Happy Halloween!!!!!

Happy Halloween from us at Jigsaws Lair. This is our favourite time of year when we can indulge in a horror movie marathon!!!!There are so many movies to choose from, it is so hard to come up with only a few. Tonight, I have chosen Halloween(the original, of course), The Exorcist and many more...I hope that all of you have a good night and enjoy it!!!!!Let me know what movies you watched on Halloween. I am interested in what other people like to watch and maybe you were watching the same classics as we were!!!!!!

The Walking Dead, Season 2, Episode 1

Another season of The Walking Dead has begun and it is as good as ever. I was looking forward to this season and it is finally here!

 

There is a recap of the last season. Then it cuts to Rick(Andrew Lincoln) who is on the walkie talkie telling anyone who is listening that they are heading to Fort Benning. The group heads off but they come across a blockage in the road and they can't get around it. They don't have enough gas to go back so they have to get some from the abandoned cars around. Their Winnebago breaks down and it needs to be fixed. Dale(Jeffrey DeMunn) sets about fixing it. They come upon a water truck and they drink some. Suddenly along comes a horde of walkers and the group have to hide. Andrea(Laurie Holden) is still in the Winnebago, oblivious. She realises when one of the walkers comes into the Winnebago and she has to hide in the toilet. She kills it.

One of the kids makes a noise an the walkers hear it. She runs off and they come after her. Rick creates a diversion and the walkers are disposed of. The kid has disappeared and they search for her.

Lori(Sarah Wayne Callies) finds out that former lover Shane(Jon Bernthal) is thinking of going off on his own.Carol(Melissa McBride) is worried about her daughter and is blaming Rick for her going missing. Rick gives everyone a weapon to defend themselves. Andrea wants her gun but Dale doesn't want to give it to her. The searchers find a church and there are walkers in there. They kill them and they keep searching for the missing kid. Andrea overhears Lori and Shane arguing and she wants to go with Shane. Rick and his son Carl are in the woods looking for the kid Sophia and they see a deer. Carl goes over to it and he is shot through the chest along with the deer.

A very good start to the new season. It is still as good as it was and it will only get better!!! Very good episode. I can't wait for the next one!

The Silent House Movie Review 206

 The Silent House is a 2010 horror movie which is from Uruguay and it is directed by Gustavo Hernandez Perez and stars Florencia Colucci and Gustavo Alonso.

The movie begins with a girl called Laura(Colucci) and her dad Wilson(Alonso) who are going to this old abandoned house to clean it up and repair it too. The owner wants to sell it. There is no light inside the house so they have lamps and candles to wander around with. Laura looks around the spooky house.She hears a noise in the house and she tells her dad who goes to check it out. She hears her dad screaming and then more mysterious noises. She pulls out a scythe from her bag and goes to look for him. She manages to bump into him and he is dead. She tries to get out of the house but it is locked up. Someone places a doll beside her dad and puts on some creepy music. She goes upstairs to see where the music is coming from. There is nobody there. She finds a camera and takes a picture with it. She hears more noises.

She hides and turns off the light.She sees a man with a knife. She comes out again but is caught . She manages to get away out of the house. She runs into the owner of the house who just happens to be around and she tells him what happened. He drives her back to the house (bad move) and he tells them that he will look around.They both go upstairs and find that the dad has been moved. Nestor gets attacked. Who is in the Silent House? Who is killing people? Watch the movie and find out. Warning though: this movie has bad writing and the plot is not great. The movie is one long series of Laura wandering around the dark house with a lamp jumping every time she hears a noise. That's it really. One or two good scares but the rest is just kind of dull after a while.I would give it a 3/10.

99 Women Movie Review 205

   

99 Women is a 1969 thriller/drama directed by Jesus Franco who is better known for his horror movies. It stars Maria Schell, Herbert Lom and Maria Rohm.

The movie begins with prisoners being brought to an island prison. It is called Castello De La Muerte and three women have been sentenced to serve their time there. The warden is Thelma Diaz(Mercedes McCambridge) and she is one tough mama. The governor is Santos(Lom) and he has fun with the girls when he comes to visit. Some of the women die under mysterious circumstances. Diaz tells him that he might like the new prisoner- number 99 Marie(Rohm). When one of the new prisoners dies from withdrawal  the doctor comes and he is not happy with what he sees. The conditions are not good. Prisoner 99 and prisoner 76 fight and they are in the hospital together. The governor comes in and they all have some fun!

An observer comes to the prison to see how it is run and what is going on behind closed doors. She is Leonie Caroll(Schell) and she tells Diaz that she wants to see everything. Diaz is not happy. She and the governor have to make sure that she does not see anything they don't want her to. Marie meets Miss Caroll and they talk. Marie tells her about her crime. The governor and Miss Diaz conspire to get Caroll kicked off the island. They write a bad report about her. When there is an escape, everything goes wrong and the girls are brought back to the island minus one who died. They are punished severely and Miss Caroll is appalled but she cannot do anything about it.

There is a full scale riot and Miss Caroll tries to talk to the prisoners but they will not give her the time of day. They don't realise that she is there to help and this plays right into the hands of the governor and Diaz. The movie ends with Miss Caroll having to leave the island after everything. She has failed in her mission to help the women and she cannot win with the evil governor or Diaz. She passes the women on her way out and it is business as usual. Nothing has changed. End of movie. This was an average movie. It wasn't bad or it wasn't great. Just okay. There were some good actors in it and they made the best of what they were given. It is worth seeing if you like women behind bars movies. I am going to give it a 5/10.

American Horror Story, Season 1, Episode 1

American Horror Story is a new horror series created by Ryan Murphy(who was the creator of Nip/Tuck) and Brad Falchuk(who also worked on Nip/Tuck and Glee). It stars Dylan McDermott(from TV show The Practice),Connie Britton(from TV show Spin City), Evan Peters(from TV show Invasion) and Jessica Lange who everyone should know from her numerous movies.

The series begins with a large house. It is old and run down. A young girl stands outside it, staring. Along come two twins who carry baseball bats and who are going to enter the house. She tells them that they are going to die. They ignore her and enter the house and wreck it. Unfortunately, they split up and one of them goes down to the basement(bad move!) and meets his end. The other twin wanders down and he is killed too.Cut to present day and a family are moving into the house. Psychiatrist Ben Harmon(McDermott), his wife Vivian(Britton) and their oddball daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga). They have a history too. Ben cheated on his wife and she found him with his lady friend in their bed. Vivian had a miscarriage too. They haven't been having sex for more than a year and Vivian is trying to forgive Ben for his infidelity.

 Their neighbour is Constance(Lange) whose daughter is Adelaide, the former little girl who was in the beginning of the show. She tells Vivian that she will die. She is a nuisance and Vivian and Ben don't want her to come into the house without being asked. Constance tells them about the two people who lived in the house before them. They died in an apparent murder/suicide. Vivian wanders around the attic and she finds a kinky leather suit. She and Ben throw it out. A  weird housekeeper called  Moira(Frances Conroy) shows up and offers her services. She has always been the housekeeper in the house and Vivian hires her. The only thing is that Vivian sees her as an old woman and Ben sees her as a young, sexy maid who is coming onto him. Ben is taking his patients in the house and one of them is young Tate(Evan Peters). He is a weirdo and he is talking about his problems with Ben. Tate meets Violet and they get on. Ben isn't happy.

Some really strange things begin to happen in the house such as Vivian having sex with a stranger wearing the leather suit, Ben seeing the maid pleasuring herself, Ben meeting a weird guy who used to live in the house who warns him that it will make him go mad. Ben starts sleepwalking. Tate and Violet are both social outcasts and they scare one of the girls in school who is bullying Violet. Something horrible happens when they lure her to the basement and she is scared out of her mind. Violet is scared too, but Tate seems to be okay with it. There is some weird creature living in the basement and it attacked the girl from school. What is going on???I couldn't tell you, but what I will say is this show is interesting and new. I like it already. The show ends with the shocking news that Vivian is pregnant. Who is the father though? Ben or the person in the leather suit who she thought was her husband????Hmmm. Interesting. I am looking forward to the next episode already!!!!! It is weird and wonderful.....

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home Movie Review 204

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home is a TV movie/miniseries directed by Leo Penn(father of Sean Penn) and starring Bette Davis,David Ackroyd, Rosanna Arquette and Joanna Miles. It is based on a book called Harvest Home written by Tom Tryon.

The story begins with a family- Beth Constantine(Miles) her husband Nick(Ackroyd) and their daughter Kate(Arquette). Beth has been left money by her father and they come upon a beautiful house in the middle of Amish country. They buy it and move in. Nick is going to write a book about the Amish and their way of life so he goes around talking to them and taking photos of them. They meet the Widow Fortunes(Davis) and she seems to be the boss of everything. She knows all about what is going on and she is friendly to them. The family set about doing up the house and a local boy called Worthy(Michael O' Keefe) helps them. He likes Kate. 

Things get weird when a local strange man called Jack Stump(Rene Auberjonios) says he saw a ghost.

 Meanwhile, Nick and Beth get to see the local traditions and how the Amish go about their lives. Nick talks to Worthy and discovers that the young man wants to go to college and leave the village. This is frowned upon by his family. Kate has an asthma attack and the Widow is on hand to give her a local cure making Kate and Beth think that she is a miracle worker. Nick isn't so sure about the weird Widow and he gets suspicious of her. Worthy talks to Kate about leaving town, but Kate has been sucked in by the Widow and her locals and she doesn't think he should go.Worthy discusses it with Nick. Nick sees something like a ghost while out on a stormy night. He tells Beth, but she tells him he imagined it but Nick is not so sure. He begins to investigate the disappearance of a local girl and discovers things that he doesn't like.

Nick tries to get the cops involved, but they don't want to know about it. He sees some ritual being performed with young women and he worries about Kate. Finally, Worthy decides to leave town and Nick gives him some money. Nick wants to talk to Jack Stump, but finds that Jack's tongue has been cut out. He is being taken care of by the Widow. When Worthy sends Nick a letter telling him how he is, it is opened by the locals who find Worthy and bring him back. The locals gets pissed off at Nick and they  lock him up. Beth is pregnant and the Widow points it out to her. Kate and Beth have been completely taken in by the locals and their weirdness. Nick escapes from his cell but gets caught by the locals. The movie ends with Beth and Kate happy and cheerful. Beth is pregnant and glowing. Nick is sitting in a chair, blind......

This is an entertaining movie. It has very little blood or gore in it, so if you are looking for that, look elsewhere. This is more of a thriller and it is well acted and well written. I enjoyed it and it is perfect for a Sunday afternoon!!!It gets a 6/10.

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark Movie Review 203

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark is a 1973 horror movie directed by John Newland and starring Kim Darby, Jim Hutton and Barbara Anderson.

The movie begins with strange voices coming from a large house. They are waiting for someone to come.Cut to a married couple moving into the house. It was left to them by a dead grandmother. The wife is called Sally(Kim Darby) and the husband is named Alex(Hutton). Sally wants to transform the house as it is old and dated. She wanders down to the basement where there is an old fireplace which had been bricked up. The handyman, Harris(William Demarest) tells her that he bricked it up for her grandma years ago but he wont say why. She wants to open it, but he tells her she should leave it alone. They argue over it. Alex agrees with Mr. Harris and tells Sally to leave it alone. She goes back to it and opens a little door in the fireplace, but there is  nothing there, or is there?? Has she unleashed something terrible into the house?

It turns out that there is something horrible in the basement and now it has been set free. Sally begins to hear noises in the house and she thinks that there is something with her. She tries to tell Alex, but he thinks that she is dreaming or imagining it. She tells her pal Joan(Anderson) and her friend thinks that it is in her mind because of the stress of moving into a new house etc. She is alone in the house when something pulls at her and says that it wants her. It scares the life out of her and she calls her husband, but he is not available. When Alex arrives back, he seals the door in the basement fireplace to put her mind at ease. He gets angry with her when she tells him something was with her. He can't find the key to the basement door and he thinks that Mr. Harris must have it, but he doesn't. To make everything worse, Sally has to host a party that night.

She is visibly on edge and she sees the little creatures and is horrified. They are little demon-like monsters. Alex thinks that she is going crazy. Later that night, she is in the shower when they let themselves in and turn out the lights. One of them has a straight razor and it wants to kill her, but it is told to wait by another one. Sally switches on the lights and they hate that. They disappear saying that tomorrow, they will get her. She realises that they detest the light so that night she falls asleep with the light on. Alex has to go away on o business trip and he will be gone that next night. Sally is worried but she decides to invite her friend Joan over but Joan asks her to come to her house instead. Sally is happy to get out. That day, Sally goes out and buys loads of candles so there will be plenty of light. She knows that the creatures will be back for her. It turns out that the creatures want her spirit and it has to be her not anyone else. She is horrified and she tells Joan.

Joan is in the house when the creatures cut the power.  Joan starts to believe what Sally is saying, but the creatures put a sleeping tablet into Sally's drink and drug her so that they can get her down to the basement. Joan goes outside to see what the problem is with the lights and Sally gets taken by the creatures. Joan is locked out by them and she is frightened. Sally is hauled down to the basement and disappears. Alex arrives back to find Joan trying to get inside. Sally is not there. She is down in the basement with the creatures and she is waiting with them for the next victim.....

This was a very entertaining TV movie. I enjoyed it and it was genuinely creepy in parts. The little monsters were scary in their own way and you have to remember that there weren't great special effects back then. It is a good, solid horror movie and it is one to watch. I haven't seen the remake yet but I know that the director has changed the story a bit and thrown in the usual spooky kid storyline, plus Katie Holmes is in it. If that isn't enough to put you off, then watch it!! I will do a review when I get around to seeing it! For now, enjoy the original, it is a surprise...I am giving it a 7/10.