1996
DIRECTOR: BRIAN GIBSON
WRITERS: GEORGE DAWES GREEN (NOVEL) AND TED TALLY (SCREENPLAY)
STARRING: DEMI MOORE, ALEC BALDWIN, ANNE HECHE, AND JAMES GANDOLFINI
Look out for the 90's classics! I love the nineties, and to be blunt, I fucking love this movie. I will make this blog short and sweet to avoid any spoilers.
Alec Baldwin's character is in connection with the mob. He targets Demi Moore's character, who is a juror in a mafia boss' murder case, and scares her into not only voting not guilty, but also convincing the rest of the jurors to do the same. Considering the mafia boss is clearly guilty of murdering a child nonetheless, this is a difficult task to accomplish. But nothing is impossible when your child's safety is threatened.
The Baldwins are so cool. Alec masters every link to fooling everyone with his spineless charm, looks, and intimidation techniques. He's cool with those dangerously evil pupils that live in serial killers' eyes. He's the type of character I route for in the end even though it collides with the typical happy ending. I dig it!
I just really enjoy how creepily realistic this film is. The whole idea of randomly being picked and preyed upon to do something so cruel and against all morals is friggin' terrifying. It's bone chilling to think what I can be capable of when my most loved one's life is on the line. I feel like most people, including myself, would do whatever it takes to keep them safe.
There's a few unexpected twists and turns, but the practicality of the story line remains constant throughout the end. Definitely a great Netflix choice!
2012
DIRECTOR: MARK TONDERAI
WRITERS: DAVE LOUCKA (SCREENPLAY) AND JONATHAN MOSTOW (STORY)
STARRING: JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ELISABETH SHUE, MAX THIERIOT, AND EVA LINK
I bet if the title of this contained just an ounce of thought twisted with some creativity, it would be drenched with positive reviews. I almost decided against contributing another five dollars to the Pay Per View bank, but the trailer pushed me otherwise. Good thing because there is a better chance of me using my DVDs as hockey pucks than paying to watch a PG-13 horror movie. That kind of rating means no boobs, no sex scenes, and minimal blood and violence. Uhh, these are probably the sole seasons why this genre puts bodies in the movie theater seats.
The movie is about a mother and daughter who move into a new home that is located near a house with a horrifying past. A few years earlier, a young girl murdered her parents and was never seen again. Some people assume she drowned trying to run away, but others insist she lives in the woods nearby. And obviously and thankfully for the sake of our attention deficit disorders, shit goes haywire.
I love how creepy the murdering girl is, but don't get mislead and picture a disturbingly deformed face. The bone chilling feeling that overcomes your body is a result of seeing eyes made of pure evil. In all seriousness, I'd rather see Jason from Friday the 13th running at me with a machete than this bitch.
The best parts of this film are the beginning and the end. If it's been more than fifteen minutes in a horror movie and nobody died yet something is very wrong. Blood and death must be introduced immediately! This was successfully portrayed, and better yet, the ending was a true shocker. Mystery killers can always be suspected, but the twist in this movie that I'm referring to is an unseen slant in the plot. It's difficult to explain without spoiling the egg, but trust me when I say it makes you look at some characters differently and shift your sympathy in an opposing manner.
Even though there was not much blood to rave about, or boobs for that matter, the movie makes sense, flows well, and scares the shit of you a few times. Finally, I would like to address something that is quite rare in this genre. The main character who plays the new daughter in town is not a bimbo like all the stereotypes make you believe. She's doesn't even have that passive and vulnerable personality as most girls in her role do. I thought this was a cool touch because you never really find yourself disagreeing with her actions. In other words, this bitch never runs past the front door and up the stairs to escape a killer.
2012
DIRECTOR: JOHN LUESSENHOP
WRITERS: ADAM MARCUS, DEBRA SULLIVAN, AND KRISTEN ELMS (SCREENPLAY). STEPHEN SUSCO, ADAM MARCUS, AND DEBRA SULLIVAN (STORY). KIM HENKEL AND TOBE HOOPER (CHARACTERS).
STARRING: ALEXANDRA DADDARIO, TANIA RAYMONDE, AND SCOTT EASTWOOD
Leatherface is back and is surprisingly cooler than ever! I saw this movie the weekend it came out...I strategically missed every single preview as a result of watching a lesbian lovers quarrel take place in the parking. From this moment on I knew this movie date was an instant win!
I can't honestly say that I've watched the original film, although I'm 99% sure it resides in my DVD collection. I was never a fan of the sequels that came out, with the exception of the 2003 remake that starred Jessica Biel. This most modernized version held its own little slice of originality. Oh, and let's pretend this movie isn't in 3D because my loathe for wearing those instant migraine, sorry excuse for glasses is long enough for its own blog site.
Pretty much, it started out with the main character finding out she's adopted and is a cousin of Jed, better known as Leatherface. She inherits the estate where her grandmother lived after being one of the two sole survivors of a fire the town people set on their original home. Obviously, the big-tittied main character missed the memo that Leatherface was the second survivor.
Eventually the house turns into a bloody clusterfuck with dead bodies everywhere, but if this didn't happen, many people including myself would have left the theater without their psychotic thirst for blood quenched. More importantly and significantly, there are a few aesthetics I mentally noted!
I say this in every blog...I love flashbacks and they were scattered throughout the movie. When the title came on screen in the beginning it flew through the theater as all 3D titles do, but this one was more like slices rather than an explosion. This foreshadowing told me there would be a significant slice in the movie. As expected there were many chainsaw slices that took place, however, there was one scene in the end that I feel was crucial.
In the beginning, while the main characters were driving to the estate, they passed roadkill. The camera paused on this roadkill for enough seconds to make me think it must mean something. I won't be able to figure it out until I buy the DVD where I have the ability to pause, but something tells me it was more than just a couple of dead possums or whatever they were. Perhaps the fact that there were two animal bodies foreshadowed that a second survivor came out of the fire, which would be Leatherface. Or maybe the roadkill are animals that are known for being really family oriented...this would make sense because of the little twist in the end where Leatherface actually has a conscience. Orrr maybe I'm thinking too much into this...
Sorry to spoil the end, but I have to say it...I loved how Leatherface didn't kill his cousin. I totally dig this for two reasons. One is this never happens. Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers never purposely left a survivor. The second reason I like this is because it is realistic that a serial killer did not look at his family as their next victims. I never heard that Ted Bundy killed any of his family members...or Dexter for that matter haha.
I did enjoy this movie, however, I wish there were more unique killing scenes. I loved how a victim was hiding in a quiet coffin only for the silence to be shattered by the chainsaw coming through the wood! There should have been more of these scenes! In the beginning, the main characters pick up a hitch hiker that obviously led to more trouble for them, but what the fuck was the relevance of this? I think that whole concept should have been chopped in the first draft. Those minutes would have been much better spent on more in depth and bloodier torture scenes!
I feel like this movie got terrible reviews and is said to be predictable, but seriously, what else is supposed to happen in a Texas Chainsaw remake that isn't expected? I thought the unique touches were coo; and it was a scary success!
