Ed's Review Dot Com

Leatherface Productions, Lionsgate, Mainline Pictures,

Alexandra Daddario, Tania Raymonde, Scott Eastwood, Dan Yeager, Trey Songz, Shaun Sipos, Keram Malicki-Sanchez, James MacDonald, Thom Barry, Paul Rae, Richard Riehle, Bill Moseley

In 1974 there was a massacre at the Sawyer property and a bunch of young people were murdered. The townsfolk suspected the Sawyer family was responsible, and the sheriff was out to get them to surrender, when a rowdy group of townspeople arrived and burned down the property and they thought they killed all the Sawyers. But a few survived, including mentally challenged Jedidiah Sawyer, aka Leatherface (Dan Yeager). Meanwhile, Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario) receives a letter informing her that she has inherited a mansion in Texas from her Aunt who just passed away. Heather did not know she had been adopted, and when her parents refused to give her any information about her birth parents, she and her friends decide to take a side trip on their road trip to New Orleans and stop and check out her inheritance and to see what she can find out about her mysterious birth parents.

This is a sequel to the 1974 film Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It gives us the background story on the original massacre, along with a lot of follow-up information on what has happened to the original people. But most of all, it gives a really classy horror film. Yeah, Leatherface has been done to death, it seems, but of all the follow-up films, I’ve certainly enjoyed this one the best. It seems Lion’s Gate has done a master job of putting out some great horror films in recent years. This has all of it, dark spooky scenery, sudden jumps and surprises, tons of tension and suspense, and certainly a whole lot of gore. I haven’t seen a good slasher film like this in a long time. It is a very good film, and if you’re a horror fan, you should check this one out.

I didn’t get to see it in 3D, but that didn’t seem to take any of the terror out of the film for me. I didn’t see lots of those obvious 3D gimmicks, and I soon forgot it was even originally in 3D. But my wife and I did scream out loud a little several times. Enjoy it.

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LD Entertainment, Fortress Features,

Josh Stewart, Emma Fitzpatrick, Lee Tergesen, Christopher McDonald, Shannon Kane, Tim Griffin, Andre Royo, Randall Archer, Johanna Braddy, Navi Rawat, Brandon Molale

Arkin (Josh Stewart) is held captive by an evil madman known as the Collector. He somehow manages to escape and is free of the house of horrors when he is kidnapped in the hospital by mercenaries hired by Elena’s (Emma Fitzpatrick) wealthy father who is paying them to rescue his daughter who is also being kept for “The Collection”. So Arkin has to go back into the house of horror and risk his life again to try to save Elena or die trying.

This movie is really gory and violent, and very bloody. It’s also pretty silly and a direct derivative of the Saw franchise. It’s nearly identical. The same premise of killing people in extremely gruesome manners that are highly technical and very unique is what Saw is all about. This movie is the exact same thing. But it’s not that scary, and really not worth the effort. If you’re a fan of the Saw series, there are so many of them, you might as well watch one of the originals. I just didn’t think this film was worth the time I spent watching it.

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Gold Circle Films,

Abigail Spencer, Chad Michael Murray, Katee Sackhoff, Emily Alyn Lind, Cicely Tyson, Andrea Frankle, Brad James, Lance E. Nichols

This story, based on the real life Wyrick family, is about a little girl who was born with a veil, allowing her to have psychic powers. Like her mother and grandmother, the women in the family are very sensitive to spirits. Shortly after moving into their historic old house, young Heidi begins to see an old man she calls Mr. Gordy, who warns her that something bad is coming. It turns out that the house has a history, and that history is coming back to bite them in a bad way.

This is a highly fictional story based on a real life family of psychics. There is a special feature on the DVD with an interview with the family and they tell the real story. But this movie is a horror ride into hell, literally. It’s got great sound, good scares, and real terror. It follows the typical story of the child who knows the truth, but nobody will believe her, but she turns it around and it’s a really funny scene. Abigail Spencer, as Heidi, does a really great job in this film. She carries the film and is a heck of an actress. Another special feature on the CD is a few outtakes from the film, and one of these with Abigail shows how really professional this kid is. She is the true star. But the rest of the cast is pretty decent too. Cicely Tyson has one small scene, but she’s really a great add to the story. If you’re a fan of horror, this is a pretty decent rental film, and well worth watching.

There are a few rather big plot holes that I can’t quite figure out, but I haven’t watched the deleted scenes yet, so it may be that some of them are answered in the scenes that were cut. For one thing, Dad brings Heidi home a dog to protect the family, and he’s really good at letting us know when someone bad is about to appear. But Heidi ends up missing, and the whole family are out searching for her. Where’s the dog? Nowhere to be seen. Now he could probably locate her in a few seconds, but Chief is nowhere to be found. Then suddenly in the end, he’s back again, just when he’s needed for another plot point. That’s kind of silly not to use the dog, but I guess we can overlook that. But in the end, it’s a creepy story with plenty of ghosts and demons and moments that will make you jump for sure. Not worth a lot of money to see in the theater, but well worth a rental on DVD.

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BKGTH Productions, Bad Kids, Spiderwood Studios,

Judd Nelson, Ben Browder, Cameron Deane Stewart, Ali Faulkner, Roger Edwards, Marc Donato, Augie Duke, Amanda Alch, Jeffrey Schmidt, Chanel Ryan

It was a dark and stormy Saturday, and six students of the prestigious Crestline Academy show up to serve their detention at Saturday School. Only the principal and a maintenance man are there, and the kids are locked alone in the library to serve their sentence. As the eight hours ticks by slowly, one by one the bodies start to pile up as one by one the students fall to mysterious accidents. Based on the popular comic book series and graphic novel, this is The Breakfast Club mixed with horror/supernatural.

Gee, I have to say I hated this movie. I held on to it all week, and decided to watch it late on Friday night. I popped it in the DVD player, and hit play. What I got was a mess. Essentially the movie just starts with the jock showing up very early at the school requesting to serve his detention even though he’s not on the list for that day. Then the rest come in, and it just got worse and worse. The gimmicks in this film are really corny, and I didn’t get into the story in the least. I didn’t care about any of the kids, and couldn’t wait for some of them to get killed to shut them up. Now I am not familiar with the “work” that this is based on, and I’m obviously not a comic book fan, or even acquainted with that world. So if you’re a fan of the series, then from what I heard the movie was pretty close to the comic books. But I’m judging it based on a stand alone motion picture, and I really didn’t enjoy it in the least. This was one of the worst horror films I have ever seen, really. The print wasn’t very clear, and there were no subtitles on the DVD, so I was having trouble hearing what was going on a lot of the time, but the look just wasn’t very good. Some very low budget Japanese horror films look so much better than this. I just did not get any enjoyment from this film. I don’t recommend it, unless as I said, you are familiar with the comics and a fan of the series. I’d be glad to hear from anyone who really liked this movie. Comment below, and let me know what I’m missing!

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Chaos Squared, Harrington Talents, Sideshow Pictures,

Bill Moseley, Danielle Harris, Nate Dushku, Samantha Siong, Anthony Marks, Billy Magnussen

Mary Hachett was an insane loony-bin patient who was raped by a night guard, had a baby, but escaped and was killed years ago, but every year on “Blood Night” the high school students would celebrate the memory of this horrible event. But this year is worse than usual as bodies start to pile up at the wild parties held on Blood Night. Or maybe it was the seance that the kids held with a Ouija Board on top of Mary’s grave that started all the killing? Any way, for the kids on Long Island who survive the night, this year’s Blood Night will be one to remember.

This is a fairly decent teen slasher flick that is full of lots of blood and guts, clever methods of disposing people, and lots of teen girls with little or no clothing. Everything that the likes of Friday the 13th has is bundled into this film. I was waiting for this DVD for a long time due to the fact that I’m a horror movie fan at heart, and suddenly it showed up on “Watch Instantly” on Netflix and I was able to stream this while waiting for my next shipment of disks. Well, I did not expect too much from it, and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not that bad at all. Certainly there’s a ton of films just like this, but this one has a nice back story, lots of good performances and real screams and terror, and lots of blood and guts. It’s well worth the download.

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