Coming Soon: Zombeavers

gotta love that tagline

Just when you thought everything had been done in horror movies Zombeavers comes along. We've seen killer sharks, bears, snakes, alligators, monkeys and even sheep. Now add beavers to the list. It's going to play as a horror-comedy and feature some good 'ol practical effects for the beavers. It's currently playing at the Film4 Frightfest in the UK and hopefully will have a home release before too long. Check out the trailer below. What do you think??

Coming Soon: Sabrina the Teenage Witch Re-imagined

Sabrina's got a new look again!!

Following in the footsteps of the highly successful Afterlife with Archie Archie comics has revealed a similar re-imagining for Sabrina the Teenage Witch. This isn't the first time Sabrina has had a makeover as she's had a live action T.V. show, low budget cartoon and manga comic among others. The new series will start in September and tell a new darker origin of Riverdale's young witch. Written by Afterlife with Archie's Roberto Aguierre-Sacasa and illustrated by Robert Hack and Jack Morelli it looks promising and hopefully Archie Comics has another hit on their hands.

For more info visit the  Archie Comics Blog by clicking here

Coming Soon: Escape Dead Island for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

According to gaming website Polygon, Deep Silver will be releasing another Dead Island game. No, not Dead Island 2 that's due in 2015, but a last gen $40 release of a third person mystery/survival game called Escape Dead Island.

It's being developed by Fatshark (Bionic Commando Rearmed 2), is single player only, and is due this fall. While the game looks pretty interesting it looks more like a downloadable title than a $40 one.

For more info visit Polygon's website by clicking here

Just Watched: Hatchet (2006)

Victory Crowley is intentionally cheesy and looks like an 80's killer 

Slashers took the world of horror movies by storm in the 1980's. At some points there were new ones coming out on a weekly basis, but by the end of the decade the sub-genre had died off almost entirely and was barely heard from for much of the next decade. In 2006 director Adam Green wanted to bring back the feeling those movies gave fans with his slasher Hatchet.

With cameos and parts going to Tony "Candyman" Todd, Kane "Jason" Hodder, and Robert "Freddy" Englund, heavy use of practical effects over computer effects and a villain who looked like an 80's type of killer, Hatchet seemed posed to take a spot alongside the best in the sub-genre. This movie tells the story of a group of people who go on a swamp tour that winds up ending badly. They end up in Victor Crowley's territory and he starts murdering them one by one, just like the classics.

This is one of the scenes that was actually funny

Despite all this and being promoted as "old school American horror" Hatchet fails miserably at reaching it's goals and although there are far worse horror films out there there are very few that are as disappointing as this one. The problem is that many elements that made the classic slashers great are absent: there's no atmosphere, tension, creepiness, scariness or memorable soundtrack. Basically what we have is a gore-comedy, it's got the practical effects and villain of an 80's slasher but nothing else. If it resembles anything from the 80's it's more like the slashers near the end of the decade that threw away the horror elements for comedy and over the top characters.

And while the comedy works well sometimes, more often than not it doesn't. Instead of making a horror movie with humour dispersed throughout they basically wrapped kills around a comedy. What we're left with are far too many moments where the movie comes to a complete stop just to try and make the audience laugh. This works fine when it's funny but really hurts the film when it's not. Some of the characters, especially the two dumb women, are really annoying unless you love blonde joke type of humour. If you like nudity there are several shots of their breasts but everybody else may find themselves skipping ahead to where something else more interesting happens.

The special effects themselves are decent. Their goal was to avoid using CGI and in that regard the film is admirable and mostly succeeds. The practical effects are generally well done although some scenes such as the blood splashing on the trees are a bit overdone, and not really in a good way. Also, the bodies seem to come apart really easily, but it is a slasher film so realism certainly isn't expected. The kills themselves are quite well done, especially the double kill early on, and are quite bloody and gory.

Unfortunately Hatchet also has arguably one of the worst endings of any slasher. It doesn't really end, it just cuts off in the middle of the scene where Hatchet II is supposed to pick right up from. Sequel or not it is an absolutely terrible way to end the film.

The movie leads are decent, can't say the same for the support

Availability: Hatchet is available on both DVD and Blu-ray as a stand alone R-rated version or unrated director's cut or as a "Slasher 4 pack" with No One Lives, A Horrible Way to Die and The Alphabet Killer. All contain a good amount of bonus features such as a commentary, making of, gag reel, trailer and more.

Despite failing to deliver on the "old school American horror" that was promised, Hatchet is still a fairly enjoyable slasher film worth checking out for slasher film fans. Just don't expect it to be as good as the classics, or even quite reach the levels of later films like Scream either.