Poltergeist

The Freelings live in Cuesta Verde, a planned community created by Steve's company. Diane is a housewife who takes care of her children Dana, Robbie, and Carol Anne. One day, objects just start moving by themselves in the family's kitchen. The family is delighted at first until a tree tries to kill their son and their daughter is missing. The Freelings employ the help of parapsychologists to get their daughter back. Who are these spirits and why do they want Carol Anne?

Poltergeist is the haunted house movie that I measure all others against. Very few have reached even close to its achievement, so I'm not a huge fan of most of them. Poltergeist, although made in 1982, isn't as predictable and steeped in tropes as many much newer films like The Conjuring or Insidious. So many of the scares come from out of nowhere: the tree almost eating the little boy, the face scene, and the ending (including that creepy clown and the spreading of the haunting to the entire neighborhood). The suspense is expertly sustained throughout the film and actually has occasional significant scares to justify the high suspense level (again, unlike many recent films). The practical effects have held up well over the years. So many moments are equally creepy to child me and adult me. I still can't believe the film is rated PG because I had so many nightmares as a kid and it is still a very memorable and scary film.

One of the main strengths of the film is the family. They have to be sympathetic or the plot just wouldn't work. The beginning establishes them as a normal, everyday family. They disagree and fight, but ultimately love each other. The happenings at the beginning start out as fun family events. Chairs and children are slid across the floor by some unseen force and it's all fun and games until Carol Anne, the angelic looking 5 year old, goes missing. The family stays united even as they mourn for their lost member. Their pain is poignant and the viewer can't help but feel for them. The scene where the parapsychologists first come to the house is perfectly performed. The family hears Carol Anne running from something and she ends up running through her mother, who breaks down with emotion because it's the first physical contact she's had since her child has been gone. JoBeth Williams is amazing and I can't watch the scene without crying. Heather O'Rourke isn't the best child actor, but her delivery of the line "They're here" will live on in horror movie history forever. Craig T. Nelson as Steve is more skeptical than his wife, but no less caring about his daughter. I like that Poltergeist takes the time to get to know the family because if we don't care about them, the film falls flat.

The ending is wholly unexpected. After rescuing Carol Anne, the house should be clean, but the spirits return with a vengeance, exposing the dead buried under the neighborhood. It's just another example of a corporation making shortcuts in their business and allowing the public to face the repercussions while they reap the profits. The company was surveying another cemetery earlier in the film, showing active planning to build another community without moving the dead. This theme has been in film for a long time and is still quite relevant today.

Poltergeist is the perfect haunted house film. It avoids a lot of common tropes and proves to stand the test of time. I was on the edge of my seat the entire film and it felt that anything could happen at any time. I love this movie and will definitely revisit it for years to come.

My rating: 10/10 fishmuffins

Halloween Watch-a-Thon Mini Reviews 2

1) Gone Girl (2014)

Amy Dunne is missing. No one knows if she's dead or just gone. Nick Dunne, her husband, makes bad decision after bad decision and looks extremely guilty to almost everyone around him. Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck are excellent portraying their flawed and mostly unlikable characters. David Fincher gives the film a suspenseful, icy, and precise style. The plot is deliciously insane and it's a near perfect adaptation from pages to screen. The foreboding builds up throughout the film and it's almost impossible to guess what will happen next (if you haven't already read the book). The only two parts lacking were the casting of Neil Patrick Harris (just no creepy enough) and the fact that Amy's personality came off super icy when she did have some humor in her own way. The rest is simply amazing. I had already read the book, but seeing my sister cover her face and hearing her gasp "oh my god" over and over was priceless. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

2) All Cheerleaders Die (2013)

There's something wrong with the cheerleaders. They actually died and were brought back to life by wicca Leena. Now, they need to feed on people to live, are connected magically, and are much tougher than usual. The football players that contributed to their deaths resolve to get rid of them once and for all. The first half hour of the film was so filled vapid and annoying characters that I struggled to continue. Once the cheerleaders die and come back, it gets more fun and a bit cheesy. The football players are appallingly misogynistic and make very on dimensional villains. The plot relies way too much on gimmicks and tropes while at the same time trying to unsuccessfully make fun of those same gimmicks and tropes. The acting isn't great and I didn't care much about any of the characters. This is one to watch a bloodbath and turn your mind off. It also stops in the middle of a scene and then lets the viewer know it's only the first part. I would continue the series if I was really bored and had nothing else to watch.

My rating: 2/5 fishmuffins

3) Resolution (2012)

Michael finds his friend Chris after receiving a video of him. Chris has become a junkie, so Michael handcuffs him to the wall in the house where he stays to forcibly get him clean. Weird things start happening like finding a book full of creepy campfire stories and film slides purposefully left for him to find. The movie as a whole is ok. It starts off a bit slow. Besides the sense of unease, it seems like a drama about a guy just wanting to get his friend clean in a well meaning, but creepy way. Most of the threats are normal: the real owners of the house showing up and Chris's junkie friends demanding drugs and threatening them. The clues around seem peripheral to the main plot up until the crazy ending. It all culminates in an unexpected way and it's impressive.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

4) Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Vampires Adam and Eve have been together for hundreds of years. They opt to live in obscurity with the things they love and create art separately. Adam is a musician living in Detroit and creates music he doesn't want people to hear. He's tired of existence and contemplates suicide. Eve is a bibliophile and lives in Tangiers, but reunites with Adam when she hears of his despair. They are blissful until Eve's wild little sister comes to visit. This film is a slow, languid tale of vampires in love after centuries together. This isn't teenybopper Twilight love, but love solidly built and sustained. The acting and cinematography are superb and I could watch Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston all day. They capture these characters so well that could have easily been run of the mill hipster, but are reflective and contemplative people whose love they can rely on. Music plays a big role and the soundtrack is amazing. Not a whole lot happens and what does happen does so slowly, but it's not a negative.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Butterfly Skin

Ksenia is manager of an online news website in Russia. She's very ambitious and professional at work, but in her personal time, her interests are much different, preferring to be dominated and harmed during sex. A serial killer is on the loose who rapes, mutilates, tortures, and murders young women. To further her career, Ksenia creates a site dedicated to the serial killer to address public interest that includes psychological studies, links to other websites, information on each murder, and message boards. At first it's just business, but she develops a fixation with the murders and even meets an online lover in the message boards who isn't who he seems.

The description of the book on Amazon is very misleading and this book shares almost nothing with The Silence of the Lambs. Every few chapters are from the point of view of the serial killer. He describes how he kills the women, his theories on how he came to be that way, his frustration (sexual and otherwise), his history, and his feelings. A few of the chapters are in a more poetic form and focuses on images (of the grisly variety) and feelings. It's grisly, rather descriptive, and  I liked these chapters and found them the most interesting parts of the story even though they were few and far between. You get right in the serial killers head and see what makes him tick. He's pretty abhorrent, but does realize what he is doing is wrong. The only other enjoyable part is the unexpected ending.

The majority of the book is populated by interchangeable characters that blur together. I didn't like the language used in these chapters because it was unnecessarily repetitive (which was a style issue) and it just felt stilted and unnatural (which may have been a translation issue). Some of the idioms didn't really make sense or seemed made up or just very dated. The characters have a lot of weird hangups about sex. Ksenia's preference for BDSM sex is labeled as abnormal and dangerous. Even "normal" sex is treated with a very repressed attitude by all the characters. There were a lot of abrupt and disorienting jumps in time from present to past and back again. These chapters were a slog to get through and dull as a whole. It only gets interesting when Ksenia and the serial killer's paths cross.

Butterfly Skin is disappointing and mostly dull. It might have been a translation issue, but the serial killer chapters were even written in a much more natural style. Not a big fan. I would recommend it.

My rating: 2/5

Halloween Watch-a-Thon Mini Reviews

I'm participating in a Halloween Watch-a-thon and I'm vaguely aiming for 100 movies, even though it's unlikely I'll ever get there.

1) Detention (2012)

Detention is a horror comedy that starts out as a slasher film, but turns out to be a lot more. The plot is pretty convoluted and starts out withe head cheerleader and most popular girl in school being murdered by Cinderhella, the villain in a series of horror films. I thought it would be a textbook slasher film and it follows that formula up until the middle and then time travel, aliens, and other such weirdness get involved. The slasher story line is forgotten until the last moments of the film. It's a fun movie, but the continuity is completely messed up. If you don't attempt to look at it logically or think too hard about it, it's enjoyable. There were a lot of good ideas, but just jumbled together without working to make them fit together logically.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

2) Jaws (1975)

A shark wreaks havoc on resort town Amity Island. I love Jaws. Every time I watch it, I still jump and cover my eyes at all the same places. It's a well crafted film and it caused generations of people to dread going into the ocean. The soundtrack is so simple yet is responsible for the entire suspenseful mood of the film. The part most infuriating about the film is how the rich and powerful are more concerned with saving their profitable July 4th weekend than saving people's lives. They even influence the coroner to change the cause of death from shark attack to accidental drowning. Their shortsightedness and disregard for human life is disgusting and it's all powered by greed. The last half hour of the movie is amazing and super suspenseful. It ends pretty abruptly, but a longer ending really isn't needed.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

3) Horns (2014)

Ig grows horns overnight and people tell him their darkest desires and urges. He uses the power to solve his girlfriend's murder, which everyone else blames on him. I was fine with the changes to the book. The flashbacks are pared down (thankfully) and the movie is more about Ig and Merrin's relationship instead of Ig and Lee's relationship in the book. Daniel Radcliffe and Max Minghella didn't seem to fit their respective characters well. The effects are great and it has everything I liked from the book. The ending is even fixed a bit, but it doesn't change the fact the two main characters just aren't captured right.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

4) Jugface (2013)

Ada lives in a backwater town away from society in a tight knit community. Their whole way of life revolves around a pit they worship and make sacrifices to. Ada finds out that she's pregnant and she is to be sacrificed to the pit. Trying to escape her fate makes others pay the price. The first half of the film is so awesomely creepy. Of course their society is misogynistic and the women are expected to stay virgins until their parents decide to give them to a man to have children with. Ada doesn't want any of it and is tired of blindly following her people. The movie had real promise. The performances are good and the creepy atmosphere is sustained. The soundtrack is perfect and captures the mood well. A cheesy element is featured way too much near the end. The ending is just disappointing.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

Halloween Horror Nights 2014

For the first time ever, I went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. I was a little nervous because the only other event like it I've been to is Knott's Scary Farm, which isn't as big or well funded. I went with my sister and we got the VIP experience, complete with a VIP lounge that had a buffet dinner and free drinks, unlimited front of the line access, a special VIP Terror Tram, and a tour guide to take us through the Terror Tram and 3 mazes. It was expensive, but super worth it since the attraction is only open for 7 hours and the line for Alien vs. Predator was always at least 2 hours long by itself. The event was amazing with 7 mazes, 5 scare zones, the Terror Tram, and the rides. Although 7 mazes isn't a lot compared to Knott's 11(of which 2 need separate tickets for access), these mazes are longer and much better quality with crazy attention to detail.

The Good:

Almost all the mazes had these little string things that hang in your face like spiders and that alone made each maze a bit scarier.

* Alien vs. Predator



By far the best maze ever. Best makeups I've seen for the actors with amazing attention to detail and animatronics. That room with the alien and predator on either side with the flashy lights scared the crap out of me. I love the chestburster room because the people on the wall are real and the alien queen animatronic is spectacular.

* The Walking Dead: End of the Line



The set for the Walking Dead is amazing. The outside looks like the prison the cast stayed in and it's huge. The zombie actors were awesome and there were so many! I loved the supermarket because of the super calm, serene music and the zombies stuck in the rubble, which was very unexpected. The set is the strength of this one and really transports you inside the show.

* An American Werewolf in London



Very unexpected maze. The train room was surprising and I loved the way the transformation scene was incorporated. It makes me want to watch the film.

* Terror Tram



It's basically a big scare zone, but it incorporates the crash site used in War of the Worlds. It's bigger and more involved than anything I've ever seen. The chainsaw guys were surprisingly scary. My only criticism is that it was really dark. My night vision isn't great and I would have liked to see more of the actors.

* Mask-a-raid and The Purge: Anarchy Scare Zones



The Mask-a-raid Scare Zone has a great concept: a cannibal cult in masquerade balls during preRevolutionary War France. The out of tune harpsichord music is perfect and it melds horror with high class aristocracy with morbid tableaux and cannibals. The Purge Scare Zone was fun because since many of the dressed normally besides a mask, it was easier for them to hide in the crowd and make the scares more surprising.

The OK

* Face/Off: In the Flesh



I love the show and I liked seeing the makeup up close, but the themes are all different. They didn't mesh well and ended up looking kind of confused. The music was pretty cool and made it creepier than it really was.

* Dracula Untold



Ok maze. Nothing special, but not awful. It doesn't make me want to see the movie when it comes out.

The Bad

* Clowns 3D



Not very scary. I liked the eerie music, which was written by Slash, but the maze was meh. Bright paint covered everything and became dizzying with the 3D glasses (which kept falling off my face). The actors lost interest right after the scare and it ruined the illusion for me. A lot of it was mannequins instead of people. Very unrealistic over all plus the whole maze smelled sickeningly like cotton candy. My sister is terrified of clowns and she was also unimpressed.

* From Dusk Till Dawn



Also not very scary. The set was still cool, but Dracula Untold was just so much better. I thought having 2 vampire themed mazes was odd, but this one dropped the ball.

* the dancers



Really? Were there dancers in The Purge? No. Please don't try to keep horror a boys' club. Half of the crowd is women and at least have some hot male dancers to include everyone if you really want to have them. It's just annoying when people still assume that horror is only targeted at men when it hasn't been for years.

Even with the bad stuff, I had a lot of fun. I will definitely be going next year. I can only hope that the Halloween/Michael Myers themed maze will make it here next year.

The Sacrament

* spoilers *

Patrick, fashion photographer, receives a letter from his drug addict sister Caroline that she has found utopia in South America with a drug and alcohol free religious group that has sold all their belongings to set up a commune there. Patrick's co-workers, Sam and Jake, who work for Vice, want to do a story on the group and go with him to document and report about the trip. When they arrive, things are less than hospitable when men with machine guns stop them and demand a donation. Caroline arrives, they are let in, and everything seems idyllic. Everyone they talk to loves the place and has story after story about how they were saved and how it's the most perfect place ever. A party is thrown in their honor where they will get to interview Father, the leader of the group, and just enjoy themselves for the night. The interview doesn't go as planned as Father is a charismatic, talkative man who can talk around any question they ask. Sam is handed a note that says "Help us" at the party and they know everything isn't as wonderful as it seems.

I had basically written off Ti West as a horrible director because I've hated pretty much everything he's done up to this point except Cabin Fever 2, which he wanted to remove his name from. I decided to give him one last chance and I'm glad I did. I didn't realize going into it, but the film is a fictionalized retelling of the Jonestown massacre where a religious cult committed mass murder/suicide with poisoned Kool-Aid after moving to South America to flee "persecution." I have heard vague accounts of the event, but no real specifics. The film does a great job of presenting the story pretty accurately with an artistic flair without filling in all the gaps for the audience. For instance, the inhabitants talked about the abuse that would be administered should any of them break the rules or go against Father, but it isn't seen and only a little of the aftermath is shown. Anything not explicitly explained in the film can be researched and discovered for oneself since it's a pretty well documented event. The film starts normally enough, but as the film goes on, suspense and tension is built perfectly toward the grisly resolution. Ti West has always been good at building suspense, but has failed to make the resolution worthy of the build up until now.

I find religious cults to be particularly frightening because of how easy it is to manipulate religion to an agenda and manipulate people who are down and out to follow it. Father is a fascinating character and Gene Jones gives the best performance of the film. The scariest thing about him is how jovial and sincerely nice he appears. His likability and charisma are what draw people to him in the first place. Ti West wanted to make the character portrayed as genuine and well meaning, but his paranoia drove him to evil. The second most frightening thing about him is his ability to manipulate. He convinced a huge group of people to give up all their earthly belongings, give him all their money, move out to South America, and build Eden Parish. Then he convinced the majority of them to kill themselves, their children, and the dissenters. He also blamed the deaths of his people on the Vice crew, insisting to the end that it wasn't his fault and it was the only way out. I've listened to part of the tapes recorded by Jim Jones, the real life Father, and Gene Jones captured him perfectly.

The film is in found footage style, but doesn't overdo the shaky cam effect or forgo having a satisfying ending as many of them do. The style makes sense with the story. My only gripe with the film is that the blood looks too orange and very fake. It seems a few people take offense to fictionalizing a real life event, but I disagree. A horrific event like this is morbidly fascinating and a film like this gives us the opportunity to experience a situation like it safely while exploring how it could happen and the motivations of the people involved. I think it's more offensive to turn victims of the Chernobyl disaster into monsters like Chernobyl Diaries or turn the innocent victims of the Salem witch trials into actual witches deserving of execution in The Conjuring.

My rating: 9/10 fishmuffins

It's October!!!!

Once again, it's October, my favorite time of year AND my 31 days of Halloween celebration. Stores are bursting with Halloween decorations, candy, costumes, and everything orange and black. TV is full of horror TV shows and movies. It's like Christmas to me. So keep an eye out here for horror goodies throughout the month ranging from awesome horror events to book and movie reviews. I'm attempting to watch a whole bunch of horror films this month, so let's see how many I can fit in. Care to share any recommendations?