Fubar (2000) and Fubar II (2010)

If you enjoyed Wayne's World (1992), This is Spinal Tap (1984), Strange Brew (1983), Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008) or The Big Lebowski (1998), then boy have I got a movie for you. This is a Canadian cult classic about two metal head hicks from Alberta who are just as entertaining and deserving of a fan following as Wayne or Garth, Bob or Doug McKenzie, or Walter and The Dude. The film is shot mockumentary style just like Spinal Tap, so the people in the film are all actors and the characters are all fictional but they feel just like real people and the movie is very realistic (for the most part). There is no real plot except for the development of the characters. Terry and Dean the main characters are two

metalhead/stoner bums who are concerned more with partying than anything else pretty much. Dean's character does develop testicular cancer though and one of the main characters die, so the film has some serious tones but the film handles them with such hilarity that you won't even notice the seriousness that much. This movie is full of wonderful quotable lines like "I recommend you try another sport...like knitting!" or "Turn up the good button turn down the suck button! I think you broke the knob off!" Just as Walter and the Dude have bowling as a pass-time, Terry and Dean have beer and fighting. I didn't stop to count but I wouldn't be surprised if over a hundred beers were consumed by the duo on-screen. The film tends to speak to people in their 20s who might be in or just out of college and who are failing to cope with the hardships of maturity and the real world after school. I found the movie endlessly entertaining and I highly recommend it and hope it catches on here in the states. I also watched the sequel which was made ten years after and is more of the same but with far more serious overtones and more well polished production value. I give the first one a 5/5 and the second a 3.5/5. You can view the trailer below:

Fright Night Part II (1988)

 For those of you that are unfamiliar with the 80s cult classic Fright Night (1985) and its sequels and remakes, I advise reading about it here before continuing to read this review.This sequel came out three years after the original, and it has William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall reprise their roles as Charlie Brewster and Peter Vincent respectively. This film is just as fun as the first and just as well acted and the cinematography and music are just as great as the first film as well. The only areas where this film really lacks are in its special effects and writing. The writing is still pretty good overall, but there are points in the film where certain things (although may be cool) don't make a whole lot of sense (I'd give the specific example but I don't want to give the surprise away). The special effects however are really where this film suffered, specifically the effects with the vampires. The vampire effects are much different from the first film, (which is too bad because the vampires in the first Fright Night are some of the most unique and coolest looking vampires in the history of film) here they sometimes come off as fake and hokey. The plot of the film is that it is years after the events in the first film, and Charley is now a young college student who has undergone years of therapy that has convinced him that the events in the first film never happened and that vampires don't exist. He also has a new girlfriend, on the anniversary of the events of the first film, and sort of to show himself that he has been cured of his delusional beliefs about vampires, Charley decides to reconnect with the washed up horror movie actor turned TV host, Peter Vincent. Upon visiting Vincent's apartment building though, Charley once again sees someone carrying a coffin into the building, just like the beginning of the last film. Shortly after seeing the coffin and those carrying it, Charley becomes stalked by a beautiful woman, who as you find out later is actually Jerry Dandridge (the vampire from the first film)'s sister bent on getting revenge on Peter Vincent and Charley. The actress who plays the vampire in this film does a wonderful job of being very hypnotic and exotic. The sets are great in this film too, some return from the last movie, and others are very appropriately 80s gothic. This film was not as big of a success as the first film, due partially to the fact that it had a limited theater release, and it's almost impossible to find on any form of home video.

The VHS release of the film came in a coffin shaped box and is now a collectors item, the DVD went out of print very shortly after it was first released (plus the DVD is a horrible fuzzy Pan-and-Scan transfer) so it's hard to find, and it is still not yet known if the film will be released on Blu-Ray, although if amazon is correct you can buy a copy on Blu-Ray for $400. I enjoyed the film despite its flaws and not being as good as the first, I give it a 4/5. You can view the trailer below: 

Event Horizon (1997)

Event Horizon is essentially a haunted house movie in outer space. The spaceship is creepy, full of creepy noises, ghosts/hallucinations, and other blinking lights and other standard fare in haunted house movies. A lot of people either love or hate this movie, it was panned by most critics but it has a strong fan following. The film is set in the future and is about an innovative spaceship that went through a black hole and disappeared, only to reappear years later with its crew missing. A team of astronauts are sent to figure out what happened to the crew and salvage what they can from the ship, the ship's creator (Sam Neill's character) is 

among the salvage team. The new crew starts experiencing strange things on board the ship and they come to a dark conclusion on where the ship might have gone on its initial trip through the black hole (hell). The acting is what ties this movie together, both Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Laurence Fishburne (pre-Matrix) give wonderful performances, but the supporting cast although full of relatively unknown faces is also great featuring: Joely Richardson (Natasha Richardson's sister, and Vanessa Redgrave's daughter), Sean Pertwee (Equilibrium, and Dog Soldiers), and Jason Isaacs (The Patriot and Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter series). As the film progresses it gets progressively gory (they had to cut back in order to get an R rating). I absolutely love haunted house movies though and pretty much any twist on them, so this was interesting and enjoyable even if a tad too gory for my liking

at times. The pacing was wonderful, the film had a natural progression leading up to its climax at the very end of the film. The ending was similar to that of Carrie (1976), or Dressed to Kill (1980), or The Fury (1978). The CG is impressive by 1997 standards, but a bit dated by today's standards. It is also notable that the film has a similar feel to the first Alien (1979) film. I give it a 4.25/5; The film is featured in Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See. The film is also available to stream on Netflix. You can view the trailer below:  

Deathdream (1972) aka Dead of Night

I've seen a lot of movies lately that have been based around the famous horror short story by English author W.W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw. In The Monkey's Paw a mother wishes that her recently deceased son would come back to life, but when he does he's not the same way she wished he was. The Monkey's Paw is a "be careful what you wish for" story, and so is Deathdream. Deathdream is about a family whose son goes to fight in Vietnam and gets killed, and the mother in her deep grief and denial about her son's death, somehow manages to bring him back home from the dead. Upon the son's arrival back home the family is immediately aware that something is different with Andy and he is completely different from how he was before the war, he becomes increasingly violent and he seems more dead than alive. The film is also a less than subtle look at the issue of how war changes people and a look at the baggage they bring home with them (primarily PTSD). The film covers troubled relationships the soldiers had with family and friends upon coming home, but also their romantic relationships and how difficult that could be, and the film also symbolically looks at soldiers and the drug addictions they would come home with (primarily Morphine because of its use as a pain medication), even though the main character needs blood to survive instead of actual drugs. 

The movie is a good "be careful what you wish for" story, as well as
 a unique zombie and vampire story. This was one of director Bob Clark(Black Christmas, Porky's, and A Christmas Story)'s first films, and for famous horror movie make-up artist and actor Tom Savini (original Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th, Creepshow, The Burning, Martin, and Knightriders)'s first film. I love Bob Clark and his style and cinematography that he brings to each of his films, and that style is still present even this early on in his career, and the special effects are of course great (of course because they're by Savini) as well. The acting is great too by the whole cast which includes John Marley (The Godfather)as the father and Oscar nominated actress Lynn Carlin (nominated for Faces[1969] in which she also starred with Marley) as the mother. Deathdream is marvelously creepy and lots of fun because of it and it's message, be it metaphorical or not is much like the message of another film I reviewed  recently (The Walking Dead[1936]), which is "let the dead stay dead." That message of course can also be reinterpreted to apply more directly to one's life as "let the past stay in the past." I loved the film and I give it a 5/5. The film is mentioned in Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See.  You can view the trailer below:

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

I finally decided to see this one, after years of hearing about it. For those who don't know this film has claimed the title of "worst film ever made" for the last 50+ years. While I personally don't think this is the worst film ever made (or that I've ever seen) it is pretty dang bad. This is the film that would make Ed Wood a star (albeit ironically). Ed Wood made a number of horrible B films throughout the 50s but this is his most famous/infamous. Less than 20 years after his death he would be immortalized in a critically acclaimed film made by Tim Burton, but during his lifetime Ed Wood would never see such positive acceptance of his work. Plan 9 is about aliens that come to earth and plan on taking over the world by raising the dead (don't worry if that doesn't make sense, Ed Wood never makes sense). The film has so many errors that it, Ed Wood, and his other films have all become ironically inspirational, people see his films and think "If somebody can make a piece of crap like that there's hope for me in the film business!" There are continuity errors up the wazoo, wooden acting, horrible sets and lighting (most notably in the airplane scenes) and Cadillac hubcaps on wires posing as flying saucers. The film has one of the biggest cult followings of all time for any film though. The entire genre of "so bad they're good" movies was basically created because of this film, it is still enjoyable to watch and laugh at because of how amazingly bad it is. There are a few things that should be mentioned about the film for those who don't know anything about it: 1). this was Bela Lugosi (the legendary horror actor most famous for playing Dracula [1931])'s last film. Lugosi was one of Wood's heroes growing up and he managed to meet and form a unique friendship with the man, and give him the last few roles of his career. Lugosi died only managed to film about 15 minutes of footage (or less) before he died leaving Wood to find a replacement for him for the rest of the film. His replacement ended up being a 

dead ringer for Lugosi... from the eyes up that is, Wood forced the replacement to walk around the set covering his face with his cape (like classic Dracula) so only his eyes nose and above were exposed. 2). Vampira, a 1950s horror TV host who would introduce B horror movies late at night, (the original Elvira, also think SvenGhouli) makes her most famous film appearance in this film. In my opinion the best scenes of the movie are when Vampira and Tor Johnson ( a 400 pound Swedish professional wrestler with very limited acting ability) are walking through the graveyard together. Both Johnson and Vampira are unusual characters in personality and lifestyle and they are even more unusual in their appearance, seeming practically otherworldly (Vampira pretty much invented the "vamp" look for women, and she had an unusually small waist). 3). Lastly Ed Wood was a master at collecting and using stock footage. Basically anything you see of unusually high quality compared to the rest of the movie is stock footage, which as I mentioned before could 

stand out like a sore thumb, but in other incidents he was extremely creative with it and you wouldn't necessarily know it was stock footage. The worst part of the film however is the last quarter or third of the movie, when the plot just kind of goes out the window, and the dialogue becomes so verbose and lengthy that it's incredibly hard to understand what is going on, and thus it drags and people (like myself and a friend) can tend to dose off at that point. Obviously I have to give the film a very low rating for quality ( I won't even mention how low) but as for pure enjoyment and campy entertainment value, I give it a 3.75/5. The movie is enormously influential, and if you enjoyed it I recommend The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, it's a 2001 film that spoofs 1950s B movies like Plan 9, and it is available to stream on Netflix. You can view the trailer below: