1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Horrible Dr. Bones isn't too horrible at all., July 10, 2000
This review is from: The Horrible Doctor Bones (DVD)
This is a surprisingly entertaining and inventive zombie tale with strong performances, a campy comic book style to it, and nifty FX. The music used to pad the film isn't too shabby either. My only complaint was that the zombies were too simplistic. There was no make-up on the actors who played the zombies at all with the exception of bloody, stiched up eyes (which are covered with dark sunglasses most of the time anyway). There are two exceptions to this though. There is one scene where a zombie has a nasty, bloody face, and another one with a big bloody hole in his chest. Also, every now and then for no explained reason, Dr. Bones (who isn't a zombie) has a nasty scarred face which is pretty impressive.
Bottom line: A good watch.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Commercial For Soundtracks Or Horror For A New Demographic?, August 27, 2000
This review is from: The Horrible Doctor Bones (DVD)
I've always been a big fan on Full Moon pictures for as long as I can remember. The production company tends to like to create side companies to produce films in different particular genres. The Horrible Dr. Bones is under their 'Alchemy Entertainment' (Urban Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror) label. I always try to check them out even though I always end up just liking their main 'Full Moon' labelled films.
The Horrible Dr. Bones is the story of a voodooish D.J. who wants to take over the world through subliminal messages mixed in music. While all the actors in the film did a great job, the amount of music squeezed into the film really took away from any type of story development. Halfway through the film you feel like you are watching a promo video for the record company (soundtrack is available).
The film itself could have been so much more interesting if they didn't stock so much music in it. It was interesting to see a horror film geared for the black demographic. There are so few out there (how many films have heavy metal soundtracks with all white teenagers?). I really enjoyed what this could possibly develop into for the genre. Music and horror do compliment each other, so by now targeting an entire new fan base, Alchemy Entertainment hopefully will succeed in recruiting new fans of horror that previously had no interest in it.
The DVD had some technical issues. While the music sounded great and was nice and loud, the vocal track was too low. It was hard to hear the actors. If you turned up the volume to hear it, the next time music was played, it was too overpowering. Also, while not really an issue, the DVD is mislabelled on the disc. A double sided disc, the film is on one side and 45 trailers are on the other (most of Full Moon's catalogue). When I placed the film in I could only access the trailers, I flipped it over and the film was on the other side. Basically they accidentally reversed the labels.
Overall an interesting film, if only they'd cut back on the push to sell their soundtrack music.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Alchemy's newest production, June 24, 2000
This review is from: The Horrible Doctor Bones (DVD)
This is the second feature from Alchemy, the urban division of Full Moon Pictures. It is refreshing to see a minority film in which the characters are not stereo-typed with street language and poverty jokes. Instead you get a refreshing script that could have been written for any actors. Darrow Igus turns in a strong performance as the doctor hoping to conquer society thru his army of zombies. Unfortunately, the film is only 72 minutes, much of it padded with musical performances (all geared toward selling the sound track) Because of this there is little room for character development and motives. The zombies are not flesh eating gory zombies. They are mind controlled victims of musical lyrics. There is enough horror to make this enjoyable and I hope this offshoot of Full Moon continues to produce further pictures.
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