Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005) Horror Ghost

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005) - It's important to note that these thoughts are as I watch the film. They are not designed to be a review necessarily but more as thoughts while watching. There is so much spoiler information and guesses of what will come that you should be wary of reading this prior to seeing the film. You have been warned.
It's 1969 in small town America and Mary and her friends have not been the most popular of girls in the local high school. Some sudden attention from the jocks has her on a high because the guy she likes Willy has broken up with the prom queen to take her to the dance. It seems like it is going to be a magical night when Willie and the boys spike the punch of the three girls and a cruel alternative plan is revealed. Mary walking outside with Willy notices her friends all but passed out in the alley behind the dance and the Queen of the prom there beckoning to get the girls into the car. Mary runs and tries to hide in the school. Willie catches up to her and in the physical altercation that follows he accidentally kills her. Instead of doing the right thing he hides the body. Cut to teen girls in the bedroom during a sleepover telling the story. It is a legend.
  Samantha  (Kate Mara a young 22) is one of the young women telling and talking about Urban Legends. They makes some mentions to set the mood and also reference movies like Candyman (1992), before talking about how you do the Bloody Mary legend where you stand in front of the mirror with the lights out and say her name three times. She will appear and have a corpse face, and if you look at her she will drag you into her darkness unless you turn the light back on. Now the film immediately after setting up the rules breaks them because sure Samantha says "Bloody Mary" three times but she is lounging around with her friends not standing in the dark in front of a mirror. There is a desire by writers Mike Daugherty and Dan Harris to connect what is made up urban legend with well known stories in urban legend. This so he can blend the old with this new story they are trying to tell.
  Dougherty is so much the thing these days having written the already Halloween classic Trick r' Treat (2007), the wildly entertaining and I may say turning classic very quickly Krampus (2015) before graduating to blockbuster size films with Godzilla: King of Monsters this year. So when we cut to a creepy Bloody Mary appearing outside the house it is a head scratcher. Then when Mom comes in to wake the girls up they are all gone. A montage of scenes shows that the girls went missing maybe not to be found again. The girls suddenly came back and say they woke up in the cellar of the old mill, mind you with date rape drug in there system. Its weird because what we have here is the current story mirroring the events of 1969. This I am sure is on purpose as the Director Mary Lambert is going to integrate it all. Although I am wondering why include the urban legends stuff at all. It does not necessarily fit with the ghost story they are telling here and thus gives sort of a false read of the film.
  So my mind is going at this point, this seems like a classic misdirection as I pause the film to write this. The step father in the is family is Bill Owens (Ed Marinaro), running for mayor and I have a theory. Bill is Willie from the opening, we know his wife Pam was a prom queen so that matches. Then the fact the girls were drugged, maybe Bill never got over his need to drug girls like in 1969? What if the POV that seemed a bit creeper in its gaze when he checked on the girls the night they disappeared was a red flag purposely put in the film by director Mary Lambert?  It could be the current jocks who were established as being pissed at Samantha for a school article she wrote are the culprits. I think that was a misdirection though, creepy guilty of murder step dad is the suspect I am leading towards at this point. It is possible though. A parallel works here and I think there is a couple stories really taking hold at the same time.
  Talk in school is that the girls may have done the whole thing themselves but we quickly learn it was the jocks getting back at Samantha for her article. Twin brother David (Robert Vito) is trying to defend his sister but is ill equipped to do anything. The jocks are not pleased with the outcome worried that the girls will tell on them and get them into trouble. By the way this is exactly what should happen. All should be disciplined and kicked off the team but this is not the route the film takes. Instead the secret is kept so we can talk about this all happening before. Then we start to have incidents that are all very urban legend. One jock is fried in a tanning booth. Heather  (Audra Lea Keener) the lead jocks girlfriend although her relationship with Samantha has faded from when they were kids suddenly has the real life problem of a spider laying its eggs in her face. The absolute go for it attitude of the film makers having Heather pull off her face is pretty cool.
  There is a bit here on the effects of trauma but it is a bit over shadowed the linear story of the jocks wanting to blame people for the deaths of their friends. Instead we get even more urban legend deaths, like the guy getting electrocuted by pissing on a high voltage fence. The mystery seems to get bigger and bigger with Samantha and David thinking there is some conspiracy going on. There research leads them to the original disappearance in 1969 but it seems like all of the adults are suspects, like the step father and then the coach of the football team starts showing up being creepy himself. The children will always suffer the sins of their parents. The inexplicably builds this connection between the past and present even introducing premonitions that Samantha receives. So maybe this is really a ghost story where 35 years later the first crime is found out by the ghosts coming looking for justice? It is but is is wrapped up unnecessarily in urban legend talking points that sort of take away from a very reasonable revenge ghost story. Of course without all these extra shiny objects one might be reminded of the movie Stir of Echoes (1999) where a ghost gets her story told by using a neighborhood guy who was put under hypnosis to get revenge. The vengeful ghost is a motif after all so there will be many examples of this.
  The film takes the interconnectedness of all things and stands it on its head with what seems like a story that is not sure what it wants to be. Is this urban legends? No not really all those parts seemed disconnected from the real plot. A revenge ghost story? Yes it is a ghost that for some reason has to be reconciled at this time for no real reason other than that the children of the perpetrators are the same age as the victim when the original crime was committed. I am not really going to recommend this film but it isn't horrible just a bit too much.

Ghost Train (2006) Horror Ghosts

Ghost Train (2006)  Otoshimono (original title), Director Takeshi Furusawa in an early work and one of his few horror credits brings a story of a haunted subway train and the scares that come with that. In a classic approach of come in late and leave early he with just a couple scenes sets the environment for the film. A small boy finds a train pass on the platform and is scared when a woman in black appears to tell him that he is going to die soon. All this is relayed in just a couple sentences interaction between he and star Erika Sawajiri who plays Nana a high schooler who is watching out for her younger sister Noriko (Suzuno Nomura). Cut to the boy alone on the moving train. Suddenly the woman in black is next to him as the train stops in the tunnel because of a report of someone on the tracks. She appears pale skin and no shoes and says "I want what is mine" which is probably a reference to the pass he picked up. He is scared and gets up from his seat to move away but she has vanished. Then mysteriously the train doors open. The woman in black appears and drags him from the train.  I like this idea that all you need to do to attract a ghost is to pick up something of hers. So random and the victim does not know what they are doing. In the trailer for the film they make a point to say "...People are disappearing, no rhyme, no reason, no mercy..." but there definitely seems to be a means and an angry ghost.
  So what is it that the ghost wants? Why so angry? The family story is that Nana and Noriko's Mother is ill in the hospital so the teenager has to look after her sister. Pressure in school and at home and work forces her to decide to send her little sister to visit their Mom on her own that next day. When we see that Noriko now has the train pass from the ghost and the music takes that scary atmospheric tone that something bad is coming for this family.  We get some early scenes where it is obvious the tracks, and tunnel are part of the haunting too. Our male lead Shunichi Kuga (Shun Oguri) is a train conductor who is in trouble for repeatedly stopping the train thinking he saw someone on the tracks. In the establishing shots Furusawa repeatedly shows message boards with increasing notices of missing people so we know the haunting is getting worse. So the ghosts can leave the subway? Tashaki's mom is visited. When Noriko goes missing it is up to Nana to try to figure out what is going on.  She can't bring herself to tell her Mother and when the haunting reaches her house in the appearance of the ghost Noriko she is spurred to investigate the train station.  It does not make a lot of sense how the rules of this ghost works. Is it the objects that are haunted or the train tracks? The writers (and it was script by committee) can't seem to make up their minds about the rules of the haunting.
   A lack of funds may have made some of the special effects choices for Director Takeshi Furusawa including a weird slow-mo where Shigeru is hit by a train but has time to talk even though it is right on top of him. It is that amazing part of movie making where time is slowed down but probably is this way here because the effect of someone being hit by the train and splattering would probably cost too much. Shunichi taken out of his conductors job watches the train stations at night and the ghostly haunting start happening around him. Seeing Noriko in the night on camera and then all his bosses wanting to pretend everything is fine is a comment on Japanese bureaucracy unwillingness to lose face by admitting there is an issue. Add in the idea that this particular tunnel has a giant S curve because when they were digging the tunnel they found something so evil that they changed the course of the train tracks to avoid it.. From the pins on the map we learn that this S shaped section of tunnel has had a lot of accidents on it.  Furusawa uses short flashbacks for us to put together the pieces  at the same time as Nana even though it is not necessarily needed. But Nana is on the case at the train station and she sees in the records that the pass that both boy and her sister found belonged to Yaeko Aonuma. The flashbacks though are redundant and not necessary since we just saw those scenes a half hour ago and have not forgotten them.
  There is a side story of the girlfriend Kanae (ChinatsuWakasuki) of the teen run over by the train. Accused by her friends and strangers of pushing him in front of the train she begins hallucinating and ends up seeking out Nana which leads to a strange interlude in the film where there are these scenes of the two bonding sort of like a love story thrown into the middle of a horror film. Again the rules of the film are blurry and we get other objects that attract the ghost, a bracelet for instance. All this to put characters in danger and drive the ghost story forward. The problem here is there is too much going on and none of it is totally clear. It a case of too many ideas and not enough restraint to hone the script down  to the most important ideas. Characters are introduced way too late into the film but have significant roles in determining the outcome of the film. Flashbacks explaining the ghosts story only muddle the logic further. They show she was also a victim of yet another ghost but there is no reason that ghost pulls her to her death. Then the short scene where she might have been pregnant or had a baby while dying on the tracks just muddles things further. When to they encounter Yeako the magically pulls them into a memory of her death. By showing she was killed by a ghost and had a baby as the trauma when it was happening only leaves more questions about the real threat and how the ghost logic works. I guess the fact that the tracks purposely S around something must be a clue but the something is never explored.

  Nana who needs to find her sister initiates the climax of the film with other characters along to either be sacrificed or helpful. She accidentally breaks through a sealed up wall in the tunnel and goes exploring the new area.  This area is older, the part of the tunnel the S curve wants to avoid. Maybe a natural tunnel as opposed to man made.  A demon statue and flashes that her sister may be near keep Nana moving forward. She finds a passed out Noriko along with lots of others. Dead bodies all around hundreds of them. In the end it all has to play out but after all the different direction and with all the unexplained plot points this film never really satisfies. Between Nana and Shunichi they keep other people from temporarily using the haunted station but with like many J-Horror films the ghostly reasons for the spirits is not resolved. I am weary of saying I can make a recommendation to see this film. Although i was reasonably entertained I think the scripting of the story left a lot to be desired. With that in mind it was fairly well executed so it was not a total loss.

13 Ghosts (1960) Horror Ghosts

13 Ghosts (1960) - Producer showman William Castle brings us this simple but interesting tale of a family who move into a haunted house and get more than they expected. Supernatural and human threats create an entertaining film for all ages. Castle coming off his hit "The Tingler" more noted for its audience surprise than the story,  hired writer Robb White who also wrote "The Tingler (1959) and   "House on Haunted Hill (1958)" to pen the script. Never famous as a screenwriter it should be noted that he was a prolific writer of adventure novels from the mid 1930s until the late 70s and his novel "Deathwatch (1972)" is currently being turned into a film starring Michael Douglas called "The Reach (2014)" Castle, a man who brought the theater gimmick into popularity continued that trend in this film. Using color optics to create a viewer with a red and blue screen in it he added a way for the audience to filter out the ghosts if they found them too scary. Using the simple science of 3D at the time he created a gimmick in this interactive movie. Each time a ghost comes on screen there is a warning to the audience who can look into the blue or red side of their viewers to either see the ghosts or screen them out. You have to wonder who those few viewers were who went to see this film and chose not to see the 13 ghosts of the title.
  The cast has some interesting professionals starring child actor Charles Herbert. Martin Milner a movie and  television veteran playing a bad guy which was out of character for most of his roles. Margaret Hamilton most famous for playing Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in the classic "The Wizard of Oz (1939)" gets to play at being a witch here also. A long career of over a hundred credits and in this film 21 years after her iconic role, she is making witch jokes to a child actor in a B grade horror film. It's a strange film that way with veteran actors who could be the top of the bill being thrown into what can only be seen as a pedestrian film.  Donald Woods an actor with over 130 credits is billed fifth in this movie.
  The story is about the Zorba family a down and out family who think they have had some unfortunate luck by inheriting the house of Cyrus's uncle Dr. Plato Zorba. Little do they know the house is haunted with 12 ghosts and those ghosts can not be freed until they are joined by a thirteenth. Mixed in is the subplot of the murderous lawyer who will stop at nothing to find the hidden money in the haunted house.
  Since an original viewer is not in the vaults of Soresport Movies an old pair of 3D glasses will have to be substituted. Opening with William Castle introducing the Illusion-O we move right into the Zorba family situation. It is a sad set up with Hilda (Rosemary DeCamp) calling her husband at work to say that their furniture is being repossessed. Even sadder is young buck asking his Mother "Why do they always take our furniture?" her reply "Because your Father is a wonderful man but just forgetful." It implies that that Cyrus (Donald Woods) is just not a very focused provider. Still the family makes the best of  Buck's birthday where he wishes he had a house with furniture that nobody can take away from them. Heart breaking but there is the added feature of a strange supernatural wind and at that moment a telegram informing him of the meeting where he inherits the furnished house. Unfortunately the story is his old uncle collected ghosts and now they come with the house. Cyrus also inherits a viewer so he can see the ghosts. So with the two kids young Buck (Charles Herbert) and teen daughter Medea (Jo Morrow) the couple move right in to find that the house comes with a housekeeper Elaine Zacharides (Margaret Hamilton) and a nosy lawyer Ben Rush (Martin Milner) around we get to see the supernatural end of the story quickly become apparent.
The majority of the film is ghosts, and there are plenty to get to. It drives the question of whether or not the family should stay. A tough question for a father protecting his family. It is obvious there are ghosts and the family knows they are there. Cyrus though must decide, if he leaves the house he loses it to the State but if he stays he puts his family in danger. The eternal optimist it seems or at least a man who feels trapped by circumstances he is slow to flee. As Cyrus learns more about his uncle and his collection of ghosts it makes it more reasonable that he should run and run fast. Some of this is played for laughs and some to create tension between the family members. Little Buck seems to know a whole lot about the ghosts most of it he learned from Miss Zacharides. She is played with depth and heart by Margaret Hamilton. She introduces the idea that there may be money hidden somewhere in the house which nicely counters the fear suffered by the family. They are desperate so the two counter ideas nicely set up the plot.
  The scariest ghost that of Plato Zorba is a man in a scary mask but what a great mask, all gruesome and rotted it is one that should be brought back for Halloween. There are some nice low angle shots in the film but for the most part it is pretty standard fare. The shot from above as Buck slides down the bannister is pretty good.
  The discovery of money and Ben's interest is a real turn in the film. It makes no sense that Ben would enlist Buck is probably the most unrealistic part of the film. Buck is not so keen on telling lies for Ben and it gets him wondering whether honesty is the best policy. As the story plays out we see the scheming Ben trying to get the family to leave so he can find the hidden cash before anyone else does. The plotting is well enough done though to seemingly thwart the lawyer's plans and it all plays out is what this writer would call an expected way. When all is said and done the viewer has seen a cool little horror film from a by gone error. Not particularly frightening but still interesting enough.A recommendation is being given to this film for not only telling a cool little story but also for the nostalgia of the film.Good acting by all and a very forgiving view of the child actor gives this a mild recommendation from Soresport Movies.
 

Hatchet 2 (2010) Horror Slasher Ghost

Hatchet II (2010) - So lets do this again but up the gore and fill out the story a bit, and see what Hachet II is all about. The film again is as advertised but unfortunately not quite up to the quality of the first film. It starts immediately where the first film ends except final girl Marybeth has a different actress, instead of Tamara Feldman we have Danielle Harris. Harris at this point is a veteran horror actress started as a chjild in the genre in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) & Halloween 5 (1989), then later appearing in the remakes, Halloween (2007), Halloween II (2009), and also Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet (2009) and after this film playing Belle in the under the radar but very good vampire flick Stake Land (2010). Hatchet II promises to up the gore factor and indeed it does, but unfortunately it is not a better movie than the original. There is something missing, it may be that the bringing back of the classic slasher was unique in 2006, than it was in 2010, but something is missing in this film that the original had. Harris for her part was a not as angry as the Marybeth portrayed by Feldman, instead she sort of come across as whiny. Then there is the long setup before finally getting out into the swamp. I am sure writer / director Adam Green felt he owned us some more back story but it seems to this writer that he over did it. So we end up with an elaborate set up and lots of back story before we finally get what we are promised, inventive kills and lots of fake blood. Are the kills worth the wait, well I think they are but the viewer definitely won't come away from this film with that same happy feeling they got from the first one.
   The story after getting away from Victor Crowley, with the help of the urine drinking swamp man Jack Cracker (John Carl Buechler) we learn a bit more about Marybeth's family. Her father it seems was one of the three boys who threw the firecrackers that set Crowley's house ablaze all those years before. He with his brother and another boy Trent are the reason Victor was killed accidentally by his father in the rescue attempt. So you could surmise that revenge on them could break the haunting of the swamp. Through flashback though we learn even m,ore unnecessary back story about the boy who would become the ghost Victor Crowley. It sort of explains why he was born deformed in the first place and why a horrible end was inevitable for he and his father. Doesn't really need to be explained but we get a good section of flashback devoted to it. I guess Green was trying to add some real depth to the character but really all it does in delay the anticipated bloodbath.
  Marybeth at Jack's suggestion goes to see Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) and when he learns who she is hatches a plan to end the curse and thus open the swamp back up for his tour business. Now there is no way to know what ultimately will stop Victor Crowley from appearing every night for murder and mayhem and the movie even states that. Still Zombie figures if he can get the remaining two men responsible for Crowley's death out into the swamp, Victor will kill them and the curse will be lifted. So on top of the already over complicated plot he creates another scheme where he lies to Marybeth so she will bring her uncle and the town's hunters so he can attract Trent. He presents a ghost hunt saying to the group that he will give each hunter $500 to behead the ghost of Victor Crowley, again paper thin this excuse works and we have a group of hunters all heading into the swamp to kill Crowley. Marybeth for her part just wants to retrieve the bodies of her Father and Brother but we all know how that is going to work out.
  It's all a bit tiring to get all this back story where the first film seemed to relish the journey without trying to create depth, this story is trying to create a myth that will last but it really takes away from the pacing. When the hunting party is fully formed things get movie and we get the action promised but it is only after the long setup. Again the gore is excellent fun with buckets of fake blood thrown against trees and walls and lots more including:

• An intestine pulled out and used as rope to strangle the person (and pop the head off).
• A bloody birth scene with ridiculous scared to death face.
• Gruesome mouth mutilation
• Propeller and face meeting
• Beheading and totally inappropriate hatchet in the privates
• Super long chainsaw up through the privates
• Axe kill with belt sander chaser.
• Beheading using table complete with blinking eyes
• Person pulled in half and top half manually skinned while still alive

The players are adequate with Kane Hodder returning as Victor Crowley, and Parry Shen returns this time playing his own twin brother Justin. The hunting party consists of Bob (Tom Holland), Trent (R.A. Mihailoff), Layton (AJ Bowen), Avery (Alexis Peters), Cleatus (Ed Ackerman), Chad (David Foy), Vernon (Colton Dunn) and John (Rick McCallum). 
When the film is done nothing is really resolved, there is a twist but no resolution so the third movie will have plenty of room to finish up the story. If I was going to recommend one of the two films it would be the first. Don't get me wrong this film is watchable just missing something the first had in spades.

Hatchet (2006) Horror Slasher Ghost

Hatchet (2006) -  You have to love when a movie knows what it is and approaches it with vigor. Hatchet is just that movie, a excessively gore filled horror romp that pulls no punches and wastes no time. Watching the unrated directors cut I was hoping to get absolutely the most gore possible and I believe that is what I got. This hour and a half film has some stunning blood spurting limb ripping scenes that can only be enjoyed on a large TV or in a theater. The film is a horror romp based on the Legend of... killer variety with Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) a deformed ghost monster seeking his father after a fiery death. He haunts the swamps outside New Orleans stuck in the painful angry state he was in on the night of his death. Legend has it if anyone comes too close to his house they will hear him moaning for his Daddy and then he will come and kill them. This is exactly what happens and writer / director Adam Green makes the film self aware enough that the ridiculous amounts of blood, and poor character decision making create a film that is campy fun instead of well executed cliche. In fact the gore is so over the top that if the movie tried to take it self any more seriously it would have been ruined. It didn't though and instead we have a fun ensemble horror flick for gore fiends to feast upon. The variety of  "kill bits" in this film include, between the buckets of blood being thrown against trees and walls include:

• Body ripped apart, piece by piece and tossed (not a dwarf).
• Alligator leg chomp.
• Hidious hatchet hacking.
• Skull ripped open at the jaw.
• Shovel splitting head and an impaling. 
• Beheading, burning alive, more ripped off lives and buckets of blood as noted before. 

There is some really shitty dialog too but so much of it feels camp that I really did not mind it. The one bit where the group is deciding who will check out the movement in the bushes is not very good but overall it felt like this movie was playing off the genre not trying to execute it.
  In the film we have a strange collection of people out on a illegal (only the guide Shawn (Parry Shen) knows its illegal) haunted boat ride in the swamp when things go horribly wrong for them. Shen does his own comedy bit switching from a Louisianan southern drawl, to an Asian accent to dropping the accent altogether. hmm... I wonder if that last switch was intentional? On for the ride and into the slaughter are Ben (Joel David Moore) and his friend Marcus (Deon Richmond) who are visiting Mardi Gras as a way to help Ben get over a breakup with his girlfriend. Doug Shapiro a businessman pretending to be an adult film maker so he can expand his porn collection with the lovely forms of Misty (Mercedes McNab) and Jenna (Joleigh Fioravanti), Midwest tourist couple Jim (Richard Riehle) and Shannon Permatteo (Patrika Darbo) and Marybeth (Tamara Feldman), a local out looking for he missing brother and father. When the tour boat gets stuck and then starts to sink this Hodge-podge of people have to fend for themselves in the haunted swamp of Victor Crowley.
  Crowley's story is told through exposition at various times between kills. A deformed child made fun of in town,  who was accidentally burned to death by three local kids setting off fire cracker and worst maimed by his father who was trying to break through the door to save him. He reawakens in the makeup heavy form of actor Kane Hodder, who played Jason in many Friday the 13th movies, and in the night and calls for his father, stuck in the pain and anger of the night he died. He is a ghost, who remarkable can be hurt but not killed, raising each time he is put down with renewed angry. This story and the strange disappearances in this part of the swamp are why the authorities closed it. So when Shawn illegally brings this group to the area and the boat sinking traps them it is but a short time before the carnage begins.
  Now this is not a great movie, at best it is a so-so movie with bonus points for the great gore effects. The effects are reminiscent of many Asian cinema action films, with limbs removed cleanly with extensive blood spurts and sprays. Its really over to top but brought into a camp American style horror film.  The style and irony of the writing are real positives even if the content is less than original. Add in a couple of key cameos by well known horror actors Robert Englund (Freddie Kruger in A Nightmare on Elm St series) and Tony Todd (The Candyman) and you end up with a very enjoyable time. So if you go into this film with expectations in check, really enjoy crazy gore and remember this is all for fun, you too will enjoy this movie. Certainly it would be great fun in a group watching jsut to see some reactions from the less strong willed.

Mama (2013) - Horror Ghost

Mama (2013) - When my daughter Joy was little my wife Elisa and I were probably overly cautious in keeping her safe. Can you be overly protective? We were always very aware of our surrounding of possible dangers. We researched whether there were sex offenders were living nearby. We always visited her friends houses and met parents of her friends and got to know them before she could go over to play. When she was small we were protective it seemed the right approach. The same care and alertness was extended when her friends came to our house also. We took care of  her friends as we took care of her, guarding their safety while they were with us. Are we instinctively protective of children? Hard to say, as a kid I pretty much grew up without any supervision at all. My Mom worked multiple jobs to pay the bills which meant we from the time we went to school until the evening watched ourselves. Sure the older kids were responsible for the younger ones but really we grew up without adult supervision. So why was I the opposite in raising my own daughter. Is there some deep down feeling I had as a kid which makes me uncomfortable to this day allowing the same thing for my girl? Probably to an extent it was not always comfortable being a kid and left alone with just the neighbors checking in on you. Maybe it is the new media world we live in, one in which we hear every horrible happening in the world as it happens. We see the twitter amber alert, we get live coverage 24/7 and it fills us with dread. Maybe ignorance was a bit of bliss in the old days? Maybe all those disappearing friends had more to do with bad people and less to do with CHUDs.
 Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse) as they are caught up in a failing family. Their father Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is estranged from his wife and we pick up the story after he has snapped and killed a couple coworkers and then at home his wife also. We see him as he collects his kids and heads off ahead of the law driving too fast through snowy mountain roads. The film does a good job at capturing the Jeffrey's desperation as he struggles with the emotions of what he has done. It also allows us to see it through the children, Victoria at five years old is nervous, she can tell her father is upset but does not grasp the full picture of his crimes. When he drives off the road his escape, for what it was, is over and he takes the kids and heads into the woods. Finding an abandon cabin he struggles with his conscience to the point where it is obvious to the audience that he is going to end his life and the lives of his children. It is a gripping opening ten minutes and although the story has not really started we are to the point where it starts. As Jeffrey raises the gun to little Victoria's head he is stopped by someone who comes out of the darkness. She is Mama and she has chosen influenced by her own back story to look out for these two little children and to protect them as her own. Its not a secret after this first ten minute, what the nature of the Mama character is so I will not really be spoiling anything to say she is a ghost. In fact her first appearance is very cool and you can't really dislike the spirit who saved two children from death at their father's hands. All this before the credits and then during the credits the director does one of those nice time transitions where through the drawings by the children on the house walls we see  they have been living there and protected by Mama. Damn according to the pictures on the walls that ghost saved them from being eaten by wolves.
In the film Mama we are thrown into a story where bad things are happening and then the protective mothering instinct changes the lives of two small children, Victoria (
  The story picks up 5 years later and a lot of the momentum of the first ten minutes is lost with after the girls are found in the cabin by a couple searchers hired by the Jeffrey's brother Lucas (played by the same actor as Jefferey). Good thing they were found too since he has run out of money and searching on his own two feet is out of the question. The clunkiness of the setup to get the girls living with him can't be overstated here. He is a broke artist, living with a rocker girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain) who wants nothing to do with children. Still though Lucas is their uncle and never gave up on finding them. What are they to do? Where will they live? How will these to thirty something free spirits afford to settle down and raise children who have gone wild (in the wilderness sense) for the last five years. The Grandmother (Jane Moffet) on the mother's side would also like custody of them and has the means to provide for them. Since they portray her as an unloving bitch the writer are pretty clear we should cheer for the unfocused artists in the case. Step in the ever contrived Doctor Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash) who wants to study the girls. Since he does not know about the ghost feeding and protecting them he sees them as unique having survived in the woods alone for all those years. Since Grammy will not let him see the girls, he makes a behind closed doors deal with Lucas to have the couple and the girls live in a house nearby and provide the basics so he can have easy access. Dreyfuss being the person doing the recommending in the custody case chooses the inadequate couple over the grandmother thus setting up the rest of the story. I found this set up to really be weak sauce. A doctor driven by a case that can make his career and a couple really not suited to be parents get the crazy wild kids with the emotionally attached ghost. Still it does make for some fun spookiness in the second act.
  That's the thing about this film for all of the awkwardness of the setup, there are some really cool scary moments. We know about Mama the whole time and can feel the thrill as she closes in on the couple. Now Edith Brennen, the woman who would become Mama in death had her own deal which is revealed as the story goes on, is really attached to the girls. She is not haunting them but instead is treating them as her own. So injecting live parents into the mix has some pretty serious consequences for the unsuspecting couple. Mama is a jealous ghost who wants to keep the girls and not allow them to integrate into a new family. This is the drama of the film and with it comes some very cool scares. Annabel is the primary focus with the girls, a competing mother, but a reluctant one. Not willing to give up on her boyfriend she joins the family and ends up a real target of Mama's wrath. Because of strange choice by the writers Neil Cross, Andres Muschietti  and Babara Muschietti the character Lucas is out of the story all through the middle of the film. Annabel has to carry the film and deal with the crazy scary to come on her own.
  At this point it would be a smart thing to be clear that I sort of enjoyed this movie. Even with its flaws it was a decent little ghost story. The little girls were great in it and I felt that there was enough creepy ghost playing with girls stuff to keep it interesting. Slowly the story is revealed and we get to what is an overly melodramatic ending, that closes the circles on what it means to be a family. Now how the couple is going to explain the aftermath of the final scenes is beyond me, and the film since all we get there is credits. Director Andres Muschietti delivers the scares so Mama seems worthy to me for the scares even with its flaws.

Silk (2006) - Horror Ghost

Silk (2006) - "Do you believe in ghosts?" Says the believer to his American skeptic. The reply by the soon to be deceased man is, "If there really are ghosts why do they always have clothes on?" Set in Taipei the film opens with an American ghost hunter entering a big creepy apartment building. He has a special film with Menger Sponge which supposedly captures the ghost energy in it. He does not believe all the hoopla but money is money and if the government wants to pay him to shoot photos in an old building it is a job he will take. This of course is just the setup for what is a ghost story about why spirits stay around and whether this form of immortality is worth going after.
  Our American only has the one scene because for some reason ghosts do not like to have their photos taken. It establishes the idea of ghost and their ability to kill the living and that this apartment building has one. Now the film can move onto the meat of the story and our protagonists can be introduced. There is a team of scientists? or researchers might be a better definition lead by Hashimoto (Yosuke Eguchi). Now knowing a ghost haunts the apartment they set up there equipment and move into the next room to observe through glass, His team, the anti-gravity team, Su (Barbie Hsu) Ren (Bo-lin Chen) and Mei (Chun-Ning Chang)are fodder in the end but are joined by Det. Tung (Chen Chang) an agent struggling with his own demons about death.

  The film takes a lot of time to set up his back story as a man unwilling to let go of his dying mother. It fits well in the premise of the film which really asks what holds a spirit in this world. His place on the team though is not such a nice fit. He is there to find out who the ghost was in life, a role really below his elite special ops training. He also has a love interest in Wei (Kar Yan Lam),who must at some point be at risk if the arc is to go anywhere. The film is a strange mix, pretend science of the Menger Sponge which takes several forms, a cube which a spirit can be trapped, a film that can capture images of ghosts and a eye drop spray that allows people to see ghosts. The cube is the most interesting if least explored of the technologies. It absorbs the spirit energies and can defy gravity if enough is absorbed. Thinking about the ramifications of this and the uses for an anti gravity device could have been a primary story.

  Silk instead uses the idea to move the motivations of the research team forward but never really gets into the meat of what the ideas could mean in the future. It travels down a road that is in large part about Detective Tung's and his personal story with his dying mother and connects with the ghost boy's own story on a parallel track. The film asks the question what is it that binds us together, can the emotions of one hold the spirit of another in this world after they have died. There are some side things that more distract from this, Su is not so happy to have an outsider working in the group. She never really has her role fully developed so is really a nonfactor when all is said and done.
  Hashimoto has his own motivations, for him ghosts are a form of immortality. He is striving for how to harness that ability. How can one die and still stay in the world? Even better how can they keep their consciousness when they do it. He is looking to be eternal and that is his motivation for researching the ghosts. If he can find out how and what holds the spirit in place he will surely make is own life end with the desire to be a spirit for eternity. Unfortunately the film does not stay focused on the bigger questions it meanders along slowly filling in the information but then the third act becomes a taunt thriller.

   All the set up in the beginning is wasted on a race to save this person or that with Tung and most of the rest of the cast victims of the ghost. Still there is something I liked about this film. It has depth and fully explores Tung's story. The idea of silk threads as a connecting link between the spirit world and this was cool if a bit gimmicky. So in the end I would recommend this film. It may not be the best example of a J-horror ghost movie but it is decent and engaging throughout. Check this one out.

The Ghost (1963) - Horror Ghost

The Ghost (1963) - After watching the Slime People I immediately had to try something else from 1963 to be sure everything wasn't shit that year. Lucky for me the Riccardo Freda ghost mystery The Ghost, "Lo spettro" had just arrived from Netflix. It is a period piece set in 1910 in an old Scottish castle Starring the incomparable Barbara Steele as Margaret Hichcock a long suffering wife to Dr. John Hichcock (Elio Jotta) who for many years has been wasting away with some sort of muscular disease. 
  John is getting a treatment for his problem that is highly risky and ethically questionable. He receives a shot of a couple poisons and then before they kill him an antidote. This is supposed to shock the muscles back into working order and weaken the diseases hold. Administering this  poison is Dr Charles Livingstone (Peter Baldwin) who may not be the best person to take you to the brink of death every day. First because he would be willing to poison someone in an effort to cure them, but also because he is secretly having an affair with Margaret. Boy this is a common theme in film, the wife has an affair after the spouse ends up sick where is the loyalty? (Although I suppose cancer treatments are poisoning someone to cure them, so maybe that isn't a big deal).
 The plot centers around Margret trying to get Charles to use just a bit too much poison and ending her husbands life. After this is done she will inherit all his worldly possessions and she and Charles can be a couple. Also mixed in is the loyal housekeeper Catherine Wood (Harriet Medin) who acts a a medium in John's experiments trying to talk to the dead. John seems obsessed with death feeling his is coming too soon and through seance he wishes to know what is to come.
  There is an incongruity in the early plot. John is bouncing between wanting to recover and wanting suicide. His need to do seances later can only be seen as a show for his wife and Charles but since he is lacking knowledge of their behavior it makes no sense that this show is needed. It could be that his loyal servant Catherine has informed him of the relationship between the two. Certainly throughout the film John suspect something is going on. It means that John and Catherine are putting on an elaborate show, which seems odd because he could just call them on it instead of doing the incredible dance that happens in this film.
  Filmed in color but the print I received was not the highest of quality, still after watching The Slime People in black and white it is a pleasure to see  this film. It exceptional music by Franco Mannino that may be a bit overwrought but still beautiful it is a pleasure also to listen too. Director Freda who also directed the horror classic "I Vampiri (1956)" does a fine job directing as well as helping with the screenplay.
  When the cheating wife finally convinces her lover to do the deed the story really picks up. Soon after his death they see signs of his ghost. His call bell rings, his wheel chair moves on its own, and they hear his voice calling to Margaret through the medium housekeeper Catherine. Also the last will and testament is not what Margaret was expecting. John has changed it in his last days leaving the house and belongings to her but insisting that Catherine gets to stay as a servant until the end of her days. Surprisingly he then give two thirds of his wealth to the church and only a third to his wife.
I do want to point out the image above The director has blood drizzled down the camera lens. I have always found this a cool technique that does not get used very often but when I saw it I was like WOW! and this place in the film was a very effective place to use it.
  I am going to stop with a lot of plot points here because if you can find a good print of this film it is certainly worth a watch. The paranoia of fearing getting caught plays on Margaret, played exceptionally well by Steele. She grows more and more nervous and with that careless until finally snapping. It is a mystery around what is going on in the house after the murder and the twist and turns are well thought out and executed. In the end if you figured out the basic plot you will be hard pressed to see the final twist before that scene starts. This is a really entertaining film and here at Soresport Movies it gets a recommendation
Rating (6.0) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

The Innkeepers (2011) Horror Ghost

 The Innkeepers (2011) -Ti West is back to the big screen as writer and director with his first feature since the well received "The House of the Devil (2009)". Like that film The Innkeepers is a bit of a slow burn that relies on the quiet lonely creepiness of being alone in a big empty buildings can cause. It is a good old fashioned ghost story that plays out on the last weekend that a hotel, The Yankee Pedlar Inn, is open for business, and involves the two ghost hunting employees who are manning the desk for the final days.
  Maybe with a nod to "The Shining (1980)" the story is broken into chapters, Chapter One: The Long Weekend is the setup and the introductions of the characters. Chapter Two: Madeline O'Malley is the legend of the ghost, and the beginning of the creepiness that will culminate in Chapter 3: The Final Guest. It is a cautionary tale for ghost hunters everywhere to be careful what you hunt for, you might just find it.
  Claire (Sarah Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are the ghost hunting desk clerks of the story. Luke is has been playing up the strange events he says he has experienced in the hotel and has a lot of equipment for recording events while they work. It is pretty clear early on that he has a thing for Claire that she is totally oblivious to. He seems to be more interested in her than ghost hunting but is doing the later as a way to get closer to the girl he likes. She is fluttering about into the ghost stories and really not noticing him as anything more than a partner in adventure. Always a sad thing when only one person is showing interest in the other but is too chickenshit to say anything. It is a tried and true story device too and here it is used very effectively to set up the characters.
  So the plot, our non couple is working the desk on the final weekend of the hotel's operation. They have their recording gear and are hooping to get proof that the old place has ghost running about. The only guests are a woman (Alison Bartlett) and her young son (Jake Ryan). She has been fighting with her husband and is using the Inn as a way to get some space. The other guest is Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis) a former actress turned psychic medium who is in town for a conference. This particular tie in is a bit cliche and wearisome in ghost movies even though I know what the purpose is. She does add some information to the story that leave you questioning at the end so not a wasted character. McGillis is a fine actress and plays the alcoholic medium with a keen eye not to be too new age-ish but also not too down and out desperate. After we have a solid idea of the players the film settles in to Claire who is taking the first shift at the front desk. She spends her time trying to record ghosts and the jump scares are reasonably effective.  West pays attention not to give too much away too early so we have to wait until chapter two before getting the legend of the Inn.

  The story goes that Madeline O'Malley (ghost played by Brenda Cooney) was stood up on her wedding day. The distraught woman retired to her room at the Yankee Pedlar and hung herself. Fearing bad press the then owners of the Inn hid the body in the cellar but were later discovered. The scandal that followed forced them to close the Inn for many years until it was sold and reopened. Now the legend goes the ghost of the bride in her wedding gown wanders the halls of the inn. After this story is reveal follow Claire out into the alley to the trash bin. A scary little scene we know is a false alarm follows. How do we know it is false. Because we just learned the story so the very next scare has to be a false alarm. That is how horror works. Still I made a note when she locked the outside bulkhead doors to keep the birds out that this action would play a part later on in the film and sure enough it did.
  This may be a good spot to say that one of the problems with this film is it followed a tried and true formula that most horror fanatics have seen many times. Unfortunately it did not hide the formula well enough so a lot of horror fans will be really luke warm about this film. The acting was fine the setup commendable but the execution was too on the nose to the expected horror tropes. Ty West could have thrown some variation in to keep us off balance but he didn't and it really hurt the film. Sure the end was better than most with a nice twist and an unexpected outcome but the road to that point was all places we have been before. Very similar in structure to "The House of the Devil" but since I have seen that this one comes across as more of the same.
  This is not to say that there are not some nice sequences in the film. There is a scene where Claire is in the banquet room listening on her microphone for sounds in the room. She slowly starts to hear static with something under it that become the sound of a woman crying, then  the sound of a piano playing. What is great is the excellent silence when Claire takes off the headphones, and then hearing it again when she puts them back on. It really is the first time she is successful at ghost hunting and it leads very nicely into her first talk of the supernatural with Rease-Jones who explains "There is no real in this world Claire, there are just states of being." and leads into a seance scene where Rease-Jones says "They won't say who they are." Apparently there are several ghosts and they want to live as well as a warning not to go in the basement. It is a very effect way to set up the inevitable even if we have seen it a thousand times before.
  The other thing that is so telegraphed is that Claire has an inhaler and needs it too. So it is a sure thing that her not having it will be a contributing factor in her storyline. I know it sounds like the script bad but it really isn't. West puts all the pieces together in the right order it is just that the writing lacks subtlety. At this point just before the final chapter we can see the conclusion coming and I am one viewer who was happy to continue on with the film. We still have all incomplete story arcs, from the ghost hunting, to the Luke Claire relationship to the creepy old man who arrives at the start of the chapter. 
  This is the chapter where the story really picks up, the old man (George Riddle), the final guest is really easy going even though the room he requests is stripped clean for the close down he is more than willing to take it as is. The actor plays the guy in a wonderfully creepy way and it is good at this point to add a bit more to think about since the paths of the characters are a bit transparent. They are destined to have a real ghost encounter, you know that and so do I. The reactions are great and it really sets up Claire for the final sequence. Now as usual I would not make the same error that she makes. When things get weird you have to shrug and say, this is a horror movie some things are just going to happen no matter how much they shouldn't.
  In the epilogue of the film we learn that everything that was set up was paid off. It is a sad tale but one that I think is very much worth the watch. Not the greatest of ghost films it is instead a second solid entry by Ti West into the genre.
Rating (5.6) 5.0 and up are recommended some just more than others.

The Horrible Dr. Bones (2000) Horror

The Horrible Dr. Bones (2000) -  This low budget collection of three stories is called "Urban Evil" at Netflix and although it is not of the highest quality there are some fun things in it. The stories Demonic Tunes, The Killing Kind and Hidden Evil are three completely different stories without the connecting tissue often used in these kind of films. You would think that since the title included Dr. Bones that he would be the character that either appears in each story or that he would be the "crypt keeper" type character introducing them. Unfortunately he is just the main villain in the first story and is not seen again. Why Netflix changed the name of the disc is beyond me, was it conscious to connect Urban with the all black cast?  I understand that each story is about city characters but really.
  Demonic Tunes is the story of a young band that tries for a starring gig at a local club. The club run by Dr. Bones (Darrow Igus) and his assistant Theodora (Rhonda Claerbaut) is looking for the right sound to intertwine their nefarious plan with. He is a voodoo doctor with a skin problem who is tired of  zombies who have to be dead. Bones comes up with the idea that if he performs the ritual sacrifice while broadcasting the magic through music then he will control the living listening audience the same way he controls the dead sacrifice victim. Its a great plan but he needs just the right music to make it work.
  This is where the band The Urban Protector comes in. Lead singer Lisa (Sarah Scott Davis) and her players Wanda (Tangelia Rouse), Pookie (Derrick Delaney) and Phil (Danny Wooten) audition and have just the sound that Dr. Bones is looking for. Only there sound man Jamal (Larry Bates) notices that things are not quite right with this setup. Will he be able to save his friends from the mind control of Dr. Bones? The climax of the film is at the first concert with the band playing upstairs and the voodoo priest performing his ritual downstairs, wired into their sound system. Jamal who notices the wire running through the entire club to Bone's cellar room interrupts him, but is he too late? The story end rather quickly and in a really simplistic way that is not very satisfying.
  The Killing Kind is a story of a family rap group who takes a stand against a local drug kingpin. Originally titled "Ragdoll (1999)" and release the year before this DVD the version in this trilogy must have been severely edited because it really seems like parts of the story are missing.  After embarrassing the Kingpin, the thug goes after the Gran (Freda Payne) of the family rap group. There is a scene where family leader Kwame (Russell Richardson) uses his grandmother's voodoo magic to call the Shadow Man (Frederic Tucker) for protection. This magical being asks for a payment in return for the magical protection, and the flustered Kwame promises him anything. That was not a smart move as Kwame finds out. Shadow Man brings to life a ragdoll to deal with the drug dealing thugs. It is very reminiscent of the little African doll in the 1970's Trilogy of terror in that the doll is evil and will kill the thugs. Problem is that for each thug the doll takes the price is someone that Kwame loves is also killed. In quick order the doll does its deeds but when gran finds out that Kwame has used black magic she has to intervene to save the rest of the family. With the help of the surviving sister Teesha (Jennia Fredrique) the family attempts to break the deal with the Shadow Man. Is it possible? Will the family be safe from the Kingpin? Like I said earlier the edits to this story really hurt the final product and although the story completes you are left with the feeling that you did not see the whole story.
  The final story "Hidden Evil" concerns the releasing of an evil spirit in a condemned former school for freed slaves, in South Central LA. I know it seems a bit of a stretch and it really is. The slave in question was locked in the basement of the school after killing 5 other slaves and drinking their blood for some kind of ritual? Originally entitled "The Vault (2000)" it is very original if a bit unbelievable.  Set in modern LA and there is a group of kids from Crenshaw High with their history teacher Mr B (Ted Lyde) heading to a condemned school to try to save what they can of the heritage of the building. They know it was once a school for ex slaves but are not aware of the evil ghost in the basement. Director James Black does a decent job in this low budget horror story. You can read my review of that film by clicking the link above. The students are reasonably competent actors, Michael Cory Davis, Michael Maurer, Austin Priester, Kyle Walker, and Parrish Washington as well as the beautiful Shani Pride.
  Overall this trilogy is a bit of a mixed bag. I have seen worse and I have seen better. Unfortunately some of the acting is just not up to snuff and the ideas not thought out quite enough. Still if you see this one in a discount bin it may not be a total waste of time. One really positive thing about the set of stories are all the black character are not black stereotypes. Sure there are character stereotypes, the evil record producer, the vengeful drug dealer, or the geeky student, but they are not necessarily race based and that is refreshing. In each film there are positive black characters with drive and motivations outside of race. The "N" word is never used and for the most part the protagonists are all positive.
  Know this is low budget and not the highest of quality but might be worth a view, I want to recommend it but the films are not really that good. Sure I enjoyed them but I am not sure many other people will.
Rating (4.1) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

The Ring (2002) - Horror

The Ring (2002) - A great thing about this film is the really well done opening sequence, two girls in a room talking about an urban legend and scaring and joking with each other. I had forgotten that the most memorable piece, the face of the first victim, was a couple scenes after this sequence. What is great about it is that it really creates and informs us about the VHS tape mythology, as well as giving us the first scare of the movie. The tension is built well with the television and water both thing become more important to the curse so it is good foreshadowing.
The story starts with two teenage friends, Katie (Amber Tamblyn) and Becca (Rachael Bella),  hanging out watching television. Katie tells Becca about her trip to Shelter Mountain Inn with her boyfriend and a couple other friends. There is this nice combination of joking about sex and sharing the story of the tape. Katie explains how there is this tape that when you watch it a curse it set. You immediately receive a phone call telling you you have seven days to live. Katie says she watched the tape exactly a week ago and then seems to choke, her friend takes her in her arms alarmed. There is a nice break in the tension as you see that Katie is pretending to choke. Still the scene plays a nice little game where you are not sure if Katie actually watched the video or is just telling a story. Then again a tension break when her mother calls. It is very effective, the bringing Becca up to a tense state but then relieving the tension for a new build up.
 Only after Becca left the room did the risk to Katie seem real. So what happened to Becca who we later find out ended up in a psychiatric ward. There is the television going on and Katie being afraid. Then movement down the hall, and Becca being no where to be found. Again the sequence is so well constructed that you forget you really don't see anything terrifying. After the dripping doorknob we leave the house and start on the story proper. It has been a very effective set up for what is a wonderful mystery.
  If there is a major flaw with the characters in this film it is that of Aiden (David Dorfman) the son of  Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts). He is establish early as someone supernatural in ability, but does this fit the mythology or is it a convenient character trick to allow exposition that helps his Mother? He draws pictures of his dead cousin Katie dead but does it prior to the actual end. He is connected to the ghost girl Samara having some kind of mental connection to her. He relays information to Rachel several times during the movie and I am not really sure I buy the connection. Katie who baby sat him was his best friend, she was our first victim in the movie so there is that connection but is it enough?    Sure he is a creepy kid who is non emotional and acts way to adult for his age. In his monotone he calls he mother by her first name adding to his character. Really though he is a kid and there is never really any explanation of why he has the connection he has.  Still the fact he sees the tape and his believing mother has to figure out how to save him  is a nice added motivation. I am not really sure his character adds to the mythology which could stand on its own.
  This film is pretty tight as it moves along and once Rachel is on the case of Katies death. She learns of the trip to the cabin and the death tape. She gets a copy of the film and after watching it gets the call and has seven days to solve the mystery. This film works on this level too. Rachel has a time limit before her death comes and it adds a very nice atmosphere to the film. Most of the film is her and her former boyfriend, and father of Aiden, Noah (Martin Henderson) doing investigative journalism in trying to find out the story of the tape before it is too late.
  Since VHS was only developed in 1976 and the videos of Samara (Daveigh Chase) were made in 1978 there is a real leap of faith we have to make here about the availability and use of the format. It is hidden well in a compelling story of a horse farm on a small island that has turned bad. The horses get sick and die, and the family at the center of it, the Morgans, experience an unusual amount of hardship after adopting the child Samara. Rachel for her part after finding the VHS, then  figures out the island where it was made and the story of the Morgans. Now what she hopes to accomplish is really unclear but isn't that what a mystery is all about. This problem solving is all about the small things at the edges of the story, each piece is discovered and pulled into focus and it progresses the story before some other small thing takes focus. It is effective as a storytelling strategy.
  When all is said and done it appears that Rachel has seemed to solve the mystery. She and Noah have reconnected and she heads home to tell her son that all is well. Only thing is the supernatural connection the boy has with the ghost has him in a tizzy. He knows that now that Samara has been laid to rest that it is the worst outcome. The false ending gears back up as Rachel tries to solve the last piece of the puzzle. Why didn't she die at the end of seven days? She thought it was because she solved the mystery of the Morgan family but now in the harshest way she realizes it was not the case.Will she figure it out before Noah's time is up. How will she save her son who has also seen the death tape. You will have to view this movie and see for yourselves.
  This is a well put together story by screenwriter Ehren Kruger, with reasonably compelling characters and a twist that screams for the sequel that was to come. Considering the drivel he later put out this is by far his best work to date. The story by Koji Suzuki is solid enough that he did not mess it up too badly in adapting it for an American audience. Director Gore Verbinski creates a cloudy world of mystery and his blue\ish palette works in this case.
  In seeking out the gore shots for this article I was interested in seeing if they were good looking effects. In the film the two death faces shown were done so quickly it was hard to tell if it was because they were poor or for effect. You can judge for yourself. Naomi Watts is good as the reporter  and the supporting cast is solid. I particularly liked the quiet menace that Brian Cox brought to his role as Richard Morgan. solid is how I would describe this horror/ mystery film.
Rating (7.3) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.