Reviews From the Horror Chamber - Swamp Devil, Blood Scarab, The Bloody Ape

Welcome to Reviews From The Horror Chamber. The chamberkeeper is in. It’s been a couple of weeks, since the last edition and things have been busy me. But there is one thing that I have to talk about. It’s been a while since the last edition, but here is my State of the Horror Genre Address.

This address has to do with the fact that remakes are really dumbing down all the creativity, in this genre. The reason for this tirade came, when I came across an article on Dread Central around the time right after the last edition, with the headline Band is remaking “Puppet Master in 3D”. My first thought after reading this, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We don’t need another remake of a classic horror film. It’s bad enough that I had to go though all alleged rumors of a Re-Animator remake, which didn’t pan out, thankfully. Seriously what’s next in the remake department, “The Exorcist”, “Escape from New York” or lets start remaking all the great horror films of the nineties, like “Scream” or “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. There is no creativity on the big studio level and it’s hurting the genre.

Enough is enough. This is why original films like “Splinter”, “Inside” and “The Signal” get little to no theatrical release. It’s because you the horror fan support this remakes. Don’t worry, I’m guilty of this too, I went to see Friday the 13th remake (for Free), or the fact that I’m looking forward to “Halloween 2”. But, when you have remakes of “The Eye” or the upcoming “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake. It’s films like this that’s killing the genre; because it’s us horror fans that are willing pay our hard earned money to see it. It’s just all the great horror films are heading straight to DVD. For a person, who loves watching them in theaters, it saddens me. I want to see these movies with an audience.

This is why I personally started writing reviews. I care about the Splinter’s, The Signal’s and Inside’s finding an audience. It’s films, like those that I hope someday will bring back the horror genre to its glory days.

Now, on to the reviews.


Swamp Devil
Year: 2009
Director: David Winning
Stars: Bruce Dern, Cindy Sampson, Nicolas Wright
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: RHI Entertainment
Running Time: 90 Mins




“Swamp Devil is about a woman (Cindy Sampson), who returns home after finding out that her father (Bruce Dern) that she hasn’t seen for years is on the run for the string of bloody murders that are occurring in a small town. As she finds out more about her father’s past, a sheriff get murdered in the swamp. Soon everyone in the town will begin to discover that an unstoppable monster is responsible for all this. Now it’s up to her and her father to stop it, before it wreaks havoc on the town.

Sometimes, you get a feeling that you’re going to be in for a bad movie, ten minutes into the film. That’ the exact same feeling that I had with “Swamp Devil”, as the tagline for this film should be changed to “Bad Movie Lies Beneath the Surface”.

“Swamp Devil” is a film that very predictable and very made for TV like film, as this really felt a film that you would see on the Sci-Fi Channel. Oops, I ment “SyFy”, as that’s what network wants to be ridiculous known as now. The directing for this film felt one of those made for TV movies. The direction seemed lifeless, as I was really bored watching this film. Director David Winning, doesn’t do a good with action in this film, as this film felt like it had no suspense, whatsoever. He doesn’t do a good job with the material that he given to even make this a mindless fun film. I was not having fun watching this film, as kept wanting it to end. Winning’s direction of his actors weren’t even good. It was like; the actors were really bored, considering the script that was very bad to be with. That again that’s what happens, when you script that has characters that are clichéd and lifeless with a story that’s predictable.

Speaking of the screenplay, it was every bit as bad, as one of those made for cable movies. Screenwriters, Gary L. Dauberman and Ethlie Ann Vare never cared about making a film that has suspense and twists, because everything was predictable. That’s what made this film sink into the land of cable television. It was like, you knew who are the bad guys are and the upcoming twists, fifteen minutes into the film. The screenplay doesn’t do anything to make this film fun, as they don’t develop any of the film’s characters or the fact that the story has this lifeless and convoluted tone, which makes you lose interest quickly. Combine that with the fact that some of the dialogue felt so cheesy, you have a film that is uninteresting, unentertaining, and painful to the point that you keep waiting for something shocking to happen, when in all honesty, it doesn’t. That’s not how you make a fun b-horror film.

“Swamp Devil” is a film that should have been a film left for cable television and SyFy, not on DVD or in my collection.

Review Rating: One Star


Blood Scarab
Year: 2009
Director: Donald F. Glut
Studio: Frontline Entertainment / Tempe Video
Stars: Monique T. Parent, Brink Stevens, Del Howison
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 81 Mins.

“Blood Scarab” features two of Frontline Entertainment popular series together for the first time, “The Mummy’s Kiss” and “Countess Dracula”. Elizabeh Bathory the infamous blood countess is the widow of Count Dracula, who travels from Transylvania to Los Angeles after Dracula dies. When arriving in Los Angeles, she begins to look, for a way to walk around with the mortals during the day. She then, stumbles onto an ancient Egyptian secret that has the power to grant her that. Bathory enters into a blood path with an Egyptian goddess, which involves three victims and a living Mummy. This leads to the climax for both of these franchises.

One of the reasons for taking this film was that I like both the Countess Dracula and Mummy’s Kiss series, but I had reservations with this film, as I didn’t the combination of the two series would work. Amazing, I think that this film is the best in both of these series.

“Blood Scarab” is a surprising fun and bloody vampire film. Director, Donald F. Glut’ s direction was very good. He does a very good job using various elements of exploitation to make this very erotic and bloody at the same time. The production value looked. very good. Glut does a great job making the presentation of the film seem like one of those European horror films. But made this direction work, the way he is able to get his actresses to be interested, in the little source material that this film has. The film also has a very good villainous performance from the film’s star and veteran exploitation actress Monique T Parent. Her performance makes most of this film work, as her character Countess Elizabeth Bathery comes off as very wicked. It helps make this film very interesting, as it just doesn’t turn into one of those softcore flicks with no story and hot women.

Gult, who also wrote the film’s screenplay, does a very good job creating a story that keeps your interest, as most of these films don’t do it very well. I liked how, he manages to connect the two series together, as when you combine two series together, it usually never works for the better, but surprisingly, the film brought new life to both of them. Another thing that Glut’s screenplay does well, it balances the sex and the horror aspects very well. The reason the elements were balanced well, the plot of the film doesn’t get lost or traded in for more of these elements. There’s not an abundant amount of either, which helps the film’s screenplay focus on the story, not how many long sex scenes we can fit in or having needless amounts of blood on screen. That’s how a film like this works. Also, I liked how it goes back into the mythology of both series. By doing that, it makes the film’s story and characters accessible to those who haven’t seen either of these series, before seeing this film for the first time.

“Blood Scarab” is an entertaining B flick that will entertain those who are looking for some fun grindhouse horror and blood biting entertainment.

To purchase this film, you can goto: http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Scarab-Monique-T-Parent/dp/B001D98U5O/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1240455223&sr=8-14

Review Rating 3.5 Stars

The Bloody Ape
Year: 1997
Director: Keith J. Crocker
Stars: George Reis, Paul Richichi, Chris Hoskins
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Wild Eye Releasing
Running Time: 77 Mins
Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/thebloodyape

The Bloody Ape” is a take of Edgar Allen Poe’s “Murder in the Rue Morgue” The film is about a carnival barker, who’s having problems with his life to the point that it’s reaching his boiling point. Soon, he loses his mind and begins to unleashes terror in Long Island. He does that, by letting his 400-pound gorilla go on a rampage that leaves a very bloody trail. Now it’s up the police, to stop this ape, even though, they seem to be not interested. Will anybody stop this ape?

“The Bloody Ape” is a horror film that’s not shocking or not entertaining, it’s just boring. Co-Writer and director Keith J. Crocker really tries his best to deliver a fun film, but the direction felt lifeless to the point that this felt like a homemade Super-8 film. The reason for that was the pacing. This film was very slow moving, as I never was interested in any of the action of shock value, which the director was trying to attempt. It’s supposed to be a grindhouse film, where you’re going to be shocked. Instead, I was just bored and dumbfounded at times. Most of it had to be the way that Crocker directed his actors. The performances came off as annoying or not energetic to the point that you’re interested in the film.

But most of the problems lie in the screenplay, as Crocker and George Reis didn’t good job. The story felt like a collection of exploitation scenes, since the screenplay doesn’t bother with any development whatsoever. There was no shock value to them. The reason for that it, the writers didn’t set it up the characters and the action very well, as the only thing that was shocking about this film is that there is no setup to it. When you have a villain doing things that don’t make sense to what he’s supposed to do, then everything in the story becomes stupid and boring. Also, the story structure felt out of whack, as some of the things, the characters were doing made no sense to me at all. That’s what made this very painful to watch.

I really hope that Crocker’s second film “Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69”(which has been getting a lot of positive reviews) will make me forget about this mess. “The Bloody Ape” is a good attempt at exploitation, but really fails miserably, in the shock value development departments.

Review Rating: One Star.

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 horrorchamber@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.