Lost Boys
Eish. The 80’s. At the time, Lost Boys was
a sexy, slick modernization of the vampire
genre. A zeitgeist. Thing is, shoulderpads
were also really hot at the time. As was
Cory Haim. Neither aged well either. Now
it’s hilarious, but painful to watch beneath
a truckload of feathered hair, torn jeans,
kak “CGI” and Keifer Sutherland going
‘Rawr!’ in an over-extended Wham video.
in the Machine
The Awakening
Rebecca Hall (of Vicky Christina
Barcelona) is a Victorian Ghostbuster,
exploring the scientific basis of
paranormal phenomena and expos ing
hoaxes created for financial gain from
grieving survivors. Then a teacher
from an all-boys academy hires her to
investigate the recent death of a student
attributed to the ghost of an old student.
It’s stylish, if somewhat slow.
Shutter
Again, avoid the 2008 American remake
starring Joshua Jackson that racked up a
whopping 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. The
Thai original has much more to it. After
a drunken hit-and-run, Tun and Jane
leave the mangled body of a pedestrian
lying in the road. Tun, a photographer,
starts to notice ghostly shadows in
his photographs. Then Jane discovers
that the pedestrian may not have been
that random at all, and Tun, may in fact
deserve to be haunted for his actions.
The Woman In Black
Harry Potter gets embroiled in
mysterious child suicides in a turn-ofthe-century country town.
The Sixth Sense
Perhaps the only good movie M. Night
Shyamalan has made. Sure, thousands
of T-shirts have been made sporting
the phrase ‘I See Dead People’ and the
surprise twist is now a cliché; but still
worth a watch.
Paranormal Activity
Taking the stylistic ‘found footage’
standard of The Blair Witch Project,
Paranormal Activity plays on the
ultimate childhood paranoia of things
that go bump in the night. And it works.
The Happening
SPOILER ALERT: Nothing happens. They’re
running away from a light breeze
They Were Horrors
Titanic
A boat gets attacked by an iceberg.
Thousands die. There are violins. And Celine
Dion bores into your brain forever. It’s brutal.
Wolfman
SPOILER ALERT: It should’ve been great.
But it’s not. It’s bloody awful. Rather watch
the 1941 schlock classic.
The Others
Blue Valentine
Sometimes chainsaws are more delicate
than marriage.
Nicole Kidman spends 101 minutes of
your life checking to see if the doors are
locked whilst trying to move her face.
SPOILER ALERT: She doesn’t succeed in
doing either.
Enid
The Village
Much like IT – take something you loved as
a kid (Enid Blyton) and show it up for what
it really is. She was a horrible person. Like,
Roald Dahl character horrible.
SPOILER ALERT: They’re just Mormons.
Requiem For A Dream
It’s a great movie. But the kind that will haunt
you indefinitely. It’s the paralleled demise
of a mother and son through addiction; his
through heroin, hers through prescription diet
pills. At once really sexy, but ultimately deeply
disturbing, Requiem has always been on my
list as an example of truly great filmmaking.
On numerous levels – the experience of
drug-taking, the intimacy of a couple just
lying in bed together, the overwhelming
paranoia of the mental breakdown of a lonely
middle aged woman.
Chronicle
Sure, give the social outcast superpowers;
great idea.
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