The internet is a new and fascinating way to communicate, share, and create with other people across the world. It's an exciting new technology that could have (and has had) boundless effects, on culture, society, and life itself. Unfortunately, it also means we get terrible films based on websites filled with deplorable people. Like Smiley. … [Read more...]
Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) review by That Film Guy
As inevitable as Halloween itself is the next installment in a horror franchise that is cheap to make and keeps making good money. Previously the home of Final Destination or Saw, the found footage juggernaut of Paranormal Activity rolls through its fourth entry. Made for a budget of around $5m it found itself in profit after its opening night. Within the chronology of the … [Read more...]
The Wicker Man (1973) review by That Film Guy
The decade of the 1970s was a hotbed of experimental, ground-breaking and now classic horror films. The Exorcist was the first of the genre ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was sweeping the US like a plague, while Italian Dario Argento was creating giallo (Italian word for yellow, which was the colour of the pages of the Italian … [Read more...]
Review: Audition (1999)
Formally the domain of British giant Hammer and latterly Hollywood in the 1970s, Late 1990s and early 2000 Japan has produced some of the most memorable and disturbing films. Other than Ring and Dark Water, which have both since received English-language remakes, one film has yet to find an auteur willing to take on the job. Directed by controversial maestro Takashi Miike, … [Read more...]
The Sixth Sense (1999) review by That Film Guy
Horror films and the Oscars don't really go hand-in-hand, which may explain why, as of 2012, only four of the genre have ever been nominated in the Best Film category. One of those is M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense. Released in 1999, The Sixth Sense became an unexpected commercial smash hit recouping over $670m at the box office from its budget of $40m. It earnt an Oscar … [Read more...]
Sinister (2012) review by That Film Guy
True crime novelist Ellison Osbourne (Ethan Hawke) has made a career out of writing about missing children and is trying to recreate the success of his first book. He decides to move his family to the site of a grisly murder that saw four members of a family hanged from a tree. During the move he discovers a box in the attic which houses a series of super 8 reels of film and a … [Read more...]
The Rite (2011) review by That Film Guy
Based on a book called The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, director Mikael Hafstrom brings The Rite to the silver screen. Ostensibly a horror in the same mould as The Exorcist of The Last Exorcism, The Rite actually acts more as simply a personal drama centred around it's lead character. A moderate box office success it took over $90m from a modest budget of $37m. … [Read more...]
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) review by That Film Guy
Following on from the success of the original Frankenstein, this horror sequel Bride of Frankenstein is one of the most recognisable and parodied horror films of the Golden Era of Cinema. The 1930s is considered one of the great decades of horror films (along with the 1970s) and stars such as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi were household names for playing archetypal horror … [Read more...]
Troll 2 (1990) review by That Film Klown
In the murky pool of the worst films ever made swims a beast that could swallow the entire cast of Jack and Jill and still have room for Michael Bay. This monster, known to the world as Troll 2, redefined the definition of bad “ and by comparison all our lives have been better ever since. The story behind Troll 2 is infinitely more interesting than the nonsensical one it … [Read more...]
House at the End of the Street (2012) review by That Film Gal
Much has been made of the fact that the House at the End of the Street was shot before The Hunger Games catapulted Jennifer Lawrence to the dizzying heights of the A list. Some have even suggested that the lack of previews might in fact point to an embarrassed cast, which would have preferred it if this little forgotten thriller from all the way back in 2010, had been swept … [Read more...]