Jennifer's Body

Jennifer's Body is one of those films that you'll either love or hate. And to my surprise I loved this movie. Starring the beautiful Megan Fox and the quirky Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer's Body is quirky and scary and funny and gory. And it works. The movie has a simple enough plot: a indie-rock band sells their souls to the devil to become as famous as "the guy from Maroon 5." So to make an impression on Satan, the have to sacrifice a virgin. So they hold a mini-concert at a dirty bar in Jennifer (Fox) and Needy's (Seyfried) hometown. The band charms Jennifer and then their "magic" sets fire to the bar. In all the confusion, the lead singer of the band, Nikolai, played by Adam Brody, convinces Jennifer to get into his van. And after that night, Jennifer is just not the same. Young guys from the town begin showing up eaten and Needy notices that her best friend keeps acting weirder and weirder.

When this movie first came out, I was discouraged to hear that many of the top critics gave it bad reviews. However, I decided to go ahead and watch it. And I'm so glad that I did. Jennifer's Body is not that bad of a movie. In fact, I would be willing to bet that one day it will be viewed the same way as cult classics like Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is referenced in the film. Jennifer's Body is not a serious movie. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a horror movie as much as a dark comedy. Not that it wasn't scary, because there were some very intense parts, including one scene where Needy meets Jennifer in the kitchen and Jennifer is covered in blood and gore. It just wasn't meant to be seen as a horror movie. It does not, in any way, take itself seriously. It is meant to make people laugh and it is meant to be stupid and corny and, to put it bluntly, completely ridiculous. Because it is. It is an absolutely ridiculous movie, with a ridiculous plot and outrageous dialogue, but it all works. It's surprisingly funny and entertaining, but it will also keep you on the edge of your seat.

But the plot wasn't the only ridiculous thing about this movie. Megan Fox as a cannibalistic demon, really? For some reason I don't think the picked Fox because she is terrifying. But she is gorgeous. And she does play a pretty awesome psycho. And, not to put down Fox, but it seems really realistic. In the movie, Jennifer could get any guy she wanted, even though she was a man-eating demon. Somehow, I think that even if the real Fox was a demon she could get almost any man she wanted. But anyhow, Fox was actually a pretty good actress. She plays the evil type well, and I don't just mean a demon. She was also pretty good in her role as the stuck-up cheerleader. Amanda Seyfried was also surprisingly good. Her emotions were expressed to the audience, so, watching the film, you knew when she was afraid, the majority of the film, and when she was happy, the minority. The chemistry between Fox and Seyfried was pretty incredible too. The two seemed to work really well together and they just seemed to connect. Adam Brody also had a small part in the film as the lead singer of the Satanic indie-band: Low Shoulder. He's only on screen for a brief time, but he does very well with the little part he was given. His character is a gentlemanly psycho and he plays the part exactly the way it should be played. He's charming, yet scary. And good-looking, yet completely insane. The acting wasn't the best that I've ever seen, however, it fits the funny and quirky style of the movie.

The script was also completely ridiculous, yet brilliant. The dialogue is littered with made up words that are supposed to sound like something a teenager would say. However, no teenager actually says stuff like "jello" for jealous or any of the other weird slang words. But it doesn't even matter because the fact that these words are so ridiculous makes the movie even more funny because it seems like the movie itself is aware of how stupid and hilarious it is.

Jennifer's Body is not meant to be a serious, thought-provoking film. It was made to become a cult classic. It was made to make people laugh and to just be fun. I think many critics have lost sight of the fact that a movie doesn't have to be serious and dramatic to be good. Movies weren't made to make people feel lousy and depressed. They were made to make people laugh to give people a source of fun entertainment. And Jennifer's Body succeeds because it does both of those: it makes you laugh and it is impossible to not be entertained by this completely insane and hilarious movie.

-H

Black Christmas

Black Christmas is another horror remake that J and I have watched recently. I have never seen the original so I cannot compare the two, however, I can say that the remake was completely pointless. The story was stupid and way too confusing for a horror movie of that type. Black Christmas tells about a young man who kills his family after years of abuse, goes to an asylum and the breaks out on Christmas eve to return to his house and reek havoc upon the young sorority sisters who now live in the house.

The movie was extremely gory and shallow. Because of some weird obsession with eyeballs, we get to see many character have their eyes ripped out of the sockets or gouged out or have something horrible happen to them. However, none of the gore was truly satisfying. Everything happened much too quickly. None the murder scenes were drawn out and nothing was very suspenseful. And on top of that, we know who the killer is the entire time. He wears no mask and his face is clearly seen almost every time he pops up. There is absolutely nothing mysterious or creepy about him despite his yellow skin that was caused by a liver disease, and even that bit of information is offered up early on in the film so there is truly nothing disturbing about this supposedly terrifying killer. I must say, however, that there are a few scenes depicting cannibalism that are quite disgusting. I still would not call them creepy though. There was nothing in this movie that was anything close to creepy.

Going into this movie I expected the acting to be the most terrifying aspect of the film. However, the acting wasn't as terrible as I expected. Michelle Trachtenberg and Lacey Chabert have starred in decent films, but horror doesn't exactly seem like their cup of tea. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kristen Cloke, on the other hand, have both acted in The Final Destination films that I have seen and enjoyed. However, even a cast of young, pretty girls can't redeem this film. The majority of the acting feels very unreal and shallow, while the actor who played the notorious killer Billy overacted every scene he appeared in.

Black Christmas was only an hour and a half long, however, it felt like it took forever to watch. The ending was unoriginal and the entire plot was completely predictable. It wasn't the worst movie I've

ever seen, but it was no where near being the best.

-H

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I suppose you could say that J and I have been on a horror remakes kick. First it was My Bloody Valentine and now The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, my review for this movie will be very different from the one for My Bloody Valentine. Partly because I have actually see the Chainsaw Massacre (and it is one of my all-time favorites) but mostly because this movie actually made sense, unlike My Bloody Valentine. But enough of that. I'll spend the rest of this review comparing the new and old Chainsaw Massacres. I will not bore you with taking a paragraph to summarize the plot because if you do not know this movie then you must have been living in a hole for the last thirty years, but I will say this. The plot in the new movie has been slightly changed. In the original film, the teens are driving through Texas when the meet a strange hitchhiker and pick him up. He goes crazy, pulls out a knife, and then the teens kick him out. After that all hell breaks loose and the bloody mess known as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre ensues.

Now I will discuss the changes made to the remake. The first scenes of the new film are similar to those of the original, however, there are a few minute differences that hardly make a difference to the film. For those of you who've seen the original but not that new film, the brother and sister characters have been replaced by a boyfriend and girlfriend and the crazy guy hitchhiker from the original has been changed to a crazy girl. The change made with the relationship between the characters does absolutely nothing for the plot except for gives it that modern cliche that insists that all relationships are doomed in the horror world. The change from male to female crazy hitchhiker actually worked quite well to escalate the tension of the scene. There is also one more major change that I think actually truly helped the film. This may be considered a spoiler so be warned......okay, for those of you who decided you don't give a crap about spoilers so here it goes: the hitchhiker in the new film actually pulls a gun out from between her legs and shoots herself through the head. This may sound very random, but the girl had previously been sobbing and saying things about "never going back" and other completely terrifying things. Maybe it's because I'm a woman, but the fact that this woman was holding that gun between her legs was equally disgusting and disturbing. But more than that, this suicide actually makes a lot of sense by the end of the film and it really helps to make the characters actions make sense. In the original film, the teens stumble upon this house while looking for gas, then the just walk inside without waiting for anyone to invite them in, the proceed to run around and scream in terror. Now, I'm not dissing the original film: it's one of my favorites and it's a classic. However, I do think that the characters got what they deserved in the original. They were idiots. They trespassed in a strange house in the middle of the country and didn't even think about the fact that they could be walking into the house of a crazed, cannibalistic, chainsaw-wielding family. In the new film, however, the teens come upon the house because they are sent to look or the sheriff so that he could look at the body of the suicide victim. And then when they couldn't find him, they saw the house and went to ask for a phone, where they actually talked to the man who lived there and went inside. Then, the only reason they went inside without permission was to look for their missing friend. So, while their actions were not completely intelligent, they weren't being down-right stupid either.

Okay, moving on. For a horror film of this type (the cliche slasher film) the acting was actually quite impressive. Jessica Biel was the only actor in the film that I recognized and she was the leading role. And she did surprisingly well in this role. Her fear was believable and her screaming was amazing. I mention this because, in the original film, the girl's screaming drove me insane. She didn't even sound scared, she just sounded somewhat bored and possibly even psychotic. So, Jessica Biel was a large improvement.

Now, for the most important subject: Leatherface. In the original, Leatherface was terrifying. He was a purely evil psychopath who choose his victims at random and feasted on them with his half-dead grandpa and other family members. However, the new film gave him a little more depth. We find out in the new film that Leatherface wears his masks made of other people's faces because of a horrible skin condition that he had as a child. While this does explain a lot, I think it takes away from his terrifying demeanor. Watching the film, I found myself feeling quite sorry for him and almost cheering him on. He has always been made fun of because of his skin so he deserves to wear the face of the pretty, young Jessica Biel! It may sound odd, but I think I liked him better when I thought he was just crazy and hungry for some human flesh!

The film also added in some other characters that were kind of strange and irrelevant. Leatherface is given some new family members, including an odd looking young boy and some random women. The women don't play much of a role in the film other than adding some strange sub-plot about the young hitchhiker from the beginning having a daughter who was kidnapped by Leatherface's family. The young boy, however, plays a pivotal role (*spoiler*) by helping Biel's character escape from Leatherface's house.

The ending of the movie was quite exciting. It was a little different from the original but it still worked. All in all, I think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake did the original film justice. Those who enjoyed the original film should still enjoy the remake, maybe just not as much as the original. And for those who haven't seen the original, the remake can stand alone and be enjoyable for anyone.

-H

My Bloody Valentine

Okay, so I'll admit. I have never seen the original My Bloody Valentine. I am not sure if I was so confused by this movie because of that fact or if it is just a downright confusing movie. My Bloody Valentine starts out with a series of pictures and newspaper clippings that tell about a mine collapse and the one man who survived. Then it cuts to a hospital where this one many come out of a coma and begins to kill all the nurses. And then it cuts to the mines where a bunch of teenagers are partying on Valentine's Day and we get to see them all killed by this same crazy guy. Now, you would think that this would all be spoilers to this movie, but it's not. All of this happens within the first fifteen minutes of the film. J and I actually thought we may have accidentally skipped to the end of the movie because of all the blood and gore in this first scene, but, no, that's really how the movie starts.

Now to talk about the actual quality of the movie. I'll start my saying this: the dialogue was terrible. Maybe even beyond terrible. The script was so cliche and the presentation of the horrible script was done in an excruciating manner. However, the acting wasn't all bad. The majority of the acting was mind-numbing, but Jensen Ackles, from the TV series Supernatural, did a reasonably okay job. However, I think that even A-list, big name stars couldn't have made this dialogue worth listening too.

Despite all of this, however, the gore was absolutely beautiful. It seemed like throughout the entire film there was extreme violence then about ten minutes of cliche drama then another random scene of extreme violence. It was all slightly random but it worked in this confusing mess of a movie. The violence was brutal and gory and almost redeems this movie. Almost.

My Bloody Valentine was extremely confusing and cliche, but the violence was beautiful. I'm not entirely sure if I would recommend this movie, but I suspect that horror fans who enjoy psychological thrills might at least find the movie somewhat entertaining. I didn't particularly enjoy the movie myself, but it did make me want to see the original to see if it made any more sense than the remake.

-H

Inside

Usually, I don't really like foreign horror movies. I don't mind the subtitles or anything, it's just that the plots are usually too outrageous for my liking. However, Inside was a very different kind of movie foreign horror film. Inside is a French film about a young pregnant woman who was in a car crash that killed her husband. Several months later, the mother has still not had the baby so the doctors decide to induce labor the next day. The young woman goes back to her house where she is terrorized by another young lady seeking vengeance. The plot sounds a little crazy but it really works well. The woman who stalks the pregnant woman is truly terrifying and makes for an awesome movie villain. She has no mercy on her victims, killing them in the most terrible ways possible. Her weapon of choice is usually a pair of scissors but other times she will use whatever is handy to torture her victims.

Inside is probably the most gory movie I have ever seen and that's saying a lot because I have seen a lot of gory movies. But the level of gore in the movie surpasses any I've ever seen. There is blood covering almost every surface in the movie. There are people getting stabbed in the throat and blood spurting out of them. People getting shot in the head and even people getting cut open. But somehow, all of the gore works in the movie. It is not too extreme and probably fits the type of wounds most of the people suffered.

Beatrice Dalle stars as the character known only as La femme. She doesn't have many lines, but she plays her character with such skill that whenever she speaks she terrifies. Just the sight of her walking into the room will cause your heart to race and your palms to sweat. But Dalle wouldn't have been so frightening had Alysson Paradis, who played the young pregnant woman, not acted so terrified of her. Paradis' screams are enough to make you cringe and they seem so realistic that it's scary. Both woman are incredible in their roles and play off of each other to create an extremely tense and disturbing atmosphere.

Inside is a very well-crafted film with beautiful acting and an incredible script that all work surprisingly well together. It is surprisingly short, clocking in at only an hour and eighteen minutes, but it packs all the scares and thrills it can into that short amount of time.

-H

Lesbian Vampire Killers

Director Phil Claydon’s Lesbian Vampire Killers is a work of genius. I never thought I would say that about something with such a lurid title, but I will say it again, Lesbian Vampire Killers is amazing. Freshly dumped Jimmy and his friend Fletch go on a hiking holiday in order to have some fun, and maybe get laid. Unfortunately, they pick Cragwich as their destination, a small village that happens to be overrun by the titular lesbian vampires. Apparently, the evil vampire queen Carmella has placed a curse on the village, that when every village girl turns eighteen, they are turned into vampires, until the last of the line of Carmella’s archfoe vampire hunter family is prophesied to return and end the curse once and for all. Unfortunately for Jimmy and Fletch, Jimmy happens to be that last heir.

I wanted to see this movie as soon as I saw the trailer a few months ago. Go ahead, just say the title aloud and see how many heads pop up. Who wouldn’t want to see a movie with that kind of title. That aside though, the movie was better than I thought it would be. I was laughing aloud every other minute while watching, it was so funny. The writing especially was excellent, with many witty one-liners, especially from Fletch, and excellent dialog and story. Stuart Williams and Paul Hupfield really did an exemplary job on this script, I want to see anything else these guys write. David Higgs did a really great job with the camera work. Being a lower budget movie, the cinematography could make or break it, and here it really was excellent. Everything looked crisp and bright, the opposite of what you normally see in a movie that takes place largely at night and in a graveyard. Phil Claydon’s directing was brilliant. The acting was another place where this movie shown. Though I had never heard of any of the actors in this movie, I want to see anything else they make. Every single person in this film put their heart into their job as an actor, putting in outstanding performances. James Corden as Fletch is especially worth a mention. The style of this movie reminded me greatly of another brilliant horror-comedy, Shaun of the Dead. Both movies are brilliant and combine horror and comedy perfectly.

What else can I say? If you love horror or comedy, you must give this movie a look. Don’t pass it over just because of the title. There are only two things wrong with this movie. The first is that I’m probably not going to go around proclaiming it as one of my favorite movies of the year, just because I’m too embarrassed to say the title to anyone’s face. The second, and even bigger thing wrong is that there is too little of it. I want more, much more.

-J

House of Wax

If I were to rate this movie out of 10 I think I would give it a 4. Two points because of it's cool and unique plot and two points because Paris Hilton gets impaled through the head with a big wooden stake. Not that I have anything against Paris Hilton because truly I don't, it's just that she's such a terrible actress that it was a relief when her character was killed off. Not that any of the other actors were incredible. Chad Michael Murray and Elisha Cuthbert, the actors who play the two main characters. do an adequate job. They are realistic with their emotions and with their brother/sister relationship, however, they both seem to fall flat in some way. And I'm not sure it's their fault. The script was not great so they didn't have very much to work with. It was a very shallow script with stupid, cliche horror movie lines. However, this is a stupid, cliche horror movie so it didn't sound that bad.

Now, to talk about the actual movie. The plot is interesting and very unique in it's ideas. The movie is set in an abandoned town where there is an incredible wax museum called House of Wax. The owners of the wax museum have been dead for years and now the only people left in the town are the crazed sons of the owners. The sons chase after their victims and eventually cover them in wax and place them around the town. It sounds scary, but the visuals are inadequate. One scene in the movie shows the wax museum catching on fire and melting. It should be the scariest, most climactic part of the movie, but it falls very short because it looks so fake.

However, it was a mildly entertaining movie, but unless you truly just hate Paris Hilton and want to see her death scene it is not worth the two hours it takes to watch it.

-H

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a gritty horror film that will leave viewers squirming in their seats. It is a gruesome and dirty film that relies more on implications than actual gore to provide shocks and fear. The story tells of five young adults who find a house out in the country. One by one they approach the house and are terrorized by a chainsaw wielding villain, Leatherface, wearing an oddly disturbing mask. Many of the deaths in the movie are not very surprising or scary. They are gruesome deaths but the viewer is able to see Leatherface coming and is not surprised. However, the movie does provide a few jumps and surprises.

The lack of surprise, however, doesn't make the movie any less frightening. While the plot is almost laughable in today's culture, it is easy to see how this movie must have terrified viewers when it was first released. Firstly, the villain was horrifying. Not only did Leatherface look scary, but the fact that his weapon of choice is a chainsaw expresses his love of brutality. Secondly, the plot was extremely disturbing for when it was made. Not only do the villains kill for the love of killing but they eat their victims. This is not bluntly stated, but is implied through many scenes. Lastly, the acting was very impressing for the time period. The actors interacted well with each other and the fear they portrayed was very realistic.

The director intended for the movie to have a PG rating. Because of this intention, he left out a great deal of objectionable content. There is no sex or drugs/alcohol in the movie and a minimal amount of cursing. However, the MPAA felt that the implied violence and gore would make such an impact with viewers that the film deserved an R rating. The MPAA was correct. The movie will leave viewers feeling disgusted and disturbed by the brutality presented in the film.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has inspired many modern horror movie directors like Rob Zombie and Alexandre Aja to make brilliant horror movies. It could also be considered the movie that inspired the slasher genre and the large, mask wearing villain that has been used in movies like Friday the 13th and Halloween. Without The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, many of the most highly-praised horror movies may have never been made. Without The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the horror genre would not be the amazing genre it is today.

-H

Haute Tension (High Tension)

Released in 2003, this German psychological thriller is full of shockingly gory images such as the decapitation of a man by a piece of furniture to a woman's arm, gushing blood because her hand had just been severed by a crazed killer. This movie tells the story of Marie and Alexis, two best friends who travel to Alexis's family's home. During their first night there, a crazed man breaks into the house murdering the family and kidnapping one of the girls. After this, the story seems to drift off making less sense as it goes along.
The first half of the movie is packed with scares, mainly due to the extremely gory images. However, as the movie progresses, the plot seems to get stranger and stranger. The scariness level goes down and the confusion level goes way up.
Then, there is the twist ending. I'm not sure exactly what to say about the twist ending. I knew the ending going into this movie and I'm not sure whether that affected my view of it or not. To be honest, I couldn't pay attention to what was going on in the movie for thinking about how the ending makes absolutely no sense with what was going on at that time. At some points it was even so absurd that it made me laugh out loud. But in the end the only thing I do know is that this movie is not for those with a weak stomach and most people will be highly disappointed in the ending.

-H

Martyrs

A French horror film released in 2008, Martyrs is a gruesome and disgusting movie. It tells the story of young French girl who was tortured as a child. She escapes her captures and goes to live in an orphanage. She befriends another young girl and the two grow a very strong, possibly romantic, bond. At the orphanage the girl who was abused begins seeing a strange creature running around her room and the creature hurts her. After many years, the girl who was tortured finds her captures and takes revenge on them. The above plot described could have made an incredibly disturbing story. Unfortunately, all of the plot described happens within the first twenty minutes of the movie. The latter half of the movie falls short and is very flat. It relies heavily on gory visuals and extreme brutality that somehow fail to surprise the viewer.

The plot, however, could have made for an incredible movie. It is revealed later in the movie, that all of the torture, including regular beatings and isolation, is put upon these girls to make them into martyrs which in French translates to "witnesses." The scientific group performing these experiments is trying to make these young women witness the afterlife. The story is well written and interesting because of the insight into how pain can change the human mind, but the mediocre dialogue causes the movie to feel shallow and the overtly gory visuals will make the viewer feel the need to take a very long shower. Martyrs has an interesting story, but the images of a completely skinned woman who is still alive will haunt the viewers mind for many days.

-H

Saw IV

Spoiler Alert!

Like all of the other Saw movies, Saw IV relies mainly on extreme gore and brutality to shock viewers. However, this particular Saw's visuals don't shock as well as those in the other movies. Perhaps I am immune to the gruesomeness, but nothing in the movie made me gag or even feel remotely sick. I will say, however, that it does provide a few scares, if anyone is afraid of dolls like I am.

On the positive side, this movie provides background information for the Saw series. (Spoilers Ahead!) It tells the story of how the police find the body of Jigsaw. This is not apparent until the end of the movie which creates a small twist ending the somehow still fails to shock. It also explains what happened to make John Kramer (a.k.a Jigsaw) lose his mind. The back story is sad, but still cannot begin to justify his insane behavior.

Now to the negative side. There are only so many ways someone can find to torture a person. And because this is the fourth movie in the series, the ways are running low. One of the torture devices is designed to rip a woman's hair out. While this would be painful, it is not very scary or tense to watch. By this point, I'm not sure Darren Lynn Bousman could find another torture method that would be shocking or scary, because, having seen the first four Saw movies, I feel like I've pretty much seen it all. And yet, Saw VI comes out this year and I'm sure it will try it's best to gross out anyone who watches it.

Saw IV was gory and gruesome (and quite frankly better than the third movie in the series) but it still fell short in many ways. If you're a fan of the first three Saw movies then you may enjoy this movie, but if you are not a fan then don't waste your time.

-H

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is a different type of movie and true horror fans will really enjoy it. Filmed in a dirty, gritty fashion, the movie is reminiscent of a 1970's horror flick. The story follows a teenage girl named Mandy whom all the boys seem to love. She is gorgeous, sweet, and a girl-next-door type. Revolving mainly around teens, the movie seems like it will turn into a normal teen slasher that is neither effective nor scary. However, something about the way this movie is filmed causes it to be deeply disturbing. After a group of popular teens invite Mandy on a trip to one teen's father's ranch, the movie gets very interesting. One by one the teens begin to die off in gory and gruesome manners that could make even the biggest horror movie fan flinch in disgust. The real fear created by this movie, however, is not created through flashy visuals or extreme brutality, but through the interaction among the teens. It seems like every thing that happens in the movie could have been prevented if a different action had been taken by one of the teens earlier. The movie is disturbing because it shows viewers that every action can lead to a terrifying consequence. It has an ending that will shock any viewer and that will really make a person think about life and death. All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is well worth the 90 minutes it takes to watch.

-H

The Devil's Rejects

Spoiler Alert!

A throwback to the gritty, 1970's style of horror movies, Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects is a horror masterpiece. A sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects revolves around a family of murderers who have a love for brutality and gore. After escaping from the police, two of the killers contact their father and began a trip to find a hiding place. Along the way they stop at a cheap motel where the come across a family of performers. It is here that the movie picks up the pace and becomes the truly brutal and disturbing film Zombie intended it to be. The killers begin to torture their victims in odd ways. One of the killers, Otis takes the men out for a walk to find some hidden guns while he talks about what he intends to do with them. It is here where I fell in love with the movie. Zombie's use of dialogue is absolutely brilliant! Blending brutality and humor, Zombie creates two killers with whom the audience can actually connect. I did not fear either of the killers; I was intrigued by them. And yet, I was disgusted by them. Their methods of torture were so sadistic and crazy. They even skinned a man and made his wife wear his face. It was absolutely gross but beautiful at the same time. That scene made this movie a horror masterpiece! But if you have a weak stomach you should probably close your eyes because the level of gore just continues to increase from here.
The plot twists around and around causing the viewer to feel as if they were on a rollar coaster. With beautiful filming and an incredible use of music that juxtaposes the brutality of the scene, Zombie creates a dark and twisted slasher flick that may cause laughing and even some gagging.

-H

First Review: Eden Lake

Released in 2008, Eden Lake is a dark and disturbing movie about two young lovers who are terrorized while camping in the woods by a group of local teenagers. When first introduced, the teens are annoying, but don't seem to pose a large threat to the two lovers. However, as the movie progresses, the teenagers become a much larger threat.
At the beginning of the movie, the tone is almost light-hearted. Had I not known it was a horror movie, I could have thought it would turn into a romantic drama. But then, the teenagers are introduced. After a seemingly irrelevent conflict, the teens become angry with the lovers and decide to torture them and eventually kill them. The plot is fairly simple and could have failed miserably in it's simplicity, but the fact that the "villian" is a group of teenagers adds something very dark to the movie. The idea that teenagers, probably no older than thirteen or fourteen, could inflict such pain on an adult creates a very sick and frightened feeling within the viewer. These teenagers are just children and yet their is something so twisted and sadistic inside of them. It is that sadism that creates the darkness. As the movie progresses, it just continues to get darker and darker. The children become crueler, using barbed-wire to tie one victim and playing a cat-and-mouse game with the other, and the viewer becomes more and more disturbed. Without this disturbing concept, the movie would not have been remotely scary, but it still doesn't make the movie worth the watch. In a horror movie, there is no such thing as "too much gore" or "too much violence", but this movie takes violence to an entirely different level. The movie feels so realistic that the viewer is left thinking "if I went camping this could actually happen to me." With an ending that's darker than everything else in the movie combined, it leaves the viewer feeling dirty and in need of a shower and it is not worth the hour and a half it takes to watch.

-H