LuvzHorror Reviews

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

I broke my heart

[8/10 · 8 October 2011]

Judging by some of the reviews on these pages it seems that unless we are shown extensive camps, human beings on the brink of starvation, brutality to upset the hardest of hearts and factual historical scenes then films simply do not represent the horror of The Holocaust. The fact that this film could have happened, and the fact that we cannot detract from the fact that 6 million people were murdered, seems to have been forgotten whilst the whiners moan about minor trivialities. Shame on them!

I had never heard of this story (Holocaust movies are a particular interest of mine) until my teenage son brought the book home from school, he had to read it for a history essay on children in The Holocaust. He read it in one sitting and emerged from his bedroom with reddened eyes and a heavy heart. He said quite simply "That broke my heart".

Bruno and his family move to a new home after Bruno's SS Commandant Father us given a new post. The Father is the head of a labour camp, housing countless Jews. Bruno, becoming increasingly bored and being the usual kind of nosey young boy, decides to explore the woods surrounding his new home. He walks through the woods and eventually comes to a fence, where he spots a little boy, Shmuel, wearing striped pyjamas. The two lonely children strike up a friendship. Bruno visits Shmuel every day and Shmuel gradually tells Bruno that he and his family are being held in this camp, and have to work.

One day as Bruno leaves to visit Shmuel his Mother asks where he is going. Shmuel tells her, and she begins to realise exactly what her husband's new job entails, much to her horror. She forbids Bruno to visit Shmuel again. Bruno ignores her.

To go any further would spoil the film. Needless to say, any film depicting the atrocities carried out by the Nazi's is always upsetting. However the climax of this film is quite simply one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen. It took my breath away and left me quite stunned.

These other reviewers who are crying that the film is a 'chick flick' and that is was rubbish obviously get their jollies from the more visceral images of The Holocaust. The sheer implication of the horrors of the concentration camps impacted on me more than blood and guts ever could.

I hope the heartless critics can one day find a film that satisfies their craving for in your face suffering. I'll stick with this tragic tale.

Red State (2011)

Westboro Baptist Church hits the big screen!

[7/10 · 8 October 2011]

I went to see this as judging by the trailer it looked like your average 'teens get in over their heads with local nut jobs' type of thing. However this is clearly not the case with this film.

Three teenage friends answer an internet ad from a woman who wants to indulge in a spot of group sex with teenagers. They travel to her trailer, hitting a parked car on the way. The car is owned by the sheriff, who is also indulging in a spot of sexual debauchery....with another man. On arrival at the trailer the woman encourages the boys to drink beer to relax them before they get down to business. The beer however is drugged and they boys soon wake up in a nightmare as the local religious fanatics have decided to punish them.

I initially thought that the film would then carry on as a simple slasher film with the teens trying to escape from the loony God squad. But it didn't. It turns out that the religious 'family' (cult) is based on Westboro Baptist Church, the vile cult that pickets the funerals of soldiers and blames the woes of the world on homosexuality! They are also heavily armed and more than willing to fight. As the local police become aware of the hostage situation (with the sheriff keen to hide his own homosexuality) the mistakes that are made in the attempt to capture the fanatics must be covered up.

The film quickly turns into a Waco style siege, with a major stand off between the cult and the police. Saying anything more would spoil the film. There are a couple of shocks that I definitely didn't see coming and all in all I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

There are parts that could have been done better and the ending is a bit of an anticlimax but it's still well worth watching!

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Unnerving!

[8/10 · 7 October 2011]

As a major fan of the horror genre I heard about The Blair Witch project and simply HAD to go and see it! Thinking of myself as a hardened horror buff I was pretty sure that I'd enjoy every second, and I did, but I was terrified! The fact that I was heavily pregnant and had to return home to an empty house as my husband was working away should have been a deterrent, but I thought I'd be fine!

My sister (who loathes horror movies with a passion) had seen Blair Witch the night before and said she was disappointed in it. She said it was over-hyped and simply not frightening. How wrong she was!

The film starts with 3 student film makers, Heather, Josh and Mike, heading to Burketsville to make a documentary about the legend of The Blair Witch. They visit various sites of interest, speak to local people and hear the story of Rustin Parr. Parr was a local man who kidnapped, tortured and murdered 7 local children in the 40's. During his trial Parr claimed that he was possessed by the spirit of Elly Kedward, a woman burnt as a witch in the town of Blair. Burketsville was formerly known as Blair.

The trio then head out into The Black Woods. They visit Coffin Rock, the site of the murder of 5 men. As the film progresses the students move further into the woods. Inevitably they become lost.

What follows still scares me to this day. As fear takes over the sensibilities of the trio they begin to fight and argue with each other. Then, when night falls, strange happenings occur. Children are heard laughing, strange objects are left outside the tents. The students slowly descend into absolute terror.

To go any further would mean including spoilers, which I always hate in a review. Needless to say the frustration of the students is passed on to the viewer. Shaky camera-work (this film being one of the first 'handheld camera' movies) only adds to the fear as we are unable to see what it is that is terrifying the students.

I watched this film on the edge of my seat. On my return home I was physically afraid to be alone. I actually ended up staying the night at my parent's house! That's not to say that everyone will be afraid, judging by some of these reviews I think I must be an absolute coward for being scared by a film that some people have claimed made them fall asleep!

But I will leave this review by saying one thing:

I went into labour the next day - 3 weeks early!

REC (2007)

Unbelievabley scary!

[5 October 2011]

It doesn't get much better than this! If tense, claustrophobic terror is what you're after then pull up a seat and watch this. You will not be disappointed!

I converted my teenage zombie/splatter/gore obsessed son to foreign horror with this film, he in turn has now converted an entire group of teenagers to the superiority of original horror, instead of the soulless Hollywood 'remakes'. I feel a shameless sense of triumph!

Spanish TV reporter Angela is filming a late night series called "While You're Asleep", she and her cameraman Pablo are following a Barcelona fire crew for the night.

The crew are called to an apartment block after a report of an elderly lady who is very unwell and in distress. Angela arrives to find the residents huddled, terrified, in the foyer of the building as the woman screams above them. Angela and Pablo follow the crew upstairs to help the lady, where she proceeds to attack them.......

The situation rapidly descends into a terrifying waking nightmare, as first the building is suddenly sealed off and then the other residents slowly start to display the same symptoms the old lady had.

The whole film is shown from the perspective of Pablo's camera, with Angela giving a running commentary. To say this film is frightening is a gross understatement, it is absolutely terrifying! The tension is relentless, building up to the shattering final scenes which are played out in chilling night vision.

REC was 'remade' as Quarantine for people who are too lazy to read subtitles. Perhaps 'remade' isn't the right word as it was actually copied frame by frame, but with a terribly inferior actor playing the part of Angela, she failed miserably to recreate the terror shown by the original actress Manuela Velasco.

REC and The Orphanage are perhaps my two favourite foreign films (High Tension, Devil's Backbone and Tale Of Two Sisters are also notable foreign shockers) but REC wins in the horror stakes.

You will not forget this film!

Jaws (1975)

Quite simply the best horror film ever made. Ever.

[10/10 · 5 October 2011]

What's not to love about this film? It is quite possibly one of the most tense films ever to be made!

This films breaks all the horror rules, and it does it brilliantly!

We have no masked killer hiding in the woods. In fact Jaws will just come right up to you and chew off your leg.

The shark does not target gangs of randy teenagers. She kills anyone who happens to be handy at the time.

Three middle aged men are the heroes. No drop dead gorgeous male model types here, these are real men! Apart from Chief Brody who is pretty much afraid of everything.

Jaws is just as comfortable attacking you in broad daylight, with the sun shining, as she is sneaking up on you and ramming your boat in the dead of night.

This is probably the first horror film I ever saw, and it scared the living daylights out of me (I was probably a bit too young to be watching it!). Anyone who has seen Hooper get the fright of his life whilst examining the abandoned boat will know exactly what I'm talking about!

I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't like this film, and I'll bet most people will know at least one quote from it. If you haven't seen it, go and watch it. If you have seen it, watch it again!

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

Them (2006)

Nail biting stuff!

[8/10 · 5 October 2011]

This is one of those films that people who watch mass produced American horror tend to see and scream "That's a rip off of....." without actually realising that some of the best horror ever made wasn't made in America!

This fantastically tense film was ripped off, sorry, remade as the hideously inferior 'The Strangers'. I am a huge fan of 'foreign' horror and each time I hear of a Hollywood remake a little piece of me dies.

Clementine and Lucas live a peaceful life in their country home. Peaceful until one night their sleep is disturbed by noises from outside their home. As the couple slowly realise that their home has been invaded by 'Them' they instinctively try to protect themselves. As the intrusion becomes increasingly more disturbing the couple realise they will have to fight for their survival.

An extremely tense film that keeps you hooked.

The final 20 minutes had me on the edge of my seat, and the realisation of what has actually happened, and who the protagonists are, left me speechless. This film stayed with me for quite some time.

The scariest thing of all is knowing that this could happen in any town, in any city, anywhere in the world. And that is the most chilling part!

The Woman (I) (2011)

Kept me glued throughout!

[5 October 2011]

I've been a bit of a Jack Ketchum fan ever since I saw "The Girl Next Door" (another film that will leave you speechless - particularly as it's true). The fact that he is unafraid to show the brutality that some cowardly people inflict on others weaker than themselves is one of the reasons I like him. The other is the fact that he is unafraid to show what often happens to those cowards once their luck runs out.

The Woman is one such film.

It is the follow up to "The Offspring" which featured a cannibalistic clan. The Woman is the last surviving member of that clan. She is observed foraging in the woods by Chris Cleek, a lawyer who lives nearby with his wife and family. Chris decides that what this woman, who has posed no threat to either him or his family, needs is to be captured, locked on his barn and 'civilised'.

Chris captures her and keeps her chained in his barn. His wife, initially, agrees with her husband. She washes the Woman, puts her in homemade clothes and attempts to help her husband convert her into something resembling 'normality'.

However as the film progresses the female members of the family come to realise that the male members of the family have less than honourable intentions towards The Woman. Throw in teen pregnancy, domestic abuse and jaw dropping violence and you'll realise that this is a film not intended for cosy viewing. When it was shown at The Sundance Film Festival some audience members actually walked out in disgust (one famous film on 'youtube' shows a reporter shouting in protest) whilst others cheered in admiration of Ketchum's brutal yet realistic storytelling!

You'll either love it (like I did) or hate it (like others did)

But you wont forget it.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)

Absolute laugh riot

[8/10 · 26 September 2011]

As a fan of horror films I tend not to watch 'comedy' horrors, as they tend not to be either funny or scary . The Scary Movie franchise being the main offender.

Tucker and Dale, on the other hand, is the exception to the rule!

It's a kind of throwback to the days of Friday The 13th. Kids out camping in the woods, a couple of local rednecks scaring them and then everything gets out of hand, and someone gets chopped in half. That kind of thing. The difference with this film is that Tucker and Dale, whilst being the 'rednecks' we expect to appear in these kind of films, are actually just 2 nice guys who are doing some repairs to a cabin one of them owns. In a chain of misunderstandings the gang of kids suspect that Tucker and Dale have kidnapped and murdered their friend. The truth is however that the girl fell and was drowning when Tucker and Dale rescued her and took her to safety.

The rest of the film is the kids' attempt to kill Tucker and Dale whilst attempting to rescue their friend. But the kids are as inept at killing as the guys are of explaining themselves.

It's a great film, lots of laughs and a couple of gross out moments. I was pleasantly surprised and I suspect anyone else who watches this will be too.

Insidious (I) (2010)

Way over rated!

[26 September 2011]

I was pretty desperate to see this film, the trailers made it look like something that would probably stop you from sleeping ever again! And a good horror film with a child as the main focus is always worth the admission fee. It's a fact that ghost children are far scarier than other ghosts!

The first two thirds of the film had me gripped. Some very scary parts that had me jumping in my cinema seat. I'll never listen to "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" in quite the same way!

Then the final third lost me completely. It went from a pretty great horror to a sort of fantasy/dream story. I was genuinely disappointed.

It's worth watching just for the few good shocks, but don't believe the hype.

100 Feet (2008)

Effective ghost story

[8/10 · 23 September 2011]

Another film that would have done so much better with publicity!

Marnie is given early release from prison after serving part of her sentence for murdering her violent and abusive cop husband, much to the disgust of his partner. She is placed under house arrest and given an ankle tag, which effectively prevents her from moving 100 feet from a monitoring box in her home.

Much to her horror the power to her home wont be connected for a couple of days, however she opts to stay anyway. Hoping to return to normality she begins to busy herself with cleaning up her house, building bridges with her family and trying to start a new life. Unable to leave her home she uses a local store for her grocery delivery, becoming friendly with the delivery boy. Things begin to look up and Marnie dares to think she could be happy again.

However Marnie's husband has other ideas and, as he is also trapped in the house, sets out to prove he can make her just as frightened in death as he did in life.

There are a couple of genuine shocks, one quite literally resulted in me spitting food across the room. There is a moderately raunchy sex scene and a smattering of bad language. However there's some pretty graphic violence, the boyfriend vs dead husband 'fight' is a sight to behold including a couple of things that made me wince.

Basically I loved it, it's one of those films that isn't really well known, but once you've watched it you wanna tell all your friends to watch it too. I've had 3 different copies of this film, simply because I've loaned copies to friends, who've loaned it to their friends.......

I promise you wont be disappointed!

The Shining (1980)

Shockingly over rated!

[5/10 · 23 September 2011]

I am constantly baffled as to why this film frequently turns up in the 'top 10' scariest films, scariest moments, biggest movie shocks etc!

As a Stephen King fan I am fully aware that King refused to allow the film to be called Stephen King's The Shining as he hated Kubrick's interpretation of his book. I love to talk to supposed King fans who are totally oblivious to the fact that the film and the book have entirely different endings, not to mention the fact that huge chunks of the book has been omitted from the film.

Anyway, to the film. The author Jack Torrence, his wife Wendy and son Danny all travel to the Overlook Hotel, where Jack has taken a job as the winter caretaker, a job which will allow him to earn money whilst he writes his latest book. Once there Jack becomes gradually withdrawn, becoming more and more agitated, developing writer's block, seeing visions of old guests and eventually losing his mind.

Danny also begins to see people. He has been told by the hotel cook that he possesses a gift (the 'shining' of the title). What follows is Jack's descent into madness whilst Wendy and Danny come to the slow realisation that they must get out. But how will they escape with no telephone, no transport and a hotel that is snowed in?

As a stand alone film it's good. But the continuous claim that it is the scariest film ever is ridiculous. This and The Exorcist should now bow out gracefully and allow the truly scary to take charge!

Wind Chill (2007)

I love this film!

[9/10 · 13 September 2011]

I actually stumbled upon this film whilst flicking through the movie channels one night whilst I was unwell and unable to sleep.

The fact that I have a slight girl crush on Emily Blunt is probably the reason I didn't switch over and watch 'Misery'. I hadn't even heard of the film, but as I've seen Misery so many times I could re-enact it in a one woman show I thought I'd give it a go.

In a nutshell 2 college students decide to car share whilst returning home for Christmas vacation (even though they guy has really planned the ride as a way to get close to the girl on whom he has a crush). After stopping to use the bathroom and get some refreshments the guy decides to take a short cut down a snow covered road. Inevitably the car crashes into a snow drift and the couple are stranded. As the road appears to be somewhat unused, the couple wait for help to turn up.

What follows is quite simply a ghost story. The story unfolds slowly, with Blunt shouldering the vast majority of the film. There were a few moments that genuinely made me jump, and I'm not afraid to say that I found the film quite romantic too. Watch it and you'll understand why.

All in all it's a great film. very good story, excellent acting and, in my opinion, a cracking way to spend a couple of hours!

The Dead Outside (2008)

Not as bad as all that!

[6/10 · 13 September 2011]

Reading some of these reviews it seems like some other reviewers just want to add big words to make themselves look like they're some kind of 'serious' movie know-it-all. Gimme a break!

This film was made in 2 weeks on a £4,000 budget. Those 2 snippets of info should have been a bit of a hint at what kind of production this was gonna be. Yeah the story runs along the lines of 28 Days Later, so what? It's not as if 28 Days Later was the first film to use the virus/living dead scenario, and I doubt this will be the last.

The story is a simple one. Virus on the loose, survivors hiding in an attempt to stay alive. If you're looking for a blood soaked zombie flick then pass on this and pick up Dawn Of The Dead. If you're looking for an indie flick that focuses more on the psychological horror of the survivor's situation then you'll enjoy this. OK it's not gonna win any Oscars, but hey, neither did The Shawshank Redemption!