Supernatural

Apartment 1303 (2007) Review

August 22, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: (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: Ataru Oikawa

Origin: Japan

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

Countdown (2012) Review

August 18, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: (from IMDb) Three Thai teens in New York City are planning the New Year’s Party of their lives. They called Jesus, a drug dealer, to drop off some stuff at their apartment so they can celebrate and countdown the end of the year in style. Little did they know that Jesus’ visit that night will change their lives forever

My Quick Review: I stumbled upon this movie on dvd without any kind of expectation. I was just looking forward another Thai Horror entry by GTH, the production company behind most of the biggest Thai hits.

Right off the bat, I liked the idea to base the action in New York but the movie never really takes advantage of this if not for what is supposed to be some kind of surprise twist.

The whole movie relies on David Asavanond’s performance as Jesus the drug dealer and, while not bad, his effort is slightly unconvincing. He is also not being helped by the other actors who are not given much and just represent stereotypical rich kids living abroad.

I did like the pitch and there are a couple of scenes with real tension, but as a whole Countdown is a bust that drags for too long (especially during the introductory scenes) and relies too much on the (average) performance of its actors.

My Rating: 5/10

Director: Nattawut Poonpiriya

Origin: Thailand

Black Sabbath (1963) Review

August 4, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: I tre volti della paura

Synopsis: A trio of atmospheric horror tales about: A woman terrorized in her apartment by phone calls from an escaped prisoner from her past; a Russian count in the early 1800s who stumbles upon a family in the countryside trying to destroy a particularly vicious line of vampires; and a 1900-era nurse who makes a fateful decision while preparing the corpse of one of her patients – an elderly medium who died during a seance.

My review: Mario Bava’s Classic deserves to be called by its original title translation: “3 faces of fear” because the 3 segments show different genre of horror: The Giallo, a Vampire tale and a Ghost Story.

Black Sabbath starts slowly with a classic revenge story using all the code of the Giallo (leather gloves, pan and zoom shots, a slight touch of eroticism, bright red colors…) but “The Telephone” fails to create much emotion and feels more like a draft for Bava’s next masterpiece, “Blood and Black Lace”. On the other hand, you now know where “When a Stranger calls” got its inspiration from.

The second segment, “The Wurdalak” is the weakest of the bunch. Despite a good use of the sets and great cinematography, the story drags for too long and is not being helped by poor acting and a weak script.

Finally, “The drop of Water” ends this anthology on a very strong note with one of the scariest corpse/ghost ever shown on film. The face of the dead medium had probably haunted generation of moviegoers who watched this movie. For this creepy and really scary segment alone, the movie is worth a watch and deserves a place in the Horror Movies Hall of Fame.

My Rating: 6/10

Director: Mario Bava

Origin: Italy

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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