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Time for another installment of Shit to Get You Through the Weekend. Unless you’ve been living on another planet for the last 20 years or so, you’ve seen The Matrix, the Star Wars films, Blade Runner, and Aliens. Here are five underrated sci-fi movies that you may have not seen. So, like last weekend, if you find yourself with nothing to do this weekend, run out to your large brand-name video rental chain and pick these up.
So, I’m starting this new thing on the blog here which I will be calling “Shit to Get You Through the Weekend.” In my first installment, I’ll be examining 5 horror films which you probably haven’t seen, but should see. So, if you don’t have shit to do this weekend, go out, rent these, and watch them. If you do, let me know what you thought in the comments. Here we go:
Yeah, so Fay has come and gone but that hasn’t stopped the weekend horrorthon. Had a small power outage this morning but other than that, we were fortunate in having nothing but a lot of heavy rain.
Patrick Bateman is one fucked up yuppie!
The first movie on the agenda tonight was American Psycho starring Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, and Reese Witherspoon. The movie is based on the novel of the same name and focuses on Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a young twenty-something yuppie from ’80’s Manhattan who just happens to like murdering people on the side. Bale portrays Bateman with an incredible amount of intensity and really manages to nail the fact that Bateman is a schizophrenic psychopath merely existing amongst his peers. I saw this film a few years back before Bale achieved any sort of notoriety or fame and I liked it just as much the second time around. Actually, I probably enjoyed it more on the second go. This film could probably be more aptly grouped as a psychological thriller than an actual horror film but it was an excellent film nonetheless. I’d highly recommend this one especially for those Bale fans out there.
My Rating: ***1/2
Alright so it’s getting close to 11:30 PM here and Fay has been downgraded to a Tropical Depression. Looks like the worst part is over for us here.
Some dude named Ian Stone dies a bunch of times.
We continued our horrorthon with one of the “8 Films to Die For” from Horrorfest 2007 called The Deaths of Ian Stone. I thought it was alright but my wife made the point that it seemed like a drawn out Outer Limits episode and I think she basically nailed it. The movie focuses on Ian as these monsters continuously chase him down and kill him only to bring him back in a new life after each death. He starts to remember each past life and the story moves on from there. While I enjoyed this movie, I thought the very best scene was near the beginning when he first encounters the monsters on a train track. Overall the film was alright, but as all of the films we’ve watched over this horrorthon, it wasn’t great. I thought the concept was interesting and the story fresh and original but the scares and creep factor were somewhat limited.
My Rating: ***
Well, it is currently 8:45 PM and the horrorthon is back on in full force. Fortunately, we’ve managed to keep the power and internet up through this which amazes me. Gov. Bob Riley has, however, announced a state of emergency for Alabama and we’re supposed to get six more inches of rain. Flooding is the main concern here in our neck of the woods. Fay has moved somewhat north of us now. Here’s the radar image:
Dude, when that voice says "get out," it means get the fuck out...like...yesterday!
The first movie on the agenda tonight was the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror. I must say, usually I hate remakes with a passion, but I was somewhat impressed with this one. I thought Ryan Reynolds did a great job as George Lutz. The film wasn’t overloaded with gore, which I also found notable. Although the creepy atmosphere was present, especially with George constantly hearing the “katch ‘em, kill ‘em,” the use of shocking and creepy imagery was more of a present factor. Quick shots of ghosts covered in blood or with goo hanging from their heads from supposed gun wounds were abundant. I thought they added some interesting twists that weren’t present in the original. The whole addition of how the house became haunted in the first place, was an interesting concept. Not original, of course, but interesting nonetheless. Overall, The Amityville Horror wasn’t the perfect horror film, but it was creepy enough to keep me on the edge throughout. I’d recommend it.
My Rating: ***1/2
It’s now 11:30 PM and while the rain is coming down, we still haven’t gotten anything real heavy here yet. Fay’s now back over the water as the current pic below indicates.
Put Wes Craven's name on it! That'll get 'em to watch it!
But on to more important shit, we finished They and I’d forgotten the fact that I’d seen this movie. It wasn’t until the scene where the main chick meets up with her childhood friend in the diner near the beginning that I realized I’d watched this one a few years back. It’s also called Wes Craven presents They for some odd fucking reason that I can’t figure out because his name is no where in the credits that I can see other than as “presenter.”
I thought the movie was alright. It was pretty much archetypical horror. Group of young people are experiencing some form of evil. No one believes them. All the kids start dying off until the end where the main character is left running for her life. I say “her” because the final character is almost always a female. After all, most of the time, it’s dudes watching horror and we’d much rather see a chick running around at the end of a movie than some random guy. I was satisfied with the film although it tended to drag in spots. The creatures were completely CGI but that was perfectly acceptable for me. They were well rendered for the time (2002) so it worked. I thought they could have spent less time on the useless dialogue and other similar scenes which seemed to drag on. They could have spent more time trying to build up the suspense during the parts where the creatures are actually attacking. Overall, although They is certainly no where near the best in the genre it worked for me because of the use of atmosphere as opposed to gore to creep out the audience. Not a bad choice for a horrorthon I guess.
My Rating: ***
So, it is now approaching 10 PM here. Still no real sign of Fay. As of this writing she is back over the gulf picking up a little intensity before she makes landfall…again. This will be a short review as we’re getting ready to watch another so please keep that in mind when reading.
Holy fuck! These Russian ghosts mean business!!
We finished our first movie tonight. The Abandoned was one of the “8 Films to Die For” from After Dark Films. Usually I don’t like a lot of the Lionsgate stuff but I did enjoy The Abandoned. A woman returns to her birthplace of Russia after 40 years and goes back to her estate only to uncover a terrible secret that haunts the grounds. I thought the movie was well done. There’s nothing creepier to me than ghosts/apparitions walking through an old abandoned house. That shit just sends chills up my damn spine. I thought the atmosphere of the film was perfect. It wasn’t loaded down with gore either which is usually one of my pet peeves with these films. It was definitely a unique ghost tale and I’d recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.
My Rating: ***1/2
So, with this damn tropical Storm bearing down on us here in lower AL, the wife and I decided to spend the weekend inside watching horror movies…until the fucking power goes out, of course. Yesterday I went down to the local video store and picked up some DVDs. Most of these I haven’t seen, but as soon as I watch them, I’ll post a quick review of each one. Here’s what we have lined up.
The Amityville Horror (2005)
They (2002)
The Abandoned (2006)
American Psycho (2000)
The Deaths of Ian Stone (2007)
The Nightmare Man (2006)
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- The Amityville Horror (2005)
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- They (2002)
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- Nightmare Man (2006)
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- American Psycho (2000)
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- The Deaths of Ian Stone (2007)
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- The Abandoned (2006)
