20 posts tagged “horror”
It is the film about a couple who are haunted. It is told through "home video" footage that the couple recorded in the style of Blair Witch.
There is a real tension in the film as the couple set the camera down and record the room as they sleep. You know something is going to happen but the question is, what and when? It is pretty tense.
However, in establishing the low budget aesthetic, they perhaps embrace it too far. This could have been a much better film that really encouraged repeat viewings by including subtle hints of ghost activity throughout the film. I'm thinking about something like what was done in Fight Club or something like the alleged "ghost" in "Three Men and a Baby." The film could have digitally added in little things that wouldn't all be picked up on during the first viewing but as far as I can tell there's no evidence that they did that.
Instead it is a rather predictable film with a bit of creepiness in it. The only notable thing is the credits or lack of them which I'm curious how the various unions let them get away with.
The other main problem is that the woman of the thing is entirely too weak. She spends most of the film cowering and whimpering. Now, I might do that if I were in her position but her lack of any agency combined with her boyfriend's assertion that he can fix it and that he doesn't want this happening in his house to his girlfriend is more than a bit barbaric.
three thumbs up
I always feel like
Somebody is watching me
I've no privacy
The film is really low budget but it has a great simple plot that doesn't need a big budget and is really well shot. The plot is basically that the friends, co-workers, and ex-lover of a woman are being killed. Less basically, the people are being killed by themselves. I don't mean that they are committing suicide. No, they are being killed by people who look just like themselves.
The question that is going throughout the film is "what the hell is going on?" and it is that sense of mystery that makes the film work so well. I really wish that they hadn't explained anything. It would have been a much more powerful film if it has just ended with everyone saying, "What the hell just happened?" Instead they do try to explain it.
Now they don't explain it entirely. There is a sense of mystery about it but they do explain it a little bit. The explanation they give, to get a bit spoilery here, is like The Forgotten but without any children which makes it better. Like The Forgotten the explanation is less than satisfying to me at least.
Four thumbs up
The killer in me...
Is disarming, so to speak
Just don't explain it
It is pretty entertaining if a bit slow. The mushroom people are actually pretty underplayed. I wish there would have been more of them in the film. As it is, the film is more about the people and how they deal with being shipwrecked and facing starvation. The problem is that none of the people are particularly likable. It is more soap operatic than it needs to be. There are people turning against one another, and people stealing food, but all the while you are just waiting for the mushroom people to show up.
One thing about it that is interesting is the framing device that is used to tell the story. It is really quite noir in tone. It reminded me of Sunset Boulevard in tone. I've seen a number of black and white Japanese monster films and this is teh first one I can recall drawing on the noir tradition in such a direct fashion.
two thumbs up
He's quite a fungi
Oh what a punster I am
I'm such a fun guy...
This is one of those movies that I always saw in the video store but never got around to seeing. From the cover I was expecting something something like Basket Case or The Unborn but this is really much more sedate and thoughtful. Yes, it is about a killer baby but it isn't a gore film and it focuses on the parents and their reactions and guilt over giving birth to this mutant killer baby.
Coming out in 1974, the film is also kind of an interesting insight into what it was like to deliver a baby then. It features the fathers in the waiting room while the mother is doped up and the doctor pulls the baby out with forceps. According to the commentary track the guy playing the part of the doctor delivering the baby was an actual obstetrician so the scene is probably fairly accurate -- except of course for the killer baby. Also really interesting is the fact that not only is the father smoking but he walks around the hospital smoking the whole time (except for in the delivery room) and no one cares. To top it off, while in the waiting room, the father is smoking and chewing gum at the same time! Wow, that's a real man.
Also interesting is the way the parents deal with the moment when the baby is due. Now, I don't have any kids and I was an only child so I don't even have a memory of my mom pregnant with a sibling. However, the parent's casual attitude towards going into labor is really amazing. Once the mother says the baby is coming they casually pack, change clothes, wake up the older son, drop the son off at the neighbor's house and then go to the hospital. I've never seen the depiction of going to the hospital depicted as so casual.
Like I said, the film isn't really a gore or shocker film. You don't really see the killer baby or much of the bodies. Most of the film is, as I said, really about the parents feeling guilt over the baby and conflicted feelings: should they disown and allow the baby to be killed or should they try to love it and protect it because it doesn't know any better. It is refreshing to see a film about a killer monster whose parents are crazy but act at least a little bit like real people. Touched upon in the film is also the cause of the baby's mutation. There's some talk about pollution, fertility drugs and other toxic things. And there's also some discussion by the parents about whether or not they wanted to abort the baby before it was born. So not only is it about a killer baby but it is also a meditation on modern life in the 1970s!
three thumbs up
the killer baby
might need to get some braces
for that overbite
Basically a man and woman are alone in a cabin when someone knocks on the door looking for someone. They tell her she has the wrong place but of course a few minutes later there is knocking at the door again and the girl is again asking for that person. Soon there is a man and another woman all in unusual masks terrorizing and killing people. While I wasn't really fond of the original Funny Games it was better than this and the original When a Stranger Calls is also better than this.
The movie fails for a number of reasons. The main one is that there is no motivation for the killers. Now in Funny Games that isn't as large of a problem because in that film it is clear that there is some message about movies and violence that is going on here. However, in The Strangers there really isn't any message anywhere to be seen -- well, at least not a message as interesting as in Funny Games.
I say that because, like all too many horror films, there are some messages here. The most obvious one and perhaps the most cliched one is that rural areas are scary and fully of killers. Now being from a rural area I pretty much hate that cliche because it simply isn't true. You don't see rural areas debating gun control laws even though lots and lots of people in rural areas have them. As a film fan I also hate that cliche because it is worn out and, well, a cliche. Try something different!
The other message is that women are the cause of all problems and need a man. When the film starts we find out that the woman has just declined the man's wedding proposal. Mistake number one, right? (in fact, in the scene where the man is about to ask the woman to marry him there are some ominous headlights that imply that the killers were following them which of course asks how they knew that these killers knew that these two people were going to a cabin in the woods. Maybe the killers are romantics and if she had said yes they wouldn't have killed anyone!)
Then the woman runs out of cigarettes and the man goes to get some which of course leaves her alone. The terrorizing begins. So don't smoke, ok ladies??? And finally, like to many female characters in horror films (final girls aside) she spends most of the film helpless and cowering. Only the man can do anything even remotely effective. Interestingly, although the first of the killers we encounter is a woman and one of the other s is also a woman it is the male killer that is in charge, gets the most screen time, and the women seem little more than hangers on.
This isn't to say that the film is worthless. Perhaps the larger tragedy is that the film had potential. It is really well directed. There's no million edits per minute and there are some real nice moments were the killers are hiding and sneaking around. There's no cheap scares and there's no overly dramatic music. And the fact that we never see the killers' faces is a nice move. It is a shame that the writer/director of this film seems to be a better director than he is a writer.
one thumb up
when a stranger calls
is mashed up with Funny Games
not a pretty scene...
So the premise is that a group of former contestants on a show that is basically Survivor but called some made up name are brought back for what they think is some kind of all star sequel and they get killed off one by one. The reason it fails is that there never really is any mystery as to who is killing them because in the first ten minutes they talk about the killer. To make matters worse, what isn't discussed is the specifics of the killer's problem. Some of it is shown but there is references to him doing something else that was much more dramatic but what that is they never explain.
Unlike most good slasher films there really isn't any sense of mystery nor is there a sense of dread. The people are all almost killed off by random traps so we don't get much of the killer chasing people or anything like that. Nor is there ever any question over whether or not one of the main characters is the killer or even in on the killings. No twists. No nothing.
one thumb down
a messed up concept
that is so five years ago
what a silly film
This movie is blatant false advertising. This film is not about elves at all. It is about an elf. Singular. There is only one elf in this movie. On the other hand, however, it does have Dan Haggerty. That's right. Grizzly Adams vs. and evil Elf.
So there's this very 80s girl (although the film came out in 1990 it is super ultra 80s in look and style) who lives with her mean mom and kindly grandfather. She hates Christmas and so her and her friends do some sort of anti-Christmas ritual in the woods releasing an evil elf that looks like and for half the film is referred to as a troll. She works in a store and Grizzly Adams used to work there but was fired for some reason. The store Santa gets killed (by the elf) and they let Grizzly take over. The girls have a party with some boys in the store after hours and the elf kills some people. Then Grizzly Adams dons his detective hat and figures out what this elf thing is about.
This is the point when it turns really weird. See, it turns out that the Nazis were researching elves to use as some sort of ruthless killing machine/ultimate soldier. So it isn't just Grizzly Adams vs. an evil elf, but rather Grizzly Adams vs a Nazi elf! Now how much would you pay??? What if I told you that the elf was a guy in a rubber mask and that the rubber mask had its mouth permanently held open? Now what if I told you that there was also incest? Finally what if I told you that at one point they steal George Romero's line about "When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth" and replace "the dead" with elves? Seriously.
five thumbs up
only one elf here
but there is never enough
for Grizzly Adams
This is a really interesting film and a great premise but its pacing is all off.
The premise is that a series of seemingly normal people with no connection to one another begin to go on a killing spree and when the police arrive and ask why they did it they always say, "God told me to." Unfortunately, we are really only shown two of the killers (one of whom is Andy Kaufman as a police office who starts to shoot people while marching in a parade with dozens of other police officers. "God told me to" is his only line). Once that happens the film goes off in an odd direction which I found a little too cryptic and unresolved for its own good.
If it could have stayed with the police office, our hero, as he tried to figure things out a bit more before going into the weirdness it might have worked better. Or if it were done a bit better. Maybe I missed it but at one point near the end the police officer says something about him being special and I was like, "he is?" I just thought that he was a random cop assigned to the case but apparently he was special. Maybe making that clearer would have been more effective. There's also a subplot about his estranged wife and his girlfriend that seems as if it could have been eliminated although I admit in hindsight there is at least one bit of information that comes out about the cop that does indicate something about his specialness. I think that could have been revealed without the complication of the girlfriend and the added scenes with her that distracted from the more interesting murderers.
That's not to say that there aren't some good parts. There are quite a few. The beginning is solid and two other scenes stick out. The cop goes to talk to a man who killed his wife and child(ren? I can't remember). It is really eerie to see the guy so calmly and dispassionately talk about shooting his wife and then trying to talk his daughter out of a locked room so he can kill her too. Then there is also a scene, and again, perhaps I wasn't paying attention, where you think the person is talking about one guy but then you realize the person is talking about someone else entirely which was pretty good as well. The film is certainly worth a watch though
four thumbs up
remake this movie
so it is more like Se7en
then it would kick ass
So I swear that I didn't watch this just because Jenna Fischer was in it. I actually was interested in seeing this back when it came out. That being said, Jenna Fischer's husband, James Gunn, the director of this, must be a jerk. I mean not only is he separated from Fischer, but Slither is actually a pretty good movie and he hasn't directed anything since. The only reason for this that I can think of is that he must not be that nice to be with. If he was a nice guy, and this film is pretty good, so wouldn't the studio let him direct something else?
The story is nothing special. A worm thing from outerspace lands in the woods and a guy finds it and the worm goes inside him. The worm multiplies. The cop who has a crush on the man's wife saves the day. So what makes this different than just your average horror film is that there are some humorous parts. So not only is it a film about worms taking over and eating people, but there are also a couple a laughs here.
Gunn worked for Troma and the film does almost have a Troma film with outlandish creatures and humor throughout There aren't any boobies or overly gross humor so it isn't entirely like a Troma film but you can tell there is a connection.
three thumbs up
I hate you James Gunn
but I didn't hate your film.
All is forgiven.
Whatever happened to the multimedia experience? Sure Cloverfield had the marketing where the first trailer didn't even say the name and stuff, but there really needs to be some other stuff for me to look at in order to like this film a lot more. Like stuff that tells what exactly the monster is or why the movie is called Cloverfield or something like that for instance.
I don't begrudge the film for not having that information because the way the film is made there's not really any way to put that in. On its own, I liked the way it was made. It was entertaining and I liked the characters. However, I was left unsatisfied at the end because there weren't any answers and there wasn't any way to get answers.
There really isn't much to tell about the plot. It is all shaky cam and there's a monster and people try to survive. That's pretty much it. So the whole thing is mainly about the people. On some level it is sad that the movie is really a love story and there's the fact that the way that a lot of the love story couldn't be told like that. They keep flashing back to another video that was on the tape but see the problem is that we are told in the beginning that this is on an sd card and digital files don't really work like that. And there's the problem that we don't really need to see those scenes because the whole damn movie is basically about what the guy is willing to do to save the girl so we know that he loves her because he does something to show how much he loves her.
For me the most relatable character is Hud the god natured guy who ends up filming things for most of the film. He's the best friend of the main guy. He's got a big mouth but he means well. He's interested in a girl who doesn't even know his name. He's the real star of the film not some five o'clock shadow guy with a cool job and who screws up his relationship with a hot girl.
three thumbs up
Hud is the man dog
but what is the monster thing
can someone tell me?
