The Dog Farm's Pre'Ween 2014 Video On Demand Wishlist - Why Is It So Hard To Find A VOD Release Schedule?

      I'm an audio/video snob when I watch movies at home.  Given that I never see most of the movies I watch in a proper theater, I do my damnedest to insure that I'm seeing as good a presentation as possible.  I have a reasonably nice home theater set-up, so the bigger issue is usually poor picture and sound from the source.  That being the case, I don't watch many movies that I actually give a damn about seeing via streaming services.

     That is, I didn't until I recently treated myself to a new renderer.  At last the picture and sound quality - though still not as good as a pristine Blu-ray - is usually pretty solid.  I've been burning through loads of movies on Netflix recently, and when it came time to make my stack of movies for Pre'Ween this year I decided I'd try something new.  Rather than going the traditional route of spending way too much money on discs this October, I've chosen instead to watch most of this year's new releases via video-on-demand.  Now that so many genre movies see release on VOD before disc (and in many cases either prior to or concurrent with their theatrical runs), it seemed a good plan.

     What I didn't count on was just how difficult it would be to find release dates for upcoming VOD premieres.  While it's possible to find release dates piecemeal on a title-by-title basis, almost no one curates a complete release calendar.  The best I came across for genre movies was at The Horror Club, which the site's administrators do an admirable job of keeping updated.

     Since they're already doing a fine job of it, what follows is simply a truncated version of their release calendar encompassing only the upcoming releases I'm jonesin' to see.  Each entry offers a release date and key info, and you can click the movie's title to check out the trailer.  Please remember, what follows is only a list of movies that captured my attention.  I've not seen any of these movies yet, so don't mistake a title's inclusion as an endorsement.  I suspect many of these titles, as well as my thoughts about them after I actually watch, will turn up in this year's edition of Diary Of A Movie Watchin' Madman near the end of October.

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Motivational Growth (2013)
Available 9/30
Director: Don Thacker
Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Adrian DiGiovanni, Danielle Doetsch

     A depressed, reclusive thirty-something finds himself taking advice from a growth in his bathroom after a failed suicide attempt.  Is the growth helping the troubled man, or does it actually have less than altruistic motives?

     I can find almost no substantial information about Motivational Growth online save for a handful of early reviews that I'm determined to avoid until after I've seen it for myself.  All I do know is that horror icon Jeffrey Combs voices a sentient bathroom fungus in this dark and disturbing festival darling.  Honestly, though, that's all I need to know.  Shut up and take my money already.

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Open Windows (2014) 
Available 10/2
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Stars: Sasha Grey, Elijah Wood, Neil Maskell

      An actress refuses to have dinner with a fan who wins a date with her in a contest. The shunned fan is persuaded by a man posing as the star's campaign manager to begin keeping tabs on her from his computer.

     Nacho Vigalondo, director of the segment entitled Parallel Monsters in the upcoming V/H/S: Viral (see below), tackles his own full-length feature starring porn star Sasha Grey and budding horror icon Elijah Wood.  The hook here is that the story unfolds in real time, with the titular open windows referring to the open windows on a computer screen.  Early reviews have been harsh, but I'm intrigued by the concept as well as the casting.  

     And yes, I am familiar with Ms. Grey's other work.  Attention must be paid to any actress who goes from a starring role in Anal Artists (2012) to a starring role in an Oscar nominated director's mainstream horror movie in just two short years.

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Housebound (2014)
Available 10/17
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Stars: Morgana O'Reilly, Rima Ti Wiata, Glen-Paul Waru

     A young woman is forced to return to the house she grew up in when the court places her on home detention.  Does she have an overactive imagination, or is the house actually possessed by a hostile spirit who's less than happy about the new living arrangement?

     Housebound earned universal praise when it premiered at the SXSW festival in March, and it went on to claim the audience award at the Dead By Dawn festival in April.  New Zealanders have displayed a knack for comedic horror in the past, so let's hope Kiwi director/writer Gerard Johnstone's first feature film lives up to the hype.

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See No Evil 2 (2014)
Available 10/17
Director: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska
Stars: Glenn Jacobs, Danielle Harris, Katharine Isabelle

     A group of friends pays a late-night visit to the city morgue to surprise a morgue employee on her birthday.  The one-eyed corpse of a brutal psychopath unexpectedly rises from the slab and resumes his savage rampage using hooks, surgical knives, and power saws. 

     The first See No Evil (2006) could elicit only a shrug from me, and it seemed like it must have been a franchise non-starter given how long it took for talk of a sequel to materialize.  Then came the announcement that Jen and Sylvia Soska, hot off the success of the fantastic American Mary (2012), had signed on to direct See No Evil 2.  Suddenly I'm interested again.  

     Have the Soska sisters just taken the paycheck, or will they succeed in injecting some new life into the tale of Jacob Goodnight's ongoing killing spree?  The presence of genre stalwarts Danielle Harris and Katherine Isabelle in the cast seems encouraging.  The Soskas will either be credited with reviving what appeared to be a moribund horror franchise solely on the strength of their own prowess as filmmakers, or they'll ruin their well-deserved genre cred with one high profile flame-out.  No pressure, ladies. 

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V/H/S: Viral (2014)
Available 10/23
Director: Justin Benson, Gregg Bishop, Todd Lincoln, Aaron Moorhead, Marcel Sarmiento, Nacho Vigalondo
Stars: Lots of people - it's an anthology, man.

     This third entry in the successful series of horror anthologies follows fame-obsessed teens who unwittingly become stars of the next internet sensation.

     Is there still gas in the V/H/S tank?  New directorial talent for each successive entry keeps things fresh, but anthologies are notoriously hit-or-miss.  So far though the good has outweighed the bad, so the franchise earns at least one more look.  Never mind the fact that video cassettes don't go viral.

     This year's iteration offers segments featuring the story of a deranged illusionist who obtains a magical object of great power, a homemade machine that opens a door to a parallel world, teenage skaters that unwillingly become targets of a Mexican death cult ritual, and a sinister, shadowy organization that's tracking a serial killer.  That final segment, entitled Gorgeous Vortex and directed by Todd Lincoln, was not included in the movie's early screenings, and so it remains to be seen whether or not it will be included in the V/H/S: Viral VOD release. 

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[REC] 4: Apocalypse (2014)
Available: 10/31?
Director: Jaume Balaguero
Stars: Manuela Velasco, Ismael Fritschi, Maria Alfonsa Rosso

     A television reporter is rescued from the quarantined building featured in the franchise's first two entries and is taken to an oil tanker for examination.  The soldiers manning the tanker are unaware that she carries the seed of the mysterious demonic virus within her.

     Will [REC] 4: Apocalypse be available on VOD this Halloween?  Truth is, I don't really know.  The Horror Club says yes, but I've been unable to confirm that elsewhere.  The movie releases theatrically on October 31st in Spain, so...maybe?  I suppose the bigger question is whether or not we should even care after the hugely disappointing [REC] 3: Genesis.  It's a testament to just how good the first two entries are that they engendered enough goodwill to insure that I do.  

     Director Jaume Balaguero returns, as does the narrative thread that follows Manuela Velasco's traumatized television reporter Angela Vidal.  That's promising.  The found footage angle that made [REC] and [REC] 2 so viscerally compelling is still absent, though, so who knows?  Reviews from the premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival are encouraging, so I still maintain hope that this is a satisfying conclusion to the now somewhat tarnished franchise.  If [REC] 4 does, indeed, show up on VOD this Halloween, I'm there.

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     A handful of other titles caught my eye, as well:  The Houses October Built (2013) - available 10/10, The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) - available 10/16, Life After Beth (10/21) - available 10/21, and Horns (2013).  The Alexandre Aja directed Horns is listed as being available on VOD either 10/3 or 10/31 depending upon the source.

     EDIT 9/30 - It appears as though the VOD release date for Motivational Growth has been pushed back to 10/21, and  [REC] 4 has been removed entirely from the VOD release schedule at The Horror Club.

Barking at the Vacuum Cleaner - Phantasm Exhumed, Pre'Ween 2014, and My Second Podcast Guest Shot

     I had already prepared a post about Dustin McNeill's fantastic new book Phantasm Exhumed: The Unauthorized Companion about a week ago, but then the text mysteriously vanished.  The labels and the title remained, but it seemed as though the body of the post took a trip through the Spacegate.  Cue the Phantasm Theme as you contemplate that...

"Dude, where's my Phantasm post?"

     Random thought: how cool would the Phantasm Sentinel Spheres be in 3-D?  Hell, even the halls of a mausoleum would translate pretty well in three dimensions.  I'm not greedy, though.  Just get Phantasm V: Ravager to me before year's end and I'll be tickled to death.

     But now back to the topic at hand...  

     Phantasm Exhumed: The Unauthorized Companion is quite simply one of the finest books of its kind I've ever had the pleasure of reading.  Author Dustin McNeill is the proprietor of the Phantasm Archives as well as the moderator of the Phantasm Community forums, and his new book covering the entirety of the franchise was clearly a labor of love.  Just check out the bullet points below from the jacket copy for a preview of all the goodies buried within.

 • An Introduction by Angus Scrimm 
• Exhaustive coverage of the film productions 
• More than 250 rare photographs, many never-before-seen 
• Information on deleted scenes and script changes 
• Unprecedented insights into effects, props & set construction 
• Rare letters, memos and production artifacts 
• Excerpts from Angus Scrimm's 1977 set journals 
• Sections on Phantasm 1999, the remake and Phantasm Forever
• New details and photos from the upcoming Phantasm: Ravager! 
• Tips and tricks for better embalming (just kidding)


     Phantasm Exhumed: The Unauthorized Companion is deserving of a spot on any fan's bookshelf.  It's so detailed, well-researched, and enthusiastic that it might even convert a few non-fans.  My only complaint is that I would have liked to see this in a hardcover edition with a few of those 250 rare photographs in color.  The good news, though, is that the softcover edition keeps the price down to a modest $18.89 on Amazon, so there's no excuse not to order a copy for Pre'Ween.

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     Wait...what?  Pre'Ween has crept up on us again?  Why yes, it has.

     What is Pre'Ween, you may ask?  In simplest terms it's a month long celebration of Halloween, but there's more to it than that.  Take a moment to check out Ghoulish Gary Gatorbait And The Horrible Truth About Pre'Ween from last year's celebration for info about the origin of Pre'Ween, then check the link at the end of that post for a deeper examination by Carl at The Info Zombie.  You can also just click the Pre'Ween badge to the right to see a listing of all the posts - mine and Carl's - from 2013.

     We're planning on having some fun with Pre'Ween again this year, and I'll keep that badge link updated with all the new posts from this October.  It seems likely that Matt at Midnight Cinephile will be joining in this year, too.  If anyone else would like to participate, just let me know in the Comments below, or shoot me an email at brandonearly8888@gmail.com.

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     ...and speaking of The Info Zombie, Carl has graciously requested that I join him again for my second guest shot on The Info Zombie Podcast somewhere around the start of Pre'Ween.  In my first guest shot Carl and I discussed the Phantasm franchise.  Odd coincidence, huh?  I'm tellin' ya, it's that friggin' Spacegate swallowing its own tail.  I will, of course, be sure to mention the new episode here as soon as it becomes available.  Until then you can catch up on all of the recent episodes of Carl's podcast by visiting The Info Zombie website or downloading them for free from iTunes.

     I'm sure one topic of conversation on that upcoming episode will be why Carl never mentioned to me that he was about to publish his new book Defying A Diety: The Chronicles Of Harold Pringle.  Believe me, folks, if I ever actually publish anything, you will never hear the end of it.

     Defying A Diety is available now in a Kindle Edition from Amazon, so click the link above to add it to your cart!

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Demon Resurrection (2008) - The Dog Farm Wrestles Its Own Demons Regarding Movie Screener Reviews

     The indie horror movie Demon Resurrection (2008) first came to my attention by way of a review posted by Steven Shaw at Watching The Dead.  Steven's review piqued my interest, and I left a comment on his post expressing my desire to see the movie for myself.  I was surprised when shortly thereafter writer/director William Hopkins contacted me to offer a screener of Demon Resurrection for Movies At Dog Farm to review.  How could I possibly refuse a guy stumping for his own movie at a grassroots level, right?  Why would I?  Well, here's the rub...

     I made a choice early in the development of this website not to accept or review movie screeners.  I'm too lazy to keep up with solicitations, and I feel obliged if I honor one to honor them all.  There aren't that many, mind you, but enough that I can imagine spending a disproportionate amount of time feeling obliged to accommodate them.  Plenty of websites choose to promote new movies almost exclusively, and God bless 'em.  It's just not my thing.

      Also - and perhaps more importantly - I'm not qualified to review movies anyway.  I've never made a movie, I've never helped anyone make a movie, and I've never been on the set of a movie.  I've never even taken a class in film studies.  I'm not above sharing my unschooled opinion of the oldies, but I'm not comfortable with critically assessing the merits of a new release, particularly not an indie.  Ripping on thirty year old horror movies is one thing, but dumping all over a struggling filmmaker with my ill-informed evaluation of a project into which he only recently poured his heart and soul is another.

     Having established via this absurdly long-winded intro why I don't review movie screeners - and further, why I'm not really qualified to review movies at all - the time has come for me to review Demon Resurrection anyway.  You see, I got lucky.  I had difficulty getting the screener link to play on my PC's media streamer, and so I ultimately purchased a download of Demon Resurrection.  My reservations about reviewing a free screener were greatly diminished once I ponied up four bucks and became a paying customer.  Guess what?  It turns out all of my hand-wringing about accepting that screener and then feeling obliged to review with kid gloves was unnecessary.  I had a blast watching Demon Resurrection.

     I don't like tap dancing around spoiler territory, so I'm going to attempt instead to describe how viewing Demon Resurrection made me feel.  You see, Demon Resurrection took me back to a simpler time when low budget horror was content to just have fun with a premise.

     In this case, that premise revolves around a young woman named Grace (Alexis Golightly) who has unwittingly found herself ensnared in the machinations of a cult.  Lest I be misunderstood, Demon Resurrection has fun with this premise in the most sober, stone-faced fashion imaginable.  Low budget be damned, it makes you wait for the good stuff  - nudity, graphic violence, rubber monsters, magic -  while it laboriously sets the stage with an initial thirty minutes or so that doesn't quite avoid playing out like the exposition dump it is.

     Still, even at this stage one can't help but notice the professionalism underlying the delivery of that exposition.  Demon Resurrection looks like a real movie.  It was obviously made for pocket change, but it was made by a cast and crew that knows how to make the most of the resources available.  I've got almost no tolerance for the do it yourself  "we'll figure it out as we go" vibe that micro-budgeted movies often display.  I've got better things to do with my time than watch someone's home movies.  Thankfully, Demon Resurrection does a fine job of side-stepping that vibe by properly lighting, framing, and editing the obligatory exposition.  It's still dry as dust, but it's handsomely assembled.

     More importantly, though, Demon Resurrection ultimately delivers on the promise of the set-up.  Once it finally gets rolling, it's a non-stop gallop to the end.  The gory set pieces and choreographed action never lets up.  I was reminded of the first time I saw Evil Dead (1981), another movie that meanders a bit before finding its footing.  Demon Resurrection never quite reaches the hysterical highs of Evil Dead, but it's made with the same kind of creativity and ingenuity that shines through its limitations.

     I said earlier that I would describe how Demon Resurrection made me feel, and so I will.  It made me feel like a kid again, a horror loving kid still unsophisticated enough to look past the shortcomings as long as the movie ultimately delivers the goods.  Demon Resurrection delivers.  I felt as though I'd happened upon a particularly good late night horror flick on TNT MonsterVision.  I didn't keep track of the numbers for the obligatory Drive-In Totals,  but I'll guarantee Demon Resurrection has enough general Horror Fu on display to make it a worthy addition to your watch list.

     One final note: I've repeatedly referred to Demon Resurrection as a new release despite its 2008 production date.  Owing to what director Hopkins describes as "a less than entirely successful attempt at self-distribution", the movie is only now beginning to enjoy a wider release.  You can purchase Demon Resurrection on DVD at www.demonresurrection.com, or you can opt instead for instant gratification and get the download.

     Thanks, Mr. Hopkins, for sharing Demon Resurrection with me.  Though I still harbor reservations about accepting and reviewing screeners, I have no reservations whatsoever about recommending an entertaining movie.  Well done.  Just don't send more screeners.  I can't bear the pressure.

The Virtual Drive-In Selection For September Is Speeding Toward Us

     I've been so busy slacking lately that I let the Virtual Drive-In sneak up on me this month.  If I need to be reminded, then I'm sure everyone else does, too.  The selection for September is Paul Bartel's Death Race 2000 (1975), and you can click here for details on how to watch with us.

                Scheduled showtime is Saturday, September 5th at 9:30 pm Eastern Standard.

Scream (1996) And Scream Again - Movies At Dog Farm Commands It

     The horror genre had a hard row to hoe in the '90s.  Sure, there were good horror movies to be found, but you had to cast a pretty wide net.  In particular, mainstream horror releases were all but extinct by the end of the decade.  The horror genre has always been cyclical, but there's no debating that it was about as close to occupying its own pine box by the end of the 90's as it's ever been.  Then a funny thing happened - literally.  Aspiring screenwriter and horror buff Kevin Williamson wrote a script called Scary Movie that paid knowing homage to the threadbare conventions of the slasher movie genre.  His screenplay became the subject of a bidding war, and Miramax ultimately won said war.  Iconic horror movie director Wes Craven was persuaded to direct, a talented group of attractive young up-and-comers was cast, and Miramax brass decided to change the project's name to Scream (1996) at the eleventh hour to better reflect the nature of this unprecedented hybrid of horror and comedic satire.   

     Scream was released on December 20th, 1996 in a bold attempt to counter-program the typically family oriented Christmas season.  It seemed initially that the attempt had failed, as Scream opened to a relatively soft $6 million take and finished second behind Beavis And Butthead Do America.  That's when the funny thing happened.  Rather than falling off sharply in its second weekend of release - the historically proven norm for horror releases both then and now - Scream began to gather steam.  It's box office actually improved in its second week, and it continued to improve for several weeks thereafter.  When all was said and done, Scream worked its way to a total U.S. gross of over $100 million.  Not coincidentally, the long moribund horror genre finally came off life support at roughly the same time.

Ghostface trying to get the damned garage door opener to work in Scream (1996)

     If you don't think Scream almost single-handedly resuscitated the horror genre, you either weren't around at the time, or you weren't paying attention.  Scream is plagued by the same oddly horror-centric scenario as Halloween (1978).  Namely, it's a stunningly original and successful release that's remembered more for the scads of inferior copies it "inspired" than for its own considerable merit.  That's the price trailblazing horror movies often pay for doing something so indisputably right that all the hacks see only dollar signs.

     For reasons I've never fully understood, Scream is often derided by genre fans.  Is it the self-reflexive humor that prompts the abuse?  Maybe some serious horror fans just can't take a little good-natured ribbing at their own expense.  The clever, airtight script was clearly written from a place of love, so why the offense?  Scream is certainly more respectful of the genre it reverently mocks than dross like the seemingly never ending Scary Movie franchise that appropriated the name.

Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) losing a high stakes game of trivia in Scream (1996)

     Maybe Scream is maligned by taste-makers because it isn't scary.  Well, I call shenanigans on that.  The opening segment featuring Drew Barrymore's character Casey Becker being terrorized by the perversely playful Ghostface killer is still as effective a chunk of horror as the genre has ever produced.  The already savaged and dying Becker crawling unheard across the grass toward her still oblivious parents is chilling.  Director Craven doesn't pull any punches with the horrific elements of the script, and if you think otherwise then you owe it to yourself to revisit Scream.

     Scream revitalized a flagging horror genre when it needed it most, and hat's off for that.  It put a fresh spin on one of the most hackneyed and trivialized sub-genre's in horror.  It delivered a subversive blend of winking self-awareness without sacrificing the horror at the movie's core.  Best of all - in what I think is one of Scream's most overlooked accomplishments - it made us all give a damn about the good guys again instead of just rooting for them to be struck down by the masked killer.  I love the fact that different individuals don the mask in each successive entry, and it's the good guys that won't stay down rather than the bad guys.  David Arquette's stalwart  Deputy Dewey should rightfully have died several times throughout the course of the franchise, and yet he always shows up again for the next sequel.  And because we love the character, we allow it, just as we allow the bad guys like Michael, Jason, and Freddy to keep coming back even though we know better.  That completely flips the script, and the Scream franchise is the better for it.

     If it's been a while since you last watched Scream, do yourself a favor and pick up the first three movies on Blu-Ray.  They're packaged together in a single set that's only ten dollars at your local Target.  If your a completist, you can pick up Scream 4 (2011) for only five bucks more.  Seriously, where else are you gonna get that much entertainment for only fifteen bucks?  Turn down the lights, pop yourself some popcorn, and let yourself enjoy a horror movie again.

All Cheerleaders Die (2013) - The Dog Farm Gets Its Panties in a Twist

     So many horror movies revolve around teenagers, and as a viewer grows older it becomes increasingly difficult to relate.  Teens have a tendency to be overly dramatic and self-involved.  An ultimately inconsequential exchange often seems to have an import far out of proportion to its true significance.  Every social interaction has the potential to completely ruin a teen's life.  Social standing trumps all in the relatively uncomplicated hierarchy of high school.  Everyone has a role to fill, and only an elite few - the jocks and cheerleaders - get to set atop the pyramid of social relevancy.  The goths, metalheads, stoners, geeks, academics, loners, and outwardly awkward and unattractive kids make up the broad base of that pyramid upon which the privileged few rule from the pinnacle on high.

    Of course, the preceding is a somewhat inaccurate worldview.  High school is really more of an inverted pyramid wherein the majority of the kids feel disenfranchised and misunderstood, even those jocks and cheerleaders.  The true social pariahs, the kids with the real problems, are the ones beneath the narrow point of this inverted pyramid.  Sadly, those kids often end up crushed beneath its weight, unnoticed or unheard until they either collapse or erupt into violence that compromises the base of this unstable, top-heavy construction and has serious and far-reaching consequences for all.  Unfortunately it's often not until then, when the surviving teens are left to pick through the ruins and try to make sense of the tragedy, that they begin to understand what it means to really have problems. 

All cheerleaders...

     What does all this philosophical contemplation have to do with the new horror movie All Cheerleaders Die (2013)?  Not much, actually.  All Cheerleaders Die doesn't address these serious and weighty issues at all.  Should it?  Hell no.  It's a friggin B-movie.  It deals in the stereotypes that populate the high school social hierarchy as most teens imagine it, and that's as it should be.  It's an entertainment, for Pete's sake.  It's a horror/comedy that pretty much states its intent with its exploitative title.  No one expects a movie called All Cheerleaders Die to be a cinematic treatise about the tragedy of teen-on-teen violence.  My point is this: why does it seem so many reviewers have  taken this movie to task for not being more thematically profound or socially incisive when it plainly just wants to have a little fun rearranging the stereotypes that serve as the building blocks of so many teen horror movies?

     In particular, it seems many critics are disappointed that All Cheerleaders Die doesn't do more with the subversion of the gender objectification that's part and parcel of far too many genre movies.  All Cheerleaders Dies is so obviously intended first and foremost as an entertainment that I can't for the life of me understand why so many reviewers are determined to be disappointed or outraged that it isn't a full-bore feminist declaration.  Where does that expectation come from, and how is that any more reasonable an expectation than thinking such a movie would boast a serious examination of teen violence?

...one cheerleader...

     Even if, for argument's sake, that was one of the primary objectives of the filmmakers here - and to be fair, it may well have been* - then what All Cheerleaders Die accomplishes is arguably far more subversive and effective than what its critics seem to have expected of it, anyway.  Everyone knows that horror movies are targeted primarily at a young, male demographic, right?  Surely the promise of sex and violence implied by that blunt title will bring all the boys running.  If that doesn't, a few promotional stills of the undeniably attractive young female cast members will.

...a date-raping jackass...

     And what will those impressionable young boys find when they actually watch the movie?  They'll find a movie that tweaks their expectations by knowingly subverting them at almost every turn.  They'll find a movie that pokes fun at the way guys are conditioned by our gender-biased society at large - and horror movies in particular -  to see females only as victims or conquests.  They'll find a horror movie told from an almost entirely female perspective that cleverly forces them to identify with the female protagonists by depicting almost all of the male characters as violent, stupid, one dimensional, date-raping jackasses.  Most importantly, they'll find a movie that entertains them for ninety minutes - a sly spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down.  I think that's pretty good for a modest, low budget horror movie.

     If ever a male working in the horror genre has earned the benefit of the doubt insofar as his intended message regarding gender politics, it's co-writer/co-director Lucky McKee.  He presented us with the complex and believable female characterizations of The Woods (2006).  He challenged us with a bold and uncompromising tale of female objectification ultimately punished by violent retribution in The Woman (2011).  His directorial debut May (2001), the sublime and haunting story of a troubled young woman making increasingly desperate attempts to connect with the world around her, may just be one of the most touching female-centric narratives the genre has ever produced.  So how about everyone just calm the f**k down, not be quite so eager to hang the man in the village square, and recognize All Cheerleaders Die for what it is?

...and a dead cheerleader.

     All Cheerleaders Die is clearly the most blatantly commercial movie with which McKee has yet been involved, and kudos to both him and his co-writer/co-director Chris Sivertson (The Lost, 2006) for managing to make a popular entertainment that still manages to knowingly circumvent the conventions propagated by most other movies of its type.  Lest I be misunderstood, I don't mean to imply that All Cheerleaders Die is some kind of misunderstood masterpiece.  It's not.  It is, however, a rollicking bit of B-movie entertainment that kept me engaged throughout by flinging a little gore around, boasting better than average performances, and keeping me guessing from beginning to end.  It still manages to get in a few well placed jabs at the leering male gaze that dominates horror without being heavy handed about it, and it's not rife with the rampant misogyny that often characterizes the genre.  I think that should have been good enough for the high-minded critics who seem to have expected more.  All Cheerleaders Die isn't going to single-handedly alter anyone's views on gender inequality any more than it's going to ignite a serious discussion about the tragedy of teen violence, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to.

The Movies At Dog Farm Virtual Drive-In Won't Stay Down - Join Us For The Stuff (1985) This Month!

     The Movies At Dog Farm Virtual Drive-In is coming back this month just like a horror movie slasher that won't stay dead.  Click here for details on how to participate.  The selection for August is Larry Cohen's The Stuff (1985).   

                                                  Are you eating it . . . or is it eating you?

An FX head of Garrett Morris (I hope) in The Stuff (1985)

     Scheduled showtime is Sunday, August 10th at 8:30 pm Eastern Standard.  I'll open the Google Hangout at around 8:00 pm just in case anyone wants to chat for a while before the movie.  Don't wait until the last minute to sign up, since the hangout can only accommodate ten participants at once!