DEMON RESURRECTION (Screener Review)

RATED- Unrated
RUN TIME- 90 Mins
WRITER(S)- William Hopkins
STARRING- Alex Golightly, Damian Ladd, and Eli Kranski
DIRECTOR- William Hopkins



Synopsis taken from IMDb
In an isolated house, a group of friends battle supernatural forces as they try to protect a young woman from an evil cult.




First of all, I want to mention how professional this screener is. Most people just send you a burned disc, and maybe a small note. Well, this one came in a full-fledged DVD case, complete with movie cover and bonus features including a making of documentary and even commentary by writer and director, William Hopkins. So I was actually looking forward to this one, because it seemed to me that the filmmakers themselves took this project seriously, and aimed a little higher than just being a "backyard epic".

The film starts pretty quickly, introducing you to a few characters at an archaeological dig site who uncover some bodies said to be dead members of an evil cult. Then follows a brief explanation and some back story, allowing you to understand the whole picture before the proverbial crap hits the fan.

Then we go to a group of friends, who are oblivious to the fact that they're so close to the recently uncovered bodies and burial. They're in town for an intervention of their friend Grace, who they think is troubled and needs help. Eventually we get some more back story, this time from some of the characters, especially Grace, played by Alex Golightly. We find out how she's been forced to join an evil cult against her will, and was branded with the cults symbol. She was then bound and raped by an evil essence, which for the sake of the movie is green fog.

This of course, results in her pregnancy. My only complaint about her unfortunate events, is that I wish it were more depraved. I appreciate that they kept it cleaned up and to a minimum, but I think going the route of being a bit more graphic for the sake of the effect it would have had would have been the way to go.

The characters stumble into a few cliches such as there being no reception for their cell phones, but for the most part, "Demon Resurrection" is its own monster and offers up some good creativity, while nodding to certain classics in the genre such as "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Evil Dead". And make no mistake, this is no typical 'I'm pregnant with Satan's baby' movie.

I think my favorite part about the movie is the zombies. They're straight Lucio Fulci style, taking you back to the feel of the late 70's and early 80's era of zombie makeup. They're constantly surrounded by a green smoke and glow, like the smoke that impregnated Grace. And these zombies are pretty vicious, they fight back, and they scratch the hell out of you. Nasty gore, but throughout the movie it isn't overused or overplayed. 

As a matter of fact, there's a throat cut scene that rivals that of "The Crate" from 1982's "Creepshow". Not to mention, there's some gruesome throwback disembowelments to add to the awesomeness. The window scene in general is painful to watch, but the guy who meets such a cruel end is worthy of it, and easily the least likable character.

The evil within Grace is birthed as a creature that looked to me like a cross between a graboid (Tremors) and a Xenomorph (Alien). It's done old school with a puppet and not cgi, another throwback to older films. And although William Hopkins was open about what an aggravation it was to use a puppet, I appreciate that much more than I would have a computer generated creature.

The movie ends in a semi-happy way, but not really. Through the entire film, there's not really any score to it. I appreciate the way that using natural sounds keeps things in a more grounded level, and it is effective. However, I think a good score that gets your blood pumping adds in suspense, and would have overall improved the effectiveness the film has.

The makeup work is decent, I've definitely seen worse, and I've absolutely seen better. But, it works for the feel that the movie achieves. With some low quality lighting throughout, and some weak acting, this movie fails to be perfect. However, the good outweighs the bad, and there's some good dialogue between the characters. I just wish it was carried out in a better way.

One of the things that I disliked was the way the zombies meet their end, and wanted them to vanish differently. I guess great minds think alike, because after watching the film with commentary, I came to find out that William Hopkins actually wanted them to ignite into flames, but was restricted in doing so. I agree that would have been a better farewell. And I think that with the style of the zombies, that it would have been better if the whole movie were shot in a grainy Grindhouse type of look.

I also learned during the commentary how difficult it was to make this movie, the setbacks they had in pulling it off, and how it took a long time. All of which just builds more appreciation from me. The commentary also pinpoints some continuity issues that I honestly probably would have never noticed otherwise, and goes into how the zombies were designed to look retro, because they didn't look right in the films "Blair Witch" style. They also didn't hire friends to play parts, they hired pros, unlike most indie directors do. And they had to shoot eight pages of the script each day, which is a lot compared to a usual production.

In the end, even with flaws, "Demon Resurrection" is an indie achievement. It was created and treated very professionally, and gives the genre a big high five. It's a low-budget B movie that doesn't let up.

3 stars out of 5

The Barrens (2012)

RATED- R
RUN TIME- 94 MINS
WRITERS- DARREN LYNN BOUSMAN
STARRING- MIA KIRSHNER, STEPHEN MOYER AND SHAWN ASHMORE
DIRECTOR- DARREN LYNN BOUSMAN




Synopsis taken from IMDb
This movie is about the Vineyard family and their trip to the New Jersey Pine Barrens. There is a legend that the Jersey Devil lives in these woods. It came about after a woman known as Mother Leeds had 13 children, but she offered up the 13th child to the Devil so she and her other children didn't have to leave their house as they were going to be forced out by the town folk because she was having too many kids in the area back in the 1700's. So it's now the present, and the Vineyard family are going to camp there so the father ('Stephen Moyer') can release he father's ashes. But while there they hear that someone has gone missing, and Richard (Moyer) thinks it's the work of the Jersey Devil. So they move their camp site to get away from the rest of the campers only to find that they're in more trouble than they were before. But is the legend of the Jersey Devil real, or is it just another story?



Darren Lynn Bousman has had success with his previous films, Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV as well as Repo! The Genetic Opera. Bousman wrote The Barrens soon after finishing Saw II (2005), the film was shot in Toronto, Ontario.

Mia Kirshner, most recently know for her role on The CW's hit series The Vampire Diaries as Isobel Flemming. I am most familiar with her from her role as adult Sarah in The Crow: City of Angels (1996). She was also recently in 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010) as Lilith, which I wasn't a fan of. In The Barrens, Kirshner plays Cynthia, Richard's wife.

Stephen Moyer, who's popularly know as Bill Compton, Sookie's love interest on HBO's smash series True Blood. I've been watching the show from the beginning, but one thing that I've learned about Moyer is that he apparently has trouble picking what movies to be in outside of starring in True Blood. The movies I've seen with him have been underwhelming, but with Bousman on the case I figured this one was a sure thing. So you can imagine my disappointment when this movie failed my expectations.

The movie starts off with a couple walking through the woods to find a grisly discovery. It was a nice surprise to see Shawn Ashmore in this film playing Dale, the boyfriend.

The Vineyard's are getting ready to leave to go to the Barrens and we see that Richard's daughter, Saddie, doesn't like nor have much respect for Richard's wife, Cynthia. After some convincing Richard is able to get Saddie to hurry along with getting ready.

Soon after arriving to the campsite Richard realizes things have changed since he was a child and used to com to the Barrens. The campers are teens and disrespectful, they're texting and partying. Not the ideal camping trip Richard wanted with his family. He wanted to have a wholesome trip and free of all electronics including cell phones.

While sitting around the campfire a teen tells the story of the Jersey Devil, and a goofy stunt startles and frightens Richard's son. Richard overreacts and gets hostile with the teens.

During the night Richard has a nightmare where he's chased by an unknown creature. When he awakens the next day he looks like hell, looks ill and Cynthia notices.

He decides they need to move their location to deeper into the woods to get away from the crowds of mischievous teens. His family objects but they go anyway.

Richard starts to have more hallucinations and claims the Jersey Devil is after him. He becomes sickly and aggressive. He becomes dangerous.

The reason this movie was such a letdown for me is because I thought that it had a good story here and they could have gone in many directions with it. The movie starts off slightly creepy and keeps you invested for about 35 minutes.

The suspense wasn't there, it was absent. There was nothing suspenseful about this movie. The scares were just as sparse and dry. It wasn't what I was expecting. It's like you're watching a guy make a fool of himself and make it apparent he's losing his mind. But they try to keep you guessing because they may want to twist it on you for the startling effect.

The problem is, by that point in the movie you don't care anymore if it has a twist or not. It lost it's appeal long ago and the payoff doesn't matter because quite frankly it's predictable and lame.

The creature Richard sees is ridiculous looking and not scary at all. This movie wasn't scary, it was more of a psychological thriller reminiscent of The Mothman Prophesies, which was better. The ending of The Barrens is completely lackluster.

This movie was quite bad but it's far from the worst I've seen this year. I'm sure some people will like this but it's not for me.

THIS FILM GETS 1 1/2 REAPER SKULLS OUT OF 5

Beyond The Door (1974)

RATED- R
RUN TIME- 109 MINS
WRITERS- OVIDIO G. ASSONITIS AND ANTONIO TROISO
STARRING- JULIET MILLS, RICHARD JOHNSON AND GABRIELE LAVIA
DIRECTOR- OVIDIO G. ASSONITIS



Synopsis taken from IMDb
Juliet Mills plays a young pregnant woman in San Francisco who is going to have the devil's baby during her strange possession. Richard Johnson shows up to help her...but what does he really want?



Beyond The Door is an Italian-American horror film also know as "Chi Sei". It's most commonly found in the UK under the title "The Devil Within Her", and in this version you get 15 minutes of extra footage not shown in theaters. Luckily for me, I got to see it under that presentation. So it was no holds barred.

Due to the film being about a possessed woman, the film got labeled as a Exorcist rip-off. Warner Brothers even filed a lawsuit against this film for copyright infringement. The lawsuit failed. However, Beyond The Door is held accountable for paving the path for several other Exorcist rip-offs.

If there's one thing that scares me above all others it's possession. Possession scares the hell out of me, it's the one thing that (if done right) will make me cringe and even have trouble sleeping. I'm certain that part of this is due to me being traumatized by The Exorcist as a child. When I was about 5 or 6 years old I snuck out into the living room where my parents were watching The Exorcist, and I watched some parts of it. And I kid you not, I didn't sleep at night for the whole summer. I'd stay up until 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning or until it was daylight and then I'd sleep.
Since then I've been terrified of possession, especially since I came from a religious family.

I actually have never heard of this movie until a couple of weeks ago. I was looking for some posters online and stumbled into some posters for movies I haven't seen, and when I saw the poster for this film I knew I had to watch it. If the poster creeps me out, I'm down to give it a watch. Then I got the idea to watch the trailer for this film and within 20 seconds I was creep'd out. I knew this movie meant to scare you, they weren't going for cheese or easy going, they were going for the balls. Luckily Netflix delivered the movie soon after and I was able to torture myself with one more possession movie.

Now as I mentioned, this movie is said to have ripped-off a few scenes from The Exorcist, but I liked this movie and I liked the way it was done. Yeah, some scenes were close to what happened in the movie, like the head turning scene, but it was done in it's own way. They took the idea and did their own way of doing it, it wasn't a direct rip-off. Some similarities, but not a rip-off. They borrowed a few tools from The Exorcist to do this movie but the story was all new.

The scene where she's throwing up didn't really look green to me, it looked more black. But supposedly it was green pea soup although in The Exorcist the puke was alot lighter in color. So either it was the lighting making the throw up look dark or it wasn't green pea soup.

The thing that I think scares me the most about possession movies is the voice. That raspy, sick sounding voice. That cackle of a laugh. You can hear it whenever you think of this film or any other possession movie with a good sound voice to scare the hell out of you. In this movie the line that stands out in that voice is one Jessica repeats several times; "Whooooo aaare youuuuu?"

Jessica looks creepy as hell, she looks sweaty, dirty and in need of a shower as well as a good brushing of her teeth. She's taunting and malevolent, and she scared me pretty good. Something about women being possessed always makes it scarier. For some reason possessed men just don't do anything for scares or entertainment.

I liked how we saw the progression of her possession. She was a good, loving mother of two and then she starts to become angry and aggressive. We see her take it out on her family and they all know something funny's happening to their mommy. And her husband doesn't know what to do, but to me, he acted a little light. If it were my wife and mother of my children acting that way I would have gone for the best help possible right away. I wouldn't have waited around in a stupor for things to progress.

When she becomes full-on possessed is when the movie starts to really pick up and get scary. She's a vile woman when she's possessed, as most possessed people are I guess. Then her ex-boyfriend and Satan worshiper it makes the plot twist a little, questioning what was going to happen.

The climax is satisfying and the ending was pretty good. Very unsettling. I didn't see the final shot coming. Totally shocked me. I'm a fan of this movie and will be looking to own it. Exorcist rip-off or not, I didn't mind this film at all, and it scared me.

This film 2 sequels but neither of them are official sequels. They're other films marketed under the name "Beyond The Door" title to cash in on the name. Mario Bava's Italian horror film, Shock, was put under the title Beyond The Door 2 (1979). Beyond The Door 3 (1989) was shot in Serbia and has Ovidio G. Assonitis is credited as a producer. But neither sequels have any ties into the first Beyond The Door, the sequels are stand alone films that are added to the first film as sequels. They have no connection to each other.

THIS FILM GETS 3 REAPERS OUT OF 4

The Guardian (Book 1979)

After reading The Sentinel there was absolutely no choice but to read The Guardian. I had heard great things about this book from my dad, he had read it when he was a teenager. So I impatiently awaited my book to arrive from Amazon, and when it did I read it in only a few days. From the start I knew I was in for a good story.

Upon opening the book I see an illustration of men and women with white eyes and it says:
You are about to experience the most paralyzing terror ever unleashed...the final hour of evil. One step beyond the very boundaries of belief...it has already begun.

This book was amazing. It is without a doubt one of the greatest horror fiction books I have ever read, even beating alot of Stephen King books. This book is severely underrated and forgotten, people don't know what they're missing.

The story centers around Ben and Faye Burdett and their life together. When they move into an apartment and start to witness weird things it becomes apparent that they're going through what Alison Parker went through. And when Ben finds out his wife is picked as the new Sentinel/ Guardian to guard the gates of hell from hell leaking onto earth. What will Ben do to save his beloved wife?

This story was particularly better than its predecessor The Sentinel because this one was higher stakes and more on the line. Satan is on earth and waiting his time to take over. It's up to Ben and the help of Father McQuire along with the Catholic church to stop Satan from claiming the thrown. But how can they do that when Ben is protecting they're chosen Guardian, Faye, from being picked as the new Sentinel? He must find another way. But is there one? Or is he fighting a hopeless battle?

This book is filled with non stop suspense and twists. It leads you in one direction and then bangs a sharp right and switches on you with jaw dropping turns of events.

The Characters were well written and genuine, alot of character development as well. It's heart racing speed and adrenaline makes you feel in the moment and you're scared for the characters.

The ending of this book is absolutely amazing. One of the best endings ever written. I won't give it away but lets just say that so far this gets my Book Of  The Year Award. I wish I was into this book sooner. My heart dropped to my feet when the ending unraveled.

Now as I mentioned in last months The Sentinel review, The Guardian was never made into a movie for whatever reason. I think this would make a great movie and would love to see it happen. I'd go opening weekend for this one. It deserves the movie treatment as much as The Sentinel did, and if The Sentinel did as well as it did then the fanbase for The Guardian has got to be there as well.

If they do do the movie at some point in the movie I can only hope that they do it as close to the book as The Sentinel. If they do it'll make a fantastic horror film.

I would prefer to have the movie made as a direct sequel to The Sentinel and I'd like it authentic, really looking old and in the same fashion as it's predecessor. One thing I can't stand is when a movie is a sequel or prequel to an old movie and they don't try to keep it true to the other film, they don't pay attention to detail and it always ends up looking more modern. And so it doesn't fit with the other, just like with Prometheus and Alien. The ship in Prometheus was way more high tech and definitely didn't look older than the ship in Alien which is was supposed to be. I'd want this movie to fit right in with the other.

But on the other hand, if a remake of The Sentinel is what it takes to make The Guardian an authentic film to The Sentinel then bring it on. I'll be iffy of a Sentinel remake but I'm a supporter if it'll get The Guardian made.

Read this book if you want a good horror read that'll keep you on the edge of your seat. It's highly recommended.

THIS BOOK GETS 4 REAPERS OUT OF 4

The Sentinel (Book 1974)

In 1974 author Jeffry Konvitz made a landmark novel in the horror genre that was passionate, enthralling, compelling, gracefully written and brilliant. It was chilling to the core and it was one of the greatest books I've ever read. It keeps you guessing and doesn't let up on plot twists and shockers. It's a book any fan of horror fiction can easily fall in love with. It's smoothly written and paints the picture perfectly.

I actually was introduced to the movie adaptation (1977) of the book starring Chris Sarandon and Burgess Meredith years and years ago when I was a young kid. I remember the movie scaring the hell out of me but it left such an impression on me that I became obsessed and it remains my favorite Haunting movie to date. It wasn't until years later that I realized the movie was based on a novel, so I bought the book and just read it. I don't know if I was happier that the movie was identical to the book or vise versa. There are a few minor differences but at their core they're one in the same.

The Sentinel is about a young and gorgeous model Alison Parker, who is still overcoming her emotional situation after her father passes. She decides to pick up her life by moving out of her boyfriends apartment and into a New York Brownstone building that's just what Alison needs to get away from her issues and clear her head. But things as usual, are too good to be true as Alison starts to realize how weird her neighbors are, an old man named Charles Chazen and a lesbian couple living below her. She also starts to get woken up in the middle of the night by heavy footsteps in the apartment above her.

After complaining to the landlord she comes to discover that there is no one else in the apartment building but her. But she refuses to believe the people she met are mere figments of her imagination and decides to investigate what's going on. But as she does she starts to get splitting migraines that eventually start making her immobile. Is she crazy and haunted by the guilt she has over her fathers death? Or is she being toyed with by greater forces involving heaven and hell, good and evil?

I suggest you watch the movie if you haven't seen it and if you haven't read the book I highly recommend it. This book is a 1 million copy bestseller and is a staple in horror literature.

It starts slow, steady, and builds up gradually and takes you through every cloudy thought and illusion Alison has, eventually leaving you with no option but to not put the book down and keep reading. The suspense is fantastic and the chills and creeps are good, they keep you scared of what's to come next and yet you're excited to get there and find out anyway.

As the story unwinds and it all adds up I was also very impressed with the characters and how well written they were as well as their character development.

So do me a favor, if you're in the mood for a good book and don't have one yet picked out to read, pick this one. You won't be let down.

After reading The Sentinel I jumped right into The Guardian (1979) which is the sequel to The Sentinel, and I was shocked to see that it was even better than it's predecessor. Why it was never made into a movie I have not idea but I consider it one long over do. But more on that next month when I review it...

THIS BOOK GETS 3 1/2 REAPERS OUT OF 4