Runtime: 95 minutes
Release Date: August 15, 2013
Rating: PG-13
Director: Jeff Chamberlain
Sharon and her friends are ready
for their next Halloween party. I really only bothered to learn her
name because all of the characters are pretty one dimensional.
There's a guy studying medicine who doesn't seem to know anything
about medicine, a stereotypical football player, Sharon's best friend
and roommate, plus a random Indian guy named Ethan. They decide that
instead of spending Halloween at yet another party, they'll head into
a haunted abandoned mine.
Naturally, the mine is actually
haunted and not just some weird joke or urban legend passed around
town. They head deeper into the mine, and someone cuts their rope,
leaving them stranded inside. Since they didn't tell anyone where
they were going, they have to go even deeper into the mine in hopes
of finding a way out. They don't realize that someone wants them all
dead until they start getting separated one by one.
Despite a runtime of just 95
minutes, Abandoned Mine feels like a much longer movie. It's like the
director decided that he needed to add more to the movie, so he went
back in and shot stuff that just doesn't fit. Sharon and her roommate
go through an endless montage that involves them dressing up in
different costumes, looking in the mirror, and dancing around the
room. This seriously takes up at least three minutes of the movie.
They then decide on costumes, we see them getting ready in the
mirror, and then the movie picks up with them in completely different
costumes. What the heck? We literally just saw them getting ready in
different outfits!
While I wasn't a huge fan of the
movie, I did enjoy the little twist that comes later in the film.
There are actually two twists towards the end. I don't want to ruin
it for anyone, but we learn that the ghosts might not actually exist
and that it might be a human messing with them, only to find out that
maybe the ghosts really do exist after all. I realize that doesn't
make sense if you haven't seen the movie, but it's hard to explain
the twist without ruining anything.
Abandoned Mine served as a nice
distraction for an hour and a half, but I don't think I would sit
down and watch it again. I've read reviews that call it a modern
example of a classic horror flick. I wouldn't go that far either.
There was just something about the movie that seemed lacking to me.
It had an interesting premise, but there are much better films about
haunted mines and people trapped in tight confines.
Runtime: 101 minutes
Release Date: November 22, 1978
Rating: NR
Director: Meir Zarchi
Jennifer wants nothing more than to
spend some time in the country to focus on her writing and work on
her book. After renting a house in the woods, she makes the "mistake"
of actually talking to men and letting one stop by her house to drop
off some groceries instead of keeping to herself and being barefoot
and pregnant. The men also think she wants them because she has the
"audacity" to sit inside her own yard in a bikini, wear a
bikini on the water, and talk to them in town.
One day, four of those men decide
to make her wish she never came to their town. They confront her in
the woods, brutally rape her, and let her walk away. After she
wanders through the woods for hours, they come out of the shadows and
do it all over again. Jennifer finally escapes and makes it home,
only for the men to come out and rape her again. They finally leave
for good, but send their mentally challenged friend back to kill her.
He chickens out and tells them he did the deed.
Jennifer recovers from the rapes
and beatings long enough to think about how she can enact her revenge
on those men. She lets them know that she's still alive, which leads
to them beating the snot out of their friend. She then lures that man
back to her cabin, where she has sex with him before strangling him
and hanging him from a tree. Jennifer then takes the time to slowly
dispatch of each man in a new and horrifying way.
I Spit On Your Grave is one of
those films that you watch once and never forget, but in my case, you
watch it once and remember it as much harsher than it actually was. A
friend watched the remake, and when he mentioned that he never saw
the original, we decided to sit down and watch it recently. I kept
talking about how dark and disturbing the movie was, so much so that
I only ever watched it once before. It somehow went down a little
smoother the second time.
Watching the movie for a second
time, I couldn't help wanting to see his reaction at some of the
death scenes. While he squirmed during the penis-capitation scene in
the bathtub, he didn't find anything else very dark. That led me to
wonder why I remembered the deaths as so dark and intense. One man
gets an ax to the back and another gets a boat engine on him, but the
film doesn't really show anything too dark. In today's world, we
don't have a problem showing someone's penis laying on the table or
at the bottom of the ocean, but I Spit On Your Grave asked you to use
your imagination. When we see the blood spurting around the bathroom,
that's all you need to see.
The rape scenes in this movie
really left a lasting impression on me. As soon as I knew those
scenes were coming up, I found excuses to get up and walk to the
bathroom or grab something out of the kitchen. Camille Keaton really
sells her part well. When Jennifer locks the bathroom door on the
man, walks downstairs, and sits down while listening to the man's
screams, you can't help but feel something for her.
I can see kids today watching this
movie and rolling their eyes, but for true horror fans, it's
something that they can't miss. While the death scenes weren't as
dark as those scenes were in my head, I Spit On Your Grave is still a
dark film that leaves me feeling unsettled.
Runtime: 90 minutes
Release Date: January 31, 2002
Rating: R
Director: David R. Ellis
Kimberly (A.J. Cook, Ripper) is a
college kid ready to enjoy spring break with her friends. After
talking to her father, she climbs in a car with her best female
friend and two male friends. They stop just before getting on the
highway, and she flips the radio from a report on Flight 180 to
music. When they finally get on the highway, a truck carrying logs
crashes on the road, leading to a massive wreck that leaves everyone
dead. Kimberly then looks up and realizes that they're not yet on the
highway and that she had a premonition. When she blocks the road, a
local sheriff named Thomas hops out of his car to talk to her. They
see the car wreck happen from the safety of the road, but the cop
saves her life before the wreck takes the lives of her friends.
Like with all the Final Destination
movies, death decides to come back for those who escaped. After
researching premonitions online, Kimberly learns that Alex and Carter
from the first film died. Though Clear survived, she checked herself
into a mental institution and plans to stay there for the rest of her
life. She and Thomas go to see Clear, who warns them of death's
design. Fearing they didn't believe her, she checks herself out and
follows them, arriving in time to warn them to look out for future
premonitions and to warn the others that death is coming.
Final Destination 2 decided to
increase the gore of the first film, which is something that every
other film tried to do. Instead of something simple like a hanging,
this film makes sure that everyone dies in the worst way possible. We
get a teenage boy crushed like jelly by a piece of glass falling on
his head, a paramedic shaking a car with the jaws of life which
causes a log to go through a woman's body, a woman decapitated by an
elevator door, and a man ripped into pieces by a flying wire fence,
and that doesn't even include the explosion that occurs towards the
end of the film.
This all leads me to a painful
conclusion: Final Destination 2 is even better than the original. We
get the hunky Michael Landes (who I always remember from either
Special Unit 2 or Lois and Clark) popping up as a cop who not only
believes in premonitions but actually tries to help, and we get the
adorable Keegan Connor Tracy turning up as a bitchy city girl. We
even have A.J. Cook taking over the lead role. If you haven't seen
Ripper yet, do it now.
Final Destination 2 didn't really
need to make a connection to the first film, but it makes that
connection in a fairly realistic way. We learn that death wants these
people not just because they escaped the highway crash, but because
they each escaped death once before. Each character survived a deadly
situation before because of Flight 180. One woman missed dying in a
gas leak because she didn't arrive at her hotel due to hitting Terry
in the first movie, and someone else avoided death because he helped
clean up Billy's body from the train death.
While I don't watch the second
movie as much as I watch the first one, after seeing Final
Destination 2 again recently, I might start watching it a little
more.
Runtime: 95 minutes
Release Date: October 4, 2002
Rating: R
Director: Marc Evans
Like The Real World, five strangers
agree to live in a house in the middle of nowhere and let someone
film everything that happens. The deal is simple. If they all survive
until the end of the six months, they walk away with $1 million. If
even one person drops out before the end, no one gets a dime.
The first few weeks go off without
a hitch. Though they struggle with boredom and some personal issues,
they manage to get through their days. Their unknown benefactor then
decides to up the ante by limiting their food and making them find
their own supplies. They then begin learning of things that might
make them run from the house. The loveable Danny receives a message
that his beloved grandfather died, but he decides to stay there
instead of leaving for the funeral. The quiet and sometimes meek Emma
discovers blood drops on her pillow that no one can explain, but even
that won't make her leave.
One day, a man named Travis
stumbles across their home. Claiming that he got lost in the woods,
they agree to let him stay for the night. After Travis tells them
that he works around computers every day and never once heard
anything about the reality television that they're on, they begin
wondering if they're really part of a new show or if there's
something darker happening.
Years ago, I stumbled across a
little movie called My Little Eye when searching for horror films on
Netflix. I told multiple people of the movie and recommended it to
several friends. Recently, a friend and I sat down to watch the
movie, and I wondered how my memories and the actually movie could
differ so much. My Little Eye definitely isn't as good as I
remembered it in my head.
The movie takes place during the
early days of the Internet. The idea of seeing a group of people
trapped in a house for months seemed new, fresh, and different, but
now, we can look online and see hundreds of similar shows every day.
I think that's the main problem with the movie: it no longer seems
fresh and it actually seems pretty dated. Today, we could just grab a
cell phone and surf the web for any mention of a show, but these
people are completely stranded in a house in the middle of nowhere.
The main reason we watched the
movie is because my friend is a big fan of Bradley Cooper, and this
was one of his early films. He plays Travis, the strange man who
turns up on their doorstep, and the character is easily one of the
oddest in the film. While having sex, he takes the time to look up at
the camera and make it clear that he knows exactly what is going on.
What makes it odd is that Travis disappears in the middle of the
night. The other characters should find this odd, but they barely
even note his disappearance.
My Little Eye was a good film
during its time, but today, it plays like just another movie that
many people will watch and forget.
Runtime: 87 minutes
Release Date: August 27, 2013
Rating: R
Director: Danielle Harris
Danielle Harris finally steps
behind the camera, and her first outing is...okay.
Among Friends opens with shots of
various men and woman getting dressed up for a party at their friend
Bernadette's house. Three men and three women eventually reach the
party thanks to the help of a limousine driver played by Kane Hodder.
They share a few drinks, but when they sit down, they realize that
they can't move. By the time they realize that they're paralyzed,
they also realize that Bernadette is whacked in the head.
It turns out that Bernadette
brought them all there for a little vengeance. From the hidden
cameras she installed in her home, she knows all their dirty little
secrets, and she enjoys rubbing salt in their wounds. They each
receive a special present from her that somehow relates to their
secret. She knows that one of the men raped one of his friends, that
three of them engaged in a threesome, and that one masturbated while
watching two of his friends have sex.
Bernadette also reveals that their
missing friend Lily came to her with a secret. After her "friend"
raped her, she learned she was pregnant and asked Bernadette to take
her to the abortion clinic. Bernadette decides that each of the
people should be punished for what they did wrong, and she is the one
who should dole out the punishments.
Among Friends had an interesting
concept, and I think it could have been a much better movie than it
was. Jennifer Blanc and Brianne Davi were two of the standouts in the
movie. Blanc portrays one third of the three some group, and she does
a great job sitting at a table as her friend throws her past in the
face. When Bernadette gives her the option to be punished or let a
friend take her place, you can actually believe the dilemma she
faces. Davis is just as good, playing an actress who trips during the
entire dinner party. She believes that she's on the set of a film and
confuses the people at the table with other actors.
If you read the box, you'll see
Harris listed as a "scream queen" on the front of the box.
While she does appear in the film, it's in a brief blink and you'll
miss it scene. Those who remember her from the Halloween series will
get a kick out of seeing a grown up Harris dressed in a red-and-white
clown costume.
Among Friends doesn't really have
any major issues, but it seemed slow at times. Bernadette is the
perfect crazy chick, but we don't get any real motivation for why she
does what she does. Raping a friend is a horrible thing, but is that
what really caused her to snap? She already had cameras scattered
around her house, and it's clear that she tracked her friends for
years. We never learn why she went crazy, why she picked this night
to enact her vengeance, or even why she didn't just convince Lily to
go to the cops. While entertaining at times, Among Friends just left
a number of unanswered questions behind.
Runtime: 90 minutes
Release Date: October 15, 2010
Rating: NR
Director: Israel Luna
Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives
plays out like three different movies in one. The first third of the
film takes place in a club where the self-professed trannies talk
about the ins and outs of relationships and men. The second third of
the film takes place when the women find themselves attacked by a
group of men that are less than happy to learn that the chicks they
sought out have a little more under the hood. Then the film spirals
into a third film that is a straight up exploitation film.
After suffering extreme violence at
the hands of a group of men, one of the characters calls back to the
club to explain what happened. Though they expect to get the help
they need, they actually find themselves beaten again and left for
dead. By the time Bubbles (the main character) gets out of the
hospital, she just wants to move on with her life again, but she
instead finds the men coming back to her for another round. That
finally causes something inside her to snap, which lets her focus on
making those men regret messing with her and her friends.
When I restored my Netflix
membership after an absence of a few years, this was one of the few
films that was still in my queue. I hazily remembered that a guy I
dated recommended the movie when trying to get me interested in the
exploitation films that he loved, but I didn't know anyone else who
watched the movie, and I didn't know much about it. It turns out that
Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives is one of the funniest revenge
thrillers I've seen in awhile.
This movie has it all for
exploitation lovers: a cool story, brutal scenes of violence, and
actors with little experience in front of a camera. The only thing
that really detracted from the movie was the lack of acting
experience in the cast. I've found that some of the actors do have
some experience, which is a little odd because many of the actors are
really bad in this film. They seem more like people who randomly
decided to make a movie without much money, and it sometimes plays
like something they made for their friends than a real movie.
That doesn't mean that I hated the
movie. I actually found it pretty entertaining and recommended it to
a few friends. It had a number of moments that made me laugh, and
some of the violence in the film is pretty dark. Netflix removed the
flick from its streaming services, but if you can find a copy, give
it a try. Ticked-off Trannies with Knives isn't a classic horror
flick, but it's an entertaining movie.
Runtime: 98 minutes
Release Date: March 17, 2000
Rating: R
Director: James Wong
Alex (Devon Sawa) is about to take
a school trip with his buddies. After reaching the airport and
climbing on Flight 180, they take off for Paris. An engine problem
causes an explosion on the plane, and Alex sees everyone killed in
gruesome ways. Alex comes to and realizes that it was a horrific
premonition of what will happen. He flips out, and he throws such a
big fit that the airline makes him get off the plane. One of his
teachers agrees to stay behind and sort things out and some of the
other students get off too. While working things out, they see the
original plane exploded just like it did in his premonition.
Everyone suddenly looks at Alex a
little differently and some even blame him for the explosion. The
only person seemingly on his side is Clear (Ali Larter), an artist
classmate who he previously never even noticed. His friend Tod dies
in a way that the police deem as suicide, but he and Clear meet
William Bludworth (Tony Todd), who tells them that death is coming
for all of them. After Alex changed death's plan, death wants to come
for them. Though Alex doesn't believe him, he has to change his mind
when each person he saved begins dying in the same order they would
have died on the flight.
Let me clear something up right
away: I love the Final Destination movies, and it's probably my
favorite horror franchise or at least in the top two or three. I saw
this movie six times in the theaters, and I probably watch it once a
year. There is almost nothing about the movie that I don't love.
There's the bully Carter, who
somehow thinks that Alex was responsible for everyone dying but
learns that Alex actually saved his life. Terry, Carter's girlfriend,
who thinks that he should put aside his issues and be grateful for
what he has. We even get a teacher that can't let go of what happened
and a dorky sidekick type character.
Granted, it does get a little
grating when they constantly blame Alex for what happened, and Miss
Letwon is the worst of the group. She is so afraid to be around him
that she basically tells him to just go. She feels guilty for letting
another teacher stay on the plane, and she doesn't know how to cope
with her own survival. It's also a little odd that the police get
involved when multiple people die. They somehow decide that Alex must
have something to do with the unexpected deaths even though they have
no proof.
Eh, I can totally overlook those
problems. Final Destination has a number of great deaths. The scene
where a girl tells them to "drop dead" before getting hit
by a bus ranks as one of m favorite shocking/surprising deaths in a
horror movie. We also get a scene of a killer wire, a man getting
decapitated by a piece of flaming train debris, and multiple people
dying in an explosion. Not to mention that I still take a moment to
look around when I hear John Denver. Despite seeing a number of
recent horror films that I enjoyed, Final Destination still ranks as
one of my faves.
