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When watching The Descent 2 you’ll probably fit into three camps.  One will be the people who watched the first movie and want to know how it continues and HOW it could continue.  Second will be people who have seen the first movie and hope for a movie just as good as the original and if it’s not? Well you’ll just hate it because it’s not the original.  The third will be people who have never seen the first and just want a good horror movie.  The question is going to be who out of the three groups will like this movie?

The movie starts straight from where the first left off.  We learn that some women are trapped in the caves and people are now looking for them.  Turns out they are looking for them in the wrong place because (as the people who saw the original know) the “flight plan” that was given is wrong.  One of the women who went missing suddenly appears miles away and a team of rescuers are called in to go into the caves where they actually are and see what happened to them.  Oh yeah, they decide to drag the survivor along for the ride.  As they get deeper into the caves they find themselves attacked by the same creatures as the original party were, but this time (in a small space of time) they’ve evolved to be tougher and meaner.  Not that that makes sense of course.

As with the first movie we have few characters to work with and the actors do the best with what they’ve got.  Shame is, there is very little characterisation as this seems to have been sacrificed to get straight to the action.  This of course is not a bad thing, but it would have been good to learn more about the characters as this is one of the strengths of the original.  The two characters from the original (Sarah and Juno) are not surprisingly the stronger of the characters and it is nice to see the continuing story between them and how it concludes.

I started by saying this movie was aimed at three groups and arguably I think it will be liked by 2 of them (people who have seen the first and want to see the continuation of the story and people who have never seen the first).  The third group may like it but when you compare the original with this the original is a better and a stronger movie.

The big difference between the two movies is that the second is made to be a much more fun one.  This leads to it having a different tone and one some may not like.  The gore is also upped to add to the fun which also adds to the difference between the two as in this it’s much more cartoonish and visceral gore where in the original it was harsher and more realistic to keep to the harsh tone.

I’ve talked to quite a few horror fans who don’t like this movie (probably because it can’t live up to the original) but I for one liked it.  Sure it’s more cartoonish in portrayal of the violence on the screen but it’s entertaining and in a genre full of remakes it’s good to see a movie that doesn’t tread old ground but extends a story that many wanted to see.

rating 7/10

Let’s start by saying New Moon is not a movie aimed at me, I’m not a teenage girl.  Then of course I have to answer the question “then why review it?” the answer is simple really, because modern culture pushes it into the genre of horror and I review horror movies.  Oh yeah, it’s got werewolves and vampires in it.

When the movie starts it’s pretty much made it’s mind up that you’ve seen the first movie.  If you’ve not then you’ll be totally lost.  Bella is happy with Edward and everything is sparkly cool, in a miserable kind of way, could Edward ever be happy? Nah, it’s impossible.  Everything goes wrong when Bella gets a papercut and sends one of the vampires into a blood frenzy (a scene filled with over acting and cheesiness).  With this BIG drama Edward and his family decide they have to run away from Bella and that she’ll never see them again.

So what does Bella do? Well other than screaming all the time and acting even more miserable than she ever could she falls into the arms of Jacob who just turns out to be a werewolf (big fluffy CGI werewolf…I’m sure you can see my love of them).  Along with his “cocky” pack they defend their territory from the mean evil vampires (who Bella seems to think are not monsters at all but happy people who glitter in the sun and never kill people).  Bella proceeds to tease Jacob to within an inch of the poor guys life while all the time pining for her pale faced glitter wearing vampire.  As Bella fights to get glimpses of Edward she finds she must also contend with vampires from the past who for some reason seem to have a problem with Bella…oh the drama.

So, let’s start on the plus points of this movie.  The first thing I’d say the direction is hugely improved.  Gone is the motion sickness inducing sweeping shots of the first movie to be replaced by atmospheric scenes created by a director who finally seems to know what they are doing.  The second plus point? Kristen Stewart’s performance is actually quite tolerable in this movie.  She’s not a bad actress really, but she has to work with what she’s given and the problem is what she’s given is bad.

Now I’m past the good points let’s get to the bad.  The storyline for this movie is quite honestly terrible.  It’s so simplistic that you have to question why even bother using vampires and werewolves at all? Just call it One Tree Hill and add a few more storylines in there and you’d never know the difference, really.  If the “monsters” are being used to try make a unique story then it fails big time.  Also having a veiled attempt to turn this into some kind of Romeo and Juliet style story fails hugely as I’d argue the writer does not have the ability to handle the themes involved.

Other than Kristen Stewart and some of the older actors the rest of the cast are poor.  They are so wooden that they are lucky the watcher can tell the difference between the trees and the actors.  Again this could be down to what they have to work with, most of the script seems to ask for the character to be moody, or angry or a domineering asshole who thinks he has the right to control women.

So, did I like the movie? I’d say it’s watchable and probably little teen girls who watch it won’t give a shit about the storyline just which “hot” guy takes his shirt off next.  Of course nobody seems to realise the whole homoerotic nature of a bunch of topless guys running through the trees together and letting their “inner beasts” out (how Freudian).

This movie is miserable.  Don’t bother watching it if you actually want to be in a good mood, this will ruin your day.  I don’t mean to be overly harsh on the movie but even in it’s happier moments it’s almost suicide inducing.  But it DOES have amusing moments (that aren’t meant to be), especially Edwards Cheshire cat moments where his bodiless head appears to “warn” Bella not to do something, or to remind her what she said she’d not do.  He’s the ultimate obsessive boyfriend but just in head form…oh and who has left her (it’s that stalker theme from the first movie again isn’t it?).

The whole male dominating women issue in this movie is something that probably bugged me the most.  The women seem to have to live in servitude of the men and do what they are told.  Bella WILL be Jacobs, Edward spends most of the movie appearing randomly to tell her what to do, way to show a strong woman in a book aimed at teens eh?  I think it gives them a bad message, Bella should be a stronger person and not allow herself to be controlled…but no, she’s bossed around by the “angry” werewolf and the “miserable” vampire…not stereotypes at all are they?

So I’ll end before my rants go on for the rest of the day.  So yes, watchable movie but don’t go if you want an actual good storyline.

Rating 4/10

Where have the days of the good old gothic horror movies gone? Whether it was Christopher Lee majestically stalking his prey as Dracula or Vincent Price being depressingly obsessed with death in a good old Edgar Allen Poe story such as the Fall of the House of Usher? Why do we have to modernise movies now and soften them so they can be sold to teens?

As a child growing up (and ironically part of this growing up was as a teenager) I remember being able to go to bed and turn on the TV and more often than not you could find a horror movie on.  This was the days of the VHS were you could record more than one of these movies on one tape and have a whole collection rather than just one DVD per movie.  I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen all Lee’s vampire movies and even the ones without him (my personal one without Lee of course being The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires).  We seem to lack the ability to make movies like that anymore.

I know it’s arguable that The Wolfman was a return to the gothic horror, but I’d counter argue that’s just a modern horror with an almost Photoshop style gothic world coloured over it.  You can take that movie and almost say “that’s out of American Werewolf in London” or “that almost feels like The Howling”, even though I did LIKE it, it felt like a facsimile of a true werewolf movie.  If you want a good gothic style werewolf movie hunt down The Curse of the Werewolf, another movie the Wolfman stole off.  Oliver Reed plays the tragic Lycanthropicly cursed character perfectly, but then again I doubt you could show me a bad Reed performance.

My point is we lack good old fashioned horror nowadays.  They don’t even show Hammer Horror movies on TV anymore which is a crime itself.  We have hundreds of channels on TV now, we even have horror channels so why can’t they show them? Look at Sci Fi (SyFy) now in the UK.  Almost every night they seem to reshow American Werewolf in London, it’s an awesome movie BUT why not replace repeats of movies with some classic horror? I bet it would be easy to really if they wanted to.

As much as I applaud the fact the Hammer Company is back making movies I find it a shame that they aren’t helping the cause of the old Hammer movies.  Clean them up, get them on Blu Ray! (if the new Hammer company have rights to the movies of course).  I know I for one would buy a Blu Ray collection of all the old movies, even if it did cost a lot.

The same goes for Roger Corman’s Poe movies with Vincent Price of course.  I would love Blu Ray releases of these movies so I could add them to my collection.  Even if it was just Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum and Masque of the Red Death they would take pride of place in my collection.  They were always my favourites and I miss that they’ve not been shown for years.

My guess is that the lowly horror geek who wants to see these movies shown again is a little spec of dust on the wave of the “WE WANT TWILIGHT” voices that seem to control horror now.  I’m just an old school fan who has to sit back and watch horror become all glittery and fluffy so that teens can be easily manipulated into buying into crap.  So yes, BRING BACK REAL HORROR! That’s what I say.

Deadline is one of the last of Britney Murphy’s movies before her untimely death and since I got hold of the movie I thought I may as well review it.  An interesting note was the DVD I have to review has Murphy laying in the bath looking dead so yeah, that’s kind of creepy (and I know they have changed the artwork now, I must have got a version made before the change).

Murphy plays Alice, a screenwriter who moves into an old spooky house to finish something she is working on.  I’m sure you’ll agree with me that that’s now a typical ghost story movie is it? (Sarcasm).  Hearing spooky sounds around the house she investigates, which results in her finding mini-dv tapes which tells the story of some previous inhabitants of the old house.  As she views the tapes and discovers more about the couple who lived there her sanity seems to decay as the couple’s relationship falls apart, and strangely relate to Alice’s own troubles in her life.

As this is a straight to DVD movie I did not have much hope for the acting ability but it does have a strong cast (or should).  Thora Birch, the wife in the video segments is notable for making the best of what story she has and creates a believable character.  Marc Blucas (Riley from Buffy) who plays the husband in the video segments also plays his character well.  The problem is that the story in the flashback videos is more interesting than what is happening to Alice.  Britney Murphy seems to be lacking something in this movie and that surprises me because in the past she has played good roles.  Girl, Interrupted and Sin City would be examples of two movies where she is far superior to in this movie.  The number of times she was meant to look shocked or scared and all her face could manage was vacant really annoyed me.  As wrong as it feels to complain about her so soon after her death, her acting in this movie was poor and with other factors weakened the rest of the movie really.

This movie is watchable at best.  It tries to be quite inventive by using the mini-dv tapes to sell the ghost story but even with that it becomes far too recognisable as the average typical story.  Even the twist at the end is predictable to anybody as this type of story is over used.  It’s understandable that this was released as straight to DVD as I’m not sure I’d want to pay to go see it or even buy the DVD (I rented it).  Looking for positives in this movie I think I would pick out Thora Birch’s acting and the setting.  Although there was a failure to make the movie feel creepy the house still had a feeling of feeling empty and lonely (even if it was far from lonely).  It’s just a shame that the story and acting in general could not make better use of what was given to them.  For Murphy I’d rather remember her in Girl, Interrupted which I think is one of her better roles.  If I had to pick a horror movie to remember her by it would Cherry Falls which was a surprisingly entertaining movie.

rating 4/10

Last night I watched a discussion on Twitter that all started from an article which was written about how most Werewolf movies suck:

http://www.horrorsquad.com/2010/02/12/heres-why-most-werewolf-movies-suck/

Now, a lot of the points that were raised I did actually agree with and some I didn’t, but I thought I’d have a look at the Werewolf myself and show my point of view on if they suck or not.

My viewpoint has always been that if a werewolf movie can come close to American Werewolf in London then it’s a good movie.  Have many done it? No, one I would argue that has is the Howling.  This came out in the same year and offered a different view of the Werewolf mythology.  For one the werewolves were more man than wolf and appeared to be more in control of their wolf side.  Most of the victims of the “curse” seemed to relish the chance to let their inner wolf out, hiding away in the countryside in their little community.  Of course the sequels coming from this movie were pretty abysmal.  Who can say they have watched the Howling 2 and not be shocked at how bad it was? Even Christopher Lee could not save that mess.

Another of course is The Wolfman, this movie is arguably the inspiration for the werewolf becoming a tragic character.  Lon Chaney Jr’s wolfman is a pitiful character who has no control over his transformation or the events that take place while he is in wolf form.  This is the classical view of the werewolf of course.  This is also where the character is seen as simplistic.

To say simplistic though is a mistake as a good writer could pull a lot of character development out of the “curse” that being a werewolf is.  Being Human (the popular UK TV series) is a good example of how to create the tragic character of the werewolf and really extend its character.  Not to spoil it too much for people who have not seen it yet in series 2 George the werewolf tries to control his transformations and actually manages to stop his changes.  This leads to his daytime life being affected by violent episodes.  It turns out the werewolf feels “cheated” out of his time at the full moon and wants out.  This to me adds interest in the werewolf as it becomes a character in itself, a lot like Hyde in Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde.  Although at the start of the movie Jeckyll changes himself on purpose into the monster, by the end of the movie he has no control over the transformations which is arguably a lot like the werewolf curse.  It is the loss of control of our “darker selves”.

The idea of the werewolf is that it is an uncontrollable beast that dwells within us and only escapes at the full moon.  Movies and TV shows have proven that (as with vampires) these rules can be bent slightly to fit a story that can be quite entertaining when needed to be.  The werewolf character is not just a 2D monster lacking anything other than violence.  It is an examination into our inner selves and what truly happens when one lets the darker side go.

So, are werewolves boring? I would argue no, BUT I don’t think many good movies can be pulled out of the legend.  As stated in the above article 1981 was almost a magical year for the werewolf and I doubt it could ever be topped.  There will be a slight rise in interest now that the remake of The Wolfman has been released and with Being Human doing interesting things I’m sure the interest will rise on if there can be another good Werewolf movie.  True Blood season 3 will be featuring werewolves (not just shape shifters but actual werewolves) and of course there is the dreaded remake of An American Werewolf in London.  Let’s just see where the werewolf is going to take us in the next few years.  If it’s in a Twilight route….then fuck it, I don’t want to see it.

Antichrist; if you’ve seen it you’ll know how “controversial” it is, if not then just search for it online and you’ll get an idea that the politically correct can’t handle a movie that’s more about imagery than it is about in your face dumbed down storytelling.

After the death of their child a man and his wife (they remain nameless throughout the movie) deal with their loss, the wife deals with it badly and falls into deep depression.  Her husband a therapist decides to pull her away from her doctors and taken her to Eden, a cabin in the woods where they have travelled before.  This is a place the wife is scared of and the husbands belief is that if she faces her fears she can pull herself out of the depression she feels.  Once they make it to Eden it seems that nature is against them and is trying to send them into madness.

That is the basic plot of the movie, but what the movie actually is is an examination of how deep and dark depression can actually be.  Yes, it has explicit sex scenes and strong violence which includes sexual violence.  Some critics have questioned why there is no explanation of this violence and why is it so explicit? The question is why they cannot work that out for themselves.  If they forget about being so shocked for the sake of being shocked can they not look at the characters motives and work it out for themselves?

I’d say this is a movie where you form your own views and understanding on what is being shown to you.  You see the events through the eyes of both the husband and the wife and if you open your eyes you see the explanation.  You are given the evidence as to the woman’s insanity as well as the man’s (because in my opinion the husband is just as depressed as the woman but he lives his illness through his inability to cure his wife).  His wife who blames herself for the death of the child manifests her hatred of herself into the hatred of woman as a form, hiding in her research she once did that women were seen as evil.  She (being a woman) see’s the evilness she once argued against within her and sees herself as the personification of a that was argued to be evil within women.  This is not true of course but it is her illness that makes her believe it is.

Nature is the catalyst for both the husband and the wife’s downfall into insanity.  As a fox says to them “chaos reigns” and that is exactly what the movie is saying, that between these two people chaos does reign.  The one thing they have together that gives them any kind of happiness is sex, which is why they appear to do this so much.  They are fighting for the happiness that they can no longer find.  The fact that violence comes between this happiness is just another manifestation of the process in which they are going through.

It surprises me that when people open their eyes and take notice of what’s going on in the movie there is a meaning between all of the scenes in the movie.  I could watch it again and come up with a whole new theory based on the nature theme within the movie.  This is why this movie interests me so much, it is open to interpretation by the watcher and that is something we do not often see from Hollywood (and of course this is very far away from being a Hollywood movie).  So if you watch this movie watch it with your eyes open and not shut.  If all you are going to do is complain about explicit sex scenes and violence then you have missed the point completely and should stick to the Saw series for your entertainment.

When you watch a movie and think that you are going to watch it ever Halloween from now on you know that this is a special movie.  This is what I’ve discovered Trick ‘r Treat to be.  Not since The Creepshow has a compilation of horror stories been made into one movie so well.

At its base elements Trick ‘r Treat is everything Halloween should be.  It’s about pumpkins, mythical creatures, gore and scares.  Four stories all interwoven together are presented to the watcher with many plot lines started and seemingly not finished.  By the time you end watching you realise that every plot has been brought to its conclusion and every character from all of the stories have had their own little parts to play in each other’s story.  Yes, it’s that complex but done so expertly that you are never confused and are always pointing out somebody or something that connected with the previous story you just saw.  Through the use of urban legends both created for the stories and based on “true” urban legends in the real world we are taken through a fun fair ride of gruesome fables.  Also, don’t expect these stories to fit the usual stereotypes.  This movie has been written smartly and you won’t see most of the elements coming (or you will but still love the conclusions that are given.

Parts of the strength of this film are the actors that have been chosen to star.  These are recognisable actors from the likes of Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox, also Dylan Baker who plays his role just perfectly.  He’s one of those actors who always seem to be on top form even though he’s not really a huge Hollywood star.  In fact this movie is not full of Hollywood stars per say, just recognisable people who seem to actually want to give their time and create believable characters which helps this movie a lot.

I’d say this movie walks a fine line between failure and success and that’s probably why it was side-lined for so long.  Hollwood probably took one look at the structure and did not see a sell ability where movies like Saw can be churned out and just from the name make them millions.  It seems to be the way movies are released now.  It’s all about the mighty dollar not about the movie fan that would just lap this up.  Of course as True Blood took off and Anna Paquin stars in this movie (that makes her hot property) it’s not surprise that a small release is given.  This of course gives we the horror fans exactly what we want and we get to see this excellent movie.  So we all win out in the end.  Just a shame it took so long for them to get off their asses and let it be released.

If anybody has not seen this movie yet I highly recommend you get off your asses and buy it.  It should be on everybody’s list of movies to see at Halloween and should become a tradition.  It is rare that we get horror movies like this that is so well written and well produced, so let’s enjoy it while we have it.

9/10

When watching The Final Destination I tried to do one thing and that was to not let the 3D gimmick get in the way of my observations on the movie.  I first watched it in 2D then in 3D so I could see just what the difference was, which in truth turned out to be not a lot of difference at all.

The basic plot of the movie is almost a carbon copy of the first three movies.  A big accident happens and a random teenager has a “flash forward” to the whole thing; which includes the nice opportunity to see his friends die one after the other.  Waking up from the vision he drags them all out of the place before they die (dragging a few people along just for the fun and obviously because they needed to keep the number of deaths up throughout the movie).  Anybody who has ever seen the other Destination movies now start to feel at home as each of the survivors is not so mysteriously killed to rectify the issue that they should already be dead.

One difference I noticed with this movie is that there are no obvious stars , or at least actors you’ve noticed in the other Destination movies.  These could all be bit part players in daytime soaps for all know and the acting at times is on part with those shows too.  As harsh as that sounds it’s not important to the movie at all really because all of the actors are pretty much there as meat to be ripped apart for our pleasure.  One thing I will complain about is the fact Tony Todd is missing from this movie (he was also lacking in the third movie even though he was used as the voice for the devil on the rollercoaster ride I believe).  Todd made an interesting impact on the first two movies as the strange mortician who turned up to explain to the kids that the grim reaper was after them and fixing the mistake.

The thing that really bugged me about this movie is it was unintentionally funny, it was so cheesy at times that there was no real impact in the deaths.  This could arguably be a spoof of the original movies but if it was, it would have been a good spoof.  If they billed it as a spoof I think I’d have been more lenient on my views really because as a horror movie it was very weak really and should have been a straight to DVD sequel.  The 3D is just a gimmick here used to get a very below par movie into the movie theatre.  Yes, the 3D is handled better than in movies that have been converted to 3D; this one was 3D from the outset so filmed to really push that element at the watcher (pun intended).  The problem is this does not help the movie.  If they forgot the 3D effects and just added a darker tone with more believable deaths? It may have been a better movie.

5/10

I’d say my favourite horror movies would be zombie movies but werewolf movies come a quick second.  American Werewolf in London was a movie that had the biggest impact on me as a child and I think it gave me a love of horror movies for life.  This is the reason I’m going to list my top five Werewolf movies.  I love other werewolf movies but these would be my top five I think, although that could change.

5.Dog Soldiers
To me Dog Soldiers is one of the best horror movies to come from the last decade.  Using a mixture of buddy movie, Evil Dead style cabin in the woods style and adding some badass werewolves into the mix we got an awesome movie.  Everything worked for this movie from the awesomeness of Sean Pertwee and his tattoo monologue to the nice touch of comedy this movie is a must see.

4.The Howling
This movie came out around the same time as American Werewolf in London and strangely enough I saw it around the same time.  Although this movie is good American Werewolf will always be better.  The Howling could have been at number two for me quite easily but the next two are two classics that can not be forgotten.

3.The Curse of the Werewolf
Three things worked for this movie.  The first is that it’s a Hammer Horror, second it was a good re-imagining of the werewolf story that worked very well and the third was Oliver Reed.  Reed is one of the best actors to ever come out of England and in this movie he really is on top form.  I’m sure any Hammer fan will have seen this movie and agree with me when I rate it as one of the best movies to come from them.

2.The Wolfman
Everybody who makes such a list as this should have The Wolfman in their list.  This is the movie that started it all and would influence just about all werewolf movies that came after it.  All fans of horror should have seen this, it’s a part of movie history.  (although I say this movie started it all I do know that Werewolf of London was in fact the first werewolf movie, but the Wolfman was more popular.  Just felt I had to note that).

1.American Werewolf in London.
One of my favourite movies of all time, there is no argument for me that this movie will always be number one in my werewolf top five.  The level of comedy is perfect as these are the types of movies that Landis does best and the gore is set at a perfect level for all you gore hounds.  This movie also has the best human to werewolf transformation that you will ever see and no CGI was used.  A must see on blu ray which also comes with an excellent documentary about how it was made (Beware the Moon).

Movies that should be in this list but did not make it: Wolf with Jack Nicholson, Wolfen, Underworld (the werewolves were arguably quite impressive).  I’m sure I left some out so leave some comments and I’ll apologise maybe.

Thanks to @mattscutt on Twitter for pointing out that I missed out some very important movies here.  The Ginger Snaps trilogy.  Although they did not make my top five (I’d put Ginger Snaps at number six) they are three good movies that deserve to be mentioned.  They are an excellent re-imagining in the werewolf genre that have to be recognised for how smart and inventive they are.