Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

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.

Okay, let me preface everything else I might say here with the fact that I am absolutely biased when it comes to this movie. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I realized I could use it for a Throwback Thursday review this year.

I can’t believe this movie was released twenty years (and two days) ago. I mean, I guess I can believe it. Middle school does feel like twenty years ago (yes, I’ve just dated myself). This movie was a sleepover staple for me and my three friends. We argued over who was whom in the group, because of course we all wanted to be Sarah (no, Sara, you don’t get to be her just because you have the same name).

So I can sort of see why this one only had one star on Netflix. It wasn’t a great movie. It was barely even a good movie. But it kept me entertained throughout, so I gave it a (very generous) three out of five.

The acting was mostly okay, though there were some weirdly melodramatic scenes during which the actors all overacted as befitted the scene. The music was similarly bland throughout most of the film, with a few notably overdramatic exceptions. The plot sort of makes sense and gets increasingly more convoluted as the movie goes on, but it’s interesting enough.

I’m really tired today, so I don’t have too much to say about this one tonight. I liked it a lot, it’s super creepy, and maybe I’ll come back and write more about it tomorrow.

This is an interesting movie. The storyline is compelling and ultimately relatable – it’s easy to start wondering what you would do if you woke up in a similar situation. And once that happens, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the choices others make.

I like Julie Benz, the only one of the group I recognized, but she doesn’t get much screen time until towards the end of the movie. The rest of the acting is mostly fine, although there were several instances of overacting throughout. The background music is mostly subtle, and since the circle has its own sound effects, largely unnecessary.

It’s the first of May, so of course I had to watch this one. In fact, I waited until today to ever watch this one at all. I’ve known about it for years, and I like Angela Bettis, but somehow I never got around to this one until now. It’s pretty good!

I didn’t realize Jeremy Sisto and Anna Faris were in this one as well! So that was a pleasant surprise. I was surprised at how much I liked Anna Faris as Polly. The whole cast worked really well together, in fact. I was definitely hooked early on.

This wasn’t a perfect movie, but I liked it a lot anyway. The storyline is compelling on its own, but in this movie the cast really sells it.

There are a lot of jump scares in this one, but they don’t feel cheap. They’re placed perfectly so that the tension is already built up when they get you – meaning I fall for it every time.

Okay, so I didn’t actually go to a movie theater today. 10 Cloverfield Lane will have to wait for some other time (possibly after it’s been released on Amazon Video or Netflix). Instead I decided to watch this movie for a second time, because I’m not sure I gave it my all the first time I watched it. To be fair, I was on an airplane at the time, so I’m not sure I would have been able to give any movie my all, but still.

I liked it the first time, but I thought there might be pieces I’d missed. Watching it this time one thing stood out that I didn’t think about the first time: this movie is really terrifying. Not in the typical slasher film manner, though. This one is terrifying because you’re right there with the killer the entire time, seeing the world as he sees it, and you **still **don’t know what he’s going to do next.

I may be biased writing this, because you could probably say that this is the movie that started it all. The details are fuzzy, but I remember seeing this when I was about five, so it may have been when it aired the first time. I think I was supposed to be asleep, and whoever was watching didn’t see me sneak up behind them (I do that sometimes) until the commercial break.

Anyway, next thing I do remember is that for the next several years, I thought there was a clown under my bed that was going to eat me. I still sometimes leap into my bed from three feet away so nothing grabs my ankles. And sometimes I still have to turn on all the lights in my house in the middle of the night so I can fall asleep.

Tomorrow is my brother’s birthday and I wanted to watch his favorite horror movie in honor of that…but tomorrow is a Thursday and his favorite horror movie is not at least twenty years old. So I watched his favorite horror movie today instead, and I’m considering actually heading to the theater on Friday to watch the recently released sequel.

I’m happy to say my brother’s taste in movies isn’t bad (or at least it’s compatible with my taste in movies). I’ve seen this movie a few times before, and I always like it. Even knowing what’s going to happen, I find myself holding my breath during some of the more intense scenes, of which there are many.