A classic for any modern Horror fan, the original Evil Dead is almost considered these days a comedy. A group of friends researching a cassette recording of the Necromicon, the Book of the Dead, in a mountain cabin encounter a whole lot more than they ever bargained forBruce Campbell is the lead, Ash, who in this iconic first movie discovers his innate ability to run, fight Deadites, and in general be a badass! The film also happens to be one of Director Sam Raimis first runs into film making at all, and boy did he nail it. A little bit of everything for the discerning Horror fan – the jump scares, the grossout factor, props and costumes and makeup and lighting and sets oh my, and my personal favorite, nary a CGI bit in sight as far as I can tell. If you’re preparing to start a new Horror fan on the road to the right kind of Horror film, The Evil Dead is for you!
A journalist delves into the secret of a videotape that kills you seven days after you watch it!
This is a brief review of the American version of The Ring, despite my love for Asian Horror, simply because I saw this version first and adored it. The films pace is a bit slow in the beginning, yes, but it sure picks up round the middle and definitely at the end.
So Rachel Keller’s niece died after watching this urban legend tape, and of course Rachel, after hearing about the rumors while attending her niece’s funeral, decides to investigate it for herself. She gets ahold of the tape easily enough, watches it, and is rewarded with this odd montage that would mean little to anyone, except the person who made the tape. Rachel gets her ex Noah, a television editor and producer involved, and of course he ends up watching the tape too. Somewhere in there so does her young precocious son Aidan, mistakenly watching the tape and suffering nightmarish visions akin to the ones on the tape soon thereafter. Rachel goes on to investigate and discovers a whole backstory involving an adopted girl, a psychotic mother, and a pitiful father figure. Samara, the adopted girl, can’t sleep. Like literally, she can’t sleep at all. There are various reasons as to why, some theories supernatural and some not, but Samara’s not sleeping is a key point in the whole story. When her losing-it adoptive mother finally introduces Samara to a well, she dies seven days thereafter, from starvation (not thirst), down in that well. All she can see when she looks up is, after all, the ring of the well and the sun being closed off as the lid is dropped down.
I remember seeing this marvelous film in theaters, and when Rachel discovers the well and thinks she’s brought the curse to an end, the friend I saw the film with whispered to me, “And you think it’s over, right?” Oh wonder of wonders, it wasn’t, and I was glad, for that would have been kind of a letdown ending. As it was, we all have to remember, The Ring is a vengeful ghost story that originally came from Japan. This means, there is NO placating the ghost, reasoning with her, fighting her, or even stopping her, oh no! Samara will climb out of that well, wet and pissed off, and come for you!
New York Detective Mike Reilly and Department of Health associate Terry Huston team up to investigate a series of inexplicable murders that all seem linked to logging onto a website called feardotcom.com.
Actually a very sick, very underrated little gem of a Horror flick. There’s this website, feardotcom.com, where you can choose to watch The Doctor torture some hapless girl and dictate how he’ll do it, and everyone who logs on for those vicarious thrills gets dead approximately 48 hours later in a seriously gruesome fashion. Stephen Dorff is Detective Reilly, I liked him ever since Blade, and though his performance is often derided in this film, -I- personally enjoyed it. Natascha McElhone is Terry, pretty and determined, we can easily see some kind of romance blossoming between them…IF they can find the place where the website is shooting from first. Finally, Stephen Rea is Alistair Pratt, the good Doctor himself, and you never really expect to see him in such a horrific role, but he gives it his all. The vengeful ghosts of all the women and girls he’s killed want revenge, and are willing to do literally anything to get it. The usage of queer CGI, white lighting for the ghosts, and some unusual villains actually makes this film a fun one to watch!
The UK has been completely overrun by persons infected with a virus called Rage, that turns normal people into zombies with a taste for flesh and blood, and the outbreak in London causes the evacuation of Britain that leads to our Protag waking up, as the title says…
Jim finds himself completely alone in the hospital, having apparently woken 28 days after the virus broke out, and wanders out into the streets to find London the proverbial ghost town. Jim meets up with other stragglers turned warriors and, armed with new insights into what the hell happened, attempts to find sanctuary outside the city and away from the crazed zombies.
It’s not an entirely unique premise, but the story really makes this film. The actors really help too – Cillian Murphy is awkward and kind Jim, Naomie Harris is hardened warrior Selena, Brendan Gleeson is determined father Frank, we even have Christopher Eccelston as Major West. A sense of hopelessness in the very atmosphere permeates the entire movie, no special effects or CGI is needed for any of that, and I for one am glad of it. Jim and his pals try to run, try to fight, and keep getting screwed at every turn. And 28 Days Later was the first zombie flick I ever saw to inject terrible realism into the story – what would have happened to the female members of the party when they finally reached purported sanctuary with the military. Major West demands his men be “entertained”, and well frankly, I can see that happening far too easily and nowhere near as…civilized as Major West tried to initially be about it. The movie ends on an uncomfortably unfinished note, which I think was exactly what they intended, and left things open for the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, which was also awesome.
Dr. Miranda Grey is a psychologist in a mental hospital who after suffering strange occurences, finds herself in a complete turnaround as a patient in the same hospital.
I didn’t think I would like this film anywhere near as much as I did. Having Halle Berry in the title role is just superfluous and unnecessary, almost anyone could’ve done it. Robert Downey Jr. is in there too, as a coworker in the hospital. And the always memorable Charles S. Dutton is Miranda’s husband Dr. Douglas Grey, who also works in the hospital with her. Yet the story is so solid and raw, an actual American take on a really good ghost story, that it’s worth a watch. Plus the video for “Behind Blue Eyes”, a theme song by Limp Bizkit for the film, blew my mind.
So Miranda Grey is working at the hospital with her husband, taking a swim in the pool after a particularly grueling session with patient Chloe (Penelope Cruz). On a storm-laden night she drives home, nearly hits an apparition of a badly beaten and bloody girl clad only in a shift, and after only trying to help the girl, wakes to find herself in the mental hospital charged with the brutal murder of her husband. Noone will help, everyone believes she killed Doug with her own two hands, and Miranda needs to get out to discover the truth! The truth is, she’s NOT ALONE. And the spirit of the dead girl haunting Miranda reveals further truths more shocking than Miranda could’ve ever imagined! I don’t want to give anything else away, but seriously, Gothika is a modern ghost haunting story worth seeing!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 9:23PM 
