The Shadows Collection is the first of these compilations that are named after a film that is featured inside it. I am not sure why they picked a completely unknown indie film from 2011 as the title movie, especially with some more known movies on here, but they did, and there is no changing it now. With eight films to rank by terribleness, I didn't have high hopes for good quality stuff on here. Other than Ken Russel's Gothic and The Ghost Walks, I hadn't heard of most of these films. It's never a good sign, but I swear one of these days there is going to be a collection filled with hidden gems and good films. *Sigh* Yeah I don't believe it either.
After the spot on Zombies cover of the last collection that was all Zombie films, we go back to a cover design that makes little to no sense unless you have seen the title film.
Without that knowledge, you may be wondering what shadows have to do with storms, and boats being tossed around by them. You may think, well lighthouses make light, which in turn causes shadows, making this cover make sense, nope.
The title movie takes place in an abandoned lighthouse. That's it. In fact, other than the inside of that lighthouse, none of the films on this collection feature anything remotely close to lighthouses, oceans, boats, and more importantly Shadows. Well except for The Shadows. Even that is questionable. Cover aside, let us get on with the meat of this. Starting with the worst film on the collection...
8. The Shadows
Yup, easily the worst movie on this collection is the one that was chosen to be the selling point. Look at that lighthouse, see how the whole main cover motif matches the collection cover. Pure marketing genius!
Playing out like a one-room soap opera, the movie is about five "friends" that get trapped in an abandoned lighthouse on a small remote island. I think there are other plot points, but the video and audio quality were so bad for this film, that it was almost unwatchable.
There seem to be some side plots about sleeping with each other, and cheating on each other...I think. Honestly, it doesn't matter as this movie is just crap. A perfect selling point for this collection.
7. Blood Predator
After watching Blood Predator you may question if the snow ever existed. Maybe that winter wonderland you love was all a dream made by a Tandy computer. Maybe you're living in The Dot Matrix!
Blood Predator follows a group of people who have survived a plane crash during a CGI blizzard. They make their way to a cabin in the woods where they dick around for 55 minutes until an alien starts to kill them. That's about it. The only thing that really stands out in this movie is the terrible CGI effects.
Outside of the bad CGI snow, the use of styrofoam pieces to act as the snow was hilariously bad. Other than that, the story, characters, dialogue, acting, and everything else was just the bad kind of bad. Sometimes the movie gets to point of being physically unwatchable. Most of those moments are from when they pan the camera on their early 2000's cellphone around too fast. At least it's better than The Shadows.
6. Feeding Grounds
You know, if you want to have your film show off people being slowly driven mad and turning into jerks, it helps not starting your characters off as a bunch of jerks.
Feeding Grounds follows "Team Jerks" journey down a road that leads them through "Doom Desert" on the way to their sisters' cabin. When learning that the sister is still using the cabin, the group decides to stop in the aforementioned "Doom Desert" and fart around. This leads to them being attacked by lizard porcupines from space and being poisoned. Now, before you say lizard porcupines from space! This movie sounds awesome! Remember that you don't ever see any monsters, and I am just making up that description because the group is poisoned from afar by stinging needles. They also keep mentioning seeing large lizards, so two and two together, porcupine lizards.
While Feeding Grounds does a solid job using the quiet, and the radio to build up some good paranoia and tension, it never pays off, leaving you wondering what the whole point was.
5. The Black Raven
The Black Raven sees a group of strangers who bring their own story with them to a mansion like inn called the Black Raven. Luckily for the plot, they are all involved in a whodunnit murder mystery.
There is a disgruntled banker/bank thief, the pair of wannabe newlyweds trying to escape an angry father, and the guy who is basically a career mob member. The owner of the place is also visited by a guy he screwed over and got put in prison. Of course, he is back for revenge after escaping ten years early. If that seems like a lot, there is actually more and it is all established in the first half-hour. Which normally isn't a big deal except that this movie is only an hour long.
The Black Raven is mostly set up with a bit of murder mystery, except, you are pretty sure of the killer really early on. It makes for a pretty dull 60 minutes when there isn't really a mystery. No suspense or thrills await you. At least it's short.
4. Backwoods
If you have seen a lot of Horror movies that take place off the beaten path you have probably learned that the empty spaces of every country are filled with inbred murderous hillbillies. It's a movie fact. The farther outside a city you go the more likely you are to be attacked and tortured by a family that lives in the deep woods. That idea stays strong in Backwoods.
See, the hill folk in this movie are preparing for war! War against America! They are breeding all the girls they capture with Mongo, the biggest and most handicapped of their troop. This all in an attempt to build an unstoppable army to fight the USA. Seems legit.
I admit I was actually digging parts of this movie, but it was a bit of a letdown that it ended with the regular "chase a girl through the woods as she tries to escape" story. I kind of wanted them to show, or at least hint at a murderous hillbilly takeover of the States. But, we will stick to being a mix of Wrong Turns 1,2, and 6.
3. Netherworld
Netherworld is a Full Moon movie about a guy named Corey who inherits his father's Louisiana estate. He also inherits a diary that tells him that his father expects him to raise his soul from the dead. Well, that and numerous detailed erotic adventures that Corey's dad had with the girls at the brothel next door.
Those ladies who work at Tonk's, the brothel are all also gifted in the arts of magic and necromancy. So, Corey must enlist the help of Dolores and her winged creatures to bring his Dad back from the dead, and also have sex with her.
Netherworld has a solid amount of weirdness that makes the film more entertaining. The problem is, whenever those weird times go away, we are left with a really dull movie about some sex workers who cater to the D&D crowd. I am not sure how a movie with a stone hand smashing people in the face with magic can be so dull at times, but I think that it is at least worth searching out for one watch.
2. Gothic
Gothic is a hallucinogenic melted mind version of the night that the stories for Frankenstein and The Vampyre were created. You can't really tell it from this movie as it is more about madness, miscarried children, and nipples.
While knowing of Ken Russell, I have not really delved into his work in my meager short life so far. Gothic was my first experience with one of his films, and I can see his love of using madness and crazy imagery to tell tales is front and center in this. It's both a highlight and a detriment at times
See, while the madness in this is important when it's reigned in enough to be coherent, the movie is great. It's still weird, but the right kind of weird. When left unchecked though, the movie kind of devolves into so much imagery and dream states that it no longer seems interested in telling a story, more than it wants to screw with your head. Still, it's an enjoyable affair as long as you know what you're getting into, and you don't mind the weird.
1. The Ghost Walks
Finally, we get to what was my favorite movie on the set, The Ghost Walks. I don't usually find myself delving all the way back to horror in the 1930s but when I do, I am usually pleasantly surprised. Although, I am learning that a lot of them take place in an off the road mansion where people get stuck overnight due to downpours of rain.
This time we see a rich producer, his secretary, and a playwright forced to seek refuge in the aforementioned large mansion nearby. Not all is what it seems as the playwright knows the people in the house, and there is talk of death and madness. Thus begins a fun, and short mystery about death, madmen, and maybe even a ghost.
I actually really liked the idea of the playwright trying to trick his producer by having his friends act out his play like it was really happening. It added in an element of what is real, and what is not. Is there really an escaped madman? Who is kidnapping people? Is it all part of the play? For a lot of the time, it worked. Sadly, the ending is beyond bland and anti-climactic. Plus, the comedy can feel very dated, which isn't a huge knock due to the movie's age. For the most part, the movie is a fun time-waster.
I can say that it's kind of awesome, and a little sad that the best movie on this compilation was made in 1934. I know this is a small snippet of the horror movies out there and it is featured on a random compilation of eight films, but it shows the staying power of older films in a way. I should probably watch more of them then.
The Findings.
The Shadows Collection is not great. It has some gems on it in Gothic, and The Ghost Walks, while also having a few terrible films as well. The namesake movie may be one of the worst I have seen and Blood Predator isn't much better.
I will say that I don't think this compilation is worth the money though, no matter how cheap you can find it. The two best films are easily accessible on other collections, and Gothic isn't that hard to find on its own either. So, I say, seek out the better films on other collections or on their own, and let this Craptacular Compilation stay in the bin.