Tag Archives: Ghosts

31 Days of Horror Movie: Paranormal Activity 3 (2011; R; 85 min)

Posted on October 27, 2011 | 2 comments

Note to self: do not pump up on caffeine, on an empty stomach no less, before going to see a scary movie in the theater! Let’s just say the guys behind me had a good laugh (or ten) watching me jump out of my seat every time something scary happened!

And plenty of great scares there were, with lots of tension and suspense built in too, in this third installment (the prequel) of the Paranormal Activity franchise. That’s why I was so disappointed with the ending of the movie, which to me felt like it didn’t really fit in with the other two movies and explain what happens in PA and PA2.

Going way back to 1988 when Katie and Kristi were young girls, PA3 lets us see how they came to be “haunted” when they were all grown up. In this installment, young Kristi (played by the adorable and believable Jessica Tyler Brown) has made a new, albeit invisible, friend named Toby. She seems to be scared of him to some degree, as he wakes her at night and asks her to do things in the house. Around the same time, her mother Julie and Julie’s live-in boyfriend Dennis start hearing odd noises in various parts of the house. Dennis is a wedding videographer in the days of good ol’ VHS, so he sets up a couple of cameras around the house to see if he can capture anything on tape.

As September unfolds, and a babysitter is scared out of her wits during one parents-night-out, Toby becomes more and more posessive of Kristi and hurtful to the others in the house. At first they try to ignore what is happening around them, but soon can’t continue pretending nothing is really happening, especially as the video footage adds up and up.

Unfortunately, when Kristi’s grandmother enters the picture to offer assistance, the movie starts going downhill fast. The ending seems contrived and not in keeping with the “spirit” of what happens to the girls later in life. If you want to watch the movie for some great scares, you’ll definitely find them here. But if you want to wrap up the trilogy in a nice, neat, and dare I say, believable, fashion, you’ll need to hope for an alternate ending when the movie is released on DVD.

  • Top Scare: Early in the movie
  • Heartbeats: 4 out of 5
  • Gore factor: 1 1/2 out of 5
  • Scare factor: 4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 15 and up (even though it’s rated R, which I feel it didn’t deserve at all)

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31 Days of Horror Movie: The Sixth Sense (1999; PG-13; 107 min)

Posted on October 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

This “new classic” is still on my Top 7 list of horror movies because it’s just everything you could want in a scary, yet thought-provoking, movie. Written and directed by one of my favorites, M. Night Shyamalan, and featuring one of his signature surprise-twist endings, The Sixth Sense stars Bruce Willis as Dr. Malcolm Crowe. Crowe is a reknowned child psychologist in Philadelphia who begins to see an anxiety-ridden 9-year-old boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment in an amazing performance) whose parents have divorced and who has a secret he does not want to share with others.

Quietly, slowly, Dr. Crowe and Cole develop a trusting relationship, until Cole is ready to share his secret (in a haunting whisper of a voice): “I see dead people.” It seems Cole can see what others cannot, and dead people are trying to communicate with him, leaving him terrified, petrified, and horrified at his predicament. Dr. Crowe suggests Cole should try to find out what the dead people are trying to tell him, and to help them if he can. When Cole undertakes this task, we are all able to feel with breathtaking fear what young Cole is experiencing.

Meanwhile, Dr. Crowe is having troubles of his own. Since being shot by a former patient the year before, he has been feeling distant from his wife Anna. And Cole’s mother, Lynn, who does not know his secret, is trying desparately to help her son with the problems he is having at school and at home, which have her baffled and concerned. In the end, each person finds his, or her, way to accept what life has become and who they really are.

  • Top Scare: Way too many to mention just one!
  • Heartbeats: 4 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore factor: 3 out of 5
  • Suspense factor: 4 1/2 out of 5
  • Recommended for: Mature 13+

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31 Days of Horror Movie: The Changeling (1980; R; 115 min)

Posted on October 17, 2011 | 1 comment

I had a recurring dream as a kid, well, more of a nightmare. It featured a long, dark staircase leading up to a dark, closed door. An attic door of some sort. Somehow, I always stopped myself before opening the door, knowing whatever was behind it was more than I could handle. It seems The Changeling knows about my nightmare, because its tagline is: Whatever you do, don’t go into the attic. Of course, I had to watch this movie to finally find out what might have been behind that dark attic door.

George C. Scott is John Russell, a man whose wife and daughter are killed by an out-of-control truck on a snowy November day in New York. Months later, John tries to move on with his life by taking on a teaching position in Seattle (he is a composer/pianist). He decides to rent an enormous old stone mansion nearby from Claire, a volunteer with the town’s Historic Preservation Society.

Soon, Russell begins hearing loud thumping noises at 6 am, followed by the discovery of faucets running and tubs full. Minnie, an old biddie at the Society, tells him, “That house is not fit to live in. No one has been able to live in it. It doesn’t want people.”

Well, Russell is not deterred, so he starts searching the house for clues. He soon discovers a concealed door leading up to an attic room, where he finds a music box which plays the exact same tune he thought he had just composed himself, an old-fashioned child’s wheelchair, and a book with the year 1906 on the front. He and Claire begin to investigate the home’s history, but files have mysteriously gone missing. They do, however, discover that a doctor lived there at the turn of the century with his daughter Cora and son Joseph, and that Cora was killed by a coal car as a child.

Russell invites a medium to the house for a seance, and soon learns the pounding noises and ghostly happenings lead back to the child Joseph, who asks for Russell’s help. Meanwhile, a Senator Joseph Carmichael, who is on the Society’s Board of Directors, begins to fit into the puzzle, as do his father, an abandoned well, a necklace with a medal, and a police detective. And all lead back to the attic room, and the young boy’s haunting cries of “Father, father…”

  • Top Scare: Mirrors
  • Heartbeats: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore factor: 1 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 15 and up

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31 Days of Horror: The Haunting of Sorority Row (2007; Unrated; 86 min)

Posted on October 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

If you like a good laugh with your “horror,” this is a good movie for you. Not that the movie is funny. But you will laugh AT the movie as you watch it, it is that bad!

A Lifetime made-for-TV movie (that should have been the tipoff, right there!), this wanna-be horror movie is set in a college sorority during Hell Week. Sam is a freshman pledge trying to balance sorority hazing rituals by queen-bee “sisters,” with homework and a nerdy boyfriend, Oliver (her high school sweetheart who is obsessed with ESP and the paranormal).

Now, this is a big, old sorority house, with long hallways of rooms, yet we only see about 10 total “sisters” the entire time. And 5 of them are pledges. So when one by one, the sisters start breathing in (or out) a cold fog, and disappearing or dying, the house gets pretty empty, pretty fast. Add in the mysterious disappearance exactly one year ago of a freshman pledge, and you get the basic plot idea. The burning, no, freezing, questions are: will Sam escape the killer cold-fog, will Oliver or a new boy named Spencer capture Sam’s heart, will the queen-bee hazers get their come-uppance, and will anyone stay awake past the first 20 minutes to even find out?

  • Top Scare: hahahahah
  • Heartbeats: 1 out of 5
  • Gore factor: 2 out of 5
  • Suspense factor: 2 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 13 and up, if you must

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31 Days of Horror: Tips Your House Might Be Haunted

Posted on October 11, 2011 | 10 comments

It seems people in movies and on TV shows who so obviously live in a house with ghosts or other spirits, just can’t accept the fact that houses should not glow and doors should not suddenly lock or unlock on their own. They don’t seem to believe their house truly is hosting a party of the paranormal, and so call in the “experts” to take readings and the such, when in fact, all they really need to do is refer to my handy checklist below. It’s specially designed to take the guesswork out of the haunting once and for all!

Simply put a G (for Ghost) next to any of the items below you have experienced in the past year or which describe your living situation. Then total up your G’s and refer to the chart at the bottom to discover whether your house is merely a bit “different” or whether you need to hightail it out of there ASAP!

1. Your house sits on top of, or near, an ancient Indian burial ground, or a pet or other cemetery.

2. You have a housekeeper or butler, of indeterminate age, who “came with” the house.

3. Your house seems to attract lots of flies or spiders.

4. Your house’s upstairs windows look like evil eyes.

5. A kooky person nearby is always warning you, “That place is evil!” or “You’re gonna die!”

6. You have a door under your main staircase which always seems to lock on its own, or pull-down attic stairs which always seem to be calling you forth.

7. Your dog barks at thin air and your cats screech at the basement door.

8. Your realtor mentioned once (very quickly and quietly) that another lovely family just like yours had once lived there, and no one seems to remember where they moved on to.

9. Your basement hosts an old, creaky elevator used in olden days to transport animals for slaughter and curing.

10. You often think you hear angelic children singing when you light a fire in the fireplace.

1-3 G’s: Consider having your house blessed.

4-6 G’s: Call in The Exorcist.

7-10 G’s: Burn the place down and move to Rome.

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31 Days of Horror Movie: Paranormal Activity 2 (2010; R; 98 min)

Posted on October 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

A big fan of Paranormal Activity (the first one), I was anxious to finally watch PA2. This is a great sequel, set in the home of Katie’s sister Kristi (you’ll remember Katie and Micah from PA1), and occurring mostly just in the two months before the events of PA1. The story is told entirely in camcorder and surveillance video footage, offering great opportunities for suspense and feels-real dialogue.

Kristi lives in lovely Carlsbad, CA, with her hubby Daniel, toddler son Hunter, and teen step-daughter Ali. Oh, and a big german shepherd named Abby. After their house is ransacked in what they beleive is a break-in, Daniel installs cameras in the house. It is this footage which captures the creepy goings-on as events escalate and the family begins to feel more and more threatened by the entity which seems to be after Hunter, the first-born son in generations.

Katie comes to visit Kristi several times during this time period as well. It is during one of these visits that we discover that Kristi and Katie have a shared experience from their childhood they don’t want to remember or talk about, but which somehow ties in with the present day events. As night after night brings terror to the family, the two sisters’ secret will become more and more powerful. But can this evil be stopped before it claims more lives and finally gets what it is truly after?

  • Top Scare: Kitchen scene or Stairs
  • Heartbeats: 4 out of 5
  • Gore factor: 1 1/2 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 4 1/2 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 14 and up

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31 Days of Horror TV Show: American Horror Story (FX on Wednesdays,10pm)

Posted on October 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

With a great cast that includes Jessica Lange, Frances Conroy, and Dylan McDermott, American Horror Story looked to be a good bet this Fall, and I wasn’t disappointed after seeing the pilot. Definitely earning its 10pm time slot (it’s slated as a psychosexual thriller and features lots of nudity, sex, and some pretty darn creepy demon-type stuff), this new series on FX has a taut, horror movie-like atmosphere and numerous good scares in just one hour.

American Horror story is set in LA, where the Harmons, Ben and Vivien, and their teenage daughter, Violet, have just arrived for a “new start.” They move into a classic old house with death in its history and a dark, maze-like basement. This, however, does not seem to deter them from the great deal they are getting on the house so they move right in!

Soon, uber-creepy neighbors who show up uninvited, freaky murals that are exposed behind torn wallpaper, and a psychotic teen patient of Ben’s let us in on some of the darker secrets of the house and its hold over the new inhabitants. Perhaps, dear friends, that great investment wasn’t such a smart move after all? Now the question is: will they figure that out before it’s too late?

  • Heartbeats: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore factor: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Suspense factor: 4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 18 and up

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31 Days of Horror Movie: Insidious (2010; PG-13; 103 min)

Posted on October 4, 2011 | 3 comments

I have been wanting to see this movie since it was first released in theaters as it looked like my kind of horror movie: some ghosts, some paranormal stuff, some haunted houses, some great scares. And I wasn’t disappointed…with the first half of the movie, that is! I’ll get to the second half in a minute.

Insidious opens with Josh and Renai, who have just moved into a new house with their two sons and baby daughter (who, by the way, cries constantly in the beginning of the movie and will drive you kind of crazy). Renai tells Josh, “I just want things to be different in this house.” Now, that is the first and last reference to the fact that something needs to be different and that’s why they moved, unless there’s some prequel or something accidentally left off of my DVD.

Right away, the couple’s oldest son Dalton falls in the attic and slips into a coma. Three months later, he is brought home to lay in bed for almost the rest of the movie (that’s some foreshadowing for you…you’re welcome). Renai begins to hear nicely creepy, whispery voices over the baby monitor, then sees figures around the house, etc. and each time the experience intensifies until she convinces Josh the house is haunted and they must move again. Now mind you, this is AFTER their other son says he is scared and doesn’t want to sleep in the same room as Dalton anymore because, he explains, “I don’t like when he walks around at night.” They just seem to ignore that tidbit. Nevertheless, this is the part of the movie I loved, because it was sufficiently, yes, CREEPY!

The second half of the movie showed promise, but became too silly to believe (see, I like to believe in the goings-on in horror movies as that’s what scares me – the possibility they could happen to me). The family moves to a new home, but when things are still weird (and trust me on this, you will never hear Tiptoe Through the Tulips again and not freak out), they call in a medium-type woman, friend of Josh’s mother, to help them rid their house of these malevolent entities and save their son. Okay so far.

But here’s where Insidious goes way off course, bordering on slapstick at times. Turns out the medium and her sidekicks believe Dalton is in The Further, and they have a plan to bring him back using a gas mask with an elephant trunk, a viewfinder toy, and lots of flashlights and cameras. Huh? The rest of the movie is spent in this fashion, with an admittedly fun twist at the very end, but it can’t be saved from its own foolishness. Too bad, ’cause I really liked the first half.

  • Top Scare: In the baby’s room
  • Heartbeats: 4 out of five (first half); 2 out of 5 (last half)
  • Gore Factor: 1 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 1/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: Mature 13’s and up

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Horror Movie: The Haunting (PG-13; 1999; 113 min.)

Posted on November 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

With a superstar lineup like Liam Neeson, Owen Wilson, Catherine Zeta Jones and Lili Taylor, and a super creepy gothic style isolated castle as the setting, this could have/should have been a great movie. However, it was really just a great laugh.

When three sleep study subjects arrive at the deserted Hill House castle, one soon begins to hear strange noises and see ghostly images of children floating around. Turns out they’re really there for a study on fear, but when it is obvious the castle is truly haunted, the whole group must help the one of them (Lily Taylor as Eleanor) who seems to be going bonkers there (see, they can’t actually leave because the caretaker has locked them in for the night and no one from the nearby town will either hear them scream or come to help if they do hear them). So over an hour later, they are still being chased by the ghost of the castle’s owner (who killed many children there and won’t free their spirits), and they are pretending to be scared of the terrible special effects.

Ugh…this is torture to watch and try to follow. There are no scares here, just cheesy plotlines and silly graphics. You’ll want to watch this one only if you’re wanting to waste a couple hours and get a good laugh!

  • Top Scare: Eleanor’s creepy siblings
  • Heartbeats: 1 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 1 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 1 out of 5
  • Recommended for: No one, but if you must, 13 and up

Next up: Halloween Director’s Cut

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Horror Movie: The Shining (R; 1980; 144 min.)

Posted on October 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

One of my top five horror movies (gotta love Stephen King…he can really dream things up, can’t he?), The Shining is about why no writer-wannabe should live for the winter in a snowy, isolated, mountain-top lodge where murders occurred. Write that tip down now!

No, actually, The Shining is about a former teacher, the amazing Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, who is trying his hand at writing. He takes a job as winter caretaker of a remote lodge, The Overlook Hotel, in the mountains of Colorado. In 1970, the previous caretaker had murdered his wife and two daughters there. But that history doesn’t faze Jack, because he’s looking for peace and quiet for his writing. Sorry, Jack, ain’t gonna happen!

Soon after he moves his wife and son there, Jack begins to change, becoming a mean, cussing, hallucinating still-wannabe writer (he does finally complete a manuscript…more on that later). His son Danny sees the two murdered girls around the hotel (“Hello, Danny. Come and play with us. Forever and ever and ever.”) and visions of blood gushing from elevator doors. How can that be? Well,  according to Dick Halloran, the bowlegged hotel’s chef who met him before leaving for the season, Danny shares Dick’s special abilities known as “The Shining,” where they can “see” things and talk to each other without speaking. Danny’s pointer finger, known as Tony, also talks to Danny in a creepy, gravelly voice, telling him things. Hmmm.

As a record snowstorm hits, and Jack gets meaner and Danny’s visions get more bloody (don’t go near room 237, REDRUM!, REDRUM!), Wendy Torrance, Jack’s wife, discovers his manuscript. Hundreds of pages long, she reads just about every single one for the camera to show us they all say “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Now she’s SURE he’s gone bonkers, so she hits him with a bat, locks him in a walk-in freezer and takes off to save Danny.

Well, a ghost has soon freed Jack (!), and Jack is soon chasing his wife and son. Wendy manages to shove Danny out of their bathroom window onto a conveniently located two-story snowdrift below, but she can’t fit herself through the opening. Jack begins axeing down the door (Here’s Johnny!), but is distracted when he hears the motor of a snowcab outside. After easily disposing of this nuisance (the chef who came back to help when Danny sent him a mind message), he’s back looking for his family again. What follows is a great chase scene through a snowy outdoor maze where Danny tricks his dad. And meanwhile, Olive Oyl/Shelley Duvall is running/jerking through the hotel looking for Danny carrying a large knife, encountering various bloody elevators and ballrooms full of dead people herself! Will Wendy and Danny escape Jack’s crazed efforts at killing them? Will Danny stop talking to his finger and use it to pick his nose again instead? Will the snow ever melt in Colorado? You must watch to find out!

  • Top Scare: Tony the talking finger
  • Heartbeats: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 4 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 15 and up, mainly due to cussing and gore

Next up: Friday the 13th

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