Fright Meter Awards 2015 - The Winners

Finally at last comes the very last post I will do about the Fright Meter Awards 2015 nominations. At the end of January the overall winners for each of the 13 categories were decided, for each of the winners I will include whether they were one I personally voted for or not just to try and make this a bit more interesting.

Best Horror Movie: It Follows 

I voted for this to win so was cool it did, It Follows really is such an original film.

Best Director: David Robert Mitchell (It Follows)

I actually voted for Ted Geoghegan (We Are Still Here) but don't mind at all David winning that one.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Mark Duplass (Creep)

I voted for him to win and am very happy he did, he is superb in Creep, well deserved.

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Nadia Hilker (Spring)

Another one I voted for, both the lead actors in Spring were pretty great.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Leigh Whannell (Cooties)

Again the one I chose, his character is so weird but has all the best lines.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Deanna Dunagan (The Visit)

And again another one. There really was no other choice for this category as Dunagan was stunning and made a very average film more bearable to watch.

Best Screenplay: The Final Girls

I voted for What We Do In The Shadows, it's a shame it didn't win as personally I think The Final Girls is over rated and wastes a lot of the potential it had with the central plot.

Best Make Up: Bone Tomahawk

I voted for Crimson Peak, I don't feel Bone Tomahawk's make up was anything special but I guess I don't mind it winning.

Best Special Effects: Crimson Peak

Stung was my choice, I just did not think the special effects of the ghosts in Crimson Peak were even remotely good and so I couldn't in good faith give that a vote.

Best Score: It Follows

Glad this won, it was a great year for film soundtracks but this one fitted the tone of It Follows perfectly.

Best Editing: Unfriended

Once again one of mine, Unfriended could have been terrible but it works thanks in no small part to genius editing.

Best Cinematography: It Follows

I voted for Crimson Peak but do not mind at all that It Follows picked up yet another win.

Best Short Horror Film: Chomp

The Package was my choice, frankly I think Chomp was god awful, no idea why people seemed to like it so much, it's dull as dishwater and nowhere near as funny as it thinks it is.

So out of the 13 categories 7 of the ones I wanted to win did win, a landslide victory for It Follows. I can now finally shut up about the Fight Meter Awards until next December!

The Voices (2014) - Horror Film Review

The Voices is a bizarre black comedy that mixes elements of Psycho with Dr. Doolittle. Ryan Reynolds who stars in it is up for nomination in the 2015 Fright Meter Awards and so was yet another film I had to see for that process.

Reynolds plays Jerry; a friendly loner who has suffered with severe mental health problems in the past. He sees a psychotherapist but unknown to her he has stopped taking his medication and so hears voices, mostly that of his evil cat Mr Whiskers (voiced by Reynolds), and his good natured dog Bosco (again Reynolds). After accidentally killing co-worker Fiona (Gemma Arterton) Jerry starts to question if he should give into his instincts and kill again, or if he should strive to be normal.

We Are Still Here (2015) - Horror Film Review

We Are Still Here is a horror film that is up for a variety of nominations for the 2015 Fright Meter Awards (yup, I'm still banging on about that). It is a ghost story with a slight twist to it that takes place in the 1970's.

Anne (Barbara Crampton) and Paul Sacchetti (Andrew Sensenig) are a grieving couple who recently lost their teenage son in a car accident and have moved out to the countryside to start a new life. Anne starts to witness unexplainable events in her new home and comes to believe their son Bobby's spirit is with them, and so invites her psychic hippy friend and her husband Jacob (Larry Fessenden) to come check out the property. However it soon becomes clear that an evil presence resides in the house, one that wants to kill all who enter...

Headless (2015) - Horror Film Review

Headless has been designed to look like a lost exploitation film of the 1970's, it has low quality camera work which constantly rips and crackles while the special effects and acting quality is also of the type expected for a lost film. Keeping with the tone of the time it even begins with a trailer for a fake film; Wolf Baby. Headless itself started off as a fake movie within the film Found (2012)

Set in America during the 1970's a skull mask wearing serial killer (Shane Beasley) goes around kidnapping young woman to torture and then kill them by cutting off their heads. He then keeps the heads in order to perform necrophilic acts on them as well as eat the eyeballs. As he goes about his daily routine there are frequent flashbacks that show just how he came to be the way he is.

Deathgasm (2015) - Comedy Horror Film Review

And here I thought I was all done with watching films for the Fright Meter Awards, it turns out there are around seven or eight films that have made it to the nomination stage that I haven't actually seen yet, and with it being the months end as the cut off point for putting in my vote I have time to try and see them. Deathgasm is a New Zealand film that revolves around heavy metal.

Milo Cawthorne stars as Brodie; a metal obsessed teen who winds up in a sleepy New Zealand town living with his God obsessed Uncle and Auntie and their bully son David after family troubles. He soon becomes friends with the school losers Dion and Giles, and a local rebel named Zakk (James Blake) as well as catching the eye of attractive Medina (Kimberley Crossman) who just so happens to be David's girlfriend. Zakk and Brodie manage to end up with a bizarre music manuscript which they decide to use as a song for their metal band Deathgasm. After a day from hell and discovering the music is alleged to be able to grant magical powers from Satan Brodie plays the song and unwittingly brings demonic apocalypse to the town. Now he and his friends have till 3am to find a way to stop a powerful demon from being summoned to Earth to destroy humanity...

Pod (2015) - Horror Film Review

With Pod I have finally seen all the films I wanted to see before making my nominations for this years Fright Meter Awards. If you are a regular reader of my blog then I am sure that is music to your ears as these past few weeks I have not shut up about them.

After receiving a bizarre message on his answer phone from his brother; ex-soldier Martin (Brian Morvant) Ed (Dean Cates) and his alcoholic sister Lyla (Lauren Ashley Carter) travel up to the remote lakeside house where Martin lives to have an intervention. In the past Martin has suffered mental health problems and it is feared he has relapsed. Upon arriving a manic and babbling Martin warns his siblings that he has captured something he calls a 'pod' and has it locked up in the basement. Is what Martin saying true, or as the family suspect has he gotten ill again?

Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard (2015) - Zombie Horror Film Review

I just have two more films I want to watch before making my nominations for the 2015 Fright Meter Awards, unfortunately the film I chose to watch today was Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard. Now I just have to mention unfaithful box covers once again, the front cover for the DVD was fine enough but the back showing a group of soldiers against the back drop of a ruined city...there is not even a hint of any sort of city in this film, why must ruined cities always feature on low budget zombie film covers?

Zombie Killers takes place around six years after zombie apocalypse suddenly took over the world. The town of Elwood is a thriving community who live behind flimsy looking wire fences out in the countryside of America and is ruled over by Doc (Brian Anthony Wilson). It has survived by evicting any infected inhabitants and also from being protected by the self proclaimed Zombie Killers; a small group made up of young adults led by Seiler (Billy Zane). That's about it for plot, I mean there is some proper story eventually but it's so far into the film to say anything would be a spoiler.

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015) - Horror Film Review

I have always had a soft spot for the Tremors films and while none have ever matched the Kevin Bacon led first in the series they still have not been bad films. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins came out over ten years ago and was a prequel so I didn't know what to expect from this new entry in the franchise.

Burt Gummer (Michael Gross; the only actor to appear in all five films as well as the short lived TV series) now works as a professional monster hunter who is called to a wildlife preserve in South Africa along with his new cameraman Travis (Jamie Kennedy) by Erich Van Wyck as it is feared the monsters that have plagued Gummer before have appeared in the area. In the Tremors universe the monsters of the piece go through three stages, there are the Graboids (huge worm type creatures), Shriekers (bipedal beasts), and finally the Ass-Blasters (who use their internal gases to fly), it is the Ass-Blasters who are thought to have appeared. With Van Wyck's motivations not being at what they first seemed, and with the South African monsters having evolved differently it is up to Gummer and Travis to save the day.

Zombieworld (2015) - Zombie Horror Film Review

The box art was enough for me to tell Zombieworld was going to be a bad film, but as it had zombies in it and was a contender for this years Fright Meter Awards I gave it a watch regardless. It is a compilation of thirteen different zombie stories ranging from the ridiculous to the serious, most of which were pretty consistent in low quality. I will do a mini review of each of the films on offer so may seem like a weird post.

The concept for the piece is that it is 2013 and undead apocalypse has occurred. TV reporter Marvin Gloatt (the talented Bill Oberst Jr. in a wasted role) is broadcasting on the last on air channel and isn't even going to let a zombie bite stop his constant reporting. Each of the short stories is billed as a different report from around the world. Dark Times is a P.O.V short that has civilians running away from an incident into woodland, eventually the person who we are seeing the film from is killed and comes back as a zombie. This was kind of novel but not too exciting, though there was an amusing scene with a guy armed with a golf club.

Bound to Vengeance (2015) - Horror Film Review

I have seen so many horror films this month, it really has reignited by passion for the genre, Bound to Vengeance is another such film that I utterly adored. It is a revenge fantasy in the vein of Last House on the Left and Julia.

This movie starts where many end with the heroine of the piece; Eve (Tina Ivlev) managing to escape from her captor after having been kept chained up as a sex slave for the past six months. As she goes to kill him however he reveals a chilling secret, she was not the only girl he had captured and should he die the locations of the other victims will never be known. Rather than going to the police (and likely due to temporary madness on her part) she decides to take the man captive and have him drive around town to all the various places the other captives are at. Each new place brings with it darker and darker revelations with Eve slowly losing the remaining grip on her sanity...

Dead Rising: Watchtower (2015) - Zombie Horror Film Review

I really wasn't expecting much when sitting down to watch Dead Rising: Watchtower, after all not only was it straight to video but it is based on a video game and movies of games are generally terrible (House of the Dead and Doom springs to mind). For once however it seems someone has actually played the source material as this is chock full of references and nods.

Watchtower takes place between Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 3 (both of which I have only partially played). In this world zombie outbreaks have occurred previously (the events of the first two games in the series) but there is a prevention in the form of Zombrex; an anti-virus injection that must be administered every 24 hours. Chase Carter (Jesse Metcalfe) is a small time reporter and has entered a quarantine zone in Oregon with his camerawoman Jordan in order to do a story on the treatment of the infected. However while he is there a new zombie outbreak occurs, the Zombrex no longer seems to be working and infected are turning into the living dead at an alarming rate. Jordan escapes to a military blockade but Chase becomes trapped in the zone where he teams up with an infected woman named Crystal (Meghan Ory) and soon realises there is more to the events than at first seems...

Let Us Prey (2014) - Horror Film Review

Coincidentally this is the second film in a week I've seen that involves a police woman on her first day at her new station, the first being Last Shift. Let Us Prey is the opposite end of the pond though taking place as it does in a small town in Scotland.

Pollyanna McIntosh stars as Rachel Heggie; a policewoman who has recently been transferred for unknown reasons to a small Scottish town. On her first night she soon discovers the station she is to work at is staffed by a trio of corrupt and sadistic officers who make it clear right away that they do not like her. A mysterious man (Liam Cunningham) ends up being locked up in the cells who seems to have a strange power, he is able to see into the souls of anyone he comes in contact with and see their darkest secrets. It seems the eight people; both police and prisoners alike have been drawn together for a reason and that by the time midnight comes around this reason will be revealed...

Some Kind of Hate (2015) - Horror Film Review

Becoming a catch phrase of mine but it is another day and another possible contender for the Fright Meter Awards watched, this time it was the ghostly slash em up Some Kind of Hate. While I didn't enjoy this movie it was refreshing to give a review score that wasn't six or seven out zombie heads out of ten for once!

After striking back at the bully who has made teenager Lincoln Taggert's (Ronen Rubinstein) school life hell for several years the loner is sent to a reform school out in the middle of nowhere. Though he makes a few friends including ex cheerleader Kaitlin (Grace Phipps) he soon comes under attack from a new set of bullies. After a beating Lincoln retreats to a restricted area of the compound where his angry cries summon the extremely angry spirit of Moira; a girl whose bullying led to her death. Moira agrees to help the boy get revenge but her methods are deadly and he discovers that there seems no way to stop her murderous rampage...

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014) - Zombie Comedy Horror Film Review

Another day another Fright Meter Awards contender watched, though today it was actually a zombie film and so more relevant than usual to The Rotting Zombie. Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead is an Australian horror comedy that as the title hints at is mostly a road movie.

After a strange meteor shower takes place people begin changing into undead ghouls with seemingly no pattern to who becomes infected and who doesn't. Benny (Leon Burchill) is out on a hunting trip in the bush with his two brothers who both turn, meanwhile after receiving a desperate phone call from his sister Brooke (Bianca Bradey) warning of the unfolding chaos Barry and his wife and young daughter flee the city to head out to the country. Along the way he is forced to kill his family. Eventually Benny and Barry meet up and with an armoured car powered by zombie blood they start off on a mission to find Brooke, but what they don't realise is that she has been captured by the corrupt army and has been experimented on...

Last Shift (2014) - Horror Film Review

Another day and another film that happens to be up for nomination for the annual Fright Meter Awards, though coincidental this time as I was sent the film for review anyway. Last Shift was written by Anthony Diblasi and Scott Polley while it was also directed by DiBlasi, I loved the idea behind this one and so hoped it would live up to the potential.

Juliana Harkavy (The Walking Dead) stars as Jessica Loren; a rookie cop whose on her first night of the job. Her first assignment is simple, she is to perform the last shift alone at a police station that is due to close the next day, everyone else is already based at the new one but someone was needed to wait for the hazardous waste crew who are due to show up sometime in the night to collect left over hazardous evidence. Things start to go wrong almost immediately with a crazy homeless man who keeps breaking in, then later things take a turn for the weirder with doors opening on their own and objects moving around. Not wanting to embarrass herself on her first day on the job she tries her best to ignore all this but soon she has no option but to confront her fears, but is this just part of an elaborate hazing ritual or is something more decidedly supernatural occurring?

WolfCop (2014) - Horror Comedy Film Review

Out of all the many classic movie monsters it is werewolves that are by far my least favourite type, I just find something inherently unexciting about them, too animal like and not monster enough. WolfCop is another film I brought based on the fact it had been getting some love on the Fright Meter Awards committee member page, though the fact this is a comedy made me hope it would be better than what the genre usually offers.

Leo Fafard stars as Lou Garou; an alcoholic washed up cop in a small town that has been over run with crime. One night while investigating reports of a disturbance out in some woodland Lou is ambushed by some shadowy figures, coming to he finds it is morning and he is back at home, though has a strange pentagram carved into his chest. He returns to his wasted life but the next night under the light of a full moon something horrifying happens, Lou is somehow now a werewolf! Using his new found strength and sense of smell he sets out to clean up his town, but it seems that whoever caused him to become a werewolf in the first place has some sinister plans in store for him...