Monster-Mania August 2019

On Saturday, August 17, 2019, we headed over to Cherry Hill, New Jersey for another edition of Monster-Mania. And, as always my friends and I had a fucking blast!

The first guest I went up to was the beautiful and extremely talented Kate Siegel. Siegel is an amazing actress, with some great roles in horror content, many in her husband, Mike Flanagan's own movies and TV shows like Hush and The Haunting of Hill House.  I told her just how much I loved her acting in her work, as well as the super cool The Texas Chain Saw Massacre tee that she had on. Kate was very sweet and a joy to meet and talk to.

The three of us, Freddie, Pat, and myself, got a pic with the legendary Beverly D'Angelo. She is best known for her work in the National Lampoon's Vacation films, but my personal favorite thing that she did was the awesome late 70's horror film The Sentinel.

Alex Essoe was a added late that week, so I didn't know that she would be there. Otherwise, I would have bought my Blu-ray of the superlative Starry Eyes, with me to get signed by her. I told her, how I had spread the word on the film, telling friends to see and reviewing it, very positively for this, my own site. In fact, my friend and Master's Minion, Pat, admitted to her to seeing the film, cause of my review. She talked to us for a good fifteen minutes and was so fun, sweet, and plain fucking awesome. I hope that her role in the hotly anticipated Doctor Sleep (from the aforementioned Mike Flanagan, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, a sequel to The Shining) leads to some great roles for her. She is an incredible actress and most definitely deserves it.

As a huge and loyal The X-Files fan, I was super excited to meet the lovely Annabeth Gish. When we went to her table, she was talking to Siegel (whom she worked with on The Haunting of Hill House). She told her that we were cool, so she came over to us with a smile. She was really sweet and was flattered, as I told her how much I loved her as Agent Monica Reyes on The X-Files.

It turned out that author and horror mag contributor and editor Michael Gingold has a new book out called Ad Astra. As loyal readers may remember, I bought his phenomenal book Ad Nausem last year at New York Comic Con. Part two (which will center on horror movie ads from the 80s-2000s) to that book will be out in time for this year's NYCC. So, you can count on me getting that! Getting back to his current new book, Ad Astra, it is like Ad Nausem, except, that instead of horror newspaper ads, this time it is all science fiction and fantasy movie ads. And, it is not just the 80s, but actually 1980-1999. I am currently reading and loving the fucking hell out of it!

There was a lot of cosplay on display on this day. Here are some of my favorites, that I saw:

As far as swag, that I got, it goes like this:
A Starry Eyes pic signed by Alex Essoe
Ad Astra signed on the inside by Michael Gingold
An incredible Return of the Living Dead tee by Fright-Rags
Vice Squad from Scream Factory, which I got at DiabolikDVD's table
And, from Vinegar Syndrome and their table: Hell Comes to Frogtown and Cutting Class:

By the time, it was all over we were dead tired but so happy. It was another kick ass time, and we are already for the next Cherry Hill one in March 2020!

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The 10 Best Movies of 2014

What a year for movies this has been, especially for geekcentric films!! There were so many quality horror and sci-fi movies that got released, from the low budget to big studio films. Marvel continues to produce some of the finest genre films out there, as two of their best movies make this list and rank among the finest superhero films, ever. As a horror and comic-book fan, I found a couple of movies to obsesses over, in particular the ones that made this list. But, in the end, you will see that the best film of the year, isn't a genre film, but... well just read on.

10. All Cheerleaders Die- This sexy, gory, fun, and funny horror comedy has everything I want in a movie and more. Lucky McKee, this time teaming up with co-writer and co-director Chris Siverston, strikes gold again. For more of my thoughts on it, here is my review of it: http://themastergio.blogspot.com/2014/09/all-cheerleaders-die.html







9. Return to 'Nuke Em High Vol. 1- The next flick on my list is also a horror-comedy. And, it is even gorier and funnier than the aforementioned one. In fact, it is Troma's finest movie in a long time and, to me, the best comedy of the year. Of course, I dislike most comedies, but you get my drift. Here is my full review of this one: http://themastergio.blogspot.com/2014/01/return-to-nuke-em-high-volume-1-2013.html






8. The Babadook- The single scariest film of the year is this chilling and, actually quite moving, horror flick from Australia. It's that countries best release, IMHO, in ages. Featuring flawless performances from its two leads Essie Davis and little Noah Wiseman, it really manages to make you run a gauntlet of emotions, not unlike their characters. Writer/ director Jennifer Kent builds tension slowly but steadily, all the while never leaving the heart of it. Some have complained about the ending, but if you go into this looking for a monster movie, I suggest you go else. Instead prepare for the most nerve shredding psychological horror movie in recent memory.



7. Veronica Mars: The Movie- The first non-horror movie on this list is this excellent continuation of one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Here is proof that fandom can get a movie made. What started as pipedream, grew into maniac fan support (Lord knows, I tweeted for it to be made many a times), and eventually, a successful Kick Starter campaign which ended up funding the movie. It is a pure delight for fellow fans of the intelligent and sometimes underrated TV show. I was having massive marshmallow-gasms through out the whole the movie. As, with the show, the writing is fun and smart and the acting is great. The gorgeous Kristen Bell is just so awesome in this role, that it just reminded me why I used to have the biggest crush on her. And, this movie just brought back my obsession with the show. I don't know if non-fans of the series will love it as much, but they should still find it to be a solid, well acted, and excellently written mystery/ thriller.

6. Captain America: The Winter Solider- Leave it to Marvel to improve on the solid first film and make a sequel that may well be the one of the best, if not the best (it's hard to choose between this one and The Dark Knight) superhero sequel, ever made. The movie plays like a jacked up spy thriller, with ass kicking and thrilling action scenes galore. In the Winter Solider, we also have Marvel's best villain in a movie, since Loki. The script has a few moments of predictability (mostly doing with the survival of a certain character), but such flaws are out weighed by it's stronger suits like the dissolving of S.H.I.E.L.D. Shit, it even succeeded in making Falcon be cool and a total badass!  



5. Starry Eyes- Like the first movie on this list, this is another tag team horror flick, though this one is played nerve shredding and serious. But, let us not mince any further words here, this is the year's best horror film, a bloody, smart, and wholly captivating movie of pure intensity. My full review is here: http://themastergio.blogspot.com/2014/12/starry-eyes-2014-review.html







4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes- This another sequel that totally tops it's original. While, the first film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is a solid sci-fi movie, this takes that one and just tramples it. It gives us one of the finest and smartest science fiction sequels ever. The flawless FX mix perfectly with an intelligent and thought provoking script, one that in ways most big budget, studio genre films can't even dream of being. Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell, both give amazing performances as the two opposing apes.





3. The Raid 2- This might just be the year of the superior sequel. But, this movie had the hardest movie to beat in its original. The first movie was one of the best martial arts movies, ever made. A brutal ass kicker if ever there was one. And, when I saw how long this one was, I became concerned with how much fun it would be. But, in the end my concerns were utterly destroyed. Here is a movie that despite its length, just works. The plot is enthralling and sucks you in, and the action scenes are jaw dropping and utterly brutal. Some of the most vicious gore of the year is featured here, far surpassing many a horror film. By the time it was over my adrenaline was on overdrive. No doubt about, this is the badass motherfucker of the year!


2. Guardians of the Galaxy- Who would have thought the second best movie of the year, and the second best Marvel (or any other superhero) movie ever would be based on D level superheroes. A fun script, lively acting, and wonderfully imaginative film making gave us one of the best sci-fi movies in many a moon. In some ways, this is a modern day Star Wars coupled with a superhero movie. So fucking good is it that it makes a fuckin racoon with a machine gun and living tree creature, with limited vocabulary, the best heroic characters in any movie released this year. Think about that for a minute! From the opening scene to the final scene featuring one of the oddest Marvel heroes, this fucker was the very definition of spectacularly made fun. And, it was one movie that I didn't think anyone could top until I saw...

1. Gone Girl- My fucking God, what a fucking movie!!! David Fincher's second best movie (Seven remains his masterpiece) is a jaw droppng ingeniously twisted mystery/ thriller. It has what is without a shadow of a doubt the script of the year, as Gillian Flynn adopts her own novel of the same name. It never fails to shock and surprise, yet totally hold your attention. The acting from everyone is perfect, in fact, Ben Affleck gives his best performance ever. But, in the end, it's the beautiful Rosamund Pike who is just the very definition of amazing. She is actress of the year, here, kiddies. Who would have thought that one of the most beautiful Bond girls, who was in the worst Bond film, ever (Die Another Day) had it in her to bring it to this level of perfection? I have since become obsessed with this film. I can't stop thinking about it. But, to say anything more would ruin it. All, I can say is see this: if you have not seen this fucker, see it as soon as you can. And, heed my words, this is true cinematic perfection. 

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STARRY EYES (2014) Review

 

Title: Starry Eyes
Writers/ directors: Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer
Cast: Alex Essoe, Amanda Fuller, Noah Segan, Fabianne Therese, Shane Coffey, Natalie Casttillo, Pat Healy

Lovely Sarah (Alex Essoe) works at a her shitty job, in a Hooters type of restaurant. But, she is a Hollywood hopeful, who dreams of being a big star. One day she goes to the audition for a horror film, but it soon becomes clear to her that she did not impress those present at it. She goes to the bathroom and throws a fit, even pulling out her hair (something of a habit of her when she has a panic attack/ gets stressed out). The older woman, a casting director (Maria Olsen), that was present in the audition, notices her do this. She asks her to come back to the room immediately and do this in from of them. After she does this; she gets a much better reaction from them.

She gets a call back the next day to meet with the producer (Louis Dezseran) and soon proceeds to quits her job. When, she meets with him, that night, he talks her up, then propositions her, while placing his old hand on her inner thigh. She is disgusted and leaves angered. But, as the time passes, she begins to think about she is willing to pay for the price of success. What that price is we soon see is a truly horrific one.

Starry Eyes has to be the most brilliant and nightmarish movies that I have ever seen about a starlet who wants to make it in Hollywood. It really captures a lot of fears that actresses might have and then takes it to a whole another level. No longer is it just the fear of having to sleep with or suck the dick of a producer, but now, it's something a whole lot worse.

Writers/ directors Kolsch and Widmyer are quite the talented duo crafting here one of the most gut wrenching and truly get under your skin movies of the year. I love how this film starts off so mundanely and then as the horrors revealed himself both real world and beyond, it gets progressively more nerve shredding, until it reaches its truly graphic potential. There are some very intense moments that will have you at the very edge of your seat.

This is all helped greatly by the excellent cast. While there is no denying that everyone involved has great acting chops, it's really all about Alex Essoe since her character and her journey are at the very crux of the film. She is so incredibly believable in this role that even when you question her decisions as a character, you can't help but follow her along. She gives what I considered the breakthrough performance in a horror movie this year. She's a stunningly beautiful goddess who physically kind of reminds me of a young and quite tall Debbie Rochon. I eagerly await to see more of this extraordinary actress.

Also complementing the solid and quality filmmaking, is the excellent makeup and gore FX. Handled by Hugo Vilasenor, the splatter FX rank as some of the most absolutely shocking of the entire year. The murders are intense and truly horrific. Most memorable is something involving a dumbbell, that left me completely aghast.

Starry Eyes is quite simply put the absolute best horror movie of this year. Yes, as much as I loved The Babadook, this one is even better. It is a cinematic masterpiece of nightmarish body horror combined with the honest to God fear of what actress trying to "make it" has. With such excellent talent behind and in front of the camera, I can't help but give this movie one of my highest possible recommendations. It's currently on demand so I say stop what ever the fuck you are doing right now and see it! In the meantime, I just anxiously await what these filmmakers and the lovely Ms.Essoe (who is with a shadow of a doubt my new horror crush) have in store for us.

**** out of ****

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