Change of plans . . .
Instead of watching Lucio Fulci's The House by the Cemetery tomorrow (or today . . . depending on what time it is), I'll be watching Wake Wood (2011).
Day 28 - Altitude (2010)
I’ve been excited about this movie for a while now because the concept seemed like such a cool idea, but for some reason I kept putting it off, so I went into this movie with high expectations. While in retrospect I don’t think anything could have helped this movie, going in with expectations was certainly the worst thing I could have done. 
Five friends set off flying across the country to see a concert, in a chartered plane piloted by one of the friends. When things begin to go wrong and the plane begins to ascend into a storm, tensions soar as a simple flight becomes a life and death situation. On top of the already eminent threat of death from just being in the plane, dumb dumb dumb, suddenly there are Lovecraftian monsters in the clouds.
It’s usually a bad sign when you find yourself rolling your eyes two minutes in to a movie. After the first ten minutes I had to give up rolling my eyes and resort to face palming through the rest of it. Everything about this movie sucks. The acting is poor the writing is terrible and the story is all situational – everything that could go wrong does go wrong, but it’s all so sudden and ridiculous that you just don’t care. One thing that annoyed me from the start of the film was the way the girl flying the plane had to announce every little thing she does with the controls and how every radio transmission has to be heard just to fill all the empty silences. Nothing fits together here. There's too much craziness going in too many directions, and a complete lack of quality to any of it. There are a thousand things I could complain about here but I’d rather not bother.
In short, there is nothing redeeming about this movie. Don’t waste your time.
For Day 29 I’ll be watching The House by the Cemetery (1981).
Day 27 - The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2009)
I do believe this mockumentary was one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen – it’s certainly one of the most frightening I can remember seeing in a long time - simply because it has done its job so well. I really knew nothing about this movie going in. I hadn’t even heard about it besides the fact that the name seemed to get dropped on the horror subreddit enough that it peaked my curiosity. From the very little bit I had heard, I was under the impression that this was going to be one long, horrible torture porn movie that pretends to be a horror film – I can’t stand that crap – so I went in fully expecting to shut it off a few minutes in. On the contrary, a few minutes in and I was hooked.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a documentary following the career of, and hunt for, a serial killer who would come to be known as the Water Street Butcher. In the killer’s house, in a closet, thousands of videos tapes were found, made by the killer, documenting the kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of all of his victims. This film cuts together a sort of highlight reel of the killers most notorious deeds, with interviews of investigators and affected family members, to create a timeline of the killer’s activity while simultaneously attempting to explore his methods and motives.
There are so many reasons that I loved this movie. For me the point of watching horror movies used to be for the scare, to feel that rush of fear and adrenaline. Watch enough horror movies though and it gets harder to find anything scary in them. This movie put the fear in me again in a way I hadn’t felt it in a long time. These filmmakers clearly understand what goes into the creation of a documentary, as this film does an exemplary job of mimicking one. Despite the unbelievably sadistic nature of this film, there is surprisingly little gore aside from a few quick moments, as most of the killings are off screen or implied. This is one of the things about this movie that I was really grateful for, as it would have been far too easy given the film’s style and subject matter to simply go for the over-the -top gore for effect, which would only have cheapened it. One scene in particular, my favorite, contained elements of Halloween and Psycho and had me on the edge of my seat, heart racing. I thought I was supposed to be desensitized to this stuff, that I wasn’t supposed to be shaken by movies anymore. But this did it. I literally had to get up and make sure the doors were locked when this was over.
Despite all my praise, this is far from a perfect movie, and I can easily understand most of the criticism it receives. While a lot of the acting here is outstanding there are a handful of off moments where a characters responses doesn’t seem to match the mood or just seems strangely out of character for whatever reason. On the other hand, some of the lower quality acting – of which there is little - can be attributed to the fact that this is a documentary, and we’ve all seen those boring, two dimensional people who drone on in real documentaries. Another complaint I’ve seen is that the murder/torture scenes seem too staged, too artificial. For me this flaw was solved by a quick clip of dialogue in which a profiler comments on the killer’s flair of theatrics. Problem solved. For those who whine that this isn't the first documentary-style serial killer film, yes, this is not the most original idea, it's been done before it'll be done again. There are no new ideas, get over it. The thing that really bothers me however, isn’t a problem with the movie itself, but the fact that I know this movie won’t have the same effect on me a second time around; unless maybe I wait a few years before watching it again.
It seems this movie is very hit or miss with people. This film won’t do for everyone what it did for me - it got under my skin and stayed there, pushing my paranoia button – but if it works for you, it works its magic well.
For Day 28 I’ll be reviewing Altitude (2010).
Tim Burton's Dark Shadows
I'm a huge fan of Gothic horror, and no one in film today seems to make better use of it than Tim Burton. Also, as a fan of this style, I recently came to the classic black and white TV show Dark Shadows. So imagine my excitement when it came about that Tim Burton was going to be doing a film adaptation of the show. With a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith, author of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," the film stars Johnny Depp (no surprises there), Michelle Pfieffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Johnny Lee Miller, and Chloe Moretz, among others.
While none of this information is all that new, I just wanted to express my excitement over it and to share a few of the photos that have been released so far. I know they aren't very clear reproduced here, so for a better image just click on the picture.
A few other photos can be found here.
While none of this information is all that new, I just wanted to express my excitement over it and to share a few of the photos that have been released so far. I know they aren't very clear reproduced here, so for a better image just click on the picture.
A few other photos can be found here.
Day 26 - Super 8 (2011)
So I just saw this for the second time in theaters yesterday, and while I know it isn't, strictly speaking, a horror movie, it seems to have one foot far enough across the genre line that I decided to count it. Super 8 is the combined effort of writer/director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg - for whose work it's intended to be a kind of tribute - and this movie is certainly a credit to both their names.
Super 8 is the story of young Joe Lamb who, after recently having lost his mother, is helping his friends make a zombie movie for a film contest. After sneaking out one night to film a scene, the group of friends witnesses a horrific train crash caused intentionally by one of their teachers. Now, as the kids continue to make their movie and the military is stepping in to take over, something that escaped from the crash is working its way through the town snatching people, stealing odds and ends, and generally causing mayhem. Things really come to a head however, when Joe's crush is taken by the alien creature leaving he and the others to sneak back into the now evacuated town to rescue her.
This is an unbelievably beautiful movie, and it does just as it intended, recalling us to those great 80's classics such as The Goonies (from which its group of young protagonists is clearly based) and E.T. (the visual style of which is almost identical). Aside from Elle Fanning, I had never heard of any of these kids before, and yet I hope we see them again in the near future because the acting here was great. Between the story and the cinematography I was completely sucked in through both viewings, and I have the feeling that this is one of those films that can do that every time.
There are a few glitches here however, but they're fairly easy to overcome. The first time I saw Super 8, Abrams' overuse of the blue camera flare was driving me up the walls. This time, not so much. Yes, in small doses it adds to the tone and visual effect of the film, but in the quantities it's used here . . . that's just overkill. The only other real flaw here is in the story. Throughout the film we witness the creature terrorizing innocent people in a few frightening scenes, presumably killing at least a couple, but come the end of the movie, after all the devastation we've seen him cause, we're then supposed to feel bad for the alien. So long as you don't think about it, this works fine. But once the credits roll and you pull back from the story you're then going to realize that, however you might feel about the alien at the end, you still just watched him horrify a whole town (though the military did their fair share too). But like I said, these issues are fairly easy to get over in the big picture.
This is maybe one of my favorite movies of recent years, so, needless to say, I highly recommend it. Super 8 will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on November 22, but it's in dollar theaters now, and this is really one of those films that needs to be seen on the big screen.
For Day 27 I'll be watching The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2009).
Super 8 is the story of young Joe Lamb who, after recently having lost his mother, is helping his friends make a zombie movie for a film contest. After sneaking out one night to film a scene, the group of friends witnesses a horrific train crash caused intentionally by one of their teachers. Now, as the kids continue to make their movie and the military is stepping in to take over, something that escaped from the crash is working its way through the town snatching people, stealing odds and ends, and generally causing mayhem. Things really come to a head however, when Joe's crush is taken by the alien creature leaving he and the others to sneak back into the now evacuated town to rescue her.
This is an unbelievably beautiful movie, and it does just as it intended, recalling us to those great 80's classics such as The Goonies (from which its group of young protagonists is clearly based) and E.T. (the visual style of which is almost identical). Aside from Elle Fanning, I had never heard of any of these kids before, and yet I hope we see them again in the near future because the acting here was great. Between the story and the cinematography I was completely sucked in through both viewings, and I have the feeling that this is one of those films that can do that every time.
There are a few glitches here however, but they're fairly easy to overcome. The first time I saw Super 8, Abrams' overuse of the blue camera flare was driving me up the walls. This time, not so much. Yes, in small doses it adds to the tone and visual effect of the film, but in the quantities it's used here . . . that's just overkill. The only other real flaw here is in the story. Throughout the film we witness the creature terrorizing innocent people in a few frightening scenes, presumably killing at least a couple, but come the end of the movie, after all the devastation we've seen him cause, we're then supposed to feel bad for the alien. So long as you don't think about it, this works fine. But once the credits roll and you pull back from the story you're then going to realize that, however you might feel about the alien at the end, you still just watched him horrify a whole town (though the military did their fair share too). But like I said, these issues are fairly easy to get over in the big picture.
This is maybe one of my favorite movies of recent years, so, needless to say, I highly recommend it. Super 8 will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on November 22, but it's in dollar theaters now, and this is really one of those films that needs to be seen on the big screen.
For Day 27 I'll be watching The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2009).
Day 24 & 25 - Black Sunday (1960) / Curse of the Demon (1957)
Well my internet has been spotty the last couple days so it’s been harder to get on to write anything, but now I’m trying to catch up.
So I watched two movies Saturday night/Sunday morning, making a double feature. These black and white classics, both of which have been retitled - The Mask of Satan (or La Maschera del Demonio) became Black Sunday, and the UK titled Night of the Demon became Curse of the Demon in the US - are both fantastic examples of their breed. Both are gothic in tone and involve witchcraft and curses, So, I thought to myself, why not put the two together and do this old school? Double feature time!
In Black Sunday, though set in the late 1800's, the story starts 200 years before, when a convicted witch is put to death for her dalliances with the powers of Satan. But as she dies at the hands of her brother the witch curses her family. Now, on the same day, exactly 200 years later, two doctors on their way to a conference in Moscow, temporarily stopped on the road, come upon a chapel in ruins, in which they find the entombed body of the witch. By accident, the witch is set free, and, with power over a few undead minions, seeks her vengeance over her family’s household while also attempting to possess the body of her young look-alike descendant, the Princess Katia.
In Curse of the Demon – based on the classic short story “The Casting of the Runes” by M.R. James - a cult, led by a renowned dark magician, is under investigation by the scientific world. But when one scientist dies under mysterious circumstances, a young professor of paranormal psychology will have to step in and continue the investigation with the aid of the deceased's niece. But when he becomes the dark magician’s next target he will have to overcome his skeptical nature before he can figure out how to avoid the wrath of a demon that has been sicced on him. Any fans of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell – which I’ll be reviewing at some point in the future – shouldn’t be surprised to find several similarities between it and this classic story, as Raimi has pointed it out as being one of the primary influences for his own film.
I’ve loved both of these movies from the first time I saw them, and not just because I enjoy old black and white horror flicks. All of those greatest aspects of the gothic horror story are here in both of these movies; the gothic castle/manse, the demonic servant, science having to come to terms with magic. For me, my favorite characters in these old movies tend to be the villains. While the protagonists are so naïve and cynical, even a bit emo in certain cases, the villains are vibrant and amusing, not always the two dimensional cut out of a baddy you might expect. For as fun and enjoyable as they are however, these films do have their flaws. Just as you might expect from these older movies there is that certain degree of overacting and cheesiness that tends to be the signature of such early horror films. For me, that’s just one of the fun, nostalgic aspects of these movies that they wouldn’t feel complete without.
So if you’re a fan of classic double features I would definitely recommend trying this twofer out. Even on their own though, both of these films are a must see for fans of old horror films.
For Day 26 I'll be reviewing Super 8 (2011).
Day 23 - Mutants (2009)
I had originally been under the impression that this French film was going to be a straightforward zombie movie. It isn’t. Mutants is so much more. This film also seems to contain in it an answer to the dispute amongst zombie fans about the use of the term zombie in such cases as the 28 Days Later series. According to the logic of this movie they are not in fact zombies, but Mutants.
Mutants jumps straight into the story of paramedics Marco and Sonia – who seem to be lovers as well as partners – sometime after a virus has spread through the world changing people into ravaging, cannibalistic monsters. Traveling with a member of the army towards a military safe zone called the NOAH base, the group soon comes into trouble leaving Marco and Sonia alone, stranded at an abandoned building in the mountains. Things go from bad to worse as Marco begins slowly and painfully changing into a mutant. As if things weren’t bad enough, things become even more complicated once another group of survivors shows up and all hell breaks loose.
I was really impressed by Mutants. Though there’s no great character development, and the story isn’t all that original, this was still fun to watch. There were plenty of good scares, the monsters were frightening and grotesque, and above all the cinematography was excellent. Everything sort of denigrates towards the end however. The story gets a little odd in certain aspects that cheapened it for me and over exposure of the mutants seemed to make them less ominous and scary than they were at the start. Despite its flaws, the excellent use of bodily horror through the first half of the film, its slow building sense of dread, and the visual quality throughout, seems to adequately make up for whatever this film maybe lacking.
This is a simple yet beautiful movie, and though there isn’t much to it, fans of 28 Days Later and similar movies will likely enjoys Mutants as much as I did.
For Day 24 I’ll be reviewing Black Sunday (1960).
Day 22 - Primal (2010)
So this was one of those completely at random selections from Netflix. Honestly I was a bit worried going into a movie that I had heard absolutely nothing about. Turns out, I was more pleasantly surprised than not.
This Australian film, from first time director Josh Reed, tells the story of six friends who go into a remote part of the jungle in search of long lost cave paintings. But there's something wrong with these caves, something dark, and when one of the group goes for a dip in the nearby waterhole, things suddenly turn ugly. Now one of the group members has become something inhuman and the remaining five will have to band together to fight against their former friend and try to avoid whatever it is that's emanating from these caves.
Not knowing anything about this film beforehand was probably a good thing because it meant I went in with no expectations. This was really just a so-so movie. For the most part it was fun, a few good jumps and scares, but at times it definitely crosses the line in to outright cheesiness. Also, this is a fairly straightforward, formula movie, meaning that there are really no big surprises - that is, except for the bizarreness of the ending. And that was my main issue with this movie, the ending, which got a bit too strange a bit too quickly. Between a bit a cheesiness and a finale that comes out of left field, there is not much wrong with Primal
Overall this was an amusing movie and I would recommend it if you not looking for anything too outstanding.
For Day 23 I'll be watching Mutants (2009).
This Australian film, from first time director Josh Reed, tells the story of six friends who go into a remote part of the jungle in search of long lost cave paintings. But there's something wrong with these caves, something dark, and when one of the group goes for a dip in the nearby waterhole, things suddenly turn ugly. Now one of the group members has become something inhuman and the remaining five will have to band together to fight against their former friend and try to avoid whatever it is that's emanating from these caves.
Not knowing anything about this film beforehand was probably a good thing because it meant I went in with no expectations. This was really just a so-so movie. For the most part it was fun, a few good jumps and scares, but at times it definitely crosses the line in to outright cheesiness. Also, this is a fairly straightforward, formula movie, meaning that there are really no big surprises - that is, except for the bizarreness of the ending. And that was my main issue with this movie, the ending, which got a bit too strange a bit too quickly. Between a bit a cheesiness and a finale that comes out of left field, there is not much wrong with Primal
Overall this was an amusing movie and I would recommend it if you not looking for anything too outstanding.
For Day 23 I'll be watching Mutants (2009).
Day 21 - Stake Land (2010)
Stake Land marks the second directorial effort of Jim Mickle, whose first film, Mulberry Street was part of the 2007 8 Films to Die For series. I ignored Mulberry Street up until now because it was part of 8FtDF - which are all mostly crap - but having seen Stake Land I will definitely be giving MS a try, and keeping an eye out for further films from Mickle in the future.
In this post apocalyptic film, vampires have taken over. These aren't your sparkly, cuddly vampires either, these are ravenous, inhuman monstrosities; like runner zombies with fangs and an allergy to sunlight. After seeing his family killed, teenage Martin teams up with a vampire hunter named Mister who begins training Martin to fight the undead. Their goal is to reach Canada, now dubbed New Eden, where there are said to be no vampires, along the way picking up and losing various traveling partners. But vampires aren't their only problem as they fall into trouble with a group of religious zealots called the Brotherhood. Now they'll have to outsmart both the living and the undead if they're going to make it to New Eden alive
Stake Land comes off a little bit Zombieland, a little bit I Am Legend, but all awesome. This may be the best post apocalyptic/monster movie I've ever seen. Everything seems to balance here. There are big scares and gore of course - this is the first time, maybe since 30 Days of Night, that I've actually seen vampires I could be afraid of - but they come second to a more character driven and thoughtful story, two aspects that tend to be missing more often than not in most horror movies. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of this film however, is the few glimpses we're given of life after the apocalypse, when the main characters roll into various ramshackle towns and the audience gets to see how people are living and working together in a world overcome by monsters. Put simply, everything about this movie is outstanding. The cast is great, the story is great, the monsters are great. The only thing that bothered me at all was the music. While good in small doses, this nice, haunting soundtrack started to get on my nerves a little bit by the end of the movie. It just felt to me as though it were trying to work too hard to squeeze certain emotions out of its audience. But that's about the only problem I had with this movie.
So if you couldn't tell, I give Stake Land a big two thumbs up. This is a must see.
So if you couldn't tell, I give Stake Land a big two thumbs up. This is a must see.
For Day 22 I will be viewing Primal (2010).
Day 20 - The Last Exorcism (2010)
So yeah . . . Wow! That is not what I expected. I went into to this thinking it was going to be something like a found footage version of The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It isn't. In case you haven't noticed I have a bit of penchant for found footage films if they're done correctly. On that note, here is a fairly comprehensive list of the rules found footage films should follow. I can't say I agree 100% with these rules, or maybe they just need to be defined a bit better, but for the most part they work. The Last Exorcism seems to abide nicely by these rules.
The Last Exorcism is a documentary in the making about an evangelical preacher, at odds with his faith, who has agreed to let a film crew document his final exorcism. The joke is, Reverend Cotton Marcus doesn't even believe in exorcisms, not in the sense that the church does. He doesn't even believe in demons. But when he answers a call for help in a small, backwoods Louisiana town circumstances begin to get out of hand. Something is going on in the Sweetzer household that Rev. Marcus can't logically explain.
The only thing that I could find to say about The Last Exorcism is that it isn't really scary. It's certainly eerie and creepy but not scary. But in short, I'm in love with this movie. A friend that I watched it with thought it was a bit slow and boring, but then he doesn't like movies that don't have excessive gore and lots of nudity, so his opinion doesn't count. This is something that should be taken into account before seeing this movie though; this is not one of those movies that will have you cringing at gore or jumping out of your seat. Also, there isn't anything extremely original about TLE, yet it's done such a way to still make it fun. There's also a nice twist ending that uplifts this movie in my eyes. I would highly recommend The Last Exorcism.
For Day 21 I'll be reviewing Stake Land (2010).
The Last Exorcism is a documentary in the making about an evangelical preacher, at odds with his faith, who has agreed to let a film crew document his final exorcism. The joke is, Reverend Cotton Marcus doesn't even believe in exorcisms, not in the sense that the church does. He doesn't even believe in demons. But when he answers a call for help in a small, backwoods Louisiana town circumstances begin to get out of hand. Something is going on in the Sweetzer household that Rev. Marcus can't logically explain.
The only thing that I could find to say about The Last Exorcism is that it isn't really scary. It's certainly eerie and creepy but not scary. But in short, I'm in love with this movie. A friend that I watched it with thought it was a bit slow and boring, but then he doesn't like movies that don't have excessive gore and lots of nudity, so his opinion doesn't count. This is something that should be taken into account before seeing this movie though; this is not one of those movies that will have you cringing at gore or jumping out of your seat. Also, there isn't anything extremely original about TLE, yet it's done such a way to still make it fun. There's also a nice twist ending that uplifts this movie in my eyes. I would highly recommend The Last Exorcism.
For Day 21 I'll be reviewing Stake Land (2010).
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