Trailer of the Day: Howling 2

I'm having a very hard time expressing my feeling about this one. As you may or may not know I really LOVE the first Howling. It's got great monster design, a pretty good plot, and a really bleak ending.

Howling 2 has none of these things.

The werewolf's make up is comically bad, the plot was needlessly convoluted, and within the first 10 minutes it takes away most of what made the ending of the first one so great. However despite all the flaws, I still found fairly entertaining, in a weird, campy sort of way. It actually has everything I love in bad horror movies; characters whose actions make no sense, lots of bad gore (one guy's eyeballs explode after the werewolf queen shoots him with force lightning, true story), and lots of batshit insanity (the werewolves kill Christopher Lee's midget henchman and then send his possessed body back to kill Lee).

That brings me to the other great thing about this movie, Christoper Lee. I didn't even know he was in it till he popped up on screen. His character is pretty weird too. He plays a werewolf hunter who enlists the main character's help in hunting down the werewolf queen and then proceeds to ignore them and leave them in dangerous situations for the rest of the movie. Weird.

So in the end I think this movie actually suffered from having the Howling name on it. If was just named Revenge of the Werewolf Queen or something I think I would have been able to enjoy for what it is; a bad but bizarrely entertaining werewolf movie.

Trailer of the Day: Elves

I know it's a little past Christmas but seriously, what the hell is this! Even though I know better I have trouble believing this is a real trailer, let alone an actual movie. This is something someone made in tribute to old trailers, right? RIGHT?!?

Anyway, if you couldn't discern the plot from the above clip let me help you out. Neo-Nazis resurrect demonic elves so they can impregnate a virgin and produce a master race which will rule the world, Grizzly Adams must stop them (he's also a former detective, now mall Santa).

I can't decide if this is the worst movie idea or the best one.

Trailer of the Day: The Beast Within

Ok, I know it's cheating a little since I had this trailer along with The Manitou, but I finally saw this wonderful little gem and thought it was only fair it got it's own post, because this movie is batshit insane!

So as we all know, old horror movies are NEVER as good as the trailer (well except for THIS), but The Beast Within comes pretty close. I sat down expecting a slow, boring, monstrosity of a werewolf movie and instead got a slow burning, mean-spirited, nihilistic masterpiece!
The trailer is actually somewhat accurate too! I mean the end transformation scene may be a little hyped up, but the movie really does draw you in close only to knock you out in the last 30 minutes. If only the monster looked less rubbery...

Trailer of the Day: Zombie 2

It looks like I unintentionally took the summer off, but now I'm back, WITH ZOMBIES!!!

Ahhhhhhh, the infamous Zombie 2. In case you're not "in the know" there technically is no Zombie 1. Lucio Fulci decided to cash in on the success of Dawn of the Dead (which was known in Italy as Zombie) by making a sequel or prequel or something. Although, I don't remember the zombies from Dawn of the Dead being this disgusting...

For such a mayhem and gore packed movie this trailer makes it look like the most boring thing this side of sliced bread. Of course, that's actually pretty representative of 80's Italian horror. One minute your falling asleep and the next your all like "HOLY SHIT THERES A ZOMBIE FIGHTING A SHARK!!!1!!1".

Trailer of the Day: El Topo

YEAH! Now this is what I'm talkin' about! I flipping love this film! Although The Holy Mountain is considered by many to be Jodorowsky's best film, I happen to be partial to this one. After all, El Topo is one of the greatest horror cowboys ever (tomorrow I bring a list of the top 10 horror cowboys, I know you've all been waiting for it).
Now I know that, much like The Holy Mountain, El Topo  is not quite horror, but it's complete strangeness makes up for it's lack of outright horror elements (although it does have it's fair share of horrific moments...).

If you doubt the awesomeness of El Topo, just watch the trailer again and listen to the first line. "Be prepared to  live the most wonderfull experience of your life.". HOW CAN YOU ARGUE WITH THAT?!?

Trailer of the Day: The Holy Mountain

Now I know that this isn't quite horror, but The Holy Mountain  is quite possibly the most bizarre movie you'll ever see. It is without a doubt Jodorowsky's masterpiece but, in my opinion not his best film (that honor belongs to El Topo). I wasn't joking yesterday when I referred to this as Symbolism: The Movie. Make no mistake, this movie is pretty much all insanity and symbolism. Not that that's entirely a bad thing, I'm sure a lot of people have gotten a lot of different things from this movie, sometimes though it does come off as a bit heavy-handed.

I will give it this though, it's inspired a lot of musicians from Beck to System of a Down to write trippy songs referencing a trippy movie. Go back and watch the trailer around the 1:53 mark, then watch the video below around the 1:36 mark.


I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!

Finally I'd like to note that I love how the trailer proclaims "The Holy Mountain  is a movie outside the tradition of cynicism or review". Riiiiiiiiiiight. Well, 70's announcer guy, I'm reviewing it (sort of), HOW YA LIKE THAT!

Trailer of the Day: Santa Sangre

I was really surprised with how sane this movie was, which, also surprisingly, left me feeling a tad disappointed. Not that it's not weird as hell, mind you, it's just the other two Jodorowsky films that I've seen make David Lynch look like Michal Bay. I did appreciate that it had a fairly traditional structure to it, and it wasn't just Symbolism: The Movie (much like Jodorowsky's other works).

That said, let me reiterate that Santa Sangre, despite resembling a normal movie, is totally bizarre. Prepare for amputees, elephant funerals, and children being tattooed. Bizarre.