High School

Make me Shudder (2013) Review

October 8, 2013 by Eric S. 3 Comments

Original Title: Mor Hok Tub Ha (มอ6/5 ปากหมา ท้าผี)

Synopsis: (from EnjoyThaiMovies) A group of Grade 12 students break into an abandoned building believed to be haunted by a student who killed himself over bad grades and also a teacher who was murdered. The students decide to challenge the ghosts by teasing and irritating them.

My Quick Review: As a new entry in the popular Thai Horror Comedy style, and being directed by Poj Arnon, the man behind the popular Hor Taew Tak movies, I was expecting to spend a good time in my local theater yesterday.

Unfortunately Make me Shudder did not bring me one laugh and/or scare for its whole duration. I was actually so bored, I happen to look at my watch more than once.

The movie feels cheap (there is mainly one location used during the entire time), whole scenes are stretched ad nauseam, and after 20mn I was fed up to hear the main characters fake shouting/moaning all the time.

I’m sorry to say that make Me Shudder does not bring anything new to the table and is just trying to surf on the success of Pee Mak, the king of Thai Horror Comedy. Unfortunately, a tired formulaic script, bad sense of timing the scares, and poor cheap 3D effects do not make for an enjoyable experience. To avoid at all cost.

My Rating: 3/10

Director: Poj Arnon

Origin: Thailand

Beneath (2013) Review

August 8, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Six high school seniors celebrating with day’s excursion find themselves on rowboat attacked by man-eating fish and must decide who must be sacrificed as they fight their way back to shore.

My quick Review: I have to say I’m extremely surprised at how bad Beneath turned out to be as soon as our group of teenagers start to jump in the water. Indeed, It all starts very wrong from this point forward with the director’s decision to actually show us the Lake monster. And trust me it was a very bad idea.

I remember telling myself after the dream scene at the beginning of the movie:” this is actually creepy and well shot”. The way we could see the monster’s fin sowly approcahing the girl, unaware of what was going on behind her, actually gave me big hopes.

I also liked the fact that they mixed some POV shots here and there without making it the main attraction (quite refreshing after a slew of bad found footage movies). Finally the acting looked decent enough. But then, we see the monster…

So far, for an indie movie, Beneath had looked good and the cinematography was great so why would they ruin everything with a cheap looking, non scary, ridiculous monster is beyond me. To make things worse, most of the characters start to act stupid and become total assholes while there is absolutely no tension whatsoever left until the end of the film.

I have seldom seen such a screwup after a promising start and even had to fast forward some scenes (that’s how annoyed and bored I was).

My Rating: 4/10 (2/10 if it wasn’t for the first 10mn)

Director: Larry Fessenden

Origin: US

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Art of the Devil II (2005) Review

August 1, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: ลองของ (Long Khong)

Synopsis: A group of high school friends reunite after two years when one of their fathers’ committed suicide. They all spend the night at their friend’s place. When darkness falls, strange things begin to happen to them one by one. It is as if someone is using the black arts on them in revenge for an act this group of friends committed together back in high school.

My Quick Review: Long Khong’s english name is misleading as there is absolutely no connection with the first Art of The Devil. Western distributors just named the movie Art of the Devil 2 as it does share common use of Thai Black Magic.

Art of the Devil II is a much more graphic movie than the first one and actually ends with one of the hardest to watch torture scene ever put on film (there are some similarities with Audition since we have the pretty girl inflicting pain here as well).

It is a pity then that the script is completely uninteresting and quite confusing in its plot lines.

What could have indeed been a Torture Porn classic ends up short of greatness because the gory/creepy scenes are surrounded by bland storytelling and poorly defined characters.

My Rating: 4.5/10 (5.5/10 for torture lovers).

Director: Ronin Team

Origin: Thailand

The Final (2010) Review

July 23, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A group of high school outcasts get revenge on the students that torment them.

My Quick Review: The Final is quite similar to Truth or Die, another survival game that I watched recently, in a sense that it never really delivers on what is an exciting pitch.

Here we have a bunch of school outcasts who decide to take revenge on their bullies by kidnapping and torturing them, mostly using horror movies for inspiration.

Alas, if you were expecting graphic torture scenes and other bloody humiliation, you will be sorely disappointed as I was myself.

What you will have though is endless speeches from the main outcast (and for the first 20mn using an annoying voice box), below average acting by 25 year olds pretending to be 17, bad editing, pointless B-plots and characters.

There could have been a nice little gem hidden within The Final; I really would have loved to see more reenactments of cult horror films (the audition inspired torture scene was one of the highlight of the movie), but it mostly falls flat and favors pretentious sermons over thrills and gore.

My Rating: 5/10

Director: Joey Stewart

Origin: US

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A Haunting at Silver Falls Review

July 1, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A small town is haunted by the twin daughters of a wrongfully convicted man. Young Jordan is sent down the path to who the real killer is only to find the killer is very close to her.

My Quick Review: During its first few minutes, A Haunting at Silver Falls gave me a 80s horror vibe (part slasher, part dream sequence from Freddy movies) but at the same time I had a strange feeling about the plot and the characters: it just did not feel genuine at all.

I believe the dialogue and casting both are at fault. The actors do an OK job with what they have been given but each line of dialogue sounds fake and unnatural. To top it all there is no chemistry between the characters and some of them are totally miscast (mainly for age reasons).

It’s a pity because the movie’s cinematography is good and there is some efficient visuals, at time creepy, but never really scary. Unfortunately it all falls flat when it’s back to the daily life.

A Haunting at Silver Falls is an average Ghost Movie, neither bad nor good that could have used a better script and another casting director.

My Rating: 4.5/10

Buy or Rent: Rent (if you have nothing else to do)

Director: Brett Donowho

Year: 2013

Origin: USA

Click Here to Watch A Haunting at Silver Falls Now!