(Kimble Rendall)
After a tsunami hits the coast of Australia, a group of people become trapped in a supermarket - along with 2 great white sharks. Occasionally done in by it's low budget and shrewd digital 3D gimmicks, it nevertheless rises above to become a pretty fun, suspenseful time. Most of the shark effects work, and luckily most of the characters aren't too stupid. Featuring a slew of Aussie actors who appeared in other horror movies: Xavier Samuel (The Loved Ones), Sharni Vinson (the great Final Girl from You're Next) and Alex Russell (the Carrie remake). Though in all honesty, it's probably for the best I watched this before Crawl. GRADE: B
(Joel Schumacher, 2009)
A young West Virginian (Henry Cavill) and his veteran brother (Dominic Purcell) become entangled in a 70+ year curse dating back to when a farmer's family became captives by a doctor from the Third Reich. (It makes more sense in the actual movie.) We've already seen Nazi zombies from the much better Dead Snow and its sequel. While the premise of this shows promise, it ultimately doesn't deliver much other than a crop of man candy in their earlier roles. But, wow, was Henry Cavill terrible in this?!? Michael Fassbender and Shea Whigham also appear. GRADE: C
(Alexandre Aja, 2019)
A young swimmer and her father become trapped in their crawlspace as a hurricane sweeps through Florida. Bad enough, but there's a bunch of alligators down there with them. This wastes not a second of its 87 minute running time, and delivers the goods: jumps, genuine suspense, bloody wounds, fantastic sound design, and enough alligator action to last several movies. For being a relatively low budget feature, the alligator effects are pretty fantastic and believable. Aja's filmography is a bit inconsistent, but this is one of his best. Friendly reminder that another very good creature feature is the Aussie croc film Rogue. Double feature alert! With Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper. GRADE: B+
(Michael Gornick, 1987)
I watched the first film 10 years ago, and couldn't find the sequel on DVD for years. Well, as luck would have it, I got it this year. Not as star-studded as the first, the sequel shows three shorts. The first involves a trio of young robbers haunted by an item at the sight of their robbery. The second, and best, shows a quartet of college students stalked by a blob while on a raft in the middle of a lake. The third story is about a woman coming home from an affair, and haunted by a hitchhiker she injured. All three would barely be serviceable Tales From the Crypt episodes. A young Holt McCallany appears, as does George Kennedy. That's the extent of "stars". The first film was ahead of this one in that regard, at least. GRADE: C
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