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#2442
10-08-2013, 07:17 PM
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Quote:
__________________
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#2443
11-18-2013, 11:39 AM
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Just finished watching 'Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman'. It was so-so. I grew restless of the predictability of the plot and the inanity and incompetence of the main characters somewhere in the middle of the movie, and I just let it play in the background while I browsed the web. On the plus side, the movie was willing to get brutal towards children, not a great thing in itself but refreshing as not many movies dare to go there. I also liked the visual aura and thematic milieu of urban legend, much like Nightmare on Elm Street or Candyman, but that aspect was side-lined somewhere in the middle of the movie. After that point it was just incompetent confrontations with a disfigured woman armed only with a gigantic pair of scissors (where do you get scissors that big?) Altogether it was a disappointing movie from the director of the great and original Noroi: The Curse.
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#2445
11-29-2013, 11:42 PM
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"The Locker"
I watched a Japanese horror film called "The Locker" tonight. It was a standard Japanese cursed 'thing' kind of movie, in this case it was a small public storage locker like what you see in bus stations. It was just so routine and by-the-numbers that I could barely finish watching it. It didn't have any real flaws regarding the production itself, the movie looked nice enough, the acting was adequate, the direction and editing were competent is a bit slow. The story was just so unoriginal, and the writing so lazy, and the characters so flat, I can barely muster the energy or care to even write about it. Seriously, it was so dull that talking about it feels like a chore.
Cursed object? check group of non-descript young being picked off one-by-one from the curse? check creepy killer ghost girl with really long dark hair? check This movie was a semi professional but witless cash-in on Ringu. On the plus side, it was mercifully short, clocking in just over an hour, and that, combined with how slow the movie moved, demonstrates just how little effort was put into the screenplay and how much the filmakers had to compensate for it. The disc I received had locker part 2 on it as well, but I didn't bother with that one.
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#2447
12-05-2013, 11:41 PM
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13b: Fear has a new address
So I finally got around to watching this Indian movie called 13B which is streaming on Netflix, out of curiousity as I had never seen an Indian horror film. It wasn't all bad, but apart from the cultural differences, it wasn't exceptional for a horror film, although it did have a neat premise. The plot was a man and his family move into a new apartment, and, of course, this being a horror film, strange things happen. The oddest is that there is a soap opera that strongly resemble his family and his life which only his television receives, and it depicts events that occur in the near future. Outside of that there is nothing that isn't in any conventional horror film.
13b could have definitely used some tightening up. It kept on hammering plot points that any viewer with an IQ over 50 would have figured out without as much exposition. The movie would have been much better were it a half hour shorter. It was also over-directed, with much overuse of shaky cam and rapid cutting to different angles. The characters were cardboard cutouts and had the kind of depth and cheerful performances you would see in an early 90's sitcom. What's more, the lighting was a bit too idyllic, it was a bit too perfect and gave some moments a flat sitcom look. Another thing, I know its a cultural thing for picturesque musical interludes to be a standard inclusion in Indian movies, but that really spoils the mood for a horror film. In fact, it's quite bizarre, and probably the most notable thing about this film. To sum it it, I think there is the heart of a good old fashioned ghost story buried in this production, but it isn't worth enduring the treatment which that story received. I would only recommend this if you were tremendously curious about what a Bollywood horror film is like.
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#2448
12-07-2013, 01:03 AM
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Today I watched Hansel & Gretal, a Korean movie streaming in HD on Netflix which has very little to do with the title children' story. It's a very dark tale and barely qualifies as a horror movie, its far more along the lines of a dark fantasy. That isn't to say it's a children's movie, it's much too grim for kids. The story is a guy gets in a car wreck in a rural area and wonders off into a forest before passing out. He is found by a girl who takes him to a house with a family that seems just a bit too perfect. Things gradually become more surreal as he finds he is unable to leave no matter what he does. I felt it was a good movie, and I would recommend seeing it without any more knowledge of the plot, in case you are tempted to read the spoilers ahead.
SPOILERS AHEAD: The story is strongly reminiscent of that segment from Twilight Zone The movie where that boy can generate anything he wants from his imagination. This is not a bad version of that tale, and explores that scenario to a much greater extant than the Twilight Zone did, as well it should with a two hour running time. Even though I had that angle figured out pretty early, I was still glued to the screen, and for some reason I found this film somewhat moving. The story had more depth than simply the terror of a hugely powerful but immature being. END OF SPOILERS The production is nicely mounted, the sets and camerawork looks great. The direction and editing were pitch perfect for the story. The screenplay could probably have used a little bit of tightening up, but I was still intrigued by the movie the whole way through. The movie didn't have a lot of visual effects, but what there was was very well done, on the level of any hollywood movie. The acting was good, especially the children actors, which is surprising given the neglect child performances are treated with by so many asian films I have seen. Most asian movies just don't seem to care about the children giving a convincing performance; the kids read their line and look cute, the director says cut, and that's a wrap. That would have been deadly for a movie like this where child characters were so heavily involved. And thank god the children didn't overdo it either, which would have been so easy to do in a Korean movie where performances tend to be on the melodramatic side. The more I think about it, the more impressive it is, the child performances were not too forced, not too sentimental, and well beyond a simple line read despite the actors very young age. Altogether this movie greatly exceeded my expectations. Highly recommended if you are in the mood for a dark fairy tale along the lines of Pan's Labyrinth.
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#2449
12-11-2013, 01:55 AM
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Reincarnation
I finished watching Reincarnation, from Takashi Shimizu, the guy who did Ju-on. Not bad really, but not scary at all. It takes an awful lot from The Shining. Really it is Shimizu's 'remix' of The Shining, but it was too over-directed, too polished, and too over-the-top to be scary. Creepy dolls, creepy girls with long hair, haunted hotel, creepy 8 mm footage, and pretty arbitrary ghost attacks, it is nothing no one hasn't seen before, with plenty of loose plot threads. Also the inevitable ending goes on and on. I grew bored in the middle and never really regained interest because of the predictability of the story. I guess it wouldn't be bad to someone new to the genre and isn't familiarized with all the cliches. It is all very professionally staged with fairly high production values, so it might be worth giving a chance if you really dig Japanese horror, I might be a bit too hard on it because I was hoping for something with a bit more subtlety.
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