Saturday, March 21, 2015

The Barrens Movie Review 353






The Barrens is a 2012 horror movie directed by Darren Lynn Bousman(Saw2,3,4) and starring Stephen Moyer(True Blood) and Mia Kirshner(The L Word).


Richard Vineyard(Moyer) and his wife Cynthia(Kirshner) are going on a camping trip with their son Danny and Sadie(Allie MacDonald). Sadie is resentful of Cynthia as she is her step mother and she does not want her to replace her real mother. They are going to The Barrens in New Jersey. It s a forest and Richard wants to totally get away from any distractions.  They arrive at their camping site  to find that there are too many other people there with noise and nonsense. Richard is having flashbacks to something that happened him when he used to come there as a child camping. The campers are talking about the legend of The Jersey Devil who is supposedly a child of Satan and they say that he haunts the woods. Animals turn up mutilated and Richard is not impressed with these stories.


Richard begins to have a meltdown and he is having nightmares and seeing things. He becomes convinced that they should get away from the camp sire and he leads his family deep into the woods. Cynthia is getting worried about his erratic behaviour. They discover a dead dog and Richard goes to bury it. Richard begins to look sick and he is weak. He saw the Jersey Devil when he was young child and it is haunting him.
He goes mad and Cynthia wants to get the children away from him as she is afraid that he will hurt them.
He was bitten by a dog with rabies and he has lost the plot.


The rest of the film consists of Richard acting strangely and menacingly. The movie ends with the appearance of The Jersey Devil. It proves that Richard was right. The Sheriff shows up and shoots Richard. The Jersey Devil kills him and then turns on the rest of the family. This was an okay movie. I didn't love it or hate it. It is middle of the road. The plot was interesting at the start, but it just didn't grab my attention and I knew how it was all going to end. If you enjoy monster movies, then maybe this is for you. I wouldn't watch it again.
It gets a 4/10.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Sickle Movie Review 352






Sickle is a 2015 horror movie directed by Geno McGahee and Forris Day Jr. and starring Logan Lopez, Brent Northup,Dave Sauriol, Crystal Aya and Renee Day. Be aware that this contains spoilers so be careful!

The movie begins with people talking about a strange man who is very tall wearing a top hat and has awful red eyes. Who is he? Is he the Grim Reaper or the Moth Man? Cut to a young man called Michael Hart(Lopez) who is accused of murdering his babysitter. He is only 12 years of age and he knows that he did not do it and tells them a monster came and killed her but nobody will believe him. He is put away for 15 years. The day comes when he is being released. He is now 27 and he is nervous about going back into society. He has a friend who works in the facility called Franklin(Richard Smith) and he tells Michael that it will be fine. Michael is going to stay with his uncle Bill(Sauriol) as his parents do not want to know about him after what happened. Michael is disappointed by this.


Cut to a young woman called Kim(Aya). She goes to her cousin Phil(Scott C.Day) who happens to be a paranormal investigator. He wants her to join his team of ghost hunters. She decides that she will tag along and see what happens. Phil has proven ten hauntings and he hopes to prove more. Kim meets Phil's team- Steve, the tech guy, Susan(Renee Day)the researcher and Sarah(Sarah Surprenant) the demonologist .They are going to a theatre because there were two deaths there and there have been reports of paranormal activity. There is something sinister there. Meanwhile, Michael and his uncle Bill chat about what happened.
It turns out that Michael tried to commit suicide. Bill wants to know what really happened the night of the murder. Michael tells him that he was watching TV when he heard a crash. He went into the kitchen and saw the horrible monster standing over the body. Michael has no name for it. It was wearing a top hat and had a skeleton face. Bill finds this all hard to believe. Michael is not backing down. He is sure that it was a monster.


Michael meets an old man called Mr. Crane(Northup) and he offers Michael some handyman work around his house. He seems a little weird, but Michael is grateful for the work. Crane is a wealthy man and he wants someone to talk to. Meanwhile, Phil and Susan argue because Susan has heard that Michael has been released and she wants to interview him about it. Phil doesn't think that it is a good idea. Franklin calls to see Bill and they chat about how Michael is doing. Michael tells Franklin about the monster. Susan has been watching them and she approaches Michael. She arranges to meet him for a date. He talks to Mr. Crane about the monster and he tells Michael that it is called Sickle. Susan meets Michael and she takes him to the house where the babysitter was killed. Michael is not happy as he realises what Susan was up to. The team are already there and Kim feels bad for Michael.


Susan and the others try and call out the spirit, but Michael leaves. He goes to see Crane and they talk about Sickle. Crane tells him that Sickle took his wife. Crane did research on him and this led him to Ireland where he met a man called Dudley. They talked about Sickle and Crane found out that Sickle travels between worlds and he kills. Dudley dies but not before telling Crane how to kill Sickle. There is a certain point when Sickle takes on human form and this is when he can be killed. Michael has to do it. He doesn't want to, but he really has no choice.Kim and Michael chat and they kiss. Phil meets Sickle and ends up dead. Bill tells him that he will be a suspect in the killing. Michael gets mad. He goes to Crane to get ready for killing Sickle.
Michael contacts Susan and wants her to meet him at the house to tackle Sickle. Kim finds out and she goes there too. Bill arrives there too with Franklin. Sickle shows up and all hell breaks loose. Crane goes crazy after meeting Sickle. Michael reunites with his parents and he is with Kim. The house is going to be demolished.


This was a very enjoyable low budget movie. There is a lot to like about this. It is well written and directed and I honestly liked the story. It is good fun and Sickle is a pretty creepy being. I liked the lead actor Logan Lopez as Michael and I also enjoyed the creepy Mr Crane played by Brent Northup. This is one to watch if you enjoy low budget horror and I do recommend it.Check out the Facebook page for this movie to get an idea of what to expect. I will give it an 8/10.

Monday, March 9, 2015

American Horror Story, Season 4, Episode 10 and 11



Episode 10 begins with Pepper losing her husband, Salty when he dies in his sleep. She is devastated and goes into meltdown. Elsa tells Desiree about how she found Pepper in an orphanage. Her sister didn't want her so she was alone. Elsa took her out of there and put her into her show. She finds her a husband and Pepper is happy. They decide to contact her sister and see if she will take her in. Stanley tells Elsa that he will have Salty's body cremated, but instead he sells it to the Museum of Morbid Curiosities. Elsa finds her sister and she tells her about Pepper.


Meanwhile, Jimmy is in jail and Stanley visits him and tells him that if he sells his hands, he will get him a good lawyer. Jimmy has no choice but to cut them off. Maggie tells Desiree about her and Stanley and why they really came to the freak show. They go to the Museum of Morbid Curiosities and find Ma Petite, Salty's head and Jimmy's hands on display. Pepper moves back in with her sister and it is not good as the husband hates her. They have a baby and decide to kill it and frame Pepper for it. She gets taken away and put into an asylum(season 2) and meets Sr. Mary Eunice who decides to make her a special project and lets her help out in the library.


Episode 11 begins with Jimmy realising that Stanley conned him into cutting off his hands. Dell goes back to the freak show and tells Elsa. Bette and Dot meet a travelling salesman called Chester(Neil Patrick Harris) and they like him. They want to sleep with him. Chester is a bit of a nut and he carries around a dummy called Marjorie with him. She comes to life and he talks to her. He was injured in WW2 and has never been the same since. She and Chester have a ventriloquist act together. He sleeps with the twins.


Dell talks to Elsa about what happened to Jimmy and she tells him to get him out of there before something happens to him. Dell and Amazon Eve stop the car in which the cops are bringing Jimmy back from the hospital to jail and kill the cops and rescue Jimmy. Dell is confronted by Desiree who has shown Elsa what happened to Ma Petite. He confesses to killing her and Elsa shoots him in the head. Dandy is still slithering around and he has had the twins followed. He finds out that they slept with Chester and he tells him he knows all about his shady past. He murdered his wife and her lover and has convinced himself that Marjorie did it. He is told that he has to kill the twins by a jealous Marjorie.

Two decent episodes. We say goodbye to Dell as the season nears a close....

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The Walking Dead, Season 5, Episode 9



Last time, we said goodbye to Beth. This episode begins with the group deciding that they will help Noah get to his family in Virginia. He lived in a walled community and when they arrive they look over the wall to see what the story is. It is not good news. They get inside and realise that the entire place was taken over by walkers and everyone was killed. Noah is devastated. Tyreese tries to comfort him as the others look around for supplies.


Noah runs into his house and finds his family dead. Tyreese chases him inside and gets bitten by Noah's brother. He hallucinates and sees dead people.He wonders about all of the decisions that he made and he thinks about what he did along the way. He hears a news story on the radio about a group of people slaughtering innocent adults and children. He gets bitten again as he tries to fight off another walker. Rick and the others find him and they amputate his bitten arm.They take him off in the van and try to escape, but it is too late. Tyreese dies in the van. They have a funeral for him and they decide to go to Washington next.


A good episode. It is sad to see Tyreese die. He was a good character...
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