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Lately finished watching all Horrorfest 4 films.
Good ones: Dread & Hidden. Worth a watch (may be): Kill Theory & ZMD Disappointing: The Final, The Reeds & Lake Mungo. Dreadful: The Graves. |
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Sweet. thanks. |
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Big thanks to Chrono for all her awesome reviews. :)
And plenty of smooches, wherever she wants them. ;) |
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I've actually been procrastinating A LOT this year because the movies have been so damn disappointing as a whole... Two more reviews to go. I've seen all of the movies at this point, it's a matter of taking the time to write down my thoughts. |
A film like Triangle would have been a great entry in the AD series, especially this year.
It has been disappointing for sure. Except for ZMD (and to an extent Hidden and Lake Mungo), nothing to write home about. |
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Lake Mungo http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...grl/302003.jpg Not gonna lie; this movie had a few things going against it when I went into watching it:
So, suffice to say, I was pleasantly surprised when this film turned out to be a smartly done, incredibly well-acted and -filmed mockumentary. I haven't seen a whole lot of horror mockumentaries. I would count Blair Witch in that category, as its premise was a "documentary" gone wrong, and I would throw American Zombie in there as well (which I STILL highly recommend, for those of you who haven't seen it). There's also Behind The Mask; And both of those are two completely different movies from Lake Mungo. Lake Mungo is a series of interviews, found photographs and video footage of the Palmer Family who is grieving over the loss of their daughter, Alice, who drowned prior to the filming. In fact, the "reason" for the "documentary" are the bizarre occurrences and notoriety that the family receives following the wake of her passing... Through convincing interviews of family and friends, the story is slowly revealed, as is Alice's past. As with any grieving family, they begin to search for any way possible where Alice could still be with them... And so comes the photographs. Lake Mungo isn't a straight-out haunting movie, like Paranormal Activity; instead it takes the viewer through stills and photographs, where Alice's visage seems to appear - This kind of slow subtlety is the kind of glorious horror that just makes the hairs on your arms stand up. I'm personally a fan of the "ghost photographs" phenomenon, whether they be "real," or doctored, like the Slender Man. That the narrative revolves around the discovery and reveal of the Palmer Family's ghostly images is an intriguing concept, and one that definitely kept me glued to the television. While this movie doesn't have the flat-out "scares" of something like Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch, its subtlety definitely captured a genuine creepy mood that made me feel uneasy for most of the film. My only issue with the film is that, by choosing the mockumentary style, you don't really get the climactic scene that you get with other hand-held ghost films, like the two mentioned above. Instead, the tone feels a bit disaffected and you don't have the big "payoff" as you generally expect. While I thought that the movie was really smart and well-done, it honestly left me wanting that big climactic gripping-my-boyfriend's-hand scene. It felt a bit flat by the end, though it was obviously the director's intention. Since I ultimately felt flat in the end, I have a hard time giving this anymore than a 3.5/5. Regardless, I think that it's worth checking out. I was impressed. |
The Reeds
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ogrl/reeds.jpg So this movie actually started out pretty strong - The plot line involves six friends setting off into the English countryside to rent a boat to sail through Norfolk Broads, a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English county of Norfolk. The direction and cinematography is absolutely stunning as we pan out over the rivers and the tall, thick reeds that surround the waterways. The clean panning shots really serve to frame a believable feeling of helpless and isolation when our heroes inevitably get lost and their boat stranded. I was hoping at this point that our creepy reed maze would be home for a nice little swamp monster movie... Instead, The Reeds turns into a fairly run-of-the-mill ghost story complete with bad writing, no character development, poor special effects, and a really uninspired and predictable lineage reveal ending (I can't even express how much I HATE those kind of "twists"). Nothing really new here, or really worth seeing. It's a shame to waste that great setting on a poorly thought out story. 2.5/5 |
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