Japanese horror isn’t something I pride myself on having a lot of knowledge of or contain much material about, but I do find enjoyment in what I come across even if the resemblance to an anime style becomes apparent in the storytelling. I’ll be straight forward with you right here and now, I’m not a fan of Japanese anime. No, sir. Can’t say that I am. However, my latest venture into the J-horror sends me back in time to the groovy year of 1977. The film is called House and no, not the Steve Miner feature from ’86. Also known by it’s Japanese name Hausu, House is a simple ghost tale with ambitious and groundbreaking special effects that dared much of the decade to catch up with the times.
Category Archives: Chilly Thrilly
Evil all around! I Saw the Devil review!
Every so often, a hole must be filled. This hole is the deepest, darkness, most horrifying and brutally stricken hole a single person would imagine if they had the fortitude to ever do so. The reason this hole needs to be filled lies majorly with curiosity and morbidness. Human nature is quirky and our senses need to be overloaded with fear and shock when the time calls for it. Jee-woon Kim’s I Saw the Devil fills that hole and exceeds to overflow it with unmerciful loathing which will haunt you long after the credits roll.
A solitary man rapes and dismembers young women in order to appease his appetite for human suffering, but when when one of his victims turns out to be the pregnant fiance of a secret service agent and a former police chief’s daughter, he may have made a big mistake. The agent devises a plan to find his fiance’s killer and play a capture and release torture game in order to inflict as much as pain as the killer has caused the agent’s fiance. What the agent doesn’t realize is that this killer is relentless when it comes to getting even and nothing will stop his destructive path.
Hidden evils will be your undoing! Death’s Door review!
Remember those 80’s and early 90’s demonic films that had the camera pretend to be a floating spirit like in Evil Dead or the original Night of the Demons? Exposing women’s breasts were a mere exploitive stunt as the well endowed ladies’ shirts just happen to fall off because of a single, light and accidental touch. The blood waved in like a killer tsunami and the body count was as high as Mount Fuji! Those were the good ole days of demonic horror with the clarity of the hero and, sometimes, villains was not so black and white. This melancholy brings me to George Schileppi’s 2008 killer specter and possession film Death’s Door where he skims the surface of all that glory said above and never really sinks his teeth into something that has been, at least to me, long lost in the world of horror.
Television psychic Madame Camille uses smoke and mirrors to make her guest believe they’re actually speaking to their loved ones. When an aggressive religious driven radio evangelist is invited to face his accusations of murder, Madame Camille’s psuedo-powers become a reality and she has to tap into the evil possessing the evangelist that has trapped the frightened cast and crew inside the station. One by one people die a gruesome, horrifying death and the survivors are running out of time in finding a way out of their tomb.
King’s adapted 70’s film gets a makeover! Carrie remake news!
In 1976, Brian DePalma directed Sissy Spacek and John Travolta in Carrie which is about a young high school girl who is constantly tormented by her peers. Carrie discovers she has telekinetic powers and uses them gruesomely against her tormenters, and the rest of the school, when they play a disgusting prank on her at prom involving pig blood. The film was a major hit for not only DePalma, but it damn well jump started the careers of Spacek and Travolta.
Now there is talk of a remake being composed by MGM and Song Screen Gems (Resident Evil franchise) who want to have a fresh take on the Stephen King novel. This retake is being penned by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa who had wrote the stage play Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. Aguirre-Sacasa was brought in to write a more novel faithful version of Carrie.
Here’s hoping for the best.
Unfaithfulness and evilness. Loft remake news!
Add this to the Remake Central list! In 2008, a Belgium thriller entitled Loft has scored a U.S. remake. Of course, the time between the original and the remake is very Let The Right One In-ish and there was no time really to the let the original film grow. With that being said, Loft remake has pulled a Ring remake as the original Loft director Erik Van Looy will reprise his directorial role for the remake. Wait, the reprisal of roles doesn’t stop there as Matthias Schoenaerts joins the cast to reprise his role of Fillip Williams.
This rare occasion when an actor helms the same character in the original and it’s remake is far from heard of, but Matthias will take it on yet again and the question will be will he fine tune his performance or change up the character completely? Starring beside Matthias will be Wentworth Miller (Resident Evil: Afterlife), Eric Stonestreet, Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy), James Marsden (X-Men).
Synopsis after break!
It's Bloggin Evil! 