Rating: 
Summary: A dark, drug-fuelled piece of expressionist cinema
Review: The second effort from independent filmmaker Dante Tomaselli, "Horror" blazes much of the same trail set forth with his first film "Desecration". "Horror" is a non-stop assault of strange imagery, drugged-out hallucinations, unexplainable continuity jumps and zealous religious fanaticism. Despite the obviously limited budget, "Horror" manages to raise some serious scares and contains some memorable scenes. 5 drug-addicted teenagers escape from a rehab clinic, steal a van and head on their way to the house of Salo, a psychotic preacher who visited them while they were locked up and offered promises of salvation. On the drive to Salo's house, the youths indulge themselves in all the booze, marijuana and mushrooms that their hearts desire. Upon arriving to Salo's house "Luck" the leader of the gang and most intoxicated of the group, stumbles into the house to find a young woman (Grace) being physically abused by what he sees as two demons. After shooting them both with his revolver, he discovers that he has in reality shot Salo and his wife, Grace's abusive parents. Somehow, the killings trigger a supernatural force over the house and its surroundings. The woods bordering the house are now filled with satanic symbolisms, trippy-looking trees with candy canes and Jack-O-lanterns attached to the branches and hordes of night-crawling ghouls. It is noticeable right away that "Horror" is trying mightily hard to be a scary genre effort. For the most part, it succeeds. The woods bordering the house are filled with mist and fog and impending doom. This is one of the best examples I've seen in a while of a movie that effectively employs the use of sound as a tactic to scare the viewer using such devices as creaking doors, insane female giggling and blowing wind. And shooting the movie in the middle of winter amid heavy snow and blistering cold add to the feeling of dread.
Curiously enough, one of the things that failed to spook me was the goat itself. On the DVD cover as the film's mascot and a species that has long been linked with Satanism, the goat appears in several scenes, usually as the terror factor is mounting. But instead of being scary I found this goat, with its fluffy fur and "who me" look of innocence, to be kind of cute and cuddly-looking. I'm quite certain that's not the effect the director was hoping for but that's how I took it. And of course this being an indie low-budgeter, the acting is at times quite horrid. Although Reverend Salo Sr. (played by "The amazing Kreskin") and the character of Grace (Lizzy Mahon) gave admirable performances, everyone else's acting left LOTS to be desired especially the woman who plays Marissa, one of the 5 escaped addicts. To say that woman couldn't act her way out of a paperbag would be putting it kindly. Despite the low-budget cheapness, I found "Horror" to be highly enjoyable and very creepy. Dante Tomaselli is a stylistic director whose work conjures up flashes of Mario Bava and Dario Argento's classic Giallos. I admire Tomaselli for playing it straight-up and going for scares instead of resorting to comedic gore or self-referential nonsense like so many horror movies that are manufactured for the masses.
Rating: 
Summary: Poop
Review: This film is horrible. I am in awe that anyone would hype this movie at all. I cannot believe I actually saw it on the rack at a major chain video store. I have flushed better movies. It's hard to know where to begin panning this turd. It isn' teven funny/bad and I was stoned. Honestly. This Dante guy seriously needs to stop attempting to make films. There isn't enough room for crap like this while Romero is still struggling to get good films made. The people that gave this film a good review are friends of Dante's. They must be. Skip this one and watch ANYTHING else
Rating: 
Summary: Don't watch before bed!
Review: This film is plodding, incoherent, and put me to sleep two nights in a row. Sure there are some frightening visuals (not as crazy as Desecration's scissor scene, however) and an eerie circular plot structure, but this film is just hard to get pulled in by. I kept wanting to pay attention and get "into" the story, but I found it too out-there to follow. I'm very glad to hear that Tomaselli's new film "Satan's Playground" will have a strong script and a plot that the audience will be able to follow. Buy this film if you like; however, I do expect you will be a bit disappointed in this sophomore effort from a hopefully soon-to-be-great filmmaker.
Rating: 
Summary: To me this is almost like an inside joke
Review: You must understand this movie has a special meaning to me. I live in the town where it was filmed (Warwick, NY) and am friends with a good deal of the people who stood in as zombies. Recoqnizing them stumbling around in the snow with bloody face paint on was a hoot in itself. The movie itself is an average SOV horror/gore romp if anything. Sure with a few beers it starts to shine a little more...and the fact that the "hospital" i suppose in the movie is actually my old elementary school adds some novelty as well. It'd be hard for me to recommend this over any other movies in the sea of low budget modern horror, but Siege of the Dead and Shatter Dead (which oddly enough was filmed in a town not but 15 min from me, Middletown NY) do come to mind as recommendations. Is Orange County, New York becoming a haven for ambitious directors? I doubt it. Can I expect your regular joe on Amazon to get as much from this movie as I did, knowing the people and places? Hardly. Still though, I have seen much much worse when it comes to low, and even higher, budget horror flicks. You could do worse. My only regret is my being out of town when the movie was being filmed otherwise I too would have appeared as a zombie, ah well. What can you do :-)
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