Russell plays Michael Carr and he has a wife called Karen(Stowe). They live in LA and one night, a burglar breaks in and takes Karen hostage but he doesn't hurt her. The couple are shook up and call the police. One of the responders is Pete Davis(Liotta) and he helps them out and seems to be very interested in them. He helps them with their security and they become friendly. Michael wants to get the guy who attacked Karen and Pete takes him on a ride along with his partner. When his partner has left, Pete takes Michael to get the guy and when they find him, Pete goes to town on him with his nightstick. He asks Michael if he wants to join in, but Michael doesn't like it at all. He is disturbed by the brutality of Pete and he doesn't want anything to do with him after that.
Unfortunately, Pete is a psychopath and he doesn't take heed of Michael telling him to stay away. Pete keeps an eye on them, especially Karen. He is obsessed with her and he turns up at their house, Michael reports him and this makes Pete mad. He wants to destroy Michael so that he can move in on Karen. He uses his pull to get Michael into trouble at his business. Michael goes to Pete's partner for help and he tells Pete to cut it out but he gets killed by Pete so that puts an end to that. Next, Pete gets Michael arrested by planting drugs in his house. This leaves Karen alone and vulnerable.
Pete thinks that he can go over to Karen and have her, but she doesn't want him. This makes him mad. Meanwhile, Michael gets out of jail and he comes to save his wife. Pete is getting very intense with Karen and when she rejects him, he decides that he is going to rape her. Michael gets there in the nick of time and he shoots Pete dead when he grabs his gun. This was a very good thriller. Liotta was great here as the unhinged cop. He played the role as intense and creepy which he is very good at. Russell does well as the husband who tries to get Pete out his life. Stowe is fine as the wife too. This is well directed and well written and I do think that this is Liotta's movie. I really recommend this movie and I will give it a 7/10.
Here at Jigsaw's Lair, the festive season is celebrated with lots of Christmas horror movies as always. I also like other types of movies this time of year but my favourite Christmas horror movie will be Black Christmas(1974). This film is a great slasher movie but the fact that it is set at Christmas adds another layer to it. Bob Clark directed and Olivia Hussey stars along with Margot Kidder and the always reliable John Saxon. There is an eerie feeling to this film as the killer is hiding in the attic and he comes out to kill the young women. I just love it and I would watch it any time of year so if you don't get a chance to watch it over Christmas, save it until the New Year. Another favourite Christmas themed horror is Silent Night, Deadly Night. This is a staple of any Christmas horror collection. It is about a killer Santa and it is a horror classic. There are more, but these two are the best.
Other Christmas movies that I can recommend and will watch are Christmas Vacation which is hilarious in my opinion. It's A Wonderful Life is a personal favourite of mine for obvious reasons. Holiday Inn is one that I usually watch this time of year also. I love the old black and white movies and this one has stayed with me over the years.The Shop Around the Corner is a 1940 Christmas themed move starring James Stewart and I make a point of watching this one at Christmas. It is a lovely romantic movie and I really enjoy it every time. Die Hard is another movie that isn't technically a Christmas movie, but it is set around Christmas Eve so I guess you could call it one. I love the Die Hard movies and Bruce Willis is great in them. Lethal Weapon is another action movie that is set at this time of year and I love that movie too. Gremlins is a great Christmas film and I remember watching this when I was very young and I have good memories of it. I am rather fussy about the films that I watch at Christmas and some of the
more recent Christmas films are crappy and sub standard.
So, there you have it. A selection of films that you may or may not like to watch over the Christmas season. Whatever you decide to watch, I want to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and New Year. Thanks for supporting the blog through the year and I hope that you will keep supporting Jigsaw's Lair in the year to come!
This episode begins with Negan enjoying himself in Rick's house. He shaves and he has breakfast with Carl and Judith. Meanwhile Rick and Aaron are in the water trying to reach a houseboat where they think there are supplies. They have to fight with walkers to get across. They go through the stuff in there and find a few guns but no ammo. They find a picture which suggests that they f**k themselves. They take the stuff and the note. They don't see it, but somebody is watching them as they go. At the Kingdom, Carol tells Morgan to leave her alone when he brings her some fruit. One of the members of the Kingdom talks to them about the Saviours and wants them to help to convince Ezekiel to attack them but Carol isn't interested in fighting anymore. Morgan isn't keen either.
Daryl is trying to escape and he manages to get as far as the yard where he finds a motorbike. He meets one of Negan's goons and kills him without mercy. Jesus stumbles upon him and they both leave on the bike. Michonne is on the road and she is in a car with a female Saviour. She tells her that she wants to get Negan and makes her drive to his lair. They reach it and Michonne is dismayed to see loads of Saviours and she realises that she cannot fight them. The female Saviour wants to die so she tells Michonne to do it. Michonne obliges.
Things get interesting when Spencer makes his move. He approaches Negan and he suggests that Rick is not a suitable leader. While this is happening, Rick and Aaron come back and they have to hand their stuff over to the Saviours. They find the note and are not impressed. Aaron ends up getting the shit kicked out of him and Rick has no choice but to watch. Meanwhile, Spencer and Negan are talking about Rick. Spencer is showing his true colours and he is hoping that Negan will get rid of Rick for him. He thinks that he would be a better leader than Rick. Negan isn't falling for his crap, though and he calls him gutless and then slashes his stomach and watches while his insides fall out. Everyone is shocked. Rosita is horrified and uses her one bullet to try and kill Negan. Unfortunately, it hits Lucille instead. Negan is furious.
Negan looks at the bullet and realises that someone made it. He threatens to kill more people if they don't tell him who made it. Rosita claims that it was her but he doesn't believe her. Olivia is killed as a result. Eugene owns up and tells Negan that it was him. Negan and his crew take Eugene away with them. Things are looking pretty bleak when Michonne comes back and talks to Rick. She tries to get him to fight. Rick finally agrees. The group to Hilltop and meet Maggie and Sasha. Rick tells them that they are going to fight. Just then Daryl and Jesus come back and there are emotional scenes as they are reunited. There is a post credits scene where someone is watching Alexandria and is coming there. Who is it? We will have to wait until next year to find out. This was the mid season finale so it will be next February before we find out what happens to Rick and company.
The first half of the season had the good, the bad and the ugly. The good was Negan being introduced and I liked the brutal way that he asserted his authority. The bad was that Rick and the group had to put up with Negan and his bullies for a while and that we lost Abraham, Glenn, Spencer and Olivia(have I missed anyone?). Negan and his gang are good baddies and I do like him as a character. I like the leather jacket and the baseball bat and the ruthless streak that he has. I do not like the way that Rick and the others were crumbling and just being really weak when all through the series, they survived against hopeless odds. The walkers were just in the background in this season. They might as well not be there. The ugly was the way that some of the episodes dragged on and were a bit boring to be honest.I did like the final scene where Daryl and Rick were reunited. It was sweet. So, hopefully, the next half of the series will be better!
Sara(Dormer) is a twin and her sister Jess has gone missing in Japan. She receives a phone call from from the police in Japan telling her that her sister was last seen in the famous Aokigahara forest which is also known as the 'suicide forest' where people go to die. Sara decides to go to Japan to find her sister. She goes to her place and looks through her belongings for clues. She meets an American guy called Aiden(Kinney) at a bar and they get talking. She ends up telling him about her sister and he turns out to be a reporter. He tells her that he will come with her into the forest and he will bring a guide too if she gives him an interview about it.
Sara makes a deal with Aiden and the next day she and Aiden meet their guide, Michi. He tells them about the forest. He tells Sara that her sister has probably died in the forest but she doesn't believe him.They find Jess' tent in the forest and Sara doesn't want to leave because she thinks that her sister will come back but Michi tells her that he will not stay in the forest under any circumstances as he is scared of what might happen. Aiden tells him that he will stay with her and Michi leaves them but he is not happy. Sara sees a young Japanese girl in the woods who tells her that she knows her sister and she also tells her not to trust Aiden. Sara is confused as the girl disappears.
Sara becomes wary of Aiden after this encounter and she finds a picture of her sister on it. She thinks that he is dodgy and she heads off on her own. She manages to find herself in a cave and the creepy kid shows up but she is not so innocent now. She is some sort of demon and Aiden finds her in time. He rescues her and she has no choice but to go with him to a ranger station. She doesn't trust him anymore and when she hears her sister's voice coming from behind a door,s he thinks that he has been keeping her sister prisoner. There is a fight and she ends up stabbing him. He dies and she realises that she has been hallucinating the picture of Jess and hearing her voice and she has killed Aiden for nothing. She ends up having a flashback of when her parents died in a murder-suicide and she thinks that her dead father is grabbing her and she cuts his hand away from her but she has actually cut her own wrists. She sees her sister who is alive and she tries to call to her, but Jess can't hear her. She gets pulled into the forest by the demon and her sister runs out of the forest and into the arms of the search party. Michi looks into the forest and sees Sara's spirit.
This movie is okay. I wasn't overly impressed with it. I liked the story at first, but then it just became slow and a bit boring. There wasn't much here to spook or scare and it lacked something. I don't know what it was about this, but it just didn't interest me much and I would not watch it again. It's okay but nothing great. If you are looking for something scary, this isn't it. I will give it a 5/10.
This episode begins with Jesus and Carl in the back of the truck. Carl manages to leave Jesus and heads off on his own to kill Negan, but he doesn't succeed. He kills a couple of Saviours and gets caught by Negan. Instead of hurting him, he takes Carl on a tour of his place. He shows him that he has a harem with loads of women who are there for him. They meet Daryl who is shocked at seeing Carl there but there is nothing that he can do about it. Negan discovers that one of his wives has been having sex with someone else so he decides to punish the guy. He tells Dwight to heat up the iron and he has a chat with Carl about his eye which he tells him looks horrible. Carl gets upset and Negan apologises for being cruel..He takes Carl with him and he holds the hot iron to the guys face and scars him. We realise that Dwight had the same punishment and he doesn't look too happy to be seeing someone else getting what he got from Negan.
Rick and Aaron are looking for supplies with Spencer and Gabriel. When Rick and Aaron have left them, Spencer talks about Rick behind his back suggesting that he would make a better leader than Rick. Gabriel isn't too happy about it. Eugene and Rosita talk about the bullet that he is making for her and she insults him. He makes it for her, but their friendship is strained. Daryl is thrown a lifeline when someone gives him a key to a motorbike and a note telling him to go. The episode ends with Negan and his cronies showing up in Alexandria with Carl. Negan throws his weight around and even plays with Rick's daughter.
Peter Taylor(Bacon) and his wife Bronny(Mitchell) go to the Grand Canyon on holiday with their autistic son Mikey(David Mazouz) and daughter Steph(Fry). Mikey finds a strange cave underground where he finds weird stones with symbols on them. He takes them out of the cave and back to his home. Odd things happen when they get back home. The taps turn on by themselves and Steph finds handprints on the mirror and on her bed. She thinks that it is Mikey and this leads to tension in the house. Her parents find out that she has been vomiting after eating and they take her to the doctor for help. They drop Mikey off at his grandma's house and he tries to hurt her cat and grandma sees a snake.
After this, things get weirder and weirder and Bronny begins to wonder if there is something in the house with them. When they find a huge burn mark on Mikey's wall, they wonder how he got the matches to burn it and what is going on. Peter thinks that it is Mikey acting out but Bronny is not so sure. She looks up stuff on the Internet about demons and she finds out about the Anasazi Indians and how they spoke of demons in underground caves etc. She thinks that that is what is happening to them. She convinces Peter that their son has brought something back with him from the visit to the Grand Canyon. They talk to a friend and she knows a woman called Theresa who is some sort of healer. Meanwhile, Mikey has been bringing the creatures to life with the stones.
Peter and Bronny decide to bring in the healer when they find Mikey covered in dirt and in a trance. She comes with her granddaughter and they attempt to cleanse the house. The creatures are very powerful though and they try and take Mikey with them through a portal that materialises on Mikey's wall. The demons manage to pull Mikey in and Peter has to get the stones and put them back to banish the creatures. He tries but he can't do it. He begs them to take him instead and let Mikey go. They are going to take him away when Mikey puts the stones back and he destroys them. Peter and Mikey get out of the portal and everyone ends up happy. Their house is clean and the family can lead their lives again.
I liked this film. It was interesting. There were a few parts that dragged a bit, but on the whole, this was an enjoyable watch.Bacon is good, as always and I liked Mitchell also.McLean does a good job here. I am a fan of McLean because of Wolf Creek which is one of my all time favourite horror movies and the TV series was my favourite show of 2016. Lucy Fry was in this film and she was also in the Wolf Creek TV show. Paul Reiser pops up as Peter's boss. All in all, this was a mostly entertaining film which had good tension and some jumpy moments. I will give this a 6/10.
Rosemary Woodhouse(Farrow) and her husband Guy(Cassavetes) are a young couple who are looking for an apartment. They can't believe their luck when they get an apartment in the Bramford building which is a lovely place to live. Guy is an actor who has had moderate success and Rosemary is hoping that they can start a family soon. Guy isn't too keen. The previous owner of the apartment died and there is something sinister about the building. Rosemary's friend, Hutch tells them about murders that occurred in the building, but they think that he is just being cautious. They move in and they meet their neighbours, Roman(Sidney Blackmer) and his wife Minnie(Gordon). Rosemary meets a young woman called Terry who is staying with Roman and Minnie. She is wearing a charm necklace which contains some foul smelling herbs. The two young women become friends but it doesn't last because Terry throws herself off of a balcony to her death.
Minnie and Roman become close to Rosemary and Guy. Rosemary isn't as enamoured with them as Guy is. She reluctantly accepts the same necklace as Terry had. Guy becomes very fond of them but there is something about them that Rosemary finds odd. Guy gets a great part when his fellow actor is blinded. He decides that it is time for a baby and Rosemary is delighted. That night , Rosemary eats a dessert that Minne has brought over and she thinks that there is something off about it. She goes to bed and she is very groggy. She sees some weird creature who has sex with her in front of Guy and other people. When she wakes in the morning, Guy tells her that it as he who has sex with her and that he wanted to make sure that they conceived.
Rosemary becomes pregnant and she wants to go to Dr Hill(Grodin) but she is dissuaded from this by Roman and Minnie who tell her to see their friend, Dr,Sapirstein(Ralph Bellamy) instead. He gives her a supposed vitamin drink which he has Minnie bring to her. Rosemary suffers with her pregnancy in her first trimester. She has terrible pains and she loses weight. She also has unusual cravings for raw meat. Her pal Hutch sees her and is horrified by how she looks. He decides to look into the herb that is in her charm necklace. It is called Tannis Root and he is going to meet with Rosemary to tell her what he has discovered but he suddenly lapses into a coma. Rosemary meets with other friends who tell her that she is not looking well and that her doctor should be helping her. She is going to go back to Dr. Hill when the pain disappears. She feels good again and she puts on some weight.
Hutch dies and he leaves her a book on Witchcraft. She reads it and becomes convinced that Roman and Minnie and the other neighbours are really witches who are practising Satanism and that they want her baby for some evil purpose. She thinks that Guy is in with them too. When she goes into labour, she is sedated by Dr. Sapirstein and she is told afterward that she has lost the baby. She thinks that she can hear it though and she finds a passageway into another apartment and all of the neighbours are there. The baby is there too but it is the child of the Devil. Rosemary was chosen to have his child. Guy tells her that they will have everything that they want in return for the child. She is disgusted with him. She looks at the baby and her maternal instinct kicks in even though the child is not normal and the movie ends with her tending to him.
I read this book recently and it was weird because I had already seen the movie. I enjoyed the novel a lot. It was a great read and the movie is pretty faithful to the source material. I am not a fan of Mia Farrow but she did well here. I liked the cast and I thought that the film had a suitably creepy feel to it. I would call it a classic because it has inspired many horror movies over the years and because of the ending which I found unusual in both the book and the movie. There is no happy ending as such but it depends on the way that you look at it. Having baby Satan would be a challenge for any mother, but Rosemary takes it in her stride! I know that there is some sort of mini series version of this which was made a few years ago, but I am not interested really. I like this film as I consider it to be the closest adaptation of the book. It is hard to believe that this movie will be fifty years old soon. It has aged very well. I will give it a 7/10.
This episode begins with Tara who was travelling with Heath. They get separated when she falls off of a bridge and she washes up on a beach. She is found by a woman called Cyndie who takes her to a community called Oceanside. She discovers that there are only women and children in the community. The leader of the community is called Natania and she tells Tara that normally, they shoot anyone who wanders into their community but they decide to spare her. She tells them that she got separated from her friend and that she wants to go and find him. They don't want her to go as she might lead people to the community. Natania tells her that Negan's guys came and killed all of the men and boys over 10 years of age. Natania and her group left and went into hiding from them.
Tara is released and she is with some of the members of the community who tell her that they will help her to get to the bridge where she lost Heath. They have been ordered to kill her to keep her quiet but she escapes with the help of Cyndie. She gets to the bridge and looks around but she can't find Heath. She goes back to Alexandria and is upset to hear about Glenn and Abraham. She is upset to find out that Negan is the new boss man in town. Rosita asks her if she found anything out there and she lies and says that she didn't.
This episode was dull, dull, dull. It was one of those episodes that just wasn't good. I hope that this isn't a sign of things to come. I really hope that things will pick up and that the show will redeem itself after this episode.
So, if you have watched Lavalantula, then you will know the premise and you will understand that this movie will be tongue in cheek. The story is pretty thin here. Colton West(Guttenberg) is back and he is making a movie when surprise, surprise, the Lavalantuas are back! Colton's stepdaughter, Raya is on spring break in Florida and the Lavalantulas happen to be there! So, Colton has to go and save her from the hot spiders. He takes his pals Marty(Winslow) and Teddy(Ramsay) with him and another guy called Kyle. Marty has come up with a great weapon designed to kill the spiders by freezing them.
Raya is trying to escape too with the help of her friend and some other people that she meets along the way. The spiders are everywhere. Meanwhile, Colton and his pals meet a guy called Alligator Dundee(yes it is a homage) and he helps them until he gets killed by the spiders. So, what happens is Colton reaches Florida and he gets in contact with Colonel Jester(Kove) who plays his part well. Of course, there is a reference to 'sweep the leg' (Karate Kid)which made me smile. The movie gets even funnier when they realise that there is a leader of the spiders and it is a Gargantulantula!!! They have to work together to defeat this Goliath of a spider.
This is silly, but great fun all the same. I loved the first one as it was just pure escapism and comedy. I hate spiders, but this isn't too bad as the spiders are pretty tame. It is entertaining and hilarious with some cameos from Guttenberg's Police Academy pals and some from Cocoon too. I recommend this and I really think that you will like it if you are looking for something funny, silly and inoffensive. I will give it a 7/10.
A man called Paul(Billy Burke) is working in his textile factory when he is attacked by a shadowy creature who appears when the lights are turned off. He is killed by the creature. Paul had a stepdaughter called Rebecca(Palmer) and she has a brother called Martin(Bateman) who lives with their mother Sophia(Bello). She has mental problems and Rebecca worries about her brother living with her. Martin is seeing the same shadowy figure which comes out when it is dark. He is afraid to turn out the lights. His mother is talking to the figure and Martin is worried about her. Rebecca is called by the school as Martin is falling asleep in class. Rebecca wants to take him home with her.
Martin has to go back to his mother. Rebecca worries about what will happen. She is visited by the same creature and she knows that this thing is called Diana. Diana was in a mental institution with Sophia when she was young and she had a rare skin disease which meant that she could not go out in the light. She died when an experiment went wrong. She has come back to be with Sophia.She visited Rebecca too when she was young and gave her nightmares. Rebecca decides to stay with Martin and her mother and see what is going on.
Diana turns up and they have to fight her by turning on all of the lights. Rebecca discovers that Diana is there to stay with Sophia and that she won't let anyone interfere. She killed Paul for this reason as he was a threat to her. The cops come to the house but Diana kills them. She is seemingly unstoppable but Sophia realises that is she dies, Diana dies with her so she kills herself. End of movie.
This is an entertaining horror movie with some creepy moments. I enjoyed it and I found it good fun. I hadn't heard much about this movie before I watched it and it was a pleasant surprise. It is not too scary but there are some unsettling moments in this. I liked the cast and all in all, this was a good, decent horror movie. I will give it a 7/10.
Kristen(Austin) is with her two pals, Brooke and Amy in the woods and she is performing some ritual as she hates Christmas. She cuts herself and her blood falls onto the ground. She and her pals go home but something is underneath the earth and it comes up. It is an ancient elf and her blood has awakened it. She lives with her mother (Deanna Lund) who is nasty to her and her grandfather(Borah Silver) who is an ex-Nazi guy. The elf follows her around and turns up at her work in a department store. She works in a snack bar and she meets a guy called Mike(Haggerty), an ex-detective who is looking for a job from the manager of the store. They chat for a few minutes and then when the elf murders the in-store Santa, he gets the job(I know, this sounds silly but just go with it!).
So, the story just gets weirder and weirder and it turns into a Nazi plot involving her grandad who knows about the elves etc. It is all a bit of a mess from here. Let me break it down. Mike finds a symbol on he ground beside the dead Santa. He goes to see a professor at the university and finds out that it has to do with a Nazi plot to create the perfect race, blending humans and elves(!). It turns out that the grandad impregnated his own daughter to create a perfect child who will mate with the elf!!!!!Wow. The child is Kristen and she is a virgin so she will mate with the elf. He is waiting around for the right time to get with her!
So,the grandad has pals who want Kristen and the elf so they can make the perfect child and bring their plan of creating the perfect race to reality. Mike tries to help Kristen to escape from them. The elf runs around looking completely lost. The elf kills Kristen's mother and does her a favour! Mike and Kristen run into the Nazis and they try and take her. Her grandad saves her by blowing them up with a grenade.The elf chases Kristen and finds her in the woods and he tries to get with her. He doesn't finish the job and she uses an elf stone given to her by her grandad to destroy him. She succeeds and the movie ends with her in the woods alone. There is a picture of a foetus as the credits roll suggesting that maybe he did manage to impregnate her.
This movie is silly and weird and mixed up and hilarious. I enjoyed it because it was so silly. I like these bad movies sometimes and this was worth my time. It is the season to be silly so if you want a laugh, then have a look at this! I will give it a 5/10 and that is because this made me smile!
So, this time we begin at Hilltop with Maggie and Sasha. Sasha gives Maggie Glenn's pocket watch. They go to see the graves of Glenn and Abraham. Jesus comes over to them with flowers for the grave and meets Gregory who wants Sasha and Maggie out in case The Saviors come along and find them. Jesus isn't happy about this. Cut to Alexandria and Carl is having a hard time accepting the way that Rick is dealing with The Saviors. He wants revenge. Enid takes off in search of Maggie and Carl joins her on the road. At Hilltop, there is tension between Jesus and Gregory. Jesus thinks that they should let Maggie and Sasha stay, but Gregory doesn't agree. The Saviors turn up and Maggie and Sasha have to hide.
Simon(Steven Ogg) comes with his posse with a message from Negan. He wants to know if Gregory understands the way things are. He loots the place and takes everything he wants. He humiliates Gregory and makes him look like a fool. Jesus is not happy with him at all. Enid and Carl go their separate ways when Carl decides to go and kill Negan. Jesus confronts Gregory when The Saviors have left and berates him. He tells him that Sasha and Maggie are staying. Gregory says that The Saviors are reasonable and Maggie punches him. Sasha and Jesus discuss finding Negan and he jumps into the truck as The Saviors are leaving and he finds Carl already in there.
This was a so so episode. It wasn't very exciting and the Simon character is annoying. Gregory is so weak as a leader that he makes my skin crawl. I like Jesus and I am hoping that his character will remain in the series for another while. I am not sure where the series is going from here, but I am hoping that it gets better as this episode was not great.
