horror movies – Page 2

Movie Review: Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead

February 23, 2015 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

A brief review of Dead Snow is available here.

There were very few surprises in Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, and that’s one of the film’s greatest strengths. At least as gory as its predecessor and a lot funnier, it’s a sequel that didn’t have to be made, but I’m glad it was. Horror comedy often goes terribly wrong, veering into bland, unfunny spectacle, but it did not happen here. Between a hysterical script and some very inspired physical comedy, it’s a fun movie all on its own.

The Cast: Vegar Hoel returned as Martin, who survived Dead Snow and ended up getting his arch-enemy Herzog’s arm grafted to his stump. The transplanted limb has a life (or unlife) all its own, and creates not only some hysterical moments, but important plot advancement. The film’s writer, Stig Frode Henriksen has a great role as Martin’s reluctant friend/assistant, and Hallvard Holmen was very funny as an entirely incompetent cop.
Zombie Squad: Three members of the Zombie Squad arrive in the nick of time to help Martin deal with Herzog’s new invasion of Norway. The writers handled them deftly, making them funny but not (too) pathetic.
Language: It’s going to mark me as unsophisticated and provincial, but I appreciated that the movie was filmed in English. Reading subtitles tends to take me out of the experience and divides my attention, so that didn’t happen for me here.
Gore: It’s all here. More intestine jokes, more blood, more disgusting scenes across the board. It doesn’t let up. Ever. Some parts, even the funny ones, were a little hard to watch.
The End: There’s a scene at the end that had me saying, “No, stop it, this shouldn’t be happening, just stop, stop, stop.” Few movies can do that to me.

If you like funny, gross-out zombie movies, you’ll love Dead Snow 2. Four out of five stars.

Movie Review: I, Frankenstein

February 18, 2015 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

Simply put, I, Frankenstein is an absolutely terrible movie.

But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see it. If you modify your expectations, knowing at the outset that you’re going to see a terrible movie, you can have fun with it. You just have to stop cringing first. The plot is a confusing, terrible muddle involving Frankenstein’s monster (named Adam), demons from Hell, and gargoyles who exist to protect mankind from the demons (but they’re not angels). Thematically, it’s an appalling mishmash further confused by awful dialogue and a silly backstory. Despite all that, I was entertained. I’d see a sequel if they made one (which they won’t).

Aaron Eckhart: A fine actor, he was completely wasted in this film. We’ll ignore the strange scars his character Adam was forced to bear other than to suggest that Doctor Frankenstein was an unbelievably incompetent stitcher and couldn’t find a single clean face to put on his creation. Eckhart tried, he really did, but he was given such terrible lines that not even he could save them. To his dubious credit, Eckhart never once descended into the smart-alecky humor that made him so watchable in Thank You for Smoking. The film was far too earnest and grim for that.
Everyone Else: Miranda Otto (Eowyn) was the Gargoyle Queen. She was also schizophrenic to the point of making no sense at all. Bill Nighy did his usual sinister upper-class Brit schtick. Yvonne Strahovski added no charm at all to an entirely useless role. The only stand-out was Jai Courtney as Gideon, the mean gargoyle. He did a great job and added actual depth to his role; a Heavenly miracle, of sorts. It helped that he was such a cool character from Spartacus: that just sort of bled over.
The Script: Ignore it. Everything everyone says is extremely silly, but they say it with such gravity. If at any point you think somebody’s going to say something interesting, you’re wrong. Recalibrate your expectations. When it isn’t cliche, it’s stupid. The thing is, they believe it’s meaningful, even if you don’t. So don’t worry about it. This goes double for the plot. It’s hopeless. Imagine if Mary Shelley wrote a sequel to Frankenstein while high on opium. Then someone photocopied a mirror image of it and threw it in a wood chipper with a copy of the Bible. Finally, a chimpanzee scotch-taped the bits together larger than a thumbnail, and that’s your plot.
Fight, Fight, Fight: This is the real reason to see this film. If you liked the fight scenes from Blade, you’ll dig this movie. I practiced serrada escrima several years ago, just enough to get some sinawali patterns and flow drills down, and the Kali-style fighting Adam did in the movie was a real treat to watch. They even did some punyo-work in the fight scenes. You know where the special effects budget went, and they squeezed every nickel out of it to great effect.

It’s terrible. See it anyway.

Movie Review: The Possession

January 19, 2015 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

The Possession is an excellent horror film that puts the lie to the notion that good horror can’t be rated PG-13. The nature of the supernatural antagonist was different enough to be interesting and woven deeply enough into the film to be more than a gimmick. Don’t be fooled by the silly “Based on a true story” thing. A spoiler-free review follows:

John Winchester: Jeffrey Dean Morgan showed great range in this role, and was believable as both a college basketball coach and a terrified father trying to save his youngest daughter. His frustration and confusion were palpable throughout. Even though he’ll always be Sam and Dean’s dad to me, and I was hoping he’d just kick the monster’s ass the way he would in Supernatural, he showed that he could believably go beyond his beloved television role.
Poor Kid: Natasha Calis as Em, the dybbuk’s victim, did a great job. Usually, let’s face it, kids in movies tend to get shrill and annoying when dealing with perilous situations, but Calis didn’t go there. What was happening to her wasn’t fair, and you wanted that filthy, horrible thing out of her.
The Others: Kyra Sedgwick was her usual, irritating self in this film, which was probably deliberate on the casting director’s part. She’s unlikable in every role she’s in, so it worked here as the ex-wife. Matisyahu as Tzadok stole the show: he was funny without it spoiling the film’s intensity, and authoritative as a Hasidic exorcist, of sorts. The filmmakers used him just enough.
Dybbuks: The notion of a dybbuk box was very neat, and it was quite interesting to see Jewish exorcists using the power of Adonai to fight a demon, rather than the standard Catholic priest vs. Lucifer contest. There’s a great deal of wealth to be mined in Jewish mysticism and folklore.
Nastiness: the rolling eye effects were particularly disturbing, as were the moths and other nasty, horrible things the dybbuk inflicted. The MRI scene was bizarre, but worked. Seeing the dybbuk out of the box…gross. This was a filthy, disgusting monster that did appalling things, and it showed.
Caring Is Sharing: Unlike far too many horror movies made these days, effort was made to get you to care about what happened to the characters. This wasn’t a film about bad things happening to bad people: it was about awful things happening to decent people, so the outcome mattered.

Go see The Possession on Netflix when you have a spare 90 minutes. 4 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: Oculus

January 12, 2015 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

Oculus was a genuinely scary film that had a heart, characterized by a good script and characters you could relate to. While there were certain familiar elements that sanded off some of the edges that would have made it a great film, it still delivered on its promise. Spoiler-free review follows (I only spoil the mediocre films):

Tim: While the actor playing young Tim had only one expression (a kind of constipated fear, as though he always had to take a shit but was afraid to for some reason), the older Tim pulled off his role well. Despite his recent release from a mental facility, he was the reasonable character and had plausible (if wrong, of course) explanations for the bizarre events. He had the best lines in the film.
Kaylie: An extraordinary performance from both the child actor and the older actor. Obviously unbalanced, obviously holding it together with spit and chewing gum, she made the movie. The young version inspired pathos and the adult version inspired empathy. Her OCD style of insanity was believable and reasonable, considering the circumstances. You didn’t like her, but you understood her. A fine line.
My Eyes Deceive Me: The filmmakers did an excellent job of messing with the viewer’s perceptions, especially near the end of the movie. There was no way to determine what was real from what wasn’t, despite Kaylie’s best efforts. The disorientation was unsettling and one of the mirror’s best weapons.
Yuck: Oculus earned its R-rating through creative, visceral use of gore. There were parts I wanted to look away from. Even when I expected what would happen, I was still grossed out. Two scenes in particular involving eating were particularly hard.
Bros (and Sises) Before ‘Rents: the relationship between brother and sister, especially during the flashback scenes, was very poignant. As awful as it is, at times a sibling relationship is stronger than a parental one, especially when one or both parents is abusive. Kaylie and Tim’s bond in the face of their parents’ destruction provided the necessary heart of the film.

Across the board, Oculus was a very good ghost story, and I’m glad I saw it. 4 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: The Damned

December 29, 2014 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

The Damned is a mildly entertaining movie that started with an interesting idea and fell promptly into familiar horror film tropes until at the end you didn’t care a lot about what happened to anyone. I’m going to spoil the film, so if you’re really burning to see it and be surprised by its charms, read no further. I’M WARNING YOU.

Family Matters: The screenwriter overcomplicated the family relationships between the characters in a failed attempt to add depth to the story. Rather than give us something we can hold onto and appreciate, like a father, mother, and child, we have a widower, his fiancee, his adult teenage daughter, his former sister-in-law (the dead wife’s sister), and the former sister-in-law’s colleague who happens to be the adult teenage daughter’s wannabe boyfriend. There was some strained byplay between these characters, but it never went anywhere. If you’re going to have tension between characters, you have to give us a side to root for, and this film didn’t. The characters just weren’t terribly likable.
The Evil That Men Do: The possessing force (the soul of a bruja/witch) can see into your spirit and know what sorts of evils you’ve committed. From there, she guilts you into feeling worse about them so she can kill you (or force you to kill her so she can possess you. The rule here is that the witch can only possess the person who’s killed the body she’s in, almost-but-not-quite like like Azazel in Fallen). It turns out that the people who wind up freeing her just happen to include someone who pulled the plug on his dying wife early (Peter Facinelli) and a guy who uses teenage girls as drug mules, at least one of whom died during the process (Sebastian Martinez). It seemed too pat, too overt. I’ve known several pieces of human trash who haven’t killed anyone: they’re just bad people. I’m sure most of us know some (or are some). If you want subtlety and complexity, start with human stories we can relate to, not wife murderers and drug dealers.
Character Issues: Peter Facinelli was too young-looking for the role. He did a good job with the material, but he wasn’t convincing as the father of a 19-year-old girl. The old man was okay, but not menacing enough in the beginning and not tragic enough in his death. The cop was very good throughout, and his later appearance boosted the film significantly. I hated to see him go. The female characters weren’t given enough to do, including the little girl, to make them more than disposable cut-outs.
Control Yourself: We learn that the possessing force is a witch, but her only power seems to be to possess people. She can’t control the weather or do anything else we typically associate with witches (it might have been interesting for her to have implied that she’d somehow created the downpour that sent the hapless characters to her hotel prison). Fair enough, but the problem was that she just couldn’t keep it together long enough to get to civilization. She self-sabotaged by having the little girl she’d possessed start acting creepy and dangerous straight off the bat. If her intent was to get out into the wide world, shouldn’t she have just kept up the little kid act until they took her to the city? Then she could have found a new person to possess so she could return to get her revenge on the families that were responsible for her imprisonment.
Location, Location, Location: There was no reason for this to have been set in Colombia. They used very little in the way of Colombian culture or language, which was a shame. With Colombia’s rich myth cycle and folklore to draw from, this could have been a unique story. It was a missed opportunity.

Overall, I rate this movie 3 out of 5 stars. I recommend it, but not strongly.

Movie Review: Mercy

December 15, 2014 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

There was a good deal to like in Mercy, touted as being adapted from Stephen King’s short story Gramma, but the pieces didn’t quite fit together in a way that made for a satisfying film. Its great strengths were the performances and the short running time; there was a really good movie in there somewhere, but it failed to coalesce. There will be spoilers here.

Acting: Chandler Riggs did an excellent job as George, and the lack of a marshal’s hat on his head didn’t detract from his performance. He had some difficult things to do, and did them all well. Shirley Knight as Mercy was appropriately creepy when necessary, but rather bland at other times. The only other standout was Mark Duplass as Uncle Lanning, and we didn’t see him very much; he used his comedic skills to great effect here.
Supporting Roles: The other characters were entirely unnecessary and did nothing to advance the plot. Dylan McDermott was a waste of time (I’m getting the impression that people like to put him in TV and films so that he can be a name in a list of credits). They gave George’s brother Buddy nothing to do; his thing about wanting to be a chef provided one vaguely amusing moment with sushi, but that was it. The mom wasn’t there enough, and when she was, she couldn’t be depended on.
Themes: Other than the supernatural themes, there were some elements to the story that were thought-provoking. Dealing with a parent who’s too old to take care of herself was touched on, but not fleshed out very much. There were two aspects of parental abuse brought up: Mercy’s abuse of her own children and George’s mom’s abuse of George and Buddy. It’s a fine point, but I think that it was a form of child abuse to uproot your two non-adult children and make them care for an elderly grandparent who’s not only delusional, but dangerous (at one point Mercy slashed Buddy’s arm open with a letter opener). I don’t know where Mom’s head was, but she obviously didn’t have her own children’s best interests at heart.
I Hastur Go Now: The Lovecraftian promise of Hastur, mentioned early on, didn’t pan out at the end with the movie’s climax. The monster that came out of Gramma looked more like Swamp Thing than a demon, though I did appreciate the illustration that included the Yellow Sign (blink and you’ll miss it). The Weeping Book was also pretty neat; a kind of poor man’s Necronomicon, if you will.
Thrills: There were a few genuinely shocking and/or horrifying moments in the film: what happens to Buddy after they throw the Weeping Book into the wood chipper, Mercy going bananas with the hypodermic, the last phone call with George’s aunt. It’s only a shame that there weren’t more moments like it.
Ghost Girl: The ghost girl was entirely unnecessary and clouded an already murky plot. George’s apparent psychic/supernatural abilities didn’t help him to any great degree, and having him see his grandmother’s excised spirit here and there was neither creepy nor poignant. She should’ve been dropped like Dylan McDermott.
Narration: Also unnecessary was George’s narration. Such things are usually put into a movie because the writer wants to tell you something rather than show it to you, but in this case it just felt extraneous. If you want us to know that you and your grandmother had a great relationship before she started to die and get possessed by the spirit of a Great Old One, perhaps you should show more scenes of you two spending time together.

3 stars out of 5. You should watch it on Netflix if you have less than 90 minutes to burn and want to see the kid from The Walking Dead in something other than a horror TV show.