John of the Dead's Horror Flick Reviews

Director – Sean McConville

Cast – Brittany Murphy, Thora Birch, Tammy Blanchard, Marc Blucas, Claudia Troll

Release Year – 2009

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I never really had an interest to watch Deadline, although it has been on my queue for quite some time, mostly due to the constant negative remarks I had come across regarding this final film of actress Brittany Murphy. Despite the bad reviews I decided to finally give Deadline a watch due to its recognizable status within the genre, and surprisingly found this film to be much better than expected. This is not a positive film by any means, but in the end Deadline gave me an end-result better than the numerous reviews bashing the film.

Suffering from writer’s block and with a deadline approaching, screenwriter Alice takes a producer’s offer and shuts herself in an old secluded home in hopes of her new environment allowing her to bypass the distractions of her life and focus on her work. Little does she know, the home harbors a terrible secret that slowly transcends her psychological state to full breakdown.

I can understand how horror fans may not enjoy this film, but the horrid reviews it has received on other sites are not as warranted now that I am able to form my own opinion of this piece. My initial thoughts during the first act were “Wow, this doesn’t suck at all.”, due to the engaging material and fair execution as well. I know I mention this often, but it never fails that a film involving someone moving/residing in a new home and coming across the horrors associated with that home will always appeal to me, especially when a supernatural element is thrown in. The horror is subtle at first, however it was quite engaging if you enjoy ghost or haunted house films, and thankfully as the film progressed so did the horror – which you would assume should be the case but I have come across numerous films where the horror stayed minimal throughout, and hes I’m talking about YOU Apollo 18. Sadly, it is when the horror really surfaces that the story-related faults surface as well. As Alice begins to uncover the mystery behind the haunting events taking place we are given very cliched developments that lacked creativity and inspiration, and furthermore consisted of material that I really did not care about. It was unique in a sense, but not my cup of tea, and ultimately brewed into a shocking climax that I saw coming miles away, although it was still a nice twist due to the dread it brought with it.

Writer/director Sean McConville did an OK job executing this piece, giving us fantastic atmosphere and creepy sets that kept me mostly-interested in what was going on thanks to these visuals. His execution of the horror was so-so, with most of the real spook going on early on in the film when we were exposed to minimal paranormal events, and sadly once things really got going the horror itself began to lag. I mentioned that the storyline lost its steam when the bulk of the horror surfaced, and that was also when the horror began to die down as well given the subject matter was not the least big scary and in fact quite silly. Brittany Murphy did well in her final acting role, which sadly had to come via film that could have been much better and lost whatever potential it had when :gasp: the horror kicked in.

Overall, Deadline comes with plenty of creepy atmosphere and sweet sets, and the horror at first is genuine and scary, however once the story kicks in and the real horror erupts we are given nothing but the usual run-of-the-mill DTV crap that left an ever-lasting skidmark as the exodus of Brittany Murphy’s career.

Rating: 5/10

Director – Frank LaLoggia

Cast – Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, Alex Rocco, Katherine Helmond, Jason Presson, Renata Vanni, Angelo Bertolini, Joelle Jacobi, Jared Rushton, Gregory Levinson, Lucy Lee Flippin, Tom Bower, Jack Andreozzi

Release Year – 1988

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I had always heard great things about Lady in White, but the one viewing opportunity I had months back failed, and this film fell to the bottom of my queue until I randomly came across it at a local rental store. While this was nowhere near as scary as I expected it to be (the equivalent The Woman in Black was scarier) it gave me a great story and simple yet effected execution that made for an enjoyable experience from this classic 80s film.

While suffering a cruel prank in which he was locked in a closet on All Hallows’ Eve, young Frankie Scarlatti witnesses the ghost of a young girl reliving her last moments suffered years ago. When her murderer returns to the scene and nearly kills Frankie in the process, Frankie is forced to uncover a mystery decades in the making – one that has claimed the lives of many children and continues to haunt his small town.

If you grew up in the 80s then this film will be a guaranteed treat for you. This is more than just a horror film as it involves drama and fantasy as well, and thanks to great execution from Frank Lalogia every element of this piece delivers in great fashion.

The storyline is not necessarily a simple one, but it is far from complex so long as you let it build at its pace. Frankie plays a very heavy role in the film, and he is superbly written to extract numerous emotional responses from the viewer thanks to his supreme innocence and desire to do what is right. We get no useless characters thrown into the film as they all provide positives to the story, and the usage of the “Lady in White” as well as the ghost of the young girl did enough o provide good horror, although a bit tame in comparison to the usual films of the 80s. Coming in with a PG-13 rating and a heavy fantasy feel I was not surprised at the tame horror and I cannot fault the film for that. The “twist” is one that you see coming miles away, but good execution overall helped sell it regardless and manage to keep my interest in this moderately-paced 112 minute experience, which was also much funnier than I imagined thanks to great writing regarding Frankie’s grandparents.

Writer Frank Laloggia also serves as the film’s director, which was very fitting given how great his storyline was and how well he complimented it with his execution. He gets great performances from all involved, specially Lukas Hass as Frankie, who stole the show and sold me on every element and emotion, as well as those who portrayed his hilarious grandparents. I mentioned that the horror was a bit tame, and that is due to the film’s PG-13 rating as well as its fantasy element, which was a tad bit silly at times (for today’s world) but was pretty effective regarding the creepy “Lady in White”.

Overall, Lady in White is an enjoyable 80s horror film that has won the hearts of many due to its captivating storyline and great execution from Frank Laloggia. The horror is not as heavy as some may assume it to be, but that in no way takes away from the experience due to this being more than the usual 80s horror flick.

Rating: 7/10

Director – The Vicious Brothers

Cast – Sean Rogerson, Juan Riedinger, Ashleigh Gryzko, Mackenzie Gray, Merwin Mondesir, Bob Rathie, Ben Wilkinson, Luis Javier, Arthur Corber

Release Year – 2011

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I have never been a fan or even an active watcher of the several past/present paranormal TV shows out there, mostly because they never actually show me anything concrete, so my preference is to not even bother with them. Well, when I first heard about Grave Encounters my interest was peaked due to this potentially being the first time I could watch such a “show” and actually see ghosts, even though it is merely a movie. Despite that, I went into this film with fairly-low to mediocre-at-best expectations due to most “found footage” films of recent years (Atrocious) not living up to the hype, but I am glad to say that I was dead wrong about this one, and that my expectations were greatly surpassed.

Host Lance Preston(Sean Rogerson) and the crew of “Grave Encounters”, a ghost-hunting reality television show, are filming an episode located within the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, a hot spot for unexplained phenomena over the years. Ever the entertainment guru, Lance locks himself and his crew inside the hospital for the night and sets up surveillance equipment to capture every image and sound, but they soon learn that they have vastly underestimated the hospital, and film what will eventually be their final episode.

Don’t you love it when you are given much more than you expected in a situation where more is better? I do, and Grave Encounters was my source of such pleasure. Beginning with a disclaimer from a producer stating that the following footage is real and was found after the crew mysteriously vanished, I knew from then on out to turn my brain off and just hope for the best, which is something that I never mind doing (in this genre) and suggest you do to if you decide to give this one a go.

I loved the overall storyline of a television crew going into a creepy old place and finding real horror that they never expected to come across, mostly because I just love stories set in such locations but also because it plays heavily on the fact that such “reality” television shows currently on television never actually SHOW us anything. If you allow yourself to be enveloped into the film then you can watch this film as if it were reality, which only ups the horror intake on your part, so I suggest that you do so (or at least give it a shot). Things take off fairly quickly in this 90 minute (minus credits) experience, giving us simple but effective horror at first and then consistently kicking up the horror and tension until we are given some downright awesome scares that left me jumping in my seat, something that rarely happens to me these days. The first hour of the film is solid and nearly perfect, and while the final act does slow down a bit it never stops giving us the horror, but allows for the events of the first hour to soak in until the harrowing climax. Each of our main protagonists are used in good fashion, with each adding their own positives to the experience and serving their pre-ordained purpose. Some are meant to bicker under the pressure, others to be tortured mentally and physically, and all are meant to die, so what’s not to like about this awesome character play from first-time writers/directors The Vicious Brothers. There are some silly ideas thrown into this piece that lack explanation and can be a bit illogical (even for a supernatural film), but I allowed for them as this is by no means a truly serious effort and was able to look past them without issue. To put me even more at ease about them, they were not directed/executed in silly fashion, which was a life-saver and brings me to the next great thing about this film…

The Vicious Brothers were fantastic in their directing debut, giving us perfect atmosphere by employing truly creepy sets and giving us fantastic camerawork that kept us out of the loop at just the right times, and in the loop at the right times as well. This is a rare occurrence in POV films as only the great ones use this style of filming to potential, and The Vicious Brothers did so on their first attempt. They used this great camerawork to deliver some of the best scares I have seen in recent time, and in a very simple yet creative fashion that shocked me every time as I never saw them coming, and in unashamed fashion – an indicator that they did the scares just right. While the horror was the biggest selling point, it came complimented (and aided) by good acting performances that sold the terror and the feel of such “reality” shows, which added more fun and made for even more engaging material than what was already at hand. We get a fair amount of gore thrown into this piece, which looked great and was used to good potential and in creative fashion, showing that these “brothers” really do have a solid future in the genre if they can replicate the terrific horror we were given in this debut effort.

Overall, Grave Encounters is an awesome horror experience that finally gives us a “reality” TV show giving real results, and paying for it dearly. The storyline is a cool one that despite some silly ideas still manages to stay mature in its execution, and The Vicious Brothers do a fantastic job directing this story. They managed to provide intense horror that I never saw coming nor expected, making this not only an underestimated film but one of the best I have seen this year. Highly recommended.

Rating: 8/10

Director – Fernando Barreda Luna

Cast – Jose Masegosa, Cristian Valencia, Chus Pereiro, Rafael Amaya

Release Year – 2010

Reviewed by John of the Dead

Boy was this a film that I was really looking forward to. After hearing of this piece and watching the debut trailer a while after, I was very stoked to go into this one given I do mostly enjoy the POV style of filmmaking (if it’s done right of course) and seeing that it came from Spain (REC anyone?) I expected good results, but boy was I let down.

On April 4th 2010, the Quintanilla family was found brutally murdered in their countryside home. Authorities confirmed that roughly 37 hours of video recordings were found at the scene due to an attempt by Christian and July Quintanilla to document the Legend of the Girl in the Garraf Woods found adjacent to their home. This movie contains the evidence Christian and July collected before their deaths.

The storyline had me interested because I absolutely love films involving people investigating a creepy legend, but it was the storyline that really held this film back. While the overall story is one that contained much potential, little of the potential was attained due to the sole fact that very little happens throughout this 70 minute piece. We get way too much development for such a short film, and it takes around 37 minutes for the first element of horror to kick in, and it is a measly one at that. From the on out the horror slowly builds and builds, but we are never given anything to scare us and are simply forced to watch our protagonists run and scream from an unseen force for the majority of the third act, which for all we know there is not even a killer – until the film’s harrowing climax. The climax really was the best that the film had to offer as it gave me a twist ending that I never saw coming, but it was far from enough to remove the stench left from what should have been a much better story. Oh, and there is a heavy REC presence/ripoff during the final sequence, so it was not THAT creative after all.

Writer Fernando Barreda Luna also serves as the film’s director, and he did little to right the wrongs provided by his screenplay. His atmosphere was great and he used highly engaging sets to deliver this film to us, but his lack of providing any scares whatsoever was what really held back his direction. What could have provided more scares was an abandonment of the POV-only style of filmmaking and the using of still cameras like those set up in Paranormal Activity. This would have allowed a better field of view for the viewer to see and potentially allow for Luna to provide better scare sequences, so long as his lame story allowed for it.

Overall, Atrocious is a film that had the breathing room to deliver a solid and fast-paced scarefest but instead failed to reach the potential the overall storyline provided. Instead we were given a story that delivers virtually nothing scary to the viewer, and direction that did little to aid the storyline that had the flick doomed from the start.

Rating: 5/10

Director – Anthony C. Ferrante

Cast – Trish Coren, Rachel Harland, Jilon Ghai, Happy Mahaney, Shirlene Quigley, Algie Hamilton, Dig Wayne, Rosamaria Juarez, Nicole Rayburn, Josh Holt, M. Steven Felty, Michael Samluk, Taylor Hurley

Release Year – 2005

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I was pretty excited to give this film a watch after constantly passing it over throughout the years, hoping that I had been skipping a hidden gem this whole time – however I was dead wrong.  While Boo gives us great atmosphere that compliments its cliche but enjoyable overall plot, poor execution and equally bad writing kept this from being anything other than a slightly bearable effort.

When a group of college students throw a Halloween party in an abandoned hospital, their night of fun and cheap scares turns into true terror when the ghosts of the hospital have their way with them.

This is one effort that really failed to reach A LOT of potential.  The film started off great, giving us numerous scare sequences that were simple yet fairly clever in my opinion, and kept me overly engaged due to how often the scare sequences took place.  Writer/director Anthony C. Ferrante’s crafty scares and his directing execution of the entire first half of the film was top-notch, but once the mystery behind what is going on in the abandoned hospital was uncovered the film went downhill about as fast as Peter Griffin can recite the alphabet.  The revelation behind the horror was not a poorly written idea necessarily, it was just used in poor fashion and upped the cheesyness to unfavorable levels – mostly regarding poor dialogue and unfortunately – poor acting as well.  It really was sad to watch this low-budget flick from a no-name director start off so well yet falter so badly, but that is the case with this one.

Ferrante’s direction showed promise in his ability to create great atmosphere and make the most out of the awesome sets used, which played directly into his background as a fairly good FX maestro.  The scare sequences were good and the tension was high at times, but poor acting performances and horrendous execution of the third act especially ruined this experience and did away with all of the potential hard work involved with the first half of the film, once again giving us a wasted effort that could have been something great and reaffirms the reasoning behind Hollywood not giving young and inexperienced directors a chance.

Overall, Boo is a film that is sure to let you down due to its awesome first half and subsequent fall from grace throughout the remainder of the film.  It is obvious writer/director blah blah has potential, but it was far from reached with this one.

Rating: 5/10

Director – Yam Laranas

Cast – Richard Gutierrez, Jomari Yllana, Iza Calzado, Angel Locsin, James Blanco, Ella Guevara

Release Year – 2005

Reviewed by John of the Dead

The Echo(Sigaw) was the last film I needed to see before beginning my work on a Top 10 Horror Movies of 2005 post, and although I basically had my mind made up over which films I was going to use I figured I needed to give this one a viewing due to the numerous positive remarks I had come across regarding this film. Because of those positive remarks I went into this Filipino watch with mostly high expectations, and was quite saddened when those expectations were not met. The atmosphere is there and it is obvious that director Yam Laranas is great at his camerawork, but this story never fully grasped my interest beyond measly levels and resulted in this film being a borderline-positive effort in the end.

Martin, a young man who savors his independence, moves into an old apartment building whose lack of tenants and decrepit look gives him just that. Soon after moving in his peace and tranquility is ruined by a family down the hall whose husband/father beats his wife and child over accusations of infidelity, but all is not as it seems in this spooky wayward complex.

I absolutely love supernatural films, and I know that some great horror films have come out of the Philippines (Feng Shui), so I really mean it when I say that I expected to enjoy this one. The story takes off quick, throwing in a few decent cheap but well-executed spooks early on, and once things get going and the wife begins asking Jude for his help the tension really rises when each desperate plea from her brings Jude further and further into a dilemma that he wants nothing to do with. I was a bit confused as to when/where the horror was going to kick in due to this piece coming off mostly as a drama about an abusive husband whose job as a police officer allows him to get away with beating his wife and daughter, but halfway through the film we are given the “twist” that I never saw coming – a twist that finally exposed the horror that had in fact been going on the entire time. While I was elated at the level of horror occurring before me, it never really manifested into anything other than a cliché ghost story that failed to continue “moving” and resulted in a final 50 minutes of stagnant pacing and a few scares. This really was a disappointment for me because the story had much potential to keep delivering some good horror, but as with many horror films the full potential was never reached.

Director Yam Laranas(The Echo remake) was quite fantastic in this piece, giving us amazing atmosphere that was dark, gloomy, and perfect for a supernatural effort – or any effort for that matter. Each of the sets used was great, although most of the film took place in the gloomy and quite creepy low-end apartment complex that Martin and Chris Brown, I mean the abusive husband, were residing in. He managed to use crafty camerawork and great execution in keeping the tension high, which occurred mostly during the scenes regarding the abusive husband and his wife’s desperate attempts to escape his wrath and not really the supernatural element itself. His execution provided a few decent chills here and there, although most of them were really unscary scenes that used camerawork and music to deliver the scare. Sadly, in the end we really were not given the scary and spooky film I wished to see – a sad note given Laranas’ obvious talent for this genre.

Overall, The Echo is a film that could have really been a solid and very effective horror film, but story-related issues resulted in a stagnant second half that held this film back from greatness. Yam Laranas’ direction was fantastic in his execution, which is the biggest reason why this film was such a letdown to me, because with a proper screenplay it is obvious that this man can do wonders behind the camera.

Rating: 6/10

Director – Andrew Douglas

Cast – Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jesse James, Jimmy Bennett, Chloe Moretz, Rachel Nichols, Philip Baker Hall, Isabel Conner, Brendan Donaldson

Release Year – 2005

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I remember working at a local movie theater when this remake came out and thinking to myself “what a waste of time and money”, refusing to give this film a watch due to my distaste for money-grabbing horror remakes at the time. While I still somewhat feel that way, I decided it was about time that I give this flick a watch in its entirety (I saw snippets here and there while working at the theater) so that I could settle a personal dilemma over whether or not this film outdoes the original – which I feel is an mostly-positive yet overrated film whose sequel, Amityville II: The Possession, is much better. This remake oddly suffers some of the same faults as the original does, but thanks to some unique elements thrown in that result in a somewhat original take on the original storyline and positive direction from Andrew Douglas this effort was not nearly as bad as I expected, and made for a flawed but decent almost-positive watch.

When George(Ryan Reynolds; Blade: Trinity, Buried) and Kathy(Melissa George; Triangle, 30 Days of Night, Turistas, Mulholland Drive, Dark City) Lutz come across a large and beautiful lakeside home with a low price-tag they rejoice at the thought of the home soon becoming theirs, and take a terrible risk when they learn of the home’s dark past yet take the plunge in buying the home anyway. Soon after moving in the Lutz family experiences odd occurrences going on around the home, and they soon learn that the past never stays buried in the Amityville house.

I really cannot tell you with absolute certainty which film is better, this one or the original. Most likely it is the original as they both receive the same rating from me but the original has achieved classic status whereas this remake is just…a remake, despite the positives it delivers that the original failed to give us. If the original IS better, then it is only by a slight margin. Nonetheless, the original was not an original idea, but an adaptation of Jay Anson’s novel, so does it really matter?

The story follows the same overall plot from the original film, which works as an enjoyable one for me because I love films that involve people moving into a new home. Why? Because you never really know what went on in the home, and that leaves the new tenants open to whatever supernatural/physical forces still residing in the dwelling. Our characters are mostly positive, with each providing their own movement to the piece, although some obviously more than others. I was glad to see that we were given some additional elements not seen in the original piece, mostly regarding the background behind the heinous events that took place years before the Lutz family moved in. In addition to that, this is where the only actual kills occur in the film, with most of them occurring off-screen and sadly never really delivering the horror the storyline could have delivered. Much of the dislike regarding the original film is that it is quite boring, but thanks to Scott Kosar’s brisk moving screenplay this film did not suffer the same fault. For example: the original film runs 117 minutes, this one runs 85 minutes and gives us more going on than the original did with almost 40 more minutes. Sadly, this screenplay does come with quite a few faults, and to make matters worse they came during the final act of the film. I was enjoying the first two acts of this piece and was leaning towards a 7-rating at the close of the second act, but after the typical Hollywood dialogue and stupid scenes we were given in the third act this film was lowered to the borderline-positive level the original resulted in – a big loss in potential.

First time feature-film director Andrew Douglas did a great job delivering this film to us, employing awesome atmosphere provided by perfect sets from the dark and gloomy home, very much reminiscent of the subject matter at hand. His camerawork is positive and he does a fairly good job at providing the horror at times, although I cared little for the CGI horror scenes as they were just typical Hollywood and not very scary. Now the “closet” scene was great, and definitely the highest selling point the film had to offer. Surprisingly enough there was a decent amount of gore thrown into the film, although most of it came via shy execution that left most of the kill sequences sadly off-screen. For a PG-13 effort they sure left out a lot of the horror that they could have gotten away with in this underwhelming experience.

Overall, The Amityville Horror remake is a decent watch that brings some positives not seen in the original piece, but still suffers the same overall outcome of the original despite coming in at a brisker pace and offering more horror – a sad case of lost potential. The direction is positive in giving us good atmosphere in well-shot fashion, so watching this film will not be painful, just unfulfilling.

Rating: 6/10

Director – Richard Loncraine

Cast – Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, Jill Bennett, Robin Gammell, Cathleen Nesbitt, Anna Wing, Edward Hardwicke

Release Year – 1978

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I came across The Haunting of Julia while trying to find another film that I wanted to see, Julia’s Eyes, and after reading a little about the film and noticing how rare it was in comparison to other efforts I immediately added this to my queue to follow Julia’s Eyes, and I am glad that I did. While this rare late 70s watch gives us a slow-building storyline that I have seen countless times, among other cliches, I found its execution to be top-notch, resulting in good horror for such an under-appreciated film.

After the sudden and shocking choking death of her young daughter, Julia Lofting(Mia Farrow; Rosemary’s Baby), an American living in London, dissolves her marriage and relocates to the new city of Kensington in hopes of recovering from her devastating loss. All is well at first, but soon after she finds herself bombarded by ghost residing in her home; the ghost of a young girl who bears a startling resemblance to her diseased daughter, and a taste for vengeance.

I really have a soft spot in my heart for films like these; atmospheric experiences that did much with a simple story and a low-budget that were neglected when they debuted and continue in that fashion to this day. The storyline involving our protagonist completely abandoning the life surrounding her painful memory and soon finding that the pain follows her wherever she goes is not a new idea, but it is a storyline that works for the horror genre. I loved the idea of Julia trying to run from what happened and finding herself suffering an equal amount of fear and trauma as she did when her daughter died before her eyes. When she begins seeing apparitions of a young girl very reminiscent of her daughter, Julia is thrown into a world of sorrow and slight madness as she tries to make sense of the reasoning behind it, which eventually leads her to investigate the matter and force herself into danger. The story is a slow one that takes its sweet time developing, and while it “feels” slow I never really found myself bored to a few good twists and turns. By the time the film’s climax kicked in I was already set on the level of my enjoyment of the experience, but I then found myself awestruck in amazement at just how awesome and horrific the closing sequence is, which did not necessarily raise the film’s rating but ensured that I will never forget this piece. In fact, I will go as far as to say that The Haunting of Julia has one of the greatest horror climaxes of all time.

Director Richard Loncraine(Firewall) did a great job executing this piece, taking a simple story and turning it into an engaging watch with awesome atmosphere and good execution of the horror involved. You should know by now that the storyline moves at a slow pace, and despite some cool ideas thrown into the story here and there the biggest reason behind the film never losing steam or becoming uninteresting was Loncraine’s execution. I loved how each of the sets involved provided high levels of spooky and gloomy atmosphere, and his execution of the horror Julia faces both physically and mentally was fantastic. Mia Farrow was great in her role, which was surprisingly reminiscent of her role as Rosemary in Rosemary’s Baby, which pushed her character psychologically and also required her to have a very short hairstyle just like in this effort. Loncraine does not do anything extravagant to sell this piece, just giving us proper execution of the story at hand was enough to result in a great horror experience, however he really went stylish with the film’s superb climax, ensuring that the shock value was presented in a fashion sure to engrain the climax in your mind forever, as it did with me.

Overall, The Haunting of Julia is a great late 70s effort that despite a simple and slow-moving story manages to give us a great supernatural horror tale focusing on grief and redemption. Director Richard Loncraine does a great job providing creepy atmosphere throughout the film, which erupts into a positive horror experience that includes one of the greatest horror climaxes of all time. I recommend this to those of you who love atmospheric 70s horror, and those of you looking for an under-appreciated piece that never received the love it deserves.

Rating: 7/10

Director – John Carpenter

Cast – Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca, Jared Harris, Sydney Sweeney, D.R. Anderson, Mika Boorem, Sean Cook, Jillian Kramer

Release Year – 2011

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I remember being very stoked when I first read about The Ward a few years ago because it would be the first full-length feature film from John Carpenter(Halloween, The Thing, In the Mouth of Madness, They Live, Prince of Darkness)  since his terrible 2001 effort, Ghosts of Mars. Ever since the film’s premier at the TIFF in September of 2010 I have heard pretty much non-stop negative banter about this effort, and how John Carpenter has lost “it” with another dead-end feature film. Well, after finally viewing this film myself I can say that while The Ward definitely comes with its faults I found it to be an enjoyable psychological/supernatural horror film from one of horror’s greatest heroes.

Amber Heard(All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, And Soon the Darkness, Zombieland, Drive Angry 3D, The Stepfather remake) stars as Kristen, a woman on the run from her dark past who after setting fire to her childhood home finds herself locked in a mental institution with several other girls her age. Soon after her arrival she is tormented physically and mentally by the ghastly apparition of a girl, and when her questions to Dr. Stringer(Jared Harris; Resident Evil: Apocalypse, “Fringe”, Tales of the Black Freighter, From Within, Lady in the Water) about the ghost and the disappearances of her cohorts go unanswered, her quest to discover the truth behind the haunting leads her down a deadly path with shocking results.

I really do not understand the hate for this film, and honestly feel that it lies on the hope many horror fans had that John Carpenter would deliver a superb horror film in the vein of his earlier works and failed to do so. Had this film been delivered by another director, especially of the no-name variety, I honestly feel that The Ward would not have met the same insane amount of hate as it has with Carpenter at the helm.

The storyline is one we have seen time and time again, in which our protagonist suffers supernatural horrors while locked up in a mental institution and his/her concerns go ignored by the staff and patients who are obviously hiding something that occurred before his/her time there. Despite this being a cliché storyline I did find joy in the idea due to writers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen delivering a good amount of horror in this story. Our lead character Kristen carries the film, coming across adversity in every corner as she tries to recover from her troubled childhood while also trying to survive her encounters with the vengeful spirit that is slowly killing off the patients around her in savage fashion. While we get a good number of characters thrown into the film, some with a lot more screen time than others, I found none of them to be useless and each of them provided their own worth to the film. Some were used merely for conflict, others to aid Kristen, and most of them were also used to serve as victims, which I appreciated greatly. I was glad to see that we get a fair amount of kills thrown into this piece, and each paced at just the right time to keep me engaged throughout this well-paced 88 minute effort. Most of the kills were enjoyable and provided the violence I wanted to see, and the overall usage of the ghost was great as we were given many scenes in which she made a ghastly appearance, even though a good amount of them were the typical cliché pop-up scares. All of this boils down to a shocking climax that I honestly never saw coming, and while the climax itself was the not first time I have seen it used I was glad that it is a rarely used one that made for an enjoyable way to close out this story.

What I was looking forward to most in this film was John Carpenter’s direction, and from the get-go he had me hooked thanks to awesome atmosphere and superb camerawork. His sets are dark, shadowy, gloomy, and he makes excellent use of them by using each to full potential as he delivers good horror complimenting the atmosphere. The usage of the ghost was cliché, coming via constant pop-up scares and other tricks often seen in the supernatural sub-genre, but nonetheless his execution of these clichés was top-notch and that is exactly why I found little negativity with them. I loved the look of the girl and the mannerisms she displayed, and Carpenter gave us a sweet full-frontal experience during the sweet kill sequences, and much to my surprise he delivered some good gore scenes as well. His execution of the actors involved was great, with each of them filling their role as they were intended to be portrayed, especially Amber Heard and Jared Harris, both of whom we are beginning to see much more of in the horror genre. His musical score was great, and at times very reminiscent of Argento’s musical scores from his earlier days, in the end making for a fun and enjoyable horror effort that I feel is suffering from impulsive and unfair criticism.

Overall, The Ward is a fun horror flick marking the return of John Carpenter to the full-length feature horror scene after almost a decade. Do not be dismayed by the hate this film is receiving on other horror sites and give this one a watch for yourself, devoid of any prejudice and with an open mind. The storyline is far from original and comes with numerous clichés, but Carpenter’s direction makes what could have been a typical run-of-the-mill supernatural effort into an enjoyable horror experience with his awesome atmosphere and good resulting horror.

Rating: 7/10

Director – Geoffrey Sax

Cast – Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Chandra West, Ian McNeice, Sarah Strange, Nicholas Elia, Mike Dopud

Release Year – 2005

Reviewed by John of the Dead

I have always had subtle interest in this film ever since I caught a few glimpses of it back in 2005 when I worked at a local movie theater. My interest in the paranormal was the strongest reason behind my “interest”, but bad reviews and unconvincing scenes that I had seen forced me to take my sweet, and I mean SWEET time getting to this one, which took over five years. The end result to me is a bit confusing as I am still unable to say whether or not this movie is decent, or just downright sucks, and that will be open to interpretation by you the reader/viewer. However in my personal opinion I feel that White Noise did enough to warrant a moderate review despite some heavy faults that I will be forever unforgiving towards.

After losing his wife due to an unexplainable auto accident, architect Jonathan Rivers(Michael Keaton; Beetlejuice, Batman, Batman Returns) is confronted by a man who has recorded an EVP transmission from his dead wife. Jonathan is untrusting at first, but is soon warmed up to the shocking revelation that his wife has in fact made a statement that has traveled from the “other side”. Jonathan’s desire to keep in contact with his wife and understand her death gets the best of him, resulting in an obsession that causes more problems that it solves when he gets mixed up with the vengeful dead who wish not to be disturbed.

The idea behind White Noise is an interesting one to me because I have yet to see it used much in the genre. We have seen films where the dead contact the living by various means, but I had not seen one involving the dead using the white noise delivered via electronic devices to communicate with the living, and I found it downright creepy. There seems to be some truth behind some elements of the story, namely the audio files used during the EVP scenes, however how true or not true they are is up to you as I won’t focus on it in this review.

I applaud writer Niall Johnson for giving us such an interesting storyline, and while things got a bit silly towards the final act of the film I still found his story to be much more unique than most of what Hollywood dishes out these days. The first act of the film is incredible, and it does very well in setting the somber tone the film will exhibit throughout. Jonathan losing his darling wife is well written in how his character is developed, and we are thrown into the sad but hopeful world that he lives in with his young son. While this development was wonderful, things get really good when Jonathan decides to finally give the EVP session a go and is bombarded by frightening yet comforting results. The fright lies in the fact that his dead wife is speaking to him, and the comfort lies in her apparent longing for her husband. The love element in this film is not overly high, but it is present throughout most of the film and makes for some good conflict given it is love that drove Jonathan to pursue speaking with his wife much further than he should have taken things. It is soon after made apparent that he has infuriated the dark beings that reside on the other side, and we are given a few good spooks here and there as a result of that. Sadly, once the latter half of the film begins we are given material somewhat reminiscent of The Dead Zone, in which the dead are speaking to Jonathan through EVP and aiding him in stopping the deaths of others before they occur. I found this idea to be quite lame and a cheap way to close out the film, mainly because I wanted to see more malevolent ghost action and less cheap ideas that worked well once or twice and should have been left alone after that.

Director Geoffrey Sax did an OK job directing this piece, with his strongest positives coming from the amazing atmosphere he set for the film. Dark and gloomy cinematography kept things on the solemn level set up by the storyline, and his choices of the sets used were fantastic. Each of the homes used was great, and provided many dark corners that could harbor the evil beings making their way to Jonathan’s world, which was contrasted very nicely with the fact that each of the homes was of luxury status. Equally impressive was Michael Keaton’s performance as Jonathan, in which he showed many levels of different emotions all under the guise of a strong man who is dealing with many harrowing events and hauntings going on around him. Mostly everyone else involved did well on their performances, which is usually expected with a Hollywood horror film as it is about the only thing that they usually get right. Sax’s execution of the horror was very positive in the first half, with excellent usage of the creepy EVP recordings as well as some good visuals coming from the screen set up. Sadly, Sax’s direction suffers when the horror of the second half kicks in, but it was mainly due to the poor choices of CGI usage that were way too cheezy and cliché for my respect. This is not some low-budget underground piece that I can forgive for suffering from a low-budget and relative FX, but a full-on Hollywood production that assumed the worst in the viewer and gave us downright stupid horror when the horror mattered most.

Overall, White Noise is an OK watch that comes with a cool premise, great acting, and good cinematography, but story issues and directing woes kept this from being anything worthwhile. On a boring night alone you may find a few decent spooks during the first half of the film, but be prepared to shut things off and hit the hay when the second half kicks in.

Rating: 6/10