Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Annabelle: Creation

Starring: Lulu Wilson, Talitha Bateman, Miranda Otto, Anthony LaPaglia

Director: David F. Sandberg

IMDB rate: 6,6

My rate: 7

Long time no see! Will I have been gone from this blog, I certainly did not give up on watching horror movies. Does this mean I am back? I have no clue really, we'll see about that I guess :). This review will be about the prequel of Annabelle (which is the prequel of The Conjuring), this being titled Annabelle: Creation. I did not like the first movie that much. It had a lot to offer but the execution of it was rather meh. The sequel actually was surprisingly good compared to it. Here's why....

I felt like Annabelle: Creation had a much more thought out plot compared to the first part. This actually is a prequel to the first movie where you find out about the origins of the evil doll. I however have to admit that the beginning is a bit questionable. Of course the couple where the kids are staying have a secret room no one may enter and of course someone enters it unleashing all evil. It's a bit predictable, eh? I however did like to get to know the story behind the doll. However, I wish we got to see a bit more of the time in between the accident of little Bree and the moment the orphans enter this house. I felt this was rushed too much and it put too much focus on the "now", meaning it still doesn't describe the origins of Annabelle completely. 

I was quite impressed with the acting in this movie. Lulu Wilson (Linda) and Talitha Bateman (Janice) make two excellent friends. Lulu Wilson, also known for her role in Ouija: Origins of Evil, does a great job as young Linda. Mind you, all the viewers fate has to be put in this little girl to save her best friend Janice. I mostly was impressed with Talitha Bateman though. While her character was written very smartly already, she adds even more into the little Janice, who you can't help feel sorry for even though she strictly asks for no compassion because of her injury. They both add a great deal of character to this film.

What I liked most about Annabelle: Creation is the fact that it doesn't rely heavily on the jumpscares. Now the first Annabelle movies definitely tries to creep people out by putting in dumb loud noises and sudden things appearing in the screen. But this mostly just means you got scared of the sound, not of what is happening in the actual movie. And it solely means you are scared to get scared of another sound once again. In my opinion it is much better if a movie tries to make you sit on the edge of your seat because there is so much tension going on. This is exactly what Annabelle: Creation does. Overall, I would definitely recommend giving this movie a chance, even (or especially!) when you did not like the first Annabelle movie. 

Honeymoon (2014)

Honeymoon

IMDB rate: 5,6
Genre: Possession
Starring: Rose Leslie, Harry Threadaway

I was actually kinda excited for this movie. The cast was pretty good, the trailer looked awesome and it just seemed like a pretty good movie to me. Unfortunately this was not the case. It actually was a pretty boring movie, it just took way too long for something to happen. After a hour already passed nothing really interesting had happened yet. Sure, there were some mysteries but it was just not tensive at all.

Here is what Honeymoon is about:
Young newlyweds Paul and Bea travel to remote lake country for their honeymoon. Shortly after arriving, Paul finds Bea wandering and disoriented in the middle of the night. As she becomes more distant and her behavior increasingly peculiar, Paul begins to suspect something more sinister than sleepwalking took place in the woods.

The acting was actually pretty decent, Rose Leslie is a cute actress most known for her role as Ygritte in the TV show Game of Thrones (the one who keeps saying "you know nothing Jon Snow!". Harry Threadaway was quite good as well, haven't seen him in many roles besides the few episodes I watched of Penny Dreadful, but I quite liked him. Their chemistry was somewhat convincing, although the romance level in this movie was just too much for me. I saw people complaining that their American accents were horrible, in Harry Threadaway I did not even notice that he was British actually so in my opinion he did a good job. With Rose Leslie though I did not even notice that she was trying an American accent, I just thought her character would be British. Wrong about that one though, so i guess her job on doing a different accent wasn't too great.

The story itself started off good, the mystery of why Bea was one in the night, and what happened to her at that time. I really was curious about what had happened to her, but actually from that moment on the movie became pretty bad. The pacing was too slow, we first get half a hour of romance, sex attempts and stuff like that, then Bea disappears, then she starts acting weird and in the last ten minutes of the movie we somewhat figure out what had happened. The explanation about what happened is not satisfying at all though, it's not complete and it hardly tells what really is going on. And don't read further if you don't want to know this spoiler: but for real, aliens?! Nope, I'm not cool with that at all. Not even sure if they were aliens, but they sure as hell looked a hell of a lot like aliens.

Honeymoon is not a very scary movie, it's not filled with gore or special effects, it's more one of those movies where things are being left to the viewers imagination. In the end there's on scene that's kinda nasty but that's about the only interesting thing that happened. The make-up is quite good I must say, even for a low-budget movie.

Reactions about Honeymoon are pretty mixed, some hated it and some thought it was the best horror movie of the year. Maybe if your into psychological horrors with very slow pacing it might be something for you. Personally I wasn't a big fan of it. The script was pretty bad and there just did not happen a whole lot. I really thought this movie had some potential, but it got kinda messed up with the 'plot-twist' I think. Good acting, good looking make-up, but overall it was a bit a waste of time.

My rate: 5/10

The Quiet Ones (2014)

The Quiet Ones

IMDB rate: 5,1
Genre: Possession
Starring: Sam Claflin, Olivia Cooke, Jared Harris

Last year I was actually kinda curious about The Quiet Ones, the trailer seemed nice and there are a few excellent actors starring in it. I had no idea what it was about though. I did not like it a whole lot since it lacked any depth and it was just boring sometimes. Also the words "based on a true story" aren't very scary anymore either since every horror movies seems to add these words to the movie nowadays.

In 1974, in Oxford, Professor Joseph Coupland invites his introspective student Brian McNeil to film his research about the supernatural with his two assistants, Krissi Dalton and Harry Abrams, and the subject Jane Harper. Jane is a young woman with no memory from the past that has been abandoned that believes she is possessed by a doll named Evey that gives telekinetic power to her. She is kept awake in an isolated house with a doll, where Prof. Coupland intends that she puts her evil energy in and then destroy the doll to healing Jane. Strange things happen in the house happen in the house and Brian feels sorry for Jane and he researches her tattoo, learning an evil secret about the past of Jane.

The Quiet Ones was not the movie I hoped it would be, it was boring and quite unoriginal. The worst though about this movie was the HORRIBLE sound mixing. When I had the volume on a normal level, the 'scary' moment where ten times as loud, while I still couldn't hear the people talk. So what to do? Do I turn up the volume to hear the people talk, or do I turn the volume down because of the insanely loud scare effects? Luckily I had subtitles on, so I gave The Quiet Ones a big 'fuck you' and turned the volume down. For real though, the sound differences were unbearable. First sign your movie sucks: the scare effects are only 'scary' because the sound is loud.

It's a shame that something as silly as volume can ruin so much in a movie. Although the sound mixing sucked, the rest wasn't much special either. I think the movie had some potential, especially because the location was awesome. Every time something scary or interesting could happen the opportunity wasn't used fully which lead to... well, a boring movie.

The best part about this movie was the acting, which really wasn't too bad. I like Sam Claflin quite a lot, of course mostly from The Hunger Games movies, but also from Pirates of the Caribbean. Olivia Cooke seems to become a newcomer in horror movies, which I don't mind at all since I quite like her. She also plays in Bates Motel which is one of my favorite TV shows of the moment. Jared Harris performs excellently as well in The Quiet Ones, unfortunately, even his performance couldn't save this movie.

Some part were kinda cool, such as when Jane's hand caught fire. Other moments were quite laughable though. There's even this moment with the worst special effect I've ever seen. The characters are poorly written, there's no development at all. But well, the story is poorly written as well, so what can you expect. At some moments I had no idea what was going on anymore, some stuff just did not make any sense.

The Quiet Ones is a boring movie, which bases it's scares purely on increased sounds. If you're looking for a scary movie, don't go for The Quiet Ones. Great acting, great setting but such a poor story.

My rate: 4/10

Mercy (2014)

Mercy

IMDb rate: 5,1

Genre: Possession

Starring: Chandler Riggs, Dylan McDermott, Frances O'Connor

A few weeks ago I watched Mercy on Netflix. I had no idea what it was about since I just clicked the first movie I saw. The poster was somewhat questionable, but it seemed decent enough. The cast existed from Dylan McDermott who I liked pretty much in the first season of American Horror Story and Chandler Riggs who I don't like a whole lot in The Walking Dead, but they were familiar names so I thought I should give it a go. Mercy is by the way based on the short story Gramma from Stephen King. I haven't read it myself unfortunately, but perhaps I might come across it someday.

Mercy is about a grandmother who is very ill and her daughter who takes care of her along with her two sons. While around the grandmother weird things start to happen which leads to the suspicion that she has mystical powers.

The first thing that I noticed about this movie was the horrible sound-mixing. I had to turn up the volume almost to the max to be able to hear what they were saying. The most horrible thing about this was that the music and special effect sounds were way too loud this way. So the voices were almost silent, while the effects were way too loud. This is something I hate incredibly much. Perhaps it's done on purpose so that people will turn their volume up, making the special effects sounds incredibly loud so that people will scare from that sound rather than from the happening on screen itself. If this is the case it really would be a sad attempt at making a movie, considering they need high sound effects to scare the people.

The story seems to be kinda random, it doesn't really fit together. It's as if the story is all over the place. The beginning is already very weird where the grandma has some sort of episode where she seems more possessed than sick, although the family seems to react fairly neutral to this episode of strangeness. In my opinion there's too much going on in this movie. There's a brief scene where we can see a cut on the arm of one of the brothers that was apparently caused by the grandma, this is just thrown in to shown how 'dangerous' the grandma is and has no further use at all. There's also a storyline about her husband that killed herself, and also about her tripling children where two out of three are a bit crazy. Oh, and an imaginary friend. They try to tie these lines together but in my opinion they fail miserably at it.

Not a big fan of the acting either. Chandler Riggs is pretty much the main character but I think he's no good actor at all. I'm not a fan of him in The Walking Dead but at first I thought his character was just annoying, but after seeing this movie I can honestly say that I don't think he's a good actor. Dylan McDermott plays a fairly small role in this movie, and his storyline makes the thing even more weird. His acting wasn't too bad, but his role was too small to really notice him.

The movie was also pretty dark. Not in the amazingly shocking way, but in the way that the lightning was terrible. When the predictable scares were finally pushed aside the movie was going to a somewhat interesting part, but when hell broke loose I could not see a thing from what was happening. There were a few shadows moving and some terribly mixed sounds going on, but I have no idea what was really going on because it was simply too dark to see.

Mercy isn't a good movie at all. It's filled with soft speaking voices, loud special effects and terrible lightning on parts that might've been somewhat interesting. The acting of the main character was not very good and the character weren't interesting at all. The story was not logical at all, at one point where they attempted to tie the lines together they fail so miserably at it that you actually don't really know anymore what the hell is going on.

My rate: 3/10 

The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)

The Taking of Deborah Logan

IMDB rate: 6,4

Genre: Possession, Mockumentary

Starring: Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang

The Taking of Deborah Logan, or in short The Taking popped up on Netflix this weekend. I didn't really know what it was about but the rating on Netflix and IMDB seemed to be decent, so I gave it a watch. 

The Taking is a mockumentary about an Alzheimer patient, and it shows the progression of the illness. At first I was a bit bummed out that it was another found-footage movie, since there are so many of those already. But for a found-footage movie it started out pretty decent. 

At first the movie feels like a true documentary about Alzheimer, it shows pretty good what the disease causes and that it affects the people around them to. You've already read in my genre section that this movie is about possession, which gave a pretty interesting input at first. The character Deborah Logan (played by Jill Larson) is the Alzheimer patient and every time she has one of her 'episodes' you think that the way she behaves is because of the Alzheimer. When the movie progresses you are getting doubts though, is this really just Alzheimer or is there more going on?

The movie is a lot like Paranormal Activity, only this movie had a more interesting story going on. The Alzheimer gave a nice perspective to what was going on. It actually made you doubt if things where happening because of Alzheimer or because of the possession.

Unfortunately, about halfway through the movie becomes just another one of these typical found-footage movies. When Deborah was clearly being possessed the story became choppy and somewhat lame at points. The scary moments are pretty much all off-screen meaning we can't actually see a thing of what's happening. During these moments the camera decides to get fuzzy or something, so when something should be on screen, it's being somewhat censored. Pretty disappointing really, because the movie started off pretty good. 

I liked the dialogues in The Taking, mostly because the camera dude was sarcastic as fuck. This guy is finally someone who knows when something scary is about to happen, he knows his movies. "Of course the light's don't work", "standing still in the dark, nice..." or "Damn white people with their fucking basements and attics". It lightened up the mood a bit. The acting is decent, Jill Larson does a great job at playing the unstable Deborah. Her appearance is great as well, since she can be flattering looking at her good times, but can seem very scary as well on the characters bad times. 

The Taking of Deborah Logan started off promising, but unfortunately took the familiar way. It was scary at the beginning and it had some nice refreshing parts, it's just the ending that really bummed me out. It was standard, lame and nothing we haven't already seen before. The scary parts are never really on camera, and when they are things are shaky as hell. It's really as if someone else made this film halfway through it, everything promising became standard again and the nice build-up was just for nothing really.

If you're not a big fan of the Paranormal Activity movies this movie isn't something that you would like, since it's pretty much the same concept. But if you don't hate those movies and like a nice twist to the storyline I think you won't hate this movie. In that case, give it a try!

My rate: 5,5/10

The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist

IMDB rate: 8,0

Genre: Possession

Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair

This hasn't been the first time that I watched The Exorcist, I've actually watched it quite a few times already.. difference is, the previous times I didn't watch it sober :). The first time I watched The Exorcist I watched it because my dad thought it was the most frightening movie he'd ever seen, although he was quite young back then. Anyway, a great reason for me to watch it, because what can be more scary than a movie of which your dads afraid of? 

I wasn't scared when I watched The Exorcist for the first time, simply because I grew up in a time where these movies were nothing compared to what I was used to. This doesn't change the fact though that The Exorcist was a great movie to watch. I must admit though that while watching The Exorcist for the first time I drank quite a bit of alcohol, making it a slightly laughable experience when Regan walks down the stairs upside down.

I watched the extended version of the movie, meaning there are a few added scenes where you can see the demon flash by. The spider walk scene is also added in this version. The spider walk scene is definitely a great addition to the movie, the only problem with it was that the scene seemed unfinished after that. There's no reaction about it whatsoever and for some reason it's the only scene where she's out of her room. The strange part of this is that she is tied to the bed the entire time, but that moment she suddenly wasn't anymore, the moment after that she was tied to the bed again. What I did like in the extended version was the statue (?) of the demon slowly appearing besides the door, it gave a very creepy vibe.

What I admire a lot about this movie is the make-up, it's pretty scary to see a little girl that messed up. What's making this more scary is the voice. The voice is not Linda Blair's own voice, but I actually hardly noticed since it's synchronized pretty good. Linda Blair plays the young Regan incredibly well. What's of course the best thing about this movie is it's dialogue, which I can imagine was pretty shocking at that time. "Your mother sucks cock in hell" is just one of these memorable quotes. Thinking that all these bizarre scenes were acted by a 12 year old makes it even more amazing.

The Exorcist is definitely not a flawless movie, it has quite a few continuity errors actually. Doesn't change the fact that it's a brilliant movie to watch, and I somewhat wish I could be there in 1973 when it was first released to feel the true terror of this movie. I think The Exorcist is an excellent movie, perhaps it's not a perfect movie for this time anymore, but I can imagine it was a jewel at the time it was being made. Loved it!

My rate: 8/10

Review: The Possession (2012)

The Possession

IMDB rate: 5,9

Genre: Possession

When I first saw this title on Netflix I expected it to be a bad movie. The last couple of years there are tons of bad possession movies (Devils Due, The Last Exorcism, The Devil Inside) and well, why would this one be any different? I did gave it a chance though, I can't judge a movie by it's cover of course. I must say that I didn't hate this movie, it would never become my favorite movie of all time, but it really wasn't bad. 

The basketball coach Clyde and his wife Stephanie divorced a couple of months ago and their teenage daughter Hannah and the girl Emily live with their mother and spend the weekends with their father. One day, Clyde stops his car in a yard sale and Emily buys an antique carved box and becomes obsessed with it. Emily finds the hidden lock and releases an evil spirit that possesses her. Soon Clyde discovers that Emily has a problem, but his annoying ex-wife and her boyfriend Brett do not pay attention to him and get a restraining order against Clyde. Clyde seeks out Professor McMannis and when he sees the box, he explains that it is a Dibbuk Box, where a spirit is trapped inside. He also explains that the box shouldn't be open; otherwise the person will be possessed by the spirit. 

The title of this movie isn't very original, it will absolutely not be a surprise what this movie will be about. I'm not a big fan of these 'literal' titles, I think they will scare people away very easily since you immediately know what it's about. The link is easily made to crap movie like The Devil Inside and The Last Exorcism. 

Something I noticed about this movie was that they only put attention to important things. There are always a few useless dialogues, they are necessary for every movie, but in this movie they almost mute these conversations. In fact, I only noticed these conversations because I had subtitles turned on. The focus is really on what's important and what isn't. 

The acting is quite good. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a good actor and he played his part as a worried father pretty good. I wasn't a big fan of Kyra Sedgwick, her acting wasn't very realistic, a bit over-the-top. Also, her character was a huge bitch which didn't improve me liking her. Thumbs up for Natasha Calis, who plays the girl Emily, she acted really good. She's cute at moments, but scary as hell when she needs to be. When she kept repeating "daddy, you scare me", it gave me shivers all over. 

The movie is actually quite tensive throughout. There were a few jump scares and the tension is very high in many scenes. The movie is filmed quite dark, which also helps improving the tension. There are quite a few interesting scenes, for example the one with the moth invasion. It's pretty scary. The creature at the end was a bit fake looking though. 

A few things what I didn't like was that people always seem to forget that they have something that's called light. People in horror movies never turn their goddamn lamps on and rather face the thing making noise in the darkness. Annoying as fuck. Also, the thing you saw moving in the MRI looked scary as fuck, but is also unrealistic as hell. And how the fuck do the doctors not see this thing? 

I thought The Possession was a reasonable movie, it's quite realistic and the girl playing Emily plays amazingly. I definitely expected it to be a terrible movie, but it's really an okay movie. Nothing special, but nothing bad either. I definitely had fun watching it. 

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

Insidious: Chapter 2

IMDB rate: 6,7

Genre: Ghost, Possession

I finally watched Insidious: Chapter 2 some time ago. I was never really a fan of Insidious, and I don't think I liked Insidious 2 a whole lot. The movie isn't bad or anything, the acting is very good and so are the special effects and stuff. I'm just not very keen on the storyline. I thought it was confusing but perhaps I understood things wrong.

Now excuse me if I'm wrong with a few happenings in the movie, at the point of writing this it has already been quite some time that I watched this movie. I might be wrong with remembering small facts and stuff, so sorry in advance!

First of all, amazing scares as usual. There were a few jump scares, and they were quite good. I do think that the scares are definitely less good compared with Chapter 1, but it's still good enough. The scares in this movie were a lot more obvious and predictable, so that's quite a shame. Still, they weren't bad. The atmosphere wasn't very tensive like other James Wan movies, that's something I definitely missed in this movie. I wasn't a big fan of the movie The Conjuring, but the atmosphere was definitely unsettling enough in that movie.

The acting is very good. I'm not a huge fan of Patrick Wilson, but his acting performances in the Insidious movies are very good. His role got a lot more depth in this movie so that's definitely a good improvement in this movie. His acting skills really showed off great with this type of character. I like Rose Byrne as an actress, but in this movie she was kinda annoying, definitely not her best performance. Another excellent thing in this movie was the younger version of Elise, played by Lindsay Seim, she looked so much like the older Elise (Lin Shaye). Real good casting!

The thing with Insidious that I dislike a lot is the storyline. I just don't like the things happening, it's weird, unreal and just confusing. I thought the first Insidious movie was confusing and I hoped the second chapter would clear things up, but of course, it just made things more confusing.
The parts when the people are in the ghost world are just laughable. It looks terrible and the scares are definitely not scary anymore in this scene.

I think that my opinion about the first Insidious movie is that it was a 'decent' movie, the sequel doesn't live up to it unfortunately. I think these movies start to look a lot like Paranormal Activity, and well, we all know that those movies didn't get better with each part. Of course, there will be another sequel and I'm afraid that it won't be any better than this. The opinions about Insidious Chapter 2 are very combined, some love it, some hate it. I personally am not a fan of these movies. The acting is great, the scares are okay at best but I just really hate the storyline. It's rubbish.

My personal rate: 5,5/10

Review: Session 9 (2001)

Session 9

IMDB rate: 6,6

Genre: Possession

Second time watching Session 9. I'm not really sure what genre to put this in. It's a bit possession I think? But is that because of the institution of because of the person? I'm not too sure, but let's keep it with possession. But if you disagree with that, please let me know what would be a better fitting genre for Session 9.

Session 9 is quite a slow movie and I'm still not too sure what to think of it. It has great moments and great shots but what's the best about this movie is the location I think. 

An asbestos abatement crew wins the bid for an abandoned insane asylum. What should be a straightforward, if rather rushed, job, is complicated by the personal histories of the crew. In particular, Hank is dating Phil's old girlfriend, and Gordon's new baby seems to be unnerving him more than should be expected. Things get more complicated as would-be lawyer Mike plays the tapes from a former patient with multiple personalities, including the mysterious Simon who does not appear until session 9, and as Hank disappears after finding some old coins.

I think that abandoned buildings are the best places for horror movies, they have something mysterious and in the case of an insane asylum it's actually kinda frightening. I think it's fair to say that I have a small obsession with abandoned buildings and I think the location of this movie is what made me interested in watching this movie. The movie is particularly set during daylight so you don't have to be scared of scary faces showing up in the dark. Or well, that is if they're not going into the hallway under the building, where there is almost no light. 

It's very interesting to see that a movie in this location is set during daylight, because the night would give a much scarier vibe to it. But that's not necessarily the purpose of this movie, to scare people. If it was, the storyline would've been very different and they would have used this amazing location very differently (probably a bit like Grave Encounters). But it gives a nice vibe to the mysterious thing happening to them while it's still daylight. 

What's most scary about this movie is when Mike is playing the tapes of Mary Hobbes. It's not necessarily what she says, it's the way she says things. When she suddenly switches voices with one of her personalities it's very creepy sounding. A great touch to this movie.

What I did not like as much in this movie was the acting. And with that I mean David Caruso's acting, I think he's one of the worst actors out there. His face is pretty Kristen Stewart like, and the way he speaks is pretty annoying. What I hated most was when he said to back off or something, they dramatically zoomed in on his face. Not his fault of course, but he was in the shot so it's still a bit his fault. Actually, the acting wasn't too bad if we're just ignoring David.

It's well written and unpredictable, it's very different compared to usual horror movies. I think a lot is left to the imagination and that is a nice twist for a change. 

The first half may be a bit slow and perhaps slightly boring, but in the second half the movies fights his way back and gives us some action with it as well. 

Session 9 is an interesting movie but you do need to pay attention to it if you want to get the story. The acting is good with the exception of David Caruso's acting abilities. It needs imagination to like the storyline, but I think the location helps quite good with that. I did expect that there would've been more action though, and it would've been more interesting if the beginning wasn't this slow.

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: American Horror Story: Asylum [Season 2]

American Horror Story

Season 2

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: Possession, Mad Scientist, TV Show

It has been sometime since my last American Horror Story review, the one about season 1. I think that American Horror Story deserves a review for each season, since every one is about some different subject and isn't related in anyway to the previous seasons.

I know I'm a bit late with my review, I already watched it quite some time ago but I never really felt like writing a review about it. Yesterday I watched the last episode of season 3, so I figured that it had to be done. 

I know that the opinions are very different for everyone, personally I liked the first season best, including the third season, and I liked the third season best after that, which makes this season my least favorite one this far. 

The most noticeable thing about American Horror Story are the actors. There are a few main actors who show up in (almost) every season, not a strange thing of course, but what does make it strange is the fact that every season has a different subject. This means that there are new characters and new supernatural things going on, but still with the same people. I must admit that it was a bit strange for me at first, especially in the second season, but in the third one I was already used to it. The problem with this setup could be that you're starting to make comparisons a lot easier. In a way, 'oh I liked her character better in the first one', things like that.
I've said this already in my previous review, but again I want to mention the incredible acting of Evan Peters and Jessica Lange. Other ones that I would like to mention are Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe and Lizzie Brochere.

American Horror Story definitely has a great cast.

I thought this season wasn't very good to be honest. Probably not an opinion that's appreciated a whole lot, since most people liked this one most. I thought it was messy. It was messy in the first one, but almost everything was linked back to something, so there weren't a whole lot loose ties. With this season I felt like they threw in 20 random stuff and failed to explain these happenings. 

There were the aliens, sure it could be good but that wasn't rounded up completely. Then there are these creatures created, also, very scary but they weren't shown a whole lot, and they just seemed very random as well. Or the Anne Frank part, personally I loved that part of the season, but again it seemed thrown in quite randomly, since it only lasted two episodes or so. And this is definitely not everything yet, there was so much more stuff that was random and not really relevant.

If I have to choose an episode that I liked best I would choose for the 'I Am Anne Frank: Part 1 & 2'. But like I already mentioned, the Anne Frank part was thrown in kinda random and it was very interesting, but if it was a bit more expanded it would be even better. 

I wouldn't say that this season was very bad or anything. It was entertaining, all these things going on are always fun to see. And of course the actors are all amazing. But a better connecting storyline would have made it so much better. My review of season 3 will be up this week I think, I liked 3 a lot more so it's a bit more positive compared to this one ;).

My personal rate: 7,5/10

Review: The Conjuring (2013)

The Conjuring

IMDB rate: 7,6

Genre: Possession, Haunted House

The next video for my 2013 watching list! I'm a bit late to the party I guess, because every blogger already wrote a review about this movie, but hey, I'm very poor and the cinema is very expensive ;). I quite liked The Conjuring, it was a good movie to watch, BUT I must say that I expected a lot more of it. There's a whole hype about this movie and everyone says how brilliant and scary it is, but personally I thought it just felt like another possession movie. It's a good movie, sure, but to me it wasn't something  incredible or something. 

In 1971, Carolyn and Roger Perron move their family into a dilapidated Rhode Island farm house and soon strange things start happening around it with escalating nightmarish terror. In desperation, Carolyn contacts the noted paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, to examine the house. What the Warrens discover is a whole area steeped in a satanic haunting that is now targeting the Perron family wherever they go. To stop this evil, the Warrens will have to call upon all their skills and spiritual strength to defeat this spectral menace at it's source that threatens to destroy everyone involved.

When the movie started I was of course very curious about it because I've read so many good reviews about it. People said how refreshing it was and how original it felt. I don't think that a movie needs to be refreshing to be good, it can be good even if you're using stuff that has been used a thousand times already. To me The Conjuring didn't feel like a refreshing movie. It reminded me of movies like Amityville Horror, The Orphanage, Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism. I don't think that it's bad that it looks a lot like those movies, but it's wrong to call it refreshing in that case. It wasn't refreshing, it was just the same concept only put in this movie in a slightly different way. 

What I loved about this movie was the beginning, were we see a story about a doll. As you might know, I'm terrified of dolls and I love a good possessed doll movie (there aren't too many of those, unfortunately). I wasn't entirely sure what The Conjuring was about, and seeing this doll made me all excited because The Conjuring is from James Wan, who happens to be the creator of Dead Silence, my all time favorite horror doll movie. I guess I expected a bit of a haunted house story mixed with this doll, but unfortunately we only see this doll in the very beginning and a few seconds halfway through the movie. Fact is, the movie itself isn't about the doll, at all. I was quite sad about this and to me it felt like the doll story was a bit useless. I get it that the story in the beginning was some sort of introduction to Ed and Lorraine, but then halfway through the movie their daughter suddenly sees it? I was a tiny bit confused by this. 

The acting is very good. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are both excellent actors for horror movies, and again they carried this role very well. Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor were both excellent too. There were only a few jump-scares and they were quite predictable if you ask me.

What I disliked a bit about this movie was the overuse of so called scary stuff. The doll, the clapping, the sleep walking girl, the girl seeing stuff in her room, the little girl having a imaginary friend, the slamming doors. Sure, these are all scary effects, but together in one movie they seem like one big mess in an attempt to make it scary as hell. There was just too many, and many of them didn't fit together.The scares being used was almost a constant, which made the impact a lot less impressive. It felt to me as if there was a lot left unexplained.
But again, the trailer showed a lot of the scares already, so we know what to expect.

While this review might be slightly negative, I do think it's a good movie. I've seen horror movies far worse than this. But I think that it's a bit overhyped which gave me a lot of expectations for this movie. These expectations weren't fulfilled so I think that made the movie a bit worse for me. If I knew nothing about it I think I would have liked it a bit more. The Conjuring is a good or decent movie, but don't expect something incredibly refreshing because the movie itself is quite standard in my opinion.

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: Evil Dead (2013)

Evil Dead

IMDB rate: 6,5

Genre: Possession

So it was finally time for me to watch The Evil Dead, the most anticipated movie of 2013. I've seen the original one only once, but I was very drunk at the time so unfortunately I can't remember much of it. I am planning to watch it again though, but in a sober state this time. I remember only small parts of the original Evil Dead so I can't compare the two unfortunately.
I did like this movie quite a lot. Very good one.

Five twenty-something friends become holed up in a remote cabin. When they discover a Book of the Dead, they unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival.

Evil Dead is definitely my favorite movie of 2013 at the moment, but with that I must say that I haven't seen many 2013 horror movies. Besides that, it's quite a good movie. Very good special effects, good acting and quite a fun story.
With many horror movies, it feels like it takes awhile before it reaches an interesting point, a point where suddenly a lot is happening, but with this movie, it felt like it all was very quick, and I thought the movie must be almost over, but surprise, it was actually still in the beginning. A nice turn of events. This really is one of the good horror movies of the last few years. I know that many people dislike remakes, but I think that there are many people who also like this remake. Or well, remake, reboot, sequel, prequel, whatever it is, it's really a good movie.

What I loved in this movie were the amazing special effects. It's filled with blood and gore, just as Evil Dead is supposed to be. It was an amazing combination between awesome and brutal. The tension is builds up great, it was good at the beginning, but at the ending it was amazing. The make-up looks amazing. I read that they did not use any CGI in this movie, just like in the original one. I love that they did this, keeping true to the original. With these effects some parts reminded me of The Exorcist. Great feeling.

Sure, this movie is a bit over-the-top, and it's all a bit too much, but from what I can remember of the original Evil Dead, it was the same. That's what makes it the Evil Dead. I did not find it a scary movie, but a good shocker it was.

I really liked this movie a lot. It was very good and had incredibly images. The special effects looked incredibly good and the acting was amazing. The movie is definitely one of the better ones that I've seen in the last few years. I'm quite sure that even die-hard Evil Dead fans will enjoy this remake, because it's simply brilliant. Go watch it!

My personal rate: 8,5/10

Review: The Devil Inside (2012)

The Devil Inside

IMDB rate: 4,0
Genre: Possession, Found-Footage

When I first saw the trailer of this movie I thought it would be a really good movie. Boy, was I disappointed. The trailer shows ever reasonable scare in the movie, so everything that happens, is not surprising anymore. I already thought the scary moments where very rare, but because of the trailer, they were also predictable, which is quite a shame.

The 'found footage' genre is really popular right now, and I really enjoy those movies most of the time. But because of the increasing popularity, everything is becoming the same. Most of the found footage movies are about a invisible spirit or demon, and this becomes a bit boring. Every story line is the same,  the scares are becoming predictable, just because of the overusing of this concept. We all know the found footage movies are fake, so why bothering for found footage when you can make a good quality movie? Maybe there are still surprising found footage movies, I only know that I haven't seen one in a long time.

The Devil Inside is about a woman (Isabella) who travels to Italy to do a documentary about her mother who in 1989 supposedly killed three clergy who were performing an exorcism on her at the time. When she gets there she meets two priests who also perform exorcisms on possessed people. Isabella has a camera man with her who films and documents everything. They soon find that Isabella's mother is still possessed, but when they try to do the exorcism, they find that the demon inside Isabella's mother can jump from one to another.

When I watched this movie, I thought there was a lot of resembling between The Exorcist and this movie. To the point that some things seemed literally stolen from it. I saw a funny quote on IMDB and I think it's quite relevant: 'Just watch the exorcist and shake the tv around'.
I think that this movie wouldn't be that bad if the story wasn't that predictable, unbelievable and boring. They can make a lot of this movie, but they kinda screwed it up in my opinion. The acting was not even that bad, besides from the character Isabella. But there still wasn't any chemistry between the characters, so you couldn't care less what happens to them.

And I didn't even started about the ending yet. I won't give any spoilers, but seriously? That was the best you could do? The ending seems like it was made this way so people are wanting to see a part 2, but the complete movie was so bad, that they failed miserably at it. It seemed like the idea came from that scary youtube ghost movie in the car (search for it if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Luckily this movie only lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes, so it was not a complete evening ruiner. All I can say is, don't waste money or time on this movie. Maybe if you're a die hard fan of exorcism movies, or you like the found footage genre, you might like it.

My personal rate: 2,5/10