Topic: Emma's Film Reviews (snowcat)

[snowcat]

House of Wax - 2005
Director - Jaume Collet-Serra
Running Time - 113 min.
Stars - Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton

Generally, im not a huge fan of wax models, not because im scared of them but because I find them boring. Being a huge critic of horror remakes I had to see House of Wax.

When I tell people about this film they seem uninterested, when I tell them part of the promotion for the film was the phrase “See Paris Hilton Die” they snap the DVD out of my hands.

Directed by Spanish/American director Jaume Collet-Serra, director of Orphan and Goal 2 House of Wax is the story of 6 friends who are on the way to a (American) football game. On the way there they stop in a field, yes they stop in an unknown field, how cliché. They camp for the night but are disturbed by a truck that drives into their site and blares its head lights at them. After being told to “turn of the lights” and not doing it angry teen heart-throb Nick (Chad Michael Murray) throws a bottle smashing one of his headlights. The car swiftly drives away.

The next day Paige (Paris Hilton) and Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) are in a secluded part of the woods alone, when they smell something terrible. No, it's not the fact they have just relieved themselves, it smells like death. And whats the best thing to do when you smell something terrible and you are alone in a strange place? Thats right my friends, follow it. Follow that smell. So after falling into a what can only be described as a roadkill pit, Carly is finally rescued by her friends, who seem to be crawling to her, the amount of time it takes. Here they meet Lester, who after hearing the plight of poor Carly's boyfriend Wade, who's fan belt has magically broken on his car. Offers to take them to a nearby village to get a new one. What are the chances a small town with a Church, a Wax museum and oh wait a garage!

As this is a horror film I wont go any further into it, thankfully the plot seems to start fairly late on. House of Wax is a strange attempt at remaking a film that was a remake in the first place. House of Wax 3D was made in 1953 which in its self was a loose remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum 1933.

House of Wax is a strange film, I enjoyed it more as it went on, the beginning is boring and tedious and for how much build up there is, there doesn't seem to be much character development. Around forty minutes of this film is filler and wasn't really needed. But the I really enjoyed the ending, Maybe be it was the impending credit roll, and the though id be able to watch something else, or maybe it was the strangely impressive House of Wax, who knows.

[snowcat]

Saw - 2004
Director - James Wan
Running Time - 103 minutes
Stars - Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover   

Knowing the name and genre of this film makes it fairly obvious what this film will be about, you don't go see a film called Saw and expect to see happy little carpenters making Santa a new workbench and if that's film is a horror film then you expect to see blood.

Directed by Australian producer/screenwriter/director James Wan. Saw is the first of a long line of grotesque horror films which have gradually got more violent and less story focused as they have gone on.

Saw  is a story about two men Adam Faulkner and Dr Lawrence Gordon who have been trapped in a disused bathroom by serial killer Jigsaw. Both Adam and Lawrence discover tapes that say play me, and after listening to them discover that Adam must escape the room but Lawrence must kill Adam by 6 o'clock. After a montage of gruesome death scenes we are back in the disused bathroom, but will Adam escape? Or will Lawrence kill him?

As with all horror films, its far to easy to give away the ending so I won't go any further into the plot.

Saw is the first in 6 film series, as with a collection of popular horror films the sequels gradually get worse. Saw is a good solid film with a clever story, unfairly criticised by haters of the “Gore” genre who lump all the saw films into one plot-less arc. Saw stands out as something that should have ended there and then with one film much like Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street. Unfortunately its a format that makes money and so will be milked for all it has. Personally I feel Saw defines the “gore” genre,

I enjoyed this film but I do have to criticise certain points, firstly a lot of the victim's in the film seem to suffer from Stupid Victim Syndrome meaning they were in a situation where they could have triumphed but chose not to. Unfortunately the other points contain spoilers and so I will not write them on here. But all in all, Saw is a good film with an interesting story just stay away from the sequels.

(Should have posted this yesterday, but I was unwell, so here's Mondays review, Tuesdays to follow)

[snowcat]

The Shining - 1980
Director - Stanley Kubrick
Running time - Original cut 46 min. /Cut version 142 min.
Stars - Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall

The Shining to me sounds like some religious film about god, obviously this films reputation precedes it and most people know it is not a film about god shining down upon us.

Think Carrie or Misery and you can see that Stephen King is a great horror writer, and with a director like Stanley Kubrick this film was destined for greatness.

Starring Jack Nicholson straight from his role as McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Shelley Duvall who seemed to disappear from acting in the late 80s. The Shining tells the story of writer Jack Torrance who excepts a job as winter caretaker at a hotel that often gets snowed in. So Jack his wife Wendy and Son Danny all visit the hotel as the staff are packing up to leave whilst hear a chef discovers Danny's psychic powers or “Shining.” The shining being the ability to see events happening in the future or past such as ghosts.

And so with any psychological horror some strange things happen in this hotel which build up to what is in one of my opinions the scariest scene in a film. Upon release the film the film received mixed review, possibly based on the amount of psychological material used, Stephen King also had very conflicted feelings towards the film which undoubtedly formed opinions in some peoples minds.

The Shining is a horror film which has withstood the test of time, highly regarded by many a horror film. Its a film that everyone should see if not for the film itself, then to get the ridiculous amount of pop culture references to it over the last 30 years.

To me the Shining is a film that has not weathered overtime, I first saw parts of the film aged 10, watching it now aged 20 the same parts of the film unnerve me, the use of strange images and uneasiness add to the tension, making the shinning one of my top Halloween films

[Kathy]

Some of King's books are a little over the top but The Shining book is actually as good, if not better than, the movie. If you haven't read it, I recommend that you do.

[snowcat]

I read the Shining a while back, I should read it again its a very good book. My favourite Stephen King book is Misery though :p

(I was away last night directing the filming of a local choirs practice for there final children in need performance, and unfortunately ill be away tonight! I have been watching horror movies and will post 3 on Friday.

[Achim]

I enjoyed this film but I do have to criticise certain points, firstly a lot of the victim's in the film seem to suffer from Stupid Victim Syndrome meaning they were in a situation where they could have triumphed but chose not to. Unfortunately the other points contain spoilers and so I will not write them on here.

This forum has spoiler tags. So, if you want to write something that potentially spoils the movie for the uninitiated then use those tags; that will allow people who saw the film to read your opinion also on those issues.

The spoiler tag can be used from the tool bar (button is b&w and labeled SP) or by manually enclosing the critical text with {spoiler}{/spoiler} (using the square brackets of course). Those tags will create this:

(click to show/hide)

You may be able to read between the lines that I am interested to hear about your spoilerific complains

[snowcat]

I enjoyed this film but I do have to criticise certain points, firstly a lot of the victim's in the film seem to suffer from Stupid Victim Syndrome meaning they were in a situation where they could have triumphed but chose not to. Unfortunately the other points contain spoilers and so I will not write them on here.

This forum has spoiler tags. So, if you want to write something that potentially spoils the movie for the uninitiated then use those tags; that will allow people who saw the film to read your opinion also on those issues.

The spoiler tag can be used from the tool bar (button is b&w and labeled SP) or by manually enclosing the critical text with {spoiler}{/spoiler} (using the square brackets of course). Those tags will create this:

(click to show/hide)

You may be able to read between the lines that I am interested to hear about your spoilerific complains

Haha, well... I try to write my reviews for here and my blog simultaneously so I don't like to edit them... but Ill spoiler them away for you Achim.

(click to show/hide)

firstly, its fairly hard to lye still for 8 hours without moving, especially if there is a doctor in the room who for some reason doesn't notice your alive.... especially when the guy has a terminal brain tumor and you had been treating him. Secondly, What did Adam do wrong? why was he trapped in the room... I don't remember seeing him say anything about death like the others who were murdered. Finally when Dr Lawrence's phone is cut off there is a dial tone, Cell/mobile phones have no dial tone  

[DJ Doena]

What kind of blog software are you using, maybe I could write a Spoiler plugin for you.

Edith says you're using wordpress hosted by wordpress. I'm not sure you even can install plugins.

[Kathy]

Sorry to go off topic but...books are another obsession of mine.

Emma, if you like King's books, I recommend you read "Intensity" by Dean Koontz . It was made into a movie which wasn't nearly as good as the book.

[snowcat]

Yep i am using Word press, and I don't think you can install things on to it, which is quite unfortunate really. It would be nice to have some spoiler tags, thanks for offering

And that sounds like an interesting book Kathy, i may have to take a look at it.

[Tom]

Coincidentally, I have bought Stephen King's Different Seasons (a novella collection) today. I have watched Shawshank Redemption again this week (together with some collegues), and this time around I got interested in reading his original novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption".

[Achim]

Haha, well... I try to write my reviews for here and my blog simultaneously so I don't like to edit them... but Ill spoiler them away for you Achim.

(click to show/hide)

firstly, its fairly hard to lye still for 8 hours without moving, especially if there is a doctor in the room who for some reason doesn't notice your alive.... especially when the guy has a terminal brain tumor and you had been treating him. Secondly, What did Adam do wrong? why was he trapped in the room... I don't remember seeing him say anything about death like the others who were murdered. Finally when Dr Lawrence's phone is cut off there is a dial tone, Cell/mobile phones have no dial tone  

Those are all good points, although I must admit I hadn't been bothered by them myself.

(click to show/hide)

As for Adam, I believe his sin is mentioned briefly but if so I sure don't remember what it was.

[Jimmy]

I read the Shining a while back, I should read it again its a very good book. My favourite Stephen King book is Misery though :p

It was a time where I was buying all his book, so I own a lot of his works untill Desesperation who was the last one I've bought. My favorites were always The Stand and It (can't decide wich one I like the most), but I hate the tv adaptation of them (for The Stand it's more than hate). For Misery, Dolores Claiborne and Rose Madder I've always got the feeling that they were not written by him but his wife. Of course it's certainly untrue, but they doesn't feel like a King's story... For his short story my favorite are Stand by Me and The Library Policeman.

I recommend you read "Intensity" by Dean Koontz .

I like Koontz also, but not as much. I don't know the english title but my favorite of him are the one with the time travel theme (I know it's almost a woman story) and the one with the "goblins" who live with the human to torture them.

[Dragonfire]

The time travel Koontz book is probably Lightening.  The other...hmm..maybe Odd Thomas.

I've read a lot of his books and I tend to enjoy most of them.  Though some of his newer stuff isn't as..strong as some of his earlier books.

[Jimmy]

You're right on the first one, but the other is Twilight Eyes. I've always think that the last one would made a very terryfiying horror movie if made by a competent director and without tv actors of the week.