Here we go with another round of quick-hitting genre reviews on the site.
Albino Farm-
Overall, this one wasn't too bad and definitely has it's moments, especially once they arrive at the titular location and they start getting attacked, which is a lot of fun due to the different types of stalking techniques employed throughout, from running by in the background to traps being laid out and all kinds of different torture and bloodletting done that makes for some pretty nifty gore from time to time. However, despite all the attempts it tries in the beginning to make it feel creepy with it's set-up for the town's inhabitants, it just comes across as a one-note gag repeated for about forty-plus minutes and makes them look ever more stupid and idiotic for willingly staying around when it's much more logical to leave, and it has a few other issues to work out there as well, but it's still not all that bad.
Alien Opponent-
This was an admittedly cheesy and goofy entry, which is quite a bit of fun overall. It turned out far more funny than it is scary (and a strong case can be made than it's not supposed to be a horror film anyway) but the high level of gore and rather fun action scenes are a joy to watch either way, especially with the junkyard setting proving to be quite useful in generating plenty of thrilling stalking scenes and numerous confrontations with the alien. The kills get pretty gruesome, leading to a lot of bloodshed, and that comes about from the high body count which is rather nice, and with the hunting and stalking scenes taking up a large majority of the time, it makes for some pretty entertaining scenarios. Some of the humor does fall a little flat, but the energy and momentum make up for that somewhat, giving this one a really enjoyable and sometimes demented feel.
Alien Raiders-
This is an extremely disappointing and underwhelming effort, this one just doesn't have enough to keep itself going at all, with the first half built around the team's mysterious reasons for being there, the curious actions they undertake with the people there and efforts to keep everything contained inside as the hostages begin grumbling and thinking of their motives. That nothing is ever given until the thirty minute mark, which is just a passing line in dialog and not an actual explanation just makes it all the more frustrating, and it makes this section of the film so hard to get into. That it's also nearly an hour long before the alien first appears doesn't help at all, mainly due to the lack of information given which makes all the actions taken difficult to grasp and understand and making it all the harder to get into the film and care. That the last part of the film is decent enough with a couple decent stalking scenes and some bloodletting in the kills is nice and good, but it can't make up for the flawed beginning.
Brotherhood of Blood-
Frankly, this one should've been far better than it was, but instead is reduced to a pile of plot confusion and far too much time spent on storylines that have either nothing to do with the main plot or are featured for no reason other than to build up the cast of genre veterans. That seems to be the main problem here, as far too often we have to sit through something that makes no sense as to it's inclusion only because of who's playing the character that finally clues you in to it's inclusion. There's some good gore in here, though, and the action scenes are far more entertaining than they should be, but it's a little confusing and far too much built-for-star-power than it should be.
Hard Ride to Hell-
Actually, not all that bad at all, managing to feel pretty tense and creepy during the opening set-up despite not having a whole lot of action at all and really just selling itself on the ways in which they're conducting affairs, but once they get captured it turns a lot more fun with some nice blood and gore, a couple nice torture scenes and some more, which is mixed nicely with it's chase scene that is a really bigger scene than expected from this kind of film. It looses some energy with the finale, mainly due to it losing the supernatural angle and opting for a normal bloodbath which has it's own pluses but it feels a little out-of-place in a film with the atmosphere it had previously built up, yet it has it's own fun with it's gore-soaked shenanigans. Overall, not all that bad and a pretty enjoyable time.
Xtinction: Predator X-
This wasn't all that great of a creature but did have a few good points drowned in it's flaws. There's no use complaining about the lack of quality CGI here since that's to be expected with this, but the fact that it never really featured the title creature at all in this who tends to be so rarely shown in the film that there's almost a sense of it not being a real creature feature at all. By choosing to focus instead on the family drama and the different background characters first, the crocodile doesn't seem to be a big important factor in the plot and rarely seems to be a concern for them once it does show up, dramatically reducing it's effectiveness even before the lame effects used for it are brought into play. There's some good stuff in the rather frenetic finale that finally lets the creature loose and get a decent rampage on the populace resulting in some fine deaths and a bit of action, the ultimate manner of killing the beast is pretty creative and overall the second half has a nice vibe to it, but overall it's quite lacking.
Albino Farm-
Overall, this one wasn't too bad and definitely has it's moments, especially once they arrive at the titular location and they start getting attacked, which is a lot of fun due to the different types of stalking techniques employed throughout, from running by in the background to traps being laid out and all kinds of different torture and bloodletting done that makes for some pretty nifty gore from time to time. However, despite all the attempts it tries in the beginning to make it feel creepy with it's set-up for the town's inhabitants, it just comes across as a one-note gag repeated for about forty-plus minutes and makes them look ever more stupid and idiotic for willingly staying around when it's much more logical to leave, and it has a few other issues to work out there as well, but it's still not all that bad.
Alien Opponent-
This was an admittedly cheesy and goofy entry, which is quite a bit of fun overall. It turned out far more funny than it is scary (and a strong case can be made than it's not supposed to be a horror film anyway) but the high level of gore and rather fun action scenes are a joy to watch either way, especially with the junkyard setting proving to be quite useful in generating plenty of thrilling stalking scenes and numerous confrontations with the alien. The kills get pretty gruesome, leading to a lot of bloodshed, and that comes about from the high body count which is rather nice, and with the hunting and stalking scenes taking up a large majority of the time, it makes for some pretty entertaining scenarios. Some of the humor does fall a little flat, but the energy and momentum make up for that somewhat, giving this one a really enjoyable and sometimes demented feel.
Alien Raiders-
This is an extremely disappointing and underwhelming effort, this one just doesn't have enough to keep itself going at all, with the first half built around the team's mysterious reasons for being there, the curious actions they undertake with the people there and efforts to keep everything contained inside as the hostages begin grumbling and thinking of their motives. That nothing is ever given until the thirty minute mark, which is just a passing line in dialog and not an actual explanation just makes it all the more frustrating, and it makes this section of the film so hard to get into. That it's also nearly an hour long before the alien first appears doesn't help at all, mainly due to the lack of information given which makes all the actions taken difficult to grasp and understand and making it all the harder to get into the film and care. That the last part of the film is decent enough with a couple decent stalking scenes and some bloodletting in the kills is nice and good, but it can't make up for the flawed beginning.
Brotherhood of Blood-
Frankly, this one should've been far better than it was, but instead is reduced to a pile of plot confusion and far too much time spent on storylines that have either nothing to do with the main plot or are featured for no reason other than to build up the cast of genre veterans. That seems to be the main problem here, as far too often we have to sit through something that makes no sense as to it's inclusion only because of who's playing the character that finally clues you in to it's inclusion. There's some good gore in here, though, and the action scenes are far more entertaining than they should be, but it's a little confusing and far too much built-for-star-power than it should be.
Hard Ride to Hell-
Actually, not all that bad at all, managing to feel pretty tense and creepy during the opening set-up despite not having a whole lot of action at all and really just selling itself on the ways in which they're conducting affairs, but once they get captured it turns a lot more fun with some nice blood and gore, a couple nice torture scenes and some more, which is mixed nicely with it's chase scene that is a really bigger scene than expected from this kind of film. It looses some energy with the finale, mainly due to it losing the supernatural angle and opting for a normal bloodbath which has it's own pluses but it feels a little out-of-place in a film with the atmosphere it had previously built up, yet it has it's own fun with it's gore-soaked shenanigans. Overall, not all that bad and a pretty enjoyable time.
Kill Katie Malone-
A fairly different take on the killer-ghost genre, with the ability thrown in that ghosts can be contained into an object and then used as what amounts to genies from the legend, a unique concept that does some good work here. The fact that this tends to go for long periods of time trying to set up points where the interaction become necessary is a bit of contention, since the film's not really that interesting in those periods and not a lot goes on worth getting excited about, but the decent amount of gore in the kills and a pretty tense number of confrontations throughout the storyline definitely save it and make it pretty entertaining.
The Uninvited (2008)-
One of the many variations with this particular title, this one happens to be an incredibly slow-moving and what initially-appears lifeless ghost story, more about freaky flash visions or dreams rather than any out-and-out horrors before it turns it around in the second half and delivers some really solid hauntings in that part. A little too much plot twisting done in that section as well, with a lot of stuff that's just not needed to move the story along, and they're could've been a little more to do with the ghosts' involvements going for a kill now and then since there's not a lot of that going on, but it trades it in for a little bit more suspense and becomes more watchable as it goes along.
A fairly different take on the killer-ghost genre, with the ability thrown in that ghosts can be contained into an object and then used as what amounts to genies from the legend, a unique concept that does some good work here. The fact that this tends to go for long periods of time trying to set up points where the interaction become necessary is a bit of contention, since the film's not really that interesting in those periods and not a lot goes on worth getting excited about, but the decent amount of gore in the kills and a pretty tense number of confrontations throughout the storyline definitely save it and make it pretty entertaining.
The Uninvited (2008)-
One of the many variations with this particular title, this one happens to be an incredibly slow-moving and what initially-appears lifeless ghost story, more about freaky flash visions or dreams rather than any out-and-out horrors before it turns it around in the second half and delivers some really solid hauntings in that part. A little too much plot twisting done in that section as well, with a lot of stuff that's just not needed to move the story along, and they're could've been a little more to do with the ghosts' involvements going for a kill now and then since there's not a lot of that going on, but it trades it in for a little bit more suspense and becomes more watchable as it goes along.
Xtinction: Predator X-
This wasn't all that great of a creature but did have a few good points drowned in it's flaws. There's no use complaining about the lack of quality CGI here since that's to be expected with this, but the fact that it never really featured the title creature at all in this who tends to be so rarely shown in the film that there's almost a sense of it not being a real creature feature at all. By choosing to focus instead on the family drama and the different background characters first, the crocodile doesn't seem to be a big important factor in the plot and rarely seems to be a concern for them once it does show up, dramatically reducing it's effectiveness even before the lame effects used for it are brought into play. There's some good stuff in the rather frenetic finale that finally lets the creature loose and get a decent rampage on the populace resulting in some fine deaths and a bit of action, the ultimate manner of killing the beast is pretty creative and overall the second half has a nice vibe to it, but overall it's quite lacking.
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