The Blair Witch Project is still the best Found Footage movie. It’s not just because its one of the first but because now we have had a deluge of imitators, the purity and simplicity of the movie is really refreshing. It doesn’t have a … Continue reading Apollo 18 (2011) Review
The Omen has become less of a horror movie and much more an iconic thriller. The first box you have to tick if you are going to make a horror film is “scare people” and unfortunately, The Omen doesn’t really do that. There are no jump out of your skin moments like this year’s Woman in Black or even tense, creepy moments where you are waiting for something bad to happen, like the Paranormal Activity series has become expert at. Instead, we get a film that tells a horror story. Its more like watching a ghost story unfold, a supernatural, … Continue reading The Omen (1976) Review
If you are going to remake an iconic film, you must have a legitimate reason to do so. Just because it already has a popular fan base can’t be enough of a reason. Neither is the fact that the film franchise has clearly been sequelled into oblivion. I’d say that is the reason to reboot a series. There is a difference. Its subtle but there is definitely some distinction between the two. A remake is retelling a story with slight changes. The main concept and narrative strand is the same but you may change elements, like developing a characters back-story or … Continue reading A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) Review
Quarantine is pointless. As a film, it’s actually a waste of time. A waste of the actors time, the directors time and possibly worst of all, the audiences time. Quarantine is the very common form of movie, the remake. Except Quarantine fits into a very specific category of remake, the worst kind, the scene for scene, exact remake. Quarantine is a remake of the Spanish film REC which was released in 2007, literally the year before. I can understand why the remake exists. The first film is considered a foreign language movie. It’s understandably in Spanish and is viewed with English subtitles … Continue reading Quarantine (2008) Review
Paranormal Activity is one of my favourite “horror” films. It’s actually a close call between that and Blair Witch Project for scariest film I’ve ever seen. I don’t really enjoy “slasher horror” like Halloween or Nightmare of Elm Street and even though the first one was quite clever, I also struggle to see the appeal of multiple instalments of the Saw franchise. What is always guaranteed to scare me, or at least pique my interest, is a “found footage” film. The “found footage” genre has become one of my favourites and I love watching any film that uses this type of … Continue reading Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) Review
I love “found footage/shaky camera” films! Blair Witch Project still stands up as one of my favourite horror films and it was joined by Paranormal Activity recently. I also like it when this type of film tries something outside of basic horror, Cloverfield being a fantastic example. It can rack up the tension and put you straight in the action. Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield all worked brilliantly because the person behind the camera was actively involved in the film, meaning the viewer is actively involved in the film! Unfortunately the whole “found footage” film has began to die a death. Paranormal Activity … Continue reading REC 2 (2009) Review
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