Saw 3D (Road to Halloween)

Jigsaw has now been dead for 3 movies but his sadistic games continue on in his now infamous name. A police officer named Hoffman adopted the ‘Jigsaw’ moniker at the end of the 5th movie and has been in charge ever since however the original grizzly yet apt use of traps has long since been abandoned.

Bobby Dagen is a survivor of a Jigsaw game in which he had to suspend himself on meat hooks through his pectoral muscles in order to reach the exit. After this ordeal he’s found a new lease on life and makes numerous TV appearances to promote his book about his ordeal and how he now values life. Jigsaw however isn’t a fan of Dagen’s new found fame and puts him into another game. Meanwhile Internal affairs are closing in on Hoffman while he continues to test people in increasingly horrific ways.

Once again the acting is not a great draw but as always Tobin Bell’s performance is a strong part of the movie; his ability to give an uneasy feeling simply by speaking in his deep gravelly voice stays strong and is made all the stronger in this movie when compared to the rest of the cast.

In the original Saw there were no innocent bystanders; all those who were part of a Jigsaw game were there because they had shown that they were wasting their lives. The eventual aim was to give those who had a strong enough will to survive, a second chance at life but now, 6 movies later elaborate traps are still being set but most of those in the games are not in control of their own fate. On two occasions in this movie, the fate of at least 3 people rested in the fate of a single person.

Jigsaw as a character has been in each movie, slowly being developed from humble beginnings as a disembodied voice to the full character he now is. It is an interesting situation that I find myself in; Jigsaw is a mass murderer who is responsible for the gruesome deaths of countless individuals but on the other hand you cannot say that he doesn’t hold life in the highest regard and has loved ones that he wished to protect. I find myself sympathising with jigsaw, not with what he does but in his reasons he feels people should strive to love their lives to the fullest.

Saw has long been about gore for the sake of gore and this movie is gorier than its predecessors. This movie is gore porn and it appears to not be ashamed of it.
In my opinion too much time is dedicated to close-ups on people screaming in the seconds prior to their deaths, it added nothing except for the first game where the camera flicks between the three people in the trap and the public outside of the trap (the trap was in a very public place) screaming. This had me in fits of laughter and completely detracted from the horror the movie was supposed to be.

This movie is available only in 3D however there are only a handful of moments where it is used and the remainder of the time it serves only to blur details other than what the camera is focused on.

Saw 3D is not the ending you would expect to a horror franchise that started out as well as it did.

Rating 1 out of 5

Watch it if you liked:
SAW VI
My Bloody Valentine 3D
Hostel 2

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Review by Kevin Brown

The Crazies "2010" (Road to Halloween)

This forms part two of a two part review; I purchased a DVD containing both the original and the remake of “The Crazies”. This is the review of the remake but will also draw comparisons with the original.

The Crazies is a remake of the 1973 George A. Romero movie of the same name. It takes place in a small town (around 1260 residents) where a highly infectious man-made virus has entered the water supply. It causes the residents to change from being laid back to rampaging psychopaths with – to begin with – no apparent cause. However, unlike the original, the viewer never sees the military point of view of the situation and isn't even told the name or cause of what is happening in the town until the last 30 minutes of the movie.

The virus is called 'Trixie' (I accidentally called it 'Pixie' in yesterday's review) and was on board a plane bound to a military base where it would be destroyed when the plane crash landed in a lake which was the town's water supply. It was designed to “destabilise a community, in this case the wrong community” and within 48 hours of the outbreak you are either dead or don't have it.

The overall story has been altered from the original but the underlying point about viruses, governments keeping key information from the people and soldiers being ordered to kill unarmed civilians without being given reason are still present. If I had not seen the original I would see this as unoriginal as it appears to be a zombie movie in the same vein as 28 days later however since I know that this story was written 30 years before 28 days later I instead see it as ahead of its time. The use of a government created virus is as relevant today as it was in the original and H1N1 (Swine Flu) happened around the same time this was filming.

The movie builds suspense throughout and makes excellent use of the mutual fear of the town's people and the soldiers as both groups are grossly under-informed of what is happening in the town. 'The Crazies' is a great horror movie that is made all the better by the fact that 37 years after being written it seems like it was written as a commentary of what could be happening now.

No doubt that in 2047 when the next remake is made of this, it will still be relevant.

Rating 4 out of 5

See it if you liked:
The Crazies (1973)
Resident Evil: Afterlife
28 Days Later

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Review by Kevin Brown

The Crazies "1973" (Road to Halloween)

This forms part one of a two part review; I purchased a DVD containing both the original and the remake of “The Crazies”. This is the review of the original.

'Pixie' is name given by the American government to a man made virus that has accidentally entered the water supply of a small Pennsylvanian town. The virus does one of two things – depending on who it infects – it either kills them or drives them irreversibly insane. The army is sent in to maintain a perimeter around the town to stop people getting in or out in order to contain the virus however, there is no known antidote, so they must simply wait it out until all the town's residents either die or go insane.

The movie appears to be low budget but since it is now 37 years old it may simply be its age. The visuals appear low budget however the underlying story still shows through; the movie was made at a time when biological weapons attacks were a concern for America. This fear coupled with the army invading people's homes and rounding them up 'for their own safety' makes the town into the setting for a civilian uprising against the “invading force” that is the army.

The movie jumps around to varying location often, an example of this is when the general is telling someone to get someone onto a plane and to the town it quickly cuts away for a second or two showing stock footage to represent the command being followed, it is done in a style similar to Requiem for a dream. This works well on the few occasions that it is used however overall the movie is spread a little thin and contains far more talking than is necessary.

The army troops are all dressed in protective suits and gas masks which made the majority of the dialogue said by them muffled and on occasion inaudible.

The crazies may have been a good horror movie when it came out but in the near 40 years since it has lost some of its kick.

Rating 3 out of 5

See it if you liked:
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Crazies (2010)
Resident Evil

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Review by Kevin Brown

1408 (Road to Halloween)

As I mentioned in my R-Point review, I love psychological horror which made 1408 a natural choice on the road to Halloween.

Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a writer who specialises in writing lists of the most haunted locations (Hotels, graveyards, houses, etc.) throughout America. While checking his PO Box, he finds a postcard from the Dolphin Hotel in New York it simply reads “Don't enter 1408” this however is a tactic Mike has seen before but when the hotel refuse to allow him to book the room his interest in piqued.

In person, the hotel manager (Gerald Olin) informs him he's received a free upgrade to a better room, when Enslin demands to stay in 1408, he tries to bribe him which also doesn't work. Olin then tells Enslin the bloody history of the room and the fact that no-one has lasted more than one hour in the room and finally begs him not to stay in the room but to no avail.

John Cusack spends most of the movie confined to the room and a large proportion of the movie takes place in realtime. His performance as a tortured and haunted man is believable and he makes it easy to become invested in his character's tale. As I mentioned above, the room is where 90% of the movie takes place and a lot of action takes place in it. Almost all of the things that happen in the room were actually done which, for one particular sequence required 3 different room to be created for each of the escalating sections.

The movie contains several scenes which have traditional quick fright moments but for the mainstay the horror comes from the suspenseful and occasionally heart-wrenching moments the movie is filled with.

To review this I watched the Director's Cut which differs greatly from the Cinematic version and personally prefer the cinematic version as it leaves the story in a much better place.

Rating 4 out of 5

See it if you liked:
Secret Window
The Shining
The Mist

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Review by Kevin Brown

R-Point (Road to Halloween)

'Tartan Asia Extreme' movies interest me because of the graphic nature of their horror. I love horror and especially love violent, torn limb from limb horror. I also love psychological horror which made R-Point a good choice to review.

R-Point is a 'Tartan Asia Extreme' movie set during the Vietnam war. A South Korean base receives transmissions from a platoon of soldiers who have been missing (presumed dead) for 6 months. They decide to send a squad of 9 men led by a decorated officer to try and rescue the soldiers from the R-Point.

The location that they go to is sacred because 100 years earlier Chinese killed Vietnamese and threw their bodies into the lake, building a temple onto of them. In the soldiers hunt for the missing men, they begin to see strange things.

The area where the lake used to be is marked by a gravestone which reads "NO Return; He who sheds others' blood can not return." and this being set in the Vietnam war I couldn't help thinking “Let he without sin cast the first stone”

The first half of the movie is spent setting up the situation and characters however no character was remarkably different from any other which made it difficult to become attached to any of them. In one scene, a few American soldiers show up and the lead American soldier reads his lines as if reading them off of cue cards.

The movie is subtitled which may put some people off but it is, in my opinion, a better option than dubbing over the actors, the dialogue is delivered perfectly conveying the characters' outright fear.

R-Point is a mixed bag but well worth a watch.

Rating 3 out of 5

See it if you liked:
Apocalypse Now
Saw
Other 'Tartan Asia Extreme' Movies

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Review by Kevin Brown

The Strangers (Road to Halloween)

There are a few movies that I own on DVD but have never watched for a variety of reasons. I hadn’t watched ‘The Strangers’ on DVD because of how much I had been scared by it at the cinema.

The Strangers is a psychological horror in which a couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) staying at a remote house get a knock on the door at 4AM asking for someone who doesn’t live there. The same person come knocking a few minutes later. This continues and escalates to the point that the couple are fighting a home invasion from 3 masked people forcing them to protect themselves in ways they never thought they would.

The audio in the movie works well to create atmosphere, early on the movie never raises above talking level with some background music however later on the knocking on the door and music being played become ear splitting always ensuring that the viewer is ill at ease.

The film has some genuine scares but both the couple and their attackers fall into many of the horror movie pitfalls; splitting up, the female protagonist falling an injuring her leg causing the attacker to follow slowly behind.

The attackers could be said during the movie to lack motivation for their actions but deliver the best reasoning for what they have done when asked.

The director (Bryan Bertino) knows how to structure horror and delivers it well but the movies horror clichés and lacklustre ending may leave the viewer with a mixed bag of feelings and will most likely leave a slight feeling they are being watched.

Rating 4 out of 5

See it if you liked:
1408
Paranormal Activity

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Review by Kevin Brown

The Last Exorcism

The idea of demonic possession is nothing new in films and forms the main focus of "The Last Exorcism”. Unfortunately the Eli Roth (Hostel) produced movie mostly fails to impress.

The Last Exorcism is filmed in documentary style and focuses on Reverend Cotton Marcus. Cotton is an evangelical minister from the deep south of America who, because of his minister father, has giving sermons at his church and performing exorcisms since the age of 10.

Cotton Marcus doesn't believe in demonic possession and has decided to stop doing them as he sees them as a dangerous practice that exploits money out of people and on some rare occasions kills the person who is believed to be possessed. He has decided to allow a camera crew to follow him on one last exorcism so they can see how the fraud is set up and carried out.

The movie is filmed on a single camera which, as with the majority of movies in this vein, shakes during the numerous times the cameraman runs. This is understandable given the situation but in most scene, when the camera changes focus, it takes several seconds for them to find the focus again. This was likely done in order to remind the viewer that it is meant to be a documentary but for me it was realistic but highly annoying.

The character in the movie fitted very well with the setting and the situation and they all had a slight preoccupation with the camera watching them. As such, the acting in the movie was either good, as the actors were able to portray their characters perfectly or simply mediorce acting. Both of which worked well in the context of the movie.

Overall, The Last Exorcism blends into the background of the ever growing number of shakey handi-cam movies that are all too common nowadays.

Rating 3 out of 5

See it if you liked:
Blair Witch Project
Hostel
The Exorcist

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Inception

Christopher Nolan writes and directs this Sci-Fi/Thriller with an all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio (Shutter Island), Ellen Page (Juno) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer). With the track record of Nolan's previous movies, Inception had a lot to live up to and it does not disappoint.

Inception centres around a device that allows people to create dream worlds for others to enter into. This device is used by a team of thieves led by a man named Cobb (DiCaprio) to commit industrial espionage. The team enter into dreams and steal ideas and secrets from some of the most powerful businessmen in the world when they are at their most vulnerable; while they are asleep.
Cobb has made mistakes in the past that mean he cannot be with his family but he is given the chance to right those wrongs by performing an act that most say is impossible, an act called 'Inception'. Instead of stealing secrets, inception is the planting of an idea in someone's head.

The cast are all perfectly suited to the roles they play and there are no weak links to distract viewers from the action.
The movie covers some complex concepts very quickly and expects the user to accept the information and go with it however luckily, the movie does have some characters for whom concepts are broken down step-by-step, ie.:
• Inducing a dream using the machine causes time in the dream to feel like it is passing at 1/20th speed; 5 minutes in the real world feels like 1 hour in the dream.
• In order to accomplish the inception they will require to cause multi-layered dreaming (A dream within a dream)
• The above rule is true for a dream induced while in a dream; 5 minutes in the real world feels like 20 hour in the dream within a dream.
Trying to keep track of where there are (Real world or a particular layer of a dream) could potentially become confusing but each level has vastly different yet equally stunning locations with unique feels which assists the viewer to quickly determine where the scene is taking place.

Inception as a concept could have so easily gone wrong, there are so many aspects that if handled incorrectly could have made the movie so much less than it was. Inception is able to cover a lot of ground rather quickly without feeling cluttered, it will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. This movie obviously won't be for everyone but if the viewer is willing to give the movie their undivided attention they will be rewarded with an amazing story which will cry out to be watched again.

Rating 5 out of 5

See it if you liked:
eXistenZ
Blade Runner
Cypher

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Review by Kevin Brown