Horror Movie Reviews

Night Drive Review

January 5, 2012 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Movie: Night Drive
Year: 2011
Studio: The Film Factory
Director: Justin Head
Language: English
Length: 102 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Slasher, Thriller, Animals

Plot: Night Drive is a gritty South African thriller/horror, set against the backdrop of the beautifully romantic African Bush, where an eclectic mix of tourists is left stranded during a night drive. It is only when they realize that they are being hunted by a group of poachers that the terror truly begins.

Review: The opening scene of Night Drive really captivates the imagination. You get glimpses of African tribesmen doing bizarre things with body parts, bullets and this unknown juice that it drank. There are glimpses of gore, bloody machetes, internal organs and hyenas all rolled into one.

After the beginning montage of random things it jumps to a cop somewhere in South Africa. The story unwinds at a slow pace, he is chasing after a drug lord and events happen that cause him to lose his job. From there we are taken to this so-called “Night Drive” where vacationers are taken on a wildlife excursion through the deadly terrain of South Africa, in search of expanding their horizons, with peace, tranquility and the hopes of seeing wild animals.

The story finally starts to unfold about 45-50 minutes in. The basic concept to Night Drive is; poachers are not killing animals but humans, they need fresh, internal body parts to perform their cult-like rituals involving hyenas. After the brutal killings, the bodies are left for the hyenas to munch on.

As you can see by the summary, the story is wild, very hard to follow at times, especially since they go back-and-forth with transitional scenes, and most of the time the camera is not fixed, causing jerkiness during the action scenes. The acting was surprisingly good for a horror movie of this type. The music and sound effects were engaging, not scary, but more of a riveting type. There are many machete scenes, that gets a point right there! But actually, there was only one effective kill scene in this whole movie and it was done extremely well.

The story is the biggest downfall along with the quick cutaways of the most gruesome scenes. There is a handy little twist in the end I enjoyed and never seen coming. I was never bored, but then again I never thoroughly could see what was happening, so we have a mixed bag. I wouldn’t go out of my way to seek it out, but if you come across Night Drive online or at a local movie rental shop, pick it up, I think you will get something out of it.

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 01/05/2012
Rating: 5½/10
Recommendation: Rental

Trailer: Watch
DVD: DVD Empire
BluRay: N/A
Social Media: Facebook

Reeker Review

December 24, 2011 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Movie: Reeker
Year: 2005
Studio: Primal Pictures
Director: Dave Payne
Language: English
Length: 87 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Thriller, Supernatural

Plot: A group of strangers finds common ground in a remote desert town when they realize they’re being hunted by a foul-smelling enemy. But can they stay alive long enough to neutralize the rotting killer who’s mucking up the air around them? Devon Gummersall ("My So-Called Life"), Eric Mabius ("Ugly Betty") and veteran character actor Michael Ironside (Top Gun, Total Recall) co-star in this tongue-in-cheek horror romp from writer-director Dave Payne.

Review: You immediately get jutted into Reeker from the get-go. A family traveling cross-country hits a deer, and when they stop to get out, their friendly pet gets demolished, and the husband loses half of his face. The brutal parts happened off-screen but it left you wondering what in the world was happening.

After the opening, you must be patient as no more on-screen turmoil happens for another 35 minutes. You meet 5 friends who are traveling on the same road going to Area 52 for a rave. On their way there the ground shakes and all other cars and people vanish. They get held up in a sleazy motel when this supernatural being starts hunting them down.

Blood is minimal but their was one extremely terrifying scene when one of the teenage girls gets locked in an outhouse when the Reeker comes to take her life. The other kills were pretty bland with the score pumping up the decibels, but failing at all jump scares.

When you find out what the madness is behind the story, it actually was a decent payoff. I was engaged in this film, but it just didn’t have enough bite to garner a better than an average rating. Don’t seek it out, but if you’re walking down a Blockbuster or a local rental shop aisle, pick it up for a night, it’s worth a one-time viewing.

Final note; there is a sequel to this titled “No Man’s Land: The Rise Of Reeker” that was released in 2008 on both DVD and BluRay. Suffice it to say, Reeker, didn’t affect me enough to even search out part 2. It’s a forgettable movie but one that possibly the supernatural crowd could be into, just don’t expect anything too scary.

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 12/24/2011
Rating: 5/10
Recommendation: Rental

Trailer: Watch
DVD: Best Buy
BluRay: N/A
Social Media: Wikipedia

Panic Button Review

December 1, 2011 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Movie: Panic Button
Year: 2011
Studio: Movie Mogul Films
Director: Chris Crow
Language: English
Length: 92 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Thriller

Plot: Four young people win a competition of a lifetime; Jo (Scarlett Alice Johnson), Max (Jack Gordon), Dave (Michael Jibson) and Gwen (Elen Rhys from Season Of The Witch) are heading off on an all expenses paid trip to New York courtesy of the social network site “all2gethr.com.” As they board the private jet, they must relinquish their personal items and take part in the in-flight entertainment – a new online gaming experience. Once airborne the games begin, and it soon becomes evident through a series of twisted tasks, that the passengers are in for more than they dared imagine.

Review: With the increasing number of users year after year using social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, I found the concept of this movie to be a fresh idea, and wondered how they could turn a relatively friendly atmosphere into a horror movie. For the most part, I think they pulled it off.

You have 4 friends on this all2gethr.com social site, really strangers, board a plane heading from the UK to the USA, with a chance to win expensive prizes while airborne by playing these sickening games. You soon realize after Stage 2 of these mind games that the trip has a more grandiose purpose that leaves you on the edge of the seat wondering what this demented person behind this flight has in store for the passengers, and their families and friends.

Panic Button actually shies away from showing the kill scenes. You do get the picture, but the movie flashes the images by so quickly it loses its effectiveness. While this “higher purpose” story does come into play about 60 minutes in, the ending was completely predictable especially when you have seen as many horror movies as I have.

On a whole it was an intelligent story, and very relatable to the younger internet savvy teenagers. Panic Button lets you know just how public everything you do online is, both searchable and traceable. The dark tones with social networks really hits hard and is very true to real life. For me, I would of liked more of a chilling track and more violent scenes shown on camera. The acting was very good, but these characters were generally shady, and I just didn’t “feel” for them. With all that said, Panic Button is definitely worth a watch, get your hands on it, you will be entertained for the most part.

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 12/01/2011
Rating: 6/10
Recommendation: Rental

Trailer: Watch
DVD: Amazon.co.uk
BluRay: Amazon.co.uk
Social Media: Facebook

Grey Skies Review

November 26, 2011 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Movie: Grey Skies
Year: 2011
Studio: Little Engine Films
Director: Kai Blackwood
Language: English
Length: 82 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Aliens, Sci-Fi

Plot: Kai Blackwood’s sci-fi thriller Grey Skies tracks a group of college friends reuniting for a fun weekend at a rented cabin whose drinking and carousing is interrupted by flashing lights, and the appearance of aliens who seem intent on taking over the planet starting with this house.

Review: I was anticipating a good alien style horror movie when the initial scene happened. It was very scary and left you wondering what in the heck is going on. The opening juts in your face with a creepiness tone and thrilling sets leaving you excited for what is to come. The credits then flash by and you meet the cast of characters that you will come to hate.

A clientele of friends meet-up at a desolated cabin for a gathering and good time. The story is character driven and if the actors weren’t so unlikable it just might of worked, for awhile anyways. When you finally get to the invasion, the director unbeknownst to me played off the aliens by making them blurry with a wobbling picture. I could see this happening once or twice leaving you in suspense, but for the whole film, it is totally weak.

There could have been many jump scenes and outright scares, but instead, we have to deal with actors making stupid remarks, which totally loses all credibility of a frightful movie. I will give Grey Skies some credit though. There is one scene in particular where the aliens are performing surgical procedures that was quite chilling, especially with the instruments that were used. One actress named Annie (Anne Griffin) did hold her own and should have been on screen more.

The ending is poor and makes little sense, which really I didn’t care because the movie had fizzled long before that. The music and sound effects weren’t the greatest either. There hasn’t been many good sci-fi, horror movies in the past decade, and Grey Skies is just another one that ultimately fails. Pass it by and maybe time travel to Alien or Event Horizon.

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Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 11/26/2011
Rating: 4/10
Recommendation: Avoid

DVD: Redford Films
BluRay: N/A
Social Media: Twitter

Official Grey Skies Trailer

Hide Review

November 24, 2011 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Movie: Hide
Year: 2011
Studio: Brandi Brothers Productions
Director: Jamison Brandi
Language: English
Length: 84 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Slasher

Plot: A high-school cheerleader and her friends become embroiled in a lethal game of hide and seek on Mischief Night, the night before Halloween, even though a statewide curfew has been in effect since a horrific murder just a year before.

Review: I was excited when I popped the DVD in for Hide as it sounded like a current day slasher, and I value the sub-genre highly. It is the category that got me into horror in the first place. But, and this is a big but, Hide simply manages to screw-up the slasher scenario almost on every front.

The whole concept to Hide is one that does work, a masked killer, always a positive, is stalking young teenage girls while prodding them on the phone with obscenities ala Scream. During the final conversations he tells the girls we are going to play Hide and Seek, the popular childhood game. As the charade begins the killer is stalking his victims as he is counting out loud, 1 – 1000, 2 – 1000, 3 – 1000 and so on, until he finds them and ultimately kills them.

As a slasher you expect to see some kills, you see absolutely nothing. Not only that the story goes back-and-forth between many characters in effect losing the tension that slashers bring. The scariness of Hide is basically non-existent. It’s a pity too because some of the characters did have a likability factor but the build-ups were overly drawn out and poorly executed. More negatives include; overused score that got annoying 20 minutes in, then you got a whole hour left with the same music, and the story shifts amongst characters and one of these are filmed in a crappy cinematic style with sepia tones and shaky cam to the point you have no idea what is happening.

Hide is a new DVD release that hit the shelves on the end of October, and I am here to tell you, as a total slasher fan, pass this one by and walk away. The movie is redundant, weak and overall a very poor horror movie. If you are looking for a current day slasher that will scare you, I will throw out a few suggestions for you; Chain Letter and Hatchet 2.

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 11/24/2011
Rating: 2½/10
Recommendation: Avoid

Trailer: Watch
DVD: Blow It Outa Here
BluRay: N/A
Social Media: Facebook

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