johnbkaramazov

Five hard drinking friends go on a booze-fuelled roadtrip looking for the most extreme haunted house experience America's backcountry has to offer. It's actually a fantastic premise as the film-makers are able to play with loads of creepy imagery, ratcheting up the tension without shooting their bolt too soon. The assumption is that none of it is real, but underlying these visits is the tension that... what if they aren't? For a low-budget film the acting and the script is really good. Found footage always benefits from believable characters exchanging natural dialogue, which is what you get here without a doubt. Some of the back and forth is actually pretty funny and at times I found myself chuckling along; which I think is a good thing in a horror film as it builds a rapport between the viewer and characters, which draws you into their world. It's a pretty slow film all told and the last act spoiled the build up for me, leaving me rather unsatisfied.

Was I sad I watched it though? Hell no! This film is all about the tension and the imagery. The uncertainty, the questioning of what's real and what isn't. It isn't perfect, but with a few simple tweaks and a better ending, it could have been. If you like horror and you like found footage, this film will totally entertain you. If you liked the trailer and you're sitting on the fence, get off that fence and stick it on. It gets more right than wrong, some of the scenes are so downright creepy they'll be knocking around in my psyche for some time to come.

I was originally going to give this movie a miss, but my boy had seen the trailers and was really excited to see the follow up to our favourite movie of all time. As a huge fan of the original, I have to judge it as a Ghostbusters film (which is only fair as the studio is trading off the franchise), rather than a generic Hollywood Summer Blockbuster. Well as a Ghostbusters movie it absolutely stinks. It's rotten.

I've read quite a lot of official reviews that say it's better than GB2, in what universe I ask you? GB2 had serious structural flaws compared to the first, there's no doubt, but its jokes and set pieces are still some of the most iconic of the franchise. Seeing as how no one who has made this claim has in any way tried to back it up, let me compare the two right here and now.

First the baddies. Vigo vs Rowan. No contest, Vigo - the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia, conducting his evil bidding from a painting in Manhattan, wins hands-down. Rowan is a terrible baddie, he'll be forgotten a few months after the Blu-Ray release. So let's compare the good guys. GB2 relies on the magnificent chemistry between Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis and Hudson to drive it along and whatever the structural flaws, the chemistry is as strong as ever. Wiig, McCarthy, McKinnon and Jones do not share any chemistry, it's actually painful to see them on screen together. Even as individuals they fall far short of the original cast. If we take Wiig as an analogue to Murray, there's no contest; Murray gains a flawless victory. People are still quoting Venkman lines from GB2, "bummer", no one will be quoting Erin Gilbert in (nearly) 30 years time. The same is true for the rest of the cast head- to-head. To save time I'll just highlight the example of McKinnon, who I love on SNL, but couldn't bear in this movie. She's clearly the Egon character, but she phones it in, playing a generic 'kook' and going so over the top that it basically ruins half of the scenes that she's in. Again, McKinnon, like Wiig, has no funny or memorable lines such as 'lets see what happens when we take away the puppy' and her humour is weird for the sake of it, rather than the deadpan brilliance of the late Harold Ramis. Jones is simply loud and brash. The supporting characters are just regurgitated, worse versions of people from the originals, there isn't a single character in the movie who comes close to the creepy-comedy brilliance of Peter MacNichol's Janosz, one of the greatest, most iconic supporting characters in any comedy!

So let's look at the structure and set pieces. If GB2 was structurally flawed, GB2016 "should be condemned", (see what I did there?) I don't want to spoiler the movie, so I'll keep to scenes and plot devices already revealed by the trailers. Firstly, the rock concert scene falls completely flat compared to the courthouse scene in GB2. The ghosts released by Rowan serve little purpose and lack the comedy mischief of the ghosts in the original, seemingly just there to give a use for the very obvious greenscreen effects that Feig uses much too liberally. Rowan's machine is a cheap cop-out and is in no way comparable to the absolutely terrifying and completely awesome river of slime flowing through the spooky abandoned subway. GB2 was all about creating some legitimate scares (Titanic docking!) and a feelgood factor which it did through some iconic set pieces. There is no feelgood factor to this new movie. It feels cheap in a nasty way and is surprisingly cynical for something that I've read is supposed to be aspirational in some way.

I could go all day comparing the two but let's just say that GB2016 in no way measures up side by side to GB2. I suspect that the reason some reviewers are making that claim is to try and salvage something from this God-awful mess, so people will say 'hey, at least it's not the worst Ghostbusters movie.' It must be shilling because when you put all the elements of the two movies side-by-side, it's clear that despite its flaws, GB2 is simply better in every way than this lazy reboot. But here's the thing, my kid enjoyed it. He didn't like it as much as Ghostbusters, or even Ghostbusters 2, but he thought it was neat regardless. I think kids will like this film because it's flashy and the jokes are crude and obvious; adults who loved the subtle, dry wit of the original will probably be turned off by the listless, rehashed, gross-out humour and half-hearted performances.

I have one more story to share that I think any parent might want to know before taking their child to see this film. When we came out of the cinema, my kid was in a funny mood that I've never seen him in before, half-hyped and half-pensive. I asked him if he was feeling alright and he said 'yeah', then there was this long pause and I could see him struggling with something. Eventually he turned to me and said, 'dad, when I grow up I want to be a lady'. I was pretty taken aback but I tried not to show it, instead I just said to him 'well you know you can be whatever you want to be sport; why do you want to be a lady, is it to be like the new Ghostbusters?'. And he just looked at me with eyes that seemed older than his years and said, 'no dad, it's because this film made me realise all guys are either stupid or evil, so it's better just to be a lady I guess...'

My heart broke a little.

How do you make a television series about the zombie apocalypse boring as all heck? I'll tell you how, employ the writers of 'Fear the Walking Dead' to produce your script. The pacing of the pilot is so pedestrian that it would be overtaken by a fast-moving snail. I tuned in looking for drama, maybe a few guts, definitely some heroics, at least a couple of interesting characters; boy was I disappointed. You never get another chance at first impressions, and first impressions of this show is that it's an overbearingly pompous, sanctimonious melodrama more akin to a Danielle Steel made for TV movie than a spin-off of the gritty AMC hit 'The Walking Dead'. The characters are so far pretty much all unlikeable middle-class dysfunctional types, struggling to do the right thing in a complicated world (etc). I think they're supposed to be relatable people who we're meant to feel sympathy for, but within half an hour I was praying that one or more of them would get their faces bitten off, just to wipe the uniform, anguished look of suburban ennui from their faces. I'm going overboard just a little bit here, but it really has been a horrendously dull start to a series that showed so much promise on paper.

The good news is that although the character of the drug-addict son is rather a Hollywood cliché, the actor playing him puts a really engaging manic-intensity into the role, and carries the pilot almost single-handedly. Frank Dillane is probably the only good thing about the show so far. I was surprised to learn that he played the young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, given that he has matured so much and does a very passable American accent, despite being British. It's really saying something that the ***hole junkie is the most relatable character, but he really is and I think (hope) we might be seeing a reluctant hero in the making. His performance was such that I will persist with the series for a little longer to see if the writers decide to add any zombies to their zombie apocalypse. They should not just assume an audience for their show, they need to earn it!

This is the kind of film you flick on at 12.30am when you really should be thinking about bed, but instead you find yourself sitting there wrapped up in the story telling yourself '5 more minutes...just 5 more minutes.'

There's very little original or inventive about this movie. On paper it's a decent horror-suspense the like of which you will have seen many times before. It's strengths are in the restrained, yet engaging pacing, but most especially the subtle but powerful performance of lead actor Kevin Durand.

Durand plays small town Sheriff Paul Shields, a man seemingly on the verge of a nervous breakdown after the tragic death of his son and the breakdown of his marriage to his wife Susan, played with depth and compassion by Bianca Kajlich. It is this human element to the story that elevates it beyond your typical creature-feature mystery-suspense.

The premise has been used countless times before, but rarely acted so adroitly. You really feel for Durand, he practically exudes pain in every scene without ever overstating the case. I always liked him as an actor, but after this performance I would rate him as a potential great. I sincerely hope that on the back of this performance he gets more sympathetic, serious roles away from the unhinged baddies he usually plays (albeit excellently).

I don't like to spoil the content of movies in my reviews, so I'll just conclude that this film is good but nothing special. It's well worth a watch for fans of horror and/or suspense, just don't expect a reinvention of the wheel, because you'll have seen most if not all of this before elsewhere.

There have been many great injustices in the span of human history - the holocaust, the Irish potato famine, the Spanish conquistador's devastation of the Americas, the Highland Clearances, the Armenian genocide... but none rank so highly as the one and two star reviews of this excellent film.

I just don't see what isn't to like. The script is sharp and witty, the story is pretty simple but gripping and the pace trips along nicely keeping you entertained. Young Milo Parker puts in an absolutely stellar supporting performance as cheeky sidekick Connor, Ben Kingsley camps it up as a bad guy everyone loves to hate. IT'S GOT KILLER ROBOTS, the vfx are creditable for such a relatively small film and look solid.

Probably the least believable thing in the entire film is Gillian Anderson's English accent, and it's got robots flying around English suburbia for goodness sake. Maybe the humour is too British for some people, I don't know? What I do know is that this was a great, mindless hour and a half of my time, I smiled along and cheered at the key moments. There's so much to appreciate about this film, it's a shame some people don't seem to be able to appreciate its successes, instead focussing on what it isn't rather than enjoying it for what it is.

Their loss.

Just give the film a go and make up your own mind. It's really fun and has some great moments. Trust me.

I was really looking forward to Clown after seeing the trailer, the concept seemed pretty original and interesting and I liked what I saw. If you felt the same way, I would highly recommend that you give this film a watch. In the end it surpassed my expectations and left me feeling pretty disturbed.

The acting from the leads is solid, Andy Powers especially is fantastic as Kent and carries the earlier parts of the film with a really good performance. Laura Allen is also very good as Kent's wife Meg whose journey through the film is in some ways as interesting to witness as his own. Some of the supporting cast are admittedly not fantastic, but that doesn't detract from the movie as a whole.

The film is generally well-paced but suffers a little during the middle where it seems to stall, don't worry if you feel this way because it soon gets going again and when it does, it really does. Some of the scenes towards the end will stay with me for a long time.

Clown is dark, disturbing, original and striking. One of the best horror films of recent years.

I spent the first part of this film umming and ahing as to whether or not I was enjoying it, but towards the end I was totally gripped and at the end I absolutely loved it.

The story and pacing of this film are practically perfect, making it a definite winner in my book, but any prospective viewers might benefit from being aware of a couple of things before they decide to watch.

Firstly it looks kind of like a cheap made for TV movie. Some of the camera shots are creative and well thought out but the whole thing just oozes film-making on a budget, and some people might find that hard to get past.

The style reminded me of the remake they did of The Outer Limits in the 90s, rather than a film from 2014. Also, much like the aforementioned series the incidental music is horribly generic and uninspired (but thankfully used pretty sparsely.) The acting is mediocre from the three leads. Some people will find this grating, so prepare yourself. They won't be winning any Academy Awards anytime soon for their performances, trust me.

So why should you definitely watch this movie? Because despite the clunky dialogue and wooden acting the plot is entertaining, unfolds brilliantly and is executed just about as perfectly as a plot can be executed in a movie. It is a wonderfully self-contained story that builds to a satisfying denouement and keeps you guessing and totally gripped along the way.

If you go into this movie expecting every aspect to be amazing, you're probably going to be disappointed. Instead bear in mind the criticisms above and trust that despite these weaknesses it is an uncommonly enjoyable watch and well worth an hour and forty minutes of your time.

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty terrified by the movie. That's the main reason I've given it 7 stars out of 10. The plot is basic but plausible, the acting is very good for most of the film and importantly the back and forth between the two leads is totally believable which really helps draw you into their world and suspend your disbelief enough so that you really do begin to feel involved in proceedings. Exactly what a good found footage film should do, in other words.

So far so good, right?

Well now for the bad part. This film is just the Blair Witch Project with Bigfoot. It really is. It's the same film, practically identical premise (just substitute Blair Witch for Bigfoot), same exact scares, even some of the dialogue is the same or as close as as to make no difference. Scary or not, the level of repetition is quite unforgivable, I'm surprised somebody hasn't sued. Watching the later stages of the film I was equal parts crapping myself and increasingly infuriated as it began to dawn on me quite how closely this movie paralleled the (superior) Blair Witch Project.

The final verdict:

Ultimately despite everything, I'm really glad I watched this film. It left me feeling pretty strung out, so in that respect I have to say it was a really successful horror movie. It's just a shame it relied so heavily on somebody else's original genius and had so few ideas of its own.

Update: Having just watched the new Blair Witch (2016), I'd like to mitigate some of my criticism of this film. Whilst everything I said was true, in many ways this film is more of a spiritual successor to the Blair Witch than the 2016 sequel, which is really, really bad. It made me realise that whilst this film is very similar to the original Blair Witch, a good horror movie is a rare thing, a well-made one even rarer. This film is well-made and scary as hell. I was too harsh on this movie and from now on I'm going to look on it as the unofficial successor to the Blair Witch and try to forget about the awful sequels the people in charge of that franchise keep knocking out once every decade or so.

There's a lot to like about this film that has nothing to do with horror. It has great acting from the two leads, really nice cinematography, a fine and believable script and pacing that keeps you entertained even though the build up is really subtle for large swathes of the running time.

This is a film that doesn't talk down to its audience, it presents bizarre events in a straightforward way and doesn't attempt to elicit cheap-thrills, building up to its denouement in a believable manner which makes it all the more unnerving when it comes. The directors keep you guessing throughout, but never over-doing it. You're constantly wondering where the danger is coming from, you know it's there, but where? It really is expertly done.

I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that although the film left me a little dissatisfied (hence the 9 stars not 10), I was as freaked out as I have been in a good long time. I turned off Resolution feeling genuinely unnerved and as a fan of films and horror in particular, I highly recommend you give it the attention it deserves.

The Banshee Chapter is a decent horror flick with a lot of potential that unfortunately fails to deliver on most counts. The film starts really well, but sadly doesn't manage to keep up with its early promise. It does have a few genuinely nail biting moments in it however, which make it well worth a watch. I would recommend approaching this film in the knowledge that it is a highly flawed yet enjoyable hour and a half, so that you aren't disappointed and can enjoy the film for what it is; A relatively well- made chiller with some very good ideas, executed clumsily. I feel that with a tightening of the plot and a better lead actress, there could have been a really excellent film here. Still, The Banshee Chapter is much better than the majority of horror films out there, and definitely worth viewing at least once if you're in the mood for a fright.

If you can't sit through a relatively slow-paced movie without losing interest and wanting to play Angry Birds, this might not be the film for you. If however you do have an adult attention span and aren't afraid to engage it, this film will reward your patience many times over.

Utilising a vanishingly small cast remarkably well, the film relies on the believability of the dialogue and the fine acting of the two main characters to draw you ever closer into their seemingly idyllic world. I won't go into any specific detail, but it is a technique that pays off as things become more and more unsettling and a real sense of wrongness begins to pervade what was supposed to be a perfect romantic getaway in the woods.

The film successfully ratchets up the tension over the runtime of 87 minutes, and despite a pretty slow start, delivers a lot by the time of the final credits, leaving you feeling genuinely creeped-out and not entirely sure of what you just witnessed.

Honeymoon is that rare beast, a genuinely well-crafted horror movie. The dialogue is genuinely solid, the acting is good, but it's the perfect pacing that really makes this a must-see for any avid horror fans.

This is absolutely the worst film I have seen in a good long time. I'm normally a fan of the found footage genre, but this film has potentially put me off them for life.

The main issue with this film is that there is no hint of a storyline. Nada, nothing zip. You're handed pretty much all the information early on, and it's just a case of watching events unfold.

If events unfolded interestingly, that mightn't be so bad, but they don't. You just watch boring people die boring death after boring death until everyone is dead and then the film ends. Not one of the deaths is in the least bit interesting, for the most part they're boring and repetitive.

There are no characters in this film, no characterisation, no character development, nothing close to resembling a storyline, no pacing, no big reveal at the end, no-one to root for, no one to even care about in the slightest.

The film takes a really grim subject matter and makes it as pointless and boring to watch as a late-night 4am stream of Big Brother. It isn't film-making, it's cheap voyeurism. Nor is it in the least bit believable, which makes the whole documentary style completely redundant.

If you value your time avoid this film at all costs.