Insidious

Insidious (2011)
Director: James Wan
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rated: PG-13

As a family attempts to get settled amidst a move, frightening things start occurring. The mother, Renai (Rose Byrne), seems to be the only one noticing anything as odd noises and bizarre experiences have her scared. After an accident in the attic, their son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), falls into a coma. Months pass, with his brother giving a forewarning of what is to come by expressing his discomfort with the coma-ridden Dalton as he is cared for at home. More and more alarming scares occur and Renai insists to her husband Josh (Patrick Wilson), that something is wrong with the house and for their safety, they need to leave.

Once in their second new home, Renai hopes they left behind the eeriness yet not long passes before she realizes that it wasn't the home that was haunted, whatever abnormal, other-worldly being(s) that had been harassing them are still with the family. Josh's mother quickly believes her, stating she had a vision about Dalton - that the source of this nightmare was centered around him. Josh's continuous dubiousness frustrates everyone as he is the only one not having experienced the craziness. After an overtly terrifying event, Renai convinces everyone that a supernatural medium is needed to assess what was going on - what happens then can simply be described as a disconcerting, life-altering sequence of events.

Reminiscent of older, horror films that perpetuate fear via build up of titillating oldies music, letting the imagination scare yourself, and simple startling frights, this film is successful in keeping it simple and eerie. We all know by being along at home late at night, those odd noises are enough to get your imagination running, now imagine you slowly realized there was a true supernatural source behind those sounds and it wasn't going anywhere. Josh Wann plays on these fears and gives you more to be terrified of over and over again. I don't want to give too much away so I will stay vague, but this is a film in which I had difficulty determining the single most frightening moment - there were too many! The story is nothing new, as there are many ghost/spirit-based movies out there but we don't need an out-of-place plot. What we fear is not only what is unknown, but something that is close to home and that which is inescapable. For the same reasons I thought 2010's Drag Me To Hell was amazing (though this doesn't contain the icky, body-liquid grossness Drag Me did); classic jumpy frights, no over the top Hollywood graphic makeup - Insidious does it right.

I give this film 4 out of 5 frames!!



View the trailer here:



Danae signing off!

source: traileraddict.com

The Last Exorcism

The Last Exorcism (2010)

Rated: PG13

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Run Time: 100 minutes

Director: Daniel Stamm

Hopefully this is the last exorcism. I don’t think I can sit through another young girl throwing up on herself and talking in a possessed voice that clearly isn’t her own. Now I must preface this review with the explanation that I don’t get scared at scary movies anymore. I haven’t for a long time now. So each time I go in with the hopes that I will be scared or creeped out. Unfortunately this time I was not. However, there were many people in the theater who were scared and screaming. I can see where most people would be scared. So for the general movie public, I think you’ll be afraid, if not jump a few times.

So the movie, it’s interesting. The approach was different. It is documentary style where they are following a preacher, Cotton Marcus, who once did exorcisms all the time but has lost his faith and is now set to show exorcisms for the hoaxes that they are. This is supposed to be the last exorcism that he ever does. So he heads out to the backwoods in Louisiana and meets a father who is concerned that his daughter is possessed. So you see the preacher, played brilliantly I must admit by Patrick Fabian, go about his routine for rigging up a great exorcism. He assures the family the demon is gone and he and his film crew leave. But they have clearly gotten more than they have bargained for with this family.

Now I warn you that there will be spoilers after this point so if you don’t want to know what happens you should stop reading now. The weird starts with the girl, Nell, showing up in the preacher’s hotel room in the middle of the night. They take her to the hospital where she checks out fine. Once back at her house the crew gets the feeling that something isn’t right with the family and that maybe the girl needs some psychiatric help. They come back from seeing the local minister and find that the girl has cut her brother’s face wide open. They offer to stay with the girl while the dad takes him to the hospital. At this point this is where you start to see that the girl really is possessed by something. The film crew and Cotton though still want to hold on to the belief that the girl just needs a therapist. They learn that the girl is pregnant and right away think there is some creepy incest action going on. Nell starts acting strange and throwing up and disturbing pictures of how the film crew is going to die. Nell starts attacking the crew and trashes her room and it gets weird. The group is starting to think maybe she is possessed. When the dad gets back they confront him about the pregnancy and of course he insists his daughter is a virgin. They make another attempt at a real exorcism. Here comes out the “possessed voice” and weird body contortions and back bends. The actress, who played Nell, Ashley Bell, was very convincing. This exorcism ends very abruptly and they think they have gotten the demon out. It then comes out that she had sex with a boy in town and never told anyone. So the film crew has the local minister come out and they pray with the girl thinking that will help. Then the film crew packs up and leaves.

This would have been a disappointing ending so they didn’t end it there. While leaving they stop and talk to the boy who supposedly got Nell pregnant. He says it never happened and he’s gay so it would never happen. Now normal people would just keep going home but not these people. They head back thinking the girl lied to cover up for the dad and incest. When they get to the house no one is there and the house is covered in satanic cult signs and has been trashed. They hear a commotion and chanting from out in the woods and go and check it out. In a surprise twist, which honestly I didn’t see coming, the father is tied to a post blindfolded and the local minister, his wife, and the congregation are chanting and in robes and seem to be helping Nell with going through labor. When she gives birth the baby doesn’t seem to look human and then the minister throws the baby into the large bonfire they have going. The crew is saying they have to get out of there but Cotton stupidly goes out towards the crowd and tries to fight them with Jesus. That’s the only way I can explain it. The crew starts to run and unfortunately don’t make it and actually end up dying the way Nell’s pictures foretold. The movie ends with the POV of the camera guy looking at Nell’s brother who then cuts his head off with a scythe and the body falls to the ground.

From my point of view, it wasn’t great. It had promise, like most scary movies do. The acting was pretty good. I was impressed by that. And I was pleased that there was a twist I didn’t see coming. That hardly ever happens. Overall though, I was disappointed. I wasn’t scared and they cut the movie off when it was getting interesting. The general public however will be scared. So if you like to be scared go see it. There are many weird details I didn’t include in here. Overall I give this movie 3 1/2 frames. But that's just based on my personal tastes.

Feel free to discuss this movie here or over at the j1studios forum under Picture On A Wall.

Until next time kids, this has been Hava.

Zombieland

Zombieland (2009)
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Genre: Horror/Comedy/Action
Rated: R
Running time: 88 minutes

Zombieland's premise is about a young man, Columbus, (Jesse Eisenberg), who is heading to Columbus, OH in search of any living family, in an earth overtaken by zombies. He meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) along the way and in their travels learn about one another's idiosyncrasies such as Tallahassee's obsession with Twinkies and Columbus' rules of survival along with his ever-evident lack of contact with the female species. (All the characters are given locational names due to Tallahassee's statement of it being best not to get too attached by knowing one another's real names)

In their travels they meet sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who are survivalists in a manner not predicted, by us or by Columbus & Tallahassee. Their travels to their respective destinations consist of creatively and with immense enjoyment, pummeling & killing zombies. Done with lots of gore, blood, guck, guts, grossness and more, for us lovers of such films - this is the perfect combination of bloodshed and silly, quirky fun. Midway through the film we have a sweet cameo by a seasoned "fighter". Some really neat features of the film include the comically stated (and strategically posted via fun 3-D text graphics) rules for survival including "Check the Back Seat", "Cardio" and "The Double Tap". Provided are quirky characters that actually don't annoy you. Some films are guilty of the trying-to-hard-to-make-you-like-the-character and come up with random nuances that are either inconsistent, in bad humor, boring etc.. These characters have just the right amount of odd behavior that some may even be able to relate too and enough substance to keep you interested in what the end of the film will bring. Shuan of the Dead was one of the first of this type of movie hybrid - it is not a movie easily lived up to but Zombieland did.

For all those who love zombie films, or horror films in general, we don't appreciate stupid moves. Must the girl in heels whose boyfriend HAD to check outside to see what was going on WITHOUT a weapon then herself go in search of him IN THE DARK with no weapon or a makeshift "weapon" consisting of a spatula? We need some characters to have a more realistic (as realistic as achievable in a zombie world :)) reaction. Shooting a zombie not once, but multiple times seems pretty realistic/wise to me. Columbus' rules of survival are just that; adapted responses due to circumstance.The four people we meet are still around because they didn't decide to walk alone in the dark, never check the back seat or just plain 'ol act foolish.

To be fair, a few things that may not be for everyone are the amount of close-up, flesh-revealing clips. Not for the faint of heart. (In my opinion though; you go to an apocalyptic film about zombies- you should expect blood and guts) This may be on the level of Dawn of the Dead and even a bit of Saw (not as extreme but in the realm of where-most-movies would pan away, this one does not). It's not done to scare you, just to gross you out and cringe all with a smile on your face and a giggle of morbid delight. In addition, of course there is a small romance exchange which is a bit cheesy.

All in all - this is a must see. If you cringe when thinking of brains and blood - this may not be for you but even those who are not jolly at the thought of brain-consumption, the witty humor is enough to capture and entertain - go see it!

I give it a five out of five frames!



Trailer:



Danae signing off!

Saunter on over to the J1studios.com forum to chat and voice your opinion!

“Drag Me to Hell”

“Drag Me to Hell” 2009
Rated PG-13
Horror/Thriller
Running time: 99 minutes

Directed by Sam Raimi, (famous for his 1981’s “The Evil Dead” and Spiderman Trilogy) and written by him and his brother Ivan Raimi, this account of a young woman, who in being cursed by a gypsy, has three days before being taken to hell, brings us back to the essentials of what horror films should inflict: the creepies, the crawlies and chills down your spine. The bonus is quite a few friggin hilarious encounters.

A young woman, Christine Brown, is a loan officer at a bank who is trying to get promoted but to do so, has to prove her ability to make tough decisions. An older customer arrives, a gypsy named Mrs. Ganush, and needs Christine’s assistance as she’s failed to pay her mortgage for the past few months. With the knowledge that the poor Mrs. Ganush is having health issues and is begging for another extension, yet also knowing that this is her chance to prove to her superior that she is the gal for the promotion, she denies Mrs. Ganush’s request. Mrs. Ganush doesn’t leave without a fight and Christine leaves work later a bit disturbed but proud that she did what was going to set her apart to her employer. In the parking lot she finds a surprise, Mrs. Ganush is not simply letting Christine get away with that type of decision making. A struggle ensues and after much hair-pulling and jaw-biting (literally), the old gypsy placing a curse on her. Christine will now face terrors never imagined as she discovers just what she’s gotten herself into and attempts to be absolved of her crime. I won’t give much more away as this is worth every horrifying turn!

What may be simple nuances to some are the blocks of what a classic horror movie should contain: the gross factor (e.g. bodily fluids seeping into mouths gone rampant) and the truth that what you don’t see is scarier than pushing a bloody monster in your face throughout every scene (e.g. when the demon slowly climbs the stairs having backed Christine into her bedroom, the slick shadow hands reach under the crack beneath the door frame and manage to get a hold of her) – a simple scene that doesn’t need garish atrocities to terrify you.

Yet a few detractions: in a scene in her garage, the cg effects were a bit too obvious – this either should’ve been omitted or altered. In addition, the over the top “arm in the mouth” scene (you’ll understand once seen) seems to be somewhat out of place and a bit too ridiculous.

All in all, to manifest a story that you can both laugh at and then turn and bite your fingernails in fear while avoiding too much cheesiness is not a feat easily accomplished and Raimi doesn’t falter.

Rating this movie with consideration of its genre, I give this film five out of five frames!

Go to the j1studios forum to chat about this film along with other classic horror favs!

Danae signing off!


video source: www.traileraddict.com