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Showing posts from 2009

HORRO'S BEST & WORST HORROR MOVIES OF 2009

  With 2009 coming to an end, it is time for me to release my list of the top 5 best and worst horror movies of 2009. I wish I would have had a chance to see them all, but there is just not enough time in my world. So these are the best and worst from the movies I saw. I am sure you could add a few of your own. I am going to start with my least favorite. #5  The Stepfather: I have seen worse, but this movie just didn't do anything for me. #4  The Hills Run Red: I know this made a lot of people's top 10 best movies lists, but the movie just took so long to get to the good part that I couldn't enjoy it. #3  The Collector: Besides some killing, really, what was the point of this movie? He collects people for some reason. Ok! #2  Pandorum: Didn't turn out to be as scary as I thought from the previews. It definitely was not the next Alien. #1  Messengers 2: Save your money. While part one was good, this was bad!   I left off New Moon. It would have been too easy

WRONG TURN 3: LEFT FOR DEAD REVIEW

  Let me start by saying I am a fan of the Wrong Turn series. I know that when you get to a part three in a series like this it really becomes hard to match the original, and even the sequel. So I had to lower my expectations a little before watching it. With that said, after watching the movie, I still really enjoy this series.   Like the others, this movie took place out in the West Virginia woods. This time a group of prisoners were being transferred when Three Finger ran their bus off the road. Carlo Chavez, the most dangerous prisoner in the group, took control of the survivors. He demanded that Nate, one of the guards, lead the prisoners out of the area since Nate grew up near there. They ran into Alex, a girl who earlier escaped an attack by Three Finger on her friends, and has been hiding in the forest. She told them about Three Finger, and how he will kill them all. Chavez took this as a challenge, and insisted that Alex and Nate lead them out of the forest. He got even mor

THE HILLS RUN RED REVIEW

  I saw that a lot of people put this movie in their top movies for 2009 lists, so I decided to rent it, and check it out. I didn't really know much about the movie except that people seemed to like it. It was one of those rare times I watched a movie and basically knew nothing about it. I don't think even think I read the back of the DVD box before watching it. While a lot of people may have liked this movie, it really didn't do anything for me.  The story was about Tyler and his search for a movie that disappeared along with the director. It is hard to believe that a movie would disappear, but apparently this one has. Really, that would just tell me that the movie probably wasn't that good, and they only made a few copies. Well, Tyler thought otherwise, and went to extremes to try to find what he thought was one of the best horror movies ever made. While doing his research, he stumbled upon the director's daughter, Alexa. He went to meet her, and convince her t

DRAG ME TO HELL REVIEW

  Everyday you wake up and go to work. During your time at work, you are faced with tough decisions while trying to please your customers. Sometimes things work out perfectly for you and the customers. Sometimes things work out for the customer, but not you. Then there are the times when things go your way, but not the customers'. When that happens, do you ever feel like you may have crossed the wrong person, and it will come back to haunt you?   That was what happened to Christine Brown in this movie. She was a loan officer at a bank, who was fighting for a promotion. Her manager told her that he was looking for someone who was willing to make the tough decisions, and was leaning towards picking another guy for the job. With that said, an old lady faced with an eviction notice, Mrs. Ganush, came into the bank to talk to Christine about getting another extension on her loan. Christine seemed like a nice girl and naturally wanted to help the old lady. She asked her manager about

28 DAYS LATER REVIEW

   Imagine waking up in a hospital with no one around. No nurses, doctors, or other patients, just dead silence. You manage to get the strength to walk out of the hospital and it is just as quiet outside as it was inside. That was the world that Jim woke up to 28 days after the infection started.    The story followed Jim's fight for survival in London, where people have been infected with rage. The "infected" as they were called, only wanted one thing: to take out their rage on you. It did not take long before they wanted to take their rage out on Jim. Besides the infected, there were not a lot of survivors around, but Jim managed to befriend Selena, Frank, and his daughter Hannah. They decided the only way to survive would be to go to a blockade, which they heard about over a short wave radio saying they had the answer to infection. After quite the adventure, they reached a group of soldiers, who turned a mansion into their private military base. Who survived the

NEW MOON REVIEW

  Okay horror fans, we just have to get over it. Just because there are vampires and wolves in this movie, it is a love story plain and simple. You cannot expect anything else from this movie. If you do, you will be greatly disappointed, not that you weren't disappointed with Twilight. To be fair, I went into this movie with an open mind, but it still did not work for me.   Throughout Twilight, we had to watch Bella and Edward fall in love with each other. Back and forth they went with the whole "I love you but we can't be with each other" drama. One minute they can be together, the next they can't. Really driving home the love story thing. Well, history repeats itself in New Moon. We started off with this struggle again, and Edward decided it was best that he leave Bella. This time his absence gave Jacob and Bella a chance to form a bond. However, just as it was with Edward, it became another game of "I love you but we can't be with each other."

THE FOURTH KIND REVIEW (spoiler alert)

Spoiler Alert: Includes discussion of whether or not the movie was real   The story of this movie centers around psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler and her video taped sessions with patients. The patients were having problems sleeping, but were not sure why. As the movie goes on, you see documented footage of what was supposed to be the real Dr. Tyler and her patients along side the regular movie. Apparently in this part of Alaska, there were suspicions of alien activity, and this was what Dr. Tyler feared was happening to her patients. As the movie goes on, the patients are no longer the only ones affected by the alien activity.   Getting right to it, this movie presents two important issues to discuss. First, did the movie create enough buzz to get people interested? Good or bad, I think this movie did create some buzz. For me, right after watching it, I wanted to know how real this story was. I did the usual searches on the Internet, and read several articles and reviews of the

THE BOX REVIEW

  So an unusual box is delivered to your door, and several hours later an equally unusual guy shows up to give you a life altering decision. Your choice is to push the button on the box and receive one million dollars, or do nothing within 24 hours and return the box. Oh, but there is a catch of course! If you push the button, someone who you do not know will be killed. What would you do?   This was the decision that Norma Lewis (Cameron Diaz) was faced with. To make the decision complicated, she just found out that she will no longer receive a teacher discount for her son to attend school, and her husband was denied a promotion at work. A caring mother and overall sweet lady, she struggles with the decision with little help from her husband. If she said no, then there would not be much of a movie, so lets move on.   If I had to describe this movie in one word it would be “weird.” It kind of reminded me of something Stephen King would write. While it was weird, it was not the ki

THE STEPFATHER REVIEW

I got taken by another teen thriller. Sometimes when I walk into a theatre and it fills up with teens, I worry that the movie is going to suck (example Prom Night). I worried, as teens filled the theatre for this one. I cannot say it sucked, but it was not great either. It definitely ended up being a teen thriller, as it had little violence and too much story. For me, this movie kind of just went along and then it ended. I truly just watched a series of images that did nothing to make me think, there were no major twists, and the ending did not "wow" me. Speaking of ending, as with most movies, this one was leading up to hopefully a good finish. After seeing the previews, I had high hopes for the ending. The whole saw dangling over the girl's face had potential. The key word there was "had." The whole fight scene was weak. Just the usual back and forth fighting, and then it was over. They must have edited the dangling saw scene because they did nothing with

SAW 6 REVIEW

So this franchise has made it to number 6. Some people think that is a good thing, but others think they should have stopped making these movies a long time ago. I am in the camp that says keep making these movies, even though I did not like part 5. After watching part 6, I say lets do it again.    As I mentioned, I did not like part 5, but was very pleased with this latest installment. I felt this one stuck to the usual Saw formula, but they kept it simple this time. Basically, the formula is starting off with some people playing the game in order to start off with a kill, following Jigsaw’s replacement (Detective Hoffman) as the cops try to figure out who was carrying out Jigsaw’s game, and then there is the all important game that is being played. Of course, they had to throw in the usual twists. This time the twists were toned down, just a small twist here, and small twist there. They did not try to over think themselves.   My favorite thing about Saw, besides the twists, is t

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY REVIEW (spoiler alert)

(spoiler alert: includes discussion of what happens at the end of the movie along with details of other events in the movie) So, out of no where comes this low budget movie that no one knows about. Then little by little, there was more conversation about this movie. It was marketed not only on TV, but by having to vote to get the movie shown in your city. It kept spreading like a virus and now it has become more like an event than a movie. Everyone has to see it to basically test their manhood (or woman hood). So the question is: is the movie as scary as it is portrayed to be? I think part of the answer to this is if you believe in ghosts and that these kinds of things can happen. If you believe there are ghosts out there that can do what was done in the movie, then yea, you are probably going to be scared. Another reason so many people seem to be scared by this movie is that a lot of young people are seeing it (particular girls). These are the exact people the movie makers want se

HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS REVIEW (ORLANDO)

Eight haunted houses, six scare zones and a couple of shows equal one thing, Halloween Horror Nights (HHN). This event helps answer one question: are people more scared drunk or sober? If you are looking to get drunk and be scared, this is the place. Okay, I’m not being fair, you do not have to be drunk to enjoy this event (really). I have been to many of the HHN events in which some were good, and others were bad. I have to say this was a good year. Basically, for this review I am going to list the haunted house or scare zone, give you the description given by the event guide (e.g.), and then give my opinion of it. After that I will talk about the HHN must see show “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure,” and then “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” I will then give my number one tip on how to make the most of your HHN experience. Haunted Houses: -The Wolfman: “Forget everything you thought you knew, and prepare yourself for the sights and sounds of the newest addition to U

SPOOKY EMPIRE 2009 REVIEW (HORROR CONVENTION)

When I pulled up to the hotel and saw a line of hearses parked in the lot I knew we were in the right place. Let me start off with a brief overview of the events that took place over the 3 days, and then I will get into more specific details about the events I went to. There were several workshops/discussions about things such as, writing, horror makeup, and even the Florida Skunk Ape. Movies were shown all weekend including titles such as, “Creepshow,” “The Blob,” and “Halloween 2.” There were Q&A sessions with celebrities like Linda Blair of “The Exorcist,” Shannon Doherty, and Tippi Hedren of “The Birds.” Overall, it was a fun atmosphere with tons of horror fans scurrying around from early in the morning until 3 in the night. The convention started off Friday with a performance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and a zombie walk (sorry to say I missed it). Plenty of characters roaming the halls to take a picture with, if you dared. One girl, dressed as the girl from “The Ri