The Returned(2013) - Horror Movie - Review

Zombies have been all the rage since George Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead" shocked us at the midnight theater scene, then finding a home on home-video, propelling it into cult status. However, while we can find a plethora of flesh munching zombies just about everywhere, unfortunately if you have seen one zombie flick you have pretty much seen them all. Originality has mostly taken a backseat for gruesome images of the undead eating the living --and even then not very well. And you have to look sometimes far and wide to find something new. "Fido" and "American Zombie" come to mind when I'm asked for something a little different, however, now I can add "The Returned" to that list as well.

Set 20 years after the last big zombie outbreak (there's a little nod if looked at closely to Romero and the time lines of the 2 outbreaks. The last taking place in the 1980's), Scientists have discovered a way to counter act the virus that turns humans into zombies if they are treated within 36 hours of being infected. The only draw back is if the treatment takes you're on the treatment for life. As the retro-viral drug is not a cure but a deterrent that keeps one normal. If you miss a dose you start to revert back to becoming a zombie. However, do to the high cost, the government is picking up the tab of research and dispersal to those that are referred to a "The Returned".





As you can imagine after 20 years people don't look at the poor souls that are infected as real people. And protest groups are now the talk of the day as they look to have the Returned people encamped due to the possibility of problems if they miss their dose. Add to that the rumors of a possible shortage of the retro-virus. As the infection has become a thing of the past the one place that they can harvest the proteins scientists need is drying up. As it becomes clear that the alternatives that are being researched are coming up bad and not effective, the government must take drastic actions as panic hits the streets as protesters from both sides clash.

In the midst of all this the story follows Kate, research scientist and doctor, as she tries to cope with the fact that her boyfriend is a Returned and has been stockpiling anti-virus for that "just in case" moment. But as it turns out things don't always go plane and that in the struggle of life and death and the possibility of things getting bad again you really can't trust anybody.

 "The Returned" at times takes on the thought process of how people were --and are-- treated that have an infectious disease (along the lines of HIV). Which gives the film a real world feel much to the effect that "Contagion" did to that film.

I give "The Returned" four out of five Severed Heads.

 

Alien Abduction Official Trailer (2014) Horror, Sci Fi HD

Alien abduction

The terms alien abduction or abduction phenomenon describe "subjectively real memories of being taken secretly against one's will by apparently nonhuman entities and subjected to complex physical and psychological procedures"

In honor of our 42nd Prez, Bill "Bubba" Clinton who recently went on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and said he wouldn't be surprised if some day we were visited by Aliens. However, I'm thinking that he was meaning --or hoping-- that it wouldn't be any of the Hollywood brand of visitations.

With that said, today's pick for up and coming flicks is "Alien Abduction".

Shot in the so-over-done-by-this-point in POV, found footage format, "Alien Abduction" is about a family vacationing out in the backwoods of North Carolina, doing the whole camping thing when strange things begin to happen. Supposedly based on the real-life phenom of the Lights of Brown Mountain that has inspired stories since the early 1900's from everything from Blue Grass songs to the X-Files to now the latest incarnation Alien Abduction.

The Morris family pays little notice to the stories of possible aliens or ghosts that possibly reside up in the mountains and where strange things have been being reported. Pretty much the whole film is shot from a camcorder that is controlled the Morris's autistic son, Riley, who uses the camera as a way to cope with the things that are taking place the same way Maggie Simpson uses her pacifier or that of Linus and his ever present blanket. And need it he will as the family comes across a tunnel filled with abandoned cars and when the dead crows fall from the skies like rain. Not to mention the Alien pursuers as they turn a weekend away into a nightmarish fight for survival.

While Alien Abduction is pretty your standard style Alien movie it does have a few nifty little effects worth the price of a rental.    






Until next time...

Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)

While we have become to use to Vampire love being set against angsty teenagers that have to deal with the daily tidings of high school and small town life. Where the vamps are able to come out side on cloudy days to pretend to be one the lonely hearts that have to deal with growing pains and teenage love. These same vampires that sparkle instead of burn when hit with the sun. So I am a little hesitant when it comes to vampires and love stories now. But thankfully the growing trend when it comes to the blood suckers of the night is that they are getting back to their roots.

"Only the Lovers Left Alive" is set against the desolation of Detroit and Tangiers. A desolation that only vampires and dark beings can find romantic. Adam, a reclusive musician and vampire, who has influenced countless other musicians through the centuries of his being, sulks inside of dilapidated old house in Detroit. Spending his time recording music on outdated recording equipment. Laminating about the state of affairs that has become the human race.

Adam reunites with an old love from better days: Eve, who has spent the last several years living in Tangiers. However, their debauched idyll will soon be disrupted when Eve's wild and uncontrollable sister invades their lives as well as adoring music fans of Adams.

Can they survive all that awaits them as the modern world seemingly collapses around them?        

IN FEAR -- Full Trailer

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to take a road trip. And this is exactly the case with the UK horror flick (released by Anchor Bay) "In Fear".

Shot in real time we follow the night that Tom and Lucy are trapped on country roads being stalked by an unknown person hell-bent on turning their worst fears into reality.

Having only been dating a couple of weeks Tom and Lucy decide to head out to an Irish Music Festival topped off with a night at a rustic country hotel. However, once Tom starts following the signs to his destination he realizes that they are just leading him around in circles. As it begins to get dark they stop and try to get their bearings. While they are out of the car Tom and Lucy begin to see things: Human figures darting in and out of the darkness, trees falling near the car. Something is out there and they are no to sure just who or what it is. And if they will survive the night.

Directed by: Jeremy Lovering
Staring: Iain De Caestecker (Tom), Alice Englert (Lucy)

Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak - You're Throwback Thursday Horror Film

Master of Horror, Stuart Gordon loves his HP Lovecraft and that's what we surely get with "Castle Freaks"!

Based on the short story "The Outsider" this horror fest went straight to DVD back in '95.

John Reilly inherits a 12th Century castle that once belonged to a famed Duchess. John does what anyone would that just inherited a castle: Let's go spend some time there as we try to sell it ! So, as the song says: He scooped the family and moved to Beverly. Except this Beverly was Italy. However, John and family have no idea that there is a horrible monster (of course there is) being kept under lock and key in the basement. Not only is it a horrible beast but it is the Duchess' own son who she imprisoned there as revenge against her husband who left her.

Soon, the disfigured beast has escaped by means of breaking off his own thumb to get out of the manacles which bind him. The only reference to the H.P. Lovecraft story occurs when the monster beholds his hideous reflection in a mirror. He has emerged hungry for blood, leading to a series of unexplained deaths and disappearances including that of a prostitute John has picked up and brought to the castle after being rejected by his wife. The prostitute is sexually mutilated and killed by the monster

As John becomes the prime focus for the murder by the cops he must figure out what it is that is stalking the interior of his castle before it takes out it's aggression next upon his family. As John investigates he learns what other terrible secrets that not only lie inside the castle but in himself as well. Ending in a climatic roof-top battle. 




Until Next Time...

Dark House (Trailer)

Tobin Bell is back and creepy as ever in Victor Salva's (Jeepers Creepers) latest horror flick "Dark House" (aka Haunted). Which will be rolling out later this month (March 14th in Limited Release). Fans of Salva's, I'm sure, we be glad to see him back in action and sticking with the genre that he knows best.

DARK HOUSE follows Nick Di Santo (Luke Kleintank), a man with a special gift that allows him to see how people die by touching them. However, the only deaths he sees are the ones where the person dies in a violent manner. After a visit to his mother in a metal asylum, Nick learns that his father may still be alive. She soon dies not long after, and leaves an old mansion to Nick in her will, prompting him to enlist a few friends and sets out to find it. Unfortunately Nick is told that the town the house is supposedly in has long been dead and buried apparently by a flood that swept through the area years before. Not to be deterred, Nick looks for the house him self and comes across the place out in the middle of nowhere. At the discovery of it, Nick realizes that it is the same place that he has been obsessed with his entire life.

Upon exploring his find, Nick stumbles upon someone who is living there. And the more he explores the more questions that Nick finds about the house and its strange resident and more about himself and the darkness that surrounds them all.




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Until Next Time...