Harry Price: Ghost Hunter (2015)

I’ve had this on my Amazon Prime to watch list for a while now. I’ve recently been on a haunted house/ghost story kick, so I figured it was time to check it out. Plus, it is a British production and I’ve had some great luck recently with spooky stuff from England. 

Set immediately after World War I the movie opens with Harry Price conducting a bogus séance to milk some cash out of a frightened family. He asks them to leave the room so he can cleanse it which allows the audience to watch him gather up the devices he used to trick them. He collects his cash and heads home. Waiting for him on his front step is a young man in a uniform. Remember that this is right after the war. One thing leads to another and based on the bogus information from an earlier scam the young man kills himself in front of Price.

Years later, well into the twenties, Price has dedicated himself to actual research and goes around trying to explain and debunk spiritualists. Clearly this is him doing penance for his earlier sins. When a very powerful member of parliament is caught up in a scandal involving his wife and their haunted house Price is called in to explain things away. He doesn’t want to, but immediately feels sorry for the woman and decides to try and save her. If he can’t explain her behavior and make things better, she is on her way to spending the rest of her life in a sanitarium.

I can’t say much more than what I did above without giving away spoilers and I don’t want to do that with this movie. Harry Price: Ghost Hunter is an excellent bit of fun that I’m going to recommend. The story is great and has an interesting twist by making our main character a skeptic who tries to explain everything away with science. This means that spooky things happen and we the audience question if it is real or not (cinematically speaking that is) while the protagonist is automatically dismissing it. I can’t remember a supernatural haunting movie that pits the audience against our main character in such a way and I found it a fun exercise. Is this a real haunting or is it some political intrigue attempting to sabotage the career of someone being groomed to lead the country? The story walks that tightrope nicely where it could go either way and maintains the suspense until the credits roll. Do we get any answers at the end? Do they explain it all away or is there a ghost? My answer is… sort of. And that is one of the reasons that I loved the movie.

This is one of those ghost stories (whether it is really a ghost or not!) that managed to create and maintain tension without any jump scares. The movie has so many creepy moments that it doesn’t need to toss the proverbial cat from stage left to generate interest. There are doors that slowly open and close, bells that ring when they shouldn’t, voices when there shouldn’t be any, and the always great strange sounds/knocking. I’ve said it many times when reviewing ghost stories here at the site that I love this old school stuff. My favorite is setup by a single line of dialogue… “He is standing right behind you…” Trust me when you see the scene it will send chills down your spine!

I enjoyed the heck out of Harry Price: Ghost Hunter and recommend it. This is an old school spooky tale that will satisfy fans of the classics like The Uninvited and The Haunting. In case you don’t know those movies (shame on you!) that is high praise.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer

Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Have you ever wondered why the characters in horror movies all seem to do the dumbest things? Why do they go off in the scary woods to make with the romance? Are they really stupid enough to play with the creepy stuff in the basement? Well Cabin in the Woods gives answers to all of these questions and more.

Things start off in an office building where we see some workers discussing how the Swedes have failed and it is up to them or the Japanese to get the job done. Um okay… Then we see college kids hop into an RV and head off for a weekend trip at an isolated cabin. Along the way they meet up with a creepy gas station attendant that is sort of a harbinger of doom. They get to the cabin, act stupid, and generally give you what you would expect from a horror film. Then we are back to the workers taking bets. There is a pool on which monster the kids will choose to bring about their doom. What the Hell movie?

Okay so here is the skinny on what is happening. There are elder gods locked deep within the Earth that require a sacrifice. But the key to this is that those sacrifices have to be young and have to of ended up dead by their own choices. So, the governments of the world setup young people in situations that can and will go horribly wrong. Apparently, it isn’t against the rules to nudge or help the sacrifice along thru the use of chemicals and gas. Want people to get frisky in the woods? Pump some pheromones into the environment. Need a smart person to make bad decisions? They have a gas for that. Hell, they even sneak some chemicals into hair dye to make the fake blonde girl act like a real blonde!

Weed saves lives!

I enjoy it when filmmakers take a genre and turn it on its head. This is exactly what Cabin in the Woods does. They take all the expectations of an eighties horror movie, dumb kids, drug use, sex in the woods, etc. and explain it all in the most clever of ways. I was amused the first time that I watched Cabin in the Woods and I still enjoy it after several viewings. Cabin works both as a horror movie and as a parody of one. That is a rare thing. But where it gets really nifty is how the system breaks down on them. One of the sacrifices is a stoner whose chronic weed smoking has immunized him to the drugs they use to influence their behavior. He is the only one that questions everyone else’s behavior. Why are normally smart people acting dumb? Why is the friendly guy suddenly turning into the “alpha male” and the nice girl getting slutty? It is a fun flip of how these sorts of burnout characters are normally handled in horror flicks. He sort of becomes the hero in the end.

Damn they even do a decent Werewolf!

In addition to being clever and well written the movie does deliver the creatures. While they choose a family of zombie hillbillies to be their killers, they had other choices. When they escape into the facility underneath the woods, they let the rest of their potential monsters loose on the facility and the workers. We get to see a werewolf, a pinhead want to be, creepy ballerina, ghosts, killer clowns, and my personal favorite a unicorn. Don’t laugh those horns are sharp! I almost forgot the merman… don’t want to do that.

The final thing that I wanted to mention is the ending. While the rest of the movie has a tongue in cheek feel to it the ending is awesomely horrible. Spoiler alert. A couple of the kids survive, and the movie ends with the old gods rising and destroying the world. How is that for an ending? This movie is funny, twisted, and depressing all at the same time. I love it and recommend checking out Cabin in the Woods.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer

Gravy (2015)

I must be falling down on the job here folks. Psych was one of my favorite television shows and its star, James Roday, is one of my favorite actors. Seriously I loved that show! Apparently, he directed a horror comedy about cannibalism, and I didn’t notice. Yeah it is just now getting a wide release, but still how did I miss that?

Brothers Anson and Stef have a family tradition. Every Halloween they trap, torture, and eat a group of people. This year they have targeted a Mexican Restaurant and the staff. Along for the ride is Stef’s new girlfriend Mimi, who they picked up the previous year when instead of a victim she became a participant. The trio weld the doors closed and take everyone hostage before their games start. Much blood is spilled, and flesh eaten before we get to the bloody and sort of funny end.

This movie is everything that I wanted it to be. The dialogue is cleverly written and each of the characters is given a chance to shine. Everyone has their moment where they get to deliver the punchline of a joke. Normally every genre movie like this has characters that are tossed in just to up the body count, but here the cast is used really well. I found myself liking the soon to be victims which meant that each death is sort of sad… and maybe just a little bit funny. The humor in Gravy is twisted and I loved it. I’ll give you an example. The restaurant has a French Chef that is forced to cook his friends for the cannibals and instead of being horrified he does his best to make sure they taste good, so that their deaths mean something! That is the kind of wacky mayhem that you can expect. I could point out more examples, but I don’t want to ruin the fun.

The kills have an old school vibe to them

As excited as I was to see Roday’s take on a horror comedy (he also co-wrote the script) when I saw who did the special effects work, I was hopping out of my seat in anticipation. Literally I did and it annoyed my wife terribly. Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero! Two thirds of KNB did the gore and it shows. First it is all practical work and if you have spent any time at all here at Crappy Movie Reviews you know how I feel about that. Nothing like actual latex to spice things up. And oh boy does it get spicy here. Necks are torn out, a face has a close encounter with an arrow, noggins end up in ceiling fans, bottles are put to good use, and a head splits like a ripe melon on some pavement. Needless to say, the blood flows freely and I haven’t even touched on what happens in the kitchen! If you like gore you won’t be disappointed with Gravy.

Again, I could keep going on about the things I dig about Gravy, but that might spoil it and I really don’t want to do that. I haven’t had this much fun with a movie in a long time. This fits in nicely with all the crazy flicks I used to rent on VHS back in the day. Gore, funny dialogue, pretty girls… it has it all. I’m still kicking myself that it took me four damn years to realize the movie existed. I highly recommend Gravy and suggest you find yourself a copy right away. This is the kind of flick that I’m definitely going to revisit, so a purchase is the right way to go.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer

Grabbers (2012)

I was in the mood for a good monster movie and I remembered enjoying this one a couple of years ago, so I thought I’d give it another go. It was easy enough to find streaming, so I queued it up and got to watching.

Grabbers is set on a remote Irish island. One night after watching something crash into the ocean from the sky the men on a small fishing boat are attacked and killed by an unseen creature. Then the action shifts to our main characters of O’Shea, an alcoholic cop who lives on the island and the ambitious woman, Nolan, who has volunteered for temporary service there to advance her career. The two of them end up investigating some disappearances that clearly become murders when the bodies start to pile up. Though they don’t realize what they are dealing with right away soon enough they figure out it is a creature or creatures doing the killing. The rest of the movie is them doing battle with the monsters until the explosive finale.

This is a by the numbers monster movie that focuses on giving the audience what we expect as quickly and as often as possible. I like that approach and appreciate that the filmmakers don’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel with Grabbers. They tease us with some early kills and establish that the creatures are from space with the opening scenes. No muss, no fuss. After that we get the characters introduced, including the requisite outsider, in this case Nolan. This allows the audience to identify with her as she tries to not only figure out what his happening but also attempts to navigate the small community and its quirky inhabitants. It makes for an interesting and enjoying watch.

I dig the creature effects work

All of the above character stuff is accomplished in maybe fifteen minutes of runtime, so it gets sorted and out of the way quick. Then we start to get kill scenes and creatures lurking about. There are a couple different kinds of monsters here, the baby ones and the big one. The baby ones show up pretty early on and while all CGI are done well enough that it didn’t bother me. I feel the same way with the larger creature that makes an appearance towards the end. In both cases I like the fact they are totally alien in appearance rolling around the scenes with tentacles sprouting in all directions. I have nothing to reference them to as they aren’t trying to be at all familiar which helps make the digital effects work. The filmmakers also do a wonderful job of blending the creatures with the cast when they are forced to interact. There is a particularly good bit with a truck and the larger monster that is cleverly done. This is where far too many creature movies fail. Making the audience believe that the people on screen exist with the monsters is key and they do a fine job at it.

Grabbers isn’t groundbreaking or very memorable. But not everything needs to be a groundbreaking classic and some movies can just be a solid good time. This is a well-made monster movie that knows what it wants to do and does it efficiently. If you are in the mood for something new that you haven’t seen before but is also familiar, then this would be a perfect choice.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer

Dead Ant (2017)

My musical tastes stopped developing around the late eighties maybe the early nineties. I was a huge hair band fan and never got into the grunge crap that replaced it. If you have been reading my reviews here at Crappy Movie Reviews then you also know that I love monster movies. When I saw a movie about an aging hair band fighting giant ants, I had to check it out. This is in spite of the fact that it stars Tom Arnold, who normally annoys me to the point of wanting to bang my head against the wall. See what I did there? Head Banging… With that in mind I pulled up Amazon and rented Dead Ant the second I got home.

Arnold is the manager of an almost famous band that had one hit single, a power ballad. They are on the road to an attempted comeback playing a festival that is supposed to be the new big thing. Along the way they stop on an Indian reservation for peyote to help inspire them to write some new songs. They are warned that they should respect all things while on the reservation, but of course don’t. One of the band members kills an ant while high and is then killed by giant ants who attack the rest of the band when they are finished with him. No worries though, he was just the base player, so it won’t screw up the comeback too badly. The rest of the movie is them doing battle and cracking wise… the band not the ants. They finally make their escape sadly leading the swarm to the festival and a lot of new victims.

As much as I wanted to watch Dead Ant, I also expected to hate it. Mostly because Tom Arnold has a big part and I don’t find him funny at all. But I’ll be damned he is really funny in the movie. It is important to note that this is a comedy and not a serious monster movie. Then again if you watch the trailer that should be obvious. The action is quick, the jokes even quicker, and there isn’t a single slow spot for the duration. And I feel like I might be selling the monster movie portions of the flick short. This isn’t a gorefest but there are plenty of creature feature bits and kills to keep those fans satisfied. I’ll have more on that later.

Hair Metal to the rescue!

In addition to Arnold the cast also features Jake Busey as the lead singer of the band and a barely recognizable Sean Astin as the doomed bass player. Busey is entertaining and Astin mumbles and stumbles his way along under a huge wig and costume. Though he does have a funny line about being from “the Shire”. You guys do know that he was in Lord of the Rings, right? There are a lot of jokes flying in this movie and it was a good call to bring in some talented actors to deliver them. They land them far more often than not and that makes for a really funny flick.

The creatures are all CGI but look good on screen. It was clear that they put some effort into matching the digital work with what was happening with the actors which helped immensely. Most of the blood and gore happens offscreen and what we do get to see is played for laughs. Given the vibe that the rest of Dead Ant has that worked for me as a viewer. I found myself satisfied with both the creature and the kills in this one.

Horror Comedies are hard so when I find one that works, I want to make sure everyone knows about it. This one is an example of one that delivers the goods and deserves to be seen. It makes me sad that I hadn’t heard much about it and wished that I’d had the chance to see it in the theater. Track yourself down a copy and check it out. I highly recommend it.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer

Danny’s Doomsday (2014)

Every once in a while I find a movie on accident that blows me away and this gem from Denmark is one of those. We are introduced to Danny, a high school student that is a bit of a nerd. He likes science, does homework for the cool kids, and avoids conflict. This includes helping out his younger brother who keeps getting bullied. This fact becomes important later in the movie. The other thing that is made clear early on is that climate change has been causing havoc with a heat wave that just won’t quit. This leads to some rather unpleasant sea creatures coming ashore and chowing down on the locals.

While the monsters are important and drive the survival plotlines of the story there is a lot more going on here than just a creature feature. Danny and his younger brother William get trapped in their basement after their father is killed by one of the creatures. Their mother had headed out to the store, so they aren’t sure she is still alive, which means it is just the two of them. When a stranger shows up and a conflict between William and the newly arrived man things become difficult as yet again Danny fails to stick up for his brother. Later when they find that William has left to go in search of their mother Danny is so guilty that he has to overcome his fear and find his brother.

Being afraid and overcoming it is a central point to the movie and gives the movie a depth that you don’t normally find in a monster movie. I found myself way more interested in the characters, especially Danny, than I normally would have been while watching a movie like this. The writing is superb and goes to show the old adage that even in a horror movie good characters and an interesting story arc is still key. I also found the cast to be very likable as the young actors do a great job in their roles. Between the writing and the acting I was sucked right into the proceedings and was rooting for them. When a horror movie can make me care like that it has exceeded my expectations.

The cast does a great job!

Not to gloss over the monsters. The movie does a great job of keeping them out of sight with just a glimpse now and then of what is prowling around outside. The occasional claw or tail is about all you see for most of the runtime. When we do get to see the rest, it is done with CGI, but this is pretty good work. The creatures look alien enough while also feeling like they could come from the ocean. Basically, aquatic predators that have figured out how to walk on land and breath air, while still looking vaguely fishlike. As much as I like the creature design, I was a little disappointed with the kills. A few people do die in the movie, but all of it happens off screen. In fact, none of the main cast meet a grisly end. I kept waiting for that part of the action to ramp up, but it never does. I consider this a minor complaint given the tone of the movie. It doesn’t feel like it was ever meant to be a blood bath.

I really liked this one and recommend it. I caught it on Amazon Prime, but I’m sure that there are other places to find it. Danny’s Doomsday is well worth the effort of tracking down a copy and ninety minutes of your day.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer

Boar (2017)

I had heard about this movie when it was first released, and I remember being interested. A giant killer pig movie set in the outback of Australia is right up my alley. Somehow despite that I forgot about it until it showed up on Shudder. Needless to say, I got to streaming this sucker right away and I wasn’t disappointed.

After a brief opening with a couple getting their car smashed by some unseen creature, we meet what will be our main characters. You have the locals of a small town including a couple old guys, the local barkeep, and a giant-sized farmer/sheepherder named Bernie. That last one is important because Bernie is being visited by his little sister and her family, who also are added to the victims/in danger list. Though the most important character is the giant mutated Boar (aka. wild pig for those not in the know) which rips and tears its way thru the cast until meeting it’s end at the hood of a pickup truck. Good times are had by all.

From the opening scene to the end credits I loved this movie. The story gives us just enough character development to care about them and be sad when they meet their bloody ends. I love it when a creature feature takes the time to do that without bogging down the story with unneeded dialogue. The movie also avoids the annoying characters that the audience wants to see die immediately trap that so many horror movies fall into. While there is at least one asshat even he seems to be a realistic jerk that would still be invited to things. I also expected a bit of stunt casting here with Bill Moseley being cast as the American husband of Bernie’s little sister. While not a huge part it is far from a glorified cameo. Moseley gets some good dialogue and shows again that when given the chance he can get the job done.

Of course, no one watches a movie like Boar for dialogue and acting. The creature here is brought to the screen mostly with practical effects work. We get a large car sized puppet on set for the cast to interact with and that is crazy fun. Sure, it looks like a puppet and at times the restricted movement is obvious, but there is slime dripping off of its teeth and they stick more than one actor in its mechanical mouth for fun. How can you not love that? There are a couple of times where we see it running that is clearly some digital work, but the filmmakers keep that to a minimum.

The creature looks amazing.

The kills are plentiful with eleven and include some real gems. You get a nasty bit with some barbed wire, a tusk thru the face, a head gets lopped off, and someone gets stomped with a hoof. There are also quite a few post kill gags that involved partially eaten bodies and a severed head that look great on screen. Again, there is a bit of CGI, but most of this is honest to God latex. As far as creature features go, I was very happy with what I got with Boar.

Other than a bit of a letdown at the end where I feel like the movie backed away from the brutality and nastiness it had established, I have no complaints. Not able to say more without giving away some spoilers. Even then this isn’t a deal breaker for me. This is a great monster movie that has everything that fans of the genre are looking for. I highly recommend checking it out.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer