Just Watched Movies (2014)

[slayrrr666]

Battleship-When a series of Naval war games uncovers a vast alien conspiracy, an aging US battleship is pressed into service to try to thwart the mysterious and deadly alien forces from destroying the world. Overall, this one is very specific about what it's good parts and bad parts are since this is decidedly one-minded all the way through. The film when it concentrates on the high-octane battles at sea and air provide this with some utterly thrilling and utterly exciting action scenes where the relentless blasts, frantic machine-gun battles and highly-impressive technological battles that occur throughout here become just an unmitigated blast that produces plenty of explosion-packed spectacle, high-energy contests and a recklessness in the final half that becomes all the more fun watching all the destruction and carnage unfold. The finale in Hawaii is almost enough to help this overcome the rest of the film, which is just one big floating pile of cliche after cliche that really makes this seem a lot stupider than it really should. The manner of introducing the namesake-game here is utterly gimmicky and doesn't really need to be, but all that does is highlight the rest of the flaws in the story here. From the hackneyed love story, the putrid attempts at displaying heroism in the face of futile odds and the last-ditch attempt with even more obsolete technology that saves the day when the better, more advanced tactics failed are just some of the more mind-numbing scenarios set up here to try to get this going and it never really manages to overcome those odds. Tack on ridiculous CGI, an utterly moronic reasoning for attacking Earth and baseless science and it really does more harm than good, enough though there's some good stuff here and there.

[slayrrr666]

Act of Valor-After a Navy SEAL operation to recover a kidnapped CIA agent, the discovery of a massive terrorist plot to attack the US forces the group into action like they've never been before and requires all their skills to stop it and survive. Quite honestly, this one here might be the single hardest and most uncomfortable film to ever review as I've seen as there's so much behind the gimmick of the film being used throughout here that it becomes nearly impossible to treat otherwise. The fact of this being a film about active duty soldiers being caught up in real situations and not filmed like a traditional movie gives this a far greater sense of realism than possible during the action scenes so that there's something to be said for the sequences of the group in combat. That makes for some good times here, while the effects of its' gimmick does spring up throughout here. The fact is, this is pretty much dependent upon it's gimmick which is the real-life SEALs so most of what goes on here feels more like a documentary than an actual movie and that shows up when they're not engaging in their training and tactics. Not only are the scenes at home supposedly to ground them and give this an emotional undercurrent just plain dreadful to watch and really just so unnecessary here, but all it does is highlight just how cliched the rest of the story is by simply devolving into yet another terrorist-clan-on-the-loose effort that serves as the plot for dozens upon dozens of these kinds of films by simply making them unwatchable and forcing the only enjoyment to come from the action scenes based around that familiar plotline. As this one really tends to put all it's emphasis on the singular gimmick of this being active-duty soldiers yet does nothing really out-of-the-ordinary with them and basically turning this into a gimmick film, it's overall pretty tough to get a handle on this one.

[slayrrr666]

Safe-Indebted to a vicious Russian mobster, a cage fighter becomes embroiled in their search for a young woman also wanted by the Chinese Triads for the codes to a secret container stored within her memory and tries to use his skills to protect her. Frankly, this turned out to be quite an enjoyable effort that was a lot better than initially expecting due to the rather impressive amount of action within this one. Most of this is centered on the escapes in the second half where she's in his custody and must outwit pursuers from all three sides to the triangle that want to kill her which results in numerous hand-to-hand fights, shootouts and a pretty decent if not exactly original car chase through New York. While none of these are particularly original or creative beyond being thrown together nicely, there's more of a cumulative effect of all these placed together into that section of the film to make this based more on pace than originality to generate the excitement about it. All of these elements work in the films' favor to help overcome the few areas where it doesn't really stack up, mostly in the storyline and plot which are quite haphazard and sloppy. The use of all three different forces out to get her seems quite original and exciting, but it really makes for a convoluted story that never lets anything get developed and tends to zip on by with little about it that really makes any sense. As well, there's way too much done on his own backstory that just seemed like they tried to throw everything possible into making him entirely sympathetic and likeable but is overkill to the point of being ludicrous and confusing trying to take it all in. Having it kept to one or two of the different backstory's would've made for a more streamlined and enjoyable feature since all this pontificating in the early goings makes this seem to last quite a while before getting to the action. Still, it's good enough to be a lot of fun.

Skyfall-After coming back into action, Bond is forced to protect M from a threat from her past far greater than any force he's tangled with before and must rely on his skill set to continue his job on her side. Surprisingly, this one wasn't all that exciting and didn't really do all that much. There's really only three action scenes in the whole film as the opening chase through the city streets ending with a fistfight on the moving train, the subway chase and finally the encounter with the henchmen in the countryside so each of these three scenes is about all that works here because they actually showcase something happening. Each one is packed with action from car chases, foot chases, hand-to-hand fighting, plenty of explosions and spectacle especially in the latter two which are punctuated by key scenes from the car crashing through the ceiling and nearly taking him out while the second one is built around getting the helicopter to crash into the house and blow it to pieces. Beyond these three scenes, though, the rest of the film is pretty tough to take as it just seems to meander on endlessly with boring, talky sequences that don't matter much as they all seem to focus on whether Bond's hiatus has hurt his skills or not and this really doesn't do anything remotely interesting to the film. This is padded out by the continuous sequences of them doing nothing but talking over the threat he poses but never once saying anything about it while they just stand around and let him take the upper hand in everything which makes this quite hard to take seriously with him continually getting the better of them all the time because all they do is talk. As well, the threat isn't all that great since he's treated like a joke throughout this which causes this one to slip considerably along with the lame story and nonexistent action scenes.

[slayrrr666]

Seance-Staying in their dorm over a weekend break, a group of students find that a ghostly girl haunting the area is only the start of their troubles when they inadvertently release a ghostly killer into the building. This was quite an enjoyable if somewhat flawed effort that gets held down somewhat. One of the biggest issues with this one is the fact that there's never any real indication given that the killer is all that scary, as he's quite lame-looking and never does anything that can really be called creepy. The only remotely chilling option here is the flickering ability generated when he appears and disappears, yet none of those scenes are competently pulled off to make the scenes worthwhile, and when the killer here is completely non-scary it doesn't bode well for the film as a whole since the central figure required to generate the scares in your chilling film doesn't meet those standards. That also ties in with the film being so slow-paced and generally unwilling to really showcase the killer which leaves this one to spend a large portion of time not really doing much of anything. We get a particularly long period of time between the titular event and the first appearance of the killer to them, which makes this one feel like an eternity before it gets good. The good stuff does come here in the final half when the gang finally learns the truth about what they're up against and how to finally stop it which soon devolves into a series of chases, confrontations and body-hopping which is all sorts of fun as the action is pretty enjoyable and the kills are pretty bloody. The other effort that really helps this one out is the rather clever ideology this one has regarding the paranormal nature of what goes on here. The central idea to use a seance to contact the individual around them is all quite fine, but then to go around and introduce the idea of using the Quija board and how erroneous their thinking was in using it is the best since they eventually learn how wrong they were and how it impacts the resulting massacre throughout here. That's one of the best qualities here and really helps this one out from it's flaws.

[slayrrr666]

Mischief Night-Staying home the night before Halloween, a young woman learns that a group of masked intruders have broken into her home and must try to prevent her blindness from handicapping her struggle to protect herself. This was a surprisingly enjoyable and entertaining home-invasion effort that does manage to get a few things right. One of these is the rather ingenious use of the leads' blindness which is put to great effect here in several chilling moments. The fact that this allows for a break-in earlier than expected to play off the scenes of her being unable to see the guy standing in the house or following her up stairs that any rational person would be quite easily noticed during this time so that adds a rather dark, chilling tone to the proceedings. That also helps out in the later half when the intrusion is discovered as there's plenty of suspense to be wrought from whether or not she's capable of handling the threat and must fight them off in several rather creepy encounters. The growing sense of unease it builds up before the reveal makes for a wholly enjoyable tale as this one really manages to work in some fine slasher style theatrics as it goes around bumping off the few locals around her to make it worthwhile which manages to highlight the first of a few problems here. The low body-count certainly doesn't allow for a lot of actual slicing and dicing, forcing this one to spend a lot of time not really doing anything. It gets old after a while seeing her just wander around the house as the intruder stands blankly behind her not doing anything, and this makes for quite a troubling start to this one. As well, once it gets going there's no shortage of scenes meant simply to prolong the inevitable here as the scenes of everyone going around looking for trouble manages to put them into it and carry the film along when it really doesn't have to and common sense would tell a different story than how to proceed as opposed to how this one goes about it. Lastly, the concept for this whole film is based on such retarded and ridiculous reasoning that there's hardly anything about it that comes off logically and just holds up the film for being quite lame. Otherwise, this one here isn't really all that bad.

[slayrrr666]

Razortooth-After a rash of disappearances, a wildlife expert and the local sheriff team up with a group of residents to combat the gigantic, mutated eel running loose through the local swamplands before it eats the whole town. This turned out to be quite the flawed if still slightly enjoyable creature feature. There's some rather enjoyable moments here, most of which comes from the fact that the creature is clearly out and rampaging around quite early so there's plenty of action scenes within this. From the opening attack on the search party in the swamps to the brief attack scenes around town as it attacks the locals to the rather cheesy finale where it seemingly keeps coming back despite several attempts to fully contain and kill it while the creature is chasing after them for even more action-packed sequences, so this one dos manage to contain some rather impressive and fun moments that allow for a pretty enjoyable pace here as these are spread liberally enough throughout the film to avoid any kind of prolonged boredom. Along with plenty of action is plenty of exciting kills here which are based on the creature's rather fun tactic of simply going for the kill every time out so it's ravenous behavior makes for a rather gory and blood-soaked time with plenty of limbs being gnawed off, bodies ripped apart, bites and much more here which make for a really good time. These are enough to hold it aloft over it's few minor flaws, most notably the utterly ridiculous and abysmal CGI rampant throughout here. Not only is this patently unimpressive and obvious in it's fake-ness, the fact that it also manages to employ other big giveaways to it's source is found throughout here including the creature randomly appearing out of nowhere simply because the attack calls for it, changing size and dimensions frequently and barely interacting with the outside world around it so there's never any doubt this pixelated, cheesy-looking beast is anything but realistic. Likewise, the other big flaw here is the obvious use of character-padding to max out a storyline that really shouldn't yield a movie this long so there's a lot of excess storylines drummed up simply to provide more characters for it to kill off which really shouldn't be so as they simply scream out in their attempt to pad out the running time. These are somewhat detrimental to this but not enough to really lower it.

[slayrrr666]

Safe House-After a group of mercenaries appear during a vicious interrogation, a rookie agent and his dangerous quarry are forced on the run together to try to figure out who blew their cover and wants them both dead. This was a pretty decent effort overall that has some good parts working for it. The majority of this one is based around the central angle of who ordered the hit and why they're supposed to be dead yet this is so weak and cliched that there's nothing even remotely interesting about it. This has happened so often it's expected that someone in the organization is the traitor which this one does so little to hide that it's possible to determine who is responsible the first time you see them which really hurts the overall suspense of the notion. Likewise, there's a lot of rather banal crime-drama notions within this one which really brings the running time up considerably with this one featuring more than enough times of him simply wandering around looking for the guy that it just seems to get old after a while as this is filled with useless tangents such as the phone calls back to base and the event at the soccer stadium which are just pointless other than furthering a plot-line that didn't need to be. The few action scenes we do get, from the opening assault on the safe house and the following car-chase through the downtown area being the highlight but also being able to feature such scenes as the shoot-out in the squalor houses and the finale ambush in the countryside to make up for some of these situations and problems, which are quite fun and enjoyable yet there's just not enough to help overcome the other areas.

Shoot 'Em Up-After finding a baby abandoned in a warehouse, a lone fighter and the prostitute in his care must keep it alive from the hordes of gunmen aiming to kill the infant and anyone who stands in their way. Frankly, this was an absolute blast of an effort with a whole lot to like here. The simplified storyline (perhaps even too simple at times) manages to cause this one to flow along quite easily while allowing this one to be literally packed with action-packed shootouts. There's a slew of fantastic action scenes here to really help this one get really overcome with fantastic sequences including the opening assault in the warehouse, a frenetic apartment complex encounter and the chase through the playground in public which is highly entertaining and comes complete with a frenetic amount of action to really make this one feel enjoyable. As well, with the generous amount of shootouts comes a rather exciting amount of chases and fighting as well, from a thrilling car chase to see who can get to the accidentally-dislodged infant left in the road to a slew of hand-to-hand fighting that matches the excitement and intensity of the gunplay which is highly entertaining and really makes for a great time here. With enough jokes to move the story along and a nice bit of sexuality thrown in, this one has a lot to like as there's only one real flaw here in the motivation behind it all. The cause for the action onslaught isn't that creative and doesn't really mean anything here beyond being creative enough to be different but not so much that it really sticks out in here as being logical or realistic. It's not enough to hurt this one but it does come up.

[slayrrr666]

The Last Exorcism-With a film crew following his last days in the church, a skeptical preacher is called out to perform an exorcism on a remote farm and finds a far greater evil than he ever imagined and must summon all his faith and courage to combat the evil. This was an enjoyable if still somewhat problematic entry. One of it's biggest attributes is the fact that the shaking-camera footage is kept to a minimum throughout here despite the fact that this one is based around the found-footage concept which here is allowed to really showcase the action on-screen. Granted, it might not be a lot but there's still the point of this one keeping us really centered on the action and how enjoyable it is to be able to see what's going on without the blurring images and out-of-focus shots that typically render a lot of these types of films moot. Here, we get to see these all pretty much cleanly which enables the few action scenes to come off rather nicely in the second half where the race to get her out of the house before the father shows up and the finale's Satanic ceremony which is quite a bit of fun throughout the devilish incarnations and action throughout. That is certainly helped along by the different exorcism attempts earlier on where the inhuman actions and responses given to her condition really cement the idea of something out-of-the-ordinary going on and his obliviousness to it all in the face of his documentary attempt makes for some chilling times by exploiting the concept rather nicely. Still, these here don't really allow this one to truly overcome it's few flaws, mainly in the criminal lack of activity that this one undergoes in the middle portions of the film. It really has such little action that it throws in several outside characters merely to try to have some semblance of characters because it doesn't have much of a plot to string that kind of action off of, and leaving these scenes to consist of either endless wandering around the house doing nothing or spouting off inane backstories to keep up with the hoax of what he's accomplishing and neither of these are all that effective at making this one enjoyable. Likewise, the other big flaw here is the criminally underwhelming exorcism scenes that take place here, most notably the second one which is supposedly the true exorcism. The first one is for show and generally supposed to be weak, yet the main one here is really weak and not all that exciting, generally taking up space in the film with it's lack of seriousness and overall underwhelming results. These issues here do hold this one back though it is quite enjoyable nonetheless.

[Fenril]

- The hobbit: The battle of the five armies. Third and final installment of the trilogy drawn from the children's book, which covers... about two and a half chapters of the original.

To be honest, I actually enjoyed this entry much more than the previous two, but... that's not really much praise: the first two, I enjoyed some bits, but fell asleep in others. This one is generally better paced and entertaining. It also deviates miles from the book (not much of a surprise at this point), and the participation of Guillermo del Toro on the script likely explains the huge amount of characters who get killed this time around. But... it's not particularly compelling, and when all is said and done we're left with a six-hour (maybe nine-hour if we count all the inevitable extended editions) prologue to a another series of movies that, while entertaining, were also more than a little overdone. And to be fair, there was a lot more to draw from in "Lord of the rings"...

So, yeah, not really recommended, not that that will stop the movie from being mega-popular.

[slayrrr666]

The Last Exorcism Part II-Hoping to move on with her life, a young woman finds that the demonic possession that had previously plagued her has returned and threatened to destroy more than what happened last time around, forcing her into a battle for her soul. This was quite an enjoyable and really entertaining effort that has a lot going for it. One of it's better efforts is the fact that this one really manages to work the demon possession as something to be feared and dealt with in this, as the amount of time spent here is where this one really works out nicely. Not only is this something that torments her as she tries to go about her daily life, it also shows signs of doing this in her personal life as the new job and life among the rest of the girls in the halfway house are certainly enough for this one to get some chilling moments in by managing to infuse numerous amounts of demonic whispers and flash visions that interrupt her attempts to move on which are quite nice at building this atmosphere of her being tormented and targeted quite well throughout here. Likewise, the personal relationships including her boyfriend and those around her manage to come under attack with a slew of scenes including her being psychologically assaulted and levitating in the middle of the room which is where this all scores rather nicely by throwing these sections together to effectively showcase the intent of the possession throughout here. That leads into the film's biggest plus, which is the rather enjoyable exorcism scene here. Rather than relying on the traditional Christian methodologies that have been done dozens of times over here, the novel approach of a voodoo ceremony to accomplish the same thing makes this seem a lot more creative and unique than it would be without the tactic which also results in this one making for some exciting action as well to really go all-out in this one. There's not a lot to dislike here, though they are pretty heavy as this one really has a problem wandering around in the beginning without really getting anything accomplished. The film has a problem with variety as this resorts to continuous use of whispers and voices for its scares yet doesn't do much else to really utilize its' scares so this one really tends to drag on in the first half with a long wait time to really get interesting in terms of pacing since it does the slow-burn build-up instead of the rapid-fire pacing that makes for a lot more enjoyable tactic. As well, the finale is quite lame and doesn't really do much to restore faith in it's decision-making as the weak look and rushed feel definitely impact this overall. Still, it's got enough to make for a decent-enough watch.

[slayrrr666]

The Conjuring-After finding a family that has been attacked by a demonic entity, a team of paranormal researchers tries to help them rid their house of the demons only for a more dangerous battle to befall them. This turned out to be quite the enjoyable and highly entertaining effort without a lot really wrong with it. One of the biggest issues with this here is the rather irritating way this one resorts to loud jump-scenes to constitute it's scares without deviating from this tactic throughout the film, really making it seem like there's only so many different tricks it can utilize before it runs out. The continuing tactics of the ghost popping up in windows or mirrors behind people makes for a rather aggravating series of moves when this is what's continuously utilized here and it makes for a pretty rough time in the first half here getting this going while also managing to stretch out the run-time a little bit more than it really needed to be. Beyond those, though, there's a lot to like within this one as it really manages to be quite enjoyable. One of its' better efforts is the fact that this one really manages to get the feel of warranted investigation into bringing the investigators in with the full build-up of this one generating enough worthwhile actions to make for a believable trip to the experts. From the children's games played early on to the discovery of the left-over artifacts and then the running storyline about the shadows running around and the bodily injuries, there's certainly some rather skillfully-done actions that manage to bring in the team using worthwhile manners and it only gets more fun from there. The last half is filled with all sorts of fantastic sequences from the crawlspace investigation to the attack on the daughter in the living room and the chasing around the possessed member in the basement which leads into the exorcism attempt that gets quite fun. Its' all fast-paced, exciting and just seems dangerous enough that you don't know if that's what's going to happen next or if there's going to be something even more dangerous to come and that unexpected nature becomes one of its greatest attributes. It's also quite nice in here to really have the backstory present in here which manages to be quite dark and chilling, setting the mood for the actions to come as well as being designed to exploit the supernatural elements it plays with here. Overall, this one was quite a bit of fun despite it's few flaws.

[slayrrr666]

Insidious-Falling victim to a slew of strange experiences, a couple's attempts to find the cause of their woes center on their comatose son's journey into a world inhabited by demons and forces them to travel there to bring him back alive. This was quite an exciting and enjoyable effort that has a lot going for it. One of it's better features is the fact that there's a lot more going on in the story than just the usual haunted house tropes that are found in such efforts, as here we not only get those fun and enjoyable supernatural tones throughout the first half when they're constantly under attack in the old home that results in some great scenes as the attack in the bedroom and the blaring alarm constantly going off, this is then based quite nicely off the second half where it turns into a demonic attack effort with all the paranormal investigations throughout the house before finally unveiling the final half which is the cleverest aspect of all these different efforts. Each one tends to lead into the others quite well as the early stuff is based on the threat of something there but not quite seen to determine how to go about dealing with the claims which are used to great effect in actually getting them out of the house where they knowingly experienced something creepy and dangerous going on. The paranormal investigations are likewise a lot of fun by getting all the usual jump-scares out and really using the large, sprawling house to great effect in generating some fine scares throughout here. Even more to the point, this concerns the film's highlight sequence in the seance into the different dimension that contains some truly freaky ideas before fully unleashing the action into hyper-drive with a stellar, exciting and action-packed sequence that really sells this quite well. The atmosphere in the final half does have some great uses here especially the different demons interacting throughout here as well as the sequences with the mannequins which are unnerving and truly chilling works that altogether give this a highly impressive series of events. It really only falters in a few areas, namely the finale which is obvious the second the trick is mentioned twenty minutes earlier about the freed-hosts' body and never really has a chance to surprise because of the obvious nature of what happened. Likewise, the fact that this one is so dependent on reusing storyline ideas from other films and even filming whole sequences wholesale from those efforts does cause this a little bit of distress as there's just enough here to make this feel as though we've seen it all before yet is still original enough to matter here. These do hold it down slightly, but not enough to still make this a highly entertaining and chilling effort.

[slayrrr666]

The Cabin in the Woods-Heading out to a cabin in the woods, a group of friends finds that their actions have stirred a dark, evil presence nearby and must try to fight for their lives only to learn of a far greater threat within. This was quite a fun and enjoyable entry that has a lot of really fun things about it. One of the better elements to this one is the fact that there's just enough comedy here to play this off as a parody yet still be taken completely seriously. Because this one is so heavily built around clichés and utilizes them to their fullest extent here really drives this one not only by partaking in the clichés but then offering a rather unique take on that need for the clichéd nature of these prototypical stories. This in turn drives up the rather ingenious storyline here where it builds on these types and then sets them into action against numerous enemies as this one kicks in with some rather dark and chilling takes on the prototypical killer-in-the-woods types. Not only is this section of the film pretty dark, creepy and packed with plenty of chilling encounters but it also runs through some rather ingenious moments to keep this one going along quite nicely throughout as there's enough action and gore here to really satisfy here. Unfortunately, what doesn't work here is everything after that point which is the last half-hour of the film as this delves into an over-developed and needless exploration of what's going on that's not in the slightest bit clever, original or worthwhile. Trying to hide behind tons of gory bloodshed doesn't help disguise the fruitless endeavor this tries to undertake all in the name of trying to be original or clever and never is all that enjoyable for it. This isn't enough to really knock this down, but it's enough to lower this slightly.

The Haunting of Julia-Following her daughter's death, a mentally unhinged woman moves into a new apartment to get over the incident and finds that the spirits of other deceased children haunt the house and forces her into a battle to save her sanity. Overall, this was a pretty weak haunted house effort. One of the few areas this manages to get right is the chilling atmosphere within the house, as this one gives off the same typical vibe of films from those times where it's darkened corridors and squeaking doors are far more alive than they really should which is handled all the while by her paranoid state in the house. This is nicely aided by the few rather clever attacks here from the ingenious manner of killing off their daughter in the beginning while also forcing the horrid nature of the act mostly off-screen for a particularly nasty opening sequence, and is furthered along by the few murders here with the slit throat and bathtub electrocution sequences getting a lot of big play here for those reasons. Likewise, the manner in which this one sets up the mystery surrounding the other dead children is handled quite well as the forgoing mystery is pretty chilling, but beyond this there's not much else to this one. The fact that there's just so much talking and just letting nothing happen that it really starts to wear thin by the ending as there's just nothing of remote interest as we watch her simply sit around in the house while she talks to herself. Beyond that, none of these scenes are really that interesting since they don't really showcase anything all that exciting and in the end really leaves this one quite well defined by its few good scenes scattered amongst a horde of rather bland and hardly interesting scenes that take up more than half of the screen-time here.

[slayrrr666]

Silent Night, Deadly Night-Thought to have been cured from his psychosis, the trauma a young boy associates with Christmas is rekindled by an encounter as Santa Claus and makes him go on a rampage through town while the authorities try to stop his carnage. This was a highly enjoyable and decidedly sleazy slasher effort. One of the better elements on display here is the length it goes to in order to fully present it's warping of traditional Christmas traditions and themes which allows for some really exciting times within this. The opening encounter with the grandfather, the decidedly sleazy carjacking attempt that triggers it all and the ensuing scenes in the orphanage that not only includes the scenes of him seeing all the carnal transgressions and the hilarious Santa encounter but the treatment he undergoes because of his time there all paint a very important picture of the psychological prognosis that he's tormented with. This is undoubtedly helped along by the crucial Christmas party at the store he works at which triggers everything again and starts the rampage in earnest by again triggering those hidden impulses and setting the action off with a truly fine stalking sequence within the aisles of the darkened store all bestowed with festival ornaments and decorations which features some pretty brutal deaths as well. That continues nicely here with a strong series of brief encounters here which are based off shorter attacks and minimal stalking that becomes all sorts of fun here with the babysitter encounter, the bobsledding teens and the encounter in the convenience store which all add to a rather fun time here with plenty of tense stalking, gory deaths and the demented sensibilities about warping the traditional holiday festivities which is what adds so much to this one. While all these efforts allow for plenty to like here, there's still one area that needs work which is the absolutely long period of time spent on the set-up before actually getting to the good stuff since the kills don't start in earnest until the forty-minute mark with about equal amount of time spent on those actions so it does have a long build-up to get through which is somewhat of a challenge here. The warping of the holiday traditions may be hard to take for some but that's part of the charm here so that doesn't matter as much as the other flaws.

Silent Night, Deadly Night III: You Better Watch Out!-Hoping to rest for the holidays, a blind psychic woman and her friends' trip to a family gathering is interrupted by the reanimated killer that was part of her experiments with and tries to stop him before he kills off her friends. This was a truly abysmal and near worthless slasher effort. About the only positive this one has is the finale stalking around the house, which is quite effective here at putting her in danger due to the use of her physical condition causing a lot of fumbling and stumbling around in the dark while trying to avoid the killer who's closing in, through several different floors of the house and down into the basement where the real stalking is used and the best bloodletting is all thrown together. By itself, it's a decent enough sequence but is just trapped all throughout here with the rest of the banal attributes that hold it down. Among the numerous flaws here, nothing is bigger than the utterly lame and unimposing killer, who looks so ridiculous with the coma-device still strapped to his head that he gets quite more laughs than scares by his appearance and really settles into this one quite weakly. It's hardly off to a good start when we find ourselves treating the killer as a joke, and the other flaws only enhance that since this one is just interminably boring and lifeless. There's hardly any action at all within this since the first half tends to run through her experiments at the hospital before finally just getting to the house at the forty-minute mark as the useless side-tangents of the killer's stops along the way and the detectives spouting pointless scientific jargon at each other make up the rest of the running time in the first half. This is naturally spurred on by the criminally-low body-count that never really gives this one a chance to let loose with the splatter that would've helped the running time along here and in the end there's just not enough action to really get this one going at all. The last flaw here is the overall cheap-ness of the film, both in regards to the locations and sets but also the overall quality of the rest of the special effects as the kills are all off-screen, the design is pretty bad and overall this one never really had a chance to do much good for itself.

Silent Night, Deadly Night IV: Initiation-Trying to investigate an apparent suicide, a reporter is drawn into a strange cult-like collection of women looking to host their demonic leader and tries to find a way of keeping a dangerous prophecy from coming true. This was a slightly-more enjoyable sequel effort that still has some problems with it. One of its better qualities is the fact that there's a lot more here than just a simple demonic cult offering as there's a wholly enjoyable backstory to what's going on here. The initial story about the suicide attempt and the strange situations that surround it are quite engaging, which is nicely matched by the later storyline of her investigation slowly leading her further and further into their powers which enable plenty of exciting times through some highly effective and shocking scenes. As these are based on the distorted and demented hallucinations that are part of the Insectoid fantasies she develops throughout the second half, these help get the film going along quite nicely while also managing to follow along the secondary revelations in here. The whole deal with the insects leads into the film's greatest strength throughout here in the demented atmosphere present here that tends to run rampant quite readily due to these elements, though it never does manage to overcome its few small problems due to that. The main issue here revolves around the finale which is quite a bit overdone and really lacking in any kind of coherent logic, rationality or even scary moments as the abduction and resulting sacrificial ceremony doesn't play out as expected and just falls incredibly flat due to playing out exactly as it's expected to do without fail. Hardly any of it makes any impact much like the fact that the film is so dependent on the weird and otherworldly visuals that it never makes sense on how to properly use them. This one tends to run around thinking that it needs to simply throw weird and slimy special effects around hoping that will cause the audience to squirm when it does nothing of the sort and instead simply continues an overlong tradition of random scene of slimy bugs after another which isn't scary in the slightest. By making it to that scenario, it forces the film into a state of relaxed attitudes and uninspired sequences that are hard to get into and what ultimately holds this one down.

Silent Night, Deadly Night V: The Toymaker-Trying to help her traumatized son at Christmas, a woman finds that the repeated attempts of a local toy-shop worker to win him over are based on more serious accusations and must try to stop their dangerous plan for the neighborhood children. On the whole, this was a decidedly decent enough effort that really does have some good parts to it. One of its better elements is the extremely enjoyable nature it takes toward the sleazy aspect of its storyline, where the idea of a group of innocent neighborhood children receiving malfunctioning toys that will end up killing them in the future makes for a rather chilling premise that gets exploited quite nicely along the way. From the scenes of the children taking the toys and playing to the later scenes of them running amuck as they start to experience all sorts of extremely grisly ends, which are nicely laid out in the second half, this one really gets some rather fun and cheesy action to go along with the rather entertaining for their fun and goofy time. Also part of this charm is the finale which manages to include plenty of rather fun, cheesy action here with the rampaging doll carrying the action in the toy-shop along with a cheesy gusto that's plenty of fun to see through. However, this is about all that works here since there's a lot of problematic elements throughout here, the most notable being the overuse of the killer doll concept that had long run out of steam. The idea of warping it into a killer-Santa story is decent enough but it never goes far enough with this premise since the majority of the time is spent on really unconvincing special effects for the killer dolls and toys that are hardly lifelike and realistic which undercuts their effectiveness considerably. Likewise, the revolving door cast as the villains of the piece don't give this one the case of mystery as to who's behind it all and why that was most likely the target it was aiming for as here it simply reeks of inability to really commit to a storyline that jumps from one random image to another without really settling on a given topic which causes this one to slip a lot as these are pretty hard-fought flaws here. Still, it's good enough that this is still somewhat watchable.

[slayrrr666]

Happy Birthday to Me-Trying to move on in her life, a teen's attempts to move past the traumatic death of her mother and fit back in at school leads to a grisly series of murders towards her friends and forces her to question her sanity to stop the rampage. Strangely, this one turned out to be quite an overrated and problematic slasher. One of the biggest issues against it is the fact that this one really tends to drown itself in the idea that the lead is crazy but never does anything terrifying with that idea as all it does is simply throw suspicion onto her and that's it. It's really hard to stay invested here when all it does is continually mention her past yet keeps that out of the main storyline here by simply having her fine one minute and seemingly on the verge of a mental breakdown two seconds later because of the film's utterly contrived notion of having the group continue to pull pranks on each other in such circumstances. Not only does this make them seem utterly crass and deplorable for keeping up such a tradition during times when they're intended victim is clearly distressed, it's hard to take the events seriously when everything is a joke to them. As well, the kinds of ideas that are jokes to them is not in the slightest bit funny and certainly makes it even more questionable why the group would hang out with each other considering this is the type of friendship they provide with each other. Likewise, this really grinds the film to a halt with their being so much around here that's not all that interesting it takes a long time to warm up to it's surroundings and this makes for quite a long amount of time without this being all that enjoyable. There's some good parts to this one, mainly in the stalking which is quite a bit of fun as there's some ingenious set-ups here with the jock in the weight-room and the couple in the bell-tower which are certainly great fun with their being quite over-the-top and decidedly cheesy enough to work while also throwing some genuine suspense into those scenes which is what makes them work. Likewise, the scenes in the house where it's not together clear what's happened has some absolutely enjoyable scenes that come off far more worthy of a different film due to their darker nature that's missing from the lighthearted tone that's employed here. Finally, the film's big finale scores wonderfully with this one really taking it's warped feelings to their grandest stage yet with some really demented ideas, lots of macabre action with the dead bodies and piling a lot of gore into it that matches the rest of the kills for a truly great and exciting ending here that doesn't quite lift this one over its' flaws.