I am eating my hat as you read this.....
So I learned a valuable lesson crow does not go good with coffee this early in the morning. Why am I eating crow?
Smith's 'Legend' grows with $76.5M debut
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071216/ap_en_mo/box_office
Sigh....so who saw it? And was it really this good?
- iamlegend
November 22, 2007
Seriously what happened to this film? Tell us and Win A Prize
This was supposed to be the next Friday the 13th, the next Nightmare Elm street? So what happened? The first person who can tell me what happened with this film...ie How much it did Box Office, straight to DVD, links to reviews, etc will win a sweet prize from the Haunted Report Prize Closet. So go comment below...make sure you use your email so we can contact you.
- iamlegend
November 8, 2007
Insane Horror Movie
Have you seen this film? Or it's prequel called Night Watch. They are the top two grossing Russian language films ever made and are some of the coolest films I have seen since Constantine....
October 31, 2007
Halloween:: The Curse of Michael Myers
Just watched this tonight and let me say it gets my vote as the Best Horror Film to feature random ass rock guitar licks ever! I swear every time someone gets killed it's like they unleash a 13 year old on Guitar Hero 3 on easy mode. Don't know what I am talking about? Just watch like 5 minutes of it. Overall I did enjoy it. And wtf is Paul Rudd doing in here? He's much too good an actor for this. The end scene with Paul Rudd talking to "Mike" as he calls him is priceless!
Anyway enjoy. It's our staff pick of the week.
- iamlegend and Crew
Possum Death Spree
This email crossed the desks of HR editors a while back so we thought we'd share it with you:
If you haven’t checked out AtomFilm's latest horror/comedy series, Possum Death Spree, please check it out at http://possum.atomfilms.com The series is a fun satire on global warming: Rising sea tides, soaring temperatures, ocean coral devastation — none of that matters. As permafrost melts due to global warming, a far more dangerous threat has emerged... The return of a prehistoric breed of killer possums.
The microsite also hosts an interactive game for Possum Death Spree. It is a fun first-person shooter game, where you aim to kill the possums before they attack the crew and you lose ammunition.
Lastly, they are also offering for download on the PDS microsite wallpapers, avatars and awesome possum sounds. LOL!
- iamlegend
Happy Hallloween!
October 30, 2007
F13 Morning After Regret
My head hurts and I feel dirty. Long night of drinking and waking up to a hot zombie chick? No it was the F13th marathon on AMC last night.....Ughhh I must of watched 2 or 3 in a row. Seriously can someone tell me why they made so damn many? Needless to say I stayed up way too late and watched way too much F13. So which is your favorite? Leave us a comment.
October 29, 2007
What's your favorite horror movie scene?
Over the last year, Horror Junk has collected interviews with dozens of horror movie icons as well as young up-and-comers to ask them 1 simple question: What's your favorite horror movie scene and why?
This video contains their answers:
You can get more information Here.
October 27, 2007
SAW IV - eBay Charity Poster Auction
Over at eBay charitable auctions you could win one of a few exclusive "SAW IV” posters signed by Tobin Bell, Darren Lynn Bousman, Lyriq Bent, Mark Burg, Oren Koules, Scott Patterson, & Betsy Russell.
Proceeds benefiting The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation. The winning bidders will receive studio certified posters signed by the cast and filmmakers along with a signed letter verifying their authenticity. So what are you waiting for?
October 21, 2007
(Maybe) Coming to a theater near you - SAW MARATHON!
Lionsgate Films has just announced that on Thursday October 25th Saw 1, 2 and 3 will be shown back-to-back in a marathon showing prior to the showing of Saw IV!
That's right, for all you Saw fans, be sure to check and see if a theater in your area is hosting this marathon and get involved!
To find theaters hosting the SAW marathon near you, please check your local listings or visit www.saw4.com for further information.
July 26, 2007
DVD Review:: The Pit and the Pendulum
I was sick, sick unto death, with that long agony, and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me.
--Edgar Allen Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum
Having grown up on TV shows like Davey and Goliath and Gumby, stop motion animation is an enjoyable form of storytelling for me. From the simplicity and witty fun of Gumby, to the richness of design found in The Nightmare Before Christmas, the stories are often magical and the characters always imaginative. Stop motion techniques can be used with clay, puppets, and realistic-looking articulated models like Willis O'Brien's emotive King Kong or Ray Harryhausen's creepy fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts.
Stop motion has been skillfully and shoddily used with many traditional and avant-garde horror and science-fiction films since around 1908, and lends itself to the short subject rather well, especially when the setting is simple, and the actions straightforward. Marc Lougee's stop motion adaptation of Poe's, The Pit and the Pendulum, is a good example of this. Poe's story is a straightforward narrative of despair, desperation, and horror. The anonymity of the villains, the delirium of the victim, and the increasingly horrific situations he confronts is ripe for a short film that captures this singular time frame of struggle against increasingly dire odds.
While Poe's story is required reading for many college kids, this visualization of the torments suffered by the unnamed prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition would be a welcomed addition to the curriculum. While a bit of license is used for dramatic visual effect (the prisoner doesn't have a metal helmet locked around his head in the original story), the short seven-minute film adheres to and captures the essence of terror with vivid detail in its CG-enhanced miniature sets and stylized puppets.
Continue reading "DVD Review:: The Pit and the Pendulum" »
July 25, 2007
Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon?
Yup you heard right. From the same guy who brought you SAW. And it looks sweet. Check out the trailer below if you don't believe me. This is a straight up revenge horror film.Death Sentence is an action packed, psychological thriller starring Kevin Bacon and directed by James Wan (the creator of Saw). Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night he witnesses something that changes him forever. Transformed by grief, Hume eventually comes to the disturbing conclusion that no length is too great when protecting his family.
July 17, 2007
Sunshine
This new space horror movie looks pretty sweet. It's being directed by Danny Boyle and here is the story. It begins in the year 2057, as our Sun begins to die and mankind faces the unthinkable: extinction. Earth¹s last hope lies with the Icarus II, a spacecraft manned with eight men and women led by Captain Kaneda. Their mission -- to deliver a nuclear device designed to reignite the Sun. Deep into their voyage, far out of radio contact with Earth, the lonely, restless crew hears a distress beacon from the Icarus I, the ship which disappeared without a trace on the same mission seven years earlier.
But when an attempt at rescue throws the Icarus II into jeopardy, the increasingly desperate crew soon find themselves literally gripped in the shadow of the Sun, fighting for their lives, their sanity, and the future of us all. Check the trailer below and the Web Site here.
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July 3, 2007
DVD Review :: Primeval
Director Michael Katleman's Primeval is a film filled with monsters. There's Gustave, the four-legged, very hungry kind, and Little Gustave, among the two-legged and also very hungry—for power—kind. But that doesn't make Primeval a good horror film. In fact, as both monsters vie for who's the baddest of the bad, the story's tension, and any hope of scary shocks, is lost as the film flip-flops between social commentary, which demands lingering, thoughtful scenes, and horror, which requires the exact opposite.
Based on the real-life crocodile that's been attacking people along the Rusizi River in Burundi, Africa, you'd think the story would pretty much write itself: the largest man-eating crocodile in history, born out of the genocidal civil-war raging in Burundi. With so many bodies floating around in the river, it's no wonder Gustave developed a taste for human flesh. Yet, Katleman's film misses the real horror of this human tragedy, and instead focuses on characters and situations that neatly fall into the usual square pegs, square holes.
One reluctant news reporter (Dominic Purcell), and one determined to become more than just a fluff, cute-story animal reporter (Brooke Langton), square-off and head to Burundi. Along with them for the ride, there's the hip, inner-city camera man (Orlando Jones). And, not to miss out on any of the clichés, they meet up with the herpetologist that wants to capture the man-eater alive—so you know what's going to happen to him, right?—and the savvy African hunter (Jurgen Prochnow), whose vendetta with the crocodile makes him itching to blow it up with a grenade or two. Complicating matters is the genocidal war raging in Burundi, and Little Gustave, the warlord that controls the part of the country our intrepid crocodile hunters must travel through. It's these two, seemingly complimentary themes of evil and monstrosity, from both Gustaves, that work badly together. When the hunt for Gustave becomes the struggle to run from Gustave and Little Gustave, the interweaving of both is handled with uninspired dialog and predictable events that fail to build or even sustain tension.
Continue reading "DVD Review :: Primeval" »
June 24, 2007
1408 :: It's simply a Evil F*#$ing Room.....
Oh Samuel L Jackson how do you rock so much? The is of course my favorite quote from Samuel in his new movie called 1408. 1408 opened this weekend and stars Samuel L. Jackson and a John Cusak. This qoute comes after John Cusak's character goes on rant about what is causing all the problems in 1408. "Is it ghosts, so called poltergists, long legged boogie men?"
To which Samuel L. Jackson replies "It's simply a Evil F#@$ing Room...". Awesome. Having never really seen a John Cusak movie before I thought he did a wonderful acting job. The best part about 1408 is not that it's a killer classic man vs. haunted environment movie, it's that it's actually scary!
Yes I said scary and I am sticking by it? Aren't there lots of scary films out right now you ask. Well no. I mean the previews of this film were Captivity, Halloween and some other piece of nameless crap. (Maybe Hostel III?). The problem with these films are they are not scary. I've said it a million times before and I am sure I will said it a million times again, torture/splatter movies are not scary. There is nothing to think about. Let me ruin captivity for you. Girl and guy have sex. Bad guy watches and is pissed. He then captures said girl and tortures her to near death before she escapes. It's like the iPhone. All sexy and no brain. There is nothing in any of those films that creeps into your mind and make a nest. 1408 did just that. At least once last night I got that creepy feeling and went to my downstairs window to look around (see the film and you will understand why) Sure there are jumps and boo scares in the current trend of torture films but nothing that actually creeps you out or trips you out. I mean what is the takeaway from Hostel 2?
1408 is all about that. This film is really reminiscent of some other Stephen King films. The one it reminds me most of is "The Shinning". This film is all about a selfish man and what lengths he will go to make things right with his family. Also this movie is not just a horror movie, it's a trip movie. Much in the vein of "The Shinning" or "Silent Hill" this film takes us for a trip between what's real and what's not. John Cusak's reality is constantly being played with along with ours. And in the end that's what makes 1408 not only a good horror movie but a good movie overall. So prepare to get scared and loose your mind a little. That's what good films are all about....
- iamlegend
June 18, 2007
Check out the Devil's Trade
Ghost House Pictures and FEARnet present an original series called "Devil's Trade". They started on the 6th of this month and are up to episode 6. The series is rated TVMA so keep the volume down at work ;-) It's looking really good so far. Too bad they don't let people embed it on other sources.
Check out the trailer here .
June 13, 2007
DVD Review :: Hannibal Rising
Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste...
If you meet me, have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste...
--The Rolling Stones
How does one give sympathy to the devil? That's the challenge Thomas Harris faced when writing his background story on the birth of one of the most riveting fictional human monsters, Hannibal Lecter.
Of course, the first question to ask is why do it? Giving tea and sympathy to a consummately evil character that sends shivers down your spine with just that look and just that smile is quite an accomplishment. Why ruin it? When the Borg where humanized in Star Trek The Next Generation, the franchise lost a perfectly frightening bunch of monsters with no redeeming social values, and future stories lacked the visceral fear of being assimilated without remorse, of losing all that you hold dear in the wink of an eye and there was nothing you could do about it. Bad call there.
Thomas Harris made a bad call here, too. Not only does he try to explain why Hannibal is a cannibal, but he chooses to do it prosaically. His characters speak with flowery-mouth intensity appropriate for literature, not screen dialog. And for a laconic character that's short on words but long on cuisine, that's not a good thing; a known unknown evil is more worrisome and scary than a known known evil, definitely.
Director Peter Webber also makes a bad call by ponderously posing every scene with self-conscious importance. This slows the pacing throughout the movie, and scenes of visceral intensity, where Hannibal begins to succumb to his guilt and insanity, are held back because of it. And don't get me started on those James A. Michener-styled background tableaus. With near-risible martial arts aunt, offerings to ancestral samurai, and a poorly thought through revelatory exposition that is capped by Hannibal crying "you ate my sister!" I imagine lots of popcorn bounced off theater screens everywhere as audiences chuckled and shifted uneasily in their seats--for all the wrong reasons.
Adding to this undercooked cinematic souffle, Gaspard Ulliel postures a lot, as if doing a Vogue layout for Hannibal Lecter fashions. His ominous leering and malicious grinning doesn't evoke any of the uncanny calmness of Anthony Hopkins later, more menacing portrayal. It appears the look of the film was far more important than the substance.
Continue reading "DVD Review :: Hannibal Rising" »
June 11, 2007
iamlegend
Let me take a second to set the record straight. My alias is taken from the awesome novella by Richard Matheson about the last man on earth that was written in 1954. My name was not taken from this new Will Smith movie. So when the film comes out (and if it sucks) be sure to not give me a hard time. Read the book and enjoy and remember I was here first people........
June 5, 2007
DVD Review :: Murder Set Pieces
Around two-thirds into Murder-Set-Pieces I looked at my watch. I don't do that often when watching a film. In this case, though, I looked at it twice. I really wanted to get it over with, and, unlike some reviewers less meticulous (or masochistic) than I, I always watch the whole movie just to make sure I don't miss anything that remotely resembles art, or scares, or anything that stands out as a memorable horror-moment. I was disappointed that I didn't find anything like that here.
At the end of the movie I sighed with relief and wondered what I ever did to the staff at The Haunted Report to warrant them sending this emotionless and tensionless excursion into the mind and actions of a one-dimensional, neo-Nazi, muscle-bound serial killing photographer prowling Las Vegas for his next torture-gig photo shoot. America's Top Model has more tension. Maybe I should send the staff a fruit-basket for the holidays. Then maybe they'd send me the A stuff.
While many of the reviews for Murder-Set-Pieces mercilessly castigate director Nick Palumbo as a misogynistic this or racist that, that's not quite the vibe I picked up. He's just doing what any director does--telling his unsavory story through the camera lens. I actually thought Palumbo did a solid job of direction, but just made some questionable choices with the material; like his confusing use of ill-placed, tinkling-music, flashbacks and shock-montages into the fractured mind of the nutbag photographer, or the spin-art overuse of blood on everything in sight. Then there's the bordering-on-comic way he'd cut to the photographer driving in his Mustang, again and again, prowling night-time Las Vegas for more nudie-cutie opportunities, with the same overused audio of the car's engine racing and sputtering.
But the most important directorial misstep here is the lack of tension-building suspense and the pedestrian way in which each murder-set-piece is handled. At no time are any of the tortures or murders the least bit shocking, the least bit emotionally draining. We follow the photographer around, as he bounces off the padded walls of his mind, as if we're carrying his equipment bag and nothing more. And when he whips out that straight razor, there's no fearful whimper from us, no gasps. Perhaps I'd have been more drawn in with the uncut version of the film, but Anchor Bay's R-rated DVD only implies defilement and torture, and cuts away from the chainsaw through head type of chunky violence gore-hounds love. So gore-hounds be warned: look for the uncut version if you are so inclined. As for me, I'd rather have more meat and less sauce.
Which brings us to the storyline itself, which is less meaty and less filling than a horror movie should be. Due in large part to Sven Garrett's lifeless performance as the photographer with too much killing time on his hands. Even though he suffers from manic bouts of shouting in German, and nose-bleeds as he flashbacks in weird vignettes with him as a boy walking train tracks while a flirtatious blonde parades in front of him, while his look is right, that's where his energy for the role ends. When he pumps iron, all sweaty and gritty, he still doesn't pump enough energy to light a diode,let alone a performance that cries out for psychotic, balls-to the-wall-abandon. His torture and killing sprees are monotone, with the only lively color coming from the blood all around him. So what if he likes to eat his meat raw and bloody. Without the gusto, it's just undercooked.
Continue reading "DVD Review :: Murder Set Pieces" »
May 30, 2007
Pakistani zombie film "Zibahkhana" debuts
"Zibahkhana"(Hell's Ground), a Pakistani zombie flick said to have been shot in less than a month on a single high-def cam probably won't be coming soon to a Theater near you but looks quite cool. The plot, not that one needs much of one in a zombie flick, involves a gang of teenagers en route to a rock concert. Their path to the show is blocked by a protest against polluted drinking water. The teens detour around the protesters on an old country road, and end up in the hands of hungry, undead psychopaths who munch on them with great delight. Sounds good to us. Anyone seen this and want to comment?
May 29, 2007
Do you know Joshua?
JOSHUA is the tale of Brad (Sam Rockwell) and Abby (Vera Farmiga) Cairn, perfect Manhattan parents in a perfect Manhattan apartment whose perfect life begins to crack after the birth of their second child Lily. Shortly after Lily arrives home, a dark side of prodigy son Joshua slowly begins to reveal itself. The film is coming out July 6th and is directed by George Ratliff. Check out the trailer below on this creepy little horror movie.
May 23, 2007
Day Watch - DNEVNOI DOZOR
This I am excited about. I really enjoyed the first in the series which was called Night Watch. Those Russians are making some great films. Featuring the cinematic vision of cutting-edge Director/Writer Timur Bekmambetov, DAY WATCH (DNEVNOI DOZOR) is the next installment in the best-selling sci-fi novels of Sergei Lukyanenko.
When the previous installment, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR), was released in its native Russia in July 2004, it became an instant smash hit breaking all film gross records in post-Soviet history. A dazzling mix of state-of-the-art visual effects, amazing action sequences, and nail-biting horror set in contemporary Moscow, DAY WATCH revolves around the conflict and balance maintained between the forces of light and darkness -- the result of a medieval truce between the opposing sides. Check the trailer below.
May 21, 2007
Go check out a good horror movie and...
get to see the first five minutes of a crappy one for free. That's right kids you know I am a Hostel basher but this does look like a cool deal. The first five minutes of Eli Roth’s Hostel crappy sequel will be playing on every print of BUG, which debuts in theaters on May 25th. BUG does look pretty sweet. But Hostel II....really? Gore plus naked chick plus Gore does not equal a good horror movie. In fact check out the comments on the MySpace page about this trailer. I think the fans are finally waking up. I do hope he puts out Thanksgiving though....
Hostel II
HOSTEL 2 - IN THEATRES JUNE 8th
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving trailer (Explicit) - Eli Roth
May 17, 2007
RISE : Blood Hunter
Hmmmm this might actual be a good vampire movie. If only for the good actors that are going to be in it. Including Lucy Liu and the guy from "The Shield". RISE: Blood Hunter from Ghost House Pictures, stars Lucy Liu and Michael Chiklis. It is a supernatural thriller in which reporter Sadie Blake (Liu) wakes up in a morgue to discover she is no longer among the living. She vows revenge against the cult responsible for putting her there and hunts them down one by one. Chiklis plays 'Rawlins,' a haunted police detective whose daughter is killed by the same cult and seeks answers for her gruesome death. Hits the streets June 1st. Check out the trailer here and let us know what you think by leaving us some comments.
May 13, 2007
Film Week at the Haunted Report
Just letting you know this week is going to be Film week at The Haunted Report. We are going to cover a whole bunch of new horror films coming out, tell you about some cool film festivals as well as post reviews of 28 weeks later and more....oh and don't forget our very own Norm Glenn's review of HauntCON 2007.
Thanks!
iamlegend and crew
May 10, 2007
Lionsgate's Bug
Lionsgate is the king of horror lately aren't they.....well except for Hostel. Bug is about a lonely waitress with a tragic past, Agnes rooms in a run-down motel, living in fear of her abusive, recently paroled ex-husband. But when Agnes begins a tentative romance with Peter, an eccentric, nervous drifter, she starts to feel hopeful again - until the first bugs arrive...Directed by Academy Award winner William Friedkin (THE FRENCH CONNECTION, THE EXORCIST) and adapted by Tracy Letts from his hit off-Broadway play, BUG stars Golden Globe nominee Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr. It starts on May 25th. Check out the trailer here.
- iamlegend
May 3, 2007
The Poughkeepsie Tapes at Tribecca Film Fest
Throughout the 1990s, a serial killer terrorized upstate New York. After a decade-long crime spree conducted largely under the radar of law enforcement, the killer left behind the most disturbing collection of evidence homicide detectives had ever seen hundreds of homemade videotapes that chronicle the stalking, abduction, murder, and disposal of his victims.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes examines these horrific tapes at length: what they reveal about the killer, why they were made, and how FBI profilers have used them to better understand violent, psychopathic behavior. The Poughkeepsie Tapes combines interviews surrounding the devastating impact of the Water Street Butcher with shocking footage from the tapes themselves.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes documents the actual experience of encountering a deranged serial killer. Never before has an audience been exposed so directly to terror so real. For the first time, the public will see the horrifying images that FBI profilers have studied for years. Sounds cool to us and the trailer is pretty killer. If your in NY go check it out....
2007 Tribeca Film Festival Screenings:
Fri, May 4, 11:30pm @ AMC Village VII Theater 3
Sat, May 5, Midnight @ AMC Village VII Theater 1
The Poughkeepsie Tapes Trailer
May 1, 2007
Film Review :: Dinocroc
How does one describe a movie that's bland? And believe me, I'm fighting the temptation to go off on a tangent with sentences with the word 'crock' in them. While that might help spice the review, it's an obvious but cheap shot. Oh, hell...
This movie is a crock. What makes it a crock is its bland by the numbers characters and action, superficial dialog that's by the letters, and less than stellar computer graphics work that reminds you how bland everything else is. It also has that annoying kid from Lizzie McGuire, Jake Thomas.
Thomas actually does as good a job as any of the other actors, but he's not given much to do. At least they didn't spike his hair. But now that you've got me started, what about his dog, Lucky? Yes, that dog, the one with three legs called Lucky. Will someone yell at the scriptwriter for me please? Thomas spends the movie--mostly riding around on his bike--looking for Lucky, the three-legged, run-away dog.
If that weren't bad enough, there's the evil corporation, Gereco--stop me if you've heard this one--conducting secret genetic experiments on man-eating monsters. What, rabbits too hard for them? So these experiments blend the genes, by accident of course (wink, wink), of a Sarcosuchus (don't even go there) and a dinosaur. It promptly escapes its holding pen because an idiot scientist walks right in--as it's killing everything else in the pen--leaves the door wide open, and gets her throat ripped out as she tries zapping it with a pocket-sized stun gun.
Hey, you, stop that groaning, I'm not done yet: there's more.
Joanna Pacula plays the usual 'evil mouthpiece' for Gereco who denies everything while they send their top man-eating monster hunter to recapture it. Using Lucky, the three-legged dog for bait--oh, so that's what happened to Lucky--Lucky really is lucky, and high-tails it just as the hunter gets eaten, leaving only his legs behind. The CGI blur happens so fast, I can see why they spend more time just doting on those legs.
Anyway, one of the highlights in this film, and that's stretching it a mile, is what unexpectedly happens to Thomas as he goes searching for Lucky late at night in Gereco's wildlife preserve.
They spent a little more time on the CGI with that one, but it ends pretty abruptly. What really should have ended abruptly were the dialog exchanges between the crocodile hunter they bring in (Costos Mandylor), the Grant's Lake Animal Shelter control officer (Jane Longenecker), and Thomas' brother (Matt Borlenghi). The action, what little there is of it, bogs down when an old romance--queue the piano tinkling--is rekindled, and the croc hunter tries some really bad pick-up lines.
A predictable, insert scene here, time-killer has two drunk hunters poaching on the Gereco wildlife preserve; scratch two poachers. To speed things up, the Gereco scientist hunting the monster spills the beans about the whole mess to Longenecker and Borlenghi, and they quickly volunteer to help him. As they search in the preserve, they come across a pile of man-eating monster doo-doo and the scientist quips "Holy sh*t." I swear I'm not making this up. If I were making this up it would be a hell of a lot better, I can tell you that.
Continue reading "Film Review :: Dinocroc" »
April 17, 2007
Alone with Her :: Film Review
Editors Note: This is our first in a series of Film reviews done by our newest cast member John Cozzoli / ILoz Zoc of the excellent Zombo's Closet of Horror. So enjoy as he reviews "Alone with Her".
Meet Doug. Full-time profession: stalker.
In Alone with Her, a film by Eric Nicholas, we get to know just about everything there is to know about Doug. It isn't pretty, but we do get to realize that Doug is a loser; a loser in relationships, a loser in his approach to life, a loser that, simply put, has nothing better to do than to keep trying at creating artificial relationships with women to boost his superficial ego.
That's where Amy comes in. She's just coming off a failed relationship so she's vulnerable. Just the kind of woman Doug likes: someone he can fabricate a fantasy world of 'Doug the Magnificent around.' Maybe shes the one who will buy his fantasy world of perfection, maybe not, but in Alone with Her, we get to watch every sordid detail of Doug's relentless infatuation with Amy, and how he manipulates her to believe he's a nice guy; a guy that has lots in common with her.
But that's only because he's bugged her home and her life, and he's there every single minute, watching and listening.
We first see Doug as he truly is: a camera stuck surreptitiously in a black bag. He doesn't go anywhere without it. He sees through it, feels through it, even hunts vulnerable and lonely woman through it. In fact, his whole point of view is always through the camera's lens, and Nicholas films most of the story that way. We watch Doug through a camera lens as he watches Amy through his camera lens.
He first glimpses Amy in the park as she's watching lovers get it on. She starts crying. One failed relationship worn on a sleeve to go, please, and that's the hook for Doug. He's a sucker for stuff like that. A brief trip to the electronic surveillance store and Doug's next stop is Amy's apartment. He rigs it with cameras and microphones to pick up every conversation, every bathroom break, and every personal nuance of Amy's lonely life.
Through his camera and intrusion into Amy's life, we're forced to see and hear Amy as he does. But there's no voyeuristic pleasure in this because Nicholas also forces us to see and hear Doug as he contrives 'chance' meetings with her at the local coffee or spends alone time with her in her bedroom--through a small monitor that he watches constantly. In one chilling moment, Doug puts his head down to sleep as Amy, on the monitor, puts her head down on her pillow to sleep; an indication that he has no life without play-acting himself into believing she matters to him. And when she pleasures herself with the handle of a hairbrush, he's there pleasuring himself, too, but through the monitor: the epitome of safe sex.
Continue reading "Alone with Her :: Film Review" »
April 16, 2007
Gonna eat your brains and gain your knowledge...
That's right I saw Grindhouse this weekend. And you know what? I have no idea why this is not doing better in theaters! I laughed my ass off. Not because it was bad or not scary. I laughed my ass off because both of the films were really well done for 1970's homages. I think a lot of people have the idea that these are serious horror movies in the vain of Halloween or Psycho or something.
Guess what people? Your missing the point. These films are supposed to be homages to those cheap-sleazy-funny horror movies of the 70's. So when you go see Grindhouse just pretend that it's 1975 and your paying 4.50 for 2 films plus trailers. Oh and did I mention the trailers? They are awesome. My favorite two by far are "Don't" and "Thanksgiving". Yes, I did like Thanksgiving. I know it was done by Eli Roth (who I like to bash on) but on this he did a really good job. So congrats on that Eli. My other favorite thing is that sev