Horror Weekend!

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So fun fact about me – I absolutely love scary movies.  If it was between a chick flick and a horror movie, most likely I would choose the scarier of the two (there are some special exemptions, of course).  So when I was invited to check out two scary movies this weekend, I for sure said yes.

The first one I checked out was Scream 4, the fourth instalment in the Scream franchise.  I saw the first one maybe five years ago now and loved it, so naturally I wanted to see them all.  Well, I found Scream 2 so horrendous I didn’t even bother seeing the third one.  Lucky for me though, it didn’t seem like I missed anything because Scream 4 isn’t one of those movies where you need to see the previous films to get the present one.  If you saw the first Scream then you are set.  And you know what, even if you didn’t see it, the current movie is still understandable.

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Okay, so you know when you see a sequel to a movie and it doesn’t live up to the original? (cough Scream 2 cough), well Scream 4 is so not the case.  It’s exciting, it’s funny, it’s suspenseful, and it’s entertaining!

The movie is actually so good.  And oh man that ending!  Did not expect that person to be the killer. I don’t want to give it away, but you will definitely be surprised.  It’s really a great film, I mean it’s not as scary as others out there, but really I don’t think it’s meant to be. I wouldn’t quite characterize it as horror, I think it falls more in the suspense genre.  It’s quite gory and a lot of people get killed, but between the awesome story line and the killer cast (no pun intended) this is one film I would definitely check out.

See it or skip it?  I would for sure see it.

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The second movie I saw this weekend was Insidious. I’m going to start off by saying that I knew absolutely nothing about this movie.  In fact I didn’t even know it was a scary movie prior to my friend telling me about it.  Was it good?  It was okay.  I’m not going to lie, I have definitely seen better.

The movie is credited as being from the same people that brought us Saw and Paranormal Activity.  I didn’t like Saw but I loved Paranormal Activity, so I had some hope and high expectations.  I mean, just because I didn’t like Saw I still respect it, especially the fact that there have been about 20 of them (a little exaggeration)..

The movie starts off strong.  It’s about this young family who just moved into this new (huge) house and weird stuff starts happening (the usual stuff getting moved, falling, etc.).   One of the young sons goes up to the scary attic, hits his head, and the next day doesn’t wake up.  He’s not dead, but in this weird coma that the doctors can’t explain.  That’s when the scary stuff starts happening. The mom Renai (played by Rose Byrne) starts hearing voices and sees people in the house and after much coaxing finally convinces her husband Josh (Patrick Wilson) to move houses.  However, they soon start to realize that it wasn’t the house that was haunted, but their comatose son.  This is the part where the movie went downhill for me.

There was just so much stuff that just didn’t do it for me.  One, they showed the people that were haunting the house, which I find takes away from the horror in the film.  It’s much scarier to not see the ghosts or hauntings, it makes it much more suspenseful for the viewer.  I was like “big deal, it’s just some guys” and really, aside from one guy that looked like Darth Maul from Star Wars, they were just everyday looking people (some with tons of makeup on).  Another thing I didn’t like were the parts where it tried to be funny.  It was nice to laugh and break up the suspense, but I think it took away from the story to have these geeky ghosthunter kind of guys.  Not to mention the scene where the psychic/ghost whisperer lady wears this elephant-like mask to talk to the demon that wants to take over the sons body.

I dunno, there was something that just didn’t do it for me about this movie.  It was long and by the end it just got so low budget to me, but not good low budget like in Paranormal Activity, more like low budget as in The Uninvited, and no not the hollywood film, but a different one by IFC On-Demand that I found on Netflix and soon realized that it wasn’t the right Uninvited I was looking for.  Needless to say, I turned it off about half an hour into the film.

All negativity aside though, I did like the ending.  In true horror-like fashion it had the twist ending that leaves the audience sitting there for a few more seconds after the lights come on to take it in.

See it or skip it?  I would skip it.  Wait till it comes out on DVD and rent it if you really want to see it.

Have you seen Scream 4 or Insidious? What were your thoughts?