The Godfather of Gore

While many would recall Lucio Fulci or Herschell Gordon Lewis being both titled as "The Godfather of Gore", I would like to nominate special effects artist Tom Savini instead, the creative mind behind countless splatter movies.

Tom Savini has starred, directed and made extraordinary special effects and make-up inside horror movies, especially when speaking of blood, gore, bones and more physical attributes from humanity. For several decades, The Sultan of Splatter has been recognized for his contributions.

Doing work on countless movies with signature examples such as Friday the 13th(1980), The Burning(1981), Dawn of the Dead(1978) and Monkey Shines(1988), Savini's portfolio is impressive and many early projects are memorable for the genre.

He also directed a remake of Night of the Living Dead, which George A.Romero is being credited as sending the subgenre of zombies forward into the mainstream in the original 1968 version. There are some notable differences between the two though.

Recently, his bibliography called Grande Illusions I and II have been combined where inside it is illustrated for the viewers how the art and technique of special make-up effects are put in use from the films worked on by him.

Rob Bottin's special effects from The Thing(1982) and Chris Walas's work from The Fly(1986) also deserve special mention for creating such monstreous gross abominations of effects. There is a specific name for these kind of techniques, but I can't seem to remember it. In any case, this technique has been as far as I know extinct for at least a decade, which is a shame.

Memorable Horror Quotes

Here are quotes that just got at me from the top of my head, whether they were intelligent or not. Also consider the scenes playing when reading these quotes:

                                                     Questionable Levitation

"BEEP BEEP Richie! They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!"

When Batteries Are Missing

"Hi, I'm Chucky. Wanna play?"

Narcissism

"Jesus wept."

Unavoidable

"Boooy!"

Make a Choice

"If you're frightened of dying, and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. If you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the Earth."

Open Ending

"Keep doubting."  

The Conjuring

Another smash hit from the successful horror director James Wan, after Insidious and Saw, this is next in line. The premise is largely similar to Insidious, but the execution is more serious especially when comparing the second half of both movies. 

A large family enter into a house that turns out to be haunted, and paranormal investigators, or a psychic and demonologist come in to help them. Sounds familiar? It should be, because these kind of horror films have been around for decades. 

Different executions continue to happen, most of the time with failure. However, The Conjuring is an exception, and it also turns out to be the first well done original horror title for 2013. The acting was solid from everyone, the scares were varied mixed with familiar scares as well as some unexpected ones, the buildup was successful and the climax left my body thrilled with anticipation.

If you liked Insidious, but disliked it’s second half like some other people (not myself included), then The Conjuring would be the ideal recommendable choice for you. Well directed, well implemented tension, well memorable and worthy of inspiring more quality based titles.

Rating: 8.0

Haunting Ground

Exclusive PS2 title from Capcom which was unable to captivate me for various reasons. Haunting Ground is another survival horror game using Clock Tower as it's influence by the use of the hiding feature.

A new feature is the companion of a dog where you can issue commands towards Hewie, such as solving puzzles, obtaining items and defending your character Fiona from danger. The graphics look impressive for a PS2 game.

The story is vague at first, but it seems that all of the inhabitants of the main location have an interest in Fiona in one way or another. The scenery wasn't that spectacular for me, and the overall soundtrack felt more like cheap attempts rather than taking it seriously regarding horror.

I had frustration with navigating around, and I also disliked the programming on Hewie, for there were times where I needed him and he just would not follow me until I issued the Go or Come commands correctly, which both sound the same at first anyway.

There was nothing that scared me in Haunting Ground, but it has some interesting characters, such as Debilitas, a grown man with a childish personality and a thing for dolls. The chase scenes where each of your enemies go after you get easier as you get to know more about enemy design and hiding spots.

Haunting Ground is a rare dissapointing title, especially coming from Capcom, and that's a sad conclusion to take. I disliked the gameplay, had trouble with progressing, thus getting frustrated, and there wasn't much memorable, if anything.

Rating: 5.0

Slender

What first started as an internet urban legend soon turned into a series of short games where you must collect eight pages in order to beat them. Slender is a very simplistic project only meant to scare the bejeebus out of you.

In the form of Slender Man, a thin, shadowy tall figure, you must outrun and escape from it while venturing through the dark woods and trying to find the pages that seem to be randomly spawn everytime you start over or get a game over from getting caught or when looking at the figure for too long as he emerges into your very soul.

You can also counter it by noticing the static TV effects whenever he is nearby. Once you collect the eight pages, you will have to die in order to see the credits, which is bit of a let down, but the tension was felt as you got closer towards your goal.

The first title became a smashhit online, mostly because it was effective and short enough to sit through most people. Like Angry Birds to a lesser extent, both of them sparked not just gamers, but casual ones as well.

Because they are played in short sessions! This is one good reason why mobile games are so popular nowadays. But Slender doesn't really immerse you on a small screen. It is more suitable for a total black area, a huge screen, headphones with maximum volume and if you need more, throw in an unexpected person in the room scaring the bejeebus out of you.

Rating: 6.5

Sinister

Rarely does a horror movie deliver with the right atmosphere, the unsettling images being shown to us, the mood gratifying towards a grimm, dark setting. Sinister from last year is one of those that sets up the buildup perfectly, and ends well enough.

The out of nowhere so called best horror movie of 2012 according to some sources. So naturally, I am interested in this original attempt. A crime writer and his family have recently moved into a new house. One day, the writer finds inside the attic old 8mm snuff films that depict the victims of a serial killer starting at the 60’s and gradually moving through the decades through last year of 2011. 

Secretly, only the writer knows that the murdered family in the opening scene was murdered in the new house they now occupy. So he is using this old crime scene to gather inspiration for his new crime book, but he curiously gets drawn more upon the mystery and details resolving around the victims, the killer and the missing 5^th family member, the youngest daughter.

What’s interesting about the creepy 8mm films is not only their homicidal nature, but also their graphical difference from present time, and the fact that this is the collection of a serial killer that is still being viewed by someone else.

It allows for a gripping suspenseful atmosphere to merge out of Sinister and it also keeps the interest going as Ethan Hawke, the actor playing the writer, continues to find little hints and clues as to the nature of these killings. 

Especially when you consider that the writer knows that these are real snuff movies, it gets even more scary. And THEN he finds a demonic looking figure observing the killings in each of the super 8’s he finds, so he is also investigating that alongside a mysterious symbol.

He learns that every crime depicted involves a child member missing, not only the recent family murder. He also learns that a very old cult is involved, that deals with child sacrifices and this demonic symbol is supposed to devour the missing children, or something.

Jonas, an expert in the occult and demonic phenomena tells Ellison the writer that the symbols are that of a pagan deity named Bughuul, who would kill entire families so that he could take their children into his realm and consume their souls.

Okay, but what about the scary scenes such as the creepy figure in the woods, the ghostly hands touching Ellison and the decaying missing children appearing near him? Is the writer going mad, or is this black magic playing?

As he patrols his house with a baseball bat in the night and sees his camera playing once again, well , the next day happens soon after. After the obvious foreshadowing big argument scene involving the husband and wife, the final night is happening. 

Ellison hears sounds coming from the attic, and he discovers the 5 missing children there, and Bughuul appears as well. He orders his family to leave the god damn house with the car, and gets stopped by the police officer who appeared early on.

After getting a bill, he promises his wife that he will stop writing his book. Discontinuing the investigation on the murders and help from Jonas entirely, deleting the files, he shockingly finds the box of old 8mm films back in his old house, of which he thought he had burned at his new house already. 

Upon approaching it, he discovers that these are the “extended cut endings” towards the snuff films. He still proceeds to try to view the old extended endings. The deputy agent, another cop, calls again and Ellison picks up.

A twist is revealed; every family that moved into the murdered family of each snuff film gets murdered next. It then becomes really sinister as I approached the ending together with the writer. I’ll stop writing here, I obviously was immersed by Sinister.

The music deserves special mention as well.

Rating: 8.0

Lone Survivor

An indie 2D horror adventure game inspired by the likes such as David Lynch and definitely Silent Hill, Lone Survivor is a short but gripping experience that will spark anyone's interest for 2D horror, of which there are so few in general anyway.

You have the option to be a pacifist or fascist while running through Lone Survivor, as you encounter faceless creatures called Thinmen that violently shake their heads around and make scary sounds if spotted.

It's another dark adventure where a flashlight is needed to spot important key items which are otherwise blurred. Sustainability is also mandatory if you want to survive to the end, so conserve those batteries and bullets wisely.

Lone Survivor scores with the scenes where it attempts to mess with your mind, such as the party scene where the partygoers turn out to be corpses in reality, or if you take too many drugs you will see strange sequences.

The floor maps are very like Silent Hill's, but the enemies and graphics in general can be compared more with the first Clock Tower for both are two dimensional, yet their controls are different. The hiding aspect is used, but not frequently.

It was fun while it lasted, and there is enough game design to be found here to be considered playable all the way through. But the length of a video game is also critical towards rating it, so Lone Survivor is not really outstanding in that regard, nor in it's originality. It just so happens that this "market" turns out to be very scarce.

Rating: 7.2