Crimson Screens goes for a "Dark Ride" and checks out "Going To Pieces: The Rise And Fall Of The Slasher Movie"...
Crimson Screens goes for a "Dark Ride" and checks out "Going To Pieces: The Rise And Fall Of The Slasher Movie"...
Hey! Again, sorry for the delay. I have been concentrating hard on getting my life in order and when I get caught up in life, I tend to neglect this site. I have a lot of content saved up, so expect frequent updates. I know I have said that in the last 3 or 4 entries, but I mean it this time!
Ok, "Dark Ride" is a part of the After Dark Horrorfest thing from last fall. Eight movies were released in theatres and shown in groups over 3 days. Well, most of them would have went straight to video had it not been for this fest. And for good reason. The majority of them were crap. I will go into detail about more of them at a later date, but for now I will talk about "Dark Ride" which is a slasher movie.
I love slasher movies. So I knew I had to see this when I saw the "slasher movie" description.
"Dark Ride" is about a group of kids who are on their way to spring break but they decide to stop on the way and spend the night in a dark ride. A dark ride is a haunted house where you ride through in a cart and crash through doors when you go into each room. I remember those from when I was a little kid. They had one at a mini amusement park that I used to go to.
Well it seems, years ago, two girls were killed in this dark ride. A giant serial killer lived in the dark ride but was caught and put in jail after the murders. In a silly scene, he rips out of a straight jacket and escapes, to return to the dark ride to kill more people.
The cast gets to the dark ride, explores for a while, plays jokes on each other, do drugs and have sex. Fun times, huh? Well, soon enough the killer shows up and things turn bad.
This has a great set up, with a plot real similar to The Funhouse. But this movie just can't recapture the magic that made all those 80's slasher movies so great.
The movie quickly becomes boring and the bad acting does not help at all. People who do/did great work on the X-Files and the Sopranos are here but they aren't too good. The guy from the X-Files wasn't horrible, just not good. But the girl from the Sopranos, oh man, she was bad. She is a cute one when she is hanging out, but she is gross and silly when she is playing the scared heroine. The rest of the cast is notably bad.
The gore is graphic, but a lot of it is in the dark or in weird lighting, so it is hard to see it sometimes. Gore is the reason a lot of people watch slasher movies and if you are going to fuck with that, then the movie is going to be missing something that made the classic ones so great. There is a head split in half, which was good, but besides that, it is mostly crap. A man has a hole punched through him, one is ripped in half, another has her head saw off while blowing some guy. For a good laugh, watch what comes out of her mouth when they show her servered head. Someone else is impaled on spikes. There is nothing too original here, but what gore there is, is R rated gore, so I guess that is a plus.
Overall, this movie struggles to even be average. A couple good gore scenes can't save this mess. And while the killers design is pretty cool, the rest of the movie is not.
"Going To Pieces: The Rise And Fall Of The Slasher Movie" is a documentary about the history of the slasher movie. I loved it! They start with the origins of the slasher movie, Peeping Tom and Psycho, and move to Halloween and Friday the 13th and then go into the slasher movie explosion of the early to mid 80's. So many great and entertaining movies came out of that time period and it is nice to seem them documented here.
I was afraid that this movie would focus only on the big names and series, Halloween and Friday the 13th, and they do talk about them, but they also discuss many of the lesser known ones, like the Burning, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Maniac, the Prowler and Pieces! Holy shit! Pieces! Now that is a lost classic! In addition to talking with people involved with these movies, they also show clips, mostly the gore scenes. Time is even spent on obscure stuff, like Graduation Day. They cover everything here!
I am so excited about this movie. To the people that like them, the early/mid 80's slasher movies, are gold and this documents that piece of time in a fantastic manner. I like the stupid old ladies talking about Silent Night, Deadly Night. They even counterpoint the stupid ideas of those two oldies with an interview with the lady who played Mother Superior in Silent Night, Deadly Night!!! Her opinion is very different, but dead on. That is where this amazing movie gets an A+. They interview all the "famous" names, John Carpenter, Sean Cunningham, etc, but they also give some light to lesser known directors.
I cannot say enough good things about this. This is a must see, wether you are a slasher movie fan, a horror fan or just a random person looking for an interesting and entertaining documentary. This film gets an outstanding golden A+.
That is all for today. I will be back soon with more reviews!!!
Hey! Again, sorry for the delay. I have been concentrating hard on getting my life in order and when I get caught up in life, I tend to neglect this site. I have a lot of content saved up, so expect frequent updates. I know I have said that in the last 3 or 4 entries, but I mean it this time!
Ok, "Dark Ride" is a part of the After Dark Horrorfest thing from last fall. Eight movies were released in theatres and shown in groups over 3 days. Well, most of them would have went straight to video had it not been for this fest. And for good reason. The majority of them were crap. I will go into detail about more of them at a later date, but for now I will talk about "Dark Ride" which is a slasher movie.
I love slasher movies. So I knew I had to see this when I saw the "slasher movie" description.
"Dark Ride" is about a group of kids who are on their way to spring break but they decide to stop on the way and spend the night in a dark ride. A dark ride is a haunted house where you ride through in a cart and crash through doors when you go into each room. I remember those from when I was a little kid. They had one at a mini amusement park that I used to go to.
Well it seems, years ago, two girls were killed in this dark ride. A giant serial killer lived in the dark ride but was caught and put in jail after the murders. In a silly scene, he rips out of a straight jacket and escapes, to return to the dark ride to kill more people.
The cast gets to the dark ride, explores for a while, plays jokes on each other, do drugs and have sex. Fun times, huh? Well, soon enough the killer shows up and things turn bad.
This has a great set up, with a plot real similar to The Funhouse. But this movie just can't recapture the magic that made all those 80's slasher movies so great.
The movie quickly becomes boring and the bad acting does not help at all. People who do/did great work on the X-Files and the Sopranos are here but they aren't too good. The guy from the X-Files wasn't horrible, just not good. But the girl from the Sopranos, oh man, she was bad. She is a cute one when she is hanging out, but she is gross and silly when she is playing the scared heroine. The rest of the cast is notably bad.
The gore is graphic, but a lot of it is in the dark or in weird lighting, so it is hard to see it sometimes. Gore is the reason a lot of people watch slasher movies and if you are going to fuck with that, then the movie is going to be missing something that made the classic ones so great. There is a head split in half, which was good, but besides that, it is mostly crap. A man has a hole punched through him, one is ripped in half, another has her head saw off while blowing some guy. For a good laugh, watch what comes out of her mouth when they show her servered head. Someone else is impaled on spikes. There is nothing too original here, but what gore there is, is R rated gore, so I guess that is a plus.
Overall, this movie struggles to even be average. A couple good gore scenes can't save this mess. And while the killers design is pretty cool, the rest of the movie is not.
"Going To Pieces: The Rise And Fall Of The Slasher Movie" is a documentary about the history of the slasher movie. I loved it! They start with the origins of the slasher movie, Peeping Tom and Psycho, and move to Halloween and Friday the 13th and then go into the slasher movie explosion of the early to mid 80's. So many great and entertaining movies came out of that time period and it is nice to seem them documented here.
I was afraid that this movie would focus only on the big names and series, Halloween and Friday the 13th, and they do talk about them, but they also discuss many of the lesser known ones, like the Burning, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Maniac, the Prowler and Pieces! Holy shit! Pieces! Now that is a lost classic! In addition to talking with people involved with these movies, they also show clips, mostly the gore scenes. Time is even spent on obscure stuff, like Graduation Day. They cover everything here!
I am so excited about this movie. To the people that like them, the early/mid 80's slasher movies, are gold and this documents that piece of time in a fantastic manner. I like the stupid old ladies talking about Silent Night, Deadly Night. They even counterpoint the stupid ideas of those two oldies with an interview with the lady who played Mother Superior in Silent Night, Deadly Night!!! Her opinion is very different, but dead on. That is where this amazing movie gets an A+. They interview all the "famous" names, John Carpenter, Sean Cunningham, etc, but they also give some light to lesser known directors.
I cannot say enough good things about this. This is a must see, wether you are a slasher movie fan, a horror fan or just a random person looking for an interesting and entertaining documentary. This film gets an outstanding golden A+.
That is all for today. I will be back soon with more reviews!!!
posted by Crimson Screens at 12:41 PM
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