Halloween 1978 Movie Review

This movie is the original and best Halloween movie of the series. I count this film as one of my all time favourites and I would watch it any time, not just at Halloween. It is directed by John Carpenter and stars scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence.


I think that everyone on the planet should know the plot of this movie but just in case I will do a short synopsis. A young boy called Michael Myers kills his sister. He is sent to an institution. He escapes. A young girl called Laurie Strode(Jamie Lee Curtis) is babysitting on Halloween night and she is unaware that the escaped lunatic Michael Myers is watching her from afar and he is waiting until Halloween night to get her. He kills her pals and then they have a confrontation and she injures him, but when she looks for the body, it isn't there...Hence the sequels!

I love this movie and I always have because it doesn't rely on gore or effects. There is the brilliant music which gives the movie a creepy feel. Dr Loomis, played by Pleasence is desperate to get Michael back behind bars where he belongs. You can see his desperation on his face. Michael Myers is the bogeyman and the weird mask makes you wonder what is under that mask. Is it so horrific that we wouldn't want to see? What is Michael's motivation? There are some things better left to the imagination. I like that Michael doesn't get to Laurie until the end. The tension is building throughout the movie and then the climax is well done. Some people don't like the subtlety of this movie and they prefer the remake, but I think that the remake is fine,but I prefer this original movie.

Movies these days rely too much on gore for attracting viewers and I have to admit that I don't mind that, but I would much prefer a horror movie with a good story and some tension. I like the cat and mouse element to this film and I enjoy the fact that you have to wait until the end for the showdown. This movie has everything that you would want in a horror movie. There is a bad man, a weak victim who turns out to be stronger than she could ever have imagined and a creepy atmosphere. What more could you ask? The remakes of this movie are okay, but there is never going to be another movie like this one. The days of tension and subtle terror are long over. I am going to watch this on Halloween as I do every single year and I will enjoy it..If you can, you should check it out. If you haven't seen it, then you are in for a treat and if you have, well, you will know that you are going to enjoy it!

Happy Halloween!!

We are just writing a short post to wish you all a Happy Halloween! This is our favourite holiday of the year and we love the way that we can indulge in everything horror and dress up as our fave scary monsters! Don't forget that the dead will be with us tonight and you should make them feel welcome...Because, after all, you might be joining them sooner than you think....................Michael Myers will be coming back this Halloween on screen, so make sure to keep your eyes open when you are out tonight! You never know who or what will be watching!!Enjoy your Halloween and don't forget to watch some good horror.....

Jigsaw
Amanda

9 Movie Review 65

9 is an animated science fiction movie produced by Tim Burton. It has a good cast with Elijah Wood, John C Reilly, Jennifer Connolly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer. It is CGI animated where 9 rag dolls have been given life by a scientist and now, in a post-apocalyptic world, one of them wakes up to see the world. All the rag dolls have numbers on their back and our hero is called 9 hence the title.


9 is voiced by Elijah Wood of Lord of the Rings fame and he ventures out into the ruins of a city. We soon learn humanity is extinct due to a big World War as machines turned on their owners. The machines now hunt anything with signs of life and after 9 meets 2 voiced by Martin Landau, they are attacked by a cat-looking machine! All the machine technology is very like steam punk and I have seen online that this movie in some places is called stitch punk! 9 meets others like him with numbers on their backs and meets 7, voiced by Jennifer Connolly.


Number 2 is kidnapped by the cat beast and 9 persuades the rest to go on a rescue mission. Little does 9 know that a talisman he picked up when he first woke up might hold the key to defeating the machines. I enjoyed 9 as it has some great CGI animation that is really smooth and had an interesting story. It was hard to get into at first, but I think that that is because it looks and plays differently to other animations I have seen. Once you get into it, 9 is very entertaining and it is based on an animated short film(also called 9) written and directed by Shane Acker who also did this movie.


Apparently, Tim Burton saw this short version and liked it so much that he got this version made by producing it. I have to say that the end sequence is brilliantly done and very touching so watch out for that. If you like CGI animation and like sci-fi then you will love this movie as I did. The short film this is based on was nominated for an Academy Award so that tells you the animation is quality. So check this out as it is only 79 minutes long and hopefully the future of movies will be stitch punk!!!

7/10

A Perfect Getaway Movie Review 64

A Perfect Getaway is a movie starring Timothy Olyphant(Live Free and Die Hard) and Milla Jovovich(The 5th Element) and Steve Zahn (Roadkill/Joyride). Zahn and Jovovich play the honeymooning couple in Hawaii looking for the perfect getaway as they drive along the road and look for places to go exploring. They meet two other couples along the way and get bad vibes from both of them.

When they hear of murders in Hawaii and a pair of killers on the run, they wonder if it is one of the other couples. Olyphant plays a guy in one of the other couples and he has bizarre stories of fighting in Iraq and seems strange. Zahn and Jovovich gradually begin to fear both of the couples but out in the jungle, there is no one else to help them. A Perfect Getaway does not have much happening for the first 30 minutes but then things pick up and it gets quite entertaining. There is a twist involved but we saw it coming a mile away so its effect was diminished. The movie is still good as it turns into a thriller near the end with a gun, knife and fights all making an appearance!


If you do not see the twist coming then you will think that this movie is better than it really is but it is still worth a watch. It won't be the worst movie you see, but it won't be the best either. I liked it as it does have you guessing from the start. I thought of the twist but even after that, it was still good. Olyphant's character mentions a potential movie called American Jedi and I would love to see that!!! If you have an hour and 40 minutes to spare, then you should check it out but just keep your expectations low. It has six characters basically and just about holds your interest.So, all in all it is not too bad. It's always good when there is a twist in a movie even if people can see it coming!!

A Perfect Getaway (5/10)

Quicksilver Highway Movie Review 63

This movie was a made for TV horror which featured stories from Stephen King and Clive Barker.It stars Christopher Lloyd and it is directed by Mick Garris who also directed Desperation, The Stand and Riding the Bullet.

Aaron Quicksilver(Lloyd) is a travelling showman who tells his strange tales to those he encounters on his travels. The movie begins with a newly-wed couple stranded on a road in the middle of nowhere. The husband goes off to look for help, leaving his bride in the car. Day turns into night and there is no sign of him. She begins to get worried and she wonders what has happened to him.A car comes along and a strange looking man gets out. It is Aaron Quicksilver and he offers to wait with her until her husband returns. She enters his house on wheels and sits down with him. He tells her a story called The Chattering Teeth which was written by Stephen King..


The story begins with a guy called Bill(Raphael Sbarge) who is driving home for his son's birthday. There are terrible winds in the desert and he has to call his wife to tell her that he wont be able to make it. His son is upset. Bill decides to try it anyway.He is driving along when he almost hits a hitchhiker. He decides to pull in at a place called Scooters grocery and tries to make the call,but the phone isn't working. He sees a pair of toy teeth sitting behind the counter. Scooter says that they are broken, but that he will let Bill have them cheap. His wife isn't so keen on giving them away. Scooter decides to give them to Bill for his son. Bill meets the hitchhiker outside and when he asks Bill for a ride, he agrees. Bill tells the hiker that he will give him a lift if he does not smoke inside the van.

After a while, the hitcher starts to annoy him. He begins to light up a cigarette and Bill begins to get mad. The hitcher pulls a knife on Bill and wants the van and his money. Bill won't pull over and he acts crazy and crashes the van. They bot survive the crash but the hiker tries to kill Bill. The teeth begin to move on their own. Bill tells the teeth to bite the hitcher and the hitcher laughs at this. He is bitten on the nose by the teeth and he screams in agony as the teeth chew his fingers off and attack him. The teeth free Bill from his seat belt and he gets out of the van. They drag away the hikers body. We cut to nine months later and Scooter has passed away and his wife, Myra is running the place now. She remembers him and she gives him back the chattering teeth which turned up on the doorstep. Cut back to the abandoned bride and Aaron Quicksilver who see a car coming. It has hit somebody. It is the husband and he is dead. The teeth drag him off into the desert!

The second story is called The Body Politic and it is about hands that have a mind of their own. There is a pickpocket taking money from people at a fairground and he wanders into Quicksilver's tent where the latter shows him a hand which belonged to a dead man. He tells him that it is magic. He begins to tell the tale of a plastic surgeon who does surgery for rich people who really don't need it. He finds that his hands are beginning to move independently of him and that they seem to have a mind of their own. He finds out that they are trying to kill him so that they can be free of him.He speaks to his therapist about it. He goes home and the hands make him kill his wife. He can't stop them. He cuts one off. His hand goes on the run and it gets other hands to join in. People are cutting hands off everywhere. The hands go on the run. The hand wants to take over and the plastic surgeon won't let that happen.He goes up to the roof and the hands follow him. He throws himself off the building and the hands follow suit.

In the end, a woman is in bed in hospital when her nose begins to move by itself so she cuts it off and it all begins again! The pickpocket's hands begin to have a life of their own and they lead him to where there is a cop and he is arrested with the stolen money in his pockets. He tries to explain, but to no avail! This movie was interesting and I liked both the stories. Even though it was made for TV this movie is good and it is well worth watching. I will give it a 7/10.

Saw 6 Movie Review 62 - Trap Details Also!

Saw VI is the latest installment of the Saw series and is out this Halloween! I went to see it last night and it did not disappoint me! It has an 18 certificate here in Ireland which pleased me as I was concerned last year seeing younger people in the cinema because Saw V had a 16 certificate.If you have never heard of the Saw movies what rock have you been hiding under??? Get up off the chair and go rent the first 5 movies now and then come back to the Lair!!! OK,Seen them? Then we can begin!!

Saw 6 is directed by Kevin Greutert who makes his directorial debut here.He worked as Editor on the first 5 movies so its good that he knows about it already.It is written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan who wrote Saw IV and Saw V.They both wrote Feast which I liked also. Saw VI focuses on the work that Mark Hoffman is continuing on, on behalf of Jigsaw.Remember from the end of SawV, FBI agent Peter Strahm had a very (Ahem!) pressing engagement while Hoffman looked on from his glass coffin!! Poor Peter felt very crushed by the end of it!! His favourite game was Squash did you know that?? He needed R2D2 to work his magic just like he did for Luke Skywalker!! OK,OK!! Enough jokes! I am going to go into details about the movie here so be warned but suffice to say I loved Saw 6 and thoroughly recommend it to you.So if you do not want to know the full story then stop reading until you see it and then come back and comment please!!!

The movie begins straight away with a woman (Tanedra Howard pictured below who won VH1's Reality Show Scream Queens) waking up and as soon as she gets up off her chair lights come on.Unfortunately for her she is in a Jigsaw Trap!! Uh oh!! On a table in front of her are several cutting implements and she has to carve out a turkey or else!! Emmmm no she does not!! On her head is a trap that is locked on her head and big bolt screws either side of her head.She looks around and realises she is in a cage and across from her in another cage is a man.She pleads with him not to stand up but he does and his lights come on! The game has begun!! A TV flickers to life with Billy the Puppet and the familiar voice tells them the rules!! In between each cage is a weighing scales and a clock is about to count down!

The woman called Simone and man called Eddie are money lenders who give money to people who cannot pay it back so they can profit from peoples misfortune.As they look for pounds of flesh off others now they must give their own! Yes, they have to cut body parts or skin or whatever is on them and put it into the weighing scales!!! They only have a minute to do it or the bolt screws bore into their brain.Simone looks way too pretty and dainty to do it so she pauses.Meanwhile Eddie has a big fat belly so he gets going cutting into it!! He throws chunks of flesh into the scales so it tips in his favour.He is on a winner as Simone realises she is too thin to cut her belly.Let that be a lesson to Ab work!! With time running out, Simone realises she cannot win unless she does something drastic! She grabs a meat cleaver and looks at her arm! The clock ticks down so she begins hacking into it.Screaming her head off and with time running out, she hacks harder and harder until it is chopped off! She drops it into the scales just before time runs out and the scales go in her favour! The screws then bore into Eddies head and he dies! Then the credits roll.................................

Dan Erickson played by Mark Rolston is still leading up the Jigsaw Killer investigation.He was in Saw V also and is at the scene of Eddie death.He tells Hoffman played by Costas Mandylor that Peter Straham's fingerprints were found at the scene so they think he is now the new Jigsaw.This is what Hoffman wanted but then Erickson tells him that Lindsey Perez played by Athena Karkanis is still alive! Remember her from Saw IV and Saw V?? She was Straham's partner! Hoffman did not know she was still alive as she was presumed dead from the exploding Billy Doll.She was kept under wraps until Erickson believed that he could trust Hoffman with that information.Little does he know!! Erickson puts her back on the case and shakes hands with Hoffman.Later Hoffman meets Pamela Jenkins played by Samantha Lemole.She is the reporter from Saw V and is after a scoop about the Jigsaw Killer.Hoffman says he may help her as she knows things about Jigsaw already.

Now remember Saw V with Jill Tuck played by Betsy Russell opening a box left to her from John Kramer/Jigsaw?? She is his ex-wife.We see her pulling out envelopes out of the box....... Hoffman meets with her in secret and demands to take over Jigsaw's Last game.She gives him 5 envelopes and he says he will never meet her again.We cut to a health insurance executive called William Easton played by Peter Outerbridge as he goes about his dastardly deeds with his bunch of fact checkers !! They involve denying people cover based on a probability theorem he invented even if they deserve it.He denies a man named Harold played by George Newbern as he failed to declare he had a cyst in his teeth 20 years ago! So he finds loopholes to avoid giving cover! We see he denied John Kramer/Jigsaw in a flashback also.He could have saved Jigsaw!! Trap please!!! He is seen working late at night and mistakes a security man for an attacker.After shooting him he is caught from behind and wakes up in an abandoned zoo ready for Jigsaw's game! That will teach him!! Thank god for all these abandoned places that no one seems to check!! Where would Jigsaw be without them???!!!!!

When Easton wakes up he is suspended with a large clamp around his chest and a breathing apparatus over his face like an oxygen mask.Opposite him is the office Janitor played by Gerry Mendicino and he has the same set up.Billy the puppet comes up on a TV Screen and the voice of Jigsaw tells William he must get through 4 tests in 60 minutes! That's a sporting chance I'd say!! How generous!!! If he does not complete them then explosive charges attached to his arms and legs will detonate!!!

The first test is with the Janitor and William.If they take a breath then the clamps around their chest will tighten crushing them.The Janitor is a heavy smoker so whoever can hold their breath long enough will survive! They should put this video in classrooms to discourage kids from smoking!!!! It would work every time!! The Janitor valiantly holds out for as long as he can but as Easton is younger and a non smoker, the janitor takes a few breaths! He gets crushed right in front of Easton and then Easton's shackles holding him up release and he gets down.On the side of his body is a long scar so he holds his side and heads off down the path labelled kindly by Hoffman! We wouldn't want him to take a wrong turn would we??!!

Easton comes across ends of 2 chains and a sign saying to hold each end.Naturally not wanting to play the game he tries to head off down the corridor but his explosive wristband begins to beep.A nice gentle reminder to play the game! He grabs hold of each end and in front of him in a display cage Billy the Puppet shows up in a light.Easton must hang on to each end or else his young file clerk or older secretary will die.It depends on which one he lets go!! The younger file clerk has no family but his life is ahead of him whereas the older secretary has a family but she is old!! Easton has to decide! They both appeal to him not to release their chain holding them up! After hanging on as long as he can, Easton ends up releasing the chain of the younger file clerk.There's an Ad for family values if their ever was one! The poor clerk ends up being hung and flung into the clear screen directly in front of Easton.

Easton makes his way into the Zoo's boiler room where he sees Debbie the health companies Lawyer played by Caroline Cave.She has a device on her chest that is like a harpoon that will be fired up into her head and brain unless she completes a maze in 90 seconds! She is in a cage maze that Easton is on top of and he helps her by guiding her through.Unfortunately though there are steam jets blocking her progress and he has to direct it at himself each time as she gets through!! They burn his body as he deflects them!!!!! She gets through the maze but on the wall are X-Ray pictures of a key inside a body and a circular saw.She looks over at Easton and sees his scar and the both realise it's inside Easton!! Of course he is reluctant to cut up his own body so she attacks him with the saw! Dammit, you try to help a woman and that's the thanks you get!!!!!!! Women want everything always!!!!!!!!!!! Just as she gets on top of the fight as she has the saw, the time runs out and the device on her chest shoots up impaling her brain!!!!!!

The fourth test has the clip from the Carousel/Wheel of Death trailer that i posted here if you want to see it.Easton comes across a huge cage filled with his 6 fact checkers on a carousel.They are chained to it and are spinning around.When it stops a shotgun is set up in front of one unlucky person and Easton has the choice of saving only 2 people.He has to push his hand through to a button but it will drive a spike through his hand!!!!! They argue and appeal to him to save them as each comes in front of the shotgun.Each appeals his/her own way such as they know him the best,they are pregnant or they have children!!!! After a long while, Easton saves 2 people while he has to watch the others die!

As these tests are being shown there are flashbacks in between them showing how John Kramer met William Easton and Easton described his probability theorem to him.Kramer thought there was more to life than just a theorem.We see Jill Tuck in her Methadone clinic and Jigsaw saying to her that people only can be rehabilitated when they come close to death.He shows Amanda Young played by Shawnee Smith as proof of his method.She has now become clean after years of drug abuse.We see Amanda pushing around Jigsaw in a wheelchair as Hoffman sets up previous traps.Jigsaw notes that Hoffman has a brutal side and seems to like the suffering of others when he dumps an unconscious man down on the ground as he is setting him up in a trap.There seems to be tension between Amanda and Hoffman as they vie to be Jigsaw's replacement after he is gone.Jigsaw meets with Jill alone and assures her he has made plans for her well being after he is gone.He gives her the key to the Box that he will leave her later on for safe keeping as he entrusts her with his plans.In another flashback the reporter Pamela Jenkins is seen calling to Jill but Jill turns her away.Before leaving, Jenkins puts a note under the door that seems to have important information on it!

With one second left William Easton gets through the last door and finds himself between 2 cages.One has Pamela Jenkins who we now realise is his sister from a handy flashback and in the other cage is the mother and son of Harold.Remember him? He was the guy that we see Easton denying cover to at the start!!! The mother's name is Tara played by Shauna MacDonald and the son is Brent played by Devon Bostick.There is a big switch on the wall in front of Tara and Brent that says Live on one side but Die on the other!! Each cage has a big tank of Hydrofluoric acid and this final test is for the mother and son.Harold has since died from having no cover so will they spare Easton's life as his sister looks on? Tara wants to pull the lever but cannot do it! Brent on the other hand shows no mercy and pulls it to the Die position!!!!!! Racks of needles swing down and impale Easton against the cage and the Hydrofluoric acid pumps into his body.He dissolves from the inside out as his sister Pamela,Tara and Brent look on.

We go back to Erickson and Perez as they conduct their investigation.They have realised that the knife used to cut out the jigsaw piece from the body of Eddie is the same as the one that Hoffman did with the swinging Axe at the start of Saw V.They know its different from the other knives used so Hoffman is getting worried.They have the last tape that has Hoffman's voice distorted to sound like Jigsaws and they are working on it to unscramble it.Hoffman is feeling cornered as they begin to unscramble it so he leaps into action! It's all or nothing as his secret was about to be revealed!! He slices Erickson's neck with a knife and gets behind the lab technician as Perez shoots at him.The technician dies and Hoffman stabs Perez asking her who else knows about him.She says "everyone" before she dies but we do not know if she was bluffing or telling the truth!!

In yet another handy flashback we see Hoffman going in to the remains of the crushed Straham and sees his hand still hanging onto the top of the grill.He takes the hand down and keeps it in a bag.This is how he was using Straham's fingerprints at murder scenes.Now after killing Erickson and Perez, he uses it to leave fingerprints to frame Straham and then he sets fire to the room with gasoline.He returns to his observation room to watch Easton but Jill Tuck comes in and shocks him with a handheld device disabling him.The note that Pamela gave her was a copy of the letter that Hoffman sent to Amanda in Saw III.In case you are confused, it was a letter that said Hoffman knew about Amanda having a part in the robbery at Jill's clinic.That was when Amanda's drug buddy slammed the door on Jill's body killing John Kramer/Jigsaw's baby.Hoffman said in the letter that he would tell Jigsaw/John Kramer about Amanda's involvement unless she killed Lynn Denlon played by Bahar Soomekh who was Jigsaw's doctor in Saw III.I hope you are keeping up with all of this! There shall be a quiz at the end.......well no not really!!!!

Jill straps Hoffman to the chair with belts and puts a Reverse Bear Trap on his head.That's the one that opens up your jaws until they break!!! She tells Hoffman that there was another envelope in the box from John Kramer telling her to capture Hoffman as we see it in flashback.Jigsaw left the extra Reverse Bear Trap in the box which was very nice of him wasn't it??!! In classic James Bond style as lampooned in Austin Powers, Jill heads off assuming the job was well done!!!!!!!!!! Hoffman is made of stern stuff and uses the Reverse Bear Trap's weight to break his own hand as the clock ticks down! He uses the side of his head butting into his own hand! He gets out of the straps and goes to a nearby window that has horizontal bars.Ingeniously, he pushes the front of the Reverse Bear Trap into the middle of the two bars just as it springs open so it doesn't spring totally open!!! Then he pulls his head out of the trap and falls to his knees on the floor.In total pain from his ordeal and the side of his mouth torn open but still alive, Hoffman screams in agony up to the ceiling as the credits roll...........................


Saw VI was better than Saw V and it had everything! The traps were great and bloody and the story had definitely advanced on further!! If you have seen the others then I would definitely recommend it even if you have not!! Although you should see the first 5 first to follow the plot.I hope you were able to follow the story that I have outlined here and hopefully it helped you if you were wondering about something! If its Halloween, It must be Saw!! Go see this now!!

Saw VI (10/10)

Trick R Treat Movie Review 61

With my favourite holiday coming up, I had to review this Halloween offering.
This movie is not the old one released in the '80's, but it is a new offering in the same vein as Creepshow or The Twilight Zone. There are many stories intertwined and they all meet up at the end. It is directed by Michael Dougherty. It stars Anna Paquin and Brian Cox.


This movie can be quite confusing if you don't pay attention. There is so much happening at the same time. There is one thing that is common to all stories- what looks like a little kid with a bag over his head. He appears throughout the movie so he is important. The first story revolves around a man and a woman setting up decorations etc for Halloween Night. The girl tells the guy to go inside the house to wait for her. The little kid in the bag is looking at them and when she is alone, she is attacked and killed. The guy comes out of the house and he looks for her. He finds her under a blood-stained sheet, dead.


So, we cut to four girls getting ready for Halloween Night. They are looking for something to wear to some party. Then, we cut to a fat kid going from house to house stealing candy. He is stopped by a man(Dylan Baker) who gives him some candy which makes the kid vomit blood.
The guy turns out to be the school principal and he takes the kid out to the back yard. He is digging a grave and he dumps him into it. His son calls him and his dad tells him to go back into the house. His neighbour who is an old man comes over to see what he is doing, but he gets rid of him. He continues to bury the kid and after a while, he hears his neighbour calling for help, but he ignores that. We see at the end of this story that the son is helping his father carve up a decoration for Halloween, but it isn't a pumpkin, it's the kids head!!!


The next tale concerns a young woman who is bitten by a vampire while there is a crowd around. They think that she is just putting it on for show and nobody takes any notice. The vampire fades into the crowd. We cut to a group of kids who are collecting jack o lanterns to take to a place where there was an accident years ago. One of the kids tells a story about a group of special kids who were on a bus when they went into the river and drowned. The driver got away. The kids go to the place where it happened and they bring their jack o lanterns with them. There is some sort of elevator to carry them down and a few go first leaving another kid, Wanda, alone. She gets worried when the elevator comes back up without them so she goes down to see what is going on. They frighten her by pretending that they are ghosts and she is not happy. Suddenly, they see the real ghosts of the kids and they are looking for blood. Wanda gets into the elevator and no matter how much they plead with her to let them in, she goes off and leaves them to their fate...


The vampire is watching the girls from earlier on. One of them, Laurie(Anna Paquin) is dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. She is making her way to a party to meet her friends when she comes upon him. The strangest thing happens when we find out that he is not really a vampire and that he was just role playing. He is at the party when the girls start to change. They are not what they seem as he finds out when they begin to turn into werewolves and he realises that he is dinner!!! We see the little kid with the bag on his head again.


We cut back to earlier on when three kids call to a house of an old man (Brian Cox) and he sends his dog out to scare them away and he takes their candy. He goes back inside, but he hears noises. An egg hits his window and he grabs a baseball bat and goes outside. He sees his neighbour who just happens to be the principal who is burying the kid! He suddenly sees the little weirdo with the sack on his head running around the house and he tries to find him. They eventually meet and he tries to kill the old man. The old man pulls off the sack and he finds out the it isn't a kid, it is a monster thing with a pumpkin for a head!!!They fight and we find out that the old man was the driver of the bus which killed those kids.The pumpkin head seems to leave when the old man gives him the candy he stole, but the old man gets a fright when he opens the front door to find all of the ghosts of the kids that died on the bus!!!!!

This was a fun movie with some great scenes. It is perfect for Halloween so watch it that night if you can!!!I am giving it a 6/10.

The Haunting in Connecticut Movie Review 60

This movie is supposedly based on a true story of some family who moved into a house in the 1980's and saw spooky things, but who knows if it's true or not? This film is directed by Peter Cornwell and it stars Virginia Madsen and Elias Koteas.

So, the movie begins with a woman called Sara Campbell(Madsen) and she is talking about the house that she lived in with her family. We are taken back to 1987 and we see that her son, Matt(Kyle Gallner) is very sick. He has cancer. She and her husband fight because she wants to move closer to the hospital so that it will make things easier on her son. She decides to buy a house in Connecticut without telling her husband Peter(Martin Donovan). They move in and at first it is just Matt and Sara there. Matt hears noises from the basement and he goes down there. There is a room down there, but it is locked. Matt wants to make the basement his bedroom and his parents agree finally. Matt begins to see things and he is worrying his mother. He has dreams about a young boy who lived in the house years before.

He finally gets into the locked room and it is a room where dead bodies were embalmed. It turns out that the house was a funeral home. They discuss it and decide to stay anyway. Matt meets a sick Reverend when he is at his chemotherapy session and they talk. The Reverend tells him to call him if he ever needs help. Matt continues to see the young man who is called Jonah. He calls the Reverened(Elias Koteas) and they talk about evil etc. The other members of the family wonder if Matt is cracking up from his therapy at the hospital. He is participating in experimental treatment and they wonder if that is making him see things. The kids are playing in the hoise when one fo them puts her foot through the floor. They pull it out and find a box and photos of dead people. Jonah is in one of the pictures.

Matt and his cousin, Wendy(Amanda Crew) do some research into the house. Wendy finds out that jonah was an assisant to Aickmann who was doing research into the dead. He used to hold seances in the house and he used Jonah who had some powers. But after one seance, everyone died except Jonah. He went missing and nobody found him. The cops found 100 bodies gone from the cemetery. Wendy and Matt call in the Reverend. The Reverend sees the box and he opens it to find the shrivelled eyelids of loads of dead people. He tells them that Aickman was trying necromancy which is control of the dead. He wanted to keep their eyes open so that they couldn't pass on. Sara sees the Reverend and she throws him out.That night, Sara sees a ghost. All the lights in the house flicker.

The next day, Sara called the Reverend and asks for his help. He tells them that he will cleanse the house. He goes down to the basement and he finds the ghost trapped there. The house goes mental as he tries to expel the ghost. He finds the ghosts remains and he takes them outside and puts them in his car. Everything stops in the house. Matt wakes up covered in writing and he is taken to the hospital. The Reverend swerves his car as he sees something in the back seat. We find out that Jonah crawled into the incinerator to hide, but it turned on and he was burned alive. The Reverend sees all of this and he gets out of the car and lets the ashes blow away. At the house, everything in the fridge has gone mouldy. There is an evil presence in the house and it tries to kill Wendy. The Reverend calls the house and he tries to tell them to get out but nobody hears it. Matt goers back to the house to get rid of the evil. He unearths loads of dead bodies and he sets the house on fire. Everyone gets out only Matt and Sara runs back inside and grabs him. They are rescued by the firemen. The Reverend sees Jonah watching the house burn. Sara talks over the end of the movie and she says that Matt's cancer disappeared and that they moved out of the house etc.

This movie was okay. It wasn't brilliant by any means. I am giving it a 4/10.

Legend of the Bog A.K.A. Assault of Darkness Movie Review 59

Legend of the Bog or Assault of Darkness as it is also known as is an Irish horror movie, so I had to see it as I am Irish and there hasn't been many Irish horror movies released ever! It stars one person I recognised- Vinnie Jones which intrigued me. It is directed by Brendan Foley.


The film begins with Vinnie Jones setting a trap for some beast. He has a bucket of water and he puts a hole in the bucket. For some reason, the creature calls 'uisce' which is the Irish word for water. The creature reaches for the water and is then caught by Jones who sets him on fire. He is attacked by another creature from the bog, which he destroys too. We cut to a professor, David Wallace(Jason Barry) who is an lecturing on archaeology and fossils found in the bogs. He shows his class the remains of people who have been found in the bogs and their bodies are mummified. One student has a problem with this or something and she walks out of the class.


The student is Saoirse Reilly(Nora-Jane Noone) and she is going to be David's assistant on a journey to the bogs. Meanwhile, different people are around the bogs too- two girls get lost and an American woman and a taxi driver also get lost out on the bogs. The two girls, Hannah(Amy Huberman) and her pal Mallory(Olga Wehrly) find an old cottage and they enter it. The American woman, Val(Shelly Goldstein) and the taxi driver, Deano(Gavin Kelty) also find the shack and they look for a phone,but of course, there is no phone. Next to find the shack are David and Saoirse. They all swap stories and wonder how they can get out of the bogs. They decide to make the most of it and wait until the morning to get out. They tidy up the place and they get a fright when the owner of the place arrives back. It's Vinnie Jones!!!



It turns out that his name is Hunter and he is after the beast of the bog!Val and Deano head off to find the road against the other's advice. Hunter goes out hunting at night. Meanwhile, the bog monster has crawled out of the bog and is going around killing everything in sight. He wants his uisce!!! The morning comes and the others find Val's body. Mallory falls into a bog pool and she almost dies. They have to take her back to the shack. Deano and Hunter go towards the road. Deano finds his taxi and he tries to start it, but he ends up getting dragged along the road and dies. Hannah tries to escape but the bog monster catches her and calls Hunter out. He shoots the bog monster and that causes the creature to decapitate Hannah. Everyone hides in the shack and the remaining people admit that each other had done something bad and buried bodies in the bog for one reason or another.

Mallory dies. That leaves Hunter, Saoirse and David. Hunter confronts the beast again, but this time, he is impaled and he dies. David and Saoirse have to get rid of the creature. The only way is by fire so they turn on the shower and the monster is drawn to the water which is laced with gasoline. David sets him alight and the creature runs back to the bog where he disappears. This movie was okay. It wasn't brilliant by any means, but for an Irish horror movie, it was okay. I thought that the film maker tried his best with what must have been a small budget. The actors weren't too bad. I mean, it's not an Oscar contender, but it's not the worst movie I have ever seen either. I am going to give it a 4/10.

Whatever Works Movie Review 58

Hello All!! Amanda here!! I am a huge Woody Allen fan, so I was looking forward to this movie for some time. I am a Larry David fan too, so this was a match made in heaven. Larry stars as the lead character, Boris and there is a good cast including Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jnr. It is written and directed by Woody Allen.

Larry David is Boris Yelnikoff, an eccentric guy who used to teach at university and who now teaches chess to youngsters and hangs out with his pals. He can see the audience when nobody else can and he talks directly to the camera in the beginning scene as he describes his feelings and thoughts on life in general. He is sceptical of a lot of people and he prefers to live alone and without women in his life. He describes his marriage with his wife and he is just too odd to live with anyone.He tells us that he tried to commit suicide by jumping out of the window, but he landed on the canopy! He is left with a limp with only adds to his annoyances. He thinks that he is smarter than everyone else and he looks down on people he considers stupid or ignorant.

We cut to modern day and Boris meets a young girl who is on his doorstep. She is starving and she looks as if she is homeless so he lets her come inside his apartment and he gives her something to eat and she takes a shower. She asks him if he will let her stay as she has nowhere else to go. She is naive and has come from Mississippi to find a better life for herself. Her name is Melodie(played by Evan Rachel Wood) and he lets her stay with him, against his better judgement.She becomes a lodger in his apartment. He tells his pals and they are surprised at him because it is something that he would never normally do. He tells them that it is just for a while, but he begins to get used to her being there. She lets him know that she likes him as more than a friend, but he doesn't want to get involved with someone.


Melodie meets a young man who takes her out and Boris becomes jealous. He tries to make her see that the guy is no good for her, but she comes to that conclusion herself and they both get together. They marry soon after. They are married a year when Melodie's mother, Marietta(Patricia Clarkson) shows up and tries to rescue her daughter from this dirty old man. She wants Melodie to meet a younger man who can offer her children and other things that Boris cannot. Melodie tells her that she is happy,but her mother cannot understand why she would be with such a man. She meets Boris' friend Kevin and they get on well. He persuades her to go back to her dream of becoming a photographer. Marietta also meets a nice young guy called Randy James(Henry Cavill) who is interested in her daughter.


Over the next few weeks, Marietta changes from a small-town woman into a free spirit who is becoming a sensation with her photography and who is living with Kevin and another guy at the same time! She meets Randy James again and she tells him to bide his time and she will let him know where Melodie is so he can 'bump' into her. At first, Melodie will not give him the time of day, but after he seems to pop up everywhere, they kiss and realise that they are meant to be together after all. She is miserable because she has to tell Boris. Her father (Ed Begley Jnr) shows up wanting to get his family back and when he finds that Marietta has turned into a different person, he is distraught and goes to get drunk at a bar where he meets a gay guy and they relate to each other and he discovers that he is gay too!!!


So, the next day, Melodie tells Boris that she has met someone else and that she is in love with this guy. He takes it well and tells her that he knew that it would happen eventually. That night, he decides to commit suicide by jumping out of the window, but this time, he lands on a woman, Helena(Jessica Hecht) and breaks her legs. She is a psychic. We cut to New Years Eve and we are in Boris' apartment. There are happy couples everywhere. There are Melodie and Randy James, Her mother and her two boyfriends. Boris is with Helena and Melodie's dad is with his new gay lover. They all kiss as it becomes a new year. Boris turns to the audience again and he says that you have to make the most out of life and find happiness where you can and that you have to find whatever works for you..


I liked this film a lot. I expected it to be good, but it was better than I had expected. Larry David made the part his own and I can't think of anyone better to play Boris! I really recommend it to anyone who likes Woody Allen and even those who don't! I am giving it a 9/10.