{"id":10323,"date":"2007-09-11T20:13:22","date_gmt":"2007-09-12T00:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=10323"},"modified":"2007-09-11T20:13:22","modified_gmt":"2007-09-12T00:13:22","slug":"rl-stines-the-haunting-hour-dont-think-about-it-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/11\/rl-stines-the-haunting-hour-dont-think-about-it-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"RL Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hauntinghour\"<\/a>Sure, by today\u2019s standards, and with my current age, R.L. Stine isn\u2019t so scary anymore. But in case many of you don\u2019t know the name, R.L. Stine is very recognizable to the folks like me who grew up around the time Stine resided in book shelves all over the country. For horror geeks like me, Stine was a gateway drug, he was that first introduction into the horror genre before you came into the hard stuff, and I loved it all. For the teens that could get away with it, he brought us \u201cFear Street,\u201d a creepier, mature, and violent series of books that had actual stories to them.<\/p>\n

For the kids though, he brought us \u201cGoosebumps\u201d a series of very entertaining, albeit lightweight horror books that covered everything from werewolves to possessed ventriloquist dummies, and it was a blast. \u201cThe Haunting Hour\u201d is a film I took particular interest in because I loved R.L. Stine once, and I just had to review his adaptation in the context of a movie aimed to children. For son or daughter aged 6-14, \u201cThe Haunting Hour\u201d will be a wonderful Halloween treat, period; especially since two stars of \u201cHannah Montana\u201d headline. Apparently the first in a movie series, Emily Osment plays Cassie, a typical Goth rebel who arrives at a new town and is forced to deal with the typical clich\u00e9s of the high school movie genre.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the blond love interest, the alpha female elitist, and the annoying little brother. But one of the main points of interest is the introduction of devices that will set the stages for future movies. Not only does there happen to be a shop in Cassie\u2019s new town the sells supernatural artifacts, but there\u2019s even a shopkeeper named the stranger played by none other than Tobin Bell! You know: Jigsaw? He\u2019s the perfect specter of fear here as a gravely voiced tormentor who allows his customers to pick up whatever they please and revel in the dire consequences. Taking a page from \u201cDeath Note,\u201d Cassie garners a book called \u201cThe Evil Thing\u201d from the town shop, and soon the information in this tome garners some rather interesting corruption.<\/p>\n

But this book is soon read aloud by Cassie\u2019s brother, and from his imagination comes a horrifying monster. That\u2019s how it\u2019s always done, eh? One of the few caveats of this film is that Zamm sometimes focuses so much on montages and shots meant to establish Cassie\u2019s angst that there could have easily been a music video inserted without our full knowledge. The first half of \u201cThe Haunting Hour\u201d is so littered with booming soundtracks and the score that it\u2019s almost impossible to bear, until we get to the meat and bones of the story. Alex Zamm manages to capture the feeling of R.L. Stine perfectly with a monster that doesn\u2019t eat its prey but leave them for the feasting of its children, and Zamm evades the potential for violence as much as possible, which doesn\u2019t affect the film.<\/p>\n

The potential for violence inevitably acts a catalyst for the audience\u2019s imagination for the simple gore and violence we\u2019d usually be accustomed to, and that\u2019s always the best kind of story device. As for the creature effects, they are a lot better than they have the right to be, that\u2019s for sure. The monster is mostly shrouded in the shadows, but it\u2019s a surefire mix of the Alien Queen and Pumpkinhead, with its offspring posing as rather creepy little menaces. \u201cThe Haunting Hour\u201d is a great film for kids; it even entertained me, and hopefully it will help inspire the little ankle biters to cross to the horror genre, like it did yours truly. Hell, I\u2019d rather my kids watched this direct to DVD series than \u201cThe Land Before Time,\u201d and \u201cBratz\u201d in the end. Because R.L. Stine has plenty more young kids to introduce to the horror genre, and we could always use more minions in the genre. Stine is just the man to cross them over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sure, by today\u2019s standards, and with my current age, R.L. Stine isn\u2019t so scary anymore. But in case many of you don\u2019t know the name, R.L. Stine is very recognizable to the folks like me who grew up around the time Stine resided in book shelves all over the country. For horror geeks like me, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,17],"tags":[64,71,349,438,441,477,580,703,850,1008,1087,1130],"class_list":["post-10323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-tv-tomb","tag-adaptation","tag-adventure","tag-fantasy","tag-h","tag-halloween","tag-horror","tag-kids","tag-mystery","tag-rl-stine","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller","tag-tv-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}