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Reviews
The Hajirai Machine Girl (2009)
Well, that was just stupid ...
I really liked "Machine Girl", but this short was too ridiculous to enjoy. Somebody must have had some money left over after the main feature was in the can, and wanted to give his girlfriend a little more exposure.
I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy much of Yoshie's training, and her peppy dances, but the plot(?), writing(?) and acting(?) ruined it for me. I would rather have seen a short in which Yoshie was saved from death, and trained to become a good basketball player, in Ami's honor. Or beach volleyball player ... that would have worked, too.
If you watch this, do yourself a favor: ignore the story, and focus on the visuals, if you know what I mean ... and I think you do.
The Demons Among Us (2006)
The Devil, you say?
The estranged Australian family of an unethical Hollywood commercial producer is slaughtered, and when he returns to Australia, he finds the town decimated, and the murderer is waiting for him with an offer he can't refuse! Meanwhile, the surviving locals are trying to stay alive, and the authorities are trying to figure out what is happening. And, of course, newcomer Joe Melton has lost his mind, but gained an unusual friend! The ONLY thing I didn't like about this movie were the scenes where the demons had devil's horns. I thought that was unnecessary and a little silly ... but otherwise I LOVED this movie! It was very original in its execution, and the visuals were surreal and mesmerizing. The message was a bit overshadowed by the mayhem, but if you pay attention, you will see that it all holds together rather well.
Apparently the movie is not well known in Australia (or the US, either), because when I googled the "Diggers Rest Hotel - Iron Pot Restaurant", which figured prominently in the film, I got plenty of hits ... most of them about the building being completely gutted by fire on October 30, 2008, and NONE of them mentioning this movie. So much for my plans to stay there some day ...
The really odd thing--and I'm not trying to point any fingers here--is that one IMDb reviewer, who had apparently made a donation to help the independent film industry in Australia, was extremely disappointed in the results, as represented by this film, and left a scathing review a mere three days before that fire. It's like the universe read the review and meted out some cosmic justice--which, like most cosmic justice, struck an innocent bystander!
Anyway, see the film, and enjoy the Diggers Rest in its final days!
Freakshow (2007)
An effective update to a classic ...
Anyone going into this movie expecting a 21st century gore-fest is going to be disappointed, but that is because they don't understand what this movie IS: it is an update to the controversial Freaks, staying true to the original while taking advantage of modern cinematography and special effects and recognizing its modern audience. As a faithful update, Freakshow hits all the marks, while being explicit about some of the elements of the movie that had to be left to the imagination in the 1930's--most notably, nudity and gore.
This is a horror movie because it is horrifying in its implications and resolution, not because it features the usual bunch of attractive young people being stalked and slaughtered by some 'horror'. The horror here is psychological, and shows the extremes that an 'extended family' will go to in order to avenge and protect itself. The most horrific aspect of this movie was the fate of Little Kimmie, who wasn't intelligent enough to quit laughing in the face of death. Kimmie was the most innocent of all, and certainly did not deserve her fate any more than she understood her situation.
As for the villains: yes, they met terrible fates, but only one of them was particularly gory. The camera did not focus on the gore so much as it did on the swift and purposeful justice that was being meted out. Gore-hounds will feel cheated, of course, but the gore was not the point of the movie.
The fate of Lucy was virtually identical to the fate of the scheming woman in the original. The difference was simply that we had to imagine the process in Freaks, while we could see it in Freakshow. Even so, it could have been much more graphic and exploitative, but that, again, was not the point. The point was that these people had genuinely accepted Lucy as one of them, and her punishment for deluding and rejecting them was appropriate. And as Sherri said, she had to earn her keep ...
Freakshow is a period piece, and the cinematography and soundtrack successfully expressed the setting. The acting, like the story and the gore, were intentionally understated (and better than the original, in my opinion). The drama was human drama, not freak drama, because the characters were human beings.
If you haven't seen Freaks, and especially if you haven't seen it because it is 'in black-and-white', then you can't really appreciate this movie for what it is. Put into the proper perspective as an update to Freaks, it is hard for me to imagine how it could have been better ...
A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990)
Appropriate use of a low budget ...
if the movie had been any longer, it probably would have driven me insane... uhhhh ... no, that's a done deal ... driven me to drink. yeah. i don't drink but was giving it serious thought. i love bad movies, and troma movies, and bad troma movies, so i figured this one might be interesting. after about 10 minutes, i figured it MIGHT be interesting IF the (hahaha) nymphoid barbarian had lost her clothes ... although that didn't seem to promise much entertainment. but i didn't want to miss ANYTHING interesting, no matter how small, so i persevered. after about 45 minutes, i didn't care any more about her OR her clothes, or any of it ... i just wanted it to be over. but, i persevered ... :( toward the end, i started comparing it to another movie, ORGY of the DEAD, an ed wood classic: no plot ... check; bad acting ... check; bad concept ... check; *zzzzzz* oh! sorry! in the end, i had to give the edge to ORGY -- it at least bored me silly with semi-naked dancers and witty commentary from some overaged trick-or-treaters. but i still couldn't wait for it to be over ...