It’s enjoyable as I circle back to past films I reviewed, there’s an interesting school of thought on doing something like this, it really comes from Bill Obserst Jr. who had stated he’s always promoting all is work, regardless of when it was made. That’s how I approach this new column and it’s actually a lot of fun though sometimes the memories will be bittersweet, as with the first film listed below.

King Kong (1933)

SUMMARY: Carl Denham needs to finish his movie and has the perfect location: Skull Island. But he still needs to find a leading lady. This ‘soon-to-be-unfortunate’ soul is Ann Darrow. No one knows what they will encounter on this island and why it is so mysterious, but once they reach it, they will soon find out. Living on this hidden island is a giant gorilla and this beast now has Ann in its grasps. Carl and Ann’s new love, Jack Driscoll, must travel through the jungle looking for Kong and Ann, while avoiding all sorts of creatures and beasts.

WHEN I SAW IT DATE: I recall see this film as a child, I fondly remember seeing with my father, we didn’t share a lot things, he was the old-school type of father, a proud Marine and dedicated worker at the Department of Defense (D.O.D.); but when he took those precious moments to show me the classic era of horror films it was a cherished time. Therefore, when I saw this movie there’s not one it’s repeated throughout my life and then often, something connects with me.

THE IMDB RATE AT TIME OF REV: 7.9/10

MY RATE THEN: 8.5/10

HAS MY VIEW CHANGE: No, it has and won’t while the IMDb rating hasn’t changed either I factor that my number is 8 for the actual film and .5 for the cherished memory of watching it with my father. I can clearly remember the biplanes attacking Kong, as a child I had model airplanes that were very similar to those in the films hanging from ceiling. I know it seems strange to remember those planes, but knowing my grandfather on my father’s side flew one during World War I, then those other large monsters, I had them in self-created model complete with the high fencing – it was good cause just a child but it still wonderful memory. Therefore, my view is still the same watch and enjoy this classic movie, discarded those that condemned the film with moralistic viewpoints and condensing revolt because it is in black and white.

*****                                                   *****                                   *****

Dark Feed [2013]

SUMMARY: When a film crew moves into an abandoned psychiatric hospital with a shadowy past to shoot a low budget horror film, they get more than they bargained for. The late nights and lack of sleep begin to take a toll, and the longer this crew works, the more the leaky, wet building seems to be coming back to life, feeding off its new inhabitants. As the shoot wears on, members of the crew exhibit increasingly strange behavior leaving those still sane realizing they need to get out of this place before they too succumb to the building’s infectious hold, the only problem, the old hospital is not ready to let them go.

WHEN I SAW IT DATE: I saw it in the latter half of 2015, and then reviewed in January 2016

THE IMDB RATE AT TIME OF REV: 3.2/10 which now has increase to 3.3

MY RATE THEN: 3.0/10

HAS MY VIEW CHANGE: My view of the film has not changed, it’s still negative because it keeps that phrasing on the box art “from the writers of John Carpenter’s The Ward” to work on the marketing ploy of reference someone in the horror genre that fans respect to scope them into think this is brimming with horror; however it’s not it is sluggish and frankly dull. There’s more than a just odd characters and spooky set design for a horror film a cohesive storyline would dramatically help, but capable acting with solid direction. The saddest part it’s all there, the potential was great, but it feels as if everything is compartmentalizing the waiting for all the horror to come into play in the movie drags tiresomely onward, that but the end one wonders where it went so many waste opportunities.

*****                                                   *****                                   *****

13 Eerie (2013)

SUMMARY: Six forensics students arrive on an isolated island, much like a body farm, get to try out their CSI skills on a bunch of corpses under the watchful eye of their grumpy professor. The island used to house a state penitentiary where the authorities were experimenting on death row inmates and now the bodies won’t stay still.

WHEN I SAW IT DATE: October of 2014, as the review was completed in December 2014, incidentally for the Rogue Cinema website where it obtained 1,600 views and since reported on this site it earned another 1,608 views.

THE IMDB RATE AT TIME OF REV: 4.5/10

MY RATE THEN: 4.5/10

HAS MY VIEW CHANGE: No still an enjoyable everything works just right to bring an entertaining variant in the zombie subgenre and treats the viewers to some tasty scraps noting the dangers of chemicals and adverse effects in the biological world. It isn’t that eerie, and the zombies have a cheesy factor, yet still works though the beginning is a little rough.

It was an interesting journey of the past and with it a chance to recall how things might now appear, ever wonder how you see things differently if you saw those so-called treasured classics or even what you perceived very dumb, merely a thought.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed that trip down memory lane and join again when I revisit movies in April.