Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys (2014)

Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys

IMDB rate: 5,1

Genre: Predator

Starring: Shannen Doherty, Jason Brooks, Christopher Lloyd

For some unknown reason I decided to watch Blood Lake on Netflix. The minute the first scene ended I regretted this quite immensely. I think I got a bit dragged along when I saw that Shannen Doherty and Christopher Lloyd played in this movie, and got my hopes up. Of course I should've known better because Christopher Lloyd also decided to play in a movie called 'Piranha'. 

This really is one terrible movie. In the very first scene you already saw the first kill and you immediately get a glimpse on these attacking creatures, and they are the worst animated predators I've ever seen. I'm almost willing to say that the sharks in Sharknado looked more real, compared to these lampreys. When there's a ton of these lampreys together they just wriggle all at the same time, animated as if it's a cartoon from the 50's. Really, this looks so ridiculous that you should look it up, it's just laughable. 

I must say that I'm pretty disappointed in these actors that they choose a role in a movie like this. I'm currently watching the TV show 'Charmed' where Shannen Doherty played Prue in the first three seasons (supposedly she got written off because she was terrible to work with) and while I disliked her character in the beginning, she started to grow on me in the ending. Until she got killed off of course. Playing in a movie like this though really seems like a step below her usual work. I of course don't know how she is in person, but I do know that I don't dislike her as an actress. But even when you're the best actress around, there's no chance you'll make the movie Blood Lake better. What also surprised me is how old she got, she's only 45 years old or so, but her face looks so old out of a sudden. 

Then there's Christopher Lloyd, of course best known for his brilliant role as Doc Brown in Back to the Future. I was whining about Shannen Doherty playing in a movie below her 'level', but compare Christopher Lloyd with that! The man can act, but also he won't make this movie better. Even more so because his character is the most unrealistic character ever written. Get this, people in his town are dying because the lake is overrun with lampreys, but because he wants to attracts tourists to his town he won't make an announcement to stop the people getting into the water. So his character is actually supposed to think that it's more positive for his town that the people are dying in the water, rather than them just stay away for a few days until the problem is solved. What the actual fuck, right? 

Another smaller role was for Rachel True, who I know from seeing The Craft. Again, just a terrible attempt to lift her career up. I saw that she's also playing in Sharknado 2, and when the time has come that you only cast in terrible sea creature movies, I think it's best to give up on the acting career. 

Beside my great disappointment in a few good actors, 

I was also very surprised with the level of the dialogues. Especially coming from one guy named Rich (Fred Stoller), who talks and acts as if he's a 5 year old, but he still has quite an important job. The kids in this movie are of course the most annoying brats you'll ever see, ignoring their parents, go to the water, keep a lamprey alive, etc. Because they're such brats I really couldn't care less if they would die because a lamprey attacked them. Another fun one is when the mother goes to the shower (she knew already that the lampreys were in the shower, can't remember why she went in anyway), turns on the water (again, attracting the lampreys) doesn't go out of the shower, and to make matter worse, she gets a curling iron into the shower (which is running) to burn some lampreys. How this woman didn't get electrocuted is probably the biggest mystery ever. Terribly unrealistic characters, with very fitting dialogues I suppose. 

I already mentioned how unrealistic this movie is, and with Sharknado I was able to laugh at it because it was just too ridiculous to take seriously. But it seems like Blood Lake actually tried to be a good movie, because you're almost forced to take it seriously, meaning you can't laugh at it. It's not even laughably bad or something. 

If you didn't notice yet, I hated this movie. It's really a bunch of crap, perhaps even worse than Sharknado. Terrible special effects, real terrible. Good actors, but a lot of wasted talent because of terrible dialogue and characters. Oh, another small fun fact, everyone single person in this town is killed because of lampreys in the water (home tap, shower, swimming pools, lakes), but when you see a shot of the lake, there are shit loads of birds just chilling on the water... I think my rant is over, please take my advice and just don't watch this movie :).

My rate: 2/10

Review: The Bay (2012)

The Bay
IMDB rate: 5,6
Genre: Virus, Mockumentary

A couple of weeks ago I watched the movie The Bay, I've heard pretty good things about this movie and for a long time I thought it was just another shark movie. I was of course terribly wrong with this, since it's not about sharks at all, I can't even remember why I figured it would be about sharks. Anyway, The Bay is a pretty good movie, it was much better compared with what I expected it to be.

It feels like a pretty real documentary, you can notice this pretty fast in the movie because the webcam lags as hell, which is pretty realistic since I have never seen a not-lagging webcam in my entire life. The reporter also seem genuinely surprised with everything that's happening around her, instead of just reporting emotionlessly what's going on, she's actually trying to give a name and a face to everyone she's interviewing.

In my opinion the camera was a bit too shaky. I know that is pretty standard with mockumentaries, but in this movie it was just too much. It made my eyes hurt and gave me headache, meaning it's really too shaky. I had the same by the way with the Poughkeepsie Tapes, that's why I never finished watching that movie (although I'm still interested in watching it someday). It was a bit annoying to watch at times, and even more so because the subtitles happened to be synched wrong (which is Netflix' fault of course, not the fault of the movie). Unfortunately some parts where a bit too difficult to understand, meaning I may have missed some important information going on.

I was pretty curious about what would happen at the start of the movie, because you know that a virus will be spread, but you have no idea yet how big this will be and what will happen to those infected. I also was a bit skeptical since it's another found-footage movie, and this combined with the IMDB rating I didn't really had high hopes for this movie, but it turned out better than I expected it to be. It's really one of those rare good found-footage movies ;).

There are actually quite a few good scares in this movie, and the make-up of the sick people is very good. The movie is pretty gross most of the time, which may make it hard to watch to some people. I liked the gross parts though, I thought it made it a lot more realistic. I think the movie is best described as an intelligent movie, it's not the standard horror movie where there's bad guys who slaughter people, this movie is much more interesting than that.

I thought The Bay was a very interesting movie with good acting and great effects (also, a great poster). I did think it was a bit too shaky though and because I couldn't hear everything they said (lack of decent subtitles) I am still confused about a few things. Other than that, a very good found-footage movie.

My personal rate: 7,5/10

Review: House of Wax (2005)

House of Wax

IMDB rate: 5,3

Genre: Slasher

House of Wax is one of those movies that I've watched at least ten times already, and every time I watch it I'm still a bit impressed by it. Of course, this remake has a few bad points, we all known what is the worst about this movie. For those who don't know, I'll explain to you later. But besides this one tiny thing I think it's a good movie. I must admit that I've never seen the original House of Wax (1953), but what I've read about it, it's not very much like the remake, besides the wax sculptures of course.

Now, let's immediately start with the worst part of this movie, being of course.... Paris Hilton. If I have to choose one terrible miscast over all the horror movies I've ever seen I would immediately choose Paris Hilton in House of Wax. This woman is only known because her daddy is very rich and because her sex-tape was leaked online, people wouldn't pay attention to her for one second if it wasn't for her family name. I think the movie creators didn't do any research about her or her acting abilities, I mean, she's in at least four movies in the IMDB Bottom 100 list, that's not without reason! On the trivia page of House of Wax I read that first they considered Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly for her role, both not great choices for the role, but still a 100% better choice compared to Paris Hilton. I'm glad that she didn't get a whole lot of screen time, because she's just a horrible actress that has the potential to make a good movie like this less good. Also, not very surprising is that she was running around in her underwear while escaping from the killer... the way she was killed was pretty cool though.

Okay, my rant is done... up to the more positive side of this review! First of all, great actors (besides you-know-who) in this movie. I think Chad Michael Murray plays his role as bad boy very good. He often plays the 'hunky' boy in movies, and well, he sort of does in this movie but with a nice attitude to it. I recently saw him in The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia and there he plays a father, which he does quite well too (horrible movie, but I liked him in it). Anyway, he plays a bit of a prick in this movie, but he's very tough as well, his acting is really outstanding in this movie I must say. Elisha Cuthbert plays his twin sister Carly, and I must say that her acting is pretty good in this movie. I liked her as well in The Girl Next Door, but for example in Captivity she wasn't very good (also a shit movie). Jared Padalecki plays a bit of a small role in this movie, it would've been nice if his role was bigger since he's quite a good actor. The bad guy being played by Brian Van Holt did an amazing job as well, he sure scared me at moments.

The music in this movie is pretty awesome, we hear tracks by Disturbed, The Prodigy and Marilyn Manson, which are very nice and fitting for this movie! The camera switched a few times to the hand camera of a dude, which gave a pretty creepy feeling as well. The gore is pretty nasty in this movie, for example the moment Paris Hilton got stabbed in her foot was kinda gross, but cool as well. Or the moment Elisha Cuthbert's character got her lips super glued together, and then they cut her finger off, so awesome.

The town is very awesome. I personally love movies with abandoned towns and stuff, and this specific town already has the creepy vibe over it, even when you don't know why yet. The wax statues are scary as hell, even more so when you figure something out about this town. No, but in all seriousness, I love these sculptures, they really are scary. Especially the old lady at the window!

I really like this movie, it's quite good. The effects look amazing, for example the beginning of when the house burned down was very cool, even though after a while it began to look fake. The acting is very good, but I'm very bummed out that they choose Paris Hilton for this movie. Every time I watch this movie I hope it will end differently, that they don't start snooping around and just leave the town and live happily every after. Unfortunately this never happens :).

My personal rate: 7/10

Review: The Final (2010)

The Final

IMDB rate: 5,4

Genre: Torture, Revenge

When I saw this movie on Netflix I couldn't help but think this must be a terrible movie. The movie poster looks like it's about some sort of terrible ghost story in a school or something, and the the title pretty much suggests the same. I did decide to give it a go though, pretty much only because it was next on the list of things I haven't watched yet. The movie is pretty different from what the poster and it's title suggest, which means it's again a great time to say "don't judge a movie by it's cover" again! It was absolutely not about ghosts. 

When the movie started I realized that I already saw this movie a couple of years ago, but I couldn't remember a thing about it anymore. I rented it, probably because there was a clown picture on the back cover or something. 

Since the movie isn't about ghosts, what is it about? The Final is pretty much about some outcasts in high school that take revenge on their bullies. And boy, do they hit them well! They get them to a party and drug them, so the bullies pass out. When waking up, they find themselves chained up in a room with people with masks and guns surrounding them.

First of all, great masks! I'm personally a big fan of 'bad guys' with masks because it makes them so much more interesting and mysterious. Even though the viewer knew who was behind these masks, it still gave a creepy vibe. I mean, what if you woke up in a room and a guy with a clown costume + mask is threatening you with a gun, you would be a lot more scared compared to when he wore his daily outfit, I think. The voice was kinda scary too, a great addition to this costume. 

The acting in this movie is pretty decent. The outcasts are very good in their acting, the bullies not so much. Marc Donato plays outcast Dane, and he's really looking for his revenge, in a way that he goes way further with getting back to them than the deal was. But as a viewer you just feel his emotions, the moments he was bullied, you felt his pain and the moment he got his revenge, you just felt his power. Really good. Lindsay Seidel plays outcast Emily, and I think she's was the best actor in this entire movie. She's so convincing and scary. She does look a bit like Bonnie Wright in my opinion, only she acts much better compared to Bonnie Wright. Perhaps she would've been better for Harry Potter ;). 

The bullies are all pretty much the same, they are all jerks and behave like assholes. Their acting wasn't very convincing unfortunately, they didn't really seem to care for each other and they also didn't seem to frightened by being chained to the floor. Even when they were being tortured their pain didn't feel very real.

The movie is kinda slow, a bit too slow in my opinion. At first you get to know the outcasts a bit, and the way they were bullied and stuff. But from that point on the threatening starts pretty fast, and it's a lot of talking, threatening and cutting off body parts. It became slightly boring after a while, because it was all a bit the same. Also, I thought it was a shame they put their masks off that quickly. They should've kept them on at least until the bullies figured out themselves who they were. I mean, that's the point right? Making them realize what they've done to the outcasts all these years? When they put their masks off I think the bullies would be angry because they did it to them and would only try to get back at them, instead of wondering who the masked guys were and thinking of what they might've done. 

I love the idea of The Final, getting revenge for what the bullies did to them. The way they did it was pretty messed up, but it still gave a good feeling that they got their revenge. The ending is very nice too, they really did know what they were doing. The acting is pretty decent, but the character development could've been better, I think. I think The Final is worth a watch, at least for once in your life. It gives a pretty nice (although fucked up) message about bullying.

My personal rate: 6,5

Review: V/H/S/2 (2013)

V/H/S/2 

IMDB rate: 6,1

Genre: Found-Footage, Supernatural

I must admit that I wasn't very interested in watching V/H/S/2 because I didn't like the first part that much. It wasn't a bad movie or anything, but it was just not really what I expected. The sequel is a lot better I think, the segments are a lot better I think. 

Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his house and find collection of VHS tapes. Viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be dark motives behind the student's dark disappearance.

In the first V/H/S movie there are a lot of moments that remind you of other movies, such as Grave Encounters, The Tapes and the Last Exorcism. In this part I didn't see a lot of moments that looked a lot like other movies, which is a good thing because that means these segments are a lot more original. Of course, a zombie movie isn't very original, but the way they filmed it is. There were a lot more nice twists in this movie. 

The acting in these segments was overall better compared with the first movie. Perhaps the acting in the segment Phase I Clinical Trials by the girl wasn't much good, but I think that's the only person that I was slightly annoyed about. 

In V/H/S/2 the 'main tape' is Tape 49, this is the main storyline and this is the one that we return to after each segment. The second segment is Phase I Clinical Trials, the third segments is A Ride in the Park, the fourth segment is Safe Haven and the last segment is Slumber Party Alien Abduction. It's hard to say which one I liked best, since they all had positive and negative moments. The one that I didn't like a whole lot was Tape 49. Here's a quick overview of the segments!

1. Tape 49

Like I already said, not my favorite one. It's of course the same set-up as the first movie, which makes it a bit predictable. I thought it was kinda boring, in the previous movie it wasn't good either but at least we saw a lot of things happen in the background and stuff. This one just tried to live up to that, and it didn't turned kinda boring and predictable. By the way, something that I noticed and I just have to mention; why the fuck is everything that attacks screaming first? It's getting a bit ridiculous. 

2. Phase I Clinical Trials

This one started out pretty interesting. I thought it was pretty cool that the guy had eyes that could film and record. Sure, it's a bit weird and far-fetched but it looked very cool. It's like a modern twist on The Eye or something. I already mentioned that I wasn't crazy about the actress, she didn't act well and her role was pretty random and just a way to give the information the viewer needed. Other than that, she was pretty rubbish, as character and actress. The scares are very standard and very predictable. There is no chance you would ever get scared by one of these 'jump-scares' because every one that has seen at least one horror movie knows what to expect. 

3. A Ride in the Park

This one was pretty cool actually. It's a segment about zombies, but it was a pretty cool approach. This is because the biker that got attacked by zombies had a camera attached to his helmet. It's pretty much a segment about the short life of a zombie, only more awesome. We didn't literally watch the guy himself, since the camera was on top of his helmet, but it was pretty easy to guess what was going on. It was pretty cool when he was eating the guts out of someone, and we watched this from his view. The effects are gross looking, meaning they looked awesome. Good job on those! Also, loved it when he started to recognize himself somehow, and managed to do something about it. I think if I had to choose I would say that this segment was my favorite segment, it was really good! One downside though, I thought it was pretty unlikely that someone managed to get ahold of the footage from the other cameras and edit it in at the right time. A bit of a bummer that one.

4. Safe Haven

I'm not really sure what to think of this one. It was kinda awesome, the storyline was very interesting and stuff, but it was kinda confusing at moments. The segment starts off very slow, and in the end everything goes incredibly fast. A bit too fast in my opinion, things got just too confusing. There's definitely a whole lot going on in this segment, from demons to zombies, mass suicide and even hints to raped children. I think the makers of this segment tried to put in as much action as possible, which could be a good thing if done right, but I just can't make up my mind what to think of it. It had some pretty cool moments though. The creature looked very fake unfortunately. I also was surprised by how conveniently the camera fell every time, and how nicely the editing was done for a found-footage movie. I mean, there are even security cameras included in this footage, which seems a bit too far-fetched.

5. Slumber Party Alien Abduction

At first I thought this one was my favorite, but the ending dramatically changed that. It looks pretty cool at first, because a camera is attached to a dogs collar or something, which gives an interesting view. This segment is pretty messy but I liked it a lot at first, it was very tensive and I could only hope that these kids would manage to escape from the aliens. But then the ending came..... the kids were abducted eventually, and at first their dogs is going with them up in the air. But then they let go of him, and we see the camera drop to the ground, with the dog lying next to it. Probably dead. It was absolutely the uncoolest ending ever, and it made me hate this segment. Moviemakers, please know that no one will like your movie if you kill animals in it, period. 

V/H/S/2 is definitely a lot better than the first movie V/H/S. It's a lot more original and the segments are a lot more fun to watch. I'm actually looking forward again to the sequel of this movie, because of course there will be another sequel. It was a fun movie to watch, it was surprising especially compared with the first movie. 

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: Antisocial (2013)

Antisocial

IMDB rate: 4,4

Genre: Zombie

Antisocial is a very boring movie, I think the best word to describe this movie is 'superficial', because everything about it is very superficial. From character introduction, to characters personalities, to storyline. The movie is pretty rubbish. 

There's absolutely no character development in this movie, you immediately know this because characters are introduced by their social network profile. It actually stops there, we see their name on their profile, a few pictures and that's it. I think the developers of this movie thought that if they just showed us their social network account, that they wouldn't need to spend time on the actual characters. Of course, the social network accounts is somewhat important for this movie, but introducing your characters like that is a bit superficial. 

The movie is pretty standard, although it seems to think that's it kinda original. There's a bunch of people on a party, by the way the most boring and again, superficial party ever. The main character is pregnant with her boyfriend who just dumped her. This pregnant thing seems to be thrown in so we would start gaining feelings for this character, which fails pretty hard. The pregnancy thing is only being mentioned a few times in the beginning, after that we never hear from it again. Pretty useless. The other characters are even more boring than the main character, they really are the biggest bunch of. yes again, superficial characters in a movie. There's pretty much a zombie apocalypse going on outside their house, and these characters are still interested in checking their social media accounts. Oh, and of course, the nerd that could save all of them isn't with them, so he needs to be contacted through the computer, because again, sitting behind a computer is so damn important in these cases. 

The acting is absolutely horrible, it's like 5 years old playing in a theater for the first time. You can really notice that they wait for each other to say their lines. It does fit with the flat personalities of their characters though, which is sort of a positive thing? 

The zombies are pretty weird. First of all, when someone is turning into a zombie, and they just happen to have christmas lights around them, the lights start to light up. Because of course, when a human turns into a zombie, it gains the ability to produce electricity...... Or, when someone gets killed, the dead humans (not zombies yet) seem to gain the ability to film from a bodypart and upload this live to their social network account. A human doesn't only seem to produce electricity, no it gets a webcam and internet access in their body as well!

This movie wants to make a modern twist at zombies movie, like The Social Network (there's even a Jesse Eisenberg look-a-like) and World War Z mixed together or something. It just fails terribly at it. Antisocial takes the term computer virus a bit too literal in my opinion. Perhaps this movie could've been something if it was just a regular zombie movie, without the social media stuff involved. The movie is slow, boring and weird. Not worth a watch.

My personal rate: 3/10

Review: Red State (2011)

Red State

IMDB rate: 6,2

Genre: Thriller

I was always quite interested in watching the movie Red State, mainly because the DVD cover looks pretty awesome. I found it on Netflix so of course I had to give it a go. First of all, Red State is absolutely not what I expected it to be. It's not really a horror movie, more a thriller. It's funny because I  see this DVD often in stores but I never noticed that Kevin Smith is the director/writer of Red State. I'm a big fan of Kevin Smith's comedy movies, such as Clerks and Dogma. As you can imagine, Red State is absolutely nothing like either of his previous movies. I think Dogma is somewhat close to Red State because of it's religious theme, but besides that it's completely different. 

The teenager Jarod (Kyle Gallner) invites his best friends Travis (Michael Angarano) and Billy-Ray (Nicholas Braun) to have a foursome with a thirty-eight year-old woman. While driving to meet the woman, Travis hit a car parked on the road. When they meet the woman, she gives spiked beer to them and they pass out. When the three friends wake up, they find that they are trapped in the fundamentalist Five Points Trinity Church of the infamous Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) and that they will be killed. Meanwhile the church is under siege by ATF agents led by Agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) that have been ordered to destroy the terrorist cell. Will the teenagers be saved by the agents of the law enforcement agency?

Like I already said, I wouldn't really consider Red State to be a horror movie. It's more an action thriller. I think you might consider it a horror movie at heart. The beginning even starts of like it's a horror movie, but then it quickly changes in a thriller. Perhaps the horror element is in the religion or something? It's something that could really happen with these insane religious cults, which makes it somewhat scary. Other than that, not really a horror movie. 

Kevin Smith is well known for his dialogues, although his dialogues normally have a comedic/sarcastic twist. In Red State there is plenty of dialogue too, bit it's a lot more serious this time. Because of this it made me think of Quentin Tarantino movies sometimes, although these dialogues haven't reached the Tarantino level yet. I like that Kevin Smith makes his actor talk about what happened, instead of showing it. Makes you think a bit more as a viewer.

The acting in Red State is pretty good. Michael Angarano (Almost Famous), Nicholas Braun (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Kyle Gallner (Jennifer's Body, The Haunting in Connecticut) play a bunch of horny teens. They're all great actors, but I'm personally a big fan of Kyle Gallner. He plays in a bunch of horror movies, and I love him in every single one. John Goodman (The Big Lebowski) and Stephen Root (Office Space) play the cops. Both great actors, although Stephen Root's role is fairly small. The big star of this movie is of course Michael Parks (Kill Bill, Django Unchained), who plays the scary pastor Abin Cooper. He has a shitload of dialogue, but since he's no stranger to Tarantino movies, I think he's quite used to that. He plays his role incredibly convincing, which is probably the most scary part of this movie. A bit of a side notice: I thought he looked incredibly much like Bryan Cranston in this movie. 

This movie was very different than what I expected from it, but I did like it a lot. The acting is just incredibly good, and so it the storyline. I just re-watched the trailer and I still got excited by it although I already saw the movie. Even when I finally figured out the way this movie was going to be, I still was surprised by how it ended. The ending could've been totally different, and still be interesting. Red State is definitely very different from Kevin Smith's other work, but I like it. 

My personal rate: 8/10

Review: Barricade (2012)

Barricade

IMDB rate: 4,4

Genre: Ghost

My review of Barricade won't be a very long one since it was a pretty plain movie and I simply don't have a whole lot to say about it. Barricade is a pretty confusing movie which tries a bit too hard to put you one the wrong track.

The Shade family go to a cabin retreat in the mountains, a year after the death of their mother/wife Leah. While there they are tormented by visions and happenings that start to scare them. But are these incidents real or in their minds? The father feels compelled to barricade them in the cabin in order to keep them safe. But will it work out?

I always enjoy watching Netflix movies, you never know what you'll get. Sometimes you're greatly surprised, other times you're just hugely disappointed. I always choose the first movie in the list that I haven't seen yet and that's how I got to watch the movie Barricade. I wouldn't say that Barricade is a bad movie, there's pretty good acting by Eric McCormack who plays a father who doesn't really know what to do with his kids. Conner Dwelly and Ryan Grantham play his kids and they do a pretty good job as well. 

There's definitely nothing wrong with the acting, but the movie itself is just pretty boring and unbelievable. Like I already said, it just tries too hard to put you on the wrong track which causes that the movie becomes confusing. This is the type of movie where you watch a scene and a second later the character is back on the couch, because nothing you just watched really happened. It's kinda annoying at times because you don't know what's real and what's not. Because this happens quite often you're quickly suspicious that these ghost parts aren't really happening. 

The part where it just becomes boring is when the family seems to hear things which aren't there, or claim that there's someone watching them. Because we as a viewer don't see a damn thing. Then this guy starts to barricade himself and his kids in his house while he still hears noises in the houses... fuck logic, right?

For a low budget movie Barricade is decent, the acting is very good. It's just that they tried too hard with this movie, it's kinda boring really. Barricade is a pretty standard movie, although the ending might surprise you.

My personal rate: 5/10

Review: My Little Eye (2002)

My Little Eye

IMDB rate: 5,7

Genre: Mockumentary, Survival

A few years ago I was watching a few horror movies that were on TV and I came across the movie My Little Eye. I didn't think much of it then but for some reason this movie kept popping up in the back of my mind. Unfortunately, for a long time I couldn't remember what this movie was called so I was never able to re-watch it. A few weeks ago I decided to give my search for the title of this movie a new chance and started asking around on Yahoo Answers, with the few details I remembered, if someone knew the title of this movie. And there it was! My Little Eye!

I now watched My Little Eye again and my opinion hasn't changed much about it. It's fun to re-watch something like this though, even though it's not much of a good movie.

Five young people apply to live in an isolated house together for six months whilst their every move is filmed by numerous cameras. Each has their reason for wanting to be there - fame, money, adventure. The prize - $1 million. The rules - if one person leaves, everyone loses. It becomes the ultimate morality test. When Danny's beloved grandfather dies, does his greed overcome his love? When the skittish Emma finds blood on her pillow why does she still stay behind? And what dark secret does the house harbour that leaves them feeling as though they're being watched by more than just a million pairs of eyes?

I was glad that when the movie began they skipped the first 5 months of staying in this house, with these reality TV kind of shows they only argue, so skipping most of this was kind of a relieve. The movie really begins when there's only one week left, and from that point on things are getting dangerous and strange. It was pretty interesting and realistic that these game-makers were trying to mock them out of the house, by saying for example that someone's grandfather died. It was a pretty big guess of them to take when saying it was only the game-makers saying this. Of course the game-makers want to get them out of the house so they don't have to pay a million dollars.

Something what I thought was pretty annoying was that you don't have a clue how long they still have to stay in this house. It should be only a week, but at some points it looked like this week had already passed. When things really started to get weird, they finally figured that there must be something wrong. They go to a room where supposedly weren't any cameras, but well, if there weren't any cameras we couldn't have seen what happened, right? The manage to hack a device and this is where they figure out something pretty disturbing. I thought this was a very nice twist on the story and it gave a huge unsettling feeling. Even though most of the movies was already over, it just gave a disturbing feeling over everything you just saw.

I can't really imagine that no one would bother to look for these people though, [SPOILER] once their families has figured out that there isn't any advertising for this show, they sure would start caring for what is happening with their family member at some point? I mean, being a family member you sure would look for this show or whatever it is to see your relative, when you can't find anything about it you definitely would start to worry and contact some authorities.
[/SPOILER]

The acting is pretty decent. Kris Lemche (Final Destination 3, Ginger Snaps) plays the asshole, Rex, of the house, or at least he seems to be quite an asshole in the last week that we watch. He is smart though and pretty realistic with this whole situation, of course he wants the money pretty badly but well, what can you expect from someone who has been stuck with a bunch of strangers for 5 months. He plays the role pretty realistic, and he has good looks for this part too. Laura Regan (Dead Silence, They) plays the shy girl Emma. A bit of a boring character actually, she's only whining and is never up for something fun, not really a person who would sign up for a reality show like this. I'm not a big fan of her acting, she's just trying too hard. Didn't like her in Dead Silence either. A small role in this movie is for Bradley Cooper, it's pretty funny to see an actor who's kinda big now see in a movie like this. I'm not a big fan of him as an actor, but he did an OK job in this movie.

My Little Eye has a pretty interesting view on reality TV shows, such as Big Brother. The movie isn't very scary but does leave you with a pretty unsettled feeling. It's all filmed with security cameras which provides different angles than regular movies, which makes it kinda interesting. I wouldn't say My Little Eye is an amazing movie, but it's definitely a fun watch I think.

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: The Ward (2010)

The Ward

IMDB rate: 5,6

Genre: Ghost

After ten year of silence, John Carpenter finally releases another movie, being The Ward. I'm not too familiar with John Carpenter's work since I've only seen the Halloween movies and the Master of Horror movies he made, so I can't really talk in terms of this movie fits with Carpenters usual work. 

I've wanted to see this movie quite some time already, mostly because I thought the DVD cover was interesting. Also, Amber Heard plays in it which is always interesting, I think. This girl is Johnny Depp's fiancee for christ sake, she must do something right. This movie basically is a collection of pretty girls in an institution. Amber Heard is a pretty badass girl who I would love to see someday in a real kick ass movie (not something like Drive Angry...). She's a good actress as well, and even I, being a female, must admit that she's a pleasure to the eye. Another role is for Danielle Panabaker (is it weird if I keep confusing her with Amber Tamblyn?), I'm not a big fan of her earlier work, but she did OK in The Ward I guess. Lyndsy Fonseca plays a pretty small part in this movie, I actually would've loved to see her more. 

The movie is set in the 50's or 60's or something, and it all seems plausible in terms of clothing and stuff, only Amber Heard seems to dress like she's from a different time. Also, the TV seems to be a bit too big for that time. For patients of a mental institution they look awfully good, their make-up is always done perfectly and so is their hair. It's not even a not-make-up-look, it's just a full thrown on face which makes the situation a bit hard too believe.

The movie is kinda predictable, purely because every horror movie that's set in a mental institution is pretty much the same. The Ward of course had the same clichés such as a cranky old nurse, the electric shock treatment when someone is not behaving as they should and thousand times the line "I'm not crazy", we've seem them all already. I actually was kinda relieved that the male nurse wasn't a pervert who flirted with the patients (or worse), since that would've made the cliché complete.

I was kinda disappointed with the ending, since it's pretty much the same as Identity. I think they could've made it a lot more interesting and more original too, although a typical ghost movie ending would've been boring too. Perhaps when you haven't seen Identity you might like this ending, since it's somewhat of a shocker at first, but when you did see Identity it's just not very surprising anymore.

The Ward is a good movie with good acting and a few jumpscares. It's a pretty enjoyable watch, but I think the fun's out of it once you've seen the ending. Not a special movie but it's not bad either.

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: Shrooms (2007)

Shrooms

IMDB rate: 4,7

Genre: Slasher 

Every time when I'm in this secondhand store I see this movie, and every time I think it might be an interesting movie to watch. I found it on Netflix the other day and I was glad I could finally give it a chance. Now I watched it I really wonder what made me think that this could be a good movie. The title is Shrooms, of course this will be a weird movie. I did expect that it would be a terrible movie, although I had my hopes up that it would be entertaining, unfortunately that was absolutely not the case. 

3 couples go to Ireland woods to collect magic mushrooms and trip out. On their way they meet some strange inhabitants of the woods and it doesn't take long until a creepy story is being told at the campfire which might be more than just a story. So strange things happen, people start disappearing, silhouettes move through the woods and the creepy story starts to melt into reality. The horror kicks in along with the effect of the mushrooms.

I think the creators didn't paid attention to character development for one second since this group is supposed to be friends, but really, they only seem to hate each other. They're constantly arguing, fighting and bitching against each other, and I really wonder what made this group of Americans think to go on a holiday to Ireland together. They only go to Ireland to do shrooms by the way, I'm pretty sure that they would be able to get shrooms in America one way or another, but no they pay thousands of dollars to fly to Ireland and do shrooms, which they have to search for themselves by the way. They literally don't have anything other to do while they're in Ireland. There's even one Irish dude which the worst faked Irish accent ever, it was just horrible to hear. I really couldn't care less when they died, since they brought absolutely no sympathy with them.

While you might expect a lot of tripping young people in this movie, it's hardly any. I think I would've liked it better if they showed more of the shrooms part and less of their bitching. I'm pretty sure that the title would've fitted better if they actually showed more of people talking to cows (which was pretty funny by the way) instead of constantly arguing people because of useless crap. 

I really expected something cool like a killer who chased these kids around the woods while they're high as fuck, but instead we got a mushroom that kills you or makes you see premonitions. As you can imagine, I was greatly disappointed with this outcome. They could've made such an awesome, somewhat original, slasher and they just messed it up which choosing the illogical path. 

At some point I thought this movie would choose the Wrong Turn path, and even with this they could've made something slightly cool. But we only deal with them for a few minutes and then everything's okay again. They were both great character by the way, real nasty. 

The movie shows a lot of moments where you should start asking yourself, "are these things their hallucinations, or are they real?", but really, you just don't care. You know that everyone will die besides the bitch that has premonitions, because that always happens in these kinds of movies, and you know that the answer to all the questions will not be satisfying at all. They throw in a plot twist as well, but again, it's not shocking at all, you just knew that something shitty like that would come eventually.

This movie would've been much better if they threw in some comedy, I mean that's what shrooms are about, having a good laugh. Instead they just gave us a boring movie, with lame dialogue and horrible acting. Also, the plot could've been pretty awesome but they just took the wrong road with this one, could've been so much more than what it is. Shrooms is a pretty predictable and boring movie, absolutely not worth a watch.

My personal rate: 3/10

Review: Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

Paranormal Activity 4

IMDB rate: 4,5

Genre: Found Footage, Ghost

The Paranormal Activity movies are a pretty big hype the last couple of years and well, the franchise grew quite fast since the first release. At the moment there are five Paranormal Activity movies and I believe a sixth one is also coming. I watched the first three movies and today I watched the fourth one, two years after it release. It's actually the first Paranormal Activity movie that I haven't seen in the cinema, which should give you an idea what my thoughts were about the third movie. The fifth movie, The Marked Ones, doesn't seem good at all and I'm not even sure if I will ever watch that one.

This is actually my first Paranormal Activity review, simply because I didn't write reviews yet when I watched the first three movies. But here's a quick overview of my thought about the first three movies! I liked the first movie, it was somewhat refreshing at the time and it made found footage movies popular again. I think I liked the second one even more, it was actually one of the few movies (besides Mars Attacks and Donnie Darko) that gave me nightmares. I hated the third one, it was just dumb and only gave a bit more information about why it all happened to these girls. Also, everything that appeared in the trailer did absolutely not appear in the movie itself, important things such as the fire. 

Now, the fourth Paranormal Activity movie. I did not hate it, but I didn't like it either. I didn't like it because it was simply a more boring copy of the first movie. They threw in a few new techniques to show what happened but other than that it was just exactly the same. Instead of installing cameras all over the house, they now let their webcams of their laptops film the entire day. And it even does this apparently when the power is off? Also, these people never close their laptops and even their kid has a laptop with a very good camera. 

The scares are all the same, only more mild this time. Throwing people in the air to knock them out, removing their blankets and dragging them across the room. We've seen these things in all three movies already and it's predictable and frankly, not very scary anymore. The only new thing in this movie was the addition of the Kinect. It gave a very cool vision of dots all over the room when night vision was turned on, this was especially cool when the kid Wyatt walks downstairs and you see something follow him. It looked a bit fake but it was a nice thought I think. Also, I thought the cat was a cool addition, it caused a few unpredictable scares. I did think they would make use of the cat more though.

I must say that I was thankful that the subtitles described the noises that these people heard because I had my volume turned up pretty loud and I still couldn't hear a thing that they apparently heard. So when I read [thumping noise upstairs] I at least knew why they stood up and asked 'who is there?'.

In every Paranormal Activity movie there does not happen a thing in the first half of the movie, I kinda expected the same thing with this movie, only still nothing happened when the first half had passed. Or well, I think it's better to say that nothing new or interesting happened. Not only until the very end of this movie something new happened, and that was literally in the last ten seconds. These last ten seconds definitely did not cause a 'WOW' effect with me, it more caused a 'WTF is this shit' effect, I think. You know what happened? Out of nowhere there comes a mass of angry (possessed?) woman towards the camera and when the camera turns around we see a very scary Katie. That's it. This mass of woman had absolutely not been mentioned in the entire movie, and I really have no idea where the fuck they came from and what their entire purpose was for this ending. 

I also don't really get the storyline, Katie moves in next door with this weird scary kid named Robbie, and I figured he was Hunter since Katie kidnapped Hunter at the end of part 2. But this Robbie kid is just someone and I actually have no idea where the fuck he came from. This Hunter kid apparently is Wyatt, who apparently was adopted. But that's all the information we get about it. We have no idea how he got away from Katie and got with this new family. And this is only how I interpreted it, I'm probably all wrong, since this doesn't make any sense. 

Paranormal Activity 4 was pretty boring and absolutely not scary. It's definitely the least good one, since it's illogical as fuck. I literally have no idea what suddenly was going on in this movie, but they will probably tell us in the next movie.. or not, whatever. The movie is predictable and only changed slightly from the previous installment. There's nothing bad to say about the acting or anything, but there is about the rest of this movie. I enjoyed part 1 and 2, but after that things of course became a mess. 

My personal rate: 4/10

Review: Maniac (2012)

Maniac

IMDB rate: 6,1

Genre: Serial Killer

I've wanted to watch this movie for quite some time already, but I never got around watching it. By coincidence I stumbled across it on Netflix which made my decide to finally watch it. I'm not really sure what made me wanted to see this movie, but I think that seeing Elijah Wood playing a psycho might be interesting. Also, the thing with the mannequins was very freaky so I thought it might be an interesting movie.

The movie I watched is a remake of the 1980's version of Maniac and according to many people the original is a lot better compared with the remake. I haven't seen it yet, but I think it might give it a shot sometime soon.

Just when the streets seemed safe, a serial killer with a fetish for scalps is back and on the hunt. Frank is the withdrawn owner of a mannequin store, but his life changes when young artist Anna appears asking for his help with her new exhibition. As their friendship develops and Frank's obsession escalates, it becomes clear that she has unleashed a long-repressed compulsion to stalk and kill.

Although I liked the idea of a mannequin store owner with some weird fetishes and mommy issues, I wasn't much of a fan of this movie. The movie was very slow and just not very interesting. The guy had an obsession and starts killing pretty much right at the start of the movie, he develops another obsession with a girl who he really seems to like and although I wanted him to succeed somehow with gaining a relationship with this woman, you immediately know that she would find out somehow about what he does and things would get messed up. You just knew that there wouldn't be any hope for every good thing that happened with her.

I think that this character had a lot in common with Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs and I thought it was very suiting to hear Goodbye Horses from Q Lazzarus in a scene. But all the music in this movie is very fitting, it's pretty dark and somewhat sinister. The camera perspective is what I think was most outstanding in this movie, although I wasn't a fan of it. It's a bit of a first person perspective, meaning you saw everything out of Elijah Wood's characters eyes. It was pretty annoying and eventually you only see Elijah Wood a couple of times when he looks inside the mirror. Or when the movie seems to mess up the perspective and looks at him from a different angle (this actually happens a couple of times, weirdly enough).

We know Elijah Wood especially from his role as Frodo from Lord of the Rings of course, which might make you question if he would be able to pull off a maniac role. Personally, I was sure he would be good in such a role. I think this is especially because of his small role in Sin City. It's also a bit of a freaky role, and he pulled that one off amazingly. The moments we actually did see him in Maniac he performed very good. Other than that, when we only heard his voice it sounded believable too.

The way the movie is made is great. Good music and great acting. I think it's was especially the point of view that made me not like this movie as much, also the storyline development was very slow and predictable. Other than that, it is somewhat interesting, although I expected more from it.

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: Psycho (1960)

Psycho

IMDB rate: 8,6

Genre: Serial Killer

Last weekend I watched Psycho for the first time ever. To be honest, it was probably the first black and white movie I've ever watched. Of course there's Night of the Living Dead but the version I watched had colors added. Anyway, recently I started watching the TV show Bates Motel which is like a prequel of Psycho and I absolutely love this TV show (I will write about it at some point). Because I watch this TV show I figured it would be a good time to finally watch Psycho. Honestly, I expected that I wouldn't like it since I'm never a big fan of 'older' movies, but after seeing it I loved it. The ending was incredibly surprising to me. 

I own the remake of Psycho on DVD but I'm never really interested in watching it since Vince Vaughn (!) plays Normal Bates and I could never imagine him playing a good horror character. But of course, I will still watch it one day since I can't judge without watching it. 

Phoenix officeworker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to back $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.

Pardon me for this, but since I'm watching the TV show Bates Motel I can't help but compare some things with each other. 

What I found remarkable at first was the great resemblance between Anthony Perkins and Freddie Highmore. They're both playing Norman Bates and they look very similar. Freddie is obviously a bit younger and his eyebrows are a bit bigger but they still look alike. Their whole facial expression is similar and I really love that they casted Freddie Highmore for the role of Norman Bates. 

Speaking of Anthony Perkins, what an amazing actor! This is the first time I've seen him in a movie and I was incredibly impressed by him. And boy, he's a pleasure for the eye as well ;). 

I was a bit surprised that one of the main character died that quickly in this movie, I expected a much bigger role from Janet Leigh. I also expected a few more psychotic actions to let the psycho factor be more of a statement or something. Another thing that I found slightly disappointing was that there wasn't paid a whole lot of attention to the relationship between Norman and his mother. I expected that he would seem more obsessed by her or something. 

Of course when talking horror movies, the name Psycho definitely pops up once or twice. I knew that the movie was about Norman Bates and something with his mother, but I never really knew what this movie lead to. I was so surprised with this ending, I honestly did not see that one coming. I really liked the ending.

Of course, this movie is older and there are plenty of fake looking moments, for example the last fight. Or the bathroom scene where absolutely nothing like blood is added and where you can practically see the knife bounce of the skin. But of course in this time you're used to disgusting movies like Saw and stuff, we get used to seeing bloody scenes, perhaps that increases the expectations a bit for me.

I truly liked Psycho a lot. The movie may have aged a bit, but I can imagine that it was incredibly refreshing for it's time. Brilliant performance of Anthony Perkins, what a great actor! And the ending was incredible as well, I'm pretty interested in the sequels although I can't imagine they top this movie. Also, I really recommend watching Bates Motel because it's a very good TV show with an incredible performance of Freddie Highmore.

IMDB rate: 9/10

Review: Sharknado (2013)

Sharknado

IMDB rate: 3,3

Genre: Monster

For some unknown reason I decided to watch this movie. I knew it would be bad, I mean, what else can you expect with a name like Sharknado? Even though I already expected the worst of it, I was still astonished by how much worse it was. I must admit though that these shark movies are often that bad that it's funny, and well, that was also the case with Sharknado. 

When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, nature's deadliest killer rules sea, land and airas thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace.

I wouldn't say that this movie is 'so bad that it's good', because it's nowhere near a good movie, but I am willing to say that it was hilariously bad. I really had fun watching it, just because I could make fun of everything that happened. It really is the most illogical movie I've ever seen.

Sharknado truly holds the record for the most WTF moments in a movie. Sharks swimming in places where they could never be able to swim in, flooded swimming pools that manage to flood the house as well (the water was at least 1 meter high) and when they walk out of the door there's perhaps 2 millimeters of water. Or the biggest fail, sharks in a frickin' tornado. This movie really is something.

The special effects are terrible, the editing is terrible and the sound is bad as well. The dialogues are incredibly dumb and blank, but these dialogues do fit the emptiness of each character in this movie. The actors include a few of the 'finest' actors of Hollywood, for example Tara Reid, Ian Ziering and Jaason Simmons. I especially dislike Tara Reid, she might be the worst actrice of this century and I really don't get why anyone would still hire her. Not that it matters though, since she always plays in horrible movies anyway. In short, Sharknado really is a collection of terribleness.

Now of course this is a terrible movie, I really did not expect anything else with a title like Sharknado. But well, with a title like that you know that you can expect a terrible movie, and because of that you might appreciate the movie a little bit more. Or well, appreciate isn't really a good word, I think it's better to say that you can enjoy how bad it is. It's obvious that you can't take this movie serious, so do yourself a favor and just watch it without starting to think about all the impossible happenings in this movie.

My personal rate: 2/10