Welcome to our last edition of Review from the Horror Chamber for 2012. Sorry for not having an edition of Reviews from the Horror Chamber out last month, as I was busy with other Horrorpalooza activities. This is a very exciting edition, so let’s get started.
Strippers vs. Werewolves
“Strippers vs. Werewolves” takes place at a strip club known as The Silvadollaz. Things get troublesome when Justice (Adele Silva), an exotic dancer uses a silver fountain pen to stab a customer’s eye. Unknown to her, he’s a werewolf. When the pack’s leader finds the customer’s lifeless corpse, he and his hungry boys are out for revenge. Unknown to him, his second in command is dating Justice and he accidently bites her. Now werewolves are out for revenge, but the dancers at the Silvadollaz are ready for them. This leads to a confrontation between low esteem werewolves and strippers barreling shotguns. The film also co-stars Robert England (Nightmare on Elm Street), Steven Berkoff (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)) and Barbara Nedeljakova (Hostel) co-star in the film.
“Strippers and Werewolves” may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed this film. Director Jonathan Gendening does a very good job making the film have an eighties vibe. You can defiantly hear that in the music selections and the way that some of the scenes play out. It made the action fun, which is what you want with a film like this. Gendening also does a good job getting the acting to work with the film’s tone. I enjoyed, how he was able to make the characters fun instead of being annoying. It helped make the film fun.
The screenplay written by Pat Higgins isn’t going to win many awards, but I liked how he told the story. The film had a comic book feel from the main plot of the film to the subplot with the clumsy vampire hunter. It keeps your interest and you’re not feeling bored. He also tones down the amount on nudity in the screenplay. Going into a film like this, you’re thinking that this is the perfect film for an abundant amount of this element. Thankfully, it wasn’t the case. I like this, because this it allows the film to focus on the characters. It makes the characters fun to watch. At the end of the day, I’d rather have that, than have a film that uses nudity as its main drawing point.
“Strippers vs. Vampires succeeds on being a fun comic bookish action/horror film, instead of relying of exploitive elements and being flat out dull
Review Rating: Three and a half Stars
“Ground Zero” is about two professional cleaners, who are hired to collect a frozen corpse that is located in the high mountains and dispose it in an old warehouse. They soon discover that body that they’ve collected is infected with a virus that brings the body to life, as a member of the undead. Now with a rising corpse and a rising body count, the cleaners must find away to stop the infection before the area becomes ground zero.
“Ground Zero” is a dark and different zombie film. Director and co-writer Channing Lowe does a very good job making the film feel dark. He does that, by using locations that gives you a very creepy feel in your stomach. It also gives the film its gloomy feeling and made the film feel different from other zombie films. The other thing that Lowe does well, he gets the performances that he needs. He does a very good job making the performance fit this film’s dark tone. It helped cover up the boring zombie scenes in the film.
The screenplay written by Lowe, Aaron W. Peterson and Steve Darling was for the most part was good. What I liked about the screenplay, it spends time developing the characters. I was going into this film thinking that it was going to be action packed, but thankfully it wasn’t the case. The writers do a very good job spending time and getting to know the characters, as that made the film interesting. The only problem that I really had with this film was the fact the zombie action was poorly conceived. It felt like every time a character was alone in the room, a zombie shows up and gets bit during a zombie fight. It would have been more interesting, if there were more than one people at time. It really brings the film down a bit, but it’s still worth it for the dark tone and characters.
“Ground Zero” may not be the film for zombie lovers, but it’s effective with its tone and characters.
Review Rating: Three Stars
Speaking of zombies, we have another film that deal with zombies in a fun way.
Zombies vs. Strippers
“Zombies vs. Strippers” takes place in a rundown strip club that is on its last legs. But things are going to get worse at “The Tough Titty”. The club’s owner has been losing lots of money on his business and finally is getting the traffic that he needs to keep the club open. Too bad, the patrons are the living dead. Now he and his employees of beautiful women must fend off these fiends, before they become their next meal.
With a title like “Zombies vs. Stripers”, I thought this would very boring with all the sexual elements. But thankfully, I had a good time. First time director, Alex Nicolaou (son of “Subspecies” director Ted Nicolaou) does a very good job making the film fun for what it’s worth. He does a very good job with the way that he handles the gore effects. They make all the horror violence very bloody and keeps you interested. The other thing that he does well, he manages to get the performances that he needs to make the film entertaining. The cast really brought personality to the characters. It makes the humor and their characters entertaining. It’s one of the better acted in Full Moon films in a while.
The screenplay written by Nicolaou, Nick Francomano and Kent Roudebush does a very good job making the story fun. One of the reasons why it strangely worked was the fact that they did a good job setting up the characters. For a b-movie of this nature, you need likeable characters. This film has it. With characters like a whiney strip club owner to a clumsy stripper, the characters had traits that made them entertaining. They also do a good job balancing the action and abundant amount of nudity. They do that, by making some of the action scenes very gory and they makes the lines very cheesy that it generates laughs. If those didn’t happen, then this would’ve not been fun to watch and the film would have felt mindnumbing.
“Zombies vs Strippers” is fun little b-movie filled with gore effects, nudity and action that keeps you entertained.
Review Rating: Three Stars
Goliad Uprising
The film takes place during a new technology craze, where a gadget known as early
adaptors have been sweeping off store shelves. But for unexpected buyers, they don’t know what the gadget is doing. The only way to get out of being controlled by the corporations is to rise up against them.
I was surprising enjoyed this film considering that this has less action, than your normal conspiracy film. One of the reasons was the way the direction was handled. Writer/director Paul Bright does a very good job making the tone of the film very dark. Whether it’s the way that the film was shot to the tone of the story, he does a very good job making the film very dark. It made it more interesting. The other thing that I liked about Bright’s direction was how he manages to get the performances out of his lead actors. It really makes the film interesting and makes you forget the lack of action. Both Shannon Lark and Aaron Weisinger did a very good job making their characters interesting. It helped keep my interest, as sometimes performances can help a film out tremendously.
Bright’s screenplay was also good. One of things that the screenplays does well, it develops the characters and the situation. I liked how, he spends some time in the story that gets you into the flow of the film. By not rushing things, it allows for everything in the story from the characters to the conflict to be developed. The other thing that this screenplay does well was that it established its tone. This was a very dark film from beginning to end, but what made it consistent was its tone. By making it dark, it allows for all the preachy elements to work within the context of the story and be effective. If this wasn’t effective, then the tone of the film would have suffered.
This film may not be for those sci-fi fans that like action. “Goliad Uprising” keeps your interest in the characters and tells a good story with good lead performances.
You can order this film on the film's official website at: http://www.goliaduprising.com
Review Rating: 3.5 Stars.
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