Creepy

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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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

Art of the Devil 3 (2008) Review

August 21, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: Long Khong 2

Synopsis: The youngster Ta returns to his hometown. He misses his mother Daun, who was poisoned by his father Prawase, and soon he learns that his family will use black magic to bring her back. However, Ta’s family will quickly discover the price of the black magic.

My Quick Review: I was a bit confused while watching Long Khong 2 until I realized this was actually a prequel to the first Long Khong (Art of the Devil 2).

The problem with a movie like Art of the devil 3 is that it actually deserved to be called a Torture Porn movie since we can actually fast forward through most of the movie just to watch the good stuff. With no characters to relate to or empathize with, and a messy script, Art of the Devil 3 only exists for its Black Magic scenes. And then again there is nothing we haven’t seen in Art of the Devil 2, and usually not as impressive or gruesome.

My Rating 4.5/10

The Conspiracy (2012) Review

August 15, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis (from IMDb): A documentary about conspiracy theories takes a horrific turn after the filmmakers uncover an ancient and dangerous secret society.

My Quick Review: Finally a found footage movie that makes a smart use of its format.

Too often using handheld cameras and shooting everything like a retarded kid who has a seizure is enough to get a movie green lighted with a “based on a real story” stamp of approval.

The Conspiracy starts out as a documentary and what we see on the screen is actual footage of the documentary (interviews, news broadcasts, hidden camera footage…). At no point in the movie have I been asking myself why they were using a camera or shooting anything with it.

For me the found footage style works the best when its use is actually justified: security cameras, documentary/tv crew or through a smart use of the medium (like some of the stories in V/H/S 2). This is what makes The Conspiracy efficient: it just looks real enough.

I did enjoy the documentary part of the movie, based on the conspiracy theorists and how some people in governments around the world are controlling every major world’s events. 9/11 surely has given us much to discuss and to be paranoid about. Recent news events have also reminded us that Big Brother is definitively among us, now more than ever.

In that aspect, the first hour of The Conspiracy could work well as a standalone documentary, one I’d love to watch. And when our 2 filmmakers infiltrate a secret society wearing hidden micro-cams, things start to turn creepy fast.

The conspiracy is not the scariest or the most impressive Found footage movie out there, but it’s most certainly one of the better one. It’s well made, well acted and has a strong plot that should give you some hope for the found footage genre.

My Rating: 6/10

Director: Christopher MacBride

Origin: Canada

Click Here to Watch The Conspiracy Online Now!

Jug Face (2013) Review

August 11, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis (from IMDb): Jug Face tells the story of a pregnant teen trying to escape a backwoods community when she discovers that she may be sacrificed to a creature in a pit.

My Review: I did not enjoy watching Jug Face. Not that it is a bad movie (it isn’t) but there is something about such backwoods community that just rub me the wrong way.

Jug Face in this regards is more a drama movie with a few supernatural elements that a full on horror movie. The true horror is human so those expecting a fast paced gorefest will be disappointed. Jug Face is a slow burn, and is therefore quite boring at times to be honest.

I believe the movie would have actually worked better as a hillbilly’s family drama and did not need the ghostly stuff at all. By keeping the action focused on Ada’s battle against her family’s tradition and her attempts to escape the community, we might have had an Indie Gem worth winning prizes at sundance. Not my kind of movie but most definitively a better one.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Director: Chad Crawford Kinkle

Origin: US

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