Tag Archives: Horror

Rosemary’s Baby (2014)

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There’s a challenge presented with the quasi-remake/new adaptation of the Ira Levin novel “Rosemary’s Baby.” The Roman Polanski masterpiece has been seen by everyone, and it’s been remade and copied a hundred times over by studios since its initial release, and is still being remade unofficially. So how can “Rosemary’s Baby” seem fresh in this day and age? The writers and Lionsgate go about it the wrong way, obviously. They over sexualize, over stylize, and remove any and all themes of feminist repression from the source material. It’s also what made the original Polanski film such a biting horror film. Even in 2014. It was a woman seeking independence and doomed to motherhood by a cult who’d bred the son of Satan through her.

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Willow Creek (2013) (DVD)

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What director Bobcat Goldthwait sets out to do with “Willow Creek” is deliver a found footage movie that gives the viewers every answer nagging at them. Except, he provides the answers through foreshadowing, subtlety, and a lot of ambiguity paired with clarification in the final moments of his film. Truthfully, “Willow Creek” is the anti-“Blair Witch,” in that it leaves so much to the imagination, but garners a very slick tongue in cheek toward its subject matter. There’s no prologue about sheriff’s finding this footage, there’s no epilogue about what happened when the camera shut off. Goldthwait doesn’t want us to believe that this might have happened. It merely begins on a mysterious shot, and Goldthwait takes us on his own version of a found footage horror film.

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Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You! (2012)

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You know a movie fails to hold your attention when you’re spending more time marveling at the setting of the film than the film itself. I really should move to New Hampshire, it looks like a beautiful place to live in. And there is no shortage of scenes depicting suburbs and town halls that look incredible when filmed. In either case, “Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You!” is a giant missed opportunity of a horror comedy that seems to have tacked on the monster called the Riverbeast in to a dramedy about a tutor, and a woman he’s trying to impress. I was never sure on the specifics of the story, since it’s a pretty tedious movie.

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Poseidon Rex (2013) (DVD)

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Director Mark Lester’s giant monster movie is a mix of rock bottom budgets and mediocre common sense. It’s a classic B monster movie about muscle bound pirates, busomy scientists, and a military battling a gigantic monster while operating out of a tool shed with only three people manning the helm. You also have to love how so much hoopla is raised about Poseidon Rex, with the military set to nuke the entire island that’s held Poseidon Rex, only for our busomy heroine to kill it single handedly with a missile launcher. How did no one think of that? What of its eggs in the bottom of the ocean? Also, how can divers talk while their lips are wrapped around air regulators?

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The Sacrament (2014)

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It’s really tough in this day and age to come up with new insight in to the mindset of the cult. Director Ti West manages to accomplish such a feat during the narrative of “The Sacrament” where he not only explores the facade of the utopian cult that many flock to, but the inherent mind set behind the structure of the cult. “Many people come here out of desperation,” explains character Sam, thus it’s apparent why community Eden Parish is able to thrive and live for so long without being disturbed. Even though many of the leaders of these cults are conmen, on occasion they’re also desperate individuals seeking isolation and a like minded civilization they can rule, or destroy in one fell swoop.

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Stage Fright (2014)

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We’ve had horror musicals before, and rock operas aplenty, but it’s not often we get slasher musicals. “Stage Fright” is a very niche horror film, and one that runs the risk of alienating its audience, but for experimental audiences and for folks that appreciate horror comedies with an eighties twist, “Stage Fright” is an excellent and occasionally brilliant bastard child of many sub-genres, that works well as a truly memorable cocktail of madness and gore. Director Jerome Sable really creates a unique and genuinely raucous horror musical that takes “Phantom of the Opera” and builds a very refreshing revenge story from its roots.

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Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

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The dilemma that the writers for the “Paranormal Activity” series now find themselves in is that “Paranormal Activity 3” was a prequel that told us everything we needed to know about this mythos. We began with Katie, continued with her sister, and then found out why they were so special. The third film ended the saga. Now, the continuing sequels are really just running on fumes and scrambling to find ways to continue a story that doesn’t really need continuing. “The Marked Ones” is a great effort, but a sub-par horror film.

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