Sunday, January 31, 2016

We Are Still Here Movie Review 380






We Are Still Here is a 2015 horror movie directed by Ted Geoghegan and starring Barbara Crampton, Andrew Sensenig, Larry Fessenden and Lisa Marie.


Paul Sachetti(Sensenig) and his wife Anne(Crampton) are a couple who have lost their son Bobby in a car accident. They move to a new house in 1979 in New England. Of course the house seems to be in the middle of nowhere but it is close to a little village. Anne hears things in the house and begins to think that maybe the spirit of their son in with them. They meet two neighbours, Dave( Monte Markham) and his wife Cat(Connie Neer). She warns them to get out of the house now. They discover that the house belonged to a man called Dagmar and that he was run out of town with his family for doing shady business.


The movie takes off then with two friends of Anne's coming to see them. They are Jacob(Fessenden) and his wife May(Lisa Marie). They are kooky hippies who can communicate with the dead or something like that. Their son Harry was a good friend of Bobby. Poor Joe the electrician is in the basement and he meets something nasty down there and he gets hurt. He refuses to go back.What is down there? It ain't good!!! The two couples go into town for something to eat and the locals look at them funny. Harry and his girlfriend show up at the Sachetti's looking for his parents, but they aren't there. He and his girl go into the house and Harry meets a sticky end as he enters the basement. His woman drives away and she gets killed too.


The group leave the bar where they were eating. Neighbour Dave asks the bar woman what they were talking about. She tells him. It turns out that every 30 years the house needs a sacrifice or the evil will ruin the town. The locals have to kill them. While Anne and May have gone out, Jacob decides to hold a seance with Paul and this does not go well. Jacob gets taken over by the spirit of Dagmar and Paul has to tie him up to stop him from causing trouble. Anne and May come back. The villagers turn up at the house to kill them.


Surprisingly, the ghosts retaliate and kill all of the villagers. The ghosts do not want to kill Paul or Anne as Bobby is with them. They kill Dave instead when he threatens to kill Paul and Anne. They head back to the basement. Anne hears Bobby's voice telling them not to be afraid. Paul smiles as he realises that his son is in the house with them and he is in the basement. This was an entertaining movie in parts. I liked that it was set in the 1970's but it was a little dull in parts. I think that it was trying to be like those old horror movies from the 70's but it just didn't hit the right spot for me. I liked that there was a scene with a ball falling down some stairs which was a homage to The  Changeling. I liked the ending most of all as something finally happened. I liked that the director used Scream Queen Crampton, but that's it. I wouldn't say that it was great, but it is worth a watch. It gets a 5/10.


Monday, January 25, 2016

Deadly Spa Movie Review 379




Deadly Spa a.k.a. Zephyr Springs is a 2013 thriller directed by Marita Grabiak and starring Amy Pietz, Tracey Fairaway and Johnny Whitworth.


Dawn(Amy Pietz) and her daughter Kayla(Fairaway) go to a lovely spa for a nice break together.
They need some bonding time and it seems like the perfect place to chill out. They meet the boss of the place who is called David James(Whitworth). He is a charismatic person and everyone seems to revere him. Dawn takes to him immediately. Kayla is not so sure. She witnesses David shouting at an employee and she is suspicious of him but he allays her fears. He tells her that the employee was stealing from the guests and that he fired him. David talks to the new people who have come to the spa and has them eating out of his hand.


Dawn grows closer to David as Kayla meets a young man called Brett(Devon Werkheiser). He is going to tell her something about the spa, but David catches him and has a word with him. Brett shuts up but eventually he opens up and tells Kayla that all is not what it seems at the spa. David is turning the place into a cult. He and his sinister sidekick Siddharta(Charles Fathy) are disposing of anyone who threatens their setup and nobody is allowed to leave. Kayla wants to leave, but Dawn is reluctant as she likes David and does not want to leave him. Kayla tries to ring the cops but David catches her. She tells him that she wants to go and she tries to escape. She tells her mother, but her mother refuses to believe that David is bad and she lets her daughter take off alone.


Kayla is caught by Siddharta and David and placed in a little shack where she is subjected to mental
torture. Her mother finally gets wise and tries to save her daughter when she sees David killing Brett.
She and Kayla try and escape. Kayla finally kills Siddharta and David and the two leave together. The movie ends with David's other sidekick Lori(Kelly Curran) taking over where he left off.
This movie was good fun. I enjoyed it. It is a little light on scares, but it was better than I thought it would be. I will give it a 6/10.


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Walking Dead, Season 6, Episode 8



Last episode, the walls were going to crumble in Alexandria. Glenn and Enid had returned but couldn't get inside as there were walkers everywhere. When the walkers enter, everyone runs and splits up. Maggie goes up a ladder to escape. Eugene gets saved by Rosita and Tara. The rest run to Jessie's house to hide. Unfortunately, they discover that Deanna has been bitten by a walker and that there is no hope for her. She knows that she is on the way out. Ron attacks Carl at the worst possible time and draws walkers to the house. The group has to hide upstairs.


Morgan and Carol hide in his house. The doctor, Denise is left alone with the Wolves member that he left alive for some stupid reason. Carol finds him and tries to kill him, but she is stopped by Morgan.
He knocks her out and then gets knocked out himself by the baddie. Tara and the others come by just in time to see the baddie take Denise hostage.He now has a gun and he walks outside with his hostage.Morgan is such a fool to have left him alive.


Glenn and Enid go into Alexandria and find Maggie trapped up high. Rick and the group have to leave Deanna in the house. She understands and she has a gun to end it all. They have to cover themselves in walker guts to get out as they need to walk among the dead to get away. Jessie's son Sam is scared and I think that he is going to mess everything up. They walk among the dead, but the son calls for his mother and we don't know if he has caused the walkers to see them. There is a little bit at the end where Daryl, Sasha and Abraham get stopped by men with guns. They have to hand over their stuff and the men tell them that their belongings are not theirs anymore. Sasha asks whose they are and they are told that they are Negan's so this introduces the next baddie. Very exciting episode and I am looking forward to seeing the next half of the season next month.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Internal Affairs Movie Review 378





Internal Affairs is a 1990 thriller directed by Mike Figgis and starring Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, William Baldwin and Nancy Travis.


The movie starts with a cop called Dorian Fletcher(Michael Beach) shooting an unarmed man by mistake. He meets fellow cops, Dennis Peck(Gere) and Van Stretch(Baldwin) who are busting some drug dealers. Peck grabs a knife and he puts it into the dead man's hand to cover Fletcher who is not sure that this is the right thing to do. He is uncomfortable with this, but Peck tells him that cops have to help each other out. There is something dirty about Peck and Stretch. Along comes Raymond Avila(Andy Garcia) who is joining Internal Affairs. He is working with a partner called Amy Wallace(Laurie Metcalf). He is put on the case of Stretch who is a loose cannon. He has been using excessive force and is beating his wife.


Avila realises that Stretch's partner Peck is no saint either. He is not liked by a lot of the cops and he is hated by Fletcher who thinks that he is a bad cop. Avila tries to put pressure on Stretch to testify against his pal, but it doesn't work at first, but he cracks and decides to cooperate. Peck discovers this and he arranges a little accident for his pal. He gets him shot and he finishes him off himself. He thinks that he is in the clear, but there is a witness who gets shot after he shoots and kills Fletcher.
He tells Avila that Peck was the killer before he dies too.


Avila is married to Kathleen(Travis) and their marriage is on the rocks. Peck calls around to see her and pretends to be from Internal Affairs too. He asks questions about her husband and when Avila spots them together, he jumps to the wrong conclusion and freaks out, hitting his wife in the process.
He realises that he was wrong when he talks to her and they make up.Peck's web of lies and deceit unravels as Avila gets closer to catching him out. He shoots Wallace and escapes. Avila realises that he is heading for his house and his wife. He arrives home to find him trying to rape Kathleen. He pulls a gun on Peck, but Peck attacks him. Avila shoots him dead.


This was an entertaining thriller with lots of twists and turns. There were good performances from all of the cast. Gere was very good as the sleazy cop and Garcia was good as the hot headed Avila. Very good movie. I will give it a 7/10.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Sea of Love Movie Review 377





Sea of Love is a 1989 thriller starring Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman and Michael Rooker. It is directed by Harold Becker who was responsible for another good thriller, Malice.


Pacino is a NYC homicide cop called Frank Keller. He has been in the job too long and he is burnt out. He lost his wife to one of his colleagues and he is just fed up of everything. He is put onto a case of a man who was found dead with a record called 'Sea of Love' playing in the background. The killer left a cigarette with lipstick on it and fingerprints. Frank looks into the case and he has to deal with a second man who is also found dead and the murder seems as if it was committed by the same person as the first. The two men had put adverts in the newspaper seeking someone to spend time with. Frank and his pal Detective Touhey(Goodman) decide to place their own ad in the newspaper and see who turns up. Maybe they can catch the killer.


Frank sets up dates in a restaurant with Touhey masquerading as a waiter. Several women turn up. Touhey takes their wine glass with fingerprints on it for analysis. Frank meets one woman called Helen(Barkin). She doesn't seem very interested in him. They bump into each other a few times after that and they get on well. She is a manager at a posh shoe shop.Frank omits that he is a cop. He suspects her for a moment, but then realises that she is not the killer. They begin to get close and begin to see each other.


Frank discovers that Helen had met the dead men from their adverts and he begins to wonder what is going on. He tells her that he is a cop and this does not go down well with Helen. They fall out over it and he breaks it off with her.SPOILER ALERT....It turns out that the killer is Helen's ex-husband Terry(Rooker). He has been killing any man who is with Helen. He forces his way into Frank's apartment and tries to kill him. A fight ensues and Terry ends up falling out the window and dying. Frank and Helen reconcile.

This is a very good thriller with a great cast. I really liked Pacino as the fed up cop and Barkin is good as the shady Helen. Rooker is young in this role and he only has a cameo, but he is good.
All in all, this is a solid 1980's thriller and I really enjoyed it. I give it an 8/10.





Monday, January 4, 2016

The Walking Dead, Season 6, Episode 7



This episode begins with Glenn who manages to survive getting chomped by walkers. Nicholas is not so lucky. He creeps underneath a dumpster and somehow he lives. When the walkers move along, he meets Enid from Alexandria and she gives him water. She tells him about the Wolves attack and tells him that she isn't going back. She runs off. Cut to Alexandria and Rick wants to reinforce the walls after finding a bloody bullet hole in it. He talks to Ron who is Jessie's son and tells him that he will teach him to shoot. Ron wants to go shooting but Rick tells him no as there are walkers everywhere.
Ron steals bullets from the armoury. Morgan and Rick butt heads over Morgan letting the Wolves get away.


Glenn and Enid meet up again and decide to go back to Alexandria. Enid finds balloons and uses them to distract walkers. They get back but find that Alexandria is surrounded by walkers and they can't get in. Carol discovers that Morgan is hiding something and decides to find out what it is.
Ron is going to attack Carl with the gun when everyone sees the balloons and realise that it is a sign from Glenn. Just then, the walls begin to collapse and the walkers arrive. This was an interesting episode setting up the mid season finale...Glenn is alive after all, but the fate of Alexandria does not look good.



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