There aren’t many very good video game-to-movie adaptations out there, but “Silent Hill” manages to stray from the video game to movie curse by embracing what makes the classic games so entertaining while also telling its own tale. It’s a shame that “Silent Hill” never became a full fledged horror movie franchise, as Christophe Gans’ adaptation of the classic video game allows for a visually stunning horror thriller that spooks in all of the right places.
Tag Archives: Mystery
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Proving once and for all that the “Conjuring” cinematic universe works so much better when New Line takes their time to offer something made with care rather than haste, “Annabelle Comes Home” is a third entry in to the spin off that delivers big time. 2014’s “Annabelle” is a distant memory now, as the series has managed to redeem the spin off transforming Annabelle the doll in to a worthwhile villain who brings only death and carnage where ever she is, and we never spend time trying to find out why. She’s merely an instrument for evil and that’s what helps “Annabelle Comes Home” as an entertaining monster movie about evil preying on the weak.
Belzebuth (2019) [Cinepocalypse 2019]
It’s stunning that there has never been much stride made in the realm of possession movies. It seems like “The Exorcist” was the beginning and end of the sub-genre, followed by decades of films that ranged from serviceable to downright abysmal. “Belzebuth” further proves that theory as it’s a middling horror thriller that’s densely packed, kind of confusing, and ironically manages to deliver some good scares from the real life atrocities it depicts rather than the images of demons, evil Jesus Christ, and exorcisms.
Belzebuth (2019) [Cinepocalypse 2019]
A man who lost everything in a freak attack must investigate another a few years later. What he finds leads him down a pathway he never expected.
The Last to See Them (Gli Ultimi Viderli Vivere) (2019) [Cinepocalypse 2019]
Director Sara Summa paints “The Last to See Them” as the anti-thriller, it’s the calm before the storm, as four family members living in a remote farm in the Italian countryside are doomed to die horrendous murders in the middle of the night. What we see is the hours leading up to their death as… well nothing happens. Absolutely nothing happens. Director Sara Summa’s “The Last to See Them” has all the ingredients for a brutally creepy, and unsettling thriller but it amounts to a disappointingly empty posturing of the antithesis of the genre.
Head Count (2019)
A group of students on vacation in the desert takes in a stranger who seemed like fun. Once the darkness falls, they start telling each other scary stories. One particular story is taken from the internet and involved an entity that likes to play with things in 5s. From then on, things start getting weird and scary.
Achoura (Achoura: La Nuit des Enfants) (2018) [Cinepocalypse 2019]
It’s only a matter of time until everyone begins to compare “Achoura” to “Stephen King’s It” mainly because they’re so thematically similar and share almost identical story beats. On its own, “Achoura” is a fine horror thriller that explores the loss of innocence, how fleeting innocence is for children, and how the past almost always catches up to us. As a symbol of the very heavy commentary is the rather spooky and interesting monster of the film, the Bougatate, that’s less a figment of imagination, and more a living darkness that devours kids’ joy, and fear.