Silent House is a 2011 horror movie directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau. It is a remake of the South American horror, The Silent House, which I have reviewed here. It stars Elizabeth Olsen.
If you have seen the original movie, then you will have some idea of the plot. But, if you haven't, I can sum it up pretty quickly for you. Sarah(Olsen) is a young woman who is working on fixing up a large house with her dad, John(Adam Trese) and her uncle, Peter(Eric Sheffer Stevens). There are no lights on in the house, so they have lamps to work by. The house is large and creepy and Sarah hears noises upstairs. They investigate and find nothing, but then her dad is attacked and it becomes apparent that there is someone else in the house with them. Peter has gone off to get supplies and Sarah is alone with her dad. There is more creepiness etc and when Peter returns, she tells him what happened to her dad. He decides to go back inside the house instead of getting help and a story unravels...
It turns out that Sarah has some mental problems stemming from abuse at the hands of her dad. She has remembered what happened and she is out for revenge. Peter knew about the abuse, but he didn't stop it.Sarah kills her dad when he shows his true colours and she spares Peter for some reason and just leaves the house. This movie lacked real suspense in my opinion. It was dull in parts and even though, there were a few jumps, there was nothing here that was amazing or surprising. I guess that it was like the first movie in that way. A woman wandering around a house with a lamp has no appeal after a while. The ending was okay and Olsen was okay, but that was about it.I don't want to be mean, but it just got boring after a while. This one gets a 3/10.
I am a fan of horror movies about Ouija boards- see my reviews of Witchboard and Witchboard 2- so this movie caught my eye. It looks like the usual teen horror movie, but I do like the premise. This will be out later in the year, so I will watch it and do a review when the time comes! Have a look at the trailer and see what you think....
The Flesh and Blood Show is a British 1972 horror/thriller movie directed by Pete Walker who was well known for his sleazy horrors. It stars Ray Brooks, Jenny Hanley, Robin Askwith and Patrick Barr.
A group of actors are hired by a theatre company and they have to go to a strange threatre in a little seaside town. The director/producer of the group is called Mike (Brooks) and his is there when the actors and actresses start arriving. He has been in contact with their employer and he tells them that they are to work in the theatre on the play. There aren't any places to stay in the town, so they all decide to stay in the theatre for the moment. It is an eerie, spooky place and they are all a little on edge. The actresses are Carol(Luan Peters),Jane(Judy Matheson), Angela(Penny Meredith) and Julia Dawson(Hanley). The actors are Simon(Askwith), Tony(Tristan Rogers) and John. They sleep the night in the theatre and the next day, they look around the town. They meet a guy called Major Bell(Barr) and he seems interested in their play. They tell him he can have a look when they have rehearsed.
Angela goes missing and Mike looks for her. He finds an old guillotine and he thinks that he sees Angela's body and her head cut off. He calls the police, but when they arrive, they find a dummy and Mike looks silly. Everyone is a bit spooked when Angela is found on the pier, half dead. She is taken to hospital, but she dies. It is treated as an accident, but Mike is not so sure. There is someone watching them and he has Angela's head. The group meet a young woman called Sarah and she tells them that she was hired by the same company as they have been. The group try and rehearse, but things are getting stranger by the minute. John goes missing and they think that he killed Carol until his body turns up. The cops are on the case and Sarah gets killed too. There is a killer in the theatre. They all decide to go back to London when they discover that the theatre company doesn't exist and they hear a story about a man who worked in that theatre and disappeared with his wife and an actor in the company. That was years ago, but they think that maybe HE is the one killing people and he must have hired them so he could kill them like he killed his wife years ago.
The climax comes when it turns out that it IS the old actor who was called Sir Arnold Gates and he caught his wife and an actor having an affair. He sealed them up inside a wall in the theatre and he has been killing people since. He had a daughter and she saw what he did. He left her outside a police station and vanished for years, recreating himself as Major Bell! He is caught and taken away by police and his daughter turns out to be one of the group- Julia! This movie was entertaining with some sleaze and some horror. I liked it and it was well worth a watch. I will give it a 6/10.
Open Grave is a 2013 horror movie starring Sharlto Copley, Thomas Kretschmann,Erin Richards and Joseph Morgan. It is directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego.
The movie begins with a man who cannot remember who he is. He wakes up in a giant pit full of dead bodies. He is rescued by a mute Asian woman(Josie Ho) who throws down a ladder to him. He goes with her to a house where he finds other people. There is Lukas(Kretschmann), Nathan(Morgan), Sharon(Richards) and Michael(Max Wrottesley). They are suspicious of him and he of them. None of them can remember what happened to them so they have to find answers.
The movie goes on that way for a while and they wonder what is going on. There are zombies around and they find out that they were all a team of scientists who were working on a cure for a plague which has killed most of the world's population and turned the rest into zombies. Jonas(Copley) was the doctor who was performing experiments. He tried to help the people who have now turned into zombies. He discovers that he had a vaccine and he gave it to all of them but it causes temporary memory loss. He starts to recall what happened before he awoke in the pit. They all start to remember. Lukas becomes infected and he turns on Jonas as he thinks that he was hurting him, not helping him with the vaccine. He dies and Michael dies when he is attacked by a zombie.
It all comes to an end when the army arrives and starts killing the zombies and anyone else they see.
Sharon, Jonas and Asian woman escape. Jonas and Sharon hide in the pit but Sharon has been infected and she dies. Jonas had taken the vaccine but he cannot remember what happened and does not remember Sharon. He is once again saved by the Asian woman who is immune to the virus so they will try and come up with a cure. They look at all the dead bodies lying in pits as they head off on their way.
This was an okay movie. It was interesting, but there is nothing special about it. The cast was quite good and it is worth a look. I will give it a 5/10.
