Square-jawed white guy Jake (Andrew Brooks Gagne) is having a bad day. First, he wakes up late for his job interview. Then, his car won't start, so he hops a train...and immediately falls asleep, missing his stop. Did I mention he’s also forgotten his phone? It seems punctuality and...
For a while, it seemed that the go-to move for an established film franchise that had reached a shark-jumping level of creative desperation was to shoot it into outer space -- the cinematic equivalent of a family sitcom adding a baby into the mix. James Bond, Hellraiser, Airplane, Leprechaun,...
I've never read the Spawn comic books, but I remember that when the movie adaptation came out in 1997, I felt a sense of eager anticipation because it was a black superhero film that wasn’t a cheesy kids flick like The Meteor Man, a silly spoof like Blankman and,...
Watching Let’s Scare Julie made me think about black folks’ frequent complaint about Black History Month being relegated to the short, crappy month that is February. Along those same lines, while it’s nice to watch a horror movie with a black final girl, why does it have to be...
Shockumentary, or "mondo", films are trash. There, I said it. Some people love their sleaziness, some (I'd guess most) don't. I fall into the "don't" camp, and although I wouldn't lump them together with fictional horror, that's where they're generally found in the video store, so I figured I'd...
Sometimes I feel like I might overreact a bit when I complain about certain African-American portrayals in horror movies -- and really, in movies in general -- but then along comes a film like Are You Scared. This low-budget, mediocre Saw rip-off finds six teens trapped in warehouse under...
This minimum opus was filmed in 1993, although its blurry look is more like an early '80s snuff film. It has a Z-grade budget with Z-grade acting, Z-grade writing and Z-grade effects (For instance, a knife that supposedly slits a guy’s throat comes maybe within six inches of it.). When...
I know that Leon isn't exactly Sidney Poitier ("They call me Mister...um, er, well, Leon it is."), but even he is above the demeaning role of Jimmy in Bats. (Then again, his abhorrent role in Cliffhanger featured him threatening to rape the white "bitch" heroine.) I mean, modern "spook"...
It would be easy to assume that Blacula is a cheesy throwaway with camp-only value, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Blackenstein, on the other hand, is a sad, sad excuse for a film. On some level, though, that's what makes it so good -- er, well,...
I would call Bleeding Rose a supernatural whodunit, except if you look at the DVD cover, it doesn't exactly take CSI to guess whodunit. Hint: the guy with the pentagram carved into his forehead is not to be trusted. The guy in question is Alex (Nicholas Vitulli), the abusive,...
