Pedra Maldita

At its core, The Runestone is a fairly routine '90s straight-to-DVD monster movie: an archaeologist examining an ancient Norse runestone releases Fenrir, the evil wolf-demon trapped within, and is transformed into the savage hairy creature for his trouble. However, the film has a distinctly askew vibe about about it that sets it apart from other creature features of the day, with awkward exchanges of dialogue, incongruous comedic moments, a few strange shots (the monster's claw moving past a full moon during a sex scene with no nudity), a notable lack of gore despite numerous deaths at the jaws and claws of the monster, and a thundering score more suited to a Bruce Willis action movie. Whether this off kilter approach was intentional, or simply the result of inexperience on the part of first time director Willard Carroll, I cannot say, but it makes the film a little more unusual and consequently more engaging.

The film reaches its crazy best during an exhibition at a fancy gallery, Fenrir invading a piece of performance art and tearing the participant to pieces, only for the violence to be admired by pretentious art lovers, although another scene in which the monster sneaks into the back of a police car and wears the cop's hat is almost as bizarre.

Joan Severance and Tim Ryan star as married experts Marla and Sam, and Die Hard heavy Alexander Godunov plays a mystical clockmaker, Sigvaldson, but Peter Riegert and Lawrence Tierney steal the show, Riegart as gum-chewing, Uzi-toting Italian police captain Fanducci, and Tierney as his gruff, ass-chewin' chief.

When I started watching this I thought it was going to be really boring and didn't pay much attention to what was going on. However, it seems that The Runestone is one of those films that improves as it goes on, because things seemed to pick up in the second half. The mystery surrounding the monster slowly sucks you in. The best scene is in the art museum, where a girl is doing some ironing (in a display box thingy) and people are watching her. Suddenly the monster bursts in and attacks her, and blood sprays across the windows. One of the people watching then says: "What's the artist trying to say?" to which another replies "Housework kills". The monster then bursts through the glass and attacks them too. This scene is priceless and definitely worth seeing the film for! There are a few other cool scenes after this which keep you watching. The acting is quite decent and better than most horror flicks.

Overall, The Runestone is worth a watch for horror fans who can tolerate a bit of cheese.

The miners discover strange runestone in the mine.The runestone is transported to New York.Not long after that an archaeologist Martin Almquist,while studying a discovery,cuts his finger and becomes a blood-thirsty monster.This creature-on-the-loose flick isn't very good,but isn't completely bad either.The film tries to be scary and exciting at the same time,some lines are also pretty funny.No gore at all-for me the lack of blood is disappointing.The acting is acceptable,the monster is creepy looking and kills so many cops that it has to be seen to be believed.Good for the rainy day,just don't expect anything special.My rating:5/10.

"The Runestone" is a conglomeration of ideas, some good, but mostly bad. The mythological reasoning for a Norse discovering of America, long before Christopher Columbus, is shear genius. It seems that the Norwegians had a monster, closely resembling "Pumpkinhead", that they wished to dispose of. Tricking the beast and entombing him in a gigantic rock, they then set sail for the farthest disposal land they could find, thus stumbling upon America, and dumping their unwanted rock in what is now Pennsylvania. This concludes the good ideas. Once their rock is unearthed in a coal mine, and brought to New York City, we get a standard monster on the loose affair. It is a real shame that an intriguing cast, including William Hickey, Lawrence Tierney, Peter Riegert, and Joan Severance, is so badly wasted here. Another uneasy element is the weak attempt to throw levity into the mix, although there is one "Paul Bartel type" dark comedy moment in an art gallery, that is definitely worth seeing. - MERK

This one is a perfect example of 80's cinema squirming its way into 90's cinema. The story involves an architect whose unrequited love signs him a pact with the Norse demon Fenrir, who takes control of his body. Werewolfish Fenrir can only be destroyed by a Christopher Lambert-esque clock maker and a well-read teenage boy. David Newman's (Heathers, Frankenweenie) melodramatic score makes this movie stand up a notch above the rest. This one is a winner for fans of movies like Warlock and Bad Moon.