Vacancy 2

I believe this is a prequel to Vacancy. Vacancy blew me away. You gotta sort of know that 2 anything just isn't going to have the surprise or punch. On occasion there are some number twos that are pretty awesome. In the movies, you know what I meant.

Jeepers Creepers two, a pretty good sequel. Star Wars two and three, of the orginal series, all good as far as I am concerned. The Mummy 2, awesome.

Vacancy 2? It fell flat for me. It didn't capture my interest at all. There were some things about the first movie that just made you clutch your bed sheets to your chest. I am pretty sure I was surfing the internet during most of the movie. It wasn't horrible, it was mildly entertaining. If you didn't see Vacancy the first movie, I doubt that this one would surprise you terribly as a stand alone film.

Oh shoot, Hostel 2. fantastic!!! I actually think 2 might have been a bit creepier than one.

Tormented 1959 or 60?

There was a recent gem that I found called Tormented. A little hokey in that it was on the cusp of 59/60, so you got some interesting "lingo". All in all, it did remind me of a ghost movie that I think Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's woman. Something about a widow that had an illicit affair in Victorian or earlier times with a soldier. I will have to look it up later. I am not really sure it was a ghost story or a redo of a famous Greta Garbo movie where she jumped in front of a train at the end, after a similar affair.

Dead Silence 2007

Dead Silence is the movie of my day. And it has family estrangement in it, so I'm a gonna use it!!! I don't really want to ruin any of the mystery so I will summarize it briefly.

Couple, who are married and in love, receive ventriloquist dummy in unmarked package at their door. Some mention of like "oh isn't that like the scary poem our parents used to tell us?" Sadly didn't prompt them to throw out doll right there. Tragedy strikes. Cops on wrong trail. Husband to solve crime, and the mystery begins......After a trip back to creepy home town with creepier father with new young wifey. Not perhaps the best acting that I have seen, but decent plot and twists that had me not nodding off. Wasn't quite scared by it, per say. Even though it's about creepy dolls. Maybe I have just seen too many movies about creepy dolls.

Premonition 2007

I don't know if this is truly a horror movie, rather than kind of a thriller bordering on sci fi. I liked it until the ending. I did not like the ending they choose for the movie, and it kind of ruined it for me. There was an alternate ending that might have saved the movie for me, that was a little more vague, and you could have filled in what you wanted it to be.

It was interesting, but a bit choppy. Hard to figure out how pieces were there, then not. That the future events that she hadn't affected yet, influenced past events where she had not been there before yet. Yeah, it's one of those, but interesting.

I could have easily lived without seeing it though, as well.

Cemetery Gates 2006, Second Nature 2003, Curdled 1996

Cemetery Gates-Not surprisingly, the Tasmanian Devil let loose in the cemetery was a horribly done movie. The signature "college co-eds" were in it, which always raises a flag of doubt. Course it COULD have been the find of the year as well. Horrible costume, bad acting, bad script, low budget, gratuitous blood shed....do I need to go on? Just the slightest hint of a plot, but not enough to reel one in at all.

Second Nature-Perhaps if this was my first "secret agent" or "experiment" movie ever it would have been good. It was pretty predictable, lame romantic interest....some good action scenes though. If you found this on TV and were bored for something to watch, it's not horrible. It's doable, but pretty predictable.

Curdled-By far the most original concept in the group. Woman fascinated by death quits her job as a baker in a bakery, and goes to work for a "unique" maid service company. They specialize in cleaning up really gory crime scenes once the police are done. Quirky, interesting, and I liked it. It didn't blow me away, and the ending was pretty predictable to me (but then again I have seen like a billion of these things) but it was an interesting and sort of humorous concept. I like original and quirky and this fit the bill.

Hannibal Rising 2007, Mark of the Devil 1970, Tourist Trap 1979

Hannibal Rising was not a favorite (apparently) of many of the fans of this series. I, however, loved it. I also liked the original ending of the book that followed Silence of the Lambs, and not the filmed ending that everyone objected to being in the movie (hogwash). Harris as an author has an incredible imagination that I love. I love the way he twists things in the same story with a different perspective.

I loved the book, AND I LOVED the movie. There were some truly frightening moments there, and I was glad we didn't go some places it seemed we were going. I also loved seeing my Rome guy, Verenus (?) playing a bad guy. Really brilliant, I thought.

Tourist Trap--Typical in some ways, but this 70s movie preceded it's followers, so I gotta think this is one that is being copied from. The wax theme was done before of course with Vincent Price, but this has a couple different spins on it. Not my favorite movie, but in the interest of seeing a minor classic that has something to do with major themes, I did enjoy it. Again not the best piece of work (and certainly not acting) that I have ever seen.

Mark of The Devil--Note to self, do not take horror movie suggestions from the husband. First of all, I have seen parts of this (really really bad) movie before. This is a sixties movie and a classic cult movie among some. I, personally, can't get past the bad western, sixties, or Gypsy music that is many time inappropriate and distracting during the whole movie. It's all about torture and witch trials in the 1700 or 1600 hundreds (perhaps even earlier), so you can see my objection to the cheesy western cowboy music being used. Boob shots, pretty girls, a couple of sex scenes that were probably shocking at the time, rapes, knives used on females.....yawn. Really really bad acting by pretty girls, and handsome men with nice eyes and other attributes (that are probably 90 years old now).

Have to say, am again sad to have seen it again, but forced myself to see it all the way through, so I would never need to wonder if it's redeeming at all again. Oh yes, well lit sets where actors use candles as that is the period, but of course castles would actually be lacking light, and so candles would have been NEEDED instead of STAGE SETTING for a horrid movie.

It does look somewhat intriguing at parts, but trust me, just walk away. Ick.

Torture Garden 1969, And Soon The Darkness 1970, There Is Nothing Out There 1991

Like I got three for three that I enjoyed a previous week; this three for three was a huge disappointment.

1991 There is Nothing Out There, had a fair amount of stars on Netflix. This is tricky for me, because some of the classics or weird/kooky ones that I prefer are frequently low on stars. And then sometimes when I go for the high stars, I do find a gem. Not so this time. I tried twice, and could not pay attention to this movie to save my life. Just seemed like a Friday the 13th type of movie, high on teenagers being killed after sexual acts.

And then the Darkness 1970 was the best of the bunch. But a lot of movies have been made before and since then that have the "twist" ending this one does. Also not kookie enough (like Texas Chainsaw) to get my vote for weird and bizarre. In Texas Chainsaw the whole beginning wierd hitchhiker, where nothing even gets started yet, is one of my favorites. It's just such a bizarre and creepy encounter. This film could have had more of that, it was boring in comparison to others.

Torture Garden 1968 bored me. Probably when I was younger I would have appreciated the classicness of this movie. Anyone interested in classic horror (the orginal draculas, frankenstien's, mummies, wax museum with Vincent Price) will most likely enjoy this movie. I found that these bore me a bit now (well maybe not Frankenstein <G>).

The Locals-2003

Sophmoric but somewhat decent ghost story. I think I like 2001 maniacs better as it's in the more "out there" arena, but there were some good moments in the movie action wise.

Plot was kind of eh eh, but again, I have seen worse and it was entertaining if you are zonsing for a horror movie and just can't find the right thing.

Black Christmas Remake-2006

Now the orginal of this movie sticks in my mind as it's probably the first in this category (When A Stranger Calls et al) that first freaked me out. The crank phone calls in the orginal are paricularly disturbing. Not the best movie ever made, but it had some intriguing elements, and I particularly prefer this movie over When A Stranger Calls, as the orginal Black Christmas. The orginal movie left the "origins" and "background" of our resident psycho quite a mystery.

Now I understand how this works, and actually do appreciate it in some movies, and probably including the orginal Black Christmas. As I have mentioned previously though, I like to be "fed" the info when on my entertainment time. I don't like to think too much about it, and get as much of the story as possible. Now the remake of When A Stranger Calls left the mystery intact, and I think that did work in the remake. In fact, I like the remake more than the orginal. I think of the When A Stranger Calls remake as a completely seperate movie really. Better.

The two main things that are different between the orginal Black Christmas and the remake of Black Christmas is 1) we loose much of the creepiness of the "prank" calls (big mistake in my opinion) but 2) we gain a pretty creepy laid out story of the origins of our resident psycho (the story line was creepy and interesting enough to make this work).

I am not going to say this is a must see or anything (to anyone else but me to whom these things are an obsession), but it is an interesting move. As usual, I found the stabbed eyeballs et al the most uninteresting part of the movie, but it is of that genre so I guess you can't leave that out.

Half Light - 2006

Here is a gem that came up on my movies on demand one day. Demi Moore, who I haven't seen for awhile, plays a stressed out and blocked writer that goes to this (Scottish or Irish) little town by the sea for a wee bit of a break. I don't want to give it away, but it doesn't become as relaxing as one could think.

Classic ghost story. A bit predictable, but still well done. Incredible scenery to look at during the movie too. I really liked this ghost story, and it was a nice surprise.

The Dark-2005

The Dark was a passable ghost movie. Set in Ireland with beautiful scenery. The movie seemed to borrow some elements of The Ring. It seemed to be a cheap ripoff, but the acting and scenery was good. The story was okay.

That being said, I've seen movies that I wished I hadn't wasted my time on. This one was entertaining, just somewhat of a disappointment for what it seemed to copy.