
DARK RIDE (2006) Tacky gore job about a group of lifeless college students on a spring break road trip who run into an escaped killer who’s hiding out inside an old boardwalk funhouse attraction where he murdered two young girls years earlier. Unimaginative dreck that’s stiffly directed by Craig Singer and really just a lame rip-off of Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse, but minus any creativity and suspense. Only Final Girl Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos) offers the movie any ounce of energy or character. D

MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES (1957) A melodramatic biopic of actor and make-up artist, Lon Chaney (James Cagney), the successful vaudeville actor who grappled with a doomed marriage to a jealous, self-centered wife (Dorothy Malone) and eventually became the silent movie star legend we know him as today. The film kicks into gear in its second act when Chaney, desperate for roles in film, transforms himself via make-up into whatever character the studio needs, ultimately starring in classics Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Cagney is excellent, and the recreations of the famous movie monster moments fun, but the script favors Chaney’s real life dramas over his more exciting (and interesting) horror movies and revolutionary make-up work, focusing on a subplot that paints Lon as an unnecessary villain. C+

RAZORBACK (1984) Australia’s answer to Jaws is this energetic adventure/horror about a giant killer boar stalking the Outback and making mincemeat out of anyone it comes into contact with. When an American journalist (Judy Morris) goes missing in the area, her husband (Gregory Harrison) travels to Australia to investigate, teaming up with a big game hunter (Chris Haywood) hellbent on destroying the “razorback” that killed his grandson years earlier. A quick pace and vibrant direction from famed music video helmer Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction), plus a brilliant use of widescreen photography, help to create a fun Ozploitation flick. Harrison’s dull performance and an overall lack of sympathetic characters are the film’s weak points, but Bob McCarron’s animatronic FX work – which, like Jaws, are only glimpsed here and there – are highly inventive. Most of the gore footage was cut prior to release, but it’s included on the Blu-ray release from Umbrella. B

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (1971) Stylish giallo about a series of slashings in and around Vienna after the arrival of a diplomat and his wife, Julie (Edwige Fenech), who carries with her a “Fifty Shades of Grey” relationship with a past lover (Ivan Rassimov). When people close to Julie become the killer’s next target, she begins to suspect it might be one of the many men in her life, including her sadomasochistic boyfriend. Flashy direction from Sergio Martino, a good cast, and an excellent musical score by Nora Orlandi (later sampled by Tarantino in Kill Bill Vol. 2) help shape a better-than-average slasher/thriller. A shorter runtime would have benefited the pacing, but that’s a small complaint. B