Movie Review: Fritt Vilt (Cold Prey)

Fritt Vilt (Cold Prey)

Rating:  

Directed By: Roar Uthaug

Starring: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen

Plot Synopsis:

Five teenage snowboarders are forced to spend the night in a mysteriously abandoned ski lodge. Except somebody – or something – already lives there. It is huge, savage and unstoppable…and now it’s pissed off. But if you think this is going to be the usual ‘trapped teens stalked by a maniac’ movie, you’re dead wrong.

From the first chilling kill to the final horrific twist, prepare yourself for the smart, intense and award-winning European sensation that has terrified audiences around the world and put the edge back into the body-count genre.

Review:

Slasher movies are never going to win any awards for plot or characterization.  What separates the multitude of films in this sub-genre of Horror is the execution.  The most recent Friday the 13th remake comes to mind as well as it’s classic original and films like John Carpenter’s Halloween.  Young adults or teens stalked by unstoppable killer.

Read more →

Movie Review: Stuck

Stuck

Rating:  

Directed By: Stuart Gordon

Starring: Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea

Plot Synopsis:

Stuart Gordon creates a provocative, over-the-top experience in Stuck, a tabloid-tinged thriller inspired by true events. Brandi (Mena Suvari) is a compassionate young retirement-home caregiver in-line for a promotion. Tom (Stephen Rea) is a victim of the downsized economy, out of work and newly homeless.

Their worlds collide when Brandi, driving home from a club after too many drinks and pills, accidentally hits Tom, the impact smashing his body head-first through her car’s windshield. If discovered, this “accident” will extinguish her bright future, so instead of saving him, her plan is to let him pass and dispose of the body later. Faced with this reality, Tom knows he must escape if he wants to survive.

Review:

Reading the plot synopsis, you pretty much know what you’re going to get with Stuart Gordon‘s newest film, Stuck. A B-movie crossed with provocative indie film and dark comedy. Just when you think Stuck could be heading to snoozeville, the film picks up and grabs you all the way until the credits roll.

Read more →

Movie Review: The Strangers

The Strangers

Rating:  

Directed By: Bryan Bertino

Starring: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman

Plot Synopsis:

Lock the doors. Assume you’re safe.

The horrifying events that took place in the Hoyt family’s vacation home at 1801 Clark Road on February 11, 2005, are still not entirely known.

Champagne. Rose petals. Candlelight. It was supposed to be a night of celebration for Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman). But after leaving a friend’s wedding reception and returning to the house, everything had collapsed for the happy couple.

Then came a 4 a.m. knock on the door and a haunting voice.

Is Tamara here?

Writer/director Bryan Bertino explores our most universal fears in The Strangers, a terrifying suspense thriller about a couple whose remote getaway becomes a place of terror when masked strangers invade. The confrontation forces Kristen and James to go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive.

Review:

Not many movies freak me out or send a sense of dread down my spine. The Exorcist and Hellraiser have been the only movies to seriously freak me out, but they were on a supernatural level. Anything else, has just been enjoyable horror flicks with few moments that may have caused a jump here and there.

Read more →

Movie Review: Murder Party

Murder Party Official Trailer from Sean Duregger on Vimeo.

Murder Party

Rating:  

Directed By: Jeremy Saulnier

Starring: Chris Sharp, Macon Blair, and Paul Goldblatt

Plot Synopsis:

In search of a good time Chris (Chris Sharp) drops in on a Halloween party thrown by pretentious Brooklyn artists in this satirical horror film. Without warning he becomes the object of their “Murder Party” an overblown art project that involves his torture and death. Naturally Chris isn’t so thrilled about this idea. However though stuck in an unwieldy cardboard costume Chris isn’t as helpless as he looks playing off hipster rivalries in a gory and often hilarious game of survival.

Review:

Murder Party is a fun little indie horror/comedy that I found myself enjoying a lot more than I thought I would. This little gem has just enough going for it to bring it up from the usual low-budget sludge that plagues the Horror genre.

Read more →

Movie Review: Pathology

Pathology

Rating:  

Directed By: Marc Schoelermann

Starring: Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Weston, and Alyssa Milano

Plot Synopsis:

Some say that Pathology is a window to God. As doctors, they see the perversion and corruption of the flesh by all means unnatural…by violence…by toxin…by madness…to determine the cause of death. As a result they are the experts in all signs of foul play and the best in the field can uncover all means of killing, even those that are seemingly undetectable.

When med school student Ted Gray (Heroes’ Milo Ventimiglia) graduates top of his class he joins one of the nation’s most prestigious Pathology programs. With talent and determination Ted is quickly noticed by the program’s privileged and elite band of pathology interns who invite him into their crowd. Intrigued by his new friends he begins to uncover secrets he never expected and finds that he has unknowingly become a pawn in their dangerous and secret after-hours game at the morgue of who can commit the perfect undetectable murder. As Ted becomes seduced into their wild extracurricular activities the danger becomes real and he must stay one step ahead of the game before he is the next victim.

Review:

I found myself interested in this movie mainly because it is the first starring vehicle for Milo Ventimiglia (who stars as Peter Petrelli in the popular series Heroes, and played Rocky Balboa’s son in Rocky Balboa). The fact that this was a psychological horror flick involving doctors was also intriguing.

Read more →