Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

I mentioned yesterday that there was another Adam Green film that I liked, and this is it. I still like it, and I’m still fairly certain that’s mostly due to Ray Wise. Have I mentioned I love Ray Wise?

I like Adam Green. Frozen was a pretty good one, and there’s another one he did that I’m planning on watching soon that I remember liking…though that one features Ray Wise, so maybe that’s why I liked it. This one unfortunately wasn’t his best work. It’s another attempted parody that misses its mark. You don’t want a slasher film to be boring, and this one is pretty boring.

I’ve seen this movie once or twice before, but oddly can’t remember whether I saw it in theaters or not. I have to imagine that means I did not, in fact, see it in theaters – it seems most likely that I was watching this at home while distracting myself with other things. Because I just did not remember how awesome this movie really is.

Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s the string of pretty good movies I’ve been watching lately that’s been softening me up…maybe it’s because I have a soft spot for Ben Foster (and Dennis Quaid!)…maybe it’s just because this is a really awesome movie.

I can’t believe it’s July already. I mean, I can believe it, but I can’t really believe it. I saw this movie in theaters (albeit for a Sunday morning matinee if I recall correctly) a few years back and as I went in with no expectations, so I enjoyed it.

It was nice to see something in the Alien universe (even if only tangentially) and this was definitely better than last night’s contribution. It at least added something new to the universe.

I first saw this movie with the whole family on Thanksgiving Day of 1997 (the day after its release). I hadn’t seen it since, mostly because I remembered being really disappointed by it. That’s about all I could remember about it though. Well, that and the twist. So really, I remembered the one piece of information that makes the first half of this movie interesting because it’s a twist, and I remembered being disappointed by it. I’ll admit I wasn’t really setting tonight’s movie up for success.

I know I’ve said it like every day this week, but I will be so happy when this week is over. It’s been a long sleepless week and I don’t feel like I’ve gotten much done. But what I did do is watch this movie. So at least there’s that.

I like this movie. It’s not quite as brilliant as the first one and not quite as ambitious as the second one, but H.R. Giger’s nightmare of a creature has never been more terrifying than in this movie. A David Fincher film, it’s definitely more Seven than Blade Runner or Avatar (or perhaps more closely related films by those directors). Which is to say it’s dark, it’s grim, and it’s not afraid to eschew a happy ending that might have fared better at the box office.

There’s been an “Open House” sign on my street for the past few days so I was inspired to watch this one again. It’s a good one. A bit disturbing, but then again, so am I. Also not unlike me, this movie has a lot going for it.

Have I mentioned I’m a sucker for a good understated title screen? Maybe once or twice? This movie is a perfect example of that. And the movie starts much like its credits – unassuming and quiet. Things start to get creepy pretty quickly, though, and keep building from there. I love that the background music is largely absent, and perfectly timed and placed when it’s not.

It must be a long week. And it’s only Tuesday. I’ve got another early morning tomorrow and haven’t been sleeping well. Maybe all the scary movies are catching up to me and keeping me up at night.

Anyhow, you know this has to be good if there are subtitles for a not insignificant portion of this movie and I still highly recommend it. Actually, all those years of Spanish I took in high school were helpful for this one. I mostly understood what was being said without reading the subtitles.

I do have more to say about this but I’m still tired so you’ll have to live with brevity yet again.

I like the concept of this one – a horror musical. There are others in this genre that I quite like. But this one somehow tries to be a parody of the genre and an exemplar of the genre and unfortunately it fails at both. The lyrics are largely trite and boring and quite frankly they sound quite amateur and often childish. The melodies are all borrowed from other songs. The killer’s songs were the best of the lot and they weren’t all that great themselves.

It’s been a long day and I’ve got an early morning so I don’t have much to say tonight. I love Katharine Isabelle and she’s in this movie, so I like this movie a lot. It’s ostensibly about family, but really it’s about, well, torment. It gets a bit graphic and disturbing at times. The story is reasonably interesting and the ending satisfying.