Fear Review

Insidious - 2010

2011-08-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

After many friends telling me to watch this movie, I was a bit skeptical. They said it was kind of like Paranormal Activity. Oh! Great!, another ghost movie with a dumb script and a lot of special effects. After watching the first few moments of it I was hesitant to keep watching, it was out of sheer morbid curiosity that I kept watching.

The writers and producers did not go overboard when they chose the cast for the movie. I liked that. You don’t need big screen names to make a movie. The most recognizable cast member was Rose Byrne, (Brad Pitt’s love interest in Troy) and of course Patrick Wilson who is well known for his character in “Watchmen”.

So let’s begin shall we. The Lambert family begins to notice a few paranormal encounters when their son is hurt and the doctors believe that he is in a coma. The second son in the movie is the first one to really notice any changes and tries to convince his parents to no avail. Suddenly the mother begins seeing things and subsequently convinces the husband that the house in haunted causing them to pack up and move. Once moved into a new home, the activities begin again. This time the mother of Josh Lambert, sights a few a ghost causing them all to go into a panic. With Josh knowing, his mother calls someone to help them. I kind of laughed a little when they showed up with their gear. It looked like someone scamming them. But, come to pass they were the real deal, no matter how unorthodox their methods were. After some freaky stuff going on, Josh’s mother comes clean stating that he used to be involved in the same situation as his son. His son was lost in a spiritual world and needed his father to save him.

After a lengthy search and rescue scene, it seems the father locates his son and is able to retrieve him. The end finds us reuniting everyone, we think. The older lady in the movie has a suspicion that it is not over and out of curiosity takes a picture of Josh after everything was said and done. Suddenly in a fit of rage, Josh strangles her causing the camera to fall to the floor. Renai Lambert then decides to check on him and finds the lady dead. She picks up the camera to find not Josh in the photo, but a haunted ghost that chased him as a child.

Looks like they left it open for a sequel. They had better get a better script and screen play before we watch it. I give this movie a 6/10

The Roomate - 2011

2011-07-13T04:43:00.000-07:00

First off let’s discuss the actresses. Minka Kelly, a straight hottie who has recently become the mold of what a damsel in distress should look like. From Friday Night Lights to Fast Five, it leaves you begging for more. Then we have a Leighton Meester, the original Gossip Girl, and object of our affection. Now, throw the two in a film with a decent script and supporting cast, with a few twists and turns and you get The Roomate. I did not set my expectations to high for this film, which surprised me in the end.

A classic psychopath movie, which I am sure we all have had a few of the jealous types in our lives. But, to take it to the level that Meester did, was by far surprising. The movie starts off with Kelly’s character searching for a place to live as she attends school. She just so stumbles upon an opening in a dorm with Rebecca. Little known to Sara, her roommate has a dark secret that only she knows. The movie begins to build to a climax adding different psychotic moments by Rebecca. One in particular I found disturbing was the kitten, I will let you watch it to find out what happens. Over the rest of the movie Sara begins to realize something odd, which climaxes when she finds medication that Rebecca has not taken, ever. Push come to shove, Sara ends up confronting Rebecca, when a cry for help comes in from one of Sara’s friend being held hostage by Rebecca. The psycho never wins in these situations and this movie was no different. The last scene shows Sara moving the bed out of her dorm room, a proclamation that she is done with the roommate thing.

Overall, I believe it was a good psychopath movie. It could have used a few more dark sequences to remove that pg-13 rating, but that is neither here nor there. I give it a 6 out of 10 pints.

Devil (2010)

2011-01-26T00:44:00.000-08:00

We recently set down and watched Devil. Before the movie even started, we began discussing as to who will be the next person to give that ole Satan character some sort of justice. I mean over the years, the guy has pretty much been played by a slew of well known actors and actresses. This led us into deciding to discuss them with you all over the next few weeks and gather your input as to who has played the role the best. But first let us turn our attention to the movie at hand.

Looking over the actors and actresses that will be in this flick left me wondering, will this be a break out film for any of them. Honestly I can say the only person I ever seen in a movie from this cast is Bokeem Woodbine.

The movie starts rather quickly, with a majority of the acting being done within the confines of a stalled elevator. The story progresses quickly as characters begin to die off one by one. With each passing death the occupants begin to lay the blame on one another while a detective attempts to maintain control via radio and closed circuit cameras. The security guys attempt to help, to the extent of a Hispanic guard telling the officer that it must be the devil. The detective finds that hard to believe as says he doesn’t believe un the devil, that everyone is to blame for their own actions. The detective attempts to unravel each murder by accessing information about each individual within the elevator. Soon, it comes to fruition that everyone in the elevator has some sort of criminal past and sketchy lives. The detective frequently reminds the other officers that he has seen rough days like these ever since his wife and son were killed in a car crash where the perpetrator left a message on a car wash coupon saying that he was sorry. He lives the day over and over each day, trying to find the strength to continue on with his job and bring everyone to justice.

As each character inside the elevator dies the detective finds there past transgressions and attempts to find who would have the motive to kill the others in the elevator. It finally comes to pass that all the characters involved is linked to one another in some form or fashion. In the end, the old woman comes back to life, or did she really die, her eyes blackened by being possessed by ole Satan. She stands over the last guy, who is trying to keep the last woman alive, and relays that he was the last one and that even he could not get himself out of the fate which is about to befell him. The guy begins spilling his past encounter which had sentenced him to death and publicly announces that he had killed a woman and boy in a car accident and left a note, saying he was sorry. Unbeknownst to him, the devil says that she looked forward to killing him but could not any longer and disappears as they finally get the elevator open.

The film ends as the detective is driving the male character to the station. He tells him that it was his wife and son that the guy had killed and he ultimately forgives him, which leads us to believe that his forgiveness is the only thing that saved him from being killed by the devil.

Overall, I thought the movie could use a little more building up of each character before their deaths, that and more background into the detective. I enjoyed the movie, yet the devil being played by such an older woman led me to figuring out who the killer was rather quickly. Would I have seen it in the theater? No. But I would recommend the DVD to any fanatic of movies where the devil makes an appearance.

Getting Back to Work

2010-11-27T03:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know some of our followers have been wondering where we have been. Well, I will just say that we will be getting back to buisness really soon. See ya soon.

Chain Letter Movie

2010-08-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

Six friends receive a mysterious chain letter via text messaging and in their email accounts from a maniac who's hunting down teenagers who fail to forward his online chain letter. Who knew they should take the threats in the chain letter seriously? Or that chain letters using the teens' favorite technologies to track them can kill? This maniacal game pits friend against friend as they race to beat rules that seem impossible to escape. Break the chain, lose a life. Do you pass it on? Does friendship mean anything?

Chain Letter features a great ensemble cast led by stunning Tinsel Town ingénue Nikki Reed (Twilight).

The release date is set for October 8th, see ya there.

2010-05-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

Be on the look out for our next review. You never know what may lurk around the next corner.

Daybreakers (2009)

2010-05-20T03:46:00.001-07:00

Vampire movies have seemed to plague today’s big screen, from the Twilight series to the one we recently watched Daybreakers. Now I can honestly say I have seen almost every main stream vampire movie to date and this one has drastically tackled the vampire lore with a whole new twist.

The beginning of the movie shows vampires plundering the night streets. They are on every corner and taking part in what to seems everyday activities for the humans in the daylight. We come to learn that the vampires have almost rid the world of the human race. The problem with that is that their blood supplies are running low. This leads to the main character, a vampire, attempting to create a synthetic blood to help keep the race alive, at least that is what your lead to believe. The thing is, the main character hates being a vampire, and he is looking for a cure. The movie proceeds as the main character comes in contacts with humans, and instead of reporting them, he helps them. In turn, they want to help him. It seems the humans have found a cure for the deadly curse that has plagued the world, and you will not believe what it is. I am not going to spoil it for you.

In the end, the main idea of the corporation was not to find a cure, but to make money by supplying the vampires of the world with synthetic blood. Greed even gets the un-living. As the movie ends our main character actually gets to ride off into the sunrise.

Pros: I really enjoyed the separation from the norm when it comes to vampire movies. The dialogue throughout the movie was excellent. Each intricate detail kept the watcher interested throughout.

Cons: I can’t really think of any.

I would recommend this movie to any vampire enthusiast; I believe you will enjoy it. I did.

Animals (2008)

2010-05-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, we just watched the movie Animals. Honestly, I can say I have never seen a twist on the classic werewolves tale as used here. The story begins with an average run of the mill guy who is trying to get his life together. He used to be a high school football hero who returned to his hometown after a career ending injury. In the process of rushing to work one day he hits an animal or what he thought was an animal. The incident left his car with scratch marks on it, none from any animal I have seen. We then fast forward to a mysterious woman showing up in his life. She does all the right things that would keep your average man’s attention. Sex, sex and more sex. During one of these escapades she bites him. Well now we all know where this is going. The story drags on as the mysterious woman’s lover (maker) begins searching for her and nothing will stand in his way as he leaves a trail of bodies behind him. In tying to protect his friends the man character realizes he is changing. He does not come to the full realization of what he is until one of his friends (female) acknowledges these changes and basically proves to him that she is one in the same. Well wouldn’t you know it, the mysterious woman battles his female friend. This results in the main characters female friend killing the mysterious woman which leads the bad guy, searching for her to kill. In the end the main character finally changes and rips out the heart of the bad guy and gives it to his female counterpart so that she can regenerate. And they live happily ever after. Well, at least like to animalistic beings with a secret to hide.

Pros: I did like the twist on the werewolf background and the blood in the movie was constantly flowing between sex scenes. Woo Hoo!

Cons: The CGI was way off. I mean it was blatantly obvious that the special effects guy was either stoned or drunk when he created the effects for the movie.

All in all, I think the movie was okay. I definite wait for DVD and the 5 dollar bin at Wal-Mart.

Santa's Slay 2005

2010-05-12T03:22:00.000-07:00

We were skeptical at reviewing this movie at first. I mean the title really turned off my enthusiasm. But, being a fan of Bill Goldberg, we had to give it a look. The story begins like any other Christmas movie. The lights, Christmas trees, singing and whatever else you associate with Christmas. The story goes that a long time ago the devil made a wager with an angel on a curling game. The winner of the game could choose the what the other would do for the next thousand years. The angel won and he made Satan have to be good for a thousand years spreading Christmas joy and bringing gifts to children all over the world. Well, it just so happens that the end of the contract was drawing near, and Santa begins to go on a killing spree. Just so happens that Bill Goldberg plays the part of Santa. Now if you have not seen Bill Goldberg before, he is a giant, muscle bound, freak. He looks more like a Norse viking, (which happens to be were the myth originated). The movie goes on in how the legend of Santa began and what current civilization needed to do prevent future killings and place Santa back into the role we all know and love. The end of the movie is pretty much a picture perfect image of what occurred in the beginning. A game of curling decides Santa's fate.

Strengths: The movie had a lot of action from the get go. Plenty of blood for those horror enthusiasts. There were also a few references to Christmas carols that were funny, i.e. "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer", more like a bison on steroids.

Weaknesses: The acting in general by the supporting cast.

The Shortcut (2009)

2009-10-22T20:39:00.001-07:00

The Shortcut (2009)

We received a request via e-mail to review another movie, The Shortcut. Of course, we gave it a shot. The movie is basically about a mother and her two sons who moved to a small town. The title eludes to the basic plot of the movie…a shortcut that has a murderous past. The beginning flashes back to 1945, when a psychotic boy surprises and kills a distraught young woman that was just abandoned in the woods by her boyfriend. It was obvious at this point that the young boy would be the killer that looms around the shortcut. The film then progresses to the future. A variety of incidents then occur peaking the curiosity of the new residents. A bizarre twist captures the watcher as who we thought was the killer was nothing but an older brother protecting his younger sibling. The movie ends as the older charaters are killed off, yet the story and legacy continues when the the younger brother of the main character picks up where the killer in the beginning of the movie left off. The older brother then says they will handle this as they have before, which leads us to the reason why they moved there in the first place, to escape a grizzley past.

Strengths: The actual psychotic killer’s maniacal laugh. The realization at the end that the actual killer was the brother chained up in the basement.

Weaknesses: When the high school kids were scoping out the old man, they sat in their car in plain sight of the old man. The movie leads you to believe at the end that the younger brothers are continuing on the same urban legend.

Halloween II Post-Release Discussion

2009-09-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

Rob Zombie has impressed us with his version of Michael Myers. Myers size in this film truly fits the profile originally intended by John Carpenter in 1978. Rob Zombie found his monster of a specimen in Tyler Mane. Mane was truly recreated as the new Haddonfield monster, set out to destroy everything in his path. In the original series, Michael Myers methodically killed people in very unique ways without uttering a sound. In Zombie's version of Halloween II, Michael Myers aggressively bashes and slashes everyone he comes into contact with. Zombie has made him seem more of a psychotic killer than previously used and has allowed him to vocalize his actions as anyone who has exerted excessive force would have done. This allows Zombie to bring across the reality that Michael Myers is human and not some sort of an invincible villain. Throughout the entire movie, the fear escalated in the town as well as the bodycount. What surprised me about the film was that it actually produced a mental link between Larie Strode and Michael Myers. Laurie finally showed her mental instability, which left us wondering what will come next from this series. If Zombie does return to make another film, I am sure that he will find an ending to complete it. We do not need it to spiral out of control, like it did before Zombie got a hold of it. Overall we give this film 8 pints of blood out of 10.

Halloween 2 (Rob Zombie) Anticipation

2009-08-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

Well it is almost here. We here at Fear Review will be catching the first showing of Halloween 2 this week. We believe this may be the most anticipated horror release of the year as Rob Zombie applies his version of Horror in a cult-classic. Check back with us soon to read what we really thought about Halloween 2, as we compare it to the original. Two days and counting.

Born (2007)

2009-08-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

One of our followers claimed that the movie "Born" (2007) is one of the worst horror flicks created in the past 5 years. After watching it, it is definitely up there. Where do we begin...oh yes, how about 27:25 minutes into the movie, the main character, Mary Elizabeth, rips a heart out of a man, which actually appears to be a chicken breast covered in fake blood. Then, she proceeds to manually pump the extremely fake looking heart with her fingers for the effect that the heart is still pumping. Also Kane Hodder portrays a demon in the film, in which we strongly believe he should've stuck to wearing a hockey mask (Jason Vorhees reference for those that don't know who Kane Hodder is).

For all the men watching, you may want to turn your head during a sex scene about 38 minutes into the movie, when Mary Elizabeth is on top of her partner and the "demon baby" inside her appears to sever the tip of the man's "wedding tackle".

As for the rest of the movie it dragged on with a variety of gruesome acts by Mary Elizabeth, who was influenced by the satanic spawn in her womb. They even found the audacity to include a ultrasound of the demon within her womb. The movie's climax was very disturbing and poorly written. All the dead characters returned, well their heads did anyway, each trying to convince Mary Elizabeth to destroy the satanic spawn. Just when we thought it was all over, the writer decided to try to leave it open for a sequel. I can tell you one thing, these cats will not be watching it. We give this movie 1 pint of blood out of 10.

The Last Resort (2009)

2009-08-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

We received our first e-mail asking if the movie, "The Last Resort", was worth watching. Well, after watching it...we recommend that you don't! It did seem appealing when we saw that America Olivo was in it. Her performance in "Friday the 13th" remake proved to show she has an amazing body. The only problem with her in this movie is that she didn't show any skin.

The acting in this movie was piss-poor, and the lighting seemed to be even worse than made-for-tv Syfy (f/k/a SciFi) movies. The character development and plot seemed to drag on forever and was a snoozefest. The climax and "killing" scenes at the end were a little bit of a bore as well.

We give this movie 3 pints of blood out of 10.

Halloween II (2009) Pre-Release Discussion

2009-08-17T17:43:00.001-07:00

After watching disappointing re-makes of classic horror films (Friday the 13th, Last House on the Left), Rob Zombie has impressed us with his rendition of the classic "Halloween" film. Zombie has created his new installment, "Halloween II", with the return of Tyler Mane (Daryl Karolat) from his "Halloween" re-make as the gargantuan Michael Myers. Zombie's version of "Halloween" showed a lot more into the development of Michael Myers, and "Halloween II" appears to show him as a much faster, stronger and deadlier psychopath. Rumors have alluded to this film focusing more on the psychological connection between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers. We are excited to see Michael Myers in scenes where he shows that psychotic power (i.e. lifting cars). Please check out the following IMDB link to view the "Halloween II" trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2514879001/

We will create a Post-Release Discussion Blog as well. Please give us your opinions on the Rob Zombie "Halloween" series.

Welcome To FearReview

2009-08-14T04:56:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Fear Review. This blog is dedicated to the opinions of John Whiddon and Mike Drury, and their views of the Horror Film Genre. In the near future, John and Mike will publish thier thoughts on particular horror movies. This blog is intended to serve as thier website, while thiers is being built. If you have any questions, or suggestions for movie reviews, please email us at fearreview@gmail.com.