Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

I knew there was a reason I put off watching this movie for so long. I felt like the story was complete after the second one, and this movie doesn’t do much to convince me otherwise. It’s still an above average scary movie, but only by a little, and probably partially because of how much I liked the first two movies.

It becomes apparent pretty quickly that this is not a James Wan film. It’s actually Leigh Whannell’s directorial debut – which kind of shows. James Wan is a practiced horror movie director whose films are maturing as he is. Leigh Whannell is a practiced horror movie screenwriter who might want to consider sticking to writing (and acting, actually).

I hesitated a little before giving this one a 5 out of 5 because it’s not perfect, but I forgot how awesome the experience is watching the first two movies back to back so it’s mostly earned it. I think the story is incomplete without this movie, so if you liked the first one you’d be doing yourself a favor to watch this one – and an even bigger favor by watching it immediately after watching the first one.

This movie is creepy as hell. I’ve seen it several times and each time it’s still creepy as hell. I’m sure it’s partly because of that creepy song, partly because of the perfectly placed jump scares, and mostly because that demon is one really scary demon.

As promised yesterday, here’s the first of the Summer See Saw Sundays. I like this movie. It basically started an interesting (at least at first) trend in movies, some better than others, and created a new niche in the horror genre.

Interestingly I have less to say about this one than about last night’s movie. It’s definitely the one with the higher budget and a more familiar cast, and while it doesn’t have quite the same feel to it, it’s an entertaining watch nonetheless. Oh, it turns out I really like Josh Stewart (Arkin). He was pretty badass in this one, and I was glad to see him back.

I’m a little confused about some parts of the story – wasn’t she Arkin’s ex-wife in the first movie? Why all the character development for Elena? That seemed out of place for this kind of movie, but it worked in this one. Maybe they were trying to justify Lucello’s existence (you know, aside from as a plot device)? That slow reveal about what happened when Elena was younger was a bit distracting and unnecessary, though.

I’m not quite as sleepy today, but I am hoping to get to bed early, so I’ll be brief here. I like this one. It’s got a mostly unfamiliar cast – well, except for Madeline Zima (you know, the little girl Grace from The Nanny) – that’s pretty good, a decent soundtrack, and an interesting story. It’s even paced pretty well.

I’m still catching up on sleep this week so I’m a bit tired but I’ll try to do this movie some justice. I’ll admit that nostalgia may be biasing my opinion on this one – it’s another movie I remember watching with my mom when I was younger. It’s also the first place I heard the song “Bad to the Bone.”

I haven’t been sleeping well this week…and watching this movie tonight will definitely not help with that. Aside from some computer movie magic, there’s nothing in this film that couldn’t happen, and those stories are always the scariest.

Likely because it’s pretty scary, I liked this movie. It’s paced weirdly so there are parts that drag on but overall this is an above average scary movie. The story is interesting, the actors are believable, and there’s no need for fancy special effects or impressive background music so it’s really just the audience and the increasingly scary stuff happening on screen.

I mentioned yesterday that there was another Adam Green film that I liked, and this is it. I still like it, and I’m still fairly certain that’s mostly due to Ray Wise. Have I mentioned I love Ray Wise?

I like Adam Green. Frozen was a pretty good one, and there’s another one he did that I’m planning on watching soon that I remember liking…though that one features Ray Wise, so maybe that’s why I liked it. This one unfortunately wasn’t his best work. It’s another attempted parody that misses its mark. You don’t want a slasher film to be boring, and this one is pretty boring.

I’ve seen this movie once or twice before, but oddly can’t remember whether I saw it in theaters or not. I have to imagine that means I did not, in fact, see it in theaters – it seems most likely that I was watching this at home while distracting myself with other things. Because I just did not remember how awesome this movie really is.

Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s the string of pretty good movies I’ve been watching lately that’s been softening me up…maybe it’s because I have a soft spot for Ben Foster (and Dennis Quaid!)…maybe it’s just because this is a really awesome movie.

I can’t believe it’s July already. I mean, I can believe it, but I can’t really believe it. I saw this movie in theaters (albeit for a Sunday morning matinee if I recall correctly) a few years back and as I went in with no expectations, so I enjoyed it.

It was nice to see something in the Alien universe (even if only tangentially) and this was definitely better than last night’s contribution. It at least added something new to the universe.

I first saw this movie with the whole family on Thanksgiving Day of 1997 (the day after its release). I hadn’t seen it since, mostly because I remembered being really disappointed by it. That’s about all I could remember about it though. Well, that and the twist. So really, I remembered the one piece of information that makes the first half of this movie interesting because it’s a twist, and I remembered being disappointed by it. I’ll admit I wasn’t really setting tonight’s movie up for success.