Change Your Image
alycejunker
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Society (1989)
I guess I am a butthead!
Disgusting. Bizarre. Insane. Juicy. Hilarious. Ridiculous. Nightmarish. AMAZING.
This is not a movie for everyone. I dont want to spoil ANYTHING, so my best suggestion is to ask a friend you know has seen if they think you would like it. It takes a very special kind of horror lunatic to like something like this (I would be one of those lunatics btw).
The House of the Devil (2009)
Predictable... but beautiful!
I had high hopes going in to this movies. I LOVED the cinematography. It's a beautifully shot movie with an authentic 80's feel. It's not crisp and polished like Stranger Things, but actually looks more like Halloween. High props to the way it was filmed, attention to aesthetic details (clothes, hair, cars, music, etc.), excellent actors and (mostly) believable dialogue, especially between the two teenage girls.
However, the story was pretty much a cookie cutter occult movie. The whole time I was watching I kept thinking I had already seen this movie...but I haven't. There was one moment in the middle where I said aloud "oh sh**!", but sadly that was the high point in the movie. The director does a great job of slow building of dread, but the end is same old same old.
The Last House on the Left (1972)
Take the 90 minutes to watch a better Wes Craven movie
It's not the subject matter that bothers me, its the poor quality, and I don't mean because it has aged, I mean it feels like a sloppy mess that Craven just slapped together because he had a tiny speck of a story idea. It's REALLY lacking substance. There is very little dialogue and the dialogue that is there is basically all throw away lines. You could watch it on mute and you wouldn't miss very much in terms of story. The plot is so simple that it just seems like the movie is dragging on and on. There are also a few story lines in the movie that are totally pointless and could easily be removed and the story wouldn't change: Mari's birthday, the cops, Ada (even though she is my favorite part), Mari and Phyllis' wander around town montage and probably we could spend less time with the badies and we would still understand their story via other sources (radio being one that was used). The characters are one dimensional and many of them appear once and in an almost comedic way. Which brings me to the tone....it's weird. It's filmed to be taken VERY seriously; the acting is very serious and the plot of the film is very serious. But then you have weird jovial music through the whole movie and you have plundering idiots for cops, and that awesome Ada lady with the chickens. It doesn't feel like it's supposed to be funny at all, and then those parts pop up and its jarring, but not in a horror jarring way, it just doesn't make sense. Some movies are good at merging horror and humor, this movie failed miserably.
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Too much terrible CGI
This whole movie was filled with ridiculously obvious and terribly done CGI. Story was decent, actors were great, CGI ruined it for me. So much of the effects could have been done practically 1000x better and probably cheaper so I don't understand this artistic choice. I had high hopes, I mean Sam Raimi did Evil Dead for F sake! I couldn't tell if this movie was a joke/supposed to be funny because it had Beetlejuice vibes, but at the same time almost none of the dialogue was funny. All the actors took everything very seriously, but the surrounding mayhem was silly, like a Scooby Doo adventure might be.
Lake Mungo (2008)
More sad than scary
I enjoyed this movie quite a bit, but I didn't find it in the least bit scary. It was more sad than anything. There were a lot more twists to the story than I was expecting too, which I liked a lot. I'm not going to say much more; I don't want to spoil this for anyone. If you have people who don't like scary movies, this would be a great gateway movie to get someone into horror. Slowly building dread, zero jump scares (which can feel cheap sometimes), and a clam but foreboding atmosphere. A nice easy horror movie for the beginner.
Climax (2018)
Watch the trailer and you've seen the movie
I heard lots of good things about this, but I knew very little going in (on purpose) and I was very disappointed. For the first 45 minutes, you get random chitchat from the dancers that is irrelevant to anything that happens and lots of various types of dancing. So basically, nothing happens.
Second half, everyone finds out they have been drugged and it gets chaotic, but again, nothing really happens. There is lots of screaming and writhing on the floor with spinning cameras and neon room colors. The End. I also found the drug depictions really annoying. I don't think the people who made this movie had ever tried LSD because it is NOTHING like this movie. You don't run around rending your clothes and screaming for no reason. You don't suddenly stop listening to reason (the "who drugged us" incident). You don't turn into a raging violent lunatic. Their behavior was more akin to bath salts.
There are SO many characters, and we know almost nothing about them and the things that we do know about them isn't interesting (mostly they talk of sex). When any of them got hurt, traumatized, or SPOILER killed, I didn't care because I didn't know them.
I get that the movie was supposed to be oppressive and like doom is coming but you don't know when and blah blah blah. I was so BORED. I was not "exhausted", as some have suggested happened to them. I wish I had that hour and half back so I could watch a better movie. You can watch the trailer and see everything that happens.
ON THE OTHER HAND, I did enjoy the dancing, the music, and the lighting.
Irréversible (2002)
Difficult to watch, even if you take the most difficult scenes out
A warning to start with...
To my LGBTQ friends, beware of derogatory language and depictions of our lifestyle. I think this is my biggest complaint about this movie. It paints a bad picture and I personally think it takes away from the film. If you can just try to ignore that part of the film (granted, it is about half the film) its easier to get through
Now, most reviews on here are tackling the plot and subject matter that makes the film difficult. I'm going to talk about the aesthetics of the film and how that actually also makes things difficult to watch. Not in a bad way, but if you don't like this style you wont like this film. By the way, if you want to skip the worst scene, it starts around 44 min and ends at about 56 min. Also, quick bit of movie history: the French were considered a little pretentious with their films, this was a response to the hoity toity movies. It has a very snuff-film feel
1. Camera movement: The camera is basically a character of it's own. At first, I hated it. I just kept thinking "this is what it would be like if someone strapped a GoPro to a fly". However, there IS a reason for the erratic and constant camera movement that becomes more clear as the movie progresses. Basically, after the incident, everything turns chaotic and the camera is just as chaotic.
2. The movie starts at the end and ends at the beginning: You get about 20 minute chunks, given to you in reverse order. I personally still can't decide why that decision was made. Especially since a new version was just released that puts it in order...which tells me the reverse order wasn't necessary. When devices like this are used, I expect a purpose (i.e. Momento), since there is no clear purpose in doing this, it annoyed me a little.
3. Music: Camera that is constantly moving and erratic goes well with constant and erratic music. Music goes with the scenes the way the camera does, like it is a character itself. Becomes fully erratic and aggressive after the incident, but before the incident its more mellow.
4. Marcus SUCKS! Team Pierre. Movie has lots to say about masculinity.
The Entity (1982)
10 star movie that I just can't bring myself to give a 10
This movie is SOOOOO good in so many ways, but the subject matter makes it difficult to say that I enjoyed it.
Since the first occurrence of "the entity" happens literally in the first 10 minutes, I'm going to go ahead an say I'm not spoiling anything about this being a movie about sexual assault from a ghost. I think people need to know at least that much before watching. It is a tough movie to watch, but it is also beautifully made with A LOT of excellent qualities. How do you say you "enjoyed" a movie about assault?
Ok, with the disclaimer that I DO NOT enjoy watching sexual assault, I will now deep dive into the awesome stuff...
WARNING: Now there may be some spoilers
Characters: Are you movie writers paying attention? THIS is how you make a compelling female lead! Passes Bechdal Test, Carla is brave, emotionally strong and as physically strong as she should be as a woman (no weak but not wonder woman), mentally extremely stable and logical but also very loving to her family and friends, smart but not genius, fun good mom that can work, go to school and still care for her kids, and while all these things might seem like it makes her a Mary Sue trope, she is also flawed as a single mom who was first pregnant at 16 and is just barely scrapping by in this rented house. I. Love. Her.
Surprisingly little of the leering camera! Every instance of Carla being naked, it makes sense why she is naked. Example, the bathroom: Carla is looking in the mirror and camera is stationary as she moves about the room. You get glimpses of her naked body, but the camera isn't drooling.
I could go on and on about the camera work, lighting, MUSIC (if you can call it that) because everything about this movie is done spectacularly well...I HIGHLY recommend, even if you can only stomach it one time, its worth it.
Pyewacket (2017)
Pretty standard horror
I'm not sure why this is getting such high reviews...this was a basic cookie cutter teen horror movie. Teen and single mom don't get along, teen does something stupid and paranormal activity occurs. I saw some compare this to "It Follows" or "The Babadook" but those are way better. Characters have no dimension, and some of their behaviors don't make sense at all. The use of filters is ridiculous, every seen is so monochrome, but not in a "Neon Demon" artistic way. Some of the visuals were kinda cool, but again, they didn't really make sense for the "witch" character. It's like they just had an outline of an idea and just kind tossed what they thought would look cool onto some film and it will be good enough.
Spoiler below
Also, "pyewacket" is the name for a witches' familiar or helper. So, if the main character (whose name I forgot because all the characters are forgettable) is the witch summoning a familiar, why would the familiar kill the witch?
Peeping Tom (1960)
Overshadowed by Psycho
This movie came out the same year as Psycho, and is also a British film, so I think that's why nobody knows about it, because it should be much more popular than it is. My mom is a 1930s-1960s movie buff and had never heard of it. The plot, racy themes, ironic duality, camera work, and lighting all are extremely unique to the time. While some of it is over the top ridiculous (like the obvious symbol of the murder weapon), it's still a really fun watch.
Ghost House (2017)
Not great
This is not the worst movie I have ever seen, but also not even close to the best.
Story: Pretty cliche; nothing very innovative or unique in the overall story, A ghost's belongings are disturbed and debauchery ensues. It felt like it was a 3 hour movie and it was only half that. They really stretched the story out in places that were unnecessary and didn't give enough information about other things.
Music: This is one of the things I really enjoyed! Music was taken directly from culture/setting and I'm glad they made that choice
Cinematography: This was...weird. There were lingering shots that suggest importance later, but never comes to fruition (long 10 sec shot on a lizard that is literally useless to the movies...happens several times). Felt like they were trying to be artsy with the filming but it just came of as weird and distracting (especially at the witch doctor's). Some weird camera choices too, like when a character would run it would be shaky-cam, but the next scene of them running is a steady-cam? Inconsistent.
FX/Monsters/Scares: The "monster" doesn't look anything like what she is supposed to be (a burned woman). Even knowing she was a burned woman, I just kept thinking of her as witch because they designed her so much like a witch! Also, the ghost logistics didn't make sense to me. Why does she go through people's mouths? It would make more sense if she set people on fire. And is she a physical entity or a only in the Julie's (main character) head? If both, how?!
Dialogue/Characters: Characters are pretty one dimensional and their dialogue doesn't feel very natural, but that could be the actors not being awesome. There was a lot of silly pointless dialogue where there could have been meaningful and informational dialogue.
The Dark Tapes (2016)
Pretty bad - Not the worst, but close
I really didn't expect too much from this movie. I can honestly say that I have never seen an anthology horror movie that I like, and I can add this movie to that list. Not great acting, pretty cheesy dialogue, obviously a low budget, and costumes lacking imagination
HOWEVER, the stories had some potential! Given a better budget and more time (i.e. extending an individual story into a full length movie), and stop the stupid handi-cam/skype filming style, which has been done enough now movie creators, there could have been a half-way decent horror movie here! But they made terrible choices and it was bad.
The Fits (2015)
Fascinating but confusing
Why I want to love this movie:
-The acting was fantastic! I love movies with unknown and amazing talent. One of the interesting things about the acting was that you only really ever got to see and hear from the teens in the movie. All the adults are nameless, faceless (mostly), and all around useless/unimportant. That was very novel and interesting to watch that way.
-Fascinating plot with very little dialogue.
-Simplistic yet stunning directing and filming. The simplicity made everything that happened in the film important. Example: The main character Toni will just be walking in a scene and the camera will be focused on her, but there is so much going on in the background all the time. Keeping the camera focused on her even when she isn't doing anything except walking, gives the viewer time to notice what is going on in the background.
Why I just can't give this more stars:
-Too short! I normally don't notice how long a movie is, but this was so short that it felt like the movie wasn't over yet.
-What is happening? Why is it happening? Why just girls? What was the dance scene towards the end? Is the theme about fitting in? Is it supernatural? Is it coming of age? ENDLESS questions! I generally enjoy movies that leave the viewer with questions and that make the viewer think, but this one was SO open ended it was frustrating. There was pretty much zero closure. WARNING SPOILERS: You think you know what is going on towards the beginning; the girls are pregnant and are suffering the side effects in an extreme way. As the movie continues, all the girls, even the ones too young to be pregnant get the fits (did they all just get their period? Yet ANOTHER question). Then Toni has a vision, floats towards the other girl, then also has a fit. Finish the movie with a slight smile and a confused look on my face.
I would love if a film professional could examine this movie, because I think there is more going on than my tiny brain can understand. Overall, fantastic movie but I'm not so sure it will be on my repeat watching list.