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    • Archive for October 27th, 2008

    Review: Ghost House Underground: No Man’s Land: Rise of the Reeker (DVD)


    2008 - 10.27

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    No Man’s Land: Rise of the Reeker is written and directed by Dave Payne, and is something of a one-trick pony of a movie. The main trick of the movie is a misdirect of who the bad guy is; the opening scene plays this to the hilt and once it’s over and the opening credits roll, the rest of the movie is as uninspired as a catalog of office chairs.

    The film relies on some rather cliché SF and horror conventions, one element of which even brings some miming into play. The film essentially quickly becomes a survival of the fittest flick, but with a supernatural twist as people who shouldn’t survive certain wounds somehow do.

    Relying more on gore and gross-out than actual suspense, No Name’s Land: Rise of the Reeker aims at a lower target than some of the other films in this collection. If they had hit that target solidly, that might be forgivable, but that’s not so much the case here. Despite a nice little shocker opening sequence, the rest of the film fails to live up to that same level of creativity and ends up being more tedious than a film of this type ought to be.

    Review: Ghost House Underground: Dance of the Dead (DVD)


    2008 - 10.27

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    Written and directed by Gregg Bishop, Dance of the Dead is a zombie movie that was made right here in the US, and bypassed theatrical release, going directly to video as part of the Ghost House Underground collection of eight horror flicks. A good-natured film that builds characters well, the zombie content is foreshadowed early and yet allows enough time for the viewer to connect with the characters before the movie gets really dark.

    The main ingredient that seems to hold this film back from being a mainstream theatrical release, it seems, is the low profile casting; while that kept the budget small, the lack of any established, recognizable stars also is the main reason this film got lumped into a collection of DVDs rather than going onto the silver screen. This makes Dance of the Dead the movie equivalent to a once-rotund person after using the Alli diet pill

    That’s not a knock on the performances given by those cast, however; though less experienced actors, most do well with the material they’re given. A nuclear power plant is generally cast as the reason for the zombification of the dead, though that’s barely explored in this release, though it’s hinted that an assault on the power plant will be the main action behind an anticipated sequel.

    Though a bit cornball and predictable, Dance of the Dead is the most commercial of the movies in this collection. If they had snagged someone like Smallville’s Kristen Kruek or Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki to take up a key role or two in the film, this would be a movie review, and not a DVD review.

    Review: Ghost House Underground: Room 205 (DVD)


    2008 - 10.27

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    Part of the eight-movie horror-flick fest known as Ghost House Underground, Room 205 is a spooky film focusing on a haunted dorm room, and a Danish import brought to the US by Lion’s Gate Films.

    The movie focuses on freshman Katerine, who tries to gain the acceptance of her peers while still getting her bearings as a new university student, but undergoes a hazing related to Room 2005’s reputation as a haunted dorm room.

    Unfortunately, there’s more to the haunting of the room than pure legend and when a haunted mirror starts to show people who are about to die their fate rather than their reflection, Katerine’s dorm-mates begin to suspect her in the series of deaths that soon follow.

    Paced like a slasher film, Room 205 contains a sexual assault scene that, while not overly graphic, may be disturbing to some viewers. The language is rather tame and the English dub job may not be seemless, but it’s quite a bit better than the dub-job on The Substitute. Atmospheric but a bit cliché, Room 205 is effective at building up a sense of suspense, yet suffers from being a bit predictable.

    Review: Ghost House Underground: The Substitute (DVD)


    2008 - 10.27

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    The movie The Substitute, which is part of the Ghost House Underground collection, is not to be confused with the 1996 Tom Berenger movie or its sequels. This is a Danish film released this year and collected as part of an eight-movie horror film grab bag. The film stars aging Danish film star Paprika Steen at the blonde substitute teacher of the film’s title.

    More kitschy SF flick than pure horror film the movie opens with some gobbledygook about another planet finding Earth that didn’t know how to love, and it was humanity’s capacity to love that drew them here. Of course, there’s very little loving done in the story that follows. When Steen appears as a substitute teacher, her class of students sense there’s something freaky-deaky about her right away; of course, the parents don’t see it and she somehow rises above suspicion for much of the film, even though she never does anything as innocent as playing with dollhouses.

    On the upside, the film is relatively clean on the language front and low on the gore factor, relying on more of a building suspense than blood-n-guts. On the down side, the final act is pure hokum, the English dub job is haphazard at best and painfully out-of-synch at times, and the film as a whole is not very spooky at all.