Every horror movie I’ve seen from New Zealand has been a comedy. What We Do in the Shadows, Deathgasm and every Peter Jackson movie from 1987 to 1996. What’s so damn funny down there? Maybe it’s because New Zealand is so beautiful. Everyone’s content. Unlike New Zealand’s cranky brother Australia with all his desolate wastelands and giant spiders. New Zealand comes off as a quirky slice of paradise. Whether or not that’s how it is that’s the vibe I get and it’s nothing but good vibes when watching today’s Kiwi ghost story.

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It just became apparent that I incorrectly implied that The Conjuring was a Blumhouse production in my The Purge review. Which makes sense, as The Conjuring feels like a movie with a bit more backing from its major studio, since it’s production value is a considerable step up from director James Wan’s previous film, Insidious. Also, despite sharing a lot of similarities with Insidious (such as the presence of ghosts, Patrick Wilson, and another Fargo actor), I’d say it’s also a step up in terms of its effectiveness as well.

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Ben Wheatley will try anything. He’s directed horror movies, crime dramas, action movies, comedies, and today’s film; a psychedelic black and white horror film about the English Civil War. Apart from a sardonic sense of humor you never know what to expect from Wheatley. He can play a story close to the vest or throw all rhyme or reason out the window. Sometimes he does both. He’s an unpredictable filmmaker. His next film is a Tomb Raider sequel for god sakes. Which is crazy when you consider he made today’s film about alchemy, tripping on mushrooms, and a guy showing off his diseased wang.

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Considering we already talked about Insidious on The Pick last week, and I’ll be reviewing The Conjuring in a couple of days, it’s shaping up to be a very Blumhouse Shocktober for me. The Purge is a pretty typical Blumhouse production, in that it has a very small budget ($3 million to be exact), a few notable stars, and somehow managed to make enough money to become a franchise that now consists of four movies and TV series. This, of course, all has to do with my decision to review it, since I wanted to see if all the hubbub over it was earned, or whether it just became popular based off of its morbidly intriguing premise. Continue reading →

Hopefully this my last filler review. Here we go…

The last time I watched Paranorman I was working a grueling job that started at 3:00 AM. On a “good-night” I would nap a few hours then take a car to a bus to a loud building then go inside a truck with hundreds upon hundreds of boxes. It was exhausting. One night I was laying down for my nap—before being crushed by another dose of adulthood (and boxes)—when a movie came on TV. It was Paranorman. I’d seen Laika’s 2012 stop-motion horror/comedy before (and enjoyed it) but had no intention of watching it for more than a few minutes on this particular night. I watched the whole thing. But I didn’t go to work that night tired. I went with a sense of whimsy. Content even.

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Grief is a tricky subject to depict onscreen, and yet it tends to pop up in horror movies quite a bit. Maybe this is because in horror movies there isn’t this preconceived notion of handling grief “tastefully”, and so movies in the genre can go a little nuts with turning their screws into the audience and their own personal relationship with death and grieving. Whatever the case, The Woman In Black does a good job of not making grief feel completely trivial, but also of amping up all the bad vibes surrounding ghosts and dead loved ones into something that constantly keeps you on edge. Continue reading →