Daily Archives: October 3, 2018

Oct 3 2018

ABC Film Challenge – Horror – C – Carrie (1976) Guest Review – Movie Rob

Movie Rob joined me for the latest pick, head over to his site to see his reviews.

“It has nothing to do with Satan, Mama. It’s me. Me. If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things.” – Carrie

Number of Times Seen – 1 (2 Oct 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A teenager whose mother is overprotective of her due to her own religious stances is bullied by her classmates which helps her realize that she has the power to move objects.

My Take on it – As a non-fan of the horror genre, this October is never an easy month since the whole world loves horror films besides me.

When I joined Darren’s challenge, I was a bit skeptical as to whether would partake this month, but decided that there are some films that I finally need to see even if they are outside of my comfort zone.

This film was high on that list.

I am a big fan of Stephen King’s work and always like the way that he is able to explore other aspects of life along with horror, so I was a bit intrigued to see what would happen with this one.

The idea of bullying and abuse is presented really well and the fact that the main character is effected both at home and school by these issues works quite well because they are both done in very realistic ways.

She is bombarded by bullies in all facets of her life and still tries to continue to live a normal life despite it all.

The aspect of having a superpower like telekinesis is explored nicely and we get to see how her power begins to slowly grow.

The cast is great and it was quite fun seeing actors and actresses in key roles who wold eventually go on to bigger and better things like Sissy Spacek, John Travolta, Nancy Allen, Amy Irving and William Kaat.

Spacek was deservingly nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for this role even if she had little chance of winning against Faye Dunaway in Network (1976).

Bottom Line – Interesting idea that shows a different view of the effects of both abuse at home and abuse at school. The way that both situations are handled very differently works quite well in showing the realism of the situations presented. The cast is superb especially since most are actors and actresses who are at the beginning of their careers but would go on to much bigger things. Spacek was deservingly nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars for this role. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – While speaking at a book event in Fort Myers, Florida in 2010, Stephen King recalled that he was paid just $2,500 for the movie rights to Carrie (1976), which may seem like a pittance, but he has no regrets. “I was fortunate to have that happen to my first book,” King said. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)

Oct 3 2018

ABC Film Challenge – Horror – C – Creep (2014)

Director: Patrick Brice

Writer: Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass (Screenplay)

Starring: Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass

 

Plot: When a videographer answers a Craigslist ad for a one-day job in a remote mountain town, he finds his client is not at all what he initially seems.

 

Runtime: 1 Hour 17 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Dull Enough

 

Story: Creep starts as Aaron (Brice) heads up into the mountains to record a video for Josef (Duplass) a man who doesn’t have much time on this Earth because of his latest cancer diagnosis. It doesn’t take long before it appears that Josef is not completely there and creepy but the pay day is important to Aaron.

When night falls the day should be over but when Aaron can’t find his keys he is left alone with this unstable man but this is only the beginning of the nightmare for Aaron.

 

Thoughts on Creep

 

Characters – Aaron is a cameraman hired to make a video for a dying man, he sees this as a quick day job for money but he isn’t prepared for what comes next as the man turns out to be a creepy and obsessive. Josef is the man that claims to be dying but as time goes by we learn he isn’t completely all there and starts stalking Aaron after their day together.

Performances – Knowing this was just a two man film you are left seeing the two giving us a good performance through the film but when it comes to their other parts of the film you can see parts coming up short.

Story – When a man meets a creepy man we find ourselves in a weird talking situation. Here we have just end up follow the two around wondering why we are following the two and where things will go. We don’t get to not do much, not much happens it just has a small air of creepiness throughout.

Horror/Thriller – The horror is on the creepy side of things but never hitting the heights it could.

Settings – The two main settings work because the first cabin gives us an edge about things but once we leave it loses something.


Scene of the Movie – Leave Now.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It just seems like we missed too much.

Final Thoughts – This is a horror thriller that doesn’t hit the marks it could have, it feels flat and never goes anyway in the end.

 

Overall: Misses the marks.

Rating

 

 

Oct 3 2018

Venom (2018)

Director: Ruben Fleisher

Writer: Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, Kelly Marcel, Will Beall (Screenplay) Todd McFarlane, David Michelinie (Comic)

Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, Marcella Bradio

 

Plot: When Eddie Brock acquires the powers of a symbiote, he will have to release his alter-ego “Venom” to save his life.


Tagline – The world has enough Superheroes.

Runtime: 1 Hour 52 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Starts Way Too Slow

 

Story: Venom starts we hotshot San Francisco reporter Eddie Brock (Hardy) goes to far trying to hatch a story about ultra-rich scientist and visionary Carton Drake (Ahmed), this leaves him fired, his fiancée Anne (Williams) fired and him dumped.

6-months later, Eddie is still feeling the effectives with his career down the toilet, he drinks his life away until one of the scientists working for Drake offers him a scope to the new symbiote research, to which Eddie gets too close to and becomes Venom. The two must learn together to work as one to achieve their own goals in survival with Drake wanting his property back.

 

Thoughts on Venom

 

Characters – Eddie Brock is an unlikable reporter rushing in head first for stories, which he believes he is helping people, he never worries about the consequences of his reporting. His latest attempt to get a story leaves him with nothing and his last attempt to redeem himself leads him to attack the person who killed his career, only he must learn to work with Venom a symbiote that fuses with him. Eddie becomes the good and calm side while Venom is out for destruction willing to kill anyone that gets in his way or just bite their heads off. The two have back and fourth conversations which are more comical than anything showing the balance between good and evil I guess. Anne is the fiancée that loses her job because of Eddie’s action and moves on with her life, though she will always be there to support him once he comes looking for help, most just the love interest she doesn’t really do much in the film. Dr Carlton Drake is a genius who can see the problems in the world being over-population, he has been searching for solutions and believes with the symbiotes he has one, he will give up human lives to make this happen, while keeping a positive face to the public, most a powerful businessman villain.

Performances – Tom Hardy, well this is one of his weaker outings, he struggles to make us care about Eddie, we don’t quite get convinced with his Venom side either, the accent doesn’t help either. Michelle Williams is wasted in this role, sure she will have got paid well which gives her more time to do Oscar bait movies, but this should have been more for her to work with. Riz Ahmed is hot stuff in Hollywood right now, his performance however isn’t great, it feels generic, he doesn’t give us anything we haven’t seen from a villain before either.

Story – The story is the origin of Venom, it follows the mad scientist idea who is popular to the public but behind closed doors he conducts experiments ethnically wrong. Nosey reporter gets infected and it is a race to stop him becoming too powerful and save the world. this is simple origin storytelling for a Spiderman villain, well this is confusing, wait no, this is an origin for a villain who will not have a hero to face, but he might be good, well Deadpool good. The pacing of this story is all over the place, we spend so much time going through the introduction and we only have three characters, its not like an X-Men film, that we start to lose interest before any of the fun stuff happens. The problem is nothing surprising happens in this story and we are left by the ending thinking about the next comic book movie over the next Venom movie.

Action/Horror/Sci-Fi – The action when it happens is a complete mixed bag, the car chase is great fun as we can do things you simply can’t do with humans chasing, the weakness comes from the messy final fight which just becomes confusing in a Transformers way. The film could have a wonderful horror element, it wants to and you can see this, but it just doesn’t follow through. The sci-fi side of things well the ideas are all there to make this stand out more, the problems come by not making too much of the chances given to them.

Settings – We are set in San Francisco, which is the same location we just saw in Antman and the Wasp, we need more cities in America to set superhero movies if we are having this many a year.

Special Effects – The effects are yet another mixed bag here, we do have some wonderful uses of the effects, then like with the action the final battles is too messy to be enjoyed.


Scene of the Movie – Car Chase.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Just why would a secret meeting in the streets lead to sneaking on the base if you were worried about your family? Sure Drake has camera that would show him around his own techno base.

Final Thoughts – This is a weak comic book movie, giving us an origin for a villain that will never have a hero to face (Due to who owns Spiderman) it is so by the book it feels like the 90’s called and want their movie back.

 

Overall: Forgettable by all accounts.

Rating

 

 

Oct 3 2018

Society (1989)

Director: Brian Yuzna

Writer: Rick Fry, Woody Keith (Screenplay)

Starring: Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Evan Richards, ben Meyerson, Charles Lucia

 

Plot: An ordinary teenage boy discovers his family is part of a gruesome orgy cult for the social elite.


Tagline – It is not what you think it is.

Runtime: 1 Hour 39 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Shock Filled Horror

 

Story: Society starts as high school student Bill Whitney (Warlock) has always had feelings of not fitting in with his family and soon he starts to believe something unusual is going on for the high society of the local area.

It only gets worse when students start going missing and the deeper Bill searches into the mystery the darker the truth is as it ends up becoming one of the most shocking truths about a cult his family is part of.

 

Thoughts on Society

 

Characters – Billy is the high school student that is starting to question what the truth is about his family, but the more he investigates the dark the truth actually is. He does have a bright future if he does just follow the trends but once he questions things this future is almost gone. Clarissa is a seductive fellow student that does seem to know what is going on but understand Billy needs to be on the right path to survive the next step. Milo is the best friend that helps Billy learn the truth.

Performances – Bill Warlock is good in this leading role where he doesn’t understand what is going on, it was a role we saw a lot in the late 80s for the high school guys. Devin DeVasquez is good too as we see the seductive character come through. The higher society performances are good because you understand how they will be looking down on everyone.

Story – The story follows a teenager not believing he is fitting in, but the spin comes from the complete truth to what he isn’t part off. The story does tackle the idea of searching for the truth but also takes on the idea of high society believing they are better than other people. This could be looking deeper into the meaning but still we are left in shock with the truth about everything.

Comedy/Horror – The comedy from this film comes from the darker side of how high society believes they are to others, so much so that they are a different species. The horror comes from the gore and effects used in the final scene of the movie which brings us complete and utter shock.

Settings – The films settings get to show us the different class of people we will be dealing with, where we see the higher society side of things compared to the everyday people.

Special Effects – The practical effects used here are fantastic to create the final act of the movie which is one you definitely won’t be forgetting any time soon.


Scene of the Movie – Orgy

That Moment That Annoyed Me – I feel we needed an opening reason for Billy to question his position in the family.

Final Thoughts – This is one of the most shocking body horror movies of all time, it shows us just how the different classes could have a divide that is could be a different species.

 

Overall: One of the body horror fans.

Rating