​THE STORY:
Ed Speelers plays, Joe, the unlucky guard on a midnight train ride to terror, bloodshed and a pack of werewolves for good measure.  Noteworthy occupants include Sean Pertwee and Shauna MacDonald from Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers (2002) & The Descent (2005), respectively.
 
We have quite the onslaught of fairly decent werewolf movies in these past 12 months, such as the excellent Last Phases: Night of the Wolf (2014) released back in April.  Do we owe it to WolfCop (2014) for finally erasing the stink of New Moon (2009)?  Like all werewolf movies, the look is always a gradual reveal.  Howl takes things in an interesting direction by giving one of its wolves of an almost troll-like appearance.  This look is a lot more effective than it sounds.
 
The best thing about headlining a box-office fantasy film flop, such as the critical dumping ground that was Eragon (2006), is that it teaches its lead actor, Mr Speelers, to make considerably better career choices.  Most notably 2011’s brutal survival flick A Lonely Place To Die.  Unfortunately for Joe, being a skilled rock climber comes with a certain confidence that is lost on your average cowardly lovesick underdog.  Still he makes a convincing little dweeb.
 
Not much can be said of Sean Pertwee’s cameo as werewolf victim no.1, but Howl’s all walks of life cast gel with one another quite nicely.  They’re not too dumb, either, save for when pesky sentimentality takes over.  Shauna MacDonald’s luck hasn’t improved where man-eating creatures are concerned, but she’s as feisty as ever and it’s always a pleasure to have her along for the ride.  Still I would’ve preferred her to have a larger, if not soul part in the comeuppance on the villain of this piece.
 
Where the carnage is concerned, I’m left a little perplexed at what exactly earns Howl its 18 rated certificate.  Indeed there are geysers aplenty.  There’s blood everywhere!  But practically everything is tastefully hidden aside from one savage, albeit brief, werewolf beating.
 
LAST WORDS:
The last time I saw a werewolf on a train, it was the worst movie of its kind.  That movie was An American Werewolf In Paris (1997).  Why did they make it?  God knows why.  But I’m glad that someone made Howl.

​THE STORY:
Michael Polish directs wife Kate Bosworth and floating garbage enthusiast, Wes Bentley as a man crippled by a car accident, suffering temporary memory loss while trapped in a house with some psycho bitch who claims to be his spouse.  He’s not so sure, though.
 
I can’t help but question if this movie is suffering from its own identity crisis.  We as a film audience grow wiser with every twist and turn we encounter, to the point where we’ve seen just about everything.  Sometimes it feels that Unconscious is so desperate to conceal its final reveal that it frequently runs the risk of turning itself into a pile of bollocks.  For example, imperative conversations one might think the wife ought to have with her forgetful husband are replaced with encyclopaedic jibber-jabber.
 
As the story delves deeper into more familiar horror territory, in which we get a marginally clearer picture of how insane the wife truly is, the aforementioned crisis only gets worse.  It’s a shame this gal is so out of pocket because a quick visit for her to Eli Roth’s Hostel (2005) could do wonders for their marriage.
 
The on-screen chemistry… Is it even possible to have such a thing with Bentley, who looks permanently pissed off about something random, even when he smiles?  Bosworth could certainly do better, but I suppose crazy killer chicks can’t be choosers.  Regardless, the two do the best they can with the blend of sorta-Mad Men meets kinda-Misery they must’ve seen winking at them from the pages of the screenplay.  Unfortunately for them the combination turns out to be quite the clusterfuck. The cinematography and lighting do add a layer to the psychology, as well as keeping things pretty, but the rest is pretty crud.
 
LAST WORDS:
Eventually the film cuts the crap and takes you on a more serviceable journey with blood and saws, and may even fool you into thinking you’ve watched an enjoyable movie with a super twist.  If it does, that’s great!  But if you truly like a movie you don’t watch it again while waiting for “the shit bit” to be over.  Especially when that shit bit happens to be 75% of the damn thing!
 

hen not fending off the advances of perverts at their organic tea & cake market stall childhood friends mouthy middle aged Irish dolly bird Bex (Victoria Smurfit) and quiet single mum Dawn (Joanne Mitchell) can't secure a bank loan for a new cafe. The ladies come into contact with small time nice guy venture capitalist Jeremy (Jonathan Slinger) who offers to put up the £10,000 needed for the business turns out to be a sadistic loan shark who alongside Nicolas Worth lookalike hired brutal goon Si (Adam Fogerty) terrorise the community.

When Bex & Dawn refuse to take the money offered to them after discovering the eye watering interest rate Jeremy insists that fees still need to be paid on the loan and is determined to get what he’s owed from them by means of vandalizing the stall,beating up Bex’s boyfriend along with threats against Dawn’s Mum (Rula Lenska) and 18 year old autistic son (Zachary Moore). 

The married meek-looking little creep Jeremy while hounding the films leads insists on sexual favours too and seems to enjoy setting out to wreck the women’s lives on a whim which prompts them to increasingly desperate and violent methods to end the harassment dishes out by him. This is where the finale turns from the tone of British Northern Drama into a brutal gory exploitation movie with a blood drenched Smurfit in her underwear taking down the camel coat wearing red head psycho.

“Bait” originally filmed as The Taking well directed by Dominic “Paddy Kirk” Brunt (Before Dawn) from a script by  “Emmerdale” writer Paul Roundell is a coffee black comic economic horror movie that harks back to the filmmaking style of “The Full Monty” mixed with the brutal violence in everyday settings that was present in Ben Wheatley's “Kill List”.

The films “Thelma and Louise” pairing of Joanne Mitchell who acted alongside Brunt in the long running rural soap also serves as producer on this movie alongside Victoria Smurfit who can be seen in various Hollywood roles in “The Beach” to “ Bulletproof Monk” opposite Chow Yun Fat both give effective performances which assists “Baits” mixture of laughs and gasps.

While other cast members you’ll recognise from British TV and cinema over  the last 30 years such as Adam Forgarty who played the pikey hating bare knuckle boxer in “Snatch”, David Kear A.K.A “Charlie Chuck” from The Smell of Reeves & Mortimer and Rula Lenska infamous for her “catty moment” with George Galloway on CBB.

Make sure to watch the post-credits sequence by claymation splatter specialist Lee Hardcastle it's equally brutal as the film that preceded it. The review copy I watched sadly contained no special features.

The Oscar nominated “Naked Prey” (1966) from director Cornel Wilde is a based on a true account (which has been transferred from the American West to Africa) mixed with The Most Dangerous Game and Sam Fullers “Run of the Arrow”.

Lead actor Wilde plays a character referred only as to as ‘man’ the head of a safari team that are taking a horrible trophy hunter (Gert van den Bergh) to shoot some elephants and his desire to get into the slave trade. When the hunter refuses to give tributes to a warrior tribe after strict instructions from Wilde several white members of the group are murdered and “man” is forced to run and battle for survival after the tribe chief sees his death as a sport for his expert hunters for the rest of the movie.

“The Naked Prey” through our PC enlightened times the depiction of the warrior tribe as vicious blood savages might put people off but they are shown as people that also have care & real emotion for fellow members particularly the moment we see one of them hacking at a tree in anger over discovering two bodies of his group we the audience might not be able to understand what they are saying but through their actions we can the gist of them as a team in humanised terms.

A standout touching sequence is after man is found at the bottom of a river by a very young native girl who tries in vain to awaken our lead there's tears in her eyes but he comes round a friendly relationship develops between them that's sadly comes towards the end of film & goes nowhere.

The dialogue is minimal after the opening but the soundtrack from creatures and drumming adds the richness of the cinematography of the multicolored landscape enhances the film's intensity. “Naked Prey” does have its problems especially the use of Umberto Lenzi type use of animal killing stock footage that abruptly at times cuts into the film and slows the action down.

This Dual format release through Eureka's “Masters Of Cinema” strand has excellent picture and audio quality for a location shot sometime pretentious action adventure from 50 years ago it's been brilliantly restored. The only extra feature apart from the trailer is a fascinating well researched interview with film historian Sheldon Hall who discusses Cornel Wilde’s career, Naked Prey’s very difficult production in which the director was hospitalised several,censorship/release issues it along with its common narrative traits with Jean Claude Van Damme’s “Hard Target” and the Mel Gibson directed “Apocalypto”

It’s a film that should been hunted out and rediscovered.

This enjoyable 1964 Bryon Haskins directed sci-fi retelling of the classic Daniel Defoe story is        re-released on dual formats is the story of  Commander Christopher ‘Kit’ Draper (Paul Mantee) along with Colonel Dan McReady (Adam West) and their pet monkey Mona (The Woolly Monkey) while on a Mars orbiting recon mission are then suddenly on a collision course with a meteorite.

The team are then forced to burn up all their fuel in order to get out of the meteorite’s way and they have to eject from the ship in escape pods. Draper and Mona survive the descent while the Commander discovers MccReady's body, leaving him alone on the red planet trying to survive in order to get home.

“Robinson Crusoe on Mars” screenplay by IB Melchior (who wrote the story used as the basis of Death Race 2000) and John Higgins takes Mantee’s Commander a pretty well imagined look of Mars it would be a further 12 years at the time before we’d see the “Total Recall” red planet (mostly filmed in Death Valley) Kit can breath on his own for 15 minutes of he doesn't exert himself.

The impressive use of stunningly detailed background matte paintings paired with the foreground moments such as  the abandoned spaceship Mars Gravity Probe 1 orbiting overhead and flaming meteors crashing out of the sky. This is probably the only time that I wanted to see more of Adam West in a movie he's set up as a possible lead in the films opening,the discovery of his body and a hallucination by Kit that's all we get from the future Batman.

The Commander is a resourceful man finding shelter, flammable rocks to create oxygen for him to and edible plants he overcomes each challenge with humour which effectively balances the dangers Kit faces Mantee is very charismatic as the lead especially in the scenes with Mona and raises a few laughs when he plays homemade bagpipes whilst hiking across Mars’ rugged landscape.

He soon too finds friendship when Friday (Victor Lundin) on the run from alien slave-masters who mining the planet for minerals playing a protracted game of hide and seek from his captors who never leave their spaceships zipping around at hyper speed these crafts are from George Pal’s The War of the Worlds while the spacesuits were from Destination Moon while Kit is desperately trying to make contact with a ship circling the planet.

On its release in 1964 it failed at the box office but “Robinson Crusoe on Mars” it's a charming & vibrant family friendly survivalist sci-fi tale that's in the same vein of  “I am Legend” and this year's monster hit Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” a perfectly timed release from Eureka.

The widescreen 1080P transfer disc for Robinson Crusoe on Mars contains the trailer, an informative but dry Audio Commentary with Academy Award winning visual effects artist Robert Skotak (Aliens) and moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures talking about his career along with the production history of Robinson Crusoe on Mars .

“The man who could cheat death” (1959) from director Terence Fisher a remake of the Paramount Pictures 40’s chiller “The man in half moon street” tells the story of Dr. Georges Bonner (Anton Diffring) a brilliant physician/sculptor/heartbreaker who’s the toast of 1890s Paris.


When we meet the doctor he’s unveiling of his latest female bust sculpture to several guests Georges callously informs his latest subject matter that he won’t see her any more. When suddenly Janine Du Bois (Hazel Court) a previous model of his comes to the party in the company of dashing young doctor, Pierre Gerard (Christopher Lee), it’s very apparent that things between Janine and Georges aren't resolved this begins a complicated love triangle in which Anton’s doctor character is hiding a deep, dark secret he’s not in his mid 30’s and is actually 104 years old.


Over many years with the help of ageing his old friend and collaborator Dr Ludwig Weiss (Arnold Marlé) have kept Georges young for an unnaturally long time and if he doesn’t have a specific operation using the “uter parathyroid” gland from dead people in the days ahead, the years are going to come catching up quickly. When Dr Weiss refuses to do the surgery he begs his love rival to do the op the clock is ticking for the century's old Bonner.


Jimmy Sangsters script has traits of classic mad scientist yarns mixed with Jekyll and Hyde Georges must take a potion at regular intervals to staiff off his escalated ageing process if late goes into a homicidal rage, turns green, and somehow can burn off the flesh of unfortunate victims by touch alone. The film also includes several heated debates such as is the young doctor is really concerned with the betterment of mankind, or his own selfish indulgence particularly his lust for the voluptuous Janine dressed in for the time revealing outfits.


“The man who could cheat death” re-released on dual format edition from Eurkea! is a good looking but dull film from hammer films the production design by Bernard Robinson and camera work from Jack Asher are effectively presented in 1080P but Terrence Fisher's uninspired direction despite good performances and a rushed ending “The man who…” is a minor chiller not peaking the heights of the studio's classic collaborations with Peter Cushing and the late great Mr Lee.


Much like the release of “The Skull” the disc contains two informative interviews with noted film expert's Kim Newman and Jonathan Rigby both gentleman discusses the history of the Gothic horror studio Hammer,the movies they produced and how the “The man who could cheat death” came together a film initially meant as a vehicle for Peter Cushing but left due to script problems & exhaustion.

With no less than two features under his belt this year alone and with X-Men Apocalypse to come next year, Michael Fassbender is on fire at the moment and is nothing short of perfect in his third outing of 2015 as the late, great Apple creator Steve Jobs. Directed by the impeccable Danny Boyle and with a stellar supporting cast this is sure to stir up Oscar buzz and hopefully some worthy recognition in the months to come.

Boyle’s half biopic, half fictional account of Jobs is cleverly told and shot in three sections in three very distinctive styles. Beginning in 1984 and venturing right the way through to 1998 with the unravelling of the imac it charts Jobs’ life at three major product launches. Only viewing him at these three iconic moments is more effective than it sounds on the outset and actually gives huge exposition to who he was. This is displayed through exposition of his relationship with his daughter and with his colleagues, revealing that he was greatly disliked. Boyle’s direction is extremely effective and presents the gradual progression of arguably the most significant force behind the technology of today.
The cast are brilliant acr
oss the board. Fassbender gives a bold and brilliant performance as Jobs, comfortable in taking the helm of a dialogue driven drama and portraying shades of arrogance and confidence while also delivering a degree of sympathy towards Jobs in his fantastic performance. Kate Winslet is also superb as Jobs’ right-hand woman and head of marketing Joanna Hoffman. Playing a fierce female character, this time with a soft Polish accent - which is accentuated more in segments two and three than it is at the beginning – Winslet shows once again how versatile she is and how she can step into any role and truly make it her own.

After his role in The Martian it’s nice to see Jeff Daniels making a comeback to the big screen this year and he gives a solid performance here as John Scully. Seth Rogen also stands out as Steve Wozniak, the man who worked with Jobs and came up with the nuts and bolts of Apple in a garage of all places! Rogen is charismatic and charming and gets to play one of the more likeable and sympathetic characters in the film.
​
The soundtrack is electric and syncs in well with the different times depicted in the film. It moves with the times and gives a great atmosphere to the story. Boyle’s direction as ever is seamless and he reminds us again how adaptable and diverse he is with his films. This, like all of his other ventures is original in its own way and although he may take risks they always pay off in some way or another and there is always something to get from them. In this case it’s an intriguing insight into a late icon who gave us one of the most principal and dominant forces in the technological age that will continue to develop and enhance in many years to come. 

*THIS REVIEW WILL INCLUDE SOME SPOILERS, MORE IMPORTANTLY THE FINAL MOMENTS OF THE FILM*

In a sub-genres of horror it would be an understatement to say that the zombie genre has been overdone to death, just like the found footage films out there. everyone and their pet hamster have tried to make a zombie film and it will never stop coming (sigh). So it is always rare to find a zombie film which takes a different spin on the classic/modern classic tale. MAGGIE is a very well thought out film. It is moving, deep and i didn't hate the acting, which are all good starts....but the end, as usual ruined it a little for me. The ending even ruined it for my wife, who i have mentioned many a times is not a horror fan but was actually enjoying this.

Let's start with the plot which is simply one man's fight to protect his daughter. We have seen this before right? yeah but this time this man, Wade Vogel (played by the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger) is trying to protect his daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin - THE CALL, TV'S SCREAM QUEENS) from her slow transformation into a blood thirsty zombie.

This is a slow burner of a film, something we don't see much from Arnie, and it kinda works but doesn't at the same time. I love Schwarzenegger in this don't get me wrong, it is refreshing to see him take on a role so different than his previous films, but I have this feeling that this role would have been the same even if you placed a different actor in his role. On saying that though the connection between Wade and Maggie is truly touching and you got the slight exclusive relationship between father and daughter against the step mother role played by Joley Richardson. 

I like the style of zombie film, its raw and emotional and isn't all about the eating of guts, flesh and brains, and this is the way more zombie films should go in my opinion. However we still have not talked about the ending of this film, the reason I didn't give MAGGIE and 4 star review. I felt it was a slight cop out ending have Maggie kill herself by jumping off the roof. This wouldn't kill a zombie, this doesn't stop her from coming back so why do it? it would of been more emotional, more rounded if you had Wade shoot her. I mean that was her wish right? earlier in the film she begs him to be the one to shoot her when the time was right so why jump off the roof? We both sat there and said the same thing..."is that it? well I feel a little cheated"

To wrap up, MAGGIE was a deep and touching take on the zombie genre, with a disappointing ending which I am sure people  will disagree with me about (come at me haters!). it is well worth a buy though.

​THE STORY:
After receiving a call for help from his sister, followed by a disturbing home invasion, Barry (Jay Gallagher) gathers his tools and family and hits the road to the rescue amidst a zombie pandemic.
 
Sometimes it can be so damn frustrating when you witness a truly awesome movie trapped inside a lesser form of itself.  The first 10 to 15 minutes are a fucking mess.  The Jason X style hockey armour is a sick look – but that intro only serves to showcase the movies’ weakest special effects.  And I mean it when I say they are pitiful at best.  I’m talking about the fake-ass CGI shit that has been causing horror lovers to despair for the better part of this century.  You think you’ve got a decent movie on your screen and then BLAM! cartoon gunshots, cartoon knifings and cartoon head explosions.  Enough with the Looney Tunes bullshit already!
 
The blundering continues from there, but thankfully not for much longer.  Character Benny is introduced far too early, along with a backstory that does nothing but prolong us from the story’s true starting point.  The five minutes that the movie wastes on how Barry’s new ally had to kill his own brother could – should! – easily translate into a five second flashback, keeping things short, sweet and powerful.
 
From that point onwards, Wyrmwood gets pretty kick-ass.  Barry’s photographer sister, Brooke, played by Bianca Bradley, first appears in a crazy zombie attack at her home studio.  One of the best scenes in the movie.  Great make-up, well-choreographed, good tension with a resourceful heroin that doesn’t just scream until someone saves her.
 
The majority of the film continues to work so effectively because it keeps each new danger evenly spaced but never so far apart that it loses its grasp on your attention.  It also takes the zombie mythology in stranger directions by building upon the movies that came before it and inspired it.  Day of the Dead (1985) for example, had a sympathetic scientist who looked for ways to understand, but essentially control the zombie race, whereas Road of the Dead has a character who develops a telepathic controlling ability as the result of cruel human experiments.
 
LAST WORDS:
It is a shame about those first few minutes.  Regardless, Wyrmwood employs the best of its influences, from the originals to the remakes and the television series and creates one of the better zombie movies of this decade.  Just when I was thinking that zombies were so fucking over!
 

​Before Tales of Halloween (2015), before V/H/S (2012), before The ABCs of Death (2012), there was Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat (2007).
 
By sheer luck alone, the time of its home DVD release was perfect.  Rearing its festive head and pumpkin-orange grin pre-Twilight (2008), those were days when it was not seriously uncool to favour vampires and werewolves.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Trick ‘r Treat has it all from zombies to serial killers, from urban legends to age-old fairy tales, each with sickening twists and dizzying turns galore.  Not to mention its killer cast.
 
Dylan Baker of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy carries with him a natural disarming demeanour that makes him the perfect shark of the suburbs.  You just never really know who could be living right next door to you.  Meanwhile, sporting her trademark scowl, Dead Like Me’s Britt McKillip and her prankster friends are in for a rude and bone-breaking awakening.  Be careful who you push around.  One day they might just push back.
 
Post X-Men, Trick ‘r Treat sees the Oscar-Winning  Anna Paquin as the personification of innocence and danger colliding, as she steps out for a spooky night on the town with the girls, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood herself.  The big bad wolf ain’t got nothin’ on this damsel.
 
After delivering a terrifying performance in the U.S remake of The Ring, the formidable Brian Cox is the Ebenezer Scrooge of Halloween as he does battle with its past, present and future all rolled into one small…child?  Or is it?  Kooky chaos ensues in this twisted Home Alone-style invasion.  But will this Scrooge learn the error of his ways.  If he doesn’t, this candy-guzzling intruder will show him a trick that I bet even the Lollipop Guild has never seen.
 
I just wouldn’t be All Hallow’s Eve without Trick ‘r Treat.  Marvel as each tale of the best horror anthology, bar none, intertwines with the other.  Be surprised, be horrified and be good for Sam – a new horror legend in the making.  Have a Happy Halloween!