The horror genre has lived on largely thanks to innovation. Whenever something started to get stale, new directors stepped in to offer something different.
Director Wes Craven (Aug. 2, 1939-Aug. 30, 2015) was one of them. This aspect was most notable in 1984, when his picture “A Nightmare on Elm Street” came out and threw in a new twist on the newly formed slasher sub-genre.
Continue reading “Halloween Horror Fest 2017: Honoring Wes Craven”
Did the film “Groundhog Day” start a genre? With films like “Edge of Tomorrow” and now “Happy Death Day,” it’s starting to seem so.
The latter was just released this past weekend and follows the story of Theresa (Jessica Rothe), who goes by the nickname Tree. A college student and a sorority member, Tree is a very much a partier and enjoys living life rather promiscuously.
Her life comes to a screeching halt, though, when she’s murdered on campus on the night of her birthday. However, instead of dying, Tree wakes up on the morning of her birthday and relives it all over until she’s once again murdered. After waking up again on that same morning, it becomes apparent to her that she’s reliving the same day and sets out to solve her own murder.
The concept of zombies existed long before 1968.
The first known film related to zombies was actually released in 1932, which was “White Zombie.” However, the zombies at that time were more related to magic and voodoo and it wasn’t until the late 60s that the modern zombie movie was created.
It was all thanks to George A. Romero (Feb. 4, 1940-July 16, 2017) who came along and thrust the genre in a whole new direction with the film “Night of the Living Dead.” Romero’s indie film, which introduced the concept of a plague that turns people into flesh eating zombies, didn’t just create a new idea for filmmakers to use, though.
Continue reading “Halloween Horror Fest 2017: Honoring George A. Romero”
Perennial cinematic risk taker Darren Aronofsky, who’s previously helmed films such as “Black Swan” and “Requiem for a Dream,” is at it again with this year’s “Mother!”
The movie opens rather mysteriously before introducing the audience to the two lead characters, named only Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) and Him (Javier Bardem). Their married life is a simple one, Him being a writer and poet who’s trying to find his next breakthrough while Mother works on restoring sections of the house they live in.
Tensions begin to rise as two guests show up on their home’s doorsteps, though, played by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer. That tension only continues to build as the situation at the house becomes more and more unsettling.
The simple verdict? Go see “It.”
“It” is a film based on the 1986 horror book of the same name written by Stephen King and revolves around seven kids who live in Maine. Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), Ben (Jeremy Taylor), Beverly (Sophia Lillis), Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Mike (Chosen Jacobs) Eddie (Jack Grazer) and Stanley (Wyatt Oleff) are the protagonists and find themselves coming together and becoming close friends.
Driving forces that bring the group together are the actions of a group of bullies in their small town and an evil entity that takes the form of a clown named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard). With the torment from Pennywise increasing for all of them, the seven start to research how they can survive.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘IT’ Is A Horror Movie That Has Heart, But Still Provides Chills”
“Annabelle: Creation” is a prequel to “Annabelle,” which itself was a prequel to “The Conjuring.” When considering the poor track record of sequels or prequels to horror films, there’s no way “Annabelle: Creation” should’ve been any good, that’s why it was surprising to see the movie turn out to be rather enjoyable.
The film takes place decades ago and follows the story of an orphanage that’s relocating to a house out in the country owned by a couple. The couple, Samuel (Anthony LaPaglia) and Esther (Miranda Otto), lost their daughter in a car accident a few years a before the start of the movie, but have opened their home to allow the orphanage girls to stay at the house.
While there are numerous orphan characters featured in “Creation,” the film focuses specifically on two, Janice (Talitha Bateman) and Linda (Lulu Wilson). The two are close friends and also happen to be the first to discover some paranormal activity at their new home.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Annabelle: Creation’ Is An Effective, Fun Horror Flick”
Director Ridley Scott has once again ventured into “Alien” prequel territory, but like the 2012 picture “Prometheus,” his new sci-fi “Covenant” has too many flaws and doesn’t come close to the level of the 1979 horror film.
Scott’s latest endeavor in the genre tells the tale of a colony star ship on course to set up a society on a remote planet. Their trip to this new planet, which has been properly vetted and researched to ensure that it’s completely safe, hits a snag, though, when a space phenomenon causes a malfunction.
Not only does this result in awakening the crew from their hyper sleep, it also causes the death of their initial captain. In the immediate aftermath while the crew is checking the status of the ship, which is carrying roughly 2,000 passengers, they discover a signal being sent from a remote planet that’s closer than the one they’re going to that has breathable air and water.
UFOs, aliens and government cover-ups can all be pretty entertaining stuff. When a film just uses that premise for a rather generic found footage flick, though, it can be rather dull.
“Phoenix Forgotten” is such a film.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Phoenix Forgotten’ Had A Nice Premise, Poor Execution”
“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” is supposedly the last picture in this franchise and hopefully that will remain the case.
The picture takes place after its 2012 predecessor, which ended with the premise that the final chapter would be a full defense of Washington D.C. from zombies. Like most “Resident Evil” movies, though, “The Final Chapter” completely disregards a previous film’s cliffhanger and through a bit of exposition the main character Alice is sent on a completely different adventure.
This time around, Alice (Milla Jovovich) has to make her way to Racoon City, the site of the second movie in the franchise, and find a cure for the dreaded virus that has turned nearly the entire population into zombies.
When the subject of Jack Nicholson’s performance in “The Shining,” many think of the iconic scene of his character saying “Here’s Johnny.”
While it’s an iconic moment, though, it’s just a single part in one of the most thrilling pieces of acting to put to screen.
Similar to how I gave credit to Alfred Hitchcock when I did the write-up on Anthony Perkins’ performance in “Psycho,” I also have to give recognition to Director Stanley Kubrick.
Continue reading “Halloween Horror Fest 2016: Honoring Jack Nicholson’s performance”
