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The Babadook: The Best Horror Film of 2014 that You’ve Never Seen

05 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by in Breaking the News, In the News, Movies, Reviews

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The Babadook

The Babadook

The Babadook: The Best Horror Film of 2014 that You’ve Never Seen

Mister Babadook is a pop-up book discovered in Amelia’s house six years after her husband, Oskar, died en route to the hospital. The day Oskar died was the day their son, Samuel, was born. Amelia still grieves. And Samuel is odd. Only the neighbor, Mrs. Roach, seems to like him—including Amelia.

Samuel believes in monsters. He creates primitive weapons to keep them at bay. After reading Mister Babadook, however, Samuel fears this new bogeyman has taken over the family home.  The Babadook is this year’s best horror film.

This highly anticipated horror movie started as a short film, Monster. Through online campaign funding, the movie was extended to full-length. It debuted at Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. Currently in limited American release, it can be rented through various video on demand services.

More of a psychological thriller, The Babadook follows grief-stricken Amelia, played by Essie Davis, as she becomes possessed by this shadow figured bogeyman. Davis shines. Equally impressive is Noah Wiseman’s portrayal as 6 year old Samuel. Samuel seeks to protect his mother.

The film is very Hitchcockian, although the official website likens it more to Polanski. Both were great directors in this genre. Writer/Director Jennifer Kent employs minimalistic camera techniques and little background music. Absent are the cheap horror tactics of slasher films. And this is appreciated! Furthermore, the ending is more realistic than recent horror films, thus setting up the potential for sequels. The Babadook will be a franchise worth watching. Every horror film aficionado must see this film. Every budding horror film writer should take notes and see that there is more to horror films than graphic violence. Horror movies can have a plot and great actors.

Jennifer Kent has created one wicked creature. The Babadook creature is more than a children’s book. He can be anywhere. The pop-up book is simply sinister. Fans can purchase a high-quality version of the book for $80 at www.thebabadook.com.

The Babadook

The Babadook

Dead Still Worth Viewing

08 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by in Demonic Possession, Memento Mori, Movies, SyFy Channel

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Dead Still

Dead Still

Dead Still Worth Viewing

I love horror movies. I’ve watched them since I was a teenager. My favorites include the classics: The Exorcist (1975), Jaws (1975), and Poltergeist (1982). However, I like the B-movie horror films, namely The House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Monster Squad (1987), and The Tingler (1959), too. I grew up watching Dr. Paul Bearer on Creature Feature on WTOG. Horror movies transcend decades and act as social commentary. The Booth Brothers’ new film Dead Still incorporates the Victorian practice of taking mourning portraits into a fictional modern-day inheritance issue. Dead Still, an original SyFy movie, is worth viewing.

The Horror film genre remains popular. Box office rival Annabelle nearly toppled Gone Girl this past weekend. Even though each film generated over $37 million in ticket sales, Annabelle was the money winner. Produced for under $7 million dollars, Annabelle’s return in one weekend was five times its production costs. Wow! Low-budget horror films produce huge profits. This applies to films released exclusively on television with DVD sales later.

Dead Still’s estimated production costs were $2 million dollars. That’s extremely low for any film project. Moreover, the film shines with beautiful cinematography, haunting music, and A-list acting.

Filmed on location in Baton Rouge, Dead Still features an incredibly spooky house. Philip Adrian Booth captures the moody ambiance of the house, as well as, the Negative world. Remember: This is a low-budget film. Philip does a lot on a tight budget.

Equally impressive is the eerily evocative soundtrack. Twin brother Christopher Saint Booth assembled a soundtrack heavy with strings—quite appropriate for a horror film. Working as “Saint,” Christopher has assumed the role as music scorer for their productions. Christopher delivers.

Ray Wise

Ray Wise

Producers landed three strong actors. Ray Wise is absolutely wicked. Mr. Wise’s transformation into the crazy “Wenton Davis,” great grandfather and original owner of the antique Victorian camera, is creepy. Creepy weird and chilling. Ben Browder as “Brandon” is convincing as the relationship-challenged heir to the camera. He’s at his best in the Negative world. Gavin Casalegno portrays “Bobby,” Brandon’s son. His facial expressions convey what words cannot. Already boasting an impressive acting resume, Gavin has a long career ahead of him.

Gavin Casalegno

Gavin Casalegno

Graphic scenes are limited; however, I could have done without the sexual scene with the newlyweds. It didn’t add any real content and could have been achieved without the nudity and hand-gripping bedrail close-ups.

The antique Victorian camera is an amazing prop. The claw-footed, custom-made stand is intricately detailed and gorgeous. Reproductions of mourning portraits are impactful. They realistically represent the type of photographs popular in America and Europe from 1840-1891.

Dead Still is entertaining and gruesome. The Booth Brothers have expanded their filmmaking collection and have made the jump into the fictional horror movie genre. I look forward to their next film. Until then, stay still—Dead Still.

Antique Victorian Camera

Ben Browder with the Antique Victorian Camera

 

Oculus—One Cloudy Film

21 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Haunted Houses, Media, Movies, Pets, Reviews

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Oculus Movie Poster

Oculus Movie Poster

 

Oculus—One Cloudy Film

The gals from Archer Paranormal Investigations (API) took in the film Oculus Saturday night. Many, many words come to mind now that I have properly reflected upon it, and none of them are the words “Good,” “So-So,” or even “Marginal.” This movie was horrible.

There were only two things I liked about the movie: the eerie music and “Dog.” Spoiler Alert: The only saving grace was that the dog was released half way through. I wished that I too was released then. I kept looking at my cell phone to see how much longer the pain would continue. The mediocre storyline could have been overcome with less flash backs. The lady down from me kept saying how confused she was. I wasn’t confused. I was bored.

Prior to the screening, I was concerned that the movie would be too graphic and gruesome. There was one bug-out scene where the adult Kaylie, played by Karen Gillan, mistakenly eats an abnormally large, round light bulb thinking it was an apple. (And the hairdresser should be shot for styling her hair that way, just saying.) Other than that, the horror factor was low. And that would be okay if the director played upon our psyche. He did not. Instead he kept rotating the flashback scenes with present day trying to confuse the viewer. There are so many holes in the plot. Why weren’t the kids in school? What neighbor walks a pre-teen child back without calling 9-1-1? Who has a tattoo on her arm in 2002? How does a mother who never leaves the house really believe her husband is having an affair in his home office? None of this makes sense. Then add an expensive mirror with ties to royalty. How on God’s green earth did this family afford it? It was too distracting to try and reconcile all of this and still watch.

In the end no one won. And that’s a cinematic problem. The protagonist always wins. That’s the formula. That’s what makes the genre work. Instead one dies and the other is remanded back into custody. The movie ends with an obvious desire for a sequel. Pass.