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Reviews
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Not worth wasting your money on!
I doubt if many films over the years have seemed as much of a waste of money when they are finished as this overhyped and virtually suspenseless film which can certainly not be called horror. If the footage had been real then it would have been scary, but instead it is relentlessly predictable and quite often unconvincing from beginning to end. Nobody would keep filming whilst they are in the middle of fighting someone in an hysterical frenzy themselves. The dialogue was alsoo abominable with the F'word used to the nth degree. The woman's voice was also very irritating. One of the actors gave a fine performance (not Joshua Leonard)and there was some originality in the filming etc and the final scene was quite clever, but there is absolutely nothing else to recommend it. The story was very thin and the camera technique used may have been different but it also limited the potential of any plot development. I also think that very little imagination was shown in the few suspense sequences present in the movie. It does not even come close to frightening the viewer for even a second. All in all its just a pretty boring thriller which would certainly have work better if; -
a). It was just shown on TV, and b). It only last for sixty minutes.
Its definitely not worth wasting your money on.
The Stand (1994)
Everything that is bad about a Stephen King novel is summed up here.
The problem with a Stephen King novel has never been to do with his plots but with the over length of his novels due to needless waffling pages of thoughts from the characters. This is reflected in 'The Stand' which, after a good first part, becomes one of the most boring mini series ever to appear on screen. The acting is terrible (with the exception of Gary Sinise), the characters stupid and irritating, and the climax is absolutely laughable. (It looks like the national lottery I thought at the time). The only Stephen King adaptions I have really enjoyed are 'Carrie', 'Salem's Lot', 'The Dead Zone' and 'The Langoliers'. Several others such as 'The Shining', 'IT' and 'Sometimes They Come Back' are decent efforts, but most of the others are trash, including 'The Stand'. Incidentally, my favourite Stephen King story is 'The Mist' from his book -'Skeleton Crew' but it is probably unfilmable.
Day of the Animals (1977)
Sometimes crude but reasonably effective revenge of nature flick.
I suppose in terms of the variety of animals etc which go on the rampage, this film is perhaps the ultimate revenge of nature film. Its focal point about the dangerous effects of a disintegrating o-zone layer is delivered with a sledge hammer but it does succeed in a blunderingly effective way due to several disturbing images. However, anyone who may have forgotten that Leslie Nielsen played (very) straight roles for years before moving into comedy will be in for a surprise here. He creates a thoroughly unpleasant character in this movie (but his wrestle with a grizzly bear is probably the highlight of the movie). Actually, a number of cult and semi well known actors turn in performances which are well below their best in this film. Perhaps that, along with its cop-out ending, are the films biggest failings. Well worth a look although Kingdom of the Spiders is better as revenge of nature films go One question: What does nature have against poor Susan (Jaws) Backlinie?
The Burning (1981)
Patchy Stalk'N Slash with one Mega SCARY sequence.
I saw this movie the other day for the first time since the early 1980s. I remember at the time it was considered to be one of the scariest films around when I was a child. Time has obviously dimmed some of the impact and the film borrows far far too much from Friday the 13th, but it does also succeed in improving on the former movie in a couple of ways. Firstly, the opening of the film is much better and sets up the film nicely as you really get the impression that this Cropsy guy looks as ghastly as anybody could possibly look. This turns out to be true when you see him at the end of the film. The film starts well and then bogs down in the usual teenage hijinks and cheating suspense moments that plague these films. However,it does begin to pick up nicely after a while when the counsellors finally go on their camping trip, thanks to effective music score and atmospheric photography. It then builds up to the absolutely nerve tingling sequence when the killer jumps up out of the canoe and kills those kids on the raft. That will give people of a nervous disposition serious nightmares.The movies tension continues for several minutes afterwards, but once the film moves towards its daylight climax the suspense seems to subside and it becomes disappointingly mediocre. Despite the killer (monster!!) being pretty gruesome, due to Tom Savini's make-up, it completely loses the edge that had been gained earlier. A shame considering the film does contain one scene (on the raft) which improves on anything Friday the 13th had to offer in terms of sheer terror.
The Burning (1981)
Patchy Stalk'N Slash with one Mega SCARY sequence.
I saw this movie the other day for the first time since the early 1980s. I remember at the time it was considered to be one of the scariest films around when I was a child. Time has obviously dimmed some of the impact and the film borrows far far too much from Friday the 13th, but it does also succeed in improving on the former movie in a couple of ways. Firstly, the opening of the film is much better and sets up the film nicely as you really get the impression that this Cropsy guy looks as ghastly as anybody could possibly look. This turns out to be true when you see him at the end of the film. The film starts well and then bogs down in the usual teenage hijinks and cheating suspense moments that plague these films. However,it does begin to pick up nicely after a while when the counsellors finally go on their camping trip, thanks to effective music score and atmospheric photography. It then builds up to the absolutely nerve tingling sequence when the killer jumps up out of the canoe and kills those kids on the raft. That will give people of a nervous disposition serious nightmares.The movies tension continues for several minutes afterwards, but once the film moves towards its daylight climax the suspense seems to subside and it becomes disappointingly mediocre. Despite the killer (monster!!) being pretty gruesome, due to Tom Savini's make-up, it completely loses the edge that had been gained earlier. A shame considering the film does contain one scene (on the raft) which improves on anything Friday the 13th had to offer in terms of sheer terror.
Terror Train (1980)
Definitely one of the best slasher films.
Fairly suspenseful slasher film has decent acting and atmospheric settings. Ben Johnson looks pretty tired in it but his reliable presence adds to the films effect. Definitely better than 'Prom Night' although nowhere near as good as 'Halloween'. Final scene is quite effective. It is also interesting to see David Copperfield appearing in a film of this type when he was first making his name. The novelty value of that alone makes the film worth watching. I would recommend it if you like these kind of films without too much sex and gore.
Double Indemnity (1944)
One of the best 50 films of all time without a doubt!
This ultra classic film noir is one of the great pictures of all time. Absolutely spellbinding in its acting, direction, script, dialogue, photography and especially music by Miklos Rosza (the king of film scoring to me!). This is what movie making is all about. How on earth Macmurray and Robinson didn't receive oscar nominations at the time is completely unbelievable. Even more so considering that Bing Crosby won best actor that year(1944) for 'Going My Way'! Incredibly, they even nominated Barry Fitzgerald in both the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Category (which he fairly won). How ludicrous when great performances like those mentioned in 'Double Indemnity' were overlooked. The Academy should have been ashamed. At least Barbara Stanwyck was nominated.
He Knows You're Alone (1980)
A passable Halloween clone but with a pretty unfrightening villain
Although this film is no more than a second rate 'Halloween' rip off with a fairly unscary psycho killer, it does have several redeeming features. Firstly, the leading performers (Caitlin O'Heaney of 'Tales of the Gold Monkey' and Don Scardino who starred in 'Sqirm' in 1976)display quite refreshingly nice, good humoured and pleasant characters making you care about their plight. Secondly, I felt that the music was a real stand out and single handedly carried the film to a higher level through its effectiveness, in much the same way that the music in 'Halloween' lifted that shocker to classic status. That is not to say the music in 'He Knows You're Alone' is anywhere near as frightening or effective as it is in 'Halloween'(which the composer obviously tried to imitate) because that would be highly inaccurate, but it works very well in its own way.There are also several suspenseful stalker sequences, the settings are quite atmospheric, and, finally,the smooth twist ending which threatens to bring events full circle is actually an intelligent improvement on most fade out scenes in films of this genre. On a more negative note, the behaviour of the killer is highly inconsistent(even for a psycho!). He is supposed to be stalking and killing brides yet he murders Ms O'Heaney's friend and teacher 'James Rebhorn' for no apparent reason and their bodies are never discovered during the film. Also, the film may have a few shocks but it certainly does not generate any genuine build up of fear in the way that 'Halloween', and even 'Friday the 13th' managed to achieve. Instead it opts for mediocre warmed over cliches. On the whole, it is far from the worst 'Halloween' rip off I have seen but I doubt if it was one that Tom Hanks currently lists among his best films.
Black Christmas (1974)
Good for a few first class scares. Worth 6 or 7 out of 10.
I think it is fascinating that 'Black Christmas' very clearly precedes the embodiment of the slasher genre (which began officially with 'Halloween' in 1978) yet so-called film critics often fail to acknowledge this fact. Although I did not find the movie to be 100% satisfying, it was certainly an original piece of work at the time it was released and therefore deserves to be credited with being a major influence on such horror classics as 'Halloween', 'When a Stranger Calls' and 'Scream' among many others. In relation to the film itself, on the positive side it was atmospheric, undeniably creepy (the telephone calls are probably the most frightening ever filmed)and was free of the usual sex and extreme gore which often spoils such pictures. The abortion angle was also an intriguing and surprisingly adult issue to embrace in a movie of this type. In addition, it was endowed with a strong cast, making it interesting to see at least four reasonably well known actors appearing in what amounts to a fairly low budget shocker. Olivia Hussey seems an unlikely actress to appear in a film of this kind given some of her other roles, but her off-beat casting works very well. Margot Kidder made a star making impression to follow her effective performance in Brian De Palma's 'Sisters'(1973)and John Saxon got to play the police man role which he seemed to then enjoy repeating in other subsequent horror outings (i.e; 'Nightmare on Elm Street', 'Blood Beach' etc). However, I did not think that Keir Dullea was entirely well cast in the role of the boyfriend. He is certainly a talented actor with a gift for playing intense and even unbalanced parts but he seemed wasted here. He also appeared too old for the 20-something character he was representing. (I believe Mr Dullea was around 38 years of age when the movie was made). Other criticisms are that the film was a mite too slowly paced, and it was also highly improbable, especially in that the killer remained undiscovered for so long. Finally, I found the end to be a silly disappointment and rather succeeded in diminishing the overall effect of the film by its lack of any adequate explanation/conclusion to events. (However,to be fair,this is true of many horror films). Generally speaking, 'Black Christmas' is a reasonably effective shocker of its kind which will certainly appeal to fright fans (like me)and has deserved more attention over the years for being such an inspiration to future horror classic horror (although I doubt if anti-horror film purists would agree with this credit).