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Trailer for Hereditary (2018)
Trailer for Hereditary (2018)
Here you go. Let this trailer keep you up at night, creepy soundtrack and all.
Like horror movies of old, Hereditary looks quite eerie. I do not often get excited to see a scary movie, but I am looking forward to this one.
Storyline: After a mother dies, the rest of her family that she left behind begins to feel her presence around them and then bad things start happening.
The film was written and directed Ari Asher and the noteworthy cast includes Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, and Alex Wolff.
The movie is currently set to be released on June 8th, 2018.
The Lords of Salem (2012)
The Lords of Salem (2012)
Given that this is a Rob Zombie movie, I sort of knew what I was getting myself into. I like some of his music, but I like even less of his movies. He has a tendency to be too extreme in his films and often in his music as well. It’s almost as if he is trying too hard to prove to the world that he is demonic. His movies are usually filled with obscene violence and or torture for no apparent reason at all. He likes to be crazy because well, maybe he is crazy. However, I did enjoy his remake of Halloween (2007). My wife likes horror movies, so I thought I would give this one a shot. From a film critic’s perspective, I’ll review almost anything.
The Lords of Salem is about Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie), a local radio DJ who receives a record in the mail that is labeled: “A gift from the Lords.” The record is played on the air and the radio station calls the band The Lords of Salem because they are in Salem, Massachusetts. The music triggers violent and evil flashbacks of witches trying to summon up the Devil in the town hundreds of years before. It seems as if the Lords of Salem are back for revenge, or maybe Heidi is just going crazy.
The movie was written and directed by Rob Zombie and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Judy Geeson, Meg Foster, Patricia Quinn, Ken Foree, Dee Wallace, and Maria Conchita Alonso.
The Lords of Salem was pretty much what I expected it to be. It’s just another Rob Zombie movie where he tries way too hard to be vile and disgusting. Once again, Rob Zombie has his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie star in the film. She is in like all of his movies.
I gave this movie a chance, but I wanted to turn it off about halfway through. There is a lot of grotesque nudity and mindless violence. At times, the story is all over the place and it takes a while to get to the point. Zombie pushes the envelope simply for the sake of trying to be evil, as if that is enough to be entertaining.
The movie is a slow, laughable, pointless waste of time and after a while feels like watching and hearing nails on a chalkboard. It was stupid and way over the top to the point of boredom. I kept asking myself, why am I watching this movie? The only answer that I could come up with was to warn you about it.
I rate this movie a 1 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Run.
Trailer for Contracted (2013)
Contracted (2013)
It’s a horror movie that encourages abstinence.
Contracted is a film about a girl (Najarra Townsend) who contracts what doctors think is an STD, but what turns out to be far worse.
The movie was written and directed by Eric England and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Caroline Williams, Alice Macdonald, Katie Stegeman, Matt Mercer, Charley Koontz, Simon Barrett, and Ruben Pla.
Scary, indeed!
The film is set to release on 11/22/13.
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
To me, old black and white horror movies are much more entertaining than the majority of the horror movies that get made in this day and age. What I like most about the classics is that they rely mostly on the story, how it is told, and where it is taking place in order to try to frighten the viewers. Special effects hardly existed in the days of black and white movies, so filmmakers had to get their thrills with a chilling storyline instead of just blood and guts. House on Haunted Hill is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.
The film is about an eccentric millionaire (Vincent Price) who invites 5 people to a spooky overnight party with him and his wife in a rented mansion that is rumored to be haunted. He offers each person ten thousand dollars if they can live through the night in the locked house.
The movie was directed by William Castle and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Carolyn Craig, Alan Marshal, Elisha Cook Jr., and Julie Mitchum.
The film sets the mood nicely with a creepy character introduction and narration by Price as the guests are headed to the haunted party on the hill.
It is movies like this one that helped to start the horror movie genre. This is one of the classics. It is one of the originals. How many hundreds of movies have been released in recent years that take place in a haunted house? There are too many to count. Movies like House on Haunted Hill helped to pave the way for what a haunted house movie should be.
The film is full of spooky music, mysterious characters, and wonderful dialogue. There are excellent shadow affects in the movie that you can only get in a black and white film. There are slamming doors, falling chandeliers, and creaky floor boards. There are horrifying visuals and people screaming. The picture is painted so well for us that you can almost smell death in the air. All of these little attributes contribute to making House on Haunted Hill a true horror classic.
The entertainment is in the storytelling. If you enjoy classic films and you like a good ghost story, then this is the movie for you. For its time, it is a great movie.
I rate this movie a 9 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
High Tension (2003)
High Tension (2003)
High Tension is a French foreign horror film. The movie was made in 2003, but released in the US in 2005. You can watch the film with subtitles or have the French dubbed over in English. Some people don’t like watching movies with subtitles. Others don’t like watching a movie that has been dubbed over in a different language because the lips don’t match up with the words. I have never had a problem with either format, but sometimes it is good to know what you are getting yourself into before watching a movie like that.
The movie is about two college girls, Marie (Cecile De France) and Alexa (Maiwenn), who vacation to Alexa’s family’s house in the country, way out in the middle of nowhere. The girls planned on getting a lot of studying done in the quiet remote home. What they didn’t plan on was getting a strange visitor in the middle of the night who turned out to be a murdering psychopath.
The film was directed by Alexandre Aja, and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Philippe Nahon, Franck Khalfoun, Andrei Finti, Oana Pellea, and Gabriel Spahiu.
The first time that I watched this movie was in 2005. It was around the time that the movie Saw (2004) was popular. Horror movies had begun to master bloody brutality. Blood and guts seemed as real as they had ever been on screen and horror movies were celebrating this fact. High Tension joined the party of gruesome graphic violence.
It’s hard to enjoy a movie of this kind. However, the shock value throughout the film is highly prevalent. It’s disgusting and disturbing. It’s vile, but full of horror. The unspeakable acts of violence depicted in High Tension are grotesque, but the filmmaking is superb.
The soundtrack in the movie is spine-chilling and it only serves to magnify just how obscenely intense the film actually is. High Tension is the perfect title, because that is exactly what the movie is full of. The film may simply be a slasher strictly for the shock value, but it is one that will keep you on edge waiting for what will happen next. It’s like a horrific car wreck that is hard not to stare at. You don’t want to see it, but you cannot look away. The grisly images become a stain that you can’t seem to scrub from your mind.
The film is a bloodbath. It’s one of the bloodiest, most vicious movies that I have ever seen. If you couldn’t handle watching Saw, then High Tension is probably too much for you.
I don’t usually like this type of movie, and it is not one that I could watch often, but for its genre, the filmmakers did an excellent job. I know good filmmaking when I see it, and I’m not going to fault the film because of its genre. High Tension is the ultimate slasher with a twist.
I rate this movie an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
Curse of Chucky (2013)
Curse of Chucky (2013)
Dolls can be creepy. Let’s face it; creepy dolls are one of the most common elements of horror movies. I could probably name at least 20 horror movies off the top of my head that had a scary doll in it. Child’s Play (1988) took this concept with its demonic redheaded killer doll and ran with it. It worked so well that the film spawned 5 sequels.
I have never been a big fan of the Chucky movies. The first film was okay, but the ones that followed were all pretty redundant. I will admit that the Chucky character himself, is pretty sinister.
Curse of Chucky is the 6th film in the series. The movie is about a wheelchair bound girl named Nica (Fiona Dourif) who lives alone with her mother (Chantel Quesnelle) in a large old house. Nica’s mother dies shortly after receiving a strange and unexpected package. In the package is a doll named Chucky. When the rest of Nica’s family comes to visit, Chucky introduces himself to the family.
The film was written and directed by Don Mancini and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Brad Dourif, Danielle Bisutti, A Martinez, Maitland McConnell, and Jennifer Tilly.
Deranged, psychotic serial killer doll Chucky, strikes again in another cheesy, lousy murdering escapade. The movie is so bad that it is laughable.
I couldn’t figure out what was worse, the low-grade dreadful acting, or the poorly written dialogue and crummy storyline.
This slasher film was formulaic, predictable, convenient, tacky, and overall pretty stupid.
I gave the movie a chance because the original was alright. I should have left well enough alone.
Don’t waste your time or money on this awful sequel.
I rate this movie a 1 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? RUN!
Trailer for The Purge (2013)
The Purge (2013) (click on the title for my full review)
I’m not sure that I agree with this concept, but it will definitely be a controversial movie. It will be interesting to see how this movie pans out. How could you end a movie like this?
The film looks like it will probably be pretty brutal. It would really be a scary world to live in if all crime was legal for one day out of the year. I don’t think that would solve any of the world’s problems.
I’m not sure if this would be classified as a horror movie or a thriller. Probably a thriller.
Ethan Hawke continues to choose eerie and gritty roles.
The movie looks intense, but I’ll totally have to see it.
Lena Headey co-stars. You might recognize her as the bad woman from Dredd (2012)
The rest of the cast is hardly worth noting. It seems like the majority of the cast includes actors who have had very small roles in movies and are not popular. You probably would not know who I am talking about if I listed anybody else in this movie.
It is written and directed by James DeMonaco and produced by the people that brought you Paranormal Activity (2007) and Sinister (2012).
The film is set to release on 5/31/13.
Sinister (2012)
Sinister (2012)
Sinister is a very dark film. It is unique because the tension in the movie never really dissipates. Most horror movies have an attention grabber in the beginning, and then they have a few scenes that lighten the mood throughout the film. Sinister takes a firm grip on your mind and then twists. At best lightening the mood in the movie is slightly loosening the grasp that it holds on you.
Ethan Hawke plays a true crime author who moves his family to a property where an unspeakable murder has taken place. His goal is to write a book about what happened and hopefully find evidence in order to solve the crime in the process.
The film has all of the necessary elements that a great scary movie possesses. It has a solid main character portrayed by a very capable actor. There are disturbing images, and spine chilling spookiness. A number of surprises are thrown into the mix to keep you on the edge of your seat and sometimes catapult you somewhat above that edge. The villain is totally wicked, and the movie will stay with you long after it actually ends.
Sinister is Ethan Hawke’s best movie since Lord of War (2005).
James Ransone, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Vincent D’Onofrio all have very minor supporting roles. Ethan Hawke does a tremendous job of carrying the majority of the film on his shoulders.
One thing that I did notice is that the film was a bit scarier on the big screen and obviously that will probably always be the case. When I watched it at home, it was not as horrifying as I remembered. I did not jump as much during the jumpy scenes. This was not because I knew that they were coming, I just think that it was because the film was tailor-made for a larger screen. If you are going to watch it, then watch it on the biggest screen in your house, preferably at night and with the lights off to get the full effect.
Sinister means suggesting or threatening evil. The title fits the film like a glove. Although the movie was very well-made, it was hard to like it more than I did because of the subject matter. It is the best scary movie that I have seen in a long time.
I rate this movie an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
If you liked Sinister (2012), then you will probably like The Purge (2013).
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