DVD rentals

I rented a couple of horror movies recently, so I'll give them some quick mini-reviews.

First and foremost, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. The premise is that there's a new serial killer in town, in the vein of Freddy, Jason and Michael, and he is hiring a documentary team to film him preparing for the slaughter of some hapless teens. What it ends up being for at least the first two thirds of the film, is a rather hysterical satire on the slasher horror movie. Any cliche you can think of is broken down in this movie, to why the serial killers never get hurt and can always catch up with their prey, to how come so many of the victims die (because the killer has already prepared every inch of the site).

It's a rather brilliant look at the genre. However, for the final third, the movie becomes a typical slasher film, made only slightly more interesting by the fact that the victims know the killer's plan of action, and need to find a way out of it.

Still, this movie is a lot of fun, and if you like your Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween, then you will like this one.

Unfortunately, I also rented this movie called Perfect Creature. Humorously enough, the box proclaims it to be Children of Men meets Underworld. I can envision something like that I guess, but this movie was nothing like it.

Basically, in an alternate Earth, before Gregor Mendel, some guy created vampires through genetic manipulation. These vampires are smarter than us regular humans, and thus become our protectors and scientists and such. Flu is a major problem, and they are the main workers trying to find a vaccine for it. So as a result, it creates an interesting hierarchy, where vampires agree to protect and serve the humans so long as the humans donate their blood to feed the vampires. However, a vampire named Edgar is eventually infected with a new vampire disease that basically makes them go insane and turn into the more violent vampires we are familiar with from other movies.

Edgar goes on a rampage, infects humans to make them bloodthirsty crazy vampires, and kidnaps a woman, and the movie deteriorates into convention and boredom. The movie is left open to a sequel, but hopefully that won't happen.

The acting is laughably serious, with everyone whispering for the most part. The budget was small obviously, but above average camera work does a pretty good job of hiding the limitations that low budget brings.

Still, it was a rather pointless movie. It started out well enough and I liked the idea of the vampires being the humans' protectors and helpers, but it all had to break down and be lame.


What else... Black Sheep was another horror movie I've seen recently. It's basically a zombie movie if you replaced the zombies with sheep. But because they ARE sheep, and it's a well done funny horror movie, I have to recommend it.

Basically, some scientists are working with gene therapy to create amazing sheep breeds, but they end up creating flesh eating sheep instead and all hell breaks loose.