The 31 Days of Horror, Day Twenty- Old and New Found Footage flicks

 
Found Footage; the sub-genre that both thrills and disappoints, is everywhere in today's horror scene. By that we mean everyone with a camcorder and a half-baked idea is out there shooting cheap, cinema verite excuses for horror films.

Some work. Most don't.

One of the first, and most likely the most famous Found Footage flicks is The Blair Witch Project. In 1999, this low budget hand held camera flick about 3 friends who head off into the woods to uncover the legend of the Blair Witch, took the world by storm, insofar as a movie can do. Its budget is said to be a small as $20,000, and as large as $750,000... let's just split the difference and call it $500k, for the sake of argument. That's a pretty small budget for a movie that went on to make around $250 million at the worldwide box office. Those are insane numbers.

Love it or hate it, the movie was a fresh and effective break from the horror norm; it was advertised and marketed as real, and it apparently felt real enough with audiences that it struck quite a chord with them. We personally loved it, though it was flawed. For us, we got sucked up into its story, and the minimalist approach to its scares had us freaked.

Not real, but it was fun to pretend it was.

Since then, many a horror flick has tried to recapture its magic, more often than not failing to do so. We've seen FF/POV flicks about aliens, dinosaurs, monsters, zombies, serial killers, and dozens upon dozens about hauntings/ghosts/and paranormal hi-jinks.

Many of these flicks end up falling short of TBWP, simply because the audience knows whats coming now. The ones that do manage to be good, tend to create an effective atmosphere, and offer us a fresh story with characters we like. The Troll Hunter is one of those good ones.

Trolljegeren is a Norwegian FF movie about a group of college students who set out to make a documentary about a guy that hunts bears, only to find that he actually hunts trolls. Trolls are apparently a big problem (and an even bigger secret) in Norway, and the Nord Government does everything they can to keep the beasts away from populated areas.

What makes this movie so great, aside from it's different premise and awesome monsters, is the minutiae; the trolls can smell the blood of Christians, UV rays turn them to stone, and sometimes they catch rabies... little plot elements like that keep this movie fun and interesting from start to finish.

Say cheese!

In contrast to Blair Witch, Troll Hunter cost $19 million or so to make, and has only made about $5 million at the box office. Of course a lot of that has to do with the fact that a Norwegian language film probably doesn't get the worldwide distribution that an English language film does, which is really criminal.

Troll Hunter is a great movie, and deserves to be a worldwide hit. Movies like that are exactly why we're here; people like us need to spread the word about good movies like this. If we loved it, there's now way that tons of other people wouldn't too, if only they knew it existed.

So, if you're looking for a new genre flick to entertain you, you don't subtitles, and you're a fan of the FF genre, then grab a copy of Trolljegeren on BLU or DVD. Both great flicks, but The Blair Witch already has enough of your money... so why not give the trolls a chance.

See that little tiny speck right there in front of the massive troll? That's the hero of the movie.

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Nineteen- A Little Exorcism...

Tonight we took in  quick viewing of the Exorcist, and planned for our Halloween party.

We've reviewed it before, so here's a little snippet from that, because why re-write the same thing differently, when it gets our point across the way it is, right?

Plus, we're late with this one, and I want it posted now.

There will most likely never be another film like The Exorcist, that pushes boundaries and affects audiences the way that it did back in the early 70's. By today's standard's it's a slow, deliberately paced movie that takes its time to build to the payoff. Of course those very elements are the movies strengths and the reasons that it's so damned effective.

Still creepy after all of these years.

Many have tried to make a possession movie as effective as The Exorcist in the years since its release, and many have failed. No matter how good some possession movies have been over the years, none can seem to truly capture the magic that Friedkin did here. Most don't even come close. Not even The Exorcist's own sequels.

The thought I had tonight while watching this classic yet again, was that if it were made  today, in the exact same way, it might not be the classic that it was nearly 40 years ago. I think it might feel tame to modern audiences compared to what they've grown up with, and it definitely wouldnt have the same impact that it had being released in the 70's.

It couldn't. Things have changed to much since then, and it would just be received differently. Oh well, it will always be classic to us.

Pazuzu forever!

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Eighteen- PA triple feature!

Love them or hate them, the Paranormal Activity series delivers what few films these days seem to be able to; genuine scares.

The premise is brilliant, and it sells itself; ghosts run around the house while you're sleeping, and they're going to get you. Who hasn't been laying in bed in the dead of night, and heard an unexplainable noise? You freeze and hold your breath, listening for another noise to confirm your fears, or you jump up and search the house, turning every light on as you go, praying it was the cat or something.

Either way, it's unsettling, and that's why these movies work.

Paranormal Boob-tivity.

Paranormal Activity is one we loved way back when it first hit the scene, in 2007 if I'm remembering right. It played a few screenings and then sat on a shelf somewhere before it got an actual release two years later in 2009. It's a good old fashioned creep-fest, and we love it. Mostly

Watching it again, I had forgotten what a whiny, cock-sure doucher that Micah was. It was annoying having to sit through 80+ minutes of him acting all aloof and in control, when he was really just making things worse with his fratboy-like  actions. Did he expect to fist fight this demon into submission? I don't know.

Aside from that though, PA delivers some genuine terror and a ton of tension.

There are three endings to the first PA movie out there, and having seen them all, I have to say I like the one that isn't available to own. You can download it, I'm sure, but that'd be naughty, wouldn't it?
The third ending we're talking about is the one where the cops show up. It's our fave.

Worst babysitter ever.

Paranormal Activity 2 is a hell of a sequel. I don't get genuinely freaked out by movies much anymore, but when I was watching this one, I had to pause it and take a minute. Seriously. Maybe I was just overly susceptible that night or something, but it made me cry for my momma! Figuratively, not literally.

PA2 tells the story of Katie and her sister Kristi, and their ordeal with the demon from the first movie. It takes place before the first one does, chronologically, and so it kinda sets up the previous movie, while offering up all kinds of new scares.

This is our favorite of the trilogy, mainly because it creeped us out the most. The ending of PA2 basically sets up the events of the just released (TODAY!) PA4, which is the direct sequel. PA3 was more of a prequel. Ugh.

Aren't they frigging adorable?

PA3 was a fun one, and although the ending came out of nowhere and still has me asking myself if I liked the direction that it took, it was an admirable entry into this creepy series.

PA3 goes back in time and shows Katie and Kristi as little girls, and how the whole demon thing started. Aesthetically, it's pretty much the exact same thing as parts 1 & 2 were, but like those two, it's still effective.

There were a couple of moments in the movie that had us jumping out of our seats, my personal favorite being the gag with the sheet and the stuff in the kitchen. Pants were definitely shat.

A solid flick, but that ending though... I though it was interesting, but it felt almost forced, both on us and into the film itself. Like I said, I'm still really mixed on my feelings about the last few scenes, but it doesn't make the movie any less enjoyable for me.

If nothing else, the Paranormal Activity series has given us a couple of Hotties to admire. In the movies they're sisters, but in real life I like to pretend they're only step-sisters, that way if a tickle fight breaks out and leads to something more, it's not skeevy.

It always starts with a tickle fight, folks. Always.

31 Days Review: Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (2012)

So, the Found Footage sub-genre has finally found Bigfoot, eh? Well, it was only a matter of time, wasn't it?

The Lost Coast Tapes isn't a bad movie, and in fact it has a bunch of good things going for it. The first half-hour or so was pretty interesting, and surprisingly the acting was decent. The problem is that for all of the good things that the movie had going for it, it took nearly an hour to get to anything "good." When it finally did, it was all "shaky-cam city up in this bitch!" Shaky, dark, blurred, out of focus... that's one of the biggest drawbacks of the FF flicks; they payoff seldom justifies the wait.

It's a shame too, because TLCT had a decent premise, and the ending was kinda neat... even though we couldn't really see it. And it was pretty ambiguous.

Yeah, ambiguous like that.

I do have to say that I loved the black dude refusing to go into the woods to search for Bigfoot. That was a really great scene.

Not a bad flick, but certainly not a real good one, The Lost Coast Tapes is an ambitious movie that throws out too many ideas at us, and then can't manage to follow up on most of them. It's passable for the most part, but if you're already tired of the Found Footage genre in general, then it might not be passable enough for you.

C-

Ashley Wood is in this.

31 Days Review: Excision (2012)

Excision's premise is an interesting one; the film depicts the life of a disturbed and delusional High School Student with aspirations of a career in medicine and the extremes to which she goes to earn the approval of her controlling mother. She fantasizes about performing surgery on the other students.

Excision is also a pretty film, with some gorgeous dream/fantasy sequences that are filled with all sorts of bloody carnage. It's an impressive little package that delivers a bunch of good things to we, the viewer... and yet, we really didn't care.

I'm going to say that I personally was probably not in the frame of mind I needed to be in to appreciate a movie like Excision; a few minutes into the flick, I said to those around me "Is this a John Waters flick?," and then I popped onto IMDB to check. No, it wasn't one of Waters' crazy oddities... and yet he was in it. Coincidence? Methinks not.

What craziness is this?

Excision feels like an old-school campy cult flick like Heathers, which is normally a good thing in my book, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. I think it's a good flick, and lots of our peeps will like it.

Since I know it's a decent flick even though I didn't care for it, I think a C grade is fair. Middle of the road. Maybe one day I'll re-watch this movie when I'm in the right frame of mind, and I'll end up liking it. Until then, I hope it gets the love it deserves from elsewhere.

C

Annalynne McCord + Traci Lords = double perfection.

31 Days Review: Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines (2012)

Wrong Turn 5 is easily the worst in the WT series, and it's sad to see just how bad this movie is on just about every level.

The first Wrong Turn is one of our modern day faves. Its sequels have been pretty bad, though we could easily say that they've been fun none the less. Parts 2 & 3 were cheap sequels that didn't do much for us either way. Part 4, at least, was a blood-soaked good time. With part 5, however, it's officially time for them to stop with this series.

Were the mongoloid cannibals wearing masks this time? Sure looks like they said to hell with FX, and bought some masks at the local Piggly Wiggly to me. The movie felt campy; from its poorly-conceived script to the bad acting, all the way down to excessive gore, which somehow felt like it was a parody of itself.

Fans of the Wrong Turn series who just want to see the crazy kill scenes and don't care about anything else will be fine with this new entry. Everyone else will shake their heads in disbelief, and then forget this movie 2 minutes after it ends. If they even make it through the whole thing.

D

At least the girls in this one were hot...