Come Play

Movie number two for me today. This one I was able to watch in a much more atmospheric setting. I was in the comfort of my own home with my electric fireplace going on a nice and cloudy day. So the mood was set perfectly and I decided to watch Come Play.

I have to say this was another really good sort of unconventional movie also a bit ironic that it went in the complete opposite direction as “Antlers.” What I mean is that “Antlers” delt with sort of nature spirit while “Come Play” deals with for lack of a better description a sort of electrical entity. One of the things I really liked about “Come Play” was the social commentary this movie offered and how it was quite relevant, and found a way to take what is going on today and twist it into something grotesque, that is what good horror seeks to do. In “Come Play” a being known as “Larry” is created by the well of loneliness that people feel because they spend so much time absorbed in their phones and devices they are not truly connecting to each other. “Larry” feeds off this loneliness and craves a companion he can take with him into his world (which is basically the digital sphere). As such in order to transcend from the digital world into the physical world he needs electricity of some sort to travel through.

There is a certain aspect of this movie that does strongly reference the Babadook but I kind of liked how this movie took that idea into the digital world to give their own spin on it and the rest of the movie does go an an entirely different direction.

“Come Play” revolves around this young boy who was born with autism and as part of that he has trouble forming words and well because he is different he also doesn’t really have any friends and he spends most of his time on his phone (which is how he also communicates with people). Thus being a lonely boy who is reliant on technology he becomes a target of Larry, who is also lonely and just looking for a friend.

This was a well made movie, I quite enjoyed it. I liked the modern twist with making our technology as the implement of the horror. There was definitely some good creepiness to this movie. Now I know there is no way to criticize the autistic child without being a heartless villain (but then again isn’t being the heartless villain part of my job?) I am going to do it anyway. I cannot recall the kids name off the top of my head, but I have to admit that there were times in this movie that I did find him exasperating. Even for someone who is autistic some of his decisions just seemed like really, really monumentally bad ideas. There were times when I could not quite figure out if he was really that clueless? Or if “Larry” was exerting some sort of influence over him (the movie never really indicated this) but there were times when his actions made painfully bad sense.

But all in all I have to say this was another solid good, and reasonably scary movie.

Rating 4/5 stars

Antlers

I actually have two movies for you today (I know exciting stuff a double feature) but I will post them as individual posts. Since I have not been able to watch as many movies this year as usual I have been a lot more selective about what I watch and have been choosing to watch the movies I have been really looking forward to seeing.

For the first movie I choose Antlers. Now first off I will say this movie I ended up watching in the least atmospheric scary inducting environment you can imagine. I was sitting in a little couch, watching the movie on my laptop which was balanced on top of my purse, in a brightly lit room with a lot of activity and people coming in and out (and feeling weird about the people coming in and out if they actually saw what the heck was on my screen).

Ok so now to get into the nitty gritty of the actual movie. This is one of those movies in which it is hard to talk about without giving too much away, but I want to try to avoid giving too much a way. You know as a general rule I try to avoid spoilers in my reviews. The general idea of the movie is that it was about a vengeful nature spirit which ends up taking possession of this kids dad. Now one of the things I thought was cool about this movie was that while it was a sort of a possession movie it was not the typical demonic Christian inspired type of possession movie that since the Exorcist (which is needless to say an awesome movie) have become a dime a dozen.

There was some originality to the movie which I enjoyed. I will also say that I have developed a sort of fascination with Wendigo (there are a few different variations on the Wendigo myth. Different regions/tribes have different interpretations of what Wendigo is.) in some lore Wendigo is a sort of a werewolf, in other versions it is this malevolent spirit that feeds of of selfishness, anger, hatred etc..). When I discovered that his movie was in fact a Wendigo movie that was even more exciting for me.

There was actually a lot of good things going in this one. First off I will have to say that considering the less than mood setting environment I was in while watching this movie still managed to give a pretty good creepy vibe. It was not nightmare inducing, jump out of my skin scary but it was unsettling. There was some very good use of editing in this film which I quite appreciated. It managed to give that overall sort of raw gritty, grimey feeling which I usually always enjoy in a horror movie, it was visceral. I will also add that it does get some marks on the gorey scale. It is not over the top, or overly prevalent, but for people who are not blood and gore types just be aware it is there to some degree (I wouldn’t say enough to avoid the movie altogether but that is just me).

This was was really good solid, well made horror movie, and this one is definitely not one for the faint of heart or someone who just wants a casual horror movie. It is a serious horror movie.

Rating: 4/5 stars

A House On the Bayou

Blum House has produced some of the best modern horror but when you become as big and popular as Blum House has, well you sometimes overreach and not everything Blum House has made has hit the mark. They have had some failures. I recently came across a list of what was proclaimed to be some of Blum House’s biggest misses. So of course I was curious and checked it out.

One of the movies on the list was House on the Bayou, and luckily that was one of the few I could actually find accessible to watch. And I have to honestly say I rather disagree with the assessment of this film. While I think it certainly is one of Blum House’s most underrated movies they have made others which gained a lot more notartaty that have been a lost less successful as a movie than House on the Bayou was.

I found House on the Bayou to actually be a very solid horror film. I loved the fact that it was filled with unexpected elements and went in directions I didn’t expect. Everytime the film hit a point where I thought I knew where it was going, and where it was going to fall into some predictable cliche it flipped the script and went somewhere else. In fact I thought it was very cleverly made in the way it seemed to be intentionally playing off some of the common horror movie tropes and than turning them on their heads.

There was a lot of originality in the movie and I appreciated the way in which it challenged the whole idea of who is in fact actually the “good guy” and the “bad guy” and are there any actual victims. It is a film where you will be left conflicted about who to actually rout for and your opinion of the characters might change a few times as the movie progresses.

The gist of the movie is a couple who are struggling in their marriage decide to go on a family vacation with their teenage daughter to an isolated house out in the Bayou. Needless to say some strange neighbors show up to introduce themselves, and from there various strange things begin to happen.

I really enjoyed this film and thought it was fresh, and innovative, and smart. It had some good old fashioned horror elements in it, mixed in with some unique twists and turns.

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

This was one of those books that there was a lot of hype about and it was supposed to be so good, and so scary, that naturally I had to give it a try.

I will admit this book was kind of a struggle with me, and I am left with certain mixed feelings about it. It did not instantly grab me and pull me in. It was a book that took some effort. While I do not deny that it was very well written, and it was a complex story with a lot of depth, and tackling a lot of issues, I think perhaps that was part of the problem, in a way this book felt like it was two different stories at once, and they were fighting against each other for attention, instead of the whole thing coming together harmoniously.

Humour and Horror have a long history of going together, they are like salty and sweet when they are done well, the trick is striking that right balance between them. While both the humor elements and horror elements of this book where written well, they felt at odds with each other. It was as if the humor was actually distracting from the horror instead of serving as an enhancer for it. The book was very clever, witty and intelligently written and the horror parts were quite spooky, and haunting, and this book could have been a very chilling book. The biggest problem is that I felt that the horror part was not really the author’s main focus.

Though this book did work as a sort of slow burn as well, because a little more than half way through it, it did finally reach out and grab me, and I was completely sold (or almost completely sold) I will admit that I struggled to the long descriptions of basketball. I appreciate its importance in the story, and the concepts the author was seeking to convey, I just do not find basketball very interesting.

One of the things I loved about the book was its originality and uniqueness. It is a ghost story, but it is a ghost story unlike any ghost story I have read before. In the horror genre there a lot of cliches, and a lot of old ideas that are recycled against and again. So I was glad to read something that actually felt fresh, and new.

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Privilege

I am taking a step away from my quest of watching horror movies directed by women, predominantly because the next movie from my list I have to wait for Netflix to send via DVD, thus in the meantime I decided to check out what Netflix streaming had to offer and decided upon The Privilege a horror movie of German origin.

When the movie first stated I was initially worried that the movie was going to be a sort of rip on the Paranormal Activity movies, as it started out with a strong vibe in that direction, but as the movie progressed it really became something quite different. I will admit that there are several aspects of this movie that do feel a bit referential. It kind of almost felt like some Germans’ watched a bunch of American Horror movies and took bit and pieces of ideas, and through in a dash of German folklore though saying this it actually did all come together in a way that ended up feeling very interesting and original. While there are various aspects of this movie that do feel familiar when I take in the whole movie, it does not feel quite like anything I have seen before. It is not in fact just another run of the mill paranormal movie, nor is it yet another demonic possession movie and so on and so forth. I will admit that every since “The Ritual” came out which I thoroughly enjoyed it does kind of seem like the whole strange cults worshiping archaic Pagan deities is starting to become an overdone idea, at the same time this movie wasn’t exactly that either.

I know I talked a lot about what the movie isn’t but I don’t want to give too much away by trying to explain what the movie actually is. Like I mentioned before, it does have a lot of interesting elements to it, and for the most part I thought it was fairly well done. This is one of those movies that I am really kind of on the fence about by which I mean, there wasn’t really anything in it that I would pinpoint I truly being bad about the movie, and I did enjoy watching it, yet it did not quite wow me either. It was solid but not quite exceptional. A good movie for those who are into the supernatural aspect of horror and want something kind of different.

Rating: 3/5

The Nesting by C. J. Cooke

The start of this book sounded a lot like “The Turn of the Key” by Ruth Ware and at first that had me a bit concerned because I wondered how much of a copy cat the book might prove to be, but honestly as it progressed it definitely took on its very own unique direction and became quite a compelling read. It does have a very “A Turn of the Screw” vibe to it but it also draws from elements of various other classic Gothic novels with a dash of Norse folk lore thrown into the mix, and to top it all off, the idea of Mother Nature as a supernatural force of vengeance.

I liked the way this book was able to invoke the feeling of a classic haunted house story, without being just another haunted house story. It has all the key elements you need to make a really good classic horror story with enough of its own unique twist to make it interesting to read. First I will comment upon the atmosphere. Set in the wilderness of Norway, just on the edge of a fjord, this book creates the perfect, isolated and foreboding atmosphere. Then we have the potentially creepy children, a house full of suspect individuals of whose motives are all questionable. The Rochester-like widower who may or may not be a villain. We have the perfect Gothic house filled with potential dangers and traps around every corner. And of course we cannot leave out the basement of which everyone is forbidden to enter.

Thus for what is not to love?

The gist of the book is a young woman is hired to be the live in nanny for a man whose wife had recently died under somewhat suspicious circumstances. The father of the children is determined to complete the house he started building as the dream home for his wife before her death. The house is to be built on a fjord in Norway. Needless to say as the working continues on the house stranger and more ominous things precede to happen. Meanwhile the story flips back and forth through time, telling both the story of the former, now dead wife, and the events leading up to her death, and how those events relate to what is currently happening.

The write I thought was quite well done, the book kept me engaged throughout. I enjoyed the characters and found they were all quite compelling and mysterious, and loved the whole idea of never really knowing quite who to trust, if anyone. The book does keep the readers on their toes. There are unexpected twists and turns. It is part mystery, part supernatural, part thriller.

I found it to be a very enjoyable and worthwhile read.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Malevolent

I thought it was time for a good old fashioned ghost story. The synopsis of this movie promised to be just that. A group of fraudulent paranormal investigators stumble upon a house where the ghosts turn out ti be very real.

I went in expecting this to be your typical haunted house story. It set itself up that way. The expected large sprawling mansion with a dark past in an isolated area.

But as things went on I got more than I bargained for in a good way. It was a much better movie than I expected and aspects of it surprised me. First I loved all the tension that was built up. The group itself was struggling with its own friction between members, many of whom were battling their inner demons. We have the client presented as a sharp witted but innocent victim to a terrible tragedy, yet as things progress one begins to question just how innocent she really is. And of course the ghosts.

As strange things start to happen and the crew begin to realize they are out of their depth you can really feel all that tension start to play out and things just unravel more and more. Plus I have to say I loved the very creepy music they used for the movie. They sounded like old songs originally meant for children but they were unsettling (as many old things originally meant for children tend to be) .

The movie took many unexpected twists and turns and proved itself in fact not to be the typical ye old haunted house movie.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill

I loved “The Ritual” by Nevill so I was quite looking forward to reading another one of his books. I found that Apartment 16 had its ups and downs for me. It started off a bit slow. The beginnings of it seemed to be setting up your ye old typical haunted house story ( and I was hoping for something more from this author). So it did take some time for me to get into it. Than it hit a turning point in which it started to go into a very different and unexpected direction. After that I became quite sucked up into the story, and wanted to keep reading. I quite enjoyed the elements of the book which started to tweak with reality and make the reader question what was the truth what was actually going on.

But than it hit another loll and it went through a phase in which I felt Nevill was trying to drag the story out for a bit too long, there was a period of tedious details. One of the things which I did appreciate was the Lovecraftian elements that Nevill seemed to put into the story, there were aspects of the book that felt as if they could have come right out of the pages of Lovecraft, I quite liked that little reference and homage. With that being said, one of the things which I had a problem with was the fact that while Nevill seems to give it a good deal of information of somewhat questionable relevance and import he also leaves other things somewhat unexplained, and does not go into depths in certain areas where I would have really liked to see more detail given.

Towards the end the story does really pick up pace again, and once more it sucked me right into wanting to just keep reading to find out what would happen next.

I would say on the whole it is a well crafted book with some rather interesting and unique ideas, thought it is not a keep you on the edge of your seat page turner. It is a bit more of a slow burn, and at moments it kind of wanders a bit too much away from itself, but it has it really good moments. Definitely a good book if you are looking for something that goes beyond your classic ghost story.

Rating 4/5 Stars

Oculus

I was quite excited to have the opportunity to see a new horror film, it has been a while sense I have been able to submerge myself into horror, and I was doubly excited to discover that Oculus is a Blum House production who are the masters of modern horror.

Mirrors have been associated with spirits and the supernatural perhaps sense the very first days of their invention. They have always held a certain among of fascination, superstition, enchantment and perhaps in some cases also a rather disturbing quality. Oculus takes these common associations with mirrors to create something of an original and interesting idea. The film revolves around a particular mirror which is possessed by a sinister spirit that has affected all who have come into the mirrors possession.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this film is that it had a psychological edge to it. It is one of those movies that can really make you start to question what is real and what isn’t and while the supernatural element is strongly implied one could just as easily interpret the film in quite a different way. One thing I will say about the film is that though it was a good, and pretty solidly made films I did not truly find it to be very scary. Like many of Blum House productions it did have its creepy moments, and unsettling scenes, but perhaps because of the strongly psychological aspect of it, it was not in fact truly horrifying, but it did have some very disturbing scenes.

Another thing I will say is that there where little inconsistencies in the film, and part of it is something that plagues most horror films, the fact that often times the characters just make really stupid choices and don’t often do what would seem like the most logical thing to do, but of course part of the problem there is, if they did make the most logical choices well it would make for a much shorter movie.

There where a couple of other little things that did not all together jive, or completely make sense but could be conceivably explained by the supernatural element misleading and manipulating the characters. I don’t want to give too much away but to give a little example of one of these little moments. There are two main characters a brother and sister and at one point the sister says to her brother they should stick together, and not be alone, and than like 2 seconds later they are both off wandering in two completely different directions within the house. There are a few other little moments like that which just don’t altogether make sense.

I did really enjoy the way in which the movie had the past and present interweave, as adults the brother and sister are together in this house where they had experienced a traumatic event relating to the mirror, and while they are in the house, they are sort of reliving their childhood experiences, and as they walk through the house the movie goes back and forth in time from when they were kids to them now, and the story of what happened to them as children is slowly unraveled that way.

All in all an enjoyable, and good, if not entirely perfect movie.

4/5 stars

6 Films to Keep You Awake (Spectre and The Blame)

I have previously mentioned the collection of films which make up 6 films to Keep You Awake, but it to give a bit more detail about it, it is a collection of six films which were made for TV in Spain, and consist of obviously six different movies made six of Spain’s best directors of horror. FearNet currently has all six of the movies available and so I have decided to watch each of them, as several I had already previously watched without knowing they were a part of this collection, and fond them quite enjoyable and interesting.

The last two films of the collection which I had yet to watch (at least until now) will be featured in this review. The rest of the six films are already posted within my blog. If you want to check them out here is this list of all six films:

The Baby’s Room

XMas Tale

Real Friend

To Let

Spectre

The Blame

I will be reviewing Spectre and The Blame here, reviews for the rest of the films can be found within this blog.

Spectre

This was quite an interesting film I thought. It did have a rather orignal idea, and I enjoyed the psychological angle to it. A film about obsession, young love, passion, and trust (or lack of trust) and how a young man’s infatuation with a mysterious older woman destroys the lives of many people including his own.

In a small Spanish village a mysterious, beautiful woman moves into a house just on the outskirts of the village. It does not take long before rumors start to spread that she is a witch among other things. A group of boys sneak up to her house to spy upon her, and one of them soon develops a passionate obsession with the woman and engages in a secret love affair with her, but he is tormented by the rumors of her as being a loose woman, and that she receives strange visitors at night.

The story is told in the form of flashbacks Tomas as an older man, yet still haunted by his first love, the passion of his youth returns finally to his home after having fled long ago to try and escape the memories, and the image of the woman whose fate became so closely entwined with his. Slowly the story of what happened in those youthful days starts to reveal itself, while as an older man Tomas continued to be tormented by his past.

Rating: 4/5

The Blame

This was an interesting film in many ways and did have a certain creepy element to it. For the most part I enjoyed it, but I did feel, particularly towards that end, that the film took on a bit too much of a propaganda feeling to it, but still the idea behind this film does easily lend itself to horror.

A young nurse who is struggling financially moves in, with her daughter into the house of a female doctor she works with who runs an abortion clinic out of her home. It soon become clear that the doctor might have more than just a friendly interest in the nurse, and starts to become frustrated when the nurse turns down her advances. Then the nurse becomes pregnant as a result of a casual intimate encounter with a man. The doctor persuades her into getting an abortion by dropping subtle hints that if she keeps the child she may lose her room within the house, or might be laid off from her job. Soon after agreeing to the abortion unsettling events start to occur within the house.

Rating: 3/5