THE HOLE (7/10) Typical Dante movie that has about a thousand well-known horror tropes crammed into it (hell, the plot sounds like at least a dozen other movies), but which is utterly enjoyable despite (or because?) of that. Kids find a hole in their basement which turns out to be a gateway for all their biggest fears to come barging through to haunt them. Rated PG-13 and devoid of gore and virtually so of scares, but nonetheless expertly crafted and an extremely fun ride. Also, Haley Bennett is just fucking gorgeous.
DARKNET (6/10) Canadian TV-series comprising six half-hour episodes. A website called Darknet (presented as a sort of deep webbish reality shock site) is the red thread around which various horror and mystery stories are weaved - some more loosely so than others. Style and quality vary greatly between episodes, leaving some beautiful and obsorbing and other bland and boring. Overall a very decent series though, if you're willing to sift through some mediocre junk.
THE TORTURED (5/10) The premise sounds good enough (and extremely similar to 7 Days, yes): after their son is brutally murdered, a couple takes revenge on the killer and tortures the shit out of him. Unfortunately it's quite tacky, and the gore is far too mild for a movie like this. Otherwise enjoyable until the unnecessary moralistic twist that really takes all the fun out of it and pushed it into the red numbers. Contemplating 4/10, but 5 for effort and watchability.
WAKE WOOD (4/10) Surprised that a movie starring people like Aiden Gillen and Timothy Spall could be this poor. Amazingly amateurish and derivative, frequently unintentionally funny, and generally uninteresting and ugly to look at. The story is unoriginal and predictable, and in the rare places it deviates from familiar themes and tropes it actually disappoints. Extremely ineffective scares, which is sort of an achievement in itself, and frequently uses quick cuts and zooms whenever something moderately gory happens which looks visually unappealing and is a pet peeve of mine regardless. All in all just not good.
