Horror Movies

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

This was surprising good.
They did a pretty good job at making this movie interesting as it slowly ramps up.

It's not a "fantastic" movie ..it was just good 6.5

My Hell House LLC review: Horror Movies

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

As usual ..your review was spot on.

Coming up with a unique monster is such a hard thing to do today.
When you can do that and get polished actors/script ...you get "It Follows"

When you don't do the latter ...you get this disappointment.

I’m theory a creature feature shouldn’t be difficult. But I have to agree with the uniqueness factor. Very difficult to conjure one up that becomes cult classic. Jeepers Creepers comes to mind. Fantastic background, lore & appearance. Need more movies like that!

Head Count would have been at least 2-3 pts higher on my grade had they not gone the cgi route. That just flat out sucked!

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

I'm going to watch it just for the Lili Simmons factor. She is hands down the sexist thing alive today.

You will understand when you watch "Banshee" Which was a fantastic show in it's own right.

I had to look her up afterwards. Definitely a looker but thought I had recognized her. Don’t recall if I saw anything in her filmography that looked familiar.

 

[Rambunctious]

This was surprising good.
They did a pretty good job at making this movie interesting as it slowly ramps up.

It's not a "fantastic" movie ..it was just good 6.5

Whats it called?

 

[Schmoopy1000]

This was surprising good.
They did a pretty good job at making this movie interesting as it slowly ramps up.

It's not a "fantastic" movie ..it was just good 6.5

I am probably gonna check this one out

 

[R.J. MacReady]

Whats it called?

Hell House LLC

Hell House LLC (2015) - IMDb

 

[R.J. MacReady]

Just got this email from Netflix.

I knew I wanted to watch this 20 seconds in.
It seems spooky enough to be "horror"

 

[R.J. MacReady]

Just got this email from Netflix.

I knew I wanted to watch this 20 seconds in.
It seems spooky enough to be "horror"

Spoiler

My bad. This was political narrative disguised as a movie.

This was a horror movie for liberals only ...The monster? ...White people.


.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Crawl (2019)


I tried to turn my brain off and simply enjoy this one, but I failed. This film expects you to ignore a lot in order to enjoy it. Mainly had a hard time believing this film in regards to the behavior of the alligators. I'm not a gator expert, but you could tell they wanted them to behave like great white sharks to make them more menacing.

The story is very predictable, but it has a pretty solid story arc between the main character & her dad. The confidence angle seemed a little forced. We were led to believe that Haley had struggled with confidence her entire life, and yet not once in the fight for survival did I feel she didn't have the confidence to do anything. Didn't quite fit, but I understand why they did it. They wanted the triumph at the end to play out more significantly in regards to the main character, both as a story arc for the character and as a mending of fences with her father. However it sort of missed its mark there. The acting is decent, although I thought the lead actress could have done a much better job to really connect those emotional moments. All other characters in the movie are just lambs being led to slaughter.

The visuals & special effects are pretty solid for a non-blockbuster-budgeted film. The effects of the hurricane felt real enough, and the gore moments are fulfilling. I really liked the lighting & color they used. While the CGI of the gators aren't "bad", they still have a subpar look to them that makes them feel a little cartoonish. I also took issue with the gator bites. Seemed awful convenient that the main character was merely being nibbled on. Her injuries she sustained by 2 bites in particular should have maimed her to the point where she couldn't swim, let alone stand. Had to look this one up, but an alligator has a bite force in excess of 2000 pounds per square inch. And it takes roughly HALF of that to break a human bone. My point is, there's no f-ing way this girl would have been able to swim like she was after getting bit in both the leg & arm. Not to mention the injuries they sustained should have been gruesome but they barely bleed. It wasn't until the final death roll bite did she ever look really injured. The dad's injuries seemed a lot more realistic.

The scare element relies heavily on jump scares. But there is a pretty good heightened suspense from the presence of the gators swarming the house. And that is especially prevalent in the claustrophobic basement, with an added threat of rising water. That was probably the best scene of the movie because everything thereafter gets a little silly. Still had relatively good pacing all throughout so you're never bored. Just be prepared for lots of stupid decisions and useless scenes. Lots of stupid scenes that felt like runtime fillers.

Overall I had a hard time believing this film in most aspects and it had a lot of really stupid & useless parts, but if you can turn off your brain and simply enjoy it for popcorn entertainment then you may like it. If you're really critical about movies then you won't enjoy it. For those of you that enjoy the silly syfy films, you will like this movie.

Mindless popcorn entertainment... 5/10

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Mercy Black (2019)


This movie has a great premise & story. It's visually appealing & well shot, and the writing is solid. Written & directed by Owen Egerton (Blood Fest). This guy is relatively new to the game having so little accredited to him, but he has a great eye for horror storytelling. His stories are original, thoughtful, and the settings are well used to support the story. He uses some of our childhood fears against us in a magnificent way.

That said, this film in particular is suited to be a children's bedtime horror story, or even a campfire scare story, and is a perfect film for teenagers that enjoy the genre. The writing gives us a good story. It begins the story with 3 young girls alone in the woods giving you a mysterious background then jumps forward 15 years. We then get detailed flashbacks throughout the film. Slowly but surely the flashbacks depicting the tragic events unfold the character arcs & bring them to their fates at the forefront. There was a LOT that COULD have gone wrong with this presentation & progression, but it was generally fluid, albeit slow. Only a few questions here & there but they could be resolved by simple theories.

These flashbacks present some suspense, as we slowly get acquainted with the tragic event & the "creature". However it wasn't much suspense, and it tends to drag by its slow pacing. The progression doesn't quite give us the full depiction of what the "creature" is, which makes it intriguing. The story is evolved around a true crime incident with disturbing events that unfolded and it is up to us to connect some dots here & there as to what the true menace of the story is. It was very dry in the gore department which I think could have vaulted this film to a higher level, but that would have tailored to adults whereas this film is meant to be for younger crowds. Plus it would have derailed the story that Egerton was trying to tell. But I would have liked it lol.

The acting in this film was ok. I think we could have gotten more out of the sister's character in regards to her insanity. Her demeanor was far too normal for a young girl that was locked away for so long. The main character, Marina, had a solid performance throughout. Even her character could have evolved from a darker place considering the story.

Overall its a decent film for all age audiences. But it will come off as slightly cheesy to adults that are used to their horror movies being tailored to them. Its sold as a creature feature, but it doesn't come close to fulfilling that, which was disappointing to say the least. It comes off as more of a mythic presence, and ends up alluding to psychological elements instead. It's very slow paced, but it tells a good story if you can stay enthralled.

A Dark Children's Bedtime Story... 6.5/10

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Y'all know what time of year it is...

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

31 days of horror starts tonight... Y'all know what to do.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

Brightburn (2019)


First off I have to say that I loved the concept of this film. A fresh take to the tiresome cinematic world of superhero/fantasy films. That said however, the execution of this film was quite poor. It relied very heavily on the cgi/fx. Those scenes were very well done and just as you'd expect if Superman ever went rogue, but they could have played up the sinister element better. Instead the writers made the kid into an intimidating bully of sorts. Plausible, but didn't create good horror. I liked the scenes where the kid was drawn to his craft, but it didn't quite materialize those scenes. There is little to no suspense either. The only scares are jump scares during the cgi/fx kill scenes when the kid does his kamikaze- flybys. The score pumps up the sound fx in those moments to create the jump scare too, because you are fully expecting the kill to happen. The gore was good but it wasn't enough to make the experience more memorable.

The acting was simply not good. I liked the kid and thought he was the star of the cast. As for the rest, I had a hard time not finding the emotional scenes as laughable. Wasn't completely their fault though. I love Elizabeth Banks but she was miscast in this role. Never been a fan of David Denman, and he was bad. Theres a dramatic scene between him & the son (Brandon, superman kid) that could have been very epic but ends up being a headscratcher. Really it was just the kid actors that played their parts well lol. But the script didn't do anyone any favors.

The progression of the film is also terrible. It gave no time for the characters & relationships to evolve meaningfully. Some scenes will pass days by in seconds, whereas others drag on for 20-30 minutes of the film. Made the entire experience feel like an unfinished story filled with missed opportunities & bland characters. There wasn't a single character to sympathize with. And when you get to the climax, you get that inevitable conclusion that you've been waiting for.

Very disappointed with this film that had such fertile ground to work with. M Night Shyamalan sort of broke ground for this subgenre, or at least paved the way for it. When you think of the things they could have done with this film, the ideas they could have explored... it's actually quite depressing that this was the end result. They wasted a lot of time on superfluous tension building tricks and ominous build-ups with musical swells... Overall its nothing more than popcorn entertainment, and even at that feels mediocre. Good cinematography all around and I loved the setting.

Great premise but leaves A LOT to be desired... 5/10

I agree with damn near everything. I hoped this was going to be good, but ultimately disappointed.

I would add (and you may have mentioned it and I forgot, you wrote a lot lol) the writing was very poor. I am a father of two and I found myself constantly wondering why these parents were acting the way they were. Their "parenting" skills were nonexistent and when you couple that level of bad writing with bad acting... it was just really bad. Numerous times I was saying out loud 'what parent would do that?' 'say that' 'act like that' or even 'not do this/that' or something to that affect.

Spoiler

That jaw seen though lol

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

COMING SOON:

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Rated R

Release Date: November 8th

Synopsis: Years following the events of "The Shining," a now-adult Dan Torrance meets a young girl with similar powers as his and tries to protect her from a cult known as The True Knot who prey on children with powers to remain immortal.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

COMING SOON:

Don't Let Go (2019)

Rated R

Release Date: 9/27 (didn't realize this was already out!)

Synopsis: After a man's family dies in what appears to be a murder, he gets a phone call from one of the dead, his niece. He's not sure if she's a ghost or if he's going mad, but as it turns out, he's not.

edit: @DJ posted this 3-4 pages ago. Good work my man!

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

COMING SOON:

Little Monsters (2019)

Rated R

Release Date: 10/11

Synopsis: A washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

COMING SOON:

Grudge (2020)


Rated NYR

Release Date: 1/3/20

Synopsis: A house is cursed by a vengeful ghost that dooms those who enter it with a violent death.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

COMING SOON:

The Lighthouse (2019)

Rated R

Release Date: 10/18

Synopsis: The hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

A little preemptive but....

Halloween Kills (2020) - Oct 2020
Halloween Ends (2021) - Oct 2021