The Descent / Descent 2

First off, I am going to start by saying that, to me, The Descent is easily one of the best horror films since 2000. The movie starts off with a tragedy. We have a group of friends on a rafting trip. On the way home from the trip there is an accident, killing the main character, Sarah's husband and daughter.

Flash forward to a year later... Sarah's friends take her on a trip to try to cheer her up and get her mind off of things. They head off to explore caverns in Vermont. Sarah is appreciative of the effort, but is still a little shaky about the loss of her husband and daughter. She decides to still go out with her friends to the caverns.

When the girls start exploring the caverns, there is a very claustrophobic feel. Sarah starts to hear and see things that she and her friends wonder if it's all in her head. At one point though, the girls find out that their one friend, Juno, who arranged the whole trip lied to them about the caves. They were not in the tourist caves they thought they were in, they were in an uncharted cave system and nobody knew they were there.

Shortly after that, the girls realize they are not alone, but there are some sort of humanoid creatures dwelling down there as well who are not friendly. 

Cut to a huge fight scene with the creatures where some of the girls end up getting killed. The rest end up getting split up and picked off one by one by the creatures.

The movie ends up with Sarah's fight for survival and to find a way out, which she eventually does.

The first time I watched this, I wasn't expecting much, and damn, was I wrong. This movie is a creepy, gory, and intense thriller that keeps you locked in. It's one of the few times where I watched a movie for the first time, and immediately wanted to watch it again after it was over! If you haven't seen it, go watch it now!

Now on to part 2. Depending on which version of part 1 you watch, you may be wondering how the sequel would start. While in both endings of the first one we see Sarah alive, the Theatrical cut is the one that ends with her outside of the cave. Anyway, part 2 starts with a blood drenched Sarah being rescued and taken to the hospital.

While at the hospital, she explains to authorities what happened in the caves. To nobody's surprise, they don't believe her. They decide to check out the caves, taking her with them, to find out what really happened to her friends.

Here we find out the caves were connected to an old mining system, which is entered by an elevator behind an old farm.

Sarah, knowing what is going to happen tries to warn them over and over again, but they keep exploring. Soon enough they find out that she is telling the truth, and start getting picked off by the creatures one by one, leaving it down to Sarah and officer Ellen Rios.

We are left with a fight for survival by the two girls, an interesting surprise which makes the movie instantly better, and a nice twist at the end.

To me, Descent part 2 delivered everything I expected from a sequel. While it's not as good as the first, it's a great continuation of the story and still pretty intense. What I loved about this one is that you see the creatures more in depth and detail this time around. Both movies are definitely worth a watch, especially back to back. I just hope it ends here, and doesn't get ruined like some movies do by becoming a franchise.

Unrest

Unrest was released in the first After Dark Horrorfest in 2006, and if you ask me, it's one of the best ones out of all 4 of the After Dark Horrorfest sets. We have Alison, a first year med student in a human anatomy class. Alison, is grouped with 3 other students in the class, each group is given a cadaver to dissect and study.

Alison is  unnerved by their specific cadaver, not only because the woman seems young, which is unusual for cadavers in a medical lab, but she also just has an eerie feeling about her. The longer the group is working on the cadaver, the more weird things start to happen, including the one student's girlfriend dying mysteriously shortly after seeing it.

Once things start escalating, Alison starts doing some research on the woman. She finds out that the woman's name was Alita Covas. Alita started out as a normal woman, who went for an archaeological dig in Aztec ruins. After the dig, the woman seemed to slowly slip into insanity, leading her to prostitution and eventually murder.

 Now Alison needs to find out what happened to cause Alita to go insane. What is possessing her? Why is her spirit at unrest? and how can it be stopped?

This movie kept me on edge. It's not your usual paranormal thriller, and I think that's why I liked it so much. It definitely keeps a creepy feel throughout complete with an intense ending.

Black Christmas vs Black Christmas

For the most part, I'm not a big fan of remakes, however in this case I love both versions. We'll start with the original, made in 1974, also sometimes known as 'Silent Night Evil Night'.

Made 4 years before John Carpenter's Halloween, some will stay this is the movie that started the generation of slasher films in the 70s and 80s. We have a great cast in this one consisting of Margot Kidder, Olivia Hussey, Andrea Martin, and John Saxon.  Both movies have the same basic premise. Sorrority girls begin receiving obscene and disturbing phone calls from a psycho.

As the calls continue, the atmosphere begins to get more and more creepy. With the phone calls getting worse, and realizing their one sister, Claire, is missing, they call the cops. The cops, also alarmed about the body of a dead girl found in a nearby park, decide the two may be connected, so they wire tap the girl's phone.  Here we have a great performance (as always) by John Saxon as Lt Fuller.

Slowly as the night goes on the girls are killed one by one. Including a great death scene using a crystal unicorn.

Overall this is a very good slasher flick. Keep in mind when watching this that it was made in the 70s, if you are familiar with horror from that time period, you know that they are usually slower paced and have a different atmosphere. Funny enough, this movie was directed by Bob Clark, director of 'A Christmas Story'. Quite a juxtaposition of Christmas movies I must say.

And then.... we have the remake, which I feel was very well done and a great re-visioning of a classic slasher.

This movie also has a great cast, including Andrea Martin of the original playing the house mother, and Lacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Katie Cassidy, and Michelle Trachtenberg. While this movie starts very similar with the girls getting obscene phone calls, it strays in a bit of a different direction from there.

For starters, in this one, we see more of a relationship with the girls and their house mother. This movie also goes into more depth with the killer. Instead of leaving the identity of the killer mostly unknown, we hear a history of the sorority house.

We learn of a messed up family that lived there before. A couple who had a son named Billy. While Billy's dad loved him, his mom was an evil bitch. One Christmas, Billy's mother and her secret lover killed his father. After which, they locked Billy in the attic so that he wouldn't be a bother. One night years later, when Billy's mom's new boyfriend passed out, she proceeded to go up into the attic and have sex with Billy, causing her to get pregnant. She then gives birth to his Daughter/Sister, Agnes. A few years later, Billy escapes the attic, kills his mom and her bf and tries to kill Agnes. Billy ends up locked up in a mental hospital and Agnes' whereabouts are unknown.

So... back to the girls. Tension builds over the course of the night when they discover their one sister Claire is missing, especially once Claire's sister, Leigh, arrives looking for her. The power goes out, more phone calls, and strange noises in the attic lead things to get tense and the girls to seek help.

Due to a bad snow storm, the police do not seem to be showing up, so one by one, the girls start getting killed off. Is it Billy, Agnes, or someone else? Watch to find out.

While I really like both movies, I personally prefer the remake. I love the back story, going into Billy's life and why he was so crazy. I also really liked the performance of Andrea Martin as the house mother. This one was definitely faster paced and  had a lot more gore. Most people however prefer the original. Either way, both are definitely worth a watch. Check them out.

From Beyond (1986)

Revisiting a classic here. This movie is easily one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. Based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, Directed by Stuart Gordon, and starring Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) and Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), this movie is just a recipe for awesome.

We start with Dr. Edward Pretorius and Crawford Tillinghast who have created a resonator which stimulated the pineal gland and opens up the mind to other dimensions.

When this is done, strange creatures start appearing, and by the time Crawford shuts the machine off, the Dr has disappeared.  When Crawford tells his story to officials, he is deemed crazy and put in a psycho ward.  However, Dr. Katherine McMichaels decides she wants to do research and continue the experiments, so she, along with a police escort Bubba, take Crawford back to Dr. Pretorius' house.

Despite Crawford's warnings about the resonator, Dr McMichaels still insists on using it. This time when they use it, they find that Dr Pretorius is not dead, but in another dimension, and throughout time he changes and deforms.

From this point on, things start getting very strange. Dr McMichaels starts to grow an obsession with using the resonator, and Dr Pretorius finds ways to get it started from another dimension. From this point on things get very weird, including crawford growing a third eye. This movie is a good one for the sci-fi and horror fans, especially those who are fond of 80s horror.

Storm Warning

Pia and Rob are newlyweds who are going for a romantic boat ride. At on point during the ride they notice a bad storm coming and pull ashore on an island to seek shelter.

They manage to find an old house, only it's not empty. There are 2 brothers, Brett and Jimmy, who live there with their father. From the first meeting they realize Brett and Jimmy are not good people.

Things start to get intense as they show intentions on raping Pia. 

We are then introduced to Brett and Jimmy's father, Poppy.

After getting into a fight with the boys, Rob's leg is injured and he and Pia are locked in the family's barn. This movie is a great struggle for survival, and in this case, it's the wife who has to do all the dirty work, and boy does she ever. 

They manage to escape, but not before getting revenge in a very climactic ending. This movie is very suspenseful and even gory in parts. Definitely a great thrill ride!

High Tension/Haute Tension

Here we have 2 friends, Marie and Alexia, who are driving to Alexia's family home for a peaceful weekend away from the city.

On the first evening there, while Marie is laying in the guest room, she hears a vehicle pull up and sees a man walk up to the front door. Alexia's father opens the door and lets the man in. From here on out all hell breaks loose. The man proceeds to kill Alexia's family, and takes Alexia captive in his truck. Marie manages to hide out of site and is unharmed.

Marie then proceeds to chase after the man to save her friend, we end up with an intense cat and mouse game between the man and Marie, with some people getting killed along the way.

Marie finally confronts the man in the woods and ends up in an insane fight to the death.

This movie has a title that brings expectations, and it definitely delivers some high tension.  Cecile DeFrance is AMAZING in her role as Marie. This is a movie that picks up the action very quickly and keeps up until an incredible ending. It is a French movie, hence the dual title, but don't let that scare you off, there is only one small portion where they speak in French, the rest is in english and not dubbed. This movie quickly became one of my favorites after watching it.

Stuck

In this thriller, directed by horror legend, Stuart Gordon, we have Brandi, played by Mena Suvari. Brandi is overworked at her job in a nursing home, and she is also a big partier. Thomas is a man down on his luck, lost his job, his home, and his family. After a night of partying, Brandi drives home drunk and accidentally hits Thomas with her car.

Frantic and afraid of getting in trouble for driving drunk, she tries to pull the man out of her windshield.

When she realizes she can't get him out, she panics and drives home, parking her car in her garage with Thomas still in the windshield. There is one problem though, Thomas isn't dead, just badly injured.

She tries to just leave him there, hoping he will die. She even goes back to work, taking a cab so she could leave her car at home. The man eventually gets free and she finds him, realizing her fate is in his hands.

I would say this movie is more of a dark comedy/thriller, but knowing that it is loosely based on true events makes it a bit more of a thriller. There is some good tension in this one, and a hilarious chick fight at one point in the movie. This is a very good movie, however, most people don't seem to know about it.