epiceffectss

IMDb member since May 2013
    Lifetime Total
    25+
    IMDb Member
    11 years

Reviews

Parasites
(2016)

Solid Carpenter type Horror , quality
OK first off real review OK - check my others going back last few years - phew.

So in my opinion this film maker likes his carpenter and is closing in on the revial of the whole 80s nostalgia that films like It Follows have captured. This is more low budget and authentic and if you like your John Carpenter films like prince of darkness , assault on precint13 then it will give you a good dose of nostalgia. Some mad characters in the film , what is with that first chasing killer and the mad noises he makes as he chases that guy , ha lols , good stuff. Soundtrack is really good , as a music maker myself I really noticed how good it was , liking the Arp2600 and Sequential pro sounds, the composer has used good anologue sounding synths , top work on that one and it kind of drives the film in the right direction , prob most authentic carpenter type music I've heard during this whole 80s horror revival thingy going on at the moment. I gave this an 8 because it is good , deserves special marks as it doesn't have the budget of Hollywood and yet its still got good production values , it looks good. Not going to spell out the story as who wants that before you watch it.

Was good !

The Ever After
(2014)

Really special
This was a great film. I'm single so I do enjoy seeing a couple having troubles. It makes me put things in perspective. Good solid acting from all of the cast in this film. The main married couple who were having difficulties were just great. The wife played by an Australian actress really gave a great performance as a young girl who had mental issues and her strong spirit with which she tried to cope with her troubles . She was insecure and her husband was also insecure , at first glance you would wonder why they were together , two messed up people who were staying together perhaps out of a fear of leaving one another and breaking up their home life and their relationship with their child. The husband is a photographer surrounded by pretty girls whilst his wife stays at home exploring the voices in her head perhaps brought about from so much time alone and her troubles from her childhood. The film stands out as a quality work. I can't really fault it. It's had me thinking all day , you know a good film when you have flashbacks. The stand out performance in this film was the girl , I think she put 110% into her role. Definitely recommend this.

Southbound
(2015)

Great Indy horror
Five stories inter tie, want into that premise as I've heard it before but this is top notch. Everything is high end Indy stuff , acting perfect , filming perfect , script and story great. If only more horror was like this. It feels like one long story , it just interlocks itself. Feels a bit retro but not really , soundtrack has that whole 80s synth thing that's been so popular. Its got a sense of mystery which all too missing in this genre , yes things can get gory at times but you need the perculiar and the mystery to push the watcher into new lands. its a high end vision without being poncey with it. It's really different and I really recommend it , has my interest all the way. Pretty cool.

Eaters
(2015)

Good b movie
This was good (for me) but appreciate lots will not like it. I liked it for its b movie acting , I thought the shooting was OK , costumes OK , sound OK . But their was lots of wooden actors. That gave it a humorous quality in itself . The story was OK but the whole thing was let down by the acting and delivery of lines by almost all characters , I think if the director made them work harder and did multiple takes he would've nailed it. The story is simple but OK , I recommend this for people who like b movie style films. I watched the entire film , which I imagine lots would have given up on. I'm giving a five because I did enjoy it but I recon it maybe the highest score given yet

Hyena
(2014)

Fantastic story , masterpiece
Yeah this was great , a superb film. Some of my fave actors were in it , that short scouse guy out of this is England , love him and that other dumpling who's in all sorts. A bent copper is helping the foreign underworld scum keep their drug trade going in London by accepting bribes for tip offs. Things are going well for the dirty copper , he's making a few shillings , he's got some pennies to spare. He likes being top dog. Then he gets involved with two nasty lowlifes from Albania. And they are just too nasty , cutting up people into pieces , beating women , running prostitution and selling cocaine. Like a modern day Scarface. Now our bent copper thinks he can handle the Albanians but they can barely understand him , things get messy and a killing spree begins. I loved the soundtrack , it was v modern and provoking. It was all v sleek , great atmosphere and shows what those nasty Albanian gangsters are doing to our beloved capital city , we must hunt them down and get them out of the UK , and prevent their women trafficking which is now so prevalent in the UK. Right only thing that would have made this even better is if Danny dyer kicked sum butt ... But hey I'm the dyermeister.

Hidden
(2015)

Super dull,not real horror
OK this was just simply not good. It's boring and it try's to be different but it's a waste of a couple of hours.scary , er no it's not. Acting is good , scene is good , script is good , film is just plain boring. Can't call it horror, it has no scares. Film is about a infection. , people hide in a bunker from authorities because they are infected and a cleansing of population is going on. And er that's about it. I'm finding it hard to write more as thes little more to say about this film. It's got tall man from true blood in it doing his usual boring acting , yeah worked in true blood now he's just boring. There's so many good horror films out there to spend watching for two hours this one is just a waste of your time , they had a budget , it's just the dumb boring idea for the film that lacked , for gods sake you get these big actors , big script writers , you would think they would get a decent story together , not just a cut and paste job on zombies and try and add a twist to it , being the infected are hiding from the humans , not a good film in my opinion.

Awaiting
(2015)

Omg good !
Ha , this is really good, just watched this and quickly on here to write a review. Right all characters are solid good performances , story is soooo good , filming really good , soundtrack good. It's great when you find a good horror as god it's few and far in between , I've reviewed loads of horror as its my fave genre and this was such a great uk film. I will write a bit of the story here so don't read if your gonna watch , it's solid horror film. Right , guy tricks man into his house by causing a carcrash and taking him unconscious into his house to fix him up, when he wakes he meets mans daughter who is home schooled and a total freak , although very fit . He wants to leave when he gets better from accident but man keeps preventing him with various excuses , as story progresses it's apparent that the saviour is in fact a psychotic man who is up to no good ... Lots and lots of twists and turns in this film , lots of plot development which so many horrors lack these days. I'm giving it a high score of eight , loved the ginger madman , love the girl who was his daughter in this , oh and make sure you watch last couple mins as I thought it was credits before final bit came on , great horror film , class.

Eden Lodge
(2015)

OK low budget horror
I actually enjoyed this. I am ashamed to say! It's low budget and there are probs within the film , but the story was good , script OK, actors OK , a few were a little wooden , the lead woman was great though. The one thing that let this film down was the film soundtrack , if your going to make a horror film for gods sake listen to other horror films and get with the program. You need a sound palette that reflects the genre not some kind of budget Indiana jones string soundtrack. OK so film premise is a couples car breaks down , they go to a small guest house and book a room. A lovely old lady puts them up for sixty five pounds a night and they later discover they should've never booked into the hotel , I won't write spoilers why not. I think the writer had some good ideas , film work was good , characters good and varied. For me the adventurous soundtrack just was not for this type of film , the soundtrack for a horror film needs to be ominous , sparse , full of sound effects , subtle pulsing , tension building . Sound creates the feeling of dread and despair when you have a scene in the dark , you need a soundtrack that reminisces john carpenters old films done in an updated style. Anyway I enjoyed it and it had some good bits and was well watchable.

Sinister 2
(2015)

None of the charm of the original
Wow this was poor , a bore fest , I had been really looking forward to this so was very disappointed. Whereas the first was very scary this failed to even get one single scare during the two hours, it's so lacklustre. The story continues with the young cop from the first film having figured out what happened to Ethan he goes about burning down the houses the tragedys happen in. He goes to the first house and decides to burn it down but instead he ends up sleeping with the woman in the house so he doesn't do it. She has two kids and they are watching the 8mm films in the basement and are slowly turning into monsters , it's just really poorly done , none of the skill of the first film is even vaguely apparent on this film , perhaps it was all made by someone else , it was a real disappointment for me , real pity as I'm a big horror fan and the first one was one of the best horrors in years in my opinion.

Robert
(2015)

Really really poor
OK , so we have a doll that's haunted , aka Annabelle . It's an English version , for Christ's sake the producers got a cameraman , a set , a script .... Er but who the hell did the casting ? Z list actors , so wooden they gave the lifeless wooden doll a run for its money. The cast are ultimately what make this film dire, it's so bad. Sure the films been done before , but had they got decent actors it could have been OK. The film is basically a doll comes into people's home and torments them , app Chucky was based on this doll. I'm giving this film a really low score because its unwatchable for me , and hey I can enjoy some rubbish but not stuff this badly acted. I've reviewed some great recent horror and click my name to see reviews to see some great films as I don't want you wasting your time on this , if you haven't seen Annabelle which is about a haunted doll then watch that as its fantastic film , will give you chills , this just makes you laugh at the bad acting then later just fast forward from sheer boredom.

Almost Mercy
(2015)

A type of natural born killers film
Two misfits come out of school wanting a bloodbath of revenge from those who had wronged them. And good god do they do it. This film isn't my idea of horror , it's more a natural born killers type of sick film. Acting and shooting is good, looks a bit grainy and eighties. They are from a small town in àmerica , and it's a slow town , nothing much to do. Just a load of degenerates surround them , thy have the odd idea that they are morally superior which in turn leads to their sick revenge. This is mostly led out by the girl, she has a thirst for blood and murder is in her natural instinct. We watch lots of victims die under her claw hammer, they drop one by one. She is unstoppable. The film employs her talking veer it in narrative form , in a quirky humorous way , I'm not sure that's entirely suitable because she is wrong for doing what she does. I found it a little unsettling because it was slightly humorous for the first half before the revenge killings begin for the second half. It's a good well made film and worth a watch , I would not put it in a horror genre because its not graphic enough nor does it have any supernatural stuff , I would most closely align it with the whole school killings phenomena or with natural born killers , only looking a little eighties and a little quirky.

It Follows
(2014)

Original horror
Good film , premise is that a girl gets "infected from sex . The infection is that a demon will follow her and kill her unless she passes it onto someone else sex.its a very good looking film , the camera work is so sharp. Acting is good and allure characters are solid. Soundtrack is very eighties drive type synths, nice touch and well crafted music. For me the first half of the film was the best part, second half dipped a bit , but it was OK. I can't call it a classic , but it's better than your final destination type horror. I did get chills all over me in several parts of the film and that was done via good pacing and then adding the creepy chilling elements. I read some of the other reviews and felt they are way to harsh on this film. It's a solid horror film . No gore, just a solid story , solid script , great camera filming and acting. The story is good , but not superb , I think that what they did with the limited story was first class, you can tell that all elements of this film tried their hardest , from acting , soundtrack and filming. The story was good but let it down because it just dipped half way through , still worth watching for anyone who wants to be scared for a couple of hours. I would recommend this.

Sebunsu kôdo
(2013)

Good 1hr Japanese in Russia mafia film
Yeah this was good. Well acted , excellent slowly evolving pacing. Great cinematic vision of a derelict Russia full of no hope. A Japanese girl is in Russia to find her missing lover , only that's not true , she is their to steal something from him , he's a Japanese mafia man getting a nuclear component on the black market. She works at a small restaurant in the hope of tracking him down. It's a short film , stylish and hard to criticize. The main girl is excellent and very attractive. The other actors are all good, the backdrop of Russia feels very cold war , its a good look.Has a nice twist at the end so make sure you watch t the credits. Really enjoyed it.

The Stranger
(2014)

A Future vampire classic like Near Dark !
Well well well , what a surprise this was. After the last decade of vampire films (yawn) I've finally seen one that was fantastic and original. Reminded me of the surprise I had with "Let me in".This was superb. Towards the end I felt reminiscent of "Near Dark" and I can see this film gaining cult status. Vampire films are made every decade and then in the following decades you see lists of fave cult ones , I'm going to say this one belongs in the list for this decade. It's very good. OK so now to the quick review with spoilers. A loner enters a small town and gets into trouble with the local bad guys. He has come to the village with the purpose of seeking out his dead wife's son. The bad guys try to murder him yet they fail. For he has the vampire blood. He's very low key about this , no silly special fighting etc , his one ability is that he can heal. There's so many twists and turns in this film I'm not going to list it all as that would spoil it for anyone who watches it. The acting is great , cinematography excellent , script is first class , pacing of the film is good , ending of film is good. Can't really fault this on anything and I'm not a vampire fan , I used to like vampire films but haven't seen a good one since "let me in". If I had to compare it to any other film I would say "Near dark" for this decade. Excellent.

Dark Was the Night
(2014)

OK horror , not very scary, drama horror ?
Cinematography is very good , acting is good , story was dull. Script is good. Story is one that's been told many times before Akhem x files anyone ? A beast is in the woods which enters a small town with murderous intent. A brave sheriff has to fight it. And ummm that's about it. There's some back story to the sheriffs life , he's lost his son and has split from his wife, but again that's about it. It is well acted seeing the story is so lacking. The pacing of the film is good , soundtrack and effects are good. I can't call this horror simply because its just not scary , it's a little tense but not very. It's not a bad film , just that within the horror genre it's just lacking in scares. I'm only giving it five out of ten. It's worth a watch though, I'm sure others will enjoy it , it just wasn't very original , but as I've pointed out it is very well shot , acting is good , pacing is good but I've heard this story in several other films.

Bound to Vengeance
(2015)

Excellent indie horror
Right where to start ? First of this is an excellent compelling horror story. Very disturbing , very well acted , very well filmed. It really unnerved me due to the subject matter and I watch a lot of horror movies. You can see my other reviews.

Spoilers now ... The story centers around sex slavery. Although any sexual scenes are omitted you get a strong feel for the despair and desolate life the victims suffer chained to their beds. Harrowing.

The main girl manages to escape from the predator holding her slave in a house , but returns to the monster after finding pictures of other girls being held by him , she beats him senseless and he takes her to 4 more houses where she attempts to free others who have had the same fate as her , only it's not that simple !

The main girl is an excellent actress , I was compelled by the performance and gripped , the main monster man who holds these girls is disgusting and very disturbed , very sickening , I guess what made me really uneasy was the thought that perhaps somewhere in the world this is happening to someone. That's what makes this film special , it gives an insight into something awful. And makes you want to take action against such crime.

The film is really well shot , scenes are excellent , true craftsmanship.

I hope I've given others a reason to watch this. It's not an easy watch , yes it's compelling , but it's disturbing and not a teen frill horror flick. It's a more serious look at something which really makes you think after of the victims which perhaps suffer this fate.

To the film maker if you read these reviews also ? It was really good film , a real hard hitting film , can't really fault anything in it. Good cast ! And many films get let down by the bad guy , but in your film he was just awful. I really watched the film and put myself in her shoes and wanted to torture the guy.

I would love to know what happened at the end ? The door re opened and did she return to the house to murder the child in front of the mother ? Or did she return to tell them what he had done to her infront of his daughter and wife ? I guess that was left over to ponder over. I think she went in to torture him mentally in some way. To tell the wife what he was, I hope the daughter did not hear as she was so young.

Yes this is an excellent film. I'm tempted to give a ten or a nine. It was perfect as it crossed boundaries , it is however disturbing. And a very sad state of mankind that such things do occur.

First class film making.

The Sleeping Room
(2014)

Cool film
Wow only three reviews , don't know if this is new or just unpopular , anyway it floated my horror boat. What I like about this film 1. The main girl who's the lead , v attractive and a good actress. 2. The script and plot are good. 3. Camera work good and it looks all stylish. I was looking tonight for a horror and after flicking some rubbish USA ones on then off I came across this one , yes for indie UK horror , we are just plain better story tellers than the USA when it comes to this stuff. Films pacing is good and the cast are good , story was good and would've been excellent if it had gone up a notch towards the last twenty mins. If they could've found an extra spin or perhaps just told the story a little better in that last twenty mins then it would've been really good. As it was , it was very good. I liked the loner guy , I can relate to him. I like the call girl and would ring her myself for an hour of fun. There were only about six actors in this film and only a handful of locations , which tells me one thing , good actors , good camera work , good script and sub story is everything. A lot of other low budget film makers of horror should watch this as they could learn a lot from it , the film has class , and I guess that's down to the crew who put it all together , I fancy the lead woman so that helped when I watched it. Yep good watch this was , recommend .

Hostel: Part II
(2007)

Just Great
Great horror and hard to eclipse , a total classic , the setting in Eastern Europe is so fantastic , has an original idea , has great actors , great storyline , great gags , hardcore horror of murdering and torturing women. Such an enjoyable watch. I loved the first hostel and think this one was probably better , the setting seemed better in this one. For anyone who likes horror , you will love this. App holidays to Eastern Europe from USA went down after this film came out as people feared it may happen to them whilst back packing . Ultimate story and the whole thing works so well. A classic for many years to come.

Let Us Prey
(2014)

Very good horror
Well this is a first , a horror film set in Scotland that is actually brilliant , I doubt Scotland will ever manage another so this is prob a first and last for them , ha. OK it's got that guy out of game of thrones as the bad guy , he's great , the other actors are all good as well, not seen them before. Film all centres around a police station , er someone may of taken some inspiration from precinct 13 here ! The title music was very carpenter as well. I'm impressed by this film and would recommend it , it was different and someone put the time into the script and story thank god .... It came of as a nice piece of horror , never can tell if something like this will do well , doubt it will big in the cinema , but if your a home viewer who likes horror this is a seriously good piece of work. Kept my solid attention all the way and I watch a lot of horror inc the crap American stuff , not often we get a good one in the UK , I gave it 8 , was gonna be 9 but I'm gonna stick with 8 cause that's just how I roll !!! Whoooop

Carrie
(2013)

Very good remake
For once a cracking remake. Only just saw this as initially thought it was going to be the same old. OK , so great acting , the story is the same as original ( never thought the story was that great in original ) so this actually came out as better in my opinion due to it being redone with good effx , better actors and better camera work. Not sure what else to say , if you know the original it's the same story. The girl who plays Carrie was good , she's prettier than original girl , and you do feel for her. I really enjoyed it , maybe because I thought it was going to be a poor remake that actually helped my viewing experience. These oldies are hard to remake and do well , I loved the dawn of the dead remake as that was another iconic piece and its hard to pull it off, so due to the skill of keeping the story the same and not messing with that , doing a good cast and good pacing of the film I will award this film an impressive 8 out of 10 points .

Bombshell Bloodbath
(2014)

A superb horror film
So finally someone has done a "throwback" horror well. Finally.... After all these efforts to try and reminisce the 80s horror genre , someone has done a killer job. Drive did a fantastic job bringing an 80s spin on the action film. This film has done the same class job only this time to the horror genre. I must say this reminded me of reanimator ! It has a massive carpenter overtone also. This soundtrack was very well done , class. I hope any of you horror fans out there get this and watch it and its absolutely fantastic , a dream for any horror fan, a real modern classic which I imagine people will be still watching in ten years time. ( and just to add ... I'm real , check all my horror reviews that I do! ) I absolutely loved this film , not going to add spoilers as you just have to watch this .

Black Sea
(2014)

Law pulls off a good performance
Thought it was good, but personally didn't like the ending. Jude law was great as were all the other actors. I've seen a few submarine films over the years and this one comes out on top as the best one. Basically the film is about a sub which goes looking for Nazi gold. It's a bit claustrophobic , storyline is good , and it progresses well , but for me in the last five mins .... Well I just didn't like the ending, I would've preferred it if the ending was more upbeat but hey that's just me. I like the lawmeister as he's v talented , some other Brit actors in this done us proud too, a good Aussie actor was in it as well, some Russian ones also but no idea who they were.

Rebound
(2014)

Indy Horror - good
Right , I liked this ! A woman goes on a road journey to escape her past. And she meets deadbeat after deadbeat in outback America. Things go from bad to worse. Everyone is just horrid to her, and shes really quite a decent person , so she stands out as someone being wronged by life. Good lead actress , really good actually , never seen her before , great performance. It's grainy , desolate life of the outback America , the loserville areas which carry the story as our good woman comes into contact with these lost souls. I gotta give a heads up to the bar man in this film , if anyone sees it , check out his attitude problem , ha , he so needs a kick in for the way he treated her. I liked the main guy as well. Its weird story , a bit David lynch , carpenter type film .Yeah liked this film was cool. Ending was twisted in good way. I guess this was low budget so was good that the actors did a good job , class job , recommend !

Z Nation
(2014)

Funny zombie series
So it's funny ... Zombies who have got trapped in a meth lab and taken the drugs , zombies that you can blow cannabis smoke in their faces and they become docile. The characters are a kru of about ten who are travelling the zombie infested world .

The shooting is pro, the zombies look pro , the acting is OK , passable . Some episodes have been good , some dire. It's never going to have the status of WD . It's a scifi channel production and they have done a good job as they have stiff competion . They went for the humorous route and tbf maybe it's more of a kiddie approach to zombies rather than a hard hitting adult one.

I gave it six cause its entertainment and I do watch it , some episodes were so bad I had to fast forward to them. Some episodes were funny. Couldn't care less when a main character dies so that gives you some idea to how they the actors don't portray someone you care about.

They do come up with some very original spins on the zombie idea . Some v far out ones that are just plain silly , some v funny.

Wild Card
(2015)

Jase , you done it again
Yeah Jase you pulled it off again. Had me on the edge of my seat from the moment that flick began. I dunno what you do to me but you inspire me , just the way you hold yourself, you got yourself together and it's an example to follow. Jase pulls out a first class performance , showing a more refined side of himself , he has matured as this last decade has progressed. He is now in the acting field of your Pacino , Bale, Bana, your Neeson. This film really set him aside from your Vin Diesel, Stallone contemporaries that he began with. I dunno Jase , just classy performance , being an English lad I dunno , proud I guess to see how far you've gone. The film is a mixture of moody sub plots and high end action , underpinned by Staths presence , ultimately it is Staths performance that makes this film a classic , I will be buying the BluRay when it comes out so I can watch any extra features. First class bruv, first class , you done it again, speechless.

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