The Quiet Ones (2014)

The Quiet Ones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My rate: 4/10

The ABC's of Death 2 (2014)

The ABC's of Death 2

IMDB rate: 5,5
Genre: Comedic

Finally time to watch The ABC's of Death 2. Wasn't specifically crazy about the first part but I do like the concept of 26 different segments, each one even more crazy than the one before that. I must say that I liked this movie less than the previous one. In the previous one there were quite a number of segments I liked, from this one there were only two very good segments.
There are 26 segments and I will write a little something about each letter, with my rating given too.

Might not be entirely spoiler free!

A is for Amateur
This one was actually quite funny. First we see an awesome serial killer killing some gang, and it's all going perfectly, but that was just the plan for the killing. Then it's time for the killer to actually get to the job, and everything goes wrong to the point where he dies. Eventually though, his body is found in the air-filtration system which somehow leads to the point where the gang still gets killed.
My rate: 7/10

B is for Badger
Another one that was slightly funny. It's about some camera crew filming a documentary about pollution that killed the badgers. But, instead of dead they rather turned into badger-mutants. Which leads to quite a funny situation.
My rate: 7/10

C is for Capital Punishment
Not bad, it gives a pretty good picture of how wrong a wrong accusation can go. It was a bit too much  exaggerated with the head chopping of though. Not bad, nothing special either.
My rate: 6/10

D is for Deloused 
And we're back to what The ABC's of Death is best known about: it's the 'what the fuck' segments. Deloused is what it starts with, a stop-motion animation about... well I have no fucking clue what it was about. Is was about bugs and an even bigger bug with a huge anus or mouth that sucked up stuff. And then it disappeared into a galaxy of his anus where it got eaten? No seriously, I really had no idea what the hell was going on.
My rate: 3/10

E is for Equilibrium
Best name for this segment would be 'Bro's before ho's'. Nice segment about two guys living in peace together on an island, until the moment a woman arrives. Things are starting to get messy between the guys and well, the woman pretty much forces one to kill the other. Shots fired and..... It was a simple, fresh and nice segment.
My rate: 7/10

F is for Falling
The first one in this movie that was more serious. It was nice though, to have a change from the murdering and weirdness. It was more about a political situation, that turned out different from what I've expected. It was a good segment, with a powerful message and some excellent acting. I liked it.
My rate: 7,5/10

G is for Granddad 
Oh well, this was just.. weird. Nasty as well. Some punk lives with his granddad who has been sleeping inside the same bed with him each night, hearing him complain and masturbate every night. Then he kills him. Really nasty, nothing special either.
My rate: 3/10

H is for Head Games
I'm not a fan of these short movies, the animation is fairly simple and there's not really a story behind the animation. Well, it's of course about something, because when two people kiss everything is becoming weird but I didn't really see something meaningful behind this segment.
My rate: 3/10

I is for Invincible
About a family that's killing a family member because of her in-heritage. This doesn't work very well though, so they continue to try and kill her shamelessly. Of course, a weird segment, but it was somewhat amusing I must admit. The ending was gross though.
My rate: 5/10

J is for Jesus
Powerful segment about homosexuality. It was very short, but interesting I think. Good use of gore and make-up.
My rate: 6,5/10

K is for Knell
Oh I liked this one. Although there was a great missed chance for a jump-scare, it was very well made. I don't have a clue what 'Knell' means, but it definitely was a good segment. Some black liquid is turning everyone is a murderer, which leads to some nice scary scenes. This was a very nice segment.
My rate: 7,5/10

L is for Legacy
Aaaaaand, we're back to the weird! Badly weird I must add, no idea why this segment was included because it's just terrible. It makes no sense whatsoever, and the so-called creature is not even Syfy channel worthy.
My rate: 1/10

M is for Masticate
For the letter 'M' there was a contest where people could say which segment they liked best, and Masticate was chosen for this. I haven't seen the other segments made for 'M' so unfortunately I can't decide if this really was the best choice. Masticate however was shot entirely in slow-motion which was pretty awesome looking, and of course very fitting since it contained a zombie theme. It was quite funny, nothing special though.
My rate: 6,5/10

N is for Nexus
Not a memorable segment, but a good one nevertheless. It's a bit comparable with the movie 'Crash' where all kinds of different people encounter each other because of circumstances. This is of course the short version of it, and it was kinda powerful and interesting. Sad as well.
My rate: 7,5/10

O is for Ochlocracy 
A fresh vision on the zombie genre is always welcome, and this was what Ochlocracy brought us. A woman is being sentenced to death by people who once were zombies. They still slightly are zombies, but vaccinations are bringing them back to conscious. This is a Japanese segment and at first I was afraid this might turn out to be as last 'ABC's of Death' segment 'F is for Fart', but it actually turned out quite decent. Still some weird touches added to it though, but well, what else can we expect....
My rate: 6,5/10

P is for P-P-P-P-Scary!
You would almost think that the letter 'P' is too difficult to actually combine to an actual word because P-P-P-P-Scary really does not make any sense as a title. It's fitting for the story though, since that's not making any sense either. I am convinced this was filmed with a macbook's application called 'Photobooth' because that's how simplistic the effects looked.
My rate: 1/10

Q is for Questionnaire
A man is taking an IQ test on the street and his outcome is positive that his brains are being transferred to a gorilla. Yes, you read that right, to a gorilla. This segment was nothing special, and didn't look very good either.
My rate: 3/10

R is for Roulette
Perhaps my favorite segment of this movie, it's a black and white short about two men and a woman playing russian roulette in a basement. One of the men knows that the next bullet is going to be for him, instead of killing himself he kills the woman, which happens to be his wife. At that moment the door of the basement is broken down and people are storming in (probably nazi's). The man killed his wife to keep her away from the bad guys. Very simple, yet a very powerful segment. Loved it.
My rate: 9/10

S is for Split
Another good segment. It's about a home invasion with a very twisted outcome. It was simple, but brutal as well.
My rate: 8/10

T is for Torture Porn
Torture Porn is a short made by the Soska Sisters, who are known for American Mary. I think this is like the real life version of weird Japanese Hentai, where tentacles take part in some private business. It was not a bad segment though, the woman was treated horribly by the men, and she took some nice revenge ;).
My rate: 6,5/10

U is for Utopia
An interesting segment, about an "ugly" man walking through some sort of futuristic building, when he knocks over a post he is being executed at the spot while being singled out by perfect looking people. When the deed is done, they clap and resume their business. It was a very interesting segment, with a subject that would fit good as well in a full movie. It was good looking and acted quite well.
My rate: 7,5/10

V is for Vacation
Found-footage movie, of course there had to be one of them in ABC's of Death 2. It was pretty well done, not the most interesting subject but it was filmed nicely and the acting was pretty good. Quite a decent segment.
My rate: 6,5/10

W is for Wish
Weird, weirder, weirdest? A more fitting title for this segment I think. Some people liked it, but I was just not a fan of Wish-man and his weird adventures.
My rate: 3/10

X is for Xylophone
A familiar face in the form of Inside's Beatrice Dalle. A very unethical, disturbing segment which could be a sequel to Inside. Shocking it was, pretty awesome though ;D.
My rate: 7/10

Y is for Youth
We're back with the weird! A girl fantasizes about the death of her parents, in very weird ways. Giant penises show up, monsters show up, and all killing her parents very brutally... It was funny because it was just too weird to take this seriously.
My rate: 5/10

Z is for Zygote
Okay, Zygote was bizarre, but it had an interesting touch to it. A woman is left by her husband while she's pregnant, because she's afraid that her baby will leave her as well, she just refuses to give birth. With as result --> 13 years later, a very big "baby" is still in mommy's belly, but the kid really wants to come out. In a very messed up way.... I must say that I liked this one, it was weird but one an interesting level.
My rate: 7,5/10

All together, it was a weird experience once again watching an ABC's of Death movie. This time as well there was booze involved, which really is needed to watch this movie since some things are just really too weird to watch sober. I didn't like it as much as the previous one, with that said, I wasn't a big fan of the first movie either ;p. My favorite segment was Roulette, please let me know yours :D.

Click here for my review of The ABC's of Death!

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 12: Remember

This review will not be spoiler free!

The group reaches Alexandria, where they get two big houses and jobs to do. Some people of the group enjoy being there, while other still are suspicious of the place. People of Rick's group are all being interviewed by the leader of Alexandria, Deanna, because she wants to get to know them.

My first thought of Alexandria was that those walls definitely aren't looking very stabile. It also reminded me of a less crowded Woodbury. Overall it's a lot like Woodbury since there's some sort of mayor, there are no weapons allowed and stuff like that. Difference is though that they are a lot more free in Alexandria, for example they can go outside and when they go outside they get guns with them.

It was nice though to see the characters in a new environment, with as big highlight that Rick finally shaves again. It's somewhat nice to see him like this again, I think it resembles a new start for him, since he hasn't shaved since season 1. Carl meets people his age, who are all playing video-games and stuff, Carl seems to feel uncomfortable though which isn't very strange considering all the shit he has been through at that age. I actually expected that he would act all tough and would act as if nothing ever happened, but luckily that did not happen.

The episode wasn't uninteresting I must say. We got to know quite a few new characters, who actually seem to respect the new group even though they are the new guys. It's interesting to get to know their secrets, Alexandria's secrets and how this all will evolve. Something interesting was also when Rick said that if Alexandria didn't work out for them, he would take it from them. I thought this was rather selfish and perhaps something Rick would say, but not where the rest of the group would agree with. I also don't understand why they never tried building another safe place after the prison. They have brains, guns and power to build something, but they rather keep searching for something that's already provided for them.

Still, not the best episode ever, but it's going baby-steps in the right way!

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 11: The Distance

This review will not be spoiler free!

In 'The Distance' we get to know what the new guys intentions are, his name is Aaron. He tells that he wants to take the group to a safe zone called Alexandria. But because of the group's history with Woodbury and Terminus Rick is very hesitant. The rest of his group wants to go though, it's up to Rick to make the decision if Aaron can be trusted or not.

It's kind of logical that Rick is hesitant about Alexandria, after all they've been through. But for the sake of his children he should know that eventually they'll need a place where they can stay longer. The last couple of episodes were already building up to this moment, even Michonne was saying they needed a place where they could stay, and she's kinda badass.

It's kinda exciting to see a new location different from the woods where they've been the last couple of episodes, but what if this new location is really safe? The show would become almost a regular show, about people who are in a safe location, where nothing happens. That's not something for a zombie show, so even when things may seem safe for a couple of episodes, something is going to happen that will make them leave again. Which will make them roam the woods.. again.

To be honest, I'm not even sure anymore what to expect from this show that will make it good again. The Walking Dead cycle is going to be endless, searching for a safe place > place found > place isn't really safe > they leave and search for a new safe place. Same with characters, one dies, a new one comes in. Now Aaron seems to have a chance to become a new member of Rick's group, I'm pretty sure that someone of the old members will die. Honestly, 5 to 6 season of zombies are just not that interesting, especially if each season starting from season 3 has 16 episodes in it. It's just becoming a never ending cycle until the moment they find a true safe place that has the cure for the apocalypse. And that moment is still far away I think.

I must say though that I read some reviews about this episodes and they were much more positive compared to the ones of previous episodes. People are saying that the show is going back to the roots of the comic books again, which people seem to like. I haven't read any comic book of The Walking Dead yet, not sure if I ever will either. But I must agree that this episode was at least much more interesting compared to some previous episodes. There were a few somewhat frightening zombie scenes again, while walking in the dark which also lead to an awesome looking zombie kill. It even introduced two new characters that were gay, it's a small addition, but it's something that's at least new to this show.

I would say this was a great episode, because it wasn't. But I sure as hell can say that this episode was a step in the right direction compared to the two previous very shitty episodes.

Frozen (2010)

Frozen

IMDB rate: 6,2
Genre: Survival
Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers

No people, this is no review of Disney's Frozen (which I didn't like at all by the way), this review is about Frozen, the horror version. Someone mentioned this movie to me some years ago, and ever since I wanted to watch it. I actually thought this movie wouldn't be very good, that it would be slow paced and that it just wouldn't be very interesting to watch three people being stuck in a ski lift. Luckily, I was wrong. I was even surprised how fast time was flying when watching this movie.

At Mount Holliston, snowboarders Dan Walker (Kevin Zegers), his girlfriend Parker O'Neil (Emma Bell) and his best fried Joe Lynch (Shawn Ashmore) don't have enough money to buy lift tickets. Parker bribes Jason, a lift-worker, with one hundred dollars. When the system is nearing closure, they force Jason to let them have one last pass. However, Jason needs to resolve a problem and his colleague misunderstands his instructions and stops the lift. The trio of skier and snowboarders gets strander on the chairlift near the top of the mountain. When they see that the lights of the ski resort had been turned off, they need to make a choice: leave the chairlift or freeze to death.

As I already said, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The beauty of this movie is that there is no real bad guy that's causing all there misfortune, it's purely them versus nature. Nature is this case proves to be a real toughie with his snow storms, freezing cold and his creatures named wolves.

The location of the movie is magnificent, it's even better when you learn that there's no green screen involved and that everything was actually filmed on location. The actors were truly 50 feet in the air on a real mountain. They even found a ski lift which they obviously used to film in. I even read that the official camera guys were too afraid to film from one of the chairs on the ski lift while it was moving, so director Adam Green had to film those scenes.

I was afraid that the movie would become boring after awhile, I mean can things be on a space that small? The movie Buried was even smaller and that one become very boring after awhile. Frozen doesn't become boring though, even when they haven't been stuck for incredibly long they immediately decide to take action. The fact that this turns out wrong kinda sucks, but their intention was good. Spoiler ahead --> I thought it was a pretty cool scene where Dan was stuck on the ground because of this broken legs and when Lynch tried to get to the other side but returned because he saw wolves roaming around Dan. The moment between Parker and Lynch to protect her from seeing him getting killed was very beautiful /end of spoiler.

The acting is quite good in Frozen. I already saw Shawn Ashmore in plenty of movies and he never bores me. It was Emma Bell's first movie and I thought she did a great job. Her acting in the scene where she was worried about her puppy felt real, it actually almost made me tear-up. I'm not a huge fan of Kevin Zegers, but he did a fine job I think.

Frozen was an impressive survival movie, with a beautiful but deadly location. It was filled with terror and horror, even though not the horror you might suspect from a horror movie. This movie felt real, and even more so because of it's ending. Great, surprising movie.

My rate: 7,5/10

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 10: Them

This review will not be spoiler free!

I'm giving that warning, but I'm wondering why since there literally did not happen anything this episode. It was super-duper boring. I'm already a few episodes behind on The Walking Dead, mainly because I really can't be bothered to keep-up anymore since it really became a shitty show. I will definitely finish watching this season, perhaps even next season out of curiosity, but I can't get myself to keep up with The Walking Dead reviews anymore after this season because they're just not worth it. I will be doing separate reviews of each episode until the last episode of season 5, but after that I'm afraid I won't be doing that anymore.

So, the episode 'Them' is basically about people grieving about the people they recently lost. But honestly I thought it was difficult to tell they were grieving. Sure they were sad and stuff, but what else can you expect from people in a zombie apocalypse. The most exciting thing that happened was when there were a bunch of water bottles on the road with the text "From a friend" on a paper next to it, later in this episode we meet this friend. With the introduction of this new character it's already predictable what next episode is about, is the new guy good or is he bad?

I remember when people were introduced in the beginning of this show I was actually curious about who they were, what their motives are and if they were a good or bad person. Nowadays the show sucks so much I don't give a shit anymore. This show lacks tension, a good storyline and well.. zombies to be honest. I haven't read the comic book, but I can't imagine that this stuff is still interesting after so many books. With a show like this it can become never ending, it's really what I'm afraid for because it's just them roaming around, searching for a save place, when they find the save place they want to mess it up again and start roaming around again. It's a damn never ending cycle. I think it would be smart for the writers of this show to make clear for themselves how many season they are going to do of The Walking Dead, because last thing I heard was that they were considering to continue this show till at least season 12. I'm sorry but I ain't going to watch this boring stuff 7 more seasons.

I think this episodes highlight is supposed to be that when it stormed and zombies were trying to get into the barn they stayed in, they all worked together to barricade the door. Whoopdifuckin'doo, they have been together for 5 seasons and now we're supposed to get emotional or something because they're working together after a few tough days? Come on AMC, you can do better than that.

Nope, 'Them' was not a good episode, again. Prepare for next weeks episode 'The Distance', where we get to know the new character Aaron and his purpose.

Child's Play 2 (1990)

Child's Play 2

IMDb rate: 5,7

Genre: Slasher, Dolls

Starring: Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Christine Elise

If I have to name my favorite slasher franchise I would never go for A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween or Friday the 13th. Nope, my favorite is and will always be the Child's Play franchise. These movies are so damn enjoyable, there's humor, murder, dolls and there's even somewhat of logic in the sequels. I'll have to admit, I haven't seen the third one yet, but I own it on DVD so I'll give it a watch quite soon. For now, here's my review of Child's Play 2. 

Here is what Child's Play 2 is about:
Andy Barclay has been placed in a foster home after the tragic events of the first film, since his mother was committed. In an attempt to save their reputation, the manufacturers of Chucky reconstruct the killer doll, to prove to the public that nothing was wrong with it in the first place. In doing so, they also bring the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray back to life. As Chucky tries to locate Andy, the body count rises. Will Andy be able to escape, or will Chucky succeed in possessing his body?

In the first Child's Play movie there was still a bit of a question if Chucky was actually alive or if it was just Andy's imagination. That lead to mysterious scenes where we didn't actually saw the doll do anything because we watched it from Chucky's (or Andy's?!) view. It was interesting but still it lacked some action scenes of the moving doll. Now we figured out that Chucky is very real we finally get some Chucky action scenes. He is getting a lot more screen time and his character has much more time to shine through. This leads to very funny scenes of where Chucky murders another Good Guy doll, buries it and takes it places. When activated to talk he says "Hi! I'm.... Tommy!", which was pretty funny. Because Chucky gets more screen-time it was needed to update his animations, which worked out pretty well I think. He became a lot more scary than he already was, and to be honest, he got me frightened.

What bothers me in most slasher sequels is the fact that when they died, got beheaded, shot in the heart, set on fire or whatever they show up unharmed in every sequel. Without explanation they just appear fit and alive again. After seeing Child's Play I was already wondering how they would going to explain the return of Chucky in Child's Play 2, since he was set on fire and there wasn't much left of him. They actually played it very clever because the makers of the dolls were rebuilding Chucky to check if something was wrong with him, with as main idea to not be sued for any mistakes. It's simple, but so clever. That's also what I like about Bride of Chucky, because he actually looks fucked up there which is pretty logical after all that shit that happened to him. It's also what I enjoy about Curse of Chucky, at first he looks perfect again, which is very questionable after Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky. But then it appears that his perfect looking skin is just make-up and he is still scarred underneath it. I honestly thought it was brilliant and I loved it immensely (also the return of Alex Vincent and Jennifer Tilly, it was fucking awesome).

As before, Andy ends up being in some messed up situations again. Being blamed for everything, and not being believed by anyone. I did feel sorry for poor Andy, he just can't seem to catch a break. But for real, when you take a foster kid in home that's being traumatized by a doll, why the hell would you keep that same looking doll lying around in your house?! Great acting again from Alex Vincent, very convincing little kid. Wasn't specifically crazy about Christine Elise as Kyle though, but her character wasn't very much important anyway. The best thing about Chucky is of course Brad Dourif's voice, Chucky is just unthinkable with that voice. I'm really glad that he's still doing it, because Chucky without Brad Dourif is just not Chucky. A bit like Freddy Krueger without Robert Englund, it's just not really Freddy Krueger (I'm looking at you, A Nightmare on Elm Street remake).

The first Child's Play wasn't necessarily a slasher, with the sequel though, the whole image changed. The body count of Child's Play 2 doubled, the kills became more gruesome and innovative and Chucky doesn't really seem to care anymore who he kills to get to Andy. This did lead to a few awesome/gruesome looking kills though, for example when a technician encounters the eyeball machine of the toy-factory...

Child's Play 2 is a worthy sequel, it follows up perfectly with the first movie and it evolves the character Chucky to a real killer doll. Perhaps it's less scary than the previous movie, but the improvement of doll-animations sure boosts the scare-level a lot. The plot is fun and the death scenes are pretty awesome. Definitely a very entertaining movie.

My rate: 7/10