Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

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.

I kind of figured this one was going to be pretty ridiculous when I watched the trailer, and I was definitely right. But I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be ridiculous.

I mean, come on…the over-the-top special effects, the completely ridiculous plot, that hilarious scene where they can’t send an email but they can “search, like literally for anything,” that even more hilarious fight scene soon after…it’s quite honestly a ridiculous masterpiece.

I’m no longer surprised to see just how low the ratings are on IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes for most of the movies I like. Wait, let me clarify…for most of the horror movies I like. Generally my opinions are in line with the majority’s for other genres. Except for Melancholia. That movie is the worst movie I have ever seen, ever, and I’ve seen The Cable Guy. And somehow Melancholia has a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.1/10 on IMDb.

On Netflix, however, I find that the ratings tend to be a bit more in line with my own. So I was a bit surprised to see that this movie had only one star on Netflix. And, of course, being the person that I am, I had to watch (and write about) it. Because I’d seen it before, and I knew I definitely would have rated it above one star. And watching again has only confirmed that, and maybe confused me. Who can I trust for scary movie recommendations now, if not Netflix?

This is a really interesting movie. It starts out strong and follows through until the ending. The acting is believable, the scenery incredibly creepy, and the suspense almost palpable.

I’m not entirely sure how to categorize this one. It’s about family, sure, and survival. It’s about doing what needs to be done to protect the ones you love. And it’s about zombies. Sort of.

I like Eli Roth. He’s got a good eye for what scares people, even if I think he sometimes veers a bit too much in the direction of shock value over terror.

And this one definitely sits over on the shock value side. Which isn’t to say the premise itself isn’t terrifying, because it is. The idea that you could fly to a foreign country to do what you think is a good deed, only to be mistaken for the enemy by the very natives you were trying to protect…that’s pretty dark and disturbing on its own.