Runtime: 99 minutes
Release Date: March 1, 2013
Rating: R
Director: Chan-wook Park
India is a quiet and somewhat
creepy young woman. After the death of her father, she meets his
brother Charlie. Though her mother, Evelyn, is excited when he
announces that he'll stick around and help them out for a bit, India
can't help feeling that something is wrong. India feels slightly
better when her great aunt Gwendolyn arrives in town, but that
doesn't last very long.
After India notices Charlie acting
weird, she wonders what he's hiding. We learn what he's hiding when
he follows Gwendolyn away from the house and strangles her in a phone
booth. India later discovers another body in the freezer in their
basement, and while most of us would run for our lives, she seems
almost intrigued by her uncle's actions. The more time she spends
around her uncle, the more she realizes that he isn't normal and that
she might not be normal either.
My regular job is as a freelance
writer, and I had a client ask me to write about the best unproduced
scripts a few years ago, which led to me hearing about this film.
Thinking that it sounded interesting, I kept checking back for more
information, and I was pretty excited when I heard it finally became
a film, and a film starring Nicole Kidman no less! She's been one of
my favorite actresses for years, and I thought that if anyone could
pull off the role of a slightly crazy mother like Evelyn, it was her.
Unfortunately, I didn't like
Stoker. It's not a bad film by any accounts, but it wasn't anything
at all like I anticipated. I knew it would tread more towards the
drama side and less towards the horror, but it still wasn't what I
expected. The best word that I can think of is plodding. The film
just felt like it went on forever. I kept reaching for the remote
just to see how much time was left and wondering if it would ever
end.
There was something about the
script that just left me feeling cold and not in a good way. Though I
made it to the end of Stoker, I can't imagine that I'll ever want to
sit down and watch it again.
Runtime: 94 minutes
Release Date: March 15, 2013
Rating: R
Director: Brad Anderson
Jordan Turner (Halle Berry,
Gothika) is working as a 911 operator when she receives a call from a
young girl. Fearing that someone is in the house, Jordan tells her
how to hide and wait for police to arrive. When the call disconnects,
Jordan calls back. The ringing phone alerts the killer, who grabs her
and drags her out of the house. When Jordan later hears that they
found the girl's body, she decides to stop working as an operator.
Several months later, Jordan now
works as a trainer to help new workers handle calls. Though she has
no plans to step back onto the phone lines, that all changes when a
new call comes into the office. Casey is a teenage girl who was
kidnapped by the same man who killed the previous girl. The man
grabbed her out of a parking lot and tossed her in his trunk. It's up
to Jordan to help Casey survive and bring justice for the man's other
victims.
The Call is another of those films
that I had high hopes for. I've read and heard stories from people
working as 911 operators, and I don't think I could ever handle
working that job. When I saw the trailer and realized that it was a
horror-like film about someone who works in a 911 call center, I
thought it would be interesting. While it did have some good moments,
it wasn't nearly as good as I hoped.
The first half of the film is
great. Jordan comes back to work but she makes it clear that she
can't handle her old job. She can train other people and even briefly
talk about her experiences, but the idea of sitting down and taking a
call fills her with dread. Of course, that all changes when the new
call comes into an operator. It seems pretty unrealistic that she
would jump up and take back the job after constantly bringing up that
she can't handle it.
Then we have to deal with her
actually walking away from the job. I'm sure these people go to great
lengths every day, but how many of those people do you think would
literally get up and go on a frenzied mention to find someone. No one
in the movie ever mentions that Jordan would pretty much come back to
find her boyfriend/supervisor hating her and her without a job. And
let's not get started on the ending. It's so incredibly unrealistic
that I haven't heard a single person say that they liked it. I liked
The Call when I initially saw it (or at least thought it was an okay
film), but after thinking about it, I don't think I'll ever see it
again.
Runtime: 100 minutes
Release Date: October 18, 2013
Rating: R
Director: Kimberly Peirce
Margaret is one hot mess,
especially when she finds herself giving birth at home. Grabbing a
pair of scissors, she starts to kill her new baby before changing her
mind. Years later, Carrie is a grown woman who most guys would find
hot, but since this is a Hollywood film, everyone finds her weird.
After starting her period after gym class, she thinks that she's
dying because her mother never took the time to tell her about
puberty. The other girls laugh and taunt her, throwing tampons and
pads at her and chanting at her to "plug it up."
Ms. Desjardin, her gym teacher,
stops the girls, but not before one, Chris, films it with her cell
phone camera. During a meeting at the principal's office, we learn
that Margaret home-schooled Carrie for several years before the
district forced her to send her daughter to school. The principal
eventually suspends Chris and another girl Sue, which means that
they'll miss the high school prom. Though Sue is okay with missing
prom because she realizes that it was wrong for them to tease Carrie,
Chris vows revenge. She gets Billy and a few of her other classmates
to help her get back at her in the middle of prom.
Sue feels so bad that she convinces
her boyfriend Tommy to take Carrie to the prom. Though Carrie
initially turns him down, she later changes her mind and even goes
against her mother's wishes to sew her own prom dress. Once prom
night arrives, Chris arranges for her and Tommy to win prom king and
queen. As they stand on stage, she and Billy dump a bucket of pig's
blood on the girl. Carrie snaps and all hell breaks loose.
I could probably write an entire
blog post about the things I didn't like about the Carrie remake, but
let's start with the casting of Chloe Grace Moretz. By the time Kick
Ass 2 came around, she had already lost that gangly awkward teenage
girl look that she had. Even though she's still a teenager, she looks
like the type of girl every guy in her high school would want to ask
to prom. Watching her trying to be awkward and unlikeable in this
film just felt...awkward.
It doesn't help that the movie felt
like it skipped over much of the teasing and taunting that Carrie
went through. The original "plug it up" scene upset one of
my friends in junior high so bad that she got up, left the room, and
refused to watch the rest of the movie. With Chris standing in the
background and waving her cell phone around in the air, the scene
ended up feeling forced and unrealistic. It didn't seem like they
disliked her as much as they did in the original or that she went
through as much. It was more like two scenes of ridicule and then,
boom, it's prom night.
As much as I love Julianne Moore in
pretty much everything she does, she almost felt like an afterthought
in this movie. I had high hopes for her, which increased after seeing
the opening scene. By the time the credits rolled, it felt like she
could have been just about anyone. Piper Laurie was so dark and
twisted in the original film that it's hard to imagine anyone else in
the role. Hell, Patricia Clarkson managed to nail the role in the
2002 remake. In this version, it almost seems like Margaret didn't
need to be there. Had they left the role out completely, I'm not sure
I would have even noticed.
So, was there anything I did like
about the movie? Yes, and that one good thing is Judy Greer. Greer,
who I always think about as Kitty from Arrested Development, can
handle comic roles effortlessly, but it was nice to see her in
something a little more dramatic. That didn't stop me from wishing
she would crack a joke or add some comedic relief, but I still liked
her as the gym teacher and one of the only few people who truly cared
about Carrie.
After watching the Carrie remake
with a friend, we both turned to each other and shrugged. The movie
wasn't horrible, but it doesn't hold a candle to the original. It's
sad that some younger people will probably see this one and never
even bother with the original.
Runtime: 103 minutes
Release Date: April 1, 2011
Rating: PG 13
Director: James Wan
Renai (Rose Byrne, Devil) and her
husband Josh (Patrick Wilson, The Conjuring) move into a new house
with their children. Their son Dalton points out that they don't have
any pictures of his dad when he was a kid, which Renai thinks isn't
odd. It doesn't take long before strange things begin happening in
the house. Renai sees dark shadowy figures, hears odd noises, and
eventually gets attacked by one of those ghosts. She convinces Josh
that they need to move immediately, but the ghosts of the old house
follow them.
After talking to Josh's mom
Lorraine, Renai learns that she went through something similar when
Josh was a child. Dalton slips into a coma that no one can explain,
and Lorraine convinces her that it must be something supernatural and
suggests that her friend can help. Elise comes for one visit and
instantly realizes that something is wrong. She reveals that Josh
once had the ability to astral project himself and that Dalton can
likely do the same thing.
Elise also explains what happened
to Josh all those years ago. Lorraine began seeing the ghost of an
old woman in every photo taken of him. The woman's hand kept getting
closer and closer to him, and Elise basically hypnotized him to make
him forget. She believed that the woman wanted to possess him, and
when he couldn't use his special skills any more, the woman
disappeared. Though Josh never remembered his abilities, he never
liked having his picture taken after that. With Elise's help, Josh
agrees to go into the spirit world and bring back his son.
I don't know if I ever mentioned
this before, but I really didn't like Insidious the first time I saw
it. There were so many good reviews floating around at the time that
I assumed it had to be really great. I sat down to watch it with my
roommate, and we both looked confused when it ended. Neither of us
thought it was very good, and we both wondered why it got such great
reviews. After hearing people talking about it more than two years
later, I decided that I had to have missed something. When I rented
it, he gave me that look, but after we watched, we both had to admit
that it was pretty good.
Confession time: I actually watched
this twice in the last few
weeks. Once when we rented it that night and once again before I sat
down to watch the second film. A review for that one will be up
shortly.
There
is something that is just generally unsettling about the movie. When
Renai walks outside and hears the music playing before seeing the
figure in her home, I almost jumped out of my seat. It doesn't help
that Tiptoe Through the Tulips is one of the creepiest songs ever
recorded. Insidious just has this really dark mood that leaves you
wondering what will happen and realizing that anything can happen at
any time.
So
many modern horror movies try to force scares, which leaves me angry
and annoyed. Paranormal Activity, with its clear lack of anything
happening until the last few minutes, is a good example of this.
Insidious is the type of film that lets you know that a scare can pop
up at any moment. You find yourself sitting on the edge of your seat
and just waiting for the next moment that will make you jump.
Insidious
is a good example of a film that you should watch after the hype dies
down. There are some films that reviews pump up so much that they
can't be nearly as good as you expect. Once I sat down and watched
this without the reviews in my mind, I found it much more enjoyable.
I doubt I will ever say that about The Conjuring though...
Runtime: 95 minutes
Release Date: August 23, 2012
(U.S.)
Rating: R
Director: Adam Wingard
You're Next opens with a grungy guy
and a woman, who is way out of his league, having sex in his home.
When he comes back from taking a shower, he finds her dead and a note
that warns him that he's next. A masked killed steps out from the
shadow and dispatches him.
The film then jumps to the Davison
family. Aubrey (Barbara Crampton, Re-Animator) and Paul eagerly await
the arrival of their children. Crispian and his girlfriend Erin are
the first to arrive, and when Erin offers Aubrey some help, she sends
her next door to get something. We then learn that the house in the
beginning is the same house next door. Though Erin knocks and hears
loud music playing, no one answers the door.
The rest of the family slowly
arrives, including sons Drake with his wife and Felix with his
girlfriend, as well as their daughter Aimee and her boyfriend (played
by horror director Ti West). As they sit down to dinner, Tariqu,
Aimee's boyfriend, stands up to look out the window, and an arrow
comes flying through the window, killing him in seconds. In the
ensuing free for all, Drake receives an arrow to the back. Upon
finding that their cell phones don't work, they decide to send Aimee
for help. As the night goes on, Erin steps up to the plate to show
her strength, while the killers roam freely through the house.
You're Next is one of those movies
that I wanted to see from the moment I saw the trailer. Though it
received a number of bad reviews, I really liked it. One of the
reviews I read was from a horror fan who claimed it made him ashamed
of other horror fans after seeing their reviews. Really dude? I
managed to make it through The Conjuring, which I thought was a
flaming pile of dog pooh, so this was like a vacation for me.
One of the main complaints about
You're Next was that the characters didn't act in realistic ways.
Seriously? Who can really guess what would go through your mind if
you just found out that a group of masked killers wants you and your
family dead? I actually thought most of their reactions were right on
the nose. After learning that his wife was dead, one character in
particularly fights with a few others in the hopes of seeing her,
while they smartly keep him away from the body. When we learn that
another character had a role in the murders, he clearly doesn't know
what to do and goes to great lengths to lie about his role.
The thing I liked about this film
is that it gave us some new deaths. Did I expect to see someone have
his head shoved into a blender and the blender turned on when I sat
down to watch this? Absolutely not. Did I think that someone would be
decapitated after running straight through a well hung wire? A
similar trick worked in Ghost Ship, and it worked here too.
I also really enjoyed the character
of Erin. It took me some time to figure out why I knew the actress
before remembering that she had a leading role in Bait, another
horror film that I liked, though it was fairly cheesy. Erin is
definitely the type of horror movie character that we need to see
more of in the future. While strong women popped up in roles a few
years ago, they seemed to die off recently, so it was nice to see
someone kicking butt and not laying down to whine or cry about how
life is so unfair.
You're Next was a fairly pleasing
horror movie. It had some disturbing scenes, a strong female lead,
and it kept me entertained from start to finish.
