Strangeland

Horror fans who also wanna rock will have a blast with Dee Snider's Strangeland, which sees the Twisted Sister frontman playing Captain Howdy, a metal-loving psycho with a penchant for body modification who uses internet chatrooms to lure unsuspecting victims to his torture chamber.

Filmed during the 'wild west' days of dial up, when the average Joe wasn't online savvy, Strangeland takes quite a few liberties with the technology of the time (downloading a picture took several minutes, so I'm pretty certain that video calls weren't feasible, and accessing the internet in a car was an impossibility), but the film is still a lot of twisted fun thanks to a solid central turn by Snider, whose tattooed and pierced Jame Gumb-style sicko is a memorable maniac, a great supporting cast which includes Robert Englund*, Linda Cardellini, Elizabeth Peña, and Amy Smart, and quite a few graphic scenes of mutilation. Kevin Gage plays police detective Mike Gage, who tracks down Howdy after his own daughter is abducted by the freak.

Decent horror films starring heavy rock/metal acts are so often crap (Jon Mikl Thor in Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare, Alice Cooper in Monster Dog, and all of Foo Fighters in Studio 666), but this is one of the better examples.

7/10.

*Inspired by Twisted Sister's song Horror-Teria (The Beginning), from their classic 1984 album Stay Hungry, Strangeland mirrors the premise for A Nightmare On Elm Street, which makes Robert Englund's presence a particularly nice touch.

Admittedly this film is far better than the sinister Rob Zombie junk. (sorry Rob fans)

At least Snyder put some substance, plot, and decent action into this. Have to hand it to him: he's not a bad actor. Especially in a psychotic role; which some may accuse of him as being cliché'. However, it is Dee Snyder. He wouldn't unrealistically portray a warm, loving father. Keep it real. And while I was never a huge fan, nor follower of metal music, I loved Twisted Sister. And Dee Snyder is my all-time favorite. Here he almost brilliantly resurrects his Capt. Howdy personae.

And featuring Robert Englund; a very noted actor, whom of course revolutionized horror movie history with his iconic Freddy Krueger. Here we are subject to an opposite, non-sinister role as Jack, much like Englund's nice-guy character Willie, from the classic V - TV series. Snyder obviously is an Englund fan (like the rest of us :) and deliberately cast him in this film, as honorary appearance. No doubt Englund is brilliant, and could easily pull off a crime-drama psychotic serial killer as well.

Overall, a few sinister scenes do drag a bit, and lack some intensity. However, Snyder does pull this thing off, for the most part.

1/2 out of ****

This film has officially taken the beauty of a human body, and made it something ugly. It's really too bad. This film is very stupid and really quite unpleasant. Sure, it may not be no CHAOS(2005), but it is certainly very cheap and dumb. At least it actually has a real message though. Beware of strangers on the internet. This is a good lesson and a good message, so for that, the film at least has something to be proud of. But otherwise, i feel that the film is a waste of time and money.

The plot revolves around Captain Howdy, a foolish goofy looking man who enjoys kidnapping young people, tying them up, and... piercing them?!?! now obviously, this guy is a sadist, but not in the traditional sense. You see, this is all he does. He doesn't kill them(at least on purpose as it seems), he doesn't appear to sexually violate them, he doesn't even really threaten them all that much. At least at first! There comes a point in the film where a particular thing happens to him for a particular reason by some particular people. I don't dare to reveal what, but somehow this causing him to not only pierce, but rape and kill. It doesn't really make much sense.

Listen, if you are a fan of horror movies or Dee Snyder, you deserve better. I just happen to think that one of the most attractive people in the movie making business is Linda Cardellini, and she is in this film. But she is wasted and used and her body is shown being distorted and destroyed in this terrible film. I think that it is awful that she was used that way in a film like this. I find this film to be very boring and ponderous and not at all scary. don't watch it.

Rated R for strong graphic torture/violence, language, nudity and sexuality.

For those of you who don't know, or maybe just don't remember Dee Snider was the head of the famous old school metal band Twisted Sister. Snider brought us such great anthems as "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock". Now brings us to 1998 where Snider has began to write again. But he has shifted gear, this time he is writing a movie. "Dee Snider's Strangeland" a movie he not only wrote but produced and starred in as well. This is a fairly unknown movie because the NC-17 rating didn't give it much help at the box office and lets admit it people, S&M doesn't exactly make for good clean family entertainment. But all that aside it is the story of two girls who one night meet our antagonist, Captain Howdy ( played here by Snider himself). Well of course Howdy being the strange and sick person he is invite's the two girl's to a party where he later inflicts all kinds of disturbing pain and torment. Well after the girls go missing the one girls father, Inspector Gage (played by Kevin Gage) goes on a search for his daughter. Through the help of his niece (Amy Smart) he tracks down Howdy and takes him into custody. Four years later Howdy is released a new man. But the towns folk want nothing to do with him and want to see him dead. Along comes Robert Englund as a redneck beer drinking slob who decides to take matters into his own hands. Wanting to see the demise of Howdy an angry mob breaks into his house and take him away. As fate would have it Gage sees the whole thing happen. Well the death of Howdy is unsuccessful and Howdy becomes his same old self again. Target #1 for Howdy, seek revenge on Gage who could have stopped the whole thing but decided to just sit back and watch. So again Howdy goes after Gages daughter and Englund. What we have here is a trip through Sniders sick and twisted mind. There is something here to make just about everyone turn there head in disgust. Some may not even make it past the movie's box which features a picture of a girl with her mouth sewn shut. Definitely not for the faint of heart of the squeamish. With every good horror movie comes a good soundtrack and this is no acceptation. The soundtrack combines today's great metal acts with yesterdays classic styling. The soundtrack and movie starts with a dark and dim solo outing from Snider that sets the mood of the movie. It ends with the first new Twisted Sister song in a long time with all the original members. If you are a fan of the music or just looking for a good horror movie ( a thing quite hard to come about these days) this movie is for you. We ask the question: does it have a cast of top notch actor? No. Will everyone enjoy it? No. Is it an entertaining ride. that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat? Yes.

That Twisted Sister's Dee Snyder wrote and produced this may have turned some people off from even giving it a try. It's also in no small part inspired by The Silence of the Lambs (from which it steals at least one scene) and Se7en, and as with other movies that have taken inspiration from those movies, such as 8mm, Feardotcom and Saw, took some flak for that too. The title is a stumper, I don't know what it means and it doesn't seem to suit the movie well. The shocking cover image is well chosen, though it might surprise some that a person's mouth sewn shut could be found in the opening scene of a movie from the early 1930s, Murders in the Zoo.

In truth, it's not all that bad. A young woman is lured to a party through an online chatroom and an IM from "Captain Howdy," and her friend turns up dead with signs of body modification-inspired torture. A large septum piercing found in the trunk of her car provides a clue (I didn't understand how it could have been accidentally left, or why it would have been planted). The cop learns a bit about "modern primitives" (I think there's a shot from the RE/ Search book of that name) and online chatrooms, still a danger to the unwary today.

Somewhat surprisingly, partway into the movie we get a "four years later" intertitle, and the discovery of a second set of victims seems awfully convenient. The ending confrontation is disappointing.

There are nods to other movies as well, as when a group of neighbors tries to lynch the bad guy, led by Jack (Robert Englund). This is quite reminiscent of the lynching of Freddie Krueger (Robert Englund again) by his neighbors in the Nightmare on Elm Street backstory.

I saw the version on video, and am not sure how the unrated DVD might differ.