The Den: Unfriended Before Unfriended

Runtime: 81 minutes

Release Date: March 14, 2014

Rating: R

Director: Zachary Donahue

Elizabeth is a young woman in college or graduate school, we never learn which, who uses the social networking site The Den to meet people. She presents an idea to a group of people and learns that she received a grant that will let her study the habits of people using the site. Though she does spend a lot of time on The Den, she also makes time to talk with her boyfriend, her sister, and some other people online too.

While celebrating with her best friend, they hop online and use like the site. Like Chatroulette (which I'm sure I spelled wrong), you use your webcam to talk to people and can skip those you don't like. Her friend comes across a woman using the chat feature with a photo of herself, thinks the girl is boring, and skips her. Elizabeth later comes across the woman on her own and has a short conversation with her that ends with the woman asking if they can be friends.

After going to sleep one night, she wakes to find her webcam on and her logged into the site, which she thinks is odd. When her boyfriend comes over to spend the night before heading off on a work trip, her camera records him going down on her and sends it out to everyone on her email list, which leads to her losing her grant. While in the middle of a chat with her boyfriend on his trip, the camera goes fuzzy and he disappears, though we can see that someone actually grabbed him from behind.

Elizabeth comes across the same woman as before, but this time, the woman's webcam comes on. It shows her tied to a chair with duct tape on her mouth. As she watches, a man grabs the woman, pushes her down onto a table, and slits her neck. Elizabeth immediately calls the police, who believe it looks real but are helpless to do anything. As someone keeps cyber stalking her and attacking her friends, Elizabeth must attempt to figure out who is behind everything.

When I wrote a review of Unfriended, I think I said something along the lines of how surprised I was that no one did that before. Guess I was wrong because it seems like The Den came out first. The Den takes place entirely online and only lets us see what happens on computer screens. It's actually pretty interesting to see her talk with someone riding his bike around NYC and making friends with people just hanging out, like you would in real life.

As I watched the film though, I kept thinking that it had to be a prank. As in, Elizabeth would get through everything and find out that her guy friend or her boyfriend did it all to poke fun at the fact that she spent all her time online. Needless to say, that did not happen. The ending of The Den is far from the happy ending that you might want to expect, especially after getting to know Elizabeth so well.

I actually enjoyed The Den quite a bit and found that it was more interesting and entertaining than Unfriended and did a better job of telling a story through computer cameras.

JeruZalem Movie Review – Better Than You Might Think

Runtime: 94 minutes

Release Date: July 7, 2016

Rating: R

Director: The PAZ Brothers

Who doesn't love a good apocalypse flick? If you always wanted to see how the world ends through found footage shot with a pair of glasses, now is your chance.

JeruZalem started out with a few scenes that made me wonder if I was actually watching the movie I thought I put on. We see footage shot in the early 1970s by three priests from different denominations called in to exorcise a woman. Her son claims that she died several days ago and went from being calm and sweet to crazed and psycho. Before they can do much, she shrieks at the camera as wings sprout from her back before flying off.

We then meet Rachel and Sarah. Srah lost her brother about a year ago, and Rachel convinced her that they should take a trip to Tel Aviv to have some fun together. Sarah's dad gives her a pair of glasses that function like a tablet/computer. She can remain in contact with him, get directions, take photos or videos, and even post on Facebook with her glasses. On the trip over, they meet a student named Kevin who convinces them that they should go to Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv. Though she thinks he's hot, it takes Rachel some work to convince her to change their plans.

Things go okay at first. Rachel hooks up with a local named Omar who shows them a side of the city they never expected to see. Sarah attempts to hook up with Kevin, but it ends when he puts on her glasses and sees her posts with her brother. Thinking it was an ex, he makes fun of the guy, which leads her to ditching him pre-blow job. No worries though, they later hook up after he apologizes.

Sarah and Rachel head off alone to the Western Wall and make their own wishes. Sarah naturally wishes that her brother would come back. After seeing a swarm of bugs and some other strange things, Kevin tries to convince them to leave town. It turns out that he's a student of the apocalypse and obsessed with all things creepy. He basically sees the signs before anyone else. By the time they realize the apocalypse really is upon them, it's too late. They need to find a way out of Jerusalem or die there.

JeruZalem is a really fantastic little flick. The directors actually add in a scene of a kid stealing Sarah's bag with her only other set of glasses in it to explain why she keeps wearing the pair she shoots with. They also added in scenes of the glasses not working because of no internet signal or because she falls down and damages the glasses. A lot of flicks would have us just believing that the glasses worked perfectly the whole time. There are even a few heartbreaking scenes of her dad trying to contact her to make sure she's okay after seeing the footage on television.

It's hard to explain what I liked about this film, but I think it's because most of the apocalypse flicks out there are so bad. We either get way over budgeted films like 2012 or incredibly cheap flicks from The Asylum. JeruZalem shows that you can make a great apocalypse flick on a limited budget that is still entertaining and just plain interesting.

Movie Review: Invoked

Runtime: 85 minutes

Release Date: September 5, 2016

Rating: NR?

Director: Humberto Rosa and Thairon Mendes

I'll be upfront about my review on this one. I don't know how much I can write because it didn't hold my attention and I wound up playing a game on my phone for most of it.

Invoked opens with a series of title cards to tell us that everything we see actually happened. A group of young people visiting an island in Ireland mysteriously went missing, but they just so happened to have cameras with them to capture everything that happened. It's up to us to decide the fate of the group and to determine what actually happened to them.

If you're looking for more of a synopsis, you need to look elsewhere. That it almost the only thing I know about the movie because it didn't take long after those title cards to lose my interest. We meet a bunch of characters who are the stereotypical people you see in horror movies like the couple who just love each other so much, the prankster who loves playing jokes, and the guy who comes across as a total douche canoe. They go to the island, start playing games with each other, and weird stuff starts happening.

Unfortunately, it takes way, way, way too much time to get going. I felt like I spent more time listening to the characters bicker and argue or talk about random shit before anything happened. I tried really hard to pay attention, but it felt like there was nothing to pay attention too. When I watch a horror movie, I expect the horror to start early on. This one left me wondering if it was a horror movie or a movie about some friends on vacation.

One of the other reviews I read said that the action didn't start until 45 minutes in, which seems about right. That means that over half of the movie has nothing to do with moving the story forward. We get scenes of the characters on a boat, in a vehicle, them talking about what they'll do on the trip, them reminiscing about stuff that happened in the past, and of course, them having sex. Nothing says horrifying like two young people having the sex!

It doesn't help that this is the type of found footage movie I dislike. I understand that there is a big difference between found footage films that look realistic and those that look too slick. Hell, I've called out films for looking too produced, but this one is possibly a little too realistic. The scenes are so dark and so gritty that it looks like they shot on cameras from the 1980s. Even my cell phone camera could shoot brighter footage than this film has. That makes it hard to see what's happening, especially when characters start screaming and running away, which makes the film even darker and more jumpy.

Though I have a fondness for bad horror films and a special place in my heart for low budget flicks, Invoked wasn't my cup of tea. If you make a horror movie with a run time of 90 minutes or less, you shouldn't spend half of the movie or longer just getting to the horror elements!

Creep Movie Review – Reddit Tricked Me Again

Runtime: 77 minutes

Release Date: June 23, 2015

Rating: R

Director: Patrick Brice

In this found footage flick, we meet Aaron, a camera operator heading to the mountains for a short term job. He accepted a job on Craiglist from a man named Josef. When he arrives at the man's house though, he finds it empty and deserted. Just as he gets ready to leave, Josef pops up and apologizes for being late. He explains that he hired Aaron to help him make a video for his unborn child.

Citing the extremely good by under appreciated flick My Life with Nicole Kidman and Michael Keaton, he says that his wife is pregnant but that he recently learned he's dying of cancer and wants to make a film for his child. He makes Aaron film him taking a bath with his “child” before suggesting they go for a walk in the woods. When Aaron finds a wolf mask in the closet, Josef just laughs it off as something that belonged to his dad.

As they spend more time together though, it becomes clear that there is something wrong with Josef. He tells him a story about catching his wife watching bestiality porn and then basically raping her while wearing the wolf mask, lies about a diner he takes him to, and can't seem to keep his stories straight. After convincing Aaron to stay for a drink, Josef hides his keys and things get even darker.

There have been at least three threads on Reddit over the last few weeks that had someone recommend Creep because the movie was so dark and twisted. Honestly though? I've seen movies that were a lot more dark and twisted. Mark Duplass does a pretty good job of coming across as a creep, but the first half of the film leaves you wondering if he's really a bad guy or if Aaron just sees too much into things. So the guy wants to mimic bathing his son or he wants footage of him playing in the woods or he wants to take his new friend to his favorite diner? It honestly seems like Aaron doesn't want to be there and is willing to look too hard for an excuse to leave.

Honestly, the whole section of the film that takes place in the cabin, which is a good portion of the movie, is pretty slow and sometimes boring. It isn't until Aaron goes home that the movie finally gets going. That's when he starts getting packages from Josef. While some of the videos and stuff he sends are really creepy, others actually seem apology gifts.

I think that casting Mark Duplass was a great idea. After seeing him in so many funny movies and on so many comedy shows, it was a nice change of pace to see him playing a character who might be a serial killer but might just be any random guy you might pass on the street. His casting though just might make you think twice about those slightly weird people you see every day.

While Reddit users seem to love Creep, I wasn't a big fan.

The Veil – A Fictionalized and Disturbing Cult Tale

Length: 93 minutes

Release Date: January 19, 2016

Rating: R

Director: Phil Joanou

Heaven's Veil was a religious cult along the lines of the People's Temple. Their leader – Jim Jacobs – convinced them all to kill themselves because the end of the world was coming. The only survivor was a young girl named Sarah. Maggie and her brother Christian are the children of the FBI agent who investigated the event and they have evidence that was never made public. They convince Sarah to go back to the cult grounds to film a documentary about what really happened there.

Things go about as well as you might expect. Sarah is so overwhelmed with being back there that she passes out a few times, which is odd since she keeps saying that she doesn't have any real memories. They camp outside in tents, but on the first night, one of the crew members goes missing. They later find a tape made by a former member of the cult where she mentions Sarah and talks about how she has no control over herself. Turns out the woman is actually Sarah's mother and that she was the only member never found, though they do eventually find her body.

After wandering around and investigating the property, they find a hidden room and a series of tapes Jim made. Sarah has some memories of the room though she can't recall exactly what they did there. The tapes show Jim talking about how he uncovered the secret to everlasting life. He claimed to find a drug that would make the spirit leave the body and then return, which he demonstrated on tape. As more unusual things happen, the group wonders if the property is haunted or if, perhaps, there is more to the story than they ever expected.

You can't talk about The Veil without singling out Lily Rabe. Best know now for her performances on American Horror Story, she does an excellent job of playing Sarah. You never know quite what's going on in her mind, whether she remembers everything that happened there, or if she really is just a confused woman with a horrible tragedy.

As great at Rabe was in the movie, I think Thomas Jane did an even better job. Jim Jones was so charismatic that watching footage today makes you get why so many people agreed to follow him. It's like someone gave Jane a script and told him to play Jones even more over the top. He does such a great job of channeling that man that it took me 30 minutes to realize it was him. He's done a lot of bad movies lately, but he's really at his best here. Some might say that he is too over the top, but I think he did a great job.

The ending of The Veil was a little cheesy, but given the rest of the movie, I think it worked. Looking back on it now, I'm not sure there was a better way to end it. While it isn't the strongest horror movie out there, it just might make you wonder what else Jim Jones had up his sleeve...

The Veil is currently streaming on Netflix.

Area 51 – Aliens and Found Footage, All in One Package!

Runtime: 91 minutes

Release Date: May 15, 2015

Rating: R

Director: Oren Peli

Given that I grew up near and still live close to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, one of the bases at the center of the alien stories in America, I have a fascination with all things extraterrestrial. It only took one watching of the Area 51 trailer to know that I had to add it to my watch list.

As Area 51 is a found footage style movie, it picks up with someone interviewing a group of people regarding the disappearances of three people. Reid, Darren, and Ben were three best friends who always spent a lot of time together before they up and disappeared. Those interviewed mention that something happened in the recent past that made Reid begin acting weird.

The film then jumps to the three friends on their way to a party. After having some fun, Reid loses consciousness and disappears. They later find him standing in the middle of the road. Though he says he's fine, he can't remember what happened to him and really doesn't seem fine. Reid then becomes obsessed with the idea of extraterrestrial life and that there are aliens out there.

He eventually reveals that he believes aliens abducted him that night and that there are others who experienced similar things. Reid convinces his friends that they should go to the base and investigate things for themselves. They first meet up with a friend he met online. Jelena tells them that her dad once worked there and was fired for being too curious, but her father gave her all his secret files and just enough information that they think they can break into the base. Once they finally make it to Area 51, it becomes clear why the military and government moved the base underground.

Did you guess by my synopsis that this was an action packed movie with lots of aliens? You would guess wrong. While there are some strange things that happen and some aliens, it takes a long time to really get going. I understand the importance of setting up the backstory and explaining what happened to Reid, but it really did feel like half the movie or more was just backstory with nothing really happening. Even after they got to Nevada, it was more exposition. They had to meet Jelena, find someone who worked at the base, gather up everything they needed, check out the base, come back to the base, and so on.

The trailer for Area 51 made it seem like it was a movie about people breaking into the base and finding proof of alien beings. While that eventually happened, it took a long time to get there. More of the movie dealt with why Reid started acting weird and what they needed to do to get in the base. I would have preferred if the film started with them actually in the base and flashed back to all the other stuff later on. By the time Area 51 finally hit me with the scenes from the trailer, I had pretty much given up on it already.

Evidence Movie Review – Never Trust Hot Girls

Runtime: 94 minutes

Release Date: July 19, 2013

Rating: NR?

Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi

Detective Reese (Stephen Moyer, True Blood) and Detective Burquez (Radha Mitchell, Silent Hill) are two detectives tasked with going over the brutal footage left behind after a murderous slaying in New Mexico. Through video footage we meet Rachel, an aspiring filmmaker who can't seem to put down her camera long enough to see what's happening in front of her. She films her best friend Leann as Leann's boyfriend proposing to her and as she turns him down.

Later footage reveals that while Tyler was heartbroken at her rejection, he reluctantly agreed to go with the two girls to Las Vegas on a trip they planned beforehand. They make friends with the others on the bus, including a teenage runaway, a stripper (excuse me, dancer), and a woman who seems way too worried about the bag she brought with her.

The driver takes them off the main roads and onto dirt roads, claiming that it's the way he always goes. After driving over something left in the road, the bus flips over and crashes. Everyone manages to escape relatively unharmed and finds their way back to a seemingly abandoned little town they passed earlier. As the sun sets, the group finds themselves stalked and killed by a menacing figure with a blow torch, leaving the two detectives to discover exactly what happened that night.

My main problem with found footage movies is that the found footage element gets to be too much at times. That it why I'm glad the director set this movie up the way he did. It jumps back and forth between the detectives in the present day with the footage filmed by the people on the bus. I thought it might be a little jarring, but it actually plays well.

I've always had a fear of drowning, but after watching this movie, I turned to my roommate and told him that I had a new worst way to die. There is a scene where the figure in the mask with the blow torch attacks a woman and literally cuts her arm off with the torch before setting her on fire. The way he kind of just stands back and watches her burn for a few second before walking away was actually chilling.

It seems like a lot of movies have to showcase stereotypes, but Evidence did a smart job of not falling back too much on those stereotypes. We naturally have the slightly dorky teenager who somehow knows magic tricks and the guy pining over the girl he loves, but the movie jumps between the characters enough that no one person takes center stage and no one stereotype takes over the movie.

While the scenes set in the abandoned town were pretty intense, the same can't be said of the scenes set in the present day. There are literally scenes where Moyer will say one line to Mitchell, she'll nod her head, and then they both go back to watching the footage they have. It felt like too much exposition or as if the director wasn't sure we would pick up on something that happened, so he had to take that moment to let us in on what they found. Thanks, but I watched that scene and I get it.

Other than that, I'd recommend Evidence. It's currently playing on Netflix.

Now on Netflix: The Sacrament Movie Review

Runtime: 99 minutes
Release Date: May 1, 2014
Rating: R
Director: Ti West


I am probably one of Netflix's favorite customer types because I never run out of things to watch. My queue (I refuse to call it my list) currently has 496 titles in it, and every time I dip below 490, I wind up adding another 5-7 titles. Since my queue has a number of horror movies in it, I thought I would do a new feature where I try to review a horror movie now available on Netflix every few weeks or so. First up? The Sacrament.


Patrick is your average normal guy who just so happens to have a recovering addict for a sister. When Caroline invites him to come visit her in the middle of nowhere at the retreat where she lives called Eden Parish, he isn't too keen on the idea. That all changes when he finds out more about the mysterious history of the place and how it now has guards watching over it 24/7. When he tells his friends about it, they decide to go with him and make a documentary about the place. Along for the ride Sam, a reporter, and Jake, the cameraman.


Once they get there, the helicopter pilot they hired to take them informs them that if they aren't ready to leave when he comes back the next day, he'll leave without them. They then find a large group of guards with big guns watching over the entrance who initially refuse to let them through. They finally get inside and briefly consider leaving before Caroline appears and tells them lots of stories about her new life. Though they receive free rein to wander through the compound, it doesn't take long for them to realize they made a huge mistake.


The Sacrament is easily one of the most unsettling horror movies I've seen in awhile. It wasn't that long ago that I watched a documentary on the Jonestown Massacre, and with all that fresh in my mind, The Sacrament had me squirming in my seat.


One of the more unsettling moments occurred early in the film when Sam has the chance to sit and talk with Father, the leader of their group on camera. Though initially promised that he would answer any questions, they later learn that he will only answer general questions about specific topics. He then demands that the interview take place in a public forum right before some big party. The way Father turns the tables on Sam and the way the people just stared at him with shiny eyes made me truly uncomfortable.


Then there's the woman and her young daughter who clearly have some problems. The guys learn that the little girl is mute but that there might be a reason why she no longer talks. They then find themselves surrounded by a group of people who want nothing more than to get the hell out of the compound and that they would rather leave with these strangers than spend one more day with Father.


Oh, and did I mention how a wholesome and innocent looking nurse tells them about how all their followers sold off everything they owned and gave the money to Father before they could even move in?


The ending left me feeling fairly empty and left me watching 3^rd Rock From the Sun for the rest of the night. The Sacrament is definitely one of those movies that will leave you feeling unsettled and out of sorts after you watch it. While it might not be a horror movie in the larger sense of the word, it's definitely a disturbing movie that will make you think about what you would do in the same situation.

The Houses October Built – Go Behind the Scenes

Runtime: 91 minutes
Release Date: October 10, 2014
Rating: UR
Director: Bobby Roe


Zack, Jeff, Brandy, Bobby, and Mikey are a group of friends who decide to make a documentary about what really happens behind the scenes of haunted houses and other attractions. Armed with a motorhome and a camera, they hit the road to film some of the top haunted houses and talk with the people who work in those houses.


Despite getting some good footage, they can't help noticing that they keep coming across the same places. It seems like every spot they hit has the same scares and even the same type of people working there. Though Jeff keeps promising them that they'll find something better at the next stop, the creepiest thing they see is a little girl in a porcelain mask with no hair who seems to show up at every stop.


That leads to one of the creepiest and weirdest scenes in the movie, where that same costumed character follows them back to the motorhome. Despite asking her if she needs help and trying to talk to her, she just sits down and starts making strange noises before eventually screaming and running away.


At one of their later stops, Jeff comes across two guys who claim they know how to get to the Blue Skeleton, one of the hottest and scariest attractions in the country. Often considered an urban legend, the location changes every year and visitation is by invite only. After finding the first clue to its location, they discover that someone or something is stalking them. They find a bloody heart in their refrigerator, footage of them sleeping on their camera, and blue skull masks left on the front of the RV that reveals a group spent hours watching them the night before. Even before they find the last clue, they realize that finding the Blue Skeleton might not be all they thought.


The Houses October Built actually comes across like two different films, and both are pretty damn good. The first is a documentary of what happens behind the scenes at haunted attractions. We see interviews with costumed workers and hear some stories about people who actually died in those attractions. The second film is a found footage documentary about what happened to a group of friends who went down the rabbit hole. Mixing the documentary footage with the character footage was a smart choice. We get a little break from those characters and learn more about what might motivate them to go on a hunt like this.


As many of the actors have little to no experience, I went in not expecting a whole lot and was pretty surprised. Zack Andres as Zack and Jeff Larson as Jeff were the two real standouts. All of the actors though did a great job of making me believe they were actually friends and that they really would take a random road trip together.


And can I just say that the porcelain doll character was just plain creepy? Since she kept randomly popping up, you never really knew when she might appear next. It got to the point where anytime the characters went down a dark street or opened a door, I expected her to be standing there staring at them. Add to that a scene with two rednecks accosting Brandy in the bathroom of a grungy bar, and I was all in.


Though it got some poor/bad reviews, I enjoyed The Houses October built. It's currently on Netflix for those who want to give it a try.

VHS Viral (V/H/S: Viral) Movie Review

Runtime: 82 minutes
Release Date: October 23, 2014
Rating: R
Director: A whole bunch of peeps


A guy and girl introduce us to the world of VHS Viral. They aren't that interesting but serve as the wraparound for the movie. He's obsessed with filming something that will go viral and sees his chance when a police chase happens right outside his apartment. When his girlfriend follows him, he spends most of the movie trying to chase her down.


Dante the Great is our first major story. Dante is something of a white trash loser when he finds a magic cape that turns him into a famous magician. Unfortunately, the cape is also home to a monster that needs fed hot young girls to survive. When his assistant discovers his secret, will she help him or turn the tables on him?


Parallel Monsters is the second story and the one that made me scream. Alfonso is working in his basement when his hot wife shows up and asks him to come upstairs. Though he agrees, he waits until she leaves before revealing his experiment, which is a portal into another world. Turns out that the man on the other side is his exact double, but when the two switch places, one will quickly find that the other world is nothing like what he expected.


Last up is Bonestorm, which is almost more annoying than the wraparound story. A group of what looks like spoiled rich kids with too much time on their hands spend way too long filming themselves skateboarding and acting like thugs before deciding to take a little trip to TJ. Once there, they find themselves stalked by a weird cult that they wind up attacking head on.


The VHS movies are a little hit or miss with me. Some of the stories stick with me, but others are pretty forgettable. After watching VHS Viral, I'm not sure I'll really remember any of these stories. Parallel Monsters was the most entertaining and had the most WTF ending of all of the stories, but I probably liked Dante the Great the most. Bonestorm lost me from the very beginning and had a hard time keeping my attention once it got going.


Vicious Circles, which is the wraparound story felt a little pointless when compared to the wraparound stories in the other movies. Instead of giving us a story and introducing us to actual videotapes, we got a guy racing around town on a motorcycle and using his cell phone to see footage. There was one gruesome scene where a guy got stuck on a runaway vehicle and had his feet drug along the ground that made me wince, and made my roommate, a guy I might add who studies nursing, to actually turn away from the television. The rest of the story was just kind of "eh" and I wasn't too crazy about the ending.


I get what the filmmakers wanted to do. They wanted to update the concept of VHS and make it fit more with the modern age. How many people really have a VCR in their homes now? More and more people now use YouTube and watch movies online, which fits with the theme of the movie. Unfortunately, it kind of felt to me like this was a movie trying too hard to appeal to teens and younger audiences, which wound up alienating me a little. I might not be a teen, but I still love my horror movies!

Willow Creek – Jim, are you fucking kidding me?

Runtime: 77 minutes
Release Date: May 2014
Rating: NR
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait


Jim is obsessed with Bigfoot, so much so that he convinces his girlfriend Kelly to take a trip to the site of the infamous Bigfoot video captured in the 1970s. Kelley seems more comfortable shopping or at least in a hotel or spa, but Jim is completely in his element. The two travel to the town associated with the original Bigfoot sighting to film a video that Jim can hopefully use to prove that the creature exists.


The early part of the trip goes off without a hitch. They check out the local statues and museum devoted to the creature, and they even dine on a Bigfoot burger. They also meet some locals who don't really believe in Bigfoot, but even that doesn't deter Jim. Things do get a little serious when Kelly points out that she really needs to move to Los Angeles to get more acting jobs and Jim points out that he'll never live in the city.


After documenting the area, they decide to head to the woods and the actual scene of the original footage. They come across a local who makes it clear that he wants them out. The man snaps at them and eventually yells at them until Kelly convinces him to turn the car around and leave. This leads to them taking a back route and finding their way to the original site. When they find that things really do go bump in the night, they might not make it out alive.


I was so excited to see Willow Creek that I went right to the local video store and grabbed a copy on the day it came out. Now that I've seen it, I'm not sure why I wanted to see it so bad. An online review called this the best Bigfoot movie ever made, and after watching it I had to laugh. There is nothing, absolutely nothing about the actual creature in this movie except for the background and the premise.


Reading the synopsis, you might expect something completely different. I read that it was about a couple in the woods trying to find Bigfoot, and I assumed it was The Blair Witch Project mixed with a Bigfoot story. Instead, I got a movie about a couple on a weekend trip together. Seriously, go back and read the first few paragraphs I gave as a plot description. Would you believe that this is almost the first hour of the film?


I know that directors want to set up a story, but Bobcat took things a little too far with this one. We see Jim and Kelly driving around, talking with locals, eating doing their research, and doing other crap. By the time they actually get to the woods, over half the film is gone. Then we get a few scenes of the two making out in the tent and hearing noises in the woods. I will admit that when something starts attacking the tent and the noises start, the movie gets a little unsettling. Unfortunately, that doesn't last long.


After maybe 5 to 10 minutes of that, it's morning. They then go in the woods and try to find their way back to their car, get lost, and end up back in the exact same spot. We then get another few scary minutes, and boom, the movie's over. It was incredibly disappointing and not at all what I expected. I hope someone takes this same idea and does something better than Willow Creek.

Afflicted Movie Review – Beware of Strange Women in Bars

Runtime: 85 minutes
Release Date: April 4, 2014 (US)
Rating: R
Director: Clif Prowse, Derek Lee


Clif and Derek are long time best friends. Clif always dreamed of being a filmmaker and often cast his friend in his short films. Derek eventually found a stable IT job and decided to settle down. When Derek learns that he's dying and only has a short period of time left, the two decide to take a year off and travel the world together. They start out in Paris, where they hang out with two of their friends who are in a band and make plans to meet back up one year later when the band returns.


While out at a bar, Derek meets a gorgeous woman named Audrey and brings her back to the hotel. The other guys decide to play a prank on him, but instead find Derek in bed by himself covered in scratches and bruises. He has no memory of what happened when they got back to the room or what happened to Audrey, but they do find her clothing, purse, and phone left behind.


After Derek and Clif leave for Italy, Derek begins exhibiting some weird behavior. He passes out in bed and has problems being in the light, and when they go out to lunch, he vomits all over the restaurant after trying to eat normal food. He also breaks out in intense hives and blisters when exposed to sunlight. When the two friends get into a fight, Derek punches straight through a solid rock wall.


While all this happens, Clif documents the drama and experiences on a website the two started about their trip. Friends and family warn Derek to come home and for Clif to get him to the hospital, but Derek eventually embraces his new found powers and strengths. When the two attempt to rob a blood bank and get Derek the only thing that makes him feel better, they find Interpool on their tails.


There is a lot about Afflicted that I'd like to write about but those moments feel like spoilers. The synopsis above really only covers the first half of the film if that. We then focus on Derek and his quest to find Audrey in the hopes of uncovering why she turned him and what he can do to cure himself. Through it all, we get an inside look at the action through the cameras the duo brought to document their trip.


Afflicted looked like an interesting movie and had a great trailer, but I don't know how I felt about it. It's kind of a vampire movie with a twist, but the twist has nothing to do with the vampires themselves; it just so happens to be a found footage film that focuses on vampires. There are some great scenes in the movie. One involves Derek trying to take his life with a shotgun blast to the head, while another involves him attempting to see how the sunlight will affect his skin.


One of the biggest debates online is about the Audrey and Derek relationship. She mentions that she never turned anyone before, and when he asks why she chose him, she tells him that he was already dying and that she felt pity for him. I'm on the side that believes she deliberately turned him because she felt sorry for him, but there's a large group of people who think she accidentally turned him.


Speaking of death, the film lets us know that Derek doesn't have long in the first few minutes, but it's completely easy to forget about that later on. I kept waiting for a scene where Derek would wonder if living life as some crazy vampire was better than dying, but that scene never came. You would think that he would bring it up at least once, but it never happens. He goes from barely having the ability to walk and act like a human to being a crazed madman trying to track down the person who infected him so fast that I kept wondering what flipped that switch in his mind.


The found footage genre, which is admittedly pretty bad at this point, actually works in this film. Clif spends most of his time behind the camera, but you get used to the sound of his voice and actually believe that he has a close relationship with Derek. The YouTube type site where they post their videos gets responses that seem pretty realistic. I'm not sure I would keep watching after my friend vomited bright orange sludge all across a restaurant, and it's a little funny to read posts from people that basically say, "get him to the hospital" or "that's not right."


Afflicted wasn't a terrible movie, but I wasn't as crazy about it as I thought. There was something about the film that just didn't do it for me, and I had problems paying attention. I'm sure many people will love it, but it wasn't one of my favorites.

Devil's Pass Movie Review

Runtime: 100 minutes
Release Date: February 28, 2013
Rating: R
Director: Renny Harlin


Holly and Jensen are two college students looking for their next project decide to tackle the Dyatlov Pass incident. As one of the Internet's most favorite unsolved mysteries, thousands of people over the years attempted to discover what happened to a group of hikers who died under mysterious circumstances. The two convince three others to join them on a hike through the same area to film a documentary.


From the moment they arrive in Russia, they face opposition from all sides. The only person attached to the original group is in a mental hospital and unable to talk to them, and everyone else seems suspicious or downright angry about them being there. Some people act hostile towards them, while others outright tell them to leave. Once they finally begin their trek up the mountain, they learn that they might await the same fate as those on the original expedition.


I first heard about the true story on Cracked, and thanks to Reddit, I now know more about the story than I ever planned. As soon as I heard there was a horror movie based on the story, I knew that I had to see it. After learning that director Renny Harlin also had an interest in the story and did some research of his own, I knew that I really wanted to see it.


The problem with creating a film on such a popular story is that it's impossible to please everyone. Harlin decided to create a story that would offer a possible explanation on what happened to those involved in the original case, but it actually doesn't answer any questions. Instead of focusing on the true story, he decides to add some elements, including two people who were mysteriously never mentioned in any transcripts and make a story based on those people. While it does add some interesting moments, it really takes away from the real story.


How could you take a story about people found in various states of undress, with cuts all over their bodies, and with possible traces of radiation and turn it into a (spoiler alert) time traveling story gone wrong? I wish Harlin had just stuck with the real facts and based a horror movie around that.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – AKA Paranormal Activity 5

Runtime: 84 minutes
Release Date: January 3, 2014
Rating: R
Director: Christopher Landon


After getting a new camera as a graduation present, teenage Jesse decides to use the camera to document the things that he and his friends do. Not long into the film, we learn that his downstairs neighbor Anna tends to keep to herself and people think she's a witch. Late one night, he and his friends see a neighborhood man named Oscar running from Anna's apartment, and the police later find her dead body.


Jesse and his best friend Hector gain access to the apartment and plan to look for evidence. They find a bunch of photographs, including one of Jesse as a child, and they also find some videotapes that show Kristi and Katie from the previous films. After sneaking some girls into the apartment, Jesse rushes off to find a condom, and his date discovers a trapdoor hidden in the floor. When she opens it, Oscar pops up and attacks her before running away. At the same time that all this happens, Jesse discovers that he can do things that he could never do before. In order to uncover the reason for his new abilities, he needs to find out how he's connected to Anna and the women from the earlier films.


Is it bad that I didn't know this film even existed until it was already in theaters for a few weeks? Is it bad that I completely forgot that it even came out until I saw it at Redbox a few weeks ago? It's not that I necessarily hate the Paranormal Activity movies. In fact, I hated the first one, but I've come around and actually found them fairly enjoyable. It's just that it didn't look very entertaining.


According to the producers of the film, this isn't a reboot or a sequel to the earlier films but a cousin to those films. That's fine and dandy except that it clearly connects its story to the other films by bringing in the Katie and Kristi videos, showcasing a character from the last film, and then actually bringing back Katie herself. What is odd is that this is the fifth film in the series but a Paranormal Activity 5 comes out later this year.


Despite getting some favorable reviews, I wasn't happy with the movie. It honestly felt like the producers and directors aimed this film at a younger generation and not necessarily the same people who made the original films such a hit. Sure it's nice when the boy who gets picked on gains superpowers that let him fight back against his bullies, but we've all seen Spiderman before. The scenes that should have made my jaw drop seemed more like something I might catch on YouTube. It just felt like it didn't bring anything new to the franchise.


Though Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones wasn't my favorite, it made more than $80 million at the box office and there are plans for several more in the series.

Devil's Due Movie Review – Paranormal Activity Meets The Omen

Runtime: 89 minutes
Release Date: January 17, 2014
Rating: R
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett


When Zach and Sam get married, Zach decides to film every moment with his video camera. After leaving on their honeymoon, he reveals that a friend gave him an "adventure cam," which lets him film their experiences while keeping his hands free. During their last night in town, they meet a cab driver who insists that they go to a club he knows. Sam isn't very comfortable there, especially when several men keep staring at her.


Cut to the following morning. The two wake up back in their hotel room with few memories of the night before and no clue how they got back to their room. Zach pushes Sam to hurry up before they miss the flight without once dropping the camera. Not long after they get home, Sam takes a pregnancy test and it's positive. Though they're excited about their honeymoon baby, they're also a little nervous.


That nervousness gets even worse as the pregnancy continues. Sam has bad nosebleeds, she keeps finding strange bruises, and in one especially strange moment, her stomach actually moves and pulsates from inside. When someone hides a series of cameras throughout their house and Sam begins acting out in mysterious ways, it becomes abundantly clear that this is far from a traditional pregnancy.


Devil's Due is what happens when Paranormal Activity meets The Omen with a dash of Rosemary's Baby thrown in for good measure. While it does have some interesting moments, it occasionally suffers from the directors trying to do too many things at once. Between showing us multiple characters, including Zach's sister and her kids, two doctors, a priest, and miscellaneous villains and good guys, it's a little hard to follow at times.


The found footage genre made it easy for anyone with a camera to create a horror film, and I've seen a lot of truly bad movies from the genre. Devil's Due, while it doesn't offer anything new, does provide a fairly strong story. If you avoided because of its 3.8 rating on IMDB, go ahead and watch it. It seems like if a horror movie isn't a "classic" or one that critics love, which is basically three movies from the last few years, it won't get a good review. I can't even remember the last time I saw a movie I liked with a rating of 6 or higher.


Anyway, on a night where I sat down and watched three horror movies in a row, Devil's Due came out the clear winner. One of the best scenes in the film involved Sam in the parking lot of a baby store. After nearly getting hit by a man backing up in his SUV, she completely freaks out, punches her fist through his back window, starts knocking out the other windows in his car, and then attacks the driver before Zach manages to pull her off. It's the perfect time to crack a joke about crazy pregnancy hormones!


I had two major problems with the movie. The first is that no one seems to think that Sam's behavior is odd or unusual. After the parking lot scene, Zach rushes her to the hospital, but the doctor basically ignores the problem. When she rushes out of the room during the ultrasound and starts vomiting, the doctors pretty much ignores her symptoms and even tells her husband that things are normal.


My other issue is that the film constantly tells us that Sam is an orphan. In one of the first scenes, her maid of honor gives speech at her wedding and mentions that they lived in the same foster home. It's such an important issue that Zach even mentions it to her doctor. It felt like that plot point was leading up to a moment that never came.


Devil's Due clearly isn't the best horror film or even found footage film of the year, but it's far more entertaining than some of the films I've sat through recently.

V/H/S 2 Movie Review

Runtime: 96 minutes
Release Date: June 6, 2013
Rating: R


"VHS 2" opens with a private investigator blackmailing a married man into giving him more money for footage of him and his mistress before he turns it over to the man's wife. He then explains to his partner that a mother called him about her missing college-aged son. The two sneak into the son's house, where they find a series of tapes. Ayesha begins watching the tapes, while Larry searches the house for any sign of the missing man.


Phase 1 Clinical Trials


The first video involves a man getting a new implant in his eye after a car accident left him partially blind. On his way out of the office, he sees a woman looking at him funny, but he doesn't think twice about it. Later that night, he sees someone in his bed, and when he pulls off the sheet, no one is there. He turns to find a dead man standing just behind him. He begins seeing dead people everywhere he goes, and the woman from the doctor shows up to explain what happened.


A Ride in the Park


My favorite segment of "VHS 2" is this one. Out for a morning ride, a man receives a phone call from his girlfriend as he hooks his camera up to his helmet. After talking to her, he runs into a woman screaming for help and covered in blood. When he tries to help her, she bits him, and he discovers a group of zombies in the woods. He tries to get away, only to find himself infected and biting those who try to help him. I'm not sure the director intended to make it quite as funny as we found it, but I still liked it, especially when the zombies invade a child's birthday party.


Safe Haven


My least favorite segment of "VHS 2" is this one. A group of filmmakers meet with the leader of a cult who moved his "family" to a compound on the outskirts of town. Though he initially denies their request to meet with his family, he later changes his mind and agrees to the meeting. It doesn't take long until they realize that something odd is going on. He passes out drinks to his people, and some of the men begin killing themselves. All I will say about this one is that my boyfriend fell asleep during this one but stayed awake for the rest of the movie.


Slumber Party Alien Abduction


Left alone for the night without their parents, a younger boy invites his friends over, and they pull a bunch of pranks on his older sister and her boyfriend, including jumping out with strobe lights while they're having sex to film them. Later that night, they see a weird light on the lake and the power goes out in their house. They see some strange men standing outside their door, and they wind up running outside. After plenty of shaky cam work and what seemed like a really long time, we learn that it's aliens randomly chasing them, and we see it all from the point of view of the dog.


I almost rented "VHS 2" on Demand for $9.99 last month, but I'm glad that I waited to rent it for $1 from Redbox. It had some good points, and I really liked the second segment, but it didn't hold my attention like the first one did.

Grave Encounters 2 Movie Review – This Isn't Narnia.

Runtime: 95 minutes

Release Date: October 2, 2012

Rating: NR

Director: John Poliquin

"Grave Encounters 2" wants us to believe that everything that happened in "Grave Encounters" was completely real. When the film picks up, we see a large number of bloggers talking about the film online. Some of them think it was true and that no one ever saw the crrw members again, but most people think it was just a hoax.

Enter Alex, a film student who decides to make a film about the film. Got that? Alex enlists his best friends to help him research the story and the crew members in the hopes of discovering the true story. He gets messages from an anonymous person who tells him to visit the producer. The producer first tells him it was fake, but he later reveals it was true.

The group then head to Collingwood, but they discover security guards doing whatever it takes to keep people out because of the large number of trespassers since the film premiered. They also discover Lance's mom, who tells him his name is Sean and he's alive. They finally find a way into the old hospital, which is when all hell breaks loose. Not only do they find Lance living in the hospital, but they discover that everything they heard is true.

The problem with sequels is that most sequels aren't as strong as the original. The same thing is pretty much true here. "Grave Encounters 2" does have an interesting premise, but it kind of does the same thing that the sequel to "The Blair Witch Project" did. Take a bunch of random people and let them investigate the story behind the first movie.

It did have some entertaining moments though. I loved the man playing the producer. He pops up early in the film to talk on camera about the hoax, and then he does a good job making Alex believe that it was true before making a return appearance at the end.

Thankfully, the character of Lance makes a return for this one, but unfortunately, the way he plays the role leaves some unanswered questions. Anyone who was stuck in an abandoned mental hospital for over a year would probably act the same way he did. So, is he really crazy because of the ghosts, or is he just crazy because of what he thinks he saw?

In the end, it doesn't really matter though. Instead of giving us something interesting, "Grave Encounters 2" just follows the same formula as the first one. Throw a bunch of people into a haunted hospital, give them some cameras, and see what happens.

The Fourth Kind Movie Review – In the End, What You Believe is Yours to Decide

Length: 98 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: November 6, 2009

Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi

Milla Jovovich ("Resident Evil") opens "The Fourth Kind," telling the audience that the film is based on true events that happened in Nome, Alaska. Jovovich plays Dr. Abigail Tyler, a woman left to raise her two children alone after someone murders her husband. Tyler tapes sessions with her patients, and she begins noticing that many of her patients tell her similar stories.

After multiple sessions, she decides to use hypnotherapy. Two of her patients tell her stories about seeing a dark and scary creature enter their homes, and one of the men kills his family after a session. As she digs a little deeper into their stories, she begins experiencing similar things at home, leading up to the disappearance of her daughter.

I cannot believe that I managed to sit through "The Fourth Kind" twice in my life because this film is painful to watch. It was one of the first faux documentary films in the sci-fi genre, but it shows that found footage themes aren't always the best idea. When I watch a movie, I want to get caught up in the story and the characters, which is hard to do with films of this type.

The best found footage films are the ones that show you characters and let you believe that these actors are the real people. With "The Fourth Kind," we see Jovovich playing Tyler, and then we see another actress playing Tyler in the supposedly real footage. It doesn't help that Jovovich introduces the film and says that she's playing the doctor. As soon as you start to believe Jovovich in the role, it shows the "true" footage and takes you right back out of the film. Luckily, I only wasted time watching the movie on Netflix and didn't waste any of my own money.

"The Bay" Movie Review – Leave Mother Nature Alone

Rating: R

Length: 84 minutes

Release Date: November 2, 2012

Director: Barry Levinson

We see a lot of horror movies that deal with Mother Nature rearing her ugly head, but "The Bay" focuses on what happens when human beings screw with ecology.

Donna is quite possibly the worst reporter on the face of the earth. Sent to a small New England town to do a story on its Fourth of July celebration, she's filming the downtown celebration when she hears a report of a domestic abuse situation turned murder. Grabbing her camera man, she starts her report on the scene only to learn that what's happening goes beyond a simple murder.

One by one, other people in town start dying of mysterious circumstances, and even more residents find themselves going to the hospital to seek help. They notice weird rashes popping up and other symptoms plaguing them. The main doctor in town does what he can, but he also sends footage to the CDC in hopes of getting help. "The Bay" also tells us that this true story was covered up by the government and that all footage left is what we see in the film. Everything might be connected to the fish that started turning up dead in the local water source, which just so happens to be what most people in town drink.

"The Bay" is one of the few found footage films of recent years that I actually enjoyed. Instead of using a single camera to show the action, the director does a smart job of introducing other camera types and views. We might see one scene from the camera attached to a police car, another scene shot with surveillance footage, and another camera from inside the hospital. Plus we have our trusty report with her powerful camera. We even get a few scenes from characters sending video messages with their cell phones or filming footage from their computers.

Some of the early reviews I read whined and complained about how "The Bay" was Levinson's pet project and spent too much time talking about how people should take care of the environment. Those reviews basically said that this was an ecological horror movie that focused on what will happen if we keep screwing up the environment. Those moments are in the film, but there are so many other great moments that I barely paid attention to the greater message.

"The Bay" never shies away from the action. We see some of the goriest things I've seen in recent years, and the camera is always there when something happens. The main issue that I had with the film was the character of Donna. The film sets it up that she's a new reporter, or possibly an intern, and this is her big break. All that really does is give her an excuse to act like a novice. Between her whining and crying, I just wanted her to go away. The moments where she doesn't appear and the film focuses on other characters are far better than the scenes where she's on film.

Not everyone with enjoy "The Bay," but it is a solid film. It had just the right amount of gore and an interesting story, which kept me entertained for much of the runtime.

"Shadow People" Movie Review – Also Known as "The Door"

Rating: PG-13

Length: 89 minutes

Release Date: March 19, 2013

Director: Matthew Arnold

Charlie Crowe (Dallas Roberts, "The Walking Dead") is the stereotypical down on his luck guy. His wife left him for man with more money and now has custody of his daughter. He works as a radio DJ, but his show is on a weird time slot, which means that he doesn't have many fans. Just as he thinks that things couldn't get any worse, he gets a phone call from a young man who talks about the shadow people following him before killing himself on air.

Charlie quickly discovers that people tuned in to that show, and those people now become his biggest fans. Almost anywhere he goes, they stop him on the street to talk about the caller. While some think he's full of shit, others believe his rantings about the shadow people. He also gets a package in the mail that talks about these so-called shadow people. The more he starts researching the mysterious figures, the more he discovers that his former caller might have been telling the truth all along.

"Shadow People" is one of those films that's hard to describe. It uses the found footage genre to a point, mixing fake found footage with filmed footage featuring Roberts and other actors. The film wants us to believe that Crowe was a real DJ who lived through everything portrayed in the film. It even introduces a young actor to play Crowe's son as he discusses the changes that he noticed in his father.

The end result is a little jarring at times. We'll see Roberts for 15 to 20 minutes, and then the film throws in some footage of an older man talking about his own experiences. While the mixture can sometimes work, it winds up being the downfall of the film especially at the end. The "real" Crowe appears on film to say that he made everything up and that it was all a lie. After spending an entire film watching the "real" events unfold, it's annoying to reach that conclusion. Granted, Crowe supposedly did it to save his town, but it still comes across as something of a cheat.

Roberts is without a doubt the standout of the film. Having watched him this season on "The Walking Dead" and seeing him as the bad guy/serial killer in "The Factory," it's nice to see him as the hero. He has believable chemistry with the boy playing his son, and he even has nice chemistry with the actress playing his ex-wife. The two snip and snap at each other in the same way that a real divorced couple might fight.

"Shadow People" is a low budget film, but it's easy to overlook the budget. It has some interesting elements and a nice storyline, but the mixture of found footage and traditional footage is sometimes a little irritating. I almost wish the director stuck with the main story and let Roberts and the other cast members tell the story because those were the best moments.