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Showing posts from March, 2011

Buried (2010)

After having watched, "Frozen", I was almost hesitant to sit through another minimal location/minimal casting/minimal title thriller... but I'm glad I did. Paul wakes up to find himself buried alive in a coffin.  All he has is a Zippo lighter, and a Blackberry phone. As time and air runs out, he maintain his sanity, and deal with the demands of those that placed him there... otherwise the coffin will be his final resting place... Director Rodrigo Cortes filmed "Buried" in seventeen days, and cites Alfred Hitchcock as a major influence on the film. I enjoy watching single location horror/thriller movies because I'm always interested in seeing how the director will handle it.  It's not easy making a single location constantly interesting, but director Rodrigo Cortes manages to do so with the simple coffin in this movie.  He uses interesting camera angles, lighting styles, and even darkness to break up what could be a very monotonous looking location

Frozen (2010)

I'm not going to lie- this movie SOUNDED good and interesting, and I was intrigued to see how someone would handle a story with such a limited number of cast and locations. Joe, Dan and Dan's girlfriend, Parker are skiing and decided to bribe the chair lift operator to allow them one last run- despite warnings of a severe storm heading in. Due to a bad timing and miscommunication, the three wind up stranded on the chair lift halfwayup the mountain. The trio soon learn that freezing isn't the only way to die in the cold night air... This film is notable for reports of people fainting while viewing it at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and for being the opening movie of the Glaslow Frightfest. This movie had potential, but was hampered by clunky dialouge, a lackluster cast, and stiff acting that wasn't the result of the cold. This is a dialogue heavy movie... and not very interesting dialogue. When they're not whining, they're crying, and whe

Let's Begin Again...

The past decade or so has seen a series of remakes and reboots shunted into theatres.  "Halloween", "Friday the 13th", "A Nightmare on Elm Street" being the biggest names put out there.  This overflow of remakes and reboots has caused a serious drop in faith when it comes to Hollywood's ability to produce original and exciting horror movies. Personally, I'm not a big fan of remakes.  When I hear that a remake or a reboot of a franchise is being released, I'm automatically wary and sceptical. I can understand WHY Hollywood would want to remake a horror classic- they hope that they can recapture the success of the original. They want to earn money. The same goes for reboots.  Hollywood studio reps can say they "want to introduce a new audience" to the classic horror franchises, but ultimately what they mean is they want to feed younger people to the cash cow and milk the franchise for more money. Do remakes really NEED to be made? 

Paranormal Activity

What would you do if unseen forces started to harass you in the still of the night? Micha and Katie are a happy couple living together, when they start to experience strange noises. Using a video camera he just bought, Micha is determined to catch whatever is disturbing them each night. What they both discover is something that may be related to Katie's childhood... and the entity that plagued her family... "The Blair Witch Project", with its success in 1999, spawned a new category of horror film- the "Found Footage" style of film making.  Using "found footage", the story is told from the more "personal" look at the characters and the events surrounding them.  One such example is 2007's "Paranormal Activity", and in a world of YouTube video watching is a great example. This supernatural horror movie is almost as low budget as you get: hand held video camera, cast working for $500.00, and the Director's home as the se

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

I have a confession to make: I'm a fan of black and white horror movies.  Why would I, a man born in the heyday of horror films like "Halloween", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and others be a fan of primitive black and white ones? Simple, they're fun, and "House on Haunted Hill" is an example of that fun. This 1959 B-movie was produced and directed by William Castle- the master of movie gimmicks like "Percepto"... the joy buzzer seats used for his movie, "The Tingler".  "House on Haunted Hill" had "Emergo"- a plastic skeleton that would "fly" over the audience at the appropriate moment in the movie.  The flying skeleton was quite popular (and is even credited in the end credits), and helped the movie to become quite successful.  The movie was so successful in fact that, Alfred Hitchcok was spurred to make "Psycho"... which in turned inspired William Castle to produce "Homicidal"