revenge

I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013) Review

September 12, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: (from IMDb) Katie is trying to make it in the cutthroat world of modeling. When she innocently accepts an offer to have new photos taken for her portfolio, the experience quickly turns into an unthinkable nightmare of rape, torture, and kidnapping. When a twist of fate finally frees her from her captors – beaten, battered, bruised, and broken, she will have to tap into the darkest places of the human psyche to not only survive her ordeal, but to ultimately find the strength to exact her brutal revenge.

My Quick Review: A sequel to a remake might not always sound like a good idea with such movies as The Hills have Eyes 2 and Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 in recent years. But I Spit on Your Grave 2010 is one of the best horror revenge flick in recent years and its sequel is still directed by Steven R. Monroe who did an excellent job 3 years ago.

The movie’s premise is of course similar, with the movie divided in 3 parts: Rape, Failed Escape leading to more Rape and Revenge.

The first hour, once again proves difficult to watch at times but even if the pain and suffering laid upon Katie are. to some extent, even worse than what Jennifer went through, the movie fails to recreate the same crass feeling of the first one.

The revenge part is also a bit of a let down when compared to the imaginative sequences in I Spit on Your Grave 2010, with the exception of the last torture scene that is, by far, one of the hardest to watch (especially if you’re a man). I have seen many torture movies but even I had to look away a few seconds.

So what’s left of I Spit on Your Grave 2 is a satisfying revenge flick with great performances and production values (even for a low budget) that might not reach the highs of the first film but still delivers enough shocks and thrills.

My Rating: 6.5

Director: Steven R. Monroe

Origin: US

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I Spit on Your Grave (2010) Review

September 10, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A writer who is brutalized during her cabin retreat seeks revenge on her attackers, who left her for dead.

My Quick Review: Since the sequel is being released now, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the remake of one of the classic of rape-revenge movies, I spit On Your Grave.

It’s amazing to think that this movie was directed by Steven R Monroe who also directed House of 9 for 4 times this film budget. The least I can say is that It’s a huge improvement.

I spit on Your Grave looks great, is well shot and scored, and the acting from all the cast is plain brilliant with a special mention to Andrew Howard who plays one of the most despicable character ever put on screen, and of course, Sarah Butler who plays her role as convincingly as possible.

The movie is divided into 2 parts, the rape and the revenge. And if the rape is already tough to stomach (not the worst put on film but still disturbing) the torture scenes that will follow when Jennifer is getting her revenge, are some of the most gruesome, and imaginative I’ve ever seen.

This was my second time watching I Spit on Your Grave and it hasn’t lost its intensity despite having seen numerous revenge/torture movies since.

I have to applaud the cast and crew of the movie to have make one of the best horror remake out there and I’m now ready to dive into the sequel, I Spit on Your Grave 2, still directed by Steve R Monroe.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Director: Steven R. Monroe

Origin: USA

Click Here to Watch and Own I Spit on Your Grave

The Burning (1981) Review

August 31, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.

My Quick Review: The Burning was one of the many movies that followed the success of Friday the 13th, and it’s also the first feature film bearing the credit “Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein”. It was banned in some countries upon its release and is one of the lesser known slasher of the 80’s.

But trust me, The Burning has everything you would want in your 80’s slasher: T&A (including full frontal), jerky and horny teenagers, useless adults, gory kills, killer theme music, unrealistically strong killer, cheap jump scares and so on and so forth.

What makes the Burning a bit different for me was its Giallo influence, most notably through the use of music and the way some kills are shot. There is actually more style in this film than most of the early 80’s indie horror flicks.

On the negative side, the ending is fairly disappointing (we always knew who the killer was and there is no grand climax), and the script is average at best.

What remains nowadays of The Burning is a movie, at times very cheesy, but that’s what makes the charm of classic slashers and, to be fair, a very efficient “popcorn scare” film.

My Rating: 6/10

Director: Tony Maylam

Origin: US

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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

Nine Dead (2010) Review

August 5, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Communication is the key for the survival of nine strangers who have been kidnapped by a masked gunman and told that one of them will die every ten minutes until they discover why they are there.

My Quick Review: Usually in this kind of Game movies, the film starts with the strangers in a locked space (Cube, Saw movies…)so it was a nice little change when in Nine Dead, we actually see a bit of the killer’s preparation before the game begins, like the room set-up and the kidnappings.

The concept of the game here is very similar to Fermat’s Room where, in order to win/survive, they have to figure out what they have in common. Obviously the characters here are very distinct and quite cliches but it somehow worked and the director manages to keep the tension going for the whole movie (I never looked at my watch) despite the fact that me almost never go outside of the room (apart from some flashback and exposition scenes). As far as the guessing game is concerned, it was mainly resolved by the middle of the movie but there was some nice missing pieces that kept on coming until the end.

Talking about the end, this one was a huge disappointment for me. Once the reason of the game has been found out, there is no real final twist and one of the character’s fate is left in suspense without making too much of a sense.

Nine Dead is an entertaining movie with a simple but efficient plot that will keep you guessing. With a better end and some better acting it could have deserved a better rating but I had a good time watching it and this is already more than I can say for many recent movies I’ve seen.

My Rating: 6/10.

Director: Chris Shadley

Origin: USA

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