Even after reading and listening to so many good things about some movies in Bollywood, I have been a skeptic and I tried my best to avoid watching any Hindi movie when I am at a friend's home for dinner. The last movie that I saw in a theater after reading a raving review from Taran Adarsh was Krishh. I hated that movie and hated the review even more. I thought if that movie received a 4 star rating, then I don't need to read any more reviews and nor pay attention to what people say about hindi movies. I had this feeling that all the new directors in hindi were very pretentious and were trying to make their movies look artistic and intelligent when they clearly weren't. The pretentious attitude in a movie, to me, is unbearable. On any given day, I can watch a B grade soft porn malayali movie than a movie which tries too much..
Recently while browsing through Netflix I saw several hindi movies that were available and I queued a few of them just to take another chance and boy...am I surprised. Here are a few that I really, really liked..
A Wednesday: I read the reviews and some people, with whom I normally disagree when it comes to their opinions on movies, told me that this movie was brialliant and as usually, I said I will definetly remember to watch the movie when I can and of course I ignored them. After finding it on Netflix, I queued it up and I watched it last weeek. I don't think I need to add anything more than what has been written about it already. It was brilliant. I especially loved the dialogues at the end of the movie by Nasser. A great actor indeed and the way he delivered the lines without making it sound preachy was simply awesome. (4/5)
Black Friday: I remember watching a few minutes of black friday long time ago on youtube or some other website and was immediatly bored. I thought Anurag was much better writer than a director and here he was trying too much. My Mistake. I watched the entire movie recently but this time on a big screen tv and an original DVD. The movie is nearly 3 hours long and my only complaint is that it was too short. I did not want the movie to end and I wanted to know more about the characters of Dawood, tiger menon and the attitudes, life styles of all the people involved in this tragedy. For someone like me who does not pay attention to the current affairs and politics in India, this movie was enlightening. The role of Pakistani's ISI in the bomb blasts was a real shocker.
There is a chase scene midway through the movie that was shot in Dharavi's slums which incidentally inspired Danny boyle for a similar scene in Slumdog millionare. Though Slumdog's scene was shot with better production values, the scene in Black friday looked more natural. Bombay is a world in itself and there is no other movie (except Satya) which evokes that feeling in a better way than this one. (4.5/5)
Johnny Gaddar: I liked Sriram Raghavan's earlier movie "Ek hasina thi" and I thought he was a very competent filmmaker. I knew that Johnny Gaddar would be good but did not expect it to be this good. This is really some serious first class stuff. I am sucker for film noirs and I never expected bollywood to come up with a good one. I think Mumbai is the ideal city for a setup on a film noir but unfortunately our major filmmakers project a completely incorrect version of the city. The movie had everything I love about crime thrillers. Double crosses, twists and turns, promiscuity, affairs with the wrong women etc.. This movie made me change my opinion on the new wave in bollywood and I am going to watch all the good ones that I missed in the past few years. (5/5)
Jaane Tu yaa Jaane naa: The way this movie started made me roll my eyes in disappointment . But it won me over in no time. The movie opens up with a scene where a group of friends are driving to the airport and the newbie in the group is a insensitive bitch. She does not believe in romance and life long relationships. So they start narrating a story to her to contradict her opinions. Now....at this point ...you know what is going to happen. We would see an U turn in her opinions and by the time the movie ends we know that she will be transformed into a believer in relations. This is the point you say to yourself..."Come on ..not again.."... but to my surprise, though the movie ends the way you expected it, you will be laughing with the movie but not at it. Every generation needs a coming of age love story and I think this is the one for this generation. Qayamat se qayamat tak did that for 80's and DDLJ did it for 90's. I don't think this movie was as good as them...but it was certainly very sweet and mature enough for it's content. Rahman's music was a great plus and that is no surprise. Genelia was really sweet unlike in her telugu movies where her dubbed voice gets on your nerves. (4/5)
Here are the bollywood movies that I have lined up in my queue and let me know if you guys have any recommendations :
1) Phoonk ( I love RGV and no matter how bad his movies are.. I will continue watching them)
2) Oye lucky lucky oye
3) DEV d
4) Hazooron khawashiyen aisi
5) Blue umbrella
6) Masoom (the old one)
7) Aamir
Showing posts with label horror movies B grade stephen king. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror movies B grade stephen king. Show all posts
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Cassandra's dream
Like other Woody Allen' s movie in the same genre, Cassandra's dream has an ending that will not be digested by the majority, as it ends on a note which is not only against to the expectations of the audience but also against the code of karma, that most of us believe in. I don't want to give away the ending of the movie but just want to give an idea about the world that this movie lives in.
May be this not as good as the other movies that belong to the same style from Woody allen, but it is definitely not bad as most of the reviews that I read about this one. The other movies that I am talking about are "Crimes and misdemeanors" and "Match point", which are certainly much better than this one. Let me give out an outline on all these movies.
The movie has a central character or characters in this case, who get an entangled in an financial/personal issue and in order to get out of it unscathed, they have take an extreme action, may be taking a human life. The common factor in all the three movies is that the central character is not a monster. He is just another human being who is selfish like most of us are. He commits the crime and later repents like you would expect from any other person who is not completely stone hearted. The same theme in the hands of a lesser director would have been about the way the crime is committed, reducing the movie to a normal hollywood thriller. But Woody allen makes it much more interesting. It is not about the way the crime is committed but how the central character comes to terms with life after he commits that crime.
He is not chased by the law. He family doesn't have a clue that he murdered a person. The only thing he needs to face is himself and his conscience. Will this crime haunt him for the rest of his life or will he continue leading the rest of his life peacefully as if nothing has ever happened?? I don't want to sound like the guy who writes the movie descriptions on the back of the DVD cover, but these are precise questions that these movies made me think about.
The best one of the three in my opinion is "Crimes and misdemeanors" and this movie might be the weakest. Weak, only because of 3-4 scenes that are utterly unconvincing. Apart from that , the movie is quite good.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
A decent Scottish thriller
One day on her job, she finds this person on the TV monitor and she immediately identifies him. He is a criminal who was jailed a few years ago and he should not be on the streets. She later finds out that he was released from the jail on the account of good behavior. She is not happy and she starts to monitor his every action on camera. After finding out his daily activities, one day she just shows up at a party in his house and meets him. These scenes were filmed in mysterious and eerie way that it keeps us on the edge and makes us wonder what her intentions are. Her intentions are not revealed till the end when I got to know them, I was slightly disappointed. The movie would have been just great if her motivations weren't explained.
The best thing about the movie is that it never goes for cheap thrills. There is very little background score unlike regular
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Movies based on Stephen King's novels/shortstories
Movies based on Stephen King's novels/shortstories
This is from my recent post in one of the orkut groups discussing about movies.
Stephen king has written a lot of novels, short stories that were adapted to the screen (nearly 50) and he is one of those writers who can elaborate a 5 minute story to 800 page book and still make it riveting. Most of his books are horror based but when he writes about real life drama, he can just get under your skin and make you cry, laugh and sometimes, insanely happy. I haven't seen all of his movies but from what I have seen, I have categorized them down below. This is purely my opinion and hopefully you will like them too.
The Great ones
1) The Shining: A great book and a great movie but completely different from each other. Stephen king was unhappy with the outcome of the movie when it came out in 1980. The director (stanley kubrick) has changed many key points of the novel and movie is very different from what the book intended to be. Shining has one of the greatest opening sequences ever and the haunting music adds an eerie effect when combined with the great camera work in the movie. Jack nicholson plays the role of the caretaker of the Overlook hotel, which is located on a mountain top, isolated, deserted and closed for the entire winter. Gradually, he develops a strange behavior and starts believing that he was there in the hotel before. Has he really??
2) Shawshank redemption: Based on a short story from King. Probably most popular among all the movies based on his books. Most people like the surprise ending of the movie and I love it too, but my favorite moment is when an old man who has lived all his adult life in jail is finally released, goes back to the city where he grew up and finds that life in city has completely changed and he feels like he is in the real jail. Morgan freeman excels and one of the best of King's works.
3) Misery: A chilling horror movie with absolutely no violence and bloodshed. A writer goes to a rural town on a holiday and gets stuck in the snow when his snowmobile dies on him. He gets rescued by a middle aged woman who happens to be a big fan of his books. The story takes a wild turn when he starts to find about her not so friendly side.
4) Carrie: First major success of Stephen king and a very typical story of King which he repeated in many other novels (dead zone, hearts in atlantis, firestarter, thinner,green mile) in which a lonely and a good person has a supernatural gift but he/she is not too happy with it. The movie was brilliantly shot and directed by Brian de palma and John travolta co-stars.
5) Dolores Claiborne: I saw this movie recently and till then I did not even know that there is one such movie. I felt that it was highly underrated and to me it was nearly as good as Shawshank redemption. The movie is about a mother-daughter relationship for over a period of 20 odd years. The daughter who has abandoned her mother visits her after a long long time and they dwell on their relationship over the years and the daughter finally knows about some hidden secrets about her mother which changes her opinions forever.
6) Green mile: Another movie set in the jail life and the rich characterization of various inmates almost makes one feel like we are living in the jail and we know these people. The movie was directed by same person who directed Shawshank redemption.
7) Stand by me: Best movie adaptation of any King's book, period. The movie made me sad and happy at the same time. Sad for realizing the fact that our childhood days have passed and gone and we can never have them back and happy for re-living and making me remember about those days. The movie is based on another typical theme of King's stories where a group of childhood friends meet during their adult life and remember about the good old days and one incident in specific which they will never forget.
Good ones
1) Rose Red : Rose red is a lengthy (4 1/2 hrs) horror movie, which was made as mini-series for TV, is about a group of scholars who plan to visit an old haunted mansion. The novel was loosely inspired by the real mansion called "Winchester mystery house" in Sanfrancisco, California. Thought the movie is very long and story line is wafer thin, it is very riveting and keeps the audience on the edge of the seat. The group on their visit to the mansion encounter the ghosts of the family who used to live in the mansion. The story of the family and the way they died is revealed in bits and pieces in flashbacks.
2) Storm of the century: Another movie made for TV (3-4 hours) is based in a small town in Maine, where many other novels of King are setup. When a blizzard hits the small town, the citizens of the town are visited by a stranger who knows the secrets of everybody in the town. After he kills an old man, he is jailed. Even after being in jail, he continues to kill people or force people to suicide by using his supernatural powers. The stranger keeps repeating "Give me what I need and I'll go away" and only at the end it is revealed what he needs. The ending of the movie might not be liked by many people for its abruptness and vagueness.
3) 1408: This movie is based on a short story that King used in his anthology "Everything's eventual". The movie stars Samuel L Jackson as a hotel manager and John Cusack as a writer who mainly focusses on haunted places. He comes to know about the room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, Newyork where apparently many people lost their lives. Initially, the manager of the hotel tries his best to convince him to not to stay in the room. But, the writer refuses and enters the room. He later comes to face with the evils in the room and he has no way out.
4) Cat's eye: This movie along with Twilight zone is one of the main inspirations for Ramgopalvarma's Darna mana hai/Darna zaroori hai series. Apparently (courtesy:www.passionforcinema.com), RGV narrated one of the stories from this movie to Anurag kashyap. Anurag later, after many many years realized that it was actually a story from Stephen king. However, he modified the story that he heard from RGV and made it into "No Smoking".
Anyway, Coming to this movie, it is an anthology of three horror stories just like Darna mana hai. The first story is the best of the lot. None of them are scary but each of them is very weird and often very funny.
5) Creepshow: Another anthology like Cat's eye but a big hit during the time of its release. The movie has 5 episodes and Stephen king himself played the lead role in one of those stories. Each story in the movie like Cat's eye border on comedy and eeriness. The movie is no masterpiece but has a certain weirdly funny quality that I absolutely loved it.
6) The Dead zone: Christopher Walken plays the role of a normal young man in love with a girl and one day gets hit by a car. After that he spends years in coma and when he returns back, he is empowered by a supernatural power using which he can predict future. Like other King's stories, he is not happy with the powers he has but finds himself in situations where he has to put it to use to rescue others and sometimes himself. The movie was directed by David Cronenberg (History of violence) and it is an engaging movie.
7) Pet Cemetery: Stephen king says it his favorite among his works but the movie is not that great. It is nonetheless very interesting at times. The story is about a small family with a husband, wife and a 2 year old kid. When the kid dies in a brutal car accident, the father is crestfallen and decides to bury his son in the near pet cemetery, where it is believed that the dead things come alive. The kid comes alive as expected but he is not his son anymore but is devil/ghost/monster or whatever.
8) Hearts in Atlantis: A very good book but a mediocre movie. Anthony hopkins plays the leading role of an old man who comes to a small village from nowhere. He befriends a teenage boy and passes some of this supernatural powers to him. The kid (and us) never find out where exactly he came from but what we know is that he is on the run and the people who are looking for him are not very nice.
Not so good ones
1) Thinner: A successful lawyer on fine day kills a gypsy by running his car over him. The leader of the gypsies casts a spell on the lawyer that he would become thinner everyday for the rest of his life. The fat lawyer is intially glad to loose some pounds but slowly he realizes that something is not right.
2) Maximum overdrive: The only movie directed by Stephen king. He has once admitted that it is his worst work ever and he did not what he was doing while shooting the film.
3) Salem's lot: A successful tv mini series but an awful movie.
4) Needful things: Max Van sydow (Exorcist) is the stranger from nowhere in a lonely town who knows the darkest secrets of everybody in the town. He instigates one against other and creates a hell in the town.
5) Firestarter : A story somewhat similar to Carrie. Drew barrymore plays the role of little girl, where she and her father have the supernatural power of producing fires at their will. They are pursued by people from the "Shop" for the father-daughter are on the run.
Stephen king has written a lot of novels, short stories that were adapted to the screen (nearly 50) and he is one of those writers who can elaborate a 5 minute story to 800 page book and still make it riveting. Most of his books are horror based but when he writes about real life drama, he can just get under your skin and make you cry, laugh and sometimes, insanely happy. I haven't seen all of his movies but from what I have seen, I have categorized them down below. This is purely my opinion and hopefully you will like them too.
The Great ones
1) The Shining: A great book and a great movie but completely different from each other. Stephen king was unhappy with the outcome of the movie when it came out in 1980. The director (stanley kubrick) has changed many key points of the novel and movie is very different from what the book intended to be. Shining has one of the greatest opening sequences ever and the haunting music adds an eerie effect when combined with the great camera work in the movie. Jack nicholson plays the role of the caretaker of the Overlook hotel, which is located on a mountain top, isolated, deserted and closed for the entire winter. Gradually, he develops a strange behavior and starts believing that he was there in the hotel before. Has he really??
2) Shawshank redemption: Based on a short story from King. Probably most popular among all the movies based on his books. Most people like the surprise ending of the movie and I love it too, but my favorite moment is when an old man who has lived all his adult life in jail is finally released, goes back to the city where he grew up and finds that life in city has completely changed and he feels like he is in the real jail. Morgan freeman excels and one of the best of King's works.
3) Misery: A chilling horror movie with absolutely no violence and bloodshed. A writer goes to a rural town on a holiday and gets stuck in the snow when his snowmobile dies on him. He gets rescued by a middle aged woman who happens to be a big fan of his books. The story takes a wild turn when he starts to find about her not so friendly side.
4) Carrie: First major success of Stephen king and a very typical story of King which he repeated in many other novels (dead zone, hearts in atlantis, firestarter, thinner,green mile) in which a lonely and a good person has a supernatural gift but he/she is not too happy with it. The movie was brilliantly shot and directed by Brian de palma and John travolta co-stars.
5) Dolores Claiborne: I saw this movie recently and till then I did not even know that there is one such movie. I felt that it was highly underrated and to me it was nearly as good as Shawshank redemption. The movie is about a mother-daughter relationship for over a period of 20 odd years. The daughter who has abandoned her mother visits her after a long long time and they dwell on their relationship over the years and the daughter finally knows about some hidden secrets about her mother which changes her opinions forever.
6) Green mile: Another movie set in the jail life and the rich characterization of various inmates almost makes one feel like we are living in the jail and we know these people. The movie was directed by same person who directed Shawshank redemption.
7) Stand by me: Best movie adaptation of any King's book, period. The movie made me sad and happy at the same time. Sad for realizing the fact that our childhood days have passed and gone and we can never have them back and happy for re-living and making me remember about those days. The movie is based on another typical theme of King's stories where a group of childhood friends meet during their adult life and remember about the good old days and one incident in specific which they will never forget.
Good ones
1) Rose Red : Rose red is a lengthy (4 1/2 hrs) horror movie, which was made as mini-series for TV, is about a group of scholars who plan to visit an old haunted mansion. The novel was loosely inspired by the real mansion called "Winchester mystery house" in Sanfrancisco, California. Thought the movie is very long and story line is wafer thin, it is very riveting and keeps the audience on the edge of the seat. The group on their visit to the mansion encounter the ghosts of the family who used to live in the mansion. The story of the family and the way they died is revealed in bits and pieces in flashbacks.
2) Storm of the century: Another movie made for TV (3-4 hours) is based in a small town in Maine, where many other novels of King are setup. When a blizzard hits the small town, the citizens of the town are visited by a stranger who knows the secrets of everybody in the town. After he kills an old man, he is jailed. Even after being in jail, he continues to kill people or force people to suicide by using his supernatural powers. The stranger keeps repeating "Give me what I need and I'll go away" and only at the end it is revealed what he needs. The ending of the movie might not be liked by many people for its abruptness and vagueness.
3) 1408: This movie is based on a short story that King used in his anthology "Everything's eventual". The movie stars Samuel L Jackson as a hotel manager and John Cusack as a writer who mainly focusses on haunted places. He comes to know about the room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, Newyork where apparently many people lost their lives. Initially, the manager of the hotel tries his best to convince him to not to stay in the room. But, the writer refuses and enters the room. He later comes to face with the evils in the room and he has no way out.
4) Cat's eye: This movie along with Twilight zone is one of the main inspirations for Ramgopalvarma's Darna mana hai/Darna zaroori hai series. Apparently (courtesy:www.passionforcinema.com), RGV narrated one of the stories from this movie to Anurag kashyap. Anurag later, after many many years realized that it was actually a story from Stephen king. However, he modified the story that he heard from RGV and made it into "No Smoking".
Anyway, Coming to this movie, it is an anthology of three horror stories just like Darna mana hai. The first story is the best of the lot. None of them are scary but each of them is very weird and often very funny.
5) Creepshow: Another anthology like Cat's eye but a big hit during the time of its release. The movie has 5 episodes and Stephen king himself played the lead role in one of those stories. Each story in the movie like Cat's eye border on comedy and eeriness. The movie is no masterpiece but has a certain weirdly funny quality that I absolutely loved it.
6) The Dead zone: Christopher Walken plays the role of a normal young man in love with a girl and one day gets hit by a car. After that he spends years in coma and when he returns back, he is empowered by a supernatural power using which he can predict future. Like other King's stories, he is not happy with the powers he has but finds himself in situations where he has to put it to use to rescue others and sometimes himself. The movie was directed by David Cronenberg (History of violence) and it is an engaging movie.
7) Pet Cemetery: Stephen king says it his favorite among his works but the movie is not that great. It is nonetheless very interesting at times. The story is about a small family with a husband, wife and a 2 year old kid. When the kid dies in a brutal car accident, the father is crestfallen and decides to bury his son in the near pet cemetery, where it is believed that the dead things come alive. The kid comes alive as expected but he is not his son anymore but is devil/ghost/monster or whatever.
8) Hearts in Atlantis: A very good book but a mediocre movie. Anthony hopkins plays the leading role of an old man who comes to a small village from nowhere. He befriends a teenage boy and passes some of this supernatural powers to him. The kid (and us) never find out where exactly he came from but what we know is that he is on the run and the people who are looking for him are not very nice.
Not so good ones
1) Thinner: A successful lawyer on fine day kills a gypsy by running his car over him. The leader of the gypsies casts a spell on the lawyer that he would become thinner everyday for the rest of his life. The fat lawyer is intially glad to loose some pounds but slowly he realizes that something is not right.
2) Maximum overdrive: The only movie directed by Stephen king. He has once admitted that it is his worst work ever and he did not what he was doing while shooting the film.
3) Salem's lot: A successful tv mini series but an awful movie.
4) Needful things: Max Van sydow (Exorcist) is the stranger from nowhere in a lonely town who knows the darkest secrets of everybody in the town. He instigates one against other and creates a hell in the town.
5) Firestarter : A story somewhat similar to Carrie. Drew barrymore plays the role of little girl, where she and her father have the supernatural power of producing fires at their will. They are pursued by people from the "Shop" for the father-daughter are on the run.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Marathon of Horror
I used to be a horror film lover long time ago, while I was just starting out watching american movies. Later I took a sidestep towards popular cinema and it took a way long time to return to my favorite genre. Thanks to the free HBO movies on TV and the cool "watch online" feature on netflix, I am back on track. Past two weeks has been a horror marathon on my laptop and I can't recall the last time feeling this high in my movie watching experience. Of the numerous movies I watched in my life, probably horror is the only genre which I would cherish for a long time after leaving the theatre. My marathon started with a mediocre but an entertaining movie based on a book by none other than the king of horror, Mr. Stephen king.
Needful things: (3/5) A very typical King movie based in a small and remote town where everybody knows everybody and when a stranger moves into this town, life is never the same again. The town is inhabited by strange set of characters as one would expect. The stranger provides the needful things to each of this unhappy characters and in return provides an unsolicited advice. Little do these people know that this stranger is the Satan sent directly from hell to destroy the village. Hell breaks loose and before everyone finds out the truth, its too late. Max von sydow excels in the role of the Satan but other than him, the movie disappoints. Though the film is very substandard when compared to similar movies from king (storm of the century, rose red), I was able to enjoy it for my love towards this sub-genre in horror.
Salem's Lot (2/5): Another movie from Stephen King and another movie very much like the above one. Only more disappointing. Stranger moves into a little town and creates havoc. I could not tolerate the pace of the movie and had to skip a few scenes here and there before reaching the predictable climax.
Maximum Overdrive (2/5): Its halloween and its Stephen King again. This movie is directed by the man himself and it makes one feel that everyone must stick to their own profession and its better not to be nosy in someone else's job. A very very disappointing directorial effort from Stephen King. I loved the first few minutes of this movie and a scene here and a scene there. However, there was no continuity and the screenplay just sucked. Automobiles come alive in this movie and decide to take over the power away from the humans. There are a few funny scenes here and there where a truck without a driver chases the running humans, ATM machines asking the customers to go fuck themselves, vending machine killing loads of people by propelling the coke cans..things like that. However, they don't make up for remaining part of this boring movie.
Cemetery Man (4.5/5): Just loved it. This is the kind of the movie which re-instills my interest in this genre. This movie has everything for a B grade horror fan, gore, breasts, sex, violence, comedy, one-liners, zombies and a lot more. It follows the life of a care taker of a cemetery called Dellamorte Dellamore ( Love and hate in italian) and his dumb (or not) side kick Naghi. For Dellamore, its a daily errand to kill the zombies who return back from their grave a week after they are dead, and put them back into the grave. Nobody in the town knows this and Dellamore never reveals this to anybody as he might lose his job. The cemetery is only place in the world known to Dellamore and Naghi and this is the cause of the rumor floating around in town that Dellamore is impotent, which we later come to know is untrue after witnessing his erotic scene with the beautiful wife of the city's Mayor whose body was just buried in the cemetery a day before. Unfortunately, his lady love is eaten by her own husband who comes back to life from the grave. However, Dellamore encounters other women in the rest of the movie, who look exactly like his first love. More than horror, this movie is hilarious black comedy and sometimes also leans towards noir, spirituality. A must watch.
Dead Zone (3/5): I think I have seen all of the Stephen King's best works and now its time to watch his worst and mediocre films. This is one of those movies like Carrie and Firestarter, where the main lead in the movie has a superpower but he/she is not too happy with it. This time the super power is to predict the future of the person when our superhero holds his/her hand. Christopher Walken plays the main lead superbly and Martin sheen plays the political villain. Walken is ln love with a beautiful girl and one night one his way back to home he encounters an accident and rests in coma for nearly 6 years. He looses his job and his girl is married by the time he returns. However, he gains this new superpower as a compensation. Walken works with the police and helps resolving a few cases but he is unhappy and decides to put an end to his life. He wants to do one useful thing before he dies and plans to bring down the corrupt politician (martin sheen) which forms the rest of the movie.
Dolls (3.5/5) : A husband, his cute little daughter and his new rich/arrogant/bitchy wife are on a vacation when their car breaks down during the middle of the night. They take shelter for the night in an isolated bungalow owned by an old doll maker and his loving/eerie wife. Joining for the night is an young yet childish man with two tramps who hitchhiked his car during that night. After the discussion at the dinner table, the guests return to their alloted rooms and one of the sister in the junkies decides to steal the dolls (antiques) as they can get a very good price in the market. But she is not aware of the fact the dolls have a life of their own, and if you piss them off, you will pay your life as the price. The movie has good amount of gore and is very inventive and creative in designing various methods to kill/torture people. The movie could have done away with talking dolls, as the movie would have been much eerier if they were silent.
Fright Night (3/5) : One of those movies which is so bad that its good. A good idea of a rental for a Friday night of horror. Charley is an young teenager at school with a beautiful girl friend who loves him but cannot go "all the way" during their night outs. A new nieghbour moves into their house next door and brings a new girl home every night. Charley discovers that his nieghbour is a blood sucking vampire and decides to bring in the cops. The obviously don't buy his theory and the vampire warns killing Charley the next night. Charley seeks the help of a TV anchor for a Vampire show and though he refuses to help him first, finally agrees. The rest of the movie has a good amount of blood sucking, flesh eating gore scenes but the movie lacks good dialogue. A good B horror anyway....
Return of the living dead (3.75/5) : I fulfilled my dream. I finally watched a B grade horror from 80's in a theatre in its full glory. The movie has great background score and its setup in a run down chemical store which is located right next to a cemetery. On his first day at the job, Freddy comes to know that "Night of the living dead" was based on a true story and his chemical store is a living proof of that story. Freddy and his boss take a peek in one of those chemical cylinders located in their basement which releases the toxic gas and with it the living dead in those cylinders. They catch the monster and they burn it in the nearby crematorium and finally they take a sigh of relief. But the worst is yet to come, as the smoke from the oven brings every dead body in the cemetery to its life. Loads of gore and funny one-liners makes this movie a recommended see..
Freaks (4/5) : I was bored for the first 30 minutes but after that all the pieces fell into place making this one of the best noirs/eerie/horror movies of the black and white era. This movie has people with all kinds of physical abberations you can imagine. A half man-half woman, siamese twin girls who are bodies are attached to one another for their rest of their lives, a man without the lower part of the body, another man without hands/legs/abdomen, a midget man and his midget admirer, a bunch of mentally handicapped people and their caretaker, etc..The owner of this circus, named Cleopatra plans to fool one of the midgets in making him believe that she is in love with him and when the "Freaks" come to know about her true colors, they seek revenge...There are few great moments in the movie for which the audience applauded and this is one of the most wierd films I have ever seen..
From Beyond (3/5) : Based on a pulp novel written by Lovercraft, this movie is a passable rent. The best part of the movie is the sexy scientist who is introduced as a hard working and a conservative professional and when you get to see the unexpected wild side of hers...its just awesome...Other than that , the gore in the movie is not really that great and the cheesy special effects is a let down. I am already tired and don't feel like explaining the concept of the movie... that's it for now...
Needful things: (3/5) A very typical King movie based in a small and remote town where everybody knows everybody and when a stranger moves into this town, life is never the same again. The town is inhabited by strange set of characters as one would expect. The stranger provides the needful things to each of this unhappy characters and in return provides an unsolicited advice. Little do these people know that this stranger is the Satan sent directly from hell to destroy the village. Hell breaks loose and before everyone finds out the truth, its too late. Max von sydow excels in the role of the Satan but other than him, the movie disappoints. Though the film is very substandard when compared to similar movies from king (storm of the century, rose red), I was able to enjoy it for my love towards this sub-genre in horror.
Salem's Lot (2/5): Another movie from Stephen King and another movie very much like the above one. Only more disappointing. Stranger moves into a little town and creates havoc. I could not tolerate the pace of the movie and had to skip a few scenes here and there before reaching the predictable climax.
Maximum Overdrive (2/5): Its halloween and its Stephen King again. This movie is directed by the man himself and it makes one feel that everyone must stick to their own profession and its better not to be nosy in someone else's job. A very very disappointing directorial effort from Stephen King. I loved the first few minutes of this movie and a scene here and a scene there. However, there was no continuity and the screenplay just sucked. Automobiles come alive in this movie and decide to take over the power away from the humans. There are a few funny scenes here and there where a truck without a driver chases the running humans, ATM machines asking the customers to go fuck themselves, vending machine killing loads of people by propelling the coke cans..things like that. However, they don't make up for remaining part of this boring movie.
Cemetery Man (4.5/5): Just loved it. This is the kind of the movie which re-instills my interest in this genre. This movie has everything for a B grade horror fan, gore, breasts, sex, violence, comedy, one-liners, zombies and a lot more. It follows the life of a care taker of a cemetery called Dellamorte Dellamore ( Love and hate in italian) and his dumb (or not) side kick Naghi. For Dellamore, its a daily errand to kill the zombies who return back from their grave a week after they are dead, and put them back into the grave. Nobody in the town knows this and Dellamore never reveals this to anybody as he might lose his job. The cemetery is only place in the world known to Dellamore and Naghi and this is the cause of the rumor floating around in town that Dellamore is impotent, which we later come to know is untrue after witnessing his erotic scene with the beautiful wife of the city's Mayor whose body was just buried in the cemetery a day before. Unfortunately, his lady love is eaten by her own husband who comes back to life from the grave. However, Dellamore encounters other women in the rest of the movie, who look exactly like his first love. More than horror, this movie is hilarious black comedy and sometimes also leans towards noir, spirituality. A must watch.
Dead Zone (3/5): I think I have seen all of the Stephen King's best works and now its time to watch his worst and mediocre films. This is one of those movies like Carrie and Firestarter, where the main lead in the movie has a superpower but he/she is not too happy with it. This time the super power is to predict the future of the person when our superhero holds his/her hand. Christopher Walken plays the main lead superbly and Martin sheen plays the political villain. Walken is ln love with a beautiful girl and one night one his way back to home he encounters an accident and rests in coma for nearly 6 years. He looses his job and his girl is married by the time he returns. However, he gains this new superpower as a compensation. Walken works with the police and helps resolving a few cases but he is unhappy and decides to put an end to his life. He wants to do one useful thing before he dies and plans to bring down the corrupt politician (martin sheen) which forms the rest of the movie.
Dolls (3.5/5) : A husband, his cute little daughter and his new rich/arrogant/bitchy wife are on a vacation when their car breaks down during the middle of the night. They take shelter for the night in an isolated bungalow owned by an old doll maker and his loving/eerie wife. Joining for the night is an young yet childish man with two tramps who hitchhiked his car during that night. After the discussion at the dinner table, the guests return to their alloted rooms and one of the sister in the junkies decides to steal the dolls (antiques) as they can get a very good price in the market. But she is not aware of the fact the dolls have a life of their own, and if you piss them off, you will pay your life as the price. The movie has good amount of gore and is very inventive and creative in designing various methods to kill/torture people. The movie could have done away with talking dolls, as the movie would have been much eerier if they were silent.
Fright Night (3/5) : One of those movies which is so bad that its good. A good idea of a rental for a Friday night of horror. Charley is an young teenager at school with a beautiful girl friend who loves him but cannot go "all the way" during their night outs. A new nieghbour moves into their house next door and brings a new girl home every night. Charley discovers that his nieghbour is a blood sucking vampire and decides to bring in the cops. The obviously don't buy his theory and the vampire warns killing Charley the next night. Charley seeks the help of a TV anchor for a Vampire show and though he refuses to help him first, finally agrees. The rest of the movie has a good amount of blood sucking, flesh eating gore scenes but the movie lacks good dialogue. A good B horror anyway....
Return of the living dead (3.75/5) : I fulfilled my dream. I finally watched a B grade horror from 80's in a theatre in its full glory. The movie has great background score and its setup in a run down chemical store which is located right next to a cemetery. On his first day at the job, Freddy comes to know that "Night of the living dead" was based on a true story and his chemical store is a living proof of that story. Freddy and his boss take a peek in one of those chemical cylinders located in their basement which releases the toxic gas and with it the living dead in those cylinders. They catch the monster and they burn it in the nearby crematorium and finally they take a sigh of relief. But the worst is yet to come, as the smoke from the oven brings every dead body in the cemetery to its life. Loads of gore and funny one-liners makes this movie a recommended see..
Freaks (4/5) : I was bored for the first 30 minutes but after that all the pieces fell into place making this one of the best noirs/eerie/horror movies of the black and white era. This movie has people with all kinds of physical abberations you can imagine. A half man-half woman, siamese twin girls who are bodies are attached to one another for their rest of their lives, a man without the lower part of the body, another man without hands/legs/abdomen, a midget man and his midget admirer, a bunch of mentally handicapped people and their caretaker, etc..The owner of this circus, named Cleopatra plans to fool one of the midgets in making him believe that she is in love with him and when the "Freaks" come to know about her true colors, they seek revenge...There are few great moments in the movie for which the audience applauded and this is one of the most wierd films I have ever seen..
From Beyond (3/5) : Based on a pulp novel written by Lovercraft, this movie is a passable rent. The best part of the movie is the sexy scientist who is introduced as a hard working and a conservative professional and when you get to see the unexpected wild side of hers...its just awesome...Other than that , the gore in the movie is not really that great and the cheesy special effects is a let down. I am already tired and don't feel like explaining the concept of the movie... that's it for now...
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