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12 Days of Terror (2004 TV Movie)
8/10
Don't just watch the movie
18 October 2015
Also read the book this is based on as when you compare to two of them you might end up coming across a spoiler but I am going to be careful with this. They didn't film this in the actual location where the book mentioned so two points off for that one but you have to wonder what Redd calls Shark Creek.

All in all this movie is very researched as the other reviewers pointed out as it's based on the book. (ISBN-13: 978-1585742974) and you can look this up for yourself. Those of you calling this homo erotic no it's not and this is an era film as you do have to look into that era a bit as this was during the events of World War One.

This book been around for many years and when I was hanging out in video stores I had managed to get some renting this based upon my own insight about the film as the 1916 Shark attacks also worked into the framework of Jersey Shore Shark Attack as the character mentioned the shark attacks.

I suggest you guys get the book of this then watch the movie and see what you conclusions you can draw from this. Though the director of Nightmare On Elm Street 2 was behind this so I am hoping he doesn't gay this up. I don't understand why they had a horror director doing though. Animal Planet hope you're reading this because I am hoping that the director read the book before he went into it because of what he did with A Nightmare On Elm Street 2. Okay I understand he wanted to do it because he was an educator and this doesn't fall too far from his educator roots. Why I am not giving a lot away with this because I read the book the movie was based on.

Don't accuse this being a Jaws Ripoff like what others said because I am guessing the conclusion the other had said; it's based off a nonfiction work.
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Normal Life (1996)
10/10
You know the true story behind it
10 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Edited for Additional Insights

I know all the locale and I am not going to trying not to do a spoiler with this one because I know the story about Jeffery and Jill Erickson.

The bank robbers who made off with $180,000 and funded a used book store. I went looking for photos of Jeff Erickson as I was doing my presentation and I was sitting beside myself when I noticed that Luke Perry with the the mustache even looked like Jeff Erickson to the t.

Luke Perry's performance is easy his best role; very convincing in playing the character based on Jeffery and I am wondering how much about the news story did he read into getting ready for the role. I was 20 years old when I caught this on HBO. I remember parts of the case in detail as my mother was one of their book store customers in 1991.

I am not going to link up the Chicago Tribune articles because they might give too much of the plot away but it's been so long with this.

Those of you who are reviewing this movie; how much do some of you know the real story behind it? This movie is based upon a very real news story that broke in the early 1990s as I was a Sophomore when it was fully surfaced.

I do remember the movie and the case. Roselle did produce the Bonnie and Clyde as I wrote about this on FictionPress.

The story I wrote from the events was called Bonnie 'n Clyde: 60172 as my own book An Eye In Shadows provided some insight about the case too.

The ISBN: 9781682731086 is how you can find this and you want to do further reading on the case you can do so here if you haven't read the articles about it. I went through the old articles about the case and wondered how much did the director research about this as he's from Chicago.

It's a very unique character study piece and I do encourage those of you who are Illinois based writers to explore the case some because there is a story there. This movie I am looking at from a local's standpoint and it is well written at to boot. Those of you who never been to the area and want to look into the locations -- I know each one where they are at.

Normal Life if you're looking at it from a Chicagoan perspective who grew up around Roselle, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, and Hanover Park -- you're thinking about this film if you seen it and wonder, "Where were you doing when you learned about this?" It's the kind of movie you want to sit down with your friends in a diner who had never been to Chicago before and seen the film, you want to tell them "This really happened!"

My five year memoir An Eye In Shadows discusses this in the 1991-1992 part of the book as my mother was one of his customers in passing.
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Shark Attack 2 (2000 Video)
4/10
It's a sick joke
30 August 2015
For one sharks don't roar and Deep Blue Sea was a lot cooler and this movie ripped Deep Blue Sea. I am not going to give this away but hell it's a good for a $2 rental at a video store and for a party if you want to get a little buzzed and make sick jokes when someone become lunch.

Some might have spoilers but I am going to give an aspect of the first scene in the film the female lead character watches her sister get carried away feet in the mouth. Dinner served but that's all I am giving you. This is one of those movies where it gives sharks a bad name but the at least you don't see the strings.

You don't need to watch Shark Attack One to watch this one but I don't know how this movie came to be or the director misses the injokes. Red Water is much better in how it's made and the plausible elements how they made the shark makes you wonder how they did it.
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Ghost Shark (2013 TV Movie)
1/10
Please Google to see if this hasn't been done already
27 August 2015
Why I gave this one star and I am going to explain the reason I am doing so. For starters, in 2004, I have penned a supernatural tinged shark story closing out Tabloid Purposes (ISBN: 978- 1500524517) called Leviathan's Ghost in recent years a short story playing up one of our urban legends. The story is on AuthorsDen to this day as it's formatted for full justification -- if anything this asshole may had lifted the story in some ways. Though talking with the director of Ghost Shark: Urban Jaws as I was ready to scream at him too until I explained how I wrote this story I used Twelve Days Of Terror as the back story and using the terms from all the shark books I read as a kid. It was the first where I really shown the work to create something downright frightening; as one of my House of Pain E-Zine mates when reading this. I made the motif that Peter Benchley did and gave it an even more sinister tone. This so called director didn't research the web to see if a story like this already existed.

I can't support this and Sci-Fi Channel please look into what I am saying here because I will be contacting The Asylum personally on the issue. This director may have lifted Leviathan's Ghost which I researched this heavily reading 12 Days of Terror by Dr. Richard Fernicola for the back story. Griff Furst and Eric Forsberg should at least looked for Leviathan's Ghost before he went ahead and wrote this one because the grisly sequences within my story can given this idea even more plausibility.

I didn't watch this film because of the accusations thrown at me as one made the claim of I stole this movies idea for my story. When I wrote the story 11 years ago and it was on FictionPress as a chapbook. The Asylum has a history of ripping authors off and not faithfully looking into the original material as I Am Omega and I Am Legend.

Sharknado what I saw of the samples is original and I had given this movie a nod. I penned Yest Ye Become One when I did my urban legend based shark story where the idea came from a report that WGN-TV did last year when they asked if that was a shark in Lake Michigan.

Frust you might be reading this and saying, "Who is this sob ripping you a new one with this review?"

I am the author of Leviathan's Ghost the original supernatural tinged killer shark horror story. Proved I could do a short form horror story based on the killer shark motif again in 2015. So guys I suggest you do a Google to make sure something like this doesn't already exist before you exploring this abomination.
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Jersey Shore Shark Attack (2012 TV Movie)
8/10
Clever but one aspect
17 July 2014
The 1916 Shark Attacks did happen though -- the director if he wanted to do this film I think he should had gotten the definitive book on these shark attacks. this was a fun movie for the kind of horror film it is because you normally don't get the humor mixed in with there unless it was Deep Blue Sea or JAWS.

Anchor Bay's entry in this genre I have it admit I am a little impressed; but if the guys who wrote this film want information where they can get this book I am going to do additional notes with The Decade Treatment of my first anthology as I've contributed to the killer shark genre myself. Though I the director of Ghost Shark should had did a search on the web to see if the supernatural shark story hasn't been done before or not because I wrote this kind of story nine years earlier in 2004. So I grabbed this when I came back from Richmond, Virgina, it is not a bad buy for $7 at Walmart. For an R rated movie there is no swearing in the damn thing.

Deep Blue Sea is a little more hardcore but this is better than the Shark Attack movies. I do want to get a hold of the director of this movie and track down Dr. Richard Fernicola so the guy can have both of us as consultants on shark attack behaviour because sharks don't attack humans unprovoked unless you're dealing with a bull shark. So what they captured is the bull shark aggression and temperament.
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Vampire Clan (2002)
7/10
This is actually based on a true case
30 July 2008
If you go into this knowing this isn't a vampire movie and based on a true crime you'll appreciate it. My ex-room mate got this one for a party she was throwing thinking it was a vampire movie, but I knew more about the case personally because when it happened I was working at College of DuPage.

The killer in the story tries to portray his reality as a vampire but he's just a disturbed individual himself. He leaves the teenager girl an orphan because of it -- and this also leads into how the author of the book would also end up writing the book based on the case.

One of those movies you'll enjoy if you know what really happened and what lead into the movie. It is a true story. The movie emerged when my own true crime outing, The Cabbie Homicide: October 13, 1993 was made live. When one examines the events of the crime then go into this movie, they're in for nightmare fuel when they realize this happened. Though the writers of the movie form took some liberties on how the murderer looked as he was making faces at the camera and had very long hair when they dragged him through the courtroom.
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Magus (2008)
8/10
Killer Fight Scenes
30 July 2008
You have to be impressed with the level of the martial arts brawls in this film, and for a limited budget in an independent film it works for the movie itself. I felt bad that I missed the preview of the movie at Gothicfest 2007 (Ron and I were billed on the roster for signings that weekend.) Since he got to check out some of my work -- I grabbed this film up.

I haven't seen the other films yet but to see Ron in this kind of film, what he does in real life as an illusionist makes this film a little more something you have to pay attention to in the details. It talks about Wizard's codes and such. Ron carries this film with his character as Magus.

Lizzy and half-sister Julie Strain work together in this one, and the younger half sister has some impressive fight sequences especially when she's putting her skills to someone who either has a Krav Maga or Savate background.

This is the kind of story that is designed for Fitzgerald, and the writer I think actually did his research since he worked with Ron previously. This is the film I will say is made for Ron exclusively to play in, the horror elements are strong in this one and also are the crime noir elements because his character got a job as hit-man in one scene.

I was drawn the most to the fights (and looks like they had actors who are very much trained in their disciplines either as a street fighter or the grappling arts. I would love to see the live fight demonstrations with this film.) As a martial artist myself I can appreciate this film.

I won't give away the fight scene at the end of the film but I will say this much, expect to hear some bones breaking in parts because the main female villain actually would pull off some vicious spin kicks. (one of the wizards looked if she was trained in Tae Kwan Do. The speed of the fights would give me that hint, but don't quote me on this.) This is a horror film that also works as a Martial Arts movie.

I have to give it to the writer / director for having some experienced martial artists on board. I don't think the punches were faked in this one, because they did connect. They must had a damn good martial arts trainer for the sequences because there was a combination of grace and brutality with each punch, kick, block, throw, and choke. I am curious to figure out how long did it take to train each actress and actor who have the martial arts styles. If they want to do the live demonstration of the fight scenes for this movie -- get the mats out because one of them studied a cousin to Judo.

They had to have a medium sized budget to afford a high performance sports car for one of the scenes. Hot ladies, fast cars and faster fights. It gets you watching, and I am curious to see how the story was written to see where it played out into the screen. For a straight to DVD fare -- I am impressed. This would be one of those I think would do well on a large screen too if given the chance.
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