Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

When this came out, I remember worrying that it was going to be a disappointment or that it was going to sully the original’s good name. And then I saw that Rose Byrne was in it, and I got a little more excited. And the good news is I wasn’t disappointed at all!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not quite as good as the original. This one came out in the midst of Hollywood’s zombie zealotry and has the production value to prove it. It’s definitely geared more towards flash than fright, though it has its moments. I don’t want to spoil too much but I’ll just say that the last scene with the parents together is killer (ha ha ha) and one of the scariest moments of the film.

Originally I wanted to watch The Fog tonight since I watched The Mist yesterday, but then I remembered that the 2005 version of the film is a remake of a 1980 movie and decided to save both for Throwback Thursday/Follow Up Friday this week. Then I realized that I hadn’t yet written about this movie, and that its sequel isn’t too bad and would fit in well tomorrow, and, well, here we are!

I really like this movie. It’s got a lot going for it. The music is well done, the cast is great, the story compelling. And the infected absolutely terrifying. I feel like this was the film that really brought zombies back into the mainstream (although technically they’re not zombies in this film, but still), and it did that surprisingly well.

Here’s another Stephen King work that I’ve read and liked. I originally read this one before seeing the movie and was expecting to be disappointed by the adaptation. That wasn’t the case, though! While I probably would have done some things differently, for the most part I really liked the choices that the filmmaker (and screenwriter!) made here.

There are a few points that drag on a bit but for the most part this movie is well paced and wonderfully suspenseful. The creatures are terrifying and the humans often even more so. And I love how well the background music works, especially during the climactic scenes.

I mentioned in my post about May that I realized Lucky McKee was the director for this movie as well and that I was thinking of watching it again soon, so here it is. I vaguely remember watching this movie years ago, but there were a lot of details about the movie I didn’t remember.

Like Bruce Campbell! He doesn’t play a small part either, so I’m surprised I didn’t remember until the opening credits. He was pretty good in this movie, though he didn’t get much of a chance to show off. I did remember Patricia Clarkson and Agnes Bruckner, who were also great as Mrs. Traverse and Heather, respectively. Rachel Nichols was another familiar face, and she did just fine as Samantha.

I’ve watched this movie several times (and a couple this year alone!) but haven’t written about it yet because I haven’t quite figured out what I want to say about it. I like it quite a bit, but it’s hard for me to pinpoint why.

Maybe it’s the cast — Katee Sackhoff and Rory Cochrane are great as Alan and Marie, the parents. Kaylie and Tim were great — both past and present versions were believable and the family chemistry worked wonderfully. And it was kind of neat seeing James Lafferty in this, since I’d only ever seen him in One Tree Hill before.

It’s hard for me to tell if I liked this movie more than the original because it was a better movie or because it had a more familiar cast (but no Kevin Bacon), but whatever the reason, I did like it more. It’s got a decent cast, well done background music, and a couple of good one-liners.

This is another one of those remakes that’s more like a sequel than a remake, and one of those remakes that tries to be scarier or darker than its original, and in this case, both of these work. It feels more polished and sure of itself than the original.

Would you believe I’d never seen this movie before today? I’ve seen clips of it several times, and I’m familiar with the character of Jason Voorhees, but I’d never gotten around to watching this from start to finish before.

And I’m a little disappointed. I figured with Kevin Bacon in it, it had to be good! But it was just okay. Not bad, but not as good as, say, A Nightmare on Elm Street (then again, few things are). And no, I don’t plan on seeing Freddy vs. Jason any time soon. Unless I run out of other movies to watch first.

I went into this one expecting to be disappointed (as I usually am when something is overhyped like this movie seemed to be for a while). But you know what? I wasn’t disappointed at all. In fact, I liked this movie quite a bit.

It was scary, well acted, and an original story. I’m a little sad I didn’t watch this earlier, but glad I finally got around to it. I do think I went into it with the right expectations (read: low ones) to be thoroughly entertained.

I really, really like this movie. The first time I watched it was on a big TV in a dark room and it scared the crap out of me. There are a lot of jump scares in this one, but they don’t feel cheap. The tension has already been built up and so the jump scares feel like just a relief rather than comic relief.

This is a story “based on actual events” that genuinely does something original. I appreciate that it poses a bunch of questions but then answers them as well. There are times when it’s appropriate to leave something to your audience’s imaginations, but I feel that many films use it as a crutch instead of a statement. This movie has an opinion and doesn’t leave you feeling unsatisfied at the end.

This movie was okay. It was definitely watchable, and the pacing was fine. The concept was okay. The cast was pretty good, though I didn’t recognize anyone.

But, like…everyone is just so dumb in this movie. Seriously, they keep making the stupidest decisions the entire movie.

I like anthology movies (especially scary ones) and I figure Mother’s Day is a reasonable holiday to watch a holiday anthology movie like this one. And, well, it was a holiday horror anthology movie all right. There were definitely a bunch of horror stories loosely related to the (mostly U.S.-based) holidays.

Sadly it’s yet another movie that’s just sort of okay. I couldn’t even point out to you which of the segments was my favorite. They’re all just sort of okay.

I really wanted this movie to be good, because I love creepy doll stories and the trailer made it look awesome. And it wasn’t bad. But it could have been better.

The cast was probably the best part of the movie. Well, okay. Lauren Cohan was great as Greta, and the rest of the cast was just fine supporting her. The scenery was also beautiful and terrifying, a combination I love.

In addition to scary movies, I really like ice cream. In particular, I really like fancy small batch ice cream. Like these Double Hazelnut or Brown Butter Plum flavors made by a brand called Honeymoon. If you ever get a chance to try this brand, go for it. So far I like what I’ve tasted.

So I watched this movie partly because I’ve been eating a lot of Honeymoon ice cream, and partly because I remembered I’d liked it before. And I still liked it now. It’s very well done and the pacing is excellent.