Whew! I havent posted a review in ages. Ive been far too busy with work, however, I have 5 back shifts of 16 hours each to watch and review some horror movies so I shall do so! So stay tuned for many reviews as well some changes around The Scream Project. (hint: it involves a DOT COM!) plus, some more battling with Horror Peepshow! So keep an eye out of our comeback!
reviews to come:
Red Hook
Bloody Mary
Mortuary
Wages of Sin
Memory
Boneyard
Nightmare On Elm Street 2010
Daybreakers
I Spit On Your Grave
She’s Crushed
Human Centipede
DIRECTOR: Breck Eisner
WRITER: Ray Wright, Scott Kosar STARRING: Timothy Olyphant Radha Mitchell Joe Reegan Danielle Panabaker Joe Anderson Justin Welborn STUDIO: Overture Films RATING: R LANGUAGE: English
SYNOPSIS:
“Terror Cannot Be Contained” | The story revolves around the inhabitants of a small Kansas town who are beset by death and insanity after a plane crash lets loose a secret biological weapon into the water supply. Read the full synopsis here.
(above information thanks to bloody-disgusting.com)
Normally, I go to see remakes because I’ve loved the original (ie: Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street), however, this time I didn’t see the original. I went to see this one because the remake itself looked worth it. I took my mother, who likes horror movies but is notorious for jumping, screaming, and all around embaressing everyone around her. However, she was on the edge of her seat, barely jumped, and was completely engrossed. It was almost impressive. She even said that she loved the film once it was over. That is a new height for my mother.
As for me, I loved it too. Some parts were incredibly slow, but it did pick up enough and twisted enough to make it enjoyable. It has scenes that made you wonder if the character really was sick, or if that was just his or her personality. For instance: the hunters who upon being told they weren’t allowed to hunt anything until spring began hunting humans. Could they really be infected by the virus or are they just nut job back country hillbillies who feel it’s fine to kill another human? You aren’t told and have to decide for yourself. I love having that option. The same goes with the Deputy Sheriff.
I also love the idea that this isn’t something they could win, so in the end the best way to solve the issue was to kill everyone off. Don’t worry, that above statement wont ruin any of the movie for you, honest. What was even better than the realism, was the far more realistic ending. I was certainly impressed by how it ended, and believe that’s how most zombie/virus films should end.
Again, here’s another movie that I suggest you see. It was pretty fun to watch. I also suggest you see it in the theatre to get the full effect of the end scenes. They were strangely beautiful.
HORROR PEEPSHOW: Im a horror snob. remakes are horrible.
MISS B: yes. and its the same as every other of that genre
HORROR PEEPSHOW: this one is alright, but it’s missing so much that the original had
MISS B: well of course. you can’t really expect a remake to have that though.
HORROR PEEPSHOW: I do. hence the horror snob like Rob Zombie… needs to be killed. He’s a fucking asshole, touching Halloween is off limits.
MISS B: I most definitely agree.
HORROR PEEPSHOW: it’s one of the most iconic horror movies of all time; never has the genre been so well defined as done by the delicious J.C…I get in fights with the boys over horror movies. haha Gotta love a good healthy debate
MISS B: i do too. we should horror debate more often
HORROR PEEPSHOW: haha alright. I’ve lost friends over it tho’. I get very serious.
MISS B: no worries. me too. you’re on.
STAY TUNED THE REVIEW BATTLE BETWEEN MISS B AND HORROR PEEPSHOW WILL CONTINUE AS AN ON GOING EVENT
Release Date: April 28, 2009 Director/Writer: Pascal Laugier Starring: Mylene Jampanoi, Morjana Alaoui, Mike Chute Studio: Dimension Films Language: French
SYNOPSIS:
Now 25 years old, Lucie sets out to get revenge on the people who attacked and permanently scarred her when she was only 10 years old.
mar·tyr:
/ˈmɑrtər/ [mahr-ter] –noun
a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce his or her religion.
a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause: a martyr to the cause of social justice.
a person who undergoes severe or constant suffering: a martyr to severe headaches.
a person who seeks sympathy or attention by feigning or exaggerating pain, deprivation, etc.
mar·tyr:
ˈmɑrtər/ [mahr-ter] –noun
Witness
When I first grabbed this movie I thought I was putting my hands on a run-of-the-mill revenge/retribution movie. Lucie was tortured as a 10 year old in this below ground chamber slash slaughterhouse, and now that she’s older and free she wants to track down the woman who did that to her and kill her. However, early on in the movie you realize that, nope, that’s not all this film is. The reason Lucie wants to kill her previous capture? Because she’s being haunted by the ghost of the girl she could have saved when she left the underground torture chamber, but didn’t. Lucie decided to run and free herself, and even though she was consumed with guilt for leaving this woman behind, the bitch still haunts her.
Woo! Let us tie in some ghosts into this already bizarre film. Upon seeing the ghosts I get a little worried. Maybe it’s going to be that kind of movie, too!
Lucie hunts down and kills the woman who tortured her, as well as this woman’s family. That’s when Lucie’s friend, Anna (who may also be her lover, but were not sure since the movie alludes to this but never actually says if its true) shows up, and helps her friend get rid of the bodies. Lucie, however, is still being tortured by this ghost, even though she killed the people the ghost wanted her to kill. This ghost tortures the hell out of Lucie, and fans of gore films will enjoy this, because it certainly was gore. Some excellent torture scene ensue. Lucie, as it turns out, realizes that this is never going to end, and ends up offing herself to escape. Of course, Anna has to take care of the huge mess, and bury all the bodies. While she’s doing this, she finds a room under the house, which is YET ANOTHER TORTURE CHAMBER! This chamber is complete with another young girl undergoing the same disgusting attacks as Lucie had 15 years ago.
Anna tries to help this girl (and this montage is littered with more gore which actually makes your insides hurt) but the girl turns on Anna anyway, and while being attacked by this poor girl who only wants to be free of all of her captures, she is saved by a group of people who kill the attacker. This is when we discover that the woman Lucie killed isn’t the only torturer- she’s part of a much larger group!
Now, I don’t want to spoil the ending, so I’m only going to tell you this: If you settle in for a redemption film, or even a paranormal film, you’re going to be very surprised at the twist near the end. I hope I didn’t give away said twist with the above definitions of the word “Martyr”.
This movie, when I picked it up at the video rental store surprised me because it had a warning right on the cover telling you that this movie contains scenes that may disgust you, disturb you or cause fear. Which I found pretty amazing because you don’t see too many warnings like that. However, the warnings are bang on. This movie certainly will disturb and possibly disgust you. I found myself sitting up, and holding my stomach during some of the scenes. This is rare, during most horror movies with attack scenes, I’m at the tip of my seat giggling and clapping because it’s so completely implausible. Not with this one. Everything is perfectly plausible, which is why it’s so disgusting. It really makes you wonder how much the human soul can take because just giving out. It also makes you wonder why and how someone could torture another human being the way these people torture these girls.
That being said, if you can stomach the gore and the complete disturbing aura this film has, I implore you to watch it because it is definately worth it. The twist is amazing, and the whole premise is just beyond comprehension. Above all, the ending, which is meant to shock you and completely succeeds, is one of the better endings, I find, in all the horror movies I’ve seen. Therefore: I loved this movie, and I think you should see it too. Go. Do it now. I’ll wait here while you do.
THE THAW
RELEASE DATE: October 06, 2009
DIRECTOR: Mark A Lewis
WRITER: Mark A. Lewis and Michael W. Lewis
STARRING:Martha MacIssac Val Kilmer Aaron Ashmore Steph Song (War) Anne Marie DeLuise Sebastian Gacki John Callander
STUDIO: Lionsgate RATED: R LANGUAGE: English SYNOPSIS:A deadly prehistoric parasite is released when a Woolly Mammoth is discovered in a melting ice cap. Faced with a potentially global epidemic, four ecology students must destroy the parasite before it reaches the rest of civilization. One-by-one they are infected and one-by-one they turn on each other. Soon the survivors are left with only one choice – to make the ultimate sacrifice and burn everything to the ground… including themselves.
I rented (yes, rented) The Thaw after seeing the trailer for it. In the trailer they showed a larva crawling out of a hole in the flesh of a girls forehead. I thought, “Holy shit!” I figured I’d be sufficiently freaked out by the bugs. But, honestly, the bugs didn’t do much to make up for the dreadful story line. They tried to make it multifaceted by adding a young girl with daddy issues, but it didn’t work.
Was Val Kilmer necessary? I think they just needed a big name to lure people in. Once you get over the fact that he is completely unnecessary, you can pay attention to the bugs. The larva are wonderful and beyond disgusting. But, once they turned into large, fluttery, squeaking bugs, they’re just bad CG.
As for the movie, it’s all been done before. The only way to kill off this bug before it infects the entire earth and destroys all of the human population is to Kentucky fry them. Really? That’s original. Self sacrifice for the greater good in a horror movie? Never!
Have you seen The Thing? No? Do that instead of watching this. It’s the same story line, just one has aliens and the other has bugs. I guess it depends on what you find more disgusting. If you dislike bugs more than aliens, then give it a shot. However, just for a heads up, The Thing has better special effects (non-CG special effects too) and acting.
PONTYPOOL
RELEASE DATE: May 29, 2009 DIRECTOR: Bruce McDonald WRITER: Tony Burgess STARRING: Stephen McHattie Lisa Houle Georgina Reilly Hrant Alianak Rick Roberts STUDIO: IFC Films LANGUAGE: English
SYNOPSIS: A small-town radio station discovers that recent madness in the local population may be caused by a virus transmitted through speech.
I thought I’d kick off The Scream Project with a bang, and review one of the most recent movies I’ve seen that I’ve really enjoyed. Pontypool.
To start off, my boyfriend used to work at a movie rental store, and now whenever we visit that store we know the employees and they always tell us about the movies they enjoyed. They know I’m a horror fiend so they usually mention horror films they’ve enjoyed recently. They were joking about Pontypool, and my boyfriend felt it was a horrible choice, so I grabbed it anyway. As it turns out, I really enjoyed it.
It stars Stephen McHattie (Watchmen) as a radio personality on a talk radio station and takes place in a town called Pontypool in Ontario, Canada. As the day progresses, they keep getting word from the outside of unusual deaths as groups of people start attacking one another and forming mobs. These mobs start growing in number and frequency and appear to be possessed as they attack while chanting something over and over again. It is later discovered that these mobs are infected by a deadly virus that is spreading though the English language. The radio personality, Mazzy, reports as the entire town is killed off by this virus.
I liked this movie for three reasons: firstly, because most zombie movies/deadly virus has taken over the town movies occur outside where the zombies attack you and you know what is happening because its right there in front of you. This one doesn’t. These people are inside the radio station and aren’t subjected to the virus and the attacking people, they’re just hearing about it from people who are out there in it. I find this more realistic in the sense that if a zombie apocalypse actually did happen, we would probably hear about it from the radio or television and not by our own eyes. What do I mean? Well lets say this world wide zombie apocalypse really did happen, it would probably spread like a pandemic disease and start in highly populated cities like New York. I live in a small town on the east coast of Canada, I would probably hear about this virus via the television as if Entertainment Tonight did a special on it. I would hear about it long before it arrived on my door step. Understood?
Second reason I loved this movie: It took place in a small town in Ontario, Canada. Most zombie movies happen in big cities in the united states, Washington D.C, New York, or San Francisco. Never small town Canada. Usually they way to escape the zombies is to flee the large city and hide out in a small town. This way, you have no where to turn.
and finally, the third reason I loved this movie. The virus was being spread THROUGH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE! How amazing is that? Certain words were infected and you had no way of knowing which words they are! This is sort of a political commentary on the way Quebec, Canada is today. They frown on the use of the English language because they are primarily francophone. So the idea that certain words in English are poison is very, very clever, if you as me.
That being said, this movie isn’t exactly a high-octane thrill ride but its not as slow as molasses either. It’s steady, revealing things to you one step at a time. The ending kind of throws you as well, is he really infected? It’s also pretty abrupt, but like what would happen during a real zombie apocalypse- BANG! The atom bomb will go off, and everyone is destroyed. Simple, quick, and effective.
So, in closing, I loved it. I thought it was clever and well executed. However, if you’re looking for slash’em’up or pure gore then this is not the film for you. I advise you to check it out though, you’d probably enjoy it.
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THE CRAZIES: (2010 Remake)
tər/ [mahr-ter] –noun
