Horror | Wildside Cinema

Film Review: The Controversial Film ‘Territories’ (2010) Questions The Meaning of Patriotism in Post-9/11 America

Canada, Drama, France, Horror, J. Meredith, Thriller, War No Responses »

Nov 222011

Following a weekend at a wedding in Canada, a bunch mates get pulled over when they drive their minivan across the border to America. Two customs officers ask to see Jalil’s (Michael Mando) driving license and move back to their car to check him out. When they point out that the youngsters are driving with a bust front light, Jalil tells them that they hit a deer a while back, which triggers the officers

Despite constant claims of “only trying to do our job” the custom officers become increasingly agitated and act more and more threatening towards the group of youngsters. When one of the youths, Tom (Alex Weiner) starts Continue reading »

Film Review: Miike’s ‘Imprint’ (Revisited – 2006) Gives Showtime Ent. & Cable TV Weak Knees with Disturbing Content

Asian Cinema, B. Woodell, Extreme, Horror, Japan, Takashi Miike, Television No Responses »

Nov 192011

Takashi Miike is one of those directors where if he makes something brilliant, it’s brilliant. If he makes something horrible, it’s torture to sit through. But then there’s films he makes, that you have no idea what to make of them, or have an inkling to the way you feel about what you’re watching. Imprint, from the Masters of Horror series, falls in the last category as I’m still pondering what it was exactly that I watched and have no real opinion on if I enjoyed it or not.

Christopher (Billy Drago) travels back to Japan in search of a woman he once fell in love with, Komomo (Michie). He chooses a girl (Youki Kudoh) who stays in the shadows due to her deformed face. She tries to please Christopher Continue reading »

Film Review: ‘Humongous’ (1982) Lives Again Thru Scorpion Releasing’s “Katarina’s Nightmare Theater” Series

Horror, J. Andersson No Responses »

Nov 182011

The Canadian Tax shelter films of the 70s and early 80s has given the world quite a few fun excursions into horror, movies like Rituals, Black Christmas and not to mention all the early Cronenbergs are still true classics in my book. It all fell apart in 1980 when it became obvious that a lot of movies were made just to make a quick buck through some loopholes but not before Paul Lynch gave us Humongous, a movie available on VHS in crappy, very dark transfers where you aren’t able to see jack shit. Until now.

When the movie starts we are at a party at a lake house sometime during the 50s and a woman is running from an unwanted suitor who strikes her Continue reading »

Film Review: Chandon’s ‘Inbred’ (2011) Kicks Hillbilly Horror Up Ten Terrifying Notches

Germany, Horror, J. Andersson, UK No Responses »

Nov 042011

Theatrical Poster

Watching Alex Chandon’s new movie Inbred starts out as a very familiar experience. Let’s see if you’ve heard any of this before: Two social workers are taking a group of teens with different problems out on a trip north. North here means a rundown little town full of people with strange teeth and staying at an old house that hasn’t been lived in for decades. We all know where this will lead, and it does. It doesn’t take long before the locals and the city folk clash, resulting in injury and death. But this is where Inbred really takes off. Yes, we’ve seen it all before but rarely as fun as this. Instead of just pounding us with the latest ways of displaying that old “favorite”, torture porn, Chandon takes his cliché plot and infuses it with a lovely black and absurd sense of humor that reminds me a lot of the Belgian movie Calvaire with a dash of Monty Python, especially in the scenes where the locals Continue reading »

Film Review: Lugones’ ‘The Devil’s Toy’ (2010) Packs a Diabolical Punch for a Short Film

Horror, Short Films, T. Strauss, Thriller No Responses »

Nov 032011

Promo Poster

The Devil’s Toy has sat hidden away at the back of Grandpa’s (Joe Capozzi) closet since his return from tour of duty in WWII. Acquired for a horrifying price during the raid of a Nazi concentration camp, he’s kept it safely concealed for decades. But one night, his young grandson (Liam Makrogiannis) and his best friend (Alex Marshall) decide to sneak it out of the closet and find out for themselves what’s kept inside the mysterious old box…

Ironically, one of the most common annoyances encountered in the medium of The Short Film is that most short films are too damned long. I’d say that a good 75% of all the short films I’ve ever seen could’ve used one final polish with a pair of scissors. It’s a tricky medium, and very difficult to get right from a Continue reading »

Film Review: Gildark’s ‘Cthulhu’ (2007) Ably Captures Lovecraft’s Alien World & The Alienation in Our Own

Drama, Horror, J. Andersson, Thriller 1 Response »

Nov 022011

DVD Artwork

Filming H.P Lovecraft has never been easy, adapting that particular brand of cosmic horror does not tend to come out well on screen and the only movies that has had some success are the ones that have taken liberties with the original story it is based on. Cthulhu is another one of those and does it quite well.

This is basically an adaption of The Shadow over Innsmouth, the same short story that gave us Stuart Gordon’s entertaining Dagon. In this case however, Dagon is the one that sticks the closest to the source material where Cthulhu tells an entirely different story set in a town that very well could be Innsmouth though not as dingy. The main character, Russ, receives a message that his mother has passed away and is forced to return to the place of his birth, a small coastal town Continue reading »

Film Review: The Asylum’s ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ (2011) Never Misses a Bloody, Shambling Beat

Asylum, B. Harris, Horror, Zombies 1 Response »

Nov 022011

DVD Artwork

A deadly virus wipes out the majority of life on Earth, transforming mankind into undead zombies looking for the breathing meal. A small band of survivors are determined to fight their way across the country and to the California coast in the hopes of reaching Catalina Island, where there’s rumored to be a thriving population of survivors and, best of all, no undead.

I wish I could give you more to go on but, seriously, that’s about all there is to Zombie Apocalypse and, believe it or not, it works just fine for what it is. Now I know some of you out there may be turned off by the fact that this was produced by The Asylum, well known for their deceptive brand of exploitation cinema, but don’t judge this production by its producer. If you’re looking for a zombie film Continue reading »

Film Review: Code Red DVD’s ‘Night of the Demon’ (1980) is a Nasty, Snarling, Gory Gem with Claws

Horror, J. Andersson No Responses »

Nov 012011

DVD Artwork

SEX = INSTANT DEATH! VIRGIN = SLOW DEATH!

When a movie has a scene where the main characters set camp for the night and start telling each other that this is the site where that biker vanished some years ago, upon which they cut to a scene where a biker stops by the side of the road and promptly gets his dick torn off by Bigfoot, there is no going back. You HAVE TO worship that movie. It is fucking genius.

Night of the demon is one of those semi unknown little gore flicks of the eighties that never got a decent DVD release. Well, until know. Code Red has finally released it but more on that later in the review. Sure, it doesn’t really qualify as Continue reading »

Film Review: Yamamoto’s ‘Vampire Doll’ (Chi wo sû ningyô: Yûrei yashiki no kyôfu – 1970) Chills to the Bone with Gorgeous Visuals

Asian Cinema, Horror, J. Andersson, Japan, Vampires No Responses »

Oct 292011

DVD Artwork

A young man travels to the countryside to meet his fiancé, Yuko. When he arrives at the secluded house he is told by her mother that she has died in a car accident. He spends the night at the house and hears some strange sounds at night, even seeing someone that looks just like his dead love. Later he sees Yuko outside the house and follows her to a grave with her name. Cut to some days later where the young man’s sister is worried since she hasn’t heard from him in some time. She persuades her boyfriend to take her to the house, but is told that he already left. For the sake of proper plot development she doesn’t believe Yuko’s mother and fakes the car breaking down so that they can investigate what really happened. Cue eerie Japanese vampire. Yum yum.

Vampire doll is a fine piece of Gothic horror, straight out of the Hammerverse with an atmosphere worthy of Terence Fisher, yet firmly located in the Japanese horror folklore Continue reading »

Film Review: Camp Motion Encourages Viewers to Go to ‘The Basement’ (1989)

Horror, J. Andersson No Responses »

Oct 282011

DVD/VHS Artwork

Here is an oddity, a shot on super 8 anthology horror movie that was shelved when the footage was deemed unusable, but “rescued” in 2010 when technology was available to make it watchable and released on DVD along with an actual VHS tape in a nice box with some other low rent crap like Cannibal Campout and the Video Violence movies. I do use the word crap with a bit of love for the same reason that I tend to watch movies like Burial ground over and over again, because they make me feel good. They give me a warm feeling in my stomach and a smile on my lips. Yes, it looks like shit (Shot on über grainy super 8 film), the dialogue is pretty god damn awful and the actors couldn’t even be accused of actually acting but the movie is full of so much yummy fun that you cannot hate it.

So, The Basement is an anthology movie in the same vein as Tales from the crypt where a group of characters meet in a basement where a guy in horror makeup tells them Continue reading »

Box Set Beatdown: Scream Theater – ‘Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires’ (1973)

B. Harris, Box Set, Horror, Turkey, Vampires No Responses »

Oct 252011

VCI Entertainment

While chasing an unknown culprit thru some ruins, Professor Bolton plummets down a hole and into the hidden crypt of the vampire queen Hannah. Before the realization of his archaeological discovery sets in however, he’s strangled from behind and his body is stuffed beneath the massive marble sarcophagus and crushed.

Bolton’s son Chris is summoned to the island to make arrangements and he’s adamant that the sarcophagus be lifted and his father’s remains be removed for a proper burial. Naturally the villagers are none too happy about this as they’re convinced that by disturbing Hannah’s undead slumber they will also awaken her insatiable blood lust. Refusing to believe in local superstitions, Chris Continue reading »

Box Set Beatdown: Scream Theater – ‘The Twilight People’ (1973)

B. Harris, Box Set, Horror, Philippines No Responses »

Oct 232011

VCI Entertainment

While out on an undersea excursion, a well-known diver Matt Farrell is kidnapped by unknown assailants and brought to a remote island run by the brilliant geneticist Dr. Gordon. His intention is simple, he plans to use Farrell in an experiment that would change him from a man…into a manimal!

Turns out ol’ Doc Gordon believes the only hope for mankind’s future survival is to actually leave its humanity behind and become more animalistic. None of this is mere theory though, Farrell soon discovers that Gordon is keeping all kinds of half-man/half-animal creations locked up in a dungeon below his villa. Naturally Farrell isn’t exactly game but escape looks to be hopeless, especially with the dangerous hunter Steinman working as head of security Continue reading »

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