Needful things: (3/5) A very typical King movie based in a small and remote town where everybody knows everybody and when a stranger moves into this town, life is never the same again. The town is inhabited by strange set of characters as one would expect. The stranger provides the needful things to each of this unhappy characters and in return provides an unsolicited advice. Little do these people know that this stranger is the Satan sent directly from hell to destroy the village. Hell breaks loose and before everyone finds out the truth, its too late. Max von sydow excels in the role of the Satan but other than him, the movie disappoints. Though the film is very substandard when compared to similar movies from king (storm of the century, rose red), I was able to enjoy it for my love towards this sub-genre in horror.
Salem's Lot (2/5): Another movie from Stephen King and another movie very much like the above one. Only more disappointing. Stranger moves into a little town and creates havoc. I could not tolerate the pace of the movie and had to skip a few scenes here and there before reaching the predictable climax.
Maximum Overdrive (2/5): Its halloween and its Stephen King again. This movie is directed by the man himself and it makes one feel that everyone must stick to their own profession and its better not to be nosy in someone else's job. A very very disappointing directorial effort from Stephen King. I loved the first few minutes of this movie and a scene here and a scene there. However, there was no continuity and the screenplay just sucked. Automobiles come alive in this movie and decide to take over the power away from the humans. There are a few funny scenes here and there where a truck without a driver chases the running humans, ATM machines asking the customers to go fuck themselves, vending machine killing loads of people by propelling the coke cans..things like that. However, they don't make up for remaining part of this boring movie.
Cemetery Man (4.5/5): Just loved it. This is the kind of the movie which re-instills my interest in this genre. This movie has everything for a B grade horror fan, gore, breasts, sex, violence, comedy, one-liners, zombies and a lot more. It follows the life of a care taker of a cemetery called Dellamorte Dellamore ( Love and hate in italian) and his dumb (or not) side kick Naghi. For Dellamore, its a daily errand to kill the zombies who return back from their grave a week after they are dead, and put them back into the grave. Nobody in the town knows this and Dellamore never reveals this to anybody as he might lose his job. The cemetery is only place in the world known to Dellamore and Naghi and this is the cause of the rumor floating around in town that Dellamore is impotent, which we later come to know is untrue after witnessing his erotic scene with the beautiful wife of the city's Mayor whose body was just buried in the cemetery a day before. Unfortunately, his lady love is eaten by her own husband who comes back to life from the grave. However, Dellamore encounters other women in the rest of the movie, who look exactly like his first love. More than horror, this movie is hilarious black comedy and sometimes also leans towards noir, spirituality. A must watch.
Dead Zone (3/5): I think I have seen all of the Stephen King's best works and now its time to watch his worst and mediocre films. This is one of those movies like Carrie and Firestarter, where the main lead in the movie has a superpower but he/she is not too happy with it. This time the super power is to predict the future of the person when our superhero holds his/her hand. Christopher Walken plays the main lead superbly and Martin sheen plays the political villain. Walken is ln love with a beautiful girl and one night one his way back to home he encounters an accident and rests in coma for nearly 6 years. He looses his job and his girl is married by the time he returns. However, he gains this new superpower as a compensation. Walken works with the police and helps resolving a few cases but he is unhappy and decides to put an end to his life. He wants to do one useful thing before he dies and plans to bring down the corrupt politician (martin sheen) which forms the rest of the movie.
Dolls (3.5/5) : A husband, his cute little daughter and his new rich/arrogant/bitchy wife are on a vacation when their car breaks down during the middle of the night. They take shelter for the night in an isolated bungalow owned by an old doll maker and his loving/eerie wife. Joining for the night is an young yet childish man with two tramps who hitchhiked his car during that night. After the discussion at the dinner table, the guests return to their alloted rooms and one of the sister in the junkies decides to steal the dolls (antiques) as they can get a very good price in the market. But she is not aware of the fact the dolls have a life of their own, and if you piss them off, you will pay your life as the price. The movie has good amount of gore and is very inventive and creative in designing various methods to kill/torture people. The movie could have done away with talking dolls, as the movie would have been much eerier if they were silent.
Fright Night (3/5) : One of those movies which is so bad that its good. A good idea of a rental for a Friday night of horror. Charley is an young teenager at school with a beautiful girl friend who loves him but cannot go "all the way" during their night outs. A new nieghbour moves into their house next door and brings a new girl home every night. Charley discovers that his nieghbour is a blood sucking vampire and decides to bring in the cops. The obviously don't buy his theory and the vampire warns killing Charley the next night. Charley seeks the help of a TV anchor for a Vampire show and though he refuses to help him first, finally agrees. The rest of the movie has a good amount of blood sucking, flesh eating gore scenes but the movie lacks good dialogue. A good B horror anyway....
Return of the living dead (3.75/5) : I fulfilled my dream. I finally watched a B grade horror from 80's in a theatre in its full glory. The movie has great background score and its setup in a run down chemical store which is located right next to a cemetery. On his first day at the job, Freddy comes to know that "Night of the living dead" was based on a true story and his chemical store is a living proof of that story. Freddy and his boss take a peek in one of those chemical cylinders located in their basement which releases the toxic gas and with it the living dead in those cylinders. They catch the monster and they burn it in the nearby crematorium and finally they take a sigh of relief. But the worst is yet to come, as the smoke from the oven brings every dead body in the cemetery to its life. Loads of gore and funny one-liners makes this movie a recommended see..
Freaks (4/5) : I was bored for the first 30 minutes but after that all the pieces fell into place making this one of the best noirs/eerie/horror movies of the black and white era. This movie has people with all kinds of physical abberations you can imagine. A half man-half woman, siamese twin girls who are bodies are attached to one another for their rest of their lives, a man without the lower part of the body, another man without hands/legs/abdomen, a midget man and his midget admirer, a bunch of mentally handicapped people and their caretaker, etc..The owner of this circus, named Cleopatra plans to fool one of the midgets in making him believe that she is in love with him and when the "Freaks" come to know about her true colors, they seek revenge...There are few great moments in the movie for which the audience applauded and this is one of the most wierd films I have ever seen..
From Beyond (3/5) : Based on a pulp novel written by Lovercraft, this movie is a passable rent. The best part of the movie is the sexy scientist who is introduced as a hard working and a conservative professional and when you get to see the unexpected wild side of hers...its just awesome...Other than that , the gore in the movie is not really that great and the cheesy special effects is a let down. I am already tired and don't feel like explaining the concept of the movie... that's it for now...
