New blurays

Young Adult

I really loved this movie, I havent seen Up in the air yet and although I do like Juno the script written by Diablo Cody really irritates me at times and seemed just too over the top. But Young Adult is just brilliantly written and I just thought it was a really well made film. I would describe it as a black comedy, rather than an all out comedy. Charlize Theron is awesome in the main role of a woman who refuses to grow up and is still more interested in partying and shopping than settling down and having children. This is what everyone else her age is doing when she goes back to her hometown, to get her ex back. She is surprised to find he is happily married with kids and she tries her best to steal him back.

Batman Begins

I now have batman begins and The dark knight, so now I am just waiting for The dark knight rises to be released.

The Avengers

Twin peaks: Fire Walk with me

Im starting to collect all of the David Lynch movies on bluray - to start with I have bought the films that I havent already watched before. So I got Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with me and Lost highway to begin with and next I want to get Eraserhead and Dune.

Lost Highway

Shutter Island

I absolutly love Shutter Island I have watched it probably about 6 times now and I never get bored of it even though I know the twists. I just love everthing about it.

Now I want to rant a bit about HMV. I pre-ordered the steelbook of Cabin in the woods. Most people who bought the film on bluray will know that the discs had manufaturing faults on them and that they were taken off the shelves until new discs were made. So other people who also pre-ordered the steelbook got their steelbook in the post and then had to wait for new replacement discs to be sent to them. I had my email confirmation that my steelbook was 'on its way' and on the same day I had another email which told me about the manufacturing problem and how they would send my discs out to me. Two weeks went passed and I still hadnt recieved anything, I called them and apparently they couldnt tell me where my steelbook was but because it was sold out they could not send me a replacement. I asked what I was to do with the replacement disc as I have no case to keep it in, they had no answer for me. I asked if they could send me a normal bluray case of Cabin in the woods to replace the lost steelbook so I at least had something, they refused and instead refunded me. Now I have my money back and a bluray disc of cabin in the woods which to most people would sound good, however as a steelbook and bluray collector I just find it really disapointing....how can HMV lose my steelbook? This is the second time they have messed up. Back in January thy couldnt take payment for the Drive Steelbook as I had a new replacement card sent out to me, so the same day I called and gave my new card detail only to be told that they had now given my pre-ordered steelbook to someone else!!!???!!! They are so lame. So from now on I am going to try and stay away from them, the only thing is they do special edition steelbooks so if its a film I really want I am going to have to just keep my fingers crossed that they dont mess up again!

My favourite Horror movies at the moment

As it is October and the month of Halloween I thought I would do a post on some of my favourite horror movies. I was going to post my all time favourites but I then decided that I would just do ym favourite horror movies at the moment and then do an all time favourites post later in the month when it actually is Halloween.
So here are some movies that stand out for me at the moment and as a horror movie fan I would recommend to anyone that wants to enjoy a good scare!

V/H/S  2012

This is the most recent film on the list as it premiered at the Sundance film festival in January and was shown over here in the UK recently in August at the film4 Frightfest. V/H/S/ is a horror anthology movie with a storyline all the way through tying all the short stories together. Each part is directed by a different director and so you get a varied amount of talent and ideas running through.

I particular enjoyed the first and last segment more than the others and I thought that the first one was especially brilliant and probably one of the scariest films I have ever seen. I just found it so impressive and skillful.

If you enjoy found footage films you will enjoy this, its showing up all the other film makers out there at the moment who are cashing in on the found footage genre and I really think they all need to take a look at this and make some notes, it just shows you do not need a huge budget or well known names to create these sorts of films. In fact the higher the budget the worse they end up being.

Lastly I would like to just mention that there is a segment in this made by a favourite horror director of mine right now Ti West. His part is not the best out of the bunch, in a horror type way, however the segment he made is brilliant and it does tie in nicely with the first and gives an eerrie feeling which I think was cleverly done. This leads me on to my next choice -

The house of the devil - 2009
I posted about this film in my last post, I love Ti West this film is just brilliant and gives me the same feelings I had when I was younger seeing old horror movies for the first time like Rosemarys baby, the exorcist and the shining. I couldnt believe a modern horror movie could give me that feeling and this is all down to the awesome film making - the retro feel, the type of equiptment used the style of the charactors and even the cars used.

I really enjoyed the whole thing and it kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through. Ti West is definatly someone to watch out for and I hope he carries on making such brilliant movies as the ones he has done so far, I also really like The Innkeepers but this one is his best in my opinion.

Ju-on: The Grudge - 2002

Over the last decade or so there was a huge amount of horror (brilliant original horror) coming out of Asia. Obviously the most famous one being Ringu (the ring). I absolutly love alot of them still and I like alot of others got a bit obsessed with finding more, but to this day the one that scared me the most and one of the few films I could not watch on my own (being a huge horror fan this seemed quite weird for me) after having turned it off one night in bed as I was too scared! I am talking about Ju-on: The Grudge. I have seen the remake too and I have to say compared to the other remakes that were done by the US, that one wasnt that bad. However the original Japanese version has to be one of the scariest movies I have ever seen.

It has everything you would now expect from a japanese horror movie. A scary ghost of a kid, a scary ghost of a woman who just will not leave you alone, weird noises, even the technology we all love and use gets infected by these pissed off spirits. If I had to pick just one world cinema title to scare the crap out of someone this would be it!

Jeepers Creepers - 2001

I know alot of people dont like Jeepers Creepers and I can see why. But for me the movie as a whole is so suspenceful, thinking back to the first time I saw it I was so gripped to see what was going to happen next, not know who the person was driving the scary truck that was following these two siblings trying to get home from college. Why was this happening to them? who was he? how long has he been doing this? Why wont anyone listen to them? and thats what made this film so enjoyable and to me became an instant favourite when I first saw it 10 years ago. The creeper himself is horrible and ....creepy. Some people disliked the movie because of the creeper himself who we dont see until the end of the movie, but I think he is an original and scary creation, mostly seen in shadow form and whats so scary about him is the lack of human emotion, he wont feel sympathy for his victims they cant do or say anything that will ever make him stop wanting to take them.

 There was a second movie Jeepers Creepers 2 which was not that bad either, I wouldnt put it as a great film but for a sequel it was ok.
Something that obviously a lot of people will pick up on is the similarities between this film and an old Steven Spielberg made for tv movie from the 70s 'Duel' if you havent seen that either I def recommend that one too, its a bout an average man who is travelling home after working away and finds that he is being harrassed by a truck driver whom we never see, we havent got a face to put to him just the truck itself and at times it is terrifying. Another movie which is similar is a UK movie called 'Hush' made a few years ago and that too has a villain with no name or face just a truck. Check that one out too.

Possession - 1981

This is a weird one, some people may not like this but I really thought this was way ahead of its time and completly creeped me out and managed to weird me out at the same time. It reminded me of something you would see at a film festival these days by an off beat director such as david lynch or lars von trier. While watching this film I totally forgot I was watching a movie from the early 80s and it feels so modern and fresh.

The film is about a man and woman who have a small child, they are going though some marital problems and in the case of the woman 'Anna' played by Isabelle Adjani - mental problems. We watch the movie and see the breakdown of the marriage and the breakdown of the people themselves as they try and work around this madness that is going on between them. It keeps you guessing all the time and you just dont know what is literally around the corner. It is a strange film but so creepy and I would suggest this film to anyone who wants to watch an offbeat movie to watch rather than a run of the mill horror film.

Lastly I have 2 movies I am going to post about together as they are both really new, big horror movies that have come out over the last couple of years and generally did really well at the cinema.
I was really impressed by these two, both for the same reason, the fact they scared the crap out of me.

Insidious - 2010

 
The woman in black - 2012

These two movies really made me happy (and scared) when I saw them because we really hadnt seen any decent hollywood, big horror movies that were really really good in a long time! I think the only other film that comes to mind that made any impact would have been Paranormal Activity. Putting aside the found footage genre, these are the two that I thought we really well made, well acted, the scares were not over done and had really good stories to them.

So thats just a selection there of some of my current favourites. There are others but I could be here all day talking about horror, its my favourite type of movie! I will do a Halloween post which like I said earlier I will post about my favourite Horror movies of all time.

Thanks for reading =]