I've blogged about the world of horror for well over 10 years. I've watched every inconceivable paranormal, poltergeist and ghost movie probably ever made but I've never actually done any ghost hunting IRL. In less than a month, I'll be doing just that for the first time.
With some fellow Survivors, were all going to venture to The Shanley Hotel, a supposed haunted inn with a very dark past. Equipped with EVPs and recording devices, we shall see if we can hear and see the sights and sounds of the past. Part of me wants to bring a PKE meter, Tobin's Spirit Guide and a proton pack but I would need some help obtaining those items.
I've only done one other "ghost tour" and that was in New Orleans....during the day. If you look at those pictures, I'm not even sure I took a picture of a orb or ghost though they claimed there was a 90% chance I would.
Hence my tone of skepticism. I've seen and loved both Paranormal Activity and The Innkeepers. But that's movie magic and you're guaranteed to see bumps in the night. Who knows what will happen when I go on May 25th.
But here's the deal where believer and skeptic become a debate in your own head. I believe there is intelligent life in the universe. I believe there is unknown species we have yet to discover on this planet called Earth. But believing in something and wanting to believe are two different things.
I want to believe in Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster. I want to believe extrasensory perception and time travel. I also want to believe in the paranormal. And so we put that to the test first. Because that is worth exploring. As Q in ST: TNG said once, it's "charting the unknown possibilities of existence".
Do you believe in ghosts? Have you gone on a mini investigation of our own to a supposed haunted place?
Let me know and share some advice with me.
You'll have noticed a lack of reviews of late. I've been focusing on that other blog I do. The other reason for the lack of reviews is I've just been picky in what I've been watching. The horror screeners I get are full of poor men's attempt at what Hollywood wants. That's not what indie horror is.
H.P. Mendoza's I Am a Ghost is what indie horror is.
I have to be thankful I am part of a horror blogger inner circle that
makes sure I see films like this. Thanks to Cortez the Killer at Planet
of Terror (see his review)
I feel reinvigorated in writing reviews for The Jaded Viewer. This film
was a breath of fresh air and my fellow inner circler Chris at All
Things Horror agrees (see his review here). It's what we as horror bloggers live for. Seeing something different, something unique and something with tons of risk that pays off big time.
Mendoza's I Am a Ghost is a slow burn ghost story that channels all the suspense of Kubrick film and releases it's madness Ti West style. You have to admire a film that throwsback to a cinematic style of vintaginess and still delivers. Add the fact the entire movie is centrally focused on one character, Emily (Anna Ishida) and in one setting, an old Victorian house and it's a bit risky endeavor. But that's why indie horror is a frontier. You'll never know if it will work if you don't try right?
I Am a Ghost plays with the viewer, forcing a WTF in every brief but cryptic scene until it slowly lets you in on the secrets that plague our dear Emily. Like a non linear jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces begin to make sense as the picture progresses (the eggs!!!) and once you see the entirety of the film, it's quite a sight to behold. It's full of chilling moments, superb acting and a twizzer twist on the ghost genre.
Boring Plot-O-Matic
Emily, a troubled spirit, haunts her own house every day, wondering why
she can't leave. With the help of Sylvia, a clairvoyant hired to rid the
house of spirits, Emily is forced into a 'patient/therapist'
relationship, uncovering disturbing mysteries about her past that may
help her move on to 'the next place'.
Awesome Review-O-Matic
I've slowly tried to give some leeway into the slow burn horror film. In both Ti West outings, I've been for and against it. It just depends on what's burning. In Mendoza's I Am a Ghost, the burn is full of dreamlike imagery of scenes of repetitiveness. Emily is a girl that seems oddly off. We see her repeat activities such as waking up, eating breakfast, getting groceries and cleaning. She's stuck in routine, but it seems her life in this Victorian house is not as it seems.The first quarter of the film is a slow burn to get us use to what's been happening before were thrown into this story. Whereas you'd be bored by a slow walker, a creaky floor or a few jump scares or whatever, the snapshots of Emily in "her life" and its loopiness is a montage of foggy delight. You're put in WTF mode and it draws you in.
In her parent's room, she hears a disembodied voice of Sylvia a medium (hired by the homeowners) who is trying to help her "to the light". She cannot see Sylvia, and vice versa. In a farside twist where the ghost doesn't know she is a ghost, Emily is TOLD she is a ghost and believes it. Read that sentence again because it's important.
Sylvia's conversations with Emily revolve around the nature of "closing", her memories, her death and her routine. If she leaves her parent's room she forgets everything. The movie is a cinematic darling in it plays with a stylized Del Toro-ness. There is a bit of shabby humor between Sylvia and Emily that breaks all the spooky tension. It's like modernity meets a stubborn old man stuck in time. The conversations slowly give us a glimpse of Emily's situation as does the imprints she has left in each room.
As the film concludes, a reveal puts all the pieces together and Emily confronts what she has dreaded the most.
Anna Ishida's performance is stellarly fantastic. To act by yourself, with a voiceover as your only partner must have been challenging and she does a great job in pulling it off. There would be a point where you'd think she'd have to be overmelodramatic but her subtlety in her performance was without a doubt what made it great.
Mendoza's story could easily draw comparisons to The Sixth Sense, The Others and The Innkeepers but that would be a disservice. What this film does is create a sense of dread, hopelessness and mystery and reveals a young woman's disturbing secret has not been eliminated in death. It's a journey through a photographic album of a life that was full of hardship and pain, where our instinctive nature to see a happy ending won't be answered. The very nature of the ghost story is that it is suppose to scare you. But here we are in a comforting role though the scares do come in a frenetic ending.
H.P. Mendoza is a talented filmmaker who clearly has pulled the best the old guard and the new guard have created and made a film that resembles the best of both. You will not be disappointed to see a film that has a new story to tell, a style all it's own and an eerie take on the what goes bump in the night.
Make sure you see this film.
Gore-ipedia
A few scenes of the red stuff, nothing your grandma couldn't handle
WTF moment
The visual of Emily's secret...shivers
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
I Am a Ghost is playing the film festival circuit. Be sure to check out the official site, follow H.P. Mendoza on Vimeo and Twitter. He just wrote a film called Yes Were Open starring Parry Shen. I'm pretty psyched to see what other films Mr. Mendoza has in store, hopefully he continues to do a few more in this genre.
Well I'm pretty late with a review for this. Part of the reason why I didn't watch this initially in theaters or on DVD was the overhype. It's on a bunch of best of lists and it's currently fresh on Rotten Tomatoes so I figure I'd give it a chance.
In any case, if you still want a review here you go. I'm going to make this quick as I know most of you have already seen it. Insidious is definitely a mixed bag for me but it definitely is slightly above average. With Insidious, James Wan amps up the traditional haunted house, flips it inside out, inserts twizzler twists and creates a genuine mythos based on extrasensory perception.
These are all awesome things and 3/4 of Insidious had me intrigued. It's when we are pushed into the boundaries of the ethereal plain and LITERALLY see the sight beyond sight called "The Further" does it all turn into a piling heap of doo doo. There are qualities of Insidious that call out "Poltergeist me!" and will always be in the back of the horror hound's mind. We see ghost/demon infiltration and we think Poltergeist...it's kinda not hard to. For all it's cheesiness, Poltergeist did it first (or mainstreamy first) and that sets the bar fuckin high.
I won't go into the plot too much. You know it. Family moves into a nice suburban home, child goes into unknown coma, weird scary jump scares start happening and a medium is brought in with her Mulder and Scully ghost hunter crew in tow. Secrets are revealed and dream worlds are seen. Cue scary ghosts and light bulbs shattering.
Performances are all OK, but the part I liked the most was the slight explanation of the phenomenon. It kind of made sense in an odd way. There hasn't been a mainstream feature film about astral projection and that should make Time Life Books proud. The old lady medium adds a flair as do the ghost busters with their PKE Meters and science gizmos. Even the initial mythos of The Further was pretty original and creative. The seance is one of the best scenes in the entire movie. I was hooked and I had this hovering around 3 and 1/2 spins, then.....
It's when you finally see the apparitions does it all look cheesy. Ghosts in bridesmaid dresses, ghosts in suits, ghosts with red war paint. The dreamworld is just our world with more tint. Why is that? Wan clearly could have figured out a way to make something unique. Even the fights between our hero father were a bit contrived.
For all that WTF, Insidious did ooze of originality and a millennial throwback to that traditional ghost story. Having seen The Innkeepers before seeing Insidious, I have a different perspective on how the generic ghost/haunted house movie can be warped into something fun and awesome. Sometimes, NOT seeing things makes the best believing. Insidious hovers like an apparition bent on wreaking havoc but in this case, only knocks a lamp over and unhinges a few picture frames.
There is a king of the slow burn horror movie and his name is Ti West. West, who's filmography includes The Roost, Cabin Fever 2 and The House of Devil has made a name for himself in the methodically paced horror movie. I was not a fan of this in The House of the Devil writing:
"However, at the end of the day the movie is a wicked slow slow slow burn. It takes so long to get to the nitty gritty that no Red Bulls were helping to keep me awake."
However, in The Innkeepers the slow burn has hills and valleys and surprisingly has humor in it filled with cleverisms and pop culturisms that rescue it from being engulfed in eternal boredom. It dabbles in LOLs while fine tuning a ghost story as it's central premise. What you get is a fun, mish mash of amateur ghost hunter hipsters making contact with the ethereal plain which slowly evolves The Innkeepers into a non laughing matter.
The Innkeepers is smart enough to know it's audience and by doing so gives us an old fashioned spooky throwback ghost story that balances the line between being cute and scary. The characters are drones, the guests are odd and the ghosts are cliched visual jump scares. With all the said, I still had a few problems with West's lack of a firepower ending and his overabundance to drag the movie into zzzzzzzzzzz territory but some things can be overlooked when I'm having fun.
But I'm all for the nostalgia for my vintage Poltergeists for the new millennium. The Innkeepers could be Generation X's's answer to that 80s classic.
Boring Plot-O-Matic
After over one hundred years of service, The Yankee Pedlar Inn is shutting its doors for good. The last remaining employees - Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy)- are determined to uncover proof of what many believe to be one of New England's most haunted hotels. As the Inn’s final days draw near, odd guests check in as the pair of minimum wage “ghost hunters” begin to experience strange and alarming events that may ultimately cause them to be mere footnotes in the hotel’s long unexplained history.
Awesome Review-O-Matic
When you do a supernatural horror movie, you can possibly go one of two ways. You can go all LOLs or you could go deadly serious. It seems Ti West elected to do both. In The Innkeepers, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are hotel worker drones who man the Yankee Pedlar Inn (in CT) for one last weekend before it goes out of business. There is a history of dread, as the hotel has a legend of Madeline O'Malley, whose death in a cellar has caused her to haunt this now defunct hotel.
The movie revolves around the dynamic of our hipster duo. Luke documents the history of his paranormal workplace on a website while Claire is in awe of a famous old timey actress (who she adores) that has checked into the hotel. Both are realistic drones who burn their boredom away with clever dialogue, actual job duties, beer and a search for scientific proof of the supernatural.
Staying at the hotel 24/7, they take shifts but at night, Claire goes all Fox Mulder and starts hearing the creeks and squeaks of something not right. It's here West goes all slow burn, hovering above Claire as she searches the remnants of a hotel (sometimes in full daylight) other times in the dead of night. Sara Paxton has a mesmerizing quality that made me buy into her performance. Claire is an asthmatic, everyday girl whose ambition has slowly died away. Paxton's performance is quirky stellar, similar to that of the cutout of a "hot gamer girl" but in this case "hot ghost hunter girl".
Pat Healy's Luke is goofball lovable. He's the horror geek, bad at web design, obsessed with the supernatural and possibly infatuated with his partner in crime. And his performance is not condescending to us horror hipsters at all. I could easily call these characters my friends.
But West wants to make sure that you get just enough haha's before he unleashes his House of the Devil style slow burn jump scares. And don't worry you get some eerie buildup of falsehoods and glimpses of either hallucinations, dreams or actual paranormal phenomenon. The fact that it's vague is part of the charm all the way to the end. It's almost a perfect film in how the atmosphere gets built up (a lost art in my opinion) and a perfect blueprint feature resembling those viral Internet videos with the "actual ghost footage" that leads to a growly scream of a "ghost" that usually scares the shit out of you.
My gripes, though few, are the things I originally said about House/Devil. I appreciate the false alarms but they take fuckin a Lord of the Rings trilogy to get there. Other characters such as Leanne Rease-Jones (played by Kelly McGillis) is the equivalent of the guy who always knows about the legend. Leanne plays a healer/medium who senses danger but elects to stay at the creepy hotel anyway. A few more guests make appearances but none add to the overall film.
Finally, I still don't think Ti West knows how to end a film. With such buildup, one demands an ending which can hold up the entire movie. Instead, West goes all conventional and I was a bit disappointed. I'm not looking for some M. Night Shalatwisters, but it still felt a little flat.
But as I said before The Innkeepers is damn fuckin smart. Characters react as I thought I would react, they get nervous, stammer and crack jokes like I would. Call me a horror hipster too. I'm not ashamed. The Innkeepers is a Generation X ode to the horror ghost story that younglings will like but keep us hardcore aged horror fanatics on our toes. I love my nostalgia not remade but repackaged in original creative tales. Ti West has finally made a movie I liked, nay loved. That's a first.
The slow burn horror king has built a kingdom with a unique style, flair and has a treasure room of all those very familiar cliches. Sometimes royalty shares the wealth with the people and Ti West does just that. Hopefully the 99% will see The Innkeepers for the gem that it is.
Nude-ipedia
Sara Paxton shows some leg (she's so damn cute!)
WTF moment The first encounter with Madeline O'Malley
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
The Innkeepers will premiere on Video in Demand on December 30th, 2011. It'll be in theaters on February 3rd, 2012 courtesy of Magnet Releasing. The film is in conjunction with Dark Sky Films and Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix.
The Innkeepers is definitely going to find a place on my Top 10 of 2011 list. If you're looking for a quality old fashioned spookster, this is the perfect film.
I'm not sure what I watched but I have to say it wasn't good. I haven't watched many Czech horror films...actually I haven't watched any as far as I can recall but when Darkness was dropped into my lap courtesy of Breaking Glass Pictures, I figured Id get get an education on what Czech films we're all about.
I think this was a lesson I could have done without.
Darkness aka T.M.A is a cliched ridden haunted house story full of so many multiple plots that I had no idea what was going on. Well I think it was a haunted house/poltergeist story. At times Darkness turned into a locals have a secret flick than a Nazi atrocities movie. Who knows?
I had to watch this over the course of 3 days as I was getting bored every 20 minutes. That's how irritating this film was. I mean seriously, the film had one death in the entire thing. ONE!
Boring Plot-O-Matic
Weary of his rock-and-roll lifestyle as a successful musician, Marek takes time off to live in the country home of his childhood so he can pursue his hobby of painting. Unfortunately, the old, forgotten manor offers anything but peace and quiet. Haunted by strange noises and vivid childhood memories, Marek soon senses hes living in the midst of a dark presence.
With the help of Lucia, a sweet girl from the nearby town, Marek embarks on a journey to unearth the houses sordid past and historic ties to the Nazi occupation. As he delves deeper into the houses secrets, Marek finds himself wondering whether the ghostly occurrences are a product of the house or his own troubled sub-conscious.
Thanks to expert storytelling and a gorgeous, brooding aesthetic Darkness pulls the audience into a riveting mystery that shakes a layer of dust off the classic ghost story genre.
Awesome Review-O-Matic
I'm not sure how I can even explain the plot here. Marek a musician/painter heads to his childhood home to paint. But his childhood home is chock full of evil lore. Soon weird shit happens and we get a full on cliche-o-rama which includes:
Secluded house in the middle of nowhere
Angry, suspicious locals
Mysterious light flickering
Mysterious children singing
Mysterious nightmare dreaming
The local who befriends the stranger
Gratuitous sex scene
Retarded kids
Nazis atrocities?!?!
Flashbacks to fill in the gaps
Gratuitous leg amputation
Ocular trauma
One death
Abrupt ending
See? Mucho cliches. Darkness has some eerie scenes (but nothing I'm writing Blood Disgusting about) but it's mostly full of scenes involving Marek trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I don't know what passes as a horror film in the Czech Republic, but I'm not going to find out.
Many countries take the ghost story seriously and put it into their films. In the case of Darkness, its a blend of sibling drama and ghosts of retarded kids....oops I mean mentally challenged Nazis....err I mean retarded kids who tortured Nazis. Forget it, it doesn't matter. Sure there's some boobage and a few gore scenes interspersed throughout but that's like seeing a side boob in a porn movie. Did that even make sense? No? Just like this movie.
So what did I learn from my first ever Czech horror movie?
Nazis are evil in every country.
Nude-ipedia
Some full frontal European chubby babes Skinemax sex scene
Gore-ipedia
Leg amputation Ocular trauma
WTF moment
I have to admit, the lullaby the dead children kept singing got stuck in my head...."Augustin Augustin...." Dammit!
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
For more information, you can head over to Breaking Glass Pictures. The movie gets released on DVD on September 7th. Breaking Glass Pictures has been bringing American indies as well as international indie flicks to American audiences. Sometimes they bring awesomeness like Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! Other times, we get vampire lesbians.
Hopefully another gem gets dropped in my lap the next time.
Shorts are the quickest way to get an indie filmmaker's talent some buzz and with Enter the Dark, Todd Miro (who was the producer and editor for Elisabeth Fies' cult-thriller The Commune) does just that.
So does this Paranormal Activity lite short reinvent the ghost haunted house genre and take it into new territory?
My quick hit answer is "ehhh not really but sorta." It's a quick 18 min and some of the interactions between our main characters Rob and Charles are funny and slightly suspenseful. It's slickly produced, some of the scenes are new and inventive and put a chill down my spine. But here's the thing. If say they did this a few years ago, I'd be glowing about Enter the Dark but Paranormal Activity single handily rebooted the POV/shaky cam haunted house genre and unfortunately now all other films in this genre have to be compared to it.
That's not to say Enter the Dark didn't do things to scare the bejesus out of me.
Boring Plot-O-Matic
Enter The Dark is a short film that takes you into the dark recesses of a haunted house and the even darker fathoms of the human soul. Although it may seem similar to Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project, its sensibilities are really rooted in films like The Haunting, Poltergeist and especially The Exorcist, Alien, and The Shining.
Awesome Review-O-Matic
I'd have to say the best parts of the short are the very Rated R conversations between Rob (Rob Sandusky) and Charles (Charles Yoakum). Some of the light hearted conversation is hilarious and had me LOL-ing. The short forces you to get all chummy with these buddies but soon it's Mulder and Scully time as Charles has an X-File he needs help with.
His house is haunted and he tries to make Rob believe this is such. His initial evidence? A strange video recording. This leads to a walk around the house with a video camera POV (the film also is shot regularly which should relieve the nauseous viewer). Soon our duo are hearing voices, feeling cold spots and in one stellar scene communicate with the ghost via a children's audio book This scene works beautifully and I admit I got a little freaked out.
However, we also get our standard cliches in the mix. A locked door, some toy stacking and some written mirror messages (thank the movie gods Miro didn't put in a mirror scare). It's all your standard stuff that have seen before. My hope was that though this was in the same vain as PA, it would try to do things slightly differently to scare us. Basically, the scare factors here in Enter the Dark hit average, a baseball average of .333.
My only other gripe was the acting and dialogue. It's not bad bad but there seemed to be some over explaining. A rule in filmmaking is to never talk about what you're doing and at times this is what happens. Also the performances are adequate yet both Rob and Charles don't seem frightened by something very frightening. The charm is Rob is Scully-ing as far as he can go even though the evidence that's stacked in front of him is overwhelming.
My final issue is with the ending which employs an interesting twist. The ending shows a little too much visually and I'd hope we wouldn't actually "see" what the audience is dying to see. I may be nitpicking but that's the point of an effective ghost story is to let your imagination make up the monster in your head.
The film is very well produced and shot. The fact it was shot in Todd Miro's actual house (much to his wife's displeasure) gives it such an authentic quality that can't be duplicated. A fast 35mm lenses and a Sony HD infra-red camcorder were used and you can tell by the quality of the visuals. It's edited nicely so the long suspenseful build shots are drawn to a nicely edited switching between the 2 POVs.
Enter the Dark is an effective short in this post Paranormal Activity age. There are always new ways to amp up the scare quotient and Todd Miro and his crew do this effectively. I just needed to see more and by more I mean scenes that were creatively scary. There's some good stuff to make a feature and this genre is definitely prime to get some new blood in it.
Hopefully, Todd Miro is the man to do it.
Gore-ipedia/Nude-ipedia
Negative Zero
WTF moment The ghost talks via book (hell it could have been a Kindle) The ending
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
So where can you see this short? The film will be screening at the Chicago Horror Film Festival on Sunday, Sept. 26th. It's also been submitted to various other festivals including Screamfest and Slamdance.
[FYI: A weird thing as I wrote this. I had almost completed the entire post when all of a sudden half the post got deleted. I then had to write this for a 2nd time. Jeez. Was it a ghosts? After effects of eating BP spilled oil seafood? I don't know but it was damn weird]
Well I'm back. My friend Vic said "he had some shit he had to take care". Something in regards to tourists invading his swamp and he had to clean his hatchet again. Well maybe next time Vic. But New Orleans is quite a city. From the French Quarter to the awesome food (and the open container drinking), you will have tons of fun in the Big Easy.
So while I was there I decided to take a real authentic New Orleans Ghost Tour. The tagline stated what I have in the subject line: "There is a 90% chance you will take a photo of a ghost".
The ghost tour I signed up for has a 90 percent "you will photograph a ghost" success rate. I'm now kinda scared So here's some of my photographic evidence from the tour. You can judge for yourself if I took any ghostly pictures.
The tour started off at Rev. Voodoo's Shop. This place had a collection of occult merch. I used this time to grab my 2nd beer as I staggered with my fellow tourists to start the tour.
The first stop was of a house where a 1800s mistress froze to death on a snowy New Orleans night after being dared by her husband to stand on the balcony, naked. If she were to do this, they would get married (there's more to this story, but I was kinda binging at this point so I don't remember). See a ghost? I don't. Where are you white snowy ghost lady?
Is this a ghost? Nope. It's a guy playing a violin while walking on a tightrope. I think he was sober.
Well this is the Andrew Jackson hotel. Supposedly some drunk kids (wait those are Philly fans) decided to go all pyro and burnt a few blocks of New Orleans killing a bunch of innocents. Now the hotel is haunted by these kids. Our tour guide, Jennifer Raven explained that people who stay at this hotel (why?!?!) have had photos of themselves taken (while naked of course) while they are sleeping from a vantage point of being directly above their bed.
Yes folks, we got pervert pyro kid ghosts.
This is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar. It's been featured on some of those Ghost Hunter shows. Lafitte himself is haunting this place and people have heard French being spoken in the men's bathroom, the fireplace and the upper rooms.
I took many photos and went into the men's bathroom. I was about to take a picture of what I thought was a ghost but it was just a guy taking a shit. A very drunk guy.
Here's a pic of the bar. See any ghosts? The door towards the end is the mens bathroom where I saw smelly drunk guy on the toilet. I decided to get another beer and talk up the hot waitresses.
See hot waitresses! But no ghosts :-(
We concluded our tour at the house above. We were told of a socialite who wickedly abused her slaves. See, during one of her glamorous dinners a slave started a fire forcing the dinner guests to be evacuated. The police and fire company soon discovered a room of horrors. The room was full of slaves who had been horrifically tortured. They decapitated, arms sliced, faces skinned, holes drilled in their heads, maggots eating their flesh and one slave women was put into a wooden crate for days.
Now the slaves haunt this place with a vengeance.
The kicker here is Nic Cage bought this house WITHOUT knowing the story. Upon hearing why every tour stopped to take pictures, he demanded to know the history of the house. Good job Wicker Man. [INSERT NIC CAGE STUNNED PHOTO HERE]
Well that's about it. I also went to a magic shop which is of the photo I took in the beginning of the post. I really did feel like Giles and Willow when I was in there.
It looks like I was in that 10% as my photos don't seem to have any weird orbs or ghosts in any of them. Do you see any? Hmmm, well it was fun in any case. So do you guys believe in ghosts? When you see a photo with some supposed supernatural evidence, what do you think?
So it was inevitable that I would see Paranormal Activity as it's all the hype and rage of late. As a horror blogger, it would be shameful of me not see this. So the odd part is I did not see this during a midnight madness showing (though I did try to go to one) but on a lazy Sunday mid-afternoon show with a few sporadic jabronis and Joe and Joanna Moviegoer. It would have been cooler to see this with Geeks and The Core, but you have to make do with what you got right?
Another disclaimer before I review is I saw the Paramount cut with the Spielberg ending and not the original uncut movie. To get a feel of what was changed head over to The Horror Effect and B-Movie Becky can explain.
So what did the jaded viewer think?
Paranormal Activity is a very creepy and scary movie that follows the shaky cam/found footage formula to a tee. It doesn't live up to the hype, but it does get very close. The movie relies on ingrained fear of the unknown and tosses some sound effects, shadow and bizarre creepiness and an ending that people won't forget.
As I mentioned before, The Paranormal Activity Effect will be echoed by all the major studios. It's a testament to what a $15,000 dollar budget, one week shoot and no name actors can accomplish. You think The Blair Witch Project can only happen once in a lifetime, but 10 years later, it's happened again in the full internet age to boot. Wow. What a fuckin accomplishment. Indie horror is still alive and for once the big studios took advantage instead of relegating good horror (like Trick R Treat) to Best Buy DVD shelves. Paranormal Activity is genuinely an anomaly within the horror genre, blasting through the clutter of zombies, vampires and monsters. Unseen demon spookiness is a lost art form and I am glad PA brings it back in a very clever way.
So on to a breakdown review.
Boring Plot-O-Matic
After a young, middle class couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban 'starter' tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be somehow demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to.
Awesome Review-O-Matic
As I watched this flick, the Blair Witch comparisons are inevitable. But more so, I was drawn to compare this to another POV/found footage/shaky cam film that came out recently called Evil Things (full review here). They both are similar in following the formula BWP invented. The only difference is one is now a cult phenomenon and the other is nowhere on anybody's horror radar.
But let's get to the breakdown by seeing how Paranormal Activity worked the BWP formula to perfection.
The camera "person" films everything
His friends who become part of the video
Something sinister starts to scare them
The film ends with "the final shot" that gets the audience shocked
The camera "person" films everything
Micah and Katie both work the camera so we can get at least 99 minutes of footage. Though the motives are better explained as to why Micah is taping everything. With the paranormal shit having happened before the movie starts, there is justification that Micah wants to be a ghost hunter himself and record everything. Both Micah and Katie give strong performances and come out as very "real" in their ad-libbed and emotional diatribes. They seem to be a natural couple, not Hollywood 20-something actor clones. Katie has that Pam Beasley Office look while Micah comes off as a fantasy football/geek personality.
Katie's persona as a haunted life long victim of this demon comes off as very sincere and you feel for her. But to me, the best reality show character motif comes from Micah who plays the arrogant, SOB boyfriend to a tee. It's a twist within this genre. Usually the characters play off scared, than fuckin totally frightened. But Micah goes all tough guy, calling out the entities that have invaded his home and his girlfriend. His elaborate "traps" to capture evidence is a clever cat and mouse game between him and Demon X. I liked the fact he was brave enough to challenge and though many hated this in Micah, I loved his alpha male -ism.
His friends who become part of the video
Only 2 other characters show up and become part of the footage. The Psychic whose scared shitless and Katie's friend. Can you believe this movie had only 4 people on film?
Something sinister starts to scare them
I'm not going to go over each of the "Night" scenes but some more than others were effective. The daytime scenes are filled with humor, concern and infighting while the meat and potatoes of the movie are the night scenes. It's the tripod camera footage that we all were waiting to see. Katie's eternal standing, Ouija board and the other WTF scene around #13 or so (not sure) worked the best. The others (keys, light switching) seem to be unscary. But it's the buildup that counts as you the paranormal activity goes from low to medium than to mega high. It's a slowburn and by the ending, it's raining hellfire.
The film ends with "the final shot" that gets the audience shocked
The Spielberg ending is a decent way to end it though if you read the original ending, it also seems more realistic and probably worked effectively as well. You tell me. If you saw the original ending vs the Spielberg ending, which one was better? Paranormal Activity probably wouldn't have worked if say it was released in July. But in October, with Halloween in the air it's just the awesome piece of candy amongst all the crappy candy corn in your bag of horror treats. It is very scary, to tweens and jabronis probably 100x scary but to the Core and the Geeks, we look at it a little differently. Insano Steve said a few times, why don't they turn on all the lights? Whats with this camera light as the only light source?!?! I agree. We all have gripes with the logic but it wouldn't be a horror movie if they turned on all the lights, right? Also, the daytime "scares" broke the mold which gave me a happy.
Because of many of these happy thoughts, Paranormal Activity works. It works as a faux documentary/POV film, it works as a scary and creepy film and it works as one of the best horror films of 2009.
Gore-ipedia/Nude-ipedia
Negative Zero
WTF moment The second to last scene The ending
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
Here's hoping the DVD has both endings. I am very curious to see what was cut and what was added. You're not going to see a better movie this October (other than probably Zombieland).
Regardless of my review, you're going to see this movie because the hype has gotten so farfetched, it's at ludicrous speed. All I can say is bring down your expectations and go in with having your fear jolted a few times.
Paranormal Activity will probably end up on my Top 10 Horror Films of 2009 as well as many within the horror-blogosphere. As you all know, those lists are one of the prime indicators you've made it within the horror-sphere. See it in the theater in a packed room and let the mass fear hysteria begin.
I watched the trailer for Paranormal Activity months and months ago and it looked good. I just didn't think it was going to get a wide release and I would eventually see it on DVD shelves and Netflix this year. But what this little movie has done via its midnight madness success is probably going to alter the way all indie horror movies operate.
The long journey of this movie 10 years after of the Blair Witch Project revolutionized the shaky cam horror genre is spooky as the movie (which I haven't seen yet like most of horror fans in America). Internet buzz is high (just like BWP), midnight screenings are out of control and the pro and the anti fans of Paranormal Activity are shooting their 2 cents about what they think.
The fact that there are crowd reports during these screenings says it all. It's very similar to the feel the Blair Watch Project had in 1999. I remember when I saw that in the theater, with an overly psyched up and hyped up crowd. Some left feeling utterly disappointed and others like myself felt it was creative and groundbreaking. After watching it again a few months ago, I realized that it wasn't the spookiness and bumps in the night that made it scary but the fact that Heather, Josh and Mike we're decent, funny loveable hipsters that made me care about the fucked up predicament they were in.
Some of the comments and reviews are in. A few have deemed it unscary and overhyped others as the new trailer suggests are jumping out of their seats. I mean check out that trailer.
I first commented that I thought all these people were actors "acting scared" as I mean it's a freakin showing in Hollywood, CA. Really? People clutching each other and jumping out of their seats? Screaming? Shrieking? Puh-lease.
Maybe I'm wrong. I'll have to see it for myself.
Even the director Oren Peli is shocked by the response of the movie.
So what's the effect? Well indie horror cinema has been trying to capture the Blair Witch in a bottle for some time now. Dominic Perez's Evil Things is in the same vain and it's quite good at getting the scares with the shaky cam feel. Rec (not Quarantine) took the shaky cam into a zombie infested apartment building and has spawned Rec 2. The real question will come on how Paramount Pictures responds. Will they give this film a wider release?
Duh of course they will.
The midnight box office has been insane and the crowds massive (I mean see Bloody Disgusting's LA riot). But my bold prediction is this. I think we'll see big studios use the midnight show as a barometer for indie horror movies they sign deals with. Dimension has their Dimension Extreme, Lions Gate has Ghosthouse Underground, etc. I think what we'll see is test screenings for indie horror movies that would have eventually ended up straight to DVD. I mean this won't happen for all horror straight to DVDs but I think the big studios will see what the hype is for a particular movie and if they see it causing chaos, it'll be in a few major cities and the return of the midnight show will make a triumphant return.
And then we'll start calling this the Paranormal Activity Effect and thus it will replace the BWP as a verb for the revolution of the shaky cam horror genre.
After watching the opening scene of They Wait and after the intro credits started to roll, up came the foreboding credit of:
Executive Producer
Uwe Boll
I should have just shut off the movie right then and there. But I knew what I was getting into. I knew a film based on Chinese mythos and ghost stories would be your typical The Ring-like dash and scare.
But dammit, it had the hotness that is Jaime King. And the there's this clip I saw where she gets into the shower and gets spooked. So I spent the next 80 minutes hoping that this would turn into a very good American remake ala The Ring.
And I kept waiting. And waiting. And freakin waiting.
I'm still fuckin waiting.
Boring Plot-O-Matic
A young mother and her six-year-old son come face to face with the mysteries of two murders and a great crime against the Chinese community into which they have recently arrived from Shanghai. Awesome Review-O-Matic
Before I review, let me answer all your most important and pertinent questions about this flick.
1.) Are you telling me that in They Wait, Jaime King is married to a Chinese dude?
A: Fuck yeah. Kudos to the filmmakers for making all Asian guys think they have a chance to score with Jaime King.
2.) So you're telling me when some Chinese dude and Jaime King have an offspring, it looks like a 100% Chinese kid?
A: Yes. Not even a hint of any Caucasian genes is in this kid. Look at the pic below. Is that kid even look like he's from a mixed marriage?????
3.) OK, I just want to watch this movie because I heard there is a Jaime King shower scene. Does she get naked?
A: Well naked is a relative term. It looks like she is naked, but you don't see shit. It's like the Jessica Alba scene in The Eye. Fuckin big tease. Check out the scene here.
4.) So just tell me already, this is like the Ring right?
A: Yup. Hot blonde with son tries to stop a ancient spirits of evil from killing her family. She needs to uncover the deep dark secret the family has covered up so that the spirits can rest. Yada yada yada.
5.) Are you sure the hot blonde isn't Sarah Michelle Gellar?
A: Hold on let me check the DVD box again.......nope. It's Jaime King.
6.) I read other reviews and they said there were scary moments and big chills. Is that true?
A: Those people are fuckin idiots. This wouldn't scare an ass out of a hole.
7.) Is this film Canadian?
A: Yeah. Hey. Hosers.
8.) Is there any gore or splatter that would make this film even worth putting on my Netflix queue?
A: Let's see. A tree bleeds. Meat cleaver in the head. Some bones and skulls. Nothing that I can think of.
9.) Will there ever be a good Asian movie that can be remade for Western audiences?
A: Not really. You might as well rent or buy the originals. Read the english subtitles. It's not going to kill you. These movies were made for their core audience for that particular country. They are on the most basic levels movies about the fear of the supernatural in all of us. Wow that sounded like a real review.
10.) So what exactly are they waiting for?
A: I think for the movie to end.
To sum it up, Jaime King basically emotes alot and tries to rid her 100% Chinese son from these demons. A few CGI scares and some flashbacky ending later, you really can't believe this was a DVD movie and not some episode of Fear Itself or a segement of Masters of Horror.
Influences
The Ring The Grudge Every other J-horror movie Every other Thai-horror movie Every other Chinese-horror movie
Gore-ipedia (if you want to be shocked don't read)
A hatchet through the head (didn't I write that already?)
Nude-ipedia (because you like boobies)
So close to seeing some Jaime King boobies. But trust me, in a few years we'll be seeing her do Skinemax soon enough. WTF moment Why didn't I just turn this off in the beginning?
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
I really should have shut off the flick after seeing the gratuitous Jaime King shower scene. But I was so intrigued by the premise that she was married to this Chinese dude and had a kid that was 100% Chinese I kept watching. I thought they'd explain it. Like it was a kid from the husband's 1st marriage or that he was adopted. I wanted a fuckin explanation for this.
So I kept waiting. And waiting.
Trust me, you don't want to wait this fuckin long.
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