4 Movie Weekend

I've been so lazy, at least I've become adament on my career path. So anyway, I went to my local Big 10 rental store and took 4 movies. Renting them was dirt cheap too so thats awesome, especially since Blockbuster rental places prices still are suckish. (If you can find them) There was a great variety of movies, including some cheap B-movies I'd never heard of. Those are always awesome to find. The movies I got were
The Echo Game
The Occupant
The Innkeepers
The Wicker Tree

All of them were fun to watch. Echo Game was one of the movies where you like the story line enough but the choices of what's happening aren't that great. It's about a lesbian couple who have a daughter who comes from an old supposedly dead girlfriend. People suddenly show up and begin asking about the old girlfriend questioning her death. The daughter begins acting weird and the girl in the new relationship is dragged back into the worries of her old one. Sounds like a basic semi interesting plot line I suppose.

The things I didn't like about it is firstly, all the killing. Spoiler alert* The teacher lady is killing people she doesn't need to be killing. She's been on the run for 20 some years  but she kills people for no reason and leaves the crime scene a bloody mess yet she hasn't been caught?! And the way she kills makes her need to kill more. She doesn't bother questioning any of them. The kill scenes are horribly cheesy too.

The Echo Game was a reference to the psychic powers people had. There are some inconsistencies I think with the dialogue. I bring it up now because when they were discussing the echo game they said: *Spoilers
Echo was the word for the powers.
To make experiments sound less harsh to the children using their powers they would call them games.
So what's the Echo game?
I don't know it's not anywhere in my notes. (Which by the way it was. You get to read about it on his notes)

There was this other thing which I probably only mistook about the little girl's biological mother so I won't go into that.

The Occcupant was a bit trippy at the end. I'll get there later. I really enjoyed this movie. It's about a guy who was going to move in with his sick grandmother. Before he actually steps foot into the apartment, she dies. A lawyer gives him the advice to move in and hole himself in the apartment until a court order says he can take over his grandmother's lease.

The movie is one of those things where you can't tell if what happened was because of the supernatural, the landlords trying to kick him out, or him just being taken over by cabin fever.

The movie follows his deteriorating mental status as the days go by. This movie may not be particularly scary to people, but certain incidents can put that little sense of uneasiness through the body.

There are some comical relief parts that play well in the story and aren't completely obnoxious, unless you count the freeze frame they do at the end of each day. There are some (well, many) unanswered questions, but I suppose they don't come immediately to mind while watching it.

The Innkeepers was a great movie. It is a real horror movies. The parts that should be scary, are scary. The parts that aren't have this ringing true to life feel about it. While the characters are awkward and unknowledgible, they keep youu interested.

The ghost story itself is mundane, but they way it's played out is new (to me). I suppose it is a half/half horror/comedy. I don't want to mislead anyone on that point because some moods can't deal. Don't let the comedy part turn you off though.

The Wicker Tree. Hearing the name will of course bring another movie to mind. The Wicker Man. (The original) Of course this is because they are done by the same director about pagans or celtics. The story itself is very good. I enjoyed the movie. The only thing I can think of to blast it that it was made as a sequel to the original Wicker Man. The issue being the way they go about the ceremony. Unless I'm confusing the Wicker Man movies, they never sealed the harvest maiden in wax before. In The Wicker Tree there's a whole collection of them.

I don't understand the cannabalism orgy thing either.

I've been busy with work, entering school, an internship, halloween, birthdays. I'll try to write more often.

Red Riding Hood and foreigners

This weekend I ended up watching Red Riding Hood  because I actually heard somewhere it wasn't worth watching. Odd psychology there. Anyway the story itself was well written but the tone of it was wrong. It's supposed to be set in medieval times, but when the two main characters were together. I sudden felt there should be a Chevy next to the boy (and he should be wearing a cowboy hat). The girl might as well have been in short shorts. The other actors were well intothe story for the most part.

Other bits of the directing were marvelous, like how it did one of those things where everyone is a suspect. The only difference is your thinking they could be a suspect because the character thinks that of them.And thats her brilliance she's sucking you in her place and your mind is working as hers.

I have previously raved about sex in movies for wasting too much time that could be directed towards plot building. That didn't happen here. While there were almost scenes they served a purpose. And an actual sex bit was at the end of the movie. Which sadly this has a rant attached to it too.

While the main characters already felt like the odd ones out the sex didn't matter to me. It's the setting the sex was in. I once wrote a comment and it went like this:

"I really wish in the medieval era of movies they stopped having the women have sex and getting knocked up. It's completely wrong with the time frame."

And was responded like this:

"That doesn't matter. Back then not everyone waited to have sex after marriage."

No I'm not saying everyone was a nun back then, but the influences of the bible and certain practices back in the day kept women in line. For example, when a girl lost her virginity and set her bedding out to wash, the people of the town checked to see if there was blood and if there wasn't, she was obviously a whore. (In their minds) A lot of women took to cutting themselves and smearing the blood over the sheets.

Another thing is the abortions back then. Most people (with a high number of prostitutes) would get pregnant from sex. No birth control back then and no, pulling out quick enough doesn't work. So we have back alley abortionists to turn to. And honestly with medical knowledge back then a large majority of women must have died.

That rant was created by the movie adaption of the Count of Monte Cristo. I think that the little things they changed to have a picture perfect ending took away from the book. Let's get back on track.

Anyway let's go with a fun fact: Americans can't tell foreigners apart and foreigners can't tell us apart.

I bring this up because another movie watched was La Casa Muda or The Silent House. It was a great movie. Trying to figure it out, I kept bouncing between the house is haunted and someones broken in! And even with all this glaring hints and metaphoric stuff my class learned was involved with movies, I still missed it. So my fun fact ties in relationship to a point in the movie when there was a wall of photographs. My mother said they were of her and I told her no. An arguement ensued, but not all of them were the main girls photo. And I'm not sure how many are . . .  It was a good movie.

There isn't much dialogue so you can't expect to understand every little thing she does. What dialogue is there explains enough.  This movie is the one that is a continuous stream of reel. They don't stop to take scenes. Whatever terror the girl has isn't relieved only to come back. And she's trapped in the house. If she wasn't, the story would be infinitely less exciting.

I'm done for now: Creature of today? Norse goddess of grain Sif.  She had beautiful hair and Loki chopped it off. I don't care what happened after. I would have killed him.

The Weekends

I've been so busy when I had free time I slept. I slept through a lot of horror movies I wanted to see. And I wasted a lot of time.

I ended up reading Phantom of the Opera. Despite it's reputation, it's a gothic romance drama. The horror element is lacking because the horror befalling Christine is relayed to Raoul by Christine in essentially six paragraphs. It's still a good read which led me to watch a movie version of it?

Which version did I watch? Maybe the classic with Lon Chaney Sr. Peerhaps the version with Claude Rains. Nope. I chose Dario freaking Argenta's version. I like Julian Sands. Anyway the version was very different. And badly done. A lot of the things he changed around, I could have handled, but certain things were messed up.

Spoil Alert:

It especially got jumbled at the end. Like the rat catcher playing a bigger part, okay. But the rat catcher (suckish actor here) in a time of horse drawn carriages made a *coughmagicalcough* rat catching/killing car. He crashes and is knocked unconscious.

Wandering around, he is attracted to the phantom's house by Christine's (it feels wrong to call her character portrayal slutty in this context, by she kind of was before) screams of 'No No No Stop' or rape. After Christine escapes (because the phantom is into rat bestiality) she goes to Raoul and makes him promise to protect her from Erik (the phantom's name in the book, I'm not sure if was actually called that here).

So somehow the rat catcher stumbles on stage during Christine's performance and accuses her of being a murderers whore. First , how could he no see it as rape? Second, he hadn't any proof that Erik killed any one. The one body in plain sight wasn't exactly a conventional killing. It could be taken as an accident.

Next, Erik obviously kidnaps her. While kidnapped she bashes him in the head and immediately apologizes and professes her love of him. Raoul manages to find them, to which Erik and him agree that if they stay, the police will kill Christine. Okay. . .

Christine and Raoul escape into a boat, but Erik stays behind to buy them time. While Erik does nothing provacative, all policemen aim to kill, forcing him to defend himself. He dies, Christine cries.

Fin.

Anyway speaking of Italy, I watched an Italian version of Turn of the Screw, called Whispers in the Dark.
The basic plot of a rich family has a ghost that is staying attached to the world through the children. The rest of the movie differs. The main differences are the parents are with the children. The ghost is the deceased brother of the children. The trouble starts when after a few malicious pranks and bad luck befalls the house, the parents decides their son Marco is too old for his imaginary friend.

It was a pretty good movie, but the ending got to me, because they made it seem like it was over, but then it wasn't.

I also watched Vacancy and The Gift. Vacancy is an awesome slasher-ish movie because of a build up of suspense. It showed well a high pressure situation, but gave opportunities so the rationalized thoughts our protagonists planned out were believable.

The Gift is done by Billy Bob Thorton. He does awesome movies. This one is about a psychic who stumbles into a murder investigation. She is also in hillbilly hell where rednecks everywhere want her burned as a witch.


That said I'm signing off with my monster winner being: zombies. I've been into them lately

Downside

There are downsides I can think of to horror movie watching. When you watch too many and suddenly the movies mix together somewhere down the the line. I watched a movie the other day and kept waiting for these people to be trapped in a farmhouse.

They never went near a farmhouse. Sometimes you confuse name titles or just plain forget. And don't get me started on remakes. Do you realize how many Turn of the Screw versions there are? I think like 8.

I hate to say there is absolutely no originality left in movies. But some movies are just too alike. While I love asian horror movies, my mother is beginning to think all asian ghosts have long hair. And I won't even get started on slashers. The only slasher movie I ever saw that I couldn't figure out the end was Cutting Class and that was because it kept switching suspicious people back and forth.

Various tastes of horror all have a formula. Which is probably where originality ran to. I'm waitng for a revolutionary director to kill the cliches. I mean in real life does your car stop working, cell phone battery die, flash light die, leg break, and I won't even begin on pointless sex scenes taking up a half hour of screen time.

Which bring us to movie sex. In certain aspects, doses, and situations, go ahead. In movies like Bad Biology, sex is a given and doesn't come off as too much because it's too much to start with. And the places they have sex. . . I'm a virgin, but I know I'll never get it on in a cave or abandoned hospital or after someone is killing off most of my friends. At least not in the context they put it in. I won't go into the pointlessly long shower scenes. (Except for where's the naked guys? Not that I care, but guys need to shower too.)

Mythology isn't properly represented in horror movies usually. I mean the Sci Fi Channel (not SyFy) really helps out with that kind of stuff, but mainstream hollywood should have a better grasp on that. I mean if you're just vomitting out remakes and 3-Ding everything, branch out.

Anyway I saw a decent ghost story recently. The Awakening (2011) And I'm liking the demon Azazel. He pops up a lot.

Fear

Horror movies are meant to inspire fear, but now a days it's getting harder to do. I mean some movies don't bring immediate fear. Sometimes (for me) you're walking along and something reminds you of a movie and you realize you're scared.

I remember watching the Exorcist. I heard about how it was so scary and yadda yadda. I wasn't too scared. I found the movie more so vulgar then scary, but I guess it was creepy because when I left the room a sense of unease followed me. It went away after watching the parody, but while it was there, it was there.

The cheapest horrors are more of the jump scares. I mean you know it's coming and sometimes directors play it off as 'not really scary but it shows the characters unease therefore by association' bit. Half the time the jump scare gives surprise (either at the event or the loud music suddenly played) and if it is fear it does follow you (me) it's just gone.

If the storyline isn't that good to begin with, effects make the movie even crappier. (Pardon the language) Don't use frickin' CGI for everything or if you do make it look good. Slasher films have suffered the worst with this. I mean I don't expect you to use a real axe on somebody's head, but make it look more realistic! I mean some 70s/80s movies did cooler jobs. I'm not against CGI but if they use that as there only effect then yeah, it'll suck.

Effects can make a movie or show scary, but don't go overboard. I mean like with Underworld or Supernatural. Underworld was a good movie, but the vampires tend to bare their fangs too much in unnecessary situations. Not too mention when the lycan hybrid guy was transforming, his fingers snapped around way too often. I mean how many joints did he grow or relocate?

Supernatural is still my favorite horror tv show on right now, but it has gone downhill on certain aspects. While before it only scared me on select few episodes, now it doesn't. At all. The plot to what is happening now seems sloppier then before the 5th season. The focuses have turned a bit more to comedy. There aren't a lot of new monsters (I always hope to learn new things) and again they are emphasizing the effects a bit too much.

Horror that can scare people I suppose has to be more relatable. Like, in the movie theatre when I went to see The Grudge, I ended up screaming out loud. Oddly enough my fear was based on the fact that I have long hair and sometimes passing by the mirror or window I think I see someone else. And I have choked on my hair before. And almost killed myself while swimming in a pool. My hair tangled my arms and . . .

Anyway they should stop making high school horror movies. Because no one is relating to thirty year olds pretending to be high schoolers. Why are they using thirty year olds? Because if they used real teenagers, they would go to jail for child pornography. Half the time sex is overrated in a horror movie but, that is for a different rant. Any opinions/arguments welcome.

Anthologies Pt. 2 : Not really anthologies

Most recently I watched a movie called Demonic Dolls. Which is why it is important to relay how some anthologies aren't really anthologies. Some people take movies (full length features) and shorten them and throw them together.

I've scene two or three like this. The issue is sometimes they don't care what they cut and suddenly the short story makes little to no sense.

Another issue is how the way the movie was made, it wasn't meant to be cut down. After the beginning, you go from kill scene to kill scene with no build up and then straight to the end.

While we are on anthologies lets differentiate them from intertwining stories. Anthologies can have a common linking factor in them but they survive on their own.

Intertwining stories are ones that are leading up to the conclusion. I guess it's like Touch. Anyway this is short so I'll right something better soon.

. . . Random dabblings.

Okay first I read some short stories by Richard Matheson and it was awesome. I mean I was reading them and thought he kinda has a sense of humor. Then I read The Flourishing of the Strumpets and Creeping Terror, and yeah, he'sa funny guy.

Button Button was the basis for The Box. Which I already hate the movie without seeing because of (Spoiler alert) aliens. Movies that end with aliens without certain build ups are copping out. I mean God Told Me To was a good movie, but Knowing? It does this suspense thing and then BAM!! Aliens are resetting the world.

My sister spoiled The Box for me so I know aliens are testing humanity. In Button Button it was obvious not a cut and dry normality to it but the last line in the story made it seem like it was more lonely in a crowd/connected but not tone. I'll get around to watching the movie anyway.

(Spoiler ends) I need to watch Eraserhead eventually, but it isn't my cup of tea. . .

MOVIE RECOMMENDATION: The Watch Honestly some people might not like it but I couldn't figure out the ending 'cause it's not the most conventional turn horror movies tend to take, but yeah. It builds up and the storyline covers the acting and music misuse.

I think music is important to movies but gosh, they mess it up a lot. Why is the music louder than the talking? You turn it up full volume just to hear people talking then you're deaf from a bad jump scare. Another thing. Movies shouldn't keep using jump scares. It removes the tension. I watch a movie (when I was a kid. It gave me nightmares. Rewatching it now, I realize I made it a better movie in my head.) and the scariest scene for me is at the beginning when the woman is travelling room to room to discover the source of dripping water. She never found it, so this unease follows you.

I read a review saying Eraserhead does this so eventually.

People ned to stop making documentry style horror movies. Admit it, you're only doing it cause it's cheaper. Well guess what? You're losing money on the people who run out of the theatre vomiting. Motion sickiness is a B!@&. Don't get me wrong, I love all 3 Paranormal Activity movies, but The Devil Within, Cloverfield, Blair Witch Project which of course started it all, but it gets annoying. I personally can't see why people were scared of the Blair Witch. I'm still trying to figure out the horror of a guy standing in the corner.

There was this one asian horror film, I think called Suicide Dolls, and it was documentry style suicides. The stories themselves are boring because there is no story, just a long period of time to prep for the suicides. I kept skipping through stuff to make sure their was something to it. The deaths are gory and slightly disturbing. And at the very, very end there it a random sex scene.

Which brings me to Let Me In. When the boy was sticking a tree, he just sounded retarded. I mean in the swedish version the kid looked weird doing it but not really stupid or pathetic. Oh and the bullies sound like they're raping the kid if you don't have movie screen to show what's going on. (Learned a co-worker who had the volume on his iphone on high. I thought he was watching some twisted porn. Imagine my surprise...) Anyway, I think it was the casting I disliked. The best part of the story is the vampire folklore being used as it was originally thought of. Can't beat that. I'm procrastinating writing a story so I better do stuff.