Posts Tagged ‘m-1990s’

February 14th, 2019 Featured, Movies, Reviews No Comments »

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) Review

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Director: Anthony Hickox
Writer: Clive Barker, Peter Atkins
Year: 1992

The original Hellraiser left quite an impression on me. Not only was it creepy, but it had a powerful visual aesthetic that stands up today. Years ago I watched the sequel and didn’t care for it quite as much. Of course, there are still a zillion more Hellraiser movies out there. I finally decided to watch Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth during the Shudder Discord watch-along. It was… interesting.

I love Clive Barker’s concept of “bondage hell” quite a bit. As such, it was initially exciting to see a BDSM club as a main locale of the story. What kind of craziness would be conjured up in The Boiler Room? Well, there was quite a huge murder scene, but other than that, I couldn’t help but be a little let down. I just don’t enjoy the concept of a “good” pre-Pinhead guy existing and being able to contend with his hellish self.

Of course, that’s often the fall of a great horror movie franchise. Revealing a backstory for a character can go well or fall flat. I think the more that Pinhead is humanized, the less interesting he becomes as an antagonist. Fortunately the cenobites are still pretty cool in this movie – even if they become a lot more Terminator-esque. The guy with CDs jammed in his head is a personal favorite of mine.

It was certainly worth watching Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth once. I don’t think I’ll be watching it again anytime soon, though. With that said, I still have plans to eventually watch all the sequels.

January 31st, 2019 Featured, Movies, Reviews No Comments »

Fire in the Sky Review

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Director: Robert Lieberman
Writer: Tracy Tormé
Year: 1993

Why did I even watch Fire in the Sky? I think it was due to some folks at Giant Bomb offhandedly referencing how much it scared them when they were children. It had something to do with aliens. Abduction movies aren’t necessarily my forte, but I went ahead and watched it.

It’s such a droll film. Simply put, the group of protagonists never really exist as three-dimensional characters. We know they’re all loggers that work together. Maybe they’re friends. Or maybe they’re just co-workers. At least one of them has a family and another wants to be in a relationship. Beyond that, though, they’re nobodies to the viewer.

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When one guy gets abducted by aliens, I certainly didn’t care. Nor did it bother me when the townsfolk all turned against this group of average dudes. After all, when someone claims their friend was “abducted by aliens” you’d think they’re lying. The goal of Fire in the Sky intends to make viewers question whether or not they are murders or if they truly witnessed an abduction. But again, none of it intrigued me. The whole film moved along much too slowly.

The best – and likely most memorable – moment in the film is when we see a glimpse of our missing man in the alien spacecraft. These scenes prove incredibly haunting. They’re practically on the same level as an iconic scene depicted in A Clockwork Orange. Whoever devised these scenes deserves a lot of credit. Without them, absolutely nobody would remember Fire in the Sky.