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Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Cold Light of Day (1989)

Presenting the murder biz of one Cranley Gardens serial killer, named Denis Nielsen in real life but having the handle of Jorden March (Bob Flag, sporting one hell of a wig) here in a move that just screams “We ain’t payin’ shit to use this asshole’s real name”, and his hapless (seriously, this dude just kills people… he doesn’t really know why he does it, the cops never really figure it out, and besides a drop of childhood trauma the film never really seems to give a damn either) journey through a wicked wonderland of diabolical dismemberment. Speaking of which, the gritty pseudo-real aesthetic that permeates this fright flick is undoubtedly the greatest asset it possesses, as it’s gritty, unpolished visuals give the affair (an endless parade of picking up male victims that won’t be missed, followed by the hoary ol’ chestnuts of sex and murder… all of which are presented in an unglamorous, nearly mundane manner) a near documentary

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Oct 16, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: ivansxtc (2000)

ivansxtc begins the only place it could; the end. You see star Hollywood agent Ivan Beckham (30 Days of Night‘s Danny Huston) has died of lung cancer, which shocks his co-workers who would have bet that his demise would have been from the absolutely bonkers amount of drugs n’ booze he quaffed on the regular. Speaking of that wild life, we see Ivan’s last days laid bare via flashback ya dig… and what days they were; full of high-stakes Peter Weller-focused wheelin’ and dealin’, static from his girlfriend Charlotte (Lisa Enos), family and client drama… and of course plenty of full on illicit substance fueled hanky-panky! A raw as hell blend of Hollywood excess and Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illyich, ivansxtc posses an almost documentary feel, and that brings us closer to the titular character’s swirling insanity than we may be comfortable with. Shot on digital video by Bernard Rose (most famous for fright fans from his 1992 cinematic

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Dahmer (2002)

Remember when mother fuckin’ Hawkeye played (literal) man-eater Jeffrey Dahmer? Yeah, me freakin’ either… but he did, so here we are! The long and the short of Dahmer goes as follows: going out of his way to prove he’s no Willy fuckin’ Wonka, chocolate factory worker Jeffrey Dahmer (Jeremy Renner) prowls Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for young male victims to turn into brain dead (and eventually dead dead) sexual playthings. Along the way, he reminisces about earlier murder biz, and his relationship with his pappy (Willard himself, Bruce Davison) who thinks something is off about his boy, but isn’t sure just what. It’s non-stop spills and thrills as we learn just what this serial killin’ scamp was up to before his ass got thrown in the hole forever and a day… Besides boasting a gritty, almost grindhouse style (in terms of aesthetic if not on screen carnage) the main draw to this flick is the performance of Renner who manages to make

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 9, 2020
Horror Fuel

Jackpots & Jailtime: The Greatest Casino Heists Of The 21st century

For most of us, a casino is a place of entertainment, thrills, and a chance to win big. However, for others, it can pose a very different opportunity altogether. In the past, before the days of advanced technology, casinos were locations that carried more money than a bank, scattered across roulette tables and in the bellies of slot machines. It’s no wonder, therefore, that they’ve seen some of the most daring heists committed inside their ornate halls. Here are just a few of the best. Mr. Casino Richard Taylor’s crimes were unique because he chose to avoid the ‘big score’ and, instead, opted to take a longer-term approach to theft from the casino. Taylor was so successful, in fact, that he ended up earning the moniker’ Mr. Casino.’ His targets of choice were the high-roller craps players. Richard masterminded a complex network of complicit dealers and players who allowed the smaller rule breaches to happen, apparently unnoticed to them. Richard’s

Continue reading →
Ella Rebecca Horton
Sep 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Black Test Car (1962)/The Black Report (1963)

Our putrid pals over at Arrow Video and MVD Entertainment have got a couple of flicks from Japanese maverick director Yasuzo Masumura that they are set to release on one lil’ ol’ Blu-ray; 1962’s Black Test Car, which deals with corporate espionage in the auto industry, and 1963’s The Black Report, which is a murder mystery affair. In Black Test Car we meet Asahina (Jiro Tamiya), who works at Tiger Motors, a company which is tryin’ like unholy hell to get a new car constructed and on the road before those sons of bitches at rival company Yamamoto Motors are any the wiser. Of course that’s going to be near impossible as their is a spy in Tiger’s outfit, and the company will go to great lengths to sniff ’em out! For a pic about rival auto companies, Black Test Car certainly is filled with a cast of cuthroat bastards, willing to do anything to get their company over. Honestly,

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 25, 2020
Horror Fuel

This September ‘The Silencing’ Will Have You On The Edge Of Your Seat

“Game of Thrones” actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars in the edge-of-your-seat thriller The Silencing out this September from Lionsgate. Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders,” The Mummy) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) also star in the film about “a reformed hunter (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and a sheriff (Annabelle Wallis) are caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse when they set out to track a killer who may have kidnapped the hunter’s daughter five years ago.” Directed by Robin Pront and written by Micah Ranum, The Silencing arrives on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on September 29, 2020. Check out the riveting trailer! BLU-RAY / DVD SPECIAL FEATURES Making The Silencing Creating a Weapon: The Silencing Spear

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 18, 2020
Horror Fuel

Stephen King Shares The Cover Of His New Novel ‘Later’

Stephen King took to Twitter this morning to reveal the retro cover of his upcoming novel Later. In the novel, “the son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine – as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.” #1 bestselling author Stephen King returns with a brand-new novel about the secrets we keep buried and the cost of unearthing them.” Later is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King’s classic

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 3, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection (1969 – 1972)

As you may infer from the name of this collection, Italian horror maestro Umberto Lenzi and Pennsylvania-born actress Caroll Baker worked on a film or four together… and my fabulous freaky fiends at Severin have boxed ’em up with plenty of extras and sent them out the diabolical door! Let’s kick off our look at The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection with 1969’s Orgasmo! High-maintenance and horny widow, Kathryn West(Baker), heads down Italy-way to shack up in her rich late old geezer’s posh-ass Villa. And there she stays, painting, lounging, being annoyed by her perpetually bitchy maid Theresa (a fantastic Lilla Brignone) and generally being bored off her tits. All that changes when equally horny, sports car enthusiast Peter Donovan (Lou Castel) breaks down right in front of our heroine’s front gate; an event that leads to some soggy sexcapades in a steamin’ hot shower (the water of which, must be noted, is drank by Donovan before he starts a-drillin’… “just

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 27, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Abrakadabra (2018)

A magician (German Baudino) finds himself at the mercy of a sadistic killer in Luciano Onetti and Nicolás Onetti’s (aided and abetted by co-writer/cinematographer Carlos Goitia) love letter to ’70s giallo flicks; Abrakadabra… one of the debut offerings from Cauldron Films, and what a debut it is cats n’ creeps! Now if the names of those two dudes up yonder sound familiar, they are the ones responsible for two other giallo-style flicks; 2013’s Sonno Profondo and 2015’s Francesca… and as they did with those flicks, they attempt to not merely homage the genre, the seek to replicate it 110% in Abrakadabra! To that end the screen is filled to bursting with what a giallo fan would expect, namely: bizarre fashions, outre set dressing (dolls, puppets, and more seek to unnerve the viewer), strange camera placement, a dash of kinky sex and gore, a painterly use of color and shadow… hell, they even make the film look as though the film

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 22, 2020
Horror Fuel

Jackpots And Jail Time: The Greatest Casino Heists Of The 21st Century

For most of us, a casino is a place of entertainment, thrills, and a chance to win big. However, for others, it can pose a very different opportunity altogether. In the past, before the days of advanced technology, casinos were locations that carried more money than a bank, scattered across roulette tables and in the bellies of slot machines. It’s no wonder, therefore, that they’ve seen some of the most daring heists committed inside their ornate halls. Here are just a few of the best. Mr. Casino Richard Taylor’s crimes were unique because he chose to avoid the ‘big score’ and instead, opted to take a longer-term approach to theft from the casino. Taylor was so successful, in fact, that he ended up earning the moniker ‘Mr. Casino’. His targets of choice were the high-roller craps players. Richard masterminded a complex network of complicit dealers and players who allowed the smaller rule breaches to happen, apparently unnoticed to them. Richard’s

Continue reading →
Ella Rebecca Horton
Jun 29, 2020

More from Crime

Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Cold Light of Day (1989)

Presenting the murder biz of one Cranley Gardens serial killer, named Denis Nielsen in real life but having the handle of Jorden March (Bob Flag, sporting one hell of a wig) here in a move that just screams “We ain’t payin’ shit to use this asshole’s real name”, and his hapless (seriously, this dude just kills people… he doesn’t really know why he does it, the cops never really figure it out, and besides a drop of childhood trauma the film never really seems to give a damn either) journey through a wicked wonderland of diabolical dismemberment. Speaking of which, the gritty pseudo-real aesthetic that permeates this fright flick is undoubtedly the greatest asset it possesses, as it’s gritty, unpolished visuals give the affair (an endless parade of picking up male victims that won’t be missed, followed by the hoary ol’ chestnuts of sex and murder… all of which are presented in an unglamorous, nearly mundane manner) a near documentary

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Oct 16, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: ivansxtc (2000)

ivansxtc begins the only place it could; the end. You see star Hollywood agent Ivan Beckham (30 Days of Night‘s Danny Huston) has died of lung cancer, which shocks his co-workers who would have bet that his demise would have been from the absolutely bonkers amount of drugs n’ booze he quaffed on the regular. Speaking of that wild life, we see Ivan’s last days laid bare via flashback ya dig… and what days they were; full of high-stakes Peter Weller-focused wheelin’ and dealin’, static from his girlfriend Charlotte (Lisa Enos), family and client drama… and of course plenty of full on illicit substance fueled hanky-panky! A raw as hell blend of Hollywood excess and Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illyich, ivansxtc posses an almost documentary feel, and that brings us closer to the titular character’s swirling insanity than we may be comfortable with. Shot on digital video by Bernard Rose (most famous for fright fans from his 1992 cinematic

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Dahmer (2002)

Remember when mother fuckin’ Hawkeye played (literal) man-eater Jeffrey Dahmer? Yeah, me freakin’ either… but he did, so here we are! The long and the short of Dahmer goes as follows: going out of his way to prove he’s no Willy fuckin’ Wonka, chocolate factory worker Jeffrey Dahmer (Jeremy Renner) prowls Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for young male victims to turn into brain dead (and eventually dead dead) sexual playthings. Along the way, he reminisces about earlier murder biz, and his relationship with his pappy (Willard himself, Bruce Davison) who thinks something is off about his boy, but isn’t sure just what. It’s non-stop spills and thrills as we learn just what this serial killin’ scamp was up to before his ass got thrown in the hole forever and a day… Besides boasting a gritty, almost grindhouse style (in terms of aesthetic if not on screen carnage) the main draw to this flick is the performance of Renner who manages to make

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 9, 2020
Horror Fuel

Jackpots & Jailtime: The Greatest Casino Heists Of The 21st century

For most of us, a casino is a place of entertainment, thrills, and a chance to win big. However, for others, it can pose a very different opportunity altogether. In the past, before the days of advanced technology, casinos were locations that carried more money than a bank, scattered across roulette tables and in the bellies of slot machines. It’s no wonder, therefore, that they’ve seen some of the most daring heists committed inside their ornate halls. Here are just a few of the best. Mr. Casino Richard Taylor’s crimes were unique because he chose to avoid the ‘big score’ and, instead, opted to take a longer-term approach to theft from the casino. Taylor was so successful, in fact, that he ended up earning the moniker’ Mr. Casino.’ His targets of choice were the high-roller craps players. Richard masterminded a complex network of complicit dealers and players who allowed the smaller rule breaches to happen, apparently unnoticed to them. Richard’s

Continue reading →
Ella Rebecca Horton
Sep 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Black Test Car (1962)/The Black Report (1963)

Our putrid pals over at Arrow Video and MVD Entertainment have got a couple of flicks from Japanese maverick director Yasuzo Masumura that they are set to release on one lil’ ol’ Blu-ray; 1962’s Black Test Car, which deals with corporate espionage in the auto industry, and 1963’s The Black Report, which is a murder mystery affair. In Black Test Car we meet Asahina (Jiro Tamiya), who works at Tiger Motors, a company which is tryin’ like unholy hell to get a new car constructed and on the road before those sons of bitches at rival company Yamamoto Motors are any the wiser. Of course that’s going to be near impossible as their is a spy in Tiger’s outfit, and the company will go to great lengths to sniff ’em out! For a pic about rival auto companies, Black Test Car certainly is filled with a cast of cuthroat bastards, willing to do anything to get their company over. Honestly,

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 25, 2020
Horror Fuel

This September ‘The Silencing’ Will Have You On The Edge Of Your Seat

“Game of Thrones” actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars in the edge-of-your-seat thriller The Silencing out this September from Lionsgate. Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders,” The Mummy) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) also star in the film about “a reformed hunter (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and a sheriff (Annabelle Wallis) are caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse when they set out to track a killer who may have kidnapped the hunter’s daughter five years ago.” Directed by Robin Pront and written by Micah Ranum, The Silencing arrives on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on September 29, 2020. Check out the riveting trailer! BLU-RAY / DVD SPECIAL FEATURES Making The Silencing Creating a Weapon: The Silencing Spear

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 18, 2020
Horror Fuel

Stephen King Shares The Cover Of His New Novel ‘Later’

Stephen King took to Twitter this morning to reveal the retro cover of his upcoming novel Later. In the novel, “the son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine – as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.” #1 bestselling author Stephen King returns with a brand-new novel about the secrets we keep buried and the cost of unearthing them.” Later is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King’s classic

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 3, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection (1969 – 1972)

As you may infer from the name of this collection, Italian horror maestro Umberto Lenzi and Pennsylvania-born actress Caroll Baker worked on a film or four together… and my fabulous freaky fiends at Severin have boxed ’em up with plenty of extras and sent them out the diabolical door! Let’s kick off our look at The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection with 1969’s Orgasmo! High-maintenance and horny widow, Kathryn West(Baker), heads down Italy-way to shack up in her rich late old geezer’s posh-ass Villa. And there she stays, painting, lounging, being annoyed by her perpetually bitchy maid Theresa (a fantastic Lilla Brignone) and generally being bored off her tits. All that changes when equally horny, sports car enthusiast Peter Donovan (Lou Castel) breaks down right in front of our heroine’s front gate; an event that leads to some soggy sexcapades in a steamin’ hot shower (the water of which, must be noted, is drank by Donovan before he starts a-drillin’… “just

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 27, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Abrakadabra (2018)

A magician (German Baudino) finds himself at the mercy of a sadistic killer in Luciano Onetti and Nicolás Onetti’s (aided and abetted by co-writer/cinematographer Carlos Goitia) love letter to ’70s giallo flicks; Abrakadabra… one of the debut offerings from Cauldron Films, and what a debut it is cats n’ creeps! Now if the names of those two dudes up yonder sound familiar, they are the ones responsible for two other giallo-style flicks; 2013’s Sonno Profondo and 2015’s Francesca… and as they did with those flicks, they attempt to not merely homage the genre, the seek to replicate it 110% in Abrakadabra! To that end the screen is filled to bursting with what a giallo fan would expect, namely: bizarre fashions, outre set dressing (dolls, puppets, and more seek to unnerve the viewer), strange camera placement, a dash of kinky sex and gore, a painterly use of color and shadow… hell, they even make the film look as though the film

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 22, 2020
Horror Fuel

Jackpots And Jail Time: The Greatest Casino Heists Of The 21st Century

For most of us, a casino is a place of entertainment, thrills, and a chance to win big. However, for others, it can pose a very different opportunity altogether. In the past, before the days of advanced technology, casinos were locations that carried more money than a bank, scattered across roulette tables and in the bellies of slot machines. It’s no wonder, therefore, that they’ve seen some of the most daring heists committed inside their ornate halls. Here are just a few of the best. Mr. Casino Richard Taylor’s crimes were unique because he chose to avoid the ‘big score’ and instead, opted to take a longer-term approach to theft from the casino. Taylor was so successful, in fact, that he ended up earning the moniker ‘Mr. Casino’. His targets of choice were the high-roller craps players. Richard masterminded a complex network of complicit dealers and players who allowed the smaller rule breaches to happen, apparently unnoticed to them. Richard’s

Continue reading →
Ella Rebecca Horton
Jun 29, 2020
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