The Babadook (2014)

I understand now why this film has received such a warm response - it's a masterclass in subtle and complex storytelling, and is as much a character study on how grief can effect people, as it is an all-out horror film.

The plot is about a widow, Amelia, and her young son Samuel. The boy is misbehaving constantly and becomes obsessed by a pop-up children's book called Mr. Babadook. The book is really creepy with disturbing images, and when it depicts the death of Amelia and Sam, Amelia rips it up, only to find it on the doorstep the next day fully restored. The Babadook stands out from the most recent horror films in that it doesn't rely solely on jump scares, but instead, slowly creates dread and suspense and taps into the audience's emotions through the psychological instability of the main character. The film scares the audience in a more subtle and psychological way, and the closet thing I can compare it to is The Shining.

As the main character, Amelia, starts to lose her mind the Babadook appears. The monster's appearances are few and far between but very effective and well timed. The directer has left it the audience the interpret exactly what the Babadook is and what it means. Why own interpretation is that it represents Amelia's inner demons - her depression over her husbands death taking over, which could ultimately lead to her taking her own life and her son's. Amelia's eventual descent into madness is terrifying and chilling, and the ending leaves at lot of unanswered questions.. The performances from the two actors were amazing. The style of the film set the perfect tone and the monster itself was extremely creepy and looked very impressive. An unorthodox and well made film which has breathed a breath of fresh air into the horror genre.

---

---

Read More

Dead Snow (2009)

This low budget Norwegian zombie flick shouldn't really work, but it does. Filled with every single horror movie cliche and trope, it's one of those films that are ridiculous in a good way. The story revolve around a group of medical students on holiday in the remotest part of the Norwegian wilderness they could find.

The characters are the biggest cliche of all, from the deadlocked women who looks like a predator, the quintessential attractive blondes, to the fat film geek guy - who is the source of many a horror movie reference during the film.

After the unlikely group settle in, the not so unlikely drunken party starts, a party which is soon interrupted by a knock of the door of the cabin...The knock is the local weirdo with a scary tail to tell. The man proceeds to tell the group about the legend of a lost Nazi battalion whose evil presence remains on the mountain.

Well it doesn't take long before the man's fears are realized, and the group soon start dropping like flies, and it drops to a few remaining to survivors to face the ravenous army of Nazi zombies. The group of remaining characters, one resembling Ash from Evil Dead, with an amputated arm and chainsaw combo, dispense with the zombie horde in more and more over-the-top and super gory ways.

The special effects are pretty convincing for such a low budget indie film, and each zombie death is more original and mega gory  than the next. Dead Snow is good old-fashioned comedy horror fun. A little indie gem which is up there among the best comedy horrors that I've seen.

Read More

Dead End (2003)

On Christmas Eve Frank Harrington (Ray Wise) is driving  his family to his in-laws for Christmas and decides to take a shortcut. Things soon start to go wrong, as the road they are on seems neverending and they are terrorized by the ghost of a young woman.

The film is described as a 'horror thriller' on its IMDb page, but to me it seemed more like a comedy, mainly due to the hilarious antics of Frank Harrington himself. With constant over-the-top reactions and wise cracks, Ray Wise is hilarious in this film. With his dum daughter, annoying son in-law and crazy wife nagging him all the way, he soon starts to crack up.

The family members soon start disappearing one by one, and the last you see of them are their faces stuck to the back window of a mysterious black hurse which drives past them in part of some morbid death ritual.

The film feels like a horror version of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. By the way they are set up, even the scares seem like they are meant to be funny rather than scary. Dead End isn't to be taken seriously as a horror, even if that was what the director intended.

---

Read More

The Quiet Ones (2014)

The Quite Ones is one of the most ridiculous films I've seen in a long time. The story is ludicrous. A mad professor and his assistants (two posh boys and a slapper with a nice arse) set out to perform an experiment on a young mentally ill girl, who was recently released from a nuthouse. After losing funding from Oxford University for his ridiculous experiment, the professor moves it out to a large dilapidated country house.

The fact that Oxford Uni would have anything to do with such an experiment is what makes the whole premise of the films plot so ridiculous. A young girl, who has previously attempted suicide, is subjected to a series of invasive experiments, which, according to the professors theory, will summon not only an ancient demon, but also awaken the girls dormant telekinetic powers..

The film tries to pay homage to the vintage haunted house films of the 70's, and succeeded in its style and theme, but ruined it with the inclusion of found-footage.

The films trailer was actually scarier than the film. The were only two scenes that actually made me nervous, but the rest were mindbogglingly tediousness. The found-footage element was unnecessary and only used to create the contrived attempts at jump-scares which were, for the most part, unsuccessful. Lacking any original ideas as regards scaring the viewer, the filmmakers just resorted to strange noises, screaming and cheap CGI effects.

Character development was rushed and forever perplexing, the performances were pretty good, but the characters were just dumb and annoying.  The only convincing character was the professor himself (Jarid Harris) who convincingly portrayed a narcissistic madmen.  The film culminates with a cheap CGI set-piece, which is as underwhelming as most of the ninety eight minutes proceeding it.

The Quiet Ones is not very original or very scary and has a completely vacuous plot. I'm guessing most hardcore Hammer Horror fans won't be pleased with this mess. That said, it may prove entertaining to the late night Netflix viewers of the world.

Read More

Godzilla (2014)

Well, where to start?  To be honest, I’m still in shock. I was so looking forward to this after seeing the trailer, but what a monstrous disappointment it’s turned out to be (pun indented)

The title of the film should have been: Cloverfield Monster vs The American Army plus Godzilla. In the whole 2 hour running length of the film, Godzilla appeared 4 times, and for a total of about 20 minutes. The first half hour involves Bryan Cranston’s character searching the world for the monster that killed his wife when it attacked the nuclear plant she worked at 15 years earlier… He eventually discovers that the mysterious beast is being held captive at secret base, run by an annoying scientist played Ken Watanabe.

Watanabe and his scientific college (an annoying women who looks like a frog) advise the army throughout the film.  They both seemed to have contracted ‘locked jaw’ because their response to any crisis or question, was to look down at their feet, move slowly and dramatically towards to camera (jaws trailing on the floor), and state the obvious.

Everything happened at a thousand miles per hour, leaving no time for character development, or a discernible plot of any kind. There was the usual cheesy one-liners,  ridiculous posturing American army, lots of grunting and saluting – what you’d expect from an action film this – only worse.

The only highlights were the battles between Godzilla (in his rare appearances) and the Cloverfield monster. I have to admit, Gareth Edwards actually did a great job with the look of Godzilla . He looked much more like the classic beast we know from the Japanese films, and not like the giant iguana that Roland Emmerich crapped out.

Great monster battles and CGI don’t make up for a horrendous plot. At times, I actually thought I was watching a Transformers film. Gareth Edwards may have been out of his depth with this, seeing as his previous films were low budget indie films, which is a shame because I really liked his first film: Monsters. I hope that, if there is to be a sequel, they will learn from their mistakes .

Read More

At The Devils Door (2014)

So, the film starts with a young girl and her boyfriend hanging out with a bunch of devil worshiping weirdo’s who talk her into playing a game of “keep your eye on the cup”, the result of which will decide  whether or not she has been chosen to be possessed by the devil. 

Needless to say, the girl wins and is told by one of the cult members to stand at a road junction and say her name and the devil will appear.  She is possessed and forced to do evil things, but eventually kills herself. The devil’s spirit remains in her house and tries to find a way back into the souls of whoever lives there.

The rest film is set some thirty the years later (present day) and follows a real estate agent trying to sell the possessed house. Things take a bit too long to get going for my liking with practically nothing happening for the first half hour. The scene when the real estate agent discovers that she has just been talking to the ghost of the girl who committed suicide in the house, is just ridiculous to me.
The natural reaction would be to get the hell out of the there, but she follows the girl around the house. I mean she’s just asking for trouble.

The evil spirit passes from person to person during the film with some great shock scares along the way. The scenes where the sisters each search the house in the dark with torches are really creepy – I was just waiting for something to jump out. I found the scene with the girl standing in front of the mirror the creepiest of all -  with that sinister voice.

Altogether, this wasn't a bad effort. It slowed down and dragged in parts, but there were plenty of scares and creepy moments; and the ‘floating in the air’ possessions scenes were very convincing. This film brings something different to the possession sub-genre.

Read More

Final Destination 5 (2013)

In my opinion the Final Destination franchise is the worst series of horror films released in the last 20 years, beating even the many crappy Saw sequels, and the fifth installment of this terrible franchise is the worst yet. Now, pretty much all aspects of this film are bad, but let start with the acting. The two main characters and best friends Peter 'eyebrows' Friedkin (Miles Fisher) and Sam Lawton (Nicholas D'Agosto), really do take the biscuit with some of the worst acting I've ever seen. Not only is their line delivery shocking, but Peter Freidkins eyebrow prevent the viewer from taking him seriously at all (you will understand when you see them.)

The inevitable far-fetched and ridiculous deaths start happening right from the start. When Sam and Miles embark on a work trip with their colleges. Whilst sat on a coach in a traffic jam, Sam has a premonition that the bridge they are on will soon collapse. .


Just as he starts warning the group of their imminent deaths, the bridge starts to crumble beneath them. Luckily enough, however, the main characters all survive, while a bunch of extras die when the bus plunges into the river below.  The rest of the film plays out the same as previous four installments - with death hunting down the annoying characters and eventually catching up with them in increasingly ridiculous ways.

The paycheck wasn't bad, so I don't give a fuck!

There's practically no plot. Just a showcase of stupidity and bad acting in-between the death scenes. I actually enjoyed the death scenes, not for the special effects or gore, but because one of the annoying characters had been killed. The final scene in the kitchen is a showcase of all the things that make this film terrible: the terrible acting, ridiculous script, and predictable deaths. The only highlights:  the crappy actors eventually die, and Tony 'Candyman' Todd's cameo.

I really hope they don't make any more of these films. I wouldn't even categorize this crap as cinema. Stay well clear of this, or you'll regret it.

Read More

Oculus (2014)

Oculus,but it turned to be pretty good. Also, as a Doctor Who fan, I was also looking forward to seeing Karen Gillan on the big screen, I wasn't disappointed.
As it was partly a WWE production, I was initially skeptical about

The film has a twisted roller coaster of a plot, that I didn't really understand fully on the first viewing. The story plays out in two different time periods: present day, and 11 years earlier, and swaps between them as the film progresses. The plot involves siblings Tim and Kaylie, and starts in the past with older Tim shooting a his younger sister (told you it's a twisted plot). Tim had always blamed his shooting his sister on a mirror in the family living room, which he claimed had some kind of dark power. In present day, older Tim is released from the nuthouse, and is met by his sister Kaylie, who he apparently didn't shoot in the past at all...

The story doesn't make sense at first, but slowly unravels, so stick with it. Kaylie tells Tim that she has purchased to strange mirror again, and wanted to performed a little experiment to find out what happened 11 years earlier. So, if Tim didn't shoot his sister who did he shoot?... He shot his Dad.  After the evil spirit of a woman came out of the mirror and drove his parents insane, his dad attacked him, so he was forced to shoot him. While Tim was locked up, Kaylie did some research on the mirror, and discovered that everyone who has owned it in the past has either disappeared or been killed.

Who said starbuck was dead..

The film continues swapping between past and present, showing us how Kaylie and Tim's lives play out in both timelines. Once you find out that the mirror has the power to create illusions and can convinced people they aren't where they really are, you will be able to figure out whats really happening (mostly).

Backed up by a great soundtrack, Oculus is a mind-bending ghost story with plenty of tense scenes that will have you on the edge on your seat. There are a few shock scares in there as well, one of which made me spill my beer, lol. As well having a complex and compelling plot, the cast were great too. Karen Gillan was great as Kaylie (I'm looking forward to seeing her in more films). It was also nice to see Katie Sackhoff in a film again, I've been a fan of her's after first watching Battlestar Gallactica.

Most people will watch Oculus and think I doesn't make sense. I thought the same thing about Donnie Darko the first time I saw that, but after a few viewings, it became and still is one of my favorite films. So give it a chance.

Read More

The Den (2013)

It's not surprising to see yet another found-footage film, seeing as they account for 90% of all horror films made these days, and sadly, it's not a surprise to see one as bad as The Den.

Elizabeth is a social media student who, as part of her thesis, intends to spend a few months chatting with completes strangers on a socials media site called The Den, what could possible go wrong..? After a few days of lazing around her apartment talking to strangers, she eventually come's across a disturbing video of a women being murdered. She immediately goes to the police, who show the kind of incompetency you come to expect from cops in films like this. The cop views tape and says "it sure looks real, but unfortunately it's impossible for us to this guy..."



Soon her friends and family start being picked off by this online nutter, but at no point does she notify the police. After the series of annoying video and unrealistic video conferences she has with strangers, I was glad to finally see some action.

The police in this film are absolutely useless. After Elizabeth calls them again after her boyfriend goes missing, they immediately dismiss her story and even threaten to lock her up for telling stories,  even though there was a laptop left on the floor of the place he was last seen, possibly containing evidence.

The found footage element doesn't fit in with certain scenes. I mean would you still be filming everything if some nutcase was stalking you? Or when you were rushing to your sisters house, worried that someone was gonna kill her? This is why found-footage is over used these days and most of the time doesn't work right.

There's  plenty of blood and gore in the film, and the killer looks genuinely creepy wearing the sackcloth mask. Unfortunately, that doesn't make up for the film's other shortcomings.

Scarecrow anyone?

The Den was a good idea poorly executed. The idea of a social media killer is great, and I would love to see a non-found-footage film based on that.

Read More

Tremors (1990)

Tremors is a classic B-movie monster movie, and one of my all-time favourite films. Set in a small Nevada town called perfection, the film mostly revolves around to local handymen, Valentine McGee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward). The two soon realize that the residents of the small are not alone in the baron dessert valley, when they discover a giant thirty-foot-long underground worm.

Ward and Bacon suit their characters perfectly, Ward being the grumpy old red-neck and Bacon the cocky young cowboy wannabe. My favorite character, however, has always been Burt Gummer (Micheal Gross). A local gun enthusiast who had previously been mocked by the towns folk for his lifestyle, soon becomes their lifeline. My favorite scene of the whole film is the one when one of the Graboids breaks into Burt's basement, and he, and his wife Heather kill it with a hail of bullets from their sizable gun collection, with Burt eventually finishing the creature off with two blast of his Elephant Gun.

Broke into the wrong wreck room....

The practical special effects in the film were groundbreaking at the time and still look convincing to this day. You won't see any CGI in this film, which is a refreshing change, there's nothing like good honest practical effects. The only film that I can really compare it to in terms of practical effects is The Thing (1982). 

The film is a mix of comedy, monster movie, and western. - an unlikely mix of genres that works perfectly in this case. The comedy in the film comes from Val and Earls constant wisecracking, and also the over-the-top reactions and statements of the crazy gun-nut Burt. As well as comedy, the film has some genuine 'make you jump' moments - which are well-timed and put together. Everything happens at a brisk pace, maintaining the tension throughout - hence the 90 minute running time. 

Tremors is a quick, fun, action comedy horror, which has cemented its place as one the best monster movies ever made (in my opinion).

Read More

The Sacrament (2014)

The Sacrament is the third feature from Ti West, and is basically his take on the Jonestown massacre. The film follows two journalists shooting a documentary about a man's attempt to locate his missing sister. They  find her in a rural cult preparing for a mass suicide.

The two journalists are airlifted to a remote area in the forest and then driven by truck to the cult's camp. When reach the gate, they are greeted by three angry African men armed with machine guns (which doesn't put them off entering the camp). They are greeting by the man's missing sister, who is happy, a little too happy...to see them.

Soon after their arrival the journalists are invited to a town meeting by the leader of the camp, a man the cult members call "father". At the camp meeting the journalists interview the charismatic cult leader, where he tell them about his belief in the rejection of western values, capitalism and modern technology, and warns the journalists not to give the group a bad write-up in the paper or divulge any info on the camps location. Much like all cult leaders, "father" makes out that the camp is a utopia of sorts where the people are truly free. It turns out, however, that all is not well in utopia. 

The one thing that irritated me was the stupidity of the journalists: even after his friend is abducted and killed by the cult leader, one of them remains - trying to find the groups photographer and the man's missing sister. A one point he tries to escape on a chopper, only to be fired upon by the armed guards. So where does he flee to..? the woods, to a find a road maybe, the sky, anywhere but back to the dam camp! But that's where he goes. 

The acting is pretty good and film was pretty well paced. As powerful as the subject matter is, the found-footage style added to the authenticity. However, the film loose its way and becomes a little predictable towards the end. After the cult members drink their the magic orange juice, it's just a loan survivor left roaming around aimlessly - hunted by the guards for twenty minutes before getting on the chopper.

The characters may have been infuriating at times and the ending all too predictable, but the The Sacrament is a well-made and disturbing edition the Ti West filmography.

Read More

Wolf Creek 2 (2014)

We head back into the outback with serial killer madman Mick Taylor. After the first installment, Mick has moved south towards a more populated area in which to find his victims. The dark, unsettling atmosphere of the original film isn't really present here and there is very little build up before the killing begins.

The first death of the film is ridiculously over the top and very unlikely. I don't to give too much away, but it involves a rifle shot that any army sniper would struggle to make. Mick inevitably has a run-in with some tourists again - German tourists this time. I almost felt glad the tourists were killed, they were truly stupid. They got a lift out into the he middle of nowhere with few supplies and then start shouting at each other and asking how they were going to get back...eventually Mick turns up and offers the couple a lift back into town, needless to say, they don't make it.

In a way the film reminded me of I Spit On Your Grave 2 - basically the same film set somewhere else. Fare enough, the killings are gory and the killer is his usual charismatic, funny self, but there's nothing original in the film; if it weren't for the 2 in the title, there wouldn't be any difference in the story compared with the first film. The film has with the same basic elements - two stupid tourists, a dungeon, and a madman. The ending is exactly the same as well. The only difference in this film is that Mick begins stalking an Englishmen who witnessed the killing of the tourists, he toys with him (Hitcher style) in a game of cat and mouse.

*SPOILER ALERT* The films ends the same as the first, with a single survivor escaping. At the end of the film a caption come on saying the police didn't believe is story of a madman roaming the outback killing tourists, and they suspect he killed the tourists himself. The final scene shows Mick Taylor walking away in the dessert with his rifle over his shoulder.

Like many horror sequels of the last ten years, Wolf Creek 2 failed to live up to its predecessor's success. It's not a terrible film by any means, and is a refreshing change from all the found-footage films that are saturating the genre.

Read More