Reviews From the Horror Chamber: Die and Let Live, The Blood Shed, Bikini Bloodbath

Welcome to Reviews from the Horror Chamber. I am your chamber keeper, Anthony Thurber. I need to get this off my chest.

Please note: What I’m about to say does not express the view of FilmArcade or its writers.

Will somebody tell me why I’m seeing website ads for Prom Night in late January when the film doesn’t come out until April 11th? I can understand it, if it was Cloverfield, The Dark Knight, or Hellboy 2, but for the remake for Prom Night? Come on, nothing says event movie like the remake of Prom Night! I don’t know why Hollywood needs to hype every other movie. I could understand if it had major stars or a major horror director attached to the project, but come on. I’ve seen the trailer and it doesn’t look that great. Oh, and by the way, it's rated PG-13 for those who care. This film would be lucky if it made 30 million at the box office.

Die And Let Live

Year: 2008
Director: Justin Channell
Stars: Joshua Lively, Zane Crosby, Sarah Bauer, and Ashley Goddard
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Heretic Films
Running Time: 75Mins
Review Rating: 4 Stars

Official Website: http://www.iwcfilms.com/dieandletlive/main

Die and Let Live is about a hopeless romantic named Benny who throws a party with the help of his best friend Smalls. The idea behind the party was to woo the girl of his dreams, Stephanie. But that changes when a ferocious infected group of zombies decide to crash his party. Soon the two are fighting for their lives while trying to get away from the deadly virus that infecting people. Trent Hagga and Lloyd Kaufman also make cameos here.

Die and Let Live is one of the funniest horror-comedies that I’ve seen a while. Shaun of the Dead fans will enjoy this. Justin Channell’s direction of this film was very good for the most part. The main reason this succeeds, in my opinion, was the humor. I thought the comedy material in the film was funny. It kept my interest, as the humor wasn’t over the top or lame. The flashbacks scenes were very good and humorous. Channell along with stars Joshua Lively and Zane Crosby succeed in writing the film’s funny dialogue. The horror aspect of it was all right, as all you bloodthirsty zombie fans will no problem with the gore factor. There are no real scares in the film, but it’s not supposed to be a suspenseful and pulse pounding zombie film. If you’re going into it that way then this is not the zombie film for you. The filmmaker also added a very good ska soundtrack to the film. It helped the fact that this wasn’t a serious zombie film and made it enjoyable. The acting in this film is good. The actors did a good job hitting their comedic notes very well and their chemistry was very good.

Die and Let Live is part zombie film, part teen comedy that provides a lot of laughs. Please note: Die and Let Live will be out on DVD this Tuesday.


The Blood Shed

Year: 2007
Director: Alan Rowe Kelly
Stars: Alan Rowe Kelly, Terry M. West, and Joshua Nelson
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Heretic Films
Running Time: 75Mins
Review Rating: 3.5 Stars
Official Website: http://www.thebloodshed.net/




The Blood Shed is about a southern psychotic family known as the Bullion family living in North Jersey. This is not your typical average family, as they don’t fit in with the locals. They can’t stand their day-to-day aggravations with the locals. Soon their youngest one (Alan Rowe Kelly (who’s also the director of this film)) is having a birthday party and Papa (Terry M. West (director of Flesh for the Beast and Lord of the G-Strings)) is looking to abducted people in order to please his youngest one for her birthday party. Soon everyone is invited to her party as it becomes out of control when deviant behavior and murder erupts. The film has played in various festivals including It Came From Lake Michigan and Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear.

The Blood Shed is a surprisingly good and twisted throwback to the exploitation/grindhouse genre. I thought Alan Rowe Kelly did a very good job directing and writing the screenplay for the film. The screenplay does a good job incorporating elements of strange characters that are usually found in John Walter’s movies, as the Bullion clan is one of the most sick and twisted families that I’ve seen, in the horror genre while using the shocking aspects of horror genre and levels of gore very well, Gorehounds won’t be disappointed here. There’s also some dark humor in this film, which was also surprisingly good and well placed in this film. It also helped made the main characters more demented. The actors dug the material in which they were given. They had good chemistry with each other and looked that liked they were having a good time making the film.

The Blood Shed is a shockingly demented horror film that will make you think twice before messing with the Bullion family.

Bikini Bloodbath

Year: 2007
Director: Jon Gorman and Thomas Edward Seymour
Stars: Debbie Rochon, Leah Ford, and Russ Russo
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Bloodbath Pictures
Running Time: 73 Mins
Review Rating: 3 Stars
Official Website: http://www.bikinibloodbath.com/

Bikini Bloodbath is the 1st installment of a planned eight part series. The film follows a group of hot gorgeous woman on their last day of high school. The women decide to have a slumber party to celebrate their graduation. Lurking in the shadows is a psychopathic chef (Robert Cosgrove) who’s on a killing spree throughout the town. Soon, he crashes their party, and tries to turn their party into a slaughterhouse.

You got to know that it’s either a fun and cheesy b-movie or awfully bad movie, if in the title sequence it says under Writers/Directors, Who the fuck cares. Thankfully, Bikini Bloodbath was fun to watch. The essentials of plot and character development are non-existent here but at least the film looked like it was made professionally made and not on a home camcorder like Stupid Teenagers Must Die. I thought directors Jon Gorman and Thomas Edward Seymour did a good job with the directing aspects of the film, especially having their actors overact their roles. Usually, it hurts a film but here it works very well, as it contributes to the film’s humor. Their screenplay did a good job spoofing the characters of teen and slasher films, as they made them clueless and laughable, in a good way. The humor of this film was very good, as the filmmakers and actors didn’t take themselves very seriously. At the end of the day, it gives that 80’s cheesy b-movie feel. This film makes me wonder, if the filmmakers were inspired by the Slumber Party Massacre movies of the 1980s?

If you’re looking for plot and character development, see another horror film otherwise if you like hot babes and mindless slasher fun, Bikini Bloodbath is the film for you.

If you’re interested in having your horror film reviewed in the horror chamber, you reach the Chamber Keeper himself at Anthonythurber@filmarcade.net or the head of Film Arcade TonyD@filmarcade.net

That’s it for this week’s edition of Reviews From the Horror Chamber. In next week’s edition, I will be reviewing the Jessica Alba’s latest film, The Eye. Until then, have a frightening week.