2011 October Horror Movie Challenge Movie 38: The Roommate

This is another movie that people like to hate on. It's a kind of teen-lite version of Single White Female, which I remember from way back in the olden days (it's the definitive scary roommate movie). In this movie, two girls are tossed together as roommates at college and they become close friends, but one girl takes the "close friendship" idea too far. she goes from admiring her roommate to following her around, scaring off her other friends, trying first to control and then to take over her life. It's not an original premise, but "The Roommate" handles the subject matter well. Leighton Meester does a great job being the creepy roommate. Plotwise, it's pretty close to a carbon copy of "Single White Female," but again, it's not a bad watch. It was an ok way to kill an hour and a half, which is what I wanted. I'm really glad I live alone, though, because this movie combines with "Single White Female" make me leery about ever having roommates again.

2011 October Horror Movie Challenge Movie 37: Quarantine 2: Terminal

I don't understand why so many people bash this movie so mercilessly. It's not a cinematic masterpiece or anything, but it's a fun little horror flick that tries to build on the story of "Quarantine." that's an important distinction...yes, "Quarantine" was a remake of the Spanish horror movie [REC] but it built its own little world and its own spin on the story, and this builds on that, it's not a remake of [REC 2]; at this point, the movie is doing its own thing. Someone said this movie is like a "Disney channel version of [REC 2]" but I don't know what disney Channel that guy watches, because this movie has gore and nastiness and a lot of gruesome stuff, and it's definitely not watered-down.

This movie picks up later on in the night of the first movie, where passengers aboard an airplane flying out of LA find themselves facing a rapidly spreading virus that causes people to snap and exhibit rabies-like symptoms, eventually turning and attacking and gnawing on the other passengers. Once they perform an emergency landing of the plane, they find themselves under lockdown at the Terminal and the government seems more intent on cutting them off from their means of communicating with the outside world than on helping them. It's bleak and icky and not half as bad as everyone says it is, so for my money, it's worth checking out.

2011 October Horror Movie Challenge Movie 36: Bereavement

This is one of those movies that seems to bring out the rabid polar opposite opinions among horror fans. One side loves the movie and one side hates it, and they meet in the middle and fight to the death. I'm not going to pretend there aren't any really annoying parts in the movie (here, let's sit in the kitchen and talk about how this little boy has a condition called CIPA which renders him unable to feel pain, and how it's totally dangerous to leave him unsupervised, and leave him alone playing in the yard while we're talking and not even look out the window to make sure he's ok for like, thirty minutes) but I don't think it's totally fair to say that everyone in this movie is "terminally stupid" (as one reviewer put it). Well, ok, maybe it's not a good idea to scream and cry loudly while you're trying to sneak away from a murderer's house (unless he's deaf, which this victim is so loud while she's making her stealthy exit that he could probably hear her even if he was deaf) but...I dunno, characters have to be dumb in horror movies or otherwise the movie would be five minutes long. And really, most of the people complaining haven't ever been trapped in a killer's basement before, so they can't say they'd be way smarter if they were ever in that situation.

The killer in this movie is creepy as hell. Even creepier than hell. I'm pretty sure I'd rather take my chances in hell than try to navigate life without pissing off this guy. Ok, later on in the movie the main girl makes some boneheaded moves. It's probably not a great idea to walk into some random stranger's house, even if you think you're trying to help the little boy you're following around (seriously, who the hell just waltzes into someone's house like that? I grew up in the country and we were never that stupid, so don't try to hand me that excuse). And what's up with captain angrypants, the uncle from hell who does nothing but run around and scream at everyone for the entire running time of the movie? Dude, chill the fuck out. Seriously. I was ready to jump into the screen and kill him myself.

I have to say though, this movie it a cut above the director's earlier movie, "Malevolence," and it shows great improvement. That movie felt like five different movies tossed into a blender, and it frustrated me because there seemed to be some promise in the story there, but it just never came together for me. I definitely liked this movie better and am looking forward to seeing more from this filmmaker in the future.

2011 October Horror Movie Challenge Movie 35: The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

This is one of my favorite horror movies of recent years. It's my favorite horror remake, hands down, and it's one of my favorite horror movies of all time. When it debuted in 2006 I went to a matinee showing the week after it was released, and I was so blown away that I went to see it four more times that week. I bought the DVD when it came out and I've watched it about ten times since then. When I first went to see it, I had never seen the original movie, so I knew it was about a family whose trailer breaks down in the desert and they get attacked by mutated cannibalistic humans who live in the desert and prey on travelers, but I didn't know anything else about it, so I had no idea what to expect and I was blown away at how much emotion the movie was able to wrench from me.

I cried when I first saw it in theaters at the big attack scene about an hour into the movie, I was sad and feared for the worst when the family decided they had to fight back, I flinched when I was sure I knew who was going to die, I was so impressed when that person finally fought back that I stood up and cheered before I remembered I was in the middle of a theater...the movie had that much power to move me then, and it hasn't lost any of that power over the years. I was surprised when the movie brought tears to my eyes again today, but I shouldn't have been. I guess it's been so long since I last saw the movie that I'd forgotten what made me go back to see it so many times.

I had a conversation once with some people who shall remain nameless. I went to see the Rob Zombie "Halloween" remake with them, and they were unimpressed with the movie and unimpressed with me for liking it, and when I mentioned that I had loved the "Hills have Eyes" remake, one of the group launched into a tirade about how this movie was sick and horrible and it had "things I didn't know they were allowed to put in movies," and how anyone who could say they "loved" this movie had something seriously wrong with them. I won't argue with you that there's something seriously wrong with me. I will say that you're far from the first person to suggest that, and if you think, after a few hours of knowing me, that you can point out anything "bad" about me that I haven't already noticed myself after living with myself for thirty years, then you're not as smart as you obviously think you are. I will say that I'm confronted with evil in the world around me every day, that sometimes it's so strong and so prevalent that it seems hopeless and it brings me to my knees and I don't know how I'll go on, and that every time that happens, somehow I get up and I DO go on, and I'm still here and still fighting.

I've never seen a movie before or since where characters faced such evil and yet managed to fight back, even when it seemed hopeless, even if it turns out to be hopeless after all, and they're limping and weakened and covered with blood, but they're still going and they're still alive, and no matter what happens after the end credits roll, that's what will stick with me. It's exactly what I needed to see then, it's exactly what's made me come back to the movie so many times in the years since I first saw it, and it's exactly what I needed to see again today. I'm not saying that's normal, or that there isn't anything wrong with that. Hell, I'd be surprised if there weren't anything wrong with me after everything that's happened in this life, everything I've seen, but this movie makes me want to keep going and keep fighting, and for me, that makes watching it worthwhile. Again and again and again.

2011 October Horror Movie Challenge Movie 34: Hit and Run (2009)

At first, I wasn't into this movie and it was getting on my nerves and pissing me off, and then I was glued to the screen but it didn't make sense, and now that it's over I think I get what was going on so I can explain it better.

First, the movie starts off as a college girl is getting drunk at a party, and the camerawork is sloppy and the movie is disjointed. I thought it was just a bad movie at first, but now having seen the whole thing, I think the filmmakers wanted to disorient us because the character was drunk, so they wanted us sloppy and confused as well. I think further viewing of the film will bear out this interpretation, but that doesn't necessarily mean I agree with their choice, because it makes the movie really annoying and confusing and a lot of people will probably give up on it if they aren't as dedicated as I am.

The young woman drives home drunk (because she's a GENIUS) and hits something on the way. She gets home, pukes (and we get a lovely camera shot from inside the toilet...ew) and then discovers that she hit a guy on the way home, and he's still embedded to the bumper of her car (she didn't notice him before because, like I said, she's a genius). I won't spoil as much as the rest of the reviews I've read, but suffice it to say that she has the WORST luck in the universe and she picked the WORST possible guy to hit with her car. The second part of the movie, ushered in with the discovery of the guy on her bumper, is also very disjointed, and again I thought, further bad filmmaking. But now, re-watching it, I again think this was INTENTIONAL as we're supposed to be as discombobulated and confused as Mary here. Again, not the best choice, since a lot of people might give up at this point because the movie is confusing and they don't think it's going to get any better. There's one scene where Mary is in the dark woods with her boyfriend and there's just a lone flashlight beam illuminating everything for about twenty minutes of screen time, and we can hear stuff going on but we can't SEE anything, and it's annoying and confusing. I'm sure the filmmakers thought this was a great idea, but it's grounds for a lot of people to turn off the movie, or at least fast forward. We all know those "darkness" scenes in movies where everything is visible but only illuminated with a faint blue glow are bullshit, but filmmakers do that so the audience can SEE what's going on, and if people don't realize you're trying something different by leaving the screen black for twenty minutes they might just assume you have no idea how to make a movie and turn it off before you have a chance to show them your filmmaking skills later in the movie.

The third act of this movie is...I don't know how to describe it, but it's what made me decide that these filmmakers might know what they're doing, even if they don't bother to try and let us viewers in on the secret. Without giving too much away, Mary becomes the target of revenge here, and the rest of the movie feels kind of like a bad acid trip as it gets more and more OUT THERE and I kind of stared at the screen openmouthed with shock. It gets gory and nasty and mean-spirited, which I like, and it definitely scares me away from ever driving drunk, so effective there. I won't tell you what happens, but there are plenty of other reviews that WILL tell you what happens. Suffice it to say any sympathy you had for the guy Mary hit is GONE and therefore there's no one left to really feel sorry for, since Mary isn't very likable herself. It's still kind of interesting to watch, though, and the ending is darkly hilarious. Overall, I think this movie is better than it looks, but you have to be patient in order to see that. I'm glad I watched it, but I wish it hadn't taken over an hour for me to realize the movie knew what it was doing.

2011 October Horror Movie Challenge Movie 33: Asylum (2008)

There seems to be a lot of hate for this direct to DVD movie from 2008, but I don't think it's half bad. Sure, the characters are all kind of stupid, but as with a lot of horror movies, they have to be that way to advance the plot, and I've seen characters act a lot dumber in movies everyone seems to like, so people need to stop complaining about that. The acting is also not as bad as everyone says. Sarah Roemer in particular gives a pretty good performance as Madison, a young woman who is afraid that the mental illness that has haunted her family for years may be hereditary as she starts to see scary things at her new dorm at college. Though the characters are kind of types (the slutty girl, the slutty party guy, the deep intense serious brooding guy, the smart nerd, etc.) I still kind of liked most of them and felt bad when they all started to die horrible deaths. From the picture on the cover, I thought this was going to be one of those "we all go to an asylum and then we all start to die" movies, but it's about coeds who find out that their college dorm used to be an asylum for teenagers who were tortured by their doctor. Those images work pretty well (just don't think about the timeline, as it was supposed to be over 70 years ago and they talk to a supposed survivor who is CLEARLY not any older than 60). There are a few scenes that get silly and ridiculous, and the very ending is kind of stupid and clumsy, but the rest of the movie is pretty good (at least not half as bad as everyone is saying it is).

2011 October Horror Movie Challenge Movie 32: Carver

I remember watching this movie for a horror challenge a few years ago and being amazed at how good it was, but I was tired and possibly delusional, so I wanted to check it out again and see if it was actually as good as I had remembered, especially since so many reviews for the movie were negative. People complained that it had bad acting, that it was gratuitously gross, and that the camera work was shaky at best. to those people I say: shut up and go watch "Citizen Cane" again and leave us trolls to have our fun. This movie was good. Yes, the camera work is shaky...most of the time it's supposed to be that way, as it's some grainy footage of people being butchered in the backwoods, and if those scenes had been polished, people would have bitched that it was unrealistic. The acting is NOT that bad, especially considering that the movie was shot for like, $10 in someone's backyard. I've seen worse acting in high-budget Hollywood movies. There are some very famous actors that I won't name who are PAID to suck at acting. These people delivered their lines and made me believe what they said, so that's all I ask. Yes, the movie was gross. It's a movie about somebody chopping up campers in the woods; what did you expect? There's one scene with an outhouse toilet that actually made me want to puke, but for me, that's a GOOD thing. I don't think every horror movie needs to be nasty to be good, but the nastiness worked in this movie. Yeah, the characters make a bunch of boneheaded moves, but so do characters in every horror movie. If they were smart, the movie would be ten minutes long and very boring. For their part, once the shit starts getting gruesome, the characters actually try to fight back, which is better than some horror movies I could name. the movie got under my skin and got that goddamn creepy "Turkey in the Straw" song stuck in my head, and now I'll never be able to look at that song the same way again. Thanks a LOT, "Carver."

Is it recommended? I don't know how to answer that question. Some guy gets bashed with an outhouse toilet, a girl gets nails driven into her, several people get hacked in the head with a saw...does that sound like your idea of a good time? Then, yes, I recommend this movie. "Citizen Cane" it is not, but it was a bit of nasty fun.