Film Review: MADISON COUNTY (2011)

It’s hard to describe the film Madison County (2011) without also describing a whole lot of other films just like it.  A group of college kids travel to an old mountain community called Madison County in search of the truth about a killer based on the account of a writer from the town.  The moment they arrive they realize that the town is a place they would rather keep their secrets secret as they have no idea who the writer the kids are looking for is and they claim that there never were any killer or murders.  What they do get is a warning to get out of town as soon as possible.

The group don’t heed the warning and upon further investigating they soon come across a killer wearing a pig’s head who starts to knock them off one by one (or capturing them for later).  There is a subplot involving the writer who has to bring sacrifices for the pig killer but little really makes much sense in this film that strives to give a little more plot to the tire “Wrong Turn” story yet never actually accomplishing it.  The death are pretty gruesome and effective and the film is well filmed but there isn’t anything that really differentiates it from the countless (and endless) Wrong Turn sequels and its brethren.  The characters are not at all that interesting and neither is the killer for that matter.  It’s a pretty dull affair from beginning to end.

Written and directed by Eric England the film tries to bring something new to the backwoods killer film but fails to deliver on the goods.

Film Review: HELLHOUNDS (2009)

In the film Hellhounds (2009) Greek warrior Kleitos (Scott Elrod) must venture into the Underworld in order to save the soul of his beloved Demetria (Amanda Brooks) who was poisoned.  Time is of the essence as the longer Demetria stays in the Underworld the easier it is for Hades to corrupt and make her his bride.  Through the Underworld, Kleitos and his men must journey down the River Stix and battle vicious hellhounds who want to rid the Underworld of the living spirits who have trespassed.

Despite having subpar CGI for the hellhounds the film is actually quite entertaining as it comes off more as an adventure film than an overall horror film and it doesn’t rely on the hellhounds for a lot of the horrific fun.  There are just as many human monsters as there are monsters from the Underworld in this film which gives the film more personality than your typical B-Movie.  It also helps that the cast is pretty even across the board and do a good job of selling the premise.

The film is directed by Ricky Schroder more known as the actor from Silver Spoons and Lonesome Dove and he brings out the human drama in the film.  The teleplay is written by Jason Bourque and Paul A. Birkett (who also provided the story).  There is nothing in this film that will have jumping up and claiming it’s a cinematic masterpiece but you also won’t leave thinking you’ve just lost ninety minutes of your life that you won’t soon get back.

Film Review: ICE SPIDERS (2007)

Director Tibor Takacs’ Ice Spiders (2007) is about as ludicrous and entertaining as most of his films having been directed the cult favorites The Gate (1987) and its sequel Gate 2 (1990) and I, Madman (1989), among many others.  The biggest fault with his films in this modern day and age is the over reliance on CGI good, bad, and otherwise.  You get a lot of the otherwise in this film.

The film concerns former ski bum Dash Dashiell (Patrick Muldoon) whose fed up with teaching rich people at the ski resort the “fine art” of skiing when they would rather just be having a good time.  When Dr. April Sommers (Vanessa Williams) military science experiment of deadly mutated spiders decides to jump ship from the secret government laboratory on the mountain everyone’s lives are nothing more than spider-food.  Unbeknownst to Sommers her spiders were injected with a growth hormone to speed up their growth and aggression and now they are bigger, stronger, and more deadly than she could have possibly imagined.  And did I also mention that the cold has no effect on them whatsoever?

Now Sommers must team up with Dashiell to protect the survivors on the mountain and find a way to outsmart and kill the giant spiders before they all become spider-food.  The whole film is pretty ludicrous but Muldoon and Williams are game and keep the film entertaining even through all the bad CGI spiders.  Even legendary producer Stephen J. Cannell (The Rockford Files, 21 Jump Street, The A-Team, and Stingray, to name a few) shows up in a major supporting role as the owner of the ski resort. 

Overall the film is pretty bad and a far cry from Takacs’ previous ‘80s films but he still knows how to entertain regardless.

Film Review: BEAR (2010)

In the world of animal attacks horror films Bear (2010) is one of the few that claims to use a real bear in the modern age of PETA and CGI animals.  Written by Roel Reine and Ethan Wiley and directed by Reine the film concerns two couples (Brandan Michael Coughlin, Patrick Scott Lewis, Katie Lowes, and Mary Alexandra Stiefvater) whose car gets in an accident in the middle of nowhere.  When they are attacked by a bear one of them pulls out a gun and shoots it dead.  Things just get worse when they realize that the bear wasn’t alone and that its mate is very much around and doesn’t take too kindly to the humans coming into its backyard and causing chaos.

With their car incapacitated the four must try to stay alive after all their bullets have been spent and they have nothing to protect them from the second bear other than the safety of their car.  There are a lot of conventional horror plot tropes in the film and the film-makers keep the proceedings moving as the action with the actual bear is entertaining but unfortunately when the bear is the best thing in the film it doesn’t really look well for the under developed human characters or their cliché relationships and complications.

There is some means of substance to be had in the third act, but it comes a little too late to save the overall mediocre film.  If you enjoy bear verses humans (and I do mean it in that order) then you might enjoy this little film otherwise dull humans make for a dull film.