First I´d like to thank Jim O'Rear for sending me a DVD of The Hospital.
Old St. Leopold's Hospital has many urban legends surrounding it, but the residents of Bridgeport all agree on one thing: tortured souls roam its abandoned halls. The mystery proves too much for a pretty young student who decides to investigate for her senior class project. Unfortunately, she does not find ghosts. She, instead, finds Stanley (Daniel Emery Taylor)... serial rapist, murderer, and psychopath. As the young girl becomes Stanley's new pet, a team of young investigators descend on the hospital to "hunt some ghosts." Stanley sees nothing but fun and games in his future. But, what Stanley does not know is that the hospital truly is haunted and the restless spirits there are not happy with what he has been doing. The Hospital is written by Jim O'Rear and Daniel Emery Taylor. It is directed by Tommy Golden and Daniel Emery Taylor. The acting is decent, the camerawork and editing is good. The soundtrack is pretty good even though I didn´t like the title song (hey I´m old fashioned, hip hop music and horror don´t work for me). The pacing is good. The concept is cool and in some parts it is very familiar but that is not a problem for me. The use of a defunct hospital is a cool setting. There´s a few twists which is a nice touch. There are a couple of gory kills but some kills also take place off screen or are more or less bloodless. The effects are a mix of computer rendered and practical fx. Let´s just say that this could have been very gory and very nasty if the film makers would have chosen that path (I guess they didn´t due to the limited budget) but make no misstake about it, this is pretty nasty and extreme as there is degradation, torture and multiple scenes of rape (including male rape by a huge dildo) and even necrophilia on screen. There is gratuitous T and A including full frontal nudity and sex.
This review is based upon the Region 0 (region all) DVD release from Deviant Pictures.
Rating: 5½ out of 7. Not bad, a bit uneven but not bad at all. I must admit that it took awhile before I started to enjoy the flick but after the first twist it improved and got better (keep in mind that I didn´t know much about the plot when I started watching). The Hospital is more disturbing than scary due to the multiple scenes of sexualised violence and rape. If you´re a fan of rape/revenge, tortureporn (hate that name) and supernatural (remember there are ghosts in it also) genres you might wanna check out The Hospital.
/JL
Ancient legend tells of Lamia, the beautiful queen and adulteress whose lover was put to death. After being transformed into a snake, she murders and enslaves the innocent until the gods turn her to into a stone statue. When a thief steals the statue of Lamia, all hell starts to break loose in an L.A. strip club when the blood from his gunshot wound transforms the statue into a serpent, who in turn bites the star performer. One by one, the other dancers are turned into her slaves as the customers become blood sacrifices for a midnight ritual that will allow her to roam the Earth forever! Snake Club: Revenge of the Snake Woman is written by Kenny White and is directed by David Palmieri. The acting isn´t very good, the camerawork and editing is good. The pacing is decent, even if the running time is just 82 minutes there are some scenes that are just meant to extend the flicks duration. I know that the soundtrack is intended to be modern dance music (almost the entire movie takes place at the strip club) but it isn´t very good. There is gratuitous topless nudity in this, especially courtesy of Veronica Ricci (she´s either in her underwear or topless throughout the whole movie) but also from several of the other actresses including brief topless nudity from Vanessa Sheri who also is responsible for costume and wardrobe (a lot of really skimpy outfits in this movie). There are lots and lots of exotic dancing from Veronica Ricci and her fellow female cast members although it feels pretty uninspired and ain´t especially good or sexy. Many of these scenes feels like attempts to padd out the running time. There is some gore and almost all of it is practical fx. The most potentially graphic stuff is kept off screen, for instance a male character gets his dick ripped off (which prompts the following oneliner; "I like it when a man spray over my face"), even if there are some graphic bite marks and a disemboweling scene. There´s creature makeup fx as the Snake woman is revealed in its true form towards the end and it looks good.
Snake Club: Revenge of the Snake Woman is also known as Arise of The Snake Woman and will be released will be released on September 24, 2013 on DVD (region all) by TomCat Releasing (Tempe Video)
This review is based upon the german region 2 DVD release from Edel Germany GmbH, it´s uncut and english audio is available.
Rating: 5½ out of 7. Snake Club: Revenge of the Snake Woman is trashy but it´s well aware of it, it does not pretend to be something it is not and instead keeps pouring on the scenes featuring semi-nude or topless women, it sports an attractive cast of female actresses and there are some gore. I probably enjoyed this much more than I should have.. LoL
/JL
First I´d like to thank actress Michelle Shields for contacting me and providing me with a screener.
The year is 2021. The Apocalypse has begun and the damned are returning for vengeance. Lucille (Linnea Quigley) spent five years in hell awaiting the chance to kill those who betrayed her. Her murderer is a brutal crime boss whose thugs terrorize the wasteland now. With Lucille back from the dead, will any of them live long enough to see the end of days? Post Mortem, America 2021 is produced, edited, written and directed by Cameron Scott. The acting ranges from bad to decent, I´ve never been a big fan of Linnea Quigley even if I like some of her work (especially Savage Streets) and I´m pretty sure that her fans will appreciate her performance in this flick more than I did. I´m a self confessed fan of Michelle Shields, who plays Suze, but in my opinion she doesn´t have enough screentime. She´s one of the best performers in this and I do like the fact that she´s plays a ruthless killer which is quite a contrast compared to her role in Frankenstein: Day of the Beast (2011). The camerawork and editing is decent, the artistic choice by the filmmakers to release the flick in black and white is a nice touch. The pacing is pretty good and the filmmaker deliever what they have stated on the official website, we get a blend of genres such as zombie, science-fiction and western with some touches of comedy. I think I see influences from Quentin Tarantino movies, Alex Proyas The Crow 81994) but also from Ryûhei Kitamura´s Versus (2000). The soundtrack is very good. There´s no T & A in this. There is some gore, people being eaten but most of the gore/squibs are computer rendered. The gory high light is a powerdrill to the head, which actually looks really cool. Some carnage happen off screen and there is one scene where a baby is stuffed into a microwave and is killed by it which could have been truly nasty but now you don´t see anything.
This review is based upon an online screener provided by Michelle Shields.
Rating: 1½ out of 7. Sadly Post Mortem, America 2021 doesn´t live up to its full potential, there are some nice moments in it and there are definitely some very cool ideas. If you´re a fan of Linnea Quigley or Michelle Shields you should check this flick out.
/JL
.jpg)
