Grave Encounters (2011) Movie Review

Grave Encounters (2011) Movie Review) IMDB

Grave Encounters (2011) movie poster

We can thank Blair Witch Project (1999) for an entire genre of found footage movies. This allowed movie makers to make movies where the camera work is shaky to add to the realism, and people always have their cameras pointed in just the right direction. If something is expensive to shoot just make the lighting dark and the special effects team can spend less money, because it is shot by a non-professional person, not a cameraman. This found footage movie is about a ghost hunting reality tv show that spends the night in an abandoned mental hospital. Now, although these are television professionals they STILL have terrible camerawork as they film this mental hospital. If this was real found footage (spoiler?) there would need to be a lot of editing.

Now about the movie. It has some nice scares along the way, starting slow and with a nice buildup of a scenario where a tv production crew locks themselves in an abandoned mental hospital overnight. What could possibly go wrong ? Well, you could have trouble getting out …and the hospital could be changing, with new hallways existing where one wasn’t before….creating a maze-like trap that must be escaped from. The group starts being picked off one by one. At the end of the day (or night in this case) - this movie works. It isn’t great, but it is worth seeing !

I give it an 6/10 for having some good scares and a nice premise.

Here is the trailer for the movie:

You Should Have Left (2020) Movie Review

You Should Have Left (2020) IMDB

You Should Have Left (2020) movie poster

Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried star in this horror thriller from Blumhouse about a couple that goes on vacation to the Welsh countryside to work on their relationship. They have a young daughter and as the story unfolds we learn about the couples relationship and past before they were married. The couple has a large age difference and this makes the husband suspicious of his wife of cheating on him because she always seems to be engaged with her phone instead of him. Seems like we are always on our phones these days.

Hovering over the story of the relationship is the house. Large, mysterious, and the home to that seems to defy physics with its unending hallways. And that is where the maze movie part comes in. This house feels like a maze multiple times during the movie, including in two long sequences. Something is off about the house, or is that just in their heads ?

With an ending you will see coming from a mile away, even if you don’t quite understand some of the machinations that took you there in the last part of the movie. I give it a 5.5/10.

Check out the trailer:

Us (2019) Movie Review

Us (2019) IMDB

Us movie poster

Jordan Peele knows how to make an interesting horror film, Get Out anyone ?, and this is his follow-up. It’s 1986, and a young girl wanders off from the amusement park on the beach and enters a deserted fun house. When the lights go out she tries to exit, but the mirror maze makes it difficult for her to find her way. Oh, and so does the girl in the mirror. And that’s when you know this thing is about to get sinister.

Modern day. A family of 4 takes a vacation to SoCal with another family. After a beach outing during the day where they see a tragic scene they return home to relax. That night the lights go out only to reveal a group of 4 family doppelgangers outside, but with deformations. What follows is a cat and mouse game where the doppelgangers are trying to kill the original family. Along the way we discover just how big the problem is.

So this really good movie has a maze that kicks off the plot and hurtles us into a twisted world that you will want to escape from ! It has a cast that includes Lupita Nyong'o and Elizabeth Moss and the performances are good.

I give it a solid 7.4/10. It has won over 80 awards from dozens of different groups, so if you don’t trust me, trust them !

Here is the trailer:

The Shining (1980) Movie Review

Considered by some as the greatest horror film ever made and certainly one of the first films mentioned in the conversation. Features a handful of really memorable scenes that have become a part of our culture, like the creepy twins and the breaking through the door with an ax and that means something.

The Shining (1980) IMDB

The Shining (1980) movie poster

One of the best horror movies of all time is also one of the best movies of all time. It features the 3 headed monster of Stanley Kubrick as the director of a Stephen King best selling book with Jack Nicholson as the lead character….yes please ! A writer takes a job as a caretaker of a secluded hotel (the Overlook Hotel) that is closed for the Winter with his wife and young son joining him. Oh, did I mention the hotel is also haunted ? Not a little haunted, a lot haunted. As the writer’s mental state deteriorates, his wife and son try to leave the hotel but he won’t let them. Can they escape a secluded hotel in the middle of winter ? I would try using the hedge maze outside….just a thought.

Jack looking at model of the maze - The Shining

If you want to explore the symbolism in the film check out the documentary film Room 237. It will have you questioning the choices made in the film and just what they might represent. Also, it gives you a reason to watch the movie again !

Fun Facts About The Shining

  • The Overlook Hotel was inspired by the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon. Kubrick filmed the exterior shots of the hotel at the Timberline Lodge, but the interior shots were filmed in a studio in England.

  • Jack Nicholson's famous "Here's Johnny!" line was not in the original script. Nicholson improvised the line on the spot, and Kubrick loved it so much that he decided to keep it in the film.

  • The film's score, composed by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind, is also considered to be one of the greatest film scores of all time.

  • The movie opened on the same weekend as The Empire Strikes Back !

  • The film was considered a poor adaption of the book and was hated by Stephen King.

This is easily a 9.5/10. If I see this on tv, I watch it.

Check out the movie trailer: