Rating:

What started out as a bit of a mindless torture/disgusting thing with not-so-great special fx, eventually went up a little bit in the middle of the movie. Normally a movie like that would get 1.5 stars or even less, but here the director did a clever thing that messes with our heads and makes us think : hey, what’s going on? This is pure creativity, and although it might not make much sense (to me it does, there’s an explanation) it is a good to watch movie if you’re comfortable with pretty disgusting torture scenes sometimes (not too often though). I don’t really like hostel-like movies so I looked the other way a couple of times since my lunch was a bit too good for it to come back (yet ).

So without any spoilers, it’s a half-decent movie with a pretty main character, playing an american-psycho like sick killer that terrorizes a small neighborhood by torturing and then killing her victims. When she’s done with one house she moves on to the next. And of course she could’ve been caught / defeated a couple of times but by some odd luck she always ends up winning. Pretty typical so far. So after killing a couple of victims she finds a young guy who’s into music production and locks him in his studio/basement to have some sick and twisted fun.

And if not for the plot twists it would’ve been just a stupid movie with good acting by the psycho-killer – America Olivo – but nothing really fancy. I think it might have something to do with the recent british / spanish trend in horrors to think of a plot twist so original and wicked people will remember it. And then add another one. But the first few american movies done in this fashion we can certainly stand as opposed to the straightforward boring (and sick) torture flicks that Eli Roth makes.

Rating:

So we have the Machette (Danny Trejo), the famous Pianist (Brody), Laurence Fishburne and a couple of other guys, plus a big name of Robert Rodriguez as a producer. Also a different approach to the whole Predator series as now it’s not the predators coming to earth, but the other way around. Is it really a horror of any kind? Well it has the thrills and the waiting for what’s going to happen so apparently so. So how was it?

Well not so good for a horror, not so bad for an action movie. Which is somewhat 50/50 and thus 2.5 stars. It could’ve been better and deeper instead of being only about mindless violence. Sure violence can be fun in a movie sometimes, but here it’s just a bunch of people shooting at everything. Doesn’t quite live up to the first two Predator movies. Good for a summer action flick that doesn’t make you think too much, just enjoy the views.

Rating:

Taking on the “FEAR” and doing a deep, disturbing psychological horror – now that’s something that doesn’t happen too often. The only supernatural here is the fear itself, which is studied and divided into smaller portions. What this movie (a debut! of the director) does is actually pretty incredible. It manages to keep the viewer deeply disturbed without showing chopped of limbs and disgusting gore stuff. 99% of the scary action is not on the screen, it’s what we think will / can happen in some situations. This time a “study group gone wrong” is actually an image of what FEAR is, and since it’s in a form of an experiment, it actually speaks volumes about fear. Since each and every one of us has at least one time in their lives which was the most dreadful experience so far. Just watching this movie you can actually re-live your own fears, and even though unpleasant, it is meaningful. Because not many movies can leave that much of an impact.

The only downside is that it builds up slow and it’s not action packed – it’s more about the subtle touches, the little things that build up until we get to the ending that is like a hammer to the head. And it stays with you.

Rating:

This is one of those movies that we know will be bad even before we watch it. But we sometimes need a movie that can be funny in it’s mistakes and all of its flaws can actually be a good thing. Well not this time. First of all the acting – which in horror films is rarely any good – here it’s plain terrible. I don’t think any of the characters are believable, and most of the cast seems like they’re not even native english speakers. Or maybe they’re so scared of the birds. Anyway – we have a simple setup – somewhere in the woods for no real reason a bunch of giant mutant birds that look like pterodactyls decide that they’re hungry for human flesh and start hunting people. And since they’re big and strong and well … flying it’s pretty easy for them. To add some spice to the flavor a bunch of kids that are on a reso-program end up in those woods too and are being haunted by the evil dinosaurs / birds / whatever. And to have it all cliche ridden we have a blonde, a mysterious and smart brunette, a black guy, a rebel type leader, a fat kid and a hiphop fan whose lines are actually the funniest cause it seems he had learned them from just one rap album. And I mean ALL of it.

But funny aside – can it be scary? No. It’s pretty simple, there aren’t even many sudden moments with loud sounds. They’re running, they’re hiding, the birds are flying. Killing some people on the way. Pretty standard. And the ending wasn’t really that creative either.

Sorry guys, your birds are as scary as a bunch of chickens. Sorry Sci-Fi (or SyFy now) had many better ones. This one lacks pretty much everything.

Rating:

So the british strike again! And once again it has a typical british line of events : first half of the movie it’s slow, not much happens and it’s pretty straightforward, and then they howl plot-twists at you like crazy. By the end you have no idea what it all meant but sometimes you come out of that state fully entertained.

Is this the case? Not sure. The general idea of a group of “monsters” causing chaos through people isn’t new in horror films, but here it’s actually making a bit of sense. Sure it’s nothing fancy, but the acting is pretty good and there are quite surprising plot twists. What I hated about it was that it used that “loud noise + something appears” cliche, and to make it worse it used that even in “non-scary” moments. That’s a good way to ruin atmosphere and spoil the wait. So it’s not bad but not good either. If you’re looking for a good british film go see “The Triangle”. This one is ok, but no classic.