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Oculus (2013)
Original Psychological Horror That Left Me Wondering
After having watched the trailer for Oculus I felt like I had to see this film. I went to view it on the opening night and left with my expectations exceeded. Mike Flanagan has done an excellent job leaving me guessing what was real and what wasn't.
This film plays on people's psychology which is not present in many modern day films. The scares were well earned and put at the right places. This film does not contain cheap scares as you would see in Paranormal Activity or Insidious, or tons of violence gore used to keep an audience.
Both the brother and sister in adult years played by Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites have dealt with their family trauma in different ways. Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) believes that the death of her mother and father was caused by a supernatural phenomenon whereas Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) believes that there was no supernatural occurrences at all. I got the impression that Kaylie was trying to blame the accident on the supernatural rather than accepting the fact that her father was sick a twisted murderer. Tim had got psychological help in prison therefore comes to terms that his father was in fact a bad person.
Upon staring into the mirror together memories of the past come flooding back to them both. The events of the parents murder almost feel as if they are happening again as the house brings back the eerie, uneasy feelings at the time. Kaylie is constantly telling Tim to remember actions of the past until he is convinced enough that the event was caused by the supernatural.
The atmosphere was dark and disturbing throughout and I think the editing and CGI lacked a bit due to the majority of the film being filmed in the dark to keep this eerie atmosphere.
I hadn't watched any of Mike Flanagan's films prior to this but after watching Oculus I would like to see a lot more from this director. There wasn't many negatives to this film but I felt disappointed that the ending was predictable and the film wasn't as scary as I would have hoped. Yes, there were many disturbing scenes but despite having the well placed jump scares they weren't as scary as I would have hoped. The acting in this film was phenomenal. Performances were done exceptional all round especially Annalise Basso as young Kaylie and Garrett Ryan as young Tim who mirrored the roles of Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites.
Overall this psychological horror got me thinking for hours after watching. There is potential for a sequel to this film although it is not entirely necessary.
Rating 8/10
The Purge (2013)
The Purge: Doesn't deserve the bad ratings at all!
I'd give this film a rating of 8, it deserves much more than the rating it has been given. I loved the idea, the masks set the tone perfectly and created that creepy effect. It was original but what let it down was that the ending was predictable and I hated the girl.
However, Rhys Wakefield who played the part of the main villain put in an exceptional performance along with Ethan Hawke who is really getting into the horror/thriller genre after his fantastic performance as Ellison in Sinister as well.
If it was longer and the ending took a different turn then the film would at least be rated at 8.5-9.5 because the idea has so much potential.
Sinister (2012)
Sinister: One of the creepiest movies I have ever seen.
I went to watch Sinister with high expectations and left shivering as I expected. I went in a group of 6 but Sinister didn't have the effect on them that it had on myself. I am a 16 year old student who studies visual effects so I gained a lot of inspiration from this film. I really did not expect it to be so good and after watching it am totally impressed. The sound effects are amazing and the special effects were exceptional. The opening of the film is particularly disturbing— the movie begins with the family hanging murder, which sets an unsettling tone for the rest of the film. The highlight however is the use of the 8mm films. Sinister is in love with the idea of film, rather than the common DVD or VHS tapes we are treated to super 8 films instead which I have never seen in any other film before. Another way 'Sinister' differs from most modern horror movies is that it doesn't show the audience all of the super 8 films at once but drills into their heads that every time they hear the projector start up something unusual and disturbing is going to happen which sustains the tension throughout.
As the film progresses and our character Ellison discovers more and more unusual home movies the plot gradually unravels, twisting your mind as you try to fit together the pieces if the available possible endings. The most memorable parts of the movie was the eerie atmosphere and silence during most of the home movie analysis, which made people viewing this in the cinema feel uneasy at the time as they felt like they were in the shoes of Ellison solving this gruesome case. The tension was always rising as there were many silent moments with strange goings on with Ellison unaware of how serious the case actually was. It felt like watching an old fashioned horror movie with the long periods of silence combined with modern day special effect scares.
I would totally recommend Sinister to any lover of horror and give it a 9/10, it would have been a 10 but the scene where Ellison and his wife were arguing caused giggles in the cinema due to it being a reasonably poor scene.
The Last Exorcism Part II (2013)
The Last Exoricsm Part II: Made to fool you all.
I couldn't wait to watch The Last Exoricsm Part II as I was impressed by the first, and we were left with a cliffhanger which made me feel like I had to see more. But that's where I was wrong. The trailer and film cover made it look exciting, the trailer was showing the best (the only) good parts of the film.
The story focuses strictly on Nell rebuilding her life after the events of the first film but the demon is still wants control of her.
Throughout I was waiting for the story to unfolded but that moment never came. The exorcism itself was left until 10 minutes until the end and wasn't what I expected to see for that huge build up.
I barely connected with any of the characters apart from Tarra Riggs who played Cecile who did a fantastic job of performing a ritual at the end of the film.
The Last Exorcism Part II is not on my recommendations list because the director has fooled you all by making this unnecessary film and is probably laughing as he takes your money.
Exorcism (2003)
Exorcism: Not a horror but superb comedy!
I managed to pick up a copy of Exorcism for a £1 last weekend with low expectations because of the price and the awful looking cover. The acting was shockingly poor, so poor I wouldn't even call it acting which baffled me seeing how many casted actors featured in films such as Rocky. This film definitely doesn't come under the horror genre and the reason that I give it a rating of 3/10 is because the make up on the demon was decent and the nurse was the only convincing character if anything.
If this film had intended to be a comedy then my rating would be surprisingly higher. If you are looking to watch a true horror movie then Exorcism is not one of those, there are plenty of better ones out there. The storyline would be fantastic if the film was a spoof of all the other exorcist movies but this is clearly not what the director had wanted to do. I would recommend Exorcism if you are willing to spend a night in having a laugh with mates and chilling with a few beers :)