Found Footage: The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity

Found footage films are an interesting way of making a film. A found footage film is when there is rough footage recorded by a character in the footage, and they are used to make the film seem real. In the last 15 years found footage horror films have really been brought to the forefront. A found footage film is perfect for supernatural horror movies. Why? Because they add a sense of realism to a usually unbelievable story. Another great thing about found footage films is that they are so low budget. In this piece, there are two films I would like to talk about: The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. These are two of the most famous found footage horror films, and they are also considered two of the scariest films ever made.

The Blair Witch Project is about three people who go into the woods to make a documentary about the myth of the Blair Witch. They soon get lost and strange things start happening at night. These strange things soon turn to terrifying things and they realize that they might not survive. This film, while being an awesome film, is a really un-attractive film. The quality of the camera they use is not great, but that’s to be expected. They are in the woods a lot and in occasional black and white viewing it’s a dull sight, but it is also very up close with the characters. You can totally see these three people break down, and near the end, the woman talks to the camera with an extreme close up and she starts crying. The camera lens is at times foggy. It’s a really well done film, but it’s not that easy to watch, partly because of the camera, but mainly because it is really scary and disturbing. You never see the witch, but it scares the hell out of you anyway. The myth goes that the witch would take kids to a house and two at time take them to the basement. She would make one stand in the corner looking at the wall as she killed the other one. It’s creepy to say the least. My only problem with this movie is a small one. At one point in the movie they hear noises in the night, when they get out of the tent, they see something and they freak out and start running, the camera looks at what they say but because they are running you don`t really see it, and it kind of annoyed me how this thing that makes them freak out like they never have before is unseen by the audience. Saying that, this is definitely one of those films that plays on what you don`t see is scarier than what you do see. While not being the first found footage film, this was made in 1999; it is one of the first really popular ones, and one of the scariest. This film does have a sequel: Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, although it is considered to be awful, and it is not even a found footage film, it is the exact opposite of the first in style. I have no plans of watching it.

Paranormal Activity was made in 2007 and was screened just at certain film festivals. It was an independent film and then Paramount Pictures acquired it and gave it a wide release. This film tells the story of a young couple who are living in a nice house and the woman thinks strange things have been happening to her since she was eight. The boyfriend decides to record everything, and at night he sets up a camera in their bedroom. From the first night strange things happen, and they get worse each night. It starts out with things like the door slightly swaying, and eventually screaming and loud bangs. I`m not going to say what else happens during the night, but they get worse and worse. The couple hires a man to come and try to learn about the ghost/demon in their house. He soon leaves because he feels the demon becoming angry at his presence. The film is mostly shots of what happens at night in their room and as I said earlier, they get worse and worse. This film is not only extremely scary and intense, but it is also actually a very good film. It is praised for not showing too much, the most you see of the demon is a shadow and footprints. The climax is one of the scariest scene`s and you technically don`t see it at all. The film has two sequels with the 4^th installment coming in October. These films are apparently very good as well, but not as good as the first. They both apparently show too much and it takes away from the tense atmosphere. I will definitely check out Paranormal Activity 2 and Paranormal Activity 3 and I will go see the fourth one in theatres when it comes out in October.

            So, that is my view on found footage and two of its best films. I would definitely suggest checking out both films, and the sequels to Paranormal Activity. I look forward to seeing more of these types of films in the horror genre, because I find them to be perfect for the genre.  

Interview with the Vampire

This movie was released in 1994, and stars Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas, and Christian Slater. This was an awesome movie. I think one of the reasons I liked it as much as I did is because I finished the book two days before I watched the film. The book was written by Anne Rice in 1976 and is the first book in the quite large Vampire Chronicles.

This film technically takes place in the early 1990`s roughly, although the story being told takes place through various centuries starting in the year 1791. This film is about a reporter called Daniel interviewing a vampire. That’s the recent day part of the movie. The rest is a flashback of Louis` life. Louis is the vampire being interviewed. Without giving away too much of the story, basically it tells us how Louis was transformed by a seductive, yet evil vampire named Lestat. The two of them find and transform a child named Claudia. The rest of the story is more or less Louis and Claudia searching Europe for other vampires and ending up in Paris.

There is a lot of stuff going on in this movie and I don`t want to spoil a lot of it, so that’s all I will say about the plot. This was really interesting to watch because I had just finished the book two days prior to watching this, so I could really make comparisons. I loved the book, it was so imaginative, seductive in tone, and amazingly well written. So I had really high hopes going into this movie, especially with such an amazing cast. They definitely changed some things from the book, but it in no way took away from the film. This is quite a dark story with certain aspects that can be disturbing to some people. The character of Claudia is very interesting because she was transformed as a child therefore she will always have the body of a child. This really angers her and we first see this inner anger in a scene where Claudia see`s a grown woman naked and she wants to be like her. There are some great effects as well, such as near the ending when Louis is on a rampage with other vampire`s. Overall, great acting, great writing, great visuals, great movie.

Red Dragon

This movie was awesome. This 2002 thriller is interesting because it is a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, but it is also a remake of the movie Manhunter. It is an amazing film, but not for the light of heart. Like The Silence of the Lambs, some people consider this movie thriller/horror. The Silence of the Lambs has more horror elements to it than Red Dragon in my opinion, but I felt Red Dragon was much more suspenseful. For the rest of the review, I will refer to Red Dragon as Dragon, and I will refer to The Silence of the Lambs as Silence.

            This film stars Edward Norton as the main protagonist, Will Graham, an ex F.B.I. agent. After catching Dr. Hannibal Lecter who is again played by Anthony Hopkins, Will retires from the F.B.I. and works as a boat repairmen. A few years later he is contacted by another man in the F.B.I. named Jack Crawford played by Harvey Keitel. Jack tells Will that there is a new killer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy and that they need Will back for this one assignment. The rest of the film concentrates on Will and Jack trying to find the Tooth Fairy, and on the actual killer and his blind girlfriend.

            Now onto things I really liked about this film. First off, the acting was phenomenal. With three huge stars in major role`s, excellence was expected, and it was given. Ralph Fiennes played the Tooth Fairy, and he was spectacular as well. Fiennes is a big actor, but not nearly as well known as the other three leads. Norton`s character was reluctant to go back to the dangerous life style of working for the F.B.I.. I stated earlier that I think this film was extremely suspenseful. There were moments where I was in a state of panic from the suspense. There is a scene where Lecter tells the Tooth Fairy where Will`s family lives, and then we see their house and we don`t know if the Tooth Fairy is there or not. Everything was great about this movie; I especially liked how the ending led right into the beginning of Silence of the Lambs, literally. All in all, this movie was great, one of the bests I`ve seen in a while.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

This is a song review, so it is going to be shorter than other reviews and I won`t do nearly as many of these as film reviews.

This is my first time trying to review a song, so stick with me here. My current favorite band is probably Irish band U2. The song I am going to be talking about today is from their third album, War. Today`s song is Sunday Bloody Sunday.

The song starts out with a loud almost militaristic drum beat. The guitar then comes in with quite a nice little riff, just breaking apart three chords. The lyrics then come in, starting out with the line “I can`t believe the news today, I can`t close my eyes and make it go away.” Soon the song starts the main progression. It has the same marching style drum beat with a loud, almost angry guitar chord progression going from B minor to D, then to G. This progression is done with power chords as opposed to open chords which gives it a thicker, more distorted sound.
The lyrics are very good, in my opinion, with lines like “The trench is dug within our hearts, and mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart.” There is a small guitar solo, which is well done and not over the top like some music from the 1980`s.

The song is named after and about the event Bloody Sunday, which happened in 1972 in Derry, Ireland. British soldiers shot down Irish civilians protesting. During these protests, the protestors were attacking the soldiers with gasoline bombs and any blunt object they could find. It was an awful thing for the soldiers to do, and it was a huge event that is known about all over the world. The words of the song are good at depicting a war zone, with tragedy all around, but the song is loud and angry. It is an amazing rock song and one of my favorite songs right now.

Now, these song reviews are going to be much shorter than my film and novel reviews, but I will try to make them helpful and interesting.

Night of the Demons (2009)

This film was released in 2009 and is a remake of a 1988 film. I have not seen the original film, but it was well received and it had two sequels, and this remake. Now, this is a horror remake and these films usually get pretty bad reviews, and this film is no exception. I`ve read reviews saying that this is not nearly as good as the original. But because I haven`t seen the original, I can`t compare so I`m going to review this as its own entity.

This film tells the story of Maddi, Lily, and Suzanne are getting prepared to go to a Halloween party held by Angela at a mansion. The mansion is famous because years ago many people were brutally killed there, the only survivor being the maid who had locked herself in a room and writing spells all over the walls. Maddi`s ex boyfriend Colin shows up at the party selling heroin because his boss is demanding more money. Eventually the police arrive and shut the party down, but Angela, Maddie, Lily, Suzanne, Colin, Dex (Lily`s ex boyfriend), and Jason stay behind. They find a room in the basement with skeletons and Angela is bitten by one. Angela becomes sick and soon becomes a demon, she seduces other people soon enough they become demons one by one.

Apparently the reason why the demons possess everyone in the house is because they were kicked out of hell, and to get into our world they need to posses seven people on Halloween night. The fact that they were kicked out of hell might tell you what they are like, they are pretty evil demons.

Again, I haven`t seen the original so I can`t compare these two films, but I liked this movie. I barely knew anything about this going into it but on a whim I decided to watch it and it was a pretty fun horror film. It was quite gory, quite violent, and also quite sexual. One of the ways the demons can posses someone is through sex. I don`t know if that was part of the original but it was kind of interesting in this. This film sort of had a loud, punk, abrasive feeling to it, it worked quite well and made the film fun to watch. It was a pretty good film, with some small flaws, but not much to complain about. Check It out if you`re into this kind of film.

Let the Right One In

This is a very famous Swedish film, released in 2008 and based off of a 2004 novel with the same name: Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in).

Let the Right One In is a romantic horror film, a very interesting mix of genres. Before I really start the review let me just say one thing: Twilight has nothing on this story.
Directed by Tomas Alfredson in 2008, this immeditialy was celebrated by critics and average veiwers. It was remade into an American version in 2010, though the name changed to simply Let Me In. It was directed by Matt Reeves and starred Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz, who is probably my favorite up and coming actresses. She has starred in films such as Kick Ass, and Hugo. She is very young, she was born in 1997 making her 15 years old.

For this section of my review, I`m only to give away the very basic plot.
A 12 year old boy named Oskar is living in a suburb of Stockholme, and he is being badly bullied at school. A girl who claims to be his age, named Eli, moves in next door to him with an older man. We soon find out that she is a vampire and the older man is getting blood for her, but Oskar is not aware of this. Eli and Oskar meet and see each other often, but only at night. They start becoming friendly and eventually they fall in love, but it is a very strange love.

This film has a very interesting premise, its a romantic horror film involving a love story between a bullied boy and vampire. Now this films` two main characters were children, and cery rarely do you see children who can act well. These kids can act. They were 11-12 during filming this film and they were very good, the girl especially. She was played by Lina Leandersson and Oskar was played by Kare Hedebrant, who has done one film since this.
Oskar`s character was quite awkward at times, he was badly bullied and eventually he fought back after Eli gave him some advice to hit back harder. The vampires in Twilight sparkle, Eli jumps on them and rips into their throats and drinks their blood, Eli is a true vampire. We also see what happens when a vampire comes into a place of dwelling without being asked, and its quite gruesome. Once you get past the horror, and there is some and its done quite well, the romantic side of this story is very good. Its unconventional to say the least, and at times quite racy becasue it is dealing with children and at times it portrays some very racy scenes, but the fact that they are children is what makes it racy. You see Eli go from being quite secluded when it comes to Oskar to her actually liking him very much and open about it. You also see Oskar open up a bit with Eli, at the start he was very quiet and secluded but he becomes more friendly and loving towards her. In a very fun and violent climax Eli saves Oskar from some bullies and they catch a train together.
I would recommend watching this without the English dub over it because it is not quite accurate and it is distracting, watch the Swedish version with English subtitles.

This film was actually quite beautiful. To the average veiwer it might seem a bit slow, but if you stick with it, it won`t dissapoint. A very good film. Maybe I should learn Swedish.

Låt den rätte komma in

Bram Stokers Dracula

This film was released in 1992, and it is one of many, many Dracula films. It was directed by acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola, who also made The Godfather trilogy, and Apocalypse Now. This version of the famous tale has Gary Oldman starring as Dracula. It also has Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Sadie Frost, and even has Tom Waits in a small role. Those actors mixed with Francis Ford Coppola directing, you know it’s going to be good.

This film follows the original story quite closely. Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to sell an estate in London to Count Dracula, a very old, strange, and secretive man. Jonathan has a girlfriend back in London, Mina, who is living with her best friend Lucy. Jonathan soon realizes that he is being held prisoner by Dracula, and three demonic women who suck his blood to keep him week. Dracula leaves Jonathan with the three women as he goes to London and becomes young again on the voyage. He bites Lucy and she becomes sick and slowly becomes a vampire. Eventually Jonathan escapes from the castle and comes back to London. They chase Dracula back to Transylvania and eventually kill him.

I tried to keep that simple, because there is a lot more to it, and I didn`t want to give it away. I absolutely loved this film, and I`m loving it more as time goes on. Gary Oldman plays Dracula so well; he really portrays the romantic, seductive side of the character really well. Coppola did that very well as well, he made the entire film very sexual and seductive again. He got rid of the cheesy Dracula and brought back the seductive, terrifying vampire we used to know. Gary Oldman also made the most amazing evil laugh ever recorded. Seriously, here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCEf5XAgh1M
It`s pretty damn good. This was also the first film I`ve seen with Winona Ryder, at least the first film since I`ve starting taking them seriously. She was really good, she was surprisingly good. She played a modest, young Victorian woman who eventually gives into her lustful desires for Dracula. Keanu Reeves was quite good as well, although I would have liked to have seen more of him, especially when he was held prisoner by the demonic women in the castle. Anthony Hopkins did a great job as Professor Van Helsing, he was eccentric, and at times he was quite funny. The entire cast was excellent. I only had one problem with the cast. The person I was looking forward to the most was Tom Waits, and while he was quite good, his character was pointless. There was no need for his character. He plays the man who went to Dracula before Jonathan and he is now in an Insane Asylum, calling for his master and eventually he is killed by Dracula. Coppola did an excellent job rejuvenating this classic tale.
This film was very sexual, but I think it should be. Vampire`s in nature are very sexual creatures, and this film made you see this side of them. There was quite a lot of nudity, but not to the point that it felt contrived, but because of the nature of the film, it could get away with quite a lot of nudity.

A very good film, while it was a horror film, it wasn`t extremely scary but it gave you some chills, like when you would see Dracula`s shadow do something different than Dracula was doing. Not for everyone, it is a horror and there are a lot of people who don`t like horror. There is nudity, and it is quite long, it’s just over two hours. But if you can sit through it, it is very good. Another thing I really liked was the introduction; it explained what happened to cause Dracula to do the things he does. Very good film, another one under the belt of Francis Ford Coppola.