Fear of the Dark

"TRUE HORROR HAS BEEN UNLEASHED!"

The Todd Sheets madness continues! Today we're taking a look at the last film Todd made before going on his near decade long horror hiatus. Fear of the Dark follows a group of delinquent girls taking part in a program that requires them to stay in a creepy building for a few days. Soon after they get settled in, all kinds of alarming things start taking place. The power is on the fritz, there are papers scattered all around about the history of the building as well. It's discovered that many years ago, the building was used as an orphanage. The orphanage was later shut down after the children slowly went missing.

The group of girls are spread throughout the building doing their work and meanwhile each of them are experiencing their own set or problems. Warden Wanda, who is leading this operation, gets the worst of it. She is greeted by a naked woman who vanishes into thin air. Don't be alarmed though, the fun has just begun. She is quickly replaced with an aggressive dominatrix. The dominatrix takes control of Wanda and yells out orders, like, "Lick my boot!" and, my favorite "LICK ME AND TAKE MY NECTAR!!". The dominatrix then goes down on Wanda, and apparently, she really knows how to treat a lady. Wanda's vagina begins to ooze some worrisome green goo. Terrifying vaginas will continue to be a theme throughout this film, so if that's your thing you are in luck. Rather than lighting up a cigarette after this experience, Wanda decides that a sexed up bloodthirsty rampage is the way to go.

Meanwhile a few of the other girls are quite creeped out. In typical Todd Sheets fashion, they decide that a seance would be their best bet at getting to the bottom of things. One of the girls channels some spirits that explain they are in need of help. Unfortunately not all of the spirits within the building are quite so nice. The seance takes a rough turn and the majority of the girls blackout. From here on the spirits begin to show themselves and everything goes to hell in a handbasket. The ultimate battle for survival is at hand as the remaining mortals must fight to shatter the horrible history that has lingered and haunted the area for years.

Fear of the Dark is an all out gore and sex extravaganza that wastes no time getting to the goods. Once the spirits start to really run the show, the movie completely derails into a feast of gory perversions. The remaining security guard in the group comes to a realization. With the SECURITY t-shirt he received, came great responsibility. Luckily, he is fully prepared to fulfill his duties. When things get real, he has his sword fighting and ability to rattle off one liners down to a science. As soon as he goes into full blown badass mode things take a ridiculously fun turn. The effects in this flick are awesomely gruesome. The only complaint to be had here is that the lighting at times makes it a bit hard to bask in the full glory of the nastiness. As usual with these mid-era Sheets films there are also a few CGI effects that do their job. The performances are actually fairly solid throughout as well.

Overall Fear of the Dark is another crazy fun installment into Mr. Sheets filmography. Prior to Sheets comeback, I'd say this is his movie with the best crossover appeal to please mainstream audiences, although greats like Zombie Bloodbath and Violent New Breed aren't far behind. The film does have a few shortcomings with the lighting, but otherwise there is nothing but good things to say about it. I highly recommend this one to micro-budget horror fans. Plus, we almost get a glimpse at Pamela Anderson's plastic juggage! GET IT!

Sodomaniac

"Freddie fucking Mercury has never even seen anal carnage like this before."

Sodomaniac is the first feature film from upcoming director Anthony Cantanese. The film is a send-up to the rape revenge flicks of the 70's and 80's. It blends the old school exploitation aesthetic and brings it into the modern day club scene. The killer in this movie is easily one of the best to surface in the horror genre in quite some time. There's nothing better than seeing a rape victim scoring that sweet revenge while wearing an ass mask on their head.

 The film kicks off with a crime scene showing the aftermath of a murder involving some butt guts. Soon we are introduced to a group of douchebags at the club who refer to themselves as the "Wolf Pack". The group goes clubbing constantly and unfortunately their glowing personalities just aren't enough to bag the ladies. They easily solve this problem with a little GHB, which apparently makes for some exhilarating sex. The movie wastes no time getting to the revenge. One of bros gets separated from the pack after consuming his own date rape concoction. He soon stumbles into the streets and is quickly buttfucked to death by a killer sporting an ass mask. Once the humping commences we see a shadow silhouette of the kill and hear what appears to be some sort of power tool. It appears this vigilante killer is packing quite the lethal weapon downstairs. You know the old saying, fight fire with fire, fight rape with deadly rape.

The Pack heads back to their bachelor pad to take turns with the woman they've drugged. After waking up the next morning the woman they drugged from the night before believes she just got too drunk and made a mistake. The crew taunts her before she leaves and go about planning their big annual party. Some flowers get delivered to their door with a name on it. Soon enough it becomes clear that the notes included with these flowers aren't just empty threats as the gang of rapists begin to get them one by one before they get picked off (perhaps plowed off is a better term). As the gang is slowly decreasing in numbers due to severe anal trauma the head wolf is fearless. Without any regard the packs' assholes he continues on with the party plans. As the party takes place many of the guys get a little paranoid about someone roaming around potentially wanting to scramble their poopshoots.

It must be mentioned that the film has nearly no gore to speak of. It doesn't work against the movie since it is more comedic than anything else but those who come in looking for a splatterfest will be severely disappointed. The acting is actually surprisingly solid and it is easy to see that the cast had a damn good time in the making of this. Characters like Teddy and Cunter are what really make Sodomaniac as fun as it is. The drug montage towards the beginning of the movie is pure gold. The movie also shines big time on the comedy aspect. This thing is LOADED with great one liners and gags. Once the party kicks off the comedic side really gets going.

Overall Sodomaniac is an extremely fun play on the rape revenge genre. This may sound a bit off-putting due to the subject matter of these films but Sodomaniac really tackles the sensitive topic in a lighthearted manner. The film really delivers on the comedy and that is the primary reason to check it out. Aside from those who are easily offended I think most people into horror and exploitation can enjoy this for what it is. It's a blast from the past updated for the youth of today and it does what it sets out to do pretty damn well. Sodomaniac has still yet to see a release but if this sounds up your alley I'd definitely recommend keeping an eye out for it.