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Cold Prey (2006) Review

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fritt vilt cold prey reviewOriginal Title: Fritt Vilt

Synopsis: 5 young people are on a snowboarding vacation in Jotunheimen. They are forced to take shelter in an abandoned hotel when one of them breaks his leg and their car is too far away for them to reach within nightfall. Unknown to them, someone is still living in the hotel, and getting home, or even surviving the stay, isn’t as easy as they believe

My Quick Review: After Devil’s Pass I wanted to watch another movie set in snowy mountains. And since I had never watched the Cold Prey movies, I thought it would be fitting to start with the first one tonight.

The very first thing I noted on my notebook was “broken leg ripoff”. If you watch Devil’s Pass you will notice that they have the exact same “broken leg” scene (even the dialogue is the same) in both movies. Cold prey being the older movie, we know who copied whom.

OK, so, Fritt Vilt might be better shot and have better actors than your average slasher but I still don’t get the “hype” surrounding it. It it was an amemrican film, would the reviews have been harsher?

There is indeed very little gore, only a few kills, all of them unimpressive, I was never surprised or shocked. Thankfully, the cinematography is gorgeous and the production values higher than usual for a slasher movie.

Cold Prey disappoints and is IMO overrated. With that said, it’s a slasher film that follows the rules of the genre quite well. It might be refreshing for those tired of all the gimmicks and endless twists of the post-Scream slashers. Nothing groundbreaking though.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Director: 

Origin: Norway

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Kuntilanak (2006) Review

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Kuntilanak ReviewSynopsis: 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: 

Origin: Indonesia

The Forbidden Door (2009) Review

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pintu terlarang reviewOriginal Name: Pintu Terlarang

Synopsis: The life of a successful sculptor is turned upside down when he begins receiving mysterious messages from someone who asks for his help.

My Quick Review: My first Anwar’s movie experience was recently with Modus Anomali, a very intense Thriller with a twist. I was already seduced. But this Lynchian experience that is The Forbidden Door has cemented my initial feelings.

With Pintu Terlarang, Joko Anwar definitively proves indeed, that he is a master storyteller and cinematographer and a director/writer to keep following in years to come.

The movie’s visual clues, the shocking bursts of violence (some child abuse scenes are especially hard to stomach) and the excellent acting across the board (special mention to Fachry Albar in the main role) all add to the eeriness of Pintu Terlarang and will keep you guessing till the end.

The Forbidden Door is a movie that truly deserves multiple viewings to be better appreciated and understood. It is far from being perfect (some plot points drag a bit too long and the editing has a few problems as well) but I, for one, cant wait to see what’s next for Joko Anwar.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Director: 

Origin: Indonesia

 

Apartment 1303 (2007) Review

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apartment 1303 reviewSynopsis: (from IMDb) A modern ghost story which turns a love hate relationship between mother and daughter into a tale of horror.

My Quick Review: I can’t believe that they actually made a remake from Apartment 1303, a subpar entry into the Japanese Horror Movie genre.

There is nothing fresh about this haunted apartment ghost story and the usual tricks are being deployed, this time with poor camera work and atrocious acting.

Except for the main actress, Noriko Nakagoshi, everybody’s acting is extremely laughable, especially in the first 15mn of the film. As for the “scares” I was unimpressed and the ending is just plain silly.

Apartment 1303 is a pale copy of far superior movies such as Ju-On and Dark Water, and it seems that the recent american remake is even worse. Bravo!

My Rating: 4/10

Director: 

Origin: Japan

Art of the Devil 3 (2008) Review

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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 b 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.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