baserock_love Reviews

Resolution (III) (2012)

A horror junky who thought he had seen it all. Thank god for Resolution

[10/10 · 27 January 2013]

For the incredibly stupid front page reviewer here (it's not even a review really, just whining with no substance by somebody who doesn't seem to like or recognize horror.), I'm not affiliated with the film in any way, feel free to look at my other reviews. I'm just a horror junky that thought he had seen every horror movie worth watching, and now that i've seen this, maybe I have.

This movie is really creative. Without giving away too much it definitely broaches other themes that have been covered by other movies, it reminded me a bit of Inland Empire and 13B, in theme only, not content and while it's a somewhat familiar theme it goes in a very different direction with it. It's very well paced and does absolutely amazing jobs of foreshadowing and just piling on the atmosphere and dread so well that at one point I almost didn't want to see what was going to happen, the ending completely took me by surprise.

It's clearly a zero budget indie movie but you would hardly know it to watch it, it's well shot and the cinematography is really good. My only issue is a script one, I thought the main characters dialog and decisions dealing with the crazy events of the film were oddly nonchalant and downright frustrating at times but then again it would have made the movie impossible if he had done what most sensible people would as a reaction to some of the events which is to call the cops lol.

This is absolutely fantastic psychological horror. Bravo to the directors and everybody involved with this. I rarely gush like this in these reviews but there's a reason Resolution has gotten so much hype from horror specific movie sites. It's THAT good.

Since there's no plot synopsis, i'll give a brief one. A man is invited by his ex best friend to his cabin out in the boonies. He knows his best friend is pretty much a rock bottom meth addict and he's rebuffed all his attempts prior to get him into rehab so he shows up with a stun gun and a pair of handcuffs, chains him to a pipe in the dilapidated shack he lives in and is going to stay with him while he detoxes. Strange people live around there and every day he feels he's being lead to strange things like records, books, journals and old film. Things get more weird from there.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008)

Breathtakingly stupid and propagandistic

[1/10 · 20 September 2012]

As a rational guy who flies on airplanes, owns a microwave, and is typing on a computer, I obviously have a deep respect and admiration for science and I have always found the pseudo"science" of creationism aka Intelligent Design to be really entertaining, simply because it is not science. It is religion.

When I heard that Ben Stein of all people made a documentary about creationism I was disappointed, I used to enjoy his show and I had a lot of respect for him. I decided to watch it to see what kind of a case he could possibly make for biblical creationism as a science.

What I got upon watching this was an astonishingly dishonest and propagandistic sham of a documentary. It starts with Ben Stein interviewing teachers who taught at SECULAR high schools and universities and were fired or had their tenure not renewed due to teaching or writing about biblical creationism, aka intelligent designed. Ben Stein paints a portrait of the stifling of science and paints these teachers who tried to sneak in Christian fables as science into their teaching as some sort of scientific martyrs. Conveniently not mentioning the blatant Christian creation myth basis for creationism/intelligent design.

Ben then dishonestly bumbles through a fake investigation pretending to be ignorant of what intelligent design is taking great pains to make sure his interviewee subjects all mention it has nothing to do with Christianity including a trip to the Center for Science and Culture which is the Christian organization spearheading the movement to get ID in public school science classes. He of course fails to mention the mounds of literature where the CFSC present themselves during fund raising as a wholly Christian organization and is of course entirely funded by various church and Christian organizations and of course fails to mention the damaging "Wedge Document" which is their blatantly Christian anti science manifesto which was leaked on the internet which cost the CFSC every shred of credibility it could have possibly had, which is zero.

What you won't hear in this documentary is any actual science, discussion of why 97% of evolutionary biologists have been brought by facts and evidence to the conclusion of Darwinian evolution, what the creationists evidence and science actually is that should bring them any sort of equal standing to actual science. No mention of scientific consensus or actual biology science is broached other then the absurd claims of a secret and hidden crisis in the world of biology where evolutionary biologists talk amongst themselves in secret about how the theory of evolution is increasingly making no sense as more evidence come in. There is of course no mention of the sciences of geology, genetics, cellular biology and genealogy which all corroborate every aspect of Darwinian theory.

Just when i thought it couldn't get any more laughable Ben drops so low as to speculate that belief in Darwinian theory did and will again lead to the ethnic cleansing of the Nazis. This fake documentary contains about every conservative trope imaginable from frequent talk of evolution, comparing the opposition to the Nazis and is peppered with footage of Ronald Reagan.

This is not a documentary, it is a piece of propaganda simply because the creator of it dishonestly presents it as a story of his journey to research something he clearly already was well informed about and then conveniently ignores every fact responsible for the situation the documentary is supposedly about which is the supposed stifling of "science". He also dishonestly downplays the entire motivation for the documentary and the side within it he blatantly takes.

Evidence (III) (2012)

Wow, didn't see that coming. One of the better zero budget FF horror flicks i've seen.

[8/10 · 24 August 2012]

Yet another one of those rare instances where I'm compelled to review a movie because this place unfortunately does not require an IQ test in order to review films here, because if it did, there wouldn't be so many people 1 starring a solid zero budget horror flick because they're confused by...apparently everything. How somebody could be confused by a movie like this is just laughable, it's even more laughable they're not too embarrassed to admit it in a public forum.

As I was watching it it started out as your fairly standard but fairly well paced and creepy FF horror flick, 4 young adults camping in the woods. Weird things happen, sounds in the night. It was all fairly enjoyable but nothing terribly different other then the fact it was horror and enjoyable because lets face it, 99% of horror movies are crap. The pacing is excellent, acting is serviceable, I've seen better and I've seen a lot worse, the atmosphere is excellent, even throwing in a red herring that while completely mundane just really kicks up the creep notch a few. Whoever wrote the script made some great decisions even though it's all very blair witch esque.

I won't spoil it but when you're expecting the standard but acceptable "Everybody dies" ending, the movie completely flips itself on it's head and takes itself in such an unexpected direction and it does it so seamlessly I absolutely couldn't wait to see what happened and where it was going to go. Once things get rolling, like a snowball it just picks up steam leaving the final reel to be pretty much non stop forward momentum.

It's not perfect, there is some spotty acting and in the final reel, the zero budget does show, as the setting isn't very convincing but the shaky camera work and atmospheric lighting do a great job of hiding things.

Don't listen to the haters, if you enjoy found footage, this is seriously a gem. I loved my time with evidence.

Reeker (2005)

Stunningly bad. Just so bad. Go watch Dead End.

[2/10 · 15 December 2011]

It looks like earth and modern civilization but this movie apparently takes place in a parallel universe where things like mutilated women with their jaws ripped off chained to tables and truckers with no legs crawling out of dumpsters are such common occurrences that if you're traveling with a group of people, they're not really worth mentioning to your companions if you should happen to spot one. This is one small example of how laughably stupid the characters in this movie are.

Another byproduct of this mysterious universe is that even when confronted by what would normally instill sheer terror in someone, you can only look slightly concerned, this is just one small example of how laughably bad the acting in this turd was.

The death scenes were so poorly edited that i had to watch one or two of them a couple times to see what the hell was going on.

Oh and there's the "twist", as if it wasn't obvious enough what was going on by the design of the antagonist the MOMENT THEY SHOWED IT they think so little of their audience they make the insane decision to recap and explain in excruciating detail the obvious explanation for this twist.

Really sad too since I was very intrigued after the opening of this movie but the first 5 minutes are by far the high point and it's just a sheer drop after that. The myriad of things that make this an awful horror movie all should have been worked out with the script and screen play.

There is another extremely low budget horror movie called Dead End with a very similar concept, the main difference between these two is that Dead End was fantastic and handled very well and in a way that it can keep many guessing, and this movie is about on par with the worst made for TV tripe the scify channel can vomit free of charge onto your screen. Do yourself a favor and go watch Dead End. If you've already seen it, then I can tell you this is very similar, you probably know what I mean.

The positives? Well, it did end (I can't believe i watched the whole thing :|), and for how obviously low budget it was, the special effects were for the most part well done. I give the special effects a 2 out of 10 and the rest of the movie a zero.

Dread (2009)

Horror just gets worse and worse. Go watch an episode of Fear Factor, it will save you an hour.

[2/10 · 7 December 2011]

Yet another dip in the brainless gross out horror pond. I generally despise this genre but this is a bad movie even for that. Without going into too much detail this movie sinks even lower with trying to gross out the viewer by showing somebody eat maggot infested meat, that's pretty much a new low in using cop out tactics that require absolutely no good writing or screenplay or atmosphere or anything that makes a horror actually scary or unnerving. Instead it resorts to self mutilation, torture and absolutely pedestrian tactics like what i mentioned above to attempt to gross out the viewer. This movie isn't smart at all, it's one of the dumbest horror movies I've ever seen to need to rely on such cheap gross out fare.

Speaking of writing and screenplay, it's fairly awful in this with characters not behaving in an even remotely credible way. One guy can meet somebody, have him forcibly remove his watch, smash it in front of his face for no reason other than to be a jerk nearly causing a brawl only to basically have forgotten it happened in the next scene and crash at said guys house and be all buddy buddy. That's just one example, from start to finish I was rolling my eyes at the completely irrational ways the characters acted solely for the purpose of plot convenience.

This is just another example of why horror movies have sucked on average since the 80's. Avoid this one.

Dead Set (2008)

Such a stupid idea. Such a fantastic zombie flick!

[8/10 · 27 November 2011]

When I read the synopsis I really thought this might be the most idiotic idea for a horror movie I had ever heard of but all you wonderful IMDb reviewers got me to give it a shot and I'm glad I did.

I did not expect one of the best zombie flicks of the last 7 or 8 years, right up there with Rec* and the 28 movies to be a tie in with a reality show.

Just watch it. This is fantastic horror. I actually enjoyed this more than the 28 movies.

I gave it an 8 because it has some of the WORST shaky cam I have ever seen, they really needed to tone that down a few notches.

The Children (2008)

"It seems what we have here is a failure to communicate!"

[4/10 · 25 November 2011]

Vastly overrated movie. The characters in it are so laughably stupid I simply could not suspend disbelief and just hoped they would all die so I could see the credits and move on with my life. I'll say this right now, if you're even considering watching this, stop, and go see the VASTLY superior Island of the Damned if you want to delve into the "Children mysteriously killing adults" genre.

So apparently, a side effect of whatever is making the children kill is that it turns every adult in the proximity, no matter how non intense a moment the movie is in into a gibbering moron incapable of saying a coherent sentence. Almost every aspect of this entire movie could have been prevented if ONE person had just said "Hey, there's something wrong with the children, they're attacking adults." but that's apparently far too tough for the idiots that make up the protagonists in this film. Instead all we get is "*Whimper whimper, sob sob* Eeeek, waaaah, rabble rabble blubber, brabble, baawwwhaww, *sniff* whimper waaaaah!!." That sums up 9/10ths of the dialogue of this movie. I can see in the heat of the moment, but it doesn't matter what part of this movie you're watching, there is not one effective bit of communication throughout the entire thing. I actually laughed So hard when one character finally hysterically shouted "MOM JUST SAY SOMETHING!!!" just to even get some acknowledgement of SOMETHING pertaining to the unfolding situation at hand through the door she was trapped behind only to be met with "*gasp whimper sob sputter* waaah, mumble, blubber." instead of ya know "Yes, the children are killing people they're coming into the house.".

Basically what drives the vast majority of the movie is that fact that kids are trying to kill adults, and adults are blaming it on people that aren't kids, because said adults that got attacked are too stupid to say "Something is wrong with the kids." Basically that is awful writing and awful film making.

Avoid this one.

The Abandoned (2006)

This movie is criminally underrated. Yet far from perfect. Very much worth any horror movie fan's time!

[7/10 · 25 November 2011]

Reading over almost every single one star review on this, it would appear that every single person that ranked it as such cannot follow even a fairly simple plot as this (I see lots of "It makes no sense" and "Nothing is explained" comments.). Really sad to see good gems in the rough like this getting trashed by people that frankly shouldn't be reviewing movies, maybe I'm an elitist, I don't know, but I'm sorry, if you couldn't follow the story of The Abandoned, I really don't know what to say.

This movie is kept from being a top tier creepy movie simply by pacing issues, that's probably my main problem with it which drags it's score into the 7 range (might as well be a 10 for the amount of drek horror made since the mid 90's). This movie has impeccable atmosphere, the kind you can cut through with a knife which is oh so important for any great haunted house film. The atmosphere itself was incredibly creepy, the director should have let the audience just stew in that a bit before getting right to the point so to speak within minutes of walking into the house, it really lessens the impact of the imagery and the antagonists in this movie, but doesn't destroy it by any means.

What stood out the most to me is that it was a very original idea (as far as i know, I have never seen anything quite like it) and like The Baby's room, I love wildly original takes on my favorite horror genre, the haunted house movie. It's deliciously dark without relying on cheap gore, but if that's what you're looking for, there's some incredibly brutal and disturbing scenes in it. The story and acting and characters are good enough to be very compelling but at the same time, I think a little more character development couldn't have hurt. yet we have people screaming "TOO SLOW TOO BORING" and 1 starring it so this is why character development is sadly all but dead in horror movies.

The imagery and photography was fantastic, sound appropriately creepy if severely overdone at times but only a few times.

Just see it. Even if it doesn't scare you like it didn't scare me (i can count the movies on one hand that have achieved this, this is the holy grail of horror for me.), it's very creepy and quite unnerving and just an all around enjoyable flick. Definitely gets the thumbs up from me.

The Vanishing (1988)

The dry subject matter turns into the most horrific movie I have ever seen. Absolute genius.

[27 October 2011]

This is not a token 10 out of ten to try and inflate the ratings for a movie I like. This is one of the few perfect movies I can honestly say I have ever seen.

I'm a huge horror fanatic and I put off seeing this despite it being recommended time and time again because the subject matter is so mundane. This move is the only horror move I have ever seen move that transcended scary to downright shocking to my very soul.

It was a very unique experience that no movie has ever duplicated before or since. Once it was over, i actually just sat there for about 10 minutes thinking about what I had just seen, it was only after pondering it for a bit that i realized that the pacing and just sheer implications of what i had just seen was probably the most disturbing and awful yet utterly brilliant and in a strange way beautiful thing I had ever seen because as others have stated, it couldn't have possibly ended any other way. The viewer won't want it to end any other way.

Through impeccable pacing and direction George Sluizer manipulates the viewer in a way I never thought could be possible, it would be criminal to spoil ANYTHING from this movie but I found myself in the same conundrum the protagonist Rex finds himself in at the ending and rooting something yet at the same time dreading to see it's result, but I must see. I can't think of any ending to any movie that was more fitting and a better conclusion than the ending of Spoorloos.

Fans of psychological horror, this more than anything is required viewing. I await the day that a film can make me feel the way this one did and frankly I doubt it will ever come.

Bravo, and shame on you George for the abysmal American and Americanized remake that absolutely ruined this movie for so many people I know. This movie is a masterpiece and half the people I know will never be able to enjoy it.

100 Feet (2008)

Too bad such a great idea was wasted on such a god awful movie.

[1/10 · 23 October 2011]

Pretty standard Hollywood trash that passes for horror these days. Lots of money spent on special effects so of course they want to show them off. We're introduced to what it is we're supposed to be afraid of in plain sight very early on thus eliminating any and all tension that could have been had from the premise as well as eliminating any believability this movie could have had. There's no real buildup whatsoever, the movie is basically two parts, pre evil ghost and evil ghost, there's no anticipation, no pacing and no buildup whatsoever.

The final act and climax are just laughably stupid, I really regret actually sitting all the way through this. Special effects really made Hollywood lose sight of what makes a good scary movie and this is probably the poster child of my argument. This premise could have been fantastic but it's absolutely wasted on this movie.

The Signal (2007)

If you're going to let 3 different directors make a horror movie...

[3/10 · 23 October 2011]

Make sure that one of them isn't going to try and turn it into a Three Stooges-esque wacky comedy. Yet another potentially great horror movie utterly ruined by some really terrible directing choices, mainly the 2nd reel.

It was very compelling through the first act and I was really enjoying it, then it suddenly changed into a wacky dark slapstick comedy seemingly out of nowhere in the second act, it's very stilted as it seems to just come out of nowhere and it's very out of place. I understand what they were trying to do with this but it just failed miserably, this pretty much ruined the dead serious atmosphere and tone and it doesn't help that the 3rd act was pretty weak on it's own merit as a follow up. In order for a scary movie to be scary, it has to take itself seriously and this movie begins like this, then becomes a total farce, and then ends serious again.

If you're really desperate, there's some merit to this but I can only recommend it to horror fans if you're truly desperate like I was when I watched it. Better yet, watch the first 30 minutes of it then turn it off and go watch something better, it's the only part worth seeing.

May (2002)

I really can't believe what passes for horror these days.

[24 September 2011]

Don't think my 2 stars is out of vindictiveness, this movie really was THAT bad. I seriously absolutely hated this movie.

I'm not going to go on and nitpick every little thing, but this movie is probably one of the worst offenders I've gotten from trusting horror fans top scary/horror movie lists because it seems to be near the top in just about all of them and I frankly can't fathom why.

It's basically a generic tired drama, the same one Hollywood has done a million times. Lonely outcast can't connect with people and can't get a boyfriend even though she's pretty hot because god forbid a female lead isn't, casting be damned. But this is the same generic tired drama with a twist! Throw in a bunch of gore porn so it's that same tired drama, only now it's horror! It really is depressing what passes for brilliant horror these days, as long as we keep praising awful movies like this just because they throw in a gallon of fake blood and gore we're going to keep getting these movies that make modern horror suck and things will never improve.

If May is the brilliant modern horror masterpiece so many seem to praise as such, then horror films truly are dead.

The Seventh Victim (1943)

I'm sorry. I just don't see it.

[3/10 · 24 September 2011]

I rarely review movies here but I've been on another horror bender and one of my all time favorite scary movies is a true classic, The Haunting so I'm definitely not one of the Saw/Hostel set even though this movie came out when my grandparents were young. It appeared as a well regarded movie on many "Scariest movies ever" lists as a chilling and atmospheric psychological horror flick. Keep in mind I'm basically reviewing this as such, I really can't fathom how people find this film terrifying, or even the tiniest bit creepy.

I basically sat through the movie waiting for the horror, waiting for the atmosphere waiting for SOMETHING interesting to happen and it just didn't. It wasn't without plenty of merits, the acting was fairly good and the cinematography was nice and it had a nice varied cast of characters that are as fleshed out as a character can be compared to most of the trash that calls itself horror these days, but as a horror movie it simply didn't register. The antagonists were revealed in such a dry manner and were simply not imposing whatsoever and the main pitfall our heroine was up against was hardly something that seemed threatening in the slightest.

The director missed a golden opportunity to use pacing to give a sense of claustrophobia as the antagonists close in, anything to even lead us to believe the heroine was in any danger whatsoever, a danger that might have been closing in on her throughout the movie. There was nothing though, some events unfold as anticipated and then the film ends.

Really, if you're looking for a good horror flick, this isn't it, if you can enjoy a slightly (and i mean VERY slightly) dark classic on just those merits alone, you could do a lot worse then this.

This movie isn't creepy, chilling, scary or even horror at all. The best way I could describe it is a slightly noirish drama. Just because there's a satanic cult in the synopsis doesn't make this automatically horror.

I just want to warn others who might be looking for an actual horror movie and could be mislead by all the reviews on this.

The Haunting (1963)

Even for a younger generation. The Haunting is the cream of the crop

[30 May 2010]

I'm rating this purely on a horror movie scale. As far as pacing, buildup and suspense and just outright creepiness not to mention dignity in characters and acting. This is about as good as horror can get and I have seen damn near all of them.

Out of 3 girlfriends and my mother I have attempted to watch it with over the last 3 years only one was even able to make it past the first night in Hill House let alone finish the actual movie. It's smart with a couple very funny moments and it doesn't show you what's so terrifying because what is there to show? The house was just born bad.

And not one drop of blood to be seen in the whole movie. It makes modern horror look utterly laughable for the most part.

Dead End (I) (2003)

So well done with so many clueless poor reviews i was compelled to register

[8/10 · 24 May 2010]

I'm a fan of really well done psychological horror. I have watched hundreds of terrible horror movies and just about every single good one worth watching, or so i thought.

Then comes Dead End. I didn't go into it expecting much but for a modern horror movie this is fantastic. It's not perfect but it is very effective and just deliciously dark and compelling. It has a bit of black comedy but it is NOT a black comedy. It's actually one of the most horrifying and disturbing modern movies I have seen in a long time. It has next to zero special effects and is obviously low budget so it has to rely on simple effective imagery and story to to bring the psychological tension and dread. It doesn't take the easy way out like most special effects ridden or gore-porn esquire poor excuses for horror movies. In fact there are no special effects and only one small scene of gore. This is truly a nightmare and when desperation sets in for the characters it spreads to the viewer.

It's not perfect. The teenage lead acted pretty unbelievable almost to the point of annoyance at times and I saw some aspects of the ending coming but like ANY good horror movie a fear of the unknown is the real terror and it leaves some questions up to the viewer to figure out at the end. For what it is it's a pretty well crafted and intelligent movie. It is modern horror and a truly scary and compelling movie which is incredibly rare.

Reading some of the 1 star reviews of this by people that clearly are absolutely clueless make me sad that just anybody is allowed to review movies here. This is for true fans of horror. Don't listen to the Hostel and Saw 16 fan kiddies. Go see Dead End.