Oculus (2014)

Oculus

IMDb rate: 6,5
Genre: Supernatural
Starring: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Rory Cochrane

I actually never really paid a lot of attention to Oculus, because it was one of those hyped-up movies that in many cases fail to amaze. I did have it on my to-watch-list for quite some time though and I finally gave it a watch. I had no idea what Oculus was about at that time, never saw a trailer, didn't read the synopsis either, so you can say I started watching the movie with no expectations at all. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with Oculus in the end. There were a few confusing parts, but overall it was a very good ghost/supernatural movie.

The twenty-one year-old Timothy Allen Russell is discharged from a mental institution by his psychiatric Dr. Graham completely healed from a childhood trauma. His sister Kaylie welcomes him in the parking area and brings him home. Then she tells that they need to destroy an ancient mirror that she has just bought in an auction. The reluctant Tim follows his sister and has fragmented recollections from his childhood, when his mother Marie buys a mirror for the home office of his father Alan. Kaylie and Tim see a woman with their father in his office and the behaviors of Alan and Marie change, ending in a family tragedy. Kaylie blames the mirror and now she wants to destroy it with Tim. Will they succeed?

The story has a very good build-up, during the movie we get to see fragments of their childhood and their trauma with this specific mirror. Because their past is being told during the entire movie it keeps an interesting perspective on the movie, it keeps it interesting to watch. If it would've been told all in once it would make the main story of the present day kinda boring actually, so did was a great thing to keep people curious.

The power of this mirror is that it can make you see things that aren't there, so it's a great psychological horror movie. This gives a huge uneasy feeling because you never know if anything is really happening or if it's just some game the mirror plays. I must admit that when I noticed this was going to be about a haunted mirror I wasn't too excited about it, but honestly Oculus did a great job making it somewhat scary and original.

The acting is pretty good in Oculus. Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Who) plays Kaylie and I was quite impressed with her. Already saw her once in Guardians of the Galaxy (for which she shaved all her hair off!) and I think she's going to be a big star sometimes. Brenthon Thwaites (Maleficent, The Giver) plays Kylie's younger brother Tim and he did a great job as well. Most impressive though was their father played by Rory Cochrane (Argo), he played his role as uncaring/distant father extremely well, you could almost feel the tension, amazing.

Oculus was a very surprising good movie. Great acting, good tensive scenes and it's just an exciting watch overall. There was just one thing that I did not get which is why they took so long to attack the mirror, because they knew that the longer they would be with it, the crazier things would get. So that's pretty much my only objection to Oculus. I had a great time watching this movie, and I definitely recommend to watch it as well.

My rate: 8/10

Screener: Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (2015)

Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story

IMDB rate: 5,7
Genre: Mockumentary, survival
Starring: Alexandra Breckenridge, Doug Jones, Chris Marquette

Last week I posted the trailer of the movie Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (or from now on: Always Watching), the trailer itself looked interesting to me because of the "Slenderman" type of villain in this movie. Perhaps the trailer itself didn't look to great, but I was definitely intrigued by it.

For those who don't know Slenderman, it's a videogame released a couple of years ago where you need to collect drawings or something while being chased by the Slenderman. The Slenderman is a faceless figure in a suit, quite scary looking. I didn't find the game very scary myself, but I definitely did like the Slenderman because of his creepy appearance.

This movie is not officially about Slenderman, it's actually based on a few YouTube short movies of Marble Hornets which I haven't watched myself yet. But well, there is an undeniable resemblance between the movies villain (called The Operator) and Slenderman. Which I like quite a bit.

Here is what Always Watching is about:
On the hunt for an intriguing news story, a small-town news team follows a crew inspecting repossessed houses. Inside a particularly strange house, the news team discovers a box of video tapes inside a locked closet. Sensing a story, they decide to take them back to their studio. From the tapes, they learn that the family who had lived in the house was not pushed out by the banks, but fled the house in fear for their lives. Trying to decode the story, the crew keeps seeing a faceless figure dressed in a dark suit appear in the footage that causes the videotape to scramble. Their fear mounts when this figure, The Operator as he is deemed, starts to appear in their real lives, standing quietly and watching them. Tortured and terrorized, the three crew members must track down the mystery of The Operator before it's too late.

There's actually quite an interesting bunch of actors in this movie. Doug Jones plays The Operator himself, and while his role isn't too big I must say that he is the perfect choice for this type of villain. Doug Jones is mostly known for his "unrecognizable roles", such as The Silver Surfer in Fantastic 4, as the scary creature in Pan's Labyrinth, as Billie the zombie in Hocus Pocus but my favorite role of him is definitely as "The Gentleman" in my favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hush".

The main character of Always Watching is Chris Marquette, and even though he isn't extremely famous, he played in a few pretty cool movies such as The Girl Next Door and Fanboys. Chris Marquette did a pretty good job with playing the main character I think. A smaller role is for relatively unknown Alexandra Breckenridge who you may have seen in her role as "the sexy maid" in American Horror Story season 1, she also plays a role in the last season of The Walking Dead. Wasn't too crazy about her acting, but maybe her script just wasn't entirely right for her. She was kinda just put as the pretty girl in this movie, but I think she can do better than that.

As I already said, I love the villain in this movie, this Operator guy. He is scary as hell, but honestly I would have loved to have seen more of him. Especially with the magnificent actor Doug Jones portraying him he just deserves a bigger role in the movie. What I also would've loved to see was more of a background story of this Operator guy. What is his purpose, how is he there, what is he and does he have a weakness? Maybe an interesting approach for a sequel ;).

For a found-footage movie it's a pretty decent movie I think, it pretty much follows the standard found-footage movie principle but overall it's done okay. The movie is not specifically scary, but I must admit that because I was watching this movie with headphones on I got quite tensed sometimes. So here's a quick tip: want a more scary experience while watching horror movies alone? Watch it with headphones on :).

Always Watching is quite a decent movie I think, especially for a found-footage movie who have a reputation about being horrible often. I would've liked it better if the Operator was given a bigger role, because he is of course what's most interesting about this movie, the scenes that he was in were pretty cool though. The dialogue was a bit lame at times and there were a two scenes were the one dude was screaming to the other which was pretty annoying, but overall I actually had quite a good time watching this movie.

My rate: 6/10

Honeymoon (2014)

Honeymoon

IMDB rate: 5,6
Genre: Possession
Starring: Rose Leslie, Harry Threadaway

I was actually kinda excited for this movie. The cast was pretty good, the trailer looked awesome and it just seemed like a pretty good movie to me. Unfortunately this was not the case. It actually was a pretty boring movie, it just took way too long for something to happen. After a hour already passed nothing really interesting had happened yet. Sure, there were some mysteries but it was just not tensive at all.

Here is what Honeymoon is about:
Young newlyweds Paul and Bea travel to remote lake country for their honeymoon. Shortly after arriving, Paul finds Bea wandering and disoriented in the middle of the night. As she becomes more distant and her behavior increasingly peculiar, Paul begins to suspect something more sinister than sleepwalking took place in the woods.

The acting was actually pretty decent, Rose Leslie is a cute actress most known for her role as Ygritte in the TV show Game of Thrones (the one who keeps saying "you know nothing Jon Snow!". Harry Threadaway was quite good as well, haven't seen him in many roles besides the few episodes I watched of Penny Dreadful, but I quite liked him. Their chemistry was somewhat convincing, although the romance level in this movie was just too much for me. I saw people complaining that their American accents were horrible, in Harry Threadaway I did not even notice that he was British actually so in my opinion he did a good job. With Rose Leslie though I did not even notice that she was trying an American accent, I just thought her character would be British. Wrong about that one though, so i guess her job on doing a different accent wasn't too great.

The story itself started off good, the mystery of why Bea was one in the night, and what happened to her at that time. I really was curious about what had happened to her, but actually from that moment on the movie became pretty bad. The pacing was too slow, we first get half a hour of romance, sex attempts and stuff like that, then Bea disappears, then she starts acting weird and in the last ten minutes of the movie we somewhat figure out what had happened. The explanation about what happened is not satisfying at all though, it's not complete and it hardly tells what really is going on. And don't read further if you don't want to know this spoiler: but for real, aliens?! Nope, I'm not cool with that at all. Not even sure if they were aliens, but they sure as hell looked a hell of a lot like aliens.

Honeymoon is not a very scary movie, it's not filled with gore or special effects, it's more one of those movies where things are being left to the viewers imagination. In the end there's on scene that's kinda nasty but that's about the only interesting thing that happened. The make-up is quite good I must say, even for a low-budget movie.

Reactions about Honeymoon are pretty mixed, some hated it and some thought it was the best horror movie of the year. Maybe if your into psychological horrors with very slow pacing it might be something for you. Personally I wasn't a big fan of it. The script was pretty bad and there just did not happen a whole lot. I really thought this movie had some potential, but it got kinda messed up with the 'plot-twist' I think. Good acting, good looking make-up, but overall it was a bit a waste of time.

My rate: 5/10

Clown (2014)

Clown

IMDB rate: 5,7
Genre: Clown, Slasher
Starring: Laura Allen, Andy Powers, Peter Stormare

Now this is something I've waited ages for, a decent movie about killer clowns. Ever since I was little I've been scared to death for clowns, but I still hadn't seen a decent movie about clowns. Sure, there is It, but that clown turned out to be an alien spider something, and I didn't really find it scary either. There's Stitches but I honestly thought that was a pretty shitty movie. There is also this awesome clown scene in the movie Amusement, but unfortunately that was only one scene and the rest of the movie turned out shitty anyway.

Here's what Clown is about:
A loving father finds a clown suit for his son's birthday party, only to realize the suit is part of an evil curse that turns its killer into a killer.

Clown is based on a short fan movie that was once made, and people seemed to like it so much Eli Roth decided to turn it into a movie. Oh wait, did I forget to mention Eli Roth produced Clown? I know that many people dislike Eli Roth, but honestly I don't think he's too bad. Perhaps Cabin Fever wasn't the best movie around, but I can't say I hated it butt-loads. Besides, I kinda liked Hostel.

The movie might have a bit of a strange concept of a suit that turns it wearer into a killer, but honestly what else might turn a human into a clown-suit wearing killer? The curse is a nice story for it I think, it's definitely a better story than the standard reason why some characters become mass-murderers. Besides, I was already very happy that there was finally a full clown movie that's actually decent and somewhat scary.

You might've noticed my phrasing there when I said that it was 'decent'. It really is a decent movie, I can't say this is a incredible movie with many new ideas and insights, but it's just a nice and decent slasher. I think this is one of the few slashers in the last couple of years that actually tries to be original and actually somewhat succeeds at that, so that's already quite the head start for Clown.

The make-up is done very well in this movie, at first when the plastic nose is stuck to Kent and his wife rips it off - ouch, that looked quite painful. The transformation of Kent is looking awesome as well, at first he just starts to look a bit messed up, but when his transformation is finally done he is looking very scary I think. Perhaps one of the scariest clowns I have ever seen. The gore is pretty awesome as well, ripped off children bodies, brains splashing around, and lots, lots of blood!

Decent acting, Andy Powers did a fine job as the fucked up clown. Laura Ellen played okay as well, by the way - how much is she looking like Malin Akerman?! I was convinced at first it was Malin Akerman instead of Laura Ellen. Of course there's also a small (tiny) role for Eli Roth as a clown, really only for a second he shows up though.

I thought Clown was a fine and nice movie, it had some great gore and nice looking make-up. The acting was decent and overall I thought this was a nice slasher. I'm also very happy that finally there has been released a good murdering Clown movie because that has been ages since I've seen one. Clown is a hundred times better than Stitches, even though Stitches tries to be funny (and fails at it) and Clown is more a serious type of movie (as far as Clown murdering movies can go serious). Even if you're not a fan of Eli Roth, I suggest giving Clown a watch, I definitely had fun watching it.

My rate: 6,5/10

The Walking Dead: season 5, episode 14: Spend

This review will not be spoiler free!!!

Again, a few episodes behind since the premiere already aired. But only three more reviews to go, so of course I'll finish them.

Glenn, Eugene, Tara, Noah and new guys Aiden and Nicolas are going to a warehouse to get some products for Alexandria. This however goes terribly wrong when annoying Aiden is being a cunt and shoots on a grenade which causes that he dies, Tara got wounded badly and the walkers are being attracted by it.

Aiden seems to still be living though, but he's that badly injured that he won't live anyway, he says that he once left behind other Alexandria mates in a run because he was a coward, and just then Nicolas runs away as well. Glenn chases Nicolas which somehow ends up in Noah and Glenn being stuck with Nicolas in a revolving door. Nicolas is being a cunt again which causes that Noah got taken by the walkers which leads to a nasty death scene. Eugene managed to take Tara outside and distracts the zombies away from the door so Nicolas and Glenn can escape, Nicolas however is being a cunt again and tries to steal the van from Eugene. Glenn stops him and knocks him unconscious.

Meanwhile, Father Gabriel tells to Deanna that the group can't be trusted and he urges her to kick them out. I don't know why though, he really seems to be a dick all out of a sudden. Maggie overhears him though.

Not an extremely good episode, it was mostly interesting because Eugene seemed to become a bit tougher. It was also nice to see Glenn more in an episode again, I really like his character a lot. It was sad that Noah died, but well.. my theory of when one dark skinned guy dies, another one appears might still exist, because didn't we see Morgan in the beginning of this season...?

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 13: Forget

This review will not be spoiler free!

Yeah yeah, I am very much behind with my Walking Dead reviews, it's so bad actually that the season premiere already aired... whoops..
But well, I can't just stop reviewing them almost at the end, so of course I'll finish the last three as well :).

Forget wasn't a very exciting episode, but it showed some interesting moments. The 'crew' is invited to a party in Alexandria, and when they attempt you can see how weird it is for them to be in a 'norma' environment again. Some of them are having troubles adjusting to these new circumstances, which isn't too strange. Some of them are
hiding guns outside the walls for times of need.

Because of the party it gave a bit of an opportunity to get to know the new more important characters. But it also showed simple things such as Rick falling for a woman named Jessie who appears to be treated badly by her husband. Carol is the one who acts as if she fits in perfectly in Alexandria and she attempts to become 'invisible' again, but since it's all an act it seems like she's the only one thinking of the consequences of that place. Because we all know, something will happen again.
She also starts threatening a little boy, which shows a very new side of Carol, it was pretty funny though.

Forget wasn't a particularly interesting episode, nothing exciting actually happens, but well it showed some good character development which is also worth something I guess.

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