Memorial To Wes Craven

Sadly, today we have lost one of the biggest icons and contributors ever to be part of the horror genre.

Wes Craven has always been the main reason why I fell in love with this industry and I will forever be grateful for it.

I have to start with his biggest accomplishment, contribution and the one thing that had keep me scared for my life as a youngster.

Freddy Krueger not only was the first horror icon I knew about but he was the first to scare the living day lights out of me. What could be scarier to a four year old than a man who could attack and kill you in your sleep? In my opinion and from my experience, nothing else could top it.

I recall several nights as a child running downstairs in tears looking for my dad because Freddy had made an appearance in my dreams and sure enough, my father was laying on the floor watching one of the Nightmare films. Needless to say I was continuously terrified thanks to seeing him paused on that screen.

Years later, my mother introduced me back into the horror genre with The People Under the Stairs, another brilliant film made by Craven. With a nice dose of comedy inserted, I was able to begin getting over my fear of the horror genre and started appreciating everything it had to offer.

This opened the door to all the classics and forced me to face my nightmares and watch all the Nightmare on Elm Street films. This forced viewing made me fall in love with the character of Freddy. A love that would never die out!

I soon got caught up in the Scream phenomenon and knew I had to watch the movie. Upon my first viewing of the film with my sister, our mother decided to run into the room with a butcher knife to scare the life out of us.

The thrill of the scare made me laugh but also opened up a door for me to find more thrills in order to feed myself the adrenaline.

And after that I was hooked to horror for life and it all stemmed from films and characters that Wes Craven had created and I must thank him for that. Something most horror fans can relate to and something that none of us will ever be able to properly thank him for.

So for everything you've done for all your fans, all the film makers, screen writers, special effects people, reviewers and beyond, we thank you Mr. Craven.

You will be miss by everyone. Rest in peace.

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It's been a while but we're coming back!

Hello once again old friends!

It has been a while since we've been up and running as this review blog is usually seasonal, typically coinciding with the fall season.

Last season I tried to keep the reviews coming year round but alas we were unable to continue due to various reasons. The main one being I had to disband my office and lost my computer to my wife for her Netflix addiction.

Among other reasons were failing health ( no need to worry we are all safe and back in good health ), the joys of a job change and the time it takes to settle into place ( my old job was a horrible place to work in general so this was a welcome change ) and the hardship of finding the  time to read and review books which are much more time consuming.

After careful consideration, we here at Horror Shoot have decided to make a few changes to how we do things around here and figured we should share them with you!

-  We are officially removing ourselves from book reviews. If someone if interested in starting them up again for us you are more than welcome to send us an email for details.
(Heads up: we this wouldn't be for monetary gain just for the love of the genre.)

- Instead of going full spoiler free, we have decided to delve into some of the finer details of the films in order to keep the reviews from sounding repetitive, which has been a complaint in the past.

- And finally, just for the love of nostalgia and greatness, we will occasionally have  an "old school" review. Maybe we will make it a weekly event, maybe it will fall by the wayside. We will figure that out once we get to that point, but until then here's how it will work.

Any thowback film we review will have to be a minimum of 20 years old and possess either a blockbuster status or have to be considered to have a large cult following.

Now that our new rules and regulations have been set up, I can give you the fine details.

We will be starting up, at the latest, on September 10th. Reason behind this is that our seasons typically start after the yearly release of everyone's favorite drink, the Pumpkin Spice Latte. (Yes, I'm one of those people. But let me assure you, I was doing pumpkin spice everything, before it was cool!)

With everything settled, I have to say thank you for your continued support even after we go on hiatus.

Talk to you all again soon!

- Kyle
  Owner / Writer - Horroshoot

If you have any questions regarding our review blog please message us on Twitter @horrorshoot or email us at horrorshootreviews@gmail.com

The Loved Ones (2009)

I was 110% sure I already had this film figured out before I even pressed play. Holy crap was I ever wrong. This has to be one of the best horror films I've seen in quite some time.

I was honestly thinking this is gonna be a cheap rip off of Prom Night mixed together with Carrie but came out of left field with something new and different with a small dose of different film aspects thrown in together to create something special.

This is an Australian film written and directed by Sean Byrne and stars Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy and John Brumpton.

After having her prom invitation rejected by a boy at school, Lola, with the help of her father, take actions into their own hands in order to ensure Lola has the most wonderful and exciting prom night ever. Unfortunately for her date, it's not the way he was expecting to spend his last high school dance.

Seeing that the film was from Australia, I was immediately cursing my friend for suggesting it to me as I had a very hard time deciphering Wolf Creek when that one was first suggested. Luckily, the language barrier was minimal and all the terms used were natural to the North American style of slang.

All the actor were awesome in their roles and the dialogue was excellent. The kind of dialogue that just sucks you right into the movie, helping to bring it to the next level of entertainment.

The last 20 minutes of the film were just fantastic, turning a good film into a great one and forcing me to raise my rating instantly. Give me a great ending I can remember and I'm gonna love it even more!

Now, without wasting anymore of your time so you may go on an enjoy this film for yourself, I give The Loved Ones an excellent rating of 9 out of 10!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment, email or follow us on Twitter!

Have a great day!

Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1996)

In the year 2127, a young man open up the puzzle box to once again unleash to wrath of the cenobites. However, as the box is in an unauthorized area he caught by authorities and must explain to them the history of the box.

Directed by Kevin Yagher (credited under Alan Smithee) and Joe Chappelle (who went completely uncredited for the film). Written by Peter Atkins and starring Doug Bradley, Bruce Ramsay and Valentina Vargas.

For a quick moment I would like to talk about "Alan Smithee". For those of you whom are unaware, Alan Smithee was a pseudonym used by directors who wanted to disown a specific project. Basically, if they didn't like the final product and could convince the director's guild that they could not have done any better due to unforeseen circumstances, the guild would allow them to use the name to cover up their work with the rules of not speaking about the project nor admitting to anybody that it was their work.

This basically tells you, in a nutshell, where this review is going.

Working as a prequel and a sequel bloodline shows not only the history on the lament configuration, but it's present and future as well.

The film lost my interest the moment they jumped back in time to explain the origin of the box. I just can't get into a film that looks like a period piece. It's something I personally have no interest in even though I know the importance of origins.

The future acting was decent, at first
The present wasn't so great and the past was just laughable. Sure they had the outfits and all but they were not acting in the ways of old. They seemed more like a bunch of people who may belong in the crazy home as opposed to those actually living in the Victorian era.

The ending also was not very good in my books. Let's use advanced technology cause it's the only way we can kill these demons. So you're telling me the previous entries really should have all ended differently then? Cause if you can't kill a cenobites, how you gonna get rid of it for good? The answer? You just can't thus  ruining the story line in all the other films.

I found this to be not only a waste of time, but the film itself ruins any momentum the franchise had going. This may be the sole reason why all the following films have been direct to video.

2 out of 10 and the only reason it gets that much love from me is because Of Doug Bradley's reprising of the Pinhead role.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment, email or follow us on Twitter!

Have a great day!