What I'm Watching: The Houses October Built

Oh geeze, I haven't done a Trisklet in over a month.  I am a bad webmonkey.  I'll try and be better in the new year.  Even though I've got a bunch of leftovers from 2014 to get through, I thought I'd kick off 2015 with the most recent movie I've watched.

Bonus because it's also fresh in my brain place.

That movie would be the found footage flick, The Houses October Built.  We follow a group of five friends who decide to go on an exploration of haunted houses (Or haunts) across the southern US, in the week leading up to Halloween.

That's actually super refreshing, and actually a GOOD and sensible use of found footage.  "Hey, let's go on a road trip, and film it!" and then shit happens?  Yeah, that's the second perfect setup for a found footage film.  For the other great example of a perfect setup, there's Grave Encounters.

So, the actual plot of the movie is actually really slow, if you sit back and look at it.  Nothing really major happens until the second half, and that's being generous.  A more accurate point would probably be the last 20 to 30 minutes.

But oh, those haunted houses.  That gives them perfect moments to keep things going, and just as the character stuff in the RV needs a break, the group hits one up and there's some good adventures in there.

Now, you know they're just haunted houses, and there's no REAL scares, but if you're along with the characters' journey, you end up enjoying the frenetic exploration of the locations.  Mixed in with those trips, they nudge the plot along as some of the characters are kinda jerky to the people working the haunts, make fun of them, and hunt around for the mythical extreme haunt, the Blue Skeleton.

While they search, they also run afoul of a few of the workers, which eventually comes around to bite them in the ass, as these familiar, and terrifying, faces keep popping up no matter where they go.  There's equal harassment being done by both parties, so while the main group does start to come dangerously close to making the viewers not like them, they never QUITE cross that line.  For the most part, you don't want these people to die.

One of the best parts, making this movie stand out from the rest of the found footage pile, is that they outright state that some of the scenes were filmed by the workers at the haunts, such as when they break into the RV to mess with the group, and once the kidnapping starts.  It breaks up the action, and allows for moments where our protagonists actually put down the damned cameras, the biggest problem of the subgenre.

I really enjoyed this flick, and that first half can even just be taken as just a genuine exploration of the budding haunted house industry that explodes every Halloween.  The fictionalised horror make things all the more fun, and if anything, would make going to a haunted house THAT much more terrifying.  I'm sure things like this DON'T happen, but sharks also aren't a bit problem, but we all know what Jaws did for those animals.

The ending has been a sticking point for a lot of people, as they usually are with found footage horror flicks.  I've complained about them plenty.  Just...how do you end these things?  But I didn't mind the ending here.  It's...definitively open ended.

So many FF horrors end with vague, VAGUE endings, where the filming just STOPS because the Monster of the Week has appeared and killed the people holding the cameras, and what do you do then?  Fortunately, the killers in this case have cameras of their own, and are as obsessed as anyone else over filming everything, so we get to go a little further.

The movie still ends pretty vaguely, but way more clearly than normally.  There is enough room for an interpretation I *really* like, and y'all should back out right the heck now, because here come the spoilers.

We close with the group being buried alive in coffins and screaming for their lives, after being tormented and chased around a run down home, and transported on a bus, and being generally terrified.

But...these people were looking for the most extreme haunt.  They found it.  So...what if instead of dying in those coffins, they were let out, and the haunters all had a good laugh at how pants-wettingly terrified the five friends were?  We never ACTUALLY see anyone die.

It would be perfectly in line with what they were looking for, and I would've liked to see them end up that way.  A great kind of "be careful what you wish for" tale.  Which the movie still *is*.  The best argument for not having that ending is because it would've been anticlimactic to bury everyone, then let them go and smile and say "Just kidding!" and credits roll.

But because the movie is left open ended, but dark, you can absolutely go that route with an interpretation of what happens next.

All in all, Houses may have taken a while to get to the real horror, but it kept things interesting enough with good characters, a sense of humour, and a unique story that really made *sense* to tell as found footage, and used the trappings of that to good effect.

This is definitely a recommendation.  And y'all know I don't recommend found footage flicks lightly, since they can be so problematic with their storytelling.

What I'm Watching: Devil's Carnival

Awhile ago, I saw Repo! The Genetic Opera, and if you haven't seen my thoughts on it, they were...not favourable.  I didn't HATE it, and there were a few good moments.  I liked the style, but the music never really landed for me or spoke to me.

Still, I could see why some people would get into it, and if the singing was a little more...I dunno, it's hard to explain just what about it didn't work for me.  It felt too forced sometimes, like the singing wasn't natural enough.  It's a style thing, I guess.

I honestly want to revisit it and see if it's grown on me.  But enough of a movie that came out years ago, this is supposed to be about Terrance Zdunich's LATEST project, the Devil's Carnival!

Obviously I saw some talent in this guy, since I came back for his second project.  His songs in Repo! were easily some of my faves, and the guy's got some serious vision going on.  The trailer was decent, and the concept intrigued me, so sure!  I'll give him another shot!

The plot revolves around a trio of people with darkness in their past meeting untimely ends and finding themselves in a Hell that is represented by a devilish carnival with a slew of rules, and they must navigate their way through, avoiding temptations tailored for their sins, with the chance of some day finding their way to Heaven, should they be found worthy.

Surprise! that's a long shot.  At best.

The stories and songs are based around Aesop's Fables, and that is certainly a rich pit to mine.  Many people have done it before, but never quite this way.  And twisting the stories, and modernising them, and putting them through the lens of Lucifer's trials for the damned is actually very clever.

Remember back during my review of Dark Dealer, when I said I wish that it was an anthology series of people struggling to outwit the devil at games of chance and whatnot?  Yeah, surprise is on me, this IS that series.  Zdunich has every intention of making multiple Devil's Carnival movies with several stories in each, and it was like my request was instantly answered.

And yeah, while there's a lot here I genuinely DO like, it has a lot of the same flaws as Repo! The Genetic Opera.  There is just something about the musical style for some of the songs that just reads as 'off' to me, and I'm not enough of a musical person to articulate it.  Still, there's more songs in here I *do* like, and once again Terrance's songs shine with his distinctive, rich voice.  I'd seriously come back AGAIN just to hear him sing.

On a whole, Devil's Carnival works for me a LOT better than Repo! does, with stronger songs, content that is more up my alley with the morality plays and demonic overtones.  As I watched the movie, and listened to the commentaries, and watched it again, it definitely grew on me, and while a few things do still bug me, I really did almost instantly come around and quite enjoyed this.

It's tough to judge the cast, since acting and singing are two different things, with some similarities, but coming across in different ways on screen.  With most of the story being conveyed through song, and the heightened acting that comes with it, there's a lot of scenery chewing, but it's almost all in the absolute best ways.  Briana Evigan especially, who plays a dual role of a thief and her mirror self, tempting her to take more than she should, eats up the screen and the joy and fun she has as Twin is so SO fun to watch, as her own fun just oozes off the screen.

The weakest story for me was the adaptation of "The Scorpion and the Frog," and a large part of that is my personal dislike of the overused story.  It's a good lesson about people not being able to change, but argh it's everywhere.  But that's my own issues.  They twist the story around to try and make it be about the innocent young girl whose nature is unchangeable and gets her in trouble, instead of the ever-stinging Scorpion (A 1950s style Greaser bad boy, in a perfect bit of style) that can't resist his nature.  They never quite sell the idea, and it didn't really connect until it was outright explained that THAT is what they were going for.

Sean Patrick Flannery finishes up things with a story about a father who couldn't handle his young son's death and took his own life, winding up in the carnival.  Flannery gives a haunting performance as he struggles to find his way through the labyrinth of his own demons, making great use of the carnival setting.  He eventually is released by Lucifer and sent up to Heaven, as a plot point that will grow into the next Devil's Carnival movie.

I really can't say enough about Terrance Zdunich here, either.  The man has vision, he is clearly creative, and has such a great voice and presence.  He is the glue that holds this together, both creatively, and as Lucifer, the common thread that ties all the stories together, sharing them from his book of fables.  It's such a great hook and wrapper to the story, and scratches an itch I've had for awhile for just this sort of anthology.

Overall, Devil's Carnival was an enjoyable, creative musical journey that I found more enjoyable than Repo!, and if you're a fan of that, then you'll probably love this too.  While it wasn't perfect, and still had some rough spots, I was sold enough, and enjoyed enough, that I am eagerly awaiting the next installment of stories in this universe.

What I'm Watching: Ouija

Hello friend.

Time for a quick review, and I finally got out of the house to get in some Halloween-themed movie watching done.  And since SOME franchise has been bumping their movies into the far flung future, or January *coughcoughParanormalAcitivitycough* I had little in the way of options besides Ouija.

Did I spell that right?  Eh, we all know the movie.  Or at least the board...game...party thing.

I'll admit right off the bat, that I largely went to see this movie because of the cast, and then some of the people involved, and the idea didn't sound terrible.  Shelley Hennig does a great job with very little, making you care about her character with the scant stuff they gave her.  She's great at these sort of innocent good girl roles, but is capable of so much more.  Still, she brings to life the character of Debbie more than a lot of others may have.

Also, Olivia Cooke does much the same, and carries over a lot of her personable character from Bates Motel, and again makes you care about what she's going through, in a movie where they could have easily dropped the ball on that and just not bothered.  A lot of this movie hinges on you giving a crap about the friendship between Debbie and Laine, and the lengths they'd go to for each other, even beyond death.

Even Lin Shaye does a good job, as someone also connected to the spirit board.  Her role requires her to be a couple of things at once, and not a lot of people could have pulled it off as believably as she did.

The movie's plot revolves around a girl who messes around with a Ouija board in ways she shouldn't, leading to her untimely demise, and her best friend being unable to move on.  So of course SHE finds the spirit board and wants to say goodbye.  The plot thickens when she discovers that her death was not a suicide like everyone thinks, and that it may have been the other spirits communicating through the board.

See, we have a perfectly sensible plot there, right?  We've got a decent cast, and if you're gonna do a movie about a Ouija board, that's probably the way you want to go about it.  You've got mystery and intrigue, and some decent chances for horror.

And don't get me wrong, the movie's pretty solid.  It's got it's plot, it unfolds pretty well, and the 83 minute runtime is pretty much exactly how long this movie needed to be.  The pacing moves along nicely, and I really like the way the story peels back its layers and reveals the real story going on.  I seriously thought the movie might be cruising to an early end, but it found a good way to twist things one last time, that did NOT feel contrived, and didn't drag things out.

This also hit me right as I'm thinking about my own friend who died exactly ten years ago, and a lot of my thoughts back then are back on my mind.  I was in a very similar mental place, and having my mind back there REALLY helped me connect with what Laine was going through after her friend's death, and really spoke to the me from 2004.  A number of lines really hit me in the feels.

The biggest flaw of the movie, and I can't really fault it for this, but the movie doesn't really do enough to make itself unique.  There's no real innovation here, the scares are actually good, but stuff we've seen before, and the movie is WAY too reliant on that same tingly music sting from Insidious.  I've ALWAYS found it annoying, because it is such a cheap way to try and drum up emotion, and I personally find it a grating sound and it throws me right out of the movie.  Leave it in Insidious, where it still doesn't belong, but you don't need to copy THAT, of all things.

On the plus side, there was a GREAT moment of triumph where the tables turn at the end of the movie, that almost had me cheering.  It was almost exactly what I wanted them to do, and I was glad to see it happen.

So, Ouija is a mixed bag.  It's probably the best sort of thing you will get from a movie about the Ouija board, that sets up its own rules and plays fair with the audience (except for a few too many jump scares).  It may not be the most original horror movie, but I was thoroughly entertained, and I do recommend it if you can catch it cheap.  Enjoyable fluff that was a good way to kill an evening.

What I'm Watching: Scarecrow

The harvest time is upon us, so I thought it was FINALLY time to get around to this supernatural thriller from Syfy Channel, starring Lacey Chabert, and Robin Dunne from the third Species movie.

We've actually got quite a few familiar faces to Canadian cinema and television, even beyond those two.  And that's one endearing factor to the movie for me.  I love playing "Spot the Canadian Actor You've Seen in a Dozen Guest Spots Last Year".

The movie sets up a bunch of kids who've gotten into trouble over some vague stuff that really doesn't matter to the plot.  Regardless, they got detention for it, and are being punished by getting used as cheap labour to move a scarecrow from a nearby farm into town.

See, the town has some local folklore about a scarecrow that tormented the town back in the day, and to commemorate their survival and defeat, the townspeople have their festival.  But the farm where this happened, and thus the site of the festival, is being sold so the festival is moving, and the kids are doing the work.

And surprise!  The legends are real!

Honestly, that's a pretty solid recipe for a good, fun seasonal horror flick, and the movie delivers quite well.  It wastes no time delivering some scares, and the acting is pretty solid from almost everyone.

With so many characters, the kids suffer a lot on the side of characterisation, but Lacey and Robin are the leads, and get fleshed out rather well.

It's not long at all before the eponymous scarecrow monster shows up and our cast holes up in a nearby building as best they can.  Now, a lot of movies would stop there, and just have everyone get picked off in that one building over the next hour.  I appreciate "Scarecrow" mixing things up and actually changing locations a few times during the course of the movie.  There's arguments for both formulas.  Stuck in one place gives you that sense of being trapped, something always right there, but there's something to be said for trying to run, and being unable to get away, no matter how far you go, or no matter what you do.

And while the kids could easily have fallen into the unlikable asshole stereotype, they wisely avoid that, and only have a few jerks in the cast.  There's very few characters you WANT to see get killed by the monster.  Even for a group of kids that are supposedly on a detention trip.  A number of movies, again, would make them all your typical delinquents, but most of these kids are just your average students who made a bad decision and got in trouble for it.

The best part though, is the monster.  It is genuinely unique, actually works as CGI, and gives a great vibe of creepiness, and should scare a good number of people.  It pushes at the edges of a few of my personal buttons, and while it's your typical evil force with no real character, the design really shines and is such a great look, of this shadowy thing made up of branches and darkness that barely can be described as human.  It also works as something you can slice and shoot at with little to no effect.  It has a few Terminator 2 nods because of that, but I am sure those were deliberate.  And well done, for the scarecrow.

I was pretty surprised with just HOW quickly the movie chews through the cast.  Most of the deaths involve variations on stabbing or crushing by the monster, so there's not much creativity there, but it's still pretty fun.  They mix things up just enough, and the means of HOW they end up in the place to get stabby that keeps things interesting.

The plot unfolds a bit too lopsided for my tastes as well.  There's a lot of running and death and more running before they decide to stop and say, "Oh yeah, here's WHY this is all happening and what's going on!"  At least, in anything more than throwaway lines.  It's still mostly satisfying, and the plot rockets along so fast that you almost don't notice that all you're doing for half the movie is watching carnage before story.

There's no real twists, save for one major character turn.  You can pretty much figure out the course of the plot pretty quickly into the movie.  Probably even from this review.  The plot is pretty basic, and ultimately doesn't serve up enough answers, or have a really proper ending.

It's a solid enough movie, with a decent and engaging cast.  It's well made, and has a unique monster that's genuinely creepy.  I've had worse times spending 90 minutes watching a movie.  I've also had better, but this is a solid little popcorn flick that is perfect for the season.  It may not have a great resolution, but it's got a good ride with some fun times, and is very entertaining in all the GOOD ways.  Definitely worth seeking out and having a fun November movie night.

What I'm Watching: Mine Games

I've been doing a lot of Trisklets these last few months trying to catch up on the stuff I watched earlier this year, but there've been a few exceptions where a movie has spoken to me, either for good or ill, that I just needed to get things down while they were still fresh in my brain.

Dead Still was one of those, on the side of the not so good.

Mine Games is another, but where does it fall?

I first came across this movie back in, geeze, May of this year?  April?  And the concept sounded fun, the trailer was cool, and it then got delayed from the release date I'd seen, it got renamed to "The Evil Within" if I remember correctly, and THEN it was renamed BACK to Mine Games before it finally got to me.

Which, quite frankly?  Is one of my favourite titles of anything this entire year.

I have a lot of things that I *want* to say about this movie, words itching to come out, but I know they're the wrong words to use.  I want to spit out that this movie is brilliant, but it's not.  I want to shout how great this movie is, but I know better.

Much like Mischief Night, this movie just lands with me in such a way, that while yes, it DOES do some great, fun things, and I *thoroughly* enjoyed my time watching it, I can also acknowledge they are not great movies.

But since when did greatness matter to Trisk?

You get sucked in right away with some very VERY common tropes, of the college gang off to the deep dark woods to spend some time at a cabin, and we even begin right at the typical last gas station before civilisation retreats.

And if that was the entirety of the movie, if this was Just Another Cabin In The Woods movie...ugh, I would not have bothered.  Even the trailer had me sighing at the idea.  Oh.  But oh, it doesn't stop there.  Again, like Mischief Night, it gives you those familiar horror tropes, and then RIPS THEM AWAY and goes in a *completely* unexpected and different direction.  They teased JUST enough in the trailer to make jaded, cynical Jason go from "Seen this before" to "I NEED TO SEE THIS NOW".

(So of course it then took five months to finally be released, but I digress...)

After pulling an "I Know What You Did Last Summer" with a guy in the road, they arrive at the cabin, and tiny little things start to go wrong and get weird.  Nothing TOO out of the ordinary.  The true weirdness doesn't hit until the gang finds an abandoned mine nearby and decide to go exploring.

As one does in these situations.

While down in the mine, things continue to get weird, until some of the group find a few dead bodies covered up in one of the storage rooms.  Which would be more than enough in any other movie, but Mine Games?  Mine Games goes that one extra, unbelievable step.

It's THEIR OWN BODIES.

Yep, stumbling around a dark, abandoned, already creepy as hell mine...and you find your own dead body.

And from that point on, the movie could do no wrong for me.  The plot is inventive, the mystery actually unfolds (And folds right back in on itself) in such an interesting way that shows multiple versions of events, but the same version, and even adds on some great twists and turns to the ride that make things all the more satisfying AND confounding.

This kind of plot can turn out very dodgy, and Mine Games gets a little too caught up in the minutiae of its ideas.  But the fact that they managed to work out so much is actually quite commendable.  It is SO very hard to forget details in movies like this.

Sure, the whys of it all are never explained, but I don't really need them to be.  I am content in "supernatural mine" being the explanation.  I've seen some people argue that everything is all in a certain character's head, but that is A) unsatisfying for an explanation making the entire movie just a dream, B) too many other character - ALL OF THEM - experience the weirdness as well as Michael.

I was surprised at how much I even enjoyed the characters.  There are no real familiar tropes here.  There is no jock.  There's no sex-crazed bimbo.  There's no stoner...well, someone brings along mushrooms, but he's never played up as the jokey pothead we know so well from horror movies and comedies alike.  The characters actually feel like genuine people in their own right, and not hastily scribbled familiar traits.

It's tough to say anything about Michael's descent into madness, because every character goes along for the ride down that road, but Michael's naturally stands out, since he's someone who's decided to go off his meds for the trip.  That doesn't end well, to do that and end up with a creepy mind and familiar dead bodies.  Joseph Cross does a great job selling the struggle this guy is going through, trying to figure out what's real and what isn't, and what to do about it.

Briana Evigan does a good job as Michael's girlfriend, constantly trying to help him, make sure he's okay, and generally trying to take care of the group as everything falls apart around her.  She's easily the character you're most along the journey with, even though the story isn't really about her.

The writing may not be the best, but the dialogue pops fairly well, and feels natural enough.  Everyone's arc comes full circle in ways you wouldn't expect, and I am just endlessly pleased with the movie makers catching almost every single ball they threw into the air in this juggling act, and even a few more balls that we never saw coming.

My biggest complaint is, sadly, with the mine itself.  A lot of it is fine, because they did SOME filming in a real mine to help sell the idea.  But a majority of it, for obvious safety reasons of IT'S A MINE, and for stunt reasons to boot, was filmed on a set.  And it looks like a set.  Badly.  1970s Doctor Who would look at this set and laugh.  I've seen more realistic looking rock climbing walls.  When such an *important* piece of your movie is the mine, and it really needs to exist as its own character, having it's production values be so low is such a shame.  The mine needs to work, you need to believe it, and I just didn't.

Fortunately, the plot is THAT strong, in my opinion.  Sure, it ends with a gigantic ball of "Wait...what?" but I love that, and it really does come together surprisingly well.  Even with it leaving you scratching your head.  I'd *almost* say better than Donnie Darko, but not quite.  But does it ever come close to that.

If you are looking for one twisted mind trip of a movie that starts you off in familiar territory and then drags you along to a whole new level of WTF, you really must see this movie.  Unique experiences like this must be enjoyed and nurtured, so we get more of them in the future.

What I'm Watching: Dead Still

Hey, something recent!

I really love the idea of 'evil camera' movies and stories.  There is just so much about the terminology and lore behind film, photography, and cameras, that just SO immediately lend themselves to supernatural stories.

Sure, we all know the "souls trapped by cameras" stuff, but even beyond that, there's a lot of good stuff to work with.  The title of this movie is a good example, of people trying to remain 'dead still' to get clear photographs taken with long exposures.

So when I saw Syfy Channek had an evil camera movie on last night, starring genre faves Ben Browder and Ray Wise, well...sure, I'll tune in to that!

Sadly...the movie was just not that great.

Which, sure, you could say, "But Jason, Syfy!" and you would not be wrong.  However, when it's not an evil nature movie, or some mockbuster from The Asylum, they generally tend to have some decent offerings in the horror and scifi genres.  I was hopeful.

 Outside of the previously mentioned two actors, the rest of the cast is pretty wince-worthy.  There's a few other decent performances, but for the large part, yeah, not so much.

The plot has it's moments, and there's decent ideas buried in there, but the execution is decidedly lacking.  There just felt like so many missed opportunities.

Take for example the "Negative World" inside the evil camera.  Now, that idea SOUNDS great, right?  A world of negatives where the souls are trapped and twisted and such, right?  You could do some cool visuals there.  Now, literally inverting the colour palette to make it a TRUE 'negative' of the actual image could be a bit much for an extended trip, but there must have been SOMEthing they could've done besides what we got.

Because a typical labrynthine corridor system with catacomb overtones that looked like leftover set pieces from Hellraiser or classic Doctor Who?  Yeah, just didn't work for me.  It wasn't BAD, but I get intrigued by the ideas, and then get your typical basement from everywhere else.

The kid playing Ben's son wasn't bad, but making him mute for most of the movie was largely unnecessary.  When his text to speech app on his tablet began saying "He's in here with us!" to dad, once the CAMERA had sucked him in, made me want to see Ben spend the next 20 minutes trying to figure out how the iPad was haunted.  I'm only mostly kidding.

The plot also suffered from some clarity issues in the storytelling.  Once the people that Ben was taking pictures of began dying, the movie kept flashing to someone performing arcane spells and rituals as their bodies were mangled and melted and such.  It was later revealed that the person was a descendant of someone that Ben's great grandfather (Ray Wise) had tormented for his photographs, and another member of their family had been the one that cursed Ray and the camera.

They um, kinda then failed to explain just WHAT she was doing with all the magic and such that sure looked like she was responsible for the deaths.  If you're going to make someone SEEM like they're the bad guy, and then swap it so nope!  She's on Ben's side! you kinda need to explain that thing, and why she's not evil.  I get that she *wasn't* and she was trying to stop the camera, but they dropped the ball on just what she WAS doing, and that's kinda important to the narrative, yes?  Did I miss something?

Also, the final sacrifice really seemed tacked on, and also not explained at ALL.  Aside to say, "In order to be free, a great sacrifice must be made!"  But...why?  Aside from narrative stakes?  But that's for OUR benefit.  What's the story logic to it?  Just saying, "A sacrifice MUST be made!" doesn't make it so, and just felt like they wanted there to be a sacrifice and emotional "No, don't!  You must go!" moment.

And finally, the very last moment of Wise's spirit still kicking around, DESPITE THE SACRFICE and everything else they did to stop him, was really out of nowhere, made zero sense, completely invalidated the entire climax they had fought so hard to do and force that sacrifice on the plot, as just one final "Mwahahaha!" moment to 'gotcha' the audience.  It was an unnecessary twist and just really crapped all over a climax that was already shakey.  It doesn't even really work as a pyrrhic victory, since in the end no one wins.

Now, there are some highlights to the movie.  The effects are pretty great.  There aren't many, but every death is pretty damned memorable and/or gruesome, I was impressed there.  Ben Browser is always a pleasure to watch, and Ray Wise as an evil crazy madman photographer?  Heck, evil crazy Ray Wise is almost worth the price of admission to ANY movie, no matter HOW bad, and this movie isn't *terrible* so there's at least the joy of watching him chew scenery right up to the very end.

The story has its moments, and the ideas are sound, the execution just never quite delivered on the promises they wanted to give the audience.  I could tell this movie WANTED to be something more, wanted to do certain things, but they never managed to get there

It's not quite worthwhile JUST for Ben and Ray Wise, but I can't outright say run away from this thing entirely.  Give it a shot if you're a fan of theirs, and you might get some enjoyment here and there, but otherwise, stay away.

Someone really needs to make a good supernatural camera movie.

What I'm Watching: Banshee Chapter

What do you get if you mix together the MK Ultra experiments, HP Lovecraft, numbers stations, Hunter S. Thompson with the serial mumbers filed off, Katrina Crane from Sleepy Hollow, and just a hint of found footage?

Well, you get Banshee Chapter!

This movie was surprising to me, in all the right ways.  I went in expecting something that was wholly found footage, but oh so fortunately it miraculously wasn't.  It's shot handheld, so has that feel to it, and they do splice in quite a bit of footage from cameras people are using in the film, but it's fortunately just part of the storytelling, and not straight up the whole movie.

I needed the break.

The movie is about a journalist, played by Katia Winter, investigating the death of her best friend from college.  He's been investigating the MK Ultra experiments, and got his hands on some of the LSD-like drugs they utilised to mess people up, along with some footage.

He soon hears some strange noises eminating from his radio and is eventually attacked in his home, and goes missing.

Katia follows the trail to a counter-culture author, drug advocate, and all-out rebel with too many guns...yep, it's Hunter Thompson, but not.  And quite honestly, the movie's version, Thomas Blackburn, is the breakout character of this.  As much as I love Katia's performance, Blackburn's snarky attitude and poking fun at the plot were a joy, and easily the best thing to watch.

"Can we go already?  It's 2:45am and my eyes're bleeding!"

After a rough start, he eventually gives the journalist the drug, and things get weirder.  Creatures begin popping up, strange things happen in the shadows, and the strange noises from the radio continue.

The movie ties the noises and MK Ultra into the phenomenon of numbers stations, and offers their own explanation of what those are, and it's a good little twist that fits this story.

Eventually, the movie tracks down the location of the original experiments, where everything hits the fan, things explode, and Katia barely escapes.

This was SUCH a thrilling movie.  The scares are effective, and very creepy, and since they usually come along with the off-putting noises from the numbers station, it adds so much atmosphere.

The biggest problem with the scares is that they are very frequently of the jump scare variety, and over so quickly, you never quite get a good look at just what is tormenting Anne and Blackburn.  That has its pros and cons, but with so much of the creatures (The banshees of the title, as the movie hints is what people call these otherworldly visions) kept in the shadows or to brief moments, it feels unfullfilling.

And yet the pro is, every time it happens, you wanna scream, "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" and the movie earns that response, because you're half looking away and half wanting to see more.  It's frustrating and perfect all at once.

The single best scare is from an early point in the movie where Anne is sitting in her car, waiting to find the numbers station, with a camera pointed at her.  At one point, the focus slips and she goes all fuzzy, presumably because of something outside her car that drew its attention away.  You never see anything, all that happens is the camera going out of focus, AND YET it is so damned off putting.

"You don't scare too easily, do ya, Anne?  This shit scares the fuck outta me."

The movie never quite answers its own mysteries, but I think that's for the best.  It leads you down certain pathways, and I think I know what the movie WANTS you to think, and I walked away from the movie very satisfied with the story as it was given.

The movie's final few twists and turns are pretty good, and while they point in the directions of "otherworldly beings" trying to possess and ride humans as living skinsuits to further their goals (Whatever THOSE are...), they also leave that question open to interpretation that it's just all crazy mind control LSD people are taking and going nuts.

And of course, the final secret of Chamber 5 is perfect and answers a few questions and asks even more.

I loved this movie for the good scares it gave, the solid lead actors, a pretty good story that keeps you guessing...  I only wish it had a bigger budget, because it often felt like it wanted to tell a bigger story that it just couldn't quite reach.  A few more answers would've been nice, as well as a clearer overall narrative, and personally I would've preferred to have gone more in the direction of HP Lovecraft, and less in the direction of MK Ultra.

You can keep the latter, but drawing comparrisons to Lovecraft only made me want to expand on those ideas.

It's a solid, low budget, indie flick that maybe reached a little beyond its means, but still managed to be a fun, very creepy ride.

Definitely worth seeing!

What I'm Watching: The Vessel

I have a confession to make; I kinda love haunted prison stories.  At least, in theory.  Prisons are such bleak places, such stark places, such *terrible* places, where so many terrible things happen, and with the cells, and atmosphere, they should be the *perfect* spot for a good old ghost story.

Sadly, the promise of such never quite seems to materialise, does it?

The Vessel is another haunted prison story, and it too doesn't quite hit the mark.

After one Professor Samsa and his foundation has used DNA evidence to at long last prove the innocence of a convicted felon, who died tragically, he and his team head to the closed and supposedly haunted prison.  For shits and giggles and finding ghosts, although that always seems at odds with the Samsa Foundation's goals of clearing criminals.

"The Samsa Foundation!  Dedicated to proving your dead dad's innocence...and speaking to his ghost!"  Yeah, no.

Still, Samsa takes his team, and has one of them call up an estranged friend, Jason (Yay!), who has a secret or three.  The most important one, the one that Samsa has learned about, is that Jason is a vessel, a person who can easily carry and be possessed by spirits, like he's been doing for his dead friend Frank, the reason for his estrangement from his friend working for Samsa.

Oh yeah, that's a bit of a spoiler, but you can pretty much figure out Jason's "I see dead people" schtick from the second or third scene you have with Frank.

Naturally, Jason's gonna get possessed by SOME evil spirit in the prison, and it just so happens he gets possessed first by the guy Samsa found innocent, and the pair struggle to keep Jason's body out of the clutches of a third spirit, another older, angrier one, that had last possessed the innocent guy way back when, making him seem more guilty than he was.

Which of course leads to a pile of dead bodies made up of Samsa's team by the end of the flick.

I really love the multiple layers of that story.  It coulda just been a straight up evil killer possession, but the plot swerves around to keep you guessing, and it works fairly well.

Finding out whose body the evil spirit Tanner eventually ends up in is a great twist, and the story definitely delivers on that account.  The movie is pretty great in the broad strokes, but the details really REALLY kill it.

First of all, it should be no surprise that the acting here isn't great.  It's not terrible either, but it's a small indie movie, and it is what it is.  Everyone at least gives a fairly believable performance.

The worst out of the bunch though is Hector, the Mexican cellmate of the innocent inmate.  Not so much for his acting, but because of how he comes off as pretty much THE MOST stereotypical Mexican you could possibly imagine.  Cheech and Chong would cringe at this guy.  It settles down a bit as the movie goes on, especially as he gets fleshed out, but the first few lines out of his mouth are downright painful, and Hector never really recovers.

As if Hector wasn't bad enough, some of the girls are there for nothing more than titilation.  Which is something you're gonna get in horror movies, unfortunately, but this movie is pretty shameless about it.  It's not just in the sense of the audience's entertainment, but the movie actually goes out of its way to have the members of Samsa's team say flat out that the girls are there for titilation and to be used as bait for the spirits.  That's just downright disgusting, and I hope it says more about the *characters* and less about the filmmakers, because ew.  The filmmakers share some of the brunt of that responsibility though, because they could have still gone that route while making the women actual characters in their own rights and not just scream machines.

Also, Samsa's motivations get a bit dodgy as the movie goes on.  He dedicates his life to clearing criminals via DNA evidence, but then doesn't have any trouble shoving a guy into a cell who's already served his time, if it serves Samsa's own goals.  He comes right out and says it's fine, he's used to it.  This is a guy who wants to get people out of prison if they're innocent, but will shove a guy who's done his time right back into a cell, just for reasons?  More ugh.

The deaths are fun, but end up feeling way too fakey and planned out.  If you've ever seen stunt rehearsals, before they get used to the moves and ramp things up?  You know how they take things just that tiny bit slowly?  And it LOOKS fake because there's no real impact or speed to it?  Yeah, these stunts all look like that, with that slow, planned, underrehearsed feel to them.  Which is a shame, but understandable for a movie of this sort.

Still, the plot isn't half bad, the lead characters stand out amongst the crowd and even stand on their own in the world of horror movies, not quite existing as pure cliches.  The story's not too overdone, and comes at the ideas from a place all its own, so this movie isn't terrible.

But there are far too many places where it stumbles, and far too many things that are just downright *problematic* to the point of harming the movie.  If you can get past the problematic elements, and I would not blame you in the *least* if you could not, this movie actually offers up a solid story with okay acting that clocks in at just over 80 minutes, which is just about the right amount of time for this sort of thing.

While I can't quite recommend it, I can't quite say avoid at all costs either.  Consider this review your warning and your recommendation.

What I'm Watching: You're Next

Oh yeah, I run a website, don't I?

Ugh, it's been a weird month, and I won't bore you with the details.  Instead, I'll give you a review.  I think we all win in that instance.

What I've got up for review today is You're Next.  This was the latest in a recent string of 'masked people invade your home' movies that seem to be making a resurgence these days, with films like The Strangers, and even The Purge.

They're all pretty formulaic, and it's hard to make any of them stand out, since the gist of any of them is pretty much, 'people get trapped in their house and terrorised for 90 minutes'.

So, how does You're Next fare on that count?

Oh, it does a great job, I'll be honest.

I very much enjoyed my time with this movie.  The cast was super fun, with some seasoned veterans as the parents of the family that is eventually targeted, and some newer faces (Although some will be familiar to fans of recent horror, surely) nicely round out the cast.

This variation of the classic tale starts off with a well off couple moving into their new home in the country (Shortly after their new neighbours have been killed, oops), and their kids coming from all corners of the country to help celebrate the new housewarming.  The family is not super close, they have their issues, but all that is interrupted when some weirdos in animal masks show up to wreck things.

The way the plot unfolds is great, and there are some absolutely wonderful twists and turns to the proceedings.  The deaths are super creative, although sometimes they end up being super silly at the same time.  There's one death in particular that was wholly unnecessary and a bit TOO perfectly predicted to be believable, but if you can survive that one "OH COME ON" moment in the movie, you should enjoy the rest of the ride immensely.  In a lot of ways, that death also sets the tone for the movie, so if you get through that, you're also primed for what you're in for.

I compared The Collector movies to being a kind of twisted Home Alone, and this movie also ends up in that same category, with a bunch of Kevins trapped in their house and laying booby traps for their pursuers.  However, things get a bit more gory in this version, and the killers like setting traps of their own, as I mentioned.  It is a fun game of cat and mouse that is so damned entertaining to behold.

In fact, the large part of what makes this movie work is that sense of fun they're having.  You're not SUPPOSED to take this movie seriously.  Yes, that over the top, silly death is silly.  But that's *exactly* what they were going for.  This isn't a big, intellectual picture, but it's not dumb either.  I'm sure the plot wholes are wide enough to sprint through, but they are just having so much damned fun with the story, and so did I, that I don't care.  Yeah, it's one of those rides.

The masked attackers are great additions to the pantheon of horror baddies, and are at once instantly recognisable and familiar, and yet unique amongst the group.  They stand out, while at the same time harkening back to other movies of this genre, and a little bit of a nod to the Saw movies.

The movie really does a great job of keeping you guessing right up until the last act, and they manage to keep pulling the rug out in fairly believable and fun ways.  I kept wondering, "Is this how they're going to end it?  Or are they going this way?  They can't go THAT way, can they??" and I was so not disappointed with the way things wrapped up.  I'm sure others will take issue with it, but I thought the ending made perfect sense for this story.

It may be a fun movie, but it's also pretty dark, and not just because of the gory deaths.  They balance humour and darkness very well, and straddle that line damned near perfectly.  The movie knows when to crack a joke, and keep it serious, never making you feel like you're laughing when you shouldn't be.

All in all, a thrilling ride, and a unique new twist on a familiar subgenre of horror that will keep you guessing, as long as you're not taking it too seriously.  This is an easy recommendation.

What I'm Watching: The Quest

Gasp!  ANOTHER post about something recent!  ANOTHER tv post!

ANYways, I wanted to talk a little about ABC's new show, "The Quest".

If you don't know, "The Quest" is a reality show with the usual format of completing tasks and voting someone off the Middle-Earth. The 12 competitors are normal people from the 'real' world, playing along, and the world is populated by actors to add flavour.

I can sum this show up in two words, "dopily entertaining".

Having something that's a twist on the usual reality show style is a nice change of pace. And making the very obvious dichotomy of a reality show in a fantasy realm is a great way to go with.

Can you sense the 'But' coming?

But...man, it just doesn't work. The mythology is bland and generic, the actors filling up the world are mostly lackluster, and the logic of the show is pretty meh. I guess some of that is to be expected, however, things are just kinda there.

The show is HIGHLY MST3Kable, which fills in a lot of the entertainment, so there's that.

My biggest problem is that for a quest, it's pretty boring. So far, in the two episodes, these great heroes that we're supposed to be see trying to save the realm have basically been doing training, or so they want us to believe. In reality (Hah), it amounts to little more than busywork, IMO. Sure, you can't just drop untested rubes from Jersey (And beyond!) into an adventure, and training is probably good, but it comes off as SO tedious and boring.

And having the losers of the busywork having to do MORE busywork to try and not be the person sent home this week is no less tedious.

A better way to do things, and I'll even keep some stuff!, is okay, let's still have them do a training mission to kick things off. That's fine, and makes some sense. But instead of then trying to show the Fates that they're still worthy by nailing horseshoes to a wheel (WHY), you could at LEAST try and dress things up and make things, oh I dunno, more QUEST LIKE and make their later test some sort of adventure type thing.

Instead of having someone voted off the castle, have then grabbed by an orc in battle, or SOMEthing instead of just walking out an arch.

NOW, all that said? The ending of the second episode, and the promo for the third, actually start to make things look like they're going in that direction in a big way, and actually going on a quest for stuff. That could be a HUGE step up, and I really hope it is. The shoe desperately needs something beyond making fun of it for laughs.

There is legitimately a decent idea back there, but they just seem to be going about things the wrong way.  It's not terrible, it has some moments, and there's hints that it MIGHT veer in a better direction very soon, but so far it's just kinda goofy.

What I'm Watching: Guardians of the Galaxy - For reals

Okay, but seriously. ;D

Insert the usual blah blah blah about how I'm a huge comics nerd, and been watching Marvel and DC movies for ages, reading the comics, etc etc...

Now that we have that out of the way, what did I think of THIS Marvel movie?

It felt a little like the Marvel movies were stumbling a bit after Avengers.  The next wave of flicks were busy picking up the pieces, which is fine, and it felt like they were struggling to A) figure out what to do with those pieces in a post-Avengers MCU (I am looking at you too, SHIELD), and B) struggling to get out of the shadow of the greatness of Avengers.

Iron Man 3 was the worst of the bunch, Thor 2 was enjoyable but took awhile to start to get the gears rolling, and Cap 2 was when things really started falling back into place, with only a few minor hiccups.  Cap 3 also helped get the wheels back on Agents of SHIELD and help them out.

Guardians of the Galaxy though...  MAN it was a breath of fresh air.  It's not tied down by the new status quo, what with being set way WAY off of Earth and with no regard for its continuity.  Mostly.  Okay, there's the Infinity Gems...Stones and Thanos (THANOS!) but there's no real major plot connection, since we're off on our own objectives here.

It's almost like starting off in our own separate universe and doing our own thing, with no regard for anything else.  The awesome part there is that this DOES tie in, and will dovetail back into the plots of the wider MCU in a BIG way later on down the road.  But it was so good to not have to deal with all the baggage of the invasion for a change, and just have an adventure.

And WHAT an adventure.  In a lot of ways, this blew a lot of the other movies out of the water.  It was gigantic in scope, we traveled all across the galaxy, there was space battles aplenty, humour, fun, a LOT of heart and seriousness too...and the balancing act actually worked for a change.  That can be hard to pull off.

It did take me quite awhile to warm up to things, as Peter Quill's antics were just kinda silly and goofy at times, and took me out of the moment too often.  It seemed more like I was watching Chris Pratt and not the character.  But once we started getting the band together, things settled down, and the character found a good balance with everyone else to play off of.

It feels like everyone got their moment, even the villains, and even the best Marvel movies struggle with that at times.  I'm very possibly forgetting some things, but all the main characters had a moment to shine, and there's quite a lot of cast members to try and pull that stunt off with.  A lesson learned from Avengers, where you could argue it was everyone's story in one way or another.  Even if it was TOTALLY Black Widow's story.

My initial feeling was that the use of classic rock tunes and such wasn't going to work, or be overdone, but they also managed to pull that off mostly well.  The moment that really made it work was Quill's struggle to get his tape back when he was imprisoned.  When you realise how precious those tapes are to him, the only solid things he has from his mother, literally his memories of her in his hands, that's when the music usage really clicks.  It may be one of the best soundtracks of any movie in a long, long time.

One of the things that bugged me though was Yondu.  And that's strictly because I am an old-school Guardians of the Galaxy fan.  That guy was not MY Yondu.  But damn if Michael Rooker didn't make me enjoy his role, once again.  If it had been a unique character, or one more closely connected to the sort of character they wanted, I'd be less grumpy.  As such, I don't hold this against the movie, it just made me pout and sulk.  Although I *did* get a huge nerdgasm seeing him use (an adaptation of) Yondu's whistle-controlled arrows.

I was quite pleased, and surprised, at how good Bautista was as Drax.  The trailers seemed like they were going for the strong silent type, and playing towards the "He's a wrestler, he can't act" thing, but I am pleased to say that they gave his character dialogue, a story, and a lot of heart.   AND punching, so everyone's happy.  I only wish he'd been a little closer to the comics version, but they kept the heart of his character and motivations, while not sticking to the precise details, and that's fine.

One of my biggest fears, and I made no secret of this online, was also with the trailers.  They were messing with the timeline of things so much, and making it sound like they were already called "The Guardians of the Galaxy" when they were this band of thieves and brigands, and it really put my teeth on edge, because it made zero sense.  Again, I am happy to say that the ACTUAL MOVIE did not go that route, and got the evolution of these characters right, so that by the time anyone calls them the Guardians of the Galaxy, they've *earned* it, and most of the movie has long since gone through everything the trailer showed.  I was pretty sure the movie would go that route, but the trailer was just presenting a wrong picture at times, and it made me concerned.  Having the movie knock each and every one of those concerns away also surely helps with my enjoyment of the movie.

And then there's Thanos.  What can I say about Thanos?  THANOSTHANOSTHANOS!!

I talked about, in my Avengers review, those moments on screen where you stop and realise, "Oh man, oh wow, I am watching a movie with Thor and Cap and Iron Man and Hulk all together and oh my gods Hulk just punched Thor and am I seeing this and AAAHHHH!!!"

Thanos was that, in this movie.

I never thought I'd see the day when Thanos would be on screen.  AND BEING THANOS.  I have like...zero complaints.  They nailed the character, the personality, and Josh Brolin's voice WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.

Sigh.  Good times.

And I haven't even *touched* on the effects yet.  Rocket and Groot were freakin' seamless, I think.  The only moment that may have given me pause was when Groot put his hand on Drax's back.  Or vice versa, I forget which way that went.  Either way.  They nailed a talking raccoon, and a gigantic tree, and the spaceships, and space, and the battles...  Man, what a special effects extravaganza that was, that doesn't let the effects run away and end up making the movie all style and no substance.  The movie has plenty of substance, and the effects are largely a means to tell the story.

Oh, and um, one minor plot quibble.  Why would Peter wait TWENTY SIX YEARS to open his mom's final gift?  You get the impression he'd read the letter before (And it's where he got the name Star-Lord from, hence his *INSISTENCE* on using it, no matter how dopey everyone else felt it was)...but he never opened the gift?  It seems like one of those forced touching final moments crafted soley by the hand of the movie makers, and with no regard for human logic.

There's surely some other plot holes (Like I could bitch about the vaccuum of space a bit, but they hand-waved that...okayishly), as are wont to happen in big blockbuster films, scifi films, AND space films, and this movie is all three.  But the movie is so filled with fun, and joy, and action and manages to be big and bombastic while still having heart *coughcoughMichaelBaycough* that I can forgive it the few moments where the plot got away from it.  If you give me a good ride, you can drop the ball on a few logical inconsistencies, I always say.

I seriously think Guardians may well be my favourite Marvel movie since Avengers, and that's saying a lot.

Now, I always felt like Guardians was a bit of a test case scenario.  This always felt like a movie where Marvel was saying, "Okay, let's throw the absolute craziest ideas at the screen, go completely off the book of the current MCU, shoot off into space, and see how this works!" with the idea of, if the audience can embrace this level of insanity and coolness and bizarre comicbook nonsense...then they can handle damned near anything.  Well, Marvel?  Guardians is pretty much a success with a huge opening weekend.  We will watch anything you give us and accept whatever it is, in all it's comic glory.  So give us a Black Widow, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther movies, already.  Guardians has shown you we are down for anything, and you gotta do something about the diversity.

The movie may not be perfect, and may have it's share of flaws, but by damn if it isn't some of the most fun I've had in a theatre in awhile.

I want this movie to become the 21st Century's Star Wars, for this generation.

What I'm Watching: Guardians of the Galaxy

I am Groot!  I am Groot.  I am GROOT!

I am Groot.  I am Groot.  I am Groot.  I am Groot?

I am Groot.  I *am* Groot.  I am Groot.  *I* am Groot.

I am Groot??

I AM GROOT!!

I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot.  I am Groot.

IamGrootIamGrootIamGroot.

I am Groot!

I am Groot.  I am Groot.  I am Groot!

I am Groot.

(Seriously though, I'll be back with a REAL review later.  But I had to.)

What I'm Watching: Carrie 2013

So, let's see.  I'm a huge Stephen King fan, I've read the book, I've seen the original Carrie...but it has been forever since I've partaken of either of them, so I'm gonna avoid comparing the remake to those TOO much, because that's not far.

Still, certain things stick with you no matter what, and comparrisons are hard to avoid in this situation, but since memories are super fuzzy, keep that in mind.

Do I really need to some up the plight of poor Carrie White?  We all know the gist by now, right?  Girl has her period, turns out to be Jean Grey in disguise, and after getting pigs' blood spilled on her goes all turbo Dark Phoenix on her tormentors, right?

With that out of the way, I *really* enjoyed the remake.  It hit all the right notes, and a movie exploring the Very Real horror of bullying is always a timeless thing you can and should talk about.  And having those actions have consequences most terrible, even if they are highly fictionalised by way of telepathic vengeance, the metaphor still holds up today; as well as the metaphor of female empowerment.

My love of Chloe Moretz is no secret, and even in lesser movies like Dark Shadows, she always brings her A game and is easily one of the best actors out there today.  And pairing her with Julianne Moore as Carrie and her mother make for quite the acting tour de force.

Are they better than the original?  Yes and no.  I'd say Sissy Spacek was far better at being Carrie the outcast on multiple levels, but Chloe is SO good at portraying a shy, quiet introvert for most of the movie, that you easily buy into her take on the character, and the dark turn she takes after her blood shower is great.  And Julianne Moore does such a great job of protraying Carrie's mom, she is so terrifying in her dominance (Until she loses control of the situation) of her daughter, that you forget about any other role she's done before.  And yet she also brings a level of understanding to the character, if not just a hint of sympathy.

So while the original has some things going for it, if they HAD to make a remake of this, I don't think there are two better actors who could have carried it off as well as the two we got.

The most surprising thing about the movie, was the updating.  Whenever you do a remake these days, especially with something set as long ago as the late 70s, and you make it contemporary, you run into the problems of technology.  And it's a little bit frightening HOW MUCH WORSE the bullying of Carrie becomes all because of cellphones and YouTube.  That alone almost justifies this remake existing.

It was well-cast, well-updated, and pretty well directed, considering they're going up against someone like Brian de Palma, I'd say they held up pretty well.  I'd say, if anything, the movie is a little TOO faithful to de Palma, but at least they didn't go full on "Psycho" with it.

My biggest problem with the movie is, you guessed it, the ending.  They try to tack on one last scare, one last WTF moment, and it just doesn't work.  If you ignore the final 30 seconds of the movie, it's great.  And fortunately, those final few moments are so much their own separate entity that you can pretty much stick your fingers in your ears and pretend they don't exist, and not ruin the movie at in the slightest.  But hey, endings are hard, and they *mostly* nail it on the Carrie storyline.

If you've never seen the original movie, this is definitely worth seeing, and even for the fans of the original, I'd say this is worth a look.  If you're gonna do a remake, this is almost exactly the way it should be done.

What I'm Watching: The Strain

Hey look, I did it!  Two in a row!  And this one is current events!  AND tv!  Don't do enough of that...

ANYways, The Strain!

It's no surprise that I'd give a horror show by Guillermo Del Toro a shot, considering my love of Pacific Rim, and Hellboy, and so many other things.

The Strain focuses on an aircraft that is mysteriously attacked from within, touching upon modern fears, and tapping into that zeitgeist.  It's made all the more palpable after recent events in the Ukraine, and the timing is downright creepy.  But I digress.

A lot of horror deals with our fears, and shit going wrong on airplanes is a big deal in the last decade, and this plays into them well.  Fortunately, rather than a bombing or crashing, it's a viral outbreak, which also ties in well with our fears of disease.  The two dovetail well with each other to create something of a mystery that we don't see very often, since the days of Fringe.

The mystery slowly unfolds, but any horror fan should be quick to pick up on some familiar bits of lore, and I love those little touches.  So yeah, we're pretty much dealing with vampires, but they are not your familiar bloodsuckers.  They are also most emphatically NOT prettyboy sparkling love interests.  Which is so welcome, for me.

We've seen the 'vampire as virus' idea played out in other places, and it's a natural fit with the whole blood angle, but The Strain takes things to this whole other level with details and science rarely seen in stories before this, and still manages to make their vampires stand out in a crowded field.  These harken back more towards the Nosferatu type, while picking up on details from Stoker's novel, and the more classical lore, while not relying on it heavily.  These creatures are entirely their own thing with just enough familiar DNA (Ahem) with the classics to please the big time horror fans.

Also pleasing to the big time horror fans are the use of scares and blood in the show.  There's not a lot, but what there is, well...they say go big or go home, and The Strain goes big.  The pilot episode slowly draws you in with flashes and teases for over half the extended running time, and then explodes for a few seconds of bloody ultraviolence when the main creature strikes.  It's well paced and does a great job laying things out before that moment, and it strikes at a perfect moment and works as a great reveal.

I'm also quite pleased that this is a series, and not a movie, because the expanded format gives us great character moments where we can just sit down and have our leads talk about their lives, and get involved in widely unrelated things, all for the sake of building these people up and getting into their personalities in more ways than a shorter runtime would allow.

I can't give this anything but one of my strongest recommendations.  I'm intrigued to see where things go, it's pleasing to old horror fans, while still delivering something new and doesn't feel stale.  There's a lot here to like, and while it doesn't lay the groundwork of possibilities that something like Sleepy Hollow's pilot did, this is well-crafted from the ground up, by some masters of the genre.

The biggest shame in all this is Syfy's "Helix".  Sorry, but a WAY better horror based medical outbreak drama just came along, guys!  And I enjoyed Helix, so no slight against it.  The Strain just blew it out of the Arctic.

What I'm Watching: A Serial Killer's Revenge

Back with a quick little review for all you Triskelions!  I'm hoping to push out a few of these over the week, so let's see how that goes.

I am so far behind on these, and always adding more to talk about, that sometimes makes me not post stuff just because I look at the backlog and sigh...

But enough sighing!  On to a review!

A Serial Killer's Revenge is a very interesting little flick.  So nicely intimate and independent, there's really only three or four characters in the entire thing.  At least, those are the ones we care about.  I could almost see this being done as a play and it would need very little changing, but I digress.

The story focuses on William, a middle-aged man who has finally been released from prison for killing his family when he was 12.  He's never spoken about the incident, and the mystery of why and how it happened remain just that.  William has chosen to finally tell his story to an up and coming reporter, in exchange for a series of pills that the pharmcutical company Ryan's wife works for.

It's maybe a bit of a stretch to have these five pills that when taken in series will painlessly end a person's life, but they're little more than a macguffin to use as a plot point, and it's the only stretch they ask of us, so I can let them have this one bit of unreality.  And it's not TOO far out of the realm of possibility, just kinda makes things a little off.

The story plays out as a series of interviews Ryan gets from William, and also a series of life lessons William gives back to Ryan.  Well, life lessons isn't the best phrase since they get a bit harsh and violent, but William's been in prison for awhile, so his people skills are lacking.

The mystery of William's criminal acts slowly unfolds, and it's pretty masterful.  I would've maybe liked a little more nuance to them, and you can see the big twist coming, but the WAY in which it unfolds, and some of the unique details to his story and how they're given out, are really well done, for the most part.

A Serial Killer's Revenge is pretty dark, but tells a gripping tale from a unique perspective, and through an interesting medium, that it's pretty easy to recommend.  I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this movie going in, but it drew me in very quick, and kept hold of my attention all the way through, even if I figured out the story's broad strokes at an early stage.  It was still great to see just how this particular story arrived at the same conclusions, and even where I was wrong about things.  Sometimes a movie about conversations is a tough sell, but the acting and subject matter was really quite gripping, and interspersed with more than enough other things going on.

And yes, I am avoiding spoiling it, because this is a movie worth seeing, and I don't think enough people will have heard of this great little mystery/drama/thriller out of England and by a first time director.  Especially since it shares a name with an episode of freakin' Ghost Hunters.  You might also find it as "The Point of Regret".  And because I am sometimes SUPER nice, here it is on IMDB.