Hellraiser Judgement (2018)

Hellraiser Judgment is an odd movie. As the tenth movie in the series, a series that admittedly seems to have steadily gotten worse as the years have gone by I really was not expecting all that much from it. Some cheap kills, a bit of gore, maybe some nudity and of course a half-baked story about Pinhead loving pain again.

The movie did deliver all of those things, and I have to say it was much better than I expected. That isn’t to say the movie is all that good, it has 50% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.3 on IMBd. It just so happens to be that I wasn’t expecting much. The story was simply two cops chasing a serial killer, and it plays out much how you would expect. This is where the crossover with Pinhead comes in. He and his friends are once again doing their job of judging and punishing people which of course plays into the story.

Obviously, this is an oversimplification but I don’t want to spoil things for you guys. The downside to all this is, well the story is pretty bland and everything about it is easy to see coming. Even the ending isn’t all that special or hard to predict. I enjoyed it and it was pretty entertaining, but it was as basic as basic gets. Fans of the series will enjoy it to an extent, but most people will want to avoid it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Child’s Play 3

childs play 3

One thing I have to say I love about horror sequels, many come to a strange point where they make you ask WTF? Maybe it’s Jason X or Leprechaun in the Hood or I don’t know, Chucky the killer doll at a military school- that kind of WTF?

So 8 years after Chucky was destroyed, the Good Guy plant reopens and while disposing of Chucky’s corpse, some blood gets into the molten plastic and I guess we get a new Chucky who kills the company CEO and goes back to tracking Andy down again. Andy is 16 now and enrolled in Kent Military Academy after years of failed foster homes. Chucky mails himself to the school only to be found by a junior cadet named Tyler who swears Chucky is his friend. It’s up to Andy to stop Chucky once and for all…

Child’s Play 3 isn’t bad but its just not that memorable. There’s not any real gory moments and Chucky is mostly funny in this. The dude that plays Andy is pretty decent and I like that his story is basically him trying to stop the past from repeating itself. The supporting characters are kinda bland and I have to say Chucky looks kind of like Trump in this movie which is weird. Child’s Play 3 is meh, you can take it or leave it and be ok either way. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Child’s Play 2

childs play 2

Well, I hope everyone out there had a good first day of 2019. So to start the year let’s talk about a lovable, foul mouthed killer doll. Namely Chucky, before we get the remake. I covered Bride of Chucky as well the original for this past year’s Halloween special ( Our Favorite Movies Day 12:Child’s Play )

Child’s Play 2 picks up directly where the original leaves off. Andy Barkley finds himself in the system after being  separated from his mom and his story covered up. The Good Guy toy company seized Chucky’s charred corpse and remakes him ( for reasons?) and that’s enough to revive the murderous doll, who follows Andy to his new foster home, making the kid’s life a living hell and dropping bodies a long the way in his quest to put his soul in Andy’s body…

In a time where the titans of horror Michael, Jason, and Freddy were all getting stale fast, Child’s Play 2 is a pretty good sequel. Andy is still a really sympathetic victim and you do feel for this poor kid; his foster sister Kyle was a good addition and her and Andy’s relationship feels genuine. Chucky is still funny and still badass. The kills are kinda tame until the last act when they fight back against Chucky, then there are some pretty awesome moments and how he finally dies is pretty damn sweet. All in all while not as good as the first, it’s a pretty good simple slasher  movie I’d say is worth checking out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

hellboy 2 There are a few rare times in life where I’d say a sequel is just as good as the original. Many try being bigger and better and failing. Hellboy was a cool superhero movie and 4 years later came the sequel, indeed bigger and more badass but does Hellboy 2 still keep the magic of the first?

Life is changing for our lovable, stone armed demonic hero. Abe stumbles on the secret Liz is keeping that she’s pregnant with Hellboy’s son; Hellboy has a new boss after years of breaking cover and damages in the strict and peculiar Dr Kraus and Hellboy has to deal with being exposed to the public. Meanwhile Abe discovers love with a Elven princess on the run from her twin brother, who plans on unleashing a unstoppable army on mankind. Can Hellboy and his friends stop this dormant evil?

Whether the second Hellboy movie is better than the first is up for debate; they’re pretty damn close in my opinion but I like the second one just a little more. The action is indeed bigger and better with a more compelling villain. The characters we knew from the first grow and we do feel for them. Del Toro’s strange art style comes out in full and it makes it feel more wondrous than the first. The only little gripe I have is that it does feel a little more mainstream than the first movie. I don’t think the tones and plot structure hurt the movie at all. I think it’s one of the better sequels I’ve ever seen and I do recommend it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Hellboy

hellboy

As we often do here on the blog, when something ” new” comes out ( I say “new” in quotations because how much do we get in art anymore is actually new really) we tend to look back at what came before. what launched me to look in this uncanny place was the Hellboy 2019 first trailer . Also, I don’t normally begin reviews this way but I am today- Ron Pearlman will always be Hellboy to me in the category of RDJ as Iron Man, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, or Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. He is simply awesome.

Hellboy is a strange kind of hero. His father, Professor Trevor Broom finds him during a paranormal operation during WW2; a little red boy with horns, tail and a stone arm breaches his way into our world from another. Decades later, the child has grown into pretty much a normal dude that just happens to be the destined bringer of doom, look like the devil, and work for the government fighting all sorts of cool supernatural shit along with his friend and psychic fish man Abe Sapien, and dealing with his rocky relationship with volatile pyro-kinectic sweetheart Liz and together they face Rasputin, who brought Hellboy here and is out to start the end of days…

Hellboy is a pretty damn unique superhero movie in a lot of ways. The characters are strange and humanly flawed, there’s a meta edge to the film and the comics it’s based and there’s a good balance between light and dark elements. As I said, Pearlman is fantastic as Hellboy and the supporting characters are pretty solid. I must say the villains are bland by comparison and a rare occasion where the heroes way outshine the bad guys. This was the movie that made me a fan of Guillermo Del Toro, who was a perfect fit for the strange world and he clearly appreciated the source material. In the end, Hellboy was a cool superhero movie that I feel deserves more credit than it got and definitely deserves a watch. May the gods bring you glory.

Bird Box (2018)

The movie starts off like most movies, a lonely woman finding out she is pregnant. Why this is such a popular starting point I will never know. They always have friends and someone to knock them up so you couldn’t have been that lonely. Either way Bird Box doesn’t waste much time. It isn’t long before a hospital trip for Malorie (Sandra Bullock) sees a woman slamming her head off the hard glass of the hospital window. This is where people start seeing something and killing themselves. Yes, it is essentially The Happening at this point.

The movie is set up almost as a series of flashbacks between when everything started and Malorie’s journey with Boy and Girl to the safety of a new community. Yes, those are the children’s names, Boy (Julian Edwards)and Girl (Vivian Lyra Blair). The bouncing back and forth is actually done really well, at no point are you ever confused as to what is going on or when. Both points are self-contained with the past explaining how Malorie ended up where she is at and the present explaining where she is going, why she is going there and why she chose the manner in which she is doing it.

The movie is entertaining and suspenseful but I do have a few complaints, none of which are the fact that it is essentially The Happening or A Quiet Place as many have compared it to and rightfully so. No, I don’t mind those things. Hell, the Lion King is essentially Hamlet. Stories are often retold. My issue is the many things the movie doesn’t do for example show what is causing these deaths or truly explain why some batshit crazy people are immune to it.

This movie is a love it or hate it situation. It has a 50% on Metacritic for example and a 68% on rotten tomatoes (65 critics 75 fans) and it is mostly from some people saying the movie is amazing and others saying it is a flaming pile of turds. Except for one person from The Root that thinks the movie is about racism, but I think this person didn’t actually see the movie. One of the things they claim they didn’t explain in the movie is quite clearly explained, and some of their ideas are quite the stretch which is sad since the page is usually quite well informed and well written (especially Mr. Harriot)

All in all tho, the movie isn’t all that new or different and each person will view it differently, whether you love it or hate it, or even see it as an inditement about racism in America, give it a watch and see what you come up with then let me know what you think. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sleepaway Camp

Now I know what some of you are thinking. Hey Savior, of all the stuff you could have used from the movie why did you pick two half-dressed women or hey, Savior why are you using scantily clad women for views? Truth is I am not. See those 2 women, those are the evilest people in the damn movie.

Now that is out of the way this movie is a straight Friday the 13th rip-off. Seriously it takes place at a summer camp, camp counselors are incompetent and ignore all the wrongdoings to the children, legit one is a pedophile and they all know it.

That being said the movie is supposed to be a horror movie, but it is hilarious. Seriously @torstenvblog and I laughed the entire time and the movie is amazing. Don’t take my word for it, because this bad boy is on youtube in its entirety, So below is the movie, in its entirety. Don’t worry, it’s not illegal or anything. They just let it up on youtube for whatever reason. So enjoy it and the insanely popular ending. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Silent Night, Bloody Night

bloody night

Let me start off by saying a special thank you to Savior and his family for taking me in during the holidays, I love all you guys. The holidays are about love, togetherness and good will onto others; they’re probably not meant to watch shitty, free public domain Christmas horror movies that aren’t about Christmas. Sorry Savior.

Disclaimer: this is not a review of Silent Night, Deadly Night. No killer dressed as Santa. No abuse of kid by tyrannical nuns. No “Garbage Day” ( high five to those of you who get the reference). Truth be told, and I quote Savior himself ” I don’t think the damn people that wrote this fucking movie know what it’s about.” The basic gist is there is a house where a guy died ( he was accidentally burned to death but it was no accident) and his grandson decades later goes to sell it, but there’s a killer killing people involved with the sale because I guess it was a mental asylum at some point and this dude’s mom was wrongful killed by the inmates who killed the rich owners and took over as the movers and shakers of this town. Sound like a mess, eh? It is.

Silent Night, Bloody Night is a dumpster fire. The plot and story for this movie are damn confusing to where it’s nonsensical at times. The actors seem unmotivated to where I swore they were drugged on some heavy ass downers. There is some ok atmosphere and music and random gore that made us laugh. This movie made Savior salty as hell and I got some cheap laughs as we asked WTF was going on. As I mentioned earlier, it’s public domain- hell, we watched it on YouTube for free on perfect quality so if you and your friends, family, or pets want to get drunk and watch a movie, this is a good pick. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Us trailer 1

So I’m going to be honest, I’m pretty damn behind on modern horror classics. I’d say Split is probably the most recent I’ve seen and it was 2017 before I saw Sinister , half a decade after release. This being said, I missed Get Out, Jordan Peele’s breakout horror hit last year. While it’s on my list of horror films to see, I found myself radically surprised by the first trailer of Us. The concept seems pretty cool, having to fight a warped version of yourself and your own family. There is some creepy imagery and I’m genuinely intrigued and can’t wait for more. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Gremlins

gremlins

Merry Christmas everyone from us at Saviorgaming to you all at home. Last year Savior and I covered the wonderful family film Die Hard (1988) and Die Hard 2: Die Harder and I covered the only Christmas game I know of, Batman: Arkham Origins so where do we go from here? Well, how about Gremlins…

Randal Peltzer was average traveling inventor and salesman who wondered into a mysterious little shop in Chinatown, trying to sell his wares to no a vale. The old man doesn’t budge. Meanwhile Randall sees something at the furthest reach of the shop, a cute little critter he’s never seen before. He inquires about it but all his offers are shot down; Randall ends up taking the creature with 3 basic rules to care for it: don’t ever get it wet, don’t expose it to bright light, and don’t feed it after midnight no matter what. The maogi called Gizmo is a gift to Billy, Randall’s son, a quiet good hearted banker crushing on Kate, who has a pretty legit reason for hating Christmas. Gizmo is adorable and affectionate but isn’t long until Billy learns how important the rules are. Getting wet, Gizmo reproduces but his offspring aren’t as lovable. In fact they’re little bastards. Well, after the leader of this new brood cuts the wire to Billy’s alarm, he inadvertently feeds them after midnight. They transform into hideous, mischievous, and murderous monsters that wreck havoc in the town, and it’s up to Billy, Kate, and Gizmo to stop them…

Dude, it’s hard not to like Gremlins. The characters are really likable and the story is a strange but warm mix of family film and creature feature. Gizmo is one of the cutest damn things I’ve ever seen and the Gremlins are nightmarish. I can actually recommend this as a family film as well as a simply good movie for the holiday. May the gaming gods bring you glory this holiday season.