Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

Previously I mentioned that watching Indigenous made me want to watch The Descent again, so that’s exactly what I did tonight. And yep – it’s still a better monster movie than Indigenous. And probably not just because I didn’t need subtitles for it.

The character development in this movie is so strong that I found myself relating to characters who aren’t anything like me. For one thing, I almost certainly wouldn’t wake up at 7am to go rock climbing, even in creepy old caves like the ones in the movie.

I liked this one. Probably more than I should have. I almost rated it at 4 out of 5, but stopped when I realized I really just liked that everyone was so British. I am almost certain that I wouldn’t have liked this movie as much with an American cast.

But they were British, so I think this is a great movie. Okay, accents aside, the cast was pretty good. They were all believable (and British), and I liked that the group had chemistry (and British accents).

I’m surprising even myself by saying this, but I think I like this one just a little bit better than the original. Now don’t get me wrong – I still think the original Carrie is classic horror and shouldn’t be skipped. But this one seemed to flow better. And the payoff seemed…more worth it?

Interestingly, while I was more familiar with some of the actors in this one, Judy Greer is the only one I felt was cast well. Well, that’s not quite true. I think Julianne Moore was excellent as Margaret White, but I didn’t believe her as Chloë Grace Moretz’s mother.

I’ve always liked this movie. I’m sure that’s partly because my mom likes it and partly because I always secretly wanted to discover that I had telekinetic powers. I like this movie despite an unfortunate incident involving me watching this movie and a palmetto bug.

I suppose I also always liked this movie because of John Travolta. Despite the jerk of a character he plays as Billy, I even liked him in this movie. And Sissy Spacek is incredible. Carrie White is such a sympathetic character that I really felt for her every step of the way. Amy Irving helps round out the great cast, with Piper Laurie really shining as Margaret White. 

This movie was mostly okay. It was a monster movie through and through, which is kind of refreshing, but it wasn’t a great monster movie or anything. It was entertaining, though.

The only cast member I recognized was Lindsey McKeon, and I’ll admit I only recognized her by looks, not by name. But the acting wasn’t bad, and the characters were reasonably sympathetic. There were more scenes in Spanish than I was expecting, which isn’t a bad thing, but I found myself having to pay attention to the subtitles more than I had anticipated.

I have to give this one some credit for trying something relatively new. This was a zombie movie crossed with reality TV in a pretty silly way. It’s not an entirely bad effect, but it could have been better.

I’m not sure how I feel about the commercial breaks. I felt like the cigarette ads were in poor taste and the “Coalition to Re-populate America” ads were just boring. I don’t think the commercials added anything to the film. However, the brief info spots were well done – more of those and fewer of the commercials would have been ideal.

This movie kept popping up on Netflix so I figured I’d finally watch it. The cast was definitely appealing – Guy Pearce, Jeffrey Jones, and Robert Carlyle? Yes please!

I’ll admit that for most of this movie, I had no idea where it was going. Normally that wouldn’t be a great thing, but this movie really pulled it off. The story was interesting, and the suspense just kept building and building until it started to get really, really creepy. And then it kept going…

It’s my birthday, and I wasn’t quite sure which movie to watch to celebrate. I settled on this, which seemed fitting for a rainy weekend spent mostly at home. I think it was the right choice, as it’s always provided me a few laughs.

Cabin Fever was the first I’d ever heard of Eli Roth, and what a first impression it was. This has been one of my guilty pleasure movies since I first saw it. I mean, come on, Rider Strong is in it! And the “pancakes” kid! And that ridiculous call back with the rifle in the general store…so good.

Here’s another movie I love. I actually like it better than the one I’m watching for my birthday tomorrow, but I needed a pick me up tonight and this is one of my happy movies (yes, really) so here we are.

I haven’t seen this one quite as many times as the Dawn of the Dead remake (of course I’ve had about 8 years longer with that one), but since I first watched it a couple years ago I’ve probably seen it 20 or 30 times. It’s just so…interesting.

As you may have guessed, I love this movie. I saw it in theaters when it came out. Twice. And I almost never see things in theaters. I know it’s not perfect, but I’d be lying to myself (and my readers) if I rated it anything less than 5 out of 5. Today’s viewing confirmed that, of course.

(Spoiler alert. There might be a lot of spoilers for this one.)

Looking at my rating of this film, you might be wondering why I watched it this week after I said I’d be watching some of my favorites. Only 3 out of 5? Well, you’d be mostly right to wonder.

See, the remake of this movie is one of my all-time favorites. I’ve seen it at least 200 hundred times. And since it is a remake, I figured I’d watch it on a Friday so I could use Throwback Thursday for the original. This one. Only (and I hate to admit this) I’d never seen the original before. And to be honest, I wasn’t impressed.

Okay, I’ll admit this movie is much more of a guilty pleasure than a great film. I just find it very fun to watch, so I’ve seen it quite a few times. I’ve even put it on as background noise while working more than once.

It’s not much more than torture porn, but Elisha Cuthbert is so adorable that I can pretty much forgive her anything. And believe me, Jennifer is a character who needs some forgiveness. Despite the character development they try to build throughout the film, Jennifer is not a very sympathetic character. Gary is even less so.

I’m easily distracted, so I often skip foreign movies because I know I don’t pay enough attention to the subtitles to really follow the plot. And dubbed movies, especially dubbed horror movies, are pretty hit or miss (more often on the “miss” side). But this one hits, and it hits hard.

What all that means is that I love this movie. A lot. It’s incredible how effective this movie is. “High tension” is absolutely right. This movie is a thrill ride that just doesn’t let up. The story isn’t entirely original, but the acting, the pacing, and the background music all work together to make this a really scary story.