2016 October Horror Challenge #14: "Jaws The Revenge"

People seem to universally agree that this, fourth Jaws movie, is the worst.  Here, a giant great white shark is personally targeting Ellen Brody, the wife from the first two Jaws movies.  It's pissed that her husband killed so many of its relatives/friends, and now it wants revenge. There also seems to be some kind of psychic connection between her and the shark; she kniws when it's coming to attack ( kind of like her husband did in the second movie).

I guess this is silly, but really, I've seen  much dumber plot twists in other movies, so it really doesn't seem that bad to me.  I mean, obviously this isn't a great movie or anything, but it was OK.  I liked it better than the third one. At least interesting things happen throughout the course of this movie, unlike the third where nothing happens for like ten hours ( or maybe it just felt that way to me).

The plot is ridiculous, of course.  Ellen Brody is tired of sharks chowing down on her family, so she moves away, but a pissed off great white shark follows her, and she has to defeat it once and for all.  I'm kind of leery if both sharks and drowning, so movies like this will always interest me, even if they're bad.  It's silly fun to watch.

2016 October Horror Challenge #13: "JAWS 3D"

And we continue with our shark-a-thon by watching the third movie in the series.  At least they were smart enough to make the third movie the 3D one, not the seventh, which was annoying and confusing ( yes, I'm looking at you, Saw franchise).

I'm disappointed that I can't watch this movie in 3D the way it was intended, so a bunch of things will come flying at the screen, but they won't come out of the screen to scare me like they would if I had access to 3D. At least this movie has the sense to be an hour and a half long, not 4654475544 hours long like the second movi, though. Not everything has to be an epic, guys.

This movie is pretty silly.  A killer shark attacks  a new Sea World park when it opens.  People get eaten.  The acting is OK, but people are clearly not trying as hard as they were in the second movie.  They know the shark is the real star of this show. The characters are really just here to serve as window dressing (and to make stupid decisions that further the plot, such as "hey, let's trap a vicious killer shark and keep it cooled up as an attraction at our park! What could possibly go wrong?") The movie does drag a bit, but it's OK.  I've seen better, but I've definitely seen worse.

2016 October Horror Challenge #12: "Jaws II"

Now that I've watched s parody mocking these iconic killer shark flicks, I suppose it's time for me to check out the sequel to the shark movie that started it all: JAWS.  Now, I've seen Jaws II when I was a kid ( my mom was at work so my brother and I seized our chance to check out some horror movies, and we watchedthe original and this sequel back to back.  I mixed the two movies up in my head, so I didn't really remember much that made the sequel stand out.

I bought the original movie years ago and watched it, but I was waiting for the 3 sequels to get released so I could watch them together ( even though a lot of people say they're horrible) and that didn't happen until recently.  Bring on the cheesy killer shark movies!

This sequel takes place a few years after the original.  The town has recovered from the killer ller shark that caused to much grief, but as the poster for the movie says, it's still not safe to go back in the water. There is another killer shark chowing down on the locals! Oh no! Can the sheriff defeat another killer shark before it destroys the town completely?

Have you heard the phrase "second verse, same as the first, only a little bit louder and a little bit worse"? That's basically this movie. It's not horrible, but it's pretty much a copy of the original, minus the originality.  It was not a bad watch, though it ran a little long for my tastes.  I hope the other two sequels are more fun, even if they're bad.

2016 October Horror Challenge #11: "The Exorcism of Molly Hartley"

I was one if the few who seemed to like the movie "The Haunting of Molly Hartley," a movie about a teenage girl who had to decide whether to fight or give in to evil.  It reminded me a little if "Damien: The Omen II," which is another movie I really liked.

 I figured this might be an "in name only" sequel, which happens a lot-a low budget horror flick is picked up by a major releasing company, only to be slapped with a title naming it as a sequel to a more well-known movie, which is the only way some of these movies can get released...think of "Open Water 2: Adrift" which was really a low budget movie called "Adrift" that a studio bought and released hoping to cash in on the name recognition of the first movie.  I understand sometimes that's the only way these movies can get the chance to be seen, but sometimes I wish the smaller horror movies could be given a chance to stand alone without having to live up to a more well-known movie.

Thus does actually seem to have been intended as a sequel to the first movie, though, not just an unrelated movie slapped with a sequel title in order to cash in.  In this movie, the Molly from the first movie is grown up and having problems coping with all the demons that seem to have taken up residence in her head.  They do some very antisocial things and she winds up in an institution, where a disgraced priest may be her only hope.

I saw the PG-13 rated version of this movie first before watching this versio, which is unrated.  There's not much of a difference, except for some gratuitous nudity thrown in for no reason at the beginning of the movie. I don't really mind nudity, but it really serves no purpose in this movie, so it did kind of irritate me ( gotta earn that "unrated" label somehow I suppose). The creepy demonic activity is pretty well done for a low budget movi, though, and the acting isn't bad here either.

As I've said before, I like exorcism movies in general. The idea of Satan or other demons possessing a person creeps me out, so I tend to like these movies even if they're bad.  This one isn't horrible, per se, just cheesy and every scene seems to have been stolen from other better movies.  It was an OK way to kill an hour and a half, though.

2016 October Horror Challenge #10: "FLAWS"

This is a hard one for me, since this movie is supposed to be a fun parody of the movie "JAWS" and I really want to support movies made for $5 in someone's backyard, but it's just kind of silly and stupid.  It dies have a few funny moments ( the autopsy of the first victim with the guy who refused to follow the rules made me smile) but it wasn't as good as I hoped.  Sadness. I was so hoping this would rock.

2016 October Horror Challenge #9: "Stung"

I've been wanting to see this movie for awhile now.  I'm allergic to bee stings, so I've always wanted someone to make a good horror movie about bees or wasps or similar creatures, but every bee/wasp themed horror movie I've seen has been pretty terrible ("The Swarm," anybody?)

I didn't like the main charactersat first, a girl and her goofy guy friend who are trying to build a catering company from the ground up.  They're catering a garden party on an estate for some crazy rich folks amid personal struggles (he loves her, she doesn't love him, her father recently died and the catering business was his dream).  Of course since it's a horror movie, there are also some angry antisocial wasps swarming around that will soon cause some horrific events to occur.

The movie has some cool gore going for it, even though things do get a little ridiculous plot wise.  The characters become more likeable and I was rooting for them to make it after awhile.  Plus wasps are just creepy anyway, angry little buggers that they are, so I ended up digging this movie. Finally, a horror movie about stinging insects that I can actually recommend.

2016 October Horror Challenge #8: "Extraordinary Tales"

What better way to remind myself why I love horror (after watching a movie that could have been so good fall apart) than by watching this, a collection of animated tales based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe?

Back when I was a horror loving kid who wasn't allowed to watch horror movies, I stoked my horror obsession by devouring everything that Poe wrote, so these were a lot if fun for me.  Narrated and voiced by well known actors, these are spooky fun.  I especially loved the treatment of "The Tell Tale Heart," which I loved so much I memorized it when I was 12.