Tag Archives: thriller

Horror Movie: The Orphanage (R; 2007; 105 min.)

Posted on October 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

This spanish movie with English subtitles was actually better than I anticipated, creepy and well-told, with a satisfying ending. Very suspenseful too!

Laura and her husband Carlos, along with their adopted son Simon, have moved into what used to be the orphanage where Laura lived before being adopted as a young girl. They have plans to care for several disabled children there and are preparing for their arrival. After a walk on the nearby beach, Laura and Simon enter into a cave where Simon “meets” several young children who tell him that he is adopted and ill as well (he is HIV positive, which his parents have kept from him along with the fact he is adopted). They invite him to come play with them, and to join their group. Laura and Carlos think it normal that a young boy would have these imaginary friends and play along as well.

On the day of their Open House for the disabled children’s families, Simon disappears. Laura soon comes to believe that these imaginary friends are not so imaginary after all, but are the ghosts of her childhood friends from the orphanage who have somehow taken Simon to live with them. She calls in a medium to help her reach these children to find out about Simon.

The medium tells her that “when something terrible happens sometimes it leaves a trace…a wound that acts as a knot between two time lines. It’s like an echo repeated over and over, waiting to be heard. Like a scar…or a pinch that begs for a caress to relieve it.” Cool.

So Laura does discover that something terrible did happen to these children after she was adopted out, and asks them if they want to play one more time together. They do…

  • Top Scare: The medium’s visit
  • Heartbeats: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 2 1/4 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 3/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 13 and up

Next up: The Omen

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, horror, Movies, Orphans, scary movies, Thriller, Undead

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Horror Movie: Guess the Name (R; 1976; 98 min.)

Posted on October 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

I was too tired last night for subtitles (The Orphanage), so chose to watch a classic instead. My husband had never seen it, so  that made it even better. It was a literal bloodbath, or bloodshower I should say (in two scenes!), starring The Coal Miner’s Daughter, Urban Cowboy, Greatest American Hero, and Mrs. Bradford…can you guess its title?

Okay, hopefully you said Psycho…nah, just kidding. Carrie, of course! Now I know I just reviewed another Stephen King adaptation yesterday, Salem’s Lot, but he is the King of Horror after all, so I thought another so soon was okay.

Carrie is set in the land of true horror, aka High School. Raised by a fanatically religious mother, Carrie is “different” from the other kids. Not only does she become the world’s oldest girl to start menstruating, she discovers she has special abilities to move items, close doors, break mirrors, and make young, bratty boys riding bikes fall to the ground when she gets angry! Okay, take away the crazy mother and it sounds like a pretty good life to me so far, right?

Wrong! Carrie’s prom is coming up, and the most popular boy in school’s girlfriend, played by the young and beautiful Amy Irving, encourages him to ask Carrie to the prom to make up for a mean prank she pulled on Carrie with her classmates. Carrie accepts, but her mother says, “They’ll make fun of you!” in an incredibly creepy voice. Carrie says, “Things are going to change around here, Momma” as she throws her mother onto the bed (twice!) using only the powers emanating from her huge, round eyes.

Off to the prom she goes, and is having a great time dancing and being a “normal” kind of girl, but little does she know another classmate, who has been banned from the prom due to her participation in the cruel prank on Carrie, is seeking her revenge that night. Enlisting her boyfriend’s help, the Urban Cowboy, this classmate will soon learn that hell hath no fury like a teenaged girl drenched in blood!

Carrie is the ultimate high school girl’s revenge fantasy; revenge for all the wrongs that have been done to her over the years, for all the pointing and laughing and “cold shoulder-ing.” One of my favorite scenes is during Carrie’s walk home following the prom, when a quick cut-away shot shows Carrie/a creepy doll-like figure in the road diverting a car from hitting her. Second favorite scene: the final minute…got my husband good on that one!

  • Top Scare: Ending
  • Hearbeats: 3 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 2 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Psycho Factor: 4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 16 and up, due to lots of cussing, date and teacher/student violence, sex scenes and general themes

Next up: The Orphanage

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, Blood, Hell, horror, Movies, psychosis, scary movies, Telekenesis, Thriller

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Horror Movie: Salem’s Lot (1979 TV Miniseries; 3 hours)

Posted on October 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

I found in my collection an old VHS tape of this movie which appeared on TV in 1979, and which used to terrify me. Based on a book by one of my favorite authors (Stephen King) and starring three of my favorite actors from the time period (David Soul, Lance Kerwin and James Mason), I just had to watch it again.

David Soul stars as a Ben Mears, a writer who returns to his hometown of Salem’s Lot, Maine, to discover some creepy, weird things are going on. Mears wants to write about the old Marston House in town, a purportedly haunted house where Mason (as Richard Straker) is living while preparing to open an antiques store with a colleague, an always-absent partner named Barlow.

Now, it seems young boys have been disappearing from Salem’s Lot for years, but people don’t seem to be too worked up about it. Weird. When a local boy once again goes missing, and other townsfolk begin dying off (or “not-dying” off), Mears and a local kid named Mark Petrie figure out that Barlow is really an ancient vampire and Straker is mixed up in helping him to “relocate” to Salem’s Lot.

Much killing and biting and mayhem ensue, plus we get to see what a Master Vampire looks like (picture this: white, glowing eyes, gray skin on an elongated skull, disgusting teeth and claw-like hands). Can Mark and Ben kill off the vampires and escape their evil clutches? Or will they too become one of the undead in Salem’s Lot? Only VHS can tell…

  • Top Scare: Vampire scene
  • Heartbeats: 3 1/4 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 1 3/4 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 3/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 13 and up, due to the aftermath of a bedroom scene

Next up: The Orphanage

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, horror, Movies, mystery, scary movies, Thriller, Undead, Vampires

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Horror Movie: The Fourth Kind (PG-13; 2009; 98 min.)

Posted on October 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

Okay, so I’m a sucker for “reality-based” alien-abduction movies if the aliens are not here for peaceful purposes (E.T. was great, but not for a good scare). That’s why I chose this movie starring Milla Jovovich as Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist in Nome, Alaska, a town where hundreds of people have (supposedly) mysteriously disappeared since the 1960’s. Formatted as a re-creation of events entertwined with actual interview footage of Dr. Tyler herself and Dr. Tyler with several of her patients, The Fourth Kind tries to appear to blend fact with the unknown. And it kind of succeeds.

The supposedly “real” Dr. Tyler is a pale, sickly looking woman telling us of the events which led up to her daughter’s abduction by aliens (the Fourth Kind is actually the name of this type of interaction with aliens…an abduction). It all began some time after her husband’s death, when several of her patients talked of seeing an owl at night. That’s, unfortunately, all they can remember. Upon hypnosis (Milla Jovovich’s soft, fluid voice here almost had me under too!), the patients reveal that the owl, which is not at that point an owl, comes into the room and then “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…” That’s all we discover, as they are too terrified to go on with their story.

Soon, these patients are killing off family members and Dr. Tyler falls under suspicion for her “hypnotic spells.” We discover this entity which the patients are experiencing speaks to them in an ancient Sumarian language, and seems to take over their bodies as well. A couple of these scenes are especially cool to watch.

Finally, one night the aliens descend upon Dr. Tyler’s house, abducting her young daughter. Trying to find her, Dr. Tyler herself is hypnotized by a colleague, and it does not go well. This is where I must end my review to prevent spoiling the ending (of the movie) for you. Suffice it to say, this is a good suspense/thriller type of movie with a scare or two thrown in as well.

  • Top Scare: One of the hypnosis scenes
  • Heartbeats: 3 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 1/2 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 3 1/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 12 and up

Next up: Salem’s Lot

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, Alien Abduction, Halloween, horror, Movies, mystery, scary movies

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Horror Movie: The Amityville Horror (R; 1979; 119 min.)

Posted on October 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

I first saw this movie when I was 11 years old, way too young. In fact for months afterwards, I awoke at 3:15 am every morning in a cold sweat (true story!)…when you watch the movie you’ll learn the significance of 3:15 am. Now that I’m, ahem, a bit older, this movie no longer terrifies me, but I still consider it a horror classic! It features a creepy house that appears to have eyes, lots of plaid shirts, a mom who wears pigtails tied with ribbons, and singing children’s voices as background music. Hard to believe, but those aren’t even the scary parts!

George and Kathy Lutz are newlyweds, and along with Kathy’s three children, they move into this great house on a river where a 20-year-old man killed his parents and siblings one year earlier. They see no problem with this, since “houses don’t have memories,” as one of them says. Or do they?

Just fourteen minutes into the movie, we learn that flies enjoy one room in the house in particular as they swarm the priest who is alone in it, blessing the house. An evil digital voice cries, “Get out,” which he does, falling very ill over the next two weeks while no one believes his assertions that the house is evil.

Meanwhile, the young girl of the family, Amy, has befriended an “imaginary” girl/spirit named Jody who resides in the house. One night Jody keeps Amy from releasing her sitter (decked out in full retainer headgear) from a “locked” walk-in closet she had gone into. Hours later, Mom and Dad return home to release the sitter from the magically unlocked closet and scold Amy for being so mean. When they learn Jody was the cause, the warning bells do not go off yet. In fact, that doesn’t start happening even when George becomes obsessed with splitting logs in the back yard instead of going to work, a nun related to Kathy stops by but runs right out again, the family dog tries to dig up part of the basement until his paws are bloody, and George’s business partner’s girlfriend “feels” the evil emanating from the house and retreats quickly to the car.

The Lutz’s continue on in their fine new home until one night, the front door to the house blows off its hinges. “What was that?” Kathy yells. “I don’t know. You stay up here,” George replies, running down the stairs. “Like hell!” Kathy says, following him. Good stuff.

Then, finally, we learn that the house itself is located in a devil worship location, and that “energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change forms.” The business partner’s friend goes into the basement and her voice changes to a deep growl that warns them to “Find the well…it’s the passage to hell.” Hmmm. Maybe we should move, after all, honey? But as the Lutz’s try to escape their possessed home, the real horror begins! Cue the singing children…

  • Top Scare: A surprise visitor on a dark night
  • Heartbeats: 2 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 2 1/2 out of 5, mainly from Kathy’s dream
  • Suspense Factor: 2 3/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 13-14 and up

Next up: The Fourth Kind

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, Amityville, Hell, horror, Movies, Satan, scary movies

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Horror Movie: Rosemary’s Baby (R; 1968; 136 min.)

Posted on October 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

What a classic horror movie…love it still! And amazingly, many of the styles in the movie are “back in!”

Mia Farrow is Rosemary, who along with her husband Guy, a struggling actor,  is looking for a new apartment in New York City. They find a great one and get settled in. Soon, they meet their neighbors, an older couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet, and become friendly with them. Guy begins to spend more and more time with Roman despite Rosemary’s uneasy feelings about him.

Rosemary and Guy are anxious to start a family, and following a very creepy “dream” of Rosemary’s, they soon discover she is pregnant. Minnie convinces Rosemary to see a well-known obstetrician she’s friendly with, who prescribes a daily vitamin drink that Minnie will make for Rosemary’s baby’s health. Rosemary has terrible pains during the beginning of the pregnancy, loses lots of weight, and eats various cuts of raw meat, all concerns poo-poo’d by the doc, Guy and the Castevets when she states them.

Meanwhile, Guy’s fledgling acting career has suddenly taken off after a friend who had won a coveted role goes blind and Guy steps into the role. Rosemary begins to have even more misgivings about her neighbors, Guy, and her doctor after talking to some friends, and after a close friend, who falls suddenly ill, passes on to her a book about witches and the history of her building. Could her neighbors and her husband really be witches, she wonders? Is her baby tied into this somehow?

The story continues in this vain, following Rosemary through the pregnancy and birth, with wonderful acting by Farrow and Ruth Gordon (Minnie) especially. Fun to watch even though not very scary!

  • Top Scare: Rosemary’s dream, I guess
  • Heartbeats: 1  out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 1/2 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 2 1/2 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 15 and up, mainly due to the “dream” scene

Next up: Amityville Horror

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, baby, horror, Movies, psychosis, Satan, scary movies, Thriller, witches

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Horror Movie: The Haunting in Connecticut (PG-13; 2009; 92 min.)

Posted on October 10, 2010 | 1 comment

I loved this movie! This had a great scary vibe right from the start and never let up. And the fact that it’s based on supposedly true events makes it even more scaaaarrrryyyy!

Matt Campbell is a teenager dying from cancer. Because his mother, Sarah, has been driving him hundreds of miles a day for treatments, she decides to rent a house close to the hospital for the whole family to move into. Luckily, ha!, she finds a great deal on an old house nearby.

As soon as the first night in the new house, Matt starts experiencing visions and strange noises, which he chalks up as side effects of his treatments. Not too smartly, he has chosen to locate his bedroom in the dark basement, right next to some locked doors no one can seem to pry open. Eventually, the doors do open, and the family comes to realize the locked room was a mortuary. Not just any mortuary though, one where a deranged man used bodies and body parts to try to reach the Otherworld, using a young apprentice Jonah as his medium. Jonah, it seems, was such a talented medium, he could spew ectoplasm, supposedly a sign of the spirits “talking” or whatever.

Matt begins to channel Jonah and his experiences as he grows weaker and more sickly. Matt can tell he is dying. Finally, his family also starts to “see” their house’s other inhabitants and realize Matt is not just hallucinating. Another cancer patient, who happens to be a Reverend, offers to help his family with their “visitors.” Will he succeed? Will Matt live or die? Will the family just GET OUT OF THAT HOUSE? Watch this great movie to find out!

  • Top Scare: I must have jumped 4 or 5 times during this movie. My top scare was a visitor’s sudden appearance.
  • Heartbeats: 4 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 3 3/4 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 4 1/2 out of 5
  • Recommended for: This is PG-13, but I don’t think it should be. I think an R is more appropriate for it. I say it’s good for 15 or 16 and up.

Next up: Rosemary’s Baby

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, ectoplasm, horror, Movies, mystery, scary movies, Thriller

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Horror Movie: The Number 23 (R; 2007; 98 min.)

Posted on October 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

Well once again I’ve managed to pick up a Jim Carrey movie, even though I don’t prefer him as an actor, but I’m glad I did…he was great in this role. Maybe I just don’t prefer him in those slapstick comedies. This movie wasn’t so much a horror movie, either, but a mystery/thriller-type movie. Bummer.

This movie started off kind of slow, with a noir feel to it. Jim is Walter Sparrow, who we see on his birthday (2/03) at his job as an animal control officer. After he is bit by a mysteriously reappearing dog named NED, strange things start to happen. But that’s later.

First, Walter’s wife Agatha finds a book that same day, a piece of fiction based on the importance of the number 23 in history as seen through a detective’s eyes. Walter (very, very slowly) reads the book and imagines himself as this detective (who seems to have a very active sex life). Soon, Walter also sees the number 23 everywhere and becomes obsessed with solving a mysterious murder described in the book.

There are many more layers to the movie than I’ve mentioned here, but this is the main idea. It does pick up steam as it goes on, with several twists and surprises thrown in, especially at the end. All in all, a good movie, just not scary in any way.

  • Top Scare: None
  • Heartbeats: 1 1/2 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 1 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 1 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 15 and up, mainly for the sex scenes

Next up: The Haunting in Connecticut

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Horror Movie: The Last House on the Left (R; 2009; 114 min.)

Posted on October 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

This movie turned out to be more of a gory movie than a scary one, but one that features a smart family for once. However, I was disappointed because it didn’t live up to the hype surrounding it and I was looking for more scare-factor.

The movie is about Mary, who along with her parents, is at their remote vacation home on a lake. Out with a girlfriend, Mary meets up with a boy named Justin, and they return to Justin’s hotel room to smoke pot together. Justin’s father and his father’s girlfriend, plus Justin’s Uncle, arrive much sooner than Justin was counting on. Turns out the father is an escaped con (the girlfriend and brother helped him make his getaway in a gruesome way), so to ensure their secrecy, Mary and her friend are kidnapped as the gang-family leaves town.

However, Mary is not just any ‘ol girl…she almost escapes, causing the vehicle to crash. After some gruesome and graphic assualt scenes, Mary does finally escape right as a storm breaks out. The con family ends up seeking refuge from the storm at, where else, Mary’s parents’ vacation home! As one character says, “What are the chances?” Soon Mary’s parents realize who they have invited into their home, and seek their revenge in creative, smart ways.

  • Top Scare: Not sure this movie was scary, per se.
  • Heartbeats: 2 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 3 1/2 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 2 1/4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 16 and up. I did see the unrated version, which was pretty graphic.

Next up: The Number 23

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