American Mary @ Luna Cinemas

 

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to see a new horror film. American Mary was directed by two Canadian twin sisters Sylvia and Jen Soska (The Soska Sisters). They came to Australia to meet us and show us the film! I was so excited to meet them!

The movie was held at Luna Cinemas in Leederville. I attended the movie by myself, but was surprised to find my friends Holly and Nikki there.

 



 

American Mary follows Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle from Ginger Snaps) as she struggles in her life. She's studying to be a surgeon at medical school, but she has money troubles. After losing another job, she tries to find a job as a go-go bar but instead is asked to use her surgery skills. Her skills drop her into the world of extreme body modification. A horrible situation sends her spiraling into madness, while her enjoyment for unnecessary surgery grows.

 

I think this film is the best I've seen all year. If you enjoy horror, I recommend this 100%. I wasn't grossed out at all during the film, and there were no "cat in a box" type scares. I love the use of real effects over CGI. A female driven movie is a wonderful thing, and the Soska sisters are young masters. I can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Everything about the film was beautiful, and it stuck around in my head for a while. Go and see this film if you can!!

 



They were so sweet and cute!!

 

Q&A session after the film. I asked about alternative endings for the film.

 

 Such nice outfits!

 

I got this signed!!

 

Holly with the sisters

 

Nikki with the sisters

 

Me again, because I loved them so much. I wanted to take them home and be friends with them forever! Such lovely girls.

The End of Horror Movie Reviews

I'm now at the end of my month worth of Horror movie reviews. I hope that you enjoyed reading, I loved seaching for new movies to watch and old classics. I failed a bit at the end, my volunteer job took a lot of my free nights away. So I couldn't bring new reviews.
Maybe I'll do it again next year, if you guys enjoyed it.

Here is a list of movies I watched, but I couldn't be bothered to review:
Cabin in the Woods (2012): Brilliant, highly recommend.
Tucker & Dale vs Evil (2010): Made me laugh a lot :)
Halloween (1978): The first horror movie I ever watched. Love it!

Movies I wish I got to watch, but not enough time:
Suspriria (1977): I've watching this quite a few times, it's really spooky and beautiful!
Wild Zero (1999): Silly and funny
Other J-Horror Films: In my opinion, Japan has heaps of horror films that are actually scary compared to American horror which is a snore. (Current American horror films anyway)

I've also learnt something about myself. I'm REALLY desensitised to horror films, nothing freaks me our anymore. So I'm sorry if you watch one of these films expecting a walk in the park, then get freaked out and can't sleep for ages. Because apparently nothing scares me anymore.

My reviews:
Trick 'r Treat
Orphan
Twins of Evil
Phantasm
The Woman
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
The Changeling
Return of the Living Dead

Horror Movie Review: Return of the Living Dead

My apologies for how late this is. It was suppose to finish on Halloween, but I've been really busy lately with no time to get on the Internet :(

Return of the Living Dead (1985) is my favourite zombie movie. This is the only film I've seen where the zombies call for "BRAINSSSS!"

The movie starts with Freddy at his new job at Uneeda medical supply warehouse. Frank is his supervisor and shows Freddy some strange things, including split dogs and a human cadaver.

Freddy asks Frank about the most strangest thing he's ever seen go through the warehouse. Frank tells the story of some Army barrels that were delivered by mistake, the tanks holding an experiment that brought the dead back to life and inspired 'Night of the Living Dead'. They go down to the basement to view the tanks because Freddy doesn't believe him. The tanks springs a leak and sprays horrible gas over the two men and into the ventilation system.

Meanwhile, a group of punks are lamenting the fact that they have no where to party. They are friends with Freddy and think that it's lame that he sold out and got a job. They ride to the medical warehouse, break into the cemetery next door and start to party!

 

Frank and Freddy wake up and feel sick from the gas they inhaled. Upstairs they're shocked to find dead animals coming to life! Butterflies stuck to boards flutter their wings and the split dogs are breathing.
Even worse is the human body in the freezer that starts to scream and break down the door. They quickly lock it up and call their boss Burt.
With Burt there they decide to open the freezer door to deal with the reanimated corpse. It all goes wrong when they realise they can't kill it! Even chopping off it's head doesn't work!

Burt feels like he's backed into a corner. The barrels were from the army, so if he tells the police then he would get into a lot of trouble. Instead he cuts up the body and goes to the crematorium across the street and calls in a favour with his friend Ernie. Burt asks Ernie for a favour, wanting to burn the bag. Ernie wants to know whats in the bag, and is horrified by what's inside. Ernie's my favourite character by the way :)

Ernie agrees to burn the body. When it's burnt in the oven it lets of smoke into the clouds and atmosphere. It created burning rain, making the punks all run for cover in the car. They can't start the car.

At the crematorium, Burt is worried about Frank and Freddy who are feeling and looking worse. Ernie calls up an ambulance so they can get looked at.

While all of this is going on, Freddy's girlfriend Tina is in the warehouse looking for him. She goes into the basement, and finds the most horrible of all zombies

It's Tarman, the body from inside the army barrel!

Tina tries to escape and locks herself in a cupboard. Luckily her friends got tired of getting soaked in the car and come to her rescue! Not without a person getting killed though!

The group flee into the graveyard where the dead are returning to life!! Trash (the one who dances naked on a grave) gets eaten while the others split up, some going to the mortuary while two others returning to the warehouse.

Meanwhile the paramedics have arrived at the mortuary, and check up on Freddy and Frank. They find no pulse or heartbeat, but they're alive. The paramedics are confused so they prepare to take the men to the hospital, but are eaten by the dead!

The group arrive at the mortuary and try to convince Burt and Ernie that the dead are rising. Ernie goes outside to the ambulance, but is confronted by a zombie. They all barricade the mortuary, and a few of the group are killed.

It sounds stupid, but I don't want to give the rest of the film away. It's my favourite zombie film, being both awesome and really silly at the same time. It suggest you watch it if you enjoy zombie films, and tell me how you like it!

Scare factor: 0/5
Gore factor: 4/5 Lots of blood
Boob factor: 2/5 One set of boobs and a vag shot
OVERALL: 8/10 Brilliant!

Horror Movie Review: The Changeling

I found The Changeling (1980) to be a very spooky film. It's about a ghost seeking revenge, and a old Gothic house.

Following the death of his wife and daughter, Dr. John Russell moves from New York to Seattle. He rents a historic run down Victorian mansion, suggested by some friends. He's a pianist, and starts a new job at a University.

Soon strange things start happening around the house. He is woken up by strange echoing bangs at the exact same time each morning. He hears sounds of someone else in the house.

He goes to his friend, Claire, at the Historical Society (who he rents the house from) and asks for her help to figure out what's going on.

Back in the house he discovers a secret attic room boarded up behind a fake closet. The room seems to have belonged to a young child. Even spookier, John finds a music box that plays the exact same tune that he was composing on his piano.

DON'T GO UP THERE, YOU IDIOT!

 

Claire and John try to find more information about who lived in the house. The Historical Society archives for the house don't run back to 1909, so they go to a library (YAY LIBRARIES!) and look at the newspaper microfilm. They find out that a young girl who lived in the house, named Cora Bernard, died in an accident.

When the haunting continues, John invited a medium into the house and they have a seance. They find out that the ghost in not the young girl Cora but a boy named Joseph. After the seance, John listens to the recording he made and notices another voice answering the questions (aaah! creepy!).

This is where the film really picks up. John and Claire do some research and realise that everything revolves around Senator Carmichael. I'm not going to give away the rest of the film, I highly suggest you watch it because it's very interesting.

A lot of the scenes really drag out and are slow, but I find this really helps with the creepy atmosphere. I suggest watching this at night with no lights on, certain to give you chills! It's really the small things that get me scared in a horror film. Having fake jump scares just annoy me (like a cat jumping out of a closed room). This film has all the spooky ghost things that I love, it's even better when you actually don't see what's causing the scares because it lets your imagination run wild!

Scare factor: 2/5 Gave me goosebumps
Gore factor: 0/5 None
Boob factor: 0/5 None
OVERALL: 7/10 A good scary film.

Horror Movie Review: The Abominable Dr. Phibes

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) is a very, very strange horror film. Set in 1925, it tells of Dr. Phibes seeking revenge on doctors who he thinks killed his wife. He does this in a strange way, setting up elaborate death scenes based on the ten plagues of Egypt.

The first death was by bats. I think they're cute!

This guy had his blood drained out.

Death by locusts. For some reason she was coated in brussel sprout juice beforehand. She apparently took a sedative so that's why she didn't wake up (so random!)

The horrible burnt face of Dr. Phibes!

Inspector Trout is on the case from Scotland Yard. Dr. Phibes is apparently dead, so the Inspector has to follow the clues to figure out why these people are dying.

I found this film to be a bit confusing at times, there were scenes of randomness that didn't seem to fit anywhere. I'd like to have more explanation of Dr. Phibes and who the hell is assistant is. There was some black humour, and I actually really enjoyed it once the film picked up. I'd suggest watching this if you enjoy older films (Hammer Horror, etc)

Scare factor: 0/5 I wasn't frightened at all
Gore factor: 2/5 Stage blood, but you don't see anyone getting killed.
Boob factor: 0/5 None
OVERALL: 5/10

Horror Movie Review: The Woman

It's movies like The Woman (2011) that make me realise how desensitised I am to horror films. It's a bit hard to watch at times, some of the situations make me squirm. Not in the "this is too gross to watch" sense, but the "I want to punch that guy because he's a dick" sense. There is quite a lot of blood in this film and a lot of "what the hell?" kind of scenes.
I don't really want to give a lot of the film away, so this may seem very short.

The Cleek family seem to be the typical American family. Chris is the head of the family, he rules over his submissive wife, two daughters and son.
While out hunting one day, Chris comes along a feral woman bathing in a stream. He captures her and sets her up in the cellar of the house.

He want to 'civilise' the woman, and his family reluctantly do as they're told. The woman is subjected to torment from both Chris Cleek and his young son.
As the movie progresses we get to know the family more. Chris is a real horrible man, and his son is following in his footsteps. His wife is timid and does everything her husband says, the eldest daughter is hiding something and the youngest daughter seems oblivious.

I really enjoyed this film. I loved how the actors playing the family all had the same type of hair, so they actually seemed like a family. The film didn't seem to drag, and everything was really well shot.
Like a lot of revenge horror films starring women (Last House on the Left, and I Spit On Your Grave) you hope that the woman survives and goes crazy killer on the people who wronged her.

Scare factor: 0/5 I wasn't frightened at all
Gore factor: 5/5 Realistic and crunchy
Boob factor: 3/5 One set of boobs and a rape scene.
OVERALL: 7/10 Enjoyable, I'll watch it again!

Horror Movie Review: Phantasm

Phantasm (1979) is a strange cult film, and I'm not sure if I like it or not. The acting is pretty terrible and the storyline is a bit silly. It's filled with lots of characters you only see once, and characters who are given names but you don't know who the hell they are. I'm going to keep this one pretty short.

Mike, a 13 year old boy, is being looked after by his older brother Jody. Both of their parents have died, and they only have each other left. Mike is scared that Jody will leave and make him live with his aunt, so Mike follows Jody around everywhere.

While Jody is at a friends funeral, Mike sees something strange. A heavy coffin that took many men to lift, is lifted by the creepy mortician (by himself) when the mourners have all left. Mike sees it as he has been hiding watching his brother.

I seriously thought Mike was a girl at first.

Mike becomes very suspicious of the mortician and the cemetery. Jody and Mike become more involved in the strange happenings, as they're attacked by midgets in brown hoods and they investigate the funeral home. Overlooking all is the creepy Tall Man (who I didn't find very creepy)

Overall I wasn't very impressed. I found that scenes dragged on too long, and nothing was really explained. The dialogue seems very outdated now, and I laughed a few lines. I don't think I've seen a horror film set around a cemetery before, so that's a plus! I didn't feel creeped out at all, and I left a bit disappointed. It's worth seeing if you haven't already, but I probably won't watch it again.

Scare factor: 0/5 I wasn't frightened at all.
Gore factor: 4/5 Fake blood, but great effects!
Boob factor: 2/5 One set of boobs
OVERALL: 3/10 Not a big fan