The Captain took the day off, so I decided to post the horror movies I saw this past week just to keep this Horror Month going! Anyone can respond with their own horror month choices and let us all know what you thought of the films!
Crawl– I missed this one in theaters… partially because it was produced by Sam Raimi and I still haven’t gotten over my experience of seeing Drag Me to Hell in a theater with the sound cranked so loud that each jumpscare was painful and there were just so. many. jumpscares.
Anyway, this one was pretty fun, but I did take issue with three major things:
1. Impossibly dumb character decisions. I mean, you grab your phone and, instead of going back to where it is safe to make your call, you make the life-saving 9-1-1 call two feet away from the killer gator? Really?
2. The main characters got bitten… like a lot. I am all for adding stakes and gore to your film, but man, these characters got bitten, got body parts broken and then ripped off and just shrugged most of it off.
3. Bad CGI. This one is weird, because there is some awful, PS2 level, CGI at the beginning, but then there is also some really good CGI in the film. I think it just comes down to keeping your monster hidden for most of the film, which this feature decided not to do.
Anyway, I had fun with it and it was a brisk 87 minutes, so it is definitely worth a RENT IT
Lake Mungo – I have had this one on my list forever, but when Chris Stuckmann reviewed it as one of his scariest horror films ever, I knew that I had to check it out.
When I finished it, I was a bit disappointed, but as I thought more about it, there were some genuinely creepy moments and some haunting images. My main issue was that we set out to explore the disappearance of this young woman, but never really get a “Why” in terms of why she disappeared. I can’t say more without going into spoilers, so all I will say is that the revelations were good, but didn’t answer the main question that I had.
Anyway, it’s on Amazon Prime Video and is worth a RENT IT
Julia’s Eyes – This is a Spanish-language film that was produced by Guillermo del Toro, but it is really much more of a thriller about a woman who is going blind who must uncover the truth about her sister’s suicide before she loses her sight forever. I was really into this one, even though the final reveal didn’t totally work for me.
It is a fantastic watch and extremely well-shot and acted. As I said, not totally a horror and you may not fully agree with the final twist, but it is worth checking out, especially if you are a GdT fan or a fan of psychological thrillers – SEE IT
And Soon the Darkness – Just awful – a remake of a British film in which Amber Heard loses her unlikable friend after splitting off from the main group on their bike trail and stopping in at a small town in Argentina. Then, she commences to do nothing for 40 minutes as she searches for her friend and gets herself in more and more trouble.
Honestly, the biggest sin this film committed was wasting a perfectly good Karl Urban. SKIP IT
Grave Halloween – There is a creepy movie to be made about the Japanese Suicide Forest, but this is not it. It’s a shame, too, as the set-up was strong (a young woman wants to preform a ritual on Halloween night so that her mother, who committed suicide in the forest, can finally rest in the afterlife) but it really fell apart as the film went on.
I was debating what to give this one, but I have to ultimately give this a SKIP IT
The Influence – Another Spanish-language feature, this one just dropped on Netflix with little warning, but I decided to check it out. It really is like three different horror films smashed together into one.
It had the lead from one of my favorite Netflix Spanish shows, Locked Up, who doesn’t get a ton to do, but the other lead actress is capable on her own. This film had some good gore effects and a few creepy moments, so it is going to get a RENT IT from me.
-Reals
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