Rampage: Capital Punishment (2014, Uwe Boll)

I dug Uwe Boll's original 2009 film, "Rampage". Definitely one of his best flicks to date - being quite a mean and nihilistic film about a town targeted by a mass murderer.

This is a direct follow-up, marking the return of Bill Williamson, one of the most bloodthirsty homeland terrorists on record. After mercilessly annihilating over one hundred innocent citizens, he disappeared, leaving just an internet video (as seen at the end of the first film) where he explains his motivations which entail wiping out as many people as possible in order to lighten the exhaustion of the Earth's resources and prolong the overall existence of civilization. Here, we find Bill hiding out in a small house in the woods somewhere, assembling explosives and gearing up for another attack. This time, his sights are set on a TV news station, leading to a hostage situation involving the staff - namely, the top anchor, whom Bill seems to have taken issue with. As a SWAT team forms outside, Bill has some demands that he wants met...

Unlike the first movie, "Rampage 2" isn't total wall-to-wall carnage, but more of an upheaval of political indiscretion and anti-government diatribe. You really get the feeling with both of the "Rampage" films that Uwe Boll is just venting his ass off. The first being a completely masturbatory explosion of senseless violence on the unsuspecting public with the film's tagline asking, "Have you ever considered it?", while the sequel attempts to make more verbal points concerning the government, all culminating down to the stark message that the rich must be killed. Boll's harsh and unapologetic approach to these films' bold call for violent, anarchistic proletariat uprise clearly stems from a personal agenda which these movies are structured around. Can't say I have any objections... Though I'm only speculating...

As for the film, itself, "Rampage 2" (like it's predecessor) has it's flaws, such as our anti-hero firing machine guns at passersby from an alley all day and not drawing attention from the authorities. I also couldn't get past the breaking of a DVD in half just by tripping and falling on it... The positives, though, would definitely include Brendan Fletcher's performance. He really fell into the role this time around and it's much stronger, I'd say. In all, I'd give this one a recommendation for those who liked the first flick. They're not without their gaping plot holes and irritating overuse of shakey-cam bullshit, but Boll certainly seems to be coming around as a film-maker these days. I'm sure this is on it's way to becoming a big series...

Emocoes Sexuais de Um Jegue (1986, Renalto Alves, Sady Baby)

Some pretty crazy and largely unarousing Brazilian porn, here. There also appeared to be some kind of story along with it, as well, that I was unable to pick up on entirely due to the lack of English subtitles, but it really doesn't matter, overall.

It kicks off with some coffin sex, some lesbian skinny dip action, then a couple of hairy dudes in two lengthy scenes of 'hardcore' gay sex. One of these scenes shows them "fingercuffing" a black guy in a pink nighty... Eventually, there's a incredibly long orgy and few scenes involving animals...

Like I said, there's nothing remotely arousing about "Emocoes Sexuais de Um Jegue" - aka. "Sexual Emotions of a Donkey" - mainly due to the excessive amount of bearded guy-on-guy butt-banging that just ain't my thing, but it's pretty hilarious and entertaining, nonetheless. There's a pretty graphic scene in which two chicks and a guy get 'busy' with a horse, which may not sit well with some people, so consider yourself warned. In all, it's a little slow in spots, but you can't go wrong with all the XXX-sleaze material on tap, here. Plus, all the out-of-place music was hilarious.

The Sacrament (2013, Ti West)

Ti West's films have been a little hit-and-miss for me. I thought "House of the Devil" was a dull, overrated 'throwback', but I dug "The Innkeepers" for the most part and "Cabin Fever 2" was an enjoyable splat-fest. I really wasn't all that interested in "The Sacrament", however, due to my immense exasperation with the whole 'mockumentary' craze that has been dominating the horror genre these days, though it had been recommended to me by a few reliable reviewers so I figured... what could it hurt? Well, to be honest, this wasn't as innocuous as I expected, although I was far from blown away...

It follows a VICE crew as they travel to a utopian community to track down one of the journalist's sister. In the meantime, while doing their exposé on the seemingly content residents of the supposedly peaceful grounds, they soon uncover a sordid Jonestown-type of situation going down.

I guess what makes "The Sacrament" one of the better 'found footage' movies as of late is the inclusion of the timely and culturally relevant investigative journalism team, VICE, which I'd say adds more of a palpable purpose for the documentary 'illusion' they're trying to fabricate. Not to say that there aren't your typical moments (quite a few I picked out) that defy logic as to how/why certain circumstances are supposedly being captured on camera. That being said, another favorable quality I found was that the FF format seems to inexplicably come and go from time to time, allowing me - the biased viewer - to suppress the POV concept that I have come to loathe.

As far as the plot and everything, it's actually pretty engaging and the performances are believable - namely, the Jim Jones-esque "Father" character who was pretty intense and creepy. And the whole Eden Parish colony was well established and made for a adequately tense and unsettling setting.

Again, the whole 'found footage' thing works better here than in most other films of this kind I have seen in recent years, but it still tends to get in the way as always, I thought. Still, I gotta consider "The Sacrament" one of the better of it's kind and definitely one of Ti West's stronger flicks. Certainly blows Kevin Smith's pretentious mess "Red State" out of the water, in terms of religious cult-themed horror films. It hasn't turned me around on the FF genre, as a whole, but this is the best I've seen this type of thing 'work' in a while...

Sorority Babes in the Dance-a-thon of Death (1991, Todd Sheets)

Much like John McBride, Nathan Schiff and the Polonia brothers, Todd Sheets was (and still is) a micro-budget horror film-maker whose career was based on pumping out quick SOV crap to fill up the video store horror shelves. And thanks to the almost always eye-catching cover art, we rented this shit. You had to. At some point, this type of thing can be entertaining - depending on how liquored up you are and how good a mood you're in, overall - but many times it's just angeringly terrible. "Sorority Babes in the Dance-a-thon of Death" is fucking terrible, not unlike most of Sheets' prolific body of work...

Plot: A girl purchases a crystal ball at an antique shop so she can have a seance with her girlfriends at their sleepover later that night. While they're hanging out, being boring, some boys show up. No hanky-panky, though. They just play Twister (fully clothed) before being forced to spend the night in a deserted college building for some kind of sorority stunt. Seems that the crystal ball contained some ancient demon who is possessing the girls and turning them into psychotic killers.

First off, every word in the title is misleading as all fuck. There is NO dance-a-thon at all and none of these broads is a "babe". Hell, one of 'em has braces! Due to this, I wasn't too upset with the complete lack of nudity... As you can assume, the acting is atrocious and the gore is nonexistent, which makes it a totally effortless piece of shit. So much of the movie is just these idiots walking around and, in certain parts, it tries to be self-aware and witty by having one of them say, "this is just what happens in low-budget horror movies, not real life" while looking at the camera. This is done a few times near the end and it made me uncomfortable. This is the perfect example of a total gimmick film - irresistible title and cover art. Then once you got home, popped it in your toploader and caught the first three minutes, you knew immediately you had been cheated by Ma and Pa. And Todd fuckin' Sheets. The good ol' days...

Lunacy (2005, Jan Švankmajer)

"Lunacy" is Jan Svankmajer's self-described "horror film" (although it is not, at least in a traditional sense...) that, as he states, derives inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe and the Marquis de Sade. It's definitely an unconventional and 'far out' flick, in the familiar Svankmajer sense, although "Lunacy" tackles it's bizarrely compelling subject matter in a much more comprehensive and garrulous narrative than what I have seen previously from the Czech film-maker.

While on his way home from his mother's funeral, a timid young man, struggling with mental illness, is offered a ride by an eccentric marquis who allows him a place to stay. After the visitor witnesses the accommodating nobleman performing a strange blasphemous ritual involving nude women, nails and chocolate cake (?), he is duped into playing out an intricate therapy regimen with the man's mute servant. The reasoning behind this is based in the marquis' own battle with insanity, which leads the two men to explore a sanitarium where the unorthodox recourse in treatment is total freedom...

Needless to say, "Lunacy" is quite an odd film, but still works on pretty much every level. The main objective basically boils down to the question of how mental illness is treated using the two most 'extreme' fundamentals of the healing spectrum: free will or physical torture. It all plays out incredibly well, as far as the pacing and story structure goes. Definitely a bit of a departure from many of the other Svankmajer works I have seen, in terms of it being pretty dialog heavy and not all that dependent on his unique style of stop-motion animation - though there ARE intercut moments of chunks of raw meat scurrying around (something not uncommon for one of his films), but these act more as transitional scenes as opposed to playing a big integral part in the story. At least, that's how it appeared to me since I have no idea what their significance was.

It's safe to say that "Lunacy" is one of Svankmajer's most 'absorbing' films, though I'd also recommend his more 'visual' films, like "Little Otik" and "Conspirators of Pleasure", especially for those unfamiliar with his style.

Lucifer's Angels (2014, Ricky McDonald)

For about the first half of "Lucifer's Angels" I thought it was pretty substandard indie-backwoods slasher tripe. I was pleased to find that it improved significantly within the final half to where I can safely say that it DOES turn into a worthwhile flick...

A group of buddies are out on a camping trip to drink and meet chicks (one of whom has this inane notion that there will be chicks just hanging out in the woods waiting for them and is actually confused to find that there are none...) when they come across a redneck father and son. The son offers up a 'disturbing' campfire story about some ultra-depraved inmates from a nearby mental asylum that may be roaming the woods. Turns out, they are...

There're some pretty big plot-holes and the acting and dialog is uncomfortably bad, though the way it came together in the end was pretty well done, I thought. Again, a little flawed and confusing in spots - regarding the relation of certain characters and what-not, but, for the most part, the execution of the last half DID work fairly well. It's well shot for such an obviously low-budget effort - the wooded setting lending a nice atmosphere thanks to some relatively competent cinematography - and there are also a few adequately violent murder/torture scenes. Overall, there's enough good elements to "Lucifer's Angels" to get past it faults, for the most part, making it a reasonably enjoyable horror flick.

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