Wild Boars Hate France

I couldn't let the year end without one more review. I just couldn't! I'm closing out my theme for the month with Prey (2010), a movie from France. It has been a fun month with lots of movies. I closed out the month over at Top Horror Movies Club by putting up a review for We Are What We Are yesterday. I have no real plans for next month. I think I will just get back to reviewing whatever strikes my interest for a bit at least. I may not be real excited about going into my 7th year, but at the same time, I am. Since I have decided not to worry about how many reviews I get in on a month, I have been in more of a mood to actually do reviews. Now though I may have to compete my time with Star Wars: The Old Republic. I'm just getting started with it so if anyone else plays, let me know!

Nathan (Grégoire Colin) is with his wife, Claire (Bérénice Bejo), while visiting her family. Her father, Nicolas (François Levantal), owns a pesticides factory that is in danger of closing. While Claire meets with her father, Nathan goes in to talk to Eric (Fred Ulysse), Claire's grandfather, and David (Joseph Malerba), her uncle. Nathan discovers that Eric has some bad chemical burns on his back, and that Eric and David are going boar hunting. Some deer was attacked near their home and a tusk was left in one of the deer. David feels it is larger than his record setting boar, so wants to go hunting. Nathan is invited but turns it down at first. Nathan and Claire are wanting to announce that Claire is pregnant but that is pushed out of the way when Nicolas wants Claire to return to work. I don't know if this means Claire no longer wants the baby, or if it is just dangerous for the baby since all she says about it is "we can have another one." Nathan decides to go on the hunt when he learns Nicolas is going, hoping to change Nicolas' mind. What they find in the woods will make them wish they never went hunting and reveal things about the factory.

With Prey, I was both surprised by it and disappointed by it. I was surprised by it because at times director/co-writer Antoine Blossier manages to throw in some good tension. I can't say that I'm a big fan of this sub genre within a sub genre that is killer wild boars. I liked Prey because there is good reason for the boars to be pissed off. It isn't about mutated boars, like I thought it might be. The plot is pretty easy to follow, and it isn't all that hard to figure out what will happen. I was surprised by Nathan's actions towards the end of the movie though. I was a little disappointed by Prey because despite having more than one wild boar running around, we barely ever see the things. We hear them and see the grass and whatever moving at times, but the boars themselves aren't shown much. Maybe that was for the best really, since it did add to the tension in some spots. Having never been boar hunting, though it seems to be popular on A&E, I can't say how realistic it is or isn't. I know it got a bad review from someone that said the boars didn't act in a realistic way though. Anyway, the pacing was done well, with hardly a boring moment except at the start. That wasn't really boring, just setting things up.

What we do see of the boars is a couple of dead ones, which could have been the same one but done differently on either side. All this, and some boar heads that we see once in a while, all seem to be done with actual FX instead of CGI. There isn't all that much for gore effects though. There is a scene where someone cuts a boar open and lets the blood pour all over them though. The acting was also pretty good. I enjoyed all the actors this time around. The small cast is what helped though too. The only actor I haven't talked about so far was Isabelle Renauld. She played the part of Nicolas' wife and isn't in the movie all that much.

One of the things I found kind of funny was the relationship between the brothers. Even though I think they were in their late 40s to early 50s, they still fight and argue at times like they are teens. I guess sometimes brothers never get passed that phase in their relationship. I found Prey to be a fun film. It certainly isn't as gory as some of the other French films that have been coming out there, but it was still an interesting film. Even though I don't feel it is one of the greats, it is still well worth the watch. I know some of the blogs I read really dig the killer boar movies, so I hope I see this movie pop up on those blogs. It is closing in on midnight here as I write this, so I hope everyone has a great New Year's!!
3 out of 5 What is better than a killer boar? A pack of killer boars!

Infecting Berlin

With just a few days left in the month, I thought I would press forward and maybe get a couple more reviews in. There are still some foreign films that I want to watch, so maybe I will get around to some of them next month as I start up my 7th year. This has been a rough one for me, but I see it getting better going into the new year. I have four movies coming out of my Netflix queue on the 1st, but I think I will only watch them if I can't add them to my DVD queue. I'm already behind on reviews, so I don't want to add to that anymore than I have to. For today I decided on a movie that wasn't in my queue, but it did catch my eye: Rammbock: Berlin Undead (2010). The fact that it is out of Germany made it fit right in.

Michael (Michael Fuith) arrives in Berlin in order to visit his ex-girlfriend Gabi (Anna Graczyk) in order to give her keys back. He has decided to come in person hoping that he could win her back. He arrives at her apartment building and finds the right apartment only to find that the door is open. He goes on in but can't find Gabi. He does find someone working in her apartment though, who is less than friendly. Then he meets Harper (Theo Trebs), a teen aged boy who is helping with the repair job. While Harper isn't much help either, Michael tries calling Gabi's cell, only to reach her voicemail. Just as he hangs up, he sees Harper's boss go on the attack. Together they manage to get the guy out of the apartment and bar the door shut. As they look at the window from up above street level, they see people being attacked, and turning into the people doing the attacking. Trapped in the apartment, they have to figure out what to do, along with the people trapped in other apartments.

Rammbock was a quick watch considering that is only an hour long. I was a little worried about how good it might be because of that, but it was getting some pretty good ratings. Most of the movie takes place in the apartment with Michael always worrying about Gabi. It does get annoying with how far he keeps going on about her. I guess in a way I would be worried too if I was in his shoes. They had been together for years, so it is a little bit understandable. When he finds a picture of Gabi wearing a costume, he goes and puts it on, which takes it to a whole new level of weird. I could be wrong, but I think the film covers a couple of days. The name implies that there be zombies found in this film, but Rammbock is more along the lines of 28 Days Later with people who are infected which drives them to attack those not infected. They do bite, but it was hard to tell if they were trying to eat normal people. The pace is a little slow at times since the are trapped. To counter that, writer Benjamin Hessler changes things up but hinting that there may be a way to beat the infection. He also comes up with an interesting way not to kill the infected, but to at least keep them from attacking you.

Director Marvin Kren didn't make Rammbock a very gory movie, but it does has some minor moments. These of course come when we see people getting attacked and having their skin bitten off. While they don't come as anything new, they are well done. Some people seemed to have problems with Michael Fuith in the lead role. I don't think it had to do with his acting so much as his character was rather annoying at times. I did like Emily Cox, even though she has a minor role. I could never tell if she was supposed to be an older teen or what though. She looks the part, but is older than that.

I know a lot of people still throw infected people that act like zombies into the zombie genre. If this is the case, or even if you don't do that, Rammbock: Berlin Undead is worth a look. Since it is a bit shorter than your average film, even if you don't like it then at least you didn't spend as much time with it. Even though I didn't find Rammbock to be one of the greats, I still enjoyed that it is a little different. If you are looking for something that shows how people deal with what is going on around them, you will want to check this one out. It was also interesting how Michael's story ends. Well worth the look and it is still on Netflix's Instant Watch if you can watch it that way.
3 out of 5 Seeing how these infected acted, I wonder if playing dead would have worked

Exporting The Christmas Spirit

I was going to try and get two reviews in yesterday. I got both movies in, but not both reviews. I got sidetracked by some friends when I started to watch the second movie, not that I am complaining. It was a nice way to be sidetracked, especially on Christmas. All was not lost though. I did get one review in at least. Over at Top Horror Movies Club I did a review for the movie Saint. It was supposed to be one of two Christmas themed movies for yesterday, with Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) being the review for her. So I'm a couple of days late, nothing new there. This one, out of Finland, wasn't listed as a horror film on IMDb, but it does border the genre some.

An archaeological dig is happening just across the Finland border that is being kept very secret. An American believes he has found something that his been lifetime goal. Two little boys are spying on this and one of them, Pietari (Onni Tommila), believes that they have found the real Santa Clause. Weeks go by as Christmas nears. Pietari gets more worried at the last couple of days get closer because he believes Santa has been spying on him. His father (Jorma Tommila) takes him along on a hunt where they will gather reindeer, their main income. They discover that almost all of the reindeer have been killed already though. Believing that is because of the blasting, causing the wolves to hunt elsewhere, they head up to the dig only to discover there isn't anyone there. The next day Pietari finds that the bait above a wolf pit his father had dug is gone. But it isn't a wolf that is in there. Could it be Santa Clause?

I have been curious about Rare Exports ever since I first heard about it. What I didn't know is that there are two shorts dating back to 2003 and 2005. If you have never watched either one, you can find them on the DVD, or even on YouTube if you don't want to wait that long. They are both worth the watch, but don't have much to do with the movie itself. Even though both shorts are considered prequels, I would have to disagree with that. Anyway, Rare Exports is a fun film. It does take a little while to get going, but once it grabs you, it is hard to stop watching from then on. It isn't really a horror film, but there is talk about how evil Santa is, and then there is how the real Santa looks as well. It was a little odd with it starting out in English. I wasn't really expecting that at all. A problem I can see for some people is that there is some male nudity thrown in at places. It didn't bother me, and it was one of the rare films that had male nudity only. In fact, there is barely a female to be found. There is only one scene I can think of that had a woman in it, and I don't think she had a speaking line. While Rare Exports doesn't appeal to everyone, what film does truth be told, I liked a lot mostly because it is so different. The myth of Santa isn't explained completely here, only hinted at really, but it was enough to make things a little different. I wasn't sure what the plans were for the children, so I do wish they had made that a little more clear.

Not a lot of effects to be found with this one. There are some dead reindeer, and a guy gets his ear chewed on. There is one where someone gets a pickax to the head though. The acting was what surprised me the most. Films that have kid actors in the lead role can go either way faster than other films I think. If the kid actors don't stand out, the film is lost pretty early then. In this case, I really liked Onni Tommila in the lead role. He sort of shares that with his father, which is pretty cool in my book. Not often you see father and son playing father and son on screen. You can also find Tommi Korpella, Rauno Juvonen and Per Christian Ellefsen.

The main thing that seems to decide if a person will hate or love Rare Exports was the ending. Depending on how you look at it, the film may, or may not, deliver after a build up towards the end. I admit that it didn't end in a way I was expecting, but I still liked it. In its own way Rare Exports is a coming of age story. That is what I loved about it all. I would go into more, but feel I would be spoiling it if I did. Rare Exports does have some small problems of course. It can be a little slow, and not everything in the story makes sense. If you have watched the two shorts, then you will pretty well figure out what the very end of this movie will be. I know some people feel that Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is way over rated, but I still loved it a lot. Might be one I will work in every Christmas for now on. If you haven't checked it out yet, give it a go!
4 out of 5 I don't think I will have a Santa sent to me

Kidnapped Haunting

Yay my last backed up review for this month. I still have three others, but will wait to get those done since they aren't foreign films. I was wanting this review done before today, but it is what it is I suppose. For tomorrow I hope to get two reviews in. I don't know if it will get done or not, but that is the plan. Just in case though, I do wish all my readers a Merry Christmas! I hope everyone gets what they asked for. The movie I want to watch for tomorrow isn't really a horror movie, but it is a foreign made film, so it still fits in more or less. For today, I have a movie out of Japan called Pray (2005). I was going to watch even more of the movies that were about to be taken out of Instant Watch, but I got tired of spending all day watching movies. So this was the last one that I had watched.

Mitsuru (Tetsuji Tamayama) and Maki (Asami Mizukawa) have kidnapped a young girl in hopes of getting a ransom out of her. They are drug dealers that are in need of some cash, so they have been looking around for a child from a rich family, and believe they now have one. They take the girl to a school that has been closed up for good. As it turns out, which we find out later on, this used to be Mitsuru's school when he was a kid. Having given Ai (Karen Nakazawa) some sleeping pills in her water, Maki sets about calling the parents in order to tell them that they want 50 million yen for her safe return. The parents inform Maki that this must be some sick joke because Ai has been dead for one year to the day. When they go to check on Ai, she is gone. When some of Mitsuru's friends show up, who seem to know about the plan, things get more complicated, especially when one of the turns up dead.

Pray gets some praise because it isn't your typical Japanese ghost story film. It doesn't have the long haired ghosts that always looks wet. As it turns out, it is also different because there are two ghost stories going on. I won't spoil what either is really about, but the twist and turns do reveal that neither have to do with a kidnapped girl. The different twists are sometimes easy to see coming, and sometimes I was a little surprised by them. The movie itself, which was directed by Yûichi Satô, was a little slow and repetitive at times. They would lose Ai for a while, go in search of her and manage to find her. Repeat this a couple of times and there you go. Things did get a little more interesting when the friends showed up, and the twists in the plot they ended up representing. Despite all this though, I wasn't really into Pray all that much. I didn't find the two kidnappers all that interesting. There was something in Mitsuru's past that is hinted at, and eventually revealed, but that was about it. There was also a bathroom that seemed important since they kept going back to it. The bathroom was explained eventually, but not in a way that everyone got.

Pray ends up being a little gory, but I don't think it is enough for gore hounds to really care about. Hands get cut off, but we don't actually get to see that. Just the hand, and body, in a pool of blood. A few stabbings, and one getting a blunt blow to the head that didn't look hard enough to hurt, but was hard enough to kill apparently. The acting was okay, but a couple of the actors really took it to the next level towards the end of the movie. I would say who, but it might spoil things a little if I did. You can also find Mitsuyoshi Shinoda and Toshiyuki Toyonaga.

The two ghost stories was a nice idea, but it left the very end of the movie a little confusing. There are a lot of ideas thrown around about the ending, but nobody knows for sure if they are right. I didn't really find Pray boring, but I didn't find it all that exciting either. The twists were nice, but for me they didn't add a lot to spice up the plot much. The saving grace was towards the end when writer Tomoko Ogawa starts to pull at the heart strings. I'm not afraid to admit that it did make me tear up a bit. If it wasn't for that, Pray would have been given a lower rating. Pray isn't a bad movie really, just there. If you are looking for something a little different than the average Japanese ghost, give this one a shot. If you should watch it, give your thoughts on what you think happens at the very end.
3 out of 5 Would have been better if the little girl was creepy

War Ghosts In Vietnam

I'm trying to get my back log of movies caught up still. With this review I will have one more movie and I will be able to move on, with the foreign made movies at least. I have a couple of movies that I want to get in for around Christmas, so I am hoping to be caught up at that time. Even though I haven't been putting out a lot of reviews, I feel like I have been doing better this month. This will only be my 10th review for this month, but I have done four or five over at Top Horror Movies Club, so I feel I have done pretty good. For today I watched another movie from South Korea called R-Point (2004). As it turns out, this was one of those movies that I learned something from, a history lesson actually.

In 1972 Vietnam, a South Korean base gets a radio transmission from a platoon that has been missing and presumed to be dead. One person from that platoon was found, and he still claims that everyone else was dead since he took their dog tags himself. Lieutenant Choi Tae-in (Woo-seong Kam) is recruited to lead a hand picked platoon, made from people who have been on medical leave. Their mission is to find the lost platoon and find out what happened to them, and to bring them back if possible. The transmission came from a place referred to as R-Point. Soon after getting there, they are attacked by a lone woman, whom they manage to take out. After that they soon discover markings that describe a story of how the Chinese attacked and killed many Vietnamies and put the bodies in a lake. A temple was then build over the bodies. The land is considered a cold zone because both the South and North consider it sacred ground. They find a place to hold up while doing their search, but it doesn't take long before weird things start to happen. When one of their own kills himself and they discover that it was a guy from the missing platoon, Choi has to figure out what is going on.

As I was watching R-Point, I kept wondering why this was being based during the Vietnam war. I just assumed that the story was being based there in order to have this story. After I finished watching it, the first thing I did was look up to see if South Korea was part of the Vietnam war, and they were. Someone else mentioned that they didn't know this either on IMDb message boards, and was made fun of. "Stupid Americans don't even know who their allies were in wars." Personally I don't remember being taught in school that South Korea was part of the war. Every show I ever watched about the war only talks about American troops that were there to support the South Vietnamese troops.

Writer/director Su-chang Kong manages to weave a pretty interesting and strange story. It isn't a new plot really. There have been other films where troops come up against the supernatural while in battle. What is happening to these guys is never completely explained, but I didn't mind that. Even after the movie I wasn't completely sure what was going on. Was it just a place that had a way of keeping ghosts there? Was it a main ghost they were seeing, or could the place just control ghosts? It is kind of weird how with some movies I don't mind that it isn't fully explained, while with others I wished they had explained it more. I thought the pacing was good for this movie. There are some slow points to it, but it is kept interesting but always having something to think about.

For a war/horror movie, R-Point wasn't very gory. You get the usual stuff of when a person is shot and things like that, so there is plenty of blood to go around. The only real complaint I have about R-Point was the way it was acted. At times it seemed like the characters were being way to silly. I guess I could write it off as they were just dealing with things in their own way. I know when stressed I can start laughing at things I probably wouldn't find all that funny normally. Anyway, I didn't find that acting bad, just wish it had a bit more serious feel to it. You can also find Ju-bong Gi, Seon-gyun Lee, Won-sang Park, Tae-kyung Oh and Byung-ho Son.

Another, but smaller, problem was that there seemed to be a lot of Sergeants in this platoon. It could make it a little confusing at times when names start get thrown around a lot. Another thing is that they don't seem very well trained. Maybe these guys are officers that never saw much combat but once the bullets start to fly, it seemed like most of them would scream like little girls and act like they don't know what to do. Despite these things, the acting being the most annoying part, I would gladly watch this one again. There are some creepy parts to it, like knowing they are interacting with ghosts even if they don't know it yet. Maybe I have a soft spot for movies like R-Point since I tend to give them high ratings, but I do feel this has been one of the better movies I have watched so far this month. Time will tell if it will be the best or not. If you haven't watched R-Point yet, and love the mix of supernatural and war, you should give this one a watch when you can.
4 out of 5 I'm excused when I scream like a little girl

Eating Dead Babies

While exploring other blogs the other day, I came across a movie that I wanted to watch. With it being a low budget film, and a foreign one at that, it fit right in for what I like. The movie was called Last Ride. I decided to do the review over at Top Horror Movies Club mostly because I had been looking to double up there for once. As soon as I finished up the review I did here yesterday, I got started on the review for Last Ride. I wasn't expecting to get it done, but I did. Looks like I am back into review mood since that is usually the first thing I start to think about when I get up in the morning now, which movie is up for review. For here today I will be reviewing a movie from Taiwan called The Heirloom (2005).

James (Jason Chang) returns to his family home after learning that he is the last in his family and now owns the house. It is really a mansion to be honest. The place has a dark history to it, as we see from the start of the film where almost all of his relatives are hanged in the house 20 years before. James talks his dancer girlfriend Yo (Terri Kwan) into moving in with him. Because of his job, James is interested in fixing up the place, and eventually wants to start a family with Yo. They invite their best friends over to help celebrate their new home and have a small party. Odd things start to happen, like weird noises and footprints in the dust, but the oddest thing is when their friends keep showing up at the house at midnight with no memories of how they got there. James has inherited his family curse, but what is the curse?

At the start of the movie we are told about how the spirit of a baby can be very powerful and a few other things. Then we see the family being hanged and then get into the current day story. The story is somewhat interesting, but because they had to throw everything out right away, it spoils the story some. There was still a twist I didn't see coming, but it was minor compared to the rest of the story. It is a shame because once the movie gets around to why the family was "cursed", we already have a pretty good idea. That twist, if you want to call it that, loses its impact since we already knew the spirit of a baby was going to be used at some point. Why else tell us about it if it wasn't going to be used somewhere? I didn't get why people were showing up in the house either. Writer Dorian Li and director Leste Chen try to explain it away by saying the spirit is trying to protect the family, but I didn't buy that at all. Call me stupid but I don't think to get rid of someone is to keep having them show up at your house.

To my surprise, despite the theme of dead babies and all, Heirloom is very gory at all. The acting seemed to just fine, I didn't really have a problem with any of the actors. What I found strange though didn't have to do with the acting, but the way the characters were handled. James is set up to be the main character, but he is soon taking a back seat to Yo. Yo goes out and fits everything together, where you would think it would be James that would be more curious about everything. Then as the movie starts to close, James becomes the main focus again. It was an odd movie and it has cause other reviews to say that Jason Chang isn't much of an actor because of it.

Heirloom also has a problem of starting a plot line and then having it drop out. A good example of this is when the police get involved with people turning up in the house. They set up cameras in order to try and see where they are coming in at. When that doesn't work out too well, cameras and police are simply dropped from the story line, never to be heard from again. As much as I am downing Heirloom, I found it to be an average movie. The pacing was good up until the end of the movie. It slowed down a bit instead of picking it up some. It got a little boring, but not real bad. The story line was also interesting once they got more into the curse itself. It is too bad that this had to get thrown out at the start of the movie, instead of waiting to just reveal it in the story itself. It would have had a lot more shock value, and hopefully would have made the flaws not stand out as much. I would say that Heirloom is worth a watch, but I can't say it will ever be a favorite for me.
3 out of 5 Is it any surprise I had to watch a movie with dead babies in it?

Making Faces...But Not Funny Ones

I don't know why, but I am in a writing mood today. Maybe it is because of the giveaway that Aaron and me got started yesterday. I know I'm excited and I'm not even getting a prize! To all the new followers that have joined up because of the giveaway, a big welcome! I was just going to do a couple of reviews over at Top Horror Movies Club, but I changed my mind. I did get one of two reviews done there though. I watched The Silent House, and to my surprise got the review out fairly quick yesterday morning. I will get the other review out over the weekend. Meanwhile, I watched another movie from South Korea called Face (2004).

Lee Hyeon-Min (Hyeon-jun Shin) is ready to quit his job. His daughter has recently gone through a heart transplant, and still isn't doing the best. He wants to quit in order to have more time to help take care of her, but the doctor that did the surgery isn't being very straight forward with Lee about it. Every time Lee asks about the donor, the doctor gives him the run around. Lee's job is that of forensic face reconstruction. He takes the skulls of unknown victims and tries to give them a face again. His boss tries hard to talk him out of quiting, but Lee goes home and gets ready to pack his things up. Jeong Seon-yeong (Yun-ah Song) shows up that night with a skull. Lee refuses to do anything with it, but Jeong leaves it with him. After seeing some strange things, and hearing a weird ringing noise, Lee soon changes his mind. Will he be able to help Jeong and the victim?

Face is a bit of an odd movie in that it doesn't feel much like a horror film even though the ghost try to be scary looking. Director Sang-Gon Yoo combines forensic science with different types of ghosts. I'm in the same field, but I do different things, and have yet to come across a ghost. Then again, I'm not in a movie. The ghosts that we do find mostly here are what reminded me of the ghosts from Grudge. Not so much in the way they moved, but just in their general look. Hair that seems to be alive and blood shot eyes. I thought it was kind of a silly way to get Lee to work on the skull. Like most movies today, there is a twist at the end of the movie. The twist was easy to see coming for a couple of different reasons. The twist itself makes the other ghosts unneeded and pointless.

The story itself was a little interesting for me since it had to do with forensics. I have never done this type, and more than likely never will, but still nice to see it in a horror movie. There is also some police trying to link the connection between missing people and a doctor who seems to be able to provide hearts for a certain kind of transplant person. Organs are like blood in that a certain type can give to any other type, but can only receive the same type. Because of this story line running side by side with Lee doing his thing, it isn't hard at all to see where things are going. The twist mixes it up a little bit, but as I said, even that is easy to see coming.

At the start of Face there is a pretty good gory effect of someone having their heart taken out. This is a good start, but as it turned out it was the only gory effect to be found. Hate it when they tease like that. The acting was about the same way. No one stood out to me, but the acting wasn't bad at all. The leads were fine, if a bit too serious all the time. I guess the character of Lee has every reason to be serious though with everything is going through.

While I enjoyed the nod to forensics, I found that Face could have been a whole lot better. For me the main problem was that it was just too easy to connect the dots and figure out what was going to happen way in advance. I suppose that the ghosts did help with breaking up the slowness, even though it wasn't that bad. It would have been nice if the ghosts had been used to advance the plot a little more, added more to the story as well. I didn't find Face to be a bad film really, just way too predictable. Maybe worth a watch once, but I know I won't be going back to it anytime soon.
2 out of 5 Not an artist so would never try what Lee does

December Giveaway

As part of my foreign movie month, I decided to hold a little giveaway. Instead of doing it myself though, I teamed up with my good friend Aaron over at The Death Rattle. What better time than right before Christmas to have a giveaway, am I right? While the giveaway won't end until after Christmas, January 2nd in fact, these prizes will hopefully make you want to enter.

My buddy Aaron is throwing in a brand new copy of Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection DVD. It is a brand new copy at that! As for me, I will be throwing in an open copy of the movie D4. It has never been watched but had to be opened in order for director Darrin Dickerson to sign it. I tried to give the thing away back when I reviewed it, but no one took me up on the offer. While that isn't a foreign movie, I am throwing in a House By The Cemetery signed poster! I went to HorrorHound Weekend Indy back in March and picked up the poster. While I was there, I got it signed by the following cast: Silvia Collatina, Dagmar Lassander, Giovanni Frezza and Carlo De Mejo.

All you have to do to try and win one of these great prizes is to head over to The Death Rattle, and follow the instructions there. You can also see pictures of all the prizes there. Good luck everyone!!!

Satan In France

I thought maybe I would slow down again since the weekend is over, and it has a little bit, but I still feel I'm in a writing mood. I'm not complaining really. I've been waiting to get back into this mood for a while now. I surprised myself by knocking out four reviews in just three days. Of course two of those had been about half way done already. Reviewing foreign made films, I had to watch at least one from France. Some of my more recent favorites have been out of France, so I was a little excited when I noticed that Sheitan (2006), which translates into Satan, would be one of the movies I would be watching this month. This one is a hard movie to write about though. Not because it will be hard not to talk too much about the plot, but because it is just an odd film.

A few friends are out having a good time, hitting the bars, when Bart (Olivier Barthelemy) gets into a fight on the dance floor after meeting Eve (Roxane Mesquida). He gets a bottle to the head and then thrown out of the club. He is joined by his friends Thai (Nico Le Phat Tan), Yasmine (Leïla Bekhti) and Ladj (Ladj Ly). Eve talks them into going to her place, out in the country since her parents are gone. When almost there, they get stuck in the mud and Joseph (Vincent Cassel), who Eve says is the house keeper. Things are a bit odd in this small country town, but what they don't know is that someone has made a deal with the Devil, and they have been included in that deal.

As I said above, Sheitan was a pretty weird movie. I got what was going on, but I kept feeling like I was missing something the whole time. It is one of those movies where you really need to pay attention to it. A little detail that can be over looked might become important later on. Writers Christian Chapiron and Kim Chapiron, who is also the director, often use things from the bible that aren't always easy to find. You may have noticed now that I have said that some of the names, like Eve and Joseph. There was a lot of things to make you think here. Things get even more odd when the group heads into the small town. I never found the plot confusing, which was a good thing. Eve says her dad is into making dolls, which can be seen all through the house. I knew this was going to play into the plot somehow, but I wasn't sure how.

Not a whole lot happens as far as moving the plot forward, or so it seems. What it seemingly lacks in this department though, it makes up for it in spades with interesting characters. While the friends are pretty run of the mill, the people we meet through Eve are where the interesting characters come from. You will not forget Joseph's large smile, or the girl who seems very easy and does something to a dog. It is too bad the friends aren't as interesting. Ladj and Thai are a couple, but Ladj is more the girlfriend on the side it appears. While she gets mad at him for always answering his cell phone, I was never sure if she knew she was his girl on the side. Bart and Yasmie are just looking to get laid it seems, with Bart always losing out there. I'm pretty sure this was done on purpose though in order for Eve and the others to stand out that much more.

Sheitan isn't very gory when it comes to French horror, but it does have some moments. The effects are good and the biggest surprise was seeing Vincent Cassel playing two roles. He also plays Joseph's wife. I don't care how much makeup they put on him, he still looks like an ugly woman. The acting was great, especially by Cassel. Not to say the other actors weren't as good, but it was really Cassel that stood out above everyone else. A little bit of nudity is thrown in, from both sexes, if that is important to you.

Sheitan is a movie you have to think about after the movie in order to figure everything out. I don't mind that so much in my movies, but I know it isn't for everyone. Normally I am all over movies like Sheitan, but there was something about it that I was never really able to put my finger on that kept me from loving it. I enjoyed it, and would gladly watch it again. Still, I didn't fall in love with it. I don't think it was too odd of a film for me. Sometimes that happens, but I didn't feel that here. Even so, I will highly suggest giving it a watch if you haven't already. Unless you hate these types of films, I don't see why you won't like it then. As some would say, just go with it.
3 out of 5 Never trust doll makers if you think you are in a horror film

That Is One Big Pair Of Scissors

Over at Top Horror Movies Club, I talked a little about how by watching movies from outside my own country, I learn about their local legends and lore. The movie that at last completed a review for was Trollhunter. That film was from Norway and I learned about their local lore about trolls of course. My review for here today was also about a local legend, but this time it is from Japan. This is something I find fun in foreign films as it mixes things up some. Doesn't always mean it is a good movie, but at least I learned a little something by watching it. In A Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007), or Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman, I learned about...well, the slit-mouthed woman.

Rumors are spreading pretty quickly with the children about the slit-mouthed woman. As the story goes, she will appear a child and ask if them if she is pretty. How to respond seems to vary though. As stories seem to grow, an earthquake happens, which seems to release something in one house. Soon after, children start to disappear. According to reports about these children, a woman that matches what the slit-mouthed woman looks like is reported at each scene. Once child, Mika (Rie Kuwana) is being abused by her mother when one of her teachers, Yamashita (Eriko Satô), tries talking to her about it, but it doesn't go well. Mika runs off, straight into the slit-mouthed woman (Mizuno Miki), who then takes off with Mika. Yamashita then teams up with Matsuzaki (Haruhiko Katô) who believes he knows who the slit-mouthed woman actually is. Will they be able to save the children, or is it too late for them?

The lore behind A Slit-Mouthed Woman actually goes back a long ways in Japanese history. Director/co-writer Kôji Shiraishi seems to drop the ball with this, and many other things. With a legend that goes back a long ways, I think I would have found a way to use that in my film. Shiraishi hints with a set of parents that it goes back a ways. The parents tell their kids that they talked about this woman even when they were in school. While it isn't said, it gave the impression that it goes back a long ways. Either way, this isn't the case at all. The woman in question becomes the legend only 30 years prior, which makes it a more recent legend. The plot itself has a lot to do with child abuse. In a way I support this. Just because it is a horror film doesn't mean the publicity it gets should be bad. Anything that gets a subject like child abuse into your mind is a good thing, as long as your not the abuser that is. That being said, I did think that A Slit-Mouthed Woman took it too far. Every major character in the film has been abused, is being abused, or is the abuser. It just felt like over kill.

Speaking of the abuse, some of it is shown in the film. The main person doing this was the slit-mouthed woman. There was a lot of things wrong that was around her character. When she appears, everyone seems completely helpless. There was plenty of times someone could have gotten away easy, or at least fought back, but they never really do. A hit or a kick, especially by the actress playing the slit-mouthed woman, didn't look hard at all, but the other actor would make it look like it was. She would barely move her foot and the person she "kicked" would act like a bone was broken. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but you get the point.

A Slit-Mouthed Woman does manage to get gory here and there. With showing how the slit-mouthed woman got her name, to chopping off a head, the effects are pretty good. It was real gory, but it was a little more gory than I was expecting. The acting was just okay. I didn't really care for any one actor, but each did okay with their role. Outside of the lame hits and kicks anyway.

One of the cool things about this movie was that did go as far as killing off a kid. If you have read my reviews for very long, you know a movie gets major points for doing that. For A Slit-Mouthed Woman though, it was just too bad the rest of the movie didn't work. Another smaller problem with the plot is that we discover that the slit-mouthed woman takes over some other woman's body in order to do her work. So this made me wonder why there wasn't any women being reported as missing as well. A Slit-Mouthed Woman could have been a pretty good film, but it wasn't. To my surprise it still has a fairly good rating on both Netflix and IMDb. Neither has it listed as a great film, but I didn't find it to be an average film. To each their own I guess.
2 out of 5 Going after abused kids seems backwards to me

Trapped As A Spider In The Forest

Does anyone have their Christmas shopping done yet? I haven't even started, not that I need to buy a lot anyway. Might buy some things for a few selected friends, but that is about it I think. Anyway, I followed up the last movie with another movie that was from South Korea. I wasn't very sure about Spider Forest (2004), just because it didn't really sound all that interesting to me. For one thing it was just shy of the two hour mark. Since it didn't sound all that interesting, I was afraid it would be a chore to get through. Just a normal 90 minute movie can be a chore to get through at times, let alone 112 minutes. Oddly enough, the Japanese cut is 120 minutes long. Maybe they got the uncut version or something.

Kang Min (Woo-seong Kam) wakes up in a forest and doesn't really know what is going on. He makes his way through and manages to find a house that is out in the woods. Inside the house he finds a very bloody man who has been stabbed many times. The man is dead now, so he explores further in and discovers a woman. He seems to know the woman, we find out later she is his girlfriend. She is still alive, but barely. She mumbles something about spiders before she passes away. Then Kang hears something in the house. He sees someone take off running out of the house, so he gives chase. This other person manages to lose Kang in the woods, and then manages to knock him out. When Kang comes to, he somehow manages to find a road, only to get hit by a passing car. He wakes up in the hospital not remembering much except for the above, and has the need to get back to Spider forest. With the help of his friend who is in the police department, will they be able to figure out what happened to Kang?

Writer/director Il-gon Song manages to weave a story that is often compared to those by David Lynch. Like a Lynch film, Spider Forest can be rather confusing at times. Basically the whole of Spider Forest is a flashback as Kang starts to put memories together about how he got to the forest before discovering the bodies. There are even flashbacks within the flashback as a story is told at times. While I feel I have the basics of what happened in this movie down, I still am a little confused over some of the plot. There is some nice lore that is dropped on the forest about how it got the name of Spider forest. There does seem to be a lot of spiders in this forest, which is probably why it got that name, but the lore is more fun. According to the lore, those that have died forgotten become a spider in the forest until someone remembers them. Kind of cool I thought, but the film never really does anything with it. The lore happens to be something Kang was researching so it comes part of the story. It does come into play towards the end at least, but felt it was too little too late.

There is much as far as special effects go for Spider Forest. About the only thing we get to see is blood flying around when we see the one guy killed. I thought the acting was fine, but what interested me more didn't have to do with the acting. Part of the reason why Spider Forest ends up being so long is because in gets into Kang's past a lot. It goes as far back as his wife being killed. Does it have anything to do with the story of the forest? Not really, but it was still nice to get background information for the lead character. One was where his wife realizes that she is dead after talking to Kang. It was a very good little story there. Some of the other actors you can find are Jung Suh, Kyeong-heon Kang, Hyeong-seong Jang and Byung-ho Son.

I was a little disappoint with Spider Forest. It is always hinting at something that could possibly be supernatural, but it never really crosses over into that. The only twist has to do with a ghost, but that was pretty easy to see coming. Spider Forest is more of a murder mystery than anything else. After watching it I was surprised that it found its way into the horror section. That isn't the reason for my low rating though. I didn't find Spider Forest to be a bad film, but I didn't really care for it that much. The story was okay, but was drawn out a bit too much. There is a story about the house in the woods that turns out to be false, so it made me wonder what the whole point of it even was. Some people say that Spider Forest is a movie you will either like or hate. I may not have hated it, but I didn't like it either.
2 out of 5 Not scared of spiders, but hate it when I find one on me that I didn't know about

Getting Revenge On Your Least Favorite Teacher

I was going to finish up a review I started over at Top Horror Movies Club, but the site seems to be down for the moment. Not to big of a deal though. Not like I don't have a lot of reviews to catch up on here. I'm still exploring those pesky foreign films that people have to read. For a neighbor of mine, that is a big problem. They will keep a movie that I know they will like for months at a time, and claim they don't have the time to watch it, only to give it back to me unwatched. Sub titles and/or bad English dubs used to bother me some, but no longer. If they are real bad then sure, but I have learned to enjoy a movie even if I have to read my way through it. For today I have a review for the South Korean film To Sir With Love (2006), or as it is called on the DVD Bloody Reunion, which is actually a better title.

Mi-Ja (Yeong-hie Seo) is living with her formar teacher Miss Park (Mi-hee Oh). Mi-Ja has been taking care of Miss Park, whose health hasn't been very good of late. Miss Park knows this and wants to meet some of the other students one last time that were in Mi-Ja's class. Mi-Ja was able to contact six of these people, who are all now adults. As each arrives, they seem pretty happy to see Miss Park again. Eventually we learn that each one has a reason to hate Miss Park though. Like one was made to do squats so much one day that he hurt his knee playing soccer later in the day, which still hurts him to this day. Miss Park doesn't really seem to recall these mean things that she did to her students though. We also learn that Miss Park gave birth to a boy that was deformed. She kept him at home in the basement, and was often seen with a rabbit mask on. No one seems to know what happened to him though. When the former students start to die, who could be the one doing it? Is it the son? Is it the boy who was teased so bad one day that he quit school, and the watched him mother die the very same day?

At the start of To Sir With Love, we learn of the son right away. We also learn of the deaths of the students and that two people managed to survive, Mi-Ja and another woman. While a detective (Eung-soo Kim) questions Mi-Ja about what happened, we see the entire flashback. This goes on up until the last part of the movie, where a twist is thrown in. The twist was nice. It makes you rethink everything that happened in the flashback. Some people didn't like the flashback idea because if it was being told by the one person, why were other characters dreams included? In truth, the twist should answer that question for you. While I liked the twist, it did leave some open questions. Mostly it wasn't clear of the boy that Miss Park have birth to was real or not. I think he was, but not everyone agrees.Writer Se-yeol Park and director Dae-wung Lim manage to give the movie a good pace. While the slasher aspect of the film is pretty by the numbers, it does stay interesting at least. One thing I have to complain about though is there were scenes where the camera operator couldn't make up his mind if it was supposed to be a close up shot or not. One scene was every bad about this, with the camera zooming in and out constantly. It was very annoying.

To Sir With Love isn't a very gory film as far as effects go, but there was plenty of blood to go around. Some of the kills were also interesting. While it wasn't really a kill scene, it was fun watching ants going into one persons ear, and apparently causing the person a lot of pain. Another scene has to do with razor blades that I'm sure will make you wince. The acting also seemed to be pretty good. I didn't like them all, but I didn't feel I hated anyone for their acting. You can find Dong-kyu Lee, Ji-hyeon Lee, Hyo-jun Park, Hyeon-Soo Yeo and Seol-ah Yu.

There are a few things that can tip you off to what the big twist is. The start of the movie is part of the twist really. I also had to wonder if that Miss Park was so damn mean to everyone, why was it just these selected students, that have all came out of the same class, that wanted revenge? I was also a little confused by the last shot in the film. One of the characters isn't there, and I wasn't sure why. To Sir With Love isn't the best slasher film out there, but it was still a fun one. Looking back, I can't think of any teachers I would ever want to kill now, but I can see how some things teachers do can stick with someone for a long time. If you like you slasher films, this is one to check out someday.
3 out of 5 I want a rabbit mask now!

Possessing An Actress

After taking a day off yesterday from writing, I thought I would get going again with some more reviews. If I have horror movies to be thankful for, I would say that it is because of them that I have given movies from outside my own country more of a chance. I never watched any until I started to really get into horror movies. Even though some themes have carried over into those movies, mainly slashers I think, it is still fun to watch them because I get to see places that I will likely never go to myself. Over at Top Horror Movies Club, I completed my review for Atrocious. I decided to carry over my foreign movie theme over to there as well. Check out that review when you can. Meanwhile, the next movie I watched for here was The Victim (2006), a movie out of Thailand.

Ting (Pitchanart Sakakorn) is an actress who is trying to get a start when she is hired by Lieutenant Te (Kiradej Ketakinta) after watching her explain the difference between laughs. Since the police are short on actors for reenactments, Le wants to give her a shot, and figures she can't be worse than what they already have. She does her first job so well, that the crowd watching beats up the accused. After doing several more, and us seeing ghosts of the victims at times, Ting hopes to get hired for the reenactment for the death of Meen (Apasiri Nitibhon). For whatever reason, Te decides to go with someone else, until Meen's ghost interferes. Meen was killed, but not by the man being accused of it. Will Meen help Ting find out who the real killer is?

I was really enjoying The Victim except for the sub titles. While I got what the sub titles were telling me, it was obvious that whoever did them wasn't a native English speaking person. It wasn't real bad, as I still understood, but got annoying at times. The odd thing about The Victim is that just as you are getting invested in the characters, and trying to decide what all the ghosts want with Ting, it drops the story line and completely shifts gears. At the mid way point, or pretty close to it anyway, there is a twist that makes the first half of the movie completely false, more or less. The actors remain the same, but their character names are changed. This causes one to relearn everything, and it is a little confusing at first. At 108 minutes, it also makes the movie longer than it needed to be.With the twist, it no longer becomes so much about why the lead actress is being haunted, but by who. I give director/co-writer Monthon Arayangkoon credit for making the actual ending an interesting one.

There are at least a little gory effects to be found. One of the things I didn't get though was when a person was killed by a ghost, we would see them all deformed and their skin looked grey. But when news of the death was passed around, it was wrote off as a heart attack or something natural. Unless that is how people in Thailand die all the time, I would think their death would raise some red flags even if it was a heart attack that ended up killing the person. The acting was pretty good, but no one became a favorite for me. Pitchanart Sakakorn does a good job with the lead role, but her hair threw me off for a while. She has short hair through the first half, and long hair after the twist. I wasn't sure if it was the same actress at first.

One of the cool things about The Victim is that it was filmed in reportedly haunted locations. During the credits they were showing stills from the movie and pointing out ghostly images. I have no idea if it was all for the movie, or if they were actual supposed ghosts. Either way, it was kind of cool to see. It was better than just watching the credits go by anyway. Even though I liked The Victim, I do feel it could have been much better. It was mainly because of the twist that I feel this way. I don't mind twists that makes rethink everything I just watched, but that wasn't the case with this twist. Instead of having to rethink everything, I had to relearn everything. Both stories ended up interesting, I do wish they had gone with one or the other instead of cramming both into one movie. Worth a watch but be ready for that twist!
3 out of 5 I know I hate it when a ghost tries to teach me dance

Never Go Into A Haunted Mine

One of the reasons I haven't been writing much lately is because just after Thanksgiving I discovered that 17 movies were being removed from my Instant Watch Queue. At first I was going to try and get them all watched, but after two days of that, I gave up. I don't mind watching a bunch of movies in row sometimes, but not for four days straight. I did get a lot of them in though, and all but one of the 17 movies was a foreign movie. That is what gave me the idea of doing only foreign movies this month. My next movie up for review, which is already back up on Instant Watch, is a movie from Belgium/Netherlands called Slaughter Night (2006). The original Netherlands name for the movie was SL8N8. I know it looks kind of stupid, but it does actually play into the plot at one point.

Kristel (Victoria Koblenko) is out hitting the bars with her friends one night when her car decides it doesn't want to start. She calls her dad (Martijn Oversteegen), who comes to pick the girls up. After talking to the girls about college and such, dad learns that Kristel is planning on leaving school for a while in order to travel with her friends. This doesn't go over to well with him, and they argue about it after dropping off the friends. While the are doing this, a truck t-bones them. Kristel survives, but her dad does not. Kristel learns after the funeral that her father had some personal things in Belgium that needed to be collected. Her dad was writing a book about Andries Martiens, a man said to have murdered seven children in 1857. As legend has it, he was found guilty and was given a choice. He could either be killed, or he could go into the mines. Back then in the mines, there wasn't a good way to explode the gas build up, so they would send convicts down there to do it by hand. They were wrapped in wet cloth and if they managed to survive, they would be set free. Martiens didn't survive but his ghost is said to still be in the mines. Kristel heads there with her friends, and is talked into taking a tour of the mines. They discover that there is some truth to legends.

As you have probably guessed, Slaughter Night is a combination of slasher and ghost story. The ghost story part of the plot, while important, gives way to it being a slasher flick.What attracted me to this movie was that it was set in a mine. It doesn't hold a candle to My Bloody Valentine, but it still wasn't half bad. Some of the kills was well done and the killer does actually look pretty cool when wrapped in wet cloth. Slaughter Night also has a pretty cool plot to it, with an interesting back story in Andries Martiens. Once the story moves into the mines, it does start to fall apart some and throws it into average movie turf. Part of the problem was the mine itself. It was hard to tell where everyone in the mine was in relation to each other. At one point the killer seems to get around very quickly, a little too quick in fact. Most of the movie takes place at night, which doesn't matter in the mine, but explains why they get stuck down in it. I just bring this up because it was hard to figure out how much time had passed. There are a lot of fade outs to black, so I was never sure if writers/directors Frank van Geloven and Edwin Visser were just fans of that or if it was supposed to show the passing of time. An annoying thing that happens is the elevator is shut down because it is closing time, which is why the group gets stuck in the mine, but then later on it suddenly works again even though no one turns it back on.

Slaughter Night will never rank up there as one of the most gory films, but it does have some nice moments. There are plenty of heads to be found and what was nice about them was they actually look real. There was also a nice effect when a shovel meets up with one persons mouth. I know this has been done before, but it was still a well done effect. The acting seemed to be just okay to me. I wasn't really all the impressed with anyone, and the characters could be pretty stupid at times, which did lead to laugh here and there.

Something that confused me some about Slaughter Night was that I was never sure what the killer was trying to do. You see, there was a reason for the killing of kids. He had a reason behind it. I will let you watch the movie in order to find out what that reason was though. Now in present day, I wasn't real sure why he was killing again. If what he was doing didn't require the death of children, why did he kill them then? If it did require that, then why was he killing college age people this time around? Was he trying to complete what he didn't finish back in 1857, or was there a different reason this time around? The plot itself can't seem to make up its mind on how to answer those questions.

Even though I would suggest giving this one a watch at some point, I couldn't get passed the problems I had with it. I found it fun and it managed to entertain me, so that is always a good thing. Since it is back on Instant Watch, I only know this because it shows it as my last movie watched when it didn't just yesterday, that makes it an easy way for some of you to give Slaughter Night a watch. If you don't mind sub titled films, give it a try.
3 out of 5 Wondering how the killer got into the wet cloth suit so quickly

Silly Reality Shows Gone Wrong

It is days after Thanksgiving, and I still feel stuffed! I wasn't really looking forward to Thanksgiving, or Christmas too much, so I decide to spend it with some friends. Not really the same, but it will do. Better than spending it alone I suppose. Anyway, I haven't been in too much of a writing mood this week, but I hope to change that over this weekend. I'm playing catch up still, and now that back log list has grown longer. I took the time to watch a new movie, Wake Wood, and have been writing about it over the last couple of days. Check it out when you get the chance! Meanwhile, another movie that I watched a while back was Safety In Numbers (2006). It will help me kick off a theme for this month, foreign movies. I don't care which country it is from, as long as it isn't from my own. Safety In Numbers comes from Australia.

Six contestants from a reality show, think Survivor, have been invited back to the island where the game took place. Basically lead by Sarah (Tory Mussett), they arrive at the island by Nigel's (Henry Nixon) boat. Nigel was the big winner of the show, and seems to like to flaunt his money some. They head to the shack, and right away find written in red on the wall that isn't very nice. They settle in and spend the night. When they get up in the morning, they discover that the boat is gone. Not sure what is going on, they split to go look for it, only to start getting picked off one by one. Who could be doing it though? Is it just someone who happens to be living there now? Or could it be the guy who was humiliated before being voted off the game show?

Safety In Numbers has the right idea behind it, but it doesn't do a very good job of following through with it. Writer/director David Douglas has a good setting and plot, but where he goes with it could have been a lot better. We learn of the guy who was humiliated fairly early in the movie, and he keeps coming up. It seems very obvious who the killer is because of that. I was hoping they would throw someone else in, either to make us think someone else was actually the killer or having it turn out to be someone else. That wasn't the case though. You would think that Douglas would have waited until later to start throwing hints out.  There was a point where they try to fool us, but I just wasn't buying it. Even though the characters in this movie were on a game show that required survival skills, you would never have guessed that by the way they act sometimes. One person falls off a possible cliff, but no one goes to see if he is okay. People go in search of their boat, find it but don't try to get it. Instead, they leave to go tell the others and act surprised when it isn't there once they return. Lets not forget that even though this is a slasher movie, all the kills happen off camera.

Since all kills take place off camera, you can probably guess that there aren't many effects to be found. We do get some blood, but it wasn't anything to write home about. The acting was at least somewhat good. I enjoyed the different characters. I liked Tory Mussett the best out of the group and I'm glad she got the lead role. The story tends to focus on her more than anyone, which made me wonder why they didn't make her the winner of the game show. In a way I get it. Rarely does the person I like the most ever win! It can be frustrating sometimes. Even though I know of the show Survivor, I have never watched it. If it was a horror show like this one though, maybe I would.

One good thing I can say is that I like the poster art. It is simple, but stands out because of that I think. Safety In Numbers, which they never really stick together, was a film I wasn't sure which way I would go. Some movies like this get a little better towards the end, but this one tended to get worse. Since all the kills happen off camera, and it was rather easy to figure out who was next, there just wasn't any suspense to what was happening. The end doesn't help matters at all, and has left everyone (and I mean everyone) wondering what the hell the ending was supposed to even mean or happen. I suppose there could have been an explanation, like a storm, but it just there with no explaining it at all. Since I don't think there is enough for a sequel, we will likely never know unless Douglas bothers to explain it.

If you haven't watched Safety In Numbers, and I know some of my readers have already, then I can't really suggest giving it a shot. The ground work was there, but it just doesn't ever get going with it. If you happen to catch it on TV somewhere, maybe it would be worth the time to watch then. Just be ready for one of the possibly worse endings out there.
2 out of 5 Snakes show up at the worse times