scary movies – Page 3

Blogtoberfest – The Shining

I’ll be honest, I saw the movie “The Shining” before I read the book. Saw it on channel seven, ABC’s channel here in the New York area. I’m not sure how old I was, but I must have been in high school because the movie was in the theatre in 1980.

That movie frightens me to this day, even when they show it on the Arts and Entertainment channel.

The whole idea of being snowbound and trapped while the “strongest” of your party goes slowly mad and there’s nothing you can do about it is frightening enough. The fact that the HOTEL itself is making it impossible for you to escape from him is even scarier.

There is also the helpless feeling you have that not only is there “no escape”, but it’s your spouse/someone close, the one person who you love and trust the most in the world, is the one who is menacing you.

The soundtrack adds to the dread with its Native American chants, droning underchords and well-used scare chords.

The most well used scare chord is at the very end. No matter how much I anticipate it, it gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Of course, YMMV (Your mileage may vary). Each person watches a different movie.

[clickToTweet tweet=”‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’ #quotes #theshining #kubrick” quote=”‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.'” theme=”style4″]

Here’s a taste of Jack Nicholson, before he became the Joker. I must say, no matter what is said about Kubrick, he got excellent performances out of his actors. You can feel Wendy’s fear of her husband. However, no matter how afraid she may be, she’s still reluctant to really hurt him.

The miniseries remake with Steven Weber (from the show WINGS of all places) didn’t half faze me. I mean, this is the dude from Wings against Jack Nicholson for heaven’s sake. It’s a no brainer.

**“Come play with us, Danny. Forever. And ever. And ever.“**

The movie was made in 1980, but I’ll say SPOILER ALERT anyway.

The Shining is an example of chillingly great horror movie. The final shot of Jack Nicholson frozen in the hedge maze…that haunted me for quite a few nights after that!

So what’s YOUR favorite scary movie????

Five Scary Movies – Katara Johnson

As a fun part of Blogtoberfest, I asked my artist friends to send me their top five scary movies. The results were varied and interesting.

According to Katara:

My top 5 scary movies:

1. It
2. Pet Cemetery
3. Children of the Corn
4. Scream
5. Final Destination

Bio: Katara is a happy radio host who likes to read and write. When she is not taking care of grown up responsibilities you can catch her with her kindle in one hand and her phone in the other.

Visit: bit.ly/katarascafe

Five Scary Movies – Sy Shanti

As a fun part of Blogtoberfest, I asked my artist friends to send me their top five scary movies. The results were varied and interesting.

According to Sy Shanti:

My top five scary movies are:

1. Nightmare On Elm Street
2. The Grudge
3. The Ring
4. The 7th Sign
5. Dawn Of The Dead (Both)

Bio: Sy Shanti is a being who uses many different channels to express a creativity deep rooted in his two first loves as a child, Alchemy, and Horror .

VisitL https://www.facebook.com/grimehthers

Five Scary Movies – Eden Royce

As a fun part of Blogtoberfest, I asked my artist friends to send me their top five scary movies. The results were varied and interesting.

Here’s Eden Royce’s list:

My top five scary movies are:

The Thing

PsychoJ.D.’s Revenge

Army of Darkness

Ganja and Hess

Bio:
Eden Royce is descended from women who practiced root, a type of conjure magic in her native Charleston, South Carolina. She’s been a bridal consultant, reptile handler, and stockbroker, but now writes dark fiction about the American South from her home in the English countryside.

She is the author of Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror, a short story collection that features the language and traditions of the Gullah-Geechee people, descendants of the first slaves brought to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. She also conceived and edited The Grotesquerie, an anthology of twenty-one horror short stories written by women.

Eden writes for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Graveyard Shift Sisters, a site dedicated to purging the black female horror fan from the margins and Dirge, the premier dark culture magazine, covering counterculture arts and entertainment, lifestyle, and editorials.

Website: edenroyce.com

Horror Movie Review – The Ouija Experiment

Title: The Ouija Experiment, aka The Realm
Genre: Horror, Found Footage-ish
Director: Israel Luna
Writers: Israel LUna
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2364842/

NO SPOILERS

This was a movie that I stumbled upon perusing some streaming service or another. I suppose if you run a search for the title, it will tell you where it’s playing or where you can get it. Honestly, even though IMDB gives it a 3.4 out of 10, I actually enjoyed the movie. I’d even watch it again!

Here’s the setup. There’s a film student (already annoying, lol) who plays with a Ouija board with his four friends. Why? They want to solve the mystery of a drowned girl that happened some time ago. I’m really fuzzy on the details because, well, it just didn’t matter to me after a while.

Let me say upfront…it’s not scary. The acting is bad and the found footage-ish way of filming can by annoying at times. I don’t know if it was the mood I was in, but I thought the film was rather cute. I liked the dynamic of some of the actors, and the self-aware of “I’m a black person in a horror movie” of the black actress was pretty funny at times.

I felt the first hour was quite strong in the way it set up the story. The actors did a pretty good job for a low budget movie that looks like it was filmed in somebody’s house on the fly. In addition, trivia for the movie suggests the actors’ lines were mostly improvised during this first hour. They didn’t do a half-bad job!

As I noted above, when the scary stuff starts, the black actress is the best. She really made me laugh.

A note on the dialogue: this was the best part of the movie. The conversations and rapid exchanges seem real and unrehearsed. Also, the actors have such a good sense of timing, they did not stumble over each other’s lines as is often the case in the found footage movies where the lines are improvised. I just liked hearing the characters chit chat with each other.

Otherwise, the film and its eventual reveal of the long-ago murder was rather flat and boring. Do not watch this movie if you are looking to be frightened. It won’t happen. If you watch it at all, watch it for the actors’ performances and how they interact.

Film Grade: D

Actors Grade: B for snappy dialogue.