Tag Archives: Thriller

The Abandoned (2006)

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This is a film from the After Dark Horror Fest that is considered by many to be one out of the pack. It’s a film that managed to grow apart from the horror festival and that seemed like a good thing. Is “The Abandoned” as great as I’d heard? I had to find out. Nacho Cerdà’s supernatural thriller reminded me very much of “Silent Hill,” except Cerdà doesn’t solely rely on visuals to keep the audience watching. What’s behind “The Abandoned,” is a morbid and utterly unnerving tale about murder, torture, and our fear of being alone in the world.

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Lake Placid 2 (2007)

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lp2The original film, “Lake Placid” was possibly one of the crappiest killer animal flicks I’ve ever seen. And I was anxious to see it when it was released. The woefully under-appreciated Bill Pullman was alright, as was Bridget Fonda, but through it all was a horrible script, a cheesy plot, and a simplistic story that bordered on absurd. Nah, we didn’t need a sequel. I know you were about to ask that, right? Does necessity come into play when money comes to mind? Never, you stupid fool. “Lake Placid 2” has one thing going for it. Cloris Leachman, and then you wonder how the hell they wrangled her into this. This woman is a comedy legend, what the hell did they do to grab her? A bribe perhaps? Blackmail? A blood oath made with Satan? Poor Cloris Leachman.

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An Unfinished Life (2005)

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1661393hI wasn’t expecting much from “An Unfinished Life,” that much is true. Not even Robert Redford can turn a bad movie into a watchable one. But after I was finished with it, I liked it. It’s cheesy in some parts, and recycled, but in the end I’d enjoyed spending almost two hours with these characters. Hell, even Morgan Freeman, whose character Mitch is just another variation on his character from “Million Dollar Baby,” even was an interesting character. Freeman is able to be likable in basically anything he’s in and he’s become a rare commodity in Hollywood, which happens to be a damn shame. The man is too talented for narration, and appearing for five minutes as a mentor to someone.

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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Boksuneun naui geot) (2002)

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sympathy-for-mr-vengeancPerhaps I wasn’t paying attention, or perhaps I was just falling asleep after the first hour of nothing, but I couldn’t understand about sixty percent of what occurred in “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.” Whether or not Park actually tells the story jumping from different time to time, I’ll never know, because characters I thought died pop up later, and events that suddenly never happened, leads to something unexpected. Park’s story is awfully disjointed to the point where I couldn’t even catch up.

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Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

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behind-the-maskHe’s a skilled serial killer, a slasher along the lines of Jason, and, oh yeah, he’s a self-promoting sensationalist who wants to become a famous slasher of all things teen. Leslie Vernon lives in a world filled with monsters. He lives in a world where Jason, Freddy, and even Michael Myers wreak havoc on innocent victims and young teenagers. And what does Leslie Vernon want? He wants to be like them. And he’ll go through any lengths to live up to their legacies. And wouldn’t you know it? Director Scott Glosserman is about eighty percent of the way there.

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Altered (2006)

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These days many people just do not enjoy “The Blair Witch,” and that’s a shame. I still love the movie, and I still think it’s a frightening simplistic horror film about curiosity killing the cat. But in a day and age where gore is on the menu, it’s not hard to fathom why it’d be disliked. “Altered” is an admirable if flawed follow-up from the “Blair Witch” boys that is much different in every sense. Gore and guts are present, as well as a fairly simplistic alien carnage story. Ah, the joys of being a horror fanatic. “Altered” is a good old fashioned horror film, and one that relies on the conventions of typical claustrophobic horror fare to get us through.

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Hot Rods to Hell (1967)

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“Hot Rods to Hell” is a youth gone wild, sixties morality tale about damn juvenile delinquents raising pure hell on Mr. and Mrs. Americana of the traditional Nuclear family. Before the real free revolution, “Hot Rods to Hell” was another glance at the youth tearing down good old fashioned America, and it was deemed much too risqué to play for television. Made for television, ironically, the studios shipped it out into theaters, and drive-ins and it’s quite a messy little clunker with an utterly simplistic plot. A mixture of “Beach Blanket Bingo,” “Last House on the Left,” and “Leave it to Beaver,” John Brahm’s “Hot Rods to Hell” sets down on a family called the Hills who go on a road trip to move to the desert. On the way there they come across a group of sadistic hot rodders who really want to make their lives a living hell from now on.

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