State of Emergency (2011)

State of Emergency

IMDB rate: 5,2

Genre: Zombie

Starring: Jay Hayden, Tori White, Scott Lilly

State of Emergency is another one of Netflix' horror movies, it seemed pretty interesting actually. On the poster we see an entire horde of zombies attacking some dude, and the description was promising as well. After seeing the movie I can describe it in one word: 'meh'. It wasn't a bad movie, but it was definitely not interesting either. The poster was not very realistic if you compare it with the movie.

Here's what it's about:
Chaos consumes a small town when a chemical facility explodes releasing a deadly toxin. moments after the leak, the town's residents show signs of mutation, causing the military to quarantine the area leaving any survivors helpless and trapped inside. The story follows Jim, a young man isolated within the red zone, as he eludes flesh eating zombies in an attempt to win back his freedom

This is another one of those vague zombie movies where it's not very clear how it all started. We know that it happened because of an explosion in a factory where they make chemical weapons. This obviously has some effect on some people, but it's not clear who are affected by this, and why some are not. I think it's always a pretty interesting and important fact to know the details of an apocalypse. I'm not really sure if these people are even really zombies since their biting doesn't seem to change other people in zombies. 

The zombies are also a bit weird, some guy is literally shouting for 5 minutes and the zombie inside isn't reacting, but when the guy is trying to escape the zombie by running to some sort of attic and he makes on teeny tiny sound by walking around, the zombie is immediately reacting. I think the makers tried a bit too hard in this moment to create tension, even though it's pretty unrealistic. The zombies seem to only stand still at one spot, they just show up out of nowhere, which is a bit strange. They just keep standing there for all that time, doing nothing. Sure, I have no idea what else they should do, but they hardly seem dangerous since they can be easily avoided. 

The acting isn't very good overall, there's this guy named Scott (played by Scott Lilly) and he's the absolute worst of this movie. He's so emotionless and unrealistic. I must admit that the dialogue isn't great either, so everything they say sounds kinda lame and stupid. Jay Hayden plays the main character Jim and he's quite a good actor. He was pretty outstanding compared to the rest of the cast.
The thing I always find very peculiar in horror movies are the female characters, since they're still paying way too much attention to doing their make-up in the biggest apocalypses ever. I really think that no matter how vain the person is, someday she will give up being pretty for nobody.

State of Emergency is a very slow movie, with not much interesting going on. The poster suggests that there are tons of zombies, but in fact we only get to see very few. They don't even seem very dangerous when you're just not so stupid to walk into them. The whole situation doesn't seem very threatening at all actually, they're in quarantine, but the government does provide food and stuff, so they're absolutely not completely helpless. State of Emergency isn't necessarily a bad movie, but there's just not a whole lot going on, nothing that makes it interesting or something.

My rate: 4,5/10 

Small rant about Annabelle! (NOT A REVIEW)

When I first heard that there was a movie coming out about the creepy doll from The Conjuring I was very happy. Doll movies are my favorite since they scare the shit out of me. I haven't seen Annabelle yet at this point, and I'm starting to think I don't even want to see it.

Things that bother me terribly much is when movies are overhyped. The type where every billboard in your town shows the movie poster, every ad you see is about the movie and stuff like that. I thought The Conjuring was overhyped and indeed I did not like it very much, but now with Annabelle almost being released in cinema, I'm literally astonished with how much this movie is being overhyped.

For example: 

First of all, this amazingly scary video pops up on every IMDB page you go to. 

In the case you weren't freaked out enough yet, it plays another video on the side when the other one stops.

What I saw yesterday made me really worry about the quality of this movie, since I was on a website for World of Warcraft, and not one, not two, not even three images/videos popped up... but four! This wasn't even a movie website, which I would understand somewhat, this was a site about World of Warcraft, bugger off Annabelle!

Really people, don't you think one picture will promote the movie enough? The doll is scary enough already as it is, it will definitely stand out on a site for World of Warcraft. Anyway, I am scared this movie will be shit, since this is often the case with overhyped movies. I hope for the best, scared for the worst.

Bates Motel (Season 1)

Bates Motel
Season 1

IMDB rate: 8,2

Genre: Thriller, Serial Killer
Starring: Freddie Highmore, Vera Farmiga, Max Thieriot

A while ago I finally watched Psycho for the first time. I actually decided to watch it after I first watched this TV show. Since Bates Motel is actually a prequel to Psycho, I thought it would be useful to watch it sometime. Normally I'm not a big fan of 'old' movies, but Psycho sure as hell amazed me. Actually, I loved Psycho. Just like I love Bates Motel.

I just finished watching the first season and I'm totally in love with it. It really is an amazingly good show. I'm doubting if it will actually follow the storyline of Psycho though. Sure, Norman Bates is a bit messed up, and does have a weird relationship with his mother. But so far it just doesn't seem yet as if it will be just like in Psycho. I hope it does though. The time Psycho is set, the mother of Norman Bates is dead for 10 years already, meaning at this moment it's not even near to what it should be eventually.

The TV show is starting to focus on other things besides Norman Bates, such as his brother who is in the weed industry. I've never seen one of the sequels to Psycho, nor read the book, so correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think he is having a brother, nor is the town he lives in still standing because of the weed industry in Psycho. Because of these sidetracks in Bates Motel I'm really wondering if it will actually follow the storyline of Psycho someday, I sure hope it does.

At the moment of typing this I'm halfway through season 2, the focus is going a bit more towards the mother and the brother, and less on Norman. But well, haven't finished it yet, so I'll let you know in the next review how season 2 turned out to be ;).

Bates Motel obviously isn't set in the 60's like Psycho, it does have the modern twist with cellphones and stuff like that. But something that's pretty significant is the way the Bates' are dressed and stuff. They also have cellphones, but they're dressed as if they're in the 60's most of the time. Just like Norma's car, which is an older car compared to the rest.

The thing I'm most amazed about is Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates. He is an amazing actor, of course he played in many big movies when he was younger such as August Rush (one of my favorites), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland.
As you know, I first watched Bates Motel and after that I watched Psycho. I was pretty amazed by the similarity between Freddie Highmore and Anthony Perkins. Their whole way of acting and facial expressions is the same, I think Freddie Highmore is a great choice for the role of Norman Bates.
Vera Farmiga plays Norman Bates' mother Norma Bates, and well, I can't really tell you how she is in Psycho, because of you-know-what, but I do like the chemistry between her and Freddie Highmore. They both act incredibly well as mother and son with an odd relationship. She's a great actress, I think she's a great choice for this role.

I wouldn't necessarily say that I have one specific favorite episode, they're pretty much all ending with a small twist which makes you eager to watch the next episode. They're all really good though, and I would definitely recommend watching this show. Fan of Psycho or not, it's worth a watch.

My rate: 8,5/10

Interested in reading my review of Psycho? Click this link!

Torment (2013)

Torment

IMDB rate: 4,9

Genre: Slasher

Starring: Katharine Isabelle, Robin Dunne

Recently I decided to watch Torment on Netflix because I was pretty interested by it's poster. On the poster we see a mouse mask which looked pretty cool. Personally I'm a big fan of killers with creepy masks, gives a nice vibe to the story. Torment actually isn't much of a good movie, it starts of pretty good, but suddenly begins with stupid actions which makes it quite unrealistic. 

Here's what it's about:

Newlyweds Cory and Sarah Morgan take Cory's 7-year old son Liam up to the country for some much needed family time. When it appears as if Liam has run away, psychological suspense becomes straight-out horror, as Sarah and Cory must now confront a sadistic cult-like family who have been hiding in the house all along and have taken Liam for themselves.

Katherine Isabelle plays the main character Sarah Morgan. As we all know, Katherine Isabelle is not a stranger to horror movies. She played in American Mary, Ginger Snaps and this year released See No Evil 2. So Katherine Isabelle was a welcome face to this movie. Her role is a bit more grown up compared to her other roles, which was actually a bit strange since she's still extremely young looking (mid 20's?). In this movie she acted pretty good, but unfortunately she was the only one. I was especially annoyed with the young boy Liam, played by Peter DaCunha. His acting was not very good and his voice was incredibly emotionless. Pretty annoying since he was quite important for this movie. His character is the biggest dick as well, he really has no manners at all it seems. He also never listens to his father, which of course leads to some messed up situations. 

At first I thought this movie would be something like The Strangers. This isn't a bad thing because I think The Strangers is an incredibly good movie. It did start out to be something like The Strangers, but suddenly goes a very different way with kidnapping children to form a family. This beginning was pretty tensive and even somewhat scary, but when the story suddenly changes direction, it also changes the whole scary vibe it has. The masks these people are wearing are genuinely scary and do have a lot of scaring potential, unfortunately the story did not have enough potential to live up to these creepy masks. 

Most of the movie is set during the night, which makes it very hard to keep track of what is happening. Sometimes you are supposed to see something happen, but because it's so dark you have no idea what's going on. That's something quite useful about these subtitles since they sometimes describe the sounds, so that way you still know a bit what's going on. 

Speaking of the dark, if you're being chased by a few psychopaths, would you ever consider to fire your flare gun multiple times? Just because you can't see? Sure, one time might be possible, someone in town might see it and calls the cops, plus you see something for yourself. But firing this thing 4/5 times? Really? Some way to let the psychopaths know where you're hiding... I think if she would've wait a few minutes her eyes would've gotten used to the dark, patience was all she needed. 

The so-called twist in this movie is pretty lame, and unbelievable as well. It's a very useless fact, just as letting the people know that one of these guys is ugly. Why would that matter? He sure already is ugly on the inside, why would his looks matter?

Torment is not a very good movie. It started off with great potential, but chose to go a so-called original way instead. This original way did not turn out very great, which was kinda sad. Acting is pretty mixed up, some actors were great while others weren't good at all. Wouldn't recommend watching this movie.

My rate: 4/10

Cabin Fever 3: Patient Zero (2014)

Cabin Fever: Patient Zero

IMDB rate: 4,6

Genre: Virus

Starring: Sean Astin, Mitch Ryan, Jillian Murray

Another Cabin Fever movie. I actually did not necessarily hate the first Cabin Fever movie. I just liked the idea of it, of a virus killing people and stuff. It's definitely a movie not to take seriously, and then you might be able to like it a bit perhaps. I always enjoy watching the first Cabin Fever movie, even though it's not a very good movie. The second movie was a lot less serious and gave it a somewhat comedic twist, but that didn't turn out great either. Part three is a lot more serious again, and in my opinion a bit better compared to part 2. It's still a bad movie though. 

First of all, I'm a bit disappointed in Sean Astin for lowering the bar so incredibly much. First he was the hero of Middle Earth (come on, Frodo was a whining prick), and now this? He played patient zero in this movie, and it just had so many flaws. Of course you get to know nothing about the virus again, this patient zero is supposed to be the most interesting character in the movie, but instead they just test on him, he turns out to be a dick and that's it. The focus in this movie is again on the partying teenagers, which is quite a shame because this patient zero's story could've been so incredibly interesting. You would've gotten to know how the virus would've reached spain, what the connection was with Cabin Fever 1 and 2. Instead the focus is all wrong, which makes it just another terrible Cabin Fever movie.

I really had high hopes when I read last year that there will be a Cabin Fever movie called Patient Zero.  The story would've gotten a lot potential, a whole story about this virus and how it all works and stuff. Of course I should've known better that this is not how horror movies work, and that the makers always choose partying teenagers above an actual interesting story.

The moment you saw that a girl would join these guys on their bachelor party you know which way this movie would go. Of course she would try to seduce the man who would marry, even though her boyfriend's with her, because in horror movies, every girl is either a slut or a virgin. A bit tired to see this actually, it would've been nicer if the girl would've been left out. But hey, how else can they show the grossest scene in the movie where the boyfriend goes down on the girl who is sick, and show his mouth filled with blood, because he can't taste or feel the difference between a shit load of blood and you-know-what. He also can't seem to hear the difference between screaming and moaning... right...

Cabin Fever is overal a pretty lame movie, but it does always have great special effects, and the make-up looks awesome as well. The moment where one of the guys tries to pull his girlfriend up and the skin of her arms just rips off is kinda awesome. Incredibly far-fetched, but awesome as well. Or the moment where on of the doctors shoots his gun but because of his illness, his hand rips off leading to a gun in his head is pretty awesome too. 

Cabin Fever: Patient Zero is not a good movie. The acting is pretty bad, with the exception of Sean Astin. The plot of a patient zero is unfortunately not used enough, only with some lame ending scene. This movie is pretty exaggerated, but it does have some pretty cool effects. Now all we have to do is wait for the next disappointment called Cabin Fever: Outbreak ;).

My rate: 4,5/10

Dead Within (2014)

Dead Within

IMDB rate: 3,9

Genre: Zombie, Drama

Starring: Dean Chekvala, Amy Cale Peterson

My review of Dead Within will not be very long, the movie wasn't very interesting and actually nothing really happens. I think it's safe to say that this movie made me feel dead within. Really, you might think I'm exaggerating, but in this movie absolutely nothing happens. 

Here's in short what's going on:

Six months after the outbreak, a man and woman have survived by isolating themselves in a remote cabin. Starved for resources, they must confront the horrors that threaten them from outside and from within.

Sounds pretty interesting right? Well, it wasn't. First of all because you actually don't notice a thing for this starving for resources. They still have water (!), batteries for normal light and candles. They perhaps don't eat shit-loads of food, but they don't have to skip a meal either. They even have a bottle of wine now and then. The guy goes out every now and then to search houses nearby to search for more food and stuff, unfortunately we don't get to see a thing of his adventures, because this movie mainly focuses on the 'demons' inside the cabin.

This movie is listed everywhere as a zombie movie, but fact is that we only got to see one zombie, who's only a child. The other two zombies we get to see are in a flashback, which isn't very interesting to be honest. Oh, there's even a small flash of the dog being a zombie. You can actually just see that the dog is just wearing some color or something that must look as if you can see his bones and stuff, and instead of more scary this dog becomes more adorable because of it. A bit of a fail if you ask me. In the movie The Returned we didn't get to see a zombie either, but that movie was just strong on a whole different level. This movie just tries a bit too hard to be interesting, which it just isn't.

Dead Within is an extremely boring movie, instead of zombies we get to see a woman going crazy because she's being isolated for too long. And actually, it's quite a bitchy move because that guy is only protecting her by keeping her inside, and she's just going plain crazy on him. The entire movie you were hoping for more action, because at first you have no idea what the movie will go to eventually. I thought they would starve slowly or something, or got chased away from their safe place, but nope, the bitch was just going crazy. The female character really is a selfish unthankful bitch. 

Dead Within is 91 minutes of plain boredom. It's not horror, it's not interesting, it's just nothing. This movie could've been somewhat interesting if there was a twist at the ending where it would appear that the guy was lying to her for six months and that the world would've been normal again, and he would just kept her locked in or something. That would've made it just a tiny bit more interesting. I absolutely don't recommend watching Dead Within, unless you like being bored for 91 minutes :). 

My rate: 2/10

The Caller (2011)

The Caller

IMDB rate: 6,1

Genre: Revenge, Serial Killer

Starring: Rachelle Lefevre, Stephen Moyer, Lorna Raver

Recently the name of The Caller kept popping up on every horror site I visited, because it was also available on Netflix it seemed like a good time to watch this movie. Because of the title I expected something like 'When A Stranger Calls', or something similar to that. The Caller is definitely different from When A Stranger Calls. I thought it was a good movie, but a bit confusing as well. It's hard to say which horror genre this movie belongs to, perhaps a bit Revenge? Or Serial Killer? I don't really know, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

I know Rachelle Lefevre from Under The Dome and Twilight, both not very good movies/TV shows, so I didn't really know what to expect from her. In the two Twilight movies she played in, her role wasn't very big and since the movies are pretty crap it was a bit of a hard read of her acting skills. In Under the Dome her role is pretty big but since that show is pretty crap as well, I just didn't pay a whole lot of attention to her. I liked her in The Caller though, she was very convincing. Her role isn't one of those whining roles, she actually tries to make things right, she was kinda badass. Also, she has the best hair ever ;).

I was a bit sad actually with how the movie ended up to be. Not because it was bad, but because I liked how John Guidi (played by Stephen Moyer) believed her immediately, and then something bad happened and it was just a twist I didn't expect.

At first I was very skeptical about how the gardener George (played by Luis Guzmán) could've actually met the woman who lived in the house in the 70's or 80's (can't remember when the caller Rose lived there), because he seemed way too young to be working in that garden for 30 or 40 years. But after I watched the movie I searched for Luis Guzmán on IMDB, and the guy actually was 56 by the time this movie was made, while I thought he would be 40 years old max.

Where I'm still a bit skeptical about is the finger buried in the ground. I just won't believe that finger would still look that good after 30 or 40 years. Also, every time Mary Kee is screaming nobody is reacting to it. Every normal apartment building is very noisy, and I find it hard to believe that no one heard her scream and called the cops or something. Or these people are just all very deaf.

I don't really get the purpose of the ex-husband in this movie, he's only being annoying and trying to take her dog, it doesn't really seem to add anything to the movie. It made me worry that he would took her dog, but that's about it. By the way, that dog is perhaps the least protective dog I've ever seen.

The movie is very tensive and it's pretty confusing in the beginning. When you finally get what's going on you instantly start liking this movie more. I really liked the ending where Mary Kee is helping her past-self attack the woman, it's very interesting and well thought through. The Caller isn't a movie filled with scares, and you really need to pay attention to keep up with what's going on, but it's a very good movie if you ask me. Some things are a bit far-fetched, but well, which horror movie isn't far-fetched. Great acting and a great ending.

My rate: 8/10