Zombatryoshka

Mama

So it’s been awhile, but my laptop has been out of commission and it’s been tough to post.  I recently saw the movieMama.  This movie was definitely not what I had expected, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. 

The film is about two young girls who are taken to a small, abandoned cabin in the woods, and left alone to survive.  They quickly realize that they are not alone, as the spirit of a woman inhabits the cabin and decides to take over the role of their new mother.  The girls live out five years in the cabin until they are discovered by two men working for their uncle. 

The girls are taken home to live with their father’s brother, but they have many psychological issues and are not accustomed to living in such a civilized situation.  As the oldest of the girls starts to make progress, her sister does not.  As they grow closer to their new guardians, you find out that their “Mama” has come to live in their new home to protect them.

It gets pretty creepy! I wont give away any more of the story, but the end is good! I reccommend seeing this movie!

Urban Explorer

Okay, this movie was not quite as good as the last I reviewed, but it was interesting just the same.  It takes place in present-day Berlin where a group of young foreigners are spending their holiday.  There is a couple in focus, the guy is from America, and the girl from Venezuela.  There are two other girls who join up with them from various parts of the world and also a guide who grew up in the city.  This guide is hired to take them on a tour of the underground of the city and show them things that they would never get to experience on a so-called “normal tour”.  

As they are making their way through the dark and definitely creepy underground, the girlfriend starts to get extremely annoying.  She is frightened of everything and is constantly insistent on turning back and heading home.  Luckily for the horror movie fans however, her terrible actor of a boyfriend makes them carry on.  The 5 group members decide to explore a new area, but have an accident that leaves the guide indisposed, unconscious, and about 20 feet down some abandoned shaft.  

The two girls head back and try to get some help, while the couple decides to stay with the guide until they can be rescued.  Suddenly, some behemoth of a German finds them, and plays the part of savior.  You assume that he’s the help that’s been found, but you quickly find out that is not the case!  I will keep the rest of the story for the movie, but all in all, it was decent enough to watch.  The acting was terrible at some parts, the girlfriend really bothered me (personal preferences I guess), and I happened upon a version that did not have English subtitles when the man was speaking German.  I think I got the gist of it, but who knows!  Watch it at your own risk, I enjoy everything, even the most terrible of horror films, so I may not be the best to recommend.

The Awakening

It’s been much too long since I’ve posted here!  My internet in China made it almost impossible to gain access to certain websites and Tumblr happened to be one of them for me! It’s time to get back to it.

Last night I watched a film called The Awakening.  It was a story about a woman working during the 20th Century as a paranormal investigator.  She was a completed sceptic, and had built her career and name by debunking numerous different ghost stories and sightings.  She was a woman of science and was not easily swayed until, one day, a man shows up at her door asking her for help.  He works at a boarding school for young boys somewhere out in the country and wishes her to come with him at once.  

He claims that the ghost of a small boy has been sighted walking about the school, and also that another boy tragically passed a few weeks before.  He wishes for her to solve the mystery of the boy’s death, and also to discover the scientific cause for the appearance of this “ghost”.  

The woman needless to say ends up taking the job and she travels to the countryside.  She gets much more than she bargained for and discovers something that she cannot explain, nor prove to have an underlying scientific cause.  The story in this film is actually a good one!  It’s interesting and original, providing plenty of twists and turns along the way to keep you entertained.  The story is nothing that you’d be able to predict from a mere synopsis, so I highly recommend that you watch the movie for yourself! The acting is great, the plot is well developed, and the movie in general is well-made and entertaining!

Pig (2010)

I just watched THE MOST FUCKED Up movie I have ever seen in my entire life.  It’s called Pig and it’s absolutely terrible/amazing! It’s much more disturbing than even Martyrs and Funny games in many ways! 

It’s full of gore, rape, cannibalism, torture, and much, much more.  Seriously, when you think it’s as bad as it can get, it will get worse.  This movie pushes the limits so much I can’t even believe it.  It was hard, even for me to sit through, I’m still not sure how I did it!  The entire film is almost shot in one straight shot.  I can’t believe how good the acting was. The roles that the characters assumed were definitely not easy to play.  If I had been the main girl in the film, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my face straight.  

The story is about a crazy guy, who lives out in the middle of nowhere.  He has a daughter who he calls “retard” who is mentally disabled and also pregnant with his child… He keeps her locked up in a cage while he sleeps in a trailer.  He has three siblings that he is holding hostage and torturing throughout the entire film.  Each of the three has their own specific scene in which he takes their pain and discomfort to a whole different level.  

I don’t want to give away the plot anymore, because seriously you have to see it to believe it.  But one specific part I have to mention, was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my life.  The maniac, after killing one of the victims, cuts her open, removes one of her organs, and puts it on/in her sister’s mouth… I am a vegetarian, so that was just a bit too much for me! Haha.

This film is not conventional in any way.  There is no set script, rather just the few people in the film sporadically speaking.  The main girl’s voice gets a little frustrating, but I was also watching the film online and the sound was about 20 seconds off from the scene, so I may have been frustrated long before her voice began to bother me.  

I don’t know many people who would be able to watch this.  I tried explaining the story to my roommate and she now thinks I’m crazy and disgusting.  So watch at your own risk, but anyone who can get through it in a badass in my opinion!

The Ward

Okay, just finished this John Carpenter film, and I am kind of torn between feelings about it.  I really ended up enjoying the story line, but any things about it seemed unauthentic.  I had no idea that it was meant to be set in the 60s until about halfway through it.  This for some reason bothered me too much.  Probably unimportant, but what can I say. 

It’s about a girl with an unknown troubled past, who is found after burning down a house and out into a mental institution.  The entire time something strange is happening in her ward and there is some supernatural presence that begins to make itself known.  She is constantly trying to escape, without success, all the while discovering that the ghost she is seeing is a girl named Alice who “used to occupy” the ward.  There is a pretty decent story line in this one, so I would recommend watching it, but the acting isn’t amazing or even emotional enough for you to connect with the characters.  The main girl is beautiful, yet lacks something for this particular part in my opinion.  It saves itself at the end and I actually liked how it was concluded.  

It’s not too scary and it’s not too gory, there’s no nudity and as I have already mentioned, the acting isn’t anything to write home about.  So after writing this, I still think it’s enjoyable and definitely worth seeing!

Inside

Holy fucking shit.  I just watched the movie Inside.  It’s fucking insane.  Probably one of the most, if not the goriest movie I have ever seen.  There was a ton of blood and guts, the quality wasn’t something I would compare to Martyrs, but it was still awesome. 

The story is about a woman who gets into a car accident with her husband.  He ends up expiring while she is left to bear the burden of her almost to term pregnancy alone. She is obviously depressed and doesn’t seem to happy about the child on the way. On Christmas eve she is home alone when a strange woman comes knocking at her door.  She is frightened, but calls the police and eventually believes all is well… It’s definitely fucking not. 

Once again, so as not to ruin the story completely, I wont give anything else away.  All I can say is that the movie is fucking crazy, gory, and has an interesting story line.  I’d recommend it to all who love blood, although it’s not scary so much as disturbing.  

Watch it!

Shutter

Growing up I couldn’t stand Dawson’s Creek or Joshua Jackson for that matter, but he is in this movie and it definitely wasn’t ruined for me.  I know there is an Asian/original version of this film, but I have yet to see it. I’m sure it’s somewhat better, but the American version is still totally worth watching.  

It’s about a pair of newlyweds who movie to Japan (I think it’s Japan, I can’t remember) for the husband’s new photography shoot.  He is a well-known photographer and has been to Asian many times.  His new wife travels there with him for the first time, but quickly learns that he knows more people there than she had realized.  

She becomes interested in something called spirit photography upon seeing a strange picture in her husbands dark room.  The image of an unknown Asian woman keeps appearing in the shots and she wants to know why.  The husband is plagued by strange occurrences, his best friend dies, and more and more strange thingsbegin to happen to the couple.  The wife believes that someone is stalking them at first, and then begins to realize that her husband is not the man she thought he was.  

This movie has some good scares, a lot of which really make you jump.  This movie is really well made, but the story line is what brings everything together.  The very end, as in most movies, reveals the spirt that’s been plaguing the couple and makes her story known to the wife and to the audience.  It’s vveerrryyy errriieeeeeee! Everyone should see it, it fucking rules.  Even if you don’t enjoy the acting or the movie, you can’t say the story line doesn’t keep you watching.  

Re-cut

I just watched this movie.  Lately I’ve been on a documentary-style horror movie binge.  This film was decent, but I have seen other similar style movies that I’ve enjoyed much more.  

It’s about two young guys who want to make a documentary about some reality star who is now a news anchor at a local news site.  She was on some show similar to the bachelorette, and one of the two men has the hots for her.  So they meet with her thinking that they are going to be making a documentary about her life after the show, and they end up getting volunteered to go on a story with her in some back woods hick town in the middle of nowhere.  

The story that they have to cover involves a family where two young girls were brutally murdered.  It is believed that their father is the one who took their lives, but they areeesent into investigate further after his disappearance.  What they end up finding is far from what they expected.

This movie was, like I previously mentioned, nothing special.  There is some blood, some violence, and what you could call a twist, but it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.  I was still entertained, but I could have gone without it.  The ending scene is pretty good, but throughout the entire film you grow to hate the dumb reality star bitch.  She never does anything smart, she’s the one always pushing everyone and ends up getting them fucked over in the end.  Oh what that idiot guy did for reality TV love.

Yellowbrick Road

Okay… this movie is fucking weird.  I just recently read the description and thought that I’d like it, but the Jury is still out on this one!

Basically, it’s about this guy and his lady who have heard about this old legend where an entire town went on a hike one day through the hills and never came back.  The fact thatthe entire town was never found baffles him and he wants to know why.  He gets a group of people together and wants to hike up there to explore and capture on tape what they find.

So they all agree to go, they have a nice first day, and then all of a sudden crazy shit starts to happen.  Music starts playing, they slowly start going crazy, some hallucinate, etc.  There is a lot going on!

I didn’t know how I felt about it while watching it, but re-capping it right now made me think, and the concept is pretty cool.  I’m just not extremely excited about the whole thing.  I’d still say watch it and decide for yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfX78jrrmi8 

While I’m on the subject of Nazis…

Has anyone gotten to see the gem of a zombie flick, Dead Snow?  If not you should, it’s hilarious! There are parts of it that actually are scary, however, the situations in it are often over the top.  I love zombies, but most zombie films all have the same story line.  A disease or infection breaks out, everyone gets it, the few people who do not get the virus huddle together for safety, they find out that you have to aim for the head, lot’s of people die, someone always get’s turned and fails to mention it to their group which causes more problems than they had before, blah blah blah.  You know how that goes, but, in Dead Snow there is actually a story line! I know, hard to believe.  Better yet, it’s even a good one.

A group of about 6 friends all head up to a cabin for vacation.  They are all doctors, some of them seem rather questionable, but it’s basically a getaway to snow mobile, drink, and hook up.  One gross scene, I have to ruin for everyone because it makes me so sick, involves a guy, taking a shit, and then a girl coming into the outhouse and banging him while he’s on the pot.  While it worked for the two of them, I hate germs, and I can’t imagine that being sanitary, or a turn on. At night, a strange man comes and tells them a story of what happened in the area during WWII.

A group of Nazi soldiers, after hearing that the tide of the war was changing and they would soon be defeated, decided to use the last of their power to terrorize the town that once stood there.  I will leave the rest to be seen, but just want to point out that the zombies in this film are not seeking food, as the undead normally are, but rather wish to protect something and only come out when their prized possession has been tampered with.  This film isn’t for those who think that all people turn into zombies once bitten, this group is much different.

PLUS! The ending is hilarious.  It’s a Drag Me To Hell type of deal.  I loved this movie and I’d give it a 9 for sure! These are some of the scariest looking zombies I’ve seen as well.

Haha I had to use the picture of the toilet-banging scene.  You can see the Nazi zombies on the cover of the film when you decide to watch it, this is much more important.

Another funny scare

I happened into seeing Scream 4 yesterday.  The friend I went with made the mistake, as many do, of thinking that all horror movies are meant to scare you.  The film ended up being much funnier, and much better than I thought! It was scary, aside from the few cheap scares you always see when watching slasher flicks like Scream.  

What I enjoyed about the movie is that they are remaking scream for this generation, they even acknowledge it within the dialogue.  The twist was great (and humorous) and I am sad to admit that I was not expecting this one.  I loved how they did so much with the “Stab” films that are present within the world in the movie, and I also liked how they broke down the killer’s next moves by dissecting common horror movie themes and patterns.  

I don’t really care to breakdown the storyline any more, after all, the Scream series have all been very similar, but all in all, if you are going to see it, take it for what it’s worth! It’s funny! Wes Craven has done much, much worse! 

If I may add however, I think the ending should not have been left as long as it was.  If Craven had simply left it with the murderer getting away with it, or even with the hospital scene in which the murder discovers that their last victim may pull through and ended then, I think it would have made it much better.  It may have better left it open for Scream 5-~, which they seem to be doing constantly now, to be made.  I heard that there are more in the works anyway, so we will all just have to see where Wes Craven decides to take it.  

Martyrs

This movie, while it didn’t seem to scare me, was amazing! Martyrs is a story about two young women, one completely insane as a result of a traumatic past, and the other serving as a caretaker to her crazy friend.  The nutcase basically makes a huge mess, leaving her friend to handle the unpleasant clean up.  To make matters extend far beyond just cleaning up, the crazy one begins to see and believe something is coming after her.  It is hard to explain without giving anything away, but the whole first half of the movie is gory, some of the best gore I’ve ever seen, the crazy girl is fighting a demon inside of her, which ends up taking its tole outside her body as well, and you really begin to think that she had no reason for doing what she did until…

BAM! The whole mood changes, and you understand what had brought on the bought of insanity and what she was trying to accomplish in the beginning of the film.  The friend, now left to alone face the huge mess her friend created, finds out her friend was not actually crazy, but rather telling the truth about her past.  Without warning, she is now meant to also endure what her friend had to as a child, and she begins to understand her motivation.  She is tortured by a group of people whom you have no information about.  She is humiliated, beaten, disturbingly force fed, and all the while leaving the audience asking “why?”. 

It is not until the very end of the film that you understand the purpose of the inflicted suffering.  To me the goal that the group wished to accomplish through this girl, was extremely creative, and also disturbing, but a valid wish nonetheless. The girl becomes the only person to ever reach the point that they tried forcing her to reach.  She is something special, and you grow to like her character even more than you already had.  This film, as I’ve said, is hard to review, but is not very well known and needs to be seen by all horror lovers! It is in subtitles, which I personally believe often makes movies more intense, sometimes even better, don’t ask me why because I don’t have an answer.  

And I know I’ve already said this, but “HOLY SHIT” the gore… the more realistic the better.  

I loved the two girls in this movie, they aren’t your normal female characters, they’re fucking insane. 

I don’t like how I wrote this review, but I am at a loss for a better way to present it, when it comes down to it, you just need to see it to understand.