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Aliens

Grabbers (2012) Review

November 18, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

grabbers reviewSynopsis: When an island off the coast of Ireland is invaded by bloodsucking aliens, the heroes discover that getting drunk is the only way to survive.

Quick Review: The british have become masters of horror comedy in recent years, especially since the success of Shawn of The Dead. Grabbers the most recent entry in the genre.

I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by the  quite serious tone taken by the events and, especially in the first half, there is a very good balance between genuine scares and humor. It’s a pity that once everybody starts drinking and a romance is developing between our two main characters, the plot is losing steam.

As a result, Grabbers never quite manages to elevate its promising material to more than b-movie type fare. What could have been another horror comedy classic is barely able to keep your interest level high enough, unless your alcohol level is closed to the one of its own heroes.

My Rating: 5/10

Director: Jon Wright

Origin: UK

Click Here to Watch Grabbers Online Now!

Filed Under: British Horror Movies Tagged With: Aliens, Comedy, Funny

Skinwalker Ranch (2013) Review

November 6, 2013 by Eric S. 2 Comments

Skinwalker Ranch reviewSynopsis: A scientific research team investigates and documents the supernatural phenomena surrounding the disappearance of a cattle ranchers 10 year old son. Inspired by true events that shocked the paranormal community around the world.

Quick Review: Even after many bad movies in this genre, I’m still on the lookout for hidden found footage gems.

Skinwalker Ranch is a fake documentary, loosely based on real events, that looks like a mix between an X-Files episode and Paranormal Activity (it’s a bit reminiscent of Dark Skies as well).

The movie does not waste any time to show us some supernatural elements and this is more than welcome since so many found footage movies put us to sleep with long exposition scenes. We are quickly introduced to our team of film makers and Hoyt, the desperate dad.

The acting here is convincing and, as a result, we get a littly bit more emotionally attached when things go south and it genuinely makes us want to know more about Cody’s disappearance and all the supernatural happenings surrounding the ranch.

Unfortunately, after a while, the movie feels a bit disjointed and, while many things are happening, we are being rushed to quite an abrupt ending that leaves us hanging for more.

So, if you’re a fan of fake documentary and nostalgic of the X-Files, this movie is for you. For the others it’s still good fun and with a 70mn running time (before the credits roll in) it won’t take much of your time anyway.

 

My Rating: 6/10

Director: Devin McGinn

Origin: US

Filed Under: Indie Horror Movies Tagged With: Aliens, Based on True Stories, found footage, kids, Monsters, Supernatural

V/H/S/2 Review

June 9, 2013 by Eric S. 2 Comments

vhs 2 reviewSynopsis (from IMDb) : Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his house and find collection of VHS tapes. Viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be dark motives behind the student’s disappearance.

My Review: After a stretch of really bad movies, it seems I’m on a roll again. Following Resolution (go and watch it already!) yesterday, V/H/S 2 is another horror gem that I can only recommend (and a big improvement on the first movie).

I did enjoy the first V/H/S but it was also a flawed movie with some weak segments. V/H/S 2 only has one average segment IMO (the last one) but all the others range from good to great while featuring horror movie classic genres such as Ghosts, Demons, Zombies and Aliens.

It’s quite difficult to be original when doing found footage movies but this time all the directors put their own twist to it and it is refreshing.

We start with Clinical Trials, from Adam Wingard (V/H/S, You’re Next, ABCs of Death). The pitch is similar to the movie The Eye, where our main protagonist is starting to see ghosts right after an eye operation (he conveninently has a camera in his eye, allowing us to see the movie POV style). I did jump couple of times (when the ghosts appear) and the tension is good enough to sustain the whole duration of the short. I would compare Clinical Trials to an Asian Ghost Movie on speed. Highly satisfying beginning!!

Rating: 7/10

The second segment, A Ride in The Park, from directors/writer Eduardo Sanchez, Jamie Nash and Gregg Hale (Blair Witch Project, Lovely Molly) is a take on the zombie genre. The twist is that the camera is on the zombie’s head (similar to Ben Wheatley’s segment in ABC’s of Death) so we have a few gory shots of him  feeding on his victims. This is a fast paced short that will satisfy zombie and gore fans alike.

Rating: 6/10

The third Segment, Safe Heaven, from directors Gareth Evans (The raid) and Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre, The ABCs of Death) is, by far, my favorite. It starts pretty slow with a team of journalists investigating a cult (with the help of hidden cameras on their bodies) but when the shit starts hitting the fan, I was almost jumping up and down out my seat from pure joy and adrenaline. The pace and action is reminiscent of The Raid and the weirdness and gore is on par with Macabre and the L segment from ABC’s of Death. With Safe Heaven, Gareth and Timo prove that teaming them up was a match made in heaven or in this case, hell.

Rating: 8/10

The last segment, Alien Abduction Slumber Party, from writer/director Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun, The ABCs of Death), is the weakest of the bunch for me. I did not really care for the use of a dog as a tripod and, despite some neat sound effects, could not get emotionally attached to the story, the same way I was with Clinical Trials. As a result, all scares or sense of tension disappeared quickly.

Rating: 5/10

The wrap around segment, Tape 49, written and directed by Simon Barrett did an OK job of transitioning us into each stories and had its moments at the end. An improvement over the wrap around segment of the first V/H/S but nothing to write home about.

Rating: 6/10

V/H/S 2 belongs to the short list of horror sequels that are actually better than the original. I truly believe that the Found Footage genre is better served by short stories as shown here. It allows many different creative directors to test the medium and each stoy does not need to drag into overly long introductory segments that plague many of the found footage movies out there.

Now waiting for V/H/S 3. Bring it on!!

My Rating: 7.5/10

Watch V/H/S 2 Here Now Before it’s in Theaters!

Filed Under: Indie Horror Movies Tagged With: Action, Aliens, anthology, Creepy, Demon, Disturbing, Foreign, found footage, Ghost, Gory, Scary, Supernatural, Zombie

Dark Skies Review

May 16, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Dark-Skies-Movie-ReviewYear: 2013

Director: Scott Stewart

Summary: (from IMDb) As the Barret family’s peaceful suburban life is rocked by an escalating series of disturbing events, they come to learn that a terrifying and deadly force is after them.

My Short Review: I was pleasantly surprised by Dark Skies since I did not expect much before starting to watch director/writer Scott Stewart’s movie. Dark Skies is produced by Blumhouse  who recently put out movies such as Paranormal activity and its follow-ups, Sinister and Insidious. So it’s not surprising that you get the same elements that helped those movies become big horror hits: middle-class suburban family with problems, security cameras and video footage, efficient scares, creepy kids….

So far I have really enjoyed all of those movies and Dark Skies is no exception. If you can look past some of the cliches (google is your friend, the husband who don’t want to believe…) or some characters choices that do not make much sense, and let yourself just take away by the film, you will get some genuinely scary, arm hair-rising moments, similar to the ones you could get in the aforementioned movies.

As far as PG13 horror movies go, Dark Skies does its job to the fullest and provides truly family-friendly entertainment reminiscent of older 80’s movies such as Poltergeist or Close encounters of the third kind.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Click Here to Own Dark Skies and Watch It Now!

Filed Under: Hollywood Horror Movies Tagged With: Aliens, PG 13, Scary

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