What I'm Watching: Early October, 2010

Hellooooo, horrorheads!

We are hard at work here in Trisk Labs working on the next review, but as always, there's other stuff to watch.

A few weeks ago, I went to go see Devil, the new movie from the mind, if not the director's chair, of M. Night Shayamalan.  Why would I do such a thing?  Well, that's simple.  I *like* M. Knight.  He's had a few bombs, and I have yet to see The Happening, but I remember his early works very well.  Unbreakable is one of my favourite movies, period.

Also, the trailers for Devil, and the general plot, actually didn't sound that bad.  They took a locked room mystery and squished it down to the smallest possible space we are all intimately familiar with and have anxiety about, an elevator.  And instead of just one body, and trying to figure out how the killer did it, you had a group of people all being picked off.  We all dread being stuck in a jammed elevator somewhere in a high rise, but what do you do if one of your fellow passengers is a murderer?  That's a great idea.

Oh yeah, and the killer?  Is the devil.  How screwed are you?

So, what did I think of the movie?  I gotta say, I kinda loved it.  Now, remember what website you're on.  I also love all those other movies I review.  They are NOT good movies, and this one was pretty average.  But it's nowhere near as bad as other stuff on this site.  If Devil had been released direct to video back in the 80s, with a smaller budget?  I'd be all over it.  It's corny, but has a decent plot, and actually made me feel a lot like I was watching an old Outer Limits episode, and that's not bad company.  Not one of the better OLs, but a fun ride.  Definitely a must see if you remember the better Shayamalan movies.  But don't expect it to be that good.  A pleasant surprise.

I also just watched the new documentary, Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Movie.  With that as a topic, I kinda had to watch it, didn't I?  It's a pretty solid documentary, but nothing that surprising in their thesis.  It's still a good look at the history of horror in America, though.  I would have liked it to be longer even, since some of their points didn't feel fully fleshed out, but overall it was a well thought out and well made view at the genre.  Lance Henriksen as the narrator was great, and with many of the fathers of horror sharing stories, it was a fun watch.  Check it out if you're a fan, which I assume you are if you're reading this.

That's it for now, time to get back to working on our epic one-year anniversary review!

J