Monday, August 29, 2016

To The Devil A Daughter Movie Review 406






To The Devil A Daughter is a 1976 horror movie directed by Peter Sykes and starring Christopher Lee, Richard Widmark,Nastassja Kinski and Denholm Elliott. It is based on the book of the same name written by Dennis Wheatley.


The movie revolves around a man called John Verney(Widmark) who writes books about the occult and a man called Henry Beddows(Elliott). Beddows asks Verney to take in his daughter Catherine,(Kinski) who is a nun with a weird cult order called Children of the Lord. Catherine was living in Bavaria in Germany and now she is coming to London. A strange ex-priest called Michael Rayner(Lee) is the leader of this cult and he has a great interest in Catherine for a sinister reason.
He is using black magic to get Catherine back to him as he wants her to be a mate for the Devil.


Verney realises that Rayner is evil and he tries to shelter Catherine from him. The more he tries to help, the stronger the evil becomes. Catherine begins to become drawn to Rayner and even her father cannot stop it. Rayner becomes more and more dangerous and Verney is determined to save Catherine. There is a face off in the end and Verney manages to save Catherine from a terrible fate.
This film wasn't too bad for one of those 70's Hammer movies but it was by no means great.  I like Christopher Lee so this was why I watched it. It was entertaining in parts and Lee was fun as the baddie, but it was a bit dull in parts. The weird baby thing was funny and it made me laugh. All in all, if you enjoy Hammer films, this isn't bad. I will give it a 5/10.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Magic Movie Review 405





Magic is a 1978 horror/thriller directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Anthony Hopkins, Burgess Meredith and Ann Margret.


Corky Withers(Hopkins) is a small time magician who is not having much luck with his act. He decides to change his act and become a ventriloquist. He names his dummy Fats and he has a lot more success with his act then. Fats is a loud mouthed character and people love him. Corky has an agent called Ben Greene(Meredith) and he wants Corky to do some TV shows. Corky won't do it because he needs to take a medical test and he knows that he will fail it because he has some psychological issues. He runs off to where he grew up for some peace. He meets an old flame,Peggy Ann(Ann Margret). She is married to a guy that Corky knew in high school. There is still a spark between them and they become close, much to the disapproval of Fats who is taking over Corky.


Ben Greene turns up to see Corky and persuade him to come back but he realises that Fats is taking over Corky's personality. He realises that Corky needs help and he tells him so. Corky panics and he doesn't know what to do.Fats tells him that he needs to kill Greene or Corky will be found out. Corky does so and he puts him in a lake. Fats becomes jealous when Corky talks about leaving with Peggy Ann. He doesn't want Corky to desert him. When Peggy Ann's husband talks to him about his wife, Corky feels bad. He has to kill him when he finds Greene's body washed up on the shore and he becomes suspicious of Corky.


Corky is at the brink of losing his sanity after this. Fats is in control. He wants him to kill Peggy Ann.
He can't bring himself to do it, so he stabs himself and ends Fats' control over him. The films ends with Peggy Ann speaking like Fats herself which is weird. This was an interesting movie. I liked the leads and Hopkins plays the part of the demented Corky/Fats well. The ending was a little odd but I will let that go. All in all, this was very enjoyable. I will give it a 7/10.

Friday, August 12, 2016

The Appearing Movie Review 404







The Appearing is a 2014 horror movie starring Don Swayze and Dean Cain. It is directed by Daric Gates.


There is a house in a small town called The Granville House and it is haunted. There was a woman in it who was possessed by a demon. The local kids have a look around the place. They swap stories about it. One couple Susie and her boyfriend Nathan go into the house and things turn nasty. Susie disappears. There is a new Deputy Sheriff in town called Michael(Will Wallace) and he starts his new job by investigating Suzie's disappearance. He meets the Sheriff Hendricks(Don Swayze) and they work on the case. Michael's wife is called Rachel(Emily Brooks) and she and Michael lost a child before they moved to the town. She sees some weirdo kid running around in the woods. She talks to her and the kid tells her that her sister left her in the woods.


Rachel sees the kid again and she wanders up to The Granville House(which is the Psycho House by the way) and she finds a locket outside it. Michael and the Sheriff investigate more and they go and see Doctor Shaw(Dean Cain) who has some old man in a cage in the corridor of the hospital who talks gibberish about the missing girl. He looks like he is in a chicken coop! Very strange. They are led to Nathan who has been traumatised since he came out of the house. He draws pictures and spouts in riddles. The movie begins to take a sinister turn when Rachel gets possessed by some demon and she changes into a different person. She is still seeing weird kids and having visions. Michael is oblivious to this.


The end of the movie comes when Michael gets in a priest who tried to exorcise the possessed woman who lived in The Granville House before and failed. He doesn't want to do it, but Michael begs him. He manages to get the demon out. The ending is messy so I am not going to bother with the ins and outs. Watch the movie if you are interested but I will warn you that this is a very cheap movie and the only reason that I decided to watch it is because I like Dean Cain. He was in it for about five minutes, so that was a total waste of time. It isn't very good at all and I was just irritated by the end of it. The guy in the chicken coop was hilarious! The only good thing about it is that the Psycho house was featured. Apart from that, this was silly. I will give it a 3/10.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Don't Answer the Phone Movie Review 403






Don't Answer the Phone is a 1980 horror movie directed by Robert Hammer and starring James Westmoreland,Flo Lawrence and Nicholas Worth.


There is a killer on the streets of LA. He watches his female victims and then strangles them. There is a warning on the radio about a killer who is targeting women. Dr. Lindsay Gale(Lawrence) is a psychologist who has a call in radio show. She gives advice to people on the air. She gets weird calls from the killer. He is putting on a accent and telling her that he has headaches and blackouts and she thinks that she can help him. He stalks more women and kills them. He even turns up at Dr. Gale's private practice and follows one of her patients home and kills her. The cops are investigating one of the killings and they think that the killer might be a Vietnam Vet.They set up a task force led by Lieutenant McCabe (Westmoreland). He visits Gale to get some information about the killer.


The killer who turns out to be Kirk Smith(Worth) picks up a young woman by telling her that he is a modelling photographer. He kills her. He then picks up a hooker and gets her to call Dr. Gale on the air and he strangles her on the radio. Gale heard this. The killer talks to Gale. Her pimp comes in and sees what she has done. They fight and the pimp gets hurt. Gale goes to the cops about the weird call.
The cops want to keep an eye on her. They look for the pimp.Gale and McCabe meet for a drink and they end up in bed together. The killer is still working his way through victims. The cops are closing in on him. Kirk Smith is heading over to Dr. Gale's house for a visit....


He jumps out at her and ties her up. She tries to talk to him but he is mad. He has some problems with his dad and he talks to him. His childhood was not a happy one and he is a psychopath. McCabe knows that Smith is going to Gale's house so he gets the cops to head over and they rescue Gale. Smith and McCabe have a showdown and McCabe ends up shooting him. He ends up in the pool, floating around. This movie is cheap and nasty in parts. It is not bad, though. It is one of those so called exploitation movies, but it is so tame in comparison with today's films. There is nothing too bad in here. It was worth a watch and I found it entertaining enough. I will give it a 5/10.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Static Movie Review 402







Static is a 2012 thriller/horror movie directed by Todd Levin and starring Milo Ventimiglia and Sara Paxton.


Jonathan Dade(Ventimiglia) and his wife Addie(Sarah Shahi) have lost their son and they are grieving. They live in a massive house in the middle of  nowhere. They hear someone knocking at the door at night. They open the door and there is a young woman standing there. Her name is Rachel(Paxton) and she tells them that she wants to come in as someone is after her. She tells them that her car broke down and she saw someone in the trees with a gas mask on. Addie is very suspicious of her and wants her out but Jonathan lets her stay. He grabs his rifle and goes out to see if there is anyone around. He sees her car and realises that there was a trap set on the road so that her car would stop. Jonathan lets her stay until the morning.Strange things happen and then the lights go out. Everyone is scared.


Men come and take Rachel away and they are looking for Jonathan and Addie.  There is a cat and mouse chase with lots of jumps etc. They run away and they find the baddies lair which is filled with pictures of them and videos and every single detail of their life. They are worried now. Jonathan goes off to find something and leaves Addie alone. They get her and take her away.SPOILERS. Jonathan realises that they have her and he finds them down by the river with his wife. Rachel is there too so she was in on it. He holds a gun on them but they don't retaliate. Rachel tells Addie to tell Jonathan what happened so she tells him that she was going to kill herself after the death of their son but she killed him too.She blamed him for their son's death. They didn't realise that they are dead and they couldn't move on. Rachel and her buddies were sent to free them from the house and the memories. They are happy at last and they walk away. They are seen playing with their son in the sunshine. The real estate guy played by William Mapother asks one of the guys if the ghosts have gone from the house and he is told that yes, the ghosts have been freed. All is well.


This film started out well, but then not much happened except for chasing all over this huge house and jumping at shadows. The ending was interesting, but overall this film was mediocre.I found it dull in parts and not great. I expected more as the cast was pretty good, but I wouldn't watch it again. I will give it a 4/10.
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