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Showing posts from October, 2011

Movie Review: Frailty (2001)

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Frailty was a film that I owned for a long time before watching. My version was from Germany and was known as Dämonisch (Demonic) which I must say distracted me somewhat and for a long time, I was unsure what the film was. (I have a lot of films from Germany which have slipped my notice because of changes in titles) Frailty, by all accounts seemed to pass by relatively unnoticed to the masses. With a comparatively small budget and equally poor box office return, it remains one of those hidden gems bordering on cult. After watching the film I fail to see how it is not more widely regarded and praised. Bill Paxton's directorial debut takes us through a passage of belief and extremism. The film centres around flashbacks during a confession. With the FBI searching for the Hand of God killer, Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) gives his childhood accounts which would point to his own brother being the killer. Bill Paxton plays the father whose sudden "vision" ta...

Horror! Part 2: Fangs, Claws, Tentacles & Jaws!

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Definitely one of the widest ranging categories and one than spans various different genres itself. I will, obviously focus on the more horror orientated creatures. As the title suggests, these films feature, in one way or another, to put it plainly, creatures. Some are beyond the realms of Earthly origin and others are simply "giant" versions of creatures we know. Some are more close to human than you might think but all have played a major role in the films we watch today. A more apt description in terms of the Horror genre would simply be Monster Movies! This genre covers more films than I could write about with less than 400 pages so I am going to give a brief history. Sorry to anyone who can think of films not mentioned but like I said. A Very large genre! The early to mid 20th century saw the real ignition of Monster Movies with titles like Frankenstein, Dracula and The Lost World. We can immediately see how diverse the category is. With these three films a...

Horror! Part 1: Zombies

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The word horror gets thrown around a lot these days. It takes a dozen sub-categories just to describe the most. For that reason I thought I would do a few short pieces on what definition I would give to the term Horror Film and some of the things they offer the hard working movie fans! With Zombies, Creature-features, Psychological, Supernatural even Thrillers, it is very difficult to come up with something definitive but from my experience, Zombie films are great fun but never really scary. Creature-features are always tongue in cheek. For me, the scariest are the supernatural and psychological Thrillers. Sorry to anyone who is wondering where Vampires fit into this. A very simple explanation, they are not Horror films, never have been but with the recent spate of Dawson's Creek with fangs, they slip even further down the totem pole. Part 1: Zombies: A personal favourite of mine and one that offers so much entertainment. From the greats of cinema like Night of The Living ...