Villains abound...

The New York Times  has produced some nice little vignettes about cinematic villainy. Viola Davis kills it, but not quite literally as she doesn't get the chance. Brad Pitt and Gary Oldman really deliver, too.

Check the link for all of them.

xoxo

d-bag

"Death by drill"-- Youtube uploader NateGoldman needs to be put on some kind of watch list...

If you can watch this:

...without feeling sick to your stomach, then there is something wrong with you. The cutting of the hair. The sadism. The humiliation. The production values. The cuts and edits that demonstrate the time it took to put this video together.

Even on a non-sentient piece of circuitry as this, such acts are highly disturbing.

I fear NateGoldman may well be the next Picton or Cleroux. He would probably like that comparison. I should stop, lest he come to my house, shave my head, drive nails through my feet and proceed to torture and burn me.

Anyways, I am so perturbed so as to forego my usual kisses and hug sign off.

Watch your backs,

d-bag.

Melancholia review...

Melancholia is, I suppose, in some very tacit way, a horror movie. As was Lars von Trier’s previous outing, Antrichrist.

As is evident from my previous review on the Skin I Live In, I am not one to struggle against falling into a directorial cult of personality. Evidently, von Trier has such reverent devotees to establish such a thing. 

Arguably though, von Trier’s cult is composed of people who wish to crush their testicles and/or cut off their clitorises. 

And thus, I feel rather reticent to fully immerse myself into such a group of people, valuing my own testicles as I do.

It’s not a spoiler if it refers to a different movie than is being discussed. You should have done your homework. Didn’t you know that, Sidney? 

Anyways, Melancholia is quite well shot. It is opulent, beautiful and visually quite poetic. I would like to lower myself and the film to cliches such as style over substance, but using such easy and maligned dismissals simply wouldn’t do the film justice. 

A lot of the dialogue is riveting, powerful. Spot on. 

But viewed in its entire context, the film is complacent. It is satisfied with what it is and it never tries to be anything more than that. Revealing perhaps is von Trier’s early description of the movie as a beautiful film about the end of the world. It is that and only that. 

It is more an exercise than a movie. von Trier expects a lot out of his audience. You get out of this film what you put in. von Trier wants to write the kinds of films you can dissect, write essays about. And he sure has one here. 

If that’s good or bad is up to you, my friends. 

Sure, there are lots of well played little details that may or not may elucidate something meaningful about the narrative and the story and all of those cinematic undertakings.

But such things could just as easily be dismissed as the self serving meanderings of a bloated diner at an all you can eat sushi place. Let me refine the metaphor: all you can eat sushi hits the tongue delectably at the beginning, but with each subsequent piece the flavours are less pleasurable, your gut gets a little more full. 

That is not to say that Melancholia is heavy handed or has an unpalatable ending, far from it. In fact, the last act is probably the only part in which any legitimate kind of tension is built. 

But by the end, the whole film seems somewhat absurd. Ultimately, its value hangs on that which the viewer goes into with. The concept is good, the execution is good enough and there you have it. Take what you will. 

Consume as many pieces as you want. At an unwieldily running length of over two hours, just be careful you don’t get charged for your leftovers. 

Anyhow, see this once. It’s pretty and well acted. And I would do Alexander Skarsgard and Kiefer Sutherland in any which way.

So, three out of five anemic, melancholic stuck thumbs out of five.

xoxo 

dbag

Raze trailer...

I'm not really sure what this movie is about, but this is definitely the most intense trailer I have seen in a while. I've also been in love with Zoe Bell ever since she was Lucy Lawless' stunt double on Xena. 

This trailer appears to be the only information about the film online at all, though I'm seeing it being described as a cross between Fight Club and Hostel.

Looks interesting!

xoxo

d-bag

The Skin I Live In...

Oh, Pedro. You trot the horror line in a lot of your films. But I guess The Skin I Live In is your most genre outing yet.

I usually do not write about a film with specific reference to it’s director. But you Pedro, or Almodóvar as you seem to like to be called, are an exception. 

The Skin I Live In is not a prima facie horror movie. Apologies, law school terms are creeping into my vocabulary. That is to say at first sight, or first viewing, the film does not exactly adhere to any particular genre standard.

But that is not to say it is not jarring and deeply unsettling. Or horrifying. Because it is, Pedro. You have created something of an anomaly; a film that makes the viewer think they aren’t watching a horror movie, when really they are.

And I applaud you for that. 

There are certain motifs and concepts that seem to interest you, and these pervade your latest outing. Suffice it to say I cannot at all comment on them here without giving away many integral, unsettling parts of your film.

You animate your tale with riveting, lively dialogue. Your words ring true and poetic in my ears, even through the language filter of your mother tongue to mine. 

You illicit such visceral performances out your actors so as to draw me in and make me feel for them.

And you just film things so well. 

I fear horror enthusiasts will be divided on this one. There are certain subtleties in your work that will inarguably evade some viewers. I would wager though that these are the people who would be dissuaded by watching a foreign language film in the first place.  

But indeed, November seems to be a month appropriate for such cinematic outings. With your film and Lars Von Trier’s latest both premiering to the Canadian public.

That is not to equate you with Von Trier at all, good Pedro. All I mean is that this is not August, the cinematic dumping ground. This is November. The world around us is decaying, changing, getting ready for the bitterness of winter.

I doubt you know anything of this, Pedro. I do not think that you have experienced a Canadian, Ottawan winter, but for me your film is drenched in all of the feelings that strike me at this most doleful of times. 

I do fear that some viewers who adhere to critically oriented feminist or queer theory perspectives will take what you have done in way that I do not think you intended. 

And I would go so far as to say that any such reading of your film’s content is a rather closed minded, self serving and ultimately fruitless view of your work.

But then, as we all know, there are those who are never satisfied, who must criticize the expression of subject matter such as this in their own narrow and purposive way. 

You are an artist, Pedro. And your art is prefaced on the human condition, which is sometimes ugly and bleak and uncompromisingly disturbing. 

I would thus offer a very simple answer to those who would criticize your work here; artistic expression is valid and enriching so long as it brings forth its content in good faith. 

Any detractions from what you have done here are mired in the very closed mindedness such critics would purport themselves to struggle against. 


Though I would say that are triggers here which may affect certain people. But that in and of itself, I don't think, is enough of a basis for criticism. 

This is not a love letter, Pedro. Though it may seem as though it is. 

I would beg of you though, my friend Pedro, to please work with Gael Garcia Bernal again. And in doing so, to please direct him to take his clothes of. And to maybe say into the camera that he wants me. 

Please, keep this in mind as you go upon your journey. 

This is indeed one of those films that the less you say about it the better. So, I will not say anymore except that I applaud you. 

Five out five stuck, sewn together and transgenic thumbs. 


xoxo


D-bag

Presented w/ no further comment...

 

xoxo

D-bag

So, The Walking Dead is back....

And y'all probably know I have mixed feelings about it. Sorry, that was just the Southern part of me coming out. Some of those accents on there are laid on so thick, they stick to you. 

Anyhow, Sunday's premiere had some good moments, some bad ones and some that barely registered.

I still feel as though this season is going to be as convoluted as ever. They are trying to flesh out the characters a bit, which is good. Except for some of them are just so annoying... Ahem... Lori, ahem... 

And Carl, the little boy, there's just something wrong with his face that I can't put my finger on. 

But as long as they keep fleshing out (and defleshing) the characters and don't go on another CDC Atlanta style tangent like they did at the end of last season, then I think they just might be okay. 

Everything after the zombie attack on their camp last season was just disastrous. Not in the fun way, either. 

And as long as they keep giving us awesome sequences like the one screen grabbed from above, I will keep tuning in. 

I mean who can argue with somebody exploding out of an RV washroom and screwdrivering a zombie in the brains through their eyehole?

As reproduced here:

Here:

Here:

Here:

And here:

This fella sure can't.

Anyways, here's hoping they keep up things like this.

xoxo

D-bag

Handicam turkey attack...

I am sure this turkey actually didn't bear the reporter any real ill will... or maybe it did. I don't know. But it is absolutely hilarious how frightened the reporter gets.

Happy late Thanksgiving! 

xoxo

d-bag

Halloween special of Epic Meal Time

I present this with no other comment...



xoxo

dbag

"And when I die" everybody dies... Except for maybe, the show actually won't now?

Those of you who know me will also know that I have had mixed feelings about the last two seasons of True Blood.

More so this season than last, even. It's just hard for me to see a show that has created such a great mythos for itself, that has so many great characters and potential, go down the road of lazy writing and cliches. 

I have read that the writers continue working on the season after it begins filming, which is not an uncommon practice in TV land. But nowhere have the problems with this been more glaringly obvious than in this last season.

Storylines that don't go anywhere--werepanthers, Hotshot and Faeland anybody? Characters that no longer serve a purpose--you all remember my brother,Tommy? Unrelated and unnecessary character arcs that seem to exist just to fill time--medium baby thieving, for the win? 

And melodrama. Melodrama. Melodrama. Bill and Sookie. Eric and Sookie. Bill and Eric and Sookie. Eric and Bill. 

I will not mince words, I didn't think very much of this season. 

Until this last episode. 

Granted, there were a few great moments in the first eleven episodes. I really enjoyed the exchanges between Marnie and Antonia towards the end of their relationship. I think Brit Morgan is a fantastic actress and made Debbie Pelt into a complete scene stealer every time she was featured. And Ginger is always great. 

But other than that, I can't really point at anything in particular I liked. This season was convoluted, had a bunch of starts and stops. Was downright silly at some points. I really thought that this might be the end for True Blood and me.

But then they go and air an episode like "And when I die." 

"Die" being the operative word. Just about six characters die in this episode, or died towards the end of episode eleven. 

Granted, I didn't agree with some of the writers' choices, but I think anytime a show goes through a killing off like this, the audience is going to be affected. And I certainly was. Was downright overwhelmed by that last scene.

Maybe they took cues from shows like The Vampire Diaries, which kill people off left, right and centre. Maybe the cast had gotten too bloated, maybe the writers recognized they didn't know what to do with all of them anymore and thought they were better served dead than floating around in limbo for another season.

Either way, I think they realized what they were going for. 

What the writers managed to do on Sunday night was recapture some of what made me like True Blood to begin with. The finale focused on those character we know and love. It brought back spectres of the past that really formed some of the show's best story arcs and most heart wrenching moments. 

It allowed Anna Paquin to show off her acting skills, once more. She does heart rending anguish quite well. 

It had emotional depth and resonance and at some points was thrilling, moving and just completely fucked up. It had characters making decisions that actually made sense and managed to make all that heart wrenching interpersonal action exceed mere melodrama.

All that the show used to be.

Keep in mind that there is definitely a reasonable apprehension of bias on my part in discussing "And when I die." 

I probably couldn't ever knock a Halloween episode of anything. Maybe that explains a bit. 

And though the episode wasn't perfect, it was enough to put my faith back in the show, make me look forward to next season.

Until then,

A bientôt, Bon Temps...

xoxo

D-bag

Supercomputer evaluates our moods and predicts our actions...

An article on the BBC today shows another possible avenue for the machines to gain sentience. A supercomputer named Nautilus has been filtering through millions and millions of media articles, evaluating them and putting together a kind of projection of what it thinks it all means, in this case coming to conclusions retroactively.

Nautilus is studying us. Learning about our strengths and weakness. Nautilus is plotting.

We really need to work on developing more electromagnetic pulse producing technologies.

xoxo

D-bag

Artificial intelligence robots talk to one and other...

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I apologize for that. Summertime, love, French men. You know how it goes sometimes.

Anyways, I plan to post a summer recap post later on today. 

But just going through my morning routines before class today revealed something that has left me feeling rather unsettled. 

The BBC has a story about a conversation that occurred between two artificial intelligence robots named Alan and Sruthi, who were designed to converse with humans over the internet, having a conversation with one and other for the first time. 

I can't help but feel that this is how Skynet will come into the world. That our own hubris, our own pride over the machines we have created, will prove to be our downfall.

And this is a sure and steady step down that road.

More later.

xoxo

D-bag

Human Centipede: Full Sequence denied release in UK

I'll let the British Board of Film Classification's release speak for itself.

June 6th, 2011

The BBFC has rejected the sexually violent, and potentially obscene DVD, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) This means that it cannot be legally supplied anywhere in the UK. The decision was taken by the Director, David Cooke and the Presidential Team of Sir Quentin Thomas, Alison Hastings and Gerard Lemos.

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is a sequel to the film The Human Centipede (First Sequence), which was classified ‘18’ uncut for cinema and DVD release by the BBFC in 2010. The first film dealt with a mad doctor who sews together three kidnapped people in order to produce the ‘human centipede’of the title. Although the concept of the film was undoubtedly tasteless and disgusting it was a relatively traditional and conventional horror film and the Board concluded that it was not in breach of our Guidelines at ‘18’. This new work, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), tells the story of a man who becomes sexually obsessed with a DVD recording of the first film and who imagines putting the ‘centipede’ idea into practice. Unlike the first film, the sequel presents graphic images of sexual violence, forced defecation, and mutilation, and the viewer is invited to witness events from the perspective of the protagonist. Whereas in the first film the ‘centipede’ idea is presented as a revolting medical experiment, with the focus on whether the victims will be able to escape, this sequel presents the ‘centipede’ idea as the object of the protagonist’s depraved sexual fantasy.

The principal focus of The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is the sexual arousal of the central character at both the idea and the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture, and murder of his naked victims. Examples of this include a scene early in the film in which he masturbates whilst he watches a DVD of the original Human Centipedefilm, with sandpaper wrapped around his penis, and a sequence later in the film in which he becomes aroused at the sight of the members of the ‘centipede’ being forced to defecate into one another’s mouths, culminating in sight of the man wrapping barbed wire around his penis and raping the woman at the rear of the ‘centipede’. There is little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience. There is a strong focus throughout on the link between sexual arousal and sexual violence and a clear association between pain, perversity and sexual pleasure. It is the Board’s conclusion that the explicit presentation of the central character’s obsessive sexually violent fantasies is in breach of its Classification Guidelines and poses a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers.

David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said:

“It is the Board’s carefully considered view that to issue a certificate to this work, even if confined to adults, would be inconsistent with the Board’s Guidelines, would risk potential harm within the terms of the VRA, and would be unacceptable to the public.

“The Board also seeks to avoid classifying material that may be in breach of the Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964 (OPA) or any other relevant legislation. The OPA prohibits the publication of works that have a tendency to deprave or corrupt a significant proportion of those likely to see them. In order to avoid classifying potentially obscene material, the Board engages in regular discussions with the relevant enforcement agencies, including the CPS, the police, and the Ministry of Justice. It is the Board’s view that there is a genuine risk that this video work, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), may be considered obscene within the terms of the OPA, for the reasons given above.

“The Board considered whether its concerns could be dealt with through cuts. However, given that the unacceptable content runs throughout the work, cuts are not a viable option in this case and the work is therefore refused a classification.”

Note to Editors

1. Under the terms of the Video Recordings Act, the distributor has the right to appeal to the Video Appeals Committee against this decision within six weeks.
2. The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) has not been submitted for cinema release.

Public Enquiries: 020 7440 1570
Press Enquiries Sue Clark: 020 7440 3285
Out of Hours Mobile: 07946 423719

-30-

I don't know if I will be able to watch this film. I was almost ruined sexually by watching A Serbian Film, to the extent that I have not even reviewed it on here because I never want to think about it again.

Maybe though, I will review it, just to get it all out of my head.

Anyways, that's not on topic. But Full Sequence just sounds so horrid. I don't know what to think.

XOXO

D-bag

Hobo with a Shotgun...

Every now and again a film comes along that makes you proud of where you come from, no matter where that happens to be. 

For horror enthusiasts, this is all the more true, as so much of our genre is dominated by films that are horrible in all the wrong ways.

Our French kin have been managed to shock the fuck out of us in recent years, think: Inside, High Tension, Martyrs. 

Those Spaniards spooked us out with The Orphanage and have been riding rabid on the whole REC franchise. 

You can always trust the Americans to remake anything they think people will pay a buck for, and I guess we have to thank them for giving us George A. Romero and zombies and slasher films and invincible super killers and pedophiles that invade our dreams.

And don’t get me started on those Asians, with their J-Horror and K-Horror. 

Even fellow Commonwealth members have been in on the carnage, with Shaun of the Dead coming out of the U.K. and the absolutely fucking amazing The Loved Ones coming out of Australia in 2009. 

For us Canadians, we haven’t really had that much to cheer about lately in terms of horror. I mean, David Cronenberg is Canadian, ehh? But he hasn’t really been active in the genre for a while and is probably off somewhere with Viggo Mortensen filming more movies or falling in love or some shit.

Let's not forget our proud history: our country folk are responsible for the original Black Christmas and My Bloody Valentine films. 

Canadian Vincenzo Natali brought us the Cube films in the 1990s which undoubtedly influenced the whole Saw series, as well as last year’s Splice, but that movie kind of sucked. 

We can also take credit for the the whole puberty/werewolf allegory of Ginger Snaps.  And for making a somewhat intelligent zombie movie by the name of Pontypool, which really is an interesting take on the whole zombie mythos. 

And really our film industry and government incentives does lead to a lot of shit being filmed here, some of it genre.

With this year’s Hobo with a Shotgun, we really do have something all our own though. 

A film written and directed by Canadians. Filmed in Canada. Filled mostly with Canadian actors. A film that is actually super fantastic. 

I’m not really one for nationalism, but this is really a nice story.

It all started when Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino were putting together Grindhouse. They wanted people to make throw back exploitation trailers and submit them. 

They’d pick a winner, and that trailer would be shown between the two films that made up Grindhouse.

Hobo with a Shotgun won the whole damn thing. 

Written and directed by Nova Scotia boys John Davies and Jason Eisener respectively, the short eventually made it’s way into the blood soaked, off the wall feature film I had the pleasure of watching earlier this evening.

And really, this is the best film I’ve seen all year. 

The premise is simple: a hobo without a name rides the rails and gets of in Hope Town-- colloquially known as Scum Town by the residents--which is an absolute shit hole full of murdering, rape, drugs and a pedophile Santa. 

Visually, Scum Town is very interesting, a kind of graffiti Western urban decay kind of vibe. 

Said hobo just wants to save up for a lawn mower, so he can start his own mowing business, but eventually gets caught up in the ville’s violence and uses the money he saved up to buy the titular shotgun and make things right “one shell at a time,” as the poster boasts.

There’s really not much point in telling you all what I liked, because I liked absolutely fucking everything. 

As campy as some of it is, film legend Rutger Hauer plays hobo with such an earnestness and gravity that he really is the heart of the film and all the hyper violence and messed up shit that happens around him never manages to get silly or escape the realm of seriousness he projects onto all of it.

The writing here is absolutely fucking brilliant, too. There are so many great lines and exchanges...

Ivan:

They are going to fear the fuck out of me. In fact, they are going to make comic books out of my hate crimes.

Hobo:

I promise you, when I get out of here, I am going to bite your face off.

Gives you a taste for what you can expect in terms of dialogue. 

Also expect tonnes of gore, a dozen or so incinerated school children, two bad ass demon type things that might have killed Jesus and Joan of Arc, and a cameo by George Stroumbolopoulous. 

Really, a must see. Should be part of the school curriculum, I'd say. 

I give this film five out of five shot gun blasted, man hole decapitated stuck thumbs because this is the kind of shit that really makes me proud to be Canadian.

xoxo

D-bag

Scream 4...

You know how sometimes it’s nice to pull some old article of clothing out of your closet, put it on, vamp in front of the mirror and reminisce about where you were in your life when you bought it? Or shake your head at what you thought was fashionable at the time?

Scream 4 is pretty much that article of clothing, for better or worse. It’s still kind of fun, even if a bit dated and really does make you want to find an occasion to slip into it again.

Scream 4 is definitely true to the franchise. In many aways, it really does cut into the same vein as it’s predecessors.

Which is kind of the problem.

There’s only so much you can do when trying to adhere to the typical slasher genre that the original scream brought back so gorily in 1996. We know the structure: masked killer massacres youths and chases them around, masked killer is always one of the principal cast members, then masked killer is killed.

This is what made Scream famous even, the way it set out these rules that poked fun at horror conventions. Funny and novel yes, and the new ones provided in Scream 4 still work here, even fifteen years later.

But they are limiting too.

What I mean is, Ghostface can only jump out from so many corners and stab people in so many different ways. And after the three previous films, there’s not much real fear, tension or surprises left.

This isn’t to say Scream 4 is a well executed slasher film. It adheres to the formula it sets out for its self very well and manages to entertain along the way.

The filmmakers obviously took note of the way the genre has been going in the decade since their last stab at the franchise, and the violence has definitely been taken up a notch.

There’s even some good social commentary thrown in and the whole new direction Ghostface takes the killings is actually pretty forward thinking.

The performances here are hit and miss. Some of the newbies are super. Hayden Panettiere delivers a great turn as Kirby. She was actually my favourite character this time around.

Emma Roberts is pretty terrible as Sidney’s cousin Jill, though. Which is disappointing, considering the importance of her role towards the end.

The main cast are as they always were and they are surprisingly well preserved.

My favourite thing about this film though, is a subtle aspect of character development on Sidney’s part. I mean, you’ve spent so many years with people trying to kill you, it’d only make sense for you to learn to defend yourself, right?

And at a few different points in the movie, Sidney really does kick Ghostface’s ass, which is pretty entertaining to watch. I know I have a weird take on these things, but one high kick she delivers towards the beginning had me absolutely loving my life.

Having seen the first Scream film as a prepubescent boy at a sleepover party my sister was having, these films will always be close to my heart. Perhaps these films may shed light on the nature of the creature I am today.

And really I can’t knock this movie for being what it is. It’s simple slasher fun. Nothing new or original about it. Nothing forward thinking, no giant leap forward in horror cinema.

But that wasn’t what any of us were expecting, was it?

I give this film three out of five blood splattered, knife stuck thumbs up for brining me back to my childhood and staying true to the well engrained horror tradition of countless sequels without sucking entirely.

xoxo

D-bag

Rise of the Planet of the Apes...

Here's the trailer for the up and coming Planet of the Apes movie, the first in the series and a prequel to all the other films.



I've been seeing items about this movie for months now and really had no idea what to make of it. What tone it would take, whether it would be serious or comical or what.

Upon seeing this trailer, it's obvious that it is indeed a serious semi-genre sci-fi outing perhaps meant as a cautionary tale to us human beings, which could be good. But could also be a disaster.

It will be interesting to see just what happens when it is released.

Anyways, to borrow a line from one of the worst of last year's horror films, "I don't like human beings."

So, it could actually be quite enjoyable for me to see some really smart monkeys bashing people on the head with things and generally causing havoc. It's also kind of an interesting play on all of the horrendousness that goes on in the medical field with animal testing.

It stars James Franco and he and I are going to get gay married, so I'm sure he will want my opinion on it.

xoxo

D-bag

Melancholia...

Here's the trailer for Lars von Trier's latest movie, a so called beautiful film about the end of the world.

From what I can tell, the path of this newly emerging planet seems to be deranging the people on Earth. Perhaps causing them to descend into a certain melancholia as they fear it will not just pass us by, but collide with us.

Obviously, this film will be largely psychological. The Shakespearian imagery here too of Kirsten Dunst floating down the river speaks to the tragic madness of Hamlet's Ophelia. For those of us who have seen von Trier's previous outing, Antichrist, it's clear that he does have some fascination with women that is perhaps similar to my own warrior women fetish, if not a bit more refined.

Anyways, this is the frame I am talking about:

Apparently, this is von Trier's first film that doesn't have a happy ending. So take that however you will, especially if you think about Antichrist. But hey, he's artsy and high brow, so I'm sure he knows what he is talking about.

This film also features Alexander Skarsgard. That is more or less enough for me. I love Eric... err... Alexander so much.

Not sure this is really going to be a genre film, perhaps more in the vein of Black Swan. But we shall see. 

Happy end of the world!

xoxo

D-bag

Insidious...

Insidious is an apt title for a film such as this, in that it somehow managed to make me like it even though really it isn’t all that great. 

Which isn’t to say that it’s a bad film. But it isn’t really good either. It just weave it’s way back so seamlessly as it proceeds that it really did kind of beguile me into enjoying it.

In many ways it is an interesting and contemporary take on the good old haunted/possession genre. And it actually is pretty scary, especially towards the beginning. 

Even though the scares do come pretty much only from jump scenes reinforced by a really loud score, the effect--though heavy handed--never really seems wrong or misused. 

The imagery is unsettling and what turns out to be the film’s primary antagonist is actually quite an interesting and novel take on something that can and has been done wrong so many times. 

The other antagonists are pretty hit and miss and I felt took away from the weight of the aforementioned primary one. This is a story issue, of which there were a few. But again nothing to make me really dislike the movie,. 

The performances are passable and there are actually some fresh ideas here. 

“Your house is haunted, ehh? So why don’t you move then?”

“Oh, it’s the middle of the day. Nothing bad can happen now, can it?”

I will admit I am a bit of a sucker for the pseudo science surrounding the spiritual / demonic world. And the medium /  paranormal investigator here is played quite well by Lin Shaye. She definitely was the best part of the movie for me. 

The concept developed in the film’s second half relating to astral projection is interesting and even if its execution bordered on corny most of the time, the idea is really quite intriguing. 

Overall, the film is kind of corny and a little low brow, but still somehow likable. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. I guess that is the nature of insidiousness though, isn’t it?

I give this film three out of 5 fire faced, astral projected stuck thumbs for being a novel take in the genre that didn’t fail completely. 

xoxo

D-bag