WRITTEN REVIEW: You're So Cool, Brewster: The Story of Fright Night

By CORY CARR

The vampire creature feature Fright Night from filmmaker Tom Holland, and it's equally monstrous sequel have been fan favorites for over thirty thirsty years. Fans have watched and re-watched these films. Fans have gotten Fright Night tattoos and have cosplayed as Fright Night characters, and they have spend an incalculable amount of dough on t-shirts and movie merch. And what's funny about this rabid fandom for Fright Night, is that this same rabid fandom that it's creator, Holland, shares with them for the horror genre in general.

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WRITTEN REVIEW: Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser & Hellbound Part 1

By FOREST TAYLOR

The documentary Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II is a super in-depth coverage of everything you could ever want to know about the making of the first two Hellraiser movies. Clocking in at a massive 476 minutes, it gives Never Sleep Again a run for its money.

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WRITTEN REVIEW: Unearthed and Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary

By CORY CARR

Growing up, I was introduced to horror through some of the more palatable forms of terror. There were Halloween episodes of certain popular sitcoms (Roseanne, Home Improvement) that were always a spooky and fun treat to look forward to. There were the child themed anthology shows Goosebumps

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WRITTERN REVIEW: American Movie

By FOREST TAYLOR

The independent filmmaker should be considered one of the tragic heroes of our time. They put in years of their lives, untold numbers of hours and put themselves in tremendous debt all in the pursuit of making a film that will most likely be completely forgotten before it even comes out. For every Evil Dead, Bad Taste or Clerks there are thousands of indie films that just end up getting lost in the shuffle. The incredible documentary American Movie is the tale of just one of those tragic stories.

Mark Borchardt is just such a tragic figure. He has dreams of making it as a filmmaker and breaking away from the life of a typical worker in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. After making a few short horror films with his friends, he decides to start working on his dream project: a film known only as Northwestern. Unfortunately, due to a lack of money, problems with his family and the fact that Borchardt himself may be more than a little disturbed, the project stops and Borchardt instead seeks to finish an old short film called Coven.

The film puts us in the trenches with Borchardt and his cast and crew as they scout locations, attempt to raise money (including a $3000 loan from Mark's uncle Jim) and listen to Borchardt talk... and talk... and talk about how awesome this film is going to be once it's completed. We also get to meet some of the people in Borchardt's life, most notably, his best friend Mike Schank who is so optimistic and eager to help that we can't help but fall in love with him and the aforementioned Uncle Bill who is the real highlight of the film. Mark's enthusiasm coupled with Uncle Bill's world-weary realism make for a perfect balance. Uncle Bill also gets the biggest comic highlight in the film when Mark needs to shoot thirty takes for a scene where Uncle Bill only has to say one line! It's a classic moment of awkward humor that would make the cast of The Office cringe in embarrassment.


In the end Mark Borchardt does finish Coven and we get to see its big premiere. After watching it now all I can say is "that's it?". After three years of grueling work and an untold amount of dedication, we're left with a film that is at best, decidedly average? Just another short horror film to add to the hundreds that are released every year? Well ... yes, but it doesn't matter because Coven is Borchardt's film, dammit! And that's what's important. My favorite scene in the film is where Mark watches the 1997 Academy Awards with his family and Billy Crystal announces that that year is the year of independent films. Nuts to that! Those rich phonies don't know what independent films are. Movies like Coven and by extension, American Movie are the real independent cinema and without an equal number of dreamers and lunatics, it wouldn't exist at all.

"AMERICAN MOVIE" ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

WRITTEN REVIEW: Ban the Sadist Videos!

By MATTHEW STEWART

Violence is in our nature as a species. We fight wars, brutalize our peers, bully each other, the list goes on and on. We are a violent society as a whole. So what do we do when we aren’t being violent? Well we go the movie theater and watch violent films. It’s just what we do.

With that being said, it’s natural for people to wonder what drives people to violence. Of course, this always leads us to the usual suspects of film, music, video games, and just media in general.

While we’ve always had our share of moral crusaders here in the Good Ol’ USA, our neighbors across the pond in the UK pretty much have us beat when it comes to trying to save the youth from themselves and the evils of violent films.

In the two-part documentary, Ban the Sadist Videos! director David Gregory, who is known for a multitude of film documentaries, shows us a modern day witch-hunt against video store owners and distributors in the UK during the video player hey day from the the 1980s and early 90s and the so-called Video Nasties that put the island on high alert.

The 1960s and 1970s were the apex for schlocky gore, sex, and every other taboo in horror films. From The Driller Killer to Zombie social avengers like Mary Whitehouse and The Daily Mail made it their job to assure that the youth weren’t corrupted by the ultra violence, sex, and gore that ran rampant throughout these films.

While many of these films were released uncut in the theater, home video was a different animal all together. Home video made many of these films available to children, and of course this had to be stopped.

With the passage of the Video Recordings Act in 1984, fines and jail time were possible penalties for video store owners who peddled films that were blacklisted by the moral majority in England, led by figures like Whitehouse, Member of Parliament David Alton, and James Ferman, the head of the British Board of Film Classification, for several years.

Following two high-profile crimes, like the Hungerford Massacre and the kidnapping and murder of two-year-old James Bulger by two ten-year olds, the restrictions would have become stricter with the passage of the Alton Act, but it was later pulled. However, watchdogs were still on high alert and endless cuts were made to films coming to the UK for home consumption.

I guess thinking about it we do have a lot of moral defenders here in the US; from holding rallies where people step all over rap and heavy metal tapes and CDs, and the constant banter of talking heads and why video games drive people to deviant behavior and why excessive violence on film is corrupting our youth, our First Amendment always comes through and protects our rights to do what we want. It’s easy to lose sight of how good we have it in this country, whereas in the UK, while they do enjoy nearly all the same freedoms we enjoy, there are a lot of gray areas, especially with Freedom of Speech, hence the hysteria and the endless censorship of film for nearly 30 years.

Imagine being a video store owner and having films confiscated and taken for evidence and threatened with fines and possible jail time for owning a copy of Faces of Death or Dario Argento’s Inferno, that’s coming out of Nazi Germany or another fascist regime. No wonder the Sex Pistols were so pissed off about their government and the way they treated their “subjects”.

Ban the Sadist Videos! is a great watch to compare and contrast how we see and consume films here in America versus the issues that British citizens were dealing with for a long time. Sure, banning these films opened up a lovely black market for video collectors and sellers, but having to deal these films behind closed doors while fearing a raid by the local MP I’m sure was a nerve-racking experience for buyers and sellers alike.

While censorship has reared its ugly head numerous times here in America, there’s never been a fear of downright censoring or banning art, even if it can be taken out of context, and with the emergence of a more focused P.C. society and everything being watched by the Internet, it would be interesting to see if something like this happened in this day and age, how would people take it and how would it be discussed over Twitter and Reddit. Imagine the madness!

"BAN THE SADIST VIDEOS!" ★ ★ ★ MATTHEW STEWART They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But sometimes a motion picture is only worth one. Simplistic Reviews gives you a minimum one word review from avid film buffs Justin Polizzi, Matthew Stewart and DJ Valentine. If one isn't enough, you can read on and enjoy their further analysis of the film or television show. Simplistic Reviews is, for lack of a better word, GOOD. Download the Simplistic Reviews Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio and the Google Play Store. Twitter: @SimpleTweeters | Letterboxd: Simplistic Reviews Facebook: SimplisticReviews | YouTube: SimplisticReviews1 www.SIMPLISTICREVIEWS.net

WRITTEN REVIEW: Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau

By FOREST TAYLOR

The 1996 adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau is regarded as one of the biggest cinematic disasters of all time and like any doomed production, has a making-of story that is far more interesting than the film itself. The documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau tackles the troubles and heartbreak of this fascinating cluster-fuck.

It all begins with Richard Stanley, an ambitious young director who after breaking into the scene with some successful indie genre films like Hardware and Dust Devil, approaches New Line with his dream project of adapting the H.G. Wells novel. New Line offers him a deal but almost instantly the producers seem to want to cut him out of the project. Stanley fights for his vision but due to the combination of a director's inexperience, an actor's egotism and just a string of bad luck, the project is stopped after just four days of shooting and Stanley is fired. I feel bad for saying this, but this documentary really starts to pick up after Stanley is taken off the project. This is the point where the making of this film goes from bad to surreal.

A new director is hired and he immediately starts re-writing the script. Then Val Kilmer begins creating friction with the director and the other actors due to his poor attitude and on-set bullying. Then, most bizarrely of all, star Marlon Brando begins making increasingly insane demands. He comes to the set wearing white make-up on his face (insisting that all outside scenes be done like this), begins demanding that he get different types of hats to wear (even at one point wearing an ice bucket on his head) and he convinces the director that Nelson de la Rosa, the world's smallest man who had been cast in a supporting role be with him in every scene. Also, in typical Brando fashion, he hadn't even bothered to learn his lines.


Just when it seems like things couldn't get any crazier, the film hits us with another surprise at the end. During filming, some effects people learned that Richard Stanley had never taken his flight back to England and had been living in the jungle near the movie set. These crew members then make him up as one of the beast men so he can basically observe the set and watch his dream project die right before his eyes.

Lost Soul is an interesting film, but the really interesting stuff doesn't come until the very end with the on-set insanity. Before that it's just a typical story of an ambitious director being railroaded by a studio. However, it's also a unique glimpse into the movie industry and how much time and hard work goes into a project that sometimes ends up dismissed and quickly forgotten. Even if it's a doomed journey half the time, everyone behind the scenes puts their best efforts into it and that makes the journey an interesting on at least.

"LOST SOULS" ★ ★ ★

WRITTER REVIEW: The Creep Behind the Camera

By CORY CARR

Ed Wood's Plan Nine From Outer Space is often regarded as the worst film ever made. But cult film fans know better. Sure Plan Nine stinks, but it was the vision of Ed Wood, and his perseverance that give his films a certain charm that makes them endure, in spite of having mediocre performances, convoluted stories, a library of stock footage and special effects that rival the science projects of children.

It is Wood's endearing personality that shines through in his work that makes him such a beloved cult figure, and the subject of Tim Burton's 1994 Hollywood bio-pic Ed Wood.

But on the other side of the stink meter is a film that is so terrible that it lacks any redeeming qualities and is difficult to watch – even falling short of being “so bad that's it's good”. This film is The Creeping Terror, about a space alien slug monster that lands at Lake Tahoe. It then terrorizes and devours the local townsfolk before the United States Army enter the picture to bring it's reign of terror to an end.

But I'm not here to talk about Ed Wood or The Creeping Terror. I'm here to share with you The Creep Behind The Camera, the docu-drama chronicling the production and filming of The Creeping Terror.

Similar to Ed Wood, this story follows the director of The Creeping Terror, Arthur Nelson White. Or as he preferred others to call him, Vic Savage.

As The Creep unfolds, it tells two stories. The first being about a doomed production forced to make ends meet. The other is about a nobody who has big ambitions about being a Hollywood success, and who is willing to con, steal, and ruin the lives of others in order to get there.

During the production, hilarious stories are told of ineptitude, such as; the rubber alien monster being stolen from the set – forcing Vic to build a replacement overnight in his backyard. Unfortunately, Vic's monster is the one seen in the film. Also, rather than filming at the beautiful Lake Tahoe, where the film is set, Vic instead chose a location owned by the Manson Family (before the murder of Sharon Tate) that features an adorable muddy pond. All of the good intentions in the world couldn't have fixed The Creeping Terror. These portions of The Creep feel quite a bit like Ed Wood.

The portions that focus more on Vic, expose how much of a despicable human being he was to his wife, his kids, and virtually everyone he knew. He was pill popping alcoholic who beat his wife and who would cheat on her with any skirt that wondered his way. During the course of filming The Creeping Terror, his life unravelled. He was strung out, penniless and resorted to making kiddie porn to pay off debtors.


My two criticisms of The Creep are that the dramatizations overtake the film and make it feel slow, and the other is that the humor of the film and the dark nature of Vic, often clash. I'm sure both are depicted accurately, but the tone of the film shifts back and forth too often. It left me feeling bad about enjoying the funny parts and sometimes unable to take the dark and abusive parts seriously.

But over all the film was very informative – educating me about a filmmaker who I think more people should know about. The Creep Behind the Camera won't make The Creeping Terror any better, but it will put things into prescriptive. The Creep is a dark companion to Ed Wood, and if you haven't yet, you should check out both.

At the time of this article, The Creep Behind the Camera is available on Shudder, Amazon and YouTube.

"THE CREEP BEHIND THE CAMERA" ★ ★ ★

WRITTEN REVIEW: Room 237

By FOREST TAYLOR

Movies can be viewed in a lot of different ways. Some people watch them for pure escapism, some to be enlightened or informed, and some movies are watched because they viewer connects them with a personal emotional experience. Still, there are people who watch some movies (or maybe

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WRITTEN REVIEW: Killer Legends

By CORY CARR

A short time ago, Forest (my co-host) and I explained to a friend where the phrase, “Love means never having to say that your sorry” originated. Of course this was in the 1970 romantic drama Love Story. Why the HELL am I talking about Love Story, you ask? Well because it was the first of it's kind.

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WRITTEN REIVEW: The Godfather of Gore

By CORY CARR

“It wasn't any good, but it was the first of it's time.” is how Herschell Gordon Lewis refers to his film Blood Feast. It's a film that isn't very good by anyone's standards, but it is memorable in the hearts of horror fans as being the first “splatter” film. The “slasher” movie wouldn't quite be what it is without the works of H. G. Lewis.

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