An horror movie is a failure when it doesn’t entertain my Saturday evening. Normally, I would have stopped Southbound after the first 15 minutes… Unfortunately, it’s a trap! The first half of the movie lured us into thinking that it was good but, when it was already too late to stop it, it turned into – pardon my french – a nameless shit. I could go on to explain why I’m so negative toward Southbound, but I’ve already wasted too much of my time with this pathetic excuse of a movie.
If you’re a big 80’s fan, like myself, you’ll most definitely love this movie. The story is about two estranged brothers that reunite after their fathers’ mysterious disappearance. While liquidating his video store, they stumble upon a game named “Beyond the Gates”. This is where it all begins and where I’m going to stop spoiling any further.
For the more picky viewers, the effects must look tacky, however, I love them. From the foggy smoke effects to the pink & blue neon lights, I feel like I’ve gone a few decades back in time, where VHS still ruled.
The casting looked a little bit clumsy at the beginning but, in the end, they all played their role really well. Eighties scream queen, Barbara Crampton plays the host for the “Beyond the Gates” VHS board game. Her performance is one I won’t soon forget. Throughout the entire movie, I felt like she was staring right at me through the TV screen. Her character is both creepy and diabolical.
The theme of the movie is different from the usual chainsaw or possession galore we find around every corner these days. I know that there are some flaws in the story line, but they kind of remained trivial to me. The entire movie was refreshing and I can’t help but being very positive about this one.
Needless to say that last Saturday night was quite the walk down memory lane. My gratitude to Director, Jackson Stewart, for bringing back all these nostalgic memories. I had a great time.
We had a nice saturday evening with this modern days Jaws…
In the middle of February’s greyness, spending an evening with surfers on a hidden Mexican beach really felt good. What felt even better was to see them being eaten by a giant angry shark.
I haven’t spoiled anything yet, an horror movie with sharks never ends up without a few people being eaten…
While the acting is good, it’s especially the shooting that made The Shallows enjoyable. Everytime someone enters the water, the camera is at the right place to make you feel the imminent doom.
A bit like 127 Hours, the movie does good at making us wondering what we would have done to escape the shark. I would have died swimming at night to the beach, thinking that the shark was gone.
But, unlike James Franco, Blake Lively gets out of this dire situation in a very not credible way. Here comes the spoiler: Nancy, a med school student manages to stitch hereself with her unsterilized earrings and spends more than 24 hours on a rock without going septic after having been beaten by a shark. But that’s not all, she also manages to trick the giant white shark into impaling itself on a piece of metal at least 10 meters below the surface.
I know that I’m supposed to set my brain on standby when I watch this kind of movie, but that’s a bit too much, even for the brainless me. Even an evening with Jason Voorhees is less asking, probably because it doesn’t try to be as realistic as The Shallows.
Anyway, The Shallows is a good movie for an entertaining evening. Remember: don’t think too much.
The Expanse is an amazing TV show, probably the best science-fiction show of the moment, if not the best I’ve ever seen. It mixes all my favourite elements: a noire detective story, plot twists and space battles. The story is great and I have the feeling that, after the first season, we have only seen a fragment of what is going to unfold throughout the entire show.
The series is based on the New York Times book series collectively known as “The Expanse,” written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey). Abraham and Franck are also the show producers.
I won’t get started about the TV tastes of nowadays people, but it’s a pity that science-fiction shows are constantly under the threat of being cancelled for low audience. Happily, the second season is already being aired and, thanks to Netflix, the third season has been green lit. They even speak about at least 5 seasons. My only regret is that there aren’t more episodes per season and that there aren’t already 10 seasons out because I could spend a week on an asteroid belt right now.
I had quite a good time watching this movie last night. Not only because it was cold and rainy, and I was comfortably installed in the couch with my fluffy white blanket, but because the Neighbor is a cool movie that’s perfect for a Saturday horror night.
Without spoiling too much about the actual storyline, I will just briefly summarize the movie. John and Rosie are planning to leave town in order to start a new and better life. When Rosie goes missing, John suspects his weird neighbor of having something to do with her disappearance. While investigating and sneaking around in his neighbors’ house, he discovers the disturbing secrets he’s been hiding in his cellar.
The story is great with several unexpected plottwists. What seemed to be the subject of the movie at the beginning, took a huge u-turn in the middle and ended up in a completely different direction. It was quite a nice surprise which I loved. There is a good flow to the storyline, once the action starts rolling, and the sense of dread builds up quite nicely as well.
Even though there isn’t much time for real character developement, I thought that the casting was great. Josh Stewart, the actor that plays John, carried the movie quite well. The characters were credible which, in my opinion, was more than enough for this kind of movie. After all, all that matters is surviving.
If you like Marcus Dunstans’ “The Collector”, I’m sure you’ll like this one. Like I’ve said before, it’s perfect for a Saturday horror night.
When the police investigate the site of a triple murder, they find the body of a woman, half buried in the basement of the house. The body is brought to the local morgue for post-mortem examination.
During my last year of Criminology at the University, I had to do an internship with the Forensic team. For a few months, I’ve spent my time at the morgue, assisting during autopsies. It was an experience I’ll never forget. I’ve never found it disgusting or creepy, only scientifically interesting.
I am very glad that I didn’t see this movie during my internship though… Of all the things that could possibly go wrong during an autopsy, this one I would have never imagined.
I won’t spoil the plot but I can tell you that the autopsy of Jane Doe gave us a few chills. The story is well paced and the actors are convincing. We especially enjoyed to see an horror movie that, for once, doesn’t happen in a haunted house, a creepy forest or a torture chamber.
The trailer of “Abattoir” (“Slaughterhouse” in French) looked so promising. A family gets brutally murdered in their house, and haunt the place ever since. At least that’s what I thought this movie would be about. I guess that I’ve never been so wrong about something in my entire life.
The story was bad, they tried to do something original, but failed miserably. It’s predictable, way too slow, and the dialogues are pointless. Halfway through the movie, I started to feel itchy and restless in my couch. When I looked at Sardoken, he was struggling not to fall asleep.
I also didn’t like any of the characters. The detective and the reporter apparently had some history. Unfortunately, the chemestry wasn’t there, and they completely failed to unfold whatever there was/is between them. The acting was generally bad.
My biggest disappointment (if it could get any worse) was the lack, or better said, the non-existence of jump scares. I’m a scaredy cat, and a horror movie that doesn’t make me jump, is a fail. I realize that I use the word “fail” a lot in this post, but that’s what this movie is, one big failboat. Do yourself a favor, and skip on this one.
Diablo 1 was the first time that I’ve truly been passionate about a game. From the moment that Diablo was installed on my PC, all I could think about was going to Tristram and fight the legions of evil. At that time, I had just entered university and I completely failed my first year. Even if it delayed my professional life for a year, it was worth it because it gave me one of my best gaming remembrances.
When Diablo 2 came out, I got infected with the same virus. The sequel was even better and, for many years, I’ve been living in click heaven.
Unfortunately, even if they managed to make something enjoyable out of Diablo 3, Blizzard didn’t succeed at recreating the ambiance from the first two episodes. They made jokes about the excessive use of flashy colours, but they failed to provide the sequel I was waiting for.
I long believed that such a task was impossible, that my expectations were simply too high. The Darkening of Tristram proved me wrong. The retro graphics, the character animations and the old music really did the trick for me.
Blizzard gave us an awesome way to celebrate and, for a month, I probably had more fun in Diablo 3 than I had since the game was released.
A widowed mother runs a scam business, together with her two daugthers. All goes well until a Ouija board is added to bring something new into their performance. Soon, evil spirits are unleached, and the youngest daughter gets possessed.
All is there to make an excellent horror movie: the casting, the story, the 60’s vibe,… Everything starts off really well, you get to know the characters, and the tension builds up nicely. Unfortunately, at a certain point, things get rushed. From the moment we know that an evil nazi doctor and his tortured patients are involved, the movie ends in a bit over 20 minutes. However, I’ve been hiding quite a few times behind my pillow, and felt pretty uncomfortable before going to bed.
Be sure to watch the movie until the end credits are over, horror geeks are in for a big surprise. Totally worth the watch.
There I was sitting in my coach, excited to watch a creepy Amityville. Boy, was I wrong. The first five minutes I even thought that we got the wrong movie. It’s basically a cheap rip off of the original title.
In my opinion, they added the word “Amityville” to encourage people to watch. Poor acting, poor storyline, even more poorly CGI (my eyes are still bleeding), in short: poor everything. The only things I liked throughout the entire movie were Haileys’ crossbow and dirt bike.
Something that disturbed me greatly was the age of the actors. The mother, father, aunt, and daughter almost look like they all have the same age. It was hard for me to picture Hailey (daughter) as a schoolgirl while she clearly has the looks of a young adult. This fact only made the movie not credible from the beginning. Too often, it looked like they just picked up a camera, and made all up along the way. The scene where Hailey goes to some place with her loverboy, and starts shooting with her crossbow, just like that, no aim, no nothing. All I could think about was: stop that! You’re going to poke someones’ eye out.
Like I’ve said the movie was bad, but we’ve watched it until the end anyway. So, if you ever come across this title, just leave it under the rock from whence it came.
