Hate Crime Trailer Drops

A couple of months ago, I had the chance to see a film that is just now starting to hit festivals. It was a movie that destroyed me. Well, the trailer has finally dropped before it hits Pollygrind and some other fests. If you are interested of what I thought click here. A shirt has also been released that will make you feel dirty(in a good way) the first time you wear it. Click the photo to order, right after you watch the trailer below.

Kill List- Ben Wheatley

Kill List is a difficult film to categorize into a genre, as it has a myriad of elements from horror, drama and action, but overall I would categorize it as a very intense psychological horror movie. It follows an assassin turned family man by the name of Jay, who is pressured into taking a new assignment by his friend and cohort, Gal. As the nature of the task slowly unfolds throughout the movie, Jay becomes increasingly submerged into a trail of violence and confusion which lead up to a very memorable climax.
Does this sound familiar? Well, that's because it is, but it's a bit deceiving. Beyond the somewhat mundane premise, Kill List sets itself apart from the others quite easily. Wheatley maintains a very glum overtone where all of the relationships within the characters feel unsteady and ready to unravel at any moment. Kill List holds a calculated atmosphere that leaves you feeling uneasy from beginning to end as it slowly reveals details leading to some surprising conclusions. It's home to unexpected twists and turns, clever foreshadowing and bouts intense violence. I don't want to give away too much of this film as I think it's best served without much knowledge about it beforehand, but this is definitely one of the most surprisingly well-done films I've seen all year. Highly recommended.

4.5/5

Cody DeLarge

Grog Contest Number Three

As some may know I recently sold most of my DVD collection. It was not my first choice but I needed the cash and you do what you have to do. Well, I still have a few of the OOP or rare titles left. I was going to put them on Ebay but I thought it might be fun to give all my fellow horror lovers a chance to add them to their collection. Most of these discs go from forty to one hundred fifty a piece. Outside of that, they are all great films in my opinion. Because of the epicness of this prize I am going to have a few more rules than I usually do. Still simple. Just a few guidelines I guess.

1. Like the Guts and Grog FB or Twtter

2. In the comments section let me know your favorite article/list/review I have written. It can be anything listed on the site, that includes articles I have written on other sites which you can find in the "My shit elsewhere" section. You also need to leave your name and email address.

3. This is the big one. I will only pick a winner if there are at least fifty entries. So what I need from all of you is to share the hell out of this. Tell your friends, put it on all the social networking sites you can.



Well onto the goods.

Three Code Red titles: Madman, Rituals, and Nightmare.
Popcorn: OOP
Nekromantik: Barrel edition
Possession/Shock: Anchor Bay double feature
Murder Set Pieces- Directors cut: Very limited.


Going off Amazon prices that is around three hundred bucks worth of awesome. All you have to do is enter and share. Thanks for taking the time and good luck. If there are at least fifty entries by October 13th I will draw a lucky winner.


-Tromeric

Beyond The Black Rainbow- Panos Cosmatos

Here's the best description I can think of for this movie: If David Cronenberg directed his interpretation of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey with the 80's flare and soundtrack of Drive, then you would get Beyond the Black Rainbow.

That's really all you need to know. For some people that sentence will be exciting and for others it sounds terrible, and to be honest, it's kind of both depending on what you're looking for. Beyond the Black Rainbow is the film debut of director Panos Cosmatos and it's certainly interesting. It's vibrant, experimental, visually arresting, slow-paced, confusing, ambiguous and borderline pretentious at times, but it's definitely interesting. The story follows a girl named Elena who is held captive in a space-age 80's set called Arboria that looks directly out of a Stanley Kubrick film. Elena is heavily sedated and held hostage by a creepily monotone villain that is watching over her. Oh, and did I mention that Elena has a psychokinetic power to make your head explode a la Conenberg's Scanners? Well she does.

If this synopsis sounds confusing, it's because it is. It really doesn't shed much more light on the vague premise than that. Cosmos has chosen to take a style-over-substance approach to his film and I think it happens to work well. One spectacular scene in particular shows our villain downing a handful of pills while the wall behind him begins to melt like a bright red candle. It's scenes of visual imagination like this that make up for the lack of storytelling and characters in the story which makes it a pretty polarizing experience. If you enjoy films such as Enter the Void, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moon, The Fountain, etc. that tend to shine visually more than logically then I would definitely recommend checking this one out. Being buzzed is highly encouraged.

3.5/5

Cody DeLarge

V/H/S- Matt Bettinelli-Olpin/David Bruckner/Tyler Gillett/Justin Martinez/Glenn McQuaid/Joe Swanberg/Chad Villella/Ti West/Adam Wingard

V/H/S is a movie that I've been hearing about constantly lately and it's the newest installment in one of my favorite sub-genres of horror: the anthology. A group of indie horror directors (including the extremely promising Ti West) teamed up to create five short stories all based on the concept of found footage from a video camera, with a wraparound story of the same style to loosely tie them all together. Basically, a group of thieves are sent on a mission to obtain a VHS tape from a strangers house, only to find there is a corpse in the living room in front of a stack of static televisions. Naturally, the thieves decide to watch a few of the tapes, and thus, the short stories begin.

Personally, I've been burnt out on the found footage craze in horror for quite a while, but I found V/H/S to be a great balance between inventiveness and nostalgia, so I think it works in this case. All five of the stories vary somewhat in quality, but they all complement each other very well to make a great final product. One of my favorite things about this movie was how nostalgic it is. It clearly references classic 70's and 80's films, and the found footage dynamic reminded me of the golden era of seeing my favorite genre films on a fuzzy tape instead of the glossy high definition of today. It is also worth mentioning that the young unknown cast did an excellent job throughout the movie. Especially with this sub-genre, creating believable characters and conversations is essential and V/H/S clearly understood this. Like all found footage films, there is definitely some annoying filler to start all of the stories, but once they start they definitely kept my attention with eerie atmosphere and intense violence. If you want a fairly unique, edgy and entertaining new horror film, I think V/H/S would be a fine choice.



4/5


Cody DeLarge