Halloween, 2007

CAST: We have Malclom McDowell doing a great job as Dr Loomis, quite a lot of the cast of The Devil's Rejects show up in cameos including Sid Haig as a caretaker, Leslie Easterbrook as a cop and Ken Foree taking a dump! Sherrie Moon Zombie even gets to play Mrs Myers as a stripper! B-Movie queen Sybil Danning also shows up as a nurse as does Dee Wallace of The Howling fame!

CREW: Rob Zombie (rock singer turned director of House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.

PLOT: Little Michael Myers brutally murders his family on Halloween night, 15 years later he returns to find his baby sister. He's pursued by his former doctor Sam Loomis who is the only one who might stand a chance of stopping him.

THOUGHTS: I hate to say it, but it's crap! And it's such a shame. This is a classic story that has spawned no less than 7 sequels and countless rip-offs, most famously Friday the 13th which has had 9 sequels itself. Zombie has totally taken Halloween down the wrong path. Yes, it's more realisic and more gory than the original. But where is the fear? The suspense, the chase? Zombie's Michael Myers simply lurks around waiting to stab his victims, there is no run around, no anticipation, no energy!

The first half hour goes into the childhood of the young Michael, which I thought was quite effective and quite funny. Zombie is great at creating horrible characters and he does a great job with the Myers family. In the original we don't learn much about them and making them into white trash misfits was a great idea. I am always impressed with his casting too and enjoyed seeing stars of yesteryear making long overdue appearances on the big screen. The movie itself though, is a waste. It has done extremely well in America so hopefully there will be a better sequel to follow.

EXTRA: Official Site

EXTRA: Video interview with Sybil Danning

Hellbent, 2004

STARRING – nobody much

Dylan Fergus (Eddie – he’s been in a few episodes of US soap opera ‘Passions’), Bryan Kirkwood (Jake – he’s dated Melissa Joan Hart), Hank Harris (Joey – he was in the TV series Popular (it wasn’t), Andrew Levitas (Chaz – he was in a few episodes of the Nanny before it got cancelled) and Matt Phillips (as the one in drag).

PLOT: A group of friends go to the annual gay carnival in West Hollywood. They followed by a psycho who’s been decapitating gays who hang around the park at night...

THOUGHTS: This movie is publicised as being the first gay themed slasher movie from the co-creator of Halloween and A Nightmare On Elm Street. The good news is the movie is nowhere near as bad as the no-name cast and lack of a major distributor might have you believe. Sadly, there is nothing amazing or groundbreaking about this movie, it is a regular slasher flick, the only difference being the teenagers are gay and there's an abundance of drag queens and leather lovers on show, you wont see than in your typical I Know What You Sid Last Summer DTV sequel. There are some very tame sex scenes which might put some people off if they aren't used to the sight of two men getting down to it, but there is nothing graphic about this movie. Even the horror and gore is more implied than on screen. I didn't like the character in drag being portrayed as the most tragic of the group, it was a bit lame and cliche! I wouldn’t rush out to buy this myself, in fact I was lent it by a friend, but it’s quite fun and light hearted and I think its well above the usual standard of most low budget horror fodder. That said, I only finished watching it half an hour ago and I can’t remember very much about it, the bad guy had a great costume though, and the scene is set for a sequel (yay…).

CAN I BUY IT? Yes, on DVD – rated 15/R.