A psychopathic killer
Don Lefiert (Jason Daly) fornicates
with women and then kills them. Later on
his car breaks down right in front of a
car sales place owned by our favourite
killer Mr. Longfellow (Joel D. Wynkoop)
is the car dealer.
While he tells Don about each car he
tells him a story of who owned these
cars.
The first one is Charlie's
Demons of a young man
Josh (Benjamin Kanes) who has some
issues to deal with is driving to a cabin
in the woods to join a group therapy.
There he encounters a guy with a bad
attitude Shoogy (Neill Cotter) as
well as an obnoxious caretaker
Charlie (Robert Watson).
Suddenly some people are hacked up and
Josh can't seem to escape as the bridge
to where he arrived at the cabin broke
down.
The next car he
introduces Don to he tells the story
called Dennis Frye Vs.
the Zombies about our
loveable geek Dennis Frye (Bill
Cassinelli) who is employed at the same
corner store he saw the ad for Mr.
Longfellow and this time a beautiful lady
Sarah (Felissa Rose) accepts his
offer to go to the movies but he also has
to deal with some bullies who call themselves the
Zombies ever since highschool who always
trash his store as well as putting up
with his nagging mother.
Well one day Longfellow's assistant pays
a visit to Dennis Frye and gives him
these magical candy bars. While the
bullies return they steal the candy bars
and turn into zombies when they take a
little bite out of them. Dennis remembers
the story that if you eat the magical
candy bar whole you turn into the hero
and does so.
Also Longfellow tells
Don his final story about a not so good
car in the chapter 7:31
of a yuppie named Frank Draven (Jesse
Furman) who nearly falls asleep driving
and a near-miss car accident forces him
to stay at a bizarre hotel, where the
creepy inn-keeper (Joe Estevez) has a
thing to teach Mr. Draven about karma.
There is no electricity or a phone there
plus the place is deserted. When he
starts to sleep he hears banging sounds,
shouts and cats screeching. Next thing
when he goes to his car it's gone but
there is a dark secret waiting for Draven
at the hotel as you can check in any time
but you can never leave.
After this story Don
realises who Longfellow is and shoots him
in the head then takes off with a car
there that apparently Longfellow stole
when he escaped from his institution.
Although sequels
normally aren't better than the original
I have to accept this one better. They
had better stories with a better budget
to them.
Of course we spot a good beginning to the
film describing who Mr. Longfellow is
with words scrolling up which seemed very
classy as well as flashback sequences to
the first film when the opening credits
are revealed which gives the film a nice
touch to it.
Then there's good murder scenes with good camera shots looking down on Don Leifert's arms while removing some
bloodied gloves as well as a good
gruesome shot on a victim coughing out
blood and him stabbing her with good slow
motion shots on this which looked nicely
done in a horror fashion and then this killer having
to go to a car sales to look at a car in
which he meets up with another disguised
killer Longfellow which seemed pretty
amusing on two killers disguising their
identities.
There's some funny shots and moments with Dr. Wesley King talking to Don about a deal with a car as well as a nice
approach by Mr. Longfellow introducing himself
acting very goofy with many laughs with this
scene since there's homeless person
walking around and belching which is a nice laughable scene. The scenes look clever with Mr.
Longfellow showing a second hand car and
telling a story about it and the deadly
histories behind them which is a good
start for a chapter. You may almost think
this is like Christine like of a tale but it's different.
There's
good camera shots on both Mr. Longfellow and Don talking to one another.
In Charlie's
Demons there's good shots on a
car driving in to an area as well as a
good moment with Dr. Wesley King talking
to Josh on the couch
trying to hypnotise him which looked very
natural with a good close up shot on Wesley's face as well as nice shots on Josh eyes blinking counting down from 10 to 1
wuith a great disturbance on a door
banging which almost makes you jump.
There's a cheesy discussion with J.R. Shoogy getting crude
towards Josh which seems at the
same time impressive on someone with a
major attitude problem.
Then a good camera zooming on a spot
where the shrink has disappeared which
shows good reactions on everyone.
There's great close up shots on Charlie chopping up wood with an axe
and acting menacing.
A cheesy shot on someone outside looking
shocked with a shot on an axe in the air
and plunging into his head. Yet this
scene was so cheesy it was fun to watch.
There's many good takes on Josh driving in his car passing by a sign with
a good shot on it as well as a good shot
on Charlie waving to him which
looked quite twisted in the situations but
in a great fashion.
A good moment with him trying to talk to Charlie as he shows a nice grumpiness to his
behavior telling him the bad news as to
why he can't leave which seemed
impressive.
In 7:31
there's many great moments with the
shrink towards his patient trying a
hypnotism but then there's a disturbance
when more patients come as one of them
has a bad attitude which gives you an
impression that you don't want to be
around such negative energy when you're
trying to get cured.
There's a nice horror character with a
caretaker whom is grumpy and quiet which
really adds to the story while these
patients get killed one by one as well as
this shrink suddenly disappearing and
showing up somewhere else which seems to
psych you out wondering if this person is
an evil spirit.
The killings looked convincing but
sometimes with the reactions and other
moments it looks a bit cheesy but in a
fun type of way.
Towards the end of this chapter was
pretty impressive as this person isn't
who he's cracked up to be leaving it a Twilight
Zone kind of fashion which is a
great touch to this chapter.
Then we have a
comedy type horror to uplift this
anthology called Dennis Frye Vs
the Zombies since there's some
in jokes of the chapter from the first
flick I Have No Body
with the dweeby Dennis character working
at a corner store with a beautiful woman
named Sarah coming in and having similar
lines as the bitchy one from the first
one but this time accepts his offer on a
date which shows some cheesy but good
timing with the comedy. there's a good slow
motion shot on her walking in sucking on a sucker as well as
good shots on her feet walking in going
to the front counter towards him about his offer to take
her out in which the discussion looked
cheesily done but yet it suited the
story.
There's also that nasty gang called the
Zombies who trash his store and steals
stuff which can come across as disturbing
as Dennis is helpless to stop them but
yet this seems very cheesy on how
everything was done but still it's fun to
watch. There's cheesy moments with one of the bullies giving him a rough time and trashing the store and
stealing stuff which looked convincing
enough with how that moment was done
and him acting helpless
about this all. There's a good nagging
moment by his mother towards him in which shows some decent slapstick
taste for this moment.
I did find the romance with Dennis and
Sarah on their date way too corny and it
didn't fit in too well at all. There's
also another moment with a flashback
sequence on Dennis and this gang as
teenagers as Dennis wears a corny looking
70's wig which you can tell was fake
looking along with everything else
involving in this sequence. This
moment needed alot of work as they were
supposed to be teenagers and they weren't
acting like it at all. I was like
"Oh my god!!!" A case of bad
writing on these scene's folks.
Of course there's good key roles to the
writing with one of the characters from
the wraparound segment named Dr. Wesley
King introducing these special chocolate
bars which adds a great touch to this
story. There's some good camera shots and
conversations between Wesley towards Dennis about these new types of chocolate bars
which looked quite good and impressive.
There's also an interesting aggressive
discussion between Sandra and her ex as well as
him insulting Dennis with him
cringing about this while trying to stick
up for her wondering if a fight will
happen. This moment looked almost intense
but still the moments looked a bit
cheesy so it failed a bit.
There's also good cheesy effects with the
gang eating these chocolate bars and
turning into actual zombies along with
Dennis turning into a superhero and
battling them with a shotgun which seems
to remind me of elements on Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and Shaun
of the Dead.
There's good shots with the head bully Brady taking a bunch of chocolate bars and
passing them to his friends as well as
eating them along with good shocked
expressions. Then a great exciting moment
on Dennis while spotting
this as well as him asking Sandra what he thinks of her and then a good
moment with him stuffing his face with a
chocolate bar.
Then there's great moments on him taking out a shotgun and acting
tough by getting into action as well as
good shots on him shooting some of the
bullies already turned into
zombies plus many great moments with Sandra herself battling against them too showing good
close up shots on what they're doing and
energetic blocking too.
There's a nice shot on Brady getting menacing with his words and
trying to attack Dennis with
a good shot on him shooting him in the
head and falling back.
But then after his job is done there's a
real classic ending to this which was
perfect but I won't give that away.
My favourite
chapter was the last one titled
7:31 which shows great karma the
most which is the darkest one of them
all.
There's terrific moments with stunt
driving during the beginning with this
film which isn't easy if you're making an
indie flick. There's many nice moments
with this killer named Frank Draven
staying in a mysterious hotel which is
very dark and spooky like and hearing
strange sounds which adds a great horror
touch to all of this.
There's also good moments with residents
staying at the hotel which looks very
bizarre and whacky in which it almost
reminded me of segments in Stephen
King's classic The Shining
which made the story even more mysterious
and effective.
there's good dark shots on Frank Draven driving his car as well as a
shot on a necklace of a symbol exposed.
There's also a good shot on him starting
to fall asleep at the wheel and then
getting anxious with a good shot on a
vehicle charging towards the car. Then a
terrific shot on the vehicle screeching
along the road and swerving.
A good dark shot on him going to a front hotel desk with shots on
candles as well as a good dark shot
looking up on the desk clerk speaking spookily to him asking him to
write something in a book with a good
close up shot on the book. There's good
sarcastic moments with Frank as
well as him getting vuglar towards him.
There's a good shot on Frank sleeping in a hotel bed and then suddenly
waking up startled which looked strongly
done.
Good shots on him wandering around in the daylight as well
as him lying on an object in deep
thoughts.
A good shot on the desk clerk facing forward with an angry hotel tenant
pounding on the desk and getting
aggressive about things at the hotel. But
however he wasn't done too well.
There's however a good shot on Frank this time behind this fellow looking
expressionless.
Good shots on Frank walking along the hallways of the hotel
as well as showing the corridors and good
camera shots zooming by with some of the hotel customers having an orgy as well as
close up shots on one of them showing a
demonic looking face. The moments on
this looked very creepy.
There's a great panicking discussion with Frank trying to talk to the angry hotel tenant about
the situations of the hotel as well as
him getting upfront talking about his
judgement which looked strongly done.
Also great shots on creepy type residents acting
like zombie's creeping along the hallway
with a good shot on Frank on
the ground freaking out.
Then there's the
ending of the wraparound story with Don
trying to get away with murder and the
police busting him. There's a great
whacky moment about the Longfellow
incident when the police try to find out
all that is happening too bringing more
of this dark comedy/horror to life.
During close to the end of
the wraparound story there's good shots on Don taking
out his gun and shooting Wesley with him falling down which looked good
as well as Mr. Longfellow taking out a
banana from his pocket which looked corny
along with him getting shot in the head
which looked good as well as his last
words gasping them out before he falls as
the moments on this looked pretty
corny.
There's a good moment with a cop
getting out of his car and
a deputy getting out too and forcing Don out of his vehicle getting demanding
towards him accusing him of Mr.
Longfellow along with him getting anxious
telling him he isn't as the situations
with all of this looked highly energised.
Bottom line is this is a great
improvement on Hoffman's work
compared to the first one and is barely a
sequel it seems but it does show some
flashback sequences here and there which
proves that this one still is a sequel
but may attract more viewers since
there's better production values,
performances, humor and real low budget
horror to it too. It's not the greatest
film but still it's entertaining and fun.
Some of the acting
is mellodramatic and some of it isn't so
lets take a look here:
During the wraparound story we have lead
actor Joel D. Wynkoop (Mr.
Longfellow) reprising his role as he
often is mellodramatic but for this role
he portrays it's very necessary. He has a
good goofy sneering attitude in his voice
along with his facial expressions and
brings it out nicely since this is noted
to be a bad film so he gets away with it
all.
Jason Daly (Don Leifert) who
portrays a woman killer certainly had the
right motives with his rough looks as
well as his obnoxious attitude too. He
comes across as a good character actor
and really knew how to bring all of this
out for the wraparound story here. I
found him to be the best actor in this
flick.
Richard Cecere (Artir McMillan) was
hilarious in his performance as a bum
hanging around the car lot. He can make
you laugh with his actions and knew his
timing with his dark comedic performance
throughout his role and had the right
looks for all of this too.
George Randall (Dr. Wesley King)
plays different roles in every chapter of
this film and really proves his
versatality as in the wraparound he comes
across well as a clowny type of car
salesman agent with his forward attitude.
In the first chapter of Charlie's
Demons he plays a shrink and
lived to play this role acting very
serious with what he does. No one could
do this any better. I also loved his role
in 7:31with the
mysterious type in the hotel room and
having a dark secret to tell the only one
what's going to happen to him. He was
strong with his performance with this.
Neill Cotter (J.R. Shoogy) from Charlie's
Demons played an okay type with
a terrible attitude problem but there's
many times that it seems like he's just
saying his lines and not getting into
character which isn't a good thing. He
does remind me as one of those negative
types you don't want to be around.
Robert Watson (Charlie) from Charlie's
Demons was a perfect key role in
the film as someone who is a landscaper
in the story which was necessary for this
role in a horror flick as he showed a
nice grumpy attitude and portrayed a
perfect horror character in his role. He
was believeably menacing too aling with
his too quiet of an attitude.
Bill Cassinelli (Dennis Frye)
returns in Dennis Frye Vs. the
Zombies as he is mellodramatic
as always and geeky. Yet this seems to
come across not too bad since this is the
role that he's supposed to be like. Still
I don't find him to be a great character
actor but tried to show some spunk
towards the end of his role when he tries
to be a superhero in a Buffy
like fashion.
Felissa Rose (Sarah) from
Dennis Frye Vs the Zombies who
plays his new girlfriend wasn't too
terrible as I am not a fan of her acting
skills. She wasn't great but she showed
an interesting charm, outgoing and
niceness to her along with showing some
good battling scene's too with some
zombie's. This is one of her better
performances.
Chris Tracey (Mrs. Frye) in Dennis
Frye Vs. the Zombies seemed to
show some goofy comedic timing with her
role as a nagging mother you'd love to
hate being raised by. She showed some
descent energy in her role along with
some okay characteristics. She was an
interesting key role to this chapter.
Max Eben Anderson (Brady) in Dennis
Frye Vs. the Zombies played an
interesting gang leader in the film and
can do fairly okay as a bully in it along
with his possessive attitude when he
turns into a zombie which I found
exciting but at the same time he needed a
bit of a push to drive his character a
little more aggressive as it seemed a
little bit lacking and acted out.
Jesse Furman (Frank Draven) really
fit the part in 7:31 as
a criminal who has a dark secret on his
life in which he really knew how to act
vulgar as well as coming across by being
very intimidating. A great panicking reaction on him towards his fellow actor after seeing
that his vehicle was stolen as well as
him getting in a rage towards him by
cussing him out which looked highly
energised. There's also a great painful
reaction with him falling to the
ground after having an injured leg. He was extremely
believeable in his part. He belted out
alot of terrific energy too making him
one of the best actors throughout the
cast.
Joe Estevez (Desk Clerk) in 7:31 was a perfect key role in the film with
his silent and cold speaking making his
part a good horror character to all
that's happening in the scene. He also
shows some good owly eyed expressions
too. He will certainly be well remembered
for his part in the flick and proves he
has just as much talents as his brother
does.
There's a nice special appearance by Robert
Z'Dar (Officer Cordell) towards the
ending of the wraparound story having a
great obnoxious redneck behavior. I found
that his role was almost like a tribute
to his work in the Maniac Cop trilogy. He certainly came across as
someone very unlikeable.
Oh yes, more
killings and blood in this one than the
first one.
We get a woman slaughtered with blood
gushing out
An axe whacked in the head
Bloodied corpses
An eye stabbed out of a zombie and some
other gruesomeness.
Mr. Longfellow's head is shot and blood
splurts out.
There's some odd
high pitched tinkling sounds during the
first chapter of the film which lmaost
sounds similar to a Friday the
13th film. In many other spots
we hear low rumbling sounds and gloomy
low organ and keyboard playing too. Plus
during a scene in one of the chapters
there's some good romantic accoustic
guitar spanish type playing too. |