Tag Archives: October

31 Days of Horror Movie: The Rite (2011; PG-13; 114 min)

Posted on October 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

Anthony Hopkins and a based-on-true-events exorcism…you had me at Anthony Hopkins.

After seeing his evil side in The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, how can I turn away from an inspired Hopkins performance simply because it’s another movie about a doubting Catholic (which is getting old, old, old)? Okay, I can’t.

So I didn’t turn away, but seminary student Michael Kovak wants to. Raised by the uber creepy Rutger Hauer as his father Istvan Kovak, a mortician, Michael just can’t wait to get away. So he goes to seminary because his late mother always told him he was touched by the hand of God. As the date of his final vows looms, Michael decides to leave the seminary, citing lack of faith. Enter a priest who has seen a different side of him, and who wants him to head to Rome to give “exorcism school” a go.

Soon Michael’s doubting is noticed by a journalist, Angeline, and the top dog, Father Xavier, who is teaching the class. Father Xavier sends Michael to meet Father Lucas (Hopkins), who performs so many exorcisms he can take calls in the middle of them and still stay on task. Michael still doubts, even when one case, the lovely, young (and pregnant) Rosaria is spitting up long iron nails and talking to him in other languages. But as Rosaria’s possession grows more extreme and violent, and two personal connections to the evil show their face, Michael must decide once and for all if he truly believes not only in the evil he is witnessing, but in God himself.

  • Top Scare: A cat
  • Heartbeats: 3 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 3 1/4 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 3/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 14 and up, due to a couple of sexual references by The Devil himself

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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: Let Me In (2010; R; 115 min)

Posted on October 12, 2011 | 2 comments

When Stephen King, the King of Horror himself, says a movie is “the best American horror film in the last 20 years,” I pay attention. Honestly, I’m not sure I agree with him on the “best in 20 years” part, but I do agree this is a great horror movie, and do highly recommend it.

Let Me In, based on a Swedish film and book called Let the Right One In, is a lovely, haunting, sad vampire love story where no one sparkles and no one becomes a werewolf. Set in a wintry 1980’s small southwestern town (yes, I said wintry southwestern town), Let Me In is the quiet story of how two people can be drawn to one another, even if and when they know it’s an impossible thing. It’s the story of friendship and love. And it’s a story of youth in all its complexities.

Owen, a lonely 12-year-old who lives with his mother, sees an odd girl about his age (Abby) move into an apartment next door one night. Seems she never gets cold and doesn’t wear shoes in the snow. She arrives with an older man, her “father.” Right off, Abby tells Owen she can’t be his friend. And boy, does he need one, as he is mercilessly bullied at school by Kenny and his two sidekicks. Nevertheless, a shared love of puzzles brings Owen and Abby together, and they begin to develop a friendship, hanging out and talking in the evenings in the building’s snowy courtyard.

Meanwhile, teens in the small town are going missing, and we learn that Abby’s “father” is the reason. He must bring blood to Abby and others so they can survive. When he is in a crash, however, and sets himself on fire to escape recognition, Abby’s world starts to unravel and the only one she can turn to is Owen. But will he accept her for who, and what, she is? Or does friendship and love have its limits?

  • Top Scare: Not really scary
  • Heartbeats: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore factor: 4 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 3/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 15 and up due to some nudity and cussing

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, Blood, Horror Movie, Movies, scary movies, Vampires

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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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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, Exorcism, Home, Humor

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31 Days of Horror Movie: The Resident (2010; R; 91 min)

Posted on October 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

So not purely a horror movie, The Resident is still a suspensful thriller with a good cast. And, okay, the building is kind of old and scary, so that makes it a bit more on the horror-movie side than not. See, horror movies really need a good, creepy building to help them make you squirm. Think the Bates Motel. Think Michael Myers’ childhood home. Think Amityville Horror’s all-seeing-eyes house. The list goes on and on!

Now, back to the movie.

The Resident stars Hilary Swank as Juliet, an ER doc who’s just separated from her husband Jack and is looking for a place to live. She conveniently finds an unbelievable deal on a huge (by NYC and any other city’s standards) apartment in a building owned by Max (hot, hot Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Max lives there with his withering, old grandfather August, while he is renovating the apartment building. He moves in and out of rooms and behind walls to get around the building, and we soon learn he has developed a wee bit of a crush (!!) on Juliet. So much so, in fact, he takes to drugging her wine so he can lick her pinky while she’s knocked out. And use her toothbrush. And, uh, “hang out” in her tub.

Juliet meanwhile decides to give Jack another chance, and begins seeing him. She can’t figure out, though, why she keeps oversleeping each day. So, putting two and nine together, she decides to hire someone to install security cameras in her apartment. Huh? Wonder if I missed something there?

Anyway, as Max’s little crush gets more and more out of hand, and Juliet’s recycling bin for bottles gets more and more full from all the wine she drinks each night, and as August gets creepier and creepier, The Resident builds to a bit of a long, drawn-out conclusion that will nevertheless make you think twice before renting from a hot landlord in NYC!

  • Top Scare: Bathroom
  • Heartbeats: 2 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 2 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 3/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 17 and up

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31 Days of Horror Movie: The New Daughter (2009; PG-13; 108 min)

Posted on October 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

Any movie with Kevin Costner is on my to-see list, so I was surprised to realize I had forgotten about this movie. And while it was nice to see ol’ Kevin in the role of a devoted father, I’m not quite sure the rest of the movie worked out as well. I mean, the special effects were creepy and all that, but by the end I felt as if I was in a B-movie theater suffering from a bad movie-theater popcorn tummy ache, thanks to the groans and ughs I couldn’t hold in.

Costner plays John, a newly divorced writer who has just moved his  7-year-old son Sam and 16-year-old daughter Louisa to a beautiful new home in the always-storming boonies of South Carolina. Now, why three people might need about 6,000 square feet of nice, old house is a bit beyond me, but so it is. Beware: kind of an “Ewww!” moment right near the beginning when Louisa realizes they forgot to bring indoor cat Marmalade’s litter box with them and John says he will get it tomorrow. Bye-bye nice house. Okay, back to plot of the movie.

Now, Louisa and Sam are bored, so they soon begin to explore their many lush acres. This is where they discover a tall mound which emits a kind of harpish melody. They show their dad this cool find, but none of them seem to think it odd that a hill can play music. Neither do they think it too odd when Louisa begins to sleepwalk at night and returns covered in mud and holding strange voodoo-style dolls. In fact, John does a search online to look into these strange happenings, but soon dismisses it as his being a “crappy Dad.”

Meanwhile, Sam’s class at his new school is learning about ants, and how each colony has a queen ant: “the only girl in the whole family…and she’s in charge.” Hmm. Wonder how this might relate back to Louisa and her mound she’s so fond of? Well, we soon find out when John calls the realtor who sold him the house and learns that the hill out back is actually an Indian burial mound, and previous occupants of the house, including a teen girl, have met untimely deaths. Of course, more deaths and freaky mayhem ensue as John tries to rid his property of the singing mound and kill off the scary ant-creatures invading his house who will stop at nothing to keep their new queen! The question is, will he succeed, or will the music live on?

  • Top Scare: Sitter or Woods
  • Heartbeats: 2 3/4 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 3 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 13 and up

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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: The Caller (2011; R; 91 min)

Posted on October 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

Know how annoying it is when the phone just keeps ringing and ringing but you don’t feel like answering it? Brrrrrrinnnnggggg! Okay, now sit through that for 91 minutes, and you have an idea of how much you’ll hate the phone by the end of The Caller.

Mary Kee lives in San Juan and is trying to divorce her abusive husband Steven. She moves into a new apartment, tended by a nice local man, and makes friends with John, a teacher at the college where she’s taking a class. Mary has an old-fashioned black phone sitting all alone on a big table in her apartment. One day right after moving in, brrrriiiiiiinnnnggggg the phone rings and rings, and she answers. The caller, an old-sounding woman, asks for Bobby. Sorry, wrong number and all that. But over time, this same woman, Rose it turns out, keeps calling, bbbbrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggggg, eventually engaging Mary in conversation. We find early on that Rose is either very senile, or actually lives in another time period and is reaching out to Mary through the phone line. Hmm.

Mary gets kind of annoyed with Rose, who just won’t stop calling (bbbrrrriiiinnngggg), and who admits to killing off her boyfriend Bobby way back when. So she does the smart thing and disconnects her phone line. Turns out, she gets very bad cell phone reception in her apartment, though, so she must plug it back in to make and receive calls.

Well, of course Rose has great timing, and calls Mary, bbbbrrrrrrriiiiiinnnnnggggg, now threatening her in various ways. Rose also proves to Mary she knew her when Mary was a child in the 1970’s, and threatens to hurt her mother (not the current-day one, the 1970’s one). Mary freaks out and brings John in on the action, who convinces her to move out of the apartment. Smart guy. Problem is, Rose doesn’t like that idea too much, and will stop at nothing to exact her revenge in the past and present. BBBBBRRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG!

  • Top Scare: Old photos
  • Heartbeats: 1 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 1 1/2 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 2 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 15 and up

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31 Days of Horror Movie: Scream 4 (2011; R; 111 min)

Posted on October 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

I am a big fan of the Scream franchise, so I was very excited when this movie hit theaters. But because I save all my horror movies to watch in October, it was SO hard to wait to see it this month on DVD! I think the Scream movies are fun, funny, scary and great-to-the-last scene, keep-you-guessing stories. Sure, there’s lots of blood and butchering going on, but there’s also some very inventive death scenes and great self-aware horror movie dialogue. And of course, there’s always a great cast. I am happy to say Wes Craven’s Scream 4 (S4) did not disappoint and I’m already holding out for Scream 5!

S4 opens with Sidney Prescott not-so-smartly returning to Woodsboro on the anniversary of all the Ghostface killings, for the last stop on her new book’s tour (a lovely tale about being a survivor). Soon bloody high school bodies start piling up, and phones ring again and again with a creepy voice at the other end inquiring as to the person’s favorite scary movie. Early on, in a bold horror movie-heroine move, Sidney actually stands up to the killer (or killers?) to save her cousin Jill, who is being targeted. In one scene, in fact, Sidney tosses Ghostface over her own body and down the stairs while lying injured on the landing! Writing that book must have made Sidney’s arms ultra strong!

Meanwhile, Sheriff Dewey and his wife, Gale Weathers, are at odds as to how to catch the killer. A cute Deputy Hicks, who’s crushing on Dewey and who was once a classmate of Sidney’s, doesn’t help matters. Plus, Jill’s ex-boyfriend Trevor keeps (suspiciously) showing up just after Ghostface has run off. Now, of course the list of possible suspects doesn’t stop there! Jill’s two girlfriends and a couple of geeky boys from the school who hold a Stab movie marathon each year are also popping in and out of the story to complicate matters. So just when you’re sure you know who the killer is, that person gets stabbed (and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed) and moves on to that great high school in the sky.

S4 is filled with great characters (I loved Hoss and Perkins, two cops assigned to guard Jill and Sidney one night), funny lines, and lots of good jump-out-of-your-seat scares. It stays true to horror movie etiquette, such as making sure no one has curtains closed on their windows at night and showing us people who always leave their front door open when they go outside to investigate weird noises. And, it has several surprises in store, too, just to make the whole story more satisfying. All in all, I loved it and add it to my list of great horror movies you must watch this October!

  • Top Scare: Any porch scene
  • Heartbeats: 3 3/4 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 4 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 17 and up, due to cussing and lots of bloody stabbing scenes

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