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Reviews
American Horror Story (2011)
Fresh but then it festers
Season 1- Good. The show was something new, at least for me and was entertaining. The performances were solid and the characters weren't bad. Good horror, not over the top and some good plot twists that weren't expected. Season 2- Pretty good- It starts out pretty scary but they use up all their scares in the first few episodes. After that it's a pretty good drama, but nothing really special. Pretty good performances again. Season 3- Utter trash. It is clear here that the writers realized that their main fans were people who would be entertained by anything as long as it was in there face. So they just kicked up their heels and wrote this farce. Jessica Lange was good for the first 2 seasons, but here she plays almost the exact same character as the first season, with slight differences. The writers relied on shock and awe to impress immature viewers even if it made absolutely no sense. Here is an example After a girl is drugged and gang raped, the pieces of crap escape into their frat touring bus(?) and drive off. She then comes outside and uses magic to flip the bus. This isn't the worst part of this sequence. Eventually they end up at the morgue to save the other witches beau. This is where it gets utterly ridiculous. For some reason the boys are cleanly cut up into pieces.... what? Blunt force trauma couldn't have done this to them, and these boys have families so there's no way that someone else did this to them, so why are they chopped up? I can see no other rational explanation other then it was shocking to some viewers. This made me cringe with its stupidity, it did not shock me. This season just crumbles from here into even more stupidity and bad acting from some supporting actors until I couldn't even keep watching. It would take to long to describe the other acts of sheer imbecility. I recommend watching seasons 1 and 2 and just skipping season 3 altogether unless you are easily shocked and entertained.
Death Wish (1974)
Good plot, bad directing
There were many things wrong with this movie, the directing being the most major one I think. The first issue was the villains. Their sneaking around was pathetically comical. They were slamming their feet on the ground and smashing through doors, in an attempt to be stealthy. Not to mention their lines were pathetic. The scene changes were awkward. Sometimes it would just cut out at a seemingly random point in a scene and insert you into another random point in a scene without any style. Charles Bronson is wooden. He definitely shouldn't have been cast in this role, this movie was meant to be too dramatic for him. For a combat veteran he seemed kind of shaky after fighting off a mugger. Great picture quality for a 70's movie though. Once he starts fighting crime the movie starts becoming better, probably because they shied away from the dramatic scenes which they had no skill in crafting. 6/10
Children of the Corn (2009)
Funny, in a horrible way
Anytime Isaac said something in this movie a started laughing, though that was not the only time I laughed at this movie. I don't know why they decided to cast someone so young for Isaac, definitely an awful choice, though a humorous one. The male lead was flatter than the road they were driving on and the female lead was ridiculously over-dramatic. This movie did not have any of the tension and creepiness of the original. Malachai was as comical as the original. The female lead NEVER stopped talking, it was just a constant torrent of her bickering with her , it was relentless. Her performance was awful. By far the worst part of this movie. The best line of the movie was when her husband said "Just give it a rest". Half of her lines didn't even make any sense. She would just start blurting out random garbage. No effort to improve upon the original, which could use a lot of improvement. 1/10
Scarecrow (2013)
Everything felt done before
Everything in this movie felt like it had been done before, with no effort to add anything original, but I guess that is how it is with low budget direct to TV horror movies. The farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, thinking they've killed the monster, and retreating to another house get help. This movie was not even remotely scary because everything was recycled. Another recycle was someone suggesting sacrificing a victim to the monster to try and get it to stop, but instead a bighearted person steps up to try and save the others. I don't see how this thing was a scarecrow. Almost no gore which was kind of a good thing because it would have made the movie even more cheesy. Mildly entertaining though, because you can almost predict everything that will happen, and want to see if you're right. 2/10 because of this
True Detective (2014)
Eliminates all the muck of modern television
What truly sets True Detective apart from other detective shows is that it does not make any attempt to hide its dark theme and message. There's no comic relief, there's no love scenes that aren't there to add to the plot, and there isn't any unnecessary violence. My opinion of true detective was that it was a deep inquiry into the evil that man is capable of, what his motivations are, and the effects it has on others. Other television shows attempt to shield viewers from this because it might turn many away, but that is not the case at all with True Detective. If Rust and Marty were always cracking jokes and making light of the situations, this would just be another detective show, perhaps with darker crimes, but in most areas about the same as other shows. Instead, whenever there is a need for dialogue, its turned into a deep reflection on the human soul and mind. Rust frequently questions why it is worth living and what the meaning of life really is, but it is done is such a way that it appears completely natural to the show and is in no way offsetting. Marty is more down to earth and balances out Rusts disconnection from society.The show begins with Marty and Rust telling the story of how they tracked a serial killer in Louisiana, but by the end of season 1, we have been told that this evil is much deeper than just the killer, and may even penetrate into the highest reaches of Louisianan society. The show is always entertaining because it is always causing you to think, reflect, and wonder. This show is not very easy viewing, because of its dark plot, but is nonetheless very worthwhile and will bring you to ponder your own life.
10/10