MIWTS: Quarantine

Just got back from seeing Prom Night (review coming soon) and saw this trailer. Looks interesting so I thought I would share it. First time I have heard about Quarantine and it's not coming out until later this year so maybe another trailer will be released when it gets closer to release. Let me know what you think!

Summer Rental

Ah the 1970's. What memories they don't bring. What can I say? I wasn't around back then. Isn't it strange though that the best movies are always the ones we grew up with as kids? This seems to be more true when it comes to horror movies. The more horror movies we watch, the more we figure them out. We start to know when a scare will happen so it loses some of its affect on us. So as kids, or whenever it was we started to watch these movies, those are the scary films that we call our favorites. Of course I know at least one person that jumps and yells at every little thing that happens during a horror movie and she is in her 40's. There is an exception to every rule I guess. Burnt Offerings (1976) is a film that gets rave reviews from people that remember seeing this when they were kids. Not every good review is from someone that watched when they were a kid, but I would have to say that the majority were. So what did I think of this film?

In case you have never watched it, Burnt Offerings is about a family looking to rent a nice home for the summer. We meet Ben Rolf (Oliver Reed), his wife Marian (Karen Black) and his son David (Lee Montgomery). It was never explained in the movie how they found the place but we find them driving up to a fairly nice house. It looks a little run down and most of the plants and flowers are dead or dying. They meet the owners of the house, Roz (Eileen Heckart) and Arnold (Burgess Meredith), who are brother and sister. They are looking for someone to take care of the house during the summer while they will be gone, and also need someone there to take care of their elderly mother. Marian seems to fall in love with the house right away but Ben wants some time to think about it. Back home we watch as they talk about it. Ben seems to think it is very odd that the owners are willing to rent the place so cheaply and leave their mother with total strangers. As women tend to do, Marian wins out and they move to the big house for the summer. They take Aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis) whom they all seem to be very close to. The longer they stay at the house, the more Marian becomes obsessed with the house. Ben seems to be losing his mind. Elizabeth seems to get more and more tired. As for David, well lets just say that the swimming pool hates him.

Burnt Offerings is a movie that managed to get a PG rating so I wasn't expecting anything as far as effects went. I was right about that up until towards the end. There was very, very little blood to be found unless you include a couple of bloody noses. I was about to lose hope and then it happened. A nice splat moment towards the end of the film. The acting wasn't bad. I enjoyed Oliver Reed the most. It seems most people seem to think he was drunk in a lot of his scenes but I never noticed this. To be fair, I'm a bad judge of when people are drunk. Unless they are having trouble talking and are having trouble standing, I don't seem to notice. As I understand it, Karen Black looks down at her horror movie films. This is a little surprising to me since these are the only movies I even remember her being in. I think, but I have no idea in truth, that her most known film is Trilogy Of Terror. At least that is the film most people bring up if I happen to say anything about Karen Black. I also find it strange she keeps making horror movies if she looks down on them so much. I guess she was four months pregnant during the filming of Burnt Offerings which does explain some of the clothes she ends up wearing. In the commentary, which I didn't bother listening to, she likes to point out the scenes you can see her bulge. Sorry Karen, I wasn't looking that closely at you to notice.

The reason I decided to skip the commentary is because I refused to sit through this movie another time. It comes very close to the two hour mark which I though was just way too long for this film. About an hour and a half in I needed to pause it. It still wasn't over but I thought that maybe it was getting close. So I looked at the sleeve Netflix had it in which listed it at one hour and fifty four minutes. My first thought was, "What more can they possibly show to have it go on for another twenty minutes?" Was it worth the wait? Yes and no. I was already getting tired of Burnt Offerings just because it just felt so dragged out. The ending was a good ending though but I'm not going to praise a movie entirely on the ending.

There are some good parts to be found. A creepy looking chauffeur is found in places. The father and son swimming scene was also very good. There are more, including the ending. The problem is, it takes so long to get to the creepy things. I'm all for a slow build. More often than not, I like these types of movies. No, I love them. Burnt Offerings certainly has that slow build but next to nothing happens to make us think there is anything wrong going on until well into the film. Burnt Offerings has its moments but in the end, I just got tired of waiting for something, anything, to happen. I'm one of few that didn't seem too taken by this film, so maybe it was just me. Either way, if you decide to give this one a watch, I hope you liked it better than I did.
2 out of 5 The kid deserved to die!

Chilling In The Snow

The movie I watched tonight was recommended by Jed. He has actually been after me for about a month now to watch it. Actually, I watched two movies today. The first movie was Mr. Brooks. I can't decide if that is a movie that I should review here or not. Maybe I will sometime soon. I was going to catch a movie at the theater today but a friend talked me into watching it later this week so I won't have to go alone to it. Look for that review as it is a horror film for sure. Instead of going out, I stayed with my friend and called up Wind Chill (2007) on PPV, which happens to be free for her since she pays for Starz's anyway. I didn't know anything about it going in except that I knew it was in the vein of Penny Dreadful. I also knew that BC over at Horror Movie A Day hated it. So I knew there was a chance I would like it since we don't agree on movies too much.

Wind Chill is about a woman (Emily Blunt) who needs a ride back to Delaware from college. She checks a bulletin board where people are looking for or offering ride shares and finds one that happens to be going to Delaware. She meets up with a guy (Ashton Holmes) and off they go. As a quick side note, the credits list the main actors as girl and guy. I could have sworn they said each other's names at some point but maybe I am wrong. As they drive along, they begin to talk. The more he talks, the more he starts to hang himself. By this I mean that he seems to know a lot more about her than he should if he had just met her that day. Eventually they turn down a road that is still snow covered that he claims is a short cut. Just before they reach a bridge, another car nearly hits them. He manages to avoid a wreck but does skid off the road and gets stuck in the snow. So now they are stuck in the middle of no where and it is getting late. Eventually they discover that they are not as alone as they thought. Was this part of his plan or is something else going on here?

I seem to be on a run of films with very little or no effects lately. Wind Chill has very little except for some frozen bodies and maybe an eel or whatever that was supposed to be. Maybe some people would have liked to have seen more as far as the effects go, but I was happy with what was shown. Wind Chill is a movie that I felt didn't need a lot of effects to get the point across. It reminded me a bit of Penny Dreadful but I liked this movie more. I think the reason why is because there are two people dealing with what is going on instead of one. When things slow down some, at least we have the interaction between the two leads to keep us interested. I have heard complaints about the characters the two leads play, but I rarely see complaints about the acting. I rather enjoyed the acting from the two leads. You can also find Martin Donovan, Ned Bellamy, Ian A. Wallace and Chelan Simmons.

I hate to say this but the plot online on IMDb and Netflix both give it away so I guess it won't be too much of a surprise if you go out and rent it. Wind Chill is sort of two plots that are mixed together. The main plot is really what is happening between the two characters. He is being very creepy at times with how much he seems to know about her, even though he has never talked to her until this trip. For whatever reason she doesn't catch on to just how much he does know about her. She also comes across as a bit of a snob at times as well. Some people feel the writer dropped the ball on this and should have stuck with this plot and this plot only. I think that is why this movie didn't do well because it chooses to be different. Instead of going with the fatal attraction or slasher type film, it went with the second plot which is a bit of a ghost story.

At first, the second plot is minor and I had no idea what was going on which, I think is what made it better for me. I'm sorry to have to spoil that plot point but as I said, everyone else seems to do that as well so there wasn't a way around it. By spoiling it, to some degree anyway, it makes it easier to talk about Wind Chill. By knowing it is a ghost story, it may take some of the fun away. But who is a ghost and who isn't? Ah, now there is the tricky question and one I promise not to spoil for you all. In truth, I wish they had made it into more of a ghost story than it was. I also thought that the film goes too far in explaining things. Most times I like open endings where I get to make up my mind what happened. That isn't to say that everything was explained, just a little too much for my tastes.

Wind Chill was a movie I will gladly watch again. I think another reason it didn't hit more movie screens and ended up not making a lot of money is because it is such a slow paced movie. We don't get to know the two character extremely well, but there is more character development than can be found in a lot of other films. Wind Chill isn't for everyone. A slow pace and pretty much no gore leaves a lot of people out in the cold, so to speak. If this doesn't bother you though and you like ghost stories, maybe you should give this one a shot. I know I sure loved it once I did!
4 out of 5 Nothing like this would happen in Texas, that is for sure!

Watching For Ghosts Part Two

I noticed something when I started this post today. I am nearing post number 350! Which means I will have to start thinking about which of my favorite movies I will talk about for that post. I'm also getting close to making double digits for this month. One more, which I think I will take in today, and I will have done it. That doesn't mean I will stop for the month though. There are two movies that have come out on DVD that I want to pick up this week. Who knows when I will actually get around to watching them though. Last night, even though I felt ready to go to bed, I watched GhostWatcher 2 (2005). I managed to stay awake through the whole film. That should tell you something there because something has to really catch my attention in order for me to fight off sleep.

GhostWatcher 2 starts with a murder and then moves on to Tracy (Julia Pickens) and her mom driving at night. Tracy is driving and talking with her mom, when mom yells out because there is someone in the road. Tracy tries to turn in time but it is too late. She hits the person and then hits a pole. When she comes to, she can see and hear that the pole is about to fall. She gets her mom to come around but her seat belt is stuck so she tells Tracy to leave her. Just as Tracy jumps from the car, the pole fall onto the car. As she sits by the road, someone walks up to her and attacks her with a large knife. We are left wondering who survived. Three months later we find that Tracy is still around. One night when she is home alone, she hears a knock at the front door. Being a smart one, she looks out the window first but can't see the area by the door too well since it is storming. She goes to the door and asks who is there and hears a woman's voice ask for help and saying that there has been an accident. Instead of opening the door, she offers to call for help. Some even stranger things happen before Tracy falls to the floor where her dad eventually finds her. It turns out that Tracy is hearing voices in her head. A doctor runs some tests and finds everything to be normal, and suggests to them that they get the help of Laura Kove (Jillian Byrnes) who has taken over the GhostWatcher web site.

There still wasn't a lot of effects to be found this time around. But I can report that what was there was an improvement. I don't really mean that it was done better. I mean that there a little more to choose from this time around and therefore it was better. There were a few gore effects to be found. These were done by Sandy Andrle. In this film, and the last one, there really wasn't enough effects to judge the person that did them on. For what was there, I thought both films did a pretty good job with its effects. GhostWatcher 2 adds a few CGI effects as well. Which tells me that they had a little bit more money this time around. The CGI wasn't the greatest but I found it fun all the same. The acting also was an improvement. Jillian Byrnes was the only one to return for the sequel. Not only does she look different, longer hair and a different color, I liked her acting a whole lot better this time. This was the first film for Julia Pickens. Julia does a pretty good job at her role. Sometimes I had a few minor issues with her character, but Julia herself does a pretty good job. There is room for some improvement there. You can also find Seregon O'Dassey and Steve Polites.

GhostWatcher 2 is an over all improvement from the first movie. The effects, the acting and even the directing. It didn't win over everyone, but I don't see as many bad reviews as I did the first one. Maybe that is because most of those people didn't bother to watch this one after seeing the first movie. I have always said there are very few sequels that surpass the original film. GhostWatcher 2 does manage to do that. For the most part anyway. Even though I thought this film was an improvement over the last one, there was one thing that kept me from loving it - which was the story. I liked the story much better the first time around. While this story is different, it comes real close to being the same story repeated. When Tracy first starts to hear voices in her head when she was home alone, I was very interested in where the story was going to take this. I never got completely awake, but I didn't feel nearly as tired anymore either. I guess I thought the story was going to zig and instead it zagged on me. I'm not disappointed really. I just didn't really care for the direction the story did go.

Even though there seemed to be a little more money for budget this time, the story eventually needs some big disaster to happen. I won't explain why or anything, I will let you figure that out. I was fine with this and what happens was done in a way that works for a low budget film. But I didn't think the disaster that was shown worked very well. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me. If you have watched this film and would like to talk about this, either in email or in the comments, that would be fine with me. One thing I can say for both films is that the story is told in a way that allows you to discover what is going on along with the characters in the film. It wasn't easy to figure out what was going to happen. In GhostWatcher 2 there are some dreams that are shown. It is the same dream but each time we get to see a little more of it. I was thinking the dreams were something to Tracy. They were in a way, but I'm glad to say that I was wrong in my thinking of how the dreams played into the main plot. I like a film that can throw me off.

Overall, GhostWatcher 2 was a better film but in the end I can't give it a better rating even though I liked it more then the original. If you liked the first movie, you will have to make sure you see this one. Hell, even if you hated the first film, give this one a watch as well. You might just be surprised.
3 out of 5 Ghosts don't kill people, just take your soul

Watching For Ghosts Part One

I feel like I have watched my share of low budget horror films to be a fairly good judge of them when I watch one now. If I have learned anything from watching these films, it is that I shouldn't be quick to judge a movie just because it doesn't have a big budget behind it. Sure I still rip into a movie, low budget or not, but I don't think I do it as often as I once did. I watched one today called GhostWatcher (2002) that had that low budget feel right from the start. In the past I would probably have said something like, "Oh great." Now days I simply take it in stride. So it may not be as good as other movies. As long as it entertains me, I'm happy. I'm easy like that sometimes. Most of the other reviews I have been reading tell me I shouldn't have liked this one at all...but I did.

GhostWatcher starts with a very short version of an event that happens to Laura Kove (Jillian Byrnes). I was surprised at just how short this was in fact. Eventually we do get to find out what did happen to her. In the meantime though, we are skipped ahead to almost a year later and discover that Laura has not left her apartment since the event. Her best friend, Nikki (Marianne Hayden), helps Laura out a lot by getting all the things that she needs. As it moves closer to the anniversary of the event, Laura starts to notice some strange things. Stuff in her apartment is being moved around. Doors are opening on their own. Lights are turning on by themselves. As things get worse, she starts searching for help on the internet and finds it in Elizabeth Dean (Jennifer Servary). It was hard to tell if Elizabeth is really into this type of thing like her website describes, or if she more into just simply conning people. Her website does have a members only and a private section where she "performs" on her web cam. For a fee of course. The longer Elizabeth investigates what is happening to Laura, the more she starts to believe. So what is going on?

Not a lot to speak of as far as effects go. I wasn't surprised and I am actually glad of this to be honest. To many low budget movies try and be more than what they can be. There are a few to be found though. A nail through the hand and a handful of some zombie intestines mainly. Yes there is a zombie to be found in this ghost story though he isn't there for very long. The makeup for the zombie didn't look all that great, but I have seen much worse. At least the makeup didn't come off like it did in Zombie Lake. Sure it could have been better but it was passable to me. My main complaint was that while they made up the face, they didn't do anything to the hands. The hands look normal which has been a pet peeve to me in more than one movie. At one point in the movie, I loved the makeup that was done for Elizabeth and lets not forget the creepy looking green eyes.

The acting could have been better as well. At first, I didn't care for any of the actresses in GhostWatcher. As the story progressed though, the more the acting started to grow on me. I don't know if it was getting better or if I was just getting more used to it. While it never became a "knock my socks off" great, I was really starting to enjoy the acting. I think the story had a part in that as well. Jennifer Servary turned out to be my favorite of the three. You can tell this is probably the first time any of the three has ever acted in a film. Yes it does show, even more in the gag real. Still, they are trying to do their best. That wasn't saying much for some other people that wrote up reviews. In the end, I can say that I was enjoying the acting and the movie so I guess that is all that matters.

David A. Cross was the first time director and writer behind GhostWatcher. I really enjoyed the story that he wrote. It was what kept me wanting to see more. GhostWatcher is a film that lacks in budget and might suffer just a little from so many first timers. What it lacks though is made up for in a strong story. The film feels a little drawn out in places, which was my only complaint about the story itself. I only really felt this at the start of the film though. Once the story takes hold, it didn't let me go. More than a few people seemed to not like the story at all but I think it was just the fact that this film is so low budget more than anything else. There were a few people that really seemed to love bashing this film. The fact that some of the crew, Cross at least, will check out the message board on IMDb, and will read some of the things being wrote about it, only encouraged some people to bash it I think.

GhostWatcher isn't a great film and it isn't one I can say that I fell in love with. It was a film that I ended up really liking though. Some of the things could have been a lot better. I liked the story a lot, but hated the ending for kind of personal reasons. I would say, but it centers around a plot point that would give some of the story away and I don't want to do that. If you decide to watch this film and if you give it a fair shot, I think it is a ghost story that can be enjoyed. I feel a little disappointed with this review since I feel like I haven't talked about it enough but hopefully I did get my point across.
3 out of 5 Found my Halloween costume for this year!

War Is Hell

I was going to watch another one of my Netflix movies for this review. I need to start getting through them again, so I can get new movies and feel like I am paying them for something at least. Instead, I decided to watch a movie I have had sitting around since March of last year. When I watched the movie Deathwatch for the Final Girl Film Club, I had ordered it from Amazon. They had it as part of a package deal with a film called The Bunker (2001) for a special price. Since I had never watched either movie, I decided to go ahead and order the package since it really was a nice deal for the two movies. I didn't think it would take me a year to watch it though. Thankfully it wasn't a Netflix movie!

The Bunker starts in June of 1944. We find a couple of soldiers trying to board up what looks like a tunnel. They are obviously in a hurry but the lights go out on them. As they do we hear a scream. Four months later we meet up with some different German soldiers who are on the run. The Americans are hot on their tails and they are under fire. Most manage to make it to a bunker and they are able to hole up there. They find an older man and a teenager there, the only two people left to defend it before they arrived. They are able to call headquarters but are told there is no one to spare in order to rescue or help them. So what do they do? They are low on ammo and they are probably out numbered as well. The teenager tells them that there is always the tunnels. But the old man doesn't think they should use them because, as he tells it, they are haunted. As the tension grows, they start to turn on each other and decide that they should check out the tunnels.

For a war movie, in part anyway, there are very few effects to be found. A few people get shot of course and at least one person gets stabbed. Another guy gets burned pretty badly. Only problem with that effect, which was probably the biggest, was that the guy looked like he had been burned and then healed instead of just recently burned. At least that was how it looked to me. The acting was pretty good. Main thing people complain about isn't really the acting but that it is a British film with British actors playing the parts of Germans. I will explaining further in a little bit. I didn't have any real problems with the acting. I thought it was done very well actually. You can find the following people in The Bunker: Jason Flemyng, Andrew Tiernan, Christopher Fairbank, Simon Kunz, Andrew Lee Potts, John Carlisle, Eddie Marsan, Jack Davenport, Charley Boorman and Nicholas Hamnett.

I have to admit that I was a little confused by The Bunker at times. The plot itself wasn't all that hard to figure out. It was that there were so many characters to try and keep track of. It didn't help that they were all basically dressed the same either. When they are in uniform and have their hats or helmets on, it is hard to tell them apart if you can at all. Someone made the call of allowing the actors to speak in their native British accent instead of trying to talk in a fake German accent. This bothered a lot of people really. I didn't see anything wrong with it since it is an English speaking movie. However, it would have been nice if they had tried to avoid using British slang words or phrases. Hearing them say things like "Yanks," since the Germans didn't call Americans that, and "Shut your mouth, you bloody coward!" These things kind of take one out of the illusion just a little. In truth, they could have easily solved this by rewriting the script just a little bit. I don't mean by leaving things like that out but by making them British soldiers either caught in a German advance, or simply caught behind the enemy line.

One thing I really enjoyed about The Bunker was the flashbacks. These are probably why they wanted the soldiers to be German, because they are carrying around a lot of guilt. The flashbacks eventually fill us in on why they are feeling so guilty. The flashbacks are done in very vibrant colors, which is in complete contrast to the dark and gloomy colors of the bunker and tunnels. I liked this a lot as it made the flashbacks really stand out from the rest of the film. I never really figured out what was going on in the tunnels. To the movie's credit though, I think it was supposed to be up to us to decide what was happening to these soldiers. It was also interesting to see the clash between the soldiers who are fighting for their country and the ones that truly believe in the Nazi way.

I talked a little about Deathwatch at the start of this review. I can see why they were grouped together because they are both war/horror movies. Different wars of course. One thing they had in common was that it was hard to tell how big the place was they were in. In Deathwatch it is the trenches, it was hard to judge how many there were or how long they went on for. The same can be said about the tunnels in The Bunker. I loved Deathwatch but simply just liked The Bunker. If you should give this one a watch I think you would like it as well. Give it a try sometime!
3 out of 5 Falling into barbed wire can't be a good thing

MIWTS: The Happening

Movies I want to see. That is what the title is shortened to. I thought this could be something that I could do to spread the word about the movies coming out. I won't do this for every horror film, just the ones that I would be willing to go see. If I actually do go see them will be a different story though. I thought this could be a weekly thing but then I realized that would be hard to do since a lot of films never make it to the big screen. So, for my first selection, I'm not sure if this is a true horror film or not. Either way, I'm excited about it. M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. While I haven't always liked his films, I still get excited whenever a new film by him is coming out. Watch the trailer and feel free to let me know what you think of it!

Death On An Island

I told you I would try and get reviews up more quickly, didn't I? The movie I watched today was one called Island Of Death (1975). I don't remember adding it to my queue which is nothing new for me. I knew nothing about the film going in, except what Netflix had to say about it. After I watched it, I learned that it was one of the original films that made the "video nasties" list in the UK. This didn't surprise me too much actually. While it is somewhat tame compared to a few movies that have come out since, I understand why it caused such a stir back in the day. While I have yet to find a highly rated review for Island Of Death, except on IMDb, it is often hailed as a "perverted" and "sick" film, which seems to qualify it as a good movie. Is that really the case though?

Island Of Death starts off innocently enough. Chrisopher (Bob Behling) and Celia (Jane Lyle) arrive on Mykonos, a Greek island. They seem like the typical tourist from England. They look for a hotel and discover there are none but there are places that have rooms for rent. They quickly find a room and start to have a look around. Chris finds a phone booth and decides to give their mothers a call while they have are having sex in the booth. They find this amusing but dear old mom doesn't. So we discover that this couple, that introduces themselves as a married couple to most people, has a bit of a kinky side to them. While they are out eating one night, Chris makes a comment to Celia that he doesn't like the only other person, who happens to be a guy, is looking at Celia. Celia doesn't think the guy is looking their way but Chris still acts like he about to make a scene. Instead, he invites the man over for a talk and introduces themselves as cousins who are looking for some company. The next day, Celia finds the guy from dinner. She ends up having sex with him and then helps Chris kill him.

For a movie that got banned, I was surprised at how tame the effects were. Nico Mastorakis was going for shock instead of gore and it really shows. That is not to say there are no effects though. There are a few to be found. Nails get driven through one person's hands. Another person gets burned. There is someone who gets stabbed a few times. Maybe the best one was a decapitation by bulldozer. While it may have been the best one, it wasn't the bloodiest death. That would go to a goat that was killed. Don't worry, I didn't spoil all of the deaths in this movie. Perhaps the best makeup effect would go to the burning, which was done in stages. You can find a picture of this next.



I couldn't tell at times if Island Of Death was dubbed or filmed in English. On IMDb it does say it was filmed in English so that answers that question. I think that makes the acting worse though. I didn't care for either of the leads all that much as far as their acting went. Bob Behling makes for an alright bad guy. But for every act of violence there is also an act of the bizarre that took me out for a loop. Jane Lyle was a model before being tapped to do this film. She was only in three films, at least that is all IMDb lists. While she is very pretty, and not afraid to show off her body, her acting skills left something to be desired. At least she was trying though. She was fairly good at showing things through her expressions. The only problem is, I couldn't tell if those expressions were supposed to be pleasure or pain at even given moment. With the exception of those two, Jessica Dublin and Gerard Gonalons, I think the director said everyone else were locals of Greece that he picked up along the way to fill in parts.

Nico Mastorakis admits in the interview he did for the DVD that he made this film to simply try and make money from it. Along with a friend, they went to go see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and they were amazed at how violent it was, and how much money it had made considering the low budget. So he came up with the idea to make his own movie (I guess he had done some TV work before this) on an even lower budget. Instead of trying to make the movie more violent, Nico decides to go in the other direction, perversion. Nico throws just about everything he can think of into this movie. There is the usual stuff you would probably expect from an exploitation film like nudity, even full frontal but no male nudity, and rape. Island Of Death takes it a bit further though. There is also some bestiality, golden shower and, thrown in for good measure, incest. I admit that the first two surprised me a lot, and I can say I have never seen either in a movie, I still found Island Of Death to be boring.



The main problem is that the whole movie is us watching Chris and Celia doing whatever they want. Chris seems to be more than willing to kill anyone that crosses his path. He always has a reason behind the killings. The person is gay, does drugs or cheats on their spouse to name a few. He usually kills in God's name as well. It was never clear if Celia enjoyed Chris doing all of this or hated it, since she would play both sides of the fence. She does kill one person at least but then turns around and complains later on when Chris wants to kill someone else. It would have been nice if they had defined Celia a little better in that regard. I am complaining about this is because it became boring after a while. One Detective is hot on their trail it seems. But once they know he is around, they quickly kill him off. The police on the island don't show up until late in the film. What I am getting at is it would have been more exciting if there had been more of a cat and mouse game going on at the same time as the murder spree.

While I did find Island Of Death to be boring in general, there were a couple of things I did find interesting. Chris and Celia took a camera with them no matter where they went. They were always taking pictures, more so when killing someone. Parts of scenes were shown in these snapshots. The scene would play out as normal and then when the camera would start to take pictures, that is what we would see that series of pictures. Maybe this has been used in film before. But I don't recall seeing it before and I thought it was a really cool way to play out a scene. The other thing I liked was that some scenes were separated by the sound of a camera taking a picture, the screen going black and then the next scene would start. It was like we were seeing the shutter close then open again.

One more thing to complain about. The very bad 70's music that was being played and some of the sound effects. During some of the night scenes, I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be the sound of crickets or a phone ringing. But either way it was annoying as hell. I even muted the TV to make sure it was coming from the movie and not elsewhere. Anyway, if this is the kind of film that you might like to watch once in a while, you may or may not be disappointed. Most of the high rated reviews on IMDb really enjoyed the exploitation while some, even thought they like these types of films, didn't care for Island Of Death. If it doesn't sound interesting to you then I say to stay well clear of it. I'm only giving it as high of a rating I as am because of the things I did like, which weren't all that many really. I do feel slightly justified in the rating though.
2 out of 5 Baaad teasing goats

Dealing With Vines

I have a million and one excuses as to why it took me ten days to get a new review up. Trust me, I counted them all. I won't bother wasting your time, or mine, with trying to explain them all. I'll just say that I am sorry and I will try and do a better job of updating the blog more often. Today I was playing around online some when I decided to see what was playing at the local movie theater. I had been throwing the idea around of going to see The Ruins (2008) since it was released. Since then I have been reading some reviews for it. Most seem to have liked it, as well as CRWM. I may not always agree with what he has to say about movies but I always consider his views. So, as I was looking to see what was playing, I noticed that The Ruins was about to start in 20 minutes. On a spur of the moment type thing, I grabbed my keys and left right then.

The Ruins is about a couple of best friends, Amy (Jena Malone) and Stacy (Laura Ramsey), and their boyfriends, Jeff (Jonathan Tucker) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore) respectively. They are in Mexico enjoying the sun, the beach and the water. They meet another tourist, Mathias (Joe Anderson) from Germany, when he returns an earring that Amy lost. In no time at all, Mathias talks our little group into visiting some ruins that his brother is at. It seems that Mathias's brother went to the ruins with a woman that was working there and hasn't returned yet so Mathias is going there to look for him. They take a bus to another town and then find a taxi but the driver refuses to take them. He tells them it is a "bad place" but for some extra money he is more than willing to take them anyway. Once at the spot, they start looking for the path that leads to the ruins. Mathias finds it but discovers it has been hidden by someone. The girls wonder about following a path that has been covered up, but the rest just shrug it off. Once at the ruins, a native rides up hard on a horse and appears to be trying to get them to move away from the ruins. But it is unclear what he is trying to say. Our group is the same way, they don't understand what he is saying at all nor do they understand what he wants them to do. When a couple of more people ride up, this time with weapons, things go from bad to worse. When Amy stumbles into the vines that have covered the ruins, their fates have been sealed.

While there were a few people that didn't like the effects, I thought they were actually very well done. There is a nice mix of effects to be found in The Ruins. You have your basic makeup effects to show how dirty our group gets over however long they are trapped at the ruins. There is also the vines. I don't know if they used reverse shooting as a way to make the vines appear to be moving forward or if CGI effects were being used. One of the bad things about going to a theater to see a movie, there are no "making of" features to be found. Either way though, I thought the use of the vines and their "powers," so to speak, were very effective. The Ruins also has makeup effects of the gory kind. I don't want to give away too much since the effects are very plot driven. From what I was reading though, at least one effect of this nature has been trimmed back a lot since it was shown before it got a rating. I was also reading that some people didn't care all that much for the acting but again, I thought it was actually pretty good. I can say this about the core group of actors, they made me believe and feel for each of their characters. That wouldn't have happened if they were doing a bad job.

The Ruins is based on a novel of the same name by Scott B. Smith. Scott also wrote the screen play for the movie. I will admit that I have never read the novel but if you have, and would like to read a review that compares the two, then I would suggest you head over to And Now The Screaming Starts to read CRWM's great review. While you are there, check out the link that CRWM provided to yet another great review. Now back to my own review.

The Ruins uses a horror movie device that I can't say I have seen used all that often, which is the vines. It sounds like a silly device to use but because the vines weren't overly used, it works very well. Even so, there seem to be more and more haters of this film. I think they fail to see that this film isn't so much about the vines as it is about a group of people trying to survive what they have found themselves in. That being said, I can also say that ties into what I disliked. The Ruins could have used more character development at the start of the film. There is just a little there that kind of plays into things later on in the film. It just would have been nice to have gotten to know these people a little better before they headed off to the jungle. It also would have been nice it if took our group just a bit longer to decide they would head off into the jungle with someone they just met. Mathias has no ill intent towards our group but how could they know that?

Even though there wasn't as much character development as I would have liked, I still ended up feeling for the characters. That spoke volumes to me. The Ruins sounds like it could be a silly movie but because it takes itself seriously, there are a few places where sarcasm might get a little chuckle, I thought it ended up being a very good film. It has a good mix of effects and the acting was pretty much spot on. I feel like because the film is getting good word of mouth, people who aren't big horror fans are starting to go see this one, and are returning disappointed for whatever reason. Don't let these bad reviews get to you though. The Ruins is a film to see.
4 out of 5 They killed a kid?!? Yes!



As an added bonus, while I was reading reviews from other web sites, I found a couple of pictures from scenes that didn't make it to the final cut it seems. Don't worry, I don't feel they give anything away. I decided to post them here so all of you don't have to go looking for them to see what I was talking about.

House Of Legend

Yesterday I watched a movie that I have heard a lot about through the years. That is the nice thing about Netflix, I can find movies like The Legend Of Hell House (1973) much easier than going to the local video store and trying to find it there. Maybe they would have it, but one just never knows what a store will and won't have. Some movies I thought for sure they would have are no where to be found. At the same time, movies I have never heard of, and probably rarely get rented, are all over the place. Since I have heard so much about The Legend Of Hell House it made me wonder why Netflix averages 3 stars with over 28,000 people rating it. I have found that Netflix users do under rate some movies so maybe that is the case with this one as well.

The Legend Of Hell House is about a team that is hired to investigate the "Mount Everest of haunted houses." You get two mediums, Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) and Benjamin Fischer (Roddy McDowall). There is also a physicist, Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill), and his wife, Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt). The house has been sealed up since a team went in 20 years earlier. Benjamin was the only person on that team to leave the house alive. Florence begins to feel things almost right away. Lionel believes he can rid the house of its energy, so there is a bit of a science versus faith. Can this team find out what is going in this house or will they all be killed?

The effects in The Legend Of Hell House follow the rule of less is more. There a few effects here and there. The biggest perhaps is a dinner scene where things start flying and moving around. Nothing major as far as effects go, but it was very effective. There was also an odd scene of ectoplasm (I hope I am saying that right) that I can only remember seeing in one other movie which happens to be Ghostbusters. A little bit of blood can be found but this was obviously held back. The acting was probably the best part of this film. Roddy McDowall was good but I wish his part was a bit stronger. He came across as a bit shy and quiet. After what is alluded to from his previous visit to the house, I guess I can understand that. I didn't make the connection until after I had watched this film, even so, it was great seeing Pamela Franklin in yet another haunted house story. She was also in one of my rare five star reviews of The Innocents. Pamela was one of the child actors in that film, and is grown up in this film. Her character was very strong headed and I had to admire that. No matter how bad things got for Florence, and things got bad, she refused to give up.

As much as I love the ghost stories and haunted house stories that are out there, I came away from The Legend Of Hell House with more of an "eh" feeling than anything else. I felt like the biggest part of the film centered around Florence. As much as I liked her character, as much as I liked Pamela Franklin's acting, I found myself wishing they would involve the other characters a little more as far as the haunting went. They were included in places, but more so we wouldn't forget about them being there almost. Another thing I could have done without is Florence, and even Benjamin, channeling the spirits and hamming it up. I don't know if spirits really do talk through certain people or not. But to me, I start to lose interest when this happens. While things like doors opening and closing on their own or footsteps seemingly coming from the same room you are in can be explained away at times, those are the type of things that can get under my skin way better than a supposed spirit talking through someone else. Call me fickle if you want but I have just never bought into that.

I was reading one person's review of this film and he talked about watching it when it first came out. What is important about that fact is that he felt the DVD dropped the ball, so to speak. He talked about three scenes that, for whatever reason, didn't make it onto the DVD. He described these scenes and in at least one case, the fate of Florence, it made much more sense than what I did watch. However, this guy was the only person that brought these scenes up and I didn't see any mention of them anywhere else so I don't know how true this is.

As I said before, I really enjoyed the dinner scene. I still think that was the most effective scene and it is to bad they didn't go more towards that direction instead of channeling spirits. The science versus supernatural was an interesting plot device, but also reminded me a bit of Ghostbusters. I guess since The Legend Of Hell House came out first I should say that Ghostbusters reminded me of it. There is also a bit of a sexual overtone to the film as well that I think some reviews have put a little too much thought into. Very brief shot of nudity which was too bad. Not bad that they showed that but bad because...well never mind. So I don't mind seeing another woman nude, sue me. The Legend Of Hell House isn't a bad film by a long shot. I just wished they had gone in a slightly different direction and had worked on the ending a little more as well. Still, it is a very good movie and one not to be missed if you enjoy this type of film.
3 out of 5 Who knew ghost sex would be so rough?

Fates Are Us

Ah, I have some time to sit done and do a review. You really didn't believe I would just give up my blog did you? It has been a long time since I have pulled an April Fool's joke on anyone. I had never done one on the net let alone on my blog, so I thought it would be a good place to pull one. What I said was partly true. I do wish more people would vote or leave comments. However, I couldn't ask for a better core group of people. I watched Torture Garden (1967) a few days ago, but the last couple of days have been super busy for me. I was only online for a couple of hours one night which I used to catch up on my edits and update my review list. Now that the weekend is here, it is time to relax and do some reviews.

Torture Garden starts off in a carnival. Dr. Diablo (Burgess Meredith) has a sideshow where he shows people torture devices. At the end of the show, he tells the group that he has something even more special but it will cost extra to see. Only a few people take him up on this offer, and what they find is a motionless (actually it does move ever so slightly at times) fortune teller (Clytie Jessop). One by one, Dr. Diablo tells them to stare into the shears of fate to see what the future might hold for them. There are four stories to be found. All have the theme of greed to them.

Not a lot as far as effects but at least one scene appears to be more graphic than it actually is. Some blood to be found, but actually it leaves it up to us at times as to what is really happening. I actually expect that out of an older movie and also because it comes out of Britain. They don't seem to be as violent as we are in movies. The acting was pretty good. Two names jumped out at me right off, Jack Palance and Peter Cushing. If you watch this one for just the two of them, you will have to wait until the last story. We see Jack many times before that in the connecting story, but he doesn't even say anything until late into the movie. "Enoch" features Michael Bryant and Niall McGinniss. "Terror Over Hollywood" features Beverly Adams, John Phillips, Robert Hutton and Bernard Kay. "Mr. Steinway" features Barbara Ewing and John Standings. "The Man Who Collected Poe" of course features Jack Palance and Peter Cushing.

Amicus Productions released Torture Garden. They found a niche that Hammer films didn't have covered, anthology films. Torture Garden was the second of these types of films that they released. It was picked up by Columbia Pictures here in the States. I wanted to like Torture Garden but I just couldn't. Only two of the four stories could I consider being horror stories. "Enoch" is about a guy that has to deal with a cat that can control minds. While I never really understood why the cat was having this guy do the things he did, I liked that they used a cat instead of some other animal for this story. "Mr. Steinway" is about a killer piano. I know it sounds silly and most people consider this story the weakest of the four. I actually ended up enjoying it though. How many movies can you say you have watched that had a piano that could move on its own and kill people?

"Terror Over Hollywood" was the weakest of the stories to me. It is about a woman that will do almost anything to become a big star in Hollywood. In doing so, she discovers a secret about some of the people who are already stars. "The Man Who Collected Poe" was a good story, but I have trouble calling it a horror story. It is about two men that collect all things Poe. One man has things the other man wants. The first of these two I had to throw more into sci-fi than anything else. I don't know where I would put the second story. It had strong acting but the story itself wasn't all the horrific to me. In truth, none of the stories are scary at all so it turns out to be a weak film. From what I was reading though, the anthology films that came out after this one turned out much better.

Torture Garden isn't really a bad film. It was well made but I just couldn't get into the stories all that much. I am hoping to check out more films like this one though since I have been reading some good things about them. Unless you are into one of the actors listed, I think it is safe to say that you won't be missing a whole lot if you decide to skip over this one.
2 out of 5 Need more killer pianos!

The End Is Now

(A)lright everyone, listen up. (P)erhaps I shouldn't do this but I have made up my mind. (R)ight or wrong, I have decided to give up writing reviews. (I) noticed that my last poll only had four votes which made me think that next to no one is reading any of this. (L)ately I have been wondering if perhaps the time I put into writing these reviews could be better spent. (F)or now, with a heavy heart, I will hang up my hat. (O)nce in a while I shall check in to see how everyone is doing and to visit all of your blogs. (O)ne day I might even start writing reviews again, stranger things have happened after all. (L)ittle did I know that I would have so much fun and make some very good friends when I started Mermaid Heather but, like they say, all good things come to an end. (S)oon I will go but before I do, thank you all that have been around...goodbye for now.