Tegan & Sara perform Living Room @ the Moog Sound Lab. The song is about looking across your windows and seeing an abused woman in the next building.
Day: February 11, 2012
Fright Night (2011 Remake)
I have seen the original Fright Night, which I consider to be a horror movie classic, many times during my teenage years, I was curious as to how they were going to do this remake. I first heard that there was a remake coming early last year and decided to check out the trailer on Youtube, well before the movie was released. And I almost didn’t decide to watch this movie because of one little fact – I cannot stand Collin Farrell! He annoys me 100% and I usually avoid his movies and hate when I have to suffer him in a film, like Horrible Bosses & this one as the other actors & storyline are worth it.
So Fright Night 2011 the remake, who’s in it, what do we get & how does it fare? Well other than the Farrell, we have Anton Yelchin (Chekov from the 2009 version of Star Trek), Imogen Potts, Toni Collette, David Tennent & Christopher Mintz-Plasse. The cast is good but are they good enough to offer a fresh look on a movie that is beloved & tried & tested? Directed by Craig Gillespie, we have the screenplay worked on by Marti Noxon from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Is that enough?
- Colin Farrell is the most unlikeliest of scary vampires. Atleast we have vampires being scary instead of sparkly once again. But he isn’t smooth enough to pull it off. He is annoying. And from when did vampires start eating a bunch of apples? Jerry the vampire!
- Anton Yelchin is someone I like a lot having seen him in 4 movies now. He does a good job, as usual, as Charlie Brewster – the high school kid who battles the powerful vampire. The former nerd turned cool kid angle is thrown into for good measure.
- Imogen Poots plays the hot, sexy girlfriend Amy who gets involved in the battle between Charlie & Jerry and she is not one to shy away. She gives as good as she gets until Jerry captures her and turns her briefly into a vampire moll. Charlie has to rescue her and needs help.
- Which brings us to this guy – David Tennant. I haven never seen him in anything before but came to know that he plays the 10th Doctor Who (I have never seen the tv series before but I am aware of it). Tennant almost steals the show with his performance of Peter Vincent as a Criss Angel spoof magician and vampire expert. He is initially scared off when Charlie’s friend Ed, who was turned into a vampire, comes crashing into his apartment and attacks Vincent, Charlie & Amy. That scene is one highlight of the film.
- Toni Collette – she disappears after she, Charlie & Amy escape from Jerry’s attack and there’s a bunch of stuff that happens after that. Toni plays Charlie’s mom, Jane, a sexy & flirtatious single woman. She is the one who initially injures Jerry by putting a real estate sign stake into Jerry. She then faints from a head injury sustained in the crash and is taken to hospital. Jerry survives the staking attempt, crawling around in a painful screech while looking half man, half monster. Shame that Jane doesn’t play a part in the movie after that, a shame since I love Collette.
I think it was interesting and worth an effort but I don’t think it worked. The characters aren’t really fleshed out and given much to work with, with the sole exception of Tennant who really brings his role to life. I’d watch it again probably but the original is still better. 6 out of 10!
The River : Ep2 “Marbeley”
Holy crap! I love this show! Watching episode 2 of the new series The River at night was awesome, it did give me the creeps! Fucking awesome, we all need a good scare like this without gore & blood.
Our crew trudge on in The Mabus and look through the backup of recordings for clues to Emmett’s whereabouts. Lena hits on the idea that a bite infection that Emmett had mention to her before his disappearance would be key – they look for the bite in the tapes and as the infection grows that must be the later videos. They find a destination in the forest and decide to leave the next morning to search around for any signs of Emmett. That night a dragonfly containing the spirit of Emmett, through some means of the black magic he has been experimenting with, comes to the boat and enters the mouth of Jahel while she is sleeping. She immediately awakes and goes to Tess and starts talking to her in a deeper voice & in English (which Jahel doesn’t speak). Emmett through Jahel tells Tess to abandon the search and to leave the Amazon and go back. Tess disagrees and while asking more questions, Jahel falls into unconsciousness.
The others decides to leave Jahel in the care of her father Emilio and head out to the forest. And that’s when the fun starts. As they walk through the thick forest, they find a grave site with the buried remains of a few people who had come here before. Then they see a figure lying among some fallen trees and the sound of a little girl sobbing sadly. Tess approaches the figure thinking that to be a little girl and asks her in the native tongue is she is lost and where her mother is. As the camera pans closer we first see a face and hair of a small child, but as it turns it turns out to be a monkey that was wearing the mask of a girl’s face! When it turns and we see that the face is that of a doll and the monkey shrieks – holy fuck!
That was enough to make me sit up and press rewind (I’m downloading the series) and watch it 2 more times! Stunned & a bit creeped out, the team move on and find a site with a ton of baby dolls & other toys tied to a couple trees, looking creepier than hell. This shakes the team but one of them tells of a legend in this area of a small girl who drowned in a nearby pool of water while her mother was busy. It seems that the spirit/ghost of the little girl haunts the area and she is crying for her mother. The dolls are tied to the trees by people as a tribute to her and to appease her spirit. As it is late the team pitch their tents and try to get some sleep. They fix cameras on the trees to capture themselves settling down for the evening & sleeping. A creepy doll is caught turning it’s head to get a good look at the people in the tents. At night after some wind picks up, Lincoln is dragged out of his tent by an unseen force. They decide to leave the camp and go back to the boat only the spirit has other ideas. Lincoln is told to keep a bear that he found, Marberley which was his as a child and which Emmett possibly tied to the tree, back in the tree.
Lincoln grudgingly does so but it falls down twice. A third time later many dolls come falling down and the team runs away but Tess is missing. They search for her and find her being dragged by something into a dirty pool of water. When they jump in and can’t find her the only option they can think of is to find the little girl’s mother’s grave, which is nearby, dig up her bones and place her skeleton in the pool. The skeleton sinks down and a few seconds later, a dirty & disheveled Tess climbs out – from the grave the skeleton was dug out from. She is taken back to the boat where Jahel has also recovered. The team moves on.
Absolutely awesome & creepy, without lots of blood & gore. The River has a lot going for it. Its central premise is strong and there are plenty of opportunities for thrills, both mystical and mundane. Good acting as well. Whew! can’t wait for the next episode although it stinks that they only have 8 for the first season. Or is it a one season thingy? I don’t know but I will follow the show and keep updates here.