Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011)

I thought the first movie was lousy. I watched this one with extreme prejudice. The movie starts building the characters of 2 stewardesses. Then as they help and greet passengers we get a glimpse of the passenger backgrounds. We already know there is going to be an infection, but who? The co-pilot is sick. He thinks he got it from his dog. There is a woman on board from an apartment building. Her cat is with her. The cat had left the building which she claims is very unusual. There is a man with some hamsters. Another man helps him with the hamsters and gets bit. There is an elderly man who is sick along with his wife, and a woman who has just returned from overseas, and a few others. A man is watching the events unfold from outside the apartment building from the first picture on his laptop. This one picks up where the other leaves off except the action is in an airplane. Once a passenger gets infected and isolated in the restroom, the plane is told to land. It hooks up to a terminal where they are quarantined. Now it is just a matter of who lives and who dies. The first thing I noticed is they got rid of the hand held camera nonsense and had enough money to make this into a regular movie. They still jerked the camera around when an infected human attacked to give you that terror feel. The animal sounds made by the infected humans didn't seem to be real or coming from the people making them. There is room for improvement as they kept the door open for an infinite amount of sequels. Acting was a lot better than the first one. Better story line. Quick and effective introduction of characters before the action starts.

Exorcismus (2010)

Exorcismus, not surprisingly, starts off fairly predictable, following in the footsteps of pretty much every other possession film out there, but toward about the midway point things suddenly change course, leading you in an original and disturbing direction. While most films seem only interested in patterning themselves on Friedkin's The Exorcist, Carballo introduces us to a "not-so-innocent" young girl with dark secrets, constantly locking horns with her progressive parents. Instead of jumping right into the possession, the director leads us to wonder whether Emma's malady is nothing more than the calculated tantrum tactics of a conniving teenager. This, of course, keeps us guessing while tension slowly builds and the signs of possession become evident. The film occasionally has a documentary feel, thanks to the cinematography of Javier (Romasanta) Salmones, successfully bringing you closer to the characters without forcing you to participate, like The Possession of David O'Reilly. Naturally that only works when you're given genuine characters to connect with and in my opinion the actors all did a wonderful job, with 19-year-old Sophie (Resident Evil: Apocalypse) Vavasseur turning in the most impressive, and probably physically exhausting, performance as Emma. Bottom line, when you watch a possession film you want to see some actual demonic possession, whether that's bending backwards, walking on walls, vomiting pea soup or using foul language. In the case of this film, the director could have kept things ambiguous without ever showing us anything supernatural but, thankfully, he didn't go that route. Exorcismus doesn't depend on wild CGI possession gags but they are used and when they are its to great effect as they're never over-the-top.

I Saw the Devil (2011)

I knew this was gonna be a good movie but I didn't think it was gonna be this good! "I Saw The Devil" is an awesome serial killer, cat an mouse revenge flick where the good turn evil in order to inflict pain and suffering on a greater evil. The story goes like this, one snowy night a woman who is married to a detective catches a flat tire and calls for a tow, a stranger appears to help but ends up beating her, kidnaps, dismembers and disposes of her remains in a river. The remains are found and the hunt for the killer begins as the police narrow it down to four suspects. The detective takes time off due to his wifes death but secretly tracks down the four suspects and tortures each one till he finds the one who killed his wife. Once found he exacts revenge over an over in a very cool way I might add at which time a game of cat an mouse occurs that leaves a trail of dead bodies and a once lawful detective no better than the truely psycho killer he's been stalking. "I Saw The Devil" is a brutal/gory but not to gory film that will lead you down a road with a psychopath and a man who becomes one out of grief and anger in order to get revenge! As far as acting, it was great as was the score which fit the movie perfectly. Every year there is one or two horror movies that really standout, "I Saw The Devil" is 2011's standout horror masterpiece that deserves to be seen!

Human Centipede II: Full Sequence (2011)

Ever hear of "The Aristocrats" joke? They even made a documentary on it. It's about a family auditioning for a stage act, and it's basically an exercise in improvisation on the part of the teller to see just how offensively explicitly obscenely over the top flat out revoltingly gross that audition can be. Many have had a crack at it, some with considerable talent, and the results have been interesting for those who can appreciate that type of thing. The sub-genre of torture porn in horror films seems to be following a trend comparable to "The Arostocrats", and if it continues, it's probably going to burn itself out in unintentional self-parody. Some would argue that this point has already been reached, and they may be right, although it's hard to say. What people find disturbing is highly subjective. If you had asked me two months ago which film I would personally classify as "most disturbing", it would have likely been "A Serbian Film". The title holder prior to that would have been "August Underground Mordum", which held that dubious honor for seven years. Now "Human Centipede 2" comes along and slams "A Serbian Film" into the sewer a mere two months later. Horror certainly has gotten edgier these days. In any case, Tom Six is a director with some talent, and I think this one's going to be talked about for awhile. It certainly helps that the movie's villain is without a doubt the CREEPIEST character I've ever seen. Anyway, if extreme horror is your thing, go for it. To date, I think it's the best of the lot. Or worst, considering how you look at it. 99.9% would say it's fit only for burning, and it would be difficult to argue the point. Why this type of thing appeals to me, I really can't say. But it does, and this one freaked me right the &!@# out.

Yellow Brick Road (2011)

Name Your Link The movie starts out as a black and white documentary about an incident in 1940 where a village/town of people all take off walking down a trail. Only one person survived and he was a bit crazy. Bodies were found along the trail, many more missing. Years later Teddy Barnes, teacher and writer (Michael Laurino) manages to obtain the records and decides to investigate in order to publish a book. The team goes to the co-ordinates of the trail head only to find a movie theater. Teddy decides to go into the theater and talk to the counter girl/projectionist who tells him a bizarre tale of how the original Oz movie was playing at the time of the incident. She (Laura Heisler) is over eager to help them go down the Yellow Brick Road, a sign that marks the trial. She takes them to the trail. There is a psychologist(Alex Draper) on the trip who is constantly filming individuals and asking them questions as a sanity check. This gives the movie the annoying feel of those reality type movies. Also in the team is his wife Melissa (Anessa Ramsey) and Daryl and Erin Luger (Clark Freeman and Cassidy Freeman). Cy (Sam Elmore) and Jill (Tara Giordano) round out the team as they head on down the trail laced with belladonna. The movie develops slowly as small things happen. Daryl finds a hat that is from the era, but seems new. Jill's GPS goes haywire, one minute they are in Guam, the next Italy. They joke about it. They hike for five days in Northern NH (is that possible?) and they come to a field (poppies?) and they hear music. Their instruments are not working properly and they know something is at work, but what? They speculate: Solar flares? Earth magnetism? Government experiment? The music becomes addicting. Emotions flare... Good acting. Nice New England accent by Laura Heisler. I enjoy horror/mystery/thrillers and this one was exceptionally good, even though the ending didn't offer an explanation as to the events.

The Thing (2011)

Thats one of the early lines in the film from Kate, it could also be asked about making a prequel to the much loved '82 classic. Just like in the movie, my answer is "yes I do". Making a film this many years after a classic and trying to make the story before that movie is challenging. When watching The Thing from '82 you had to wonder about the Norwegians and the back story, thats why this film is interesting. I went into the film with an open mind. It surprised me in the amount of detail. They really tried to match this up with the prior film as best they could. With the age gap between the films, I think they did a great job. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Kate a paleontologist, brought to Antartica to help in bringing a frozen "thing" out of the ice. She starts out observing and asking questions while Dr. Halvorson conducts his analysis of the specimen. As the story unfolds however, its Kate that uses her head and leads the group. The question throughout the film is- who is human? Nobody is who they seem all the way til the end. And some people you think aren't human, turn out to be only to be different later. The effects and cgi are executed very well here. The examination of a consumed human within a thing is creepy. They even have to cut through a casing around the human- sick stuff. The star of the movie is definately Winstead, although the cast is collectively good. The casting was very good for a film that mixes characters from different countries. One of the best scenes in the movie is when the group gathers for a test to see who is human. This is where Winstead is at her best. Great work here. And the best weapon against these things is THE FLAMETHROWER! Great action throughout the movie- you won't be disappointed. Theres even some time spent in the craft these visitors came to Antartica in. And you'll get that feeling of isolation and fear that the '82 movie was effective at. Not to mention not everyone speaks English which adds another dimension. What could be worse than being in the freezing cold, thousands of miles from civilization and not knowing if the person next to you is human? The movie doesn't end with the credits. Most the people at the theater left at this time. But there is a bridging of this film straight into the '82 film. The dog being chased by the helicopter is here. "Thats no dog!" Some production notes that I thought were interesting. There was a million screen captures of the '82 film on a lap top. That was used to create as close as possible, the Norwegian camp. The film used practical effects as much as possible over CGI. The movie was shot in Toronto. The lead character of Kate was inspired by the Aliens films, which you feel a little watching the film. John Carpenter wanted to make an appearance in the film, but this didn't happen because of scheduling.

Bereavement (2010)

If I could sum up this movie in one word, it would be "wow". I just finished watching "Bereavement" and I will rate this amongst my top horror movies of all time. From a filming aspect, I have to also agree with other reviewers that the cinematography is fantastic. I was impressed with that right from the start of the film. In terms of horror movies, this is a gem to the genre. I didn't see "Malevolence" so I didn't know what to expect in this prequel. Will there be any survivors? You'll have to watch to find out. The mark of a good horror film is to make the audience care about the characters so that you feel terror if their safety is threatened. This film succeeds with that. This film isn't just about blood and guts all over the floor so if you're getting this because you want some sadistic torture copycat like the "Saw" franchise, you'll be disappointed. Another reviewer wrote that they felt there wasn't enough background story to the serial killer. I disagree with that. The actor portraying the serial killer actually made me feel a little sorry for the character. He was clearly psychotic and out of his mind. He didn't seem to take joy from killing people. It was something he felt he "had" to do. We the audience don't learn about this man's own childhood or how he ended up committing these horrible murders. Its a mystery but that adds to the allure of the film. Another complaint someone had is why did this new girl Allison all of a sudden was the only person in town who found the missing boy in the abandoned rundown shack after 5 years? Thats not so far fetched. If you think about your own town, how many times do you drive past an old house or building and never even give it a second look? Allison was brand new and had a fresh pair of eyes as she looked around her new surroundings. Thats why she was able to pay attention to what others ignored over the years. I will say that I agree that it seemed odd that the killer was killing locals and yet no one seemed to notice or maybe the sheriff's office is just that inadequate. That was really the only flaw of the story. Otherwise, this movie is definitely 4 out of 5 stars. Great job to all that created this film!