Soska Twins Review Dead Hooker Post!

So, I was thrilled today to find that the amazing Soska Twins, directors and writers of Dead Hooker in a Trunk, the film reviewed below, were not only pleased with my review, but they also re-tweeted it, Facebooked it and have written this truly awesome piece for their website: http://twistedtwinsproductions.blogspot.ca/2012/06/dead-hooker-hits-carl-sykes-alternative.html - please pop along, have a read and see just how proud they've made me of my little blog! :)

Dead Hooker in a Trunk

From the incredibly visioned Soska Twins, this twisted sister of a movie follows a group of friends who end on a slippery slope after finding the eponymous 'Dead Hooker in a Trunk'. They try their best to dispose of the pesky body before they find themselves facing up to the same fate. This grindhouse joyride makes the most of an obviously low budget by utilizing a well written script and some fine acting, especially on the part of the film's writers and directors, Jen and Sylvia Soska.

The film is a breath of fresh air in its originality; it sheds all genre clichés to offer an unpredictable, and for the most part entertaining ride. It's original ideas like this that sadly often get overlooked by film fans in place of the run-of-the-mill movies pumped out by the studio system, but if you take a chance on a little independent flick once in a while, you'll find a polished jewel amongst the dog turds.

I see big things in the future for this up and coming pair and, if their follow up film American Mary is anything to go by (based upon teaser trailers recently released), then their future, and the future of independent cinema, looks very bright indeed.

Iron Sky

Bat-shit crazy Nazis on the Moon lunacy brilliance. Starring the always fantastic Udo Kier, we follow 2 astronauts who land upon the moon and soon discover a secret Nazi base which has been mining rare substances since they arrived in 1945 and whose plans include returning to Earth to kill anyone not fitting the Aryan ideal. Enter former black model, turned astronaut (of course) James Washington who is quickly captured and Aryanised (ie turned white!). The Nazis then set off to earth to capture mobile phones which will allow them to complete their computer and send their troops to Earth.

This is, as all Nazi films of late seem to be, rather silly, but in a good way. It's an entertaining film that clearly doesn't take itself seriously, even going so far as to have a Sarah Palin-esque president of the USA in the future. For an obviously low-budget film, the effects are actually really rather good and the storyline, although not surprisingly weak in parts, is entertaining enough to allow you to continue to enjoy from start to finish.

The director, rather controversially, chose the Berlin Film Festival to show the preview screening, but this bold move seems to have paid off, the trailers went viral almost instantly. Definitely one to watch, enjoy and not take too seriously.

Strippers vs Werewolves

Nope, I haven't made this shit up. I really have just watched Strippers vs Werewolves. I really don't need to go into any more details than that, that is the film. A selection of ex-soap star actors and actresses play strippers who don't get their kit off and werewolves who are as thick as pig-shit.

Despite my opening paragraph, it's actually not that bad a film. Yes, it's rubbish, but it's rubbish in a strangely entertaining way. The script is pretty poor, the acting is hammy to say the least, but somehow it just makes you smile like a small child with wind!

The scenes with the vampire hunter at the very end are actually rather funny, and even if you haven't enjoyed the film, you should raise a smile in his scenes.

Probably one for the horror film enthusiast or for those who have had a few pints on the weekend and need something ridiculous to switch on in the background and not waste a whole load of brain power on. If that's you, then this is your film.

Begotten

Like something ripped from a nightmare and aborted onto the screen, Begotten is a film which, once watched, will never be forgotten. The basic premis of this film is that God disembowels himself, leaving Mother Earth to impregnate herself with his seed, post mortem. We then bear witness to the Son of Earth - Flesh on Bone, writhing in agony in a barren wasteland as cannibals set upon both him and Mother Earth, beating, cutting and slicing them both.

The film is, as you can see from the trailer above, filmed in grainy black and white, and, as is always the way with experimental cinema, is often so difficult to watch because of the wild zooms, lingering close-ups on nothingness and over-exposed shots. There is also no speech in this film, just a background noise which tries its best to explain what is going on through the sound of birds singing, rushing water etc.

For a B&W film, this is surprisingly gory in places (although why this is a surprise I do not know, the film was made in the 1990s, not the 1920s) and also has some graphic sexual images.

Certainly not one for the mainstream horror fan, but those with an interest in independent, experimental cinema and film students alike may want to check this one out, it's certainly not your run-of-the-mill Hollywood film by any means.

I don't normally do this, but whilst reading up about this film before watching it, I stumbled upon the following review on IMDB and it made me laugh so much, I thought I'd reproduce it here for your enjoyment:

"Stand up and cheer! Begotten is the warm and fuzzy tale for the whole family that Disney has been attempting for years. The film, about the birth of a messiah who has seizures in the woods and is dragged around by lepers has the whole country laughing uncontrollably. The plot appeals on multiple levels to children and adults (funny guys in robes for the kids, caesarean childbirth for the older folk) and is one of the cleverest scripts to come along since Thomas Edison's classic The Sneeze. A film that pays homage to the Keystone Kops, Tennessee Williams, Jean-Luc Godard and those lovable muppets the muppets, Begotten is one of two films you won't want to miss. The other is Don't Look Back."

Nazis at the Center of the Earth

                  

This film has all the elements you could possibly need to rank it up there as one of the worst films ever made ... the director must be thrilled! Zombie Nazis in gas-masks, flying saucers, former up and coming actresses reduced to this dog turd ... and Jake Busey.

Join our gang of 'the world's best scientists' as they dig for unknown materials in the wilderness of the Antarctic, stopping just long enough to create flesh eating viruses and abseil down hundreds of feet deep gorges in the ice.

Quite what, I wondered, Dominique Swain, star of Face/Off and Lolita was doing in this, I just couldn't fathom ... then I took a look at her IMDB list of credits and all became clear. Her career has taken an obvious swift nose-dive since her early promising days and this must surely be as near to the bottom of the barrel as she will go ... lets hope so for her sake!

If I have to say something good about this film, it's that occasionally, amongst the terrible computer generated effect, there is the odd glimmer of hope with a decent gory effect or two, but that really is no reason to sit through this tripe. Walk away from the bargain bin where this will no doubt be found and go and watch something else instead! Please. I beg you!

August Underground's Mordum

                                Not a trailer, more the opening 1st 3 mins of the film
                                Actually couldn't find a trailer anywhere! Obv NSFW!

I sometimes wonder why I'm writing this blog, what the point of it is, and then I watch a film like August Underground's Mordum ... and then I realise that the reason I do this is that you guys out there never have to! This nasty, low-budget, poor quality (poor quality initially, but made worse quality to make it more real!) film is full of some of the worst sequences I've ever seen committed to film. We follow 3 main characters as they torture, rape and murder their way through innocent victims, in close-up and in your face style, just for their own enjoyment. There's no storyline at all, just one gruesome and sick-making sequence after another. Take for example the scene in which the female character repeatedly makes herself vomit over the 2 women they have tied up in the basement of their house. This in tern makes them vomit and before you know it, everyone is covered in sick and you'll wonder why you haven't already switched off. There is also a sequence which is so sickening, I'm actually loathe to even describe it here, so won't!!

Many of the scenes are quite realistic, considering the low budget of the film, and this adds to the 'snuff' feel of the film, but there's no enjoyment to be had, no resolve at the end, just you, sat in a dark room, feeling dirty and having to look normal people in the eye afterwards, wondering if they know what a little freak you are! I've probably made this one sound much better that it really is, honestly, truly, it's not. It's nasty and deserves to be locked away somewhere, and preferably never released again.