The Evil Dead & Evil Dead II.

"We're gonna get you, not another peep, time to go to sleep."

In honor of seeing Evil Dead The Musical on Saturday in Massachusetts, I decided to watch the first two Evil Dead movies.  The Musical was SO GREAT.  I highly recommend it for anyone who is a fan of the cult classic because it is hilarious, well-done, and very bloody.  We got to sit right in the front row, of a small venue, in the splatter zone.  I got pretty covered in fake blood, it was dripping down my face.  It was fantastic!

Evil Dead is awesome.  It is an over-the-top, disgusting gore-fest, heart-pounding horror cult classic movie!  And I love it.  The second one was a little confusing for me but I still liked it.  The first one, though, that one has the original Linda.  And Linda laughing and singing is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen in my life.  Ever.  She haunts my dreams.

The original 1981 The Evil Dead stars the one, the only, Bruce Campbell!  Bruce not only stars in the first three movies but also co-produced the movies.  Now, I'll admit, I was a little confused over the hype of Bruce because at first he seems like a nothing character.  However, he somehow keeps surviving.  Even when everyone else dies and comes back to life and dies again, Bruce just keeps getting cooler.  And of course, in the sequel is when Bruce gets his trademark, bad-ass look:

Bruce Campbell plays Ashley "Ash" Williams in all of the Evil Dead movies, including an appearance in the 2013 re-make (I have not yet seen the re-make but I would love to!  I've heard it's pretty great as well.).  The oh so scary Linda is played by Betsy Baker and, judging by what I have seen online, I believe she is quite popular with hardcore fans along with Bruce.  The Evil Dead really has sparked an intense following, even today, 32 years later.

One thing that is great about these movies is the amount of blood used.  There will be a scene where blood just comes gushing out, completely soaking the character.  Then the camera cuts and suddenly all that blood is gone.  It's so great!  I enjoyed the use of props, make-up, fake blood, and effects in these movies, it was very well done in the over-the-top way it was meant to be.  The first film was to be taken seriously but it had a small budget and got pretty campy.  The sequel was purposely comedic and made fun of the first film quite a bit.  I like when directors and actors can make fun of themselves.

Now let's not forget the most important thing about these films: Sam Raimi.  Raimi directed and wrote The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness.  He also wrote, but not directed, the 2013 re-make of Evil Dead and is writing Army of Darkness 2 right now, set to release in 2016.  Raimi has also written and directed Drag Me to Hell, Spider-Man 3, and The Quick and the Dead.  Those are just the ones I've seen of his work, there's more!  He is a talented writer and director and I have enjoyed all his films that I have seen.  He has a particular style and I think it really works.

The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II are streaming right now on Netflix.  So, go check it out, there's plenty of gore to be watched!  Please enjoy creepy Linda in the clip below.

Also, here's a little preview of Evil Dead The Musical, in case you ever want to check that out, too!  It's a bloody good time!

The Reef.

It's still Shark Week right?  Well, I decided another shark movie would be a good idea.  I came across The Reef last night while browsing Netflix and decided to give it a try.  It was a good decision because the movie was great!  I've seen it around on Netflix but thought it looked stupid; you know, just another dumb college kids giant shark film.  Luckily, it was none of those things.
 

I was happily surprised to see actual adults!  They weren't partying, naked, or drunk.  Already, within the first 10 minutes I was happy.  The movie is about four friends coming together in Australia to go on a boat when it capsizes!  The main dude decides the best option is for them to all swim back to an island they were at the day before.  Ten miles away.  In the open ocean.  In Australia.  Sounds like a horror movie to me!  The captain decides to stay behind on top of the capsized boat while the four friends swim their way to the island.

It was even before this point that I had predicted the order of which everyone would die.  I was almost correct!  I think it's fun to predict what's going to happen when watching movies or television shows.  It keeps me from getting bored and losing interest.

The Reef is an Australian horror film directed by Andrew Traucki and was released in 2010.  The Reef was Traucki's second film and his filmography includes all Australian horror.  Being an Australian film, I was unfamiliar with the cast but sometimes that can be a good thing.  Especially in horror, it is nice not to see familiar faces in movies because some big names are too well-known to see eaten by a shark.

Unlike 2-Headed Shark Attack, this movie is not hokey and is much more realistic.  It's a regular shark eating regular people.  They even used shots of real sharks which is super awesome and does not usually happen.  I guess because shark movies are often about giant sharks, two-headed sharks, dinosharks, or octosharks to name a few.  I mean, you can't really use real footage of that!  So kudos to the filmmakers for finally giving us a real shark movie.

The one thing that is silly about The Reef is that probably a shark won't eat people or follow you while you swim in the ocean.  The only reason sharks ever bite humans is because they're curious creatures and think we're something else.  In this movie, when the shark bites the first guy in half it comes back and eats the rest of him.  I'm pretty positive that would not actually happen.  Of course, if the movie were totally realistic then it wouldn't be very entertaining.  Poetic license is a very useful tool.

To celebrate this last day of Shark Week, the cool people's favorite week of the year, please turn on Netflix and stream this excellent shark movie.  Enjoy the movie trailer below, it was the only clip I could find!  Also, apparently this movie is based on some true events.  I have a feeling it was pretty loosely based.

2-Headed Shark Attack.

Nothing says Shark Week better than watching 2-Headed Shark Attack!  This movie is hilariously bad.  It's one of those B-horrors that is so bad it's good.  First of all, it stars Brooke Hogan.  That should say it all.
 

The tagline for the movie is "1 body, 2 heads & 6,000 teeth!"  Um, it that supposed to be scary? This movie is just ridiculous but I enjoyed it!  It's like watching all the Tremors movies.  The first one is good, the second one is good, and the rest are awesomely bad.  It's almost as if they know the movie will be bad so they make fun of themselves.  Also, if you haven't watched the entire set of Tremors than you should. Numbers two and three are available to stream on Netflix.

Along with Hogan are such actors like Carmen Electra, Charlie O'Connell, and a host of young unknowns who should probably stay away from acting.  As you may have already guessed, I found the acting quite terrible.  The film came out in 2012.  I had heard about the movie in 2011 while watching a SyFy show called Monster Man where Cleve Hall created the puppet form of the two-headed shark.  It was Cleve's idea to give the shark two separate heads, as the movie creators originally wanted a second head coming out of the forehead.  That episode of Monster Man showed the creation of the shark head and even the filming of a scene where the shark eats two characters.  The scene was shot in a pool, Cleve was behind the shark puppet controlling its movements, and the two actresses had fake blood in their mouth to spit out when the shark bit them.  Apparently that left an impression on me as I watched the movie about a month ago on Netflix, a couple years after first hearing about it.

Only a few scenes used the puppet, the rest was CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), which I'm not a huge fan of in horror movies.  CGI can do many cool things but often times it looks so fake that a puppet would be cooler.  I  watch a lot of horror and I'm more entertained by puppets and more impressed by the overall feeling it gives to movies.  Yes, of course there are times when CGI is mega awesome and looks so real you think, how did they do that? In this particular case, the puppet shark has way more impact than the computer animated shark.

As a monster movie, and more specifically a giant shark movie, 2-Headed Shark Attack is a great one to watch in celebration of Shark Week!  I enjoyed the movie, the good and the bad.  I made fun of it, I laughed, gasped, and probably even hid my face a time or two.  I was completely enthralled the entire movie and I get bored fairly easily.  If you like monster movies where a giant two-headed shark attacks a boat of college age kids in bathing suits then this is the flick for you!  Enjoy!

Here's a clip of the body count for 2-Headed Shark Attack.  It's very graphic and bloody but remember that it's all fake.  Please notice how much better the close-ups of the puppet look over the full-body CGI shark.  Happy Shark Week!