Horror Movie Reviews

You will find on this page all the latest Horror Movie Reviews. My reviews are usually short and avoid spoilers. The idea is to give you a quick feedback on whether I believe a movie is worth watching or not.

Feel free to agree and disagree in the comments or submit your own reviews.

House of 9 (2005) Review

September 9, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Nine strangers, with no apparent connection between them are abducted: drugged, kidnapped and sealed in a house together

My Quick Review: What a waste of time and opportunities. What is supposed to be a study in human nature just turns out to be a supreme borefest with bad fake british accents.

House of 9 is one of the numerous attempt to make a movie based on a simple premice: strangers are locked in a place and only one will/must survive in order to win.

I usually really appreciate this type of movie and there is, most of the time, some nice gimmick to make this kind of movie more watchable (traps they need to avoid, puzzles they need to solve, difficult choices to make, one of the people is a plant…..).

In House of 9 though, you won’t find anything like that. We are just stuck with 9 unbearable people who will end up killing each other. Not one character is likable (ok maybe Kelly Brook’s but she is not even showing any skin). Dennis Hopper is laughable (why have him play a british priest???) and the rest of the cast are just stereotypical a-holes.

The advertised budget was 6 millions USD and it does not show on screen. Thankfully for the director Steven R. Monroe, he went on directing the remake of I Spit on Your Grave, a much better movie than House of 9.

The only thing redeeming this film was its last 30 seconds. But most of the people watching probably already turned off their tv at this point.

My Rating: 4.5/10

Director: Steven R. Monroe

Origin: UK

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The Call of Cthulhu (2005) Review

September 5, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: (from IMDb) While sorting the affairs of his late Uncle, a man accidentally stumbles across a series of dark secrets connected to an ancient horror waiting to be freed

My Quick Review: The Call of Cthulhu is an interesting take on H.P Lovecraft’s beloved short story. Indeed, by using the B&W style of early 20’s silent movies, the movie succeeds in recreating the actual period the book was written in.

The set design, the cinematography, the make up and the acting all contribute to make anyone believe that The Call of Cthulhu was actually shot during those times, when in reality it is a modern film.

The story follows closely with the book and is probably the most faithful rendition of an HP Lovecraft book ever put on film.

With that being said, I’m not a Lovecraft fan and the movie bore me to death. Eveidently I don’t belong to the target market and fans of the writer have usually given high ratings to The Call of Cthulhu.

So if you are one of Lovecraft’s many fans you should definitively go watch The Call of Cthulhu. If you aren’t, you might want to pick up another movie.

My Rating: 4/10 (for non-fans) 7/10 (for fans)

Director: Andrew Leman

Origin: US

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The Fury (1978) Review

September 2, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A government agent is determined to come to his son’s rescue, when a sinister official kidnaps him to harbor his extremely powerful psychic abilities.

My Quick Review: The Fury is Brian de Palma’s follow up to Carrie and we can find similar themes in both movies, namely teenagers with psychic abilities.

The Fury is more a thriller than a pure horror movie but the topic and some scenes have a definite horror feeling. Unfortunately the movie never achieves a fine balance between action, sci-fi and horror and therefore fails in most parts.

There are many scenes in the middle of the movies that made me yawn from boredom and having Kirk Douglas in the main role is more a distraction than anything else.

Biran de Palma, as usual, saves The Fury from being completely lackluster, by creating compelling killings and “telepathic” scenes. His direction and editing, while not as tight as in “Carrie” provides some necessary thrills. But it’s clearly not enough to hold The Fury together and make me recommend it to casual viewers and horror fans alike.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Director: Brian De Palma

Origin: US

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The Burning (1981) Review

August 31, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.

My Quick Review: The Burning was one of the many movies that followed the success of Friday the 13th, and it’s also the first feature film bearing the credit “Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein”. It was banned in some countries upon its release and is one of the lesser known slasher of the 80’s.

But trust me, The Burning has everything you would want in your 80’s slasher: T&A (including full frontal), jerky and horny teenagers, useless adults, gory kills, killer theme music, unrealistically strong killer, cheap jump scares and so on and so forth.

What makes the Burning a bit different for me was its Giallo influence, most notably through the use of music and the way some kills are shot. There is actually more style in this film than most of the early 80’s indie horror flicks.

On the negative side, the ending is fairly disappointing (we always knew who the killer was and there is no grand climax), and the script is average at best.

What remains nowadays of The Burning is a movie, at times very cheesy, but that’s what makes the charm of classic slashers and, to be fair, a very efficient “popcorn scare” film.

My Rating: 6/10

Director: Tony Maylam

Origin: US

Click Here to get the Awesome Blu-Ray/DVD Collector’s Edition of The Burning!

Kuntilanak (2006) Review

August 29, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A young college student moves to a new boarding house in a very haunted area. Rumours had it that a Kuntilanak (the she-demon) lived up in a hundreds of years old tree near the house. Soon, people around her died one by one tragically….

My Quick Review: Kuntilanak, based on a local urban legend, is a very popular horror franchise in Indonesia. The always gorgeous Julie Estelle (Macabre) stars as Sam, the young college student with a “gift” for the occult, and Rizal Mantovani directs, as he will for all subsequent sequel.

Kuntilanak is a very creepy movie with quite a few “jump out of your seat” moments. Each and every appearance by the Kuntilanak has managed to raise some hair on the back of my skin. It’s interesting that I did watch The Conjuring the night before at the theatre and was not as easily scared as I was when watching this film (The Conjuring is definitively the better movie but not the scarier).

The whole visual art of the movie adds to the spooky feeling and the haunted boardhouse is nicely shot as well. The acting, while not stellar is above average and there is plenty of eye candy from the cast (Julie Estelle and Ratu Felisha in particular). The gore is low key and while not entirely original, Kuntilanak is one of the Best Indonesian Horror movie I’ve seen so far.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Director: Rizal Mantovani

Origin: Indonesia