Dark Skies (2013)

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This film is directed by Scott Stewart, the same man that helmed both Legion and Priest. Thankfully this film is a lot better than those two lackluster films…well, it’s watchable at least.

Dark Skies is an alien abduction tale centered around a young suburban family experiencing several strange occurrences in their home, some of which were actually quite creepy. The aliens in Dark Skies were well utilized and creepy to the point where I think it is fair to throw the word “horror” into the sci-fi/thriller category this movie probably gets thrown into by other people.

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I mean, having Aliens harrassing your family and trying to abduct one of its members is a horrifying thing, ain’t it?

There are not a lot of fresh and original ideas here. Clearly there are borrowed elements from other films such as Signs and Paranormal Activity. Surely this is no coincidence considering that the production team involved also worked on Insidious and Paranormal Activity, although there wasn’t too much of Insidious in this besides the family’s legit concern about their little boy.

Some scenes were truly tense, weird and even a touch scary at times, depending on your tastes and how much interest you have with Aliens and such. The problem for me was that the middle section of this film nearly put me to sleep and it wasn’t even that late and I wasn’t even tired when I watched it.

The actors, including Miss Felicity herself, Keri Russel, gave solid performances with what they had to work with.

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Dark Skies is not a bad film and its best moments ought to be commended, but I just wish there would have been more depth to it, and the influence and borrowing of tid bits from other films were too obvious to ignore. Sometimes – heck- a lot of times, horror films borrow from others, but this one was just too in your face to ignore.

The ending also left a lot to be desired and the “twist” was less than inspiring.

Dark Skies is still a well made film with plenty to like, but its negatives are too hard to look away from(or close your eyes from having it put you to sleep with boredom). To me it seems like it would have been better off as some one hour TV special on alien abduction rather than a full length feature.

-JP

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The Tent, by Kealan Patrick Burke

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The Tent is a fast paced novella-length story about a family camping trip that quickly transforms into a nightmare. Mike takes his wife and son on this “adventure”, thinking it will bring his family closer. When a nasty storm hits, the nightmare begins…

The thing that stood out and to me that is probably most memorable about this story, is the way the characters are written and how their dire situation brings out the truth in their relationships. The author does a fabulous job writing the troubled husband and wife, and the agony of their troubles extend far beyond the terrible situation they found themselves in.

The creatures were vividly described and entertaining to read. Burke expertly crafted the action and scenes, which made this read blisteringly fast.

It’s not a cheesy romp in the forest type of camping horror story. It goes much deeper than that.

This would be a great story to see realized on screen. I’d pay to watch it.

All in all, I do recommend The Tent and will be definitely reading Burke’s other books in the near future.

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The Captured Bird (2012)

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This short film is directed by former Rue Morgue Magazine editor Jovanka Vuckovic. I was always a big fan of the Toronto-based horror magazine and the work Jovanka did for it was outstanding. When I found out she would be getting into film making, I was intrigued and looked forward to seeing her vision on screen.

This atmospheric tale involves a young girl drawing with chalk on a cement playground, when some strange black liquid forms from the cracks leading her to an enormous, creepy looking building. The scope and cinematography here at this point is beautiful to look at, it made me want to pause the disc and just stare at the screen for a while. The setting inside the massive building uses some amazing sound design and a colour pallette that reminded me a bit of some of Dario Argento’s earlier works, and to a large extent, Guillermo del Toro’s, The Devil’s Backbone. I could be way off on that, but that’s just what came to mind when watching.

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Although very short in length, the unbridled passion and love for this film came across loud and clear.

Clearly Vuckovic had a lot of influential and successful people in the business involved with this project from the get-go. Guillermo del Toro is one of the names involved amongst an all around talented team. Not surprising because knowing the type of work Vuckovic has done in the past, she doesn’t half ass anything and would use all the best resources available at her disposal.

I firmly believe this director is a force to be reckoned with in the genre and can’t wait to see what else she has in store for us.

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-JP

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American Mary (2012)

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Mary Mason is a medical student studying to be a surgeon. She’s a bright and crafty young woman struggling to make ends meet, and ends up taking drastic measures to fix her problems.

Mary’s fate changes after being invited to a party of fellow surgeons. The outcome catapults Mary, and the audience to some of the craziness that would ensue.

Katherine Isabelle stars as Mary and all in all does a good job. She is a great fit to play this character and fans of her other films – Ginger Snaps in particular – will not be disappointed by her performance. It doesn’t hurt that she is a good looking woman, to put it mildly.

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They should have called this film, Canadian Mary, since Katherine is a Canadian actress and this was filmed in Canada, but I digress.

Another performance that sticks out is the doll-faced, Betty Boop cartoon lookalike character named Beatrice. She with the creepy face, and squeaky mouse voice. This character was important in many ways and was the closest thing Mary has as a friend in this story.

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American Mary has an undeniable indy quality to it, but never did it feel cheap. The sets and locations used were effective. Overall, the acting was sub par, but there has been far worse in this genre.

The world and culture of extreme body modification is explored in this, but something tells me in real life the people entrenched in that culture might have some gripes with this film. I don’t know a thing about it, it’s just a feeling I have. It would be interesting to hear from people in that world who have seen this movie.

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I’m a fan of films like; May, Excision, Lovely Ones, Audition, and Ginger Snaps. American Mary almost fits right in with that group but falls just short. The first half was very strong but there was a point near the second half that seemed to drag just a little. The end also seemed sort of abrupt but was fairly satisfying overall.

If you, like I, are a fan of some of the movies mentioned above, you should get some enjoyment from American Mary despite some wonky acting and plot holes within. And if you enjoy watching Katherine Isabelle in action,  you will not be disappointed.

-J.P.

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Diamonds of Kilimandjaro (1983) a.k.a. The Treasure of the White Goddess

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First off, I have to thank author and cool guy, John Everson for pointing out that way back in 2005, I reviewed this Jesus Franco flick on Amazon. I feel like its worth re-posting here on the blog for some of you to read and maybe even check out this little known exploitation flick from the early 80s.

Coincidentally, Mr. Franco sadly passed away earlier this month…R.I.P.

What’s it about?

Imdb.com’s plot summary:

A group of adventurers head to a primitive tribe in Africa to find a treasure of diamonds and a beautiful white girl who was lost years ago and was made the tribe’s goddess.

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This is not Jess Franco’s greatest work, but it’s still entertaining nonetheless. The story is easy to follow and sets itself up very quickly in the beginning of the film.The English dubbing was done fairly well and was not distracting. The quality of the print was very bad early on in the film, but seemed to improve as it went on. Overall the picture and sound for this Disc are decent quality.This is only for movie goers that don’t analyze every minute detail and just want to watch something in this type of genre.There isn’t anything too violent, gory or disturbing in this movie. It’s fairly easy to follow and watch.

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There is a good dose of nudity, which to people familiar with Franco’s work, is no surprise. There are also some moments of unintentional laughter which add to this film’s charm.I’m giving it 4 out of 5, but I am a fan of Jess Franco’s and have viewed many exploitation and horror films. I’m guessing other reviews will be very much mixed. This should not be your #1 choice if you want to see what Director Franco’s work is all about, but still worth at least one viewing experience.
–J.P

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Evil Dead (2013)

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As I have done with most new horror coming out, I haven’t paid much attention to trailers, previews and hype. In this case, it was a situation where I was pretty excited, despite the fact that yet again, one of my all time favourites gets the remake treatment.

It was hard to not be so eager when news of this flick broke out. I mean, what’s not to like? All of the people involved in the making of it are extremely passionate about the film and obviously the original source material as well. The special effects were announced to the world proudly to have been made in the most practical manner possible in this day in age of over-the-top CGI bullshit, so certainly, most red blooded horror fans like myself had to feel enthusiastic.

Evil Dead delivered a fresh take on the story. No heroic and charismatic Ash character in this one, but the young cast of characters lived up to their roles as well as could be expected; especially the leading heroine/villain, in the film’s latter section in particular, was fantastic.

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It was neat that they kept certain elements from the original in there with a good example being the P. O. V. camera of the demon racing through the woods. A certain famous weapon also makes an appearance, and the cabin itself was superbly presented in all its rotting, tiny sized on the outside, extra room on the inside, glory. The setting and cinematography was top notch. The set pieces and demented decor was also pleasing to the eye of a jaded horror lover.

I have read comments from others who felt the prologue of this film was wholly unnecessary. I disagree. It was one of the highlights of the film and was fairly unsettling and a perfect way to set the viewer up for what was to come. Sure, it was most likely a scene added to explain things a little bit for the adhd audience in  today’s movie theatres but at least they did a good job and didn’t skimp on the good stuff. I also had no problem with the plot elements added that were totally different from the original. Friends trying to help a friend with an extreme intervention for her junky habits, was a pretty solid setup for a horror flick. Yes there were holes here and there, but didn’t the original suffer some plot shit, too?

The gore gags and special effects lived up to the hype. Some of it was genuinely cringe-worthy. It’s awesome that they were able to pull everything off with the gore and violence that they were able to on an R rating here.

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If you are a big fan of the Evil Dead franchise, you’ll want to hang around until the very end of the credits rolling. It’s nothing earth-shattering but it made me smile nonetheless.

Evil Dead didn’t make me gush about it when I left the theatre. But I also can’t fathom how anybody that has grown up loving the original movie and loving horror in general, couldn’t find lots to like here with this one. We could use more horror movies released in theatres these days that are made with the love, care, budget utility (no matter how large the budget was, they used it well), and flat out dark and mean tone throughout that this remake has. Sure some of the dialogue was clichéd, played out, or whatever; especially a couple of the ones liners used but surprisingly there wasn’t too much of that going on, at least not as much of it as I would expect.
So, yes… I dug it. I’ll rewatch it, and maybe one day I’ll love it. For now, I’ll just be happy that it is still possible, no matter how rarely it happens, to see straight up, good horror on the big screen. Bring more, I say.

-J. P.

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THE EXORCIST 3 (1990) ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES

THE EXORCIST 3 (1990) ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES.

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