VisualCrack

Dir. Zev Berman

Cast: Brian Presley, Rider Strong, Jake Muxworthy, Beto Cuevas, Martha Higareda

I have a dilemma with the genre of so-called "torture porn" that has muscled its devious way into the horror movie limelight in recent years, my primary concern is that countless movies are bypassed or just rejected due to this catch-all tag. Such movies as Hostel and Touristas are essentially nauseous, inelegant, and of virtually no redeeming cinematic value, whereas films like Martyrs, Saw, and now, Borderland, albeit sharing similarities to the former in tone, brutality and grittiness, have much more depth of story and cogency of execution to just be demeaned by a hip epithet.

Dir. Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza

Cast: Manuela Velasco, Pablo Rosso, Ferran Terraza, Carlos Vicente, María Teresa Ortega

Sadly [●REC] is interminably and unjustly likened by reviewers to The Blair Witch Project, understandable given its plot, cast of characters and the cinematic mechanisms utilised, but that is undeniably where any similarity ends. Although The Blair Witch Project was a ground breaking film, particularly if we take into account it's pervasively cogent viral marketing campaign, if we were to assess the two movies essentially on their horror genre credentials then [●REC] is by far the exemplary title – if anything [●REC] is the film that Blair Witch should have been.

Dir. Michael Bassett

Cast: Sean Pertwee, Alex Reid, Stephen Wight, Luke Neal, Toby Kebbell

Wilderness is director Michael Bassett’s follow-up to his creepy little World War I horror opus Death Watch and follows a multifarious band of juvenile delinquents and their custodians as they fight for their lives on a remote island against a lone, revenge-driven ex-special forces soldier. Wilderness starts languidly then spins out of control into an orgiastic display of rancorous dogs, crossbows and deadly traps, think The Children's Film Foundation meets Severance and you are some way to assimilating the cinematic niche where this black-hearted little film dwells.

Dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis

Cast:  J.P. Delahoussaye, Mark McLachlin, Melissa Morgan, Toni Wynne

39 years to wait for a sequel is a long time. too long some would say. in 1963 Herschell Gordon Lewis bequeathed upon the world the prototypical gore film, Blood Feast, engendering drive-in screens across a whole nation to drip scarlet and interminably altering the face of horror cinema forever. Every gross-out, effects laden murder to grace the screen in the proceeding four decades have this low budget beacon to thank for it. Now take a minute and reflect on this, dear friends, this was NOT a case of a film that just happened to be shocking at the time, even by today's digitally embellished horror standards, this unpretentious little film, squeaking in at a mere 67 minutes, has more bloodshed per frame than all the slasher films that followed in it's wake. So the question remains, why a 39 year gap between this genre-shifting archetype and it's sequel? Well let's take a look at the evidence and see what turns up...

Dir. David Payne

Cast: Devon Gummersall, Derek Richardson, Tina Illman, Scott Whyte, Arielle Kebbel, Michael Ironside, Eric Mabius, Marcia Strassman, David Hadinger.

It's become increasingly more arduous to formulate something fresh and inventive within the horror genre of late, what with ceaseless remakes and reboots that only succeed in disquieting and piquing real genre fans. So it's invigorating to come across a film that is bold and tries something new and idiosyncratic, Dave Payne's Reeker plows the, as yet, unfurrowed turf of effluvium related horror... baffled? Well read on dear friends.

Born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and raised in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, Minnesota Amber performed as an actor, dancer, and singer in America, Australia, Asia, and Europe. She trained at the Academy of Arts, QUT in Brisbane, Australia in Contemporary Dance and later at London Studio Centre, attaining a BA Honors in Theatre Dance (Musical Theatre). While in London she acted in various shorts, pilots, and features including the leading roles in TrashHouse and Cross-Eyed Waltz

Dir. Tommy Wirkola

Cast:  Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henrikse, Charlotte Frogner, Lasse Valdal

Dead Snow is a film that every self-respecting horror fan should yearn desperately to love, with its miniscule budget, genre referencing, Norwegian roots and it's poetic, snow-blasted mountain locations. Oh, and did I forget to mention... Nazi Zombies. That's right, it's been a long time since we had Nazi Zombies on screen with the turgid Zombie Lake, and sadly Dead Snow doesn't really rescue the genre, but it's not for want of trying.

Dir. Charles Pierce

Cast: Charles Pierce, Charles Pierce, Jr., Cindy Butler, Jimmy Clem

Charles Pierce follows up on his own, The Legend Of Boggy Creek, what many profess to be the single foremost Bigfoot film of all time, with... this travasty! Disregarding completely 1977’s Return To Boggy Creek, made by another disparate group of low budget psuedo film-makers, which in turn, succeeded in ignoring the first film. This film instead turns out to be a bland assimilation of Shriek Of The Mutilated and an erstwhile episode of Dukes of Hazzard, any concept of mystery and foreboding is dissipated only to be commuted by a sense of utter apathy.

Dir. Paul Andrew Williams

Cast: Reece Shearsmith, Andy Serkis, Jennifer Ellison. Steve O'Donnell

Peter (Shearsmith) and David (Serkis) are discordant brothers who do something implausibly cretinous: kidnap the step-daughter of David's underworld-connected boss and demand a sizable ransom. More foolishly, they enlist the support of Andrew (O'Donnell), the boss' dimwitted son. Of course, the boss is onto this from the outset and dispatches a brace of Asian assassins to tail Andrew as he conveys the ransom to the brothers at their late mothers' rustic cottage.

Dir. Steve Anderson 

Cast: Jon Favreau, Joey Lauren Adams, Kelsey Grammer, Sean Bean, Daryl Hannah, Rachael Leigh Cook

JOHN PERSON (Jon Favreau) is a 30-something struggling actor living alone and facing eviction from his unfurnished apartment in Hollywood. Behind on his rent and heavily in debt, he goes against the better judgment of his pretty neighbor GRACE (Joey Lauren Adams) and accepts an unsolicited offer from his strange neighbor NEELY (Bud Cort) to courier a blue suitcase up to the desert truck stop of Baker, California.