Ha, yes, The Ebola Syndrome is brilliant and Anthony Wong is amazing in it. Incredible how such a mainstream HK celebrity actor could deliver such sleaze. He was wonderfully sleazy in The Untold Story, too!
Been watching some (mostly recent) horror (occasionally 'horror') recently ranging from absolutely excellent to absolute horsecrap:
THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN (8/10) Holy fuck what a joyride! Starts out with a documentary crew documenting an old woman's descent into Alzheimer madness, but the longer they are in the house the stranger and scarier things get. A serial killer's ghost is introduced into the plot and the movie goes into hardcore overdrive mode with some excellent creepy scenes, some nicely gory moments and some outrageous but very satisfying twists and turns to the plot. Really enjoyed the fucking shit out of this and highly recommend it!
THE SACRAMENT (8/10) Though never explcitly mentioned, pretty much the Jonestown Massacre revamped, set in the modern day on some exotic island, where a Vice documentary crew is allowed to visit to document a seemingly peaceful religious group that one of the main character's sister is a part of. Of course, cultist shit goes down! Ti West is a fucking genius. Like the other two movies mentioned below, they're slow burners, but only in the best of ways. Creepy setting, great casting, very exciting overall.
THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (8/10) Ti West's tribute to creepy 70s satanist cult movies. Exquisitely done; takes its time to build up the tension, and when it cuts loose it cuts loose for fucking real. Atmosphere is spot on. Plotwise there's nothing you haven't seen, as you can pretty much predict the outcome from the get-go - especially if you've read a synopsis - but damn if it isn't executed finely!
THE INNKEEPERS (8/10) Probably my favourite among the three Ti West movies I watched. Old timey hotel with its very own ghost legend is days away from closing for good, and its two remaining employees try to find out what truth there is to the ghost story. Stylish as hell and occasionally creepy as fuck. Again, a slow burner, and again only in the best of ways. The final twenty or so minutes have some truly creepy moments.
V/H/S 2 (7/10) Sequel beats the original in every which way; the enveloping story is nicely creepy again (comparably so), but the quality of the individual segments is significantly better I feel. In fact, Safe Haven is by far the best thing I've seen in horror for a while (9/10 for this segment!). The rest is nice, too, even if the first one about the eye is a bit predictable and the final one is a bit too chaotic for its own good. Overall awesome though.
THE DEN (7/10) Fresh take on the found footage genre in which a sociology student investigates behavior on anonymous chat sites by hanging out on The Den (the movie's version of Chat Roulette, pretty much) 24/7 and documenting everything via screen capture. When she witnesses a murder on one of her chats she becomes the subject of a violent stalker herself. Nice and occasionally nicely creepy with a reveal that is slightly too outrageous for its own good, I felt.
TROLLHUNTER (7/10) Mostly comedic take on the found footage genre where a documentary crew follows around a trollhunter (duh!). The slightly funny angle is fitting, though the movie as a whole is slightly too long for its own good. Still, nicely done overall, with some admirably good-looking effects, an interesting take on troll mythology and some riveting scenes.
THE WARD (6/10) John Carpenter, seriously? Don't get me wrong, it's nice enough, but it's also very generic. Girl gets admitted to a mental hospital that appears to be haunted. Finds out what the deal is. Predictable shit ensues. The whole twist has been done before, and better to, and disappointingly undercuts the whole supernatural element of the movie. Bah. Still an enjoyable movie overall.
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (6/10) So this one got a lot of praise, but I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. It's alright, but too arthouse for its own good. Premise is interesting, but I felt like I was watching a (slow) kid's movie for most of the movie's duration. Plus I don't really dig vampire movies to begin with. Decent but far from spectacular.
V/H/S (6/10): Not as good as the second one, but it's still quite good. The framework story has a nice share of creepy moments, and the individual segments range from decent to good, with Ti West's and David Bruckner's segments standing out, the first for sheer creepiness, the second for over-the-top goodness. Hadn't expected much, actually, so this was a pleasant surprise.
GRAVE ENCOUNTERS (6/10) So with all the hype and from what bits from the movie I had seen my expectations were pretty low, but turns out this is actually really fucking nice. The set-up is done well, and contrary to the impression I got from the trailer and such it was in fact NOT a non-stop barrage of silly-looking ghosts with stretched faces and black eyes (seriously, who finds this creepy that I keep seeing this in movies?) but rather a well-constructed ghost film with very few disappointing jump scares. That's not to say it's without flaws, of course (who hired some of these actors? and who thought it was a good idea to include the arms-through-the-walls scene?), but overall this is a much better movie than the hype makes it out to be.
THE POSSESSION (6/10) Little girl buys an old wooden box at a garage sale which contains a dibbuk; dibbuk takes possession of her, shit goes down. Pretty standard possession movie, but when executed in this fashion I won't complain. Worth a viewing.
THE AWAKENING (6/10) Ghost hunter bent on disproving the existence of ghosts is invited to a haunted boarding school, shit goes down. Nice period piece, good visuals, appropriately moody setting, but the needlessly complicated plot developments seem out of place. As such, the second half disappoints a bit, and the reveal is just tacky.
SAW VI (5/10
SAW V (5/10)
SAW IV (5/10) These motherfuckers are pretty much interchangeable. Since it is apparently impossible not to keep involving Jigsaw all the fucking time the plot's becoming more and more convoluted with each instalment. But who cares, right? What lacks in plot can be compensated for by good death traps and suitably grimy production design. Unfortunately, all are not really up to par there, imo. The death traps are alright but nothing too spectacular, and the soundstage look of the whole movie irks me beyond belief. I can't stand that soap opera police station. Still, decent movies overall, and worth getting through just for the more generous amounts of gore in SAW 3D.
The Human Centipede: First Sequence (5/10) I can't fathom how the idea exists that this is so far beyond shocking. Whatever perversity occurs is mostly communicated through suggestion, and gore and shocks are few and far between. That's not to say it's bad. I enjoyed it, even if it was needlessly drawn-out and painfully amateuristic. Pretty much on par with dozens of other cheap shock horror movies out there, but somehow it's managed to gain quite the reputation for itself. Nice job, Tom Six. Stirring controversy like a true businessman.
[REC]2 (5/10) Pretty decent sequel; the ending is truly chilling, and the twist is cool. Plus, the first half hour of the movie is fairly alright, though I don't particularly care for the SWAT angle, especially not if they are this unrealistically incompetent. Middle part featuring the young 'uns is unnecessary and boring, and is pretty much only included to bring another camera into the story. Meh.
GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2 (4/10) The plot doesn't even make sense - what idiot would lock himself in the mental institution from the first movie if he believed the movie was real? In principle, the premise is alright: in the GE2 universe, GE is (also) a supposedly fictional movie that the protagonist believes to be real, so he sets out to discover the truth. By wilfully seeking out a fate worse than death. Dumb. So, it turns out, GE is actually a reality in the GE2 universe and this simple fact - and the ridiculous developments in the movie as it progresses - actually hurts the first movie's mythology. Fucking shame.
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE II: FULL SEQUENCE (4/10) As promised, indeed gorier than the first one, but since it's in black & white that kind of diminishes the effect again. Compared to the first one it's even more unrealistic, which of course is justified by the stupid and disappointing twist ending. There's some enjoyable gore and shocks, but otherwise this is such a mess (poor script, poor actors, not a single likeable character) that it's not really worth it.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: TOKYO NIGHT (4/10) So I guess this counts as a remake of the original? It's familiar material regardless, even if takes some liberties, and you can see the ending coming about 20 seconds in. This is mostly just silly and not even remotely scary. Ending is fucking ridiculous.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4: UNRATED (4/10) Door opens of its own accord. Kid walks downstairs in middle of night and talks to himself. Knife disappears. Seriously, this series has strayed so far from scary it's not even funny anymore. I don't get why the found-footage angle is still a necessity, either; so many moments where it's not even justified. Why not go regular? Plot is stupid, ending kind of fun but also completely unsuitable to the relative 'understatedness' of the rest of the movie.
THE ABCS OF DEATH (4/10) Anthology featuring 26 shorts, of which only about half really classify as horror. The rest is comedy, artsy shit, sci-fi, you fucking name it. There's some absolutely brilliant shorts in this, such as those by Spasojevic and Tjahjanto, but you'll have to wade through a lot of crap to see them, and I'm not sure if it's really worth it (by which I mean: just watch the good shorts on their own and leave the rest be, instead of watching everything). Overall just unimpressive.
100 GHOST STREET: THE RETURN OF RICHARD SPECK (3/10) Same plot as all the other found-footage movies nowadays - people exploring a mental institution at night. Shit ensues. This movie is from The Asylum, who are known for their crappy movies, but where some are still enjoyable this is sheer crap. A horrible mess with ridiculously stupid CGI (why is it necessary at all?), dumbest characters ever, tons of factual inaccuracies, and more. Plus it's needlessly offensive imo; can't you just make up a serial killer and write him a history that actually suits the plot? The whole thing doesn't even make sense. Seriously awful.
GREYSTONE PARK (3/10) Kind of an artsy take on the popular found-footage style, if that makes sense, from Oliver Stone's kid (Oliver makes an appearance at the beginning, too). The plot is all kinds of familiar ground: bunch of people explore a mental institution at night but then DUN DUN DUN shit goes down. Guess they didn't see GRAVE ENCOUNTERS! For the largest part of the movie there is truly nothing to see though, as it's pretty much exclusively the characters screaming "OH MY FUCKING GOD DID YOU SEE THAT" and then running, and of course you never actually see anything because the screen is entirely black for like half the movie and the other half it's bouncing around like crazy. Stupid ghosts near the end. A shame, as it seemed to have potential; a lot of times you think you see silhouettes in the shadows or behind doors, which is creepy, but it's too subtle to really work and these silhouettes the characters never seem to see. And then cue the aforementioned stupid and utterly unsubtle ghosts. Sucks.
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: GHOSTS OF GEORGIA (2/10) What a fucking turd. Supernatural drama posing as a horror movie. There's ghosts in about every single scene which totally ruins the effect. Stupid characters, stupid plot, stupid everything. Fuck I hated this movie.
V/H/S 2's grade obviously is based on the combined merits of all shorts and the enveloping story, but I'd like to add that a: it's better than the first one and that b: the Safe Haven segment is one of the most brilliant and brutal things I've seen a while, and I would certainly grant it 9/10. Total over-the-top madness. Fucking brilliant! Timo Tjahjanto is one to look out for. His segment in The ABCs of Death ('Libido') was fucking crazy, too. Oh, and Ti West is a genius, I must say, even though his particular segment in The ABCs of Death was a turd (pun kinda intended?). His movies are all fucking great though.
Now watching Banshee Chapter which seems pretty alright so far.
And haha, Ticks, man, I should see that again, very funny flick if I remember. Very strange to see Alfonso Ribeiro in a 'bad guy' role there.
TV-wise I recently finished The Wire, which is truly, admirably one of the best things ever made, and I have just started True Detective, which seems very promising. Was also watching The Walking Dead S4, but it's not too interesting.
