Just Watched Movie (2011)

[slayrrr666]

Nightmare-After finding a mysterious videotape of him and a girl engaging in a murder none of them remember committing, a film student uses the concept to start his next project only to find a serial killer is interested in finishing the project before it starts. An utterly abysmal effort, not the least of which is the fact that this one provides one of the lamest and potentially stupid starting points for unleashing the horror as a concept in general, but the execution of it all is just so ridiculous and confusing it's all sapped away quite easily. The supposed gore in here in nonexistent, marred by a scattershot approach that renders it all unviewable, shaking camera effects that leave very little to be picked out and overall the whole experience just a dull, boring time. Not worth the hype at all.

[Fenril]

Watched three recent ghost movies:

- Los aparecidos. Reviewed it in the Latinoamerican horror tread.

- Dead silence. After his girlfriend is gruesomely murdered, a young man investigates her death, with only a ventriloquist dummy and an old town legend as clues.

Rather dissapointing movie. Could have been very good, with its mixture of dolls and old hauntings, but the script tries to do far too much. Add to this severely underdeveloped characters and a backstory that makes the ghost too monstrous and you get a movie that thinks stile is the same thing as substance.

I saw the unrated DVD, which apparently added a few new scenes and restored some cut bits (the original opening and ending, included as "deleted scenes"). Dunno why the old scenes were cut, as the movie makes much more sense with them.

Director James Wan did a much better job with his latter ghost movie, "Insidious".

- The unborn. A young college student finds herself haunted by a dybbuk that has been preying on her family for a long, long time.

Surprisingly good, IMHO very underrated. The use of Jewish folklore was a nice variation from the hollywood norm and it has some neat visual effects (especially a recurrent leitmotif concerning people and animals with their faces turned upside-down). Not exactly a classic, but it definitely deserves more love.

No relation to the Larry Cohen movie or the David Shobin novel with the same title.

[slayrrr666]

Sorry to hear that about Dead Silence. To me, it's been the best film of the new millennium and is one of my all-time favorites, though I do agree about The Unborn quite enthusiastically. Nice change of pace in terms of creature's existence, some decent hauntings and a rousing finale. No classic, but really under-appreciated definitely.

My Name is Bruce-When a vengeful demon is unleashed in their small town, the locals kidnap movie star Bruce Campbell, shooting a new movie nearby, and use his famous movie-monster-fighting skills to rid the demon before it kills them all off. Wow, was this one ever fun. Non-stop fun from the very beginning, hardly anything that misfires and just an overall blast from start to finish. Needed more gore as the demon tends to off everyone seemingly by decapitation but only from the moment the weapon slices through the body and not afterward, leaving it feeling pretty dry when it could've had a whole lot more to it, but overall this was the only flaw in an otherwise great time.

[slayrrr666]

Journey to the Center of the Earth-The chance to map the center of the Earth leads a team down into the interior to do so, where they come face-to-face with a series of unknown and unimaginable horrors in their quest. Man, this one here turned into a real bladder-burster, mainly due to the fact that this one is so long and really had no business being that way due to the fact that there's so much thrown in here to make it an 'epic' that didn't need to be. From the conniving correspondent to the bickering between the leads, the team getting split up in the hammiest way possible and the fact that it takes about a half-hour before they even get underground, what with the scenes of the group milling about at the university, in his house and finally in Iceland before descending that there's an eternity before anything remotely interesting happens and all it does is pad it out into an epic. Once underground, it's a lot different and actually enjoyable, with it's claustrophobic setting, suspenseful situations and more frenetic pacing, combined with a real Disaster-movie sense of dealing with the situations it puts it's cast through, though some of them are pretty laughable. Plus, the songs are just endless and uber-annoying. Not really that great, but it's not too terrible either.

[slayrrr666]

Cornered!-While gathering together for a card game in their convenience store, a group of friends find themselves the latest victims of a serial killer's rampage against similar employees in town and race to escape before they all succumb to his fury. Well, supposedly this was going to be a hybrid slasher/comedy but instead, it didn't really do either all that well and still came away rather enjoyable. The comedy elements are the biggest miscues, being not at all funny and really just lame that tend to make the film far longer than it really should be because the middle section is just so boring and dull that not a whole lot really registers. Once they come aware of their being stalked and hunted, it turns into a rather enjoyable affair with some big suspense scenes and a rather nice twist that allows for some brutal kills to come along. While the killer isn't that threatening and it does have some other flaws, this one does become a lot more watchable as it goes along.

Somebody Help Me 2-Finally having moved on from a harrowing experience with a vicious serial killer, a group of friends find themselves right back in the same situation as the events begin mirroring each other again and race to stop his newest rampage from being completed. Having missed out on part 1 (in fact, I thought I was going to be watching that, not having heard of either one but my on-screen guide simply had this listed as part 1) and with their being so much referenced by the characters in regards to that one with only one flashback used to fill in the gaps somewhat, so this made for an extremely confusing watch due to the fact that, with several of the cast coming back, all they do is talk about not letting it happen again and then worrying that it will once the events start to unfold, which resides mainly in kidnapping people. That's about it, not killing people or doing anything to them, just being a kidnapper and holding them hostage with ropes or handcuffs, not in any torturous traps or anything and that not only makes no sense, it doesn't make for a thrilling watch due to the utter lack of anything really impressive or scary throughout. That the finale in the lair during which they have to escape from a darkly-lit, creepy underground bunker makes the only good part of the whole film, and even then there's hardly any real gore, or even deaths to be had since they all escape from the situation anyway. A real mess and not really all that enjoyable.

Albino Farm-While attempting to uncover a series of local urban legends for a class report, several college students stumble across the horrifying truth behind a small town's past of deformities and freaks and race to escape before they fall victim to the same source. Overall, not too bad and definitely has it's moments, especially once they arrive at the titular location and they start getting attacked, which is a lot of fun due to the different types of stalking techniques employed throughout, from running by in the background to traps being laid out and all kinds of different torture and bloodletting done that makes for some pretty nifty gore from time to time. However, despite all the attempts it tries in the beginning to make it feel creepy with it's set-up for the town's inhabitants, it just comes across as a one-note gag repeated for about forty-plus minutes and makes them look ever more stupid and idiotic for willingly staying around when it's much more logical to leave, and it has a few other issues to work out there as well, but it's still not all that bad.

[slayrrr666]

Frankenstein 1970-While allowing a film crew to make a movie at his castle, the Baron decides to use the opportunity to finish his ancestor's brain-swapping experiments and lets the hulking creation loose upon the unsuspecting filmmakers. Actually not all that bad of an entry, definitely has it's moments and features some good stuff from time to time, namely in the beginning where the film-crew twist makes the action a bit jolting, and the times spent in the lab trying to reanimate the body are pure old-school sci-fi goodness. The location works nicely as well, being the kind of grand Gothic design that manages to have all it's usual theatrics played up rather nicely. It's just marred by a criminal lack of energy and enthusiasm when it's not dealing with the baron's antics, as the film-crew aren't that interesting and hardly ever do anything, the monster is a joke and looks retarded (in concept, not execution) and the entire thing is over so hurriedly it's impossible to realize what's happened until the credits start to roll. A real missed opportunity since this one could've been decent.

[slayrrr666]

Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter-A masked wrestler and his girlfriend find themselves abducted by a mad scientist to replenish her diminishing youth serum made from his blood and have to battle through her assortment of monsters and henchmen to escape. One of the better examples of this kind of film, filled with all sorts of good stuff from the delightfully campy and enjoyable mad-scientist's-lab found in those old-school classics, a creepy underground lair that, while outfitted with cobweb-riddled corpses in coffins and flying bats shrieking in the darkness looks to be as cramped and detailed as a backyard home movie, and all sorts of brawls and fights from the lead, despite the fact that they're all pretty repetitive and pretty much consist of fist-chops or punches and hip-throws all over the room into the furniture. I can't say the plot makes a lot of sense (I'm only guessing on that end, it was in Spanish yet from the looks of it all, I think I'm right in that regard) but the action here more than makes up for it.

The Return of the Monster-A small rural Western settlement finds themselves under attack by a deformed witch and her henchmen looking for subjects to experiment on eternal youth formulas and use a local hero to stop their plans. Quite frankly, this here is one of the weirdest Mexican horrors so far, though for a lot of good reasons. The decision to make the witch an articulate skeleton, able to move around and interact with the characters in it's scenes, gesturing and speaking aloud, is just unnerving and gives it a creepy quality that is really enjoyable and off-setting. Also, the rural setting of the main characters plays off the scientifically-advanced villains, as they manage to play with a tele-screen prompter, mind-controlling rings worn on their fingers and transformation serums is another off-setting feature, especially since the movie takes place in a Western setting, complete with horses and slow-loading rifles. Despite the singing interludes that grew tedious and a rather fun and spirited finale that's ruined by the hero having no real involvement in the defeat of the group, this one was pretty enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter-A masked wrestler and his girlfriend find themselves abducted by a mad scientist to replenish her diminishing youth serum made from his blood and have to battle through her assortment of monsters and henchmen to escape. One of the better examples of this kind of film, filled with all sorts of good stuff from the delightfully campy and enjoyable mad-scientist's-lab found in those old-school classics, a creepy underground lair that, while outfitted with cobweb-riddled corpses in coffins and flying bats shrieking in the darkness looks to be as cramped and detailed as a backyard home movie, and all sorts of brawls and fights from the lead, despite the fact that they're all pretty repetitive and pretty much consist of fist-chops or punches and hip-throws all over the room into the furniture. I can't say the plot makes a lot of sense (I'm only guessing on that end, it was in Spanish yet from the looks of it all, I think I'm right in that regard) but the action here more than makes up for it.

The Return of the Monster-A small rural Western settlement finds themselves under attack by a deformed witch and her henchmen looking for subjects to experiment on eternal youth formulas and use a local hero to stop their plans. Quite frankly, this here is one of the weirdest Mexican horrors so far, though for a lot of good reasons. The decision to make the witch an articulate skeleton, able to move around and interact with the characters in it's scenes, gesturing and speaking aloud, is just unnerving and gives it a creepy quality that is really enjoyable and off-setting. Also, the rural setting of the main characters plays off the scientifically-advanced villains, as they manage to play with a tele-screen prompter, mind-controlling rings worn on their fingers and transformation serums is another off-setting feature, especially since the movie takes place in a Western setting, complete with horses and slow-loading rifles. Despite the singing interludes that grew tedious and a rather fun and spirited finale that's ruined by the hero having no real involvement in the defeat of the group, this one was pretty enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

Helena's Cry-A woman trying to uncover the secret behind a rash of mysterious accidents along a rural road in the country finds that a ghostly apparition may be responsible for it all and tries to stop it before it claims more victims. While initially appearing to be some sort of thriller in the fact that it consists of nothing but here sitting around newspaper clippings or the internet struggling to find out what's going on (a fact hampered again by the lack of understanding the Spanish dialog) and that ends up leaving the middle section rather slow-going, but the scenes of her and her assistant out-and-about investigating are actually surprisingly good, with it's focus on the ghost showing up at the most unexpected times and making for some rather fun chase sequences. Feels rather routine after awhile, but it's a lot better once it gets going.

Spiritism-A group of friends gathering a friend's large mansion to dabble in the black arts find themselves under attack by a series of supernatural attacks related to one's purchase of a cursed artifact. Agonizingly slow Gothic effort, probably slower because of the language barrier but even still, the amount of ghostly activity in this one isn't high at all and really doesn't have a whole lot to do anyway, leaving this to consist of endless scene-after-scene of them standing around talking to each other in different rooms around the house about what's going on. When it gets to the good stuff, namely the seance scenes, this one becomes all the better since it's all first-rate stuff, and those seances are just magical all around without much improvement to be done on them. Though, without a lot of horror elements to be found, this one doesn't have any real lasting impact at all.

[slayrrr666]

Zone of Silence: Parallel 27-A group of friends attempting to investigate an alien ship crash-landing in the Mexico desert years earlier stumble upon a mysterious race of beings still living in the area and must get out before they're all killed. What could've been a really enjoyable effort, what with a solid premise and potentially chilling setting, is squandered with just endless minutes and scenes taking up of just the group arguing or talking with each other out in the middle of nowhere or blank shots of the group driving around in a desert, not encountering anything or even coming under threat of anything. It's boring and just endless, taking forever to get going and not doing anything new or unique to sustain the viewer's interest, and when it does start getting fun, the aliens are depicted as humanoids wearing black robes that obscure their facial features, with the fear coming from the large number present and their weaving of machetes. Granted, the chase scenes are really fun, but that's about all it's got and they're all in the later third of the movie, not half, but third.

[slayrrr666]

Shaolin Intruders-Two men wrongly accused of murdering a high-level Chinese official infiltrate a secret order of monks in a kung-fu school to find the real culprit and bring them to justice. This was just an all-around blast of old-school HK kung-fu glory, provided you don't look at it in any sort of technical way. Doing what you're supposed to, marvel at the acrobatics and choreography in the fight scenes, makes this one of the top movies in the genre, with it's impressive ideas for choreography, over-the-top fighting and just relentless pace. That series of tests with the monks are just as top-notch as it gets in this kind of situation and is just jaw-dropping in execution. As for the other factors, it's not that well-thought-out, the plot makes no sense and the wires are sometimes noticeable when they're performing, but if you want to concentrate on them, it's your fault for missing the point.

Delta Force 1: The Lost Patrol-A peacekeeping mission manages to track down the terrorist group in the Middle East responsible for a series of attacks in the area and stop them before launching their biggest strike yet. This should've been a lot better than it was, considering their behind enemy lines nearly the entire time and under fire for most of the film, yet the insipid idea of making them go unarmed for the majority of the time and not firing back on their attackers not only provides the film with relatively weak action scenes, but also makes them just look stupid for the most part, completely out of character when they wonder why they're losing so many men on the mission yet not firing one round back at the enemy. It's just plain stupid and makes for a rather agonizing experience, even moreso when it stops dead in it's tracks to start philosophizing about politics and the situation in the area in real-life, out-of-place, unwarranted and just plain irritating to watch. The final assault on the base at least provides some nice action and shootouts, but it's too little way too late. A real disappointment.

[slayrrr666]

Star Runners-While attempting to transport a mysterious shipment out of a quarantined zone, two smugglers learn that the planet they're on is infested with a race of vicious insects and must band together with a small band of survivors to leave the area alive. Wow, this one was yet another disappointment, especially since this one could've been a golden opportunity for some cheesy fun but instead turned into a rather dull and completely science-fiction centered story that didn't have as much emphasis on the horror that it should've. The attacks are just lame, there's hardly any gore and it tends to spend the majority of the time on the woman and her mysterious powers than it does on the giant bugs crawling around. While there is some innovative ways to deal with them and they do look pretty convincing in execution due to their lack of screen-time, the fact remains that as a horror film, this one fails miserably.

[Fenril]

- The leopard man. A leopard escapes during a cabaret performance and slays a local girl in a rather gruesome manner. Soon, more mangled corpses start turning up. But are they the work of the same beast or is there an even worse menace out there?

Another moody thriller from producer Val Lewton (Cat people; The seventh victim), whose work I only found out recently and have been enjoying immensely, as it has most of the things I look for in horror movies: quiet atmosphere, character-driven stories, well-staged scares...
In this one, the infamous "blood on the floorboard" scene remains a powerful setpiece.
Recommended.

[slayrrr666]

Harpoon: Whale Watching Massacre-While on a whale-watching trip in Iceland, a group of tourists find themselves under attack by a fanatical bunch of whalers protesting the recent whale-hunting ban and must escape before they're all killed. Overall, I wouldn't say it's all that bad, and it definitely has it's good moments (including the initial sweep of the boat where they take over, it's pretty creative and unexpected, making for a pretty nifty sequence) the gore is definitely good enough when we get to see it as far too often they attack with some object that forces the victim out of the camera's eye-view and then we turn to see the aftermath, at least giving us something but the majority of the time, it's not really much of anything good. As well, the plot makes very little sense (Why'd we spend ten minutes in the opening music club when they're not important to the plot, no one we met there is involved in the rest of the film or why we've been wasting that time to start with? Or even why they're going out to kill them?) which makes for a very jarring experience.

[slayrrr666]

Resident Evil: Afterlife-Attempting to lead survivors to safety after becoming trapped in a prison overrun with the dead, Alice and her friends stumble upon the latest mutants sent by the corporation to take her down for exposing their past projects involving her. Again, this series is just a lot of fun with a lot of good stuff going for it. With tons of action, lots of gore, shoot-outs, explosions, mutants, zombies and much more, which is pretty much guaranteed to have a good time on my end even though there isn't much in the way of what's going on that would dictate this is a good movie. With a lot of lengthy time waiting around in the prison before the escape being the only thing that really hurts this one, this one turns into one of the better entries in the series for all the other, more important reasons that should be used to judge a movie anyway and make this another fine addition to the series.