So my week was going to be Guillermo del Toro movies, but then Blair Witch happened and I was on a horror kick! Next week will be the rest of the del Toro! Let’s get my freak-out on!
Movie 98: Mon Sept 19th
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Seth Macfarlane, Jeffrey Tambor
I love this movie! I talked about it on the last episode of The Gathering. So for more thoughts, listen to that! I do want to add that I want a 3rd movie SO FUCKING BADLY. Thank you.
Movie 99: Tues Sept 20th (My Birthday)
Blair Witch (2016)
Directed by: Adam Wingard
Starring: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, Brandon Scott
I actually really enjoyed watching this movie. Yes, it is the exact movie from the first one with more scares, but I really liked watching it with the present technology. It was really fun to see a drone, GPS devices, and hands-free cameras to bring a different experience to a very generic story: bad things happen to people in a secluded area by a supernatural element. Nostalgic, safe, and entertaining is how I would describe it in 3 words. I will say that the ending was really cool and now we get more of an understanding. I want to see if it gets a sequel and where they would go with it.
Movie 100 (WOOOOO): Wed Sept 21st
El Orfanato (The Orphanage)
Directed by: J.A. Bayona
Starring: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Geraldine Chaplin
This was a beautiful film. I really, really enjoyed it. It isn’t very scary, but the story is relatively fresh. I suggest people who liked Pan’s Labyrinth to definitely check this movie out. It was really cool seeing Geraldine Chaplin in it, too. She is extremely talented and I wish she worked more. Fun fact: She is Charlie Chaplin’s daughter. I don’t really have anything else to say, it was a safe, but cool movie to watch.
Movie 101: Thurs Sept 22nd
Sinister
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransome, Fred Dalton Thompson
I saw this in theaters back in 2012 and enjoyed the hell of it. Now that I got to revisit it with Haley, it still creeps me out and surprised me. It is such a cool, different horror film that I really think really help saved horror in the past 10 years. For me, horror really started lacking until Conjuring, Sinister, and Insidious. Definitely check it out, but haven’t seen the sequel…. I need to change that.
Movie 102: Fri Sept 23rd
Sinister 2
Directed by: Ciarán Foy
Starring: James Ransone, Shannyn Sossamon, Robert Daniel Sloan
What a fucking let down. It completely destroyed so much of the originality the first film had and made the whole concept just as generic as The Haunting, Children of the Corn (Yes. I know it is an homage to that film…. Whatever.), Village of the Damned, and so on. It really sucks that it couldn’t have been better since it was written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. Oh well…
Movie 103: Sat Sept 24th
The Conjuring 2
Directed by: James Wan
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe, Frances O’Connor
I love the Conjuring movies. Yes, I know I had already watched this earlier in the challenge, but IT’S SO GOOD. Even though none of the things actually had anything to do with the Warren’s historically, it is still a good horror film. I am so excited for AquaMan because I love James Wan as a director.
Movie 104: Sun Sept 25th
Paranormal Activity 3
Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Starring: Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Christopher Nicholas Smith
Easily my favorite of the franchise, however I didn’t see 4 or 5…. The use of the fan to move the camera was brilliant and helps deliver some great scares. I don’t think the franchise is anything special, but it is still a guilty pleasure. I just know if I were to have a kid who has an imaginary friend, they will be adopted and I will probably burn down the house. Yay for good parenting, but I won’t be like the idiots in the movies I watched this week. I will survive!
In all seriousness…. Adoption and house burning. No way I am dealing with a ghost or demon. Fuck that.