Busy Times & Scary Trailers

Wow, been a while. I suck at blogging! :)

Well, it's been a busy month. My DS had his tonsils out (poor guy is on a largely liquid diet for another week or so), I've shifted locations here at work (window seat = Yay!; next to boss = BOO!), we finally got the dog spayed (she was thrilled, I assure you), and I helped my dear Mom move into her new house. (I didn't do much, to be honest, aside from eat those yummy Costco sandwiches and make pithy comments.) All this while my dearly beloved British overlord of a VP assigned me a very unenviable task during the one week I had little choice but to miss half of my days at work, which led to an extremely long Friday (when everyone else is normally gone) and a very tired late night Sunday as I finished everything up.

So. Fun.

But in the meantime, I've seen some more movies!

For reasons that aren't entirely clear to anyone (myself included), roughly once a year I get on a bizarre horror movie kick that lasts for about 2-3 weeks. (I do the same thing with rap music.) I've always been a fan of well made horror films, but the recent trend that Hollywood has taken with the production of "torture porn" (horror films that revolve around the sadistic mutilation and degradation of others; these victims are normally captives, and the perpetrator is generally not a supernatural entity, but rather just a weirdo) put me off just a bit. While "Saw" may be a fine movie, I'm fairly certain it didn't warrant 3 (soon 4) sequels. "Wolf Creek" could never have been made and I'd have been happy. The same goes for "Hostel" and its sequel, and even the remake of "The Hills Have Eyes".

Recently, however, I was lucky enough to discover a trio of excellent films that are all scary, well made, well acted, and that use as their staple villains three old favorites from back when horror stories were still in their infancy: vampires, werewolves, and zombies! Without going into detail, just check out the trailers below, and know that all three films are worth catching on Netflix (I've actually purchased 2 of the 3, as well, and I don't buy movies nearly as often as I used to).

While all of these films are unquestionably violent, they are all also genuinely scary, peopled with well-developed characters, and enjoyable to watch. My personal favorite of the three was "28 Days Later", which I've already watched twice and that bears images and scenes that have lingered long in my memory after viewing (so much so that the film is the second by Danny Boyle to make it onto my own personal "top 10" list, which just reached 11 films....time to shift something off, I guess...)

30 Days of Night (Vampires):


My thoughts: 3 out of 4 stars. Handsomely made, very scary film that manages to actually make vampires scary again. I've decided that I like Josh Hartnett as an actor, especially in these types of roles (he was also fun in "The Faculty"). "30 Days of Night" does a lot of things right, and even though it has its share of problems (there are plot holes the size of pot holes, and anyone who still believes that the light in Alaska works as depicted here and in films like "Insomnia" should probably have their head closely examined), the film is overall highly enjoyable, and a great Halloween treat.

28 Days Later (zombies):


My thoughts: 4 out of 4 stars. One of my new favorite films. Atmospheric, well acted (Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson, especially, are awesome), directed and executed, and very, very frightening from start to finish. While not technically a "zombie" movie in the strictest sense of the word, I'm not really sure what else to classify it as...the one classification I have come up with, "A Post Apocalyptic Infected Ghouls on Speed Film", is just sort of a mouthful.

"28 Days Later" is a difficult movie to forget, and not an easy one to step away from once it has you in its hold. It's a rare horror film that is much more than the sum of its parts: at times exciting, at times touching, oft terrifying, and always engaging. All in a all it's a great film that just all around kicks arse. See it...now.

Dog Soldiers (werewolves):


My thoughts: 3 out of 4 stars. Great, gory fun. The direction is clunky at times, and there truly is nothing original going on here, but the movie is so well crafted that I found myself not worried about that in the least. The movie is also surprisingly funny, often at the most shocking of times...I think it's a British thing...

That's it for now -- take care!