Film Review - THE PURGE ★★☆☆☆

Welcome to America in 2022. A nation reborn. Unemployment is down to 1%, people get along just fine, and crime is non-existent. Well that last part has a huge asterisk attached. One night a year, the government sanctions a night for citizens to commit prosecution-free crime, which includes murder, and all emergency services are suspended. By allowing The Purge, as its called, the idea is everyone's pent up agression is permitted for a scheduled release during a 12-hour period, leaving only peace and harmony for the remaining 364 calendar days of the year. Though certain upper classes and government officials are exempt as potential 'victims,' for the most part its the perceived vagrant tier who are the ones used as target practice when the right to "unleash the beast" is savagely invoked.

If you can get past this ridiculous scenario set in a dystopian future, you will be able to hang on board for this tense and bloody home invasion thriller. To be fair though for all you snarky nitpickers, the dystopian future premise here is still not as far fetched than anything presented in The Hunger Games. It's also worth nothing that The Purge is an extremely violent film, with more than a fair amount of bloody graphic gun play. But there is no pretension in the advertising that it would be anything otherwise, so you should know full well what you are setting yourself up for once your ass in settled in the theater.

Ethan Hawke plays James Sandin, a high-end home-security salesman who has made a lot of profit by outfitting his well-to-do gated community with Purge-proof systems. At 7PM on March 21st its Purge night as usual, and he battens down the hatches at his spacious abode for hopefully 12 incident free hours with wife Mary (Lena Headey) and children Zoey (Adelaide Kane) and Charlie (Max Burkholder).

Lockdown is going well as can be until Charlie takes pity on an bloody and battered outsider who has a murderous masked gang hot on his tail. The silly child lets him into the house and things go downhill quickly from there. On this night, its the ominous gang's full legal right to cleanse society of this vagrant. Their leader (a chilling and over the top Rhys Wakefield) demands that the Sadins surrender the stranger for imminent slaughter, or they will use the necessary tools to tear into their home and kill everyone, which is still within their legal Purge night rights.

Hawke's James Sadin is a good family man, and a cog in the futuristic system merely adhering to society's ridiculous set rules when he's thrown into this life or death situation. He is faced with the moral dilemma to save his family by turning over the wounded war vet to die with no legal repercussions or maintain his soul by providing him safety and risking the lives of his loved ones. What digs at you here is the gang falls within their right to commit the reprehensible acts according to the new world order.

There wouldn't be much more movie if the moral high road was the road not taken, so the lights go out and the ultra violent home invasion commences. That said, I was able to disconnect when it came to the scant details provided about the entire inane concept of the Purge and took it as a highly effective thriller from that point on. Director James DeMonaco frames the action mostly in tight shots, and often handheld. By leaving the large house mainly unexplored before the main event, the contant unknown adds to the film's relentless claustrophobic atmosphere. With killers lurking in the shadows at any given moment, the middle act plays out as an effective thriller, capitalizing on sudden booming sound effects.

The Purge runs under 90 minutes, a HUGE plus for one who feels comedies and horror movies are best kept to a tight 90 rather than a bloated 120. The trim running time keeps it pound for pound and bang for your buck moving along constantly. Frankly I found not an ounce of fat in the film's pacing.

I'll say at least the audience I was among last night was way into it, cheering at all the critical hero moments. Hawke gives a solid performance here as a father who does whatever he can to protect his family. Even if the choices aren't entirely morally right, in the film's context, they remain legally right. and any person would probably make the same choices in succesion. But its not to say the film could have benefitted from extra expository screen time to ease the audience into the deeper ramifications behind the Purge itself.

Lena Headey provides as his wife what she does best, a strong and stoic female figure with the subtle frown of heavy burden. Following her roles in 300, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Game of Thrones with The Purge, I really do wish for her a rousing romantic comedy lined up sometime in the future. It would be nice to see her smile and laugh incessantly on screen.

The main villain, who does not wear a mask, is a chilling college attired madman courtesy of Rhys Wakefield. At times over the top, but provides a menacing face to the otherwise disguised group of marauders in the film.

The film sticks firmly to its ridiculous moral-less premise, and only once you accept that all forms of extreme violence is legal in the United States for a 12-hour period can you move forward. But they play it correct by their own twisted rule book. But on the surface there is an intense thriller about self preservation that at times delivers edge of your seat scares and suspense. It certainly has its jump out moments at times manages to maintain a non-stop pulse pounding pace that should satisfy the intended audience of this genre. There are less than subtle comments on race, class and the underlying turncoat nature that may exist in a Stepford Wives worthy neighborhood, but all rolled into the film's scant running time, a platform for over analyzing social commentary this is not.

The Purge opens in theaters on June 7th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★☆☆☆
Director: James DeMonaco
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge, Rhys Wakefield
Screenwriters: James DeMonaco
Studio: Universal Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 85 minutes

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TRAILER: 'Carrie'

Sony has released the very revealing full trailer to the new big screen version of Stephen King's classic horror novel Carrie starring Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore. Directed by Kimberly Peirce, the film promises to adhere close to the source material, but as you can see maintains much of the imagery first put on the big screen in 1976 that showcased the horrific telekinetic powers the tormented teen possessed.

The original film starred Sissy Spacek as Carrie White and was directed by Brian De Palma (who gave his blessing on the remake, and passed the torch to the Boys Don't Cry helmer Peirce).

After watching this, to me there isn't much surprise left in the film. It seemingly takes us from the beginning to the iconic blood soaked firery climax at Carrie's prom. Even if you haven't seen the original, this trailer really feels the need to take you step by step through the whole movie. Good idea?

Carrie is set for release October 18th, and not the date seen on this one sheet released before the date was pushed back.

Film Review - EVIL DEAD ★★★½☆☆

Like many fans my age, my early years of enjoying the horror genre were partly shaped by director Sam Rami's micro-budgeted 1981 cult horror classic The Evil Dead (as well as the two subsequent entries in the series). The good news is we can breathe a huge tense sigh of relief regarding this update of the iconic film. Rest assured, this version will not intrude on fond memories regarding the original, but will firmly take the experience to a whole new level with its blacken heart tone and no expense spared attitude on guts and gore.

Many of us cried 'blasphemy' at the prospect of revisiting the series without Raimi at the helm, who is now decades past his low budget roots and off making some of the biggest films in Hollywood. But he and Dead's irreplaceable original star, genre icon Bruce Campbell didn't give up their keys to the castle and are both on board as producers.

Thankfully not a shot for shot remake, director Fede Alvarez does retrace over many familiar plot points and appropriately adjusts, improves and upgrades in other areas (visual effects have improved slightly since 1981). Evil demons once again take brutal vengeance on five unsuspecting weekend visitors to a remote cabin on the woods.

TOY FAIR 2013: 'Carrie' Figures Are Bloody Scary

NECA Toys is offering 7" figures to tie in with the latest take on the Stephen King horror classic Carrie, starring Chloë Grace Moretz in the title role and Julianne Moore as her mother.

The film is set for an October 8th release, and the toys hit shelves in September. Check out these figures from the unforgettable climatic prom scene that made us all thankful that in real life, the misunderstood girl can't get revenge via her telekinetic powers.

From NECA Toys:

A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White, a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother, who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.

This figure assortment includes a beautiful Carrie, flower bouquet in hand, glamorous & elegant at the start of her prom night. 

The second figure is Carrie as she unleashes her rage, covered in blood from head to toe. It’s a frightening sight to behold.

SOURCE: NECA Toys

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Film Review - MAMA ★★☆☆☆

If you are looking for your creepy kid movie fix, look no further than Mama, a little horror thriller from first-time director Andy Muschietti and executive producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy).

Based on Muschietti's short film of the same name, Mama stars Jessica Chastain (currently riding high on her red hot Oscar nominated turn in Zero Dark Thirty) and Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and provides enough creeps and chills to secure you to your seat. It's not to say that Mama doesn't a borrow a healthy helping of creepy imagery from Japanese ghost stories like The Ring and The Grudge (and to a certain extent The Exorcist as well), but for this film the less-is-more approach is not really in the cards. You're kinda in the know surprisingly early on as to what's up with the ghostly title character.

When a distraught father murders his wife following a huge financial setback, he flees to a cabin in the woods with his two daughters only to be consumed by a ghostly presence right before he can complete the grisly task of taking out the rest of his family. The girls are left abandoned in the remote forest with only the mysterious apparition to watch over them. Five years later, they are found in none too good shape by a rescue team funded by their starving artist Uncle Lucas (Coster-Waldau). Miraculously alive, but nonetheless detached, filthy and feral, Victoria (Megan Carpenter) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse) are brought back to civilization and put in the care of Lucas and his reluctant girlfriend Annabel. And that's when the creepy begins.

The kids may have left the cabin behind, but Mama did not let them go without a fight, and a haunted house custody battle ensues. The convincing young girls provide a solid anchor to the film whose assimilation back into the normal world is impeded by a ghost in the form of a rotting floating corpse. Complete with a chilling spider walk, the younger sibling Lilly has a worse time breaking away from Mama's maternal grip, still attached to the other worldly creature with little fear and a creepy childlike wonder.

Some films choose to keep their monsters in the shadows, but the over possessive Mama is revealed prowling around surprisingly early on. Films like this can sometimes boil down to how complicated they make the villain's motivation before the inevitable climatic showdown. Do you make your antagonist ultimately a sympathetic creature, or are you dealing with pure evil that must be destroyed at all costs? Fans like me prefer their villains to be straight up evil who have no remorse or backstory to justify their actions. Others stick on the side of getting into the 'why?' of it all. Given the film's title and Chastain's Annabel being an inked-up goth rocker with little initial connection to children, an eventual power play on paternal instincts figures high on the agenda.

There is little mystery left to solve by the third act, and by that point you are far more invested in Victoria and Lilly than any of the adults who are reduced to simply reacting to all of the strange goings on. Mama plays it too safe all around, and its PG-13 rating keeps the potential gore quotient to a bare bones minimum.

The genre overall is getting tougher to crack when it comes to standout fare, and sometimes the overall premise here is scarier than the actual execution. There are plenty of boogeyman bumps-in-the-night moments, several cliche horror movie missteps and expendable supporting characters you know have zero chance of making it to the final credits. But with solid performances by the two young leads (Lilly provides more chills than many of Mama's "Hey! Look at me!" CGI sequences), the film just manages to scare up enough haunted house supernatural thrills to keep it afloat.

Mama opens in theaters on January 18th.

REVIEW RATING:  ★★☆☆☆
Directed By: Andy Muschietti

Starring: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nelisse

Studio: Universal

Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 108 minutes

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New 'Evil Dead' Poster Promises Biggest Terrors Ever

Here is the official synopsis of the remake of the iconic 1981 horror film:

"Five twenty-something friends become holed up in a remote cabin where they discover The Book Of The Dead and unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival." 

Directed by Fede Alvarez, Evil Dead stars Jane Levy (Suburgatory), Shiloh Fernandez (Red Riding Hood), and Jessica Lucas (Melrose Place). Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi both serve as producers, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody shares a script credit with Raimi and director Alavrez.

The film is set to hit theaters on April 12, 2013.

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TRAILER TO THE TRAILER: 'Evil Dead'

The trailer for the remake of Sam Raimi's horror icon Evil Dead is set to debut online tomorrow. Screen Gems has released a teaser video with some quick gimpses and footage from last weekend's cast appearance at New York Comic Con where the trailer made its world premiere.

Evil Dead, directed by Fede Alvarez, stars Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, and Elizabeth Blackmore. The film opens opens April 12, 2013.

"In the much anticipated remake of the 1981 cult-hit horror film, five twenty-something friends become holed up in a remote cabin. When they discover a Book of the Dead, they unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival." 

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TEASER TRAILER: 'Carrie'

Getting the word on the new adaptation of Stephen King's horror classic Carrie is in full swing. The stars and filmmakers made an East Coast appearance at New York Comic Con over the weekend. Stars Julianne Moore, Chloë Grace Moretz, and director Kimberly Peirce took the stage to present this trailer and answer fan questions to a packed audience in the IGN Theater.

Yahoo! Movies got the online scoop for the first live action look at the film, which promises to stay closer to the source material, but maintains some iconic imagery first put on the big screen in 1976 that showcased the horrific telekinetic powers the tormented teen possessed.

The original film starred Sissy Spacek as Carrie White and was directed by Brian De Palma (who gave his blessing on the remake, passing the torch to Boys Don't Cry helmer Kimberly Peirce).

You can check out the teaser one sheet released last week in time for NYCC here.

Carrie is set to hit theaters on March 15th, 2013.

SOURCE: Yahoo! Movies

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NEW YORK COMIC CON 2012: First Horrifying Images From 'Evil Dead' and 'Carrie' Remakes Revelaed

Sony hosted special preview presentations for their upcoming remakes of Carrie and Evil Dead yesterday at New York Comic Con. In addition to Evil Dead icon Bruce Campbell and star Jane Levy appearing on stage in the IGN Theater for a Q&A, who were followed by Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore for Carrie, the first official images from both films were unleashed.

SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly

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Film Review - THE CABIN IN THE WOODS ★★★★☆

It's hard to pinpoint the best way to review The Cabin In The Woods, but the best start to it would be to simply just recommend seeing it.

Co-written by geek God Joss Whedon and his Buffy The Vampire Slayer collaborator Drew Goddard (who directs here and also co-wrote Cloverfield), this horror gem had been sitting on the shelf since 2009 until Lionsgate picked it up from MGM. Wisely setting it for release just in time to capitalize on both Whedon's foray into the big screen mainstream with Marvel's The Avengers, and rising star Chris Hemsworth, who has made a name for himself as Thor since he was cast as a then unknown in Cabin.

To go into the meaty details of the plot would be spoiling the fun. That is no to say that it is a roller coaster of massive twists and turns that would be wrong to reveal, but the enjoyment is to witness it all methodically unfold and challenge all your expectations of what you would assume to transpire.

The commercials and trailers do a commendable job of minimally teasing the skeleton outline of the plot. Five friends embark on a weekend excursion to a secluded summer house for typical college hijinks. But the cabin is not at all what it seems as a an underground high tech control room appears to be in control of the ensuing death, destruction, and mayhem.

Cabin never screws with your head regarding what is up to behind the curtain. From the very beginning you are in on the backstage workings of the button pushing techies played by Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, and Whedon-verse staple Amy Acker. And the film is very much about its excellent play on the importance of the journey and the destination.

How it all fits together while winking to the audience is what makes the film so fun, and not in the same way Wes Craven's Scream was the refreshing in-your-face game changer in response to a generation of stale slasher film standards.

Hemsworth is joined by Fran Kranz (Dollhouse), who as the stoner with the best reality grip on the situation, has a majority of the winning witty lines that Whedon is great for providing. Kristen Connolly also turns in a strong performance as the shy girl turned reluctant horror movie scream queen warrior.

The conventions played with and subsequently turned on their asses will make you realize that there can be gems sitting on a shelf begging to see the light of day. Whedon has tapped a top notch production crew, including Director of Photography Peter Deming who also shot Evil Dead 2, Scream 2, 3, 4, and Lost Highway, and delivers the perfect effective horror mood to the big screen.

While it does get to the gore when it needs to, it's not necessarily over the top scary because of the way it plays its horror genre hand to the audience. The less is more review here is for best, and thankfully there has been a gentleman's agreement online for not revealing massive spoilers since its premiere at SXSW in March. I will easily call The Cabin In The Woods wildly entertaining, smart, and original, and not to be underestimated, missed, or simply grouped in with your run of the mill horror fare.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★★☆
Directed By: Drew Goddard
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Bradley Whitford, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins, Kristen Connolly
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R

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Film Review - SILENT HOUSE ★★☆☆☆

In Silent House, the camera lens almost never veers off of its star Elizabeth Olsen, who gave a breakout performance in last year’s Martha Marcy May Marlene. It’s a commanding one woman hide-and- seek show here for Olsen, and you can cut the tension with a knife as the constantly roving camera follows her every waking action in an attempt to escape whomever or whatever lurks in the dark.

Olsen plays Sarah, who upon returning to her childhood summer residence along with her father and (at times creepy) uncle, fall victim to a mysterious and deadly presence in the remote house. Is it home invasion? Supernatural forces at work? Or both? Those eerie questions linger throughout the film once the big spooks kick in. It also goes without saying that the isolated lake house has tightly boarded up windows, intermittent electricity courtesy of a finicky gasoline generator, and obviously is located well out of range for clean cell phone service.

The film, from the director duo of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (who also helmed 2003's trapped-at-sea thriller Open Water), has a marketing angle touting it as a one-take movie. The other angle that leans on Silent House's entire 88 minute run taking place in 'real time' with "every minute as one terrifying sequence" would be the more accurate description.

On the tech side, you would be hard pressed to start a camera rolling on a feature length film and somehow never need to stop for even a single on-set gaffe that ruins a precious take. It’s not to say that the events in Silent House do not appear to occur in one continuous tension building shot, but diverting your attention away from the film itself in an attempt to catch the clever camera moves and edit points that allowed the production crew to grab several breathers on the set would be a mistake. Save that for a second viewing on home video, and you are better off keeping an eye on the film’s star.

The crafty handheld camerawork, although masterfully choreographed to a tee in order to capture all the necessary nuances of the script in a series of long takes, unfortunately creeps the feel of the film into the “found footage” territory, a genre that is growing thin rapidly. Last year's Insidious was a horror film that brilliantly utilized old fashioned scares, camera angles, booming sudden sound design, and scant gore all neatly wrapped up in a low budget PG-13 package. The real time shooting gimmick here doesn’t allow for those old school scares in the same manner, as the entire film falls solely on what Sarah sees and hears.

But when frenzied scenes take place in complete darkness, and the audience has been offered little sense of the layout of the isolated enclosed environment, Silent House hits the right marks. But conveying the true weight of the terror in the house lies predominantly on Olsen's shoulders.

Unlike her subtle disturbing turn in Martha Marcy May Marlene, here she screams, shrieks, runs, hides, and breathes heavy for most of the film as we wait to finally see what exactly the hell is going on in the shadows. Olsen's performance and the technical merits of the film keep the tension and claustrophobic atmosphere at the forefront, but the few hints we get along the way as to what is truly behind the terror end up taking away the hope of a logistical conclusion.

Like most horror thrillers, the final reveal after endless build up can make or break the time you have invested watching the film. I won’t reveal any plot points steering you in the direction it heads into (though as a remake of the Uruguayan film La Casa Muda, you are free to look up potential spoilers at your own risk). When the dust settles and the lights come back on, Silent House rides too many abstract angles and then mashes them into one take-it-or-leave-it explanation, which leaves it up to the viewer to accept it as a satisfying answer to it all.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆