A Skewed Point Of View

Every once in a while I will be asked if I would be interested in doing a review for a film. I am usually surprised when I'm asked, as it just doesn't happen very often. I try to be fair with all films I watch for review, and even though I am asked, I won't pull punches (so to speak) if it turns out I don't like the film. When I started by blog, I never really set out for it to be friendly to the independent film maker, but it has turned out that way. I'm fine with that. I like getting reviews out there of films I don't see many others watching. Good or bad, I feel it helps get the word out there for any film. Director Sevé Schelenz contacted me a few days ago asking if I might be interesting in doing a review for his film Skew (2011). It is currently on Netflix's Instant Watch, and has been making the film festival rounds. Since I didn't have a set film to watch next, I decided why not?

Rich (Richard Olak) and Eva (Amber Lewis) pick up their friend Simon (Rob Scattergood) in order to go on a road trip. They are on their way to a wedding, and decide to make a trip out of it. Simon has bought a new video camera recently and is very intent on filming everything. It doesn't take Rich and Eva long to get annoyed by this, so it quickly adds some tension to the little group. There also seems to be a little tension between Eva and Simon because Simon is dating Eva's best friend Laura. Eva suspects that Simon doesn't really love Laura. Maybe there is some truth there, since Simon seems to watch Eva through his camera a lot. It doesn't take too long before Simon notices that when he films some people, their face appears to be distorted (think The Ring). The first person he notices this with is the hotel clerk. Thinking it was just a problem with the camera, Simon doesn't say anything. Later that night though, the clerk is killed. When Simon rewinds the tape though, the distortion isn't there. As this cycle seems to repeat itself, is it the camera? Is it just a coincidence? Or is Simon just losing it?

Skew is one of those movies that threw me for a loop. It starts off kind of slow, with it being a very character driven movie. I didn't mind this, but the pacing felt slow. I did find it funny in a way that while professing his love for Laura, Simon is almost always filming Eva. It was easy to see that Simon likes Eva more than he probably should. Not just because he is dating Laura, but also because Eva is with Rich, who is Simon's best friend. I kept waiting for Rich to say something, but there is just this tension between the two at times. It takes a long time before Rich calls Simon out. Anyway, I found all this a little interesting, but it wasn't holding my attention at first. Because of that, I wasn't expecting much from Skew, and probably wasn't paying as close attention as I should have been. I wasn't finding it boring, just not as interesting as I was hoping for. But then things started to happen, little things really. The first time I seen the distortion, and then later the death, it was weird but not really enough to get me back into the story. What did it for me? Simon sees someone in the hotel room, which is actually the first time he rewinds the tape to show what was there. This really sparked my interest and got me thinking as to what could possibly be going on. Director Sevé Schelenz doesn't really pick up the pace all that much despite this though. While things are more interesting, the movie is still about the dynamics between the three main characters, just with an added element now.

Skew isn't a gory film at all. Only one scene shows any blood that I can remember. All the deaths happen off camera, and in once case that is very literal. What Skew lacks in gore, it more than makes up for in messing with your head. That is what turned this film around for me. It isn't necessarily a scary film, but then it is rare anymore for a film to scare me. There are a few scenes that can probably be considered jump scares though. One, when they are all in the car, was probably my favorite scene.

Considering that I have never heard of any of the actors, I still liked them all. There are some minor complaints in other reviews about Richard Olak. Seems some don't think he is very believable when he gets mad. I didn't have much of a problem there, but I know what one person can see as bad acting, another can see as good. I can't say that any of them are great, but they are far from bad. The actors, like the movie itself, grew on me as the movie goes along. We never get a good look at Rob Scattergood in the film, but his character does explain why that is.

Skew was a movie I was on the fence about towards the end of the film. I knew that I at least liked it by then, but the question remained: how much did I like it? I admit that I didn't really get the ending, but I don't blame the movie for that. It isn't one of those movies where the ending comes from somewhere in left field. I know I missed something, and I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what since then. On IMDb, Sevé Schelenz says that there are clues in the film to put everything together. That means I will likely be watching Skew again soon. Believe me when I tell you, if this was a bad film, I wouldn't be watching it again even if it was bugging me about how the ending fits. I have this sneaky suspension that I will like it even more once I start putting more things together. If you don't mind a movie that happens to be slowed paced, but one that could possibly mess with your head, Skew is one to check out.
3 out of 5 Why can't I see interesting things like this?

Someone Can't Spell Witch House

I tried something new yesterday, a one pound burger. I didn't eat it all, so didn't get my picture taken. I managed to eat just over half of it though, which was more than I thought I would put down. Maybe I could have ate more. I wasn't feeling stuffed when I decided to stop, but I was full. Instead of a picture, I walked out with my box of shame. That is alright though, I did better than expected. My adventure into the hamburger world aside, I did manage to get my review for Underworld: Awakening done. I was going to review a different movie for here, but my neighbors still have it, so I went with the next movie in my stack instead. That movie happened to be Witchouse (1999), which I didn't know has at least two sequels.

Elizabeth (Ashley McKinney) has invited a group of friends over to her house on Mayday. Elizabeth eventually thanks her friends for coming on this day, which is a special day for her. Three hundred years ago to the day, Litlith was burned at the stake after being accused of being a witch. As it turns out, Elizabeth is a descendant of Lilith. Elizabeth holds a seance in order to try and get in touch with Lilith (Ariauna Albright). Things don't really go as planed when one of the friends breaks away after having a vision of the burning. They soon learn though that Lilith is back and is willing to kill all of Elizabeth's friends, but why?

I'm going to spoil this one a little bit, so if you don't want to know why Lilith is killing people, then you might not want to read any further. The reason Lilith is killing off all of Elizabeth's "friends" is because they are all direct descendants of the people that killed her. Considering that this is the whole plot point in which the movie revolves around, I just have a really hard time believing that what was left of Lilith's family kept track of the families of the people that killed her in hopes of possibly getting revenge at some point over a three hundred year period. I can easily see a descendant not giving a shit and not passing it on to the next generation. So I didn't find the story for this movie to be all that great, but I was willing to forgive it if there was something else to look forward to. Released by Full Moon Features, which has always been hit and miss, Witchouse was directed by David DeCoteau. The opening sequence was a little confusing, with two people being killed rather quickly. I could tell that maybe things wouldn't go well when the two people come in, look around for a bit, and then start to make out and undress in the basement. I know I do this all the time. Friend doesn't appear to be home, so I will make my own fun then.

I think the biggest problem Witchouse has is that it can't decide if it wants to try and be funny or not. I didn't find anything funny in the film, but there are scenes that lean towards comedy, but don't go the extra mile in order to be. Like one person gets their head knocked off, not too bad of an effect, but then I noticed that the skin on what was left of the neck was cut in triangle fashion. Not something I was expecting to see after getting a head knocked off, so it could have been funny. The visual alone wasn't enough to make it funny though. I wouldn't go as far as saying that scene was gory either, at least not to me. It wasn't a bad effect, just not gory at all since there was no blood to go with it, as one would expect.

The acting was a mixed bag. I didn't mind some of the actors, while I couldn't really stand others. Ashley McKinney was okay as half of the bad guy duo. Some found her acting to be bland, and I can get that. I just felt that compared to others, I didn't think she did that bad with it. Her explanation speech goes on way, way to long though, which isn't her fault. Dave Oren Ward, who passed away the same year Witchouse was released, was another character that annoyed others. I liked him in some scenes but not in others. The person that I didn't care for was Marissa Tait. I just didn't find the tough girl act very convincing. You can also find Matt Raftery, Monica Serene Garnich, Brooke Mueller, Dane Northcutt, Kimberly Pullis, Jason Faunt and Ryan Scott Greene.

Witchouse is one of those films that I would still have picked apart the plot even if the rest of the film had been better. I'm sure I would have liked it better than I did if it had been though. Not saying I hated this one, but I didn't care for it either. Maybe I will give the sequels a chance at some point, as I hear the third movie isn't half bad. Witchouse may not be a bad film to watch late at night when nothing else is really on, but I wouldn't suggest anyone going out to find it.
2 out of 5 The makeup for the witch could have been a whole lot better

Freezing Time For The Plague

Being sick has actually gotten me in the mood to do reviews for some odd reason. I think it is because being home all day, for the third day in a row, can get rather boring after a while. I can only watch so much TV before I want to do something else. I'm feeling better today. I'm still sick, but at least I'm not sneezing like crazy (yesterday) or coughing a lot (the day before yesterday). Since I have meetings I have to be at tomorrow, sick or not, I even went to go see the new Underworld film. The review will come soon. Since I didn't think I would be watching it so soon yesterday, I went ahead and reviewed Quarantine 2: Terminal. For here though, I watched The Sick House (2008).

Anna (Gina Phillips) is a archaeologist doing some research at a children's hospital. It has been a children's hospital dating back to the times of the great plague that went through London. It seems some doctors were known for working with people who had the plague, but the plague had never reached as far as the children's hospitals, so what were they doing there? Anna believes she is close to figuring this out, but the people funding her has shut down her research. The place is considered a bio-hazard and is scheduled to be torn down. Risking everything, Anna decides to sneak in and finish her research the night before. Meanwhile, a group of young adults are out joy riding when they get into an accident right in front of the old hospital. Once inside, time seems to freeze outside, while inside the hospital things start to get weird when someone dressed like an old plague doctor shows up. What could the past want with out group of five?

The Sick House was co-written/directed by Curtis Radclyffe. I came across The Sick House when I watched a trailer for it on some other film. I couldn't find the movie on Netflix for some reason, but it turns out it was in my queue. I don't know if I managed not to spell it correctly that day or what happened, but because I couldn't find it on Netflix, I ended up buying it on the cheep. It wasn't long into this movie that I was already starting to feel lost. It took me a long time to figure out what was going on, or what I felt was going on anyway. Now that I do know what the movie was all about, I'm tempted to watch it again from that perspective to see if it makes more sense to me. I think part of it has to do with the site that Anna is working on is never explained much. There is a passing mention of why she wants to keep working, she believes some doctors were part of a plague cult that was never proven to have been around, but that didn't explain what was happening. Sure there was a doctor dressed in the way they would back in the day during the plague, and anyone he seemed to touch now had the plague, but what did that have to do with any type of cult?

To make matters worse, as many people like to point out, is the way things play out towards the end of the film. They figure out that the deaths the doctor was supposed to have been a part of all those years ago are repeating themselves. With only two deaths left, they make a promise to each other to make sure they don't die in those ways. One way was by fire, so what do they do after making this promise to each other? They make some make-shift torches! Another problem for me was the ending itself. I got what they were doing, but it didn't work for me. It had to do with a baby from a woman who didn't look all that pregnant. I didn't know if when time started again outside the hospital if she was still pregnant or no longer pregnant or what? For each person to decide I guess.

The Sick House isn't a very gory film, but there are some moments that were pretty cool all the same. A ton of bugs coming out of the pregnant woman was pretty cool. More than likely it was a CGI effect, at least it looked that way, but it was a cool effect all the same. The acting was just okay for me. I liked Gina Phillips in the lead role well enough. You can also find Alex Hassel, Kellie Shirley, Andrew Knott and Jack Bailey. By the way, I hope you like British accents if you do give this movie a watch.

Another thing I didn't care for was the way Radclyffe filmed The Sick House. He tends to use the shaky camera for a lot of things. I get that it is a style that a lot of directors like to use, and that sometimes it does help the feel or mood of the movie. Having said that, I also feel that it can be damn annoying. If it hadn't been used as much as it did here, I may not be complaining about it. I did like some parts of The Sick House. While there are many movies where I'm not really sure where the film is going, it bugged me a lot more here because I didn't really even have a general idea for it. It's too bad things didn't work better for this movie. I do feel there was an idea there that could have made a great film.
2 out of 5 I wonder if anyone would know what I was if I dressed up that way for Halloween

I Triple Dog Dare You!

I'm back already. Still sick, but feeling a little better at least. I went to the theater yesterday, only to discover the times had changed, already, on the new Underworld film. Not wanting to stick around for over two hours, I instead got some lunch and just went home. As much as I hated to do so, I called off from work since I didn't want to make anyone there sick. I was also hoping an extra day of pill popping and napping would help me kick the cold. Once I was up for the day, until my nap which I think is coming up quick, I decided to get back to my old ways of watching a movie from Netflix, one from Instant Watch, and one of the movies I have in my own collection. I decided on a movie called Triple Dog (2010) mostly because it has a couple of actress' that I like in it.

Eve (Alexia Fast) is having a sleep over for her 16th birthday party. She has invited her best friend, bad girl Chapin (Britt Robertson), and friends Cicely (Janel Parrish), Sarah (Emily Tennant) and Nina (Carly McKillip). Also showing up is Liza (Scout Taylor-Compton), who was invited by Eve's mom. I took it that Eve and Liza were friends at one point, but are no longer. As the night goes on, Chapin starts to get bored and suggests that they all play a game called triple dog. More or less it is truth or dare, but without the truth part. The rules are simple enough, everyone gets a dare and everyone gives a dare. If you decide not to do the dare, or fail to do it, then your hair will get shaved off. Not everyone wants to play though, so a vote is taken and the majority wins out, so everyone is playing. As the dares play out, we slowly learn of another student who died a few months back. Stories vary on how she died, although they all agree that she jumped off a bridge...or did she? Chapin may know more about it, but whenever someone brings it up, she wants to fight instead of answering questions about it.

From what I had been reading about Triple Dog before watching it, it sounded like it could be close to a horror film. It doesn't sport the horror tag, but it does claim to be a thriller, which can sometimes be another name for a horror film. As it turns out, it is much more a teen drama, and not much of a thriller. Since I had already decided to review it, and the fact that I'm behind on reviews as it is, I'm still doing the review. I can't say that I have watched a lot of teen drama films, even when I was a teen, but I suppose you can do worse than Triple Dog. Either I'm out of touch or the game itself was invented for the movie. I've heard of, and even played, truth or dare (although I hate playing it). Of course I have heard of the phrase "I triple dog dare you." I've just never heard of it as a game before. The dares the girls ask each other to do are for the most part somewhat tame. The first one surprised me because of the edginess the film went for. The completely good girl Sarah was dared to run down the street completely naked. I found that funny, but wasn't expecting director Pascal Franchot to actually show it. Emily Tennant was doing her best to cover herself with her hands and arm, but I was still surprised by it all.

I found the dares to be somewhat original at least. Like peeing on the Principal's door step and stealing a porn magazine from a store that has a guard. I think the one that surprised me the most was trying to get one of the girls to get to third base with a guy. While I found this part of the film interesting, I did have some problems with things writer Barbara Marshall did at times. For one, the girls seem a little too hip with the constant use of slang terms and things like that. It might be the way teens are talking these days, but it will make the film seem more dated years down the road. I also didn't care much for how the flashbacks for Stacy (Julia Maxwell), the girl who died a few months before, were handled. One of the girls who shows up from time to time claims that Chapin knows more about than she lets on. She knows this because her mom works at the school this happened at. In the flashback we see the same girl there when it happened. Why she just doesn't say that though is something I'm still trying to figure out instead of just saying her mom works there so knows the story.

I thought the story was just okay in Triple Dog. It was a little slow in places, but it did make me laugh at times, and offered a few surprises at least. The real treat, for me at least, was watching Alexia Fast sharing the lead role, and watching Scout Taylor-Compton. I know not everyone likes Scout, but I do. I also know not many have probably heard of Alexia Fast, but I like her well enough. Because of Triple Dog, I just might have to check out other things Britt Roberston has been in. If teen drama's happen to be something you don't mind watching from time to time, Triple Dog might be worth checking out for you. If you aren't interested in them at all, then you aren't missing anything by skipping over it. Unless you happen to be a fan of an actress or two found within.
3 out of 5 That river didn't look deep enough to jump into, let alone drown in

Chrome Me Part Two

My plans for this weekend sort of got derailed. I had watched ChromeSkull: Laid To Rest 2 (2011) Friday night, but I wasn't feeling the best that night, so I didn't start the review. I figured I would either do it yesterday or today, depending if I went to go see the new Underworld film. Neither happened because when I got up Saturday morning, I was feeling even worse. I think I have a mild cold, some coughing and sore throat, but that wasn't what was getting to me. I also believe I have a sinus infection on top of the cold. Between my sinus pain and my eyes hurting, I just wanted to sleep. Thankfully the pain is gone today. I'm just left with the slight sore throat and coughing, so hopefully I will be back to my more normal self soon.

ChromeSkull picks up where the last movie left off. As the remaining surviors drive away from the gas station, police pull in. Tommy (Thomas Dekker) and The Girl (Allison Kyler) hole up at a motel, while we see a team of people trying to save ChromeSkull (Nick Principe). Preston (Brian Austin Green) is the person in charge of this operation. While the team manages to get ChromeSkull back into the land of the living, Preston discovers where The Girl is and heads off to take care of her. Tommy leaves to pick up some food for them, and that is when Preston shows up to kill The Girl. ChromeSkull isn't very happy about Preston taking his kill away from him, but there isn't much he can do about it...for now. Spann (Danielle Harris) sets ChromeSkull's sights on another girl, Jess (Mimi Michaels), who is slowly going blind.

Laid To Rest was hardly a perfect film. I had my problems with it, but the kills won me over. With ChromeSkull: Laid To Rest 2, the story takes a turn for the worse, if that was even possible. I can say this one good thing about the plot for the sequel: at least they don't have the characters running around in circles again. Once again Robert Hall directs, but this time he picks up a co-writer in Kevin Bocarde. Maybe that had something to do with the way the plot changes so much in this sequel. I could be wrong, but I don't recall there ever being a hint that ChromeSkull was working with anyone before. As others have pointed out, it is like they took a page from the Saw movies. There is Preston, who works under ChromeSkull, finding out that he also likes the thrill of the kill. It was easy to see that there would be a showdown between the two at some point. The mystery of who ChromeSkull is, and why he is doing his thing, is still there. Only a small flashback about him is found, and it doesn't really show much. In the first movie there was also the mystery of who The Girl is as well. There is no such mystery this time. In fact, Jess pretty much takes a backseat to Preston.

The effects are still top notch at least. While not as gory as I remember the first one being, there are still some effects to be found that will make the gore hound happy. While I question how well a knife, no matter how sharp it is, will be able to cut through the skull seeming so easy, it was still a sight to see. The effects were once again my favorite thing about this one, much like the first one. The acting was also pretty good. I was surprised while looking at the cast for this movie. Allison Kyler, who takes over the role for The Girl, looked a lot like Bobbi Sue Luther, so I just assumed that is who it was. I don't know why Hall couldn't get her to come back, considering that they are married, unless she didn't want to do the nudity. That leaves Thomas Dekker and Nick Principe as the only people to return for the sequel.

I have to give Hall some credit in trying to expand on his story instead of coming up with the same thing yet again as the first film. I just didn't care for the direction he decided on. ChromeSkull: Laid To Rest 2 takes things away from the people that ChromeSkull is after, and puts the entire story on the people working for ChromeSkull. Maybe I would have liked it better if the characters for the bad guys had been better. There is Jess who could have been the most interesting character in the film if Hall had allowed it. Her not being able to see well is played up a lot, but it is never really used to push the story forward. It is just there to try and make us feel bad for her I guess. Even though I didn't like ChromeSkull: Laid To Rest 2, I still have to up the rating just a little bit because of the gore once again. The ground work has been laid to put out a third movie, so lets hope Hall gets back to the basics this time. That is if Hall doesn't make it a prequel like he has been hinting at.
3 out of 5 More stupid cops, just what the movies need

Paint Everything Black

This has been an off month for me so far. Usually January is an active month for me, no matter how burned out I might have been feeling by the end of the last year. I blame it mostly on work still, since I have been busy there. I don't mind that at all, money in my pocket after all, but I do hope things will pick up for me here. I was going to try and get two reviews in over the weekend, my second one didn't get done on time though. I did get it finished at last, so if you would like to read my thoughts on Stake Land, then click the link and head on over. I'm surprised it took me so long to get around to it. Sometimes I'm behind the curve on some films. It happens like that. For today I have the last of the backed up movie reviews, about time I might add, Finale (2009).

When the oldest son in the Michael's family suddenly dies, it leaves a lot of questions for the rest of the family. Helen (Carolyn Hauck) doesn't believe that her son killed himself, which is the official story. While the family cleans out Sean's (Warren Bryson), they discover black paint over everything reflective and then some. Peter (James Johnson), the other brother, finds and explosive device in the closet, that was there apparently to destroy Sean's diary. The diary is a mess of writings that refer to something called The Collector, and has a bunch of newspaper clippings that don't appear to have anything in common. But no, Sean couldn't have killed himself! Peter never says anything about the bomb, for whatever reason, and Kathryn (Suthi Picotte), little sister, joins up with the drama class that Sean was once apart of. Helen begins to believe that Sean was onto something, but will the rest of the family believe, or just believe that Helen is losing her mind?

Finale has some interesting ideas in it. Writer/director John Michael Elfers managed to put together some very cool visuals at times. I was really impressed with some the shots that find their way into the movie. At the same time I have to say that it also reminded me a hell of a lot of a Marilyn Manson video. Not a certain video, but just the style and the way The Collector ended up looking. As much as I liked all this though, it didn't come together very well with the plot. Things start off with us seeing Sean and his girlfriend trying to plant explosives somewhere. The opening felt confusing, and I wasn't the only one to feel this way, I think because we are just thrust into this situation without any reason why these two were doing this. Of course it was explained later, but that didn't excuse the opening giving the feel of coming into the middle of the movie.

I never got why The Collector was doing what he was doing. I got that he was using reflective surfaces in order to interact with our reality, but I never understood why or why the people he was picking to kill. I also didn't get why people were doing things for The Collector, or what they were getting out of it. Maybe all this had been explained and I just managed to miss it. Wouldn't be the first time, and I was watching this one kind of late at night, so wasn't 100% into it at the time. One thing I didn't care for in the plot itself was the sister getting caught up with the same people as her brother. I don't really get why movies do this, or maybe I am just missing something since I was an only child.

Another point that bothered me was some lady that is found at Sean's grave. I didn't get who it was right away, and feel I should have, but it seems Elfers couldn't make up his mind on what she was. She seems normal at first but then in another scene (from what I remember), she was this like demon type thing, and then normal again later. I was pretty surprised when she turned out normal, and that made me wonder what the whole scene when she wasn't was all about.

The acting was fine for me. I didn't have a problem with any of the actors. I thought that Carolyn Hauck did a nice job with the lead role. I didn't care much for James Johnson but I think that had to do more with his character and the writing for it. Finale wasn't a gory film really, but it had some cool makeup designs going for it at times. It would have been nice if it had been more gory than it was, but welcome to low budget film making.

Finale was one of those films where I was trying to decide where I would could with it for my rating by the time the ending came around. I liked some of what I was seeing, but felt confused by the plot some. I also felt not everything was coming together. Even so, I was waiting on the ending to see how it all played out in order to make up my mind. The ending, like the rest of the film, didn't really do it for me either. There are some reviews out there that gave Finale high marks, but I can't do it. I do look forward to seeing what else Elfers can do though, as there was some very interesting spots to be found. Even though I am giving it a lower rating, I will still suggest looking it up when you can.
2 out of 5 Wonder what it would have been like with Manson in it

A Good Reason To Hate Mother-In-Laws

Even though I have one more review waiting in the wings, so to speak, I decided to watch a horror short. Things are still busy around here. To add to that, I started up my interview with Terry (Cattleworks) again, and started a new one. Not saying who yet, that would be telling. I've never been one to kiss and tell after all. If you have been reading any of the recent comments on a somewhat recent review at Top Horror Movies Club, then you will have a pretty good idea who it is. Anyway, I have gotten a couple of emails from director Erik L. Wilson asking if I would review his short film House Call (2011). Since it was only 17 minutes long, shorter without the credits, I not only watched it, I watched it twice!

Janice (Aimee Bello) is a married woman with a boyfriend. As the movie opens we hear Janice talking with her boyfriend Steve (Michael Jordan) about how her husband knocker her out and that his mother (Janet Gawrys) was said to have been been practicing black magic. Steve encourages her to find a way to get away from Dave (Brad Egger). Once home, Dave is in the bath yelling at Janice about being with her boyfriend again, even though she denies it, and swears he will beat her once he gets out. This causes Janice to do something that will let her be with Steve. Four months later, we see that Janice is in fact living with Steve now as they celebrate their one year anniversary. But Mother has some plans for them.

House Call was filmed using a Red One digital camera. I couldn't tell you if this is a good or bad thing when it comes to cameras, but I can say that House Call does have a very crisp look to it. The plot itself I didn't think would be anything all that interesting, but I wasn't expecting what the mother ended up doing. Something I noticed at the start of the movie was the lighting. It looked stretched if that makes any sense. I assume this was some type of digital effect since it was only there for the first couple of scenes. Some people seemed to think that the lighting was a little on the dark side, but I didn't have any issues with that. House Call starts off a tad slow, but quickly picks up the pace once mother shows up. One of the things that made this short enjoyable for me was the sound effects that was used along with the music. It made things much more interesting.

The special effects are a mix of CGI and practical effects. The CGI effects are kept down, but they were very well done. I really liked what was done the first time we see them with the smoke. Even the makeup effects were well done. They aren't real gross, but I think they will be a nice surprise for most horror fans. The acting was also well done. I don't know why, but I didn't care for Aimee Bello a lot. Not saying she did a bad job, just was something about it that I didn't care for much. I also didn't care much for Michael Jordan at first, but thought he was much better in the later half of the film.

So far House Call can only be seen by invitation only. It is on a password protected site. Wilson is hoping to get House Call into the horror convention and film festival scenes. I don't think he will have a problem at all getting that done. If you happen to have a blog, I do hope you get invited to watch House Call. It is a fun movie, and even if you find you don't like it for some reason, as least you don't have to invest a lot of time to it.
4 out of 5 Makes me glad I have yet to get married

Tiki Dolls Are Bad Ass

Things have been a little slow around here lately. Hopefully I will be able to pick things up again soon. I have been busy at work, which is a good thing, but I've had to take reports home and get them finished here. That cuts into my free time, sometimes by a lot. Even so, I did manage to get out of the house, thankfully, in order to go to the movie theater to catch The Devil Inside. It wasn't as good as I was hoping for. After getting my review list updated, which I was a month behind in doing so, I jumped right into this review. For today I have a movie called Tiki (2006), which also wasn't all that great.

Amy (Joelene Smith) has decided to move away from her aunt (Maria Caprile) in order to go to college and start her own life. She wants to be an actress, so she looks for the theater not long after getting to college. She meets Mark (Wes Deitrick), who gives her directions and is super nice to her. Once she finds the theater, she discovers that a group in the class, lead by Julie (Tanya Morton), doesn't like her at all for whatever reason. She also discovers that Mark is the teacher for the class. With Mark being the only person that is nice to Amy, and gives her the lead role in the upcoming play, she soon starts to have a crush on him. Julie discovers this and decides to play a prank on Amy. Julie writes a note to make it sound like Mark wants to meet up with her in order to fool around. Amy dresses up and shows up at Mark's house, only to be rejected by him, in a sort of mean way. Amy runs out, only to be met by a laughing Julie and crew. This causes Amy to start to spaz out, which puts her in the hospital. Amy's aunt shows up with a tiki doll that come alive and seeks revenge on those that wronged Amy.

I'm sure that Tiki will remind people of the Puppet Master films. The tiki isn't really a doll, so much as it is a wood carving, but that is what I will call it all the same. The movie opens in a sort of weird way with the tiki is helping some woman. No idea who she is or anything, and she never shows up again. I guess it was just a way to show what the tiki can do. Tiki was a low budget deal, but it suffers the most from bad acting. The plot from writer/director Ron Ford was pretty basic. It could have been better, but I didn't really have much of a problem with it. The tiki itself was a little on the silly side at first. It did start to grow on me though, and I did enjoy it. The kills were bad, and didn't always make much sense. At the same time though, they did manage to get me to laugh at some of them, so there is that. Tiki is a silly movie because of the tiki doll and the things it can supposedly do. I don't recall how far up the apartment that Amy lived in was, I want to say on the second level, but it was rather funny watching the tiki climb its way up.

Besides the tiki doll coming alive, which didn't look all that bad to me, there are some gory effects to be found. Nothing was outstanding, but I can't say it was the worse stuff to be put on film either. The acting, however, is a different story. Still not the worst out there, but it was pretty bad. Joelene Smith comes off as a shy person in the movie. I don't know that it worked for the character too much. I have nothing against the average looking girl, but again it didn't fit well here. I guess I felt that she wasn't into the role much. I can't single her out though since the whole cast was pretty much the same way.

Tiki may not be the best movie out there, but it was starting to grow on me a little bit by the end of it. I can't say that I would ever watch it again though. It has a little bit of magic to it, but the bad acting took it down. I'm not sure I would give it too much of a higher score even if the acting had been better. I wasn't mad or anything after watching it on Instant Watch, and I don't feel I would have been if I had the DVD sent to me. I probably would have been if I bought the DVD on a whim though, depending on how much I had bought it for. If you are into these types of movies, where things like a tiki doll thing come to life, might be worth the curious watch. With the acting though, I think most people will not enjoy this one.
2 out of 5 I don't even want to own a tiki!

Sexy Witches Can Kill Me Anytime

A new year already. To bad this is the last year, depending on who you talk to anyway. The way I see it, if the end does come, there isn't a thing I can do about it so why worry? After my disappointing output of reviews last year, I hope to turn things around this year. Even though a couple of the movies in my Instant Watch queue couldn't be added to my DVD queue, I decided not to watch them. Neither film was getting all that high average ratings, and I'm behind as it is anyway. As it stands now, I have three reviews (including this one) before moving on to something new again. For today I have a movie called Ghost Game (2004).

Abby (Shelby Fenner) and Nate (Peter Cilella), along with Dara (Alexandra Barreto) and Randy (Curt Cornelius), have decided to stay in a cabin for the weekend. After meeting up with Cousin Ted (Robert Berson), they find the place and start to settle in. While the guys are messing around and getting things out of the car, the girls find a book where people have been writing about their vacation at the cabin. They flip through it some until they find an entry where the person said they were scared and their friends were dead. There was also a warning not to do something, but that something had been torn out. Later on they start to get bored so check to see what kind of board games there are to play. Around this time, Sebastian (Aaron Patrick Freeman) and his girlfriend Talia (Danielle Hartnett) also show up. They find a metal box that has a game inside it that none of them have heard of before. There is also a note that says not to play the game, but of course they do. Unknown to them, the game is a way for three witches, who died 30 years before, to get the people playing it to complete a summons they started but didn't complete.

Ghost Game started out with a little bit about the three witches. They are played by Sarah Shoup, Caroline D'Amore and Sahra Silanee. Even though the movie said this was happening 30 years in the past, I had a hard time believing that. I wasn't around 30 years ago, but from movies I have watched around that time period, I don't recall seeing women dressed the way these women were. I see them dressed that way now days, but not back then. Clothing aside, I found the plot for this film to be rather confusing even though it seems straight forward. Before the friends even know what they are supposed to do, help the witches with their summoning spell, the friends start to get killed off. Two of the witches seem to enjoy it, while the other may or may not be trying to make the spell fail. Even when the friends are trying to help, fairly late in the film, they still are getting killed off. I had to keep wondering why. If the ghosts witches need these people to complete their spell, why the fuck kill them off before they can do it? The people they kill off, before they know what they are supposed to be doing, might be the ones that would have no problem with helping out.

There wasn't much for effects. Director Joe Knee plays around with the camera to get some cheap effects for the ghosts. From what I remember there wasn't anything that stood out to me for gore effects. I didn't have anything in my notes about it, so there must not have been anything. The acting was a mixed bag. I liked some of the actors, like Shelby Fenner, but didn't like some of the others, like Curt Cornelius. While Danielle Hatnett's character could be annoying, I also found her to be funny in some ways. With her "I'm better than everyone" thing going on, it gave me a few laughs.

I'm not sure if Ghost Game bored me beyond caring, but I didn't understand why the last death happened at all. Since I was watching it on Netflix, I didn't try to go back to see what it was I missed, if anything. You can't always go back a few seconds to see something again, so usually I don't even bother to try. Even though I didn't find the pacing to be all that bad for Ghost Game, I just didn't care for the story at all. The three witches pretty sexy though, so it gets some credit for that at the very least. No nudity was shown from what I remember. I have spent worse 72 minutes with a movie before, but Ghost Game just wasn't for me. I don't think it is on Instant Watch anymore, but then I haven't bothered to see if it was added back in yet. I do know it can be watched through Amazon though. If you want to bother with it that is.
2 out of 5 Think I will go dream of those witches now