Yaaaawn. Sometimes it’s nice to watch a low-profile, barely known movie because it can lead to a great discovery (Grave Encounters for starters) but this time we definitely have a miss. The cheezy special effects are not even the worst part here, because they’re not that important. But nearly everything else here is utterly hopeless.

Even the story itself is pretty awkward with one of the main characters being lost (in fact it looked more like the actor was lost in what he was about to do). It all falls apart and I think old 60′s horrors were much less crappy than this one. Seriously. If you stumble upon this piece somewhere remember to skip it.

It’s almost like a 60′s movie done quite recently with a little budget and cutting corners everywhere. They aimed for “the shining” atmosphere in some scenes (like the old actress etc) but unfortunately it’s a failed effort

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.

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.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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.

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.

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.