Monday, July 20, 2009

Art of the Devil II - horror review

Art of the Devil


Art of Devil was a Thailand horror film. A story of the reunion of six souls commences, a haunting past binds the circle of friends in an evil world filled with black magic and doom.

It’s all about revenge of their teacher named Boom was pregnant from an affair. One of her student captured a video of their sexual moment, and used this to leave him and his family alone. Furious… she goes to a witch doctor and has him use black magic against her ex-lover and his family. They all die in disbelieving scene.

Forget all the run through, violence and mish-mash of Khmer magic and folklore, what it comes down to is the repercussions of your actions; reaping the rewards or paying the price. Choices are strange and often trivial, split-second moments of time and space, but the fallout is often long-lasting and drawn out. Like the shaman suggests, the choice of the teens to lay the curse will affect them to the very day they die. Thus is the penalty for their actions and they must be distrustful of this annoyance wherever they go, symbolically and factually. The same ‘laws’ apply to the teacher and the coach as well – with their lustful choices come appropriate consequences. There is almost a downward spiral or domino effect implied in the screenplay for all involved, like telling a lie that leads to deeper and deeper lies. Each action the characters take leads them to another more important action, and in turn, more terrible consequences.

Release Date: June 27, 2006
Director: Tanit Jitnukul
Writer: Tanit Jitnukul
Starring: Arisa Wills Supakson Chaimongkol Krongthong Rachatawan Tin Settachoke Somchai Satuthum
Studio: Tokyo Shock



Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Ruins - Mayan with flesh eating plants

The Ruins

The Ruins – a bloody horror film directed by former fashion photographer Carter Smith, breezes by, feigning at both character and plot without bothering to develop much of either.

Horror moment center in Mexico, when the Americans Jeff, his girlfriend Amy, her best friend Stacy and her boyfriend Eric befriend the German Mathias in the swimming pool. Mathias invites the group to visit the ruins of a Mayan temple with his Greek friend Dimitri in an archeological field where his brother Henrich and his girlfriend are camped eighteen kilometers far from the resort.

The scenic Mayan ruins, covered with a monstrous plant, should have served as an ideal location for the unfolding of a horror film. Smith though, tosses this fertile ground to the side and chooses to focus "The Ruins" on a handful of gory set pieces. The most graphic of these, an anesthesia free double amputation, shocks, but like the rest of the film, never truly grabs. The primary actors, Jenna Malone the most recognizable of the bunch, never get much to do other than cower, cry, and eventually die.

I believe 3 among the group “jeff,amy,eric” are going to be alive if they never panic, so well the story make themselves complicated.

"The Ruins" drama, when it works, is drawn not so much from the threat of the vines—although that is ever-present—but from the threats that the characters present to one another. In a situation previously unimagined by these coddled American college students hard decisions become even harder. Agreement among the group is rare, and when it comes it's usually from conciliations that will come back to stir the pot. The film never truly allows these relationships to breathe though.

The Ruins

The RuinsThe Ruins

Friday, June 5, 2009

Silent Hill - Horror Movie Review

Silent Hill Horror Movie
Silent Hill Horror Movie - Star by Sean Bean (Lord Of The Rings, Flightplan, Silent Hill) as James and Maria Bello (The Cooler, Secret Window, A History Of Violence) as Adele, as a separated couple trying to raise their daughter Sarah while living on two separate continents.

The story starts out with Sarah, played by relative newcomer Sophie Stuckey, demanding that her mother take her from their home in New York to visit her dad who is living on the Welsh coast. Sarah and Adele soon find that the history of the area is one that has been steeped in the legend of Annwn, the Welsh version of the other world, where you can get back loved ones when they die if you find the way. When Sarah drowns while taking a walk along the coast in the same area as a fanatical bunch of believers took their lives some 50 years before, Adele and James meet Ebrill (played by Abigail Stone) who tells them that she can be their daughter instead of Sarah. After researching the history of the area, Adele finds that Ebrill is not what she seems and takes on the journey of trying to retrieve her own daughter.

The end left me satisfied and somewhat happily surprised that it had some interesting plot twists,(as well as having some Silent Hill undertones to it). Why this movie was allowed to fly under the radar amongst all of 2005 box office crap is beyond me. It is one that is well written, acted and directed. The scenery of the Welsh coastline is breathtaking if you’re someone who gets into that sort of thing.

Both Maria Bello who is the main character in the film and Sean Bean who is unfortunately drastically underused bring their high quality acting to this little film. That in itself is enough for me to take a look at least once and quite possibly reason to put it in my DVD collection for rainy nights when I need a little creepy suspense.



Thursday, April 16, 2009

American Zombie Horror Movie Review

The bloody horror story of AMERICAN ZOMBIE Embed by Lee is obvious reluctance on paper John ( "Saturday Night Live," writes John Solomon officers), whose interests in the more shocking that rejects zombiedom - perhaps recklessly - just as stereotyped.


It is a great time this weekend. On Mike house with his several friends and family members who were way cool about letting us slather them up with karo-blood and latex body parts. A usual tradition of being Northerners by nature they were also able to laugh off the cold rain when we later filmed the obligatory "tear the guy open and munch his guts" sequence.

Nice zombie makeup by Mike, as always. After having what we thought was a great idea for a slashed throat effect not work so great last week it was real nice to have an experiment actually work out BETTER than we'd expected. Gelatin skin, buttered on one side and colored on the other, makes for a very convincing skin to make it edible.


American Zombie Movie Synopsis: Using a pseudo-documentary format, American Zombie explores the everyday lives of zombies who live in American society and the struggles they face for social equality and self- identity.

Cast: Grace Lee, Austin Basis, Suzy Nakamura, John Solomon, Al Vicente, Jane Edith Wilson

Director: Grace Lee

Studios: Cinema Libre Studio/Lee Lee Films