The Crazies

Plot:

David Dutton is the sheriff of the small Ogden Marsh town in Iowa. At a local baseball game, a crazy man comes out of the woods and David is forced to kill him. That signals just the beginning, as more and more people start acting crazy and it becomes clear that some weird type of virus is taking over the town. David tries to cut off the water supply and stop the problem, but the government shuts down the internet, cable and phone lines in town and sends in the military. His wife Judy is seen as one of the contaminated because she’s running a fever and we learn that she’s actually pregnant. David, his deputy, wife and a few others attempt to escape the town, while the government is watching every move they make…

Trivia:

A remake of the George Romero movie of the same name.

Horror connections: Timothy Olyphant (Scream 2, Dreamcatcher), Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill), Joe Anderson (The Ruins) and Danielle Panabaker (Mr. Brooks, Friday the 13th).

Thoughts:

It’s funny that I wrote this review while The Girl Next Door played in the background and I had Timothy Olyphant talking. I love seeing him as a bad guy, so in this movie I was playing catch up. He does such a good job of kicking ass that sometimes it’s hard to see him playing the straight/good guy. That said, I kind of dug The Crazies. I’ve never seen the original so I wasn’t one of those rabid fans demanding something spectacular or asking for everyone’s head on a stick. I wasn’t even sure what the original was about, just that the name sounded familiar. I actually see this as one of those movies that I pull out once or twice a year, pop in and then remember how much I liked it.

Legion

Plot:

Bob runs a random diner in the middle of nowhere with his son Jeep, who’s in love with their waitress Charlie, despite the fact that she’s pregnant by another man. Over the course of a few hours, the diner fills up with random travelers, including a family with a teenage daughter and a man on his way home to see his son. An old woman comes into the diner and attacks Charlie, before climbing the walls like a spider. The archangel Michael appears and is quickly followed by a wave of assassins and angels, all of who want Charlie’s baby.

Trivia:

Actors with connections to horror flicks include: Lucas Black (“American Gothic”), Adrianne Palicki (“Supernatural”), Charles S. Dutton (Cat’s Eye), Jon Tenney (The Stepfather) and Kate Walsh (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer).

Thoughts:

Legion is one of those movies that’s kind of hard to classify because it falls under so many categories. I pretty much wanted to see it from the moment it came out, but by the time it came out on DVD, I had kind of forgot about it. The boyfriend picked it and we watched it, but he liked it a lot more than I did. Personally, I kind of thought Charlie was a bitch, which if she is the mother of god, I guess that means I’m going to hell. The movie seemed a little slow for my tastes.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Plot:

I don’t really know if I should rehash the plot here because you should know it. There’s basically a bunch of high school students who start dreaming of a man wearing a red and green sweater who attacks them. In the opening scene, Kris, Nancy and Quentin witness a boy named Dean kill himself by stabbing a knife in his throat. Dean is dreaming at the time and sees Freddy attack him in the same way. Oddly enough, Kris is the main character for a good portion of the film before it switches to Nancy and Quentin. Nancy confronts her mother about a man named Freddy Krueger, but her mom denies knowing him. Later the teens learn that Freddy was a man who worked in the same pre-school they all attended.

Trivia:

Some of the same scenes from past films were used here or inspired by the others, including a demon face coming out from Nancy’s wall and her mother getting pulled through a mirror.

Kyle Gallner (Quentin) had roles in The Haunting in Connecticut and Jennifer’s Body, while Katie Cassidy previously popped up in When a Stranger Calls and Black Christmas.

Wes Craven apparently wasn’t too happy with the decision to remake the movie, nor the fact that the filmmakers didn’t ask for his advice/guidance. Robert Englund on the other hand, gave the movie his full support.

Thoughts:

I really put off seeing this movie for far too long and I’m not sure why. I wasn’t thrilled when they remade my favorite horror flick (okay, top 5) My Bloody Valentine, but I saw it. This one though…I couldn’t really get excited about it. When I finally started watching it, I nearly giggled when I saw Freddy for the first time. There was something very…plastic about his face and fake, more so than the original. I also couldn’t get over Katie Cassidy playing yet another teenager. Is this 90210 the modern years or something? Everyone kept telling me that this movie was “so dark”, but I think I almost prefer the quipping Freddy, who made the ridiculous situations kind of fun. That’s not to say I hated the movie because I did like it. That first kill was probably the most impressive, though I was kind of hoping for a little more killing in the film. I’m also undecided on the new backstory of Freddy. I somehow prefer him as a child killer coming back for revenge on the parents who killed him, rather than a pedophile Freddy.

Frozen

 

Plot:

Dan and his best friend Joe have a ritual of skipping out on real life and hitting the moutain for the day. Dan’s been seeing this chick Parker and it’s causing a strain between the two because Joe rarely dates and Dan never does anything without her. Neither Parker nor Dan seem to have a problem with her tagging along, which is kind of insane. She can barely stand up for two seconds on her board without falling over and yet the two guys have been skiing/boarding for years. Instead of buying lift tickets, they bribe the attendant to let them ride. Later they convince him to let them go up the mountain, even though it’s closed for the night. When he switches with another worker, the new guy doesn’t realize they’re still on the lift and shuts it down for the night. The three wind up stuck, 50 feet in the air in -0 temperatures. As night falls, they make the dangerous decision to do whatever it takes to get off the mountain.

Trivia:

Kind of some nice horror movie peeps in this one. Shawn Ashmore (Joe) starred in The Ruins and the upcoming Mother’s Day, while Kevin Zegers (Dan) had roles in Wrong Turn and Dawn of the Dead. Add in Kane Hodder and the writer/director of Hatchet and Hatchet II, Adam Green.

Thoughts:

I’m a little undecided when it comes to Frozen because I liked it, but I wasn’t left overly happy. I read about the people “fainting” at the premier and I have a hard time believing it. The beginning of the movie is fairly interesting, but the tension is spaced out too much. It had some great moments, but in between those great moments, there was too many slow moments. I try to maintain some suspension of disbelief when watching a horror movie, but the scenes with the wolves drove me crazy. One guy hit the leader of the pack, which then ran off and the others went with it. Three seconds later the wolf is attacking. Wouldn’t something else showing dominance scare them off? Then you have to wonder about the wolves at all. Either they’re scared of people and avoid the mountain or they don’t. Are we supposed to believe that wolves roam free when the mountain is used fairly frequently? Not to mention the fact that no one bothers to come back to the mountain when it’s closed, not even to make sure no stupid kids are on the mountain or even to do paperwork. I also wasn’t too happy with the ending, nor was I that crazy about the Parker character, who did little more than whine and pout for 90 minutes. Yet some of the true horror scenes were disgusting! A guy breaks two legs and we literally see bone popping out. Not to mention some disgusting scenes of the after effects of frostbite. Even my former military boyfriend had problems with those scenes. I’m just not sure it was enough to counteract the slow pacing (at times).