Customer Reviews

Strangeland

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

The horror genre has introduced us to many memorable icons; Freddy, Jason, Pinhead, Leatherface and countless more. Some of these ghouls are scarier than others and some are really not scary at all, but rather comedic and foolish. If you've never seen "Strangeland" you've probably never heard of "Captain Howdy" which would be a shame because they don't come any scarier than this dude. His methods of torture and reasonings for his attacks had me squirming in my seat the whole time. Somebody give this man a franchise!

"Stangeland" opens up with two young women sitting in front of a computer screen and chatting up guys in an internet room. They become intrigued by a guy with the user name "Captain Howdy" who claims to lead a wild life and know what fun is all about. When Howdy writes the line "Wanna come to a party?" the girls go to his place and soon find themselves trapped in his underground basement of torture. One of the girls is the daughter of a police detective who will do whatever it takes to get her back safely before Howdy gets to sink another one of his patented hooks into her...

I find critiquing Strangeland as a horror movie to be twofold. The positives are the unique style and imagery scenes of things like goth clubs, torture chambers, Captain Howdy's appearance, a man of countless tattoos and piercings, all of it to the boom of a great heavy metal soundtrack. If you're a fan of this culture like I am then you will really enjoy this movie. On the negative side this film can appear downright amateurish at times, especially with its plot and awkward dialogue scenes with none too impressive actors. In other words a film of style over substance all the way. And of course it hasn't exactly aged very well, being a movie where "The Web" and chatrooms are portrayed as being cutting-edge.

But the real reason to watch this film is for Captain Howdy. Imagine a violent and twice as muscular Marilyn Manson with an insane glare in his eyes and you will get a good idea. Howdy's life revolves around the ultimate pursuit of pain as pleasure inflicted both upon himself and onto others. He fears nobody and nothing, not even death, as pain inflicted upon him gives him a rush. This guy is way more deranged than the usual horror movie villain. Sure, it's got its bad moments however if you like horror movies and goth/freak culture I would recommend you give this one a try but caution: it just might make you reconsider that nose piercing you've wanted so much...

Cyber-predator and sadistic modern primitive Carleton Hendricks, A.K.A "Captain Howdy" {Dee Snider} captures a detective's teenage daughter 'Toni' and keeps her locked up in his candle-lit dungeon for S/M sensual pleasure. Enclosed in a body cage, her mouth is sewn shut as she witnesses the torture of others with various bloodily forced body-modification torments. A partially bright-red-headed and shaved Captain Howdy is tattooed from head to toe, reminiscent of Bali body art, and sports several piercings, seemingly everywhere that can be.

With the help of his partner and an internet savvy cohort, Detective Gage finds him 'chatting' in a teenage forum, as the trail keeps on getting hotter, leading him to an amusing club populated by the underground subculture. Like a cat batting around a mouse, Capt. Howdy teases Detective 'Kevin Gage' {Mike Gage}, until his dwelling is deciphered, daughter rescued, and Hendricks is apprehended.

In keeping with the musical story from Twisted Sister's "Stay Hungry", Hendricks is sentenced to a mental institution for the criminally insane, until "recuperated" and set free. Heavily-medicated and seemingly docile, he resembles more of a Forrest Gump now with facial markings covered in make-up, all in an effort to 'fit in' to 'vanilla' society. And all was going along just fine until a group of vigilantes headed by a 'Jackson Roth' {Robert Englund} subject him to some street justice, where he is beaten and hanged. But like a previous scene where he returned from the brink of death experiencing a hellish Near-death experience, he resurrects and resumes his sado-masochistic persona. And thus, seeking vengeance, manages to capture Roth after a necromantic dance sequence, as well as a boisterous lady who persecuted him. Both are remanded to Howdy's sexual torture devices, driving them insane in the process. He keeps them alive and suffering, rather than killing them, where his influence is felt for the rest of their lives.

To his mortification, Gage finds a live video stream playing through his laptop, wherein Howdy delivers another one of his philosophical rants, holding a sobbing Toni again. Once more they confront eachother for the final battle.

Dee Snider's brainchild comes alive in Strangeland, and is relatively well done, despite the rather bland acting, although the ideas make for a great B-grade cult horror movie. Now if only King Diamond would follow suit...

Although his intentions are there, there is no atmosphere of fright in this movie. I think he should have directed it with someone other than himself in this movie.

The plot is not a dull one and therefor should have been performed by someone like Anthony Hopkins. The scenes are sick and twisted but that is good however, Dee should really stick to making music as I didnt find him a bit scary but rather comical.

If you like gore and sexual exploitation, this movie is for you. If you want to be scared, look elsewhere.

Thank you.

I love Dee Snider and Twisted Sister and I read about this repeatedly in Fangoria. It was to be the end-all of horror movies, yet the editing was ill-paced, some of the acting was terrible and Captain Howdy pontificated HIGHLY too much. Potential was there, but it simply was not unique enough, nor was it as horrific as everyone said it would be...

I read about this in Fangoria magazine and was the first person to rent it when my video store got it. When I read about it, it really sounded promising, and refreshingly sick. Dee Snider sounded like he actually put a lot of time, energy, and thought into the movie. I was all excited to see it (even though they only carried the R version) but it was just terrible...first of all, hardly any plot, and what there was was incredibly predictable. Robert Englund seemed to just be in it as a novelty. Snider kept saying he wanted to movie to be original, and his character to be fresh, new, and not cliche...but he totally was. First of all, you only get the most vague explanation of why he is the way he is. He pops off lame 'one-liners' with attempts at humor ("wanna play ball, scarecrow?"). It's never explained how he gets to his victims and manages to take them home with him, or where he gets all the money to set up his torture chamber (or pay rent, or internet fees). THe guy who plays the cop is completely wooden, and such an idiot that I really wanted him to get killed. Too many plot points made no sense. In movies that are actually entertaining, you can get away with this, but here it was just sloppy. The cops daughter has had her mouth sewn shut (ouch)messily, for a long period of time, when whasshisname (see, I can't even remember the villian's name, it was so forgettable) has her prisoner. When you see her later, she has no scars, nothing. Oh yeah, I remember the name of his character--Captain Howdy. Boy, I wonder where he thought up that. Most people surfing the net and meeting someone in a chat room (which is supposedly how he finds his victims, though they never explain how he connects with them in person) whose username is "Captain Howdy" would be smart enough to make the connection with "The Exorcist" and know right off the bat the guy is a freak. There is no suspense or buildup whatsoever, and the torture scenes were kind of boring. Terrible dialogue. I didn't care what happened to any of the characters, though I felt sort of sorry for Captain Howdy after he was rehabilitated and was all meek. The ending just sort of fizzled out. I feel sort of guilty tearing this movie apart, because Dee Snider said he put so much effort and money into the project--but sorry, it just doesn't show up in the finished product. Do yourself a favor, and rent any of the Hellraiser movies instead. Same theme, much more fun and interesting to watch.

What can I say about this other than "Whoa!?!" This movie is one wild ride! Dee Snider plays a freakish, tattooed pierced sadist who likes to torure people. He gets caught, gets 'reformed' then people turn against him for what he did in the past and he goes nutty then tortures more people, etc, etc. I must say, I am fine with tattoos, piercings and whatever body modifications people are into but the lips sewn shut and people hanging by hooks in their skin was a little grusome. As far as the acting goes, it wasn't bad for a horror movie. Dee played a really good fugly looking tattooed psychopath and the victims were believable, a little too much so at times. If you are into bondage, S&M, heavy body modification/mutilation and movies about insane people then you will enjoy this movie. If any of this offends you, be prepared to run screaming and cover your eyes because parts of this movie are really gross! This IS NOT a movie for kids, not really appropriate even for teenagers, it's strictly for adults in my opinion. Also, this probably is NOT a good first date movie unless you want to scare them away! I must say, this movie was original and anything but predictable! For this I gave it an extra star. I watched it more than once but it was kind of like watching a train wreck, so grusome you want to look away but can't! A great movie if you want to be scared out of your mind! If you're going to buy it I reccommend renting it first!

This movie was great. I have been waiting for Dee Snider to do this film and it was well worth the wait. It is definitely original, and should be seen by any person who decides to meet someone online after talking to them for a total of two minutes.

I rented this because I had a free rental to use, so needless to say, I wasn't expecting much out of this film. When I seen this movie was written, directed, and starring Dee Snider of the rock band Twisted Sister I was ready for a complete let down of a film. The plot is relevant to our world today, but the acting and lacking script take away from the importance and seriousness that something like this could happen at anytime. Dee Snider's constant "poetic sayings" get old fast and his acting in the first and last parts of the movie are sub-par at best. However, in the middle after he's been "reformed" he has a real quality to that part that makes you feel for him, so hats off to him for that. Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm St.) as a drunk redneck is quite entertaining and without a doubt some of the best acting of the movie, but that's not really saying much. I also wished Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks) would have had a more substantial role in the movie, but she played her small role well. Another thing I liked about the movie was the music it had in it. I love movies with great music, it add another dimension to the film. If you are into metal and hardcore music then you might love this movie. I have to say this movie was much better than I had expected, but I wouldn't say it is a "modern horror classic". I would recommend renting this movie to horror fans, just to check it out, but I wouldn't recommend buying it before you've seen it.

This film was written, co-produced and co-stars Dee Snider, who has to be commended for his efforts. From a distance, this seems like another teen explotation film. But it's not. The teenagers aren't primping bimbo's destined to be slaughtered, the cops aren't bumbling idiots, and the bad guy is neither immortal, or superhuman. Simply a deranged psychopath (well played by a very intimidating Snider).

I can't praise this film as much as some others have, but the reviewer who hated this film really missed the point, and probably dislikes most all films of this genre. Virtually no one is killed in this film, any nudity shown is in a cursory manner, not for exploitation. And while Snider is a "co-star", and I imagine many teens found his performance inspiring, only a sick minded individual would aspire to be like his character in this film. The concept is anything but another teen slaughterhouse, and quite original, and well thought out.

Bottom line: Fans of the horror genre will be plesantly surprised by this film. And I imagine fans of Snider, Twisted Sister, or Metalheads will probably love it. It's too bad the film didn't reach a larger audience.

Dee Snider did an overwhelming job on this movie. Dee is the is the perfect man for the job. I couldn't picture anyone else playing Captian Howdy as well as he did. With revenge, pain, and hate all mixed in, it makes it hard for someone to take sides. I do admit that some of you may think some scenes are a bit disturbing, and it's all about torture, but if your anything like me, you'll love it! The only thing hard for me to watch was seeing Dee Snider in a cardigan! Also, the soundtrack has the best metal out there. So, if you have a taste for twisted movies, this one will top them all off.