I Was a Teenage TV Terrorist

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I Was a Teenage TV Terrorist should come with a warning label. Well, several, actually. But for starters: any modern viewer would likely expect the 1985 film to naturally feel a bit dated some thirty-plus years after its original release, but the fact of the matter is that I Was a Teenage TV Terrorist feels out-of-time even for 1985…as if it were meant for another time and era. An affectionate homage? Perhaps. A modern satire playing on tropes from the past? OK, if you’re extremely generous. A simply terrible movie that misfires on nearly every cylinder? Absolutely.

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of I WAS A TEENAGE TV TERRORIST at Horrornews.net!

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Karloff vs. Lugosi: Clash of the Horror Titans

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After more than one hundred years of horror cinema, reasonable people still disagree about who is the greatest horror star of all time, but most arguments tend to boil down to Boris Karloff vs. Bela Lugosi. While the versatile and inimitable Karloff may have boasted the more robust and impactful career overall, the dark and mysterious Lugosi—despite a legacy that ultimately degenerated into self-parody and forgettable schlock—may have delivered the single most iconic horror performance of all time…

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s full March 2017 FROM THE TOMB column–KARLOFF VS. LUGOSI: CLASH OF THE HORROR TITANS–at Horrornews.net!

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Feed the Devil

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The past year or so in horror cinema has not been particularly kind to indigenous peoples…not that the previous century in horror has done them so many favors, either. The recent cannibal opus The Green Inferno may well have been the stinking tip of the noxious iceberg, portraying a “lost” tribe of indigenous Amazonians as wild, murderous, flesh-eating savages. Apparently, not having access to modern conveniences like high-speed streaming services can turn an entire civilization of natives into cannibalistic killers, to which I suppose any of us who have ever experienced our own occasional internet outages can certainly attest…

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of FEED THE DEVIL at Horrornews.net!

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I Know You’re In There

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Just a little less than halfway into the movie, the central character looks into a home video camera—his full-frame face showing a small, bloody gash over his right eye—and says, as if he is revealing all the secrets of the universe, “As you can see, I’ve hit my head.”

And that’s about as subtle as it gets in the new horror/thriller I Know You’re in There….

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE at Horrornews.net!

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Bornless Ones

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Bornless Ones jumps right into the action, picking up in the final moments of a supernatural slaughter intended to set the stage for the rest of the action of the film. A tortured mother—in severe physical and emotional distress—faces off against some sort of vengeful demon that may or may not be her daughter. The demon needs a playmate, you see, and the mother and daughter will serve the purpose for just as long as the two of them can survive. It’s not that long.

From there, Bornless Ones does not take much time off to rest. Apart from some silly business in a rural gas station (anyone who has ever seen a horror movie is familiar with this scene), a little bit of light partying, a lot of awkward talky exposition, and some leering shots of a topless actress whose only previous film or TV credit was “Briefcase Model”, first-time writer/director Alexander Babaev plunges his characters and audience into a non-stop horror show that succeeds in spots but never quite lives up to its aspirations…

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of BORNLESS ONES at Horrornews.net!

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Live Evil (aka Grave Walkers)

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There are a whole lot of lookssortalike’s in the pseudo-zombie flick Live Evil (aka Grave Walkers). There’s a girl who lookssortalike Jennifer Garner. There’s a guy who lookssortalike James Coburn. There’s another guy who lookssortalike Ice Cube. And there’s even a guy who lookssortalike Tony Todd.

In fact, truth be told, at first Live Evil itself lookssortalike a decent movie, but looks can be deceiving…

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of LIVE EVIL at Horrornews.net!

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The Phoenix Incident

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There is an awful lot to like about the new paranoid sci-fi/horror flick The Phoenix Incident.

Presented as an explosive documentary that blows the lid off the government conspiracy surrounding the infamous Phoenix Lights episode, The Phoenix Incident focuses on the disappearance of four Arizona adventurers whose night in the desert on March 13, 1997, landed them smack-dab in the middle of a clash between the U.S. military and alien intruders…

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of THE PHOENIX INCIDENT at Horrornews.net!

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The Devil Lives Here

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For all the hand-wringing over sex and violence in movies and modern culture, today’s artists have nothing on the mythmakers and storytellers of old. From Greek myths to Native legends to the original nightmares spun by those perverse Brothers Grimm, some of the world’s most horrifically cruel and violent imaginings have been around long before Leatherface found his first chainsaw under the Christmas tree.

Borrowing from that extensive history of depravity has long been a winning tradition in horror literature and film, imbuing stories new with the distinction and gravitas of tales timeworn and tested. And that winning streak continues with the nifty Brazilian horror flick The Devil Lives Here…

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of THE DEVIL LIVES HERE at Horrornews.net!

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Before I Wake

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Little Cody is a special boy. Sweet but reserved. Eager but cautious. Loving but damaged. Oh, and when Cody sleeps, his dreams spring to life and intersect with the real world in the most amazing and wondrous ways. Most of the time, at least. But sometimes, when Cody struggles with his darkest nightmares and most intimate fears, his inner demons reach out savagely to threaten and endanger everyone around him.

Before I Wake, director Mike Flanagan’s latest, turns out to be a pretty standard issue, paint by the numbers horror-thriller of the think-twice-before-you-take-in-that-stray-child variety. Despite some solid performances, slick production values, and effective creature design, Before I Wake definitely drags in places, with moments of suspense and shock too few and far in between…

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of BEFORE I WAKE at Horrornews.net!

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Adam K

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Late in the 2016 thriller Adam K, one of the central characters is run through by the sharp end of a crow bar, which is thrust entirely through her body from back to front, must certainly have ruined one or more of her key internal organs, and very likely may have severed her spinal column. Moments later, after the crude steal spear is pulled savagely out of her, she spends the rest of the film walking with a slight limp.

I point this out just in case the remainder of this review suggests that Adam K is a credible, high-quality film.  It is not….

Click here to read Madison Film Guy’s FULL review of ADAM K at Horrornews.net!

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