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joannafannadanna
Reviews
Respire (2010)
Solid and entertaining, but maybe one too many subplots
I had been wanting to see this ever since I heard about it a couple years ago (and I liked the director's last film a lot) and I can say that I enjoyed it...for the most part. A dying woman gets a new lease on life when she inhales from a mysterious vial but then she starts having weird visions and murderous tendencies. Sounds pretty simple, right? If that's all the movie was about, I think this would totally rock. As it is it only sorta rocks. There's an awful lot of back story that needs to be told for you to understand what's going on. That's okay but it does make the middle drag. The opening credit sequence which follows a box through all of the decades is really, really well done and the last half hour, once it actually becomes a horror is entertaining as well. For the acting, the two leads are good. The rest of the cast...eh, not so much. I would say that if you go into it knowing that the middle part drags but will pay off later on (there's a pretty cool scene with a tied-up girl where you would swear that the actress is genuinely terrified of what's off-screen), then you might enjoy it a little more. Overall, I'd recommend it but only if you're not looking for a super scary horror and you're willing to pay attention the whole time. By the way, if they released a soundtrack, I'd buy it. Some of the songs were really good.
The Fog (2005)
Kill me now and save me from trash like this...
I recently saw THE FOG and then read a lot of the reviews posted on IMDb about it. In my opinion, you people are being TOO easy on it. Can you rate anything BELOW a 1? Can I give a NEGATIVE rating to this film? And most of all, I'm writing Revolution Studios and demanding my money back. When you pay money to see something in a theater, I feel that there is a mutual and unspoken guarantee from the studio releasing it that the film will, at the very least, resemble something that LOOKS as if it were made by a group of people who know something about film-making. After seeing this, I would have to seriously question whether or not Rupert Wainwright has ever actually seen a film or if he's just going by what other people have told him ("Hey, Rupert, movies are really cool! You use this thing called a camera and it records people doing neat stuff! Doesn't that sound interesting?").
I don't need to be insulted like this. The original FOG was a good, solid piece of horror film-making that generated its scares by making the most of a small budget along with great music and decent effects. The new one is a poop stain on the remake underbelly that Hollywood has chosen to embrace. I don't just hate this movie, I LOATHE it. I loathe it and everything that it stands for because what it stands for is taking your money and then kicking you in the balls.
GhostWatcher 2 (2005)
Make another one NOW!!!
How in the hell does a movie like this go straight to DVD and a piece of mummified crap like THE FOG gets delivered to theaters?! Talk about unfair. Hacks like Rupert Wainwright and Uwe Boll-the worst director ever in the history of the entire world-continue to be able to make big budget films and people who actually know how to make horror movies get pushed to the back of the shelf? At least the Ghostwatcher movies are original and actually care about scaring the audience. If the original Ghostwatcher was remade with a big budget and some stars it would be the biggest horror hit of the year and at least that would make sense. Why has no one thought of this? Well, at least someone is still making movies for the horror audience and not a bunch of teenyboppers. The makers of this movie really came through this time.
Laura takes over the Elizabeth role and tries to help a teenager who is hearing voices. What those voices are and where they're coming from was a total surprise to me and makes for the best scene in the whole movie. The ending is pretty downbeat but works because it is so well done.
The thing I liked best about this movie is that the director didn't feel the need to throw in an African-American caricature who runs around screaming like an idiot (again, see THE FOG). Is anyone besides me sick of seeing that? And he doesn't spell everything out for the audience but instead lets them figure some things out for themselves. He uses classic scare tactics to get the audience on the edge of their seat instead of jamming it full of crappy CGI (there is some of that too but it actually looks really good in this one). In short, this is the kind of horror film they used to make back in the 70's when horror films were actually good and were more about story and character than how much we can make the first weekend because the newest TV star is in it. If you're as sick of the new wave of horror as I am, check this one out. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
And a plea to the director-please continue to make horror films in the future. You're the only one who seems to know what we want.