Expelled Grey Matter

The Cabin in the Woods was deconstruction of a number of well-worn horror tropes while Scream started an entire trend of self-referential slasher films.  In between those two came a plucky horror comedy called Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.  Somehow this slipped by me.  Horror from the 2000s - in fact, up to about the early 2010s - is some of the worst ever produced.  It was a time filled with bloodless PG-13 fright films and a handful that tried to carry on the legacy of Scream and just ended up being annoying. Behind the Mask is a bit different. Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel) is a budding supernatural killer.  The legend in the town of Glenn Echo is that Vernon was thought possessed by evil and, after killing his parents, was tossed from a cliff into a waterfall.  Since the body was never found it made the story ripe for urban legend.  The difference with Vernon, however, is that he has agreed to let a group of grad students led by Tayl...

It is always nice to see a series redeem itself and the  Predator franchise managed to do so with Prey .  Set in North America during the early years of the colonists' westward expansion it told the tale of a young Comanche woman encountering a Yautja on a hunting expedition to Earth.  It both explained where the gun came from in Predator 2 that was gifted to the cop after defeating the one hunting in Los Angeles as well as dragged the series out of the same quagmire the Alien franchise, which takes place in the same universe, was wallowing in.  There were some hints at where sequels would go at the end of the film, and they may someday be explored, but writer and director Dan Trachtenberg decided to go in a different direction.  Comic books and video games, as well as previous sequels, had explored the Yautja and hinted at their culture.  Up to this point, on film at least, all encounters had been from a human perspective.  This time around we get som...

Jaws must have struck some sort of nerve since low-budget studios kept trying to remake it throughout the 1970s even after ripping off Star Wars became more lucrative.  This trend even made its way to other countries, in this case Thailand.  Well, kind of South Korea as well.  Some scenes were reshot for the American market and, though made before Alligator , Crocodile was released in the U.S. a year later to cash in on that popular Jaws  homage.  Dr. Tony Akom (Nard Poowanai) has a good life with his wife Angela (Ni Tien) and daughter Anne. .  His friend John (Min Oo) is looking forward to getting married himself.  However, the world has different plans.  Atomic testing has led to violent storms and a giant crocodile terrorizing the rivers and lakes of Thailand.  After the crocodile kills his family Tony is distraught, but eventually plots revenge with the help of Tanaka (Kirk Warren), a mercenary type with a boat. Tony, John and Tanaka be...