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Archive for the ‘Curse’ Category

Movie: 11-11-11

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

Rating:

Darren Lynn Bousman is a well known name in horror (and thriller) genre, so I was a little excited to learn there is a new movie coming and it’s about the 11-11-11 date that we witnessed (and survived) a couple weeks ago. I was always a fan of 11 as a number, and that date was something special alright.

The movie tries to tell us that there’s a secret cult of “eleveners” who believe that the world will end on that day, and they’re very secretive. In fact so much, that our main protagonist can easily find their videos on youtube’ish equivalent they used in the film. So we have a guy here, that’s a writer and his family’s dead, so he’s detached, sad and depression driven. He has a preacher family living in spain in a house that will become haunted or evil or something. It’s not quite clear until the very end, and the plot can be a bit boring at times, but all in all the movie’s not bad. Not great considering the potential of “eleven”, but not bad. If you’re a fan of Darren go watch it. If you want a scary movie go watch Insidious or something and quit bugging me

Posted in Curse, Family, Psychological | No Comments »

Movie: Paranormal Activity 3

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Rating:

Not as bad as the second one, and almost as good as the first one
The first Paranormal Activity was a huge success, merging a camera-based blair-witch-like atmosphere with an in-house-ghost story. The studio soon realized that it “needs” a sequel, and the second part was created that didn’t really bring anything new to the mix, and it’s general mood and execution was lacking. Now we have the third part, and it still doesn’t bring anything new, but this time it’s done with a lot more attention to detail, and some parts can be called “quite” creative too.

Knowing how the first two parts ended making another sequel would’ve been pretty stupid, so as usual with such cases they decided to make a prequel. We go back to 1988, with it’s cheesy beta cameras, interlaced images and weird hairstyles. The girls would later become famous for being in movies (paranormal 1 and 2), but right now they’re just kids talking to their imaginary friends.

So is it a witch covent? Is it the devil? Is it casper the friendly ghost? Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters? Nah, probably just a pizza delivery guy, but this still works as a somewhat scary movie, and judging by it’s gross revenue people like ghost stories if they don’t happen to them.
I’ve seen better.

Posted in Curse, Family, Ghosts, Psychological | No Comments »

Movie: Hellraiser – Revelations

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

Rating:

If Clive Barker had any idea what's going to become of the new hellraiser movie he'd probably put a bunch of nails in his own head too. Sorry ladies and gentlemen – we have another classic rape of a classic. It’s lost ALL of the mysticism, all of the tension and all of those dark, moody scenes we know from previous ones. Now it’s all there for you to see – gore, blood, nails in the head – all perfectly lit, because that’s apparently what people want. Yuck!

Any tries to establish the characters fail right at the very beginning. I mean come on, 99% of the time the characters behave completely without any logic, and it shows. I’m not making this up people! Whoever wrote that script was probably high and drunk, watching bugs bunny re-runs at 4 a.m.

This is not a hellraiser movie. This is another bunch of uncreative people trying to jump on the back of a popular horror series, but as usual they fail miserably. The plot is nearly non-existent (if you can count two spoiled teens running away from home as a plot), the acting can be compared to the first toy story (and the toys were really made of wood and plastic!), and there’s no tension, no suspense, no horror. Just another teen movie that you’ll forget 5 minutes after watching.

Skip it and go watch previous parts of Hellraiser.

Posted in Classic, Curse, Family, Gore, Horror, Torture | No Comments »

Movie: Final Destination 5

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Rating:

How much longer with this? I mean come on - the first one was something new. The second one was a little too obvious, and the rest we should just skip completely. They were high-budget failures and a proof that milking the same cow over and over again doesn’t always end up with great results. (or does it ever?). Now more unimaginative filmmakers decided to do it one more time for old times sake. So the team in suits (and converse sneakers – they’re hip now you know), the creative directors sat down and thought about how to make some money again but without too much effort. There was one of those guys, probably an intern who was there to make coffee, that shouted ONE a little bit creative idea that made it in. Yes, the ending here is not bad, but ONE creative twist and idea for a 90 minute movie is a little poor, don’t you think?

The good thing about the first part of this series was that the deaths weren’t as gruesome as they’re made to be now. It was more subtle, more focused on the mood and the impending doom. Here the tension is sucked out by pretentious humor and gore. It’s gone completely and it sucks. So should we expect another part of the series next year? Most definitely. Will it suck? Probably. But hey, you have me to tell you it does before you go lose your money to see it yourself.

This you skip. Seriously.

Posted in Curse, Gore | No Comments »

Movie: Riding the bullet (2004)

Monday, November 7th, 2011

Rating:

Stephen King is supposedly the master of Horror literature, and that in most cases is proven to be true. Sure he had some really bad books, but he also wrote Misery, Pet Semetary, The Stand, Carrie, Cujo and The Shining. So we can forgive him for slipping up sometimes. Who we cannot forgive are people who try to milk the successful author’s name by making movies out of his short stories and other unreleased things.

Riding the Bullet could’ve been a classic example of that philosophy, but thankfully it didn’t turn out completely bad as I predicted it to be. The story is about an art student that’s obsessed with death (aren’t they all?). His girlfriend dumps him (sort of), his mother’s in a hospital, and he has to hitch a ride to get to that hospital on halloween. The setting seems to be perfect for a good story. Especially when he gets picked up by a being that’s certainly not a human (although it looks like one). They chose the right guy for the role too – David Arquette is a guy that can be confused with some non-human entity (especially for his “Scream” appearances). So yeah it works out. We got a wimpy art student that’s not at all likeable, his alter-egos, some random people and the road at night.

Scary? No, not really. Fun to watch? Sometimes. If you want to see something based on Stephen King see it. If you’re a fan see it. But ask yourself this: If it’s just a short story, and you probably never heard of it, maybe there’s a reason? A steady 3 stars for this one folks.

Posted in Classic, Curse, Ghosts, Horror, Psychopath, Sci-Fi | No Comments »

Movie: Grave Encounters

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

Rating:

Whoa! An actually scary movie that's jumping on that Blair Witch bandwagon. And it's done so well that watching it at night adds a little nervousness to the room. The scary parts are pretty typical, with evil beings jumping out at you accompanied by a loud noise, but for some reason in this movie it works much better than in others.

It reminds me a little bit of REC – here we also have a camera crew, shooting a scary tv series about haunted houses, but it has it’s distinctive elements too. Can’t really think if I’ve seen anything like this before, and there are many clever additions to the genre. The most important thing – as it is with all horror movies – to watch it at night, with the lights out. It might seem a bit boring at first but when it starts it STARTS. Seriously I’m not easily scared, and here I had a couple of moments of feeling “weird”. Not scared or anything, but weird. I also thought that the movie should be a little bit shorter, but when I got the the end I felt some relief. As if the tension was building up so much that I couldn’t stand it. There are a few glitches here and there – and at one point the tension is removed nearly completely when we realize what’s going to happen. But aside from that it still works.

That pretty much says SOLD on any horror movie. This is creepy, scary, weird and it stays in your head for a little while after watching.

Posted in Curse, Ghosts, Haunted house, Horror, Sci-Fi | No Comments »

Movie: The Ward

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

Rating:

The Ward is almost a typical psychological/psychiatric ward thriller that we've seen a couple of times before. A little bit of Shutter Island comes to mind almost instantly, but this movie actually has a horror side to it. Not really scary, but entertaining. The movie starts with a girl burning down an old house and then being move to the insane asylum. The main problem is that 50 years ago standard ways of treating insane people were electroshock therapy and lobotomy, which is actually widely used in movies from that era. So the girl ends up in the hospital with a couple of other girls, but suddenly they start dying, being killed by some ghost/monster/evil thing that resides in the place.

The pace isn’t terribly slow, with plot twists happening every now and then, and near the end we are certain that there’s gonna be a huge twist right there. Too bad it’s predictable, but still it’s a pretty decent film, without many flaws aside from lacking originality sometimes. I recommend it for a movie night with friends, even though most people will forget it after watching. A job well done, but no genius in this insane asylum.

Posted in Curse, Ghosts, Horror, Psychological, Psychopath | No Comments »

Movie : Season of the Witch

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Rating:

Hey, it’s our favourite actor Nicholas Cage with all of his two facial expressions back onboard, but this time in a knight’s outfit. Just in time for a hen party or something.

So our brave knight joins the crusades and is a part of a travel-and-kill-everyone circus. After years and years of killing women and children our brave knight decides he has killed one too many and quits his crusader job. But he didn’t sign the waiver so he’s in some legal trouble and has to hide from the IRS or whatever it was called back then. Aaah the catholic church, that’s right. As he and his old friend mr. Uglyface travel the vast lands they discover that there’s a plague killing most of the people and it’s all because of the evil witch curse. The witch is either an evil demon or just a girl, but since she’s pretty much the only female in the movie she had to at least be pretty or the movie would be a total queer fest with washed up old knights and their stable boys. Yay, a woman!

So they get captured and are offered a deal to escort the witch to some monks that will make her remove the plague completely. Our brave pack of knights, priests and stable boys team up and go for a ride with the witch safely locked inside a wooden cage. It doesn’t matter she’s super strong cause you know – it’s made of wood. The brave knights avoid the temptations of the evil demon and hug themselves around the fire until they start dying. Is it the witch? The plague? Std’s? Well see for yourself if you dare, but only if you really have to. This is a terribly boring piece of pseudo-horror that doesn’t have anything good in it. Seriously, it just plain sucks. You were warned!

Posted in Curse, Medieval, Witches | No Comments »

Movie : Insidious

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Rating:

Whoa! Didn’t expect much from this, but it turned out to be one of the best (if not THE best) horror movie I’ve seen this year! James Wan and Leigh Whannel (writer for “Saw”) brought us something that’s both innovative and scary. There aren’t many cliches here, although it’s not completely free of them. Still it wouldn’t be a horror movie with sudden noises and onscreen appearances right? Well here we have a story of a lovely family moving into their dream house. One day their son falls into a deep coma for no apparent reason, and the house starts to manifest itself, as being haunted. Then the story evolves constantly towards an ending that’s maybe a little bit predictable but still satisfying for every true horror fan.

There’s good acting (especially the father), good “bad guys” (one is so memorable that my friends still can’t get him out of their heads!) and decent music. Sure we do have loud noises, but this movie is more about setting the mood than anything. It actually leaves you uneasy after watching, thinking if it’s really possible and remembering the bad guy’s face over and over. Not many movies can do that, especially nowadays, so it’s nice to see that there are still gems made in the USA, that aren’t teen horrors with cheerleaders. If you expect plenty of gore and guts, then it’s not for you. But if you like a moody haunted house/ghost story, then check this out definitely. There might not be a better movie in what’s left of 2011.

Posted in Curse, Family, Ghosts, Haunted house, Horror | No Comments »

Movie: Dead Silence

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Rating:

Dead Silence is an attempt on shocking that almost made it. It has some drawbacks – the main one? The main character is better known for True Blood in which his performance is way better, than here. The plot is a mix of grotesque, gypsy-related dark curses, parents and ventriloquist dolls. All of that is combined into a story, in which a grieving widower doesn’t look like he’s emotionally hurt just days after the death of his wife. Unfortunately it’s also pretty predictable, but hey – hard to come up with a real plot twist nowadays, right?

The scary moments are mostly gore combined with the sudden shocks of loud noises, but it does work, especially in the dark. A good movie to watch with some friends, beer and chips. Some people might even jump up a bit at times.

Posted in Curse, Family, Gore, Gypsy | 2 Comments »