Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

I liked this one, which is unsurprising in a few ways. The screenplay was written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, two writers whose work I’m familiar with.

The cast has a couple of familiar faces: Alex Essoe of Starry Eyes and Josh Stewart of The Collector/The Collection(apparently Marcus Dunstan likes Josh Stewart), both of whom are great.

I don’t have a lot to say about this movie because there wasn’t a lot going on for most of it. In fact, it was more than two-thirds of the way through before anything really scary happened – before that it’s all just talk about fear.

The first time I saw this movie was in a theater on the big screen. After watching it at home tonight, for anyone thinking about seeing this I would strongly suggest finding some way to see it in a very dark room on the biggest screen you can find. The experience is definitely lessened otherwise.

Maybe it’s just Martin Sheen’s soothing voice hypnotizing me into acquiescence, but I liked this movie. I’ve been watching The West Wing for the first time recently – I know, I know, late to the party – so when I saw that Martin Sheen was in a horror movie (that was available on Amazon Video!) I had to watch it.

I’m still sleepy and still don’t have too much to say. I liked this, but I really really wanted it to be better. There are a lot of places where it falls a bit flat. Taken individually, everything seems right – the music is good, there aren’t distracting artsy camera tricks, everyone knows how to act. Even the dialogue isn’t bad. But somehow all of the good components don’t add up to a great movie.

Okay, I can see why some folks might not have liked this movie. It’s slow, and not all that scary until the very end. Then again, if you already think that doll is creepy, this might be a scarier film.

I liked this one. Fans of the first one in general should like this one. The truth is, this basically is the first one – but set in London with a different family and a different demonic presence.

I’d been putting off reviewing this one (and finally watching its sequel) because I had vague memories of not being all that impressed the first time I saw it. I think maybe I was just distracted the first time because it definitely impressed me tonight.

I liked this one quite a bit. From the beginning (and the “I ♥ bikinis” hat) you know it’s going to be interesting – I couldn’t decide whether or not I liked the effect of jumping between the opening scene and the opening credits, but it was interesting either way. Luckily it stays interesting throughout.

I vaguely remember being excited for this one based on the trailer, but I was a bit disappointed by how it actually played out.