Movies

Dec 3 2012

The Cabin In the Woods

Directed and co-written by Drew Goddard and co-written and produced by Joss Whedon The Cabin In The Woods is a 2012 horror movie starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse Williams. Coming from the team behind both Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel series, you expect a good plot and yes you do get one here. However the movie does not deliver all that I had hoped it would be. There seems to be a big thrill factor missing in the movie, despite the relatively good acting, awesome special effects and production and the plot. Yes it did get mostly positive reviews and I do like it but they could have done a lot more with it.

Here are my points on the film:

• The movie starts off with a well worn out initial plot line; 5 college friends getting together to go spend a couple of days far away from the city in a cabin deep in the woods where there are supposedly no other people, no cell phone reception, no signal of any kind and nothing else that reminds you of civilization. This is exactly the kind of place where something scary happens and usually it ends with everyone getting  killed. How many such places do you think exist in the US (although the movie itself was shot in Canada)?
• However the difference here is a large government or secret organization has set up the entire place with video cameras and even use control the environment the group are in from afar and give them mood-altering drugs to manipulate them into following a scenario. The drugs gradually reduce the group’s intelligence and awareness, and also increase their libido. They even spray pheromones to get the blonde chick sexually stimulated in an effort to make her have sex with her boyfriend! How twisted is that?
• So the kids settle in and while partying they find that there is a cellar with lots of stuff that belonged to the previous owners. They inadvertently read a Latin phrase that “triggers” the zombie family of the Buckners, “let loose by the technicians who are watching from their office. The blond chick is the first to die, while she is making out with her boyfriend Curt and although Curt is injured he manages to run back to the cabin to warn the others. But the zombies have already attacked the cabin.
• Marty the pot smoker finds a camera hidden and thinks that they are a victim of a reality tv show. The technicians try to spray him with a mist that will make him forget that he has seen it but his consumption of marijuana makes him immune. So they get a zombie to break a window and drag him away into a pit. Marty manages to get the better of the zombie and stumbles upon a hidden platform that leads onto an elevator to the building below them.
• The other three, Curt, Dana & Holden try to escape in their RV but the technicians collapse a tunnel and block their path. Curt tries to uses his bike to ride & jump over the ravine but he crashes into a force field and falls to his death. Although shocked, Dana & Holden are now sure that there is a manipulation at work and try to find another way but a zombie kills Holden and crashes the RV. Dana manages to swim to the pier but is caught by the zombie who beats her up and is about to kill her when Marty appears and saves her. Watching the technicians celebrating at having completed their “scenario” is weird – them having drinks and food while on a huge screen the zombie beats up Dana is dark comedy at it’s best!
• Marty and Dana take the elevator down to the lower levels of the facility, passing a variety of imprisoned monsters. They understand that the items in the cellar determine which monster will be released. Scared and angry they are held at gunpoint by a soldier but he is distracted by the still moving decapitated zombie’s hand and they get his rifle and go inside. A security team then corners her and Marty, but she uses a control station to release the monsters, which massacre the facility staff – awesome scenes with all kinds of monsters running havoc! Marty & Dana go to the last level of the facility where they find  a temple adorned with large stone tablets. And they meet the director!
• The Director – a cameo by Sigourney Weaver – explains that all this and what the kids have been through is to appease the “Ancient Ones” — beings who live beneath the facility and are kept in perpetual slumber through an annual, ritual sacrifice of five young people who embody certain archetypes: the Whore (Jules), the Athlete (Curt), the Scholar (Holden), the Fool (Marty), and the Virgin (Dana). The order in which they die does not matter, as long as the virgin is last, and her death is optional, as long as she suffers. Should the Ancient Ones awake, they will destroy the world. The Director reveals that rituals around the world have been taking place for the same purpose, but each of them failed. The Director urges Dana to kill Marty to complete the ritual. Dana draws a gun on Marty, but is attacked by a werewolf while the Director fights with Marty. The zombie girl comes and attacks the Director and Marty pushes them both in the Ancient Ones’ pit.
• Marty & Dana resign themselves to their fate, while Marty forgives her for almost shooting him. As the movie ends the  pair accepts that it might be better for another species to take humanity’s place if this is the price of its continued existence. Marty and Dana light a joint and hold hands as the gigantic hand of an Ancient One rises up, destroying the facility and the cabin.
• Happy to see Amy Acker (Fred from Angel) & Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells from Buffy/Angel) in small roles. Also Patrick Gilmore & Peter Kelamis from SGU are also in it for a minute. Good to see them.

Like the plot? I did but I just felt that I wanted a lot more from the movie. Still I liked it and will give it an 8 outta 10!

By Roshan • Horror, Movies • 1

Dec 1 2012

Dracula Has Risen From The Grave

At the end of the last movie, Dracula’s body is trapped under the frozen lake and presumed to be dead. In Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, a 1968 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis for Hammer Films starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, with support from Rupert Davies, Veronica Carlson, Barry Andrews, Barbara Ewing, Ewan Hooper and Michael Ripper, we start of with a prologue that shows a young alterboy getting a shock on finding a corpse of a young woman crammed inside the church’s bell with two bloody punctured holes in her neck – presumably a victim of Dracula. A year later a Monsignor comes to the town to find the now mute altar boy, the villagers who refuse to attend mass at church because “the shadow of Dracula’s castle touches it” and a priest who has lost his faith. The Monsignor chastises the priest and takes him on a trip to the castle. The priest is unable to go further and stops on the way while the monsignor exorcises the castle, attaching a large metal cross to its gate. As a huge storm strikes, the priest falls and is knocked out, cutting his head on rock. His blood trickles into a frozen stream; through a crack in the melting ice it trickles on to the lips of the preserved body of Count Dracula and brings it to life.

Believing that the priest has gone back home safely, the monsignor goes back to the town and reassures the villages and goes back to his own city of Kleinenberg. Dracula has now got the priest under his control and is furious to find that he is unable to go to his own castle and seeks revenge on the monsignor. So he takes the priest and goes to Kleinenberg and in search of his next victim – the monsignor’s beautiful niece Maria. At a bar & bakery where Maria’s boyfriend Paul works, the priest seeks a room. Paul goes with Maria to meet her mother and uncle, the monsignor for dinner on Maria’s birthday. However the monsignor takes offense at the fact that Paul is an atheist. An upset Paul goes back to the bar and gets drunk and Zena the tavern girl tries to take advantage of him until Maria sneaks in to meet him. As Zena leaves to go home, she falls prey to Dracula who feeds on her. The Count tries to use Zena to get Maria to him but Paul intervenes and chases Zena away.

Dracula kills Zena in anger and has the priest burn  her body, denying her life as a vampire. Dracula then visits Maria while she sleeps and feeds on her. The monsignor sees the signs of impending vampirism in his niece and decides to chase Dracula but is knocked down. In his dying state he recruits Paul to help, who unwittingly gets the priest to help him. unable to break free from Dracula’s influence, tries to attack Paul. Paul forces the Priest to lead him to Dracula’s lair beyond the tavern bakery. They stake Dracula through the heart; the faithless Priest and the atheist Paul cannot complete the rite and Dracula removes the stake himself. He draws Maria to him on the rooftop, and they are pursued by Paul and the Priest. At his castle Dracula makes Maria remove the metal cross and she flings it clumsily onto the ravine below. Paul arrives to face off with the count and during the struggle Dracula falls onto the lands on his back, impaled on the cross, bleeding and then dissolving to dust. Seeing this Paul crosses himself, no longer an atheist and returns to christianity.

Ofcourse you know what I think of that (utter bullshit) but the rest of the movie is ok. Not great but once again the gothic stylings make the movie watchable with two real sultry beauties in Carlson & Ewing. 6.5 out of 10!

By Roshan • Horror, Movies • 0

Nov 28 2012

Dracula : Prince Of Darkness

Dracula : Prince Of Darkness is the second sequel to 1958′s Dracula or Horror Of Dracula. Makes me think these guys should have been more careful when naming the films. The 1966 film sees Christopher Lee returns as the Count and once again it’s helmed by director Terence Fisher for Hammer Studios. However we do not have Peter Cushing returning as Van Helsing. Hammer’s scream queen Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Francis Matthews, Suzan Farmer & Charles Tingwell costar in the film.

The movie starts off with a reminder of how Van Helsing killed Dracula by forcing him into the sun’s rays. All that is left of the Count are his ashes and his ring. 10 years later four English tourists, the Kents, are warned to not go near the castle by Father Sandor – who has just returned from stopping some locals from staking a dead young girl on the fear that she was a vampire. The Kents head on to Carlsbad but are dumped in fear by their coachman right near the castle, as it is almost dark. A driverless horse carriage approaches them and leads them to the castle, where they find a dinner table set for them. A butler, Klove, explains that his master, the late Count Dracula, ordered that the castle should always be ready to welcome strangers. After dinner the Kents settle in their rooms.

In the night, seeing Klove dragging a coffin, Alan decides to investigate and follows him, only to be killed. Alan’s blood  is drained into the coffin holding Dracula’s ashes and the vampire lord is resurrected. Klove entices Alan’s wife Helen to the crypt where she becomes Dracula’s first victim. The next morning Alan’s younger brother Charles & his young bride Diana can’t find Alan or Helen and to pacify a frightened Diana, Charles takes her to a hut outside the castle and returns to search for his brother & sister-in-law. Klove approaches Diana and tricks her into following him back to the castle; only it is Helen, now a vampire, that awaits her. She is stopped from biting Diana but an enraged Dracula who wants the young Diana for himself. Menwhile, Charles finds his dismembered brother’s remains and distraught, he walks in to find Dracula about to bite his wife. Charles fights with Dracula but is no match until he sees that Helen has been burnt by Diana’s cross. Charles uses a makeshift cross to ward off Dracula and takes Diana away with him.

They escape the castle in a carriage, but lose control on the steep roads. The carriage crashes and Diana is unconscious. Charles carries her for several hours through the woods until they are rescued by Father Sandor, who takes them to his abbey. While waiting for Diana to awaken, Sandor tells Charles about Dracula. Klove later arrives at the abbey, carrying two coffins with Dracula & Helen in them and is refuses entry by the monks. However Ludwig, a patient at the abbey, who is controlled by Dracula and invites the vampire inside. Helen convinces Diana to open the window for her, claiming that Dracula is controlling her. Diana does, and Helen bites her arm only for Dracula to drag Helen. Charles bursts into the room and drives the vampires out while Sandor sterilises the bite on Helen with the heat from an oil lamp. Helen is captured and staked by Charles but Ludwig again helps Dracula to get to Helen and the Count is able to escape with her in the carriage.

Charles & Sandor follow him to the castle and kill Klove with a shot and Dracula’s coffin is thrown onto the icy moat and Charles attempts to stake the vampire but is beaten back. Shots fired by Sandor break the ice and the vampire sinks into the freezing waters as the movie ends. 6.5 outta 10 for me! Dracula never talks in this movie, just hisses and groans.

By Roshan • Horror, Movies • 0

Nov 25 2012

The Brides Of Dracula

The Brides Of Dracula (1960) comes as a sequel to the 1958 Hammer Horror classic The Horror Of Dracula. Directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Peter Cushing as Van Helsing; Yvonne Monlaur as Marianne Danielle; Andrée Melly as her roommate, Gina; Marie Devereux; David Peel as Baron Meinster, a disciple of Count Dracula; and Martita Hunt as his mother. I honestly do not know why this movie was called “The Brides Of Dracula” and given the tag line “the most evil, blood-lusting Dracula of all” – Dracula doesn’t even feature in this movie at all! He is mentioned twice in the movie and that’s it! And the women aren’t his brides either – they aren’t anyone’s brides.

The movie starts off a while after Dracula’s death in the first movie. Marianne Danielle, a young French teacher from Paris on her way to a school in Transylvania is abandoned in a small village by her coach driver. At an in she meets Baroness Meinster and despite warnings of the inn keepers, she accepts her invitation to stay at her castle. There at night, Marianne see the young Baron who is tied at the ankle with an iron chain – she is told that the Baroness’s son is insane and is kept tied for his own safety. However later she sneaks past to meet him and he convinces her that he is sane and kept locked up as his mother wanted to usurp his lands. Marianne helps him break free and the Baron intimidates his mother to submission. Later, the servant Greta (who has taken care of the Baron since he was a baby) goes into hysterics. She forces Marianne to look at the Baroness’ body, and the puncture marks in her throat. Marianne flees into the night. She is found, exhausted, by Dr. Van Helsing the following morning. She doesn’t remember all that has happened, nor is she familiar when asked with the words “undead” or “vampirism.” He escorts her to the school where she’s to be employed.

Van Helsing goes back to the village and finds a young girl that has been murdered; it is the Baron who has feed on her. The local priest Father Stepnik has suspicions about the castle and the Baroness and her son and had called Van Helsing to the village. That night, Baron Meinster’s first victim rises from her grave, aided by Greta, as witnessed by Van Helsing and the priest. The newly vampirized village girl flees while Greta tries to hold off the two men. Van Helsing goes to the castle and discovers the Baroness, now risen as a vampire herself, as well as the Baron. After a brief scuffle, the Baron flees, abandoning his mother who, in her undead state, is full of self-loathing and guilt. After sunrise the next morning, Van Helsing “releases” her with a wooden stake. The Baron meanwhile goes to see Marianne at the school house and asks her to marry him, which she agrees to. Her jealous roommate however becomes the next victim, when she is visited by the Baron who bites her and turns her into a vampire.

Gina’s coffin is kept in a stable and she wakes up (after the locks on the coffin, kept there at Van Helsing’s requests, falls off as if by magic) and tries to seduce Marianne, while a vampire bat kills the stablekeeper who was outside the stable at the time. As Gina tells Marianne that they can both love the Baron, Van Helsing comes in and saves Marianne from being bitten by Gina. Finding out that the Baron is in an old wind mill, he rushes to confront the vampire. Van Helsing is attacked by Gina and the village girl but are repelled by his cross; however Greta who is still human jumps him and takes the cross away. She however falls down and dies (in a bizarre for no reason scene) and Van Helsing comes down. The Baron then attacks him  subdue Van Helsing and bites him, inflicting him with vampirism before leaving. When Van Helsing wakes, he realizes what has happened. He heats a metal tool in a brazier until it is red-hot, then cauterizes his throat wound and pours holy water on it to purify it; the wounds immediately disappear – all the while being watched by the two brides, the female vampires – why the heck did they not attack him??? Anyways, Baron Meinster brings Marianne to the mill and tells Van Helsing that he is going to turn her into a vampire.Van Helsing however uses his flask of holy water and throws holy water into the Baron’s face, which sears him like acid. The Baron knocks down hot burning coals as he heads outside, which causes a fire in the old mill and presumably the two female vampires are killed in it. While the Baron flees outside, Van Helsing takes Marianne up into the mill, then out via the huge sails, which he moves to form the shadow a gigantic cross. The shadows falls on Baron Meinster, who is killed by it. Helsing goes to ground level to make sure he’s dead then comforts Marianne as the mill burns. Meinster’s vampire brides (presumably) die in the fire.

I like the look of the film and some of it is quite good. However there are some totally derived moments like the death scene, the bad acting from the school mistress and the stupid death of Greta. Even Cushing falls and fights with the Baron in a funny manner. Still 7 outta 10!

By Roshan • Horror, Movies • 0

Nov 8 2012

3 Dracula Movies

Fascinated to the point of adulation & devotion of millions, Dracula has always been a beloved character of the masses. I’m guessing that he is the one fictional character who has been portrayed the most all over the world – in tv, movies & stages. There is no more alluring or dangerous character than he. I checked out 3 movies – in different decades – which tell his story based on the original book by Bram Stoker.

Dracula (1931) the Universal classic black n white film directed by Tod Browning and starred the legendary Bela Lugosi as the famous count. Renfiled goes to Castle Dracula on a business matter to discuss the count’s decision to lease Carfax Abbey in London. After the deal is done Dracula feeds on Renfield and turns him into a raving lunatic who will do anything the master wishes. Together they travel to London on a ship, during which Dracula kills all the people. Renfield is the only person found alive and is sent to Dr. Seward’s sanitarium. Some nights later at a London theatre, Dracula meets Dr. Seward, who is with a group in a box seat area. Lucy who is Dr. Seward’s daughter Mina’s best friend is quite taken by the count and that night, after Lucy falls asleep in bed, Dracula enters her room as a bat and feasts on her blood. She dies in an autopsy theatre the next day after a string of transfusions, and two tiny marks on her throat are discovered.

Dr. Seward has Professor Abraham Van Helsing to assist in Renfield case and the latter suspects the work of a vampire. Dracula meanwhile has turned his attentions to Mina and visits her in her sleep. Later when Dracula visits with Dr. Seward and Mina, Van Helsing and Mina’s fiance Johnathon Harker notice that Dracula does not have a reflection in a mirror. When Van Helsing shows this “most amazing phenomenon” to Dracula, he reacts violently, smashes the mirror and leaves. Van Helsing deduces that Dracula is the vampire behind the recent tragedies. Lucy meanwhile has risen as a vampire and is attacking the local children. Van Helsing & Harker find Dracula trying to make off with Mina after they follow Renfiled to the abbey. When Harker shouts to Mina, Dracula sees them, thinking Renfield had led them there. He strangles Renfield and tosses him down a staircase, and is hunted by Van Helsing and Harker. Dracula is forced to sleep in his coffin, as sunrise has come, and is trapped. Van Helsing prepares a wooden stake while Harker searches for Mina. Dracula moans in pain when Van Helsing impales him, and Mina returns to normal.

In 1958 from Hammer Horror films comes Horror Of Dracula (name changed from just Dracula to avoid confusion with the 1931 movie) -  the story of Dracula is changed from the original play by Stoker. Johnathon Harker comes to Castle Dracula to meet the Count (played by Christopher Lee) posing as a librarian. However his intention is to kill the vampire. He meets the count and settled down but is startled by a female vampire who asks for his help. She tries to attack him but is yanked away by Dracula. Later Harker finds the two in their coffins and kills the woman but Dracula awakens and feeds on Harker and escapes. Harker’s friend Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) arrives at the castle and is horrified to see his friend  lying in a coffin as a vampire. He stakes him and then goes back to share the news with  Arthur Holmwood and his wife Mina, brother and sister-in-law of Harker’s fiancée Lucy. Unknown to them Lucy has already fallen prey to Dracula, who had seen her photo in Harker’s belongings.

After Mina dies, Van Helsing leads the doubting to find that Lucy has risen and they stop her from harming a small child. Van Helsing stakes her in her coffin. While they try and track Dracula, Mina is lured to the count by a fake message from her husband and he preys on her. Later when Arthur gives her a cross to wear, it burns her. Despite their best efforts to guard her Dracula escapes into the night with Mina. Arthur & Van Helsing chase them back to the castle where Dracula attempts to bury Mina alive outside the crypts but is caught by Van Helsing and Arthur. Inside the castle, Van Helsing and Dracula struggle. Van Helsing tears open the curtain to let in the sunlight and, forming a cross of candlesticks, he forces Dracula into it. Dracula crumbles into dust as Van Helsing looks on. Mina recovers, the cross-shaped scar fading from her hand as Dracula’s ashes blow away, leaving only a ring behind.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula, released in 1992 directed by Francis Ford Coppola, sees Gary Oldman play the Count as a more sympathetic & romantic figure and the origins are closer to the inspiration for Stoker’s character – Prince Vlad the impaler. Newly-qualified solicitor Jonathan Harker (Keeanu Reeves) travels to Transylvania to meet the Count to finalize the deal of Carfax Abbey. Seeing a picture of Harker’s finance Mina reminds Dracula of his long dead wife Elizzabeta and he decides that he must have her. Dracula leaves Jonathan to be seduced by his brides and sails to England with boxes of his native soil, taking up residence at Carfax Abbey. In the form of a wolf like creature, Dracula seduces and rapes Lucy and her changing behaviour lead Dr. Seward to call Van Helsing in for a consultation. A youngish looking Dracula, in daylight, meets and charms Mina. However when Mina receives word from Jonathan, who has escaped the castle and recovered at a convent, she travels to Romania to marry him. In his fury, Dracula transforms Lucy into a vampire. Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward and Morris kill Lucy.

Later when he meets Mina again, Dracula begins transforming her into a vampire. With Van Helsing, Mina travels to the castle while the rest chase the count’s coffin being transported by Gypsies. The Brides try to get Mina to seduce Van Helsing but he refutes her and later kills the 3 brides in the castle. The gypsies are killed by the hunters and Harker slits Dracula’s throat. As Dracula staggers, Mina rushes to his defense. Holmwood tries to attack but Van Helsing and Harker allow her to retreat with the Count.  Dracula lies dying in an ancient demonic form. He asks Mina to give him peace. They share a kiss as the candles adorning the chapel light up, and Mina shoves the knife through Dracula’s heart. The mark on her forehead disappears as Dracula’s curse is lifted.

So there you have it, 3 films made in 1931, 1958 & 1992 and with different stories based on the book. While Dracula is mostly portrayed as evil in the first two, the1958 Dracula is more like a man who just happens to have a blood thirst, ofcourse but is also susceptible to the cross and sunlight. Gary Oldman’s Dracula is the ultimate tragic lover and more fleshed out character than the other two and hence has more depth and is sympathetic.

By Roshan • Horror, Movies • 0

Nov 4 2012

A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

Although I am aware of the movie franchise, from back when I was 13-14, I had only watched the original A Nightmare On Elm Street and the crossover with the Friday The 13th franchise, Freddy vs Jason. I hadn’t seen any of the sequels as of yet and although I like Robert Englund a lot (been a fan of his since his appearance as “Willy” in the scifi tv series V from 1983-84) it wasn’t something high up on my list to watch. However this afternoon I sat down to watch the reboot or remake from 2010 A Nightmare On Elm Street directed by Samuel Bayer, and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. And yeah – produced by Michael Bay!!! Sheesh, anyway let’s take a look at the movie and what I thought of it.

The movie is ofcourse a combination of slasher with supernatural elements. The film stars Jackie Earle Haley (as Freddie), Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker and Kellan Lutz. The movie starts off with Dean, a high school student, falling asleep and in his dreams he is attacked by Freddie Kruger. In front of his girlfriend Kris & also watched by fellow student Nancy, he falls asleep and cuts his own throat with a knife, although in his dream his throat is cut by Freddie. Freddie is depicted as a burned & disfigured man in a fedora and a metal clawed right hand. After the funeral Kris begins to have dreams of the same man and can’t go back to sleep. She falls asleep in class and he torments her, making her scream. That night her ex-boyfriend Jesse comes to keep her company as she is alone but Kris is murdered in her sleep, being dragged to the ceiling in reality and slashed by an unseen force.

Jesse is confronted by the cops and arrested for her murder as he runs away from the scene and is killed by Krueger when he falls asleep in his jail cell. Nancy begins to suspect a connection as her friends keep getting murdered one by one. She & her friend Quentin dig into records and discover that all her friends and her had attended the same preschool as kids, although none of them can remember meeting each other before teenagehood. Nancy’s mother, Gwen (Connie Britton), reluctantly tells Nancy and Quentin that there was a gardener at the preschool, Fred Krueger, who abused Nancy and the rest of the kids. Gwen explains that Nancy was his favorite, and that she came home one day telling her mother about a hidden space in Krueger’s room and the things he did to her there. Gwen claims Krueger skipped town before he was arrested. Nancy & Quentin do not believe that he escaped and begins to track down the rest of the kids in the preschool only to find out that all of them are dead, and most died in their sleep.

Meanwhile, Quentin tries to accept that his nightmares are nothing more than repressed memories, but he falls asleep during swim practice and witnesses what really happened to Krueger. In his dream he sees Freddie running away, being chased by the parents of all the kids and then burned in a building he tried to hide away in. Nancy & Quentin confront the latter’s father Alan about killing Freddie without real evidence that he has molested the kids and that Freddie is killing the kids now as revenge. Nancy and Quentin eventually make it to the preschool uncovers Krueger’s hidden room and the evidence that proves Krueger was in fact abusing all of the children; they realize that Krueger actually wants revenge on them for telling the truth. Nancy falls asleep and is attacked by Freddie and Quentin uses adrenaline to wake Nancy up and pull Freddie into reality with her. With Krueger distracted by Quentin, Nancy uses a broken paper cutter blade to cut Krueger’s gloved hand off, and then slice his throat. Afterward, Nancy torches the secret room, with Krueger’s body left inside, while she and Quentin leave. Nancy and her mother return home from the hospital; Krueger suddenly appears in a mirror’s reflection and kills Nancy’s mother before pulling her body through the mirror while Nancy screams.

I’m not really sure why we needed the reboot when all fans love the original so much. I thought it was just Bay being Bay and creating a movie with several ideas from each of the original and it’s sequels. 7 out of 10!

By Roshan • Horror, Movies • 0

Nov 2 2012

The Amityville Horror (2005)

The Amityville Horror – this is a remake of the 1977 book which was ostensibly inspired by a real life mass murder in Long Island, New York. A movie was made in 1979, which is still one of my family’s favourite horror movies, although I can’t remember seeing it. And I didn’t know much about the story either, so that left me as a newbie to the movie. It stars Ryan Reynolds as George Lutz and Melissa George as Kathy Lutz. The couple, along with their three children, move into what they believe will be their dream home; unaware that it previously belonged to the DeFeo family, and that Ronald DeFeo, Jr. had murdered his parents and siblings with a rifle the year before. DeFeo had claimed it was the “voices” that caused him to do it.

It doesn’t take long for the Lutz family to start hearing ghostly voices, and witnessing apparitions, including the ghost of Jodie DeFeo, who appears to little Chelsea as a friend. George is the most affected, and he eventually becomes a danger to those around him. In the true story (at least, some believe it to be true) that inspired “The Amityville Horror,” George Lutz woke up demonized every night at 3:15 a.m., the exact time a boy living in his house a year earlier killed his family The local priest is called in to bless the house, and he fails, warning Kathy to leave the house before it’s too late.

There are some creepy moments in the film, which dissapoints because it ends so quickly and without proper closure as such. There were so many angles that the movie makers could have tried, in order to really make this an excellent movie. I read that this version is more true to the book by Jay Anson and not the original movie of 1979. Hence people who saw & liked the first movie may have reservations after seeing the 2005 version. The kids in the movie do a terrific job, Melissa George plays a convincing young mother torn between protecting & raising her three kids and the love she has for her new husband.

But the top marks for the movie should go to Ryan Reynolds, who plays a good disturbed character. Reynolds uptil then know more for his goofy characters and his funny roles like “Michael Bergin” in the sitcom series Two Guys & A Girl and as “Van Wilder” in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder. A guy who went for a total change over from a comic actor who normally makes us laugh and wince to hilarious & disgusting antics like farting & stuff, stuns in a total makeover role for him. I give the movie a 7 outta 10!

By Roshan • Horror, Movies • 1