The Innkeepers: 2011 horror film directed by Ti West and
starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy and Kelly McGillis. Claire and Luke are working the skeleton-crew
shift at the Yankee Pedlar Inn the last weekend it will be open. Claire is a college dropout sort of drifting
along, not sure what direction she’ll take when she loses her job, and Luke’s in
pretty much the same boat. According to
local legend, a jilted bride committed suicide at the hotel in the 1800s and
has been spooking up the place ever since.
They decide to devote their last days attempting to prove that the inn is
haunted, roaming the halls with an EVP recorder and spazzing out over every
unexplained noise. McGillis, as the
former-daytime-television-actress-turned-psychic does well with what she’s been
given, but her character feels like an Also Ran, only there to pop up from time
to time and provide expositional details.
It’s not super scary, but worth a few good jumps.
Contagion: 2011 disaster thriller directed by Steven
Soderbergh and starring like a gojillion people: Paltrow, Cotillard, Winslet, Damon,
Fishburne, Bryan Cranston, Jude Law, etc.
A businesswoman returns to the States with a gnarly head cold after her
trip abroad, and suddenly there’s a global pandemic. It’s a fairly decent thriller that shows
multiple sides of a global health crisis – the doctors at the CDC who have to
deal with federal and local bureaucracies, investigate the origins of the virus
and attempt to find a cure, all while dealing with fears about their own
loved ones; the families living under military quarantine; the epidemiologist
who is kidnapped in China and held for medicinal ransom; and the conspiracy
theorist blogger who uses the panic for his own selfish ends under the guise of
wanting to speak truth to the masses.
The acting is fairly well done all around, with Winslet and Damon the
standouts. It’s worth giving a shot, for
sure.
The Wolf Man: 1941 horror film directed by George Waggner
and starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Bela Lugosi, Evelyn Ankers and
Maria Ouspenska. It’s the classic tale
you already know: a dashing young man is
bitten by a werewolf, turns into a werewolf himself, struggles with his new
lupine identity, and lashes out at his loved ones. It’s a little campy, but only a little, and
definitely a must-see if you’ve haven’t already. I wouldn’t watch it over and over, but it’ll
be nice to revisit around Halloween.
House on Haunted
Hill: 1959 horror film directed
by William Castle and starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Carolyn Craig,
Richard Long, and Elisha Cook. An
eccentric millionaire decides to throw a party, seemingly out of boredom, and
makes this offer: stay in this haunted
house I’ve rented for a night and receive $10,000. His grab bag of guests includes a pilot, a
journalist, a psychiatrist, a secretary, the terrified owner of the property,
and his plotting, money-hungry fourth wife.
The caretakers lock the doors behind them, the guests are given guns for
protection, and then it’s up to them to ride out the evening and decide whether
the ghosts are real or imaginary. I know
this is terrible, but I have a real soft spot for the horrible 1999 remake with
Taye Diggs and Chris Kattan, and I think I liked that version more. It’s fine and all, but there are far better
horror movies from this era that I’d rather watch.
The Exorcist 3: 1990 second sequel in the Exorcist pantheon,
directed by William Peter Blatty and starring George C. Scott, Brad Dourif, Ed
Flanders and Jason Miller. Lieutenant
Kinderman (Scott) is investigating a strange series of murders in Georgetown
that bear striking resemblance to murders committed by The Gemini Killer, who
was executed 15 years prior. He starts
to suspect something paranormal is afoot.
It was weird, quirky, and a little off-putting, but intriguing enough to
keep my interest. Mostly I watched it
for George C. Scott. It was just okay,
if that. Apparently far better than the
second, but still worse than the first.
Snow White &
the Huntsman: 2012 fantasy film
directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris
Hemsworth, Sam Claflin and Sam Spruell.
Think Snow White but darker.
Think LOTR treatment of a Grimm fairy tale. Think modern, slightly less endearing Legend.
Stewart is a dead-eyed cardboard cutout of a heroine, but it kind of
doesn’t matter because everyone else around her is so great. Hemsworth is a lovely, scruffy, heartbroken
Hunstman. Theron is electric as the evil
witch queen, and Spruell is delightful as her psychotic brother. And there are weird CGI cameos by the likes
of Nick Frost, Bob Hoskins and Toby Jones!
You guys I loved it STOP JUDGING ME.
The special effects are pretty good, the story is a little more
interesting than I expected it to be, it’s mostly predictable and occasionally
treacly but I didn’t care. I really
liked it. It’s perfect Guilty Pleasure
fodder.
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