Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Horror Movie Review – Exhibit A

Title:  Exhibit A

Genre:  Thriller/Horror – Found Footage

Synopsis:  The timely story of a normal family disintegrating under financial pressure, eventually driven to the unimaginable. We witness the terrifying events unfold through daughter Judith’s video camera, which subsequently becomes Exhibit A.

I watched this movie on the recommendation of Overthinking Horror Films.  For some reason, I really enjoy “found footage” horror films and was looking for something that was found footage but wasn’t littered with profanity and super shaky cam.  I mean, the jitter cam is fine, but when it’s 80 percent of the movie, it’s more annoying than atmospheric.

I’d seen Exhibit A in my travels through the websites that listed found footage, but never really paused to examine it more closely.  First of all, it’s a British film and either I didn’t want to fight with the accents, or the description didn’t grab me.  However, since I trust OHF’s taste in films, I took a chance and watched it.

I’ve seen reviews which poo-poo the film or say that it’s over the top.  They’ll say the acting was terrible and how could the daughter film all through this. Let me just say this.  The film got me by throat and didn’t let go until the end.  I even gasped in some parts.

The basic premise is a regular old family of Mom and Dad, and two teens, a girl and a boy.  I was a little annoyed when thirty seconds in , the girl filmed herself in the mirror so that we could see who she was.  Ugh.  However, I stuck with it and while I can’t say I was rewarded for my perseverance, I was served a good film.

The father’s performance was one that stuck with me the most.  Early on, I could see something was amiss and the little things just kept piling up.  The film became more painful to watch as it went on, not because the performances were bad, but you could see where the train was going.  You just wondered where exactly it was going to wreck.  

And wreck it did.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more harrowing to an ending in recent years.  At one point, I had to look away from the screen to relieve the tension.  I just didn’t want to bear witness to it any more.  Yes, it’s a movie, but the actors sold the story and I was right there with them.

This is not a gleeful horror film.  While it’s stylized up to a point, it’s a little too close to the bone to be laughed at.

 

Rating: B+ Recommended.

Blogtoberfest – Horror Movie Review – Friend Request

Title:  Friend Request

Synopsis:  A popular college student graciously accepts a social outcast’s online friend request, but soon finds herself fighting a demonic presence that wants to make her lonely by killing her closest friends.

Genre:  Horror

Opinion:

Let’s face it, most of us live online these days, especially those under 30.  Between online dating and online classes, people find themselves either at the computer or on their cell phones.  People are judged by the number of friends they have on social media or the number of likes they have on a post.  Some people pay good money to acquire followers and/or garner even more interest in their online musings.

Okay, you might be saying, it’s a movie review, Dahlia, get to the damn point.  All right then.  I say all that to say is when we see a post with no likes or a person with a low number of “friends” or “followers”, we assume that means low popularity.  And of course, someone with low popularity online is to be pitied and “felt sorry for”

And now we come to the crux of this movie.  A popular college student receives a friend request from a girl who doesn’t have any friends.  Feeling sorry for her, she “friends” her.  The relationship then degenerated into a sort of stalker/stalkee symbiosis, with the popular college student trying to get away from the cloying, smothering of her new “friend”.

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After cutting off the friendship, the girl commits suicide and posts the video on the popular girl’s social media page.  This leads to her losing online friends and then DUN DUN DUN, she begins losing friends in real life….TO MURDER MOST FOUL.

Anyhoo, the rest of the movie invovles her tracking down and trying to eliminate the girl’s ghost, who is apparently causing all the trouble.  Will she succeed?  You’ll have to watch the movie to find out.

All in all, it wasn’t the best horror movie I’ve seen, but I thought the premise was interesting.  It is well-acted and well-shot with some disturbing imagery, but I must say the movie does contain an almost paint by the numbers list of horror cliches, including jump scares with stinger chords.  Despite these flaws, it’s moderately intriguing and is a good movie to have on in the background.

Grade:  B-

 

Horror Movie Review -The Collingswood Story

Title

The Collingsworth Story (2002)

Synopsis

A young girl staying in touch with her boyfriend via a webcam discovers an unimaginable horror linked to the house she just moved into.

Genre

Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Opinion

I’d started watching this movie some time ago.  Something happened where I couldn’t finish it, and I never got back to it because I couldn’t remember the name of the movie! Luckily, or unluckliy for my time and temper, I rediscovered the movie while researching found footage movies.  As you know, I’m a sucker for found footage, no matter how terrible, so I suppose in watching this movie, I got what I deserved.

The movie begins with some newspaper clippings and vague old-time pictures you know are going to come into play later.  Yeah, yeah, let’s get to the movie.  Stop with all the history you’re just going to repeat over and over throughout the movie.

The premise is a woman moves to New Jersey for college, leaving her boyfriend behind in Virginia.  Because they are so very attached to one another, they use a webcam and video chat to keep in touch.   

First of all, the Windows 95 interface and the silly looking software for the videochat kind of hooked me right away.  Being a tech oriented person, I was really wondering how they were able to connect via video chat using a telephone landline.  It looked like Prodigy or CompuServe interface.  But my tech meanderings aren’t really important right now.  Let’s get on to the movie.

Dude, really?  He wore a backwards baseball cap so well, I should count it as the actor in the movie.  Every single time he was on screen, dude was sporting that backwards hat.  To be fair, the movie was made in 2002, so the style was HAWT back then.  Other than that, he looked like a real desperate grease monkey trying to hold on to his lady friend.

On the other hand, the female lead was quite striking and charismatic.  Now, I usually don’t go on and on about the leads, but when there is nothing but chit-chat going on, you have nothing to do but focus on the two actors involved.  I enjoyed watching her performance.

The mystery itself was pretty intriguing, and we get some glimpses of early 2000 webcam folk, but I must say, the entire movie fell flat at the end.  With all the web research, the spooky buildup and a scary psychic, the ending was a little bit of….what just happened.  Hey, maybe it’s me and I didn’t get the deeper meaning of the movie or I missed something when I looked away from the screen.  Bottom line is, The Collingswood Story held my attention, then dropped it like a lead balloon.

Not Recommended, unless you are interested in early 2000 computer technology.

Rating:

D

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Horror Movie Review -The Invitation

Title: The Invitation
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama
Director: Karyn Kusama
Writers: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
IMDB Link:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2400463/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO SPOILERS

After seeing this movie on Netflix, I will never say…

 

I no longer want invitations to anyone’s dinner party.  Keep your invites, really.

 

Synopsis

Will and Eden were once a loving couple. After a tragedy took their son, Eden disappeared. Two years later, out of the blue, she returns with a new husband… and as a different person, eerily changed and eager to reunite with her ex and those she left behind. Over the course of a dinner party in the house that was once his, the haunted Will is gripped by mounting evidence that Eden and her new friends have a mysterious and terrifying agenda. But can we trust Will’s hold on reality? Or will he be the unwitting catalyst of the doom he senses?

Drafthouse Films

Opinion

I admit, the beginning of this movie bored me.  The man seemed out of it and his mood was flat.  I thought he was on some kind of medication.  It also made me wonder why the woman was with him.  Then, it turns out that they’re going to a party at the home of his ex-wife….with the new girlfriend.  That earned an eye roll, because, I wasn’t sure this was going to be a good idea.

Plus, the party was in the hills of California somewhere.  Ugh.  I don’t like going out into old crazy country without a way to get out of there.  In some of those places, you can’t even call a cab or Uber!!

Anyhoo, what a bunch of weirdos at the party. Folks not wearing any shoes.  Folks with vacant smiles and blank eyes.   As soon as all the characters get together, there’s a general feeling of unease. The folks seem loving and accommodating, but there is something just off about the entire gathering.  The man finds strange things around his ex-wife’s house.  In addition, we are subjected to hazy flashbacks about their shared past.

As the film rolls on we eventually realize that there is something going on, and it bubbles over the surface in a shocking scene.  Obviously, I won’t give it away, but I will say I was glued to the screen until the end.  

The film starts quite slow and threatens to lose the viewers’ interest.  But I advise you to stick with it and go along for the ride.  The ending will make you sit back in your seat, mouth open and head shaking.   Additionally, this movie will keep you from going from any strange dinner parties in isolated areas, I promise you that.

Grade A-:  Jeez, this was creepy and unsettling as hell.  

The Invitation:  Trailer

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Here’s to watching horror movies in the morning!

Dahlia

 

Horror Movie Review – Grave Encounters 2

 

Title:  Grave Encounters 2
Genre: Horror, Found Footage
Director: John Poliquin
Writers: The Vicious Brothers
IMDB Link:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2231554/

NO SPOILERS

PLOT SYNOPSIS: (imdb.com) A film student who is obsessed with the movie Grave Encounters sets out with his friends to visit the psychiatric hospital depicted in the original film.

We’re back!

After seeing Grave Encounters, I just had to see if there were a Grave Encounters 2.  And, lo and behold, it was!  I quickly queued it up and sat back, prepared to be as scared as I was with the first one.

Alas, this was not the case.  Now, this is not to say the movie wasn’t pretty good. It just took a bit of a time to get to the point.

Don’t go into this expect a retread of Grave Encounters.  The screenwriter and director  went in a bit of a different direction, which saved the movie from being a boring retread of the first movie.

A film student who is obsessed with the movie Grave Encounters sets out with his friends to visit the psychiatric hospital depicted in the original film.

I will say the characters are a little less likable in this movie than they were in the first one.  They skewed younger and were less the “seasoned professionals” of the first movie and more snot-nosed college students.  Being a woman of a certain age, their antics grated on me a bit, but I was eager to see what the asylum would do with them.

And the haunted asylum didn’t disappoint.  

Things are not what they seem at the old homestead and the place starts acting up right away.  We, the audience, know what they’re in for, having seen the first movie, we’re just waiting to see how the asylum plays with the new crew.

There’s shouting, there’s yelling, there’s running. There’s spooky stuff afoot and a surprise.

Watch it, if just to have the story continue. Grave Encounters 2 is not as good or as chill worthy as Grave Encounters, but it’s still a pretty good ride. 

My advice:  Push through the annoying college age antics at the beginning and stay for the scary parts.  There is some lore added and maybe a door opening for Grave Encounters 3.

Here’s to watching horror movies in the morning!

Dahlia