crafts a fairly decent horror/action film. The bad CGI takes a toll however. Overall, it’s still a very solid effort. 8.5/10 is what this one gets.

By: Thomas Mitchell (Meezookeewee)

A few weeks ago, I was offered an opportunity to screen and review an independent movie. I jumped at the chance, because this is the first time I’ve had an opportunity like this. I received a screener copy of an independent thriller called Rage, and I want to thank those who gave me the chance to review this film, which to my knowledge hasn’t been distributed to the public yet. I love a good cat-and-mouse thriller, and there have been quite a few. Some are more well-known than others. Then again, you could call your typical slasher movie cat-and-mouse, because that seems to be the general theme. Rage is not a slasher, however. It’s a different kind of movie.

The film opens in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. A struggling novelist, Dennis Twist(Rick Crawford) is going to town to pick up something for his wife, Crystal(Audrey Walker). On his way, he stops to break off an affair he had been having with a local shop owner, Dana(Anna Lodej). In a parking lot he ends up running into a mysterious biker(Christopher R. Witherspoon) for some strange reason. At first, Dennis thinks nothing of it. But later, he notices that this biker has a particular interest in him and starts following him around the city. Things take a more sinister turn after he has lunch with his therapist.

Okay, so the story isn’t particularly original, as it’s been done before. What makes it interesting is the biker. There’s something to be said about a villain of which you know nothing about. You don’t know his name, what he sounds or looks like, or why he’s tailing a particular person. It makes for a more unusual chase. The biker is played by the film’s director Christopher Witherspoon and he’s pretty intimidating. Especially with that little knife that he’s always carrying around. The acting is solid across the board. Rick Crawford plays a struggling novelist who knows he’s done a bad thing and cheated on his wife, and he wants to set things right. Audrey Walker plays the unknowing wife, who ends up being a victim of not only the biker, but of her husband’s infidelity. I found that angle to be pretty interesting and certainly seems to play a role in the events in the final part of the film. I say “seems” because, not everything is what it appears to be. And that is also what makes this film pretty good. The film also seems to have a strange sense of humor throughout the whole thing. For example, there’s a scene in which Rick’s character thinks he sees the biker and scratches his bike. Only it turns out to be someone else.

The film does take a vicious turn in the final act and it’s unsettling. While most of the violence IS off-screen, the stuff that IS shown is fairly brutal, especially when Audrey’s character is involved. Now, it’s time for the bad stuff. Early on, there’s some ominous music playing even when Rick’s character is just driving along. Why? I think all that does is just tell the audience that something bad could happen. For a film like Rage, I think the music could have been dialed back a bit. Also, the narration during some of the scenes when Dennis is thinking is unnecessary. I think the audience is smart enough to know what the character is thinking without him having to narrate the guy’s thought process. Those are my two biggest gripes.

On the whole, for a film that was made for a mere $100,000(according to IMDB), this is actually a really rock-solid thriller. Sure it’s not perfect, but that’s due to the limitations of the budget. I really hope that more people get to see this film, because it shows that you can make a good movie for a shoe-string budget, and that’s what Chris Witherspoon did. Not only did Chris play an interestingly twisted character, he crafted an edge-of-your-seat thriller that is well-paced and well-acted. I think that Rage could make a splash in the independent movie genre, if it finds a distributor that’s willing to screen the film for more people. I think they could be surprised at how good this one is. This one gets a solid 9/10. I enjoyed it a lot.