Strangeland

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.

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.

The sadistic Captain Howdy (Dee Snider) lures kids to his lair of torture and bondage via the Internet. After being caught (by the police father of one of the victims) and released, will the reformed Howdy be accepted into society? Will he accept the society? Is he reformed?

I call this a 1990s horror film because unlike any other horror film that I can think of, this one really drove home the 90s underground scene: piercing, tattoos, leather, industrial music, bondage. These things existed in the 1980s and the 2000s, but as someone who grew up in the 90s, I can tell you that they were by far the most prominent from 1994 until 1999. My friend Jason even goes so far as to say this film is more of an advertisement for a lifestyle than it is a horror film. He may be right.

Another great thing about this as a 90s film is the use of the Internet. It may not be the first horror film to utilize the Internet, but it stands out for me as one of the earliest to really make it a central theme. Later films would use the Internet and computers as killers or as tools for killers ("Stay Alive", "Pulse", "Watch Me", and even "Memory" with Billy Zane). But the late 90s were the days of the Internet boom, and this really shows the danger of online chatting before even MySpace existed. (Coincidentally, 1998 was also the year I would meet most of my online acquaintances.)

The film draws on a history of horror with its use of the "Captain Howdy" name (the ghost from "The Exorcist") and the inclusion of Robert Englund, as well as some subtle (or not-so-subtle) "Nightmare on Elm Street" references. The movie knows it really isn't covering any new ground, and pays proper tribute to its ancestors.

I don't think this one should be dismissed as just a period piece. Sure, it can be described that way, but look at what it set up. There's the computer aspect I already mentioned, but also look at the bondage and torture. Today, torture in films is big business ("Hostel", "Saw") and this film beat them to the punch. Again, it's likely not the one that started the torture subgenre, but I think it may have been one of the biggest films of its time.

I recommend this film. If you grew up in the 1990s, you might have a better appreciation for it, but overall it's a good exploration of horror and Gothic themes. Dee Snider knows his stuff, and he has earned his place as the DJ for Fangoria Radio. I only wish he would make another film, if he has it in him to match or improve upon what he laid down here.

It was hard to expect a lot from Strangeland. Its star and writer is Dee Snider, formerly the frontman for the metal band Twisted Sister and not known for his acting. It's also a bloody horror movie, which can be hit or miss for even the most fervent of fans. Oddly enough, though, the result is a passable representative of the genre, with Snider's Captain Howdy a memorable, if underexplored, villain.

Two teenage girls, in the early years of the Internet, encounter someone calling themselves Captain Howdy in an online chat room. He invites them to a party, and naturally they accept. Seems legit! I mean, his profile information makes him look like a cool dude! What could possibly go wrong? A lot, turns out. The girls go missing, and soon teen Tiana (Amal Roe) is found in the trunk of her own submerged car, hands and feet bound and mouth sewn shut. Her friend Genevieve (Linda Cardellini) is nowhere to be found.

Genevieve's dad happens to be a cop named Mike Gage (Kevin Gage), and he and his rambunctious young partner try desperately to find Genevieve. It doesn't take them long, because all they have to do is visit the same chat room, and using the leet hacker skillz of cousin Angela (Amy Smart), find the name of the last person to whom Genevieve chatted, strike up a conversation, and away they go. Very little cat and mouse follows, and it isn't long before Mike finds the good Captain, who's as wacked as you'd expect him to be, what with the sadistic attitude (setting aside the facial tattoos and multiple piercings). Turns out the guy's really into S&M, such as putting pins through people's skin and suspending them from a ceiling or in a really small stand-up cage.

From there on out, it's a cat-but-mostly-mouse game. Captain Howdy is much more interesting than anyone else in the movie, even redneck Jackson Roth, played by Robert Englund. Mike Gage makes for a boring lead. Snider appears to be having a lot of fun, pontificating like a megalomaniacal Batman villain, and is a good fit for the movie. Kind of a shame that more Strangeland movies weren't made. They weren't made, by the way, partly because of the film's sluggish second half, in which Howdy appears to be running a race in which everyone else is crawling on their backs. Yes, their backs. And it's kind of a shame, because the character is so strikingly charismatic. Was Captain Howdy always insane? We'll never know

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.