Medium Raw

And today, in an act of ridiculous randomness, I am going to review a movie called Medium Raw. It's a low-budget horror flick that I rented from Netflix (where I rent most of my obscure horror movies from) and I have to say I enjoyed this one.

The acting is pretty good, it has some good suspense and a vague back story, and most importantly... the Smoking Man from X-Files! Ok I was a bit of an X-Files fan back in the 90s. I wasn't a crazy weird fan or anything, but I liked it well enough, and I always thought the Smoking Man looked like hell, presumably from smoking too many cigarettes.In case you're wondering, yes, he still looks like hell. But I digress...

So the gist is that a serial killer called "The Wolf" has been locked up in this mental institution that several people have come to visit on a night when the power goes out, releasing all the baddies inside, including the Wolf. For some reason, someone brought a little girl here to hang out, so she's stuck in there too.

I like movies where people are trapped in places with crazy serial killers and have to survive and get out. That's just me. It is rather gory, and at one point there's a scene with a crazy cannibal in the kitchen (no, she's not cooking chicken); what I didn't get about this scene is why the main girl is in the kitchen with this woman and is surrounded by knives and meat cleavers, but it never occurs to her to just knock the woman out and run. Of course, that's all part of the horror experience: frustration and the general feeling of helplessness. Trust me, yelling at the screen does not work. I've tried it. If I ever find myself in one of these situations I'll know exactly what to do... the opposite of what everyone in the movie does.

So this is one I recommend, if you enjoy watching people running around a mental institution in the dark trying to escape a crazy guy... whose costume is awesome by the way; it seems rather impractical for chasing people around, let alone killing them, but whatever. Enjoy!

Paranormal Activity 3

First of all, I should say that I might give away some plot points so stop reading now if you don't want to know anything about this movie. I still remember reading a review in Entertainment Weekly about The Sixth Sense that ruined the ending for me. I was not happy.

There's the obvious camera gimmicks that come with these movies - why do people always conveniently manage to have the camera in the exact spot it needs to be in to catch all the important stuff? It seems unlikely. And the thing about these movies is that once you know there's not a chance it's real, some of the scare is gone. But it is still creepy to watch by yourself, and there are some parts that made me jump a little. It didn't help that the lights started flickering in my living room while I was watching it. It does have its creepy moments, but not enough of them for me to have loved it. Of course, it's hard to find anything that actually scares me anymore (what they say about getting desensitized after a while is true) so I wasn't screaming every three minutes like the people they show watching it in the theater on the commercials (have these people just never seen a horror movie before?).

I didn't really understand the ending; if these are the little girls from the first and second movies, why do they not seem to remember what happened? Seemed memorable. Maybe I just missed something. In short, if you like scary movies and have already seen all the good old haunted house movies you might like this.

Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not is a low-budget teen-slasher flick with a supernatural twist that I thought was rather unique. It has a cast of unknowns (at least I don't think any of them are big names; the cover girl looks like one of the Olson twins but don't get your hopes up). A group of teenagers on graduation weekend pick up a girl that they don't know (or so they think) and hang out in a cemetery (of course), then play a game that's a variation of tag, but with each person who is tagged becoming a "ghost". And that's how the rest of the movie plays out, just like the game. But as each person is killed, they are forgotten by their friends, as if they never existed. I thought this was, as I said, a unique approach, and liked it so much I watched it twice. The special effects are actually decent; the ghosts were creepy at least. I won't say much more because I don't want to give away too much. I think if you like ghost/revenge stories this is one of the better ones I've seen. And it gets points for not having that annoying "twist" at the end that I am so sick of seeing (watch "The Number 23" and you'll know what twist I'm talking about. I can't even count the number of horror movies I've seen with that same ending). This one was just a good, creepy slasher flick. Recommended!

My First Review

I watched Hostel 3 last night, so that is going to be my first review. If you haven't seen the first Hostel, I don't think this will spoil anything for you, but it's been a while since I've seen it so use your own discretion.

I am not a fan of "torture porn" but I enjoyed most of this movie. I admit it, I fast-forwarded past a couple of parts (there were bugs, and any time I see bugs I tend to dream about them so I skipped past it). But there were good parts. There were a few twists; just when you think you know who's who and what's happening, everything switches on you, and I'm a sucker for any movie set in Las Vegas. I love Vegas! Granted, most of this takes place in a shadowy warehouse-type place and you don't see much of the scenery, but I was happy with the little that they did show. There was one character that I thought might not be what they appeared to be, and I was right (no idea why I thought that; they didn't act strange at all. I've just seen a lot of movies and am really good at guessing things like this). The part I enjoy most about horror films is the suspense, the chase, the running-away-from-the-bad-guy-before-he-gets-you-with-that-chainsaw. There was more of this towards the end, but I wouldn't say the earlier parts were boring. Like I said, things twisted around from what you thought was happening and/or expected to happen. I've never understood why anyone would pay for someone to torture and kill - can't they pick up strangers in a bar or lure them to fake parties with spiked mojitos on their own? Or is it just part of being super rich and expecting all the work to be done for you? - but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. You kind of have to when you watch as many horror movies as I do. The acting was better than a lot of direct-to-dvd movies - I've seen some really low budget movies and am not usually bothered by less than Oscar-worthy acting unless it looks like they could have done better if they were in a coma. As acting goes, this is definitely not the worst I've seen by any means.

In short, I was engrossed in this movie for most of it, I liked it better than the first one and would recommend it to horror fans.

Before my first review...

A word about why I decided to start writing reviews of horror movies (if you're looking for a review of  Twilight or the latest rom-com to hit the Redbox, look elsewhere; I only do horror movies, even though I do love rom-coms): I watch so many horror movies I thought that I might as well start reviewing them to help others who are as obsessed as I am weed through the good, the bad, and the "why did this movie get made?!". A couple of years ago I got into the habit of renting a couple of horror movies to watch on Friday or Saturday night when I didn't have other plans (or couldn't go out because I didn't have a babysitter), and started to look forward to these evenings alone with slashers and serial killers (not to mention vampires and zombies) almost more than going out and being with other human beings. OK, enough about my sad social life.

Why ridiculously random? Because I love these kinds of movies and tend to rent them on a regular basis, so I will be reviewing whatever I happened to rent that week or just something I've seen that still stands out for me. Oh, and I am willing to forgive a lot of things if I enjoyed a movie, so I am not going to be reviewing based on acting performances, character development, or artistic merit. I am a big fan of slasher flicks, zombie flicks, suspense flicks, etc., and I am reviewing based on whether I liked it or not. Plain and simple. If I liked it, you might like it. And if you don't, I just want to say... No refunds.

I have seen just about every horror movie ever made, with the exception of some older ones that I know everyone is going to be mad at me for not watching yet. Give me time; I'll get to them! I will tell you what I liked and didn't like about each film, and will not be waxing poetic or ripping apart certain actors or directors or anyone else for the sake of sounding smarter than everyone else. Also, I am not going to be reviewing only new movies; I watch a lot of films from every decade, and will be writing about whatever I have seen recently or just whatever I feel like reviewing, in the hopes that it will help you find something good to rent on Friday night.

So I hope you enjoy my first review (it's coming up next) and that you'll continue to come back for completely biased and (most likely) wildly unpopular views and reviews of the movies that we all love to hate. And love to love, as in my case. Oh, and feel free to contact me if you have any requests for reviews or just have a question. I still love getting mail as much as I did when I was 8.