Well, less than 10 months since I started this blog, I have to say, I'm taking my leave. Yes, very few, if any, updates will be posted on Body Horror Blog. I will be writing horror reviews for a site:
www.oh-the-horror.com
And I will probably still be writing articles for:
www.retroslashers.net
Tough. Though I knew it wouldn't last forever. With no strain to present something, and loose in the guidelines department, keeping this site circulated was a hard job. So I hope you'll join up at both OTH and RS. I'll still be Body Boy at the latter, but I'm thinking of sticking to Josh for the review site. It will be up and running very soon. Good luck, god bless, and stay away from those spices! They'll be the death of us all.
-Body Boy
Sunday, 10 February, 2008
Wednesday, 23 January, 2008
Just because...
Not every ratings screen is red (Duh!), just look:
Yes, this post is dedicated to my boredom.
Yes, this post is dedicated to my boredom.
Monday, 14 January, 2008
Evilspeak (1981)
Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard) is a social outcast at a strict military school who always gets picked on by fellow peers. They call him names, smash his belongings, and try to get him kicked off the soccer team. His teachers are no help, dismissing him as just a troubled teen who needs to learn some discipline. While cleaning out the cellar, Stanley stumbles upon an old book. 
It turns out to be a satanic diary of black magic, instructing how to bring back great evil from long ago. The evil is Esteban, a cult leader from the 1500s, who promises dark power for the person that resurrects him. The bullies soon learn how wrong it was to torment Coopersmith, as buckets of their blood seep across the school, the result of a demonic desire for revenge.
Howard’s performance is mostly solid, giving the audience sympathy as he befriends a puppy and tries to fit in. You get the feeling that this boy has already been through enough hell. He is not the least bit touchy on the subject of his parents’ deaths, and the total number of times he even remotely smiles seems close to none. The typical slasher teenagers do not stand out much in Evilspeak, except for one scene, where a group of girls and boys set out to ruin Stanley’s shrine of evil. Their joke is more than a little distasteful, sending him a cruel, gruesome message, where suffering of an innocent being is the punch line.
The dark tone is the holy saviour of the film, making Evilspeak appear made on a higher budget than it really was. Good acting, nice 80s special effects, and one hell of a gory climax support this. People are decapitated, torn, and eaten by pigs, showing that the director (Eric Weston) had a mind built for true horror. The only down side to all of this bloodshed is that it leaks a hole in the sensitive structure of Stanley. While I’m sure some will side with Clint’s devil-fascinated character all throughout the movie, I actually felt bad for the people being sliced and diced. Maybe I just haven’t been teased enough.
It’s not hard to stay awake through. Evilspeak is a joy to watch even when blood doesn’t splash the screen, but at times you are hoping for something eventful to take place, and the story doddles in useless shots. Luckily, these are usually minor and crushed between important plot sequences. For once in film history, when a simple computer screen with dull green text appears, you aren’t bored out of your wits (although the computer acting as a gateway for the cult leader’s demands could be the reason for this). Hence the name which ‘evilspeak’ was probably thought up from.
It’s not scary, the scoring is just pinched in at the right moments to conjure an eerie presence. Perhaps it’s the ghost of atmosphere? Evilspeak does appear to be in another horror movie territory for the first fifty minutes, but give it a chance, and you’ll be rewarded with extreme violent slasher goodness, equipped with fifty minutes of worthy characterization!
It turns out to be a satanic diary of black magic, instructing how to bring back great evil from long ago. The evil is Esteban, a cult leader from the 1500s, who promises dark power for the person that resurrects him. The bullies soon learn how wrong it was to torment Coopersmith, as buckets of their blood seep across the school, the result of a demonic desire for revenge.Howard’s performance is mostly solid, giving the audience sympathy as he befriends a puppy and tries to fit in. You get the feeling that this boy has already been through enough hell. He is not the least bit touchy on the subject of his parents’ deaths, and the total number of times he even remotely smiles seems close to none. The typical slasher teenagers do not stand out much in Evilspeak, except for one scene, where a group of girls and boys set out to ruin Stanley’s shrine of evil. Their joke is more than a little distasteful, sending him a cruel, gruesome message, where suffering of an innocent being is the punch line.
The dark tone is the holy saviour of the film, making Evilspeak appear made on a higher budget than it really was. Good acting, nice 80s special effects, and one hell of a gory climax support this. People are decapitated, torn, and eaten by pigs, showing that the director (Eric Weston) had a mind built for true horror. The only down side to all of this bloodshed is that it leaks a hole in the sensitive structure of Stanley. While I’m sure some will side with Clint’s devil-fascinated character all throughout the movie, I actually felt bad for the people being sliced and diced. Maybe I just haven’t been teased enough.
It’s not hard to stay awake through. Evilspeak is a joy to watch even when blood doesn’t splash the screen, but at times you are hoping for something eventful to take place, and the story doddles in useless shots. Luckily, these are usually minor and crushed between important plot sequences. For once in film history, when a simple computer screen with dull green text appears, you aren’t bored out of your wits (although the computer acting as a gateway for the cult leader’s demands could be the reason for this). Hence the name which ‘evilspeak’ was probably thought up from.
It’s not scary, the scoring is just pinched in at the right moments to conjure an eerie presence. Perhaps it’s the ghost of atmosphere? Evilspeak does appear to be in another horror movie territory for the first fifty minutes, but give it a chance, and you’ll be rewarded with extreme violent slasher goodness, equipped with fifty minutes of worthy characterization!
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