I know I'm not alone in my sadness this morning but it felt necessary to me to write this post to add to all the outpourings of praise.
I have fond memories of my first Mayhem Film Festival meeting people I knew from online horror groups and watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the big screen on Halloween. That's a memory that will stick with me forever and I have Tobe to thank for it. By all accounts the shoot for Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a horror film in itself but if they hadn't pushed through and made it I bet there would be a huge hole in horror since then as many have been inspired by it; Leatherface has earned his place in the slasher villain hall of fame and Tobe Hooper along with him.
It seems sad that he has passed away during FrightFest, such a large celebration of horror, but I bet the tributes he gets there will be astounding.
If anyone needs me for the next couple of days I'll be watching all the Tobe Hooper films I can get my hands on, including Lifeforce which I hadn't heard of until today.
RIP Tobe Hooper, thank you for pushing the slasher genre forward and for all the terror.
Sunday 27 August 2017
Monday 21 August 2017
Annabelle: Creation Review
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
IMDb genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller
Director: David F Sandberg
Writer: Gary Dauberman
Starring: Anthony LaPaglia, Samara Lee, Miranda Otto
I'd heard terrible things about the first Annabelle so I never bothered with it until the trailer for the second installment caught my attention. It was better than I thought, the bit with the lift & rubbish cages really got to me, but it dragged in places and seemed to end quite abruptly. So I went in with tentatively good expectations for the sequel.
I hadn't looked into who was directing before I went in but if I'm honest I was disappointed initially in the choice of David F Sandberg because Lights Out was a let-down for me; I liked the short but when it went to the big screen every scare was the same and the ending was hinted at from miles away but played as though we should be surprised. I was also surprised to see that Blumhouse weren't one of the studios attached to this but after doing some research it turns out they weren't involved in The Conjuring films either so apparently I just give them too much credit!
The film opens with Annabelle being made, as a normal doll not a demonic conduit, but here eyes are still so damn creepy so even the fake-out scares just afterwards got me a little. I think it's a really great choice to give some background on Samuel and Esther Mullins (played by Anthony LaPaglia and Miranda Otto respectively) at the beginning of the movie not in flashbacks. When we jump 12 years and the action begins Samuel is grumpy and stand-offish and Esther is bedbound with a mysterious mask so without any background I think it would have been hard to see why they'd let the orphanage stay at all and it would have been easy to play them off as potential villains, admittedly Esther is feared by the children but that's due to overactive imaginations and it leads to a truly great scare so I'll allow it.
The acting was good throughout but the stand-out stars for me were the youngest ones; Lulu Wilson as Linda and Talitha Bateman as Janice not just because they seemed so genuinely terrified that it added to the scares for me. Linda is a likable character who reacts as she should even when others around her don't, look out for the night-time well scene to see what I mean. Janice sometimes makes the less rational decisions but she also has a physical limitation which makes everything she goes through, and it's a lot, seem so much worse. Without giving too many spoilers even the end does not wrap things up for her and she should at least be in the top three names on IMDb, we must start a 'Justice for Janice' campaign immediately.
Speaking of the ending, there seems to be a last-minute desperation to link it up with the previous installment which didn't really work for me. This is something that annoyed me with Ouija: Origin of Evil too. There's another subtler nod to a different movie within the franchise which I quite liked but I must admit it's getting weird that everything has to be a shared universe movie now, although that trend isn't going to stop for a while!
So; quite scary, better than expected, please treat your child characters better.
I hadn't looked into who was directing before I went in but if I'm honest I was disappointed initially in the choice of David F Sandberg because Lights Out was a let-down for me; I liked the short but when it went to the big screen every scare was the same and the ending was hinted at from miles away but played as though we should be surprised. I was also surprised to see that Blumhouse weren't one of the studios attached to this but after doing some research it turns out they weren't involved in The Conjuring films either so apparently I just give them too much credit!
The film opens with Annabelle being made, as a normal doll not a demonic conduit, but here eyes are still so damn creepy so even the fake-out scares just afterwards got me a little. I think it's a really great choice to give some background on Samuel and Esther Mullins (played by Anthony LaPaglia and Miranda Otto respectively) at the beginning of the movie not in flashbacks. When we jump 12 years and the action begins Samuel is grumpy and stand-offish and Esther is bedbound with a mysterious mask so without any background I think it would have been hard to see why they'd let the orphanage stay at all and it would have been easy to play them off as potential villains, admittedly Esther is feared by the children but that's due to overactive imaginations and it leads to a truly great scare so I'll allow it.
The acting was good throughout but the stand-out stars for me were the youngest ones; Lulu Wilson as Linda and Talitha Bateman as Janice not just because they seemed so genuinely terrified that it added to the scares for me. Linda is a likable character who reacts as she should even when others around her don't, look out for the night-time well scene to see what I mean. Janice sometimes makes the less rational decisions but she also has a physical limitation which makes everything she goes through, and it's a lot, seem so much worse. Without giving too many spoilers even the end does not wrap things up for her and she should at least be in the top three names on IMDb, we must start a 'Justice for Janice' campaign immediately.
Speaking of the ending, there seems to be a last-minute desperation to link it up with the previous installment which didn't really work for me. This is something that annoyed me with Ouija: Origin of Evil too. There's another subtler nod to a different movie within the franchise which I quite liked but I must admit it's getting weird that everything has to be a shared universe movie now, although that trend isn't going to stop for a while!
So; quite scary, better than expected, please treat your child characters better.
General Opinion:
I'm more impressed than I thought I would be after the first film and it was fun to watch on opening night as it was a good atmosphere with lots of screaming and laughing. It's still not one I'd watch again and again though.
Scare Factor:
Heavily reliant on jump scares which that's fun sometimes and they're funny in places here. I didn't think it would stick with me afterwards but I forgot my sister was home and freaked out when the quilt on the other bed moved in the middle of the night so maybe it did!
Gore:
There are more 'grossout' moments rather than full-on gore but they definitely got a reaction.
Clowns:
Pretty funny in places, some of the scares will make you laugh but towards the end it focuses more on the horror which is a good choice.
Annabelle: Creation is currently in UK cinemas.
Sunday 13 August 2017
Happy Death Day Trailer Review
Here's the trailer for Happy Death Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntxS1bBg5o0
A friend sent me this last week and I've watched it about a million times since then (no, I don't exaggerate!).
The premise is that a sorority girl wakes up on her birthday after a one-night stand, is murdered that evening and is stuck in that loop until she can solve her own murder. I'm a total sucker for all those Groundhog Day-esque movies so that plus slasher horror (although all the deaths are the same poor girl) sounds like my cup of tea.
I don't think I've seen lead actress Jessica Rothe in anything before but she seems like she's going to make a great horror actress in this. What I love is that they don't seem to have tried to keep her 'prettied-up' for the whole movie like a lot of horrors; she wakes up in someone else's t-shirt not sexy underwear, she wears a hospital gown for at least one death, and there's several scenes where she has her makeup streaming down her face. If we can have more horrors that are a little more realistic in the wardrobe department I'll be very happy.
It's a little hard to tell much else from the trailer although they seem to show you a lot of deaths and I hope they haven't given them all away.
The film is directed by Christopher Landon, who has previously directed 'Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse' & 'Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones', arguably the best installment, so I think that's a good choice. It is written by Scott Lobdell who appears to have largely written for comics and a few TV movies that I've never heard of so I'm intrigued that he's making the leap to horror.
I have high hopes for the film but even if it's rubbish the tag line 'make every death count' seems oddly inspirational for a horror movie. So, mark your calendars for October 20th (or October 13th in America) everybody, it's death day!
A friend sent me this last week and I've watched it about a million times since then (no, I don't exaggerate!).
The premise is that a sorority girl wakes up on her birthday after a one-night stand, is murdered that evening and is stuck in that loop until she can solve her own murder. I'm a total sucker for all those Groundhog Day-esque movies so that plus slasher horror (although all the deaths are the same poor girl) sounds like my cup of tea.
I don't think I've seen lead actress Jessica Rothe in anything before but she seems like she's going to make a great horror actress in this. What I love is that they don't seem to have tried to keep her 'prettied-up' for the whole movie like a lot of horrors; she wakes up in someone else's t-shirt not sexy underwear, she wears a hospital gown for at least one death, and there's several scenes where she has her makeup streaming down her face. If we can have more horrors that are a little more realistic in the wardrobe department I'll be very happy.
It's a little hard to tell much else from the trailer although they seem to show you a lot of deaths and I hope they haven't given them all away.
The film is directed by Christopher Landon, who has previously directed 'Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse' & 'Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones', arguably the best installment, so I think that's a good choice. It is written by Scott Lobdell who appears to have largely written for comics and a few TV movies that I've never heard of so I'm intrigued that he's making the leap to horror.
I have high hopes for the film but even if it's rubbish the tag line 'make every death count' seems oddly inspirational for a horror movie. So, mark your calendars for October 20th (or October 13th in America) everybody, it's death day!
Thursday 3 August 2017
Puppet Killer Trailer Review
This isn't something I've done before but you've got to try new things!
I thought I'd start with this particular trailer as I've been waiting for the film for ages. Along with the news that Jessica Cameron is producing, the trailer for Puppet Killer is finally here & you should definitely watch it.
(You can do that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q46t4JmrVAY )
This film completed principal photography some time ago but it's had various complications that have held it up. The titular puppet Simon has still been attending conventions with director Lisa Ovies though & he even went to see Santa:
The trailer starts off a little cliche (but that's the point I'm sure) with the flashback nightmares and young people turning up to a holiday in the woods. The thing that sets this apart for me is the pairing of Aleks Paunovic with Simon. Lets face it he looks hard! He's huge & looks like he could eat 10 Simons for breakfast so having him so afraid of a small fuzzy pink puppet is really funny in a warped way, which is what horror is all about for me.
I think the other thing I like about the look of the movie is that it seems to combine slasher (we see a Christmas bloodbath at the beginning ) and creepy doll movie (a few shots of Simon being 'placed' outside doors etc) with a lot of comedy added in as the voice of Simon is fantastic.
I honestly can't wait for this movie, if you want more info here's the IMDb page http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4278760/?ref_=nv_sr_1 and hopefully we'll get some release announcements very soon.
I thought I'd start with this particular trailer as I've been waiting for the film for ages. Along with the news that Jessica Cameron is producing, the trailer for Puppet Killer is finally here & you should definitely watch it.
(You can do that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q46t4JmrVAY )
This film completed principal photography some time ago but it's had various complications that have held it up. The titular puppet Simon has still been attending conventions with director Lisa Ovies though & he even went to see Santa:
The trailer starts off a little cliche (but that's the point I'm sure) with the flashback nightmares and young people turning up to a holiday in the woods. The thing that sets this apart for me is the pairing of Aleks Paunovic with Simon. Lets face it he looks hard! He's huge & looks like he could eat 10 Simons for breakfast so having him so afraid of a small fuzzy pink puppet is really funny in a warped way, which is what horror is all about for me.
I think the other thing I like about the look of the movie is that it seems to combine slasher (we see a Christmas bloodbath at the beginning ) and creepy doll movie (a few shots of Simon being 'placed' outside doors etc) with a lot of comedy added in as the voice of Simon is fantastic.
I honestly can't wait for this movie, if you want more info here's the IMDb page http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4278760/?ref_=nv_sr_1 and hopefully we'll get some release announcements very soon.
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