Don't Go in the Woods (1981 film)

Just don't do anything!  That's the lesson I've gathered from this week.

The last of our Don't Week coverage is a film that I saw at the video stores but never got to see until last night.  I purchased it just so I could review it here, so had no real idea what I was going into, outside of the description of someone stalking travelers in the forest and picking them off one by one.  Boy, did I get my money's worth with this one!

The film starts with an idyllic, perfect shot of a forest stream... the lovely trees, the babbling water, the... submerged camera..., the... screaming girl?  Yes, our first victim comes in within seconds of the start of the movie, and she doesn't last very long at all.  We cut from her to a group of four who are backpacking through the woods.  This is our main group, and we get shots of them interspersed with random other people running afoul of... someone or something that's stalking them.  It soon becomes clear that the woods are not a safe place to be.

This one was an alright time.  The acting could've been a bit better in places.  The dialogue seemed a bit forced at times, there were certain parts where it was hard to tell what was going on, even a couple places where it seemed like someone should've seen an obviously placed dead body.  Another spot was near the end, where, in between shots of the search party sent to find the killer, we get scenes of a  guy in a wheelchair struggling up the hill trails set to wacky music that just made me shrug my shoulders.

The film was alright, the acting not so good, the setting was beautiful.  I give the film a 3 out of 5.  It was a fun time, and I'm tempted to watch the commentary on the DVD soon, but for now, this is the last of Don't Week, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

Altered (2006 film)

"Uglier than I remembered." - Duke

Like The Return, I went into this film with no preconceived notions over any aspect of it.  I don't even remember seeing a preview for it!  It was included in a movie 4-pack along with the previous three movies, and so I decided to work all four into the month.  With this one, I was rather pleasantly surprised.

The film opens with three friends driving through the woods.  They get out of the van and start hunting something in the forest that also seems to be hunting them.  One of the friends, Cody, gets caught in a bear trap about the same time that the creature, an alien, does the same.  Firing his harpoon gun and missing, Cody tries to reload as the alien breaks free of the bear trap and starts to charge him... falling into a pit trap.  Their quarry captured, the three friends take it to the one person who knows more than anyone about the aliens, their old friend, Wyatt.  This leads into a night of terror with the seemingly captive alien soon proving to be not so helpless.

I really enjoyed this one.  The cast worked well together, playing off each other, the alien looked properly menacing, the blood effects were good, and the film felt properly intense.  Viewers who can't handle a lot of gruesome visuals should be warned, there's a game of intestinal tug-of-war at one point that even had me wincing!

Adam Kaufman played Wyatt, the expert who'd had more involvement with the aliens previously than any of the others.  He was also on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Parker Abrams and also on Steven Spielberg's alien abduction series Taken.  NFL player Brad William Henke played Duke, my favorite of the three who caught the alien.  He also played on Dexter and LOST.  Michael C. Williams played Otis, the more weak-willed of the trio.  He was also in The Blair Witch Project.  Joe Unger has a cameo as Mr. Towner, Cody's father.  He was also in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (which I covered last year), Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and Escape from New York.

The film was originally envisioned as a comic take of revenge on abducting aliens in the vein of Sam Raimi and Troma Films named Probed, but decided a horror-comedy might not sell so well.  While I'm curious how the original take would have been, I did like this one enough to give it a 5 out of 5.  And so, until next time, when we start the Week of Wax, this is Red Hawk signing out!

Evil Dead (2013 remake)

Everything's gonna be fine?  Nothing's fine.  I don't know if you noticed this, but... everything's been getting worse... every second. - Eric

So, Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert did what many fans thought was unthinkable: they remade one of Raimi's most popular films of all time.  No, not Darkman!  Not Spider-Man, either, that one was already redone.  Nope, the film that was remade this time was Raimi's 1981 cult classic The Evil Dead.  Instead of starring in it as Ash, Bruce Campbell joins Raimi and Tapert as a producer on the film.  So, how does the film hold up, both on its own and against the original?

In this film, we have a similar dynamic to the original: five friends, two of which are brother and sister, head out to an old cabin.  This time, however, the brother and three friends are staging an intervention attempt for the sister, Mia, to try to get her off of drugs after she nearly overdosed.  While in the cabin, the group finds evidence of a black magic ritual in the cellar, including a strange book wrapped in plastic and barbed wire.  When one of the group, Eric, opens the book and reads an incantation from it, all hell starts breaking loose, Mia becomes possessed by something a little stronger than drug withdrawals, and the group starts succombing one by one to the evil presence taking hold over the area.

I watched this film with a friend and he was absolutely critical over everything in it.  He disliked the departure from the original film's somewhat more simplistic storyline, criticizing the intervention storyline.  I, on the other hand, thought that it added a bit more depth to the somewhat single-dimension characters we had in the original film.  They aren't just there to have a good time in this one, they have a purpose.  Also of note, there wasn't a person named Ash here at all.  There were several instances where a character acted similar to how Ash would have, but I think this worked to the film's benefit.  Anyone playing Ash would have a big chin... er, big shoes... to fill!

Jane Levy played Mia, the poor girl who becomes the initial instrument of the Deadites.  She did really well with the part and brought alot of intensity to it.  Jim McLarty played Harold in the opening sequence, father to another possibly possessed girl.  In addition to several roles on various seasons of Power Rangers, he also had small parts in films like The Tommyknockers, Meatballs, and The Frighteners.  Shiloh Fernandez plays Mia's brother, and probably closest Ash variant, David.  He's also played in Deadgirl and Red Riding Hood.

For the most part, all the special effects seem to be practical, with a few things going to CGI.  One thing I noticed, in the scene where possessed Mia shows her true colors, a voice clip of the original film's Cheryl can be heard, briefly, reciting the curse she places on the group.  All in all, a good mix of new material as well as an homage to the original films (there's stuff here that made me think of all three movies!).

In my opinion, this gets a 5 out of 5.  In comparison to the original, I give it a 4 out of 5.  Even with the higher budget, more detailed storyline and all that, it just doesn't have Ash.  But it might!  There's talk of three more films: one a sequel to Army of Darkness, one a sequel to this, and a third that would tie the two versions together.  We'll see what happens when we get there, though!  Tune in tomorrow for a look at the second of the "lost" articles of Happy Horror, one of the films I didn't get to review before.  We'll be looking at Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.  Until then, take care of yourselves, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

The Evil Dead (1981 Original film)

We can't bury Shelly.  Sh-she's a friend of ours. - Ash

When the remake to this film came out earlier this year, one of my friends suggested I do an article comparing the two versions.  The idea intrigued me, but I never got a chance to see the remake in the theater, so the idea never came to fruition... until now, that is.

So, a little of my own personal history with this film.  My first experience with it was actually from its second sequel, Army of Darkness.  I'd seen the second movie's box at the video store (with its cool-looking skull with eyes), even saw a clip from the second movie on Shadow Theatre with Robert Englund, but it wasn't until later on that I realized Army of Darkness was any relation to Evil Dead.  I finally got to see the movie after receiving it for Christmas several years ago.  So, my thoughts on it?  After the summary, of course!

The movie starts with five friends (Ash, Scotty, Linda, Shelly and Cheryl) traveling across the Tennessee border to a small cabin out in the woods (Ash and Linda are a couple, as are Soccy and Shelly, and Cheryl is Ash's sister).  After a close call with a road-hogging truck, followed by another at the rickety bridge, the fivesome finally arrive.  After an initially spooky incident Cheryl has with some automatic drawing, everything seems fine in the cabin... until a strange book and tape player are found.  All hell soon breaks loose... quite literally!

When I first saw this film, it had a major effect on me... it scared me silly!  What's more, right after seeing it, I had to go get something out of the car afterwards, a task I did not look forward to, considering how late it was (after midnight).  The visuals in the film are really effective, especially the slightly overhead shot following the car near the beginning... it's one long tracking shot following them to the cabin and as it draws closer, the sound of the porch swing hitting the wall gets steadily louder and louder.  It's a good setup for the atmosphere and mood to come.

Some differences between The Evil Dead and its sequels; for one thing, the tone.  Barring a few scenes near the beginning, this film is most definitely NOT a comedy.  It's gory, scary, nasty and it will make you uneasy.  Second, the evil book that starts the activity isn't called the Necronomicon here, it's called the Naturum De Montum.  It is the same book, however, some of the interior artwork matches glimpses of the Necronomicon shown at the beginning of Army of Darkness.  Finally, Ash here isn't as he is in later films.  It works, though, as the film shows his start into the realm of badassery.

Ash is, as always, played by the great Bruce Campbell.  One of my favorite actors, he also has parts in the first three Spider-Man films, the second Waxwork, and Oz, the Great and Powerful.  He also played the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills in Escape from L.A.  Ellen Sandweiss played Cheryl pretty well here.  Before this, she played Ellen in 1978's Within the Woods, a prototype of Evil Dead that was filmed to drum up investors for this film.  She took a 20 year hiatus after this, returning to acting in 2006's Satan's Playground.

All in all, a really great film that has stood the test of time, one that I gladly give a 5 out of 5.  Tune in tomorrow for a look at the remake, and how it compares.  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!

Dead End (2003 film)

Last year's Christmas was great.  We took the Interstate! - Laura

So, here we have another film I originally saw on one of those multi-movie deals from Hollywood Video.  As you can probably tell, I love horror movies, and this one looked interesting, so we decided to give it a viewing (our opinion in those days was, if it was a bad movie, at least we weren't paying to see it, since it was included in the full rental plan!).  So, what was the verdict on the film?  First, the summary!

On Christmas Eve, the Harringtons (Frank and Laura and their son and daughter, Richard and Marion and Marion's boyfriend, Brad) are on their way to Laura's parents' place along a back road.  Frank decides to try something different than the usual Interstate route so he decides to take a shortcut.  Along the way, they all fall asleep... including Frank, who's driving... and almost collide with an oncoming car.  Completely rattled, Frank gets out to make sure there was no damage to his car.  Getting back in to continue driving, they soon find that the road is long... really long... and keeps going on and on and on.  And why are there suddenly no other cars coming?

Being made in France for $900,000, this film made that budget back and then some in DVD sales for $77 million.  I really enjoyed this film every time I've watched it.  I didn't even realize, before doing my research today, that the film was from France (not that that matters, of course, I embrace horror films from all over).  The lower budget doesn't come into play at all, it's got good makeup effects at times, a great cast, in my opinion, it really delivers.

As I said, a great cast is present, with two especially strong actors playing parents Frank and Laura.  Frank's played by Ray Wise, who's best known for Twin Peaks, but has also appeared on the series Reaper, and the movies Robocop, One Missed Call and X-Men: First Class.  Playing Laura was the great Lin Shaye, who's been in a number of horror movies, including Nightmare on Elm Street, Insidious (Chapters 1 and 2), Critters 1 and 2, and the 2001 Maniacs movies, as well.  There's also a cameo appearance near the end by Steve Valentine, the host of SyFy's old Fear Factor-style game show Estate of Panic (I miss that show!).

A good plotline, an excellent cast and a fun time all add up to a 5 out of 5 for me.  I really enjoyed this film, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in a really good, low-budget and seriously creepy film (which still supplies a good bit of laughs at times).  Take care of yourselves, everyone.  We're going to start delving into some classics next, with some reviews of some older films, including a pair of masterpieces of the genre.  Until then, as always, this is Red Hawk signing out!