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Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Movie: The Happening

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

Rating:

Yay, it’s mnightshalamayalatralalan or whatever his name is. Remember him? He made one pretty good movie – the sixth sense – and one barely decent – unbreakable. Apparently after that he decided he’s the king of the world and can convince everyone to believe in stories without meaning and characters that are weird must also be interesting. He was wrong and his movies are constantly made fun of online. Now he’s back with the happening and this time it’s slightly better than his last 7 or 8 films. Wait! I never said it was good. I just said it was better than what he used to do, that sucked a lot.

So we have a family running away from a weird epidemic that causes people to kill themselves for no reason. Maybe someone is transmitting his previous movies to their brains? Yeah, that’s what I thought too but unfortunately that’s not the case. It’s the trees! They hate us for carving “i love justin bieber” on them and decided to wipe us out with their secret weapon that all the scientists and chemists who examined the trees never flund out. Well it’s a secret, that’s why. Oh ok :p

So they travel in groups, the trees kill more and more, they learn about each other, life and what’s really important. You know – the things they always learn in these kinds of movies. And then it’s over and you’re left staring at your houseplant thinking – “hey, someone just stole over two hours of my liFe, you bastard!”. And that pretty much sums it all up.

Posted in Family, Psychological, Sci-Fi, Woods | 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 »

Movie : The Road (2009)

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Rating:

What if you take an award winning book, adapt it for the screen and hire some good actors? You get “The road”. Not lord of the rings.

It’s not a horror film, it’s a catastrophic thriller, but it’s done so well on so many levels that it’s worth the mention. First thing – Viggo Mortensen. Forget that stupid lord of the rings movie which was a special effects crapfest that didn’t do the book justice. Forget you’ve seen him in some romantic comedies. Here he really does act here and his performance is what drives the whole movie.
He’s protecting his only son in a world that is all fucked up beyond belief, and at the same time it’s not clear what happened to the world.

It’s not boring, it’s really believable, things like that seem so probable, especially now, that it’s nice to skip the gorefest for once and watch something with a little meaning.

Posted in Family, Sci-Fi, Thriller | No Comments »

Movie : Carriers

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

carriers
Rating:

Wasn’t really expecting that from a pretty unknown movie, but this is actually good! I mean really good. It’s your typical zombie apocalypse with two guys and two girls trying to get across the country, looking for safezones at first, and then deciding to go to the beach-house of their youth. But cuteness aside, there are no “zombies” here, only dying people. But they’re not harmful. What’s harmful are those who are still alive, and the virus itself. Add some dramatic elements, little girl and her daddy, and we have a mixture that even though not scary it’s a very well developed story, has good acting and is definitely worth a watch. It’s a different approach on viral infections, zombies that for once don’t kill anyone and choices we make while facing the apocalypse with no hope but to care for our loved ones.

Yeah I know it sounds cheesy but I can’t help it, this is seriously a GOOD movie. Not quite a horror, aside from the setting and general story, but definitely a good thriller.

Posted in Family, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Zombie | No Comments »

Movie : Walled in

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Rating:

This is not a typical horror film. It’s more of a drama with a little bit of horror in it, but it’s engaging and actually good enough to write a few kind words about. It’s a “house” movie, by which I mean it’s similar to “house on the haunted hill” in a way, and even to “The Shining” slightly. There’s an old, creepy house in the middle of nowhere, with a few tenants and a girl from a demolition company comes there for her first big job – to measure where to put the explosives to bring the house down. And of course there are ghosts and weird things happening to her. But somewhere at the moment we think it’s gonna be another “House on the haunted hill” it turns more into a drama film, about love, insanity with the house merely in the background.

It’s not a bad thing actually, that kinda escapes some cliches, except the very ending which is simply terribly cliche. But overall it’s a pretty good movie. And the house itself is plain awesome! The architecture of the place is stunning. Seriously! Beats “The house” and beats the mansion in “The shining”. Too bad it doesn’t beat them as a whole movie, but still worth a watch.

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

Movie : Abandoned

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Rating:

In soviet russia you don’t go to a horror film. In soviet russia the horror film comes to you. Or stuff like that Well this has a lot of russian cliches and stereotypes, fortunately no bears on unicycles on the streets. But strangely the atmosphere, locations and general mood of this film made me watch it with tension I rarely experienced lately. This thing is actually pretty scary. Mostly because you don’t know what’s going on, but the great locations and pretty good acting make it all fit together. And sure some scary moments are cliche, and sure some plot turns are a bit cliche too. But all in all it doesn’t really matter because it’s the entertainment value that counts. And this is simply a good movie. Not great but pretty good. Oh and this is NOT the movie with Britanny Murphy. The title is the same but those are two different movies.

Definitely scary, and with a very well done visual side. So here’s the plot:

A Russian born American lady in her forties comes to Russia to find out that she inherited a house from her mother. She was put up for adoption so she didn’t really know her mother or the house. She decides to check it out and well, all the horrors start happening. That’s how it works when you have a cursed house, a secluded location on an island with just one bridge and just woods for miles around.

This is pretty rare nowadays, so it’s nice to see something different. Something scary finally. Because frankly last few movies I watched weren’t scary at all. This one works as advertised.

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

Movie : Shelter (2010)

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Rating:

I was wondering how should I rate this, and finally decided on 50%. Wasn’t an easy choice though. First of all let’s say it : Julianne Moore is a good actress. This is not her best but she does a convincing job. The general acting here is seriously pretty good. There’s a story that’s sort of “mysterious” and supposedly deep, but most of the time I found myself not really caring for the story itself. It was shot nicely, and had some nice ideas, but something was definitely missing for it to become more than just a movie-night kinda flick. Also it’s not really scary, both in the good way and in the bad way – nearly no cliche loud-noises, which should go well with the ladies.

The plot is pretty simple. A psychologist gets a new patient, who has split personalities, and she doesn’t really believe it at first. But his personalities seem real enough for her to start an investigation of who are these people. And as you probably expect, they’re all dead people. Yeah, horror movies are so predictable sometimes, aren’t they? Next comes a series of plot twists, random characters, random deaths and not-so-fast-paced action. If you’re looking for adrenaline this won’t stir you up more than a RedBull. But for a movie night without much expectations (and with beer and pretzels) it’s good enough

Posted in Curse, Family, Gypsy | No Comments »

Movie : Hatchet 2

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

Rating:

Whoa! After the first Hatchet movie, which by the way is just a poor rip-off from Jason movies – I was so exhausted that I promised myself never to watch another hatchet movie. But I was drunk one night, and got a bunch of DVD’s from a friend. And there it was. Like a bad omen, the DVD-only movie (go figure!). And out of curiosity I decided to break my promise and actually watch it. I failed. Sorry. I mean I tried watching it and then skipping 5 or 10 minutes. And watching again. But this movie shouldn’t even have a dvd release. It should be VHS only and it should’ve been done 20 years ago. Maybe then some people would’ve liked it while tripping on LSD or something. Now we get a movie that’s not scary, not interesting, not enjoyable in any way. Oh and it’s not even funny. You know, sometimes really bad movies can be actually pretty good due to the fact they’re funny where they were supposed to be scary. This is not the case. This is a movie that I didn’t even finish watching, and that should be a warning to you all!

Posted in Family, Gore, Horror, Woods | No Comments »

Movie : Blood Creek (2009)

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

Rating:

What do we have here? An old ritual, runestones, undead-nazi’s and to brothers, one of which was held hostage (you can say : held prisoner) and the other has to help him with the situation. So this is sort of prison break all over again, since the imprisoned guy is exactly the same. And he still acts exactly the same, so it’s actually easy to confuse the movie with the tv series. Really? No. But still acting is not the strongest point of this movie. Neither is the plot which is actually pretty stupid. I mean, come on, nazi immortal/undead soldiers in the US, trying to get a third eye, rune marks ? It’s like a mix of all and everything that’s cliche in horror coming back at us again.

Sure there are some nice locations, but as soon as the “bad guy” shows himself on screen it’s nothing but laughter. Seriously he doesn’t need to have an ugly / evil face to be truly evil. It’s the acting that should define him as such. And that “mask” just looks silly. All in all, this is a movie that just didn’t work. As a horror it turns out to be a comedy. As a comedy it turns out to be a “not-so-good” one. Watch it if you’re really bored.

Posted in Action, Curse, Family | No Comments »