Oh, The Horror! #49: Quarantined

Finally having seen this, this was probably the 4 or 5th time I've attempted to watch this movie and finally saw the whole thing. Not that the previous times I found it lacking or boring, I would just always fall asleep from tiredness or have been interrupted in someway shape or form. So finally about two months ago I was finally granted by the Fates to watch this film uninterrupted with the lights turned off with my wonderfully soft and warm cover. And wooo-boy was this fun! Now I have not seen the original but from what I hear, like nearly every remake, people were very annoyed that this film was made to begin with when you had the original titled REC from Spain. I've also read that both films are in fact nearly exactly the same, as the film seems to be a shot-by-shot recreation of the original. As someone who hasn't seen the original but only seen the remake, I have to say I'm definitely a fan and was entertained. I may have to look for the original to own if I found this remake so darn fun to watch.

The movie is filmed in a "found footage" style, the style of Cannibal Holocaust, Blair Witch Project, and recently Paranormal Activity. The movie begins with reporter Angela Vidal (played by very believably by Jennifer Carpenter) and her camera man Scott Percival (Steve Harris) filming footage introducing us to their next assignment where they follow a group of firefighters for the night. Through interviews and b-rolls, we're introduced to different firefighters, Jake (Jay Hernandez) and Fletcher (Johnathon Schaech), showing them the ins and outs of the fire station. Angela, who mentions when she was a kid wanted very much to be a fire-fighter, is anxious to get a call to go out and get some action. Boy, does that "Be careful what you wish for" saying come true. The crew gets a call and they rush over to a three story building where it seems everyone's in a panic. We meet the various tenants in the building and a police officer, Danny (Columbus Short) who isn't happy one bit when Angela and Scott get in his face with their camera, especially after shooting to death a tenant about to rabidly attack him. Angela's night of excitement is quickly halted after seeing an old woman get shot to death. This is no longer a "fun, laughing" matter. Her world will completely be turned upside-down by the end of this movie. The building suddenly gets sealed up as the tenants, including the cops, fire-fighters, and news crew get trapped inside of the building by what seems to be the government, cutting off their cable and cell phones. This ends up causing the building to become a death trap as a weird virus begins to trigger the tenants, bringing them into a state of rage as if being affected by rabies and attacking each other. The bacteria seems to be spread through biting and any type of saliva and while people begin to get infected one-by-one, there's seems to be no way out of this whole nightmare.

I absolutely enjoyed the heck out of this film. Having the film shot in found footage style really helps pull you into the action and it certain helps that the characters, actions, reactions, and decisions are entirely believable. None of the movements, specifically the camera, come out forced in anyway shape or form. It doesn't seem convenient that the camera was looking at a specific thing before an action took place. Cinematography through out was simply perfect. While I was enticed and having a ton of fun watching, as the movie progressed I really started to feel generally scared for the characters and would get annoyed when an infected character would come to cause terror. I laughed at how much I was into this film and I really wish I saw this in theaters to hear people shouting at the screen, "Run!" "Oh, you stupid bitch! Stop making noise!"

Directed by John Erick Dowdle, if you haven't seen this film I'd definitely recommend it. I feel with all I've been reading and what I've seen of this film, the film itself was recommending me to be interested to see the original which I plan to do now. Also take note of Doug Jones being in the film! I love Doug Jones! Yes, I said Doug Jones, so if anyone's familiar with that name, you know for sure what kind of role he'll be playing and of course he's as creepy as ever. And major props goes to the lead, Carpenter. Is it safe to call her a new-aged Scream Queen after this and her Exorcism of Emily Rose role where she was also excellent in?

Predators Trailer

Robert Rodriguez's upcoming Predators! I only recall him signing up for this film recently. And I'm still waiting for Sin City 2, dammit! C'mon, Robbie!!! But anywho, I have't seen the original two films in years, since I was a lil' kid. Hated Alien vs Predator despite drooling over Sanaa Lathan. Besides that... sign me up!

Oh, The Horror! #48: Angel Heart

A masterfully done film, one of my absolute favorites. Starring Mickey Rourke as Harry Angel, Robert De Niro as Louis Cyphre, and Lisa Bonet as Epiphany, a Vodou mambo, from start to finish you're hooked into this hard boiled noir inspired horror film. Alan Parker does a wonderful job crafting a film of complete and utter mystery, tension, and suspense. You're constantly at the edge of your mind wondering just where this film is going to go and the climax totally lives up. The tone given from beginning to end is creepy, enchanting, and pulls you in. From the music to the colors and the strong performances, you truly believe what you're watching. Is there a supernatural element to this movie? Is it all just in our heads or is the film tricking the viewer? You should see for yourself.

Harry Angel is a private detective hired by Louis Cyphre to look for a man who seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth, the man named Johnny Favorite. Harry searches high and low from NYC to New Orleans searching for Favorite. But things start to get highly tense when the the people Harry questions start to drop off like flies through disturbing ways. The cops start to pursue Harry along with other questionable people. He also meets Epiphany, a beautiful young Vodou priestess who's connected somehow, further entangling Harry into this strange web and world of Vodou.

I give this film full praises throughout from direction to overall production and acting. A lot of the tense moments are only pushed further by the fantastically strong performance of Mickey Rouke. I have to say from the different films I've seen played by Rouke, his turn as Harry Angel is by far my favorite, especially by the end of the film when everything gets revealed. De Niro clearly has a lot of fun in this weird role as Angel's client and Bonet is fine as a Vodou priestess. I'm impressed greatly in the scene where Bonet shows off her Vodou dancing skills along with a huge group of Vodou practitioners and Bonet really falls into character, making a sacrifice to whoever she's dancing to (why don't we find out she she is dancing to?). I also really adore the sex scene between Bonet and Rourke. A truly enticingly horrifying and mind-bogglingly scene, fantastically well shot with quick jump cuts and highly intense with blood dripping from the rain and pouring on the lovers. Definitely one of the very best "love" scenes I've seen in a movie that compliments well with the suspenseful tone of this masterpiece of a film. A highly recommend piece of art. If you haven't seen this do so. It's a wonderful film to add to your collection, whether you're a horror fan or not.

Also noted, I want to mention the special features from the DVD. There's a wonderful documentary going into details of the religion and practice of the Vodou religion in contrast to Hollywood Voodoo that's been pushed forth in movies. I loved this documentary and hope people check it out and don't have a close-mind of the belief and actually take into account just how much Hollywood and the media as tainted people's minds on the Vodou faith.

Oh, The Horror! #47: The Last House on the Left (Remake)

One of my god brothers introduced me to this film as he's a fan of both this and the original. I haven't seen the original and only heard about the movie until after the remake hit theaters. It seems my god brother is a big Wes Craven fan as he's introduced me to films such as People Under the Stairs and Serpent and the Rainbow. But anyways, he showed me this film and I can't quite say I loved it, but I was into it at least. The story follows a family, Emma (Monica Potter), John (Tony Goldwyn), and their daughter Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton), who head out on vacation to their lake house. While convincing her parents to take the car and spend time with her best friend, Paige, they meet a young boy and got to his motel room and hang out. Everything is all fun and dandy until his father (Garret Dillahunt), uncle, and father's girlfriend come along and begin to torture Mari and Paige to the point of raping poor Mari in the woods. After all this, almost coincidentally (not too coincidentally, but whatev...), the criminal family make their way to John and Emma's home, both sides unsuspecting of their connection with each other. The tension between this is fairly well done and gets you interested in what's going to happen. It really becomes fun to watch when Emma and John figure out what these criminals have done and actually turn the tables on these killers and go all out on them.

This isn't a must see or total recommendation, but I do feel there are some winners in the film. The acting is fairly good, especially the main villain and the main parents (is Monica Potter trying to become a Scream Queen?). I really liked Potter in this film and I feel Paxton does some good stuff with her scenes. A lot of good tension rising moments throughout the movie but this film is rather passable although not terrible. The ending I felt could have been a lot stronger as I felt the protagonists could have done a bit more with the main villain, but that's just me... Nah, not just me, it would have been a stronger ending.

If you've nothing else to do, this is one of those films. Beyond that I wouldn't really recommend to go out of your way to catch this.

Directed by Dennis Iliadis.

Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer 2

Well, the second preview for the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was released. If you've been following my blog, you'd know that I just recently became a fan of the premise of Nightmare on Elm Street after years of being rather disappointed in it due to all the terrible sequels and feeling Freddy Kruger wasn't being used right to his full potential. I don't have too much faith in this remake as I've recently found a big appreciation for the first film, but here's hoping there's some redeemable aspects in this. I was very interested in seeing how Freddy could be used with all the advancement we've made with computer tech, though it seems most of the kills and special effects will just be rehashes of the original.

Sweet Rebecca (Poem for Valentine's Days)

Sweet Rebecca was a pretty little thing
Who believed in love but kept getting flings.
Her lips were red as the color of blood
And her heart longed for a man to love.
Sweet Rebecca met Mark with eyes blue like the sea
But he had two left feet and could not match a beat.
Sweet Rebecca danced well with Chris
But his kiss could not give her bliss.
It was Chip who had the talented lips
But his face was filled with leaky zits.
Sean had a wonderful complexion, face with clarity
But had the most foul personality.
Sarah though had a wonderful heart, as if woven
But Rebecca remembered she was straight and Sarah was a woman.
Then Rebecca met Drake who had just the right sized penis
But his face kept reminding her of a deformed fetus.
Rebecca met Jamie, handsome with a chiseled jaw
But his chest was saggy and torso was a bore.
Jason, though, had just the perfect pecs and abs
But one day died in an accident in his science lab.
“What should I do?” Sweet Rebecca asked herself
Then an idea hit her head after finding a stitch in Jason’s shelf.
She met Mark again and cut out his blue eyes like the sea
And chopped off Chris’ talented and lovely right and left feet.
Sweet Rebecca ripped off Chip’s soft lips
And skinned Sean’s face that had no zits.
She cut out Sarah’s bloody beating heart
And also Drake’s right size penis and kept him apart.
She also detached Jamie’s chiseled jaw
And her smile lit up like a bright star
As she thought to put together all the pieces like a fine puzzle
She wondered if it’d be a struggle.
Sweet Rebecca returned to Jason’s science lab
And admired every pack of his hard shaped abs.
Days and weeks and months went by
And finally that one day she let out a sigh.
She finally created the perfect man And decided to name him Dan.
He had blues eyes like the sea
And could match a beat.
He had kissable lips
And had no zits.
He had a great heart you couldn’t buy with a dime
Whose penis fit her with just the right size.
He had a wonderful strong jaw
And each second of the day it was Rebecca he adored.
Of course he had the nice abs and great chest
And Rebecca loved Dan with all the best.

Rebecca and Dan lived happily ever after.

Oh, The Horror! #46: The Wolfman

The Wolfman is a film directed by Joe Johnston, a remake of the original 1941 Wolfman movie that starred horror scream king Lon Chaney, Jr. I'm going to start off this review by saying that I wasn't a HUGE fan of the original film when I first saw it. There were some shots I absolutely loved next to the setting and the mood presented in the film. The foggy forest? Just masterful. Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot was very appealing and of course you had the great Bela Lugosi making an appearance. This movie stars Benicio del Toro, one of my favorite actors, as Larry Talbot, a popular stage actor who is called back to Blackmoor after his brother is gruesomely murdered by what seems to be human... and inhumane at that same time. He is awkwardly reunited with his father (Anthony Hopkins) and meets his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) who was the one to track Larry down. Larry promises Gwen that he'll find the person behind his brother's death which leads him into the gypsy square near the forest where a werewolf causes death and injury to a lot of residents. Larry bravely goes after it only to be bitten, thus leading to his cursed transformation as the titled Wolfman.

So did I find this to be a great horror movie? Does it deserve hype from the trailers and special effects? Is it worth spending hard earned cash for? Eh. It was okay. So-so. The movie had good and bad parts. But not terrible. Let me start with the good. First and foremost: performances. All top-notch and it helps that everyone in the film were very well, established actors who knew their craft. Del Toro played a good performance of a brooding and cursed Larry Talbot although that's pretty much it. Besides playing a very good tortured character, that's all you'll see from him. The character himself is pretty much nearly one-noted besides specific scenes which I won't spoil. Anthony Hopkins plays Sir Talbot, Larry's father, and actually nearly steals the show during the first half of the movie and makes some scenes very creepy. Scenes that you'd believe would be cheesy under a lesser actor. Emily Blunt plays Gwen, the woman who eventually falls in love with Larry and becomes entangled in the whole story of the Wolfman. Blunt added a lot of depth and humanity to this movie and became my favorite thing about in this film. Hugo Weaving plays Inspector Francis Aberline, an officer determined in bringing Talbot down and stopping the murders. Although I flashed a grin when Weaving entered the screen, hoping his arrival will mean "shit is finally gonna go down!" he's nearly wasted in this film. Next to Blunt being my favorite part of the film, there were also scenes of Talbot's hallucinations starting to plague his mind. Larry's hallucinations were by far the scene-stealers of the movie. They were fantastically gripping, all focusing on Talbot's fragmented mind as both man and a werewolf, nearly driving him crazy, mixing reality with the surreal where you couldn't quite tell which was which at various moments. I was near the edge of my seat when those scenes played out.

Now the bad... the film was a tad boring. While I felt the performances kept me some-what interested with some amazing shots throughout the movie with very excellent musical scores from Danny Elfman, the movie couldn't quite get me excited. There were a lot of scare scenes that were in fact VERY well done, but the plot itself just seemed weak in parts. The first half of the movie dragged. Yet when it seem something was finally going to happen, it seemed rushed. The film did a decent job in adding some suspense here and there, but the story itself didn't seem to fully sustain the suspense that was going with it. While I also liked that the movie sort of strayed away from the original film, there were many times I wish it sort of did follow the original. For one, Larry Talbot was a much cheerier and happier person in Lon Chaney, Jr's version. You were amused and charmed with him when he started sweet-talking and courting Gwen who was also very happy-go-lucky. Then there was the weird feeling when Gwen's friend gets a bad omen. In this version, everyone is so gloomy since the very beginning of the movie. I missed the happy Larry who's world turned upside down when he gets bitten and cursed as a werewolf. Now there are some twists that I saw coming and I know it would be split between viewers if they liked this twist or not. Some people would find it cheesy while others would find it a very welcome surprise. I myself found it a welcome surprised although I did see it coming from near the beginning of the film.

The special effects were overall well done. I appreciated the Wolfman actually resembling the monster from the original movie but besides that there isn't much to really say. The transformation was okay, but its the use of the special effects with the hallucinations that take the cake for me. Gore and violence were all well done and none looked cheesy or out of place.

Would I recommend this film? Not really. There are things in the movie that would be enough to entertain people, but it'd be very hard for me to know which type of people that would be.
I will say, though, that I was very happy to see one of my favorite shots used from the original. The scene where Gwen is running towards the right of the camera in the foggy forest. Although the beautiful atmospheric fog was missing, the nod surely got a slight smile from me. I'll conclude that although I wasn't a huge fan of this movie... it really made me appreciate the original a lot more than I did before. So take that as you will.