The 5 Best Movies from the Splat Pack

With Eli Roth about to give us The Green Inferno, a cannibal film! in the near future, I thought we should look at the filmographies of the Splat Pack, who according to Wikipedia: "The group has been credited with bringing back ultra-violent movies, as well as moving away from PG-13 rated movies and into the R-rated spectrum, all while operating with low budgets"

The names of the members are arbitrary at best. Aja, Bousman, Marshall, McLean, Roth, Rodriguez, Wan, Whannell and Zombie. But they have given us some solid motherfuckin flicks. Here are my 5 essential best movies from some of the Splat Pack directors. Chime in if you agree or disagree.

5.) Rob Zombie - The Devil's Rejects

The Jaded Viewer says: This is pure Zombie mayhem at its best. Hillbilly rednecks slaughtering in open America. Sheri Moon, Haig and Moseley are terrifying and it clicks. Lots of cringe worthy moments with that Freebird ending just pure awesomness.

4.) Alexandre Aja - Piranha 3D

The Jaded Viewer says: I didn't like Haute Tension. Too gimmicky and twisty. Piranha 3D is pure fun. Gore, boobs, gore, cheesy special effects, Riley Steele boobs, mutilated penis. It's a monster film that takes that camp horror back to the basics.

3.) Robert Rodriguez - Grindhouse Planet Terror 

The Jaded Viewer says: With R.R, you can go with the vamps or the angry Mexican but Planet Terror is the most explosive gore-riah film filled with one legged Cherry and zombied up super soldiers. I can deny the fact it's the one I can watch again over and over again in the Grindhouse double.

2.) Eli Roth - Hostel

The Jaded Viewer says:  Hostel came out in 2005. Man has it really been 7 years? Love it or hate it, it's the pinnacle film of the Splat Pack and the one that got the gorehounds spazzing again. Pure magnificent torturous fun, Bratislava is now destination #1 for foreigners looking to get their death on. You can't deny Hostel's impact on all the films that have come after.

1.) Neil Marshall - The Descent 

The Jaded Viewer says: The Descent is the best film any of the filmmakers from the Splat Pack and Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers is awesome, it's The Descent that will stand out as good old solid awesome horror.
Why Juno why????

Any other filmmakers that should gain Splat Pack status? Want to add your own list? Comment away! It's the damn internet right too!

Categories: alexandre aja, eli roth, grindhouse, hostel, neil marshall, piranha 3d, rob zombie, robert rodriguez, splat pack, the descent

Review of the Day: Halloween (Rob Zombie Remake)

Halloween

Halloween (2007)
Directed by Rob Zombie

I don't know why Zombie thought he could attempt to remake Halloween. It's just going to fuel the naysayers who love to add fuel to the fire American horror is dead. And though I loved the Devil's Rejects, this piece of floating turd should be flushed down the nearest toilet.

The thing about this movie is that the aura of Michael Myers is his ambiguity. All Loomis tells us from Carpenter's version is he is pure evil. That's enough to go by. He killed his sister, some of the asylum staff and he wants to murder his sister. His backstory is wrapped up. He is evil. That's all we gotta know.

Seeing Michael Myers and his fucked up childhood is liking seeing a Lifetime TV movie. Stripper mom, alcoholic stepfather, sexpot sister and innocent little baby "Boo". Are we suppose to debate Michael's surroundings and environment made him evil?

I don't fuckin care.

What I care about his my potential heroine being helpless and weak but through the chase and survival of a torturous night, becomes strong and brave. I care about her friends who will be filled with teenage angst and sexual desires, then will be killed meticulously by our ingenious slasher.

Myers is smart. He's strong. He's focused. And he's fuckin mute. Hearing Myers speak is like Jason Voorhees cracking Freddy Kreuger jokes. Mute means mute. He doesn't say a damn word. Not as a kid. Not ever.

I'm not going to bore you with the plot, the gore and the endless cameos by the Zombie regulars. What I wanted from Zombie was to take Halloween and make it his own. He took most of the elements from Carpenter and just colored them differently.

Even Laurie Strode, our heroine is somebody you wouldn't even want to hang out with. She never knew why she was being stalked. The whole boogeyman angle was never fully developed. The kids were waaaaaay too smart and tried to hammer down the boogeyman thing into our collective conciousness.

Myers is the boogeyman. But we'd never know it from this flick. He is suppose to be the embodiment of little children's nightmares. And what Carpenter does well is make the boogeyman real to not just the kids Laurie is babysitting, but to her and her friends.

In Zombie's version, you never get that feeling. We know too much of Myers. The mystery is gone. His eventual demise doesn't initiate a Tiger Woods fist pump but a smack in the forehead.

This is not a very good film. And sometimes I think American horror is dead. But then I watch the original and I have hope.

Watch Carpenter's version and you'll see why Halloween is the best slasher movie of all time.

Rating:

Tags:
movie review of the day, halloween , rob zombie , horror movies, halloween 2007 ,John Carpenter, boogeyman

Categories: boogeyman, halloween, halloween 2007, john carpenter, rob zombie