I had seen this movie for the first time 3-4 years ago but somehow I cannot recall anything from when I saw it, so I decided to give Urban Legend (1998) a second viewing (“U” of #AtoZHorror in August/September) and I must say that its a pretty good late 90’s slasher. It has a really awesome and attractive young cast filled with horror legends and soon-to-be famous movie stars. The acting performances in this movie are pretty divided. Jared Leto was really likeable as the male lead, he was pretty charming but also had a knowledge of his own. Great actor in general and he came very far in both music and acting careers.
Alicia Witt, in my opinion, was really bad in this movie. It looks like she wasn’t even trying to make her character look or sound resourceful and/or interesting. I couldn’t care for her character and she was a tacky, bland and forgettable final girl also, if that is the term. Rebecca Gayheart was an absolute trailblazer in Urban Legend, hands down the best performance of the film and her career. Really interesting character development, that’s all I will say. Tara Reid had a fun performance, loved her spunky character. Joshua Jackson and Michael Rosenbaum were fun in this movie too. Also kudos to the phenomenal supporting turns by Loretta Devine, Danielle Harris and the ever awesome Robert Englund! Incredible cast overall! There are some really inventive death sequences in Urban Legend and some pulse pounding chase scenes, in particular the chase in the final act with Tara Reid. There were some surprise jump scares and one fantastic killer twist! The direction and editing are fairy well done. The soundtrack is really fun to listen to and very moody in some scenes.
Urban Legend is nowhere near as good as Scream but it still provides for great viewing pleasure. Its a fast paced slasher that borrows some of previous outings in the genre but also manages to serve us fun characters, great death scenes and a very interesting script. I highly recommend this to slasher fans and movie lovers in general, its worth a watch.
Horror movies are, admittedly, an ambiguous sort of entertainment. For some viewers, they are simply too much, while others find something exhilarating (if not cathartic) in being able to confront their anxieties in a safe way, that presents no actual danger to the viewer. Film itself is all about sensory manipulation, and someone who mastered the technique of scaring audiences through film is John Carpenter. And what’s more: Carpenter showed, with his early humbly budgeted thrillers, that he could generate strong reactions from viewers without a lot of special effects and explicit violence. Conversely, the brief period of time that he had investors confidently funneling money into his films showed that Carpenter could also produce competent horror films that did rely heavily on special effects.
Here is a look at some of Carpenter’s most noteworthy outings as director:
Halloween (1978)
Halloween is one of the most lucrative (and frequently imitated) horror films of all time. Not bad considering that the film was made for just over $300,000 and featured mostly green performers. The film really solidifies the sort of “slasher movie template†that was used as the basis for film franchises like Friday the 13th and Prom Night. On Halloween night in “Haddonfield, Illinois†in 1963, six-year old Michael Myers slays his old sister with a kitchen knife. 15 years later, while awaiting parole, Myers escapes his mental institution, and returns to Haddonfield to slay a bunch of teenagers. It’s a thin plot, with even thinner dialogue, a cast consisting of very few principal actors (most of them, completely unknown at the time the film was being shot, with the exception of veteran English actor Donald Pleasence).
The Thing (1982)
A routine scientific expedition in Antarctica soon becomes a macabre playground fit for an evil alien shape-shifter. What’s more, the alien is capable of taking over the bodies of his victims. The special effects for this film are incredible. It had the distinct misfortune, however, of opening up against Blade Runner and E.T. — so, suffice it to say, The Thing’s theatrical run was lackluster, at best. Even though the film is typically regarded by horror aficionados as a superb eighties horror movie, critics lambasted the film upon its release. The film is also notable as an interesting reinvisioning of the classic The Thing From Another World (1951).
The Fog (1980)
The town’s inhabitants may not realize it, but the sleepy coastal town of Antonio Bay was built atop a leper colony. When the town was first built, the founding government sent a group of lepers from the colony to parish aboard a ship during a storm. Antonio Bay’s centennial is coming up, and they’ve got a surprise guest: THE FOG. The “fog†itself is comprised mostly of the ghosts of those lepers who were killed. They are descending upon Antonio Bay to murder the townsfolk to avenge their own ghastly murder. Carpenter’s than wife Adrienne Barbeau plays a memorable role as Antonio Bay’s disk jockey. Although the film was largely dismissed by critics, it has gone on to become a cult film in its own right.
Prince of Darkness (1987)
Prince of Darkness is a movie from Carpenter that has a cult following but was not widely-accepted upon its release. When a priest goes missing and another attempts to find him, an unknown cylinder vat is discovered, adding to the mystery of the disappearance. The priest enlists a team of graduate physics students to help unravel and solve the mystery. Little do they know, evil is lurking all around them. The film features notable performances from Alice Cooper and Donald Pleasence.
In The Mouth of Madness (1994)
Main character, John Trent (Sam Neill), is sent to recover the latest manuscript form popular horror author Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow), only to discover that the monsters and beasts from Cane’s fantasy world have become somehow manifest. Trent finds himself trapped within that world, and struggles to escape it. The film is Carpenter’s most direct tribute to classic horror pulp writer H.P. Lovecraft — a troubled, scrawny writer who envisioned a world filled with subaquatic monster gods, who were indifferent to human suffering. Unfortunately, Carpenter failed to secure all of the funding he needed to complete the film as he originally envisioned it, and some critics have mercifully attributed the film’s lack of coherence to this. Regardless, it’s a richly imaginative film, and one that delivers terrific scares.
They Live (1988)
Nada (wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper), discovers a pair of sunglasses one afternoon which reveal to him a dark and evil world that is unknown to most people on Earth. The world, Nada discovers, is controlled by Aliens whose ultimate goal is to enslave all humans and deplete the planet’s natural resources. Nada and his friend Frank (Keith David) are left with the responsibility of overthrowing the evil alien empire. Carpenter wisely (or unwisely) allowed Piper to ad-lib on set, and Piper came up with some doosies, alright. Nevermind the epic fight scene, which lasts nearly six minutes in duration.
Recent Projects
After contemplating retirement, Carpenter returned to the scene to direct two pieces to the Masters of Horror series. He contributed two segments: Cigarette Burns (2005) and Pro-Life (2006) Although Masters of Horror is well-known within the horror cult community, it is not one of Carpenter’s most well-received projects.
By and large though, Carpenter has retired. After a series of setbacks In the 90’s,Carpenter decided to be more selective about what projects he pursues. Regardless of the struggle, Carpenter’s film resume is quite impressive, duds and all. Recently, Carpenter was interviewed by Robert Rodriguez on The Director’s Chair which is available via local tv on the El Rey Network where he talked about many of the films he once created. Carpenter has also ventured into comic books (see here and here). Although Carpenter is not actively making movies at this time, the creations he brought to the big screens will continue to influence many modern horror films today.
I have finally seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) for the very first time (“T” of #AtoZHorror in August/September) and as everyone told me: I absolutely loved it! It was exactly the movie that I needed at this moment, and I really thank this movie for the experience! It was disturbing, terrifying, gruesome and not to forget extremely realistic. It had this grisly and raw feel to it that made it look like a documentary, it wasn’t even like a movie sometimes. The movie also gave me an uneasy and uncomfortable feeling but in a pretty good way, mainly because of the intense imagery and the unsettling feel to it. Leatherface is a really disturbing killer/villain in my opinion. The deaths, while being really good, wasn’t the strongest aspect.
Acting wise, I absolutely LOVED the performances of the late Marilyn Burns and Gunnar Hansen! The soundtrack was also really moody and the movie had a couple of really well crafted chase scenes. Because of the low budget exploitation feel, it looked really realistic to me. The final act was gut wrenching and was able to leave me both scared, disturbed but also amazed by what I just witnessed. The running time wasn’t really long but I really thought this movie was fast paced and over before you knew it. My slight problems were the characters, I know that the makers intended to not have the characters play a huge part of the story but none, besides one (Marilyn Burns as Sally) really stood out to me. I also really felt that the character Franklin (don’t even care who actually played him) was super annoying and really unlikeable. They should’ve either scrapped the role or had him die earlier on in the film. He was THE bad omen of this movie.
Overall The Texas Chain Saw Massacre became one of my favorite horror/exploitation movies I have ever seen, fantastically directed by Tobe Hooper. Its really bizarre at some parts but that really only works in its advantage! I highly recommend this movie to anyone, you’ll love it!
I have finally seen The Shining (1980) for the first time (“S” of #AtoZHorror in August/September) and while my expectations were pretty high going in watching this movie, the movie ultimately turned out not meeting my expectations. I liked quite a lot of things of this movie. The performance of Jack Nicholson is iconic, scary and really realistic. To me, his character should’ve had more sane than insane scenes to make the transition look believable but still a terrific acting performance. I like the directing style of Stanley Kubrick, its really unique yet effective. The imagery in this movie is also top notch, scenes that slowly but surely build up with suspense and tension. I really liked a lot of scenes in this movie: the “Here’s Johnny” scene, the scene with the scary twins, the chase scene in the maze and not to forget the “redruM” scene! The soundtrack is unforgettably fantastic, one of the best I have heard. Really liked the hotel as well, great set design! This movie also had quite a few problems, which was what I could’ve expected…
The acting performance of Shelley Duvall is shockingly bad, a real shame, was hoping I’d like her more than others do but sadly its a really unimpressive performance. She had a handful of scenes where I thought she did good, but she was also really cringe worthy most of the time. Having seen the behind the scenes documentary I can understand how this happened. What I also didn’t like was the ending, that made no sense at all to me. I started wondering which characters in this movie were real or fake. It remains unexplained, the last 5 minutes of The Shining literally lost all common sense it had going for the entire film. Really disappointing…
I saw the European version of 115 minutes and not the version that is 30 minutes longer. Overall, I like The Shining, I wish I loved it like some do, but it might get better with future watches. It really had problems, but its also a beautifully shot thriller that is able to captivate as well, with lots of creepy moments. It’s just not perfect…
I have seen Red Eye (2005) for the first time (“R” of #AtoZHorror in August/September) and I absolutely loved it! This movie was everything I was hoping it will be, plus more! The acting performances by Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy were really strong and superb. Both showed the abilities they have as actors and as a result both performances are noted in my books as one of my favorites of their careers so far! I also really enjoyed the supporting characters of Brian Cox, Jayma Mays and Kyle Gallner!
The tense direction by Wes Craven was incredibly strong and in general its one of the best movies he has ever directed among the likes of Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The script is simple, yet effective. I feel like, while I was drawn into the story the entire time that they could have some more character develop scenes, but that is just me saying that cause of the surprisingly low running time of 82 minutes. None the less, Red Eye is well acted, strongly directed, really suspenseful and has a lot of unexpected surprises. The movie has interesting characters, that you care about, but they’re also developed so well and filled with both dramatic and comedic layers.
The final act is probably one of the best final acts I’ve seen in a psychological thriller, I also noticed some winks with the way of filming that was also done in Scream. Loved seeing that, what I also thought worked amazing was the perfect score of the legendary Marco Beltrami. This man can never do wrong! All by all, this is one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve ever seen and I highly recommend this movie to everyone, you’re gonna be sitting on the edge of your seat and the movie grips you from start to finish without letting you down.
I have finally (FINALLY…) seen A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) (“N” of #AtoZHorror in August) and this movie is perfection and easily one of the best movies that Wes Craven ever made. Its a groundbreaking original horror/slasher that manages to stay far away from genre cliches and has its own attitude, and I loved that about it SO much.
The acting performances were all around top notch, high praises go out to Heather Langenkamp who gave life to a seriously strong and kick-ass final girl called Nancy Thompson. The way she portrayed this character was full of grace, wit and not to mention guts! Robert Englund also gave a bravura performance as Freddy Krueger, a truly scary and haunting villain that is not like any other. I also loved Johnny Depp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley and Amanda Wyss in this movie, the characters were just so likeable that it’d be hard not to love them. The story, the cinematography, the kills and the haunting soundtrack were also a huge part of what worked for me with this movie. It had a very own and unique way of introducing the story and characters. The movie was fast paced, the character development was great and kept my interest the whole time.
I am not making any comparisons but after watching the original classic Nightmare on Elm Street, the remake just looks like utter horseshit and went even more below with my rating for it. A Nightmare on Elm Street is an amazing horror/slasher that manages to stand out above other outings in the genre, its truly original and is a classic that you can’t forget about easily. My favorite Craven film is still Scream but this one comes pretty close, highly recommend it to all of you!
I have finally seen The Last House on the Left (1972) (“L” of #AtoZHorror in August) and this movie took me by surprise, in a very good way actually. This was Wes Craven’s directorial debut and I gotta say this is some of his finest work. This has gotta be one of the most intense, shocking and twisted horror movies I have seen in my life.
In my eyes, the original is vastly superior to the remake, which I remember liking. The characters were very well developed, and at some points it felt so raw that it looked like a documentary that had a realistic shock value to it. I do think that at some scenes this movie went too far, and it just came over to me highly controversial, which is probably why it isn’t perfect. The score and soundtrack is really moody and terrifying and the kills and amounts of blood and gore were very insane. The ending literally leaves the viewer haunted and just shows that this movie had a very dramatic, shocking and sad feel to it.
Its a fairly memorable exploitation film, but its also a movie you either LOVE or HATE. And I am on the former side, I admit it had some problems but in a way this movie also blew my mind. I would still recommend this to any (horror) movie lover and to see what opinion others make from it. The remake, which I liked, wasn’t as shocking and haunting as the controversial original. I am happy Wes Craven made it big after this movie.
I have seen Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and I thought it was a pretty solid vampire movie. It definitely had something going on to separate it from other entries in the sub genre. What I mostly liked were the phenomenal performances by Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and especially a stand out performance by the young, talented and lovely Kirsten Dunst. This is a one of a kind performance in her slate of movies and should’ve gotten her an Oscar nomination. Such a strong and focused acting performance! I liked Christian Slater in his role but, in my opinion, Antonio Banderas was hugely miscast in this. I won’t go further into this, its just too obvious to ignore.
I loved the style by Neil Jordan in this, the settings, the costumes, the visuals, the blood and not to forget the brilliant make up effects. This movie, of course, had some problems, it dragged for too long in quite some scenes which took some of the focus on the story away. This movie did have some unfortunate twists as well. Overall its a great vampire movie of its kind and actually one of the best I have seen. I do however feel that Byzantium is a much better vampire movie. I still highly recommend this movie and I already ordered my Blu-ray since I wanna upgrade!
I have finally seen Halloween (1978) for the very first time (“H” of #AtoZHorror in August) and as everyone told me, I loved it! This movie has easily become one of my favorite horror movies of all time! Halloween doesn’t need to rely on blood and gore and is perfect in its way of building up suspense and showing our scary and mysterious killer. Halloween is one of the best scored horror film I have ever seen and benefits from having perfect camera work by the legendary John Carpenter, a simple but really interesting story, astounding cinematography and some strong and fun acting performances by Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, P.J. Soles and Nancy Loomis. As a matter of fact, Laurie Strode has just become one of my personal favorite final girls and scream queens.
I loved how much effort Jamie Lee Curtis put in this fascinating and totally likeable character. I can go on for much longer telling you how much I loved it but Halloween is a suspenseful cult classic and a groundbreaking entry in the horror genre. This is a must see/have for every (horror) movie fan out there! Michael Myers is a really menacing, vicious and scary killer.
I have seen Friday the 13th Part III for the first time and to be honest my expectations weren’t all that high to begin with. When I saw it, I was kind of disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it has some great things going on but it just feels weak when looking at the original and Part 2, which are far better. What worked for me was the cool compilation of what went down in the previous installment (that’s great seeing in every F13 sequel), the opening credits were VERY groovy and so 80s, the kills as usual are inventive and bloody, some of the characters (Shelly, Fox & Debbie) were so much fun, this is the one where the infamous hockey mask of Jason Voorhees was presented for the first time and the scene in which we see that is EPIC, I loved how cheesy it got sometimes and of course the obvious 3D gags that were fun in 2D too. Jason was played extremely well by Richard Brooker as well, may he rest in peace.
Now this movie had lots of flaws! First of all it has a really bad final girl (Dana Kimmell as Chris) who did nothing else than screaming, hiding and whining without pulling out a good fight. I find it an insult compared to Alice and Ginny… This is really a comedown after the spectacular Part 2 if you ask me! The movie in general has bad acting, and some really annoying characters. I also feel that the dream sequence has been done to death in the third entry, it feels tired and repetitive. The final act is nowhere near as suspenseful and powerful as its predecessor. I found Part III okay but nothing special, could’ve been much better, its still not entirely terrible. Still recommend it to the horror fans in general to give this a watch. Might consider upgrading to Blu-ray… Again, its too bad this never got re-released in Real 3D, the way it was made for.
