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.

To Kill a Mockingbird

As I watched this film, I was full of different emotions. Sometimes, a smile just spread across my face and I couldn`t stop it. Other times, my shoulders slumped with the more depressing notes of the film. To Kill a Mockingbird is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made; it is an adaption of one of the greatest books ever made. Surprisingly, it did not win Best Picture in 1962, it lost out to Lawrence of Arabia. Gregory Peck, who plays lawyer Atticus Finch, won Best Actor for this role. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning three. From what I`ve just said, you know this is a great film.

This story starts out with the Finch family. Atticus: the father, Scout: the daughter, and Jem: the son. It is told from Scout`s perspective, she is very young and about to start school for the first time. She is very smart, she has been reading with her father for a long time.
They live in small, simple town in the south. Atticus is a very smart, well spoken lawyer. He is approached by the town judge and is asked to defend a black man Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus takes the case but is criticized by the town people. During this entire time, we are told about “Boo” Radley. A man who none of the children have seen, because he is in his house all day, held there by his father. But apparently at night he walks the streets, watching people in their beds. The trial comes up and after Atticus not only proves Tom innocent, but also gives sufficient proof that she was beaten by her father, a very racist alcoholic. Atticus and Tom lose the case, and I will talk about this later. Tom tries to escape from jail, but is shot down. Near the end, Jem and Scout are walking home at night and are attacked by a man later identified as Bob Ewell, the father of the woman Tom was accused of raping. “Boo” shows up and saves them and kills Bob.

This film obviously deals with racism. Racism is a topic I feel very strongly about. I`ve looked at racism and I have found no reason for it. This film was excellent, but at times very tragic. One of the most tragic scenes in when Tom is found guilty after being proven innocent by Atticus. It just shows the idiocy and arrogant thinking of the town’s people. At other times it was very touching. One scene shows the town`s people storming the jail to try to kill Tom, but Atticus is guarding him. Scout shows up and says “Hello” one man. She has no clue what is going on, her childishness and naivety is what saves Tom and possibly Atticus.

If you haven`t seen this film, you need to. This is a film everyone needs to see at least once in their life. Gregory Peck was absolutely brilliant, he played a father figure perfectly, and he captured the image of a well spoken lawyer perfectly. Another performance that was very well done was the character of “Boo” Radley, who`s actual name is Arthur Radley. He was played by Robert Duvall. This was near the start of his career and he soon became one of the greatest actors living. His character has no lines whatsoever but he leaves such a huge impact, that it sends shivers down your spine. There were some scene`s that were terrifyingly suspenseful.
An amazing film, please, watch this film. Amazing.

Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs is a film I`ve been looking for, for a very long time. After a few months of looking I finally found it, and watched it right away. I was really excited about this film, and it stood up to me.

This film was released in 1971, and it was directed by Sam Peckinpah. It stars Dustin Hoffman in one of his earlier role`s. It also stars Susan George, playing Dustin Hoffman`s wife.
The film is about David and Amy Summer. They move into a nice house in England in a small village, far into the country side. We notice right away that David is slightly shy and almost cowardly, whereas Amy is wild and provocative. Their new house is not quite ready in parts, so there are villagers helping to build the roof on part of the house. The people building the house keep looking at Amy very sexually. It is also brought up that she never wears a bra, and that might be a reason they keep staring at her, according to David. Eventually, David finds their cat hanging in the closet, dead. He then goes hunting with the builders, but they trick him into staying there, while two of them sneak back to the house and rape Amy. David never finds out about the rape. On the way back from a church social, David and Amy hit Niles with their car. Niles has a reputation with the village as someone who keeps getting in trouble with girls, and he is clearly not mentally well. David takes him into the house, despite Amy`s pleads not to. The rest of the men come to their house with guns, demanding to have Niles. David refuses and the villagers start breaking the windows. The whole climax is David keeping them out, while leaving his cowardice behind and becoming brave and strong.

This film was released in 1971, along with A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry, and The French Connection. These films caused a huge controversy in 1971, because of their increasingly violent content. Yes, this was a violent film, and I have no problem with violence in films, and if you do, I think you should relax and not take things so seriously. This film was also very controversial because of a rape scene that is considered very brutal. I did not get why this was such a big deal, because it is not brutal. It is rape, so it is very bad, but thinking of what it was hyped up to be, it was nothing. In a way, this entire film is sexual by nature, or at least sex plays a huge part in how people behave in this film. I guess I didn`t find it all that shocking because of the generation difference, again, it was released 1971.

All in all, a very good film. Definitely not for everyone, but if you can sit through the violence, it’s very good. Dustin Hoffman`s performance is excellent. This film was remade in 2011, but it did not get very good reviews, except from Roger Ebert who said that it was better than the original, but I don`t agree.

Caddyshack

I bought this film not know much about it, but I heard it was pretty good. It was great. It was one of the funniest films I`ve seen in a while. Caddyshack was released in 1980 and starred Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, and Michael O`Keefe, and some other actors, but those were the big ones. It was one of Bill Murray’s first starring roles, and the same for Chevy Chase. As I said, I bought this knowing nothing about it except I heard it was good. It was very good. It is about a teenager named Danny, who is a caddy at a up-scale golf course. He wants to win a caddy scholarship to college because he can`t afford college, so he starts to caddy for Judge Smails, who decides who gets the scholarship. Eventually the Judge and Dangerfield create a golf tournament for $20,000. That’s basically the plot.

This was full of so many funny things; it’s hard to list them all. All the actors did a good job, but there are three actors in here that are always great, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield. I didn`t like Rodney Dangerfield prior to watching this, I now love him. He was just joke after joke after joke. I don`t think he can say one sentence without making someone laugh. Despite his countless laughs, Bill Murray stole the show for me. He was the best for me even more so because all of his lines were apparently improvised, he made everything up. That is why Bill Murray is a legend.

All in all, this was a very funny film. Some great lines from Murray and Dangerfield, and all the other cast were great as well. There was a sequel, but it didn`t have any of the original cast returning except for Chevy Chase, and it didn`t receive very good reviews.
Check it out, very funny.

Breakfast at Tiffany`s

I`m just going to say this right away, I did not like Breakfast at Tiffany`s. This is one of Audrey Hepburn`s most famous films, and she was good in it. She is acknowledged as one of the greatest female actress`s of the 20th century. Breakfast at Tiffany`s was made in 1961 and won two Oscars, Best Original Song for Moon River, and it also won Best Score. Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress for this film but lost out to Sophia Loren for Two Women.

This film is about Holly Golightly, played by Hepburn, and Paul Varjak, played by George Peppard, and their relationship. Holly is a very social, elegant woman living in New York, and Paul is a struggling writer who moves into the same apartment building as Holly. There is a sub plot that is introduced right away involving Holly going to visit a mob boss in prison and pass on messages to his lawyer. Holly and Paul soon become friends, and Paul finds out that Holly is actually a southern girl named Lula Mae, but she moved to New York and changed, and that her brother is coming out of the military soon, her ex husband comes to her in New York to bring her back but she refuses. Eventually Holly and Paul start getting serious but she tries to get money by marrying the richest man she can find. That’s basically the plot.

Again: I didn`t like this film. But there were certain things I really hated. The first and probably the biggest problem I had with this movie was Mickey Rooney. Mickey Rooney is a very famous actor and is still living in his early 90`s now. In this film he plays a stereotypical Asian man even though he is white, and it’s awful. He has makeup on to make him look Asian, and he portrays a very annoying character. Another thing I didn`t like was the character of Paul, in his opinion, if you love a woman, she is yours. He drags on about this point until he comes off as sexist; he basically calls women property, as long as its love. I also didn`t like Holly. She was whiny, when she had a problem she would get drunk and do something stupid, I was annoyed by watching her character get drunk and complain.

This was my first look into Audrey Hepburn, and she was pretty good, it was her character I didn`t like. The acting was all round pretty good, except for Mickey Rooney, casting him as that character was dumb. The writing was ok, but I didn`t like the characters. To me, it was technically a good film, but I just really didn`t like it.

This was a relatively short pot, but I didn`t have much to say on this film.

Child`s Play

Childs Play was actually, really good. I was sort of surprised with it. I thought it would be slightly cheesy, which I like, but I just wasn`t expecting a good movie. Childs Play is a 1988 horror film, which eventually evolved into probably one of the most famous horror franchises ever. It spawned four sequels, Childs Play 2, Childs Play 3, Bride of Chucky, and Seed of Chucky. These were horror movies until Bride, then they became horror/comedy, which I love, but from what I hear, the last two films are not very good. The character of Chucky is very famous now, having dolls made after him, quite ironically. As I said, the movies and Chucky himself become more comedic over time, and Chucky eventually starts spewing one liners, some of which are actually very funny, my favorite being “Don`t fuck with the Chuck”. But in the first movie, he is not comedic; he is evil and determined to live.

So basically this movie is about a serial killer, named Charles Lee Ray. He is shot by a police officer, Mike Norris, during a chase. Charles hides in a toy store and just before he dies, he transfers his soul into a doll named Chucky. Later, a child named Andy wants a Chucky doll for his birthday, and he gets one. He gets a special one. He befriends Chucky, and starts talking to Chucky, and Chucky talks back. Anyway, eventually Chucky starts killing, and finds out how to get back to human form, he needs to transfer his soul into Andy. The thing is, no one believes Andy. He is eventually put into a psychiatric ward, but escapes when he sees Chucky coming for him.

That’s all I`m going to say about the plot, now onto what I really liked and disliked.
This film was really good in the sense that you were really into it, this was because it played on the age old idea that adults can`t see what children see. Except in this, the child is right. Andy is not imagining that Chucky is talking and moving, but everyone is getting mad at him for making up stories, and eventually he starts pleading Chucky to talk in front of other people, and Chucky, being the cruel person he is, doesn`t. Also, we don`t hear him talk in his real voice until over three quarters way through the film, nor do we actually see him clearly move, but we know he is, yet it is still tense. I was waiting for him to talk or to move, in the background, but he doesn`t. This created a very tense atmosphere every time Chucky was on the screen. When it came to acting, I had mixed feelings. The main character, Andy, was at first very good, he portrayed a very excited young boy, but as the movie went on, I feel like his performance went down and down. The rest of the cast were very good, I especially liked Chris Sarandon, who played Mike Norris, and he was also in Fright Night, directed by the same man, Tom Holland.

All in all, this was a good movie. It was a fun way to spend an hour and a half. I`ve seen clips of most of the other films, but I don`t think any of the other films quite matched this one.

American Psycho

Umm, wow. Yeah, that sums it up, wow.

This movie was insane. It was scary, intense, and sometimes it bordered on comedic, and the fact that I found a movie about an insane killer comedic worries me.
Christian Bale stars as Patrick Bateman, which right away makes me think about Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock`s Psycho. This movie is based off a 1991 book, with the same title.
So yeah, it’s about Patrick Bateman, a 27 year old man with a very prestigious job on Wall Street. The film chronicles his will power weakening as his lust for violence grows more and more uncontrollable. Right from the start you can see he is insane, but in a slightly subtle way, like when he is describing his morning routine, and it’s got around 20-30 steps to it as he is talking about how he has to keep fit and be young. You see how gets furious when he sees that other people have nicer business cards then him, but he hides when in front of them.

I went into this film looking for a lot of violence and gore, and sure, I got it. But not for roughly the first half hour at least, and the first kill is bloodless. Nevertheless, I was still entranced by it. There is beautiful music playing as the camera just watches him get ready for work, most of the music was great, and the color was really nice. Mainly because a lot of his apartment is shockingly white, as he is a clean freak. Not just the color, but the design, it’s all very clean, modern, and artistic. Bateman eventually kills one of his business partners and an investigation is started. As I said before, Bateman starts losing control and just starts killing people left right and center. There is a very intense scene where he is in bed with two women, and of the women gets out of bed and the other women in bed starts screaming and she sees blood on the sheets and she starts running, Patrick chases her down with a chainsaw as she discovers more and more of his victims. It was brutal what she saw around his apartment. Near the end, he is on the run from the police and he lets himself take over and he goes out of his way to kill everyone he sees, and the thing is, he is never caught. Even if you just listen to him talk, it is weird. He is talking about how he has all the physical components of a human, but he is not, he is not there. And every time he kills someone he talks about the music that is playing. His first major kill, he puts on music and he is almost dancing he is so ecstatic, as he brings the axe down.

Christian Bale was excellent in this role. He took it on, I believed that he was crazy and I didn`t know what he was going to do next. All the supporting cast was very good as well, but Bale stole the show.

Repeating what I said earlier, wow. Great movie, there is a sequel, but it doesn`t look very good. You should watch this if you are into this type of movie, if you aren`t, it might be a bit extreme, but overall, I loved it.

Get Him to the Greek

When I bought this film, I was expecting a pretty standard comedy. What I got was a surprisingly great, smart, very funny movie.
It stars Jonah Hill and Russell Brand, I like both actors very much, especially Jonah Hill. It is basically about Aaron (Jonah Hill), who works for a musical scout company, and they are looking for ideas. Aaron comes up with the idea to do a anniversary concert at the Greek Theatre with Aldous Snow, his favorite rock star. So Aaron has to fly to London and get Aldous to the Greek Theatre in 72 hours. Aldous, played by Brand, is very eccentric, and rock star-ish. That is the basic plot, and it only takes 15-20 minutes to set that up, the rest of the film is just what happens to them as Aaron tries to complete his goal, and it’s great.

Again, I was very shocked at how good this film was, and there are some brilliant moments. These moments range from comedy to drama. Both style`s are brilliantly portrayed. One of my favorite scene`s is when Aaron purposely spills Aldous`s heroin, and he freaks. He says that that is his medicine, and it was very powerful and quite dark, and one of the reasons I liked this scene so much was because I was shocked that something this dark would be put in this type of comedy. Now, this scene led to another very funny scene, so this film kind of balanced comedy and drama very well, without it seeming contrived.
Another thing I really liked was Aldous`s father, played by Colm Meaney, who I know as Miles O`Brian from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He was great and the relationship between him and his son, Aldous, was very well played. His father abandoned him and his mother when he was young, and at times it`s quite awkward between them, and eventually they start fighting in a Vegas hotel room, and it goes to hell. It was great!

This was the first time I`d seen Russell Brand in a movie, and he was awesome. He portrayed a struggling rock star perfectly. Of course, Jonah Hill was awesome, as always.
Again, this film was surprisingly great! I would definitely recommend it.

Freddy vs. Jason

Freddy vs. Jason

This was the 8th installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, one of my favorite film series ever, and it was the 11th film in the Friday the 13th series, also a very good franchise.
This was directed by Chinese director Ronny Yu, who isn`t very well known in North America, the only other big American thing he has done was Bride of Chucky, which I won`t get into.

Let’s start with a history lesson. In 1984, Wes Craven, who has become a god in the horror industry, released A Nightmare on Elm Street. This is one of my favorite horror movies; it was smart, tense and very scary. This was the only Nightmare film Wes Craven directed until the seventh, Wes Cravens New Nightmare. All of these movies were good, but never as good as the first, except maybe New Nightmare. They are basically about a child murderer who is eventually killed by angry parents, but comes back as a demon of sorts and haunts the children of Elm Street in their dreams. The films got kind of more outrageous as they went on, with Freddy becoming more comedic than scary. In Freddy vs. Jason he is less comedic, but still not as scary as he was in the first one. Four years before Wes Craven started Nightmare, Sean S. Cunningham made Friday the 13th. I have only seen the first movie in this series, except for small parts of most of the other films. The main plot for these movies is basically Jason stalks and kills teenagers at his camp. Pretty simple, but still pretty good. These films also got kind of weird, with Jason going to Manhattan, and Hell, and eventually even outer space. Jason is basically a zombie, he should be dead, but he just keeps going, he can`t die.

Now, onto the actual film. Freddy vs. Jason was not a film I was really looking forward to; I had heard some bad things about it, and not many good things. I was bored, and decided to watch it on Netflix. I was pleasantly surprised right from the beginning. Basically, Freddy has grown weak, because the people of Springwood have forgotten him, therefore they don`t fear him. He summons Jason to kill people there so they can fear again and he will grow strong once more.
The thing is, once Freddy is strong again, Jason can`t stop killing and starts taking Freddy`s victims. This pisses Freddy off, and the two fight, a lot.

As I said, this was a really good film. The acting was surprisingly good for a slasher film. But for me the best person in the movie was Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. This was his final appearance in film as Freddy; he had played Freddy in every Nightmare film. The main protagonists were all pretty good, but nothing special.

Over all, a very good film. Not the best installment in either series but still a good movie. The word “fun” comes to mind. It is two iconic horror figures just beating each other, and its awesome!

Phantasm

Phantasm is very interesting, to say the least. It is very good, I did like it, but it is very weird.
Released in 1979, and directed by Don Coscarelli. It is very cool to watch, because a lot of the time, you don`t really know what’s happening, it can be pretty crazy at times.

It is about a kid named Mike and his older brother Jody, who is raising him because their parents are dead. A friend of Jody`s dies and Mike spies on the funeral and see`s a tall man carrying the coffin on his own and driving away with it. Mike eventually sneaks into the mansion by the grave yard. He finds out that something is seriously wrong and is attacked by The Tall Man. He escapes and tells Jody, they and their friend Reggie go back to the mansion to try to stop whatever it is that is going on. The Tall Man has an army of hooded dwarfs made of the dead people in the grave yard. They make a plan to kill The Tall Man, but he starts getting more serious with his attacks.

This movie was low-budget and very successful. It spawned three sequels, which apparently are all pretty bad. It has a cult following now and was ranked #25 on Bravo`s 100 Scariest Movie Moments. I totally understand all that. This was a really good horror movie; it was scary, and very cool. The character of The Tall Man was creepy at times, and at other times he was all out terrifying. Something would be happening and all of a sudden he would just come out of nowhere and attack someone. He is surprisingly fast for an elderly man. Angus Scrimm returned in all movies to play The Tall Man.

The acting is all around pretty good. There isn`t one actor who steals the show, they all pull their own weight. The effects were very good, epically for the time, and the sets were amazing for some scenes, mainly the interior of the mansion. The film was giving an X rating just because of the silver orb. It’s a small flying silver orb and drills into your head and drains your blood out, the rating was later brought down to an R.

All in all, a good horror movie, and it still stands up well today, it’s not really dated.

Last House on the Left

Review #6: Last House on the Left
Wes Craven`s very first film, before the Nightmare on Elm Street films, Before Scream, before all that, he started with this. Made in 1972, and for its time, it was probably one of the most graphic, harsh films made. There is a lot of nudity, a lot of blood, and a lot of just very dark things going on.

Basically, it is about two young girls; the main girl is called Mari. They are going into the city to see a concert; they get kidnapped by a group of four people and are raped, abused and eventually horribly killed. The four people clean up and need a place to stay and they end up staying Mari`s parents house. That night her parents find out that Mari is dead and that the people staying in their house killed them. Mari`s parents aren`t happy and start their revenge. I`m not going to give away anything else, but it gets pretty crazy.

Now, this film was awesome. I only had two really problems with, and they were small things. One of them was I thought that the parents handled finding out their daughter is dead pretty well. They kind of found, found her body, and showed very little emotion. The other problem was something that bugged me personally, I don`t think it would apply to lot of people. I wanted the scenes with the bad guys hurting the girls to be more extreme. I was expecting all out hell with those scenes and I was kind of let down with, I wanted it to be brutal.

The things I did like, was the acting (for most of the time), especially the two girls and the villains. The villains were cruel, harsh and crazy. The two girls were innocent (to a degree), sweet and just got caught in a horrible thing.

Now, this is not Wes Craven`s best film, but of course it isn`t, it’s his first, and very rarely is the first films a person’s best films. Other than this film, I haven`t seen a whole lot of his films. I`ve seen Nightmare on Elm Street, all four Scream films, and that’s it. This was still very good.

Movie Review #4 and 5

Movie Review #4/5: House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devils Rejects

So, this is a double feature, Rob Zombie`s first two films, The Devils Rejects is a sequel to the first movie. Because this is a double review, it will probably be longer than usual. So, let’s get started with the first one, House of 1,000 Corpses.

House of 1,000 Corpses was Rob Zombie`s first film, released in 2003.
It basically is about four young people who are touring around America writing a book about strange attractions. They stumble upon a place owned by Captain Spaulding, a very scary clown. He takes them on a tour of his museum of horrors and tells about the local legend of Dr. Satan, a surgeon who horrifically tortures his victims. When they leave, their tire is shot by a man, but they don`t that. They end up at house with a few very strange people (the Firefly family). Without spoiling anything, the family kidnaps them and tortures them, eventually leading them to Dr. Satan.

This film was pretty good. When I was watching it I was into it, it was scary, and it was disturbing and all around pretty good. After I watched it, the thrill sort of faded a bit. It was still good but I not everything I think it could`ve been. I did like the style of filmmaking Rob Zombie used, it was pretty good quality but it would cut to really grainy scenes, sometimes random, sometimes not. But still very cool.
All in all, not a bad start to his career, which is still pretty young, he only has four released films.

And now for, The Devils Rejects.
Now, just to start off with, House of 1,000 Corpses has nothing on Devils Rejects.
This film picks up a few months after the first one. The police have issued a search and destroy on the Firefly family and they have committed over 75 homicides.
Its starts with the police arriving at the Firefly house and telling them to come out. They of course won`t go out without a fight so they gear up with guns and armor and start fighting. One of them is killed and Mama Firefly is captured, Baby and Otis escape. They head to a motel and call Captain Spaulding (Baby`s dad). Once there they take two couples under hostage and sexually abuse the women. Otis then takes the men with him to dig up some guns he buried. They attack him but he quickly gets the upper hand and kills them both. One of the women tries to escape from baby but she is stopped and the other woman is killed. A maid enters the room later and finds the grisly mess and one woman alive with her husband’s skinned face on her as a mask. When she runs for help she is killed by a passing truck. Otis and Baby meet with Captain Spaulding and they go to a friend named Charlie. This is one of my favorite scenes, they are partying at Charlie`s with no sound heard except Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh. It`s a really fun and cool scene, with cuts to the Sheriff talking to himself getting ready to get them. Charlie sells them out to the cops and they are caught. Now, up to this point, we have looked as the sheriff as the good guy, he is an asshole, but the good guy. This is where that changes. When he catches them, he goes crazy. He killed Mama Firefly and taunts Baby with that. The Firefly also killed his brother and he goes all out on them for that. He staples pictures of victims to their stomachs, nails Otis`s hands to the chair. He then lets Baby go outside and then hunts her. When he is about to kill her, Tiny shows up (Baby`s brother who is giant and deformed with burns)
and kills the sheriff. He saves Otis and Spaulding and walks back into the burning house to die. Later, the three are driving and meet a police road block. With no sound but Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd (which is the best use this has ever been put to). They drive to the cops shooting their guns; in the end they are killed.

Sorry for the spoilers on that one, I couldn`t resist.
So, as I said before, this film is much better than the first, and probably one of my favorite films of all time now. It is scary, disturbing (beautifully), chaotic and brilliant. As far as I`m concerned, Rob Zombie peeked in this film and I don`t know if he will ever beat that, but I have high hopes with him. I saw this film on Netflix, but I saw it in a store a week earlier, on a double feature with the first one, I wasn`t going to buy it but if I see it, I`m getting it. Amazing.

Movie Review #3 American Beauty

Movie Review #3: American Beauty
American Beauty… Brilliant! It was an amazing film, the acting, the story, the dialogue, everything was great. Starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning, respectively. They are married but basically hate each other now. Kevin Spacey`s
character is unhappy with his job and with his life at home. Hs teenage daughter, Jane, hates both her parents. Kevin Spacey eventually falls in love his daughters best friend, Angela. Once he meets Angela, he feels like a new man, he works out, he quits his job and takes control at home. He continuously fantasizes about Angela, and Angela teases Jane about this. His relationship with his family continues to deteriorate. Meanwhile, new neighbors move next door, a homophobic ex-Marine, his wife who has some sort of mental problem, and their son, who is obsessed with filming everything he deems beautiful, including Jane.
Jane and the new neighbor fall in love, and start spending a lot of time together, which leads to fights between Jane and Angela. The new neighbor starts selling pot to Kevin Spacey, but his homophobic dad thinks he providing sexual services to Kevin Spacey for money, and his son says he is, which makes the dad kick him out. He goes to Jane and they decide to run away to New York. Kevin Spacey is finally about to have sex with Angela but she reveals she is a virgin, so he stops and comforts her. His wife is having an affair and can`t take Kevin Spacey anymore and shoots him. This film was one of the best movie`s I`ve seen in a long time, there were certain moments were you sort of want to laugh, but there was also a dark side to the scene as well that prevented the comedy from really coming through. There were a lot of beautiful shots in this movie, mainly shots of the neighborhood. As I said before, the acting was great. Annette Benning at times seemed a bit annoying to me, but for the most part she was very good. But the true star was Kevin Spacey, he was brilliant. His character was a tired, run down, man who has given up. But once he meets Angela, he becomes this whole new person, eccentric, unpredictable, and powerful. All in all, an amazing movie.

Movie Review #2 Black Christmas

Movie Review #2: Black Christmas

Black Christmas was released in 1974, and I`m guessing it was quite unusual and gruesome for that time. It was directed by Bob Clark, who also made A Christmas Story, which is good, but he also made Baby Geniuses, which is not good. The film stars Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon, along with other actors but they are the main three. The film is about a college sorority house around Christmas time. A man climbs up their house and breaks into their attic. He kills a woman by putting plastic on her face which suffocates her; the image of her sitting in a rocking chair with the plastic on her mouth has become quite famous and is the cover for the film, for most versions. The girl’s father shows up looking for her, a search party is out looking for her and for a little girl who was murdered in the park. The killer keeps phoning the house, screaming in different voices, and he starts killing people one by one. It eventually leads John Saxon who is a detective, trying to track the killer every time he calls. Eventually he finds out the calls have not only been going to the house, they`ve been coming from the house. Olivia Hussey finds out she is the only girl alive now and hides in basement. When the killer can`t come in to the basement, he leaves the house tries to break into a window in the basement. This is when you see that the man outside the window is Olivia Hussey`s boyfriend Peter. He breaks in and finds her. Just as the police arrive they hear screams from the house they find Olivia Hussey in the basement and her boyfriend who is dead. They take out all the bodies except the two in attic, and leave her to sleep. While she is asleep the camera goes to the attic and the door to the attic opens and we hear the killer talking to himself.
I liked a lot about this film, but there were some stuff I didn`t like. To me, the scariest thing was the killer himself, not what he did. He would call the girls in the house and scream, yell, moan, and cry at them. He would hold conversations and arguments with himself in different voices. This was scary. The phone call that sticks with me is near the beginning, he calls and is yelling very sexual things to them and Margot Kidder insults him a few times, he stops screaming right away and calmly replies, “I`m going to kill you” and hangs up. That was scary as hell. And also, sometimes we see him in the attic and he is freaking out. He is screaming and pushing things over. Another thing I liked is that every time we see the killer, it’s from his eyes. We never actually see him, other little glimpses, like we see his eye. But it’s all first person point of view with him. One thing I didn`t like is how at the end when they think her boyfriend was the killer, yet they proved he wasn`t earlier on in the film. And also, they don`t check the whole house at the end, the police don`t check the attic… Why! It’s not like its hidden, there is a huge ladder in the middle of the hall leading to it, and they don`t check it! The killer is hiding there and there are two missing people`s dead bodies in there! Now, when they find Olivia Hussey`s boyfriend and think he is the killer, that was pretty believable, because he is insane. Olivia was pregnant and wanted an abortion he would not let her have one and he was acting crazy. We also see him in a recital for piano, he is playing piano and it cuts back Olivia`s character in the house. It then cuts back to the recital hall and Peter is destroying the piano with a lamp. He is crazy.
So yeah, it was a really good film, pretty scary, and a great Christmas movie!