Review: Monsters (2010)

Monsters

IMDB rate: 6,4

Genre: Science-Fiction, Drama

First of all, Monsters is definitely not a horror movie. So this review probably won't be very long. I'm not quite sure what I expected from this movie, but I think I at least expected a tiny bit more action. Monsters is more a drama/thriller movie that just contains a few creatures.

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life form began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"... Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.

The first half of the movie isn't very interesting, it's more about the growing relationship of the journalist and the girl, and their private life problems. It was very slow and not too interesting, I really was waiting for a bit action. So when they finally go to the infected zone, I was expecting quite a bit from it.  Unfortunately, besides a short monster invasion, nothing happened. This 'short' monster invasion might sound interesting, but really it wasn't. You see nothing of what happens, all you know is that suddenly almost everyone is dead. 

In the entire movie you see almost nothing of the creatures, besides that they have tentacles. This can go two ways; it might keep it interesting of what it is what attacks them, or it just becomes boring because for all we know it's a kitten with tentacles. At first I thought it was interesting to keep the monsters a secret, but after a while it became a bit too obvious 'camera-avoiding'. 

It was only until the last scene that we saw the creatures pretty clear, and I think they were having sex (tentacle sex, very japan like), so it was a bit awkward. 

The creatures reminded me a bit of the War of the Worlds creatures, combined with one of the huge monsters from The Mist. 

What's most interesting about this movie were the images. The movie is filmed amazingly, really beautiful images. It was a bit indie like, I think. There was a bit of a brown filter over the movie, which made it look a bit 'artsy'. The movie itself wasn't much special, but it was shot very beautifully. The creatures were hardly seen, so that was a huge budget saving. 

I'm not really sure what to say about this movie. Part of me liked the difference compared with other monster movies. It's a calm movie, in a messed up world. Perhaps it's a good difference that this movie isn't hollywood action filled? I'm not sure. Part of me hoped for a bit action in this movie, since the setting was amazing. The story is good too, and I think that an action movie could have worked good with this concept as well. 

I think this movie might be entertaining if you're not expecting too much from it. It's really just a drama movie that just happens to contain a few alien creatures. It's a very slow movie and there's not a whole lot going on, so I'm very sure that not everyone will like it. I liked the concept of the movie, and especially the amazing images, but the movie itself was slow and a bit of a disappointment. 

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: You're Next (2011)

You're Next

IMDB rate: 6,5

Genre: Survival

I was very curious about the movie You're Next, even though the trailer looked slightly boring it still seemed interesting enough. The trailer reminded me a lot of The Strangers and that's also what it resembles a lot. The ending is very different from The Strangers though, luckily. 

The first few minutes were good, then the movie became incredibly predictable and very unreal, after that the movie became slightly good again, even though still predictable. 

When a gang of masked, ax-wielding murderers descend upon the Davison family reunion, the helpless victims seem trapped... until an unlikely guest of the family proves to be the most talented killer of all.

The movie starts immediately with slaughter, always a good thing when a horror movie starts immediately with the horror part. The mood is set right when we knew that someone was in the house, but didn't see anyone. I admit, the beginning was very tensive. 

Then the whole family comes together and that's actually where thing started to get bad. It was too loud. Everyone was arguing, and it logical that that's loud, but this was just too annoying to watch without turning the volume down. 

The acting was decent, perhaps a bit over-the-top at moments, but overall quite decent. I disliked the actor Joe Swanberg (V/H/S) the most. He's not a very good actor and he's quite annoying. The best acting performance was definitely by Sharni Vinson, who definitely pulled the 'kick-ass-role' off well.

There was hardly any chemistry between the actors, but hey, I don't think there was supposed to be a lot of chemistry in the family either, so they can get away with that. 

There are many unbelievable parts in the movie. For example, they know that an intruder is in the house, but they don't search for him (only a few scenes later), no instead they let a woman alone in that room where someone was killed, and when she starts screaming everyone keeps sitting calmly on the stairs. 

I loved how good Sharni Vinson's character was with all the survival-ing. She really kicked everyones ass, finally someone who saw enough horror movies to know how to defend herself! No but seriously, I loved how awesome she was. Instead of making her another helpless girl, she could actually do something about the situation.

The ending was very predictable. Halfway the movie I already said how it would end, and indeed, that was exactly how it ended. Always a shame if you can predict the ending, I think. 

You're Next is a decent horror movie, comparable with The Strangers. But in my opinion, definitely not as good as The Strangers. The acting is only decent, the situations going on are unbelievable and too far-fetched. Erin's action are probably the most awesome thing about this movie, and I think that her actions are worth watching the movie for (pay attention to the blender scene!). 

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: American Mary (2012)

American Mary

IMDB rate: 6,3

Genre: Revenge, Torture

I have this movie on my computer for ages already, I finally decided to watch it. I expected a movie that's comparable with I Spit on Your Grave, and it's indeed a bit like that... on same parts. Just like I Spit on Your Grave, American Mary starts with the things she does out of revenge. But well, since it's only one person to take her revenge to it was quickly done. Then she starts doing 'her thing' on a more professional base, so that's where it differs from I Spit on Your Grave. 

The allure of easy money sends Mary Mason, a medical student, into the world of underground surgeries which ends up leaving more marks on her than her so called 'freakish' clients.

The first half of the movie was pretty awesome. Mary is a smart medical student who is in need of money. She does a few illegal side operations to earn a bit of money, then she goes to a surgeon party where she got raped. Since Mary isn't the sweetest girl around, she decides to take her revenge on the guy. How this went you'll only know until later in the movie, but believe me when I say it was quite brutal. 

From here on the movie turns on quite drastically I think. The torturing wasn't too strange, but everything from there on is. She stops with medical school (which isn't strange, considering the circumstances) and decides to go in body modification. 

Now, with the whole body modification thing I felt like I missed something. Suddenly she's freaking close to some guy from the club, and the first two times she did a body modification she was kinda messed up. So for her to go back in that business that seriously was kinda surprising. Sure, it's easy money, but her reactions towards the modification was completely different suddenly.

The ending came quite sudden I think. I wasn't too happy with it as it seemed kinda random. Sure, I get to motives behind it, but still it wasn't her fault, she only did what was asked from her. 

I loved the first half of the movie, but I thought the second half was a bit chaotic. American Mary is not just a rape-revenge movie, it's also an ode to people who aren't easily likable on first sight. With this I mean that the surgeons (aka the rapers) look normal and seem nice but were that inhuman that they could rape a young woman. While the people with all the body modifications going on seemed weird looking, and on first eye you'll think of them negatively, because of the way they look. In this movie they were the nice people, they were open and sweet. 

I think it's some sort of strong message that you shouldn't judge people of the way they look. 

The acting of Katharine Isabelle is very good. She's sarcastic and dangerous looking, I really liked her in this role. Now I must admit that I only saw Katharine Isabelle in Freddy vs. Jason before this movie, and well that really isn't her best role (neither is it an amazing movie) , but I do own the DVD from Ginger Snaps, so I'm still planning to see more of her.

All together, I'm not exactly sure what I thought of this movie. The first half was amazing, while the second half seemed a bit random. Like I already explained, perhaps the second half contained a deeper meaning behind the body modification stuff, I'm not sure about that. If what I thought really was the meaning behind it then I'm having much more respect for the second half than if it wasn't intended that way. Guess we'll never know...

The acting is good and so are the special effects. I think the movie is worth a watch, although it's definitely not one of my favorite movies. It's good, but nothing very special.

Personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Trick 'r Treat

IMDB rate: 6,8

Genre: Supernatural, Comedic

I finally got my hands on a copy of Trick 'r Treat. While it's not a very scary movie, I did enjoy it at most times. The movie evolves around one night were different stories come together, comparable with Pulp Fiction. The most impressing thing about this movie are the incredible costumes. 

Five interwoven stories that occur on the same block, on the same night. A couple finds what happens when they blow a jack o' lantern out before midnight, a high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer, a college virgin might have met the right guy for her, a group of mean teens play a prank that they take too far, and a hermit is visited by a special trick or treater.

The 'story' that I loved most was the one with the disabled children in the school bus. It was heart breaking but done incredibly well. The costumes of these children were scary and even though it was a short story, it definitely is my favorite one. 

Dylan Baker's segment was also very funny, especially his conversations with his neighbor and his child are hilarious. 

The most mysterious character in the movie is the boy with the pumpkin costume. He's in every segment, but we don't actually know why. At one point there's given a slight reason which seemed acceptable, but it didn't really fit with the other segments. I liked this mysterious boy a lot at first, his costume is creepy as hell and I hoped for a bigger story about him, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Also, the moment his masks falls off, I was really disappointed by his looks. It was definitely not what I expected and in my opinion they could have made it more scary with him being more 'normal'. 

While almost everything looked very awesome and real I was slightly disappointed by the Werewolf's. They looked very fake and actually very lame.

I actually don't have a whole lot to say about this movie. I liked it the movie as a whole, it's definitely a good Halloween movie. Some segments were better than others, but like I already said, overall it's a good movie. There are many different segments that all lead to each other one way or another. It's a very varying movie which keeps it fun to watch. The timeline might be confusing at times, but I think you'll figure it out by the end of the movie. The acting is good, the stories are good. Special effects aren't much special, but not particularly bad either.

My personal rate: 7,5/10

Review: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil 

IMDB rate: 7,6

Genre: Slasher, Comedic

I've seen this movie a thousand times already, but I never started writing about it. I don't exactly know why, since this movie definitely deserves it's review. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil seems predictable at first (think Cabin in the Woods), but turns out completely different from what what you'll expect. I think Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a brilliant movie, even when you dislike horror movies. It's really awesome.

Two lovable West Virginian hillbillies, are headed to their "fixer-upper" vacation cabin to drink some beer, do some fishin', and have a good time. But when they run into a group of preppy college kids who assume from their looks that they must be in-bred, chainsaw wielding killers, Tucker & Dale's vacation takes a bloody & hilarious turn from the worse.

When the movie starts we get to see the biggest horror cliche ever, a group of teens going camping while being incredibly irresponsible. They'll run into a few hillbillies (Tucker and Dale), and of course they start on the wrong foot. When you see this scene you will be annoyed and I can guarantee you that you'll think: 'not again.....', but luckily when this scene finishes we'll see the real story of this movie. Tucker & Dale's side. It's brilliant to see the incredibly overdone acting of the teenagers, the cliche was terrible as usual, so I guess that the 'overdoing' was being done right.

Now what's different about this movie? First of all, we don't follow the pretty, but shallow students. Instead of that we follow the hillbillies, they are being seen as 'gross' and 'dumb' by the students, but really they are two adorable best friends. It's incredibly cute so see how happy they are about their vacation home. Also, they are not the killing, or rude, hillbilly kind as you might've seen in the normal horror movies. They are just doing their thing, and wind up in the wrong situation. Basically, this movie is the biggest misunderstanding ever, which leads to brutal murders and also hilarious moments. 

The acting of is pretty good. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale) are both great castings for their roles. They look like regular hillbillies, they talk like hillbillies and they act like hillbillies. The unexpected part where it appears that they are lovable instead of rude comes even more as a surprise because they look so incredible in the beginning. I was especially impressed by Tyler Labine, the incredibly sweet and innocent Dale who fell in love with the pretty student Allison. His acting is the best and most impressive. Great casting for these two.

Now for the student roles, they really are a random bunch. There isn't paid a whole lot of attention to most of them, nor was that necessary. The 'main students' are Allison, the pretty student which is pretty much the cause of everything shitty that happens and there's Jesse, a psycho dude who really saw too many horror movies. 

What's funny about this is that in every horror movie, the people act like they've never seen a horror movie and have no clue what to do, while in this movie it's as if they've watched too many horror movies and exaggerate everything that happens. Which leads to the hysterical blood-filled situations.

There are also a few nice references to other horror movies in Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the chainsaw scene), Army of Darkness (half face burned off) and The Blair Witch Project (the first scene).

I think Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is an amazing comedic horror movie, the first time I saw it I was really surprised by it because it was totally different from what I expected. It's very funny and also very bloody, I really recommend watching it for those who haven't seen it yet. I don't recommend watching the trailer though, since the funniest moments are already in that, they are more awesome to see in the movie.

My personal rate: 8,5/10

Review: Breaking Bad [Season 1-5]

Breaking Bad

Season 1-5

IMDB rate: 9,6

Genre: Drama, Thriller, TV Show

Of course, I had to participate in this Breaking Bad madness. I've heard so many good things about it, so I couldn't leave behind and I needed to watch it. Excuse this non-horror related review, it will be a short one.

First of all, I want to make clear that I think that I don't think that it's a bad TV show. But I must also admit that I didn't like it as much as everyone else seems to do. The acting is good, and the entire story is good, but I never felt an urge to continue watching. You know what urge I'm describing right? For example, at the moment I'll have to wait another week for a Game of Thrones episode, but after watching each episode I have the urge to continue watching, even though the episodes haven't been released yet.
I never felt that way with Breaking Bad, unfortunately. I did watch every season, and sure it has it's great episodes, but I just don't think that it's a TV show suitable for me.

A good thing about this TV show is that it didn't continue forever on, such as with Lost. It knew when it should end and how it must end. It stopped on it's highest point just like it should be with every TV show. Also, the ending wasn't disappointing, I think it was right the way it was.

Bryan Cranston, the actor behind Walter White aka Heisenberg is an amazing actor. He portrayed Walter White amazingly, the insecure side and the more badass side.

The main thing that kept me from focusing on this show was the pace, it was a bit too slow for me. I know that many important things happened but it was a bit annoying at times. Also, the things happening were slightly predictable, Walter and Jesse having their arguments, almost getting busted, Walter and his wife arguing, it was just pretty much the same in a lot of episodes.

However it isn't my number 1 show, I did enjoy watching it most of the time.

My personal rate: 8/10

Review: Los últimos días (The Last Days) (2013)

Los últimos días

IMDB rate: 6,0

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, Thriller

The Last Days is hardly a horror movie, but it is an interesting post-apocalypse movie. In The Last Days there's suddenly an invisible virus going around that causes great fear at everyone on the planet to go outside. Basically it's an extreme form of agoraphobia. 

Beware, there are a few spoilers below.

A mysterious epidemic spreads across the planet. Humanity develops an irrational fear of open spaces that causes instant death. Soon, the world population is trapped inside buildings. As Barcelona descends into chaos, Marc sets off on a quest to find Julia, his missing girlfriend, without ever going outside.

Now with invisible viruses it's difficult to keep you're attention to a movie I think, especially with this movie since we've only witnessed one case that did go outside with his extreme agoraphobia. It's pretty much in the beginning of the movie and the guy was dragged outside. He was resisting so his adrenaline was very high, it wasn't too weird that he was actually scared to death. From this point on we never saw a mutual case again, at least not in the extreme form in which they died. 

The main character in this movie, Marc, only tried to go outside once and indeed he had trouble breathing. So for his mission he goes into the sewers to search for his girlfriend. And when he finds her, she's apparently across the street, where he can't reach her through the sewers. So he's forced outside, and while he has difficulties with breathing, eventually he makes it. Now I wonder what would happen if he would hold his breath and started to run? It's seems much easier. 

What I missed most in this movie were reasons behind all this. Why did all this happen? It started in Canada apparently, we know this from a video where a boy says that if that video would ever be released, it would happen to everyone. So it's some sort of spoken word virus? Is it in the air? I really have no idea where it came from and I think that's a shame. It would be very interesting to know more reasons behind the virus. 

It's not that the people are entirely afraid for the outside, because they can stand in open windows and in door openings. A better explanation would have been more satisfying.

The ending was a bit overdramatic, and in my opinion, a bit lame. While the movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where there are the predictable troubles it's actually a bit of a romantic movie. Sure, it has it's tensive moments, but not in a horror way. It wasn't scary in any way. 

It's an original movie, that's for sure. But the reasons behind it were too vague, better explanations would have been a huge improvement for this movie. The movie reminded me a bit of The Happening, since that's also something invisible. 

My personal rate: 6/10