Dead Friend (aka The Ghost, 2004) Movie Review

If you’re not too hung up on originality, “The Ghost” isn’t too much a waste of time. Oh sure, it’s yet another Dark Hair Ghost Story, where the ghost at hand is a vengeful female that keeps showing up in the background, standing with her hair draped over her face, and you...

August 23rd, 2004 | Read More

Death Machine (1995) Movie Review

When you get right down to it, Stephen Norrington’s debut film, “Death Machine”, is pretty stupid. And I don’t even mean that in a disparaging way, because although it is without a doubt a derivative genre film trying to skate by on a B-Movie level budget, “Death Machine”...

August 22nd, 2004 | Read More

Halloween 4: Return of Michael Myers (1988) Movie Review

Sick of Freddy and Jason getting all the attention, the producers of the “Halloween” series decided to return Michael Myers to the big screen in 1988. Apparently, they also decided to be ambitious and create a film on par with the original. They came close, succeeding in giving us a quality...

August 20th, 2004 | Read More

A Living Hell (2002) Movie Review

Although “A Living Hell” came out several years ago in Japan, the film has only recently been gathering word of mouth in the West as a “must see” cult item. Comparisons have been made with other Eastern films such as “Audition” and Western films like “The Texas...

August 12th, 2004 | Read More

Evil Dead Trap (1988) Movie Review

With the ever-increasing list of Asian films being remade by Hollywood, it’s easy to forget how the West has influenced Eastern cinema. For every Americanized “Ring” or “Dark Water”, there are films like “So Close”, “Bloody Beach”, and the countless...

August 11th, 2004 | Read More

Face (2004) Movie Review

Dark Hair Ghost Stories from Asia are a dime a dozen nowadays. If you threw a pebble at the continent, you’d probably hit 10 films in the genre on the first thud. Really, it’s a bit disconcerting how generic the film industries in Asia have become in the seven years since the break-through...

August 9th, 2004 | Read More

Dead and Breakfast (2004) Movie Review

What can you say about Matthew Leutwyler’s “Dead and Breakfast” except, you will either adore the heck out of it, or you will loathe it. And to help you decide, I’ll even surrender these facts: its story is idiotic, it has no real plot to speak of, and when all is said and done,...

August 9th, 2004 | Read More

Ginger Snaps 3: The Beginning (2004) Movie Review

As a sequel to two cult favorites, “Ginger Snaps Back” (aka “Ginger Snaps 3: The Beginning”) is a 2½-star film. As a standalone movie without any ties to the series, it manages 3 stars. Unfortunately for the film, everyone knows it’s the third installment of Canada’s...

August 3rd, 2004 | Read More

Ultraviolet: Mini-series (1998) TV Review

Episode 1 (of 6): “Habeas Corpus” (July 26, 2004) Although I’ve heard some very good things about the British vampire show “Ultraviolet”, I couldn’t help but be a little skeptical. After all, the British aren’t exactly known for their genre shows. Oh sure, they’re...

July 26th, 2004 | Read More

Maplewoods (2003) Movie Review

The low budget zombie film “Maplewoods” claims to run about 85 minutes, but that’s a big fat lie. It’s more like 60 minutes if you don’t count all the dramatic pauses the actors in the film employs for no obvious reason in-between long and laborious dialogue. (Also, the...

July 23rd, 2004 | Read More

Creature Unknown (2003) Movie Review

“Creature Unknown” is about a group of friends who decide to get together in the woods on the 4th anniversary of another friend’s death. The reunion is being organized by Steve (Chris Hoffman), whose twin brother West died on prom night. The friends have split up since then, but Steve...

July 15th, 2004 | Read More

Adam and Evil (2004) Movie Review

Like most low-budget Teen Slashers about highschoolers, “Adam and Evil” stars a bunch of pretty, thin, and white 20-somethings (they didn’t even bother to throw in a Token Minority) who have just graduated from high school and plans to spend the weekend in the woods drinking generic...

July 13th, 2004 | Read More

Guilty Pleasures (1997) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Bill Paterson) Have you ever watched a horror movie and, rather than battle an irrational paranoia that you might somehow be killed, actually find yourself hoping for it? Well, I seriously considered taking a meat cleaver to my own cranium within the first five minutes of “Guilty...

July 12th, 2004 | Read More

Elevated (1997) Movie Review

Canadian filmmaker Vincenzo Natali burst onto the movie scene with the release of “Cube”, but has since moved onto bigger (although not necessarily better) things ala the big-budgeted “Cypher”. “Elevated” is a 1997 short film by Natali, running 20 minutes total, with...

July 9th, 2004 | Read More

And Then They Were Dead (2004) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Bill Paterson) As this is my first review for BeyondHollywood.com, let’s set a few ground rules. First, I don’t use big words just to show you how smart I am. I know lots of fancy words. Like sycophant, for example. But you’re looking for an informed opinion on movies...

July 6th, 2004 | Read More

Suicide Club (2002) Movie Review

One of the most recent entries in the renaissance of Japanese horror cinema is an impressive but gory meditation on the power of pop culture on the public psyche. A pitch-black satire as well as a shocking horror film, it raises several excellent points concerning the media’s manipulation of the...

July 3rd, 2004 | Read More

Lhorn (aka Soul, 2003) Movie Review

If you were looking for a horror movie to scare you, the Thai film “Lhorn” will disappoint. It’s not very scary, even though it tells multiple tales about ghosts and demons taking revenge on us weakling mortals. As executed for consumption, the stories are somewhat tame, and the only...

July 2nd, 2004 | Read More

Serial Killing 4 Dummys (aka Serial Killing 101, 1999) Movie Review

“Serial Killing 4 Dummys” (sic) is listed at IMDB.com as a 2004 movie, but it’s actually a 1999 feature called “Serial Killing 101″. Being able to trick the all-knowing, all-powerful IMDB.com is quite a feat, and in truth the movie is much better than it really has any right...

June 24th, 2004 | Read More

Lighthouse (1999) Movie Review

There’s no doubt the British Slasher “Lighthouse” (aka “Dead of Night”) could have been much better. It has an interesting premise, but the execution lacks proficiency and there’s a dullness about the whole thing that’s hard to figure out. The characters are...

June 19th, 2004 | Read More

R.S.V.P. (2002) Movie Review

“RSVP” is a pretty original Slasher film — at least “original” in the sense that not a single Slasher film has managed to be original in, oh, the last 25 years or so. The film has a lot of points in its favor, including some excellent actors, a script that, although it sometimes...

June 17th, 2004 | Read More