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Book Reviews
Lost Souls?
Lost Boy Lost Girl
- Peter Straub (Random House)
Is this a book about lost souls we wonder?
This novel resurrects Straub's character, Phillip Underhill from Koko and The Throat, once again.
An eerie read which becomes even eerier
as the book goes on, it has two parallel sub-plots, one involving a serial killer and the other, a ghost.
A woman kills herself for no apparent reason.
A week later, her teenage son disappears. The missing boy's uncle is Timothy Underhill. He returns to his hometown of Millhaven
to try to unravel the mystery. A serial killer who is known as the Sherman Park Killer has been stalking the neighbourhood,
but Underhill believes that his nephew's obsession with a local abandoned house is at the heart of his disappearance. He ponders
that in discovering the house's hideous secrets, he came across its last and greatest secret - a lost girl, one who has enticed
him into her mysterious domain where he encountered a frightening adversary.
Film Reviews
Rising
Vamp
Underworld
"An immortal battle for supremacy."
(2003) Dir: Len Wiseman With: Kate Beckinsale, Michael Sheen, Scott Speedman
and Shane Brolly.
Selene (Kate Beckinsale), is a leather-clad vampire warrior,
caught in a war between the vampire and werewolf races. She is a vampire, but she falls in love with Michael (Scott Speedman),
a werewolf, who longs for the war to end. It's a kind of Romeo and Juliet love story of the shape-shifting and blood-sucking
kind!
Director Len Wiseman, seems to have watched Blade
and The Matrix as this movie wears those influences well and truly on its blood-soaked sleeves (although
it is not as bloody as Blade!)
There's plenty in this film to ,,, er, sink your teeth into.
Transformation of human to werewolf reminiscent of An American Werewolf in London, bloody massacres
in a sewer and on a train, secret human experiments ... what more could you ask for?
Battle of the Giants
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Dir: Ronny Yu With: Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Monica Keena, Kelly Rowland
Well old Freddy Krueger has found himself in Hell, nearly ten years since he got
into people's dreams to exact his demonic form of revenge. Now, it seems, his memory has been erased by the town, determined
to put an end to Freddy once and for all. Potential victims have been drugged to prevent them from dreaming.
But Freddy has a cunning plan, he resurrects Jason Voorhees (from the Friday
the 13th films) which provides a means for Freddy to put the fear back on Elm Street.
Discovering how easily manipulated Jason is, Freddy tricks him into journeying
to Springwood to start a new reign of terror.
Fever
Pitch
Cabin Fever
(2003) Dir: Eli Roth With: Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, Rider Strong, Joey Kern, Cerina Vincent
Cabin Fever is about a flesh-eating
virus and is produced by weird filmmaker David Lynch, although this is more like Evil Dead than
Mullholland Drive!
The results of the spreading virus passing from person to person are pretty
vile, and even more frightening is the fact that it is based on an actual disease you can get!
It'll probably get compared to Dead and it's in similar
territory to 28 Days Later, but this is original enough in its own right to be worthy of a visit
to your local multiplex.
As the tagline goes - catch it!
Video / DVD Reviews
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Dir: Wes Craven With: Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, Martin Speer, Dee Wallace-Stone
Wes Craven's second feature after Last House on the Left
has been re-released on video and DVD.
A family are travelling through the desert, while looking at the road map they
spot a trail which seems to be a short cut and decide to take it (bad move!) The road they've chosen gets worse and worse
until they become stranded and can't budge the car anymore.
Unknown to them they have found themselves slap bang in the middle of a secluded
army testing area, and the only ones around to help them are a deranged family of inbreeds that are living in a tent in front
of a cave.
While the men go looking for help, they attack the family, one of the women, a young mother, gets raped.
The cannibalistic inbreeds take her baby because the want to eat it (mmm - baby food!)
The brood quickly kills off the family's number, the survivors of which fight back
with equal savagery.
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