Horror Theme- Pet Sematary

Logline: Behind a young family's home in Maine is a terrible secret that holds the power of life after death. When tragedy strikes, the threat of that power soon becomes undeniable.

Cast: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne

Directed By: Mary Lambert

So, I reviewed a Stephen King novel turned movie in The Shining already. Why not give the king of horror another review? This time I'm going to tackle Pet Sematary, a movie that gets mentioned on a lot of top horror movie lists online.

Review

I'll admit, this was my first time watching this movie. I've heard about it and I've given it thought every year, so this time I basically said that enough was enough and put it in the DVD player.

I must say, I was severely disappointed. I've watched a lot of Stephen King novels that were made into horror movies and I can't quite recall one that was this hyped being so disappointing. I'm not sure where to start, but I was pretty bored for the first two acts. The first act sets up a mysterious cemetery behind the main family's home that has a weird native background and pertains the myth in which bodies buried there come back to life. We find out later that bodies buried there actually do come back to life, but the person that comes back with the body is considerably different and evil. We find this out with the death of the family's cat. He's buried there and comes back to life, but he's quite the evil cat and hisses a lot. The first two acts don't really have much horror.

The third act is full of surprises and is easily the best portion of the movie. A killer baby, gore, a surprising death, etc. Everything that a Stephen King piece should have is explored in the third act, but only then is the movie worth watching.

Topic of the Day

I forgot to mention that this movie was made in 1989, which leads me into my topic of the day. Sometimes movies are memorable for something that happens in a single moment that makes the audience think "did that just happen?". Pet Sematary does something which I don't think many films have done before '89. Spoiler alert: the baby of the family runs out into the middle of the road and gets run over by a transport truck - body parts are shown flying all over. This stood out to me as a "WHAT!?!?!" moment and completely caught my attention just as I was dosing off from the boring beginning. Sometimes a bold move really pays off. This time it definitely did.

Consensus

Pet Sematary is one of those movies I'll watch and forget about come next Halloween when it's time to plot out which movies I choose to watch to get into the tradition. I'll always remember the surprising scene that had me shocked, but the sequences up to that point are all quite forgettable and rather "un-scary". I'd rate this one just below average.

4.8/10

Horror Theme- The Shining

Logline: A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd

Directed by: Stanley Kubrick

So I haven't made a post in quite awhile now. I was going to write an unfavorable review about Looper recently, but I had worn myself out talking about it with friends and had no motivation to rant about it on this blog. Anyways, every year before Halloween I always dive into horror movies to get into the mood. I try to find fresh ones I haven't seen before, but I always watch the classics too. The Shining is widely considered one of, if not THE best horror movie ever created. It's pretty much in everyone's top 5. I'm going to begin doing a horror theme where I will review mostly horror movies (aside from big theatre releases) for a week or two. Since my horror themed reviews are going to be scattered through time periods, I'll try my best to acknowledge when they were made.

So, The Shining. Did I like it? Read on.

Review

The Shining was made in 1980 by famous director Stanley Kubrick. This was my second time watching the movie in its entirety and probably the hundredth time I've heard REDRUM or "Here's Johnny!" in one way or another. This movie is indeed a classic for many reasons, but I can't say it soars by without flaws. At 2hrs and 22mins the length is considerably long for a horror movie. This contributed to what I thought was a really boring first 40 minutes of the movie. We're introduced to this family of 3 (father, mother, son) and we're told 2 things: the father has accepted a job to look after an abandoned hotel during the winter where no one can go in and out of easily due to the tremendous amount of snow the area gets & that the son has visions and an imaginary friend. This is a pretty sweet set up, but it takes 40 minutes to do! I'm not sure what the intention of starting his movie out so slow was, but maybe Kubrick wanted to slow burn his way into people's minds. Maybe the little horror during those 40 minutes was good enough in 1980 to keep an audience creeped. Not for me though.

Everything that happens after is both a Jack Nicholson home run of a performance and a creepy thrill ride with ghosts, demons, and a psycho. Oh, and there's a scene with a naked old lady that creeped the hell out of me. It turns into one of those movies that you can't help but love and think about for hours after watching.

Topic of the Day

I'm going to keep this one nice and short. I've mentioned it numerous times on my blog, but here it is again and I can't help but point it out. Location is absolutely KEY to making a good horror/thriller movie. You have to have your characters in a place where they can't easily escape. They should be trapped. In The Shining, the location is in an area where only certain snow vehicles can get to. When psycho Jack Nicholson rips out the engines in their vehicle, there's nowhere to go. It also benefited from the fact that an abandoned hotel is huge and creepy as it is.

Consensus

The Shining is one of those movies that stands out to many as a classic. I'd agree that for the time it was made the horror is outstanding and there are many classic quotes to go along with it that have lasted to present day, but I can't help but acknowledge the flawed 40 minutes in the beginning of the movie. I'd have this chalked as a classic if it weren't for those, but I'm forced to dock points. Still, anyone who is into horror and wants a great one for Halloween - watch this one, Jack Nicholson is at the top of his game.

8.5/10

Dredd 3D

Logline: In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.

Cast: Karl Urban, Oliva Thirlby, Lena Headey, Wood Harris

Directed by: Pete Travis

I wasn't sure what to expect going into Dredd 3D. Critics had given it pretty good ratings, but the only thing I really knew about Judge Dredd was the fact that the director Pete Travis is known for directing Vantage Point, which I didn't like. I also knew that it was a remake and the first version featured Sylvester Stallone - and apparently it pissed off comic fans because he took off his helmet in that one. Anyways, I don't really read comics, so this review is purely based on my knowledge as a movie watcher.

Review

Dredd....

I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit. For a movie that I didn't see advertised much, I definitely didn't expect the quality of special effects that it had. Maybe the use of SLO-MO was used a little excessively, but they didn't get toooooo carried away with it. I'm not usually one to address special effects, because let's face it, if I did that I'd have to give Transformers 2 & 3 at least a little bit of kudos - so I digress.

The story is actually solid. It uses the exact same model as The Raid, which I reviewed awhile back. Except, Dredd is by himself with a trainee that is on her first day. Actually, she's not even a trainee really because she didn't pass her test to certify her as a Judge. So they're both stuck in a building that's on complete lockdown - and when I say lockdown I mean there is NO way out whatsoever. It's futuristic, so the building actually has lockdown mode and these barriers come down on each sides of the building. The main drug lord is a woman on a mission to kill Dredd for taking one of her men hostage - someone who knows a lot about her business that she can't afford turning on her. The movie goes through stages, raises stakes, and there's always urgency because Dredd is never given a moment to rest.

My TOTD is very spoiler heavy and it doesn't really say much about what I learnt from watching the movie, it's just something I picked up that I thought I'd mention.

Topic of the Day

I'm going to start by repeating myself... I know absolutely nothing about the comics at all, so take this as you will, it's just something I thought of during the movie that I thought was pretty cool.

I'm not sure if this was meant to be, or if everyone knew this, but I looked it up on numerous sites and found nothing on it. So, here goes... I actually think Judge Dredd could read minds just like his sidekick Anderson. In the beginning of the movie, he's looking at Anderson through a window and without seeing him Anderson was able to pretty much tell who he was. In the midst of her description, she stops and says she feels something unusual about him. Something... and it's stopped there. Later on in the movie, Dredd gets shot in the leg and falls to the ground. Then they go through that whole "wait" dialogue for a few seconds and Anderson comes around the corner and saves his life. THEN at the end of the movie, he risks everyone in the building by throwing Ma-Ma the drug lord off the top floor to her death at the bottom, calling her bluff that her heartbeat would detonate explosives through the whole building if it stopped. He actually doesn't even seem to think twice. I may be completely wrong here, but don't all signs lead to Dredd being able to read minds? Just a thought anyway.

Consensus

Dredd 3D was a surprisingly well done movie. It doesn't have the depth of such comic superheroes as Spiderman or Batman, but it's still a really fun trapped in a building movie with Gatling guns, slow-motion drugs, a bad ass main character, and a ruthless drug lord. It sucks this movie didn't do too well at the box office, it sure deserved more.

7.5/10