Mirrors
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Amy Smart, Cameron Boyce, Erica Gluck
Directed By: Alexandre Aja
Written By: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur
Released: 2008
Grade: B
Mirrors manages to resist the simple ghost story clichés and predictability. Even though it is not among the greatest, it still severely squashes the vast majority of mediocre films that have premises that are not all that different. It accomplishes this by having a solid story and doesn’t feel the need to reveal it in a big twist. Instead, it gradually is revealed to us at piece by piece at the same time our main character is learning and discovering the information for himself and learning what he has to do to stop what will otherwise be the inevitable.
Ben Carson (Sutherland) is an ex-cop who has made a few mistakes in his past that have taken away some of the most important things to him. He no longer has his job, his wife, Amy (Patton), and has to greatly struggle to even see his kids, Michael (Boyce) and Daisy (Gluck). Not to mention it is hard to get a hold of himself from the pain and urge to resist drinking during this. For awhile he even has a hard time trying to find a job and ends up staying with his sister, Angela (Smart). Ben eventually finds one as the security of an old burnt and destroyed shopping center. It is very dark and gloomy there and before long, Ben begins to hear things; people screaming for their life. Along with the pained voices, he starts to see horrifying images, particularly through the many mirrors that the building holds. When the man who previously held his position ends up dead with a sliced throat, a package from this very man is delivered to Ben. It is full of newspaper clippings of the fire in the mall and the man who confessed to the crime.
Continue reading ‘Mirrors (2008) Movie Review’
Pineapple Express is a stoner comedy given to us by the Apatow team and written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who gave us the hilarious and very fun Superbad about this time last summer. The stoner character that Rogen gives us is very similar to the character he played in Knocked Up. Interestingly enough, Pineapple Express manages to still bring new things to the table and gives us a completely different tone unlike any other Apatow film. It is really a crime and action stoner comedy. The comedy seems to make the action seem more bizarre and the action highlights that the comedy is really the only medicine in a situation this messed up. at times it is more one than the other, but in many ways these different aspects highlight the other.
The Ruins is an adaptation of a novel, directed by the original author, Scott. B. Smith. They both have the same basic story outline, but the movie does have a few differences. The main is that the characters; most of what happened to a given character in the book happens to a different character in the movie. Besides that it is pretty minor, but loyal fans of the book might still have problems. For those who haven’t read it though, there aren’t too many problems to be found with the movie.
Death Valley is a desertion horror film taking place in the desert, making it feel a lot like The Hills Have Eyes. Rather than using deformed vicious humans it uses a territorial gang as the villains. The film doesnt do anything completely new, but as it goes along it has a way of surprising you. It becomes more than just partying turned in to a death threat, it questions peoples morals, strength, and just how powerless and lifeless a desert can make a few kids from the city feel.
Otis is a satire on the recent “torture porn” films. However, it is more than just a comedic take on the subject. The laughs and outrageousness of the characters that we see going on are both thrilling, disturbing and all too possible. There is a huge component of truth to the film, as it goes in to events that happen everyday. It goes past this truth though and even goes in to reasoning, where we are able to understand this mad man. What causes him to be the way he is, is something that is very universal, showing that many people have the potential to be an Otis.
Conjurer is a haunted house/ghost story that although it is a pretty decent movie, doesn’t do anything to set itself apart from other films of similar subject matter. The film is in no respects bad, but it just could have been better. This was frustrating to some extent, but with it’s slow start, it sets a casual tone. It manages to shape up with a lot of changes in the story, all unfolding at once.
Solstice is a film that really seemed to have almost gotten lost before it has even had much of a chance. It was released straight to DVD without much exposure. I only stumbled upon it through one of the cast members. The description of the movie doesn’t seem that great, but the cast alone really sparked my interest. Fortunately, the cast pushed the film forward further through a story that worked through the suspense applied to it.
Storm is a film that mixes matrix style with dramatically intense instances in the life of our main character. Running away from the past is a huge basis for the film, which becomes a journey in facing this. This action won’t just affect one, but all of man kind. Storm uses these memories, forced to be relived again as well as these seemingly immortal and powerful figures, each fighting a different unknown side to us, to simply find and acknowledge truth.
Published by Kelsey Zukowski May 19th, 2008
in NEWS.
imurders is about a group of people who are in a chat together online. After two of the members end up dead, the others start to get suspicious. Sure enough, one of the members was responsible for these two deaths and plans to continue killing until each and everyone of the people in the chat are dead. I think that imurders works off of an interesting point and defiantly one that has potential scares involved. This is the idea that as well as you might think you know someone, without even ever meeting them in person, what kind of secrets may they have inside of them?
P2’s success severely suffered from poor advertising. While the trailer was wise enough to stick the respected name of horror creator, Alexandre Aja, of High Tension fame in it, it didn’t do much else right. All that was really seen was a women running and screaming from some killer in an abandoned parking garage. While this is theoretically a scary situation, it seemed kind of stale and overused. It just seemed to lack any depth. With all of the slasher films that are around today there must be some reason or motive displayed Otherwise, it’s just killing for killing sake; and even then there must be something that caused this desire to kill even if the victims don’t contribute to this importance. I am very glad to say that the movie is far better than the trailer is. The most important figure of the movie, what really gives it the energy and power that it has wasn’t even shown in the preview; our killer of course. He isn’t just some ominous figure in the dark, we see him up close and personal. We see him for who he is and more than that who he sees himself as in his dark devious attempt to get what he wants and to get it to want him in return.
In the world of magic just like in the real world, there is good and bad, also known as white and dark magic. Dark magic emerges from those who aren’t satisfied with the abilities and powers that they have. They become greedy and want more until they control over every single person. When someone gets to this dangerous state of magic it is known as the magus, which is what the film, The Magus speaks to and tries bring it out in a horrific way. There is a very small resemblance of this, but it is unfortunately not a success. The film as a whole isn’t quite a miserable failure either, it is merely okay and doesn’t leave much of an impression on you.
Sands of Oblivion is based on the mysteries of the making of Cecil B. DeMille’s epic tale of The Ten Commandments. It actually goes back a little further than that even to ancient Egypt, where chaos was overpowering. The monsters that were plaguing the area were locked up by the burial of an amulet. DeMille and his crew went to great lengths to recreate this atmosphere for the film set in Guadalupe, California. Mysteriously enough though, when filming had rapped up, he demanded that the set be buried. Sands of Oblivion explores why this might be through curses of ancient Egypt transferred in to 21st century California.
As far as horror independent films, zombie films are the way to go with a low budget. All you really need is a an army of zombies and a few buckets of blood. Filmmaker, John Pata, did precisely just this with the money from his pocket. The film was made for around $700, shot at local places in his hometown of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Having the home court advantage really helped them out as not too much of the budget had to go to their locations.
Splatter Movie: The Directors Cut is a mockumentary horror film. Taking place on the set of a horror film, it reminds me of Return to Horror High in terms of how the story progresses. The scares that they are trying to get out of their audience come to be to true in a film shooting that many of them might not make it out alive of. In this case, no one really suspects anything until close to the end.
The Black Dahlia Movie: The Elizabeth Short Story is based on the murder of Elizabeth Short. Elizabeth was an aspiring actress who moved to California as a teenager to make her dreams come true. Her aspirations were cut short though by her murder. Her body was found nude in an empty parking lot on January 15, 1947. Attempting to get an opportunity to become famous Elizabeth was rumored to have slept with several of men and women who might help her get there. One of these people might have been or had a connection to the murderer. To this day, the murder remains unsolved.
