One Sentence Review Sunday #14

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

I literally levitated out of my seat in fright.

Hasta Luego

@Fake_Shemp

'You're Next' (2011)

So here goes.... (and as always Spoilers! Not all but some.)

Four siblings and their partners gather together for their parents 35th anniversary... and yes they are gathering at their parents big in the middle of nowhere home.

Their only neighbors have been killed in the opening of the movie, so its already not looking good for the family.

So the family, firstly we have Mother and Father, Paul and Aubrey, the rich parents.

Paul and Aubrey have bought the house in the middle of nowhere to fix up, a project to work on since being forced out of his job with a tidy severance.

Next up is eldest brother Crispian and his girlfriend Erin. She used to be his student. (much like the couple who are killed in the opening, Erik and Talia, who Aubrey says he left his wife to be with one of his students, as they drive past and up to the house.)

Then we have Drake and his wife Kelly, Drake seems to be the sibling that has followed his fathers footsteps into business.

Then I figure Aimee is next age wise, with her boyfriend Tariq.

And finally the baby of the family Felix and his girlfriend Zee.

Side note of irreverence... 2013 is the 35th anniversary of Halloween but this was made in 2011, so happy coincidence that it got released now?

Not too irrelevant when you can see the influence of Carpenters masterpiece in You're Next... The POV shots, the monotonous, in a good way, and repetitive score. Seriously I loved the music in this movie.... Very Argento in parts, (especially the part where Erin is doing her best Home Alone impression.)

Music suddenly cutting out as the scene changes was effective and gave a jarring effect on me watching it, making me notice the music more... A real feature and not just background noise... Music was really used to set tone, a dark and often comic tone that could only work when the movie went so dark that I was left with nothing but a reaction to laugh.

Adam Wingard swept me along, there is no down time in this movie, I'm not saying there isn't a breather here or there when the action picks up but I never got bored and there was plenty of moments to get to know and care about the family... When the only daughter in the brood goes to make a run to the cars... And as her brother and father swing the doors open and she passes the threshold her throat is sliced by almost invisible wire. I laughed... At first.

I was expecting her to get shot as soon as he doors opened but the sudden throat slitting was like a well placed punch line. Then as she is slowly dying, bleeding out on the floor with her family panicking around her, it had the reverse effect on me, and I wad suddenly on the verge of the room getting a little dusty.

Had we gotten to know Amiee? She had arrived with her documentary underground filmmaker boyfriend and we had been told that she was her daddy's little princess. Not too much to go on but we can infer from the families interactions so much about her life up to this point. To me she is like the rest in that she comes from a wealthy family, privileged and so when she heads off to an Art College, as she doesn't need to follow her father into business like her older brother, she hooks up with Ti West's character. What we see of him before he is killed with an arrow is that he's an "underground" documentary filmmaker.

The paring of Aimee and Tariq makes sense, I can see she probably has travelled the world and is interested in helping those less fortunate.

Yeah, I make my own versions of characters lives a lot.

Anyways...

And before she makes a run for it to the cars... She expresses how her parents had never believed in her... And she would do this selfless act to help save her family and prove to them she is as capable as her brothers. I was routing her on but I wad expecting her to die relatively quickly and I wasn't hardly expecting the cars to be in working order.

But more than all that is that my younger sister is called Amy too. That hit a little close to home. Just like Andrea having to shoot Amy in The Walking Dead... Age difference was similar in that case too.

Another use of music in the movie which is great is the song 'Looking for the Magic' by Dwight Twilley Band being stuck on repeat at the neighbors. I'm not sure when the movie is supposed to be set but this gives the same weight and feeling in time that the use of The Zombies and Dead Man's Bones did in The Conjuring.

The song even has Tom Petty on guitar. 

Speaking of nudity on the movie... I wasn't but now that I am. I didn't find it exploitative, it was using the conventions of horror. We didn't see Erin bare any skin and she almost survived... She was literally raised on a survivalist colony. A little fact she had yet to disclose to her boyfriend Crispian.

But she went out like Ben did at the end of Night of the Living Dead. Yet the ending feels fresh but lets not forget this was done many decades ago. Perhaps it's part of a trend of downer endings. But this was after all filmed back in 2011 and has went through Lionsgate buying Summit, and therefore acquiring this movie. So we've had time to get hyped up. I'm sure the hard core horror nuts know about other hard core horror fans having tattoos of this movie, or The Alamo Drafthouse having painted a 'You're Next' emblem on the building, up until it's renovations at least.

I put this sort of hype out of my mind and was expecting something akin to The Strangers, which had been hyped up for me to begin with. That movie and this are both pretty awesome.

So I was pretty much very impressed with this movie, especially as its a movie that answers the question that me and my sister often ask at the end of a slasher.... How does the survivor girl explain all the killings? (Hatchet III did a good job in trying to answer this question too.)

She doesn't get a chance to... As the cop turns up when she is defending herself and it looks to an outsider that she is the deranged killer and he shoots her.


Which a normal horror movie cop wouldn't do as we all know cops in slasher are useless... But sometimes if Wes Craven liked you... Invincible. (Not that the cop makes it out of the movie either.)


So I'm some sort of conclusion... See this in cinemas if you can, pick it up on home release or Netflix it... whatever just show the studios that horror is profitable.



Hasta Luego
@Fake_Shemp

My Own List of Shame

I was reading a great article over at "Movies At Dog Farm" (go read, I'll be here waiting....) where Brandon posts his "List of Shame". To be fair to him his list is obscure and there's no shame in not having seen the movies he cites... unless your us. Yep a horror geek that feel the need to see the classics, the cheesy, the rare and mysterious.

This made me go look at what I'd watched this month so far... and yes we are 3 days in, but that's 3 days of Movie Geekness... and what had I watched... oh nothing but movies I'd never seen before.

Shadow People

Recent movie, sure and not even sure how I stumbled upon it on youtube. I've watched strange creepypasta-esque vids on youtube before but it was middle of the AM's on the 1st and I can't honestly remember how I found this. I saw Dallas Roberts was in it and he's cute so I gave it a go on that alone. I kinda liked it for the most part but its nothing I'd be all "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!!" about. If you're interested in fake documentaries, cause they try to in the style of The Fourth Kind splice scenes in with the "actual" people its "based on" then give it a go, it's worth the one watch.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

I guess I first remember hearing this referenced by Sidney and Dewey in Scream, and ever since wanted to see it. I thought I had years earlier saw it but that turned out to be 'Near Dark'... yeah I dunno how I could have ever confused the two either.

After having watched it... I wasn't exactly blown away by anything but its effects. I can see how this one had passed me by, but still so glad I can say I've seen it.

The Thing From Another World (1951)

Now this one I was ashamed to not remembering much of, sure I'd caught bits on the TV as a child but being on in the wee hours I remember falling asleep so I could never say I'd seen it.

I can't believe with my love of John Carpenters remake (yes I have the Fright Rags T-Shirt) that it took me until I'm 25 to see this.

Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

I had known of this movie purely by the poster for years and I love cheesy old sci-fi so I was glad to check this off the "Never Seen" list.

The Prowler (1981)

I scarcely knew of this movie, I'd seen a T-Shirt of it on Fright Rags, and knew little beyond that. I'm always interested in seeing old slashers that never got the sequels or infamy that the likes of Jason, Freddy or Michael got. So for being an old slasher I was glad for that alone to tick it off.

V/H/S/2 (2013)

I liked the first one and I really liked this one too. Sure some parts look so bad, like amateurs with camcorders bad but as a whole I like the anthology concept which hasn't seen the light of popularity in forever and if you are not enjoying one segment, don't worry another will be up in a few.

First up is "Phase I Clinical Trials" which is creepy but not creepy enough once they show you way too much but good use of an eye-camera I guess?

I think I liked the "A Ride in the Park" segment the best, because of my love of zombies. I liked the way that was filmed with the dudes helmet cam, and so we get to see part of the segment from the zombies perspective.

"Slumber Party Alien Abduction" was cool if a tad obvious in their alien design, maybe coulda came up with something original but still that poor dog.

"Safe Haven" was a whole load of awesome, and what-the-fuck!?! I'd recommend watching that segment alone if you're determined to skip the rest of the movie, not my favourite but perhaps the best.

Y'know even if you were a hater of the first one, just skip to the segments to give them a go in this one, the wrap around story is bad so FFW'd that if ya like but watch the end of it, that's kinda ok.



So I'm gonna try a week of it, movies I've never seen. So far I've got lined up... thanks to Brandon "Something Wicked This Way Comes", which I've wanted to see since I saw Reece Sheersmith mention it on some TV show... maybe one of those countdown 100 Best shows, I'm not sure since Mark Gatiss has done a few horror specials for BBC4 maybe it crept up amongst one of those. I remember Reece saying that he took inspiration for the circus coming to town in "The League of Gentlemen" with Papa Lazarou.

"Eyes Without a Face", always knew the poster and that it was "good" but never got my arse round to seeing it, oh but that will change... I hope.

I'm also gonna get my ass to see John Carpenters "In the Mouth of Madness". It crept up on some horror list, perhaps on BloodyDisgusting of "how many of these horror movies have you seen equals how much of a horror fan you are" and this was one of the few I hadn't seen. Again I've known of it since I was young but it never became a rental. Let's add "Lifeforce" to the list of movies from horror directors I've never seen too.

I also also want to see "Ice Cream Man", another poster I remember but my mother wouldn't let me rent it, and we rented lots of horrors... heck mostly horrors in my youth but she thought it looked bad, and yeah it does but I like bad. So I'm gonna get my ass to see that in the next few days too. And yes I use that tagline any time I have Ice Cream "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" with friends, even though I've never seen the movie... shame on me. But more seriously, look at that poster, doesn't that scream awesome bad movie...? Well I hope so.

Oh and 'The Conjuring' came out this weekend here so I've got to go see that, really rather excited about that one.

What is on your own personal list of shame? Be it big block busters or genre obscurities that you know you should watch but somehow have managed to put off all your life... and any recommendations for me that I have to see, bring them forth and I will watch.




Hasta Luego
@Fake_Shemp