Grave Encounters 2 (2012)(Minor Spoilers Review)

**This review contains MINOR spoilers. No character deaths, major twists, or reveals**

Alex Wright (Richard Harmon) is a young film student and director, and he’s a passionate horror fan. Alex reviews Grave Encounters 2011 for a video blog post, and Alex dismisses Grave Encounters as another lame low budget horror film. As time passes, Alex notices a few red flags in the production credits, and Alex develops an obsession for Grave Encounters.

Alex believes Grave Encounters was a real film with real ghosts, spirits, demons, and deaths. The entire crew from Grave Encounters is missing, and a visit to Lance Preston’s (real name Sean Rogerson) mother doesn’t help anything, because Lance’s mother is suffering from a bad case of dementia. Alex runs into another roadblock after a meeting with an uncooperative Jerry Hartfield (Ben Wlikinson), the executive producer of Grave Encounters. Although, Alex receives a helping hand via YouTube messages from an anonymous source named DeathAwaits666. DeathAwaits666 invites Alex to a meeting at Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital at 3:00 am sharp, and Alex agrees. Grave Encounters is the number one priority on Alex’s list, so Alex immediately cancels production for his new horror movie.

Motivated by his mission to find the truth, Alex convinces his team to work on a documentary to expose all the secrets behind the first Grave Encounters. Alex receives support from his cameramen Trevor Thompson (Dylan Playfair) and Jared Lee (Howie Lai), a camerawoman named Tessa Hamill (Stephanie Bennett), and Jennifer Parker (Leanne Lapp), the lone actress in the group. A pesky security guard (Sean Tyson) is determined to ruin Alex’s movie at Collingwood, but Alex and his team are forced to deal with a bigger problem, when DeathAwaits666 attacks.

The group struggles to locate an exit in Collingwood’s tricky maze, and the situation becomes more complex, when a feral Sean Rogerson appears. For nine years, Rogerson survived in Collingwood by eating rats, and Rogerson had more than enough time to study Collingwood’s layout, and Rogerson is the only one, who can anticipate Collingwood’s traps. After years of searching, Rogerson found a big red door wrapped in chains on the lower levels of Collingwood.

The red door could lead to the only exit in Collingwood, so Alex and his group team up with Rogerson. The evil forces of Collingwood eliminate members of Alex’s team one by one during separate attacks, and Rogerson’s erratic behavior worries Trevor. Alex plans to escape Collingwood with all the recorded footage intact, but an unexpected request complicates a life-or-death dilemma…….

Sean Rogerson delivers the best performance here, easily. I’m not saying Rogerson deserves an Oscar or a Golden Globe, but he’s the best in a mediocre bunch. The dirty and hairy wildman look helps, and Rogerson is believable as the deranged recluse.

Grave Encounters 2 takes a more serious approach to breaking the fourth wall. The movie opens with an intro of random video bloggers (including Alex) praising and trashing Grave Encounters 2011, and Alex does some research to find more info for the whereabouts of the cast members and crew, who worked on the original film. At Collingwood, Alex and his team retrace the original crew’s steps to analyze and explore the mysteries behind their deaths and disappearances.

Every now and then, the approach to be more realistic annoyed me for one big reason: Grave Encounters 2 is too full of itself. There’s a scene, where Alex  pins a hidden camera onto his clothes during a meeting with Hartfield at a  film studio. Alex had plans to force a confession out of Hartfield about the truth behind Grave Encounters, but Hartfield wouldn’t budge an inch. Anyway, during the scene at the studio, Hartfield constantly praises his own brilliance for deceiving the viewers, and the genius behind his plans (using The Vicious Brothers, the writers and directors of the original and the screenwriters for the sequel, as interns, using no-name actors and actresses for the original, etc.) to produce Grave Encounters.

On top of all that, I rolled my eyes during a few scenes at Collingwood. Alex and his crew are dissecting the What-ifs behind the events of Grave Encounters, and you can feel a sense of amazement from the main characters, as they’re studying the deaths of everyone from the first film (i.e. T.C. being pulled into the bathtub full of blood). Look, I enjoyed Grave Encounters 2011, but let’s not kid ourselves here. At BEST Grave Encounters was an above average found-footage horror film/guilty pleasure. So it’s kind of annoying, when the sequel constantly pats itself on the back with a “Hey! We’re smart!” smile.

So let me get this straight, as an aspiring horror filmmaker, Alex wants to do something different, because he’s tired of generic and formulaic horror films. Okay, so you decide to make another found-footage/documentary “This actually happened in real life!” horror film? Seriously?

Also, there’s a HUGE gap in logic for Alex’s motivations to find out more about Grave Encounters. If you believe everything in Grave Encounters 2011 is real, why in the name of all things holy would you risk your lives and your friends/crew’s lives to discover the truth? If we’re following Alex’s thought process, he KNOWS demons, ghosts, and other evil forces control Collingwood, and you’re going to dive head first into the madness?

And there’s no way around this, but Alex isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. I get the point of needing some inside info to help with your research on Collingwood, but you’re going to trust an anonymous YouTube user named DeathAwaits666???? Of course, DeathAwaits666 is an evil spirit, who makes an appearance via Ouija board (Alex finds the Ouija board, and DeathAwaits666 uses the board to spell out the name. Yeah, we’ve all seen this trick in numerous horror films so many times) at 3:00am, and DeathAwaits666 attacks everyone surrounding the Ouija board. They should’ve changed DeathAwaits666 YouTube name to ImGoingToKillYou@3am for more laughs.

Grave Encounters 2 won’t set the bar for successful horror sequels, but the follow-up film features a few redeeming qualities. The spooky tension inside Collingwood helps the sporadic scenes of terror, a few gross-out scenes are guaranteed to pull a reaction out of you (Rogerson eating a live and struggling rat…..yuck), and the death scenes are brutal (i.e. Trevor’s death scene, Jared’s death, and the security guard’s death scene. To give you more info, the security guard is electrocuted to death, and his convulsing body catches fire), and the big red door really works as the most ominous and creepy image in Grave Encounters 2.

The snooty superiority complex is annoying at times, I can’t ignore the stupidity (Alex is responsible for 90% of the idiocy here), and the lame farting gag is cringeworthy, but Grave Encounters 2 is a decent enough sequel. Bottom line, if you're a fan of the original, you should enjoy Grave Encounters 2, because they stick to the same blueprint for the most part.  Plus, you won’t leap out of your seat, and crouch on the ground with your eyes covered, but Grave Encounters 2 delivers a solid jump scare, and yes, that’s a noticeable improvement over the first film.
Rating: 5/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Grave Encounters 2 (2012)(Spoiler Review)

**This review contains spoilers**

Alex Wright (Richard Harmon) is a young film student and director, and he’s a passionate horror fan. Alex reviews Grave Encounters 2011 for a video blog post, and Alex dismisses Grave Encounters as another lame low budget horror film. As time passes, Alex notices a few red flags in the production credits, and Alex develops an obsession for Grave Encounters.

Alex believes Grave Encounters was a real film with real ghosts, spirits, demons, and deaths. The entire crew from Grave Encounters is missing, and a visit to Lance Preston’s (real name Sean Rogerson) mother doesn’t help anything, because Lance’s mother is suffering from a bad case of dementia. Alex runs into another roadblock after a meeting with an uncooperative Jerry Hartfield (Ben Wlikinson), the executive producer of Grave Encounters. Although, Alex receives a helping hand via YouTube messages from an anonymous source named DeathAwaits666. DeathAwaits666 invites Alex to a meeting at Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital at 3:00 am sharp, and Alex agrees. Grave Encounters is the number one priority on Alex’s list, so Alex immediately cancels production for his new horror movie.

Motivated by his mission to find the truth, Alex convinces his team to work on a documentary to expose all the secrets behind the first Grave Encounters. Alex receives support from his cameramen Trevor Thompson (Dylan Playfair) and Jared Lee (Howie Lai), a camerawoman named Tessa Hamill (Stephanie Bennett), and Jennifer Parker (Leanne Lapp), the lone actress in the group. A pesky security guard (Sean Tyson) is determined to ruin Alex’s movie at Collingwood, but Alex and his team are forced to deal with a bigger problem, when DeathAwaits666 attacks.

The group struggles to locate an exit in Collingwood’s tricky maze, and the situation becomes more complex, when a feral Sean Rogerson appears. For nine years, Rogerson survived in Collingwood by eating rats, and Rogerson had more than enough time to study Collingwood’s layout, and Rogerson is the only one, who can anticipate Collingwood’s traps. After years of searching, Rogerson found a big red door wrapped in chains on the lower levels of Collingwood.

The red door could lead to the only exit in Collingwood, so Alex and his group team up with Rogerson. The evil forces of Collingwood eliminate members of Alex’s team one by one during separate attacks, and Rogerson’s erratic behavior worries Trevor. Alex plans to escape Collingwood with all the recorded footage intact, but an unexpected request complicates a life-or-death dilemma…….

Sean Rogerson delivers the best performance here, easily. I’m not saying Rogerson deserves an Oscar or a Golden Globe, but he’s the best in a mediocre bunch. The dirty and hairy wildman look helps, and Rogerson is believable as the deranged recluse.

Grave Encounters 2 takes a more serious approach to breaking the fourth wall. The movie opens with an intro of random video bloggers (including Alex) praising and trashing Grave Encounters 2011, and Alex does some research to find more info for the whereabouts of the cast members and crew, who worked on the original film. At Collingwood, Alex and his team retrace the original crew’s steps to analyze and explore the mysteries behind their deaths and disappearances.

Every now and then, the approach to be more realistic annoyed me for one big reason: Grave Encounters 2 is too full of itself. There’s a scene, where Alex  pins a hidden camera onto his clothes during a meeting with Hartfield at a  film studio. Alex had plans to force a confession out of Hartfield about the truth behind Grave Encounters, but Hartfield wouldn’t budge an inch. Anyway, during the scene at the studio, Hartfield constantly praises his own brilliance for deceiving the viewers, and the genius behind his plans (using The Vicious Brothers, the writers and directors of the original and the screenwriters for the sequel, as interns, using no-name actors and actresses for the original, etc.) to produce Grave Encounters.

On top of all that, I rolled my eyes during a few scenes at Collingwood. Alex and his crew are dissecting the What-ifs behind the events of Grave Encounters, and you can feel a sense of amazement from the main characters, as they’re studying the deaths of everyone from the first film (i.e. T.C. being pulled into the bathtub full of blood). Look, I enjoyed Grave Encounters 2011, but let’s not kid ourselves here. At BEST Grave Encounters was an above average found-footage horror film/guilty pleasure. So it’s kind of annoying, when the sequel constantly pats itself on the back with a “Hey! We’re smart!” smile.

What’s behind the red door? Freedom. Well, not for Rogerson. It’s nighttime, and the remaining survivors are sleeping. Jared and Tessa are dead, Jennifer and Alex are sleeping together, and Trevor takes a trip to the bathroom. Meanwhile, the evil forces of Collingwood order Rogerson to kill Trevor. Moments later, Rogerson murders Trevor. Jennifer and Alex need the bolt cutters to break the chains on the big red door, and they use Rogerson’s map to navigate Collingwood’s tricky maze to find their bag of tools.

At the red door, the evil forces reveal their plans. First, someone has to finish Rogerson’s movie, and release the finished product to the public. Second, the evil forces will only allow ONE person to leave Collingwood. During the fight to the death between Rogerson and Alex, the evil forces open a vortex in the wall, and Rogerson is sucked into the abyss. Alex and Jennifer are the sole survivors…..but Alex remembers the request. A demented Alex bludgeons Jennifer to death by repeatedly smashing the camera into her face. The red door opens, and as Alex leaves, the door crumbles behind him. As the sole survivor and a free man, Alex walks into an open field outside of Collingwood. Eventually, a wandering Alex is arrested by two cops in the middle of a busy street.

Alex murdered Jennifer for two reasons. He wanted to be the sole survivor, and he wanted to give Jennifer her perfect death scene (earlier in the movie, Jennifer stresses the importance of having the perfect death scene). To close out the movie, a disturbed Alex is sitting next to Jerry Hartfield, and they’re discussing Alex’s recorded footage for Grave Encounters 2. Hartfield corrects his mistake, when he reminds everyone Grave Encounters 2 isn’t a real horror film (to open the original, Hartfield told the audience the truth, when he stressed the authenticity of Grave Encounters).

A few problems here. First, why did Alex transform into this sociopathic murderer out of nowhere? He’s fighting Rogerson to the death to protect Jennifer, and a few moments later, he obeys the forces in Collingwood, and he murders Jennifer? The same woman he swore to protect and rescue throughout the movie? I don’t get it, and I don’t care how you spin it, Alex murdering Jennifer, and joining forces with Hartfield at the end doesn’t make any sense. Second, why, WHY would you trust Rogerson? We’re talking about a mentally disturbed guy, who’s been locked inside a haunted hospital for nine years, and he’s been eating live rats to survive. You trust this guy? Unbelievable.

So let me get this straight, as an aspiring horror filmmaker, Alex wants to do something different, because he’s tired of generic and formulaic horror films. Okay, so you decide to make another found-footage/documentary “This actually happened in real life!” horror film? Seriously?

Also, there’s a HUGE gap in logic for Alex’s motivations to find out more about Grave Encounters. If you believe everything in Grave Encounters 2011 is real, why in the name of all things holy would you risk your lives and your friends/crew’s lives to discover the truth? If we’re following Alex’s thought process, he KNOWS demons, ghosts, and other evil forces control Collingwood, and you’re going to dive head first into the madness?

And there’s no way around this, but Alex isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. I get the point of needing some inside info to help with your research on Collingwood, but you’re going to trust an anonymous YouTube user named DeathAwaits666???? Of course, DeathAwaits666 is an evil spirit, who makes an appearance via Ouija board (Alex finds the Ouija board, and DeathAwaits666 uses the board to spell out the name. Yeah, we’ve all seen this trick in numerous horror films so many times) at 3:00am, and DeathAwaits666 attacks everyone surrounding the Ouija board. They should’ve changed DeathAwaits666 YouTube name to ImGoingToKillYou@3am for more laughs.

Grave Encounters 2 won’t set the bar for successful horror sequels, but the follow-up film features a few redeeming qualities. The spooky tension inside Collingwood helps the sporadic scenes of terror, a few gross-out scenes are guaranteed to pull a reaction out of you (Rogerson eating a live and struggling rat…..yuck), and the death scenes are brutal (i.e. Trevor’s death scene, Jared’s death, and the security guard’s death scene. To give you more info, the security guard is electrocuted to death, and his convulsing body catches fire), and the big red door really works as the most ominous and creepy image in Grave Encounters 2.

To add to that, there’s a scene, where Trevor, Alex, and Jennifer “escape” Collingwood. They go outside to see Jared’s lifeless body (an evil spirit pushed Jared out of a window on the top floor) on the hood of the security guard’s car. Together, the group jumps in Alex’s car, and they drive back to the hotel to gather their belongings.

They step in the elevator, and as the camera cuts away, you can see this weird emotionless look on a maid’s face. The elevator descends to the final stop, but when the doors open, the group doesn’t see a lobby in front of them. Instead, they’re in the underground tunnels of Collingwood. Here, it’s revealed the group never left Collingwood. The escape was just an illusion. Grave Encounters 2 suckered me in with this fake-out scene. There’s a sense of relief, when Trevor, Alex, and Jennifer escape, but they pull the rug out from underneath you at the last second, and the timing was perfect. Good stuff.

The snooty superiority complex is annoying at times, I can’t ignore the stupidity (Alex is responsible for 90% of the idiocy here), and the lame farting gag is cringeworthy, but Grave Encounters 2 is a decent enough sequel. Bottom line, if you're a fan of the original, you should enjoy Grave Encounters 2, because they stick to the same blueprint for the most part. Plus, you won’t leap out of your seat, and crouch on the ground with your eyes covered, but Grave Encounters 2 delivers a solid jump scare (if you need a sneak peek, just look at the box cover at the top), and yes, that’s a noticeable improvement over the first film.

Rating: 5/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Character Spotlight- Ricky Caldwell- Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

**This post contains spoilers**

During the closing moments of Silent Night, Deadly Night, Billy was shot to death before he had the chance to murder the ruthless Mother Superior, but another killer was born after Billy's demise. With his brother's bloody axe pointing at his feet, a young and furious Ricky Caldwell issued an ominous warning to a wheelchair-bound Mother Superior with one word: "Naughty."

Years later, Ricky found some comfort with his foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg, but Ricky had to endure another tough setback after Mr. Rosenberg's sudden death. After a brutal killing spree, Ricky is forced to serve a lengthy sentence at a mental hospital.

One day, Ricky receives his last chance evaluation from Dr. Henry Bloom. During the tape recorded chat, Ricky reveals stories from his past, including memories from Billy's killing spree, and Ricky's childhood with Billy at St. Mary's Orphanage. Eventually, Ricky turns the tables on a petrified Dr. Bloom. After Bloom's murder, Ricky escapes the mental hospital to finish Billy's mission. A retired Mother Superior lives alone, and she's still recovering from a stroke, but a remorseless Ricky will stop at nothing to put an end to Mother Superior.

Billy and Ricky hate Mother Superior with a burning, whit hot passion. Both men murdered the woman of their dreams, and both men wore a Santa suit during their killing sprees. The main difference between Ricky and Billy? Ricky is more devious than Billy.

Billy snapped, BUT you could sense some remorse from him during his final plea to Mother Superior. On top of that, Ricky was a victim of Superior's beatings and harsh "punishments" (remember, Superior forced Billy to stay in his room by tying him to the bed one night). On the other hand, Ricky willingly chose his path as a sadistic murderer. He enjoyed killing people, and Ricky actually had a loving support system as a child and a teenager.

Santa was Billy's trigger, and the color red is Ricky's trigger. When Ricky spots ANYTHING red, you're in trouble. SNDN Part 2 finds a way to insert red into the vast majority of Ricky's kills, a red Mustang, a red Jeep, and there's a red B on Dr. Bloom's handkerchief. Plus, you get see the trauma Ricky's experiences from nuns, when a young Ricky spots a group of nuns with his stepmother one day.

Billy never had a chance to experience a relationship with Pamela, but Ricky had Jennifer. After an accident on his motorcycle, Ricky found a girlfriend in Jennifer. Although, the relationship came to an end after a deadly encounter with Jennifer's ex-boyfriend, Chip. The preppy snob (Chip) pushed Ricky too far, while doing some work on his red Mustang one day.

Jennifer and Chip were the first two victims in Ricky's violent killing spree. Ricky's murderous rampage in SNDN Part 2 is memorable for a few reasons. First, the lunacy during the non-stop rollercoaster of mayhem is full of jaw-dropping moments and laughs (Ricky shooting the red car, and the car exploding out of nowhere after a quick flip is my favorite funny moment in this one). Second, Ricky provided us with a great, cheesy one-liner and a popular meme, when he shouts "Garbage Day!" before murdering the poor guy, who's taking out his trash.

I don't know about everyone else, but as far as performances go, I enjoyed Eric Freeman's Ricky more than Robert Brian Wilson's Billy. Freeman's hammy performance is on a short, SHORT list of highlights in SNDN, and his dark side is more creepy, in a comical way of course.

Also, SNDN 2 features two of the most inventive kills in the franchise. Ricky using the jumper cables to electrocute Chip, and Ricky using an umbrella to finish off Rocco (a bully/loan shark) stand out amongst everything in Part 2, and it's not even close. And it's not inventive (and it's not Freeman's Ricky), but Ricky murdering Eddie in the open field with his red Jeep is another noteworthy death scene here. Eddie is having a picnic with his girlfriend. He tries to rape her, and Ricky has a flashback of the Santa trying to rape his mother, so Eddie triggers Ricky's dark side. Ricky uses Eddie's red Jeep to run him over (repeatedly) for the kill, and Eddie's girlfriend express her gratitude with a casual "Thank you" after the murder.

Oh, and Ricky murdering the rude moviegoer at the movie theater is good for a few laughs. Ricky quietly leaves Jennifer alone, murders the moviegoer, and he returns to his seat next to Jennifer like nothing happened. Good stuff.

Regrets? Forget about it! Ricky succeeded in his mission by beheading Mother Superior, but Ricky suffered a series of gunshots. The second-to-last shot of SNDN Part 2 shows Ricky laying in a pile of broken glass, and he flashes a sinister smile at the camera to close out the movie. Unfortunately (and you can't point any fingers at Freeman), the Ricky character returns in Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is far from perfect, but we'll never forget this meme! 

 
                          

Follow this link to read my spoiler review for Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987). In this review, I give a more in-depth and thorough analysis of the sequel -

http://mitchmacready.blogspot.com/2013/01/silent-night-deadly-night-part-2-1987.html

Wanna know what happens to Ricky after Part 2? Read my spoiler review for Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!  http://mitchmacready.blogspot.com/2013/02/silent-night-deadly-night-3-better.html

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

Just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Be safe, enjoy the holidays, and as always, thank you for the continued support.

I know things have been kind of slow over the past few days, but CRAZY holiday hours at work, and putting more time into other projects ate up a lot of my time, and well, I had to catch up on my recovery sleep. lol. But if I don't run into any unexpected dilemmas, I'm hoping to pick things up again today with a special holiday edition for my character spotlight series. And yes, it's going to be a horror post!

MMR

Grave Encounters (2011)(Minor Spoilers Review)

**This review contains MINOR spoilers, no character deaths, major reveals, or twists**

Paranormal investigator Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson) leads his team to Collingwood, an abandoned psychiatric hospital with a dark past, for another adventure. As the host of Grave Encounters, a paranormal reality show, Lance receives support from his team to film the latest groundbreaking episode. Sasha Parker (Ashleigh Gryzko) is the occult specialist, Matt White (Juan Riedinger) is the equipment tech, T.C. Gibson (Merwin Mondesir) is the cameraman, and Houston Gray (Mackenzie Gray) is the psychic medium. As the executive producer, Jerry Hartfield (Ben Wilkinson) anxiously awaits the footage from “Episode 6.”

The crew benefits from Kenny Sandavol’s (Bob Rathie) guidance as a caretaker, and Lance learns more about the history surroduning Collingwood with some help from Morgan Turner (Shawn Macdonald), a historian, who’s the most reliable expert on all things Collingwood.

The team prepaers to film Episode 6, and Lance wants to capture a strong sense of realism for the new episode, so Sandoval agrees to an eight hour lockdown during the night with no interruptions. During the early stages of filming, Lance’s mission to uncover the secrets behind Collingwood’s hauntings is just another a harmless and routine episode of Grave Encounters, but as the hours pass, open windows and blocked exits point to signs of a bigger problem: the crew is not alone in Collingwood. Evil forces lurking in the quiet hallways will stop at nothing to eliminate the entire crew one by one, and Lance is forced to come up with an escape plan before it’s too late.

Decent enough cast, but two unlikable characters annoyed me. He changes towards the end, but during the first half of the film, Lance is a smug douchebag, who walks around this inflated (and undeserved) ego. Houston Gray? He’s a pompous nitwit (Gray is actually a trained actor in real life), you can sense the phoniness from his persona as a “professional” psychic, and Gray‘s tacky emo look doesn‘t help anything. T.C. is the most annoying character here, because he’s always whining about everything, and it‘s not fair to judge Wilkinson‘s Hartfield. You’ll see Wilkinson during the intro, and that’s it.

Another found-footage horror film that relies on the route formula of a paranormal reality show crew investigating an abandoned and haunted building? Seriously? And of course, the crew tries to stage all the scares, but everyone freaks out, when the REAL ghosts show up. Ugh. I won’t go on another one of my long rants here, but it feels like I’ve seen the same movie fifty times or more.

Anyway, Grave Encounters deserves credit for staying true to the documentary POV. Faces are blurred during interviews, the one on one interviews feel natural (i.e. Lance interviewing Gary Crawford, a contractor, who witnessed an unexplainable attack on one of his employees), and there’s a nice intro featuring Lance, Sasha, and Matt to set up Grave Encounters. Also, Grave Encounters opens the window for a “breaking the fourth wall” dynamic. Lance bribes a local gardener named Javier Ortega, so he can lie about a fake ghost sighting, and Lance devises his fair share of strategies to catch the best shots, so he can stage the best scares.

The stupid stuff is kept to a minimum here, because after a series of attacks, Lance realizes escape is the only option for survival (initially, Lance was determined to stay no matter what, because he wanted to capture all the chaos within the asylum). Still, Grave Encounters succumbs to familiar found-footage horror tropes. You’ll see the shaky cam stuff, for the most part, predictable jump scares that are easy to telegraph, and Lance refuses to leave the cameras behind, because Lance is motivated by a moral duty to show the public the footage.

Is Grave Encounters perfect? No. It’s not. Grave Encounters isn’t a groundbreaking film at all, and you won’t see any freighting jump scares here. So if you’re expecting something “different,” you should look for another film.

Still, when you compare it to other found-footage horror abominations (i.e. The Devil Inside), Grave Encounters is a respectable entry in the crowded sub-genre. The cast is decent enough, you’ll some genuine gross-out moments here (the tongueless demon with a bloody mouth, Sasha vomiting blood, etc.), and when all hell breaks loose, Grave Encounters delivers a good amount of suspense and eerie tension. On top of that, the finale is a real nail-biter, and Grave Encounters ends with a nice cliffhanger, because the tantalizing unanswered questions will leave you wanting more.

Rating: 6/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Grave Encounters (2011)(Spoiler Review)

**This review contains spoilers**

Paranormal investigator Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson) leads his team to Collingwood, an abandoned psychiatric hospital with a dark past, for another adventure. As the host of Grave Encounters, a paranormal reality show, Lance receives support from his team to film the latest groundbreaking episode. Sasha Parker (Ashleigh Gryzko) is the occult specialist, Matt White (Juan Riedinger) is the equipment tech, T.C. Gibson (Merwin Mondesir) is the cameraman, and Houston Gray (Mackenzie Gray) is the psychic medium. As the executive producer, Jerry Hartfield (Ben Wilkinson) anxiously awaits the footage from “Episode 6.”

The crew benefits from Kenny Sandavol’s (Bob Rathie) guidance as a caretaker, and Lance learns more about the history surroduning Collingwood with some help from Morgan Turner (Shawn Macdonald), a historian, who’s the most reliable expert on all things Collingwood.

The team prepaers to film Episode 6, and Lance wants to capture a strong sense of realism for the new episode, so Sandoval agrees to an eight hour lockdown during the night with no interruptions. During the early stages of filming, Lance’s mission to uncover the secrets behind Collingwood’s hauntings is just another a harmless and routine episode of Grave Encounters, but as the hours pass, open windows and blocked exits point to signs of a bigger problem: the crew is not alone in Collingwood. Evil forces lurking in the quiet hallways will stop at nothing to eliminate the entire crew one by one, and Lance is forced to come up with an escape plan before it’s too late.

Decent enough cast, but two unlikable characters annoyed me. He changes towards the end, but during the first half of the film, Lance is a smug douchebag, who walks around this inflated (and undeserved) ego. Houston Gray? He’s a pompous nitwit (Gray is actually a trained actor in real life), you can sense the phoniness from his persona as a “professional” psychic, and Gray‘s tacky emo look doesn‘t help anything. T.C. is the most annoying character here, because he’s always whining about everything, and it‘s not fair to judge Wilkinson‘s Hartfield. You’ll see Wilkinson during the intro, and that’s it.

Another found-footage horror film that relies on the route formula of a paranormal reality show crew investigating an abandoned and haunted building? Seriously? And of course, the crew tries to stage all the scares, but everyone freaks out, when the REAL ghosts show up. Ugh. I won’t go on another one of my long rants here, but it feels like I’ve seen the same movie fifty times or more.

Anyway, Grave Encounters deserves credit for staying true to the documentary POV. Faces are blurred during interviews, the one on one interviews feel natural (i.e. Lance interviewing Gary Crawford, a contractor, who witnessed an unexplainable attack on one of his employees), and there’s a nice intro featuring Lance, Sasha, and Matt to set up Grave Encounters. Also, Grave Encounters opens the window for a “breaking the fourth wall” dynamic. Lance bribes a local gardener named Javier Ortega, so he can lie about a fake ghost sighting, and Lance devises his fair share of strategies to catch the best shots, so he can stage the best scares.

The stupid stuff is kept to a minimum here, because after a series of attacks, Lance realizes escape is the only option for survival (initially, Lance was determined to stay no matter what, because he wanted to capture all the chaos within the asylum). Still, Grave Encounters succumbs to familiar found-footage horror tropes. You’ll see the shaky cam stuff, for the most part, predictable jump scares that are easy to telegraph, and Lance refuses to leave the cameras behind, because Lance is motivated by a moral duty to show the public the footage.

Truth be told, I was ready to trash Grave Encounters with no mercy, but the spooky stuff kicks in around the thirty-three minute mark. The crew finds a petrified Matt in a room full of bathtubs (Matt mysteriously disappeared earlier), and he’s wearing a hospital gown. The crew rescues Matt, but T.C. is pulled into a bathtub full of blood by a girl, who slit her wrist in the same tub years ago. The crew dumps all of the blood out of the tub, but T.C. disappears with the girl.

After a while, the crew realizes there’s no clear path for escape from Collingwood. Exits are blocked by moving concrete walls, and jumping out of the window isn’t an option, because the fall will kill anyone, who tries. And there’s a creepy scene, where Lance spots a bloody tongue on the floor. Lance looks up, and there’s a tongueless demon perched in the far corner of the ceiling. Good stuff.

For the finale, Lance and Sasha are the only remaining survivors, but Sasha is showing signs (vomiting blood) of an unknown illness, and Sasha disappears in a cloud of steam. Lance is alone, and he accidentally  discovers a hidden room in the tunnels. Evidence (a skull, candles, evil scriptures, etc.) suggests the room was used to perform satanic rituals, and a team of ghostly surgeons catch Lance. They perform a lobotomy on him, and to close out the film, Lance, with fresh blood running out of his eyes, signs off as the host of Grave Encounters.

Strange. During the first half of Grave Encounters, I almost fell asleep a few times, because the boredom was too much. But Grave Encounters hits you with a strong mule kick, when the evil forces show up. Although, I can’t ignore the stupidity of trusting Matt. CLEARLY there’s something wrong with him. The guy is in a hospital gown, he’s talking to himself, and Matt is visibly disturbed. During the search for an exit, Matt is just dead weight, and he’s obeying orders from the evil forces. In the end, Matt commits suicide by jumping down an elevator shaft. Matt’s suicide provides a jaw-dropping moment, but it’s frustrating to sit back and watch the rest of the team trust Matt, when they know something is wrong with him.

Is Grave Encounters perfect? No. It’s not. Grave Encounters isn’t a groundbreaking film at all, and you won’t see any freighting jump scares here. So if you’re expecting something “different,” you should look for another film.

Still, when you compare it to other found-footage horror abominations (i.e. The Devil Inside), Grave Encounters is a respectable entry in the crowded sub-genre. The cast is decent enough, you’ll some genuine gross-out moments here (the aftermath of Matt’s suicide, a deranged Lance eating a rat, the tongueless demon with a bloody mouth, Sasha vomiting blood, etc.), and when all hell breaks loose, Grave Encounters delivers a good amount of suspense and eerie tension. On top of that, the finale is a real nail-biter, and Grave Encounters ends with a nice cliffhanger, because the tantalizing unanswered questions will leave you wanting more.

Rating: 6/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Frozen (2010)(Minor Spoilers Review)

**This review contains MINOR spoilers, no character deaths or major reveals**

Two lifelong friends are trying to figure out a way to secure a cheap pass for skit lift tickets during their annual vacation. Dan Walker (Kevin Zegers) and Joe Lynch (Shawn Ashmore) convince Dan’s new girlfriend, Parker O’Neil (Emma Bell) to bribe Jason (Ed Ackerman), the current ski lift operator, with one hundred dollars for a guaranteed spot on the lift, no strings attached. Parker lies about a spot for her “girlfriends,” and Jason reluctantly accepts the bribe.

Throughout the day, a bitter Joe isn’t happy about Parker’s presence on the vacation, but Joe agrees to suppress his animosity for the time being. During the closing hours, the trio agrees to go on one last ski trip before the park closes. Jason allows Dan, Joe, and Parker to ride the lift one more time, but Jason leaves his post to discuss a scheduling conflict with the resort’s manager. In his absence, Jason entrusts another employee with the task of waiting for Dan, Joe, and Parker. Jason instructs Rifkin (Adam Johnson) to wait for the trio, and once they return, Rifkin can start the shutdown sequence. But Rifkin mistakes another group for Dan, Joe, and Parker, and without hesitation, Rifkin deactivates the ski lift.

Dan and Joe dismiss the shutdown as a minor setback, but as time passes, no one else returns to activate the lift. Dan, Joe, and Parker are stuck at the highest point on the lift in the darkness, with a nasty storm looming over the mountains. It’s Sunday, and the resort doesn’t reopen until Friday, so the trio is stranded with no help. The group must endure the approaching storm and frostbite, and the situation takes a drastic turn for the worst, when a pack of hungry wolves emerge from the woods…….

The slight increase in screen time and the extra focus on her character helps, but Emma Bell delivers the best performance here. Parker is very annoying and whiny most of  the time. Still, Bell’s strong effort is enough to stand out amongst the pack, the welded tears helped, and Bell provides the most convincing performance, easily. Ashmore is decent enough as Joe, and Zegers isn’t bad, but his screen time is cut short here.

Wolves? A ski resort so close to wolves? I don’t get it. Having suspension of disbelief is one thing, but I have a hard time believing in the people behind the scenes for the ski resort being so careless for selecting their location. And I’m suppose to believe NO ONE bothered with a second search to see if anyone else was on the lift? Everyone just assumed the resort was empty, and all the employees left for home?

And the scene with the snowplow machine provided the biggest head-shaking moment for me. Parker, Joe, and Dan are throwing all of their equipment at the snowplow to catch the driver’s attention, but the driver never sees anything? I rolled my eyes during this fiasco, because the driver is conveniently looking away or backing up, when the the equipment lands on the ground. Yeah, right. Give me a break.

The stupid stuff is annoying, and the constant bickering within the trio is tiresome. Joe is pissed off at Dan, because he allowed Parker to tag along on their annual trip. Dan is tired of Joe disrespecting his girlfriend. And there’s a scene, where Joe tears into Parker after an accusation, but Joe and a teary-eyed Parker embrace for a truce. Eh, you guys are supposed to be working together to find a solution, so the constant arguments aren’t helping anything.

Truth be told, I didn’t hate everything about this one. Director/writer Adam Green deserves credit for creating an eerie and spooky atmosphere for Frozen. There’s an unsettling silence in the snowy mountains, and the creaky sounds of a ski lift wafting in the wind provide the icing on the cake. And the nighttime scenes feature their fair share of chills, as the survivors are dangling hopelessly on the lift with no one else in sight.

Still, Frozen is a forgettable thriller, and it’s hard to ignore some noticeable problems here. The characters are generic. Joe is that one guy, who has to be a jerk to everyone. There’s nothing wrong with her performance, but in the grand scheme of things, Bell’s Parker is just a ditzy blonde (i.e. Joe taunting Parker about her clumsiness and inexperience with skiing), and Dan is the leader/voice of reason. The constant finger-pointing and bickering almost gave me headache, and the stupidity from the main characters was too much to handle for my tastes.

In the end, a handful of eerie atmospherics, some nasty, cringeworthy moments, and an overall average cast aren’t enough to save Frozen. Frozen isn’t a complete train wreck, but it’s a chore to sit through for a number of reasons, and I can’t go with a positive score for this one.

Rating: 3/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Frozen (2010)(Spoiler Review)

**This review contains spoilers**

Two lifelong friends are trying to figure out a way to secure a cheap pass for skit lift tickets during their annual vacation. Dan Walker (Kevin Zegers) and Joe Lynch (Shawn Ashmore) convince Dan’s new girlfriend, Parker O’Neil (Emma Bell) to bribe Jason (Ed Ackerman), the current ski lift operator, with one hundred dollars for a guaranteed spot on the lift, no strings attached. Parker lies about a spot for her “girlfriends,” and Jason reluctantly accepts the bribe.

Throughout the day, a bitter Joe isn’t happy about Parker’s presence on the vacation, but Joe agrees to suppress his animosity for the time being. During the closing hours, the trio agrees to go on one last ski trip before the park closes. Jason allows Dan, Joe, and Parker to ride the lift one more time, but Jason leaves his post to discuss a scheduling conflict with the resort’s manager. In his absence, Jason entrusts another employee with the task of waiting for Dan, Joe, and Parker. Jason instructs Rifkin (Adam Johnson) to wait for the trio, and once they return, Rifkin can start the shutdown sequence. But Rifkin mistakes another group for Dan, Joe, and Parker, and without hesitation, Rifkin deactivates the ski lift.

Dan and Joe dismiss the shutdown as a minor setback, but as time passes, no one else returns to activate the lift. Dan, Joe, and Parker are stuck at the highest point on the lift in the darkness, with a nasty storm looming over the mountains. It’s Sunday, and the resort doesn’t reopen until Friday, so the trio is stranded with no help. The group must endure the approaching storm and frostbite, and the situation takes a drastic turn for the worst, when a pack of hungry wolves emerge from the woods…….

The slight increase in screen time and the extra focus on her character helps, but Emma Bell delivers the best performance here. Parker is very annoying and whiny most of  the time. Still, Bell’s strong effort is enough to stand out amongst the pack, the welded tears helped, and Bell provides the most convincing performance, easily. Ashmore is decent enough as Joe, and Zegers isn’t bad, but his screen time is cut short (more on that later) here.

Warning! Here comes another stupid characters rant!

After the storm hits, Dan, Joe, and Parker lose their cool, quickly. They’re freaking out, because the realization of being stuck in the ski lift for one week is starting to sink in. Dan comes up with the bright idea of jumping to the ground, so he can search for help. Mind you, they’re at the highest point on the ski lift. Anyway, Dan jumps down, and guess what happens? He shatters both of his legs on impact, and you can clearly see a bone sticking out of one leg, but it’s not over yet. Dan is sitting on the ground by himself, trying to stop the bleeding with some help from Joe and Parker, when a wolf shows up. Parker distracts the wolf for the time being, but the lone wolf returns with a pack of allies. Together, the wolves literally rip Dan apart.

Dan is dead, and as time passes, Joe and Parker are stuck together. After a while, Joe leaves Parker alone in the lift, and he takes a shot at descending a ladder on a support pole. Of course, Joe has some trouble fighting off the wolves on the ground, but Parker tosses him a ski pole. Joe uses the ski pole to fight off the wolves, and he uses a snowboard to glide down the mountain…..but the wolves follow him.

Parker falls asleep on the lift during the night hours, and one morning, she awakes to nothing. No Joe, no rescue team, nothing. Parker knows something happened to Joe, so she decides to pull a Dan during a desperate jump. But the cables to lift snap during Parker’s frantic struggle. The lift drops halfway to the ground, so Parker falls at a safe height. After the fall, she injures her leg in the left, but Parker has enough strength to crawl. During her crawl to the open road, Parker spots Joe’s mangled corpse. The wolves are busy eating Joe, so Parker is free to move on without any interruptions. Parker crawls to the road, and after a few unsuccessful attempts, a driver catches Parker’s signal for help. The driver agrees to drive Parker to a hospital, and for the closing moments of the film, Parker remembers Dan’s reassuring words on the lift before she closes her eyes in the passenger’s seat.

So let me get this straight. You KNOW something bad will happen, if you attempt to jump off of a freakin’ ski lift, but you do it anyway? It’s like going to the roof of your house or apartment complex, and you’re at the top looking down at the sidewalk beneath you. You know there’s a 99.9% chance you won‘t survive the jump without any problems, but you still jump? That doesn’t make any sense. Joe knows the wolves are looking for their next meal after devouring Dan, so he decides to climb down the ladder, and fight off a pack of wolves with a ski pole? Also, Parker’s is escape is really frustrating, when you stop and think about it. After all the brainstorming and illogical planning, they NEVER thought about using the lift to break the fall to the ground? Ugh.

Waiting wasn’t an option either, huh? The snowplow machine showed up, so who knows, if you wait, another person might come to the rescue. Sorry, but it’s hard to have sympathy for Joe and Dan’s deaths, because I can’t ignore the dumb (and willing) choices from both characters.

Wolves? A ski resort so close to wolves? I don’t get it. Having suspension of disbelief is one thing, but I have a hard time believing in the people behind the scenes for the ski resort being so careless for selecting their location. And I’m suppose to believe NO ONE bothered with a second search to see if anyone else was on the lift? Everyone just assumed the resort was empty, and all the employees left for home?

And the scene with the snowplow machine provided the biggest head-shaking moment for me. Parker, Joe, and Dan are throwing all of their equipment at the snowplow to catch the driver’s attention, but the driver never sees anything? I rolled my eyes during this fiasco, because the driver is conveniently looking away or backing up, when the the equipment lands on the ground. Yeah, right. Give me a break.


The stupid stuff is annoying, and the constant bickering within the trio is tiresome. Joe is pissed off at Dan, because he allowed Parker to tag along on their annual trip. Dan is tired of Joe disrespecting his girlfriend. And there’s a scene, where Joe tears into Parker after an accusation, but Joe and a teary-eyed Parker embrace for a truce. Eh, you guys are supposed to be working together to find a solution, so the constant arguments aren’t helping anything.

Truth be told, I didn’t hate everything about this one. Director/writer Adam Green deserves credit for creating an eerie and spooky atmosphere for Frozen. There’s an unsettling silence in the snowy mountains, and the creaky sounds of a ski lift wafting in the wind provide the icing on the cake. And the nighttime scenes feature their fair share of chills, as the survivors are dangling hopelessly on the lift with no one else in sight.

Still, Frozen is a forgettable thriller, and it’s hard to ignore some noticeable problems here. The characters are generic. Joe is that one guy, who has to be a jerk to everyone. There’s nothing wrong with her performance, but in the grand scheme of things, Bell’s Parker is just a ditzy blonde (i.e. Joe taunting Parker about her clumsiness and inexperience with skiing), and Dan is the leader/voice of reason. The constant finger-pointing and bickering almost gave me headache, and the stupidity from the main characters was too much to handle for my tastes.

In the end, a handful of eerie atmospherics, some nasty, cringeworthy moments (i.e. Dan’s twisted and mangled broken legs, Joe’s dismembered corpse, frostbite wounds on Parker’s face, etc.), and an overall average cast aren’t enough to save Frozen. Frozen isn’t a complete train wreck, but it’s a chore to sit through for a number of reasons, and I can’t go with a positive score for this one.

Rating: 3/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

The Crying Dead (2011)(Minor Spoilers Review)

**This review contains MINOR spoilers, no character deaths, plot twists, or major swerves**

On November 9, 2008, a team of paranormal investigators, a producer, and two cameramen prepare to shoot the pilot for their reality TV series. Chris Mitchel (Chris Hayes) is the lead investigator, and he receives support from his team of Callie Brooks (Callie Cameron) and Angelina Becker (Angelina Lyubomirova). Becka Lassiter (Becka Adams) is the producer, who’s responsible for everything, while Andrew Halstead (Andrew Olson) and Jeff Pierson (Jeff Stearns) shoot all the footage.

The team takes a trip to an abandoned hospital with a haunted past. Patients were tortured , and years ago, three girls burned to death in a gruesome boiler room fire. Jim Bindle is the caretaker, but he refuses to allow an overnight recording for safety reasons. But Chris refuses to take no for an answer. Chris urges Becka to give the green light, and ignore Bindle’s warnings, but each member of the group must sign a waiver. Chris wants a strong sense of realism for the debut episode, and Chris tempts Becka with promise of higher ratings, so Becka agrees.

After Bindle’s departure, the group forces their way inside through a broken window. Everything is calm and quiet at first, but a series of unexplainable occurrences and disappearances disrupt the show. The crew isn’t alone, because malevolent entities are watching their every move. The dilapidated hospital has a targeted date for demolition, but the forces within are working hard to block every exit. Will the crew make it to sunrise?

There’s no need to waste time by going into a rundown for differentiating the quality of performances here. No one delivers a noteworthy performance, and the entire cast is mediocre at best.

Looking for some good jump scares? Well, you won’t find them here. Instead, The Crying Game relies on a bunch of tired shaky cam tricks to stir up some spooky moments, and this approach didn’t work for me at all, because the shaky cam stuff is really annoying after a while. And I rolled my eyes during the tedious reoccurring scene(s) featuring the deceased girls from the boiler room fire crawling around on the ground.

Stupid characters? Yep. You’ll see all of them here. Chris KNOWS something is wrong, but he intentionally ignores all the warning signs? Becka is supposed to be the responsible one in the group, but she succumbs to peer pressure from Chris, and she ignores warnings from Bindle, someone who knows the history of the hospital better than anyone? Seriously? Oh, and I can’t forget about the idiotic “Let’s split up!” strategy. And of course, when Becka separates from the group, something bad happens. Ugh.

To make matters worse, the spooky stuff (I’m being generous) doesn’t kick in until the forty-five minute mark. But don’t get your hopes up for anything that’ll make you jump out of your seat. What does The Crying Dead have to offer? A splatter of blood on the walls? As far as cringeworthy content goes, that’s about it.

The Crying Dead is a boring and generic found-footage horror film, featuring annoying shaky cam tricks, moronic characters, plot holes, and never ending stupidity. Also, they just had to throw in the clichéd “If anyone finds this” speech/plea (it’s Andrew at the very end) into the camera during the finale to add to the mound of mind numbing horror tropes. Die hard found-footage fans might enjoy The Crying Dead as a guilty pleasure, but I’ll remember this one as a regretful (and somewhat painful) experience.

Rating: 2/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

The Crying Dead (2011)(Spoiler review)

**This review contains spoilers**

On November 9, 2008, a team of paranormal investigators, a producer, and two cameramen prepare to shoot the pilot for their reality TV series. Chris Mitchel (Chris Hayes) is the lead investigator, and he receives support from his team of Callie Brooks (Callie Cameron) and Angelina Becker (Angelina Lyubomirova). Becka Lassiter (Becka Adams) is the producer, who’s responsible for everything, while Andrew Halstead (Andrew Olson) and Jeff Pierson (Jeff Stearns) shoot all the footage.

The team takes a trip to an abandoned hospital with a haunted past. Patients were tortured, and years ago, three girls burned to death in a gruesome boiler room fire. Jim Bindle is the caretaker, but he refuses to allow an overnight recording for safety reasons. But Chris refuses to take no for an answer. Chris urges Becka to give the green light, and ignore Bindle’s warnings, but each member of the group must sign a waiver. Chris wants a strong sense of realism for the debut episode, and Chris tempts Becka with promise of higher ratings, so Becka agrees.

After Bindle’s departure, the group forces their way inside through a broken window. Everything is calm and quiet at first, but a series of unexplainable occurrences and disappearances disrupt the show. The crew isn’t alone, because malevolent entities are watching their every move. The dilapidated hospital has a targeted date for demolition, but the forces within are working hard to block every exit. Will the crew make it to sunrise?

There’s no need to waste time by going into a rundown for differentiating the quality of performances here. No one delivers a noteworthy performance, and the entire cast is mediocre at best.

Looking for some good jump scares? Well, you won’t find them here. Instead, The Crying Game relies on a bunch of tired shaky cam tricks to stir up some spooky moments, and this approach didn’t work for me at all, because the shaky cam stuff is really annoying after a while. And I rolled my eyes during the tedious reoccurring scene(s) featuring the deceased girls from the boiler room fire crawling around on the ground.

Stupid characters? Yep. You’ll see all of them here. Chris KNOWS something is wrong, but he intentionally ignores all the warning signs? Becka is supposed to be the responsible one in the group, but she succumbs to peer pressure from Chris, and she ignores warnings from Bindle, someone who knows the history of the hospital better than anyone? Seriously? Oh, and I can’t forget about the idiotic “Let’s split up!” strategy. And of course, when Becka separates from the group, something bad happens. Ugh.

And the plot holes? Oy vey.

-Becka disappears, and she’s attacked by the dead boiler room girls. For some asinine reason, Jeff deliberately lies about Becka’s whereabouts, when a frustrated Chris starts asking questions. I don’t get it. Looking for and trying to find Becka would’ve been a smarter option, right? Because you know, she’s lost in a haunted hospital.

-Who is Elizabeth? The movie opens with a black and white intro of a woman named Elizabeth strapped in a chair, and she’s the victim of shock treatment abuse. Out of nowhere, Elizabeth uses telekinetic powers to attack everyone in the room. Also, it’s heavily implied Elizabeth started the boiler room fire that killed the three girls.

The Crying Dead NEVER offers a detailed explanation for Elizabeth’s past. You have to assume everything, because Chris and everyone else spend most of their time staging fake gags for the show to make everything feel more real? Okay.

To make matters worse, the spooky stuff (I’m being generous) doesn’t kick in until the forty-five minute mark. But don’t get your hopes up for anything that’ll make you jump out of your seat. What does The Crying Dead have to offer? A splatter of blood on the walls? As far as cringeworthy content goes, that’s about it.

The Crying Dead is a boring and generic found-footage horror film, featuring annoying shaky cam tricks, moronic characters, plot holes, and never ending stupidity. Also, they just had to throw in the clichéd “If anyone finds this” speech/plea (it’s Andrew at the very end) into the camera during the finale to add to the mound of mind numbing horror tropes. Die hard found-footage fans might enjoy The Crying Dead as a guilty pleasure, but I’ll remember this one as a regretful (and somewhat painful) experience.

Rating: 2/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Daybreakers (2009)(Minor Spoilers Review)

**This review contains MINOR spoilers, no character deaths, major reveals, surprises, or plot twists**

In 2019, the world’s population is stuck in an age of darkness after an outbreak of vampirism. The remaining humans are hunted and harvested for blood to feed the vampires, and the humans, who refused to turn are forced to live a life of secrecy in the night shadows and daylight for their only chances at survival.

As a vampire, Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) works for Bromley Marks, a powerful corporation that remains at the top of the list for the largest blood supplier in the United States, as the Chief Hematologist. With help from his trusted colleague, Chris (Vince Colosimo) Edward plans to invent a blood substitute to salvage what’s left of the human population. But the first human test for the blood substitute is a failure, after the test subject is forced to suffer a painful death.

The world’s blood supply is running low, and without a proper feeding source, the vampires will transform into subsiders, a mindless and feral creature. Fearing the worst, Charles Bromley (SamNeill), Edward’s boss and the owner of Bromely Marks, urges Edward to work out all the kinks for the blood substitute.

The vampires are forced to deal with a dwindling human population and a shortage of blood, and recent projections uncover a startling discovery: the vampires will run out of blood in less than a month, if Edward and his team are unable to perfect a new substitute. Edward pushes for a cure, but Mr. Bromely is more concerned with making money from blood sales. On top of that, Mr. Bromley rejects Edward’s proposal to use the substitute as a primary source of blood with the promise of allowing humans to roam free in a vampire world with no worries, because customers will always pay extra for the “real thing.”

With a limited number of options in front of him, Edward takes a risky chance, when he agrees to join a vampire resistance movement. Audrey Bennett (Claudia Karvan) and Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (Willem Dafoe) work with other dedicated team members to find a cure to end the vampire plague once and for all. Elvis plans to use sunlight for the cure, and Edward is willing to help with the tests.

But Edward’s brother is a loyal and dedicated solider in the US Vampire Army, a force dedicated to hunting all humans for the never ending harvest. Frankie Dalton (Michael Dorman) makes a promise to Mr. Bromley: he will bring Edward and his partners to justice for his crimes as a traitor. And Mr. Bromley needs some help with his estranged daughter, Alison (Isabel Lucas), so he asks Frankie for a favor. With each passing second, the world’s blood supply is running low, and Edward is running out of time to come up with a cure, as military search parties monitor his every move……

Ethan Hawke is a solid leading man, as the conflicted hematologist, who’s motivated by a newfound sense of morality. Willem Dafoe delivers an entertaining performance as Elvis. Elvis is a cocky warhorse, who won’t back down from a fight, and Dafoe brought an enjoyable sense of humor to this character. Claudia Karvan’s Audrey isn’t bad at all, but in the grand scheme of things, her character is a third wheel most of the time.

Sam Neill’s Charles Bromley is your typical greedy and soulless business tycoon, who’s obsessed with making more money at all costs. Neill is a suitable fit for this character, and Bromley is a respectable antagonist. Dorman’s Frankie is a shameless loyalist to Bromley and the vampire population. You can see Frankie’s change of heart coming from a mile away, but Dorman’s performance is decent enough. Isabel Lucas? I can’t say too much about her, because Alison is limited to a few sporadic appearances here, so it’s not fair to judge Lucas’ performance.

I appreciate the noticeable attempts to authenticate Daybreakers’ all vampire world. Vampire patrons have the choice of adding blood to their coffee, and of course, the amounts of blood are regulated to 5% during the blood shortage. At the subway station, you’ll see an Uncle Sam-esque poster urging citizens to join the US Vampire Army, so they can help with the hunt for humans. Cars feature a “daylight” mode, so vampires can drive safely in the daytime, and each car is equipped with dark tinted windows and monitors to see everything on the outside.

And you get to feel the burden of unwilling vampire citizens, who can’t live with the guilt of feeding on humans. The movie opens with an intro of a small vampire girl, who commits suicide by sitting outside during sunrise, and in her journal, she explains how she couldn’t live with the shame anymore.

Will Daybreakers change the landscape of vampire films forever? No. No it won’t. In fact, I think it’s safe to say Daybreakers is on the forgotten list for vampire films, and this one was released in 2009. You can blame some of that on the influx of vampire films over they years (same thing happened with zombie flicks), because Daybreakers is stuck in a crowded bunch now. On the flip-side, Daybreakers succumbs to a lot of familiar genre tropes and a few generic characters. It’s a shame, because Daybreakers could’ve been that one film that changed everything.

Still, Daybreakers is a satisfying treat for horror fans. I’ll give credit, where credit is due, because Daybreakers takes a refreshing chance on being something different. Daybreakers gushes blood as a viscerally violent vampire flick, and the disgusting finale should please any gore fiend. Daybreakers is one of my personal all-time favorites from any genre, and if you love vampires and bloody horror, you NEED to give Daybreakers a try, because it’s worth the time.

Rating: 7/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Daybreakers (2009)(Spoiler Review)

**This review contains spoilers**

In 2019, the world’s population is stuck in an age of darkness after an outbreak of vampirism. The remaining humans are hunted and harvested for blood to feed the vampires, and the humans, who refused to turn are forced to live a life of secrecy in the night shadows and daylight for their only chances at survival.

As a vampire, Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) works for Bromley Marks, a powerful corporation that remains at the top of the list for the largest blood supplier in the United States, as the Chief Hematologist. With help from his trusted colleague, Chris (Vince Colosimo) Edward plans to invent a blood substitute to salvage what’s left of the human population. But the first human test for the blood substitute is a failure, after the test subject is forced to suffer a painful death.

The world’s blood supply is running low, and without a proper feeding source, the vampires will transform into subsiders, a mindless and feral creature. Fearing the worst, Charles Bromley (SamNeill), Edward’s boss and the owner of Bromely Marks, urges Edward to work out all the kinks for the blood substitute.

The vampires are forced to deal with a dwindling human population and a shortage of blood, and recent projections uncover a startling discovery: the vampires will run out of blood in less than a month, if Edward and his team are unable to perfect a new substitute. Edward pushes for a cure, but Mr. Bromely is more concerned with making money from blood sales. On top of that, Mr. Bromley rejects Edward’s proposal to use the substitute as a primary source of blood with the promise of allowing humans to roam free in a vampire world with no worries, because customers will always pay extra for the “real thing.”

With a limited number of options in front of him, Edward takes a risky chance, when he agrees to join a vampire resistance movement. Audrey Bennett (Claudia Karvan) and Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (Willem Dafoe) work with other dedicated team members to find a cure to end the vampire plague once and for all. Elvis plans to use sunlight for the cure, and Edward is willing to help with the tests.

But Edward’s brother is a loyal and dedicated solider in the US Vampire Army, a force dedicated to hunting all humans for the never ending harvest. Frankie Dalton (Michael Dorman) makes a promise to Mr. Bromley: he will bring Edward and his partners to justice for his crimes as a traitor. And Mr. Bromley needs some help with his estranged daughter, Alison (Isabel Lucas), so he asks Frankie for a favor. With each passing second, the world’s blood supply is running low, and Edward is running out of time to come up with a cure, as military search parties monitor his every move……

Ethan Hawke is a solid leading man, as the conflicted hematologist, who’s motivated by a newfound sense of morality. Willem Dafoe delivers an entertaining performance as Elvis. Elvis is a cocky warhorse, who won’t back down from a fight, and Dafoe brought an enjoyable sense of humor to this character. Claudia Karvan’s Audrey isn’t bad at all, but in the grand scheme of things, her character is a third wheel most of the time.

Sam Neill’s Charles Bromley is your typical greedy and soulless business tycoon, who’s obsessed with making more money at all costs. Neill is a suitable fit for this character, and Bromley is a respectable antagonist. Dorman’s Frankie is a shameless loyalist to Bromley and the vampire population. You can see Frankie’s change of heart (more on that later) coming from a mile away, but Dorman’s performance is decent enough. Isabel Lucas? I can’t say too much about her, because Alison is limited to a few sporadic appearances here, so it’s not fair to judge Lucas’ performance.

I appreciate the noticeable attempts to authenticate Daybreakers’ all vampire world. Vampire patrons have the choice of adding blood to their coffee, and of course, the amounts of blood are regulated to 5% during the blood shortage. At the subway station, you’ll see an Uncle Sam-esque poster urging citizens to join the US Vampire Army, so they can help with the hunt for humans. Cars feature a “daylight” mode, so vampires can drive safely in the daytime, and each car is equipped with dark tinted windows and monitors to see everything on the outside.

And you get to feel the burden of unwilling vampire citizens, who can’t live with the guilt of feeding on humans. The movie opens with an intro of a small vampire girl, who commits suicide by sitting outside during sunrise, and in her journal, she explains how she couldn’t live with the shame anymore.

So Elvis accidentally discovered the cure for vampirism after a failed attempt at suicide one day. Exposure to the sun is capable of reversing the effects, and Elvis carries the cure in his veins. After an experiment with sunlight, Edward cures himself, and Edward joins Elvis as the second person in the world, who carries the cure. During a standoff with Frankie, Frankie bites Elvis in the neck, because he’s desperate for blood. But Frankie isn’t aware of Elvis’ condition, and Elvis’ blood cures Frankie. Here, it’s revealed vampires are capable of becoming normal again, if they bite a cured victim.

But it’s not over yet, Bromley is holding Audrey hostage, and he’s draining her blood at the same time. Edward sets a trap by willingly walking through the doors of Bromley Marks. In Bromley’s office, Edward goads Charles into biting him by mentioning a dead Alison. Long story short, Charles used Frankie to turn Alison against her will, but Alison refused to drink any blood, so she transformed into a subsider. After a while, Alison was sentenced to death with other subsiders during a march into the sunlight.

Unbeknownst to Charles, Edward is carrying the cure, so Edward heals Charles after the bite. Human Charles suffers a brutal demise afterwards. He’s tied up in a chair that’s sitting in the elevator. The doors open, and a pack of starved vampire soldiers literally tear him apart, and they drink every ounce of blood from his body.

In the lobby, Frankie sacrifices himself to give Edward a chance to save Audrey. The vampire soldiers devour what’s left of him in a matter of moments, but remember this, Frankie is carrying the cure, so after a round of bites, the vampire soldiers are transformed into humans again…..and the vampire soldiers murder the human soldiers until there’s nobody left. It’s a nasty cycle of vampires turn human, vampires eat and kill humans, rinse and repeat, and it goes on and on until Chris shows up. But Elvis returns to save Audrey and Edward with a crossbow through Chris’ chest. For the final shot of the movie, Edward, Audrey, and Elvis ride off into the sunrise together, with newfound hope for the future.

I alluded to this before, but Frankie turning on Bromley and the vampire movement was a predictable swerve. You knew Frankie would dig down deep, and find the courage to do the right thing, and close up any open wounds with his brother (remember, Frankie turned Edward against his will). Although, I will say this, Daybreakers deserves some credit for a clever spin, when they turned Bromely.

What’s the plan? This was the big question on my mind, when Edward was sitting in Bromley’s office with Audrey. How in the hell is he going to escape this? After Edward mentioned Bromley’s daughter, and after Edward pushed a red button by calling Bromley a “coward,” I knew what was coming next. Still, it’s a cunning and genuinely surprising set up, because I couldn’t predict Edward’s methods for an exit strategy.

Back to Audrey for a minute. I called her a third wheel earlier, and my feelings for this label are reinforced during the finale. Daybreakers NEVER hints at a developing relationship between these two, but you get the feeling Edward risked everything for the love of his life? To make matters worse, Elvis is the one, who saves the day at the end, not Audrey. I know I sound really nitpicky here, but the Audrey character feels really useless most of the time.

Will Daybreakers change the landscape of vampire films forever? No. No it won’t. In fact, I think it’s safe to say Daybreakers is on the forgotten list for vampire films, and this one was released in 2009. You can blame some of that on the influx of vampire films over they years (same thing happened with zombie flicks), because Daybreakers is stuck in a crowded bunch now. On the flip-side, Daybreakers succumbs to a lot of familiar genre tropes and a few generic characters. It’s a shame, because Daybreakers could’ve been that one film that changed everything.

Still, Daybreakers is a satisfying treat for horror fans. I’ll give credit, where credit is due, because Daybreakers takes a refreshing chance on being something different. Daybreakers gushes blood as a viscerally violent vampire flick, and the disgusting finale should please any gore fiend. Daybreakers is one of my personal all-time favorites from any genre, and if you love vampires and bloody horror, you NEED to give Daybreakers a try, because it’s worth the time.

Rating: 7/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Aftershock (2012)(Minor Spoilers Review)

**This review contains MINOR spoilers, no character deaths, major reveals, or big twists**

During a vacation in Santiago, Chile, an American tourist nicknamed Gringo (Eli Roth) enthusiastically explores the wild night clubs and a famous winery. As a popular and wealthy local, Pollo (Nicolas Martinez) leads the tour with Ariel (Ariel Levy), Pollo’s life-long friend and Gringo’s new friend. One night, the group meets Kylie (Lorenza Izzo), her sister Monica (Andrea Osvart), and Irina (Natasha Yarovenko). Over the next few days, Pollo and Ariel lead an extensive tour for everyone in the group.

One night, Pollo, Gringo, Ariel, Monica, Kylie, and Irina visit a popular underground night club. A heated argument between Kylie and Monica reaches a boiling point, but a devastating earthquake disrupts everything. The group survives the ugly stampede, and after a rough journey through the ruins of the club, everyone reaches the surface to discover the maddening chaos.

On the surface, the group searches for safety, help, and medical care for a dismembered Ariel with some assistance from a firefighter. Fighting through a mess of ruthless savagery in a life-or-death survival mission is an unavoidable priority, and a looming tsunami forces the group to seek covered shelter before it’s too late.

Eli Roth delivers one of the better performances, as this nerdy square, who’s having a lot of trouble picking up women as a single father. Martinez is a believable womanizer, Izzo is a decent problem child with a bratty attitude, and Yarovenko is just there as Irina. Story wise, you know Irina’s a single mother with a son, but that’s about it, and her character doesn’t have too much depth.

Monica and Ariel are the two party poopers in the group. Monica is the controlling and overbearing bigger sister, and Ariel is a wimpy whiner, who’s obsessed with his ex-girlfriend. No complaints about the quality of performances from Osvart and Levy, but Monica and Ariel are the two most annoying characters in Aftershock.

Selena Gomez has a little cameo here. She plays this young woman in a club, and Gringo tries to put the moves on her, but Gomez’s character crushes his hopes with the “I have a boyfriend” line. But don’t get your hopes up for Gomez, because if you blink, you might miss her brief appearance.

If you’re looking for an intelligent social study on the dark side of human nature during a tragedy, then you should find another movie, because Aftershock isn’t for you. Sure, as a viewer, you can see violent and deplorable behavior, but any social commentary is non-existent here. Instead, Aftershock fits in with a crowded bunch. Gore fiends will get a kick out of the nasty stuff here, but for everyone else, Aftershock doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and you might have a “Meh. I’ve seen this before” feeling after certain scenes.

Depending on your tastes, Aftershock is more than capable of holding your attention. I barely noticed the brisk one hour and thirty minutes runtime. Taking a little break to check the time never crossed my mind, because Aftershock’s vicious insanity is like a flaming car wreck surrounded by a pack of hungry hyenas, it’s impossible to look away.

Aftershock is an extreme and chaotic disaster/horror film, filled with bloody carnage and intense brutality, a good surprising twist at the end, and the jaw-dropping cliffhanger is genuinely shocking. And don’t expect any cheery moments from Aftershock, because you won’t see any happy endings here. Also, to give you a fair warning, Aftershock is not for the weak at heart. Aftershock features graphic gore, tons of blood, sadistic violence, and rape, so if you’re the squeamish type, you should avoid this one.

Rating: 6/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1

Aftershock (2012)(Spoiler Review)

**This review contains spoilers**

During a vacation in Santiago, Chile, an American tourist nicknamed Gringo (Eli Roth) enthusiastically explores the wild night clubs and a famous winery. As a popular and wealthy local, Pollo (Nicolas Martinez) leads the tour with Ariel (Ariel Levy), Pollo’s life-long friend and Gringo’s new friend. One night, the group meets Kylie (Lorenza Izzo), her sister Monica (Andrea Osvart), and Irina (Natasha Yarovenko). Over the next few days, Pollo and Ariel lead an extensive tour for everyone in the group.

One night, Pollo, Gringo, Ariel, Monica, Kylie, and Irina visit a popular underground night club. A heated argument between Kylie and Monica reaches a boiling point, but a devastating earthquake disrupts everything. The group survives the ugly stampede, and after a rough journey through the ruins of the club, everyone reaches the surface to discover the maddening chaos.

On the surface, the group searches for safety, help, and medical care for a dismembered Ariel with some assistance from a firefighter. Fighting through a mess of ruthless savagery in a life-or-death survival mission is an unavoidable priority, and a looming tsunami forces the group to seek covered shelter before it’s too late.

Eli Roth delivers one of the better performances, as this nerdy square, who’s having a lot of trouble picking up women as a single father. Martinez is a believable womanizer, Izzo is a decent problem child with a bratty attitude, and Yarovenko is just there as Irina. Story wise, you know Irina’s a single mother with a son, but that’s about it, and her character doesn’t have too much depth.

Monica and Ariel are the two party poopers in the group. Monica is the controlling and overbearing bigger sister, and Ariel is a wimpy whiner, who’s obsessed with his ex-girlfriend. No complaints about the quality of performances from Osvart and Levy, but Monica and Ariel are the two most annoying characters in Aftershock.

Selena Gomez has a little cameo here. She plays this young woman in a club, and Gringo tries to put the moves on her, but Gomez’s character crushes his hopes with the “I have a boyfriend” line. But don’t get your hopes up for Gomez, because if you blink, you might miss her brief appearance.

There’s a nice twist involving the firefighter at the end. Kylie falls off a ladder that’s connected to a series of underground tunnels. Long story short, the remaining survivors (Kylie, Monica, the firefighter) in the group seek refuge in the tunnels, because they’re trying to outrun a local gang motivated by vengeance (Pollo murdered the leader’s brother to save Irina).

Anyway, a big hunk of metal is stuck in one of Kylie’s legs. The firefighter removes the metal, but Kylie uses a flashlight to reveal the firefighter’s tattoos. Here, it’s revealed the firefighter is an escaped prisoner, who disguised himself as a firefighter to avoid any suspicions. The prisoner murders Kylie, and when Monica discovers her sister’s corpse, she’s forced to fight off the prisoner for survival. Eventually, Monica gains the upper hand, and she returns the favor by murdering the prisoner with an axe.

But it’s not over yet! After a cave-in, Monica awakes the next morning to see sunlight. Monica runs outside to a beach, and after a lot of tears and laughs, she collapses on the sand. Everything is quiet and calm…until Monica spots a giant tsunami wave in front of her. Monica runs away from the tsunami, and the credits start rolling to end the movie.

Wow. Truly shocking stuff for a few reasons. For starters, the firefighter/prisoner twist really caught me off guard. He infiltrated the group as this quiet and seemingly innocent helper, but Aftershock drops the hammer at the end by revealing him as one of the bad guys. Monica and the tsunami cliffhanger? I couldn’t believe it. There’s a strong sense of relief, when Monica takes a few seconds to relax on the beach. Death, carnage, brutality. Monica was going to be “The One,” who survived, but Aftershock pulls the rug out from underneath you with the tsunami.

If you’re looking for an intelligent social study on the dark side of human nature during a tragedy, then you should find another movie, because Aftershock isn’t for you. Sure, as a viewer, you can see violent and deplorable behavior, but any social commentary is non-existent here. Instead, Aftershock fits in with a crowded bunch. Gore fiends will get a kick out of the nasty stuff here, but for everyone else, Aftershock doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and you might have a “Meh. I’ve seen this before” feeling after certain scenes.

Depending on your tastes, Aftershock is more than capable of holding your attention. I barely noticed the brisk one hour and thirty minutes runtime. Taking a little break to check the time never crossed my mind, because Aftershock’s vicious insanity is like a flaming car wreck surrounded by a pack of hungry hyenas, it’s impossible to look away.

Aftershock is an extreme and chaotic disaster/horror film, filled with bloody carnage and intense brutality, a good surprising twist at the end, and the jaw-dropping cliffhanger is genuinely shocking. And don’t expect any cheery moments from Aftershock, because you won’t see any happy endings here. Also, to give you a fair warning, Aftershock is not for the weak at heart. Aftershock features graphic gore, tons of blood, sadistic violence, and rape, so if you’re the squeamish type, you should avoid this one.

Rating: 6/10

Michael Jordan had another run with the Wizards after winning six championships. Brett Favre was one step away from earning a second ring with the Vikings.

As the world's definitive multi-talented superstar athlete, Trisha Bunrastar is taking an unexpected and shocking leap into a new career path. Assuming the identity of Freechelle Fantabulous, Trisha vows to fight crime and battle evildoers as a superheroine. Will she conquer her new mission? Find out more here! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFLI6VK

Or take a trip into my special world of madness that includes comedy, horror, and the supernatural in this collection of short stories- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFMYZ0U

Remember Amazon offers free Kindle App downloads for various platforms. Follow this link to find out more- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And don't forget to follow me on Twitter here- https://twitter.com/LQuigleyFan1