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Reviews
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Only 90s kids will understand
TBWP polarises people and rightly so. The "cheapness" of the movie captures the tech available at the time and this shouldn't be a problem except it is to a generation of kids growing up with HD quality everything. Also to truly 'get' this movie you had to watch the movie around the time of release, there was a lot of really good fake promo plugging the film under the guise of news reports and documentary shorts. This was before the era of fake news, so it worked. So before watching this movie you really need to appreciate the time, the tech and the mentality of a 90s kid going in to see this. The Internet was just about working end of the 90s and there wasn't a great deal you were doing back then apart from sports, shopping and exploring places. This is why Blair witch hits home, for 90s kids all we had was exploring stuff and we couldn't even take decent pictures of it. I'm a pretty hardened horror fan but that end scene of the movie messed me up. It was great everything surrounding the movie was great, so before trying to pull this to pieces on an intellectual movie scholar level just remember if you aren't from that era you just aren't gonna get it.
Possum (2018)
Sinister AF
Found this little gem on Halloween and glad I did. Even though it's not a typical horror persae I would lump it in with Babadook. However I found this movie had more weight than Babadook. Possum is emotionally and psychologically heavy and even though it's a slow burner (some may tire easy) it does hold your attention with very few actors. The film is very atmospheric and does not rely on jump scares but paints a very sad picture indeed. Bleak and sinister af the end made me feel sick, worth a watch.
Halloween (2018)
A slick slasher for non slasher fans
Ok so getting a new Carpenter film for Halloween is pretty nice right? The fact that it's a Halloween sequel makes it all the more special. Now I'm a big horror fan but have never been a huge slasher fan and although I do rate the original Halloween I've never been fussed with the rest in the series however Carpenter and the original cast pulled me in. This film has a good vintage/contemporary balance and builds nicely with some nice grisly kills. It's a slick movie, it's not scary but it does have an air of cool surrounding Myers where you find yourself gunning for him. I left the cinema feeling content that I'd seen a good movie, it had everything I'd expected and I have honestly never felt so content with a slasher movie.
Cool with substance but not scary.
It (2017)
Things really do float down here. Like this TURD
OK so firstly I see myself as a horror fan and loved the original IT when it came out all those years ago an IT fan and was super excited to see an IT remake announced so I have been following the hype on this quite closely. It's sad to say this is the same kind of empty let down that I felt with the new Blair Witch. So the film the acting in the film is great the kids are great, the overall 80s look and feel for the film is spot on. However the let down is unfortunately the star attraction Pennywise. I was felt the original Pennywise was more scary as he looked like a regular clown that someone could dress as and from my faded memory of the original this clown invaded the real world and creeped us out there, which is why it was scary, similar to Freddy Krueger. This new Pennywise is more alien and looks like a Victorian clown I think they must've tried to match him to dates and the history of Derry. The new Pennywise also only seems to operate in a very restricted way in his own body utilising the fears of children so he never really physically leaves his domain which leaves this film with a main character that doesn't do too much. There's some good cgi effects in this towards the end of the movie but also some really lame effects applied to the way Pennywise moves. In a nutshell the movie is too long and spends way too long trying to decide whether it wants to be Stand by me or Stranger Things which leaves it in a really weird unscary wilderness. Not a great movie and I'm feeling let down.
Wolf Creek (2005)
Based on a true story - bore fest
So I consider myself a bit of a horror fan and had kept seeing this on scariest horror lists online. I was sure I had seen it but couldn't place it so recently watched it excited to see its almighty scare power. Sadly I was let down, the plot is fair enough some travelers go traveling to Wolf Creek and actually the initial way the film twists Into its nastier side is quite good too. However the characters are irritating and the bad guy is pretty comedy. The films set up had a lot of potential and there are some tense moments however it's not psychotics enough to be scary, not gory enough to be called a gore fest and not, well torturey enough to be torture porn. So what do we have isolated screaming with some characters we don't care about. But it's based on a true so that must give it some weight right? No, just when you think the film is going somewhere it ends and then you stare at the DVD cover as the credits roll wondering who would even buy it on eBay. Not a good film.
The Good Neighbor (2016)
A surprisingly decent movie
This movie was a great surprise, I didn't know anything about it but found it on iTunes and took the gamble as the trailer was intriguing.It did not disappoint, what could have quite easily been another shaky cam mess of a home footage film turned out to be a real gem. This film builds nicely and despite the simple plot does a great job keeping you on the edge of your seat. The film is also edited in such a way that it keeps you guessing but then slowly feeds you the tid bits to keep you going. At no point was I bored watching this movie although I was worried it would be a bit of an Americanised college "bro" movie 5 minutes in, stick with it and enjoy where this goes. The film is based in two houses and given the limited location you'd think it would be quite easy to get bored by this however the director seems to ramp the tension up and down in all the right ways. I can't recommend this enough and it had my girlfriend in tears. Well worth a watch!
Blair Witch (2016)
The worst horror film I think I've ever seen
OK so I've never written on IMDb despite being a regular user however I felt compelled to write my first review after this movie like the biggest let down of the year. I'm a pretty big horror fan and was truly spooked by the original Blair Witch when I went to see it as a teen. This movie had promise, the teaser trailers leading up to its release made it appear like a truly worthy sequel, I couldn't have got it more wrong, This film is garbage of the worst kind because there's nothing remotely unique about it.
The original was genre defining, it utilized the Internet and documentary/ news shorts surrounding its release to get the viewer to buy in to the story. This movie just tried to piggy back it, it's practically the same movie with more technology, more characters and less plot. It simply did not deliver on any level. I left thinking how can a movie with a handsome budget produce something worse than something made so cheaply? There's also a lot of pointless/aimless deaths, none of the characters care about one another and the whole thing is just a terrible rehash that relies on jump scares. You've been warned its just shaky cam without the fun of being scary. Anyone that has reviewed this above a 3 really needs to watch some actual horror films with a plot. Absolute garbage, don't waste your money.