In 1986, Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell completed the film that would, in the opinion of many a horror fan, define their careers: The Hitcher. The villainous John Ryder terrorized the hapless Jim Halsey and his doomed romantic interest Nash, cementing writer Eric Red as a talent to watch. Red followed Hitcher up with quite possibly the greatest modern vampire film yet, 1987’s Near Dark. With two films, he stole his place in horror history. The following year, he would direct in his own screenplay, Cohen and Tate, a nifty overlooked thriller starring the one and only Roy Scheider. Following this little triumph, Red directed another two of his own scripts, 1991’s bloody good time Body Parts and the 1996 TV movie Undertow. Following that less-than-spectacular flick came the heavily underrated werewolf thriller Bad Moon in 1996. It would take 12 years for Red to write and direct another horror gem, 2008’s 100 Feet.
The vast majority of super-low-budget film and video productions tend to be horror-related, and even more often are of extremely-to-moderately low quality. Whether it be in terms of cinematography, acting, writing, or all of the above and more, most low budget fare tends to have at least one big pitfall. Such is not the case with Matthew Van Manahan’s The Book of Caleb, a super-low budget comedy reminiscent of early John Hughes fare. In fact, it’s not so much reminiscent as much as it is a parody, though much more subtle in comparison to parodies like Better Off Dead.
Whenever a movie rapist gets his wedding tackle shot/cut/eaten/torn/etc. off, people will generally say “He had it coming”. In Robocop, when Robo blows away the rapist’s junk through the woman’s skirt, people generally go “Holy shit did you just see that?!” followed up by “Damn if he didn’t have that coming…” In Sin City, when Roark Jr. gets his cherry bombs blown off by 
It would seem that as soon as I dismissed Rob Zombie as a pretentious hack, he went ahead and slapped me in the face with this little number: The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. With a barrage of Ren & Stimpy-style animation and humor, blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em creature cameos, erratic voice acting, and musical segments that do my inner perverted nerd proud, Zombie has managed to uplift my low opinion and relegate his last two projects to the Flukes Bin.
It’s about thirty minutes into Carl Bessai’s Severed when a helpless young environmental activist is chained to a tree surrounded by zombies, when I knew that despite the many faults I had already witnessed, I was in for a very satisfactory film. As her innards were torn out by the undead lumberjack hordes and her dumbass vegan bitch of a friend stood by screaming in her own special fashion, I felt that maybe, just maybe, I was watching a film that would fulfill my hippie bloodlust. I was sort of disappointed.
In 1982 John Carpenter released his re-imagining of The Thing From Another World. Incorporating groundbreaking special effects and a gritty tone (not unlike 1988’s The Blob) with a tense, character-driven script, it became the remake to beat. Two decades later came Rob Zombie, a rockabilly musician with a dream of brutal, gritty horror with his re-imagining of John Carpenter’s Halloween. The Thing remains the remake to beat.