Directed by Sergio Martino, I've mentioned him in this blog before. Anyway, I'm glad that neither he, nor anyone involved in the making of this film, got any money as a result of me buying a 'public domain' DVD copy of the movie.
As everybody knows, I have a deep interest in horror movies. I collect obscure stuff, write reviews, have my own theories, I read tons about it, and plan to someday become an expert in the field. Some of my friends that are horror fans are among the smartest people I've met. We could have conversations that rival those of the sharpest brain surgeons... well not really, but we do seriously examine the subject.
Why is it then, that there are so many boneheads among casual horror fans? They want to see Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Chucky, more straight-to-video Hellraiser sequels, horror movies based on video games, and probably even another movie directed by Dee Snider. Yes, stupid shit all around, but my real contempt is for the true losers who want to see graphic footage of people really dying. It is sick to laugh at the stuff, but also very brainless. Can't you picture Beavis sitting on his couch laughing at a film of a woman getting hit by a train?
I've got some of those documentaries, a Faces of Death tape, Death Faces, Shocking Africa, and Brutes and Savages, but all of them I got in box lots on ebay and I don't watch any of them. It's one thing to see this kind of stuff with the intent to learn about atrocities and hopefully be inspired to make some sort of difference in the world. It's another thing to just get a kick out this shit and take joy in someone else's ultimate misery.
With that said, I don't like it when movies create this kind of 'mondo footage' to make for more shocks, though fortunately, I don't suppose it ever happens anymore.
On a lighter note, here is my tribute to the horror fan gone wrong... aka A TOTAL PIECE OF SHIT! some new jack from France.
Interests: horror movies, slipknot, 666, serial killers, piercings, death metal, satan, ozzfest, mtv2 headbanger's ball, metalcore, tattoos, goth chicks, weed, manson, korn, cky, 420, faces of death, absinth, black metal, hitler, my chemical romance, drugs...
Mutator is one of those horror movies that features animal rights activists raiding a lab to liberate the animals. As a former animal rights campaigner, this is of interest to me. The movie Food of the Gods II features lab raids as does 28 Days Later and at least one other movie that slips my mind. I'm not referring to Twelve Monkeys, rather a monster or slasher movie. If you know of any similar movies, send me a note.
The activists are kind of stupid, but so are most of the characters in Mutator, such as the guards, the scientists, and the corporate head. I think the film has a slight antivivisection message as well as an anti-corporate message, which is very typical of monster/horror movies. The activists do where leather, which is not typical in the real world, but hey, maybe in the 80's, activists were less consistent in their concepts of animal liberation.
The lab is of course responsible for the creation of something awful that has escape. The corporate head tries to explain that the use of animals is worth it because of the potential benefits for humanity, but the activists are not buying it. Yes they do have a brief debate when they meet up, as everyone tries to escape the lab together. The corporate head also has to explain that creating this horrible killer beast may be unfortunate, but that too is a small sacrifice to make for the valuable life saving research. Nobody buys that one. This guy also gets painted as corrupt, lying to the press, and making the keeping of company secrets a priority over everyone's survival. He puts the laboratory under automatic lockdown until 7 AM, trapping all the characters inside with the monster.
Mutator directed by John R. Bowey, staring Brion James, from Prism Video who put out a lot of good stuff. The box cover here is little lame and the title, 'Mutator', is awfully forgettable.So how about the movie? Not so great. The kills are pretty poor. The characters are ok, none of their lines are very memorable. I was not clear if there was one creature, two, or three, or maybe a whole litter. Litter? Yes, and this is not much of a spoiler because anyone can catch the hints early on in the film, the monster has a muscular furry body (like a werewolf), but with a large cat's head. Yeah, it's goofy looking and scene where it or they die is just a giant explosion. Could it be that the creatures lived?
One note, the background music, an ominous low piano key followed by a mechanical inhalation sound, was very familiar. I swear I've heard it in another movie. If anyone can figure out what movie it might be, I'd be very impressed and bestow upon them the title of 'horror ace', which you probably deserve alone for just having seen Mutator.
links and blogs for animal rights - If they are strange to you, keep in mind that they are aimed at other vegans, who are like you in most ways, but are just more used to these concepts.
The Veg Blog
another one - Vegan Freaks
Erin Pavlina's Vegan Blog - This one is of interest because it discusses the episode with the vegan family on the reality tv show Trading Spouses. I saw some of one of these episodes with the vegans and turned it off in disgust. How anyone would think that this show would be a good forum to showcase animal rights, I don't know. The producers edit that crap to make everyone look like idiots. Word is that vegans everywhere thought this episode was a PR disaster. I heard there was a vegan on Ted Nugent's reality show and they took a beating too. People need to realize that the shows can make you look anyway the editor wants you to look and the mainstream media, no matter how liberal it may appear (save for Nugent), does not like the idea of giving up meat.
stop huntington animal cruelty - last I checked, and it was a while ago, this was what all the animal activist kids were into, the only campaign they were paying attention too.
Just so you know, I am cynical, but I do believe that people should go vegan for the animals and that animal research is wrong.
link about movies
widescreen and fullscreen - what you did not know about the formats and movies in general, really...
Suppose I wrote the words "cuddle me and slit my throat." You might say that would make a pretty cool title for a livejournal entry. You might think those are some sick lyrics from a screamo band. You might feel that those words ring true. Well, you suck, because that's an example I thought up to illustrate a phenomenon that has got to go. The combination of something cute/affectionate/sentimental with something violent/evil/dangerous to create a conflicted entity. Whether it's a lame metalcore album title or a shitty tattoo, combining cute and evil creates something that is more complex than either one of those elements alone, but is hardly sophisticated or brilliant. Don't worry, I've got plenty of examples. Sure the phenomenon has existed for ages, but it is especially prevalent now. Check it out...
The musical style of screamo alone is a perfect model. The riffs and the screaming of metal are all there, along with soft parts, that bring to mind the insecurities and pain of Dashboard Confessional songs. It's being tough and being sensitive in one package. Brilliant, if you are marketing your product to confused teenagers, bullshit if you are sick of being manipulated by works that aim to be considered 'smart'.
Anyone can take a stencil of brass knuckles and use pink paint instead of black to mix effeminate qualities with brutality. The result is hardly interesting these days, let alone revolutionary. That example I invented, but some hardcore kids would probably think that putting a design like that on a t-shirt would be a brilliant fashion statement. These kids are in thugged-out crews, but wear eyeliner. They will fuck you up (allegedly, but I have not seen any fashioncore kids beat anyone in person) and then go home and cry to a Cure record. Well you can't have your cake and eat it too, pick a side and stay there.
Listen trendy youth of American, I also have discovered that life is not black and white, you learn that when you move out on your own.
I suppose it's no surprise that fashion, music, and trends all contain the elements I have described, since they are dictated by young consumers who are going through times of transition and learning lessons for the first time. None the less, right now I am annoyed, here come the examples of what is played out.
Take the word 'tough', change it to cute spelling, 'tuff'. Do a search on this word and 'emo', they go together. Ok, that's hardly scientific, but here are the results... you will find links to makeoutclub, my space profiles, and hardcore distros. Also this shitty quiz.
How about this band that plays Love Metal?
Mix the evil pentagram with the heart, representative of teen crushes and sooo complex.These titles for hardcore/punk records.
Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses
White Doves and Smoking Guns
Palm Trees and Power Lines
I know there are more examples out there, these are the ones I found with a quick look around the record store that I work in. If you can think of anymore examples of something sweet paired with something nasty titles, send them my way.
Here is a mid 90's example, I know I'm trying to talk about a phenomenon that exists right now, but this one is fun. You might not expect someone to get a tattoo of an x'd-up cartoon character these days, but it used to happen. A typical straight edge graphic would be an x'd-up tough guy with a baseball bat running across the record sleeve (I wish I had that record..), but here is one with the twist.
an x'd-up Simba, or a in some cases, a CalvinIn the world of horror, the phenomenon exists as well. Observe the resurgence in popularity of the Gremlins. Those cute little Mogwai turn into viscous killers. Hey, even I was tempted to get a tattoo of Gizmo driving his car. I bet Cub is glad I don't have that.
Stripe, the bad Mogwai, yeah, I like him too.Anyway, the old me is guilty of trying to come of as cute. I always was the 'friendly' militant vegan. I don't need to go into detail, but I mixed strong convictions with an oh so adorable personality. I had my own dialect, strange sayings, a completely different tone of voice. It went over pretty well, but I'm embarrassed now. If you know me these days, you can see that I'm strictly business! Sure I tell some lame jokes, but I'm not aiming to be the center of attention. So all you kids out there affecting poses, clean up your act now!
The director and writer is David Schmoeller, who brought us three of the best Charles Band/Full Moon movies, Puppet Master, Crawlspace, and Tourist Trap. He also made Curse IV, which I was unable to sit through, but maybe I'll give it another shot. Fortunately, this guy was not around for Full Moon's downfall (about 2000 or 2001) and did not get stuck making crap like Deathbed, The Killer Eye, and Vengeance of the Dead. All Grade 'F' films.
NetherworldNetherworld is one of those straight to video movies that could pass for a film that played on the big screen. Full Moon put out a bunch of these solid, higher budget movies, when they were in their early 90's prime. Unfortunately they pumped out too many movies as the decade continued, each one looked cheaper and less thought out than the last. By the year 2000, they were releasing movies that were shot on video. I guess if your movies cost nothing to make, it's hard not to make a profit off of them, but Full Moon lost a lot of fans and just about all of their credibility. Charles Band changed the name of his company to Shadow Entertainment, allegedly because he personally felt that the movies were not as good.
While Netherworld is well made, I did not care for it that much. They went out on a limb with a strange story, and I respect the risks that they took, but I was left a bit confused and more than a bit ambivalent.
Cub what was the flying hand all about?
I think that the flying hand was out to turn all the "bad" guys into birds, which was their punishment for being jerks. Some became canaries, others cardinals, while some even became parrots (hence the scary one at the end, although it was the best part of the movie).
Did you think that sex scene with the ice cubes was wicked hot?
The ice cube sex scene was steamy, I must admit! Don't be mad baby :)
How did you know I liked that parrot monster? You said, "you like that don't you." I did, I think the parrot puppet should have got a lot more screen time.
At this point in our life to you think it is surprising that I know what you like and don't like, come on..... of course I knew you'd love the evil parrot scene at the end.
You know how stuff gets passed around the internet and usually it's a bunch of crap, but I'm not gonna pretend that I'm above this, after all, this is a website. Over the past few day, maybe longer (I just heard about it yesterday) people have been laughing at the 'moshzilla' picture. My friend went to a message board (trustkill) to get technical help with his I-pod, and the moshzilla pics were what most of the posts on the board were about. The picture, it appears that there is only one original, shows a girl tearing it up in the pit, allegedly at a San Diego show. Since then, billions of photoshop parodies have appeared on message boards across the web.
A website sprung up, then got shut down, see why... moshzilla.com at notpopular.com
Yeah, I guess the girl is threatening a lawsuit. Word is that there was a lot of mean talk along with the pics, name calling and what not. Now the parodies are hard to find online. I saw only a fraction of them.
the original - but look at how generic the hardcore kids in the back look. I see a Terror t-shirt, I bet there were at least 30 of those at that particular show. One time, several years back, at Big Burrito in Boston I saw three kids come in, all wearing In My Eyes t-shirts. Two had on the same shirt, one had a different one, all the t-shirts were blue. There are more bands in hardcore, it's been around for years, but I guess the sheep mentality rules. You can see an In My Eyes shirt in this picture, over on the left.
Hardcore kids, back into the fold! From me, I love my stupid graphics!
The moshzilla photoshop pics, I seriously laughed my ass off. Some can be found here, at least for now.
here is one moshzilla pic that some kid made
My blog here is all about moratoriums, and I'd like to place moratoriums on some words in hardcore. "Posi" and "Crucial" are words that have been said to death, and that's why people keep saying them, to get people to role their eyes and deliver a cheep laugh. I like bad jokes, but not overkill. It's like shouting "Freebird" at a Shellac show, you think it's funny because it's not funny, but it's just not funny at all. Know what I'm saying?
I thought this movie was pretty killer, though now I'm reading the internet reviews and they are negative across the board. Good thing I did not read those before watching, I'm very impressionable. It looks like this movie is written off by many because it's directed by Claudio Fragasso who soon after brought us the much maligned Troll 2. I mentioned that one in my 'most hated horror sequels' piece.
What's up with this movie? Father Peter and his family move into a possessed house. The dialogue is quite odd At first I figured it that was due to losses in the translation from Italian to English. Now that I see it's written by the same people who wrote Troll 2, Fragasso and Rossella Drudi, it's clear that it comes from people who write quirky stuff. For example, the little girl thinks the hole in the wall, a portal to hell, is a blow dryer. Some of this ideas in this movie are lifted from Poltergeist and The Excorist and perhaps even Videodrome with the body parts pushing out from the other side of a fleshy wall. The most original concept is the rocking black swan. Think rocking horse, but shaped like a swan, pretty neat.
Beyond Darkness, recommended by me, and me alone
There is a lot of talk about the title of this movie as sometimes it is called House 5, in reference to the popular American series, though it predates House IV. In Italy it's called La Casa 5, because they've got a different set of La Casa movies of there. Word is that Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 are the first two movies in that series, under the titles La Casa and La Casa 2, and the rest are Italian originals. Don't confuse this movie with Beyond the Darkness by fellow Italian, Joe D'Amato.
Here is a review in what I imagine is Italian, but the page shows a pic of the cool La Casa 5 artwork - splattercontainer.com
Beyond Darkness on the IMDB
I'm not want to pick at continuity errors or rip on bad acting, but this movie really asks for it. Christopher McDonald's decent into insanity is not really a descent, it's instantaneous, and annoying. I don't really get why the imaginary boyhood friend of the main character is dressed in 90's fashion, in an oversized t-shirt and ripped jeans. He would have been wearing 70's clothes if they had got it right. Also, are we to believe that the drawing he made as a child would still be lying on the monastery floor? Half a lifetime later?
No one will care if I spoil the end of this movie, so here goes. In a weird way, the monster that shows up, really looks like that silly drawing I was talking about. Cub said it looked like Yoda. It's movements reminded me of creatures in The Dark Crystal. Did Frank Oz create this strange being? No.
Playroom directed by Manny CotoBy the way, I'm watching the Super Bowl and I just heard music, by one of the those Depeche Mode-Cure-by way-of-The Strokes sounding bands. I believe it was the Killers, singers of another song, "Indie Rock & Roll". At least, I think that song is ironic.
Let's talk to Cub about this movie.
I thought the playroom was quite horrible. The little kids I see at the preschool are better actors than the individuals in this movie! The main actor was horrid and could not have exaggerated himself anymore than he did. The monster was even a disappointment, and that says a lot. The only cool thing about this movie was the idea of the monastery and the playroom, with all of the torture devices. Aside from this there is nothing worth noting.
The world's worst publications, in print, not websites. This should be fun, I'm only doing five now, maybe I'll continue the feature if people like it. Now suppose I read a magazine in the past, it sucked, and I have not picked it up in a few years... you know, because I did not want to subject myself to torment. Well I'll put it on here anyway! So some of the magazines might be out of date, maybe they changed, maybe not. They are still guilty of being the most awful crap I'd seen at a particular time. Don't worry, I read a lot of magazines now. We sell magazines at my work and I'm rarely pleased.
Horror fans, you know Fangoria will be on this list!
5. Skratch - There is a good thing about this publication. It's free and do appreciate free stuff. I'd rather read this magazine while drinking a coffee than just stare at the wall or be left alone with my thoughts, anyway...
I first became exposed to Skratch magazine while living in Allston, Mass. We moved into a house, a whole bunch of us, since it was a three story former Boston University frat house with a livable basement too. The previous occupants, evicted perhaps, were a large ska band called Big D and The Kids Table. They left behind a lot of junk, no hard feelings, I had left tons of trash in the place I had just moved out of. Besides, Big D's trash was at least interesting, ska cds from their distro, furnishings, and fraternity stuff, no doubt relics from even more distant occupants. There were also bundles and bundles of Skratch magazine. Hundreds of copies of each issue, going back a few months. The masthead in the magazine listed Big D as one of the distributors. Well, sad to say, they obviously were not doing a good job of getting those magazines out to to the public. It did not end there, each month, a couple massive boxes from California would be dropped off on our front porch. This was funny at first. I could say "I don't even want to read one copy of this magazine, let alone one thousand!" and nobody would laugh. Later, it got annoying. The magazines froze together into solid cubes, at least I think the Boston winter was cold enough to make paper freeze.
Two nights ago I was watching the local Orange County PBS station and a guy from Skratch was being interviewed about emo, ska, hardcore, and punk. It was painful to listen to, as these genres were explained to a public who has no idea what they are. I wish I had a transcript of that show. There was nothing much for me to learn from that show except that it drove home the point that I live in the epicenter of shit for punk and hardcore worldwide. At least the word 'fashioncore' was not mentioned.
What's in Skratch? Interviews with Warped Tour bands and show reviews done by little kids who worship every band that has a record deal. No good columns, very mediocre graphic design, but hey it's free, you can pick it up where I work.
4. Punk Planet - On occasion they've got good political articles. Real journalism. If they just got rid of all the stuff with bands it would be a good read. My problem is with the name, call it "Indie Planet" or "Underground Planet", but Punk Planet does not fit because there is just no punk in there.
not a real punk planet
I remember them begging for more letters to the editor since they only got one or two or month. More people contact me about this pathetic blog!
The only other thing I really disagree with this magazine about, besides the title, is the 'punk in academia' stuff I saw in some columns a few years back. I distrust the system of higher learning. I may be the only one, but I think it's unpunk by nature to be paying to get a degree so you can make more money than those who don't have one. I'll elaborate on this topic later.
3. Circus Magazine - This magazine goes way back and I'm sure it was once great before my time. However, when I was a subscriber, it was during the glam metal explosion. Guns N' Roses were on the cover five months in a row! Then, the times changed. Alternative rock hurt those bands big time. In order to stay current, Circus declared itself 'New' and put the Lollapalooza-touring rap group Arrested Development on the cover. The feud between traditional metal heads and evolving metal heads that took place on the letters page over the next few months will never be forgotten. I saw it all go down, but a few months too late. You see, the magazines did not arrive in my mail box until over two months after I'd see them on the news stand in Harvard Square. Circus Magazine, you may have been going through hard times, but I still don't forgive you!
A Circus from way before my time. Look, they once covered things other than music, including abortion!
2. Fangoria - Do you have a friend with a stack of old issues of Fangoria or Gore Zone? They are priceless and a true product of the 80's! Well Fangoria today has come under a lot of fire. Generally the story is, I think I've written this before, that they sold out with their Jurassic Park issue. It was very profitable and they started to cover anything FX-heavy. These days there is plenty of horror out there, so Fangoria sticks to the genre a little more, however they show little discretion and everything comes off as a promo for whatever production they are looking into.
Here is Mr. Disgusting (bloody-disgusting.com) on the Fangoria video anthology Blood Drive...
"This is a perfect example of why Fangoria sucks balls- not only do they like everything, but they get friendly with everyone and hook their buds up on a crappy DVD that fans get blasted on. Burn an old issue of Fango, it'll make you feel better. "
I saw some of that DVD at a friend's house, and boy did it blow, however don't burn an old Fangoria, burn a new one.
Other common complaints about Fangoria... #1 - The articles (and pictures) are full of spoilers that ruin upcoming movies for the fans who don't want to how it's all going to end. #2 - The price is too high. #3 - Rue Morgue is better.
A Canadian horror magazine called Rue Morgue is getting more and more popular. The fact that it treats the readers like they have brains makes Fangoria look even worse. Hate for Fangoria has doubled since horror fans have found a magazine that is actually good.
a Fangoria I don't want to read about a remake I don't ever want to see
1. Project Alien Crush - I think I've been pretty mean writing this article and I've come down kind of hard on a lot of people's hard work. Some of the stuff I've trashed, I can't do any better myself, and here is the proof. In senior year of high school a made a small little zine called Project Alien Crush. The name came from a Turbo Graphix 16 game called Alien Crush and I chose it only because it sounded cool and important. Though here were aliens in the first issue, and in fact they did get crushed by an automatic door. I swear that was purely coincidental.
These little zines are so embarrassing that I'm grateful not to have them in front of me right now. I remember well what was inside. Issue #1 had an awful comic about a horror-movie slasher who rescues animals from vivisectors, then fights cops and aliens. In the last panel he hugs a cat. How cute? Yeah, I'm sure I thought so. The only other content in the issue was punk photography. A picture of Tesco Vee from the Meatmen, and two of Total Chaos members. I tell little stories about how I took the pictures and they are cute and lame. The Meatmen are a great band and think I got a picture of the inflatable dick prop in there, at least I remember considering putting that into the zine. No, I bet I wimped out. The page on Total Chaos is beyond redemption and my stories suck.
Issue 2 was mostly text and made on a computer, not cut and paste. It was mostly boring animal rights information I found on the internet. The saving grace was an interview on the back page with my brother about Hardline, a hot topic at the time.
Then came two mini-comic issues (1 folded page each) and my shitty drawings were back. One starred a punk rocker with monkey companion ("rescued from a lab", I said) and they battle a swat team. The other is even worse and is a a post-apocalyptic story about a straight edge cult with "666" written on the foreheads of their Michael Myers masks. I can't remember how it ends, but the front cover said "The Future" and had drawings of graves. I was real into saving resources at the time and printed a bunch of these on paper that I found in the recycle bin, paper that bits of text on one side. Unfortunately, the comics were still legible.
Project Alien Crush never returned, but I can still embarrass myself with my writing, and maybe I just did, with this here list of the worst publications ever. Thanks for reading.
Over at the Little Terrors blog (a great blog that was one of the things that got me motivated to do this one) a Moratorium on 'horror about horror' was proposed. Now, while I disagree with this particular moratorium (I like horror about horror) it inspired me to place moratoriums on a number of elements that are all too prevalent in today's horror movies. I do believe I have the authority to do so, so Hollywood directors and writers beware, if any of these now forbidden subjects appear in your movies, prepare to face severe consequences.
I am putting the prohibited elements in a less to prevent any confusion. Take note, every scene and idea listed here can be found in the shitfest film Hide and Seek that I unfortunately attended last night. I wish I had walked out of theater, but then this list would be shorter and I would not have been reminded of some of contemporary horror's lamest clichés.
1. No more children who know creepy things! If the horror movies of the mid and late 90's were all Scream-inspired, than the horror movies of the past few years are all Sixth Sense-inspired.
2. No more creepy children's drawings!
3. No more big twists! Twist endings and horror movies have always gone hand in hand, however, in the M. Night Shyamalan era, the twists are massive. Everything the viewer thought to true, is false. Well we are no longer in awe of these clever writers. You see, a twist is expected, the viewers don't take anything at face value anymore and... we can guess the ending! No, no, it's true, we really can. It's gotten very easy. That's why everyone hated The Village.
4. No more cat-jumping scares. This annoyance has been around a bit longer, in fact, it's one of the oldest tricks in the book, characteristic of the derivative slashers I watch so often. Yet there was a cat scare in this supposedly clever movie, Hide and Seek. I wonder, are we supposed to laugh because it's a cliché? Or is it post-ironic? Half of the dimwits in the theater had heart attacks anyway. "Wow this shit works on two levels!" No, it sucked.
5. No more music boxes!
6. No more childrens' songs or nursery rhymes. Double-foul if played by a music box.
7. No more families moving from the city to the country! Can't the city be creepy? I was reminded of Cold Creek Manor which also began with a move from NYC to a big house upstate. I did not want to be reminded of that one... ever.
8. No more bloody writing scrawled on the walls!
9. No more old fashioned dolls! They were good in the Maria Bava movies, but do kids even play with these anymore? I'd think their rooms would now be filled with soccer balls, Playstations, and Clay Aiken posters.
No need for a moratorium on this one, but at one point Hide and Seek actually used the Friday the 13th echoing whisper sound at one 'suspenseful' moment. Anyway, my list is longer than I expected. My intention is not to prevent films from being existing. Since the writers obviously can't think for themselves, I'm providing a list of acceptable substitutions so horror movies can be released on a regular basis.
1. decapitations (on screen)
2. self-mutilation (on screen)
3. castrations (on screen)
4. sodomy (on screen)
5. regurgitated guts (on screen)
6. drilling for brains (on screen)
There, now there can be no confusion as to what the fans want. No on to some other discoveries.
I found on-line the interview with The Locust by Jessica Hopper from 'Hit it or Quit it'. I talked about it in the previous post. Here is a quote form the interview: "Or a friend of ours saying that he thinks The Locust now makes it impossible for fat people to succeed in hardcore."
Also form 'Hit it or Quit it', an article in defense of watching wrestling.
The magazine Chunklet has a website. When I first picked this up I thought it was the most brilliant thing.
more to come... and let's hope that The Amityville Horror remake is free of all that generic crap listed above. The preview looked fairly decent.
