I meant to finish this post last night, but I ran out of time in the middle of a horror movie. It's Halloween! Autumn, horror movies, and candy! Does it get any better than that? I think not.
Prophecy: Forsaken (2005) was made around the same time as Prophecy: Uprising. Picking up where Uprising left off, Forsaken continues the story of Allison, Keeper of the One True Bible, the one where God is still dictating the last chapters of Revelations. Needless to say, the rogue angels are still after the book, trying to get ahold of it so they can gain an advantage in the war. The rogue Angels have an assassin working for them this time, and Allison no longer has her brother to back her up. What she does have, is the One True Bible, which is about to reveal the name of the AntiChrist...
Prophecy: Forsaken adds Tony Todd as Stark, the Seraphim after the Bible that Allison guards, Jason Scott Lee as Dylan, the assassin after Allison, and has Kari Wuhrer and John Light returning as Allison and Riegart (aka Satan). The acting is decent, and with such veteran actors, why shouldn't it be? This movie wraps up the short side-plot of the book that has gone on for two movies, which was a departure from the first three movies, that were mostly about Gabriel (played by Christopher Walken, who hasn't showed up since the third movie).
This movie was pretty much focused on the rather rapid demise of Jason Scott Lee's character, who goes from living assassin to decomposing zombie in a matter of about an hour. Still, there was a fair bit of moral ambiguity, especially since, well, we're starting the movie on the premise of angels being the bad guys, so we can only go downhill from there. Lucifer doesn't even do much in this movie, and what he does do only seems to help Allison, and what Allison does only seems to help Lucifer, which is odd, but that's how it goes.
Not too much action, and I wasn't too fond of the end. I thought it could have been better, but it's the last of the Prophecy movies, at any rate. This movie is available on Netflix if you want to see it. I'd say watch it at least once to see how the 5-movie arc ends, then forget about it. I personally would have loved another Kari Wuhrer nude scene, but alas, the best I got was some shadow nipplage seen through one of her sweaters.
Our final horror movie review for the month is Let Us Prey (2014) also on Netflix. I wasn't sure what movie to end the month on, and I was considering watching Idle Hands (with Devon Sawa and Jessica Alba), which is good, but more of a comedy than a horror flick. Option B was Stephen King's A Good Marriage, but I wasn't sure whether that would turn out to be horror, or just a thriller. So, I went with Option C, take the Claw to the face, roll around on the ground, and die. Wait. No, that's Kung Pow. Option C was a total risk, a low-budget movie that had no discernible plot, and it turned out to be not half bad.
Let Us Prey (2014) picks up the story of Rachel Heggie, a new police officer assigned to a remote scottish law enforcement post. Rachel starts her day by arresting the driver of a car that just ran into an old man, but the old man seems to have vanished. When Rachel arrives at her new job with her perp in tow, she's heckled by her new squad-mates, which is probably normal. But things aren't all that they seem in Rachel's new post, and as the jail cells begin to fill up, Rachel can't help but wonder about the old man who was hit by the car...
I thought this movie was pretty decent. Fair amount of action, unusual plot, well-acted and well-executed. The only recognizable actor was Liam Cunningham (yes, Davos the Onion Knight himself), but the rest of the cast wasn't bad, either. I can't really think of any plot holes that bothered me, making this one of the more solid writing jobs for horror movies out there, and while the idea may not be wholly original (I seem to remember seeing something like this before, but I can't quite recall where), it's certainly different from the norm.
I would say watch Let Us Prey at least once for the originality of it, as it's not your usual horror story, but I don't know if it's up to repeat viewing yet. Pretty much once you've seen it, you kind of know where it's going to go. Let Us Prey is on netflix, if I didn't mention that.
And that's all for my annual Halloween Horror Movie Review-a-Thon! Yet again, I have managed to watch and review 31 horror movies in 31 days! True Horror movie lovers are out there going "That's an accomplishment? I watch 31 horror movies a day!" And, you're probably right.
Bonus review, Ash vs Evil dead on Starz! wasn't bad. They gave a sneak-preview last night after Showing Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness, and then Bruce Campbell told me that watching all that for the last 7 hours was impressive! Yea, what can I say. Sitting around on my butt is something I am good at.
Hope everyone has a good All Hallow's Eve, Festival of Samhain, or however else you celebrate this time of year! Enjoy your candy! :-D
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
Horror Reviews #28-29: Prophecy 3 and 4.
Continuing the Prophecy Series of movies I began reviewing yesterday. I know these movies are about angels, and I ask myself (because I have no one else to talk to about these things), why are these movies considered horror? Well, let me tell you, or me, or whatever these voices in my head are. As Gabriel (Christopher Walken) himself said it, in the first Prophecy movie. Whenever God needs someone killed, he sends an angel. Sure, we have this Catholic/Christian image of angels of mercy, beautiful, glowing winged servants of the lord coming down to aid us in our time of need. But really, what did the angels always do in the bible? They brought plagues. They sacrificed the firstborns of families. Were they anything more than winged assassins? Some of the best horror movies feature demons, perhaps rising from the bodies of those they've possessed. But if Angels are the heavenly counterpart to demons, shouldn't they be at least as powerful, and capable of similar acts? If, like Lucifer, all demons were once angels, doesn't that make them as capable of great evil, simply by choosing to work against god, instead of for him? And doesn't that make them just as terrifying, and just as worthy to be the subjects of horror films?
Prophecy 3: The Ascension (2000) picks up where Prophecy 2 left off. Gabriel is human now, wandering the streets, a homeless bum. Danyael has returned, this time as the offspring of Valerie Rosales (played by Jennifer Beals in the last movie). Danyael is Nephilim now, half-human, half-angel, but he's become something of a prophet. Preaching to a crowd of poor and hungry folks, Danyael says that god does not care about the earth, that there is no plan. And Danyael is promptly shot, several times, in the chest, by a blind man. And if Danyael weren't Nephilim, that would be the end of the movie. But Nephilim, as the Coroner relates later, are notoriously hard to kill...
Prophecy 3 marks the last time Christopher Walken reprises his role as Gabriel. The rest of the cast is mostly unknown, but interestingly, there are several returning characters. The coroner from the first movie, who was such good friends with Thomas (the cop/ex-priest from the first movie) returns for a third time (the coroner also popped up in the second movie). Also, the waitress from the diner that Gabriel and Rachel stopped in (in the first movie), returns for a cameo. Mary, the little possessed girl from the first movie (also played by the same actress, now older), also returns for a brief cameo. None of them have much effect on the movie as a whole, really, but they do sort of tie the whole series together. Vincent Spano plays Zophael, a new angel for this movie. Brad Dourif plays the blind guy who shoots Danyael. Danyael's love interest, named Maggie (the actress I have never heard of, before or since), is a cute addition to the cast, and has a rockin' body, as they used to say back in the 80's.
Obviously, the actors you've heard of do a reasonably decent job in their roles, but this movie isn't as good as the first one. Maybe it's on par with the second one, but it feels a bit shorter. In any case, there's a fair bit of combat in this one, and Vincent Spano carries around a wicked looking dagger, so there's always the usual hand-to-hand combat/melee fun of angels trying to rip out each other's hearts. Still, this movie wraps up Gabriel's plot-line, so I'd suggest watching 3 before starting into the last 2 Prophecy movies, as they seem to revolve around a different aspect of the second (or first) war of angels.
Prophecy: Uprising (2005) marks the fourth entry into the Prophecy series. This time, the Angels (and demons) are now looking for a book. The book is the one true copy of the Bible, as it were, in that it acts as a cosmic secretary, scribbling down God's word as if it were taking dictation directly from him. Word on the street is that, whoever possesses the Lexicon (as this unfinished bible is called), has an insurmountable advantage over either side in the second war of the angels, or even the first war, because the Lexicon transcribes the word of god as it is spoken, thus predicting the future as god creates it, or something to that effect. Obviously, this book would be a game-changer in the hands of any demon, angel, devil, or whatnot. The problem is, the Priest who possessed it has passed on, and the book has been stolen! :-o
Prophecy: Uprising introduces one of my favorite actresses of all time into the series, Kari Wuhrer (or Salin, whatever name she's using at the moment). Kari is an actress with B-list acting talent, but A-list looks and perseverance. Probably her best shot at fame was the movie Eight-Legged Freaks, in which she acted beside a young Scarlett Johansen (playing her incredibly hot mom, of all things) and David Arquette. Unfortunately, that movie neither spawned a series of sequels, nor garnered Kari the fame and fortune it should have. In any case, Kari plays Allison in this movie, the unfortunate recipient of the Lexicon, and the focus of much of the ire of the rest of the cast. Sean Pertwee plays a cop with a pivotal connection to the book, who is recruited by an interpol agent named John Riegert (who you just know isn't quite everything he appears to be).
At this point in the Prophecy series, it's getting hard to tell who's an angel, who's a demon, who's following god's plan, and who isn't, and that's all part of the fun, I guess. Hopefully things are going to get all cleared up in the final entry in the prophecy series, but it's too late to start watching it now, so I'll have to hold off til tomorrow. Both these movies, and the final one in the series, are all available on Netflix if you want to watch them.
Ugh, Halloween. So much to do, so little time. Still got to carve out my pumpkin and I don't think I'm going to catch all my favorite Halloween-season movies this year. Oh well, there's always next year. Maybe next October I'll do a month-long series of my favorite horror movies of all time, or maybe I'll shoot for doing all-new movies that I haven't seen yet. Hmmm. Oh well, we'll see what happens!
Just a reminder to Grimm fans, the new season kicks off tomorrow night on NBC, I believe. Also, Ash vs the Evil Dead premieres on Starz! on Halloween night. You know I'll be watching both of those, so don't miss either of them if you're a fan! Or, you know, DVR them if you have Halloween parties to go to. Til tomorrow, Horror movie lovers!
Prophecy 3: The Ascension (2000) picks up where Prophecy 2 left off. Gabriel is human now, wandering the streets, a homeless bum. Danyael has returned, this time as the offspring of Valerie Rosales (played by Jennifer Beals in the last movie). Danyael is Nephilim now, half-human, half-angel, but he's become something of a prophet. Preaching to a crowd of poor and hungry folks, Danyael says that god does not care about the earth, that there is no plan. And Danyael is promptly shot, several times, in the chest, by a blind man. And if Danyael weren't Nephilim, that would be the end of the movie. But Nephilim, as the Coroner relates later, are notoriously hard to kill...
Prophecy 3 marks the last time Christopher Walken reprises his role as Gabriel. The rest of the cast is mostly unknown, but interestingly, there are several returning characters. The coroner from the first movie, who was such good friends with Thomas (the cop/ex-priest from the first movie) returns for a third time (the coroner also popped up in the second movie). Also, the waitress from the diner that Gabriel and Rachel stopped in (in the first movie), returns for a cameo. Mary, the little possessed girl from the first movie (also played by the same actress, now older), also returns for a brief cameo. None of them have much effect on the movie as a whole, really, but they do sort of tie the whole series together. Vincent Spano plays Zophael, a new angel for this movie. Brad Dourif plays the blind guy who shoots Danyael. Danyael's love interest, named Maggie (the actress I have never heard of, before or since), is a cute addition to the cast, and has a rockin' body, as they used to say back in the 80's.
Obviously, the actors you've heard of do a reasonably decent job in their roles, but this movie isn't as good as the first one. Maybe it's on par with the second one, but it feels a bit shorter. In any case, there's a fair bit of combat in this one, and Vincent Spano carries around a wicked looking dagger, so there's always the usual hand-to-hand combat/melee fun of angels trying to rip out each other's hearts. Still, this movie wraps up Gabriel's plot-line, so I'd suggest watching 3 before starting into the last 2 Prophecy movies, as they seem to revolve around a different aspect of the second (or first) war of angels.
Prophecy: Uprising (2005) marks the fourth entry into the Prophecy series. This time, the Angels (and demons) are now looking for a book. The book is the one true copy of the Bible, as it were, in that it acts as a cosmic secretary, scribbling down God's word as if it were taking dictation directly from him. Word on the street is that, whoever possesses the Lexicon (as this unfinished bible is called), has an insurmountable advantage over either side in the second war of the angels, or even the first war, because the Lexicon transcribes the word of god as it is spoken, thus predicting the future as god creates it, or something to that effect. Obviously, this book would be a game-changer in the hands of any demon, angel, devil, or whatnot. The problem is, the Priest who possessed it has passed on, and the book has been stolen! :-o
Prophecy: Uprising introduces one of my favorite actresses of all time into the series, Kari Wuhrer (or Salin, whatever name she's using at the moment). Kari is an actress with B-list acting talent, but A-list looks and perseverance. Probably her best shot at fame was the movie Eight-Legged Freaks, in which she acted beside a young Scarlett Johansen (playing her incredibly hot mom, of all things) and David Arquette. Unfortunately, that movie neither spawned a series of sequels, nor garnered Kari the fame and fortune it should have. In any case, Kari plays Allison in this movie, the unfortunate recipient of the Lexicon, and the focus of much of the ire of the rest of the cast. Sean Pertwee plays a cop with a pivotal connection to the book, who is recruited by an interpol agent named John Riegert (who you just know isn't quite everything he appears to be).
At this point in the Prophecy series, it's getting hard to tell who's an angel, who's a demon, who's following god's plan, and who isn't, and that's all part of the fun, I guess. Hopefully things are going to get all cleared up in the final entry in the prophecy series, but it's too late to start watching it now, so I'll have to hold off til tomorrow. Both these movies, and the final one in the series, are all available on Netflix if you want to watch them.
Ugh, Halloween. So much to do, so little time. Still got to carve out my pumpkin and I don't think I'm going to catch all my favorite Halloween-season movies this year. Oh well, there's always next year. Maybe next October I'll do a month-long series of my favorite horror movies of all time, or maybe I'll shoot for doing all-new movies that I haven't seen yet. Hmmm. Oh well, we'll see what happens!
Just a reminder to Grimm fans, the new season kicks off tomorrow night on NBC, I believe. Also, Ash vs the Evil Dead premieres on Starz! on Halloween night. You know I'll be watching both of those, so don't miss either of them if you're a fan! Or, you know, DVR them if you have Halloween parties to go to. Til tomorrow, Horror movie lovers!
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Horror Reviews #26 - 27: Prophecy (1995), Prophecy 2 (1998)
I can't recall if I have reviewed Prophecy at some point, but it's a fairly decent horror movie, and I need something to review, so I watched Prophecy 1 and 2 on Netflix. I honestly tried watching the Septic Man on hulu.com, but I only got halfway, and I'll briefly tell you why.
First off, for the same price as Netflix ($8 a month) hulu gives you commercials throughout all your movies (unless you want to pay for the commercial-free option, which is $12). Which seems retarded, because HBO and all the rest of the premium channels (as well as Netflix) give you commercial-free movies. Frankly, that seems shady to me. Not only do they collect money from advertisers to spam commercials at you while you're trying to enjoy a movie, but they want money from you, as well? So they're getting paid twice for the same showing? Seems totally crooked to me. Also, most of the commercials I'm seeing throughout the movie are for hulu's commercial-free option, which begs the question... If hulu wasn't interrupting my movie to show me commercials for their commercial-free option... wouldn't my movie be commercial-free? Why, yes. Yes, it would. I was actually considering getting a subscription to hulu, but if they're going to show commercials throughout my $8 worth of movies, and continuously spam commercials for their $12 service while I'm paying for the $8, then screw them. Crooked bastards.
Also, if you get a chance to watch Septic Man, don't. Boring as hell. Seriously. Oh, the first few minutes are disgusting, and you think "Oh geez, this is going to be one of those movies where I shouldn't eat a meal during it." and then... you watch a sewer worker walking and crawling around the sewers for the next 45 minutes. Yea. He's going nowhere, nothing exciting is happening, there's some whackos supposedly living around the sewers but they're so ridiculously uninteresting that one of them files the other's teeth to try and make it more exciting. And no, watching someone file teeth down to points isn't exciting. It's like watching someone floss. So, while nothing is happening to the sewer worker, nothing else is happening anywhere else in the movie, which makes for a whole lot of boring, from a handful of boring characters. Which is, well, boring. Duh. I expected so much more from the guys who made Pontypool. Very disappointing. Between the commercials and general boredom, I had to shut it off, or risk even greater levels of insanity than I already display on a regular basis. And nobody wants that.
Prophecy (1995) is about an archangel, Gabriel, who comes to Earth to tip the scales in an angel-on-angel war, and I'm not talking about the one against Lucifer. Only it's not really an angel on angel war, because Gabriel is actually pissed off that god likes humans better than angels, so Gabriel is looking to gain an advantage in order to destroy all humans. In Prophecy, Gabriel seeks the soul of a colonel who served in the Vietnam war, a particularly vile sort who enjoyed vicious fighting and supposedly sacrificed children to drive fear into the hearts of his enemies. The colonel has only recently died, and another angel, one loyal to god, has hidden the soul from Gabriel. It's up to an ex-priest and a schoolteacher to prevent Gabriel from finding it.
Gabriel is played by Christopher Walken, who is creepy enough to scare Lucifer (who is actually played by Viggo Mortensen in this movie) out of hell, so he makes a perfect evil angel for this movie. Elias Koteas and Virginia Madsen play the ex-priest and schoolteacher, and Eric Stoltz and Amanda Plummer round out the supporting cast. Obviously these are all talented actors, and the plot is like something out of the Exorcist, so you have a decent movie on your hands. Could have done with a bit more action, but still, twasn't bad. I've seen it before, and I'll probably see it again, so repeat viewings are fine on this one. Solid start to a whole series of movies.
Prophecy 2 (1998) picks up with Gabriel again. This time, he's after a woman who has been impregnated by an angel. The offspring of an angel and a human is called a Nephilim. Supposedly, they have the power of an angel with the free will of a human (though Gabriel seems to have a lot of free will to do evil in these movies, so I'm a little confused about that), and Gabriel can't stand that idea. Of course, all the angels who are still loyal to god are going to be standing in his way.
Christopher Walken reprises his role as Gabriel in Prophecy 2, with Eric Roberts doing a short bit as the Archangel Michael. Jennifer Beals plays the pregnant woman, but I really don't recognize anyone else in the movie except for Gabriel's undead henchman, uh, hench-woman, that is, played by the late Brittany Murphy. Acting and plot aren't as good as the first movie, though the added benefit of a short nude scene by Jennifer Beals ups the excitement level by a fraction, for a fraction of a second.
Prophecy 2 wasn't as good as the first one, so if you only have time for one, watch the first one. Prophecy 2 may or may not add anything to the series. I'll have to let you know since I am watching the other Prophecy movies tomorrow.
That's all for now. Til next time!
First off, for the same price as Netflix ($8 a month) hulu gives you commercials throughout all your movies (unless you want to pay for the commercial-free option, which is $12). Which seems retarded, because HBO and all the rest of the premium channels (as well as Netflix) give you commercial-free movies. Frankly, that seems shady to me. Not only do they collect money from advertisers to spam commercials at you while you're trying to enjoy a movie, but they want money from you, as well? So they're getting paid twice for the same showing? Seems totally crooked to me. Also, most of the commercials I'm seeing throughout the movie are for hulu's commercial-free option, which begs the question... If hulu wasn't interrupting my movie to show me commercials for their commercial-free option... wouldn't my movie be commercial-free? Why, yes. Yes, it would. I was actually considering getting a subscription to hulu, but if they're going to show commercials throughout my $8 worth of movies, and continuously spam commercials for their $12 service while I'm paying for the $8, then screw them. Crooked bastards.
Also, if you get a chance to watch Septic Man, don't. Boring as hell. Seriously. Oh, the first few minutes are disgusting, and you think "Oh geez, this is going to be one of those movies where I shouldn't eat a meal during it." and then... you watch a sewer worker walking and crawling around the sewers for the next 45 minutes. Yea. He's going nowhere, nothing exciting is happening, there's some whackos supposedly living around the sewers but they're so ridiculously uninteresting that one of them files the other's teeth to try and make it more exciting. And no, watching someone file teeth down to points isn't exciting. It's like watching someone floss. So, while nothing is happening to the sewer worker, nothing else is happening anywhere else in the movie, which makes for a whole lot of boring, from a handful of boring characters. Which is, well, boring. Duh. I expected so much more from the guys who made Pontypool. Very disappointing. Between the commercials and general boredom, I had to shut it off, or risk even greater levels of insanity than I already display on a regular basis. And nobody wants that.
Prophecy (1995) is about an archangel, Gabriel, who comes to Earth to tip the scales in an angel-on-angel war, and I'm not talking about the one against Lucifer. Only it's not really an angel on angel war, because Gabriel is actually pissed off that god likes humans better than angels, so Gabriel is looking to gain an advantage in order to destroy all humans. In Prophecy, Gabriel seeks the soul of a colonel who served in the Vietnam war, a particularly vile sort who enjoyed vicious fighting and supposedly sacrificed children to drive fear into the hearts of his enemies. The colonel has only recently died, and another angel, one loyal to god, has hidden the soul from Gabriel. It's up to an ex-priest and a schoolteacher to prevent Gabriel from finding it.
Gabriel is played by Christopher Walken, who is creepy enough to scare Lucifer (who is actually played by Viggo Mortensen in this movie) out of hell, so he makes a perfect evil angel for this movie. Elias Koteas and Virginia Madsen play the ex-priest and schoolteacher, and Eric Stoltz and Amanda Plummer round out the supporting cast. Obviously these are all talented actors, and the plot is like something out of the Exorcist, so you have a decent movie on your hands. Could have done with a bit more action, but still, twasn't bad. I've seen it before, and I'll probably see it again, so repeat viewings are fine on this one. Solid start to a whole series of movies.
Prophecy 2 (1998) picks up with Gabriel again. This time, he's after a woman who has been impregnated by an angel. The offspring of an angel and a human is called a Nephilim. Supposedly, they have the power of an angel with the free will of a human (though Gabriel seems to have a lot of free will to do evil in these movies, so I'm a little confused about that), and Gabriel can't stand that idea. Of course, all the angels who are still loyal to god are going to be standing in his way.
Christopher Walken reprises his role as Gabriel in Prophecy 2, with Eric Roberts doing a short bit as the Archangel Michael. Jennifer Beals plays the pregnant woman, but I really don't recognize anyone else in the movie except for Gabriel's undead henchman, uh, hench-woman, that is, played by the late Brittany Murphy. Acting and plot aren't as good as the first movie, though the added benefit of a short nude scene by Jennifer Beals ups the excitement level by a fraction, for a fraction of a second.
Prophecy 2 wasn't as good as the first one, so if you only have time for one, watch the first one. Prophecy 2 may or may not add anything to the series. I'll have to let you know since I am watching the other Prophecy movies tomorrow.
That's all for now. Til next time!
Monday, October 26, 2015
Horror Review #24 - 25: The Hollow (2015), Twixt (2011)
Double feature tonight, to catch up! Again! Yea. I know. I'm a total slacker. That's just me. :-) Tonight's movies are completely unrelated to each other, as much as I'd like to unite them with a common theme, so let's just get to the reviews.
The Hollow (2015) is so new that it doesn't even have an IMDB.com entry yet, as far as I can tell. Basically, three girls are heading to an island to visit their Aunt Cora when they hear about an old legend, one that says 6 young girls were accused of Witchcraft on the island, and put to death. As they died, the girls summoned up a fierce storm and half the people on the island died on Halloween, 1915. They also vowed that, 100 years later, they would return and seek vengeance on anyone staying on the island. Turns out, just as these three girls are visiting their Aunt Cora, it's 100 years later, and a fierce storm is a-brewing up on the island that will cut it off from the mainland...
I think this is a case of my review actually being better than the movie again. The backstory was good enough, the tale of the 6 girls killed 100 years back, but here's my problem. At the beginning of the movie, the townsfolk are getting all freaked out because there's a storm coming, and they're scared of being on the island because "the last time a storm hit the island, half the people on it died!" Okay, look, this is 2015. No story that's 100 years old would even be considered to be real anymore. It's too far removed from the public memory to incite fear in the local populace. Two, there are people living on the island. You're telling me that, in the last 100 years, there has NEVER been a storm on the island? Because if "the last time there was a storm on the island, half the people died!" Storms occur in most places fairly often. Wouldn't the last time have been, at best, a few weeks back? I mean, if half the people had died then, and during every storm for the last 100 years, I could see where the townsfolk would be a little upset. Plus, there wouldn't be anyone living on the island at all at that point, would there? No. No there wouldn't.
So then we get to the basic nuts and bolts of the movie. There's this creature made of twigs and sparks, is I guess the best way I can describe it, and it's hunting, well, everyone, as it's supposed to. Apparently, this is the form of vengeance the spirits of those 6 girls took. Okay, I'm with you so far. So. Where exactly is this storm they keep mentioning? They said there was going to be one, and... There wasn't, not til the very end. Nothing all day and throughout most of the night. What we end up with is a few strokes of lightning and poof, movie over. That was it? That was the big storm that was scaring everyone away from the island? Really? No rain, no wind, no fog, no hurricane, just poof? Wtf?
The basic story was easy enough to follow, and matched the usual SyFy movie of the week pattern (which is where I saw this one, on Syfy). Creature chases victims, victims die one by one, creature seems unstoppable, finally creature is defeated. Not giving anything away in case you want to watch this drivel on Syfy at some point. The creature effects were computer generated, but they weren't bad. The girls were cute, but their parents died recently and I'm a little confused as to how the older sister got temporary custody of her two younger sisters, or how the youngest sisters weren't already in the custody of their aunt cora to begin with, since she seems to be the sole surviving relative? Meh. Just a little confusing. Also confusing is how, in an underground bunker where one of the girls needs a lighter just to see, there's still the flicker of lighting that somehow shows through not only the steel superstructure of the underground place where they are, but through the ground as well. That's some impressive lightning.
Meh, I don't think The Hollow is worth a watch at all, honestly. Syfy may play it again if you really must see it. Acting was passably okay and some of the actors looked familiar. There was some blood and gore, and the creature made frequent appearances, so, there's that. On to the next one.
Twixt (2011) is the story of ... well, I guess it's a story of how a writer came up with his next novel, and solved a murder in the meantime. Apparently, some guy named Hall Baltimore is a novelist, and is having a hard time writing his next book due to his daughter's recent death. While on a book signing tour (the bane of every novelist, apparently), Hall is approached by the local Sheriff of a rinky-dink little town to co-write a novel about vampires. The Sheriff lays out the beginning of the tale, involving the unidentified corpse of a murdered girl in the town's morgue, and Hall tries to run with it, only to run into his usual difficulties, that of alcoholism and writer's block. Can Hall get an outline to his editor before ending up another body in the morgue? Only time will tell!
Okay, this movie was just confusing. Val Kilmer plays Hall baltimore, the "bargain basement Stephen King" of this tale, and Bruce Dern is effective and engaging as the sheriff. Elle Fanning does an equitable turn as V, the murder victim. Special effects were okay, but as to what actually happened, well, who knows. Supposedly, there were some murder victims, staked in the way that one would kill a vampire, and these formed the basis of the novel that eventually went to Hall's editor. There were a lot of murdered kids buried somewhere that Edgar Allen Poe once spent the night, and Hall spent a lot of time chatting with Poe in his alcohol-induced dreams. And then...! And then Hall is handing his finished novel to his editor, or publisher, or whatever, who assures him the novel is bulletproof. Whatever that means.
What did I just watch? Was it a horror movie? I can't tell. No wonder it did poorly at the theaters. It's on netflix (netflix calls it a thriller) if you want to try your hand at figuring it out, but it disappears from their streaming service on Nov 1. Honestly, I'd say give it a pass. Too confusing to figure out, and nothing interesting to keep your attention. And wtf was up with the clock tower? They spend all this time mentioning it and nothing of any note happens there. What was the damn point? So confusing.
So, don't watch either of the films that I just suffered through! For your sake. I hope you guys appreciate my sacrifice. That's almost 3 hours of my life that I spent watching crap, so you don't have to. That's right, I took one for the team. The horror-movie-enthusiast team. Actually, I took two for the team. So go watch something better! Don't make my sacrifice meaningless! Save yourselves!
Til next time.
The Hollow (2015) is so new that it doesn't even have an IMDB.com entry yet, as far as I can tell. Basically, three girls are heading to an island to visit their Aunt Cora when they hear about an old legend, one that says 6 young girls were accused of Witchcraft on the island, and put to death. As they died, the girls summoned up a fierce storm and half the people on the island died on Halloween, 1915. They also vowed that, 100 years later, they would return and seek vengeance on anyone staying on the island. Turns out, just as these three girls are visiting their Aunt Cora, it's 100 years later, and a fierce storm is a-brewing up on the island that will cut it off from the mainland...
I think this is a case of my review actually being better than the movie again. The backstory was good enough, the tale of the 6 girls killed 100 years back, but here's my problem. At the beginning of the movie, the townsfolk are getting all freaked out because there's a storm coming, and they're scared of being on the island because "the last time a storm hit the island, half the people on it died!" Okay, look, this is 2015. No story that's 100 years old would even be considered to be real anymore. It's too far removed from the public memory to incite fear in the local populace. Two, there are people living on the island. You're telling me that, in the last 100 years, there has NEVER been a storm on the island? Because if "the last time there was a storm on the island, half the people died!" Storms occur in most places fairly often. Wouldn't the last time have been, at best, a few weeks back? I mean, if half the people had died then, and during every storm for the last 100 years, I could see where the townsfolk would be a little upset. Plus, there wouldn't be anyone living on the island at all at that point, would there? No. No there wouldn't.
So then we get to the basic nuts and bolts of the movie. There's this creature made of twigs and sparks, is I guess the best way I can describe it, and it's hunting, well, everyone, as it's supposed to. Apparently, this is the form of vengeance the spirits of those 6 girls took. Okay, I'm with you so far. So. Where exactly is this storm they keep mentioning? They said there was going to be one, and... There wasn't, not til the very end. Nothing all day and throughout most of the night. What we end up with is a few strokes of lightning and poof, movie over. That was it? That was the big storm that was scaring everyone away from the island? Really? No rain, no wind, no fog, no hurricane, just poof? Wtf?
The basic story was easy enough to follow, and matched the usual SyFy movie of the week pattern (which is where I saw this one, on Syfy). Creature chases victims, victims die one by one, creature seems unstoppable, finally creature is defeated. Not giving anything away in case you want to watch this drivel on Syfy at some point. The creature effects were computer generated, but they weren't bad. The girls were cute, but their parents died recently and I'm a little confused as to how the older sister got temporary custody of her two younger sisters, or how the youngest sisters weren't already in the custody of their aunt cora to begin with, since she seems to be the sole surviving relative? Meh. Just a little confusing. Also confusing is how, in an underground bunker where one of the girls needs a lighter just to see, there's still the flicker of lighting that somehow shows through not only the steel superstructure of the underground place where they are, but through the ground as well. That's some impressive lightning.
Meh, I don't think The Hollow is worth a watch at all, honestly. Syfy may play it again if you really must see it. Acting was passably okay and some of the actors looked familiar. There was some blood and gore, and the creature made frequent appearances, so, there's that. On to the next one.
Twixt (2011) is the story of ... well, I guess it's a story of how a writer came up with his next novel, and solved a murder in the meantime. Apparently, some guy named Hall Baltimore is a novelist, and is having a hard time writing his next book due to his daughter's recent death. While on a book signing tour (the bane of every novelist, apparently), Hall is approached by the local Sheriff of a rinky-dink little town to co-write a novel about vampires. The Sheriff lays out the beginning of the tale, involving the unidentified corpse of a murdered girl in the town's morgue, and Hall tries to run with it, only to run into his usual difficulties, that of alcoholism and writer's block. Can Hall get an outline to his editor before ending up another body in the morgue? Only time will tell!
Okay, this movie was just confusing. Val Kilmer plays Hall baltimore, the "bargain basement Stephen King" of this tale, and Bruce Dern is effective and engaging as the sheriff. Elle Fanning does an equitable turn as V, the murder victim. Special effects were okay, but as to what actually happened, well, who knows. Supposedly, there were some murder victims, staked in the way that one would kill a vampire, and these formed the basis of the novel that eventually went to Hall's editor. There were a lot of murdered kids buried somewhere that Edgar Allen Poe once spent the night, and Hall spent a lot of time chatting with Poe in his alcohol-induced dreams. And then...! And then Hall is handing his finished novel to his editor, or publisher, or whatever, who assures him the novel is bulletproof. Whatever that means.
What did I just watch? Was it a horror movie? I can't tell. No wonder it did poorly at the theaters. It's on netflix (netflix calls it a thriller) if you want to try your hand at figuring it out, but it disappears from their streaming service on Nov 1. Honestly, I'd say give it a pass. Too confusing to figure out, and nothing interesting to keep your attention. And wtf was up with the clock tower? They spend all this time mentioning it and nothing of any note happens there. What was the damn point? So confusing.
So, don't watch either of the films that I just suffered through! For your sake. I hope you guys appreciate my sacrifice. That's almost 3 hours of my life that I spent watching crap, so you don't have to. That's right, I took one for the team. The horror-movie-enthusiast team. Actually, I took two for the team. So go watch something better! Don't make my sacrifice meaningless! Save yourselves!
Til next time.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Horror Reviews #21-23: Mimic, Mimic 2, Mimic 3
Friday night triple feature! Can I pull it off? Can I, in one fell swoop, catch up on all the reviews I am behind? Probably not! But I'm going for it! Plus, I don't think I've ever reviewed the Mimic series before, which sucks, because the movie are actually pretty good. Mimic (1997) starts the series off with Mira Sorvino in the lead role, then Mimic 2 (2001) follows it up with, well, mostly a cast of unknowns (as far as I can tell) and Mimic 3: Sentinel (2003) finishes off the series with Lance Henriksen, Amanda Plummer and Alexis Dziena! Let's start with the first and work our way up!
Mimic (1997) kicks off the series with, of course, the origin story. A plague is making the children of New York City terribly ill, so ill that the lucky ones are probably the ones who die. No cure can be found, no means of prevention will work. If the virus has one weakness, it lies with the host. Cockroaches. But how do you eradicate an entire city's worth of cockroaches, when just killing one of them can be difficult? Enter Dr. Susan Tyler, entomologist extraordinaire. The Indiana Jones of the bug world, Dr. Tyler bio-engineers a strain of insect she calls the 'Judas breed.' Designed solely to attract roaches and inseminate them with a viral exterminator, the Judas Breed accomplishes its task, and the children of the city are saved. Not unaware of the dangers of toying with mother nature, Dr. Tyler even ensures the Judas Breed is sterile, so that it cannot replicate itself. Once it has killed all the roaches, the Judas Bug will naturally die out. Fast forward three years later, and Dr. Tyler, the hero of the city, finds out the Judas Breed is still around. Somehow, it has not only survived, but it is thriving...
Mimic 2 (2001) continues the tale, picking up with Remy, Dr. Tyler's colleague from the first movie. Remy is teaching in the city now, but all her ex-boyfriends seem to be disappearing, or ending up dead. Enter the police in the form of Detective Klaski, who is beginning to think Remy is a psycho serial killer. The only reason Klaski hasn't arrested Remy yet is because he can't figure out how a 112-pound schoolteacher could toss the 200+ pound body of her ex-stalker over a lamppost. Turns out it isn't Remy doing all the killing, but the last surviving fertile male of the Judas Breed, who has somehow selected Remy to be his procreative mate. Can Remy use her scientific knowledge of the Judas Breed to save herself and her students?
Mimic 3: Sentinel (2003) focuses on one of the sick kids who had 'Strickler's Syndrome' (the disease that was borne by the cockroaches in the first movie). Now an adult, Marvin spends most of his time in his room in his family's apartment, taking surreptitious photos of his neighbors. Marvin's hobby turns up a few interesting tidbits about his neighbors, such as the fact that Marvin's sister is close friends with her drug dealer, and one of the children across the alley has disappeared. Marvin isn't in much of a position to help any of his neighbors as they start to run into trouble, and the policeman he calls for help, ends up being more interested in Marvin's mother than investigating Marvin's story. Can Marvin and his drug-addled sister figure out what is going on, before it's too late?
I'm honestly surprised they haven't made another Mimic movie. Granted, the third movie probably didn't make much money, but it's basically a movie series about killer cockroaches growing to human size and mimicking our appearance so they can kill us easier. Seems like a fairly original concept, if barred from true greatness by longer running times and ample female nudity. Or at least, that's what I would do to improve the movies, anyway. And honestly, wouldn't that just make every movie better? I think so.
Acting is pretty decent, special effects are well used for what little screen time they actually get, and there's a token gunfight and explosion sequence in pretty much every movie. Charles S. Dutton, F. Murray Abraham and Giancarlo Giannini round out the cast in the first movie with Mira Sorvino as Dr. Tyler. In the third movie, Lance Henriksen and John Kapelos show up to support Alexis Dziena, Karl geary and Amanda Plummer. I don't really know anybody in the second movie, but, uh... It passed an hour and a half without making my eyes bleed? I'm not sure what else to tell you.
All three movies are basically the same formula, but not to say the movies are formulaic. Each movie picks up the tale of a normal man or woman who has some inside knowledge about the Mimics being tasked with stopping them from spreading. I like that none of the heroes or heroines are particularly hardy, in fact, the male lead in the third film spends most of the movie sucking oxygen out of a mobile tank. In every case, the mimics begin the attack before the main characters even have any idea what's going on, and the action sequences that follow aren't even about the leads trying to play catch-up, but just trying to live through the night. Which, is why I refer to them as action-horror.
All three movies are on netflix if you want to watch them. Each of the movies are worth a viewing on their own merits, but taken as a whole, you get a good sense of what the Mimics are trying to accomplish and how feeble our efforts to stop them actually are. Plus, Mira Sorvino and Alexis Dziena are actually quite easy on the eyes, and even the mousy-looking teacher from the second movie strips down to her bra and panties in an effort to foil the Mimics keen sense of smell. Yea, I know, I don't get out much. Your point?
That's all for tonight. Caught up for now. As long as I don't fall behind again, only 8 more movies to go for 2015's horror movie review-a-thon! :-D
Mimic (1997) kicks off the series with, of course, the origin story. A plague is making the children of New York City terribly ill, so ill that the lucky ones are probably the ones who die. No cure can be found, no means of prevention will work. If the virus has one weakness, it lies with the host. Cockroaches. But how do you eradicate an entire city's worth of cockroaches, when just killing one of them can be difficult? Enter Dr. Susan Tyler, entomologist extraordinaire. The Indiana Jones of the bug world, Dr. Tyler bio-engineers a strain of insect she calls the 'Judas breed.' Designed solely to attract roaches and inseminate them with a viral exterminator, the Judas Breed accomplishes its task, and the children of the city are saved. Not unaware of the dangers of toying with mother nature, Dr. Tyler even ensures the Judas Breed is sterile, so that it cannot replicate itself. Once it has killed all the roaches, the Judas Bug will naturally die out. Fast forward three years later, and Dr. Tyler, the hero of the city, finds out the Judas Breed is still around. Somehow, it has not only survived, but it is thriving...
Mimic 2 (2001) continues the tale, picking up with Remy, Dr. Tyler's colleague from the first movie. Remy is teaching in the city now, but all her ex-boyfriends seem to be disappearing, or ending up dead. Enter the police in the form of Detective Klaski, who is beginning to think Remy is a psycho serial killer. The only reason Klaski hasn't arrested Remy yet is because he can't figure out how a 112-pound schoolteacher could toss the 200+ pound body of her ex-stalker over a lamppost. Turns out it isn't Remy doing all the killing, but the last surviving fertile male of the Judas Breed, who has somehow selected Remy to be his procreative mate. Can Remy use her scientific knowledge of the Judas Breed to save herself and her students?
Mimic 3: Sentinel (2003) focuses on one of the sick kids who had 'Strickler's Syndrome' (the disease that was borne by the cockroaches in the first movie). Now an adult, Marvin spends most of his time in his room in his family's apartment, taking surreptitious photos of his neighbors. Marvin's hobby turns up a few interesting tidbits about his neighbors, such as the fact that Marvin's sister is close friends with her drug dealer, and one of the children across the alley has disappeared. Marvin isn't in much of a position to help any of his neighbors as they start to run into trouble, and the policeman he calls for help, ends up being more interested in Marvin's mother than investigating Marvin's story. Can Marvin and his drug-addled sister figure out what is going on, before it's too late?
I'm honestly surprised they haven't made another Mimic movie. Granted, the third movie probably didn't make much money, but it's basically a movie series about killer cockroaches growing to human size and mimicking our appearance so they can kill us easier. Seems like a fairly original concept, if barred from true greatness by longer running times and ample female nudity. Or at least, that's what I would do to improve the movies, anyway. And honestly, wouldn't that just make every movie better? I think so.
Acting is pretty decent, special effects are well used for what little screen time they actually get, and there's a token gunfight and explosion sequence in pretty much every movie. Charles S. Dutton, F. Murray Abraham and Giancarlo Giannini round out the cast in the first movie with Mira Sorvino as Dr. Tyler. In the third movie, Lance Henriksen and John Kapelos show up to support Alexis Dziena, Karl geary and Amanda Plummer. I don't really know anybody in the second movie, but, uh... It passed an hour and a half without making my eyes bleed? I'm not sure what else to tell you.
All three movies are basically the same formula, but not to say the movies are formulaic. Each movie picks up the tale of a normal man or woman who has some inside knowledge about the Mimics being tasked with stopping them from spreading. I like that none of the heroes or heroines are particularly hardy, in fact, the male lead in the third film spends most of the movie sucking oxygen out of a mobile tank. In every case, the mimics begin the attack before the main characters even have any idea what's going on, and the action sequences that follow aren't even about the leads trying to play catch-up, but just trying to live through the night. Which, is why I refer to them as action-horror.
All three movies are on netflix if you want to watch them. Each of the movies are worth a viewing on their own merits, but taken as a whole, you get a good sense of what the Mimics are trying to accomplish and how feeble our efforts to stop them actually are. Plus, Mira Sorvino and Alexis Dziena are actually quite easy on the eyes, and even the mousy-looking teacher from the second movie strips down to her bra and panties in an effort to foil the Mimics keen sense of smell. Yea, I know, I don't get out much. Your point?
That's all for tonight. Caught up for now. As long as I don't fall behind again, only 8 more movies to go for 2015's horror movie review-a-thon! :-D
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Horror Reviews #19 - #20, Superstition (1982), Night of the Demons (1988)
Throwback Thursday double feature tonight! Aren't you just the luckiest sons-of-bitches that ever walked the earth? Yes, you are!
Superstition (1982) is a movie that doesn't start out slow. A couple is out necking at a notorious make-out spot, an old abandoned property owned by the local church, when a couple pranksters scare the bejeesus out of them. They tear out of there, and the pranksters have a good laugh. The pranksters are about to leave the property when they meet an untimely death. Suspicion falls on the mentally disadvantaged caretaker of the property, but his mother tells police that the boy is just "serving his Mistress." Who is this mysterious Mistress, and where is the boy? The police and the local clergy must find the answers to these questions, even as a new family moves onto the property...
Superstition is an older movie. There's not a lot of special effects nor any nudity, but what special effects are used are done fairly well. The new clergyman and his family have a pair of fairly attractive daughters, who do don some swimsuits to take a dip in the local pond. I find it funny that for the entire length of the movie, one of the daughters never changes her outfit, while the other daughter changed her outfit several times, one even from one terror-filled scene to the next.
Strangely, the only actor I recognized was the young son, who turned out to be one of the actors in Just One of the Guys, another 80's movie that actually wasn't a horror movie. The acting wasn't bad, but not terribly effective. The story isn't particular new, but it's a decent premise. A witch (Witch is also an alternate title of this movie) who was drowned around the time of the Salem witch trials has returned from the dead and is wreaking havoc on anyone near the pond. I caught this movie on one of the Cinemax channels if you want to check it out. I can't say it was worth more than one viewing, but it was semi-enjoyable the first time around.
Tonight's second feature is Night of the Demons (1988), a fun-filled frolic in a possessed old house called Hull House. Hull House used to be a funeral parlor, and a girl named Angela and her sister Suzanne are throwing an impromptu party there on Halloween night. The trouble is, Hull House isn't just haunted, it's possessed. As Angela explains it, the difference between the two is simple. Haunted houses are inhabited by the spirits of the dead, whereas possessed houses are inhabited by the spirits of those who have never been alive... Or, in other words, Demons.
Night of the Demons may be old and low-budget, but it is eminently entertaining. There's nudity, and demonic makeup and decent special effects, and all of it contribute to a pretty wild atmosphere of insane horror. There's a few scenes to establish just what each character is like before things get hairy, and then all hell pretty much breaks loose. Which, is what you'd expect from a movie called Night of the Demons, right? Right.
Linnea Quigley, the only recognizable actress, has an awesome scene where she's applying her make-up in a unique fashion. Horror movie fans may recall Linnea from her turn as Trash in Return of the Living Dead, a cult classic that I try to catch at least once every October. The rest of the cast do their acting jobs adequately enough, and the body count gets pretty high, with each cast member meeting his or her ultimate fate in a unique way. Lots of scares, and this is probably the half-dozenth time I've seen it, so re-watchability is high. This movie is playing on Encore Suspense this month if you want to catch it.
That's it for tonight! Still a couple reviews behind, but if I can keep these double feature things up and I'll catch up in no time! Hope everyone is enjoying Halloween Horror month as much as I am! :-D
Superstition (1982) is a movie that doesn't start out slow. A couple is out necking at a notorious make-out spot, an old abandoned property owned by the local church, when a couple pranksters scare the bejeesus out of them. They tear out of there, and the pranksters have a good laugh. The pranksters are about to leave the property when they meet an untimely death. Suspicion falls on the mentally disadvantaged caretaker of the property, but his mother tells police that the boy is just "serving his Mistress." Who is this mysterious Mistress, and where is the boy? The police and the local clergy must find the answers to these questions, even as a new family moves onto the property...
Superstition is an older movie. There's not a lot of special effects nor any nudity, but what special effects are used are done fairly well. The new clergyman and his family have a pair of fairly attractive daughters, who do don some swimsuits to take a dip in the local pond. I find it funny that for the entire length of the movie, one of the daughters never changes her outfit, while the other daughter changed her outfit several times, one even from one terror-filled scene to the next.
Strangely, the only actor I recognized was the young son, who turned out to be one of the actors in Just One of the Guys, another 80's movie that actually wasn't a horror movie. The acting wasn't bad, but not terribly effective. The story isn't particular new, but it's a decent premise. A witch (Witch is also an alternate title of this movie) who was drowned around the time of the Salem witch trials has returned from the dead and is wreaking havoc on anyone near the pond. I caught this movie on one of the Cinemax channels if you want to check it out. I can't say it was worth more than one viewing, but it was semi-enjoyable the first time around.
Tonight's second feature is Night of the Demons (1988), a fun-filled frolic in a possessed old house called Hull House. Hull House used to be a funeral parlor, and a girl named Angela and her sister Suzanne are throwing an impromptu party there on Halloween night. The trouble is, Hull House isn't just haunted, it's possessed. As Angela explains it, the difference between the two is simple. Haunted houses are inhabited by the spirits of the dead, whereas possessed houses are inhabited by the spirits of those who have never been alive... Or, in other words, Demons.
Night of the Demons may be old and low-budget, but it is eminently entertaining. There's nudity, and demonic makeup and decent special effects, and all of it contribute to a pretty wild atmosphere of insane horror. There's a few scenes to establish just what each character is like before things get hairy, and then all hell pretty much breaks loose. Which, is what you'd expect from a movie called Night of the Demons, right? Right.
Linnea Quigley, the only recognizable actress, has an awesome scene where she's applying her make-up in a unique fashion. Horror movie fans may recall Linnea from her turn as Trash in Return of the Living Dead, a cult classic that I try to catch at least once every October. The rest of the cast do their acting jobs adequately enough, and the body count gets pretty high, with each cast member meeting his or her ultimate fate in a unique way. Lots of scares, and this is probably the half-dozenth time I've seen it, so re-watchability is high. This movie is playing on Encore Suspense this month if you want to catch it.
That's it for tonight! Still a couple reviews behind, but if I can keep these double feature things up and I'll catch up in no time! Hope everyone is enjoying Halloween Horror month as much as I am! :-D
Horror Review #18 - Out of the Dark (2014)
We've got a two-for-one special on Darkness this week! Last time it was "Dark was the Night" and this time it's Out of the Dark! So, either things are looking up, or darkness is just coming out of the woodwork around here. Hmmm. Think I'll take option A.
Out of the Dark (2014) starts with a cryptic episode. A doctor is burning files in an expansive jungle villa when he hears something. Tossing some files into a dumb waiter to hide them, and closing the doors, the doctor arms himself with a scalpel and steps out onto the balcony. There's someone one on the balcony with him, but before we can see who or what is threatening the man, he falls off the balcony and dies. Fast-forward twenty years, and a family is arriving in Colombia to go to their new home, and look, it's the very place where the doctor died twenty years ago! This can't be good, can it?
Out of the Dark stars Stephen Rea, Scott Speedman and Julia Stiles in the lead roles, and is your basic horror story about creepy children. It's a pretty common theme in horror nowadays, probably beginning with the Exorcist back so many years ago. This particular story is decently well acted, though the special effects are minimal. There's a lot of the traditional jump scares, and they space them out so there's a general level of tension throughout the film. It adds to the overall atmosphere, but there's nothing exceptionally scary about this movie. I think the little girl managed to bring it all together, her english accent seemed so out of place at first, but I think it added a level of personality to the movie that it might have otherwise lacked.
Nothing particularly new or exciting in this one, though. Maybe worth a watch on Netflix if you have nothing better to do, but no sense in watching it twice. Fairly predictable, as well, so don't expect a major plot twist, but semi-enjoyable if the little girl's english accent doesn't throw you out of the immersion.
That's all for tonight, I hope to start catching up on my review pretty soon.
Out of the Dark (2014) starts with a cryptic episode. A doctor is burning files in an expansive jungle villa when he hears something. Tossing some files into a dumb waiter to hide them, and closing the doors, the doctor arms himself with a scalpel and steps out onto the balcony. There's someone one on the balcony with him, but before we can see who or what is threatening the man, he falls off the balcony and dies. Fast-forward twenty years, and a family is arriving in Colombia to go to their new home, and look, it's the very place where the doctor died twenty years ago! This can't be good, can it?
Out of the Dark stars Stephen Rea, Scott Speedman and Julia Stiles in the lead roles, and is your basic horror story about creepy children. It's a pretty common theme in horror nowadays, probably beginning with the Exorcist back so many years ago. This particular story is decently well acted, though the special effects are minimal. There's a lot of the traditional jump scares, and they space them out so there's a general level of tension throughout the film. It adds to the overall atmosphere, but there's nothing exceptionally scary about this movie. I think the little girl managed to bring it all together, her english accent seemed so out of place at first, but I think it added a level of personality to the movie that it might have otherwise lacked.
Nothing particularly new or exciting in this one, though. Maybe worth a watch on Netflix if you have nothing better to do, but no sense in watching it twice. Fairly predictable, as well, so don't expect a major plot twist, but semi-enjoyable if the little girl's english accent doesn't throw you out of the immersion.
That's all for tonight, I hope to start catching up on my review pretty soon.
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