Like it or not, “Paranormal Activity” was the indie success story of the decade. After the big take off of “The Blair Witch Project,” director Oren Peli proved a valuable successor to the end of the twentieth century sensation by providing a horror film for the digital age where the chronicling of a couple at the mercy of a demon was filmed through HD camcorders and the advent of the then seasoned instrument of the worldwide web. “Paranormal Activity 2” commits what is almost an impossible task. It completely compliments the storyline of the original film while also adding to it.
Tag Archives: Horror
The Puzzle (2008)
For what it intends to pull off, director Davide Melini’s short thriller is entertaining and bold in that it can tell a story in under five minutes and still feel complete and spooky. There isn’t a lot of explanation toward the puzzle or why the puzzle is so prophetic, but then I doubt the puzzle is supposed to be taken as a literal plot device. Instead it’s supposed to be more a metaphor for what the woman in this tale realized much too late. Besides, if we saw our fates, could we do anything about it? In our attempts to change fate would we instead just walk right in to it unwillingly?
Official Psycho Parody (2011)
Porn parodies are everywhere. Right now with the industry looking for customers porn parodies are what’s in and surely enough they’re big money makers and headline grabbers. It’s just shocking that somewhere down the road someone thought “Psycho” would make a good porn parody. I mean who would have thought a movie about a cross dressing psychopath with an obsessive Oedipus complex and possible incestuous relationship with his mother who mutilated hapless female travelers would make for something of an entertaining and arousing porn flick. Factoring in the thought that “Psycho” was already a fairly sexual film with thick overtones and a sexually repressed man who could only react to an attraction to a woman with aggressive homicidal behavior, and you’re already headed for a dead end. “The Official Psycho Parody” is up for the challenge though as a movie that seems to try very hard to mimic the style and atmosphere of Hitchcock’s masterpiece, while also presenting it’s obvious purpose for being a hardcore porno first and foremost.
She's Crushed (2009)
Director Patrick Johnson’s horror thriller wants to be an amalgam of “Fatal Attraction” and Takashi Miike’s “Audition,” and while both ambitions are admirable, neither of those classics rise to the surface to add entertainment value to “She’s Crushed.” While Natalie Dickinson is infinitely sexier than Glenn Close, “She’s Crushed” is never quite sure what to do with itself nor is it clear which character we’re supposed to be following. At times we’re told the entire ordeal is Ray’s where he’s forced to deal with alcoholism and memories of his days serving in the military, all the while coping with a new neighbor who gets the idea Patrick may be in love with her after a torrid one night stand. Apparently Ray didn’t receive the all too important memo that women can get that impression.
I Spit On Your Grave: Unrated (2010)
Was this remake entirely necessary? Actually no. Especially when you consider Meir Zarchi’s 1978 revenge film continues to be a widely revered, and critically reviled piece of volatile grindhouse cinema that not only set the stages for future revenge films, but was already remade subsequent its theatrical release where we saw no end of women on a rampage revenge films in the late seventies in to the eighties. “I Spit on Your Grave” is still one of the most heavily discussed and angrily debated cult masterpieces to this day inspiring hatred and praise from many film buffs and to this day inspires pure vitriol from iconic film critic Roger Ebert who despises Zarchi’s film so passionately, he banishes anyone who enjoyed it.
Suicide Girls Must Die! (2010)
I think deep down Sawa Suicide just assumed that horror fans alike would universally embrace “Suicide Girls Must Die” for the simple fact that it’s a horror movie with a lot of hot girls from the actual website. Granted, I am a huge fan of the Suicide Girls (seriously, these women are insanely beautiful) but just because something is even slightly popular, it doesn’t mean it warrants a movie. And you can hide all of the flaws and cheese behind the fact that it’s a horror film, but even so. The fact that anyone assumed this would be even the least bit entertaining is beyond me and displays a bit of hubris in the notion that the Suicide Girls attachment would mean rave reviews.
Troll (1986)
I remember the moment in “Best Worst Movie” where one of the stars of “Troll 2” are looking at a DVD box of “Troll” and “Troll 2” at a video store, and the clerk explains that the movie meant for the bad movie section of the shop is “Troll 2.” After finally watching “Troll” I can safely say that this absolutely unbearable film should also be in the same category as the film that ventured in to the town of Nilbog. Harry Potter and his family have just moved in to a mysterious apartment complex directly near a small wooded area. Upon discovering their surroundings, irritating little sister Wendy entering the basement, she’s captured by a troll, and the monster takes on her form. Rather than playing it cool and sneaking about the apartment building, the troll of course begins wreaking havoc acting like a hyperactive child for reasons never actually explained, and biding its time by venturing around the building making mischief.