Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week February 1 - 7: The stair lift makes me mad--in fact, it drives me up the wall.

Cool thing that happened recently: I bought a newer, more functional car.

Not cool thing that happened recently: Increased surgeries means more overtime and work for me, more exhaustion, bad habits returning, and less gaming and writing.

But hey, at least things are going okay over at the Destroyer household otherwise. I got my tax return and picked up some more games I missed: Brave Fencer Musashi, Trapt, Dungeon Maker, Kartia, and The Suffering: The Ties That Bind.

I don't have any new horror movies to discuss, so I'll just pick five random non-classics from the "Things I've Seen" vault.

Island of Death (1976) is a video nasty featuring an incestuous brother and sister who go on a killing spree on a Greek isle. There isn't any point to this movie at all; it's 100% shock value. It tries really hard to be shocking, with a lot of scenes I won't mention here (including one infamous/reprehensible segment involving a goat). Honestly, though this is a pretty rare flick, it's complete trash. Even the director (or maybe it was the writer?) admitted that some of the dialogue and portions that felt like social commentary were only there to give the movie a false sense of depth, and that he just wanted to one-up all of the other European horror directors making shock-schlock. It's really just a bunch of mindless killing and sexuality without any rhyme or reason, intended to stir up controversy. Yeesh...

Bug (2006) stars Ashley Judd as a woman who falls for a paranoid, delusional Michael Shannon, who believes he is infected with government-controlled, flesh-eating insects. This is an odd film, and not one you watch in a big group. While I don't love it, I kind of dig the off-beat direction it takes. It certainly isn't what I expected.

Phenomena (1985) helped lay the groundwork for Clock Tower. This one features a pre-fame Jennifer Connelly as a teenage girl who can psychically communicate with insects. And she'll need all the six-legged friends she can muster, because someone (who happens to be partially the inspiration for Scissor Man) is chopping up teenage girls in her neck of the woods. A lot of people cite this film as the beginning of Dario Argento's decline, but I love it. It may not have the same high-quality, "Italian Hitchcock" feel that Deep Red and the like gave off, but it still manages to entertain. Plus, a certain deus ex machina had me and my former roommate cheering.

P2

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

Thanks for the props. Cuyo's about as inoffensive as a video game could be. It's not my speed, but it's going to be a good entry point or chilled out session for someone.

Props to Brian on his breakout win, and thanks for Joe for helping with the backlog. With this, we're all up to date, Site King has been updated accordingly and we should be good moving forward.

For us. For them. For you.