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Review: "Autopsy"

"Autopsy" was one of the selections in last years After Dark Horrorfest collection brought to home video. Being backlogged in my home library viewing and wanting to keep within the Halloween season, I decided to give the disc a spin.

The story revolves around a group of twenty something friends celebrating the Mardi Gras festivities and then embarking on a road trip only to find themselves in an accident on a lonely country road. Miraculously an ambulance happens by, searching for a lost patient, and offers to take the group in for observation and to call for a tow. Mayhem ensues as the group is hunted down, tortured and offed one by one, by the sadistic skeleton crew at Mercy Hospital. Your standard psychotic doctor scenario.

I want to start off by saying that this film had so much promise, I mean the atmosphere alone grabbed me from the beginning, but then it went downhill. The acting was over the top, most characters were shallow and self-centered, so I didn't care about their demise. Our doomed gang seemed to be roaming and running down the same two halls, shot at different angles. I might as well have been watching an episode of the "Flintstones" watching the same scenery going by as Fred ran through his house. All that aside, and on a positive note, the film does star Robert Patrick ("Terminator 2: Judgement Day") and reunited co-star Jenette Goldstein ("Terminator 2: Judgement Day", "Aliens") as the psychotic doctor and his ruthless nurse. The film does offer us some juicy...and I mean juicy, gore. Innards are literally strewn all about as our group fights to stay intact.

All in all, I enjoyed the "T2" reunion, of sorts, and it's definitely great fun for the gore hounds in all of us.

Ghost House Underground 2009

This years Halloween season will be filled with more goodies courtesy of Ghost House Underground. In the same tradition as the After Dark Horrorfest, Ghost House Underground is in it's second year of releasing their brand of horror flicks.

Last years debut of Ghost House Underground's releases were more numerous, albeit inferior to After Dark's offerings, they have taken the jump forward into the age of blu, but with a scaled back release schedule to just four discs. This years titles include "Seventh Moon" (Eduardo Sanchez, "The Blair Witch Project"), "The Children", "Offspring" and "The Thaw" (starring Val Kilmer). I am eager to see if After Dark follows suit and releases this years films in glorious high definition.

All four discs are available at your local retailer and are truly a promising start to this years Halloween viewing schedule.

Go Broncos!

Demand "Paranormal Activity" in Your City

Review: "Pandorum"

Redemption at last! Lately I've endured the most insipid cineplex experiences and today that streak has come to it's conclusion. In dire need of a truly spectacular sci-fi adventure, I purchased my ticket hoping for the prime experience I've been denied. "Pandorum" offered a bevy of visual delights and incessant distress, beyond any conceivable notion of my own.

Aboard a desolate spaceship, whose destination is another habitable planet after Earth is depleted of it's natural resources, two flight crew members wake from a lengthy hyper-sleep to find themselves alone and without an inkling of who they are or of their mission operative. In a desperate attempt to keep themselves alive Bowen (Ben Foster) strikes out in an attempt to reset the core reactor to prevent the obliteration of their existence, or the extinction of the human race. Bowen is thwarted in his attempts to reach the reactor by mutated beings he must learn to evade at all costs. Keen on killing all the incubated human cargo, the mutants systematically bait the small band of fighters that Bowen has discovered. The journey is perilous and fraught with spine tingling chills.

"Pandorum" reminded me of a cross between "Aliens" meets "Event Horizon" meets "Supernova". Regardless of the similarities to the aforementioned films, "Pandorum" does stand on it's own merit. I found the film fresh and captivating while the storyline unfolds nicely with extremely well paced development. I felt the desperation and urgency. Ben Foster carries the film and is superb in every aspect.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10 stars, extremely entertaining and a suspenseful thrill ride, not to mention the shocking twist. "Pandorum" is definitely among my top sci-fi films of all time.