Hatchet (2006)

Bah, critics mislead me once more.

I saw Hatchet because i was curious. I mean, all that fuss about the movie - it should be good. Yet, i couldn't help it: in the end and across the movie, i was getting more and more disappointed. For a various amount of reasons: first, the story; second, special effects; third, the characters.

So, about the story, it indeed had much to it, but the excessive special effects turned the movie into something lame . I mean it wasn't necessary to watch Victor Crowley kill the old man like that. Just freaked me out. Anyway, it was saved by the terrifying atmosphere.

Moving on. Characters had some lame lines, and they tried to turn a scary movie into a comedy. So, it was excessive. Excessive special effects, and excessive comedy in an horror movie, made Hatchet fall into a 2-star rating.

Kill Theory (2008)

What the hell, man. What the hell.

When this movie started i never thought it would be, kinda good...ish. It seems like another Saw bastard child. Is it just me or Hollywood has gone crazy ? Okay, okay, i'll explain. It's not that bad and i'm over-reacting.

So, first things first, the beginning of the actual action is quite similar to one of the Saw killing sprees - a tape or whatever plays and says that the people in the house have to kill each other, untill 6 a.m. beacuse only one can survive. And there is, of course, some psycho maniac ready to kill them all if they don't follow the rules.

But then, and now that i think about it, it's not that Sawish as it seemed. It's more like a crossover between Saw and a slasher film, where a bunch of recent graduates gather in the woods to celebrate and end up in a freakin' nightmare. There are a few impressive scenes, a few twists, and a bunch of scary stuff. Haven't payed a lot of attention to the soundtrack, but it wasn't that bad, neither awesome.

Long story short, it deserves 3/2 stars for some innovation and quite good acting, besides unexpected ending.

what the hell, hollywood ?

How come that every single scary movie i try to watch nowadays has lines and/or something in the plotline totally similar to Saw ? This is a question that totally haunts me for a while. I mean, come on you guys. Just this week i saw like, five movies (can't really say they were all scary movies - some of them earned their right to a facepalm in the end), and all of them had something that seemed taken right out of Saw.

About the examples, oh god, where shall i start? First of all there's the bastard child Are you Scared?. The movie was indeed promising, but it seemed like the story of one really bad instance of the Saw saga. And then the other movies like Kill Theory or House of 9 just tend to follow what was supposed to be an original scene (destinated exclusively to Saw): the whole "i want to play a game" thing. Then there's a timeline, and the characters either kill eachother or get killed by some machine or psycho - as in the Saw saga.

So, what the hell, Hollywood ? Where are the good, spine-chilling, horror films ? Seems like nowadays, Saw is the Christ of horror cinema. It's like theres some time BEFORE SAW, then there's SAW and then the time AFTER SAW.

First the movies tended to be good. Special effects were lame back then, but really compensated by an awesome soundtrack with frightening tunes (yeah, i'm thinking of the spell cast by Stephen King's Carrie), and some good acting.

Then Saw appeared. And it brought revolution. New plotline, innovation in special effects, and the soundtrack perfectly fitted the movie. And what about after the first two instances of Saw ? Total cinematic apocalypse. It's getting harder and harder to find a good movie, with just enough gore and a buyable plotline. Honestly, the horror industry needs a miracle, or else my IQ won't last for long.

WAKE UP LIONSGATE !

Dread (2009)

Usually, the movies brought to us by afterdarkhorrorfest are quite lame. Mostly low budget and independent, it is rare to find a decent movie among the eight proposals. This is why i was so impressed when i saw Dread. First, the story hasn't got much to it, now that i think about it. Just a bunch of college students that make a project about something that has to do with fear and trauma, and then one of them goes insane. Usual stuff. But then there's a twist. The dude is so freaky and twisted that ends up hurting everybody else (especially his friend's girlfriend). And the ending is fuckin' unexpected. I was shocked with that ending (obviously not going to spoil you the pleasure of watching the movie).

Have to admit i haven't payed that much attention to the soundtrack, but if i remember, it was normal. Average sounds for movies lioke this. And then there's the acting item. Which wasn't bad at all. Matter of fact, i was quite impressed, since i only know the dude who plays Stephen and he's in (guess what?) Twilight.

Overall, the movie has a few boring periods, but they saved all the good parts to the end.

Are You Scared ? (2005)

Hmm... What's to say about Are You Scared ? Considering it was a low-budget (probably independent) movie... Mostly, it was like a huge copy of Saw. Almost as if somebody had stolen the Saw script, made some changes and, ta-da: Are You Scared is born. Anyway, despite the fact that the movie seems like Saw's bastard child, it isn't quite an award-winning movie, yet it isn't that bad either. how to classify a movie like this one ? Let me think for a while.

First of all, the soundtrack totally sucked. Acting was terrible. Special effects were lame. So the bonus actually goes to the story. I mean, her father was a psycho, and you can tell since the beginning of the movie that there's something fishy about the girl - yet i only realized the maker of the game was her father in the end (either i'm really dumb or the story isn't that bad - and i'll go with the second one).

In the end, it is a movie you must see with a clinical eye if you want to get something good out of it, but after some thinking is done, Are You Scared isn't the worst piece of crap ever made.

House of 9 (2004)

House of 9 wasn't definitely one of my favorite horror movies of all time. First things first - the plotline totally sucked. I was expecting something really wicked, gory, saw style shit. And all i got was a fuckin' huge (and awesome) house with nine strangers that go crazy and just attack each other like civisim never existed. Such a bunch of animals ! And what the fuck was wrong with that french dude ?

Well, passing on to the next item on the list. What the hell do House of 9 has to do with Saw ? Nothing ! Come on, people, enough of stupid comparisons. First of all, because Saw is a whole lot better. It has better acting a better plotline, and a better soundtrack. And even the special effects are better, deaths seem more realistic anyways. House of 9 compared to Saw is like comparing Metallica to Mika: you see ? Nothing to do with each other !

Anyway, moving on. The soundtrack to the movie was terrible, and the acting was awful.

Overall, the movie was terribly boring, and the ending didn't had much to it. Wouldn't advise it, unless you're the type of person who likes to see a movie just to say bad stuff about it.

The Haunting Of Molly Hartley (2008)

Huh, this movie, this movie... Kind of good. Yet, some scenes left me wondering why the hell did they turned the whole movie into some religious mambo-jambo. So annoying, i mean, come on ! The plotline was awfully good, the girl was kinda crazy and the ending totally unexpected. You never think the hot dude will be one of the "devil's rejects"... Ahah.

Okay, it wasn't that bad. Something good about the soundtrack, and a bit of blood to add.

I wouldn't add it as a favourite, but still, it's worth my attention .

Black Swan (2010)

I finally understood all the expectations over Black Swan. The oscar nomination is totally worthy. Anyway, i liked the movie for a large amount of reasons.

First things first, the soundtrack hasn't got much to it. I mean, its just the songs from the "swan lake" show. But putting that aside, the acting was amazing. The script was awsome. And the story was great.

Why, you may ask ? Beacuse it's a completely freaky, mind-fucking thriller. Some scenes really scared the shit out of me. I was impressed with the role and the amazing performance of Natalie Portman - totally blew me away. The ending was absolutely perfect, and freaking unexpected.

Finally, although i do not know the work of Darren Aronofsky, i have to say that this movie was really awsome, and he did a great job. So if you're interested - go watch it !