Ghost

Haunter (2013) Review

October 30, 2013 by Eric S. 4 Comments

Synopsis: The ghost of a teenager who died years ago reaches out to the land of the living in order to save someone from suffering her same fate.

My Quick Review: Since he made Cube, I’m always looking forward to Vincenzo’s Natali next movie and with Haunter generating a fair amount of buzz at Frightfest I could not wait to put my hand on it.

Right off the bat, the movie got my attention and never let me go until the end. I really enjoy horror movies that go a different way than the traditional slasher/ghosts variations, and by flipping the table on the haunted house genre and having it seen through the perspective of the ghosts, writer Brian King brings originality to a tired genre filled with Paranormal activity and Insidious knock-offs.

And while I did not care much for The Further scenes in Insidious, there was a dream-like quality to the afterworld scenes in Haunter that were reminiscent of Nightmare on Elm Street. There is actually a strong nostalgic vibe in the film (helped by the fact that the characters are from the 80’s) with a whole feel and look similar to the Freddy movies but also Poltergeist and, of course a hint of GroundHog Day.

Everything else in the movie: from the acting, the eerie cinematography, to the sound effects contribute to making Haunter a natural choice for Best 2013 Ghost story contender.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Origin: Canada

Click Here to Watch Haunter Online Now!

The Possession (2012) Review

October 19, 2013 by Eric S. 2 Comments

Synopsis: A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl’s father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child.

Quick Review: The Possession is a very bland effort to create the Jewish Exorcist but, with only talent in front of the camera, the movie falls flat and does not provide any scares whatsoever.

I don’t know exactly what went wrong with The Possession but, contrary to other PG13 horror movies, such as Insidious or Dark Skies, it never brings anything to the table. The script is a blatant ripoff of every kids-possessed movie out there and despite having great kids actors and recognizable faces as parents (Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan) it’s not enough for us to care.

Visually, the movie looks average at best, and the music/score is definitively lacking any creep factor.

This might be a family friendly scary movie but it’s definitively not a horror fan friendly one.

My Rating: 4.5/10

Director: Ole Bornedal

Origin: US

Click Here to Own and Watch The Possession Now!

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) Review

October 17, 2013 by Eric S. 5 Comments

Synopsis: The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.

My Quick Review: I have to admit that after watching the first Insidious, Chapter 2 was a bit of a letdown.

It was to be expected since I knew that we would be spending more time into the Further than we did in the first movie. And this was definitively not my favorite part of Insidious.

Chapter 2 starts with a young Josh being haunted by the ghost who appeared at the end of Insidious. There we met a young Elise who successfully help Josh get rid of it as well as his memories and abilities in astral projection.

Back to the present, Josh is possessed and his family starts to feel something is off. The haunting of their new home will push Renai to seek some paranormal help again.

The main problem with Insidious Chapter 2 is the lack of genuine scares. I believe I only had one jolt whereas I had more than a few in the first Insidious (even during a second viewing). The main ghost here is not creepy enough and his backstory is somewhat lacking as well.

I did appreciate the way some events tie in directly into the first movie (similar to how some Saw sequels explained some events of past movies) and, technically, the film is superb. James Wan has truly become a Master Of Horror and he will be missed by horror fans as he apparently decided to quit doing scary movies for a while.

If you enjoyed the second half of Insidious you will love the way Chapter 2 expands on the Further. For people looking for more scares, they might be a bit disappointed and should maybe stick with The Conjuring, the scarier of James Wan 2013 movies.

My Rating: 6/10

Director: James Wan

Origin: US

Insidious (2010) Review

October 16, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.

My Quick Review: Since I will finally be able to watch Insidious Chapter 2 at my local theater, I thought it would be best to watch the first Insidious again since part 2 is supposed to start right at the end of the first story.

Back in 2010 I had rated Insidious 7/10 but while I was watching it again I had the feeling that I had been a bit harsh and the movie deserved even a higher rating since the first 40mn or so had me on the edge of my seat again and actually made me jump a few times (and there were some hair rising creepy stuff as well).

Unfortunately, the second half of the movie reminded me why my rating went down. As soon as Darth Maul appears (couldn’t find better description for the demon) the scare factor goes down a notch and we are more in pure fantastic zone than in frightening zone. While it keeps things moving and quite original, everything happening in the Further is, at least for me, not as interesting as the moments of tension and the sudden ghosts apparition found in the beginning of the movie.

But believe me that, despite the change of dynamic halfway through, Insidious is an extremely well made horror movie and probably one of the scariest of recent memory (an even more impressive feat when knowing that this is PG13 stuff). Highly recommended to all haunted house movies fans.

My Rating: 7/10

Director: James Wan

Origin: US

Click Here to Own and Watch Insidious Now!

Tales From The Dark Part 1 (2013) Review

October 14, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: 迷离夜

Synopsis: Horror anthology, based on a series of novels by “Dumplings” writer Lillian Lee.

My Quick Review: This is the first part of a 2 movies anthology from Honk Kong.

In The first segment, “Stolen Goods” Simon Yam plays a working class loser who stelas dead people urns and tries to get money from the family who want the ashes back. Simon Yam might be a famous actor, he’s definitively not an Horror movie director and it shows. The ghosts sightings seem out of sync and do not provoke any kind of scares or fears. And while he is a good actor, he does not have the range of Tony Leung (starring in the second story) and is therefore totally miscast here and never at all believable.

The second story, “A word in the Palm“, might be the best of the film and stars Tony Leung as a fortune teller who can see ghosts. At least there are a couple of efficient scares in this one even if the story is way too predictable and totally unoriginal.

Finally, Fruit Chan’s “Jing Zhe” closes this film and, despite some very cheap special effects, has an original story based on some chinese beliefs, mixing black magic and revenge.

Overall Tales From the Dark is a weak anthology with very few scares and shocks and even less gore. Fans of horror anthologies such as “Three…Extremes” and ” 4bia” will be disappointed.

Unfortunately for Hong Kong, and quite similarly to their current action movies, Tales From the Dark won’t help the horror movie genre there to be able to compete with their japanese, korean or thai counterparts.

My Rating: 5/10

Directors:
Fruit Chan…(segment “Jing Zhe”)

Chi-Ngai Lee…(segment “A Word in the Palm”)

Simon Yam…(segment “Stolen Goods”)

Origin: HK