October Horror Movie Challenge: Day 4

Here we are again and I decided to start the day off with The Cabin in the Woods. This is due to the theme today being "meta-horror". It took a bit of searching to even figure out what that meant but now I think I get it. It's basically when you've got your base genre (horror) but things happening beyond that. Something overarching in control or being spoken about for the whole situation. So things like Scream are meta horror because while it is a "horror movie" at the core it is also an obvious joke. Something like that.

So The Cabin in the Woods has been on my list for a while. Loads of people though it was great and others hated it. I wasn't sure where I was going to fall on the spectrum so instead of watching it, it simply got ignored. Either way after seeing it my feelings are rather conflicted. The film was fun, yes, as well as creative. However, I can't say that it was anything mind-blowing or completely new. I guess the basis of the plot is a little changed from other films but not as far removed as it could have been.

Having an overarching being in "control" is hardly new territory. Neither is the idea of characters meandering into their own death trap by design. So what new is being put forth? It could be the quick wit of the characters and script. Still, that's more a result of the age we're currently living in. What is really, really new? The connecting of horror and action film certainly isn't either, as it does basically become a big-budget action film halfway through. The production values were apparently pretty huge in here.

What is good about this movie? It is fun to watch, the characters are likable, and it offers something more creative than simple zombies or homicidal maniacs. Despite all the glitz of the film though it's surprising that it doesn't go further. Because of the money, I have a feeling it would have been impossible to make this film actually "scary". Either way, it's worth watching for horror fans if you feel like catching all the homages to existing horror film characters and films. I dunno, it was okay. Honestly I think the cover kind of ruined it for me. The iconic image of the cabin shifting like a jigsaw puzzle really made it seem like it was going to be a psychological affair rather than a comedic action thing.

Urban Legend was the next feature on my plate. Somehow I'd never heard of this one before (or it had such a simple name that I forgot it...), but it was a good thing it finally crossed my path. The movie is pretty fun overall and totally worth checking out if you want a movie that'll make you second-guess the killer until the reveal. For me, I changed my mind about four times and the film works hard to support multiple theories simultaneously.

This isn't the best feature of the film though. It is of course the "urban legends" which the movie is based off. Almost every killing in the film is a take off of famous urban legends and it's exciting to guess which one is coming next. Some of the legends aren't quite as famous as others, but it's still a good attempt overall. The characters were another shining point of the movie. Some were jerks, but at least they were slightly likeable. As for me, my favorite character was the Foxy Brown-idolizing campus cop. Urban Legend is just a great comedy/horror that is totally overlooked.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil was the last thing I could handle watching for the day. It's pretty recent as it just came out in 2010 but has managed to fly mostly under the radar. I'd definitely classify it as a hidden gem. If you like horror films that are plays on the genre like Shaun of the Dead or The Rise of Leslie Vernon this one is probably right up your alley.

The film starts off with a really annoying crowd of college kids who are going out to the wilderness to party, as is apparently a very popular ritual according to so many horror movies. Along their way they stop for some drinks and have creepy run ins with "hillbillies". However, as the audience, we quickly see they're just normal people and if anyone is messed up it's probably the college kids themselves. Either way, a series of huge misunderstandings cause things to get really wild (and a lot of fun to watch). This is probably the favorite movie I've seen so far for the Challenge.

Frozen

Year: 2010
Director: Adam Green
Writer: Adam Green
Genre: Drama, Thriller

Frozen is not a movie I've been dying to see for a long time. In fact, it was something that only recently came across my radar. Apparently I missed out on it completely around it's arrival in 2010. Basically, the film is about a group of three twenty something young adults who are having a day out on a snowy mountain. Between two men and one women, the men are best friends, while one of the men is dating the woman.

So, they all spend an awkward day together skiing and snowboarding then are finally ready to come on home. When they do, they somehow manage to get stuck on the chair lift back down the mountain. They came on a Sunday and the mountain won't be open again until Friday....

That's all 30 minutes in or so. For basically the rest of the movie they are stuck in a very small location. I worried that the film wouldn't be able to carry itself just on character interaction. However, it managed to showcase these three real-seeming characters who I cared at least a little bit for. Their reactions to the situation they found themselves in was the most important thing though. It's what kept me interested. If people were in this situation you might expect them to react in some of these ways.

Of course, everything goes wrong at every turn. Although it wasn't overall a gory movie there were some really intense scenes. For the first time in a while, at one point I found myself having to only half watch a certain scene. It just got into me (probably because the situation was realistic enough). I was a bit annoyed by some of the stupidity of the characters but after watching hundreds of slashers it shouldn't be surprising.

Overall, I think Frozen shared a strong experience. It's not the best film ever, or even all that great, but it makes you wonder about what could happen in all our lives. If you're someone who regularly plays around in the mountains though I would suggest you stay far away as it would probably be an especially tough film to watch.

Insidious

Year: 2010
Director: James Wan
Writer: Leigh Whannell
Genre: Horror: Possession

Insidious is exactly the kind of movie I steer clear from. First, it's modern, which always throws me into an angry fervor just because I've felt especially let down by films that everyone says are so great when they're out in theaters. It's the typical reaction for me... Don't believe the hype, in fact, don't even listen to the hype because if you do it's deadly. Even though I don't remember Insidious having a massive wave of interest when it came out, it still is a modern film so it got lumped in with all the rest. Against everything I was telling myself, I decided to watch it anyway.

With all that said I did actually enjoy the film, and much more than I expected. For about half the movie I was paralyzed on my couch. I just sat there staring with a knot in my stomach. The tension was built up quickly, but mostly free from "BOO" scares. I couldn't stand how well the film was put together and it kept me on edge completely. The people who worked on this movie most definitely have a sense of how to string viewers along without giving them relief.

You might have noticed I said for "half the movie". At some point, the film shifts in tone and it's for the worse.  Insidious is about a family who moves into a new home and feels a little bit odd about the whole place. Then, one of the children goes into a coma and things get amped up from there. It was initially a very tight work which didn't focus on showing you shocking things as much as it was about what you didn't see - it made you wonder. This was great.

Then the film starts to show you. It shows you things which are going on and explains reasons why this all is going on. Sure, it's got an otherworldly edge to the explanations, but it's still an explanation. IT's not always bad as it could have been played off as still entirely creepy but something else happened... They filmmakers started to show off what I assume they thought were their big guns and just went crazy with slamming things at the audience.

They weren't simple scares but they were just showing far too much. It felt like the movie completely shifted gears into a different, and far less subtle/frightening tone. It ruined the film for me in a way because it was just so persistent I lost all sense of fear. Scary things were going on, sure, but they weren't viewed as scary by me anymore. They were just ham-fisted and trying to get a rise out of a more typical Hollywood audience.

Perhaps they couldn't figure out how to bring the film to climax in any other way. However, I'm sure with the skill they exhibited earlier on they could have certainly done something better. Instead, they went with the easy route to shock moviegoers. I'm sure many people enjoyed it overall, but I'm left displeased. If you haven't seen the film, check it out and see how you feel. See if you sense the "shift" too or if I'm just being silly.

Dream Home

Year: 2010
Director: Ho-Cheung Pang
Writer: Ho-Cheung Pang
Genre: Horror: Slasher

For some reason, I don't watch that many foreign horror films. When it comes to Asian horror films I'm doubly as reserved to watch them. Now, there are some that I have really enjoyed but for a long while it seemed there was a super focus in the market for ghost stories. Ghosts are fine and all but it seemed a bit tiring to me to see a bunch of the same (even if they were pretty creepy overall). So possibly by because of that I've been really slow to get around to watching Dream Home.

I say this all because Dream Home is not a same-y kind of film. If anything, it felt kind of western in presentation. Dream Home focuses on a woman who wants to be able to move into a building. It's her main focus in life. Unfortunately, as it is based around current affairs, the housing markets of the world have been wrecked. She can't afford this housing unit but damn if she doesn't desire it more than anything else. Her passion drives her to do unspeakable things.

I'm not sure what I expected from the movie but I didn't expect to see such strong displays of violence. Maybe I had felt that fad had already died out here, but it seems alive and well elsewhere. Let's be clear though, this film isn't full of torture, but it is full of some gruesome and interesting deaths. When it started out I felt like most of the deaths were a bit eccentric, but could have been something you'd see on the news. They were eerie with how real they could be if the right circumstances presented themselves. As the film went on, the deaths withdrew more from reality but they were still pretty gross to see.

In a way this film reminded me of Bloody Reunion and so if you like that one this is something to watch. I'd reccomend it if you're in the mood for something different and kind of black comedy-like.

The Last Circus

Year: 2010
Director: Álex de la Iglesia
Writer: Álex de la Iglesia
Genre: Drama, Comedy

I came into this movie pretty cold. It was simply a suggestion and I only looked at the stars it scored before jumping in. The Last Circus is foreign film where a boy grows up quickly after his father is killed right before his eyes. He inherits the role of a clown just like his father before him and joins the circus. There he meets a girl and, predictably, starts to feel something for her.

From then on, things manage to take the worst turns possible and the movie ends up being one filled with bullets, bloodshed, and disfigurement. It's alright. I have a feeling this movie will or has already been on favorite film lists. It definitely has the stuff to be something special, but or me it was just filler.

I liked the story progression well enough but it just came out too dramatic for my tastes. What can you expect from a drama film but drama? It's an odd criticism coming from me too though since I loved the whacked out Fatal Attraction. That certainly never let up on the intense drama... Well, somehow The Last Circus didn't click with me.

Still, the movie is a neat little experience and will probably please some. Check it out if you're interested in some clown-related craziness.

Paranormal Activity 2

Year: 2010
Director: Tod Williams
Writer: Michael R. Perry, Christopher B. Landon
Genre: Horror: Haunting

Last Halloween I watched Paranormal Activity and was pleasantly surprised. On a whim, I decided to hit up the sequel and see if it was still good. This version takes us into the lives of another family and they're a bit more interesting. You've got a mother, father, daughter, baby boy, the mother's sister, and even a dog in the cast. If there was one issue with the first movie it was that it felt a little too foreign to moviegoers with having only two main characters.

So, we've got a nice cast of rounded-out characters. The premise remains pretty similar about spirits coming after people for whatever reason... Then of course there are cameras around the house just like in the original which help you see the hauntings. It's something I liked most about the first film. Things are shown on camera but most of the time it's very minor stuff. For example, a door opening slightly or a pot falling in another room. It's all very small stuff and I appreciate it.

What I don't appreciate about Paranormal Activity 2 is that it pulls more Hollywood-styled hauntings into the mix. About 3/4th of the way through the movie I felt like I was watching Poltergeist. That's a fine movie on its own but in this one where it is attempting to be "found footage" the hauntings seem much less plausible.

The movie was still okay but felt stretched by the end. I wish they could have kept the atmosphere of the first without having to go and blow it later on. If you like this movie you should also check out REC. 

I Spit on Your Grave

Year: 2010
Director: Steven R. Monroe
Writer: Stuart Morse
Genre: Horror: Exploitation

I Spit on Your Grave/Day of the Woman was a film that I never thought would be remade. The first (and only) time I watched the original I was petrified through most of it. Sure, there was no murderer or giant monster but all that happened onscreen was intense. It seemed the kind of movie nobody wanted to touch then and would never touch again.

But then a remake happened and somehow left me feeling the exact same way. What's interesting to me is while the rape scenes were toned down of actual graphic content, they were kept long in other ways. The buildup and abuse carried out by the group of men was just as hard to watch as the scenes that would follow.

What also struck me was that I believe the way that revenge was served was more graphic than before. It was also more creative. I figure these scenes must have been amped up because a movie-going audience would accept it after the atrocities the woman had to go through. Still, it was surprisingly hard to sit and watch it all. I needed a break in the middle of it and took one (something I rarely do).

This is the kind of movie you don't watch with friends, if ever. It stands as a very powerful film around the same caliber of Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom and Men Behind the Sun.

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Year: 2010
Director: Daniel Farrands, Andrew Kasch
Writer: Thommy Huston
Genre: Documentary, horror

This is one of the greatest movie documentaries I've ever seen. It probably has to do with the fact that I'm a big fan of the series, but overall it was really well done. You could tell that everyone involved in making the documentary, appearing in it, and putting it together were mad about Freddy.

It was some 4 hours long and that is incredibly more than most docs out there. However, because there is so much source material to go over in the Nightmare world it makes sense that it is so damn long. From beginning to end I was crazy about it and hung on everyone's words. I felt like a kid in a candy store getting a behind the scenes look at the awesome movies.

What was really weird was how my opinion on Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare was. Upon watching it I thought it was a completely terrible movie but after the doc it seemed so much better. Despite it being a bit of a car wreck, seeing how much everyone loved making it made it seem better overall. It was especially interesting to see that they actually went to Nintendo to see if they'd let Freddy wear a power glove during the stoner video game scene. When Nintendo said no, they did it anyway! you gotta love the guts they had to do things like that.

The only sad thing is that Johnny Depp wasn't in the documentary except for in one early 90s interview clip. It really felt like Depp was ashamed of his first film. That's really sad if true because A Nightmare on Elm Street is a classic horror film. Completely on the opposite end of things, it really seemed like Heather Langenkamp is in love with her character and the series. That, I think, is wonderful.

Bottom line: Incredible documentary for anyone who likes Nightmare.