Mill Creek offers up a cheapie four movie set for horror fans looking to save bucks while also collecting four interesting horror movies. The four movie set here garners three really notable horror movies, and one horror movie that’s simply there to take up a slot, I assume. There are no perfect movie sets, of course. Even ones for the cheap skate horror fans looking to rake in the volume for little money.
Author Archives: Felix Vasquez
Our Top 5 Television Shows of 2013
Admittedly we’re not big TV watchers these days. We’re mostly fans of “Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” re-runs, and whatever movie is playing on Syfy in America, but when we do watch, we’re very selective. Most popular shows these days just aren’t appealing to us. But out of the small portion of shows that we do watch, we decided to list five of the series in 2013 that kept us watching and wanting more.
Mischief Night (2013) (DVD)
Director Richard Shenkman’s “Mischief Night” isn’t exactly the most original horror films ever made. It garners elements of “Ils Them” and “The Strangers” with a dash of “Scream.” And let’s face it, we’ve seen a ton of movies about blind women being tormented by someone in their house, the best of which was “Wait Until Dark.” But what the director does with the film is entertaining and often times very compelling, and that’s mostly thanks to the very powerful performance by actress Noell Coet who lends the film’s heroine strength, wit, and a fierce independence that becomes her saving grace.
The Music Box (1932)
Made around the time of the Hal Roach collaborative period with the duo making nothing but shorts, “The Music Box” became the standard for complicated situation talkies that would show buffoons making a bad situation out of a predictably simplistic one. When we learn that yes, it could have all been so simple, we groan at their idiocy, and then realize: What fun would that have been if they took the easy way in their job?
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Director Steve McQueen’s adaptation of the chronicle of Solomon Northup’s kidnapping and forcing into slavery for over a decade is extraordinary. It’s absolutely excellent from the opening shot of a group of slaves, Solomon in the middle, right down to the tear soaked finale. “12 Years a Slave” ends up becoming an education for all audiences, and a form of unjust punishment for Northup who was just beginning to soak up his freedom, and found himself imprisoned back in to a personal hell of slavery, torture, and humiliation. I’ve been a fan of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s work since “Melinda and Melinda,” and in “12 Years a Slave” is performance is absolutely astounding.
The We and the I (2012)
What Michel Gondry does is take some of the most realistic and unique teenagers from the South Bronx, plants them on a public bus, and creates what is basically his own “The Breakfast Club” with the aimlessness of “Dazed and Confused.” Every character is put on to the bus by circumstance and come to some sense of realization by the end of the ride that will likely have no effect on their personal lives. In the end, every character in “The We and the I” are victims of peer pressure and their home lives, and are just ships passing in to the night. Filled with a cast of young actors that were cast right out of the South Bronx and honed to work with Gondry for their characters, “The We and the I” is a pretty excellent dramedy about the modern teenager that never sugarcoats their dynamics.
Rewind This! (2013)
Director Josh Johnson pulls off an ingenious move with “Rewind This!” Truly, it’s about the age of VHS and recalls many of the fond memories of buying VHS and learning how to enjoy the spoils of the hunt for the perfect Friday night entertainment from your local mom and pop video store. But by the end of the documentary, director Johnson is wise to warn about how personal media and art is slowly becoming impersonal and is gradually breaking from our grasps.