When a film is released without a press screening, it never bodes well. Thus, one cannot approach THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO’S POND with anything but resignation. Yet even for a flick in which the distributor has no faith, the product is abysmal. As a generic slasher film, it is surprisingly coy about its gore… Read More »
AUDITION (ODITION)
Sometimes you see a film and you just have to wonder about the person who made it. Such is the case of AUDITION, a Japanese film that must be the result of a bad break-up of a particularly insidious form. I mean, any film that has as its villain a woman scarier than Freddie, Jason… Read More »
CRAZIES DVD, THE
Some remakes pay perfunctory respect to the source material, but THE CRAZIES DVD release does more than that. It is a proper homage to the man who made it possible, George A. Romero, and the sub-genre of political horror that he pioneered. There amid the usual deleted scenes and how-we-did-it featurettes, is THE GEORGE A.… Read More »
THE LAST EXORCISM
Anticipation, uncertainty, and the power of the viewers imagination are the most potent methods of creating an effective horror tale, and the faux-documentary, THE LAST EXORCISM, superbly uses those elements. The result is a film that lulls the audience into the same false sense of security as the sham exorcist at the center of the… Read More »
PIRANHA 3-D
It all began with JAWS. The summer blockbuster that kicked off the summer blockbuster concept, that was fun and well-made and not too taxing on the higher cerebral functions. PIRANHA 3-D is a loving homage to that film made by people who understand what made that film great, and who understand how to make it… Read More »
DEVIL
There are a great many examples of no in DEVIL, the latest effort from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan, this one released without benefit of a press screening. No suspense. No scares. No originality. No fun. No reason to bestir oneself to see it. Told in the form of a fable, perhaps to account… Read More »
LET ME IN
LET ME IN unfolds at a deliberate pace, all the better to allow the audience to assimilate this unusual take on the vampire mythos. The film, a variation on the Scandinavian art-house hit LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, aspires to do more than shock with gore. And it does. The shock, though, is in considering vampirism,… Read More »
CASE 39
CASE 39 takes a potent subtext about the terrors of unprepared parenthood and wastes it in a rote creepy kid flick that displays both iffy internal logic and a trifling execution. Renee Zellweger brings her best to this mess, but alas her efforts, when played out in the vacuum provided her, become at best a… Read More »
MY SOUL TO TAKE
MY SOUL TO TAKE is destined to be relegated to Wes Cravens lesser works. It has several nice twists and a deft way of misdirection that is marvelous to experience, even when one is perfectly aware of the manipulation. It may not have the humor of ELM STREET, or the rich panoply of that franchises… Read More »
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2
Paramount Studios bought the first PARANORMAL ACTIVITY with the intention of remaking it. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the original by Oren Peli was distributed to acclaim and the new experience for some of being terrified by the sound of a refrigerator motor switching on. For PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2, those cool heads are still in… Read More »
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