Today when browsing a movie database site I felt like watching a horror movie or actually multiple ones. It's been a while I indulged myself like this so it was about time.
I watched the following films:
- Animal (2014),
- Dark House (2014),
- Dead Snow 2 and
- Hatchet 3 (2013).
- Dark House (2014),
- Dead Snow 2 and
- Hatchet 3 (2013).
I will not do elaborate reviews on these unless later in time I will feel like it. But to be honest the movies I have picked here are pretty straightforward so it will be easy to describe what I thought of them.
First off:
Animal (2014)
No doubt if you see the cover you know it's a monster movie. And to be fair for the most of it's duration it's a pretty effective one. But and this is a major but, it takes itself far too seriously. And while it does work in the tense and action full scenes it fails to do so in the quiet ones. The dramatic tension that the director is going for backfires on him and only distracts. Actually it slows down this otherwise fast paced creature feature. I thought the creature was nicely done and actually quite scary portrayed. But like many of these kinds of monster flicks it's the characters that will annoy you with their illogical actions. Overall it is worth your time but be aware it will drag in parts.
Then after a long break and nap (hey I am only human and needed to catch some sleep) I watched:
Dark House (2014)
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For this movie I had higher expectations because of director Victor Salva (Jeepers Creepers) and actor Tobin Bell (Saw) who are involved in this project. And the film does start well. Plus it does try to do something unique only it gets worse as it goes on and in the end you feel a lot was missing or lacking like it was omitted or not made yet because they needed to rush the production. Deep down in this very average directed movie there is one magnificent horror film buried but failed to materialize because lack of love from the director. Normally Victor Salva is a master of building up tension and atmosphere but here it simply is not present. And it hurts this film big time. Not a single event is scary or puts dread into you. Avoid this it's an enormous time waster.
Now I was craving less serious and a more satisfying flick and did not take long for me to pick:
Dead Snow 2: Red versus Dead
(aka Død snø 2 /2014)
Knowing very well what the first was about I was expecting more of the same and wouldn't dare of thinking they would manage to improve on the original. But they did. There is more referring to pop culture and older zombie movies which had me laughing a lot of times. Above that this film does not shy away from being brutal, gross and outrageous. It basically makes the main character Martin and the zombies so much more menacing. However it's far from perfect and at times there are some scenes with characters that have no function at all and feel like a waste of time. Still don't let that get in the way of enjoying yourself. Because Dead Snow 2 makes good on zombie action.
After another break much shorter this time. I was actually craving a more atmospheric and truly scary one but knew this late I would not be able to be able to watch a slower one without getting bored or falling asleep so I went for a more fast paced and action type horror and decided to watch:
Hatchet 3 (2013)
What can I say about this title. It is very much in the line of Hatchet 2 only even more over the top and ridiculous gory. You will see things happening to people that is physically impossible. Characters act more stupid and stubborn in previous entries plus main character Danielle Harris from Hatchet 2 suddenly has a change of heart into destroying Victor Crowley as she is now reluctant to end him. This makes no sense at all. Because right at the start of this movie we see her kicking major butt which is very contradictory. And we get to witness a female blogger / journalist and Danielle Harris' character screaming at each other like crazy half of the movie. However despite this I found myself enjoying this entry thoroughly although certain kills had me astonished and scratching my head. It was just too much. While the film is amusing the humour was much lesser than it was in the original and that does hurt this third entry considerably. Still it is far more effective than most similar gory slashers and I actually would not mind another sequel if they would go back to the roots of the original.
All in all I would say that this movie marathon has brought me a lot of fun but none of the films in this one have been really scary. And I really want to see a couple of really scary ones soon.
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