Film Filter: Off - Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Film Filter: Off- I had intended on watching this film some time ago, but never really got around to it.  When I saw that it was on Netflix, I jumped at the opportunity, because I like a lot of Guillermo del Toro's films.

Pros- I won't say that the entire cast was well selected, but many of them were.  I especially like Katie Holmes in the maternal type of role, because I feel like it fit her personality pretty well.  Guy Pearce was ok as the dad, but I definitely wasn't in love with his character or the way he played it, and I really wasn't fond of how the little girl was cast, but we'll get to that later.  Also, many of the minor characters were cast very well and played into the realism of the film.
   Possibly what del Toro does best is use his imagination to create a world much more magical than reality, with fascinating creatures that are interesting to watch develop on screen.  This film is no exception, as he makes his little antagonists unique and realistic.  In this particular film, it seems that he leaned toward quantity more than quality, but that is understandable when you see how many of them there are.  That's certainly not meant to be a slam, but you often see a little more detail and ingenuity with his creatures, and these ones are more lackluster.
   I had a love/hate relationship with the ending.  I think it provided a necessary aspect of the film that was begged to occur throughout the film, but I was also torn personally because of who it happened to. I didn't quite understand the last statement made, but perhaps I missed something and it made perfect sense.

Cons-  My first beef with this movie is that, even from the previews, you assume that Katie Holmes is the young girl's mother. Why?  Because she looks just freaking like her.  It's pretty annoying to endure the entire film knowing that she is not the biological mother, but being frustrated because she looks more like her than she does her father.  Grrr!  Poor casting decision.  I also wasn't fond of the way the character was portrayed, which has more to do with the directors that characterized her than the young girl herself.  She's sad, lonely, and feels like nobody loves her, so immediately we are meant to pity her.  So, she wishes to befriend unknown creatures hiding in the furnace of a locked basement in an old, creepy home?  That seems a little irrational.  Maybe befriend your father's girlfriend instead, as she is eager to get to know you and clearly cares about you...but nah, hungry mythical creatures seems like a better bet.
   In terms of del Toro's magical world being created, I felt it gave a little bit of a schizophrenic vibe.  The house was lovely, and the mystical garden in the back with the beautiful ponds felt like that's where the movie should have taken place.  Instead, as the creatures are antagonists, the movie takes place mostly in a dark, dingy basement.  It was interesting, and a little visually confusing, to have the mythical creatures and the mythical garden not be intertwined.
   One of my biggest cons, in any film, is the lack of common sense.  Anyone who has suffered through the Gingerdead Man will understand my complaint with small, evil beings less than a foot in height.  Seriously?  They're going to get the better of you?  How about a flame thrower?  Or, if you know their weakness is bright light, how about you sleep with all the lights on, instead of a flimsy night light prone to breaking.  Or when they attack you in your bathroom, instead of looking for the door, maybe look for the light switch?  There were so many frustrating, easily fixed circumstances that I lost track.
   Lastly, the ending was a little confusing.  In the past, when the evil faeries had taken someone down their sewer 'o death, that person was dead.  Duh.  It was a pretty long fall, and I don't think that anyone could survive it.  **SPOILER ALERT** When Katie Holmes' character, Kim, gets dragged down, you hear her voice at the end all creepy-like saying "Don't worry, she'll be back..."  Ummm, anyone care to explain to me what happened?  Did she turn into one of them?  Even if she was alive, she sacrificed herself to save the little girl, so why is she now evil?  I don't get it!

Wrap up- I wouldn't recommend this movie, unless you are very interested in seeing what the creatures look like.  The plot is unique, but the little nuances that don't make sense trump whatever good is left in the movie.

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Film Filter: Off - Paranormal Activity 2

Film Filter: Off- Since the fourth one just recently made its debut in theaters, I figured it was about time for me to succumb to the pressure and try watching the series.

Pros- One of the things that is up and coming in the horror biz is the use of music, or sometimes lack thereof.  As a found footage genre film, it's pretty clear that this one doesn't utilize music.  This oftentimes becomes a pro, as music is usually one of two things in horror movies: foreshadowing something about to happen, or false foreshadowing an event only to result in silence...and THEN the event becomes more effective in the silence.  Having no music whatsoever allows the scary moments in the film to be taken as they would naturally happen, as opposed to pumping up a moment with good sound or music.
   Not unlike the pros I noted with the original film is the ability to scaffold the intensity and the scary moments within the film.  I will say I was a little disappointed with what the moments were, and I didn't find this movie to be all that different from the first one, but they (sort of) utilized a good technique that was exhibited in the original.
  This sequel to the original is actually pretty well known to be a prequel.  What you don't realize until the end, however, is that it covers both the events before the first movie, and the ones immediately following it as well.  As someone who doesn't enjoy loose ends in movies, I found this to be pretty gratifying.

Cons- As I stated above, this movie is really not any different from the original.  It layers the events of the haunting in the same way, it even is the same family and demon responsible for the haunting.  The only difference is that it adds information that we did not have about the events of Katie and Micah prior to their encounters, and right after as well.  While I did say that was gratifying, it was also about 10 minutes of information that could have easily been added to the first one.  To include a movie that is almost a carbon copy of an original just to add a parallel perspective of events and 10 minutes worth of new information seems a bit wasteful to me.

Wrap up- This movie wasn't bad, if you look at it on its own, but in conjunction with the original it pretty much felt like a waste of time.  I'm assuming that's why the third movie starts to focus on the family at a much older time period.  God forbid they tried to use the same one again, as they seem to be running out of ideas...maybe they should make a movie from the dog's perspective.

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Film Filter: Off - Sinister

Film Filter: Off-  I vividly remember seeing this movie trailer as an advertisement on a youtube video I was watching, and I was instantly interested.  Above and beyond the fact that it was made by the same people who brought you Insidious and Paranormal Activity, the story seemed interesting and I am always a sucker for the supernatural.

Pros- The acting definitely helped this movie feel pretty realistic.  Ethan Hawke hasn’t been in much recently that I can recall, but I feel like he did a commendable job in this film.  The effectiveness came from a mix from his character alone, and almost more importantly, the way the locals treated him and the interactions between him and his family.  They helped characterize his role sometimes even more so than he did.  There were many moments in the characters where they had a conflicting persona than they had originally started with, and I think that most of them played both sides of their characters well.

   Despite the fact that this movie and Insidious have pretty much the same type of story line, I actually found myself enjoying this one more.  Some of the differences that made this one stand out in my mind were the scaffolding of the antagonist’s face.  Although Insidious did the same thing, I found that Sinister didn’t overdo it with special effects like Insidious did.  This film also did a better job of creating something that felt a tad more realistic.  While both focused on paranormal entities that we can choose to believe or not, it became a little too incredulous in Insidious when he went into the “other realm” and I sort of checked out after that.  This one, while still remaining a fantasy at times, felt more believable for a longer period of time.

   One of the things that this movie did very well, which in my opinion is an important staple of a good horror movie, is the scare factor.  Sure, some of the scares were cheap shots, and almost ALL of them were predictable but it didn’t change the fact that pretty much all of them were effective.  Going hand in hand with the scare factor in this movie was the use of music/sounds in the film.  A lot of times something that may not have been visually frightening became so with the proper use of music and sound occurring in the background.  This was pretty much the root of why predictable moments became effectively scary, despite the fact that most of the audience saw them coming.

Cons- Overall, I didn’t have many qualms with this film, other than the run-of-the-mill persnickety comments.  I found it slightly annoying that Ethan Hawke’s character ignored phone calls from the deputy, especially given the circumstances of their situation.

   It was also frustrating that the demon spirit was intangible, but able to move things.  I mean, maybe he was tangible but it seems that, since he was a demon that was killing people by using children, he needed them in order to carry out tangible tasks.  Otherwise, wouldn’t he just do it himself?

   On a side note, I (selfishly) would have liked a little bit more information on the Pagan Deity Maghoul, Bagool…whatever his name was.  I tried looking him up online, but he’s pretty elusive.  Must be he’s never heard of Facebook.

Wrap up- This is an excellent movie choice if you are looking for the following: good scares, interesting story line, good character interactions.

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