Psycho (1960)

Good Day Readers,

Today I will present to you one of the best psycho-thrillers ever made, Psycho.  The fact that this movie is over 50 years old makes the idea of watching it more appealing and intriguing. While it is fully adapted from Robert Bloch's book by the same name, the screenplay is absolutely thrilling. One might find it hard to believe that such an old black and white movie is capable of giving the creeps to anyone who watches it. Alfred Hitchcock has done a mighty job in directing the movie and the music director should be acclaimed the most of all. The music is so well chosen and suits the ambiance of the creepy story. But I must admit, the movie is not even close to the scares and mental unrest the book gave me. Psycho, by Robert Bloch was written in 1959. I highly recommend this book to all horror and thriller freaks. After reading the thrilling book, I did not find the movie as thrilling, to my disappointment.

The movie starts out with the introduction of the protagonist Marion Crane and her lover Sam. Marion works in an insurance firm and her boss gives her the sudden and immediate task of depositing $40,000 in his bank locker. Due to her boyfriend's money issues, she decides to take the dollars and run away to his home in Fairvale. She faces many obstacles such as a suspecting policeman and driving in rainy nights, so much so she decides to sleep the night at the Bates Motel, a motel on the verge of closure due to full vacancies day after day. Thereafter, the thrilling introduction of Norman Bates, the most anticipated character in the film. I had developed a rather different image of Norman Bates after reading Psycho. In the book's introduction, Norman appeared to be a fat, lethargic, overly mother-obsessed young man who took an interest in rather strange activities. Within the movie's introduction though, Norman appears a healthy and innocent looking hotel manager. As the movie unravels, his psychotic behavior becomes largely noticeable. I will not unravel the contents of the story after Marion enters the motel, as it is part of the climax.

I find Psycho an absolutely creditable movie, probably the best ones made at that time. The fact that a movie made 60 years ago is so believable, flabbergasts me. No wonder it is in the top 50 of the highest rated films on IMDb. Anyways, the movies is a must watch. Though, I would recommend you read the book before you watch the movie, cause the book is much scarier and thrilling. 

See you next time!

The Babadook (2014)

Hey readers,

Welcome back. I was bored yesterday night so I decided to carry out one of my favorite pastimes, watching a scary movie. Like the usual times, I didn't pick up one of my favorite horror movies, which I have probably watched a hundred times already. I decided to watch a movie different from the rest of the horror movies. I came across The Babadook, a totally unexpected movie to watch, cause the name of the movie itself is eerie. I had read the critics reviews of The Babadook a few months ago. Most of the critics reviews were great, though the movie wasn't exactly a box office success.

The movie mainly focuses on the relationship between a widow and her abnormally protective son, Sam. The widows husband died on the day Sam was born in a car crash, while he was taking her to the hospital to have Sam. The woman has lived in grief from the day her husband died (the day Sam was born). Due to the grief she held within her she was unable to give Sam the amount of love he needed since he was a baby. Probably due to the unintentional negligence since he was a child, Sam had developed the mentality that an imaginary monster was coming to hurt him and his mother. Being overprotective of his mother, he vowed that he would let nothing happen to her. Then one day, the boy came across a damn creepy bedtime story book called Mister Babadook. The book contained scary lines about how the Babadook would be watching and enter the room through the cupboard after three knocks..dook...dook..dook. After reading the book, Sam goes practically crazy, thinking that the Babadook is everywhere.

Strange occurrences follow. The skeptical mother also feels that there is some supernatural entity in their home. The Babadook attempts to possess the mother. Okay, now I won't be telling you the rest of the story. You got to watch the movie for that. Anyways, I wanted to present my views on The Babadook. I feel that the makers of the movie had developed an imaginary character, Babadook, as an analoy to the grief residing within the widow. The grief emerged from within her as the dark entity called the Babadook, possessing her completely so that she was unable to love her child, Sam. Two dialogues within the movie which support this hypothesis are: "The Babadook won't let you love me, Mummy" and the line from the book," The movie you deny he exists, the easier it will be for him to get under your skin". This line from the book refers to the woman denying the fact that she is a widow and rebuking all who remind her of that fact.

Anyways, I recommend this movie to everyone who takes an interest in horror or psychology films.

Thanks for your time.

Fantastic Four (2005)

Fantastic Four (2005)

Hello again...

To break the chain of my usual horror genre film recommendations, today I will briefly discuss the well-known action film, The Fantastic Four. Despite being a superhero movie, it largely differs from the hardcore action Marvel movies. It is based on four protagonists whose DNA changes after exposure to a radioactive cloud in space, making them four unlikely superheroes.

One turns into elasto-man whose body can take any shape desired. The guy's girlfriend turns into Miss Invisible and her arrogant, obnoxious and playboy brother gains the ability to turn into a fire-breathing wreaking ball who can fly in the air at the temperature of 3000 Kelvin. Last and of course not the least, their friend Ben has the worst transformation which is viewed by most as a monster transformation instead of transformation into a superhero. I could not help but think that this movie reminds me a lot of The Incredibles. I don't remember which one released first though.

Anyways, the four superheroes collaborate and become the Fantastics and save the world from an inevitable villain called Victor, who turns into a Metal Man type of mutants due to the space radiations.This movie was a pretty entertaining watch for me. It has combined the elements of action and humor nicely. There are plenty of laughs within the movie and the bond between the four heroes watch also fun to watch. Overall, this movie is a great first time watch and I would give it a 6.5/10.

See you guys at the next review!  

Scream 1996

Scream

Hello people,

As we know that Wes Craven, the legendary horror film maker died more than a year ago, today I will be discussing one of his best masterpieces, Scream. Derived from John Carpenter's legendary horror flick Halloween, he created a new remixed version of Halloween, probably even better than it, and he named it Scream. I just love how the movie is named "Scream". Such a conventional name for horror movie, yet fully connected to the essence of the movie.

The best part of Scream is probably the beginning. The famous 'let's play a game' is played in this part of the movie. The phone rings and an unsuspecting and naive blonde teen picks up the phone, only to be greeted by a unknown creepy voice on the other side of the line. The girl converses a bit with the unknown voice. The voice scares the girl after saying that he is looking at her at the moment and is at her doorstep. The girl then forcefully has to play a horror movie quiz in order to save her wounded boyfriend tied up on her patio. One wrong answer by the girl renders him dead. Then the voice cum killer wearing a white ghost mask chases the girl outside and kills her too. Ghostface then hangs her from a tree. Anyone can guess that the most bad-ass part of this film was obviously the beginning.

The next part introduces the main characters of the movie. Sidney, the protagonist, is a traumatized girl who had to face the murder of her mother a year ago. The rest of her friends and her boyfriend Billy are brainless horror movie freaks. After the murder of the girl and her boyfriend, the small town becomes a frenzy with Ghostface running around town killing related characters, with his main target being Sidney.

The revelation of Ghostface in the end was pretty original and unsuspecting. People who like murder mysteries, suspense films, and horror comedies will enjoy this movie a lot. This movie makes it easily to my top ten of the best horror movies ever made.

People who have watched Scream many time should open the link I am putting below. You will get to know more about Scream you probably didn't know before.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/58039/15-things-you-may-not-have-known-about-scream

Final Destination 5 (2011)

Welcome back readers,

Today I will be presenting my views on the awesome Final Destination 5. The Final Destination franchise is my favorites and I con not find notable flaws within any of the five movies of the franchise. My favorites of the five movies are the first and last one. The thing I felt the most fascinating about the last movie was the climactic interconnection with the first movie at the end. I found that the second and third movies didn't live up to the potential of the first movie, but Final Destination 4 surely made up for that. Anyways, talking about the fifth and last part, the makers of this movie surely knew how to wind up the series of movies in the best way possible.

The death scenes are probably the most defined and scary in this part. There is a big difference in watching this movie on television and watching the DVD version of it. The DVD version has all the original scene including every single gory detail of death. I remember at least five highly disturbing scenes within the movie, not to be watched by the faint-hearted. Anyways, the uniqueness of each character's death within the movie is app-laudable. Who would think that you could get your eyes burned out by a laser during LASIK and then trip and fall from the fourth floor. Makes people want to reconsider the option of getting a LASIK done. The gymnastics scene is grotesque, but at the same time, it makes people take the movie more seriously.

The plot of the movie is the same as the rest of the Final Destinations. A group of youngsters survive a disaster and then die on by on under mysterious circumstances. The last two or three people left devise a plan and strategy to cheat death again so that they could be spared their life, only to be given an unpleasant surprise at the end costing them their lives. The best part of the Final Destination series is that the plot actually focuses on the name of the franchise 24/7. The characters are reminded continuously that death is coming for them and when the last one or two of the characters thinks that they have defeated death's list, death comes for them too reminding them that no one can cheat death. The endings are perfect for the series and the most noted endings are probably those of the 3, 4 and 5th parts.

After watching this movie, we cannot help but be concerned that death is all around us and that our live may not be fully under our own control. Anyways, this movie is a great watch and I recommend highly.

Thanks..

The Exorcist (1976)

Welcome back readers,

It is great that you are present for this movie review, because the movie I am discussing today is the most scariest movie ever made. The Exorcist one of the most highly rated horror films of all time. It is amazing how a film 50 years old can be so scary. The Exorcist is no movie to laugh at or to take lightly. When the movie first released in the United States, many people who watched the movie became sick, fainted due to the horribly scary scenes, or developed heart conditions or mental fantasies that the devil exists, or that they are possessed. The movie brought about a lot of bad luck too. The actress that played the possessed girl, Regan's, mother broke her back during the shooting of a scene and became paralyzed. It is also said that the sets of the movie mysteriously caught fire a few times.

The first time I saw this movie was when I was eight years old. I slid the DVD in the player, not knowing that it would cause me 3 nights of nightmares and no sleep. At first I thought the movie was crap, cause of the archaeology scenes in Iraq. But after 30 minutes, my interest started to build as the devil had possessed the girl, and it's effects had started to show. While watching the movie I didn't really bite my nails, but after the movie was finished at 10 pm and while I tucked myself in to sleep, I was a scared wreck. I couldn't get the possessed girl's face out of my head. The thoughts of the devil tied to the bed with the horrid face just wasn't getting out of my head. I tried to pray god and think of the things that I liked like sports, but none availed. I finally went to sleep after hours of turmoil. I credit this movie for bringing about my interest in horror movies and turning me into a horror movie freak.

I am sorry for filling half of this review with my first time experience of watching the movie, but I thought that it was worth to mention. I am not going to give you a summary of the movie cuz that will take 4 more paragraphs and I don't want to saturate you with the summary of a movie you will certainly watch. I just want to give you people some advice. The first 10 minutes will seem really boring due to the archaeology scenes but the introduction of the main exorcist of the movie is done then. Also there are a few scenes which may seem obscure. You may want to repeat those scene because they are significant to the understanding of the story. Thus, you should not judge the movie or become unenthusiastic just because of a few boring or unintelligible scenes.

The last and the best part of this blog....Scenes you should look forward to in The Exorcist:

1. The scene where the possessed girl runs down the stairs like a crab.
2. The scene where the devil rotates his head 360 degrees.
3. The recurring 1 second scenes which shows the devil's face who has gained possession of the girl. ( The face in the movie poster within my post).

These three scenes have made a lot of people cry. I can place a bet any day, that there is no movie or there will be no movie ever made which is scarier than The Exorcist. The creepy story and environment will probably never be reproduced in any other movie.

See you later.