A Terror Time Out featuring 'The Revenant'

A zombie film that packs a bite, in more than one way.
4 out of 5 stars

Top 5 Cult Leaders in Horror Films You Probably Haven't Seen Yet #2

#2 Thomas Jane as Jim Jacobs in 'The Veil' (2016)

In kind of a unique take on the modern cult film, twenty-five years after members of a religious cult committed mass suicide, the lone survivor returns to the scene of the tragedy with a documentary crew in tow. Thomas Jane dominates the film as leader Jim. Jane rewrote most of his character's dialog to convert him from a fundamentalist Christian to an occultist. This works in so many ways as Jane seems to be chanelling Jim Jones and David Koresh, with elements of the rockstar Charles Manson. Its kinda like if Jim Morrison had a cult.

The Puppet Masters (1994) Classic Review

The Earth is invaded by alien "slugs" that ride on people's backs and control their minds.

Directed by Stuart Orme, written by Robert A. Heinlein (novel) and Ted Elliott (screenplay), and starring Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal, and Julie Warner.

On this episode of the X-files the pod people are replaced by stingray shaped slugs that crash to earth and become monkeys on peoples backs...

Actually I'll start by pointing out that The Puppet Masters full name includes the author of the scifi novel (Robert A. Heinlein) but how much of the films is actually based on inspired by the classic piece of work I'll leave up to Mike to explain in  Captain Creeper's Book Review.
“So what you're saying is, these slugs, are using us like puppets.”

… So basically what we have here is your basic alien invasion in which the alien in this case is a parasite that controls its human host in order propagate and eventually colonize the Earth. Not really anything new about the story idea, we've seen it many times over, but there are interesting parts to the story. As all the original alien invasion stories have done (including The Tingler though it may not actually be alien) it is the usual Cold War fears of the enemy within and amongst us, that looks like us, but isn't us. That's part of what makes this movie feel like something out of the 70's rather than the 90's. It just seems to me that our political atmosphere wasn't a good it. It's also why I imagine The Puppet Masters was template for what became the X-Files.

In the end, though, I will say that it is a good solid film with a lot of great actors playing the type of roles that they either have made or will make  their standard. Donald Sutherland is an obvious example. There is something really creepy and gross about the alien slugs, mabe it's the way they stab in you the neck with those pointy tongues. Ultimately, as far as alien invasion via taking over the population stories go it isn't bad, but will never be Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Alien. I especially enjoyed the hidden messages. Only one question puzzles me... slugs on your back can be addictive, like a monkey on your back. So what do you call it when there's a slug on a monkeys back?

Kristen Stewart's Acclaimed New Film Comes To Select Theaters March 10th!

Winner of the Best Director award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, PERSONAL SHOPPER stars Kristen Stewart as a high-fashion personal shopper to the stars who is also a spiritual medium. Grieving the recent death of her twin brother, she haunts his Paris home, determined to make contact with him.  Olivier Assayas, the internationally-acclaimed director of Clouds of Sils Maria and Summer Hours, returns with this ethereal and mysterious ghost story that has been acclaimed by critics as one of his very best films.

WATCH THE TRAILER

TV NEWS: Say farewell to Bates Motel...

A&E's Psycho prequel Bates Motel will come to an end with its fifth season. The news comes as little surprise as season four of the Carlton Cuse-Kerry Ehrin drama featured the death of Emmy nominee Vera Farmiga's Norma Bates, leaving Freddie Highmore free to go full Norman. And did we mention that Rihanna will take on Janet Leigh's legendary role of Marion Crane?

The fifth and final season of Bates Motel premiered on February 20, 2017. The season will consist of 10 episodes and airs on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on A&E.

AUSTRALIA’S MONSTER FEST ANNOUNCES TRAVELLING SIDESHOW

Sydney-based genre fans will get a taste of Monster Pictures’ annual Melbourne-based festival this March, thanks to a unique partnership with Australia’s largest cinema chain Event Cinemas to present The Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow, beginning at the prestigious George Street Cinema in Sydney March 9-11, 2017 with subsequent dates in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

The Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow will be a mix of horror-centric highlights from Monster Fest 2016 (see the archive of 2016 films and events HERE) and select premieres, including the Australian Premieres of Jordan Peele’s acclaimed racial horror GET OUT and the highly-anticipated all-female horror anthology XX (which is distributed in ANZ by Monster Fest parent company Monster Pictures), as well as the World Premiere of Nik Kacevski’s Sydney-made SKINFORD, with cast and crew in person for a hometown red carpet debut.

The 10-film touring satellite event will open on March 9th with the Sydney Premiere of Julia Ducournau’s controversial “Golden Monster”-winning feature debut RAW, about a young vegetarian whose dark urges are awakened after she is forced to undergo a carnivorous college hazing ritual. The fright-filled weekend will also include the hometown premiere of Sydney-made KILLING GROUND (fresh off raves at Sundance), Ben Wheatley’s explosively funny shootout actioner FREE FIRE, a new 4K restoration of Italo-horror maestro Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece SUSPIRIA, Sydney director Jai Love’s moving and morbid documentary DEAD HANDS DIG DEEP about the traumatized frontman of extreme metal band Kettle Cadaver, Nicholas Pesce’s gothic Sundance midnighter THE EYES OF MY MOTHER (which Rolling Stone called “curdled Americana at its most gruesome and brilliant”) and André Øvredal’s award-winning THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE, recently praised by none other than Stephen King himself, who called it “visceral horror to rival ALIEN and early Cronenberg” and warned: “Watch it, but not alone.”

Monster Fest Director Kier-La Janisse says the Sydney weekender will be just the first of many ‘Monster Fest Presents’ events to be mounted by Monster Pictures over the coming year. “This touring sidebar is an incredibly exciting initiative for us,” she says. “It’s always been Monster Pictures’ goal to bring the most pioneering and challenging new genre cinema to fans all over the country, and to create a wider platform for its appreciation.”

Tickets for The Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow are on sale now at:

Event Cinemas George Street
505-525 George St, Sydney Australia
+61 (0)2 9273 7300

https://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Cinema/George-Street/EventsFestivals/MonsterfestTravellingSideshow#cinemas=15

http://www.monsterfest.com.au/events/monster-fest-travelling-sideshow

Single Session Tickets: Adult $21 / Concession $17.50
5 Film Multi-Pass: Adult $82.50 / Concession $71.50
10 Film VIP Pass: Adult $132 / Concession $110

Within Madness: The Chapel Tapes is Coming!

From J. M. Stelly, writer and director of Within Madness, ABACUS, and The Doctor’s Apprentice along with LC Films and Anatomica Productions comes Within Madness: The Chapel Tapes. Set in the year 2006, Chapel Tapes is the story of Mark Chapel and Gregory Alexander. two friends who’s lust for slavery turns into a world of death and pain as told through the eyes of Gregory and the tapes they recorded with their friend Vaughn Neil.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

In 2006 a raid on a house belonging to a local artist, Vaughn Neil, somewhere in rural Louisiana, turned up over fifteen tapes depicting the horrible acts of two men, Mark Chapel and Gregory Alexander. During a one on one interview with Gregory, the police try to reconstruct the events of the last two years and how they used online resources to attract and entrap young females for their own personal and sexual deviance's. Known as The Chapel Tapes, the police are horrified to find out that what started out as merely underground porn and slave play soon turned into torture, rape and murder unlike anything they had ever seen and what’s worse is Mark Chapel has gone missing. Through these tapes, Gregory’s interview, and taped journals, we revisit this world of horror as the police try to figure out the next move of one of Louisiana’s most prolific killers.

Within Madness: The Chapel Tapes is inspired by the tapes of Leonard Lake and Charles Ng and takes you on a roller coaster ride straight into the world of a Hell rarely seen by the public but often studied by criminal investigators. The Chapel Tapes is a window into the violent existence and actions of two men their exquisite obsession with lust, pain, slavery and death.

Directed and Written by J. M. Stelly (Within Madness, ABACUS, The Doctor’s Apprentice) and stars Jared Bankens (Quarry, ABACUS) as Mark Chapel and Matt Story (Within Madness, ABACUS) as Gregory Alexander. Produced by J. M. Stelly, Chad Story (Within Madness, ABACUS) as Gregory Alexander. Produced by J. M. Stelly, Chad Armstrong (LC Films, Deimosimine) and Beau Chaney (Zipper, ABACUS).