05/18/13

Mimic (1997)

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

Distributed by Dimension Films

Like most of Guillermo del Toro’s films, Mimic explores themes that include worlds within worlds, and children’s gifts within horror. Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) developed the Judas bug to kill cockroaches in New York’s sewers that were causing an entire generation to die. The Judas bug was designed to die after the one and only generation succeeds in killing the cockroaches.

Little did she know the Judas bug discovered a way to reproduce and evolve. Given their short life spam, it took a short three years for them to begin to become a danger to humans. With the aide of her husband Dr. Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) and one of New York’s finest, Leonard (Charles S. Dutton) she hunts down the highly evolved human sized bugs.

The Judas bugs are hidden deep within the subways; the world within the world. The location is separate from the real world above, and throughout the film the people above ground has no idea of the hell underground.

Early in the film we meet Chuy (Alexander Goodwin) a special little boy with an amazing gift. He memories the shoes people wear, and can mimic almost any sound he hears. As the Judas bugs mimic their predator, humans, Chuy mimics the clicking sounds he hears from the creatures.

Not understanding the danger of Mr. Funny Shoes (the Judas bugs), Chuy finds himself lost within the underground world of the bugs. Miraculously he survives half the film alone with the bugs, attempting to communicate with the aide of his spoon. He quickly learns how dangerous the bugs are when he watches one rip his father to pieces.

While Mimic is not one of my favorite del Toro films, I feel it is highly underrated. The fascinating story explores the same themes as classic science fiction and monster movies. When humans pretend to be God, their creation will not go down without a fight. Dr. Tyler released a genetic engineer super bug in the wild with little to know knowledge for the consequences. She must come face to face with her creation and fight to save the world from the monster she helped build.

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04/29/13

Tales from the Crypt 4.03: On a Deadman’s Chest

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

Danny Darwin (Yul Vazquez) the lead singer of the band Exorcist thinks his guitarist Nick Bosch (Paul Hipp) shouldn’t have married Scarlett (Tia Carrere). Danny thinks she’s trying to break up the band and felt the need to verbally abuse her on stage at a concert.

To help get his mind off Scarlett, one of his groupies Vendetta (Sherrie Rose) shows him an amazing tattoo she just got on her breast. The snake is entwined around her breast and if you look close enough you can almost see the tongue flicker. She takes him to the tattoo artist Farouche (Heavy D) and informs Danny his work is like magic.

Farouche is able to see inside people’s skin to see their true story. On Danny’s chest, he tattoos a giant dragon intertwined with Scarlett. Embarrassed and angry about the tattoo of her face on his chest, he storms off and confronts Vendetta. She swears he’s like magic, and can see what is under a person’s skin. She suggests having the tattoo removed. Unfortunately for Danny, her face just won’t leave his chest.

While Nick is at a gig, Danny sneaks into Scarlett’s room and beats her to a bloody mess. Apparently Farouche could see Danny’s desire to kill Scarlett and remove her as an obstacle from the band’s success.

At the concert, Danny feels something bubbling inside him. He runs off to his dressing room to find a dragon bursting out of his stomach ready to attack. Danny uses a piece of broken glass to remove the tattoo of Scarlett so she can’t get under his skin anymore. Of course, it as all in his head so he killed himself as well as Scarlett.

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04/28/13

House of Wax (2005)

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward.

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures

Although House of Wax has the same title as the 1955 Vincent Price film, I would hardly call it a remake. While both stories explore the mysteries of wax museums, and both use live models as the wax sculptures, the stories couldn’t be more different. While the first House of Wax is considered a classic among horror films, the remake was marketed as a teen slasher film.

In the 2005 version of House of Wax a group of 20-somethings heading to a big football game, stop to camp in the woods near a small town. From the start, the place seems odd. First, the smell is atrocious. Carly Jones (Elisha Cuthbert) discovers the reasoning being the smell when she falls face first in a giant pile of animal carcasses. A strange man gives her and her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki) a ride to town to buy a new belt for his car when he randomly finds it broken the morning after their campout.

The group slowly learns the oddities behind the town of wax when they are picked off one by one to be added to the collection of wax sculptures in the city. Of course the scene most people remember about this film is Paige Edward’s (Paris Hilton) amazing death. Her face is impaled with a rusty bar, and she dies half naked having previously been attempting to seduce her boyfriend. Typical.

The climax of the film is set in the giant house of wax. The entire building –the walls, floors, decorations- are made of wax. Carly’s twin brother Nick (Chad Michael Murray) sets the place on fire while attempting to escape from Vincent and Bo (Brian Van Holt) the twisted wax artists and killers. The entire building quickly melts and the siblings barely make it out alive before the building turns into a giant pile of bubbling wax.

Some changes needed to be made from the original story to appeal to the 2005 horror audience. The high-energy story is full of gore and gruesome deaths. Carly gets the luxury of having her finger cut off, and her lips super glued together, while Wade is transformed into a living wax sculpture. One of the friends, Dalton (Jon Abrahams), attempts to save him by peeling the wax and skin off his face. Dalton also gets to enjoy having his head chopped off before he is covered in wax for one of the new sculptures.

All in all, the film was a decent slasher flick with a new look on an old story. While the allure of wax museums is dated for a story told in the 21^st century, its strangeness and out datedness helped give the story its charm. I wouldn’t call House of Wax and amazing film, but it certainly was entertaining. It’s perfect for a rainy day when there’s nothing else on television.

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04/27/13

House of Wax (1953)

Author’s Note: This article is written on the 1955 version of the House of Wax movie, and not any of the sequels, remakes, or predecessors. The comments and observations I make have no knowledge of other films. Thank you.

Additional Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures

Vincent Price is a classic and iconic face among early horror films. He starred in the original House on Haunted Hill, The Fly, The Pit and the Pendulum, House of Wax and several other very well known horror films.

House of Wax was the first remake of 1933 horror film Mystery of the Wax Museum. While the stories are very similar, the remake gives it a fresh 1950s perspective and the charming face of the terrifying Vincent Price. Several years later a second reboot under the same title, House of Wax (2005), was created for the modern horror audience.

After loosing everything in a fire at his first wax museum, Professor Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price) seeks to rebuild his museum. Of course the fire was no accident. An investor fought with him and burnt the place down to get his money back from the insurance company. Later, Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts) is found dead, having apparently hung himself. His body is stolen from the morgue, and Jarrod just so happens to have a realistic depiction of his death in the new museum.

Jarrod wants to give his guests what they want: “sensation, horror, shock. Send them out into the streets to tell their friends how wonderful it is to be scared to death.” He recreates horrible scenes of death for the museum. Some ladies are so terrified they pass out at the exhibit.

Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) comes home one evening to find her friend Cathy Gray (Carolyn Jones) dead. The murderer, a strange man with a crippled face is still there and chases Sue down the street. She finds refuge at Scott Andrews’ (Paul Picerni) house. While visiting the exhibit with Andrews, Sue is drawn to the sculpture of Joan of Arc. Her face looks just like Cathy Gray. She comments on how real she looks, and Jarrod takes it as a compliment. He thinks she would make a great face for Marie Antoinette, and asks her to model for him. Of course, a mere sculpture isn’t enough. He wants to use her real face.

When Jarrod and his team of sculptors attack her, she fights back. To her horror, his face breaks apart and the demented face of Cathy’s killer hides under the mask he wore. Of course, good defeats evil in this story as Andrews battles the artists at the wax museum to save Sue from becoming a wax sculpture.

Waxworks have been around since the Middle Ages. As a realistic depiction of humans, we can only imagine how strange and realistic the sculptures seemed back in the day. How did the sculptors depict the human faces so realistically? It is only natural to question, and thus the horror stories were born. House of Wax is a fun and entertaining story about a madman becoming completely obsessed with his work. I recommend it for anyone that loves a chilling classic.

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04/21/13

The Others (2001)

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

Distributed by Dimension Films. Poster design by Bemis Balkind

Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) lives in a large house in Jersey in the 1940’s. Her husband never came back from the war, and she was left to care for their two children Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). They both have a serious allergy to the light, thus the family lives in near darkness.

Introducing the new caretakers and nanny to the children, we learn of the children’s strange illness as well as the mother’s obsessive need to keep every single door in the house locked. Apparently the previous workers vanished without a second glance back towards the house or its inhabitants.

Grace informs the new nanny, Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), that the children sometimes say strange things, but they shouldn’t be taken seriously. Of course this makes the viewers side with their mother when Mrs. Mills hears the children arguing about the time their mother had a fit. Naturally, this almost blatantly foreshadows the giant twist at the end of the movie. While Grace chose to forget what she did, Anne seems to have a small remembrance.

One morning, Grace runs to Anne because she heard her crying, Anne tells her it was a boy named Victor. Of course, Anne claims Victor is a real boy, but terrifies her brother at night by telling him Victor’s been opening the curtains. Nicholas assumes she’s telling another one of her mean ghost stories. Anne’s a brat and certainly has it coming to her. Poor Nicholas hides under the covers hoping not to meet Victor.

Even Grace can’t deny the strange noises and voices she hears throughout the house. Grace informs her mother that people insist it’s their house, even though Grace can’t even see them. Something strange is going on, but Grace can’t seem to figure out what’s going on, so she chooses to ignore the happenings.

“Grief over the death of a loves one can lead people to do the strangest things,” says Mrs. Mill. Of course, she knows why they showed up at the house. Perhaps in Grace’s denial, Mrs. Mill is attempting to help her see the truth behind the other people in the house, and the truth about herself.

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04/19/13

Tales from the Crypt 4.02: This’ll Kill Ya

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

George Gatlin (Dylan McDermott) runs a pharmaceutical research lab with Sophie Wagner (Sonia Braga) and Pack Brightman (Cleavon Little). Despite the press release George just released, the H cell serum they are testing is neither ready for human testing, nor is it able to stop working once injected into a subject. The team is currently working on a way to make the H cells stop working so they do not shut down and kill the entire body.

George and Sophie have a rocky history and it’s plain she doesn’t like him. There’s really not much to like about him. He’s forceful and conceited, and even kept a key to her apartment so he can have his way with her. She submits but not without a bit of a fight. She’s not too nice to him, but why should she be?

George is a diabetic and makes Sophie give him his insulin injections. He has no desire to learn how to do it himself, and gets off on the idea of a woman causing him pain. One afternoon when giving him his shot, Pack realized he gave her the wrong bottle. George was just injected with billions of H cells and they will eventually cause tumors to take over his entire body.

Naturally, George panics. He leaves the lab and a small smirk appears on Sophie’s lips. He smokes a cigarette, hallucinates, grabs a drink from the bar, and finds out Sophie and Pack has been by to celebrate.

Hunting done Sophie, he shows up at here apartment and hears Pack leave her a voicemail. He feels guilty for messing with George’s insulin. George doesn’t take this too well. He finds at Pack at the lab and bashes his head in with a baseball bat. “It’s not what you think,” Pact murmurs before George kills him.

Of course, it’s easy to guess what really happened. They didn’t inject him with the H cell. George wasn’t dying. They were just teaching him a lesson. I guess George failed that lesson.

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04/18/13

Tales from the Crypt 4.01: None but the Lonely Heart

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

Howard Prince (Treat Williams) is a con artist that meets elderly women through a dating service, marries and murders them, and takes all of their money. With a court date right around the corner, Howard hopes to steal from one more woman before he leaves the country with his partner in crime.

Effie Gluckman (Frances Sternhagen) is exceedingly rich and lonely due to the loss of her husband. With the aide of the dating service, she hopes to meet a companion. When Howard knocks on the door she attempts to turn him away before he feeds her a line about not being able to sexually please the woman his age.

Of course, Effie immediate falls in love with Howard and offers to helps him with his impotence. This is one sex scene I’m really glad they didn’t shoot. Thanks, Tales from the Crypt. Effie marries him immediately, and as a wedding present adds his name to all of her bank accounts. Wow! How hasty and stupid could she get?

Howard begins receiving threating letters about what he’s doing to these poor elderly women. Someone knows what he’s doing. He kills his partner by shoving his tie in a shredder, but still receives the letters. Who else could possibly know what he’s up to?

It must be Baxter (Tom Hanks) from the dating service. Howard throws his into a television where he’s electrocuted to death. Niles Talbot from episode 1.01 “The Man Who Was Death” would be so proud.

Effie’s butler, Stanhope (Henry Gibson), though having the night off, shows up that evening and shouts the names of Howard’s ex-wives at him. Clearly he’s the one sending him hate mail. He’s so angry he pulls a gun on Howard but wimps out before Howard breaks his neck. Gee, Howard you’re really building up quite the list of victims.

Just like his previous wife, Effie is poisoned with a glass of red wine. But, unlike his last wife, Effie doesn’t stay dead. Howard pushes her down the stairs and books a flight out of the country. Even though he killed all the loose ends, Howard still receives one more note. Effie just won’t stay dead and she’s brought Matilda, Elizabeth, and Claire with her. It seems, they couldn’t live without him, and the certainly wouldn’t die without out him either.

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04/17/13

Tales from the Crypt 3.14: Yellow

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

I had two initial thoughts when watching this episode of Tales from the Crypt. Yellow is set during World War I, which is a very abnormal setting for a Tales from the Crypt episode. I think this is either going to be very off color and stick out like a sore thumb, or they are finally doing something a little different with the television series.

Lieutenant Martin Kalthrob (Eric Douglas) called a retreat on an important task. Everyone was relying on him, and he failed. He asked his father, General Kalthrob (Kirk Douglas) to discharge him from the Army but is denied. However, his father does tell him he will transfer Martin to the backline if he takes a group to fix the broken communication line.

Martin leads the group despite the fact that everyone thinks he’s a big wimp. When they come across the break in the communication line, Martin suggests going back because it’s too close to the German line. Sergeant Ripper (Lance Henriksen) tells Martin to stay back while the others go ahead to fix the line. After all, someone needs to watch their backs.

Ripper had given Martin an empty bullet shell and told him to blow in it if they needed to retreat. Of course Martin brought up the fact that it would give away is position. While laying flat on him stomach, he watches a small grow of Germans approach his men fixing the communication line. He puts the bullet to his lips, but drops it due to pure fear. He watches silently as his men are attacked and killed. He runs for his life.

Panicking, he tells his father there was an ambush and he shot as many of the Germans as he could, but they were everywhere. He lied to cover his skin. His father feeds him a guilt filled speech about how he did what he could. He’s proud of his son, and needed to prove he wasn’t a coward.

However, Ripper whom was left for dead returns calling Martin yellow and informing the others Martin abandoned his patrol. General Kalthrob has his son arrested, and his punishment is death by firing squad.

Martin’s father visits him the night before his execution and informs him that he’ll put blanks in all of the guns that will be used in the firing squad. All Martin needs to do is fake his own death, wait for them to leave, and he’s free from the Army. The only thing he asks is to face the squad like a man, without fear. Martin certainly does so, but one second of lost eye contact with his father makes him realize, not all of the bullets were blanks.

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04/16/13

Tales from the Crypt 3.13: Spoiled

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

Janet (Faye Grant) and a girl friend are watching a television episode of a strong woman that doesn’t take no for an answer. Fuchsia Monroe (Anita Morris) a go-getter and can have whatever she wants. Like the woman in the television show, Janet is unhappy with her marriage. Her husband, a doctor, does not have time for her and Janet wishes she had the power within her to be like Fuchsia Monroe.

This episode makes me giggle like a schoolgirl. Janet wants nothing more than her husband to stop working long enough to notice her. She imagines him bursting from his office saying, “Darling! What a fool I’ve been exploring medical science when I could be exploring you.”

Like in the television episode, Janet sneaks into her husband’s office to attempt to have her way with him. She even goes so far as to quote a line from the show, “I’m trying to effectuate a successful merger with my husband.” He tells her medical history is more important and brushes her off. Poor Janet.

The next day while working out, she’s watching her womanly television show again. Fuchsia is in bed with another man, her husband comes home, and pulls a gun on her and the cable goes out! Oh no! Janet is desperate for her show and calls the cable company. Abel with the cable stops by and asks “where do you want it?” They don’t do the dirty, but not for lack of desire.

Janet is desperate for some loving. She sneaks in on her husband again and quotes more lines from Fuchsia’s television show. All his attention is on Mr. Cottontail, the rabbit he’s studying. His wife is left on the backburner. After her husband leaves for more medical supplies, Janet calls the cable man to help with her “bad connections.”

Mid “cable checkup” Janet’s husband comes home. He asks what they are doing, and she reminds his that he told her to call the television provider in the morning. He informs his wife that he’s taking time off from work to finish his research. He’ll be there for her when it’s done, “But right now, I’m just not able.” That’s right doctor you aren’t Able.

The doctor eventually catches his wife and the cable man and decides to test his research on them. He turns into a mad scientist angry with jealousy. He switches their bodies because “they lost their heads over each other.” They wanted each other’s bodies, and now they have them.

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04/15/13

Tales from the Crypt 3.12: Deadline

Author’s Note: All articles on MK Horror contain spoilers.

Article written by Maggie K. Ward

Charles McKenzie (Richard Jordan) is a reporter that would do anything for a story. Anything. “People have a right to know,” he says. After loosing his job, he’s given one more chance. He’ll get his job back if he does a story on a murder. Easy, right? Wrong. All Charles needs is a victim and a murderer.

One night at the bar, Charles meets Vicki (Marg Helgenberger) a beautiful woman that looks out of place in the shady bar. He points out this oddity and suggests that she may be a hooker, and she neither denies nor confirms. According to Charles “there’s something special about her.” In my opinion, that feeing he gets is Vicki hard at work.

Next day at the office, Charles makes several phone calls looking for a story. It seems he has ran his name into the dirt, and no one wants to talk to him. He still naively thinks he’s on top, and these phone calls are quickly becoming a rude awakening.

That evening his bartender refuses to pour him a drink and suggest going to Nikos Grill for a bite to eat. While there, Charles overhears the owner arguing with a woman and a fight breaks out. Did Charles just find his story? You bet! Isn’t he lucky?

Nikos (Jon Polito) stumbles from the room with fear in his eyes. He just strangled his wife. Being a smooth journalist, Charles offers to talk and takes notes. Apparently Nikos’ wife has been going out and meeting other guys at bars and having a good time if you know what I mean.

Charles calls the police but before he can get a word out, Nikos’ wife stirs. Apparently she isn’t dead. There goes Charles story. He checks on the woman and to his surprise it’s Vicki, the beautiful woman from the bar. He’s heartbroken and decides to finish her off in jealously and to ensure he gets his story. Before calling the police, he calls the newspaper.

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