2009 appears to be slasher year, as it will see the release of a some classic slasher movies on DVD. One of them is the cult classic My Bloody Valentine.

This special edition will feature good few bonus materials such as never-seen-before footage, a back history of the- making - of and the ultimate slasher interactive guide, allowing the user to explore the evolution of the slasher genre.

This release will coincide with and no doubt promote Lionsgate 3D remake of the film opening in theaters on January 16th.

Other films to be released in 2009 are Deluxe editions of at least the first three Friday the 13th Films, which is a weird thing to write on Thursday the 13th LOL

Source Moon In the Gutter

Life can’t be all good - right? Because for life to be good, or more likely for us to be able to notice the good - one needs to have some cr*p around.
Obama being elected is really really good, even those who didn’t elect him are getting a kick out of it (globally in fact) so we need a little bit of bad so that we can really appreciate that.

In comes Kiss Daddy Goodbye(1981), possibly one of the worst movies ever.

Although I usually keep away from spoilers - In this case there really is very little to spoil.

The plot in a nutshell - Two psychic kids and one dad murdered by bikers go on a zombified revenge killing rampage, all the while doing their very very best not to act at all.

In fact the whole cast are doing their very best not to act at all and the delivery of this somewhat lame plot is really what gives it the very deserving title of one of the very worst movies ever.
Even the fact that the kids manage to get their dead dad to tunnel underneath the sand to attack a biker (Jaw’s like) is more comic than horrific…
as Uncle Lancifer from Kinder Trauma puts it

Watching KISS DADDY GOODBYE is sort of like watching your clothes twirl around in a drying machine while overdosing on Quaaludes.

So - If you need to chill out, or need help sleeping or meditating - this may be the film for you.

If you want some honest to god horror, or are willing to settle for a pale imitation thereof - stay away from Kiss Daddy Goodbye.

This is new to me.

I always had the notion that old movies, black white era, 20 and 30’s films are boring yawn producing affairs and that at best could put you to sleep. (OK - I exaggerate, but you get the drift.) Since I am getting a bit tired of watching yet another remake, I was looking for something different to see and have run into a couple of reviews of a film from 1932 called Kongo.
This is an 86 minute MGM production staring Walter Huston and Lupe Velez who previously played these same roles in a play the movie is based on and also a remake of a silent movie called West of Zanzibar, Erich Kuersten from Acidemic Film says that this fact makes them seem especially comfortable in their roll, producing outstanding performances.
Anyway, Kongo is a pre-code movie, and since in that period of time, prudishness was frowned upon the horror and sadism have no limits as dictated by code, and as apposed to the expected black and white naivety it is sinister and lurid and as graphic, (almost) as can be.
The plot, in a nutshell, is set in the Congo, and is a revenge story.

This involves Flint (Huston) taking custody of his enemy’s daughter and putting her through an all girls convent school, only to pull her out on her 18th birthday and throw her into a Zanzibar brothel for a year or two (it wouldn’t any fun if she grew up debauched and had no height to fall from; Flint gets her all holy virginal before tossing her to the crew, as it were). After she’s sufficiently debauched he drags her out to his godforsaken corner of the jungle, gives her “black fever” and strings her along on booze and beatings.

and it goes on and on.

This movie seem particularly interesting to me, since as all thing periodical it reflects a lot about the politics and the political correctness, or that lack there of, also typical of that time.

Erich Kuersten also writes

More than anything, Kongo is a valuable window into a time when “going native” in the mind of Hollywood and post-Victorian morality meant being a law unto yourself and indulging in whatever capricious and kinky cruelty suited your mood. The implied notion of Africans as inferior savages to be manipulated and abused runs strong and deep.

I Don’t have TMC so I guess I am just going to have to wait to have it released on DVD (I don’t think is has been)

So I like watching horror movies. I like the thrill of being scared in a safe environment, in the case of a good movie, and laughing myself silly in movies that are so bad they could only be horror movies, but that doesn’t mean that I have lost my sensibilities as a human being or that I would endorse any kind of unkind, cruel or violent actions that would happen in real life. A few years ago, when I was a student, there was a trend of Shock art, that had to do with Killing animals and photographing the moment of death - (I forget the details - artists names and so on, and don’t particularly want to go there again…) These artists were shown in very legit High end galleries, and we had countless discussions on the validity of this as art.

As far as I was concerned and am still concerned, that kind of piece is not valid as anything, definitely not as art and I haven’t run into anything as appalling in a good few years until today, when I ran into  Bodyworlds on TheoFantastique.

This is a form of something (I will not say art) when by taking a real cadaver and injecting it with plastic,  and positioning it in certain stances it supposedly becomes art. It is the new hot thing now, and currently showing at The Leonardo in salt lake city.

I Don’t really want to go any deeper into this, TheoFantastique pretty much says it all, I just though I would add my own two cents.

Pulse.
The thing I liked most about this movie was its poster. Sad to say.
Pulse is the American Version of the 2001 Japanese horror film Kairo, and basically it is everything you would never want to go wrong in modern life going wrong.
The Modern nightmare.
Josh - the character who’s story the plot revolves around, is attacked in the library by a humanoid spirit, that sucks the will to live out of him.

He does a disappearing act on his girlfriend Mattie, who gets worried and comes looking for him and finds him shortly before he commits suicide.
Mattie and her Friends start getting on line messages from Josh asking for help but they assume his computer is still on and that a virus is creating the messages.
It turns out that Joshes computer is off though, and has been sold to a guy named Dexter, who also get involved in the mystery, trying to figure out what is going on.
I won’t spoil the rest for you, I will even challenge you to seeing it, although it’s not that great a film, just to see if you can keep track of the characters and events in this movie.
(I prefer movies that don’t demand all of my brainpower and a notebook just to keep track of the players…)
According to Mermaid Heather, who has seem both versions, the American one is a little easier to follow…