Shriekshow

Heading out with her friends, a group of friends spends Halloween investigating an abandoned carnival in the woods which leads to a series of tales told to the visitors.

The Good Stor(ies): Story 1-After a series of disappearances, a pair of detectives set out to find the culprits leading to a secret group of killers in the woods harboring a supernatural secret. This was a generally fine segment to start this. The setup involving the missing persons in the community and the exploits of the police to bring everything to a head is a fine start offering the detective work to find the group of bloodthirsty killers in the shack in the woods. This leads into the fun finale with some bloodthirsty brawling and a series of great revelations that end this rather well, although it does come off somewhat sluggish with too many energy-draining conversations that could've been trimmed down or removed holding this down.

Story 2-Embarking on a camping trip in the woods, a group of fishermen decides to take up a suggestion to visit a remote spot which brings them into contact with a crazed killer. There was a lot to like about this one. Among the better features here is the nice bait-and-switch involving killing off the camping girls and turning its attention to the other fishermen who come across the same killer haunting the area that manages some fine gory kills along the way. It's all sorts of cheesy fun here with the low-budget means of shooting everything and the general appearance of everything holding this one up rather well alongside the lack of information about the killer and that inherent low-budget cheesiness.

The Bad Stor(ies); Story 3-Having a life-long fear of clowns, a young man trying to get over the traumatic incident that started it is suddenly confronted by it once again, or is he going crazy? This one turned out to be a slightly underwhelming finale. The premise could've been fine had it been given more time in the past flashback to give more of an understanding before seeing how he's handling everything currently. The therapy session feels empty and padding out the running time without any kind of context and somewhat undermining the shock visual of the incident in question which, indeed, feels like an appropriate traumatizing incident. The psychological torture and imagery are fine enough, leading to a cliched but still fun ending.

Wrap-Around-Heading out with her friends, a group of friends spends Halloween investigating an abandoned carnival in the woods which leads to a series of tales told to the visitors. This was a generally fine idea but ends up really letting this down. The main idea of the items being left around the abandoned campground and being used as a basis to start the stories is okay enough and the interludes featuring the clowns knocking off the group have some fun gore to it, but the finale featuring them chasing the others around the woods is comical more than scary with the way the clowns keep appearing making its limitations far more obvious than anything which leaves this the weakest part of the anthology.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, and Nudity.

Brad twigg continues to outdo himself in his latest installment to the fuzzy monkey films library. I got to see the world premiere in Waynesboro PA and the movie was amazing. The storylines the actors everyone did an amazing job. Actor and writer Chris O'brocki as the ringmaster was one of my favorite roles of his so far creepy, engaging and downright wicked looking forward to the DVD release.

I've been a fan of Fuzzy Monkey for a few years, and each release is an improvement in all areas: writing, acting, effects etc. I was in attendance at the premiere of Shriekshow and it was a great time and the cast and crew gave an excellent Q&A afterwards. You could tell this film was a labor of love and they genuinely had a good time making it, as I had a good time watching it.

Wooden acting performances, stereotypical characters, and bad editing make this a film that would be shown as an example of poor film making. This piece of drivel includes characters who have guns for no reason, that would be more at home in a failed TV pilot about mentally deficient police academy dropouts than in anything more intelligent. The director gives all his friends a part in a movie, and supplies them all with dialogue to highlight their lack of acting skills. It is one of those films that screams "Hey! Let's go out and buy new clothes and get our hair done, and pretend we are 16 years old, and make a movie without a script!" There are so many things wrong with this movie that a complete review would be longer than the actual film. I kept thinking this film would get better, but it got worse! . You would think that somewhere along the way one person... an actor, the director, the cameraman, or perhaps one of the liquor store employees would have trid to correct one small mistake, but there is no small mistake, as the entire movie is a mistake. The biggest mistake is the entire movie. Every so often you run ito a film that is a sleeper, but this thing should have been left in a coma! What a piece of crap! Don't waste time or 99 cents to see this. I felt like it needed something redeeming, and realized that burning the film in a campfire would have been more entertaining for me. In case you haven't caught my drift... run! Tell others to avoid it... it sucks the intellect right out of the viewer. "One stupid thing after another!" would have been a better title, or maybe "My friends at the laundromat make a movie while waiting for the clothes to dry.

Worth a quick mention is that Felissa's and Tuesday's roles were small bit parts with no real impact to the film. I think they were paid just enough to get their name on the box to try to help push this one. It worked; here I am. The opening credit roll is above average for this low-expectation sector, with clear video and nicely framed shots (Even as someone was dropping leaves right in front of the camera). It quickly found it's expected low footing when the actors showed up. Acting was iffy on some and ok on others. Nothing to call out on highly charismatic actors, outfits, or acting skills. Same for dialogue, script, or daring content. What did stand out was the quality of some of the outdoor props, Halloween decor, and set pieces here and there. Also, the third act was pretty decent, and make-up/effects were good minus the little girls squirming around trying to play dead... Ha! If you suffer from coulrophobia, it might be worth a view, at least the 3rd act.