Alone In The Dark: Andrew Reviews "Unfriended" (2015)

Directed By: Levan Gabriadze 

Starring: Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, Renee Olstead, Courtney Halverson, Heather Sossaman

Rating: R for violent content, pervasive language, some sexuality, and drug and alcohol use

Run Time: 1 hour, 23 minutes

Synopsis: A group of friends are terrorized during a group Skype session by someone claiming to be the spirit of their friend, Laura Barns (Sossaman), one year to the day of her committing suicide following an embarrassing video of her going viral and the bullying she enduring afterwards.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello dear readers! Now that we're making a more concerted effort to posting reviews (in conjunction with our schedules actually allowing us to), I'm going to try and do more Alone in the Dark reviews. If you're not familiar or don't remember what those are, Alone in the Dark reviews are when I watch and then review a horror movie all by my lonesome because Sarah doesn't like them. A couple of weeks ago I saw the indie-hit It Follows before she got up here to Connecticut and will be posting that review later this week. 

Today I will be reviewing Unfriended, one of numerous horror offerings coming out this year produced by Blumhouse Productions (producers of films like Paranormal Activity, Insidious and The Purge). Originally screened last year at Fantasia Festival under the name "Cybernatural," Unfriended is a play on the found footage genre, telling the story of a group of friends who are terrorized during a group Skype session by someone/something claiming to be the spirit of their friend Laura. Oh, and the film takes place one year to the day of Laura committing suicide after she was mercilessly abused online after an embarrassing video of her was uploaded to YouTube.

Daniel Radcliffe Devilishly Moves Beyond His Wizard Past: Our Review of "Horns" (2014)

Directed By: Alexandre Aja

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Max Minghella, Joe Anderson James Remar, David Morse

Rating: R for sexual content, some graphic nudity, disturbing violence including a sexual assault, language and drug use

Run Time: 2 hours

Synopsis: Ig Perrish (Radcliffe) is the prime suspect in the murder of his girlfriend, Merrin (Temple), though he proclaims his innocence. After a night of hitting rock-bottom, Ig wakes up with a growing pair of Devil's horns that spur everyone he talks to to disclose their deepest secrets and imbues him with some devilish powers, which he uses to solve his girlfriend's death.

REVIEW 

Andrew: Hello dear readers! We know we've been bad again at posting our reviews, as we actually have two recorded reviews done that just need to be transcribed and posted, but we're here today with a quick review on a perfect Halloween season film that Sarah and I watched On Demand last night - Alexandre Aja's Horns, starring Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. 

Horns is an adaptation of the book of the same name written by one of my favorite current authors, Joe Hill. Hill is a well-known and popular writer in the horror genre and comic book community for his comic series "Locke & Key", but he's not quite on the general public's radar just yet which is a damn shame because his 3 novels - Horns, 2007's ghost story Heart-Shaped Box, and last year's vampire yarn NOS4A2 - are all fantastic and definitely up-to-par with his father's work. It's probably worth mentioning that Hill's father is Stephen King, and that Hill made a name for himself with Heart-Shaped Box and his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts before people discovered his lineage.

Back to Horns, in which Radcliffe stars as Ig Parrish, a young man whom everyone in town believes recently killed the love of his life, Merrin (The Dark Knight Rises' Juno Temple). Ig is the only suspect and even his family is skeptical of his proclaimed innocence. One night Ig gets wasted and wakes up the following morning sprouting a pair of horns, and his horns seem to have an effect on people wherein they can't help but tell him their deepest, darkest secrets, desires or just the straight effed-up truth, while giving Ig a bit of influential power to make people do what they're already inclined to do. Using his new powers, Ig goes on the hunt to discover who really killed his love.

Sarah, while this was a book I absolutely loved and was excited to see the film for, this is one I kind of had to talk you into renting since you thought it might be scary. Now that we've seen it, what did you think of Horns?

Alone In The Dark: Andrew's Review of "The Conjuring" (2013)

Directed By: James Wan (Saw, Insidious) 

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston

Rating: R for sequences of disturbing violence and terror

Run Time: 1 hour, 52 minutes

Synopsis: In 1971, Roger and Carolyn Perron (Livingston and Taylor) and their five daughters move into an old farmhouse in the Rhode Island countryside. Soon after moving in the family starts to experience increasingly disturbing events that cause them to seek out the help of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Wilson and Farmiga). Upon their arrival the Warren's discover the Perron's are being terrorized by an evil and powerful force that will test their faith more than any case they've taken before.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Earlier this week I was able to catch a screening of this week's new horror film The Conjuring, directed by James Wan, who directed two of my all-time favorite horror movies in Saw and Insidious (as well as the underrated Dead Silence and the upcoming Insidous sequel). Needless to say, I had been looking forward to seeing Wan's newest film ever since I heard it was in the pipeline. Then, as the promotional train started picking up steam, my interest grew even more when I found out it was about the paranormal investigative couple Ed and Lorraine Warren - until now most famously known for their investigation into the Amityville Horror case in the mid-1970s. And although Ed passed away some years ago, Lorraine still lives in their longtime home in Monroe, Connecticut...which is just a forty minute drive away from where Sarah and I live.

Now, I've been interested in the horror genre since I was a kid. I read every "Goosebumps" book R.L. Stine ever wrote, I read and was terrified by the "Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark" books and I caught every single episode of "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" on Nickelodeon when I was younger. As I grew up I started reading Stephen King books and watching horror films I probably shouldn't have been watching like John Carpenter's Halloween and The Thing (which left the biggest impressions on me) [UPDATE: You can read a term paper I wrote on Halloween from college that we posted back in October HERE], slasher classics like the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street series, and other genre classics that I hold dear like The Shining, Poltergeist and (to a lesser extent) The Exorcist.

Alone In The Dark: Andrew's Review of "The Purge" (2013)

Directed By: James DeMonaco 

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Heady, Rhys Wakefield

Rating: R for strong disturbing violence and some language

Run Time:1 hour, 25 minutes

Synopsis: In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity-including murder-becomes legal. The police can't be called. Hospitals suspend help. It's one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking. When an intruder breaks into James Sandin's (Ethan Hawke) gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear a family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide. (Courtesy of Universal Pictures)

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Because the wife was working late last night, I ventured to the local AMC to catch a showing of this past weekend's new horror film, The Purge, starring Ethan Hawke (Sinister) and Lena Headey (HBO's Game of Thrones). In general I wanted to see this movie because it's a horror movie and those are my jam, but I specifically wanted to see this one because of its fantastic premise. Now let me preface the rest of this review by saying that because I want to delve into what the film is and what it could have been, I'm going to be talking heavily about the plot, probably even summarizing the movie in a "running commentary" style. Therefore I'll give a big ol' ***SPOILER ALERT*** for what's the follow. So stop reading if you don't want the film spoiled for yourself.

Ok, so the here's the premise: It's the year 2022 and America has undergone some sort of revolution, with a group referred to as the New Founding Fathers running the country. Unemployment is only 1% and crime is virtually non-existent with the exception of a yearly event called The Purge. The Purge is a 12-hour event from 7pm to 7am, once a year, where all crimes including murder are legal (with the exceptions of government officials Level 10 or higher being exempt from being killed, and weapons above a certain level being illegal to use, which I'd imagine include weapons of mass destruction, bombs, etc.) and all emergency services are suspended during this time. The point being that once a year everybody in the country is allowed to vent out their frustrations and anger and commit whatever crimes they like.

That's a helluva premise for a movie that is just LOADED with possibilities, and I'll get to what I think some of those possibilities should have or could have been a little later. But first I'll tackle the direction that writer/director James DeMonaco chose, and that's for The Purge to just be a home invasion film.

Sarah Interviewed Andrew For His Review of "Paranormal Activity 4" (2012) and a Discussion on Horror Movie Series Broke Out

Directed By: Henry Joost & Ariel Shulman (Paranormal Activity 3) 

Starring: Kathryn Newton, Matt Shively, Brady Allen, Aiden Lovecamp, Katie Featherston

Rating: R for some language and violence/terror

Run Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Synopsis: 15-year-old Alex (Newton) and her family take in a young boy named Robbie (Allen) who lives across the street when the boy's mother falls ill. Soon after, weird things start to happen and Robbie seems to be having a negative effect on Alex's little brother, Wyatt (Lovecamp). Alex and her friend Ben (Shively) set up cameras around the house to see what's going bump in the night and discover more than they bargained for.

REVIEW (warning: this is a bit of a lengthy post)

Andrew: Hello readers! Because Sarah had to work late the other night and because she wouldn’t want to see it anyways, so I saw Paranormal Activity 4 all by my lonesome. The latest entry in the popular horror movie franchise, it’s the fourth-film Paranormal Activity film in as many years about a California family haunted by a demon and the mythology of that demon in the family’s history.

So Sarah, you didn’t want to see this one with me because it’s a scary movie, so we’re going to do this review as an interview. So what do you want to ask me?

Sarah: Have all of the Paranormal Activity films followed the same family?

A: Yes. (**SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FIRST THREE. I’M ABOUT TO SUMMARIZE THE SERIES A BIT FOR SARAH**)

The first film starts with a couple, Katie and Micah, and Katie explains during the film that weird things happened to her and her sister Kristi when they were younger. The second film shows Kristi and her family – her husband, daughter and baby son – and the events of that one sort of take place before and during the events of the first one, converging at the end with Katie killing her family and kidnapping her nephew. The third one is a prequel to PA1 and PA2 that takes place during 1988 and it shows you what actually happened to them when they were younger.

If You See One Scary Movie This Year About a Pagan Deity Who Eats Kid's Souls, Make It This One: Andrew's review of "Sinister" (2012)

Directed By: Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) 

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Vincent D'Onofrio

Rating: R for disturbing violent images and terror

Run Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Synopsis: Ellison Oswalt (Hawke) is a true-crime writer who hit it big with his debut book years ago and in an effort to write his next hit, he moves his family into a house where a tragedy occurred - one child went missing while the rest of the family was killed. After Ellison discovers a box of film reels showing the previous family, plus others from diff decades, being killed - and a demonic looking figure that appears in each one - he becomes obsessed with discovering the nature of the reels.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! So last night I was able to catch an advance showing of this weekend's new horror movie, Sinister, starring Ethan Hawke and brought to us by the same folks who brought us the Paranormal Activity films and 2010's Insidious. Sarah, you didn't go to this one with me because these kinds of haunted house/haunted family movies are not your cup of tea (and by that I mean you wouldn't have slept at all last night). So we're gonna do this the old fashioned email way and you're going to interview me. So with that said, fire away!

Sarah: Yea there was no way in hell I was seeing this one, or will probably ever see this one. That being said...what did you think?

A: In short, I thought it was one of the better horror movies to come out in a couple of years, but it's not great. If I ranked it up against the movies I mentioned earlier, I'd put the PA movies and Insidious ahead of it, and in that order.

The best part of the movie is Ethan Hawke as the main character, Ellison Oswalt. He's a true-crime writer who hit it big ten years prior with his first book called "Kentucky Blood" but his second and third efforts weren't nearly as good and one even apparently let a killer go free because he screwed up the prosecution's investigation. I liked that aspect and I liked the Hawke plays Ellison as this family man who has become desperate enough to regain that fame and fortune that he'll risk his family by moving them into a house where the prior family was murdered, and not even tell his wife that it happened.