That’s essentially a description of Septic Man’s lead character, Jack. However, when a water contamination threatens his community and forces an evacuation, he’s presented with an offer that he can’t refuse from a mysterious man, Phil Prosser (Julian Richings). That offer includes $20,000 upfront and $180,000 later, but it also requires Jack to stay behind in the contaminated community to solve and fix the water crisis.

Why Jack? Well, first of all he’s the community’s septic man and has been a silent hero on more than one occasion. Second, considering his job and his exposure to certain vile liquid conditions, it’s remarkable that he hasn’t become infected and ill himself.

As a man wanting a better life for his family, Jack accepts the offer — even if it pisses off his wife to no end. The question then becomes, is Septic Man a cautionary tale about greed? Or is it a comment on the shitty lengths the government will go to cover up and flush the pipes clean in order to avoid the greater responsibility? You can decide for yourself which it is.

Septic Man opens with a grotesque scene in which a woman is in the most vile bathroom you’ve ever seen; the filthiest roadside service station restroom in America could never compare. What’s the woman doing in there? Let’s just say that she’s having a hell of a time as her body voids itself from wherever it can. As staged as the scene is — because this is a movie — the look and the effects are absolutely believable. It’s a great way to open the movie, and it’s a great way to show the severity of the contamination the community is facing.

From there we meet Jack, see him accept the offer to stay behind during the evacuation, and then his ultimate entrapment in the sewer system. As Jack muddles around in near darkness to find a way out he finds the source of the contamination, and it all gets pretty disgusting. And even though it was hinted at that Jack was possibly immune to whatever is plaguing the town, he eventually succumbs to the infection and undergoes a terrible transformation.

Even though Jack isn’t exactly alone down in bowels of the town, and even if his physical transformation is grotesque, the most compelling thing to see is his psychological breakdown as Jack’s mind does whatever it can to survive. So, yes, Septic Man is ultimately a character study.

Get ready for another terrifying tale of exorcism in 2015 because Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is moving forward with the second chapter to The Haunting of Molly Hartley. The main cast has officially been announced, which includes familiar names to you.

Titled The Exorcism of Molly Hartley, a sequel that picks up with Molly (Sarah Lind) all grown up, but still tormented by evil will be helmed by horror veteran director Steven R. Monroe (I Spit On Your Grave, I Spit On Your Grave 2) from a story by Matt Venne (Leprechaun: Origins, Fright Night 2).

…now as an adult, Molly Hartley has fallen under the possession of an evil spirit and must be exorcised by a fallen priest before the devil completely takes her.

The Exorcism of Molly Hartley has already gone into production since last week with Devon Sawa and Gina Holden from Final Destination signed on as the main cast. There’s no specific date set for the horror movie, but we know for sure that it will be a direct-to-home-media release sometime in 2015.

I haven’t given up on you, Showtime. I’ve stuck with you through seven seasons of Californication, a show that rivals Game of Thrones with the amount of misery it subjects its characters to. I watched eight seasons of Dexter and Weeds, shows that only rival each other with the amount of misery they subject their audiences to. And I actually enjoyed The Tudors. You can take away my “Likes Good TV” card that I earned through making Deadwood, Breaking Bad, and Mr. Show my favorite shows now.

I know that, to pessimists, Showtime creating a show based around characters like the Frankenstein monster, Dracula, and Dorian Gray sounds like the company president stood up one day and announced “To destroy our audience’s present, we must first destroy their pasts!”, but Penny Dreadful, set to premiere on May 11, 2014, has some pretty decent talent behind it, namely John Logan. To those unfamiliar, John Logan is the guy who wrote films like Bats, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Aviator, Sweeney Todd, Rango, Coriolanus, Hugo, and Skyfall. Add in the fact that Sam Mendes is executive producing the show, and I think it’s in good hands.

There are numerous teasers and production blogs on Penny Dreadful‘s YouTube page, and it all looks pretty cool. I dig Eva Green in anything, and it seems like they’re doing a really good job with the production design. To be honest, the mix of eroticism and violence makes it look like an Alan Moore adaptation.

But don’t tell Alan Moore that. He wouldn’t understand.

I haven’t seen the film yet, but after watching the trailer (above) and reading the synopsis (below), I know that I have to, and I’m pretty sure that this tale of brutal, torturous revenge deserves its accolades. With a tagline like “Revenge Has Never Been So Painful,” I’m sure any horror fan is going to find this movie intense and compelling, but if you’ve got a kid, I think it’s going to be an especially white-knuckle ride.

Daddy’s Little Girl will be presented in 16×9-enhanced widescreen with 5.1 Surround sound. Special features haven’t been announced yet, which means that there might not be any.

Daddy’s Little Girl Synopsis:

After the police find Derek’s daughter brutally murdered on the beach, he vows to make the culprit suffer for his actions, even if that person is ‘part of the family.’ With careful research into the history of torture, Derek prepares himself and his basement for a week of brutal tactics that will make his daughter’s killer feel the pain that he has inflicted upon so many others. In a time when stranger danger is ever-present, a single father learns that it’s the ones you trust most who have to be watched the closest.

Rock Hard \m/

That means Proxy is going to be an awesome new horror drama and it has Kubrick’s approval written all over it. Well, maybe not literally, but I’m just saying since it reminds me of his style, specifically The Shining, in my opinion. I could be dead wrong here, and I might get death threats in my inbox, but I just can’t help but see similarities here. Am I totally senseless for saying that? What are you waiting for? Check it out!

Proxy is an upcoming film that stars Alexia Rasmussen and Alexa Havins, which will be premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 10, 2013.

Watch the trailer and let us know what you think in the comment section below.

Proxy Synopsis

As a very-pregnant Esther (Alexia Rasmussen) walks home after a doctor’s appointment, she is viciously attacked by a hooded assailant. In the wake of this traumatic event, the quiet and lonely woman finds some consolation from kindly Melanie (Alexa Havins), whom she meets at a support group. At first, Esther’s life of sadness and solitude seems to be finally opening up to the possibility of a real friendship. That is, until a chance encounter makes it clear that nothing — and no one — in her life is as it appears. Setting off a chain reaction of increasingly shocking revelations, Proxy twists and turns its way through loss, grief, and death.

Just recently released on Blu-ray, Lightning Bug tells the story of the aspiring makeup artist Green Graves, played by Bret Harrison. The story is a fictionalized account of real-life makeup artist, and writer/director of Lightning Bug, Robert Hall (Makeup: Vacancy, Prom Night, Quarantine 1 and 2, The Crazies, Paranormal Activity 2, 3, and 4).

Truth be told, this isn’t really a horror film, although it is an underlying theme. First of all, we fans of the genre are often criticized and ridiculed for our slight obsession – cue the abusive stepfather. Second, we and the genre are accused of being less than holy, like we’re a bunch of pagan devil worshipers looking for our next virgin sacrifice – cue the love interests mother (and the rest of the bible thumping southern town). Thirdly, how many of us, whether we’re horror fans or metal fans, can relate to being holed up in our bedrooms, shutting out the world that doesn’t understand us?

Those are my justifications for covering this coming-of-age story, and I’m sticking to them.

Basically, we have Green, and he’s growing up in a shitty environment, with a shitty mother who’d rather drink and marry a shitty man for his shitty salary than work a shitty job to support her two kids. Green also lives in a shitty town that doesn’t understand him. He also has a couple of friends who are stereotypes of backwards southern America, but they at least support him.

The film progresses as we approach Halloween, and Green will finally have the chance to show the town what he can do with makeup at the local haunted house. His ultimate goal, however, is to get out of the town and head to Hollywood to start his career in makeup. Along the way he falls in love with Angevin Duvet, played by Laura Prepon (That ‘70s Show). Prepon also executive produced Lightning Bug, and back in 2004 it was a way for her to shed her character from That ‘70s Show.

Green has a lot of personal demons to face, but you’ll have to watch the film to know if he makes it out alive.

Lightning Bug Blu-ray Features:

Commentary: Director Robert Hall
Commentary: Director, Producer Lisa Waugh; Actors Laura Prepon and Ashley Laurence

Lightning Bug: Extended cut (with 5.1 DTS-HD MA or 5.1 Dolby Digital)

Featurette: Afterglow – A Look Back at Lightning Bug
Featurette: Luciferin – The Making of Lightning Bug

Deleted Scenes (with optional commentary from Robert Hall)

Outtakes
Kevin Kinney music video
Blu-ray trailer (2012)
Original trailer
Photo gallery
Animated menu and intro

The Verdict: [rating:3]

If you’re looking for something that’s slightly outside the horror genre, but not so far removed that you would be left Jonesing, then Lightning Bug comes highly recommended. While some plot points are extremely predictable, it’s still enjoyable and worth it to see how it all plays out in the end.

Rock Hard \m/

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

[rating:3]

Year Released:

9 August 2005 (DVD premiere)

Director:

Robert Hall

Cast/Crew

Bret Harrison, Laura Prepon, Kevin Gage

Genre

Drama, Horror

Official URL:

none

There’s no name quite as synonymous with the direct-to-video boom of the late ’80s/early ’90s as Full Moon Entertainment. If you’re a child of my generation, there’s a good chance you share my memories of running for the horror section of your local video store every week just hoping to see that familiar cloudy, blue moon logo somewhere on a VHS tape’s box art. (VHS tapes are what old timers like your faithful reviewer used to watch movies on. We also used to play something called the NES, collect Pongs, dance the Charleston, and our cell phones were so big they had their own area codes. It was a different time…)

Cave drawings found of a typical ’90s child.

A Brief Full Moon History

The creative minds behind the studio weren’t inexperienced rookies, having already produced many B-movie classics under the Empire Pictures umbrella since the very early ’80s. Just mention Trancers, Ghoulies, Zone Troopers or Re-Animator to any B-movie aficionado and watch their smile widen.

Or you could mention Troll and watch them start frothing at the mouth like a pit-bull overdosing on Alka Seltzer…

By the end of the decade, Empire Pictures was in dire financial trouble and company founder Charles Band needed a new platform from which to launch his movies. Partnering with Paramount, Band created Full Moon Entertainment in 1989. The Full Moon brand name really took root in the subconscious of video store dwellers with the same year’s release of what would become the studio’s flagship series: Puppet Master.

A Puppet Master Golden Era

The Puppet Master franchise would re-invent itself several times over the years. The eventual popularity of Andre Toulon’s creations would push the studio into making them slightly more heroic but the series’ first few entries cast them as pure antagonists. Kicking the story off in 1939 at one of Full Moon’s most iconic locales, the seaside Bodega Bay Inn, the titular puppet master himself, Andre Toulon, takes his own life to escape the clutches of pursuing Nazi spies. In his initial appearance, Toulon is played by the late, great veteran character actor William Hickey. Even if you don’t know the name, you’ve no doubt seen him in a thousand different movies.

“I won an Oscar, you know?”

Later entries would recast the Toulon role with the more affable Guy Rolfe. It would have been interesting to see what take Hickey would have had on the character if the actor stayed with the series beyond his initial cameo. Fast forward to then-modern times and a collection of psychics begin having strange visions surrounding a deceased colleague of theirs, visions that lead them to gather at the aforementioned Bodega Bay Inn. If you’re only familiar with later movies in the Puppet Master series, part 1 might seem a little odd in tone compared to its brethren. While most Puppet Master movies dabble in magic, alchemy, and alternate histories, the heavy use of psychic powers in this entry feels a bit out of step with the rest of the franchise.

Continue reading the Puppet Master review after the jump…

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

[rating:4]

Year Released:

12 October 1989

Director:

David Schmoeller

Cast/Crew

Paul Le Mat, William Hickey, Jimmie F. Skaggs, Robin Frates, Matt Roe, Kathryn O’Reilly, Barbara Crampton, and Irene Miracle

Genre

Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

Official URL:

Full Moon Direct

After leaving a high-profile job as a corporate lawyer in favor of filmmaking, writer/director Chris Fisher’s career got off to a bumpy start with a pair of indie true-crime serial killer films (Nightstalker and Rampage: The Hillside Strangler) that were met with a lukewarm reception from fans and critics alike. From there, he moved on to a pair of direct-to-video cop movies (Dirty and Street Kings 2: Motor City) with impressive B-level casts and a slightly more positive audience reaction. While these credits could be considered steps forward, Yell! readers will surely be raising eyebrows about the man’s credibility given his involvement directing the reviled Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko.

Yet despite the mixed reactions to his work, Chris Fisher’s career seems to be taking off nicely these days. He’s amassed a respectable resume of television directing (Chuck, Eureka, Hawaii Five-O) and producing (Warehouse 13) and his latest feature film, Meeting Evil, sports an impressive cast and an interesting hook that give it the potential to move the director on to bigger, better, A-list level work, making Meeting Evil something of a triumph within Fisher’s filmography.

I just wish I could say the same for the film on its own merits. Despite strong performances and a thoughtful story, Meeting Evil is a thoroughly flawed piece of filmmaking that, sadly, never seems to rise above Fisher’s own DTV pedigree.

The film concerns John (Luke Wilson), a real estate agent and family man whose life is hurtling off the skids. An affair with a co-worker has strained his marriage and cost him his job. His house is being foreclosed on, he’s neck deep in debt and, and, to top it off, his wife (Leslie Bibb) may be cheating on him. His luck seemingly changes when Richie (Samuel L. Jackson) arrives on his front door with car troubles. Despite his personal problems, John is first and foremost a generous guy, and offers to give Richie the help he needs. What John doesn’t know, however, is that Richie is a serial killer, one who develops a very scary obsession with John that is going to redefine the meaning of the phrase “A very bad day.”

Meeting Evil is a movie I really, really want to like. It stars Samuel L. Jackson in one of his most scene-chewing villain roles to come around in a long time. Jackson, who ranks among the most reliable actors in America, has the unfortunate tendency to “check out” during some of his films of questionable merit. Even high-profile releases like Iron Man 2 and The Other Guys often result in the man coasting. That’s fine. Much like his Pulp Fiction contemporary Bruce Willis, the man turns in solid work even when he’s coasting with a dead look in his eye and paycheck clearly plastered on his mind. Yet in Meeting Evil, the man is not coasting. He turns in a magnetic performance as Richie, a character whose boorish behavior contradicts his societal expectations, resulting in explosions of chilling violence that Jackson sells with perfect aplomb.

As his foil, Luke Wilson brings a sense of believable desperation to the character of John. Though he’s a loser, an adulterer, and possibly an alcoholic, John refuses to believe himself as anything less than a decent man under pressure. It’s the strain of this pressure that intrigues Richie enough to take John under his terrifying wing. “You and I, we’re a lot alike,” Richie tells John throughout the film, and Meeting Evil spends 90 minutes exploring that idea. Jackson and Wilson walk the line between good and evil together, sporting great chemistry and relishing the opportunity to challenge each other.

When they’re onscreen together, the film breezes by. When they’re not together, everything grinds to a halt. Wilson and Jackson are the sails that keep the ship Meeting Evil gliding across its cinematic waters. The problem is, the rest of the film, from script to cinematography to score, is slowly sinking the rest of the movie.

Fisher’s direction is functional. He shows off a knack for stylish composition that is too often subverted by an over-reliance on color filters and awkward camera movements. As a byproduct, the film’s visual look is all over the place, ranging from elegant to amateurish, often within the span of a single scene.

Read the verdict after the jump…

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

[rating:2]

Year Released:

2012

Director:

Chris Fisher

Cast/Crew

Leslie Bibb, Samuel L. Jackson, Peyton List, Tracie Thoms, Ryan Lee, Muse Watson, J.D. Evermore, Jillian Batherson, and Luke Wilson

Genre

Drama, Suspense, Mystery

Official URL:

Meeting Evil Official

First, director Kimberly Peirce (Stop-Loss, Boys Don’t Cry) might understand and have the knowledge to tell the human aspect in Carrie (the part about being an outsider in high school and being raised under the oppressive hand of a religious zealot mother), but she’s never directed horror. My concern is that after she builds the tension in the film, she won’t be able to deliver the blood orgasm.

Second, there will certainly be cell phones in the remake and they’re all going to be directed towards Carrie as she proudly stands on the stage as prom queen. Honestly, I have no idea if that will happen, but the Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Glee, Big Love – yeah, that sounds like horror and supernatural to us too) screenplay will likely fail as it tries to modernize this Stephen King tale. This writer-director duo will likely produce a highly stylized film that’ll look great, but it’ll fail to make us give two shits for Carrie – because modern film can’t do that the way it used to be done. Somewhere between the ‘80s and today, genre film has lost the ability to develop characters, much less create pathos. Remember Poltergeist? Christ, Tobe Hooper made us feel for the house.

Third, Chloe Moretz (Hugo) is reportedly cast in the lead role made famous by Sissy Spacek (or did the role make Spacek famous?). Those are some pretty big shoes to fill. Spacek was believable as Carrie; she was a meek wall-flower with low self-esteem. She wasn’t ugly, but you could see how her looks would have attracted the kind of cruelty that only high schoolers can deliver. Now, Chloe Moretz is only 15, and she doesn’t look like she’s been ridiculed a day in her life – until right now. There is nothing that she can bring to this role that Spacek so masterfully did in ‘76.

You know what? Don’t plug up this project. Let it bleed out like a stuck pig.

Rock Hard!

Credit: MGM Home Entertainment

It’s taken your faithful reviewer a while to gather his thoughts concerning his recent viewing of I Saw The Devil. This isn’t a movie that is easily digested, even by a palate used to such fare as Men Behind The Sun and the autopsy fetish film Aftermath. (Both covered in Yell! Magazine’s list of Top 10 Most Uncomfortable Movies.) While not as liberal with the gore as those aforementioned movies, I Saw The Devil compensates with a truly nihilistic tone while taking away the safety net serial-killer movies usually afford us: the ability to root for the good guy. One of the most heavily hyped movies of the last few years, does I Saw The Devil deliver the goods (evils?) the Internet would have us believe? Or is this another case of hype trumping quality?

While I Saw The Devil could be categorized as a serial-killer drama in the same vein as Seven, the movie is less interested in the killer’s methodology than it is in exposing the razor-thin line that separates your average Joe from a ruthless, opportunistic thrill-killer. Two actors share top billing while never once taking the spotlight away from each other. They are Min-sik Choi, who earned international fame for his role in OldBoy, and Byung-hun Lee, who has a long career in Korean movies but is perhaps best known abroad for his role as Storm Shadow, both in Stephen Summers’ 2009 movie and the upcoming GI Joe: Retaliation.

I Saw The Devil begins with every woman’s worst nightmare: a broken down car, in the middle of the night, a long way from anywhere, and confronted by a complete stranger who seems nice enough but refuses to leave you alone. Suffice it to say, this sequence affected the females watching the movie with me more than myself. As Min-sik Choi, the good Samaritan, slowly but surely inches closer and closer to an explosion of violence more realistic than what viewers might be used to, the tension reaches nail-biting levels. When he finally pulls the woman from her car and bashes her repeatedly with a blunt object, we’re acutely aware that the camera doesn’t flinch away from the metal on bone punishment he’s unleashing. It is brutal stuff.

The killer isn’t done. In a sequence that is equal parts fascinating and repulsive, we watch, helplessly, as the killer mutilates and disposes of the woman’s remains, treating what was once a human being as nothing more than meat. He chooses his pieces and makes his cuts with all the grace of a butcher. I think that, overall, this segment scarred me the most. Having to watch as a living, breathing person, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s wife, gets discarded like garbage had an impact on me. In a time when Hollywood releases entry after entry in the “Dead Teenager” genre, it was a revelation to realize that I cared so much about this woman after her being onscreen for less than 10 minutes. Score another one for Asian cinema horror over the shallowness of Hollywood movies.

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

[rating:4.5]

Year Released:

21 January 2011 (U.S.)

Director:

Jee-woo Kim

Cast/Crew

Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi, Gook-hwan Jeon

Genre

Horror, Thriller, Crime, Drama

Official URL:

I Saw The Devil

What unfortunate twist befalls our serial killer? Find out after the jump…