Category: horror
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Lights Out [2016] ★★★
There’s one simple, yet spine-tingling scene that reminded me of a 1940 detective movie called “Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum”. In that movie, Chan and a group of people find themselves trapped in a wax museum one rainy night with a killer on the loose. In “Lights Out”, Theresa Palmer and her kid brother…
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The Neon Demon [2016] ★★½
Nicholas Winding Refn makes movies like no other filmmaker. Sometimes that’s admirable (see “Bronson” and the mind-blowing “Drive” starring Ryan Gosling). Other times it’s a beautiful, incoherent mess (see “Only God Forgives”, also starring Ryan Gosling”). “The Neon Demon” falls somewhere in between. It’s stylish and visually mesmerizing from start to finish. It also features…
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The Shallows [2016] ★★½
Even when it feels awfully familiar, “The Shallows”- starring Blake Lively as a woman who finds herself attacked by a white shark while vacationing on a Mexican beach- immediately held me in its grip. What follows the attack is a gripping story of one woman’s resourcefulness and determination to stay alive. Since that woman is…
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The Conjuring 2 [2016] ★★★½
“The Conjuring 2” is that rare example of a horror sequel that surpasses the original. The first one scared the living hell out of me. Part 2 is 20 minutes longer, so you get an extra dose of scares. And boy does it work. So kudos to director James Wan for pulling it off once again.…
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The Witch [2016] ★★½
Despite its critical acclaim (89% on Rotten Tomatoes is a damn near perfect score for a horror movie), I didn’t fully appreciate writer-director Robert Eggers’ debut “The Witch”. It has so many good elements, including beautiful cinematography and a superior, haunting score by Mark Korven. The story is quite intriguing as well: it’s 1630 and…
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The Other Side Of The Door [2016] ★½
Dull, uninspired horror movie about a mother who learns of an ancient ritual that will bring her dead son back for one last goodbye. There’s only one catch: she mustn’t open the door that separates the dead from the living or else all hell will break loose. Does she end up opening it anyway? Duh. Derivative…
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Pride And Prejudice And Zombies [2016] ★½
I swear I’m not making this up. Someone actually decided to butcher Jane Austen’s classic story by adding zombies to the plot. Bad move. Based on the 2009 novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, the movie follows five sisters in 19th Century England and their quest to marry wealthy businessmen while having to deal with an army…
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The Forest [2016] ★★
“The Forest” is one of those horror movies with an intriguing plot but not enough ideas to keep it going. It goes without saying that Game of Throne’s Natalie Dormer makes the overall result feel less terrible than it actually is. She plays a woman who travels all the way to Japan to search for…
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Victor Frankenstein [2015] ★★
Did we need another retelling of the classic Mary Shelley story about Dr. Frankenstein and his monstrous creation? Hell no. But Hollywood doesn’t give a damn what we think. So here we are. James McAvoy (so good in tons of other movies) plays young Victor Frankenstein. Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe plays his assistant Igor. You…
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Knock Knock [2015] ★½
Terrible horror flick leaves a sickening aftertaste. Keanu Reeves (in a career suicide role) plays a devoted family man who is left home alone for the weekend. A knock on the door in the middle of a rainy night is the first step into a nightmarish experience in which Reeves’ character (and the audience) are…
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Goosebumps [2015] ★★½
I grew up reading the Goosebumps stories. But I knew from the very first moment that a big screen adaptation could ruin all the fun. Which is why I have to credit director Rob Letterman for knowing what the hell he is doing. At a time when kids are only interested in dystopian love stories, Letterman…
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Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension [2015] ★½
Yes, another “Paranormal Activity” movie (I’m sure you know the drill by now). No, you shouldn’t rush to see it. Yes, it sucks. Need I say more? Rating: 1.5/4
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Crimson Peak [2015] ★★★
It’s not director Guillermo’s Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” or the superior “The Devil’s Backbone”, but this stylishly made Gothic tale has enough mystery and suspense to haunt your dreams. The title refers to a haunted house on top of a mountain of blood-red clay. But before that, we meet Edith (Mia Wasikowska), a young woman who falls…
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Pay The Ghost [2015] ★
A crappy Halloween movie starring Nicolas Cage is the last thing you needed this season. Cage plays a professor who finds himself hopelessly searching for his missing son who was abducted during a Halloween parade by an ugly entity. The real ugly entity is the movie itself, a terrible horror nonsense with worse special effects. Instead of a review, it…
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The Visit [2015] ★★½
After years of making terrible misfires (“Lady in the Water”, “The Happening”, “After Earth” and oh God “The Last Airbender”), it’s so good to finally see the real M. Night Shyamalan back. Well…kind of. His latest effort, “The Visit”, is far from being an original, but it knows how to creep you out. Combining the…
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The Black Cat [1934] ★★★
One of my favorite Bela Lugosi/Boris Karloff horror movies. In the 1930’s, Universal was the ultimate home of horror, and “The Black Cat” finally brought together the studio’s two great horror stars, Boris Karloff aka The Frankenstein monster, and Bela Lugosi aka Count Dracula, for the first of seven films together. The result is a bizarre,…
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The Gallows [2015] ★★
Prepare your Dramamine and get ready for another “found-footage” horror movie that doesn’t add much to the genre, despite an intriguing premise. A group of friends decide to break into their high school at night and sabotage the stage where a deadly freak accident took place twenty years earlier during a play entitled “The Gallows”.…
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Insidious: Chapter 3 [2015] ★½
I’m calling bullshit on “Insidious 3”. Ten minutes into this cash in “prequel” (because let’s face it: it has no reason to exist), I knew it would suck. But I had no idea it would suck this bad. Director Leigh Whannell, in for the gifted James Wan (if you haven’t seen “The Conjuring” yet get on it), takes…
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The Lazarus Effect [2015] ★
Here’s a horror flick about bringing the dead back to life (how original!). Mark Duplass (“The One I Love”), in mad-professor mode, wants to perform this procedure on his dead girlfriend (Olivia Wilde), with disastrous consequences (pun intended). Director David Gelb, in his feature debut, is transparently trying to rip off every Frankenstein movie ever made. Fat chance. Every…
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Poltergeist [2015] ★★
Do we really need a remake of Tobe Hooper’s 1982 horror classic that spawned several sequels? Not really. But the people behind this remake knew that a few more bucks could be squeezed out of the Bowen family, whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces. You know the drill, unless you’ve never seen a horror movie before.…
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