Monsters

Area 407 Review

June 25, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Survivors of an airplane crash find themselves within the borders of a government testing area and pursued by predators.

My Quick Review: Area 407 was a painful movie to watch, from the beginning to the end.

I just came back from a plane trip myself and the first thing I noticed was how fake the whole beginning of the movie looked like. The one and only crew member, the few passengers; at no point during this first 15mn did it feel like those people were on a real plane flying to somewhere. This immediately removed me from the movie.

Then we have the whole found-footage POV choice to talk about. Of all the found-footage movies I have watched (and I did watch a LOT) this one was the worst in terms of “why the hell is this girl holding her camera for?”. Most of the time there is absolutely no need for her to shoot people, especially when there is some action but she decides to focus on peoples faces and reaction (makes no sense at all). It never felt natural.

The acting/script/dialogue were all horrendous. I believe 90% was improv, and bad ones with silly reactions; people that were very hurt, suddenly healthy and smily in a following scene…

And let’s talk about the monster(s). That nobody points out that it looks like some kind of dinosaur is already ridiculous, but the butt ugly CGI in the last shot really takes the cake.

To sum it up, Area 407 is a crap movie with nothing in it worth spending 90mn of your time (yeah it is even longer than most found footage movies out there).

My Rating: 3/10

Director: Dale Fabrigar, Everette Wallin

Year: 2012

Origin: USA

Piranha 3DD Review

June 24, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: After the events at Lake Victoria, the pre-historic school of blood-thirsty piranhas make their way into a newly opened waterpark.

My quick review: I’m all in favor of fun brainless movies. And come on, this one has ” The Hoff” in it. But there is a fine line between dumb and dumber.

Piranha 3DD shows us that, when there is little talent behind the camera (John Gulager is no Alexandre Aja) what is left of such a movies is, well, Piranhas and double Ds. Some might argue that this is the only thing that matters but such a poorly acted, poorly plotted and poorly shot movie does not deserve a drunk evening with your friends.

Better catch up the original Piranha 3D from Aja or the “real” original Piranha from Joe Dante.

My Rating: 4/10 (one more point thanks to David Hasselhoff)

Director: John Gulager

Year: 2012

Origin: USA

Click Here To Own and Watch Piranha 3DD Now!

Trollhunter Review

June 13, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: (from IMDb) A group of students investigates a series of mysterious bear killings, but learns that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter, learning that he is actually a troll hunter.

My Short Review: While I do believe TrollHunter is a bit overrated, it is still one of the better entry in the Found Footage genre. At times, the movie reminded me of Cloverfield, other times Blair Witch (during scenes in the forest) but Trollhunter adopts a funnier tone than those 2 movies. I would actually not put it in the horror category but more in the Fantasy/Adventure ones.

First of all, the design of the Trolls are very fantasy-like (they are Trolls after all) and never really feel like scary creature. Actually, we kinda feel for them as they are being killed and you can tell Hans, the Troll hunter has respect for them and remorse (especially after the massacre he was part of in the 70s).

There is also plenty of humour with Christian references, Troll “scent”, government cover-ups (gotta love the fake bear traces…).

As a result, Trollhunter is an enjoyable mix that do not always work (some scenes are a bit overplayed and the movie would have beneficiated from 15mn less running time) but I really commend the filmmakers for taking a completely new approach to the genre. Not a great movie but a refreshing one.

My Rating: 6/10

Original Title: Trolljegeren

Year: 2010

Origin: Norway

Director: André Øvredal

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Citadel Review

May 3, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Year: 2012

Director: Ciaran Foy

Summary (from IMDb): Tommy Cowley is a young father inflicted with chronic agoraphobia since his wife was brutally attacked by a gang of a twisted feral children. Trapped in the dilapidated suburbia of Edenstown, he finds himself terrorised by the same gang, who now seem intent on taking his baby daughter.

My Short Review: Citadel is a very good surprise, a low-budget movie that is all about setting up a suffocating atmosphere where the director manages to perfectly blend personal psychological trauma (through his main character suffering agoraphobia) with a context of social decay ever so present in Irish-scottish movies.

Citadel is definitively the vision of its talented young writer/director Ciaran Foy who gives us a bleak vision of society by using fantastic themes as a symbolic acknowledgment of growing urban violence. Add to this the presence of the great James Cosmo (Sons of Anarchy, Game of Thrones) and a strong performance from the lead actor Aneurin Barnard and you find yourself with an unpolished gem of a movie.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Watch Citadel Now or Own the Blu-Ray Here!

Don’t Move Review

May 1, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Year: 2013

Director: Anthony Melton

Summary: 6 Friends gather around a ouija board. Their little “seance” will unleash a demonic force looking for 5 souls.

My Short Review: “Don’t Move” is the 8th episode in a web series of 13 shorts: “Bloody Cuts” .

I have to admit I did not know about this web series until now and what a discovery this movie was!! “Don’t move” packs more punch in 10mn than most recent full length horror movies do in 90mn (apart maybe from Evil Dead’s remake ;-)). There is absolutely no time lost on introducing the characters, we are indeed immediately drawn into the aftermath of the ouija seance with some bloody corpses already lying around and survivors trying to stay alive by being as quiet and still as possible.

Because they need to stay immobile to avoid the demon to notice them, the remaining “friends” will use ingenious ways to make sure they will be the last one standing.

I loved everything about this short: the demon look (clearly inspired by Hellraiser’s Chatterer cenobite), the gore (especially the last kill), the sound effects (creating the perfect tension) and the believable acting (often a weak point in some short movies). “Don’t move” is a great achievement in Horror cinematography and I will now go and look back at all the other shorts from “Bloody Cuts” and look forward to the next ones (if they do more Kickstarter funding, I’m in!!).

Official site: http://www.bloodycuts.co.uk/films/ep8-dontmove/