Are there things that are more scary than ghosts? Are close encounters with the other side, as it were, the ultimate in terror? Writer/director Alejandro Amenabar does a neat job of answering that question with THE OTHERS, a ghost story where neither good nor evil should be taken for granted. The story takes place entirely… Read More »
THE VILLAGE
About fifteen minutes into the M. Night Shayamalans latest effort, THE VILLAGE, I glommed onto the nature of the beast in the woods that menaced said community. Perhaps we as an audience are supposed to figure it out before the twist is revealed so that Shyamalan can get to the meat of the film. That… Read More »
EXORCIST-THE BEGINNING
The original EXORCIST spent much of its time trying to convince Ellen Burstyn that Linda Blair was possessed and required the services of the title character. Its prequel, EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING, spends virtually all of its time trying to convince us that there was a reason for it to be made. Made, I might add,… Read More »
WHITE NOISE
As I sit and tap out these words on my computer, it is January 4, 2005 and I have just seen WHITE NOISE, a prime contender for NEXT years Razzie Award. It is inept, it is inane, and it is seemingly interminable. And why shouldn’t it be? The people behind this dreck thought it would… Read More »
DOPPELGANGER (Dopperugenga)
DOPPELGANGER is a sly excursion into the paranormal. It takes the story of the doppelganger, in this case a sort of mirror self, and expands on the idea that to see ones own doppelganger means death. Director and co-writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa starts there and then tweaks the genre and the audiences expectations, subtly changing from… Read More »
DOPPELGANGER (Dopperugenga) DVD
DOPPELGANGER is one of those deliciously off-beat films that, barring a name filmmaker or star, have an annoying tendency to fly under the radar of most film lovers. It starts out as an interesting, if somewhat formulaic horror tale about a scientist (Koji Yakusho) who may or may not be going insane after his assistant… Read More »
THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
You’d think that in 86 minutes of screen time that the makers of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR’s 2005 incarnation could come up with at least one genuinely scary moment. Even if it’s just by accident aided and abetted by the law of averages. Alas, this dreary Z-grade schlock-fest is capable of producing only titters and yawns… Read More »
HOUSE OF WAX
My favorite moment in HOUSE OF WAX comes when Carly (Elisha Cuthbert), our heroine in peril, is fleeing from the crazy person who is brandishing the sharp and dangerous something or other and she smacks right into the wall of the eponymous house. I like it because under the circumstances, that’s what would probably happen.… Read More »
RED EYE
Most horror films are dedicated to the proposition that females are prey and little else.
SKELETON KEY
There is one perfect moment in SKELETON KEY, which is remarkable more for the fact that it’s the only good moment in the entire film than for its own innate effectiveness. In it, a character picks up a cigarette, lights it with the torpid evil inherent in supernatural films set in the swamps of Louisiana,… Read More »