Showing posts with label Halloween movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween movies. Show all posts

Friday, December 13, 2019

Ready or Not (2019)

Ready or Not (2019)

Since I can't go to the movies because of my seizures, I tend to load up my Netflix list with movies I really want to see. Ready or Not has been at the top of my list ever since I saw its first preview. It looked like a combination of The Most Dangerous Game (Richard Connell) and You're Next (2011).

The Premise

When a member of the Le Domas family gets married, it's tradition to initiate the new in-law by playing a game on their wedding night. The whole family gets into the spirit of things. Why? Because there's a curse on the Le Domas family and if they don't play, they believe something awful will happen. Sometimes the games are harmless, like chess or checkers. But every once in a while, they are forced to play a deadly game of hide and seek.

My Take

I love a good dark comedy and that's how I viewed this movie, more so than a horror film. The actors played their parts straight despite the somewhat absurd circumstances they were put in. I mean, who plays hide and seek on their wedding night with their entire clan of in-laws hunting them down with antique weaponry?

Samara Weaving and Mark O'Brien play the newly married Grace and Alex Le Domas. You may remember Samara from The Babysitter (2017). Except this time she's on the receiving end of some weird shit from a devil worshiping family. To round out the family, there's Adam Brody who plays Daniel Le Domas. With Daniel's character, you never know which side he is on and that makes it really exciting to watch from scene to scene. Melanie Scrofano plays sister Emilie who, from an actor's standpoint, would have been a lot of fun to play. She seems like the family member that took full advantage of the family fortune and never worked a day in her life. And of course there are dear old mom and dad played by Andie MacDowell and Henry Czerny. My favorite thing about their relationship is thinking about the fact that Andie MacDowell's character, Becky Le Domas, would have had to endure the same initiation right of choosing a game to play that the current bride, Grace, is doing right now. What doesn't kill us, I suppose...  That brings us to the other in-laws played by Kristian Bruun and Elyse Levesque. I am familiar with Kristian and Elyse from their work on Orphan Black (2013-2017), one of my favorite shows ever. It's fun to see them paired up in the same movie. And finally, there is what appears to be crazy Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), but we learn more about her as the movie progresses.

There are many things I enjoy about this movie. The plot moves along quickly and it doesn't give the audience much time to anticipate what happens next. I like that because it makes it less difficult to predict the scriptwriters next move. There's nothing I hate more than figuring it out all in the first act. So thank you very much Guy Buick and Ryan Murphy. The direction was also well thought out I loved the production design (Matt Bettinelli-Olin and Tyler Gillett).

The Verdict

I was not at all disappointed in Ready or Not. I am disappointed in that I feel like it was sleeper in the cinemas. Maybe it will find its footing in its DVD release or in streaming. I recommend you give it try. I give Ready or Not 5/5 pentagrams. And a little word of advice - be careful who you marry.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Return of Horror Fest - Teen Version

Yes Horror Fest made a (small) return to the Romero household this year. But please do not get your  panties in a wad if you didn't receive an invite! It was dubbed Horror Fest Returns - The Teen Version for a reason. All of our children (ages 14-18) collectively agreed they wanted to host another 24 hour monster movie marathon. We the parents graciously allowed them to invite their friends over and allow them full fridge access for 24 hours and they could watch whatever Halloween movies they wanted. Here's what they chose this year:

Intruder (1989)
Victor and I picked this flick to start things off. The teenagers wanted a classic '80s slasher flick and this one has always one of our favorites. It's also a bit of a whodunit as one by one the overnight stock crew of a grocery store gets picked off in gruesome ways. Stay tuned till

Jason vs Freddy (2003)
This pick made me laugh because it turns out that half the kids watching the movie never saw the original Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street! How is that possible? So there were a lot of questions about the dream killer, but ultimately they enjoyed the battle between Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. 

Ghostbusters (1984)
Always a classic, though maybe not so much a horror movie, Ghostbusters chronicles three parapsychologists as they capture ghosts around New York City. 

Hush (2016)
I'm a big fan of writers and directors taking control of their projects, especially when they're as well done as Hush. Written and starring Kate Siegel and written and directed by Mike Flanagan, Hush is a thriller about a mute and deaf woman terrorized by masked killer.

13 Cameras (2015)
Talk about creepy. Has anyone ever just given you the heebies jeebies? Actor Neville Archambault does a great job of it in Victor Zarcoff's, 13 Camera's. You can't help but feel for this couple that is being unwittingly spied on in this thriller. 

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
This was a first for many of our teenage guests. They thoroughly enjoyed each and every gory death (especially Johnny Depp's). And they loved Robert Englund's portrayal of Freddy, in this one and in Freddy vs Jason.

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
This was solely for the thespians in the crowd, though the other guys loved Audrey II and Bill Murray's masochistic Arthur Dent. The theatre crowd was more into Ellen Greene and Rick Moranis. But overall, it was a win! (Of course)

The Conjuring (2013)
My daughter loves scary movies and she loves this one. Obviously it starts off the Annabelle series, but that's not why we like this one. It's very Amityville Horror (which we watched next) in that a family is haunted by an unknown presence. And it's supposed to have been based on a true story which always makes a haunting even scarier.

The Amityville Horror (1979)
This is one of my my husband's favorites, because of Margot Kidder, but that's okay. Of course by this time we started losing some of the teenagers. Haha They were dropping like the flies on Father Delaney. This one is also supposed to be based on a true story which always makes a story even better, in my opinion.

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
I have to tell you I don't know why I own this one and not any of the others, but I do. And it was the first time I watched it. It was a little long, and a little strange, but it was also a little unsettling, which is exactly what it was supposed to be. I obviously can't say much because it gives away the ending, but I did enjoy Paranormal Activity 3.

House of Wax (2005)
This one is kind of my guilty pleasure. I enjoy that in the end it's a brother/sister duo that team up (Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray) and not a romantic link. Have you ever had a hot wax massage treatment? It's super satisfying. So being covered in the stuff seems like a great idea. But I guess these killers just take it way too far.

Death Note (2017)
Imagine having the power to kill anyone you want - and then giving that power to a teenager. That's Death Note. A great movie that keeps you in suspense up until the very end, Death Note is a great movie to add to any Halloween movie fest.

The Babysitter (2017)
This is another one of our guilty pleasure movies. The Babysitter has all the elements - it's sexy, has dark comedy, and gore. A group of teenage Devil worshipers didn't count on the young boy they were babysitting spying on them. Hilarity ensues. Watch it.

Student Bodies (1981)
This movie was a total spoof and the only one filmed in Houston, as far as I know. (Yay hometown!) If you loves spoof and don't mind the silliness of it all, this one's for you. 

The Banana Splits Movie (2019)
This is a new movie we added to our collection this year. My husband grew up watching The Banana Splits so it was only natural he would gravitate toward this movie. It was pretty good, considering the main characters had giant animation robots chasing them all around a TV studio for the duration of the film. Not as silly as it sounds. 

Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
We can't have a Horror Fest without Tucker and Dale vs Evil. This is our favorite movie about mistaken identities. A group of college kids think that Tucker and Dale are hillbilly killers. After a freak accident in which the hillbillies save one of the college girls from drowning, the rest of the group meet their untimely ends in hilarious freak accidents. 

Monday, November 9, 2015

What we Watched This Halloween Season - 2015

The tradition continued this year as we tried to fit in as many horror movies as possible this Halloween season and we hosted our second annual 24 Hour Horror Fest! Here's our official list of Halloween movies from 2015.

To make it easier, I have rated the following films on a sliding scale from 1 to 5; 1 being the the worst, but we watched it anyway, and 5 being the best. As always, don't let my opinion be the only one you listen to. Form your own by watching as many movies as you can next Halloween!

In order of appearance:

Friday the 13th Part XII: The New Blood (1988)
A psychic teenager accidentally releases Jason from his underwater confinement to once again go on a nearly unstoppable killing spree.
Hokey, but these are the classics 3/5

Friday the 13th Part XIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
A boatload of teenagers on their graduation cruise accidentally snag Jason and drag him all the way to New York where he terrorizes Manhattan.
Pretty silly 2/5

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Jason is blown apart (after having mysteriously reappeared at Crystal Lake) and his demonic spirit
goes looking for another Voorhees' body to take over.
Umm, no 1/5

Friday the 13th Part X: To Hell and Back (1995)
Jason is summoned back from Hell from some mischievous teenagers using a mysterious book found on the still standing Voorhees' estate. Will no one ever learn?
Ok, we've got to stop this. 2/5

Student Bodies (1981)
Filmed in my neck of the woods, Student Bodies has long been one of our favorite spoofs. The Breather is one of the best villains you'll ever see.
Sex kills in this horror comedy. 5/5

Intruder (1989)
A maniac killer targets the overnight crew of a local grocery store. I really enjoy this movie because of what happens at the very end.
I suggest the unrated version. 5/5

Near Dark (1987)
A classic vampire love story that will outlast and outdo any Twilight story ever written. A young man gets lured into a vampires' den by a beautiful young woman.
Can love cure vampirism? 5/5

Saw (2004)
Two men are trapped in a room together with no memory of how they got there. What they do know is that one must kill the other to survive.
The start of a franchise is usually the best, and this is true here. 4/5

Saw II (2005)
Serial killer, Jigsaw, has trapped eight people in a factory together inhaling a deadly nerve gas. It is up to one single to detective to unravel his riddles and save them.
An interesting sequel. Not bad. 3/5

Saw III (2006)
A doctor, a man whose son was killed in a hit and run, a detective and Jigsaw's protegee all have something in common in this gruesome sequel.
There's still a story here but it is a little far fetched. 3/5

Saw IV (2007)
Jigsaw and his apprentice are both dead but people are still dying. Who is carrying on Jigsaw's wishes, even after death?
Ok, I'll bite... 3/5

Saw V (2008)
Another group of strangers are put through Jigsaw style traps, but these feel different from before. More brutal. Meanwhile, an agent is on the tail of the new killer.
Maybe it's because we watched all of these in a row, but I am finding the overall plot line pretty fascinating. 3/5

Saw VI (2009)
In the final installment to Saw, the original Jigsaw's plans all come to fruition in one giant convoluted plan. If everyone had just done as they were asked, they all would have lived. Crazy.
Actually pretty well thought out, despite the plot holes. 3/5

Creep (2014)
What do you do when you find out that your client is a little nuts? In found footage/documentary style film, Creep tells the story of Josef's obsession with videographer Aaron.
I'll never quite look at Mark Duplass the same way again. 4/5

The Host (2006)
A young girl is kidnapped by a strange, man-eating creature. Her family refuses to accept her death and stops at nothing to get her back.
Very good Korean film. Not bad special effects. 3/5


A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Filmed in black and white, this movie is another pretty good vampire film. The people of Bad City are unaware that a vampire lives among them, let alone a very lonely and attractive vampire.
This foreign language film (Farsi) is worth putting on your list. 4/5

Witching and Bitching (2013)
A hilarious Spanish language film about men who bitch about women, a jewelry heist and, of course, witches.
So good, we watched it twice. 5/5

The Snowtown Murders (2011)
Based on the true story of Australian serial killer, John Bunting, it recalls events of how one man can influence young minds to murder and torture other people.
Intriguing because it was based on a true story. 3/5

Zombieland (2009)
In a land overrun by zombies, four strangers become friends on their cross-country journey.
With a cast like this, how can you go wrong? 5/5

Smiley (2012)
After learning that an online killer can be summoned anywhere and at anytime, an unstable teenager becomes so paranoid she thinks the killer is stalking her at every turn.
I did it for the lulz. 2/5

The People Under the Stairs (1991)
The People Under the Stairs is about a little girl trapped inside a creepy house, the strange things going on around her, the unwitting boy who rescues her and an urban legend about a hidden treasure.
We introduced a whole new generation to this Wes Craven horror classic. 5/5

Grabbers (2012)
Two peace officers in Ireland discover that the best way to fight blood-thirsty aliens is with a blood alcohol level of point-oh-deadly.
Read my review of Grabbers here. 5/5

You're Next (2011)
When a family comes under attack by masked killers, they never expected one of the guests would be able to take them on.
Way to go for kick-ass women! 4/5

The 'Burbs (1989)
Granted this movie is not really a horror movie but it does have all the elements: creepy neighbors, murder, intrigue and paranoia.
Who hasn't wanted to spy on their neighbors? 3/5

Return of the Living Dead II (1988)
The dead rise once again to seek out their favorite meal, brains. It is up to a group of teenagers, and a few inept adults, to stop them.
I admit, I love this one. 4/5

Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Five stories intertwine in this supernatural Halloween horror movie.
Trick or Treat! 4/5

The Lost Boys (1987)
Yet another classic vampire love story. I sense a theme. Boy meets girl, girl is a vampire, boy becomes vampire, boy must save them both.
Still better than Twilight. 4/5

House of Wax (2005)
A group of teens are deserted in a strange town and the only attraction is a wax museum. One by one they are killed and turned into wax figures.
Not a terrible remake, all in all. 2/5

Friday the 13th (2009)
An updated version of the original Friday the 13th. A group of young adults are terrorized by Jason Voorhees when they encroach upon his territory.
Not as good as the original, but worth a look. 4/5

I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
A woman is brutally attacked and seeks revenge on those who wronged her.
It's her revenge that makes this remake worth watching. 4/5

The Conjuring (2013)
Something is terrorizing a family in a rural farmhouse in the early 1970's. Paranormal investigators have been summoned to help them sort out the strange happenings.
I have never heard teenage girls scream so loud. It is definitely one of the better paranormal movies made lately. 4/5

Night of the Comet (1984)
This movie has one of my husband's favorite villains in it. Set in the aftermath of the passing a giant comet, a group of teen-aged survivors do what teens do best... Have fun!
Like Valley girls of the apocalypse. 4/5

Fido (2006)
A cloud of radiation has made it so that the dead come back. Set in the 1950's, Fido is an unconventional zombie movie.
Read my review of Fido here. 5/5

The Amityville Horror (1979)
Based on a "true" story, the movie follows the events of a book which follows the accounts given by the Lutz family of what happened to them in the infamous house.
Get out! 4/5

Stage Fright (2014)
Ok, I hate musicals. But this movie is all about a killer who kills people starring in musicals! Perfect! The songs are hilarious and totally tongue in cheek. The entire movie is making fun of musical theatre.
Stay tuned to listen to the credits. 4/5

Let Us Prey (2014)
On her first night in a small Scottish police station, a young police woman, other officers and prisoners become unwilling hostages of a mysterious stranger. Violence erupts as the stranger takes over their minds.
There are no such thing as accidents in this movie. 3/5

Teeth (2007)
If you ever thought women were evil before, you won't have any doubt after watching this movie. Sometimes abstinence really is the best policy, especially when you have teeth... down there.
Vagina Dentata! 2/5

I would love to hear what you watched this past Halloween season. Leave me a comment below! Check out last year's Halloween blog, too!