Normally I'm pretty lucky with my blind buys as the majority of them i feel do turn out to be worth a purchase, but this my latest one the horror - death call aka old 37 has to one of my absolute worst pick ups yet!
It's just so poorly put together - from the attrocious acting,the ridiculous plot line and some really shoddy CGI effects it totally sucks and I can see why the director had his name removed from the credits and opted for the Alan smithee pseudonym.
I'd give it about a 2/10 and that's being generous!
I just got to hope now that some poor sucker buys it off me on eBay.
What a disappointment this one turned out to be - the dyatlov pass incident aka devil's pass from 2013,it was rather decent for the majority of its running time and then sadly just went into complete free fall for the last 15 minutes or so with a rushed and completely bonkers finale!
Great location shooting in the the snowy outbacks of Russia and i thought the cast were also good,plus for the most part it was well handled by director renny Harlin it was just the ending for me which totally undone all the promise and hard work that had gone before it!
It's watchable but could have been so much more! 5/10.
https://youtu.be/FqfQupAZmDY - the dyatlov pass incident aka devil's pass trailer (2013).
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Lame remake to the classic 1982 original,before I went into this one I said to myself to try to not make to many comparisons to the original otherwise chances are your going to absolutely hate it,well I got a few minutes in and I started to make comparisons and I was thinking this scene wasn't done as well as the original, that scene wasn't done as well as the original and in all truth i found it impossible not to compare the two films!
Well how do they compare? They don't really as there not even in the same league and as i expected the 1982 original completely blows this 2015 reincarnation right out of the water, when watching this I said to my wife how spoilt we were for great movies whilst growing up and it made me feel a bit sorry for the youth of today and i know that there's no way that I'd wanna swap growing up in the 70s/80s to being a child/teen-ager of today!
Very Poor - 3/10.
[ 02. March 2016, 10:42: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
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While trying to get their lives back on track after the loss of their four year old son, Bryn and Paul Shaw move to the charming old Beacon Apartments. Bryn begins seeing a ghostly little boy skulking around the building. With the help of an eccentric young professor and a tough old beat cop, Bryn tries to uncover the details of the boy's death. She hopes that freeing the child will allow him to carry a message to her son. Too late she realizes a second malevolent entity stalks the halls of the Beacon: one that doesn't want the boy to escape. From imdb
This 2009 supernatural horror thriller was pretty enjoyable,the plot is a bit by the numbers - a couple move into a new apartment building and start seeing ghostly figures but it's all done well enough to forgive the many plot clichés and lead actress Teri Polo (mystery date) gives quite a decent performance here!
Also stars the terrific Michael Ironside who turns up in an extended cameo as an investigating police officer and an actress I'm not over familiar with Elaine Hendrix (above) who gives a really good performance here as the seriously bitchy man-eater vanessa,the rest of the cast is mostly made up of unknowns and apart from the odd performance acquit themselves rather well!
Where as most horrors I've watched of late have tended to fall apart in the final few minutes I didn't dislike the ending to this one,it does have a daft twist in the tale and things do get more than a little bit silly but it's a fun final 15 - 20 minutes or so and makes for quite a satisfying finale!
Overall it's far from perfect but it's not a bad little horror and when compared to the last horror movie that I watched the very mediocre poltergeist remake I would say that it's quite an improvement over that!
One last thing i've noticed is this movie goes under quite a few different titles,in the UK I've seen it as - Haunting at the beacon and also under the title of - The wrong apartment,other territories it goes under the titles of - The beacon and - Sinister awakening.
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This seems to be along the lines of Life After Beth and Burying The Ex (both 2014), treating similar subject matter, but in a much more serious way with its emphasis firmly into horror territory rather than comedy.
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I've read some pretty good reviews for Nina forever johnny,a site I sometimes vist - The horror club gave a very positive write up on it and you can tell from the plot summary,trailer and poster art that it's going to be something a bit different from the norm!
I watched last night -
A prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity. - from imdb.
A fairly solid entry in the Insidious horror series which features decent jump scares along with some pretty good performances from the likeable cast,actually Dermot Mulroney turns up here as the possessed girls father and it's been an absolute age since I've watched him in anything!
One thing that i did find really annoying about this movie was the difference in volume levels between the dialogue and The surround effects,I had to crank my amp right up to hear what felt like whispered speech to then have a jump scare moment where it felt like my speakers were literally about to take off,it got that bad in the end that I decided to turn my amp off and just listened to it through the TV.
I'm not a really big fan of this series i'd say it's more my wife than me but I do feel that this seems to be moving along a lot stronger than say something like the paranormal activity movies which by the 3rd part was really starting to bug me,it's not that bad though I'm sure that if they keep persisting in knocking out one of these year after year then this series also will probably be run into the ground at some point!
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It's so bizarre how there are 5 horror films on in my local cinema at the same time There's those 2 plus The Forest, 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Other Side of the Door.
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Wow 5 horror movies on at the same time you'd think that we was living in the early to mid 80s,I've heard pretty mixed reviews about The Forest and The Other Side Of The Door,seen the trailers for both The Witch and The Boy and I think that they both look pretty cool!
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Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
Member # 5804
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Seen The Witch last night. With all the descriptions people were giving I really thought this was gonna be right up my alley. And parts were, but as a whole it was slightly above average. It looked really pretty, had some good moments, the acting was fine and the final 15 minutes were gripping. I just feel so disappointed because this could of been made really tense and emotional but alas it was not. I also found it lacking in atmosphere. Worth one watch I guess.
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10 Cloverfield Lane was a pleasure in old-school suspense craftsmanship and a very intense film. I don't think that there are two more underrated thespians than John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and both are in top form here. (There's already Oscar buzz for Goodman, and it's well deserved.) The film is fairly polarizing, however, for the last 15 minutes or so. Either you enjoy where it goes, as I did, or you think that it just runs off the rails as bat sh** crazy.
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I watched this the other night the 2015 M. Night Shyamalan horror thriller The Visit and overall I thought that it was fairly decent with a good mixture of mild jump scares,gross out moments mostly dealing with incontinence and there's also the occasional good laugh here and there.
The wintry setting was a bonus as well!
Anyone else caught this one yet and if so what were your thoughts?
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I didn't mind The Visit. Felt more of a black comedy to me. The lad was pretty funny.
I went to see The Boy which was entertaining junk with a very funny ending.
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Watched these three titles over the past couple of weeks
First up was The Barber from 2014 which was more of a thriller than a horror which stars Scott Glenn as a suspected serial killer Eugene Van Wingerdt who runs his own little small town barber's shop and unbeknownst to him is being investigated by the son of a former police officer who took his own life many years earlier after becoming obsessed with trying to put Van Wingert (Scott Glenn) away behind bars but due to a lack of evidence he ended up walking free,at the time Glenn's character was suspected of killing many women in and around the Chicago area by burying them in shallow graves whist they were still alive.
Very tense thriller this with a cracking performance from Scott Glenn that also has a really great twist in the tale.
For serial killer thriller fans i'd say it's well worth checking out!
Next up I watched The Veil from 2016 which was directed by Phil Joanou ( Three O'Clock High,State Of Grace) and stars Jessica Alba,Lily Rabe and Thomas Jane.
This was another one that I found to be pretty enjoyable it's about a religious cult who commit a mass suicide upon the instruction of there leader Jim Jacobs as played in a fun and very OTT fashion by Thomas Jane,20 something years later Jessica Alba gets up a team including the only original survivor (Lily Rabe) to return to the scene of the tragedy and to document the events that took place there only for some very strange happenings to occur upon there arrival!
Phil Joanou who is quite an accomplished director gives this film a very stylish look to it,what they've done is drained most of the color from the image and though at times it does make for a slightly dull viewing experience I'd say that overall i think it mostly works as it certainly suits the material on offer here and also helps give the film that necessary creepy vibe!
Cool creepy stuff with a standout wacky performance from Thomas Jane who I was only talking about the other day here on the rewind as this guy seems to pop up in everything nowadays though he is certainly good value for money here!
Due for release October 6th in the US not sure about release dates elsewhere but I'm really looking forward to the latest entry in the Phantasm series - Phantasm:Ravager.
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I am both excited and terrified as Phantasm is my fave horror series so I don't wanna see it ruined, eek!
I'm going to see a horror in the pictures tomorrow but won't know what it is until it starts All they say is it hasn't been in cinemas yet and is a 15. Wish me luck!
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I'm going to see a horror in the pictures tomorrow but won't know what it is until it starts All they say is it hasn't been in cinemas yet and is a 15. Wish me luck!
Could be Don't Breathe which is meant to a really solid horror/thriller.
[ 08. September 2016, 13:51: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
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This looks like fun and it's getting some really ace advance reviews,it's more a thriller than anything else and that is The Good Neighbor aka The Waiting starring the great James Caan.
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I thought that at first but no it can't be cos that's out in that cinema tomorrow anyway lol. I'm just hoping it isn't a sequel to something I haven't seen!
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Joe Begos' second feature-length film, The Mind's Eye, will be released on blu-ray next month (US only).
I really liked the aggressive, old-school horror of Begos' Almost Human (2013), so i'm looking forward to this one. Deeply influenced by Cronenberg's Scanners, The Mind's Eye is decribed as 'the best Scanners sequel we never got'.
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So the mystery film was Blair Witch. I don't want to be too harsh because I could see they really, really tried. The characters were really likeable and I appreciated them trying to build on the whole creepy house part of the original. But it just wasn't very effective at the end of the day. Points for effort tho.
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I thought that the original Blair Witch was way overrated.
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Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
Member # 5804
posted
Me too, but after this one I've gained more of an appreciation for it haha
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There's those 2 plus The Forest, 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Other Side of the Door.
