From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn is a fun and brutally gory romp. Quentin Tarantino's script is delightfully Tarantino-y, with quick witty dialogue and endless references. Harvey Keitel and George Clooney nail their roles, and Juliette Lewis is no slouch either.

The production design and creature design of the movie are great, and the over the top gore both fits and propels the fun and ridiculous tone of the movie.

While not a particularly frightening movie, it is a fun and gory ride that had me giggling the entire time.

Scares 4/10
Overall 7/10

Restart, Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005)

Ok, so this blog has been dormant for quite some time. But now I am done with school and working full time, so I have a lot more free time to watch movies. I'm gonna try to do a post or two a week. Starting with Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.
This is a passable at best sequel to one of the most beloved 90's slashers. While Urban Legend had a great cast, Bloody Mary could only boast Kate Mara as giving a compelling performance. She out acts all other actors in the film, including a few twice her age. And now shes on House of Cards, her skill was evident in this movie.
Scares in the movie were below average. A few minor creepy sequences existed, but failure to deliver on the build marred most of the movie.
I'll try not to spoil, but a major plot point that affects the life of Sam (Kate Mara) in a huge way is mentioned during the climax, but then never referenced again.

If you are looking for a sequel to Urban Legend, I'd suggest you check out Urban Legend: Final Cut (2000). It's a far more engaging and fun to watch movie, featuring Anthony Anderson in, in my opinion, one of his best roles. While it too is far from art, it is at least far more entertaining.

Scares 4/10
Overall 4/10

31 days of Horror Movies in October

Hey everybody, I decided to try the 31 day horror challenge for the first time this October. The way I am going to do it is one movie a day from Oct 1-14. 2 a day from the 14-23 and 3 a day from the 24-30. Halloween gets four movies, and likely quite a few more, as I usually host a horror movie marathon on Halloween. The cool thing about most of these movies is that they are only about 90 minutes long, so they are not a huge time commitment. I am doing movies I own but have never seen, as well as ones that I love. A few from netflix will be in here too. Each day I only have from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM to watch a movie. If I am forced to skip a day, I must complete it on the next day. I am not going to repeat any movies, because that's lame. I am going to watch the entire Halloween series as well, because that's what this month and challenge are all about, plus it's my favorite series.
All movies are the original unless otherwise noted.
Hopefully I can follow each film with a review.

Oct. 1- Interview With a Vampire
Oct. 2- Freddy Vs. Jason
Oct. 3- The Collector
Oct. 4- Carrie
Oct. 5- Silence of the Lambs
Oct. 6- My Bloody Valentine
Oct. 7- Ju-on: The Grudge
Oct. 8- V/H/S
Oct. 9- Saw
Oct. 10- The Collection
Oct. 11- Arachnophobia
Oct. 12- The Ring
Oct. 13- Friday the 13th
Oct. 14- Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play
Oct. 15- Nightmare on Elm Street 3, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Oct. 16- Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead
Oct. 17- Alien, Aliens
Oct. 18- Scream, Scream 2
Oct. 19- Scream 3, Scream 4
Oct. 20- Saw 2, Saw 3
Oct. 21- Children of the Corn, Blair Witch Project
Oct. 22- Auditon, Hostel
Oct. 23- Red Dragon, Hannibal
Oct. 24- Single White Female, Se7en, Rosemary's Baby
Oct. 25- Evil Dead, Dawn of the Dead (Remake), 28 Days Later
Oct. 26- Friday the 13th Part 2, Friday the 13th Part 3, Friday the 13th Part 4
Oct. 27- Hellraiser, Final Destination, The Prophecy
Oct. 28- The Mist, The Shining, Misery
Oct. 29- The Exorcist, The Cabin in the Woods, Suspiria
Oct. 30- Eraserhead, The Descent, The Hills Have Eyes
Oct. 31- Halloween, Halloween 2, Trick'r'Treat, The Conjuring

There you go, 58 horror movies to watch during October. I left a bunch that I love off of this list, in order to fit in ones that I have not seen, or ones that I have not seen in a while.
"It's Halloween, everyone's entitled to one good scare" -Halloween (1978)

The House at the End of the Street (2012)

The House at the End of the Street starts off as a very promising film. Jennifer Lawrence stars and is as fun to watch on screen as any actress right now. Her chemistry with Max Thieriot and Elizabeth Shue is fantastic, and all three portray very likeable characters. Unfortunately, most of the other characters in the movie are not likeable at all. The first two thirds of the movie are very taut and suspenseful. Unfortunately the suspense is not upheld once the climax is reached. The story devolves into a series of cliches and predictable actions. If the tone and quality of the first two acts of this film had been upheld throughout the whole movie, this movie would have been very, very, good. But this film, despite its good cast and high production value, falls into mediocrity.

Scares: 7/10
Overall: 6/10

Battle Royal (2000)

Battle Royal is a Japanese film about a class of highschool age students chosen at random to compete in a killing game until only one is left. Many people called the Hunger Games a rip-off of this movie, and while there are similarities between the plots, the tone is drastically different. This movie is incredibly dark, bloody and sad. The main characters are very likeable, and the villains are very, very, easy to hate, for the most part. Every single character is shown with enough human characteristics that it is not difficult to feel sympathy for the characters. It is clear that the only reason these children have become killers only because of their less than desirable circumstances. Overall this movie is very entertaining, thought provoking, and compelling, and I highly recommend it to fans of The Hunger Games

Scares: 6/10
Overall: 8/10

The Conjuring (2013)

The Conjuring is an exceptional film brought to us by talented director James Wan, (Saw, Insidious). Like Amitiville Horror, and The Haunting in Connecticut, this movie is based on the exploits of real life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Whether or not you believe in their stories or the paranormal, this film is wonderfully terrifying. The film follows the Perron family as they move into a, wait for it, haunted house. But this film relies heavily on the strength of the atmosphere created by Wan, and the strength of its actors. Especially the children. A lot of the terror flows from the build ups that are employed wonderfully. The Conjuring does not fall into the trap that a lot of paranormal films fall into, using jump scares as the primary force throughout the movie. A jump scare is weak, because no matter who the person watching is, a jump elicits a knee jerk reaction, whether or not the person is actually scared. This movie uses jumps sparingly and effectively. Overall this is a great film that scares well.
Overall:8/10
Scares:9/10

Purpose of this Blog

Hello everybody, I'm Smitt.This is a blog where I will review horror movies. I define a horror movie as any movie that intends to scare you. This is a tad more encompassing than the normal definition of a horror movie. I will give two ratings for each movie. One that assesses the overall quality of the film, and one that assesses the scares, independent of the quality of the film. So let's jump right in.