torsdag 19 februari 2009

One Missed Call: Final

The third movie in the Asian teen horror series that is quite okay. The teens get phone messages from themselves in the future - with a clue of how they are going to die. Their only chance of surviving is to forward the message to someone else. It's an entertaining movie if you don't expect any logic, and are ready to suspend your belief quite a bit. Grade: 3 out of 5

The Haunted Apartments

Asian ghost horror where a girl and her alcoholic father move into a cursed apartment building - where people die gruesome deaths. The story is a mess, but there's a surprise reveal near the end I didn't see coming. A couple of scenes are actually scary, but there's annoying overacting by some of the minor characters that almost drove me crazy. Grade: 2 out of 5

Ab-normal Beauty

Visually stunning Asian horror by one of the Pang brothers. A girl gets fascinated by death after taking photographs of a car accident. Fascination turns into obsession and she now needs more and more gruesome pictures of death. The movie is beautiful, haunting, well acted, but ultimately unsatisfying because it's not scary enough. Grade: 2 out of 5

måndag 16 februari 2009

Cinderella

Another Asian horror/drama that doesn't deliver in the scares department. Girls who had plastic surgery to look more beautiful suddenly start dying one by one. The movie looks beautiful, but the pace is really slow. The movie plays like a drama with two or three jolt scares thrown into the mix. Grade: 2 out of 5

Alone

From the directors of "Shutter" come this better-than-average ghost horror from Thailand. It's about a dead siamese twin that comes back to haunt the sister who is alive. I really wanted to give this movie a higher grade, but I can't because the ghost scares and the twist are very predictable - but it's a pretty solid movie anyway. Grade: 3 out of 5

Ghost Game

Ghost horror from Thailand. Contestants in a "Big Brother"-like ghost house are monitored by cameras. Soon all hell breaks loose. Not a very good movie, quite boring actually, but a scene with a rock made me cringe. Grade: 2 out of 5

söndag 15 februari 2009

The Heirloom

More drama than horror in this ghost movie from Taiwan. A man moves into a mansion he inherited, a mansion filled with dark family secrets. It showed potential at first, and the mood is creepy, but the movie is just too slow. The verdict: not scary. Grade: 2 out of 5

Sigaw

Low key ghost horror from the Philippines. A man moving into a new apartment sees strange visions of a female ghost, or is he losing his mind? The movie is long and painfully slow, but has a great atmosphere. There are only a couple of creepy suspenseful scenes, so mostly this is a drama. The movie had something I liked - I just can't put my finger on it. Grade: 2 out of 5

The Ghost

Asian horror (original title: “Ryeong”) where a girl has lost her memory and can’t seem to remember why a vengeful ghost wants to kill her friends one by one. At first glance the movie seems like a fairly standard Asian ghost horror complete with a long-haired ghost, but it’s actually one of the better movies in this genre. Pretty solid effort muddled only by a confusing ending. Grade: 3 out of 5