Movie Reviews

MOVIE REVIEW: Cabin Fever

/ Female Human / Leave a comment

225794-cabin-fever-0-230-0-345-cropTitle: Cabin Fever 

Year: 2016

Genre: Horror

My Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Watch Time: 99 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Date Watched: July 1, 2019

Recognized Actors: None

Brief Summary of Plot from Letterboxd: YOU CAN’T RUN FROM WHAT’S INSIDE. In this grisly remake of the 2002 horror hit, five college chums rent an isolated woodland cabin for a party. But their fun quickly ends when the group is exposed to a hideous flesh-eating virus, and survival becomes the name of the game.

My Review: After the first 15 minutes: Like in the 2002 version, the beginning takes place at a gas station with some weird hillbillies. Already in the first few minutes, I could tell that this movie was going to worse than the 2002 version.

Overall impressions: Really stupid — but I guess that is to be expected from a B horror movie. Essentially, this is the exact same script as the first movie — not sure why? Super boring and unoriginal. The deputy is really ridiculous and has super stupid dialogue about partying. I don’t remember if this was also in the first film (probably was). Basically, this was a worse version of the original. There are similar scenes, but redone terribly. If you liked the first movie, I would doubt that you will like this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

MOVIE REVIEW: The Golem

/ Female Human / Leave a comment

461856-the-golem-0-230-0-345-cropTitle: The Golem

Year: 2018

Genre: Horror

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Watch Time: 95 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Date Watched: July 1, 2019

Recognized Actors: I did not recognize any of the actors.

Brief Summary of Plot from Letterboxd: AN ANCIENT LEGEND REBORN. A re-imagining of the old mystical folklore that follows a woman and a tight-knit Jewish community that is besieged by foreign invaders. She conjures a dangerous creature to protect them but it may be more evil than she ever imagined.

My Review: After the first 15 minutes: The movie opens with the story of the Golem, whereby a rabbi cannot control the monster and it ends up killing everyone. A young girl witnesses these events and runs from the temple. The movie then progresses into the future, to 1673 Lithuania where a couple (Hannah and Ben) is trying to conceive. It has been 7 years without any baby. They live in an isolated Jewish village, which is soon besieged by their Christian neighbors.

Overall impressions: This movie is full of themes of loss and regret — the couple I mentioned before lost their only son in a tragic accident. Hannah is severely depressed, and cannot imagine ever having a child again — she studies the Torah day and night to find a reason why God has taken their son from them. Que the Christian invaders, who blame the Jewish villagers for the plague. Their leader brings his dying daughter and threatens the villagers with death if she dies. The village healer takes the girl in an effort to heal here.

Amidst all this, Hannah awakens a Golem to save the town, but his awakening is a double edged sword which brings more than just salvation.

This movie is not scary, although a horror film. I read a lot of reviews of people who didn’t like this movie because the golem was a boy child instead of some gross, gigantic mud monster. For me though, the fact that the golem was a child, really tied into the loss of Hannah of her own child, and added to the movie.

I think that it is worth the watch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOVIE REVIEW: The 3rd Eye

/ Female Human / Leave a comment

410955-the-3rd-eye-0-230-0-345-cropTitle: The Third Eye

Year: 2017

Genre: Horror, Thriller

My Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Watch Time: 107 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Date Watched: June 24, 2019

Recognized Actors: This was an Indonesian movie, so I did not recognize any actors.

Brief Summary of Plot from Letterboxd: BELIEVING IS SEEING. When her little sister claims she sees the dead, Alia consults a psychic, who opens her own eyes to the vengeful ghosts haunting their childhood home.

My Review: After the first 15 minutes: The movie starts in the year 2005 and within the first few minutes the little girl already sees the first ghost. It is also a bit strange because the actress playing the sister (Alia) seems to be the same age as the parents. The story then jumps to 2017, where we learn that the parents were only 30 in 2005, which means I guess that they had the oldest daughter at 15. Maybe this is normal, but it was honestly my first observation of the movie. After the death of their parents, the sisters return to their childhood home (they had moved since the ghostly events).

Overall impressions: The movie had really bad computer graphics. Why were the ghosts always bloody? Does this automatically mean that they are “scary”? Because it didn’t feel that way. I wasn’t scared. The blood did not seem to have any relation to the way that they died and just seemed like a cheap trick.

This movie was just as hokey as the Evil Dead, but wasn’t as good. I’ve seen a lot of Asian horror movies, and this definitely was not the best; however, I watched it on the plane back to the States from Austria, and it was at least entertaining (since I was laughing at the really horrible CG). I gave it 3 stars because I didn’t dislike the movie per se, I just didn’t think it was great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOVIE REVIEW: Murder on the Orient Express

/ Female Human / Leave a comment

iBlfxlw8qwtUS0R8YjIU7JtM6LM-0-230-0-345-cropTitle: Murder on the Orient Express

Year: 2017

Genre: Mystery, Drama, Crime

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Watch Time: 114 minutes

Platform: Lufthansa

Date Watched: June 24, 2019

Recognized Actors: This movie has a star studded cast, which includes Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Brief Summary of Plot from Letterboxd: EVERYONE IS A SUSPECT. Genius Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of an American tycoon aboard the Orient Express train.

My Review: This movie is based on the book by Agatha Christie. I have never read the book though, so I can’t make any comments on the comparison between the two. Poirot is like the Belgian version of Sherlock Holmes, finding clues in the most innocent / ordinary of details. As the title of the movie suggests, there was a murder on the Orient Express (Johnny Depp), and Poirot (who is supposedly the greatest detective in the world), must figure out who did it.

I watched this movie on the plane back to the States from Austria and it kept my attention. This movie is smart, and very well done and I would definitely recommend to watch it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOVIE REVIEW: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

/ Female Human / Leave a comment

389637-extremely-wicked-shockingly-evil-and-vile-0-230-0-345-cropTitle: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Year: 2019

Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Watch Time: 1 hours 50 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Date Watched: May 4, 2019

Recognized Actors: Zac Efron plays the infamous Ted Bundy. Efron’s performance in this movie is fantastic and I was very impressed. I have only ever seen Efron play the dumb jock, or other unserious roles. In this movie Efron breaks from his former characters and really shows that he has true potential as a versatile actor.

Brief Summary of Plot from Letterboxd: THE STORY BEHIND AMERICA’S MOST NOTORIOUS SERIAL KILLER. A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years. A courtroom frenzy ensues and sweeps 1970s America when a young single mother reluctantly tips the attention of a widespread manhunt toward her longtime boyfriend, Ted Bundy.

My Review: My impression after the first 15 minutes of the movie: All around really good start to the movie! The scenes where Kloepfer meets and falls in love with Bundy were so well done that I forgot for just a moment that Bundy was one of the most prolific serial killers in recent times. The interplay of the scenes where Bundy is acting as a family man and the news reports of his heinous crimes is artfully done and spine chilling. At the end of the 15 minutes, the story begins to dive into the beginning of Bundy’s downfall; arrested for the kidnapping of a woman in Utah, Bundy arrives back in Seattle spinning a tall tale that he is being set up; and Kloepfer buys it…for the moment.

I am giving this movie 5 stars because it was just so well done. I watch a lot of true crime shows / movies, and this one is on par with Monster, the movie about America’s first female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos  (played by Charlize Theron). The thing that I like about this movie, is that it really portrayed Bundy in the way most people thought of him at the time. I could feel myself feeling sorry for him at some points…and then I remembered what he did. I really have to congratulate Zac Efron on a really good job. I have seen Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes on Netflix, and I think Efron portrayed Bundy down to the letter.

If you like true crime, and want to never trust a stranger again, you must watch this movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOVIE REVIEW: Slender Man

/ Female Human / Leave a comment

371792-slender-man-0-230-0-345-cropTitle: Slender Man

Year: 2018

Genre: Thriller, Horror, Mystery

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Watch Time: 1 hours 33 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Date Watched: May 1, 2019

Recognized Actors: The only actor I recognized was Jaz Sinclair. I recognized her from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (which is a really good show that I would recommend).

Brief Summary of Plot from Letterboxd: CAN YOU SEE HIM? In a small town in Massachusetts, four high school girls perform a ritual in an attempt to debunk the lore of Slender Man. When one of the girls goes mysteriously missing, they begin to suspect that she is, in fact, his latest victim.

My Review: My impression after the first 15 minutes of the movie: So far the movie seems to be very similar to the plot of The Ring, i.e., watch a video and within seven days something terrible happens to you. All that is missing is the phone call with Samara’s creepy voice whispering “Seven days”. I have failed to jump or be scared in anyway so far, although there is some tension beginning to build.

As the movie progressed, the “attempted” scares were obvious, and you knew that they were coming. Music would build up and then there was a music explosion at the point where you are supposed to be scared, etc. This style of scare tactic plagues most modern horror movies, and in my opinion detracts from the scare affect. Most of the time it was hard to see the Slender Man himself or the scenes of the movie that took place in the dark, but this might have had something to do with watching it on the ipad during the daytime.

Will this movie win any awards? Of course not, but it’s not supposed to. The goal of this movie is to entertain, and it certainly entertained me.

Despite the fact that the ending was totally lame “ya know?”, I still give it a solid 3 out of 5 stars.