The Purge

THE PURGE 

SYNOPSIS:

America, year 2022. Crime is in at all time low because one night a year, all crime is legal. The government have established "the purge" where the rest of America can purify their souls through 12 hours of mayhem, murder and anarchy. James Sandin and his family has this big home security business but this year, the purge hits their own home literally. And for 12 hours no police can help them because every hospital, fire department, and authorities will shut down.

REVIEW:

When I saw the trailer of this film, I said to myself that I gotta see it. Basically, it's all about how the rich slaughter the poor once a year in order to end the so called crime and poverty. The way the film was staged was very subtle. I mean, I can sense the sarcasm when it comes to the neighbors of the Sandins but not to the extent that they themselves are capable of joining "the purge."  I confirmed how sick this film was when the purge started, and the "fun" begins. Mr. Sandin started the lock down of their house not

knowing the boyfriend of her daughter is inside their home. By the way there's something with the youngest child that makes me hate him so much, I don't know but maybe because of his stupidity. So after the lock down, Charlie (son) noticed through the live feed of the cctv, that there's this black man (homeless purge to-be victim) asking for help. And in an instance he lets this man inside the house. When this was happening, Henry (the boyfriend of the daughter Zoey) was looking for Mr. Sandin just to talk to him about Zoey. But instead of just talking, he fires at him but missed him, and when Mr. Sandin fires back he shot Henry and the lovers ran back into Zoey's room. Meanwhile the homeless man was nowhere to be found. And then, there's this gang who was after the homeless man. And no, they are not pleased to know that their purge victim is taking shelter inside the Sandin's mansion. This wealthy but deranged purgers is led by Rhys Wakefield who was a total creepy psycho. He told Mr. Sandin to give their purge victim back alive or they will also harm his family. The problem is, they could not locate the man and their stupid son is helping him to take shelter in his hiding spot. By this time I was already pissed, I mean, yeah what about humanity, but would you sacrifice your family for a man who you don't even know. So after all the commotion, they caught the man and tied him in a chair, finally decided to give him back. But here's another Oh, No for me, the change their minds and decided to fight back. Erratically, they armed themselves willing to kill to protect the children, as the creepy gang tries to enter their house. Once inside the house the more bad things started to happen. Mr. Sandin shot some of the intruders but he was also hurt badly by the creepy leader. And this is the part that I gave up and said to myself, they are all gonna die. But then I was aroused when I saw some of the neighbors shooting some of the intruders. I think to myself, okay everything's gonna be alright. But hell no, this is the part where you won't expect "heroes" will turn dark. So Mr. Sandin did not make it and the environment is getting sad but as Mrs. Sandin thanked the neighbor for helping them, I realized that they are planning more evil than the gang they just killed. They are also taking part of the purge and their target.... the Sandin Family. Because according to them, the Sandins took a lot of money from them (through to the security blah blah business). And they tie all of the 3 remaining members and encircle them as they get ready to stab them to death. They manage to recite some chant and as they continue with their wicked plan, the homeless black man re appeared and he was armed and shot one of the purger, protecting the family. And then they made the rest of the purger seat while waiting for the end of the purge which is at 7:00 am. As Ms. Sandin said "No more killing tonight" 

I have to say that "The Purge' is one of the good movies because it's not typically staged. I can't consider this as pure horror but maybe a combination of thriller,slasher,home invasion film. Bravo for the gang members for they look really disturbing. And the leader, who reminded me of the Joker, really crept me a lot - ruthless. One night entertainment that really do not care about anything but harming the poor. But effectively it brings something deep down inside of us that we would never think we are capable of. And although i know from the start that something bad is going to happen soon, I did not predicted especially the end part where neighbors turned purgers themselves. By the way, i loved the creepy masks of the gang and their get ups, really creepy. 

Art of the Devil (khon len khong) - Movie Review

ART OF THE DEVIL

Synopsis:

Art of the Devil tells the tale of a young Thai girl (Boom), who begins an affair with a married man named Prathan and sooner finds herself pregnant. Whe she breaks the news to Prathan, he tries to settle for giving her a sum of money in exchange for her silence. But, he then wakes her up in the middle of the night saying he had the right to share her for that large amount of money. Prathan recorded a video as his friends chase the terrified Boom out of the room and apparently gang rapes her. Later, booms shows up at the restaurant where prathan's daughter is celebrating her birthday and tells him the money he paid her is not enough but he pulls her outside and hits her tossing cash at her and warning her to not come near his family. Mad, Boom seeks help with the aid of black magic user to revenge on her ex lover and his entire family causing the eldest son to shoot his girlfriend, little sister and own self. Boom is later hit by a car and she loses her baby. Prathan's first wife inherits his fortune and Boom again uses black magic to kill this family of five to claim the inheritance but a young reporter becomes suspicious so Boom also arranges for his death. Boom killed herself by jumping from the roof of the hospital upon seeing her daughter's ghost while only the eldest daughter and youngest son survived the massacre.

Review:
One word to describe Art of the Devil: HARDCORE. Do not watch this film while eating or after eating cause it would definitely turns your stomach upside down. This is one of the most disturbing films I have watched, ever. It's not only about the gore, but the brutal and gruesome presentation of torture and sadistic dismemberment.  Characters die in the worst possible death. Though it does not possess those hair raising feelings that the film "Shutter" gave me, it gave me unique chill, that made me close my eyes or feel  something in my stomach.

The Lords of Salem - Movie Review

The Lords of Salem

Synopsis:
The Lords of Salem tells the story of Heidi who is  a DJ on a radio station in Salem. She received  a strange wooden box containing a weird recording that triggers flash backs of bizarre occurrences in the town's past. Is Heidi just going mad or there is a much darker force behind these strange flash backs.

Review:
The Lords of Salem is created by the singular mind of Rob Zombie. I have seen two of his other experimental films: House of 1000 corpses and the sequel The Devil's Rejects - both with graphic violence. I can say that The Lords of Salem is less violent (nearly) but more gory and more twisted. While the other two are about Psychopaths going madder and ending up torturing people, this latest masterpiece of Rob Zombie comes from a darker and more twisted imagination. I saw lots of Satanic stuff like public burning, filthy witches, bloody rituals, sex and weird chants, masturbating priests, mass suicide and many more gory stuff. The story line is also not hard to understand for everything is told and explained. Though this film definitely would get negative reactions especially from normal audience, I gotta give credit to Rob Zombie and his twisted imagination. I don't know how to rate this movie but I must say I like the other film of Zombie more than this.

Death Bell 2: Bloody Camp - Movie Review

DEATH BELL 2

Synopsis:
A group of High School students and teachers got locked in their school where their swimming instructor was murdered. Two years ago, a high school student and swimmer (Jeong Tae-yeon) was found dead in the swimming pool and it was believed that she committed suicide. Tae-yeon's step sister (Lee Se-Hee) is haunted by a nightmarish visions and is bullied in school. Thirty students including Se - Hee are selected for an elite study camp to be held at the school during the summer break. The school's swimming trainer is murdered in the showers and more deaths will follow.

Review:
I was a bit disappointed with this follow up movie to the first Death Bell. While the story is far related to the first movie, the concept is the same, it's all about pay back time. There are some creepy shots with DB2 but I like DB better. Also, the characters in DB2 are sooooo boring and less interesting compared to the entertaining cast of DB. Finally, this is an average slasher movie and it did not exceeded my expectations.

Death Bell - Movie Review

Death Bell

Synopsis:
A group of twenty elite high school students who taking a special class for their college entrance exam are held captive and force to play a sadistic game of question and and answer. The TV screen switches to the image of the Top 1 student Hye-yeong in a fish tank slowly filling with water. A voice announces that her life depends on the questions he sets for the remaining students. A student will die for every incorrect answer to the questions. Trapped with the students are their teachers Hwang Chan-wook and Choi So-yeong. The main character (I-na) later discovered that they are killed through their rankings in class, and she is fifth in ranking. She with other classmates must discover who is behind this killings but the only fact she's sure of is that this is related to the incident which happened two years ago when a student was murdered. 

Review:
Death Bell is one of Korea's top grossing films of 2008. Personally, I like this movie more than other Asian slasher films. The deaths of the students are creatively staged, when I say creative think of the deaths in the SAW Franchise. Well, after taking a day off with Sadako-like ghosts or Twisted psychological Asian horror movies, Death Bell is a good diversion. Knowing that there's a real person behind the sadistic deaths pumped my heart beat a little. I also did not predicted that it's the guard who's behind the gruesome murders because of what happened to her daughter two years ago, The only thing I disliked about the film was the Death of kang Hyeon (Kim Bum), after all it's not always a happy ending. 

The Cabin in the Woods - Movie Review

The Cabin in the Woods

Synopsis:
Five friends travel to a remote cabin in the woods for a holiday to become victims of a stereotypically horror slasher plot.

Review:
I did not see it coming. This film do look like a typical slasher horror movie but man, I'm telling you, this is more you've bargained for, and there's always even more to the unexpected turn out of events as the film climaxed. I tried to not make any review of this film the minute I finished watching it, even though it

completely blown my mind and kept me paranoid for a couple of hours with "what lurks in the darkness," fro I decided just to keep it to myself for a while and let other people discovered alone what is buried deep in the storyline. The Cabin in the Woods is scary as the same time comedic and intriguing. The fact that the kids are being watched (by the people in the secret laboratory under the cabin) and their fates are decided by an uncontrollable force they do not know makes me think of movies like "Battle Royale" but infused with horror and other scary stuff. This is the movie for horror fanatics who are tired of predictable storyline and standard horror narrative scenes. Better watch the movie without knowing nothing about it (like what I did). End point is it's very satisfying for me and this is one of my favorite movies in the genre. I'm torn apart by the high unpredictability and electrocuted by the messed up turn out of events. I mean, I already know what happens to every horror movies I've watched, really bad things happens, twisted scenarios and gooey stuffs, but not like this where all the demons and scary entities were all in the same movie, hungry and excited to torn apart unsuspected victims. I am not even sure what type of dub genre this movie will fall. I super enjoyed this movie and I've never really seen anything to compare it with. There are plenty unanswered questions but it's better to leave something for the imagination. 

The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia Movie Review

The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia

Synopsis:
The film is based on the true story of the Wyrick Family, whose daughter, Heidi, began seeing allegedly ghosts from the 80's when they moved to a rural house. Heidi apparently befriends "Gordy" whom at first her parents believed to be her imaginary friend. She also sees another ghost named Con who tried to kidnap her. Her father (Andy) investigates and he finds out both men are dead. His wife (Lisa) on the other hand is a struggling medium who is going crazy due to sixth sense overdose. Lisa's sister (who also has 6th sense) moved on the Wyrick's property in a trailer van. When Heidi was taken, her parents will uncover the truth about the haunting which is connected with the underground rail road and an evil racist taxidermist.

Review:
Considering the creepy environment where the movie was shot, it should have been really frightening BUT except for the hanging scene of Lisa's sister, all the jump scare parts are very predictable. The staging of this movie was quite boring. While the cast seemed solid, acting was good and they tried to overpower the script, the problem is the film itself is hard to get through. I'm not saying to make it more like the unexpected turn of events that happened in Cabin in the Woods or add more gore factor like that of the Evil Dead but when a film uses a location like a small house on the woods, it's hard for the audience not to compare and expect for MORE EVIL, SCARIER, MORE GORY scenes. I'm not saying it's a bad movie it is just one of those typical movies I've watched that did not registered in my mind.