The Birds (1963) Review

I first watched this movie in my freshman English class.  I was so excited to be able to watch a horror movie during class and not have to be worried to be called on for an answer.  This movie did not disappoint me!  Never before was I happy to have an 85 minute long class.

The special effects were pretty good, there were some freaky and impressive looking props/bodies.  The thing I love about movies in this time period and especially from Hitchcock, is the suspense.  This movie is a great example of how to perfectly blend gore/shock and suspense. He seems to know when to let your imagination wander before he decides to feed your curiosity.

Other things I loved about this movie was the creep factor that stays with you.  If you go outside right after, and see flocks of birds, you start to think about the what if's.  I also love the dresses Tippi Hedren wears.  I also love the scene where she's on the boat and her hair does not move at all.

Note:

I haven't watched this movie in a few years because I'm limited to Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Red Box.  Sadly they don't have many old school classic horror movies like this.  So I didn't do a summary because I would have skipped a lot of bits here and there.

The Woman in Black Review and Summary

                                                                   

So this movie wasn't that bad. The plot made sense, it moved along at a pretty good pace.  I was never bored or got confused.  There were some creepy and shocking parts that were well done and not too over the top.  It also has an emotional element as well, so have some Kleenex on hand just in case.  Its a pretty good movie, and I'd recommend giving it a try.

Summary:

It starts out with a pretty shocking scene.  Its in England when most people still used carriages and telegrams.  There are three young girls playing tea party with their dolls.  They suddenly stop playing and stare at these 3 big windows.  They then get up in a trance like state and walk to the windows, stepping on and crushing the porcelain dolls and tea sets.  Then they open the windows and jump out, it turns out they were playing in the attic and of course died.

We then go to see Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) getting ready to leave town on business. His son, Joseph, is sad that his dad is leaving again.  He promises his son they will only be apart for two days before his son and the nanny meet him at the coastal town he is being sent to, so they can have a small vacation.  His son shows his dad a picture of him, his dad, the nanny, and his mom in the sky above them.  Arthur then has a flash back to when his late wife, Stella, died after giving birth to Joseph.   

Next Arthur is in his boss' office.  They are discussing that he will be going to settle a recently deceased woman's estate.  There is a man that lives in the town that is supposed to be going through all the paperwork in the house, Mr. Bentley, but hasn't made any progress.

So he gets on a train where he meets an old man named, Mr. Daily.  This man turns out to be a rich guy and owns the only car in the town.  He offers to drive Arthur to the Inn because of the rain, and says if he wants he can join him and his wife for dinner sometime.  He makes it the Inn and finds his room reservation didn't go through, and has to sleep in the attic.  Yes, this is the attic where the three little girls jumped from.  There are still doll and tea sets everywhere.  The innkeepers will only let him stay the one night, and tell him he should just take the train back home.

He gets up and goes to meet with Mr.Bentley to discuss what has been discovered already and to ride with him to the estate.  Mr. Bentley tells Arthur that all the paperwork has just been sent to the firm and that he should just go back.  He even has a a carriage outside, paid and waiting to take him back to the train station.  Arthur persuades the driver to take him to the estate, which is right on a moorland and marsh.

He lights the candles and starts to go through all the papers, that are scattered all over the huge house.  After a while he looks out the window into the graveyard on the property and sees a woman dressed in black funeral attire.  He of course then runs out to find out who it is, and finds nobody.  The carriage driver then comes and takes him back to town, and he heads straight to the Constable.  The man goes in the back rooms to look something up and then two young boys and a girl come in.  The girl is obviously sick, and one of the boys says that it's his sister and that she drank lye soap while their mom wasn't looking.  There isn't anything he can do but yell for the Constable to come back out, but it's too late and she dies.  Everyone in the town then starts giving him dirty looks.

Arthur runs into Mr.Daily at the cemetery.  Mr.Daily tell him about how his son died when he was young, and then they head to Mr.Daily's house for dinner.  He meets Mrs.Daily, who has 'the twins' join them for dinner (two adorable chihuahuas in sailor outfits that sit in high chairs with bibs).  His wife asks about Arthur's family and son.  She then has an episode where she seems possessed, picks up her knife, and starts carving into the table.  Arthur spends the night in the Daily home, and he and Mr. Daily discuss ghosts and spirits.  Arthur then reveals his wife died and that he still feels her sometimes.

The next morning Mr. Daily gives Arthur a ride to the estate, and leaves him with his dog (not the chihuahuas).  On the way there, the villagers block him off and tell him to leave, but they fake them out and get there anyway.  Mr.Daily then mentions the curse about the Lady in Black.  Every time she is seen by someone, a child dies. 

Arthur then sees the woman again over the course of the night and sees people coming in from the ground. He finds out that the woman who owned the estate had a sister.  This sister had a son, but the woman had her declared mentally unfit and gained custody of him.  One day when they were riding home on a carriage, they sunk into the moor.  The carriage, horses, and the boy sunk down and couldn't be found or saved.  The sister blamed the woman and killed herself in the estate. She was also furious they couldn't find her son's body and give him a proper burial.

Then when Mr.Daily drives him back into town they pass the Bentley's house and see it's on fire.  Arthur rushes in and tries to save the girl they said was trapped inside.  When he finds her she is just standing there with a lantern and staring at him.  Then he sees the Woman in Black behind the girl and she smashes the lantern on her feet and is covered in flames instantly.

Arthur talks to Mrs.Daily and finds out her son was taken by the Woman in Black and that Mr.Bentley had lost another daughter before.  She then becomes possessed again by her son, that tells Arthur the Woman made them kill themselves because she is mad about her son.  He comes up with a plan and asks Mr. Daily to help at the estate that night.

They use the car to go and pull the boy's body out of the ground and lay him on his bed inside.  He then makes it so the Woman sees him and can be reunited again.  So they think everything is good and over.

The next day Arthur goes to the train station to pick up his son and the nanny.  While he and the nanny are talking to somebody the little boy goes down onto the train tracks in front of a train.  Arthur runs and tries to get him out before the train hits them.  They then are reunited with Stella.  As the reunited family walks off, The Woman in Black smiles and watches them.

Was it scary?  Not really.

Did it have creepy old vintage wind up toys?  Too many...

The Thing (1982) Review and Summary

                                                               

This movie was awesome!  Its a must see.  Even if you aren't into sci fi, its a great movie.  There aren't any slow parts, it builds up pretty quickly to the action.  It also has pretty good effects (especially for the 80's).   There are explosions and betrayals and pretty blue eyes (Kurt Russel).  This movie makes you think.  Its kind of really scary because if it was happening for real, you might not know about it. 

Summary:

It starts with showing a base in Antarctica.  It looks really cold and snowy.  Its an American research base.  Then it shows this dog running in the snowy nothingness and then a helicopter with guys trying to shoot the dog.  The dog runs to the American base and the helicopter lands.  One guy comes out and accidentally  blows up the other guy in the helicopter then runs up still trying to shoot the dog.  The Americans see him yelling in Norwegian and shooting at things, so they shoot him.

We find out there are 11 guys living on the American base.  They haven't been able to communicate with anyone in weeks, and two of them decide to go check out the Norwegian base about an hour away.  These two are kind of the leaders, MacReady and Blair.  MacReady's job title isn't actually explained, but Blair is the head scientist. 

They make it to the Norwegian base, which is deserted and destroyed.  In one of the rooms they find a huge hollowed out block of ice.  They also take some of the research papers and videos and return back to their base. 

They keep the dog and decide to put in the room with the other dogs.  The dogs don't really react at all until the guy walks away.  They start whining and the new dog turns into this big ugly pink monster alien thing.  The dogs' barking and whining make the guy come back and open the door, letting two of the four normal dogs out.  The two other dogs are getting eaten and dragged by the creature's pink spaghetti like tentacles.  The guy sounds the alarm and tells them to bring the flame thrower.  They torch it, but not to ash.  They think its dead so they bring it up to examine and dissect it (never goes well).

Blair discovers that it eats a creature and is able to imitate it perfectly.  So people won't be able to tell it's any different.

They watch the footage from the Norwegian camp and see that they found a giant space ship in the ice.  So the Americans decide to go check it out.  They find the big ship, decide its been there for over thousands of years.  Then they find the whole where the big hollowed out ice block came from.They figured out that the Norwegians cut the frozen creature out and brought it to their base and when it melted out, it caused chaos.

Blair does his own calculations about this thing.  He comes up with some pretty scary statistics.  He is 75% sure that at least 2 of the men on base are just imitations.  He projects that if the creature makes it to civilization, it would only take 27,000 (about 3 years) for the whole world to be replaced.

They find out that the alien is still alive when it tries to imitate one of the men.  They end up burning him to ashes.  Blair then has a break down and destroys the helicopters, all communication devices, and kills the remaining 2 dogs.  They end up locking him in a small room on base that isn't connected to the main part.

At this point everyone is paranoid and accusations start flying around.  They find out another guy was really a monster, and it kills the doctor.  Another person is discovered and killed.  Then they burn all the bodies. 

They come up with a system to figure out who is real or not.  Almost everyone is tied up and they do a blood test.  They find another alien, blow him up.  But before he dies he tried to imitate another one, and they blow him up too.

Three of them go to check on Blair and he's not there anymore.  They find this snow fort underneath where they find this weird ship he was working on using pieces from the helicopters.  When they start walking back they see someone running out of the building.  They figure the thing imitated the guy at base that was on guard duty and was trying to escape and hide.

The last three decide to blow almost the whole base up.  This is when Blair returns and kills 2 and becomes a big huge alien thing with multiple heads.  The last guy (MacReady) blows him up and most of the base. 

He finds a partial building to escape the wind when the guy that was on guard duty comes in and joins him.  They are stuck there til spring with no power, transportation, or communication.  The movie ends with them drinking together.

Texas Chainsaw Review and Summary

                                                                

This movie review is on this movie alone, and not this compared to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  This is mainly because I haven't seen the original yet.  I'll give it points for a weird ending and sympathy shifts.

Summary:

So this movie starts where one of Leatherface's  targets escapes and gets the sheriff to the Sawyer family house.  The family was going to hand Jed (Leather face) over to police but the wonderful townsfolk decide to shoot and burn up the whole house and family.  One of the men finds a baby and woman and kicks the dying woman holding the child and she becomes unconscious,  so he and his wife can take the kid as their own (most disturbing thing in this movie).  This baby grows up as Heather and she eventually moves out and starts her own life.

She finds out the truth about her family after she inherits a big fancy house in the hick town she's from, from her recently deceased grandma( the woman who was kicked in the face).  Heather, her boyfriend, her best friend, her best friend's boyfriend, and a hitch hiker end up in the beautiful house. So eventually they find out they aren't alone in the house.

Everyone ends up dying except Heather because she didn't read the letter from her Grandmother explaining everything (stupid young people).  For example, her psycho cousin lives in the basement and doesn't like strangers. Jed doesn't know that she's family and tries to kill her.  He ends up chasing her to a crowded fair swinging his chainsaw around and killing some people in his way. He runs off back home and the mayor (the guy who had everyone kill the Sawyer family) decides to kill Jed and Heather. 

It was actually a happy ending...

Jed saves her once he finds out they're cousins and kills the mayor.  So they go home and she makes him food.  The sheriff let's them go to make up for the rebellious slaughter of Jed's family.

I know I shouldn't...but I feel for Leather face in this movie.  He has mental issues and had to witness his whole family being slaughtered because of it.  Its really sad.  But he ends up with family again.  So there could be another movie.

Was it scary?  Nope.

Was there lots of gore?  You bet your sweet bippy.

The Devil Inside Review

 

I love Exorcism movies.  I also love documentary type horror.  So at some points this movie was really enjoyable.  I loved the concept that the Vatican was letting some possessions slip through the cracks and that there's a rogue pair of priests performing exorcisms behind the Church's back.  There are some really creepy scenes like where the people that are possessed do weird demonic like things and bend and break their bodies.  I thought those scenes were done quite well.

The thing I didn't like was how the movie's focus changed 3/4's of the way in.  It started out focusing on Maria Rossi, the main character's mom.  It was Isabella Rossi's film about her mom's possession and exorcism.  Then after they performed her exorcism (which didn't work) it focuses on how the demon is going to different people.  In the end they all die and all but one from the main group was possessed at some point.  The ending seem rushed and a separate  movie from the rest of the film.

Is it Scary?  It shouldn't be..

Do bodies move in weird impossible angles?  Oh yeah.

The Nun Review

It's one of those plots that had a chance, but didn't come together well.  It's one of those movies that you know for sure when someone is about to die.  So the acting was okay, not great but not horrible.  The effects were the same.

So it's really easy to tell when someone is about to die, because 'The Nun' AKA Sister Ursula (SPOILER: AKA the main girl, Eve), can only travel to her victims through water.  This is because the group of girls who she is targeting drowned her and hid her body in a pond thing.

It's one of those the main character is crazy and killing everyone without realizing it and when she kills the nun in the end she kills herself.  I think it would have been so much better if they had left the Nun as a separate character, but that's just my opinion.

Is it scary?  Maybe if you're on acid.

If there is nothing else to watch, should you watch it or do something else?  Do something else.

House at the End of the Street (2012) Review and Summary

Review:

Major plot twists!  Usually I can get a good idea on how the movie will end within the first 20 minutes.  I was so wrong with this one.  About 40 minutes into the movie you will be so confused, and wondering, "what the heck are they going to do for forty more minutes?"

Ryan is the cute young guy with the awful past that lives by himself and Jennifer's character becomes interested in him.  The whole town treats him like a disease because his mentally challenged sister killed his parents and disappeared in the woods.

At least that’s what the rumor is..

Summary:

It shows Ryan unlocking some secret room in the basement where a young lady is staying. He feeds her and she tries to attack him, so he gives her sedative of some sort then locks the room back up.  He calls her Carrie Ann, so we assume that he's taking care of her.  

So 'Carrie Ann', the mentally unstable sister of the cute and emotionally scarred Ryan dies like 40 minutes in.  He is struggling to contain her after she escapes the house again and he accidentally snaps her neck.  But don't feel too bad for him.  

Turns out Carrie Ann died when they were both little in a swing accident.  His druggie parents told everyone Ryan went to stay with his aunt, but they actually put a wig on him and made him be Carrie Ann.  So he is actually the one that killed his parents because he was tired of being his sister.

He kidnaps girls with brown hair, makes them live in his basement, and makes them be Carrie Anne.  Which is why the one escaped and was struggling against him when he snapped her neck.

He 'needs Carrie Ann' though so he picks up another one at a dinner with some chloroform.  Jennifer Lawrence's character then finds blue contact lenses and tampons in his kitchen trash can and a wallet belonging to a female Penn State student.

She figures out what's going on and he wants to kill the girl he got at the diner so that Jennifer's character can be Carrie 

Anne.  Her mom helps her escape and he dies.  And the only person in town that stood up for him, the local sheriff, is killed in the process as well.

In the end you either feel sorry for him or you hate him.

I rated it this highly because it did keep me interested and it had a major plot twist that made sense.

Is it scary?  No

Is it emotional?  Yes