Review: The Purge (2013)

The Purge

IMDB rate: 5,5

Genre: Serial-Killer

Finally, time for another 2013 horror movie. I heard quite a few good things about this movie and when it was still in cinema the IMDB rate was around a 7,5 or something. As you can see, this drastically dropped since that moment. This isn't very weird since that it happens with most movies after awhile. What I find weird is that The Conjuring still has a high rating, sure it wasn't a bad movie but personally I thought this movie was a lot better compared with The Conjuring. I am aware that they are two very different movie, with a completely different subject, but I thought this one was a lot more original than The Conjuring.

In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity -including murder- becomes legal. The police can't be called. Hospitals suspend help. It's one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking. When an intruder breaks into James Sandin's gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear a family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary, and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide.

What I loved most about The Purge was the concept. First of all, it was set in the future, which makes the happenings a lot more believable. Second, the whole concept of a 'killing day' was amazing. Well, of course not for the people who are being killed... but it's a cool idea to minimize crime overall. To be honest, I wouldn't be too surprised if America ever gained this Purge-day. It would be kinda fucked up, but I'm just saying that it wouldn't surprise me a whole lot.

The acting in this movie is very good. Ethan Hawke is an amazing actor. While I wasn't too much of a fan of Sinister, I liked the acting in it, especially from Ethan Hawke. And again, he did an amazing job. Lena Headey is of course the best known for Game of Thrones where she plays Cersei Lannister. A very different role from this one, and it was actually quite funny to see her play in a role like this one. I must admit that I expected an arrogant Cersei look or quote during the movie, just because I was so used to seeing her in that role, but of course that didn't happen. Other than that, Lena Headey is a brilliant actress.
The children weren't too great, the guy was okay but the girl was rather annoying. In my opinion she over-acted a bit, and her character was also quite annoying.

The scares weren't very surprising, actually, they were rather predictable. But besides that I didn't thought it was a bad movie. I've read many negative reviews, but seriously, it's a decent movie with an excellent concept. Perhaps the performance of this concept wasn't too well, a bit predictable and such but really, it wasn't bad.

The so called 'freaks' of this movie were actually rather scary with their masks on. They reminded me a lot of the ones in The Strangers, and I'm personally a big fan of The Strangers. I think that masks overall make a movie more interesting and more scary. The attacker is unknown that way which makes it much more a mystery.
The scenes with the girls were the most scary to me, their giggling the entire time was very unsettling.

The Purge is a very decent movie in my opinion. It's a lot less overhyped compared to The Conjuring and personally I liked The Purge a lot more. I don't exactly know why I keep comparing these two movies, perhaps because they came out around the same time, but anyway, The Conjuring was a lot less original compared with this one.
Great acting and an interesting concept. Perhaps not the most impressing scares or storytelling, but overall it was very good.

My personal rate: 7/10

The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 8: Too Far Gone

FINALLY, a good episode of The Walking Dead. For those who read my previous reviews about the Walking Dead episodes know that the past few episodes had it's ups and downs. The main thing was about this illness and the governor and to be honest, it wasn't much interesting. It was tensive to watch the prison scenes where people were almost dying, because you were afraid that one of your favorite characters would die, but since that was the only tensive thing it's wasn't much interesting. Also, the whole governor story became a bit old and reminded me a lot of season 3.

Anyway, like I said this episode was finally good again. Absolutely my favorite episode of this season this far, but unfortunately we now have to wait until february for the next episodes :(.

!!SPOILERS!!

So we see that the Governor tries to take the prison once again, it's the same old story and I was getting afraid that things would be all the same again. He has a tank this time and was quite dangerous with it, and unfortunately, it was the last episode for one of the heroes thanks to the governor. Now, I've said it before and this will be the last time I say it, but there are massive spoilers ahead, so if you really don't want to know what happened, then I strongly recommend that you look the other way. 

The governor took Michonne and Hershel, and used them as a trading method. The governor wants the prison, and Rick can have Hershel and Michonne back. In the middle of the discussion, the governor gets impatient and slices Hershel's throat. This was such a sad moment because Hershel always was the soft, sweet and rational one of everyone. He was so wise and it's very sad to see him go. 

Of course, it was terrible to see Hershel get killed, but I must say that it was necessary that an important character would die again. The past episodes everyone of the main cast was always safe and the zombie world didn't really felt dangerous anymore. What I find ironic is that Hershel was killed by a human instead of a zombie. 

It was good that an important character died because it made me hate the governor even more. It put emotion in this episode, and that was exactly what was missing the past few ones.

Anyway, Michonne gets away while Rick and the rest opens fire on the Governor. There's a whole battle going on and everyone that isn't fighting tries to escape. 

At one point Tyreese is fighting a few of the other side, and almost got stuck while fighting them. Luckily, the children save him. Now, this was another great moment because these children are quite useless to the show, and seeing them kill someone that isn't dead is quite something. Also because Tyreese is quite a big fellow, and him getting saved by kids was pretty cute. Another great scene.

In this episode there is also briefly shown that there's a rat hammered to some door in the prison, meaning to attract walkers I guess. This is still a small question that needs to be answered, because someone is messing with the prison guys. Personally I suspect Bob, because he's always acting weird. 

Now the most important thing of this episode is of course, did the governor get what he wanted? What happened with everyone? Well, the governor got killed. HELL YES, you read that right, the motherf*cker is finally dead! One time by Michonne (that needed to happen) and the double tap shot by his 'new wife', the new wife who just lost her daughter because the governor was being a dick again. Personally, I thought it was amazing. The governor thing is finally over, and the way he got murdered was cool looking too. 

The people from the prison got chased away more or less by the governor and his people, and they basically have split up in 3 or maybe 4 groups, what will happen with them is not known yet and we'll have to wait until the next episode for that. There's still a question who got killed by the governor and his team, and who got injured. I don't think that another important character got killed, but perhaps some smaller ones. 

What do I expect from the other half of the series? Well, to see their new location is important. What will be the next storyline, what happened with Judith (Rick's baby), did she get killed or did someone take her on time? I'm quite curious about the next episode because this chapter of the governor and the prison is finally closed. 

Too Far Gone is the best episode of this season so far. Everything happened what should have happened, the prison is no longer their location, the governor is no longer a threat and we finally got some emotion again because of the killing of Hershel. I'm very sad about it, but damn this episode was amazing. I think The Walking Dead will finally be good again!

Rest in peace, Paul Waker

Rest in peace

Paul Walker

I wasn't really a fan of him, perhaps I saw one or two movies of him, but it's always sad when a young man dies. I liked his movie Joy Ride a lot, and to be honest, I've never seen a Fast and Furious movie of him, but I do know that he is a great actor. And with that, also a great human. He is well known for using his celebrity status for a good cause and for that I admire him. 

My thoughts are with his family and the ones affected by his loss. 

Review: We Are What We Are (2013)

We Are What We Are

IMDB rate: 5,7

Genre: Thriller

Another 2013 horror movie! Well, horror.. to be honest I didn't find We Are What We Are much of a horror movie. It discussed some horror elements, yes, but not only until the very last scene we actually saw something of this, and what we saw wasn't very frightening to me.

It reminded me a lot of the style of Stoker, it was very dark and quite slow. Stoker is also a slow movie, but it wasn't too slow. There were enough happenings that made the movie interesting. With We Are What We Are (let's call it WAWWA for short ;)) it was often too slow. It wasn't very interesting in my opinion, so often my thoughts were away from the movie.

A seemingly wholesome and benevolent family, the parkers have always kept to themselves, and for good reason. Behind closed doors, patriarch Frank rules his family with a rigorous fervor, determined to keep his ancestral customs intact at any cost. As a torrential rainstorm moves into the area, tragedy strikes and his daughters Iris and Rose are forced to assume responsibilities that extend beyond those of a typical family. As the unrelenting downpour continues to flood their small town, the local authorities begin to uncover clues that bring them closer to the secret that the Parkers have held closely for so many years.

It's quite obvious that there is something wrong with the Parker family, it's a modern time but they often sit in medieval clothing, especially during dinner. While it's not too obvious in the beginning what is actually wrong with this family, we get the right thoughts about it quite easily.
So beware, spoiler ahead, but the Parkers are all cannibals. While this should be very shocking, it didn't feel very shocking. So to me, the feeling wasn't very right in the movie. It didn't even feel as a true horror movie, more like a normal thriller, but with cannibalism in it.

In the movie they are talking about people missing from the village, but there are only 3 missing people in the last few years. Not really a reason to worry it seems to me. But in the nearby area there are 80 missing people, and while this is being said there isn't anything done with it. It's more listed as a fact rather than a concern.

Also, it's very briefly shown that there are people in the basements of the Parkers, which gives enough clues already about the cannibalism, but still it didn't worry me at all.
The movie is put up quite boring and slow, there is more shown about the family in general than the concerning fact that they are cannibals. It's more like 'here is a family that isn't really functioning well, oh, and they are eating your neighbors by the way'.

Also, the entire story is a bit weird. They are following some sort of old religion which makes them eat people. They seem to find their religion (where they are eating people) a lot more accurate than a normal religion to get a place in heaven. Everyone has their principles, I get that, but dude you should reconsider the cannibalism part.
The daughters seem to be utterly disgusted by the fact that they are forced to eat people, and when they finally had enough they are taking revenge! Yes finally, we've waited for this the entire movie! But isn't it a bit hypocrite that they are taking their revenge by eating their father?

Personally, I thought that WAWWA (that's like if a baby is talking) was quite a boring movie. It had no tension in it and the cannibalism seemed to be more of an after-effect. The beginning was quite fascinating because it looked very good, great pictures and the acting isn't bad either. I like cannibalism movies, they are very gruesome and always leave some sort of impression behind (The Road, Ravenous), but this movie didn't do that at all unfortunately. I have never seen the original (this one is a remake of a Mexican movie I believe), but I have seen some pictures of it and those pictures look a whole lot more interesting that the ones of this movie. Perhaps I will watch it someday.

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: Curse of Chucky (2013)

Curse of Chucky

IMDB rate: 5,6

Genre: Slasher

Man, how long I've waited for this movie to come out. After the terrible Chucky movie 'Seed of Chucky' we quite needed a make-up movie. And we did! Well, it wasn't as good as the first Child's Play movie, but it certainly had a few good surprises in it. 

It's quite a shame, but I've never seen Child's Play 2 and 3, I own 3 but because I never saw 2 I couldn't watch it yet. I did see the first one and the two comedic ones Bride and Seed of Chucky.

For a sequel, I think that Curse of Chucky did a fine job. It wasn't too great, laughable at times, but then there was this amazing ending which made a lot good again.

After the events of Seed of Chucky, Nica, a young woman forced to a wheelchair since birth, has to regroup her sister, Barb and her brother-in-law, Ian for a funeral after the death of her mother. While dealing with barb, Ian, along with their 5-year-old daughter, Alice; Nica receives an odd package - a creepy doll. After people start showing up dead, the fearless Nica soon suspects that the creepy doll is much more than a doll.

Curse of Chucky feels like another cliche standard sequel, and to be honest, it was quite cliche. The movie was very predictable and took many elements from the original Child's Play movies. The order in which everyone would die wasn't much of a secret either unfortunately.

What I disliked most about this movie was the way Chucky looked. At first he looked super fake and CGI like, nothing like the doll in Child's Play nor like the doll in Bride of Chucky. His hairs were longer, his face was way too smooth and his scars were gone. Now, it is a fact that Chucky has been beheaded, burned and cut multiple times in all these movies, and yet he manages to look normal again in the sequel of that movie. This wasn't the case with Bride and Seed of Chucky luckily, which made it a lot more believable. What was of course bothering in this movie was the fact that he was all normal again, even though he looked messed up in the last couple of movies. 

What made me very happy halfway through the movie was the fact that it wasn't real! He had some sort of wax on his face to hide his scars! Sure, there were a lot less scars, but still they were there. This made Chucky a lot more real again and the CGI effects appeared a lot less when he was scarred. 

Beneath I made a small collage of Chucky's looks through the years, the first being Child's Play 2, the second being Bride of Chucky and the last two both being from Curse of Chucky.

Now the biggest question of this movie is, which part is it following up to? Many say it's a follow up for Child's Play 3, meaning it ignores Bride and Seed of Chucky. Other say that it's a following up for Bride of Chucky, meaning it only ignores Seed of Chucky. But the fact is that it actually is a follow-up for Seed of Chucky. In the end of Seed of Chucky we see how Tiffany is going into Jennifer Tilly's body, which explains the fact how she can be alive again. So in fact it's Jennifer Tilly (both actress and character) but with the soul of Tiffany. How Chucky is once again alive, is always the biggest mystery but I'm trying to ignore that part. Also, Chucky mentions how he murdered the Tilly's, which also took place in Seed of Chucky. 

One scene that I did not get was where Chucky is doing the spell on the girl, did Tiffany send him to Alice or to Andy? Which took place when? Because that didn't really made sense. 

Well that being said, how awesome is it that both Tiffany and a much older Andy appear in this movie? I thought it was amazing and it made the movie a lot better.

Overall, Curse of Chucky is a decent movie. It's a good follow-up for Seed of Chucky since it get's rid of some loose ends, but what was mainly important is the fact that it's so much better than Seed of Chucky. We never found out what happened with Glen/Glenda unfortunately, but that does not really matter. It's sad that Chucky looks very fake through most of the movie, the CGI is way too much and very bothering at times. The movie isn't very unique but it has a few nice touches to it.

My personal rate: 6,5/10