CHICAGO MASSACRE: RICHARD SPECK

There are days when I'm convinced I'm one of the last dozen people on earth who remembers when Corin Nemec was Corky.  And worse, who remembers when he was Parker Lewis.  Because watching Nemec in the latest attempts to outrun his past--and this time in horrific scar makeup--is actually wavering wildly between comical and terrifying.  And this time, Nemec is bringing us Michael Feifer's take on Richard Speck's rampage of killings back in the mid sixties.  Just in case you're not conversant with the details, Speck took nine student nurses in Chicago hostage and beat, raped, and killed eight of them. The last survivor, who hid under the bed, manages to give details to the police.

ACTS OF DEATH

Back to school time means back to school movies, and this one is just in line.  Baxter University's theatre department goes a little too far in the comraderie department, and during an initiation, ends up badly wounding one of its initiates.  In true Baxter University Theatre Department style, they run like crazed weasels into the night and leave said initiate to die.  Thus, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone that, the next night, the theatre department undergoes radical downsizing with lots of extra blood.  I know...you, much like me, are heaving sighs of exasperation and mild disgust because you've heard this sort of thing before.  POPCORN. URBAN LEGEND. I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.  Lots and lots of movies about kids getting killed, sometimes accidentally, and their alleged friends running like thieves in the night and then getting killed for it mere hours or even days later.  Oh, and one or two at a time, too, and in bloody and / or dramatic fashion.

BRUTAL

There's a lot of things you can say about BRUTAL.  One look at the box practically screams "Torture porn ahead!" The plot synopsis on the back is no help at all.  But once you get past the heavily flawed box, what you find inside is a strange little package of ups and downs, of what might have been and what might be great.  What Wiley has brought forth is the story of several attractive young women, kidnapped and messily killed with various tools and implements and suchlike -- including hedge clippers.  Which I have to give Wiley some kudos for -- I can't recall the last time I saw murder by hedge clippers.  And of course, the murders are drawing attention from local law enforcement, one member of which august body happens to be, surprise surprise, an attractive young woman herself.  Which means not only will said attractive young woman be chasing our garden implement killer, but also will likely be his target.

Dave Hill

Slightly off-topic post here, but if you're not familiar with this comic, Dave Hill, you should really check out his stuff.  He's a great talent and it's hilarious, cutting-edge stuff.

BAXTER

Let this be a lesson to everyone who's ever looked down their noses at Paris and sneered as they turned back to their "freedom fries": never turn your back on the French, especially their filmmakers...because when they want to be, they can be just as truly balls-out fucked up as the Japanese ever thought to be.  BAXTER will be the proof of that.  Don't believe me?  Well, try out the first five minutes as a kid voluntarily slams a thumb tack into his palm.  And if that doesn't freak you out, well...try the plot synopsis.  Baxter, as it turns out, is an insane bull terrier who finds himself discontented living with his new mistress, an elderly woman who's quite afraid of him.  Due to his dissatisfaction, he plans to murder her.

THE OTHER SIDE

The dark side of the afterlife has a revolving door policy in the Slamdance On the Road presentation of "The Other Side".  While waiting for the woman he loves, Sam North is unexpectedly murdered and sent, surprisingly, to hell.  Hell, meanwhile, is an insane combination of childhood flashbacks and plastic wrap and not a whole lot of fire.  Anyway...now Sam's in hell, or is until a few other denizens help him, bafflingly, escape via a corrugated plastic tunnel conveniently located not too far from where he landed in the first place. Naturally, the management disapproves of such things--though if they actually DID have a distaste for this kind of thing you'd think they'd just seal up the damn corrugated plastic tunnel.  I mean, come ON.  Why don't they just put up a big sign saying "This Way Out Of Hell" and start advertising?