Review: The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013)

The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia

IMDB rate: 5,2

Genre: Ghost

I think it's been a month already since when I last watched this movie. I was a bit busy with school and the time I had spare I never really wanted to write a review about this movie...
I never really was a fan of the first Haunting in Connecticut, although I liked it a bit better compared to this movie. The first half of this movie wasn't too bad, but things suddenly got slow and boring and I started disliking it.

The first thing that's wrong with this movie is it's title, The Haunting in CONNECTICUT, Ghosts of GEORGIA. That are two different states! Just call it The Haunting in Georgia, or just Ghosts of Georgia or something. It wouldn't really matter since the story isn't very relevant to the first movie. Besides the fact that the happenings are happening because of things that happened in the past.

Starting with the acting, it wasn't too great, but not bad either. Abigail Spencer plays Lisa Wyrick, a mother who has the ability to see ghosts but takes medicine to avoid seeing them. She is one of the main characters in the movie and while her acting isn't bad, it's not very convincing. She cares about her daughter but is also very ignorant when her daughter is seeing invisible people (aka, ghosts just like herself).
Lisa's sister Joyce, played by Katee Sackhoff, also has the ability to see ghosts. She's a bit of a comedic relief to the movie, the reactions of Andy Wyrick about her are quite funny and it gives a good twist to the movie. Joyce doesn't mind seeing ghosts and treats it like it's a gift, but she doesn't seem to see them that often actually.

Chad Michael Murray plays Lisa's husband Andy Wyrick. He's quite a decent actor but I don't really like him in a 'family situation' kind of role. He still seems very young (even though he's almost 33 years old) and he would be more suitable for a younger role I think, for example his role in House of Wax.
The main character of this movie is Heidi, the daughter of Lisa and Andy. She's played by Emily Alyn Lind. I know that she's a young actress but I wasn't very crazy about her. The looks on her face were very annoying actually, even when she's happily riding her bike she's looking concerned (and this was before she saw a ghost). Her acting wasn't bad and for most of the movie she was quite well, but the look on her face was just very annoying.

The script wasn't too good. First of all, Heidi's name is called a thousand times in this movie. I never was very crazy about the name 'Heidi' but after this movie you'll easily start disliking it. The fathers job to take care of his daughter isn't being done very well. When stuff is happening he's asking her to stay put while he goes investigating. It's soon very clear that she of course will wander off. Also, when she goes missing he drives maniacally around to search her. This while she can wander on the road or walk from the forest to the street in those few seconds.
What bothered me most was the ending. It was so incredibly boring while those last things happened. It was too slow and too over exaggerated. It was just like that scene in Mirrors where the mirror collapses a thousand times.

The movie immediately shows a lot of ghosts already in the beginning of the movie, while it has it's good sides that things aren't postponed until the very end of the movie, it also has it's bad sides. Because we already witnessed so many ghosts it wasn't scary or surprising anymore. We already saw most of it and it was just waiting for another ghost to show up. It was a bit too much in my opinion.

The acting was quite decent in this movie, the special effects were OK as well. The story was interesting in the beginning but became boring after a while. It definitely doesn't live up to the first Haunting in Connecticut.

My personal rate: 5/10

Review: Misfits [Season 2]

So I just finished watching Misfits season 2 for the second time. I've been planning to write about it for such a long time already, but I never got around doing it. But now I've watched it for the second time I figured it might be time to write this review.

Here's the link to season 1, if you're interested in reading it.

Those who read my first review know that I loved the first season. I'm an absolute big fan of this show ever since first watching it. It's refreshing, it has great humor and even though most characters are kinda dicks, you'll get to like them after awhile. Their superpower somehow represents their character so that's kinda nice.

Perhaps a bit of a spoiler, but if you're interested in know the main characters powers then please read further.

In short; Simon can get invisible, he's a very shy boy and often feels ignored.

Kelly is always worried of what people might think of her, her power is hearing other people's thoughts. 

Curtis is always regretting his past and has the ability to travel back in time to reconsider bad choices. 

Alisha likes attention and her 'power' is that everyone who touches her wants to have sex with her (or rape her in some cases). Lamest power ever?

We finally discover what Nathan's power is after his brutal end in season 1.... yes, the guy is immortal. And believe me, he will need it in season 2. 

I won't discuss each episode since I don't really see the use in it (even though there are only 7 episodes), but my favorite episodes are episode 1 and 6. Mainly because there are so many things going on in there, they're pretty awesome. 

My least favorite episode was the seventh episode, the Christmas special. It's the one were Nathan finds a girl and acts all stupid and disappears from the show. So unfortunately he doesn't show up again for season 3. I liked season 3 but it was not really the same without him. I liked the replacement guy Rudy as well, but he was very different and it made the third season not as good as the first two seasons.

(After season 3 I didn't continue watching any further because all the main characters disappeared and it became really lame). Anyway, I will write about season 3 shortly as well, since I almost finished watching it (again).

Another thing that I didn't like as much -again, spoilers-, was the time traveling Simon. I like time traveling things but if you start thinking about it nothing is right anymore. It's such a confusing thing. And when you finally think you've figured everything out, you'll figure out that you're still wrong. Time traveling is just to confusing to make it right. 

Misfits isn't a very typical show. It's brutal in many ways and it contains very strong language. It shows everything it wants and that makes it absolutely awesome. it's funny, refreshing, tensive and good. It really is a great show. Unfortunately this was the last amazing season with Nathan, after that everything changed a lot :(. Still, first two season were amazing.

My personal rate: 9/10

Review: Silent Retreat (2013)

Silent Retreat

IMDB rate: 6,1

Genre: Monster

I got send the screener of Silent Retreat and I was already impressed with the trailer. Trailers don't say much though, half of the horror movies have the best trailer ever while the movie sucks balls. I was a bit scared of this happening when watching the trailer of Silent Retreat. Luckily, that wasn't the case. It really was a good movie, and I was very impressed by it. 

Storyline taken from IMDB:

Janey is sent to a silent retreat in the middle of the woods for rehabilitation, only to discover that the men who run it are brainwashing women to be quiet and submissive, and is she breaks the rules, she'll find out what lurks beyond the trees..

The movie starts off very tensive and in my opinion it was an excellent scene. The acting was good, the  images were beautifully shot and the music was chosen excellently. A great start for the movie I would say. I really was drawn into the movie because of this beginning for some reason.

There is hardly any dialogue so it's very difficult to keep the viewers interested by just using emotions, signs and music. There was dialogue when it was needed, when there wasn't dialogue there were emotions shown by frowning or smiling to know what was going on. It was done perfectly right in my opinion, it kept me interested. This way of acting does require certain skills and I think that most actors performed quite well, without saying anything. I wasn't very much impressed with the main actress though (Chelsea Jenish), I thought she tried a bit too hard or something.

Speaking of the dialogue, brilliant contrast between the music and a specific bloody scene.

The location is very well chosen, it seems far from the outside world and the fact that their 'rooms' are actually just cabins make this even more look like so. For the storyline though I don't think that this would be a very helpful teaching method. They can walk out of the cabin whenever they want, they just have to time it right. Also, if they walked through the woods (assuming they avoided walking into the creature) instead of near the road there's no way that these guys will find them every again. 

The creature is only shown clearly at the end of the movie, which is what almost every movie does. In some cases it works, in some it doesn't. I think that Silent Retreat waited just long enough with showing the monster. Each 'attack scene' there was shown a little bit more of this creature and what it was attracted to. It did keep me interested to know whatever was hiding in the woods. 

To describe the creature I would say that it looked like a mix between the Jeepers Creepers guy and a creature from The Descent, but a bit more fashionable with it's fur thing. 

Now, I loved the whole idea of not being able to speak. It's a great concept and it leads to interesting outcomes. With a creature terrorizing this bunch it does make it a bit more interesting. Another nice touch is that the creature is attracted by noise, it obviously fits the concept. The only thing that I disliked about this movie was the ending, it was a bit weird and didn't make much sense to me. It was a bit opposite from what the rest of the movie claimed. Also, a bit of a background story for the main characters would have been nice. Since they couldn't do it by telling, perhaps a flashback? That would've been nice.

I really liked Silent Retreat, it's a good concept with some nice touches to it. The acting is good, there are some beautifully images and the music is well chosen. I was interested through the entire movie, because it was something different from what I watch usually. 

My personal rate: 7,5/10

Review: Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers

IMDB rate: 4,9

Genre: Slasher

I'm still busy trying to watch every Halloween movie, it's not going as quickly as the Nightmare on Elm Street movies (watched one each day at the time), but hey, I'm getting there! This time it's the sixth movie that I watched and well, it was rubbish. There were only a few good things about that movie, but  mostly it was a waste of time.

Luckily only three more to go (Resurrection, H20 and Halloween 2 - the remake), I skipped the third movie by the way. Perhaps I will watch it someday but since it's in no way related to the Michael Myers Halloween stories I thought it would be too bad if I skipped it. Also, I can't find it on DVD, which is another reason why I skipped it.
I'm glad by the way that H20 and Resurrection ignored everything that happened in 4-6, since 5 and 6 were not really worth remembering.

Halloween VI was a really confusing movie. It mostly continues the happenings of Halloween 5, only 5 years later. Jamie is escaping Michael after giving birth to his child, which is pretty gross since he probably raped her (according to her reaction). I must have missed this in the previous part but apparently Jamie was kidnapped by 'a bunch of evil druids' according to IMDB, I never noticed this, but whatever. Anyway, she escapes and gets killed very quickly, so it was a very short part for Jamie's character.

Unfortunately this time Jamie wasn't played by Danielle Harris. It wouldn't be too strange if Danielle Harris took the role again since the movie was made 7 years after Halloween 4, meaning Danielle Harris was 18 at the time (younger in the movie). It would have fit the story if she took the role again, her age was practically perfect for the role.

What I liked a lot about this movie was the fact that Tommy returned. It's as if Nancy came back to fight Freddy! Tommy is also not played by Brian Andrews but by Paul Rudd this time. Now, I'm quite a big fan of Paul Rudd and seeing him in a horror movie was very surprising to me. I liked him though, I thought he did resemble the young Tommy in appearance, so quite a good choice I think.

Overall I thought Halloween VI was a shit movie, it was predictable and incredibly lame. We finally got an explanation why Michael can't be killed but to be honest it was the lamest excuse ever. It was as if the movie was not complete and they put this in it to make it longer. In Halloween V there was already a lead to 'the man in black' though, so it wasn't completely random. Nevertheless, I disliked his 'curse' story.
I am still excited for the next movie though, but this is probably because it totally ignores part 4-6.

Big respect though for Donald Pleasence for still playing Dr. Loomis, unfortunately this was his last time.

My personal rate: 3,5/10

Review: Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night (2010)

Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night

IMDB rate: 5,3

Genre: Ghost, Found Footage

This will be a short review since I watched this movie quite some time ago already, and I simply forgot to write about it. I think it's worth to write about it though. 

Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night is said to be a sequel to the original Paranormal Activity movie. Unfortunately, besides some small changes it's exactly the same as the original one. Quite ironic actually, since Hollywood remakes every Japanese successful movie, while in this case it's the other way around.

I liked the original Paranormal Activity, it was a welcome change in the genre I think. I know that most people dislike PA but I really thought it was scary at moments. I'm a real baby when it comes to 'paranormal' movies or shows for that matter, I just don't like the idea of invisible things around me. It gets even worse when those things are able to do scary stuff to you.

As I already mentioned, it's practically a remake of the American version, only thing different is that they immediately figure that it must have been a ghost who moved the wheelchair. There's also the typical Japanese vibe to it (not strange of course).
What's also different is that the girl has her legs broken, meaning she can't walk. This makes her extra vulnerable, a nice addition to the movie I think. I was really grossed out when she walked around with her legs all nasty, which is a big plus!

I liked this movie, it had it's scary moments and it had some nice twists compared with the original one. I do like the American version of Paranormal Activity better though. Nevertheless, still a fun movie to watch.

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: Ghost Ship (2002)

Ghost Ship

IMDB rate: 5,4

Genre: Ghost

It often surprises people when I say that I actually like Ghost Ship. Yes indeed, I think it's a nice movie.  Definitely not the best in it's genre, but still very amusing. There's absolutely nothing right about this movie, it's filled with goofs and stuff, but still; I like it. But why?

After discovering a passenger ship missing since 1962 floating adrift on the Bering Sea, salvages claim the vessel as their own. Once they begin towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre occurrences happen and the group becomes trapped inside the ship, which they soon learn is inhabited by  demonic creature.

The cast consisting Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects), Julianna Margulies (ER), Desmond Harrington (Wrong Turn) and Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, The Uninvited) isn't the best cast you can gather.

The most familiar face in this movie is Gabriel Byrne and his acting career isn't at it's top anymore, which isn't very strange after seeing Ghost Ship.
Another familiar face is Emily Browning, perhaps the best known actress at the moment (who is acting in this movie), and to be honest I think this is one of her better performances. In most movies she's quiet and being innocent and stuff, and in wasn't much different in this movie, but for some reason it felt better. Perhaps it was the fact that she played a dead girl that made it seem better, I have no idea.

But if it isn't the acting that made me like this movie, what did?

The storyline is wrong at every point possible, it's partly based on a true story and well.. almost nothing looks like the 'true story'. The characters aren't very interesting, they all seem a bunch of loners on sea.

The movie starts of quite cruel, which makes it rather interesting at first. Starting a movie with a bloodbath? Always a good thing to see, because it keeps you interested for at least awhile.
The scenery of the movie is amazing. The haunted ship looks incredibly cool and so do the costumes. It's really impressive and gives an excellent vibe for the movie.

It's really a shame that the acting and storyline isn't much great because there's so much more potential in this movie. I don't dislike it though, the setting of the movie is incredibly impressive and really lifts up a lot of bad in this movie. Ghost Ship really is a fun movie to watch in my opinion.

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: Diary of the Dead (2007)

Diary of the Dead

IMDB rate: 5,8

Genre: Zombie, Found Footage, Mockumentary

For those who followed me for a longer time, might remember that I once had the poster of Diary of the Dead as an header/logo thing for my blog. Strangely enough, I never watched the movie. Until now.

Not sure what to think of it really. It had good points, but I think it contained more bad points. It's a George A. Romero movie, aka the king of zombies, and well, it wasn't much good in my opinion. I wouldn't say that his zombie movies become less entertaining though, I really liked Land of the Dead (2005) so no bad things about his recent movies. 

I love the found footage genre, it's an amazing addition to the scaring effect I think. Zombies are scary, sure. But the hand camera brings an extra scare to it. It's more unexpected I think, also the movie style is a bit messier which can lead to nice effects (unless they're too shaky to see what the f is going on). 

So on the hand camera aspect of this movie, great thing to do! Only makes it better for me!

What's wasn't very good about this movie was the acting and the script. It was a terrible combination with unbelievable moments and terrible reactions of actors. It was unbelievable at every point possible.

When their friends got killed before them they react way too neutral. Especially the girl is annoying, she keeps repeating herself while mocking her boyfriend. I know that he's a dick, but stop repeating yourself dammit! Also, be less mocking towards him, really uncool.

 We see these types of people in every found footage movie; the ones who need to keep filming to document. Sure, that's a cool thing to do but I'm very sure that even those people have boundaries. 

For example this camera dude. At first he kept reloading his batteries, while there were screaming people in the hospital + a dead turning girl was in the room with him and he's only whining about his battery. The second time his friend is attacked by a zombie, and he doesn't even try to help her. He just keeps filming calmly while she almost gets bitten. Why the f* are people still friends with this miserable person? The third time he got chased by a zombie and he got bitten, simply because his documentary was more important than his girlfriend or his safety.

I like that they kept the slow walking zombie thing in it, you would think that people have better surviving changes with it but these people all seem to be really stupid that they can't walk fast enough without getting bitten. At some points though the zombies reached their victims a bit too fast, considering that in one case he walked from the forest to the house, into the bathroom which even has the possibility of being upstairs. Their friends were a bit too lazy to shut to door apparently.

Diary of the Dead isn't specifically a bad movie, it's worth at least one watch but further one it's quite standard and predictable. The acting isn't much good and neither was the script. The things they say are lame and quite stupid for students. I didn't really dislike it, but neither did I like it. 

My personal rate: 5,5/10