Tag Archives: Thriller

Three Cases of Murder Review

Posted on by
Reply


The anthologies continue with this next title! Three Cases of Murder has fewer stories than the other two titles but they are each able to hold their own. I dare say this may have even been the best of the three even if it is the least frightening. This one is better to look at as more of a suspense collection. Each one definitely keeps a tense atmosphere the whole time the story is going on.

One of the stories is about a guy who has fallen in love with a lady that he met. He’s really excited because before now things haven’t really worked out for him. Unfortunately his work partner will be returning soon and for some reason the ladies all seem to like him at first glance. He can’t lose her…but sure enough the girl leaves him for his partner. Where things go sideways is one day she is found murdered and it looks like the friend did it. What should the lead do now?

Now right away you can see that none of the characters are particularly likable here. The friend has no real class to be stealing girlfriends like this. It doesn’t sound like it is the first time either and he has a habit of constantly getting drunk. The guy just does whatever he wants and unfortunately this seems to be appealing to everyone that he comes into contact with. I would say the friendship would definitely be over by this point.

Meanwhile the girl isn’t worth fighting for because she got with the friend so quickly. She is clearly not the loyal type and so you will be having to fight every guy who comes into contact with her. That’s not the kind of relationship that you want and the lead needed to move on. Also while some may say it is admirable to stick up for your friend in a murder case by lying to the cops, that’s not the right way to play it. You have to let the legal system do its job. If the friend did murder her, then he’s going to have to pay.

It’s not quite so straight forward in the story though as we get a few twists and turns. Characters aside, I thought it made for a really interesting story. You couldn’t really trust anyone here and it was tough to predict how it would end. The story was well crafted and definitely got things off to a pretty good start.

Then we have a story about living paintings. This one’s a bit harder to accept at face value but basically we follow an employee of the museum. He has been working here for many years and in particular likes a painting that is in the main room. The glass around it seems to break every day which is odd. One day a mysterious gentleman tells the employee to come with him inside the painting. It turns out that each painting is alive and people live in them. They can then leave to the human world when needed to get supplies and such.

It’s a really interesting concept to be sure. Unfortunately for the employee, this painting’s creator is rather mad. He is completely obsessed with making the painting be perfect and will stop at nothing for this goal. As the two of them hang out in the painting along with his wife and an old man, the employee realizes that things are getting more and more dire. Unfortunately he does not want to be rude and so he entertains them…until it is too late. The whole time you are just thinking that any half decent main character would have gotten out of this film alive. It’s not like the painter was that tough.

In fact, he was scared of the old man until the employee showed up. This guy can easily be beaten and leaving the painting appears to be very easy. So this was just a collection of errors by the main character for the situation to get this far. It is the most preventable story out of all the anthology ones I’ve seen and that’s saying something. I do really enjoy the concept though, this could make for a full length movie easily. It would take a really skilled writer to anticipate all of the effects of having every painting be alive though.

Finally we have a story that gets a little more intense. There is a man in parliament who is known as the best up and coming politician. He constantly knows what the right thing to say is and he just finished crushing someone’s career. That guy swears vengeance though and activates his dream powers. Now he is able to control the politician in his dreams, forcing him to do embarrassing things like dancing and singing. The worst part is that both of them are aware of these dreams so it feels like emotional blackmail. What can the politician do? One option may be to destroy the nightmare bringer in the dream but is that possible?

Now, this is a tricky situation so I do want to flag that right away. That said, it doesn’t feel unwinnable by any means. Keep in mind that the dream creator doesn’t seem to have any special powers in the real world. So there’s nothing he can do there and additionally he doesn’t have any real blackmail material since it stays in the dreams. At face value, the main character should have just ignored him and things would be fine.

There is the fear that these dreams could escalate further of course. If the dream creator wants to murder him then this would be the way to do it but all of that should be handled in the dreams. The politician just lets it get to him too quickly and essentially tanks his career in the meantime. It made for some interesting back and forth but as soon as the dreams began to break him down, that was it. I don’t think there was any coming back from that. The tragic thing is how close the lead was to winning here. He just needed to hang on a little more and perhaps the voice would have gone away. Perhaps though…no guarantees with powers like this.

Part of what helps the film succeed is that the script is solid for each of the three stories. The old writing style works well here and the pacing is solid. I didn’t think we needed the narrator between stories though. I always think it’s best to let the stories speak for themselves. If you need something to tie them together, then do it within the story like with the last two anthologies. Having someone randomly talking in between the stories just hurts the momentum. Not in such a way that it really hurt the film of course but it still felt pointless.

Overall, Three Cases of Murder was a pretty good movie. I thought that each of the stories were solid and kept me engaged the whole time. They had a good amount of twists and turns but most importantly, the core concepts were solid. There is a lot that you could really do with each of the premises. The main characters just tended to be way too passive in each of the stories. The first story would be the exception to this but the lead of the following two stories could have easily claimed victory. Perhaps that’s where the horror comes from, imagining that you could go down like this. Still, this is a film that I would recommend checking out.

Overall 7/10

Torture Garden Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for another horror anthology. These are usually not so good but the last one was actually solid. Could they pull off such a thing once again? Well I’m glad to say that it was another good one. The stories work pretty well and each have a premise that doesn’t have to rely on shock value. Trust me I was a bit surprised but I’m always glad to see this coming together. Perhaps the writers have finally figured out what is needed to make this kind of story format a true success.

The movie begins with 5 folks heading to a crazy carnival attraction. There’s nothing all that scary so they basically scoff through it all until a mysterious guy says he will show them something truly scary. They follow him to the back where he has a mysterious statue. Looking at it can let you see the dark future that is coming up. Each one decides to take a peak and sees just what horrors are in store.

The first story is about Colin deciding to be a real jerk to his uncle. Colin wants his vast riches and he wants them now! The uncle warns him not to look too much into the origins of the wealth but nothing is about to stop Colin. It turns out that the money comes from a mysterious cat demon, but the problem is that in exchange for these riches, Colin must do its bidding. Colin does his best to resist but is powerless before this creature.

It’s a pretty intense one to start with. The cat is shown to have powerful telepathy and so nobody can resist it for long. Colin sure tries but is unable to stop himself from murdering several folks. This is probably the most intense of the stories with the highest body count so it’s an interesting way to start. You could say that the film is actually peaking early here even if that wasn’t the intent. Colin really dug his own grave here so it’s hard to feel bad for the guy. There’s not much he could have done to escape the situation once it had started but not being an ungrateful jerk would have helped.

The second story is about Carla deciding to mess over her friend. She intentionally sabotages a dress so that she can take the friend’s spot in a date with a powerful member of Hollywood. Carla is fairly confident in her social skills and is quickly able to maneuver her way into meeting all of the inner circle. Unfortunately this puts her right in the middle of a grand conspiracy on just how far the Hollywood elite will go in order to keep their fame.

Like with the first story, Carla is the one who got herself into this mess. Sabotaging her friend was a terrible thing to do and Carla is just shown to be absolutely merciless the whole time. Even by the end she is basically threatening the celebrities to let her in on the secret and that seems like a bad idea. Threatening the super powerful is not a strategy that will often work in your favor. Carla just doesn’t seem to be taking all of that into consideration.

The plot/twist is pretty interesting overall even if this doesn’t feel as much like a true horror. I suppose the situation is scary to be in though. It’s also another one where it would be super hard to get out of the situation once you are stuck in it. Hollywood has a lot of connections and so it would be game over eventually. They must be silencing people by the thousands since nobody has noticed the twist within the film. Definitely an interesting amount of world building here.

Next up we have a story of Leo falling in love with a lady named Dorothy. He is a world class pianist but now his skills are starting to fade a bit because he is spending so much time going on dates. His piano doesn’t like this and decides to murder Dorothy. Dorothy isn’t particularly scared of anybody because she lives life on her own terms. In most cases I’d say she should be correct here. I don’t see how you lose to a piano but I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles.

The idea of an evil object getting feelings of jealousy has certainly happened a few times. It’s an interesting premise but usually you pick something with a bit more of a punch. You can imagine a car being really dangerous after all. For a piano you just need to jump on top of it or outmaneuver it. The thing is fairly easy to break as well. Unfortunately Dorothy doesn’t handle the situation very well at all.

This situation was a bit more difficult to avoid since you’re not expecting a piano to suddenly want to murder you. That being said, you should also know better than to enter a dark room when you hear some ominous piano music. Dorothy had also been warned by this point so the best thing to do would have to just been to get out of there. It’s always one of the more tragic horror tropes to see a character run back into a room one last time, only to be murdered for their trouble.

Finally we have a story about Ronald getting to meet the world’s best Edgar Allan Poe collector. Ronald is super hyped to see all of the collectibles but unfortunately he is also incredibly crazy. The guy can barely control himself and the more antiques he sees, the more out of control he gets. The guy must know everything and will stop at nothing, including murder. It’s definitely hard to feel bad for Ronald at all here because he’s just completely unreasonable.

Throughout the movie he seemed really crazy so it was interesting to see that he was crazy in the future as well. The guy was also the only one to not really be shook by what he saw in the future. It makes for a nice contrast since usually everyone is just panicking in this kind of story. For once you instead have a villain having to go up against another one. It was a pretty solid story for sure with a nice amount of build up and a satisfying ending.

Now you might be wondering, what about the 5th character? Well he was probably the smartest one here as he decides not to peer into the future and just attacks the host instead. That is crazy in its own way to be sure but this guy was not going to go out quietly. I at least have to give him some major credit there. It’s ultimately a little futile in terms of stopping the host from doing this to others but this guy kept his sanity. It also just made for a bit of an explosive ending.

None of the stories are really going to knock your socks off but none of them were particularly weak either. That is really important for anthologies because what you don’t want is for one story to really drag the others down. This one avoided that entirely and the stories also had a whole lot of variety. As long as you enjoy some suspense and a few thrills then you’ll have a good time here. It may be a horror title but it’s not nearly as violent as you may be expecting.

Overall, The title may give you the idea that this is a super grim film but it doesn’t really play out like that. I would definitely recommend checking this one out if you’re looking forward to seeing some retro stories. The movie holds up well in the present day. It was also nice to have all of the main characters be antagonists so you don’t feel quite as bad for them. There are innocent victims in some of the stories but at least the main characters get their just desserts real fast.

Overall 6/10

The Exorcist: Believer Review

Posted on by
Reply

This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the movie. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

The Exorcist is one of those film series that has never been able to turn out a decent product. It’s not surprising though because there’s just not much that you can even do with the genre. Each film is about a demon showing up and the humans are basically powerless against him. There is no real way to stop this guy without losing a lot of people in the process and this film is more of the same. It’s a rather gritty adventure without much of a happy ending for the characters to hang their hat on.

The film starts off by introducing us to Victor who lost his wife due to an earthquake but the baby was delivered safely. Years have passed and Victor has done his best to raise Angela. One day she heads off with her friend Katherine to dabble in the dark arts and naturally this does not go well. They go missing for 3 days and when they return, the girls appear to be acting strangely. It’s as if a demon has possessed them and now an exorcist will be needed. Can an exorcist handle this powerful demon?

In these films the random demons always tend to overpower the exorcists. At this point it’s almost a surprise that they haven’t all been run out of town. Victor is highly skeptical of all religions now as he has had a tough life. Still, he wants to try and save Angela and so this means accepting all of the help around him. You have people from several faiths coming together to try and help but will they be successful?

Now you need to keep in mind that there are two daughters who need saving here. This is important because the film is naturally paying more attention to Angela but the second family is dealing with the same situation with Katherine. This is where part of the film may lose you because we get this whole victory speech about hope and everything….which basically ignores half of the situation. You’ll be side eyeing the film as it ends because the whole thing just doesn’t make sense.

The movie was already losing steam well before then though. Now this is one title where I don’t blame the main characters being slow on the uptake because you’re not going to immediately jump to the conclusion that your kid has been possessed by a demon. It’s one of the few circumstances where I’m cool with the characters constantly looking puzzled and confused. Victor is doing his best to help Angela through normal means and just isn’t getting through to her. He was able to handle his composure a whole lot better than Katherine’s parents.

That said, there isn’t a lot that the film can do to keep you entertained throughout this saga. It’s not like the characters can fight the kids since they aren’t fully in control of themselves. Once they are strapped to the chairs, it is just a lot of long scenes of the characters all trying their tricks on the demon. For the most part they don’t tend to deal a whole lot of damage. The demon only needs one hit while they have to land hundreds through the chants. It makes for a rather underwhelming climax.

Additionally the film is determined to make the demon possession as grotesque as possible. The girls are always appearing with more wounds as a result of the possession which just continues to escalate. The whole process of removing the demons also involves using holy water and other materials that burns them even further. It’s not that the film is necessarily ultra violent in the way that a slasher would be but they show just enough violence to keep on reminding you that this won’t be an easy film.

The cast is kept fairly small throughout. You have Victor’s gym partner but the guy doesn’t actually do a whole lot. The parents of Katherine are around the whole time but there isn’t a whole lot that they can do. The cops are around for the basic search but basically vanish after that. Victor and the others are somehow able to have the kids transferred from the general hospital to their house for the exorcism so either they have a lot of sway or security was very lax.

This isn’t the kind of film where you’re going to be able to drill in too hard without bringing up some plot questions like that. Even so, more emphasis on the cops would have been good. The movie just doesn’t have much of a hook because there just isn’t much that any of the characters can do. It’s the kind of film where each character is really passive and it’s hard for me to even blame them for it. There is no mystery to uncover, no super exorcism technique to learn, etc. So the first half is really building up to Victor being fully convinced that a demon is involved and then we get the long climax of trying to save the kids.

Of course you do have some plot twists and guest stars showing up as well but this is the Exorcist. It’s not like there are any big guest stars that are actually going to make things super exciting. The film still can’t resist having some gross moments like the demon spitting or just more violence like one old lady getting too close to the demon. Films like this just don’t leave the characters a lot of hope and don’t give the viewer any opportunities to be having a good time either. I’d much prefer having a more cheerful/action based film with the characters fighting against the demons.

If you are going to do a whole film with the demons showing up, then I think you need to give the main character some way to fight back. Victor is essentially sidelined for the entire climax so instead let him go to the demon realm to fight or something. Lean into the supernatural elements a little harder so this can lead into an action angle. That would have been a way more satisfying way to go. I get the feeling that the films want to stay a little more grounded than that but it will lead to the same ending for each of these titles.

Overall, This is another Exorcist film. If you’ve seen one then you’ve basically seen them all. It’s not a film that I would ever be particularly interested in checking out again. These films just have nothing going for them and run into the classic horror problem of the heroes not having any real options. There should at least be some cases where the random demon is quickly defeated when confronted by the Order. Otherwise it just feels like the power levels are way too skewed in favor of the demons. They basically laugh and mock the priests whenever they show up.

Overall 1/10

Quarantine Review

Posted on by
2

This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the movie. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited movie would be more negative

Quarantine is one of those films that I remember hearing about all the time. It could never escape the shadow of the original Rec film and yet I almost feel like it paradoxically got bigger because of this. The first thing anybody will tell you is that it’s based off of Rec and yet Quarantine is mentioned more often. I dunno it’s an interesting tidbit but either way the film is no good. I could have told you that right from the start but after watching it, I can confirm that it gets a thumbs down all the way.

The movie starts with Angela filming a segment for the news channel that she works at. She will be tailing some firefighters for a day to see what their work is like. There is a lot of banter as they wait for something to happen and finally there is a call. Someone has started acting crazy in a residential building so the firefighters and police go in with the news crew. Unfortunately the situation is worse than expected. They are all locked inside the building with the tenants and they begin to realize that zombies are present. A single bite will spread the virus and with no way out, this will be a difficult situation to survive.

First off I have to say that these are some of the dumbest horror characters I’ve ever seen. Now it is already a tried and true staple that horror protagonists never make the right decisions but these guys take it to a whole new level. The zombie virus isn’t exactly subtle here. Characters will suddenly be bleeding and acting all shaky. They’re frothing at the mouth and the main characters are still wondering what is going on. It’s bad enough near the beginning of the film where the characters are slowly approaching an insane person but by the middle act of the film they should be retaining some survival instincts.

At one point near the end of the film they know with 99% certainty that one character is a zombie but one guy still reaches out telling her to grab his hand. All of the sequences felt extremely forced. They even call in the professionals at one point and these guys presumably have some idea of what’s going on. Yet, they walk real close to one of the zombies and end up paying the price. The kills are all far too violent to find funny but there is definitely something darkly humorous about how some of these characters die. The deaths were 100% completely avoidable which is what will really annoy you there.

Now like I said, the situation is still difficult. I’m not saying that this is a cake walk but there are better ways to handle this. Keep in mind that the zombies are not bullet proof. Additionally it does seem to be possible to put them down for good with enough force. The zombies never get up again once they’ve actually been taken down. They are fast but can’t think so one of the firefighters is able to beat around 6-8 of them by himself. Keep in mind that this is a small building so the amount of zombies will likely max out at around 20.

Taking the offensive would be a good idea or barricading yourself in a room and forcing them to approach one at a time. Ironically the only character to think of this is the local “jerk” that everyone gets mad at. He said from the start that gathering everyone together didn’t make sense and he was right. That just makes it harder to dodge when a zombie is around and no matter what kind of flu they originally thought this was, packing everyone together is not a good idea.

Now you may wonder why they don’t just leave the building and ignore the government. Well, this government is taking a rather strong approach so they are straight up shooting everyone that tries to leave. So yeah leaving is not really an option this time. You can still find ways to survive but there is no guarantee that you are ever leaving this place alive.

Usually in these films they try to find some kind of audio device for exposition or a bunch of notes. The movie does this but in a very half hearted way so I’m not sure why they bothered. Angela and the others find a lab room from the guy who caused this problem and he left an audio but it was basically silent with a bunch of mumbling. Not the most helpful tool around.

Speaking of helpful, it goes without saying but none of the characters were very helpful here at all. First up you have Angela who is completely out of her depth here. She yells a whole lot which keeps giving away their position to the zombies and spends the entire climax panicking. It was pretty obvious at one point that shooting the zombies was the right move but Angela is still acting shocked as if this was excessive force.

I was just not a big fan of hers by the end. She started out okay but all the screaming is just rough when you have lives at stake. Those yells put everyone in danger and there has to be a point where the adrenaline takes over and you stop panicking. Everyone else was able to get with the program and Angela’s a professional in a line of work that sees a lot of violence. I would have expected her to do better. Instead the cameraman has to really take the initiative and do all of the hard work.

Even by the end of the film it felt like the characters had a chance of surviving. There weren’t many zombies left at all but Angela freezes up and decides not to help so that just messes everyone over. I’m not blaming her for the entire mess, other characters made similar mistakes. The cop with the gun should not have been defeated so naturally he puts the gun down and approaches a zombie. The writers had to work extra hard to find ways for the humans to lose here.

What the film does well is to maintain a very tense atmosphere. The film is really intense and the scares work pretty well. It just can’t help but try to be as gritty as possible in the process. You have all of the usual biting and characters being eaten but then you also have a rat being squashed with rather gruesome detail. That did not add anything to the film and could have definitely been removed. The film wanted to show that animals were also running around with the virus but we definitely didn’t need that.

It’s not like the film would have been much better off even without the animal part but still it’s worth noting. Even better characters would not have been enough to get the film into the green. It’s just not a pleasant film and instead focuses on making everyone as miserable as possible. The concept of the plot is more interesting than the execution so other films like this would still have potential.

Overall, This film could have done well to tone down the violence a whole lot and to go with a more traditional camera style. Stuffing everyone inside of a building with a horror threat is a great concept but then you have to let the writing and atmosphere tell the story from there. I’d also be interested in more of a large scale story about what the government are doing but I suppose by then it is basically just Resident Evil. If you want a zombie story I’d actually sooner recommend that one and that’s saying something.

Overall 1/10

The Nanny Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for an old school horror title that throws in a good amount of misdirection with its twists and turns. Usually old school horror films tend to be pretty strong but ultimately I can’t say that this one was a winner. The slow burn approach just doesn’t work without some kind of a big monster or threatening murderer at the ready. Instead most of the scares are really around the fact that the main character is just a kid and can’t really do a whole lot.

The story begins with Joey finally returning home after having been away from home at a sort of recovery institution for 2 years. Unfortunately the staff were not able to get through to him and even right up to the end he was very mean spirited and pulling pranks on people. His parents had hoped he would have improved but that was wishful thinking. If anything he had gotten worse as he is openly disrespectful to the Nanny. He treats her like a monster and for the most part she takes this in stride but there is a lot of tension in the air. Who is the real villain of this story?

So the first weakness of the movie is really just that it’s not terribly interesting. I like there to be some tension between the characters in a classic mystery as you have to read between the lines and understand the veiled threats. It just doesn’t work nearly as well when the main character is just a kid. There’s nothing that Joey can really do here and he has long since given up on trying to convince his parents. At least from the film’s context it sounds like he had tried in the past and it didn’t go so well so now he is content to just hint at things and generally pick on the Nanny.

In a way we probably should have seen some of the events before he went away to boarding school because it would make Joey a lot less annoying in the present. He makes one friend at least, the upstairs neighbor Bobbie. This at least gives him someone to talk to and some attempt at banter but of course he isn’t really able to keep up.

There’s also not a whole lot that Bobbie can do from her side because this is such a family affair. Joey often appears to be on the losing side of every interaction with the Nanny and again that’s to be expected since he’s a kid. The film would have absolutely been stronger if he had just been older.

As for the parents, they really don’t look very good at all. The mother is constantly depressed and so she’s not really able to understand what is going on here. She mostly mopes a lot and seems to be living in a different reality. She is shocked every single time Joey says something mean to the Nanny and you would expect that at some point she would at least be able to predict what was about to happen. She doesn’t even have to take Joey’s side but should at least know what is going on. She blames herself for the Nanny never having a proper personal life and as a result tries to have allegiance to her and Joey. That’s usually not going to work well, fence sitting just doesn’t work in this kind of situation.

For the father, he just wants Joey to grow up and be over but otherwise mostly stays out of the situation. He’s written out fairly early as he has to go on a work trip. While that might sound reasonable in most cases, the timing was really bad with how the home situation was. I know he may have lost his job if he stayed home, but that would have been the safer decision.

Then we have the aunt Pen who is a bit more of a fighter. Unfortunately she also has a drinking problem which never turns out well for these characters. She also had a rough start during her first conversation with the family and never really recovered from that. It was nice to have another character at the ready but ultimately she was completely out of her depth.

Finally there is the Nanny. Now the character looks rather suspicious from the start but that’s intentional since you are supposed to choose if you think she is the problem or the kid. Either way she will have the upper hand in all interactions as a grown up. I can’t say that she was a very interesting character though and the backstory wasn’t enough to really move me in the present. The film is really based around the intrigue of the Nanny and so it was always going to be on the back foot there.

The actual flashback of what happened before Joey went away is actually sad so the film was able to land that scene. I do think there would be a lot of questions after such an event and you would have switched the Nanny after that regardless but not everyone’s going to come to the same conclusion. Ultimately this just isn’t a very happy film even if the characters are consistently getting themselves into bad situations. At the end of the day for a film you want to be having a good time and this one felt like it was more on the mean side. There are no real moments for levity or for the characters just having fun. It may not be gruesome in the way a modern horror title would be, but that isn’t enough to take this movie into the green.

Overall, The Nanny is one of those films that just isn’t able to successfully be a high octane thriller. It’s always going to be really hard to do this when one of the main characters is a kid. That just limits the amount of interesting situations you can put the characters in. Additionally the script won’t be as solid as usual since kids are more limited in the words that they know. Unless you think the situation of a nanny possibly being evil is really compelling, I would definitely say to dodge this one.

Overall 4/10

Ghost Ship Review

Posted on by
Reply

This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time for an old horror film and I’m afraid this one was not any good. It can feel weird calling a 2002 film old but that’s just where we’re at by this point. Ghost Ship is one of those titles that relies on jump scares and a ton of over the top violence without much of a story to back it up. You’ll be shaking your head at the film right from the start and not even the rock music can save this one.

The movie starts with a bunch of characters enjoying a party aboard a giant boat when everyone is murdered after someone cuts one of the ropes aboard the ship. The only survivor is a little girl. Many years later we cut to a group of salvagers. They find old boats and put them back together for profit. A guy shows up and tells them about this giant boat he found, and it is the one from the opening scene. Sean and his crew decide to head out and find this boat because it will be an absolutely massive payday for them. Salvaging is a tough job since you are all by yourself out at sea but they are confident that they can handle this. Unfortunately, the boat may be more than it seems.

So you’ve got the general setup there and being all alone at sea with a ghost ship definitely has a solid setup as far as the atmosphere goes. There just aren’t many positive elements in the film to really set your hat on. The violence for example was crazy right from the opening scene. After that the characters all tend to go down in really painful ways and then we had an extended cut at the end about how everyone on the ship was gunned down. Right from the start you get to see that this film is going to be super intense in all of the wrong ways.

Occasionally you’d have a decent fake jump scare like when two members of the crew decide to scare Maureen for no reason. I mean it made those guys look pretty bad but I guess nothing really scared them. To be able to lock yourself in an empty room and seal yourself in a meat wrap just to scare someone is a crazy high level of bravery. Too bad it couldn’t have been used for something a little more productive right? Maureen had already gotten a number of real jump scares by this point so I guess the ghost was being really selective.

The film makes the bold choice of having a ghost leader as opposed to this just being a bunch of general spirits running around. I’d say that actually worked well though. I’ll give the film credit for having a real villain even if it felt like he was jobbing the entire time. This guy has telekinesis and a fairly strong amount of regeneration. Beyond that he mostly has human specs and ends up losing virtually every fight that he’s in. The guy has to rely on his tenacity to get the final victories in the end.

So things tend to go his way but he’s not going to be one of the more impressive villains that you see. I thought he was decent enough though and does end up being fairly memorable. He also allowed the film to have a quick fight scene at the end. On a logistic level I don’t see why he really needed the crew though. Seems to me that he would have had tons of options in order to secure his objective. The guy has super powers and regeneration, that leads to a whole lot of options. Then once he had the crew on board, he probably could have just strong armed them into helping instead of putting on an act where he couldn’t help but laugh at different times.

I’ll also say that the main crew were actually fairly smart here. In most of these films they all get extremely greedy and want to get every piece of money available. In this case once the main characters find the gold, they all decide to leave. They have enough money to live comfortably so why get greedy and take the ship too right? The reason their plan fails is due to circumstances outside of their control. They still outpace most main characters when it comes to decision making in a horror title. These salvagers are supposed to be professionals after all so that makes sense.

Now that doesn’t make them perfect by any means. One guy decides to cheat on his fiancé which leads to him falling for the most obvious trick possible. Generally the others at least had some good excuses as to how they were murdered but this guy had no such excuse. I would also blame the spirits for a lot of this. The film explains their plans in the movie and why they are picking on the main characters but there is one who wants to help. She goes about it in the most roundabout way possible though and talks very cryptically. We know that the main spirit will try silencing her so at that point it’s probably a good idea to just quickly blurt everything out.

I also thought the soundtrack was mainly good. The rock song during the boat massacre was a little weak as it felt like some kind of emo blend of rock but the more traditional rock songs sprinkles throughout the film were fairly solid. Unlike most horror titles I can at least say it had these things going for it. The film just can’t avoid the classic horror pitfalls at the same time. Even aside from the violence we also have the gross maggots scene. I think for some grossness can be interchanged with scariness which is why horror films tend to go for gross visuals as well but it doesn’t do the movie any favors.

As far as the final horror twist goes, I thought it was fairly effective. Horror films essentially have to have a twist ending. It’s the closest thing to a mandate that you will find in a movie. It may not have been enough to save the film but this one was at least trying. If it could just tone down the violence then the film would immediately be in a much better place.

Overall, Ghost Ship was not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination but it certainly took some better swings than most. The film at least had potential which is more than I can say for most. The characters were mostly smart throughout the movie and the soundtrack was good. I would still recommend watching something like Scooby Doo: Zombie Island over this one of course. In the end this is just a reminder on why you don’t want to sail into the middle of the ocean without telling anyone where you are going.

Overall 2/10

The Lodger Review

Posted on by
Reply


The Lodger is one of those films that tests each character’s ability to read the room. If there is a mass murderer on the loose and someone started acting really shady, would you be ready to make an accusation or keep waiting for more evidence? The way the film plays out, there is only one suspect throughout the movie so you have to decide if this guy is guilty or if it’s a massive red herring. There are a few ways it could play out even with how obvious it seems and in a way this helped the movie stay interesting.

The film starts off by explaining that there is a mysterious mass murderer on the loose. This guy has been exclusively targeting women in dark alleys when they are away from any other bystanders. Unfortunately the city has a lot of fog and nobody assumes that they will be the next victim so people keep going into dark alleys. The main character here is a lady named Kitty who has built a successful career for herself through dancing. One day her house gets a new tenant by the name of Slade. Slade is often going from house to house as his landowners tend to get tired of him for some reason.

The guy runs rather dangerous experiments all the time so actually I think we’ve stumbled on the reason for why he has to vacate so quickly. He is constantly starting fires and burning things. Slade also isn’t very sociable so it is easy for rumors to start about him. For example the mass murderer is said to have a small leather book and Slade has one too. Slade quickly burns it afterwards but that’s an odd coincidence. Then he shows up with blood stains one day but burns those too. Hmmmmm.

As the film goes on, Kitty believes that Slade may actually be the mass murderer but she goes back and forth on this a lot. For the most part you could say that she is hoping that Slade isn’t the culprit. She thinks he’s nice enough and is probably just an eccentric. The maid is the one who has to keep pointing out how many of these coincidences are adding up but is dismissed each time by Robert. Robert always has an answer for everything even if the answers don’t make a lot of sense.

Slade is set up to be the murderer with so many obvious moments that you have to wonder if this is all setting up a massive fakeout. Either way you’re rooting for the cop to figure it all out. John is doing his best to stay on the case and put an end to the murders but it’s definitely not easy. There are just so many places to hide in an area like this and the weather doesn’t help.

John was smart enough to not give away his theory in public though. I was glad that he dodged the question when the main characters were all quizzing him because that would have been a real bad idea. You don’t get to be a big shot detective if you’re known for spilling the beans on everything after all.

As for the main villain, well the film definitely shows him to be as petty as possible. He has a long speech basically trying to say that the women are asking for it and he’s one of those really lonely, jealous guys. The whole thing makes him look absolutely puny and of course that’s the point. He’s only brave enough to attack when it’s one on one in the cover at night and the detective notices that he only strikes from behind. He needs the element of surprise in addition to everything else. This is not the kind of villain where you will have any sympathy for him. You’re just rooting for him to be knocked out the whole time.

The writing is solid though and this makes for a good old school thriller. It’s one of those very basic thrillers like the Raven film that I recently reviewed. There aren’t a lot of twists and turns to be had here. The film isn’t trying to break any records or do anything crazy either. It’s just giving you a suspenseful adventure where you wait to see if the heroes will put the pieces together before dying to this guy. Usually the main heroine may make it but how high will the body count get in the meantime?

This film also has one of those very sudden endings that you tend to see from old films like this one. There isn’t much of an epilogue or any sequel bait for this one. This is a stand alone adventure with a classic beginning, middle, and ending. It works well enough but if I had any nitpicks, it would be that I’d have liked to see more of the police investigation. Lets see a bit more about what John is doing in the background. Maybe have him start to close in on the case before the very end with the footprints.

I’d also have someone challenge Robert a bit more since that guy is the whole reason why this case was so close. If someone had forced him to admit to the possibility of Slade being the killer, then that would have been a pretty decent subplot. At least it would give Robert more of a role in the film because as it stands he didn’t get to do much of anything. He mostly only existed to be a thorn in the side of the maid and to make Kitty second guess herself. None of them had much in the way of survival instincts but at least they had some kind of instincts. Robert had none of that.

Overall, The Lodger is an interesting film. If you were not big on letting a stranger stay at your place, watching a film like this certainly wouldn’t help you get over that fear. Personally I’ve never been big on having roommates in general. Even aside from the danger, I just like having everything set up my way with as much freedom as possible. Having someone else staying over will always change that dynamic. Of course these characters should have done something once there was smoke going through the house but they took a very cautious approach all the way.

Overall 7/10

The Raven (1935) Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for another film titled The Raven. This one isn’t actually based on the Poe story though and focuses more on a character who is a fan of it. It’s an interesting approach and the film ended up being pretty good so I guess this direction was a good idea. The characters tend to make a lot of dumb mistakes but the writing on the whole is still good so I didn’t really have any big issues with this one. It should keep you pretty engaged the whole time.

The movie starts with a lady named Jean being badly injured in an accident and all the best doctors in the world are unable to heal her. Their only chance is Dr. Richard who retired a long time ago. He is a bit eccentric and downright sinister but Jean must be healed and so Judge makes a strong appeal to him. He’s able to play on Richard’s big ego and so Richard agrees. He heals Jean with ease but in the process falls in love with her. Richard wants to steal her away from the fiancé, Jerry at any costs. So he grabs a convict named Edmond and intentionally messed up his face in a surgery. Now the guy will be forever indebted to Richard and will work as his personal executioner. Can Jerry find a way to stop this guy?

That said, Jerry is pretty oblivious the entire time. He has no idea what is going on and is one of those guys who is a little too confident. Jean tells Jerry that she believes Richard has fallen for her and Jerry just laughs it off. He feels like any reasonable guy should fall for her and he doesn’t feel threatened in the slightest. His confidence is so high that he even agrees to stay the night at Richard’s place along with Jean and Judge. He better hope that Richard isn’t a crazy antagonist.

It’s a very old school attitude, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t even mind Jerry’s overconfidence if he would at least take precautions. The #1 precaution in this situation is certainly going to be declining any invitations to the guy’s home. At the very least you should really be building some serious distance there instead of making this so easy for the villain. Jerry is also knocked out rather easily when it comes time to defend his girlfriend.

As for Jean, well I have to give her some blame here too. Her instincts aren’t completely dead as she recognizes Richard’s obsession with her but then maybe she should be putting some more distance? She is borderline flirting with him the entire time, letting him get really close without saying anything. He basically says that he gave Jerry a job in exchange for losing her and Jean barely reacts. She still wants him to come watch the play and everything. Just not a whole lot of smart decisions going on here at all.

The only one who knew the danger from the start was the Judge. He really tries to get Jean and Jerry to leave the mansion but they just don’t take him seriously. Also they are adults so it’s not like he can just force them to leave. That’s probably the worst part of this whole affair. Ultimately he is no match for Edmond and goes down quickly. Part of me likes to think that he should have just left on his own but that’s not the heroic thing to do here.

As for Richard, well I don’t usually enjoy villains who just have romance on the mind. Jean is his entire goal in this whole affair and that doesn’t make for a very compelling villain. Richard just needed to accept the fact that she was never going to pick him in the end. He most likely would have just ended up murdering her once this sunk in. The guy should have been content to know that he saved someone when the rest of the medical community could not and called it a day there. He would have been a reasonable character at that point.

Finally we have Edmond who is really not that smart. Well I’ve been saying that for quite a few characters but he might take the cake. The guy knows that Richard can’t be trusted which is why he had a gun but still trusts the guy to do an invasive facial surgery? There’s nothing Edmond can do when he’s unconscious and you probably shouldn’t trust someone with a knife unless you are completely sure of their character. The whole thing was just such a bad look for him and his character route goes in a very predictable manner. At least he did make Richard sweat it out when he thought about finishing the guy off on one of the torture machines.

Now you may be thinking that this weak character roster would destroy the film but they were dumb in a fun way. The writing is still very sophisticated throughout. The dialogue is crisp all the way and the pacing is good. This feels like a very fun atmospheric horror film that gets the tension just right. It’s a horror style that you don’t see quite as much nowadays and I definitely miss it. I could watch these old horror titles all the time. They’re just really charming all the way with everyone being a little over the top.

Overall, this film may not be all that scary when you watch it nowadays but you can still feel the intent all the way. There was a lot of care put into the film and I had fun with it. The story is fairly straightforward so it all comes down to the execution and I didn’t think that the film had any big missteps there. What you see is what you get in a lot of ways as there aren’t really any twists and turns in the film. It showed that the writer had a lot of confidence in the story and as a result this one beats the average horror title. I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

The Blob (1988) Review

Posted on by
Reply

This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time for a fairly iconic horror film. I think it’s reasonable to say that just about everyone has at least heard of the Blob even if they haven’t seen the film yet. I saw the original version a while back and it definitely clobbers this remake. The remake just doesn’t manage to match it in any individual area. It is having a little too much fun with the gruesome visual effects instead of letting the threat of the Blob speak for itself.

The movie starts with a meteor striking the planet. An old man finds a slime within it and is quickly taken over. Paul and his girlfriend Meg find the old guy and take him to a hospital but it’s too late. The blob melts straight through him and rapidly begins to expand. Meg goes to the local delinquent Brian for help. Brian doesn’t want anything to do with this. All his life he has been an outcast in the system and strikes back at everyone. Perhaps now he can finally do something heroic with his life though. He thinks long and hard about this before deciding to help out, but what can he do?

What makes the Blob dangerous is how it seems to absorb whatever you throw at it. It just keeps on growing and can also make some really fast movements in an instant. One second you think that you are safe and the next you are trapped within the cocoon. The Blob relies purely on instinct so while it is not a strategic mastermind, it’s still difficult to escape it. It makes for a fun villain even if it won’t stand out as much as other horror characters.

Like I said at the start though, the film spends too much time showing the slow melting effects of everyone who gets in its way. I would have preferred a much more delicate touch there. Just being absorbed is already scary enough so you don’t need to see the skin melting off or anything like that. This film isn’t generally a super violent one but those blob scenes can really hit you hard.

The humans aren’t super likable here but I suppose they could be worse. Paul seemed like a nice guy and unfortunately he just didn’t know enough about the Blob to last longer. Likewise Meg is also doing her best to do the right thing and try to spread the word about the creature. Brian has a rough start but ultimately does his best to help the town when it counts. It’s a good message about how everyone will unite to fight a common threat. He certainly helps more than the rest of the town who are mainly panicking.

As soon as the threat was over then you had people quickly taking charge again and talking confidently when they had been hiding just a minute ago. Sounds about right if you ask me. The biggest threat here in some respects were the government agents who show up. They are really just here to consider how the Blob could be used as a weapon and in a way it’s almost funny how nonchalant they are about this. They are quick to betray their own and escalate the situation.

I always appreciate having a third faction so I was glad to have them here. Honestly it’s not like I was fully expecting them to be helping out or anything like that. They were shady from the start and the local cop gets some props for being quick on the uptake about fighting them.

In general the characters were all pretty proactive. The sheriff did his best to try and find out what was happening and Brian using the cannon against the agents was another good move. If I have any nitpicks here, it’s that the government was a little too unprepared against the Blob. I know that he’s an anomaly that is fairly unknown to everyone but maybe don’t stand super close to it? As a trained agent I’d expect each member to be keeping a safe distance at all times.

The film actually has a big of a cliffhanger ending which was nice to see. It may not be the most explosive one out there but I thought it was interesting. In theory it’s not too scary at this point since the characters know how to fight the Blob but there is still a lot of potential there. With the right mutation, the Blob could be really scary once more.

In a way I guess a weakness to the film would be that it focused a bit too much on Meg and Brian. I’d have liked to see a bit more of the town’s struggle against the Blob. Due to the way the story turned out there wouldn’t have been too many opportunities for this but even just a few would go a long way. In the sewers there just weren’t as many opportunities to present this as more of an invasion film.

Also the scenario was a bit too tough on Meg so some plot armor had to show up. At one point she jumps in the water to try and save the kid but it was too late so she has to just swim away. It doesn’t make sense that the Blob wouldn’t have absorbed her there. Before now he was shown to absorb people in an instant with tremendous speed but somehow lost sight of her in the water. In a thriller there will always be some scenes to nitpick but this was a fairly big one since it was a very plot important scene. They could have made the Blob weak to water or something but the film established the opposite.

Overall, This isn’t exactly a film that I would watch for a second time but it wasn’t as bad as you would expect a horror remake to be. It did succeed in being a fairly intense film and one that can really be called scary. I’d have liked them to have dialed back the gruesome visuals to an extent though. There are so many ways to have characters being absorbed without being very violent about it. The characters weren’t so bad outside of oneshot characters and the movie avoided landing in any of the really big traps. It beats the average horror film which is a small consolation prize at the very least. If they ever make another Blob film, I’d like them to focus more on the town’s response as opposed to just a few characters. Maybe even have it from the government’s point of view because the secret task force that showed up was really interesting. They could have used more screentime.

Overall 4/10

Cujo Review

Posted on by
Reply

This review is of the TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time for a very infamous horror film. Cujo is one of those movies that just about everyone has heard of, but does anyone really like it? The film’s general premise was enough for me to know that this would be a stinker but it was still time to finally check it out. Unfortunately the film is not able to surpass its limits and ends up being exactly what you would have expected out of it. Unlikable characters, excessive violence, and a generally cold atmosphere? Yeah this is a Stephen King adaption all the way.

The movie starts by introducing us to the characters. Vic and Donna lead a fairly quiet life with their young son Tad. Unfortunately Donna has grown bored over the years and has been cheating on her husband with the local bum. Then the local mechanic is an abusive guy named Joe who makes his wife’s life as unbearable as possible. He owns a dog named Cujo who is bitten by a bat with rabies. Now Cujo is morphing into a monster who wants to murder everyone. Unfortunately Donna and her son are stuck in a car with nowhere to go, so surviving this won’t be easy.

Lets get the obvious issues out of the way first. That would start with the animal violence Cujo gets bit early on and as the film goes on he is covered in more and more blood and other special effects. The film is trying to make him look as gruesome as possible so that you try to avoid eye contact. He is also mauling people to death so you can throw in a lot more violence there as well. The humans inevitably have to fight Cujo so he takes on more injuries that way as well. There’s no real saving that kind of violence and so this was already a doomed feature.

Then you have the whole cheating plot which doesn’t add anything to the film. I guess the intent might to be to try and make Donna less sympathetic so that you can root for the dog but that’s a real mixed message if I’ve ever seen one. Another theory might just be to show the jaded approach that everyone has some kind of darkness within them but that’s high school level edginess. Either way it’s a terrible plot and makes Donna look terrible. There’s just no way to be ready to forgive her so easily no matter how much crying goes on after that. She threw away the whole family for a few minutes of fun.

There’s nothing really wrong with the kid. Tad is too young to understand anything that’s going on and mainly just gets in the way during the climax. There’s nothing he could have done to contribute though so I’m generally giving him a pass here. At least he wasn’t going out of his way to be annoying. As for Vic, well he’s having a rather terrible time all around. The only thing left to him is his job and things aren’t going well there either.

Ultimately Vic decides to try and make things work and that’s a bit hard to swallow but I suppose it’s his decision in the end. He’s easily the most sympathetic character here. Then you have Joe who is really just here as another example of an absolute waste of space. There are way too many terrible characters in this film. More victims for Cujo I suppose but it does make all of the human scenes pretty unbearable. The writing is obnoxious throughout and even for a slasher you want to have some likable characters at the ready. It takes a while for Cujo to start on the rampage after all so you’re stuck with these guys in the meantime. It’s not like the massacre helps the film by any means but it shows that you are stuck between two really rough sides of the movie as a viewer. On one hand you have the terrible human stuff and then you have the over the top violence with Cujo. Game over either way.

It is an interesting premise to have the characters stuck in a car with no motor with Cujo right outside. It’s definitely a scary situation with no easy way out. I do think your best bet is to make a run for it while Cujo is distracted by the phone but Tad is a liability there as well. He can’t run very fast and is also suffering from heatstroke. So Donna would have to carry him while running fast enough to then lock the door.

It’s also probably tempting to wait in the car and hope that someone will arrive in time. So that’s the one thing I’ll give the film some slight credit for. It still loses most of that credit by not having a second adult in the car so the two could plan things out. Since Tad isn’t ready to talk about this, it means we have a lot of quiet scenes rather than cool planning sessions.

As for the execution, there’s definitely some plot armor here. I don’t see Donna being able to fight the dog off once he had the upper hand. Would have made more sense if she landed the first shot but once a dog is already biting you, I feel like the odds of victory are incredibly slim. Especially since Cujo was amped up with the virus.

Overall, This is the kind of film that only has a chance if you don’t mind the animal violence. It’s automatically knocked out otherwise and that’s before going into the human characters. The ultimate objective of a film is to be entertaining after all and this one was not able to pull that off. If you really want to watch a film starring a dog, then I’d say to check out Air Bud instead. That one’s a solid feel good film all the way after all. Maybe the Cujo remake will beat this one but honestly I don’t see it faring much better unless it takes significant liberties from the book.

Overall 0/10