Cast/Notable Credits: George Romero (Director) Duane Jones (Ben) Judith O’Dea (Barbara) Karl Hardman (Harry Cooper) Marilyn Eastman (Helen Cooper) Keith Wayne (Tom) Judith Ridley (Judy)
Trailer:
Plot:
“They’re coming to get you, Barbra!”
Yes, they are coming to get you…and you…and you, because that’s what zombies do. We have to thank George Romero for that. Romero brought us the world of zombies (or at least popularized them in the way we know them) in his black and white 1968 classic, Night of the Living Dead.
Night of the Living Dead is the movie that created a whole new genre in the horror industry. There are slasher movies, there are suspense movies, there are monster movies, and then there are zombie movies. So how did it all start?
Two siblings (Barbra and Johnny) visiting their father’s grave at a rural Pennsylvania cemetery come across an unusual being…a zombie. But they don’t know that yet. A pale faced man appearing to be human is also wondering around in the cemetery, but then he quickly attacks Barbra. Johnny comes to her aide and fights with the man. After a struggle, Johnny falls on the corner of a gravestone knocking him dead…or unconscious. Barbra flees the graveyard towards Johnny’s car.
Unable to start the car (no keys), she knocks it out of gear and the cars coasts downhill, out of the cemetery and into a tree. Women drivers! Just kidding:) Barbra abandons the car and heads toward a nearby farmhouse. She finds the house empty (outside a few corpses) and takes refuge as other pale faced beings (zombies) become attracted to the house and gather outside. They have only one thing on their mind: human flesh…Barbra.
A little bit later, a pickup truck arrives at the house and its occupant, Ben, emerges from it and fights off zombies while making his way to the house. Ben and Barbra boards up the house and barricades themselves in as more and more zombies gather outside of the house. Speaking of boarding up houses, I always love seeing this in movies. Whoever boards up doors and windows has no sense when it comes to wood shop.
To say the least, Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and Bob Villa would be disappointed in Ben’s job of boarding up the house. The job looked something like a project a retard that would have done if given a box of Lincoln Logs. “Ah…let’s put a board here and…here. That would look purty. Maybe another one here.” No wonder the zombies always burst through at the end.
Barbra has a hysterical breakdown and gets knocked the “F” out by Ben. Ben then finds the radio and they listen to the radio for updates on this anomaly. The radio reports explain as best as they can what is happening, but just like the media, they have no idea what’s going on. Apparently similar events have been occurring around the east coast.
Pretty soon afterwards, an additional group of survivors emerge from the house’s cellar. The group includes Mr. & Mrs. Cooper and their daughter, Karen and a teenage couple, Tom and Judy. All of them had come to the farmhouse to hide. Each had their own separate stories on how they came to be. Karen was bitten by one of the attackers earlier and has fallen ill as she lays sick on a table in the cellar. My gut feeling says that she isn’t gonna make it.
Ben finds a television upstairs and with the help of Tom, they drag it down stairs and get it working. Mess with the rabbit ears! Wow…rabbit ears. And we’re just a few months away from having completely digital T.V.
The survivors huddle around the television listening to reports on what is going on. I guess we learned early on that T.V. has ALL the answers. I can’t wait until we find a horror movie based on the internet! Wait a second…hmm…I think they did do one…I think it was the Mangler 2 or 3. Whatever.
The T.V. reports explain that the deceased have been coming back to life and feeding upon the flesh of the living. T.V. and radio reports refer to the dead as “ghouls” and reports that the epidemic has engulfed most of the eastern seaboard and other parts of the U.S. The first initial case may have stemmed from an incident two days earlier in Texas.
Scientific experts believe the reanimation of corpses are stemming from radiation brought back from a recent space probe returning from Venus. Not Mars…for once. Or Uranus. He he. But Venus. Isn’t Venus the Greek God of beauty?
The scientists have figured it out that a heavy blow or gunshot to the head will kill a ghoul (zombie). The T.V. also reports that local “rescue stations” have been set up for survivors, and groups of posses are patrolling the countryside hunting down the ghouls (zombies).
With zombies knocking on the doors and windows, the group faces the dilemma of their next course of action…run, hide, or die.
Villain:
Zombie…zombies…zombies! Or ghouls…ghouls…ghouls! Okay, I’m going to stop calling them that. Zombie…zombies…zombies! One of the best villains ever! The more the merrier! Night of the Living Dead kicked off a new era in villains by creating a villain out of something that is already dead. How do you kill something that is already dead? Shoot em’ in the head…of course.
So what is a zombie? Many films have their own version or take of what a zombie is, but the most common denominator is that a zombie is a dead person brought back to life with the craving of flesh. Once bitten by a zombie, there is only one path to go down…turning into a zombie. The zombie “virus” is transmitted through bites (at least in 99% of cases in movies) from zombies to living beings.
Zombies typically display no intelligence (though some cases incorporate this at a low level) as they live to fulfill one purpose…to eat off of living flesh. Perhaps this is because the human brain has decayed and is only restricted to motor functions. In most cases, zombies don’t talk, but if they do, it usually mutters, “BRAINS”. I don't know about you, but that doesn't look very appetizing to me.
Outside of philosophical differences on what a zombie can or cannot do, the biggest discrepancy is in the zombie’s speed. For years, it has been understood that a zombie is a slow, lumbering dead corpse. A zombie would typically sneak up on someone or use mass numbers to overwhelm people. It was not typically quick until recent years.
The zombies in Night of the Living Dead are the typical slow moving, flesh craving dead person. Although I do want to point out that the first zombie in the film (one in the cemetery) moved pretty quick despite the myths and typecasts of Romero’s zombies.
Cast:
Duane Jones (Ben) leads the cast of relatively unknowns in this independent film. Jones also has the distinction to be the first African American to have a starring role in a horror film. For me, Ben is one of the two only likeable characters in the film. Ben is smart and quick to take charge in his fight for survival…and he’s got a mean right hook! Ben knocks two dumb *ss, bickering mother f*ckers out! Ben don’t stand for any sh*t!
One of the characters that I hated the most was…drum roll…Barbra. Yeah that’s right. The main b*tch. Judith O’Dea plays the character Barbra. Let me say, “Oh my God. She was annoying as hell.” Whine, cry and sniffle. Boo hoo. Barbra has a meltdown thirty minutes into the film and takes a Ben right hook and she’s done. She goes into some catatonic state and says like ten words after that. That part was pretty cool. She wasn’t the typical heroine that you would expect in a horror movie.
Karl Hardman plays Harry Cooper, a.k.a. the Dick of the bunch. From the get-go he clearly is the village idiot craving power. Harry’s a control freak, but yet he hasn’t got the balls to do anything. Always with him is a pessimistic view and no real game plan for survival. Harry appears afraid of the black man as he constantly battles Ben’s ideas and eventually gives way to him. Also a victim of Ben’s right hook. It was like a game of Tyson's "Punch Out".
The last character of any real significant value is Tom, played by Keith Wayne. Tom is a young naïve teenager who means good will, but is a “tool” in the end. His dialect in the movie makes him sound like a character straight out of the Leave It To Beaver show. “Golly. Swell. That would be super!” Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating…or not.
SFX/Gore:
Night of the Living Dead was made back in the mid 60’s, so what do you expect in this category? The film is in Black & White, which has its own classic eerie feel to it. Chocolate syrup was used as a substitute for fake blood. That’s awesome! By the way, the kid in the photo looks like my cousin's third grade photo. Maybe he was a zombie. As you can tell, the effects are pretty primitive, but it doesn’t mean the film held back in not being disgusting.
Most of the film’s budget was probably blown on the effects during the daring…yet laughable…escape attempt by Tom and Judy. Now I hate to bash a classic film, but this series of events are just too incredibly silly to watch.
During this sequence, the plan for the bunch is to take a pickup truck (already low on gas) and fill it up with gas so the survivors can drive to the nearest town (rescue station). There is a gasoline pump at the barn of the farmhouse, but it was locked. Tom finds a set of keys in the cellar of the house, and they believe that they unlock the gas pump.
Ben and Tom decided to make a daring rush through the zombies outside and make a break for the pickup and then barn. At this point in the film, they have already figured out that zombies hate fire or bright light. So Ben equips himself with a rifle and a fire torch as he and Tom breaks for the pickup. At the last second, Judy decides to go with them. Ah. Young lovers.
Tom and Judy gets in the pickup as Ben fights off some zombies and hops in the back of the pickup and they make the short drive over to the gas pump. This is where things get kind of comical. Tom fiddles around with the keys to the lock and eventually gives up, the key doesn’t work.
Ben comes in and sets the torch on the ground by the truck, pushes Tom aside and shoots the padlock with the rifle. Timeout.Are you f*ckin’ kidding me? You’re gonna shoot at a padlock protecting a gas pump with the hopes of blowing off the lock. Really? I get paranoid about the whole static shock thing every time I go and fill up with gas, and this guy is taking a shot at a f*ckin’ gas pump with a rifle!
On to dumb *ss move #2. Ben has just set a FLAMING torch down on the ground in between the pump and truck. This guy’s asking for it. Okay, a miracle happens and Ben shoots off the padlock cleanly in the first shot. Tom then grabs the nozzle and flings it and the gas around like a garden hose watering plants.
Guess what happens next? You got it. You don’t have to be a chemistry major to figure out that gas and fire equals bad. Tom’s gas pump watering show and Ben’s brilliant idea of leaving a torch next to the pickup truck leads to the truck catching on fire.
What’s the next logical thing to do? If you answered hop back in the burning truck with your girlfriend still inside to drive it away to safety, then you’re on par with the film. Tom hops back into the pickup truck and drives it away. A few seconds later, Tom and Judy are…to quote Bon Jovi, “Going down in the blaze of glory!”
TNA:
Don’t expect much from this category. I guess Judy was pretty hot in her hay day (SHARK FACTOR). Barbara…well I couldn’t stand her. On a positive note, there is a zombie chick that shows her naked behind. Whoop dee doo!
T.Gun’s Take:
NOTLD is one of the classic horror movies of all time. It’s pretty easy to pick apart things in the film, but sometimes we need to take a step back and look at the film for its achievements based on a historical perspective. After all the film was the first of its kind, the mother of all zombie films.
Despite some minor flaws in the film, it still remains pretty sound. Romero uses eerie music and great sound effects to optimize the film’s tense moments and create a good dark atmosphere. This is one of my favorite aspects of the film. I’m a sucker for eerie music used in the right way.
Romero does an excellent job in his films to focus on the characters of the film. Any idiot can cook up a disaster story about zombies taking over the world. What Romero does, is make the audience care about the characters. It's not all blood and guts for him...its all about the people.
The bookends of the film are the zombie attacks, but the middle is filled with great character development and stories. Romero has a great knack for creating characters, back stories and bringing them to life on screen.
In NOTLD, Romero uses the farmhouse as an opportunity to bring a cast of colorful characters together. Barbra is the damsel in distress, Ben (Duane Jones pictured left) is the strong leader, Mr. Cooper is the antagonist, and Tom is the good willed follower, and the others are the supporting characters in the film. Despite my hatred for Barbra's character, her role in the film is actually very important. I didn't like her, but Romero made an effort for me to feel for her character, just like all the other characters.
Romero's films all tend to having an underlining message to the audience in them. For NOTLD, I think the message is teamwork. In order for humans to survive in his films, they seemed to be put in situations that the characters need to rely upon one another in order to survive. Once a wheel comes off the teamwork wagon, things start to unravel and people tend to die.
The situation the group of characters face in the film is a very dangerous predicament. In the aftermath of the movie, you can look back and basically hypothesize that if they showed patience and worked together, they probably would have survived as a group.
The set up of the film is great Romero keeps the audience in the dark to what is happening. The film starts off with siblings visiting their father’s grave and before you know it, the girl is hiding in an isolated farmhouse from her attackers. It is like, “What the hell’s going on?” And that’s great about it. Before you can catch your breath, a lot has happened with no back story or explanation to how we got to that point.
I believe that Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is a film that everyone has heard of, but not everyone has seen…and that’s a shame. I bet if a poll was taken, people that have actually heard of the movie vs. ones that have seen it differ tremendously.
Why do I say that? Probably because if it weren’t true, there would be more love for this film. When greatest horror films get brought up in lists and topics of conversation, all the big names like Halloween, Psycho, Friday, and Nightmare get mentioned, but very little props is given to this flick. Even its sequel, Dawn gets more love than this film. All horror movie lovers need to watch this flick. Period. Then there probably would be more respect for the film.
Misc. Movie Trivia: -Filmed opened on October 1, 1968 -Chocolate syrup was used as blood -The film’s events take place on April 30, 1967 -The word “zombie” is never used in the film -Loose copyright laws (original distributor neglected to do) makes the film the most downloaded movie on the internet -Cemetery scene filmed in Evans City cemetery, Pennsylvania
Nathan Fillion (Bill Pardy): Saving Private Ryan (1998), Dracula 2000 (2000), Serenity (2005), White Noise 2 (2007); Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, Buffy, Firefly, Lost, Desperate Housewives, & Castle T.V. series
Elizabeth Banks (Starla Grant): Spiderman (2002), 2 (2004) & 3 (2007), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Seabiscuit (2003), The 40 Yr Old Virgin (2005), Invincible (2006), Meet Dave (2008), Zack & Miri Make a Porno (2008), W (2008), Role Models (2008), The Uninvited, Scrubs T.V. series
Michael Rooker (Grant): Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), Eight Men Out (1988), Mississippi Burning (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), JFK (1991), Cliffhanger (1993), The Replacement Killers (1998), The Bone Collector (1999), The 6th Day (2000), Jumper (2008)
Gregg Henry (Jack): Star Trek 9 (1998), Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever (2002), United 93 (2006), The Black Dahlia (2006), Gilmore Girles & The Riches T.V. series
Tania Saulnier (Kylie): The Wicker Man (2006) (Pictured Right)
Jenna Fischer (Shelby): Blades of Glory (2007), Walk Hard (2008), The Office T.V. series
Don Thompson (Wally): Watchmen (2009), Battlestar Galactica T.V. series
Xantha Radley (Uptight mom): The Fog (2005), The Wicker Man (2006), MOH: Right to Die (2007), The X-files 2 (2008)
Dustin Milligan (Drawing Boy): Final Destination 3 (2006), The Butterfly Effect 2 (2006), The Messengers (2007), 90210 T.V. series
Lorena Gale (Janene): The Fly 2 (1989), Ernest Goes to School (1994), Halloween Part 8, The Butterfly Effect (2005), The Perfect Score (2004), The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), Fantastic Four (2005), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005),The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), Battlestar Galactica T.V. series
Trailer:
Plot:
An asteroid carrying an alien species (oversized worms…or slugs) falls to Earth and crashes in the woods to the nearby town of Wheelsy, South Carolina. One of the town’s locals, Grant Grant, (yes…he has the same first as last name...freakin' rednecks) comes into contact with the asteroid and the alien species takes over Grant’s body.
Over the next few days, Grant has an extraordinary appetite for meat while he evolves into a mutant alien. Grant impregnates another local woman (Brenda) with the alien species during sex. Grant keeps Brenda hostage in a local barn as she grows and mutates into an alien also.
Later on she eventually gives birth to thousands of alien slugs who then turn on the residents of Wheelsy. The slug enters through a person’s mouth and then eventually takes over the body. It’s up to the town’s chief of police, and his gang of remaining survivors to kill of the alien infestation.
Villain:
The bad guy monsters of the film are alien slugs and their evil leader, a mutated snail-squid looking thing. The snail-squid looking thing has different looks throughout the movie as it progresses with the mutation with its host, Grant. Grant is played by Michael Rooker (Pictured right) who does a fabulous job in the film.
The stages of the mutant Grant starts off with a pair of alien tentacles that pops out of his belly button. Next, hideous boils appear around the body, mostly the side of the neck and face. Before long, Grant’s arms are transformed into tentacles.
Grant disappears for a few days in the movie and then returns as a cow sized slug with all of the previously mentioned characteristics. The final look of the creature at the end of the film resembles a massive blob. It kind of reminds me of Jabba the Hutt that occupies an entire living room…with all the tentacles and stuff. The final image is pretty grotesque and hideous.
The alien slugs look like a giant red worm and are about the size of a beanie baby…remember those things? The red slugs move pretty fast and have the ability to “slither” up walls. As I mentioned before, they enter through the victim’s mouth and proceed up to the host’s brain to take over their body.
Once the human host has been taken over, they become part of the “collective”. All of the aliens are connected to the main slug villain, Grant. Whatever they see, he sees…etc., etc.
Cast:
The strength of the movie HAS to be its cast. Leading the way as the town’s chief of police, Bill Parady, is Nathan Fillion (Pictured Left). Fillion is…in my opinion…one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood. Why he isn’t in more sh*t, it’s beyond me. Fillion is a great man for playing the “hero role” or “action guy” in films. In Slither, he delivers as a stone faced, dry humored, one liner character you could root for.
Elizabeth Banks (Pictured below) plays the love interest of Fillion in the film, Starla. Starla and Bill grew up in the little town as friends. Starla was the town’s beautiful little southern blonde who wanted to be a star. At sometime Starla traded in her dreams and married the town’s rich man, Grant Grant. This left Bill all starry eyed and heartbroken for her as he secretly gazes upon her. As you can see, this leaves an interesting little love triangle between the three. Slither’s most fun character has to be Jack, the town’s mayor. Gregg Henry stars as Jack in the film and does an excellent job. Jack is the poster child for being a huge fowl mouthed prick who everyone loves to hate. In this case, his character is the funniest in the film. Henry does a great job acting as the wuss in the film, but spouting off some great one-liners while acting scared.
SFX/Gore:
Slither delivered with state of the art special effects as well as any other film made within the last ten years. The only problem I had with the film was its use of outlandish, over the top nasty, disgusting alien effects. I thought that poor use of over the top, disgusting to be disgusting effects brought the film’s street cred down a little bit. Unless you like seeing that type of direction, you’ll probably agree with me. It was like seeing a polished version of a Troma film.
One special effect sequence I had problems with was the deer attack at the police station. I guess one of the slugs attacked and took over a deer or dog…it was hard to tell. Chief Parady was at the station when it attacked him in the dark. Parady fenced off the attack, but it looked like he was fighting a stuffed deer or piñata. That scene looked pretty fake.
TNA:
The film pretty much is a cock tease. The gorgeous Elizabeth Banks is the center piece of the film and teases the audience through out. In the film, she wears skimpy lingerie and even has a shower scene, but does not show the goods. Bummer. She is definitely great eye candy though.
Filling up the screen with additional eye candy are two other stars, Jenna Fischer and Tania Sauliner. Fischer (Pictured left) is one of my favorite actresses from the T.V. show, The Office. Fischer plays a bit part as the police dispatcher. It’s a small part, but it’s great to see her on the screen…despite her weird hairdo in the film. Sauliner (Kylie) gives us a quick nipple shot during the film’s bath tub scene. Quick…but nice.
T.Gun’s Take:
The film was dubbed a new version of the 80’s cult hit, Night of the Creeps. Remember that piece of art? Despite all the crying film’s producers claimed that Slither is not Night of the Creeps, it really is. If it looks like a rat, and smells like a rat…then it probably is a rat. It’s the same logic in this case.
Night of the Creeps has little slug aliens that crashed landed on Earth via asteroid. They enter through the mouth and take over the human host. Kill the master to kill them all. Slither…well…sounds the same doesn’t it? Not that I’m complaining that it is a remake of Night of the Creeps, but I’m just saying, give props to the original idea.
Despite my love for the cast, Slither didn’t deliver for me. Before the film came out, I was one of its biggest fans and supporters. Then I went and saw it at the theater. To say the least, it disappointed me. There were plenty of parts and ingredients in the film that I liked, but as a whole, the film was a dud.
Slither is an attempt at a dark comedy, but its one-liners are far too few in between one another. I waited in anticipation, but I lost interest in the film…or fell asleep… during the times in between. I’ve watched Slither many times since, hoping that something could spark a fire down inside me, but it still comes up short. I want to like the film, and I have given it many opportunities, but I still have trouble accepting it as a whole.
Slither incorporated a bad soundtrack to the movie in a good way. Throughout the movie, we are the beneficiaries to the sounds of a compilation of the best love songs of the 70’s and 80’s. As bad as it was to hear on the screen, it added a nice touch to its dark comedy side.
One of the biggest gripes I had with the film was the idea of explaining the whole alien slug history/saga in the single attempt to get into Kylie’s mouth. While struggling with a slug in the bath tub scene, Kylie finds one of them halfway down her throat.
I wasn’t a 100% sure what she did, it was either take a bite into it in an attempt to kill it, or it actually got far enough into her, that all of the alien species memories downloaded into her brain. Instantly Kylie became the alien slug expert with history and knowledge. She knew where they came from, and how to kill them. WTF?
It was like a badly done, cheesy scene like the one in the movie, Independence Day when the president saw into the alien’s brain and learned all the history. For me, it was a cop-out on how to explain sh*t. I think that it would have been better to not even go down that road rather than give the audience a B.S. explanation like that.
I continue to give Slither a chance to find that warm little spot in my heart, but it still hasn’t gotten there yet. I don’t know if it ever will now. I can’t stress how much I wanted for this movie to have been a success. Apparently, its Box Office numbers swing in the same direction as I do when it comes to its success. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, then check it out for yourself and see if you come to the same conclusion I did.
Misc. Movie Trivia: -Film opened on March 31, 2006 and made $7.8 million at the Box Office ($3.8 million opening weekend) -Director James Gunn was married to Jenna Fischer at the time -Rob Zombie plays the voice of the doctor over the phone
Around six years after the events of the second movie, the infamous T-virus has taken over the world leaving few survivors. The virus triggered the chain of events that has turned humans into zombies and has also turned the Earth into a waste land. The oceans dried up, and the lands turned to deserts...basically Nevada. Wait a second, the majority of the film takes place there. Good job on the location team!
A small convoy of trucks and people traveling across the western part of the U.S. are looking for survivors of the T-virus aftermath. There are about thirty of them taking refuge in trucks, school buses and other smaller recreational vehicles. The group is led by Claire Redfield, and Resident Evil 2 survivors Carlos and L.J.
Claire’s rag-tag fleet of vehicles listens for radio broadcasts of survivors and then checks them out. Along the way they loot small towns in Utah for supplies, fuel and survivors. The hope for survival is bleak as they find the towns already run dried for what they need.
Meanwhile, Alice (Milla Jovovich) is doing her own ransacking of towns…and also looking for survivors. Alice departed from Carlos and L.J. shortly after being rescued at the end of RE 2. She made a choice to “go off the grid” and stay hidden from the Umbrella Corporation and their satellites. Alice eventually reunites with Carlos and L.J. as she meets up with Claire’s convoy.
Amongst the survivors, there is a rumor that Alaska has not been breached with the global infection, and the group decides to head to Alaska. The only problem is that they don’t have enough fuel or supplies to get there. The convoy has hit all the small towns and sucked them dry of supplies. The next hope is to hit a big city up for supplies. And that big city would be Vegas.
Speaking of the evil Umbrella Corporation, top executives and scientists hold up in underground compounds similar to the one in the first movie. They continue to conduct experiments on the T-virus in efforts to “domesticate” the zombies. Dr. Issacs leads the American facility and is after more than domesticating the zombies. Issacs is experimenting with the T-virus and clones of Alice in another cause.
With the help of the corporation’s space satellites, Dr. Issacs finds Alice and sets up an operation to capture her and bring her back to the underground facility for more testing. The Umbrella Corporation sets up a trap for Alice and friends in Vegas.
Villain:
It wouldn’t be a Resident Evil movie without zombies now would it? Of course not. Zombies are once again the center stage for the movie. These zombies are a blend of slow moving and fast moving zombies. Pretty much average zombies then…right?
On one hand we have the average zombie in the film and on the other we have the genetically enhanced super zombie created by the Umbrella Corporation. The plain ole' zombie wasn't featured as much as the movie...series...should have. Extinction focuses on the more aggressive super zombie in the film.
Also a Resident Evil movie wouldn’t be complete without some freak of nature T-virus mutant thing. Dr. Issacs gets bitten by one of his test zombies in the movie and hurries back to the installation and repeatedly injected the anti-virus into him. The only problem is that he tinkered with the T-virus and his experiments so much, that the anti-virus had no effect on him.
Dr. Issacs injected so much, that it had a different result…mutation. The new Dr. Issacs turns into some type of uber zombie killing machine that shoots out tentacles and can’t be killed.
Cast:
Milla returns to reprise her role as Alice. From my point of view this was Milla's second best acting effort in the trilogy. It's not saying a WHOLE lot, but I believe it was a tad bit better than her performance in the first movie.
Alice is the focal point of the franchise. Her character goes hand in hand with the movies. In the first movie, we get introduced to the character. In the second movie, we learn that she has evolved and mutated with the T-virus, turning her into some type of super chick. The third installment continues on the growth of the Alice character and she becomes some what...beyond human.
Alice still has the kick *ss moves that she possessed in the first two films, but in Extinction she gains another quality to her whoop butt personality. Two words...psychic powers. Yep. Alice is now a blend of zombie *ss kicker and Jedi Knight. Or another comparison can be that she is the Tina chick from Friday the 13 Part 7 with the addition of Kung Fu skills. I'll let you ponder that thought.
Moving on...
Ali Larter takes the role of Claire, leader of the convoy. Larter is a beautiful, stunning, blonde woman, but I have yet to be impressed by any of her roles. There was nothing compelling that put her performance on the map for me.
This seems to be a reoccurring thing in all of her movies. She was the lead female in Final Destination, and I thought that she didn’t do anything special there. Her role on the T.V. series Heroes has been getting better. Her character in the first two seasons sucked, but they gave her a new look and she’s getting better as a mischievous, double crossing playa. Unfortunately, I saw none of that in this movie.
Our bad *ss ex-military friend Carlos and the pimp L.J. returned for another dose of zombie fun. Missing from the equation from last movie was Jill Valentine and the little girl. What happened to them? I missed Ms. V. Oh well.
SFX/Gore:
Extinction has state of the art special effects that look slick on the screen. In my opinion the best looking effect is how the movie transformed Vegas into a sand overridden city. I thought that was a nice touch to the film. The make-up on the zombies look great and the deaths are pretty good. None of the deaths were anything memorable, but I did like the shades Extinction brought in from the first movie, like the laser grid chamber. It’s always good to bring that killing machine back into the equation.
TNA:
Extinction raised the bar a little bit with eye candy in the film. Outside of Milla and Ali fogging up the screen with their hotness, the film brought in a couple more female bodies to play insignificant roles. Ali Larter Pictured Below. Extinction continued a popular trend of bringing in some hot R&B musician to fill the roles of a soon to be dead chick…and that chick would be Ashanti. Ashanti plays Nurse Betty, if you haven’t guessed, the nurse of the convoy. Rounding out the new addition of eye candy actresses is teenie bopper, Spencer Locke. Her name in the film is K-Mart. Apparently, Larter’s character found her in a K-Mart, and the name stuck. Don’t ask me. I’m just happy they found another way to give us something pleasurable on the eyes.
T.Gun Factor:
Extinction is the third and probably final installment on the Resident Evil video game based franchise. Extinction wasn’t as bad as others make it out to be…maybe because Paul W. Anderson didn’t direct this one. Extinction had its good and bad moments in the film, but overall it was at least an enjoyable popcorn movie to watch.
One thing that I didn’t like about the film was the “domesticating zombies” thing. Really? Can you rip off George Romero anymore? Was it coincidence that Romero’s third movie, Day of the Dead, went over the “domesticating zombies” idea, and now the third installment of Resident Evil goes down the same path? Hmm.
Another problem that I had with the film was the Alice Clones. I understand the Umbrella Corporation cloning her for research purposes, but why pursue Alice if you have unlimited clones of her? And why don’t they unleash the clones on the thousands of zombies? Instead of hiding in some underground bunker, they should have just unleashed the Grand Army of Alice Clones on the poor zombies. That probably would have been cooler.
Since I’m on the topic of Alice and the Umbrella Corporation…what the hell was the shutting down of Alice all about? So let me get this straight…Alice has gone “off the grid” for years, and then the Corporation finds her and is able to upload video feed from her eyes and are able to track her. Then during the “capture battle” they’re able to flip a switch and turn Alice off. Then Alice…the super being she is…fights off the shut down and psychically sends some signal to an orbiting satellite to disable it and come back on line. WTF?
I would say that Extinction was a little bit better of a film than the second installment, but not as good as the first movie. It's still an enjoyable popcorn movie to watch once.
Misc. Movie Trivia: -Film opened on September 21, 2007 and made $49.9 million at the Box Office ($23.6 opening weekend) -First installment of franchise not released on VHS format -Crow scene plays homage to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
Cast/Notable Credits: Mark Jones (Director): Triloquist (2008)
Warwick Davis (Leprechaun): Leprechaun 1-6, Star Wars ROTJ (1983) Phantom Menace (1999) Ewok Movies (1984 & 1985), Time Bandits (1981), Labyrinth (1986), Willow (1988), Harry Potter franchise, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Chronicles of Narnia 2 (2008)
Jennifer Aniston (Tory): Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-up (2006), Friends T.V. series
Try as they will And try as they might Who steals me gold Won’t live through the night
Where’s me gold?
Daniel O'Grady returns from overseas to his North Dakota country home with his dead mother's ashes and a bunch of crates. Hidden in the vase of his mother's ashes is a bag of gold coins which he had stole from a Leprechaun. Unknowingly to O'Grady, the Leprechaun he stole from stowed away in the luggage with him, and sets his sights on revenge.
While burying the stash of hidden treasure out in the countryside, the Leprechaun kills O'Grady's wife and awaits for him to come home. O'Grady returns home and the confrontation begins. O'Grady manages to trap the Leprechaun in a wooden crate in the basement of the farmhouse with the use of a four leaf clover.
The four leaf clover is the Leprechauns...kryptonite...and drains the Leprechaun of his powers as O'Grady locks him away. During the process, O'Grady suffers a stroke that will land him in a nursing home for the next 10 years while the Leprechaun awaits locked in his crate tomb with a four leaf clover acting as a powerful seal to contain the mythical being.
Ten years later, a man named J.D. Redding buys the farmhouse cheap and hopes to restore it after years of decay. He drags his daughter Tory from California to the house for the summer to help fix the house. Redding hires a couple of locals (Nathan, Alex and Ozzie)to help fix up the place.
Still encased in his crate tomb, the Leprechaun remains trapped in the house's basement. One thing leads to another and the four leaf clover gets blown off the crate, freeing the Leprechaun and bestowing his revenge onto the Redding family and friends.
Ozzie and Alex discovers the hidden treasure after following the end of a nearby rainbow. You know, because there's always a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Ozzie, an autistic fellow, accidentally swallows a gold coin while biting it for authenticity. Alex and Ozzie keep the location a secret and head back to the house.
The Leprechaun makes his appearance to the family and demands his gold be given back. Outside of Alex and Ozzie, no one knows what the hell is going on or what the Leprechaun is talking about. Outraged,the Leprechaun haunts the group.
Eventually after a night of terror, Alex and Ozzie fess up the location of the hidden treasure and gives it back to the Leprechaun. The only problem is that one piece of treasure lays hidden in the belly of Ozzie. Now they must make a choice, kill Ozzie or kill the Leprechaun.
Villain:
Who knew that fury little Ewok named Wicket would become such as vicious little monster and horror icon? I'll admit...Wicket was my favorite Ewok...and Return of the Jedi is better than Empire! But that's another long debate for another time.
Anyways...to say the least, I've been a fan of Warwick Davis and all of his roles. Davis plays the evil, 600 yr old leprechaun, who goes by the name of...The Leprechaun. So big deal, the franchise never invested into getting him a real name.
The Leprechaun is...well...a leprechaun. Wee little people. Midgets. Halflings. Vertically challenged individuals. A short little Irish dwarf wearing green or wee little people. He wears the goofy looking green top hat that everyone associates with St. Patrick's Day. This leprechaun is a little grotesque in looks and teeth. See the picture.
The Leprechaun is obsessed with guarding and counting his treasure (gold) and also has a strange fetish with shining shoes. He'll seek revenge on anyone who dare takes the gold from him or stands in the way of its whereabouts. Where's me gold? He has magical powers that he uses to get his way and protects his gold.
Cast:
Before there was FRIENDS, there was Leprechaun. Surprising how fun little unknown characters in horror movies turn out to be mega Hollywood stars. And that is the case for one lass named Mrs. Jennifer Aniston. Yes, she was starring at the young tender age of 24 at the time. Long before the whole "hair thing" on that dreadful T.V. show. Sorry, but me not a fan here!
Jennifer plays the character of Tory, a young naive California lass who is dragged to North Dakota for the summer by her father to fix up his newly acquired house in the country. She does the typical California whine and moan upon arrival of the dump, but has a change of heart when she falls for the young, stud handyman, Nathan.
SFX/Gore:
An evil killer leprechaun, we're in for fun, blood and guts...right? Don't get your panties in a scrunchy here. Me gold seekin' and protectin' friend only puts down four characters in thy film. Ya see laddie, all them kills were courtesy of some minor characters. Three of which didn't even steal me gold.
Me favorite kill, I guess would be thy coin shop owner. The wee little guy killed him with a pogo stick. Gotta say ya don't see that everyday.
Well Leprechaun didn't come through for its tremendous amounts of deaths in the film, but it does have plenty of silly special effects. His "special powers" revolve around him shooting out weird green spiral haze to obtain things.
I do give the film credit for making the little leprechaun soap box car. As Tory and friends are attempting to escape in a truck that won't start * cough *how original* cough * the Leprechaun heads off to the barn and a minute later he comes out riding the soap box car from hell. It was a simple little metal thing with wheels and a pitch fork mounted on the hood as a ramming device.
TNA:
Not much here, but we do get the lovely Jennifer Aniston in her younger years. It's kinda funny looking back at the super-duper outfits we wore in the early 90's. Jennifer supports those old cut off jean shorts with flower patterns mixed in. That's awesome. Ah...how times have changed. Jennifer Aniston pictured below. T.Gun Factor:
If you haven't seen Leprechaun...then you're a loser. It's a classic. It's like not seeing The Goonies or Police Academy...at least if you grew up during the 80's. If you're younger than the film, then I'm sorry. You've deprived of a great national treasure.
Okay, its not that great...but its worth it. Leprechaun is filled with funny and silly special effects, chase sequences and goofiness. There's even a scene in the movie where the Leprechaun is going through the kitchen cabinets and finds a * cough *Rip off* cough * version of Lucky Charms and has the Leprechaun taste them and spit them out in disgust. Unfortunately all of these help to the decline of horror movies during the late 80's and early 90's. People just didn't take horror movies seriously anymore. Think about it. A horror movie about a killer leprechaun. Really? How scary can that be? How can you be scarred of something that doesn't even exist? Or do they? Bottom line...if you haven't checked out this St. Patty's Day classic...then check it out!
Misc. Movie Trivia: -Film opened on January 8, 1993 and made $8.5 million at the Box Office ($3.2 million opening weekend) -Was Trimark’s first movie -Jennifer Aniston’s first feature film -Released to theaters on January 1, 1993 making it the years first release -Filmed in Saugus, CA
A young hot blonde (Annie) leaves her house to go jogging around Los Angeles. She later turns down an isolated alley and is abducted by a cloaked man. Soon afterwards, Annie finds herself tied down to the floor on top of a mysterious cult design and sacrificed to a monster hell beast that dwells in a basement. Lookin' good so far!
Annie’s sister, Larissa, goes to the police to report her sister missing and discovers that there might be a connection to her disappearance to another case of missing girls. It's a very loose connection to the other missing girls. The connection is the Mary Magdalen Halfway House for Troubled girls. Unfortunately none of them look like this girl:(
The Catholic school girl’s halfway house is suspect for numerous disappearances, but the police do not believe they can properly investigate a house ran by a bunch of religious fanatics and they don’t have too much evidence against them.
Larissa decides to go “undercover” and take refuge in the halfway house doing an investigation of her own. Larissa makes up a cover story and gets accepted into the halfway house. She battles the elements as she tries to blend in with the other “troubled” girls living at Mary Magdalen’s.
Over her stay chicks duke it out with one another, lesbians have sex, the Father of the house spanks some bad girls and more girls go missing and are fed to the basement hell beast…basically…it’s a fun ride!
Villain:
The main killer of the film is some-thousand year old hell beast that dwells behind some door in the basement of the halfway house. The Necronomicon refers to the beast as one of the “Old Ones”. The monster is basically a huge slug with tentacles. Think of that slug in the movie Starship Troopers, but with tentacles…crappy green rubbery looking tentacles.
It has a single gleaming red eye in the center of its hexagon shaped head. Just below the eye is the monster’s mouth, filled with big, fake looking bad teeth. After extensive research into the beast, its called Yog Sothoth. Huh? Surprised that I did extensive research or a hell beast is named Yog? To be honest, it looks like the film producers went to a high school float committee and gave them a $100 budget to construct the beast. I shall call it the Slugo the Hell Beast.
The mastermind behind the evil plot is Sister Cecelia. She’s the Catholic nun who pretty much runs the halfway house. We learn over the course of the film, that her previous gig was at an All-Boys school, where the boys turned on her and gang raped her.
As part of her revenge on the world, she has decided to raise and unleash Slugo the Hell Beast onto the world for all of the wrong doings. On top of the plot, she wants to mate with the beast and become the mother of the offspring(s) that will eventually rule the world.
Helping Sister Cecelia abduct and feed women to Slugo the Hell Beast is the halfway house’s janitor/handyman, Lutkus. He’s some fat, loser reject pervert that loves sniffin’ the victims’ panties. Lutkus is also the “muscle” of the operation.
Cast:
The cast of the film centers around two key characters, Larissa (Janet Tracy Keijser pictured right) and Detective Sheen. Larissa is on a quest to find out what happened to her missing sister, and Sheen is the detective she is secretly working with. This also is where the Skin-e-max element of the film sets in.
It’s pretty hard…That’s what she said!...to imagine a distraught sister going over the details to a undercover plan with a detective while she’s riding him in bed. They calmly discuss the details during sex and trade positions as if nothing emotionally devastating is going on. I’m not even going to discuss all the tongue and cheek dialogue that surrounds Detective Sheen’s first name…Dick.
As for the “troubled” women at the halfway house…they’re not good at all. First of all, they don’t wear the Catholic school girl outfits. WTF!? It’s a Catholic themed halfway house! Instead they look like what female inmates would wear if they didn’t have to wear the prison issued clothing.
Secondly, the film did a good job of employing skanky looking, bad acting female actresses would are happy to show off their knockers. I’m not saying it’s a bad concept, but when you can see the badly concealed surgical scars on their racks, it’s kind of a turn off.
SFX/Gore:
Halfway House can be considered…a low budget film. The special effects department does not shy from that statement. Outside of Slugo looking…pretty fake there was not much invested in the film’s special effects. As I think about it more, there wasn’t much outside of the “offerings”. One dude had his head chopped off, but even that was horrible looking. It looked like pretty primitive, cheap CGI effects. Isn't a chick with a gun hot?
There were nine deaths in the film, and the majority all seemed the same. A girl gets captured, stripped of her clothes, tied to the floor, and then consumed by the hell beast (large part of that was just the tentacles wrapping themselves around the victim and pulling her to the mouth). We actually got to see one girl get “chopped”. Don’t get too excited, it was just a spraying of blood when she was half submerged in the beast’s mouth.
TNA:
What the film lacked in budget, they made up in breasts…and sex…and SM. Cutting to the chase, ten girls show their racks in the film. I would say just about every girl on screen with the exception of Sister Cecelia, but there were a couple of extras that never made it out of one or two scenes. If one of those two scenes wasn’t the group shower scene, then…no luck with showing the goods. That’s a lot of racks! But then again the film wasted its budget on chicks who can’t act, but are willing to do anything else sexual. And that’s good too! By the way, the best rack came with the first chick in the film, Annie. Then they all slowly go downhill from there.
Outside of the standard knocker portion of the TNA section, the film was pretty open to all other types of fetishes. Along with the bondage fetish, there was the spanking fetish. The padre of the halfway house, Father Fogerty, had a paddle with the word “Jesus” engraved in diamonds on it. Fogerty used his paddle to punish the bad girls of the film. As he spanked away, the bad girls muttered, “The power of Christ compels me!” Sweet.
But wait!
That’s not all!
Have I mentioned that there were a couple of sex scenes? Well I did now. And not just a little man on woman action, but we also got to see a female go down on another.
And the film still wasn’t done!
There were still some Skin-e-max rocks left unturned. So let’s turn them over! There were a couple of chicks fighting and wrestling, and an almost raped by a Virgin Mary statue scene. Yep the film went that low. In the deleted scenes there were two chicks about to get in on with a strap on…and why was that left out?
T.Gun Factor:
The film was Skin-e-max blended with a horror movie. As Miley Cyrus would sing, “It’s the best of both worlds”. The film had no real value itself, but it was enjoyable enough to watch once. Maybe twice, depending on how desperate you are at watching that on screen.
Hey, I’m just saying that if I had two or three video cameras and a dozen girls willing to show their racks off in a film, then this flick wouldn’t be too far off from what I would produce. I'm just pissed that someone beat me to it! But in today's era, all I have to say is...sequel? Hmm.
I hope that I could do a little bit better in some of the areas. One of the areas would be something simple, like not naming a girl, “Cherry Pie.” Really? One of the main characters name is Cherry Pie, can’t you see the Skin-e-max element. All of these photos came up during a google search of cherry pie. Which one doesn't belong? Hint: the one on the far right. Overall, The Halfway House is a goofy film that would be fun to watch hammered with a couple of friends. The acting is horrible and the special effects aren't too much better, but it's worth at least a small chunk of your time.
Misc. Movie Trivia: -Film opened on August 23, 2005 and went straight to DVD -Filmed in Los Angeles, CA
Shark-factor:What is the shark-factor?Unlike the Matrix, I’ll explain the shark-factor.A while back, I was with my friends watching the Planet of the Apes (1968 version).My friend Bookie commented on how hot the chick in the flick was and pretty much said he’d give his left nut to have her. Then my other friend, Shark, commented, “You know she’s like sixty now!”And that dampened the day.So every time we’ve watched an older movie and mentioned how hot the chick was, Shark came in and ruined the day.So to fairly grade the “hotness” of the chicks in the films, I need grade them based on how they looked year they were made and not how old they would be now.So the shark-factor is to make up for any time-age-difference for the women in the films between present date and time and production date and time.So F*** You Shark!
refuge as other pale faced beings (zombies) become attracted to the house and gather outside. They have only one thing on their mind: human flesh…Barbra.
To say the least, Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and Bob Villa would be disappointed in Ben’s job of boarding up the house. The job looked something like a project a retard that would have done if given a box of Lincoln Logs. “Ah…let’s put a board here and…here. That would look purty. Maybe another one here.” No wonder the zombies always burst through at the end.
stairs and get it working. Mess with the rabbit ears! Wow…rabbit ears. And we’re just a few months away from having completely digital T.V.
cientific experts believe the reanimation of corpses are stemming from radiation brought back from a recent space probe returning from Venus. Not Mars…for once. Or Uranus. He he. But Venus. Isn’t Venus the Greek God of beauty?
already dead. How do you kill something that is already dead? Shoot em’ in the head…of course.
as decayed and is only restricted to motor functions. In most cases, zombies don’t talk, but if they do, it usually mutters, “BRAINS”. I don't know about you, but that doesn't look very appetizing to me. 
b*tch. Judith O’Dea plays the character Barbra. Let me say, “Oh my God. She was annoying as hell.” Whine, cry and sniffle. Boo hoo. Barbra has a meltdown thirty minutes into the film and takes a Ben right hook and she’s done. She goes into some catatonic state and says like ten words after that. That part was pretty cool. She wasn’t the typical heroine that you would expect in a horror movie.
the black man as he constantly battles Ben’s ideas and eventually gives way to him. Also a victim of Ben’s right hook. It was like a game of Tyson's "Punch Out".
The film is in Black & White, which has its own classic eerie feel to it. Chocolate syrup was used as a substitute for fake blood. That’s awesome! By the way, the kid in the photo looks like my cousin's third grade photo. Maybe he was a zombie. As you can tell, the effects are pretty primitive, but it doesn’t mean the film held back in not being disgusting.
padlock with the rifle. Timeout. Are you f*ckin’ kidding me? You’re gonna shoot at a padlock protecting a gas pump with the hopes of blowing off the lock. Really? I get paranoid about the whole static shock thing every time I go and fill up with gas, and this guy is taking a shot at a f*ckin’ gas pump with a rifle!
into the pickup truck and drives it away. A few seconds later, Tom and Judy are…to quote Bon Jovi, “Going down in the blaze of glory!”
together. Barbra is the damsel in distress, Ben (Duane Jones pictured left) is the strong leader, Mr. Cooper is the antagonist, and Tom is the good willed follower, and the others are the supporting characters in the film. Despite my hatred for Barbra's character, her role in the film is actually very important. I didn't like her, but Romero made an effort for me to feel for her character, just like all the other characters.
xplanation to how we got to that point.
