Film Review: Creepshow 3

This is the sequel that no one wanted yet here we are discussing the in-name-only sequel to the George A. Romero and Stephen King anthology series. Originally inspired by EC Comics, CREEPSHOW was a landmark in horror film cinema blending both dark comedy and gut wrenching gore into one cohesive whole; CREEPSHOW 2 managed to capture the feeling of the original film but lacked the great storytelling of the first film. In this new film CREEPSHOW 3 everything that made the series what it is, is thrown out the window for this indie produced film.

The vignettes in CREEPSHOW 3, unlike in the previous two films, are loosely linked together by characters and situations. In one of the stories you have a disenfranchised teen who finds herself being thrust between dimensions by a remote control developed by the neighborhood inventor. There is also a story about serial killing stripper who discovers something more dangerous then her just down the street, and there is even a story with the inventor and his new fiancée whose students believe that she is a synthetic robot who will stop at nothing to prove it. This is just a sampling of the stories contained within this film as the filmmakers (directors Ana Clavell and James Glenn Dudelson, who both also contributed to the screenplay) clearly wanted to take the series into a new director by linking all the stories. This is actually the only good idea the filmmakers had with this film as the rest is a complete mess.

The film is neither funny nor scary but just hovers on being just gore-filled enough to keep the casual viewer from falling asleep during the films all to predictable stories and unoriginality. None of the comedy comes off as being funny or disturbing (as is befitting of most great dark comedies) and there is no suspense in the film whatsoever. The lack of suspense in the film goes to the fact that most of the film happens during the daytime in what appears to be an uninspired cinematographer in which all the images are washed out with no flare to interesting camera positions or movement. This horror film just comes off as being dull.

Another bad idea on the part of the filmmakers is the horrible animation used to show the “comic book” aspect of the film. Using computer CGI was a huge mistake as it looks like something a high school student put together on their fifteen-year old computer. Now I hate to come down on a film as much as I have on this one (although this is not the worst film I’ve ever seen) but the truth is that if you are a filmmaker extending upon an already successful franchise, there are some things that must be in the film in order to appease the fans (the people who end up buying or renting such films as CHILDREN OF THE CORN 7 or HELLRAISER 8) and if you don’t meet the fans’ expectation then don’t be disappointed with the bad reviews. It’s your own fault.

No fan of the first two films will enjoy this film and only the casual horror fan will even take notice. It’s an experience worth forgetting ever had.

Film Review: Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis

There were so many directions that the RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD franchise could have gone after PART 2 (which threw away much of the mythology established in the first film) and PART III (which was a mixture of Romeo & Juliet and an Italian gore-fest) but instead with RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS we are subjected to inane teenagers in one of the most under-developed messes in recent memory.

NECROPOLIS follows a group of teens who break into a research facility to save a friend of theirs who has been secretly kidnapped in order to do research on him. Peter Coyote plays a research scientist who has uncovered the last remaining barrels of Trioxin gas, which brought the dead back to life in the previous films. He’s using it to experiment on both the dead and the living in order to create bio-weapons, among other things. When one of the teenagers become part of the experiences his friends band together to break him out but instead unleash all the living dead held in the facility.

The biggest problem with the movie is the screenplay by William Butler and Aaron Strongoni which has every science gone mad film of the ‘50s through the ‘60s with no originality in sight nor any logic to why characters and situations are so inadequately done. In a research facility that does so much illegal activities why is there no decent security? Why are the living dead even being kept considering that they aren’t even of use to the facility? Why hasn’t anyone, before now, wizened up all the people disappearing without any bodies to be buried? Why would a research facility hire a high school student for security? This just scratches the surface on what dumb things shouldn’t be in a modern day horror film. They could’ve gotten away with it twenty years ago when no one knew any better but any savvy audiences today could see through this film.

There are a handful of gore sequences but they all come off as PG since these zombies just take a nibble out of a person’s brain rather then go for the jugular. I guess this they did this to save on the effects budget. They could have just saved everyone the wasted time and money by not producing this film in the first place.