Tag Archives: Drama

The Innkeepers (2012)

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It’s odd that though Ti West is primarily a director who tackles horror films, that if he ever decided to write a drama or comedy, he could really deliver a near masterpiece. Save for “The Roost,” and “Cabin Fever 2,” director Ti West has proven a master of slow boil horror films that are written beautifully. Featuring rich and well developed characters, director Ti West is a very strong writer and horror director who has offered some unique horror films for indie fans. Though he’s not the juggernaut horror journalists are quick to tout him as, Ti West can write damn good scripts and create likable and charming characters who are involved in horrifying situations. And when he finally delivers the boom after a long session of watching the fuse burn, it’s satisfying and absolutely twisted.

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Rosemary's Baby (1968) (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-Ray]

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Mn1rHMQIt’s not too often we’re granted a major motion picture with an all star cast that presents audience with such a subversive undertone of family and maternal struggles. It wasn’t up until this year that I learned “Rosemary’s Baby” comes from author Ira Levin who wrote “The Stepford Wives.” The latter work of fiction is a brilliant and horrifying look at the male animal struggling to repress the rising tide of feminism and women’s liberation across Western civilization through very shocking means. As the women of an elite group of men branch out seeking independence and liberation from home life, the men eventually form their plan to replace their women robotic drones that are perfectly content living the life of a subservient being whose goal is to please sexually and domestically.

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The Haunted (1991)

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the-hauntedYet another apparent true story about another haunting in America, “The Haunted” is one of the most effective and creepy ghost films ever made. Though it’s primarily a TV movie, it’s been sadly shunned in to obscurity in favor of the more appealing “Amityville.” But in the end, “The Haunted” ends up feeling like much more of a true and realistic tale of an actual demonic haunting, and it’s one filled with unnerving and absolutely terrifying instances of hauntings that are filmed with such sharp editing and dark tones that it still holds up as a cinematic experience you’ll be thinking about for hours after you’ve finished it.

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May (2002)

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06-May-2002May Dove Canady’s upbringing is eerily very similar to Michael Myers. While there isn’t a hint of abuse or neglect in the opening shots that chronicle life as a child in her family house hold, we get the sense that the somewhat grating goal for perfection is the key to May’s abundant madness and psychosis. When we meet May, she’s a fairly normal and meek child who has been inflicted with a lazy eye that gives her poor sight. Though it’s a small imperfection that can be adjusted over time, her mother spends a majority of the time focusing on the imperfection to notice May is a very beautiful young girl. Though she doesn’t entirely experience unusual cruelty for her small affliction, the abundant idealizing of her mother, as well as the fawning over a china doll that is clearly the manifestation of what her mother originally pictures would be May, causes her to grow in to an isolated and mal adjusted young woman.

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The Devil's Advocate (1997)

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the-devils-advocate-1606-16x9-largeWhen the credits roll, “The Devil’s Advocate” reveals itself to be a massively ambitious but incredibly mediocre supernatural thriller that sanctimoniously dismisses big city, big business, and law as the stomping grounds of the devil, while casting out its protagonist Kevin as evil for leaving the small country and submitting to the potentially successful life in the big city. There, the skyscrapers are empty, the streets are endless, and the folks are demons of excess, vanity, and sheer adultery. Taylor Hackford’s supernatural thriller seems to be built on and around the final monologue of Al Pacino’s character John Milton, who gives a rousing speech about God, sin, and everything else to protégé Kevin.

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The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor [Hardcover]

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It’s very likely that I had too high expectations, or that Max Brooks just spoiled me. But in the end when I was finished with “Rise of the Governor” I was somewhat underwhelmed. Rather than considering re-reading the book, I merely just closed it and moved on with my life. “Rise of the Governor” proves that even with good writing and a wonderful premise, a prequel isn’t always a good idea. The Governor aka Phillip Blake is surely one of the most notorious and memorable characters from the Walking Dead series, and he’s yet to be topped. And while I think he was a fascinating character with a lot of depth and complexity, I really don’t know if I care who he was before the dead destroyed the world.

Phillip Blake’s story is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things because we know how he will end up, unfortunately. The characters in “Rise of the Governor” lack any impact or real individuality. I had a very hard time discerning which characters were talking most times, and I really wasn’t on the edge of my seat. Granted, there are some truly excellent moments to be mined here. I loved the search for the missing zombie kid in the house, and Blake’s intensity toward protecting his family, but “Rise of the Governor” really has nothing to add to the universe beyond “Here is what happened before he met Rick Grimes and massacred a bunch of people in the prison.” While it is a good idea in theory, I really didn’t feel the need to follow him on his path to evil.

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Valentine (2001)

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valentine4Taking every bit and piece it can from “Slaughter High,” 2001’s painfully bland and tedious “Valentine” examines what happens when you fuck a nerd in the ass. At a school dance for Valentine’s Day, young Jeremy Melton experiences endless rejection from his classmates during the dance and braves the social experience anyway. After young Dorothy Wheeler sets him up to become the target of school bullies, Jeremy is never heard from again and becomes fodder for the group of girls later in their lives. I always assumed horror films were supposed to focus on likable characters. If not, there should be at least one or two likable characters you can connect with. “Valentine” works against such an effort focusing on four of the most vapid and utterly despicable young girls ever written, all of whom are stuck up rich snobs just asking to be brutally slaughtered.

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