Reviews From the Horror Chamber - Kinky Killers, Fear House, Skinned Alive

Welcome to Reviews from the Horror Chamber. I am your chamber keeper, Anthony Thurber. I’m personally starting to sick of writing at least one Public Service Announcement in every edition. Enough with my wining, here’s some a couple of News and Thoughts.

News (N): According to Fangoria.com, a DVD release date for Geroge Romero’s Diary of the Dead has been set. The DVD will be out on May 12th along with a remastered Hi-Def version of Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead. Both DVDs are loaded with extras.

Thought (T): I might actually break my sworn ban on the Weinstein’s for this. But don’t worry, it’s only being broken only because Romero is a legend .

N: This will not make Tony D happy. According to horroryearbook.com from a news story on horror-movies.ca, Midnight Meat Train will not be hitting theaters after all even though it featured in the new Fangoria magazine, as one of my favorite studios, (sarcastically) Lionsgate, is going to release Midnight Meat Train on DVD instead of theaters. No dvd release date yet.

T: It’s just another fucking blow to the genre that we all know and love as it seems like that the only horror films that come into theaters these days are the ones that have pretty faces in it that can’t act or some fucking toned down bullshit remake of a classic.

N: According to Yahoo.com Prom Night makes 22.3 million making it number #1 at the box office.
T: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! For those, who had to buy ticket to this fucking alleged remake, thank you for dealing another blow to us hardcore horror fans and setting the genre even further back. We can expect more of this fucking bullshit now from Hollywood, because of you. I’ll go more into this in the next edition.

That’s it for News and Thoughts, now to the Reviews.


Kinky Killers
Year: 2008
A.K.A: Polycarp
Director: George Lekovic
Stars: Michael Pare, Beverly Lynne, Charles During
MPPA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Vivendi Home Entertainment
Running Time: 86 Mins
Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/polycarpmovie

Please note: This is an advance review, DVD hits stores this Tuesday.

Kinky Killers is a serial killer film about patients of a beautiful psychiatrist (Beverly Lynne) and an eccentric attorney (Charles During) who are being murdered in bloody satanic rituals. Once the rituals are over, the victims get tattooed, as it’s the signature for the killer. Lead Detective, Barry Harper (Michael Pare) is then send to investigate these murders. He starts find out that the killer may not be who it seems it is, as he discovers that some of these professional women maybe targets for the killer or maybe the killer themselves. Actor Brandon Slagle and Ken Del Vecchio, author of the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice, wrote the screenplay.

Kinky Killers is dark erotic thriller. Director George Lekovic direction was good for the most part. He does a good job keeping this film’s tense and dark atmosphere. His direction of the actors was good for the most part, as it kept the film interesting. I liked how Lekovic filmed the police investigation side of the story. It really got that feel of a Law and Order episode.

The film starts to run into trouble with the screenplay, if you are a hardcore horror fans because you’re supposed to be seeing a horror film when your not. If your that type of fan then you will be disappointed, as it didn’t really have and horrific suspenseful moments, as it felt was like an episode of Law and Order for the most part. It’s not a bad thing for me but it is for the horror fan. But I think that this was a good film nonetheless as this film felt like an effective erotic thriller more than a horror film.

I liked how Del Vecchio and Slagle made the characters interesting, which help keep my interest throughout. Their screenplay really did a good job with the detectives in the film, as they were gritty and dark. Del Vecchio and Slagle’s screenplay focused more on the investigation than trying to frightening people. Del Vecchio and Slagle also added some eroticism, which works pretty well here. The only problem with their screenplay was last twenty minutes as it tries to please horror fans by adding horror elements to the story. I wished that idea were cut out, as it was working well as a serial killer film.

Kinky Killers may not please the horror fan in you but might please fans of cop procedural shows.

Dvd Extras:
Theatrical Trailer
Behind-the Scenes



Fear House
Year: 2008
Director: Michael R Morris
Stars: Aleece Jones, Matthew Montgomery, Olivia Price
MPPA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Lifesize Entertainment
Running Time: 86 Mins
Review Rating: 1 Star
Official Website: http://www.fearhousethemovie.com/

Please Note: This is a Public Service Anouncement

Fear House is about a group of friends who discover that a missing best-selling author has been living in the worst of conditions. The friends go to the rundown house where the author has been living. But when they try to get the author out of the house, they realize that if they leave the house, their fears come to life and suffer the house’s curse. Now the friends and the author must try to escape this mysterious curse before they end up becoming victims themselves.

Man, Fear House was a boring and dull film to sit through. Where to start, maybe I’ll start with the only positive thing with this film that Writer/ Director Michael R Morris did. He did a good job with the technical aspects. The film was shot very well as Morris uses a lot of close-up, which helped make the atmosphere of the film creepy and dark. It was good but that was completely wasted with the screenplay and lifeless of the characters the he created.

The screenplay was just plainly horrible, as there were many flaws with it. I knew that was going be painfully to watch when the title card said “Nine Months Later” five minutes into the film which left gaps in the story left me with questions like how one of it’s characters seen in the beginning died and why I don’t see the how the missing author became crazy in the first place. Instead, the film becomes another film where a bunch of young people who go into a haunted house and die one by one in unsuspenseful ways. Some of that is because the director doesn’t develop the characters and relationships between the characters. Also there’s really no suspense through out the whole film as the characters were boring and lifeless and the supposed scares felt uninteresting and not frightening. The death scenes had no bite to it because it wasn’t either shocking or frightening to grab my interested.

The acting was just the same as the film it’s self. The actors seemed like they were just there to cash a paycheck. The actors’ performances come off as lifeless instead of being scared and frightened. I could not care for any of these characters, as the performances were dull and made my mind wonder off wishing for something interesting to happen. It felt like the actors were depressed while making this film as it comes off in the performances.

With all I said about this film, I have to admit that this was a good try from writer/director Michael R. Morris as he got the technically aspects but there are too many thing that are wrong that makes Fear House fall complete flat to the point that it was just a waste of my time.

Dvd Extras:

Commentary from Actress Aleece Jones and Matthew Stiller
Outtakes
Actor Rehearsals
Official Theatrical Trailer

Skinned Alive

Aka: Eat Your Heart Out
Year: 2007
Director: James Tucker
Stars: Melissa Bacelar, Jack Dillon, Joshua Nelson
MPPA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Los Angeles Films
Running Time: 89 Mins
Review Rating: 4 Stars
Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/eatyourheartoutmovie

Skinned Alive is about a lonely man named Jeffery who hates everything around him. He is looking for someone to love, cherish and bring him happiness. Late one night, he meets Pandora, a prostitute and they fall in love instantly. Everything starts to look up for him until he finds out something about her lover secret is that she feed off of men. Soon Jeffery is caught in the middle between her and an insane man who’s hunting her. Will he ever find true love or end up dead.

Skinned is one of those horror films that takes it’s time and develops its story and characters. This film will satisfy the hardcore horror fan, as it has blood, guts, dismemberment and sexy beautiful women. Director James Tucker goes a good job keeping action going by letting the actors act. This helps with the actor’s performances and making the relationship with the two main characters interesting. Also, Tucker doesn’t let this film turn into a mindless gorefest. He makes sure that the gore was used in the right instances to help move along the story and let the relationship be the main central point.

The screenplay written by Joshua Nelson (who also co-stars in the film) was very story oriented. His screenplay in the beginning allows a look at Jeffery’s life which helps set up his character, so that you feel sorry for him. Also in the beginning he does a good job teasing Bacelar’s character, as he doesn’t want to give too much away until the two meets. Another thing that Nelson does well is that he focuses on the Jeffery character and his relationship with Pandora. He does that, so you are interested in the story instead of the gore and sexy women that are featured.

The acting in this film was very good. I thought both Jack Dillon and Melissa Becelar worked very well together. They both had good chemistry with each other, as it helped sell the relationship. Dillon did a very good job making his character, very loser like which help sell the story. Becelar makes her character very dark and mysterious, as it was needed for this role.

Skinned Alive is sexy gorefest that will make you think twice about wanting to be in a relationship


If you’re a filmmaker and interested in having your horror film reviewed in the horror chamber, you can reach the Chamber Keeper himself at Anthonythurber@filmarcade.net or if you have any film in any genres that you want Film Arcade to review, send us an email at screeners@filmarcade.net.

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Be back with a Spring Cleaning edition next week. Until then, have a frightening day.