PROM NIGHT (2008)

Ah…the early 80’s. Horror movies were all the rage and the slasher film was in its heyday. Halloween, Friday the 13th and COUNTLESS rip-offs (many of which were actually quite good) flooded the cinemas and home video Beta market. It was hard to distinguish one from another – except the ones which starred Jamie Lee Curtis. Terror Train and Prom Night are probably two of the better known horror/slasher films to emerge from this time. While Terror Train was an entertaining, old school “whodunit” murder mystery, with ample doses of blood and violence thrown in, Prom Night benefitted from the casting of Jamie Lee Curtis and not much else. To be fair, it was pretty standard horror stuff (even back then) – teenagers keep a secret and one-by-one they...

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SCREAM 4

When the original Scream hit theaters in 1996, it was a huge hit – mostly due to its satirical biting nature of the entire horror genre. It was funny. It was scary. It was original and it worked. Two sequels were released in quick succession over the next four years – Scream 2 (which remains the strongest entry of the franchise) and Scream 3 – an enjoyable, yet underwhelming, trilogy-ender. Now, 11 years after the last sequel was released, Scream 4 arrives to reboot the seminal 90s horror series. With so many years having elapsed (in both screen time and “real” time), many people may be wondering – does it succeed? Well, yes and no… Once again, original Scream creators Wes Craven (director) and  Kevin Williamson (writer) are in charge...

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PUPPET MASTER: AXIS OF EVIL

In 1989, a litte low-budget horror film was released direct-to-video, spawning the beginning of what has become the most successful direct-to-dvd series of all time. The Puppet Master series chronicles the story of a puppeteer named Andre Toulon and his living marionettes as they try to protect the secret of their magical reanimation from unscrupulous characters out to exploit the puppets' secret for their own good. Despite how the series' reputation has developed incorrectly over the years, the puppets are "the good guys" and generally only turn violent out of self-defense for themselves or their "puppet master" creator. For a horror series over 20 years old and with 10 installments (and yet ANOTHER one scheduled for  a 2012 release -...

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