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owenarnold
Reviews
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Erm...This is actually quite a good film
I'm really surprised at the low IMDb average rating this film has. I remember it was Halloween in 2004 I was going through a phase of watching really BAD horror movies like "Killer Clowns From Outer Space" and enjoying them for how amateur they were.
So I was at Blockbusters with some mates and I saw the DVD cover for this. Directed by Rob Zombie a rock musician!!! and Its called House of a 1000 Corpses. Its going to be so bad it will make a brilliant Halloween party right???!! By the end of the movie, all our reactions were the same "Is it me, or was that actually a good film??".
It was. The best way to describe the film is if Quentin Tarantino did a horror film. The way the characters talk, the intertextual references, "cool" music, gore, and some moments of humour and towards the end absolute terror.
For those who saw the far superior "Devil's Rejects" but haven't seen this film should give it a go.
For those who love horror movies but want something DIFFERENT then definitely give Rob Zombie a try. Cos the thing is I find his films have a twist on the genre (for example, Devil's Rejects isn't actually a horror movie, its more of a road movie) and its possible he could be the next auteur of horror films (guys, give up on Hideo Nakata, he's no good anymore!!!) and Eli Roth and co are just dumb.
Rob Zombie, whilst understandably selling out a bit for Halloween (which was average) in order to make a proper name for himself in Hollywood , I suspect his next film, Tyranosauras Rex will be his best yet.
Shame on IMDb for giving this film such a low average rating. Rob Zombie is going to be huge as a film director!!!
Lady in the Water (2006)
Whats wrong with all of you?
Normally I agree with 99.99% of IMDb average ratings but I could not be more detached from IMDb users when it comes to Shyamalan's Lady In The Water. I thought it was his second best film next to, of course, The Sixth Sense.
Now from most of the reviews the focus has been on the fairytale story, mentioning the "Ludicrous" gnarfs, scrunts, etc. Yet this focus puzzles me. Like Unbreakable, a Shyamalan spin on the comic book genre, this is M. Night's spin on the fairytale genre, where humans try to make sense of their mundane lives through the enchanting mysteries of the universe that surround them, and this film manages to capture the beauty and scariness (seriously, there are some scary moments) of life, with this film definitely being Shyamalsn's funniest film.
In other words its not just about the fairytale, in fact, the fairytale element is not even secondary in central themes, the film is about human civilisation and its inability to see beauty in the ordinary, becoming so immersed in conventions and normality that we have lost touch with the magic that is communication. A theme Shyamalan dealt with better in The Sixth Sense.
The film is about all these different people living in this apartment block, from Chinese to Porto Rican, and they are all linked with one common theme, they are drawn by an unknown force to "be" there. Every character is connected, and this is confirmed when the protagonist, Clevelend (Paul Giamatti) discovers a lady in the water and realising she is not of this world, he attempts to return her to the Blue World, but "something" wants her killed.
Strange occurrences happen, a wolf like creature appears, people start to realise their purpose in life, Clevelend starts to stand up to his demons from a past family tragedy.
All this builds up to a nail biting ending that still proves Shyamalan has what it takes to be not just an Auteur, but also a Director who can produce emotionally charged films equivalent to Spielberg.
Overall I recommend this film highly.