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SPOILERS!!!
The Ward -
I was excited about finally getting to see this movie. And after seeing it I was disappointed and ready to give it a bad review as the movie feels at times like one of those cheap late night movies or a free Fear.net title. I know many directors have duds but if this didn't say John Carpenter's The Ward at the opening titles you would have a hard time convincing people that this is a movie from the guy that made The Thing and Halloween. But I watched a few bits again and realized something. This might not be a horror movie for me. It's a horror movie for girls or women that usually don't like horror movies. And if you go by this premise, the movie isn't that bad. However, my review coming from me as a guy is a disappointment. You have John Carpenter directing with Amber Heard, Danielle Panabaker, and Lyndsy Fonseca in it. I seriously thought this would be a movie I would own.
From the beginning the setup is obvious. Just like Cabin in the Woods, the opening tells you the twist if you pick up on it. The only question is how good will the ride be? I've seen many movies with similar setups that do a better job with the theme and twist. And that twist should have been handled better. A big tell with these movies is how the other characters interact with the main character. But The Ward plays it straight then drops the twist which would be a surprise if you ignored the opening credits and perhaps a few other scenes in the movie. But for the most part, the way it's played the average viewer won't be able to tell. I even started to think that maybe they weren't going to go through with it. Even though they did eventually.
This sort of movie really depends on the character you gravitate to, which for me was Amber Heard's character. It's a shame how the movie resolves her situation. And her situation is bad as only the person in the oldest profession wouldn't be damaged by it. Yet it's a disappointment to see how it's resolved. But like I opened with, all this is ok because many of those other movies can be seen as guy movies and maybe this is the first one for women.
PS - I didn't like the final ending scare. It's used in lesser movies and didn't make sense for the character that did it. It's surprising that Carpenter even used it considering his horror background. To see it used well see Sinister, which is great.
Sinister -
I watched this late at night and from the opening shot I was into it. At first I thought the tree was picking people up. That must have been the alcohol working. But it's a very spooky shot. Anyway, the character they created in this movie is the real deal. But I don't know if I want to see a sequel. Too many chances for a mess up. After the movie I was freaked out, not looking outside windows when I passed them. I'm still kind of shaky about it. I think since I was young the idea of a creature watching, basically in the open, was scary. I think there was an old 80s horror music video by the Ghostbusters guy called "Somebody's Watching You" that started my paranoia with that sort of thing. Like everyone was a creature or zombie. Even the mailman.
I like how every character in Sinister is smart, even the writer who for his story and family's financial safety wants to figure out what's going on. Even though he is endangering his family just by being where he is. The way it plays out and is setup you'll want to figure out what's going on too. Which is interesting as it's like we are with the writer watching the movies as he is. I can't recommend this one enough.
V/H/S aka A bunch of assholes are filmed and bad things happen to them -
I almost stopped watching this movie minutes into it as one of the first scenes features a bunch of guys assaulting a girl in public during broad daylight. It's not rape but it might as well be. I don't see how the director or writers thought this was a good scene to start the movie with. In fact they like the scene so much that it's featured in the credits multiple times. When I was in grade school a bunch of guys used to go around slapping the butt of many girls and running. I thought they were animals and belonged in detention if not worse for that. In fact, I think the director or writers might just be closet rapists or something because there are other similar, very crude scenes with women. I thought I was about to watch a full on girl passed out due to alcohol sex/rape scene at one point. Which I don't think was beyond the guy's character but the writers thought they better not cross that line and have the guy move to his friend's girl. There are a few topless webcam things too and a shot in a car with a blonde girl that's very similar to that real life blonde girl that went missing on one of those islands close to South America. It's all very crude and tasteless stuff.
I actually thought I was watching the wrong movie and not a horror movie at all at first as the horror doesn't start until 30 minutes into the movie. And for the most part it doesn't feel like a horror movie but just let's film a bunch of assholes and have them encounter horror elements or bad situations. It's not the slightest bit scary and I was bored and watched the last two segments a day later. I just read the wiki on V/H/S 2 and I'll pass on that one now.
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