Your Opinion of George Romero

Whorticulture.com Asked, You Answered: What Do You Think of George Romero?

The first question we posed was your opinion of his latest movies (ex.:  Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead).

Which is the worst?

Land of the Dead - his first attempt since 1985's Day of the Dead - scored 7%.

Diary of the Dead scored 14%.

Survival of the Dead - the latest cinematic abortion - scored a whopping 64%.

Of course, the options "I've only seen Dawn of the Dead" and "I've never seen any of these" each scored 7%, finishing out the poll with 99%.

Why this is surprising:  That many of you saw Survival of the Dead?

Why this isn't surprising:  Dawn of the Dead was Romero's magnum opus.  Following Night of the Living Dead, it was by far his greatest work.  And since then, with Day of the Dead and onward, they've gotten progressively worse.  I remember seeing Land of the Dead and being moderately disappointed, thinking nothing could get worse.  Then I saw Diary of the Dead.  And then, sadly, I saw Survival of the Dead.  I don't recommend either. 

So then we asked you "Should George Romero stop making movies?"

7% of you said no way!

7% of you said only his zombie movies suck.  Honestly I've only seen a few of his non-zombie films so I can't really judge that.  I saw his version of The Crazies though, and you can read my review of it here.

15% of you expressed surprise that George Romero still makes movies.  Ha.

And 69% of you said "please god, yes!"

There you have it.  George, your movies suck now.  Take the hint and bow out while you can still muster some grace about it.  Just kidding, you lost that with Survival of the Dead.  God, that was a blistering piece of crap.

And yes, I know he's writing some zombie books, which I'm certain he'll turn into more cinematic abortions.  And yes, I'll be here to complain about them.  Join me, won't you?

As always, thanks for voting.  Stay tuned for more polls.  And don't forget to comment - we love hearing your opinions over here.  Even if you think we're dead wrong.  

Dead Island Trailer

Whorticulture.com Wants To Know: What Do You Think of the Dead Island Trailer?

I love zombie-based video games.  I play Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 like it's going out of style.  So I think the premise for Dead Island sounds pretty awesome - survival on a tropical island filled with zombies.  I'm down. 

But there's so much debate going on over the trailer.  Watch it here:

Not gonna lie, it made me sad.  But it didn't make me TOO sad, and I don't really think it goes too far.

Read this article by Ben Parfitt.  He does bring up some valid points. 

So what do my readers think?  Even if you don't play video games, does the trailer go too far? 

And just for the sake of comparison, here's the L4D2 trailer.

Upcoming Events: Saturday, February 19th 2011

Check out these upcoming Horror Events!

This Saturday, February 19th, the always awesome Midnite Movie Mamacita brings Dream Home to MADCAP Theaters!

From the MADCAP website:
When she was a child, Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho) could see Hong Kong’s famed Victoria Harbor from her apartment. But as time passed, the old buildings in front of her home were demolished to make way for a huge residential project that now blocks her view. Increasingly disappointed and upset, she vowed to one day save up enough money for her family to move into a new apartment with a magnificent sea view.  In order to get what she wants, she must take matters into her own hands...even if it means getting her hands seriously bloody.  Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2010.  This program is presented in digital.

Shows are at 6 & 10, only $8!

And while you're there, check out the other shows coming your way.  There's some great stuff coming up, you won't be disappointed!

Deadgirl

Whorticulture.com Reviews Deadgirl

A bunch of Troma guys got together and made an actually GOOD film.  Imagine that.

Deadgirl was recommended to me today, and if you know anything about recommending movies to me, it's that I don't get to them right away.  But this had two things going for it: #1. It was available on instant queue.  #2. The info (basically "two male high school students stumble upon a dead girl in a basement") kind of sounded like Stir of Echoes and that intrigued me.

The tagline for Deadgirl is "You'll never forget your first time."  Being the smartass that I am, I totally thought I had this whole movie figured out before I started it. 

Haha, nope.

This movie surprised me right and left.  There were major plot turns I didn't expect, and even for a movie really low on gore I have to give it two very enthusiastic thumbs up.  It was so good that we just sat in silence while the credits rolled, trying to wrap our minds around any comments we could make.

I can't say more because it would be really unfair to spoil any of this for you guys.  I mean, it's not like the most surprising movie of the century or anything, but it was really good and you should definitely check it out.  That being said, I hope a conversation starts about this movie in the comments, because there are a lot of things that didn't make sense.  Example: What role did the dog play?  Oh, and what do we think happened to the Deadgirl in the end?

My vote is a 9 out of 10.

Trivia: The main dude, Shiloh Fernandez (Rickie) was almost Edward Cullen. 

The Roommate

Whorticulture.com Reviews The Roommate

So...okay.  I tried not to be against this movie from the beginning, but it was impossible.  There is no reason for horror movies OR thrillers with a PG-13 rating.  This movie especially.  I'm going to have to assume I was too old for this movie, because it's obviously made for teenagers.

I was too busy eye rolling and playing on my phone through most of this (that should tell you something), so I didn't take many notes.  I'll point out important points.

1:  I swear to God, this movie is like The Disney Channel remade Single White Female.  (Both based on the John Lutz novel).

2:  I'll give them credit on their casting choices.  Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly become almost  indistinguishable - probably a little earlier on than desired - but by that point I was so bored with the movie I gave up trying.  The acting is decent.  It's the turning of the plot into a Disney classic that fails.

3:  I'm sorry, but this was ridiculously boring and predictable.  It's basically rated PG-13 for "menacing," whatever the hell that means.  Seriously, you've seen this story so many times before, and you've seen it BETTER in Single White Female.

4:  As you can tell with the PG-13 rating, there's no gore.  And there's really very little scare.  Ripping out a belly button ring?  I'm bored.

So who is going to like this movie?  Kids too young to see Single White Female.  Fans of The Disney Channel.  But it's too much of a drama to be scary.  I don't recommend this for anyone over the age of 15.  I give this a 4 out of 10, and I'm being seriously generous. 

Just go rent Single White Female.  You'll thank me.