Ghosts Are Here

At the start of the week, I was going to try and get more than the one review in that I have done so far this week. Life has a way of messing up plans though. Last night I sat down and decided to watch another movie at long last. This time I decided on a J-Horror film called Pulse (2001). I didn't know much about it outside of what the description had to say and that it has been remade here. This is a film that is highly praised, for the most part, by critics. It has a slightly below average rating on Netflix and an above average rating on IMDb. As much as I tend to like J-Horror, I love a good ghost story, I still come across some that I don't like.

Pulse revolves around two people. One is Michi (Kumiko Aso) who works at a flower shop with a couple of her friends. The other is Kawashima (Haruhiko Kato) who is a college slacker. One of Michi's co-workers hasn't shown up for work in a week and the rest of his co-workers are getting worried about him. They are worried because they haven't heard anything from him and also because he was supposed to have a computer disc ready for them for a project that is due the next day. Michi decides to check up on him and finds him home and has a little conversation with him. As she is looking for the disc for work, he disappears off camera. Michi goes looking for him and finds that he has hung himself.

Meanwhile, Kawashima has started to use the internet for the first time. As he is trying to figure out how it works, a web site pops up that shows some strange images as if from a web cam and the message "Do you want to see some ghosts?" pops up as well. Kawashima decides to try and find someone that can help explain why this web site keeps popping up on him. He meets Harue (Koyuki) who is a computer wiz and thinks the people on the web site are truly ghosts. They figure out that the place where spirits go, once death happens, is full and now they are showing up here with us. The only problem with that is that isn't a good thing.

The effects are your basic J-Horror effects. My favorite stuff comes in at the end of the movie where we see an empty and smoking Tokyo. The best shot is when a low flying and flaming plane goes flying over head. The acting seemed to be pretty good but I found a lot of the dialog confusing. Sometimes a conversation might be taking place but we can't see the two or more people clearly enough to see which is talking. Since the movie is subtitled, it was hard and confusing to me to try and figure out which character was saying what.

Pulse offers up some very creepy moments but I also found this film to be very confusing. Part of that was because of the dialogue found in the film. Part of it was the editing in the film. Sometimes they would throw a scene in between two other scenes that made little sense to me as to why it was there. One scene shows a guy on a bus with some nice music playing and suddenly he is shown walking on the street with no music playing. It wasn't a confusing cut, just felt odd to me. Made me wonder why they chose to edit the film in that way. Since it was late at night I might have been more confused than I needed to be with things. I had to read through some threads about the movie in order to put it all together. Maybe watching it a second time would have helped but since the movie is almost at the two hour mark, I wanted to have time to write this and get the movie back to Netflix. I found out that I wasn't the only one that was very confused by the movie, so at least I wasn't alone.

I understood the basic plot for Pulse and didn't really care for it. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Pulse can be very slow at times as well which just adds to my not really caring for this one. I don't know if it was because of the translation or what but I really felt the dialogue could have been so much better than it was. Maybe better dialogue would have helped with the slow areas, by keeping it more interesting. Even though there were some areas of the film that I was impressed with, I don't know if watching the entire film to get to those parts again would be worth it. It is a thinking person's movie but they could have done a much better job with it. At least that is how I feel about it.
2 out of 5 Meet a ghost and will lose your will to live

A Girl That Likes Spiders

It has been a long time coming. I'm very sorry it has taken me so long to get another review up. College has been keeping me very busy all week long and I have also been working on other projects for this blog as well. I'm happy to say that I have managed to add a couple of more interviews to my upcoming projects. If all goes well that is. Before the football games started today, yes I'm a football fan (comes from growing up with a dad that is a very big fan of football and made sure to share that love with me), I sat down and watched Spider Baby (1968). The actual title is Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Every Told. I wasn't sure what to think about this movie before watching it. I had read some of the short reviews on Netflix before watching it so I knew it was injected with some dark humor. I'm glad I knew this since it is easier to watch a horror movie that isn't taking itself completely serious, if I know that before hand.

Spider Baby is about a family that has a rare disease. This disease causes those that have it to mentally regress. It is believed that they eventually regress to a more primal state. The family is being watched over by the chauffeur, Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.). Bruno is taking care of what is left of the family and covering up anything that goes on. He is taking care of Ralph (Sid Haig), Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) and Virginia (Jill Banner). The film opens with a messenger (Mantan Moreland) looking for the house and then finding it. He knocks on the door and no one answers. He finds an open window and sticks his head in which is a mistake. He sees Virginia playing her favorite game, spider. She puts her web around him, explaining what a spider does to bugs the entire time. She then "stings" him with some knives she has. The messenger had a letter on him that states that Emily (Carol Ohmart) and Peter Howe (Quinn K. Redeker) will be trying to gain custody of their cousins. They show up with their lawyer (Karl Schanzer) and his secretary (Mary Mitchel). When they start to discover the secrets of the children and are going to tell, the family takes action.

Spider Baby was completed in 1964 but not released until 1968. I wasn't sure what kind of effects to be expecting and actually found very little. The only blood to be found is when the two sisters are cleaning up to hide what happened to the messenger. The times we see a dead body, it is bloodless even though they were killed by knife. The only effect that can be found is an ear that drops to the floor. The acting is what made Spider Baby fun to watch for me. Many reviews praise Lon Chaney Jr. for his acting in this movie. This came late in his acting career. I did think he did a great job but the real joy for me was Jill Banner. This was her first film in a short film career. She was in a few more films before doing some roles for TV. She left acting for a few years and was trying to get back into it when she passed away in 1982. In Spider Baby, it looked like she was really getting into her role. The same could be said for the rest of the cast as well but Jill Banner really stuck out to me. It was also nice to see Sid Haig in a early role for him. We don't get to hear him since he doesn't really get to speak but he does a great job with what he is given.

As much as I liked the acting in Spider Baby, the story itself left a little to be desired. It isn't a bad story and it isn't a hard story to follow. I just felt that it was a little hard to stay interested in it at times. It isn't a result of the acting that is for sure. There were times when not a lot was happening and it took a little while before something interesting did start to happen. I was a little confused with what happens with Emily. The family seems to think she is dead but we find out later that she isn't. It is suggested how she dies but like all the deaths, it happens just off camera. Since there is no blood to be found, one has to wonder why they thought she is dead. Anyways, upon returning to the living, she seems more crazy than the rest of them and goes on the attack. I was also a little confused by the mystery of the basement. It was shown what the mystery is but it was a very short reveal.

The dvd has some nice features on it. There is a commentary by writer/director Jack Hill. Maybe I should have listened to it to see if it cleared up any of the confusing parts for me but I didn't. So I don't know how good the commentary track is. If I ever pick this movie up somewhere, I may listen to it at that time. There is also an eight minute deleted scene to be found. Actually it is more of an extended scene. And you will also find a 30 year later feature. A theater in New York (if I remember correctly) found the last print of the film that can be shown in a theater and had some of the cast and crew there to help celebrate the 30 year mark for the film. I always find things like this fascinating since I like to see what the actors look like so many years later.

I'm going against the flow some with Spider Baby. Almost all the reviews I have found for it gave it glowing praise. It has a fairly high rating on IMDb and an average rating on Netflix. I don't hate the film but I can't say that I would make it a favorite either. If you like films with strong acting, you should check this one out for sure.
3 out of 5 Wanting to be a spider baby too

Cursed Ghosts Part Two

After a busy couple of days, I get to sit around and relax today. Sundays are always the best day to sit around and do nothing. Watch a movie, watch football or just nap all day. After a long sleep, I woke up in time to catch The Grudge 2 (2006) on cable. I have this in my queue but wasn't in a big hurry to get around to it. While I liked The Grudge (and I'm sorry to say this to fans of the series but I liked the American remake better) it wasn't a movie that I just had to see the sequel. I will keep the dvd in my queue since I wouldn't mind seeing the director's cut of the movie. In other news, I have a couple of things possibly lined up for future posts. I will keep you all updated as these things develop. If you don't like surprises then I will tell you one of the two things. I have an interview lined up with D.W. Kann. I haven't actually started the interview yet but he was nice enough to agree to do one. If you are the forgetful type, D.W. Kann was the director for Prison Of The Psychotic Damned.

The Grudge 2 starts fairly close to the end of the first movie. There are two story lines running side by side and I thought they were happening at the same time but that isn't the case. I will get into that more later. There is also a third story line but it doesn't get as much attention as it should have. The first story line takes place with Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn) learning about Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Their mother sends Audry to Japan in order to try and get Karen home. Audry meets a reporter, Eason (Edison Chen), who is trying to find out about Karen because he is also cursed by Kayako (Takako Fuji). While they are talking, Kayako finally claims Karen. Audry decides to try and help Eason since she was unable to help her sister. Plus she wants to know what killed her sister.

During this story line, we often flip to the other story line which involves three teens. It mostly centers around Allison (Arielle Kebbel). Vanessa (Teresa Palmer), Miyuki (Misako Uno) and Allison visit the now burnt house and dare Allison to go into the closet that is now the stuff of rumors. Allison sees the ghost in the closet and because all three were in the house, the curse is now attached to them. The third story line takes place in Chicago of all places. Trish (Jennifer Beals) moves in with her new family. Her new husband (Christopher Cousins) and his two kids. This story takes place mainly from Jake's (Matthew Knight) point of view as he watches his strange neighbor. We don't know for sure who it is because this person is always wearing a hooded shirt.

The Grudge 2 is a PG-13 movie so I wasn't expecting any or very few blood effects. In the end, there are none to be found. Instead it relies, sometimes very effectively, on its two ghosts. The creepy movements are kept down this time around. They use much of the same effects I talked about in The Locker review. Like seeing the ghost in reflections in windows. The acting wasn't too bad but it was hard to really care about any of the characters because so much time is spent going back and forth between story lines. The writers are at fault, not only for trying to weave three story lines but also for not giving the characters a whole lot to do. Out of them all, only Aubrey tries to help herself. Ok, so Eason is as well but he was trying to before he met Aubrey. You will also find Sarah Roemer and Joanna Cassidy.

The good news is that they take a story line that was introduced in Ju-on (the J-horror that The Grudge is based on) and expanded it some. In Ju-on, the story of the three teens is thrown in at the middle of the movie and just confused me more about what was going on. None of them had been in the movie up until that point so to shift to them suddenly, and stay with them, seemed out of place. In The Grudge 2, this story is picked up at the start and we follow it, off and on, through out the movie. It was an easy story line to follow since the teens and and the story with Aubrey take up the whole movie between the two.

The bad news is trying to juggle the third story line. It gets the short end of the stick, so to speak, and probably should have been shown all at once towards the end of the movie. Because the third story is only shown for a few minutes at a time with long periods in between, it was hard to follow what was supposed to be happening in it. The movie ends on this third story and ties all three stories together. By doing this, it also shows that all three stories are taking place at different times.

Sequels are a tricky thing. You need to make the story different or expand on it in order to give people who watched the original something new. At the same time, they need to make sure anyone new to the series can understand what is going on. The Grudge 2 tries to balance this but falls short. A lot of scenes felt like they were lifted right out of the first movie and only slightly changed. There is another shower scene and another bed scene to name a couple of them. While they feel like the same old stuff, they were smart enough to change up what happens at least.

They also try and make sure to tell new people what the Grudge actually is. While this is nice, even to those of us that already know for a refresher course, I felt they went too far trying to explain it this time around. Aubrey goes to Kayako's mother to find out if the curse can be stopped. The information she provides went too far I thought. She basically says that her daughter was special in her own way and that the curse is only going to get stronger and will spread out without the need for the house it all started in. The Grudge 2 isn't to bad of a movie. I just thought that it could have been so much better than it turned out. I wouldn't have minded the three story lines if it had been done better. If you liked the original then this one is worth a watch.
3 out of 5 Hoping the curse doesn't find me here

Avoid Lockers

Since I can't seem to sleep, a problem I have when I know I need to be up early, I decided to write up another review. It has been a long time now since I have watched a movie out of Japan. I haven't been avoiding them at all, it's just the way things have worked out lately. I was excited when I saw The Locker (2003) working its way up my queue at Netflix. It sounded like an interesting movie to me and, as I said, it has been a while since I have watched anything out of Japan. The Locker and The Locker 2 (2004) are placed together on one disk for the American dvd release so I will be reviewing both of there here. There is The Locker 3 out now but it has yet to be released here. Before I get to the review itself, I want to take a moment to let you know what is new on CRwM's blog, And Now The Screaming Starts. He is currently in the middle of a series of posts about the silent films that started the horror genre as we know it today. It has been very interesting and insightful so I highly suggest any readers here to check them out sometime.

The Locker centers around Rieka (Asami Mizukawa) but starts with her and a group of friends sitting around a camp fire and telling scary stories. Near by is a shrine to aborted and abandoned babies. Rieka leaves the group to get a beer out of the water and as she is doing so, she hears the cries of a baby seemingly coming from the near by woods. When she tells her friends of this they just laugh at her and think she is getting to caught up in the stories that are being told. One of her friends plays one last joke on them all by using the head of the statue of the nearby shrine as a baby's head poking in from behind him. They all jump and then start to laugh as they realize what it is.

On their way back home they stop in Shibuya to collect some bags the women left there so they wouldn't have to carry them around with them the entire camping trip. On a side note, the actual title for this movie is Shibuya kaidan which translates into The Shibuya Ghost. Anyway, as they stand there, collecting their things, they start to talk about an urban legend that has become more and more popular. Legend has it that if you leave a gift in a coin-operated locker and confess your true love while in front of the locker, your chances of getting your true love will increase. What the group doesn't know is that they are using that very locker and by desecrating the shrine, they have unlocked a horrible secret that the locker once held. Will Rieka be able to figure out what is happening as her friends die off one by one?

The Locker 2 picks up right at the moment the first movie ends. In fact, it overlaps just a little to make sure you know it is picking up after the first movie. This time we follow Yuna (Chisato Morishita) who was in the first movie as a middle school student that is being tutored by Rieka. We find out, in the first movie, that Yuna has problems of her own. She isn't well liked at school for one. She feels this is her own fault. She also is very lonely because her mother died shortly after giving birth to Yuna. In a fit of anger, her father blamed her mother's death on her. Since then, her father is rarely home so she is basiclly raising herself. Rieka tries to tell Yuna that no baby is born unwanted and this brings a smile to them both. We follow Yuna as she tries to figure out what is going on and tries to save herself from the curse that has now attached itself to her.

The effects are pretty typical for this type of movie. No blood shed and the ghost girl has the basic look you will find in other J-horror type movies that follow the same kind of plot. Both movies use sound effects more than special effects. The biggest special effect that can be found in either movie is when we see the ghost doing something to someone in a reflected surface. We see someone being bent backwards with no reason for this to be happening until the camera shifts to something that can reflect, like a window, and then we see that it is the ghost girl doing this. The ghost girl herself is in a bad wig and the makeup is a bit different than I was used to seeing. Not a bad thing, just different. The acting seemed to be pretty good for both movies. Both movies use subtitles (which I had to turn on) so it is a little hard to judge how they are acting out the script. However, I did think that some of the reactions the cast had towards the ghost girl could have been better.

I was excited to get and to watch The Locker and was surprised to find out that The Locker 2 was also included. Both movies were actually made for TV. The first movie is around 68 minutes and the second movie is just over the 70 minute mark. I, like many others, have noticed that the plot is a bit of a rip off of other J-horror films that has come before these. That could be a bit of a false statement though since many ghost stories out of Japan (and lets face it, even here) come from legends that are close to each other. Someone dies and their ghost comes back for revenge. I have said this before and I will say it again. The plot only makes part of the movie. What the director, cast, and writer do with the plot is also what makes part of a movie. The Locker and The Locker 2 will seem like a plot that has been used before (because it has) but slight twists make these two movies stand out on their own just a little bit.

One thing I noticed, that is a good and bad thing, was the use of sound. At one point, Rieka leaves a house and she is standing around outside looking around as if she might have heard something. I didn't notice at first but there is no sound at all during this time until we start to hear a scream. I jumped a little and I realized it made me jump because of the total silence that was there just before this scream. On the down side though, when someone is being controlled by the ghost girl we can hear the sounds of things cracking as limbs are being moved by the ghost girl. I would have been fine with this if the limbs were being moved in ways that would cause these sounds. But in truth, there is no reason for these sounds to be heard.

At the risk of spoiling the mystery of the story some, I will say that the ghost girl was just a baby when she died. We find out that it was 5 years ago when this happened and now the ghost girl looks about 5 years old. So I guess that just goes to show that you get older in the afterlife. She starts out small as we catch a glimpse of a baby hand now and then to start with. Soon though, she grows up to the 5 year old we see through both movies. The plot, like why she grows up, is a little thin in places. I kept wishing they would throw out a little more plot to explain what was going on. I don't like everything explained to me but the plot needs to be explained enough so that the average movie goer can make the connections and figure it out on their own. The Locker and The Locker 2 are not the best movies to come out of Japan but considering the time invested into each movie, you can't really go wrong with them. If you don't like the first movie, you have only spent an hour watching it and won't have to waste your time for the second one.
3 out of 5 Checking the history of lockers before I use them for now on

Classic Troma

Before I saw Halloween (see last post), I had watched Class Of Nuke 'Em High (1986). I was going to do a write up for it Sunday before or after watching Halloween but, for whatever reason, I didn't do it. When I think of Troma films, I mostly think of how cheap they can look and how bad the comedy is in them. There is a large fan base for their films but, so far, the only films I have liked that have come out of Troma are ones that are made by someone outside of their production company and then picked up by them. I guess I have watched Class Of Nuke 'Em High at some point because I remembered some of the actors and scenes from the movie. I decided to watch it because many people consider it one of Troma's classic films. One thing I discovered very quickly is the way they set up the menu system doesn't work at all. There is no way to get back to the main menu once you have selected something. If you watch the movie then push the menu button to get to the main menu, it simply starts the movie over again. The way my dvd player works is that it tends to remember where it was last on the disk so simply taking the disk out and putting it back in doesn't work for me. I have to put a new disk in so it remembers that one instead. I wasn't going to put a new disk in after watching each special feature so I gave up.

Class Of Nuke 'Em High is about a high school that is next door to a nuclear power plant. The power plant springs a leak but the guy that runs the place doesn't much care. He is advised to shut the plant down so the leak can be fixed but he says that as long as the plant can run, it's going to keep running. Soon we start to see toxic waste at the high school. The first sign of trouble is when the "good kids" turn into a biker gang. From there a nerd drinks some water that turns into toxic waste. Even though he spits it out, some of it anyway, he doesn't seem to be to bothered by it. A little later, while in a class, the toxic waste starts to have its effect on him. He starts to twitch and then attacks one of the other students. After some of the others help pull him off, he runs and jumps out the window. As he lays on the ground twitching, the toxic waste begins to melt the poor nerd away.

During this time we meet Chrissy (Janelle Brady) and Warren (Gil Brenton), basicly the main characters for this film. They are lovers but haven't taken the biggest step yet, having sex. The gang has a contact at the power plant. The contact is growing his own drugs there at the plant. What he doesn't know is that toxic waste has found its way to the drug plants as well. The gang takes these and starts to sell them at the high school. They name it "atomic weed" since it was grown at the power plant. One of these joints makes its way to Chrissy and Warren. It makes Warren feel a bit odd but it seems to affect Chrissy the most since suddenly she is more than ready to have sex with Warren. Later that night, they go their own ways and while in their own beds they start to have what they think is just dreams but that isn't actually true. Warren starts to mutate and ends up with a.....well a very large erection. Chrissy sees her belly swell up like she is pregnant. All is well once they "wake up" though. Things soon go from bad to worse however.

I was rather surprised by the effects. They were actually fairly good for this one. There is no blood to be found but you will find plenty of green toxic waste. The main effect is the creature that finds its way into the movie by the end. While the movements of the creature could have been a tad better, the creature itself looked really cool. For the kind of movie that Class Of Nuke 'Em High is, the acting wasn't all that bad. There are times it goes over the top or bad but for the most part I thought they did the best they could.



Most films by Troma have a lot of comedy in them. Most of the time I find them to be more comedy than horror. Class Of Nuke 'Em High really isn't much different. The only thing I actually found funny was when the workers at the power plant started to fall over dead and the rest of the workers went on about their business like it was no big deal at all. There were a couple of times when I felt they filmed a few different things and then edited it all together. I admit that sounds like any film so let me explain. There would be shots, not long shots but not actually on the short side either, of things that were going on. Like the guys walking around the power plant. Switch to different guys checking for toxic waste in the streets. Switch to the outside of the high school. Switch to the gang. Switch back to the power plant and so on. Long enough to give you an idea of what you are looking at but not long enough to really add to the plot at all. It really gave me the sense that all this was just thrown together and they got lucky that it worked out as well as it did. Then again, it could have been all planned out that way.

If it wasn't for the creature at the end, I don't think I would have liked this one as well as I did. Which in truth, wasn't very much even with creature. A lot of people do think of Class Of Nuke 'Em High as one of the classics to come out of Troma. I guess their brand of humor just isn't my cup of tea though. If you find that you like movies that come out of Troma then I guess you should give this one a shot since so many people do like it.
2 out of 5 Creatures adding more holes in heads

Film Club Day Part Six

Nearly 30 years ago, a movie came out that helped define and jump start a subgenre in horror. It had a very low budget and only a few critics praised it for what it has turned out to be, a true classic. That movie went on to make more money than any other independent and held that title for a very long time. Not all that long ago, that movie was remade by none other than Rob Zombie. This will make his third horror movie. Rob got off to a shacky start with House Of 1000 Corpses but came back with a strong second effort The Devil's Rejects. I will admit I had mixed feelings about Halloween (2007). I know Rob Zombie can make a good movie but at the same time, this is a classic he is going to monkey with. When Stacie, over at Final Girl, decided this would be her next pick for her film club, I knew I had to join in. It has been some time since I wrote a review for her film club. Either I had already written a review for the movie she picked or I just flat out forgot. I knew I would go see Halloween so I made sure to time it with the date Stacie picked. I have avoided all reviews, until now, because there are just some movies I want to make up my own mind on without having someone else's thoughts running through my mind.

I'm not going to bother with the plot. If you are a long time horror fan, like myself, you already know it. Even if you haven't watched this or the original, I'm sure you already know the plot. Instead, I will talk about the difference between the remake and the original and talk about what I liked about this remake and what I didn't like. Rob Zombie said he wasn't trying to explain what Michael Myers is. After seeing Halloween, I have to disagree with that. The first part of the film spends a lot of time showing us the roots of the soon to be killing machine. He is growing up in a dysfunctional family. His mother (Sheri Moon) is a stripper. Michael (being played by Daeg Faerch for the 10 year old Michael) gets teased about that at school and is generally picked on. Ronnie (William Forsythe) is either the boyfriend or stepdad, wasn't really sure, is at the very least verbally abusive. We also find out that Michael likes to kill animals. While this doesn't really explain the Michael to come, it does give some insight. It makes him more human. I didn't feel this was a bad thing but I did feel too much time was spent on it.

Once Michael starts to kill, he doesn't seem to stop. Unlike the original, he kills more people than just his sister Judith (Hanna Hall). Just before the killings, we meet Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). The Principal (Richard Lynch) sees the early warning signs and calls in Dr. Loomis. He wants to help Michael and talks to his mom about it. This might have been what finally pushed Michael over the edge because he leaves and begins his killing spree. From there we see Michael in the institution under Dr. Loomis's care. For a while we see what they were trying to do to help him. We see that despite it all, his mother still loves him. She visits him every week. We see that Michael, for whatever reason, is slowly losing the battle to be normal. We also find out what happens to his mother.

Seventeen years later, we see the now adult Michael (Tyler Mane). He has grown up to be very tall and imposing figure. He manages to escape, leaving yet another blood bath in his wake. Now we switch over and meet Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and her two friends Annie (Danielle Harris) and Lynda (Kristina Klebe). From this point on, it looks a bit more like the movie of old but also so different.

The effects are very good. You will find a lot more blood but I never felt they went overboard on it. Only a few times does Rob Zombie shy away from the violence. The acting was also very good. What made it enjoyable more than anything was all the guest appearences through out the film. Such as Brad Dourif, Udo Kier, Danny Trejo, Sybil Danning, Ken Foree and Dee Wallace. Of course it wouldn't be a Rob Zombie film without Sheri Moon, Bill Moseley and Sid Haig. Skyler Gisondo and Jenny Gregg Stewart played Tommy and Lindsey. It was interesting seeing Danielle Harris back in the Halloween franchise. I always liked her as a kid actor and she does a great job here as well. Scout Taylor-Compton also did a great job with what she was given.

By that, I mean I felt that the middle, where we meet Laurie and the others and Michael starts to kill them off, was a tad rushed. There is less stalking to be found. That is what made the original film scary. You never really knew when Michael would show up or when he would strike next. On the other hand, it hurts Rob's vision of the film because we already have a general idea of what is going to happen. You already have one strike on a remake of a classic. It is hard to make a classic better. That is not to say that Rob Zombie didn't try though. Perhaps his focus on the 10 year old Michael was a good choice because it adds something new and different to what we already know. Some critics may not like that Rob tried to make Michael more human and therefore we might feel more sorry for him in the long run. Critics hate it when film makers have us identify with the killer in a movie. I guess they assume we will then decide to go out and commit our own murders.

In all honesty, I have mixed feelings about Halloween. I did like it but I'm not really sure how much or how little I liked it. Instead of a scary movie, I found it more of a thoughtful movie. I didn't like how long the start of the movie took and how rushed the middle felt. Once we are down to Loomis, Laurie and Michael....this also felt too long to me. At times I didn't like how the film was edited. It made some of the murders a little hard to figure out what was going on. At least it did for me. I did like that blood, and lots of it, was added. I don't need a horror film to be a blood bath but I really felt like I was watching someone going on a murdering rampage. As much as I liked the original ending, I would have to say that the ending for this remake rivals it in my mind. I was simply stunned by the ending and the acting that went into it.

Is this version of Halloween as good as the movie it was trying to remake? No it wasn't. It's not nearly as scary but maybe it would be to someone who has yet to see the original movie. It is worth a watch though. Unlike some remakes, The Fog to name just one, I know I would be willing to watch Halloween again. I am sure that with each viewing, I will appreciate this film even more. Will this new Halloween jump start the slasher genre once again? Only time will tell.
3 out of 5 A better Michael but not a better movie

Slashers Unite

Last year around October, Starz was going to kick off Halloween with a run of horror movies. I was rather disappointed by their selection though and worse yet, they actually only had a handful of movies that were repeated over the 24 hour period. One film was an original production for Starz, Going To Pieces: The Rise And Fall Of The Slasher Film. Recently, I was flipping channels and happened to notice that it was on. I started to wonder if perhaps they had released it on DVD yet. I checked with Amazon and sure enough, it was out. While I was ordering it, I happened to notice that there is a book by the same title so I ordered that as well. I also ordered a couple of other books that I just might review sometime down the road. If I find the time to read them that is. I don't know why I didn't review Going To Pieces last year. I guess since it is a documentory and not a horror movie (by that I mean with a plot and actors), I wasn't all that interested in reviewing it. Times change though and since it is now out on DVD I thought I would help spread the word about it and also talk about the book as well.

The book, written by Adam Rockoff, is an interesting read. He starts by trying to explain what a slasher movie is and then goes into the history of the slasher genre. While it doesn't hit on every slasher film, which would be impossible to do, it does hit on the films that helped define and make the genre what it is today. What I liked about the book the most was Adam's personal takes on films. I didn't always agree with what he said but, for the most part, I did see eye to eye with him. He often includes quotes by people that are in the industry or by people that reviewed a movie he is talking about. This is not only fun but it is also very interesting as it often leads to some behind the scenes information. You will also find that he will include roughly how much a movie made at the box office. He doesn't do this for every film but it is interesting to see how much some of these movies made.

The documentory takes it a step further in a way. It covers the same areas the book does but it taps the thoughts of the people that made the films. You will find Craven, Carpenter, Zombie and Savini among many others. They talk about their own films as well as other films. This is what sets itself apart from the book, that and the clips from movies. The documentory follows basically the same guidelines as the book does. The documentory doesn't go into as much detail as the book does about each movie though. Even so, it does hit on some subjects more than the book, like the backlash the slasher movies have caused.

Each interview is interesting. The film does make the mistake of not giving everyone's name though. While every interview is fun, it was the clips from the films I enjoyed the most. I had watched the film before reading the book so there were at least a couple of clips from movies I didn't know about. What I liked about the interviews themselves was not about them talking about their own films. Don't get me wrong on that. It was interesting hearing what they had to say about that but I enjoyed it more when they started to talk about how horror movies, slashers more so since they came under attack in the '80s, affect other people. Each feel that horror movies are misunderstood by critics and that they have the wrong idea about why people like to watch these movies. One of the things in slashers is that people who have sex must die. Savini wondered, since critics like to bash slashers for that, if it actually works on people that watch these movies. If it scares teens to not have sex or do drugs, isn't that a good thing?

If you love your slasher movies, Going To Pieces is a must have for your collection. Both the book and the documentory are fun and interesting for their own reasons. One review for the documentory said that it tries to make slashers look like a serious part of horror movie history but it's not because only a handful of films have made money. While that isn't actually true, you can also say the same about comedy or action or even drama. Every genre and subgenre has its hits and misses. Sometimes more misses than hits but that doesn't mean it is just a passing fancy. Check these out when you can, I'm sure you will enjoy them as much as I did.
4 out of 5 Bring on more slashers!

Experimental Horror

Things wrapped up a little early for me today so I decided to watch a movie. Before I did that though, I went checking out some of my favorite blogs. Over at Final Girl, you will see that she is posting movies posters every Friday now. I find myself enjoying these posts because I haven't seen a lot of these posters before. If they aren't on the dvd cover (VHS or whatever else as the case may be) then I haven't gone in search for them. Check it out sometime if you get the chance. Over on And Now The Screaming Starts, you just missed a free comic book give away. Sorry I didn't report on this earlier. Since I don't generally read comics, I didn't read the entire post about it thus not knowing there was a give away going on. My bad. Cattleworks is trying his best to get 365 posts in a year! If you read the interview I did with him, you may have noticed that he is in an up and coming movie. He was kind enough to post the trailer for this movie on his site that you will find linked over on the right. Be sure to go over there and give it a watch. Hopefully I will be able to get my hands on this film and give it a review. Do I see another interview with Cattleworks as well? If he is willing then perhaps I can.

The movie I watched today, after hitting the blogs, was called Sugar (2005). Sugar is described as an experimental horror film about a nameless woman that is slowly slipping into madness. In truth, there is no plot to be found. This woman moves into an apartment that was once owned by the previous tenant Anthony. It seems most of his stuff is still there, including his answering machine. As she goes about cleaning up some, she listens to the messages that are on the machine. This is basicly all of the dialogue you will find in Sugar. From there, she apparently never leaves the apartment and slowly starts to lose her mind.

I can't give Sugar my normal kind of review because Sugar isn't your normal kind of movie. Samara Golden is the lone cast member and is also the co-writer. Rarely does she interact with anyone else. She answers the door once and we can hear a very low and mumbled conversation. At another point, she sees a man in her apartment (Anthony?) who sort of attacks her. Because of this, and because she never speaks, it is hard to judge her acting. The direction is also a bit odd. Sugar flips between color and black & white seemingly whenever it wants. Directors Patrick Jolley and Reynold Reynolds offer some strange visuals here and there. I mean that in a good way.

The challange with Sugar is to try and figure out what is real and what isn't. She pulls a body out of a hole and the body looks just like her. Is this part of her madness? Another challange is just trying to stay interested in this movie. You really shouldn't watch this movie if you are the least bit tired because it will probably make you start to drift off to sleep. Watching her clean, brush her teeth, listen to the radio, making her food and eating it. They needed these things in order to show her everyday life and how it changes over time but it starts to become too repetitive and therefor boring. While it is interesting to see how things change, like when she starts crawling over things instead of walking on the floor, it takes an effort to stay interested long enough to get to these strange yet interesting parts.

There are very few good reviews out there for Sugar. Either people didn't get it, or if they did they felt like me. I felt, even though it only runs around 72 minutes, that it was a little long for this type of movie. While not really original, there have been movies with something close to this, they went about filming it in a different way. I have to give them credit for trying to be different and stand out because of that. I don't know if I want to call this one a horror movie or not. It is in the sense that we are watching someone go mad. That in itself is a horrible thing to see but it isn't what I really define as a horror movie. Regardless of the rating I will give it here shortly, Sugar is a movie that should be judged in the end by you the viewer.
2 out of 5 Different isn't always better

Demons Among Us

After a small break, I am back. During the extended weekend, I added labels to all the movies I have reviewed. Maybe I should have been more specific on some of the labels though. Some movies were very hard to put a label on so I just picked the closest label I settled on making for it. A lot of the movies I picked for slasher, for example, are not true slashers but it was the only label I could think of to include it under. So, if you happen to check out old reviews, or new ones for that matter, if you think a label is wrong or think I should add a label to it, let me know. I'm open to improving the labels. With over 200 reviews, I went the easy way and just put general labels on them. Last night I felt the urge to watch a movie so I picked up the next movie I had waiting. It took me longer to watch it than I intended but I did get it watched. One other thing, I really appreciate all the nice comments you all left for my 250th post!!

Demon Hunter (2005) opens with an exorcism going on. The priest doesn't fair too well with the woman that is possessed though. She kills the priest and that means that Jack Greyman (Sean Patrick Flanery) heads up to deal with it. Jack is the guy that the church sends in when things go wrong. After a fight with the possessd woman, he ends up killing her and heading back to his boss, Cardinal White (William Bassett). There is a new threat happening. The demon Asmodeus (Billy Drago) is going around impregnating women in order to try and raise an army here on Earth. Being half demon himself, Jack struggles with his dark side so the Cardinal sends Sister Sarah (Colleen Porch) who ends up having a secret of her own. Can they beat the demon or will they give in to their own darksides?

The effects were just ok. From what I understand they only had 18 days to shoot the movie in so a lot of what they wanted to do had to be left out because of time and money considerations. You won't find too much as far as gore goes. There is some blood here and there but they go fairly light on it. Instead they make Demon Hunter more of an action movie. There is a lot of fighting going on in this movie but also some pretty cool looking wire moves. The acting was really good. Sean Patrick Flanery would make a good action star, if he isn't one already. Colleen Porch was good but got better as the movie went on. I really liked her performance at the end of the movie. Billy Drago made a pretty good bad guy. Tania Deighton plays a succubus that tries to get Jack to embrace his demon side.

I was a little disappointed by the end of Demon Hunter. I am always hoping for a good horror movie since that is what it is labeled as. Instead, they went with very little scares, or no scares in my case, and went with action instead. I'm not really complaining about that, I like an action movie and I don't mind it when action is sometimes mixed into a horror movie. I just felt like they were more interested in making an action movie and since it has demons in it, it gets a horror label because of that. They do a great job with the fights that can be found. At times I felt the camera angle was a little off. By being a little off it showed a punch actually missing or the reaction to the punch being delayed a little.

Director Scott Ziehl does a great job with what he was given to work with. Demon Hunter never really has the low budget feel to it. Demon Hunter comes in about 15 minutes shy of a normal feature length film. That might be a good thing for this movie though since there is very little filler. It is more direct and to the point. If you liked the tv show Buffy The Vampire Slayer then you will probably like Demon Hunter. I think I would have liked Demon Hunter a lot more than I did if they had tried to make it more of a horror movie but it is still a good movie as is. Worth checking out at least once.
3 out of 5 Dirty old men