Bear

The Amazing Spider-Man - Aside from decent romance, this doesn't bring much new to the table as far as Spider-Man goes and I cannot believe that they spent so much money on a reboot that feels more or less exactly the same as the original. A waste of time as far as I am concerned. Not because it's bad in any way, but because I've already seen Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3. Meh.

Not very impressed by the CGI either. So artificial and boring, and the scenes made for 3D are nothing short of embarrassing. Fucking ew!

The awful title aside, this song is great and the sound is just amazing. That guitar tone is sexy as fuck, and Nick Holmes is just getting better with each release since he started growling again. Like, I'm one of few(?) who though Holmes did really good on Grand Morbid Funeral, but this time around he sounds even better. I kinda wonder if one of the reasons for that is that GMF was written before Holmes joined the band, and that this is written more to suit his vocals or if he's just gotten used to it again. Or a mix of both maybe? Anyway, good track.

31 - If you look away from the abysmal Halloween remake and its awful sequel, Halloween 2, Rob Zombie comes off as someone who can't do no wrong. From the mean and brutal exploitation horror films House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, to the faux nazisploitation trailer of Werewolf Women of the SS and to the slow-burning and more visual The Lords of Salem, Rob Zombie always finda way to truly impress me. He's got his own thing going on and there's just no-one in the world making films like him atm.

31 is another Rob Zombie flick and he goes back to the style of The Devil's Rejects, albeit a bit cheaper. It's full of blood, violence, gore, camp and kilos of cheese waiting around every single corner, and it's a full-on Rob Zombie-flick from beginning to end. And if you read this, you'll notice that I called it cheap. And I did. Because it comes off as a quickie. Like one of those films that were written, funded, filmed, cut and edited in a month and a half, on a very low budget (1,5m, compared to House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects' 7m). Anyway, it's a full-on exploitation flick that doesn't try to be anything other than exactly that. Exploitative, offensive, mean and grim. I fucking loved it! Thought it was as good as The Devil's Rejects and The Lords of Salem.

This is Rob Zombie making The Running Man into an exploitation film.

 Grotesk - I was ordering some DVDs last week as they were cheap as fuck, and one of the film I ordered was this. Never heard of it and didn't bother checking it out, as the artwork for the cover was absolutely brilliant. It looked really old school and made me think of cheap no-budget exploitation horror from the 60's and 70's, and I was not wrong. The name of Herschell Gordon Lewis was more or less written over the film from beginning to end, as well as Andreas Schnaas as it has that amateurish rawness to it. Like, the script is shit, it looks and sounds like it was filmed on a phone that cost $25, and there's not a single element of quality here. But it's real fun, and I truly enjoyed it. Good-awful special effects, terrible but funny acting, corny dialogue and even cornier characters. I had fun. Well worth the money and the 63 minutes it took from my life.

Michael Denner of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond fate helped with the soundtrack.

VampyrVidar - I was looking forward to this and was very pleased when I got a couple of free tickets too the movie, and while it wasn't a masterpiece it was fun. Starts off really well, combining horror and comedy in the most excellent way. The first 40 minutes were excellent, and both the horror, special effects and humor worked really well. After that it lost more and more elements of horror and became more and more comedy, and it kinda lost me a bit. The jokes got very hit and miss, and a lot seemed to be offensive for the sake of being offensive and nothing else. But I'd recommend people to support this anyway as it is the type of film Norway needs atm, and it's a no-budget film as it got no support from the film-industry in Norway. Genre films ain't accepted over here, only big productions and deep drama films get any support. Disgusting!

Meatball Machine Kodoku - 12 years after Yudai Yamaguchi and Junichi Yamamoto made the masterpiece that is Meatball Machine, and 10 years after Yoshihiro Nishimura made the short spinoff Meatball Machine: Reject of Death, special effects wizard Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, Helldriver, Mutant Girls Squad), a man who actually did the special effects for the original Meatball Machine, returns with the long-awaited sequel for a classic cult film. So how is it? Well, he clearly knows what Meatball Machine was all about, because this is a Meatball Machine film alright. To my big surprise it takes a long time to build characters and plot, but as soon as it kicks-off it complete and utter madness until the end. As over the top and bizarre as it gets, and it's loads of fun. But it never reaches the genius of the original film. But it's highly recommended for fans of Japanese splatter films.

Yoshihiro Nishimura, and a lot of the other Japanese splatter directors, are a bunch of weird ones. Because when they go practical they are truly brilliant in their job, but they rely way too much on CGI, and the CGI is so fucking bad. At times it can work, but sometimes they go a bit over the top with it.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado - Good, but a bit of a disappointment tbh. It lacks the coldhearted and mean-spirited atmosphere of the first film, and the character changes was a bit iffy. Felt they didn't make much sense at all. But the film was cool and Benicio Del Toro is brilliant once more. What an actor!

No. Just no.

Sicario - Dark, grim and really great thriller with a magnificent Benicio Del Toro that completely steals the show. His performance is on a whole other level in this flick. All aspects of the film is great, but he's the best part of it. And the first scene where the cross the Mexican-American border bak from Juarez. Intense as fuck! Superb!

Vampire Cleanup Department - Romantic horror comedy in the vein of Mr. Vampire and it's sequels, so a jiangshi horror film if you want. Hopping vampires, Taoist priests and kung fu. Just like the excellent Rigor Mortis, this is a homage and tribute to one of the genre greats Lam Ching-ying who passed 20 years ago last years when this was releases. Lam Ching-ying was one of the actors in Mr. Vampire and its sequels.

Anyway, this is just lighthearted fun, unlike Rigor Mortis which is a lot darker and more stylish. It's got nice characters, fun, witty dialogue, a decent, heartwarming story, and a superb cast consisting of Chin Siu-ho (Mr. Vampire, some of its sequels and Rigor Mortis), Richard Ng (Mr. Vampire 3, Rigor Mortis), Lo Mang (Toad in the Venom Mob, played in films like Five Deadly Venoms, Crippled Avengers, Five Element Ninjas and shitload of other superb masterpieces) and the lesser known Yuen Cheung-yan who is always fantastic. So you could say we've got a ensemble cast here, and with all these involved it's hard to make something bad.

So yeah, it's a fun film. Not as good as the classics and not quite up there with Rigor Mortis, but I was very much entertained.

Thought Terrifier was terrific. On a whole other level than e.g It. Dark, grim, sadistic and with what is perhaps the coolest clown ever. Excellent atmosphere too.

Totally recommended!

Lowlife - I ain't gonna add too much about this, but I watched this a few days ago and was quite surprised to say the least. I haven't heard a single mention of this nowhere and just checked it out because I really liked the artworks. Lowlife, Ryan Prows debut feature, isn't an original film that brings anything new to the table. But it still feels like a breath of fresh air as it's 100% 90's Quentin Tarantino through and through. If you ask me, everything about the film just feels extremely 90's Tarantinoesque, and I loved it. Everything from the way the film is told and filmed, to the characters and their dialogue just feel like early Tarantino.

I guess a lot of people will write it off as a poor copycat, but for someone like me who's watched Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown 50+ times each it was totally awesome.

Solo: A Star Wars Story - I've heard a bit this and a bit of that when it comes to this film, but I ain't gonna lie, I really liked it. It feels like a Star Wars film through and through, but at the same time it feels quite different because they've taken more of a classic space western approach, rather than a space opera which gives it a new dimension as far as Star Wars goes. Not quite on par with Rogue One, but still very, very good IMO. Donald Glover is just fantastic!

Office Uprising - Decent enough action-comedy with lots of violence and many, many jokes. Sadly, both the special effects and jokes are very hit and miss. At their best they're excellent, but the excellent ones doesn't come in plenty here. Tries to go into horror territory, but never really manage to build itself as a horror film. So I'll post it here instead.

Brain Dead - Nope, not the classic Peter Jackson splatstick from 1992, but Adam Simon psychological horror film from 1990. It tries to be clever, but never is and it feels very predictable and rather boring. A few special effects that looks great, but that's about it. Very disappointing film.

Really liked the third season too. Weird as fuck, but it was really entertaining with fucking Rutger Hauer stealing the show as usual. What a man and what an actor! So underrated. The season as a whole was a small step down, but it was still really good. Looking forward to season 4.

Been watching an episode of Good Girls now and then lately and finished season 1 the other day. Fun crime-comedy with Christina Hendricks, Retta and a fantastic Mae Whitman in the lead as three women who decides to do something stupid because they're in a hard situation in their life. Manny Montana is also really good in the series. Thought it was both fun and engaging. Adds nothing new to the genre, but it's fun. Real fun!

Skyscraper - I like Dwayne Johnson a lot, so I will watch almost any movie that has him in it, and as this does have him in it I just had to watch it. Mildly entertaining Die Hard rip-off without almost all the things that made Die Hard a classic, genre-defining film. It's fun for what it is, filled with cool scenes and a very awesome Dwayne Johnson, but it's nothing special. I do not regret watching it though.

Surf Nazis Must Die - The title kinda says all, doesn't it? Cult film with the name of Troma Entertainment attached to it. It's about a bunch of neo-nazi surfers, lead by non other than Adolf himself, Führer of the new beach, who decides they gonna own the fucking beaches around the area. You have Adolf, Eva and Mengele as some of the surf nazis, and that's kinda all you need to know. Awesome film!

All you have to do is become me.

Megathérion, German black/thrash with members from the brilliant band Eurynomos and Cruel Force. Fantastic release if you like 80's black/thrash. As old school as it gets.

The new Furze album is streaming and it's a fucking beast of an album, and like all Furze albums up till now it's an original and unique take on the black metal we all know and love, and different from everything you've heard up till now. The way he mixes black metal, thrash metal, doom metal and dark, heavy psych is just brilliant, and clearly the work of a complete madman.

https://furze.bandcamp.com/album/the-presence

On 9/2/2018 at 1:10 PM, Bear said:

 

 

Fun metal-punk with a brilliant hand-drawn video.

So did no one bother checking this out, or did everyone think it was trash?

Very cool song. But I am surprised at how straight-forward these two new tracks is. Nergal mentioned them having a huge WTF-factor and being weird as fuck, but this is a lot more straight-forward than The Satanist.

I'm not the biggest Machine Gun Kelly fan, but Rap Devil was seriously good. Finally someone both man and dumb enough to diss Eminem, a man who's been a massive joke of a rapper for well over a decade now.

Well done, MGK.

Hope Eminem responds soon. Could turn into some fun drama this.

Channel Zero: Candle Cove - Surprisingly well-crafted horror with an incredible amount of atmosphere, a lot of truly creepy scenes and moments and a very good mystery. I love how it manage to really draw me into the universe in the first episode and keep me there for all six, without every getting boring or uninteresting, like many horror series does. But unlike many of them (Slasher season 1, American Horror Story), this series is only 6x42 minutes long, so there's not much time for filler and regular TV-drama. Such a smart choice! Excellent!

Channel Zero: The No-End House - Very different from the first season, but as good IMO. Another smart choice is to make it really different from the first season while still making it feel like the same series. It's got less focus on atmosphere, but the creep factor is really high and the WTF-moments are many, and huge. Excellent!

Started on season 3, and after a couple of episodes I feel like it's a small step down. But will watch the rest tomorrow and judge for myself. So far there was one moment I just hated. Was so bad! But it's also super interesting, and the plot itself seems really good.

One of the best series on TV the last decade, and another good example that horror DOES have great potential for TV. Stranger Things and Ash vs. Evil Dead is two other great examples on how good horror can be on TV.

New Master album. I haven't really paid any attention to Master in recent years, but dear god, what a fucking monster of a cover that is. Will check it out for sure. The debut album Master, the second album On the Seventh Day God Created... Master and the 2003 Unreleased 1985 Album are fantastic albums, and everything they've heard beside those are good too. But they're just more of the same and far from as good.

You also got mastermind Paul Speckmann's other bands Death Strike, Abomination, Funeral Bitch and Speckmann Project that's really fucking good, but more or less play the same type of music. Death Strike and Speckmann Project is a bit more on the death metally side, but you can hear that they are Paul Speckmann's bands. Same with Johansson & Speckmann which is a lesser Death Strike and Speckmann Project, as in a more death metally band, albeit far from as good as the previously mentioned bands.

So I kinda feel like I've got more than enough Paul Speckmann, but I'll check it out due to the cover.

https://masterdeathmetal.bandcamp.com/album/vindictive-miscreant-death-metal

Checked the song and wasn't impressed tbh.

Fun metal-punk with a brilliant hand-drawn video.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Interesting cover, but not quite sure what to think about it. Looking forward to hearing some new tunes tho. Got the feeling it'll be a bit different than before.

That sounds pretty damn good. Their first release since 2003's Bloodsoaked and Ill-Fated. 

https://necromaniac.bandcamp.com/

New EP from Necromaniac, and it's just as cool as the demo. Black/death/thrash inspired by Hellhammer, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Possessed, Necrovore and more. Sounds nice and old school.

Bosse-de-Nage - Further Still

https://bosse-de-nage.bandcamp.com/

The two new tracks sounds cool.

Oh shit, that is just too good. Sounds like a mix of old horror soundstracks and dark-wave/goth rock/death rock (mainly because of the vocals I guess, but that's cool as fuck in my eyes).

Finished Blood Drive and thought it was awesome. It's not genius filmmaking, it's not a series that'll make you smarter or make you into a better person, but it's fun for what it is. A 13 episode long Grindhouse series with lots of cheese and sleaze, and even more blood and gore with beautiful practical special effects. Fun themes, memorable and fun characters and all you could possibly want from Grindhouse cinema.

It was cancelled, but kinda got a decent finish anyway. But considering the ending I'd fucking love another season with that theme. Looked neat!

Recommended! Channel Zero next!

Superb cover art and some titles that closely resembles older chambara and spaghetti westerns. Can't complain about that.

I'm not sure if I can say this to one of the members of the board, but first off I thought the promo picture was a joke. Automatically wrote you off as another non-asian visual kei parody. The vocals are OK I guess, but it sounds like a 105468th rate VK vocalist. The music sounds like a 674687467167674657416th rate visual kei band. 

Don't get me wrong, this is far from the worst band I've ever heard. But there's nothing memorable about this whatsoever. You've heard worse, but out of the previous 674687467167674657416 bands you heard playing this style of music, 6746874671676746574 were a shitload better.

But it's not awful. I don't get cancer listening to this, and just that is a huge positive for me in 2018 where 90% of the VK-scene are giving me cancer or worse.

True Detective season 3 confirmed. Hellz yah!

Also looking forward to Lovecraft Country. Never read the novel, but I hope it's truly Lovecraftian.

Currently watching Blood Drive, which is a crazy grindhouse TV-series which is all over the place and way over the top. Just real sleazy and trashy fun. It's not a TV-series for everyone, it's a TV-series for genre freaks like myself as it doesn't cut any corners to please the masses, which is also why it was also cancelled after one season. But kudos to SyFy and everyone involved for actually making something like this. I'm only 5 episodes in, but so far they're working through different Grindhouse and exploitation genres with a new theme every episode. Think Death Race 2000 and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, with elements from zombie flicks, sexploitation flicks, martial arts flicks (even though I expect this to be covered much better in a later episode), cannibal flicks and whatnot.

Really diggin' this so far.