The B-Movie Shelf

Laurie Strode confronts her long-time foe Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago. REVIEW: As a huge fan of the Halloween franchise since I first started getting into horror in the late 90s, I was looking forward to this revival movie. Sure, I may find the Nightmare on Elm Street movies and Friday the 13th movies more ' fun' , but Halloween was always my personal favorite horror franchise as a teen. I knew I wasn't going to be overly disappointed because, quite simply, even with a worst-case scenario there was no way it could be as bad as some of the worst entries in the series previously (Halloween: Resurrection and Rob Zombie's Halloween II), and even those ones I managed to find some redeeming qualities. Luckily I loved the hell out of this. No, it's not perfect. I do have a handful of issues with it, although only one is a major issue (and it's a s...

America's third political party, the New Founding Fathers of America, comes to power and conducts an experiment: no laws for 12 hours on Staten Island. No one has to stay on the island, but $5,000 is given to anyone who does. REVIEW: I enjoy all the Purge movies, so The First Purge was no different. However, that's also part of the problem. After the first three movies , when you have a prequel explaining the beginnings of something, I tend to want a bit 'different' in there and for the most part this one was the exact same as all the others, and it doesn't really do anything different enough to warrant it being a prequel. It doesn't really explore anything that the other movies didn't explore, and it doesn't really show us anything that we havn't already seen done in the other movies. Also, the final 15 minutes or so is just a by-the-numbers boringly-shot shoot-out in an apartment complex between our main characters and a Gover...

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...

A harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when something supernatural begins to punish those who tell a lie or refuse the dare.  REVIEW: I quite honestly don't have really anything to say on Truth or Dare, the latest teen-aimed horror flick by Blumhouse. This truly is one stupid ass, silly, laughable movie. But god damnit I had fun. It’s nothing I’d recommend to a serious horror fan above the age of 14, and it’s filled to the brim with laughably bad moments, but it held my attention for the entire runtime, and it actually used some legitimately interesting ideas at times, including some moments that will remind any horror fan worth a damn of the Final Destination movies, which is always a fun time for me.  If action movies can have a sub-classification of ‘silly mindless popcorn summer movie’, this is exactly what the horror version of that would be. Despite its rampant stupidity, I enjoyed myself, so sue me.  6/10 rooms in the ...

Three young conspiracy theorists attempt to uncover the mysteries of Area 51, the government's secret location rumored to have hosted encounters with alien beings. What they find at this hidden facility exposes unimaginable secrets.   REVIEW: Oren Peli should be a familiar name to most people reading this review. He’s the mastermind behind the Found Footage frightfest that is the original Paranormal Activity, in addition to the short-lived but fun ABC Channel Found Footage horror TV show The River, and the god-awful Chernobyl Diaries. Back in 2009, shortly after the first Paranormal Activity came out in a wide release, Oren Peli set to work on another similar type of movie, only instead of covering a haunted house and the demon-tormented couple living in it, this new movie, the generically-titled Area 51, followed a group of teenagers that, after one has an abduction experience, decide that they’re going to sneak into the top secret and heavily-guarded Area 51 ...