A Hard Case To Defend

Hart's War (2002)
Director- Gregory Hoblit
Starring- Collin Farrell, Bruce Willis, Terrence Howard

Within the bleak atmosphere of a WWII POW camp, Lt. Thomas Hart (Farrell) must use his limited law school education to defend a murder case involving Tuskegee pilot Lt. Lincoln Scott (Howard) and another POW. Hart knows that Scott has been falsely accused, and knows Col. William MacNamara (Willis), unofficial leader of the prisoners, has something to do with it.

The movie quickly becomes heavily racially charged with arrival of the two African American airmen, and tension is almost constant throughout most of the movie. Col. Verner Wisser, acted incredibly by Marcel Lures, is a strong character, and despite being a "villian" in the movie still manages to force some respect from the viewer, especially toward the end. Wisser and MacNamara share what can be best termed a 'hateful friendship'. Wisser actually seemed broken when he learned of MacNamara's involvement and motives, and what actions he must take in retaliation.

The movie was visually arresting with flat colors and amazing special effects that didn't dominate the film.

Rating: 4/5 Bonedaddies.

Witches & Ballet? Warning: A Couple Spoilers...

Suspiria (1977)
Director- Dario Argento
Starring- Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci


American ballet dancer Suzy Bannion (Harper) travels to Germany to attend a presitgious dance academy only to find mystery and danger surrounding the building. Murders continue to occur after her arrival, and Suzy, terrified, must find out what is behind it all. What she uncovers is a deep historical involvement between the academy and witchcraft, and she must figure out a way to destroy it before she becomes the next victim.


Like the description? It's slightly more interesting to read than to watch the movie itself. The pace of the movie tries to move along evenly, but too many scenes drag on endlessly before switching to an interesting part. The murder scenes were pretty interesting, and creatively done at times, like the barbwire room.


The ending played out okay, but the idea that the original witch was still alive but invisible (through a spell I think) was a bit too silly for me. And for some reason I expected a lesbian love scene, though there were no indicators. I know I have no right to be disappointed, but I do.


Rating: 3/5 Bonedaddies.

The Title Says it All...

The Screaming Skull (1958)
Director- Alex Nicol
Starring- John Hudson, Peggy Weber, Alex Nicol

Eric Whitlock (Hudson) brings his new wife Jenni (Weber) to a large house he once shared with his late wife, Marian. As the couple tries to settle in, Jenni begins to see and hear a skull in different places, and her history of mental illness is blamed.
The gardner, Mickey (Nicol), tended to the grounds since Marian was alive. He was very close to her and took her death hard, leading some to think he may have been behind it. Unfortunately, the horrific story goes far deeper than someone using a skull to scare someone else.

I loved that this movie started right out with 'Dance of the Dead' music accompanying. The plot twist was a little predictable, but still pretty entertaining, and the acting wasn't too bad all around. I thought the gardner was pretty clever for comeing off as slightly mentally handicapped.

Rating: 3/5 Bonedaddies.

Feed Me, Seymour!

Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Director- Roger Corman

Starring- Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles

Seymour Krelboin (Haze) is a florist who mistakenly breeds a plant that is so hungry it demands human meat. It's hard enough to get his life together and try to date Audrey (Joseph), he now has to find human victims for his plant.

The humor is a little risque for its time, but all in all, a good movie. The real standout is Jack Nicholson, who makes his film debut as a sadomasochistic dental patient that Seymour is forced to extract teeth from (after being mistaken for the dentist he killed). Nicholson could easily have gone into comedy back then, as his character is hilarious and well-acted.

The ending was pretty predictable, but still good, even if the movie itself is largely just silly.

Rating: 3/5 Bonedaddies.

That Lighthouse Needs Fixing...

Tormented (1960)
Director- Bert I. Gordon
Starring- Richard Carlson, Susan Gordon, Juli Reding

Tom (Carlson) is all set to get married. Trouble is, he has to ditch his mistress, Vi (Reding). Vi isn't too thrilled with being cut loose, and attempts to blackmail him. She underestimates his desperation to maintain secrecy, however, and gets herself dropped from a lighthouse.

Tom, thinking he's free, goes on with his new life, but is soon disturbed by visions of body parts showing up in various places. He soon sees Vi's head in his living room and pleads with her to leave him alone. In the meantime, an old associate of Vi's stops in town looking for her. He finds out about her relationship with Tom and tries his own hand at blackmail, which gets him killed as well.

The effects aren't bad for a 1960 movie, the acting is alright, and there are a few suspenseful moments, even if the build-up to the ending was a bit predictable. It was a good ghost story, though, and kept up pace well so as not to bore too easily.

Rating: 3.5/5 Bonedaddies.

The Last Horror Movie (2003)

The Last Horror Movie

Director- Julian Richards

Starring- Kevin Howarth, Mark Stevenson

Warning: Some spoilers.

A serial killer, Max, who works as a wedding videographer by day decides to make a little documentary of his "work". He records it onto a tape from a local video rental and stalks who ever rents it.

The part about the rental is a little bit of a surprise, so I apologize for spilling the beans, but it made sense to add it into the description. Although it's a decent plot device, it feels like it was put in as an afterthought, and to me raises questions of behavioral patterns that would help get the guy caught.

Other than that, the movie was surprisingly excellent. I had my doubts during the intro until I realized it was actually the movie he taped over. Once Max introduces himself, the movie takes a much better road from there. His little soliloquies run on at length and get boring, but it's interesting to see the rising conflict between him the camera man, who seems at first to be a fan but becomes uneasy about killing after having actually seen it.

The disturbing part comes when you see Max disposing of his bodies by cooking them and serving it up to his friends (who obviously have no idea what he does to people). The acting is beyond great, and not because of overemotional interactions or action sequences. The killing scenes become completely human--nothing is overdone, the pain in the victims' faces looks like any documentary or Faces of Death film I've ever seen and at times actually left me speechless due to its realism.

Good concept for a film, maybe not the most original, and even though boring and speechy at times, impresses the feeling of paranoia well and is acted superiorally.

Rating: 4.5/5 Bonedaddies.

Crippled Creek (2005)

Crippled Creek
Director- Hans Hartman
Starring- Ashley Totin, Jennifer Jules Hart, Evy Lutsky

Three best friends take off on a camping trip to a family cabin deep in Connecticut woods. They are warned by a forest ranger of a hermit living in the area, and early on run into to two guys--I'll call them Dumbass 1 and Dumbass 2. The guys act like obnoxious college guys and practically fumble over eachother trying to get the girls. Eventually, they come into brief contact with the hermit, ignore his warning to leave, and two of their group turn up missing. After some searching, some fighting amongst eachother, and more searching, Dumbass 2 reveals himself to be an overbearing jackass in times of stress before getting his lights put out by one of the girls.

They find the missing couple, strung up and dead. Panic ensues, Dumbass 2 screams to the woods for a confrontation. His request is granted, and when the hermit is done with him, he proceeds to take out another of the girls. As he finds the third girl, the hermit is confronted by the forest ranger and challenged for possession of her. The girl gets the upper-hand, and the movie ends on a pretty supernatural note.

I could forgive the shitty music being played throughout. I could forgive the interactions between the girls and guys resembling porn intros but not following through. I can forgive the supernatural ending despite the fact that this story is supposedly based on a real event. I can even acknowledge the honest effort put into some of the scenes. What I can NOT forgive is that this movie ran for an hour and a half, and other than a quick little kill in the beginning, there is no killing or violence until about 57 minutes in. 57 minutes out of an hour and a half! No killing! Before that, we're treated to inconsequential hermit POV's every now and then and some nudity.

Rating: This crippled effort gets 1/5 Bonedaddies.