Tag: Horror

The Purge: Anarchy review

Director:
James DeMonaco
Cast:
Frank Grillo
Carmen Ejogo
Zach Gilford
Zoe Soul
Rated: R

A sequel to last year’s film “The Purge,” “Anarchy” follows a new cast of characters and once again takes place on the night where, in the United States, all crime including murder is deemed legal. In this movie, the story follows a man simply known as Sergeant (Grillo), who seems to be on a quest for nothing but revenge on one person.

However, upon his travels he meets four people in need of help. Sergeant decides to assist them and has to lead them through the city on the most dangerous night in America.

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Carrie review

Director:
Kimberly Peirce
Cast:
Julianne Moore
Chloe Grace Moretz
Gabriella Wilde
Chris Hargensen
Ansel Elgort
Judy Greer
Rated: R

Chloe Grace Moretz seems to always play characters with a kill count. “Kick-Ass,” “Let Me In” and now “Carrie.”

The film is an adaption of the Stephen King novel of the same name, which was also made into a movie in 1976 by Director Brian De Palma. The story resolves around the title character, Carrie White (Moretz), a shy girl who lives with only her mother, a religious fanatic named Margaret (Moore) who more or less has lost her mind.

After an incident where Carrie is tormented by her peers, mainly by the character Chris (Portia Doubleday), she begins to learn that she possess telekinesis, or the power to move objects using the mind.

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The Conjuring review

Director:
James Wan
Cast:
Vera Farmiga
Patrick Wison
Lili Taylor
Ron Livingston
Rated: R

Finally some smart characters in a haunted house movie.

“The Conjuring” follows the Perron family, that includes Carolyn (Taylor) and Roger (Livingston) and their daughters. The family moves into a house out in the country and as time goes on they begin experiencing some strange phenomenon. Things start moving on their own and it appears that there is a spirit of some kind that haunts their new home.

Enter Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine (Farmiga) Warren, two specialists in the super natural who the Perrons seek for help. These two, who are actual specialists in real life and which this movie is based around, come to the house and begin their investigation.

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World War Z review

Director:
Marc Forster
Cast:
Brad Pitt
Mireille Enos
Daniella Kertesz
Rated: PG-13

Let me take you back to 2008. ATMR was just getting started and one story I posted on the site was about the book “World War Z” being adapted into a movie.

Nearly five years of development hell later and the movie has finally arrived in theaters.

“World War Z” follows the character Gerry (Pitt), a retired United Nations Investigator, who now takes up the role as stay at home dad. Everything seems peaceful enough, however, a drive through the city with the family becomes a horrifying experience as a fast spreading zombie virus starts moving through. Gerry contacts his friends at the U.N. and manages to escape the city with his family.

The reason that the U.N. allows his family to stay aboard a fleet of battleships which makes up humanity’s most functional command center, though, is because they need his skills that he used in his old job to put an end to the virus. For the sake of his family’s survival, Gerry agrees to go on a mission to discover how to fight back against the virus and the investigation takes him over multiple countries around the world.

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The Purge review

Director:
James DeMonaco
Cast:
Ethan Hawke
Lena Headey
Max Burkholder
Adelaide Kane
Edwin Hodge
Rhys Wakefield
Rated: R

“The Purge,” aka the hardcore version of “Home Alone.”

“The Purge” takes place in the year 2022. The United States has become a utopia, the economy is booming, crime is at an all time low, unemployment is at 1 percent and dogs and cats get along. This is all because for one 12 hour period every year, the government suspends all emergency services and allows all crime. This lets people to purge all of their hatred and get it out of their system.

The film follows the Sandins, a wealthy family of four with the dad named James (Hawke) who sells home protection services. On the night of the purge, the Sandins lock down their entire home while chaos is going on outside. Everything seems to be running smoothly until a man (Wakefield) running down the street comes along yelling for help. It turns out that he is a target for a group purgers who is trying to escape. The son in the Sandins named Charlie (Burkholder) feels bad for the guy and decides to let him in to the house.

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Evil Dead review

“Evil Dead,” is the remake of the 1981 film “The Evil Dead,” that was originally directed by Sam Raimi. The film follows the characters Mia, played by Jane Levy, and David, played by Shiloh Fernandez, as well as three of their friends. The five go to a cabin in the middle of the woods to help Mia break a drug addiction. There, they discover an old book, which is the Book of the Dead from the original series, yet, is never referred to by its actual name here.

After one of the characters reads a few of the passages, an evil demon is released who possesses Mia, and the rest of the characters are put through a gruesome series of events.

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Warm Bodies review

Director:
Jonathan Levine
Cast:
Nicholas Hoult
Teresa Palmer
Analeigh Tipton
Rob Corddry
Rated: PG-13

“Warm Bodies” is your basic modern day re-telling of “Romeo and Juliet,” except in this case, Romeo happens to be a zombie.

The film follows the character “R,” played by Nicholas Hoult who starred in the 2011 film “X-Men First Class.” R is a zombie who knows his name started with the letter “r” but can’t remember anything after that. On the outside, R is just an average zombie slumping around an airport in an post-apocalyptic future. However, on the inside R is able to give a monologue of what’s going on and provides the movie a narration.

Eventually, through a chance encounter, R meets a survivalist named Julie, played by Teresa Palmer. She is with a group looking for supplies. This meeting happens to be love at first sight for R as the encounter restarts his heart. Because of this, R saves Julie and Julie begins to learn that R is slowly coming back to life.

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Paranormal Activity 4 review

Director:
Henry Joost
Ariel Schulman
Cast:
Katie Featherston
Kathryn Newton
Matt Shively
Rated: R

It’s funny to think that three short years ago, I actually loved the first film and now I really dislike this series.

“Paranormal Activity 4” picks up five years after the end of the first film. The movie follows a new family who appears to have no connection to the previous movies. However when the character Katie from the previous movies comes and moves in next door and hidden facts begin to be revealed. I won’t go much more into the plot just because of spoilers.

With the first “Paranormal Activity,” I really enjoyed it mainly for its simplicity in so many sections. The budget was small but they used it well and did many things that were crafty, the story was also very simple, there was no major back story or major mythology, it was just a simple haunting, I enjoyed that. I didn’t know much about what was going on, and that worked. This made the film such a lightning in a bottle project, and probably should have stayed just one movie.

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The House at the end of the Street review

Jennifer Lawrence decided not to save her best for last this year.

“House at the End of the Street” follows Elissa, played by “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence, as a young high school student who has just moved into a new town. Upon arrival at her new house, she and her mother Sarah, played by Elisabeth Shue, are informed about the history of the neighboring house. Years ago, a murder occurred where a mother and a father were killed by their own daughter. The son, who was living out of town at the time, inherited the house and now lives there on his own and the daughter was reported as having gone missing and eventually died.

The son named Ryan, portrayed by Max Thieriot, has now for the most part become a shut-in, young man who doesn’t leave his house much, however, eventually he meets Elissa and the two start a relationship. Ryan is actually hiding a dark secret in the basement of his house.

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Cabin in the Woods review

Director:
Drew Goddard
Cast:
Kristen Connoly
Chris Hemsworth
Anna Hutchison
Fran Kranz
Jesse Williams
Richard Jenkins
Bradley Whitford
Rated: R

To bad Chris Hemsworth didn’t have his Thor powers in this movie, then it would’ve been a real party.

“The Cabin in the Woods” looks from the trailers like it could be your average five teens get stuck in the middle of no where and get killed off one by one type film, however as soon as the film opens it is revealed that it is far different then that. The film actually sets up a world where the entire situation that the supposed protagonists are going through is staged by a large powerful agency with it’s own agenda.

Once the film establishes these two pieces we follow the characters at the cabin and how they are being watched and even manipulated by the agency into going through some classic horror movie tropes.

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