Change Your Image
juddfetters
Reviews
Wyrmwood (2014)
Infected with clichés and with a tone that wanders.
First off, I actually went in wanting/expecting to like it. It got a lot of good buzz at various film festivals. I was wrong. Granted, I finished it, I'll give it that, and to be fair, it wasn't hard to finish. Unfortunately, at some point every scene had me thinking, "Really? Are you serious?"
My initial reaction is that it's one of those movies that just doesn't know what tone it's trying to pull off. It has elements that remind me of everything from Army of Darkness, to Mad Max, to Dawn of the Dead, but doesn't mix them in a way that feels unified. Then there's the clichés; from your somewhat racist dumb/naive native/aboriginal caricature, to the mad government scientist, to the man who's lost everything and now is unstoppable because he has nothing to live for.... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's almost like they went to TV Tropes and looked up every zombie movie cliché imaginable then tried to include it in their movie.
All this isn't to say it's bad. As I said, I finished it, and I wasn't bored, but I can't really say I enjoyed it either. The makeup work, costumes, prop/set design and practical effects were good, even excellent in some respects. The CG however... not so much. You know those CG videos on YouTube where people are showing off what they can do by giving cats lightsabers, or mutant powers, or making Nerf guns look like they're shooting bullets? That's what the CGI in this movie reminds me of. For example, all the zombie exhale this mist-like gas, and every time you see it, it's just about groan worthy. You know the bad cold breath CG effect from The Social Network everyone complains about? Yeah, this makes that look good.
Overall, it's a perfectly decent movie to waste a couple hours on, especially if you keep your expectations low.
Creature (2011)
Watch it like porn; fast forward through the boring bits.
So, I found this movie based entirely on the fact it has Sid Haig in it and was described as "somewhat Lovecraftian." The first is true, he's in it, and he's Sid Haiging it to the best of his ability. The last is only true if you think "Lovecraftian" is synonymous with "backwoods folks inbreeding with monsters."
Honestly I was hoping it would be one of those "So bad it's good" movies, but it's really just a lot of bleh. Yes the young actors playing monster fuckbuddies/food are awful, but not amusingly awful. More like bad-community-theater-you-only-went-to-because-your- divorced-aunt-is-in-it-and-she-really-needs-our-support-right-now awful. The FX on the titular Creature aren't bad... for circa 1970. Unfortunately, this movie was released in 2011... to 1,507 theaters nationwide. Thankfully, it epically tanked or we might have got sequels. (it made only $509K on it's $3M budget. That's an average of $338 per theater for its whole run. Which from what I can tell was only about 2 weeks. So, maybe 24 dollars a day. What's that? 3 people? Frankly, I think most of that budget must have been spent on moonshine.)
Even the trailer is boring, and the movie is exactly what you would expect from a trailer that spends the first 30 seconds of it's 2 minute run time on bad swamp stock footage and someone singing and old- timey hymn that most people only recognize from "O Brother! Where art thou?"
All that said, I did actually manage to finish it, but only by jumping forward every time I got bored. That ended up cutting it down from 90 minutes to just under 40. If you're going to bother watching it, I suggest that method.
Sinister (2012)
One of the best horror/suspense movies in the last 10 years.
First, like a good mystery, all the clues are there and remain consistent. It was great that every time we found ourselves asking questions, the characters on screen would be asking the same questions, so you never feel like your watching a bunch of idiots stumbling toward their own demise.
Second, the characters never do or say anything that I couldn't see myself doing or saying were I in the same situation. This made the characters extremely relatable, and I found myself really caring whether or not they were going to survive. This serves to really jack up the tension and suspense in scenes where, otherwise, not a lot is going on. More importantly, none of the characters do anything that is just flat out stupid. There's no going unarmed into a place where the killer is obviously waiting. No needlessly tripping over flat ground while fleeing whatever's after them. The movie goes to great pains to portray realistic people caught in a stressful situation. Ethan Hawke's performance is not just believable, but compelling, as is the performances of the rest of the cast. Even the side characters aren't simply 2 dimensional cookie cutter archetypes, even though they may appear to be at first.
Third, if you're looking for a gore filled blood-fest, this is not the movie for you. Most of the jump scares are in the trailer. Still, when you get to those moments in the movie, the combination of being invested in the characters, the subtle atmospheric cinematography, and superior storytelling still get you despite you knowing what's coming. The movie doesn't rely on false scares or other gimmicks to raise you're heart rate. Nor does it rely on a primal reaction to gore. The worst of the murders are never shown in graphic detail. Instead, Scott Derrickson chooses to focus on the Ellison Oswalt's, the main character's, reaction to what he's seeing. The violence is implied by Ethan Hawke's excellent performance, and frankly much more visceral than watching gushers of fake blood on screen.
All in all, I highly recommend this movie, both for horror buffs and casual horror fans. If you like atmospheric suspenseful movies, this one will leave you felling satisfied.