Featured in The Lamb!

I am super excited to announce that What Did I Just Watch was recently featured in The Large Association of Movie Blogs (Lamb). Thank you so much to The Vern from Video Vangaurd and Dusty Wallace from Dusty on Movies! I am very happy to be a member of LAMB. 

Movie Review: The Inn Keepers

I was originally interested in seeing this because of the back story. I had seen House of the Devil, and was impressed with the early 80's feel slow burn quality of the film. I lived in Connecticut for most of my life, and took summer classes at Central Connecticut State University, so seeing that area of the state in a the movie was an added bonus. I heard about this movie when reading about the filming of House of the Devil. The director Ti West and his crew stayed at The Yankee Peddler Inn, in Torrington, CT. They all experienced "vivid dreams and spooky experiences" while staying there. So what's a creeped out horror director to do? Go there and film a horror movie!

Here are my random thoughts while watching The Inn Keepers.
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Piranha 3DD: Review

It has been a while, but I’m back with a new review! My apologies for the delay, I have been busy preparing for the launch of my “What Did I just Watch” podcast with Freq Media Entertainment, and still working on my master’s degree. Despite all that, I found some time this weekend to watch “Piranha 3DD”. You already know that I have a special affinity for B-Horror and Grindhouse movies, so you would think this movie would be right up my alley, right? Let’s just say it didn’t do what I think it was trying to do.

I understand that it was trying to be tongue in cheek bad, but there is so bad that it’s good [see also Hatchet or The Toxic Avenger], and then there is just bad [see also Dylan Dog]. This movie belongs in the latter group. First off, I cannot remember any of the characters’ names. If I don’t care enough about the characters to remember their names, I certainly am not going to care what happens to them. When fatalities occur, my reaction was, “meh”, and “who cares?” (in my best Joy Behar voice).

This movie also insults the intelligence of the audience. O.K. I understand that those of us that want to watch gory creature features are regarded as having lower standards than those who watch high brow independent foreign films, but the two are not mutually exclusive (I enjoy watching both types of movies. Take that Hollywood!).  A prime example of this happens when two of the lead characters go to visit the scientist from Piranha 2 and discover that the piranha can chew through steel. What do our protagonists do next? They go to the lake and one of them jumps in to check the grate.  First, why are you jumping into piranha-infested water? Second, whether the grate is in tact or not does not matter since we already established that the piranha could chew through metal.

The only good things about this movie is that it did not shy away from being gory, it had Gary Busey and Christopher Lloyd in it (Yeah David Hasselhoff was in it too, but much like the whole Chuck Norris thing I never got what the big deal about him), and the special effects and 3D were pretty good except for the few time when you could clearly see that they were using rubber fish, but then I kind of like stuff like that. One of my favorite movies is Basket Case, and they used a foam latex puppet filmed in stop motion at times as the monster in that. As a matter of fact forget Piranha 3DD even exists and just watch Basket Case.

Movie Review - Bully (2011)

I saw two movies this weekend, back to back. One was The Cabin in the Woods, and the other was Bully. Of the two Bully was the bigger horror movie, so I’m writing a review of that first. Going into the movie, I didn’t expect to have too much sympathy, because I am part of generation X. We were the last to come through pre- “cyber-bullying”. In my day (hold on while I go shake my cane at the kids on my lawn), bullying meant someone or a group of people were literally kicking your @$$ on a daily basis.

Does The Hunger Games Rip-off The Running Man or Battle Royal?

There has been a lot of talk about The Hunger Games recently. I have read the comparisons to Battle Royale, to The Running Man and even to Logan’s Run and Dangerous Game. I have read that The Hunger Games topped $15 million in advance ticket sales. Unfortunately, I even read some of the racist tweets from people who were angry that characters from the book that were described as having brown skin in the book, were actually played by people who fit that description in the movie. I promised in a tweet that I would watch The Running Man, Battle Royal, and The Hunger Games and see for myself if there are any similarities.

Devil Inside: Audio Movie Review

You asked for it! Here it is.

Lady Shasha, Bad Gyal Terri, and Honky Dave discuss "The Devil Inside" [Spoiler Alert!], Ghetto Movie Theaters, Beyonce's baby, the best and worst demon possession movies and Terri Crew's wrinkled head.
Warning: This podcast contains strong language.


This podcast has been brought to you by Freq Media Entertainment in association with i95 Entertainment.

American Horror Story Season Finale

When I first wrote about American Horror Story, I was not as enthusiastic as I am now. I got hooked around episode 6 and now I am a fan. I hope that the opening sequence becomes as popular and famous as the X-Files and Tales From the Darkside openings. I like the story structure that they use, in which they give the viewer more and more details about the house with each episode. I love the web interactivity that they created with their Family Portrait site that introduces the characters and gives clues about their story, their You're going to die in there site that let's you walk through the home in different time periods and learn more about what happened there, and the Google+ American Horror Story page in where people can discuss the show. So I was all geared up for the season finale.

SPOILER ALERT!


I decided to just write my thoughts and reactions as I was watching, so here they are:

Why is this in soft focus?
Oh it's ghost family time.
That is a hell of a ambush! I expected something to happen but I didn't expect Ben to get hanged, by Hayden, Patrick and who was the third person? Was it one of the cult girls who broke in the house wanting to recreate the murders?

I like this new family. Love the "Can you believe this b!t¢h?" look they shared when the realtor made that racist comment.
Gabriel just had to skateboard in the house. The twins are already effing with him.
Oh Constance, you really make this show!
Violet likes Gabe, and Tate saw them talking so he's getting all psycho.
The new couple just happens to want a baby now too?
If the ghosts in the house keep killing people in the house, won't it get wicked crowded in there eventually?

Hayden's reaction to getting her throat slashed, "Oh $h!t" was too funny.
Violet is pulling a Tate by showing up in Gabe's room uninvited.
The husband is sleep walking. Is it time to play with fire again? Rubberman! Is that Ben?
Gabe and Tate are....are talking? Struggling, and Violet saves Gabe from Tate. Yay Violet!
Oh Crap! (Jumps in seat, at the sight of Larry's wife still simmering, no literally you can see steam rising of her.) So that's who's making people burn their hands.

All the ghosts are on the loose. Where is the Infantata? Doesn't he get to come out and play?
This is kind of like Beetlejuice in that the ghosts are trying to get the living to leave the house, even though they have different motivations.
[ETA: upon second viewing I notice that Vivian disemboweled Ben. I didn't even notice that the 1st time. Am I that desensitized to gore? Yes, yes I am.]
That family got out of dodge fast.
They just showed the preview for "Devil Inside", and it's still freaky no matter how many times I see it.

At this rate, that house is going to be worth $100.00 US (which makes it worth even less since the exchange rate is kicking the dollar's @$$).
"In 1994 I set my step-dad on fire, I murdered 15 students at Westfield High, I killed the gay couple that lived here before you, and I raped your wife. I also stole the Lindbergh baby, shot JFK, Tupac and Biggie and co-piloted one of the planes that flew into the Twin Towers." -Tate (OK he only said the the first sentence.)

So, did they just forget about the other baby? Where did they get a Christmas tree?
Constance, that is definitely a grandmother's hairstyle. Well, lacefront wig really, but still. (Jessica Lange needs several awards for this monologue in the mirror. So far she is nominated for a Golden Globe.) I just realized that the baby boy she is going on about may be the antichrist.
Wow her fridge is 60 years old!
Look Gramma I killed the nanny! Tate 2.0? Nope, Micheal is the antichrist. He's definitely got a Damien thing going on.

That was a fun ride, but they still left so many questions unanswered. I have a feeling that this is the type of show that gets ridiculously good in season two, because season one took it's time to lay the groundwork and develop the characters so that you actually care what happens to them.

The Human Centipede 2 Full Sequence: Movie Review

I saw the original The Human Centipede and found it mildly enjoyable, mostly because of Deiter Laser's (best name ever for an actor) portrayal of Dr. Heiter. How fitting that the evil doctor's name sounds like "hater" in English! With that said, The Human Centipede is the type of movie you watch once just to say you've seen it, like Salo. The Human Centipede 2 is an exercise in movie masochism.

There were so many times that I wanted to fast forward through this movie. It was trying to build tension, but instead it built boredom. It started out halfway promising with a look into the twisted mind of the main character Martin and his obsession with the movie The Human Centipede. Director Tom Six did everything in his power to make Martin the most repulsive, repugnant, revolting (whatever other words that start with RE that allude to what a disgusting person he is)  human being on film. You could almost smell Martin. Thank goodness this was not filmed in smellovision.

Frankenhooker: Rewind Review

Let's just start with the name of this one. As a fourteen year-old with a newly minted affinity for B-movies, when I walked by this at the local mom and pop video store I had to rent it. Back then it was on VHS, and this was pre IMBd and Rotten Tomatoes scores, so one would go on the strength of the cover art and description on the back. Plus this wasn't a new release, so it was only $1 to rent anyway. (Take that Red Box!)

Basket Case: Rewind Review

 Midnight Movie Mayhem!

If you are new to my Rewind Reviews, they are just my responses to rewatching movies that I watched as a kid. Today I'm going to talk about a (writer/director) Frank Henenlotter classic, Basket Case. Henenlotter is also known for Brain Damage (1988) and Frankenhooker (1990). I've seen those as well. I saw Frankenhooker as a kid, and just saw Brain Damage a few months ago as an adult. But this review will focus solely on Basket Case.

When I first got into B-movies I was in middle school and watched the edited for TV versions of them on USA "Up All Night". Luckily for me they left a surprising amount of gore in there for TV (well basic cable). I think this is a great way for pre-teens and early teens to be introduced to horror. I wasn't introduced to it that way. I saw "Alien" (1979) at the drive-in in my footie pajamas and watched  John Carpenter's "The Thing"(1982) at the movies too when I was in 1st grade. When my uncle took us to see E.T. (1982), I spent half the movie watching thru my fingers waiting for E.T. to kill Elliot. My young mind had learned from "Alien" and "The Thing" that that's what aliens do, right? But for kids who haven't been practically birthed into horror this is a great introduction to it until they build a tolerance for the scarier fare.