Saturday, May 4, 2024

The Crazies, 2010

The Crazies is a 2010 American horror film directed by Breck Eisner from a screenplay from Scott Kosar and Ray Wright. The film is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name and stars Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson and Danielle Panabaker. George A. Romero, who wrote and directed the original, served as an executive producer. It is about a fictional Iowa town that becomes afflicted by a biological agent that turns those infected into violent killers.



TRAILER



PLOT

In the town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, resident Rory interrupts a local baseball game, entering the outfield with a shotgun. Sheriff David Dutton attempts to dissuade Rory but is forced to kill him when he raises his weapon. David's wife Judy, the community doctor, notices another resident, Bill, exhibiting bizarre behaviour, including lifeless and repetitive speech. That night, Bill locks his wife and son inside their farmhouse and burns it down.



Following the discovery of a pilot's corpse in a swamp, David and his deputy Russell investigate the area. They discover a military aircraft that crashed into the river a few days before. Suspecting a link between the contaminated water and the residents' bizarre behaviour, David urges Mayor Hobbs to shut off the town's drinking water supply. Hobbs refuses to authorize him, but David does so anyway. Responding to a disturbance at the morgue, David is attacked by the infected pathologist whom he kills with an electric saw and is then saved by Russell.


Soon after, all communication services are cut off and soldiers arrive to quarantine all residents at the local high school. The residents are examined for symptoms of infection. Due to her pregnancy, Judy has an elevated temperature, is flagged as infected, and separated from David. Escaping quarantine, David returns to his office, encountering Russell. The pair head for the school to free Judy. At the school, the military personnel are unable to contain the perimeter and evacuate, abandoning the civilians. Judy wakes up strapped to a gurney alongside several others. An infected enters with a pitchfork and begins killing the helplessly strapped people. David and Russell arrive in time to save Judy and Becca, her assistant.


The four make their way out of town on foot and witness soldiers killing Becca's boyfriend Scotty and his mother, then burn their bodies. David subdues a soldier and learns that the military has been ordered to shoot all civilians. They make it to David's house and begin fixing the patrol car in his garage. David enters his house and is ambushed by Rory's infected wife Peggy and son Curt. David kills Peggy, and Russell shoots Curt through a window. Russell enters the room and shoots the pair's corpses multiple times, disturbing Judy.

David, Judy, Becca, and Russell flee in a car. On the road, they are spotted by an attack helicopter and drive into a car wash for cover. The infected carwash employees attack the car and drag Becca out by the neck with a hose, breaking her neck. When the rest of the group leaves the car to help Becca, the helicopter destroys the car.

While walking down the road, the group spots a black SUV speeding, which Russell disables with a police spike strip. The driver, a government employee, reveals that the cargo plane contained a Rhabdoviridae prototype and biological weapon called Trixie. It was in route to Texas to be destroyed when the plane crashed. Enraged, Russell shoots and threatens the Duttons. David confronts him about his behaviour, and Russell realizes he is infected. Russell begs to continue with them. At a military roadblock, Russell distracts the soldiers and is killed, allowing the Duttons to sneak past.

David and Judy arrive at a truck stop to search for a vehicle, discovering that the military has also executed those who were evacuated. After killing more infected, they escape in a semi-truck. As they drive away, a massive explosion destroys Ogden Marsh and disables their truck, forcing them to continue on foot. A view from a military satellite highlights the couple and then the city, and the words "Initiate containment protocol" appear.

A Cedar Rapids newscaster reports on the explosion in Ogden Marsh, stating a perimeter has been set and civilians are not being allowed into the area. An infected person appears on camera before the signal is lost.

Rating: 10 Stars

The Possession of Hannah Grace, 2018

The Possession of Hannah Grace (also known in some countries as Cadaver) is a 2018 American supernatural horror thriller film directed by Diederik van Rooijen and written by Brian Sieve. It stars Shay Mitchell, Kirby Johnson, Stana Katic, Grey Damon and Nick Thune, and follows a former policewoman who encounters the supernatural while working in a morgue.




TRAILER





During an exorcism ritual, the possessed Hannah Grace almost kills the priest by choking him while suspended in mid-air. Her father, Grainger, then suffocates her to death using a pillow. As her father sobs over her dead body, a fly lands on her hand and it twitches ominously.



Three months later, Megan Reed, an ex-cop with the Boston Police Department struggles with depression and an addiction to pills after her patrol partner was shot dead by a criminal whom she failed to subdue. Megan's friend Lisa Roberts finds her a nightshift job in the Boston Metro Hospital's morgue, located in an intimidating brutalist architecture building (portrayed by Boston City Hall). During Megan's second shift, a man (later identified as Grainger) aggressively tries to convince her to let him into the building, but she denies him and informs the two security guards Ernie Gainor and Dave. However, shortly after, Megan helps EMT Randy to move the corpse of a brutally murdered young woman (later identified as the one of Hannah Grace) into the building and the man secretly enters. Randy tells Megan a man stabbed Hannah to death and was then caught in the act trying to burn her body in an alleyway.



When Megan tries to fingerprint and photograph Hannah's corpse, the camera explodes and the fingerprints return as illegible by the computer. Other strange things occur and Megan becomes more suspicious of the corpse. Megan soon encounters Grainger trying to drag Hannah's corpse through the building. Alongside Ernie and Dave, Megan manages to subdue Grainger. The latter screams Hannah's corpse must be burnt because she isn't really dead, but they do not listen to him and have him arrested by the police.



Megan's ex-boyfriend, Andrew Kurtz, is still employed as an officer and responds to the scene. He agrees to help Megan identify the corpse. Soon after, Andrew tells Megan that Hannah Grace had died three months earlier and asked Megan whether the given finger prints was Hannah's. Megan confirms this, and Andrew thinks maybe there is some error in the computer data. Meanwhile, Hannah kills Dave by telekinetically lifting him across the ceiling and into her refrigerated drawer in the morgue where she breaks his body. Soon after, Megan notices that some of the wounds on Hannah are missing, as if it had healed by itself. Investigating the security footage, Megan sees a glimpse of Hannah's corpse crawling around in the building. She shows the footage to Lisa, who does not believe her and accuses her of having a relapse on her addiction to pills. Lisa is killed by Hannah soon after. When Randy returns to the morgue to deliver another corpse, Megan shows Randy the healing body of Hannah.




After Randy leaves the morgue, Megan notices that the lift closes by itself and is going down. Megan investigates the security footage and sees a glimpse of Hannah's body crawling inside the lift. She rushes down to the access bay to warn Randy, but Hannah has already killed him. Suddenly, Andrew calls Megan to warn her that Grainger has escaped police custody after killing the two officers transporting him. Moments later, Grainger forces Megan to take him to Hannah's body at gunpoint. Grainger explains to Megan that he is Hannah's father. He tells her that numerous exorcisms failed because the demon possessing her was too strong, and that it is able to possess Hannah's body after her death by killing people to heal itself. He tells her that Hannah had depression and it worsened until the demon was able to enter Hannah's body. The blue eye colour is the sign of the demon possessing Hannah. Grainger wonders why Hannah killed Dave and Lisa, but did not kill Megan. Megan agrees to help Grainger cremate Hannah, but she reanimates and pushes Grainger into the fire. Then she locks Megan inside her refrigerated drawer.

Andrew and Ernie come to Megan's aid. Hannah kills Ernie and then tries to kill Andrew, but Megan forces herself to be calm. She picks up Andrew's firearm and shoots Hannah, then drags her to the crematorium while Andrew calls for backup. After a brief struggle before the incinerator, Megan pushes Hannah into the fire.

Megan recounts how she has managed to stay clean for over two months. As she looks into the mirror at her reflection, a fly lands on the mirror's surface. Megan smashes it with her hand.

Rating: 10 Stars

October Faction, 2020

October Faction is an American supernatural drama television series created by Damian Kindler, based on the comic series of the same name by Steve Niles and Damien Worm. It premiered on Netflix on January 23, 2020. The series stars Tamara Taylor, J. C. MacKenzie, Aurora Dawson-Hunte, Gabriel Darku, Wendy Crewson, Megan Follows and Stephen McHattie. In March 2020, the series was canceled after one season. 




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PLOT

October Faction follows the story of a monster-hunting couple, Fred and Deloris Allen, and their twin teenage children, Geoff and Viv. Following the death of Fred's father Samuel, the family decides to go back to their home town Barrington-on-Hudson, in New York, to arrange the funeral. Haunted with childhood memories of his brother's death and the incessant arguments with his parents over his inadequacy and his choice in women, Fred is repulsed by his childhood home. The children soon begin showing supernatural tendencies. During an Impromptu session Viv has visions of a creature with long hair chained to the seafloor, struggling to free itself. Her brother Geoff accidentally reveals a teacher's deepest, darkest secret about his wife in front of his classmates. Both are ridiculed by the popular cliques for being outsiders.




Fred and Deloris are members of Presidio, a secret organization tasked to protect humanity from various breeds of monsters. They must hide their identities from the townsfolk and appear to live a normal life. This proves hard from the start as strange things begin to unfold in the sleepy little town.

Rating: 10 Stars

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

I Woke Up a Vampire, 2023/2024

“I Woke Up a Vampire” is a delightful fantasy comedy television series available on the Family Channel and Netflix. Netflix split up the first season into two halves. The first released on October 18, 2023 and the second half (released as season 2) released on April 4, 2024.

Let’s dive into the intriguing premise:

On her 13th birthday, Carmie Henley receives an unexpected revelation: she’s not just an ordinary human. Instead, she discovers that she’s half human and half vampire. To complicate matters further, she possesses mythical powers that make navigating middle school even more challenging.

Guided by her comic nerd best friend, Kev, Carmie embarks on a journey of self-discovery. As a Vampling (a hybrid of human and vampire), she grapples with questions about her identity, origins, and the complexities of adolescence. All this while juggling puberty, participating in the middle school musical, and evading a persistent Van Helsing.

The show combines elements of supernatural fantasy, humor, and relatable teenage experiences. So, if you’re up for an entertaining blend of mythical powers and middle school drama, give “I Woke Up a Vampire” a watch! 


i woke up a vampire poster

TRAILER



Dylan and Gorgon

CAST


Kaileen Angelic Chang as Carmela "Carmie". Henley, a blended Vampling (half vampire half human).
Niko Ceci as Kev Gardner, Carmie's friend.
Zebastin Borjeau as Dylan Hesling, a hunter who work for The Collector in season 1.
Kris Siddiqi as The Collector, a mystic gorgon.
Jayd Deroche as Aiden Henley, Carmie's adoptive brother.
Delia Lisette Chambers as Jayden Henley, Carmie's adoptive sister.
Aaliyah Cinello as Madison Spencer, a blended werewolf.
Charlotte Legult as The Shapeshifter, a vampire who is Carmie's biological mother. 
Will Coombs as Tristan, a cunning warrior fairy who appears in Season 2. He despises and wants to eradicate the human race.

Rating: 10 Stars

Outlaw King, 2018

Outlaw King is a 2018 historical action drama film, co-written, produced, and directed by David Mackenzie. Chris Pine stars as Scottish kin...