100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck

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Title: 100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck

Director: Martin Wichmann

Writer: Nancy Leopardi

Starring: Hayley Derryberry (I just wanted to type out that atrocious name.)

Year released: 2012

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): In case you don’t recall Richard Speck… Watch the beginning of the video. It’s creepier than his murders.

Their synopsis: “In 2010, paranormal investigators tried to film Richard Speck’s ghost at the site of his heinous killing spree. The victims’ families have finally released the footage that documents their last days.”

My synopsis: Shockingly, there’s a ghost residing at 100 Ghost Street. Duh. Also, the ghost rapes a woman.

Quick review: Spoiler alert: There’s a ghost rape. Movie is ok.

Pros: The ghost isn’t as unattractive as the real Richard Speck. Goddamn he was an ugly bastard.

Cons: If you’re a ghost hunter, you should know the difference between a serial killer and a mass murderer. I mean, seriously…

Smallest suspension of disbelief: Guess who dies first? (Hint: It’s a black guy. Named Earl.)

Biggest movie cliché: Can a girl not enjoy a lollipop in these movies without simultaneously being a dirty, dirty whore? And the ghost rape, obviously.

Say a nice thing: How have I never specifically mentioned Jennifer Robyn Jacobs before? She’s been in multiple films I’ve reviewed, and is absolutely stunning.

Say a mean thing: If Jackie ever got too close to a light bulb, I’m pretty sure her awful nose would melt.

Say a creepy thing: Ok, so to be honest, the ghost rape scene kinda turned me on a little bit.

Most relatable current event: More women accusing Ghost Dad of rape.

MFK: Marry Jen. Fuck Sarah. Kill Jackie. (By fucking her.)

Final review: I suppose the premise is as good as any for a found footage film. A team of paranormal investigators, probably working for A&E, want to do a documentary on the now-abandoned dormitory where Richard Speck methodically tortured and killed his victims. If nothing else, it gives a legitimate reason to have all these cameras around. 100 Ghost Street is well-edited, and the performances are relatively believable, but ultimately it’s just too unoriginal. The same found footage tropes, and the same character archetypes. It’s nothing you haven’t seen a dozen times before. There’s also a ghost rape. Did I mention the ghost rape? And I think the ghost had sex with a dead body, as well.

Ranking:

2.5 bees

2.5 bees

Grimm’s Snow White

Title: Grimm’s Snow White

Director: Rachel (Lee) Goldenberg

Writer: Naomi L. Selfman

Starring: Eliza Bennett, Jamie Thomas King, Jane March

Year released: 2012

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): I can’t find any more Asylum titles on Netflix. Sad face.

Their synopsis: “When the King is killed by ferocious reptile beasts, his Queen takes control of the kingdom. She tries to kill her beautiful stepdaughter SNOW, but she escapes into the enchanted forest…”

My synopsis: I’ll let Netflix take this one, “Unlike the big screen versions, this low budget take adds dragons and other twists into the tale of an evil queen and her beautiful stepdaughter.”

Quick review: Overly complicated nonsense.

Pros: Dungeon sex.

Cons: Seriously? No midgets? Come on, man…

Biggest movie cliché: Stepmoms are bitches.

Say a kinda nice thing: Gwendolyn is a sexy, trampy queen.

Say a kinda mean thing: I mean, I guess Eliza Bennett is attractive. Sort of…

Biggest suspension of disbelief: That one “straight” elf seemed awfully angry to have the fairest maiden in all the land resting in his bed… It’s ok, Orlando, we’re all cool here. Go ahead and say it out loud. You’ll feel much better once you do.

Most relatable current event: Stepparents are embarrassing.

Final review: Why not just make a movie based on the original Brothers Grimm story? It’s an awesome fairy tale, which ends with the queen being “forced to step into [the] red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead.” Fucking evil! However, instead of fiery iron sneakers, the viewer is subject to a different kind of gruesome torture. The slow, painful torture of boredom and superfluousness. I cannot see any point whatsoever in adding dragons, demon dogs, amulets, and magic fires to Snow White. They are entirely useless additions. And the attempt to weave all of this drivel into an intelligible plot is poorly executed. The Asylum and modesty simply do not mix.

Ranking:

2 bees

2 bees

The First 100: Best and Worst

Having reviewed one hundred B movies over the past year and change, it’s time to take a look back and answer some of your most pressing questions. “What actors and actresses have stood out?” “Which directors were consistently not dreadful?” “Why in god’s name did you watch all of this shit?” “How exactly does the rating system work? It doesn’t really make sense.” “Who the fuck do you think you are saying all this mean shit about people you don’t even know?”

Let’s hand out some awards!

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Best Actress in a Supporting Role: I instantly thought of Shaley Scott as Taylor in Invasion of the Pod People. There are probably other notable performances I should include, but look how many categories I gave myself. I don’t have time.

Worst Actress in a Supporting Role: Kim Little in War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave. I haven’t watched that movie in over a year, yet I still fantasize about sawing through her throat with my car keys.

Best Visual Effects: MechaHitler from Nazis at the Center of the Earth. Unless boobs count as visual effects. I’ve seen a lot of cool boobs.

Worst Visual Effects: Down syndrome Bigfoot? Invisible motorcycle? A majority of the train scenes? Papier-mache tank? Murderous/pussy eating devil baby? Ghost fight? The possibilities are endless. Let’s go with retarded Bigfoot.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Lorenzo Lamas for being a funny racist in Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. Honorable mention to Andrew Lauer in H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, and Dr. Alan Grant, who was pretty good in Merlin’s Apprentice. I’m also going to mention Coolio, just so I can include Pterodactyl, which is probably my favorite review.

Worst Actor in a Supporting Role: All of the dragons. So many fucking dragons… Oh, and Geoff Meed in I Am Omega. I hate Geoff Meed.

Best Writing: When it comes to inserting lesbianism into a script for really no reason whatsoever, Leigh Scott is the king. (Though Tim Culley tried his best.) Unfortunately, it would be wrong to judge this category based solely on super hot girl-on-girl action. (It would, right? Hmm… … …Yeah, I guess so.) I’ll give it to Jack Perez for Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. If nothing else, he wrote in arguably the greatest action scene ever.

Worst Writing: Liz Adams. She has a writing credit on Shark Week, and is the only credited writer of both Air Collision and Super Cyclone. Shark Week is an abomination, Air Collision is a mess, and Super Cyclone is so dumb it made me write Twister wasn’t half bad. I hate Liz Adams for that. Oh, and Geoff Meed. Fuck him.

Best Actress in a Lead Role: Let’s go with Jean Louisa Kelly in The Cyberstalking. Yes, Sinead McCafferty was a crazily hot naked alien in The Day the Earth Stopped, and Jessica Chastain was very good in Blackbeard, but JLK deserves some love. Plus, Jessica Chastain’s already been nominated for two Oscars. What more does she want?

Worst Actress in a Lead Role: I think Sarah Lieving is fucking beautiful, but she is not a good actress. However, Sara Malakul Lane is also a ridiculously gorgeous terrible actress, who, in addition, takes her clothes off. I still feel bad about myself for giving Jailbait more stars than it deserved, so I’m awarding Worst Actress to Sara, not Sarah. Have some goddamn respect for yourself, Sara! (Or don’t. I’m not judging.)

Best Actor in a Lead Role: Do you not remember Jude Law? God, that son of a bitch is handsome.

Worst Actor in a Lead Role: Rhett Giles, I guess? He’s had some big roles in a lot of garbage. He may be a good actor for all I know, but his choices are for shit. He’s The Asylum’s Nic Cage.

Best Director: Anthony C. Ferrante, Thunder Levin, and C. Thomas Howell have all turned in multiple winners. If I had to pick from only those three, I’d give it to Thunder Levin for AE: Apocalypse Earth and American Warships. He not only directed, but wrote those films. If Rhett Giles is The Asylum’s Nicolas Cage, Levin is Asylum’s Tarantino. Really though, I’m just going to give it to Jack Perez for Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus.

Worst Director: I think I have to go Liz Adams again, for directing Air Collision and Super Cyclone. There are directors who have put forth worse films than Liz Adams, but they’ve also turned in some decent work. (I’m looking at you, Justin Jones.) The Kondelik Brothers suck, but Liz Adams probably sucks more.

Best Picture: It’s no secret Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus is my favorite B movie. It wins, and will keep winning until I see something better. No, it did not garner the maximum four-star review, but only Clash of the Empires did that, and for all the wrong reasons. I would, however, like to give an honorable mention to Cleaver Family Reunion. The trailer makes you want to kick a small dog in the stomach, but it’s actually a pretty funny movie.

Worst Picture: I’ve only ever given two films zero stars. 2012: Doomsday and Monster. But Monster was not only horrendous, it was also so goddamn disappointing. It’s a monster movie that takes place in Japan, yet the final product is an enormous, disrespectful, smoldering pile of shit in the mouth of the kaiju genre. I’m tempted to watch the film again, simply to reaffirm my hatred of it. Or maybe I’ll just stab my penis with a rusty safety pin for ninety minutes. Whichever.

Sherlock Holmes

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Title: Sherlock Holmes

Director: Rachel (Lee) Goldenberg

Writer: Paul Bales

Starring: Ben Syder, Gareth David-Lloyd, Dominic Keating

Year released: 2010

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): It’s going off Netflix in a week! Hurry!! While you still have time!!!

Their synopsis: “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective faces the ultimate challenge when enormous monsters attack London.”

My synopsis: Holmes and Watson have to figure out why Londoners are seeing monsters. And by monsters, I don’t mean other hideous-looking, late 19th-century Londoners.

Quick review: I suppose it was decent enough.

Pros: They didn’t completely butcher the idea of Sherlock Holmes.

Cons: The five minutes of Dr. Watson partially descending a mountain face has to rank as one of the most pointless scenes in Asylum history. Clumsily done and immeasurably worthless.

Biggest movie cliché: Don’t worry, all the Sherlock Holmes catchphrases are ever so discreetly jammed into your auditory canal.

Favorite quote: “Sensationalist claptrap!” Perhaps The Asylum should consider changing its name.

Say a nice thing: Miss Ivory can take a good choking. I like her.

Say a mean thing: Compared to Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Syder portrays Sherlock Holmes with the grace of a sugar-addled retarded child trying to lick his shoulder blades.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Are you serious? How and why is there a fucking dragon in this?! Goddammit…

Most relatable current event: The latest on BBC’s Sherlock.

Final review: The character of Sherlock Holmes takes an event which seems supernatural or impossible, and logically explains how such a mystery could happen, via his superior intellect. Thankfully, The Asylum understands this. I was worried for a second. The plot is still really stupid, don’t get me wrong, but at least there wasn’t an actual Kraken that Sherlock Holmes had to fight. Although, the ending chase scene featuring a hot air balloon/helicopter with a machine gun trying to shoot down a giant robot dragon may be worse. I haven’t decided. Overall, I expected it to be worse than it was. Recasting Sherlock and rewriting the villain’s motivations would have improved the film greatly.

Ranking:

2.5 bees

2.5 bees

Sleeping Beauty

sleepingbeauty

Title: Sleeping Beauty

Director: Casper Van Dien

Writer: R. Dessertine, Casper Van Dien

Starring: Finn Jones, Olivia d’Abo, Edward Lewis French

Year released: 2014

Their synopsis: “When a young prince and his trusted aide learn of a beautiful Princess’s cursed eternal slumber, they embark on a journey to rescue her. They must battle an evil queen and legions of undead monsters before she will be free.”

My synopsis: A group of (at the very least) bi-curious men go on a confusing, generally unnecessary quest.

Quick review: None of this made sense, or was interesting. At all.

Pros: Oh my god. Grace Van Dien, please.

Cons: I’ve never seen anyone less affected by the death of a sibling.

Biggest movie cliché: Rampant homosexual undertones.

Say a mean thing: Olivia d’Abo is fucking terrible in this.

Say a creepy thing: Which lips can I kiss on Princess Dawn to wake her up?

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Prince Jayson is looking for a princess? An actual, female princess? Haha, sure he is…

Most relatable current event: Go to your regular news site right now. Somewhere, there’s most likely a story about how you’re not getting enough, or the right kind of, sleep.

Final review: I did a fair bit of sleeping of my own during this movie. It’s lack of intelligible plot lulled me into a nice nap. I rewound, and tried a second time. Still got nothing. I suppose the film isn’t really all that bad, it’s just so incoherent. It’s also full of superfluous characters, a number of whom come back into the story arbitrarily, because sure, why not? The movie is just fucking everywhere. And goddamn you for the eventual sequel. If Grace Van Dien isn’t in it, there’s no way I’m watching. She’s a goddess.

Ranking:

2 bees

2 bees

Hansel vs Gretel

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Title: Hansel vs Gretel

Director: Ben Demaree

Writer: Jose Prendes

Starring: Brent Lydic, Lili Baross, Aqueela Zoll (terrible name, so hot)

Year released: 2015

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): The Asylum’s latest release. Just reviewed the original.

Their synopsis: “Trapped under a dark spell, Gretel assembles a coven of witches that terrorizes the town until Hansel finds the courage to fight his sister and the sinister forces that control her.”

My synopsis: Witches be trippin’.

Quick review: Exactly as watchable as the first.

Pros: Would you fuck a teenage demon cheerleader witch? I’d fuck a teenage demon cheerleader witch.

Cons: Conspicuously absent? The talented and gorgeous Stephanie Greco. Although, to be fair, Lili Baross wasn’t bad.

Biggest movie cliché: Why do witches always have to wear black? With her skin tone, I think the Indian one would have looked nice in pastels.

Favorite quote: “Please fucking explain why you tore off our grandmother’s head!”

Say a nice thing: My favorite was the witch that licked everything. God, what a creep.

Say a mean thing: You saw a witch burrow into the ground like a gopher? No you fucking didn’t, you fucking liar.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: What kind of cryptic-ass witches lead you on a scavenger hunt?

Most relatable current event: Germany is fucking weird.

Final review: I’m not sure what I can say that would be different from my review of the first Asylum Hansel and Gretel movie. The villains are kind of silly, and the ending is arbitrary and dumb. If nothing else, I suppose Jose Prendes is consistently mediocre in his filmic witch-writing abilities. Hansel vs Gretel is not as rooted in the original fairy tale as its predecessor, which is bad news, but there are elements of Blade in this, which is good. We’ll call it even. I’m going to assume Prendes will eventually get around to penning a third film, so let’s all just wait and see how that one goes.

Ranking:

2.5 bees

2.5 bees

Hansel & Gretel

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Title: Hansel & Gretel

Director: Anthony C. Ferrante

Writer: Jose Prendes

Starring: Brent Lydic, Stephanie Greco, Dee Wallace

Year released: 2013

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): March 2015 was the only month in which I didn’t post at least one shitty review of at least one shitty movie. Why, you ask? (You didn’t.) Moving. Work. Vacation. Depression. (Put those in whatever order you want. I don’t care…)

Their synopsis: “…teen siblings are enslaved by a psychotic recluse within her gruesome house of horrors in the woods.”

My synopsis: Twins, who are clearly not twins, are captured by a witch who owns a bakery.

Quick review: HanselandGretel-y.

Pros: Surprisingly brutal. The opening scene in particular, and also when they shoved a pointy stick through a girl’s vagina and out her mouth.

Cons: I have an issue with this story being set in present day, yet the names “Hansel” and “Gretel” are still being used.

Biggest movie cliché: “Aw, come on, Dad! You’re getting remarried to her! Have you already forgotten about Mom?! Whose death, by the way, is all my fault even though it isn’t and I’ve yet to realize!” That whole unnecessary scene.

Favorite quote: “Shut the fuck up, Kevin!” Followed by Kevin’s reaction.

Say a nice thing: Jane is was the cutest prisoner ever.

Say a mean thing: Hit that old cunt with the broom!

Say a creepy thing: To be fair, I totally get wanting to enslave a teenaged Stephanie Greco in a secluded house in the woods.

Least favorite quote: “You shot the sheriff…” I swear to god, immediately accompanied by, “Yeah? Well, I killed the deputy, too.” I cannot express how angry this embarrassingly godawful attempt at cleverness made me.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: How did that old bitch get her hands on Scarecrow’s fear toxin? And there’s no way she’s that goddamn strong or fast.

Most relatable current event: I went to the theater and saw It Follows. The film was good, I was expecting great. All I want to know is where ‘it’ began, and if Jay fucked all three of those guys on the boat at the same time.

Final review: I think what brings this story down more than anything are the villains. I didn’t find them to be frightening; I found them to be ridiculous. The final 15 minutes of the movie are also quite stupid. Did you really have a teacher that taught you to build ingenious murder traps in under two minutes, Hansel? Not to mention that everyone was out of the house, then the filmmakers realized they had to come back so the witch could be killed in the oven. The ending was in desperate need of a rewrite, though I’m not sure it’d have elevated the film any.

Ranking:

2.5beecookies