grafyte73 Reviews

The Grudge (2004)

Scary as HELL

[3/10 · 2 October 2006]

I WILL NOT watch this movie again and I have no desire to see the upcoming Grudge 2. For the reason that The Grudge scared the hell out of me.

However there are other reasons that I wont watch it again aside from being scared senseless. I also didn't like it, I think mainly because I couldn't understand it and even though the plot deals with a lot of back story there are no real answers to questions about what happened to get all of this started in the first place or why these evil murderous spirits came into being.

Kayako(the female spirit) SHE WAS SCARY, there was nothing about her that wasn't scary from the way she looked and the way she moved to the sound she made....SHE WAS FREAKEN SCARY. I have the understanding that there was no computerized special effects that was used with her and that the actress the played her actually moved and acted that way, she is a talented actress.

Toshio(the little boy spirit)If anything I either found him funny or annoying depending on what it was he was doing. First of all I was more than a little confused on what his part in the whole thing actually was and he really didn't seem to do much of anything except be creepy. The thing that I found funny about him is that he yowled like a cat and even as I was watching the movie I had visions of what might happen if someone were to dangle a string in front of him or let a wind up mouse loose.

I also found the story itself confusing, one premise of the movie was that if you did whatever it was you did to incur these spirits wrath(not going to say what that was for those that haven't seen The Grudge) they were going to get you and there was no way out of that but then there were people in the movie that got out of it but it was never explained how or what they did to get out of it.

Usually in movies(certainly in this genre)there are things that happen during the early scenes that have you asking "What is with that?" and usually somewhere in the course of the movie those questions are answered but The Grudge answers nothing and leaves you with more questions at the end of the film than you had when you started watching it.

The Grudge is scary as hell thats for sure but other than that its not a very satisfying movie, its lack of answers, confusing storyline, characters and pace setting leaves more than a little to be desired.

Darkness Falls (2003)

Very fun movie

[7/10 · 2 October 2006]

I don't know why Darkness Falls is as picked apart and trashed as it is, its a good movie, thats all there is to it. Its definitely not the scariest movie of the genre but if I had to use a word to describe it I would call it "fun" the atmosphere and tone are great and gives a sense of foreboding that lasts through all of the movie.

Since there is a light and dark premise to the movie the settings are often dark and heavily shadowed so that even the smallest light source can easily be seen, darkened areas with beams of white light shining around them. The lit scenes are quite the opposite, brightly lit areas with heavy shadows hovering around the edges. Simpily a great job on the parts of the Lighting Director and Director of Photography.

The "Tooth Fairy" is a great looking villain and has a good story behind her. The Special Effects for her are awesome and the sounds she makes are bone-chilling.

The story is pretty much straight a forward fight to stay alive against the terrible raging ghost that if you had obeyed the simple rule of "Dont Peek" in the first place she wouldn't be chasing you now but then that wouldn't have made much of a movie.

Darkness Falls probably isn't destined to become classic horror but as I've said before it is fun and worth watching again once in awhile. What can I say...I LOVED IT.

Bones (2001)

Full potential never reached

[4/10 · 2 October 2006]

I only recently saw this movie. Basically your standard man gets killed and sometime later comes back to life to get his revenge on his killers. It starts with potential and kept it through about 3 quarters of the film but in the last quarter it choked, stalled, and then died.

All through the movie the blood was any color but the color of blood, I have to wonder if that was supposed to have paid homage to the days when the censorship laws prohibited film makers using blood colored blood, it does in its own way add a kind of sick humor to Bones and there was plenty of dark humor to go around in the first place, really there are parts that are quite funny. Unfortunately there are also parts that are just plain stupid and other parts that are gross just for the sake of being gross. It also has plenty of things that are cliché then there is the racially cliché. A black man has a white lover called Snowflake and a joke about eating fried chicken among other things.

Getting closer to the end the story begins to follow an illogical line, if Jimmy Bones returns from the dead to seek revenge on those that killed him then why did he do so much more damage and why did the movie end the way it did? So that the film makers could get the movie done and leave an opening for a sequel to a movie that never needed one?

I think that the greatest injustice of the movie was that the character of Jimmy Bones was made into the bad guy, vicious and ruthless and completely the opposite of what and who the character was made out to be during flashback scenes that occur throughout the film. Even though this happens Snoop Dogg gives a great performance as Jimmy Bones but the writing of the character and the movie itself could have been handled better, both had potential that was dropped and ended before the full potential was ever reached. Still the movie is fun and that makes it very watchable even if you watch it just the once.