Book Review: Seed by Ania Ahlborn

Check out my review of SEED by Ania Ahlborn over at Words From the Vein, Dave's Horror's other site strictly for book reviews. Here's the link:

http://wordsfromthevein.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-review-seed-by-ania-ahlborn.html

Movie Review: Creature

ARGGGHHH!!! Will somebody tell me right now just how this movie made it into theaters?! After seeing the trailer for Creature, I thought, OK, might be a little cheesy but it could be fun. Holy hell, I couldn't have been more wrong!

Terror has teeth?! TERROR HAS TEETH?! ARGGGHHHH! It took so long to see these so-called teeth I stopped caring by the time I did! This movie is an hour and a half of pure crapola. The monster is THE worst thing I've ever seen and the characters just can't die quickly enough for my tastes. Man, everything about this movie sucked, with the exception of Sid Haig, of course. In fact, the three hillbillies, of which Haig is one, are the ONLY things about this move that are half-decent. The twenty-something soon-to-be victims are so cardboard it's ridiculous.

This movie should have been titled, "Creature... That Slowly Stands from a Squat." Because that's ALL this creature does! Every time they show him, he's slowly rising from a squat. Sometimes he has some kind of turtle shell or something on top of him and sometimes he doesn't. What, does he carry that thing around like a cape or something? And that's not even the worst of it. When the creature growls or makes one of its other imposing noises, it does so without moving its mouth! Instead of killing swamp people, this mo-fo could have had a great career as a ventriloquist.

Creature is so bad, it shouldn't even be considered for one of Syfy's Saturday Night movies! In fact, this thing makes some of Syfy's offerings look like freaking Lord of the Rings! It doesn't even fit in the "it's so bad it's good" category. I'm telling you, I haven't been this pissed off after seeing a movie in ages. What a terrible waste of time this movie is. If you have a hankering to see an old back-Bayou killer movie, try Hatchet, or even Venom, as they are far superior to this swampy turd (and that's saying something!).

I give Creature a big fat alligator egg, 0 out of *****.

Check out the trailer for Creature below.

Movie Review: Chawz

If there's one thing I can't get enough of, it's monster movies, but more in particular, Asian monster movies. In recent years, Korean filmmakers have reintroduced us to the beauty of mutant monster movies, something that we here in the U.S. haven't produced successfully since the 50s and 60s. These movies are supposed to be light on scares and big on fun. Case in point, Chawz!

The story follows a young police officer from Seoul who gets transferred to a small rural community, much to his chagrin. After his arrival, the body parts start piling up and the previously peaceful village has now become a haven for death and dismemberment conducted by a renegade mutant boar with a voracious appetite -- for human flesh! Eventually a world-famous hunter is called in, and along with the crazy police force, they set out to kill the beast. The only bad thing is they're completely unprepared for the job.

Written and directed by Shin Jung-Won, Chawz knows not to take itself too seriously and that's a good thing. All throughout the movie, there are laugh-out-loud moments and Korean cinema's trademark crazy characters, like the bumbling police force, the boastful hunter and the wacky female villager, that balance out the film perfectly. And, as you can see in the pic below, the cannibalistic boar doesn't look too bad either.

Is Chawz perfect? No. But it is funny, exciting and a lot of fun to watch. And while it is a monster movie, the allure of Chawz has more to do with the human characters rather than the spectacle of the beast, which also kicks ass by the way. I give Chawz **** out of *****.

Movie Review: Bereavement

Being a lover of director Stevan Mena's Malevolence, I was excited to see his latest film, Bereavement. This film is actually a prequel to Malevolence, which came out back in 2004, which is quite a lengthy span between the films, hence the fact that very little is mentioned about the first film in this one's promotions. While Bereavement works as a stand alone slasher movie for those unfamiliar with Malevolence, having seen it does add to the world in which this one takes place and we get to see how the killer in Malevolence becomes so, well, malevolent.

Bereavement is a very slow burn of a movie and for me, it never really caught fire. It does have plenty of things going for it, however. For starters, the movie has stunning cinematography and aptly creepy music which adds to the thick, heavy atmosphere that permeates the movie. This is a serious horror movie in which the consequences are very real. There are no stupid jokes here to help lighten the mood, folks, this is old school torture horror. There's even violence to children in this film, it's so doggone dark. But, like I said, the consequences are real and the violence is no joke.

My biggest problem with Bereavement is that I just didn't care for any of the characters. Michael Biehn and his entire family just didn't do it for me. I don't know why, but that's the truth of it. So, when things turn from bad to worse, I didn't find myself caring much. I was thinking, "Man, this is a really long movie!"

So, that said, Bereavement is not a completely bad movie, just like it is not a really good movie. It has its good points and its bad. In fact, it's the most middle-of-the-road movie I've seen in a long time. In the end, I give Bereavement **1/2 out of *****.

Movie Review: Spiderhole

Let's start this review off by taking a look at the quote offered on Spiderhole's promo, "If you liked Hostel and Saw, you'll like Spiderhole." Oh those crazy editors, it's supposed to read, "If you like Hostel and Saw's grimy environments, then you MIGHT like Spiderhole."

Spiderhole is about four Brit thirty-something teenagers who are looking for a nice cozy and abandoned place to call home for a while. In other words, they're squatters. They happen upon this one place that seemingly looks perfect, but alas, is anything but. One by one, they're targeted and set upon by some behind-the-scenes madman.

So, these clowns, oh, I mean kids, start looking around the place that's going to be home. For some reason the greasy-haired leader doesn't want to search the place top to bottom, he says he scoped out the joint previously. Then, somebody opens a cabinet and blood-covered clothes and shoes fall out. Queue the "everybody freakout, we gotta get outta here, the leader convinces everybody to chill out and go to sleep" scene. Yeah, I mean, what's so bad about some blood covered clothing, right? Goodnight, see you in the morning. From this point on, Spiderhole starts slipping down the spiderhole.

As they wake up, they discover that somebody barred the door and now, they're trapped inside the building. Nevermind that when the one kid hits a window filled up with bricks that the bricks totally MOVE; he gives up and kicks the wall. Nevermind one girl gets a massive cut on her leg and you have no idea how or when she got it except when she tells the others she got it when looking in some other room she somehow explored while she never left our sight. Then, there's a horrible sequence that looks like segments of film got put together in the wrong sequence during editing. You're literally left asking, "is the killer in front of her or not? No, wait, now she's in a chair, no, now she's removing balusters, wait, wasn't the killer right in front of her a minute ago?"

Spiderhole is a film that had tremendous promise if it was done right, but sadly, it falls flat on its face. The trailer for this thing makes it look awesome, but sadly, it sucks big time. I hope this thing puts the final nail in the sadistic surgeon coffin bit, because it's starting to reek.


Spiderhole only gets * out of *****. Check out the preview below, but don't get caught in its web, this movie is pretty, pretty bad.

Short Film Review: The Water's Edge

If you please, I'm going to ask you to take out a piece of paper and a pencil or some other writing instrument. Now I want you to write down this name - Chris Thomas. Why am I asking you to do this? Because his short film, The Water's Edge, is so frickin' fantastic I have no doubt in the world that you're going to be seeing this kid's name on the big screen very, very soon. In fact, everybody that worked on this thing will have a very successful future in film if I have anything to say about it.

Chris contacted me the other day and asked if I would watch his film and give him a review and man, am I glad he did. The Water's Edge is stark, rife with tension and mesmerizing. The fact that he's just out of film school and this is what he came up with blows me away. Everything about this movie is on target, from the sparse but ever-so-effective sound design to the main character's emotional performance to the cinematography to the editing, everything works beautifully.

According to Chris, The Water's Edge is "set in an alternate vision of the future. Robert Stenuit struggles to survive alone in a dark barren environment while seeking human contact. However, he must avoid the threats that surround him. A visual interpretation of German literary romanticism, with elements of melancholy and the sublime. Influenced by the early sci-fi and horror films."

I can't begin to express just how powerful this short film is. It's a tale of one man's lonesome journey through a land of isolation and hopeful wanting. You see it on Robert's face, you feel it in the slate rock that covers the barren landscape where the only sounds he hears are the blowing wind and the crunching of the slate under his tattered shoes and you know it by sight because it's a feeling we've all felt at one time or another in our lives. 

The Water's Edge is currently playing in select film festivals so if you see it listed, GO SEE IT!! I give The Water's Edge an enthusiastic ***** out of *****. I just can't say how much I loved this film and if there's any justice in the world, we'll see a feature length version of this thing in the near future. Check out the trailer below.





The Water's Edge. Teaser Trailer (2011) from Chris Thomas (CT) on Vimeo.

A Lot of Catching Up to Do

I know I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of recent reviews, so to help save time for the time being, here's a quick run down of a few books and movies that I have recently read or seen, in no particular order:

Books

First, I'm completely hooked on Shana Hammaker's short story series, Twelve Terrifying Tales for 2011. There's not a month that goes by that I'm not waiting patiently for her next tale. Here's where we're at thus far with Shana's work:

Charlie - *****
Border Crossing - *****
North of Forks - *****
Metamorphosis - *****
Souls, Inc. - *****
Teeth: A Fable - *****

Next, here are a few other novels I've recently read:

Dark Fiction by David Kempf - ** - Kempf has a really good premise in this book but the sheer number of seven word sentences tends to make this a laborious read that make sit feel like he's dictating the story rather than letting it flow smoothly.

Ancient Awakening and Ancient Enemies (Volume 2) by Matthew Bryan Laube - ***1/2 and ***1/2 - I love Laube's Ancient series. His stories are fast paced, fun and exciting. They each could have easily gotten four stars if they had been edited a little better. Even still, I can't wait for the next chapter in this exciting tale.

Dead Sea by Brian Keene - **** - What more can I say about Brian Keene? He's awesome and Dead Sea doesn't disappoint on its promise of nasty zombie action.

Abominable by William Meikle - **1/2 - I loved the thought behind Meikle's short story, Abominable, but I really didn't like the narrator of this yarn.

Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon - ***** - Another brilliant book from Mr. McCammon! In my opinion, one of the best writers working today.

Serial by Jack Kilborn and Jake Crouch - ****1/2 - What a fun, nasty little tale this one is!

Monster by A. Lee Martinez - ***1/2 - This was one of the funniest books I've read since Good Omens. The ending left me a little wanting but it was one heck of a fun ride getting there.

Star Wars: Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber - **** - Zombies in outer space, in the Star Wars universe... what else could an 80s-era teen ask for?

Movies

True Grit (2010) - ****
Paranormal Entity - **
House of Fears - ***
8213: Gacy House - **
Night of the Demons - ***
Suspect Zero - ***
Deadfall Trail - *
Blood Creek - *
Crimson Rivers - ****
Drive Angry - ****
Black Death - ****
Skyline - ***
Prowl - **
Monsters - ****
Pandorum - ***

CD Review: Sins of the Past by The Young Werewolves

First, I want to apologize to The Young Werewolves because they sent me this CD for review a while ago but due to some issues in my life I wasn't able to get the review up until now. Sins of the Past is the third album by the Philadelphia trio and like their previous effort, Cheat the Devil, they have churned out another excellent disc filled with rock-n-rollicking tunes.

To put it simply, Sins of the Past is fast, fun and the ideal CD for any horror-themed party. With songs like Zombie Prom, Twelve Steps to Rock N Roll, Midnight Monster Hop and their own rendition of Rock Lobster, there's no way to stop yourself from hitting the dance floor. They also stay true to their 50's rock inspiration on this album, especially in tunes like In the Shadows, The Dreamtime, Damned if You Dare and Hot Rod Burnin'. But without a doubt, their song Generation Breakdown is the star of this disc.


Sins of the Past sees The Young Werewolves musically maturing and evolving naturally into their prime. The disc is expertly produced, the songs are well written and brilliantly performed. Wolfman Nick Falcon, Jonny Wolf and the lovely Shewolf Dana Kain have produced one fine sounding CD and one of the best rockabilly records in the past year and a half. Great job guys!

Sins of the Past gets the full complement -- ***** out of *****. I just love this record! Pick up a copy and start dancing to the ghoulishly groovy sounds of THE YOUNG WEREWOLVES! AAAROOOOOOOOO!

Book Review: Luminous and Ominous by Noah K. Mullette-Gillman

When I originally read the synopsis of Luminous and Ominous by Noah K. Mullette-Gillman, I must admit I had my doubts. I mean, beautifully colored plants overtaking the planet and bringing on an extinction-level event? It doesn't exactly sound like it would work. But, for a number of reasons, it does!

Luminous and Ominous is a story about a group of friends and the decisions they have to make when it becomes evident that the world is ending. Who do they save when there's only a limited amount of time and space? What items do they take with them? What do they do when the people and the world around them change? Noah K. Mullette-Gillman brings us a very realistic look at these grim realities and that's what sets this story apart and what makes it so special. While the circumstances might be fantastic, the reactions are realistic and that's why this book works so well. You see, Noah never lies to us.

Noah fills his story with believable characters, strong and realistic dialogue (a little heavy on the exclamation points early on in the story, but that's me just picking) and a most interesting alien infestation. From his vivid descriptions of the plant-like invader to its strange and wonderful insects and animal-like hybrids, Luminous and Ominous is a fun read that plays in your mind just like a movie, sort of like a technicolor version of The Road, except this story made a better movie in my mind than film version of The Road actually was.

If you're a fan of horror survival fiction and you're looking for something new and different, you're going to want to read this book. It's unique, refreshing and pretty damn good. I give Luminous and Ominous **** out of *****.

And thanks Noah, here I thought I was the only one who has this sorta weird belief that the end of the world wouldn't be that bad of a thing. Maybe it comes from living in New Jersey. Pick up Luminous and Ominous for your Kindle and read it for yourself.

Short Story Review: Charlie by Shana Hammaker

Charlie is the first short story in Shana Hammaker's short thriller series, Twelve Terrifying Tales for 2011 and let me tell you, you're going to be hearing a lot from Ms. Hammaker if I have anything to do with it because this is one fantastic read! You know, writing a short story is a specific art form all its own and not many writers can accomplish this feat successfully, but so far (and I've read three of Ms. Hammaker's stories thus far) I can tell you that she has it down pat.

First off, I want to thank Ms. Hammaker for writing such a well crafted and thrilling story, but perhaps even more importantly, this thing sparkled off the page with such clarity I was almost caught off guard. Allow me to explain. A few months ago, I bought my first Kindle, and to be honest, I'm addicted to the thing. However, there's one thing that drives me absolutely crazy about the e-book craze -- so many authors are rushing to get their stories out to the public that a little thing called editing is getting thrown to the wayside. Misspelled words, absent periods and terrible grammar have plagued many of the e-books I've read. That is, until I read Shana Hammaker. Shana's stories are professionally written and error-free which is truly refreshing to me. I just wanted to mention this because it tells me she really puts a lot into her work and I, for one, appreciate that.

Anyway, back to Charlie. Charlie focuses on a woman named Alex who finds a corpse in the basement of her newly purchased home. He wasn't there when she closed on the house, but the poor dead guy got there somehow. Now, as if finding the dead guy in your home isn't bad enough, it gets worse when "Charlie," as she eventually names him, starts popping up again and again. Who is Charlie and why does he keep coming back? The answer is going to surprise you.

Shana Hammaker fills her debut story with expertly-crafted characters, gorgeously realistic dialogue and a flurry of fine details other writers wish they were able to create. The fact that she does this in a short story is all the more impressive.

Take my advice and start reading Shana Hammaker's short stories. They're beautifully written, fun and fast, and yeah, a little disturbing, but that's the way I like it! I give Charlie ***** out of *****. Order it from Amazon today, it's under a buck for crying out loud!

Movie Review: Sucker Punch

Has there been a movie with more anticipation than Zak Snyder's Sucker Punch? I mean this movie is going to be like every fanboy's wet dream, right? You've seen the eye catching stills, you've watched the incredible looking trailer dozens of times and now the movie finally arrives and... well, hmmm.

This review is going to be a little different than my usual because I really don't know what to think about this film. I want to like it, I really do, and sometimes I do, but there is so much wrong with the movie that I find myself leaning the other way as well.

For starters, I thought the special effects were a little less special than I was expecting. Zak Snyder is sorta known for his visual prowess and all that but there's nothing here we haven't seen before and to be honest, a lot of these effects look pretty poorly done. The dragon, for one thing, looks far, far worse than say the dragon in Reign of Fire which was made nine frickin' years ago! The three giant Japanese warriors in the film's first battle sequence were also terribly animated. On the other hand, the part with the German steam soldiers was absolutely fantastic.

In the end, this film suffers from too much animation done way too poorly for my tastes. Now don't get me wrong, I like animation to a degree but it should not leave you thinking, "That's lousy CGI," while you're watching it.

As far as the story goes, there's a good premise here but I felt no connection with characters whatsoever. Sure, they were nice to look at, but at the end of the day I wasn't emotionally involved in Sucker Punch at all. It felt like I was just sitting there watching it. I hate to say it, but that's pretty much what I was expecting anyway, after all, Zak Snyder movies are more style than substance and by now we should all know that going in. What I was excited about was that this was going to be an audio and visual assault on the senses and ultimately while it was a spectacle, it was a poorly executed one.

Sadly, Sucker Punch gets **1/2 out of *****.

Book Review: Frankenstein Lives Again! by Donald F. Glut

Every so often, you can come across something that takes you back to a time when you were young and full of hope. A time when you looked at certain things with wide-eyed wonder. I can remember times like this, sitting alongside the creek, fishing pole in hand, chewing a huge wad of gum and a comic book or some other book sticking out of the back pocket of my pants. Odds are whatever book it was, it was swollen and warped to no end from being exposed to rain and God knows what else, but you know what? That book was special. It was your own personal escape to another place, another time, another world.

My reason for bringing this up is because as we age, that sense of wonder and excitement slowly degrades. Suddenly, we're adults and we have so much to worry about, we lose all appreciation for those tiny treasures. Well, as I was reading Frankenstein Lives Again! by Donald F. Glut, I have to say, those feelings came rushing back! Of course, I was reading this one on my Kindle, so needless to say, I wasn't sitting along the creek with it hanging out of my back pocket.

Frankenstein Lives Again! is unabashedly a fun book an one that sweeps you away just like those pulp books of yesteryear. And that's exactly what this book is -- pulp! It comes to us from Pulp 2.0, the brilliant publishing house that's striving to keep classics like this available for those of us looking for an escape to lands of adventure filled with busty beauties, evil professors, mad monsters and high flying adventure.

This is the first in a series of reprints labeled The New Adventures of Frankenstein, so there are many more supposedly in the pipeline and I for one am pretty thrilled about that. This is a fast and easy read that doesn't skimp on fast moving adventure. But, let's be frank, this is not Shakespeare (nor Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley for that matter) we're dealing with here, as some of the dialogue is kind of silly, but that's part of this genre's charm, isn't it? If you loved watching Saturday afternoon monster movies on television, or if you got excited every time Abbott and Costello Meet the Wolfman was on Sunday morning or if you were a fan of pulp stories of old, then you're going to love what Pulp 2.0 is doing and you're going to love Frankenstein Lives Again!

Now, on a side note, the copy I was given to review was a Kindle version of the book and it had an extraordinary amount of formatting flaws, but I am confident that by the time this book becomes available to the public that Pulp 2.0 will have these issues fixed.

That said, I had a blast enjoying the new adventures of Frankenstein and truly look forward to his and Pulp 2.0's upcoming adventures. I give Frankenstein Lives Again! **** out of *****.

Oh, and in case you need another reason to buy this book -- it only cost 99 cents for the Kindle!

Movie Review: Chain Letter

Chain Letter starts out extremely promising, but when I find myself not wanting to spoil the OPENING, that's when I know something went terribly wrong along the way. This story takes the old chain letter urban legend and gives it a nasty twist. If you don't pass the email chain letter to five others, you'll die within 24 hours. If you delete the chain letter, you die almost instantly! To boot, you got killed by some guy with a burned face using CHAINS, get it? Chain letter? Ugh!

Now, there are some pretty cool kill scenes in this movie, but this is one of those times when there's a ton of promise that gets wasted. This could have been a really good slasher film. Instead, we get a convoluted story, a group of 35-year old "teens" (none of which you really wind up liking), a ton of techno-terrorism theories and way too little of Brad Douriff. I mean, you have Brad Douriff in your movie, man, USE HIM, he's awesome!! I wonder who's brilliant idea it was to have the computer say "You've got chain letter email!"? Like the computer knows the difference between chain letters and regular email!

On a more positive note, I really liked the way the film was shot. The camera work and cinematography were pretty impressive and the look and sound design of the movie are well represented on blu ray. It's one of the more sparse blu ray discs I've ever seen as all it contains is the movie and the trailer, no special features to be found anywhere.

Like I said, this movie started out with a bang. The opening scene was expertly shot and really set a stage for the movie that it ultimately failed to live up to. At the end of the day, not much was revealed, too many questions were left unanswered and it wasn't good enough for me to care about finding out the answers should Chain Letter 2: The Missing Link (made up title) be made.

Chain Letter gets *1/2 out of *****. The one and a half stars go to Brad Douriff because he's AWESOME!!

Check out the trailer for Chain Letter below

DVD Review: Bikini Bloodbath Christmas

We've seen Bikini Bloodbath, Bikini Bloodbath Carwash and now, Thomas Edward Seymour and Jonathan Gorman bring us Bikini Bloodbath Christmas! This film continues the tradition founded in the first two to bring copious amounts of blood and boobies, but unlike the first two, this film has my hero -- Lloyd Kaufman -- in a hilarious cameo. It also features one of my other favorites, Debbie Rochon (although in a much less visible role than the first two features), so needless to say I would have watched anyway.

But what I loved the most about this film was the tour de force acting of one Mr. Dick Boland. Boland is a hilarious actor and he not only shows it here, but in Seymour's previous film, London Betty, as well. Also putting in a brilliantly funny job is Phil Hall, who plays a smarmy character named Gina Davis. I honestly don't know how this film got made because with those two guys acting like they do, I find it hard not to laugh just listening to how they talk.

Like the first two in the series, Bikini Bloodbath Christmas is not for the faint of heart, nor the overly religious, as it has a certain religious figure doing something nobody would ever imagine him doing. But that's how the minds of these guys work, and I for one, wouldn't have it any other way. I mean, how can a movie featuring an up-close visual of explosive diarrhea be bad?

While I did miss Debbie Rochon's lesbian Miss Johnson character, Phil Hall and Dick Boland made this movie irrevocably memorable for me. I give Bikini Bloodbath Christmas **** out of *****.

Check out the trailer below!



Or buy the DVD!!

Book Review: 33 A.D. by David McAfee

What if vampires were around when Jesus roamed the Jerusalem countryside? That's the premise we find in David McAfee's brilliant novel, 33 A.D. Now, I have to be honest. I bought this book for my Amazon Kindle not because I previously read Mr. McAfee's work, but because it was so damn inexpensive, I couldn't pass it up. I think I got it on sale for like 99 cents or something, but let me tell you, it was the best dollar I ever spent! This book is an action-packed extravaganza of entertainment.

McAfee's story introduces us to a society of vampires living in the age of Jesus. When one of the vampires decides to start following the teachings of this mysterious new Rabbi, the vampire elders send an assassin to dispatch the traitor and take out the Nazarene. What develops is an elaborate plot full of twists and turns that ensures the crucifixion of Jesus in what the vampires hope will eradicate his new threat. Filled with superb characters and crackling violence, this story doesn't relent until the final page is turned and once done, it leaves you wanting more. Thankfully, a sequel is in the works!

33 A.D. is hands-down one of my favorite reads of 2011 thus far. For a genre that's been all but drained of its blood, McAfee has managed to breathe some new life into it by concocting a fresh and original vision. Thanks for this excellent escape from reality Mr. McAfee, and I wait anxiously for your next chapter in this tale. 33 A.D. gets ***** out of *****.

Buy 33 A.D. for your Kindle for just $2.99 by clicking below!

Short Film Review: Gitchy

He'll make you laugh... till you DIE!! Now, how can you go wrong with a tag line like that? As writer/director Thomas Norman show us, you can't! Gitchy is a short horror/comedy that introduces us to a new independent horror icon, Gitchy the Clown. To be honest, I don't know what's more disturbing, Gitchy's look or the way he talks. When combined, this clown can be downright disturbing.

The plot goes like this: Since the untimely death of their parents, David and Kimberly have had a rough time of it. David has been experiencing mental breakdowns and visions of a 400-pound killer clown. In fact, he believes that his parents were tickled to death by the clown. Kimberly does her best to help David and even gets him professional help, but nothing stops his disturbing dreams. Eventually, everyone connected to David finds out that Gitchy the Clown is all too real.



Gitchy is a very well-made short film. The cinematography is excellent, the sound design is impressive and the pacing is spot on, especially for such a low-budget film and one that clocks in at 32 minutes to boot. The actors do their best, but it's ultimately Gitchy, played by Greg Gale, who steals the show. I think what was most impressive was that Norman took a bare-bones approach to his film, keeping blood and guts to a minimum while upping the ew-factor in more creative ways, like Gitchy's use of whipped cream and the ensuing toe lick. That scene still makes me shudder when I think about it.

All in all, I really liked this short film. It made me laugh, it made me shutter and perhaps most surprisingly, it made me feel like I watched a full length movie. It will be interesting to see what Thomas Norman and his crew do once they expand to long-form film. Gitchy tickles **** out of *****.

Check out the Gitchy trailer: