One of the most popular horror films of 2019, Jordan Peele’s US starring Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther, 12 Years a Slave), Winston Duke (Black Panther), Emmy® winner Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Mad Men”) and Tim Heidecker (The Comedy, “Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories”) hits home on Digital June 4th and the tasty physical media June 18th. Ok, the whole two week delay between Digital and Physical releases really ticks me off and is just irritating. Check out the official press release to see all the tasty extras.
Ancient ruins are discovered with a map to an alien world. Believing it to be the origins of humanity, a team sets of to find the alien home planet. But after they land, they discover they may have imperiled humankind.
Starring Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender.
Directed by Ridley Scott.
Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof.
Produced by David Giler, Walter Hill, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott.
Genre: Sci-Fi Horror Action Thriller. Check out all our reviews at www.justseenit.com
Six tourists and a guide travel to a Russian city poisoned by the Chernobyl nuclear accident. But as they become stranded, they discover they are being hunted. Unable to flee, they must fight for their lives against a secret terror.
Starring Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski and Olivia Dudley.
Directed by Bradley Parker.
Written by Shane Van Dyke and Carey Van Dyke.
Produced by Oren Peli and Brian Witten.
Genre: Horror. Check out all of our reviews at www.justseenit.com
Sarah and her father clean up their summer cottage after it is vandalized by squatters. But during their first night there, they hear noises from upstairs. When her father disappears, Sarah must fight for both their lives against an unimaginable terror.
Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese and Eric Sheffer Stevens
Directed By Chris Kentis and Laura Lau.
Written by Gustavo Hernández (based on the film by) and Laura Lau (screenplay).
Produced by Agnes Mente and Laura Lau.
Genre: Horror.
I was one of those people who was really excited to find out that the use of 3 D in movies was not only coming back, but that it had been updated into something called ‘RealD’. So imagine my disappointment when, for the most part, all the technology was being used for was to created ‘textured layers’ in movies. I was so disappointed in fact, that I stop wasting my money on the ‘RealD’ versions of new releases and just went to see the 2 D versions. That is, unless I got a free pass to see the ‘RealD’ version. Which is exactly what happened for me with ‘Final Destination 5’. So I sat down, put on my ‘RealD’ glasses and hoped for the best.
What I got was beyond my expectations of ‘hope for the best’. From the moment the opening credits of ‘Final Destination 5’ began, I was in 3 D viewing heaven!. None of that namby-pamby ‘just for textured background’ stuff for this movie. ‘Final Destination 5’ had 3 D and they knew how to use it! Objects literally seemed to fly right out of the screen and into your face. It made you jump in your seat and flinch back. Judging from the sounds of appreciation from the audience around me, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who had been disappointed by the way ‘RealD’ was being used in other movies. It was clear to me that many audience goers who pay the money to see ‘RealD’ want actually 3 D effects. In ‘Final Destination 5’, the audience gets those actual 3 D effects.
My giddiness over the excellent use of 3 D effects aside, I also found ‘Final Destination 5’ to be a highly entertaining horror movie; the best sequel of them all to the original ‘Final Destination’.
Airlock Alpha.com [formerly SyFyPortal.com] announced the winners of its fan-voted Portal Awards [formerly the SyFy Portal Genre Awards] this week. Favorites like Battlestar Galactica, Lost and The Dark Knight received few awards – though some popular movies and long-running series did take up the slack.
The biggest upsets were Doctor Who’s Catherine Tate beating out Galactica’s Mary McDonnell and Star Trek taking Best Movie over The Dark Knight. The complete list of winners follows after the jump.
While millions more movie-goers know Sam Raimi from his three Spider-Man movies, a much smaller – better probably more dedicated – group of Raimi fans have been wondering when the heck he was going to do another horror movie! Now that Drag Me to Hell is finally in theaters, it is time to rejoice. Sam Raimi has come home!
Christine Brown [Alison Lohman] works in a bank, where she’s attempting to buck the system and gain a promotion to assistant manager – ahead of new guy Ray [Reggie Lee], who routinely butters up their boss, Mr. Jacks [David Paymer] with Lakers tickets. We know she’s a nice person – a good-hearted person – from an early sequence where she spends time with her boyfriend, and brand new professor, Clay Dalton. They’re a sweet couple, but not overly so.
When Mrs. Ganush [Lorna Raver] comes into the bank seeking a third extension on her mortgage, Christine is subtly informed by Mr. Jacks that assistant managers have to make the hard decisions – and this is a hard decision. So, Christine ignores her heart and goes for the promotion, placing the elderly woman in the position of having to beg for the first time in her life. What follows is madness…
Although Drag Me to Hell is less quirky than the Evil Dead Trilogy [not that hard to do], it has its quirks and makes them work by giving us characters we can relate to. The script, by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi, is brisk and concise. Sam Raimi translates it to the big screen with brio. The movie zips along at a perfect pace – quickly enough that the glimpses of Something Nasty, and the various physical gags that produce the events that drive Christine nearly to the brink, but not so quickly as to let everything run together.
Raimi pulls us into the movie by giving us characters we can relate to, in Christine and Clay, then takes our investment in the characters and twists it just a bit. Although Christine may be morally wrong to refuse Mrs. Ganush, she’s trying to do something to make her situation – and therefore clay’s as well – better.
Between the subtle CG; the mostly terrific practical effects; the sound effects and music, and several solid performances, Raimi manages something rare – a character driven horror movie. He also realizes that it’s best, sometimes, to let the audience’s imaginations run free, rather than inundating it with gore effects. It’s that movement in the corner of one’s idea that is the scariest. That’s why Drag Me to Hell is the year’s best horror movie.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s world renowned annual horror expo, the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear has landed Bruce “The Chin” Campbell as its 2009 Guest of Honour – and B-movie producer/director/writer Roger Corman as Featured Guest.
Campbell is, of course, known worldwide for playing Ash, the lead [if not necessarily the hero] of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead Trilogy – as well as unorthodox performances in zillions of B-movies ranging from the jealous ex-boyfriend in Living in Oblivion to an elderly Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep.
Corman is responsible for unleashing the talents of such legends as Jack Nicholson [the original Little Shop of Horror], James Cameron [Piranha] and Francis Ford Coppola [The Terror] upon an unsuspecting world.
Both are regarded as quality guests who can relate anecdotes with the best of them – and having both headline the same event is a definite coup.
The Rue Morgue Festival of Fear guest list also includes: Udo Kier [Suspiria], Barbara Steele [Black Sunday, The Pit and the Pendulum], James Duval [Donny Darko’s Frank the Bunny], Tom Savini [the king of low-budget practical FX], Max Brooks [author of World War Z], Linda Hamilton [The Terminator, T2 & Beauty & the Beast], Lloyd Kaufman [the madman behind TROMA], and Len Wein [creator of Swamp Thing and Wolverine], among others.
The 2009 Rue Morgue Festival of Horror/Canadian National Horror Expo will be held in the Metro Toronto Convention Center from August 28-30.
Every time I review a horror film, I start off by saying how much I hate the genre, that I don’t get the fascination people have then I go on to say how much I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the cheesiness of – insert film name here. So maybe it’s time I admit that yeah, I kind of like the genre. There’s something pure about it, these films aren’t trying to break conventions, or be original or creative, as a general rule a good horror film knows what it wants to be, adheres to the rules and delivers exactly what you would expect from whatever franchise you happen to be watching. In this case we’re talking about the brand new remake of Friday the 13th. Before the screening I got into this conversation with a woman about how religion is treated in films and I’m sitting there thinking to myself a) I hate talking about religion, go away and b) why are you here, if you are so offended by how religion is treated in films? I told her she was at the wrong film then, no response. So to gracefully exit the conversation I whipped out my Kindle and started to read. Subject change accomplished. There’s a point to this meander, which I failed the make to this women – horror films punish all the sinners. Only virginal, non-drinking, non-cussing, non-taking the lord’s name in vain girl survives.
This new remake is a Michael Bay production (Producer) so at the very least I wasn’t surprised by the overly good production values of the movie. It, weirdly, both detracted from the horror experience and enhanced it by making everything seem so “realistic” looking. This is because a large portion of the film took place during the day, so the grass was green and fresh, when Jared Padalecki (Clay Miller) was riding his motorcycle through the corn fields I was thinking, “why am I seeing decent looking corn fields in a Friday the 13th movie?” One question this film finally answered was, why the heck people continue to come to Crystal Lake. It’s for it’s overabundance of awesome weed. The place is flowing with it, only problem is, you touch Jason’s stash and that’s your ass. So I think this movie is a message movie – stay away from hash and it can finally be said, put a black person in a horror film and they’ll act just as dumb as white people. Continue reading MOVIE REVIEW: Friday the 13, A Smoking Good Time, Michelle’s Look→
When I scored a pass to see My Bloody Valentine 3-D, I wasn’t sure it was a good thing – but since I went into theater with absolutely no expectation, I was pleasantly surprised. I never saw the original, but this new version – written by Todd Farmer [from a story by Stephen Miller and the original screenplay by John Beaird] and directed by Patrick Lussier – contains all the elements of a classic horror movie: gore, mutilations, laughs, a genuine mystery and some gratuitous nudity.
More than twenty years ago, a miner named Harry Warden survived a mine collapse by killing the other miners trapped with him in order to make what little oxygen remained last until he could be rescued. Even so, he came out of the mine in a coma. A year later, he came out of the coma and when on a killing spree – first at the hospital, then back at the mine where a bunch of teenagers were partying in the closed tunnel. Only four of the teens survived: Tom Hanniger [Jensen Ackles], whose father owned the mine and who left town right afterward; Sarah [Jaime King], Tom’s girlfriend who winds up married to Axel Palmer [Kerr Smith], who is now sheriff, and Irene [Betsy Rue], who now has a thing for truck drivers [and provides the aforementioned gratuitous nudity]. Warden is reported dead – killed by then Sheriff Burke [Tom Atkins].
Now, ten years later, Tom has finally returned to town to sell his share in the mine’s ownership and everyone is unhappy about that because if the mine closes, the town dies. And the killings begin again. Since unreported details are accurate, the townsfolk begin to suspect that Warden is back. As the killing mount, we’re given scenes that implicate former miners, Tom and even Sheriff Palmer.
Director Lussier keeps things moving along at a fast enough clip that any plotholes are skimmed over before we can recognize them as such. The 3-D effects are frequently dazzling right from the second the Lionsgate logo appears [when the audience oohs and ahhs over the studio logo/introduction, you know the effects are special] and are used in ways both subtle and sledgehammer obvious [it’s the mix that makes the more obvious effects work.
The entire cast is better than average, which gives the film just enough humanity to make the horror work, and the resolution is shrewdly realized. Both Ackles and Smith are given more to do than they usually display [or in Smith’s case, got to do] on their hit TV series and they tackle their roles with enthusiasm.
My Bloody Valentine 3-D is one of the better horror movies of the last several years because it knows what it is and isn’t afraid to be just that. In that regard, it shares a lot with some of the great horror films of the seventies and eighties. It may not be the groundbreaker that Halloween and Friday the 13th were, but it’s better than most of the raft of imitators that followed them. In short, it’s good, bloody, sexy fun.
