Tag: Thriller

REVIEW: ‘IT’ Is A Horror Movie That Has Heart, But Still Provides Chills

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.

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REVIEW: ‘Annabelle: Creation’ Is An Effective, Fun Horror Flick

“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.

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REVIEW: Visually Impressive ‘Atomic Blonde’ Ruined By Convoluted Story

Beneath all of the style, colors and visual flair that “Atomic Blonde” offers to audiences, this late cold war spy thriller is unfortunately convoluted and dull.

The film follows special agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron), who’s sent by the British government to Berlin at the last moments of the cold war. Her mission is to investigate the murder of another operative and recover a list of agency information that may have fallen into the wrong hands.

To do so, Broughton has to work together with a less than professional British agent named David (James McAvoy) who’s been working in Berlin for the agency for years.

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REVIEW: Universal’s Attempt At New Monster Series Crashes With ‘the Mummy’

Ever since Marvel made the prospect of a shared universe successful, allowing for numerous crossovers, many other studios have been trying to jump on the bandwagon. The latest attempt is the Dark Universe by Universal, which is trying to recreate its 1940s classic monsters with a new series.

Unfortunately, its debut in “The Mummy” is awful.

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REVIEW: Second ‘Alien’ Prequel Hampered By Foolish Characters, Faux-Intellectualism

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.

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REVIEW: ‘Phoenix Forgotten’ Had A Nice Premise, Poor Execution

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.

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REVIEW: There’s Nothing Memorable About ‘Unforgettable’

This movie’s Internet Movie Database page says that it’s a thriller, but as it was screening, “Unforgettable” seemed to be more of a comedy.

The film follows the character Julia (Rosario Dawson), who’s moving from San Francisco to a smaller community to live with her fiancé David (Geoff Stults) and his daughter. While it takes some time for to fit in, Julia does eventually start to get a bit used to living in her new home.

An immediate problem starts to come forward in the character Tessa (Katherine Heigl), though. Tessa is David’s ex and isn’t too much of a fan of Julia getting close with her former family and it doesn’t take long for the jealousy to turn into complete hatred. As time goes on, Tessa begins working to ruin Julia’s life.

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REVIEW: ‘Elle’ Is A Dark, Disturbing Piece Powered By Isabelle Huppert’s Performance

For the first time since 2012 Paul Verhoeven returns to the director’s chair with arguably his most twisted feature film to date.

“Elle” follows the title character who’s more commonly referred to as Michele. A CEO of a major video game development company, Michele is a wealthy and rather powerful business woman living in France.

Her life, already quite complicated, becomes shattered in the opening scene of the film, though, when she’s attacked and raped at her home. What follows is an exploration of how the character deals with such a disgusting act, how it influences her decisions and how it relates to her past.

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Halloween Horror Fest 2016: Honoring Jack Nicholson’s performance

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.

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Halloween Horror Fest 2016: Honoring Anthony Perkins’ performance

Of all the horror/thriller performances I’m looking at this October, Anthony Perkins’ in “Psycho” is arguably the best.

Credit for the 1960 masterpiece also has to obviously go to the brilliant direction of Alfred Hitchcock as well as Janet Leigh who played Marion. However, it’s undeniable that Perkins’ acting was an integral part of making this a film for the ages.

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