Train to Busan

An amazing modern zombie horror with the unique setting of accelerating trains, set throughout the nation, this South Korean picture completely worked and delivered with the exceptional drama, the crafty ways of dealing with the apocalypse, the spot on editing, the colorful characters and the horror.

I couldn’t believe it, but pretty much every scene was necessary for the story to unravel and wrap up, and this is now currently sitting in my top 3 of zombie movies. Train to Busan is an engrossing horror drama full of anxiety, and I can’t wait to re-watch it.

The less said about this movie, the better. Hence why review is rather short compared to my others. Immediately watch this if you are craving for a serious and dramatic horror!

Rating: 8.0

Penny Dreadful

The all stars of England’s notorious creepy figures are assembled and their storylines intertwine in a unique mixture here with Penny Dreadful, a gothic horror with well done production values, acting and characters.

Frankenstein and Dracula amongst others interact in a rather more down to earth and realistic way, but make no mistake, there are still plenty of fantasy, horror and gore moments to be found.

Eva Green and Timothy Dalton as Vanessa Ives and Sil Malcolm Murray make up for the famous actors, but the rest of the cast is splendid too. The series ends rather abruptly, as Dracula apparently wins while others die.

Penny Dreadful is a stylish horror with an all stars of famous horror characters making their debut chronologically, while the direction and the writing make up for an interesting ride.

Rating: 7.5

Romero's Dead Franchise

I can't believe that I did not properly review the late George A. Romero's Dead franchise yet, may he rest in peace, or someday rise from his tomb as a zombie!? Often considered the father of the zombie horror genre, he has influenced the culture surrounding it tremendously.

NOTE: The numbers under the movie posters indicate the number of the movie I have reviewed, we're talking about over almost 10 years ago when I reviewed most of these, but my original comments still stand up.

 #90

A classic movie featuring the very first modern zombies as far as I know, it is also the first movie in Romero's zombie serie. It was interesting to see how to get rid of the zombies, by either burning them or shotting them in the head, because that is exactly the same way as in Resident Evil Remake for the Gamecub.

I do know though that Resident Evil got inspired by Romero's zombie movies, so that's why I am planning on seeing Dawn of the Dead(1978), Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead soon. It however has quite aged, and I guess that I will find the true classic of the zombie genre in Dawn of the Dead, seeming that that is the most popular zombie movie. Nevertherless, it was a good start for Romero and I am quite amazed that these kind of zombies could be found in the year 1968 already.

 #117

The original George A. Romero version is pretty different from the remake I have seen twice already. Featuring easy to spot blueish zombies, a biker gang of punks and hippies bent on killing and taking everything, a badass black character who survives just like the black one in the remake(Seems like every Romero zombie movie has a black main character), typical 70's clothes, music and equipment, Dawn of the Dead is a good zombie movie with lots of deaths, action and gore.

Although I tend to like Dawn more than Night from 1968, I am not sure which version I like of Dawn better, this one or the 2004 remake. The zombies, which makes these movies great, are after all in both Dawn movies clearly different from each other.

Another moment I liked about the movie is the big free for all match at the climax of the movie, featuring Zombies vs main characters vs biker gang, I liked seeing that much chaos happening. I was also suprised to see 2 child zombies in this movie, I myself thought that would be impossible to show in theaters back in 1978.

Overall, Dawn of the dead might perhaps be the greatest action zombie movie yet for me, but I wonder...is this really the pinnacle of zombie movies? I don't think I would like to call this the ultimate zombie movie, so I will promise myself for now to try to find a zombie movie which will top this one for sure.

 #304

In my opinion, Day is better than Night or Dawn. For not only having less ridiculous zombies, but for also having the best isolated location, interesting studies into zombie behaviour, gorgeous gore and intriguing characters.

The strong Sarah, the tyranical Captain Rhodes, the troublemaker Miguel, the horror doctor Logan(All in the name of science of course!) and the badass John playing the self collected action hero. Atleast I think his name was John, the dark skinned character. It was fascinating to see these different characters clash at each other. In overall, one of the better zombie flicks out there.

#1423

After 20 years, Romero returns to the zombie genre he uprooted towards the mainstream. Fiddler's Green is an elitism place where the rich reside and the others must survive on their own surrounding it from the zombie apocalypse outside.

1 guy and his buddies operate the Dead Reckoning, a powerful weapon truck that has been stolen. Dennis Hopper orders the main character to retrieve this plot device, and meanwhile, zombie culture and traditional zombie attacks and deaths occur.

 The main character and the thief guy share a rivalry, and in the end, Fiddler's Green and pretty much the last hope of humanity is taken over by the zombies. Not as good as Romero's previous ones. The remaining survivors head for the north.

As for Romero's later Dead zombie movies,  including Diary and Survival of the dead, they simply do not hold their candles towards the original trilogy in regards to influence and their cinematic styles. Land of the Dead manages to be entertaining enough to warrant an inclusion.

Castlevania TV series

 

A mini animated TV series based on Konami's popular video game franchise was released on Netflix this year, and reactions have been objectively in overall positive.

Recognizable characters such as Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, Alucard and of course Dracula make their introductions known, and the art style is fitting, while a religious sub plot also plays out.

Dracula's rage and sadness is the motive for his demonic army to break out and attack humanity, and the series summarizes this up swiftly in just 4 episodes. There's few action in between, in particular from Trevor's whip.

The highlight feature for me was notifying how gory and bloody this animation could be. The lowlight is the shortage of content, and I really wonder how one could pick up Castlevania's game plot further and make it more intriguing other than killing the demons with the Vampire Hunter and stopping Dracula.

And the biggest question right now is of course; where and when the hell will will get a new Castlevania game, minus Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night? I'm looking at you Konami, you poor pachinko and internal affair obsessed bastards.

Rating: 7.0

Under the Shadow

Incredible foreign horror with a unique setting taking place during the Iran-Iraq war, Under the Shadow follows a Persian mother who has been rejected to study further because of political incorrectness after the revolution, and she now takes care at home of her daughter Dorsa, who often has bad dreams, and warns of the djinn manifesting at home.

I found it to be impeccably filmed and acted with realism and sympathetic characters, and although I might be biased for it being foreign, I really felt captivated and the familiar plot of the supernatural haunting was even creative with building up psychological scares such as moving objects and nightmares.

Under the Shadow is a horror gem that combines supernatural horror with oppressive destruction outside the apartment, and is often compared to The Babadook(2014) fairly. Not often nowadays do I really praise horror movies, but this is one worth seeing!

Rating: 8.0

Cuphead

Cuphead is a success story, and it instantly caught everyone´s eye back at Microsoft´s E3 2014 press conferece.

The art style is pretty much a revitalization of cartoon animations from the 30´s, and easily it´s selling point. Consisting of surrealistic and subversive proportions, it´s almost impossible not to adore and respect the animation seen here, and it´s even more impressive when the game is designed by two brothers.

Citing run and gun video games and the success of Super Meat Boy as other inspirations and motivations for developing this, Cuphead is essentially a boss marathon similar to Alien Soldier and the recent Furi, as the game has 30 bosses for you to face either single or in co-op over 4 areas.

Contra and Metal Slug instantly came to mind when Cuphead is compared, as the controls are tight, you can shoot in 8 directions, you can jump down, you can switch between different weapons, you can duck and you you will get hit and die a lot.

But practice makes perfect, and the game's challenge and difficulty can be overwhelming, but the replay value and attempting to beat the boss is high. Aside from the graphics, I consider the enemy variety and design to be simply superb and top notch material.

Combine that with the jazzy soundtrack, the cartoonish audio sounds, and the stereotypical settings and their enemies you would expect to face, and you've got a very impressive title. You can also parry certain bullets and interact with pink stuff to trigger things, and you can activate special attacks, air dash and equip charms.

The overworld reminded me the most of Commander Keen's overworlds, except that instead of huge levels awaiting you, it is for the most part huge bosses awaiting you, each with their own segmented forms to keep things fresh and hectic.

I can't praise Cuphead enough, and I would highly recommend it not only towards run and gun plus shoot em' up fans, but also to those who want to play only the best available indie games, and this easily sits among other highly entertaining titles I previously reviewed like Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight, La-Mulana and Super Meat Boy.

Rating: 8.4

P.S. You might be wondering why this is listed for this month. Well, it has some spooky enemies, and it features The Devil as the final boss, aaaand there are many evil foes to defeat. :)

It(1990) and It(2017)

(Movie review #276)

It is unusual long for a horror movie, clocking in around 3 hours. It's message is basically about confronting our fears during our youth and adulthood, learning how to fight it together and learning of getting a grip even after horrible consequences happening.

People said that the "kid" part is better than the "grown up" part, and I gotta agree with that. People also said that the ending was ridiculous, but I found out that it was okay, and I am strictly talking about Pennywise's climax here.

It certainly wasn't great either, which goes for the rest of the movie as well. The horror moments were nice to view, but the only time I jumped a little was at Pennywise's very first appearance when the little girl was singing.

Which is normal for me, because I have to get used to every horror movie before the fear dies out visually. 

Unless we are talking about the best horror movies here, which is not the case with It for me.

So, in overall, Stephen King you crazy writer, nice job for giving plenty of humans coulrophobia around the happy go lucky world. 

As for my opinion regarding clowns, I like them. I like them even more because of the fact that they have also become a horror icon for many. Glad to have finally seen this long horror movie. Now it's time to move on...

Rating: 6.5

 

 

(Movie review #2781)

27 years later, a remake arrives, and luckily, it is better than the original.

First of all, the children and adult story chapters are segmented, as the story and focus are only on the children for now, while the sequel will deal with their adult lives. This is a good decision because the original's pacing was not the best while switching between these.

Bill Skarsgard plays a formidable and terrifying Pennywise the Dancing Clown that can easily compete with Tim Curry's more hilarious approach of the monster, but Tim also had some good scenes in the original, especially with the opening.

There might have been a bit too many kids involved, but I digged their 80's adventure, their cussing and the frightful fact of having an older teenage girl go along. The movie gave me Stand By Me and E.T. vibes, and surprisingly one of the kids from Stranger Things is also featured.

Some of the horror scenes are from the original and improved, while new ones can absolutely be effective, my favorite one happens to be when Bill goes to the basement and sees a zombified Georgie giving the catchphrase "You'll float too" repeatedly, while Pennywise goes absolute batshit insane afterwards.

So fortunately, IT is a good remake, and worth your time. The 1990 version still has good features, but you gotta give credit when it gets improved upon, with only roughly half of it's story told. Apparently the book from Stephen King himself is even more disturbing, so I might read on that one day.

Rating: 7.5