Orphan (2009) [REVIEW]

April 28, 2010 1 Comment

 

Someone actually told me the end of this film before I ever even considered seeing it, so in addition to not wanting to actually see it, the ending was ruined. And I would say it has one of those “twist endings”, as the kids are saying. Or, as R. Kelly calls them in the Trapped in a Closet commetary, “cliff hangers”. Keeping all of this in mind, I had pretty low expectations, which was probably a good thing. Just kind of figured it would be like The Good Son, except with a girl. Not to be confused with the Jennifer Aniston movie The Good Girl, of course.

 

One of these things doesn’t belong. Yup, it’s the deaf one!

The story involves a woman played by Vera Farmiga who has a miscarriage and is having issues dealing with herself and her family, as well as her alcoholism. She starts looking into adoption and, surprise surprise, adopts an orphan! I think that’s where the name of the movie comes from….maybe. So she adopts a little girl from Russia named Esther, played by Isabelle Fuhrman, but sadly, not everything is as it seems (it never is as it seems, is it?). After a difficult adjustment period with her new family, especially the biological children, Esther’s behavior gets a little more bizarre. And by bizarre, I mean homicidal.

 

Typical…clearly she just wants to party, and all the whitecoats are holding her down. A tale as old as time…

It starts when someone from the orphanage comes around asking questions about Esther and paperwork and her history, somewhat vague stuff. Esther’s reaction? She has her new sister help her murder the woman with a hammer. HOLY SHIT A GODDAMNED HAMMER. She then attempts to, unsuccessfully, kill the other children. Mom starts having questions about the behavior and second-guessing Esther, but all of her paranoia is attributed to her alcoholism. Esther gets worse and worse, and even attempts to seduce the father when his wife has left the house to get away from Esther. I won’t ruin the ending for you, like it was ruined for me, but it’s wacky, of course.

 

Since when is watching someone sleep frowned upon?

Surprisingly, this movie was a lot of fun. Albeit, it was a little longer than I anticipated, but still fun. It was a lot more stylish than I had anticipated, especially considering the fact that I have seen similar stories as this one, but they actually had some cool visuals and some interesting concepts. Having the mother be an alcoholic and her biological daughter being deaf might have seemed a little too planned, but you don’t see deaf characters portrayed too often, and neither of those traits were done in a heavy-handed way. You sometimes forgot about those things until they actually fit into the plot in a justifiable way. All of the actors were pretty good too, especially considering Fuhrman was only 12 when it was released, but she was still just the right combination of terrifying and innocent. So the next time you see the terrifying cover of this movie when you are in a Blockbuster (if people even go to those anymore), feel free to check it out.

 

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Kick-Ass (2010) [REVIEW]

April 26, 2010 Leave a comment

 

I’m a little foggy on the details of the development of this movie, as far as whether the movie was being developed first or if it was the comic book. All I know is that it started back when people still used MySpace, as that was primarily how this film was promoted. One thing I do know is that the comic book debuted and finished before the film was released, so that was the storyline I was more familiar with. When I originally saw the first issue released, it was awesome. I was excited to see Mark Millar writing a “kick-ass” story, especially with John Romita, Jr. being in charge of the art. The only JRJR art I was familiar with was his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man, so seeing him doing graphic violence was pretty exciting. Every issue that came out I made sure to share with my roommate, because it was balls-out action and ridiculousness, and I went into the movie expecting the same.

 

I have also posed like this, but I tend to use dildos rather than wimpy batons.

As far as the plot of the film vs. comic are concerned, the basic elements are similar. The story centers around a comic book nerd who is exceptionally average, when he one day wonders why no one has ever even attempted being a superhero before. While pondering, he decides he will become the first, but not necessarily the way you might think. He immediately gets stabbed and hit by a car and is left in traction for quite some time, wondering why he ever thought of the idea in the first place. But sure enough, he gets the crime-fighting bug again, and gives it another go. This time, he beats people up and the event ends up on YouTube, sparking his internet and real-life popularity. Other superheroes start meeting up with him, to varying levels of superhero-ness, as well as actual crime bosses. As you can imagine, violence ensues, and we learn the fate of the heroes Kick-Ass, Red Mist, Big Daddy, and Hit Girl.

 

That’s so weird! I dye my pubes the same color!

As previously mentioned, I really enjoyed the comic books, so I went into this movie with high hopes. Sadly, those expectations were not met. The series itself was eight issues, but you just couldn’t get enough. It could have been 80 issues and I feel like the intensity would have kept up the whole time. The movie was close to two hours, but it dragged a few times. I would say the action scenes were cool enough, but they were few and far between. More specifically, in the comics, the fight where Kick-Ass officially gets his name was a complete freakout where he destroyed three gang members, but in the movie, he didn’t even win. It was more of an “Even though I didn’t win, I am willing to die to save this person!” kind of moment that wasn’t nearly as awesome. I would say there were three main points in which the movie and film were different, but I can’t go into detail without giving a:

 

SPOILER ALERT



1) It is established in both the film and comic that Kick-Ass, whose real name is Dave, develops a crush on a girl in his class. In his first fight, he took off his costume before paramedics arrived. Word got out that he was found beaten and naked, so the rumors started that he was gay. The object of his affection always wanted a gay best friend, so Dave plays along and furthers their relationship. Ultimately, he can’t take the lies and confesses his love. In the movie, he gets the girl and they have a whole bunch of sex. In the comic, she rejects him, calls him a freak, and sends him picture messages of him blowing another guy. This was so awesome! The fact that even the “hero” couldn’t get the girl  connected you to Dave in the comics, but not so much in the movie.

2) In the film, Big Daddy and Hit Girl have a complicated father/daughter saga involving being framed and ending up in jail and swearing vengeance against the man who put them there, which is the crime lord Frank D’ Amico. For the most part, this is very similar to the comics, except the detail that Big Daddy always carries around a locked suitcase. When he ultimately meets his demise, the suitcase is opened to find dozens of extremely rare comic books, which he has been using to fund his endeavors. Also, it turns out that the whole story is fake. He is just a comic book fanatic who wanted to give his daughter an exciting life. I thought it was a good twist in the comics that they unfortunately left out of the film.

3) The character of the crime lord is only briefly involved in the comics. Granted, those brief moments involve lots of torture and death, but most of the issues just deal specifically with Kick-Ass existing, rather than his enemies. In the film, the crime lord might actually have more screen time than either Big Daddy or Hit Girl. Mark Strong, who plays Frank D’ Amico, did a great job playing the character, connecting to his inner Pacino his over-the-top acting style, but was silly at the same time so you didn’t actually think he was some supervillain. I wouldn’t say this aspect was better than the book, but had a different actor been involved, it might not have worked out so well.

END OF SPOILERS


They got it all wrong. People who read comic books are far more attractive than these three.

As far as the acting goes, it was kind of…meh. Aaron Johnson, who plays Kick-Ass, really just seemed to be a person in a suit. Whereas in the comics, the character is pretty pathetic, so I think maybe just the transition to film changed the character so he wasn’t as pathetic. Unfortunately, this made the character a little bit harder for me to connect to. Nicolas Cage was fine as Big Daddy, but I think that’s just because he has said he was channeling Adam West the whole time, so his entire performance was laughable. Red Mist, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, a.k.a. McLovin’, wasn’t really all that good. I get it, the kid will always be McLovin’, no matter what he does, and even if he is playing a similar whiny kid, I still don’t really need to see him. Like I said, Mark Strong was awesome, despite the fact that he made me question whether or not he really was Andy Garcia. Hit Girl….WAS AWESOME. Every scene she was in was great, whether she was just playing an 11 year old or whether she was kicking everyone’s ass. I think that had any of the characters had as good of an actress as Chloe Moretz, the movie could have been ten times better. I would recommend watching the movie, because you’ll probably be entertained, but then when you read the comics later, you will be even more excited.

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Ôdishon (Audition) (1999) [REVIEW]

April 25, 2010 Leave a comment

 

This is another movie I have seen before, but it has been a long time since I watched it in its entirety. Takashi Miike, the director, tends to have very confusing films, and Audition is probably the most accessible to new audiences. Despite the fact that this is one of his easier to comprehend films doesn’t mean it’s easy to follow and answers all the questions you had, but compared to most of his other movies, this might as well be as tame and cookie-cutter as a  Matthew McCounaghey romantic comedy.

 

You can’t Google image search this movie without this picture coming up, so I will save you the effort.

We open with a wife dying in a hospital as soon as her young son walks in, which is a bummer. We flash forward seven years to see the husband, Shigeharu, played by Ryo Ishibashi, being lonely and depressed while taking care of his son. Since he works in the movie industry, he decides to hold an audition for a future wife, under the guise of auditioning for a movie, so he is able to select girls who have certain skills and talents. One in particular catches his eye, Asami, played by Eihi Shiina, and he decides to pursue her.

 

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking there is something totally normal in that bag, aren’t you?

Things seem to be going well, and Asami has no idea what Shigeharu is after, and they start a relationship. After sleeping together, Shigeharu wakes up to find Asami missing, with no indication of where she went. Shigeharu starts investigating Asami’s references from her audition resumé and starts noticing discrepancies and mysterious things in her past. Whether it be people not existing, disappearing, or being murdered, things just aren’t adding up. That is, until one night Shigeharu goes home and is drugged by Asami, who then begins to torture him for what he did and the whole fake audition.

Okay, you dragged it out of me. The torture culminates with the classic “spitting in someone’s mouth”.

I won’t go into too much detail of the events of the torture, but it isn’t pleasant. It involves needles, aprons, and razor wire. Maybe aprons don’t sound painful, but let’s just say it got messy at times. And things obviously get a little more complicated when Shigeharu’s son walks in. I also don’t want to spoil the ending, and that’s for two reasons. One reason is that the movie follows a pretty traditional linear story, with an introduction/hook/rising action/etc., and at the end, there are a few twists that make you question what has actually happened. The second reason is that I am not actually sure I understand the twists, so I will leave the end result up to you.

 

Some kids have dogs, some kids have cats, some kids have tongue-less amputees.

I wouldn’t necessarily say this movie was mind-blowing or anything like that, but if you are looking for a good film to watch by Takashi Miike, I can’t recommend this one enough. That could be because it is the most “Americanized”, but it also could be the fact that this guy makes multiple movies a year. I get the sense from his films that he will get a few good ideas about a film and strike while the iron is hot, rather than saving those ideas until he can work them all into one movie. I completely understand doing this, but it sometimes means that his movies have just a couple of interesting scenes, while the rest falls flat. Also, considering his reputation for gore and everything gruesome, I would say this is one of his more tame films. Yes, the torture is pretty uncomfortable, but you understand it’s coming up and can look away, whereas a lot of other movies have violence without much warning and you have seen it before wishing you hadn’t.

 

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I’m Disappointed…

April 23, 2010 2 Comments

…in myself. I didn’t mention on this blog that I would be traveling to Massachusetts, because I didn’t think it would matter. I thought I would be able to blog while visiting home, but alas, I am a failure. I got here on Wednesday, and I will be leaving Saturday. You would think that meant first thing Saturday I would be writing a new review, wouldn’t you? Sadly, my girlfriend has commandeered my computer and won’t be back until Sunday. I have been drafting a review for Audition, as well as Orphan, but this is the first time I have used a computer for more than a few minutes. However, I decided to take this opportunity to pose a question. Through the power of WordPress, I am able to see the stats of what reviews are more popular than others, as well as what posts get the most hits. What I realized is that the posts with the most hits are posts where I am reviewing nothing, but rather am rambling about nonsense. This is an open announcement that if you want to see more random posting, please comment and let me know. In fact, if you have any suggestions for this blog at all, what it is you like to see, what you don’t care for, feel free to comment or email me! I want any feedback possible. So, in the meantime, until I get my next review up, here is a picture of my dog, Banner.

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Recap of C2E2

April 19, 2010 2 Comments

One would think that your girlfriend leaving town would be a perfect opportunity to go and party, especially when there is a burlesque show going on ten minutes from your house. Is that what I did? Of course not! I went to Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo! Which was far more interesting than any naked ladies bouncing their boobies around. Wait a second, did I seriously just say that? Dammit!

I thought Moon Knight was a little taller, but, his costume looks awesome

The weekend started Friday, but unfortunately I didn’t get there in time to catch the cast of Kick-Ass doing any signings. I was surprised at the amount of comic book related things going on, because I thought it was going to be more similar to Wizard World, which also has videogames, Star Wars, everything nerdy. Not that I was disappointed or anything, just surprised how much it catered to the comic book crowd. I only stayed a couple of hours, just to get my bearings of the building, so that when I came back on subsequent days, I could get to the panels more easily.

Here I am with Black Cat and, uh…ya know, that superlady who dressed like Captain America in a short skirt with cleavage? This one’s for you, honey!

I got there much earlier, around 11:30AM, and the first panel I went to was hosted by Marvel, titled “Women of Marvel”. It was more about the staff at Marvel who happen to be women working in a male dominated industry. Rather than discussing things like what it means to be a successful writer vs. successful female writer, it turned into questions about what comics you can get your girlfriend to read. No discredit to the panel, of course, they were answering everything, but the questions being asked seemed to be a little less hard-hitting than I expected.

Two out of three looking at the camera ain’t bad!

Shortly after that panel ended, I went to a panel discussing what 2010 has in store for Star Wars. It was mostly about the animated Clone Wars series, which I tried to watch but wanted to rip my eyeballs out. They also mentioned the Star Wars Adidas, some of which looked badass, as well as videogames. They did show a clip of a documentary coming out about the special effects of Star Wars that involved the Wampa falling over repeatedly, which was funny.

The left side of the stage looked similar, so feel free to use Photoshop to get the idea

My favorite panel of the whole weekend was on Saturday, and it was the “Physics of Superheroes”, which, as it sounds, is about physics….and superheroes. The best way of explaining that is to try to picture the biggest comic book nerd you can. Got it? Okay, now think of the biggest physics geek you can. Got that too? Now make them do each other, and the result is James Kakalios, author of “The Physics of Superheroes”. The panel was a lot of fun, watching someone getting more and more frustratedly excited over comics and physics.

The best part was the littlest girl in the front who hated wearing that huge mask

I waited for maybe a little too long in line to get the autographs of Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango from SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters”. Did I mention the autographs were for Allison Paige? That’s right, even when she is six hours away I am doing dumb things to make her happy, or at least, make her less mad. What’s funny is I actually told Steve about how I met him at the Holyoke Mall a couple of years ago, and didn’t have to wait in line. Maybe I was the only one who thought it was funny though. Later that night they also hosted a Q & A session. I asked why in the first season, they are rarely finding evidence, maybe only once every three or four episodes, and now in Season 6, they seem to find stuff every episode. Steve answered by saying that regardless of how many episodes there are, they go on a lot of investigations and ultimately it is up to the producers what investigations are aired, and they get better ratings when evidence is found. I ended up leaving around 9;30PM.

Just a candid picture of me hanging out with my buds

Sunday I got a later start and ended up missing two panels I wanted to see. Luckily I was able to make it to the Flash and Green Lantern Q & A, because I have been meaning to get into both of these series. Turns out that if you don’t know much about Flash and Green lantern, and you go to see a Q & A about them, you won’t know what everyone is talking about! So it really just made me want to read their series more.

Supergirl actually draws her power from a weird heart-shaped tanned birthmark thing on her midsection

The last panel I attended was again hosted by Marvel and was about the X-Men titles. I really had no idea how far the realm of mutants spread, and there were a whole bunch of series ending, beginning, and relaunching, which I will be on the lookout for. The main title, Uncanny X-Men, had the most questions, and no matter what the question was, it seemed the answer was “Just read Second Coming”. I would say at least 60% of answers from the panel resulted in saying “Just read Second Coming”. And guess what? I will!

My purchases at C2E2. I know, Daredevil’s boobs look HUGE!

Thus brought a close to C2E2, which was actually my very first comic convention. i have been to horror conventions before, but this convention was so comics focused, I left wanting to read everything I could get my hands on. Huge thanks to the folks at Chicago Comics for getting me in, I made sure that once I left C2E2 I went right to the store to spend money. What it always impressive to me, is that even though the attendance numbers weren’t quite what were anticipated, anytime you can get almost 30,000 people together who have a passion for one thing, it’s impressive. Everyone was so genuinely excited about everything going on, I don’t think I saw one rude person or person without a smile on their face, all the way from the attendees to the guests of honor. I look forward to C2E2 next year, and hopefully can sneak into San Diego Comic Con!

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Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You…

April 15, 2010 2 Comments

Greetings, dear readers (Craig)! As of tomorrow, Friday, April 16th, I will be attending Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, also known as C2E2. This event lasts three days and I hope to be attending all three days. Sadly, this may result in lack of reviews. I’m hoping that once it’s over I will have some stories to tell, but if not, that’s not my fault. Either way, I hope to be posting things again in a few days. If you want to keep up to date on my whereabouts, I recommend checking out my Twitter. Until next time, Wolfgang!

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Grace (2009) [REVIEW]

April 14, 2010 Leave a comment

 

Other than the fact that she was in a couple Eli Roth films, I didn’t know too much about Jordan Ladd. She got her thigh fingered in Cabin Fever, which was pretty awesome, before having her face smashed open by that guy from Boy Meets World. She was also in Hostel 2, where she was very quickly decapitated. Not to mention she was in Quentin Tarentino’s Death Proof, where she spent most of her time hanging out with Eli Roth, before being completely destroyed in a car accident. I was a little hesitant to see how she would do in this film, especially considering the subject matter, but decided to give her a shot.

 

This might be the only time I saved and image as “dead baby canoodling”.

The story involves a woman (Jordan Ladd, duh) being eight months pregnant and getting into a car accident. The father dies in the accident, and there were possible complications with her pregnancy, but nothing confirmed. A month later, she gives birth in a tub, and when the baby pops out, it’s dead. The midwife, played by Samantha Ferris, says “Sorry, too bad, it’s dead”, but Ladd hangs out with the dead baby in the tub. For some reason, it comes back to life. After things are going seemingly normal, Ladd starts smelling something bad, and realizes it’s the baby. In addition to smell, the baby seems to be attracting flies. She starts trying to breast feed the baby, but the baby gets a little too into it and sucks blood from her mom’s nipples somehow. This escalates, and Ladd turns psycho and doesn’t leave the house. I won’t tell you what happens when the child’s grandmother sends a doctor over, because the ending was pretty entertaining.

 

I’ve certainly seen less attractive people measuring how much blood was in a baby bottle, that’s for sure.

Jordan was in pretty much every scene, so about 80% of the film relied on her and her acting abilities. And to my surprise, she actually pulled it off well. Considering I had never seen her in anything other than minor supporting roles, I was happy to see she could actually act, in addition to making most of the film pleasant looking. And speaking of pleasant looking, the film had a pretty cool visual style. Most of the film took place in one house, which was very clean, crisp, and stark. It didn’t look like the house was lived in at all, which I think might have been what they were going for, to show a carbon copy suburban household with something horrible going on. The style itself was similar to the French film Inside, which is interesting because they both involve pregnant women being in car accidents. Although the plot is pretty simple, it is a slow-paced film that isn’t even 90 minutes, so if you get the chance, I would recommend checking it out.

 

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The Burrowers (2008) [REVIEW]

April 12, 2010 Leave a comment

 

Hopefully I don’t lose too many cool points in saying that I am generally not too big of a fan of westerns. By nature, they are slowly paced, desolate, and depressing, which is why so many people love them. Other than The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and The Proposition, I don’t think there have been too many recent examples of traditional westerns, as most “westerns” these days tend to be considered contemporary westerns. I might have just made up that term, but I would use it to describe something like Tombstone or the remake of 3:10 to Yuma. These being films that are primarily action films that were set in the old west. Seeing how The Burrowers has been described as a horror western seemed quite ambitious, and for the most part, they pulled it off well.

 

“My name is Ethan, I’m from Ontario and was sitting in the midsection of the plane.” Yes, that’s ANOTHER Lost joke.

The story starts with a family in the old west being attacked by something out of the dark, but it is implied to be Native Americans, or as I like to call them, Injuns. Okay, I don’t actually like to call them that, but they are referred to as that in this film, so please forgive my politically incorrect vernacular for sake of this synopsis. Anyways, a group of men set out to discover what happened to this family, come hell or high water. They come upon an Indian in hopes of pulling information about this family from him, and he tells them the story of “burrowers”, which are supposedly creatures of the night. Not like ladies of the night, but creatures, who may or may not be females, but probably not. They can paralyze people with their spit and then bury them underground so they soften up, then they come back and eat them. Various characters become paralyzed, more Native Americans are encountered, and there is a big climactic confrontation.

 

“How did they know…my only weakness…was a beartrap…”

As previously mentioned, I am not a huge fan of westerns. I think were I a huge fan of westerns, I would have enjoyed this film a lot more. It was shot really well, and had a slower pace, but I got distracted from the story too easily. This also might be due to the fact that Rampaige kept saying “THIS IS ABOUT THE BOOGINS!”, which are apparently some Kentucky legend which she may or may not have been making up. Just the fact that this was a horror story that took place in the old west was pretty cool, because horror movies are generally taking place in modern times, so thinking about the fact that horrible things were happening to people before movies ever existed was interesting. If you like westerns, definitely check this out, but what the hell do I know? Maybe it was a shitty western and I am giving it more credit than it deserves. If anyone sees this movie, let me know what you think.

 

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Hurt (2009) [REVIEW]

April 10, 2010 Leave a comment


I can’t quite recall how this film ended up on my Netflix queue, but if I could find the parties responsible, I would cut their dicks off with chainsaws, then feed them their own dicks, then feed them the chainsaws so their now eaten dicks would become further pulverized. I really hope I don’t have to do that to myself, but if it’s my own fault, I deserve it all. I looked this movie up on Wikipedia to try to determine its genre, which was determined to be “dramatic gothic horror thriller”. If I could pick four different words to describe this film, it would be “waste of time garbage”. It wasn’t even so bad it was entertaining, it was just so bland that I think the writers, director, actors, and most of the crew were asleep during the whole process.

 

Considering this was taken from the movie’s own website, I assume they also knew a wolf was more interesting than the cast.

The movie starts with a family packing their things to move to the desert with Uncle Darryl, played by William Mapother, better known as Ethan from Lost. The mom, daughter, and son seem to have a hard time adjusting, but these things happen when your father dies in car accident. Somehow, they end up fostering an orphan, who I guess causes some sort of trouble? Yeah, I really can’t explain it either. Through a series of events, we find out that the mom is diabetic, the uncle is in love with the mom (his foster sister, so it’s cool), the son is knocking boots with some lady, and the real daughter is distrusting of everything. The girl that the son is sleeping with falls in a hole and dies. The son has a statue land on him and makes us think he dies, but he actually lives. The foster daughter falls in the same hole as the other girl, and dies. Uncle Darryl hangs himself. The mom goes into a diabetic coma, but escapes with her son and daughter at the end of the film.

 

“My name is Ethan, I’m from Ontario and was sitting in the midsection of the plane.” Yes, that’s a Lost joke.

Confusing, right? Taken from it’s description on Netflix: “…Darryl offers lodging to the downsized family, they reluctantly accept — a fatal mistake”. This makes us think that Uncle Darryl is some weirdo freak, right? Wrong. That line in the description is as relevant as saying “the downsized family reluctantly have pancakes for dinner — a fatal mistake” because one thing really has nothing to do with the other. I just really don’t know what to say about this movie, there was nothing good about it…at all. It’s like they had an idea for making a movie, but halfway through filming, everyone took a bunch of PCP and went to the sledgehammer store, and the next day they realized they had to make a new ending that would be as unrelated to the beginning of the film as possible. Seriously, TWO of the characters that you would assume to be of any importance died by falling down a hole. They weren’t pushed, they weren’t following a trail of candies, they just fell…and died. And it was made to seem as if those events had anything to do with anyone, but it didn’t. Avoid this film at all costs, otherwise, you will be the one who is…HURT.

 

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Top Five Horror Films of 2009

April 9, 2010 2 Comments

Well the year ended about four months ago, but after recently being asked what my top five were, I figured I might as well post it for all to see! Now these might not necessarily be classics to put in a vault for all time, but these were the ones I enjoyed most. Some of these you might have expected, others you probably didn’t. It’s also possible that the next time I see any of these films I might write an extended review, so I will try to keep it short and sweet. So now, in alphabetical order, I present to you, my top five horror films of 2009.

Antichrist


Surrounded by controversy that seem to exceed the actual content of the film, Antichrist brought to screen some of the most disturbing images of 2009. It seemed as though everyone was upset with how they interpreted the film, completely oblivious to what was going on. At its core, I felt this movie was trying to convey the concept that rather than the world being inherently good with instances of evil, what if the world was inherently evil with instances of good. If you can stomach the graphic violence, mostly involving the bathing suit area, it is well worth going into this movie without expectations and let the images speak for themselves.

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Drag Me To Hell


This movie is also referred to as “Evil Dead 2 With A Budget”. This film seems to successfully accomplish what was attempted in the Evil Dead trilogy. It was over the top and funny when it needed to be, and made you jump out of your seat anytime they felt like it. If you are a Raimi fan at all, you should see the movie immediately, as I find it to be some of his most solid work. The gypsy woman, played by Lorna Raver, has one of the best performances of the year, and Alison Loman walks the line of sympathetic without being pathetic. If you can watch this movie for the first time, in the dark, and not jump a single time, then you might want to get your pulse checked.

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The House of the Devil


This movie successfully was able to not only pay homage to a certain genre but also brought some original ideas to it. In this day and age it seems like every iconic horror movie is remade and updated with no originality, so this throwback to an older style was much appreciated. This slow-paced film teased you and tempted you with hints at what was to come, and kept you white-knuckled the whole time. The payoff, despite lasting just the last few minutes of the film, made the whole thing worth it.

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Paranormal Activity


I am sure you are all sick of the hype this movie got by now, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t pooping my pants the first time I saw it. It wasn’t a new concept, but it was shot in a frightening way. Considering how many shows are on Discovery and SyFy there are about hunting ghosts with crappy video cameras, you felt like you were just watching a really scary episode of one of those shows. They did a great job with the visuals and sounds you experienced, so you never knew exactly what was about to happen. Whichever ending you saw is fine, because they really all were effective in different ways. Just a fun film, and the sequel will blow goats.

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IMDb
Netflix
Amazon DVD

Where The Wild Things Are


I guess I am definitely using the term “horror movie” quite liberally, but it’s my blog so shut up. I consider this to be one of the most well made films of last year of any genre. One reason I included it here was because it’s about monsters. Sure, maybe not terrifying monsters, but the scenes involving threatening to eat Max were pretty intense. The story involves a figure of self-claimed authority telling the wild things that everything would be good and great and only things you want to happen will happen. Then when things start going wrong for everyone, the person who guarantees happiness abandons everyone to go back to something better. Now that’s just goddamned depressing. What really made me consider this movie to be horrifying is how surreal everything is. Both realities are extremely exaggerated, yet so distinctly real they make you question whether or not these people or places actually exist. This is all a credit to the filmmaking of Spike Jonze. Not many people can say they took a children’s book and have it end up in a top five horror movie list.

Official Site
IMDb
Netflix
Amazon DVD

Welp, there you have it folks! As I mentioned earlier, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time I see any of these films I write extended reviews. Check these movies out the first chance you get. And if you’ve already check them out, hopefully you watch them from a slightly different perspective.

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