The Purge is a 2013 Science Fiction/Horror movie directed by James DeMonaco and starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey and Rhys Wakefield.
The year is 2022 and there is hardly any crime and unemployment in America. The government is called the New Founding Fathers of America and they have a 12 hour purge where people can vent their frustration and commit any act of violence they like. People who can afford it have security systems while the poor or homeless people get the brunt of the violence. James Sandin(Hawke) sells the security systems and he and his wife Mary(Headey) live in a very nice neighbourhood with their two children, Charlie and their daughter Zoey. They get ready for the purge and they start to shut down everything. Zoey's boyfriend, Henry gets into the house and he confronts James with a gun.
Meanwhile, in an act of utter stupidity, Charlie sees a wounded man on the cameras and he decides to let him in.
This leads to a group of youngsters, led by a masked leader(Wakefield) who calls on them and tells them that they have something he wants. The homeless guy that they were chasing down is theirs and they want him back so that they can kill him. They give them time to decide before they break inside and kill everyone. At first James wants to hand him over, but it doesn't work out that way and the group breaks in and it is a game of cat and mouse as they try and survive. James and co battle their way through the group but James is mortally wounded and he eventually dies. Mary survives and she is faced with some crazy neighbours who want to kill her family too. The homeless guy pops up and saves them from death and Mary lets the neighbours go when the purge is over.
This was an entertaining movie. I liked the premise and it was good fun. The twist at the end where the neighbours were trying to kill them too was a bit silly, but overall, this wasn't bad. I will give it a 7/10.
Terror at Lost Lake is a 2012 horror movie directed by Marcus Nash and starring Ezra Buzzington, Katie Keene and John Shartzer.
Tricia(Keene) and Jeff(Shartzer) are getting married. The only thing is that Tricia's uncle Vern(Buzzington) has disappeared and she wants him to come to the wedding. Where has he gone? The last place he was going is called Lost Lake and it is a deserted ghost town. They drive there to see if they can find him and they do. They look around the place and it is empty and weird. There doesn't seem to be anyone else there except for Vern who is acting strangely. He tells them that he is waiting to see a ghost that is supposed to come to the town. He wants them to help to him to find it and get proof that it exists. They humour him at first, but when they fail to get pictures of it and want to leave, he goes mad and turns against them.
He chases them and disables their car. There is a weird old woman hanging around and she freaks them out. Vern has a weapon now and he threatens them. He hits Jeff over the head and ties him up.
The old woman has something to do with it and she stays with Jeff while Vern chases down Tricia and tries to bury her alive. Jeff escapes and finds her. He saves her from Vern.Vern gets killed. But as they try and escape, Jeff is possessed or something and he kills Tricia and he is now taking Vern's place in the town. The old woman is a witch or something and she needs him to do her bidding as Vern was.
This movie was not good. In fact, it was pretty bad. I thought that it would be better from the storyline, but it just didn't have anything interesting to say. The acting was horrific and the old lady wandering around was just silly after a while. Boring. I give it a 2/10.
Apartment 143 is a 2012 horror movie directed by Carles Torrens and starring Gia Mantegna, Fiona Glascott and Michael O'Keefe.
A group of parapsychologists head to an apartment building to meet a guy called Alan White(Kai Lennox) who seems at the end of his tether. He tells them that there are odd things happening in the apartment and that he thinks that they might be ghostly. The team consists of the tech guy, Paul(Rick Gonzalez), the tech girl, Ellen(Glascott) and Dr. Helzer(O'Keefe). They set up theior equipment in the apartment and they see the rest of the family. Alan's daughter, Caitlin(Mantegna) is a real handful and she is rude and horrible to Alan as she blames him for her mother's untimely death. Alan has a son called Benny too.
The team finds out that Alan's wife died in a car crash and that he was with his two children at the time. Alan thinks that it might be her haunting the apartment.Strange things start to happen and it seems that there is something in the apartment that is not happy. They see ghostly figures and things move around. Dr. Helzer talks to Alan about his wife and he discovers that she was sick. She was mentally ill and she went crazy the day she died. She was in a rage and she hit a tree with her car. He tells the doctor that Caitlin thinks that it was all his fault because he argued with her before her death.
Alan sends Benny off to his grandad and he and the others talk. Dr. Helzer thinks that Caitlin might be the cause of the disturbance and that she is schizophrenic like her mother.
They challenge Caitlin and she is possessed with something. It seems as if she was the one who was bringing all of the forces into the apartment with her rage. She is taken away and everyone leaves the apartment, happy. Of course, that isn't the end of it and there is a last shot of Alan's wife crawling around on the ceiling. So, it was haunted all along...An okay movie. It is very like Paranormal Activity and all of those movies, so be warned. I enjoyed it, but there wasn't any surprises. A mediocre effort. I give it 5/10.
Next Of Kin is an action movie from 1989 starring Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and Adam Baldwin. It's directed by John Irvin who also directed Hamburger Hill.
The movie revolves around a Chicago cop called Truman Gates(Swayze). He's from a hillbilly town and he is adjusting to life in the big city. He is married to Jessie(Hunt) and they are expecting a baby.
His brother, Gerald(Paxton) is also in the city and he is working for a vending machine company. They have another brother called Briar(Neeson) who still lives in the small town. Gerald gets into trouble when the truck he is driving is hijacked by mob guys led by Joey Rosellini(Baldwin) and his posse. Joey is the nephew of crime boss Poppa John Isabella(Andreas Katsulas). He is a hothead and he murders Gerald. This leads to the start of a war between Truman and his family and Joey and his guys.
Ben Stiller turns up in this movie as Poppa John's son but he is a bit of a weenie and he hasn't the evil streak that Joey has. Briar comes up to Chicago with revenge on his mind. Truman wants him to leave it to the cops, but that isn't going to happen. The mob guys are confronted by Briar and they retaliate.
Briar and Truman go after them,but Briar gets shot dead. Truman has to face them alone. He is not alone for long because his hillbilly friends come up and serve up some justice to the mob crowd. Poppa John ends it all when he discovers that Joey killed his son. He shoots him and tells Truman that it is all over between them now. They are even. Truman and Jessie are reunited and the movie ends.
This was a good solid action movie. There is a great cast and it is what you would expect from an 80's movie. I liked it and I would recommend it if you like any of the main stars. Neeson is very good as the hillbilly Briar and Swayze is good too. An enjoyable actioner with some good scenes. I will give it a 7/10.
