Movie Review: Don't Breathe

Don't Breathe

Yes Don't Breathe a film by the director who gave us that Evil Dead remake (which I haven't seen yet). I wasn't holding my breath when I went to watch this although the trailer seemed quite good.

The basic plot is three competent 20 something burglars decide to rob a house owned by a reclusive blind man who has 300k stashed away. Alex, Ricky and Money all have there own reasons for needing the money which sets them off on this enterprise, which then goes very wrong, very quickly.

What surprised me was that the acting is all great, the setting/plot is well contained not outstaying its welcome and the thrils, tension and fear are solid. Naturally there are added twists and turns (the most disturbing of which had one guy swear out loud in the cinema) as the film progresses but as it's only 88mins long so these seem natural and add to the suspense. The gore level is kept to a minimum but there is a constant threat so it's not missed.

This film is firmly based in reality so there is no supernatural stuff here which is honestly quite refreshing. Got to mention Stephen Lang who plays the Blind Man, he is excellent throughout the film and I will remember this great villain he has portrayed here. I admit the final third leans slightly into traditional horror tropes for anyone who has watched a slasher film before will be familiar with, but its still very entertaining.

Overall I can't recommend this enough. Don't Breathe is a concise, suspenseful thriller horror with an original idea. If you need to see a decent horror film give this one a go it is really worth your time.

4 out of 5 pumpkins.

Movie Review: Humanoids from the Deep

Humanoids from the Deep (1980) aka Monster

Sometimes you have to admire the ideas that get turned into horror movies. Dog sized carnivorous shrews, shark filled tornadoes and violent mutated bipedal celocanths. If that last one isn't recognizable then you haven't watched Humanoids from the Deep a Roger Corman horror film about a fishing company trying to make super salmon that get eaten by Celocanths that then rapidly evolve into humanoid fish men that kill the men and rape the women of a sleepy fishing village.

The plot is  your standard tale of an unseen threat slowly infiltrating a town by killing the odd person or all the dogs (if you can't stomach dogs dying on film I'd skip this one) while the residents blame the local native american at first before realizing too late it's actually the horrifying love child of the creature from the black lagoon, regenerators from resident evil and Rainbows Zippy.

Time to eat the townspeople!

Is it any good? Well the effects for are really good as you might expect from SFX supremo Rob Bottin (pre The Thing), there is a huge kill count, there is a decent amount of nudity and a surprisingly large amount of explosions for a fishing village. The highlights are probably the creatures themselves which are really creepy, the brawl between the townspeople early on and the finale at the town festival where the salmon monsters run amok killing and raping everyone. On the other hand some of the acting is not that great, the ending sequel bait is kind of off and if mutant salmon men raping women isn't your thing then this is probably best avoided.

Overall this is a decent exploitation monster movie which didn't leave me bored at all, worth checking out.

3 out of 5 Pumpkins

Movie Review: 20 Million Miles to Earth

Over the years I have watched my fair share of films and a lot of them are from the sci-fi and horror genres, so I thought I may as well keep a record of these on here:

20 Million Miles to Earth

I like to start an October monster/horror movie viewing session with something light not too serious and not too long, so naturally I turn to 1950s B-Movies and none could be better than a Ray Harryhausen film.

20 Million Miles to Earth is a tale of man bringing back something from space. In this case a gelatinous blob that turns into an adorable club tailed reptilian creature called Ymir. You see scientists in 1950s America somehow could fly to Venus, land, study the wildlife and then fly back. Unfortunately they must have forgotten about all the sulfuric acid and intense heat and pressure of Venus because the ship crashes on returning to earth.

The film has two main stages. The first involves the crashed spaceship, rescue of the crew and Italian and american governments trying to work together. The second involves Ymir who via a small boy is sold to a scientist and then proceeds to grow and escape. Ymir is a great monster who is immune to most weapons and smashes his way through farms, labs, zoos and the Coliseum of Rome. His fight with an Elephant being a highlight.

A fun Saturday afternoon film with some great special effects, worth a watch.

3 and a half pumpkins out of 5.

Making some Old Ruins

It's been a little while since I last posted been mostly taking time to catch up on some video games and building a Magic the Gathering Cube (might blog about that another time).

However I haven't abandoned Necromunda and acquired some Orlocks and Van Saar models which I need to paint up. In the meantime I have been making some scenery for the gangs to fight over. Mainly this ruined building (possibly a church) inspired by another blog I found on the internet.

This is still in the early stages and since this photo was taken I have added some support to the main ladder platform and moved the small ladder to the left so a model can access either window.

Next time I hope to show a fully painted version.