The B-Movie Shelf

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long Company: Future Films Runtime: 96 mins Format: Imported DVD Plot: A group of film students go on a trek to investigate the true life mystery of nine Russian skiers who befell an unexplained death while skiing in the Russian mountains in 1959. To this day, their deaths have been one of the most bizarre unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. Review: The Dyatlov Pass Incident (Or simply Devil's Pass as it's been renamed in America according to IMDB ) is a fictional movie using real events for its backdrop. The real life event known as The Dyatlov Pass Incident is quite possibly one of the most spine-tingling, creepy, horrifying, and mysterious incidents to plaque the Fortean world, and to top it all off it still remains 100% completely unsolved to this very day. I first heard about the real-life event on an episode of the excellent Mysterious Universe podcast a couple years ago and instantly had to go online and read up on it as mu...

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long Company: Automatik Entertainment Runtime: 84 mins Format: DVD Plot: On July 4, 2009 a deadly menace swept through the quaint seaside town of Claridge, Maryland, but the harrowing story of what happened that Independence Day has never been told - until now. The authorities believed they had buried the truth about the tragedy, but a reporter has emerged with footage revealing the cover-up and an unimaginable killer: a mysterious parasitic outbreak. Told from the perspective of those who were there and saw what happened, The Bay unfolds over 24 hours though people's iPhones, Androids, 911 calls, webcams, and whatever else could be used to document the nightmare in Claridge . Review: I love found-footage horror movies, so I try to watch any and all new ones when they come out, but The Bay specifically I had been anticipating pretty heavily after hearing some excellent word of mouth on it out of last year's TIFF (Toronto International Film Fes...

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long Company:  The Asylum Runtime: 92 mins Format: Screener Plot: A struggling martial arts teacher must compete in an illegal underground fight ring in order to save his brother from a crime boss and reunite with his family. Review: Barrio Brawler (Or American Brawler as its actually called on Asylum's official website ) was among the recent screeners that Asylum sent me for review. It's due out in select theaters tonight (joining Hold Your Breath as being among the select rare Asylum flick to make it to theaters), and it's due out on DVD and BluRay at the end of August on the 27th. Now when it comes to B-Movies, it's no secret that my favorites are killer animals, Mega this vs Giant thats, mockbusters, and horror or sci-fi flicks, none of which this one is, so I was a bit out of my element with Barrio Brawler, but since Asylum was kind enough to forward me a copy of the screener, the least I could do was give it a shot and do up a ...

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long Company:  Zingraff Motion Pictures Runtime: 94 mins Format: Screener Plot: Mitch meets the beautiful and seductive Amy at a happy hour and begins a tantalizing romance. Before long, Mitch learns that nothing is as it appears and, unable to trust anyone, finds himself on a nightmarish roller coaster ride as he is accused of murder, and has to run from the law in addition to a mysterious stranger out to kill him. Review: Fatal Call was among the second group of screeners that MTI Home Video sent my way, and while at first I was a bit cautious of it (just because direct-to-video action movies tend to be a bit bland to me most of the time – I'm much more of a monster, killer animal, sci-fi, horror, or mockbuster kind of guy), I then saw who was starring in it – Danielle Harris, the beautiful and unbelievably hot horror scream queen that has been in countless horror flicks and always brings her A-game. That alone turned me right around on this one...

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long Company:  The Asylum Runtime: 88 mins Format: Screener Plot: When a freak hurricane hits Los Angeles, thousands of sharks have no trouble terrorizing the waterlogged populace, but then when the high-speed winds also form tornadoes, nature’s deadliest killer rules water, land, and air. Review: I know a lot of people love shark movies, but personally I'm just getting sick of them at this point, because the B-Movie genre is just getting over-saturated with them these last few years – they've become the easy go-to B-movie monster and I've gone on plenty of rants in the past about how we need to move away from them and give some other animals the spotlight. Luckily it seems that is finally starting to happen, seeing as how we've been getting plenty of good spider and dinosaur movies lately and a few less shark ones. Likewise, it's no secret that I'm just not a fan of Asylum's natural disaster movies. I give each one a shot, ...

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long Company: The Asylum Runtime: 85 mins Format: Screener Plot: When monsters suddenly appear from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, a special team of military deep-sea pilots must take control of giant robots to combat the new threat. Review: The Asylum is one of my favorite low budget production companies, as I've often said in plenty of my previous reviews. I had really high hopes for their line up of movies this year, especially after watching Age of Dinosaurs which I felt was their all-time best movie to date and can't gush about it enough. But then 100 Degrees Below Zero came around and I have to be honest in saying I really really did not care for that one much, and even though I had been anticipating AE: Apocalypse Earth quite a bit, that one too fell a bit short of expectations. It was still decent, but nowhere near as amazing as I had hoped it would be.  Which brings me to Atlantic Rim, Asylum's upcoming mockbuster of Guil...

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long Company: Recreator Labs   Runtime: 90 mins Format: Screener Plot: Three teenagers stumble upon a secret laboratory while on a camping trip and encounter superior clones of themselves. Duplicates; Doubles; Recreations; they are exact copies of Craig, Tracy and Derek, and the teenagers are no match for their physically stronger, faster, and all-around better selves. Their only hope is to outwit them and to escape before they are replaced. Review: Alongside a screener for Attack of the Herbals , I was also sent another screener by MTI Home Video for a movie they recently distributed here in The U.S and Canada titled Cloned: The Recreator Chronicles, a movie I had heard nothing about before seeing this screener, but was pretty excited to check out based on just the title alone - after all, I always love me some clone action! This one starts off with a group of fun-loving teens going camping in the woods one weekend and during a re...

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long Company:  Clear Focus   Runtime: 81 mins Format: Screener Plot: After years in exile, Jackson McGregor has returned to his grandparent's home in Lobster Cove, a small Scottish village where the daily routine consists of eating, sleeping, fishing... and drinking tea. After discovering a mysterious crate of herbal tea washed up on shore, Jackson, along with his friend Russell hatch a plan to sell the tea and save the village from a rich businessman. Unfortunately the tea given to the townspeople soon turns into a nightmare, and Jackson finds himself in a village of flesh-eating zombies. Review: MTI Home Video recently got in touch with me and offered to send some screeners my way for some of their films, and since I'm always on the lookout for more screener opportunities of course I accepted. The first one that came my way for review is for a movie I've actually heard a bit about in the past, but isn't one I really followed progres...