Wednesday 19 Jun
 
 
DVD reviews

The Last Exorcism Part II

Unlike many moviegoers, 17-year-old farm girl Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell, The Day) has no memory of the events of The Last Exorcism, a found-footage smash of three years prior. The Last Exorcism Part II finds her taking steps to build life anew, beginning in a boarding house for troubled girls, where the deeply devout Nell is exposed to such heretofore corrupting influences as lipstick and rock music and YouTube and cotton candy.
06/19/2013 | Comments 0

The ABCs of Death

Suspense novelist Jeffery Deaver once praised the short-story format, writing that the minimal time investment on the part of the reader allows the writer to get away with endings he or she cannot in the long form. In other words, the writer can be meaner, more devious. He's absolutely right, and the theory applies wholesale to The ABCs of Death, more or less a horror anthology depicting "26 ways to die."
06/19/2013 | Comments 0

Ninja III: The Domination

Don't ask why Ninja III: The Domination begins with a ninja assault on a municipal golf course. Just be grateful it does. You also may wonder why its sex scene employs a can of V8: Don't question it. Just lie back and enjoy it.
06/14/2013 | Comments 0

Lifeforce

Tobe Hooper got a raw deal. The director of horror hits The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist didn't deserve to be sent to movie jail for 1985's Lifeforce. It's a well-crafted, well-intentioned work that was mismarketed and misunderstood, losing a bundle of money and soon sending Hooper into the lands of episodic television and direct-to-video features.
06/14/2013 | Comments 0

Dead Souls

With Dead Souls, we can prove something about the Chiller cable network's original features that Remains could not: Source material is not to blame for their pervasive generic nature — it's the economy, stupid.
06/11/2013 | Comments 0

Fantastic Fest: Prologue


Follow Gazette managing editor Rod Lott as he live-blogs Austin's Fantastic Fest all weekend long!

By Rod Lott September 23rd, 2011

Got into Austin at 3 p.m. Thursday and went straight to pick up my press badge. You can tell that Fantastic Fest isn't your average film festival because they required everyone to pose with a "shaky face." You achieve that by letting your face go really loose and limp, and whip your head back and forth fast. It hurts; now I understand the whole shaken baby syndrome thing.

Worse than that is that it's hot here. Back-sweaty hot.

Since my first screening wasn't until 9 p.m. ("The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence"), I killed a lot of time at the neighboring Highball bowling lounge, where Fantastic Fest is holding its Arcade, showcasing some really wild indie games (example: "Jesus vs. Dinosaurs"). Most of the games are housed in classic arcade stand-ups, but one was projected on the wall.


Around happy hour, the Fandago mascots crashed the place. I didnt know they had mascots. One looks like a Chinese dragon; the other, a paper sack. I don't know, but they gave me some free koozies.


Speaking of free, the Highball happy hour party was sponsored by PlayStation 3, so I got a free T-shirt for some game called "StarHawk." Although I know nothing about the game, I like the shirt — mainly because it's not black. The other two free shirts I got upon check-in were black. It's a terrible color on me. But no, you can't have them.

Finally, while waiting for "Centipede," I got to test Mitsubishi's new 3-D TV, via scenes from the '80s schlock Western, "Comin' at Ya!" The movie looks fun; as for the TV, save your money. —Rod Lott




 
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