Firstly, I have to say that I just love scary movies. I'm not talking about violent, gruesome horror movies, or campy, goofy Friday the 13th style movies (not that the Friday the 13th series doesn't make for a fun marathon, mind you, but they're not exactly what I'd call "scary" movies). I'm talking about spooky, suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat ghost stories; movies like The Others, Thir13en Ghosts, and The Ring. So it goes without saying that I've pretty much been in hog heaven with the recent resurgence of spooky horror movies that have been hitting the theatres in recent months (and it looks to continue at least for a little while -- I can't wait to see The Ring Two, and Christina Ricci in Cursed!).
So I decided to spend last Friday night and Saturday doing a scary movie marathon (Sunday, of course, being set aside for the Super Bowl). First on my list was a trip down to the theatre to see Boogeyman. All in all, not a bad movie. It was pretty formulaic and didn't stray far from your standard spooky ghost story film, but I don't know that this is necessarily a bad thing. It knew what type of movie it was, and didn't try to be anything else. It had a couple of nice surprises, and was just creepy/spooky enough to make for a fun matinee movie. If you like scary movies, it's definitely worth seeing.
On the DVD front, I just acquired a trio of Asian horror movies -- Dark Water, The Eye, and Into The Mirror (one from Japan, one from Hong Kong, and one from Korea, so you've got a little something from all over Asia). Add in Juon: The Grudge (which I'd been sitting on for a while and finally got around to watching), and you've got the makings of a fun-filled movie weekend. I'll start with Juon. While still a good movie, after seeing the American remake, the original is a little disappointing (and it has nothing to do with Sarah Michelle Gellar -- the Japanese women in the original are much cuter). Partly this is becuase the American version had a much bigger budget, so the effects in the original look pretty cheesy by comparison. The other problem is that Juon: The Grudge is actually the THIRD movie in a series. Director Takashi Shimizu did two direct-to-video films before that (this one was the first in the series to get a theatrical release), so a lot of the back story that is explained in the American version is left out of the Japanese version, because this was information presented in the previous movies. I also wasn't jumping out of my seat as much as I was when I saw The Grudge at the theatre. But that little kid is still as creepy as ever, and all in all the movie is a very enjoyable, very spooky film.
Next we have Dark Water, directed by Hideo Nakata, the director of Ringu (the original Japanese version of The Ring). This is probably the slowest paced of all the movies I watched last weekend. Initially it feels almost more like a drama, as we see a woman going through an ugly divorce and struggling to keep custody of her young daughter. But the suspense slowly starts to build after mother and daughter move into a new apartment. A child's red backpack keeps mysteriously showing up (after repeatedly being thrown away), and a leak in their apartment's ceiling gets worse and worse (which I realize sounds pretty tame and unexciting, but the movie does a great job of making it suspenseful and freaky). The tension builds right up until the end, and both the suspense and the drama keep you glued to the screen. And the surprise twist ending was fantastic! I absolutely loved this movie. There's an American remake coming out some time soon starring Jennifer Connelly, and I'm really curious to see how it's going to compare to the original (unlike The Grudge and The Ring Two, it isn't being directed by the original Japanese director, so we'll see how good a job they do with it).
The Eye is a Hong Kong horror film about a young woman who's been blind since she was two, and is able to get replacement corneas to return her sight. However, as she adjusts to seeing again, she soon discovers that she's seeing things that nobody else is seeing -- most notably, ghosts (yes, I was immediately thinking of Haley Joel Osmet going "I see dead people," but this movie deals with it in a much more suspenseful and scary fashion). I don't think there were any scenes that had me jumping out of my seat in this one, but I definitely had my blanket pulled up tight around me through most of the movie. Some of the scenes were just really, really creepy. Add to that a pretty compelling mystery as the woman tries to discover the meaning and origin of her visions, and you've got a very enjoyable movie.
Finally, we have Into the Mirror, a film from Korea. This has to be one of the scariest, creepiest horror movies I've ever seen. It doesn't have the frights that The Grudge has, where every few scenes something is jumping out at you and making you scream and jump in your seat. Instead, it lets the tension and suspense build and build so that the audience just gets more and more freaked out. In some ways I think this is a better technique to keep people scared. Whenever a movie has a sudden fright in it that has you jumping or screaming, that reaction relieves the tension that's been building up; you immediately laugh at yourself for being startled, and the tension then starts building up all over again. With Into the Mirror, you don't really get that release, and so the tension builds through the whole movie. You'll also never look at your reflection the same way again after watching this!
The basic premise of the movie is that a shopping mall is getting ready to open after being ravaged by a fire. But in the days leading up to its opening, employees of the mall begin dying violently and mysteriously. The police are called in to discover what is going on. Of course, while the police don't know what's going on, the audience does (sort of), because we get to see the murders happen. The kicker, though, is that the people are being killed by their reflections. And that's what makes this movie so scary -- the scenes involving the mirrors. In one instance, a man is in an elevator that has mirrored walls. The camera shows him standing with his back towards the wall, so his reflection shows the back of his head. But then his reflection turns around and is looking at him! In the opening scene, one of the employees is in the mall late, and decides to steal a few items, including a pizza cutter (WHY she steals a pizza cutter isn't ever really explained, but it's necessary for the next scene, so you kind of have to just go with it). A security guard finds her and she quickly tells him she's just looking for the bathroom. Once in the bathroom, she pulls out the pizza cutter (again, odd behavior that isn't really explained; but hey, that's the movies for you). She's looking at herself in the mirror when the ID badge around her neck breaks and drops to the floor. She bends down to pick it up, but her reflection stays standing up, and even tilts its head down to look at her. She sees this as she's standing back up. While she's staring in shock at the mirror, her reflection raises the pizza cutter to its neck, and begins cutting open its throat. At the same time, the woman's throat just opens up as if it were being cut (but the woman is holding the real pizza cutter at her side). The blood/gore level is actually kept at a minimum, even in this scene, which is something I like. It's nice to see movies that are scary without resorting to blood and gore.
Scenes like this continue throughout the movie (and are all done really, really well), which turns into a murder mystery involving an employee of the mall who supposedly died in the big fire. However, the people being killed off are the ones who had identified her body (which, naturally, had been burned beyond recognition). The police discover that she has an identical twin sister (and this of course works really well with the mirror tricks, since you never know if her reflection is just her reflection, or if it's actually her dead sister), and one of the policeman works with her to discover what really happened to her twin. The director does an incredible job with the filming of the movie, filming scenes in mirrors then panning over to the real people, for example, which does a great job of keeping the audience off balance. You also see a ghostly spectre show up in the mirrors here and there, but it's almost always in the background where you almost miss it if you're not paying attention. This is one of those movies that I think you could watch several times and find things you'd missed every time you watched it.
I have to give this movie 5 stars. It's creepy, spooky, edge of your seat thrills, plus it actually has a really well-done murder mystery in it. Sadly for most folks out there, though, the only version of it I could find was a Region 3 version out of Korea, so unless you've got a region-free DVD player (I so LOVE mine!!) you're not going to find a version you can actually watch. Which is a shame, since this is such a fantastic film. With any luck it will make its way to the US eventually.
And thus ends the review of my marathon of scary movies. I can't wait to see more and more of these types of movies coming to the theatres (I plan on enjoying them while I can, since we all know that these trends last only so long, and then people get tired of them). There are also a few more Asian horror movies I need to pick up on DVD (once I can afford to buy them). For anyone who might be interested in the movies I reviewed above (or other Asian films), here are a couple of great Internet sites for buying Asian DVDs --AznFilms.com, and HKFlix.com (which also sells region-free DVD players, which is great since a lot of the DVDs on both sites are either Region 2 or Region 3). For anyone who's never watched much in the way of Asian cinema, I can't recommend it highly enough. There are some great films coming out of Asia (as seen by the number of them being remade by Hollywood), and they're a wonderful change from standard Hollywood fare.
No comments:
Post a Comment