Viva Django (1968)

Django is on the trail of some renegade outlaws who raped and killed his wife. En route, he rescues a horse thief from an impromptu hanging. He discovers the man knows who committed the murder. The men team up and head west for revenge. 

Viva Django is a 1968 Italian spaghetti western film directed by Ferdinando Baldi. The film stars Terence Hill in the title role and it kicks ass.  

A group of bandits raped and murdered a woman that, for their bad luck, was Django's wife.After that,the famous gunman goes in a vengeance against the bad guys, killing everyone in his trail.  This is perhaps Terence Hill's greatest role.  He oozes class, clad all in black and convincingly playing the character second only to the Man With No Name for pure charisma. The rest of the cast is also a real treat - with both Eastman and Frank as brilliant as ever. Eastman's characters alway manage to be quite likable regardless of their bad morals and actions, whilst Frank just oozes with evil. Two of the great great supporting actors of the genre.

 All the essential ingredients of spaghetti westerns are here, including digging on the graveyard and a shootout with a machine-gun taken from a coffin.  Gianfranco Reverbi provides a really recognizible score, and the title theme track "You'd Better Smile" will stick in the head for days. This is a good film and if you like westerns then it's right up your alley.  Seek it out.

Trivia:

German Import DVD has a Super-8 Version (German language only), as a special feature on the disc. 

Following the success of the Bud Spencer/Terence Hill Italo western comedies in Germany this film was re-released as a re-dubbed comedy version in the late 1970s. Therefore it was heavily cut to 82 minutes and changed in plot. Django (now renamed to Joe) even mentions "the big" a few times referring to several characters of Bud Spencer in other movies. 

Django had his name changed into Trinita for the French version, but no attempt to turn the film into a comedy was ever made. 

Cut (2000)

A group of film students attempt to finish a horror movie that stopped production years earlier when the director was killed. Unaware that every attempt to complete the pic coincided with the murders of those involved, the students return to the original location in an isolated part of the country. When filming begins, so do the killings

Cut is a 2000 Australian comedy horror film, which was directed by Kimble Rendall and stars Kylie Minogue, Molly Ringwald and Tiriel Mora.  And guess what kids, it's really not a bad film.  It's quite enjoyable.  

The film opens in 1988 when director Hilary Jacobs (Australian uber-icon Kylie Minogue) is working on a slasher movie called "Hot Blooded" starring plucky American icon Vanessa Turnbull (Ringwald) as a teen who is being chased by a psycho with a mask and some wicked cutlery. After the climactic scene is shot, Jacobs shouts "Cut!" and then harangues the actor playing the killer. That night, the actor stabs the director and almost offs Turnbull. The film is never completed, and when a male director who takes over the project ends up dead too, "Hot Blooded" achieves a hallowed status in student film legend. Fast forward to the present -- Jacobs' assistant director Lossman (Geoff Revell) teaches at a film school and tells his favorite students -- Raffy Carruthers (Jessica Napier) and Hester Ryan (Sarah Kants) -- of his experiences on the doomed set. Raffy, who is itching to be the next Jane Campion, sets out to finish the notorious flick. She enlists Hester as a producer, assembles a crew of fellow students and manages to get Vanessa Turnbull, who hasn't worked much lately, to revisit her role as the film's main character. Of course, as soon as shooting commences, the killing begins anew.

They just have to finish the film... before it finishes them

 A bit of a "guilty pleasure"-type film, "Cut" is an entertaining little slasher movie.  By no means is it anything in terms of a classic, but I found this to be a pretty fun movie.  No, it's not entirely original, and in many instances it's just as typical as any slasher movie out there, but the premise of the movie-within-movie thing was interesting and makes for some very fun viewing. And believe it or not, it opened in France and Hong Kong at number two at the box office.

The mask for the killer is pretty creepy and adds some tension to his scenes with his demeanor.  He looks indistinguishable from the film's killer, when characters mistake him for that person and place him into the film with the actors, it gets a little frightening at times. The gore is also nice and it's quite bloody at times. There's several vicious slashes, a shear in the eye, a water pipe impaled in the stomach and a decapitation that offers up one of the best gags in the genre, where the head looks over at it's body after being separated. 

It's hard to scream without a tongue

There are plenty of red herrings and fake suspenseful moments, and there is very little time to try to work out who the killer is because the film moves at such a fast pace. It also has an appropriate low budget look, including some clumsy editing which is probably deliberate. Good soundtrack, too. If there is a difficulty with this film it is deciding whether it is a send-up of or a homage to the slasher genre. Probably a bit of both. 

The acting is good with Molly Ringwald leading the way. Jessica Napier does a good job as the films co-leading lady.  Kylie Minogue plays a bitch very well in her small role.  

Overall, "Cut" is an entertaining and creative little slasher picture that doesn't aim to be a film classic. It's schlocky and campy, and it's nowhere near perfect. But it's a self-aware horror movie that manages to balance an imaginative idea while making fun of itself all along the way, like a throwback to '80s splatter movies. It's got enough positives and is definitely worth a watch for horror fans. Anyone else will likely be displeased with it, but if you know slasher movies well, this is a pretty entertaining flick.

Audience Warning - Important Cinema Safety Notice - Caution: Movies Can Kill

 Lecturer: "We are so lucky today. We're lucky because we're here to see the most exciting screening of a very rare film. You may have read about it in the newspapers, because there was this so-called "curse" on the film. And that was that every time anybody tried to complete the film, someone died. In any case, this print is the only print in existence and we are really lucky to be able to see it today. All right, nothin' more to say. Here we go, let's roll it" 

Dracula 3000 (2004)

Count Dracula terrorizes the crew of a spaceship.

Dracula 3000, also titled Dracula 3000: Infinite Darkness, is a television horror movie released in 2004 that brings Bram Stoker's fictional vampire Count Dracula into outer space in the distant 30th century. 

The undead discover a new home in the far reaches of space in this blend of science fiction, action, and horror. In the year 3000 A.D., the crew of a commercial space freighter happens upon the wreckage of the Demeter, a massive space ship that has been missing for nearly a century. Aware that there's a substantial bounty being offered for the return of the ship's cargo, the freighter's crew begin exploring the Demeter to see what remains, and they discover that the ship's hold includes a large cache of black coffins. However, the real surprise lurks inside the coffins -- a gang of vampires, taking advantage of the darkness of deep space, have taken refuge in the Demeter's payload, and they soon begin attacking those who have discovered them. Can the freighter's crew keep the menace at bay until the ship's orbit takes them into the path of the sun? Dracula 3000 includes a stellar exploitation cast, including Casper Van Dien, Erika Eleniak, Coolio, Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr., and a special guest appearance from Udo Kier. 

In space, the sun never rises.

What we have here could quite possibly be the worst vampire film ever made.  When Tiny Lister is allowed to deliver 80% of the dialogue you know that you're in for a long 90 minutes. There may not be a word in the English language that describes how horrible this film is.  How does a movie like this make it anywhere? It should not be distributed nor watched.

And there's Coolio.  You know the rapper from Compton with the big hit, "Gangsta's Paradise".  His acting is so bad it makes Kevin Hart look like Sir Lawrence Olivier.  And guess what, he loves pot. They stereotype even in the year 3000.  

My anaconda likes your Snow White ass

 The name of the movie is Dracula 3000....so let's name the vampire Orlock.  What the fuck?  And guess what....there's a planet inhabited by vampires.  What do you think it's called?  Transylvania of course. I think the script was written by a 5th grader for a writing project.  And the vampire planet is in the Carpathian solar system. The dialogue is so bad that I had to include some examples at the bottom. 

And how would such a fantastic film like this end.  Tiny and the blonde android are heading toward the sun to certain death.  Do they panic?  No.  He bangs her as they plunge to their death.  There are worse ways to go I guess. 

Tiny's going to get some android pussy.

I can not warn you enough to stay away from this movie.  After you awake from your coma and go through therapy, you may not want to watch movies ever again.  I didn't even mention Dracula...oh excuse me, Orlock.  He's a middle aged nerd with a cape and a collar that came right out of the 70's.  It's the year 3000....update your wardrobe dude. 

Staying Alive....Staying Alive

Trivia & Quotes:

The "Mother III" is actually a re-use of the slingship from the short lived 1993 TV series Space Rangers (1993)

Quotes:

Humvee: "All that bloodsuckin', that's some white people shit".

187: "I want to watch my anaconda spit all over your snow white ass"

187: "Did I ever tell you how many times I'd see you and want to ejaculate all over your bazonkas... All the times I stayed up late, high as a kite, in the non-gravitational atmosphere, while I stroked my anaconda, and dreamed about your snow-white ass"

Capt. Abraham Van Helsing: "He's after Aurora, he wants to kill her!"
Arthur "The Professor" Holmwood: "But I believe he said he wants to tittie fuck her first"

Southern Gothic (2007)

A man who must atone for a tragic mistake by saving a little girl from a ruthless, undead preacher.

Southern Gothic is a 2007 horror film directed by Mark Young.  And what do we have here with this little vampire film I saw on Showtime.  

A dejected strip club bouncer attempts to atone for the sins of his past by protecting a little girl from a vampiric preacher in Tooth and Nail director Mark Young's moody horror film. Hazel Fortune (Yul Vasquez) is a burnt-out alcoholic who works in a southern strip club. Ever since he caused the death of his daughter, Hazel has fallen into a hopeless cycle of grief and despair. Then, one day, Starla (Nicole DuPort) walks into the club where Hazel works looking for a job. She's not like the other girls in the club, because all Starla wants is to raise enough money to give her daughter Hope a better future. When local fire and brimstone preacher The Reverend sees Starla, he makes it his holy mission to deliver her from evil. Before The Reverend can save Starla's soul, however, he is beset by a gang of wandering vampires and transformed into a night-walking bloodsucker. Now, as Hazel looks after young Hope, The Reverend and his minions set out to raise some serious hell around this sleepy rural town.

Pray for Dawn

 This could've been a potentially enjoyable and rousing vampire effort instead is a classic example of a wasted opportunity.  William Forsythe always throws himself into characters and does so here. I thought the character could have been given more to do, but Forsythe provides a compelling performance. Yul Vazquez was also solid in the lead role.  The plot was somewhat incoherent and illogical. 

Let me give you a hand.

I flipped back and forth in my mind as I watched.  I thought at first, "Hey this is not bad".  Then I think, "No this is pretty stupid."  Some parts are good and other parts are not.  Average flick.  If you dig vampires you might enjoy it but we really don't see that much vampire action during the film. Although I did laugh out loud when the bouncer was looking for the stripper and finds her in the ice box.  He then just causally walks away. Ok.  It doesn't sound funny....you had to be there I guess.

Stag Night (2008)

Four men out on a STAG NIGHT in New York prematurely exit an underground train after the soon-to-be-best-man begins to hassle two women. Trapped at a deserted station these six adults become the target of a gruesome manhunt when a secret gang of cannibal dwellers, living in the tunnels discovers them. Tensions will rise as they fight to make it through the night with all their limbs attached.

Stag Night is a 2008 American horror film, written and directed by Peter A. Dowling.  In New York, on the bachelor party of Mike (Kip Parude), he goes with his troublemaker brother Tony (Breckin Meyer) and his friends Carl (Scott Adkins) and Joe (Karl Geary) to a strip club; however Tony gets in a fight with other costumers and the group is expelled by the bouncers. Tony convinces Mike and his friends to take the subway and go to another bar; in the wagon, they see the striper Michelle (Sarah Barrand) and her friend Brita (Vinessa Shaw), and Carl makes a corresponded move to Michelle. When Tony flirts with Brita, she becomes upset and uses a spray against him. The train stops in a traffic light in an abandoned station, and Brita forces the door and leaves the wagon to breath, followed by the others. However the signal opens and they are left behind in the station, Mike, Tony, Joe and Brita decide to walk through the tunnel to the next station and seek help for Carl and Michelle that prefer to stay alone dating in the station. When they reach the next station, they witness a trio of brutal homeless men killing a guard and they run through the tunnel trying to escape from the deranged murderers in the beginning of their nightmarish night.

Stay on the train...

Frankly this is a tired retread of a film. We've been down these corridors before and the film adds nothing new. That would be fine if the film had any connection to reality, which it doesn't. The film was made in Sofia Bulgaria which looks nothing like New York. All of the subway stations are these huge cavernous rooms covered in graffiti that look unlike any I've ever seen in any location anywhere.

For a Direct-to-DVD horror flick it could have been much worse. Transplant this story to the woods, and you've got "Wrong Turn". Transplant it to a nuclear California desert, and you've got "The Hills Have Eyes".  For those who prefer slowburn suspense, this one may be a pass.  

The film even put this guy to sleep.

The look of the main cannibal is rather distracting.  He looks just like fucking Rob Zombie.  Whenever he appears I can't get it out of my mind that Rob Zombie is killing folks in the Subway.  IN fact they all look like Zombie.  

Rob Zombie is ready to ROCK.....

One major black mark against Stag Night is the camera-work, it's of the shaky jerky can't see anything variety which gets so annoying to watch it's a wonder why filmmakers still continue to overuse this irritating technique.  Essentially this is a film that lacks any kind of imagination. It steals from so many other horrors yet fails to mold anything decent with its bounty.  Stag Night is a very ordinary horror film that borrows all of it's ideas from better films, while competent Stag Night is forgettable on every level.  

Stagecoach (1939)

A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.

Stagecoach is a 1939 American Western film directed by John Ford, starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne in his breakthrough role. The screenplay, written by Dudley Nichols, is an adaptation of "The Stage to Lordsburg", a 1937 short story by Ernest Haycox. 

Stagecoach is not your normal, run of the mill, western. It will have you on the edge of your seat as passengers make their way through some dangerous Indian country. By the time the film ends, you will know all of the characters very well and ,for the most part,care whether they live or die.  This landmark Western served as both the beginning of John Wayne's landmark film career and his relationship with director John Ford, who would make some of his best films with Wayne, including The Searchers. The film involves a group traveling across the desert to the town of Lordsburg. The first part of the film introduces us to the group, which includes a drunken doctor, a meek man, a prostitute with a heart of gold (Claire Trevor), the bumpkin of a driver (Andy DeVine) and the wife of a soldier.

Danger holds the reins as the devil cracks the whip ! Desperate men ! Frontier women ! Rising above their pasts in a West corrupted by violence and gun-fire !

 There is never a dull moment during Stagecoach, which says a lot when compared to other films of the day. Unlike westerns made over the past thirty years, Stagecoach doesn't have guns blazing throughout the film. A credible story is built up which makes the climax all the more interesting.  The desert setting and the stagecoach itself serve to make the great directing and camera work even greater. So many classic scenes in one movie. There are lot of little things like the shot of the coyote howling in the desert night. The shot of the stagecoach from behind going through a sand wash. The shot of the Indians on the hill looking down at the stagecoach.  Just fantastic work from everyone involved.  

Along the way you will also see: The birth of a child, the telegraph lines cut, an attack by Indians, a chase, a cavalry rescue, a poker game, a three-against-one gunfight on the streets of a town, and an exciting climax…  After building a 10 years long career as a star of B-Movie westerns, John Wayne finally proved that he could be a real Hollywood star with his remarkable performance as Ringo Kid in this film. Granted, Wayne never had a big acting range, but this film shows what he could do when provided with a great script. Claire Trevor is simply awesome as Dallas, taking the classic "hooker with a heart of gold" archetype to perfection, making a very real and human character. John Carradine shows his talent in a role that, while not having many lines, says more with physical expression than with words. However, the real jewel of this movie is the truly outstanding performance done by Thomas Mitchell as the friendly, yet unreliable Doc Boone.

You can't fuck with John Wayne.

 Overall, it's a great movie to watch!! With its drama, suspense, adventure, moral lesson, story, and plot, this a great movie that you don't want to miss watching.  According to Orson Wells he watched the film more than 40 times while making Citizen Kane. Truly vintage Ford and vintage Ford/Wayne, a collaboration that went on to make many great films

Trivia:

A device known as a "Running W" was used on the Indians' horses during the sequence where they are chasing the stagecoach. Strong, thin wires are fixed to a metal post, then the other end of the wires are attached to an iron clamp that encircles the legs of a horse, and the post is anchored into the ground. The horse is then ridden at full gallop, and when the wire's maximum length is reached - just when the rider is "shot" - the animal's legs are jerked out from underneath it, causing it to tumble violently and throw the "shot" rider off. The trouble was that the rider knew when the horse was going to fall but the horse didn't, resulting in many horses either being killed outright or having to be destroyed because of broken limbs incurred during the falls. The use of the "Running W" was eventually discontinued after many complaints from both inside and outside the film industry. 

Asked why, in the climactic chase scene, the Indians didn't simply shoot the horses to stop the stagecoach, director John Ford replied, "Because that would have been the end of the movie." 

John Wayne's 80th film. 

The Duke always gets the girl.

Local Navajo Indians played the Apaches. The film's production was a huge economic boost to the local impoverished population, giving jobs to hundreds of locals as extras and handymen. 

The hat that John Wayne wears is his own. He would wear it in many westerns during the next two decades before retiring it after Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo (1959), because it was simply "falling apart." After that, the hat was displayed under glass in his home. 

John Ford's first sound Western, and his first in that genre in 13 years. Westerns had fallen out favor with the coming of sound, as it was tricky to record on location. 

John Ford loved the Monument Valley location so much that the actual stagecoach journey traverses the valley three times. 

In 1939 there was no paved road through Monument Valley, hence the reason why it hadn't been used as a movie location before (it wasn't paved until the 1950s). Harry Goulding, who ran a trading post there, had heard that John Ford was planning a big-budget Western so he traveled to Hollywood, armed with over 100 photographs, and threatened to camp out on Ford's doorstep until the director saw him. Ford saw him almost immediately and was instantly sold on the location, particularly when he realized that its remoteness would free him from studio interference. 

The interior sets all have ceilings, an unusual practice at the time for studio filming. This was to create a claustrophobic effect in complete counterpoint to the wide open expanse of Monument Valley.  

Thrills! Thrills! Thrills! See - The Apache Attack! Charge of the Cavalry! Fight to the Death On the Last Frontier of Wickedness!

Hosteen Tso, a local shaman, promised John Ford the exact kind of cloud formations he wanted. They duly appeared. 

When the film was being cast, John Ford lobbied hard for John Wayne but producer Walter Wanger kept saying no. It was only after constant persistence on Ford's part that Wanger finally gave in. Wanger's reservations were based on Wayne's string of B-movies, in which he came across as being a less than competent actor, and the box office failure of Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail (1930) in 1930, Wayne's first serious starring role. 

John Ford gave John Wayne the script, asking him for any suggestions as to who could play the Ringo Kid. Wayne suggested Lloyd Nolan, not realizing that Ford was baiting him with the part. Once filming began, however, Ford was merciless to Wayne, constantly undermining him. This psychological tactic was designed to make Wayne start feeling some real emotions, and not to be intimidated by acting alongside the likes of such seasoned professionals as Thomas Mitchell. 

John Ford originally wanted Ward Bond to play Buck the stage driver but gave the role to Andy Devine when he found that Bond couldn't drive a "six-up" stagecoach and there wasn't time to teach him. 

John Wayne's salary was considerably less than all of his co-stars', apart from John Carradine. 

David O. Selznick was interested in making the film, but only if he could have Gary Cooper as the Ringo Kid and Marlene Dietrich as Dallas. 

In 1939 Claire Trevor was the film's biggest star, and thus commanded the highest salary. 

Wait....you made how much more than me for this picture?

Near the end of the movie, Luke Plummer (Tom Tyler) has a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights. This is the notorious "dead man's hand" supposed to have been held by Wild Bill Hickok before he was killed.  

It's believed by many that the famous line "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do," widely attributed to a John Wayne Western character, is spoken by Wayne in this film, however, it isn't. His character, The Ringo Kid, instead says "There are some things a man just can't run away from," when asked why he intends to stay and avenge his family's murders rather than try to escape to Mexico. 

Ranked #9 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Western" in June 2008.  

Although Louis Gruenberg receives screen credit for the musical score, his contribution was not used and his name was omitted for the Academy Award nomination. 

It was selected for the National Film Registry by Library Of Congress in 1995.  

Doctor Boone's misquote, 'Is this the face that wrecked a thousand ships/ and burned the towerless tops of Ilium?', is from 'The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus' by Christopher Marlowe, Scene xiv. 

Manfish (1956)

Three deep sea divers get involved in murder while searching for a lost treasure.

Manfish is an adventure film, released by United Artists in 1956 and originally filmed in DeLuxe Color.  Actor John Bromfield starred as Captain Brannigan and Lon Chaney Jr. played the role of Swede. The leading female star was Tessa Prendergast, who played Alita. Tessa later became a fashion designer and designed the white bikini of Ursula Andress for Dr. No.  The film also featured the motion picture debut of Barbara Nichols.

This film caught me by surprise a bit.  Since Lon Chaney was in it I thought it would be about some dude that turned into a monster fish type thing.  Turns out it's just an adventure film with some scubba diving.  The poster up top says it's in color but the version I saw was black and white. I'm not sure what the deal is with that.  

Swede

Director W. Lee Wilder sets his story on a boat called the Manfish and borrows from two Edgar Allen Poe plot lines: The Gold Bug and The Telltale Heart.  The story in summary is about an unpleasant captain who is forced to join forces with an unpleasant professor in order to locate a horde of buried pirate treasure. This situation becomes a game of cat and mouse that ends very badly.

Lon Chaney is the title lead of this movie but he's a third wheel and not the main focus of the story.  He is Swede, a simple man who cares only about the Manfish. (His boat) He also concedes at one point during the movie that the Manfish is the only woman he's ever had. Swede provides some moral center to the film, but it all falls within the context of his love for the Manfish.

The skeleton holding a treasure map that gets the party started.

 Serious editing and continuity problems mar the picture.  The film is a sea adventure but it turns into a tense thriller for the final third. It has some pleasing Jamaican on-location photography too, with some good underwater scenes.  There is no reason to rush out and try to find this film but it wasn't terrible.  

Chastity Bites (2013)

In the early 1600's, Countess Elizabeth Bathory slaughtered more than 600 young women, believing if she bathed in the blood of virgins that she would stay young and beautiful forever. Still alive today, she's found a perfect hunting ground for her 'botox' as an abstinence educator in conservative America, and the young ladies of San Griento High are poised to be her next victims. But will her unholy ritual finally be stopped by Leah Ratliff, a feminist blogger and ambitious reporter for the school paper? 

Chastity Bites is a 2013 comedy-horror film written by Lotti Pharriss Knowles and directed by John V. Knowles.

What we have here is a cute little comedy horror film teeming with hot chicks.  It is a clever story that is energetic, quick witted and funny. The humor is both straight forward cheese ball humor blended with the darker satirical cultural quips that aren't as "surface".  The story follows a writer named Leah that becomes suspicious of a newly profound abstinence educator that schemes an army of virgins to please her vicious desires to collect blood to contain her youth. Of course convincing the entire school would be harder than assassinating an immortal masked murderer, but this doesn't seem like a heavy situation as Leah decides to take matters into her own hands to save her companion in time before she too is slaughtered like other unfortunate victims in their prime.

Leah and Katherine.

The tone is incredibly inconsistent, sometimes feeling like dull rehash of “Mean Girls”. Sometimes you just laugh out loud and other times you groan as the joke falls flat. At times it's like watching a sitcom.  Did I mention the chicks were hot? However we get zero nudity. We have some hints at lesbianism as well sprinkled throughout the film.  

A little lesbian action maybe?

There are some pretty good performances.  Allison Scagliotti’s portrayal of Leah is actually likeable, and she’s pretty damn funny.  Louise Griffiths is hypnotic as the beautiful stranger Liz.  Francia Raisa also did great playing the innocent girl next door and supporting friend. 

The film has some on screen deaths but they were mostly anti-climatic throat cuts with some even taking place off camera. The special effects for these kills are decent but it doesn’t take much to pull those kind of kills off. Overall, Chastity Bites is a fun teenage dramedy that features some bloody deaths and a few good laughs. If you want something new and different to watch then I recommend this one!

Who says the virgin always lives 'til the end?

See No Evil (2006)

 

A group of delinquents are sent to clean the Blackwell Hotel. Little do they know reclusive psychopath Jacob Goodnight has holed away in the rotting hotel. When one of the teens is captured, those who remain -- a group that includes the cop who put a bullet in Goodnight's head four years ago -- band together to survive against the brutal killer.

See No Evil is a 2006 slasher film directed by Gregory Dark, written by Dan Madigan, produced by Joel Simon, and starring professional wrestler Kane (Glenn Jacobs). It is the first major film produced by WWE Films and was released by Lions Gate Entertainment.

What is this film about?  A ragtag group of juvenile delinquents assigned the task of cleaning up an abandoned hotel find out just how deadly community service can be when they are stalked by a monstrous, four-hundred-pound maniac with a grudge in director Gregory Dark's wrestling-infused survival horror flick. It was a mere four years ago that seven-foot menace Jacob Goodnight (WWE superstar Kane) was shot in the head and left for dead by a local police officer. But Jacob wasn't going down that easy. With a steel plate subsequently attached to his skull and ten razor-sharp fingernails ready to scrape grey matter from the skulls of his victims, Jacob retreated to the abandoned Blackwell Hotel, where he resided in the darkened, rotting hallways while planning his ultimate revenge. As fate would have it, Jacob wouldn't have to go far to satiate his raging bloodlust, though, and as the unsuspecting teens make their way through the crumbling corridors of the once-luxurious inn guided by the very same policeman who fired that misguided bullet years earlier, the notorious killer sharpens his nails, stalks his prey, and prepares for a little payback.

Eight Teens, One Weekend, One Serial Killer.

Ok let's be realistic.  Nobody walked into a movie made by the WWE and directed by a former porn director & expected to see Citizen Kane.  See what I did there. Kane. The name of the wrestler in the film.  I'm here all week folks.  Glenn Jacobs is cast perfectly as the hulking brute and the deaths are suitably over the top. He has about 4 lines in the entire film and he delivers them flawlessly.  Lines such as "NOOOOOO" and "I see it." 

But to be honest....It's bad but not so bad you can't watch it and enjoy it.  The art direction is generally good, if very, very derivative of other films like "Hostel" and the "Saw" series. This may be the dirtiest, filthiest set in film history. The actors had to catch some disease while filming. And speaking of the actors, their acting was decent.  Granted they didn't have any serious emoting to do but they did the best they could with what they had.  

This Summer, someone is raising Kane.

While the death scenes are gory, they aren't necessary scary. There's really no suspense just some gory death scenes. Because of this, the movie doesn't hold much of a repeat value. There's no doubt in my mind that Kane can be a great fixture in the horror genre. He has the look and presence for it; he just needs better material to work with. I'm actually really looking forward to the sequel directed by the Soska sisters. They made the awesome "American Mary" and may be just what the doctor ordered to make Goodnight a franchise killer. 

I went in expecting nothing, and what I got was a somewhat entertaining nothing.  I loved the death scene where the girl gets attacked by the stray dogs and Kane's death itself is quite awesome.  It's a typical slasher movie that is fun to watch and if you like mindless gory horror then the film will please you. Among the end credits, after the cast and stunt list, there's a scene where a dog urinates in Jacob's empty eye socket. Pretty funny.

You Don't Know Evil: Unless You See It.

Trivia:

In the room with all the money pasted to the walls, every single bill has had the eyes cut out. 

Glenn Jacobs (Kane) has stated that the best thing about making this movie (due to the hectic amount of traveling as a professional wrestler) was the opportunity it gave him to sleep in the same bed for two months. 

Jacob Goodnight's name is never mentioned in the film. It was originally included in a monologue by Steven Vidler, but the scene ran too long and it was absentmindedly cut out.

It was mentioned in some interviews that Kane's co-stars were a little uneasy around the 7' man. Fangoria magazine mentions the director having to ask Kane to remain seated during cast introductions, since one of the women, who only came up to his sternum, wouldn't come near him.  

The tagline "This summer, evil gets Raw" refers to the WWE wrestling show Glenn Jacobs (Kane) appears on, _"WWE Monday Night RAW" (2005)_. 

Zoe's sister's name appears on the cell phone as Kiley Warner.  

This Summer, Evil Gets Raw.

Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971)

In Victorian London, Dr. Henry Jekyll attempts to create an elixir of life using female hormones stolen from fresh corpses. He reasons that these hormones will wipe out all common diseases and extend his life since women live much longer than men. However, once Dr. Jekyll drinks the serum himself, he transforms into a gorgeous but evil woman. He soon needs female hormones for his serum to maintain, so a number of London women meet bloody deaths. 

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a 1971 British film directed by Roy Ward Baker based on the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film was made by British studio Hammer Film Productions.  

In a clever, gender-bending twist on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale, the research done by Dr. Henry Jekyll (Ralph Bates) in the field of artificially-induced human longevity involves experimentation with female hormones. When he partakes of his own formula and the inevitable Jekyll-into-Hyde transformation takes place, he changes into a ravishing female version of himself (famed "B"-movie siren Martine Beswick). Claiming to be Jekyll's sister, Ms. Hyde is lovely but lethal: she uses her alluring charms to seduce men then kills them and absconds with their bodies for use in further experiments. A much more interesting twist comes when Jekyll finds himself falling in love with the girl next door (Susan Brodrick), while simultaneously lusting after the girl's brother (Lewis Fiander) as Hyde.  

The sexual transformation of a man into a woman will actually take place before your very eyes!

 The tale of Dr. Jekyll has been told so many times before in film but this one is certainly unique.  Everybody pretty much knows this story.  For some bizarre reason it all works rather well, it never takes itself too seriously but at the same time has enough self respect & is straight faced to just about make all the silliness credible. It moves along at a nice pace since Jekyll narrates the film it cuts out the need for lengthy exposition scenes & I liked the idea of Jekyll & Hyde cheating on each other with the brother & sister upstairs! 

PARENTS: Be sure your children are sufficiently mature to witness the intimate details of this frank and revealing film.

The violence is the film may have been shocking in 1971 but it won't make today's horror fans flinch. There is a fair amount of blood splattering & while not particularly graphic the murders are brutal as Jekyll viciously stabs his victims & then gets his wooden box of surgical knives, scalpels & instruments out ready to do his grisly work.  We also get a battle of two personalities... male vs. female, repression vs. liberation, complete with undertones of homosexuality, transvestism, and the blurring of ones identity and gender. The casting of Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick was a master-stroke as they look remarkably like each other, giving the transformation added credibility.

I liked it, it's something a bit different & is an absolute must for Hammer fans & anyone interested in the horror genre as a whole.  But I just love Hammer films and may be a bit bias. 

I walked the streets, brooding on the bitter irony that all I wanted to do for humanity, for life, would be cheated by death... unless I could cheat death.

Trivia:

Husband and wife Ralph Bates and Virginia Wetherell first met as they prepared to shoot the scene in which Bates as Dr. Jekyll kills the prostitute played by Wetherell. 

Caroline Munro was offered the part of Sister Hyde but refused because it required some nudity.  

The BBFC requested cuts to remove the inter-cutting of a murder and a rabbit gutting, and to edit a bedroom murder and the stabbing of Professor Robertson. The bedroom murder was shortened though Hammer re-edited the stabbing of the doctor to comprise flash shots of earlier killings. Despite initial BBFC objections the film was then passed, and all later releases feature this same edited print. 

This is the second of three Hammer adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". The other two are The Ugly Duckling (1959) and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960). 

Oh no....I'm turning into a bitch.