Giving The Devil A Backbone

At the start of this year, I made an overall goal to beat last year's total post count. I was rather disappointed in last year's total count, after a fairly strong first year. I'm happy to say that, with this post, I have now matched the total count from last year. With over a month to go, and with this week off from classes, I think it is safe to say that I will achieve my goal. I don't think I will match, or beat, my first year total, but maybe I will save that for next year. The Devil's Backbone (2001) is the last of my Netflix stuff until Tuesday, hopefully. I mailed a movie back Thursday, but for whatever reason, the mailman didn't take it. So Friday I had to mail it out again, this time I arrived just as he was sorting mail to put in mailboxes. So I quickly ran over, and exchanged mail with him. As long as the next film is mailed from somewhere near by, I should get it on Tuesday. In the mean time, it will give me a chance to watch some of the movies I have around here.

The Devil's Backbone takes place at some point during the Spanish Civil War. Which means it takes place somewhere between the years 1936 and 1939. From the hints offered in the film, it takes place in 1939. In truth, this isn't really all that important, since it is more of a backdrop to the story, rather than a significant point. The film opens with planes flying overhead and dropping bombs. My first thought was that it was placed sometime during the Second World War possibly. After reading other reviews though, I discovered otherwise. I did a little research just to see for myself. It does make more sense, plot wise, if it was set during the Civil War. I'm getting sidetracked here, but I know very little about the history of Spain, so I just wanted to pick up on the story taking place in the outer reaches of this one. We pick up on the story days, or maybe weeks, after the bombs fell. Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is a twelve year old boy being dropped off at an orphanage. He doesn't know it, but his father, who is fighting for the losing side, has died. Carmen (Marisa Paredes) is running the orphanage, and helps the losing cause by giving gold once in a while. Some friends of Carlos's father is dropping Carlos off, so that Carlos will be away from all the fighting. The first thing Carlos notices is a bomb in the courtyard. Carmen assures them that the bomb has been defused, but it is too heavy for anyone to take away. The other kids start to test Carlos, who becomes popular with some of them, because of the comic books he has. Their test is to see if he will be a snitch, or stand with the other kids. There also seems to be a ghost, "the one who sighs," lurking around, warning others of many deaths.

Outside of The Devil's Backbone making me look up Spanish history, I also discovered that this was written, and directed, by Guillermo del Toro. If you don't know the name, which I am still picking up on myself, then let me fill you in. He is behind Mimic, The Orphanage, Hellboy, Hellboy 2, Pan's Labyrinth, Blade 2, and the upcoming The Hobbit, and The Hobbit 2. As far as The Devil's Backbone goes, I was actually surprised at how many good reviews it was getting. I did check before watching the film, mainly what overall rating it was getting, not actual reviews. I didn't know this was a film by Guillermo when I put it in, it was just a film that I knew next to nothing about.

One thing I noticed with some reviews, is that some people said they felt let down by The Devil's Backbone after having watched Pan's Labyrinth already. I didn't have this problem, since I have yet to see Pan's Labyrinth. One thing I found interesting was the ghost in this story. It has an interesting look to it. I kept flipping back and forth as to how much I liked how the ghost looked. Sometimes I thought it was very cool looking, other times I didn't like it at all. One thing I was slightly disappointed in was that they give us a full view of the ghost very early in the film. I thought it was more interesting with them just hinting at the ghost, instead of showing it. The ghost is an actual actor with a lot of CGI elements added. Blood was always floating out of a head wound of the ghost. There were water effects around the ghost at times. The thing I liked, and hated, the most though, was that you could barely make out the bones. This effect looked very neat with the face, but I didn't like how it looked with the clothes. I know ghosts are translucent, at least some appear that way, but I didn't care for the way you could see the bones through the clothes. At times, it looked like the bones were something on the clothes, instead of something that you could see through the clothes.

The Devil's Backbone is actually a drama with the supernatural thrown in. The ghost is an added story element that really didn't need to be there in order to tell the story. It does help move the story along at times, but I really felt they could have gotten around the ghost if they had wanted to do so. It wasn't something that was needed in order to tell the story. The main story is of course the people at the orphanage. The relationships found there is something that I found more interesting, and it kept me watching. The supernatural part of the film was a nice touch, but it felt more like a thriller instead of a horror movie. It wasn't trying to scare at all. The only scary thing about this film is the warning that the ghost gives. It keeps you wondering what will happen and when.

If you are a fan of the director, you can't go wrong here. Even if you haven't watched one of his films, this would be a good film to watch first I think. There are a lot of child actors, but none of them come across as annoying, like some in past films sometimes do. As a horror movie, it isn't that good of a film. Still, I liked this one a lot, and highly recommend it to all of you.
4 out of 5 Kids finding their killing streak is always fun

Asylum University

I'm excited! Excited I say! I have not only Thanksgiving off, but the whole freaking week! I don't really have anything planned out though. Maybe I will just be the lazy bum I was born to be, or maybe I will find something to do. I suppose I will do the family thing at some point, being that it is Thanksgiving and all. Anyway, since I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep, I watched Asylum (2008). I bought this a couple of months ago actually. Last couple of years I would spend a lot on horror movies to get ready for Halloween. This year I bought Asylum. Probably a good thing since I didn't have a whole lot of money anyway. I admit that the only reason I picked it up is because of the blurb on the front saying is from the director of Final Destination 2, which happens to be one of my favorite films.

Asylum kicks things off with a brother and sister watching their parents argue in a loud way. The father is a little messed up in the head, with the mother trying to set him straight. Instead of helping though, she stands there and watches as her husband kills himself. Maybe she couldn't have done anything, maybe she could have. Either way, it is now many years later and Madison (Sarah Roemer) is now ready for college. She is attending the same college her brother also attended, and killed himself at. Madison is hoping to confront her demons, and become a stronger person because of it. Madison finds out that she will be living in the new dorm, so she heads over to it for the new student meeting. She quickly makes friends with Holt (Jake Muxworthy), String (Cody Kasch), Ivy (Ellen Hollman), Maya (Carolina Garcia), and Tommy (Travis Van Winkle). They are all given a tour of their dorm, and shown a door that leads to the unfinished section of the building. They are told that the door is always locked, and anyone caught past that door would be in serious trouble. Later that day, String shows the rest of the group what he discovered about their building before coming to the college. The building, that is now their dorm, was an asylum for troubled teens back in the 1930's. Doctor Magnus Burk (Mark Rolston) wasn't very nice to these teens though. More often than not, he would perform lobotomies, along with other things. That is until the teens had enough, and rose up against him and his staff. Now it seems that the doctor is wanting to pick up where he left off.

I wanted to like Asylum since David R. Ellis was the director behind it. It started off well enough. I liked the starting scene, and the students meeting and getting to know one another. There wasn't a lot of character development to be found here, but they got around that by having us meet each character at the same time they meet each other. It had the feeling of us, the viewer, being part of the group in a way. The thing is, once our little group is starting their tour, the whole movie is just them. It wasn't something I noticed right away, but looking back on it, from that moment on, we never see another student. I didn't notice this until members from the group started to disappear. I began to wonder where all the other students were, and why wasn't anything happening to them? There were plenty of other students at the new student meeting (separated by which floor they would be on), so it is perplexing as to why they are never seen or heard from again.

What are the odds of meeting every teen that has major issues while at college? Pretty damn good if you happen to be Madison. We already covered Madison, so what are some of the other issues to be found? We have one that used to be fat, but worked hard to lose it. Another blames himself for his kid brother drowning, and then became addicted to drugs. One was severely abused by an ex-boyfriend. One was sexually abused by her father. And then we have the one that is pretty much a loner, and can make some really cool things out of string. I guess they ran out of major issues for the last guy. I guess I was expecting something along the lines of the doctor performing experiments on the teens that he manages to get a hold of. Instead we are treated to seeing the point of their life that they hate the most. After a minute or so of this, the doctor shows up, and taunts them for a few seconds longer before killing them. The deaths are nothing special really. Some very odd looking needles being plunged into the eyes now and then. The worst effect was a tongue and lips being cut off. This being the worst as far as gore, and also as far as the worst looking effect.

I had no real problems with the acting. Sarah Roemer does a good job with the lead. No one really jumps out at me here though. The person I hated the most though would have been Mark Rolston. It wasn't him so much as the character though. I thought his character would have been more scary if they had taken his lines a little more seriously. I can't really blame the actor for this though. For all I know the director wanted the lines said in a more campy way, or just didn't ask the actor to change it. The way the doctor looks in the final act is just so bad. One other thing that struck me as funny, a minor character is said to have been eleven when the revolt against the doctor happened. He has returned and is working at the college, because he feels the doctor would return. This is all fine with me, except that the guy would be a hell of a lot older than what he is in the film.

Asylum really ended up disappointing me by the end of the film. It was a movie that started with promise, but ended with a bad CGI finish. It was hardly a film that I can put in the "don't bother" list, but at the same time, I didn't like it. Unless you are a fan of Sarah Roemer, who does appear to have a following of fans, I would suggest just skipping over this one if you happen to run across it.
2 out of 5 Maybe a better doctor than Dr. Giggles

Dealing With Satan

After taking the day off yesterday from movie watching, I sat down today to watch Satan's Blood (1978). Since I have gone back to alternating between my DVD's and Netflix, this is a film I picked up from Netflix. I made the mistake of letting a friend watch the last three films, which he promised to watch quickly (over a week ago). So now I don't have very many from Netflix here. I don't mind loaning movies I have to people, but I don't like it when they have them for a long period of time. I know I have done it when I have someone's movies, but I try very hard not to keep them for a long time. It is more frustrating when I ask if they have watched my movie yet, and get something like no...but I watched this one and that one that we just got. Then I am like wait, you can watch these, but not the one film you borrowed from me?

Satan's Blood starts with a woman being led into a room with a bunch of men in robes. She is eventually tied down to a table. A man, I am assuming the leader of the group, begins to molest the woman. She appears to be completely out of it at least. As he lays on top of her, he pulls a knife and stabs the poor woman. After that we meet Andres (José María Guillén), and his wife Ana (Mariana Karr). They are looking to have some fun out on the town. Ana wants to go dancing, but Andres reminds her that she expecting. So instead they go do about everything else they can think of. At a stop light, Andres notices that the couple in the car next to them seems to be staring. Andres asks Ana if she knows them, but she doesn't at all. When the light changes, the couple singles for Andres to pull over, which he does for whatever reason. I guess people in Spain never heard that curiosity killed the cat! Andres discovers that the guy, Bruno (Ángel Aranda), is a school friend. At least that is what Bruno claims. Bruno introduces his wife, Berta (Sandra Alberti), and invites Andres and Ana to their house to catch up. They agree, but Andres soon regrets it. Bruno is leading them way out of town. Since it is getting late, and Andres is afraid they won't be able to find the main road again, they almost turn around. Bruno keeps them moving though, and soon enough they find themselves at a fairly large house. They find themselves doing all kinds of strange things while there, including worshiping Satan and getting into orgies.

I was a little excited about watching Satan's Blood, since it was released on DVD by the same company that released Alucarda, Mondo Macabro. I know not all films released by a company were created equal, but I have noticed that this company likes those really odd films. I really love odd films. While Satan's Blood was no Alucarda, I still had fun watching this one. Satan's Blood is a fairly slow moving film at first. A few people felt really disappointed by the first hour or so of the film. I thought it was a little slow, but also kind of interesting at the same time. There is just something off about Bruno and Berta. They get along fine, but will suddenly get into little spats. At one point, Ana goes into the kitchen only to discover that Berta is eating. Not in your normal way mind you. She is bent over something on the counter eating away. When Berta happens to notice Ana there, she hides what she was just eating, but we see a drop of blood on her lip. We later discover what it was she was chowing down on, but I won't spoil that for anyone.

While Bruno and Berta might be interesting, Andres and Ana aren't so much. They find themselves in such odd and strange situations, but yet find every excuse under the sun to stay at the house. They want to leave because it is getting late, but a storm is rolling in. Ana almost gets raped, but Andres doesn't think he can find the main road in the dark. The next day the car won't start. Someone is killed, the car is fixed, but a doctor tells them that they have to stay at the house, so they do. So on, and so on. Eventually they do high tail it out of there, by then though it was starting to become an eye rolling experience with all the excuses they were coming up with. Another thing I didn't care for is the fact that there are a couple of characters that we see lurking around, but we are never told who they are, or why they are even there. A simple explanation would have been great. I can't blame the acting for anything. The small cast did a nice job. It also helped that this was a low budget film.

The effects are nothing to write home about, but this is a film that doesn't need a lot of effects to get the point across. There are some people getting shot, slit wrists, and a doll head explodes. That is actually sort of gory, to my surprise. Satan's Blood isn't known for its acting or effects though. It is mainly known because it was one of the first films to get tagged with an S rating in Spain. This was mainly given to films that had a lot of sex in them. Satan's Blood does have some sex in it. Nothing graphic, but you get the idea of what is going on. You will find plenty of nudity here. Not all of it is great, but nothing that will turn people away I don't think. I didn't find Satan's Blood to be a great film. I did get tired of the main characters wanting to leave, but find reason, after reason, not to. At the same time, the things that happen in the house are sometimes so odd and strange, that I couldn't help but want to see what was going to happen next. It is an interesting film. One to check out, at least once.
3 out of 5 Are they dead or are they real?

Last House Again?

Now that my football viewing is done for the day, I put in another movie to watch. This one comes from my own collection. I picked it up, along with Dance Of The Dead, because Amazon had a package deal with the two films. Buy both and you get them for a cheaper price. Not a lot cheaper, but if I can save money then I will do it. I didn't know much about The Last House In The Woods (2006), outside of what the short blurb on the back said, and a quote from the review at Slasherpool. After watching the movie, I went to Slasherpool and read the whole review. I discovered that the review itself is very mixed. Someone cheery picked the best line from the review for the quote. I'm sure that happens more than we know.

The Last House In The Woods starts off with a car driving along a road through a wooded area. They are heading somewhere, and the kid is doing the "are we there yet" thing in the back seat. Something hits the car which makes the guy lose control and hit a tree. Mother and child are fine, but dad is either dead or knocked out. Since his wife didn't really bother to check, I don't know which it was. Mother and child get out of the car and start walking down the road when they see a car coming. She sends her kid to the side of the road while she tries to flag down the car. The other car stops, but only after plowing into her. The person driving gets out, and discovers that she is still alive. Like any good person would do, the guy finds a rock and proceeds to put the woman out of her misery. The child sees everything, and decides to run off into the woods.

Next we meet Aurora (Daniela Virgilio) and Rino (Daniele Grassetti), a couple that promises they will never break up. In the very next scene, they have broken up. Rino pulls up in his car, and asks Aurora if they can go somewhere to talk. She agrees, but they do a lot more than just talk. After they are finished...uh...talking, they start to talk about where their relationship is going. While they are talking, we are introduced to three thugs who are also driving along the same stretch of road. When one of them feels sick, they pull over and find the car that Rino and Aurora are in. The thugs beat up Rino, and then go after Aurora. Before they can force themselves on her though, another car shows up. Antonio (Gennaro Diana) is driving along with his wife, Clara (Santa De Santis), and they stop when they see what is going on. Antonio pulls a gun on the thugs, who then decided it is a good time to take off. Antonio invites Aurora and Rino to their house in order to make sure they are alright. But not all is at it seems. Antonio and Clara have a reason for this, but what could it be?

The Last House In The Woods is said to be a throw back to the 1970s Italian horror cinema. I do see this to a point I guess. I thought they decided on the wrong kind of horror movie to pay respects to though, mainly the very bad kind. It wasn't that the plot is a retread of other movies that bothered me so much. It was mainly that the acting, and voice over work, are really bad. The characters are hard to get into. Aurora seems to be an alright person, but towards the end of the film, when she is trying to escape, she keeps going back to the house. She would go out one door, and go back in through another door. I kept thinking, "What the hell you doing? Just get out of there." Then one of the thugs from earlier ends up being a hero in a way. I guess that is a good thing, he had a couple of chances to do this but only did it at the end. The only actor I liked was Santa De Santis. I didn't even like her until towards the end of the film. To her credit though, she wasn't given a lot to do until that point. When it was her time to be in the spotlight, she took full advantage of it by getting her crazy on but good. The voice over work came off very flat, for lack of a better word. Maybe that caused the performances to feel the same, I'm not sure. I do know that the two combined made The Last House In The Woods hard to get through for me.

Another staple of the 1970s Italian horror would be the gory special effects. The Last House In The Woods does get back to that at least. It isn't as gory as say the French movies like Frontier(s) and Inside, but I have to give it credit for trying. Problem was, by the time the gore effects really got going, I no longer cared. There are some good effects to be found. A couple of limbs get removed by chainsaw. Guts come spilling out of another guy. A nice cut throat, and some yellow puss that goes squirting out, and into someones mouth for max affect. So some nice effects to be found really. Some people liked director Gabriele Albanesi, calling it tight with some interesting shots. As you can probably guess, from the way this review is going, I didn't feel the same way. I was actually getting annoyed with it at times. While filming Aurora running through the woods, he gets the shaky camera thing going. I assume this was to show that someone was chasing after her, which I already figured there was. Another shot was going back and forth between Aurora and Rino with extreme closeups. Not my idea of good camera work, but then again, I'm not a director.

The Last House In The Woods was a real struggle for me. It wasn't so much the camera work, even though it did annoy me at times, as it was the flat acting. When I find a movie with this kind of acting, it is so hard for me to get into it. Many liked that it reminded them of the old Italian films. I'm not alone in feeling the acting was bad, but acting is a personal thing. What I think of as bad, someone else will think it is the best around. The plot seemed like it was all over the place at times as well. Personally, I didn't like this one. If it wasn't for the effects, I would probably be giving it a lower rating than I am about to.
2 out of 5 At least the killer kid was cool

Tripping On Shrooms

Before I begin, I wanted to take the time to thank Rachel yet again for the wonderful review. Please be sure to do so as well, in yesterday's post, if you would. Doing the last series review, got me wanting to write again. I have no idea why that is, but I'm not going to complain. Recently, Final Girl noted that she can get burned out writing reviews. I know just how she feels. There are times that I miss just watching a horror movie for the whole purpose of just watching it. I don't take notes like Final Girl, although I probably should since I sometimes leave out things I meant to include, but my wheels are turning as to what I should say in a review for the movie. It doesn't take away from my enjoyment, or how much I hate it, but I do miss those days when I didn't worry about writing a review. I know I don't have to, but a part of me likes telling all of you what I thought of a film. Now and then I get tired of taking the time to write reviews though, since there are all kinds of other things I could be doing with that time, and my horror movie watching starts to decline because of that. If you start to see a gap in my reviews, have no fear, I will break out of it and start writing yet again.

The first thing I did when I got up today, besides going to the bathroom that is, was popping in the film Shrooms (2006). This was a film that I got before I started watching the rest of The Eye series, and a film that I almost bought once. I was in a store, and the cover of Shrooms caught my eye. I almost bought it, but decided to save my money that day. I did remember it and added it to my Netflix queue so I could at least check it out. Shrooms is about a group of friends traveling to Ireland. They are going to meet up with Jake (Jack Huston), a friend of theirs from college, who is going to show them around. The main purpose of the trip is to hit the woods and find some mushrooms. Not just any mushroom mind you, but the kind that can give you a nice trip, or not so nice one. Everyone's trip is different after all. They are looking for a certain kind of mushroom. It is small and has, what they call, a nipple on the top of it. As one of the friends starts to pick mushrooms, Jake warns them away from it because it has a black nipple. He tells them that those are bad, and could possibly kill you if you eat them. If it doesn't kill you, then legend has it that you might be able to shape shift, or even be able to see into the future, among other things. Of course Tara (Lindsey Haun) is in another part of the forest and doesn't hear this warning, and guess which one she eats? While she is on her trip, Jake tells a story about some very bad things happening at a place not far from where they are camped. Tara begins to dream about this, and her friend's death. Everyone waves it off until one of their own turns up very dead.

Before I get to what I thought about Shrooms, I need to get something out of the way. I have been reading a lot of bad reviews about this film. Some of the reviews I can understand why they felt it was a bad film. Others though, I wish they would stop already. Some people clearly hate this film because of one of two reasons. One is that they don't like how it makes Ireland out to be. I may never make it to Ireland, but I'm not judging it by what I see in movies filmed there, or are supposed to be set there. I'm not going to fly all the way there only to say, "Damn it! This is nothing like what they said it was in that movie." I'm not that stupid, and if you are, maybe you shouldn't be watching movies. The other group hates this film because it doesn't depict a realistic psilocybe semilanceata. Again, I'm not that stupid. If I want to know what effects something will have on me, I will read up on it, or ask someone that has taken it, or just take the damn thing to find out for myself. I'm not going to believe what a made up movie is going to tell me. Now that I got that out of me, I feel more calm now.

Sorry for that, I just think people take horror films a little too seriously at times. I watch horror films to, hopefully, be scared. But the main reason is because they entertain me. If it can do that, at the very least, it has my vote. Shrooms did manage to do that for me. I wasn't completely happy with it, but it is a film I would be more than willing to watch again. The plot is easy enough to follow, and a little to easy too figure out. There is a twist ending to this film, which has been used before. Some people in their reviews liked to brag about figuring out the twist in the first twenty minutes of the film, sometimes even faster than that. Looking back on the film, maybe some people were able to figure it out. It took me longer than that though. Even though I was able to figure it out, I didn't hold that fact against the film. It didn't surprise me with the ending, but I admit I was holding out for a different one than was given. There are two alternate endings, that are pretty much the same thing with minor changes.

The thing that I disliked the most was the fact that despite this film having an R rating, the kill scenes were very weak. Shrooms is a slasher film at its heart, with drug use as a means to bring our group to the area it happens in. That brings me around to the other thing I didn't care for. Outside of one or two people, no one really gave the impression that they were under the influence of a drug. I suppose that what people were seeing as they were killed, or at least what we thought they were seeing, had to do with the drug effects. I have often complained about slasher movies not having enough gore in them. I guess I am more used to films like Friday The 13th, that don't skimp on the gore. It doesn't bother me a lot, but since most of these deaths either happen off screen, or very little is shown, I was a little disappointed. The biggest effect here is a broken leg. Yes that is all, a broken leg. But I have to admit that it did make me squirm a little when they showed it. Having it move at an odd angle when he stood on it didn't help.

The acting was something that I enjoyed. For a bunch of people I haven't heard of before, I thought they did a passable job. Lindsey Haun was very good in the lead role. I did feel sorry for her through the film though. She had a few scenes where she had to flop around in the mud. You know what that does to a girl's hair? I also found out that Lindsey is the lead singer for a group called 7th Fall. I liked her more and more as the movie went on. Lindsey has mostly been on TV, so I hope I get to see her on the big screen more often. Jack Huston also did a fine job with the male lead. Many complained about his accent in this film. Many felt that for being Irish, his accent was very bad. I don't recall them saying he was from Ireland though. I just assumed that he had moved there to live and had picked up on the accent some. I liked the rest of the cast too, even if they were a little under used at times. You will find Max Kasch, Maya Hazen, Alice Greczyn and Robert Hoffman.

Shrooms mixes some genres together, like drug use, a little bit of a slasher film, and a touch of the supernatural. I find myself wishing they had gone with the supernatural part a little more than they did, but it was still good. They had an interesting back story for us, and it's too bad they didn't run with it more than they did. There is some interesting camera work being done in this film. I really enjoyed that, but after a while I was starting to feel like it was being used a little too much. Shrooms does get a lot of bad reviews, even from people that weren't in the two groups I talked about above. In truth, Shrooms is no more than an average film, despite those that try and give it the worst ever title. Even so, I really got into this film and liked it a lot. If you generally like the same kind of films I do, give this one a shot. It's not a thinking persons film, but it is a fun one to watch.
4 out of 5 Maybe, just maybe, could have used a little more nudity as well

Are You Ready? Part Two

Another trailer of the films from the upcoming After Dark Horror Fest. This one is for Autopsy. Looks like it will be a very gory film.

Are You Ready? Part One

I have had some trouble finding trailers for the films being picked up for the up coming After Dark Horror Fest: 8 Films To Die For. They are still a movie short as of this writing, according to the web site, but I did manage to finally come across a trailer. This one is for Dying Breed, one of the eight films coming in January!

Tribute: David Lynch

It is tribute time once again. Rachel, over at Top Horror Movies Club, contacted me a few weeks ago. Rachel wanted to know if I would be interested in doing a guest review for each others blog. I'm always happy to work with other bloggers, so I jumped at the chance to do so. I haven't really decided what I will do for Rachel's blog yet, but once I do, I will let all of you know so you can check it out. In the mean time, feel free to check out what Rachel herself has posted there. Since my last guest review was in the form of a tribute post, I asked Rachel if she would be interested in doing the same. I gave her the choice of doing a review for her favorite director, and she chose to do a review of one of David Lynch's films. The only problem I had with that is that I don't know his films very well. Once I got done with The Eye series review, I threw myself into some research for this post. It took a little longer than I was hoping it would, but I feel ready to do the write up now.

David Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana on January 20, 1946. He was raised throughout the Pacific Northwest and in Durham, North Carolina. An interesting thing about his childhood is that on his 15th birthday, he served as an usher at John F. Kennedy's Presidential Inauguration. Lynch intended to become an artist, and attended classes at Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., while finishing high school at the same time. From there he enrolled in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He was there for a year before deciding to go to Europe with friend, and fellow artist, Jack Fisk. Lynch planned on staying in Europe for a few years, but came back after only fifteen days.

In 1966, Lynch moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Even though he was still taking classes to be an artist, Lynch purchased his first camera while there. That same year, Lynch completed his first short film, Six Men Getting Sick. It won the best short at the Academy's film festival. In 1970, Lynch made the move to focus entirely on film. He directed The Grandmother, which is said to have many of the benchmarks that show up in his later films. In 1971, Lynch got a grant and started filming Eraserhead. Only problem is, he was unable to finish the film on the grant money alone, so it sat in limbo for a while. His friend, Jack Fisk, helped him out with the money. With that, and money that he earned from a paper route even, he was able to finish the film, which was released in 1977. Eraserhead was said to be unreleasable though, until distributor Ben Barenholtz picked it up to show at the midnight slot that many theaters were showing films for. Like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Eraserhead became a cult classic thanks to the midnight show times.

In 1980, Lynch was hired by Mel Brooks to direct The Elephant Man. Around this time, George Lucas tried to get Lynch to direct Return Of The Jedi, which of course we know that Lynch turned down. Lynch felt that film would be more Lucas's vision instead of his own, which is why he decided to turn it down. That is too bad in my view, maybe the Ewoks would have been more interesting if Lynch was directing it. Instead of directing for Lucas, Lynch went on to direct Dune. Lynch decided to direct Dune, which flopped at the box office, in order to get a deal to direct a film that he would have complete control over. That film was Blue Velvet (1986), which is the subject for Rachel's guest review.

As I said above, I haven't really watched any of David Lynch's films, but I keep being told I need to watch them. I have watched parts of Dune, but have yet to watch it from start to finish. The only film I can say that I have watched completely would be Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which also flopped at the box office. The reason I watched that film is because a friend of mine got me into watching the TV series, that another friend put on VHS for us. I got about half way through the first season. I enjoyed watching it, and really got into it, but for some reason I never finished it. What I liked about it was the sense of the underlying weirdness and odd events that took place. As I understand it, that is a benchmark of Lynch. When Rachel told me she wanted to do a review of one of Lynch's films, she had this to say as to why, "I prefer movies were the atmosphere is the strongest element and he was pretty good at that." I will stop talking here, and turn things over to Rachel for her review of Blue Velvet.

David Lynch is one of my favorite Cinematographers.

Someone once said that the as you grow older the things that scare you change. When you are young - dismembered zombies or violent ghosts or things that go bump in the night might be the things that cause you insurmountable fear, but as you grow older you discover that the scariest things of all are right there, in front of your face in your very own reality.
That is why, although many of his films do not fall under the official definition of horror, but are called surreal or twisted or art, I find that at least some of David Lynch's films could easily be categorized as horror movies.

Blue Velvet, for example or Eraserhead, Lynch's very first feature that speak about real life from a nightmarish point of view.

Blue Velvet occurs in perfect picket fence small town America. A young man, Jeffery, is on the way home from visiting his father in the hospital, and finds a severed ear in a vacant lot.
He immediately takes it to the police, but is not satisfied with their progress in investigating whose ear it was. Along with the detective's high school daughter (Laura Dern), he starts playing boy detective to try and solve the mystery himself. This leads to meeting one of the suspects, Dorothy, a Femme Fatale of sorts, (played by Isabella Rossellini) who unlike the usual femme fatale who is both sexy on the outside and knows exactly what she wants and how she is going about to get it, Dorothy is very sexy externally, but internally has many tormentors and is generally sad and a bit pathetic.

Meeting Dorothy leads to meeting Frank, Dorothy's perverted sadistic lover , which leads into a whole lot of darkness, horror and fear, all of this behind the perfect white picket fences of your everyday small town America. (I will not go into spoilers - if you want more see the movie)

The movie is very graphic in its depiction of all the perverse sexual and violent happenings, and not at all easy to watch, much more difficult to me than your regular slasher movie.

The way Lynch creates the fear is very subtle, for example one of the people he murders in the film is left standing near a lamp, with half his scull blown away. For the whole scene of the discovery of the bodies, the lamp, whose light bulb was blown away in the process of the murder, it seems, emits a dull electric buzz that is both eerie and annoying for the entirety of the scene.

Dennis Hopper, who plays Frank the psychopath, got the role after years of substance abuse and of a bad reputation as a result, plays the part of a lifetime in this movie - subsequently reviving his acting career.

This movie is certainly not for everyone. The faint of heart (of which I can't imagine many among the Mermaids readers) should stay away, and the lovers of great cinematography should rush to see if they haven't yet.

Seeing New Things Remake

The time has come. Even though I was warned off by Crazy Ralph, a.k.a Stacie, I went ahead and watched The Eye (2007). This is of course the remake of the Asian title by the same name, well the English translated name anyway. I took the warning seriously, even though Stacie and I don't always agree. Where would the fun be in that if we agreed every time? Since I planned on watching it, and it was already here before I got warned away, why send it back unwatched? If I'm anything, its dedicated to watching horror movies. Sometimes a little too much! Is this one of those times I don't agree with the almighty Stacie? Or was her warning something everyone should take to heart?

For those of you that didn't read my write up for the original film, The Eye is a story about Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba). Sydney was blinded by some fireworks when she was five years old. Now she is going through a cornea transplant that will hopefully restore her sight. The surgery is a success, although everything is nothing more than a blur for a while. To prevent her from being overwhelmed by being able to see things now, and to learn what these things are, Sydney is teamed up with Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola). Not everything that Sydney sees are things that most everyone else can. Once Sydney realizes this, she starts to try and find out who she got the corneas from, since she didn't have this problem until after the surgery.

For being warned off this film, I was surprised by the number of good reviews that it gets. I often see debates on which film was the better one, when it comes to remakes. I have always had a theory about this, which applies more to the original film being one from overseas and being remade by Hollywood. My theory is that it all depends on which one you see first. This isn't always true, but I have noticed that most people side with the one they happened to see first. More often than not, it applies to me as well. The Eye is a tough call as to which I would like best, if I had watched this remake first. I think it might have been one of those times my theory wouldn't work, because there are just a few reasons why I liked the original film more.

Those that haven't watched the original film, are probably the ones that are giving it the better reviews. That isn't always true, since the web site Slasherpool, whom I agree with more times than not, gives this version of The Eye four out of five stars. This was even after admitting to having liked the original film more. Of course, they also gave The Eye 10 a high score, and I didn't. Having already watched the original film, just a few days ago at that, I realized something about this remake, that I may not have picked up on otherwise. The Eye tries too hard to be scary. This remake is, more or less, a direct remake of the original. Very little was changed. In fact, you can find some of the same shots. Outside of the change in location, you can find two major changes to this remake. One change was in the ending. It ends on a happier note this time around. The other change is that there are more ghosts to be found. The dark shadow is still there, except now it seems more scary and threatening. I don't think it took notice of our main character before, but this time it does...and growls at her. I probably wouldn't have thought about it at all, just took it for what it is, along with all the other new ghosts that can be found here, if I hadn't already watched the original film. Because I have though, it has made me realize that the original film was much more subtle while it was trying to scare you. The Eye offers up a lot more jump scares, which probably wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much, if I had watched this film first. I have to admit that one such jump scare did manage to get me.

The effects seem to be strictly the CGI type with no blood, except for some bloody tears seen once in a while. The effects aren't bad really. The burned bodies looked pretty good, but I am getting just a tad tired of seeing so much CGI in a film. Many people have made fun of Jessica Alba, saying she just can't act, and this film is proof of that. I didn't have such a problem with her. I thought some of the scenes could have been better, but I bought into her character. I thought Jessica did a better job with conveying that she was happy about having her sight restored, and being overwhelmed at first by it, than Angelica Lee did in the original. The role of the doctor was changed just a little. He remains a love interest for out main character, but this time comes across as a bit of an asshole at times.

The Eye separates itself from the original by adding a few more ghosts, and changing the ending. It also does so by getting deeper into the reason Sydney is seeing things. There is a scene that talks about how other people with transplants have picked up habits they didn't have before surgery, but were habits of the person they got the organ from. All very interesting, but the first film didn't go there, and to be truthful, it didn't need to. It is pretty self explanatory, at least I thought so. The changed ending has some people mad, including myself. Well, I'm not really mad, I just didn't care for it. It did bring up an interesting debate on the forums though. Which is better to have: a happy ending, or an open ending, or an ending that ends on a down beat? I think it all depends on the movie. How things were played out before the ending of the film should be a big factor in the ending. There is a film that I have reviewed that will remain nameless, just in case you haven't watched it. I don't want to spoil it for anyone. But in this movie we watch a person being stabbed, and his death being recorded so that they have it on film. At the movie's end, we discover that he isn't dead after all, giving it a happy ending. Happy endings have their place, but I felt that one was in the wrong place. Same here, if you are stuck in traffic and a woman you have never seen before suddenly starts pounding on your window, telling you to get out because you are going to die, what are you going to do? Will you sit there and think, "Oh shit, I need to get out of here." Or would you sit there and think, "Ok crazy lady. What the fuck ever."

I guess I didn't feel The Eye was bad enough to be warned away from, but I still ended up not caring about it all that much. Sorry, but I will take a film that isn't trying hard to scare me, as opposed to one that is. I give this one credit for making me jump, and almost making me say, "Oh shit!" Still, if you can get the original film, I would suggest watching it over this remake, even though I didn't think very highly of either film. Not the best series I have reviewed, but it was still a fun one to get through. Next up, a guest review!
2 out of 5 Was the obvious body double shot really needed?

Seeing New Things Part Ten

As you may have noticed, I titled this post as part ten, but the poster says The Eye 3, so what gives? As it turns out, The Eye 3 is what Lionsgate renamed the movie when it picked up the rights to release the film here in the States. The film is actually called The Eye 10, as you probably guessed by now. The Pang brothers, who have given us all of these movies so far, decided that giving us parts 3 - 9 would be boring. So they jumped ahead to part ten. When Lionsgate picked up the film, they decided that using the title The Eye 10 (2005) would be a tad confusing, considering there haven't been that many films so far. Actually, I think the number represents something that is found in the film, more than it being the tenth film in the series.

The Eye 10 is another stand alone film. But at least this time they do bring up the other two films, even if it was in passing. This time around we get four friends that are visiting Thailand. Gofie (Kris Gu), and his girlfriend April (Isabella Leung). We also have cousins May (Kate Yeung) and Ted (Chen Po Lin). They are all hanging out with their buddy Chongkwai (Ray McDonald). While sitting around one night, they begin to tell ghost stories. Chongkwai is unimpressed with the stories the rest of the group comes up with, so he pulls out a book. He tells a story about being late for a bus, and then wondering into a book store that was still open. He spots this book called Ten Encounters. The book describes ten ways that you can possibly see a ghost. He knows the book is for real because he has heard of stories about the first two ways actually happening. The first two ways are what we see in the first two films. Since they have nothing better to do, the group decides it would be fun to try some of the other ways, which don't require surgery or a near death experience. With each try, they are somewhat successful, but not everyone in the group sees a ghost. So they keep trying new ways, until one of them disappears. It would seem there are consequences for playing this "game" that our group wasn't ready for.

Does it sound interesting to you? If it does, then I apologize, just a little anyway. The truth is, The Eye 10 shifts away from the scares and drama the first two films took. There are a few scenes in this film that could possibly scare someone, but it is hard to take The Eye 10 seriously. Right from the opening scene, monks trying to help a woman that has become possessed, to the opening credits, you can tell that this film will be very different. I was hoping I would be wrong, but no. The Eye 10 is more of a comedy, instead of the horror films the first two were. Sometimes this comedy made me smile a little, but mostly it failed to be funny. I'm not sure why the Pang brothers decided to make this type of film, but I sure wish they hadn't. Some people feel this is a good film, because it dares to be different from most horror films coming out from that part of the world. This may be true, but it just doesn't work for me.

You may have noticed that I put the word game in quotes above. I did this because the group keeps referring to what they are doing as a game. I never understood why they did this. It is never explained why they consider seeing ghosts as a game. They are warned that once they start playing the game, they can't just quit. That is all fine and dandy, but they never explain how the game is supposed to end on its own. There are some rules to the ways that you can see ghosts. One way is to take some food to an intersection, and tape on some bowls. This is supposed to attract hungry ghosts. The rule is, not to stop tapping on the bowls, because the ghosts will then be able to see you. While it is never at any point said, I assume you have to keep tapping the bowls until the ghosts get their fill and leave on their own. Would that then be the end of the game? When the ghosts leave on their own?

The effects take a back seat yet again here in The Eye 10. In fact, it feels more as an afterthought than anything else. All effects are the CGI kind. All but one are ghosts. Some look pretty good, while others don't at all. The acting wasn't too bad, but that is all I can really say about it. On the plus side of things, the Pang brothers take actual lore, and ghost stories, and put them in this film as well. I'm trying not to be too hard on this film, but it is hard not to be. I just found it hard to believe that The Eye 10 came from the same people that brought us the two other films in this series. There is an actual third movie in the works. In fact, Netflix put the plot synopsis for the real The Eye 3 on the disk jacket they ship in. I was just a little confused by this until I figured out what was going on. The Netflix site gives the correct synopsis though. Unless you are like me, the type that will sit through a bad sequel just to say you watched them all, I would suggest skipping this sequel and sticking with the other films. Hopefully The Eye 3 will get back to being scary.
2 out of 5 A tongue like in this film would sure feel good in a certain place

Seeing New Things Part Two

Since Stacie warned me away from the remake of The Eye, I decided to go ahead with my plans to watch the sequels first. I do have the remake now, and will go ahead and give it a watch, even if I do lose time I will never get back. So everyone knows, I will have another guest post sometime soon. I have worked out an exchange with Rachel over at Top Horror Movie Club. Since I did a guest review with CRwM on a tribute post, I decided to do the same thing with Rachel. I didn't really give CRwM a choice as to which director to do a review/tribute for, maybe a tad unfair of me. I corrected that this time, but I won't tell you who Rachel wanted to do a guest tribute for. Not just yet anyway. I wasn't sure how long it would take Rachel to get a review to me so I went ahead and posted my review of The Eye. Since I hate to throw in a post into the middle of a series review, I have decided to go ahead with the series reviews. It should just take me through the weekend to get these done, then I will get to work on the tribute post. Meanwhile, I watched The Eye 2 (2004) tonight. I was hoping to get a little more feedback from all of you as to which film to watch next, so I waited longer than I was planning on. Plus I had to figure out why I wasn't getting any video from my DVD player.

The Eye 2 is just a sequel by name really. The only thing it has in common with the first film is that the main character is seeing ghosts for whatever reason. It is a stand alone film, with no ties to the first film. As the film opens, we are introduced to Joey Cheng (Qi Shu). Joey is going through a tough time. She has broken things off with her boyfriend, yet keeps calling him. She is going on a shopping spree in order to feel better about things, but it isn't working as well as she had hoped it would. Instead, she heads back to her hotel, and asks for a wake up call. Once in her room, she takes a bunch of pills. I don't think she is really trying to kill herself, since she asked for a wake up call, and makes sure they will come in if she doesn't answer. She also leaves a note saying simply to take her to the hospital. I think she does all this in order for the boyfriend to take more notice of her. Joey lives through her near death, but seems that she can now see ghosts because of this. A month later, she finds out that she is pregnant. She can't get a hold of the boyfriend. She even watches as he looks at his phone but doesn't answer it, when he sees it is Joey calling. Joey decides to keep the baby, but can't figure out what the ghosts want from her. As she begins to learn more about the ghosts, will this knowledge help her, or push her over the edge?

I was a little disappointed that The Eye 2 didn't link itself more with the first film. However, the way The Eye ended, it doesn't actually surprise me that this is a separate film. The first film tried using scary moments to get to us, and it worked, to some degree. The Eye 2 is a bit more of a drama than a horror film. The ghosts are still there, just not used nearly as much as they were in the first film. The Eye 2 is more story driven. Joey is seeing ghosts, and not understanding them at all, but she is also dealing with a pregnancy she doesn't really want, and a boyfriend that suddenly wants nothing to do with her. Like the first film, The Eye 2 taps into what people believe in. This time around it is the Buddhist religion that we get a peek into. They believe that a near death will bring uninvited ghosts around. We also learn what they believe as far as reincarnation. At least I am assuming the writers didn't change things just for the plot. I know things can get twisted around sometimes.

Since The Eye 2 doesn't highlight the ghosts as much, the effects are also down played. What is there isn't all that bad, just nothing that stands out really. We do see a dead baby, after it dies during birth. A couple of people go splat after falling from somewhere as well. What I found was very cool, wasn't the effects, but something I learned while watching the making of feature. Since I watched the first film online, I didn't get to see any of the extras. It may have covered this on the first film, but I learned that they used actual ghost stories in both films. I don't know which ones they used in the first film, but in the second film they used at least two actual stories. I thought that was a very cool thing to do. I'm sure that it added a lot to the film to those that know the stories. The acting seemed to be good. A lot of people like Qi Shu, which I'm sure is well deserved. One thing that struck me as a little odd is that some scenes were filmed in English. Since she was in another country at the start of the film, I guess English is the go to language when you don't know the local one.

I liked The Eye 2 fairly well. I didn't mind that it has a somewhat slower pace than the first film. Nor did I mind that the ghosts didn't factor into the plot as much. As the movie neared its end, something struck me. Joey tries to kill herself more than once during the film. There are also a couple of times people around her either thought she was trying to kill herself, when she wasn't, or just flips out in front of a lot of people. Considering her track record, I couldn't understand why she wasn't being held somewhere for her own safety, and that of her child. There were a couple of moments towards the end of the film that I didn't care for either. I would go into detail, but I don't want to spoil anything for those that decide to give this film a watch. If it wasn't for those things, I would have liked this one a lot more than I did. If you watched the first film, and liked it, I think you will like The Eye 2 as well. It came close to being better, in my opinion, than the first film. Flaws don't always bother me, but this time it was just a bit much to overlook.
3 out of 5 Watching those spirits more closely

Seeing New Things Part One

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, and I hope all your scares were good ones. The other day, while looking for a horror movie to watch on Netflix, I came across The Eye (2002). I didn't know much about it, outside the fact that it was remade here in the States. After I finished watching it, I noticed there are a couple of sequels. Since I haven't done a series review in like forever, I decided this would be a good time for one. Only problem is, I don't have the remake just yet. I was hoping to get it tomorrow but doesn't look like I will. At least I have the sequels though, so I can at least get those watched and reviewed. As usual, this review took me a little longer to get done. I managed to strain my knee and thigh the other night and could barely walk a few hours later. I took myself to the emergency room, which I'm sure my insurance didn't like, but I thought it was best since I could barely walk without falling down at the time. I'm happy to report that my leg still hurts some, but at least I can walk now that I have had some medicine in me.

After an interesting opening, we meet Wong Kar Mun (Angelica Lee). Mun has been blind since the age of two, and now has a chance to under go a cornea transplant. Her family seems to be more worried about it than she is. While in the hospital, Mun meets Ling (Chutcha Rujinanon), a little girl that has been having operations for a brain tumor. Mun has the operation, and all goes well. For a while her sight is very blurry, and she complains about her eyes hurting. They take it slow with her and gradually things get better. One night though, she sees a dark figure come into the room and take an older woman from her bed. The next day Mun learns that the lady had passed away. Eventually Mun is able to to go home, after promising Ling that she would visit. Mun meets a little boy in the hallway of her apartment building, who keeps asking her if she has seen his report card. One day, while this is happening, Mun's grandmother hears her talking and looks out the peephole. She sees Mun talking, but there appears to be no one else there for her to be talking to. Mun soon realizes what she is seeing, and discovers a secret about the eyes she now sees through.

The Eye was an interesting film. After I watched it, I did my normal thing and went to see what others thought of it. There are a few that feel this is the best thing since peanut butter, and of course there are some that out right hated it. This isn't the first film that uses body parts as its theme. I know there have been other films like this, but they tend to be more where the person that used to own the body parts was evil in some way. The Eye was at least different in that way. Mun's eyes aren't really seeing evil things, or causing her to do evil things. She does see the same things that the previous owner would see though. Since we figure things out quicker than Mun does, actually I think she figures it out but doesn't want to believe it, it makes for some somewhat spooky scenes. Many people point to an elevator scene, even the ones that didn't like this film, as the best scene. I'm sure it will make most people think twice about going into an elevator alone. What I liked best I think, was the ending. Just when you think it is over, they thrown in one last scene and it is a good one.

The effects were impressive to me. Some of the ghosts were CGI, but well done. The more impressive ones were the real people of course. One of the ghosts had a freaky looking tongue, still not sure what that was about. The big effect was saved for last. I don't want to get into a lot of detail as to what it was, since it could spoil the ending somewhat. I think the last effect was mostly done in CGI, but they did a very good job with it. The acting was also very good. I was impressed with Angelica Lee, because of the way she will make you believe she is seeing things no one else can. I was disappointed in the fact that she never really seemed all that excited about getting her sight back though. Call me silly, but I think I would have been jumping around with joy. Well, the best I could without being able to see where I was jumping at least. I mean honestly, wouldn't you be shouting for joy at the very least?

One thing I enjoy about watching movies from other countries, is that we sometimes get a peak into what they believe in. The Eye gives us one of those peaks in that they believe that those that commit suicide are damned to repeat that death over and over again. Some say that killing yourself is an automatic ticket to Hell. I guess that repeatedly killing yourself over and over again, is a personal Hell of its own making. Also, the dark figure is one of two Grim Reapers the Chinese believe in. There is a white and black reaper. I never found out what the white one does, but the black one takes the newly dead away to the after life. Unless you kill yourself that is.

Even though I thought the story was interesting, and the effects were good, I just couldn't bring myself to love this film. I know there are a lot of people that do love it, but I felt it was a bit over rated. I think it was because I thought the first half of the film was the best part. The main problem I have with the film is that I felt I knew where it was going before the film revealed it. I liked the start of the film the best because it was different. Too many films with this type of plot, body parts from someone else, usually go with the body part taking on a mind of their own, and usually killing people. Only side affect here is seeing ghosts, so it was a nice change. Just wish they had changed up the rest of the story. The ending was a nice surprise though. The Eye is a good film, just not a great as I was hoping it would be is all. Only question now is, to watch the remake or the sequels next. What do all of you think?
3 out of 5 I hope she didn't have that freaky tongue while she was alive