My "Stab" at Writing Horror Movie Reviews

After re-reading several articles on horror-movies.ca, which is a website that writes reviews for all horror movies, comics and games in circulation, I decided to write as if I was a review writer myself. A lot of articles on their site are in the vein of "Top 5 or 10 in Horror Movie"-type stuff. I have to say, its not as easy as it looks, but writing reviews helps keep things fresh in my mind with what works and what doesn't. And as a feature script writer for horror films, this is an invaluable practice for me.

Feel free to read my article and compare it to the horror-movies.ca website and let me know if my writing could mesh with what they're looking for. No, really. This would be super helpful as I would LOVE to be a writer for them as they are one of the biggest websites to review horror movies out there. I want to make this a consistent review blog (at least once a week) and I look forward to including this as a part of my own website at www.badapplentertainment.com.  Hope you enjoy!

ARTICLE SAMPLE:

Top 5 Horror Film Directors Who Are Now “Main-Stream”

Who would of thought film-makers that made you double check under your bed and your closet before you went to sleep at night would become the mainstream blockbuster power-houses that they are today. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite (or at least mine) cult-classic horror films as we trace back the roots of today’s most prolific and exciting directors. See if you can guess what films belong to which current day, big-budget director. Guess horror movies aren’t just for the B-list film-makers, huh?

An awesome zombie movie, before “zombie” was a huge buzz-word and contains everything I love in a cheesy-good horror title, is Dead Alive. This was back in 1992 when I technically couldn’t watch any horror movies. Technically. But what the parents don’t know…will bite you in the ass by way of grounding later. Anywho, watch it for the stop-animation that starts with the carnivorous "rat monkey" that our protagonist couple visits in the zoo. Laugh-out-loud for the eccentric priest who proclaims “I kick-ass for the lord!” in the humorous cemetery scene. Enjoy it for the lawn mower re-purposed into a “human blender” in the final scenes. And love it for the slap-stick humor on behalf of Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme) who runs in place like Scooby Doo in a pool of blood as he gets chased through his mum’s house full of zombies.

Scene from Dead Alive

So who directed such a gem of a cult-classic? Well, before he was building the magical world of “Middle-earth” in the already magical country of New Zealand for the Lord of the Rings mega-series, Peter Jackson was taking his bite out of zombie crime and kicking its ass in classic “mow-town” rhythm. Get it? “Mow” town with the lawnmower? Okay, it’s not funny if I have to explain it! Interesting Fact: New Zealand was the setting for Dead Alive as well as the staging ground for his elf and hobbit-footed friends to run amok.


Next is another one of my favorite movies that is told in a similar style to Dead Alive, if you consider the considerable amount of stop-animation put into the series. I'm taking about Evil Dead, of course. Who doesn’t like a fully naked demon damsel dancing in the forest in the middle of the night? Or the ingenious thought put into the character Ash (Bruce Campbell put on a film back plate) battling a demon Henrietta (put on the foreground plate) in an epic stand-off scene? The effects build until the third installation, Army of Darkness, where we see a whole army of stop-animation skeletons charging towards the castle to take out Ash and the kingdom’s stronghold. And more importantly, who can forget Ash’s one-liners like “Good, bad. I’m the guy with the gun.” or “Give me some sugar, baby.”?

Scene from Evil Dead

Before he was getting the money-shots of one the most beloved masked-crusaders, webbing his way through a concrete-jungle set, Sam Raimi’s first trilogy centered around a crass and sarcastic dude with a shotgun and a chainsaw for a hand. One can see how the humor is inter-spliced between the more dramatic moments of Spiderman and Peter Parker’s character that gives much needed comic relief which also echoes back to Raimi’s horror film-making days on the Evil Dead series. In his case, you’ll never forget your first… Trilogy, that is. Fun Fact: If you haven’t already noticed, Bruce Campbell makes a cameo appearance in all of the Spiderman movies.

More recently is a film that has made its way back into the limelight, after much debate among traditional zombie fans, is Dawn of the Dead (2004) which is a re-make of George A. Romero’s 1978 title with the same name.  However, this title carries some iconic, and controversial twists, like fast-moving zombies and a creepy zombie baby born to two young parents in a shopping mall. Although the plot steels the same location being the shopping mall for the majority of the movie, there are some major tweaks that make zombie fans either squeal in delight or reel in disgust, but not in the way that you think. It’s due to the “zombie purists” that want to preserve the ways of the slow, brainless zombies from the Romero days. Ultimately, I think progression is good as adding new character elements to the zombies keep things fresh. Well, as fresh as zombies can be.

Scene from Dawn of the Dead

Who can imagine that just a short decade later, dynamic film director Zack Snyder would move on to direct such titles as 300, Watchmen and Man of Steel. He may have not made his own mega-blockbuster trilogy, yet, but he is well on his way with the much-anticipated tile Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice in the works. What we do know that worked as a re-vamp of a zombie classic with Snyder's Dawn of the Dead is that he gave the movie a solid ending unlike the open-ended one in Romero’s with the couple flying away in a helicopter to an uncertain future. Let’s just say that zombies win in Snyder’s version. Game over. Fun Anecdote: Snyder, although solidifying his place as a film-maker with Dawn of the Dead, had to come up with some test footage to show the studios the viability of 300 told in Frank Miller’s comic book-style.

Expanding on the subject of fast-moving zombies, as they’re here to stay whether you like them or not, is the interesting twist with an anger-inducing virus that makes people go mad and, yes, move fast in 28 Days Later. What I love about this movie is, similar to Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead, the opening scenes start out during the day. What seemingly was a normal life and ho-hum existence is now hyper-real and scary as hell! Where in 28 Days Later, the film starts out with a man waking up in a hospital with no attendees, Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead has a normal couple in suburbia wake up to their daughter who is somehow, inexplicably a zombie and attacks them.  Similarly, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wanders from the hospital towards a church, a place that guarantees refuge, only to be spotted by psycho-crazy zombies a chased in an exhausting escape for his life!

Scene from 28 Days Later

Although Danny Boyle already made a cult-classic film Trainspotting, which put British actor Ewan McGregor on the map, it was 28 Weeks Later that gave Danny Boyle a household name that any film maker would die for.  Or in this case, re-animate for. Although, in this movie’s case, the victims don’t have to technically die to act like zombies with seemingly increased strength.  But they are just as terrifying! And although Boyle can’t brag about making any main-stream trilogies, he did snag an Academy Award for Best Picture for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. It seems the road to movie gold is paved with zombie corpses. Side Note: Boyle did announce after the release of 28 Weeks Later in 2007 that he would love to start on 28 Months Later. He took a detour and made Slumdog, but we’re still waiting on the conclusion to his exciting zombie trilogy!

One of my favorite horror movies of all-time has to be American Psycho. What sets this film apart from the rest is the poignant tale of American-greed and the depths to which shallow people will dig in an effort to appear “normal.” We follow the un-asuming lifestyle of white-collared businessman Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) who seeks out more daring thrills than boning his best friend’s wife or snorting blow in the club bathroom stales. What’s satisfies his greedy desires for control? Well, blood, blood and more blood of course! And who can forget such memorable scenes like when Bateman jams out to “Huey Lewis and the News” while draped in a rain poncho covering his tailor-made, high-end suite just so he can execute his arch nemesis in business with an axe? Nobody! That’s who!

Promotion still from American Psycho

The unfortunate man who Bateman kills in the scene during the epic playing of “Hip to Be Square” song is Paul (Jared Leto) who goes on (along with Bale) to win an Academy Award for acting later in their careers. And frankly the woman who directed the film, Mary Harron, should of won an Academy Award for directing. But alas, we don’t live in the golden days of horror where films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist received such well-deserved accolades. Mary went on to direct The Notorious Betty Page and other titles but I personally hope she returns to the horror genre soon.

Although I was startled watching such an epic movie like American Psycho play out scene by scene, I was even more startled by quickly discovering afterwards that the project was helmed by a visionary female director. And although she is not technically “main-stream” yet, I would venture to say at least all the actors she used went on to make very well-known movies. Personal Observation: Bateman is just one letter off from “Batman” which is a role that Bale took on just a couple of years later after American Psycho. A little future-telling? I sure think so!

Hope you enjoyed reading my picks. Or you can dig on them in the comments!