Paranormal Demons, Dangerous Hoaxes

Yep...those videos of real hauntings we find on YouTube...all fake! Next, let us go to 'The Dark Web," how about those videos? Fake? Sure they are...after all, there are no ghosts. Science can explain everything. This is easy for us to say as we sit at home, comfortably playing on the internet and watching TV. It is easy to be a cynic when our carpets don't emanate a stench of the corpses of 100 children all tortured to death by Nazis and Soviets. Hence, 2018's "Paranormal Demons," a David Bruckner film.

Sweet Mary (Olivia Dean)...so studious and cute. The nubile college student undertakes a project to disprove a haunting she found on the aforementioned 'dark web.' (Hey, it beats a lengthy thesis on feminine political thought in Bronte's literature). It is a brutal video in which two ghost hunters meet a bloody demise at the hands of a hulking demon...all fake, of course. Or is it? Enter her crew; Josh (Josh Madry)...the room mate and producer, Julia (Ildiko Preszly)...a nubile redhead who brings the beer (Beck's, of course), Michael (Sebastian Matthias Weissback), and the camera guy Dave (Bruckner). Time to begin, so our quintet drives 50 kilometers out of Berlin to interview a medium, Miss White (Kristina Kostiv). Lucky for us this medium is a babe...unlucky for the quintet, she is possessed by a demon during a seance.

As the quintet run out screaming from Miss White's mansion, they quickly arrive at an abandoned sanitarium. Uh oh...the Nazis and Soviets did awful things to patients there. The team sets up right away. The perky Mary tasks her people and they not only try to find hauntings, but also show how they can be faked. Finding the hauntings will prove easier. That hulking demon is back and he has the biggest axe and sharpest knives in Germany. The fiend goes after the team and now they are running scared, trying to survive. Mary, ever the nubile trooper, tries to keep her eyes on her goal but her team frightens easily. What follows is frights and gore and we do so want the sweet and nubile gals to survive...Mary because she is so sweet, and Julia because she brings the Beck's.

Is the entire team destined to be chopped to pieces by the hulking fiend? Is this a real haunting...or is Mary right, which means the monster is mortal? What is the history of this abandoned sanitarium, and just how many potential ghosts await the quintet? We get a lot of character development in the first half of "Paranormal Demons," but the wait will be worth while as the ghost/fiend is horrific and determined to disembowel. Great job by David Bruckner and his cast in delivering a nice horror film with one of the best haunted settings ever put on film.

He Drives at Night, Gratuitous Serial Killer Action

It seems as if 90% of the cast to this film die horribly. Drills, a nail gun, a fork...well the deaths are almost imaginative as the story. Warning...this isn't some gory slasher film with eight or nine deaths...nope this is a horror film with what seems like dozens and dozens of killings. I didn't count....but every few minutes or less...a bloody killing! Hence today we look at 2019's "He Drives at Night," a film by Chuck W. Chapman.

This horror story starts out bloody enough...random killings, all bloody. Uh oh...the serial killer reaches out to a writer, Hal Warren (Chapman). The evil narcissist wants his story told and he picks a Stephen King wannabe to tell it. This isn't a blessing for Hal...but a bloody curse. The killer knows Hal's every move, and even worse, every move of his beautiful wife Barbara (Tammie Williams). One false move from Hal...and Barbara gets it. The fiend proves that he is now Hal's master and goes on a rapid killing spree. Hal then receives by email, films of photographs of the murders...and did I mention there are a lot of them.

Going to the police is absolutely out of the question, so Hal acts to protect his wife (as if he can). Waitresses, a priest, and hikers will fall. One guy will be cut into pieces, in a very gory scene. Now Hal is getting desperate. His ability to gain information about the identity of the killer seems ineffective. The killer stays ten steps ahead of Hal, and knows what is going on in Hal's life even before Hal does. But how? Taking a big and dangerous chance Hal secretly contacts the police...how do you think this will work out? As Hal grows more desperate, his twisted associate gets more tasked. The body count explodes as if this is an Andrea Merchak novel (Bloody Legends).

Does Hal have a prayer at identifying the killer and protecting his wife? Does the monster have any desire to eventually stop his rampage? May the fiend be closer to Hal than he realizes? Brutal and gratuitous, "He Drives at Night" is unrelenting. Many will die and the hopes of a happy ending seem remote. For a high powered horror story that shows no mercy, see Chuck W. Chapman's "He Drives at Night."

Literature Review: The Cat That Caught the Canary

We have dreams...hopes...ambitions...fantasies! Yep...and in a fairy tale world our family and friends are there to support and encourage us. Then there is reality. Our family and friends aren't as supportive as they claim to be. Nope...we are told to get back in line and be the person they expect you to be. Their way is safe...but not very satisfying. Sometimes you feel like exploding and sprinting to your dreams. As the old world and tradition tries to suffocate you, something just may give. Hence, a horrific tale of...well...something giving, Ann Fox' The Cat That Caught The Canary.

Her dreams are quashed. A traditional, old country Italian family in Brooklyn has no patience for her desire to be a great ballerina. Her widowed mom wears black all the time and mourns full time. Because of a horrific display of cruelty, the young girl has an experience that may be possession, or a bold escape from her miserable existence...or, well...you'll see. The 13 year old does escape and ends up at a mysterious, and quite prestigious theater company in New York. She's taken in and her ballet skills...oh yes, her ballet skills. Just how did she become the world's best ballerina practically overnight? With her newfound feline agility and inhuman aggression, nothing will stop her.

Now she is Pearl, still 13, but no one knows that. The mysterious troupe emerges as a weird, well, maybe 'cult' is the word. Ann Fox has created a setting that will put forth the same mood found in "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Sentinel." The spooky theater, now housing Pearl, has secrets...bloody secrets. All of its residents seem friendly and helpful, but also weird and perhaps cult-ish. However our protagonist (or she something else?) excels and manipulates her surroundings and colleagues, there is something horrific, ominous, and very blood looming.

Warning...the last several pages are among the most shocking and horrific ones you will ever read. Taboo...gory...and gratuitous in carnage and evil, Ann Fox' The Cat That Caught the Canary will affect you. Ballet, adolescence, and a dream...all mixed into a cauldron to pour a horror down your throat that will terrify and stun you. You may never read a novel with a more shocking ending, so beware. Kudos to Ann Fox...this, at very least, will be one of the most terrifying (there's that word again) novels you ever read...move over Ira Levin.
To purchase this work on Amazon click this link The Cat That Caught the Canary

The Killing Death, Herschell Gordon Lewis Pizza

Remember Detectives Stone and Keller from "The Streets of San Francisco"? Well, in 2008's "The Killing Death," we have the same dynamic...an old grizzled police detective matched up with a young, book-bright detective. This time, in a homage to Herschell Gordon Lewis, we have a horror/comedy instead of a 1970s police TV show. So get ready for severed body parts, weird homicides, and dark humor.

Uh oh...a psycho is on the loose. Two detectives, the veteran Frank (Jeremy Dangerfield) and young Jimmy (Tyhr Trubiak) respond to the scene of a butchered woman. The killer has also taken her foot...but why? Frank knows a killer has sprung up and won't retire until he is caught. The killings will continue as some nubile babes die similarly, and in each case a body part is absconded with. Even some guys will get it and in one disgusting murder scene...well...you'll see. As the investigation progresses Frank seems to unravel, losing touch with reality, leaving Jimmy as the brains behind the search for the killer.

As each murder scene plays on Frank's sanity, a college professor (Darren Felbel) provides some insight into the motives of the killer. The good professor is an expert on ancient Egypt and believes the psycho is satisfying some ancient rite involving cannibalism and renewal. So who is this fiend? You'll meet him...and he has issues. Still, Phil (Neil Reimer) stays under the radar with a perfect cover...he delivers pizza. Just like a vampire, he has a way of getting invited into the houses of his selected victims. As smart as he is, Frank's mental disintegration may be the biggest impediment to solving these ghastly crimes.

Limbs will be severed, eyes will be gouged, and colons...well...you'll see. Does young Jimmy have the know-how to take charge of this investigation and track down a psycho? Will Frank's mental breakdown allow the pizza guy to keep dissecting babes and almost-hunks? Just what does a pizza guy want with body parts? This is a fun one and fans of Herschell Gordon Lewis epics and also fans of "Police Squad" the TV show will have a lot of fun with this one. Directed by Ian Russell, "The Killing Death" has great acting, cheesy gore effects and cheesy pizza...watch it but not while your chomping down on a pepperoni pizza.

Literature Review: The Search For Alice

They are always with us...as toddlers...adolescents....and, yes...even as adults. Children's literature and Fairy tales! As we first learn to speak and comprehend, these tales are the first stories we hear. Our little selves learn good vs. bad from them...we learn morals...we learn hope and fear...and most of all we learn to allow our own imaginations to function. We try to throw them out in our teen years...after all, they are simplistic and ignorant of our own complicated lives. Without knowing, we let the logic (magic?) of those tales return and sort out our confusion and self-loathing, and propel us to adulthood. Remember Alice? As adults we finally get it...we were Alice! Hence Amy Koto's fairy tale of witches, vampires...and us, The Search For Alice.

She's an awkward high school gal, Kallie. Yep, home life is a mess, friends are superficial, and she is more comfortable with her cat than any human. A perfect candidate for being a cutter or anorexic. Amy Koto develops her so well and she is so familiar, as is her fate. But wait, her fate takes a weird turn when she is cast into an alternate reality (or is it a parallel universe...who knows?). Kallie ends up in a weird world much like Alice did in Lewis Carroll's epic. Scared and feeling the victim she meets an ominous figure who she will come to love...a vampire, Ches. Ches becomes her object of desire and affection and he adores her.

Not all is well...Queen Hartley desires to control Kallie and own her. Hartley abducts and imprisons Kallie for nefarious purposes and only Ches has the ability to rescue her...or so it seems. Kallie will be thrust into a demented game that will make her face her pathetic real life in a different light and also to force her to see her true self. Kallie's image of herself seemed accurate, we've all met Kallies. Now Kallie will have to eschew what she and the world has said she is and live up to her real self...the self that is waiting to be untapped. Her salvation depends on the realization that her doom is not inevitable...but she must fight a battle. As the adorable Ches and evil queen tug at her, Kallie will need to do some tugging of her own, and if successful, the rewards will be glorious, but failure will surely doom her.

When we were toddlers, fairy tales molded our brains to look for the good and seek it over evil. Cynicism and pessimism then invade our psyches and our own ability or desire to reach back to stories that once ignited our imagination. They become our elixir to do well for our world and put truth over a desire for self-ruination. Amy Koto's horror/fairy tale should inspire awkward teen age girls...but also speak to us adults. If that transition hasn't occurred yet, purging cynicism and self-hatred in favor of striving forward for good and self-hope...then take The Search For Alice as an instruction book, instead of a fairy tale..and fight the battle that unfolds in this tale.
To buy this book on Amazon, click this link The Search For Alice

Nefarious, Losers in Life's Lottery Never Win

We see it repeatedly in films and our lives. Yep, the losers in life's lottery (a seemingly permanent underclass) always lose. Sure...they can exhibit great planning and intelligence...but something interferes...they'll still lose. Karma? The Elite? A judgmental God? Hopeless they are...but they may keep trying. These poor souls, in the 2019 Richard Rowntree film "Nefarious," their chronic misfortune may get a bit more...well...nefarious.

Darren (Buck Braithwaite) is the two-timing BF of Lou (Nadia Lamin). These two losers are quite the pair...he can't keep a job and she may have a coke problem. On the other side of town dwells a couple of the top one-percenters. Marcus (Toby Wynn-Davies) is a meticulous man, living in a ritzy home, caring for his 'mentally-challenged' brother Clive (Gregory A. Smith). All of the above will have their lives thrown together when Darren, and his other GF Jo (Abbey Gillett) figure out Marcus and Clive may be sitting on a fortune in their safe. The three pull in the clueless and bong-addicted Mas (Omari Lake- Pottinger) for a very planned heist.

As Richard Rowntree introduces us to Lou, Darren, Mas, and Jo, we know good fortune will always escape them. Their repeated losing in life's lottery is no coincidence as the ability to work an honest day or make a rational game plan eludes them. On the other hand, we are touched when Mr. Rowntree introduces us to the caring and doting Marcus as he tends to the needs of Clive. So sweet. These two seem to be in for a rude awakening when the quartet of losers decide to break into their home. Ahhhh...but wait! Remember, this is a horror film. No spoilers here but what follows will have your jaw dropping and primed for a gore-fest. Oh yeah...remember the bong-addicted Mas...you will not believe his fate.

Just who are the real victims in this film? Will anything nefarious happen to the sweet, mentally-challenged Clive? Do the losers in life's lottery have a prayer at getting away with their hair-brained robbery? This film works well as a crime-thriller, but don't be fooled, by the end credits, there will be no doubt that you just watched a bloody horror film. With excellent acting and direction, "Nefarious" is a film you will want to see...and will be shocked by. For the losers in life's cruel lottery, watch this film and heed its warning.

Planet Raptor, Better than Jurassic Park

1993's "Jurassic Park" had a fatal flaw...it lacked a quality leading lady. Not 2007's "Planet Raptor," as co-starring with hunk Steven Bauer is the effervescent Vanessa Angel. For you women, this film has much beefcake with Steven Bauer as a Marine commander who grunts a lot and spits tobacco juice...oooh...nice! And for you guys, the cheesecake also gushes as we have Vanessa Angel as a scientist who solves complex problems and displays superior intellect...nice!

Okay a team of scientists headed by mad-scientist Tygon (Ted Raimi), and includes Anna (Angel) is beamed down to a planet. Also beamed down is a team of Marines to protect the science team, led by Mace (Bauer). The planet resembles a medieval English village and seems deserted. Uh oh...the inhabitants have all been eaten by a horde of raptors. Now the beasts begin picking off the scientists and Marines. As Mace grunts a lot and shoots his machine gun, Anna alluringly displays scientific knowledge and looks really good in her space-babe outfit. As the raptors close in, the humans find shelter (albeit temporary) in a medieval castle.

The one babe Marine, Jackie (Musetta Vander) finds a transmitter that may be a grenade...that may be a raptor killer...that may be a teleporter. Meanwhile, the radiant Anna begins to fall in love with the hunk Mace. As more Marines and scientists get eaten, Anna will pile on the allure, and Mace will pile on the grunting. Uh oh...it appears these suckers were sent to the planet so the military could gauge the raptors as a potential new battlefield weapon, and the humans beamed down are a sacrifice to that end. Now the surviving scientific and military team must work together to defeat the dinosaur menace, beam back to the ship, and inflict justice on their corrupt superiors...all the while Anna's radiance and allure shine brightly and Mace's machismo spits more tobacco juice.

Will Anna and Mace survive and find happiness? Will the raptors prove to be a mighty fighting force which may replace humans on the battlefield? Aren't a few human lives worth the sacrifice if our armed forces never have to see another battle? Not if it means ripping apart Vanessa Angel, it doesn't! "Planet Raptor," directed by Gary Jones, is a lot more fun than the annoying "Jurassic Park," and Vanessa Angel beats any actress in that Spielberg film...so do yourself a favor and watch "Planet Raptor."