The B-Movie Shelf

Former Sergeant Barnes becomes head of security for Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate targeted for death on the annual Purge night due to her vow to eliminate the Purge.  REVIEW: After the claustrophobic home invasion first Purge movie and the fantastic world-building insane sequel , The Purge: Election Year is unfortunately my least favorite in the series. I still enjoyed it, but it's the one I can see myself rewatching the least. It's pretty much just the exact same movie as the second one, with a lot of the same types of characters and even subplots to it, just with a political spin added into the mix. What I loved most about the first movie going into the second is that each of those had a different feel and tone to them, making each one feel unique from each other, where-as this just feels like The Purge: Anarchy, Part 2. Granted, the new masks are still creepy, the death scenes still quite fun and inventive, and the political...

Three groups of people intertwine and are left stranded in the streets on the annual Purge Night, trying to survive the chaos and violence that occurs during the deadly 12-hour period. REVIEW: After the claustrophobic, personal, home invasion first Purge movie , the sequel, The Purge: Anarchy, opens up to show us the world at large during the annual Purge, having us follow multiple groups of people that get stuck out in the thick of it, in the streets, during Purge night and must team up and work together to get to safety and survive the night. And holy Jesus Christ, this movie is insane . This is the movie most people wanted the first one to be, and while I was perfectly fine with the smaller home invasion aspect of the first movie to start out, I'm glad we got this much bigger, much more insane, world building story for the sequel. Everything about this is just crazy and wild, and you'll find yourself saying 'Holy Shit.... ' multiple t...

A wealthy family are held hostage inside their own home for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period, once a year, in which any and all crime is legal. REVIEW: I know a lot of people hate the first movie in The Purge series, but personally I really love it. It's an original horror movie (which is rare these days), a nd even though it's *just* a home invasion type flick, which I know is why most people don't like it, I love home invasion type flicks so that aspect didn't bother me at all. Plus it's a home invasion type flick with a fresh and unique background to the story, that being the entire idea of the Purge itself. The movie also had a great sense of atmosphere about it, and the director did a great job with mixing that atmosphere with tension as the movie went on. I know I definitely jumped a couple times throughout, and that's rare these days. Sure, th...

As Abraham Lincoln labors over the Gettysburg address, the importance of which he is fully aware, he learns that a menace from his past has returned, threatening to tear the already fractured nation to pieces. He must journey behind enemy lines to face an foe far more fearsome than the Confederate army: the walking dead. REVIEW: The Asylum is normally a pretty solid source of fun, campy, entertaining low budget B-Movies and Mockbusters (low budget rip-offs of big budget theatrical movies), to the point where they're actually my favorite low budget company, and Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies, their obvious mockbuster on the much-more popular Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is no exception. Actually, if anything, this was one of Asylum's best efforts at the time of release in 2012; It has great gore, exciting well-shot action scenes, realistic-looking set pieces and locations for the time period it was set in, above-average acting by their standards, catchy mus...

"Found Footage" of a lost military expedition to the jungle that spends several days under attack by an unknown extraterrestrial force, eventually coming to a discovery that exposes the shocking origins of life on earth. REVIEW: As far as Found Footage movies by The Asylum goes, Alien Origin from 2012 is probably their best one, although it’s still far from perfect. This one is surprisingly well-acted, and where almost every other Asylum-made Found Footage movie takes place in a single house or building, this one is wide open with quite a large scope spanning a town/military base, jungles, cave systems, half-crumbled Mayan temples, and more. I really loved the visual variety to the set pieces. I also really enjoyed the uneasy creepy feeling and tension they portrayed quite well whenever there was a quick glimpse of the UFO, or when they find the skeletal remains of an alien in the caves. My one big complaint though, and it does bring the score down for me...

Rehaan and Shaina are newly married and Rehaan gets a job offer in Romania, After moving and while on a business trip, Rehan receives a frantic call from Shaina requesting help as she is trapped in telephone booth in a rural area where she had gone to seek help on paranormal activities happening around her. Shaina and Rehaan take the help of a local Priest but he can't help them much as the evil spirit is just too powerful. REVIEW: Raaz Reboot is the fourth entry in a long-running Bollywood horror franchise, of which I've reviewed the first three already here , here , and here . Although why they call it a 'reboot' instead of just Part 4 I have no idea, since this entire series is more like an anthology - each movie is totally stand-alone and has nothing at all to do with one another other than a couple of actors returning to play new roles, so every entry is technically a ‘reboot’. This newest one is, unfortunately, the low point of the series. The s...

An obsessed scientist conducts profane experiments in evolution, eventually establishing himself as the self-styled demigod to a race of mutated, half-human abominations.  REVIEW: The Island of Lost Souls from 1932 is, I think, the earliest adaptation of the novel 'The Island of Dr. Moreau'. If you've seen any of the other movie versions, or even that one episode of Sliders from its third season, then you already know what to expect, as it's very similar, but with two small differences - this version doesn't focus on the genetic monsters as much as you'd think, and there's an interesting side plot where the main character's girlfriend, back on the mainland, launches an investigation to find out what happened to him at sea, and she ends up finding the island and taking a crew there to look for her lost boyfriend. It was a nice addition that none of the other versions have. The acting is all great from everyone, with horror legend B...

Two parents do what it takes to keep their children safe in an apocalyptic world overrun by creatures that hunt every sound they can hear. Not a single sound can be made by the family hiding in silence, if they wish to survive. REVIEW: A Quiet Place is easily my favorite horror movie of 2018 so far. The movie starts off with a bang and hardly lets up for the entire runtime, making it zoom by at a great pace, most of which is spent putting you on the edge of your seat the entire time, like an amusement park ride. Horror movies very rarely make me jump anymore, but there were several times during this one I just about came out of my skin. This movie also has a great deal of heart in it as well, making you genuinely care for this family and what happens to them. My only complaint really is with the CGI of the monsters. A couple shots looked ok but for the most part, especially the close-ups, they honestly didn't look much better than SyFy level, which is fine for...

A doctor and his wife move to a small inhospitable fishing village where he plans to start a practice only to discover that for seven nights every seven years, the undead demon-worshiping Templar Knights rise to seek sacrificial offerings in return for the safety of the townspeople. REVIEW: Night of the Seagulls is the 4th and final movie in the classic Blind Dead saga ( Tombs of the Blind Dead , Return of the Evil Dead , and The Ghost Galleon ). This one is, at the very least, a step up from the previous movie. This one has a pretty interesting story to it that never reached the levels of boredom or pointlessness that the previous movie did, and it has likable lead characters, so it at least has that going for it. Unfortunately, this movie is not made well, at all. Most of the movie takes place during night time scenes...except for every night time scene in the movie, the director used Day-for-Night, so even though it's supposed to be midnight, it looks no diff...