Hellhounds Ft. Tropical Mary

Year of Release: 2009
Genre: Adventure / Fantasy / Horror
IMDB Rating: 3.6 / 10
Level of Awful: Medium
Breast-O-Meter: 0/5

WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

Another day, another glorious Historically Inaccurate Movie with Tropical Mary. Up until this point Cyclopshad always been the one to beat, but this one may have taken the crown. There was clearly a budget to put this thing together and someone, somewhere, had a vague enough knowledge of Greek myth to get some aspects of the movie right. That it isn’t based on a particular myth may have helped it along somewhat, but it’s been a long time since I’ve laughed as hard as I did at this movie.

If for no other reason, you need to buy / rent this movie to watch the first scene. I don’t know why it was as funny as it was, but it involved a small village being invaded by a rival realm. Some blonde female is busy being attacked when the good guys rock up and save her. 3 seconds later she comes in from left-field, galloping like an injured horse (no, really), waving a sword in the air and screaming like a banshee. We must’ve rewound it about 8 times just to watch over and over again. I thought I was going to pee. But enough of that silliness, it’s time to move onto the even more silly polluted stream of consciousness that this movie brought about.

By the gods, what the hell did we do last night?

• TMG presents: some guys from the Eastern Bloc.
• These are the king’s men. Behind them are all of the king’s horses. Humpty Dumpty was nowhere to be seen.
• Galloping horse bitches be crazy.
• We present, for your consideration, Herr Ünter-Bite.
• I think the main dude’s name is Quilintos.
• Nothing says Ancient Greece like some slow-mo flies.
• She’s spinning right round baby, right round, like a discus baby, right round, round round.
• Hades will take her as a bride. Poor Persephone.
• Why Tartaros? What could this poor woman have done that necessitates Nemesis being her eternal prison warden?
• Spirits will find their bodies like flies find a rotting corpse.
• Apparently the Underworld’s ferryman is named Sharon.
• “This semen spawn is not my wife!”
• The Underworld is now a Cerberus-free zone.
• You can rest when you’re alive.
• Herr Ünter-Bite leads from the chin.
• Wait… maybe the main guy’s name is Cleatus.
• We present, for your consideration, No Calves Cleatus.
• Holy shit, how does Cleatus actually manage to walk with those calves?
• Arrow dipped in snake’s blood = dead Hades.
• Oh dear, this one’s bleeding oil.
• Quickly, escape in that vague direction!
• I won’t forget our first kiss. Now fist me.
• Sprinkler of the gods!
• I feel that we’re changing the rules of saving this chick as we go along.
• Demetrios? Cleatus? Quilintos? Cleetos? Cheetos? Who knows?
• This one’s going back to his squirrels and readings.
• Thank you Quebec for making this voyage to the Underworld possible!

A very big thank you to Tropical Mary, Stygian Mole and the Occult Specialist for the 1001 laughs that were had during the watching of this film 🙂

Herr Ünter-Bite presents: A History of Smarmy Chins Ft. No Calves Cleatus.

BUY HELLHOUNDS AT AMAZON.COM

Odysseus and the Isle of Mists

Year of Release: 2008
Genre:  Fantasy / Sci-Fi
IMDB Rating: 4.4 / 10
Level of Awful: High
Breast-O-Meter: 0 / 5

WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

Everyone needs a calling in life. For some it’s a career, for others it’s helping the poor. For me and all the voices, it’s watching b-grade horror movies. When I join forces with Tropical Mary the mission is to take SyFy movies based (loosely) on classical antiquity and rip it to shreds. It began with Cyclops, a movie that hurt me badly since Roman history is my thing. It was decided that we needed to find something that would hurt Tropical Mary just as much, since Greek history is more her thing. The gods seemed to have heard our prayers and delivered Odysseus and the Isle of Mists to us.

I won’t burden you with the entire plotline, because there really isn’t all that much of it, and the main point of doing this review is the lessons we learned through watching the movie. The year is 1180 BC-ish, Troy has been defeated and Odysseus has begun his 10 year journey to return home to Ithaca. Accompanying Odysseus and his small team is the poet Homer, who is acting as the scribe and recording Odysseus’ adventures as they travel along. The story about to unfold is so horrifying that Homer decided to leave it out of his Odyssey. Odysseus and his men are about to come upon the Isle of the Mists, a dreadful place where death is in the very air. It’s inhabited by a number of foul creatures who look a bit like gargoyles done with terrible CGI. More frighteningly, though, is the goddess Persephone, wife of Hades and queen of the Underworld. The other gods of Olympus have bound her to the island for attempting to usurp the throne from Zeus, and she has a number of sneaky plans in mind to get Odysseus and his men to help her off the island and enslave all mankind.

LIFE’S LESSONS LEARNED:

• The Trojan War took place around 1200 BC. Homer lived sometime in 700 BC. To take detailed notes of events, Homer travelled back in time to witness the deeds of Odysseus.
• Despite being blind Homer can see perfectly well.
• Despite being illiterate Homer is the only man in the movie who can write.
• Despite being illiterate and blind Homer can draw incredibly detailed maps.
• Despite English not existing at the time Homer was a master at the finer points of its grammar.
• Despite living miles away and the language not having formed yet Homer was well versed in Latin.
• Despite the fact that there were no publishing houses at the time Homer had publishing rights over his works.
• Not to be outdone by the Sirens, Poseidon also likes to sing. This is how he controls the seas.
• Not to be outdone by either the Sirens or Poseidon, Persephone is also known to break into song in order to defeat evil flying monsters.
• Persephone was a healing divinity.
• Although the technology had yet to be invented the Isle of the Mists is littered with beautiful glassware.
• Although the metal had yet to be discovered the Isle of the Mists is littered with aluminium poles.
• Although the architectural form was yet to be devised the Isle of the Mists is home to a number of Corinthian columns.
• All Greeks that have been at war for 10 years are granted access to amazing dental plans.
• Although she is a goddess and married to one of the 12 most important Greek divinities Persephone is also a siren.
• Although she is a goddess of war with many manly attributes Athena loves to dress is dazzling gold dresses and wear a tin crown.
• Although the Greeks had no concept of hell and that crosses were used by the Romans the only way to defeat Persephone is with the Hellfire Cross.
• Although Rome had yet to be founded all the Greeks dressed like the Romans.
• The stylus is mightier than the sword.
• Sealy Posturepedic mattresses were one of Mycenaean Greece’s greatest inventions.
• Although they are immortal and cannot die it’s actually quite easy to murder a goddess.

BUY ODYSSEUS AND THE ISLE OF MISTS AT AMAZON.COM

From Within

Year of Release: 2008
Genre: Horror / Mystery
IMDB Rating: 5.7 / 10
Level of Awful: Low

WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

Again! Like the recent Vanishing on 7th Street and Plague Town, this movie was just SO close to being amazing! It has all the right elements: fundamentalist Christians, the dark arts, people who can act and Grudge-esque ghosts, but sadly these things are not used to their best effect. I think that the message it conveys is very topical: when taken to fanatical extremes religion, no matter which one it is, will result in people doing stupid, crazy shit. In that way I feel like the movie was more focussed on the aspects of the various religious nuts than on the actual horror aspect, which left me very disappointed. Never the less From Within is a very watchable movie and, given its IMDB rating, some people out there must like it. I’m not sure if I wanted the religious nuts to be even more crazy or if I wanted more horror / terror so that I would be genuinely frightened but, when all is said and done, the movie just left me wanting a little bit more.

"Your ability to think outside of my fanatical religious box disgusts me..."

Welcome to Grovetown, your standard little Anywhere USA. The skies are blue, the lawns meticulously mowed, the shops are quaint and the folk genuinely care for one another. It’s the kind of place you would want to raise your kids. If you wanted your kids to be white-supremacists with radical Christian beliefs that believe burning the witch is still your best possible option, that is, and that really is the bulk of the town’s population. The only one with her head screwed on right is Lindsay, a follower of the church but who believes that people should live and let live. She lives with her alcoholic and mouse of a stepmother Trish who has frequent visits from her somewhat-pervy truck driver boyfriend Roy. Lindsay also happens to be dating Dylan, the son of the town’s resident pastor who is about as extreme a religious nut as you can get. Her world becomes a little more complicated when she picks up Aidan (literally – Dylan beat him to the floor), the town’s local pagan. Understandably an outcast from the rest of Grovetown’s cliques Aidan has lived with his brother ever since the townsfolk burned their mother alive for being a witch. Burning the witch is about to come back to bite Grovetown in the ass.

"I'm finished! This is my 18th exorcism on an unwilling girl today."

Something very strange is starting to happen in Grovetown. While sitting on a hill overlooking the town one night a young emo couple reads to one another and tenderly embrace. 2 minutes later the guy blows his brain out. The girl, presumably a little shaken by this, runs back into town to her father’s dress shop (hip and happening designs in Grovetown, Amish paradise anywhere else) screaming that some woman is after her. Lindsay and Trish are also in the store and when Lindsay walks away from the girl the doors slam shut. When the group manages to open them they find the girl with scissors rammed in her neck. This is the beginning of the suicides that will stalk the town for the rest of the week. Gossip will be exchanged, accusations will be cast, witch burning brunches will be planned.

Ever been so tired you just started bleeding from your eyes?

As the suicide rate in Grovetown begins to climb and frequent church meetings do little to solve the problem people are starting to get a little anxious and are looking for a solution. What they are unaware of is that their beautiful little town has been cursed. While they do know about the deaths they don’t know that they aren’t actually suicides. You see just before various young teenagers and assorted older people are killed they see something that truly horrifies them: themselves. Now this isn’t the ‘wake up, look in mirror and realise you look like crap’ kind of terrified; this is ‘I’ve just seen my evil doppelgänger and it’s coming to get me’ variety of terrified. Since the entire town’s stock answer to any problem they face is ‘burn the witch! cleanse the earth with fire!’, it falls to Lindsay and Aidan to figure out what’s happening and how best to go about sorting it out. They will face fierce opposition, attempted exorcisms, angry mobs and a deranged son of a preacher man, but the fate of Grovetown and the rest of the world now rests on both their delicately feminine shoulders.

My only question, and this crops up in more movies that you’d think: if you are ‘different’ and know you are going to be an outcast and piss dumb people off, why live in a town full of them?

LIFE’S LESSONS LEARNED:

• You can either be Christian or a witch. There is nothing in between.
• A preacher should never be allowed near a troubled man. It will only end in confusion and heartache.
• Christian men should only ever wear plaid shirts.
• Christian women should only ever dress in a way that would make the Amish feel like they are showing too much skin.
• Pagans should always be sarcastic, dark and twisty.
• Saying the voices spoke to you one day makes you clinically insane. Saying that God spoke to you one day makes you a devout Christian.

FROM WITHIN TRAILER